October 16, 2005. Mt. Wilson, Cal. That is southern California. Squall line.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Current Weather
Current Weather Systems
California, cut power to thousands
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:06 p.m. October 17, 2005
LOS ANGELES – Thunderstorms pounded Southern California with lightning-streaked downpours of rain and big hail Monday, knocking out power to thousand of customers and snarling traffic.
Hail nearly 1½ inches in diameter hit suburban Arcadia and pea-size hail freckled Hollywood Hills neighborhoods.
A severe storm warning was issued in northwestern Los Angeles County at midafternoon. The National Weather Service said Doppler radar showed weak rotation in the storm although no tornado was immediately seen.
Traffic accidents tied up freeways, including an apparently weather-related gasoline tanker crash and fire on Interstate 5 that killed the driver shortly before 2 a.m.
Flash flood concerns were raised in areas denuded by big wildfires in late September and early this month, when Southern California was under the spell of dry heat wave.
About 120,000 Southern California Edison customers had outages, mostly lasting from seconds to minutes, between late Sunday and Monday afternoon, when about 9,000 remained without electricity. Most of the outages were in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
In the city of Los Angeles, more than 10,000 electricity customers had experienced outages, the Department of Water and Power said. Most of the outages were brief.
The fall storm began sending showers into the region late Saturday and on Sunday, then unleashed a barrage of cannon-shot thunderclaps and deluges early Monday.
An upper-level, low-pressure system 200 miles southwest of Los Angeles was slowly approaching Southern California and was expected to move in during the night, then depart the region on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20051017-1506-ca-socalstorm.html
New storm gains strength near Caymans
By JAY EHRHART
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands -- Residents were on alert but "not panicking" as the outer edge of Tropical Storm Wilma neared the Cayman Islands on Monday, the record-tying 21st named system of the season.
Schools and businesses were open and skies were mostly clear, but authorities urged people to be alert as the storm moved closer to the island chain, which was badly damaged in Hurricane Ivan last year.
"We're waiting with bated breath to see what will happen," said Brent Santha, vice president of a water company. "We're hoping and praying it will change direction."
Forecasters predicted the storm would move within 70 miles of Grand Cayman, the largest island in the chain, on Tuesday afternoon - at which point it could be a Category 1 hurricane.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Tropical_Weather_Caymans.html
California, cut power to thousands
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:06 p.m. October 17, 2005
LOS ANGELES – Thunderstorms pounded Southern California with lightning-streaked downpours of rain and big hail Monday, knocking out power to thousand of customers and snarling traffic.
Hail nearly 1½ inches in diameter hit suburban Arcadia and pea-size hail freckled Hollywood Hills neighborhoods.
A severe storm warning was issued in northwestern Los Angeles County at midafternoon. The National Weather Service said Doppler radar showed weak rotation in the storm although no tornado was immediately seen.
Traffic accidents tied up freeways, including an apparently weather-related gasoline tanker crash and fire on Interstate 5 that killed the driver shortly before 2 a.m.
Flash flood concerns were raised in areas denuded by big wildfires in late September and early this month, when Southern California was under the spell of dry heat wave.
About 120,000 Southern California Edison customers had outages, mostly lasting from seconds to minutes, between late Sunday and Monday afternoon, when about 9,000 remained without electricity. Most of the outages were in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
In the city of Los Angeles, more than 10,000 electricity customers had experienced outages, the Department of Water and Power said. Most of the outages were brief.
The fall storm began sending showers into the region late Saturday and on Sunday, then unleashed a barrage of cannon-shot thunderclaps and deluges early Monday.
An upper-level, low-pressure system 200 miles southwest of Los Angeles was slowly approaching Southern California and was expected to move in during the night, then depart the region on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20051017-1506-ca-socalstorm.html
New storm gains strength near Caymans
By JAY EHRHART
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands -- Residents were on alert but "not panicking" as the outer edge of Tropical Storm Wilma neared the Cayman Islands on Monday, the record-tying 21st named system of the season.
Schools and businesses were open and skies were mostly clear, but authorities urged people to be alert as the storm moved closer to the island chain, which was badly damaged in Hurricane Ivan last year.
"We're waiting with bated breath to see what will happen," said Brent Santha, vice president of a water company. "We're hoping and praying it will change direction."
Forecasters predicted the storm would move within 70 miles of Grand Cayman, the largest island in the chain, on Tuesday afternoon - at which point it could be a Category 1 hurricane.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Tropical_Weather_Caymans.html
October 17, 2005. Jerusalem, Israel. Disengagement was supposed to bring peace. What happened? It was supposed to stop the tears on both sides. For the Israelis and the Palestinians. There were the death of three Israelis in a drive by shooting. The Israeli Defense Forces have sealed off the West Bank Roads and diplomatic talks have been suspended. Caption :: Mourners attending the funerals in Jerusalem on Monday for two victims of a W. Bank attack.
October 17, 2005. Billed as an attempt to placate ethical issues, this is more a model to stablilize a stem cell that science can 'count on' hopefully without the issues of mutation and/or apoptosis. Genetic medicine is far from over so much as finally coming to terms with 'the nature' of stem cells and the need for a variety that can be used productively. It is a major stride forward. Congratulations.
Morning Papers - It's Origins
Rooster "Crowing"
"Okeydoke"
History
1711, Jupiter Hammon, a New York slave who will write the first published poem by a Black man, is born in Long Island. His poem will be called “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries.”
1817, Samuel R. Ward, author, abolitionist, clergyman, is born a slave in Maryland.
1888, The Capital Savings Bank of Washington, DC, the first bank for Blacks, is organized.
1909, William R. Cole, a jazz drummer who will be known for his hit recording "Topsy," is born in East Orange, NJ.
1919, the Radio Corporation of America was created.
1931, mobster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison. (He was released in 1939.)
1933, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
1941, the U.S. destroyer Kearney was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Iceland; 11 people died.
1945, Col. Juan Peron staged a coup, becoming absolute ruler of Argentina.
1956, Astronaut Dr. Mae C. Jemison is born in Decatur, AL. She will graduate from Stanford University with a degree in Chemical Engineering and a Medical degree from Cornell. Jemison will also become the first Black woman astronaut.
1965, the musical "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever," with a score by Burton Lane and book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, opened on Broadway.
1973, Arab oil-producing nations announced they would begin cutting back on oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974.
1977, West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of the four hijackers.
1979, Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1989, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale struck Northern California, killing 67 people and causing $7 billion worth of damage.
Missing in Action
1965 GAITHER RALPH E. MIAMI FL 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1965 HALYBURTON PORTER A. DAVIDSON NC 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1965 KNUTSON RODNEY A. BILLINGS MT 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED ALIVE AND WELL 98
1965 MAYER RODERICK L. LEWISTON ID PROB DEAD
1965 OLMSTEAD STANLEY E. MARSHALL OK PROB DEAD IN A/C WRECKAGE
1965 WHEAT DAVID R. DULUTH MN 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1967 ANDREWS ANTHONY C. CHICO CA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1967 CADWELL ANTHONY B. MISSOULA MT
1967 FITZGERALD PAUL L. JR. FORT VALLEY GA
1967 FORTNER FREDERICK J. POMONA CA REMAINS RETURNED 03/23/89
1967 HARGROVE OLIN JR. BIRMINGHAM AL
1967 ODELL DONALD E. MT. CLEMENS MI 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1967 SULLIVAN DWIGHT E. CORYDON IA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1968 MASON JAMES P. DE KALB IL
1972 WANGCHOM NOPHADON THAILAND? RELEASED 09/01/74
1972 GRAHAM ALAN U. MOBILE AL 09/30/77 REMAINS RETURNED BY SRV
1972 HOCKRIDGE JAMES A. ROCHESTER NY 09/30/77 REMAINS RETURNED BY SRV
October 16
1965 BELL JAMES F. CUMBERLAND MD 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1965 HUTTON JAMES L. WASHINGTON DC 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1967 APPELHANS RICHARD D. DODSON MT NEG SAR CONTACT
1967 CLARKE GEORGE W. HAMPTON VA NEG SAR CONTACT
1969 BOOTH LAWRENCE R. STONEY CREEK VA
1969 RATTIN DENNIS M. BRADLEY IL
1970 MARTIN JOHN B. II UPPER MONTCLAIR NJ
October 15
1965 SCHULER ROBERT H. JR. WELLSBURG NY
1965 SIMA THOMAS W. HANNASTOWN PA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV
San Francisco Chronicle
SINGLE-MINDED
In 'Lipstick Jungle,' Bushnell celebrates life just getting better
Jane Ganahl
Sunday, October 16, 2005
When told that her new novel, "Lipstick Jungle," which features women in their 40s struggling to get ahead in the man's world of New York business, is featured in a More magazine article about "hen lit," Candace Bushnell looks startled. "Hen lit? What on earth ..." she wonders.
The mature woman's chick lit, I explain. A phrase as dismissive as "chick lit" -- perhaps more so.
"Oh, these labels!" she fumes. "I do think my books are just me. They're my voice. So maybe I'm a hen, I don't know."
She lets loose a sexy-hoarse coquette's laugh.
The rail-thin author and producer of "Sex and the City" is now 46 and married, but every bit as glamorous as when she was unmarried and dating a cadre of rich and powerful Manhattan men that included New York's former Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and GQ Publisher Ron Galotti -- the presumed inspiration for "Sex and the City's" Mr. Big.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/16/LVGUNF4FRC1.DTL
THE NORTH COAST: A Kayak Adventure
400-mile reflection on respect for coast
Good to be home after memorable 41 days
Paul McHugh, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, October 17, 2005
My Swiss Army knife handle was clogged with old peanut butter -- one of many signs it was time to put into port for repairs and resupply. So, on Friday evening, I was happy to see our kayaks perched on a beach just seaward of a major port: San Francisco.
We watched huge tankers, container ships, fishing vessels and even tour ferries, all splendidly lighted, drag wakes below the Golden Gate bridge while foghorns boomed and hooted.
Our 400-mile sea kayak voyage from the Winchuck River in Oregon to San Francisco Bay -- begun by myself, Bo Barnes and John Weed on Sept. 6 -- was nearly at an end.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/17/MNGRHF9FJR1.DTL
Pakistan Predicts Sharp Jump in Quake Toll
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, October 16, 2005
(10-16) 22:46 PDT BALAKOT, Pakistan (AP) --
Pakistani officials predicted Sunday that many more thousands of dead would be found in earthquake-ravaged Kashmir as heavy rains in the Himalayan region drenched homeless survivors in mud and misery.
The latest estimate would raise the death toll from the magnitude-7.6 quake in the mountains of northern Pakistan and India to at least 54,000 — a jump of more than 13,000 from the official count of known dead.
A spokesman for the prime minister of the region warned that the cold and wet could cause further deaths among the 2 million or so people believed to be homeless, although the rains receded early Monday, bringing hope that efforts could resume in force to bring aid to the stricken region.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/10/16/international/i160814D68.DTL
My four hours testifying before a federal grand jury
Judith Miller, New York Times
Sunday, October 16, 2005
In July 2003, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador, created a firestorm by publishing an essay in The New York Times that accused the Bush administration of using faulty intelligence to justify the war in Iraq. The administration, he charged, ignored findings of a secret mission he had undertaken for the CIA - findings, he said, that undermined claims that Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear bomb.
It was the first time Wilson had gone public with his criticisms of the White House. Yet he had already become a focus of significant scrutiny at the highest levels of the Bush administration.
Almost two weeks earlier, in an interview with me on June 23, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, discussed Wilson's activities and placed blame for intelligence failures on the CIA. In later conversations with me, on July 8 and July 12, Libby, who is Cheney's top aide, played down the importance of Wilson's mission and questioned his performance.
My notes indicate that well before Wilson published his critique, Libby told me that Wilson's wife may have worked on unconventional weapons at the CIA.
My notes do not show that Libby identified Wilson's wife by name. Nor do they show that he described Valerie Wilson as a covert agent or "operative," as the conservative columnist Robert D. Novak first described her in a syndicated column published on July 14, 2003. (Novak used her maiden name, Valerie Plame.)
This is what I told a federal grand jury and the special counsel investigating whether administration officials committed a crime by leaking Plame's identity and the nature of her job to reporters.
During my testimony on Sept. 30 and Oct. 12, the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, asked me whether Libby had shared classified information with me during our several encounters before Novak's article. He also asked whether I thought Libby had tried to shape my testimony through a letter he sent to me in jail last month. And Fitzgerald asked whether Cheney had known what his chief aide was doing and saying.
My interview notes show that Libby sought from the beginning, before Joseph Wilson's name became public, to insulate his boss from Wilson's charges. According to my notes, he told me at our June meeting that Cheney did not know of Wilson, much less know that Wilson had traveled to Niger, in West Africa, to verify reports that Iraq was seeking to acquire uranium for a weapons program.
As I told the grand jury, I recalled Libby's frustration and anger about what he called "selective leaking" by the CIA and other agencies to distance themselves from what he recalled as their unequivocal prewar intelligence assessments. The selective leaks trying to shift blame to the White House, he told me, were part of a "perverted war" over the war in Iraq. I testified about these conversations after spending 85 days in jail for refusing to cooperate with the grand jury inquiry. Having been summoned to testify before the grand jury, I went to jail instead, to protect my source - Libby - because he had not communicated to me his personal and voluntary permission to speak.
At the behest of President Bush and Fitzgerald, Libby had signed a blanket form waiver, which his lawyer signaled to my counsel was not really voluntary, even though Libby's lawyer also said it had enabled other reporters to cooperate with the grand jury. But I believed that nothing short of a personal letter and a telephone call would allow me to assess whether Libby truly wished to free me from the pledge of confidentiality I had given him. The letter and the telephone call came last month.
Equally central to my decision was Fitzgerald, the prosecutor. He had declined to confine his questioning to the subject of Libby. This meant I would have been unable to protect other confidential sources who had provided information - unrelated to Wilson or his wife - for articles published in The Times. Last month, Fitzgerald agreed to limit his questioning.
Without both agreements, I would not have testified and would still be in jail.
I testified in Washington twice - most recently last Wednesday after finding a notebook in my office at The Times that contained my first interview with Libby. Fitzgerald told the grand jury that I was testifying as a witness and not as a subject or target of his inquiry.
This account is based on what I remember of my meetings with Fitzgerald and my testimony before the grand jury. I testified for almost four hours, much of that time taken by Fitzgerald asking me to decipher and explain my notes of my interviews with Libby, which I had provided to him.
I was not permitted to take notes of what I told the grand jury, and my interview notes on Libby are sketchy in places. It is also difficult, more than two years later, to parse the meaning and context of phrases, of underlining and of parentheses. On one page of my interview notes, for example, I wrote the name "Valerie Flame." Yet, as I told Fitzgerald, I simply could not recall where that came from, when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled.
I testified that I did not believe the name came from Libby, in part because the notation does not appear in the same part of my notebook as the interview notes from him.
THE FIRST LIBBY MEETING
Early in my grand jury testimony, Fitzgerald asked me to describe my history with Libby and explain how I came to interview him in 2003.
I said I had known Libby indirectly through my work as a co-author of "Germs," a book on biological weapons published in September 2001. Libby had assisted one of my co-authors, and the first time I met Libby he asked for an inscribed copy of "Germs."
In June 2003 I had just returned from Iraq, where I had been embedded with a special military unit charged with finding Saddam Hussein's unconventional weapons. Now I was assigned to a team of reporters at The Times examining why no such weapons had been found.
On the afternoon of June 23, 2003, I arrived at the Old Executive Office Building to interview Libby, who was known to be an avid consumer of prewar intelligence assessments, which were already coming under fierce criticism. The first entry in my reporter's notebook from this interview neatly captured the question foremost in my mind.
"Was the intell slanted?" I wrote, referring to the intelligence assessments of Iraq and underlining the word "slanted."
I recall that Libby was displeased with what he described as "selective leaking" by the CIA. He told me that the agency was engaged in a "hedging strategy" to protect itself in case no weapons were found in Iraq. "If we find it, fine, if not, we hedged," is how he described the strategy, my notes show.
I recall that Libby was angry about reports suggesting that senior administration officials, including Cheney, had embraced skimpy intelligence about Iraq's alleged efforts to buy uranium in Africa while ignoring evidence to the contrary. Such reports, he said, according to my notes, were "highly distorted."
Libby said the vice president's office had indeed pressed the Pentagon and the State Department for more information about reports that Iraq had renewed efforts to buy uranium. And Cheney, he said, had asked about the potential ramifications of such a purchase. But he added that the CIA "took it upon itself to try and figure out more" by sending a "clandestine guy" to Niger to investigate. I told Fitzgerald that I thought "clandestine guy" was a reference to Wilson - Libby's first reference to him in my notes.
In May and in early June, Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist at The Times, wrote of Wilson's trip to Niger without naming him. Kristof wrote that Wilson had been sent to Niger "at the behest" of Cheney's office.
My notes indicate that Libby took issue with the suggestion that his boss had had anything to do with Wilson's trip. "Veep didn't know of Joe Wilson," I wrote, referring to the vice president. "Veep never knew what he did or what was said. Agency did not report to us."
Soon afterward Libby raised the subject of Wilson's wife for the first time. I wrote in my notes, inside parentheses, "Wife works in bureau?" I told Fitzgerald that I believed this was the first time I had been told that Wilson's wife might work for the CIA. The prosecutor asked me whether the word "bureau" might not mean the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Yes, I told him, normally. But Libby had been discussing the CIA, and therefore my impression was that he had been speaking about a particular bureau within the agency that dealt with the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. As to the question mark, I said I wasn't sure what it meant. Maybe it meant I found the statement interesting. Maybe Libby was not certain whether Wilson's wife actually worked there.
What was evident, I told the grand jury, was Libby's anger that Bush might have made inaccurate statements because the CIA failed to share doubts about the Iraq intelligence.
"No briefer came in and said, 'You got it wrong, Mr. President,"' he said, according to my notes.
THE SECOND LIBBY MEETING
I interviewed Libby for a second time on July 8, two days after Wilson published his essay attacking the administration on the op-ed page of The Times.
Our meeting, which lasted about two hours, took place over breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington. I told Fitzgerald that I almost certainly began this interview by asking about Wilson's essay, which appeared to have agitated Libby. As I recall, Libby asserted that the essay was inaccurate.
Fitzgerald asked about a notation I made on the first page of my notes about this July 8 meeting, "Former Hill staffer."
My recollection, I told him, was that Libby wanted to modify our prior understanding that I would attribute information from him to a "senior administration official." When the subject turned to Wilson, Libby requested that he be identified only as a "former Hill staffer." I agreed to the new ground rules because I knew that Libby had once worked on Capitol Hill.
Did Libby explain this request? Fitzgerald asked. No, I don't recall, I replied. But I said I assumed Libby did not want the White House to be seen as attacking Wilson.
Libby then proceeded through a lengthy and sharp critique of Wilson and what Libby viewed as the CIA's backpedaling on the intelligence leading to war. According to my notes, he began with a chronology of what he described as credible evidence of Iraq's efforts to procure uranium. As I told Fitzgerald and the grand jury, Libby alluded to the existence of two intelligence reports about Iraq's uranium procurement efforts. One report dated from February 2002. The other indicated that Iraq was seeking a broad trade relationship with Niger in 1999, a relationship that he said Niger officials had interpreted as an effort by Iraq to obtain uranium.
My notes indicate that Libby told me the report on the 1999 delegation had been attributed to Joe Wilson.
Libby also told me that on the basis of these two reports and other intelligence, his office had asked the CIA for more analysis and investigation of Iraq's dealings with Niger. According to my interview notes, Libby told me that the resulting cable - based on Wilson's fact-finding mission, as it turned out - barely made it out of the bowels of the CIA. He asserted that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, had never even heard of Wilson.
As I told Fitzgerald, Libby also cited a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, produced by American intelligence agencies in October 2002, which he said had firmly concluded that Iraq was seeking uranium.
An unclassified version of that estimate had been made public before my interviews with Libby. I told Fitzgerald that I had pressed Libby to discuss additional information that was in the more detailed, classified version of the estimate. I said I had told Libby that if The Times was going to do an article, the newspaper needed more than a recap of the administration's weapons arguments. According to my interview notes, though, it appears that Libby said little more than that the assessments of the classified estimate were even stronger than those in the unclassified version.
Although I was interested primarily in my area of expertise - chemical and biological weapons - my notes show that Libby consistently steered our conversation back to the administration's nuclear claims. His main theme echoed that of other senior officials: that contrary to Wilson's criticism, the administration had had ample reason to be concerned about Iraq's nuclear capabilities based on the regime's history of weapons development, its use of unconventional weapons and fresh intelligence reports.
At that breakfast meeting, our conversation also turned to Wilson's wife. My notes contain a phrase inside parentheses: "Wife works at Winpac." Fitzgerald asked what that meant. Winpac stood for Weapons Intelligence, Non-Proliferation, and Arms Control, the name of a unit within the CIA that, among other things, analyzes the spread of unconventional weapons.
I said I couldn't be certain whether I had known Plame's identity before this meeting, and I had no clear memory of the context of our conversation that resulted in this notation. But I told the grand jury that I believed that this was the first time I had heard that Wilson's wife worked for Winpac. In fact, I told the grand jury that when Libby indicated that Plame worked for Winpac, I assumed that she worked as an analyst, not as an undercover operative.
Fitzgerald asked me whether Libby had mentioned nepotism. I said no. And as I told the grand jury, I did not recall - and my interview notes do not show - that Libby suggested that Plame had helped arrange her husband's trip to Niger. My notes do suggest that our conversation about Plame was brief.
Fitzgerald asked me about another entry in my notebook, where I had written the words "Valerie Flame," clearly a reference to Plame. Fitzgerald wanted to know whether the entry was based on my conversations with Libby. I said I didn't think so. I said I believed the information came from another source, whom I could not recall.
Fitzgerald asked if I could recall discussing the Wilson-Plame connection with other sources. I said I had, though I could not recall any by name or when those conversations occurred.
Before the grand jury, Fitzgerald asked me questions about Cheney. He asked, for example, if Libby ever indicated whether Cheney had approved of his interviews with me or was aware of them. The answer was no.
In my grand jury testimony, Fitzgerald repeatedly turned to the subject of how Libby handled classified information with me. He asked, for example, whether I had discussed my security status with Libby. During the Iraq war, the Pentagon had given me clearance to see secret information as part of my assignment "embedded" with a special military unit hunting for unconventional weapons.
Fitzgerald asked if I had discussed classified information with Libby. I said I believed so, but could not be sure. He asked how Libby treated classified information. I said, Very carefully.
Fitzgerald asked me to examine a series of documents. Though I could not identify them with certainty, I said that some seemed familiar, and that they might be excerpts from the National Intelligence Estimate of Iraq's weapons. Fitzgerald asked whether Libby had shown any of the documents to me. I said no, I didn't think so. I thought I remembered him at one point reading from a piece of paper he pulled from his pocket.
I told Fitzgerald that Libby might have thought I still had security clearance, given my special embedded status in Iraq. At the same time, I told the grand jury I thought that at our July 8 meeting I might have expressed frustration to Libby that I was not permitted to discuss with editors some of the more sensitive information about Iraq.
Fitzgerald asked me if I knew whether I was cleared to discuss classified information at the time of my meetings with Libby. I said I did not know.
THE THIRD LIBBY CONVERSATION
My third interview with Libby occurred on July 12, two days before Robert D. Novak's column identified Plame for the first time as a CIA operative. I believe I spoke to Libby by telephone from my home in Sag Harbor, N.Y.
I told Fitzgerald I believed that before this call, I might have called others about Wilson's wife. In my notebook I had written the words "Victoria Wilson" with a box around it, another apparent reference to Plame, who is also known as Valerie Wilson.
I told Fitzgerald that I was not sure whether Libby had used this name or whether I just made a mistake in writing it on my own. Another possibility, I said, is that I gave Libby the wrong name on purpose to see whether he would correct me and confirm her identity.
I also told the grand jury I thought it was odd that I had written "Wilson" because my memory is that I had heard her referred to only as Plame. Fitzgerald asked whether this suggested that Libby had given me the name Wilson. I told him I didn't know and didn't want to guess.
My notes of this phone call show that Libby quickly turned to criticizing Wilson's report on his mission to Niger. He said it was unclear whether Wilson had spoken with any Niger officials who had dealt with Iraq's trade representatives.
With the understanding that I would attribute the information to an administration official, Libby also sought to explain why Bush included the disputed uranium allegation in his 2003 State of the Union address, a sentence of 16 words that his administration would later retract. Libby described it as the product of a simple miscommunication between the White House and the CIA.
Fitzgerald asked whether I ever pursued an article about Wilson and his wife. I told him I had not, though I considered her connection to the CIA potentially newsworthy. I testified that I recalled recommending to editors that we pursue a story.
Fitzgerald asked my reaction to Novak's column. I told the grand jury I was annoyed at having been beaten on a story. I said I felt that since The Times had run Wilson's original essay, it had an obligation to explore any allegation that undercut his credibility. At the same time, I added, I also believed that the newspaper needed to pursue the possibility that the White House was unfairly attacking a critic of the administration.
LIBBY'S LETTER
When I was last before the grand jury, Fitzgerald posed a series of questions about a letter I received in jail last month from Libby. The letter, two pages long, encouraged me to testify. "Your reporting, and you, are missed," it begins.
Fitzgerald asked me to read the final three paragraphs aloud to the grand jury. "The public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me," Libby wrote.
The prosecutor asked my reaction to those words. I replied that this portion of the letter had surprised me because it might be perceived as an effort by Libby to suggest that I, too, would say we had not discussed Plame's identity. Yet my notes suggested that we had discussed her job.
Fitzgerald also focused on the letter's closing lines. "Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning," Libby wrote. "They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them."
How did I interpret that? Fitzgerald asked.
In answer, I told the grand jury about my last encounter with Libby. It came in August 2003, shortly after I attended a conference on national security issues held in Aspen, Colo. After the conference, I traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyo. At a rodeo one afternoon, a man in jeans, a cowboy hat and sunglasses approached me. He asked me how the Aspen conference had gone. I had no idea who he was.
"Judy," he said. "It's Scooter Libby."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/16/MNmillerfirst16.DTL
Stem cell strides may help resolve ethical dilemmas
New methods preserve viable embryos, but some opponents skeptical of tactics New processes don't kill viable embryos -- opponents say moral issue s
Scientists are reporting two new ways of creating embryonic stem cells without killing viable embryos, potentially reshaping the biggest bioethical debate of the Bush administration.
In one case, embryonic stem cells were made from a genetically abnormal embryo designed to be incapable of developing. The other method was an attempt to fashion stem cells from an embryo without damaging it.
The new methods, detailed in separate research reports released online Sunday by the British journal Nature, are intended as laboratory answers to the moral questions raised by the destruction of human embryos. If the strategies work, one result could be the availability of more federal grants for one of the most promising fields of biomedical research.
A White House spokesman said it was premature to speculate on any potential change in administration policy. But William Hurlbut of Stanford University, a member of a White House bioethics advisory council, called it "a starting point for an important new dialogue" on possible "technological solutions for the moral problems surrounding human embryonic stem cell research."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/17/MNGRHF9FK31.DTL
ANALYSIS
As Republicans stumble, Democrats bumble
Strategists say Dems having trouble finding identity, offering compelling alternative
Washington -- Listen to Democrats and it is easy to say what they are not.
They are not the party that led America to war in Iraq. They are not the party trying to privatize Social Security, cut taxes to the rich or add to the deficit. They are not the party responsible for the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina, whose top leaders in the House and Senate are under investigation, whose White House is being scrutinized by a special prosecutor, or whose members are up in arms over their president's latest Supreme Court selection.
Democrats, some barely able to contain their glee, seem to have embraced the strategy of Napoleon Bonaparte, who famously advised: "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
It is far more difficult to say what Democrats are for.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/16/MNG7EF96GL1.DTL
"Okeydoke"
History
1711, Jupiter Hammon, a New York slave who will write the first published poem by a Black man, is born in Long Island. His poem will be called “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries.”
1817, Samuel R. Ward, author, abolitionist, clergyman, is born a slave in Maryland.
1888, The Capital Savings Bank of Washington, DC, the first bank for Blacks, is organized.
1909, William R. Cole, a jazz drummer who will be known for his hit recording "Topsy," is born in East Orange, NJ.
1919, the Radio Corporation of America was created.
1931, mobster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison. (He was released in 1939.)
1933, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
1941, the U.S. destroyer Kearney was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Iceland; 11 people died.
1945, Col. Juan Peron staged a coup, becoming absolute ruler of Argentina.
1956, Astronaut Dr. Mae C. Jemison is born in Decatur, AL. She will graduate from Stanford University with a degree in Chemical Engineering and a Medical degree from Cornell. Jemison will also become the first Black woman astronaut.
1965, the musical "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever," with a score by Burton Lane and book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, opened on Broadway.
1973, Arab oil-producing nations announced they would begin cutting back on oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974.
1977, West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of the four hijackers.
1979, Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1989, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale struck Northern California, killing 67 people and causing $7 billion worth of damage.
Missing in Action
1965 GAITHER RALPH E. MIAMI FL 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1965 HALYBURTON PORTER A. DAVIDSON NC 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1965 KNUTSON RODNEY A. BILLINGS MT 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED ALIVE AND WELL 98
1965 MAYER RODERICK L. LEWISTON ID PROB DEAD
1965 OLMSTEAD STANLEY E. MARSHALL OK PROB DEAD IN A/C WRECKAGE
1965 WHEAT DAVID R. DULUTH MN 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1967 ANDREWS ANTHONY C. CHICO CA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1967 CADWELL ANTHONY B. MISSOULA MT
1967 FITZGERALD PAUL L. JR. FORT VALLEY GA
1967 FORTNER FREDERICK J. POMONA CA REMAINS RETURNED 03/23/89
1967 HARGROVE OLIN JR. BIRMINGHAM AL
1967 ODELL DONALD E. MT. CLEMENS MI 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1967 SULLIVAN DWIGHT E. CORYDON IA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1968 MASON JAMES P. DE KALB IL
1972 WANGCHOM NOPHADON THAILAND? RELEASED 09/01/74
1972 GRAHAM ALAN U. MOBILE AL 09/30/77 REMAINS RETURNED BY SRV
1972 HOCKRIDGE JAMES A. ROCHESTER NY 09/30/77 REMAINS RETURNED BY SRV
October 16
1965 BELL JAMES F. CUMBERLAND MD 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1965 HUTTON JAMES L. WASHINGTON DC 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1967 APPELHANS RICHARD D. DODSON MT NEG SAR CONTACT
1967 CLARKE GEORGE W. HAMPTON VA NEG SAR CONTACT
1969 BOOTH LAWRENCE R. STONEY CREEK VA
1969 RATTIN DENNIS M. BRADLEY IL
1970 MARTIN JOHN B. II UPPER MONTCLAIR NJ
October 15
1965 SCHULER ROBERT H. JR. WELLSBURG NY
1965 SIMA THOMAS W. HANNASTOWN PA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV
San Francisco Chronicle
SINGLE-MINDED
In 'Lipstick Jungle,' Bushnell celebrates life just getting better
Jane Ganahl
Sunday, October 16, 2005
When told that her new novel, "Lipstick Jungle," which features women in their 40s struggling to get ahead in the man's world of New York business, is featured in a More magazine article about "hen lit," Candace Bushnell looks startled. "Hen lit? What on earth ..." she wonders.
The mature woman's chick lit, I explain. A phrase as dismissive as "chick lit" -- perhaps more so.
"Oh, these labels!" she fumes. "I do think my books are just me. They're my voice. So maybe I'm a hen, I don't know."
She lets loose a sexy-hoarse coquette's laugh.
The rail-thin author and producer of "Sex and the City" is now 46 and married, but every bit as glamorous as when she was unmarried and dating a cadre of rich and powerful Manhattan men that included New York's former Republican Sen. Alfonse D'Amato and GQ Publisher Ron Galotti -- the presumed inspiration for "Sex and the City's" Mr. Big.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/16/LVGUNF4FRC1.DTL
THE NORTH COAST: A Kayak Adventure
400-mile reflection on respect for coast
Good to be home after memorable 41 days
Paul McHugh, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, October 17, 2005
My Swiss Army knife handle was clogged with old peanut butter -- one of many signs it was time to put into port for repairs and resupply. So, on Friday evening, I was happy to see our kayaks perched on a beach just seaward of a major port: San Francisco.
We watched huge tankers, container ships, fishing vessels and even tour ferries, all splendidly lighted, drag wakes below the Golden Gate bridge while foghorns boomed and hooted.
Our 400-mile sea kayak voyage from the Winchuck River in Oregon to San Francisco Bay -- begun by myself, Bo Barnes and John Weed on Sept. 6 -- was nearly at an end.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/17/MNGRHF9FJR1.DTL
Pakistan Predicts Sharp Jump in Quake Toll
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, October 16, 2005
(10-16) 22:46 PDT BALAKOT, Pakistan (AP) --
Pakistani officials predicted Sunday that many more thousands of dead would be found in earthquake-ravaged Kashmir as heavy rains in the Himalayan region drenched homeless survivors in mud and misery.
The latest estimate would raise the death toll from the magnitude-7.6 quake in the mountains of northern Pakistan and India to at least 54,000 — a jump of more than 13,000 from the official count of known dead.
A spokesman for the prime minister of the region warned that the cold and wet could cause further deaths among the 2 million or so people believed to be homeless, although the rains receded early Monday, bringing hope that efforts could resume in force to bring aid to the stricken region.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/10/16/international/i160814D68.DTL
My four hours testifying before a federal grand jury
Judith Miller, New York Times
Sunday, October 16, 2005
In July 2003, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador, created a firestorm by publishing an essay in The New York Times that accused the Bush administration of using faulty intelligence to justify the war in Iraq. The administration, he charged, ignored findings of a secret mission he had undertaken for the CIA - findings, he said, that undermined claims that Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear bomb.
It was the first time Wilson had gone public with his criticisms of the White House. Yet he had already become a focus of significant scrutiny at the highest levels of the Bush administration.
Almost two weeks earlier, in an interview with me on June 23, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, discussed Wilson's activities and placed blame for intelligence failures on the CIA. In later conversations with me, on July 8 and July 12, Libby, who is Cheney's top aide, played down the importance of Wilson's mission and questioned his performance.
My notes indicate that well before Wilson published his critique, Libby told me that Wilson's wife may have worked on unconventional weapons at the CIA.
My notes do not show that Libby identified Wilson's wife by name. Nor do they show that he described Valerie Wilson as a covert agent or "operative," as the conservative columnist Robert D. Novak first described her in a syndicated column published on July 14, 2003. (Novak used her maiden name, Valerie Plame.)
This is what I told a federal grand jury and the special counsel investigating whether administration officials committed a crime by leaking Plame's identity and the nature of her job to reporters.
During my testimony on Sept. 30 and Oct. 12, the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, asked me whether Libby had shared classified information with me during our several encounters before Novak's article. He also asked whether I thought Libby had tried to shape my testimony through a letter he sent to me in jail last month. And Fitzgerald asked whether Cheney had known what his chief aide was doing and saying.
My interview notes show that Libby sought from the beginning, before Joseph Wilson's name became public, to insulate his boss from Wilson's charges. According to my notes, he told me at our June meeting that Cheney did not know of Wilson, much less know that Wilson had traveled to Niger, in West Africa, to verify reports that Iraq was seeking to acquire uranium for a weapons program.
As I told the grand jury, I recalled Libby's frustration and anger about what he called "selective leaking" by the CIA and other agencies to distance themselves from what he recalled as their unequivocal prewar intelligence assessments. The selective leaks trying to shift blame to the White House, he told me, were part of a "perverted war" over the war in Iraq. I testified about these conversations after spending 85 days in jail for refusing to cooperate with the grand jury inquiry. Having been summoned to testify before the grand jury, I went to jail instead, to protect my source - Libby - because he had not communicated to me his personal and voluntary permission to speak.
At the behest of President Bush and Fitzgerald, Libby had signed a blanket form waiver, which his lawyer signaled to my counsel was not really voluntary, even though Libby's lawyer also said it had enabled other reporters to cooperate with the grand jury. But I believed that nothing short of a personal letter and a telephone call would allow me to assess whether Libby truly wished to free me from the pledge of confidentiality I had given him. The letter and the telephone call came last month.
Equally central to my decision was Fitzgerald, the prosecutor. He had declined to confine his questioning to the subject of Libby. This meant I would have been unable to protect other confidential sources who had provided information - unrelated to Wilson or his wife - for articles published in The Times. Last month, Fitzgerald agreed to limit his questioning.
Without both agreements, I would not have testified and would still be in jail.
I testified in Washington twice - most recently last Wednesday after finding a notebook in my office at The Times that contained my first interview with Libby. Fitzgerald told the grand jury that I was testifying as a witness and not as a subject or target of his inquiry.
This account is based on what I remember of my meetings with Fitzgerald and my testimony before the grand jury. I testified for almost four hours, much of that time taken by Fitzgerald asking me to decipher and explain my notes of my interviews with Libby, which I had provided to him.
I was not permitted to take notes of what I told the grand jury, and my interview notes on Libby are sketchy in places. It is also difficult, more than two years later, to parse the meaning and context of phrases, of underlining and of parentheses. On one page of my interview notes, for example, I wrote the name "Valerie Flame." Yet, as I told Fitzgerald, I simply could not recall where that came from, when I wrote it or why the name was misspelled.
I testified that I did not believe the name came from Libby, in part because the notation does not appear in the same part of my notebook as the interview notes from him.
THE FIRST LIBBY MEETING
Early in my grand jury testimony, Fitzgerald asked me to describe my history with Libby and explain how I came to interview him in 2003.
I said I had known Libby indirectly through my work as a co-author of "Germs," a book on biological weapons published in September 2001. Libby had assisted one of my co-authors, and the first time I met Libby he asked for an inscribed copy of "Germs."
In June 2003 I had just returned from Iraq, where I had been embedded with a special military unit charged with finding Saddam Hussein's unconventional weapons. Now I was assigned to a team of reporters at The Times examining why no such weapons had been found.
On the afternoon of June 23, 2003, I arrived at the Old Executive Office Building to interview Libby, who was known to be an avid consumer of prewar intelligence assessments, which were already coming under fierce criticism. The first entry in my reporter's notebook from this interview neatly captured the question foremost in my mind.
"Was the intell slanted?" I wrote, referring to the intelligence assessments of Iraq and underlining the word "slanted."
I recall that Libby was displeased with what he described as "selective leaking" by the CIA. He told me that the agency was engaged in a "hedging strategy" to protect itself in case no weapons were found in Iraq. "If we find it, fine, if not, we hedged," is how he described the strategy, my notes show.
I recall that Libby was angry about reports suggesting that senior administration officials, including Cheney, had embraced skimpy intelligence about Iraq's alleged efforts to buy uranium in Africa while ignoring evidence to the contrary. Such reports, he said, according to my notes, were "highly distorted."
Libby said the vice president's office had indeed pressed the Pentagon and the State Department for more information about reports that Iraq had renewed efforts to buy uranium. And Cheney, he said, had asked about the potential ramifications of such a purchase. But he added that the CIA "took it upon itself to try and figure out more" by sending a "clandestine guy" to Niger to investigate. I told Fitzgerald that I thought "clandestine guy" was a reference to Wilson - Libby's first reference to him in my notes.
In May and in early June, Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist at The Times, wrote of Wilson's trip to Niger without naming him. Kristof wrote that Wilson had been sent to Niger "at the behest" of Cheney's office.
My notes indicate that Libby took issue with the suggestion that his boss had had anything to do with Wilson's trip. "Veep didn't know of Joe Wilson," I wrote, referring to the vice president. "Veep never knew what he did or what was said. Agency did not report to us."
Soon afterward Libby raised the subject of Wilson's wife for the first time. I wrote in my notes, inside parentheses, "Wife works in bureau?" I told Fitzgerald that I believed this was the first time I had been told that Wilson's wife might work for the CIA. The prosecutor asked me whether the word "bureau" might not mean the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Yes, I told him, normally. But Libby had been discussing the CIA, and therefore my impression was that he had been speaking about a particular bureau within the agency that dealt with the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. As to the question mark, I said I wasn't sure what it meant. Maybe it meant I found the statement interesting. Maybe Libby was not certain whether Wilson's wife actually worked there.
What was evident, I told the grand jury, was Libby's anger that Bush might have made inaccurate statements because the CIA failed to share doubts about the Iraq intelligence.
"No briefer came in and said, 'You got it wrong, Mr. President,"' he said, according to my notes.
THE SECOND LIBBY MEETING
I interviewed Libby for a second time on July 8, two days after Wilson published his essay attacking the administration on the op-ed page of The Times.
Our meeting, which lasted about two hours, took place over breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington. I told Fitzgerald that I almost certainly began this interview by asking about Wilson's essay, which appeared to have agitated Libby. As I recall, Libby asserted that the essay was inaccurate.
Fitzgerald asked about a notation I made on the first page of my notes about this July 8 meeting, "Former Hill staffer."
My recollection, I told him, was that Libby wanted to modify our prior understanding that I would attribute information from him to a "senior administration official." When the subject turned to Wilson, Libby requested that he be identified only as a "former Hill staffer." I agreed to the new ground rules because I knew that Libby had once worked on Capitol Hill.
Did Libby explain this request? Fitzgerald asked. No, I don't recall, I replied. But I said I assumed Libby did not want the White House to be seen as attacking Wilson.
Libby then proceeded through a lengthy and sharp critique of Wilson and what Libby viewed as the CIA's backpedaling on the intelligence leading to war. According to my notes, he began with a chronology of what he described as credible evidence of Iraq's efforts to procure uranium. As I told Fitzgerald and the grand jury, Libby alluded to the existence of two intelligence reports about Iraq's uranium procurement efforts. One report dated from February 2002. The other indicated that Iraq was seeking a broad trade relationship with Niger in 1999, a relationship that he said Niger officials had interpreted as an effort by Iraq to obtain uranium.
My notes indicate that Libby told me the report on the 1999 delegation had been attributed to Joe Wilson.
Libby also told me that on the basis of these two reports and other intelligence, his office had asked the CIA for more analysis and investigation of Iraq's dealings with Niger. According to my interview notes, Libby told me that the resulting cable - based on Wilson's fact-finding mission, as it turned out - barely made it out of the bowels of the CIA. He asserted that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, had never even heard of Wilson.
As I told Fitzgerald, Libby also cited a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, produced by American intelligence agencies in October 2002, which he said had firmly concluded that Iraq was seeking uranium.
An unclassified version of that estimate had been made public before my interviews with Libby. I told Fitzgerald that I had pressed Libby to discuss additional information that was in the more detailed, classified version of the estimate. I said I had told Libby that if The Times was going to do an article, the newspaper needed more than a recap of the administration's weapons arguments. According to my interview notes, though, it appears that Libby said little more than that the assessments of the classified estimate were even stronger than those in the unclassified version.
Although I was interested primarily in my area of expertise - chemical and biological weapons - my notes show that Libby consistently steered our conversation back to the administration's nuclear claims. His main theme echoed that of other senior officials: that contrary to Wilson's criticism, the administration had had ample reason to be concerned about Iraq's nuclear capabilities based on the regime's history of weapons development, its use of unconventional weapons and fresh intelligence reports.
At that breakfast meeting, our conversation also turned to Wilson's wife. My notes contain a phrase inside parentheses: "Wife works at Winpac." Fitzgerald asked what that meant. Winpac stood for Weapons Intelligence, Non-Proliferation, and Arms Control, the name of a unit within the CIA that, among other things, analyzes the spread of unconventional weapons.
I said I couldn't be certain whether I had known Plame's identity before this meeting, and I had no clear memory of the context of our conversation that resulted in this notation. But I told the grand jury that I believed that this was the first time I had heard that Wilson's wife worked for Winpac. In fact, I told the grand jury that when Libby indicated that Plame worked for Winpac, I assumed that she worked as an analyst, not as an undercover operative.
Fitzgerald asked me whether Libby had mentioned nepotism. I said no. And as I told the grand jury, I did not recall - and my interview notes do not show - that Libby suggested that Plame had helped arrange her husband's trip to Niger. My notes do suggest that our conversation about Plame was brief.
Fitzgerald asked me about another entry in my notebook, where I had written the words "Valerie Flame," clearly a reference to Plame. Fitzgerald wanted to know whether the entry was based on my conversations with Libby. I said I didn't think so. I said I believed the information came from another source, whom I could not recall.
Fitzgerald asked if I could recall discussing the Wilson-Plame connection with other sources. I said I had, though I could not recall any by name or when those conversations occurred.
Before the grand jury, Fitzgerald asked me questions about Cheney. He asked, for example, if Libby ever indicated whether Cheney had approved of his interviews with me or was aware of them. The answer was no.
In my grand jury testimony, Fitzgerald repeatedly turned to the subject of how Libby handled classified information with me. He asked, for example, whether I had discussed my security status with Libby. During the Iraq war, the Pentagon had given me clearance to see secret information as part of my assignment "embedded" with a special military unit hunting for unconventional weapons.
Fitzgerald asked if I had discussed classified information with Libby. I said I believed so, but could not be sure. He asked how Libby treated classified information. I said, Very carefully.
Fitzgerald asked me to examine a series of documents. Though I could not identify them with certainty, I said that some seemed familiar, and that they might be excerpts from the National Intelligence Estimate of Iraq's weapons. Fitzgerald asked whether Libby had shown any of the documents to me. I said no, I didn't think so. I thought I remembered him at one point reading from a piece of paper he pulled from his pocket.
I told Fitzgerald that Libby might have thought I still had security clearance, given my special embedded status in Iraq. At the same time, I told the grand jury I thought that at our July 8 meeting I might have expressed frustration to Libby that I was not permitted to discuss with editors some of the more sensitive information about Iraq.
Fitzgerald asked me if I knew whether I was cleared to discuss classified information at the time of my meetings with Libby. I said I did not know.
THE THIRD LIBBY CONVERSATION
My third interview with Libby occurred on July 12, two days before Robert D. Novak's column identified Plame for the first time as a CIA operative. I believe I spoke to Libby by telephone from my home in Sag Harbor, N.Y.
I told Fitzgerald I believed that before this call, I might have called others about Wilson's wife. In my notebook I had written the words "Victoria Wilson" with a box around it, another apparent reference to Plame, who is also known as Valerie Wilson.
I told Fitzgerald that I was not sure whether Libby had used this name or whether I just made a mistake in writing it on my own. Another possibility, I said, is that I gave Libby the wrong name on purpose to see whether he would correct me and confirm her identity.
I also told the grand jury I thought it was odd that I had written "Wilson" because my memory is that I had heard her referred to only as Plame. Fitzgerald asked whether this suggested that Libby had given me the name Wilson. I told him I didn't know and didn't want to guess.
My notes of this phone call show that Libby quickly turned to criticizing Wilson's report on his mission to Niger. He said it was unclear whether Wilson had spoken with any Niger officials who had dealt with Iraq's trade representatives.
With the understanding that I would attribute the information to an administration official, Libby also sought to explain why Bush included the disputed uranium allegation in his 2003 State of the Union address, a sentence of 16 words that his administration would later retract. Libby described it as the product of a simple miscommunication between the White House and the CIA.
Fitzgerald asked whether I ever pursued an article about Wilson and his wife. I told him I had not, though I considered her connection to the CIA potentially newsworthy. I testified that I recalled recommending to editors that we pursue a story.
Fitzgerald asked my reaction to Novak's column. I told the grand jury I was annoyed at having been beaten on a story. I said I felt that since The Times had run Wilson's original essay, it had an obligation to explore any allegation that undercut his credibility. At the same time, I added, I also believed that the newspaper needed to pursue the possibility that the White House was unfairly attacking a critic of the administration.
LIBBY'S LETTER
When I was last before the grand jury, Fitzgerald posed a series of questions about a letter I received in jail last month from Libby. The letter, two pages long, encouraged me to testify. "Your reporting, and you, are missed," it begins.
Fitzgerald asked me to read the final three paragraphs aloud to the grand jury. "The public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me," Libby wrote.
The prosecutor asked my reaction to those words. I replied that this portion of the letter had surprised me because it might be perceived as an effort by Libby to suggest that I, too, would say we had not discussed Plame's identity. Yet my notes suggested that we had discussed her job.
Fitzgerald also focused on the letter's closing lines. "Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning," Libby wrote. "They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them."
How did I interpret that? Fitzgerald asked.
In answer, I told the grand jury about my last encounter with Libby. It came in August 2003, shortly after I attended a conference on national security issues held in Aspen, Colo. After the conference, I traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyo. At a rodeo one afternoon, a man in jeans, a cowboy hat and sunglasses approached me. He asked me how the Aspen conference had gone. I had no idea who he was.
"Judy," he said. "It's Scooter Libby."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/16/MNmillerfirst16.DTL
Stem cell strides may help resolve ethical dilemmas
New methods preserve viable embryos, but some opponents skeptical of tactics New processes don't kill viable embryos -- opponents say moral issue s
Scientists are reporting two new ways of creating embryonic stem cells without killing viable embryos, potentially reshaping the biggest bioethical debate of the Bush administration.
In one case, embryonic stem cells were made from a genetically abnormal embryo designed to be incapable of developing. The other method was an attempt to fashion stem cells from an embryo without damaging it.
The new methods, detailed in separate research reports released online Sunday by the British journal Nature, are intended as laboratory answers to the moral questions raised by the destruction of human embryos. If the strategies work, one result could be the availability of more federal grants for one of the most promising fields of biomedical research.
A White House spokesman said it was premature to speculate on any potential change in administration policy. But William Hurlbut of Stanford University, a member of a White House bioethics advisory council, called it "a starting point for an important new dialogue" on possible "technological solutions for the moral problems surrounding human embryonic stem cell research."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/17/MNGRHF9FK31.DTL
ANALYSIS
As Republicans stumble, Democrats bumble
Strategists say Dems having trouble finding identity, offering compelling alternative
Washington -- Listen to Democrats and it is easy to say what they are not.
They are not the party that led America to war in Iraq. They are not the party trying to privatize Social Security, cut taxes to the rich or add to the deficit. They are not the party responsible for the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina, whose top leaders in the House and Senate are under investigation, whose White House is being scrutinized by a special prosecutor, or whose members are up in arms over their president's latest Supreme Court selection.
Democrats, some barely able to contain their glee, seem to have embraced the strategy of Napoleon Bonaparte, who famously advised: "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
It is far more difficult to say what Democrats are for.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/16/MNG7EF96GL1.DTL
The Australian
BUSH GETS AN 'MDS' GROUND SATELLITE IN EXCHANGE FOR THE SHIP BUILDING DEAL. This way the ship doesn't have far to go when completed to protect the MDS Ground Satellite.
US Navy contract hull of a deal for Austalia
Vanda Carson, Shipping
October 17, 2005
SHIPMAKER Austal is set to announce that it has won a lucrative US Navy contract to build a hi-tech $US220 million ($292 million) combat ship, a move the company hopes will boost its expansion into the world's biggest defence market.
It is only the second Austal ship to be built for the US Navy, with a smaller vessel sold to it in Japan four years ago.
The Fremantle-based shipmaker said its 70-per-cent-owned US subsidiary had been told Austal had won the contract, and had asked the stock exchange to halt trading in its shares from this morning while it finalised some details of the contract.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16938809%255E31477,00.html
Russians accused of helping Iran develop missiles to hit Europe
October 17, 2005
LONDON: Former members of the Russian military have been secretly helping Iran obtain the technology needed to make missiles capable of hitting European capitals, a British newspaper claimed on Sunday.
Citing anonymous "Western intelligence officials", The Sunday Telegraph said the Russians were go-betweens as part of a multi-million-dollar deal they negotiated between Iran and North Korea in 2003.
"It has enabled Tehran to receive regular clandestine shipments of top-secret missile technology, believed to be channelled through Russia," the newspaper reported in a front-page story.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16940060%255E31477,00.html
Militant attacks by Russian enemies within
October 17, 2005
MOSCOW: The diehard gang of Muslim extremists responsible for last week's attack on the southern Russian city of Nalchik consisted mainly of local militants intent on creating a strict Islamic state independent of Moscow, according to security sources in the region.
The disclosure that the gunmen were not sent from the war-torn republic of Chechnya but belonged to a group from Kabardino-Balkaria, the Russian republic of which Nalchik is the capital, will be of great concern to the Kremlin.
It provides alarming evidence that far from dying down -- as claimed by President Vladimir Putin -- the bloody Chechen conflict is spreading.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16939989%255E31477,00.html
Chance of jail for refusing Iraq tour
David Leppard, London
October 17, 2005
AN Australian-born RAF officer could be jailed for refusing to serve in Iraq because he believes the war there is illegal.
Flight-Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith is to be court-martialled for "refusing to obey a lawful command" after he told his commanding officer he would not return to Iraq.
He is the first British officer to face criminal charges for challenging the legality of the war.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16940056%255E31477,00.html
Backlash forces watering down of tough anti-terror laws
John Kerin, David King
October 17, 2005
THE Government's tough new anti-terror laws will be watered down following a community backlash and backbench concerns some elements are too extreme.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock is under pressure from members of the Government's own backbench security committee to soften aspects of the new laws, particularly drawing a line between freedom of speech and inciting hatred or sedition.
Under new offences, anyone inciting violence or racial hatred faces up to seven years in jail. But backbenchers are concerned the legislation has been drawn too broadly and, despite a defence of "good faith", could affect legitimate criticism.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16940124%255E601,00.html
Shoot-to-kill backlash
John Kerin
October 17, 2005
THE so-called shoot-to-kill provision included in new anti-terror laws is already causing a backlash.
John Howard claimed yesterday that it simply lifted an existing police power from the Crimes Act and applied it to terrorism.
TACKLING TERROR
Draft anti-terror legislation on Jon Stanhope's website
SHOOTING POWERS
Shoot-to-kill provisions for federal police if the officer believes such action is "necessary to protect life or to prevent serious injury to another person"; if a suspect tries to escape; if the suspect refuses to surrender.
CONTROL AND DETENTION ORDERS
Control orders can prohibit a person from entering a specific area, communicating with certain people and working in a certain job for up to 12 months.
A suspect can be forced to wear an electronic tracking device.
A person believed to be involved in terrorist activity can be held in preventative detention for up to 14 days.
Five-year jail term for anyone who reveals a person is being held in preventative detention.
Contact between lawyers and suspects can be monitored by police.
SEDITION OFFENCES
Encouraging the overthrow of the government by violence or by force carries a seven-year jail term, as does encouraging someone to fight for the enemy, whether or not a state of war has been declared.
FINANCE
Life imprisonment for those knowingly financing terrorist activity
A copy of the draft legislation can be found at: www.chiefminister.act.gov.au
This is true -- the wording of the two provisions is identical. But the difference is the circumstances under which the powers would be applied.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16940049%255E601,00.html
US offers 'Libya deal' to Syrians
Correspondents in Beirut
October 17, 2005
THE Bush administration has offered Syria's beleaguered President a "Gaddafi deal" to end his regime's isolation if Damascus agrees to a long list of painful concessions.
According to senior US and Arab officials, an offer has been relayed to President Bashar Assad that could enable him to avoid the looming threat of international sanctions against his country.
The matter could come to a head next week when Detlev Mehlis, the head of the UN team investigating the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, is due to submit his report to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16940061%255E2703,00.html
Old Europe votes for its decline
With Germany, France and Italy politically paralysed, European voters appear to have expressed their disapproval of the reform agenda, writes Anatole Kaletsky
October 17, 2005
AFTER last week's creation of a German government in which Angela Merkel will not even control the finance and foreign ministries, all three of the great European nations that have dominated the continent's history for 2000 years - Germany, France and Italy - are effectively leaderless.
They will almost certainly remain politically paralysed at least until the French presidential election of 2007. The power vacuum now covering the whole of continental Europe is almost unprecedented, at least since the disastrous period between the two world wars.
But is the inability of German, French and Italian voters to choose effective political leaders and then to decide on clear programs of social and economic reform -- or more precisely the unwillingness to do so -- a cause for worry?
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16940089%255E2703,00.html
Cheney Observer
Argentine Oil Workers Strike for Second Day, Factories Shut
Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- About 28,000 Argentine oil workers demanding higher wages extended a nationwide strike into a second day after failing to reach agreement with companies including Repsol YPF SA and Petroleo Brasileiro SA.
Workers at Argentine units of Madrid-based Repsol, Rio de Janeiro-based Petrobras and other oil and natural gas producers walked off the job yesterday because the companies refused to make an offer to raise salaries, said Alberto Roberti, head of the Federation of Oil and Gas Workers in a telephone interview. The union is demanding an increase of 260 pesos ($88) a month.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=aLTvGjG3jgQM&refer=latin_america
UPDATE 2-Oil leaps 2 pct as new storm menaces Gulf of Mexico
Monday 17 October 2005, 3:41am EST
By Jonathan Leff
SINGAPORE, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Oil prices leapt more than 2 percent on Monday as a new storm forming in the Caribbean took aim at the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to damage oil platforms for a third time this year.
Rising tensions in Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil producer, also buoyed prices after twin bombings in the southwest oil city of Ahvaz, which Tehran blamed on Britain.
U.S. crude soared $1.37 a barrel, or 2.2 percent, to $64.00 in electronic trading. London Brent crude was up $1.47 to $60.95 a barrel.
Oil gained 79 cents last week when prices hit a 10-week low of $60.35 on signs high prices were cutting into consumption.
http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?type=naturalResources&storyID=nSP6120
Kazakh oil deal unfair, says Aiyar
rediff Business Bureau October 17, 2005 10:49 IST
In August, when China outbid India to acquire PetroKazakhstan Inc, Kazakhstan's third largest oil producer, after its flagship company CNCP raised its offer higher than the Indian price, question were raised about the transparency of the deal.
China National Petroleum Corp, which trailed the Oil and Natural Gas-Mittal Group combine when price bids were made on August 15, raised its bid to $4.18 billion to acquire PetroKazakhstan, a Canadian oil firm operating in Central Asia.
ONGC-Mittal combine was not given a chance to match or rebid, ONGC sources had pointed out.
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/oct/17aiyar.htm
Oil price a threat world growth, says G20
DAVID BLACK
DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR
HIGH oil prices and a rising tide of protectionism are threatening to stoke inflation and hurt global economic growth, the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations said in a statement yesterday at the close of two days of talks at a resort near Beijing.
The world's largest oil consumer, the United States, and the biggest oil producer, Saudi Arabia, were among the signatories to the statement, which vowed to promote energy saving and alternative sources of energy as well as to reduce oil subsidies.
"We are concerned that long-lasting high and volatile oil prices could increase inflationary pressures, slow down growth and cause instability in the global economy," the G20 said.
The statement comes as oil prices appear to have reached a plateau - and delegates were obviously relieved that the world economy had shown remarkable resilience so far to the surge in oil prices. Benchmark US light crude futures hit a record $70.85 per barrel in August, up more than 60 per cent from the end of 2004. They closed on Friday at $62.63.
http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2097782005
Imposing green taxes on oil fuel
Aziz, Munich
Vice President Jusuf Kalla once told reporters that imposing taxes on oil products, to follow what other countries were doing, was not feasible in Indonesia because the government considered oil products "strategic", not commercial.
The Vice President perhaps must have been joking. Those countries that impose taxes on oil fuel consumption were doing it precisely because oil fuel to them is a strategic product. In fact, they did it to avoid energy crises in the long term and to reap the benefit of "double dividends" in shorter term. Indonesia must seriously ponder this option (taxing oil fuel consumption) as early as now, in part to solve the potential problem of energy crises in the future, but also to enjoy the revenue benefits in the meantime.
In industrialized countries, notably the European Union (EU), environmental objectives of taxes on oil fuel are important priorities, hence earn the name environmental, or ecological, taxes. The primary goal is to reduce CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions from the burning of fossil fuels that pollutes the air, water and other natural resources, and causes the greenhouse effect and global climate change. Since the growth of population and economy dictates growing consumption of oil fuel (the main source of CO2 emissions), one of the instruments to control this is to make the price as expensive as possible.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20051017.E03&irec=2
SC lawmaker wants new petroleum refinery studied
(Columbia-AP) October 16, 2005 - A South Carolina lawmaker wants to help ease some worries about the nation's fuel supply by seeing if a petroleum refinery could be built on the coast.
Representative Michael Thompson of Anderson plans to file a bill next month that would form a study commission to determine the feasibility of a refinery.
US Senator Jim DeMint sponsored a bill nationally to encourage new refinery construction after two Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico this year slowed or threatened fuel supplies.
DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton said the senator had not seen Thompson's plan but predicted the senator would support it.
The bill would create a nine-member commission, appointed by the House, Senate and governor, to study the idea.
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3986043&nav=0RaP
MUMBAI: Even as the government has called for more imports of cooking gas (liquefied petroleum gas) to tide over the current crisis, state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) are monitoring their supplies.
For long, all the OMCs have seen their distributors divert supplies of LPG cylinders from the domestic to the commercial sector. The domestic sector accounts for 95% of the total 8.5 million tonne LPG sales in India.
While a 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder retails for around Rs 300, a 19-kg cylinder for the commercial sector costs Rs 770.
The all-India average usage for a consumer household is 120 kg, or around 10 cylinders per annum.
http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=5974&CatID=4
Govt mulls takeover of ONGC Videsh
New Delhi, Oct. 16 (PTI): The government is considering taking over Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s international arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd, and converting it into a national exploration and production flagship for investments overseas.
OVL, which has committed over $4.5 billion (about Rs 19,800 crore) in 14 countries on the strength of its parent firm, is 100 per cent owned by ONGC.
Sources said petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar feels OVL under ONGC was “suffocating” as the parent firm had “kept it inadequately staffed and failed to provide the technical support” needed to pursue E&P projects.
With just one managing director and a director (finance), OVL has not been able to follow up on the opportunities arising from Aiyar’s much-acclaimed ‘oil diplomacy’.
He now wants to make OVL a 100 per cent government-owned firm after snapping it from ONGC with a view to better co-ordinate diplomacy and commercial deals, they said.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051017/asp/business/story_5362980.asp
Oil prices jump $1 a barrel
By GILLIAN WONG, Associated Press
Last updated: 1:21 a.m., Monday, October 17, 2005
SINGAPORE -- Crude oil futures jumped more than $1 a barrel Monday, driven up by concerns that a tropical depression brewing in the Caribbean could grow into a hurricane and threaten oil facilities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $1.10 to $63.73 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Friday, the contract slipped 45 cents to $62.63 a barrel.
Heating oil gained 4.54 cents to $1.9954 a gallon while gasoline climbed 5.44 cents to $1.8030. Natural gas rose $0.601 to $13.820 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Tropical Depression 24, a slow-moving system formed Saturday, was expected to become Tropical Storm Wilma, which would make it the 21st named storm of the season, tying the 1933 record for the most storms in an Atlantic season, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday.
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=409544&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=10/16/2005
DeLay hustles to replenish his voter pool
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff October 17, 2005
RICHMOND, Texas -- At a two-story community college across the street from a Wal-Mart, US Representative Tom DeLay jumped out of the back seat of his town car Wednesday morning, grinning wide and eager to shake some hands.
He greeted trustees and shared a joke with maintenance workers. He introduced himself to a group of students who were sharing cigarettes, drinking Red Bull, and listening to a friend strum a guitar.
''Hi -- Tom DeLay," he said, smile fixed and hand outstretched. ''Thanks for letting us interrupt you."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/10/17/delay_hustles_to_replenish_his_voter_pool/
Sydney Morning Herald
Sydney's first skywalkers
By Jano Gibson
October 17, 2005 - 3:08PM
Sydney's highest attraction - Skywalk at Sydney Tower was officially opened today.
Photo: Peter Morris
Vertigo sufferers be warned: Sydney's latest tourist attraction is an overhanging, glass-bottomed platform perched a dizzying 260 metres above the city's streets.
Skywalk, a $6 million outdoor structure featuring a series of "daredevil walkways" on Sydney Tower's golden turret, was unveiled today.
Among the first to don the mandatory colourful jump-suits and to sample the "on-the edge outdoor adventure" were journalists - including some with a fear of heights.
But despite the high-altitude and gusty southerly winds, stunning views across the city helped distract any fears and all were able to step onto the glass-panelled deck that hangs over the edge of the tower.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sydneys-first-skywalkers/2005/10/17/1129401184315.html
After 30 years, Lotto pays off
October 17, 2005 - 2:30PM
Three decades of playing Tattslotto has finally paid off for two sisters and their brother.
The siblings, from different Melbourne suburbs, won more than $547,000 in Saturday's draw, after playing in a syndicate together for 30 years.
"It is so long ago that we started playing with our parents that I can't remember how we actually picked the numbers that won," one of the winning sisters said.
"I think some of the numbers were family birthdays and others we drew out of a hat.
"We all have special things we can do with this money, including pay off a car, clearing up credit cards, increasing superannuation payments, helping one of us move home, taking an overseas holiday and organising a 25th birthday for one of our sons, as we couldn't afford a 21st for him."
The trio's entry was submitted at Mount Waverley Lotto and shared the division one prize pool with an entry submitted at Melbourne's Vermont South Newsagency, as well as three entries from Queensland and one from Western Australia.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/after-30-years-lotto-pays-off/2005/10/17/1129401182277.html
IRA know-how may have killed troops
October 17, 2005
London: Sophisticated bomb technology employed by the Irish Republican Army has been used to kill British soldiers in southern Iraq, a London newspaper reported yesterday.
The Independent on Sunday said that eight soldiers died in five roadside blasts after being attacked with bombs triggered by infra-red beams.
The bombs and the firing devices used to kill the soldiers, as well as two private security guards, were initially created by British security services as part of a counter-terrorism strategy at the height of the Troubles in the early 1990s, the paper said. But the technology fell into IRA hands during a botched "sting" operation about 15 years ago.
A military intelligence officer with experience in Northern Ireland said that one trigger used in a recent Iraqi bombing was a three-way device, combining a command wire, a radio signal and an infra-red beam - a technique perfected by the IRA.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/ira-knowhow-may-have-killed-troops/2005/10/16/1129401148019.html
Tackle bird flu at its source, vet urges
October 17, 2005
Building up South-East Asia's defences against bird flu could take 10 years, but fighting the virus at its source would be cheaper and a more effective way to stop a human pandemic, a top animal health official says.
Alejandro Thiermann, of the World Organisation for Animal Health, said too much attention was being paid to stockpiling scarce antiviral drugs and developing a vaccine, and "not enough on birds".
Dr Thiermann, part of a US-led mission to South-East Asia last week, urged rich nations to tackle the H5N1 virus in Asia's backyard farms and markets, where the pandemic threat is most likely to emerge.
"It's like watching a volcano getting ready to erupt," Dr Thiermann said. "If indeed the virus is going to mutate into a pandemic form and we want to prevent it at source, we have to help these countries make drastic improvements in public health and animal health."
With H5N1 now in Europe and triggering a scramble there for flu drugs and face masks, Dr Thiermann worries that attention will drift away from Asia, where the virus is endemic in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/tackle-bird-flu-at-its-source-vet-urges/2005/10/16/1129401145763.html
Rise of deadly disease is a cultural thing
October 17, 2005
Illustration: Michael Mucci
Modern life has brought humans and microbes closer than ever before, writes Tony McMichael.
Avian influenza is the latest of several infectious diseases, including SARS, to emerge in Asia since 1997. A particular dread, however, attaches to this current H5N1 influenza virus because of the three major influenza pandemics that occurred last century.
The main concern is whether the H5N1 strain will become transmissible from human to human. That concern has been reinforced by two scientific findings in the past few weeks.
First, the genome of the 1918-19 (Spanish flu) H1N1 virus, which killed 30-40 million people, has been reconstructed. It appears that this particular pandemic strain may have arisen directly, via spontaneous mutation, from an avian influenza virus.
Unlike the 1957 H2N2 and 1968 H3N2 strains, the H1N1 strain did not require recombination of genetic material from bird and human strains. Could H5N1 do likewise?
Second, in New York, a long-established horse-infecting strain of influenza has spread into dogs, and has achieved dog-to-dog transmission. If it can happen in dogs then presumably it could happen in humans.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/rise-of-deadly-disease-is-a-cultural-thing/2005/10/16/1129401141539.html
Chicago Tribune
"Soxtober"
Sox-sational!!!
Reversed call, Crede's big bat clinch trip to World Series
By Mark Gonzales
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 17, 2005
ANAHEIM -- A little controversy didn't hurt, but the ending was as convincing as their dominant starting pitching.
The White Sox earned their first World Series berth since 1959 Sunday night in their typical crazy style with a 6-3 comeback victory over the Los Angeles Angels for the American League pennant.
The Sox eliminated the Angels 4-1 in their best-of-seven AL Championship Series as Jose Contreras allowed only five hits in pitching the Sox's fourth consecutive complete game.
The Sox will open the World Series on Saturday night at U.S. Cellular Field against either Houston or St. Louis.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/cs-051016soxgamer,1,5743311.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Sen. Edward Kennedy Helps Rescue Fishermen
By Associated Press
Published October 17, 2005, 1:24 AM CDT
HYANNIS, Mass. -- U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy attempted to rescue six men who had become trapped by high tide on a jetty off Hyannisport on Sunday.
The Massachusetts Democrat eventually left the rescue to Hyannis firefighters, The Cape Cod Times reported Monday.
Kennedy was walking his two dogs on the shore at 11:15 a.m. when he spotted the men cut off from shore by the rising waters. They had been fishing on a jetty that begins at the tip of the Kennedy compound.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-kennedy-rescue,1,302886.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Turning a blind eye to bias against women in workplace
Derrick Z. Jackson, New York Times News Service
Published October 17, 2005
First Lady Laura Bush praised U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers by saying: "I know Harriet well. I know how accomplished she is. I know how many times she's broken the glass ceiling herself."
Bush made that comment in the context of being asked on NBC whether she detected sexism in the criticism of Miers' qualifications. "That's possible. I think that's possible," Bush said. "I think she is so accomplished. I think people are not looking at her accomplishments."
But it is ironic that she invoked the glass ceiling while her husband's administration has quietly stopped collecting detailed information on women in the workforce.
In August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics discontinued its women worker employment series in the current employment statistics payroll survey. The series ensured the most detailed monthly snapshots and long-term trends on the number of women workers in individual industries.
The bureau said it discontinued the series because it "imposed a significant reporting burden" to ask 160,000 businesses representing about 400,000 individual work sites to note gender in their monthly reporting of their workers' employment, hours and earnings. The bureau also claimed the women workers series was "little used," adding that "extensive" data on women in the workplace will still be available in the Current Population Study, a monthly survey of 60,000 households.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0510170152oct17,1,4459714.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
continued …
Miles O'Brien can go straight to hell !!
Down the street from my house is a patrol car with a police officer well armed as well. They call it law enforcement. I haven't noted any humvees YET !!
You will not make light of the fact Iraq is oppressed under an illegal occupation.
Jerks !!
Evidently, American Serviceman Barrett Stephens believes his role was noble in acting the way he did while he was in Iraq. He further states his reality back home after Katrina is far more harsh than Iraq ever could be. Really? Does he wear a bullet proof vest in the USA? I didn't think so. And while there is complete devastation in many areas along the Gulf Coast it wasn't attained by war. It was attained by the very USA administration that placed Mr. Stephens in Iraq. The United States government believes in carbon dioxide emissions instead of protections of the biosphere.
The dicotomy of Mr. Stephes speaks eons to realize the 'rationalization' that goes along with the instillation of Halliburton over what could have been a peaceful transition brought to reality with the productive role of the USA in cooperation with the United Nations. That would have and could have occurred under UN Resolutions IF the goal were ONLY to remove Saddam Hussein from his dictatorship and allow the Iraqi people to grow a democracy.
THAT.
Was never the agenda of the USA Coaliton invasion nor is it today realizing the head of the Oil Ministry is headed by a man wanted in Jordan and the USA. How does Mr. Stephen feel about providing protection of The Green Zone knowing the Iraq Minister of Oil, Mr. Chalibi is wanted in the USA for crimes?
The entire situation the USA military finds itself these days is insane due to the high level of corruption of the USA Republican administration.
Mr. Stephens is a citizen we in the USA value and welcome him home. I hope his assimilation back to the USA includes the reality of all of us and not just that which separates The Military Class away from the country. A dangerous place by the way for military personnel to be.
You will not make light of the fact Iraq is oppressed under an illegal occupation.
Jerks !!
Evidently, American Serviceman Barrett Stephens believes his role was noble in acting the way he did while he was in Iraq. He further states his reality back home after Katrina is far more harsh than Iraq ever could be. Really? Does he wear a bullet proof vest in the USA? I didn't think so. And while there is complete devastation in many areas along the Gulf Coast it wasn't attained by war. It was attained by the very USA administration that placed Mr. Stephens in Iraq. The United States government believes in carbon dioxide emissions instead of protections of the biosphere.
The dicotomy of Mr. Stephes speaks eons to realize the 'rationalization' that goes along with the instillation of Halliburton over what could have been a peaceful transition brought to reality with the productive role of the USA in cooperation with the United Nations. That would have and could have occurred under UN Resolutions IF the goal were ONLY to remove Saddam Hussein from his dictatorship and allow the Iraqi people to grow a democracy.
THAT.
Was never the agenda of the USA Coaliton invasion nor is it today realizing the head of the Oil Ministry is headed by a man wanted in Jordan and the USA. How does Mr. Stephen feel about providing protection of The Green Zone knowing the Iraq Minister of Oil, Mr. Chalibi is wanted in the USA for crimes?
The entire situation the USA military finds itself these days is insane due to the high level of corruption of the USA Republican administration.
Mr. Stephens is a citizen we in the USA value and welcome him home. I hope his assimilation back to the USA includes the reality of all of us and not just that which separates The Military Class away from the country. A dangerous place by the way for military personnel to be.
October 10, 2005. I found this picture rather prophetic while appreciating the palm trees were still standing. The people behind the wall are residents of Baquba. The SHADOW that the wall and the city falls under is that of a USA Coalition Humvee Gun Turret. There is something strange about a referendum vote for a Constitution while a country is OCCUPIED.
October 16, 2005. East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The erosion of the substructure to the road has resulted in destruction of the road surface. This two lane road is no longer legally the width required for a road to be two lanes. I am confident the bridge in the left upper corner is equally as eroded. NOTED :: The right margin of the picture is a mailbox. That raises the ability of the Post Office to deliver mail as mailboxes have to be within a certain afe distance reachable from the road. A lot of rain carries with it a lot more GOVERNING issues.
UNICEF has managed to win the loyalties of the creators of "The Smurfs" to drive home a message of 'Shock and Awe" regarding the pitfalls of childhood seldom realized in the USA. Europe is many ways accepts issues of violence being the gateway to the Middle East. People like Atta had made Germany his home before meeting his death in a plane on September 11, 2001. I approve of the message and it's shocking message. There is a huge truth this stark example deals with in a moment that should and did rattle the world. I have a feeling Princess Diana would not only approve but wear a T-shirt. Thank you, UNICEF. Let's home Poppa Smurf does better in the future.
Morning Papers - continued
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
After Rove's testimony, White House spokesman Scott McClellan was asked whether Rove still has the president's confidence. He would say only, "Karl continues to do his duties."
Rove Testifies Again in CIA Leak Probe
By Pete Yost / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Karl Rove testified for the fourth and final time Friday before the grand jury investigating whether his conversations with two reporters led to the leaking of a CIA operative's identity.
The White House aide spent about four and a half hours inside the federal courthouse, and left without commenting to reporters.
His lawyer, Robert Luskin, said Rove was told by prosecutors they likely would not need further testimony or cooperation from him and that they had no yet decided whether Rove should be charged criminally.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4520
Jitters at the White House Over the Leak Inquiry
By Richard W. Stevenson / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - Karl Rove nosed his Jaguar out of the garage at his home in Northwest Washington in the predawn gloom, starting another day in which he would be dealing with a troubled Supreme Court nomination, posthurricane reconstruction and all the other issues that come across the desk of President Bush's most influential aide.
But Mr. Rove's first challenge on Wednesday morning came before he cleared his driveway: how to get past the five television crews and the three photographers waiting for him. He flashed his blinding high beams into the camera lenses and sped by.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4513
Scandals take toll on Bush’s second term
Troubles distract aides, disrupt president’s agenda
By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker / Washington Post
A string of scandals involving some of the most powerful Republicans in Washington have converged to disrupt President Bush's agenda, distract aides and allies, and exacerbate political problems for an already weakened administration, according to party strategists and White House advisers.
With Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove returning to a grand jury as early as today, associates said the architect of Bush's presidency has been preoccupied with his legal troubles, a diversion that some say contributed to the troubled handling of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court. White House officials are privately bracing for the possibility that Rove or other officials could be indicted in the next two weeks.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4517
1965
...a message from Cindy Sheehan
Going to the movies was something Casey and I enjoyed doing together. Casey was a Theater Arts major in college and he went with a critical eye. Since I love sharing my children's passions with them, Casey and I would go to the movie theater often.
We saw two movies the last time he was home at Christmas, 2003 before he was deployed to Iraq . We saw the last movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the live action movie Peter Pan. I still have the ticket stub for that movie in my wallet. We got to the theater a little late, so we had to sit up front with the moms and dads and their small children. I commented to Casey that it looked like we were the only "grown ups" interested in the movie. The small children were cute to watch as they enjoyed the movie and Casey and I got quite a few chuckles from them also.
On Ash Wednesday of 2004, a few days before Casey left for Iraq, his dad and I went to see The Passion of the Christ. That was our Ash Wednesday penance that year. Casey's dad fell asleep during the scourging scene while I sat in my seat and quietly sobbed. I was especially touched by the character that played Jesus' mom who followed her son along while he was being violently tortured and killed by devious men with an evil agenda. Of course, since I became a mom over 26 years ago, I have identified with Mary as she sobbed at the foot of her sons cross and cradled his lifeless body in her arms.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=518
Baghdad Blackout Caused by Sabotage
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Insurgents sabotaged power lines to the capital Friday evening, knocking out electricity across the greater Baghdad area and plunging it into darkness on the eve of the country's key vote on a new constitution.
Mahmoud al-Saaedi, an Electricity Ministry spokesman, said power lines were sabotaged between the northern towns of Kirkuk and Beiji leading to the Baghdad region.
He did not specify how insurgents damaged the lines, but militants in the past have used bombs to hit infrastructure.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4525
The Marines didn't know she was 85
By Robert L. Jamieson Jr. / Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Marines are looking for recruits to join the few and the proud.
This explains the one-page letter that arrived last month in Barbara Mercer's Seattle mailbox.
"Now is the time to put your unique language skills to the test as a member of the United States Marine Corps," wrote Brig. Gen. W.E. Gaskin.
"Your command of the Arabic language will be invaluable. ... We'll push your physical and mental limits beyond anything you've ever known."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4526
Prosecutor Subpoenas DeLay Phone Records
By Suzanne Gamboa / Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas - A Texas prosecutor on Thursday subpoenaed the phone records for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's home and campaign during the period he is accused of conspiring to launder illegal corporate donations to candidates.
Also subpoenaed by prosecutor Ronnie Earle were records for two phone numbers for DeLay's daughter, Danielle DeLay Ferro, and for a minivan that Earle alleged DeLay bought.
DeLay is facing charges of money laundering and conspiracy in a Texas campaign finance case.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4518
Papers: DeLay Group Used $100K for Races
By Sharon Theimer / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Tom DeLay's political group used nearly $100,000 in corporate and unlimited donations to mail last-minute political appeals praising five congressional candidates despite rules meant to keep such money out of federal races, documents released Thursday show.
The records also detail payments DeLay's group made to Jim Ellis and Warren Robold, two longtime fundraisers indicted in Texas in the same state campaign finance case as DeLay. All three men say they are innocent in that case.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4521
The Miller Case: A Notebook, a Cause, a Jail Cell and a Deal
By Don Van Natta Jr., Adam Liptak and Clifford J. Levy / New York Times
In a notebook belonging to Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times, amid notations about Iraq and nuclear weapons, appear two small words: "Valerie Flame."
Ms. Miller should have written Valerie Plame. That name is at the core of a federal grand jury investigation that has reached deep into the White House. At issue is whether Bush administration officials leaked the identity of Ms. Plame, an undercover C.I.A. operative, to reporters as part of an effort to blunt criticism of the president's justification for the war in Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4540
New Laws May Let Power Plants Pollute More
By John Heilprin / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration proposed new regulations Thursday that could allow the nation's dirtiest power plants to release more air pollutants each year - and possibly undercut lawsuits aimed at forcing companies to comply with the Clean Air Act.
The proposal follows a June federal court ruling that said power plants can throw more pollutants into the air each year when they modernize to operate for longer hours.
It's the latest in a series of attempts by the Environmental Protection Agency to make the nearly 30-year-old Clean Air Act rules for coal-fired power plants more industry-friendly. Some changes were held up by lawsuits from environmentalists and state officials.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4522
Pep Rally Roveless
Rove Cancels Appearance at Fundraiser for Kilgore
By Ian Shapira / Washington Post
If those attending yesterday's annual Republican "Pep Rally Breakfast" in Fairfax County did not pay much mind to the scrum of protesters outside, all they had to do was take a seat and flip open the program to see what all the ruckus was about.
There it was, smack in the middle of the first page: The man scheduled to deliver the keynote address in support of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Jerry W. Kilgore would be Karl Rove, the White House senior adviser who is embroiled in the investigation of a leak that revealed the name of a CIA operative. Tickets were hot. The press was barred.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4542
Planet Sees Warmest September on Record
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Worldwide, it was the warmest September on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.
Averaging 1.13 degrees Fahrenheit (0.63 degree Celsius) above normal for the month, it was the warmest September since the beginning of reliable records in 1880, according to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
The second warmest September was in 2003 with an average temperature of 1.02 degrees Fahrenheit (0.57 Celsius) above the mean.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4523
Dr. Rice Cooperated
Rice Reveals She Has “Cooperated” with Prosecutor in Leak Probe
This morning, Secretary of State and former member of the White House Iraq Group, Condoleezza Rice, was asked about her involvement in the CIA leak scandal:
WALLACE: Secretary Rice, a new subject. Were you part of an effort in July of 2003 to discredit Ambassador Joe Wilson, who was a critic of the Bush Iraq policy.
RICE: I am not going to talk about, Chris, as you might imagine, an ongoing investigation. I have, like everybody else, cooperated with prosecutor Fitzgerald and am quite certain that he will make his report. But I don’t think that it’s appropriate to comment about those events.
WALLACE: Now when you say you have cooperated with the prosecutor, does that mean, in fact, that you spoke to investigators or to the grand jury?
RICE: I cooperated in all the ways that I was asked to cooperate.
A couple of revealing bits of information from Rice’s comments:
1) This is the first time Rice has publicly acknowledged that she too has been asked to either speak with prosecutors or appear before the federal grand jury.
2) Rice said she is “quite certain” Fitzgerald will make his report. If Fitzgerald decides not to seek any indictments, he is not required to issue a public report. The fact that Rice expects a report to be made suggests she believes indictments will be coming forth as well.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/16/rice-cooperate/
Northeast Downpours Blamed for 10 Deaths
By Wayne Parry / Associated Press
OAKLAND, N.J. - Rain fell for an eighth straight day around the waterlogged Northeast on Friday, pushing hundreds of people from their homes, closing roadways and leaving train tracks littered with fallen trees.
Tens of thousands of sandbags were handed out in New Hampshire and New Jersey, and flood warnings covered parts of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
Rainfall totals since Oct. 7 topped a foot or more in spots, and forecasters predicted another 2 to 3 inches of rain in some places by Saturday. At least 10 people have died because of the downpours, and four others remain missing in New Hampshire.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4524
Scandal
'Hidden Scandal' in Miller Story, Charges Former CBS Newsman
By E&P Staff / Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK -- Since the posting of The New York Times lengthy article on Judith Miller's involvement in the Plame scandal Saturday night, much Web buzzing has ensued concerning the revelation that she had some sort of special classified status while embedded with troops in Iraq at one point.
The issue came to the fore because Miller, in recounting her grand jury testimony, wrote about how her former classified status figured in her discussions with I. Lewis Libby. She was pressed by the prosecutor on this matter.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4544
For Injured U.S. Troops, 'Financial Friendly Fire'
Flaws in Pay System Lead to Dunning, Credit Trouble
By Donna St. George / Washington Post
His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities.
The last thing on his mind, he said, was whether the Army had correctly adjusted his pay rate -- downgrading it because he was out of the war zone -- or whether his combat gear had been accounted for properly: his Kevlar helmet, his suspenders, his rucksack.
But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4515
Troubling
Libby's Letter to Miller Raises 'Troubling' Issues
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- New details about Judith Miller's decision to cooperate in the CIA leak probe are raising questions about whether Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and his defense lawyer tried to steer the New York Times reporter's testimony.
The dispute arose as the newspaper on Sunday detailed three conversations that Miller had with the Cheney aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in the summer of 2003 about Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson and Wilson's wife, covert CIA officer Valerie Plame.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4545
Army Pressed on Handling of Casualties
By Gretchen Ruethling / New York Times
CHICAGO, Oct. 12 - Gay Eisenhauer learned about the death of her son in Iraq from an Army officer who read the news to her from a piece of paper at her house. Mrs. Eisenhauer and her husband, who live in Pinckneyville, Ill., later picked up their son's body in the cargo bay at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, surrounded by boxes, luggage and airport employees.
"It was a very tough place to meet your son," said Mrs. Eisenhauer, the mother of Pfc. Wyatt Eisenhauer, 26, who was killed by an explosive device in May. She said the Army casualty officer who delivered the news was impersonal. "When we bring them home and we call them heroes, let's treat them like heroes all the way," she said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4514
Prosecutor Weighs Move in CIA Leak Probe
By Pete Yost / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - With the criminal investigation into who leaked the identity of a covert CIA officer apparently nearing an end, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald could seek indictments of top White House aides or quietly close up shop.
The grand jury that heard several hours of testimony Friday from President Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, is set to expire Oct. 28. Rove's lawyer said Fitzgerald has "affirmed that he has made no decision concerning charges."
Even if Fitzgerald decides not to prosecute anyone, that may not be the end of the matter: The prosecutor could write a final report detailing his investigation. But unlike past special prosecutors, such as Ken Starr in the Monica Lewinsky affair, who operated under the now-expired independent counsel law, Fitzgerald is not required to produce a public report.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4538
Miller Forgets
My Four Hours Testifying in the Federal Grand Jury Room
By Judith Miller / New York Times
In July 2003, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador, created a firestorm by publishing an essay in The New York Times that accused the Bush administration of using faulty intelligence to justify the war in Iraq. The administration, he charged, ignored findings of a secret mission he had undertaken for the Central Intelligence Agency - findings, he said, that undermined claims that Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear bomb.
It was the first time Mr. Wilson had gone public with his criticisms of the White House. Yet he had already become a focus of significant scrutiny at the highest levels of the Bush administration.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4541
Rove Pressed On Conflicts, Source Says
Questions Said to Focus On Differing Accounts
By Carol D. Leonnig and Jim VandeHei / Washington Post
The grand jury investigating the CIA leak case pressed White House senior adviser Karl Rove yesterday to more fully explain his conversations with reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame, including discrepancies between his testimony and the account provided by a key witness in the investigation, according to a source familiar with Rove's account.
Making his fourth appearance before the grand jury, Rove answered a broad range of questions for 4 1/2 hours, including why he did not initially tell federal agents about a July 2003 conversation about Plame with the witness, Time magazine's Matthew Cooper, the source said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4537
Step Out of the Car;
"...a very stupid thing to put in a letter..."
Miller's Lawyer Says Aide Faces 'Problem' in CIA Probe
Attorney for Reporter Cites Possibility of Conflicting Testimony
By Walter Pincus and Howard Kurtz / Washington Post
Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, has "a problem" in the investigation of the leak of a CIA operative's identity if his testimony conflicts with information given to the grand jury by New York Times reporter Judith Miller, her lawyer said yesterday.
Robert S. Bennett, speaking on the ABC program "This Week" on the day the Times disclosed new information about three conversations Miller had with Libby about the CIA employment of a White House critic's wife, said that "much would depend upon what Mr. Libby said to the grand jury.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4546
Rove Testifies Again in CIA Leak Probe
By Pete Yost / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Karl Rove testified for the fourth and final time Friday before the grand jury investigating whether his conversations with two reporters led to the leaking of a CIA operative's identity.
The White House aide spent about four and a half hours inside the federal courthouse, and left without commenting to reporters.
His lawyer, Robert Luskin, said Rove was told by prosecutors they likely would not need further testimony or cooperation from him and that they had no yet decided whether Rove should be charged criminally.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4520
Scandals take toll on Bush’s second term
Troubles distract aides, disrupt president’s agenda
By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker / Washington Post
A string of scandals involving some of the most powerful Republicans in Washington have converged to disrupt President Bush's agenda, distract aides and allies, and exacerbate political problems for an already weakened administration, according to party strategists and White House advisers.
With Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove returning to a grand jury as early as today, associates said the architect of Bush's presidency has been preoccupied with his legal troubles, a diversion that some say contributed to the troubled handling of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court. White House officials are privately bracing for the possibility that Rove or other officials could be indicted in the next two weeks.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4517
Rice Fails to Win Support on Iran Stance
By Anne Gearan / Associated Press
MOSCOW - Condoleezza Rice could not win new support from Russia for hauling Iran before the U.N. Security Council, but the U.S. secretary of state said Saturday that option remains open "at a time of our choosing."
Washington and its European allies are waiting to see if a defiant Iran will return to diplomatic talks over its disputed nuclear program. If not, they say they will invoke the threat of economic penalties or other punishment from the Security Council.
After hastily arranged and unexpectedly lengthy meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Rice said Moscow is trying to push its ally Iran back to the bargaining table.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4539
AP: 3,663 Iraqis Killed in Past 6 Months
Associated Press
Saturday's vote on Iraq's new constitution takes place nearly six months after the country's first elected government took power, and during that period at least 3,663 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence, according to an Associated Press count.
The current interim government took power on April 28 after long negotiations that followed parliamentary elections in January.
The AP gathered the statistics on Iraqi dead on a daily basis from hospital officials, Iraqi police, the Iraqi military and other government officials.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4536
Your signature can end the war in Iraq
HomeFromIraqNow.org is a national campaign to end the war in Iraq by using binding statewide ballot initiatives around the country to pressure the administration to bring our troops home now.
We are currently placing an initiative on the November 2006 ballot in Massachusetts to prevent the Governor from sending any more National Guard troops to Iraq, and we are actively exploring similar initiatives in other states.
A yes vote on this initiative will not only prevent more National Guard troops from being deployed to Iraq, but will also send a very strong message to our elected leaders that we want them to end the war and bring all of our troops home immediately.
To get this initiative on the ballot in Massachusetts for November 2006, we need your help to collect 100,000 signatures of Massachusetts voters by November 15, 2005.
http://www.homefromiraqnow.org/
You Know They're in Their 'Last Throes' When Their Barber is Caught
Al Qaeda "barber" arrested in Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq said on Saturday that they were holding a man suspected of acting as a barber to senior al Qaeda militants and helping them change their appearance to evade capture.
The man, named as Walid Muhammad Farhan Juwar al-Zubaydi -- "aka 'The Barber,"' the U.S. military statement said -- was arrested in Baghdad on September 24, the day before U.S. troops caught up with and killed a militant they described as the most senior al Qaeda leader in the capital, Abu Azzam.
"'The Barber's' duties included altering senior al Qaeda in Iraq members' appearances by dying hair color, altering hairstyles and changing facial hair in their efforts to evade capture," the military said in the statement.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4531
MORALLY BANKRUPT
It's funny in an non-laughing sort of way that the GOP prides itself on defending both the morals of this great nation and its free market economic system. At this point the two don't make much sense together.
There's the obvious political examples (Republican leaders Bill Frist and Tom DeLay both sidestepping ethical behavior for fiscal gain), but the real damage is being done to the fabric of our American society.
Witness the Bankruptcy "Reform" Bill. As more and more Americans swipe themselves into debt, more and more Americans are swept into bankruptcy. Credit Card companies like debt and dislike bankruptcy, so they bought legislation to make bankruptcy filing more difficult. The new law requires the indebted to enter credit counseling, a service for which the bankrupt must pay money they do not have. Better still, they are paying this money to the credit card companies they are already indebted to:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=517
The Jamaica Observer
More terror in Trinidad
10 hurt in bombing, cops question former coup leader
Compiled from AFP, AP and Sunday Observer reports
Sunday, October 16, 2005
YASIN Abu Bakr, 63, the Islamic leader who led a failed coup in 1990 was being questioned by police Saturday a day after an explosion outside a popular nightclub in Trinidad's capital wounded at least 10 people on Friday, police said.
It was still not clear what caused the explosion, but it followed a series of bombings that have all occurred around the same time of the month.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20051015T230000-0500_90513_OBS_MORE_TERROR_IN_TRINIDAD_.asp
Rains displace MoBay families
City streets flooded with water and garbage
BY MARK CUMMINGS Sunday Observer reporter
Sunday, October 16, 2005
MONTEGO BAY, St James - At least two families were left homeless and several residents flooded out of their homes as torrential rains pelted the resort city of Montego Bay early Saturday morning.
Many business operators also were affected as the North Gully overflowed it banks, dumping mud and silt in several business establishments particularly along Union Street and William Street.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20051015T230000-0500_90512_OBS_RAINS_DISPLACE_MOBAY_FAMILIES_.asp
Three named to search for oil
Observer Reporter
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Jamaica will soon sign agreements with Australian, Canadian and British outfits for oil and gas exploration off the island's south coast, energy sources say.
Phillip Paulwell, the energy minister, was not available for comment yesterday, but the sources named the three companies with which the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) has all but finalised deals are:
Jamaica's energy minister, Phillip Paulwell (left) and consultant, Chris Matchette-Downs (second left) talk with oil industry officials about the exploration prospects in Jamaica in Cancun, Mexico last year.
. Fender Exploration of Perth, Australia;
. Rainville Ltd of Calgary, Canada;
. Onslow Ltd, a UK explorer.
"It is expected that the deals will be finalised by yearend and that the companies will begin additional geological work shortly," a Sunday Observer source said.
The last serious exploration of oil in Jamaica was two decades ago when the Italian firm Agip and Union Texas of the United States sank wells in the area of the Pedro Cays, which are located about 50 miles off the island's south coast.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business/html/20051015T190000-0500_90450_OBS_THREE_NAMED_TO_SEARCH_FOR_OIL.asp
JUTA should watch that GCT
Sunday, October 16, 2005
We have previously warned the government against its importune hike in the rate of general consumption tax (GCT) applicable to the tourism sector, given the signals that were on the horizon at the time when the finance minister, Mr Davies, unveiled his intention in April.
As it has turned out, our concerns were correct.
As was highlighted last week by Mr Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, the owner of the Sandals hotel chain, and chairman of this newspaper, tourist arrivals this year have slipped sharply in recent months, when compared to the same period last year. And the signs are hardly wonderful for the coming winter season.
But hotels and others in the sector are, from this month, faced with GCT at an applicable rate of 8.25 per cent, from the previous 6.25 per cent - a jump of approximately a third.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/html/20051015T230000-0500_90510_OBS_JUTA_SHOULD_WATCH_THAT_GCT_.asp
Golding trapped in the garrison
Wignall's World
Mark Wignall
Sunday, October 16, 2005
"You can deny as much as you can, you can rationalise it as much as you want, Tivoli Gardens represents the mother of all garrisons. The garrison machinery is well-oiled, super-effective and to those in the business of creating and maintaining garrisons it must be the envy of all garrisons." Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, October 7, 2005
"I am not here to sanctify Tivoli Gardens. Are there criminals in Tivoli Gardens, yes there are, but there are criminals everywhere, uptown and downtown, in town and out of town.
… But before we come to that, it has to be admitted that the security forces were outfoxed by the 'army' in Tivoli. There is the possibility that our army chief was stung by the failure of the joint police/army raid to net the three men being sought in connection with the blitzkrieg-like murders of three policemen in May this year.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20051015T220000-0500_90499_OBS_GOLDING_TRAPPED_IN_THE_GARRISON.asp
The Boston Globe
Tropical storm Wilma forms in Caribbean
October 17, 2005
LONDON (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Wilma formed in the Caribbean Sea on Monday and could move into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico by the end of the week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Wilma is the twenty-first named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, making this the equal most active year on record, the NHC said.
The last time so many named storms formed in one season was in 1933.
Oil prices rose over $1 on concern that the storm may yet again batter the U.S. Gulf oil infrastructure. U.S light crude futures were up $1.39 at $64.02 a barrel at 0833 GMT.
The storm was forecast to move toward the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico on Thursday before reaching the Gulf on Friday. The pattern of the storm was likely to be erratic for the next day or two, the NHC said on its website (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/).
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/10/17/tropical_storm_wilma_forms_in_caribbean/
Untreated sewage released into bay
Power outage is blamed; worker critically injured
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff October 17, 2005
About 25 million gallons of untreated sewage emptied into Quincy Bay late Saturday after a transformer accident in South Boston triggered a massive power outage at the Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant.
The plant was operating at full capacity to handle the heavy rainfall throughout the region when it lost its power shortly after 5 p.m. The plant's emergency backup power was quickly activated, but the station took several hours to resume peak operations.
The station had been treating 1.2 billion gallons of wastewater daily, three times its usual rate, for the past several days.
In the meantime, operators were forced to drain polluted water from communities south of Boston into the bay, to avoid overflowing local systems, streets, and cellars. Smaller amounts of sewage and storm water were also emptied into the Charles River and parts of Boston Harbor from several Boston-area overflow stations, though some was treated with chlorine, said Frederick Laskey, executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which runs the Deer Island plant.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/10/17/untreated_sewage_released_into_bay/
N.E. dries off after the storm
Residents go home to survey damage and pick up the pieces after rains
By Michael Levenson and Adrienne P. Samuels, Globe Staff October 17, 2005
Forty-eight hours after a powerful rainstorm pounded Massachusetts and dropped 3 to 5 inches of rain on the region, the skies turned mercifully dry and sometimes even sunny yesterday as people who evacuated their homes returned to pump out their basements, salvage their belongings, and restart their cars.
Seventy-five cities and towns had been inundated by what Governor Mitt Romney called substantial flooding from the storm. The state had spent at least $6.5 million, he said, the minimum threshold needed for Massachusetts to qualify for disaster relief aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2005/10/17/ne_dries_off_after_the_storm/
New approach reported in stem cell creation
Gains seen without destroying embryos
By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff October 17, 2005
Two teams of Massachusetts researchers announced yesterday that they have made progress creating embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos, suggesting that scientists might someday find a technical solution to one of the nation's most highly charged ethical debates.
The experiments are remarkable because they were done primarily to answer ethical criticism, not to investigate major biological questions, marking a new stage in the ongoing debate over stem cell research. They are a measure, scientists said, of the intensity of the frustration researchers now feel with federal restrictions on their work. But they are also a sign of the increasing interest in finding a new, less controversial way to make embryonic stem cells, and perhaps the beginnings of an unusual dialogue between leading stem cell scientists and their critics.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/10/17/new_approach_reported_in_stem_cell_creation/
1,000 flee N.E. flood waters
Rains force evacuations as Romney declares state of emergency
By Michael Levenson and Beth Daley, Globe Staff October 16, 2005
More than 1,000 Massachusetts and Rhode Island residents evacuated flooded homes yesterday as torrential rains swamped roads, pushed rivers to flood levels, stressed bridges and dams, and sparked fears of more damage as waters continue to rise.
Forcibly and sometimes voluntarily, residents in low-lying areas fled their homes in rubber boats, wooden dinghies, and on foot, escaping roads that had turned into lagoons and living rooms that looked like bathtubs. Officials warned that the storm, which has dumped a foot of rain on the Boston area since Oct. 8, could cause widespread power outages today.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/10/16/1000_flee_ne_flood_waters/
Mass. House eyes tax hike to broaden healthcare
Alcohol, cigarettes are possible targets
By Scott S. Greenberger and Scott Helman, Globe Staff October 16, 2005
Massachusetts House leaders are considering a tax increase on cigarettes or alcohol to pay for a major healthcare expansion, proposing to add 147,000 low-income parents and children to Medicaid and to subsidize private insurance coverage for 200,0000 more people, according to legislative sources.
The House leaders' approach boosts the idea of tax increases in the healthcare debate that is expected to dominate Beacon Hill over the next month or more. The approach relies far more heavily on government-provided Medicaid coverage than alternative proposals outlined earlier by Governor Mitt Romney and Senate President Robert E. Travaglini.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2005/10/16/mass_house_eyes_tax_hike_to_broaden_healthcare_alcohol_cigarettes_are_possible_targets/
A street of lost dreams, new hopes
New Orleans' future may play out in the stories of 48 people who called one block their home
Gabriel Ocean Clark on Friday cleaned his grandfather's wedding ring, found amid his ruined art studio. (Globe Photo / Erik Jacobs)
By Keith O'Brien, Globe Correspondent October 16, 2005
NEW ORLEANS -- The future of New Orleans may hinge on homes like this one: a cute, little yellow house in the heart of Mid-City.
There is nothing striking about it from the outside. If it stands out to neighbors, it is only because it sold in June for $225,000 -- a sign that this once crumbling neighborhood was coming back.
But now flood-damaged and crawling with mold, the home at 316 South Telemachus St. is a sign of something else. Its occupants -- Thor Young, 30, and Lucia Blacksher, 32 -- are split about whether to return to New Orleans. Blacksher, an attorney, said she wants to return, but her boyfriend, Young, does not. He is in Virginia. She is back in Louisiana. And their two-year relationship is over.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/10/16/a_street_of_lost_dreams_new_hopes/
Mayor lauded on city's race issues
But top jobs are still mostly white
By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff October 16, 2005
Last in a series of occasional articles examining the mayor's performance on major issues during his 12 years in office.
In Boston politics, no issue is more combustible than race, not merely because of the city's turbulent history, but also because race relations are tied to everything from education and crime to delivery of city services and economic opportunity.
So people took notice when, about a year into office, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, known as a cautious politician, drew a bright line around the issue of race, in the very neighborhood where he grew up.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/10/16/mayor_lauded_on_citys_race_issues/
A penchant for teamwork
By Penelope Trunk, Globe Correspondent, 10/16/05
MICHELE McDONALD/GLOBE STAFF
Antonio DeFabritiis and his cousins, who own Enzo & Co., a Newbury Street hair salon, wouldn't think of going it alone. Everything is easier as a team, he says.
A defining trait of Generation Y is the penchant, and talent, for working in teams.
Brothers Enzo Marchio and Johnny Marchio and their cousin Antonio DeFabritiis are equal owners of Enzo & Co., a Newbury Street hair salon, and they are a good example of this team mentality. Unlike entrepreneurs of the past, who were often loners uncomfortable functioning in a larger organization, these three would never think of going it alone.
''Everything is easier if we work as a team,'' DeFabritiis says. ''This is how we were brought up.''
Being part of a team is the best way for today's new workers to get interesting high-level jobs. Even though reams of research show the effectiveness of teams in the workplace, baby boomer management has had a tough time with implementation.
http://bostonworks.boston.com/globe/climb/archives/101605.shtml
When the office is as comforting as home
By Eric P. Gustafson, 10/16/05
PIERRE PRATT/ILLUSTRATION FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
For many cube dwellers, the office has become an extension of home, complete with photographs, artwork, caches of food, and oodles of e-mail messages from family and friends.
This is hardly surprising, considering most people spend eight or more hours a day at work - far more time than most spend with family member during the average weekday.
Depending on the leniency of the employer, some cubes and offices look more like a family room, decorated with toys, action figures, and posters.
ADVERTISEMENT
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However, this melding of home and work extends to more than just cube decor.
http://bostonworks.boston.com/globe/view_cube/archive/101605.shtml
Workers pour 2005 salary increases down gas tank
By Dan Malachowski, Salary.com
Americans are now paying an average of $2.81 per gallon to fuel the sedans, sports-cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks they depend on everyday to get to work. Commuting to and from work is all of a sudden having a substantial impact on the pocketbooks of the majority of American workers, with no end in sight. This has led the compensation experts at Salary.com to put a salary dollar value on the rising cost of the American commute. The results may surprise you.
Escalating gas prices have left many American workers wondering how they will continue to afford their commute. Eliana Tasca, a Boston sales manager, makes the long commute from Rhode Island to Boston everyday. "I feel like my gas expenses are now taking a noticeable chunk out of my paycheck", notes Tasca. "My commuting costs are starting to feel somewhat like an effective pay cut."
http://bostonworks.boston.com/salary/articles/101305_salary.html
New anti-gun control law set for Alaska
Two 22-caliber handguns are placed on display at a gun shop, Dec. 18, 2001, in Juneau, Alaska. Starting Wednesday Oct. 19, 2005 handgun owners won't need permits to carry concealed weapons in the seven Alaska cities where they're still required. There also will be no more restrictions on keeping a firearm in a vehicle. A new state anti-gun control law that goes into effect will essentially bar municipalities from passing gun laws that are more restrictive than state law. (AP Photo/Seanna O'Sullivan, File)
By Matt Volz, Associated Press Writer October 17, 2005
JUNEAU, Alaska --Starting Wednesday, handgun owners won't need permits to carry concealed weapons in the seven Alaska cities where they're still required. There also will be no more restrictions on keeping a firearm in a vehicle.
A new state anti-gun control law that goes into effect will essentially bar municipalities from passing gun laws that are more restrictive than state law.
The National Rifle Association, which helped Republican state Rep. Mike Chenault write the legislation, says except for the concealed weapon permit requirements, most Alaska city and state gun laws are the same.
What the NRA wants to do is prevent cities from passing more restrictive laws in the future. It calls it state pre-emption, and Alaska will be the 44th state to have such a law on its books.
"We are looking to make it uniform to all 50 states," said NRA spokeswoman Kelly Hobbs. "Without it, it creates an unfair, inconsistent and confusing patchwork of local firearm ordinances."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/10/17/new_anti_gun_control_law_set_for_alaska/
Casino companies plan to rebuild in Miss.
By Adam Goldman, Associated Press Writer October 17, 2005
BILOXI, Miss. --Putting casinos on ugly barges and sticking them in the water handicapped Mississippi casinos from the start.
The big gambling companies never could construct anything along the Mississippi coast grand enough to rival Las Vegas, Atlantic City or even large reservation casinos. Building on the water was inconvenient and put the buildings at more risk to hurricanes.
But now that Mississippi lawmakers have decided to allow casinos on solid ground, the Gulf Coast tourist industry could be at a watershed moment.
Hurricane Katrina has given casinos a chance to rebuild as megaresorts -- with more entertainment, shopping and dining options -- perhaps turning the Mississippi coast into a national tourist destination.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/10/17/casino_companies_plan_to_rebuild_in_miss/
THAT IS AN AMAZING CLAIM. USA Coalition bombs with such accuracy they only land on Iraqi militants. Wow. I do believe the words the news media who reports this mess says, "… killed SUSPECTED insurgents…" Yeah, suspected, but never a follow up to find out EXACTLY who was killed including the number of innocent children regardless their parents affiliation.
U.S.: 70 Iraqis killed in airstrikes
An US transport helicopter takes off at sunset from the Green Zone, a heavily guarded area where foreign embassies and Iraq's parliament are based, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday Oct. 16 2005. U.S. military reported Sunday that five American soldiers were killed on voting day by a roadside bomb during combat operations in the western town of Ramadi, a stronghold of Sunni insurgents.The deaths brought to at least 1,975 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
By Thomas Wagner, Associated Press Writer October 17, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq --U.S. helicopters and warplanes bombed two villages near the city of Ramadi, a hotbed of Sunni-Arab insurgents west of Baghdad, killing around 70 Iraqis, the military said Monday. The military said all the dead were militants, though witnesses said at least 39 were civilians.
The violence on Sunday occurred a day after Iraq voted on -- and apparently passed -- a landmark constitution that many Sunnis opposed. On referendum day, a roadside bomb killed five U.S. soldiers iin a vehicle in the Al-Bu Ubaid village on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi.
On Sunday, a group of around two dozen Iraqis gathered around the wreckage of the U.S. vehicle and were hit by the airstrikes by U.S. warplanes, both the military and witnesses said.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/10/17/us_70_iraqis_killed_in_airstrikes/
Help not reaching remote areas of Pakistan
A woman sits with children inside a tent at a relief camp in Salamabad, about 104 kilometers (65 miles) north of Srinagar, India, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005. Torrential rain and snow hampered relief operations in earthquake-hit parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir for the second day Monday as roads to the worst-affected Uri and Tangdhar areas were cut off from the rest of the Himalayan province. The 7.6 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 8 has killed 1361 people in Indian Kashmir. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
By Tini Tran, Associated Press Writer October 17, 2005
BALAKOT, Pakistan --A week after an earthquake ruined every home in the remote mountain village of Ghanool in northwest Pakistan, Malik Khan Zaman realized help was not coming.
He left the collapsed remains of his home -- where he was spending freezing nights with his wife and mother -- and set out down a narrow ribbon of dirt road for supplies. The quake had carved away sections of the steep, zigzagging path, forcing him to edge around sheer drops of more than 50 feet.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/10/17/help_not_reaching_remote_areas_of_pakistan/
Smurfocalypse now
A still from a controversial new commercial created by UNICEF.
By Joshua Glenn October 16, 2005
THE 30-SECOND spot goes like this: All is peaceful in the cartoon village of the Smurfs, till warplanes roar overhead and bombs rain down, setting the little mushroom homes ablaze. Papa Smurf leads the evacuation, but casualties-Brainy? Hefty? Lazy?-litter the ground. Baby Smurf, rattle broken, wails near the lifeless form of Smurfette. Then a message appears, in Flemish: ''Don't let war destroy the children's world."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/10/16/smurfocalypse_now/
Iran
Bush's Diplomatic Corp fails on most fronts including the vital 'veto' of Russia at the United Nations Security Council. The Russians do not want a repeat of Iraq and that is mostly across the board when it comes to foreign relations with the USA and the rest of the world these days. Also noted here recently were the gross miscalculations of The First Lady and Bush's Arab PR Queen, Karen What's her name, Huges, in their focus on women's issues of the region resulting in their rejection and lack of acceptance on all fronts. What does it take to get the message to the American people that this administration uses an agenda of 'freedom and democracy' as a cover for their Oil Trade issues? There is no forethought in foreign policy except that singular focus. Do I have to say it?
Rice enlists support for Syria, Iran showdowns
Sun Oct 16, 2005 8:54 PM ET
By Saul Hudson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mobilized support among major powers for diplomatic showdowns over the next few weeks with Syria and Iran on a trip that ended on Sunday.
Over three days, Rice held talks with the leaders of France, Russia and Britain -- all holders of vetoes at the U.N. Security Council - on how to make the two U.S. foes meet U.N. security demands.
In a show of diplomacy that reflected the Bush administration's efforts this year to consult partners more, Rice crisscrossed Europe seeking to build a common front against Syria's suspected support for militants in Lebanon and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Rebuffed by Russia on Iran, she did not win all the support she wanted.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-10-17T005402Z_01_WRI703131_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-SYRIA-USA.xml&archived=False
US, Britain, Iran trade charges over attacks
Sun Oct 16, 2005 5:35 PM ET
By Paul Hughes and Saul Hudson
TEHRAN/LONDON (Reuters) - Iran's president accused Britain on Sunday of being behind deadly weekend bomb attacks in Iran, sharply escalating tension after the United States and Britain charged Iran was involved in insurgent attacks in Iraq.
"We are very suspicious about the role of British forces in perpetrating such terrorist acts," the ISNA student news agency quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying of twin bombings that killed five people in southwest Iran on Saturday.
"Our people are used to these kind of incidents, and our intelligence agents found the footprints of Britain in the same incidents before," Ahmadinejad said during a cabinet meeting.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-16T213514Z_01_KWA651780_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN.xml&archived=False
Dead, but not bird flu: Iran; Kuwait bans poultry imports
KUWAIT (Agencies): Kuwait said Saturday that it will ban the imports of all fresh, chilled and frozen poultry products, except those treated at 70 degrees centigrade from Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry issued the ban as a precautionary measure against the rapidly-spreading bird flu disease which kills millions of birds all over the world every day. European Commission for healthcare and the consumer protection Marcos Kiprianu had urged European Union countries to prepare large quantities of anti-virus to face the bird flu pandemic. The Gulf Sultanate of Oman on Saturday banned the import of all types of live birds and their products from Romania, Turkey and Iran, as part of measures to prevent the spread of avian flu. The ban was announced in a statement by Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Salem bin Hilal bin Ali al-Khalili, the state news agency ONA said.
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/kuwait/Viewdet.asp?ID=5349&cat=a
Iran mission to win India’s nuclear nod
PRANAY SHARMA
New Delhi, Oct. 16: To ensure that “friend” India does not vote on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution against Tehran yet again, Iranian ambassador S.Z. Yaghoubi met foreign minister Natwar Singh yesterday.
The crucial meeting of the IAEA’s board of governors — of which India is a member — is due on November 25. It will decide Iran’s fate, and if negotiations fail the issue may be referred to the UN Security Council.
Although more than a month is left for the meeting, the Iranians are not taking any chances this time and have started campaigning among different political sections in India to garner support for the controversial nuclear programme.
A few days ago, Yaghoubi had met CPI leader D. Raja to explain Iran’s stand. The Left parties, particularly the CPI and the CPM, are opposed to India’s perceived shift towards the US-led western bloc at the expense of Iran.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051017/asp/nation/story_5362500.asp
concluding…
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
After Rove's testimony, White House spokesman Scott McClellan was asked whether Rove still has the president's confidence. He would say only, "Karl continues to do his duties."
Rove Testifies Again in CIA Leak Probe
By Pete Yost / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Karl Rove testified for the fourth and final time Friday before the grand jury investigating whether his conversations with two reporters led to the leaking of a CIA operative's identity.
The White House aide spent about four and a half hours inside the federal courthouse, and left without commenting to reporters.
His lawyer, Robert Luskin, said Rove was told by prosecutors they likely would not need further testimony or cooperation from him and that they had no yet decided whether Rove should be charged criminally.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4520
Jitters at the White House Over the Leak Inquiry
By Richard W. Stevenson / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 - Karl Rove nosed his Jaguar out of the garage at his home in Northwest Washington in the predawn gloom, starting another day in which he would be dealing with a troubled Supreme Court nomination, posthurricane reconstruction and all the other issues that come across the desk of President Bush's most influential aide.
But Mr. Rove's first challenge on Wednesday morning came before he cleared his driveway: how to get past the five television crews and the three photographers waiting for him. He flashed his blinding high beams into the camera lenses and sped by.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4513
Scandals take toll on Bush’s second term
Troubles distract aides, disrupt president’s agenda
By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker / Washington Post
A string of scandals involving some of the most powerful Republicans in Washington have converged to disrupt President Bush's agenda, distract aides and allies, and exacerbate political problems for an already weakened administration, according to party strategists and White House advisers.
With Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove returning to a grand jury as early as today, associates said the architect of Bush's presidency has been preoccupied with his legal troubles, a diversion that some say contributed to the troubled handling of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court. White House officials are privately bracing for the possibility that Rove or other officials could be indicted in the next two weeks.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4517
1965
...a message from Cindy Sheehan
Going to the movies was something Casey and I enjoyed doing together. Casey was a Theater Arts major in college and he went with a critical eye. Since I love sharing my children's passions with them, Casey and I would go to the movie theater often.
We saw two movies the last time he was home at Christmas, 2003 before he was deployed to Iraq . We saw the last movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the live action movie Peter Pan. I still have the ticket stub for that movie in my wallet. We got to the theater a little late, so we had to sit up front with the moms and dads and their small children. I commented to Casey that it looked like we were the only "grown ups" interested in the movie. The small children were cute to watch as they enjoyed the movie and Casey and I got quite a few chuckles from them also.
On Ash Wednesday of 2004, a few days before Casey left for Iraq, his dad and I went to see The Passion of the Christ. That was our Ash Wednesday penance that year. Casey's dad fell asleep during the scourging scene while I sat in my seat and quietly sobbed. I was especially touched by the character that played Jesus' mom who followed her son along while he was being violently tortured and killed by devious men with an evil agenda. Of course, since I became a mom over 26 years ago, I have identified with Mary as she sobbed at the foot of her sons cross and cradled his lifeless body in her arms.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=518
Baghdad Blackout Caused by Sabotage
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Insurgents sabotaged power lines to the capital Friday evening, knocking out electricity across the greater Baghdad area and plunging it into darkness on the eve of the country's key vote on a new constitution.
Mahmoud al-Saaedi, an Electricity Ministry spokesman, said power lines were sabotaged between the northern towns of Kirkuk and Beiji leading to the Baghdad region.
He did not specify how insurgents damaged the lines, but militants in the past have used bombs to hit infrastructure.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4525
The Marines didn't know she was 85
By Robert L. Jamieson Jr. / Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Marines are looking for recruits to join the few and the proud.
This explains the one-page letter that arrived last month in Barbara Mercer's Seattle mailbox.
"Now is the time to put your unique language skills to the test as a member of the United States Marine Corps," wrote Brig. Gen. W.E. Gaskin.
"Your command of the Arabic language will be invaluable. ... We'll push your physical and mental limits beyond anything you've ever known."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4526
Prosecutor Subpoenas DeLay Phone Records
By Suzanne Gamboa / Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas - A Texas prosecutor on Thursday subpoenaed the phone records for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's home and campaign during the period he is accused of conspiring to launder illegal corporate donations to candidates.
Also subpoenaed by prosecutor Ronnie Earle were records for two phone numbers for DeLay's daughter, Danielle DeLay Ferro, and for a minivan that Earle alleged DeLay bought.
DeLay is facing charges of money laundering and conspiracy in a Texas campaign finance case.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4518
Papers: DeLay Group Used $100K for Races
By Sharon Theimer / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Tom DeLay's political group used nearly $100,000 in corporate and unlimited donations to mail last-minute political appeals praising five congressional candidates despite rules meant to keep such money out of federal races, documents released Thursday show.
The records also detail payments DeLay's group made to Jim Ellis and Warren Robold, two longtime fundraisers indicted in Texas in the same state campaign finance case as DeLay. All three men say they are innocent in that case.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4521
The Miller Case: A Notebook, a Cause, a Jail Cell and a Deal
By Don Van Natta Jr., Adam Liptak and Clifford J. Levy / New York Times
In a notebook belonging to Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times, amid notations about Iraq and nuclear weapons, appear two small words: "Valerie Flame."
Ms. Miller should have written Valerie Plame. That name is at the core of a federal grand jury investigation that has reached deep into the White House. At issue is whether Bush administration officials leaked the identity of Ms. Plame, an undercover C.I.A. operative, to reporters as part of an effort to blunt criticism of the president's justification for the war in Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4540
New Laws May Let Power Plants Pollute More
By John Heilprin / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration proposed new regulations Thursday that could allow the nation's dirtiest power plants to release more air pollutants each year - and possibly undercut lawsuits aimed at forcing companies to comply with the Clean Air Act.
The proposal follows a June federal court ruling that said power plants can throw more pollutants into the air each year when they modernize to operate for longer hours.
It's the latest in a series of attempts by the Environmental Protection Agency to make the nearly 30-year-old Clean Air Act rules for coal-fired power plants more industry-friendly. Some changes were held up by lawsuits from environmentalists and state officials.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4522
Pep Rally Roveless
Rove Cancels Appearance at Fundraiser for Kilgore
By Ian Shapira / Washington Post
If those attending yesterday's annual Republican "Pep Rally Breakfast" in Fairfax County did not pay much mind to the scrum of protesters outside, all they had to do was take a seat and flip open the program to see what all the ruckus was about.
There it was, smack in the middle of the first page: The man scheduled to deliver the keynote address in support of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Jerry W. Kilgore would be Karl Rove, the White House senior adviser who is embroiled in the investigation of a leak that revealed the name of a CIA operative. Tickets were hot. The press was barred.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4542
Planet Sees Warmest September on Record
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Worldwide, it was the warmest September on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.
Averaging 1.13 degrees Fahrenheit (0.63 degree Celsius) above normal for the month, it was the warmest September since the beginning of reliable records in 1880, according to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
The second warmest September was in 2003 with an average temperature of 1.02 degrees Fahrenheit (0.57 Celsius) above the mean.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4523
Dr. Rice Cooperated
Rice Reveals She Has “Cooperated” with Prosecutor in Leak Probe
This morning, Secretary of State and former member of the White House Iraq Group, Condoleezza Rice, was asked about her involvement in the CIA leak scandal:
WALLACE: Secretary Rice, a new subject. Were you part of an effort in July of 2003 to discredit Ambassador Joe Wilson, who was a critic of the Bush Iraq policy.
RICE: I am not going to talk about, Chris, as you might imagine, an ongoing investigation. I have, like everybody else, cooperated with prosecutor Fitzgerald and am quite certain that he will make his report. But I don’t think that it’s appropriate to comment about those events.
WALLACE: Now when you say you have cooperated with the prosecutor, does that mean, in fact, that you spoke to investigators or to the grand jury?
RICE: I cooperated in all the ways that I was asked to cooperate.
A couple of revealing bits of information from Rice’s comments:
1) This is the first time Rice has publicly acknowledged that she too has been asked to either speak with prosecutors or appear before the federal grand jury.
2) Rice said she is “quite certain” Fitzgerald will make his report. If Fitzgerald decides not to seek any indictments, he is not required to issue a public report. The fact that Rice expects a report to be made suggests she believes indictments will be coming forth as well.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/16/rice-cooperate/
Northeast Downpours Blamed for 10 Deaths
By Wayne Parry / Associated Press
OAKLAND, N.J. - Rain fell for an eighth straight day around the waterlogged Northeast on Friday, pushing hundreds of people from their homes, closing roadways and leaving train tracks littered with fallen trees.
Tens of thousands of sandbags were handed out in New Hampshire and New Jersey, and flood warnings covered parts of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
Rainfall totals since Oct. 7 topped a foot or more in spots, and forecasters predicted another 2 to 3 inches of rain in some places by Saturday. At least 10 people have died because of the downpours, and four others remain missing in New Hampshire.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4524
Scandal
'Hidden Scandal' in Miller Story, Charges Former CBS Newsman
By E&P Staff / Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK -- Since the posting of The New York Times lengthy article on Judith Miller's involvement in the Plame scandal Saturday night, much Web buzzing has ensued concerning the revelation that she had some sort of special classified status while embedded with troops in Iraq at one point.
The issue came to the fore because Miller, in recounting her grand jury testimony, wrote about how her former classified status figured in her discussions with I. Lewis Libby. She was pressed by the prosecutor on this matter.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4544
For Injured U.S. Troops, 'Financial Friendly Fire'
Flaws in Pay System Lead to Dunning, Credit Trouble
By Donna St. George / Washington Post
His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities.
The last thing on his mind, he said, was whether the Army had correctly adjusted his pay rate -- downgrading it because he was out of the war zone -- or whether his combat gear had been accounted for properly: his Kevlar helmet, his suspenders, his rucksack.
But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4515
Troubling
Libby's Letter to Miller Raises 'Troubling' Issues
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- New details about Judith Miller's decision to cooperate in the CIA leak probe are raising questions about whether Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and his defense lawyer tried to steer the New York Times reporter's testimony.
The dispute arose as the newspaper on Sunday detailed three conversations that Miller had with the Cheney aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in the summer of 2003 about Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson and Wilson's wife, covert CIA officer Valerie Plame.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4545
Army Pressed on Handling of Casualties
By Gretchen Ruethling / New York Times
CHICAGO, Oct. 12 - Gay Eisenhauer learned about the death of her son in Iraq from an Army officer who read the news to her from a piece of paper at her house. Mrs. Eisenhauer and her husband, who live in Pinckneyville, Ill., later picked up their son's body in the cargo bay at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, surrounded by boxes, luggage and airport employees.
"It was a very tough place to meet your son," said Mrs. Eisenhauer, the mother of Pfc. Wyatt Eisenhauer, 26, who was killed by an explosive device in May. She said the Army casualty officer who delivered the news was impersonal. "When we bring them home and we call them heroes, let's treat them like heroes all the way," she said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4514
Prosecutor Weighs Move in CIA Leak Probe
By Pete Yost / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - With the criminal investigation into who leaked the identity of a covert CIA officer apparently nearing an end, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald could seek indictments of top White House aides or quietly close up shop.
The grand jury that heard several hours of testimony Friday from President Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, is set to expire Oct. 28. Rove's lawyer said Fitzgerald has "affirmed that he has made no decision concerning charges."
Even if Fitzgerald decides not to prosecute anyone, that may not be the end of the matter: The prosecutor could write a final report detailing his investigation. But unlike past special prosecutors, such as Ken Starr in the Monica Lewinsky affair, who operated under the now-expired independent counsel law, Fitzgerald is not required to produce a public report.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4538
Miller Forgets
My Four Hours Testifying in the Federal Grand Jury Room
By Judith Miller / New York Times
In July 2003, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador, created a firestorm by publishing an essay in The New York Times that accused the Bush administration of using faulty intelligence to justify the war in Iraq. The administration, he charged, ignored findings of a secret mission he had undertaken for the Central Intelligence Agency - findings, he said, that undermined claims that Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear bomb.
It was the first time Mr. Wilson had gone public with his criticisms of the White House. Yet he had already become a focus of significant scrutiny at the highest levels of the Bush administration.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4541
Rove Pressed On Conflicts, Source Says
Questions Said to Focus On Differing Accounts
By Carol D. Leonnig and Jim VandeHei / Washington Post
The grand jury investigating the CIA leak case pressed White House senior adviser Karl Rove yesterday to more fully explain his conversations with reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame, including discrepancies between his testimony and the account provided by a key witness in the investigation, according to a source familiar with Rove's account.
Making his fourth appearance before the grand jury, Rove answered a broad range of questions for 4 1/2 hours, including why he did not initially tell federal agents about a July 2003 conversation about Plame with the witness, Time magazine's Matthew Cooper, the source said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4537
Step Out of the Car;
"...a very stupid thing to put in a letter..."
Miller's Lawyer Says Aide Faces 'Problem' in CIA Probe
Attorney for Reporter Cites Possibility of Conflicting Testimony
By Walter Pincus and Howard Kurtz / Washington Post
Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, has "a problem" in the investigation of the leak of a CIA operative's identity if his testimony conflicts with information given to the grand jury by New York Times reporter Judith Miller, her lawyer said yesterday.
Robert S. Bennett, speaking on the ABC program "This Week" on the day the Times disclosed new information about three conversations Miller had with Libby about the CIA employment of a White House critic's wife, said that "much would depend upon what Mr. Libby said to the grand jury.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4546
Rove Testifies Again in CIA Leak Probe
By Pete Yost / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Karl Rove testified for the fourth and final time Friday before the grand jury investigating whether his conversations with two reporters led to the leaking of a CIA operative's identity.
The White House aide spent about four and a half hours inside the federal courthouse, and left without commenting to reporters.
His lawyer, Robert Luskin, said Rove was told by prosecutors they likely would not need further testimony or cooperation from him and that they had no yet decided whether Rove should be charged criminally.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4520
Scandals take toll on Bush’s second term
Troubles distract aides, disrupt president’s agenda
By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker / Washington Post
A string of scandals involving some of the most powerful Republicans in Washington have converged to disrupt President Bush's agenda, distract aides and allies, and exacerbate political problems for an already weakened administration, according to party strategists and White House advisers.
With Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove returning to a grand jury as early as today, associates said the architect of Bush's presidency has been preoccupied with his legal troubles, a diversion that some say contributed to the troubled handling of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court. White House officials are privately bracing for the possibility that Rove or other officials could be indicted in the next two weeks.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4517
Rice Fails to Win Support on Iran Stance
By Anne Gearan / Associated Press
MOSCOW - Condoleezza Rice could not win new support from Russia for hauling Iran before the U.N. Security Council, but the U.S. secretary of state said Saturday that option remains open "at a time of our choosing."
Washington and its European allies are waiting to see if a defiant Iran will return to diplomatic talks over its disputed nuclear program. If not, they say they will invoke the threat of economic penalties or other punishment from the Security Council.
After hastily arranged and unexpectedly lengthy meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister, Rice said Moscow is trying to push its ally Iran back to the bargaining table.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4539
AP: 3,663 Iraqis Killed in Past 6 Months
Associated Press
Saturday's vote on Iraq's new constitution takes place nearly six months after the country's first elected government took power, and during that period at least 3,663 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence, according to an Associated Press count.
The current interim government took power on April 28 after long negotiations that followed parliamentary elections in January.
The AP gathered the statistics on Iraqi dead on a daily basis from hospital officials, Iraqi police, the Iraqi military and other government officials.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4536
Your signature can end the war in Iraq
HomeFromIraqNow.org is a national campaign to end the war in Iraq by using binding statewide ballot initiatives around the country to pressure the administration to bring our troops home now.
We are currently placing an initiative on the November 2006 ballot in Massachusetts to prevent the Governor from sending any more National Guard troops to Iraq, and we are actively exploring similar initiatives in other states.
A yes vote on this initiative will not only prevent more National Guard troops from being deployed to Iraq, but will also send a very strong message to our elected leaders that we want them to end the war and bring all of our troops home immediately.
To get this initiative on the ballot in Massachusetts for November 2006, we need your help to collect 100,000 signatures of Massachusetts voters by November 15, 2005.
http://www.homefromiraqnow.org/
You Know They're in Their 'Last Throes' When Their Barber is Caught
Al Qaeda "barber" arrested in Iraq
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq said on Saturday that they were holding a man suspected of acting as a barber to senior al Qaeda militants and helping them change their appearance to evade capture.
The man, named as Walid Muhammad Farhan Juwar al-Zubaydi -- "aka 'The Barber,"' the U.S. military statement said -- was arrested in Baghdad on September 24, the day before U.S. troops caught up with and killed a militant they described as the most senior al Qaeda leader in the capital, Abu Azzam.
"'The Barber's' duties included altering senior al Qaeda in Iraq members' appearances by dying hair color, altering hairstyles and changing facial hair in their efforts to evade capture," the military said in the statement.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4531
MORALLY BANKRUPT
It's funny in an non-laughing sort of way that the GOP prides itself on defending both the morals of this great nation and its free market economic system. At this point the two don't make much sense together.
There's the obvious political examples (Republican leaders Bill Frist and Tom DeLay both sidestepping ethical behavior for fiscal gain), but the real damage is being done to the fabric of our American society.
Witness the Bankruptcy "Reform" Bill. As more and more Americans swipe themselves into debt, more and more Americans are swept into bankruptcy. Credit Card companies like debt and dislike bankruptcy, so they bought legislation to make bankruptcy filing more difficult. The new law requires the indebted to enter credit counseling, a service for which the bankrupt must pay money they do not have. Better still, they are paying this money to the credit card companies they are already indebted to:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=517
The Jamaica Observer
More terror in Trinidad
10 hurt in bombing, cops question former coup leader
Compiled from AFP, AP and Sunday Observer reports
Sunday, October 16, 2005
YASIN Abu Bakr, 63, the Islamic leader who led a failed coup in 1990 was being questioned by police Saturday a day after an explosion outside a popular nightclub in Trinidad's capital wounded at least 10 people on Friday, police said.
It was still not clear what caused the explosion, but it followed a series of bombings that have all occurred around the same time of the month.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20051015T230000-0500_90513_OBS_MORE_TERROR_IN_TRINIDAD_.asp
Rains displace MoBay families
City streets flooded with water and garbage
BY MARK CUMMINGS Sunday Observer reporter
Sunday, October 16, 2005
MONTEGO BAY, St James - At least two families were left homeless and several residents flooded out of their homes as torrential rains pelted the resort city of Montego Bay early Saturday morning.
Many business operators also were affected as the North Gully overflowed it banks, dumping mud and silt in several business establishments particularly along Union Street and William Street.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20051015T230000-0500_90512_OBS_RAINS_DISPLACE_MOBAY_FAMILIES_.asp
Three named to search for oil
Observer Reporter
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Jamaica will soon sign agreements with Australian, Canadian and British outfits for oil and gas exploration off the island's south coast, energy sources say.
Phillip Paulwell, the energy minister, was not available for comment yesterday, but the sources named the three companies with which the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) has all but finalised deals are:
Jamaica's energy minister, Phillip Paulwell (left) and consultant, Chris Matchette-Downs (second left) talk with oil industry officials about the exploration prospects in Jamaica in Cancun, Mexico last year.
. Fender Exploration of Perth, Australia;
. Rainville Ltd of Calgary, Canada;
. Onslow Ltd, a UK explorer.
"It is expected that the deals will be finalised by yearend and that the companies will begin additional geological work shortly," a Sunday Observer source said.
The last serious exploration of oil in Jamaica was two decades ago when the Italian firm Agip and Union Texas of the United States sank wells in the area of the Pedro Cays, which are located about 50 miles off the island's south coast.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business/html/20051015T190000-0500_90450_OBS_THREE_NAMED_TO_SEARCH_FOR_OIL.asp
JUTA should watch that GCT
Sunday, October 16, 2005
We have previously warned the government against its importune hike in the rate of general consumption tax (GCT) applicable to the tourism sector, given the signals that were on the horizon at the time when the finance minister, Mr Davies, unveiled his intention in April.
As it has turned out, our concerns were correct.
As was highlighted last week by Mr Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, the owner of the Sandals hotel chain, and chairman of this newspaper, tourist arrivals this year have slipped sharply in recent months, when compared to the same period last year. And the signs are hardly wonderful for the coming winter season.
But hotels and others in the sector are, from this month, faced with GCT at an applicable rate of 8.25 per cent, from the previous 6.25 per cent - a jump of approximately a third.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/html/20051015T230000-0500_90510_OBS_JUTA_SHOULD_WATCH_THAT_GCT_.asp
Golding trapped in the garrison
Wignall's World
Mark Wignall
Sunday, October 16, 2005
"You can deny as much as you can, you can rationalise it as much as you want, Tivoli Gardens represents the mother of all garrisons. The garrison machinery is well-oiled, super-effective and to those in the business of creating and maintaining garrisons it must be the envy of all garrisons." Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, October 7, 2005
"I am not here to sanctify Tivoli Gardens. Are there criminals in Tivoli Gardens, yes there are, but there are criminals everywhere, uptown and downtown, in town and out of town.
… But before we come to that, it has to be admitted that the security forces were outfoxed by the 'army' in Tivoli. There is the possibility that our army chief was stung by the failure of the joint police/army raid to net the three men being sought in connection with the blitzkrieg-like murders of three policemen in May this year.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20051015T220000-0500_90499_OBS_GOLDING_TRAPPED_IN_THE_GARRISON.asp
The Boston Globe
Tropical storm Wilma forms in Caribbean
October 17, 2005
LONDON (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Wilma formed in the Caribbean Sea on Monday and could move into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico by the end of the week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Wilma is the twenty-first named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, making this the equal most active year on record, the NHC said.
The last time so many named storms formed in one season was in 1933.
Oil prices rose over $1 on concern that the storm may yet again batter the U.S. Gulf oil infrastructure. U.S light crude futures were up $1.39 at $64.02 a barrel at 0833 GMT.
The storm was forecast to move toward the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico on Thursday before reaching the Gulf on Friday. The pattern of the storm was likely to be erratic for the next day or two, the NHC said on its website (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/).
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/10/17/tropical_storm_wilma_forms_in_caribbean/
Untreated sewage released into bay
Power outage is blamed; worker critically injured
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff October 17, 2005
About 25 million gallons of untreated sewage emptied into Quincy Bay late Saturday after a transformer accident in South Boston triggered a massive power outage at the Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant.
The plant was operating at full capacity to handle the heavy rainfall throughout the region when it lost its power shortly after 5 p.m. The plant's emergency backup power was quickly activated, but the station took several hours to resume peak operations.
The station had been treating 1.2 billion gallons of wastewater daily, three times its usual rate, for the past several days.
In the meantime, operators were forced to drain polluted water from communities south of Boston into the bay, to avoid overflowing local systems, streets, and cellars. Smaller amounts of sewage and storm water were also emptied into the Charles River and parts of Boston Harbor from several Boston-area overflow stations, though some was treated with chlorine, said Frederick Laskey, executive director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which runs the Deer Island plant.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/10/17/untreated_sewage_released_into_bay/
N.E. dries off after the storm
Residents go home to survey damage and pick up the pieces after rains
By Michael Levenson and Adrienne P. Samuels, Globe Staff October 17, 2005
Forty-eight hours after a powerful rainstorm pounded Massachusetts and dropped 3 to 5 inches of rain on the region, the skies turned mercifully dry and sometimes even sunny yesterday as people who evacuated their homes returned to pump out their basements, salvage their belongings, and restart their cars.
Seventy-five cities and towns had been inundated by what Governor Mitt Romney called substantial flooding from the storm. The state had spent at least $6.5 million, he said, the minimum threshold needed for Massachusetts to qualify for disaster relief aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2005/10/17/ne_dries_off_after_the_storm/
New approach reported in stem cell creation
Gains seen without destroying embryos
By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff October 17, 2005
Two teams of Massachusetts researchers announced yesterday that they have made progress creating embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos, suggesting that scientists might someday find a technical solution to one of the nation's most highly charged ethical debates.
The experiments are remarkable because they were done primarily to answer ethical criticism, not to investigate major biological questions, marking a new stage in the ongoing debate over stem cell research. They are a measure, scientists said, of the intensity of the frustration researchers now feel with federal restrictions on their work. But they are also a sign of the increasing interest in finding a new, less controversial way to make embryonic stem cells, and perhaps the beginnings of an unusual dialogue between leading stem cell scientists and their critics.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/10/17/new_approach_reported_in_stem_cell_creation/
1,000 flee N.E. flood waters
Rains force evacuations as Romney declares state of emergency
By Michael Levenson and Beth Daley, Globe Staff October 16, 2005
More than 1,000 Massachusetts and Rhode Island residents evacuated flooded homes yesterday as torrential rains swamped roads, pushed rivers to flood levels, stressed bridges and dams, and sparked fears of more damage as waters continue to rise.
Forcibly and sometimes voluntarily, residents in low-lying areas fled their homes in rubber boats, wooden dinghies, and on foot, escaping roads that had turned into lagoons and living rooms that looked like bathtubs. Officials warned that the storm, which has dumped a foot of rain on the Boston area since Oct. 8, could cause widespread power outages today.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/10/16/1000_flee_ne_flood_waters/
Mass. House eyes tax hike to broaden healthcare
Alcohol, cigarettes are possible targets
By Scott S. Greenberger and Scott Helman, Globe Staff October 16, 2005
Massachusetts House leaders are considering a tax increase on cigarettes or alcohol to pay for a major healthcare expansion, proposing to add 147,000 low-income parents and children to Medicaid and to subsidize private insurance coverage for 200,0000 more people, according to legislative sources.
The House leaders' approach boosts the idea of tax increases in the healthcare debate that is expected to dominate Beacon Hill over the next month or more. The approach relies far more heavily on government-provided Medicaid coverage than alternative proposals outlined earlier by Governor Mitt Romney and Senate President Robert E. Travaglini.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2005/10/16/mass_house_eyes_tax_hike_to_broaden_healthcare_alcohol_cigarettes_are_possible_targets/
A street of lost dreams, new hopes
New Orleans' future may play out in the stories of 48 people who called one block their home
Gabriel Ocean Clark on Friday cleaned his grandfather's wedding ring, found amid his ruined art studio. (Globe Photo / Erik Jacobs)
By Keith O'Brien, Globe Correspondent October 16, 2005
NEW ORLEANS -- The future of New Orleans may hinge on homes like this one: a cute, little yellow house in the heart of Mid-City.
There is nothing striking about it from the outside. If it stands out to neighbors, it is only because it sold in June for $225,000 -- a sign that this once crumbling neighborhood was coming back.
But now flood-damaged and crawling with mold, the home at 316 South Telemachus St. is a sign of something else. Its occupants -- Thor Young, 30, and Lucia Blacksher, 32 -- are split about whether to return to New Orleans. Blacksher, an attorney, said she wants to return, but her boyfriend, Young, does not. He is in Virginia. She is back in Louisiana. And their two-year relationship is over.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/10/16/a_street_of_lost_dreams_new_hopes/
Mayor lauded on city's race issues
But top jobs are still mostly white
By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff October 16, 2005
Last in a series of occasional articles examining the mayor's performance on major issues during his 12 years in office.
In Boston politics, no issue is more combustible than race, not merely because of the city's turbulent history, but also because race relations are tied to everything from education and crime to delivery of city services and economic opportunity.
So people took notice when, about a year into office, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, known as a cautious politician, drew a bright line around the issue of race, in the very neighborhood where he grew up.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/10/16/mayor_lauded_on_citys_race_issues/
A penchant for teamwork
By Penelope Trunk, Globe Correspondent, 10/16/05
MICHELE McDONALD/GLOBE STAFF
Antonio DeFabritiis and his cousins, who own Enzo & Co., a Newbury Street hair salon, wouldn't think of going it alone. Everything is easier as a team, he says.
A defining trait of Generation Y is the penchant, and talent, for working in teams.
Brothers Enzo Marchio and Johnny Marchio and their cousin Antonio DeFabritiis are equal owners of Enzo & Co., a Newbury Street hair salon, and they are a good example of this team mentality. Unlike entrepreneurs of the past, who were often loners uncomfortable functioning in a larger organization, these three would never think of going it alone.
''Everything is easier if we work as a team,'' DeFabritiis says. ''This is how we were brought up.''
Being part of a team is the best way for today's new workers to get interesting high-level jobs. Even though reams of research show the effectiveness of teams in the workplace, baby boomer management has had a tough time with implementation.
http://bostonworks.boston.com/globe/climb/archives/101605.shtml
When the office is as comforting as home
By Eric P. Gustafson, 10/16/05
PIERRE PRATT/ILLUSTRATION FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
For many cube dwellers, the office has become an extension of home, complete with photographs, artwork, caches of food, and oodles of e-mail messages from family and friends.
This is hardly surprising, considering most people spend eight or more hours a day at work - far more time than most spend with family member during the average weekday.
Depending on the leniency of the employer, some cubes and offices look more like a family room, decorated with toys, action figures, and posters.
ADVERTISEMENT
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However, this melding of home and work extends to more than just cube decor.
http://bostonworks.boston.com/globe/view_cube/archive/101605.shtml
Workers pour 2005 salary increases down gas tank
By Dan Malachowski, Salary.com
Americans are now paying an average of $2.81 per gallon to fuel the sedans, sports-cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks they depend on everyday to get to work. Commuting to and from work is all of a sudden having a substantial impact on the pocketbooks of the majority of American workers, with no end in sight. This has led the compensation experts at Salary.com to put a salary dollar value on the rising cost of the American commute. The results may surprise you.
Escalating gas prices have left many American workers wondering how they will continue to afford their commute. Eliana Tasca, a Boston sales manager, makes the long commute from Rhode Island to Boston everyday. "I feel like my gas expenses are now taking a noticeable chunk out of my paycheck", notes Tasca. "My commuting costs are starting to feel somewhat like an effective pay cut."
http://bostonworks.boston.com/salary/articles/101305_salary.html
New anti-gun control law set for Alaska
Two 22-caliber handguns are placed on display at a gun shop, Dec. 18, 2001, in Juneau, Alaska. Starting Wednesday Oct. 19, 2005 handgun owners won't need permits to carry concealed weapons in the seven Alaska cities where they're still required. There also will be no more restrictions on keeping a firearm in a vehicle. A new state anti-gun control law that goes into effect will essentially bar municipalities from passing gun laws that are more restrictive than state law. (AP Photo/Seanna O'Sullivan, File)
By Matt Volz, Associated Press Writer October 17, 2005
JUNEAU, Alaska --Starting Wednesday, handgun owners won't need permits to carry concealed weapons in the seven Alaska cities where they're still required. There also will be no more restrictions on keeping a firearm in a vehicle.
A new state anti-gun control law that goes into effect will essentially bar municipalities from passing gun laws that are more restrictive than state law.
The National Rifle Association, which helped Republican state Rep. Mike Chenault write the legislation, says except for the concealed weapon permit requirements, most Alaska city and state gun laws are the same.
What the NRA wants to do is prevent cities from passing more restrictive laws in the future. It calls it state pre-emption, and Alaska will be the 44th state to have such a law on its books.
"We are looking to make it uniform to all 50 states," said NRA spokeswoman Kelly Hobbs. "Without it, it creates an unfair, inconsistent and confusing patchwork of local firearm ordinances."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/10/17/new_anti_gun_control_law_set_for_alaska/
Casino companies plan to rebuild in Miss.
By Adam Goldman, Associated Press Writer October 17, 2005
BILOXI, Miss. --Putting casinos on ugly barges and sticking them in the water handicapped Mississippi casinos from the start.
The big gambling companies never could construct anything along the Mississippi coast grand enough to rival Las Vegas, Atlantic City or even large reservation casinos. Building on the water was inconvenient and put the buildings at more risk to hurricanes.
But now that Mississippi lawmakers have decided to allow casinos on solid ground, the Gulf Coast tourist industry could be at a watershed moment.
Hurricane Katrina has given casinos a chance to rebuild as megaresorts -- with more entertainment, shopping and dining options -- perhaps turning the Mississippi coast into a national tourist destination.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/10/17/casino_companies_plan_to_rebuild_in_miss/
THAT IS AN AMAZING CLAIM. USA Coalition bombs with such accuracy they only land on Iraqi militants. Wow. I do believe the words the news media who reports this mess says, "… killed SUSPECTED insurgents…" Yeah, suspected, but never a follow up to find out EXACTLY who was killed including the number of innocent children regardless their parents affiliation.
U.S.: 70 Iraqis killed in airstrikes
An US transport helicopter takes off at sunset from the Green Zone, a heavily guarded area where foreign embassies and Iraq's parliament are based, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday Oct. 16 2005. U.S. military reported Sunday that five American soldiers were killed on voting day by a roadside bomb during combat operations in the western town of Ramadi, a stronghold of Sunni insurgents.The deaths brought to at least 1,975 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
By Thomas Wagner, Associated Press Writer October 17, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq --U.S. helicopters and warplanes bombed two villages near the city of Ramadi, a hotbed of Sunni-Arab insurgents west of Baghdad, killing around 70 Iraqis, the military said Monday. The military said all the dead were militants, though witnesses said at least 39 were civilians.
The violence on Sunday occurred a day after Iraq voted on -- and apparently passed -- a landmark constitution that many Sunnis opposed. On referendum day, a roadside bomb killed five U.S. soldiers iin a vehicle in the Al-Bu Ubaid village on the eastern outskirts of Ramadi.
On Sunday, a group of around two dozen Iraqis gathered around the wreckage of the U.S. vehicle and were hit by the airstrikes by U.S. warplanes, both the military and witnesses said.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/10/17/us_70_iraqis_killed_in_airstrikes/
Help not reaching remote areas of Pakistan
A woman sits with children inside a tent at a relief camp in Salamabad, about 104 kilometers (65 miles) north of Srinagar, India, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005. Torrential rain and snow hampered relief operations in earthquake-hit parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir for the second day Monday as roads to the worst-affected Uri and Tangdhar areas were cut off from the rest of the Himalayan province. The 7.6 magnitude earthquake on Oct. 8 has killed 1361 people in Indian Kashmir. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
By Tini Tran, Associated Press Writer October 17, 2005
BALAKOT, Pakistan --A week after an earthquake ruined every home in the remote mountain village of Ghanool in northwest Pakistan, Malik Khan Zaman realized help was not coming.
He left the collapsed remains of his home -- where he was spending freezing nights with his wife and mother -- and set out down a narrow ribbon of dirt road for supplies. The quake had carved away sections of the steep, zigzagging path, forcing him to edge around sheer drops of more than 50 feet.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/10/17/help_not_reaching_remote_areas_of_pakistan/
Smurfocalypse now
A still from a controversial new commercial created by UNICEF.
By Joshua Glenn October 16, 2005
THE 30-SECOND spot goes like this: All is peaceful in the cartoon village of the Smurfs, till warplanes roar overhead and bombs rain down, setting the little mushroom homes ablaze. Papa Smurf leads the evacuation, but casualties-Brainy? Hefty? Lazy?-litter the ground. Baby Smurf, rattle broken, wails near the lifeless form of Smurfette. Then a message appears, in Flemish: ''Don't let war destroy the children's world."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/10/16/smurfocalypse_now/
Iran
Bush's Diplomatic Corp fails on most fronts including the vital 'veto' of Russia at the United Nations Security Council. The Russians do not want a repeat of Iraq and that is mostly across the board when it comes to foreign relations with the USA and the rest of the world these days. Also noted here recently were the gross miscalculations of The First Lady and Bush's Arab PR Queen, Karen What's her name, Huges, in their focus on women's issues of the region resulting in their rejection and lack of acceptance on all fronts. What does it take to get the message to the American people that this administration uses an agenda of 'freedom and democracy' as a cover for their Oil Trade issues? There is no forethought in foreign policy except that singular focus. Do I have to say it?
Rice enlists support for Syria, Iran showdowns
Sun Oct 16, 2005 8:54 PM ET
By Saul Hudson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mobilized support among major powers for diplomatic showdowns over the next few weeks with Syria and Iran on a trip that ended on Sunday.
Over three days, Rice held talks with the leaders of France, Russia and Britain -- all holders of vetoes at the U.N. Security Council - on how to make the two U.S. foes meet U.N. security demands.
In a show of diplomacy that reflected the Bush administration's efforts this year to consult partners more, Rice crisscrossed Europe seeking to build a common front against Syria's suspected support for militants in Lebanon and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Rebuffed by Russia on Iran, she did not win all the support she wanted.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-10-17T005402Z_01_WRI703131_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-SYRIA-USA.xml&archived=False
US, Britain, Iran trade charges over attacks
Sun Oct 16, 2005 5:35 PM ET
By Paul Hughes and Saul Hudson
TEHRAN/LONDON (Reuters) - Iran's president accused Britain on Sunday of being behind deadly weekend bomb attacks in Iran, sharply escalating tension after the United States and Britain charged Iran was involved in insurgent attacks in Iraq.
"We are very suspicious about the role of British forces in perpetrating such terrorist acts," the ISNA student news agency quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying of twin bombings that killed five people in southwest Iran on Saturday.
"Our people are used to these kind of incidents, and our intelligence agents found the footprints of Britain in the same incidents before," Ahmadinejad said during a cabinet meeting.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-16T213514Z_01_KWA651780_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN.xml&archived=False
Dead, but not bird flu: Iran; Kuwait bans poultry imports
KUWAIT (Agencies): Kuwait said Saturday that it will ban the imports of all fresh, chilled and frozen poultry products, except those treated at 70 degrees centigrade from Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry issued the ban as a precautionary measure against the rapidly-spreading bird flu disease which kills millions of birds all over the world every day. European Commission for healthcare and the consumer protection Marcos Kiprianu had urged European Union countries to prepare large quantities of anti-virus to face the bird flu pandemic. The Gulf Sultanate of Oman on Saturday banned the import of all types of live birds and their products from Romania, Turkey and Iran, as part of measures to prevent the spread of avian flu. The ban was announced in a statement by Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Salem bin Hilal bin Ali al-Khalili, the state news agency ONA said.
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/kuwait/Viewdet.asp?ID=5349&cat=a
Iran mission to win India’s nuclear nod
PRANAY SHARMA
New Delhi, Oct. 16: To ensure that “friend” India does not vote on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution against Tehran yet again, Iranian ambassador S.Z. Yaghoubi met foreign minister Natwar Singh yesterday.
The crucial meeting of the IAEA’s board of governors — of which India is a member — is due on November 25. It will decide Iran’s fate, and if negotiations fail the issue may be referred to the UN Security Council.
Although more than a month is left for the meeting, the Iranians are not taking any chances this time and have started campaigning among different political sections in India to garner support for the controversial nuclear programme.
A few days ago, Yaghoubi had met CPI leader D. Raja to explain Iran’s stand. The Left parties, particularly the CPI and the CPM, are opposed to India’s perceived shift towards the US-led western bloc at the expense of Iran.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051017/asp/nation/story_5362500.asp
concluding…
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