Seattle Post Intelligencer
27th storm of season, Zeta, swirls out in the Atlantic
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Zeta, the 27th named storm of a record-breaking hurricane season, drifted westward across the Atlantic on Sunday, and forecasters said it might weaken during the day.
Zeta had a top sustained wind of about 50 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters said it was not expected to become a hurricane or threaten land.
Sunday afternoon, Zeta was centered about 1,115 miles southwest of the Azores, the hurricane center said.
The storm developed Friday, about a month after the end of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It tied a record for the latest developing storm since record keeping began in 1851.
The 2005 season featured 14 hurricanes, including Katrina, which devastated Louisiana and Mississippi in August and became the most costly disaster in U.S. history.
The named storms exhausted the list of 21 proper names, and meteorologists began using the Greek alphabet to name storms for the first time.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/254164_zeta02.html
8-year-old mountain climber at top of the world
Boy has scaled Himalayas, Alps
By JAKE ELLISON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
BOTHELL -- At the first hint of a willing ear, Aidan Gold leapt with stocking feet onto his parents' couch, pointed to photos of mountains hanging on the white wall and began the tale of his adventures as a high-alpine mountaineer.
His accounts of reaching high peaks in the shadow of Mount Everest, traversing glaciers and rotten-rock cliffs with 6,000-foot exposures and the details in which he recounts them are incongruous with his 8-year-old voice and 4-foot, 60-pound stature.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/254205_everest02.html
Uninsured have little hope of getting specialized care
By ANGELA GALLOWAY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
If you're working, poor and uninsured in King County, an emergency-room doctor will cast your broken leg.
But then the hospital probably will cast you out -- with a bottle of narcotics and a referral for an orthopedist who can ensure it heals properly, but whom you'll probably never see.
Even as the percentage of uninsured King County residents grows, fewer and fewer local specialists are willing to treat uninsured patients, local health officials and general practice doctors say.
It can be virtually impossible to find care for uninsured patients in fields such as orthopedics, gastroenterology, mental health, dermatology and neurology, they say. Even if they are willing to pay out-of-pocket or over time, many providers won't even let the sickly through the door without an insurance card.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/254228_specialtycare02.html
Recycling enforcement starts today
Seattle violators won't get garbage hauled away
By ATHIMA CHANSANCHAI
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Non-recyclers: It's time to either start sorting mail, milk cartons and frozen-food boxes, or build a high threshold for stinky garbage.
Beginning today, Seattle Public Utilities garbage handlers who eyeball obvious violations of the city's mandatory recycling ordinance will attach a note with a reminder to recycle. They won't open bags, but if they can tell just by looking into the can that there's more than 10 percent that could've been recycled, they'll tag it.
The garbage stays put until the recyclables get sorted out.
A year after the ordinance came out, enforcement is on.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/254187_recycle02.html
Propaganda effort in Iraq also uses clerics
U.S. firm pays Sunni scholars for advice
By DAVID S. CLOUD AND JEFF GERTH
THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon contractor that paid Iraqi newspapers to run positive articles written by U.S. soldiers also has been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda work, according to current and former employees.
Lincoln Group, a Washington-based public relations firm, was told early in 2005 by the Pentagon to identify religious leaders who could help craft messages that would persuade Sunnis in violence-ridden Anbar Province to participate in national elections and reject the insurgency, according to a former employee.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/254227_propoganda02.html
Boy's death spurs Bogota to address manhole problem
By DAN MOLINSKI
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOGOTA, Colombia -- For years, people in Colombia's capital stood by as thieves hauled off manhole covers to sell as scrap. Drivers simply tried to swerve around the gaping holes where the 110-pound, cast-iron lids used to be.
Even after a record 10,000 were stolen in 2005, Bogotanos mainly just laughed about the missing covers, which they viewed as a minor irritation compared with the terrorism and other violence associated with drug trafficking and leftist guerrillas.
But the apathy was swept away Christmas Day.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/254159_colombia02.html
41 beached whales shot in New Zealand
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Wildlife officers shot 41 pilot whales that beached on New Zealand's South Island, the Department of Conservation said.
A total of 49 whales came ashore Saturday near Farewell Spit in the second major stranding in the area within two weeks. Eight died on the beaches, and the remaining animals were shot when heavy seas prevented any attempt to refloat them.
"Given the hopelessness of being able to successfully refloat the whales, our prime concern was then to avoid the whales' suffering a long and painful death," Greg Napp, the department's Golden Bay area officer, said in a statement.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_New_Zealand_Whale_Stranding.html
Fires ravage Oklahoma City, Texas towns
By ANGELA K. BROWN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
An oil well pump is silhouetted against a grass fire in Guthhrie, Okla., Sunday, Jan. 1, 2006. Dry and windy conditions made for perfect conditions for fires that have plagued Texas and Oklahoma in the past week.(AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
CARBON, Texas - Wildfires raged across Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico on Sunday, burning homes and sparking a patchwork of flames across the region as gusting winds blew flaming embers into the dry grass.
Crews flying over northern and western Texas to assess the damage reported the tiny communities of Ringgold and Kokomo, together home to about 125 people, had essentially been wiped out by flames, Texas Forest Service spokeswoman Traci Weaver said.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Grass_Fires.html
Communist rebels end cease-fire in Nepal
By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
KATMANDU, Nepal -- Communist rebels in Nepal announced Monday they would no longer observe a unilateral cease-fire because the royal government has refused to match their pledge.
The rebels declared a three-month cease-fire in September, offering a chance to end a civil war that has killed more than 12,000 people. They extended the cease-fire by one month in December.
But the government has refused to negotiate with the rebels, saying it is unconvinced they are serious about bringing about an end to the conflict. It has referred to the militants as terrorists.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_Nepal_Rebels.html
Suicide car bomber wounds 2 in Kandahar
By NOOR KHAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car near a convoy of foreign soldiers in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Monday, killing himself and wounding two passers-by, the local governor said.
There was no damage to the convoy and none of the foreign soldiers was hurt, Kandahar city Gov. Asadullah Khalid said.
He said the convoy consisted of U.S. troops, but other local officials said they were Canadian. An Associated Press reporter at the scene said he saw U.S. and Canadian military vehicles.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_Afghan_Blast.html
Flooding kills 22 people in Indonesia
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Flash floods in central Indonesia killed at least 22 people Monday, a government official said.
Local media reported as many as 31 people died after a river swollen by heavy rain broke its banks in Panti, a subdistrict of East Java province.
"So far we have received 22 bodies," said Burhanudin, an official in Panti who goes by only one name.
He said he had not yet heard from two villages affected by the floods and expected the death toll to rise.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_Indonesia_Floods.html
Heavy rain, snow lash Pakistan quake zone
By ZARAR KHAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Children shelter from the rain under an umbrella in a refugee camp in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2006. The season's heaviest rain and snow lashed Pakistan's earthquake-hit areas on Sunday, grounding helicopters flying relief supplies and deepening the misery of survivors of the October quake who huddled around camp fires to keep warm as temperatures plummeted. (AP Photo/Tomas Munita)
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan -- The season's heaviest rain and snow lashed Pakistan's earthquake-hit areas Sunday, grounding helicopter aid flights and deepening the misery of survivors who huddled around campfires to keep warm.
Aid workers have warned that cold weather in the Himalayan foothills, where temperatures have already fallen below freezing, may claim more lives after the magnitude-7.6 quake Oct. 8 left about 87,000 dead and 3.5 million homeless.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_South_Asia_Quake.html
Poll: Most Australians now oppose Iraq war
By ROD MCGUIRK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SYDNEY, Australia -- Australians' support for the Iraq war has fallen in the past year, with two-thirds now saying the war was not worthwhile, according to results of a poll published Saturday.
The survey, conducted by Newspoll and published in The Australian newspaper, was bad news for Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch U.S. ally who has vowed to keep Australia's 1,320 troops in and around Iraq as long as they are needed.
In the poll, 66 percent of Australians said they believed the war was not worthwhile, up from 58 percent a year ago, the newspaper said. Just 27 percent believed the war was worthwhile, compared with 32 percent a year earlier.
Among supporters of Howard's center-right government, those who back the war had dropped from 50 percent to 43 percent in the past year.
The government must soon decide whether the task force's deployment will be extended beyond its initial 12-month commitment that ends in May 2006. Howard sent 2,000 troops to support U.S. and British forces in the Iraq invasion in March 2003.
Australia's involvement in the war has provoked the largest peace rallies in the country since the Vietnam War, but Howard was re-elected with an increased majority in 2004 elections.
The Newspoll was based on a national random telephone survey of 1,200 adults conducted last weekend. It had a 3 percentage point margin or error.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1106AP_Australia_Iraq.html
Alleged al-Qaida aide said to fake death
By SELCAN HACAOGLU
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Suspected al-Qaida militant Syrian citizen Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, center, shouts "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is great," as he leaves from a courthouse between plainclothes Turkish policemen in Istanbul, Turkey, on this Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005 file photo. The Syrian accused of serving as a key point man between suicide bombers and al-Qaida flew so far beneath the radar that even fellow militants thought he was dead. Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, wanted by Turkey for 2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 58 people, is said to have eluded intelligence services by using an array of fake IDs, employing aliases even with his al-Qaida contacts and finally faking his death in Fallujah, Iraq, in late 2004. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer/File)
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- An alleged al-Qaida operative accused of serving as a key link between the group's leaders and suicide bombers hid his tracks so well that even fellow militants thought he was dead.
Loa'i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa, wanted by Turkey for 2003 bombings in Istanbul that killed 58 people, is said to have eluded intelligence services by using an array of fake IDs, employing aliases even with his al-Qaida contacts and finally faking his death in Fallujah, Iraq, in late 2004.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Al_Qaida_Operative.html
Drought strikes three E. African nations
By ANTHONY MITCHELL
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Drought has triggered extreme food shortages in three East African countries, putting millions of people at risk of famine as the lean dry season approaches, a humanitarian group said.
Pre-famine conditions have already emerged in eastern Ethiopia, including escalating malnutrition, reports of child deaths, early human and livestock migration and rising sorghum prices, the U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network said Thursday.
A preliminary assessment showed that more than a million Ethiopian cattle herders will face serious water, pasture and food shortages in the first half of 2006. The crisis will peak from January to March, the group said.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1105AP_East_Africa_Hunger.html
Wildfires destroy homes in Australia
By MIKE CORDER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Flames glow behind fire ravaged trees near Woy Woy, about 60 kilometers (38 miles) north of Sydney, Sunday Jan. 1, 2006. Walls of flames 30 meters (100 feet) high swept through parched eucalyptus forests and destroyed at least three homes as several fires raged out of control north of Sydney. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
SYDNEY, Australia -- Walls of flames 100 feet high swept through parched eucalyptus forests Sunday as several fires raged out of control in southeastern Australia, injuring one man and destroying several homes and seven fire vehicles.
Dozens of people fled their homes north of Sydney - some using boats - as hundreds of firefighters battled flames lapping the edges of the city. Authorities on Sunday closed the main freeway heading north from the city as a huge pall of gray smoke drifted across the area, but the road reopened Monday following overnight rains that helped bring the fires under control.
"Today will be fine, with no problems at all, but what we're looking at is three or four days ahead in case it does warm up again we need to make sure this fire is thoroughly contained," New South Wales state Rural Fire Service spokesman Cameron Wade told Macquarie Radio.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1106AP_Australia_Wildfires.html
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
An Iraqi New Year's wish…
U.S.A. Out of Iraq;
"God willing, the occupation of our country will end..."
Violence High on Last Day of Year in Iraq
By Jason Straziuso / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bombings and shootings killed at least 20 people across Iraq on the final day of the year Saturday, while U.S. troops shivered in the cold during a performance by an "American Idol" singer as part of New Year's Eve celebrations.
The U.S. military also reported the death of an American soldier from wounds, bringing its death toll in Iraq for 2005 near last year's record level.
Iraq's electoral commission, meanwhile, repeated a call for political groups to remove from their candidate lists 90 former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party before the agency issues final results next week from the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5340
Chalabi Named Iraq Oil Minister
Fuel Crisis Spurs Mandatory Leave For Incumbent
By Jonathan Finer and Naseer Nouri / Washington Post
BAGHDAD, Dec. 30 -- As a fuel crisis deepened in Iraq, the government replaced its oil minister with controversial Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, whose poor performance in the Dec. 15 elections was a setback in his recent attempt at political rehabilitation.
The oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr Uloom, was put on a mandatory, month-long leave. He had previously threatened to resign over the government's recent decision to increase gasoline prices sharply, a move that has outraged motorists and sparked attacks on gas stations and fuel convoys.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5339
In Iraq, Rich in Oil, Higher Gasoline Prices Anger Many
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. / New York Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 30 - A fuel crisis in Iraq deepened on Friday when the oil minister was suspended for objecting to steep government-imposed price increases for gasoline and cooking oil.
Angry drivers waited in quarter-mile lines at stations in Baghdad, brought by fears of more price increases and electricity failures, which have led them to siphon fuel for use in power generators.
There was also concern over problems with refineries, including a shutdown at a major refinery in Baiji, 130 miles north of Baghdad.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5338
"Let's say that we had a dream."
December 31, 2005
Open Letter From an Iraqi
I recently received this letter from an Iraqi friend who lives in Baghdad. It is written as an open letter to Mr. Bush. -DJ
While there is deep concern about the possibility of civil war, the common talk between all groups now in Iraq is the poor infrastructure, poor electricity, deficiency of fuels, bad drinking water, poor health services, poor education and extensive unemployment.
Unemployment doesn't mean that young men don’t have jobs, because you can hardly find a young man who sits in his house. Instead, they will sell cigarettes, for example, or they work as taxi drivers or in the weapons trade, etc. This kind of way of living will not improve Iraq.
I want to ask Mr. Bush…do you think that Iran is a democratic country? With freedom and liberty? Do you?
If your answer is yes, then we can understand what is going in our country.
But if your answer is no, then let me ask you again…are you insane? (pardon me)
Because now you have let those people and their followers have the power and drag us 100’s of years backwards.
The very same who want to cut the body of Iraq into pieces so that they can rule their way, or should I say the
Iranian way? It’s the same.
Well Mr. Bush, I shall tell you that your troops invaded Iraq in three weeks. But that was easy for you because many Iraqis, including myself believed you. Let’s say that we had a dream. We believed that you are going to take us to the real freedom.
And as I am writing a vision flashed in my mind, drawing back these nice, hopeful dreams. I miss that dream I had from when I saw first an American soldier with my eyes, and knew that Saddam’s era; war era, sanctions era and suffering era had gone.
In this moment, now I wish that your era had not come. Because of you, we have witnessed horrible days and the future is a gloomy one.
Mr Bush, be acknowledged that the Iraqi police and Iraqi army are not dealing or treating Iraqi citizens as citizens should be dealt with. They humiliate them, insult them with bad words and aim their guns toward people without a reason. They have limited everything in our lives; they have limited our roads, they have limited our freedom to go on the streets after 8 pm, they have limited our feeling of security, they have limited our hopes, our dreams and our social life.
Do you know that the government you installed has increased fuel prices five fold? It has failed to provide the minimum power to people and failed to supply water (Even if not good to drink. In addition, water is not available for the last days in Baghdad, the capital city of Iraq).
Mr. Bush, you must be proud of your new icon of democracy in the heart of the Middle East. Let me assure you that today there is no one in the world who wants to be in your icon of democracy, and not one country would want to be like Iraq. You know why? Because you have turned our lives into a seemingly endless series of crises and our suffering is day and night.
Finally, nothing seems positive now after the fraudulent ballots of the last elections. After all, the biggest winner is Iran and the Kurds. So you might go and sleep well tonight.
Signature:
An Iraqi citizen who believes in freedom and democracy, and who is craving them.
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000342.php
Behind the Steel Curtain: The Real Face of the Occupation
Dirty Means, Genocide and Mass Destruction
Dedicated to the UN, UNSC and the Intel Society
By Sabah Ali
The Bush Administration uses double barrel propaganda today, with Mr. Bush using a prime time television address to say things like "My fellow citizens: Not only can we win the war in Iraq - we are winning the war in Iraq," and responding to negative news by saying "It does not mean that we are losing." Meanwhile, Mr. Cheney, while on a heavily guarded tour of the "Green Zone" and other locales in Iraq said today, "I think the vast majority of them think of us as liberators."
While the Bush Administration portrayed Thursday's Iraqi elections as a resounding success, Iraqi political parties are complaining of violations ranging from dead men voting to murder in the streets as accusations begin to fly from all political corners of rampand fraud and violence bringing the results of the vote under suspicion.
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/informational_posting/000337.php
10 Good Things about Another Bad Year
By Medea Benjamin
t r u t h o u t Perspective
Friday 29 December 2005
As we close this year, a year in which we were pummeled by the Iraq war, attacks on our civil rights, and Mother Nature's fury of hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis, there is no shortage of reasons to feel bruised and beaten. But to start the New Year with a healthy determination to keep on fighting, we need to reflect on the good things that happened. And there are plenty.
One continent alone - South America - could provide more than ten examples of wonderful progressive victories, but I'll just list some of the highlights.
1. Hugo Chavez has shown how an oil-rich nation can use the country's wealth to provide education, healthcare and small business opportunities for its people - and we here in the US have discovered an oil company we can feel good about buying gas from: Venezuela's CITGO.
2. Bolivians have, for the first time in their history, elected an indigenous president, Evo Morales. The former llama farmer and coca grower has fought against "free trade" and the privatization of his nation's resources, and has brought new hope to indigenous people throughout the continent.
3. Anti-war activists - who once represented a much-maligned minority - now represent the majority of Americans who agree that the war in Iraq was a mistake and the troops should come home as soon as possible. And with Cindy Sheehan and Cong. Jack Murtha, we finally had spokespeople the mainstream media listened to!
4. In an historic blow to the Bush administration's five-year attempt to destroy the Kyoto Protocol, the climate summit in Montreal ended with even stronger measures to combat global warming. At home, nearly 200 cities are taking their own Kyoto-type actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
5. The Senate ended the year with a spurt of defiance, refusing to permanently extend the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act, blocking the Republican maneuver to attach Arctic oil drilling to a defense spending bill, and passing John McCain's anti-torture amendment.
6. Despite a concerted offensive to lift the president's sagging public support, George Bush's approval ratings are still below 50 percent, his economic agenda (from the privatization of social security to the repeal of the estate tax) has unraveled, key cronies from Lewis Libby to Tom DeLay have fallen from grace, and 2006 might just put impeachment back into the congressional lexicon.
7. Labor, community activists and women's groups have mounted a spirited campaign against the behemoth of behemoths, Wal-Mart. And a California jury awarded $172 million to thousands of employees at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., who were denied such basic rights as lunch breaks, with 40 similar lawsuits pending in other states.
8. With the wild swings in gas prices, SUV sales have plummeted (Ford Explorer down 52%, Chevrolet Suburban down 46%), the sale of hybrids has doubled, and the US House of Representatives actually held a forum on the "peak oil theory."
9. In a great win for farm workers, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers forced the fast food giant Taco Bell to raise the price for picking tomatoes (nearly doubling many workers' salaries), and now they're ready to take on an even bigger bully: McDonald's.
10. The global movement for peace and justice proved it was alive and kicking: witness Argentina during the Free Trade Agreement meetings, Hong Kong around the World Trade Organization ministerial, and the ongoing rallies against the war. The steady growth of the fair-trade movement also shows that we are not just protesting, but we're also building a more sustainable economy.
Let's make 2006 the year we broke the right-wing tide, refused to give pro-war, free-trade Democrats a free ride, and built a "people's movement" with some muscle to it. We might just get some lessons from our southern neighbors. If Mexico City's progressive mayor Manuel Lopez Obrador becomes Mexico's next president, Latin America's revolutionary fervor will be smack up against the Texas border. Que viva el poder popular en 2006!
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/123005Z.shtml
It Wasn't All Bad
All year long it's been one piece of bad news after another, but now it's time to put on the rose-colored glasses and list some of the good things that happened in 2005. I had to e-mail about fifty people to come up with these items, but that's OK. Keeping you cheerful is part of my job. I mean, the war could be wrong, but the Iraqi elections could still be good. So fill that glass half full with whatever and...and...well, just drink it.
1. The Bush Administration is on the defensive. The President's poll numbers rival Nixon's at his nadir, most voters say they don't believe him on Iraq, he's had to admit that the prewar intelligence was wrong, Plamegate stalks the White House. Social Security reform is off the table. Hurricane Katrina proved the grown-ups were definitely not in charge--"You're doing a heckuva job" enters the lexicon as Bushese for "You have screwed up totally but I don't care."
2. The Republican Party is mired in corruption and cronyism. DeLay's on trial, Randy Cunningham's going to jail, Frist's AIDS charity ladled nearly half a million to his friends, Jack Abramoff seems to have the whole party on his payroll. The Supreme Court is looking into that mid-Census redistricting in Texas that gave them five new seats in 2004. David Brooks openly wonders why working-class people should vote for the GOP. Good question!
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060109/pollitt
George W. Bush as the New Richard M. Nixon: Both Wiretapped Illegally, and Impeachably;
Both Claimed That a President May Violate Congress' Laws to Protect National Security
By JOHN W. DEAN
On Friday, December 16, the New York Times published a major scoop by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau: They reported that Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Americans without warrants, ignoring the procedures of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
It was a long story loaded with astonishing information of lawbreaking at the White House. It reported that sometime in 2002, Bush issued an executive order authorizing NSA to track and intercept international telephone and/or email exchanges coming into, or out of, the U.S. - when one party was believed to have direct or indirect ties with al Qaeda.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20051230.html
The Eavesdropping is NOT THE ISSUE. The man who authorized is !
US probes eavesdropping leak
By Deborah Charles / Reuters
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Justice Department is investigating who disclosed a secret domestic eavesdropping operation approved by President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks, officials said on Friday.
"We are opening an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified materials related to the NSA," a Justice Department official said on condition of anonymity.
Earlier this month, Bush acknowledged the program and called its disclosure to The New York Times "a shameful act." He said he presumed the Justice Department would investigate who leaked the National Security Agency eavesdropping operation to the newspaper.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5334
ACLU Slams DOJ Investigation of NSA Whistleblower, Says Government Must Independently
Investigate Violation of Wiretap Laws (12/30/2005)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Media@aclu.org
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today sharply criticized a Justice Department investigation into the disclosure of an illegal National Security Agency domestic eavesdropping operation approved by President George W. Bush.
In a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as well as two full-page advertisements in the New York Times, the ACLU has called for the appointment of a special counsel to determine whether President Bush violated federal wiretapping laws by authorizing illegal surveillance of domestic targets.
The following statement can be attributed to ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/23288prs20051230.html
"President Bush broke the law and lied to the American people..."
The Agency That Could Be Big Brother
By James Bamford / New York Times
DEEP in a remote, fog-layered hollow near Sugar Grove, W.Va., hidden by fortress-like mountains, sits the country's largest eavesdropping bug. Located in a "radio quiet" zone, the station's large parabolic dishes secretly and silently sweep in millions of private telephone calls and e-mail messages an hour.
Run by the ultrasecret National Security Agency, the listening post intercepts all international communications entering the eastern United States. Another N.S.A. listening post, in Yakima,Wash., eavesdrops on the western half of the country.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5342
White House to keep using Web tracking
Use doesn't violate federal privacy rules, officials decide
Associated Press
NEW YORK - The White House said Friday its Web site will keep using Internet tracking technologies, deciding that they aren’t prohibited after all under 2003 federal privacy guidelines.
The White House’s site uses what’s known as a Web bug — a tiny graphic image that’s virtually invisible — to anonymously keep track of who’s visiting and when. The bug is sent by a server maintained by an outside contractor, WebTrends Inc., and lets the traffic-analysis company know that another person has visited a specific page on the site.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5343
Pace: U.S. to Launch Phased Iraq Pullout
By Kim Gamel / Associated Press
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates - The U.S. will carry out planned withdrawals of American troops in Iraq only from regions where Iraqi forces can maintain security against the insurgents, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said Thursday.
Gen. Peter Pace said the current force of 160,000 would drop to below 138,000 by March, then U.S. commanders on the ground would work with the Iraqi government to determine the pace of future pullbacks in areas that have been secured by local security forces.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5329
General Retreats on Rumsfeld Rift
By Eric Schmitt / New York Times
ABOARD A C-32 JET, over the Persian Gulf, Dec. 29 - It was a rare moment last month when Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly contradicted his boss, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. On Thursday, however, General Pace essentially said never mind.
The issue stems from a Pentagon news conference on Nov. 29, when General Pace was asked what obligation American soldiers in Iraq had if they saw Iraqi security forces abusing prisoners. "It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene and stop it," he said.
When Mr. Rumsfeld tried to correct the general, suggesting American troops had a duty only to report any mistreatment, General Pace won silent cheers from many senior uniformed officers by standing firm.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5330
Fuel Crisis Deepens in Iraq With Lines Forming at Pumps
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. / New York Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 30 - A fuel crisis in Iraq deepened today as the oil minister was suspended for objecting to steep government-imposed gasoline and cooking fuel price increases. Drivers caused quarter-mile lines at gasoline stations in Baghdad, spurred by fears of more price increases, electricity failures that have forced them to siphon gas for use in power generators, and talk of refinery shutdowns in Bayji and Baghdad.
The oil minister, Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, had been outspoken in opposition to the decision to triple prices for the most common type of gasoline while increasing diesel prices ninefold. He said that while some increases are needed, a change of that magnitude would put far too heavy a burden on most Iraqis.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5331
Minister goes in Iraq oil crisis
BBC
Iraqi Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum has been temporarily released from his post amid a dispute over the government's petrol pricing policy. He is to be replaced for 30 days by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi.
Mr Bahr al-Uloum had publicly objected to the Iraqi government's decision this month to raise petrol prices threefold.
Fears of severe shortages, prompted by the closure of Iraq's largest oil refinery, have led to long queues at petrol stations in Baghdad.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5335
Many Americans Still Believe Hussein Had Links to al Qaeda
Wall Street Journal
Sizeable minorities of Americans still believe Saddam Hussein had "strong links to al Qaeda," a Harris Interactive poll shows, though the number has fallen substantially this year.
About 22% of U.S. adults believe Mr. Hussein helped plan 9/11, the poll shows, and 26% believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded. Another 24% believe several of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, according to the online poll of 1,961 adults.
However, all of these beliefs have declined since February of this year, when 64% of those polled believed Mr. Hussein had strong links to al Qaeda and 46% said Mr. Hussein helped plan 9/11. At that time, more than a third said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and 44% said several of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis.
Currently, 56% of adults believe Iraqis are better off now than they were under Mr. Hussein, down from 76% in February. Nearly half of those polled say they believe Iraq, under Mr. Hussein, was a threat to U.S. security, down from 61% in February.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5324
Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment? * 187193 responses
Yes, between the secret spying, the deceptions leading to war and more, there is plenty to justify putting him on trial.
86%
No, like any president, he has made a few missteps, but nothing approaching "high crimes and misdemeanors."
4%
No, the man has done absolutely nothing wrong. Impeachment would just be a political lynching.
8%
I don't know.
2%
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904/
The New Zealand Herald
44 degrees Celcius is equal to 111.2 Fahrenheit
44C as fires scorch NSW coast
02.01.06 9.10am UPDATE
Homes were destroyed and hundreds of people evacuated north of Sydney last night as seven major bushfires burned out of control.
And Sky News reported this morning that a St John volunteer ambulance officer had died while helping victims of the fires.
More than 600 firefighters battled flames up to 30m high, as temperatures soared to 44C in the main fire zone around Gosford, 60km north of Sydney.
Early this morning a strong southerly change brought relief from the heat but also pushed three separate fronts around Gosford into a single, bigger fire.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362176
High winds batter South Island, lower North Island
02.01.06 10.25am UPDATE
By Colin Marshall
Gale force winds were plaguing much of the centre of New Zealand and heavy rain warnings are in place for several spots.
At Mid Dome in Central Otago gusts of 180km/h were measured this morning, MetService forecaster Cameron Coutts said.
Police issued a warning of high winds on State Highway 2 north of Masterton, between Mount Bruce and Pahiatua. They also said motor homes and vehicles towing caravans should avoid SH8 in the area of Cromwell Gorge, Otago, until the weather improves.
The MetService has issued severe weather warnings for coastal Southland including Invercargill, and other parts of central and southern New Zealand.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10362178
Citizens go to court to save Queen St trees
02.01.06
By Bernard Orsman
Children's advocate Lesley Max and other prominent Aucklanders are taking legal action to stop the Auckland City Council removing the 20 condemned trees in Queen St.
Lesley Max said the council did not seek or heed the views of Aucklanders when it sought resource consent to remove the exotic trees and replace them with natives as part of the $30 million Queen St upgrade.
The so-called "Queen St massacre" is set for January 13 and 14, although Mayor Dick Hubbard has said he will consider options to keep 20 of the 36 trees tagged for removal between Mayoral Drive and Wellesley St.
"It should not be necessary for citizens to contemplate legal action against the city council that they elected," Lesley Max said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10362175
Child tested for bird flu dies in Turkey
02.01.06 1.00pm
By Gareth Jones
ANKARA - A child being tested for possible avian influenza died in a Turkish hospital today, but doctors said there was no evidence he had fallen victim to the deadly disease which has killed more than 70 people in Asia.
Five other people from the same region of eastern Turkey, four of them children, are undergoing tests in Van hospital near the Iranian border after exhibiting flu symptoms and failing to react to antibiotics.
"Mehmet Ali Kocyigit, 14, died despite all our efforts to save him," the head doctor at the Van hospital, Huseyin Avni Sahin, told NTV commercial television, adding that the cause of his death was not yet known.
He said a team of experts from the capital Ankara would travel to the region on Monday to investigate.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10362181
Freed hostage vows return to Gaza
02.01.06
By Donald MacIntyre
JERUSALEM - Freed British human rights worker Kate Burton has told friends that she wants to return to Gaza, despite the 58 hours she and her parents were held by armed Palestinian kidnappers.
Burton, 24, and her parents, Hugh and Helen, were handed to British officials in Gaza City more than two days after being seized at gunpoint by masked militants outside the southern border town of Rafah.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362173
Italian briefly kidnapped as Gaza chaos grows
02.01.06 5.00pm
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA - Masked Palestinian gunmen briefly kidnapped an Italian peace activist in the Gaza Strip and blew up a United Nations club in separate incidents that underscored growing unrest.
They dealt an embarrassing blow to President Mahmoud Abbas just hours after he had vowed to end disorder that threatens to derail a January 25 election and as militant groups spurned his plea to renew a truce with Israel.
Top members of his Fatah group said the ballot should be delayed if chaos continued and if Israel implemented a threat to bar voting in East Jerusalem in protest at the participation of Hamas, which is bent on destroying the Jewish state.
Firing shots in the air, the gunmen seized Alessandro Bernardini during a visit by a delegation of 18 Italians ahead of the parliamentary election. He was freed after several hours. Three British hostages were set free in Gaza on Friday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362180
$8m Lotto winner may not know they're rich
02.01.06
By Juliet Rowan
Some lucky Lotto player is $8.6 million richer, but may not know it yet.
The prize, bought in Tauranga, was won in the New Year's Eve draw and remained unclaimed last night.
New Zealand Lotteries said it was possible whoever bought the ticket was unaware that he or she was now a multimillionaire.
"They may have had a big night on New Year's Eve and haven't got round to checking yet," said chief executive Trevor Hall.
The prize was made up of $8 million from Powerball First Division and $601,253 from Lotto First Division, making it the eighth-biggest win in New Zealand lottery history.
The ticket was sold at Mags & Cards on Cameron Rd, which was closed yesterday, but a sign outside said the shop already boasted one Lotto millionaire and eight First Division winners.
Lotto's biggest-ever prize was $15.3 million, won in Auckland in September.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10362166
Arrest imminent for Serb general Ratko Mladic
02.01.06
BELGRADE - The arrest of Ratko Mladic, the Serb general wanted for the 1995 massacre of 8000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica, is thought to be imminent.
This follows a surprising turnaround by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, who called the indicted war criminal "a stone around Serbia's neck".
Kostunica, a conservative nationalist who was a friend of Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serbian President, also indicted over Srebrenica and also on the run, conceded for the first time yesterday that his Government needed to deliver Mladic to the Hague war crimes tribunal to avoid being at a disadvantage in talks on the future of Kosovo.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362127
Russia cuts gas supply to Ukraine
02.01.06 9.35am
By Christian Lowe
MOSCOW - Russia cut gas supplies to Ukraine overnight (NZ time) in a dispute that appeared to hit deliveries to a wintry Europe.
The Russian state monopoly, Gazprom, said it had cut supplies to Ukraine by a quarter -- the level of Ukraine's own imports -- after Kiev refused to sign a new contract requiring it to pay four times as much.
The switch-off already seemed to be making itself felt further west, with deliveries down in Hungary and Poland.
Western Europe imports 25 per cent of its gas from Russia and most of that is delivered by pipelines running across Ukraine. The European Union said it did not expect shortages but was concerned by the standoff.
Ukraine's Naftogaz energy company accused Russia of brinkmanship that was jeopardising Europe's supplies. European gas demand is near peak levels because of freezing weather.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362177
Europe faces potential gas crisis
02.01.06 1.20pm
By Stuart Penson
LONDON - Europe faced a potential energy crisis on Sunday after Russia started cutting gas flows to Ukraine amid a bitter dispute over prices.
Europe gets about a quarter of its gas from Russia, most of it pumped west via Ukraine. Today's move by Russia, which wants Ukraine to pay much more for its gas, comes as European demand hovers near peak levels because of freezing weather.
Analysts say Ukraine could defy Russia and continue drawing gas from transit pipelines, reducing the volumes bound for European customers.
Industry sources said utilities across the continent were on standby to open the taps on back-up storage depots and to ask for more gas from other suppliers like Norway and the Netherlands to safeguard flows to industrial consumers.
This despite reassurances from Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom that flows to Europe would not be hit by the move against Ukraine.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10362191
Kenyan prisoners to skip lunch in solidarity
02.01.06
by Antony Gitonga
NAIVASHA - Kenyan prisoners were to skip lunch yesterday to help millions of compatriots facing starvation, a gesture they hope will draw attention to the crisis, officials said.
Dozens of people and hundreds of livestock have died of hunger and thirst due to a drought in the arid eastern and northern regions of Kenya. Media reports have put the death toll at 30 but there have been no official figures.
The US-based Famine Early Warning System Network has said millions of people in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia face acute food shortages due to poor rains.
Officials said the prisoners had been moved by television images showing desperate mothers with malnourished children, hungry people in hospitals and dead livestock in northern Kenya.
"We were surprised by their decision because it was voluntary," said John Isaac Odongo, the commandant of Kenya's prison staff training college.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362128
Bungled theft gasses 62
02.01.06
Thieves stealing a metal tank mistakenly let out chlorine gas inside, sending 62 people to hospital and causing the evacuation of a village near Kuantan, the capital of Pahang state in Malaysia.
Police said one of three suspects, who was overcome by the gas, was arrested.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10362171
Scientists grow stem-cell lines without animal cells
02.01.06 1.00pm
By Joanne Morrison
WASHINGTON - Scientists have developed a stem-cell culture medium free of animal cells and used it to derive two new human embryonic stem-cell lines.
The new work, reported in the journal Nature Biotechnology, is a crucial step in stem-cell research because it will allow growth of these cells without using animal products that can harbour viruses and other potential sources of problems.
"This work helps us clear some of the major hurdles for using these cells therapeutically," wrote Tenneille Ludwig, the University of Wisconsin-Madison research scientist at the WiCell Research Institute, who led work on developing the new medium.
The development comes as the push for stem-cell research has been shaken by the discrediting of South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk's claim to have produced tailored embryonic stem cells, and as US politicians consider expanding funding for stem-cell research.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10362179
Cities erupt in revelry to bring in 2006
02.01.06
Cities across the world erupted in colour and festivities yesterday, as revellers from London to Lima took to the streets to see in the New Year.
Hundreds of thousands of people sweltered in balmy 20C and above temperatures at midnight for the city's biggest-ever fireworks display.
A giant red heart lit up the Sydney Harbour Bridge as fireworks blasted above. Police, who feared trouble following race riots last month, said arrests were down on previous years.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the celebrations showed the rest of the world Sydney had moved on from the riots.
An Underground strike failed to deter Londoners from the party, as thousands heard Big Ben chime midnight and watched a trademark fireworks display over the London Eye.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10362169
continued …
