Surveying storm damage
Government officials are out to assess Hampton Roads' damage from Ernesto to help Gov. Kaine decide whether to seek federal disaster dollars.
BY MATHEW PAUST
757-247-4760
September 8, 2006
GLOUCESTER -- Someone asked Samantha West if she knew she was going to have a party.
"If I knew, I'd have thrown a barbeque," said West, standing between her small home and her grandmother's slightly larger, cinderblock house. Piled in the yards around both homes were waterlogged household furnishings that were ruined last week by flooding from the remnants of Ernesto.
The conversation with West took place moments after a convoy of media and government vehicles pulled up in front of these two devastated homes Thursday in the flood-prone section of Gloucester County known as Guinea. Television crews bristling with cameras and microphones swarmed out of their trucks to the ravaged dwellings, followed by men and women with more deliberate agendas.
The official visitors represented federal, state and local agencies conducting a damage assessment of the region. Their findings over the next several days could prompt an outflow of federal funds to help people get back on their feet.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-21156sy0sep08,0,2264542.story?coll=dp-widget-news
PHOTO GALLERY: ERNESTO
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-ernesto-pg,0,1203455.photogallery?coll=dp-widget-news
Eustis chief: Iraq post-war plan muzzled
Army Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, an early planner of the war, tells about challenges of invasion and rebuilding.
BY STEPHANIE HEINATZ
247-7821
September 8 2006
FORT EUSTIS -- Months before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forbade military strategists from developing plans for securing a post-war Iraq, the retiring commander of the Army Transportation Corps said Thursday.
In fact, said Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, Rumsfeld said "he would fire the next person" who talked about the need for a post-war plan.
Rumsfeld did replace Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff in 2003, after Shinseki told Congress that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to secure post-war Iraq.
Scheid, who is also the commander of Fort Eustis in Newport News, made his comments in an interview with the Daily Press. He retires in about three weeks.
Scheid doesn't go so far as calling for Rumsfeld to resign. He's listened as other retired generals have done so.
"Everybody has a right to their opinion," he said. "But what good did it do?"
Scheid's comments are further confirmation of the version of events reported in "Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq," the book by New York Times reporter Michael R. Gordon and retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor.
In 2001, Scheid was a colonel with the Central Command, the unit that oversees U.S. military operations in the Mideast.
On Sept. 10, 2001, he was selected to be the chief of logistics war plans.
On Sept. 11, 2001, he said, "life just went to hell."
That day, Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of Central Command, told his planners, including Scheid, to "get ready to go to war."
A day or two later, Rumsfeld was "telling us we were going to war in Afghanistan and to start building the war plan. We were going to go fast.
"Then, just as we were barely into Afghanistan ... Rumsfeld came and told us to get ready for Iraq."
Scheid said he remembers everyone thinking, "My gosh, we're in the middle of Afghanistan, how can we possibly be doing two at one time? How can we pull this off? It's just going to be too much."
Planning was kept very hush-hush in those early days.
"There was only a handful of people, maybe five or six, that were involved with that plan because it had to be kept very, very quiet."
There was already an offensive plan in place for Iraq, Scheid said. And in the beginning, the planners were just expanding on it.
"Whether we were going to execute it, we had no idea," Scheid said.
Eventually other military agencies - like the transportation and Army materiel commands - had to get involved.
They couldn't just "keep planning this in the dark," Scheid said.
Planning continued to be a challenge.
"The secretary of defense continued to push on us ... that everything we write in our plan has to be the idea that we are going to go in, we're going to take out the regime, and then we're going to leave," Scheid said. "We won't stay."
Scheid said the planners continued to try "to write what was called Phase 4," or the piece of the plan that included post-invasion operations like occupation.
Even if the troops didn't stay, "at least we have to plan for it," Scheid said.
"I remember the secretary of defense saying that he would fire the next person that said that," Scheid said. "We would not do planning for Phase 4 operations, which would require all those additional troops that people talk about today.
"He said we will not do that because the American public will not back us if they think we are going over there for a long war."
Why did Rumsfeld think that? Scheid doesn't know.
"But think back to those times. We had done Bosnia. We said we were going into Bosnia and stop the fighting and come right out. And we stayed."
Was Rumsfeld right or wrong?
Scheid said he doesn't know that either.
"In his own mind he thought we could go in and fight and take out the regime and come out. But a lot of us planners were having a real hard time with it because we were also thinking we can't do this. Once you tear up a country you have to stay and rebuild it. It was very challenging."
Even if the people who laid out the initial war plans had fleshed out post-invasion missions, the fighting and insurgent attacks going on today would have been hard to predict, Scheid said.
"We really thought that after the collapse of the regime we were going to do all these humanitarian type things," he said. "We thought this would go pretty fast and we'd be able to get out of there. We really didn't anticipate them to continue to fight the way they did or come back the way they are.
"Now we're going more toward a civil war. We didn't see that coming."
While Scheid, a soldier since 1977, spoke candidly about the days leading up to the invasion of Iraq, he remains concerned about the American public's view of the troops.
He's bothered by the nationwide divide over the war and fearful that patriotism among citizens will continue to decline.
"We're really hurting right now," he said.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-21075sy0sep08,0,2264542.story?coll=dp-widget-news
Irresistible Merrill Lynch may hit immovable wall
By Andrew Leckey
Tribune Media Services columnist
September 3, 2006
Q: What's your opinion of my shares of Merrill Lynch & Co.? The company seems to be doing really well. --K.T., via the Internet
A: To quote a market adage: Trees don't grow to the sky.
Despite recent dramatic success, it seems inevitable that the largest U.S. brokerage firm, with offices in 36 countries, will encounter some fits and starts because that's simply the way that the financial markets operate.
Shares of Merrill Lynch (MER) are up 10 percent this year following last year's 13 percent gain, a 2 percent gain in 2004 and a 54 percent jump in 2003. Earnings in its most recent quarter rose 44percent, boosted by strong results in its investment banking and brokerage businesses.
Stanley O'Neal, chief executive since December 2002, has partnered with MBNA to issue credit cards. He has expanded mortgage and middle-market lending and invested heavily in improving technology capabilities. A true believer, O'Neal personally owns a million Merrill Lynch shares. His total stake is 3 million shares when options are included.
http://www.dailypress.com/sns-yourmoney-0903leckey,0,4291944.story
Crabber red runs in his veins
From ballboy to "utility player," Hampton's Matthew Mitchell fulfills a lifelong dream of being a Crabber.
BY DAVE JOHNSON
247-4649
September 8, 2006
HAMPTON -- He's been wearing the uniform his whole life, it seems. If only they made diapers in Crabber red.
Matthew Mitchell didn't grow up around Hampton High football, he grew up smack-dab in the middle of it. When he was 6 months old, the Crabbers lost in the state championship game. Somehow, you know he cried a little harder that day. When he was 5 years old, Hampton won its first of four consecutive titles. He was the team's ballboy.
One of his parents' favorite scrapbook items is a picture of Matthew, then 6, decked out in his Crabber uniform - shoulder pads, helmet, the whole bit. Kneeling across from him, poised for the tackle, is star quarterback Ronald Curry.
"Matthew knows the tradition," said his father, Danny, a longtime Hampton assistant coach. "When you hear it all your life, you're either going to rebel against it or absorb it. He absorbed it."
http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-20925sy0sep08,0,6079561.story
Fishing reports from around the area
By Don Lancaster
Correspondent
September 8, 2006res
Have a great catch you want to show off? The Daily Press would love to see it. Please send a photo of your big fish to suthrncstm@aol.com. Each submission must include your full name, the species of fish with its weight and length, and when and where it was caught. Horizontal photos should be 500 pixels wide while vertical photos should be 425 pixels tall. We'll post the best ones in this photo gallery.
Tropical Depression Ernesto, arriving over the Labor Day Weekend, was an angling disaster. As a result, this week's report is somewhat abbreviated.
Temperatures below were obtained at noon on the respective dates:
http://www.dailypress.com/dp-sports-fishing,0,2270434.htmlstory
Lone survivor
Published September 8 2006
Q: Who was Lake Drummond - in the Great Dismal Swamp - named after?
A: The lake, part of the Great Dismal Swamp, is named for William Drummond, a 17th-century governor of North Carolina. American Heritage Magazine, in a 2002 article, offered this legend: [He] got lost in the swamp with a group of hunters. All but Drummond perished. He eventually staggered out ragged, hungry, and full of descriptions of a vast body of water deep in the swamp." Other sources say he was the first European to "explore" the lake. Drummond was one of the key players in Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, and was executed later that year.
http://www.dailypress.com/dp-21076cm0sep08a,0,2356300.column
What's in it?
From Prozac to pesticides, chemicals are showing up in the water
September 8, 2006
Don't drink the water - is that the lesson coming out of strange developments in Virginia rivers?
First, a few years ago, mutant fish appeared in a branch of the Potomac River up in West Virginia, mutant in what our tender minds might consider the worst way: Their sexual anatomy was confused. Male fish harbored eggs.
Then intersex fish showed up in Maryland. And now, according to a Washington Post story, they've been found in the main branch of the Potomac around Washington, D.C., and in tributaries throughout that region.
Scientists, being the cautious souls they are, haven't decided what is causing the fish to cross gender lines. But speculation has brought to light the fact that water can contain stuff we might not want to be drinking. Not just pathogens and bacteria. Water treatment plants pretty well eliminate them. But stuff that people and animals ingest, which then makes its way, via agricultural runoff or discharges from sewage treatment plants, into our rivers and streams and our water supplies.
Stuff like hormones in contraceptives, hormone replacement medications and agricultural supplements. It has to go somewhere. And when it does, it may be mixing with the remains of Viagra.
Then there's all that Prozac.
Not to mention herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, all the assorted stuff industry uses and discharges, and the ordinary chemicals we use around the house.
Want more to think about? Try steroids, caffeine, insect repellents, disinfectants and fire retardants.
Unless it's removed by sewage treatment plants - which many of these substances aren't - what goes into a human or animal and is excreted, what goes down a pipe, comes out in rivers and streams.
Scientists at the United States Geological Survey found, generally at low levels, prescription and nonprescription drugs, hormones and what they call other organic "wastewater compounds" in the vast majority of the streams they studied across the nation. They concluded that "many such compounds can enter the environment, disperse, and persist to a greater extent than first anticipated."
Other researchers have made similar findings, like those who found a cholesterol-lowering drug in a groundwater reservoir in Phoenix. In Canada, drugs used to treat cancer, psychiatric conditions and inflammation turned up in water leaving sewage treatment plants. Streams around Kansas City contain substances from codeine to caffeine, ibuprofen to disinfectants. Doesn't that just make your day?
The Geological Survey is continuing to explore the sources, occurrence, transport and effects of these "emerging contaminants," a phrase that suggests that new sources of worry are looming ahead. In the meantime, the general manager of the Washington Aqueduct, which processes Potomac River water into drinking water, admits neither he nor anyone else knows whether the substances that are messing with fish have an effect on people. Water experts seem to think that humans, being larger, different and not water-dwellers, may be less susceptible.
So there's one consolation. You can be glad you're not a fish - of either or both genders.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-19644sy0sep08,0,4360940.story?coll=dp-opinion-editorials
Mail and Guardian
Vlok: 'My role in dirty war'
Yolandi Groenewald and Tumi Makgetla Johannesburg, South Africa
08 September 2006 07:56
Apartheid law and order minister Adriaan Vlok this week shed new light on his involvement in the dirty war against activists in the 1980s — including signing pre-drafted letters thanking policemen for carrying out assassinations.
In a wide-ranging, two-hour interview at the Mail & Guardian’s offices, Vlok also admitted using words like “eliminate” in motivating policemen to crack down on political troublemakers.
And he described former president PW Botha’s "intense interest" in security and central role in getting police to maak ’n plan (sort out) unrest. Botha had congratulated Vlok for police operations, including the bombing of the South African Council of Churches’ Khotso House headquarters in Johannesburg.
And it emerged this week that he had extended his journey of repentance by washing the feet of 10 widows and mothers of the “Mamelodi 10”, who were lured to their deaths by police agent Joe Mamasela. Their bodies were burned and buried in a field in Winterveld, near Pretoria, where the remains were recently found and identified by the National Prosecuting Agency.
However, Vlok remained adamant that he had nothing more to tell and that he could not “lie” to satisfy victims’ demands for information.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=283479&area=/insight/insight__national/
UCT defends 'extreme' admissions policy
Sumayya Ismail Johannesburg, South Africa
08 September 2006 11:47
Whether through employment or education, transformation and affirmative action strategies have become part of daily life in South Africa, and recent media attention on the admissions policies of the University of Cape Town (UCT) has raised some important questions.
Specifically, are these measures vital to atone for the apartheid past or are they just another form of discrimination, aimed at a different group of people?
Following a bout of letters published in Cape Town newspapers last week, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon attacked the university's policies in his column on SA Today, criticising its use of race as a primary admissions requirement to certain medical and law degrees.
UCT assesses its undergraduate applicants based on a points system -- similar to that used by other South African tertiary institutions. Unlike other institutions, however, UCT's 2007 admission requirements clearly distinguish between different race groups in stipulating the number of points required for specific degrees.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=283565&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
UN warns of 'catastrophe' in Darfur
Richard Waddington Geneva, Switzerland
08 September 2006 11:40
Sudan's conflict-ridden Darfur region faces a humanitarian "catastrophe" without rapid action to improve security and let aid flow to those in need, the head of the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.
The warning by UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres followed a similar cry of alarm by top UN humanitarian official Jan Egeland last month.
"Hundreds are still dying amid ongoing violence, and thousands are being forcibly displaced ... If things do not improve, we are heading for a major catastrophe," Guterres said in a statement.
The Sudanese government rejects UN plans to deploy 20 000 troops and police to the Darfur region by year-end, likening it to a Western invasion that would attract jihadi militants and create an Iraq-like quagmire.
Khartoum has deployed thousands of troops to the region in recent months to confront rebels who refused to sign a peace accord, and the UNHCR said this had triggered fears of a major military offensive that could create yet more refugees.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=283577
Ethiopia: We stopped rebel hit squad
Les Neuhaus Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
08 September 2006 12:51
Ethiopia said it has arrested nine members of a rebel hit squad that was planning to assassinate government leaders, state media reported on Friday.
The suspects were working for the rebel Oromo Liberation Front, which has been fighting for greater autonomy in southern Ethiopia, the National Intelligence and Security Service said.
The Oromo make up a third of Ethiopia's 75-million people, and have been the centre of dissent against the ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front.
Merera Gudina, head of the Oromo National Congress, said he was sceptical of the government's claims. On Monday, he said the Ethiopian government had detained without charge more than 250 members of the Oromo ethnic group. The latest arrests came Thursday.
"The problem is that no one has been brought into court yet, so the public has not been able to see them with their own eyes," Merera said.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=283623&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Uganda peace talks stall
Juba, Sudan
08 September 2006 12:51
The expected resumption of peace talks between Uganda and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has stalled as mediators try to build on a landmark truce, officials said on Friday.
Negotiations had been due to resume this week after the truce took effect on August 29, but mediators are reluctant to bring the sides together again until major gaps on contentious post-conflict issues are narrowed, they said.
Although the cessation of hostilities accord appears to be holding, rebel fighters have yet to gather at camps in southern Sudan as they are to do under the pact, and Ugandan and LRA officials have traded barbs in recent days.
Kampala and the rebels both insist they are committed to ending the brutal, two-decade war that has ravaged northern Uganda, but sticking points over how to proceed have kept them from resuming direct discussions, officials said.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=283609
Putin takes Africa diplomacy drive to Morocco
Lamine Ghanmi Casablanca, Morocco
07 September 2006 04:44
President Vladimir Putin visited Russia's main African trading partner, Morocco, on Thursday, seeking to widen his sphere of political influence on the continent beyond Moscow's traditional Cold War allies.
The visit, the first by a Russian head of state since Leonid Brezhnev 45 years ago, followed a two-day trip to South Africa where Putin pledged billions of dollars of investment.
Analysts said Putin's appearance was aimed at improving ties with a kingdom that leaned towards the West during the Cold War, and pushing Russian diplomacy beyond the usual circuit of Soviet-era friends.
"Putin is anxious to demonstrate that his Russia is a global player that is increasingly important on the world stage," said George Joffe, of Cambridge University's Centre of International Studies.
Arriving at the Royal Palace in Casablanca on Thursday, Putin was given a 21-gun salute and red-carpet welcome by King Mohammed.
Later the two heads of state witnessed the signature of cooperation agreements covering areas such as justice, fisheries, tourism, culture, agriculture and banking.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=283461
Buthelezi lashes behaviour of Zuma supporters
Cape Town, South Africa
08 September 2006 12:14
The recent verbal attacks on President Thabo Mbeki by supporters of former deputy president Jacob Zuma are despicable, says Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
"I would like to ... express my deepest concern at the media reports about the vulgar and highly personal attacks upon President Thabo Mbeki by declared supporters of Mr Jacob Zuma in recent days, in KwaZulu-Natal and elsewhere," he said in a statement on Friday.
The attacks were damaging the institution of the presidency both locally and abroad.
"Despite my political differences -- and they are wide -- with the president, I feel it is incumbent upon me to, once again, emphasise that Mr Mbeki is the first citizen of South Africa, and should be accorded the respect and dignity his sacred office deems.
"I find it incredulous that in the very same week that the president is batting for South Africa -- such as hosting a leader of one of the most important emerging investors and trade partners, [President] Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation -- supporters of the ruling-party and Mr Zuma would resort to such despicable
conduct.
"In my book, such behaviour is neither consonant with our African tradition, nor concordant with the culture of respect and deference to our leaders and institutions which one associates with the Zulu nation.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=283593&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
Joburg power restored 'on a gradual basis'
Johannesburg, South Africa
08 September 2006 12:14
Following power cuts in the morning, 85% of electricity was restored to the north-western suburbs of Johannesburg by 9am on Friday, City Power said.
"We're continuing to restore power on a gradual basis," said spokesperson Louis Pieterse.
Areas affected by the outages included Rosebank, Linden, Northcliff, Parkhurst, Greenside and Hyde Park.
Meanwhile, Johannesburg metro police have asked motorists to exercise caution.
"Officers will be deployed to the major intersections. Where motorists do not find officers, they are asked to treat those intersections as four-way stops and to exercise caution," said chief superintendent Wayne Minnaar.
Louis Botha Avenue, Empire Road, Wolmarans and Smith streets would be manned by traffic police.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=283579&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
HIV blamed for substantial growth in death rates
Louise Flanagan Johannesburg, South Africa
08 September 2006 09:38
Substantially more young women and men in their prime are dying and it's probably due to HIV infection, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) said on Thursday.
"For some sex-age groups and some causes of death the increase in death rates between 1997 and 2004 has been truly astounding," said Stats SA in its 200-page report on adult mortality.
The report looks at deaths for people aged 15 to 64 from 1997 to 2004.
"This large increase in death rates has occurred for several causes of death for both males and females. It is concentrated in ages 20 to 44 and especially for communicable diseases," says the report.
"It also occurs for some non-communicable diseases that exhibit an age pattern of mortality similar to HIV and that likely include a high proportion of deaths that are due to HIV."
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=283503&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
'The sun's rays have become strangers to our eyes'
Fulgence Zamblé Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
07 September 2006 11:44
To get a sense of the problems besetting prisons in Côte d'Ivoire, look no further than Building C of the House of Arrest and Correction of Abidjan (Maca).
The 115 detainees crowded together in this building share just one toilet, and barely manage a daily shower. Maca, the largest prison in southern Côte d'Ivoire, is home to more than 4 000 prisoners -- even though the 26-year-old facility was built for just half that number, says director Toha Ouattara.
Two or three residents of Building C can be seen sharing an ear of boiled maize or a braised yam, bought for about 24 United States cents (about R1,70). This is the amount of money allocated to buy daily rations for detainees in Ivorian prisons, says one of the guards at Maca.
"Those who are lucky are visited by relatives or friends who bring them good meals every day," the guard says. However, certain prisoners claim that some of this extra food, such as meat and fish, is often confiscated by guards, who take it for themselves.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=283368&area=/insight/insight__africa/
Video claims to show Bin Laden with 9/11 plotters
08 September 2006 08:37
Al-Qaeda released a videotape on Thursday purporting to show some of the September 11 hijackers training in Afghanistan and meeting Osama bin Laden shortly before the 2001 attacks on the US.
The tape, which was broadcast by the Arabic satellite channel al-Jazeera, showed masked men practising martial arts and concealing knives. A procession of men, whose faces could not be clearly seen, also appeared descending a steep mountain path to a rocky gully, where they are greeted by Bin Laden, smiling in a white headdress and dark robe.
The video was produced by as-Sahab, al-Qaeda's media arm, and appeared to have been issued to mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. It included the video "wills" of two of the 19 hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, in which they justified their actions as reprisals against supposed ill-treatment of Muslims by the West. "If we are content with being humiliated and inclined to comfort, the tooth of the enemy will stretch from Jerusalem to Mecca, and then everyone will regret on a day when regret is of no use," Ghamdi said.
The video also showed Muhammad Atef, the group's commander until he was killed by a US air strike in Afghanistan in 2001; and Ramzi Binal-shibh, allegedly one of the September 11 planners who was captured in Pakistan four years ago and is one of the captives US President George Bush said would be transferred to Guantánamo Bay from secret prisons abroad.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=283482
Report: Dozens killed in India explosions
Mumbai, India
08 September 2006 11:40
At least 25 people were feared killed in a series of explosions on Friday in a town in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, TV reports said.
Four blasts took place in Malegaon town, 260km north-east of Mumbai, India's financial hub, the NDTV channel said. One explosion was outside a mosque.
At least 25 people were killed, NDTV said. Police, however, said five people were killed in two blasts.
They said thousands had gathered at the mosque for Friday prayers.
The blasts came days after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that intelligence agencies had warned of more terrorist attacks across the country, possibly on economic and religious targets as well as on nuclear installations.
India has been on a heightened security alert after a series of bombs on commuter trains in Mumbai killed 186 people in July. The attack was blamed on Islamist militant groups with links across the border in Pakistan.
Malegaon has suffered religious violence in the past. In May, police recovered a cache of explosives and automatic rifles from the region based on information they said was provided by arrested Islamist militants. -- Reuters
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=283582&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
SA football and the Gang of Three
Lungile Madywabe Johannesburg, South Africa
08 September 2006 09:01
Senior individuals in local football are trying to sabotage plans to rebuild the national team and the public profile of the South African Football Association (Safa) through an elaborate strategy that would ultimately undermine the work of newly appointed Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, and force him out of his job not long after he assumes his duties next February.
The goal of the group -- Kaizer Chiefs boss Kaizer Motaung, Cosmos owner and former national coach Jomo Sono and Premier Soccer League chairperson and Orlando Pirates strongman Irvin Khoza -- is to force the football governing body to consider their favoured candidate for the head coach job “by popular public demand”.
In recent weeks, Sono and Motaung -- traditional foes who have often traded insults in the media -- have jointly called for a soccer indaba open to everyone from football administrators to former players, right down to the man in the street.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__sport/&articleid=283498
USA Today
Senate to issue Iraq intelligence report
Posted 9/7/2006 10:50 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate intelligence committee on Friday will issue a report, two years in the making, that Democrats on the panel say will prove that misuse of intelligence played a role in the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq.
"Ultimately, I think you will find that administration officials made repeated prewar statements that were not supported by underlying intelligence," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., top Democrat on the committee.
The 400-page study to be released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will examine how the intelligence community used information provided by the Iraqi National Congress, an anti-Saddam Hussein group that had financial backing from the United States.
It will also compare pre-war assessments of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction program with what was discovered about that program after the war.
The report, expected to reiterate the overestimation of the threat posed by Iraq's WMD program and the questionable reliance of intelligence agencies on INC leader Ahmed Chalabi, comes out in the same week that President Bush is emphasizing the importance of the Iraq campaign to the war on terror.
Republican members of the intelligence committee declined to comment on the report Thursday, but Democrats, who have been pushing for its release, said it backed up their argument that Bush's case for war in Iraq was misleading.
Rockefeller said the report reveals that "the administration pursued a deceptive strategy abusing intelligence reporting that the intelligence community had already warned was uncorroborated, unreliable and in some critical circumstances fabricated."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-07-iraq-report_x.htm
IED attacks keep rising, U.S. adjusting
Posted 9/7/2006 9:23 PM ET
By Samir Mizban, AP
A U.S. soldier checks an improvise explosive device detection robot.
BILLIONS FOR SAFETY
The Pentagon is spending nearly $3.5 billion this year to combat improvised explosive devices (IEDs). That spending includes:
$1.4 billion on electronic jamming devices
$613 million on "neutralizing" IEDs -- usually by exploding them
$470 million on surveillance technology
Source: Defense Department
By Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Iraqi insurgents continue to increase their homemade-bomb attacks on U.S. and other coalition troops, despite a $3.5 billion Pentagon effort to stop them, a Pentagon official said Thursday.
Retired Army general Montgomery Meigs said Iraqi insurgents attacked troops of the U.S.-led coalition 1,200 times in August with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), compared with 1,100 attacks in July.
August's figure is four times as many IED attacks as were reported in January 2004.
"We know what (the enemy is) using," said Meigs, head of the Pentagon's anti-IED task force, the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization. "It's not an easy thing to counter. It can be countered."
The top killers of U.S. troops in Iraq, IEDs have claimed the lives of more than 1,000 servicemembers and have wounded more than 10,000.
Among the challenges for the task force: Iraq is awash in the explosives — often artillery shells — used to make the homemade bombs, and the means of detonating them can come straight off the shelf.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-09-07-ied-us_x.htm
Bombs in Baghdad mar milestone day
Sept. 7 - On a day that was supposed to mark a significant step forward for the fledgling Iraqi government, there were vivid reminders of the seething violence that still persists.
http://usatoday.feedroom.com/ModBodyText_dsp.jsp?&REDIRECT_TO_STORY=FEEDROOM157369&nsid=b-46d49b36:10d8b9e0f18:3ca1
Bomb kills 2 U.S. soldiers, 8 others in Afghanistan
Updated 9/8/2006 4:55 AM ET
AFGHANISTAN VIOLENCE
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide car bomb struck a convoy of U.S. military vehicles in Kabul on Friday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 17, police said. Two American soldiers were among the dead and two others among the wounded, the U.S. military said.
The blast, which took place near the U.S. Embassy in the Afghan capital, tore a military vehicle into two burning chunks and scattered debris and body parts over a 50-yard radius.
It rattled windows throughout the downtown area and sent a plume of brown smoke spiraling into the sky.
Eight Afghan civilians were killed and 15 were wounded, said Interior Ministry spokesman Yousef Stanezai. Two American soldiers were among those killed, and two were wounded, said U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Tamara Lawrence. The attacker also died.
The attack came days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., which led the United States and its allies to invade Afghanistan later that year. The former Taliban regime was toppled for harboring al-Qaeda terror network chief Osama bin Laden, who was blamed for masterminding the attacks.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-08-afghan-blast_x.htm
Video shows bin Laden meeting with 9/11 plotters
Updated 9/7/2006 7:12 PM ET
Al-Jazeera via MSNBC
This image comes from a video, shown by Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera, that reportedly includes footage of al-Qaeda leaders planning the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.
BIN LADEN TAPES
Audio and videotapes from Osama bin Laden since Sept. 11, 2001:
Sept. 7, 2006: Al-Jazeera broadcast what it called a previously unshown video in which al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is seen meeting with some of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
June 28, 2006: A message posted on an Islamic militant website says Osama bin Laden will issue a videotaped message paying tribute to slain al-Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but does not say when the video would be posted or whether bin Laden would appear in the video or just speak in a voice-over.
May 23, 2006: Bin Laden purportedly says in an Internet audio tape that Zacarias Moussaoui had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks.
April 23, 2006: In an audiotape on Arab TV, bin Laden says the West is at war with Islam and calls on his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed U.N. force.
Jan. 19, 2006: Bin Laden warns that his fighters are preparing new attacks in the United States but offers the American people a "long-term truce" without specifying the conditions, in an audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite channel.
Dec. 28, 2004: An hourlong audiotape, he endorses Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and calls for a boycott of Iraqi elections.
Dec. 16, 2004: An audiotape posted on an Islamic website shows a man identified as bin Laden praising militants who attacked a U.S. consulate in Saudi Arabia earlier that month and calling on militants to stop the flow of oil to the West.
Oct. 29, 2004: Al-Jazeera airs a video of bin Laden saying the United States can avoid another Sept. 11 attack if it stops threatening the security of Muslims.
May 6, 2004: In an online audiotape released on Islamic forums, bin Laden offers rewards of gold for the killing of U.S. and U.N. officials in Iraq.
April 15, 2004: A man identifying himself as bin Laden offers a "truce" to European countries that do not attack Muslims, in an audiotape broadcast on Arab TV stations.
Jan. 4, 2004: A speaker thought to be bin Laden says on an audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera that the U.S.-led war in Iraq is the beginning of the "occupation" of Persian Gulf states for their oil. He calls on Muslims to keep fighting a holy war in the Middle East.
Sept. 10, 2003: In the first video image of bin Laden in nearly two years, he is shown walking through rocky terrain with top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri. In an accompanying audiotape, a voice purporting to be bin Laden's praises the "great damage to the enemy" on Sept. 11 and mentions five hijackers by name.
April 7, 2003: In an audiotape obtained by the Associated Press in Pakistan, bin Laden exhorts Muslims to rise up against Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other governments it claims are "agents of America," and calls for suicide attacks against U.S. and British interests. The CIA determines the 27-minute tape is likely authentic.
Feb. 13, 2003: An audiotape purported to be of bin Laden reads a poetic last will and testament in a recording first obtained by the British-based Islamic Al-Ansaar news agency. Bin Laden says he wants to die a martyr in a new attack against the U.S.
Feb. 11, 2003: Bin Laden tells his followers to help Saddam Hussein fight Americans in an audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera. U.S. officials say they believe the tape to be authentic.
Nov. 12, 2002: Al-Jazeera broadcasts a brief audiotape in which a voice attributed to bin Laden threatens new terrorism against the U.S. and its allies, and calls the Bush administration "the biggest serial killers in this age." U.S. experts say the tape can't be authenticated because of its poor quality.
Dec. 13, 2001: U.S. Defense Department releases videotape of bin Laden in Afghanistan on Nov. 9, 2001, saying the destruction of the Sept. 11 attacks exceeded even his "optimistic" calculations.
Source: The Associated Press
CAMPAIGN OF TERROR
New footage: Broadcast shows video of Osama bin Laden meeting with Sept. 11 hijackers Analysis: Hunt for bin Laden
Audio surfaces: Tape said to be from new al-Qaeda in Iraq leader
CAIRO (AP) — An Arab television station broadcast previously unseen footage Thursday of a smiling Osama bin Laden meeting with the top planners of the Sept. 11 attacks in an Afghan mountain camp and calling on followers to pray for the hijackers as they carry out the suicide mission.
The sections shown on Al-Jazeera TV were part of a video that al-Qaeda announced it would release later on the Internet to mark the fifth anniversary of the airborne attacks on the United States.
The video includes the last testament of two of the hijackers, Wail al-Shehri and Hamza al-Ghamdi. It shows bin Laden strolling in the camp, greeting followers, who Al-Jazeera said included some of the hijackers. But their faces are not clear in the video, and it was not immediately known which are purportedly shown.
In one scene, bin Laden addresses the camera, calling on followers to support the hijackers.
"I ask you to pray for them and to ask God to make them successful, aim their shots well, set their feet strong and strengthen their hearts," bin Laden said. The comments were apparently filmed before the attacks but never before released.
The footage was the fourth in a series of long videos that al-Qaeda has put out to memorialize the suicide hijackings against the Pentagon and World Trade Center, said Ben Venzke, head of IntelCenter, a private U.S. company that monitors militant message traffic and provides counterterrorism intelligence services for the American government.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-07-qaeda-tape_x.htm
Armitage says he was first source in CIA leak
Updated 9/7/2006 9:38 PM ET
By Katsumi Kasahara, AP
Richard Armitage, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, said he inadvertently disclosed CIA employee Valerie Plame's identity because he assumed her job was not a secret because it was included in a State Department memo.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The former No. 2 State Department official said Thursday he inadvertently disclosed the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame in conversations with two reporters in 2003.
Confirming that he was the source of a leak that triggered a federal investigation, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said he never intended to reveal Plame's identity. He apologized for his conversations with syndicated columnist Robert Novak and Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward.
For almost three years, an investigation led by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has tried to determine whether Bush administration officials intentionally revealed Plame's identity as covert operative as a way to punish her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for criticizing the Bush administration's march to war with Iraq.
"I made a terrible mistake, not maliciously, but I made a terrible mistake," Armitage said in a telephone interview from his home Thursday night.
He said he did not realize Plame's job was covert.
Armitage's admission suggested that the leak did not originate at the White House as retribution for Wilson's comments about the Iraq war. Wilson, a former ambassador, discounted reports that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger to make a nuclear weapon — claims that wound up in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.
Armitage said he was not a part of a conspiracy to reveal Plame's identity and did not know whether one existed.
He described his June 2003 conversation with Woodward as an afterthought at the end of a lengthy interview.
"He said, 'Hey, what's the deal with Wilson?' and I said, 'I think his wife works out there,'" Armitage recalled.
He described a more direct conversation with Novak, who was the first to report on the issue: "He said to me, 'Why did the CIA send Ambassador Wilson to Niger?' I said, as I remember, 'I don't know, but his wife works out there.'"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-07-armitage-cia-leak_x.htm
9/11 put anonymous faces on the front page of history
Updated 9/8/2006 5:09 AM ET
By Jeff Swensen, for USA TODAY
Standing on the spot where two-thirds of Flight 93 hit the ground at over 500 mph, Somerset County coroner Wallace Miller recalls the scene on Sept. 11, 2001. Because the bodies were vaporized, "I realized early on you didn't need a coroner, you needed a funeral director," Miller said.
9/11 ANNIVERSARY
By Rick Hampson and Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY
On one of the worst days in U.S. history, they stepped — or were pushed — into an instant, unexpected, often unwanted prominence. They became supporting actors in a tragedy that saw almost 3,000 of their countrymen slaughtered in less than two hours.
After Sept. 11, 2001, their names and faces suddenly were familiar to millions, only to fade in public memory in the five years since.
AUDIO GALLERY: Then and now: Path toward healing
The day's principal actors — Bush, Rumsfeld, Giuliani — have never left the stage. And we've never stopped waiting for bin Laden's next appearance.
But what of the supporting cast? The aide who whispered the catastrophic news in Bush's ear, the commissioners at Giuliani's side, the air traffic manager who grounded every plane in the sky.
Some have prospered. Former New York fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen wrote a book and joined Rudy Giuliani's security consulting firm, which does a brisk business thanks largely to the former mayor's 9/11 reputation.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-07-sept11-then-now_x.htm
Clinton officials protest 9/11 TV series
Posted 9/7/2006 7:25 PM ET
NEW YORK (AP) — A "terribly wrong" miniseries about events leading to the Sept. 11 attacks blame President Clinton's policies, former Clinton administration officials said in letters demanding that ABC correct it or not air it.
But in a statement released Thursday afternoon in apparent response to the growing uproar, ABC said, "No one has seen the final version of the film, because the editing process is not yet complete, so criticisms of film specifics are premature and irresponsible."
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Clinton Foundation head Bruce Lindsey and Clinton adviser Douglas Band wrote in the past week to Robert Iger, CEO of ABC's parent The Walt Disney Co., to express concern over The Path to 9/11.
The two-part miniseries, scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday and Monday, is drawn from interviews and documents including the report of the Sept. 11 commission. ABC has described it as a "dramatization" as opposed to a documentary.
"For dramatic and narrative purposes, the movie contains fictionalized scenes, composite and representative characters and dialogue, and time compression," ABC said in its statement. "We hope viewers will watch the entire broadcast of the finished film before forming an opinion about it."
The letter writers said the miniseries contained factual errors, and that their requests to see it had gone unanswered.
"By ABC's own standard, ABC has gotten it terribly wrong," Lindsey and Band said in their letter.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-09-07-clinton-911-protest_x.htm
Possible contenders to follow Blair
Updated 9/7/2006 8:30 PM ET
Possible contenders for Labor Party leader:
Gordon Brown: Chancellor of the exchequer; deemed the successor in waiting.
John Reid: Home secretary — equivalent of the U.S. attorney general; had high visibility during the August terrorism alert.
Alan Johnson: Education secretary; believed to want the deputy leader job.
Hilary Benn: International development secretary; was special adviser to David Blunkett when he was the education secretary.
Alan Milburn: Resigned as health secretary in 2003.
Jack Straw: Former foreign secretary; current leader of the House of Commons.
Margaret Beckett: Britain's first female foreign secretary.
Charles Clarke: Replaced as home secretary by John Reid.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-07-blair-contenders_x.htm
Congressmen slam BP executives at Alaskan oil leak hearing
Updated 9/7/2006 10:14 PM ET
KEY EVENTS INVOLVING BP'S ALASKA PIPELINE
March 2: A leak is discovered in an unregulated line on the west side of Prudhoe Bay. About 267,000 gallons of crude are spilled. Corrosion is later ruled the cause.
March 15: The U.S. Transportation Department orders BP to test its three low-pressure lines in Prudhoe Bay for corrosion using an internal probe known as a "smart pig." The western line had not been smart-pigged since 1998; an eastern section of pipe had not been tested since 1992.
July 22: BP sends a smart pig through parts of the eastern pipeline, finding extensive corrosion in several places.
Aug. 6: BP begins production shutdown, starting with the eastern side.
Aug. 11: BP decides not to shut the western side of the field, meaning Prudhoe Bay will still produce about 200,000 barrels a day, half its normal total.
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress blasted BP (BP) executives Thursday for failing to prevent two oil leaks in Alaska this year, saying the company ignored signs of pipeline corrosion, cut costs despite record profits and harassed workers who raised concerns.
"Years of neglecting to inspect the most vital oil-gathering pipelines in this country is not acceptable," Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told BP officials at a hearing before the investigations subcommittee.
BP executives acknowledged their corrosion-monitoring program was deficient but insisted they were not aware of the crisis until this year.
"We didn't believe we had a corrosion problem in these lines," said Steve Marshall president of BP's Alaska operations. "Clearly in retrospect, we did."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2006-09-07-bp-hearing_x.htm
Killer cancer genes ID'd
Updated 9/7/2006 4:14 PM ET
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY
Scientists have identified the bulk of the genes that cause breast and colorectal cancers, a finding that eventually could lead to new ways to diagnose and treat two of the leading cancer killers, according to a study published online Thursday in Science.
Elias Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health, which partially financed the research, describes the work as "groundbreaking" and "truly remarkable."
"For the first time, this tells us that you could identify what in cancer is the Achilles heel," Zerhouni says, noting that researchers should try to confirm these results. "Instead of doing what we do now, which is to give the standard treatment for everybody, we will adjust the treatment for each patient and hopefully dramatically affect their cancer."
The findings help explain why cancer remains such a daunting foe, experts say.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-09-07-cancer-genes_x.htm
Among 20 Spots, National Parks top the list of places in the USA leisure travelers say they would like to visit.
National Parks - 66%
Hawaiian Islands other than Oahu - 63%
Honolulu, Hawaii (Oahu) - 59%
The Florida Keys - 53%
Miscellaneous regarding late season vacation spots
Phoenix/Scottsdale makes top travel list
By Donna Hogan, Tribune
August 29, 2006
Scottsdale is expected to be hot this fall, according to travel agents nationwide. And it has nothing to do with the weather.
Phoenix/Scottsdale was the seventh most popular U.S. vacation destination for fall vacationers according to Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates.
Carlson Wagonlit is one of the largest U.S. travel agency chains. About 16 percent of the 334 agents surveyed booked trips to the Valley, more than those who sent clients to Florida hot spots such as Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
Also good news for local tourism leaders is the lengthy stays the leisure travelers are planning.
An impressive 66 percent of the travel agents said the fall vacations average six or seven days.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=72795
Hail, Victoria!
Sightseers can see a lot of it during a special week in Cape May
September 07, 2006 - Gloria Hayes Kremer
Long after the sea has reclaimed the last few sandcastles left by summer beach-lovers, the fall season comes alive in Cape May, N. J., with one of the most entertaining celebrations in the country: the 34th annual Victorian Week.
For 10 days -- from Oct. 6 through Oct. 15 -- exciting activities glorify the unique heritage of America's first seashore resort with an astonishing variety of house tours, murder-mystery dinners, glass-blowing demonstrations, boat tours, fashion shows ... and more.
Particularly at this time of year, tranquil Cape May may be the perfect getaway to soften the reminder of the horrific events of 9/11. Although we cannot escape the memories of that traumatic day, we can realize that there are still places and experiences like this very pleasant seaside town that bring us back to the reality of how life can and should be enjoyed.
http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/10580/
A most exotic locale
Written by By Gary A. Warner/The Orange County Register
For an end-of-the-summer escape, consider exploring one of the most remote and exotic locales in the United States.
Tom Uhlenbrock/MNS - LOUNGE TIME:There’s plenty of time to relax on the scenic and seldom-traveled west end of Kauai, the smallest main island in the Hawaiian chain.
KAUAI, Hawaii — Ironically, the place where Hawaiians had “first contact” with the West is one of the least affected by Catp. John Cook’s modern descendents — tourists.
Waimea has a long list of superlatives that should make it a top destination in the islands. It’s home to Polihale, Hawaii’s longest beach, and Waimea Canyon, “the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.” The natural light show of the best sunsets on the island are occasionally aided by a blazing rocket launch from the Navy’s nearby Pacific Missile Range.
But West Kauai remains a vacationer’s afterthought, a day trip at most for visitors staying in Poipu, Kapaa, Princeville and other points east.
The reason I love to stay in Waimea is what drives most tourists away. No luxury hotels. No timeshare sales offices. No gourmet dining. No pricey boutiques. No Wyland whale murals. No McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell or even an outpost of Kauai’s popular Bubba’s Burgers (OK, there is a discretely positioned Subway). Even, gasp, cell phone dead zones.
http://tracypress.com/content/view/3701/2/
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