A fictional crime drama based on the premise that the Bush administration ordered the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington aired this week on German state television, prompting the Green Party chairman to call for an investigation.
"I think absolutely nothing of the conspiracy theory that has been hawked in this series. I hope this particular TV movie will be discussed very critically at the next supervisory board meeting of ARD [state television]," said Green Party Chairman Reinhard Buetikofer, who acknowledged that he had not seen the show.
Sunday night's episode of "Tatort," a popular murder mystery that has been running on state-run ARD-German television for 35 years, revolved around a German woman and a man who was killed in her apartment.
According to the plot, which was seen by approximately 7 million Germans, the dead man had been trained to be one of the September 11 pilots but was left behind, only to be tracked down and killed by CIA or FBI assassins.
The woman, who says in the program that the September 11 attacks were instigated by the Bush family for oil and power, then is targeted, presumably to silence her. The drama concludes with the German detectives accepting the truth of her story as she eludes the U.S. government hit men and escapes to safety in an unnamed Arab country.
As ludicrous as it may sound to most Americans, the tale has resonance in Germany, where fantastic conspiracy theories often are taken as fact.
Many Germans think, for example, that the 1969 moon landing was faked, and a poll published in the weekly Die Zeit showed that 31 percent of Germans younger than 30 "think that there is a certain possibility that the U.S. government ordered the attacks of 9/11."
In fact, three of the hijackers who seized control of commercial airlines on September 11, 2001, including the ringleader, Mohamed Atta, purportedly had ties to a Hamburg, Germany-based al Qaeda cell.
ARD, and ARD-produced television shows, are funded by a monthly tax on German televisions. The network plays a role similar to the British Broadcasting Corp., or the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, which is nominally independent but funded by taxpayers.
"Tatort," which translates to "Crime Scene," is a drama with a rotating cast of actors solving mysteries in weekly episodes set throughout Germany.
The U.S. Embassy in Berlin was not impressed with the latest episode, which seemed to use haunting Arabic music to portray Arabs and Muslims as innocent victims of American aggression.
"Any claim or suggestion that the United States government was behind the 9/11 disaster is absolutely absurd and not worthy of further comment," said Robert A. Wood, spokesman for the embassy.
A German diplomat in Washington said no one in Germany took the plot seriously because it was "pure fiction."
"It was so out of line with what people really think," the diplomat said, adding that the episode does not deserve further comment.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Charlie Rangel in Holocaust Firestorm
The Anti-Defamation League is demanding that top House Democrat Charlie Rangel apologize after he compared America's liberation of Iraq to Hitler's Holocaust, in comments first reported yesterday by NewsMax.com.
"It is so outrageous that a leader of Congress would compare one thing to the other," complained ADL President Abraham Foxman. "Sometimes we say it's ignorance. Charlie Rangel is not ignorant. Charlie Rangel has been there." Speaking to the New York Daily News, the Jewish civil rights leader added:
"It is so outrageous that I think he owes an apology not only to the families of the victims of the Shoah, but he also owes an apology to the soldiers who are fighting for freedom."
The controversy exploded on Monday, when Rangel was being interviewed by WWRL Radio's Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter.
Speaking of the U.S. liberation of Iraq, Rangel contended: "It's the biggest fraud ever committed on the people of this country. This is just as bad as six million Jews being killed. The whole world knew it and they were quiet about it, because it wasn't their ox that was being gored."
Rangel charged that the Bush administration had planned to invade Iraq even before the 9/11 attacks.
"Every one of the players who made this decision - they were part of this plan to do it. From Rumsfeld to Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bolton, every one of them - Perle - [they were part of the] plan to put our kids in harm's way long before 9/11."
Given the chance to clarify his Holocaust comments, however, Rangel refused to back down.
"I am saying that people's silence when they know terrible things are happening is the same thing as the Holocaust, where everyone would have me believe that no one knew those Jews were killed over there," he told Malzberg.
The Harlem Democrat's comments on Monday went largely unnoticed until two days later, when NewMax.com covered Malzberg's Rangel interview.
Reacting to the influential Democrat's outburst, top political columnist Robert Novak noted "If a Republican had said that, comparing anything like that with the Holocaust, he'd be in huge trouble."
"I think Charlie's probably sorry he said it," Novak told CNN.
"It is so outrageous that a leader of Congress would compare one thing to the other," complained ADL President Abraham Foxman. "Sometimes we say it's ignorance. Charlie Rangel is not ignorant. Charlie Rangel has been there." Speaking to the New York Daily News, the Jewish civil rights leader added:
"It is so outrageous that I think he owes an apology not only to the families of the victims of the Shoah, but he also owes an apology to the soldiers who are fighting for freedom."
The controversy exploded on Monday, when Rangel was being interviewed by WWRL Radio's Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter.
Speaking of the U.S. liberation of Iraq, Rangel contended: "It's the biggest fraud ever committed on the people of this country. This is just as bad as six million Jews being killed. The whole world knew it and they were quiet about it, because it wasn't their ox that was being gored."
Rangel charged that the Bush administration had planned to invade Iraq even before the 9/11 attacks.
"Every one of the players who made this decision - they were part of this plan to do it. From Rumsfeld to Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bolton, every one of them - Perle - [they were part of the] plan to put our kids in harm's way long before 9/11."
Given the chance to clarify his Holocaust comments, however, Rangel refused to back down.
"I am saying that people's silence when they know terrible things are happening is the same thing as the Holocaust, where everyone would have me believe that no one knew those Jews were killed over there," he told Malzberg.
The Harlem Democrat's comments on Monday went largely unnoticed until two days later, when NewMax.com covered Malzberg's Rangel interview.
Reacting to the influential Democrat's outburst, top political columnist Robert Novak noted "If a Republican had said that, comparing anything like that with the Holocaust, he'd be in huge trouble."
"I think Charlie's probably sorry he said it," Novak told CNN.
Amnesty Int'l Aided 9/11 Plotter
The human rights group Amnesty International - which accuses America of running a "gulag" at Guantanamo Bay - apparently aided in the escape of a key al Qaeda member who's suspected of helping plan the 9/11 attacks.
Just two months after the World Trade Center was destroyed, Amnesty issued one of its "URGENT ACTION" reports on behalf of Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, who was then being detained by Jordanian security forces in connection with a planning session for the 9/11 attacks. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amnesty complained that Shakir was being held in "incommunicado detention and is at risk of torture or ill-treatment." Saddam Hussein - the only Mideast leader to publicly praise the 9/11 attacks - also weighed in on Shakir's behalf.
"Pressure from Amnesty and Saddam Hussein worked," the Journal said. "Mr. Shakir was released and hasn't been seen since."
Shakir was present at a January 2000 al Qaeda summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the 9/11 plot was reviewed. Two of the actual 9/11 hijackers were also at the same meeting.
When he was arrested in Qatar not long after the 9/11 attacks, Shakir had telephone numbers for the safe houses of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers.
But for the intervention of Amnesty International, Shakir might be in Guantanamo today - undergoing a grilling by U.S. interrogators about al Qaeda's plans for the next 9/11.
Just two months after the World Trade Center was destroyed, Amnesty issued one of its "URGENT ACTION" reports on behalf of Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, who was then being detained by Jordanian security forces in connection with a planning session for the 9/11 attacks. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amnesty complained that Shakir was being held in "incommunicado detention and is at risk of torture or ill-treatment." Saddam Hussein - the only Mideast leader to publicly praise the 9/11 attacks - also weighed in on Shakir's behalf.
"Pressure from Amnesty and Saddam Hussein worked," the Journal said. "Mr. Shakir was released and hasn't been seen since."
Shakir was present at a January 2000 al Qaeda summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the 9/11 plot was reviewed. Two of the actual 9/11 hijackers were also at the same meeting.
When he was arrested in Qatar not long after the 9/11 attacks, Shakir had telephone numbers for the safe houses of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers.
But for the intervention of Amnesty International, Shakir might be in Guantanamo today - undergoing a grilling by U.S. interrogators about al Qaeda's plans for the next 9/11.
U.S.-Iraqi Offensive Kills 10 Terrorists
U.S. officials are negotiating with Sunni Arab leaders to pull insurgents into Iraq's political process, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday. An American-Iraqi offensive, meanwhile, killed at least 10 militants, including four blown apart by their own car bomb.
The U.S. official's statement to reporters came after a Sunni Arab politician and a senior Shiite leader told The Associated Press they were holding talks with some groups in the insurgency, thought to include up to 20,000 fighters in their ranks. "Some insurgents are irredeemable and have to be dealt with in a purely military way and there are some who are looking to enter the political process under some conditions," the official told a Baghdad briefing, given on condition of anonymity.
The U.S. official's statement to reporters came after a Sunni Arab politician and a senior Shiite leader told The Associated Press they were holding talks with some groups in the insurgency, thought to include up to 20,000 fighters in their ranks. "Some insurgents are irredeemable and have to be dealt with in a purely military way and there are some who are looking to enter the political process under some conditions," the official told a Baghdad briefing, given on condition of anonymity.
Jobless Claims Post Biggest Drop in 7 Weeks
The number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell by 21,000 last week, the biggest decline in seven weeks, the government reported Thursday.
The Labor Department said 330,000 newly laid-off workers filed benefit claims last week after a surge of 27,000 new claims the previous week, which had been the biggest one-week jump since early 2004. Labor Department analysts attributed the improvement to fewer layoffs in the auto industry and a shortened workweek because of the Memorial Day holiday, which gave unemployed workers one less day to file claims.
The four-week moving average for claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, also showed improvement last week, falling to 331,750, down from 334,500 the previous week.
Economists believe that solid economic growth will continue to support increased hiring this year, a prediction that the Bush administration hopes will come true. The administration released a revised economic forecast on Wednesday, projecting that the economy will create 2.1 million jobs this year.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan, talking to reporters Thursday on Air Force One, said the administration believed the jobless claims report was "consistent with solid job creation."
On Wall Street, stocks were slightly higher. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 20 points at midday.
Part of the improvement in last week's claims number came from a decline in layoffs in the auto industry, which had jumped sharply the previous week.
The Labor Department said 330,000 newly laid-off workers filed benefit claims last week after a surge of 27,000 new claims the previous week, which had been the biggest one-week jump since early 2004. Labor Department analysts attributed the improvement to fewer layoffs in the auto industry and a shortened workweek because of the Memorial Day holiday, which gave unemployed workers one less day to file claims.
The four-week moving average for claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, also showed improvement last week, falling to 331,750, down from 334,500 the previous week.
Economists believe that solid economic growth will continue to support increased hiring this year, a prediction that the Bush administration hopes will come true. The administration released a revised economic forecast on Wednesday, projecting that the economy will create 2.1 million jobs this year.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan, talking to reporters Thursday on Air Force One, said the administration believed the jobless claims report was "consistent with solid job creation."
On Wall Street, stocks were slightly higher. The Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 20 points at midday.
Part of the improvement in last week's claims number came from a decline in layoffs in the auto industry, which had jumped sharply the previous week.
Report: FBI's Missed Sept. 11 Chances
The FBI missed at least five opportunities before the Sept. 11 attacks to uncover vital intelligence information about the terrorists, and the bureau didn't aggressively pursue the information it did have, the Justice Department's inspector general says in a newly released critique of government missteps.
The IG faulted the FBI for not knowing about the presence of two of the Sept. 11 terrorists in the United States and for not following up on an agent's theory that Osama bin Laden was sending students to U.S. flight training schools. The agent's theory turned out to be precisely what bin Laden did. "The way the FBI handled these matters was a significant failure that hindered the FBI's chances of being able to detect and prevent the Sept. 11 attacks," Inspector General Glenn Fine said.
When the bureau did discover the presence of hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar in the United States shortly before the attacks, "the FBI's investigation then was conducted without much urgency or priority," the report concluded.
The five missed opportunities in regard to the two hijackers stemmed from information sharing problems between the FBI and CIA and problems inside the FBI's counterterrorism program.
The report, a year old, is only now being released because of a court fight with lawyers for imprisoned terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui over how much of it should be disclosed. The report's findings mirror other investigations by Congress and an independent commission into why the U.S. government failed to thwart the attacks.
Without elaboration, the report faults the bureau for a lack of public candor.
"Shortly after the attacks, the FBI indicated that it did not have any information warning of the attacks," the report said. "However, information was soon discovered that had been in the possession of the FBI and the intelligence community before Sept. 11 that related to the hijacking of airplanes by extremists or that involved the terrorists who committed the Sept. 11 attacks."
The bureau said it has taken substantial steps to deal with the issues the IG raised.
The IG faulted the FBI for not knowing about the presence of two of the Sept. 11 terrorists in the United States and for not following up on an agent's theory that Osama bin Laden was sending students to U.S. flight training schools. The agent's theory turned out to be precisely what bin Laden did. "The way the FBI handled these matters was a significant failure that hindered the FBI's chances of being able to detect and prevent the Sept. 11 attacks," Inspector General Glenn Fine said.
When the bureau did discover the presence of hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar in the United States shortly before the attacks, "the FBI's investigation then was conducted without much urgency or priority," the report concluded.
The five missed opportunities in regard to the two hijackers stemmed from information sharing problems between the FBI and CIA and problems inside the FBI's counterterrorism program.
The report, a year old, is only now being released because of a court fight with lawyers for imprisoned terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui over how much of it should be disclosed. The report's findings mirror other investigations by Congress and an independent commission into why the U.S. government failed to thwart the attacks.
Without elaboration, the report faults the bureau for a lack of public candor.
"Shortly after the attacks, the FBI indicated that it did not have any information warning of the attacks," the report said. "However, information was soon discovered that had been in the possession of the FBI and the intelligence community before Sept. 11 that related to the hijacking of airplanes by extremists or that involved the terrorists who committed the Sept. 11 attacks."
The bureau said it has taken substantial steps to deal with the issues the IG raised.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
President Bush Will 'Do Better' on Immigration Issues
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says President Bush admits "he hasn't done a very good job in being clear to the American people where he's coming from" on immigration issues.
Senate Democrats Plan 'Public Embrace' of Howard Dean
Senate Democrats will defend party chairman Howard Dean at a news conference on Thursday. The Boston Globe said the public event -- originally scheduled as a private meeting between Dean and Senate Democrats -- has been turned into a "public embrace."
Congressman Berates Dean over 'Anti-Immigrant' Comments
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean Wednesday, criticising comments the former Vermont governor made on NBC's "Today Show."
Senator Obama Says Dean Using 'Religion to Divide'
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) criticized Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean Wednesday night for using "religion to divide."
McCain Woos MTV Crowd; Clinton Honored for 'Values'
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reached out to MTV's Rock the Vote Wednesday night, accepting the group's "Rock the Nation" award while former president Bill Clinton was honored for his "values." (Clinton has Values ?..... BAHAHAHAHAHA ...We are worse off than I thought ! J.R.)
U.N. alert as atomic-weapon plans go missing
Electronic drawings that give comprehensive details of how to build and test equipment essential for making nuclear bombs have vanished and could be put up for sale on the international black market, according to UN investigators.
The blueprints, running to hundreds of pages, show how to make centrifuges for enriching uranium. In addition, the investigators have been unable to trace key components for uranium centrifuge rigs and fear that drawings for a nuclear warhead have been secreted away and could be for sale.
Inspectors at the UN's nuclear authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency, have been investigating the worst nuclear smuggling racket ever uncovered, headed by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The operation was discovered two years ago to be selling sensitive nuclear technology to Libya and Iran.
A senior official said several sets of blueprints for uranium centrifuges - the so-called P-1 and more advanced P-2 systems which were peddled by the Khan network - have gone missing.
"We know there were several sets of them prepared," said the official. "So who got those electronic drawings? We have only actually got to the one full set from Libya. So who got the rest, the copies?
"We have no evidence they were destroyed. One possibility is another client. We just don't know where they are."
The blueprints, running to hundreds of pages, show how to make centrifuges for enriching uranium. In addition, the investigators have been unable to trace key components for uranium centrifuge rigs and fear that drawings for a nuclear warhead have been secreted away and could be for sale.
Inspectors at the UN's nuclear authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency, have been investigating the worst nuclear smuggling racket ever uncovered, headed by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The operation was discovered two years ago to be selling sensitive nuclear technology to Libya and Iran.
A senior official said several sets of blueprints for uranium centrifuges - the so-called P-1 and more advanced P-2 systems which were peddled by the Khan network - have gone missing.
"We know there were several sets of them prepared," said the official. "So who got those electronic drawings? We have only actually got to the one full set from Libya. So who got the rest, the copies?
"We have no evidence they were destroyed. One possibility is another client. We just don't know where they are."
Judge orders city: Fly the 'gay' flag
A federal judge is siding with homosexual activists in America's oldest city, ordering St. Augustine, Fla., to fly 49 "gay-pride" flags on its Bridge of Lions.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. says the rainbow banners are to be flown for six days starting today.
"Permitting a group to fly their flag from the Bridge of Lions enables that group to say 'We exist and this is what we stand for,'" said Karen Doering, staff attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "By denying this application, these city administrators are denying my clients their constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of speech and equal access under the law. That violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments."
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. says the rainbow banners are to be flown for six days starting today.
"Permitting a group to fly their flag from the Bridge of Lions enables that group to say 'We exist and this is what we stand for,'" said Karen Doering, staff attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "By denying this application, these city administrators are denying my clients their constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of speech and equal access under the law. That violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments."
Calif. Town Shaken by Terrorism Arrests
For nearly a century, Pakistanis have been a part of this farming town. Today, they account for about 2,500 of Lodi's more than 62,000 residents. Pakistan's Independence Day - Aug. 14 - is celebrated just like the Fourth of July. So it's no wonder that a terrorism investigation leading to the arrests of a father and son has shaken Lodi to its core.
Keith Slotter, head of the FBI's central California office, alleges several people committed to al-Qaida have been operating in and around the tranquil wine-growing region just south of Sacramento.
"We don't want the new slogan to be, 'Come to Lodi and taste our wines and meet our terrorists,'" said Mayor John Beckman, describing Pakistani-Americans as "a very vibrant, healthy part of the community."
Authorities say Hamid Hayat, 22, returned last year after training in an al-Qaida terrorist camp and planned to attack hospitals and supermarkets in the United States. His father, Umer Hayat, is alleged to have paid for his son's training at a clandestine Pakistani camp. Both are charged with lying to investigators.
Three local Muslims, including two imams, also have been detained on immigration violations.
Umer Hayat, 47, sold treats to children from his battered ice cream van and his son found work packing cherries grown in surrounding orchards. Neighbors said the father was always friendly, laughing and talking with the children who bought his treats. Both men are U.S. citizens.
Keith Slotter, head of the FBI's central California office, alleges several people committed to al-Qaida have been operating in and around the tranquil wine-growing region just south of Sacramento.
"We don't want the new slogan to be, 'Come to Lodi and taste our wines and meet our terrorists,'" said Mayor John Beckman, describing Pakistani-Americans as "a very vibrant, healthy part of the community."
Authorities say Hamid Hayat, 22, returned last year after training in an al-Qaida terrorist camp and planned to attack hospitals and supermarkets in the United States. His father, Umer Hayat, is alleged to have paid for his son's training at a clandestine Pakistani camp. Both are charged with lying to investigators.
Three local Muslims, including two imams, also have been detained on immigration violations.
Umer Hayat, 47, sold treats to children from his battered ice cream van and his son found work packing cherries grown in surrounding orchards. Neighbors said the father was always friendly, laughing and talking with the children who bought his treats. Both men are U.S. citizens.
American Muslims desecrate U.S. flag
A group of American Muslims produced a video that shows its members on a New York City street corner declaring Islam's dominance over America as they tread on a U.S. flag and then rip it apart.
Image from video of Muslim group desecrating U.S. flag in street demonstration
In the video, released by the New York-based Islamic Thinkers Society, one of the Muslims is shown placing a sign on the flag that says, "Oh Muslims! Do you know your enemy? Isn't it obvious?"
The group, tied to the British jihadist organization Al-Muhajiroun, said the demonstration was "in response to the desecration of the holy Quran by the Crusaders & Zionists at Guantanamo Bay," an allegation based on a retracted Newsweek story.
The five-minute piece begins with a man speaking in clear English: "Just to show where our loyalty belongs to -- you see this flag here? It's going to go on the floor [sic]. And to us, our loyalty does not belong to this flag, our loyalty belongs to Allah ... ."
The speaker then shifts to Arabic and members can be heard shouting the familiar "Allahu Akbar," or "Allah is greatest."
On its website, the Islamic Thinker's Society explains:
"This video is of our first demonstration out of a series of city-wide demonstration that was planned in response to the desecration of the holy Quran by the Crusaders & Zionists at Guantanamo Bay. In this video, we were exposing the truth to the public about the real story behind the desecration of the Qur'an. Also, this was done to rise the Muslim Communities up and unite under one cause. That is to expose the agenda of the Crusaders & Zionists and their war on Islam which many still do not see today."
Author and researcher Robert Spencer, who posted a link to the video on his weblog Jihad Watch, commented that Muslim lobby groups such as the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations have helped foster an environment that discourages criticism of such actions.
"... [I]f we even ask how many Muslims in America think this way, CAIR will bellow about discrimination and Islamophobia," Spencer writes. "So attention is diverted from activities such as what is shown in this video, and they can continue unheeded."
The Islamic Thinkers Society is an off-shoot of Al-Muhajiroun, a British jihadist group that publicly raised funds for Hamas and has been suspected of facilitating transportation of British Muslims to fight U.S. troops overseas.
As WorldNetDaily reported, Al-Muhajiroun openly maintains a branch in Queens that claims to be involved in "only peaceful activities." The group holds closed-door meetings and study sessions at a mosque in Jackson Heights, Queens, led by an older cleric identified as Sheikh Choudray.
The Queens branch youth leader, Abu Yousuf, a U.S. citizen who says he attended a "camp" in Sudan and takes computer courses at the City University of New York, speaks at university events throughout New York City usually sponsored by the Muslim Student Association.
Image from video of Muslim group desecrating U.S. flag in street demonstration
In the video, released by the New York-based Islamic Thinkers Society, one of the Muslims is shown placing a sign on the flag that says, "Oh Muslims! Do you know your enemy? Isn't it obvious?"
The group, tied to the British jihadist organization Al-Muhajiroun, said the demonstration was "in response to the desecration of the holy Quran by the Crusaders & Zionists at Guantanamo Bay," an allegation based on a retracted Newsweek story.
The five-minute piece begins with a man speaking in clear English: "Just to show where our loyalty belongs to -- you see this flag here? It's going to go on the floor [sic]. And to us, our loyalty does not belong to this flag, our loyalty belongs to Allah ... ."
The speaker then shifts to Arabic and members can be heard shouting the familiar "Allahu Akbar," or "Allah is greatest."
On its website, the Islamic Thinker's Society explains:
"This video is of our first demonstration out of a series of city-wide demonstration that was planned in response to the desecration of the holy Quran by the Crusaders & Zionists at Guantanamo Bay. In this video, we were exposing the truth to the public about the real story behind the desecration of the Qur'an. Also, this was done to rise the Muslim Communities up and unite under one cause. That is to expose the agenda of the Crusaders & Zionists and their war on Islam which many still do not see today."
Author and researcher Robert Spencer, who posted a link to the video on his weblog Jihad Watch, commented that Muslim lobby groups such as the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations have helped foster an environment that discourages criticism of such actions.
"... [I]f we even ask how many Muslims in America think this way, CAIR will bellow about discrimination and Islamophobia," Spencer writes. "So attention is diverted from activities such as what is shown in this video, and they can continue unheeded."
The Islamic Thinkers Society is an off-shoot of Al-Muhajiroun, a British jihadist group that publicly raised funds for Hamas and has been suspected of facilitating transportation of British Muslims to fight U.S. troops overseas.
As WorldNetDaily reported, Al-Muhajiroun openly maintains a branch in Queens that claims to be involved in "only peaceful activities." The group holds closed-door meetings and study sessions at a mosque in Jackson Heights, Queens, led by an older cleric identified as Sheikh Choudray.
The Queens branch youth leader, Abu Yousuf, a U.S. citizen who says he attended a "camp" in Sudan and takes computer courses at the City University of New York, speaks at university events throughout New York City usually sponsored by the Muslim Student Association.
Critics charge Kerry still covering up
Sen. John Kerry's release of Navy records to his hometown Boston Globe newspaper is not the full disclosure sought by critics of his Vietnam war record, says John O'Neill, spokesman for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
The group of more than 260 veterans who served in Kerry's swiftboat division asked the senator during his presidential campaign last year to sign a Standard Form 180 that would permit anyone to examine his full and unredacted military records at the Navy Department and the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, O'Neill said.
Instead, Kerry allowed Globe reporter Michael Kranish to obtain documents only from the Navy Department, which previously indicated its records were not complete.
"This is hardly what we called for," O'Neill said.
The group of more than 260 veterans who served in Kerry's swiftboat division asked the senator during his presidential campaign last year to sign a Standard Form 180 that would permit anyone to examine his full and unredacted military records at the Navy Department and the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, O'Neill said.
Instead, Kerry allowed Globe reporter Michael Kranish to obtain documents only from the Navy Department, which previously indicated its records were not complete.
"This is hardly what we called for," O'Neill said.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Suspect Nabbed After Freeway Standoff
man suspected of attempted kidnapping was captured Tuesday after a freeway chase and standoff that ended when sheriff's deputies tossed a grenade into his van and a police dog dragged him from the smoke-filled vehicle.
A member of a Los Angeles County SWAT team (search) used a long pole to shove a "flash-bang" grenade through a rear window. Television reports showed a burst of light as the device exploded, and smoke filling the minivan.
The driver's door then opened, and the police dog rushed in, grabbing the man, tearing his shirt and dragging him from the seat onto the pavement. The siege ended shortly after 3 p.m.
There was no immediate word on the suspect's condition. His name was not immediately released.
A member of a Los Angeles County SWAT team (search) used a long pole to shove a "flash-bang" grenade through a rear window. Television reports showed a burst of light as the device exploded, and smoke filling the minivan.
The driver's door then opened, and the police dog rushed in, grabbing the man, tearing his shirt and dragging him from the seat onto the pavement. The siege ended shortly after 3 p.m.
There was no immediate word on the suspect's condition. His name was not immediately released.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Bush's Record on Job Growth
The president's record on job creation may be better than some indicators suggestUntil last Friday�s jobs report, it seemed that the American jobs machine was firing on all cylinders. But the Labor Department�s payroll survey shows 78,000 new jobs created in May (in contrast with the 376,000 new jobs in its household survey). This will embolden the pessimists who insist that the first Bush term was a failure because relatively few jobs were created during those four years.
Leave aside the fact that jobs are only one of the measures of economic performance. The rapid growth rate in GDP, stable inflation, a housing boom, and world-beating productivity growth are all just as important and are clearly successes for Bush. But even if jobs are the sole measure, Bush�s first term is still one of the best ever.
First off, the Bush years ended with more Americans working than ever before. The answer is clouded, however, by a lingering controversy over which of the two Labor Department surveys mentioned above is the best measure of job creation. The payroll survey, which polls employers, indicates a razor-thin gain of 120,000 jobs between January 2001 and January 2005. The household survey, which contacts workers directly, indicates a net increase of roughly 2.5 million employed. Which is correct?
The president�s critics prefer the payroll survey, and they point to Labor Department papers that say it�s better. But the payroll survey is certified as more reliable only in the short run, on a month-to-month basis. Over longer periods of a year or more, payroll data gets flaky. Many entrepreneurs, LLC partners and self-employed workers aren�t counted on any payroll. And then there are the 250,000 to 1 million phantom jobs �lost� to changing turnover rates, a flaw acknowledged by Labor but not widely known, even by economic reporters.
Even Labor admits it cannot fully explain the disconnect between the two surveys. It helps, though, to take a closer look at a statistical earthquake in the economic indicators that occurred in 2002 and 2003. The middle two years of the Bush presidency is where uncertainty plagues the data.
In 2002 and 2003, payrolls were stuck in a �jobless recovery� while the number of working Americans grew by 2 million, according to the household survey. Last summer, the disparity between surveys was so big that the Labor Department had to publicly defend its payroll survey. The household survey said employment was up by 629,000 in July 2004, while payrolls grew a meager 32,000. It echoes the situation this month.
But this month�s data include something else -- revisions to the data from July 2004. Today Labor says that payrolls actually rose by more than 80,000 that month, triple the initial estimate. (Payroll numbers are always revised during the first two months after their preliminary release, then again annually to update methodological quirks.)
Payrolls began their recovery in August 2003, and since then the two surveys seem generally in sync. This doesn�t mean the controversy is over. Something important happened to make the two surveys diverge before August 2003.
One should consider what happened at the end of 2001 that caused a sharp change in how the workforce behaved, and then figure out how that changes survey responses. We can rule out the recession itself as a cause of the household-payroll divergence, because it hit in early 2001, before the two surveys diverged. Besides, recessions haven�t caused a divergence like this before. The seismic event that seems most likely to have changed work behavior is 9/11 and the war mentality afterwards.
Indeed, a reduction in job changing, caused by 9/11, probably caused the payroll phantoms mentioned earlier. As explained in the Winter 2005 issue of The Public Interest:
�[J]ob-changing from one employer to another, which had averaged 3 percent per month in the 1990s, declined by about 0.2 percentage points per year after 2001, settling at 2.4 percent in 2003, where it remains today. This seemingly small change meant ... roughly one million fewer workers were being double-counted on payrolls, a statistical change that the payroll survey registered as one million �lost� jobs.�
To this day, the payroll survey incorrectly measures jobs and job losses by not accounting for the impact of job turnover in its methodology.
One thing that policymakers should be able to agree on is the need for accurate economic data. Stimulating an economy at the wrong time or failing to see economic weakness until it is too late can inflict unnecessary damage. That is why the recent efforts by Reps. David Dreier, R-Calif., and John Boehner, R-Ohio, to help the Labor Department improve its methodologies are a step in the right direction.
For the time being, though, payroll data should be reported with an asterisk. America needs to realize its economy actually is much stronger than that information indicates.
Tim Kane, Ph.D., is a research fellow in macroeconomics in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation.
Leave aside the fact that jobs are only one of the measures of economic performance. The rapid growth rate in GDP, stable inflation, a housing boom, and world-beating productivity growth are all just as important and are clearly successes for Bush. But even if jobs are the sole measure, Bush�s first term is still one of the best ever.
First off, the Bush years ended with more Americans working than ever before. The answer is clouded, however, by a lingering controversy over which of the two Labor Department surveys mentioned above is the best measure of job creation. The payroll survey, which polls employers, indicates a razor-thin gain of 120,000 jobs between January 2001 and January 2005. The household survey, which contacts workers directly, indicates a net increase of roughly 2.5 million employed. Which is correct?
The president�s critics prefer the payroll survey, and they point to Labor Department papers that say it�s better. But the payroll survey is certified as more reliable only in the short run, on a month-to-month basis. Over longer periods of a year or more, payroll data gets flaky. Many entrepreneurs, LLC partners and self-employed workers aren�t counted on any payroll. And then there are the 250,000 to 1 million phantom jobs �lost� to changing turnover rates, a flaw acknowledged by Labor but not widely known, even by economic reporters.
Even Labor admits it cannot fully explain the disconnect between the two surveys. It helps, though, to take a closer look at a statistical earthquake in the economic indicators that occurred in 2002 and 2003. The middle two years of the Bush presidency is where uncertainty plagues the data.
In 2002 and 2003, payrolls were stuck in a �jobless recovery� while the number of working Americans grew by 2 million, according to the household survey. Last summer, the disparity between surveys was so big that the Labor Department had to publicly defend its payroll survey. The household survey said employment was up by 629,000 in July 2004, while payrolls grew a meager 32,000. It echoes the situation this month.
But this month�s data include something else -- revisions to the data from July 2004. Today Labor says that payrolls actually rose by more than 80,000 that month, triple the initial estimate. (Payroll numbers are always revised during the first two months after their preliminary release, then again annually to update methodological quirks.)
Payrolls began their recovery in August 2003, and since then the two surveys seem generally in sync. This doesn�t mean the controversy is over. Something important happened to make the two surveys diverge before August 2003.
One should consider what happened at the end of 2001 that caused a sharp change in how the workforce behaved, and then figure out how that changes survey responses. We can rule out the recession itself as a cause of the household-payroll divergence, because it hit in early 2001, before the two surveys diverged. Besides, recessions haven�t caused a divergence like this before. The seismic event that seems most likely to have changed work behavior is 9/11 and the war mentality afterwards.
Indeed, a reduction in job changing, caused by 9/11, probably caused the payroll phantoms mentioned earlier. As explained in the Winter 2005 issue of The Public Interest:
�[J]ob-changing from one employer to another, which had averaged 3 percent per month in the 1990s, declined by about 0.2 percentage points per year after 2001, settling at 2.4 percent in 2003, where it remains today. This seemingly small change meant ... roughly one million fewer workers were being double-counted on payrolls, a statistical change that the payroll survey registered as one million �lost� jobs.�
To this day, the payroll survey incorrectly measures jobs and job losses by not accounting for the impact of job turnover in its methodology.
One thing that policymakers should be able to agree on is the need for accurate economic data. Stimulating an economy at the wrong time or failing to see economic weakness until it is too late can inflict unnecessary damage. That is why the recent efforts by Reps. David Dreier, R-Calif., and John Boehner, R-Ohio, to help the Labor Department improve its methodologies are a step in the right direction.
For the time being, though, payroll data should be reported with an asterisk. America needs to realize its economy actually is much stronger than that information indicates.
Tim Kane, Ph.D., is a research fellow in macroeconomics in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation.
Lawmakers dash to correct records of trips
More than 200 lawmakers have rushed to correct travel-disclosure statements in recent months as reporters on Capitol Hill discover more discrepancies in the wake of questions about travel by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
?You're dealing with hundreds,? said Kent Cooper, co-founder of PoliticalMoneyLine, a Web site that compiles the forms after they're filed with the clerk's office and makes it available at www.fecinfo.com. ?There's a ton more for staffers.?
Mr. Cooper said his figure covered parts of April and May, a period during which the scrutiny of gift travel -- which is funded by corporations and outside interest groups -- heightened on the heels of accusations that Mr. DeLay accepted travel from a registered lobbyist, which is barred under House ethics rules.
The widespread scrutiny -- aided by opposition researchers from both parties -- has prompted amended reports from top leaders in both parties and even from members of the ethics panel. The most intense scrutiny has focused on the most frequent travelers.
Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr., a Tennessee Democrat who is running for the Senate, holds first place as Congress' most prolific traveler since 2000. While his travel reports have been trouble-free in recent years, that has not always been the case.
From 1998 to 2003, he took 61 privately funded trips. During that period, he failed to file a single travel-disclosure form with the House clerk, as required by the chamber's ethics rules.
While he listed the trips on his financial-disclosure forms at the end of each year, Mr. Ford did not make public the purpose or value of the trips paid for by companies and outside groups, since the financial-disclosure form -- unlike the travel form -- does not require such information.
When Mr. Ford learned he had failed to file the required travel forms, spokesman Zac Wright said, Mr. Ford rushed to fill out and file dozens of travel-disclosure forms -- some as many as five years late -- on Aug. 19, 2003.
"It was a simple oversight," Mr. Wright said. "It was cleared up [almost] two years ago proactively by the congressman. It was a minor thing."
The lapse by Mr. Ford highlights the pitfalls members of Congress say are associated with gift travel and the rules that govern it.
In recent months, dozens of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been snared in controversies over improperly funded trips, insufficiently disclosed details and simple clerical oversights. House ethics rules permit travel by members to be paid for by companies and outside special-interest groups, as long as the travel is reported to the clerk.
Scrutiny has focused mostly on Mr. DeLay, who has accepted 14 trips during the past five years totaling $94,568, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.
In terms of travel at the expense of others, Mr. DeLay is far from top of the heap, ranking 30th in value of trips taken, according to PoliticalMoneyLine. In first place is Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican, who has racked up $176,718 in travel paid for by corporations or outside groups during the past five years. Mr. Ford ranks 78th in terms of travel costs, having racked up $60,545 in gift travel.
Mr. DeLay is among 11 representatives tied at 120th place with 14 trips each since 2000. At the top of that list is Mr. Ford, with 62 trips since 2000.
Mr. DeLay has invited the House ethics committee to investigate his travel and said the rules governing gift travel are confusing and should be cleared up by the House ethics committee.
One of the late filers was Rep. Melissa A. Hart, Pennsylvania Republican and member of the ethics committee. She recently discovered that she had failed to report a trip she made in November to Hungary and Germany, a problem she corrected.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio Democrat and member of the ethics panel, took a 2001 trip to Puerto Rico but filed slightly different travel-disclosure forms. Mrs. Pelosi reported that an outside advocacy group paid for the trip, while Mrs. Jones reported that a Washington lobbying firm had paid for the trip.
When the discrepancy was raised, Mrs. Jones said it was a clerical error and that the firm was listed only because the lobbyist had arranged the trip, but did not pay for it.
According to the Associated Press, the recent late filers have included House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, who recently disclosed 12 trips dating back to 1997. Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher, California Democrat, filed late for 21 trips, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat, reported 20 past trips, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland Democrat, reported 13.
Rep. John Linder, Georgia Republican, belatedly filed for nine trips, as did Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat.
?You're dealing with hundreds,? said Kent Cooper, co-founder of PoliticalMoneyLine, a Web site that compiles the forms after they're filed with the clerk's office and makes it available at www.fecinfo.com. ?There's a ton more for staffers.?
Mr. Cooper said his figure covered parts of April and May, a period during which the scrutiny of gift travel -- which is funded by corporations and outside interest groups -- heightened on the heels of accusations that Mr. DeLay accepted travel from a registered lobbyist, which is barred under House ethics rules.
The widespread scrutiny -- aided by opposition researchers from both parties -- has prompted amended reports from top leaders in both parties and even from members of the ethics panel. The most intense scrutiny has focused on the most frequent travelers.
Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr., a Tennessee Democrat who is running for the Senate, holds first place as Congress' most prolific traveler since 2000. While his travel reports have been trouble-free in recent years, that has not always been the case.
From 1998 to 2003, he took 61 privately funded trips. During that period, he failed to file a single travel-disclosure form with the House clerk, as required by the chamber's ethics rules.
While he listed the trips on his financial-disclosure forms at the end of each year, Mr. Ford did not make public the purpose or value of the trips paid for by companies and outside groups, since the financial-disclosure form -- unlike the travel form -- does not require such information.
When Mr. Ford learned he had failed to file the required travel forms, spokesman Zac Wright said, Mr. Ford rushed to fill out and file dozens of travel-disclosure forms -- some as many as five years late -- on Aug. 19, 2003.
"It was a simple oversight," Mr. Wright said. "It was cleared up [almost] two years ago proactively by the congressman. It was a minor thing."
The lapse by Mr. Ford highlights the pitfalls members of Congress say are associated with gift travel and the rules that govern it.
In recent months, dozens of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been snared in controversies over improperly funded trips, insufficiently disclosed details and simple clerical oversights. House ethics rules permit travel by members to be paid for by companies and outside special-interest groups, as long as the travel is reported to the clerk.
Scrutiny has focused mostly on Mr. DeLay, who has accepted 14 trips during the past five years totaling $94,568, according to PoliticalMoneyLine.
In terms of travel at the expense of others, Mr. DeLay is far from top of the heap, ranking 30th in value of trips taken, according to PoliticalMoneyLine. In first place is Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican, who has racked up $176,718 in travel paid for by corporations or outside groups during the past five years. Mr. Ford ranks 78th in terms of travel costs, having racked up $60,545 in gift travel.
Mr. DeLay is among 11 representatives tied at 120th place with 14 trips each since 2000. At the top of that list is Mr. Ford, with 62 trips since 2000.
Mr. DeLay has invited the House ethics committee to investigate his travel and said the rules governing gift travel are confusing and should be cleared up by the House ethics committee.
One of the late filers was Rep. Melissa A. Hart, Pennsylvania Republican and member of the ethics committee. She recently discovered that she had failed to report a trip she made in November to Hungary and Germany, a problem she corrected.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio Democrat and member of the ethics panel, took a 2001 trip to Puerto Rico but filed slightly different travel-disclosure forms. Mrs. Pelosi reported that an outside advocacy group paid for the trip, while Mrs. Jones reported that a Washington lobbying firm had paid for the trip.
When the discrepancy was raised, Mrs. Jones said it was a clerical error and that the firm was listed only because the lobbyist had arranged the trip, but did not pay for it.
According to the Associated Press, the recent late filers have included House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, who recently disclosed 12 trips dating back to 1997. Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher, California Democrat, filed late for 21 trips, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat, reported 20 past trips, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland Democrat, reported 13.
Rep. John Linder, Georgia Republican, belatedly filed for nine trips, as did Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat.
Yale grades portray Kerry as a lackluster student
During last year's presidential campaign, John F. Kerry was the candidate often portrayed as intellectual and complex, while George W. Bush was the populist who mangled his sentences.
But newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a virtually identical grade average at Yale University four decades ago.
In 1999, The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year.
Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his four years, according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for officer training school. He received four D's in his freshman year out of 10 courses, but improved his average in later years.
The grade transcript, which Kerry has always declined to release, was included in his Navy record. During the campaign the Globe sought Kerry's naval records, but he refused to waive privacy restrictions for the full file. Late last month, Kerry gave the Navy permission to send the documents to the Globe.
Kerry appeared to be responding to critics who suspected that there might be damaging information in the file about his activities in Vietnam. The military and medical records, however, appear identical to what Kerry has already released. This marks the first time Kerry's grades have been publicly reported.
The transcript shows that Kerry's freshman-year average was 71. He scored a 61 in geology, a 63 and 68 in two history classes, and a 69 in political science. His top score was a 79, in another political science course. Another of his strongest efforts, a 77, came in French class.
Under Yale's grading system in effect at the time, grades between 90 and 100 equaled an A, 80-89 a B, 70-79 a C, 60 to 69 a D, and anything below that was a failing grade. In addition to Kerry's four D's in his freshman year, he received one D in his sophomore year. He did not fail any courses.
''I always told my Dad that D stood for distinction," Kerry said yesterday in a written response to questions, noting that he has previously acknowledged that he spent a lot of time learning to fly instead of focusing on his studies.
Kerry's weak grades came despite years of education at some of the world's most elite prep schools, ranging from Fessenden School in Massachusetts to St. Paul's School in New Hampshire.
It is noteworthy, however, that Kerry received a high honor at Yale despite his mediocre grades: He was chosen to deliver his senior class oration, a testament to his reputation as a public speaker. He delivered a speech questioning the wisdom of the Vietnam War, in which he would soon see combat.
Kerry gradually improved his grades, averaging 81 in his senior year. His highest single grade was an 89, for a political science class in his senior year. Despite his slow start, he went on to be a top student at Naval Candidate School, command a patrol boat in Vietnam, graduate from law school, and become a prosecutor, lieutenant governor, US senator, and presidential candidate.
In his Navy application, Kerry made clear that he spent much of his college time on extracurricular activities, including the Yale Political Union, the Debating Association, soccer, hockey, fencing, and membership in the elite Skull and Bones Society. Asked to describe nonschool training that qualified him for the Navy, Kerry wrote: ''A great deal of sailing -- ocean and otherwise, including some navigation. Scuba diving. Rifle. Beginning of life saving." He said his special interests were ''filming," writing, and politics, noting that the latter subject occupied 15 hours per week.
Gaddis Smith, a retired Yale history professor who taught both Kerry and Bush, said in a telephone interview that he vividly remembers Kerry as a student during the 1964-1965 school year, when Kerry would have been a junior. However, Smith said he doesn't have a specific memory about Bush.
Based on what Smith recalls teaching that year, Kerry scored a 71 and 79 in two of Smith's courses. When Smith was told those scores, he responded: ''Uh, oh. I thought he was good student. Those aren't very good grades." To put the grades in perspective, Smith said that he had a well-earned reputation for being tough, and noted that such grades would probably be about 10 points higher in a similar class today because of the impact of what he called ''grade inflation."
Bush went to Yale from 1964 to 1968; his highest grades were 88s in anthropology, history, and philosophy, according to The New Yorker article. He received one D in his four years, a 69 in astronomy. Bush has said he was a C student.
Like Kerry, Bush reportedly suffered through a difficult freshman year and then pulled his grades up.
But newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a virtually identical grade average at Yale University four decades ago.
In 1999, The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year.
Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his four years, according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for officer training school. He received four D's in his freshman year out of 10 courses, but improved his average in later years.
The grade transcript, which Kerry has always declined to release, was included in his Navy record. During the campaign the Globe sought Kerry's naval records, but he refused to waive privacy restrictions for the full file. Late last month, Kerry gave the Navy permission to send the documents to the Globe.
Kerry appeared to be responding to critics who suspected that there might be damaging information in the file about his activities in Vietnam. The military and medical records, however, appear identical to what Kerry has already released. This marks the first time Kerry's grades have been publicly reported.
The transcript shows that Kerry's freshman-year average was 71. He scored a 61 in geology, a 63 and 68 in two history classes, and a 69 in political science. His top score was a 79, in another political science course. Another of his strongest efforts, a 77, came in French class.
Under Yale's grading system in effect at the time, grades between 90 and 100 equaled an A, 80-89 a B, 70-79 a C, 60 to 69 a D, and anything below that was a failing grade. In addition to Kerry's four D's in his freshman year, he received one D in his sophomore year. He did not fail any courses.
''I always told my Dad that D stood for distinction," Kerry said yesterday in a written response to questions, noting that he has previously acknowledged that he spent a lot of time learning to fly instead of focusing on his studies.
Kerry's weak grades came despite years of education at some of the world's most elite prep schools, ranging from Fessenden School in Massachusetts to St. Paul's School in New Hampshire.
It is noteworthy, however, that Kerry received a high honor at Yale despite his mediocre grades: He was chosen to deliver his senior class oration, a testament to his reputation as a public speaker. He delivered a speech questioning the wisdom of the Vietnam War, in which he would soon see combat.
Kerry gradually improved his grades, averaging 81 in his senior year. His highest single grade was an 89, for a political science class in his senior year. Despite his slow start, he went on to be a top student at Naval Candidate School, command a patrol boat in Vietnam, graduate from law school, and become a prosecutor, lieutenant governor, US senator, and presidential candidate.
In his Navy application, Kerry made clear that he spent much of his college time on extracurricular activities, including the Yale Political Union, the Debating Association, soccer, hockey, fencing, and membership in the elite Skull and Bones Society. Asked to describe nonschool training that qualified him for the Navy, Kerry wrote: ''A great deal of sailing -- ocean and otherwise, including some navigation. Scuba diving. Rifle. Beginning of life saving." He said his special interests were ''filming," writing, and politics, noting that the latter subject occupied 15 hours per week.
Gaddis Smith, a retired Yale history professor who taught both Kerry and Bush, said in a telephone interview that he vividly remembers Kerry as a student during the 1964-1965 school year, when Kerry would have been a junior. However, Smith said he doesn't have a specific memory about Bush.
Based on what Smith recalls teaching that year, Kerry scored a 71 and 79 in two of Smith's courses. When Smith was told those scores, he responded: ''Uh, oh. I thought he was good student. Those aren't very good grades." To put the grades in perspective, Smith said that he had a well-earned reputation for being tough, and noted that such grades would probably be about 10 points higher in a similar class today because of the impact of what he called ''grade inflation."
Bush went to Yale from 1964 to 1968; his highest grades were 88s in anthropology, history, and philosophy, according to The New Yorker article. He received one D in his four years, a 69 in astronomy. Bush has said he was a C student.
Like Kerry, Bush reportedly suffered through a difficult freshman year and then pulled his grades up.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Americans most religious of 10 nations
Poll finds U.S. citizens more willing to mix faith, politics
Religious devotion sets the United States apart from some of its closest allies. Americans profess unquestioning belief in God and are far more willing to mix faith and politics than people in other countries, AP-Ipsos polling found.
In Western Europe, where Pope Benedict XVI complains that growing secularism has left churches unfilled on Sundays, people are the least devout among the 10 countries surveyed for The Associated Press by Ipsos.
Only Mexicans come close to Americans in embracing faith, the poll found. But unlike Americans, Mexicans strongly object to clergy lobbying lawmakers, in line with the nation's historical opposition to church influence.
"In the United States, you have an abundance of religions trying to motivate Americans to greater involvement," said Roger Finke, a sociologist at Penn State University. "It's one thing that makes a tremendous difference here."
The polling was conducted in May in the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, South Korea and Spain.
Nearly all U.S. respondents said faith is important to them and only 2 percent said they do not believe in God. Almost 40 percent said religious leaders should try to sway policymakers, notably higher than in other countries.
"Our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian policies and religious leaders have an obligation to speak out on public policy, otherwise they're wimps," said David Black, a retiree from Osborne, Pa., who agreed to be interviewed after he was polled.
Religious devotion sets the United States apart from some of its closest allies. Americans profess unquestioning belief in God and are far more willing to mix faith and politics than people in other countries, AP-Ipsos polling found.
In Western Europe, where Pope Benedict XVI complains that growing secularism has left churches unfilled on Sundays, people are the least devout among the 10 countries surveyed for The Associated Press by Ipsos.
Only Mexicans come close to Americans in embracing faith, the poll found. But unlike Americans, Mexicans strongly object to clergy lobbying lawmakers, in line with the nation's historical opposition to church influence.
"In the United States, you have an abundance of religions trying to motivate Americans to greater involvement," said Roger Finke, a sociologist at Penn State University. "It's one thing that makes a tremendous difference here."
The polling was conducted in May in the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, South Korea and Spain.
Nearly all U.S. respondents said faith is important to them and only 2 percent said they do not believe in God. Almost 40 percent said religious leaders should try to sway policymakers, notably higher than in other countries.
"Our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian policies and religious leaders have an obligation to speak out on public policy, otherwise they're wimps," said David Black, a retiree from Osborne, Pa., who agreed to be interviewed after he was polled.
Saddam faces range of charges
Former dictator Saddam Hussein will stand trial for a range of charges - from gassing thousands of Kurds to executing political and religious leaders, according to a list of the cases against him obtained from the special tribunal Monday.
Iraqi officials want the case against Saddam, who could face 500 charges if prosecutors were to proceed on all counts, to concentrate on about a dozen thoroughly documented cases that authorities believe the ousted leader will be convicted on.
A list obtained by The Associated Press early Monday from the special tribunal, which will hear the case against Saddam and 11 of his henchmen, showed that prosecutors seem to be concentrating on 14 cases concerning his alleged crimes. Many received international attention during Saddam's three decades in power.
The list contained few details, but among the crimes the tribunal says Saddam committed were:
_Executing at least 50 Iraqis in 1982 in the Shiite town of Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad, in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt against Saddam.
_Killing and deporting 8,000 members of the powerful Kurdish Barzani tribe, of which the current Kurdistan Democratic Party leader, Massoud Barzani, belongs.
_The 1988 chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja that killed an estimated 5,000 people.
_Executing prominent religious and political figures.
_Ordering the seven-month occupation of Kuwait that was ended by the 1991 U.S.-led Gulf War.
_The 1991 suppression of a Shiite uprising in southern Iraq.
Iraqi authorities believe the trial against Saddam, which could commence within two months, will have a major effect on curbing the violent insurgency, which has killed at least 844 people since the new Shiite Muslim-led government was announced April 28, according to an Associated Press count.
Iraqi officials want the case against Saddam, who could face 500 charges if prosecutors were to proceed on all counts, to concentrate on about a dozen thoroughly documented cases that authorities believe the ousted leader will be convicted on.
A list obtained by The Associated Press early Monday from the special tribunal, which will hear the case against Saddam and 11 of his henchmen, showed that prosecutors seem to be concentrating on 14 cases concerning his alleged crimes. Many received international attention during Saddam's three decades in power.
The list contained few details, but among the crimes the tribunal says Saddam committed were:
_Executing at least 50 Iraqis in 1982 in the Shiite town of Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad, in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt against Saddam.
_Killing and deporting 8,000 members of the powerful Kurdish Barzani tribe, of which the current Kurdistan Democratic Party leader, Massoud Barzani, belongs.
_The 1988 chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja that killed an estimated 5,000 people.
_Executing prominent religious and political figures.
_Ordering the seven-month occupation of Kuwait that was ended by the 1991 U.S.-led Gulf War.
_The 1991 suppression of a Shiite uprising in southern Iraq.
Iraqi authorities believe the trial against Saddam, which could commence within two months, will have a major effect on curbing the violent insurgency, which has killed at least 844 people since the new Shiite Muslim-led government was announced April 28, according to an Associated Press count.
Illegals shocked as judge actually puts them in jail
A judge in Texas is shocking illegal aliens in the Brownsville area by actually jailing them and making sure they're deported rather than simply letting them go with a "notice to appear" � most of which are not honored.
The Brownsville Herald reported U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio is getting tough with illegals caught crossing the Rio Grande, telling a group of Honduran immigrants last week to warn their buddies back home.
"I want you to tell all your friends in Honduras that if they come through Brownsville, Texas, they will not be paroled into the system, and they will be put in jail and deported," Recio told 18-year-old Jorge Enrique Vasquez Carrasco in open court as he handed him a jail sentence that could keep him locked up until space opens at an immigration facility and he is deported.
Under the typical scenario, illegals are issued a notice to appear, at which time they go on their way and begin their new life in the U.S. Federal statistics indicate 88 percent of aliens issued a notice don't show up for their hearings. Border agents near McAllen, Texas, have nicknamed the summons "notice to disappear" because they are so often disregarded.
A nearby Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center contracts with county jails when bed space reaches capacity.
"There is not a limit on how long a federal prisoner can stay in a county facility," ICE spokeswoman Letty Zamarripa told the Herald.
Zamarripa said criminals and detainees from "nations of interest" such as those that support terrorism are give priority when moved from county jails to federal facilities.
"We are removing detainees everyday," Zamarripa said of immigrants being deported from the facility. "We have two flights a week with room for 120 on each flight in addition to two buses leaving each week."
Nathan Selzer with the Valley Movement for Human Rights said "undocumented" immigrants, who he believes are committing "non-violent and victimless crime," are being put in danger when housed in the same jails as "real" criminals.
Selzer said U.S. immigration policy needs to be reformed.
"But that's in the hands of President Bush and Congress and they refuse to do so," Selzer is quoted as saying.
The Brownsville Herald reported U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio is getting tough with illegals caught crossing the Rio Grande, telling a group of Honduran immigrants last week to warn their buddies back home.
"I want you to tell all your friends in Honduras that if they come through Brownsville, Texas, they will not be paroled into the system, and they will be put in jail and deported," Recio told 18-year-old Jorge Enrique Vasquez Carrasco in open court as he handed him a jail sentence that could keep him locked up until space opens at an immigration facility and he is deported.
Under the typical scenario, illegals are issued a notice to appear, at which time they go on their way and begin their new life in the U.S. Federal statistics indicate 88 percent of aliens issued a notice don't show up for their hearings. Border agents near McAllen, Texas, have nicknamed the summons "notice to disappear" because they are so often disregarded.
A nearby Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center contracts with county jails when bed space reaches capacity.
"There is not a limit on how long a federal prisoner can stay in a county facility," ICE spokeswoman Letty Zamarripa told the Herald.
Zamarripa said criminals and detainees from "nations of interest" such as those that support terrorism are give priority when moved from county jails to federal facilities.
"We are removing detainees everyday," Zamarripa said of immigrants being deported from the facility. "We have two flights a week with room for 120 on each flight in addition to two buses leaving each week."
Nathan Selzer with the Valley Movement for Human Rights said "undocumented" immigrants, who he believes are committing "non-violent and victimless crime," are being put in danger when housed in the same jails as "real" criminals.
Selzer said U.S. immigration policy needs to be reformed.
"But that's in the hands of President Bush and Congress and they refuse to do so," Selzer is quoted as saying.
Normandy Marks D-Day Landings
On rain-whipped French beaches and in graveyards crowded with white crosses, aging Allied veterans on Monday quietly honored friends who fell 61 years ago during the D-Day landings that changed the course of World War II.
Towns across Normandy marked the anniversary with concerts, tributes and Masses to honor the men who died on five beaches during the June 6, 1944, invasion that pierced Adolf Hitler's western defenses.
On Utah Beach, in heavy wind and rain, veterans from the famed Easy Company of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division honored the dead with a wreath of red, white and blue flowers.
The weather was fitting since the invasion itself was postponed because of bad weather. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower had originally set the date for the D-Day invasion as June 5, 1944. The soldiers were loaded aboard assault ships June 4, but storms postponed the plan and the troops got miserably seasick.
Forecasts stayed poor, but Eisenhower decided against another postponement and gave the order June 5 to invade the following day. About 156,000 Allied soldiers _ mostly American, British and Canadian _ took part in the invasion, storming in from the English Channel.
"I'll never forget that day, and the combat that followed," said Easy Company veteran Buck Taylor, of Salem, Ore. "So often, I was almost killed. But there must have been someone up above looking out for me."
French and American dignitaries joined veterans there and at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, where 9,387 fallen U.S. soldiers are buried under an expanse of white crosses.
A choir from Atlanta sang the French and American national anthems, the Marseillaise and the Star-Spangled Banner, and the French veterans affairs minister welcomed the aging "men of honor."
"From year to year, from generation to generation, men and women who love freedom remember this day that is unique in history," Hamlaoui Mekachera said.
The Allied soldiers "restored freedom to Europe, and restored dignity to men," he said.
Ceremonies this year were much smaller and more intimate than for the grandiose 60th anniversary commemorations attended by President Bush, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and other heads of state.
Last year's ceremonies injected a new sense of trans-Atlantic unity at a time when the United States and countries like France and Germany were at odds over the Iraq war.
Still, "it's not an off-year for me," said Bill Coleman, the American Legion delegate in Normandy.
He landed at Omaha Beach on June 8, two days after the initial invasion, a member of the critical ordnance teams that kept supplies flowing to the fighters. At 81, he still visits Normandy schools to explain the significance of D-Day.
"I keep the war alive for the children so that they do not forget what transpired. We came here to liberate them and now they're free," he said.
Rain dampened plans Sunday for one of the most dramatic tributes -_ a drop by some 150 military parachutists into the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, a near-annual commemoration that was to include some 40 Germans for the first time. The town was the first liberated by U.S. forces in Normandy after paratroopers landed ahead of the main invasion force.
Towns across Normandy marked the anniversary with concerts, tributes and Masses to honor the men who died on five beaches during the June 6, 1944, invasion that pierced Adolf Hitler's western defenses.
On Utah Beach, in heavy wind and rain, veterans from the famed Easy Company of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division honored the dead with a wreath of red, white and blue flowers.
The weather was fitting since the invasion itself was postponed because of bad weather. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower had originally set the date for the D-Day invasion as June 5, 1944. The soldiers were loaded aboard assault ships June 4, but storms postponed the plan and the troops got miserably seasick.
Forecasts stayed poor, but Eisenhower decided against another postponement and gave the order June 5 to invade the following day. About 156,000 Allied soldiers _ mostly American, British and Canadian _ took part in the invasion, storming in from the English Channel.
"I'll never forget that day, and the combat that followed," said Easy Company veteran Buck Taylor, of Salem, Ore. "So often, I was almost killed. But there must have been someone up above looking out for me."
French and American dignitaries joined veterans there and at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, where 9,387 fallen U.S. soldiers are buried under an expanse of white crosses.
A choir from Atlanta sang the French and American national anthems, the Marseillaise and the Star-Spangled Banner, and the French veterans affairs minister welcomed the aging "men of honor."
"From year to year, from generation to generation, men and women who love freedom remember this day that is unique in history," Hamlaoui Mekachera said.
The Allied soldiers "restored freedom to Europe, and restored dignity to men," he said.
Ceremonies this year were much smaller and more intimate than for the grandiose 60th anniversary commemorations attended by President Bush, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and other heads of state.
Last year's ceremonies injected a new sense of trans-Atlantic unity at a time when the United States and countries like France and Germany were at odds over the Iraq war.
Still, "it's not an off-year for me," said Bill Coleman, the American Legion delegate in Normandy.
He landed at Omaha Beach on June 8, two days after the initial invasion, a member of the critical ordnance teams that kept supplies flowing to the fighters. At 81, he still visits Normandy schools to explain the significance of D-Day.
"I keep the war alive for the children so that they do not forget what transpired. We came here to liberate them and now they're free," he said.
Rain dampened plans Sunday for one of the most dramatic tributes -_ a drop by some 150 military parachutists into the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, a near-annual commemoration that was to include some 40 Germans for the first time. The town was the first liberated by U.S. forces in Normandy after paratroopers landed ahead of the main invasion force.
Ariz. Man Charged With Possessing Ricin
A man was arrested on a charge of possessing the deadly poison ricin, but authorities said they do not think he had any connection to terrorism.
Casey Cutler, 25, of Mesa, was arrested Saturday after a man who was hospitalized complained that Cutler may have poisoned him with ricin. Federal prosecutors say Cutler will be formally charged this week. The hospitalized man, whose name was not released, showed no signs of exposure to ricin, but ricin was discovered in Cutler's possession when he was arrested Saturday in a public place in Mesa, police said.
Officials said he wasn't known to have any connection to terrorism, but gave no details on what or whom he might have been targeting.
"This is an isolated incident," said Keith Bennett, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Phoenix field office.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as little as 500 micrograms of ricin, roughly the amount that fits on the head of a pin, is enough to kill an adult. The poison can be made from waste left over from processing castor beans.
Casey Cutler, 25, of Mesa, was arrested Saturday after a man who was hospitalized complained that Cutler may have poisoned him with ricin. Federal prosecutors say Cutler will be formally charged this week. The hospitalized man, whose name was not released, showed no signs of exposure to ricin, but ricin was discovered in Cutler's possession when he was arrested Saturday in a public place in Mesa, police said.
Officials said he wasn't known to have any connection to terrorism, but gave no details on what or whom he might have been targeting.
"This is an isolated incident," said Keith Bennett, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's Phoenix field office.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as little as 500 micrograms of ricin, roughly the amount that fits on the head of a pin, is enough to kill an adult. The poison can be made from waste left over from processing castor beans.
Watergate and Deep Throat � Fact and Myth
Which of these statements is true?
There really was a "Deep Throat," who played a major role in Watergate, and he was Mark Felt.
Bob Woodward is a reliable reporter.
In the Watergate affair, the Democratic National Committee Headquarters was bugged by the White House "plumbers," and their target was DNC Chairman Larry O'Brien.
Watergate was all about politics.
The CIA was not involved in Watergate.
The answer - none of the above.
There really was a "Deep Throat," who played a major role in Watergate, and he was Mark Felt.
Bob Woodward is a reliable reporter.
In the Watergate affair, the Democratic National Committee Headquarters was bugged by the White House "plumbers," and their target was DNC Chairman Larry O'Brien.
Watergate was all about politics.
The CIA was not involved in Watergate.
The answer - none of the above.
Marines Find Weapons, Huge Bunker in Iraq
Hundreds of Iraqi and U.S. troops searched fields and farms Saturday for insurgents and their hideouts in an area south of Baghdad known for attacks, and the Marines said they discovered 50 weapons and ammunition caches and a huge underground bunker west of the capital fitted out with air conditioning, a kitchen and showers.
The joint U.S.-Iraqi force operating in Latifiyah to the south was backed by American air power and said it had rounded up at least 108 Iraqis, mainly Sunnis, suspected of involvement in the brutal insurgent campaign to topple the Shiite-led government.
To the west of the capital, the 2nd Marine division said its forces had discovered 50 weapons and ammunitions caches over the past four days in restive Anbar province. The military said the find included a recently used "insurgent lair" in a massive underground bunker complex that included air-conditioned living quarters and high tech military equipment, including night vision goggles.
That bunker was found cut from a rock quarry in Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. The Marines said the facility was 170 yards wide and 275 yards long.
In its rooms were "four fully furnished living spaces, a kitchen with fresh food, two shower facilities and a working air conditioner. Other rooms within the complex were filled with weapons and ammunition," the announcement said.
The weapons included "numerous types of machine guns, ordnance, including mortars, rockets and artillery rounds, black uniforms, ski masks, compasses, log books, night vision goggles, and fully charged cell phones."
In Latifiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, Iraqi and American forces launched a raid as part of Operation Lightning, a week-old assault aimed at rooting out insurgents conducting raids on the capital and sapping militant strength nationwide. While Iraqi forces were in the forefront of Saturday's sweep though the semi-rural region, it was clear the U.S. military was still the driving force.
About two hours into the operation, for example, American forces voiced concern that an area covered in tall grass had not been searched. An Iraqi commander said he was reluctant to send his troops into the field for fear of an insurgent attack.
'Dangerous Area'
"This is a dangerous area. We need helicopters and the American army," Iraqi Brig. Gen. Najim al-Ekabi said.
The American soldiers, who had spent months training Iraqi soldiers, tried to persuade al-Ekabi to send his troops, saying it was likely that weapons were hidden in the fields and alongside an irrigation canal.
Army Capt. Jason Blindauer of the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division told al-Ekabi the force had orders to search the area. "No one is going to do it better than your group," Blindauer said.
Al-Ekabi asked for a private meeting with the Americans and departed shortly afterward in a large convoy, ostensibly to conduct the search.
Maj. Ronny Echelberger later went into the area with American forces and searched a few homes, saying was not been sure the Iraqi search had been sufficiently thorough.
The Iraqi army's reliance on U.S. troops was evident in other ways. Echelberger had to show an Iraqi brigade commander his location on a map shortly before Iraqi troops launched the operation, and a few minutes later Iraqi soldiers fired hundreds of rounds when they mistakenly thought they saw an insurgent.
"These guys are doing baptism by fire. It takes time," Blindauer said.
Operation Lightning is being watched closely as a bellwether of when Iraqis can take control of their own security, a key to the U.S. exit strategy more than two years after Saddam Hussein's ouster.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr has said at least 700 suspected insurgents have been rounded up in the sweep, which has also killed at least 28 militants. U.S. Lt. Col. Michael Infanti said at least 221 people had been detained since last Wednesday by forces carrying out a sweep of Baghdad's southern districts. It was unclear if that number was in addition to the 700 given by Jabr.
Also Saturday, a suicide car bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi police checkpoint on a main road connecting northern Mosul with the nearby city of Tal Afar, killing two officers and wounding four. Four others were hurt in a roadside bombing as they went to help their fallen colleagues, Mosul police Lt. Zaid Ahmed Shakir said.
An Iraqi believed to be a terror leader in the north was captured by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Mosul, 225 miles north of Baghdad. He was identified as Mullah Mahdi and was caught along with his brother, three other Iraqis and a non-Iraqi Arab, Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Khalil Ahmed al-Obeidi said.
Mahdi was affiliated with the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, one of Iraq's most feared terror groups, and had links to the Syrian intelligence service, al-Obeidi said without elaborating. Iraqi and U.S. officials have accused Syria of facilitating the insurgency by allowing foreign fighters to cross its borders, but Damascus denies the allegation.
On Sunday, a representative of Australia's top Islamic cleric said the cleric had met with Douglas Wood, an Australian being held hostage by Iraqi militants.
Sheik Taj El Din al-Hilaly is in Baghdad seeking the release of 63-year-old Wood, a California-based Australian engineer who was abducted in late April. The group that kidnapped him released a DVD on May 1 showing him pleading for Australia to withdraw it 1,400 troops from Iraq.
The Australian government has refused.
Ikebal Patel, from Australia's Federation of Islamic Councils, told television's Seven Network he had spoken to Al-Hilaly in Iraq on Thursday.
"He said to me: `I've seen him eye to eye,' those were the words he used, eye to eye, it was Douglas," Patel said.
He said Al-Hilaly reported that Wood had received the heart medication he needed and was holding up well.
The joint U.S.-Iraqi force operating in Latifiyah to the south was backed by American air power and said it had rounded up at least 108 Iraqis, mainly Sunnis, suspected of involvement in the brutal insurgent campaign to topple the Shiite-led government.
To the west of the capital, the 2nd Marine division said its forces had discovered 50 weapons and ammunitions caches over the past four days in restive Anbar province. The military said the find included a recently used "insurgent lair" in a massive underground bunker complex that included air-conditioned living quarters and high tech military equipment, including night vision goggles.
That bunker was found cut from a rock quarry in Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. The Marines said the facility was 170 yards wide and 275 yards long.
In its rooms were "four fully furnished living spaces, a kitchen with fresh food, two shower facilities and a working air conditioner. Other rooms within the complex were filled with weapons and ammunition," the announcement said.
The weapons included "numerous types of machine guns, ordnance, including mortars, rockets and artillery rounds, black uniforms, ski masks, compasses, log books, night vision goggles, and fully charged cell phones."
In Latifiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, Iraqi and American forces launched a raid as part of Operation Lightning, a week-old assault aimed at rooting out insurgents conducting raids on the capital and sapping militant strength nationwide. While Iraqi forces were in the forefront of Saturday's sweep though the semi-rural region, it was clear the U.S. military was still the driving force.
About two hours into the operation, for example, American forces voiced concern that an area covered in tall grass had not been searched. An Iraqi commander said he was reluctant to send his troops into the field for fear of an insurgent attack.
'Dangerous Area'
"This is a dangerous area. We need helicopters and the American army," Iraqi Brig. Gen. Najim al-Ekabi said.
The American soldiers, who had spent months training Iraqi soldiers, tried to persuade al-Ekabi to send his troops, saying it was likely that weapons were hidden in the fields and alongside an irrigation canal.
Army Capt. Jason Blindauer of the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division told al-Ekabi the force had orders to search the area. "No one is going to do it better than your group," Blindauer said.
Al-Ekabi asked for a private meeting with the Americans and departed shortly afterward in a large convoy, ostensibly to conduct the search.
Maj. Ronny Echelberger later went into the area with American forces and searched a few homes, saying was not been sure the Iraqi search had been sufficiently thorough.
The Iraqi army's reliance on U.S. troops was evident in other ways. Echelberger had to show an Iraqi brigade commander his location on a map shortly before Iraqi troops launched the operation, and a few minutes later Iraqi soldiers fired hundreds of rounds when they mistakenly thought they saw an insurgent.
"These guys are doing baptism by fire. It takes time," Blindauer said.
Operation Lightning is being watched closely as a bellwether of when Iraqis can take control of their own security, a key to the U.S. exit strategy more than two years after Saddam Hussein's ouster.
Interior Minister Bayan Jabr has said at least 700 suspected insurgents have been rounded up in the sweep, which has also killed at least 28 militants. U.S. Lt. Col. Michael Infanti said at least 221 people had been detained since last Wednesday by forces carrying out a sweep of Baghdad's southern districts. It was unclear if that number was in addition to the 700 given by Jabr.
Also Saturday, a suicide car bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi police checkpoint on a main road connecting northern Mosul with the nearby city of Tal Afar, killing two officers and wounding four. Four others were hurt in a roadside bombing as they went to help their fallen colleagues, Mosul police Lt. Zaid Ahmed Shakir said.
An Iraqi believed to be a terror leader in the north was captured by U.S. and Iraqi forces in Mosul, 225 miles north of Baghdad. He was identified as Mullah Mahdi and was caught along with his brother, three other Iraqis and a non-Iraqi Arab, Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Khalil Ahmed al-Obeidi said.
Mahdi was affiliated with the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, one of Iraq's most feared terror groups, and had links to the Syrian intelligence service, al-Obeidi said without elaborating. Iraqi and U.S. officials have accused Syria of facilitating the insurgency by allowing foreign fighters to cross its borders, but Damascus denies the allegation.
On Sunday, a representative of Australia's top Islamic cleric said the cleric had met with Douglas Wood, an Australian being held hostage by Iraqi militants.
Sheik Taj El Din al-Hilaly is in Baghdad seeking the release of 63-year-old Wood, a California-based Australian engineer who was abducted in late April. The group that kidnapped him released a DVD on May 1 showing him pleading for Australia to withdraw it 1,400 troops from Iraq.
The Australian government has refused.
Ikebal Patel, from Australia's Federation of Islamic Councils, told television's Seven Network he had spoken to Al-Hilaly in Iraq on Thursday.
"He said to me: `I've seen him eye to eye,' those were the words he used, eye to eye, it was Douglas," Patel said.
He said Al-Hilaly reported that Wood had received the heart medication he needed and was holding up well.
Intel Shows Terror Suspects Living in Iran
Mounting evidence gathered over several years has U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies increasingly convinced that leading terror suspects have been living in Iran.
Their existence in the Islamic republic poses an ongoing problem to top Bush administration officials, who have warned Middle Eastern countries against providing shelter or other aid to terrorists. The evidence includes communications by a fugitive mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing and the capture of a Saudi militant who appeared in a video in which Osama bin Laden confirmed he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks, according to U.S. and foreign officials.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because much of the evidence remains classified.
Saudi intelligence officers tracked and apprehended Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi last year in eastern Iran, officials said. The arrest came nearly three years after the cleric had appeared with bin Laden and discussed details of the Sept. 11 planning during a dinner that was videotaped and aired across the world.
The capture was a coup for Saudi Arabia, which spent months tracking him and setting up the intelligence operation that led to his being taken into custody in exchange for eventual amnesty.
The officials said interrogations of al-Harbi, who is now in Saudi Arabia, have yielded confirmation of many al-Qaida tactics, including how members crossed into Iran after the U.S. began military operations to rout al-Qaida and the Taliban from Afghanistan.
Al-Harbi is believed to have been paralyzed from the waist down while fighting in the 1990s alongside Muslim extremists in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and he surprised intelligence officials when he appeared in the December 2001 video with bin Laden.
"Everybody praises what you did," al-Harbi said on the tape.
U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies also have evidence stretching back to the late 1990s that indicates Ahmad Ibrahim al-Mughassil remains in hiding in Iran. He is wanted as one of the masterminds of the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans.
Al-Mughassil, who also goes by the alias Abu Omran, has been charged as a fugitive by the United States � accused of conspiracy to commit murder in the attacks � and has a $5 million bounty on his head.
U.S. authorities have long alleged that the 1996 bombing was carried out by a Saudi wing of the militant group Hezbollah, which receives support from Iran and Syria.
Evidence
Intelligence agencies gathered evidence, including a specific phone number, as early as 1997 indicating that al-Mughassil was living in Iran, and they have other information indicating his whereabouts.
U.S. officials have not publicly discussed the Saudi capture of al-Harbi or their evidence on al-Mughassil's whereabouts, but they have increasingly raised questions about Iran's efforts to turn over other suspected terrorists believed to be under some form of loose house arrest.
Nicholas Burns, State Department undersecretary for political affairs, told Congress last month that Iran has refused to identify al-Qaida members it has in custody.
"Iran continues to hold senior al-Qaida leaders who are wanted for murdering Americans and others in the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings and for plotting to kill countless others," Burns said.
Top administration officials have repeatedly warned Iran against harboring or assisting suspected terrorists.
U.S. intelligence this week has been checking some reports, still uncorroborated as of Friday, that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader of the Iraqi insurgency, may have dipped into Iran, officials said.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned countries in the Middle East not to help al-Zarqawi.
"Were a neighboring country to take him in and provide medical assistance or haven for him, they, obviously, would be associating themselves with a major linkage in the al-Qaida network and a person who has a great deal of blood on his hands," Rumsfeld said.
The U.S. and foreign officials said evidence gathered by intelligence agencies indicates the following figures are somewhere in Iran, perhaps under some form of house arrest or surveillance:
� Saad bin Laden, the son of the al-Qaida leader whom U.S. authorities have aggressively hunted since the Sept. 11 attacks.
� Saif al-Adel, an al-Qaida security chief wanted in connection with the deadly 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.
� Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the chief of information for al-Qaida and a frequently quoted spokesman for bin Laden.
Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East analyst at the Congressional Research Service, said it's possible that some of the suspected terrorists are being held in guarded villas, and he doubted any detention is uncomfortable.
"I think that Iran sees these guys as something of an insurance policy," Katzman said. "It's leverage."
Rasool Nafisi, a Middle East analyst who studies conservative groups in Iran, said Iran has returned some lower-level operatives to their home countries but probably is keeping higher-ranking operatives as a bartering chip.
"Remember, Islamic tradition is very much based on haggling," Nafisi said. "If I were the Iranian government, I'd be very happy to have them and to use them in future negotiations with the United States."
Their existence in the Islamic republic poses an ongoing problem to top Bush administration officials, who have warned Middle Eastern countries against providing shelter or other aid to terrorists. The evidence includes communications by a fugitive mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing and the capture of a Saudi militant who appeared in a video in which Osama bin Laden confirmed he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks, according to U.S. and foreign officials.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because much of the evidence remains classified.
Saudi intelligence officers tracked and apprehended Khaled bin Ouda bin Mohammed al-Harbi last year in eastern Iran, officials said. The arrest came nearly three years after the cleric had appeared with bin Laden and discussed details of the Sept. 11 planning during a dinner that was videotaped and aired across the world.
The capture was a coup for Saudi Arabia, which spent months tracking him and setting up the intelligence operation that led to his being taken into custody in exchange for eventual amnesty.
The officials said interrogations of al-Harbi, who is now in Saudi Arabia, have yielded confirmation of many al-Qaida tactics, including how members crossed into Iran after the U.S. began military operations to rout al-Qaida and the Taliban from Afghanistan.
Al-Harbi is believed to have been paralyzed from the waist down while fighting in the 1990s alongside Muslim extremists in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and he surprised intelligence officials when he appeared in the December 2001 video with bin Laden.
"Everybody praises what you did," al-Harbi said on the tape.
U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies also have evidence stretching back to the late 1990s that indicates Ahmad Ibrahim al-Mughassil remains in hiding in Iran. He is wanted as one of the masterminds of the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans.
Al-Mughassil, who also goes by the alias Abu Omran, has been charged as a fugitive by the United States � accused of conspiracy to commit murder in the attacks � and has a $5 million bounty on his head.
U.S. authorities have long alleged that the 1996 bombing was carried out by a Saudi wing of the militant group Hezbollah, which receives support from Iran and Syria.
Evidence
Intelligence agencies gathered evidence, including a specific phone number, as early as 1997 indicating that al-Mughassil was living in Iran, and they have other information indicating his whereabouts.
U.S. officials have not publicly discussed the Saudi capture of al-Harbi or their evidence on al-Mughassil's whereabouts, but they have increasingly raised questions about Iran's efforts to turn over other suspected terrorists believed to be under some form of loose house arrest.
Nicholas Burns, State Department undersecretary for political affairs, told Congress last month that Iran has refused to identify al-Qaida members it has in custody.
"Iran continues to hold senior al-Qaida leaders who are wanted for murdering Americans and others in the 1998 East Africa Embassy bombings and for plotting to kill countless others," Burns said.
Top administration officials have repeatedly warned Iran against harboring or assisting suspected terrorists.
U.S. intelligence this week has been checking some reports, still uncorroborated as of Friday, that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader of the Iraqi insurgency, may have dipped into Iran, officials said.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld warned countries in the Middle East not to help al-Zarqawi.
"Were a neighboring country to take him in and provide medical assistance or haven for him, they, obviously, would be associating themselves with a major linkage in the al-Qaida network and a person who has a great deal of blood on his hands," Rumsfeld said.
The U.S. and foreign officials said evidence gathered by intelligence agencies indicates the following figures are somewhere in Iran, perhaps under some form of house arrest or surveillance:
� Saad bin Laden, the son of the al-Qaida leader whom U.S. authorities have aggressively hunted since the Sept. 11 attacks.
� Saif al-Adel, an al-Qaida security chief wanted in connection with the deadly 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa.
� Suleiman Abu Ghaith, the chief of information for al-Qaida and a frequently quoted spokesman for bin Laden.
Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East analyst at the Congressional Research Service, said it's possible that some of the suspected terrorists are being held in guarded villas, and he doubted any detention is uncomfortable.
"I think that Iran sees these guys as something of an insurance policy," Katzman said. "It's leverage."
Rasool Nafisi, a Middle East analyst who studies conservative groups in Iran, said Iran has returned some lower-level operatives to their home countries but probably is keeping higher-ranking operatives as a bartering chip.
"Remember, Islamic tradition is very much based on haggling," Nafisi said. "If I were the Iranian government, I'd be very happy to have them and to use them in future negotiations with the United States."
Pakistan Hands Over Top al-Qaida Terrorist to U.S.
Pakistan has handed over to the United States senior al-Qaida suspect Abu Farraj al-Libbi, who was wanted for two assassination attempts against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, an official said Monday.
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani confirmed a reported comment by Musharraf published in a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates on Monday that al-Libbi had been handed over, but gave no further details. "The president made a statement to this effect. The president's statement was self-explanatory. I don't have further details," Jilani said at a news conference in Islamabad.
Some officials have described al-Libbi as al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, after Osama bin Laden and Egyptian surgeon Ayman al-Zawahri. However, he does not appear on the FBI list of the world's most-wanted terrorists, and his exact role in al-Qaida is murky.
He was arrested May 2 after a shootout in northwestern Pakistan.
An intelligence official said al-Libbi was whisked out of Pakistan with U.S. officials aboard an airplane "a few days ago." The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the clandestine nature of his job, did not know where al-Libbi was taken.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad was not immediately available for comment.
On May 31, Musharraf told CNN that Pakistan would hand al-Libbi, who is a Libyan, to the United States.
In an interview with United Arab Emirates daily al-Ittihad he confirmed that had happened.
"Yes, we turned Abu Farraj al-Libbi over to the United States recently, and we don't want people like him in our country," Musharraf was quoted as saying.
The Pakistani leader did not say when or how al-Libbi was handed over or provide other details.
In Pakistan, al-Libbi was wanted for allegedly masterminding two attempts on Musharraf's life in December 2003. The president was unhurt, but 17 people died in the second attack.
The assassination attempts carry a maximum penalty in Pakistan of death by hanging. The personal nature of the attacks led many to believe Musharraf would seek to try al-Libbi here.
Pakistani officials also have said that al-Libbi was behind a suicide attack against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, weeks before he took office last year. Nine people died, including Aziz's driver.
It was not entirely clear what charges if any al-Libbi might face in the United States, or if he has been indicted by any U.S. court.
In Washington last week, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States was talking to Pakistan about al-Libbi but had not yet discussed his extradition.
Pakistan says it has captured more than 700 al-Qaida suspects since the Sept. 11 attacks, sending most of them to the United States.
They include al-Qaida's former No. 3, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was arrested in March 2003 during a raid near Islamabad. Two other alleged al-Qaida leaders, Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Zubaydah, were also arrested in Pakistan.
Pakistan also has deployed about 70,000 troops in its tribal regions bordering Afghanistan - considered possible hiding places for bin Laden - to track down suspected terrorists.
Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani confirmed a reported comment by Musharraf published in a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates on Monday that al-Libbi had been handed over, but gave no further details. "The president made a statement to this effect. The president's statement was self-explanatory. I don't have further details," Jilani said at a news conference in Islamabad.
Some officials have described al-Libbi as al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, after Osama bin Laden and Egyptian surgeon Ayman al-Zawahri. However, he does not appear on the FBI list of the world's most-wanted terrorists, and his exact role in al-Qaida is murky.
He was arrested May 2 after a shootout in northwestern Pakistan.
An intelligence official said al-Libbi was whisked out of Pakistan with U.S. officials aboard an airplane "a few days ago." The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the clandestine nature of his job, did not know where al-Libbi was taken.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad was not immediately available for comment.
On May 31, Musharraf told CNN that Pakistan would hand al-Libbi, who is a Libyan, to the United States.
In an interview with United Arab Emirates daily al-Ittihad he confirmed that had happened.
"Yes, we turned Abu Farraj al-Libbi over to the United States recently, and we don't want people like him in our country," Musharraf was quoted as saying.
The Pakistani leader did not say when or how al-Libbi was handed over or provide other details.
In Pakistan, al-Libbi was wanted for allegedly masterminding two attempts on Musharraf's life in December 2003. The president was unhurt, but 17 people died in the second attack.
The assassination attempts carry a maximum penalty in Pakistan of death by hanging. The personal nature of the attacks led many to believe Musharraf would seek to try al-Libbi here.
Pakistani officials also have said that al-Libbi was behind a suicide attack against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, weeks before he took office last year. Nine people died, including Aziz's driver.
It was not entirely clear what charges if any al-Libbi might face in the United States, or if he has been indicted by any U.S. court.
In Washington last week, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States was talking to Pakistan about al-Libbi but had not yet discussed his extradition.
Pakistan says it has captured more than 700 al-Qaida suspects since the Sept. 11 attacks, sending most of them to the United States.
They include al-Qaida's former No. 3, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was arrested in March 2003 during a raid near Islamabad. Two other alleged al-Qaida leaders, Ramzi Binalshibh and Abu Zubaydah, were also arrested in Pakistan.
Pakistan also has deployed about 70,000 troops in its tribal regions bordering Afghanistan - considered possible hiding places for bin Laden - to track down suspected terrorists.
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