Newly disclosed documents show U.S. Defense Department tracked anti-Iraq war activities

An anti-terrorist database used by the Defense Department in an effort to prevent attacks on military installations included intelligence tips about antiwar planning meetings held at churches, libraries, college campuses and other locations, newly disclosed documents show.

One tip in the database in February 2005, for instance, noted that "a church service for peace" would be held in the New York City area the next month. Another entry noted that antiwar protesters would be holding "nonviolence training" sessions at unidentified churches in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

The Defense Department said it tightened its procedures this year to ensure that only material related to actual terrorist threats - and not peaceable First Amendment activity - was included in the database.

The head of the office that runs the database, known as Talon, said Monday that material on antiwar protests should not have been collected in the first place. "I don't want it, we shouldn't have had it, not interested in it," said Daniel Baur, acting director of the counterintelligence field-activity unit, which runs the Talon program at the Defense Department. "I don't want to deal with it."

Source: International Herald Tribune
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Cheney calls 'water-boarding' a valuable interrogation tool

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al Qaeda suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called ''water-boarding,'' which creates a sensation of drowning.

Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. ''It's a no-brainer for me,'' Cheney said at one point in an interview.

Cheney's comments, in a White House interview on Tuesday with a conservative radio talk show host, appeared to reflect the Bush administration's view that the president has the constitutional power to do whatever he deems necessary to fight terrorism.

The U.S. Army, senior Republican lawmakers, human rights experts and many experts on the laws of war, however, consider water-boarding cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment that is banned by U.S. law and by international treaties that prohibit torture. Some intelligence professionals argue that it often provides false or misleading information because many subjects will tell their interrogators what they think they want to hear to make the water-boarding stop.

GOP SENATORS FIGHT IT

Republican Sens. John Warner of Virginia, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have said that a law Bush signed last month prohibits water-boarding. The three are the sponsors of the Military Commissions Act, which authorized the administration to continue its interrogations of enemy combatants.

Graham, a military lawyer who serves in the Air Force Reserve, reaffirmed that view in an interview last week with McClatchy Newspapers.

''Water-boarding, in my opinion, would cause extreme physical and psychological pain and suffering, and it very much could run afoul of the War Crimes Act,'' he said, referring to a 1996 law. ``It could very much open people up to prosecution under the War Crimes Act, as well as be a violation of the Detainees Treatment Act.''

A revised U.S. Army Field Manual published last month bans water-boarding as ``cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.''

''There is a disconnect between the president and the vice president and on the other side leading proponents from their own party and leading experts on the laws of war,'' said Neal Sonnett, the chairman of the American Bar Association's Task Force on Enemy Combatants.

CHENEY INTERVIEWED

The radio interview Tuesday was the first time that a senior Bush administration official has confirmed that U.S. interrogators used water-boarding against important al Qaeda suspects, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged chief architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Mohammed was captured in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, and turned over to the CIA.

Water-boarding involves holding a person's head under water or pouring water on cloth or cellophane placed over the nose and mouth to simulate drowning until the subject agrees to talk or confess.

Lee Ann McBride, a spokeswoman for Cheney, denied that Cheney confirmed that U.S. interrogators used water-boarding or endorsed the technique.

''What the vice president was referring to was an interrogation program without torture,'' she said. ``The vice president never goes into what may or may not be techniques or methods of questioning.''

`A VALUABLE TOOL'

In the interview on Tuesday, Scott Hennen of WDAY Radio in Fargo, N.D., told Cheney that listeners had asked him to ``let the vice president know that if it takes dunking a terrorist in water, we're all for it, if it saves American lives.''

''Again, this debate seems a little silly given the threat we face, would you agree?'' Hennen said.

''I do agree,'' Cheney replied, according to a transcript of the interview released Wednesday. ``And I think the terrorist threat, for example, with respect to our ability to interrogate high-value detainees like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, that's been a very important tool that we've had to be able to secure the nation.''

Cheney added that Mohammed had provided ``enormously valuable information about how many [al Qaeda members] there are, about how they plan, what their training processes are and so forth. We've learned a lot. We need to be able to continue that.''

''Would you agree that a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?'' asked Hennen.

'It's a no-brainer for me, but for a while there, I was criticized as being the vice president `for torture.' We don't torture. That's not what we're involved in,'' Cheney replied. ``We live up to our obligations in international treaties that we're party to and so forth. But the fact is, you can have a fairly robust interrogation program without torture, and we need to be able to do that.''

CIA spokeswoman Michelle Neff said, ``While we do not discuss specific interrogation methods, the techniques we use have been reviewed by the Department of Justice and are in keeping with our laws and treaty obligations. We neither conduct nor condone torture.''

McClatchy Washington Bureau correspondents James Rosen and Marisa Taylor contributed to this report.

Olbermann slams GOP for imitating terror tactics

From an month to two month out, we are finally back reporting on news around the world.. Today Olbermann slams GOP for imitating terror tactics:

Republicans are using terror tactics in an attempt to gain votes, says Keith Olbermann. A new political advertisement sponsored by the Republican National Committee hopes that voters' fear will increase votes for Republican Candidates. The advertisement shows images of Osama bin Laden with only the sounds of a ticking time bomb.

In his commentary, Olbermann's explains how Republicans use propaganda of fear in a way that imitates the propaganda video releases from terrorists organizations

Bill Clinton Destroys Chris Wallace And FOX news

A few days ago, Bill Clinton was interviewed by Fox news, see how Bill Clinton gets blamed for 9-11.

Olbermann tells it like it is

An interesting note from Olbermann: See what he has to say

Rights activists raise political killings at UN

The killings of scores of left-wing activists in the Philippines have been brought before the UN in a bid to put international pressure on President Gloria Arroyo to do more to stop the attacks, human rights advocates said yesterday.

Representatives of five Philippine left-wing groups are attending a conference of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to encourage diplomats and foreign rights advocates to condemn the killings, allegedly carried out by government forces, they said.

"International pressure might at least put a stop to these increasing numbers of political killings," Edelina de la Paz, head of the prominent local human rights group Karapatan, told a Manila forum on the issue.

Source: GulfNews
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Blair 'turned blind eye to Iraq intelligence' in Bush meeting

Tony Blair turned "a blind eye to intelligence" and failed to challenge George Bush over claims that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons, according to new claims published this week.

A note of a private meeting between Mr Blair and President Bush in January 2003 shows that Tony Blair failed to confront Mr Bush when he claimed Saddam Hussein had tried to buy aluminium tubes for nuclear weapons production.

Mr Blair did not contradict the President despite having received "private briefings" which indicated that the aluminium tubes were more likely to be for conventional weapons, according to the new edition of a book by the international lawyer Philippe Sands published tomorrow. The claims in a new US edition of the book, Lawless World, will raise fresh questions about whether Mr Blair played a secondary role to President Bush.

Source: London Independant

Venezuela rejects US apologies

Venezuela has made a formal complaint to the US authorities and the United Nations after its foreign minister was detained at a New York airport.

The US state department has apologised to Nicolas Maduro who was detained for 90 minutes at New York's JFK airport as he travelled home.

He had been attending this week's UN General Assembly meeting.

He said he was verbally abused and strip-searched in what he said was a "flagrant breach of international law".

President Hugo Chavez described Mr Maduro's detention as a provocation.

Source: BBC News
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Thousands peacefully protest in Budapest against Hungarian PM

Tens of thousands of people have rallied peacefully in Budapest in the biggest demonstration so far against Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany over his admission that he lied to the electorate.

An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 demonstrators calling for Mr Gyurcsany's resignation gathered outside the huge neo-Gothic parliament, where protests have been held for the past week.

But there was no repeat of the violence which marred earlier rallies and put riot police on full alert.

Mr Gyurcsany was unmoved, saying he will stay in power and pledging to implement the painful tax rises and spending cuts that have caused his government's popularity to plummet to 25 per cent in recent polls from 40 per cent at April's election.

"I will continue on because I still have much to do here," Mr Gyurcsany told German magazine Focus in an interview.

Demonstrators carrying Hungarian flags and singing patriotic songs said they would stay the course in hoping they could eventually force out the 45-year-old millionaire Socialist.

Source: ABC Austrialia News Online

France looks into Osama bin Laden death report

President Jacques Chirac said Saturday that information contained in a leaked intelligence document raising the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan last month is "in no way whatsoever confirmed."

Chirac said he was "a bit surprised" at the leak and has asked Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie to probe how a document from a French foreign intelligence service was published in the French press.

The regional newspaper l'Est Republicain on Saturday printed what it described as a copy of a confidential document from the DGSE intelligence service citing an uncorroborated report from Saudi secret services that the leader of the al-Qaeda terror network had died.

Source: International Herald Tribune
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North Korea 'makes weapon pledge'

North Korea has said it plans to increase the amount of plutonium it extracts for use in nuclear weapons, according to a US scholar.

Selig Harrison said North Korean officials had told him they would unload nuclear fuel rods from the Yongbyon reactor by the year's end.

Mr Harrison said Pyongyang wants "to use Yongbyon as leverage" to get bilateral talks with the US.

The US insists the nuclear issue can only be addressed in six-party talks.

Pyongyang walked out of multilateral negotiations with the US, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea late last year in protest at US financial sanctions.

Source: BBC News

London bombing victims 'let down'

The emergency response to the London bombings on 7 July last year was flawed, a Home Office report based on the experiences of victims has found.

The government praises the bravery of emergency workers but says procedures in areas including communications and medical treatment need to be improved.

It highlights the need to quickly set up reception and assistance centres.

Source: BBC News
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Lahoud: It is time for Israel to abide by all UN resolutions

It is time for Israel to take responsibility and abide by United Nations resolutions, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said Thursday in his address to the UN General Assembly.

Lahoud called the Israel Defense Forces' 34-day operation on southern Lebanon a "barbaric aggression," and said "this savagery did not weaken our people's resolve."

"It is time to ask Israel to finally abide by past and current UN resolutions," Lahoud said. The president also called on the international community to "safeguard" resolution 1701, which led to the cease-fire between IDF troops and Hezbollah guerillas, though he accused the United Nations of having been "powerless to stop slaughter of the war."

Source: Haaretz
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CIA ‘refused to operate’ secret jails

The Bush administration had to empty its secret prisons and transfer terror suspects to the military-run detention centre at Guantánamo this month in part because CIA interrogators had refused to carry out further interrogations and run the secret facilities, according to former CIA officials and people close to the programme.

The former officials said the CIA interrogators’ refusal was a factor in forcing the Bush administration to act earlier than it might have wished.

Source: FT.COM
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Bush, Republicans forge terrorism interrogation deal

President Bush bowed to pressure from leading senators in his Republican party on Thursday, revising a bill for interrogating terrorism suspects that critics had said would allow abusive treatment.

The deal between the White House and the three Senate heavyweights ended days of negotiations and appeared to clear the way for Congress to pass legislation setting up trials for foreign suspects at the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Source: Reuters
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America is alienating rest of world: Powell

The former US secretary of state Colin Powell has accused the White House of pursuing policies in the "war on terror" that have put America out of step with the rest of the world.

In a rare public breach with the administration, Mr Powell told an audience in Norfolk, Virginia, on Tuesday that he opposed White House plans to redefine America's commitment to sections of the Geneva convention protecting detainees from torture and degrading treatment.

Source: Guardian Unlimited
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Zuma's corruption trial collapses

Corruption charges against former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma have been dismissed - boosting his chances of running for president.

The judge threw out the case after the prosecution said it was not ready to proceed, setting off celebrations by Mr Zuma's supporters in the courtroom.

Mr Zuma was sacked last year in connection with a 1999 arms deal. He was cleared of rape earlier this year.

Source: BBC News Worldwide
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Decision for Darfur peacekeepers

African Union leaders are meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to decide on the fate of its 7,000-strong Darfur force.

The mandate of the mission expires at the end of the month. It is thought a three-month extension may be agreed, despite their failure to end violence.

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has reiterated his opposition to moves to turn the force into one led by the UN.

Source: BBC News Worldwide
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Thai coup leader to install new PM in two weeks

Thailand's military coup leaders will choose a new prime minister within two weeks and step back from power, army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said on Wednesday.

Speaking less than 24 hours after leading a bloodless coup to oust billionaire Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Sonthi also said it would take a year to produce a new constitution leading to a fresh general election.

Source: Reuters
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US may ban sale of cluster bombs to Israel

The discovery of hundreds of US-made cluster bombs among the tens of thousands of unexploded munitions carpeting the south of Lebanon, has led to calls on Washington to impose a moratorium on sales of the weapons to Israel.

Bomb disposal experts are working around the clock to clear the lethal leftovers after Israel fired 1.2 million bomblets in the last three days of the war. The pods containing the 650 bomblets, which burst apart at a pre-determined height, have a failure rate of up to 30 per cent, leaving clear evidence of their American origin.

Source: Independent Online
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