2004 NEWS HISTORY ARCHIVE

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"India's cultural elite revive muckraking magazine: After declining under previous government, Tehelka.com rebounds, bolstered by reader funding." ... "Tarun Tejpal's story shows the perils and promise of muckraking journalism in modern India." ... "His Internet news portal, Tehelka.com, was almost hounded out of existence after rocking India's political and defense establishment three years ago with a seedy exposé of high-level corruption." ... "The Tehelka tapes, declared bona fide late last month, depicted top military officials and politicians accepting bribes - and, in some cases, prostitutes - from reporters posing as defense contractors. The news portal was crushed in an alleged government backlash, and its staff fell from 125 employees to three under the weight of police raids and a lengthy judicial inquiry." -By Dan Morrison -CSMonitor

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"Lance Armstrong wins record sixth Tour de France." ... "Lance Armstrong rode into history Sunday, winning a record sixth Tour de France and cementing his place as one of the greatest athletes of all time." ... "Never in its 101-year history has the Tour had a winner like Armstrong — who just eight years ago was given less than a 50%  chance of overcoming testicular cancer that spread to his lungs and  brain." ... "Armstrong's victories and his inspiring comeback from cancer have drawn new fans to a race that has been won five times by four other riders. His professionalism, attention to detail, grueling training regimens and tactics have raised the bar for other riders hoping to win the three-week cycling marathon." ... "After more than 1,900 miles of racing, riders mostly took it easy on the 101-mile final stage, until they reached the crowd-lined Champs-Elysees." -By John Leicester -AP via -USATODAY

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"US increases pressure on Sudan." ... "The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, today said he expected the UN security council to threaten sanctions against Sudan over the humanitarian crisis in Dafur." ... "More than one million refugees there face the threat of famine, disease and attacks by pro-government militia." ... "A draft resolution, circulated by the US yesterday, called on Khartoum to prosecute the leaders of the predominantly Arab Janjaweed militia, and advocated an immediate embargo on weapons to the region." ... "The refugees, mainly from Darfur's black African tribes, have fled their homes after being attacked by the Janjaweed. They now live in tent cities, where overcrowding a shortage of rations are leading to deaths from hunger and disease." -Guardian.co.uk

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"Failure of 'imagination' led to 9/11: The 9/11 final report assigns little blame, but cites many errors, and lays out bipartisan steps to avert future terror acts." ... "Nearly three years after the attacks of Sept. 11, a national commission blames no one agency or administration for the strikes, but makes it clear that many errors occurred prior to that fateful day." ... "It leaves open the question as to whether the attacks could have been prevented, but in total it portrays a strike against America that did not come out of nowhere. It was rather the result of a growing threat that perhaps could, and should, have been foreseen." ... "Top officials all told the 9/11 commission that they understood the dangers of Al Qaeda - but commissioners in the end became convinced that there was uncertainty at the top as to whether this was just a new and especially venomous version of the longstanding terrorist menace, or whether it was indeed something radically new." -By Peter Grier and Faye Bowers -CSMonitor

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"Sudanese slam genocide resolution." ... "Sudanese Arabs have criticised a U.S. congressional resolution declaring genocide in the Darfur region, while Darfuris asked what Washington would do to make it safe for them to go back home." ... "hey do not understand anything," said Ismail Gasmalseed on Friday, a 34-year-old driver in Khartoum." ... "The U.S. Congress approved the resolution on Thursday and its supporters hope it will help mobilise the international community to protect Africans in Darfur from Arab militias." ... "But the accusation of genocide is highly controversial. The United Nations has declared the situation in Darfur the world's worst humanitarian crisis but has not called it a genocide, which would force it to take action." -By Nima Elbagir-Reuters

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"Who Are the Janjaweed? A guide to the Sudanese militiamen." [MSN explainer] ... "The word [Janjaweed], an Arabic colloquialism, means "a man with a gun on a horse." Janjaweed militiamen are primarily members of nomadic "Arab" tribes who've long been at odds with Darfur's settled "African" farmers, who are darker-skinned. (The labels Arab and African are rather misleading, given the complexity of the region's ethnic history. For simplicity's sake, Explainer will stick with these inelegant terms.) Until last year, the conflicts were mostly over Darfur's scarce water and land resources—desertification has been a serious problem, so grazing areas and wells are at a premium. In fact, the term "Janjaweed" has for years been synonymous with bandit, as these horse- or camel-borne fighters were known to swoop in on non-Arab farms to steal cattle." ... "Both victims and international observers allege that the Janjaweed are no longer the scrappy militias of yore, but rather well-equipped fighting forces that enjoy the overt assistance of the Sudanese government." -By Brendan I. Koerner -Slate.com via MSN

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"War Costs Exceed Budget, Watchdog Panel Says." ... "Military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are running $12.3 billion over budget this year, and Pentagon officials are trying to make up for the shortfall by transferring money from other accounts and delaying refurbishment of worn-out equipment in Iraq, the General Accountability Office said Wednesday." ... "The office, a nonpartisan Congressional agency, estimated that the Army was running about $9.4 billion short of what had been budgeted. By putting off other kinds of spending until next year, the military is likely to run up higher costs in future, said the agency, which was formerly the General Accounting Office." -By Edmund L. Andrews -NYTimes

- UPS News
"United Parcel 2nd-Qtr Net Rises 18% on Global Growth (Update2)." ... "United Parcel Service Inc., the world's largest package-delivery company, said earnings in the second quarter rose 18 percent as global economic growth raised shipments." ... "Net income increased to $818 million, or 72 cents a share, from $692 million, or 61 cents, a year earlier, the Atlanta-based company said in a statement. Revenue climbed 7.8 percent to $8.87 billion from $8.23 billion." -By Mary Schlangenstein ed. by Steve Geimann -Bloomberg

-  -  -  -  -  - Religion - Osama bin Laden
"9/11: The Iran Factor: The final report of the 9-11 Commission reveals troubling new evidence that Tehran was closer to Al Qaeda than Iraq was." ... "U.S. intelligence believes that in faraway Tehran, the hard-line Islamist clerics who now exercise near total control over Iran directed their border guards to help jihadists coming from Afghanistan. And sometime between October 2000 and February 2001, according to the forthcoming final report of the 9-11 Commission, eight to 10 of the "muscle" hijackers of the September 11 plot were among those who benefited from this Iranian good-fellowship." ... "According to a December 2001 memo buried in the files of the National Security Agency, obtained by the commission, Iranian officials instructed their border inspectors not to place Iranian or Afghan stamps in the passports of Saudi terrorists traveling from Osama bin Laden's training camps through Iran. Such "clean" passports undoubtedly helped the 9/11 terrorists pass into the United States without raising alarms among U.S. Customs and visa officials, sources familiar with the report told NEWSWEEK." -By Michael Isikoff and Michael Hirsh with contributions by Mark Hosenball and Steve Tuttle -Newsweek 20040726 ed. via -MSNBC

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[PDF] - "The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.  Official government edition." (7 MB, 585 pages) ... "The Commission’s Final Report provides a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. It also includes recommendations designed to guard against future attacks." ... "An Executive Summary (344 KB, 35 pages) of the Final Report is also available." -GPOAccess.gov/911

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"US group admits to criminal probe over Iran." ... "Halliburton, the oilfield services company formerly headed by US Vice-President Dick Cheney, has disclosed that a Treasury Department probe into its business dealings with Iran had been elevated to a criminal investigation. The company acknowledged that it had been subpoenaed by a grand jury in the southern district of Texas to present documents related to a Cayman Islands subsidiary that serves the Iranian National Oil Company." -By Joshua Chaffin -FT.com

-  - Osama bin Laden
"Intelligence failures cited in 9/11 report: Doesn't conclude whether attacks were preventable." ... "The report, to be released publicly tomorrow, includes a list of 10 ''operational opportunities" that the government missed to potentially unravel the Sept. 11 plot, according to a government official who has read the document. Six of the incidents listed came during the Bush administration and four were during the Clinton years, the official said." ... "Another government official who has been briefed on the report said the tally of missed opportunities includes the CIA's failure to add two hijackers' names to a terrorism watchlist; the FBI's handling of the August 2001 arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been accused of conspiring in the plot; and several failed attempts to kill or capture Osama bin Laden." -By Dan Eggen and Mike Allen  -Boston/Globe via -WashingtonPost

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"Poor Relations With Iran Turning Worse." ... "The Bush administration is pressing Britain, France and Germany for strong measures against Iran in response to its violation of a nonproliferation agreement reached with the three last fall, a State Department official said Wednesday." ... "The issue is part of a deepening American concern over recent Iranian activities that range from weapons programs to terrorism. To head off a potential crisis, some analysts believe the administration should work harder to promote a dialogue with Iran." ... "The United States believes Iran is developing nuclear weapons, a view reinforced by Iran's recent decision to resume construction of centrifuges. This is a key step in the development of a uranium-based bomb, one that Iran promised the Europeans last fall that it would not take." -By George Gedda -AP via  -Newsday.com

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"Short-Changed Soldiers: Report: U.S. Army Reservists Encounter Pay Problems." ... "An overwhelming number of U.S. Army reservists are having problems getting paid, and many are paid late." ... "A report issued today by the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, discovered major problems with the way the Army compensates its reservists." ... "Such problems are causing a considerable hardship for Melinda Delain, a single mother who had just purchased a new home when her reserve unit was deployed to Afghanistan." ... "Like everyone else in her medical unit, she did not receive her full paycheck for three months." ... "In its report, GAO investigators found that 95 percent of Army reservists had pay problems." (1, 2) -ABCNEWS.com

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"Fear of Nuclear Iran Could Influence U.S. Diplomacy." ... "The intense antagonism that has existed since militant students held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days during the 1979 Iranian revolution "could become a collision course," former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said this week." ... ""But perhaps there are the makings of somewhat ameliorating the relationship between the two sides," he said." ... "[However] Many experts believe even if Tehran's hard-line leaders are replaced, it may have no impact on the quest for a nuclear bomb because a broad spectrum of Iranians endorse that goal." (1, 2) -By  Carol Giacomo-Reuters

- UPS News
"EBay 2nd-Qtr Profit More Than Doubles on 52% Sales Increase." ... "EBay Inc., the world's No. 1 Internet auctioneer, said second-quarter earnings more than doubled to $190.4 million as a record number of users bought and sold merchandise online and utilized its electronic-payment system." ... "EBay added 9.2 million users to sites in the U.S. and 22 countries, helping boost the value of items sold through them to $8 billion." ... "During the quarter, AuctionDrop Inc., a company that takes items on consignment for sale on EBay, reached an agreement with United Parcel Service Inc. to have 3,400 stores to act as drop- off points for the service." -By Greg Wiles ed. by Vince Bielski -Bloomberg

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"Iraq Militants Take Six Foreign Truck Drivers Hostage, AP Says." ... "The hostages include two from Kenya, three from India and an Egyptian. A group calling itself ``the Holders of the Black Banners'' said in a statement given to the AP that it would kill one hostage every 72 hours." -AP via -Bloomberg

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"Haiti receives $1-billion in pledges: Aid promised as [Canadian] troops prepare to pull out." ... "But the fledgling peacekeeping force in Haiti is woefully short of soldiers, with only 2,200 on the ground, compared with the 8,000 the UN says are necessary. And nearly one-quarter of that force, the 520-strong Canadian contingent, will start packing to go home this week." ... "The departure of the Canadians will leave about 1,700 UN peacekeepers to cope with Haiti's sporadic violence and widespread crime. Contingents from other countries have been slow to arrive -- for instance, of an expected 200 Argentine soldiers who are supposed to take over in Gonaïves next week, only a small advance party has reached Haiti." -By Paul Koring -TheGlobeAndMail.com

-  - Microsoft News
"[Microsoft dividends] Giving $75 billion back, with plenty to spare." ... "On Tuesday July 20th, Microsoft said it would return a whopping $75 billion to shareholders over the next four years, in the biggest corporate cash disbursement in history." ... "Regardless of the legal situation, Microsoft's bosses realised some time last year that they could no longer sit on their cash pile (valued at $56.4 billion as of March 31st this year), and resolved to take steps to give it back to shareholders." ... "Under the disbursement announced this week, Microsoft will pay out a special dividend worth $32 billion in early December; buy back a further $30 billion in stock over the next four years; and double its annual dividend to 32 cents per share." -Economist

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"U.S. hostage head found in freezer: The head of slain American hostage Paul M. Johnson Jr., who was kidnapped and beheaded in Saudi Arabia last month, has been found in a freezer [in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia], a Saudi Interior Ministry official said." ... "Two suspected al Qaeda militants were killed during raids, the official added Wednesday." ... "Security forces found the head and a cache of weapons in a raid on a villa Tuesday night and it was positively identified Wednesday morning."  -CNN

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"Sudan: New Darfur Documents: Ties Between Government and Janjaweed Militias Confirmed." ... "In a series of official Arabic-language documents from government authorities in North and South Darfur dating from February and March 2004, officials call for recruitment and military support, including “provisions and ammunition” to be delivered to known Janjaweed militia leaders, camps and “loyalist tribes.” " ... "A particularly damning February directive orders “all security units” in the area to tolerate the activities of known Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal in North Darfur. The document “highlights the importance of non-interference so as not to question their authority” and authorizes security units in a North Darfur province to “overlook minor offenses by the fighters against civilians who are suspected members of the rebellion….”" ... "Another document calls for a plan for “resettlement operations of nomads in places from which the outlaws [rebels] withdrew.” This, along with recent government statements that displaced persons will be settled in 18 “settlements” rather than in their original villages, raises concerns that the ethnic cleansing that has occurred will be consolidated and that people will be unable to return to their villages and lands." ... "Human Rights Watch called for Sudan government officials implicated in the policy of militia support to be added to the U.N. sanctions list included as part of a pending U.N. resolution. It also called for international monitoring of the disarmament of the militia groups and the establishment of an international commission of inquiry into the abuses committed in Darfur by all parties to the conflict." -HRW.org

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"Darfur Documents Confirm Government Policy of Militia Support: A Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper, July 20, 2004." ... "Since February 2003, the government of Sudan has used militias known as “Janjaweed”³ as its principal counter-insurgency ground force in Darfur against civilians from the Fur, Zaghawa, Massalit and other ethnic groups from which two rebel groups known as the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are drawn. The government-backed Janjaweed militias are derived from the “Abala,” camel-herding nomads who migrated to Darfur from Chad and West Africa in the 1970s, and from Arab camel-herding tribes from North Darfur.⁴ With government aerial support, arms, communications, and other backing, and often alongside government troops, the Janjaweed militias have been a key component in the government’s military campaign in Darfur; a campaign that has resulted in the murder, rape and forced displacement of thousands of civilians.⁵" ... "If genuinely concerned with bringing peace and stability to Darfur and ending the cycle of violence and impunity in the region, the Sudanese government should suspend key government officials who bear responsibility for recruiting, arming or otherwise supporting the Janjaweed militias from official duties, pending official investigation of their responsibility for abuses." ... "In addition, the international community must recognize that the government-backed militias and government forces are clearly indivisible—they are utilized as one entity. Those officials for whom there is evidence of implication in the policy of militia support should be included in any forthcoming international measures, including international travel sanctions, arms embargoes, and investigation by any future international commission of inquiry." -HRW.org

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"9/11 Commission Finds Ties Between al-Qaeda and Iran: Senior U.S. officials have told TIME that the 9/11 Commission's report will cite evidence suggesting that the 9/11 hijackers had previously passed through Iran." ... "A senior U.S. official told TIME that the Commission has uncovered evidence suggesting that between eight and ten of the 14 "muscle" hijackers—that is, those involved in gaining control of the four 9/11 aircraft and subduing the crew and passengers—passed through Iran in the period from October 2000 to February 2001. Sources also tell TIME that Commission investigators found that Iran had a history of allowing al-Qaeda members to enter and exit Iran across the Afghan border. This practice dated back to October 2000, with Iranian officials issuing specific instructions to their border guards—in some cases not to put stamps in the passports of al-Qaeda personnel—and otherwise not harass them and to facilitate their travel across the frontier. The report does not, however, offer evidence that Iran was aware of the plans for the 9/11 attacks." -By Adam Zagorin and Joe Klein -TIME

- Enron

-  -  - Enron
"Enron's Lay indicted: Former Enron CEO [Kenneth Lay] indicted by grand jury in Houston, says he's "done nothing wrong."" ... "Enron filed for bankruptcy Dec. 2, 2001 after investigators found it had used partnerships to conceal more than $1 billion in debt and inflate profits. The company once ranked as the country's seventh-largest." ... "To date the federal government has launched 30 separate prosecutions related to Enron's implosion, including a criminal case that brought down auditor Arthur Andersen two years ago and criminal probes of about 20 former Enron employees. Of those, 11 have resulted in convictions or guilty pleas." -By Krysten Crawford and Kelli Arena -CNN

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"United States of America V. Richard A. Causey, Jeffrey K. Skilling, and Kenneth Lay, Defendents." [65 pages]  ... "Superseding Indictment." -From the "United States District Court Southern District of Texas Houston Division." via  -FindLaw /LegalNews/Documents

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