Oil - Politics - Government - US - Calif - Global - Climate - Environmental - Emissions - Memorial Day - Driving - "Gas prices put oil executives on the hot seat." ... "Oil executives return to the hot seat Tuesday as a House panel examines rising gasoline prices and the industry’s opposition to efforts to repeal $18 billion in tax breaks. The new money would be used to pay for the development of renewable energy." ... "For the industry’s critics, the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing Tuesday is another indication of the industry’s waning clout on Capitol Hill, as was the House vote earlier this year that repealed tax breaks the industry now receives." ... "But the army of lobbyists who represent the oil and gas industry has so far successfully fought back in the Senate, which has yet to pass a similar tax bill, forcing renewable energy advocates to lower their own expectations." ... "Executives from ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips were expected to testify before the House panel, which was created by [California Democratic Representative] Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.[Democratic-California]) to highlight her caucus’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the nation’s dependence on foreign oil." ... "Some oil lobbyists worried the hearing could turn raucous since prices at the pump have reached a new record — weeks before the traditional start of driving season on Memorial Day." ... "By coincidence or not, the hearing is being held the same day as “Fossil Fools’ Day,” a campaign by some environmental groups. They question the wisdom of continuing to use fossil fuels, which emit carbon dioxide when burned, as the mainstay for energy production when global temperatures are rising because of increasing greenhouse gas emissions." -By Jim Snyder -TheHill.com

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Barack Obama - John McCain - Hillary Clinton - Iraq - US - Military - Arizona - Illinois - Pennsylvania - New York - Housing - Economy - 2008 Election - "Obama takes aim at McCain on Iraq." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Democrat Barack Obama took aim on Monday at potential White House opponent [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain on Iraq, saying the Republican senator could not offer a clear definition of success in the conflict and could leave U.S. [United States] combat troops there for decades." ... "Obama said the Arizona senator shared a vision of Iraq with [Republican] President George W. Bush and had not spelled out how the United States would be able to end its military involvement there." ... ""The problem that we've had, both with John McCain and George Bush, is there's no clear definition of success. There never was. And that's why this has been such a profound strategic error," Obama, an Illinois senator, told reporters while campaigning in Pennsylvania." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary] Clinton criticized McCain's recent speech on the economy for failing to lay out a clear plan to end turmoil in U.S. housing markets." ... ""Senator McCain recently gave a speech on the economy, and best I could determine his plan was not to have a plan," Clinton, a New York senator, said during an economic round-table in Harrisburg [Pennsylvania]." (1, 2, 3) -By Caren Bohan with contributions by Ellen Wulfhorst, Steve Holland, John Whitesides and Mohammad Zargham -Reuters 

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John McCain - Military - Intelligence - US - Iraq - 2008 Election - Mississippi - Arizona - "McCain ‘Surprised’ by Iraq Developments." ... "As he launched a tour here [in Mississippi] designed to highlight his family’s long tradition of military service, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona] Senator John McCain said Monday that he was surprised by the latest turn of events in America’s current war in Iraq." ... "Mr. McCain said he had not expected [Iraq] Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to try to oust Shiite militias from Basra [Iraq] without consulting the Americans, and that he was troubled by some of the demands that were made by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr as part of his offer of a ceasefire after the militias held off the American-supported assault. And he tied some of the current problems to the [Republican President] Bush administration’s old strategy there." ... "“Maliki decided to take on this operation without consulting the Americans,’’ Mr. McCain said on his campaign bus as it rolled through downtown Meridian [Mississippi], saying that the move showed independence but that he had expected the military to focus on Mosul [Iraq]." ... "“I just am surprised that he would take it on himself to go down and take charge of a military offensive,’’ he said. “I had not anticipated that he would do that.’’ " -By Michael Cooper -NYTimes 

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Food - Crisis - World - People - Farmers - Land - Fuel - Money - Politics - History - Weather - Drought - China - UN - "Tensions rise as world faces short rations." ... "Food prices are soaring, a wealthier Asia is demanding better food and farmers can't keep up. In short, the world faces a food crisis and in some places it's already boiling over." ... "Around the globe, people are protesting and governments are responding with often counterproductive controls on prices and exports -- a new politics of scarcity in which ensuring food supplies is becoming a major challenge for the 21st century." ... "Plundered by severe weather in producing countries and by a boom in demand from fast-developing nations, the world's wheat stocks are at 30-year lows. Grain prices have been on the rise for five years, ending decades of cheap food." ... "Drought, a declining dollar, a shift of investment money into commodities and use of farm land to grow fuel have all contributed to food woes. But population growth and the growing wealth of China and other emerging countries are likely to be more enduring factors." ... "World population is set to hit 9 billion by 2050, and most of the extra 2.5 billion people will live in the developing world. It is in these countries that the population is demanding dairy and meat, which require more land to produce." ... "In 2007 alone, according to the U.N. [United Nations] Food and Agriculture Organization's world food index, dairy prices rose nearly 80 percent and grain 42 percent." [see also: Agflation] (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) -By Russell Blinch and Brian Love with contributions by Ayesha Rascoe, Missy Ryan, Alistair Thomson, Ho Binh Minh and Eddie Evans -Reuters 

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Corporate - Government - Legislation - Politics - Homeowners - US - Global - '08 Election - "8 reasons no Wall Street reforms in '08." ... "Reform American banking? I'll bet you fell for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's clever PR [Public Relations] move at the U.S. [United States] Chamber of Commerce last week. And now his "blueprint" for a "sweeping overhaul."" ... "Yes, lots of rhetoric, window dressing to make it look politically correct. Hearings yes. But no new legislation. Wall Street dodges the re-regulation bullet, goes on its merry way, gambling with your money at the "shadow banking" casino." ... "1. Paulson's a wolf in sheep's clothing." ... "Remember, just two years ago Paulson was CEO [Chief Executive Officer] of Goldman Sachs, one of the world's biggest derivatives traders. Traders would suffer from re-regulation. Last week's speech before the conservative Chamber was a masterpiece of spin, based on the "blueprint" he was about to release." ... "You can be certain that whatever Paulson said about reforms, he has three motivations: Delay action till the heat's off, say whatever's politically correct to placate the public and critics, then do nothing to hinder future "shadow banking system" games being played by Goldman and other Wall Street mega-players in the $516 trillion global derivatives casino." ... "And what about helping individual homeowners? DOA [Dead On Arrival]. Blame Congress. More spin: Paulson rejected the need for a "systemwide solution" to help homeowners, arguing that Democrats' ideas weren't even "yet ready for the starting gate."" ... "3. President's already signaled opposition to major reforms." ... "No reforms, not on his watch. [Republican] President Bush's free-market deregulation credentials are clear. Even if the marginalized Democrats were to pass sweeping reforms (unlikely in an election year [2008 Election]), they'd get vetoed." ... "So with the exception of tinkering with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA [Federal Housing Administration], which he's already endorsed because that helps big business and Wall Street, Congress will hold hearings, then recess for summer campaigning. The president will have gotten his PR boost, then blame Congress for inaction." ... "4. Washington's 35,000 lobbyists will kill any substantial reforms." ... "The public wants re-regulation. But not the high-rollers bankrolling 35,000 lobbyists who tell Washington's 537 elected officials how to regulate and spend the federal budget. Taxpayers need to stop kidding ourselves that we're a democracy. The birth of the lobbying industry three decades ago killed America's democracy" -By Paul B. Farrell -MarketWatch 

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Iraq - US - Military - Politics - History - Money - Accounting - Investigators - "After years of effort, Iraqi army still can't 'stand up'." ... "Iraq's new army is "developing steadily," with "strong Iraqi leaders out front," the chief U.S. [United States] trainer said." ... "That was three-plus years ago, and the trainer was David H. Petraeus, now the top American commander in Iraq. Some of those Iraqi officials at the time were busy embezzling more than $1 billion allotted for the new army's weapons, according to investigators." ... "The 2004-05 Defense Ministry scandal was just one in a long series of setbacks in the five-year struggle to "stand up" an Iraqi military as [Republican] President Bush has promised and allow hard-pressed U.S. forces to "stand down." The latest discouraging episode was unfolding this weekend in bloody Basra, the southern city where Iraqi government forces -- in their toughest test yet -- were struggling to gain the upper hand in a battle with Shiite Muslim militias." ... "Year by year, the goal of deploying a capable, free-standing Iraqi army has seemed to always slip further into the future." ... "How not to build an army:" ... "Early 2003: The first reversal came even before the March U.S. invasion, when the Pentagon discarded prewar plans that called for restructuring the 400,000-man Saddam Hussein-era army into a postwar force of 150,000 to 200,000." ... "Mid-2003: U.S. occupation chief L. Paul Bremer III unilaterally ordered Saddam's army disbanded, and the Bush administration opted for a token military force to guard Iraq's borders. Bremer said the army had already fallen apart after Saddam's fall. The controversial move helped prompt many Sunni officers to eventually join the insurgency." ... "Iraqi view: [Lt. Gen. [Lieutenant General] James] Dubik says Iraqi defense officials don't expect to take over internal security until as late as 2012 and won't be able to defend Iraq's borders until 2018." -By Charles J. Hanley -AP via -Star-Telegram.com

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Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - Financial - Law - Housing - New York - Fed - US - Global - 2008 Election - "Obama Moves Past Clinton in Calling for Wall Street Oversight." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama, who has been a step behind rival [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Hillary Clinton in proposing remedies to the housing and financial crises, jumped ahead of her this week by advocating broader regulation of Wall Street." ... "Obama called for the Federal Reserve to be given greater supervisory power when it acts as lender of last resort. He also urged stronger capital requirements for financial companies and a consolidation of regulatory agencies." ... "``The regulatory framework hasn't caught up with the global financial system,'' he said yesterday in an interview on Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital with Al Hunt.'' ``It's something I intend to do as president.''" ... "Clinton, 60, has yet to propose a sweeping set of new laws, focusing instead on the slumping economy and on alleviating the effects of the crisis among homeowners. ``We do need to try to make up for the lax regulation and absence of oversight,'' she said in a separate interview yesterday." ... "Obama, 46, offered his proposals in the wake of convulsions in the subprime-lending market and the Fed-engineered buyout of Bear Stearns Cos. by JPMorgan Chase & Co." ... "``Our free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it,'' Obama said in his March 27 address in New York. ``The American economy does not stand still, and neither should the rules that govern it.''" -By Lorraine Woellert and Matthew Benjamin -Bloomberg 

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US - Iraq - Politics - Ohio - "U.S. Armor Forces Join Offensive In Baghdad Against Sadr Militia: Americans Appear To Take the Lead As Iraqi Units Wait." ... "U.S. [United States] forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City, the vast Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad [Iraq's capital], as an offensive to quell party-backed militias entered its third day. Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the area as American troops took the lead in the fighting." ... "Four U.S. Stryker armored vehicles were seen in Sadr City by a Washington Post correspondent, one of them engaging Mahdi Army militiamen with heavy fire. The din of American weapons, along with the Mahdi Army's AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, was heard through much of the day. U.S. helicopters and drones buzzed overhead." ... "The clashes suggested that American forces were being drawn more deeply into a broad offensive that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, launched in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, saying death squads, criminal gangs and rogue militias were the targets. The Mahdi Army of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite rival of Maliki, appeared to have taken the brunt of the attacks; fighting spread to many southern cities and parts of Baghdad." ... "As [Republican] President Bush told an Ohio audience that Iraq was returning to "normalcy," administration officials in Washington held meetings to assess what appeared to be a rapidly deteriorating security situation in many parts of the country." ... "Maliki decided to launch the offensive without consulting his U.S. allies, according to administration officials." (1, 2) -By Sudarsan Raghavan and Sholnn Freeman wtih contributions by Karen DeYoung, Naseer Nouri, Zaid Sabah, K.I. Ibrahim and Dalya Hassan -WashingtonPost

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Iraqi - US - Ohio - Politics - "Iraqi leader threatens fight 'to the end'." ... "As gun battles raged in the southern port city of Basra, parts of Baghdad [Iraq's capital] and neighboring provinces, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki in effect declared war on Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army, saying he'd fight the militia "to the end" and never negotiate." ... "In Dayton, Ohio, on Thursday, [Republican] President Bush praised Maliki's "bold decision" to confront Shiite militias and said it was evidence that the Iraqi military is increasingly confident and able to act on its own. In fact, the U.S. [United States] military is providing air cover, embedded advisers and ground reinforcements for the Iraqi offensive." ... "Three days into a U.S.-backed government offensive, however, the Mahdi Army retained control of key neighborhoods of the southern port city of Basra and was able to prevent Iraqi soldiers and police from penetrating its strongholds." ... "At least 189 people have been killed in the Basra offensive, neighboring provinces and Baghdad since early Tuesday morning, government health and security officials reported." -By Leila Fadel with contributions by Qassim Zein and Ali al Basri -McClatchyDC.com

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Antarctic - Ice - History - Global - Climate - Science - Space - Cameras - "Chunk of Antarctic ice shelf collapses, putting larger area at risk: Rapid melting on Wilkins Shelf is attributed to global warming." ... "A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan [island borough of New York City, New York] has collapsed, scientists said Tuesday, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk." ... "Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica that started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and had been there for perhaps 1,500 years." ... "British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan attributed the melting to rising sea temperature due to global warming." ... "Because scientists noticed satellite images of the event within hours of its start, they diverted satellite cameras and flew an airplane over the ongoing collapse to capture rare photos and video." -AP via -LAtimes

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United States - Iraqi - Politics - "Clashes spread as U.S., Iraqi forces attack Shiite militia." ... "With the United States providing air cover and embedded advisers, the Iraqi government on Wednesday expanded its offensive against Shiite Muslim militias from the port city of Basra to the capital of Baghdad — and many of the provinces in between." ... "The day saw street battles in Baghdad and Basra, mortar attacks by Shiite rebels against Baghdad's Green Zone, bombing by U.S. aircraft and encounters that left government tanks in flames. More than 97 people were reported killed and hundreds were wounded since the operation began early Tuesday." ... "In Baghdad, at least nine Iraqi civilians were killed and 42 were wounded in mortar attacks, police said. The Mahdi Army, loyal to firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr, opened fire on civilians in downtown Baghdad and clashed with Iraqi security forces in Kadhemiya in north Baghdad." ... "There were growing signs that Sadr's cease-fire, which he declared in August and renewed in February, was unraveling. The cease-fire is one of the principal reasons for the downturn in violence and U.S. troop deaths this year." -By Leila Fadel with contributions by Laith Hammoudi and Hussein Kadhim -McClatchyDC.com

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Iraq - British - Police - Oil - Politics - "Iraqi forces battle Mahdi militia in southern Iraq, Baghdad." ... "With Iraq's top leaders directing the battle, Iraq's army and national police pressed a major operation Tuesday to wrest control of the southern port city of Basra from the Shiite Mahdi Army militia. Fighting between government forces and the militia quickly spread through Iraq's south and into Baghdad [Iraq's capital]." ... "Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and his defense and interior ministers took charge of the 15,000 Iraqi army troops and police units, which were deployed for what aides said was to be a three-day operation against militias in the city." ... "The battle at the oil-rich port began before dawn Tuesday and lasted into the early evening before subsiding slightly as the Mahdi Army, headed by firebrand cleric Muqtada al Sadr, defended positions in several neighborhoods." ... "Maliki is taking a major political risk in attempting to recover Basra, which was virtually handed over to militias when the British military withdrew late last year." ... "Formally, Sadr is still observing a cease-fire he announced last August and renewed in February. But in fact his Mahdi Army has dominated several critical parts of Iraq, including in Basra, the heart of a major oil-producing region." ... "But a lawmaker close to Maliki said Sadr's cease-fire and freeze on operations were something of a fiction. "If you talk to Muqtada, they say we are freezing Jaysh al Mahdi (the Mahdi Army), but the bombing and the kidnapping and even hitting the Green Zone continues," said Sami al Askari, the lawmaker. "How can we believe the cease-fire when we continue to see this?"" -By Leila Fadel and Ali al Basri with contributions by Mohammed al Dulaimy -McClatchyDC.com

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American - Workers - Health - Safety - Lawsuit - KBR Halliburton - Corporation - Government - History - Texas - Oil - Construction - Science - Iraq - Cayman Islands - Politics - "Iraq contractor fights suit over toxic exposure: Tax loophole may subject construction firm to damages." ... "When the American team arrived in Iraq in the summer of 2003 to repair the Qarmat Ali water injection plant, supervisors told them the orange, sand-like substance strewn around the looted facility was just a "mild irritant," workers recall." ... "The workers got it on their hands and clothing every day while racing for 2 1/2 months to meet a deadline to get the plant, a crucial part of Iraq's oil infrastructure, up and running." ... "But the chemical turned out to be sodium dichromate, a substance so dangerous that even limited exposure greatly increases the risk of cancer. Soon, many of the 22 Americans and 100-plus Iraqis began to complain of nosebleeds, ulcers, and shortness of breath. Within weeks, nearly 60 percent exhibited symptoms of exposure, according to the minutes of a meeting of project managers from KBR, the Houston[Texas]-based construction company in charge of the repairs." ... "Now, nine Americans are accusing KBR, then a subsidiary of the oil conglomerate Halliburton, of knowingly exposing them to the deadly substance and failing to provide them with the protective equipment needed to keep them safe." ... "But the workers, like all employees injured in Iraq, face an uphill struggle in their quest for damages. Under a World War II-era federal workers compensation law, employers are generally protected from employee lawsuits, except in rare cases in which it can be proven that the company intentionally harmed its employees or committed outright fraud." ... "KBR is citing the law, called the Defense Base Act, as grounds to reject the workers' request for damages." ... "But the company's own actions have undermined its case: To avoid payroll taxes for its American employees, KBR hired the workers through two subsidiaries registered in the Cayman Islands, part of a strategy that has allowed KBR to dodge hundreds of millions of dollars in Social Security and Medicare taxes." ... "That gives the workers' lawyer, Mike Doyle of Houston, a chance to argue to an arbitration board that KBR is not an employer protected by federal law, but a third-party that can be sued." -By Farah Stockman -Boston/Globe 

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Corporate - Government - Intelligence - Politics - Military - 2008 Election - Data - US - Iraq - "Passport Case Raises Outsourcing Concern." ... "Struggling with a deluge in passport applications, the State Department did what much of the government does to deal with a manpower crunch: It hired more private contractors." ... "But the practice of outsourcing allowed hired hands to snoop around in [2008 Election] presidential candidates' files. And now it's pointing to questions about whether outside contractors should have access to such sensitive information about any citizen." ... "The government routinely relies on private firms to do sensitive work _ from managing weapons systems to protecting traveling diplomats to helping maintain records that contain private information on U.S. citizens. The [Republican President] Bush administration in particular has embraced the practice of outsourcing as a way to save money and improve efficiency, particularly in Iraq where there are just as many defense contractors as there are service members." ... "With the influx of contractors come increasing questions about lack of control." ... "The State Department's Office of Passport Services employs about 2,600 contractors nationwide." ... "There are about 180 million to 200 million records in the passport system." -By Anne Flaherty -AP via -SeattleTimes

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John McCain - Foreign - Military - Intelligence - Economic - Religious - Torture - Media - Politician - Mitt Romney - John Hagee - US - 2008 Election - "McCAIN'S CRED." ... "Foreign policy cred lets him [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain] get away with wild howlers on foreign policy. Fiscal integrity cred lets him get away with outlandishly irresponsible economic plans. Anti-lobbyist cred lets him get away with pandering to lobbyists. Campaign finance reform cred lets him get away with gaming the campaign finance system. Straight talking cred lets him get away with brutally slandering [former 2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mitt Romney in the closing days of the Republican primary. Maverick uprightness cred allows him to get away with begging for endorsements from extremist religious leaders like John Hagee. "Man of conviction" cred allows him to get away with transparent flip-flopping so egregious it would make any other politician a laughingstock. Anti-torture cred allows him to get away with supporting torture as long as only the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] does it." ... "Remind me again: where does all this cred come from? And what window do Democrats go to to get the same treatment the press gives McCain?" -By Kevin Drum -WashingtonMonthly.com 

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US - Iraq - Chile -  - Military - History - Book - "U.S. Pushed Allies on Iraq, Diplomat Writes: Chilean Envoy to U.N. [United Nations] Recounts Threats of Retaliation in Run-Up to Invasion." ... "In the months leading up to the U.S.[United States]-led invasion of Iraq, the [Republican President] Bush administration threatened trade reprisals against friendly countries who withheld their support, spied on its allies, and pressed for the recall of U.N. envoys that resisted U.S. pressure to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a top Chilean diplomat." ... "The rough-and-tumble diplomatic strategy has generated lasting "bitterness" and "deep mistrust" in Washington's relations with allies in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, Heraldo Muñoz, Chile's ambassador to the United Nations, writes in his book "A Solitary War: A Diplomat's Chronicle of the Iraq War and Its Lessons," set for publication next month." ... ""In the aftermath of the invasion, allies loyal to the United States were rejected, mocked and even punished" for their refusal to back a U.N. resolution authorizing military action against Saddam Hussein's government, Muñoz writes. " -By Colum Lynch -WashingtonPost 

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US - China - Military - Government - Sports - Human Rights - Religious - History- California - India - "Bush Silent, but Others Speak Out on Tibet Crackdown." ... "China’s violent crackdown on protesters in Tibet is having powerful political reverberations in Washington, where the [Republican President Bush] White House is weighing how far to go in condemning the Chinese government, even as it defends President Bush’s decision to attend the Summer Olympics in Beijing [China's capital]." ... "Mr. Bush has long said the United States and China have “a complex relationship,” and that complexity was on full display this week. While his administration has called for an end to the violence, and his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, phoned her Chinese counterpart to urge restraint, Mr. Bush himself has remained silent." ... "In the meantime, the presidential candidates are speaking out, as is the [California Democratic Representative and] speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. On Friday, Ms. Pelosi visited the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, at his headquarters in Dharamsala, India — and poked a finger in the eye of Beijing." ... "Describing the clashes in the past week between Chinese security forces and Tibetan demonstrators as “a challenge to conscience of the world,” Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California, said, “If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China’s oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world.”" ... "If it seemed like a direct challenge to Mr. Bush, he did not take the bait." ... "The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since 1959, when China crushed an uprising in Tibet, his homeland. He has been pressing, without success, to return to China to advocate for greater cultural and religious freedom for his followers." -By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Somini Sengupta -NYTimes 

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Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - John McCain - Debt - US - Iraq - Military - Illinois - West Virginia - Indiana - Car - Oil - Household - 2008 Election - "Obama Links Effects of War Costs to Fragility in the Economy." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois] Senator Barack Obama on Thursday blamed the fragile economy on “careless and incompetent execution” of the Iraq war, imploring voters in this swing state [of West Virginia] to consider the trickle-down economic consequences of the war as they choose a successor to [Republican] President Bush." ... "“When you’re spending over $50 to fill up your car because the price of oil is four times what it was before Iraq, you’re paying a price for this war,” Mr. Obama said to an audience at the University of Charleston [in West Virginia]. “When Iraq is costing each household about $100 a month, you’re paying a price for this war.”" ... "“No matter what the costs, no matter what the consequences, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain seems determined to carry out a third Bush term,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s an outcome America can’t afford. Because of the Bush-McCain policies, our debt has ballooned.”" ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton in Indiana:] “We spend $12 billion a month in Iraq, and that does affect the economy,” Mrs. Clinton said. “That’s one of the reasons we’ve gone into more and more debt. We’ve got to begin not only to withdraw our troops, but bring that money back home. We need to put that money to work here in Indiana.”" -By Jeff Zeleny and Michael Cooper with contributions by Patrick Healy -NYTimes 

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Barack Obama - Bill Richardson - New Mexico - Illinois - Portland - Ore - US - International - 2008 Election - "Obama wins Bill Richardson's endorsement." ... "New Mexico [Governor] Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation's only Latino governor, is endorsing [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama for president, calling him a "once-in-a-lifetime leader" who can unite the nation and restore America's international leadership." ... "Richardson, who dropped out of the Democratic race in January, is to appear with Obama today at a campaign event in Portland, Ore. [Oregon], the Associated Press has learned." -By Jim Cole -AP via -LAtimes

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Barack Obama - John McCain - US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Pakistan - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Osama bin Laden - North Carolina - Illinois - Arizona - 2008 Election - "Obama says Iraq war has hurt U.S. security." ... "[2008 Election Democratic] Presidential hopeful Barack Obama traveled Wednesday to a community college near Ft. Bragg [North Carolina], home of the 82nd Airborne Division and the Army Special Operations Command, to argue that the Iraq war had opened a "security gap" for the United States." ... "Speaking on the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, the Illinois senator said it had emboldened enemies such as Iran and Al Qaeda while weakening U.S. support in the Middle East." ... "And Obama teased [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain, a supporter of the war and the presumptive Republican nominee for president, for a mix-up Tuesday during a visit to the Middle East." ... ""Just yesterday, we heard [Arizona Senator] Sen. McCain confuse Sunni and Shia, Iran and Al Qaeda," Obama said. "Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no Al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America's enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades."" ... "Likewise, Obama targeted McCain's frequent vow that as president he would pursue Osama bin Laden "to the gates of hell." Obama argued that the promise was meaningless given McCain's focus on the conflict in Iraq rather than devoting greater military resources to Afghanistan and the Pakistani border regions, where Bin Laden is believed to be hiding." ... ""We have a security gap when candidates say they will follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell but refuse to follow him where he actually goes," Obama said." -By Mike Dorning -ChicagoTribune via -LAtimes 

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Barack Obama - John McCain - Hillary Clinton - Intelligence - Military - Terrorism - History - US - Iraq - Jordan - New York - 2008 Election - "Obama, McCain in crossfire over Iraq." ... "[2008 Election] Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama criticized [2008 Election] Republican John McCain on Wednesday for misidentifying Iraqi extremists, saying he fails to understand the war has emboldened U.S. [United States] enemies." ... "On the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the war took center stage on the U.S. campaign trail." ... "Obama attacked both McCain and his Democratic opponent, New York Sen. [Senator] Hillary Clinton, as representing conventional thinking in Washington that needs to be changed in the November election. McCain and Clinton backed a 2002 resolution supporting U.S. military action against Iraq." ... "On a Middle East and Europe swing intended to bolster his national security credentials, McCain got tangled up in stating which Islamic extremist group in Iraq that neighboring Iran is accused of supporting." ... "At a news conference in Amman [Jordan's capital], McCain said Iran supported the Sunni group al Qaeda in Iraq, until he was corrected by a colleague." (1, 2, 3) -By Caren Bohan -Reuters 

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John McCain - Intelligence - Military - Terrorism - Politics - History - US - Iraq - Iran - Israel - Arizona - 2008 Election - "McCain Repeats Iran-Al Qaeda Gaffe Yet Again." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain has done it again." ... "For the third time in two days, the Arizona Republican has pushed the definitively false statement that the terrorist group Al-Qaeda was getting assistance from Iran, even though he was publicly ridiculed for the same false assertion on Tuesday." ... "This time, in a statement from his campaign honoring the fifth year anniversary of the war, McCain wrote:" ... ""Today in Iraq, America and our allies stand on the precipice of winning a major victory against radical Islamic extremism. The security gains over the past year have been dramatic and undeniable. Al Qaeda and Shia extremists -- with support from external powers such as Iran -- are on the run but not defeated."" ... "On Tuesday, the senator, appearing in Israel, made a nearly identical assertion that al-Qaeda was leaving Iraq to retool and regroup in Iran." -By Sam Stein -HuffingtonPost.com

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John McCain - Foreign - Intelligence - Military - Terrorism - Politics - History - Radio - 2008 Election - US - Iraq - "McCain stumbles in Amman." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain has long presented himself as a seasoned statesman and foreign policy expert, someone with the wisdom and experience to guide the U.S. [United States] through troubled times." ... "That's why the media and his rivals pounced on him when he got a fundamental question regarding the violence in Iraq wrong." ... "Karen Finney, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, issued a press release:"

"After eight years of the [Republican President] Bush administration’s incompetence in Iraq, McCain’s comments don’t give the American people a reason to believe that he can be trusted to offer a clear way forward. Not only is Senator McCain wrong on Iraq once again, but he showed he either doesn’t understand the challenges facing Iraq and the region or is willing to ignore the facts on the ground."

US - Iraq - Government - Military - Politics - Poll - "Poll: 71 percent think Iraq spending hurts economy." ... "More than 7 out of 10 Americans think government spending on the war in Iraq is partly responsible for the economic troubles in the United States, according to results of a recent poll." ... "Fewer than one in three respondents — 32 percent — said they support the war, while 66 percent said they oppose it." -CNN

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Presidential Records Act - Government - E-Mail - Archives - Computer - Technology - Politics - US - Iraq - Military - History - "White House E-Mail Battle Heats Up: Judge: [Republican President Bush's] White House Has Three Days to Explain Why It Shouldn't Have to Copy Its Computer Hard Drives." ... "The White House has three days to explain why it shouldn't be required to copy its computer hard drives to ensure no further e-mails are lost, a federal judge ordered Tuesday." ... "Already, e-mails between March and October 2003 appear to have been lost, Judge John M. Facciola noted, because they were improperly archived and no backup copies exist. That period includes the U.S. [United States] invasion of Iraq." ... "E-mails by White House staff are considered part of the nation's historical record, and federal law [the Presidential Records Act] requires they be preserved. The White House has admitted that potentially millions of e-mails from the past eight years have been erased, although it has provided conflicting accounts on how many may still exist on backup tapes." -By Justin Rood -ABCNEWS.com

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John McCain - Intelligence - Military - Terrorism - Politics - 2008 Election - US - Iraq - Iran - Jordan - Arizona - "A McCain Gaffe in Jordan." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona] Sen. John McCain, traveling in the Middle East to promote his foreign policy expertise, misidentified in remarks Tuesday which broad category of Iraqi extremists are allegedly receiving support from Iran." ... "He said several times that Iran, a predominately Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda. In fact, officials have said they believe Iran is helping Shiite extremists in Iraq." ... "Speaking to reporters in Amman, the Jordanian capital, McCain said he and two Senate colleagues traveling with him continue to be concerned about Iranian operatives "taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back."" ... "Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate." ... "The mistake threatened to undermine McCain's argument that his decades of foreign policy experience make him the natural choice to lead a country at war with terrorists." -By Cameron W. Barr and Michael D. Shear -WashingtonPost

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Barack Obama - Christian - American - Race - Politics - History - 2008 Election - Israel - Military - Terrorism - Economy - Health-Care - Climate - Housing - Poor - People - Scholarships - Family - "A More Perfect Union." ... [Partial text of Barack Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union". Read full text of speech or Watch speech.] "[Barack Obama:] I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed." ... "But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam." ... "As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all." ... "Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way[.]" ... "But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS." ... "In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:" ... ""People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about...memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild."" ... "That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America." ... "And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years." -By BarackObama.com -read full text of Barack Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union" via HavenWorks.com

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Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton - John McCain - Financial - History - American - Working - Folks - Homes - Overseas - Ariz - Pennsylvania - Ill - 2008 Election - "Presidential Candidates Address Economic Woes: [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidates and Senators] Sens. [Barack] Obama, [Hillary] Clinton Blast [Republican President] Bush for Not Doing Enough to Avert Economic Meltdown." ... "Both Democratic candidates veered off their scheduled speeches Monday to address the jittery U.S. economy and slammed [Republican] President Bush for not doing enough to stop the [home] mortgage lending crisis from spilling over into the wider economy." ... "Clinton's communications director contrasted her economic platform with that of presumed Republican candidate [Arizona Republican Senator] Sen. John McCain', R-Ariz [Republican-Arizona]." ... ""In the fall there will be a major debate over what we do to get this economy back on track, and John McCain is welcome to defend seven years of the Bush economic policies, but we believe that we need to go in a different direction and will do so," Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson said Monday, referring to McCain's support of making Bush's tax cuts permanent." ... "Campaigning in Pennsylvania Monday ahead of the April 22 primary, [Illinois Democratic Senator] Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. [Democratic-Illinois], said that the economy wasn't working for average Americans, even before the recent crisis in the financial industry." ... ""Wages, incomes, they haven't gone up over the last seven years. Corporate profits were great, Wall Street was doing fine, but ordinary folks were struggling. And so if you're really ready for change, we can't just tinker around the edges. We've got to bring around a fundamental change to our economy," Obama said." ... ""We are going to stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas and start giving tax breaks to companies that invest right here in Pennsylvania and all across America. We're gonna roll back tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans who don't need 'em, and we're [weren't] even asking for them, and give those tax breaks to hardworking ordinary Americans who deserve them right now," Obama said." (1, 2, 3) -By Jennifer Parker with contributions by Kate Snow, Peyton Craighill, Sunlen Miller, Eloise Harper, Bret Hovell and David Chalian -ABCNEWS.com

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Hillary Clinton - John McCain - Barack Obama - US - Iraq - Military - New York - 2008 Election - "Clinton Says Iraq Surge Hasn't Accomplished Goals." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and New York Senator] Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the increase in U.S. troops in Iraq over the last year has "not accomplished its goals" in a speech this morning touting her plans to end the war in Iraq and criticizing the war positions of [Republican] President Bush, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain and [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama." ... ""By the middle of this summer, when the additional surge forces have been sent home, we'll be right back at square one: 130,000 or more troops on the ground in Iraq," Clinton said in the speech, given at George Washington University on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq." ... "Zeroing in on her potential opponent in general election, McCain, Clinton described the "Bush-McCain Iraq philosophy" as "stay the course keeping troops in Iraq for up to 100 years if necessary." ... ""Withdrawal is not defeat, defeat is keeping troops in Iraq for 100 years," Clinton said. " -By Perry Bacon Jr. -WashingtonPost

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World - US dollar - Japan yen - Swiss franc - EU Euro - Oil - History - "Stocks Tumble Around World, Dollar Declines After Fed Cuts Rate." ... "Stocks fell around the world and the dollar tumbled after the Federal Reserve cut its discount interest rate at an emergency meeting and JPMorgan Chase & Co. agreed to buy Bear Stearns Cos. for $2 a share. Bonds, gold and crude oil climbed." ... "Global stock markets lost $2.4 trillion in market value from a peak in October as of March 14. That partly reflects the slump in the U.S. dollar." ... "The dollar weakened to as low as 95.76 yen, a level not seen since August 1995, from 99.09 on March 14. It dropped to a record low of $1.5903 per euro and an all-time low of 0.9658 Swiss francs." ... "Gold for immediate delivery climbed as much as 3 percent to a record $1,032 an ounce as investors sought a haven against the weakening dollar. Crude oil gained as much as 1.4 percent to a high of $111.80 a barrel." ... "Bear Stearns plunged 90 percent to $2.88 after JPMorgan agreed to buy the bank." ... "Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. securities firm, lost 27 percent to $28.60." -By Patrick Rial -Bloomberg 

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John McCain - US - Iraq - Military - Politics - History - AZ - CT - SC - "One Year Later, Market Where McCain Strolled ‘Freely’ Is Controlled By Sadr, Too Unsafe For Americans To Visit." ... "On April 1, 2007, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain (R-AZ [Republican-Arizona]) strolled through the open-air Shorja market in Baghdad [Iraq's capital] in an effort to prove that Americans are “not getting the full picture” of what’s going on in Iraq. In a press conference after his Baghdad tour, McCain told a reporter that his visit to the market was proof that people could “walk freely” in parts of Baghdad." ... "What McCain failed to mention was that he was accompanied by “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead.” He also appeared to be wearing a bulletproof vest during his visit." ... "Since that trip, McCain has claimed that the situation in Iraq has improved even more. A few months ago, McCain claimed that “we’ve succeeded militarily” in Iraq. Things, of course, are going so well, that he wants to keep U.S. troops there for at least 100 years." ... "McCain is now back in Iraq for a “surprise visit with Iraqi and American diplomatic and military leaders.” He is joined by fellow Iraq war defenders Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT [Independent Democrat-Connecticut]) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC [Republican-South Carolina]). But it’s unlikely they will be visiting the Shorja market again. Today, CNN reported that they tried to visit the Shorja market, but it was too unsafe and they were unable to go:"

WATCH - [CNN:] "We got close to that marketplace today, Jim, but our own security advisers here in Iraq did not want us to go there. They didn’t believe it was safe for an American to be in that area. We were in a thriving marketplace nearby." ... "But when you show up, the local Iraqis, while it is clear security is better on the street — it is clear there are more markets open, just the traffic jams alone tell you that things are better on the streets of Baghdad — it’s also a very sensitive potential neighborhoods." ... "That one marketplace, as a matter of fact, you do see Iraqi police, you do see the Iraqi army, but in truth, that area is controlled by the radical cleric Moqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi army." -CNN via

Dennis Hastert - Money - Accounting - Oil - Iraq - Military - US - Ill - Ark- Va - "Republicans See Storm Clouds Gathering: Week of Bad News Highlights Difficult Challenges for GOP in Fall Elections." ... "It started with the loss last weekend of the seat held for two decades by [Illinois Republican Representative and] former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill. [Republican-Illinois]). It got worse when Republicans lost potentially strong challengers to Democratic senators in South Dakota and New Jersey, and failed to field anyone to oppose the reelection bid of [Arkansas Democratic Senator] Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark. [Democratic-Arkansas])." ... "The latest blow came with the revelation that the former treasurer of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) had allegedly diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars -- and possibly as much as $1 million -- from the organization's depleted coffers to his own bank accounts." ... ""It's no mystery," said [Virginia Republican Representative] Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va. [Republican-Virginia]). "You have a very unhappy electorate, which is no surprise, with oil at $108 a barrel, stocks down a few thousand points, a war in Iraq with no end in sight and a president who is still very, very unpopular. He's just killed the Republican brand."" (1, 2) -By Jonathan Weisman with contributions by Paul Kane -WashingtonPost

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Secret - Prisoner - Military - Terrorism - Torture - Legislation - Politics - US - Guantánamo Bay - Cuba - "C.I.A. Secretly Held Qaeda Suspect, Officials Say." ... "The Central Intelligence Agency secretly detained a suspected member of Al Qaeda for at least six months beginning last summer as part of a program in which C.I.A. officers have been authorized by [Republican] President Bush to use harsh interrogation techniques, American officials said Friday." ... "The suspect, Muhammad Rahim, is the first Qaeda prisoner in nearly a year who intelligence officials have acknowledged has been in C.I.A. [Central Intelligence Agency] detention. The C.I.A. emptied its secret prisons in the fall of 2006, when it moved 14 prisoners to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but made clear that the facilities could be used in the future to house high-level terrorism suspects." ... "Mr. Bush has defended the use of the secret prisons as a vital tool in American counterterrorism efforts, and last July he signed an executive order that formally reiterated the C.I.A.’s authority to use interrogation techniques more coercive than those permitted by the Pentagon." ... "Mr. Bush used his veto power last weekend to block legislation that would have prohibited the agency from using the techniques, and this week the House of Representatives failed to override the veto." ... "Military and intelligence officials said that Mr. Rahim was transferred earlier this week to the military prison at Guantánamo Bay." -By Mark Mazzetti with contributions by Scott Shane -NYTimes 

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John McCain - France - Israel - Britain - US - Arizona - 2008 Election - Politics - "McCain Invites Fundraisers to London." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain and his staff have been adamant for days that his upcoming overseas trip to Britain, France and Israel is not political." ... "Apparently, though, there will still be room for fundraising." ... "McCain's campaign has sent out an invitation for a March 20 luncheon at Spencer House -- the neo-classical home built for an ancestor of Diana, the late Princess of Wales -- "by kind permission of Lord Rothschild OM GBE and the [Honorable] Hon. Nathaniel Rothschild."" ... "The price to attend is $1000 to $2,300. And the dress code for the event? "Lounge suits" -- British for business attire." -By Matthew Mosk -WashingtonPost 

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US - Iraq- Terrorism - Military - Government - Intelligence - Politics - "Pentagon Report on Saddam's Iraq Censored?" ... "ABC News' Jonathan Karl Reports: The [Republican President] Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention.  This morning, the Pentagon cancelled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release and will no longer make the report available online." ... "The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the authors.  No more." ... "ABC News obtained the comprehensive military study of Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism on Tuesday." ... "The study, which was due to be released Wednesday, found no "smoking gun" or any evidence of a direct connection between Saddam's Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist organization." ... "The report is based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion.  It is also based on thousands of hours of interrogations of former top officials in Saddam's government who are now in U.S. custody." ... "Others have reached the same conclusion, but no previous study has had access to so much information.  Further, this is the first official acknowledgement from the U.S. military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda." -ABCNEWS.com 

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John McCain - Corporate - Politics - European - Built - Planes - US - Military - Government - Space - Arizona - Los Angeles - California - Texas - 2008 Election - "McCain Advisers Lobbied for Europeans to Win Air Force Tanker Deal." ... "A co-chairman of [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona] Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign and other top campaign advisers and supporters were lobbyists for the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, part of a group that beat out Boeing for a $35 billion contract to build aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force." ... "Boeing, which has filed an appeal with the Government Accountability Office, is expected to focus at least in part on Mr. McCain’s role in the deal, including letters that he sent urging the Defense Department, in evaluating the tanker bids, not to consider the potential effects of a separate United States-Airbus trade dispute." ... "That contract was won by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, known as EADS, the corporate parent of Airbus, and Northrop Grumman, the military contractor based in Los Angeles [California]." ... "Mr. McCain’s campaign co-chairman, former Representative Thomas Loeffler, a Texas Republican, also runs a lobbying firm, the Loeffler Group, which earned $220,000 working for EADS in 2007. Mr. Loeffler was the McCain campaign national finance chairman when his firm was hired to lobby for EADS." ... "Two other Loeffler executives who were registered to lobby for EADS are now top campaign advisers for Mr. McCain: Susan Nelson, the finance director, and William L. Ball III, the former Navy secretary. Ms. Nelson and Mr. Ball left the lobbying firm to join the campaign." ... "Another major money raiser for Mr. McCain, Wayne Berman, who was named vice chairman of the campaign last year, also worked for EADS through another lobbying firm, Ogilvy Government Relations, where he is a partner. Ogilvy earned $240,000 from EADS in 2007." ... "Also supporting Mr. McCain and lobbying on behalf of EADS was Kirk Blalock, a national chairman of Young Professionals for McCain and a former aide to [Republican] President Bush. Mr. Blalock’s lobbying firm, Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock, earned $320,000 from EADS in 2007, according to disclosure forms required by Congress. " -By David M. Herszenhorn with contributions by Michael Cooper and Steven R. Weisman -NYTimes 

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John McCain - European - Planes - Manufacturing Plant - Jobs - US - Military - Lawmaker - Politics - Arizona - Washington - Kansas - 2008 Election - "McCain's Role in Plane Pact Spotlights Ties to Lobbyists." ... "To show that he's a crusader against wasteful spending and congressional corruption, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain repeatedly brags about his leading role in stopping a scandal-plagued air tanker contract between the Air Force and Boeing in 2004." ... "Four years later, a $35 billion contract has been awarded to Europe's Airbus consortium to build the latest generation of tanker planes. The decision has sparked anger from Boeing's congressional supporters and critics of outsourcing. It has also focused attention on McCain's reliance on lobbyists in his campaign for president because his finance chairman and several other top advisers lobbied for Airbus last year when it was in fierce competition with Boeing for the Air Force contract." ... "McCain has spoken out for years against the influence of special interests in Washington, but his campaign includes a number of prominent Washington lobbyists, including campaign manager Rick Davis, who founded a lobbying firm, and top political adviser, Charles R. Black Jr., chief executive of a well-known Washington firm. Neither of them lobbied for Airbus." ... "McCain finance chairman Thomas G. Loeffler and Susan E. Nelson, who left Loeffler's lobbying firm to be McCain's finance director, both began lobbying for Airbus's parent company in 2007, Senate records show. William L. Ball III, a former secretary of the Navy and frequent McCain surrogate on the trail, also lobbied for Airbus, as did John Green, who recently took a leave from Ogilvy Public Relations to serve as McCain's legislative liaison." ... "Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Washington state, where Boeing has long had a significant presence, have lambasted McCain for laying the groundwork for a decision that will cost their economy thousands of aerospace jobs. Lawmakers in Kansas, where Boeing has a plant, have also been critical." (1, 2) -By Michael D. Shear and Matthew Mosk with contributions by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum -WashingtonPost

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John McCain - European - Aircraft - US - Military - Politics - California - 2008 Election - "McCain under fire over aides' role in air tanker deal." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain faced fresh scrutiny of his role in the award of a $35bn (£17bn) Pentagon contract to EADS [European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company] yesterday after it emerged that some of his top advisers lobbied for the European aerospace group to win the deal." ... "Mr McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has portrayed himself as a neutral watchdog in the long battle between EADS and Boeing to supply a new generation of refuelling tanker aircraft to the US air force. But the revelation that three of his aides lobbied for EADS threatened to deepen the perception that Mr McCain helped steer one of the biggest military procurement contracts in recent years into foreign hands." ... "EADS recruited the Loeffler Group, run by Tom Loeffler, the national finance co-chair of the McCain campaign, last year to help it lobby for the contract. Susan Nelson, a former Loeffler lobbyist who represented EADS, also later joined the McCain campaign as finance director. John Green, a lobbyist for Ogilvy Government Relations, worked for EADS before joining the McCain campaign on a volunteer basis recently." ... "Critics, including [California Democratic Representative and House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, have accused Mr McCain of complicity in "outsourcing" the contract to Europe." -By Andrew Ward -FT.com 

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John McCain - Bob Riley - European - Plane- Maker - Politics - US - Military - Arizona - Alabama - 2008 Election - "McCain Received Defense Firm Cash After Backing Its Contract." ... "Critics on Tuesday questioned whether [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain catered to special interests when he aggressively threw his support behind a $35 billion Pentagon contract for a European plane maker." ... "McCain, the presumptive GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] presidential nominee, played a crucial role in blocking the deal to build air tankers from going to U.S.[United States]-based Boeing, instead paving the path for EADS [European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company] to score the loot. He framed his decision as an example of political integrity; Boeing has previously been exposed of contract abuse. But a review of campaign finance donations and lobbying records suggests that money and personal lobbying may have also been in play." ... "On January 15, 2007, McCain appeared at Alabama [Republican Governor] Gov. Bob Riley's gubernatorial swearing in ceremony and formally called for multiple bidders in the tanker deal. The push for an open process had only one true beneficiary, however, and that was the Northrop Grumman/EADS consortium, which was poised to be Boeing's sole competitor." ... "A day after McCain made his proclamation, the contributions began to flow. John Green, a lobbyist for EADS donated $2,100 to the senator's presidential campaign. Ten days after that, Michelle Lammers, the "Chief of Staff" for EADS North America, gave $250 to the McCain campaign. It was her first political contribution ever. Less than a month later, the long-time head of EADS' government affairs program, Samuel Adcock, made a $2,100 donation to McCain. And eleven days later, Ralph Crosby, the head of EADS North America, donated $2,300 himself." ... "All told, as documented earlier by CQ PoliticalMoneyline, McCain received more than $15,000 from EADS and its subsidiary, Airbus North America. Not only was this the highest amount received by any federal candidate, but prior to 2006, not a single employee from EADS had ever contributed to McCain. Two Airbus employees did donate nearly $4,000 for his 2000 run at the White House." -By Sam Stein -HuffingtonPost.com

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John McCain - Torture - Politics - Military - Intelligence - Prisoners - Human Rights - Maryland - Arizona - US - International - 2008 Election - "Republicans uphold Bush veto of anti-torture bill." ... "[Republican] President George W. Bush's fellow Republicans in Congress on Tuesday upheld his veto of a bill to ban the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] from subjecting enemy detainees to interrogation methods denounced by critics as torture." ... "Waterboarding has been condemned by many U.S. lawmakers, human rights groups and foreign countries as a form of torture." ... "House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said Bush's veto had degraded the country's moral standing, undermined its international credibility and could expose U.S. military and intelligence personnel to the treatment." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who was tortured while a prisoner in the Vietnam war and is now his party's presumptive presidential nominee, opposed the bill [that would have outlawed torture]." (1, 2) -By Thomas Ferraro with contributions by Jeremy Pelofsky and Alan Elsner -Reuters 

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John McCain - Dick Cheney - US - Iraq - Military - Media - Politicians - History - Book - Arizona - 2008 Election - "The Iraq Follies: Eighteen things you've already forgotten about the media's flawed coverage of Iraq." ... "In putting together my [Greg Mitchell] new book, So Wrong for So Long, on Iraq and the media, I revisited the good, the bad, and the ugly in war coverage from the run-up to the invasion through the five years of controversy that followed. Even though I monitored the coverage closely all along, I was continually surprised to come across once-prominent names, quotes, and incidents that had faded to obscurity. Here is a list of 18 of those nearly forgotten episodes, in roughly chronological order." ... "1) The day before the invasion, Bill O'Reilly said, "If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation; I will not trust the Bush administration again, all right?"" ... "3) After the fall of Baghdad [Iraq's capital], MSNBC's Chris Matthews declared, "We're all neocons now."" ... "4) The same day, Joe Scarborough, also on MSNBC, said, "I'm waiting to hear the words 'I was wrong' from some of the world's most elite journalists, politicians, and Hollywood types."" ... "5) The New York Times' Thomas Friedman wrote, "As far as I am concerned, we do not need to find any weapons of mass destruction to justify this war.... Mr. Bush doesn't owe the world any explanation for missing chemical weapons."" ... "14) On March 27, 2007, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain, referring to the supposed calm settling on Baghdad, said, "General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed Humvee." This turned out to be pure bunk, but McCain quickly visited Iraq to try to prove his overall point. There, the Arizona senator went from the ridiculous to the maligned, touring a Baghdad market and claiming all was safe—while troops surrounded him and helicopters twirled overhead." ... "18) Also in July 2007, an old clip of a C-SPAN interview with [Republican] Vice President Cheney from 1994 surfaced, in which he defended the decision not to depose Saddam Hussein during Gulf War I: "Once you got to Iraq and took it over…then what are you going to put in its place?…It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq." He explained, "And the question for the president…was how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? Our judgment was, not very many, and I think we got it right."" -By Greg Mitchell -MotherJones.com

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US - Iran- Iraq - Afghanistan - Politics - Nevada - "Fallon resigns as chief of U.S. forces in Middle East." ... "[Admiral] Adm. William Fallon has resigned as chief of U.S. [United States] forces in the Middle East and Central Asia after more than a year in the post, citing what he called an inaccurate perception that he is at odds with the [Republican President] Bush administration over Iran." ... "Fallon, the head of U.S. Central Command, was the subject of a recent Esquire magazine profile ["The Man Between War and Peace"] that portrayed him as resisting pressure for military action against Iran, which the Bush administration accuses of trying to develop nuclear weapons." ... "[President Bush said of Admiral Fallon:] "He deserves considerable credit for progress that has been made there, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan."" ... "[Defense Secretary Robert] Gates said he will be replaced by [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, his deputy, who commanded an Army division in Iraq in the early days of the war and led efforts to train the Iraqi military." ... "On Tuesday, Gates said, "We have tried between us to put this misperception behind us over a period of months and, frankly, just have not been successful in doing so."" ... "But [Nevada Democratic Senator] Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Fallon's resignation showed that independent views "are not welcomed in this administration."" ... ""It is also a sign that the administration is blind to the growing costs and consequences of the Iraq war, which has so damaged America's security interests in the Middle East and beyond," said Reid, D-Nevada." -CNN

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John McCain - US - European - Military - Plane - Manufacturing - Politics - 2008 Election - Arizona- Texas - Illinois - "McCain Advisers Lobbied for Airbus." ... "Top current advisers to [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years." ... "Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign. A third, former Texas [Republican Representative] Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain's national finance chairman." ... "EADS is the parent company of Airbus, which teamed up with U.S.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. to win the lucrative aerial refueling contract on Feb. 29. Boeing Co. Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney said in a statement Monday that the Chicago[Illinois]-based aerospace company "found serious flaws in the process that we believe warrant appeal."" ... "EADS retained Ogilvy Government Relations and The Loeffler Group to lobby for the tanker deal last year, months after McCain sent two letters urging the Defense Department to make sure the bidding proposals guaranteed competition." ... "According to lobbying records filed with the Senate, Loeffler Group lobbyists on the project included Loeffler; Susan Nelson, who left the firm and is now the campaign's finance director and former Secretary of the Navy William Ball III, who has campaigned for McCain. Ogilvy lobbyist John Green, who was assigned the EADS work, recently took a leave of absence to volunteer for McCain as the campaign's congressional liaison." ... "So far this election cycle, [EADS] company employees have donated $120,350 [in political contributions]. Of that, McCain's presidential campaign has received $14,000, the most of any other member of Congress this election cycle." -By Jim Kuhnhenn and Matthew Daly with contributions by Glen Johnson and Libby Quaid -AP via -SeattleTimes

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Science - Military - Pills - History - San Diego - California - US - Iraq - Kuwait - "Gulf War Illness Strongly Linked to Chemical Exposure." ... "A new scientific review finds a strong association between exposure to certain chemicals and the Gulf War illness suffered by many veterans." ... "The class of chemicals, known as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), are found in pesticides, nerve agents and in pills given to soldiers to protect against nerve agents. The review, which was conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, looked at 115 papers on the topic." ... "Veterans of the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War have a higher rate of "chronic multi-symptom health problems" than either non-deployed military personnel or those deployed in other regions. In fact, 26 percent to 32 percent of personnel deployed to the Persian Gulf during this period have chronic health problems, a range that may actually understate the magnitude of the problem, according to the study, published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." ... "Although the exact causes remain unknown, evidence is mounting to suggest that exposure to organophosphate and carbamate acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs), including pyridostigmine bromide (PB), pesticides and nerve agents, may be responsible." ... "SOURCES: Joy Ray Miller, Pharm.D., assistant professor, pharmacy practice, Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Kingsville; March 10-14, 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" -By Amanda Gardner -HealthDay.com via -WashingtonPost

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US - Iraq - Military - Osama bin Laden - Terrorism - Intelligence - Archives - History - Declassification -  - "Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam and al Qaida." ... "An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network." ... "The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime." ... "The new study of the Iraqi regime's archives found no documents indicating a "direct operational link" between Hussein's Iraq and al Qaida before the invasion, according to a U.S. official familiar with the report." ... "[Republican] President Bush and his aides used Saddam's alleged relationship with al Qaida, along with Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction, as arguments for invading Iraq after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks." ... "Then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld claimed in September 2002 that the United States had "bulletproof" evidence of cooperation between the radical Islamist terror group and Saddam's secular dictatorship." ... "Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell cited multiple linkages between Saddam and al Qaida in a watershed February 2003 speech to the United Nations Security Council to build international support for the invasion. Almost every one of the examples Powell cited turned out to be based on bogus or misinterpreted intelligence." ... "As recently as last July, Bush tried to tie al Qaida to the ongoing violence in Iraq. "The same people that attacked us on September the 11th is a crowd that is now bombing people, killing innocent men, women and children, many of whom are Muslims," he said." ... "The new study, entitled "Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents", was essentially completed last year and has been undergoing what one U.S. intelligence official described as a "painful" declassification review." -By Warren P. Strobel -McClatchyDC.com

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Secretive - Government - Domestic Spying - American - Peoples - Communications - Travel - Finances - Electronic - EMails - Internet - Searches - Databases - Civil-Liberties - Law - Terrorism - Politics - Investigation - International - Military - Intelligence - TIA - "NSA's Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data." ... "Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns [the TIA program: the Total Information Awareness program]. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans' privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks." ... "But the data-sifting effort didn't disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system." ... "The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed. But an inquiry reveals that its efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people's communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks." ... "Congress now is hotly debating domestic spying powers under the main law governing U.S. surveillance aimed at foreign threats. An expansion of those powers expired last month and awaits renewal, which could be voted on in the House of Representatives this week. The biggest point of contention over the law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is whether telecommunications and other companies should be made immune from liability for assisting government surveillance." ... "Largely missing from the public discussion is the role of the highly secretive NSA in analyzing that data, collected through little-known arrangements that can blur the lines between domestic and foreign intelligence gathering." ... "According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records. The NSA receives this so-called "transactional" data from other agencies or private companies, and its sophisticated software programs analyze the various transactions for suspicious patterns. Then they spit out leads to be explored by counterterrorism programs across the U.S. government, such as the NSA's own Terrorist Surveillance Program, formed to intercept phone calls and emails between the U.S. and overseas without a judge's approval when a link to al Qaeda is suspected." ... "The NSA's enterprise involves a cluster of powerful intelligence-gathering programs, all of which sparked civil-liberties complaints when they came to light. They include a Federal Bureau of Investigation program to track telecommunications data once known as Carnivore, now called the Digital Collection System, and a U.S. arrangement with the world's main international banking clearinghouse to track money movements." ... "The effort also ties into data from an ad-hoc collection of so-called "black programs" whose existence is undisclosed, the current and former officials say." ... "Two current officials also said the NSA's current combination of programs now largely mirrors the former TIA [Total Information Awareness] project. But the NSA offers less privacy protection." -By Siobhan Gorman -WSJ.com 

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Dick Cheney's - Halliburton KBR - Corporation - US - Iraq - Military - Water -Safety - Inpector - "AP Exclusive: US troops may have become sick in Iraq from contaminated water." ... "Dozens of U.S. [United States] troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney's former company [Halliburton Co.], the Pentagon's internal watchdog says." ... "A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq." ... "The Defense Department's inspector general's report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc.[Incorporated], and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations." (1, 2) -AP via -IHT.com

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US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Military - Technology - San Diego - CA - "Combat Troops Are Losing Hearing." ... "Soldiers and Marines caught in roadside bombings and firefights in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming home in epidemic numbers with permanent hearing loss and ringing in their ears, prompting the military to redouble its efforts to protect the troops from noise." ... "Hearing damage is the No. 1 disability in the war on terror, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and some experts say the true toll could take decades to become clear. Nearly 70,000 of the more than 1.3 million troops who have served in the two war zones are collecting disability for tinnitus, a potentially debilitating ringing in the ears, and more than 58,000 are on disability for hearing loss, the VA said." ... "One major explanation given is the insurgency's use of a fearsome weapon the Pentagon did not fully anticipate: powerful roadside bombs. Their blasts cause violent changes in air pressure that can rupture the eardrum and break bones inside the ear." ... "While damage can occur at 80 to 85 decibels - the noise level of a moving tank - the best protection cuts that by only 20 to 25 decibels. That is not enough to protect the ears against an explosion or a firefight, which can range upwards of 183 decibels, said Dr. Ben Balough, a Navy captain and chairman of otolaryngology at the Balboa Navy Medical Center in San Diego [California]." ... "The Navy and Marines have begun buying and distributing state-of-the-art earplugs, known as QuietPro, that contain digital processors that block out damaging sound waves from gunshots and explosions and still allow users to hear everyday noises. They cost about $600 a pair. " -AP via -Military.com 

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John McCain - France - European Union - US - Military - Aircraft - Manufacturers - Money - Jobs - 2008 Election - Arizona - Los Angeles - California - Seattle - Washington - Illinois - "Boeing backers blame McCain for losing deal." ... "Supporters of The Boeing Co. blame [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, for the company's failure to win the lucrative $35 billion contract to build new Air Force aerial refueling tankers." ... "The Air Force last week awarded the contract to a team of Airbus parent EADS and Northrop Grumman Corp., triggering a firestorm from Boeing advocates who said the victory by the European-led consortium ignored American national security interests and would cost U.S. jobs." ... "Boeing advocates say McCain was a major force behind the Air Force decision to ignore the issue of government subsidies to Airbus when the tanker contract was put up for competitive bidding last year." ... "The issue of European government subsidies for Airbus has been raised for years by Boeing supporters who claim that those financial breaks have allowed the Toulouse, France-based company to undercut Boeing's prices and thus gain market share in the global competition between the two aircraft manufacturers. (Both the U.S. and the European Union, which claims Boeing also receives subsidies, have filed cases with the World Trade Organization.)" ... "Boeing advocates assert that those same subsidies helped European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. and Los-Angeles[California]-based Northrop Grumman win the Air Force tanker project, with a value that could eventually top $100 billion." ... ""The only reason that (Airbus) could even bid a low price is because they receive a subsidy," said [Washington Democratic Representative] Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., whose Seattle-area district includes thousands of Boeing workers. "Senator McCain jumped into this and said that they (the Air Force) could not look at the subsidy issue, which I think is a big mistake," he told PBS." ... "McCain himself has received support from the EADS North America executive suite. He has received more than $12,000 in campaign donations from some of the company's top U.S. officials, support that continued even as his presidential campaign was foundering in mid- to late 2007." ... "McCain's donors include EADS North America Chief Executive Officer Ralph Crosby and Senior Vice President of Government Relations Samuel Adcock." ... ""The person that stopped (the tanker) from going to a U.S. company was Senator McCain," said [Illinois Democratic Represenative Rahm] Emanuel, "and now we are going to send major high-paying jobs overseas."" -By Eric Rosenberg with contributions by Daniel Lathrop -SeattlePI

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Dick Cheney - Corporate - Military - Government - KBR-Halliburton - Cayman Islands - United Arab Emirates (Dubai) - Secret - Iraq - Oil - Infrastructure - History - American - Workers - Health - Security - Legislation - Massachusetts - "Top Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore: Shell companies in Cayman Islands allow KBR to avoid Medicare, Social Security deductions." ... "Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp. [Corporation], has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven [Cayman Islands]." ... "More than 21,000 people working for KBR in Iraq - including about 10,500 Americans - are listed as employees of two companies that exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building on a palm-studded boulevard here in the Caribbean. Neither company has an office or phone number in the Cayman Islands." ... "The Defense Department has known since at least 2004 that KBR was avoiding taxes by declaring its American workers as employees of Cayman Islands shell companies, and officials said the move allowed KBR to perform the work more cheaply, saving Defense dollars." ... "But the use of the loophole results in a significantly greater loss of revenue to the government as a whole, particularly to the Social Security and Medicare trust funds." ... ""Failing to contribute to Social Security and Medicare thousands of times over isn't shielding the taxpayers they claim to protect, it's costing our citizens in the name of short-term corporate greed," said [Massachusetts Democratic] Senator John F. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee who has introduced legislation to close loopholes for companies registering overseas." ... "With an estimated $16 billion in contracts, KBR is by far the largest contractor in Iraq, with eight times the work of its nearest competitor." ... "The [secret] no-bid contract it received in 2002 to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure and a multibillion-dollar contract to provide support services to troops have long drawn scrutiny because [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive from 1995 until he joined the Republican ticket with [Republican] President Bush in 2000." ... "The largest of the Cayman Islands shell companies - called [SEII] Service Employees International Inc. [Incorporated, which is not associated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)], which is now listed as having more than 20,000 workers in Iraq, according to KBR - was created two years before Cheney became Halliburton's chief executive. But a second Cayman Islands company called Overseas Administrative Services, which now is listed as the employer of 1,020 mostly managerial workers in Iraq, was established two months after Cheney's appointment." ... "If KBR's American workers averaged even as much as $63,000 per year, they and KBR would have owed more than $100 million per year in Social Security and Medicare taxes, split evenly between them. Over the course of the five-year war, their tax bill would have been more than $500 million." ... "The real managers of Service Employees International work out of KBR's office in Dubai. KBR and Halliburton, which also moved to Dubai [an emirate of the United Arab Emirates], severed ties last year." -By Farah Stockman with contributions by Stephanie Vallejo and Matt Negrin -Boston/Globe 

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Military - Safety - Clothing - Mississippi - Texas - US - Iraq - Afghanistan - "U.S. troops buy own gear for safety, style in battle: Since 9/11, the market for tactical war gear has grown to $150 million annually." ... "The traditional Army credo is that it's guts that win the glory – not fancy long-johns or Oakley sunglasses. But that old-school thinking is wicking away like perspiration through Gore-Tex as US soldiers today go beyond military-issue battle dress uniforms in favor of top-of-the-line gear to help them get home in one piece – and look sharp, too." ... "One reason, critics say, is that military procurement, especially of life-saving equipment, is still too slow. Quietly, however, the Pentagon – with the Army leading the charge – has begun bypassing rigid procurement rules, loosening uniformity requirements, and even spearheading technical innovations in gear, ranging from flame-retardant shirts to low-infrared signature zippers." ... "To some critics, the sight of soldiers buying their own battle gear symbolizes a divide between frontline grunts and rear echelon procurement officers who may never have seen battle. [Mississippi Democratic Representative] Rep. Gene Taylor (D [Democratic]) of Mississippi told the House Armed Services Committee last week that supplies such as body armor and uparmored Humvees "[have] taken entirely too long" to get to frontline troops." ... "In some cases, charity groups have stepped in to help. Operation Helmet, founded by Bob Meaders of Montgomery, Texas, shipped special helmet liners to soldiers to replace what many soldiers said were poorly designed helmet pads issued by the Army and the Marines. Just as Operation Helmet thought its work was done late last year, more requests came in from troops in Iraq and Afghanistan." ... ""The Army is planning a $20 billion future combat system, and they can't provide boots that don't wear out," says Roger Charles, editor of DefenseWatch, an investigative website that advocates on behalf of frontline soldiers. "There's no priority for taking care of relatively mundane items where most people would think, 'Gosh, that's so simple. Why don't they have the best boots, the best uniforms, the best helmets, and the best flak jackets?' " " (1, 2) -By Patrik Jonsson -CSMonitor 

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US - Religious - Newspaper - Politics - "US president's brother visits Paraguay president as guest of Moon-backed group." ... "[Republican] Neil Bush, younger brother of U.S. [Republican] President George W. Bush, called on Paraguay's president as the guest of a business federation allied with the Rev. [Reverend ] Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church." ... "A presidential press office source, who spoke on condition of not being named, confirmed the younger Bush met President Nicanor Duarte on Thursday along with a delegation from the Universal Peace Federation, a group associated with Moon." ... "Groups allied with Moon publish a newspaper, operate businesses and have large land holdings in Paraguay, South America's second-poorest country." -AP via -IHT.com 

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British - Afghanistan - US - Military - Safety - Secrecy - Politics - "Prince's cover in Afghanistan blown by Drudge Report." ... "An American website, the Drudge Report, broke a news blackout yesterday by revealing that Prince Harry has been serving in Afghanistan for more than two months." ... "To the fury of the Ministry of Defence and condemnation from the head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, the website announced a "world exclusive" and proclaimed: "They're calling him 'Harry the Hero!"." ... "The article brought to an end an agreement with the media that the Prince's deployment to Helmand be kept quiet in the interests of his safety and that of the soldiers with him." ... "The decision to send Prince Harry, 23, to Afghanistan under a cloak of secrecy came after the furore that followed the revelation of his proposed deployment to Iraq. Much to the Prince's frustration, General Dannatt announced in May last year that it would be too risky, fearing the Prince and his comrades in the Household Cavalry would become top priority targets for insurgents." ... "Immediately, officers decided the only way the third-in-line to the throne could continue to do his duty without creating an additional security risk was to send him secretly, calling on the media to co-operate in a news blackout." -By Terri Judd -Independent.co.uk

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Barack Obama - Tim Russert - John McCain - John Hagee - Religious - Homosexual - Woman - Racist - Book - History - Media - Politics -  - 2008 Election - Illinois - Arizona - Arkansas - Texas - US - Israel - Germany - "Will MSNBC devote as much coverage to McCain's embrace of Hagee's support as it did to Obama's rejection of Farrakhan?" ... "Summary: On February 27, MSNBC devoted significant coverage to an exchange from the most recent Democratic presidential debate in which NBC Washington bureau chief Tim Russert repeatedly questioned [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama about praise he received from controversial minister Louis Farrakhan, whose statements Obama has denounced. The same day, Pastor John Hagee -- who has made controversial comments about homosexuality, Islam, Catholicism, and women -- endorsed [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain, who embraced Hagee's support. Hagee's endorsement and McCain's response to it raise the question of whether MSNBC will report on them as extensively as it did on Farrakhan's praise." ... "A March 7, 1996, article (accessed via the Nexis database) in the San Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side minister said Wednesday." The Express-News reported:"

"Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church [in Texas], last week had announced a "slave sale" to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, "The Cluster."" ... "The item was introduced with the sentence "Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave.""

"To help students seeking odd jobs, his church newsletter, The Cluster, advertised a "slave" sale. "Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone," it said. "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." Mr. Hagee apologized but, in a radio interview, protested about pressure to be "politically correct" and joked that perhaps his pet dog should be called a "canine American.""

"In his recent book "Jerusalem Countdown," Hagee wrote: "Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews.""

US - Iraq - Military - Intelligence - Torture - Prison - Psychology - Book - Political - History - "How Good People Turn Evil, From Stanford to Abu Ghraib." ... "[Psychologist Philip] Zimbardo conducted a now-famous experiment at Stanford University in 1971, involving students who posed as prisoners and guards. Five days into the experiment, Zimbardo halted the study when the student guards began abusing the prisoners, forcing them to strip naked and simulate sex acts." ... "His book, The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, explores how a "perfect storm" of conditions can make ordinary people commit horrendous acts." ... "Wired: You were an expert defense witness in the court-martial of Sgt. Chip Frederick, an Abu Ghraib guard. What were the situational influences in his case?" ... "Zimbardo: Abu Ghraib was under bombardment all the time. In the prison, five soldiers and 20 Iraqi prisoners get killed. That means automatically any soldier working there is under high fear and high stress. Then the insurgency starts in 2003, and they start arresting everyone in sight. When Chip Frederick [starts working at Abu Ghraib] in September, there are 200 prisoners there. Within three months there's a thousand prisoners with a handful of guards to take care of them, so they're overwhelmed. Frederick and the others worked 12-hour shifts. How many days a week? Seven. How many days without a day off? Forty. That kind of stress reduces decision-making and critical thinking and rationality. But that's only the beginning." ... "He [complained] to higher-ups on the record, "We have mentally ill patients who cover themselves with [excrement]. We have people with tuberculosis that shouldn't be in this population. We have kids mixed with adults."" ... "And they tell him, "It's a war zone. Do your job. Do whatever you have to do."" ... "Wired: How did what happened at Abu Ghraib compare to your Stanford prison study?" ... "Zimbardo: The military intelligence, the CIA and the civilian interrogator corporation, Titan, told the MPs [at Abu Ghraib], "It is your job to soften the prisoners up. We give you permission to do something you ordinarily are not allowed to do as a military policeman -- to break the prisoners, to soften them up, to prepare them for interrogation." That's permission to step across the line from what is typically restricted behavior to now unrestricted behavior." ... "In the same way in the Stanford prison study, I was saying [to the student guards], "You have to be powerful to prevent further rebellion." I tell them, "You're not allowed, however, to use physical force." By default, I allow them to use psychological force. In five days, five prisoners are having emotional breakdowns." ... "The situational forces that were going on in [Abu Ghraib] -- the dehumanization, the lack of personal accountability, the lack of surveillance, the permission to get away with anti-social actions -- it was like the Stanford prison study, but in spades." ... "Those sets of things are found any time you really see an evil situation occurring, whether it's Rwanda or Nazi Germany or the Khmer Rouge. " (1, 2) -By Kim Zetter -Wired 

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Corporate - Government - Telecom - Amnesty - Politics - Surveillance - Intelligence - Data - US - Foreign - "If we punish lawbreaking, they might not break the law again." ... "[Republican President] GEORGE BUSH held a press conference this morning to discuss a variety of issues, but above all to hammer House Democrats for failing to hold a vote on reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act already approved in the Senate, including retroactive civil immunity for telecoms that participated in the National Security Agency's extrajudicial eavesdropping programme. And again, the president articulated an argument that has never made any sense to me, for all that it has been repeated:"

[Bush:] "You can't expect the phone companies to participate if they feel that they are going to be sued... How can you listen to the enemy if the phone compnaies aren't going to particiapte with you?"

Barack Obama - John McCain - US - Iraq - Military - Osama bin Laden - Terrorism - 2008 Election - Ohio - "Obama also has news for McCain." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama departed from his regular stump speech today in Columbus [Ohio's capital] to respond to [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain." ... ""John McCain may like to say he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but so far all he’s done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq," he said." ... ""McCain thought that he could make a clever point by saying, 'Well let me give you some news, Barack, Al Qaeda is in Iraq,' like I wasn’t reading the papers, like [I] didn’t know what was going on." Obama said, leaning into his developing McCain impression." ... "He then described the context -- a hypothetical question from Tim Russert -- and said, "First of all, I do know Al Qaeda is in Iraq, and that’s why I said we should continue to strike Al Qaeda targets."" ... ""I have some news for John McCain," Obama continued, "That’s there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain" began the Iraq war, he said." ... ""They took their eye off the people who really were responsible for 9/11," he said." -By Ben Smith -Politico.com 

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US- EU - Swiss - UK - New York - Oil - "Dollar slides to new lows after Fed warning." ... "There were records for the euro, which climbed as high as $1.5143 by midday in New York, and the Swiss franc, which hit SFr1.0624. Sterling, which had earlier fallen against the dollar due to weak UK [United Kingdom] growth data, Came back up to $1.9921." ... "The dollar index, a measure of the US [United States] unit’s strength against a basket of currencies, fell to a record low of 74.181. " ... "Oil prices also hit records. Nymex West Texas intermediate soared to $102.08, before edging back to $101.25. Brent crude rose to $100.53 as investors hedged against the weaker dollar." ... "Gold, which is often used as a hedge against inflation when oil prices rise, hit a fresh peak of $964.70 a troy ounce, and helped lift other precious metals. Silver rose to $19.43 its highest level since November 1980." -By Neil Dennis and Krishna Guha -FT.com

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US - Iraq - Afghanistan - "Post-drawdown troop levels will still be high." ... "When the current drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq is complete in July, about 140,000 should remain, a senior U.S. [United States] military official said Monday — 8,000 more than were present at the January 2007 start of the administration’s “surge” of five brigade combat teams aimed at helping stabilize Iraq." ... "Those 8,000 troops represent a sort of safety margin for U.S. ground commanders as they assess the U.S. ability to handle security demands across Iraq, such as backing up U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Teams and Iraqi forces, with five fewer combat units on hand, said [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, the Joint Staff’s director for operations." ... "U.S. officials also project that about 32,000 U.S. troops will be stationed in Afghanistan “by late summer,” Ham said. That would be the highest level ever — an increase of about 4,000 troops over the current level. Most of these will come from the 3,200 additional Marines being deployed there this spring, he said." ... "Both figures, however, are estimates that will depend on security conditions on the ground, Ham said." -By William H. McMichael -AirForceTimes.com 

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US - Iraq - Military - MRAP - Vehicles - Investigation - Government - Politics - "Marines halt study critical of MRAP program." ... "The Marine Corps has ordered a civilian scientist to stop work on a report critical of its efforts to obtain new armored vehicles, saying he exceeded his authority, a Marine official said Tuesday." ... "Franz Gayl, a retired Marine officer and civilian science adviser, alleged in a Jan. 22 report that "gross mismanagement" of the program to quickly field Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles had resulted in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of Marines in Iraq. Gayl had planned to continue his investigation." ... "Gayl's report was first made public by the Associated Press on Feb. 15. The report said Marine procurement officers spurned requests from commanders in Iraq for blast-resistant vehicles because they didn't want to derail other projects." ... "PROBE: Pentagon urged to investigate MRAP report." ... "MRAP REPORT: Lack of vehicles cost Marine lives." ... "FULL COVERAGE: Troops at Risk: IEDs in Iraq." -By Tom Vanden Brook -USATODAY

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China - Sports - Industry - People - Environment - Politics - "Olympics water diversion threatens millions." ... "The diversion of water to Beijing [China] for the Olympics and for big hydropower projects threatens the lives of millions of peasant farmers in China’s north-western provinces, according to a senior Chinese government official." ... "In an interview with the Financial Times, An Qiyuan, a member and former chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee for Shaanxi province and former Communist party chief of Shaanxi, warned of an impending social and environmental disaster because of overuse of scarce water resources." ... "Beijing will need an estimated 300m cubic metres of additional water just to flush out the polluted and stagnant rivers, canals and lakes in its central areas to put on a clean, environmentally-friendly face for Olympic visitors, according to municipal officials." -By Jamil Anderlini -FT.com

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Noteworthy - Political - Military - Government - 2008 Election - Barack Obama - US - Afghanistan - Iraq - "Bush Pentagon." ... "It would appear that we have another case where the [Republican President] Bush Pentagon, particularly the Office of Public Affairs is forcefully inserting itself into the civilian election process. Earlier today I referenced [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama's anecdote from Thursday night's Democratic debate about an Army Captain in Afghanistan who said his unit had had to get from captured Taliban ammunition they weren't able to get quickly enough through standard Army supply channels. ABCNews' Jake Tapper talked to the soldier in question, who confirmed the story he'd told Obama. Now NBC News also appears to have confirmed the story by talking to the Army Captain in question." ... "But Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman is telling reporters he doesn't think it's true and that of course they can't confirm it unless the soldier -- still on active duty -- comes forward to discuss the issue with the Pentagon brass, a step that would surely do wonders for his future in the Army." ... "I don't know how far this is going to go. Phillip Carter, the military affairs writer who's in the reserves and did a tour in Iraq, says that from his own experience in Iraq and discussions with Afghanistan vets who report doing the same thing as the anonymous captain, he finds the story "eminently believable." But this is becoming a pattern in which political appointees at the Bush Pentagon volubly insert themselves into domestic political debate or even election campaigns." -By Josh Marshall -TalkingPointsMemo.com

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John McCain - Corporate - Politics - Lawmaker - Jets - US_Debt - US - Iraq - Military - Children's - Health-Care - Barack Obama - 2008 Election - "Transcript: Howard Dean On John McCain And The Republican 'Culture Of Corruption'." ... "Q: So there is big news about [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain -- the story that is in the New York Times, raising questions about his relationship with a lobbyist. This is a story the McCain people are saying is unfair and untrue. What do you think?"

"[Democratic National Committee chairman Howard] Dean: I have no idea whether the affair story is true or not, and I don't care. What I do care about is John McCain -- and this has been well-documented -- is talking all the time about being a reformer and a maverick, and in fact, he has taken thousands of dollars from corporations, ridden on their corporate jets, and then turned around and tried to do favors for them and get projects approved. He has tons of lobbyists on his staff. This is a guy who is very close to the lobbyist community, a guy who has been documented again and again by taking contributions and then doing favors for it. This is not a guy who is a reformer. This is a guy who has been in Washington for 25 years and wants to give us four more years of the same, and I don't think we need that."

"Dean: Yes, he certainly has. This goes all the way back to the Keating Five Scandal and the S & L [Savings and Loan] scandals, where he took a hundred thousand donations, rode on corporate jets and then intervened on Charles Keating's behalf -- and again and again we see this. We even saw -- it's so hypocritical -- we even saw that he is trying to harass [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama about whether he's going to take public financing in the campaign, and he forewent his own public financing in the primaries after getting a loan, based on the idea that he might take public financing." ... "This is not a guy who is a reformer. He talks about change, and he makes a big deal about not being like [Republican President] Bush when in fact he is Bush. He voted for Bush's tax cuts after saying he didn't, and has been responsible for a $6 trillion national debt that our children are going to have to pay. He thinks we ought to stay in Iraq for 100 years. He thought it was great that the president vetoed health care for our kids under 18. This is four more years of George Bush, and I don't think the American people are going to buy it."

US - China - Bain Capital - Networker - Foreign - Military - Government - Hacking - Communications - Technologies - Politics - Mass - "3Com's sale to Bain, Huawei stymied: National-security agency fails to approve $2.2 billion deal." ... "Concerns about national security could scuttle the $2.2 billion sale of networker 3Com Corp. [Corporation], shares of which dropped as much as 20% on Wednesday." ... "Marlborough, Mass.[Massachusetts]-based 3Com (COMS) and its two partners -- Bain Capital Partners LLC [Limited Liability Company] and Huawei Technologies Co. [Company] -- said they would withdraw their application with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States." ... "The source of the agency's concern is the participation of Huawei, the largest networker in China and a company with links to the mainland's communist government. Huawei is run by a former mid-ranking officer in the Chinese army whose firm has raised the ire of the U.S. [United States] government and Western rivals such as Cisco Systems Inc. [Incorporated]." ... "It's no longer a top-tier networking company, but 3Com still does substantial business with the U.S. The vendor's TippingPoint subsidiary, for example, sells anti-hacking and other network-security services to the Defense Department." ... "The U.S. has been particularly sensitive about foreign ownership of networking and communications assets, especially in light of repeated attempts to hack the nation's defense systems. Chinese-based hackers are viewed as a major concern. " -By Jeffry Bartash -MarketWatch 

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Military - Survey - US - Iraq - China - Iran - Politics - "Officers: U.S. military stretched 'dangerously thin'." ... "The Iraq war has strained U.S. forces to the point where they could not fight another large-scale war, according to a survey of military officers." ... "Of those surveyed, 88 percent believe the demands of the Iraq war have "stretched the U.S. military dangerously thin."" ... "On the other hand, 56 percent of the officers disagree that the war has "broken" the military." ... "Eighty percent of officers believe it is unreasonable to expect the U.S. military to wage another major war successfully at present." ... "Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for a New American Security on Tuesday issued the U.S. Military Index, a survey of 3,400 present and former U.S. military officers." ... ""We asked the officers whether they thought the U.S. military was stronger or weaker than it was five years ago," said Michael Boyer, who helped write the report." ... ""Sixty percent said the U.S. military is weaker than it was five years ago," Boyer told reporters." ... "The officers believe "that either China or Iran, not the United States, is emerging as the strategic victor" in the Iraq war." -CNN 

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Oil - History - Texas - US - Countries - Nigeria - Venezuela - "Oil Closes Above $100 For First Time." ... "There was no single driver behind oil's sharp price jump; investors seized on an explosion at a 67,000 barrel per day refinery in Texas, the falling dollar, the possibility that OPEC [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] may cut production next month, the threat of new violence in Nigeria and continuing tensions between the U.S. [United States] and Venezuela." ... "Light, sweet crude for March delivery rose $4.51 to settle at a record $100.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier rising to $100.10, a new trading record. It was the first time since Jan. 3 that oil had been above $100." ... "Oil prices are still within the range of inflation-adjusted highs set in early 1980. Depending on how the adjustment is calculated, $38 a barrel then would be worth $96 to $103 or more today." -AP via -CBSNews 

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Drug - Safety - US - China - Manufacturers- Corporate - Government - Database - Politics - Michigan - "FDA Says It Approved The Wrong Drug Plant: Heparin Probe Sends Inspectors to China." ... "The Chinese facility that supplies the active ingredient of the widely used blood thinner heparin was never inspected by the [Republican President Bush's] Food and Drug Administration because the agency confused its name with another just like it, agency officials said yesterday." ... "More than 350 adverse reactions to the drug have been reported to the FDA since the end of 2007, including a dangerous lowering of blood pressure, breathing difficulties and vomiting. Four patients who took the drug died. One of its two manufacturers, Baxter International, stopped selling its multiple-dose vials of heparin earlier this month, and yesterday the FDA advised doctors to prescribe alternatives." ... "Millions of people each year are given the drug during dialysis or to prevent complications from surgery, but the FDA has never checked the Chinese plant where the active ingredient is made." ... "[Michigan Democratic Representative John] Dingell noted that the agency seems uncertain even of the number of foreign drugmakers, with one database saying there are 7,000 while another counts 3,000." -By Marc Kaufman -WashingtonPost

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Cuba - Military - People - History - "Castro resigns as president, state-run paper reports." ... "Fidel Castro announced his resignation as president of Cuba and commander in chief of Cuba's military Tuesday, according to a letter published in the state-run newspaper, Granma." ... "The resignation ends nearly a half-century of iron-fisted rule that inspired revolutionaries but frustrated 10 U.S. presidents." ... "Castro revealed his plans without notice by publishing a letter in the middle of the night in state-run newspaper Granma." ... ""I will not aspire to, nor will I accept the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief," Castro wrote. "I wish only to fight as a soldier of ideas. ... Perhaps my voice will be heard."" ... "[Republican] President Bush said Castro's decision ought to spark "a democratic transition" for Cuba." ... "Cuba's leaders plan to elect a president within days. Castro's brother, Raúl, the country's defense minister, has been named publicly as his successor." ... "Castro, 81, captured the world's attention at the age of 32, when he led a band of guerrillas who overthrew a corrupt dictatorship in 1959. He went on to become a thorn in Washington's side by embracing communism and cozying up to the Soviet Union." -Contributed to by Morgan Neill -CNN

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Afghanistan - People- Military - Politics - Iraq - US - Canada - "140 Afghans Killed in 2 Days of Bombings." ... "A suicide car bomber killed 38 Afghans at a crowded market Monday, pushing the death toll from two days of militant bombings to about 140." ... "The marketplace blast, which targeted a Canadian army convoy, came a day after the country's deadliest insurgent attack since a U.S. invasion defeated the Taliban regime in late 2001. The toll from that bombing in a crowd watching a dog fight rose to more than 100." ... "The back-to-back blasts in the southern province of Kandahar could be a sign insurgents are now willing to risk high civilian casualties while attacking security forces. Though their attacks occasionally have killed dozens, militants in Afghanistan have generally sought to avoid targeting civilians, unlike insurgents in Iraq's war." ... "The previous deadliest bombing in Afghanistan killed about 70 people _ mostly students _ in November [2007], part of a record year of violence in 2007 that included more than 140 suicide attacks." (1, 2) -By Allauddin Khan and Noor Khan with contributions by Matiullah Achakzai, Rahim Faiez and Paul Ames -AP -WashingtonPost

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John McCain - US - Iraq - Military - Media - 2008 Election - Arizona - Fla - Calif - "McCain Overstates His Criticisms Of Rumsfeld." ... "As he gets closer to the Republican nomination, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain has been trying to balance his unqualified support for the Iraq war by reminding audiences that he was also a tough critic of how it was managed until [Republican] President Bush finally changed strategies a year ago. In recent weeks, McCain has gone so far as to tell audiences that he was "the only one" who called for Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation as defense secretary." ... "The trick is that he never did, at least not publicly." ... "While campaigning in Fort Myers, Fla. [Florida], on Jan. [January] 26, he told a crowd: "In the conflict that we're in, I'm the only one that said we have to abandon the Rumsfeld strategy -- and Rumsfeld -- and adopt a new strategy." Four days later during a debate at the [Republican] Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., [California] aired on CNN, McCain said, "I'm the only one that said that Rumsfeld had to go."" ... "A McCain spokesman acknowledged this week that that was not correct. "He did not call for his resignation," said the campaign's Brian Rogers." ... "McCain's false account has been unwittingly incorporated into the narrative he is selling by some news organizations, including The Washington Post." -By Peter Baker -WashingtonPost

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US - Iraq - MRAP - Military - Vehicles - Science - People - Money - Government - Politics - "Study: Lack of MRAPs cost Marine lives." ... "More than 700 U.S. troops died from roadside bombs because the Marine Corps' devotion to a military vehicle years away from deployment kept it from buying available Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected (MRAP) trucks, according to an internal Marine report obtained Friday by USA TODAY." ... "Instead of fulfilling an urgent Marine request from the field for 1,169 vehicles in February 2005, Marine Corps leaders and analysts delayed fielding the MRAPs, and instead bought more armored Humvees, the report written by Marine science adviser Franz Gayl says." ... "Gayl, who filed for federal whistle-blower protection last May, has criticized the Marines' delays in fielding MRAPs and has briefed members of Congress about the problems in meeting requests from troops in the field. His report, dated Jan. 22, says Marine bureaucrats didn't understand the need for MRAPs and they delayed buying the large, armored vehicles because they wanted to save money for a future replacement for the Humvee called the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV)." ... "Stopping the threat posed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq in 2005 was deemed secondary to developing the JLTV, Gayl wrote. The Marines, he wrote, saw JTLV "as a higher priority than the daily killed and wounded being experienced by … known IED threats in 2005."" ... "Improvised explosive devices are the largest single killer of U.S. troops in Iraq and are blamed for at least 60% of all U.S. casualties there. " -By Ray Locker -USATODAY

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Corporate - Government - Drug - Manufacturing - Safety - Politics - Investigation - Wisconsin - Michigan - US - China - "F.D.A. Broke Its Rules by Not Inspecting Chinese Plant With Problem Drug." ... "The Food and Drug Administration [overseen by Republican President Bush] violated its own policies when it approved for sale a crucial blood-thinning drug without first inspecting a Chinese plant which, along with a plant in Wisconsin, made the drug’s active pharmaceutical ingredient." ... "“It was obviously a glitch” that the drug, heparin, produced and sold by Baxter International, was approved for sale without a plant inspection, said Karen Riley, an F.D.A. spokeswoman." ... "[Michigan Democratic] Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of a House investigative subcommittee, said that no matter what happened with the heparin inquiry, the F.D.A.’s inability to provide basic information about the Chinese manufacturing plant weeks after concerns were first raised was deeply troubling." ... "“They can’t tell us if they’ve inspected this plant, what other problems might have been identified at this plant, or what other U.S. firms might be getting supplies from this plant,” he said." ... "Over the past year, a wave of tainted goods from China, including deadly pet food ingredients and tainted fish, has prompted concern about whether [F.D.A.] regulators are adequately monitoring imports’ safety." -By Gardiner Harris and Walt Bogdanich with contributions by Andrew W. Lehren -NYTimes

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Pakistan - People - Politics - "Musharraf 'obstacle to stability' By Jill McGivering BBC News: A majority of Pakistanis say stability and security in Pakistan would improve if President Pervez Musharraf resigned, according to a BBC World Service poll." ... "The survey of more than 1,400 people across Pakistan suggested support for Mr Musharraf has fallen dramatically." ... "Pakistanis are preparing to vote in parliamentary polls on Monday that many fear could be rigged." ... "Mr Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, has promised that the elections will be fair." ... "Pakistanis polled by the BBC World Service were divided about whether the general elections scheduled for 18 February would be free and fair." ... "The results of the latest poll found a particularly low approval rating for his [Musharraf's] performance. Only 15% of people asked said they approved of the job he was doing, while 72% disapproved." ... "That compared with an approval rate of 30% at the end of last year. Three-quarters of the people asked said they would like him to resign." ... "In recent months, a series of events have helped to change the political landscape. The murder of [former Prime Minister Benazir] Ms Bhutto on 27 December created a wave of sympathy for the opposition." ... "Her widower and the new co-chair of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Asif Zardari, has so far managed to keep his party unified and opinion polls suggest that the PPP may have strengthened its position." -BBC/News 

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Mary E Peters - Corporate - Government - Politics - Trucking - Safety - Trucks - Emissions - Law - Environmental - Clean Air Act - Union - San Francisco - California - Texas - US - Mexico - "Greens, Teamsters collide with Mexican trucks." ... "International Brotherhood of Teamsters lobbyist Fred McLuckie thought his fight to keep Mexican trucks out of America ended when Congress cut a pilot program’s funding last December." ... "Instead, the veteran lobbyist is still in the fight, after U.S. [United States Republican President Bush's] Transportation Secretary Mary Peters continued to fund the program — a move many interest groups and lawmakers say is unconstitutional." ... "“You never know what to expect in this town,” McLuckie said. “It is certainly disappointing that we’re going back at this program. Our immediate concern is that Mary Peters isn’t following the law.”" ... "The program drew harsh criticism from the Teamsters, citizen rights group Public Citizen and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association [OOIDA], which have aligned to press safety and pollution concerns with lawmakers. The groups say there is no guarantee that the trucks are in compliance with U.S. safety or emissions standards." ... "“How is it that the administration can simply ignore a law?” said OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer. “It’s frustrating and shocking that we have such a clear and blatant violation of law by a rogue administration.”" ... "The Teamsters have also gotten support from an unlikely bedfellow: the environmentalist Sierra Club. Greens are concerned that emissions from Mexican trucks could cause El Paso, Texas, and other U.S. cities along the border to violate Environmental Protection Agency regulations." ... "“We think the increase of potential air pollution could put communities along the border out of Clean Air Act compliance,” said Sierra Club spokesman Oliver Bernstein." ... "The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco [California] heard oral arguments Tuesday over the plaintiff’s charges that Peters broke federal laws and endangered American motorists by allowing the trucks on the road." -By Erika Lovley -Politico.com

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Food - Agriculture - History- Illinois - Minnesota - US - World - Droughts/Water - Weather - United Nations - "In Price and Supply, Wheat Is the Unstable Staple." ... "With demand soaring abroad and droughts crimping supply, the world’s wheat stockpiles have fallen to their lowest level in 30 years, and stocks in the United States have dropped to levels unseen since 1948." ... "On Tuesday, prices for a sought-after variety, spring wheat, jumped to $16.73 a bushel on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange [Minneapolis, Minnesota], the latest of several records." ... "Though this week’s prices were nominal records, the inflation-adjusted record for wheat was set in the mid-1970s, when it exceeded $20 a bushel in today’s dollars after huge sales to the Soviet Union." ... "The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that world wheat production will rise this year to nearly 664 million tons, from about 655 million tons — not enough to replenish stocks and push down prices." -By David Streitfeld -NYTimes 

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Antonin Scalia - Dick Cheney - Torture - Terrorism - Intelligence - Politics - History - Guantanamo - Cuba - US - Military - Prisoners - Human Rights - Switzerland - "Scalia Weighs in Again on Controversy." ... "[Republican President Ronald Reagan appointed Supreme Court] Justice Antonin Scalia's statement that inflicting pain on a terrorism suspect to elicit critical information could be constitutional was not the first - or second or even third - time he has commented on a legal controversy that ultimately could be settled by the Supreme Court." ... "If past practice is any guide, Scalia won't let his remarks or his critics' complaints stop him from taking part in the court's work." ... "In 2006, a few weeks before the court heard arguments over the rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Scalia told an audience in Switzerland that the Constitution doesn't protect foreigners who are held there." ... ""War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts. Give me a break," Scalia said." ... "He ignored a request from five retired generals to withdraw from the case and dissented from a ruling in favor of the detainees. Two years earlier, Scalia also dissented in the court's first decision extending some legal rights to the Guantanamo prisoners." ... "Scalia, 71, rebuffed calls in 2004 to step aside from a dispute involving [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney when it was disclosed Scalia accompanied Cheney on a hunting trip while the court was considering the case." -By Mark Sherman -AssociatedPress 

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US - Iran - Military - Aircraft - Money - Politics - Texas - Singapore - "Fort Worth pair accused of illegal sales to Iran." ... "A Fort Worth [Texas] woman remained in federal custody Tuesday on charges that she along with her husband made millions of dollars by illegally selling commercial and U.S. military aircraft parts to Iran." ... "Laura Woodford, 63, who has been detained for more than a month, and her husband, Brian, 77, who remained at large, conducted part of their underground trade through a company they operated in Fort Worth, according to a 20-count federal indictment charging them with conspiracy, money laundering and other acts in violation of national security laws." ... "The Woodfords exported commercial aircraft parts from the United States to their company in Singapore, Monarch Aviation, and then shipped the parts to Iran without first obtaining a license from the U.S. because of Iran's "support of international terrorism," according to the recently unsealed indictments." ... "In addition, the couple is charged with exporting to Iran the components used to build Chinook military helicopters in the U.S. without getting the proper license or government approval to do so, the Justice Department said in a statement." -By Jack Douglas Jr. -Star-Telegram.com 

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US - Global - Home - History - "Global Confidence Weakens for Third Month on Slowdown (Update1)." ... "Global stocks have lost more than $6 trillion this year as credit dried up for some borrowers and the U.S. [United States] expansion stalled." ... "Home sales in the world's largest economy fell at the fastest pace since at least 1963." ... "Financial institutions around the world face $400 billion of write-offs as a consequence of the U.S. subprime mortgage slump, according to Group of Seven estimates, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said on Feb. [February] 9." ... "UBS AG, Europe's largest bank by assets, last month posted the biggest loss ever by a bank after raising fourth-quarter writedowns to $14 billion. The world's biggest financial companies have booked more than $145 billion of writedowns and losses since the beginning of 2007, partly because of the declining value of securities backed by assets including U.S. subprime mortgages." ... "The S&P [Standard & Poor's] 500, the benchmark U.S. index, declined 8.1 percent this year to 1348.86 yesterday." -By Ben Sills and Paul Tobin -Bloomberg 

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China - Sudan - Sports - Politics - US - Entertainer - Human - Human Rights - Oil - Military - "China loses Spielberg over Darfur." ... "Scott Jagow: Steven Spielberg will have nothing to do with the Summer Olympics in Beijing [China]. Yesterday, Spielberg withdrew as an artistic advisor for the opening and closing ceremonies. The director says he can't be associated with China's policies toward an African nation in conflict." ... "Bill Marcus: China's a big oil customer of Sudan. China also supplies Sudan with weapons. That's why Spielberg says he quit. He said China should do more to help end the human suffering in Sudan's Darfur region." ... "Human rights activists say Spielberg's move sets a moral standard." -By Scott Jagow and Bill Marcus -Marketplace via -PublicRadio.org

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Antonin Scalia - Torture - Terrorism - Intelligence - Politics - Los Angeles - California - US - Britain - "US Judge Scalia on 'So-Called Torture'." ... "[Republican President Ronald Reagan appointed] Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that aggressive interrogation could be appropriate to learn where a bomb was hidden shortly before it was set to explode or to discover the plans or whereabouts of a terrorist group." ... ""It seems to me you have to say, as unlikely as that is, it would be absurd to say you couldn't, I don't know, stick something under the fingernail, smack him in the face. It would be absurd to say you couldn't do that," Scalia told British Broadcasting Radio Corp." ... ""I suppose it's the same thing about so-called torture," he said in the interview. "Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to find out where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles [California] is prohibited by the Constitution?"" ... ""Is it obvious, that what can't be done for punishment can't be done to exact information that is crucial to the society? I think it's not at all an easy question, to tell you the truth."" ... "Scalia, a judicial icon among American conservatives, an acerbic wit and often abrasive personality, said Europeans had no business "smugly" decrying those techniques as torture." -By Raphael G. Satter -AP via -ChicagoTribune 

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Sudan - Chad - Military - Politics -  - "New wave of Darfur refugees flee into Chad." ... "Fighting in the volatile Sudanese region of Darfur has sparked a another wave of refugees into Chad and left a Red Cross employee dead, according to international agencies." ... "The U.N. [United Nations] High Commissioner for Refugees said on Monday that more than 12,000 people have fled militia attacks over the last few days from Sudan's Darfur region to neighboring Chad, still recovering from a recent attempt by rebels there to topple the government." ... "Before the latest flight into Chad, the UNHCR and its partner groups "were taking care of 240,000 Sudanese refugees in 12 camps in eastern Chad and some 50,000 from Central African Republic in the south of the country." Up to 30,000 people in Chad fled the country for Cameroon during the rebel-government fighting." ... "The United Nations says "more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.2 million others forced to flee their homes since fighting began in 2003 among government forces, rebel groups and allied militia groups known as the Janjaweed."" -CNN

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Noteworthy - Secret - US - Iraq - Military - Government - Politics - "Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning." ... "The Army is accustomed to protecting classified information. But when it comes to the planning for the Iraq war, even an unclassified assessment can acquire the status of a state secret." ... "That is what happened to a detailed study of the planning for postwar Iraq prepared for the Army by the RAND Corporation, a federally financed center that conducts research for the military." ... "After 18 months of research, RAND submitted a report in the summer of 2005 called “Rebuilding Iraq.” RAND researchers provided an unclassified version of the report along with a secret one, hoping that its publication would contribute to the public debate on how to prepare for future conflicts." ... "But the study’s wide-ranging critique of the [Republican President Bush] White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies was a concern for Army generals, and the Army has sought to keep the report under lock and key." ... "A review of the lengthy report — a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times — shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war. That assessment parallels the verdicts of numerous former officials and independent analysts." ... "The study chided [Republican] President Bush — and by implication Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served as national security adviser when the war was planned — as having failed to resolve differences among rival agencies. “Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff,” it said." ... "The Defense Department led by Donald H. Rumsfeld was given the lead in overseeing the postwar period in Iraq despite its “lack of capacity for civilian reconstruction planning and execution.”" ... "The State Department led by Colin L. Powell produced a voluminous study on the future of Iraq that identified important issues but was of “uneven quality” and “did not constitute an actionable plan.”" ... "Gen. [General] Tommy R. Franks, whose Central Command oversaw the military operation in Iraq, had a “fundamental misunderstanding” of what the military needed to do to secure postwar Iraq, the study said." (1, 2) -By Michael R. Gordon -NYTimes

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Secret - Torture - Prisons - US - Guantanamo_Bay - Cuba - Military - Government - Terrorism - Psychology - Intelligence - Law - Enforcement - Politics - "FBI ‘Clean Team’ re-interrogated 9/11 suspects: Agency tried non-coercive techniques to protect case against six detainees." ... "The [Republican President] Bush administration announced yesterday that it intends to bring capital murder charges against half a dozen men allegedly linked to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, based partly on information the men disclosed to FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] and military questioners without the use of coercive interrogation tactics." ... "The admissions made by the men -- who were given food whenever they were hungry as well as Starbucks coffee at the Defense Department's Guantanamo Bay prison [Guantanamo Bay, Cuba] -- played a key role in the government's decision to proceed with the prosecutions, military and law enforcement officials said." ... "FBI and military interrogators who began work with the suspects in late 2006 called themselves the "Clean Team," and set as their goal collecting of virtually the same information the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] had obtained from five of the six through duress at secret prisons." ... "To ensure that the data would not be tainted by allegations of torture or illegal coercion, the FBI and military team won the suspects' trust over the past 16 months by using time-tested rapport-building techniques, the officials said." ... "The men were read rights similar to a standard U.S. [United States] Miranda warning, and officials designed the program to get to the information the CIA already had gleaned by waterboarding and other techniques such as sleep deprivation, forced standing and temperature extremes." ... "Robert M. Chesney, a Wake Forest University law professor who closely follows the tribunals process, said it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to use much of the information derived from CIA interrogations in military trials, in part because the Military Commissions Act of 2006 forbids evidence obtained through torture." ... "[John D. Hutson:] "There's something in American jurisprudence called 'fruit of the poisonous tree': You can clean up the tree a little but it's hard to do," said John D. Hutson, a retired Navy rear admiral and former judge advocate general. "Once you torture someone, it is hard to un-torture them. The general public is going to be concerned about the validity of the testimony."" (1, 2) -By Josh White, Dan Eggen, and Joby Warrick with contributions by Julie Tate -WashingtonPost via -MSNBC 

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Dick Cheney - Videos - Privacy - Politics - Colorado - US - Iraq - Military - "Cheney fights release of videos: The VP's [Vice President's] office worries depositions of two aides in a Golden [Colorado] man's civil lawsuit may show up on YouTube." ... "The office of [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney is seeking to block the release of videotaped depositions given by two aides who witnessed a physical encounter between an Iraq war opponent and Cheney." ... "In a motion filed Saturday, Cheney's office contended that the videotapes could be used to invade the privacy and embarrass two aides called to testify about the encounter in a civil lawsuit. " -By David Olinger -DenverPost.com

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Food - Illinois - Minnesota - Kansas - US - Australia - "Limit on wheat prices raised." ... "With wheat prices touching all-time highs, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] on Friday took steps to allow the daily limit on price moves to double, to 60 cents a bushel from 30 cents." ... "Additionally, the limit will rise to 90 cents a bushel on the next day after a 60-cent limit is reached." ... "The CFTC, which regulates trading on the Chicago Board of Trade [Chicago, Illinois] and two other exchanges, made the move as wheat prices rose the limit for the fifth straight day on the CBOT, to a record $10.93 a bushel for the March contract, in after-hours electronic trading in Sydney [Australia]." ... "In Minneapolis [at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, Minneapolis, Minnesota], where spring wheat also is traded, the March contract also rose the 30-cent limit, gaining 2 percent, to $15.53 a bushel." ... "Wheat for March delivery jumped the 30-cent limit to add 2.7 percent, to $11.4025 a bushel, on the Kansas City Board of Trade [Kansas City, Kansas], also in after-hours trading in Sydney [Australia]." -ChicagoTribune

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Food - Agriculture - Markets - History - Consumer - Minnesota - South Dakota - North Dakota - US - Worldwide - "Record wheat price ignites food inflation fears: It's $15 a bushel at Minneapolis Grain Exchange [Minneapolis, Minnesota] and expected to keep climbing." ... "The highest wheat price in U.S. [United States] history - more than $15 a bushel - was reached Thursday in Minneapolis as a trading frenzy inflames the grain markets, fans fears of spiking food costs and revives worries about food shortages." ... "With wheat stockpiles dwindling, a worldwide scramble is under way for bushels of high-protein spring wheat, the variety grown in Minnesota and the Dakotas [South Dakota and North Dakota] and traded at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange [Minneapolis, Minnesota]. Already, spring wheat prices have tripled in the past year and are poised to move even higher." ... "Thursday's closing price of $15.23 a bushel may be jubilant news for wheat farmers and the rural Midwest, as the historic rally pushes corn and soybean prices near records, too. But it could mean new price shocks for consumers, and it already alarms food companies that need wheat for such consumer staples as bread, cereal, crackers and pasta." ... "In 2007, the rate of U.S. food inflation more than doubled to a 17-year high of 4.8 percent. Some expect that pace to nearly double again this year." ... "The [Minneapolis Grain Exchange] exchange was founded more than a century ago in an era when Minneapolis was the flour milling capital of the world, and it nourished local companies like General Mills, Pillsbury and Cargill. It remains the U.S. marketplace for spring wheat, a tough, high-protein variety that makes bread rise and bagels possible." ... "On Thursday, the local grain elevator in Halstad, Minn. [Minneapolis], was paying $16.13 per bushel for spring wheat. " -By Tom Webb -TwinCities.com

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Food - Agriculture - History - Weather - Illinois - US - China - World - "Wheat Surges to Record as U.S. Supply May Drop to 60-Year Low." ... "Wheat rose to a record for a third day on the Chicago Board of Trade [in Chicago, Illinois] as the U.S. [United States] forecast its lowest inventories in 60 years." ... "U.S. stockpiles will drop to 272 million bushels at the end of May, 6.8 percent less than expected a month ago and down 40 percent from the prior year, the Department of Agriculture said in a report today. Inventories will be the lowest since 1948 when farmers grew less and shipped more wheat overseas to help rebuilding countries after World War II, economists said." ... "Wheat has more than doubled in the past year." ... "Wheat futures for March delivery rose 30 cents, or 2.8 percent, to a record $10.93 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. The contract rose the 30-cent exchange limit for five straight days. The 16 percent gain this week is the biggest in history." ... "The rally in wheat has accelerated in the past year after weather damaged crops from the world's biggest producers. Rising food consumption in China and increased demand for corn and soybeans used to make alternative fuels also are eroding global crop supplies." ... "World inventories of all wheat are expected to fall to 109.7 million metric tons by the end of the marketing year on May 31, down 1.1 percent from the government's January estimate and the lowest since 1978, the USDA said." ... "Wheat was the fourth-biggest U.S. crop in 2006, valued at $7.7 billion, behind corn, soybeans and hay, government data show." -By Tony C. Dreibus -Bloomberg 

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United States - Torture- War Crimes - Criminals -  - Human Rights - Politics - Mexico - "U.N. says waterboarding should be prosecuted as torture." ... "The controversial interrogation technique known as waterboarding and used by the United States qualifies as torture, the U.N. [United Nations] human rights chief said on Friday." ... ""I would have no problems with describing this practice as falling under the prohibition of torture," the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, told a news conference in Mexico City [Mexico]." ... "Violators of the U.N. Convention against Torture should be prosecuted under the principle of 'universal jurisdiction' which allows countries to try accused war criminals from other nations, Arbour said." -By Mica Rosenberg with contributions by Patricia Zengerle -Reuters 

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Secretive - Iraqi - Religious - Law - Terrorism - Women - Torture - Executions -  - Human Rights - Police - Politics - "Violations of 'Islamic teachings' take deadly toll on Iraqi women." ... "The images in the Basra [Iraq] police file are nauseating: Page after page of women killed in brutal fashion -- some strangled to death, their faces disfigured; others beheaded. All bear signs of torture." ... "The women are killed, police say, because they failed to wear a headscarf or because they ignored other "rules" that secretive fundamentalist groups want to enforce." ... ""Fear, fear is always there," says 30-year-old Safana, an artist and university professor. "We don't know who to be afraid of. Maybe it's a friend or a student you teach. There is no break, no security. I don't know who to be afraid of."" ... "Her fear is justified. Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, is a stronghold of conservative Shia groups. As many as 133 women were killed in Basra last year -- 79 for violation of "Islamic teachings" and 47 for so-called honor killings, according to IRIN [Integrated Regional Information Networks], the news branch of the U.N.'s [United Nation's] Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs." ... "Amnesty International has raised concern about the increasing violence toward women in Iraq, saying abductions, rapes and "honor killings" are on the rise." ... ""Politically active women, those who did not follow a strict dress code, and women [who are] human rights defenders were increasingly at risk of abuses, including by armed groups and religious extremists," Amnesty said in a 2007 report." -By Arwa Damon -CNN 

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Biofuels - Plants - Greenhouse Gas - Global - Climate - Science - Agriculture - Land - Environmental - Economy - Food - "Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat." ... "Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded." ... "The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental cost of their production. These latest studies, published in the prestigious journal Science, are likely to add to the controversy." ... "These studies for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development." ... "The destruction of natural ecosystems — whether rain forest in the tropics or grasslands in South America — not only releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed, but also deprives the planet of natural sponges to absorb carbon emissions. Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces." ... "Together the two studies offer sweeping conclusions: It does not matter if it is rain forest or scrubland that is cleared, the greenhouse gas contribution is significant. More important, they discovered that, taken globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not, in new lands being cleared, either for food or fuel." (1, 2) -By Elisabeth Rosenthal -NYTimes 

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Secrecy - US - Overseas - Torture - Flights - Prisoners - Transport - Trip - Corporate - Government - Law - Intelligence - Politics - California - "Secrecy plea ties up torture flights case." ... "A lawsuit accusing a San Jose [California] flight-planning company of helping the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] transport prisoners to overseas torture chambers must be dismissed because it would risk exposing state secrets, a [Republican President] Bush administration lawyer argued Tuesday to a federal judge, who seemed to reluctantly agree." ... "The five plaintiffs can't prove that Jeppesen International Trip Planning subjected them to wrongful imprisonment and torture without first showing that the company aided the CIA, that foreign governments collaborated, and that the so-called extraordinary rendition program subjected them to brutal treatment, Justice Department attorney Michael Abate said at a hearing in San Jose. Each one of those assertions depends on classified information that can't be aired in court, he said." ... ""Without the information in question, this case cannot be litigated," Abate told U.S. [United States] District Judge James Ware. The result of allowing the government to keep its secrets out of court "can be harsh," he said, but under the state-secrets doctrine recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court since 1953, "private parties bear that burden on behalf of society."" ... "Ware did not issue a ruling after the 70-minute hearing, and made it clear that he considered some aspects of the government's position to be extreme. He questioned Abate's argument that the imprisonment and interrogation of each plaintiff remained an official secret, even though the men knew how they were treated." ... ""If they're in the program, the secret's disclosed, at least to them," the judge said. When Abate insisted that legal precedents require official government confirmation to remove the veil of secrecy, Ware said the doctrine known as the state-secrets privilege "should be called a state privilege to do whatever it wants."" -Bob Egelko -SFGate.com

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Secretive - Corporate - Government - Enforcement - Woman - Employee - Safety - Iraq - US - Texas - "Sex Assault Suit Vs. Halliburton Killed: Alleged Sexual Assault Victim's Case Forced Into Secretive Arbitration." ... "A mother of five who says she was sexually harassed and assaulted while working for Halliburton/KBR in Iraq is headed for a secretive arbitration process rather than being able to present her case in open court." ... "A judge in Texas [District Judge Gray Miller] has ruled that Tracy Barker's case will be heard in arbitration, according to the terms of her initial employment contract." ... "Barker says that while in Iraq she was constantly propositioned by her superior, threatened and isolated after she reported an incident of sexual assault." ... ""When I arrived in Basra [Iraq], there were about five men that worked on the camp for the company I worked for and they were waiting for me," Barker told ABC News in an exclusive interview that aired last December." ... ""I was told they wanted to see what I look like," she said, "to make sure I was decent looking before they approved my transfer."" ... "Tracy says her KBR boss in Basra repeatedly propositioned her and threatened her." ... ""The manager of the camp kept making gestures of how if I wanted my safety to exist on the camp, that I needed to sleep with him, and that's all he kept saying to me," said Barker." ... "In arbitration, there is no public record or transcript of the proceedings, meaning that Tracy's claims will not be heard before a judge and jury." (1, 2, 3) -By Maddy Sauer and Justin Rood -ABCNEWS.com

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John McCain - Pat Robertson - Money - Religion - Immigrant - Workers - Women - Abortions - Illegal - Iowa - Ethanol - Air - Environment - US - Global - Climate - History - 2008 Election - "Top McCain Flip-Flops." ... "1. Taxes. [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain was one of two Republican senators to vote against [Republican] President Bush's tax cuts of 2001, saying that he could not support cuts that benefited the rich rather than the middle class. He now favors making the tax cuts permanent." ... "2. The religious right. During the 2000 presidential campaign, he attacked [Republican televangelists] Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance." He withdrew that remark in a 2006 interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," saying that the Christian right has a "major role to play in the Republican Party."" ... "3. Immigration. Last year, he sponsored a bill that would combine a temporary-worker program and a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants while also increasing border security. He now emphasizes securing the borders first." ... "4. Roe v. Wade. In August 1999, he told the San Francisco Chronicle that he would "not support repeal of Roe v. Wade" because it would force women to have illegal abortions. He has subsequently said that he was speaking about the need to change the "culture of America" and that he supports the repeal of Roe, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide." ... "5. Ethanol. In 2003, he said that ethanol "does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve air quality." Campaigning in Iowa in August 2006, he described ethanol as a "vital alternative energy source, not only because of our dependency on foreign oil, but its greenhouse-reduction effects."" -WashingtonPost

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Child - Soldier - War Criminal - Canadian - Afghanistan - Cuba- Guantanamo - Prison - US - Criminal - Justice - Politics - "U.S. says no one too young for Guantanamo court." ... "A Canadian accused of killing a U.S. [United States] soldier in Afghanistan should not be tried as a war criminal because he was a child soldier for al Qaeda, too young to voluntarily join its forces, his military defense lawyer told a U.S. war court on Monday." ... "Navy [Lieutenant] Lt. William Kuebler asked a military judge to throw out the charges against Canadian defendant Omar Khadr, who was shot and captured at age 15 in a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002." ... ""He is a victim of al Qaeda, not a member of al Qaeda," Kuebler said." ... "But a U.S. Department of Justice attorney [under Republican President Bush], arguing for the prosecution, said that if Congress intended to exclude juveniles from the Guantanamo war court [in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba], it would have explicitly written that, because lawmakers knew Khadr could face charges. Instead, Congress wrote the law using the term "person," which legally refers to "anyone born alive," Justice Department attorney Andy Oldham said." (1, 2) -By Jane Sutton with contributions by Tom Brown and Alan Elsner -Reuters 

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US - Iraq - Politics - "Pentagon is split on Iraq withdrawals." ... "The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday that no decision had been made to stop the withdrawal of troops in Iraq this summer, a subtle rebuke of the top U.S. [United States] commander there, who suggested that reductions would pause after the current round of cuts was completed in July." ... "In a televised interview this week, Army [General] Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said that after extra troops sent last year return home in July, he would need "some time to let things settle down a bit" before deciding on further reductions." ... "However, Navy [Admiral ] Adm. Michael G. Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman, emphasized Friday that Petraeus had made no formal recommendation to halt the withdrawal." ... "Mullen also said other military commanders, including the Joint Chiefs themselves, would have a direct say in the decision." ... "Senior [Republican President] Bush administration officials privately acknowledge tension between the Joint Chiefs and generals in Iraq, particularly between Army Chief of Staff [General] Gen. George W. Casey Jr. and officers such as Petraeus and Army [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the day-to-day operational commander." ... "Senior Defense officials said Casey and [General] Gen. James T. Conway, the commandant of the Marine Corps, expressed renewed concerns over the stress on their forces caused by repeated deployments during a high-level meeting of four-star commanders in the Pentagon this week." -By Peter Spiegel with contributions by Tina Susman -LAtimes 

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Terrorism - Politics - Rhetoric - Psychology - US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Military - Law - Foreign - Intelligence - Surveillance - Noteworthy - Civil Liberties - "Bush legacy: Setting a standard in fear-mongering." ... "When I [Richard A. Clarke, former leader of the National Security Council's counterterrorism efforts,] left the [Republican President] Bush administration in 2003, it was clear to me that its strategy for defeating terrorism was leaving our nation more vulnerable and our people in a perilous place. Not only did its policies misappropriate resources, weaken the moral standing of America, and threaten long-standing legal and constitutional provisions, but the president also employed misleading and reckless rhetoric to perpetuate his agenda." ... "This week's State of the Union proved nothing has changed." ... "Besides overstating successes in Afghanistan, painting a rosy future for Iraq, and touting unfinished domestic objectives, he again used his favorite tactic - fear - as a tool to scare Congress and the American people. On one issue in particular - FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) - the president misconstrued the truth and manipulated the facts." ... "Let me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would not cease should the Protect America Act expire. If this were true, the president would not threaten to terminate any temporary extension with his veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring would continue even after legislative provisions lapsed because authorizations issued under the act are in effect up to a full year." ... "Simply put, it was wrong for the president to suggest that warrants issued in compliance with FISA would suddenly evaporate with congressional inaction. Instead - even though Congress extended the Protect America Act by two weeks - he is using the existence of the sunset provision to cast his political opponents in a negative light." ... "For this president, fear is an easier political tactic than compromise. With FISA, he is attempting to rattle Congress into hastily expanding his own executive powers at the expense of civil liberties and constitutional protections." -By Richard A. Clarke "former head of counterterrorism at the National Security Council" -Philly.com 

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Microsoft - Computer - Search Engine - Internet - US - European Union - "Microsoft wants to purchase Yahoo: Microsoft has offered to buy the search engine company Yahoo for $44.6bn (£22.4bn) in cash and shares." ... "The offer, contained in a letter to Yahoo's board, is 62% above Yahoo's closing share price on Thursday." ... "Yahoo cut its revenue forecasts earlier this week and said it would have to spend an additional $300m this year trying to revive the company." ... "It has been struggling in recent years to compete with Google, which has also been a competitor to Microsoft." ... "If Yahoo accepted the offer, competition authorities both in the US and the European Union would be likely to investigate the tie-up." ... "Yahoo chief executive, Jerry Yang, announced on Tuesday that he intended to lay off 1,000 staff as part of a restructuring plan." ... "Yahoo shares have fallen 46% since reaching a year-high of $34.08 in October. On Friday they closed almost 48% higher." -BBC/News 

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Mitt Romney - John McCain - US - Iraq - Military - History - 2008 Election -