Judge Gives Terrorist New Weapon

A New York judge ruled that the US Government must release pictures of abused Iraqi detainees regardless of defense claims that the pictures could harm America. Judge Alvin Hellerstein squashed the governments argument that if the unreleased pictures are exposed they could harm Americas image and spur anti-American violence, warning that the US courtroom does not "surrender to blackmail". Hellerstein granted the request made by leading civil rights group, the American Civil Liberties Union, to see nearly 90 unseen pictures and four video tapes of US soldiers allegedly abusing detainees. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, stated in court papers that the revelation of the photos would aid al-Qaeda an incite violence against US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In response to Myers and Pentagon statements, the judge ruled in a 50-page opinion that his task is not to "defer to our worst fears, but to interpret and apply the law" and ensure transparency and accountability in government. He said that "terrorists" have already proven they need no "pretexts for their barbarism". "The freedoms that we champion are as important to our success in Iraq and Afghanistan as the guns and missiles with which our troops are armed," he said. The ruling comes on the heels of a three-year jail sentence for Army reservist Lynndie England, who was infamously photographed taunting and pointing at nude detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Several soldiers have been punished for mistreating detainees, but civil rights groups argue the sentencing was light and are pushing for top Pentagon officials to also be held accountable for abuse by the US military.

London Man Jailed Over Iraq Beheading Clip

A London hotel guest who showed an "abhorrent and shocking" video of an Iraqi hostage beheading to an appalled worker has been jailed for 60 days. Subhaan Younis, 23, showed Charlotte McClay the footage on his mobile phone while chatting to her in the shop where she worked at the Moat House Hotel in Glasgow. Younis, of Baliol Street in the city, who downloaded the clip from the internet, had been staying in the hotel at the time of the offence on September 27 last year. Defence solicitor Dominic Sellar told Glasgow District Court his client, who was found guilty of breach of the peace last month, accepted the images were "abhorrent and shocking in the extreme". Younis had shown Ms Clay the footage during a conversation about the Iraq war after offering to let her see something that would "cause her a sleepless night", said Mr Sellar. The shop worker replied: "Aye, right," the court heard. The solicitor said his client thought Ms Clay realised she was about to see a video of a hostage beheading. Stipendiary magistrate Euan Edment said the complainer had been left "shocked, upset and frightened" by the horrific clip and could be affected "perhaps for the rest of her life". Passing sentence, the magistrate told Younis: "You chose to let her view the images on your telephone and told her that she might have nightmares. "In my view, the woman had no idea about what she was about to view. No reasonable person might have anticipated viewing such dreadful and distressing images in such circumstances. I struggle to understand why any decent individual would have images showing the degradation and death of another human being regardless of their race, political or religious persuasion." Mr Sellar told the court that his client, who has previous convictions, mainly for road traffic offences, realised he had made a "colossal mistake" and had behaved "naively, foolishly and stupidly".

Illegal Immigration Has Increased

A new study says more immigrants are entering the country illegally than legally.The Pew Hispanic Center says immigration is increasing as the American economy improves. The report says last year, 562-thousand people entered the country illegally while 455-thousand entered legally. The chairman of the Senate's Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship Subcommittee says the report's an indicator that the immigration system is broken. Texas Republican John Cornyn says comprehensive reform is needed. The Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Anti-War Rally Rife With U.S. Hate

Last weekend's anti-war rally in Washington, D.C., is being hailed as the biggest since the halcyon protest days of the Vietnam war - a claim that seems to surface every time the anti-war left gets together en-masse. Leaving the head-count aside, however, one aspect of the protest glossed over in most media coverage is the distinct anti-American attitude and unbridled hatred that emanated from much of the crowd. Columnist Michelle Malkin captured the flavor of the rally on her photo blog, which offers a cross section of signage from Saturday's gathering.

Some peace placard highlights:

*"9/11 Was an Inside Job"

*"Impeach the Fourth Reich"

*"One Fuhrer was Enough"

*"Stop Facism"
*"Fuck the War"

*"Convict and Castrate Cheney"

The anti-war movement likes to cite recent polls on the Iraq war to bolster their claim: "We're in the majority." We suggest that the next mainstream media poll query respondents on which of the above statements best represents their opposition to the war.

Global Warming Equals Fewer Storms

Environmentalists who claim global warming has caused an increase in U.S. hurricane activity obviously haven't checked with the National Hurricane Center, which has kept statistics on major storms over the last 150 years. That's probably because those statistics yield one inescapable conclusion: If global warming has had any impact at all on hurricane activity, it's lessened - not increased - the frequency of major hurricanes. From 1901 till 1950 - when the U.S. economy was a fraction of its current size and fossil fuel consumption was next to nil - there were 34 hurricanes rated at Catagory 3, 4 or 5 in size on the Saffir Simpson scale. In the latter half of the twentieth century - when U.S. manufacturing exploded, automobile use skyrocketed and rampant consumerism was the order of the day, hurricane activity actually decreased by nearly 20 percent, declining to 28 Catagory 3-5 hurricanes from 1951 to 2000. That's almost as low as the last five decades of the 19th century - when the overwhelming majority of Americans lived on farms, manual power was generated by watermills and cars had yet to be invented. From 1851 to 1900 there were 27 major hurricanes in the U.S. The stunning numbers didn't faze ABC "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos, who attempted to counter panelist George Will when Will raised the Hurricane Center's findings during Sunday's broadcast. "We're only half way through this decade, barely, and we've already got six very intense hurricanes," Stephanopoulos argued, as if to suggest that global warming's impact began in 2001.

Mothers Plan Opposing War Marches On D.C.

Diane Ibbotson and H. Elaine Johnson are grieving mothers. Both lost sons in Iraq, and both feel strongly enough about the war to travel to the nation's capital for demonstrations. That is where the similarities end. Johnson will be protesting the war, while Ibbotson will be speaking out in support of the military action. Organizers of Saturday's anti-war protest predict about 100,000 people will crowd the Ellipse near the White House for a rally and march. Among those expected are Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who drew thousands of protesters to her 26-day vigil outside President Bush's Texas ranch last month. Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in an ambush in Sadr City, Iraq, last year. Ibbotson's son, Forest Jostes, was killed in the same ambush. Ibbotson, from Albion, Ill., said war protesters dishonor the service of her son and others who have died. "There are families who lose children in accidents, in tragic illnesses. Young people die and it seems without a purpose," said Ibbotson, whose son was 21. "My son gave his life for a cause that he believed in. He fought and died for God and country." Ibbotson is part of the Iowa-based group Families United for Our Troops. She's one of 25 "Gold Star" families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan or Iraq who will speak at a news conference Saturday morning and then attend a rally for military families on the Mall on Sunday.

President Clinton's Weakness Led To 9/11

President Bush fired back at ex-president Clinton on Thursday, saying the weak U.S. response to terrorist attacks that took place mostly during the Clinton administration encouraged al Qaida to launch the 9/11 attacks. "The terrorists saw our response to the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombings in the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the destruction of two U.S. embassies in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole," Bush noted, after getting an update on the war on terror at the Pentagon. "The terrorists concluded that we lacked the courage and character to defend ourselves and so they attacked us," the president added, in quotes picked up by United Press International. Four of the six terrorist attacks cited by Bush took place on Clinton's watch, with the first two coming during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Bush's decision to invoke Clinton's poor record on terrorism comes just five days after the ex-president slammed him for attacking Iraq without just cause. "The administration . . . decided to launch this invasion virtually alone and before the U.N. inspections were completed - with no real urgency, no evidence that there was any weapons of mass destruction there," Clinton complained to ABC's "This Week." "I did not favor what was done," he added.

Hillary Clinton: Cindy Sheehan Is Wrong

2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton scrambled yesterday to put some distance between herself and Cindy Sheehan, after word of her private meeting with the anti-American was reported. While Sheehan herself gushed afterwards that her Hillary sitdown went "fabulously," the former first lady sounded a good deal less enthusiastic. In comments guaranteed to infuriate the Moveon.org crowd, Clinton began by noting that she had met earlier in the day with about 20 moms from American Gold Star Mothers, who vehemently disagreed with Sheehan. "My bottom line is that I don’t want their sons to die in vain," she told the Voice. While Sheehan has called the U.S. liberation of Iraq "Bull shit," Clinton said: "I happen to think that fighting for freedom is a noble cause. There are lots of things wrong with how Bush did it. I believe we should have gone through with the inspection process and acted through the UN. But I believe that standing up against someone as dangerous as Saddam was a good goal.” Hillary also rebuffed Sheehan's demand that she lead the charge to get the U.S. out of Iraq ASAP. "I think it is a much more complicated situation," Clinton explained. "I don’t think it’s the right time to withdraw."

During Times Like These You Gotta Ask Yourself...

Oil Riches Paying Off For Alaskans

Nearly every Alaska resident will receive an $845.76 check this year as a share of the state's oil riches - the fifth straight year that the payout has dropped. The dividend checks are distributed every year from an oil royalty account called the Alaska Permanent Fund, created in 1976 after oil was discovered on the North Slope. Some 603,080 Alaskans are expected to receive dividends this year. For video store clerk Dave Marshall, the annual payout means getting a chance to escape the dark, cold winter of the far north. This year, he's thinking Hawaii. "Somewhere nice and warm," the 18-year-old Juneau resident said Tuesday. "You've got to leave once in a while." The payouts are calculated based on a five-year average of investment income derived from bonds, stock dividends and sales, and other investments. Anyone who has lived in the state for over a year is eligible. Dividends, paid since 1982, have ranged from $331.29 to $1,963.86 in 2000. This year's payout is the lowest since 1988. Stock market losses in 2002 and 2003 drove the value down this year, according to the Alaska Permanent Fund. Also Tuesday, Gov. Frank Murkowski said the state could see a $1.5 billion surplus this year from high oil prices. Although the year's record crude oil prices bulk up the fund's principal, that money must be invested and is not figured into dividends.

Number Of Refugees In Minnesota Rose In 2004

The number of international refugees in Minnesota returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels last year, thanks in part to a surge in East African immigrants. Minnesota ranked first in the nation in the number of foreign refugee arrivals in 2004 on a population-adjusted basis, according to federal figures. Last year, one refugee arrived for every 875 Minnesotans. That's more than four times the national rate. The state ranked third in the raw number of refugees arriving in 2004, trailing Florida and California. More than 7,300 refugees or people granted political asylum came to Minnesota last year, according to state Health Department figures. The figure includes people who came to Minnesota directly from another country, not those who settle in another state first. The government defines refugees as foreign-born people who can't return to their country because of a well-founded fear of prosecution. The number of refugees to come to Minnesota hit a low of 1,035 in 2002, when refugees were subjected to extra scrutiny after the terrorist attacks of 2001. The surge since then has forced settlement agencies to adjust. ``We're like a balloon. We expand, we contract to fit the needs of the various programs we're in. That is not fun,'' said John Borden, executive director of International Institute of Minnesota, which settles the largest share of the state's refugees. ``It's difficult to hire up real fast because we want people who are trained and knowledgeable about the cultures we're working with,'' Borden said. Refugees come to Minnesota to join family members already here. In 2004, a tide of several thousand Hmong from a Thai refugee camp came to join relatives who arrived in Minnesota years earlier. The post-Sept. 11 period was particularly hard on East Africans who wanted to join family here. Minnesota refugee specialists say East Africa's proximity to the Middle East, and the Islamic faith of many Somalis and Ethiopians, caused federal screeners to give them extra scrutiny. According to Health Department figures, the number of Somali refugee and asylum arrivals plunged from 2,175 in 2000 to 124 in 2002. ``It was hard because you knew that refugees were not involved in terror organizations,'' said Saaed Fahia, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Communities in Minnesota. ``There were more background checks of everybody, especially for young people,'' he said. ``They were checking who they were, whether their names were correct.'' But pressure built for the State Department to fulfill refugee quotas declared annually by the White House. The state welcomed 2,323 Somali refugees last year.

Britain Won't cut And Run In Iraq

Britain stands ready to send more troops to Iraq if they are needed, Defence Secretary John Reid has said. John ReidThere are already around 9,000 British soldiers involved in fighting the insurgency in the Gulf States. With thousands of troops set to head for Afghanistan next year there is mounting concern over the extent of Army commitments. Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, head of the armed services from 2001 to 2003, said the forces were constantly being asked to do more with less. "The MoD is strapped for cash," Sir Michael told the Sunday Telegraph. "If we want to remain a global force for good around the world, it seems strange that the Armed Forces are not being properly funded." Secret plans to reduce troop numbers in Iraq have been shelved, the paper reports. A serving brigadier, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the danger of the UK becoming bogged down in its own "Vietnam war" was growing every day. "The return of the 7th Armoured Brigade to Iraq is a significant benchmark," he told the paper. "There is a real head-in-the-sand mentality as to how we're going to extricate ourselves from this mess. There is no end game to the problems in Iraq."

Putin Joins Anti-Iran Nuclear Chorus

Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed Washington's insistence that Iran must not be allowed to acquire an atom bomb, delivering a blow to Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Presidents Putin and Bush smile during their meeting in the Oval OfficeIn remarks that may help persuade Iran to back down in its confrontation with the West, Mr Putin said Russia — one of Iran's longest-standing diplomatic allies — would "always be against" Tehran acquiring any kind of nuclear weapon. He was speaking at the White House during a visit to the US for the 60th anniversary celebrations of the United Nations. But Iran's newly elected President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then proceeded to give a defiant speech to the General Assembly on Saturday, proclaimed his country's determination to press ahead with nuclear fuel processing and accused the US of breaching global nuclear treaties. Mr Ahmadinejad also offered other countries a partnership in uranium enrichment and sought to broaden stalled talks with three European Union nations on Tehran's nuclear ambitions to include countries such as South Africa. He said Iran would not accept "nuclear apartheid" that permitted some countries to enrich fuel while blocking others. "We're not going to cave in to the excessive demands of certain powers," Mr Ahmadinejad said when asked if Iran would halt sensitive activities such as uranium ore conversion — a precursor to making enriched fuel. The eagerly awaited speech came before a critical meeting of the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, starting today in Vienna. Iran's President, Mahmoud AhmadinejadEurope and the US have threatened to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for censure and possible sanctions, unless Mr Ahmadinejad gives sufficient reassurance that controversial aspects of its nuclear research will be scrapped. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said after Mr Ahmadinejad's speech that the option of reporting Iran to the UN Security Council "remains on the agenda". Russia disagrees with the West's view that Tehran's research program is a cover for covert weapons-building. But confirmation of Moscow's opposition to Iran having any kind of bomb will be welcomed by diplomats.

Hmong Immigrant GUILTY Of Murder

A jury found a Hmong immigrant guilty Friday of murdering six deer hunters and wounding two others during a confrontation over trespassing, rejecting his claims he shot in self-defense after one hunter used racial slurs and another fired at him.
The two survivors of the shooting had testified the white hunters never shot at Chai Soua Vang before he opened fire on them after they confronted him about trespassing in a tree stand on their private property in some isolated northwestern Wisconsin woods Nov. 21. An all-white jury deliberated about three hours before reaching a verdict of guilty on six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and three counts of attempted homicide. Vang, a 36-year-old truck driver from St. Paul, Minn., faces mandatory life in prison. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty. Vang, dressed in a business suit with family members seated behind him, showed no visible emotion as the judge read the verdict. Outside the court, one of his friends, Pofwmyeh Yang, questioned the jury's makeup and maintained Vang was innocent. "All Caucasian, all American. Why can't there be one Hmong? Why can't there be one minority in there?" Yang said. "I believe only one person can judge, and that's God. But God didn't judge today." Vang's sister, Chou Vang, said the jury's short deliberations were not fair to her brother. "Everyone was white. They do not understand. They will never understand what my brother went through out there," she said. "He was not a dog to sit there and let them shoot at him. He was proud of who he is." Defense lawyer Steven Kohn said the verdict was not a surprise. "We had no illusions. The facts were incredibly difficult from a defense standpoint," he said. While the original jury pool of 450 people included minorities, Kohn said most if not all of them asked not to be on the jury because of a conflict or personal feelings. "They were given the same deference as the Caucasians," he said. Relatives of the victims issued statements that the verdict was welcome but couldn't make up for their loss. "The verdict of guilty will never bring my brother back, but we can start the healing process," said Linda Lavin, the sister of slain hunter Allan Laski. Bruce Crotteau, brother of shooting victim Robert Crotteau, said his brother was a fun-loving guy with a wide circle of friends, and the only thing he deserved the day of the shooting was to continue the family tradition of fall deer hunting. The crime rocked the northwoods, and not just because of its shocking nature - four of the victims were shot in the back and all but one were unarmed, according to testimony. The slayings also occurred during the state's beloved deer hunting season and it exposed racial tension between the predominantly white northwoods and Hmong immigrants to the region. Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, who headed the prosecution team, called it a "just and fair verdict" and said it should not be taken as reflecting racial animosity on either side. "I would hope that this matter be perceived as it has been, I think, by counsel on both sides - which was a matter between two hunting parties and not something involving race relations," she said. With the fall deer hunt approaching, she was asked if there was concern about racial tensions. "I don't know if it's a real concern or not," she said. "We have not had any significant incidents of concern reported here in Sawyer County, and I would hope that that would be the case throughout the deer hunting season." Testimony from Vang and the two shooting survivors highlighted the six-day trial in Sawyer County, a heavily forested recreation mecca about 100 miles northeast of Minnesota's Twin Cities. The two shooting survivors testified one of them fired at Vang, but only after he was wounded and some of his companions were dying. Vang maintained he was frightened for his life and fired after someone else shot first. Kohn said who fired first was key to the case, and he argued no physical evidence existed to determine that. But Lautenschlager argued Vang gunned down the hunters in cold blood as they either watched in disbelief, were ambushed or were trying to flee. The six victims, all from the Rice Lake area about 50 miles southwest of Hayward, included a father and son and a daughter of one of the survivors. Testimony from witnesses suggested Vang's trespassing nearly ended peacefully. One surviving hunter, Terry Willers, testified Vang apologized and was walking away. The confrontation escalated after Willers called one of the property's owners, Robert Crotteau, on a radio to report the trespasser, Willers testified. Crotteau angrily confronted Vang, who testified the hunter used excessive profanity and racial slurs. Crotteau also threatened to report Vang to the authorities. Vang was walking down a path when he turned and started shooting, witnesses testified. Vang said he began firing only after Willers shot at him. Vang, a father of seven who came to the United States from a refugee camp in Thailand more than 20 years ago, wasn't hit. The youngest victim, Crotteau's 20-year-old son, Joey, was shot four times in the back and side. Three other victims were shot in the back, some multiple times. Jurors - eight women, four men - were picked from Dane County, home of the state Capitol and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, because of publicity about the case and concern of possible anti-Hmong sentiment in the area.

U.S. To Fight 'Pledge' Ruling

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that the Justice Department will fight to overturn a federal court ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance can't be recited in public schools because it contains a reference to God. Gonzales said the pledge is one of several expressions of national identity and patriotism that mention of God but don't violate the Constitution's ban on state-sponsored religion. The high court "has affirmed time and again that such official acknowledgments of our nation's religious heritage, foundation and character are constitutional," Gonzales said in a statement a day after the ruling by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton in San Francisco. Karlton's decision could put the issue on track for another round of Supreme Court arguments. The court sidestepped the issue last year, ruling atheist Michael Newdow had no standing to bring the case on behalf of his daughter because he did not have custody of her. The Bush administration had opposed Newdow on the same basis that Gonzales set forth Thursday. Newdow also is involved in the latest case, acting as attorney for three parents challenging the pledge because it includes the words "under God." Gonzales is widely viewed as a leading contender for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court because he is close to President Bush. Gonzales' statement of support to keep "under God" in the pledge could appeal to religious conservatives, who have expressed concerns about him as a potential justice because he has not stated opposition to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. The Becket Fund, a religious rights group that is a party to the pledge case, said it would appeal to the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which held the `under God' provision of the pledge unconstitutional in 2002. The decisions by Karlton and the appeals court conflict with an August opinion by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. That court upheld a Virginia law requiring public schools lead daily Pledge of Allegiance recitation, similar to the requirement in California.

Judge Rules Pledge Of Allegiance Unconstitutional

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento, California, ruled today against the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools, says he will issue a restraining order to keep it out of three Sacramento-area school districts. The children of the people challenging the pledge go to those schools. A religious rights group, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, says it will file an appeal to the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and that it will most likely eventually wind up back at the Supreme Court. The appeals court ruled previously in a case filed by atheist Michael Newdow that the pledge is unconstitutional in public schools because of the words "under God." That case was dismissed by the Supreme Court, which ruled Newdow had no legal standing. Newdow, a doctor and a lawyer, filed the suit on behalf of the parents in the current case. He says, "We still have to get to the court of appeals and see if we prevail there." U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton

Iraqi Foreign Minister Says ‘No Doubt' Saddam Hid WMD

Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari kicked off a three-day U.S. visit by flatly asserting that there is "no doubt" the government of Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Zebari – an Iraqi Kurd - dismissed the doubts that have been rampant in the Western press over trumped-up intelligence reports. "We are all convinced that Saddam had WMD, because Saddam used WMD on us Iraqis. We have no doubt that he had them, because he used them. Of this, there is no doubt," he said. Zebari had no explanation for the weapons' whereabouts today, however. "What happened to the weapons stockpiles afterwards is still a mystery," he said. "It's a mystery for you, for us, for the inspectors. But all facts show that he did develop them and use them." If anyone still has doubts of Saddam Hussein's WMD capabilities, Zebari said, they can visit Iraq. "The weapons plants are still there. Many of them were looted, but they are still there," he said. Zebari also blasted the Syrian government following reports that insurgents had fled into Syria just hours before a recent U.S.-Iraqi attack on an Iraqi border town. "We are concerned, definitely," Zebari told reporters. "The Syrians are not doing enough to prevent infiltration across the border." The recent U.S.-Iraqi operations in western Iraq "showed without a doubt that the main axis of foreign fighters coming into Iraq is through Syria," he said. Infiltration from the Islamic Republic of Iran also has been a problem, with Iran making inroads "in many places in Iraq." Zebari indicated that since the Iraqi elections in January, the Iranians "have been shrewder" than the Syrians, and have "been more conciliatory" in their talks with Iraqi government officials. Zebari recently went to Tehran to meet with the new, hard-line president of the Islamic Republic, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "We presented our concerns in detail," he said. These included "weapons smuggling across the border." But in contrast to the Syrians, who have refused to respond to Iraqi pleas to shut down infiltration routes and supply routes for the insurgents, Zebari said the Iranian government "has been more forward-looking. They have dealt with the new Iraqi government in a very different way from the Syrians." The election of a hard-liner as president of Iran actually made dealing with Tehran easier than before, Zebari said. "The new president is a conservative. So there are no more reformers and hard-liners. They all speak with one voice, from [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei, on down." Zebari acknowledged that Iraq's progress toward freedom and democratic elections "is not welcome in this part of the world," and that countries such as Syria were aiding the insurgency out of fear that Iraq's new-found freedom would prove contagious. Zebari will meet with U.S. officials on Tuesday and travel to the United Nations headquarters in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting that starts Wednesday.

Pentagons New Preemptive Nuclear Strike Plan

The US is considering rewriting its nuclear doctrine for the age of terrorism. A Pentagon planning document spells out America's willingness to use nuclear weapons in a preemptive strike if terrorists threaten the US or its allies with weapons of mass destruction. President Bush stated such a policy three years ago, and a draft of it is on the Pentagon's Web site. The draft says weapons of mass destruction are proliferating, increasing the possibility they might be used by even a non-state group. And it notes that could happen on purpose or through miscalculation. In such situations, the draft says deterrence might fail and the U-S would have to be prepared to use nuclear weapons if necessary. The draft notes that any such attack would require "explicit orders from the president."

Anybody Know What Happened To New Orleans' Anthrax Labs?

In and around the Big Easy are a number of Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) labs, meant to handle some of the nastier biological agents out there -- stuff like anthrax, plague, and genetically-engineering mousepox. Louisiana State University’s Medical School and the State of Louisiana both ran BSL-3s within the city. Tulane kept 5,000 monkeys for biodefense studies in its "National Primate Research Center," located in nearby Covington. "What's happened to the infected animals? Are they free and roaming?" Russ wants to know. "Are they dead, with their diseased bodies floating in the flood waters? And what about the cultures and vials of the diseases? Are they still secure? Are they being stolen? Were they washed away, now forming part of the toxic soup that coats the city?" And not to turn the fear dial up any higher, but, if the national average is any guide, the keepers of the Louisiana labs weren't particularly experienced. 97 percent of the "principal investigators" who got biodefense grants from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases were newbies to that kind of work. The government oversight these neophytes get is minimal, at best. Instead, the labs are expected to police themselves, through "Institutional Biosafety Committees." But the records of these committees is, to put it politely, uneven. When the Sunshine Project, a biowatchdog group, "asked for all minutes of all meetings of [Tulane's] IBC since January 1st, 2002, Tulane replied that it has no responsive documents. That is, Tulane University cannot produce a single page of minutes of any Institutional Biosafety Committee meeting for the past two and half years."

Patriot Day Memorial, Remembering 9-11

ST. PAUL, The 451st Army Band and Fort Snelling Color Guard will pay a musical tribute to the nation's soldiers at 11 a.m. Sunday at Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth St. The Pilgrim Baptist Church Choir will present songs of remembrance to mark 9/11. Police Chief John Harrington and Fire Chief Douglas Holton will attend. For more information, call 651-292-3235.

ROSEVILLE, City officials will lay a wreath and ring mourning bells to honor the fallen heroes of 9/11 — the firefighters and police officers — at a special ceremony at 9 a.m. Sunday at Central Park.

SHOREVIEW,The Twin Cities Chapter of the American Guild of Organists will hold a recital and concert, "An American Salute," at 7 p.m. Sunday at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, 3920 N. Victoria St. The free concert also features the recently installed C.B. Fisk pipe organ.

During The Bush Administration, Louisiana received more Corps Money for Flood Control Than Any Other State

But Spent Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars On Pork ProjectsBefore Hurricane Katrina breached a levee on the New Orleans Industrial Canal, the Army Corps of Engineers had launched a $748 million construction project at that very location. But the project had nothing to do with flood control. The Corps was building a massive new lock for the canal, an effort to accommodate steadily increasing barge traffic. Except barge traffic on the canal has been steadily decreasing. In Katrina's wake, Louisiana politicians and other critics have complained about paltry funding for the Army Corps in general and Louisiana projects in particular. But over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for Corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion; California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times larger. Much of that Louisiana money was spent to try to keep low-lying New Orleans dry. But hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to unrelated water projects demanded by the state's congressional delegation and approved by the Corps, often after economic analyses that turned out to be inaccurate. Despite a series of independent investigations criticizing Army Corps construction projects as wasteful pork-barrel spending, Louisiana's representatives have kept bringing home the bacon. For example, after a $194 million deepening project for the Port of Iberia flunked a Corps cost-benefit analysis, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., tucked language into an emergency Iraq spending bill ordering the agency to redo its calculations. The Corps also spends tens of millions of dollars a year dredging little-used waterways like the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the Atchafalaya River and the Red River -- now known as the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway, in honor of the project's congressional godfather -- for barge traffic that turns out to be less than forecast. The Industrial Canal lock is one of the agency's most controversial projects, sued by residents of a New Orleans low-income black neighborhood and cited by an alliance of environmentalists and taxpayer advocates as the fifth-worst current Corps boondoggle. In 1998, the Corps justified its plan to build a new lock -- rather than fix the old lock for a tiny fraction of the cost -- by predicting huge increases in barge traffic. In fact, barge traffic on the canal had been plummeting since 1994, but the Corps left that data out of its study. And barges have continued to avoid the canal since the study was finished, even though they are visiting the port in increased numbers. Pam Dashiell, president of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, remembers holding a protest against the lock four years ago -- right where the levee broke last week. Now she's holed up with her family in a St. Louis hotel, and her neighborhood is underwater. "Our politicians never cared half as much about protecting us as they cared about pork," she said. Wednesday, congressional defenders of the Corps said they hoped the fallout from Hurricane Katrina would pave the way for billions of dollars of additional spending on water projects. Steve Ellis, a Corps critic with Taxpayers for Common Sense, called their push "the legislative equivalent of looting." Louisiana's politicians have requested much more money for New Orleans hurricane protection than the Bush administration has proposed or Congress has provided. In the last budget bill, Louisiana's delegation requested $27.1 million for shoring up levees around Lake Pontchartrain, the full amount the Corps had declared as its "project capability." Bush suggested $3.9 million, and Congress agreed to spend $5.7 million. Administration officials also scaled back a long-term project to restore Louisiana's disappearing coastal marshes, which once provided a measure of natural hurricane protection for New Orleans. They ordered the Corps to stop work on a $14 billion plan and devise a $2 billion plan instead. But overall, the Bush administration's funding requests for the key New Orleans flood-control projects for the past five years were slightly higher than the Clinton administration's for its past five years. Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the chief of the Corps, has said that in any event, more money would not have prevented the drowning of the city, since its levees were only designed to protect against a Category 3 storm. Strock also has said the marsh restoration project would not have done much to diminish Katrina's storm surge, which passed east of the coastal wetlands. "The project manager for the Great Pyramids probably put in a request for 100 million shekels and only got 50 million," said John Paul Woodley Jr., the Bush administration official overseeing the Corps. "Flood protection is always a work in progress; on any given day, if you ask whether any community has all the protection it needs, the answer is almost always: Maybe, but maybe not." The Corps had been studying the possibility of upgrading the New Orleans levees for a higher level of protection before Katrina hit, but Woodley said that study would not have been finished for years. Still, liberal bloggers, Democratic politicians and some Republican defenders of the Corps have linked the catastrophe to the underfunding of the agency. "We've been hollering about funding for years, but everyone would say: There goes Louisiana again, asking for more money," said former Democratic senator John Breaux. "We've had some powerful people in powerful places, but we never got what we needed."

Katrina's Lessons

America's top talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday that the Hurricane Katrina disaster and the fingerpointing that has ensued offers the nation some profound lessons. Rush Limbaugh"What we've seen in New Orleans is first and foremost the utter failure of generation after generation after generation of the entitlement mentality," Limbaugh began at the top of his show. Flood victims had been doubly victimized by the perception that government would somehow save them from nature's rage, he said. "They had no idea what to do because they've been told somebody else was going to fix it." After fostering dependency among the citizens of New Orleans, Limbaugh said state and local officials failed to respond to the dependency they helped create. "You've all seen the pictures of the school buses and the municipal buses that are flooded and ruined," he noted, referring to widely circulated photos of buses that sat idle throughout the storm just a mile away from the Superdome. "We know there was an utter failure to execute an evacuation plan that was long in place," he said, before charging: "We're looking here at utter incompetence - total incompetence from the mayor of New Orleans and the Gov. of Louisiana." "[The flood victims] were told to go to the Superdome but even then they had to walk to the Superdome" as the storm battered the city. "And they had to bring their own food and water to the Superdome," he noted The top talker didn't spare federal officials, saying that another lesson of Katrina is that "large bureaucracies that grow ever larger by the year cannot handle circumstances like this." "We have also learned that the utter failure of large bureaucracies only begets hearings by those bureaucracies which will serve really one purpose: And that is to give themselves excuses and reasons to further enlarge those bureaucracies - which will only compound our problem." Only one government bureaucracy functioned well under the stress of the Katrina crisis, Limbaugh said: the U.S. military.

Border Has Record Illegal Immigrant Deaths

A record 415 people have died trying to cross the border illegally from Mexico in the past 11 months, surpassing the previous high of 383 recorded in fiscal year 2000, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Washington said Friday.Record numbers of deaths are being recorded in both Border Patrol sectors that cover Arizona and in south Texas, spokesman Mario Villarreal said. Some of the increase reflects a change in the way Tucson Border Patrol officials are counting the dead. In late June, they began including some remains found by other law enforcement agencies but not previously counted. Even accounting for the change, Arizona's 228 recorded deaths so far this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, were more than in all of fiscal said Border Patrol spokesman Luis Garza. He attributed the increase to unprecedented heat and an eastward shift by smugglers to a more mountainous and treacherous stretch of desert east of the Baboquivari Mountains and the Tohono O'odham Indian reservation.Villarreal noted that many Illegal Immigrant probably are physically stressed even before they cross into the United States. "The smugglers are moving the groups laterally in Mexico and then crossing them in very desolate, remote places along the Southwest border," he said. He said smugglers frequently abandon those who become ill, injured or tired in harsh conditions. In the El Paso sector, which covers the border area in New Mexico and two western Texas counties, there were 25 deaths by mid-August, up from 18 last year.

FBI Arrests Russian U.N. Official For Money Laundering

The chair of a powerful United Nations budget committee was arrested by the FBI Thursday on money laundering charges, a federal law enforcement official said. Vladimir Kuznetsov, who heads the General Assembly panel that oversees the U.N. budget, was the second Russian U.N. official to be arrested by the FBI for alleged money laundering in recent weeks. The charges were contained in a sealed grand jury indictment. Kuznetsov was to be arraigned Friday in Manhattan Federal Court. The official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because the indictment is sealed, said the charges involve money laundering and are only remotely connected to the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq that is the target of numerous corruption investigations. On Aug. 8, Alexander Yakovlev, a Russian who worked in the U.N. procurement office, was arrested for allegedly soliciting a bribe from a company seeking an oil-for-food contract. He also was charged with wire fraud and money laundering for allegedly accepting nearly $1 million in bribes from U.N. contractors in work outside the oil-for-food program. Yakovlev pleaded guilty to money laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in part for soliciting bribes from U.N. contractors. He could face up to 20 years in prison for each charges, officials say. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had waived Yakovlev's immunity at the request of the U.S. Attorney. It wasn't immediately known if he waived immunity for Kuznetsov as well. The oil-for-food program was launched in December 1996 to help ordinary Iraqis cope with U.N. sanctions imposed after Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It allowed Saddam's regime to sell oil as long as the proceeds went to buy humanitarian goods or pay war reparations. Saddam allegedly sought to curry favor by giving former government officials and others vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold for profit.

Fats Domino Found OK In New Orleans

Rescuers help Fats Domino off a boat after he was rescued Monday from his New Orleans home.Rock 'n' roll pioneer Fats Domino was among the thousands of New Orleans residents plucked from rising floodwaters, his daughter said Thursday. Karen Domino White, who lives in New Jersey, identified her father in a picture taken Monday night by a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer. The photograph shows Domino -- the singer behind the 1950s hits "Ain't That a Shame" and "Blueberry Hill" -- being helped off a boat near his home in the city's Lower 9th Ward. His whereabouts since the rescue were not immediately known. Nor was there any information about his wife, Rosemary, friends said. The neighborhood was heavily flooded when a levee failed as Katrina slammed into southeastern Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Thousands are feared dead in the storm, Louisiana's governor and the mayor of New Orleans have said, though no official tally has been compiled. White said she last heard from her father August 23, four days before the storm hit, and was unable to contact him Sunday. "I didn't have any information. I was just praying," she said. Writer Charles Amann said he last spoke to Domino on Sunday, and the singer refused to join the evacuation that was then under way. "He said to me, in that wonderful Southern accent of his, that no, he was staying on -- that he had gone through the last one and he could go through this one," said Amann, who is working on a book on the early days of the "American Bandstand" television program. Many of those evacuated from the Lower 9th Ward were taken to the Louisiana Superdome and are being transferred to the Astrodome sports stadium in Houston, Texas. Alan Warner, an EMI Music executive, also saw the photograph of Domino's rescue. But he said he did not know where the 77-year-old singer, born Antoine Domino, was taken afterward. "But the fact that he actually was rescued is just so gratifying," Warner said.

Fats Domino Missing In New Orleans Floods

Legendary performer Fats Domino is missing in New Orleans and has not been heard from since Monday morning. Domino and his wife Rosemary along with their daughter live in a three story pink-roofed house in the city's 9th ward, which is now underwater. Domino told his manager Al Embry he planned to ride the storm out at his home. Domino is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and is best known for hits like “Blue Monday,” “Ain’t That a Shame,” “Blueberry Hill” and “I’m Walking (Yes, Indeed, I’m Talking).”

Rudy Giuliani Expects A Decision Next Year On A Presidential Run

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told an international business forum Wednesday he would probably decide next year whether to run for the presidency of the United States. Rudolph GiulianiGiuliani, the two-term Republican mayor who was widely lauded for his leadership following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said it would be premature to decide whether to run now. Asked at the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Sydney when he would become U.S. president, Giuliani replied: “I don’t know that answer.” “I don’t know whether I’m going to run yet, which is something I probably won’t decide until next year and then, of course, nobody knows the answer to that until after people vote,” he said. “It’s a very, very big decision and it’s a little bit premature to make it,” he added. Giuliani, chief executive officer of business consultants Giuliani Partners, said government should be run more like a business. “I think governments should be run much more like business where you set standards, you set goals, you have benchmarks and you evaluate performance,” Giuliani told the conference. “That happens more effectively in business than it does in government,” he said. He advised fellow chief executives to evaluate their companies’ security after the Sept. 11 attacks and warned against a course of living in hope that terrorists would not attack again.

Mall Of America Night Life Goes Under

Once among the most vibrant entertainment districts in the Twin Cities, the Mall of America's fourth floor is now nearly deserted, the windows of formerly successful bars covered in black plastic. "What the hell happened up here?" asked Marc Berridge, a visitor from Fort Wayne, Ind., as he peered into an empty room littered with soda cans and cigarette butts. Up until the late 1990s, the fourth floor was an attractive draw for Twin Cities residents and tourists alike. Patrons could line-dance at a country-and-western bar, gyrate to hip-hop music, watch a stand-up comedian or a movie, or relax and enjoy a good meal.But the venue suffered what was perhaps a final blow last week when three of its venues - Jillian's Hi-Life Lanes, Player's Bar & Grill and America's Original Sports Bar - abruptly shut their doors to the public. All three were owned by Dave & Buster's, a Dallas-based operators of restaurants and entertainment complexes. Retail analysts say a number of factors contributed to the fourth floor's decline, including increased competition from downtown clubs, and a 2004 Bloomington ordinance that banned smoking in most public places. Whatever the cause, visitors to the fourth floor now have exactly two entertainment options: A meal at Hooters, or a movie. "This used to be a place where, if you wanted to, you could make a night of it," said Eric Steiner, 20, of St. Paul, a machinist in the U.S. Navy . "Now it's dead." Part of the problem, analysts say, is that much of the recreation on the fourth floor - movies, bowling and dancing - could be found elsewhere, including in other suburban malls. While the Mall of America has become one of the nation's largest incubators of new retail concepts, it was never able to establish a similar role in nighttime entertainment. "They never got an anchor tenant that was truly unique, that would drive people to go there," said Andrea Christenson, a vice president with real estate consultant Colliers Turley Martin Tucker. Nighttime entertainment and shopping malls have never been an easy mix, according to retail experts. Malls thrive on the ability to create a safe family atmosphere, which can drive away the young people needed to make nightclubs thrive. The mall tried to play it safe from the beginning, analysts said, with most of the entertainment venues focused on food - even though that was readily available in other parts of the mall. In addition, the fourth floor area was isolated from the rest of the mall, and many visitors didn't even know it was there. While the fourth floor is a dark spot, the rest of the mall is thriving.It continues to attract more tourists each year than Disney World, the Grand Canyon and Graceland combined. In 2005, more stores and restaurants have opened than in any year since it opened in 1992. It features trendy fashion stores like Club Monaco, Tommy Bahama, Metropark and Sephora that are difficult or impossible to find at other malls. Another hot retailer, H&M of Sweden, opens a store in September. "The whole energy of the mall is around Camp Snoopy and the shops," said William Kowinski, author of "The Malling of America," a social and cultural critique of malls. "The fourth level is really isolated and very different from the rest of the mall."