Israeli Military Blows Up Bethlehem House

JERUSALEM — Israeli forces briefly raided the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Friday and dynamited the home of a Palestinian who blew up a Jerusalem bus — stopping far short of the large-scale reprisal customary after a deadly homicide attack.

Israel's leadership was divided over how hard to hit back but appeared to have decided on a measured response after a meeting Thursday between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz (search).

In the Gaza Strip, the Islamic militant Hamas (search) group belatedly claimed responsibility Friday for the bombing, which killed 10 Israelis and wounded more than 50. A rival faction linked the Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement initially said it sent the bomber.

If Hamas was behind the attack, it would mark a significant change in tactics. Hamas had held off on carrying out bombings in Israel for nearly six months, during Egyptian-brokered efforts to reach a cease-fire with Israel.

In another sign the Islamic militant group is changing course, its leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin (search) declared Friday that his group is making an all-out effort to kidnap Israeli soldiers to use as bargaining chips for Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

posted by Frodgie at 6:35 AM

 

Kerry surging, polls show

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sen. John Kerry took commanding leads in five of the seven states that have Democratic primaries or caucuses Tuesday, setting the stage for a sweep of the contests, according to new polls.
In Arizona, Missouri and North Dakota, which have 143 of the 269 delegates at stake Tuesday, Mr. Kerry has left the field behind, the polls show, just as he did leading up to the Iowa and New Hampshire contests that propelled him over Howard Dean to become the party's front-runner.
"If he wins every state, it's over," said Democratic strategist Steve Jarding, who is teaching a course on presidential politics at Harvard University. "If Kerry is 9 and 0, you're not going to stop him."
A poll of Missouri voters has the Massachusetts senator capturing 45 percent of the vote, followed by Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina with 11 percent and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean with 9 percent.
A poll of voters in Arizona has Mr. Kerry with 38 percent support, followed by Wesley Clark with 17 percent and Mr. Dean with 12 percent.

posted by Frodgie at 6:32 AM

 

Bush: New Medicare price tag means 'tough choices'

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush said Friday the news that his Medicare overhaul would cost significantly more than expected would require lawmakers to be careful with spending.

The Congressional Budget Office had estimated the Medicare legislation would cost $400 billion over 10 years, but this week the Office of Management and Budget put the figure at $535 billion.

The president is scheduled to present his 2005 budget to Congress on Monday.

"The Medicare reform we did is a good reform," the president said. "It fulfills a long-standing promise to our seniors.

"Congress is now going to have to work with us to make sure that we set priorities and make sure that we are fiscally wise with the taxpayers' money," he said.


posted by Frodgie at 6:31 AM

 

Gutting the Patriot Act

Right after September 11, Congress rushed through a bill, called the Patriot Act, to provide law enforcement with new powers to investigate terrorism. Since then, critics on the left and right have been making all sorts of complaints about the act. Often, these complaints have been based on misunderstandings about the law — sometimes pretty basic ones, as when it has been held responsible for such unrelated phenomena as the detention of enemy combatants.

Now the critics are moving forward with a bill to correct what they see as Patriot's specific mistakes. The critics have surrendered the moral high ground on the ridiculous-acronym question: Their bill is called the Safe Act. Now there is nothing wrong with the idea of modifying Patriot. Surely such a vast bill contains ill-considered provisions that should be amended or even eliminated. John Berlau recently made a persuasive argument (persuasive, at least, to this non-expert) that the banking-secrecy provisions of the act were unwise.

According to its proponents, the Safe Act is the moderate bill that would correct Patriot's excesses. Steve Lilienthal, director of the Center for Privacy and Technology Policy at the conservative Free Congress Foundation (Paul Weyrich's organization), says that the Safe Act would make "sensible and prudent revisions" to the law, called the Patriot Act. It is a "common sense bill" that would merely "ensure the PATRIOT powers are being used in the very way that Congress intended."


posted by Frodgie at 6:28 AM

 

German Cannibal Gets Prison Sentence

KASSEL, Germany (AP) - A German was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison Friday for killing, dismembering and eating another man who allegedly agreed to the arrangement over the Internet.

Armin Meiwes, a 42-year-old computer expert, had no "base motives" in the crime, a state court ruled, sparing him a murder conviction. Explaining the verdict, the presiding judge said Meiwes' intention was not evil but "the fulfillment of his fantasy."

His primary motive was "the wish to make another man part of himself," Judge Volker Muetze said. "Meiwes reached this bonding experience through the consumption of the flesh."

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, calling Meiwes a "human butcher" who acted simply to "satisfy a sexual impulse." They said they would appeal.

posted by Frodgie at 6:25 AM

 

Let's Go to the Videotape
Known unknowns about John Kerry.

John Kerry is enjoying the scrutiny-free media boomlet that comes with a New Hampshire win.

It's so good for him right now that the press and even some Democratic primary voters have decided that a liberal, Massachusetts senator with a Ted Kennedy voting record, a charisma deficit, and a stint as Michael Dukakis's lieutenant governor in the 80's is the most "electable" candidate in the field.

Really?

Something tells me that the conventional wisdom on Kerry's "electability" may change soon.

I offer the following to my Democratic friends as just one example of the welcome party we're looking forward to throwing for Mr. Kerry.

Let's go to the videotape.

Bill O'Reilly was interviewing Donna Brazile on September 5, 2001. Donna Brazile, you may recall, was Al Gore's campaign manager.

She's a very bright woman and an excellent strategist. She's a frequent guest on any number of political talk shows to this day. She is a member of the Democratic establishment.

And get this; we have her on tape saying "John Kerry is far more liberal than Al Gore."

Let that and all its electoral implications sink in for a minute.

How's that for "electability"?

Although this pre - 9/11, televised interview has surely been forgotten by most, I have a hunch that Bush-Cheney, Inc. has a copy. Maybe even several copies.


posted by Frodgie at 6:43 AM

 

Israel Raids Bethlehem

JERUSALEM — Israeli (search) forces raided the West Bank town of Bethlehem (search) on Friday in response to a deadly Jerusalem bus bombing, surrounding the house of the homicide attacker (search) and searching nearby buildings.

Ten Israelis were killed and more than 50 wounded in Thursday's homicide attack, the deadliest in four months. Such bombings in the past triggered large-scale Israeli military raids, but Israel this time appeared to have decided on a more measured response.

The Bethlehem incursion, the first in six months, was small in scale, and Israel did not clamp a closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as it had done routinely in the past.

The target of the Bethlehem raid was the Aida refugee camp on the outskirts of town. Several dozen jeeps and armored vehicles moved slowly through darkened streets in convoys, training spotlights onto houses.

Soldiers ringed the house of the bomber, Ali Jaara (search), and appeared to be preparing it for demolition. Figures could be seen moving past brightly lit windows in the building's second floor and walking down an outdoor staircase.

The military said only that an operation was in progress in Bethlehem and surrounding areas and that troops arrested several suspected militants. It was the first military operation in the city since troops left the town in July as part of a larger withdrawal called for under a U.S.-backed peace plan.

Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat condemned the raid. "Instead of sending soldiers and tanks to Bethlehem, Israel's government should have sent negotiators to resume a meaningful peace process," Erekat said.

Also Friday, troops shot and killed an Islamic Jihad member, Jihad Suwaiti, near the West Bank city of Hebron. The military said the man fired shots from a Kalashnikov assault rifle as soldiers came to arrest him, and troops returned fire, killing him.

posted by Frodgie at 6:42 AM

 

Iran may allow official U.S. visit

WASHINGTON — Iran is considering admitting a U.S. congressional delegation in what would be the first official U.S. visit since Iran's 1979 revolution.
Guests at a bipartisan dinner in the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday for Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammed Javad Zarif, said firm dates were discussed for visits by congressional aides as early as Feb. 11, to be followed by members of Congress.

Zarif said in a telephone interview Thursday that no dates had been set, but added, "I hope to be able to see this happen." Iran rebuffed a proposed visit earlier this month by Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., but allowed U.S. military planes to deliver aid after a devastating earthquake in the ancient city of Bam.

The two countries have lacked formal ties since 1980, when Iran was holding U.S. Embassy hostages. But there have been increasing contacts in recent years, motivated in part by both countries' desire to take advantage of Iran's influence in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq, where U.S. forces have overturned anti-Iranian regimes.


posted by Frodgie at 6:39 AM

 

Microsoft Offers Reward for 'MyDoom.B' Author

Microsoft Corp. (search) promised Thursday to pay $250,000 to anyone who helps authorities find and prosecute the author of a fast-spreading computer virus.

The cash reward is the third so far under a $5 million program Microsoft announced in early November to help U.S. authorities nab authors of unusually damaging Internet infections aimed at consumers of the company's software products.

The "MyDoom.B (search)" virus, spread by e-mail, causes victims to launch an electronic attack starting Tuesday against Microsoft's own Web site, and prevents victims from visiting the Web sites of leading antivirus companies. The virus poses as an authentic-looking error message.

Among the only clues to the identity of the possible author was a mysterious message inside the virus, "Andy; I'm just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry."

"This worm is a criminal attack," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's senior vice president and general counsel. "Microsoft wants to help the authorities catch this criminal."

Microsoft urged anyone with information about the author of the "MyDoom.B" virus to contact the FBI (search), Secret Service or Interpol.

The company targeted by an earlier version of the same virus, The SCO Group Inc., previously offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the creator of the Mydoom.A version, which is more widespread. Experts have said the same person probably created both versions.

Government officials and others have described the $250,000 rewards as the highest in recent memory funded entirely by the private sector -- akin to cash bounties paid in the late 1800s by Western banks to vigilantes who hunted robbers.


posted by Frodgie at 6:34 AM

 

Another inflammation marker linked to heart risks

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Doctors might be able to gauge heart patients' risk of death or heart attack by measuring levels of a growth factor protein in their blood, a German study suggests.

The report adds the protein to a growing list of biomarkers for inflammation that could help predict a person's risk of heart disease and can be detected through a simple blood test.

The newly recognized marker, called placental growth factor protein, or PlGF, has been shown to contribute to inflammation in the arteries. Animal research has shown that blocking its effects suppresses growth of fatty plaques in the arteries.

The latest findings, which appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, suggest that testing for PlGF might be more effective at predicting patients' risks than measuring some other inflammation markers, including C-reactive protein, or CRP.


posted by Frodgie at 6:30 AM

 

Democrats turn serious

WASHINGTON -- New Hampshire confirmed what Iowa intimated. Democrats who are serious about the candidates' electability understand that seriousness requires a retreat from the feminization of politics.

That explains Democrats' short-lived flirtation with Wesley Clark, the empty uniform who, were a Democrat now president, probably would be on the right flank of Republicans running this year. And the Democrats' movement away from feminization explains John Kerry's brisk forward march, with a military cadence.

Kerry's "patrician aloofness" may be manly reticence. But he has embraced today's confessional ethos by making autobiography serve as political philosophy, and reducing his narrative to a war story.

Feminized politics, according to Carnes Lord of the Naval War College, justifies all policies with reference to their impact on children. In his book "The Modern Prince: What Leaders Need to Know Now," Lord says leadership is a problematic concept in today's democracies. Modern technology has produced prosperity, which has produced a middle class growing in size, competence and self-confidence. All this, plus the egalitarian, anti-hierarchical spirit of the age, plus the rarity of great wars, threatens to make politics seem unimportant and leaders seem dispensable.

Although Kerry has been almost incoherent about Iraq, he understands the special challenge for Democrats in the world that 9/11 made. Since Vietnam caused the collapse of Lyndon Johnson's presidency in 1968 and produced the nomination of George McGovern in 1972, Democratic presidential fortunes have waxed only as national security concerns waned. Since 1964, Democrats have elected just two presidents: Jimmy Carter in 1976, because of Watergate, and Bill Clinton, elected three years after the Berlin Wall fell, when national security competence had receded as the threshold test of presidential plausibility.

In New Hampshire, Howard Dean lowered the decibel level of his implausible assertions, but not their implausibility. He said the No Child Left Behind Act constitutes "a federal takeover of the school system." He said the Bush administration's doctrine of pre-emptive war means "we're going to go in if we even think you're looking at us crosswise." By such effusions, Dean makes Kerry seem Solomonic.

John Edwards' campaign derives strength from this fact: In the 44 years since a Northeasterner was elected president (John Kennedy of Massachusetts), only one Northeasterner has received a presidential nomination -- Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who was defeated by George W. Bush's father. Who was Dukakis' lieutenant governor? John Kerry.


posted by Frodgie at 6:28 AM

 

At Least 10 Killed in Jerusalem Bus Bombing...Exterminate the Fanatics?

JERUSALEM, Israel — A homicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem Thursday morning, killing 10 people and wounding at least 50 about a block away from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's (search) official residence. Aides said Sharon was at his farm in southern Israel at the time.

The blast, which occurred at about 8:51 a.m. local time on bus No. 19, peeled the roof back like a tin can and catapulted passengers through the windows and down the street. Body parts could be found strewn along the rooftops of buildings.

The explosion coincided with a German-brokered prisoner swap between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah (search), although it was not clear if the two were connected. Officials told Fox News the exchange would go on as scheduled. Hezbollah reportedly praised the bombing on the group's website.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility, but several unconfirmed reports indicated the attacker may have been a woman, Fox News has learned. Palestinian terror groups have recently begun to favor the use of women bombers because of they tend to be less suspicious to Israeli soldiers and police.

Two weeks ago, a Palestinian homicide bomber and mother of two killed four people and injured seven at the main crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Authorities believe Reem Al-Reyashi, 22, a Hamas (search) member who left behind a 3-year-old boy and 1-year-old girl, was the first mother to act as a homicide or suicide bomber.

Thursday morning's attack occurred as schools were opening. Police told Fox News children were likely among the casualties.

Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said the bombing illustrated why Israel is building a contentious separation barrier in the West Bank. Israel says the structure is needed to keep bombers out of Israel. "The rest of the world should sit back and let us do what we need to do to defend ourselves," Gissin said.


posted by Frodgie at 6:32 AM

 

U.S. Plans Major Offensive Against Al Qaeda

The U.S. military is planning a major offensive in Afghanistan along the Afghan-Pakistani border this spring, Pentagon officials have confirmed to Fox News, but officials would not divulge whether it would involve moving troops into Pakistan.

According to military sources, a small number of U.S. special forces troops have already been working with Pakistani forces in the tribal sections of Pakistan, but those have been covert operations — small teams designed to hunt Taliban and Al Qaeda figures hiding in villages throughout the area.

U.S. officials have suspected that Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters travel back and forth, over the border, shifting hiding places and seeking refuge in friendly villages in Pakistan.

Senior Defense officials still believe Usama bin Laden and top Al Qaeda leaders are in the region as well. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf (search) has been very adamant that U.S. troops cannot cross into Pakistan and that Pakistani forces will be stepping up the hunt for terrorists along the border.

But in December 2003 there were two very sophisticated assassination attempts on Musharraf, from which he narrowly escaped.

U.S. officials are very concerned about Musharraf's safety, and they believe those attacks were conducted by Al Qaeda operatives.

The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday that the U.S. is planning to move the "spring offensive" into Pakistan with Musharraf's blessing. The paper cited internal Pentagon messages that purportedly say the offensive "would be driven by certain undisclosed events in Pakistan and across the region."


posted by Frodgie at 6:28 AM

 

Congress considers TV, radio indecency fines

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With Congress playing close attention, federal regulators are proposing a record $755,000 fine against the nation's largest radio chain for airing a sexually explicit radio show.

The Federal Communications Commission, whose chairman recently urged that penalties be increased for indecent programming, said four Clear Channel stations -- all in Florida -- aired various episodes of "Bubba the Love Sponge" a total of 26 times. The fine proposed Tuesday would be the single largest ever for indecency.

Clear Channel also was fined $40,000 because of record-keeping violations at the stations. The company has 30 days to pay the fine or appeal.

Lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce telecommunications subcommittee planned a hearing Wednesday on indecency standards. They took notice of the issue after the FCC's enforcement bureau declined to fine NBC for airing an expletive uttered by rock star Bono during the Golden Globe Awards show last year. The FCC is deciding whether to overrule the bureau.

Two House Republicans have introduced legislation to ban broadcasters from airing eight specific words or phrases, including the word uttered by Bono.


posted by Frodgie at 6:26 AM

 

Weather blamed for at least 56 deaths

(AP) -- The United Nations was shut down and more than a million children got the day off from school Wednesday on the heels of a storm that dumped as much as 14 inches of snow in the Northeast.

It was the latest in a series of storms that have spread snow and ice across parts of the eastern half of the nation since the weekend.

At least 56 deaths have been blamed on snow, ice and cold this week from Kansas to the East Coast.

Seven people were killled in North Carolina; six in South Carolina; five each in Iowa and Missouri; four in Ohio and Maryland; three each in Nebraska, New York, Virginia and Minnesota; two each in Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma; and one each in Georgia, Kansas, New Jersey and West Virginia.

Slippery roads have closed schools, businesses and some government offices from the Plains to the East Coast. Thousands of customers still had no electricity in the Southeast because of ice that broke tree limbs and power lines on Tuesday.

"I hate it. I think one storm a year is plenty for me," said Eunice Flynn, who braved the weather on Long Island to get a few things at a shopping center.

Diplomats and tourists were surprised when they arrived at the United Nations and found it closed because of the storm.


posted by Frodgie at 6:24 AM

 

Blair vindicated, BBC criticized on WMDs story

LONDON — A senior appeals judge castigated the British Broadcasting Corp. yesterday for reporting that the government had "sexed up" a dossier on Iraqi weapons, vindicating Prime Minister Tony Blair and prompting the resignation of BBC chief Gavyn Davies.
The 700-page independent report by senior judge Brian Hutton also cleared Mr. Blair and his administration of responsibility in the death of David Kelly, a government expert on Iraqi weapons who committed suicide after being exposed as the source of the BBC story.
The document, so bulky that each copy was delivered in a large cardboard box, hammered the publicly funded national broadcaster's standards of reporting and — most damagingly — its governors' decision to support the charges made by a senior radio reporter.
The report said the broadcast bosses had given reporter Andrew Gilligan their backing even though they had failed to check whether his notes matched his on-air reporting.
The prime minister welcomed Mr. Hutton's "extraordinary, thorough, detailed and clear" report during a crowded sitting of Parliament.
"The allegation that I or anyone else lied to this House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence on [Iraqi weapons of mass destruction] is itself the real lie," a clearly relieved and upbeat Mr. Blair said to huge applause.
The Conservatives' new leader, Michael Howard, had been sharpening his knife in anticipation that the report severely would damage Mr. Blair's credibility. Instead, Mr. Howard was thrust onto the defensive.

posted by Frodgie at 6:22 AM

 

The great antiwar claim has been exposed as a lie.

Lord Justice Hutton has delivered his report on the death of Dr. David Kelly, the British scientist who had devoted many years to investigating Saddam Hussein's weapons-of-mass-destruction programs. Prime Minister Tony Blair has been thoroughly exonerated. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which regards itself as the world's greatest broadcaster, has been exposed as second rate, sloppy and dishonest.

The terms of Lord Hutton's inquiry were "the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly," not the case for the war against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. Yet it was the justification for the war that sparked the row that ended with David Kelly found dead in the woods near his Oxfordshire home. Kelly, a man who had concluded that the only way to end Iraq's WMD programs was to overthrow Saddam, had supposedly been the source of a BBC story on May 29, 2003 claiming that prewar intelligence had been exaggerated. In that report, the BBC journalist, Andrew Gilligan, said that the British-government dossier on Iraq's WMDs had been "sexed up," exaggerated for political expediency. Gilligan's claim, according to Hutton, was "unfounded."

The Lord Justice Hutton's delivery was dry and sober. Speaking of notions that seem sadly old-fashioned, he inquired if the government had a strategy for naming Kelly that was: "dishonourable or underhand or duplicitous." He concluded that there was no such behavior.

Tony Blair has generously, and repeatedly, said that the rightness of the war is a matter of legitimate discussion. The response to his call for civilized debate has been political abuse and unfounded allegations, in large part thanks to portions of the British media.


posted by Frodgie at 6:14 AM

 

Six U.S. Soldiers Killed in Separate Attacks

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The United Nations agreed Tuesday to send a team to Iraq to help break the impasse over electing a new government, as the deaths of six more American soldiers in roadside bombings underscored concerns about security in the volatile nation.

A bomb that exploded south of Baghdad killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded three others Tuesday night, hours after another bombing west of the capital killed three U.S. paratroopers and wounded one, the military said. In addition, two employees of Cable News Network died in a shooting south of Baghdad.

Elsewhere, U.S. troops killed three suspected members of a guerrilla cell during raids Tuesday in the central Iraqi town of Beiji, the Army said. And a suspected car bomb was discovered near coalition and Iraqi Governing Council (search) offices.

The United States has cited the ongoing violence in arguing against demands by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani for the direct election of a provisional legislature, which in turn will select a government to take power by July 1.

Instead, Washington wants the lawmakers chosen in 18 regional caucuses. The Americans and the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) to send a team to determine whether an early election would be feasible.

In Paris, Annan said he believes the United Nations can play "a constructive role" in helping to break the impasse, and would send such a team to Iraq "once I am satisfied that the [coalition] will provide adequate security arrangements."

Annan said the mission will solicit the views of Iraqis to find alternative ways to choose a provisional government. Shiite Muslim leaders have said al-Sistani wants to hear alternatives to the caucus plan if the U.N. team says it's not feasible to hold elections by the end of June.

The U.N. chief also said sending in "blue helmet" peacekeepers was not on the agenda, although he favored a multinational force for Iraq sometime in the future.

"I believe what we can anticipate would be a multinational force authorized by the Security Council, which could help and work with Iraqis to stabilize Iraq and make it safer," Annan said. "This would be a multinational force, with the support of the Security Council, and not 'blue helmets' per se."
posted by Frodgie at 5:51 AM

 

Kerry Wins New Hampshire Primary

PLYMOUTH, N.H. — John Kerry (search) completed a one-two political punch, winning the New Hampshire primary just one week after turning up a surprisingly strong victory in the Iowa caucuses.

The Massachusetts senator won 39 percent of the vote with 97 percent of precincts reporting as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (search) took second place in the nation's first primary with 26 percent of the vote, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark (search) and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards (search) were tied at 12 percent and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (search) had 9 percent of the vote.

"I love New Hampshire … and I love Iowa, too," Kerry said when he addressed supporters after being declared the winner. "Thank you, New Hampshire, for lifting up this campaign and the cause for an America that belongs not to the privileged, not to a few, but belongs to all Americans. This victory belongs to all of you."

When asked by Fox News' Greta Van Susteren if his win amounts to his history for being a "good finisher" in political races, Kerry said: "It means that I've had a tradition of coming on strong when it counts, towards the end."


posted by Frodgie at 5:50 AM

 

Republicans warn Bush on immigration policy

DENVER - Twenty-three congressmen warned President Bush in a letter yesterday that he risks an election-year backlash from Republican voters if he continues to press his guest-worker proposal.
The Republican lawmakers said their congressional offices have received a flood of angry letters, e-mails and phone calls from Republican constituents vowing that they will refuse to vote for the president if his program is approved.
"Since the President's speech, our offices have been inundated with calls from dismayed constituents expressing vehement opposition to the Administration's proposal," said the letter signed by several members of the House Immigration Reform Caucus.
"It is a matter of great concern to us that these constituents politically active American citizens are so disillusioned by the proposal that many of them will become disenchanted with not only the Administration, but with Congress as well," said the letter, which also was sent to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican. "If we do not listen to our constituents on this matter, our influence and effectiveness in Congress could be jeopardized."
Most of the congressmen signing are conservatives who represent Western, Southern and Midwestern states, including California, Idaho, Texas, Tennessee and Kansas.

posted by Frodgie at 5:46 AM

 

'Rings' reaches for Oscar gold

(CNN) -- "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" already has earned gold -- the Golden Globe for best drama. Now the film reaches for the ultimate Hollywood accolade: Oscar.

The fantasy film, the final chapter of director Peter Jackson's version of J.R.R. Tolkien's literary classic, led all nominees Tuesday with 11 Oscar nominations, including best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay.

"Down in New Zealand now, there will be a lot of celebrating," Jackson said in a reference to where all three films were made and to his native country.

"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World," based on Patrick O'Brian's literary sea series, received 10 nods, including best picture and best director for Peter Weir. Neither "Rings" nor "Master and Commander" earned a single acting nomination.


posted by Frodgie at 5:45 AM

 

Sept. 11 Flight Attendant Calm in Call

WASHINGTON - Shortly before Flight 11 slammed into the World Trade Center, the American Airlines operations center received a calm phone call from one of its flight attendants.

"The cockpit is not answering their phone," said Betty Ong. "There's somebody stabbed in business class and, we can't breathe in business. Um, I think there is some Mace or something. We can't breathe. I don't know, but I think we're getting hijacked."

Ong, 45, known as "Bee," was on the American Airlines Boeing 767 flying from Boston to Los Angeles on Sept. 11, 2001, before suspected 9-11 ringleader Mohammed Atta and four others took over the plane and crashed it into the North Tower of the Trade Center.

The Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States heard portions of her 23-minute conversation with the American Airlines operations center on the second of its two-day hearing Tuesday.

Nydia Gonzalez, who was on duty at the operations center that morning, told the panel how she received Ong's call at about 8:20 a.m.

"Several media accounts of what occurred on Flight 11 claimed that Betty was 'hysterical with fear,' 'shrieking' and 'gasping for air,' she said. "Those accounts were wrong."

"In a very calm, professional and poised demeanor, Betty Ong relayed to us detailed information of the events unfolding on Flight 11," Gonzalez added. "I honestly believe after my conversation with Betty that the 81 passengers and new crew members on Flight 11 had no idea of the fate they were to encounter that day."

In the tape played before the commission, Ong tells the operations center her flight and seat number and describes the scene on board.

"We can't even get into the cockpit. We don't know who's there," Ong says, before the call ends in a dial tone.


posted by Frodgie at 5:43 AM

 

Is Kerry a proud war hero or angry antiwar protester?

John Kerry, we know, is running against John Kerry: his own voting record. But there is another record that John Kerry is running against, and this has to do with his very emergence as a Democratic politician: Kerry, the proud Vietnam veteran vs. Kerry, the antiwar activist who accused his fellow Vietnam veterans of the most heinous atrocities imaginable.

John Kerry not only served honorably in Vietnam, but also with distinction, earning a Silver Star (America's third-highest award for valor), a Bronze Star, and three awards of the Purple Heart for wounds received in combat as a swift-boat commander. Kerry did not return from Vietnam a radical antiwar activist. According to the indispensable Stolen Valor, by H. G. "Jug" Burkett and Genna Whitley, "Friends said that when Kerry first began talking about running for office, he was not visibly agitated about the Vietnam War. 'I thought of him as a rather normal vet,' a friend said to a reporter, 'glad to be out but not terribly uptight about the war.' Another acquaintance who talked to Kerry about his political ambitions called him a 'very charismatic fellow looking for a good issue.'" Apparently, this good issue would be Vietnam.

Kerry hooked up with an organization called Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Two events cooked up by this group went a long way toward cementing in the public mind the image of Vietnam as one big atrocity. The first of these was the January 31, 1971, "Winter Soldier Investigation," organized by "the usual suspects" among antiwar celebrities such as Jane Fonda, Dick Gregory, and Kennedy-assassination conspiracy theorist, Mark Lane. Here, individuals purporting to be Vietnam veterans told horrible stories of atrocities in Vietnam: using prisoners for target practice, throwing them out of helicopters, cutting off the ears of dead Viet Cong soldiers, burning villages, and gang-raping women as a matter of course.


posted by Frodgie at 5:40 AM

 

More snow and ice head east

(CNN) -- A major winter storm is taking aim at central New York and Pennsylvania, according to the National Weather Service, and some mid-Atlantic states are bracing for another day of dangerous icy conditions Tuesday.

Heavy snowfall is expected overnight and into Tuesday across much of lower Michigan as the storm that dumped heavy snow from Minneapolis to Des Moines and Omaha moves eastward. Six to 10 inches of snow are predicted in Michigan, the NWS said.

No snow is expected to accumulate overnight in Pennsylvania, which is predicted to get a wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain overnight.

But two weather systems from the Southeast and Midwest could combine to produce significant snow in Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Forecasters are tracking the weather systems closely.

In New Hampshire, primary voters will see clear and dry skies most of Tuesday. The snow headed to the Northeast isn't expected to reach the Granite State until the evening.

Snow, sleet and freezing rain that began over the weekend has made roads dangerous from the Midwest to most of the eastern United States. That weather has been blamed for at least 32 traffic deaths since Sunday and one person was reported killed while sledding, The Associated Press reported.

Drivers in northern North Carolina, southwest Virginia and southeast West Virginia will face another day of hazardous driving conditions Tuesday with below freezing temperatures expected in the morning after freezing rain expected in the region overnight.

posted by Frodgie at 6:50 AM

 

Primary Time in N.H.

PLYMOUTH, N.H. — After relentless campaigning, hand shaking and baby kissing by the Democratic presidential candidates, the arrival of the New Hampshire primary (search) leaves everything in the hands of the state's voters -- most of which will have to brave wintry conditions to cast their votes.

Even as the clock struck midnight, the Democratic hopefuls scurried across the Granite State (search) into the early morning hours in hopes of picking up the hordes of undecided voters to add to their support base.

Sen. John Kerry (search) continued to enjoy the fruits of the "Iowa bounce" he received after his show-stopping victory in last week's Iowa caucuses. A Fox News New Hampshire Primary Tracking Poll released Monday evening shows the Massachusetts senator still leading the pack with 36 percent of the vote.

The poll of 461 likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters, taken from Jan. 23-Jan. 25, shows that Kerry's lead is a full 11 percentage points ahead of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (search), who got 25 percent of the vote. Sen. John Edwards (search) took third place with 13 percent, while retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark got 11 percent and Sen. Joe Lieberman got 7 percent. Six percent of likely voters remain undecided. The poll has a margin of error of 4.6 percent.


posted by Frodgie at 6:48 AM

 

Teenager's Conservative Club Causes Uproar

SAN FRANCISCO — Tim Bueler started the Conservative Club (search) to balance what he calls the liberal bias in his public school, but when some schoolmates found his views offensive and threatened to beat him up, the 17-year-old claims the principal and teachers turned the other way.

Bueler started the club at Rancho Cotati High School (search), about an hour north of San Francisco, to draw support for the war in Iraq, among other issues. About 50 teenagers now attend club meetings.

But a recent issue of the club newsletter, Conservative Agenda, has riled some students -- and teachers -- who claim Bueler is nothing but a young Nazi (search).

In the newsletter, Bueler calls for a crackdown on "every Muhammad, Jamul and Jose who wishes to leave his third world state to come to America, mostly illegally."

One teacher posted a flier encouraging students to "take a stand against the neo-conservative wing nuts who call themselves Americans." The principal suggested that Bueler go home for a "cooling off" period.

Bueler defended his inflammatory rhetoric, saying: "We feel that liberalism is a mental disorder and they attack family, faith and country and military. And these are bullies we're dealing with and we need to fight against them and this is why we've come out so strong."

The school district has launched an investigation and promises to take disciplinary action against the teachers, administration or students if warranted.

Click here to watch a fair and balanced report by Fox News' Claudia Cowan.



posted by Frodgie at 6:40 AM

 

Cheney, Pope Put Aside War Differences

VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II (search), a staunch opponent of the war in Iraq (search), greeted Vice President Dick Cheney (search) on Tuesday with a message calling for international cooperation and peace.

"I encourage you and your fellow citizens to work at home and abroad for the growth of international cooperation. ... The American people have always cherished the fundamentals values of freedom, justice and equity," the pope told Cheney, an architect of the war.

The hand of the pontiff, who suffers from Parkinson's, trembled as he read the short greeting.

Cheney, who was seated on his right, presented the pope with a dove made of glass, which the pontiff stroked with his hand.

He gave Cheney a set of 20 silver medals with reproductions of masterpieces from the Vatican and presented Mrs. Cheney and daughter Liz silver rosaries and medals of the Pontificate.

A red carpet leading to the Apolostic Palace where the meeting occurred in the Papal Library had been rolled out before Cheney's arrival and a picket of Swiss guards clad in colorful uniforms greeted the U.S. delegation.

The meeting came at a time when the Vatican has put aside its opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq and is seeking greater involvement by the international community in rebuilding the country.


posted by Frodgie at 6:30 AM

 

Judge dismisses slavery lawsuit

CHICAGO — A federal judge yesterday dismissed a lawsuit brought by descendants of slaves against corporations they contend profited from slavery, saying the plaintiffs had established no clear link to the companies they targeted.
The court still left the door open for further litigation.
"Plaintiffs' attempt to bring these claims more than a century after the end of the Civil War and the formal abolition of slavery fails," U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle said.
He said the plaintiffs' claims "are beyond the constitutional authority of this court" and that the lawsuit claimed no specific connection between the plaintiffs and the companies named as defendants.
But the ruling dismissed the case "without prejudice," meaning the slave descendants seeking reparations from American companies are allowed to file an amended complaint.
Lionel Jean-Baptiste, a lawyer representing two women who are descendants of slaves, said he expected to do exactly that.
"I had an expectation that this would happen," Mr. Jean-Baptiste said after Judge Norgle released his 75-page opinion.
The lawsuit was first filed in U.S. District Court in New York in 2002 and later moved to Chicago. The lawsuit names companies such as the Lehman Brothers brokerage firm, Aetna Insurance and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, saying they or their corporate ancestors made money off slavery. Lawsuits filed across the country seeking reparations for slavery have been combined into a single court action.

posted by Frodgie at 6:28 AM

 

Record Run
When Kerry backed unilateral action against Saddam.

Over the weekend, Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.) again attacked President Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq, even though Kerry voted to authorize military force. Kerry said the president "went to war without building a legitimate coalition, without exhausting the remedies of the United Nations and not as a last resort. And that's why I was upset about it....The president bum-rushed the thing."

But Kerry gave a speech on the floor of the United States Senate in 1997 in which he urged the Clinton-Gore administration to deal with Saddam's "ominous" and "grave" threat of weapons of mass destruction decisively, even if the U.S. allies did not agree and the U.S. had to act on a "unilateral basis."

In that speech, on November 9, 1997, titled "We Must be Firm with Saddam Hussein," Kerry made points he'd probably like to leave in his past:

Kerry made the case that Saddam's WMD programs were a serious threat: "It is not possible to overstate the ominous implications for the Middle East if Saddam were to develop and successfully militarize and deploy potent biological weapons. We can all imagine the consequences. Extremely small quantities of several known biological weapons have the capability to exterminate the entire population of cities the size of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. These could be delivered by ballistic missile, but they also could be delivered by much more pedestrian means; aerosol applicators on commercial trucks easily could suffice. If Saddam were to develop and then deploy usable atomic weapons, the same holds true."


posted by Frodgie at 6:21 AM

 

Tricky 'MyDoom' e-mail worm spreading quickly

(CNN) -- Hackers unleashed an agile worm Monday -- using a sneaky, fairly new tactic to get unsuspecting computer users to diffuse their malicious code.

Dubbed "W32/MyDoom" or "Novarg," the worm circulated so fast anti-virus firms quickly raised threat warnings to "high" saying the bug was one of the worst in recent months.

The worm is contained in e-mails with random senders' addresses and subject lines. While the body of the e-mail varies, it usually includes what appears to be an error message, such as: "The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding and has been sent as a binary attachment."

While many computer users are savvy about not opening executable files or other attachments that may contain viruses, the latest worm masks itself as an innocuous text document or a file that your computer appears unable to read.

"This one is almost begging you to click on the attachment," said Sharon Ruckman, the head of anti-virus firm Symantec's security response team.


posted by Frodgie at 6:20 AM

 

U.S. Helicopter Down in Tigris River

TIKRIT, Iraq — A U.S. helicopter crashed in the Tigris river while searching for a missing soldier on Sunday, and the aircraft's two crew members were missing, the military said.

It did not say what caused the crash of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter (search), attached to the 101st Airborne Division (search).

The helicopter was searching for a soldier missing when the boat he was in capsized earlier Sunday while on patrol. The other three soldiers in boat were safe, but two Iraqi police officers and an Iraqi translator were confirmed killed in the incident, said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, a spokeswoman for the 4th Infantry Division (search).

She said the search for the two pilots was underway. U.S. troops and Iraqi police sealed off the area and established checkpoints to secure the search and rescue operation.

U.S. troops rushing to the scene came under "limited and ineffective small arms fire," the spokeswoman said. An Iraqi policeman manning one of the checkpoints was killed in a drive-by shooting, witnesses said.

It was the fifth helicopter crash in Iraq this month -- three of them due to hostile fire.

U.S. troops arrested nearly 50 people Sunday in raids in the Sunni Triangle after attacks in the volatile region killed six American soldiers.

Most of the arrests occurred in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, where 46 people were detained in a series of raids, the U.S. military said. Three were arrested for alleged anti-coalition activities and the rest for illegal weapons possession.


posted by Frodgie at 6:32 AM

 

Illegal criminal aliens abound in U.S.

About 80,000 illegal criminal aliens, including convicted murderers, rapists, drug dealers and child molesters who served prison time and were released, are loose on the streets of America, hiding from federal immigration authorities.
Despite the creation of a new agency to hunt down criminal aliens and the infusion of millions of dollars to get the job done, many state and local police agencies who make contact with the aliens either never learn of their immigration status or never advise the federal government of their release.
According to figures for 2002 from the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), more than 375,000 known illegal aliens have been ordered deported, but have disappeared pending immigration hearings. Washington-area sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was one such alien.
About 80,000 of those people, called "absconders," already had been convicted and served prison time for felonies, ICE and INS say.
"Keeping our law-enforcement officers in the dark doesn't make America's streets safer for anyone," said Rep. Charlie Norwood, Georgia Republican. "At a time when our officers are faced with arresting and re-arresting the same 80,000 criminal aliens over and over again, we should be giving them greater access to data and more resources."

posted by Frodgie at 6:30 AM

 

Ex-Weapons Inspector Says U.S. Intelligence Failed

WASHINGTON — The outgoing chief U.S. weapons inspector says his inability to find illicit arms in Iraq raises serious questions about American intelligence-gathering.

Last year, David Kay (search) had confidently predicted weapons would be found. But after nine months of searching, he said Sunday: "I don't think they exist."

"It's an issue of the capabilities of one's intelligence service to collect valid, truthful information," Kay said on National Public Radio.

Asked whether President Bush (search) owed the nation an explanation for the discrepancies between his warnings and Kay's findings, Kay said: "I actually think the intelligence community owes the president, rather than the president owing the American people."

The CIA (search) would not comment on Kay's remarks, though one official, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted that Kay himself was vocal in predicting he would find weapons.

Kay said his predictions were not "coming back to haunt me in the sense that I am embarrassed. They are coming back to haunt me in the sense of `Why could we all be so wrong?"'

The White House stuck by its assertions that illicit weapons will be found in Iraq.

But Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, a Democratic presidential candidate, said Kay's comments reinforced his belief that the Bush administration had exaggerated the threat Iraq posed.
posted by Frodgie at 6:28 AM

 

Mishandling Terrorism
The law-enforcement mistake.

In his State of the Union speech, President George W. Bush identified the point at which America's response to terrorism went so badly awry: the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. Bush also explained what went wrong: That attack was treated entirely as a law-enforcement issue; "some of the guilty were indicted, tried, convicted, and sent to prison." Following the speech, one National Public Radio commentator gasped that Bush seemed to be blaming former President Bill Clinton.

That is, indeed, where blame lies. After every terrorist attack that occurred on his watch, Clinton would condemn the perpetrators and vow to bring them to justice. Yet there was a Catch-22: by treating terrorism as a law-enforcement issue, Clinton practically guaranteed that it would be understood as a law-enforcement issue — and the critical question of state sponsorship would receive scant attention. In many respects, the U.S. legal system was, and still is, ill-suited to dealing with major terrorist attacks.

A very significant flaw crept into that system after Watergate, with serious consequences in the 1990s, when several major terrorist assaults against the United States were followed by stunningly early arrests. Post-Watergate reforms prohibited the FBI from sharing the results of a criminal investigation with the CIA or any other national-security agency. Thus, once the FBI arrested even one suspect in the 1993 Trade Center bombing, that arrest cut off the flow of information to other agencies. Six days after the bombing, Mohammed Salameh, a 26-year-old Palestinian, was detained for the remarkably foolish act of returning to a Ryder rental agency for his deposit on the van that carried the bomb.


posted by Frodgie at 6:26 AM

 

Saddam's WMD hidden in Syria, says Iraq survey chief

David Kay, the former head of the coalition's hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, yesterday claimed that part of Saddam Hussein's secret weapons programme was hidden in Syria.

In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Dr Kay, who last week resigned as head of the Iraq Survey Group, said that he had uncovered evidence that unspecified materials had been moved to Syria shortly before last year's war to overthrow Saddam.

"We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons," he said. "But we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."

Dr Kay's comments will intensify pressure on President Bashar Assad to clarify the extent of his co-operation with Saddam's regime and details of Syria's WMD programme. Mr Assad has said that Syria was entitled to defend itself by acquiring its own biological and chemical weapons arsenal.


posted by Frodgie at 6:11 AM

 

Winter storms kill at least 15

(AP) -- Winter storms dumped freezing rain, sleet and snow from the Plains to the East Coast on Sunday, making traveling treacherous along ice-slicked roads.

At least 15 people died in weather-related car wrecks. Dozens of airline flights were delayed or canceled from Missouri to South Carolina, and sporadic power outages were reported.

Nevertheless, the National Weather Service said a massive, icy storm bound for the Northeast packed less of a punch than had been expected -- and was far less crippling than a January 2002 storm that caused millions of dollars in damage.

In Ohio, 14 people had to be rescued from Lake Erie by helicopter and airboat after high winds cracked the ice on which they were fishing, separating them from Catawba Island, authorities said. No one was hurt or fell in the water, but in southwest Ohio, a woman was killed in a head-on crash between her car and a pickup truck.

North Carolina's Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of emergency as the storm moved East. In the 2002 ice storm, 1.8 million North Carolina utility customers were in the dark for up to a week.

"It's far worse than just having snow, because that crust is going to be slippery," said Susan Yeaman of the weather service in Raleigh, North Carolina. "It's going to keep things slippery and crusty until into" Monday.

posted by Frodgie at 6:10 AM