New Radical Islamic Terror Tape Surfaces

WASHINGTON — A new videotape has surfaced on the Internet from a radical Islamic group claiming to be directly tied to Al Qaeda (search) in Iraq.

The tape, a chilling recruiting tool set to music, is seen as a call to terrorism by security experts. U.S. intelligence officials believe the tape to be legitimate.

The video shows roadside bombings of coalition convoys, as well as testimonials from homicide bombers pledging to kill U.S. and coalition troops until they leave Iraq.

U.S. intelligence officials said the video came from an unofficial Web site of Ansar Al-Sunnah (search), a group with ties to Al Qaeda.

On the tape, a terror squad is using weapons, including what appear to be surface-to-air missiles.

Other portions of the tape include: explosions; identifications and credit cards of soldiers; and bodies of others who have been killed; a mass grave.

Terrorists are heard saying, "We will expel them. With our bombs we will scare them. And we will continue to battle against their fortifications and will erase the shame in our nation."


posted by Frodgie at 9:05 AM

 

Dean Campaign Calls It a Day

BURLINGTON, Vt. — On the day after a presidential campaign ends, the candidate's headquarters has the eerily familiar feel of the last day of school, after exams are over.

After so many months of frenzied activity and steadfast purpose, there is a surreal sense of uncertainty, a desire by the people who have spent 18 to 22 hours a day together for months on end to hold on to the last few moments.

Shortly after 1:00 p.m., on Thursday afternoon, the day after Howard Dean (search) declared he would no longer actively seek the presidency, it was picture time.

The candidate trudged through the snow next to the parking lot toward a group of staffers and volunteers standing behind a huge Howard Dean sign. Dean had shed his candidate's garb, a dark gray suit he'd worn nearly every day since late January, for the clothing of the ordinary American of his speeches. He donned jeans and a tattered, faded green shirt that by its appearance certainly predated his presidential candidacy - and perhaps even his first gubernatorial candidacy.

Dean posed for more than a few pictures as staffers threw snowballs at him, hitting him twice. Despite his reputation for being quick-tempered, Dean laughed and endured the barrage until someone yelled, "How many times do you have to be attacked before you respond?"

He then succumbed to the scuffle and lobbed snowballs back.

An aide kept reminding him, "You have a conference call at 1:30," but it didn't seem to matter.

Finally, Dean walked toward the entrance of the building, and joked about one of the first things he was going to tackle post-candidacy: "This," he said, grabbing his stomach ruefully. The former candidate has put on 15 pounds since the beginning of his campaign.

Later in the day, the front office at HQ bustled, filled with people perusing boxes of bat pens, in honor of the baseball bats used to symbolize Dean's online fundraising efforts. Campaign buttons and mugs sat on a table with a row of Dean for America baseball caps, a free-for-all for anyone who wanted a last-minute souvenir.


posted by Frodgie at 9:05 AM

 

Web fans idolize 'Idol' reject

BERKELEY, California (AP) -- The "American Idol" judges said William Hung bombed with his gotta-see-it-to-believe-it rendition of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs."

But rejection turned out to have a silver -- maybe even platinum -- lining. In the weeks since he got booted by the TV talent show, the 21-year-old Hung has become an insta-Net celebrity, sought after by talk shows, record producers and Idol dreamers everywhere.

By now, unless your TV set is permanently tuned to PBS, you've probably seen Hung in action -- arms waving over his head, hips following the beat of an entirely different drummer as he cheerfully attacks Martin's song.

The song fights back; the song wins. And yet the mild-mannered civil engineering student is undeniably charming, his reedy tenor bringing a boyish exuberance to the sexy lyrics.

"I love him! I love him!" a laughing Ellen DeGeneres told her talk show audience after Hung came on to perform an abbreviated version of "Shake Your Bon Bon," another Martin song (Hung is a huge fan).

What has people so hung up on Hung? Is it the shy, toothy smile? The accent? The dance moves, just a few funks short of funkadelic?

His fans say it's all that, combined with his fearless -- or clueless if you ask caustic "Idol" judge Simon Cowell -- pursuit of an unlikely dream.

"He's not full of himself. He's just down-to-earth," says Andrea Michaelian, a San Francisco, California-area teenager who with a friend created www.williamhung.reallyrules.com. "He's like an unintentional celebrity so it's cool."

Hung, who was born in Hong Kong but moved to Southern California with his family as a child, has always been interested in music. But he was concentrating on a steadier line of work, studying at the University of California, Berkeley, until he won a dorm talent contest singing, of course, "She Bangs."


posted by Frodgie at 9:01 AM

 

Schwarzenegger: Gay marriages must stop

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has warned San Francisco to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of state law.

Schwarzenegger addressed the issue at the state's Republican convention in Burlingame, Calif. just outside San Francisco.

"During my campaign, I talked about the importance of rule of law," he said Friday. "We rely upon our courts to enforce our rule of law, but we're seeing in San Francisco that the courts are dropping the ball.

"Today I have sent a letter to Attorney General Bill Lockyer asking him to move as quickly as possible on behalf of the state ... to resolve the issues underlying San Francisco's lawsuit against the state.

"While we wait for the courts to act, it's time for the City of San Francisco to start respecting state law. It is time for the city to stop traveling down this dangerous path of ignoring the rule of law."


posted by Frodgie at 9:00 AM

 

Iran Votes

Today is election day in Iran – and a very strange sort of election it will be. In an important essay in the New York Post, Amir Taheri calls this an election that kills illusions – above all the illusion that Iran can be reformed from within. His ominous but powerful conclusion:

"The Bush administration needs to develop a coherent analysis of the Iranian situation. It must decide whether or not Iran is, in the words of the State Department's No. 2, Richard Armitage, a 'sort of democracy,' or a despotic regime using religion and violence to remain in power.

"Short-term Realpolitik may counsel an accommodation with the present regime in Tehran, much as it has determined Washington's China policy. But that would mean the premature death of President Bush's ambitious plan for 'a new Middle East.' It would also give the Islamic Republic time to assemble an arsenal of nuclear weapons, and other weapons of mass destruction, which the Tehran leadership regards as its best insurance policy."

Michael Ledeen observes in NRO that the Iranian regime's methods of control are becoming more violent all the time. "Demonstrations five days ago in the western city of Marivan were so potent that the regime sent helicopter gunships to shoot down protestors, and there are reports that members of the regular armed forces joined the demonstrators."


posted by Frodgie at 8:41 AM

 

Bush again installs a judge at recess

President Bush bypassed a Democratic filibuster yesterday by installing Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — his second recess appointment in as many months.
Mr. Bush's action will allow Mr. Pryor to sit on the appellate bench, without Senate approval, until next January when the term of the present congressional session expires.
"If Attorney General Pryor were given a vote on the floor of the Senate, he would be confirmed," Mr. Bush said yesterday. "But a minority of Democratic senators has been using unprecedented obstructionist tactics to prevent him and other qualified nominees from receiving up-or-down votes."
Outraged Democrats, who have cited Mr. Pryor's opposition to abortion when blocking a full Senate vote on him, yesterday accused Mr. Bush of circumventing the judicial-nomination process.
"The president has divided the American people and the Senate with his controversial judicial nominees and none is more controversial than Mister Pryor," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

posted by Frodgie at 8:40 AM

 

White House tries to defuse criticism on jobs report

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House sought Thursday to defuse criticism of its economic policies in the wake of its apparent retreat from a report on jobs projections, an issue that Democrats have seized on this election year.

On the campaign trail, Democratic presidential hopefuls hammered the president over the flap generated by the report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers. And House Democratic leaders Thursday called on the president to explain his policies on job creation and the deficit.

President Bush, meanwhile, touted his stewardship of the economy, and he tried to focus the debate on taxes as he delivered a speech in Washington.

"When you hear them say, 'We're going to repeal the Bush tax cuts,' that means tax increase. That's what that is," Bush said. " 'I'm gonna raise your taxes' is what they're saying."

But Democrats honed in on the economic report, which projected 2.6 million new jobs this year. This week, however, various administration officials downplayed the significance of that number, and Bush himself declined to endorse the projection when asked about it Wednesday.

Treasury Secretary John Snow and Commerce Secretary Don Evans have "refused to back up the official prediction by the White House that the economy will add 2.6 million jobs this year," the Democratic letter said.

"The numbers you are debating represent the jobs of American workers. What you believe to be an intellectual debate among your Cabinet members has a real impact on the lives of middle-class American families nationwide. If you no longer believe your economic program will create 2.6 million additional jobs, Americans would like to know, how many will it create?" asked the letter.


posted by Frodgie at 6:26 AM

 

More aliens try to enter for amnesty...just what I thought.@#$%#@

The number of illegal aliens caught crossing into the United States increased dramatically just days after President Bush proposed a guest-worker program that would give legal status to millions of illegal immigrants now in this country, according to the union that represents the Border Patrol's 9,000 field agents.
The National Border Patrol Council said apprehension totals increased threefold in the San Diego area alone, adding that the vast majority of aliens detained along the border told arresting agents that they had come to the United States seeking amnesty.
Most of those arrested and, eventually, deported had no history of immigration violations, the council said.
Law-enforcement authorities, immigration specialists and others — including the council — had predicted that the Bush proposal, outlined Jan. 7, would lead to increased illegal immigration by those seeking to take advantage of what many perceived to be an offer of limited amnesty.
The White House painstakingly has denied that the president's guest-worker proposal offers amnesty, saying instead that illegal aliens who hold jobs in the United States would be given only temporary work permits, not placed on the path to citizenship, and that they eventually would have to go home.
Outlined as a set of principles and not as specific legislation, the Bush proposal does not prescribe any penalties for those who entered the country illegally and would allow them to remain in the United States for renewable three-year periods.
Meanwhile, the Border Patrol has canceled a survey of illegal aliens detained at the U.S.-Mexico border that had sought to establish whether "rumors of amnesty" after Mr. Bush proposed his guest-worker program influenced their decision to cross into the United States.
posted by Frodgie at 6:25 AM

 

Federal Court to Hear Request to Reopen Roe v. Wade

DALLAS — A federal appeals court has agreed to hear a request from the woman formerly known as "Jane Roe" to reconsider the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade (search) that legalized abortion.

Norma McCorvey (search), who joined with anti-abortion activists nearly 10 years ago, is seeking to have the decision overturned, citing what she says is more than 30 years of evidence that abortions are psychologically harmful to women.

A federal district judge threw out her initial request in June, saying it was not made within a reasonable time. But the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to hear McCorvey's arguments March 2.

"It's something that I've wanted ever since Day One, and it's happening," McCorvey said from her Dallas home.

Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill (search), whose predecessor Henry Wade who was named in the original lawsuit, has not filed a response to McCorvey's appeal. That may put the appeals court in the unusual position of hearing arguments from only one side.

Wade was named in the original case because he was charged with enforcing the Texas law that prevented McCorvey from having an abortion. Hill's office has argued that since that law no longer exists, Hill has no authority to prosecute and should not be sued.

More than 20 Texas law school professors concerned about an unbalanced hearing filed a brief Wednesday asking to be allowed to argue the other side of the case.
"It's important that the court hear from somebody representing the position that the district court took, which I think is clearly right," said David Schenck, a lawyer representing the professors. "At this point, the case is moot, and she's presenting at best a political question."


posted by Frodgie at 6:23 AM

 

Vaccine halts lung cancer in small study

DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- An experimental vaccine wiped out lung cancer in some patients and slowed its spread in others in a small but promising study, researchers say.

Three patients injected with the vaccine, GVAX, had no recurrence of lung cancer for more than three years afterward, according to the study of 43 people with the most common form of the disease, non-small cell lung cancer.

The findings were published in Wednesday's Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The research was funded in part by CellGenesis, a pharmaceutical company that hopes to produce the vaccine.

The vaccine, developed by researchers at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, is years away from reaching the market, if ever. The researchers hope to apply for Food and Drug Administration approval in three years.

"The results are very promising for patients with non-small (cell) lung cancer, which is frequently resistant to chemotherapy," said Dr. John Nemunaitis, a Baylor oncologist who led the study.

Non-small cell lung cancer is the nation's leading cause of cancer death, killing more than 150,000 people each year. The disease is related to smoking and is often difficult to treat. Treatment usually involves removal of the tumor, chemotherapy or both.

The study is the first to show complete and long-lasting regression of lung cancer by stimulating the immune system to attack cancer cells, Nemunaitis said. A similar approach has shown promise against skin and renal cell cancer.

In the study, each patient was injected in the arm and leg with a vaccine that included cells from his or her tumors. A gene called CM-CSF was placed into the cancer cells to change the surface of the cells to help the body identify them as cancerous. The body's immune cells soon began to recognize, attack and destroy the cancer cells in the lungs.


posted by Frodgie at 6:22 AM

 

Saudi Charity's Assets Frozen

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department has moved to block the assets of the U.S. branch of a large Saudi charity that has been accused of diverting money to help bankroll Al Qaeda's (search) terrorist activities.

The Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation (search) branch affected by Thursday's announcement is listed as having mailing addresses in Ashland, Ore., and Springfield, Mo., according to Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

OFAC said the financial assets and property belonging to the branch "are blocked pending investigation" under the 2001 USA Patriot Act (search).

In a statement, Treasury said federal authorities conducted a search Wednesday of the charity's property in Ashland as part of a "criminal investigation into possible violations of the Internal Revenue Code, the Money Laundering Control Act (search) and the Bank Secrecy Act (search)."

"The suspected crimes relate to possible violations of the currency reporting and tax return laws by two officers of the Ashland, Ore., office of Al-Haramain," the statement said.

Treasury officials declined to provide further details on the investigation and whether any assets have been found in the United States.

Working with the Saudis, the United States has previously moved to freeze the assets of six foreign branches of Al-Haramain. Those branches are in Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, Pakistan, Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The United States has not taken action against the charity's main office in Saudi Arabia.


posted by Frodgie at 6:20 AM

 

For Iraqi, the end justifies means

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi leader accused of feeding faulty prewar intelligence to Washington said his information about Saddam Hussein's weapons — even if discredited — achieved the aim of persuading the United States to topple the dictator.
Ahmed Chalabi and his London-based exile group, the Iraqi National Congress, for years provided a conduit for Iraqi defectors who were debriefed by U.S. intelligence agents.
But many American officials now blame Mr. Chalabi for providing what turned out to be false or wildly exaggerated intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
During an interview, Mr. Chalabi, by far the most effective anti-Saddam lobbyist in Washington, shrugged off charges that he had deliberately misled U.S. intelligence.
"We are heroes in error," he said in Baghdad on Wednesday. "As far as we're concerned, we've been entirely successful.

posted by Frodgie at 6:03 AM

 

Betting on Bush
The worry is overdone.

All of a sudden, Republicans are worried about President Bush's chances in the upcoming election. There are several reasons for the gathering gloom. Republicans had hoped to be able to run against Howard Dean, and will not. The economic recovery has not yet produced many jobs. Bush has been losing conservative support because of his record on spending and his immigration proposals. Add to the mix a backward-looking State of the Union address, an unimpressive presidential performance during a television interview, a ham-handed White House response to the controversy about the president's National Guard service, and — above all — the polls showing John Kerry ahead of Bush, and you can see why Republicans are nervous.

As it happens, we think the worry is overdone. The Democrats have had the field largely to themselves for two months. Kerry has been winning primaries, and his first wins were dramatic surprises. It stands to reason that he would look strong now. Yet any objective assessment must conclude that he is electable chiefly in comparison with Howard Dean [now no longer in the running]. He remains a northeastern social liberal with a weak record on national security. And even in a primary as late in the process as Wisconsin, a sizable number of Democrats is rejecting him for John Edwards. The economic indicators, meanwhile, are favorable to Bush. The public does not blame Bush for the jobs that have been lost "on his watch." It does want to see progress. By midyear it will, according to the forecasters. So the economy is likely to be a vote-winner for Bush. If so, it will be the first election since 1988 in which the business cycle has benefited Republicans.

It will also be the first election since 1988 in which national security has played a major role. It is no accident that no presidential candidate got a majority of the vote between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the war on terrorism. The country could not reach a political consensus during the interwar period. The Republicans still had free-market and moral conservatives on their side. Without national-security hawks in the coalition, however, these two groups were unable to yield a stable national majority.

posted by Frodgie at 5:58 AM

 

Bush for Constitutional Ban on Gay Marriage-Source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush's political director has told a group of prominent conservatives that the president would soon publicly endorse a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Bay Buchanan, sister of former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, told Reuters she was one of several conservatives who heard the message from political director Karl Rove two weeks ago.

"We were told by Karl Rove that the president would support the constitutional amendment -- not just that he would endorse it but also that he would fight for it," Buchanan said.

Specifically, Rove told the alliance of conservatives known as the Arlington Group in a telephone conversation that Bush would back the amendment being put forward by Colorado Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave and that his statement would come "sooner rather than later."

The proposed amendment would reserve marriages solely for "unions between a man and a woman." It would allow state voters and legislatures to determine if they want to legalize civil unions between same-sex couples but would state that no court can require states to accept such civil unions.

Buchanan said she and colleagues were a little concerned that Bush had not yet spoken out in favor of the amendment.

"We had expected it by now. There have been several opportunities for the president to speak out since that time. We're not sure what he's waiting for," she said.

In his latest comment on the issue, Bush said on Wednesday he was troubled San Francisco was issuing marriage licenses to gays and lesbians "even though the law states otherwise."

"I'm troubled by what I've seen," Bush told reporters in his first public comments on the flood of City Hall weddings that have made San Francisco the focus of the gay marriage movement.


posted by Frodgie at 1:15 PM

 

"I share your cause"

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A National Guard soldier stationed in Fort Lewis, Washington, was formally charged Wednesday with attempting to aid al Qaeda after he was caught in a sting operation involving the military, FBI and Justice Department.

According to a charge sheet released by the military, Spc. Ryan G. Anderson, a 26-year-old tank crew member from the National Guard's 81st Armor Brigade, was charged with four counts of attempting to give intelligence to the enemy by passing information to people he believed were part of al Qaeda.

The charge sheet said Anderson, who also went by the name of Amir Abdul Rashid, communicated with U.S. military personnel posing as members of al Qaeda. The charge sheet paraphrased Anderson's message to the supposed al Qaeda members as "I wish to meet with you, I share your cause."

Sources said Anderson, who is Muslim, was caught in a sting operation in which he was trying to communicate with al Qaeda in an Internet chat room. But it is not believed he actually made contact with al Qaeda members, they said.


posted by Frodgie at 6:37 AM

 

Kerry shakes up schedule in wake of Edwards' surge

(CNN) -- With the departure of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, the Democratic presidential race is now essentially a two-man match-up -- with Sen. John Kerry, riding a string of victories, fending off apparent rapid advances by Sen. John Edwards.

In the wake of Edwards' stronger-than expected showing Tuesday in Wisconsin, Kerry's campaign said late Wednesday that stops in New York and Georgia will likely be added to his schedule for Saturday. The original plan was for Kerry not to travel that day.

New York and Georgia are two of the 10 states holding caucuses and primaries on March 2, dubbed Super Tuesday, when 1,151 delegates will be up for grabs.

"The schedule changed because of a tight primary schedule and the need to hit as many states as possible," a Kerry adviser explained.

On Thursday, Kerry will be in Washington, D.C., to pick up the formal endorsement of the AFL-CIO, the nation's umbrella labor organization representing more than 13 million workers.

Edwards, whose campaign has gotten new wind from a close second-place finish behind Kerry in Wisconsin, told CNN he would continue to focus on trade, a key issue that exit polls showed helped him gain a last-minute surge in the Badger State.

"Senator Kerry supported NAFTA and other trade agreements. I was against NAFTA and some of the trade agreements that he was for, and I think they've cost us millions of jobs. And I think voters need to see the difference in our views on what needs to be done about trade and how trade can work for America and American workers," Edwards said.

Kerry, who has served in the Senate since 1985, struck back at the one-term senator in comments to reporters on the campaign trail in Dayton, Ohio.


posted by Frodgie at 6:34 AM

 

High-Tech Nuke Equipment Found in Iran

VIENNA, Austria — U.N. inspectors have discovered high-tech enrichment equipment on an Iranian (search) air force base, diplomats said Thursday. The find appeared to be the first known link of Tehran's (search) suspect nuclear program to its military.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the gas centrifuge system was found at an air base outside of the capital. Such equipment is used to process uranium which can then be used for nuclear fuel or warheads, depending on the level of enrichment.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (search), whose inspectors are examining Iran's nuclear activities for signs it was trying to create weapons, declined comment.

Confronted with evidence it had hid for nearly two decades, Iran last year acknowledged running an enrichment program but says it is only to generate power. The United States and other nations, however, accuse Tehran of secretly trying to make weapons.

The revelation comes only around a week after diplomats leaked news that IAEA inspectors had found drawings of an advanced centrifuge design Iran had not owed up to having, despite pledges to be fully open about its nuclear activities.

The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the designs were of a P-2 centrifuge -- more advanced than the P-1 model Iran has acknowledged using to enrich uranium for what is says are peaceful purposes. They said preliminary investigations by inspectors working for the International Atomic Energy Agency indicated they matched drawings of equipment found in Libya and supplied by the Pakistani network headed by scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Despite putting into question Iran's pledge to be fully open, the finds do not advance suspicions that Tehran was trying to make nuclear weapons because of the dual use of enriched uranium.


posted by Frodgie at 6:33 AM

 

U.S. Troops Nab Al Qaeda Suspects in Iraq

HILLAH, Iraq — Homicide bombers detonated explosives outside a Polish-run base Wednesday, killing 10 Iraqis and wounding more than 100 people, more than half of them coalition soldiers. The United States arrested seven guerrillas believed linked to Al Qaeda (search) in an early morning raid to the north.

The attack in Hillah, the third homicide bombing of security targets in two weeks, was part of a wider effort "to isolate us from the Iraqi people," coalition military commander Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told reporters in Tikrit (search).

Coalition and military officials said at least 106 people were hurt in the blasts, which happened in the Hayy Babil neighborhood near Camp Charlie. The wounded included 32 Iraqis and 26 Poles, as well as Hungarians, Bulgarians, Filipinos and an American.

The casualty toll could have been much higher had guards not opened fire and prevented the bombers from entering the camp. One truck exploded under the gunfire and another blew up after hitting a concrete barrier.

The 7:15 a.m. blasts -- from 1,540 pounds of explosives -- flattened 11 homes nearby and blew down the entire sides of several other houses in this town south of Baghdad (search).

The stepped-up violence could be aimed at preventing U.S. administrators from handing over power to the Iraqis on June 30, when Iraqi security forces would also take a more prominent role against the insurgency.

A senior U.S. official said Wednesday the Bush administration is considering a major shift in its plan for transition to Iraqi self-rule, possibly extending and expanding the Governing Council so it can take temporary control of the country on July 1.


posted by Frodgie at 6:28 AM

 

Dean drops out of race

Howard Dean dropped out of the Democratic presidential race yesterday, ending a roller-coaster quest for the White House that saw the Vermont liberal plunge from front-runner to 17 straight losses in less than a month.
But the fiery former governor, whose meteoric candidacy was fueled by the anti-Iraq war protest movement, said he would keep the central purposes of his campaign alive through a permanent activist organization based on his army of grass-roots supporters.
"I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency," Mr. Dean told cheering, flag-waving supporters at a news conference in Burlington, Vt., where his campaign began more than two years ago. "We will, however, continue the effort to transform the Democratic Party and to change our country."
Ruling out a third-party or independent candidacy and reassuring Democrats that he intended to support the party nominee, Mr. Dean, nonetheless, said he and his supporters intended to remain a political force in the party for years to come.

posted by Frodgie at 6:26 AM

 

Is free trade falling out of fashion?

Last week was an instructive one for the chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers. Gregory Mankiw was battered by leaders of both parties, hoisted by John Kerry, abandoned by his own president and forced to recant his beliefs.

What had Professor Mankiw done? He had used the "Economic Report of the President" to tutor us in free-trade theory.

In that report, Mankiw had equated the outsourcing of customer call-center jobs to India with buying manufactured goods from abroad, and pronounced both to be natural and good. "When a good or service is produced more cheaply abroad it makes more sense to import it than to make or provide it domestically."

"Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade," he explained at a White House briefing. "More things are tradable than were tradable in the past, and that's a good thing."

Mankiw was reciting perfectly the free-trade catechism. Yet, like a wounded boar, GOP Speaker Dennis Hastert bellowed: "I understand that Mr. Mankiw is a brilliant theorist, but this theory fails a basis test of real economics. An economy suffers when jobs disappear ... Outsourcing can be a problem for the American workers and for the American economy."

Other Republicans urged Mankiw to ponder an early return to Harvard Yard. Kerry said Mankiw had revealed the hidden agenda of the Bush administration: "They said that shipping American jobs overseas is good for America."

Alan Greenspan, a free-trade purist, came to Mankiw's defense, but George W. Bush distanced himself. "There are people looking for work because jobs have gone overseas," he said in Pennsylvania, "We need to act to make sure there are more jobs at home ..."


posted by Frodgie at 6:25 AM

 

Misunderstanding religion, law, and politics in Iraq.

One reason that the U.S. has been weak in effectively responding to Islamist maneuvers for control in Iraq is a persistent misunderstanding of the relations between Islam and the state, and this is creating major problems in the drafting of Iraq's "Fundamental Law," its interim constitution, due to be finalized by February 28.

Key administration officials, and the bulk of our news media, try to describe these issues in terms of the "separation of church and state," a phrase whose meaning within America is famously murky, and that is even murkier when applied to another country, and to a religion that has no real equivalent of a church.

Hence, we are often advised not to worry about the influence of the preeminent Shiite religious authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, since he believes that clergy should not have a direct role in government. While he does think something like this, it tells us very little about what he does want: Sistani's primary concern lies elsewhere — with the influence of Islam on Iraqi law.

This confusion is deepened by the common habit of referring to Muslim religious authorities as "clerics" or "clergy," as if they were priests or Methodist pastors. But they are nothing of the kind. This is no pedantic matter of interest only to comparative-religion specialists: It is fundamental to understanding the relation of Islam and law.

Iraq's religious authorities are as much judges as they are "clergy." Their training is typically in law, not theology. They know the sources and history of Islamic jurisprudence (sharia) and they apply its conclusions to particular cases, either in a court, or issued as a fatwa (an opinion or decree). They adjudicate the rules and laws that govern Muslims' lives, from how properly to pray, to whether a mortgage is permissible, to whether someone is a blasphemer who should be put to death. In many historical Muslim settings, and in Saudi Arabia today, they are, for the most part, the only judges in the legal system. They are nothing like "clergy" in any common American usage of the word.


posted by Frodgie at 6:23 AM

 

Bush 'Troubled' by Gay Marriage Issue

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Wednesday he was troubled by gay weddings in San Francisco and by legal decisions in Massachusetts that could clear the way for same-sex marriage. He declined to say whether he was close to backing a constitutional ban.

"I have watched carefully what's happening in San Francisco, where licenses were being issued, even though the law states otherwise," Bush said. "I have consistently stated that I'll support law to protect marriage between a man and a woman. Obviously these events are influencing my decision."

He didn't answer directly when asked whether he is any closer to endorsing a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages, as conservative groups say the White House has assured them Bush will do.

"I strongly believe marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman," Bush said during an Oval Office session with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. "I am troubled by activist judges who are defining marriage."

"People need to be involved in this decision," Bush said. "Marriage ought to be defined by the people not by the courts. And I'm watching it carefully."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush recognized that gay marriage is a divisive topic. But, he said, "This is an issue where he believes it is important for people to stand up on principle."

Gay and lesbian couples from Europe and more than 20 states have lined up outside the ornate San Francisco City Hall since city officials decided to begin marrying same-sex couples six days ago. City officials said 172 couples were married Tuesday, a pace that would bring the total number who have taken vows promising to be "spouses for life" to over 3,000 by Friday.


posted by Frodgie at 4:18 PM

 

Kerry Wins Wisconsin, but Just Barely

Kerry came out ahead by 6 percentage points, with 40 percent of the vote. Edwards had 34 percent and Howard Dean (search) had 18 percent.

Edwards' surprisingly strong showing boosts the North Carolina senator's hope that he may have the strength to continue in the race for the nomination. At one point in early counting, the two candidates were only one vote apart. Edwards finished about 44,000 votes behind Kerry.

For more on the campaign, click to view Foxnews.com's You Decide 2004 page.

"This enormous surge in the last few days has been surprising everybody ... this is an amazing response," Edwards told Fox News as he continued to battle Kerry in the polls. "I'm fighting my heart out … I'm in this fight to win and I'm gonna go after it in every way I know how."

Kerry's win gives him a state primary/caucus record of 15-2 in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"This is another victory for John Kerry," Tad Devine, senior adviser to Kerry's campaign, told Fox News. "We have a plan to win the nomination ... this is about winning delegates all across the country."

Devine, however, was unwilling to say that the race for the nomination is over with the Wisconsin victory.

"I think we have to go out and fight, as Senator Kerry has done, state after state, for every vote ... we've got a long way to go to win this nomination," he said.

Kerry gets a sizeable proportion of the Badger State's 72 delegates. The candidates need 2,161 delegates to win the nomination. Speaking to supporters Tuesday night, Kerry thanked Wisconsin voters for pushing him closer to his goal.

"The motto of the state of Wisconsin is 'forward' and I want to thank the people of the state of Wisconsin for moving this cause and this campaign forward tonight," he said.

Kerry may have sweated out the race in the early tallies, but the front-runner made no indication that he would change his campaign focus. During his victory speech, he continued to sharpen his rhetoric against President Bush.

The front-runner, who at one point, took out a multi-million dollar mortgage on his home to finance his campaign, railed against the wealthy and special interests in his victory speech, promising to revamp the health care system, the tax code and trade arrangements that push jobs overseas.


posted by Frodgie at 6:39 AM

 

Pop Culture Puts Religion in the Spotlight

From the glittering hills of Hollywood to the houses of worship dotting the Bible Belt, tongues are wagging about religion, scripture, history and Jesus’ passion — thanks in large part to pop culture.

Churches are reserving theaters for their congregations to see Mel Gibson's “The Passion of the Christ” (search); people are returning to bookstores to research the story of Jesus and Mary Magdalene after reading the best-selling novel “The Da Vinci Code” (search); and TV viewers are tuning in weekly to see Joan of Arcadia (search) communicate with God.

Some experts are thrilled that the entertainment spotlight is shining on religion, but others are doubtful — and even worried — about the impact it ultimately will have on secular America's perception of Jesus and faith.

Ted Haggard, president of The National Association of Evangelicals, who sees the “The Passion” in particular as a tremendous outreach opportunity, is encouraged by pop culture’s focus on the spiritual.

"People appreciate movies and theater that acknowledge faith," he said. "People appreciate when 'Touched by an Angel' or 'Joan of Arcadia' or 'The Passion' represents them honestly and not as a caricature."

But some historians are wary of all the God talk, saying lay people may take away only what they want from popular culture versions of scripture.

“Different Jesuses appeal to different people. [These interpretations] are carving apart the Gospels," said George Parsenios, a New Testament professor at Princeton Theological Seminary who points out that "The Da Vinci Code" and "The Passion of the Christ" represent two extremes of Jesus' story.

"Da Vinci" by Dan Brown, a story about searching for the Holy Grail (search), paints the Catholic Church as a patriarchal, manipulative entity that subverted the real story of Jesus' life. "The Passion of the Christ," on the other hand, claims to adhere closely to the actual Gospels.


posted by Frodgie at 6:39 AM

 

A Very American Foreign Policy

The Bush administration has created a radical break in American foreign policy, embracing a strategy of preemption and unilateralism that is unprecedented in the nation's history and alien to its traditions. So goes the typical critique, which can be heard in any John Kerry stump speech. But it's just not so.

This is the message of an important new book by the preeminent Yale Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis. In Surprise, Security, and the American Experience, he links Sept. 11 to another assault on the nation's capital, the British attack on Washington on Aug. 24, 1814, which left the White House in flames. In response, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams devised a national-security policy that depended on tools, Gaddis writes, that "sound surprisingly relevant in the aftermath of Sept. 11: They were preemption, unilateralism and hegemony."

Prior to the British raid in the War of 1812, America had tended toward a "duck and cover" foreign policy. Thomas Jefferson responded to the threat to American maritime rights during the Napoleonic Wars by refusing to trade. (Problem solved!) August 1814 exposed the folly of trying to hide, and brought out another American tendency. As Gaddis puts it, "Americans have generally responded to threats — and particularly to surprise attacks — by taking the offensive, by becoming more conspicuous, by confronting, neutralizing and, if possible, overwhelming the sources of danger rather than fleeing from them."

Centuries before anyone heard of Paul Wolfowitz, Adams realized the danger of what we now call "rogue states" on the perimeter of the United States. They could provide sanctuary to bandits, or a foothold for hostile European powers. So they couldn't be tolerated. As Adams demanded of the Spanish when they controlled Florida, they could either properly police it or "cede to the United States a province ... which is in fact a derelict, open to the occupancy of every enemy, civilized or savage, of the United States." Echoes of President Bush's ultimatum to Saddam Hussein.




posted by Frodgie at 6:35 AM

 

Bill would disregard same-sex marriages

CONCORD, New Hampshire (AP) -- Republican lawmakers in New Hampshire, where same-sex marriage is already illegal, are pushing a proposal that would allow the state to disregard such unions performed elsewhere.

The group of legislators points to neighboring Vermont and Massachusetts as reasons to pass the bill.

Vermont allows a domestic partnership arrangement called civil unions and Massachusetts' highest court ruled in November it was unconstitutional to ban gay marriage. Gays will be able to get married in Massachusetts beginning May 17.

In New Hampshire, "We felt we were squeezed in the middle," said state Rep. Robert Letourneau, one of the bill's sponsors.

The bill, which comes up for a committee hearing Tuesday, would reinforce the state's gay marriage ban and state that gay unions performed outside New Hampshire have no standing within the state. It would also make Vermont-style civil unions illegal in New Hampshire.


posted by Frodgie at 6:35 AM

 

Study: Improving fitness may boost brain power

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Improving fitness can also boost the thinking ability of aging adults, according to researchers at the University of Illinois.

Adults ages 58 to 78 who began a fitness program, even as simple as brisk walking, saw improvements in how their brains functioned, according to a study published in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the study 41 adults began an exercise program that gradually increased over three months to a 45-minute walk three times a week. Their brain activity was measured by magnetic resonance imaging.

After three months the adults in the exercise program showed increased brain activity and had an 11 percent improvement on tests that measured their decision-making while performing a variety of tasks.

A control group of similar age and health that only did stretching and toning exercises, but not the cardiovascular walking program, had lower brain activity than the other group and only showed a 2 percent improvement in performance, which the researchers said was not statistically significant.


posted by Frodgie at 6:34 AM

 

White House waits on marriage issue

The White House will not weigh in on a proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage as a heterosexual union until the Massachusetts legislature and the San Francisco courts deal with the matter first, according to prominent homosexual leaders.
The leaders, including top Republican homosexual rights advocates who speak often with senior Bush administration officials, also said the White House likely will remain silent until Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. John Kerry stops flip-flopping on the contentious issue.
"The reasonable political minds at the White House have decided that there's no reason to say anything right now," said Mark Mead, political director for Log Cabin Republicans, a national homosexual group.
Noting that senior administration officials have expressed plans to take a wait-and-see stance on how Massachusetts and San Francisco settle the homosexual "marriage" question, Mr. Mead said: "They want to let this sort out."
In addition, Bush officials are watching Mr. Kerry on the issue. "The White House is smart to let John Kerry define his position because it changes hourly," he said.
Another prominent homosexual advocate said he has had direct discussions with White House officials, who have told him that there has been no change in the president's official position: Mr. Bush, as he said in his State of the Union address on Jan. 20, supports a constitutional amendment if Americans decide to take that path.

posted by Frodgie at 6:31 AM

 

U.S. Imposes Nuke Commitment Deadline for Iran

WASHINGTON — Despite serious misgivings about Iran's nuclear activities, the State Department said Friday it is prepared to give the country more time to meet its commitments to end these programs.
Spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States is giving Iran until a March 8-10 meeting of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (search) to comply with promises made late last year. If Iran is found not in compliance, the United States could urge that the IAEA board refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions or other options.

"The major emphasis is on encouraging Iran to live up to its obligations so that when the director general of the agency reports to the board in March, we can see whether or not Iran has lived up to its obligations and commitments," Boucher said.

At the March meeting IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei (search) will report to the board on Iran's compliance record.

Boucher said he was skeptical about Iranian willingness to fulfill its commitments.

"We do not believe that Iran has made a strategic decision to abandon its efforts to develop a nuclear weapons capability," Boucher said.

On Thursday, diplomats in Vienna, where IAEA is headquartered, U.N. inspectors looking at Iran's nuclear files reported finding drawings of high-tech equipment that could be used to make weapons-grade uranium.

Boucher said Iran has failed to suspend enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, both crucial steps toward nuclear weapons development. He called this omission particularly troubling.

Despite promises to the contrary, Boucher said, Iran has continued to hide information related to weapons from the IAEA.




posted by Frodgie at 7:50 AM

 

Wisconsin Primary Important for Kerry, Dean

WAUSAU, Wis. — John Kerry (search) continued to ignore the competition as he campaigned as the presumptive nominee — with Tuesday's Wisconsin primary being a possible breaking point for his most vocal rival for the Democratic nomination, Howard Dean (search).

Though Dean continued to insist he would stay in the race no matter Tuesday's outcome, the seeming defection of his national campaign chairman to the Kerry camp seemed to indicate at least one member of his senior staff no longer believed a comeback for the former front-runner was in the cards.

"I will make it clear that I will do anything and everything I can to help him [Kerry] become the next president, and I will do anything and everything I can to build bridges with the Dean organization," Steve Grossman (search) told The New York Times in an interview published Monday.

Dean's national campaign manager, Roy Neel (search), echoed the belief that Grossman would soon join Kerry's campaign.

"He's made clear in his on-the-record comments to the press he has another agenda at work now," Neel said.

Dean himself would only confirm that Grossman had left his campaign, declining to specify how or why.


posted by Frodgie at 7:44 AM

 

The White House on the Offense

When it comes to our progress in the war on terror, it's clear why the Democrats and their friends in the media only want to carry on about how the decision to go to war in Iraq was made and how allegedly unprepared we were for the occupation. The far bigger story of what has been accomplished since 9/11, as outlined by a senior Bush-administration official, effectively makes the case that the world is demonstrably safer owing to actions taken by the United States. The official's comments also make clear that the White House intends to shatter the illusions of a peaceful past and forcefully make its case about the need for resolute attention to the dangers that continue to confront us.

In a discussion today, the official contrasted the threatening situation in existence before 9/11 with the still-present but steadily reduced threat we now face. When President Bush took office, the Taliban was hosting al Qaeda training camps, with an estimated 20,000 graduates in the late 1990s. Saddam was a "continuing threat" to his neighbors and the world, and we faced "a serious proliferation problem, especially in [the] nuclear area that involved, we believed, Libya, Iran, based on past experience, Iraq, and North Korea certainly."
posted by Frodgie at 7:42 AM

 

Inside job suspected in Iraq attacks

U.S. officials in Baghdad said yesterday that sympathizers of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party may have infiltrated the coalition's security forces and supplied inside information to insurgents.
The statements came in the aftermath of a brazen attack by pro-Ba'athists on a Fallujah police station during the weekend that killed 25 Iraqi police officers.
Americans in the capital, Baghdad, said the attackers may have been aided by information from inside police headquarters and that the mayor of Fallujah had been detained for questioning.
Insurgents had attacked the same police compound Thursday when Gen. John Abizaid, the four-star chief of U.S. Central Command, was paying a visit. He was not harmed.
"I think there's always a risk, anytime you have any organization stood up, such as the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps or the Iraqi security forces," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director for operations of Combined Joint Task Force 7 in Baghdad. "We do have a very careful vetting process. That process is very good, but it's not fail-safe nor foolproof."

posted by Frodgie at 7:38 AM

 

Licenses to gay couples top 2,000

The city of San Francisco has issued more than 2,000 "marriage" licenses to homosexual couples over the past four days, an act of civil disobedience that attorneys for two traditional-values groups will seek to end in court today.
San Francisco officials have vowed to keep issuing licenses until told to stop by the city's top law-enforcement officer. The licenses are invalid under a voter-passed state initiative defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
One of the law firms appearing in court today will accuse San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and other city officials of "constitutional carnage and anarchy" for blatantly violating state law when he directed the county clerk to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples.
"The mayor is actually usurping the roles of judges, legislators and voters. ... This is not the rule of law, but personal whim," said the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Proposition 22 is the initiative that limited marriage to heterosexual couples.
Both parties submitted briefs last night for today's hearing.
Tamara Lange, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which will be defending San Francisco officials such as Mr. Newsom and county clerk Nancy Alfaro, said it is illegal to treat people differently because of their sex.

posted by Frodgie at 7:37 AM

 

Iris scanning to begin at German airport

A test of an iris-scanning system is set to begin Saturday at the Frankfurt, Germany, airport, as part of a project involving 18 European countries.
Airline passengers will be required to stand in front of an identification device whose cameras will automatically capture images of their iris patterns, companies participating in the trial said Friday. The iris systems--seven of which have been installed at the airport--will then identify the passenger's iris and match that information with the passport data captured by a scanner. If successful, the iris system could replace conventional systems for checking identity at airport immigration counters.

Initially, residents of European Union countries and Switzerland who fly frequently with Lufthansa will be able to take part in the trial at the main Frankfurt airport, after getting their iris data registered. Full-scale service will be launched after the six-month trial, according to Byometric Systems and Oki Electric Industry, companies implementing the project.


posted by Frodgie at 7:35 AM

 

It's not Presidents' Day. It's Washington's birthday.

Can you name the holiday that falls on the third Monday in February? Like most Americans, you probably think its "Presidents' Day." Every desk calendar and car sale ad seems to confirm it. So it may surprise you to learn that its legal name is still "Washington's Birthday." The law establishing the holiday has never been changed.

For all practical purposes, of course, his day has been forfeited to convenience. We celebrate it on the third Monday in February rather than on the actual day (Feb. 22), and we call it "Presidents' Day" so we can lump it in with Abraham Lincoln's birthday (Feb. 12) and pay tribute to all presidents — good, bad and mediocre.

Two members of Congress, Reps. Roscoe Bartlett (R., Md.), and Tom Tancredo (R.,Colo.), have had enough of this convenience. They've introduced legislation that would direct all federal agencies to refer to the holiday as "George Washington's Birthday" and return Washington to his rightful place above all other presidents.

That's a step in the right direction. A better step would be for President Bush to issue an executive order that not only would enforce current law, but remind Americans that Washington still deserves to be "first in the hearts of his countrymen."

If anyone in American history deserves to have a day celebrated in his honor, it's Washington. He led the army that won independence from the British, refused to become the king of his new land, led the Constitutional Convention that gave us the world's pre-eminent government, then served as the first president. And his departure from office marked one of the first peaceful transfers of power in world history.

Washington biographer James Flexner called him the "indispensable man" of the American founding. In his roles as the head of the Constitutional Convention and as our first president, he set the precedents that define what it means to be a constitutional executive: strong and energetic, aware of the limits of authority, but guarding the prerogatives of office.


posted by Frodgie at 9:16 AM

 

2 U.S. soldiers killed in 3 separate blasts

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An Iraqi child and two U.S. soldiers died in three separate explosions Monday in Iraq, coalition and Iraqi officials said.

An explosion at an elementary school in the Khadimiya district of Baghdad just before 3 p.m. ( 7 a.m. ET) Monday killed the child and critically wounded two others, according to Iraqi Police Brigadier General Thamir Sadoun.

It was not immediately known if the blast was an intentional bombing or if it was caused by discarded ordnance. The explosive device was in a trash pile being burned by the children, Sadoun said. U.S. soldiers were on campus searching for any other explosive devices.

Earlier, in an attack north of Baghdad, a soldier was killed and four others were wounded by an exploding roadside bomb, according to a U.S. military spokesman. The blast ripped into a convoy at Ba'qubah, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, at 9:40 a.m. (1:40 a.m. ET), a U.S. military spokesman said.

Another roadside bombing Monday in central Baghdad killed a U.S. military police officer attached to the Army's 1st Armored Division and injured another, according to a coalition military spokesman.

The blast occurred about 9:20 a.m. (1:20 a.m. ET) as a three-vehicle patrol passed what the military said was a suspected improvised explosive device. The injured soldier is being treated at a field hospital in Baghdad, the spokesman said.


posted by Frodgie at 9:15 AM

 

Scholarship Created for Whites Only

BRISTOL, R.I. — A student group at Roger Williams University (search) is offering a new scholarship for which only white students are eligible, a move they say is designed to protest affirmative action (search).

The application for the $250 award requires an essay on "why you are proud of your white heritage" and a recent picture to "confirm whiteness."

"Evidence of bleaching will disqualify applicants," says the application, issued by the university's College Republicans.

Jason Mattera, 20, who is president of the College Republicans, said the group is parodying minority scholarships.

"We think that if you want to treat someone according to character and how well they achieve academically, then skin color shouldn't really be an option," he said. "Many people think that coming from a white background you're automatically privileged, you're automatically rich and your parents pay full tuition. That's just not the case."


posted by Frodgie at 9:15 AM

 

Gay Couples Flock to S.F. for Marriage Licenses

SAN FRANCISCO — Hundreds of same-sex marriages (search) kept City Hall offices open and buzzing through the weekend, with gay and lesbian couples waiting hours to exchange vows and conservative activists promising a relentless legal challenge.

By Sunday night, dozens of gay and lesbian couples were lined up outside City Hall, insisting they would camp there all night to be at the front of the line when offices re-opened Monday morning.

Since San Francisco (search) officials began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples last week, hundreds of gays and lesbians have wed, many rushing to California from around the country. City Hall was kept open through the weekend, and on Sunday the line of would-be spouses grew so overwhelming that authorities turned away hundreds of waiting couples.

Despite the President's Day holiday, the controversy was expected to continue — along with the weddings.

The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund (search) sued to block the same-sex unions, and San Francisco Superior Court Judge James L. Warren has scheduled a hearing Tuesday in the case. A second legal challenge filed by a California group is also scheduled for a court hearing Tuesday. Briefs were due Monday.

More than 1,000 marriage licenses have been issued to same-sex couples since Thursday, although some may choose to wait before actually getting married. Hundreds have already gone before city officials to exchange vows and be declared "spouses for life," often in ceremonies scattered around the interior of the ornate City Hall.


posted by Frodgie at 9:12 AM

 

Pakistan demands nuclear papers

KARACHI, Pakistan — The scientist behind a worldwide black market in nuclear technology is involved in high-stakes brinksmanship over his future, refusing to hand over reportedly incriminating documents demanded by Pakistani authorities.
The documents and a tape-recorded statement, which are said to demonstrate that senior Pakistani army officials — including President Pervez Musharraf — were aware of Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear proliferation activities, are believed to have been smuggled out of the country for safekeeping by the scientist's daughter Dina.
Pakistani intelligence officials said Mr. Khan first agreed to surrender the documents in return for a blanket pardon but has failed to do so. They believe his daughter is prepared to disclose their contents if legal action is brought against him by the country's military government.
Mr. Khan, 68, a national hero in Pakistan, remained under house arrest in Islamabad over the weekend, and restrictions on his movement were being tightened.

posted by Frodgie at 9:09 AM

 

Polite with each other, Democrats target Bush

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (CNN) -- The five Democratic presidential candidates Sunday presented a unified front against President Bush even as they attempted -- albeit with polite language and cordial arguments -- to score points against each other in a contest in which polls show Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts with a wide lead.

At one point during the 90-minute debate, held at Marquette University and broadcast on MSNBC, Kerry spoke as if his nomination was all but assured.

Asked about his vote authorizing Bush to send U.S. troops to Iraq, Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, said, "I was voting for the process that the president posed. There was a right way to do this and a wrong way to do it. And the president chose the wrong way."

Kerry said he was referring to what he called Bush's failure to build an international coalition and exhaust U.N. inspection efforts before going to war.

Kerry then added, "This is one of the reasons why I am so intent on beating George Bush and why I believe I will beat George Bush."

Referring to Kerry's failure to use the conditional tense, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina retorted, "Not so fast, John Kerry. We're going to have an election here in Wisconsin this Tuesday. And we've got a whole group of primaries coming up. And I, for one, intend to fight with everything I've got for every one of those votes."


posted by Frodgie at 9:08 AM

 

Have the neocons killed a presidency?

George W. Bush "betrayed us," howled Al Gore.

"He played on our fear. He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure, dangerous to our troops, an adventure that was preordained and planned before 9-11 ever happened."

Hearing it, Gore's rant seemed slanderous and demagogic. For though U.S. policy since Clinton had called for regime change in Iraq, there is no evidence, none, that Bush planned to invade prior to 9-11.

Yet, the president has a grave problem, and it is this: Burrowed inside his foreign-policy team are men guilty of exactly what Gore accuses Bush of, men who did exploit our fears to stampede us into a war they had plotted for years.

posted by Frodgie at 8:55 AM

 

Kerry wins Nevada, D.C. caucuses

(CNN) -- Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts won the caucuses in Nevada and the District of Columbia on Saturday, widening his strong lead over his Democratic rivals.

Kerry has won 14 of 16 Democratic contests held so far to chose a presidential nominee.

According to results of the balloting released by the Nevada Democratic Party, with 99 percent of precincts reporting, Kerry claimed 63 percent of the local delegates selected. Kerry's tally was more than three times that of his closest competitor.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean got 17 percent of the delegates; Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina 10 percent; Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio 7 percent; and the Rev. Al Sharpton 1 percent.

Nevada had 24 delegates at stake. The county-level delegates picked in Saturday's caucuses will select the national delegates at a state convention.

Nevada, the fastest-growing in the union, could be an important swing state in the fall. President Bush carried it by less than 4 percentage points in 2000.

Nevada is also a test of each party's appeal to Latino voters, who make up nearly 20 percent of the electorate there.

posted by Frodgie at 7:43 AM

 

New York Police Training for Catastrophic Terrorism

The New York Police Department, working with city health officials, federal authorities and other agencies, has been preparing for a possible attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, perhaps the most daunting threat facing municipalities in a post-9/11 world.

Meeting in secret and conducting complex drills, the department has brought together government agencies in a broad effort for much of the last year. In doing so, it has put together a program that some national security and law enforcement officials describe as unrivaled among American cities.

Police officials say special units have trained and drilled, for instance, to board cruise ships from helicopters and piers and begun reviewing floor plans of most large Midtown theaters, conducting exercises inside some to improve their ability to respond to a possible attack, in the aftermath of the deadly siege of a Moscow theater two years ago. This spring, city and federal officials say, the police will work alongside the city health department and other agencies to open a pilot program that they hope will ultimately allow officials to test the air across the city for biological agents quickly and constantly.

The department has also begun to prepare for its role in a sweeping citywide plan to get antibiotics or vaccine to every resident after a widespread attack with biological weapons, and is drafting security plans for some 200 sites that could function as distribution centers.

Officials say the department has even taken to the city's streets to conduct a drill with the city's medical examiner's office to prepare for a chemical weapons attack that would litter the streets with contaminated bodies.

"We're thinking about the unthinkable — what a few years ago was the unthinkable," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said in a recent interview, noting that the preparations were not in response to a specific or direct threat. "It's something we're trying to take head-on, but the scope and magnitude of the problems are daunting."


posted by Frodgie at 7:42 AM

 

Bush may double funding to abstinence programs

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration is proposing to double spending on sexual abstinence programs that bar any discussion of birth control or condoms to prevent pregnancy or AIDS despite a lack of evidence that such programs work.
A study by researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of declining birth and pregnancy rates among teenagers concludes that prevention programs should emphasize abstinence and contraception.

"Both are important," said Dr. John Santelli, the lead author of the study, which has not been published.

In Minnesota, a study found that sexual activity doubled among junior high school students taking part in an abstinence-only program. The independent study, commissioned by the state's health department, recommended broadening the program to include more information about contraception.

Independent researchers who are studying abstinence-only programs for the federal government said in their first report two years ago that no reliable evidence exists whether the programs work. They are expected to issue an update soon.

In his State of the Union address, President Bush said, "We will double federal funding for abstinence programs, so schools can teach this fact of life: Abstinence for young people is the only certain way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases."


posted by Frodgie at 7:41 AM

 

American military seals up Saddam's final hiding place

TIKRIT, Iraq (AP) — U.S. Army engineers have sealed the underground bunker where former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured to prevent it from becoming a tourist attraction, a military spokesman said Saturday.

Soldiers lowered a 300 pound slab of concrete over the hole Feb. 4, said Master Sgt. Robert Cargie, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division.

Saddam was captured on Dec. 13 in the bunker in the small farming village of Ad Dawr, a short drive from his hometown of Tikrit.

Cargie said the hole was sealed to "limit human traffic" to the area. Since his capture, a steady stream of U.S. soldiers, journalists and visiting foreign officials have traveled to Ad Dawr to have their picture taken next to — or inside — the bunker.

Cargie said that the cover could be removed if access to the hole was needed in the future.

"It was put in place to allow time for future decisions to be made," he said without elaborating.

Saddam, who had evaded U.S. forces for nearly eight months, escaped to the bunker when he heard U.S. patrols pass by. It is next to a small cement-floored bedroom, an outdoor kitchen and a humble bathroom, which all remain in place, Cargie said.

U.S. officials had hoped his capture would help break Iraqi resistance to the occupation, but attacks have continued unabated, especially in the "Sunni Triangle" region of the Iraq to the north and west of the capital, Baghdad.


posted by Frodgie at 7:40 AM

 

Report: Al Qaeda Planned 2002 World Cup Attack

TOKYO — A senior member of the Al Qaeda (search) terror network told U.S. authorities the group had plans to carry out attacks in Japan during the 2002 World Cup (search) soccer tournament, local media reported Saturday.

U.S. authorities advised Japan of the information, which is believed to have come from the militant Islamic group's third-ranking official, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (search), the daily Sankei newspaper reported, citing anonymous government sources.

The attacks were not carried out because Al Qaeda did not have a network in Japan, which hosted the 2002 event jointly with South Korea, according to the Sankei.

The report said Mohammed was familiar with Japan. During a three-month stay in 1987, he reportedly studied rock-drilling machinery at a plant in central Japan, the newspaper said, citing Japanese security authorities.

Mohammed, a mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was captured last March in Pakistan and is in U.S. custody.

Kyodo news agency carried a similar report.

Concerns about possible terror threats against Japan or Japanese abroad have intensified in recent months. Many fear that the government's decision to send its military to Iraq to help with reconstruction efforts could draw such attacks.

Last November, an alleged Al Qaeda operative threatened to attack Tokyo if it sent troops to Iraq.

Earlier this week, there were two mortar attacks on a southern Iraqi town where the Japanese troops are based. But Japan's defense chief said they did not appear to be aimed at the soldiers.


posted by Frodgie at 7:37 AM

 

Democrats warned on GOP, Hispanics

Democrats must step up the courting of Hispanics who have voted Republican in recent years or risk losing this year's presidential election, states a Democratic campaign strategy memorandum.
In a surprisingly frank analysis of the political challenges their party faces this year in the largest and fastest-growing minority voter group, Democrats were told that Hispanic immigrants do not have the same loyalty to the Democratic Party that second- and third-generation Hispanic voters have; that President Bush and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, are seen as especially popular among the voting bloc; and that the president only needs to increase his Hispanic vote by a few percentage points to win re-election.
"The Republicans are not aiming to get the majority of the Hispanic vote, they don't need it — they only need 5 or 6 more percentage points to win. And they are being incredibly aggressive about making it happen," according to the strategy memo that was presented at the Democratic congressional retreat last week. A copy of the memo was obtained from a Democratic official.
Hispanics made up about 6 percent of the electorate in the 2000 election, and Mr. Bush won 35 percent of their vote, while Al Gore drew 62 percent. But Democratic Party officials estimate that the Hispanic vote has since grown to about 9 percent of the electorate, and the Bush campaign is preparing an unprecedented voter-outreach campaign to pull a larger percentage of the voting bloc into the Republican column in November.
"They have aggressively and very effectively used Spanish-language TV as the vehicle to reach the mostly swing, Spanish-dominant part of the electorate, which is now a majority of Latino voters in this country," the memo said.

posted by Frodgie at 7:29 AM