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| Jack Straw agrees to check records of secret calls to US over Iraq |
| Secret telephone calls between Jack Straw and Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State in the months before the war against Iraq, became the focus yesterday of the official inquiry into Britain's decision to join the invasion. Mr Straw, the former Foreign Secretary, said that he would check records of his conversations after it was suggested he had been told that President [sic] Bush would invade Iraq even if Saddam Hussein complied with inspectors. Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, a military historian and a member of the Iraq Inquiry panel, hinted that documents seen by the inquiry -- but not made public -- showed that Mr Bush planned to attack Iraq even if Hans Blix, the UN weapons inspector, said that Saddam was complying with United Nations resolution 1441. |
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| UK: Iraq inquiry to question US officials |
| A spokesman for Bush has declined to comment on whether any request has been made to the former president or if he would cooperate. In Britain, the head of the Iraq war inquiry is to seek meetings with members of the administration of former US President [sic] George W. Bush, over the 2003 war. John Chilcot confirmed on Monday he hopes to obtain evidence from American officials, but did not say which specific individuals he wants to question. |
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| Nato warns Afghans to keep 'heads down' |
| Nato and Afghan officials today urged Taliban militants holding a southern town to lay down their arms and warned civilians there to "keep your heads down" as US and Afghan troops prepare their first major offensive of the US. troop surge. |
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| Top Canadian military official charged with murder |
| The commander of Canada's largest Air Force base, who once flew dignitaries around the country, has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of two women Ontario Provincial Police Det. Insp. Chris Nicholas said Monday that Col. Russell Williams, 46, was also charged in the sexual assaults of two other women. Williams was arrested Sunday in Ottawa. |
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| Israel charged with targeting Palestinian medical teams |
| The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has charged Israel with launching hundreds of attacks against Palestinian medical teams in 2009. The aid group, also known as PRCS, said that the Israeli troops fired 15 times at ambulances in the West Bank and Gaza last year, killing one medical worker and wounding 10 more. |
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| Feds admit wrongly tracking Wis. abortion groups |
| The U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducted a threat assessment of local pro- and anti-abortion rights activists before an expected rally last year, even though they did not pose a threat to national security. The DHS destroyed or deleted its copies of the assessment after an internal review found it violated intelligence-gathering guidelines by collecting and sharing information about "protest groups which posed no threat to homeland security," according to a department memo written last year. |
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| Criminal probe is launched in Conn. plant blast |
| Authorities launched a criminal investigation Monday into the cause of an explosion that killed five people at a power plant under construction, saying they couldn't rule out negligence. The powerful explosion blew apart large swaths of the nearly completed 620-megawatt Kleen Energy plant as workers for the construction company, O&G Industries Inc., were purging a gas line Sunday morning. |
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| Unlawful anti-terror powers planned for use during 2012 Olympics |
| Police are planning to use an anti-terror law deemed unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights across the country during the London Olympics, The Times has learnt. Senior officers are considering using Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 at every Underground and railway station nationwide. The powers would enable police to stop and search members of the public without any suspicion that they were involved in terrorism. The Times understands that this would be the first time that the powers would have been used across such a wide area. Police said that Section 44, which must be granted by the Home Secretary for a designated area, would be used only in the event of an escalated terror threat. |
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| 'Hold inquiry into Army abuse in Iraq' |
| Judge calls for single investigation to cover 46 claims by civilians Ministers have been told by a senior judge to consider opening an independent inquiry into all allegations of abuse made by Iraqi civilians against the British Army. The move could lead to the biggest investigation into military malpractice ever heard in this country... The Government was served with the first claim of abuse brought by an Iraqi woman. Samahir Abbas Hashim, 32, six months pregnant at the time of the alleged assault, claims she was so badly beaten by soldiers that she lost her baby. |
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| Tony Blair says the quest for a 'conspiracy' is behind Iraq Inquiry |
| Tony Blair has dismissed the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war as part of Britain's obsession with conspiracy and scandal. Speaking for the first time since his controversial appearance as a witness, the former Prime Minister said people should accept that it is possible to have different opinions on the legitimacy of the invasion without any underlying deceit. Mr Blair said in an interview on American television: "There's always got to be a scandal... there's got to be some conspiracy behind it." |
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| Former Iraq PM: poll ban risks civil war |
| A ban on election candidates accused of links with Saddam Hussein's Baath party threatens to drag Iraq into civil war, a former prime minister and head of a group seen as a strong contender in the polls said Monday. Iyad Allawi, who leads the Iraqiya list into the March 7 vote, said the ban could trigger a resurgence in sectarian attacks, reversing a fall in violence in the last two years that has allowed U.S. forces to eye a 2011 withdrawal date and Iraq to sign major oil deals. [Hopefully, either way, those oil deals will be deep-sixed and KBR's drilling equipment will be seized by and for the Iraqi people.] |
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| KBR asks dismissal of Oregon soldiers' lawsuit |
| An Iraq war contractor is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by Oregon National Guard soldiers over potential health risks from a cancer-causing chemical called hexavalent chromium. Lawyers for Kellogg, Brown & Root on Monday argued the federal court in Oregon lacks jurisdiction in the case. The Houston-based company, now called KBR Inc., has also been sued by National Guard soldiers in Indiana and West Virginia. |
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| New sanctions on Iran are only path left: Gates |
| Iran has rejected Western 'overtures' and the international community has no choice but to move toward imposing new sanctions over its nuclear program, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday. |
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| Iraqi Shia group claims it is holding US citizen prisoner |
| An Iraqi Shia faction tied to Iran [?] has claimed it is holding a US citizen, missing since late January. Issa Salomi, a Californian of Iraqi origin, worked as a mercenary for the US military. He was apparently abducted on January 23rd when he went to visit family members in the Karada district of Baghdad. |
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| Iran to make 'advanced' attack drones |
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Iran has begun making 'advanced' unmanned drones capable of carrying out 'assaults with high precision'. Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian defence minister, opened two production lines for the manufacture of the aircraft, the Fars news agency reported. The drones would be able to carry out "surveillance, detection and even assaults with high precision", the report said. US Predator drones have killed hundreds of |
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| Special Forces Assassins Infiltrate Taliban Stronghold in Afghanistan |
| American and British forces poised to assault the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province, have begun targeting insurgent leaders for assassination, The Sunday Times reported. Special forces have been infiltrating the town on "kinetic" missions -- jargon for armed attacks. "Special forces guys have been going in on assassination missions with the aim of decapitating the Taliban force," a military source told the Sunday Times. |
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| Afghanistan death toll exceeds Falklands as three UK soldiers die |
| Royal Scots Borderers and counter-IED task force soldier killed by blasts as Ministry of Defence warns of more casualties Three British soldiers have been killed in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan in the last 24 hours, taking the total of fatalities in the conflict above the death toll of the Falklands war in 1982. |
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| Militants blow-up gas pipeline in Balochistan |
| Suspected militants have blown up a key gas pipeline in the southwestern Balochistan province disrupting supplies to major Pakistani cities. Police said that in a pre-dawn attack on Monday, militants dynamited a main gas pipeline located in the western bypass in the provincial capital Quetta and fled towards the nearby hills, a Press TV correspondent reported. |
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| Anti-US rally in Pakistan against Siddiqui verdict |
| An anti-US rally was held in Islamabad on Monday protesting the US Federal Court verdict convicting the female Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui. On February 8, a 12-member New York jury convicted Siddiqui, a mother of three and a graduate of the prestigious American university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of attempted murder. She had been charged with allegedly shooting at her interrogators in 2008. |
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| 'Aid' Groups Launch Haiti Mass Vaccination Campaign |
| Federation expects to start vaccinating about 1,800 people Monday at a camp on the old airport runway, then move on to hundreds of other camps over the next two weeks 'Aid' groups say they are launching an emergency vaccination campaign for 140,000 people in Haiti to 'protect them against' measles and other diseases. The campaign is being conducted by the international Red Cross federation, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the Haitian Health Ministry. A Red Cross statement says the campaign will focus on the capital Port-au-Prince because the disease risk to earthquake victims there is greatest. [There's no food, but Haitians can always count on the US Army, mercenaries, and pharmaterrorists' mercury-laden vaccines in any crisis.] |
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| US fights for access to EU bank data |
| The US government has initiated a diplomatic offensive against threatened moves by MEPs to block a deal that gives American intelligence agencies direct access to European bank data. The arrangements empower the US to track the flow of funds through the banking system by accessing information collected by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift), which registers international money transfers. |
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| Obama anti-terror adviser lashes out at lawmakers |
| President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser on Sunday lashed out at U.S. lawmakers, accusing them of using national security issues as a "political football" for their own gains. Republicans have accused the Obama administration of making mistakes in the handling of the arrest of Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plan on Christmas Day. |
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| Man Arrested After Detroit Airport Security Breach |
| A portion of a terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport has been evacuated after authorities say a man walked through a passenger screening checkpoint and refused to comply with security officers. Airport spokesman Mike Conway says the man was arrested by airport police after passing through the checkpoint about 7:50 a.m. Monday at the McNamara Terminal. Conway says he was being questioned by police. |
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| National Guard Mobilized After Snowstorm |
| As people across the area try to get back to normal after the snowstorm, members of the Pennsylvania National Guard have been mobilized to assist paramedics and police in helping those trapped in their homes. It's a race against time as the 63 units in the City of Pittsburgh work to clear the streets. |
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| Residents Fumed Over Weekend Alcohol, Firearm Ban In State of Emergency |
| Residents in King were fumed over the weekend after a state of emergency declaration restricted the sale of alcohol and the carrying of firearms in vehicles. King Police Chief Paula May said she's received hundreds of threats related to the restrictions, which banned driving from 12 a.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. The state of emergency for King was declared by members of the City Council after Stokes County authorities also declared a state of emergency. Under North Carolina law, May said, when a state of emergency is put into place that includes a ban on driving, the sale of alcohol and carrying of firearms in vehicles is also banned. |
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| How to Maintain a Democratic "Activist" Base |
| The Rec Report By Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D. As the military surges into Afghanistan and Pakistan and Xe Services LLC (formerly known as Blackwater) and the CIA eke into Pakistan and Yemen, the appetites of toadyish liberal analysts demand their daily diet of Republican bogeys. The changeling base must be kept in line, despite the lack of any change at all. Change you can believe must continually slide seamlessly into belief you can change. Barack Obama is a soporific for liberals, but such a pill, the affected change rhetoric that is, has to wear off after awhile, especially as reality piles up like record dead soldiers in Afghanistan. |
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| Anthem Blue Cross asked to justify controversial rate hikes |
| (CA) The Obama administration called on Anthem Blue Cross on Monday to justify its controversial new rate hikes of as much as 39% for individual policyholders, saying the increases were alarming at a time when subscribers are facing skyrocketing healthcare costs. In a letter to the company's president, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius voiced serious concern over the rates, which go into effect March 1 for many of the insurer's estimated 800,000 individual policyholders. [Yeah, a letter from HHS is *really* going to scare the insurance cartel. What a farce.] |
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| Aetna Announces CT Layoffs on Free Health Care Clinic Day In Hartford |
| By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org National Association of Free Clinics --A free health care clinic will be held in Hartford, Connecticut, on Wednesday, February 3. Guess what Aetna -- a member of the 'insurance cartel' based in the same city -- announces on the same day? 'Aetna Lays Off 100 in Connecticut.' |
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| Palin's note-scrawled hand draws critics' ridicule |
| Conservative superstar Sarah Palin came in for ridicule from her critics Monday, after published news photos showed her referring to talking points scribbled on the palm of her hand during a major speech. Palin was shown to have the words "Energy," "Tax" and "Lift American Spirits" scrawled on her hand during the question-and-answer session of a speech late Saturday to the Republican Tea Party movement. Her palm also appeared to have the words "Budget cuts" scribbled across it, with the "Budget" crossed out. |
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| Rep. John Murtha dead at 77 |
| Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran and critic of the Iraq war, died Monday of complications from gall bladder surgery. He was 77. The Pennsylvania lawmaker was the top Democrat on the panel that oversees Pentagon spending. Murtha was the first Vietnam combat veteran elected to Congress in 1974... In 2005, Murtha summoned reporters to call for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. |
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| U.S. proposes new climate service |
| The Obama administration proposed a new climate service on Monday that would provide Americans with predictions on how global warming will affect everything from drought to sea levels. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Service, modeled loosely on the 140-year-old National Weather Service, would provide forecasts to farmers, regional water managers and businesses affected by changing climate conditions. |
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| Arctic sea ice vanishing faster than 'our most pessimistic models': researcher |
| Sea ice in Canada's fragile Arctic is melting faster than anyone expected, the lead investigator in Canada's largest climate-change study yet said Friday -- raising the possibility that the Arctic could, in a worst-case scenario, be ice-free in about three years. University of Manitoba Prof. David Barber, the lead investigator of the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study, said the rapid decay of thick Arctic Sea ice highlights the rapid pace of climate change in the North and foreshadows what will come in the South. |
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| American bald eagle back to health after beak fixed by dentist |
| An American bald eagle is able to hold its head high again after being nursed back to health by a dentist [Kirk Johnson]. The bird of prey was taken to the Bird Treatment and Learning Centre in Anchorage after being found in a weakened condition with its beak damaged by a length of fishing line wrapped around it. |
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