Journalism

2009-11-11T10:29:00.001-08:00

Articles below are from mid 2009 and before; haven't updated this site in a while.

See some things more recently from Haiti, or the Gulf oil spill, or politics

2009-09-22T23:22:00.001-07:00

Epic African roadtrip aids poor ahead of 2010 WC

by Alex OgleTue Oct 20, 2009, 3:13 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Soccer's World Cup inspires many great feats, but not many reach the heights envisioned by Nomadic Nation founder John Lovejoy, who plans to lead an audacious pan-African roadtrip in the event's honor.

Hoping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for soccer-focused charities on the continent, 29-year-old Lovejoy in May will lead "World Cup Trek" entrants driving "the cheapest, worst, lightest cars" from Berlin, site of the 2006 World Cup, to Cape Town, where the competition kicks off in June.

Speaking to AFP in Washington before embarking on a nine-week "reconnaissance run" of the route, passing through 13 African countries -- via the Spain-Morocco ferry link -- the experienced globetrotter insisted the choice of transport was no mistake.

"We want to show that you don't need a four-wheel drive vehicle to go across Africa, that having a smaller car makes it half the adventure of getting there," explained the Washington-based Lovejoy.

What makes him think such an endeavor is even possible is that Lovejoy and friends undertook a similarly intrepid journey in 2007, driving cheap East German-era Trabant cars through 21 countries from Germany to Cambodia on some of the world's worst roads, raising funds for street children along the way.

"Drive half the world's circumference in plastic cars" was their pitch then, and the clarion call is similar now from Nomadic Nation, a community of travelers undertaking unique and "socially conscious" trips off the well-trodden backpacking trail.

"We've been saying to people, aren't you sick of your nine to five job, sick of living vicariously -- don't you want more adventure out of life?" Lovejoy asks.

"We want to show people that you can take the car you drive to work in, grab your mates and head down and have a brilliant time."

The response from charity recipients who work with the idea of development through soccer -- including Kick4Life, Grassroots Soccer, Coaching for Hope and PLAY SOCCER -- has been "overwhelming," he said.

"The excitement is based on the unique nature of actually getting people involved who are raising money for them and who can see where their money is going and the people they are helping," Lovejoy said.

He and a close band of five friends from across Europe hope to complete the reconnaissance run by December.

Their aim is to clarify the winding route down Africa's west coast, raise awareness of the event, get updated border crossing information and resolve visa issues.

And they want to "identify checkpoints to reach for a well deserved beer" after a long day of driving, he added.

Since the website -- www.nomadicnation.org -- was launched on October 1, the organization has been accepting entrants, who can join for 1,250 dollars.

While they expect at least 200 teams to sign up, Lovejoy said they are prepared for 500.

"It sounds like an amazing project, really exciting," said Steve Fleming, who works with the British-based charity Kick4Life that provides health/HIV education, HIV testing and life-skills education in Lesotho.

"The fact they're using it to raise money around the World Cup is a great fit," Fleming told AFP.

"For every 10 dollars raised, Kick4Life will be able to test a child for HIV, referring those who are positive to life saving anti-retroviral treatment."

A lot of people ask about safety, but the roads themselves look to be far more of an obstacle than regional instability, said Lovejoy.

"From our research on the route we've chosen, and talking to people who've done this route before, rebels are not the problem. Roads are our biggest concern."

For example, he admitted, "the road from Cameroon into Nigeria is the only route you can really take, and from the pictures we've seen, it's not a road at all. You can barely call it a dirt track."

in the Daily Telegraph

On the 10 hour night shift, this drops

2009-09-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

Three Afghans arrested in US attack probe

by Alex Ogle

Sun Sep 20, 5:02 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Three men of Afghan origin have been arrested for making false statements to FBI agents investigating an alleged plot to launch an attack in the United States, US officials said.

The US Justice Department said the FBI is also investigating other individuals "in the United States,Pakistan and elsewhere, relating to a plot to detonate improvised explosive devices in the United States," according to affidavits filed to support the arrests.

Najibullah Zazi, 24, and his 53-year-old father Mohammed -- both Afghan natives -- were arrested in the western US state of Colorado late Saturday, the department said in a statement. Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, also from Afghanistan, was later arrested in New York. All three reside legally in the United States.

"Each of the defendants has been charged by criminal complaint with knowingly and willfully making false statements to the FBI in a matter involving international and domestic terrorism," the statement said.

The arrests come after raids this week in New York and Colorado and three days of voluntary questioning of Najibullah Zazi in Denver, Colorado.

"The arrests carried out tonight are part of an ongoing and fast-paced investigation," said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security.

"It is important to note that we have no specific information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack," he added.

According to US media reports this week, investigators focused on a alleged plot targeting New York.

The CNN news network, citing sources close to the investigation, reported the target was a major New York transportation hub, such as a rail or subway station. Najibullah Zazi, a bus driver in Colorado, possessed a video of New York's Grand Central Station, the network said.

US media also said authorities found 14 new black backpacks in the New York raids that fueled concern the men may have been planning to use the backpacks to carry suicide bombs.

ABC News cited unnamed authorities as saying Najibullah "Zazi brought with him instructions on how to build a bomb using household chemicals." It also reported that he had been under investigation for nearly a year prior to the raids.

In a telephone interview with Najibullah Zazi, who is a permanent US resident, reported in the Denver Post newspaper on Saturday, he denied admitting to any link to Al-Qaeda or involvement in an attack plot.

"It's not true," he told the newspaper. "I have nothing to hide. It's all media publications reporting whatever they want. They have been reporting all this nonsense."

Justice Department officials said Sunday they had intercepted a number of phone calls between Najibullah and Mohammed Zazi and Afzali on September 11, where the defendents discuss Afzali being interviewed by authorities.

Najibullah Zazi told Afzali his car had been stolen and that he feared he was being "watched", according to the affidavits cited by the department.

Afzali then allegedly asked him whether there was any "evidence in his car," to which he replied no.

In a search of Zazi's rental car in New York, where he had been visiting Afzali, officials said in the affidavits that they found a digital image of handwritten notes "regarding the manufacture and handling of initiating explosives, main explosives charges, explosives detonators and components of a fuzing system."

When asked about and shown the notes, which were found on his laptop computer, Najibullah Zazi "falsely asserted that he had never seen the document before," officials said.

In interviews with FBI agents in Denver, according to the affidavits filed with his detention, Najibullah Zazi meanwhile admitted that on a 2008 trip to Pakistan he "attended courses and received instruction on weapons and explosives at an Al-Qaeda training facility."

Najibullah Zazi, a permanent US resident, and Mohammed Zazi, a naturalized US citizen, are set to appear in a Colorado federal court on Monday.

On the same day Afzali, also a permanent US resident, is scheduled to stand before a federal court in New York.

If convicted each man faces eight years in prison.

US Senator Chuck Schumer insisted this week that the New York raids were preventive and that no terrorist attack was in its final planning stages.

"There was nothing imminent," the New York lawmaker said.

Stuck between Barack and a crumbled nation

2009-09-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

US commander warns of Afghanistan 'failure'
By Alex Ogle
Mon Sep 21, 2:42 am ET
WASHINGTON — The top US military commander in Afghanistan has warned that more forces are needed within the next year or the war against the Taliban will be lost, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
General Stanley McChrystal wrote in a classified report: "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) -- while Afghan security capacity matures -- risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible."
The grim assessment of the eight-year conflict, obtained by the Post, was presented to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on August 30 and is being reviewed by the White House.
McChrystal, who is widely expected to make a formal request to increase the 62,000-strong US force, noted the campaign in Afghanistan "has been historically under-resourced and remains so today."
As such, he wrote "inadequate resources will likely result in failure."
The weak resources "also risks a longer conflict, greater casualties, higher overall costs, and ultimately, a critical loss of political support. Any of these risks, in turn, are likely to result in mission failure."
The 66-page document -- a declassified version of which is published at www.washingtonpost.com -- describes a strengthening, intelligent Taliban insurgency.
McChrystal also slams the corruption-riddled Afghan government and a strategy by international forces that has failed to win over ordinary Afghans.
"The weakness of state institutions, malign actions of power-brokers, widespread corruption and abuse of power by various officials, and (the International Security Assistance Force's) own errors, have given Afghans little reason to support their government," wrote McChrystal.
International forces, he said, "have operated in a manner that distances us -- physically and psychologically -- from the people we seek to protect... The insurgents cannot defeat us militarily; but we can defeat ourselves."
The general, who Gates nominated to take over operations because "new thinking" was needed as President Barack Obama attempts a new strategy for the war-torn country, also warns that hardline insurgents reach systematically into Afghanistan's bloated prison system for recruits.
The prisons have become "a sanctuary and base to conduct lethal operations" against the Afghan government and coalition forces, he said.
McChrystal however does maintain a cautious optimism for long-term outcomes in the conflict, insisting: "While the situation is serious, success is still achievable."
Obama weighed in Sunday on the debate over more troops in Afghanistan.
"We're going to test whatever resources we have against our strategy, which is if by sending young men and women into harm's way, we are defeating Al-Qaeda," the president said in an interview with ABC.
"(If) that can be shown to a skeptical audience -- namely me, somebody who is always asking hard questions about deploying troops -- then we will do what's required to keep the American people safe," Obama said.
Gates said this week that the president needed time to assess US strategy and should not be rushed over such an important decision. "We need to take our time and get this right," he told a news conference on Thursday.
Earlier, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services committee that more soldiers would likely be needed to subdue the Taliban.
"A properly resourced counterinsurgency probably means more forces and, without question, more time and more commitment to the protection of the Afghan people and to the development of good governance," Mullen said.
By coincidence, McChrystal's report was revealed on the UN's International Peace Day, when Kabul's defense ministry said foreign and Afghan troops will pause offensive operations.
Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, purportedly a Taliban spokesman, was quoted on the ReliefWeb website as suggesting the insurgency may do the same, saying: "Our forces will remain in defensive position, as usual."
Foreign forces in Afghanistan, experiencing their deadliest year since the war began eight years ago with more than 350 deaths so far in 2009, are sceptical the rebels will keep their word.

Rejecting Carter

2009-08-13T22:04:00.001-07:00

Obama: racism not at root of criticism

by Alex OgleSat Sep 19, 5:22 pm
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama does not think racism is "the overriding issue" in the fierce debate on health care, but said in interviews to be aired Sunday that tempers were rising over the proper role of government.

"Are there people out there who don't like me because of race? I'm sure there are. That's not the overriding issue here," Obama told CNN in excerpts of an interview to be broadcast on "State of the Union."

The US leader, in a media blitz to shore up support for health care reform, will appear on five major Sunday talkshows after commandeering prime-time television earlier this month with a major address to Congress on the issue.

Obama has been pulled into the controversy-rife race debate after former president Jimmy Carter claimed racism was driving demonstrations and angry rhetoric on the president's health care reform plans and spending policy.

An "overwhelming part" of the US public is more concerned with how health care reform will affect them, Obama said, according to excerpts of an interview with ABC television's "This Week."

The "biggest driver" of opposition to his administration's proposals likely comes from people who are "passionate about the idea of whether government can do anything right," the president said.

Obama told NBC's "Meet the Press" that it is an argument "that's gone on for the history of this republic -- and that is, what's the right role of government? How do we balance freedom with our need to look after one another?"

There has been a long-standing debate on big power plays from the White House, Obama told CNN, that is "usually that much more fierce during times of transition or when presidents are trying to bring about big changes."

The vitriolic attacks of the 1930s on then-president Franklin Roosevelt "are pretty similar to the things that are said about me -- he was a communist, he was a socialist," he added.

"Health care has become a proxy for a broader set of issues about how much government should be involved in our economy," Obama told the CBS show "Face the Nation."

"Even though we're having a passionate disagreement here, we can be civil with each other, and we can try to express ourselves acknowledging that we're all patriots, we're all Americans and not assume the absolute worst in people's motives."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs sought to cool temperatures after Carter, 84, said much of the criticism leveled at Obama, the first US black president, owed to racism.

"The president does not believe that the criticism comes based on the color of his skin," Gibbs said.

Carter, a southerner from Georgia whose presidency ended in 1981, told NBC on Tuesday that "an overwhelming proportion of the intensely demonstrated animosity" toward Obama "is based on the fact that he is a black man, he's African-American."

The debate exploded after Republican lawmaker Joe Wilson veered from US political etiquette when he shouted "You lie!" at the president during his address to Congress, and when thousands protested in Washington against Obama's policies.

A succession of Democratic lawmakers and political columnists have since warned that the heckling and other overt signs of public disapproval not only foster a dangerous climate but also reflect underlying racial bias.

The top Republican in the US House of Representatives, John Boehner, dismissed the notion that race played a role in protests against Obama's health care planand other policies.

"The outrage that we see in America has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with the policies that he is promoting," he said Thursday.

Obama will appear on comedian David Letterman's "Late Show with David Letterman" on Monday, becoming the first sitting president to appear on the popular CBS talk show.

In March, Obama appeared on rival comedian Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show" as he sought to defend his economic recovery plan.

Since Obama swept to victory in elections last November, several incidents have seized on Obama's race.

In December, a politician campaigning to be chairman of the Republican National Committee distributed a song titled "Barack the Magic Negro," sparking furious debate about race in American politics and the soul of the Republican party in the wake of its White House defeat.

Extremists make a comeback. Kind of like Britney, but even more unpleasant.

2009-07-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

Right-wing militias on the rise in US

by Alex Ogle – Thu Aug 13, 12:17 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Incensed by the election of the first black US president, right-wing militia groups in the United States are rising again after a decade of decline, according to new research on extremist groups.

Ideologically driven by racism and a virulent anti-government, anti-taxation and anti-immigrant agenda, the homegrown groups that thrived in the 1990s and spurred numerous deadly terrorist attacks are expanding, said the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

"This is the most significant growth we've seen in 10 to 12 years," said a law enforcement official quoted by the SPLC in its special report "The Second Wave: Return of the Militias."

"All it's lacking is a spark," said the official, adding it is "only a matter of time before you see threats and violence."

Attacks continued in the last decade after the 1995 bombing of a government building in Oklahoma, killing 168 people -- the deadliest domestic terrorist attack on US soil. Such violent movements mostly subsided in the 2000s, however, following prosecutions and the election of the highly conservative George W. Bush as president, said the SPLC's Mark Potok.

A key difference today, the Center said, is that "the federal government -- the entity that almost the entire radical right views as its primary enemy -- is headed by a black man," tapping into the latent rage of white supremacist culture.

According to SPLC research in February, there has been a 54-percent rise in race-based hate groups in the United States since 2000, from 602 then to 926 in 2008.

Their study Wednesday also draws direct correlations between Barack Obama's presidency and numerous murders of law-enforcement officials this year.

"One man 'very upset' with the election of America's first black president was building a radioactive 'dirty bomb'... Another angry at the election and said to be interested in joining a militia killed two sheriff's deputies in Florida," said Larry Keller at the SPLC.

A key component for the rise of militias is a vibrant world of unsubstantiated yet widely publicized conspiracies.

"The current political environment is awash with seemingly absurd but nonetheless influential conspiracy theories, hyperbolic claims and demonized targets... This creates a milieu where violence is a likely outcome," said the Center, citing longtime analyst of radical right-wing movements Chip Berlet.

The other major factor for militia recruitment and acceptance is their ideology being aped and championed by mainstream media commentators and politicians, the report said.

Commentators on cable news were singled out for airing and promoting conspiracy theories -- notably Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, who has described Obama alternatively as a "fascist," a "Nazi" and a "Marxist."

Beck, who has a regular audience of some 2.5 million viewers on his nightly show, has even "re-floated militia conspiracy theories of the 1990s alleging a secret network of government-run concentration camps," said the SPLC.

Earlier this year Texas Governor Rick Perry raised the prospect of his state's secession; US Congresswoman Michele Bachmann said she feared Obama was planning "reeducation camps for young people."

In April, an internal government report also warned of right-wing extremists exploiting worries spawned by the economic downturn and Obama's election as recruiting tools, which could lead "to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violence attacks."

Greater Internet access has also boosted access to bomb-making know-how and the ability to reach a vast audience of like-minded people, said the Department of Homeland Security -- later criticized by conservatives and veterans groups for singling out returning soldiers.

This got into the China Post, Brisbane Times, Calgary Herald, the Montreal Gazette. Along with garnering a sprinkling of hate mail, notably a few here http://bit.ly/uVMml Notable for this gem: "f*** this story!.... write about the kush clubhouse!.... or how about the truth about the media! aww f*** it! you suck alex......i am goin to go get high now!"

Rallying point

2009-06-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

Obama in all-out push for US healthcare reform
by Alex Ogle – Wed Jul 22, 9:40 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Battling slumping poll numbers, President Barack Obama holds a primetime news conference Wednesday, in a bid to counter growing criticism of his economic and health policies.
Obama steps up to the dais for his fourth primetime news conference since taking office in January, with a USA Today/Gallup poll showing his approval ratings down to 55 percent and his disapproval ratings up 16 points to 41 percent.
The downturn in Obama's once stratospheric poll numbers parallels the decline in the US economy, as Americans become more pessimistic about how long it will take for the recession to finally come to an end.
White House adviser David Axelrod called the "turbulence" predictable however, and expressed confidence in the public's support for the president.
"People fundamentally like this president, and they believe he's smart and capable and strong and trying to do the right thing," he told USA Today.
But critically for Obama's high-stakes efforts to pass health care reformthrough Congress, the newspaper's poll also found that 50 percent of the US public disapproved of his health care policy, with 44 percent in support.
Against the backdrop of mounting deficits and ever-rising unemployment, health care reform looks set to be Obama's biggest test yet.
His far-reaching plans to bring affordable health insurance to all Americans have left many worrying who will end up footing the bill. Many players within his own Democratic party remain skeptical.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday that some Republicans were working with Democrats on trying to draft the legislation.
But he conceded: "I don't doubt that there are some that have philosophical differences. I also think there are some, as we enumerated yesterday, that are intent on playing political games."
Obama personally has much invested in healthcare reform, which was a cornerstone of his 2008 presidential campaign. But he underscored this week that the battle to overhaul the health care system was not a question of political gamesmanship.
"Just the other day, one Republican senator said -- and I'm quoting him now -- 'If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him,'" the president said on Monday.
"This isn't about me. This isn't about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses, and breaking America's economy."
Meanwhile, in an opinion column in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal -- tipped to be a possible future White House contender -- slammed the health reform efforts by Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress.
The "Democrats' reforms are designed to push an ever-increasing number of Americans into a government-run health care plan," Jindal wrote, adding the proposed reforms could hurt private health careproviders and lead them to be "driven out of business."
Jindal warned that that, in turn, could lead to higher costs for all Americans and an inevitable decline in the overall quality of health care.
Obama has received support in some Republican quarters however, including from California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who on Wednesday said the health care overhaul is needed "right away."
"I would support him 100 percent in health care reform, because I think it's necessary," Schwarzenegger told ABC.
"It's inexcusable that we have 48 million people in the whole United States that are uninsured," he said.

This got into the Vancouver Sun, among other venues http://bit.ly/YEdP7

Tsvangirai: "I don't want to demean those who have the misfortune of being over 85"

2009-06-11T11:59:00.000-07:00

Zimbabwe PM maintains 'fire' for change

by Alex Ogle

Wed Jun 10, 4:54 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called Wednesday on potential western donors to judge his fragile coalition government by what it has done and not by his country's abusive past.

Tsvangirai, a long-time opposition leader backed by the West, meets with US President Barack Obama on Friday as part of his three-week tour of Europe and the United States, seeking assistance from the international community for the unity administration alongside long-time adversary President Robert Mugabe.

"When you judge this government it must be based on what this (unity) government has done" and not on the actions of strongman Mugabe's political movement ZANU-PF, he said here at the Council on Foreign Relations.

In a decade the southern African nation's once a dynamic regional economy has been crushed by world-record hyperinflation, political instability and alleged human rights abuses.

Tsvangirai however maintained Zimbabwe is changing since he joined the government in February, saying currently "there is no one in detention" and pledging democratization to be the "first plank" of Zimbabwe's economic recovery efforts.

The prime minister said he understood frustration on the speed of political reform as he works to mend fences with former allies.

"We have not given up our fire for a democratic Zimbabwe, even when we share power with someone who we believe has never been democratic," insisted Tsvangirai, who heads the main opposition party Movement for Democratic Change.

"My assurance is that it is a process. We are going through the stages of transformation and down the line we will have a fair and free election that will give Zimbabweans an opportunity to choose their own government."

In often frank terms, Tsvangirai denounced the tragedy of his country's recent past.

The southern African nation "stands as remarkable testimony to the power of a corrupt government, in pursuit of selfish policies, to impoverish an entire nation," he said.

Acknowledging skepticism of joining Mugabe in a unity government Tsvangirai even name-checked South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela.

Like him, Tsvangirai said he agreed to "work with a non-democratic regime as a transition to full democracy."

The prime minister acknowledged he has to be hopeful, always, that change will eventually come and that Mugabe will not double-cross him.

"I have the corner in my mind that thinks 'maybe he's trying to cheat me,'" he noted, but needs to be ever upbeat like the Zimbabwean people, who he said are also "cautiously optimistic."

Speaking of his rival Mugabe, Tsvangirai chose not to criticize the president personally.

"I'm sure that I don't want to demean those who have the misfortune of being over 85," he said with a hearty chuckle.

"But what probably motivates people of that age group is legacy. I'm sure in his twilight years he has realized he has to end his life as the founding father of the nation, and not the villain of the nation."

For those who don't get sent to Palau

2009-06-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

Democrat warns Obama risks 'future Guantanamos'

by Alex OgleWed Jun 10, 10:08 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama risks creating "future Guantanamos" by continuing his predecessor's policy of indefinitely holding Al-Qaeda suspects, a prominent Democrat warned on Tuesday.

Senator Russ Feingold said he was "troubled" by Obama's policies, warning the practice of holding some suspected terrorists indefinitely risked being "effectively enshrined as acceptable in our system of justice."

Feingold warned the current administration risked mimicking the policies of the Bush administration, which "claimed the right" to detain anyone, anywhere, he said.

During a major security speech at the National Archives in May, Obama acknowledged for the first time that a legal framework could be established to hold the most dangerous US detainees indefinitely without trial.

Speaking during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the consequences of "prolonged detention," Feingold said that could set "the stage for future Guantanamos, whether on our shores or elsewhere, with potentially disastrous consequences for our national security."

If Obama follows through on the proposal for establishing "a new legal regime for prolonged detention to deal with a few individuals at Guantanamo," Feingold said "he runs the very real risk of establishing policies and legal precedents."

Feingold said it would be worse if these policies were "effectively enshrined as acceptable in our system of justice, having been established not by a largely discredited administration, but by a successive administration with a greatly contrasting position on legal and constitutional issues."

Also at the hearing, former White House lawyer Richard Klingler warned prolonged detention was "already widespread" and set to continue "on a wide scale."

Klingler, who served as a lawyer in the Office of White House Counsel under former president George W. Bush, told senators the "debate on indefinite detention often wrongly focuses on Guantanamo Bay," arguing the practice is "considerably more widespread."

It is a practice Obama "will continue to pursue," in Afghanistan, Iraq, and at Guantanamo, and he noted the White House has already followed in the Bush administration's footsteps by defending it repeatedly in court.

The "wartime framework underlying [these tactics] have settled well within the mainstream of the American tradition," added Klingler, who also served as the formergeneral counsel for the National Security Council staff.

Obama, he added, has embraced practically all the controversial components and related executive powers asserted by Bush to carry out a global offensive against extremists. The continuation of the practices, therefore, has lead to a "broader recognition of the established legal basis" for indefinite detention, Klingler said.

The president has pledged to close the controversial US Navy-run prison in southeastern Cuba by early next year.

Signaling a major move toward reaching that goal, on Tuesday a Tanzanian Guantanamo detainee became the first to be transferred to a civilian court on US soil.

He pleaded not guilty to taking part in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in East Africa.

Arbitrary and unlimited detention has boosted US enemies by serving as a "powerfully effective recruiting advertisement" for Al-Qaeda and other groups, Human Rights First CEO Elisa Massimino testified before the hearing.

"It has strengthened the hand of terrorists -- rather than isolating and delegitimizing them -- in the political struggle for hearts and minds," she told subcommittee.

Obama declared in his security speech last month that the "terrorists can only succeed if they swell their ranks and alienate America from our allies -- and they will never be able to do that if we stay true to who we are."

His administration, Obama said, has been tasked with cleaning up what is "quite simply a mess ... a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges."

Transferring the remaining 240 so-called "war on terror" inmates at Guantanamo Bay to top security jails in the United States remains deeply unpopular with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

"We are not going to release anyone if it would endanger our national security, nor will we release detainees within the United States who endanger the American people," Obama has promised.

Black Hole in nearby galaxy is ridiculously big

2009-05-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

Black hole more massive than imagined
By Alex OgleTue Jun 9, 2:39 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A pair of pioneering astronomers revealed Tuesday how they used a supercomputer to show that a nearby black hole is vastly more massive than scientists ever imagined.
The black hole at the heart of the relatively close Messier 87 Galaxy (M87) weighs in at 6.4 billion times the mass of our Sun, according to US astrophysicist Karl Gebhardt and Germany's Jens Thomas, who say it's the largest ever measured with a reliable technique.
One of the more enigmatic features of astronomy, a black hole is a region in space that is inferred by tracking stars that orbit it. Objects fall into its stupendous gravitational field but nothing, not even light, can return.
Gebhardt and Thomas' revelation, they say, sheds light on how galaxies grow, and may solve the paradox of quasars -- active black holes guzzling matter in distant galaxies that scientists are struggling to understand.
Addressing the American Astronomical Society conference in Pasadena, California, the stargazers described how they employed the gargantuan computing power of the Lonestar system, also known as the huge "Texas Advanced Computing Center" at the University of Texas.
The Lonestar has 5,840 processing cores and can perform 62 trillion "floating-point operations" per second. For comparison, the most state-of-the-art laptop computer has only two processing cores and performs only 10 billion such operations per second.
Gebhardt and Thomas's study, to be published later this year in the Astrophysical Journal, aims to clock the mass of Galaxy M87's central black hole by also modeling the galaxy's "dark halo," a phenomenon that extends past a galaxy's visible structure and contains the ethereal but weighty dark matter.
"In the past, we have always considered the dark halo to be significant, but we did not have the computing resources to explore it as well," said Gebhardt as he lauded the supercomputer's ability.
The Lonestar's mass model for the M87 black hole came out several times the weight than any previous estimate, a result they did not expect at all.
They chose giant elliptical M87 because of it's relative proximity to our own galaxy -- about 55 million light years away.
The galaxy is also notable for the spectacularly active jet of light shooting from its core, emitted as matter swirls closer to the black hole.
These factors make M87 "the anchor for supermassive black hole studies," Gebhardt said.
The new results, he added, also suggest all other black hole masses for the largest galaxies are grossly underestimated.
Such a conclusion would fundamentally change consideration of the physical laws of space, as scientists examine black holes and probe how galaxies grow.
For the problem of weighing quasars, seen at a much earlier period in the vast expanse of cosmic time, the astronomer's conclusion could have major implications.
Quasars shine brightly and emit copious radiation as matter crosses the event horizon -- part of the black hole from which nothing, not even light, can escape.
"There is a long-standing problem in that quasar black hole masses were very large -- 10 billion solar masses," Gebhardt said.
"But in local galaxies, we never saw black holes that massive, not nearly. The suspicion was before that the quasar masses were wrong," he said.
Yet, he said, if scientists "increase the mass of M87 two or three times, the problem almost goes away."
While the astronomer's conclusions are model-based, Gebhardt noted that they are supported by his recent physical telescope observations.
He has most recently tested the computer simulations by examining M87 and other galaxies through powerful instruments at the Hawaii-based Gemini North Telescope Hilo and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile's high altitude Atacama desert.

Anyone wonder about the "spectacularly active jet of light" shooting from the galaxy's core: http://bit.ly/UpP5z

Shrewd, taking them out of the game. In winter the lazy man freezes to death

2009-05-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

Obama taps Republican governor as China envoy

by Alex OgleSat May 16, 10:24 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama unveiled his pick of Republican rising star Jon Huntsman, the governor of Utah, to the critical post of US ambassador to China.

"I can think of no one better suited to take on this assignment," Obama said alongside fluent Mandarin speaker Huntsman in a televised address at the White House.

"I can think of no more important assignment than creating the kinds of bridges between our two countries that will determine the well being, not just of Americans and Chinese, but also the future of the world," he said.

Relations between the two nations have taken on rising import in the last decade as China has embraced its role as a leading global economy and as push for regional security has been spurred by tense standoffs with nuclear North Korea.

"What Jon brings to this post isn't just a steadfast commitment, it's a lifetime of knowledge and experience that will help advance this important partnership," Obama said.

Huntsman understands "what it will take to make America more competitive in the 21st century," the president said, adding that the governor will be an "unstinting advocate" of American interests in the region and for promoting US "ideals, including in North Korea."

Obama said that "improved relations with China will require candor and open discussion about those issues where we don't always agree, such as human rights and democracy and free speech. And it will require that each of our nations play by the rules in open and honest competition.

"And that's why this ambassadorship takes on such importance," Obama stressed.

The Mormon son of billionaire chemical businessman Jon Huntsman, the governor was a national campaign co-chair of Obama rival John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

"I grew up understanding that the most basic responsibility one has is service to country," Huntsman said upon accepting the position, which still requires US Senate confirmation.

"When the president of the United States asks you to step up and serve in a capacity like this, that, to me, is the end of the conversation and the beginning of the obligation to rise to the challenge," Huntsman added.

"You have my commitment that we will take the US-China relationship to new heights, focused not just on that which divides us, but more importantly, on that which unites us."

Huntsman finished his remarks speaking in Mandarin, quoting the Chinese aphorism: "Together we work, together we progress."

His diplomatic experience -- Huntsman was ambassador to Singapore in the George H.W. Bush administration and a trade envoy under president George W. Bush -- prepares him "to be frank with our Chinese friends when we disagree on human rights, democracy, and other matters," Obama said.

Huntsman, 49, learned Mandarin Chinese when he served on a Mormon mission in Taiwan.

He has been seen as a moderate voice in the Republican Party and was a popular governor -- he gained 70 percent of the vote in November for a second term as Utah's leader, though he has said he would not stand for a third run.

In recent years Huntsman served as Bush's deputy US trade representative and has negotiated several agreements with China.

He and his wife Mary Kaye have seven children, including two daughters adopted from China and India.

Huntsman, replacing the current long-serving US envoy Clark Randt, started out in public service in the 1980s as a White House staff assistant to president Ronald Reagan.

In 2006, he led a trade mission to China "because of their prominence on the world stage and the way in which they are growing so rapidly," he told the Deseret Morning News in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Obama came to office vowing to reach across the aisle and include Republicans in his administration.

In a bipartisan gesture he retained Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the post he had served in the previous Bush administration.

Accepting the appointment likely means Huntsman gives up the possibility of challenging Democrat Obama in the 2012 presidential election and putting such ambitions on hold until 2016, when Obama is no longer eligible to run, political pollster Dan Jones told the Deseret Morning News Saturday.

"I really think he's wanted to be secretary of state or ambassador to China. He really feels like he can make a major difference," Jones said.

"Maybe come 2012, people will feel the same way. Or 2016. If he's ambassador, he's not going to take on a sitting president."

Move on Martha

2009-05-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

(AFP/Getty Images)
Make way, ladies: Michelle Obama hits sexy list
Thu May 14, 12:34 pm ETby Alex Ogle
WASHINGTON (AFP) – For the first time the US First Lady has made Maxim magazine's annual top 100 list of "hottest women in the world," with Michelle Obamamaking the grade at number 93.
Billed as the "stimulus package America really needs," the British-based international magazine known for revealing pictorials of models and actresses showcases Obama in her tasteful official White House portrait.
In the rare accolade for a political spouse, the magazine notes that her husband President Barack Obama "may be dealing with two wars, an economic meltdown, and a rapidly graying dome.
"But at least our Commander in Chief gets to come home to the hottest First Lady in the history of these United States."
Obama has been hailed as a style icon by fashionistas around the world since her husband was elected president.
Maxim's self-described "eyeball-searing, fantasy-fulfilling, brain-exploding" list has Obama topping "Top Chef" host and model Padma Lakshmi (#95) and Oscar-winning "Wrestler" star Marisa Tomei (#97).
The magazine, which has a monthly US circulation of some 2.5 million and is distributed throughout the world, moved over last year's chart-topper "Transformers" star Megan Fox to give the number one spot to TV's "House" actress Olivia Wilde.
(The seven paragraphs everybody wants, including 204 yahoo users recommend; peak of a rabbit's beak. )

Three-hour appropriations subcommittee hearing condensed into 2 minutes of NEWS

2009-05-17T09:19:00.000-07:00

Napolitano defends extremism report

by Alex Ogle

Tue May 12, 6:40 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano defended Tuesday her agency's 55.1-billion-dollar budget request and reassured Republican lawmakers the agency did not consider returning US soldiers to be right-wing extremists.

The agency came under fire last month for saying troubled veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks."

The agency also said in the internal April 7 advisory for local law-enforcement officials that the economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for right-wing radicalization and recruitment.

But Napolitano, testifying before the House appropriations sub-committee on the agency's budget, told lawmakers the report was designed for "situational awareness" and not targeting purposes.

Grilled by Texas representative John Carter on whether the DHS had clearly withdrawn its report for consideration by law enforcement officials, Napolitano said it had been removed from the DHS's intel websites and is "in the process of being replaced ... in a much more precise fashion."

Asked repeatedly by Illinois lawmaker Mark Kirk whether anyone was fired over the incident, Napolitano said "appropriate personnel action has and will be taken," though she did not say anyone was removed.

In the report, which was not intended for public consumption, "there was no intent of accusing our veterans of being un-American," Napolitano assured.

"What there was," she said, "was an understanding that veterans are sometimes targeted for recruitment -- that is an assessment."

The Pentagon gives instruction to its own commanders about the same phenomenon, the secretary added.

The proposed budget also requested funding for 15 dedicated teams to detect explosives in public spaces and transportation networks, including 400 million dollars to protect critical infrastructure and cyber networks from attack and 94.5 million dollars to detect agents of biological warfare.

Lawmakers also sought reassurance that the agency was disrupting Mexican drug cartels and the flow south of weapons from the United States, along with measures to curb illegal immigration and deport offenders.

Napolitano, who has played a leading role in combatting the recent H1N1 flu outbreak within the United States, was not questioned about the pandemic threat at the committee hearing.

In Singapore's Straits Times

2009-05-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

May 12, 2009

Tamils in White House protest

Alex Ogle

(AFP) WASHINGTON - Some 150 protesting Tamils converged on the White House on Monday to condemn civilian deaths in the strife-torn nation and call on President Barack Obama to take a lead in cease-fire negotiations.

'We are asking the US for a ceasefire,' said Mr Nagalingam Jeyalingam, who travelled from New York to Washington for the protest.

'The rebels declared a ceasefire unilaterally, but the Sri Lankan government refuses to accept a ceasefire - they want to keep bombing until the civilians are wiped out.' The United Nations on Monday condemned a civilian 'bloodbath' in Sri Lanka, saying more than 100 children had been killed in weekend shelling that the government and rebels blamed on each other.

The United Nations estimates that as many as 50,000 civilians may be trapped in the less than 5 sq km area where the Tamil Tiger rebels are holed up.

Artillery strikes in the small stretch of coastline still held by the rebels in the island's northeast caused major casualties among the tens of thousands of non-combatants, both sides reported.

Protest organisers said they expect 300 people to join the vocal three-day demonstrations. 'President Obama, save the Tamils. Yes you can,' protesters chanted outside the White House gates.

Waving banners blazoned with 'Stop the Genocide,' protesters also denounced the international media for ignoring civilian suffering in Sri Lanka.

'We don't hear enough from the media,' said protester Elias Jeyarajah, noting the blanket coverage of Israel's assault on Gaza that killed just over 1,400 Palestinians.

The pro-rebel Tamilnet website said on Monday that the civilian death toll in the last few days from government attacks had risen to 3,200 people.

Casualty claims from the war zone are impossible to verify as journalists and international monitors are not allowed to travel freely in the area.

Mr Jeyarajah, who journeyed with 20 others from the south-eastern state of North Carolina to join the demonstration, said the Tamil diaspora in the United States hoped Mr Obama would lead the international community in a 'Responsibility to Protect' move for humanitarian intervention in the island nation.

One of those Orbiting Calamities to avoid

2009-05-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

(AFP/Getty images)

Second NASA shuttle poised for bold space rescue

by Alex Ogle

Mon May 11, 9:38 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – It would be the most audacious rescue in space flight history. Alongside NASA's mission to repair the Hubble telescope, the US space agency is preparing a second intrepid shuttle mission it hopes never to launch.

NASA has sent its Atlantis space craft hurtling toward the aging Hubble, on a daring final task that has forced it to devise a rescue operation worthy of a blockbuster movie plot.

If the Hubble trip turns from scheduled service to orbiting calamity, there will be no escape to the relative safety of the International Space Station, so NASA plans to send a second shuttle -- the Endeavour -- and a four-strong crew blasting off to save their Atlantis colleagues.

In this scenario, Endeavour -- primed to go with just three-days notice on a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida -- races to catch up with Atlantis and recover its stranded crew of seven astronauts.

NASA fears in a powerless shuttle, astronauts would only last for 25 days before they ran out of air, and so, if difficulty strikes the two vessels would rendezvous at an altitude of some 600 kilometers (372 miles) above the Earth.

After parking their payload bays face to face, like a robotic yoga display, Endeavour would delicately maneuver its 50-foot (15-meter) robotic arm to secure the spacecraft together.

Over the course of two days, with Endeavour astronauts stringing a line between the two shuttles, the Atlantis crew would have to spacewalk from their weakened ship to safety.

Such a scenario, however outlandish, has been planned extensively, insists the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

"It's safety first, as ever," said NASA spokesman William Jeffs at Houston's Johnson Space Center in Texas.

Since NASA's 2003 disaster that saw the shuttle Columbia disintegrate as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven crew members, the agency has worked on elaborate rescue contingencies.

But all shuttle flights since then have been to the ISS -- a secure enough haven where crew members would be able to await passage home.

The daunting journey to the 11-ton Hubble carries considerably more risk of being hit by space debris or micrometeorites than a flight to the ISS, because the telescope orbits at almost twice the height of the ISS.

That is much closer to the largest galactic trash fields that threaten all space visits.

After analysis, NASA said the risk of catastrophic damage arising from space debris around Hubble to be about a 1-in-229 chance.

And beside space junk, numerous liftoff dangers could still await Atlantis, including thermal tiles on the outer skin being damaged at launch.

Astronauts will make a safety assessment of their vessel before heading to Hubble in the coming days, after which NASA may deem re-entry too risky.

Endeavour Commander Christopher Ferguson said he and his crew were ready to tackle a rescue if called upon.

"I feel as confident about our ability to pull this off, if need be, as I would any other mission," he told CNN television.

It is the first time a rescue shuttle has been on standby on the launch pad, with its crew idling at the ready.

Ferguson said he understands how every hour can be key, when colleagues are running out of air to breath.

"Consumables like food and oxygen would run out quickly. So the reason we've gotten this crew trained and spooled up and ready to go on literally a moment's notice is because they (the Atlantis crew) have no place comfortable to go stay for a long period of time," he said.

Atlantis Commander Scott Altman told the network that knowing there is a second shuttle ready to take their emergency call gives him and his crew confidence for the journey.

"Even in the worst-possible imaginable case, we can stay up there and last until somebody comes up and gets us," Altman said. "So it feels like we have all our bases covered."

In the event of an abandoned ship, Atlantis would be given self-destruct instructions, to ensure it would not fall back to Earth in a populous area.

NASA, said Jeffs, would direct it into landing maneuvers to crash somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

In 10 days, Endeavour will step down from its poised alert, assuming Atlantis returns to Earth safely.

Afterwards, the shuttle will trundle steadily from launch pad 39B to 39A, for its own mission to the ISS in mid-June.

Smoothie outing at Langley, Virginia

2009-05-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

Obama to visit CIA after interrogation exposé
by Alex Ogle

Mon Apr 20, 8:23 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama will visit CIA headquarters on Monday amid charges he undermined the US intelligence community by unveiling details of its controversial interrogation methods.
The US leader, who last week released "Top Secret" memos on interrogation techniques widely condemned as torture, will go to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, for private meetings with personnel and to deliver a public message "about the importance of the CIA's mission" to US national security.
Obama is set to reassure CIA officers of his promise not to seek prosecution of CIA agents or former officials under his predecessor George W. Bush who authorized or carried out the harsh techniques the government now condemns.
"This is a time for reflection, not retribution," Obama said Thursday after releasing the documents.
Former head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, Michael Hayden, however, warned Sunday that the release could still leave agents vulnerable to civil lawsuits or congressional probes targetting CIA agents who relied on the Bush-era memos to carry out harsh interrogations.
"There will be more revelations. There will be more commissions. There will be more investigations," he told the TV program "Fox News Sunday."
This is an agency, he added, "that is at war and is on the frontlines of defending America."
The harsh interrogation techniques, Hayden insisted, had succeeded in battling Al-Qaeda and saving American lives, something he characterized as "an inconvenient truth."
Hayden, who was replaced as CIA chief earlier this year by Obama, assailed the decision to release the memos as "really dangerous" for US intelligence efforts.
The documents showed how the Bush-era legal officials argued that tactics such as simulated drowning, face slapping, the use of insects to scare prisoners and sleep deprivation did not amount to torture.
"Most of the people who oppose these techniques want to be able to say: 'I don't want my nation doing this' -- which is a pure honorable position -- and 'they didn't work anyway'," Hayden said.
"The facts of the case are that the use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer, it really did," he said.
"It's what I'd call, without meaning any irreverence to anybody, 'a really inconvenient truth'."
Hayden specifically rejected a weekend report in The New York Times citing CIA officials saying that waterboarding and beating of a top Al-Qaeda operative, Abu Zubaydah, yielded no more information than softer interrogation techniques.
"We stand by our story. The critical information we got from Abu Zubaydah came after we began the EIT's, enhanced interrogation techniques," he said.
Hayden said Abu Zubaydah had "clammed up" after providing some "nominal information" under initial questioning.
But under harsher interrogation he "gave up more valuable information," including tips that led to the capture of another senior Al-Qaeda agent, Ramzi Binalshibh, he said.
Hayden also said Obama's own CIA director, Leon Panetta, as well as three other former CIA chiefs had warned the White House against releasing the memos outlining US interrogation techniques.
"The definition of top secret is information which, if revealed, would cause grave harm to US security," he said, adding that the release of the documents, by definition of their classification, was "a grave threat to national security."
The gravest effect, Hayden said, was that agency officers may be held back in the future from acting in the best interests of the country.
Because of the furor over the memo's release, an officer may not be satisfied if the Justice Department, White House and Congress sign off on specific actions, said Hayden.
However, Janet Napolitano, Obama's homeland security secretary, defended the decision.
"When you look at the great public need for accountability and responsibility and transparency here, and when you look at our desire to close the book on this regrettable chapter and move the country forward, it was imperative, really, that the reports be released," she said on CNN.

Hashing out plans

2009-04-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Obama to target US govt spending
by Alex Ogle

Mon Apr 20, 7:04 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama, after a weekend at the Americas summit in Trinidad, warned of "significant" risk to the US economy ahead of his first full cabinet meeting Monday to hash out plans to cut spending.
At the White House meeting, three months to the day after his inauguration, Obama plans to ask for specific proposals from his cabinet members to cutgovernment spending and "restore a sense of responsibility and accountability" to the US federal budget.
Faced with mushrooming budget deficits, Obama Sunday called for "aggressive action" to counter the persistent credit jam that still clogs the financial system.
"While there have been some encouraging signs that our economy may be stabilizing, the risks remain real and significant," Obama said in an interview published inFortune magazine Sunday.
"History has shown repeatedly that when nations do not take early and aggressive action to get credit flowing again, they have crises that last for many years instead of many months," he said.
The cabinet meeting comes on the heels of a whirlwind weekend of diplomacy on the Caribbean island of Trinidad at the Summit of the Americas where, by the end, Obama tempered speculation that a historic thaw in relations between the United States and Cuba was around the corner.
Back in Washington, however, domestic priorities are set to shape the agenda in coming weeks, as the Obama administration keeps up its efforts to reshape the economic outlook.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecast last month the budget deficit could hit 1.845 trillion dollars for the whole year, based on Obama's 3.5-trillion-dollar budget plan approved by Congress.
The CBO said its budget deficit estimate for fiscal 2009, which ends on September 30, would be four times the 2008 record shortfall and amount to 13.1 percent of the country's total economic output.
The Obama budget forecasts a 1.750 trillion dollar deficit in fiscal 2009.
The United States, Obama told Fortune, needs a revision of its economic priorities to "reward drive and innovation instead of shortcuts and abuse."
The latest government figures showed the economy contracted by 6.3 percent in the last quarter of 2008, following a home-mortgage meltdown that triggeredfinancial turmoil and slammed the brakes on economic growth.
A modest return to growth is not expected by economists until the third quarter of 2009.
In his weekly address on Saturday, Obama said the process of finding ways to cut government spending had already begun, with his administration scouring the budget line by line for programs that do not work and can be replaced with more efficient ones.
Obama praised Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for ending contracts to create new seals and logos for her department that would have cost the Treasury three million dollars, as well as Defense Secretary Robert Gates for finding ways to eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in spending.
Obama's top economic aide meanwhile said Sunday the administration was backing Democratic lawmakers who plan to crack down on credit card companiesaccused of imposing abusive interest rates on unsuspecting consumers.
In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, Larry Summers said Obama was concerned "with the way people have been deceived into paying extraordinarily high rates that they wouldn't have paid if they knew what they were getting themselves into."
The US leader, Summers added, was "pushing very hard for a strong program of regulation" aimed at preventing a repeat of the current financial crisis.
Fortune reported in its latest edition that 2008 was the worst year ever for the 500 largest corporations tracked by the business magazine, with a massive 84.7 percent earnings drop -- the largest ever one-year decline.

Navy SEALS kill three teenagers

2009-04-08T22:22:00.001-07:00

US captain rescued, three of four pirates killed

by Alex OgleSun Apr 12, 3:45 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Navy on Sunday dramatically ended a high-seas standoff with Somali pirates, rescuing a US captain held hostage on a lifeboat for five days, killing three of his four captors.

"At approximately 7:19 pm (1619 GMT) US naval forces rescued Capt. Richard Phillips, the master of Motor Vessel Maersk-Alabama," US Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement.

"US military forces have one pirate in custody, three were killed in the rescue," according to the Navy statement.

"This was an incredible team effort, and I am extremely proud of the tireless efforts of all the men and women who made this rescue possible," said Vice AdmiralBill Gortney, commander of Central Command.

In Washington, President Barack Obama -- who has been largely silent on the crisis -- said he was "very pleased" that Phillips had been rescued.

The captain's safety "has been our principal concern, and I know this is a welcome relief to his family and his crew," Obama said in a statement.

Obama also said that the United States remains "resolved" to combat piracy off the Somali coast.

Phillips was first taken aboard the USS Bainbridge, one of two US naval warships involved in the tense standoff off the Somali coast, before being transferred to the assault ship USS Boxer, where he contacted his family in the United States and received a routine medical evaluation.

He is now "resting comfortably," the Navy said.

Maersk Line, the Norfolk, Virginia-based shipping company that operated the cargo ship Phillips captained, said its president John Reinhart informed the captain's wife Andrea after getting confirmation of the rescue from the US government.

The crew of the Maersk Alabama ship "was jubilant when they received word," Reinhart said in a statement.

"We are all absolutely thrilled to learn that Richard is safe and will be re-united with his family," he added.

"We join Richard's family, his crew and his colleagues ashore in celebrating this wonderful news. We look forward to welcoming him home in the coming days."

Phillips, who was unharmed in the operation, jumped out of the lifeboat, according to the CNN.

Phillips on Friday attempted to escape by jumping overboard, but the pirates were able to get him back on board at that time.

The pirates had warned against using force to rescue him, and had reportedly demanded two million dollars in ransom for Phillips' safe return.

Phillips had been held aboard the lifeboat since the pirates attacked his cargo ship, the US-flagged Maersk Alabama, on Wednesday.

The unarmed American crew managed to regain control of the ship, but the pirates captured Phillips and bundled him into the lifeboat as they escaped.

"I'm elated. I can't believe that he's actually safe. And he's a hero, there's no question about that," Stephen Herrera, a neighbor of Phillips in his Vermont hometown of Underhill, told CNN.

Joseph Murphy, father of the Maersk Alabama's second mate Shane Murphy, said in a statement that he "would like at this moment to send my warm regards to the Phillips family.

"Our prayers have been answered on this Easter Sunday. I have made it clear throughout this terrible ordeal that my son and my family will be indebted to Mr. Phillips for his bravery.

"If not for his sacrifice this kidnapping and act of terror could have ended up much worse."

The 20-crew ship had been bound for Mombasa, Kenya, carrying provisions for the UN World Food Programme, including 4,097 tonnes of soya and maize and 990 tonnes of cooking oil for vulnerable populations in Somalia, Uganda and Kenya, an official from the agency told AFP.

It docked safely in the port Saturday and its crew remain onboard while the FBI investigates Wednesday's attack.

BTW -- Historic Ogle family links with pirates. Word.

One of the most important stories going, probably

2009-04-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

Recession-hit US reels from violence surge

by Alex OgleThu Apr 2, 9:48 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A spate of high-profile mass killings in the United States in the past six months show the impact that the economic meltdown is having on rising violence, experts say.

The recession's fallout on victims of domestic violence is also being felt as donation-starved shelters fill to capacity and are forced to turn away abused women.

Criminologist Jack Levin says there is a clear link between the economy and rising body counts.

"A mass killer is someone who has almost always suffered a catastrophic loss -- that's the link between a recession and mass killings," he says, citing the loss of a job, the loss of a lot of money or the loss of a relationship.

With exact motives still being investigated, signs of troubled times were evident this week in a number of gruesome massacres across the country.

A heavily armed gunman shot dead eight people at a North Carolina nursing home, days after six people were killed in an apparent murder-suicide in an upscale neighborhood in northern California's Silicon Valley.

On Saturday US media reported a brutal scene discovered at a Boston home -- a man had stabbed to death his 17-year-old sister, decapitated his five-year-old sister and began stabbing another sister before being shot by police.

Direct correlations may not always immediately surface, but Levin, criminology professor at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, says the trends are clear.

"Catastrophic losses serve as inspiration, or precipitant," he told AFP.

In a severe recession there are simply more people suffering such a loss, he says.

In an economic downturn, the United States often sees "many more large-body-count murders -- on the job, in the family -- as many more Americans feel desperate in a situation they feel got completely out of control."

Mass killings are almost always "methodical and selective," says Levin, pointing to a similar spike in murders during the early 1990s US recession.

In that period "many workers were being laid off and the number of vengeful workers who killed their bosses skyrocketed.

"And too often these revenge-seeking ex-workers would not only kill their boss, but their co-workers as well."

After the economy unraveled in September and further nosedived into 2009, clusters of large body counts surfaced, linked to the sort of loss Levin describes.

In January a father apparently upset over the loss of his job shot dead his wife and five children before killing himself in a Los Angeles suburb.

In December a gunman dressed as Santa Claus stormed a Los Angeles home of his former in-laws on Christmas Eve and opened fire on his ex-wife and her family, killing nine people before killing himself.

In November a recently fired engineer in California killed three colleagues, and in October a 45-year-old man shot his wife, three children and mother-in-law before killing himself, reportedly because of financial woes.

Domestic abuse also increased during the early 1990s recession, says Levin, and it was clearly linked to the economy.

"Husbands, fathers dedicated to their families as breadwinners lost their jobs and felt they would never again have control over their families."

Cindy Southworth, director of the Safety Net Project at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, warns against labeling recessions as a time for more abuse.

"A bad economy doesn't cause domestic violence, just as a good economy doesn't cure domestic violence," she told AFP.

But Southworth says a bad economy "disproportionately impacts victims of domestic violence, and shelters that support them.

"If there is already domestic violence in a home, an abuser might have lost his job and is now home all day, as opposed to just the evenings. There's more risk time."

Chitra Raghavan, a psychology professor and domestic violence expert at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, says even if economic downturnsdon't cause abuse, they make an impact.

"In a recession, if you lose a job, you're not going to going to be able to find another job. That leads to a particular type of hopelessness, and that intensifies in a recession."

Abusers, nearly always men (as are the mass killers), can be "stuck in a cycle: unemployed, humiliated, distrustful, hopeless."

"Previous insecurities get worse, especially if the woman is working and he's not. Longstanding anger can erupt in these moments," says Raghavan.

Southworth says that because financial strings are tightened, shelters get less donations "as requests for help are skyrocketing," and crowded shelters are forced to turn women away.

"What makes it heartbreaking: the amount of courage it takes to call a stranger and say 'I'm in danger, I'm being battered by the person who I love, can you help me?' And then having to say to them 'we're so sorry, our shelter is full.'"

Sexy pirates threaten free speech

2009-04-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

University scraps porn after funding threat

by Alex OgleThu Apr 2, 7:04 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – An attempt to distract university students in Maryland from late-night drinking with a feature-length porn movie was blocked Thursday afterstate senators threatened to cut funds for the college.
The two-and-a-half-hour "Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge" -- the most expensive pornographic film ever made, at a cost of 10 million dollars -- would have been shown at a University of Maryland student union theater on Saturday.
Organizers at the College Park campus, 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Washington, had championed educational aspects of the screening, with health groupPlanned Parenthood planning to hold a presentation on safe sex practices beforehand.
The event was also previously seen by university officials as an "alternative to late-night drinking and other dangerous activities," the Baltimore Sun reported before the cancellation.
Republican state senator Andy Harris, however, proposed an amendment to the state budget to deny millions of dollars in funding for any educational institutionsthat screen a porn movie.
Harris said he had been "shocked and dismayed" to hear the college was going to screen the movie, and denounced what he described as the "dangers of pornography."
He said he was "extremely concerned that the policy of our public colleges and universities would allow 'hard core' pornography" to be shown.
"I am pleased to know that the university did the right thing and canceled this movie. However, I remain concerned that they do not have a policy prohibiting this," the senator said in a statement after the university reversed its decision.
Harris added he was "working to seek assurances that this will not happen again."
The Sun said that during a lengthy debate Thursday morning at the state legislature in Annapolis, Maryland, senate president Thomas Miller indicated he would back Harris' threat to cut millions of dollars in funding.
Linda Clement, the university's vice president of student affairs, denied the cancellation was linked to threats made by state lawmakers.
"No, we canceled the (showing) because the educational context of the movie has been lost in the titillation that's been associated with the movie itself," according to Clement's spokesman Millree Williams.
"That's hard to believe," responded Adam Kissel, director of the Individual Rights Defense Program at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education based inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania.
The university's claim, he said, was extremely unlikely because beforehand "university administrators had known about it, had expected it to go on and they had no problem with it."
Kissel said his education rights group was "very concerned" about the likely constitutional violation, namely the First Amendment that protects free speech.
"Strictly based on the plot and the trailer, the movie has plenty of action beyond the sexual action -- it has a plot, it has intrigue, just like any movie.
"So it's almost 100 percent certain that the university is violating the free speech rights of the students," said Kissel, noting that a First Amendment case was strengthened because of the educational component of Planned Parenthood's presentation.
Digital Playground, the adult film company behind "Pirates II," said on its website it had already shown the film to thousands of students on several college campuses this year, including the University of California, Los Angeles; Northwestern University in Chicago; and Southern Connecticut State University.
On-campus showings of X-rated movies such as "Behind the Green Door" and "Deep Throat" stirred sensation and controversy in the 1970s and 1980s, but porn has become commonplace on campuses over the past decade with virtually unlimited access to X-rated material via the Internet.

Subcommittee wanting

2009-03-10T09:47:00.001-07:00

Senators urged to reform USAID for Afghan fight

by Alex OgleWed Apr 1, 11:33 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The main US foreign aid agency needs urgent reform so it can address the threat of failed states and danger posed by instability inAfghanistan and Pakistan, a former USAID chief said Wednesday.
The United States Agency for International Development has to move beyond poverty reduction as a main goal because it is "insufficient as a mission alone for USAID (to address) threats facing America," said Andrew Natsios, who ran the agency from 2001 to 2005.
The agency's efforts need instead to be directed at confronting crumbling governments to deal with "state fragility and state failure," Natsios told a Senate foreign relations hearing.
He called for the agency's central focus to be reorganized in concert with defensive efforts, notably in Afghanistan and Pakistan, because collapsed countries are the major threat to US national security interests.
"Where was (Osama) bin Laden's headquarters before he fled to Afghanistan -- a failed state? It was in Sudan, another failed state, before that in Somalia, another failed state," said Natsios, who has also served as a special envoy to Sudan with a focus on the war-wracked region of Darfur.
Natsios urged the bipartisan panel to understand that the issues need to be dealt with "from a developmental standpoint."
Threats posed by instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan are "direct and grave challenges to our national security at home," agreed Steven Radelet, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Global Development.
Radelet told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing, titled "USAID In The 21st Century," that the agency should be directed in line with President Barack Obama's new strategy for the war effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Stability in these crucial areas will remain elusive unless development outcomes are achieved," he said, noting that key parts of Obama's strategy are "core development activities."
Delivering basic health and education services, introducing alternative sources of livelihoods for Afghan poppy growers, building infrastructure and "stimulatingrobust economic growth in the impoverished border regions of Pakistan that are home to extremists" are areas in which USAID's input would be invaluable, he argued.
Natsios and Radelet said that if USAID is to act effectively, it needs autonomy from the State Department, which centers on diplomacy and is not endowed with the technical expertise for directing development.
So long as USAID is under the wing of the State Department it "remains confused and dysfunctional," Natsios said.
"Having foreign aid programs run by 20 different federal agencies embarrasses the US government abroad," he added.
"Contradictory programming, endless transactional costs in program implementation, time delays, interagency fighting, and unclear decision making" contribute to a chaotic approach to development, he said.
The bulk of US economic aid has been administered by USAID since its inception at the height of the Cold War in 1961.
But Natsios blasted what he called "a focus on downsizing USAID's presence around the world" over the last 15 years.
Citing the agency's efforts at development amidst conflicts, he argued that "you cannot win a war by withdrawing from the battlefield, which is what we're doing now ... it is a disaster.
"No great power can maintain its preeminence without a robust foreign aid program," he said.
Reconstruction funding on Afghanistan aid since 2002, according to the Congressional Research Service, has amounted to some 32 billion dollars, including seven billion of development funding directly from USAID.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged on Monday, however, that the billions of dollars in US aid spent in Afghanistan to help the country recover from decades of war and failed governance have largely been a wasted effort.
"It's heartbreaking the amount of money that was spent ... and the failure of being able to produce results," she said on her flight to The Hague for an Afghanistan conference, according to US media.

Obama lifts veil on Bush-era terror methods

2009-03-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

by Alex OgleTue Mar 3, 11:10 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama's administration lifted the veil further Monday on past "war on terror" tactics, releasing Bush-era legal memos and revealing the CIA destroyed 92 controversial interrogation videos.

Hours after Attorney General Eric Holder ruled out the use of waterboarding as an interrogation technique -- because it amounted to torture -- his Justice Departmentreleased nine internal documents from the previous administration, which had given legal grounding to the controversial policies.

In further repudiation of president George W. Bush's anti-terror methods acting US Attorney Lev Dassin formally identified the number of tapes destroyed -- a far greater number than the CIA has admitted to.

In correspondence with a New York judge, who is hearing a case against the intelligence agency by a human rights group, Dassin asked the court to give the CIA until Friday to prepare any records on the tapes that were destroyed, as well as a list of possible witnesses.

The legal documents -- the first dating from shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks and spanning until the months following the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq -- detail how Bush gave himself power over terror suspects.

"The power to dispose of the liberty of individuals captured ... remain in the hands of the president alone," said a 2002 opinion written by then-assistant attorney general John Yoo on US methods for transferring suspects.

"Congress may no more regulate the president's ability to detain and interrogate enemy combatants than it may regulate his ability to direct troop movements," according to another 2003 opinion written for Alberto Gonzales, then counsel for Bush, which detailed prerogatives for military interrogations.

In another potentially explosive opinion, the Bush administration also gave itself ample room to skirt international law.

The president's "power to suspend treaties is wholly discretionary," according to a memo for John Bellinger, who was then legal advisor to the National Security Council.

Obama's Justice Department said the self-applied boundaries for executive power gave the White House "unconstrained discretion to suspend treaty obligations of the United States at any time and for any reason."

The house-cleaning move comes as Obama's administration seeks to distance itself from Bush-era policies.

"Waterboarding is torture," Holder said earlier Monday, in a speech to the Jewish Council of Public Affairs. "My Justice Department will not justify it, will not rationalize it and will not condone it," he said.

"The use and sanction of torture is at odds with the history of American jurisprudence and American values."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which brought a case against the Central Intelligence Agency in December 2007, said Dassin's letter confirming the number of tapes provided "further evidence for holding the CIA in contempt of court."

In a statement ACLU staff attorney Amrit Singh said the "large number of videotapes destroyed confirms that the agency engaged in a systemic attempt to hide evidence of its illegal interrogations and to evade the court's order."

Holder is currently leading a review of the treatment of terror suspects.

Obama ordered the review as one of his first acts in office, as he also ordered the closing of the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention center, the CIA's secret prisons abroad and special interrogation authorities for terror detainees.

In an executive order, Obama required that all interrogations conducted at US facilities worldwide follow the US Army field manual, which bars the use of waterboarding -- a form of simulated drowning -- and other harsh interrogation techniques.

"Living our values doesn't make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger," Obama told a joint session of Congress in a primetime address last month.

"That is why I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture."

Many detainees at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have been held there for years without trial. Some 240 inmates remain.

More than 800 detainees have passed through Guantanamo since it was opened on January 11, 2002, as a place to ship suspects in the "war on terror" begun by Bush in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Tax Marijuana?

2009-03-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

US states mull weed to ease deficit pain

By Alex Ogle -- Mar 1, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Amid grim news of record deficits unveiled in the US budget, marijuana advocates are welcoming legislation in US states they say could blossom into billions of dollars in tax revenue.

San Francisco state lawmaker Tom Ammiano introduced a bill last Monday projecting a 14-billion-dollar tax base for the full retail treatment -- buying, selling and growing cannabis.

The leading legalization advocacy group behind Ammiano's bill, Washington-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), says recession is prompting otherwise skeptical state houses to revisit the ban on marijuana.

Over the last few months NORML has been drafted to work with state lawmakers -- even in conservative locales like Texas -- on budgetary analysis and review how legalization may enable governments fill yawning deficits.

"Cannabis for adult recreation, cannabis for medical use, cannabis as an industrial crop, and (the drug's) related paraphernalia are extremely popular and should be taxed and properly regulated," NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre told AFP. "It's just that simple."

Ammiano's bill used the most conservative estimates from NORML's analysis, he added.

On the west coast, no other cash crop comes close.

At the current consumption rate, California would likely "produce a tax base of up to 20 billion dollars per annum," according to St. Pierre.

Dispensaries in California -- retail outlets throughout the state where medical marijuana patients buy weed -- can take up to 50,000 dollars a day, he said. "This should make your eyes pop wide open if you're a financial commissioner."

But legalization opponent Eric Voth is worried "the number of people who will start using or worsen their habit because of the lack of legal constraints is going to cost the system far more than what might be generated through taxation."

Voth, chairman of the Institute on Global Drug Policy, contends marijuana advocates are "happy to lie to the public" about the gains of their proposals, with an end goal of cannabis legalization "at any cost."

Longtime law enforcement lobbyist John Lovell, who represents the California Police Chiefs' Associations and the California Narcotic Officers Association, also raises questions. Ammiano's bill won't put the illicit marijuana market out of business, won't raise much money and will prompt an exponential growth in usage, he said.

"The last thing we need is yet another lawful product that impairs our ability to use our five senses," he contended, adding: "It makes no public policy sense."

Some 115 million Americans already live in the 13 states where marijuana is decriminalized to some degree.

The state of Alaska and Denver, Colorado, have zero possession penalties for small amounts and "are functional, their people are moral, their children are sane," according to St. Pierre.

Using marijuana should be within the ambit of choices adults can make, he insisted.

In 2005 Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron sent an academic open letter to then president George W. Bush calling for the drug to be legalized.

Miron acknowledges his wake-up call -- "The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition" -- may not be considered more seriously in 2009, however, even in the wake of economic collapse.

"But, if you look back at the history of alcohol prohibition, people absolutely did cite the need for tax revenue, at the beginning of the Great Depression, as a main reason to change their minds," St. Pierre said.

NORML highlights how marijuana's production costs amount to almost nothing and that consumers are prepared to pay 300-500 dollars an ounce.

"At the very most, indoors, it can cost some 30 dollars to produce an ounce ... and people are willing to pay 25 dollars for a gram," he said.

"Even if one has strong moral feelings against cannabis, those working on today?s fiscal policy have to be excited about what humans are prepared to pay for dried vegetable matter," said St. Pierre.

Three national polls this year revealed increasing numbers of Americans support legalization, with a Rasmussen survey finding 40 percent support, CBS News finding 41 percent in favor, and a Zogby survey conducted on behalf of NORML showing 44 percent support.

Nate Silver, of leading polling analysis website www.fivethirtyeight.com, says the results, which all break the 40 percent threshold, are significant because every past poll never topped the 36 percent mark.

Twenty years ago the figure was below 20 percent.

"Ghandi said 'First they ignore you, then they mock you, they fight you, and then you win.' Now, with the economic situation, many people aren't ignoring us," marveled St. Pierre. "Funnily enough, they're not mocking us either."

Cartel operatives snagged

2009-03-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

Massive drug sweep nets 750 arrests: US

Wed Feb 25, 10:09 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US and Mexican authorities have arrested 750 people over 21 months in an anti-drug sweep, including 52 members of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel who were detained, Attorney General Eric Holder said.

The cartel members were arrested as part of an "international narcotics trafficking and money-laundering investigation called Operation Xcellerator," Holder told a press conference.

The operation -- which investigated crimes in the United States, Mexico and Canada -- netted some 59 million dollars in cash, 12,000 kilos (12 tonnes) of cocaine, 544 kilos (1,200 pounds) of methamphetamine and 1.3 million Ecstasy pills.

"An operation of that scope and magnitude can only be effective with combined forces against the enemy," Holder said, praising cooperation between agencies and governments in the investigation.

Asked by a reporter whether he was worried violence from the world of Mexican drug runners could spill over to US cities and towns, Holder admitted he was "concerned.

"The problems that Mexico faces are also problems that we face," stressed the attorney general.

"We would be naive to think that we can restrict the concerns that the Mexicans have to only Mexico, that the violence will only be there."

The bloody war between rival cartels, fighting for control of drug trafficking into the United States, the world's biggest consumer of cocaine, has produced internal chaos in Mexico.

Unrest related to the drug trade has caused the violent deaths of some 5,300 people throughout the country last year alone, according to official figures, despite a government crackdown that saw the deployment of nearly 36,000 troops.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration's Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, speaking alongside Holder, said the investigation unveiled the scope of the cartel's international network, including a "super meth lab that is so sophisticated we've seen none like it anywhere."

The raids uncovered drug factory machines able to produce 12,000 ecstasy tablets an hour, Leonhart added.

The operation not only took out cartel operatives in larger US cities such as New York and Los Angeles, but in smaller towns like Lancaster, Pennsylvania andBrockton, Massachusetts.

Over the course of a few years, Leonhart said, the northeastern Ohio town of Stow, a relatively sleepy urban region of 35,000 residents, became a hotspot for international drug runners.

"Just underneath the surface of this peaceful city, the Sinaloa cartel had been sending cocaine through this community's local airport," she revealed.

The traffickers regularly ferried dozens of kilos (pounds) of cocaine from California to Stow, she said.

"This cocaine ended up not just on the streets of larger cities like Cleveland and Columbus but also in surrounding small towns and onto the campuses of the schools in the region.

The operation, however, effectively "shut down" drug cartel networks throughout North America, Leonhart added.

"The DEA will continue attacking the international drug trade with every tool at our disposal, fighting to defeat those who put deadly drugs on our streets and engage in violence in our communities," she vowed.

At the end of last year, the DEA said their operations to clamp down on production and supply routes over the preceding 21 months substantially impacted drug quality and cost within the United States.

The price of a gram of cocaine in the United States from January 2007 to September 2008 soared 89 percent, from 96.61 dollars to 182.73 dollars, the anti-drug agency said.

An analysis of 24,000 drug busts across the country, found that cocaine purity dropped during the same period, from 67 percent to 46 percent, the DEA said.

Obama task force determine fate of terror detainees

2009-03-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

by Alex Ogle

Fri Feb 20, 6:46 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama's administration stepped up efforts Friday to shut the Guantanamo prison, appointing a former federal prosecutor to determine the fate of the controversial camp's remaining prisoners.

The "Guantanamo Detainee Review Task Force," led by former Department of Justice official Matthew Olson, was announced by Attorney General Eric Holder days before his visit to the war-on-terror detention facility.

Olsen's team is to consolidate all the disparate information held by numerous branches of the US government on 240 remaining detainees -- and to determine what do with those who cannot be released or prosecuted.

After deciding if a detainee can be released or transferred to another country, the task force is to determine if it is feasible to pursue a prosecution in a court under US laws.

And in the most difficult category, a legal quagmire for the Obama administration, the Guantanamo review is to determine what to do with remaining detainees who cannot be transferred, released or prosecuted.

For these people the task force will "select lawful means ... for the disposition of such individuals," according to Obama's executive order, which does not elaborate on what could be done with the men.

The move follows Obama's executive order on January 22 to close the US naval base prison in southwest Cuba within a year.

At the time the newly inaugurated Obama set a determined tone to unleash fundamental political reform on how the United States handles Al-Qaeda and other militant suspects. He said the "war on terror" would no longer continue with a "false choice between our safety and our ideals."

More than 800 men and teenagers have passed through Guantanamo since it was opened on January 11, 2002, as a place to ship suspects in the "war on terror" begun by Obama's predecessor George W. Bush in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

As a leader of the Department of Justice National Security Division and a 12-year career as federal prosecutor, Olsen "has the experience and judgement to lead the team's evaluation of these individual cases," Holder said in a statement.

"We've established a solid framework for the administration to make the right decision on each individual detainee -- decisions that will most effectively serve the interests of justice and the national security and foreign policy objectives of the United States," he said.

Earlier Friday the Pentagon announced it had completed a review ordered by Obama examining conditions at Guantanamo to ensure inmates are held in keeping with the Geneva Conventions and other laws.

The Defense Department has always maintained the detainees have been held under humane and lawful conditions, but human rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns that the United States violated its legal obligations by holding large numbers of the inmates in extreme isolation.

Fordham Law Professor Martha Rayner, who represents several Guantanamo detainees, called on Holder and other department officials Friday to "talk to the men that are locked up there."

Other politicians and government officials have visited the camp since its opening, but have only taken "the stock tour orchestrated by prison officials," she said.

Visitors will not be able to grasp the "truth of Guantanamo" if they do not talk to detainees who have experienced "torture, so-called 'harsh interrogation techniques' and being at the mercy of interrogators to obtain something as basic as a blanket," she said.

The legal quandary experienced by detainees that are not released or prosecuted troubles many rights groups.

When Obama signed the executive order, Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called on the US government to deal with the remaining prisoners in accordance with international law.

But, he said, "if the federal government cannot secure conviction with its vast resources and eight years of intelligence-gathering, then the American way requires that those individuals who are not convicted of a crime must be released."

Security concerns were raised late last month after it emerged a former inmate identified as Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri had been elevated to the senior ranks ofAl-Qaeda in Yemen.

The Defense Department acknowledged that as many as 61 former Guantanamo detainees -- about 11 percent of 520 detainees transferred from the detention center and released -- are believed to have returned to engage in terrorist activity.

Locke = Spearhead

2009-03-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

Locke: Son of immigrants with eye on US-China trade

Gary Locke, the first Chinese-American governor in US history.

by Alex Ogle
Washington (AFP) Feb 25, 2009
Gary Locke, the first Chinese-American governor in US history, picked Wednesday by President Barack Obama as his commerce secretary, could help spearhead trade with economic giant China.

If confirmed -- after Obama's two previous high-profile picks for the cabinet post stepped aside amid controversy -- Locke's experience as governor will likely prove invaluable, as Washington and Beijing continue to iron out trade disputes caused by China's meteoric rise.

As a two-time leader of Washington state on the Pacific northwest coast, Locke embarked on many trade missions to China and Taiwan, meeting then-president Jiang Zemin and building ties with current president Hu Jintao.

He even established a trade representative in Guangzhou, a booming provincial capital in southern China.

Locke's visits introduced numerous companies from Washington state to China, and helped more than double the state's exports to China to top five dollars billion per year.

"Gary will be a trusted voice in my cabinet," Obama promised in introducing the 59-year-old as his commerce pick at a press conference.

Locke will be "a tireless advocate for our economic competitiveness, and an influential ambassador for American industry who will help us do everything we can -- especially now -- to promote it around the world," said Obama.

Locke's background -- he would be the third Asian-American in Obama's cabinet after Steven Chu as Energy Secretary and Eric Shinseki at Veterans' Affairs -- will also likely inform his future role overseeing the next decennial census in 2010.

Many Democrats believe the critical survey, used for everything from long-term infrastructure planning to budget allowances, fails to count properly immigrants, minorities and low-income Americans.

Born into an immigrant family, Locke's personal history roots him in both the American experience and his Chinese ancestral home.

His grandfather arrived in the United States a century ago by steamship from Taishan in Guangdong province, and worked as a servant.

Obama praised Locke's heritage by describing it in terms of the "American story."

The president recalled how Locke's grandfather had no family in the United States and did not speak English. However, he "found work as a servant and purpose in a dream."

Locke's family settled in the Seattle area, with Locke spending his formative years living in Seattle's Yesler Terrace -- America's first racially-integrated housing project.

The son of a grocery store owner, Locke earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the prestigious Yale University, thanks to a combination of "part-time jobs, financial aid and scholarships," according to his web site.

He later served as a deputy county prosecutor before being elected to Washington State's House of Representatives.

Between 1989 and 1994 he served as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and was responsible for overseeing the state budget. In 1996, he was elected governor with 58 percent of the vote.

While governor, Locke was seen as a rising star of the Democratic party, giving the party's response to then president George W Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, highlighting "education, hard work, responsibility and family" as his sustaining values.

He is married to Mona Lee Locke, a former television reporter who has focused on education issues as Washington's first lady. The couple has three children.

A fiscal conservative, Locke described the Bush tax-cuts -- which reduced levies on families earning more than 250,000 dollars a year -- as "irresponsible" and advocated tax relief for the middle class.

Since leaving office Locke has retained close ties with China. He is a member of the Committee of 100, a group of prominent Chinese-Americans who promote links between the United States and "greater China."

He is currently a partner at the Davis, Wright, Tremaine law firm, where he co-chairs its China practice and is "active in the firm's governmental relations practice," according to the Committee of 100.

There are now 14 million Asian-Americans, making up five percent of the total US population. Their number is expected to nearly triple in 2050 to 41 million, government figures show.

200-years-old

2009-02-03T17:28:00.001-08:00

The Galapagos Islands: Darwin's natural lab

February 05 2009 at 06:43AM

The Galapagos Islands were to Charles Darwin what the legendary falling apple was to Isaac Newton, experts say.

The volcanic archipelago in the east Pacific Ocean, 970km west of Ecuador, did no less than inspire Darwin's theories on biological evolution that revolutionised humanity's understanding of Planet Earth.

A 26-year-old Darwin, whose birth bicentennial is celebrated on February 12, visited the islands in 1835 during his historic voyage aboard the British Beagle vessel, and copiously studied its myriad endemic species.

The young biologist's stay was to consume his life's work. Darwin's 1859 scientific masterpiece "On the Origin of Species" grew almost entirely out of the fledgling evolutionary theories he began constructing on Galapagos' plants and animals.

"If true that Newton was inspired by the falling apple to develop the principle of gravity, it could also be said that the islands were decisive for Darwin's evolutionary theory," said Carlos Valle, who heads the biology department at Quito's San Francisco University and is a renowned expert on Galapagos animal life.

On the unique islands, Valle told AFP, the young Darwin "found the best evidence" to develop the theories of natural selection as he studied how species had adapted to their environment over million of years.

On the archipelago, comprised of 13 larger islands and 17 islets, Darwin "noted that environmental conditions vary little from one island to another, but that these differences influenced the size of beaks in birds from the same species, depending on the type of seed found in their surroundings," Valle said.

Therefore, Darwin discovered that "in a relatively small area there could 14 types of the same bird species, and its variations were related to the environment where it was raised," he added.

"Darwin travelled to many places around the world, but in Galapagos he found a unique situation: the islands' birds appeared identical, but he realised the differences between them depended on where they were," confirmed Matthias Wolff, a director at Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands (CDF).

The islands "are not the main theme in 'Origin of Species', but his trip here was very important -- you could say they were the key to his understanding of evolution" said Wolff.

Galapagos was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site three decades ago, but has been identified as a site where invasive species and tourism are taking a toll on preservation.

In 2006 the CDF launched a ten year strategic plan that identifies "major hurdles that must be overcome" for Galapagos, which it calls "a global icon of conservation and evolutionary history."

The plan to conserve the site involves attempts to rid the site of invasive species and manage the burgeoning tourist trade.

Inauguration #1

2009-02-03T17:22:00.000-08:00

Epic day on the freezing mall

After gathering before dawn in the heart of the nation, some two million people erupted in joyous celebration Tuesday to hail President Barack Obama, praying he will usher in a better new world.

"Obama is the person we need at this time, at this point in history," said 74-year-old John Saunders, who brushed off two hip replacements and the biting cold to attend the inauguration. As a college basketball player in the mid-1950s in the deep south, Saunders remembered when he and teammates would stop at highway service stations and ask for restrooms. "We'd be told 'no, not for coloreds.'"

Today however, watching Obama take the oath of office, Saunders said with a big grin: "This is a realization of a dream."

Earlier, as a dark blue early morning sky hung over downtown Washington, DC at 5am, the normally sleepy capital resembled burgeoning tent city, almost like urban east Asia, with food and clothing stalls springing up on staid streets amid wafting sweet smells of meat cooking on grills.

The crowds started to arrive aboard packed subway trains rolling towards the city; bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived and aching with cold, they rode in from the outer suburbs in Maryland and Virginia. And then bundled up in several layers, they streamed by foot down the city's wide avenues, single-mindedly moving in one direction.

Adding to the surreally transformed areas around K street -- Washington's lobbyist centre -- hard security barriers turned civilian streets to look like post-disaster zones. Military hummer trucks blocked-off cross streets and police, secret service and army reservists stood guard everywhere.

Tight security and bitter chills of at least minus 10 celsius didn't put off the joyous atmosphere, however, as a tide of humanity flooded the city's National Mall.

"We were in the holding pen for a good couple of hours. Mashed in like sardines," observed Pamela Jones, 58, of the crushing crowds."When we finally got through it really was, free at last, free at last."

For African Americans especially, the extraordinary day -- a singular moment in the history of any country -- was one to marvel at. "I was in awe. You could see, we were all chanting an African man's name, in the capital, in a country where Africans were brought over as slaves," said Rosalind Campbell, 35, from Brooklyn.

"We couldn't stop crying. We don't cry much in our family, apart from when things get tough, and we don't have enough money you know ... but I couldn't stop crying."

Obama embodies "the legacy of those African slaves," she said.

"To walk around and see my elders experience this moment. I cried for now, and I cried for them, out of appreciation of the groundwork they laid."

Later at one of the 10 official inaugural balls, Obama's entrance was greeted by a wild audience, who listened to his speech in rapt silence and later cheered as Barack and his wife Michelle slow-danced to an Air Force brass band version of Etta James' "At Last."

"That's what you call Old School," Obama said afterward.

Speaking on his theme of getting younger generations involved in community service, and reaching out to their neighbours for the renewal of the American dream, Obama touched such a nerve that what had been a great party already -- with a stonking performance by Kanye West -- into something more. It turned into a patriotic love-fest, as the country's 44th president inspired the 1000 onlookers to work towards a better future.

Right after Obama finished his remarks, Sean Marfaire, 27, from Washington, DC was ecstatic, and he said, laughing: "I need a drink and a cigarette. I feel like I had just sex with America.

Inauguration #2

2009-01-14T12:41:00.000-08:00

Joyous crowds celebrate dawning of Obama era

by Karin Zeitvogel and Alex OgleWed Jan 21, 12:22 am ET

WASHINGTON, (AFP) – With tears and cheers and hope for a better future, more than two million people filled the streets of Washington in a joyous celebration of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the United States.

"This is a realization of a dream, ever since I was part of the civil rights movement. Obama is the person we need at this time, at this point in history," said 74-year-old John Saunders, who brushed off two hip replacements and the biting cold to attend the inauguration.

"You could feel the energy in the crowd, it was in the air. It's bigger than anything I've ever been a part of," said Jovan Mayfield, 18, who traveled from New York to join a human tide flooding the National Mall and the parade route to the White House.

The rejoicing was accompanied by a sense of relief that the tumultuous and divisive eight years of the George W. Bush presidency were finally over.

"People are ready for change," Mayfield told AFP. "People are ready for this, they're ready for this country to be greater than it's ever been."

Just before Obama took the oath of office, the strains of Aretha Franklin singing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" reverberated around the steps of the white Capitol building, which glistened in the bright winter sunshine.

The crowd hushed and tears streamed down many faces as the "Queen of Soul's" voice swelled to wrap them in an emotional blanket of music.

"I was in awe. You could see, we were all chanting an African man's name, in the capital, in a country where Africans were brought over as slaves," said Rosalind Campbell, 35, from Brooklyn.

"We couldn't stop crying. We don't cry much in our family, apart from when things get tough, and we don't have enough money ... but I couldn't stop crying."

An estimated 350,000 people lined the parade route from the Capitol to the White House and those who were lucky enough to see Obama and first lady Michelle leave their armored limousine and walk part of the route erupted in wild cheers.

After pausing briefly inside the White House, Obama and his family returned to watch the parade from a massive glassed-in reviewing stand.

Michelle Obama was overheard telling a well-wisher: "We're here! We're home!"

The day began early for the crowds who were aching with cold despite being bundled up in several layers, with the first packed subway trains rolling toward Washington at 4:00 am.

Bleary-eyed and sleep-deprived, they rode in from the outer suburbs in Maryland and Virginia and streamed by foot down the city's wide avenues, a human flood cheerfully but single-mindedly moving in one direction.

"It's a milestone in race relations in the US," said Fred Phillips, 62.

"We're still not completely there but we can't go back. The hopes from my ancestors have been realized, the efforts have been rewarded and the prayers have been answered."

Despite the day's long wait, the packed crowds and the worst economic problems facing the nation since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the air crackled with hope and optimism.

"I think Obama and his administration are going to electrify, bolster and solidify all the dreams and aspirations in America," said Patrick Kearns, 47, fromCharleston, West Virginia.

"We need to be better neighbors in the world."

Even those who did not get ringside seats and had to watch from hundreds of meters away on one of the huge video screens set up along the lawns stretching between the Capitol and Lincoln Memorial were overjoyed just to be there.

"We woke up at 3:00 but it's worth it. I think it's history on its way. We just want to be there celebrating," said Mary Lloyd.

The streets resembled a burgeoning tent city with food stalls springing up in the middle of the road and the smell of cooking meat on grills.

Several hundred street vendors sold a huge array of Obamabilia, including buttons, shirts, winter hats, posters and calendars, license plate holders, costume jewelry and watches.

Military trucks blocked off civilian streets, as police and reservists manned concrete barriers on every corner. Entire highways were empty and then turning a corner, the crowds suddenly began.

The tight security net proved confusing for many, and some waited hours to secure a spot along the route of the parade that accompanied Obama and his family to the White House.

"We were in the holding pen for a good couple of hours. Mashed in like sardines," said Pamela Jones, 58, from White Plains, New York. "When we finally got through it really was, free at last, free at last."

Obama brings the cool points?

2009-01-12T22:01:00.000-08:00

(Photo: AFP)

Can Obama make Washington the capital of cool?

by Alex Ogle1 hr 1 min ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Soon-to-be US president Barack Obama shoulders the hopes of millions, but there is one important wish his neighbors in Washington are hoping will be granted -- to make the capital cool again.

The District of Columbia, the site of so much flux in American history, is used to change.

"Every four years in DC there's a chance to take a deep breath and start over," historian Robert Watson told AFP.

And Obama, who won the 2008 election propelled by a mandate of change, could significantly "invigorate the mood" of the capital, according to Watson, director of American Studies at Florida's Lynn University.

Watson, who has authored more than 20 books on American history, sees distinct parallels between Obama's ascension and the arrival in office of John F. Kennedy in 1960.

When Kennedy won the keys to the White House, Washington's social scene had been neglected for decades. He brought with him a "jovial party atmosphere," Watson said.

Similarly the dapper, charismatic Obama may tap into expectations that he can revitalize the district after Bush, who has kept a decidedly low-profile on the social scene.

The country's first basketball-playing president could also serve as a figurehead for a city, long forgotten by Hollywood stars.

"Obama will reinvigorate not only the country as a whole, but DC in particular," said 26-year-old Rich Homann, a server at Korean restaurant Mandu in chic Dupont Circle.

His "progressive outlook should serve to attract our country's best, brightest and coolest," he said hopefully.

Local fashion blogger Rachel Cothran said Washington has been "well on its way to being cool for a while now," but that Obama's triumph "turned on the spotlight for the rest of the world to see."

"There is a real sense here that this is DC's moment. Everyone who is trying to start a business or make a name for themselves feels that the time is now, that you can't dally," she said.

"Obama's message of progress and change seemed to speak directly to the renaissance happening here. There was a tremendous amount bubbling right beneath the surface, and now it has just exploded."

Only six days after arriving in the capital, Obama connected with his new neighbors by eating Saturday lunch at Ben's Chili Bowl, a landmark Washington eatery -- "Black owned and operated since 1958," as it proclaims on the menu.

Long-time Ben's customer Earl Jenkins, 60, expects Obama to have a big impact on the community.

Washingtonians connect with "his message of hope for things to get better," said Jenkins.

Ben's, located on the historic U Street corridor which suffered looting and rioting after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, sits at a crossroad of change, as gentrification from nearby Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle creeps further east.

Washington's gentrification "has been going on for years," noted Javier Rivas, owner and operator of the Modern Times Coffeehouse at the venerable Politics & Prose Bookstore in northwest DC.

"More and more people are being kicked out" of their homes, he said, with the district experiencing a profound demographic shift as historically black urban communities are pushed further out by soaring rent prices.

Rivas lamented that the district's focus is "never about the people who actually live here," unlike the culture of other 'cool' American cities, such as San Franciscoor New York.

With the city in perpetual flux due to the comings-and-goings of government work, Washington is always about "the people who come here and then leave."

"The rest of the DC population gets forgotten," said Rivas.

Compared to other parts of the United States, Rivas noted however, Washington exists in a bubble that has weathered the economic crisis remarkably well.

According to Forbes Magazine's 2009 list of best US cities for job growth, Washington's employment prospects are certainly attractive, with the area expected to add 30,000 jobs this year in education alone.

With this outlook and rapt world attention as the Obamas come to town, there is hope that some of the benefits could trickle-down to the district's underprivileged.

Obama's inauguration could be a key ingredient in combatting some of the city's problems such as crime and the school dropout rate, Watson said.

He has the potential to be "such a powerful force" for DC's poorer communities, for "school attendance, on disruptive behavior (in schools), even the morale of teachers." It's something to watch over the years, he said.

Illinois' newest senator, asks what scandal??

2009-01-12T21:53:00.000-08:00

Democrat vying to replace Obama turned away from Senate

Tuesday, January 6 09:50 pm

Alex Ogle

Top Democrats symbolically barred the Senate door Tuesday to the man chosen by Illinois's scandal-tainted governor to fill president-elect Barack Obama's seat, in the latest twist of a bizarre political sideshow.Skip related content

"My credentials were not in order and will not be accepted," said Roland Burris, standing with his lawyers before a media scrum in freezing rain across the street from the Capitol building in Washington.

Burris, 71, was picked last week to fill Obama's vacant seat by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was arrested in December for alleged corruption, including seeking to sell the seat to the highest bidder.

Because his appointment has not been signed by the Illinois secretary of state as required by Senate rules, Burris's credentials were rejected by US Senate Secretary Nancy Erickson.

The frenzy surrounding Burris's appointment is an unwelcome distraction for Obama and Democrats, whose top priority in the new Congress is pushing for swift action on a huge economic stimulus package, worth at least 750 billion dollars.

But on the day lawmakers were sworn in to take their seats in the 111th Congress, Burris said that, for now, he was not looking for a public fight with top Democrats, namely Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"I am not seeking to have any type of confrontation," Burris told dozens of jostling reporters and photographers, who had followed him and his security entourage in steady rain from his hotel to Capitol Hill.

After his appointee was rejected, Blagojevich said the "people of Illinois are entitled to be represented by two senators" adding he had fulfilled his duty as governor in filling the vacant spot.

"Any allegations against me should not be held against him and especially not the people of Illinois," Blagojevich said in a statement.

Burris, a veteran African-American Illinois statesman, has found little support from fellow Democrats in Washington over the past week, while his supporters have made thinly veiled charges of racism over the situation.

If his appointment is accepted, Burris would replace Obama as the only African-American in the 100-seat Senate.

Obama, who resigned his seat after winning the November 4 presidential election, has backed the Senate leadership by saying he regrets Burris's appointment and has called on Blagojevich to resign.

Speaking to reporters outside the Capitol, Burris's lawyer Timothy Wright said there were several options now, including further negotiations with top senators or challenging the decision in the courts.

Wright even questioned the legal foundation for Burris being barred from the Senate floor or taking the oath of office.

"All of which we think was improperly done. And it is against the law of this land," Wright said.

Burris will remain in Washington until he can "deliberate with the Senate leadership and perhaps get them to reverse themselves," added Wright.

Reid, speaking to a virtually empty Senate chamber later Tuesday, described Burris's meetings at the Capitol as "gracious," but confirmed Burris had not been "in possession of the necessary credentials."

Burris's attorneys however cited a "200, 300-year-old case" as a precedent, with Wright telling reporters: "From that we have determined that senator Roland Burris is the junior senator from the state of Illinois."

CNN reported that a deal could be in the making between Democratic lawmakers and Burris that would have him take the Senate seat as long as he vows not to run for office in the 2010 legislative elections.

Magic corn?

2009-01-12T21:52:00.000-08:00

Monsanto says drought-tolerant corn ready for 2010

Wednesday, January 7 10:22 pm

Alex Ogle

Agrichemical giant Monsanto hailed Wednesday a significant step in creating a drought-tolerant corn to be available as early as 2010, in a move decried as "misleading" by a public health watchdog.Skip related content

The genetically modified (GM) corn, which Monsanto says will "reset the bar" in farming productivity, has moved to the fourth and final stage of development and could reach commercial usage within two years, the company said.

"Drought-tolerant corn is designed to provide farmers yield stability during periods when water supply is scarce by mitigating the effects of drought -- or water stress -- within a corn plant," Monsanto said in a statement.

By some accounts, however, the corn's real-world benefits are negligible.

"With GM crops there's a tremendous amount of hype and misinformation," said Bill Freese, a science analyst at the Washington-based Center for Food Safety, an environmental and public health organization.

The drought-tolerant corn is the first in a series of crops to be released over the next decade that aim to enable "farmers to produce more on each acre of farmland while minimizing the input of energy and resources such as water," Monsanto said.

But the seed manipulation needed to create drought-tolerance comes at a huge cost, according to Freese.

"They're finding the corn that does a little bit better under drought conditions does a lot worse than other varieties when rainfall is adequate," he said.

As such, he said, the drought-tolerant crop is "trading off yield under good conditions for marginal improvement under drought conditions. And that's a huge issue they haven't come near to overcoming."

But Michael Wach, head of Science and Regulatory Affairs at the Biotechnology Industry Organization, argued it would be untenable for a company to develop a GM crop for commercial use that only performs under a narrow set of circumstances.

"As a product nears final commercialism the developer tests that product under a wide variety of climatic circumstances and wide variety of locations, over years, so they can tell the grower, look, it's going to grow well for you in your area," he said.

Monsanto said trials of its corn conducted last year in the drought-prone American midwest "met or exceeded the six percent to 10 percent target yield enhancement."

"This product and other yield improvements we are developing will reset the bar for on-farm productivity," said Monsanto biotechnology chief Steve Padgette.

How much the developments could benefit farmers in drought-prone developing countries is debatable, said Freese.

And even if "technical feasibility issues were overcome, the seeds with GM traits in them would still remain prohibitively, extremely expensive," he said.

Almost all the world's GM crops are planted in developed countries, he noted, with more than 70 percent being grown in just two countries, the United States and Argentina.

Most GM crops able to withstand environmental stress -- such as lack of water -- are not geared toward developing countries, he said, whose subsistence farmers face daily battles with climate change and rising global food prices.

Indeed, most GM crops are used as animal feed to supply rich nations with meat, noted Freese.

A GM crop able to cope under different circumstances would be beneficial for farmers in developing countries, Wach argued however.

"No matter where you are in the world, having a plant that can withstand (environmental stresses) is a good thing," he said.

"When you are at the whims of the environment, then having those sort of crops can make the difference between having a crop that feeds you and your family, or feeding you and your family and having some left over, or having nothing at all."

Monsanto's product, created in collaboration with the German-based plant biotechnology specialist BASF, has been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for regulatory clearance.

Worldwide cereal production set a new record in 2008 at 2.24 billion tons, a 5.4 percent increase over last year, the United Nations food agency said last month.

Food prices in developing countries meanwhile remain high, affecting the "food security of large numbers of vulnerable populations," according to a report from the Rome-based agency.

Obama coming to town

2009-01-12T21:51:00.000-08:00

Obamas relocate to start new life

BY ALEX OGLE
IN WASHINGTON

5/01/2009 1:00:00 AM

US President-elect Barack Obama and his family arrived in Washington at the weekend, in time for him to work on an urgent economic recovery plan and his daughters to start classes at their new school.

After less than 48 hours in their south Chicago home after their luxury Hawaii Christmas holiday, Mr Obama's wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, flew to Washington late on Saturday, a transition aide confirmed.

Mr Obama was to join his family yesterday, two weeks before he is sworn in as the 44th American president on January 20.

The Obamas are moving temporarily into the historic Hay-Adams Hotel in downtown Washington, which overlooks their new home at the White House on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It was unclear why the family were travelling separately.

Sasha and Malia begin classes today at the exclusive Sidwell Friends School, as the President-elect heads to meetings on Capitol Hill to hammer out the final points of a recovery package in a bid to turn around the country's crumbling economy.

The private, Quaker-run Sidwell has long been the choice for presidential offspring the school counts former president Bill Clinton's daughter Chelsea and president Richard Nixon's daughters among its alumni.

Before moving to the president's official guest home, Blair House, on January 15, the Obama family can enjoy their transition to the Beltway in style they are expected to stay in one of the hotel's luxury suites which cost $US6000 ($A8500) a night.

Built in 1928, the luxury residence is separated from the White House only by Lafayette Square, a grassy square block.

Apart from a November 10 White House meeting with President George W.Bush, Mr Obama has largely avoided Washington since his historic election as the first African-American US president on November 4.

Most of his time during the transition period was spent in Chicago.

After their 13-day getaway at a $A12.8million rental home in Kailua, Hawaii, the Obama family can expect similar world-class luxury at the Hay-Adams.

Its lavish rooms include custom Italian bed linens and towels, goose-down duvet and pillows, a Bose CD system with CDs, Fiji water and Etro toiletries.

Mr Obama's agenda, however, may be too stacked in the lead-up to his inauguration for him to relax too much.

Mr Bush has invited Mr Obama to a White House lunch on Wednesday, along with former presidents Clinton, George Bush Sr and Jimmy Carter.

The President-elect and members of his incoming administration are also expected to collaborate closely with congressional leaders in the coming weeks, as they work on a multibillion-dollar economic stimulus plan Democrats hope to pass shortly after Mr Obama takes office.

And the ongoing ground and air assault by Israel on the Gaza Strip will also likely press on the Mr Obama's time, although he has so far declined to comment on the situation.

A spokeswoman said, ''The President-elect is closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza.''

Deep Throat dies

2009-01-12T21:49:00.000-08:00

Deep Throat, Watergate's secret informant, dies at 95
by Alex OgleFri Dec 19, 12:16 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The man known as Deep Throat, the secret informant in the Watergate scandal that led to the downfall of president Richard Nixon in 1974, has died, his family said Friday. He was 95.
Mark Felt , the "most famous anonymous source in American history," died in his sleep Thursday at a California hospice, reported Bob Woodward, one of the two Post journalists who exposed the Watergate affair.
Felt was associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) when he began helping the reporters. After revealing his identity in 2005, he said he never considered himself a hero, but was just "trying to help."
His daughter Joan Felt said he had a big breakfast Thursday before saying he was tired, and went to sleep, the Post said. "He slipped away," she added.
Felt was already in poor health when he revealed three years ago he was the shadowy informant of late-night meetings in dark garages.
"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," Felt told Vanity Fair in an article published in June 2005 which finally revealed his identity.
Felt's family had no idea about his secret until 2002, when Felt's close friend and frequent social companion, Yvette La Garde, told his daughter Joan that Felt had confided to being Woodward's source in unveiling the scandal.
The Vanity Fair article said Joan confronted her father, who initially denied it, but after she explained La Garde's disclosure, he responded: "Since that's the case, well, yes I am."
Deep Throat became the iconic representation of a whistleblower after being the protagonist of the book and movie "All the President's Men." He was memorably portrayed in the movie as urging the two young reporters to "follow the money."
He kept his role secret for 33 years, not even telling his family. Indeed in memoirs and several media interviews, Felt had repeatedly denied he was Deep Throat.
But it was his crucial input that led Woodward and Carl Bernstein to a series of investigative scoops about the Nixon administration's involvement in the June 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in the US capital.
The burglars, who were seeking to plant listening devices to spy on the Democrats during an election campaign, were tried and found guilty.
The scandal -- including the White House's attempts at cover-up -- ultimately led to Nixon becoming the first US president to resign in disgrace in August 1974.
In a 2006 interview with CNN's Larry King, Felt was asked if he liked being called Deep Throat -- the name Woodward and Bernstein gave him in their book on the scandal.
Felt replied that he was "proud of everything Deep Throat did -- yes, I like being related to him."
Felt's daughter told King: "He's always said that Deep Throat is a personality that was created by Bob Woodward, a name that was created. He likes to say that he's the person that they called Deep Throat."
After confessing to his role in an article for Vanity Fair magazine, Felt was simultaneously hailed as a hero and denounced as a villain.
Felt's grandson, Nick Jones, described his grandfather as "a great American hero," adding Felt was pleased at finally being "honored for his role as 'Deep Throat.'"
But former Nixon aides were harsh in their criticism.
G. Gordon Liddy, a Nixon operative who served four and a half years in prison for engineering the Watergate break-in, said Felt "violated the ethics of the law enforcement profession."
Former Nixon speechwriter and now TV news pundit Pat Buchanan bluntly labelled him a "traitor."
Felt's name was no stranger to the perennial Washington dinner party game of identifying Woodward's source.
The list of likely suspects had included former Nixon White House aide Diane Sawyer, who is now a television presenter, Nixon's chief of staff Alexander Haig and FBI director at the time Patrick Gray.
Some even argued that Deep Throat was in fact several people, merely a literary invention.
When asked in an interview how he would like to be remembered, Felt however downplayed his image.
"I want to be remembered as a government employee who did his best to help everybody. I would like a reputation of trying to help people," he said.

Agreement on Bailing Out

2009-01-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

US poised for crucial bail-out
BY ALEX OGLE
IN WASHINGTON
8/12/2008 1:00:00 AM

US Congress has reached an ''agreement in principle'' to lend billions of dollars to struggling US carmakers and with a vote looming in the week ahead lawmakers hope to avert the industry's collapse.
The short-term loan package of at least $US15 billion ($A23 billion) could be a lifeline to keep the Big Three carmakers afloat, but is about half what auto chiefs say is needed to stave off bankruptcy.
After locking horns with the White House, Democrats dropped their opposition after the issuing of gloomy official data on Friday showing 533,000 US jobs were lost last month alone.
US lawmakers worked to hammer out details of legislation to bail out ailing car companies that could be presented to Congress as early as today, after reaching an agreement in principle with the Bush Administration.
The legislation is taking shape after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dropped her opposition to drawing on $A39billion in funds from the Energy Department intended to help car-makers develop more fuel-efficient vehicles, according to a Democratic aide who declined to be identified. ''There is no final deal, but an agreement in principle,'' the source said.
As car chiefs pleaded for an urgent rescue, Mrs Pelosi signalled her approval for a loan from the energy-efficient stimulus fund, but said the ''short-term and limited assistance'' must be swiftly repaid.
''We will not permit any funds to be borrowed from the advanced technology program unless there is a guarantee that those funds will be replenished in a matter of weeks so as not to delay that crucial initiative,'' she said.
Chiefs of General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, which employ millions of US workers, had warned of the industry's imminent demise if Congress and the White House didn't reach a compromise. on the funding.
Democrats had previously called on the White House to tap an already approved $US700 billion ($A1.1billion) finance industry bail-out known as the Troubled Assets Relief Program to rescue the firms.
But President George W.Bush insisted the money should come from diverting already approved funds that were intended to encourage the industry to develop fuel-efficient vehicles.
Media reports said the loan package could be worth $A23 billion to $A26 billion, or about half the bail-out that the Big Three chiefs said was necessary for them to survive.
Congressional aides said the package aimed to sustain automakers through to March, after President-elect Barack Obama will have moved into the White House and the new Congress is in office.
Legislation on the plan was expected to be ''brought up for a vote in the House next week'', Mrs Pelosi said.
The compromise is expected to free up the remaining half of the $US700 billion fund to bail out the financial industry.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid said he hoped his chamber would also vote on a bail-out in a lame-duck session, and pressured Republicans to help push the rescue Bill through.
''We will need support and cooperation from Republicans to determine when that vote happens and whether it will succeed,'' Mr Reid said, adding that the hearings this week ''made clear that we cannot let these companies fail''.
In the hearings before Congress Ford chief executive Alan Mulally made clear the failure of one of the Bit Three companies could result in the demise of its competitors.
''If one of us goes in, it has the potential to take all of us in,'' he said.
Some lawmakers insist the companies should use bankruptcy protection as they restructure, but auto executives maintain the move would prompt consumer confidence in their products to plummet.
In exchange for any assistance, the auto companies will have to submit to strict Government oversight to ensure loans are used effectively.
The bosses appeared at acrimonious hearings two weeks ago but were sent back to Detroit empty-handed and told to retool their plans.
They came back with programs that included cuts in jobs and costs, the sale of subsidiaries, and the demise of unprofitable models.
GM requested $A18.5 billion in short-term loans and a $A9 billion line of credit, while Ford said it needed a $A14 billion line of credit and Chrysler said it needed $A11billion by December 31.
United Auto Workers chief Ron Gettelfinger warned last week that time was short. ''I believe that we could lose GM by the end of the month,'' he said.

Cholera outbreak

2008-10-20T13:35:00.000-07:00

Zimbabwe cholera outbreak to reach South Africa

Alex Ogle | December 5, 2008 - 2:42PM

Zimbabwe's cholera crisis is likely to spread in South Africa if conditions do not improve for asylum seekers pouring over the border to escape the outbreak, a leading human rights group says.

"The lack of access to sanitation and clean water for refugees" has contributed to an outbreak of the illness across the southern border, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement on Thursday.

"Abysmal living conditions for asylum seekers" in the border town Musina is set to "increase the risk that cholera will spread on the South African side," said Washington-based HRW fellow Rebecca Shaeffer.

"Many asylum seekers are living completely without shelter in Musina," she said, adding that the refugees -- who are pouring into South Africa at a rate of 500 a day -- are living "exposed to the weather and without regular access to toilets, showers, food and clean water."

Some 1,000 asylum seekers are "staying on fenced-in showgrounds in Musina as they wait to lodge their asylum claims, and are fearful of arrest and deportation if they leave," said Shaeffer.

Roughly 200 to 400 refugees are arrested and deported back to Zimbabwe from Musina each day, she said.

South Africa currently reports 455 cholera cases, including seven deaths.

Health authorities have set up five cholera treatment centres along the border to handle the influx, but are set to be overwhelmed if the disease spreads.

In a perpetuating cycle, the worse the outbreak becomes in Zimbabwe, the more likely it is that refugees continue to cross the border to escape, fueling the strain on health services in neighbouring countries.

In Zimbabwe, the breakdown of the nation's infrastructure has helped cholera thrive.

The outbreak has been fueled "by the total breakdown in the health care system," said Shaeffer.

Government and UN figures show that more than 560 deaths and 12,500 cases have been recorded since August.

On Wednesday Zimbabwe's state-run Herald daily declared the outbreak a national emergency and appealed for international aid to tackle the epidemic.

The World Health Organisation estimates that 4.5 per cent of people who have contracted cholera in Zimbabwe have died.

The normal fatality rate, HRW said, is below one per cent, when infection is properly managed with oral rehydration salts and medicines.

"Cholera outbreaks have repeatedly occurred in recent years, as (Zimbabwe's) water and sanitation systems have broken down," HRW said in a 2008 report on Zimbabweans seeking refuge in South Africa.

"Electric power outages and shortages of chemicals to treat water have interrupted water supplies and compelled individuals to drink untreated water contaminated with faecal matter.

"At least six million people in Zimbabwe -- about half the population -- do not have access to clean water or sanitation," the report said.

Neighbouring Mozambique reported this week 278 cases of cholera, including nine deaths. Botswana has reported two cases.

AFP

Election coverage

2008-10-20T13:34:00.002-07:00

Palin's 'terrorists' remark sparks raging debate
by Alex OgleSun Oct 5, 4:08 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Democratic leaders warned Sunday they will fight fire with fire in the final push for the presidency, after Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin sparked outrage by attacking Democrat Barack Obama for "palling around with terrorists."
The issue dominated the Sunday morning talk shows just a month before the election, as campaign surrogates argued over the association between Obama andWilliam Ayers, founding member of the radical 1960s group the Weathermen.
Democratic Congressman Rahm Emanuel warned the Obama campaign would not accept attacks such as Palin's.
"If they want to go down the road of associations, we will go down that road, but America won't win," Emanuel told CNN television.
Obama's camp had previously derided McCain campaign for saying it wanted to "turn the page" away from the economic crisis.
But surrogates made clear Sunday the Democratic ticket would not sit back if McCain engaged in "swift-boat" style politics, referring to the insinuating attacks against Senator John Kerry in 2004, largely blamed for damaging his presidential bid.
Emanuel said: "If we are going to go down this road, you know, Barack Obama at eight years old (was) somehow responsible for Bill Ayers. At 58, John McCainwas associating with Charles Keating."
Keating, a lawyer and banker, was jailed for his role in a major savings and loan scandal in the 1980s, and John McCain was a part of the Keating Five -- a group of five US Senators accused of corruption.
McCain campaign senior adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer maintained Sunday that Obama "misrepresents himself" in his relationship with Ayers.
"Can you imagine if John McCain hung out with ... (or) served on a couple of boards with someone who had been bombing abortion clinics, how that would somehow be considered illegitimate," Pfotenhauer said.
On Saturday, McCain's running mate Palin, the governor of Alaska, told supporters in Englewood, Colorado, that Obama "is someone who sees America as being so imperfect that he is palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."
Ayers's Weathermen group committed bombings on the Pentagon and the Capitol, and who supported Obama's first run for public office in 1995
The Obama campaign blasted the remark as "desperate and false."
Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri fired back: "Really, how ridiculous. American people deserve so much better. Do they really think America is going to think that Barack Obama is palling around with terrorists?"
Senator Sherrod Brown of the battleground state of Ohio said the attack was a warning shot that threatens to bring the race down into the mud.
"You've seen a 26-year Senate veteran morph into a desperate angry ... candidate in the last few weeks, especially the last few days and kind of makes me sad... that John McCain and Sarah Palin are resorting to these tactics."
Palin's sharp jab is in step with recent Republican campaign statements that the McCain camp plans to launch a fierce assault on Obama, with the presidential election less than 30 days away.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said the issue was a crucial test of Obama's character and judgment as Ayers hosted a political event at his home when Obama was starting his political career.
"I think when people realize this is about, you know, ten years ago, 14 years ago, it goes to the issue of what kind of judgment would allow an unrepentant domestic terrorist to host a political event for you in his home," Pawlenty said on ABC's "This Week."