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sabra's Journal
Source: APKILLEEN, Texas -- An apartment complex manager says the man accused of opening fire at Fort Hood, Texas recently had a religious bumper sticker torn off his car. The manager, John Thompson, says a fellow soldier allegedly keyed Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's car and ripped up the bumper sticker. Thompson says the soldier had been to Iraq and was upset to learn Hasan was Muslim. Thompson, who manages the Killeen, Texas complex where Hasan lives, says the bumper sticker read: "Allah is Love." In Arabic, Allah means God. A report filed on Aug. 16 with Killeen police says Hasan's car had been scratched causing $1,000 worth of damage. The report says an Army employee had been arrested. It didn't provide more details about what happened. Read more: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_13729043?sou...
http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/20... <snip> "What happened on 9/11 was clearly a strategic strike against the United States," Cheney said. "It was an act of war, and it was appropriate for us to respond as though it were an act of war." It clearly "wasn't enough to catch" the perpetrators, Cheney said. "We needed to head off more attacks," he told the audience at the Lake Michigan College Mendel Center. "...We needed to go on offense. We had to go after the state sponsors of terror. We'd never done that before." Seeing terrorism as an act of war allows a much more effective response, including using the military, Cheney said. "I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I felt that President Obama and his people understood the fact that we're at war," Cheney said. ... Another audience member asked Cheney about the decision to invade Iraq. Cheney said all the available intelligence said Saddam Hussein was trying to develop weapons of mass destruction, and he was also a "state sponsor of terror" and was giving money to the families of suicide bombers, he added. "This was a bad guy," Cheney said.
Source: Wash TimesKANDAHAR, Afghanistan | U.S. military officials sent a medical team to a remote outpost in southern Afghanistan this week to take blood samples from members of an Army unit after a soldier in the unit died from an Ebola-like virus. Dr. Jim Radike, an expert in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Role 3 Trauma Hospital at Kandahar Air Field, told The Washington Times that Sgt. Robert David Gordon, 22, from River Falls, Ala., died Sept. 16 from what turned out to be Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever after he was bitten by a tick. The virus is transmitted by infected blood and can be carried by ticks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Radike, who is with the Navy, said the medical team "will be taking blood samples and the results may take several weeks to get back." He called it "a precautionary measure." Dr. Radike did not say how many individuals would be tested or why the military had waited until now to act. The unit involved is the 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry division, A-Company 2-1 Infantry. Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/n... /
Source: CBS News/APMore Details Emerge on Suspected Fort Hood Gumnan; Former Classmate Remembers Him Railing Against War on Terror(CBS/ AP) A classmate of the Fort Hood shooting suspect says Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was an outspoken opponent of the U.S. war on terror and called it a "war against Islam." Dr. Val Finnell was a classmate of Hasan's at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Both attended a master's in public health program in 2007 and 2008. Finnell says he got to know Hasan in an environmental health class. At the end of the class, students gave presentations. Finnell says other classmates wrote on subjects such as dry cleaning chemicals and mold in homes, but Hasan's topic was whether the war against terror was "a war against Islam." Finnell described Hasan as a "vociferous opponent" of the terror war. Finnell says Hasan told classmates he was "a Muslim first and an American second." Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/06/...
Source: MSNBC/The Elkhart TruthBENTON HARBOR, Mich. - Former Vice President Dick Cheney held back no criticism Thursday of President Barack Obama, strongly questioning the administration's policy in Afghanistan and its approach to combating terrorism. Cheney, speaking to the Economic Club of Southwest Michigan, was harshest when addressing a Department of Justice investigation into so-called "enhanced interrogations" used by the CIA and military on detained suspected terrorists. "I find that absolutely abhorrent," said Cheney, who served under George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. "It bothers the heck out of me that we would go after those people who have been instrumental in preventing further attacks against the United States." ... When the Bush administration re-evaluated its position on the Afghanistan war in late 2008, Cheney said, it passed on the results to the new administration instead of changing course itself. Obama followed that advice at first, he said, but now seems to be backing off. "Our adversaries take heart from our hesitation and vacillation," he said, "because it underlies their basic strategy: If you kill enough Americans, you can change their policy." Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33714834/ns/po... /
Source: CNBCNewly released documents in the Bernard Madoff case paint a detailed picture of a feckless Securities and Exchange Commission, and an epic scam artist who was constantly amazed he did not get caught. The documents, released Friday by the SEC following an August request by CNBC under the Freedom of Information Act, include thousands of pages of e-mails, transcripts and internal SEC documents compiled by Inspector General H. David Kotz in his investigation of the SEC's handling of the case. Kotz issued a scathing report in September citing multiple lapses by the SEC in investigations dating back to 1992. While Madoff's Scam of the Century shocked the world, it appears Madoff was mainly shocked he got away with it so long, according to a jailhouse interview he gave to Kotz on June 17 as he awaited sentencing on 11 fraud counts. In the interview, Madoff says the fact that he did not get caught was "amazing to me." Madoff was not under oath in the interview. "It never entered the SEC's mind that it was a Ponzi scheme," Madoff says, noting that all investigators would have had to do was contact his supposed counterparties, and they "would've seen it." Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/id/33590661
Source: mcclatchy WASHINGTON -- A Kuwaiti Airways engineer whom the U.S. military has accused of being a key aide to Osama bin Laden has been moved to the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention center's collective prison camp for detainees cleared for release. Fouad al Rabia, who the Pentagon once alleged was bin Laden's logistics chief during the 2001 battle at Tora Bora in Afghanistan, was transferred to Camp Iguana after the Justice Department decided not to appeal a judge's order that he be released, his civilian lawyer, David Cynamon, said Tuesday. In separate letters to the Senate Armed Services Committee and the inspectors general of the Defense and Justice departments, Cynamon demanded an investigation into allegations that Rabia was tortured by his American interrogators at Guantánamo, where he's been held for nearly eight years. Cynamon noted in the letters that U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's Sept. 17 ruling ordering Rabia's release included "a detailed description of the abusive and coercive tactics used by interrogators to extract patently false confessions from Mr. al Rabia." Cynamon said he made a similar request to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Oct. 5, but hasn't received a response. Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/g...
Source: Chicago TribThe Illinois Medical Disciplinary Board decided this morning that the state can begin enforcing a law requiring parents or guardians to be notified when those 17 and younger seek abortions. But the American Civil Liberties Union will be in court this afternoon trying to block the law on grounds it is unconstitutional. The law was to go into effect Tuesday, but late last week the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said it would delay enforcement until its disciplinary board could meet. The agency had previously granted a 90-day grace period in August after a federal appeals court in Chicago lifted an injunction on the 1995 law. The state agency said it wanted to make sure a judicial waiver process is accessible to all young women and girls. A provision allows patients to bypass parental notification by going before a judge. Lawyers for the ACLU have raised questions about whether courts in some jurisdictions, mainly rural areas, are prepared for the waiver process. Read more: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/11...
Source: CBS NewsIt is, according to organizers, "the hottest ticket in political history": On February 25th, former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will debate at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Interested spectators can pay $60 for the cheap seats or shell out up to $1,250 to be closer to the action and attend a cocktail reception with the former presidents. As Newsday reports, the two men have been teaming up a lot: They appeared together in Toronto in May (reports speculated that they earned $150,000 each for the hour-long appearance) and will be together at a TD Ameritrade conference in Florida in February. Organizers at these sorts of events generally do not disclose how much participants are compensated. A spokesperson for Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which is hosting the event, could not immediately be reached for comment. Newsday reports that "Clinton and Bush, during a moderated question-and-answer period, will discuss a wide range of current events and national issues." The event may not offer the fireworks that partisans might hope for: At the Toronto event, Mr. Bush called Mr. Clinton "brother" and the two rarely disagreed despite their ideological differences. The Toronto crowd was reportedly disappointed and had hoped for a more spirited debate. Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/11/04/po...
Source: Azzaman (Iraq Daily)Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is still obsessed with former leader Saddam Hussein and his Baath party despite his decision to have Saddam executed and his party banned for ever. In latest remarks, he is reported to have said that “some regional” states would like to see the Baath party reinstated in power in Iraq. And in almost all his recent media speeches, the Baath party is present. He blames elements belonging to ousted pan-Arab faction for the upsurge in violence, deadly attacks on Iraqi and U.S. troops as well as the latest spate of massive bombings in Baghdad. Read more: http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?f...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte... Dick Cheney and the use of classified information
By WALTER PINCUS
<snip> Another highlight in the FBI report is personal. Fitzgerald's investigation was an outgrowth of a July 14, 2003, column by Robert Novak. It was written less than a week after former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV went public about being sent to Niger by the CIA in February 2002 to see whether that country had contracted to sell uranium to Saddam Hussein. In his column, Novak named Plame, Wilson's wife; described her as "an agency operative"; and added that two senior administration officials had told him that "Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger." In June 2003, a month before Novak's column was published, I was investigating a line in a Nicholas Kristof column in the New York Times. It reported that, at Cheney's request, the CIA had sent a former U.S. ambassador to Niger and that the ex-ambassador reported back that no uranium sale to Iraq had taken place. My reporting had me calling Cheney's office on June 8, 9 and 10, 2003, about that reference to the vice president. Libby called me on June 11 and told me on background, so I could not identify him by name in a story, that Cheney had not known of the former ambassador's trip and did not request it. Libby made no mention of Wilson's wife, and she played no part in my June 12, 2003, story about Wilson's trip.Questioned in 2004 by Fitzgerald, Cheney said he could not remember when he was first told that Plame was Wilson's wife, although he thought he learned it from then-CIA Director George J. Tenet in June 2003. Cheney also said he "had no idea" what Libby knew about Plame before Novak's July 14 column.There has not been enough time to check all of Cheney's statements to Fitzgerald that day, but this one I already knew. A court filing by Fitzgerald released in 2007 reads: "Defendant (Libby) testified before the grand jury that he could have been a source for Walter Pincus's June 12, 2003 article, and that it was during preparation for providing information to Mr. Pincus that the Vice President informed him that former Ambassador Wilson's wife worked at the CIA."
Source: ABC NewsWest Virginia Democrat Wants Transparency in Insurer Health Care SpendingA significant portion of health insurance premiums go not for actual medical care but for private jets, generous CEO salaries and underwriters who decide when to drop patients who become too expensive, according to a Senate committee report. Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, wrote to 15 of the biggest health insurance companies in August, asking them to provide information on how much of policyholders' monthly premiums was spent on medical care versus the amount that went to administrative costs and company earnings. Such figures are known in insurance industry-speak as "medical loss ratios." But when insurance companies balked, saying the information was confidential and proprietary, Rockefeller's investigators went digging through public documents and found that much of policyholder premiums was going to nonmedical costs. The insurance industry has long pointed to federal data that says about 87 percent of every dollar that people spend on premiums goes toward actual medical care, but Rockefeller's investigators found the average for the top six insurance companies is closer to 82 cents on the dollar for medical care. That five-point difference represents billions of dollars. Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/YourMoney/health...
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/11/03/po...  <snip> Conroy tells CBS "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith that he and Walshe bore witness to a "remarkable internal war" between Palin's staff and that of her boss, former Presidential Candidate John McCain. Walshe tells Smith that McCain's campaign leaders were "terrified that she would embarrass John McCain, even after the campaign had officially ended." Another revelation in the book; the authors allege that Palin didn't tell her daughters she was running for vice president, instead leaving it to a staffer to deliver the news. Walshe said Palin's claim that she had asked her family to vote on whether she should run, if chosen by McCain, came later, "after she already shook hands with John McCain and accepted that offer."
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/200... From NBC's Chuck Todd and Mark Murray Earlier this morning, we clipped an article from The Hill, which reported that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-D) "has reached a private understanding with Majority Leader Harry Reid that he will not block a final vote on healthcare reform." But not so fast... Lieberman communications director Marshall Wittmann emails First Read, "If you believe this story is true, you will also believe that I am replacing A-Rod in game six of the series." Translation: Lieberman remains a threat to filibuster the Senate health-care bill, if it contains a public option.
Source: APWASHINGTON — The Army's primary support contractor in Iraq is being warned by Pentagon auditors to cut its work force there or face nearly $200 million in penalties for keeping thousands too many on the payroll. The Houston-based KBR Inc., responsible for everything from mail and laundry to housing and meals, has increased employee levels while U.S. troops steadily leave the country after more than six years of war, the audit says. As a result, the U.S. government is paying far more in labor costs in Iraq than it should as military resources are shifted to Afghanistan. "Each day that passes without taking action results in continued overstaffing and inefficiency," the report from the Defense Contract Audit Agency says. The Oct. 26 audit, obtained by The Associated Press, opens a window into a behind-the-scenes battle over KBR's billing and management practices. The company provides crucial battlefield services under a $33.8 billion, 10-year deal signed in 2001. Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...
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