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sabra's Journal
Source: TheIndyChannelNOBLESVILLE, Ind. -- Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was met by a cheering crowd of more than 1,000 people when she arrived in Noblesville Thursday night, but not everyone left happy. ... The store handed out 1,000 wristbands for Thursday night's book signing, which wrapped up just before 9 p.m. Those who got to meet a woman they consider an idol walked away happy. ... "Noblesville, this was so great. You guys are hardcore patriots. Thank you so much for being here," she said. But not everyone went away happy. Several dozen people who had wristbands were turned away. "They didn't have this organized well enough," said Sue Hendricks. "It was just not done right." "I'm very disappointed. I think it was very rude. She could have at least apologized, and she didn't even do that," said Teresa Hedrick. ... "We gave up our entire workday, stayed in the cold. My kids were crying," said one man. "They went home with my wife. She was out here in the freezing cold all day. I feel like I don't want to support Sarah." Read more: http://www.theindychannel.com/news/2166889...
Source: WTENCOLONIE, N.Y. -- Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are promising a military mother they will find out exactly what happened to her daughter. Staff Sergeant Amy Seyboth Tirador died in Iraq earlier this month. She was laid to rest on Monday. The Army says she did not die in combat. Colleen Murphy holds the memory of her daughter close to her heart. More than two weeks after Staff Sgt. Tirador was killed, her family is still waiting for answers on who shot her to death inside her secure military base. ... Murphy is now getting the support of at least two Washington lawmakers in her quest for answers. Reading from a letter she recently received from Senator Gillibrand, Murpy says she is more confident that she will eventually know what happened to her 29-year-old daughter. Reading Gillibrand’s letter aloud Murphy said, “Although there are no words to ease the sorrow, I send my deepest personal condolences to you.” Senator Schumer has also vowed to help the Colonie family. Read more: http://www.wten.com/Global/story.asp?S=115...
Source: APZURICH — FIFA suspended Iraq from soccer because of political interference in the national federation. Soccer's world governing body says it is "unacceptable" for Iraq's Olympic committee to disband the federation this week for alleged financial and administrative irregularities. FIFA's emergency committee, led by president Sepp Blatter, imposed the suspension after Iraq missed an overnight deadline to reinstate the federation and hand back the headquarters seized by government security forces. "The clubs and representative teams of Iraq are no longer permitted to take part in international matches, whether friendly or competitive," FIFA said in a statement. Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...
Source: UK IndependentBritain knew that American agents were using barbaric torture techniques on terror suspects, including British resident Binyam Mohamed, it emerged yesterday. Secret reports sent between MI5 and the CIA in 2002 reveal that the American security services were using torture practices which included waterboarding, facial slaps and stress positions. The extent of Britain's knowledge was made clear in the latest High Court judgment in the case of Binyam Mohamed, who claims Britain actively colluded in his torture while he was being unlawfully held by the Americans in Morocco seven years ago. Mr Mohamed alleges that his torture included the cutting of his genitals with a razor blade. Yesterday's judgment says the treatment of Mr Mohamed was similar to that of Abu Zubaydah, allegedly a high-ranking al-Qa'ida terrorist who was subjected to the 10 torture practices used by the CIA at Guantanamo Bay. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, had argued that revealing details of the 10 torture techniques would threaten Britain's intelligence-sharing relationship with the US. But President Barack Obama ordered their publication earlier this year and the judges concluded they could refer to them. The first of the two reinstated paragraphs reads: "One of those memoranda dated August 1 2002, from Mr J S Bybee, Assistant Attorney-General, to Mr John Rizzo, acting General Counsel of the CIA, made clear that the techniques described were those employed against Mr Zubaydah, alleged to be a high-ranking member of al-Qa'ida."
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-...
Source: WPThe Democratic Party raised $11.5 million in October, a record month for a non-presidential election year in the post-McCain-Feingold era, according to a party source. That leaves the Democratic National Committee with $12.3 million in cash on hand and $4.4 million in outstanding debts. The Republican National Committee has $11.2 million cash and no debt. All told, the DNC has raised $66.3 million so far this year, compared to the Republican National Committee's $69.2 million. Including transfers and in-kind donations, the total haul this year at the DNC was $73.3 million, compared to $76.9 million at the RNC, according to Democratic and Republican sources. On Friday, the DNC e-mailed a fundraising solicitation that seeks to take advantage of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's return to the news. "Remember, this is the person who coined the term 'Death Panels' -- and opened the flood gates for months of false attacks by special interests and partisan extremists," wrote Mitch Stewart, the director of Organizing for America, a project of the DNC that is the heir to the president's campaign organization, Obama for America. "As we approach the final sprint on health reform, we can't afford more deception and delay. We need to be ready for anything -- and have the resources to respond with ads, events, and calls to Congress when the attacks come. Read more: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/1...
Source: Chicago TribArmy veteran William "Bill" Burtner survived Vietnam and dedicated his life to helping other veterans. On Monday, Burtner was about to enter a Midlothian bank to deposit money the south suburb's Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2580 had raised during a benefit. He never made it inside. Burtner, 65, was assaulted and robbed outside the bank. He died Wednesday night at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. An autopsy today concluded Burtner died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease and fractured ribs from the assault, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. It ruled the death a homicide. Burtner was about to deposit proceeds from a VFW benefit last weekend for Chicago-area World War II veterans so they could visit a war memorial in Washington, D.C., according to Katherine Foss, a family friend. ... On Monday, Burtner was entering AJ Smith Federal Savings Bank, 14757 S. Cicero Ave., when two men attacked him in a strong-arm robbery, said Midlothian Police Detective Sgt. Steve Zamiar. Read more: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/11...
Source: Wash TimesFormer presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said Thursday he has read Sarah Palin's book and has no regrets about picking her as a running mate. "I felt honored to have Sarah," said Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican. "There's no doubt she energized our party and America. She's doing it today." His praised came one day after defending top campaign advisers Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace, whom Mrs. Palin criticized in her book, "Going Rogue: An American Life." Mr. McCain said during the interview Thursday with The Washington Times' "American's Morning News" radio show that Mrs. Palin is a "political force in America." Read more: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/1... /
Source: CPLONDON — More secret information relating to the alleged torture of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee should be disclosed, Britain's High Court ruled Thursday. Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed claims the United States and Britain were complicit in his torture in Pakistan and Morocco, and his lawyers are pressing for Britain to release a seven-paragraph summary of U.S. intelligence files on his detention - a document he claims proves Britain's complicity. Thursday's High Court ruling concerns four paragraphs in an earlier court judgment that the government says reveals the content of the secret material. Lawyers for Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband have argued that releasing the sensitive information would harm Britain's national security. Lord Justice John Thomas and Justice David Lloyd Jones said the paragraphs, which relate to how Mohamed was treated while in custody, should not be kept secret. "Of itself, the treatment to which Mr. Mohamed was subjected could never properly be described in a democracy as 'a secret' or an 'intelligence secret' or 'a summary of classified intelligence," they said in their ruling. ... But Thomas and Lloyd Jones said they didn't believe President Barack Obama's administration would take action against Britain if the information was put in the public domain. Despite the court's ruling, the controversial paragraphs cannot be made public immediately because the government has already said it is taking the matter to an appeals court next month. Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianp...
http://www.larryjohnsononline.com/2009/11/... / Iraq may hang 126 women by year’s end despite international appealsIraq is planning to execute up to 126 women by the end of this year. At least 9 may be hanged within the next two weeks. Human rights groups say the only crime committed by many of these women was to serve in the government of Saddam Hussein. Others, according to human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, were convicted of common crimes based on confessions that were the result of torture. Amnesty reports that at least 1,000 men and women are now on death row in Iraq, a country that has one of the highest rates of execution in the world. Amnesty released the following appeal in late August: “At least nine women under sentence of death in Iraq are now in imminent danger of execution, as Iraq’s Presidential Council has ratified their death sentences. Three other women have been executed since early June. The authorities have transferred a number of women to the 5th section of Baghdad’s al-Kadhimiya Prison, which is where condemned prisoners are held immediately before they are executed…
Source: AFPVILNIUS — Lithuania hit back Thursday over new claims that the Baltic state had hosted a secret CIA facility allegedly used to interrogate Al-Qaeda suspects. "There are more important things in Lithuania than spending two days denying the gossip of ABC journalists," Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas told the Baltic News Service. "We have to follow hard facts rather than rumours and wild tales," he said. "Therefore it is vital that we conduct an investigation and clear any doubts," he added. On Wednesday, the US channel ABC, citing unnamed Lithuanian officials and a former American intelligence operative, claimed a site outside the capital Vilnius was used to interrogate up to eight Al-Qaeda suspects at a time from 2004 to 2005. Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/artic...
Source: NPRTwo years ago, a top psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was so concerned about what he saw as Nidal Hasan's incompetence and reckless behavior that he put those concerns in writing. NPR has obtained a copy of the memo, the first evaluation that has surfaced from Hasan's file. Officials at Walter Reed sent that memo to Fort Hood this year when Hasan was transferred there. Nevertheless, commanders still assigned Hasan — accused of killing 13 people in a mass shooting at Fort Hood on Nov. 5 — to work with some of the Army's most troubled and vulnerable soldiers. The Damning Memo On May 17, 2007, Hasan's supervisor at Walter Reed sent the memo to the Walter Reed credentials committee. It reads, "Memorandum for: Credentials Committee. Subject: CPT Nidal Hasan." More than a page long, the document warns that: "The Faculty has serious concerns about CPT Hasan's professionalism and work ethic. ... He demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism." It is signed by the chief of psychiatric residents at Walter Reed, Maj. Scott Moran. When shown the memo, two leading psychiatrists said it was so damning, it might have sunk Hasan's career if he had applied for a job outside the Army. Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.p...
Source: ABC NewsABC News Finds the Location of a "Black Site" for Alleged Terrorists in LithuaniaThe CIA built one of its secret European prisons inside an exclusive riding academy outside Vilnius, Lithuania, a current Lithuanian government official and a former U.S. intelligence official told ABC News this week. Where affluent Lithuanians once rode show horses and sipped coffee at a café, the CIA installed a concrete structure where it could use harsh tactics to interrogate up to eight suspected al-Qaeda terrorists at a time. A full report on the can be seen on ABC's World News with Charles Gibson tonight. "The activities in that prison were illegal," said human rights researcher John Sifton. "They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions." Lithuanian officials provided ABC News with the documents of what they called a CIA front company, Elite, LLC, which purchased the property and built the "black site" in 2004. Lithuania agreed to allow the CIA prison after President George W. Bush visited the country in 2002 and pledged support for Lithuania's efforts to join NATO. "The new members of NATO were so grateful for the U.S. role in getting them into that organization that they would do anything the U.S. asked for during that period," said former White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, now an ABC News consultant. "They were eager to please and eager to be cooperative on security and on intelligence matters." Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cia-secret-p...
Source: Reuters<snip> Now, add Alaskan experts who were involved in the case over the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster saying her account over her role in the litigation is distorted for a number of reasons. In the book, Palin claims to have helped the fishermen, Alaska Natives and other individuals suing Exxon over spill damages prevail in their legal case. “It took years for Alaska to achieve victory. As governor, I directed our attorney general to write an amicus brief in the case, and, thanks to Alaska’s able attorneys arguing in front of the highest court in the land, in 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the people,” she writes in her book. “Finally, Alaskans could recover some of their losses.” But Palin’s claims of victory for the plaintiffs and of playing a role in achieving that victory are highly distorted, said the chief attorney for the approximately 32,000 plaintiffs that sued Exxon over damages from the worst oil-tanker spill in U.S. waters. “That is the most cockamamie bullshit,” said Dave Oesting of Anchorage, lead plaintiff attorney in the private litigants’ civil case against Exxon and its successor, Exxon Mobil Corp. “She didn’t have a damn thing to do with it, and she didn’t know what it was about.” Read more: http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2009/11/... /
Source: APDENVER (AP) ― A federal appeals court on Wednesday heard arguments that two people who were booted from a Denver public appearance by then-President George W. Bush shouldn't have been excluded from the event because of their views expressed on a bumper sticker. Leslie Weise and Alex Young claim their First Amendment rights were violated when they were ejected from the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum on March 21, 2005, just before Bush was to appear at a taxpayer-funded town hall to tout his plan to privatize Social Security. A judge dismissed their lawsuit last year, saying Bush had the right to ensure only his message was conveyed at his own speech. The lawsuit names two volunteers who asked Weise and Young to leave and two members of Bush's White House Advance team that oversaw the volunteers. Weise and Young say a Secret Service agent told them they were picked for removal because they arrived at the museum in a car with a bumper sticker reading, "No More Blood For Oil," which was a reference to the Iraq war. American Civil Liberties Union attorney Chris Hansen, who represents the two, argued that allowing the earlier ruling to stand would mean that government officials could screen everyone and exclude people from public meetings, including school boards, city council meetings, even Congress. Read more: http://cbs4denver.com/wireapnewsco/2.eject...
Source: Chicago TribA woman who allegedly yanked the headscarf of a Muslim woman in a Tinley Park supermarket two days after the Fort Hood shootings has been charged with a hate crime. Bank teller Valerie Kenney, 54, of the 16500 block of Evergreen Ave., is accused of confronting Amal Abusumayah while she shopped at the Jewel supermarket at Harlem Avenue and 171st Street on Nov. 7, Tinley Park police say. Abusumayah alleged last week that Kenney made a reference to the Fort Hood shootings while passing her in an aisle of the supermarket. Minutes later, Abusumayah alleges, Kenney approached her from behind near the cash register and pulled on her headscarf. Police arrested Kenney minutes later in the store's parking lot. Read more: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/11...
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