Gen. Hugh Shelton, who was the military's top commander during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, confirmed that four years before the tragedy he authorized a secret computer data-mining initiative to track down Osama bin Laden and operatives in the fugitive terrorist's al-Qaida network. In his first public comments on the initiative, which some former intelligence officers now say was code-named Able Danger, Shelton also confirmed that he received two briefings on the clandestine mission -- both well before the Sept. 11 attacks. "Right after I left SOCOM (Special Operations Command), I asked my successor to put together a small team, if he could, to try to use the Internet and start trying to see if there was any way that we could track down Osama bin Laden or where he was getting his money from or anything of that nature," Shelton said Monday in an interview. "It was just kind of an experiment," Shelton said. "What can we do? So, he pulled together a bunch of ...
http://www.centredaily.com
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Editor - 18:37:00 12-08-05
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 US blocks ICRC access to suspects |
The US has admitted for the first time that it has not given the Red Cross access to all detainees in its custody. The state department's top legal adviser, John Bellinger, made the admission but gave no details about where such prisoners were held. Correspondents say the revelation is only likely to increase suspicion that the CIA has been operating secret prisons out of international oversight. The issue has dogged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's tour to Europe. Mr Bellinger made the admission in Geneva. He stated that the group International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had access to "absolutely everybody" at the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which holds suspects detained during the US war on terror. When asked by journalists if the organisation had access to everybody held in similar circumstances elsewhere, he said: "No". He declined to explain further. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4512192.stm
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Editor - 18:15:00 12-08-05
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| House, Senate Traitors reach deal on renewing the Treasonous Patriot Act |
House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement Thursday to extend the USA Patriot Act, the government's premier anti-terrorism law, before it expires at the end of the month. But a Democratic senator threatened a filibuster to block the compromise. "I will do everything I can, including a filibuster, to stop this Patriot Act conference report, which does not include adequate safeguards to protect our constitutional freedoms,'' said Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who was the only senator to vote against the original version of the Patriot Act. Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., announced that the negotiating committee had reached an agreement that would extend for four years two of the Patriot Act's most controversial provisions — authorizing roving wiretaps and permitting secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries. Those provisions would expire in four years unless Congress acted on them again....
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5771057.html
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Editor - 17:41:00 12-08-05
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| Eyewitness: "I Never Heard the Word 'Bomb'" A passenger on Flight 924 gives his account of the shooting and says Rigoberto Alpizar never claimed to have a bomb |
At least one passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 924 maintains the federal air marshals were a little too quick on the draw when they shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar as he frantically attempted to run off the airplane shortly before take-off. "I don't think they needed to use deadly force with the guy," says John McAlhany, a 44-year-old construction worker from Sebastian, Fla. "He was getting off the plane." McAlhany also maintains that Alpizar never mentioned having a bomb. "I never heard the word 'bomb' on the plane," McAlhany told TIME in a telephone interview. "I never heard the word bomb until the FBI asked me did you hear the word bomb. That is ridiculous." Even the authorities didn't come out and say bomb, McAlhany says. "They asked, 'Did you hear anything about the b-word?'" he says. "That's what they called it." When the incident began McAlhany was in seat 24C, in the middle of the plane. "[Alpizar] was in the back," McAlhany says, "a few seats from the back bathroom. ...
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1138965,00.html
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Editor - 17:19:00 12-08-05
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| Zimbabwe in meltdown - UN envoy |
Zimbabwe is in "meltdown" says United Nations humanitarian chief Jan Egeland following a visit to the country. He also said President Robert Mugabe's rejection of tents for hundreds of thousands of people evicted and made homeless this year is "puzzling". Some 700,000 people lost their jobs or homes in a government demolition programme, an earlier UN report says. "This disastrous eviction campaign was the worst possible thing, at the worst possible time," Mr Egeland said. The government disputes the 700,000 UN figure and says it carried out slum clearances to reduce crime and overcrowding. "The situation is very serious in Zimbabwe when life expectancy goes from more than 60 years to just over 30 years in a 15-year span - it's a meltdown, it's not just a crisis, it's a meltdown," Mr Egeland told the BBC in Johannesburg, immediately after his four-day trip to Zimbabwe. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4508078.stm
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Editor - 09:42:00 12-08-05
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| Nato agrees to expand Afghan role |
Nato foreign ministers meeting in Brussels have endorsed a plan to expand the alliance's role in Afghanistan. It will involve deploying 6,000 more troops in the south of the country, a third of them expected to be British. Thursday's agreement is set to make Nato's Afghanistan mission its biggest ever operation outside Europe. The south and east have been the scene of intense violence which has this year left more than 1,400 dead, making it the deadliest year since 2001. BBC defence correspondent Rob Watson says that some member states have been worried about potential casualties among their troops, which has made reaching Thursday's agreement difficult. "We have today agreed to move Nato's support for peace and security in Afghanistan to a new level," Nato foreign ministers said in a statement. The agreement provides for a new British-led Nato headquarters in Kabul. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4509024.stm
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Editor - 09:33:00 12-08-05
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