Normandel blog

30.05.2009., subota

Obama blocks Abu Ghraib detainee abuse images

The Obama administration has asked a US appeals court to halt the release of disturbing images of detainee abuse, saying the photos could incite violence in Pakistan as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The court papers filed in New York cite two partially secret statements from two top US generals, David Petraeus and Ray Odierno.

Such arguments failed to sway the court in the past. In the new filings, Petraeus, who oversees US military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, said the images could also lead to more violence in Pakistan because it deals with Taliban attacks.

The filings underscore just how worried US officials are about the increasing violence in Pakistan. While past arguments about the photos referred generally to the Middle East, Petraeus' statement spends several pages discussing Pakistan's recent struggles against terrorism.

The administration had planned to release the photos until President Barack Obama reversed the decision this month, saying their release would endanger US troops serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Disseminating the photos poses "a clear and grave risk of inciting violence and riots against American and coalition forces, as well as civilian personnel, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan," according to the motion filed with the 2nd US Circuit Court.

The photos were ordered released as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Bush administration had also fought their release, and lost.

ACLU lawyer Amrit Singh said the new filing by the Obama administration "has no new arguments" and will be opposed. She also criticised the Obama administration for redacting parts of the generals' arguments about the safety threats posed by the photos.

"It's troubling to us that not only is the government withholding the photographs, but it's also withholding its arguments for withholding the photographs," said Singh.

The court ruled in September 2008 that general concerns about public safety were not specific enough to merit blocking the release of the photos.

The motion filed on Thursday also notes that the government plans to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Congress is also considering stepping in to block the photos' release.

Odierno, who commands the troops in Iraq, said in his statement to the court that the 2004 release of photos of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison "likely contributed to a spike in violence in Iraq" that year. He also said he has been told by senior political officials in Iraq that release of the photos would upset the democratic process in Iraq before national elections.

The pleas by Odierno and Petraeus echo those in 2005 by Gen. Richard Myers, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

- 22:29 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Sri Lankan military killed 20,000 civilians: paper

More than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final days of Sri Lanka's military operation to defeat Tamil Tigers rebels, the Times newspaper reported yesterday.

Sri Lanka's authorities say their forces stopped using heavy weapons on April 27 in a no-fire zone where there were about 100,000 Tamil civilians.

Citing confidential UN documents it acquired, the Times said the civilian death toll in the no-fire zone soared from late April, with around 1000 civilians killed daily until May 19.

- 22:28 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Prince Harry embarks on first official visit to US

Britain's Prince Harry will start his first official visit to America later today, with plans to see the World Trade Center site, meetings with wounded veterans and a polo match.

Third in line to the British throne, the 24-year-old red-haired prince is a much-watched member of the royal family on both sides of the Atlantic.

His party-boy image, romantic escapades and brushes with scandal regularly make newspaper headlines. Several years ago, Harry had to apologise for wearing a Nazi swastika armband to a friend's costume party.

But the younger son of the late Princess Diana and Prince Charles plans, no doubt, to be on his best behaviour representing his country's crown during his two-day New York visit.

"Prince Harry is well known and respected in the United States for having deployed alongside US forces in Afghanistan," said Alan Collins, the British consul general in New York.

His grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, is paying privately for Harry's travel and that of his staff, easing the young prince into his royal role. He's in line for the throne behind his older brother, William, and his father, Charles.

At the World Trade Center site, Harry is to meet with relatives of four people who died in the September 11, 2001, attacks.

They'll be joined by New York Governor David Paterson and officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that oversees development at ground zero.

"It's a testament to our loved ones that royalty from another country is coming and expressing interest," said Monica Iken, who lost her husband, Michael, a 37-year-old bond broker.

The prince will formally name the British Garden in downtown Hanover Square to honour the 67 British victims of the terrorist attack.

He will also visit the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Manhattan, where he will tour the prosthetics facilities and a post-traumatic stress disorder clinic. He will be joined by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

A British soldier who lost both legs in an explosion in Afghanistan will accompany Harry on his American trip.

Joe Townsend, 21, stepped on a Taleban anti-tank mine last year in Helmand Province, about the same time the prince was commanding troops nearby.

Harry is training to be an Army helicopter pilot and was the first member of the royal family to serve on the front line since his uncle, Prince Andrew, fought in the Falklands in 1982.

Tomorrow, Harry is to participate in the only recreational event on his public schedule - the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic on Governors Island in New York Harbor, where he'll face off against Argentine polo player and heartthrob Nacho Figueras.

The match will benefit American Friends of Sentebale, a US-based charity that supports impoverished children in Lesotho, Africa, where the prince has worked and produced the documentary film The Forgotten Kingdom.

- 22:26 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

US failing to investigate war crimes: UN investigator

An independent UN human rights investigator has said that the United States is failing to properly investigate alleged war crimes committed by its soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Although some cases are investigated and lead to prosecutions, others aren't or result in lenient sentences, said Philip Alston, the UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings.

"There have been chronic and deplorable accountability failures with respect to policies, practices and conduct that resulted in alleged unlawful killings - including possible war crimes - in the United States' international operations," Alston said in a report dated May 26 and published on a UN website.

A spokesman for the US mission in Geneva, Dick Wilbur, said Alston's conclusions and recommendations would be reviewed closely.

"We support the independence and work of all UN special rapporteurs and meet regularly with those who examine issues in the US, including Mr. Alston," he said.

Alston, a New York University law professor, stressed he saw no evidence on a recent trip to Afghanistan that US forces were committing "widespread" abuses or war crimes.

The US military has conducted dozens of investigations into misconduct by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, some of which have resulted in trials and convictions.

But among numerous cases mentioned in the report, Alston cited that of Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer, convicted of negligent homicide in the death of Abed Hamed Mowhoush, an Iraqi general who had turned himself in to military authorities.

Mowhoush suffocated after his head was covered with a sleeping bag and an electrical cord wrapped around his neck. Welshofer was fined and ordered reprimanded, without jail time.

The UN investigator raised the case with US authorities but said he has yet to receive a response.

Alston also criticised the lack of solid statistics on civilian casualties in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Figures collected by the US military on Iraqi civilians killed at checkpoints because they were mistaken for suicide bombers had resulted in changes to military procedure that saved lives, he said.

Alston, an Australian, also examined alleged instances of illegal executions inside the United States, and recommended a systematic review of the death penalty in those states that apply it.

Like other UN human rights investigators, Alston is independent and unpaid, but his expenses are covered by the United Nations. His reports have no legal impact, but serve to highlight what he sees as abuses. He is reporting next week on Brazil, Afghanistan, Kenya and Central African Republic.

- 22:25 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Bush defends Clinton, calling him 'brother'

Former President George W. Bush called former President Bill Clinton "his brother" and the two rarely disagreed in their first-ever appearance together on stage.

The Republican and Democratic ex-presidents defended each other at a Toronto forum on Friday, disappointing some in the crowd of 6,000 who expected a more heated debate.

Bush said that he never liked it when previous administration officials criticized his government but said Clinton was respectful and never did.

Bush declined to criticize the Obama administration, in contrast to former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has been a vocal critic of Obama. Bush, who wasn't asked about Cheney, said there are "plenty of critics in America."

Bush and Clinton did differ on Iraq. Clinton said U.N inspectors should have been given more time to conduct the search for weapons of mass destruction and Bush should have concentrated on Afghanistan. Bush disagreed.

"I don't buy the premise that our attention was diverted," Bush said.

Bush joked about how much time his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and Clinton spend together. He said his mother, Barbara Bush, "said President Clinton and Father share the stage so much, he's like a son to her."

He said, "So brother, it's good to see you."

Clinton and the elder Bush have worked together to lead fundraising after disasters such as the southeast Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and last summer's Hurricane Ike.

While both men received polite applause from the audience at Toronto's convention center, a couple hundred protesters demonstrated outside. The organizers declined to say how much the men were paid for the event, called "A conversation with Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton." Ticket prices sold for around C$200.

Bush joked about the speaking fees, which are normally lucrative for former presidents.

"President Clinton and I used to believe in free speech," Bush said before pausing. "So thanks very much for coming -- we are glad you're here."

The two made speeches before taking questions from moderator Frank McKenna, Canada's former ambassador to the United States.

Asked why he didn't stop the killing in the Rwanda genocide when he was president in 1994, Clinton said he had no excuse or defence.

"It's one of the two or three greatest regrets of my presidency," Clinton said.

Clinton said the US could have saved 250,000 or 400,000 of the 800,000 people who died had he sent about 20,000 troops. Bush defended Clinton, saying 20,000 troops could not have been mobilized quickly.

Clinton praised Bush for his AIDS initiatives and also hailed the racial and ethnic diversity of his cabinet choices.

- 22:23 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Iran executes three

Iran executed in public three men convicted of involvement in a deadly mosque bombing in the southeast of the country, the official IRNA news agency reported yesterday.

"Three people convicted of being involved in the recent terrorist bombing in Zahedan were hanged in public on Saturday morning," IRNA said.

The news agency also reported that the men were executed at a location close to where the bombing had taken place.

A provincial official said on Friday that the people behind the bombing were hired by the United States, an accusation Washington rejected.

- 22:17 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Jay Severin to return to airwaves Tuesday

After a month-long indefinite suspension following his offensive remarks about illegal Mexican migrants, WTKK radio host Jay Severin will return to the airwaves Tuesday, the Hub station announced today.

In a statement, station management said they have had conversations with Severin over the past several weeks about his “hurtful, inappropriate remarks” and that he understands the station will not accept “this type of commentary on our airwaves in the future.”

The station said that based on that understanding, they have agreed to conclude Severin’s suspension and he will return to his afternoon-drive show Tuesday.

“We want to emphasize that WTKK still strongly supports an open and spirited debate about the many issues our community and our country currently face,” the statement said. “There will no doubt be times when people disagree with what Jay says. Our goal is to maintain a level of discourse that is compelling and thought-provoking, yet civil and respectful. While we will not always succeed in walking this line, we will continually strive to do so.”

Severin was suspended indefinitely without pay April 30 after calling illegal Mexican migrants “leeches,” exporters of “women with mustaches and VD,” and the world’s “lowest of primitives” when talking about the swine flu on his show.

Station management also sent a email to listeners that quoted Severin saying, “Thank you for my job.”

“Jay regrets the remarks for which he was suspended and understands that his comments were indeed wrong and hurtful to the Mexican and Mexican-American communities,” said the email to listeners.

- 22:16 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Green Promise Seen in Switch to LED Lighting

To change the bulbs in the 60-foot-high ceiling lights of Buckingham Palace’s grand stairwell, workers had to erect scaffolding and cover precious portraits of royal forebears.

This is the second in a series of articles about stopgap measures that could limit global warming. Future articles will address appliance-efficiency standards, transportation, reducing global-warming gases other than carbon dioxide and other efforts.

So when a lighting designer two years ago proposed installing light emitting diodes or LEDs, an emerging lighting technology, the royal family readily assented. The new lights, the designer said, would last more than 22 years and enormously reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions — a big plus for Prince Charles, an ardent environmentalist. Since then, the palace has installed the lighting in chandeliers and on the exterior, where illuminating the entire facade uses less electricity than running an electric teakettle.

In shifting to LED lighting, the palace is part of a small but fast-growing trend that is redefining the century-old conception of lighting, replacing energy-wasting disposable bulbs with efficient fixtures that are often semi-permanent, like those used in plumbing.

Studies suggest that a complete conversion to the lights could decrease carbon dioxide emissions from electric power use for lighting by up to 50 percent in just over 20 years; in the United States, lighting accounts for about 6 percent of all energy use. A recent report by McKinsey & Company cited conversion to LED lighting as potentially the most cost effective of a number of simple approaches to tackling global warming using existing technology.

LED lighting was once relegated to basketball scoreboards, cellphone consoles, traffic lights and colored Christmas lights. But as a result of rapid developments in the technology, it is now poised to become common on streets and in buildings, as well as in homes and offices. Some American cities, including Ann Arbor, Mich., and Raleigh, N.C., are using the lights to illuminate streets and parking garages, and dozens more are exploring the technology. And the lighting now adorns the conference rooms and bars of some Renaissance hotels, a corridor in the Pentagon and a new green building at Stanford.

- 22:12 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Contractors Vie for Plum Work, Hacking for the United States

The government’s urgent push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts.

Computers, indispensable in peace, are becoming ever more important in political conflicts and open warfare. This series examines the growing use of computer power as a weapon.

The exotic nature of the work, coupled with the deep recession, is enabling the companies to attract top young talent that once would have gone to Silicon Valley. And the race to develop weapons that defend against, or initiate, computer attacks has given rise to thousands of “hacker soldiers” within the Pentagon who can blend the new capabilities into the nation’s war planning.

Nearly all of the largest military companies — including Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon — have major cyber contracts with the military and intelligence agencies.

The companies have been moving quickly to lock up the relatively small number of experts with the training and creativity to block the attacks and design countermeasures. They have been buying smaller firms, financing academic research and running advertisements for “cyberninjas” at a time when other industries are shedding workers.

The changes are manifesting themselves in highly classified laboratories, where computer geeks in their 20s like to joke that they are hackers with security clearances.

At a Raytheon facility here south of the Kennedy Space Center, a hub of innovation in an earlier era, rock music blares and empty cans of Mountain Dew pile up as engineers create tools to protect the Pentagon’s computers and crack into the networks of countries that could become adversaries. Prizes like cappuccino machines and stacks of cash spur them on, and a gong heralds each major breakthrough.

The young engineers represent the new face of a war that President Obama described Friday as “one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation.” The president said he would appoint a senior White House official to oversee the nation’s cybersecurity strategies.

Computer experts say the government is behind the curve in sealing off its networks from threats that are growing more persistent and sophisticated, with thousands of intrusions each day from organized criminals and legions of hackers for nations including Russia and China.

“Everybody’s attacking everybody,” said Scott Chase, a 30-year-old computer engineer who helps run the Raytheon unit here.

Mr. Chase, who wears his hair in a ponytail, and Terry Gillette, a 53-year-old former rocket engineer, ran SI Government Solutions before selling the company to Raytheon last year as the boom in the military’s cyberoperations accelerated.

The operation — tucked into several unmarked buildings behind an insurance office and a dentist’s office — is doing some of the most cutting-edge work, both in identifying weaknesses in Pentagon networks and in creating weapons for potential attacks.

Daniel D. Allen, who oversees work on intelligence systems for Northrop Grumman, estimated that federal spending on computer security now totals $10 billion each year, including classified programs. That is just a fraction of the government’s spending on weapons systems. But industry officials expect it to rise rapidly.

The military contractors are now in the enviable position of turning what they learned out of necessity — protecting the sensitive Pentagon data that sits on their own computers — into a lucrative business that could replace some of the revenue lost from cancellations of conventional weapons systems.

Executives at Lockheed Martin, which has long been the government’s largest information-technology contractor, also see the demand for greater computer security spreading to energy and health care agencies and the rest of the nation’s critical infrastructure. But for now, most companies remain focused on the national-security arena, where the hottest efforts involve anticipating how an enemy might attack and developing the resources to strike back.

- 21:54 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

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