Friday, May 9, 2008
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EARLYBIRD
Top News
Guantanamo faces new legal challenges, GOP crossovers help pass housing bill, police claim capture of al-Qaida in Iraq leader, report finds FBI unprepared to fight terrorism, global food prices ease, Hezbollah takes control of Western Beirut.
• "A frustrated military judge vowed on Thursday to suspend the war-crimes trial of a Canadian detainee unless the Guantanamo Bay detention center provides a 'day by day, hour by hour' record of his confinement," the AP reports. "Attorneys for Omar Khadr say details, including logs of interrogations at this Navy base, could provide grounds to suppress self-incriminating statements. Khadr is accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old."
• Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday "said a 'fair number' of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison cannot be returned to their countries for fear that they might be freed when they arrive home," the Washington Times reports. "'There are a lot of prisoners down there, frankly, that we would be prepared to turn over to their home government, but the home government isn't prepared to receive them, or we don't have any confidence that if they still need to be incarcerated, that the home government will keep them incarcerated,' he added."
• "A federal judge in New York intends next week to review one of the Bush administration's most controversial legal opinions related to detainee interrogations, to decide if it has appropriately been withheld from public view," the Washington Post reports. "U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York said in an order" Thursday "that on Monday he intends to review an Aug. 1, 2002, memo on specific CIA interrogation techniques, marking an unusual review outside the executive branch."
• "When the Pentagon announced in March that Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood would become the senior American officer based in Pakistan, it reflected the military’s aim to put a crisis-tested veteran in a critical job at a pivotal time in the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan’s tribal areas. But nearly two months later, the military has quietly canceled the assignment of General Hood, a 33-year Army veteran who was excoriated in the Pakistani news media for one of his previous jobs: commander of the United States prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba," the New York Times reports.
• "Agents selling private health insurance plans to the elderly and disabled would be barred from cold-calling, door-to-door solicitations and pitching their products outside hospital waiting rooms or pharmacies, under a federal rule proposed Thursday," AP reports. "The rule is designed to make it harder to pressure Medicare beneficiaries into signing up for insurance products they don't need or want. It essentially restricts face-to-face solicitations to those initiated by the customer."
• "President Bush stuck out his right elbow Thursday, jokingly demonstrating how he'll escort his daughter down the aisle at her wedding this weekend," AP reports. "He made the gesture at Andrews Air Force Base before boarding Air Force One for the flight to Texas, where Jenna Bush will be married Saturday before about 200 guests at the family's 1,600 acre, secluded ranch."
Congress: House Passes Housing Bill; Farm Bill Faces Veto
• "More than three dozen House Republicans -- many facing tough re-election fights -- bucked their leadership and President Bush Thursday by backing a housing rescue package," The Hill reports. "The measure, dismissed by GOP critics as a bailout for lenders and reckless borrowers, easily passed the House in a 266-154 vote."
• "Agriculture Secretary Ed Shafer said flatly Thursday that President Bush will veto the farm bill, setting up an election-year confrontation that could sorely test the loyalties of rural Republicans," the Politico reports. "'I have visited face to face with our president and he was direct and clear,' Schafer said. 'The president will veto this bill.'"
• "The Senate Ethics Committee on Thursday dismissed a complaint 'without prejudice' against Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) for his alleged involvement in soliciting prostitution," The Hill reports. "In a letter to Vitter, the panel dismissed a 2007 complaint made by the left-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) because it said the matter allegedly occurred before his time in office, he was not charged criminally and his conduct did not involve use of his public office."
• "Seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong is calling on Congress to renew the nation's war on cancer," AP reports. "'It's time for our country to refocus and relaunch a comprehensive war on this disease," Armstrong said Thursday, appearing "before a Senate panel with Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of" former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.
• "The United States must develop a communications plan to counter radical Islamic messages on the Internet, according to a Congressional report released Thursday," AP reports. "Because the Internet's easy access makes it possible for al-Qaida and other terrorist sympathizers to spread their beliefs and recruit new followers, the government needs a coordinated and thorough response."
• "Washington's civil nuclear deal with India is in such desperate straits that the State Department has imposed unusually strict conditions on the answers it provided to questions posed by members of Congress: Keep them secret," the Washington Post reports. "The State Department made the request, even though the answers are not classified, because officials fear that public disclosure would torpedo the deal, sources said."
• "Representative Vito J. Fossella, the Staten Island Republican who was arrested on drunken-driving charges in Virginia last week, acknowledged on Thursday that he had fathered a daughter, now 3, in an extramarital affair. But he declined to address questions about his political future," the New York Times reports.
• Sen. Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., "has more say over the revamping of housing finance laws than almost anyone else in Congress," the Times reports. "But over the years, his critics say, Mr. Shelby’s ties to the mortgage industry and the Alabama real estate market, and the generous campaign donations he receives from financial services companies, have distorted his perspective and led him to delay critical legislative remedies."
Iraq: Police Claim Capture of Al-Qaida In Iraq Leader
• "Iraqi police announced early" today "the capture of Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, the leader of the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, but the U.S. military said it could not confirm the report," the Washington Post reports. "Iraqi officials said Muhajer was apprehended early Thursday morning after he was found sleeping during a midnight raid of a house in the northern city of Mosul."
• "The Marine Corps may begin shifting its major combat forces out of Iraq to focus on Afghanistan in 2009 if greater security in Iraq allows a reduction of Marines there, top Pentagon officials said" Thursday, the Washington Post reports. Gates "and Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the proposal by the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. James Conway, to focus his force on Afghanistan -- which they rejected late last year -- could be reconsidered."
• "Democratic leaders in Congress retreated Thursday from a plan that includes an expensive new education benefit for post-9/11 military service veterans in the latest war-funding bill," USA Today reports. "The about-face came after objections were raised by moderate Democrats concerned that Congress was greatly expanding a permanent entitlement program for veterans without paying for it."
• "Seventeen militants have been killed in the last 24 hours in clashes with US and Iraqi forces in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, the US military has said," BBC News reports. "The fighting was concentrated in eastern Baghdad as an offensive against the Shia Mehdi Army militia continues."
• "The authorities in Baghdad say they are preparing for an exodus of thousands of people from eastern parts of the city," BBC News also reports. "Fighting between government and US troops on one side, and Shia militia on the other, has intensified recently."
• "The last words of a suicide bomber in Mosul were a rallying cry for Muslims to join the fight against Americans. His taking-off point was his experience at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba," the New York Times reports. "In two accounts -- a transcript of his conversation in a jihadist chat room and a suicide message on tape -- both posted on Web sites devoted to Al Qaeda after his death, the bomber, Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, 29, described his detention as 'torture' carried out by infidels."
World: Hezbollah Gunmen Take Control Of Western Beirut
• "Fierce clashes escalated in Beirut on Thursday between Sunni supporters of the government and loyalists of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group, after Hezbollah’s leader said the government had declared war by threatening to shut down the group’s private telephone network," the New York Times reports. "The developments could signal a new level of confrontation between Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran and Syria, and the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, which is backed by the West and Saudi Arabia."
• "Gunmen from the Shia militant group Hezbollah have taken control of most of western Beirut, driving out supporters of the Western-backed government," BBC News reports. "The gunmen, who support Hezbollah and its Shia opposition allies, also forced the closure of pro-government media."
• "A cache of controversial computer files closely tying Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez to communist rebels seeking to topple Colombia's government" -- Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC -- "appear to be authentic, U.S. intelligence officials say," the Wall Street Journal reports. "The trove -- found on a dead guerrilla leader's laptops during a military raid in March -- is likely to ratchet up pressure for the U.S. to impose sanctions on one of its most important oil suppliers."
• "With up to 1.5 million people in Myanmar now believed to be facing the threat of starvation and disease and with relief efforts still largely stymied by the country’s isolationist military rulers, frustrated United Nations officials all but demanded Thursday that the government open its doors to supplies and aid workers," the New York Times reports. "'The situation is profoundly worrying,' said the United Nations official in charge of the relief effort, John Holmes."
• "Gunmen assassinated Mexico's national police chief Thursday, blasting him with nine bullets outside his home in the capital and dealing a significant setback to the government's campaign against drug cartels," the Washington Post reports. "Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, the public face of Mexico's offensive against drug cartels, became the highest-ranking law enforcement official to be killed since the launch of the effort 17 months ago."
• "North Korea has turned over to the United States 18,000 pages of documents related to its plutonium program dating from 1990, in an effort to resolve remaining differences in a pending agreement meant to begin the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Bush administration officials said Thursday," the New York Times reports. "The documents contain information about North Korea’s three major campaigns to reprocess plutonium for nuclear weapons, in 1990, 2003 and 2005, a senior official said."
• "Former President Vladimir Putin was appointed Russia's new prime minister Thursday, securing a new place in power a day after leaving the Kremlin," the Los Angeles Times reports. "His appointment was the final stroke in a precisely choreographed transition that allows the former KGB officer to leave the Kremlin without completely relinquishing authority."
• "Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday acknowledged receiving regular contributions for years from a Jewish American businessman but denied that any of the money constituted a bribe," the Los Angeles Times reports. "His statement came after an Israeli court partially lifted a nearly week-old gag order blocking the country's news media from revealing details of the case. They immediately reported that prosecutors were investigating whether the prime minister had received tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from millionaire Morris Talansky of Long Island."
• "Iran's Intelligence Ministry has accused the United States and Britain of involvement in an April 12 bomb attack at a religious center in the city of Shiraz that killed at least 12 people and wounded 202," the Washington Post reports. "'We had nothing to do with it,' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington. Britain has also denied such accusations in the past."
Nation: Report Finds FBI Unprepared To Combat Terrorism
• "Nearly seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI 'has yet to make the dramatic leaps necessary' to become an effective intelligence-gathering organization and protect the country from terrorism, a congressional analysis released Thursday said," the Los Angeles Times reports. "The Senate Intelligence Committee recommended that the bureau yield more of its historic autonomy to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence."
• "Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan can find themselves living in less-than-ideal conditions as base commanders work to keep up with repairs to sometimes-century-old buildings," USA Today reports, looking at conditions at several bases across the country.
• "Seven more Philadelphia police officers were removed from active duty" Thursday "in the probe of the news video that shows police beating and kicking three shooting suspects after a car chase Monday night," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. "They bring to 13 -- one sergeant and 12 officers - the number of police taken off street duty pending the probe's outcome."
• "A powerful federal arts commission is urging that the sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. proposed for a memorial on the Tidal Basin be reworked because it is too 'confrontational' and reminiscent of political art in totalitarian states," the Washington Post reports. "The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts thinks 'the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed statue recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries,' commission secretary Thomas Luebke said."
• "With most of Oregon and California's commercial salmon fishery shut down because of sharp declines in the number of the fish returning to the Sacramento River to spawn," many "fishermen are looking for almost any alternative, trying to diversify along with the rest of the regional economy," the New York Times reports.
• "Baltimore students who were murdered or shot had poor school attendance before they fell victim to the violence, according to new data released" Thursday "by the school system and health department.... The youths were absent from school an average of 46 days annually, and more than two-thirds of them had been suspended or expelled at least once," the Baltimore Sun reports. "The data are intended to illustrate the public health implications of truancy and suspension as city schools chief Andres Alonso tries to get the entire community involved in improving Baltimore's educational system."
Economy: Global Food Prices Ease; Big Oil Begins P.R. Blitz
• "After months of startling increases, the prices of rice, wheat, soybeans and several other foods have come down recently, a development that could ease some of the panic in global food markets," the New York Times reports. But "prices remain volatile and remarkably high by historical standards, and few agricultural experts expect the days of inexpensive food to return soon."
• "Faced with a national outcry over the high price of gasoline and soaring profits for energy companies, the oil and gas industry is waging an unusually pricey campaign to burnish its image," the Washington Post reports. "The American Petroleum Institute, the industry's main lobby, has embarked on a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign, which includes advertising in the nation's largest newspapers, news conferences in many state capitals and trips for bloggers out to drilling platforms at sea."
• "Surging U.S. exports on a range of goods including corn, soybeans and frozen pork are hitting a bottleneck in the nation's overloaded ports, threatening to crimp profits for U.S. farmers and agricultural processors at a time when it is easier than ever for them to sell their goods abroad," the Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports. "The problem can be traced to a shortage of once-plentiful shipping containers and other transportation equipment, along with a lack of space on outgoing ships."
• "In a sign that crisis continues to reverberate through the financial sector, American International Group Inc. reported multibillion-dollar losses Thursday. The giant insurer also announced that it would raise $12.5 billion in capital to replenish its balance sheet," the Journal reports. "AIG's results show that while the credit crunch may be easing on Wall Street, it appears to be tightening elsewhere."
• "A lethal variant on an ancient disease affecting wheat has spread from its base in Africa to Iran and now threatens vast fields in South Asia, the Middle East and Europe at a time of global food shortages, agricultural specialists warn," the Washington Times reports.
• "Private investment firms have been amassing what may seem like unusual stakes in New York real estate: they have bought hundreds of apartment buildings with thousands of rent-regulated units across the city that produce decidedly meager returns," the New York Times reports. "Some residents and tenant advocates say that they began seeing what they consider a pattern of harassment of low-income tenants this year and suspect that it is a result of the new owners’ business models."
Campaigns: Clinton Digs In Her Heels
• Hillary Rodham Clinton is still trying to woo superdelegates despite calls for her withdrawal from the campaign. Earlybird's Campaign News section has details.
Commentary: Facing Facts
• In Earlybird's Pundits & Editorials section, pundits give Clinton advice for a graceful exit and offer predictions for November.