A team of Scotland Yard detectives will travel to Jamaica next week to conduct a review of the Bob Woolmer murder investigation, amid fears that local police may have missed vital clues. Mark Shields, the Deputy Commissioner of Jamaica Police and a former Scotland Yard detective, told The Times that he will ask for a team of British murder investigators to assist in the investigation, because sometimes you can miss the blindingly obvious.
Mr Shields emphasised that an outside review of murder investigations was normal procedure in British investigations after seven to fourteen days. He added that he would expect the Scotland Yard team, probably a six-man force from the Specialist Crime Directorate, early next week, but that the exact date of arrival had to be confirmed.
Mr Shields said that he remained confident in his investigation but added: If we have missed something its an ideal time to find out. He said that the Scotland Yard team will look at the most significant lines of inquiry and conduct a review of the forensic evidence. Mr Shields said that he is also considering bringing the FBI into the investigation, possibly by sending forensic evidence to an FBI expert at the bureaus headquarters in Quantico, Virginia.
The move comes amid a growing realisation that behind Mr Shields lies a creaky and antiquated Jamaican infrastruc-ture poorly equipped to deal with such a high-profile and complex case. Allegations are already mounting that the investigation has been bungled. When Mr Shields arrived in Jamaica in 2005, a country of three million with more than 1,300 murders a year a rate higher than Colombias there was no routine fingerprinting of suspects, no use of DNA evidence and no closed-circuit television cameras. He has prided himself in bringing modern investigative technology and techniques to the Jamaican force, and has produced results. Murders are down by 20 per cent, from 1,680 in 2005 to 1,340 last year.
But The Times has witnessed some extraordinarily antediluvian scenes within crucial areas of the Woolmer enquiry. Mr Shields himself, while trying not to offend Jamaicans, has had to concede that it took almost a week to transfer the VHS video CCTV film taken from Woolmers 12th-floor hotel corridor on to a digitally enhanced format because there was only one laboratory in Jamaica with the technology to do it. He also conceded yesterday that he had still not yet received the toxicology results from Woolmers body, or a report on his body tissue, nearly two weeks after the murder. Without those Mr Shields cannot know Woolmers time of death, which he says is key to the investigation. I wish I did [have the results], he said. But I dont want to pressure them.
In addition to giving him a time of death, Mr Shields said that the toxicology result would reveal if Woolmer was drugged so it was easier to strangle and asphyxiate a man who was 6ft 1in and 250lb.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Egyptian blogs have published amateur video footage purporting to show ballot stuffing and vote fraud in a nationwide referendum on constitutional amendments which opposition groups say was rigged.
Egypt says it won 76 percent approval in Monday's vote for the amendments, which give the state powerful tools that could be used to drive opposition Islamists from politics. Rights groups say the changes are a step backward for freedom. A handful of video clips, most of which appear to be taken by mobile phone cameras and circulated on Egyptian blogs and websites, contain some of the first images of alleged fraud in the vote and could reinforce the accusations of vote fixing.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm shock!
Sure the video wasn't taken in Chicago, St. Louis, Washington State, etc.......
Judges in Egypt on Tuesday rejected the results of a referendum on constitutional changes which they argued was fraudulent, and vowed to boycott the supervision of future polls. "The judges wash their hands of the referendum results," Ahmed Sabr, a spokesperson for the Judges' Club, told AFP about Monday's ballot. "We will no longer be a fig leaf to cover something shameful."
The government said 75 percent of voters approved controversial amendments to the constitution that the regime says will strengthen democracy and fight terrorism. The official turnout was put at 27 percent of the 35-million-strong electorate, but opposition and independent monitors said the real figure was probably below 10 percent.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Last time somebody "Washed His Hands" over a problem, A new religion was born.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/31/2007 12:21 Comments ||
Top||
Zimbabwe's ambassador to the European Union is drawing up a request for food aid to help relieve the country's growing food shortages, a European Parliament development committee member has said. Zimbabwe's Gift Punungwe said he will "be making a detailed request" to EU Aid Commissioner Louis Michel concerning the need for increased food supplies, EU assembly member Eoin Ryan said yesterday. "The ambassador said Zimbabwe needs substantial food supplies from the EU. He admitted his country is suffering chronic food shortages and people are now caught by the clear effects of a famine," Mr Ryan said after meeting with Mr Punungwe.
A spokeswoman for Mr Punungwe confirmed the meeting had taken place on Thursday and the issue of EU aid was discussed.
#5
Send this gangster back in a box and invite ZimBob over for a dose of the same. Africa has made clear its refusal to deal with Mugabe. It's time that we did.
The United States said on Friday that African nations fell short in putting pressure on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and urged them to do more to end the veteran leaders opposition clampdown. Washington had hoped African leaders attending a summit in Tanzania this week would act against Mr. Mugabe, but instead they rallied around him and ignored calls for tougher action. We would have wished for something a little stronger and a more firm stance on what is going on in Zimbabwe, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said of the outcome of the Tanzania meeting.
The special summit of the Southern African Development Community urged the West to drop sanctions against Mr. Mugabes government and appealed to Britain to honour its commitments to fund land reforms in its former colony. The summit came two weeks after Zimbabwean police arrested opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other members of his Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC. The arrests and beatings of detainees received international condemnation.
Mr. Mugabe calls the MDC Western stooges and police have accused party activists of a terror campaign aimed at removing Mr. Mugabe from office. The MDC denies the allegations. Clearly, he (Mr. Mugabe) has become very intransigent in the face of a lot of international pressure. That does not mean that you let up on international pressure, said Mr. McCormack.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Sideshow Bob is like the bizarro-version of Nelson Mandela
#2
Evidently Bob started going bad about the time Saint Nelson was released from prison and started all the SA happiness. Lost his western groupies to a super heavyweight. Weird puff piece in the Economist, bad Bob near vegetarian with marriage vz. Mandela and murderous wife. Strange, only in Africa.
#3
I wouldn't say that their actions were "tepid", in fact, I think that they made it quite clear that they not only approved of Bob, but are considering ruining their own countries using his technique.
Congolese former warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba, whose men battled government soldiers in Kinshasa a week ago, is expected to travel to Portugal this weekend but is not being granted exile there, the Portuguese ambassador said on Friday. "There's no exile. He will leave this weekend in principle if all aspects of the agreements (for Bemba's departure) are in place ... he'll be there as a tourist," Ambassador Alfredo Duarte Costa told Reuters.
Costa added that Bemba, who has been accused of treason by the government and has been sheltering in the South African embassy in Kinshasa since Thursday last week, would go to Portugal for medical treatment. Aides have said he needs follow-up treatment for a leg fractured in December.
This article starring:
Ambassador Alfredo Duarte Costa
Jean-Pierre Bemba
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Bangladesh has named a new chief of air force after sending the current chief to retirement, the defence ministry said on Friday. Air commodore Shah Mohammad Ziaur Rahman will replace Air Vice Marshal Fakhrul Azam as the new air chief on April 7, the ministry said in a statement. Azam, who was appointed as the air chief by the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government, has been sent into retirement from April 7, it said, without elaborating.
This article starring:
Air commodore Shah Mohammad Ziaur Rahman
Air Vice Marshal Fakhrul Azam
Bangladesh Nationalist Party
Posted by: Fred ||
03/31/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Either he couldn't run an air force on no funds, or bob's request for a "Getaway plane" was rejected
(Nothing is able to fly right now excelency, there's no fuel)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/31/2007 12:27 Comments ||
Top||
China is developing an "impressive" array of space weapons, including missiles and jammers, and is moving toward placing nuclear weapons in space to attack U.S. satellites, the commander of U.S. strategic forces told the Senate yesterday.
The Chinese military has "undertaken what we would call a very disciplined and comprehensive continuum of capability against ... our space capabilities," Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright yesterday told the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee.
Their capabilities go "all the way from temporary and reversible effects -- [Global Positioning System] jamming, things like that, [communications] jamming, all the way through direct ascent ASAT," he said, referring to anti-satellite weapons. "Eventually, they'll probably be looking at co-orbital" weapons -- missiles that orbit near a satellite and then explode.
"Then, the one that you really worry about is introducing weapons of mass destruction into space on a missile," he said.
The testimony provided the first details from the Bush administration about China's space-weapons program.
Subcommittee Chairman Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, said that China is expected to have enough ASAT weapons by 2010 to "basically knock out most of our satellites in low-earth orbit."
Gen. Cartwright said countering that threat will require the military to develop "prompt global strike" weapons -- missiles and bombers that can hit targets around the world very rapidly.
China's across-the-board program of ground-based jamming and ground-launched missiles shows the arms program is sophisticated in terms of science and technology, he said. China's Jan. 11 ASAT test, when a missile destroyed a weather satellite in orbit, was not a surprise and was Beijing's third attempt to destroy an orbiting satellite with a missile.
"What was for us impressive was that in three attempts, they made significant changes each time and were able to, in three attempts, come to a successful intercept -- on their third attempt," he said.
Additionally, China already has deployed weapons at the lower end of the anti-satellite scale -- weapons that jam or disrupt satellites.
In his testimony, Gen. Cartwright questioned whether the Chinese space-arms program should lead the United States to develop similar weapons.
"We have the technical capability," he said. "My belief right now is knowing what we believe we know about this threat after the demonstrations that it is premature to start thinking about an arms race in space. ...We do not have to have a space response to that threat."
However, the four-star general said it would be "prudent" to improve the U.S. space-defense posture and improve surveillance and intelligence on space threats. Also, U.S. national security satellites should be hardened with "passive-type defenses," such as lens shutters or turn-off systems, he said.
Gen. Cartwright's comments yesterday contrast with his remarks in October, when he said reports China had fired a laser at a U.S. satellite in an apparent ASAT test were "uncertain." Gen. Cartwright, who is in charge of U.S. nuclear-warfighting forces, also suggested the United States might choose to use nuclear missiles to stop a country such as China from using missiles fired from hard-to-reach interior bases to destroy U.S. satellites.
"If there are many targets that are out of the reach of our bombers, conventional forces ... in large countries, the question would be, as an example, how many satellites would we be willing to lose before we went to a nuclear alternative, because the only thing we have to reach those targets is nuclear," he said.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/31/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
see also LUCIANNE > RAND > CHINA CAN DEFEAT THE USA > over TAIWAN via ANTI-ACCESS/DENIAL strategies in case of naval conflict. IMO still comes down to Taiwan being overwelmed vv massive conventional first-strike, espec by asymmetric Airborne-Commando forces, wid China willing to ignore/absorb heavy casualties. Chinese redeployment of mil assets near HAINAN ISLAND + VIETNAM > PUTS THE PLA ON ONE [ROUGH]GENERAL STRATEGIC DIRECTION to overwhelm = control several Nations in one strike + enter WestPac-CentPac. WAFF POSTER > it is in China's interest in any US-Sino war over Taiwan to seek mil control of SUBIC BAY [PI Freeport], former CLARK AFB, and MANILA BAY, besides WESTPAC espec GUAM-Micronesia. We already know about the HAWAIIAN ISLANDS also.
#2
Yup, it's actually quite easy and cheap (comparitively) to knock out all our satellites. It's what I'd do if I were the enemy. We're helpless without all our space-based aids. Oh, sure, they haven't given up on the paper chart, but then we go back to an earlier age of capability.
And any "let's develop new space defenses" activity is just going to be yet another excuse for the defense contractors to raid the U.S. treasury.
#4
If the 'Rats in Congress approve anything at all, it will be a porkfest.
But, the major contractors themselves have better motives. I know that we really do want to help the warfighters. We host them several times a year and tell us how the products work and what they like and don't like. We really listen to them, too, and make improvements based on their input. A saying is "If our pilots are ever in a Fair Fight, we haven't done our job."
Granted, we want to get paid and make a profit off the work, but most (not all, but most) are patriots and want to create the best product possible. I remember putting in OT to get some product out the door just after 9/11 and before Afghanistan. They actually had a surfeit of volunteers (we weren't allowed to sign the weapons, though). Yes, we get paid more than the soldiers and work less dangerous conditions, but compare us to the people in the coffeehouses who bitch and gripe, yet contribute nothing themselves. (I can't say that about RB because so many people here were, or are, actual soldiers.)
Yes, there are cases of fraud and waste. But, compare it to any other government operation (say, Education) and you'll find we are models of honesty and efficiency.
#6
I think China is going to be in for a rude, rude surprise if they try any of this sh$$. The US military has capabilities we don't talk about, even among ourselves. China is trying to bite off something that will leave a VERY nasty taste in the dragon's mouth, probably for thousands of years.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/31/2007 19:55 Comments ||
Top||
Thank you, my Dark Lords, Rove and Cheney for this masterful plot!
Insight magazine reports that Al Gore is contemplating running for president...as the nominee of the Green Party.
"Sources close to Gore said Ralph Nader has sought to recruit the former vice president," said Insight. "They said Gore has not rejected the offer and was consulting with family and friends to determine the feasibility of such a candidacy."
Mr. Gore currently vies with John Edwards for third in polls of the preferences of Democratic voters, which is pretty good for someone who is not a declared candidate.
But Mr. Gore, says Insight, "is said to have concluded he stands no chance of beating Hillary (Clinton) for the Democratic nomination. But sources close to Gore said the former vice president believes that he could present himself as a genuine liberal in any general election that would include Clinton."
Her recent purchase of the endorsement of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (he endorsed Ms. Clinton after she agreed to pay his campaign debts) suggests that if this is Mr. Gore's calculation, it's probably correct. The grotesquely front-loaded primary schedule means the nominations in both parties will be decided by money and influence with party insiders. The Clintons have plenty of both.
Insight magazine isn't the most reliable of sources, and I'm skeptical. The odds against a minor party candidate being elected are astronomical. (The only one who was competitive was Teddy Roosevelt in 1912, and he was a former president.)
For Mr. Gore to run as a Green, his animosity towards the Clintons would have to be so great that he wouldn't care that his candidacy likely would lead to a Republican victory. And Mr. Gore can't have that many warm, fuzzy feelings for Mr. Nader, whose 97,000 votes in Florida in 2000 is what kept Mr. Gore from being elected president then.
But there is little love lost between Mr. Gore and the Clintons, and if you're living in a fantasy world (as Mr. Gore largely has been since his shattering defeat), there are reasons to convince yourself you could win as a third party candidate, or accomplish something important even if you didn't.
The first is that Teddy Roosevelt did pretty well. He finished second in both the popular vote and the electoral college. If he runs, Mr. Gore would be the best known minor party candidate since Mr. Roosevelt.
The second is that Ms. Clinton is a likely loser in the general election, whether Mr. Gore runs or not. Nearly half those surveyed in a recent Rasmussen poll said they'd definitely vote against Hillary, and she trails former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. John McCain, and even actor Fred Thompson, an undeclared candidate, in head to head matchups. The scrutiny a presidential campaign will bring to her considerable baggage is unlikely to improve those numbers.
So if you have an ego as large as Mr. Gore's, it wouldn't be hard to convince yourself that you are the liberals' best chance to win the White House in 2008.
The third is that Mr. Gore plainly is a believer in the gospel of Global Warming. There is no more bully a pulpit from which to preach it than a presidential campaign. If his environmental crusade is more important to him than his political party (which is now largely in the hands of Clinton loyalists anyway), this would be a good reason to run.
Another factor could be the noises that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, both Republicans (nominally), have made about independent candidacies. The 2008 election could be the most fragmented since the election of 1824, in which there were four major candidates, and the winner was chosen by the House of Representatives.
Mr. Bloomberg is unlikely to run if the GOP nominates either Sen. McCain or Mr. Giuliani, and Sen. Hagel's presidential prospects reside entirely within his own imagination. But if the billionaire Mr. Bloomberg should team up with Mr. Gore, there would be no shortage of funds for a Green crusade.
Insight magazine said Mr. Gore will "quietly test the waters" in a series of polls over the next few months. But he has a lot of time.
By front loading their primaries, Democrats and Republicans have put their eventual nominees at a potentially serious disadvantage. Both candidates likely will be known by Feb. 5, when a de facto national primary will be held, and will be "old news" by May.
Mr. Gore could wait until after Feb. 5 to see whether Americans are content with the choices the Democrats and Republicans have given them, or would like another. And if he were to announce his candidacy then, he would be all the buzz going into the traditional campaign season.
#7
Jeesh - Gore v/s Clinton. Thank God our forefathers set up a system that we will never have to make such a choice. Because of their blind ambition, given the actual power they are both very dangerous people.
#9
I hope ever so much that Gore runs as a Green. I guess the hatred he and his wife have for Hillary and Bill is beyond description. Eight years of cruel, belittling abuse at the hands of those two creeps makes me wonder how many nights Tipper cried herself to sleep.
N.B.: Al has a huge war chest, in that he got in on several valuable corporate IPOs from friends of his, and made by some estimates $300M. That could be one HELL of a lot of payback to Hillary and her allies in the democrat party.
Plus, if he backs Green candidates in the districts of some of the more important Hillary candidates, he could end up crippling the democrat party for a decade.
#10
Internecine warfare in the Democrat Party, also described as "criminals fall out." I REALLY hope Gore runs but if he does, he better have some good bodyguards and remember Vince Foster.
'Moose, I'm sure you're right about there being no love lost between Gore and the Clintons. That said, Gore is an idiot. He could have ASSURED his election in 2000 if, over the Monica affair, he had just come out and said that he would either see Bill Clinton's resignation or hand in his own because he could no longer work with someone he knew to be an unrepentant criminal. He'd have looked moral and decisive. Instead, by hanging on, he tarred himself forever with the slime of the Clinton administration. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Posted by: Mac ||
03/31/2007 14:58 Comments ||
Top||
#11
if, over the Monica affair, he had just come out and said that he would either see Bill Clinton's resignation or hand in his own because he could no longer work with someone he knew to be an unrepentant criminal
Interesting you should say that. I was listening to a radio show on Wednesday night and there was a guest from Insight Magazine (I believe this is a conservative magazine) who was going on about how Gore thinks he is on a mandate from God.
According to this Insight guy, Gore was forever telling everyone and anyone (including this Insight reporter) who would listen that he thought Clinton's womanizing was disgusting. He went on to say how Gore is an Evangelical Christian with a mandate from God to save the world both from Global Warming and God-given mandates as the President
What I found most interesting about this discussion was ...if Gore was telling this to any and every reporter who would listen way back then, (including the conservative Insight) why was this the first time I heard about Gore's manifest destiny? Why didn't that come out prior to 2004 when it would have been as damaging as it is now??
First and foremost it made me wonder about Insight. Why is he now on the airwaves reporting such damaging info about The Goracle?
I can only think that it is very possible that Insight did report it at the time, but it was ignored just like the whole DiFi incident is being ignored now, so I never heard about it.
Whatever, it appears the the media complex is allowing these voices trashing Gore are now allowed to be heard. Clever too that they are coming from conservative voices so as not to raise suspicion that Hillary is behind the smear.
I have no doubt her hand was behind that. Smooth. She's good.
Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., is charging a cover-up by the Justice Department in connection with the 2003 theft and destruction of top secret documents by Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger. Davis also told FOX News that he is not convinced that Berger was not acting under direction from the Clinton Administration.
"I'm not convinced that he was acting alone," Davis said. "They could have well said, Sandy, do you remember that document way back that I wrote to you ... We can't get this into the record. This is gonna make us look terrible.' " Davis' comments came in a FOX News special, "Socks, Scissors, Paper: The Sandy Berger Caper," to be broadcast on FOX News Channel on Saturday, March 31 at 9 p.m. EDT. The program is hosted by David Asman.
Davis is not the only one close to the case who says Berger's crimes need further investigation. "I'll spend the rest of my life going to bed at night wondering, Did he take more. The American people should go to bed every night wondering if he took more. We'll never know; only Sandy Berger knows," Inspector General of the Archives Paul Brachfeld told Asman.
Brachfeld was the first man to investigate the crime. Like Davis, Brachfeld's main concern is that Berger may have withheld key information about Clinton Administration anti-terror strategy and efforts from the 9/11 Commission. Brachfeld has remained silent for more than two years. But in the program he courageously speaks out on television for the first time.
Brachfeld, who has served in senior investigative posts at Customs, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Elections Commission and the Secret Service, says that the case was one of the most perplexing of his career. "He is one of the true heroes of this saga," Asman says. "Without Brachfelds investigative skills and integrity this case might have been buried. But Brachfeld persisted and his clear-eyed analysis of the evidence forced the more timid bureaucrats to slowly, but finally, act."
Brachfeld says major questions remain over the extent of Bergers theft of top secret "code word" documents, and the resulting damage done to the countrys national security. Code word documents are so highly classified that only a handful of people are ever allowed to read them.
The Fox program also reveals:
There was a deep division inside the Justice Department about how to handle Berger, who ultimately was allowed to plead to misdemeanor charges, pay a small fine and avoid jail.
DOJ lawyers involved in the case failed to let the 9/11 Commission know the scope and seriousness of the security breach, despite direct orders from top Justice officials.
Contrary to the assurances the Justice Department made to Congress and to the 9/11 Commission, nobody but Berger can know whether he kept key documents and information about Clinton administration anti-terror efforts from the Commission.
Bergers lies were far more extensive than previously revealed.
That no full assessment of the damage to national security has been conducted.
That the Justice Department, in a break with precedent and procedure, relied on Bergers statements despite a record that showed a history of lies.
Brachfeld also speaks for the first time about when he learned of Bergers crimes.
As inspector general, he was the National Archive's top cop. But he was informed of Berger's thefts only after archivists, who oversee top secret presidential materials, had hastily organized their own amateurish sting operation and thoroughly botched the case. The FOX News special, through interviews with Brachfeld, congressional investigators, 9/11 Commission members and Justice Department sources, as well as a detailed review of government reports, recounts in more detail than ever the scope and severity of Berger's crimes.
FOX News also reveals the stunning failure of the Archives and particularly Presidential Materials Staff Director Nancy Smith to secure the nation's most sensitive documents.
Among the security breakdowns:
Smith, the person charged with safeguarding presidential documents, allowed Berger to view the top secret dossiers in her office instead of a secure room known as a SCIF (sensitive compartmentalized information facility) as required by the CIA.
Smith, in a serious breach of security protocols, often allowed Berger alone with the documents.
When Smith and her staff became suspicious that Berger was stealing top secret documents, they did not report their suspicions to authorities, as required by their own rules. Instead, they concocted their own inept sting operation, which they subsequently botched. Brachfeld says that significantly comprised the case against Berger.
The FOX News program's title refers to the most notorious episode in the Sandy Berger case. On September 2, 2003, archivist John Laster reported catching Berger stuffing documents into his socks.
As the program reports, Berger dismisses the allegation that he stole top secret documents in his socks as "absurd and embarrassing." Berger, however, does admit he made off with national security secrets in his suit jacket.
In the special, Asman retraces the steps Berger took when he stashed some highly sensitive documents under a construction trailer on a busy Washington, D.C. street near the Archives.
In the program, Rep. Davis renews his calls for Berger to undergo a lie detector test. He also charges for the first time that there is reason to believe Berger did not act alone in the thefts. Davis says phone calls Berger methodically made during the review of the documents raise the specter that Berger was coordinating the theft with others.
Berger would be required to submit to a polygraph under the terms of his plea agreement. But when Davis pressed DOJ to administer the test, the department refused. "They gave us the finger, basically," Davis told Asman.
At the time he stole and destroyed the top secret documents, Berger who served as National Security Advisor from 1997-2001 was preparing to represent the Clinton administration in testimony before the 9/11 Commission concerning anti-terror measures that were taken before the New York City attacks.
This is on tonight (against Final Four games unfortunately), but should air again Sunday afternoon, according to Andy McCarthy at the Corner.
#1
FOX News also reveals the stunning failure of the Archives and particularly Presidential Materials Staff Director Nancy Smith to secure the nation's most sensitive documents
Has she been fired? If this was against a Republican administration, she would have been tarred and feathered by now. I really don't understand how it could happen that Berger could have gotten out of the archives with those documents. Do they not count or photocopy them before they provide them on such a highly sensitive matter??
I have to believe that this woman is complicit in Berger's efforts to sanitize the Clinton record. Regardless of whether that is true or not, her neglect of her duites is so horrific that she should be in jail.
#2
I've never worked with high-level stuff (thankfully), but the general principle everywhere seems to be "we trust you not to be a criminal, but we don't trust you not to make mistakes."
#3
I think all will become clear if we were to learn that Nancy Smith is a registered Democrat.
Her letting Berger get away with it, use her office, etc, is too stupid to not be deliberate. I think she had to eventually go along with other employees who saw what was up when they finally turned him in.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
03/31/2007 21:32 Comments ||
Top||
#4
well, according to Opensecrets.org, a Nancy Smith, residing in VA, gave $ to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Cmte...I'm sure that's a coincidence
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/31/2007 21:43 Comments ||
Top||
#5
In an April 1, 2005, press conference and private statements to the commission, the Justice Department stated instead that Berger had access only to copied documents, not originals. They also said the sole documents Berger admitted taking -- five copies of a 2001 terrorism study -- were later provided to the commission.
Those assertions conflicted with a September 2004 statement to Brachfeld by Nancy Kegan Smith, who directs the Archives' presidential documents staff and let Berger view the documents in her office in VIOLATION OF SECRECY RULES. Smith said "she would never know what if any original documents were missing," Brachfeld reported in an internal memo.
Brachfeld has similarly expressed frustration that Smith and others who suspected Berger of wrongdoing chose not to inform him of their suspicions until more than a week after Berger's last visit to the Archives. "If I had been notified, I would have put cameras in the room. I would have caught him leaving with documents on him. . . . We could have had FBI agents around the facility. . . . He would have been arrested," Brachfeld said.
I ask again - is she still employed by the National Archives? She should be in jail.
#7
So.. does Nancy Smith still have her job? Why isn't she and her staff serving five-to-ten in the federal pen for criminal incompetentce?
And Burger should get life (at least). How are people to take laws seriously if the punishment says 'hey... steal top secret information? no problem!'.
Hillary Clinton today called for universal pre-school, de-funding of private "supplemental" education programs and an overall shift in what she described as a test-based approach to education.
The New York senator and Democratic Presidential front-runner was received enthusiastically by about 300 delegates to the NEA-New Hampshire, the state's teachers union, and hundreds of guests at the union's annual meeting at the Grappone Center.
Clinton, speaking for more than an hour, said that children in poor, "crumbling" classrooms are "invisible" to President George W. Bush and his administration. She said Bush has also ignored dropouts, and the group she was addressing. "Teachers of New Hampshire," Clinton said, you are not going to be invisible to the next President of the United States."
Clinton called for full funding of Bush's "No Child Left Behind," which she supported early in Bush's first term, but which, she charged, has been purposely under-funded to promote an agenda favorable to private schools and a voucher system.
She promised to increase funding for IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities EducationAct), federal legislation aimed at providing equal educational opportunities for the disabled.
Clinton did not say how much universal pre-school would cost, or how she would pay for it. She said she will release details of her plan soon.
Clinton also vowed to cut funding for a "new generation of nuclear weapons" being pursued by the Bush administration.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
03/31/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
While speaking to a teachers' union. The Hildabeast never fails to propose destroying the country.
Posted by: Captain America ||
03/31/2007 1:26 Comments ||
Top||
#2
NEA-CEEi0 and Amalgamated Pencil Snappers.
jeebus, the most persistently dangerous organzation in the US.
#3
Not all children are ready for even so informal a learning situation as preschool at that age, and it would be damaging to them to mandate such a thing. That's why even kindergarten is generally optional.
#4
This is a bullshit red herring. Education in the US is a state issue, not federal. The president has very little to do with it. Hillary is just blowing smoke out her ass by proposing things she would have no place delivering.
#5
I can see the lil robots - forced to sit and listen to her speak..kinda like a 1984 ad....hey!
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/31/2007 12:10 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Education in the US is a state issue, not federal.
Now Spot, what's this damn census of poor kids eating free lunch we have to do 4 times a year all about n order to qualifiy for Title I dough? Agreed tho that it should be a state issue.
#7
"Clinton did not say how much universal pre-school would cost, or how she would pay for it. She said she will release details of her plan soon."
Clinton did not say how much universal Healthcare would cost, or how she would pay for it. She said she will release details of her plan soon.
Clinton did not say how much her Environmental strategy to reduce Greenhouse gasses would cost, or how she would pay for it. She said she will release details of her plan soon.
Clinton did not say how much her strategy to reduce dependence on foreign oil would cost, or how she would pay for it. She said she will release details of her plan soon.
Clinton did not say how much her every child will have a pony plan would cost, or how she would pay for it. She said she will release details of her plan soon.
#8
Yep, there are federal programs like Headstart, etc., but the overwhelming majority of funding is at the local/state level as are school boards. The best (only?) thing Uncle Sam should do is mandate vouchers, IMHO.
Hassoun's victory was praised as a unifying event for Iraqis [AFP]
An Iraqi singer has shot to stardom after winning an Arab version of Pop Idol in a glitzy Beirut final.
Shada Hassoun wrapped herself with the white, red and black flag of Iraq and broke into tears as fans swarmed the stage after her victory on one of the Arab world's most popular entertainment programmes.
People in autonomous northern Kurdistan, the only area safe enough for people to watch the show live on a giant outside screen, jumped for joy following the win.
Kurds celebrated into the small hours, holding pictures the 26-year-old, beeping car horns and making victory signs as they drove.
Hassoun, who has lived most of her life outside Iraq, beat three other finalists - men from Egypt and Lebanon and a woman from Tunisia.
She told CNN: "I really want to thank them so much. Iraq. All Iraqi people for voting to me, for their love to me, because I can feel it.
"I can feel them, like, really happy and smiling, especially in that situation they're living. That's why it's my dream to make them happy," she said.
Religious fans
Iraq's al-Sharqiyah satellite channel devoted hours of live coverage to Friday's broadcast on a Lebanese channel, urging Iraqis to vote for Hassoun and broadcast a phone-in programme for her supporters.
Some fans called to say they had voted for Hassoun so many times they had used up the credit on their prepaid phone cards.
During commercial breaks, Sharqiyah broadcast a government advertisement that seeks to discourage sectarian violence.
It shows an elderly woman in a black chador in tears and pleading with masked gunmen not to evict her and her family from their home.
Even in the deeply religious Shia city of Najaf people were delighted.
An Islamist politician, Sabah Ahmed, said: "We welcome this woman because she has held the name of Iraq aloft. We needed a voice to unify us."
"Being an Islamist, I have some reservations about singing. But seven million votes for this woman from walks of society. With this percentage she outclassed politicians in Iraq. Therefore the victory unites Iraqis," he said.
#1
People in autonomous northern Kurdistan, the only area safe enough for people to watch the show live on a giant outside screen, jumped for joy following the win.
gettin' all excited about the winner of an Idol episode. heh. Something really glad and really sad about that all at the same time.
"A significant portion of the U.S. missile defense capability was wiped out during the summer of 2006 because torrential rains caused ground-based interceptor silos to be damaged by flood waters," POGO said in a statement.
"Boeing, the contractor that is at least partly responsible for failing to protect the silos, will most likely still receive an estimated $38 million to repair the silos and a $100 million no-bid contract to build more silos. Boeing would also receive a $7 million award fee added to the contract," the group said.
POGO noted that "the flooding occurred during a three-week period between the end of June and early July 2006 when Ft. Greely received several inches of rain. Ft. Greely and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California house the nation's only Missile Defense Agency interceptor missiles."
"The flooding damaged 25 percent of the U.S. interceptor missiles' launch capability. These silos house the interceptor missiles that would be used to attempt to intercept a missile aimed at the United States. No interceptors were in the flooded silos," the group's report said.
POGO also reported that the flooding debacle had set off a fierce row between the U.S. military and Boeing, the prime contractor for building the Fort Greely interceptor fields.
#2
I seem to recall that these sorts of silos are supposed to withstand near-direct hits with nuclear tipped cruise missiles. You're telling me that rain somehow got in and damaged the silos? Not the interceptors mind you, the effing SILOS?!?
#4
I went to the link and read a lot more. They've gone off half-cocked on this one. There was some damage but it was to silos under construction. There was no damage to missiles already sited so there was no degradation of capacity. Sounded like someone on the left just trying to hang something else on Bush and the FEARED MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX...
Posted by: Mac ||
03/31/2007 4:31 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The Dallas transit tunnels flooded during construction, too, because the drainage system wasn't finished and there were no pumps yet at the low point. Unfortunately, the contractor had stored the ventilation fans near the low point....
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/31/2007 8:06 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Was DiFi's husband's company involved?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/31/2007 9:28 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Also note that that this was an ASAP contract, not a normal project. President Bush wanted our ABM system up "yesterday", and that limits quality control.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A team of Scotland Yard detectives will travel to Jamaica next week to conduct a review of the Bob Woolmer murder investigation, amid fears that local police may have missed vital clues. Mark Shields, the Deputy Commissioner of Jamaica Police and a former Scotland Yard detective, told The Times that he will ask for a team of British murder investigators to assist in the investigation, because sometimes you can miss the blindingly obvious. 
Egyptian blogs have published amateur video footage purporting to show ballot stuffing and vote fraud in a nationwide referendum on constitutional amendments which opposition groups say was rigged.
The United States said on Friday that African nations fell short in putting pressure on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and urged them to do more to end the veteran leaders opposition clampdown. Washington had hoped African leaders attending a summit in Tanzania this week would act against Mr. Mugabe, but instead they rallied around him and ignored calls for tougher action. We would have wished for something a little stronger and a more firm stance on what is going on in Zimbabwe, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said of the outcome of the Tanzania meeting.
Congolese former warlord 
China is developing an "impressive" array of space weapons, including missiles and jammers, and is moving toward placing nuclear weapons in space to attack U.S. satellites, the commander of U.S. strategic forces told the Senate yesterday.
