Cross-posted on Daily Kos.

I’m going about my nightly survey of Blackwater news for today’s Four at Four and I’m reading a background story by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Dana Hedgpeth in the Washington Post, ‘Building Blackwater‘ about how the company became so large and lucrative, and at the end of the piece there is this passage. Erik Prince, Blackwater CEO and owner, is showing the WaPo reporters, around his “7,000-acre facility in North Carolina known as Blackwater Lodge and Training Center.”

At the center’s original lodge, he proudly pointed out a stuffed bobcat, a wild turkey and a beaver that he recalled killing. The lobby of the Blackwater headquarters resembles a ski lodge with a twist: The front doors feature barrels from .50-caliber machine guns. Inside, a glass showcase displays replicas of guns used to assassinate presidents.

Holy Zarquon’s Singing Fish!

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started.

1. Greg Miller of the Los Angeles Times reports the CIA investigates conduct of its inspector general. Gen. Michael Hayden, the CIA Director, “has mounted a highly unusual challenge to the agency’s chief watchdog, ordering an internal investigation of an inspector general who has issued a series of scathing reports sharply critical of top CIA officials… The move has prompted concerns that Hayden is seeking to rein in an inspector general who has used the office to bring harsh scrutiny of CIA figures including former Director George J. Tenet and undercover operatives running secret overseas prison sites. The inquiry is focused on the conduct of CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson and his office.”

   The New York Times reports that the investigation is “particularly focused on complaints that Mr. Helgerson’s office has not acted as a fair and impartial judge of agency operations but instead has begun a crusade against those who have participated in controversial detention programs.” CIA officers have complained about length of the inspector general’s investigations and that they have “derailed careers and generated steep legal bills for officers under scrutiny”.

   A 2004 report by Helgerson’s office “warned that some C.I.A.-approved interrogation procedures appeared to constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as defined by the international Convention Against Torture.” His office also “rankled agency officials when it completed a withering report about the C.I.A’s missteps before the Sept. 11 attack — a report that recommended ‘accountability boards’ to consider disciplinary action against a handful of senior officials.”

2. The Guardian reports China joins UN censure of Burmese regime. “China turned against the Burmese government last night and supported a UN security council statement rebuking the military regime for its suppression of peaceful protests, and demanding the release of all political prisoners.” This “marked the first time that Beijing had agreed to UN criticism of the junta. The statement did not threaten sanctions, but the significance of its unanimous support by all 15 members of the security council would not have been lost on Burma’s generals, who had hitherto been able to count on China, a neighbour and key trading partner, to block UN censure.” The Independent reports that in order to secure “the agreement of China and Russia”, Western countries had to “water down a draft statement that had originally demanded a transition to democracy in the country.”

3. The New York Times reports Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has criticized top Bush administration officials over missile defense shield. “President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia sharply upbraided the visiting American secretaries of state and defense on Friday as little specific progress was made during negotiations intended to resolve growing disagreements over missile defense and other security issues.

   “During a day of lengthy negotiations here, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates presented what they described as a series of ‘new ideas’ intended to narrow the divide between the countries.” BBC News reports that the Russians have urged a U.S. missile ‘freeze’. “After high-level talks in Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia saw the shield as a ‘potential threat’ and wanted to ‘neutralise’ it.” Rice said the Bush administration would not stop its missile “shield” plans. According to the NY Times:

   Mr. Putin himself set the tone for the day when he kept Ms. Rice and Mr. Gates waiting 40 minutes for a morning meeting at his suburban residence, or dacha, and then surprised them with a derisive lecture in front of the television cameras…

   Mr. Putin appeared to catch Mr. Gates and Ms. Rice off guard with his remarks since no public statements were planned in advance.

   Mr. Putin, though, arrived with notes and spent eight minutes welcoming the opportunity to talk about where Russia strongly disagreed with the Bush administration. Ms. Rice appeared angered, though Mr. Gates reacted impassively.

   No one could have predicted being ambushed by Putin. Rice is out of her league. At least Gates kept his poker face.

There’s more below the fold. Today’s “Guns of Greed” with HUGE news about a U.S. Army report that details how Blackwater fired at vehicles fleeing the scene of the Nisoor Square massacre. Plus a bonus story about a collector of vintage and obsolete computer equipment — the time lord of technology. So, step into that TARDIS disguised as an old mainframe and voyage to the place known only as… below the fold.

Al Gore has won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He is sharing the Nobel Peace prize with the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change” The complete text committee’s announcement is available.

Here is one reason Why Al Gore deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the 20th century peace was something to be achieved after the horrifying bloodletting of world war began. In the 21st century, although the world faces a new era of turmoil, peace ultimately must be about identifying and resolving the sources of conflict before battles break out. That’s why no one deserves the Nobel Peace Prize more than Al Gore.

Congratulations Mr. Vice President!

Now about 2008…

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started.

1. Rosalind Russell of The Independent reports that ‘Only now, the full horror of Burmese junta’s repression of monks emerges‘. “Monks confined in a room with their own excrement for days, people beaten just for being bystanders at a demonstration, a young woman too traumatised to speak, and screams in the night as Rangoon’s residents hear their neighbours being taken away.” First-hand accounts, smuggled out of Burma, are now revealing a “systematic campaign of physical punishment and psychological terror”.

   Most of the detained monks, the low-level clergy, were eventually freed without charge as were the children among them. But suspected ringleaders of the protests can expect much harsher treatment, secret trials and long prison sentences. One detained opposition leader has been tortured to death, activist groups said yesterday. Win Shwe, 42, a member of the National League for Democracy, the party of the detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has died under interrogation, the Thai-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said, adding that the information came from authorities in Kyaukpandawn township. “However, his body was not sent to his family and the interrogators indicated that they had cremated it instead.” Win Shwe was arrested on the first day of the crackdown.

   Monks and novices, as young as 10 years old, were confined to a room — 400 in one room — with no toilets, beds, blankets, buckets, or water. “The room was too small for everyone to lie down at once. We took it in turns to sleep. Every night at 8 o’clock we were given a small bowl of rice and a cup of water. But after a few days many of us just couldn’t eat. The smell was so bad.” Onlookers who applauded the monks were taken away and beaten. One such spectator “is so scared she won’t even leave her room” or talk to anyone.

   Another Rangoon resident told the aid worker: “We all hear screams at night as they [the police] arrive to drag off a neighbour. We are torn between going to help them and hiding behind our doors. We hide behind our doors. We are ashamed. We are frightened.”

   The junta’s “intelligence agents are scrutinising photographs and video footage to identify demonstrators and bystanders. They have also arrested the owners of computers which they suspect were used to transmit images and testimonies out of the country.”

2. The New York Times reports that Turks are angry over a House committee’s Armenian Genocide vote. “Turkey reacted angrily today to a House committee vote in Washington on Wednesday that condemned the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I as an act of genocide, calling the decision ‘unacceptable.'” Turkey’s president, Abdullah Gul, criticized the vote saying “Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once more dismissed calls for common sense, and made an attempt to sacrifice big issues for minor domestic political games… This is not a type of attitude that works to the benefit of, and suits, representatives of a great power like the Unites States of America. This unacceptable decision of the committee, like similar ones in the past, has no validity and is not worthy of the respect of the Turkish people.”

   The Bush administration’s concern that passage of the resolution could hamper their ability to continue the occupation of Iraq. “Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates noted that about 70 percent of all air cargo sent to Iraq passed through or came from Turkey, as did 30 percent of fuel and virtually all the new armored vehicles designed to withstand mines and bombs.” “Turkey severed military ties with France after its Parliament voted in 2006 to make the denial of the Armenian genocide a crime.” Turkey has recalled its ambassador for 10 days of consultations.

   Meanwhile in northern Iraq, The New York Times reports Iraq’s worries on Turkish border grow. Mahmoud Othman, a “Kurdish lawmaker in the Iraqi Parliament today condemned preparations by Turkey’s government for potential cross-border military action against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, even as he reported that the Turkish military was mobilizing on the border and Turkish warplanes were flying close to Iraq.” Othman said Turkey’s military was mobilizing on the frontier and “Turkish warplanes were flying close to the border but not crossing it.” Reuters reports that Turkey may request incursion into Iraq. Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, “will ask parliament next week to authorize a military push into north Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels”. The Washington Post confirms Turkey’s military mobilization. “On Tuesday, Turkey’s top civilian and military authorities ordered the armed forces to their highest state of alert. On Wednesday, the Turkish air force used F-16 and F-14 fighter jets and Cobra helicopter gunships to bomb suspected PKK hideouts and escape routes in the mountainous border region, the Turkish Dogan news agency reported. Iraqi residents said Turkish artillery shells landed in Iraqi territory, according to news reports from the border area.” The U.S. and European Union have implored Turkey not to invade northern Iraq.

There is more below the fold: a mixed court ruling on Al Gore’s film, today’s “Guns of Greed”, and a bonus story on the natural evolution of English irregular verbs.

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started.

1. The following from Washington Post columnist, Dana Milbank, is offered without comment:

   House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in a determinedly good mood when she sat down to lunch with reporters yesterday. She entered the room beaming and, over the course of an hour, smiled no fewer than 31 times and got off at least 23 laughs.

   But her spirits soured instantly when somebody asked about the anger of the Democratic “base” over her failure to end the war in Iraq.

   “Look,” she said, the chicken breast on her plate untouched. “I had, for five months, people sitting outside my home, going into my garden in San Francisco, angering neighbors, hanging their clothes from trees, building all kinds of things — Buddhas? I don’t know what they were — couches, sofas, chairs, permanent living facilities on my front sidewalk.”

   Unsmilingly, she continued: “If they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering, but because they have ‘Impeach Bush’ across their chest, it’s the First Amendment.”

   Though opposed to the war herself, Pelosi has for months been a target of an antiwar movement that believes she hasn’t done enough. Cindy Sheehan has announced a symbolic challenge to Pelosi in California’s 8th Congressional District. And the speaker is seething.

   “We have to make responsible decisions in the Congress that are not driven by the dissatisfaction of anybody who wants the war to end tomorrow,” Pelosi told the gathering at the Sofitel, arranged by the Christian Science Monitor. Though crediting activists for their “passion,” Pelosi called it “a waste of time” for them to target Democrats. “They are advocates,” she said. “We are leaders.”

2. If I were president decider, this is not the kind of headline I’d want to see in the Los Angeles Times — ‘Bush urges ‘no’ vote on Armenian genocide bill‘ or in The New York Times — ‘Bush Argues Against Armenian Genocide Measure‘. But then after invading countries, sanctioning and using torture, and systematically eroding away your own citizens’ civil liberties, then I suppose you might get a bit squeemish about the House passing a resolution recognizing, in yet another non-binding resolution, genocide.

   From George W. Bush’s statement today:

   On another issue before Congress, I urge members to oppose the Armenian genocide resolution now being considered by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915. This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror.

   So, Mr. Bush. What is the “right response”? According to the Washington Post story on Bush’s remarks, “Three former defense secretaries, in their own letter, said Turkey probably would cut off U.S. access to a critical air base. The government of Turkey is spending more than $300,000 a month on communications specialists and high-powered lobbyists… to defeat the initiative.” Bush has offered no alternative to the reslution other than continuing to ignore genocide.

   [EVENING UPDATE] According to Bloomberg, House panel backs Armenian measure over objections. “A congressional panel approved a resolution calling for the U.S. to designate the World War I-era killings of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide, amid warnings that the measure would harm relations with Turkey. ¶ The nonbinding resolution, backed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on a 27-21 vote, calls for a reversal in the practice by successive presidential administrations of avoiding referring to the deaths as genocide in an annual April message commemorating the event. More than half of the House’s 435 members have signed on as co-sponsors.”

3. The Guardian reports that Russian president, Vladimir Putin said there is no proof Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons.

   “We do not have data that says Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons. We do not have such objective data,” Mr Putin told a news conference in Moscow after talks with the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

   “Therefore we proceed from a position that Iran has no such plans, but we share the concern of our partners that all programmes should be as transparent as possible.”

   So, will Putin provide an effective check to President-in-waiting Cheney? Would Russian protection extend over Iran? Welcome to the Neo Cold War. Now with even more insanity!

News item no. 4, ‘Tensions heat up between China and Taiwan’ and today’s “Guns of Greed” is below the fold.

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started.

1. The Guardian reports Aung San Suu Kyi has rejected talks with Burma junta. “The prospect of a meeting between Burma’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the military ruler faded today, after she refused to accept preconditions for the talks set by the junta.” In a statement today, she said: “The success of a dialogue is based on sincerity and the spirit of give and take. The will for achieving success is also crucial and there should not be any preconditions.” China has again rejected sanctions against the regime.

2. The New York Times reports that Turkey has said its troops can cross Iraq border. “Turkey took a step toward cross-border military action in Iraq today, as a council of the country’s top political and military leaders issued a statement today allowing troops to cross to eliminate separatist Kurdish rebel camps in the mountainous northern region.” The announcement that “parliamentary approval normally needed for cross-border movement of troops was not needed for special units’ in hot pursuit” of Kurdish separatists from the PKK (Kurdish Worker’s Party) came after 13 soldiers were killed Sunday by a landmine that exploded 15 miles from the Iraqi border in Sirnak Province.

   Reuters reports the U.S. State Department has warned against Turkish action in Iraq. “If they have a problem, they need to work together to resolve it and I am not sure that unilateral incursions are the way to go, the way to resolve the issue,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. However, “asked whether Washington had urged restraint on both sides, McCormack said sovereign states had to make their own decisions about how best to defend themselves.”

3. There have been reports of ongoing heavy fighting in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. Most of the fighting is centered around Miral. Casualties have been difficult to confirm, but “soldiers, civilians, and militants” have all been killed reports The New York Times. The Pakistani military has said at least 45 soldiers have been killed and another 50 are missing. The AP reports at least 250 people killed in the fighting. “Pakistani aircraft bombed a village bazaar packed with shoppers near the Afghan border… The attack on Epi village in North Waziristan tribal region killed dozens of militants and civilians”.

   In related news, Reuters reports the White House is saying that Al Qaeda is trying to boost efforts in U.S.. “Although we have discovered only a handful of individuals in the United States with ties to al Qaeda senior leadership, the group likely will intensify its efforts to place operatives here in the homeland,” said a report titled “National Strategy for Homeland Security”. The report also noted that al Qaeda had protected its leadership, found new “operation lieutenants” and “regenerated in a safe haven” in Pakistan.

   The deaths are likely to intensify opposition within Pakistan to Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s government and alliance with the Bush administration. Musharraf is also trying to secure another term as president. He awaits the decision from the Pakistani Supreme Court if his re-election is valid. The AFP reports that an extra Pakistan judge was added to hear Musharraf election case.

4. The Washington Post reports Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs. People attending anitwar rallies and other political events in New York and Washington have claimed to have spotted “mechanical” dragonflies or “little helicopters” hovering over them. “Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security… No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones… But the CIA secretly developed a simple dragonfly snooper as long ago as the 1970s.”

   This story seems specifically written to increase paranoia. It comes right after news of the Myanmar junta soliders rounding up people, shouting “We have photographs. We are going to make arrests!”

Today’s “Guns of Greed” is below the fold…

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started.

1. Another day, another report on how the Bush administration is helping al Qaeda. Reuters reports Report says war on terror is fueling al Qaeda. “The ‘war on terror’ is failing and instead fueling an increase in support for extremist Islamist movements” according to a report by the Oxford Research Group (ORG).

   If the al Qaeda movement is to be countered, then the roots of its support must be understood and systematically undercut,” said Paul Rogers, the report’s author and professor of global peace studies at Bradford University in northern England.

   “Combined with conventional policing and security measures, al Qaeda can be contained and minimized but this will require a change in policy at every level.”

   He described the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as a “disastrous mistake” which had helped establish a “most valued jihadist combat training zone” for al Qaeda supporters.

   The report recommends immediate redeployment from Iraq and intensifying diplomacy in the region, including with Iran and Syria. Rogers said it will take “at least 10 years to make up for the mistakes made since 9/11.

   “Going to war with Iran”, he said, “will make matters far worse, playing directly into the hands of extreme elements and adding greatly to the violence across the region. Whatever the problems with Iran, war should be avoided at all costs.”

   I suspect no one will pay any attention to this study because the author is a professor of peace studies and thinks “war should be avoided at all costs”. BBC News reports on the ORG study as well, covering the same ground, but adds the “report said al-Qaeda had benefited from the removal of the Taleban regime in Afghanistan by coalition forces. The terror network got a propaganda boost from the extraordinary rendition and detention of terrorism suspects, it said.” Any bets on if we’ll see any mention of this report from the traditional media in America?

2. Some Iraqi leaders have given up trying to reconcile their difference. Joshua Partlow reports for the Washington Post that Top Iraqis pull back from key U.S. goal.

   Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services…

   Legislation to manage the oil sector, the country’s most valuable natural resource, and to bring former Baath Party members back into the government have not made it through the divided parliament. The U.S. military’s latest hope for grass-roots reconciliation, the recruitment of Sunni tribesmen into the Iraqi police force, was denounced last week in stark terms by Iraq’s leading coalition of Shiite lawmakers.

   Oh, and no one could have predicted the following when the U.S. military began arming locals to “fight” “al Qaeda in Iraq”.

   Some potential progress toward reconciliation has run into recent trouble. The U.S. effort to recruit Sunni tribesmen to join the police force and fight the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq was strongly opposed last week by Shiite officials, who asserted that the Sunni recruits were killing innocent people under the guise of fighting insurgents.

   “We demand that the American administration stop this adventure, which is rejected by all the sons of the people and its national political powers,” the leading Shiite political coalition said in a statement. “Their elements are criminals who cannot be trusted or relied upon.”

Four at Four continues below the fold with stories on:

3. Today’s “Guns of Greed” starring Blackwater CEO Erik Prince as Bruce Wayne, er Batman.

4. Ocean wave energy generation in the Pacific Northwest.

Plus a bonus story about Mad Max’s Wind Farm in Australia. So jump below the fold, the Bat-Signal is on.

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started. Toss the lucky man into the Nile and he will come up with a fish in his mouth.

1. This Sunday, here are three different views of life for the people in occupied Iraq.

   • For Iraqi Christians, James Palmer of the Washington Post reports they either ‘Live In Fear Or Flee‘. “Extreme Islamic militants increasingly are targeting Christians in Iraq, especially in the capital. As a result, Iraq’s Christian community — long the minority in a largely Muslim country — continues to dwindle.”

     The last Iraqi census was conducted in 1987 and counted 1 million Christians. “National aid groups estimate that between 300,000 and 600,000 Christians remain among an estimated 25 million people” in Iraq. Many Iraqi Christians have been given three choices: 1) convert to Islam, 2) pay “protection” money, or 3) leave.

   • For Iraqis who work for Americans, Sabrina Tavernise reports ‘In Life of Lies, Iraqis Conceal Work for U.S.‘ “For the tens of thousands of Iraqis who work for the United States in Iraq, daily life is an elaborate balancing act of small, memorized untruths. Desperate for work of any kind when jobs are extremely hard to come by in Iraq, they do what they must, even though affiliation with the Americans makes them targets.”

     The Iraqis who work for the Americans construct elaborate, complex lies to cover their work, where they go and what they do. They live in constant peril of having their cover blown by casual conversation or even their own children. Often their complex stories turn and pose problems for them. Other Iraqis, believing the workers’ cover stories, often ask them to do things, fix things, make things only their alibi could do… further putting them at risk.

   • Finally, for an Iraqi family trying to leave Iraq, opportunities to immigrate prove elusive. As an Iraqi, anonymous fro security reasons, writing for the Los Angeles Times explains in ‘After leaving Iraq, a bitter return home‘.

     I never knew how badly I wanted to leave Iraq until I was forced to come back… Even though we both were making good money in Iraq, we flew to the UAE in December to take the tests required to work there as pharmacists…

     Life was different there — no explosions, no blackouts. We would go out in the evenings, doing whatever we liked without fear of militias or religious extremists… Even our baby girl, who was too young to understand what was happening, had more fun… For us, a small family, it was a piece of heaven…

     After two months, my application for a work visa still had not come through. I had to leave the UAE because my visitor’s visa was about to expire, but I was confident my work visa would come through…

     My wife says it is our bad luck to be Iraqis. ‘This bad luck is stuck to us forever,’ she said after the visa was rejected. I think she is right.

The rest of today’s Four at Four is lurking below the fold.

2. An update on what comes next from Burmese activists and a report on a secret junta crematorium in Burma.

3. Three stories relating to Blackwater in the “Guns of Greed” section.

4. The arrest of American Indian Movement leader Russell Means yesterday.

Plus a bonus story about the fate that awaits Pacific Northwest salmon from global warming. So dive in, there’s a lot more below the fold…

Carl Bernstein was part of a 35-year retrospective on Watergate today as part of the 2007 Society of Professional Journalists National Convention. The Capitol Hill newspaper, The Hill, reports Carl Bernstein thinks Watergate would have played very differently if it happened today.

Why?

Because, Congressional oversight is more lax now than during Watergate.

“The difference with today is that the system did its job. The press did its job. The court did its job. The Senate committee did its job,” Bernstein said Saturday. “There’s been great reporting on this president. But there’s been no oversight. We have a Democratic Congress now and there’s still no oversight.”

Bernstein also said that “35 years of ideological warfare” could also change how the public would react to such a scandal.

“We live in a very different atmosphere today,” Bernstein said. “With Watergate, eventually the people of this country looked around and decided Nixon was a criminal president. I’m not sure the same chain of events would have taken place today.”

If we had today’s Congress during the Nixon presidency, then I doubt Richard Nixon would have even resigned. Shoot. It is doubtful even Vice President Spiro Agnew would have been forced to resign. Image, if you will, this scene on February 2, 1973. Nixon is before a joint session of Congress for the State of the Union address, and then…

Welcome to 2007 with the same gang of Nixon minions running the U.S. government. Somewhere, Richard M. Nixon is smiling.

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started.

1. First, a mix of climate change news from dire to hopeful.

   • The Guardian reports Climate change disaster is upon us, warns UN. Sir John Holmes, the United Nation’s emergency relief coordinator, “said dire predictions about the impact of global warming on humanity were already coming true.”

     “We are seeing the effects of climate change. Any year can be a freak but the pattern looks pretty clear to be honest. That’s why we’re trying … to say, of course you’ve got to deal with mitigation of emissions, but this is here and now, this is with us already,” he said…

     Two years ago only half the international disasters dealt with by [the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs] had anything to do with the climate; this year all but one of the 13 emergency appeals is climate-related. “And 2007 is not finished. We will certainly have more by the end of the year, I fear,” added Sir John, who is in charge of channelling international relief efforts to disaster areas.

     More appeals were likely in the coming weeks, as floods hit west Africa. “All these events on their own didn’t have massive death tolls, but if you add all these little disasters together you get a mega disaster,” he said.

   • Ariana Eunjung Cha of the Washington Post reports China is having a Green Awakening. For nearly 30 years, Wuxi “had welcomed some of the world’s biggest polluters.” But, after industrial pollution had “poisoned the province’s vast network of lakes, rivers and canals… City officials decided they’d had enough. In a series of radical proclamations that sent shudders though the business community, Wuxi declared itself a newly reformed green city.”

     “Last week, China’s State Council approved an environmental plan that includes reducing major pollutant discharges by 10 percent by 2010. Plagued by water shortages, choking on dusty air and alarmed by a sharp increase in pollution-related diseases and deaths, China has been searching for years for a way to fix its environment without hurting its economy.”

   • Terry Macalister of The Guardian that World’s largest offshore wind farm is given government approval for Kent, England. “The world’s largest offshore wind farm, which will occupy a site of 90 square miles off the coast of Kent, has been given the go-ahead by the government and should be ready to provide clean power for a quarter of London’s homes by 2010… The consortium developing the wind farm, which is led by Shell and Eon, is reluctant to comment on the ambitious plan for up to 341 turbines until it has tied up a range of commercial contracts and received approval from National Grid to provide new high- powered overhead cables.”

2. Kevin Siers / The Charlotte Observer (October 5, 2007)

   

   Siers’ editorial cartoon pretty much sums up the Bush administration this week.

Four at Four continues below the fold, including stories on:

3. A profile of a French priest that roams Ukraine’s back roads and forgotten fields to document the Nazis’ murder of 1.5 million Jews.

4. Today’s round-up of all things Blackwater in the “Guns of Greed” focusing on the people of Blackwater – guard and guarded.

And a double-shot bonus below the fold: 1) zebra mussel invasion and 2) is this the next bridge in Portland, Oregon? Find out, below the fold…

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started.
Three things cause sorrow to flee: water, green trees, and a beautiful face.

1. In an effort to evade his eventual war crimes trial, George W. Bush today said his “government does not torture people! You know, we stick to U.S. law and our international obligations.” Bush noted he has “highly trained professionals questioning these extremists and terrorists!” Adding, “by the way, we have gotten information from these high-value detainees that have helped protect you!” So shut up already, ixnay onway ayingsay eway orturetay. Bush blamed his torture policies on Congress, saying “the techniques that we use have been fully disclosed to appropriate members of the United States Congress”. He claimed to be protecting Americans from “further attack”.

   Bush was facing backlash over a secret memo condoning torture by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ Justice Department, which was covered in yesterday’s Four at Four. The memo sanctioned the use of head slapping and simulated drowning. According to TPMmuckraker, Reps. John Conyers (D-MI) chair and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) of the House Judiciary committee has demanded the release of secret legal opinions from 2005 and 2006 condoning the use of ‘enhanced interrogation’.

   The New York Times reports that debate in Congress erupted on techniques used by the C.I.A. Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV), Senate Intelligence Committee chair, sent a sternly worded letter to acting attorney general Peter Keisler, requesting “copies of all opinions on interrogation since 2004.” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Senate Judiciary Committee chair, said the Bush administration had “reinstated a secret regime by, in essence, reinterpreting the law in secret.” Leahy promised that Michael Mukasey, the nominee for attorney general, would be questioned about his views on interrogation. I’m sure Mukasey will not be forthcoming and the Democrats will still approve him.

2. In the ‘Envoy to Myanmar Briefs the U.N.‘, Warren Hoge and Seth Mydans of The New York Times reports, “Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said today that the use of force to put down peaceful protests in Myanmar was ‘abhorrent and unacceptable’ and that the government of the country must release those it has arrested and start a dialogue with political opponents. Mr. Ban made his remarks to the Security Council before his special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, reported on his four-day emergency trip to the country this week.”

   James Orr of The Guardian reports that “Mr. Gambari was ‘cautiously optimistic’ that the regime’s leader, General Than Shwe was ready to hold talks with the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.”

   “Of great concern to the United Nations and the international community are the continuing and disturbing reports of abuses being committed by security and non-uniformed elements, particularly at night during curfew, including raids on private homes, beatings, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances,” [Mr. Gambari] told the security council.

   He added that there were unconfirmed reports that the number of casualties during the protests had been “much higher than the dozen people reported killed by the government”.

There’s more news below the fold.

1. The Amazon is ablaze with the worst fires in a decade.

2. Today’s “Guns of Greed” — an overview of Blackwater and mercenary news.

Plus, there’s a bonus story today about kickin’ back and taking like easy in the smaller cities of Italy. So get your boarding pass and fly off to below the fold…