Tag: Open Thread

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

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1 Myanmar monasteries raided as world pleads for calm
By Aung Hla Tun, Reuters
17 minutes ago

YANGON (Reuters) – Protesters returned to the streets of central Yangon on Thursday, undeterred by reports of security forces killing several monks as Myanmar’s generals tried to end the biggest anti-military uprising in nearly 20 years.

People gathered around four monks standing on a traffic island in the middle of a four-lane highway leading to Sule Pagoda — the end-point of mass demonstrations this week and now locked.

More than 1,000 people surrounded them as riot police watched from behind their shields, witnesses said.

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

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1 White House drops choice for CIA lawyer
By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer
Tue Sep 25, 5:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON – The White House withdrew its nominee to become the CIA’s top lawyer on Tuesday after Democrats raised concerns that the agency’s interrogation techniques may be illegal.

John Rizzo, the president’s choice to become the CIA’s general counsel, asked President Bush to withdraw his name, saying it would be in his best interest and that of the agency where he has worked for 32 years.

The Senate Intelligence Committee had been expected to consider Rizzo’s nomination at a hearing Tuesday afternoon.

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

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1 U.S. snipers accused of ‘baiting’ Iraqis
By PAULINE JELINEK and ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press Writers
34 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Army snipers hunting insurgents in Iraq were under orders to “bait” their targets with suspicious materials, such as detonation cords, and then kill whoever picked up the items, according to the defense attorney for a soldier accused of planting evidence on an Iraqi he killed. Gary Myers, an attorney for Sgt. Evan Vela, said Monday his client had acted “pursuant to orders.”

“We believe that our client has done nothing more than he was instructed to do by superiors,” Myers said in a telephone interview.

Myers and Vela’s father, Curtis Carnahan of Idaho Falls, Idaho, said in separate interviews that sworn statements and testimony in the cases of two other accused Ranger snipers indicate that the Army has a classified program that encourages snipers to “bait” potential targets and then kill whoever takes the bait.

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

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And the only one-

1 US says Iran smuggling missiles to Iraq
By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
59 minutes ago

BAGHDAD – The U.S. military accused Iran on Sunday of smuggling surface-to-air missiles and other advanced weapons into Iraq for use against American troops. The new allegations came as Iraqi leaders condemned the latest U.S. detention of an Iranian in northern Iraq, saying the man was in their country on official business.

Military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said U.S. troops were continuing to find Iranian-supplied weaponry including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system.

Other advanced Iranian weaponry found in Iraq includes the RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade, 240 mm rockets and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, Fox said.

The Morning News

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And the only one-

1 Iraq: Blackwater guards fired unprovoked
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
30 minutes ago

BAGHDAD – Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in a shooting last week that left 11 people dead, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case was referred to the Iraqi judiciary.

Iraq’s president, meanwhile, demanded that the Americans release an Iranian arrested this week on suspicion of smuggling weapons to Shiite militias. The demand adds new strains to U.S.-Iraqi relations only days before a meeting between President Bush and Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Iraqi authorities had completed an investigation into the Sept. 16 shooting in Nisoor Square in western Baghdad and concluded that Blackwater guards were responsible for the deaths.

My emphasis.

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread.

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1 Feds target Blackwater in weapons probe
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer
1 minute ago

WASHINGTON – Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Raleigh, N.C., is handling the investigation with help from Pentagon and State Department auditors, who have concluded there is enough evidence to file charges, the officials told The Associated Press. Blackwater is based in Moyock, N.C.

A spokeswoman for Blackwater did not return calls seeking comment Friday. The U.S. attorney for the eastern district of North Carolina, George Holding, declined to comment, as did Pentagon and State Department spokesmen.

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

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1 Rather: Government influencing newsrooms
By SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 21 minutes ago

NEW YORK – Dan Rather said Thursday that the undue influence of the government and large corporations over newsrooms spurred his decision to file a $70 million lawsuit against CBS and its former parent company.

“Somebody, sometime has got to take a stand and say democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news,” he said on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”

“They sacrificed support for independent journalism for corporate financial gain, and in so doing, I think they undermined a lot at CBS News,” he told King.

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread.

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1 Public’s views on Iraq war barely budge
By Peter Grier, The Christain Science Monitor
Wed Sep 19, 4:00 AM ET

Washington – In Florida, retiree Robert Lacey says he believes the US military “surge” in Iraq has failed. Iraqi politicians were supposed to take advantage of increased security to settle their differences peacefully, and “that hasn’t happened,” he notes.

San Diego saleswoman Connie Howard agrees. Her father, husband, and son all have served in the military, and her son-in-law, a marine, is set for an Iraq tour, but she still judges the war a folly. “I don’t want to see any of them go,” she says of troops on their way to Iraq. “It’s enough.”

But Doug Brown, a Lockheed Martin employee from Buffalo, N.Y., says US troops need to stay the course. “If we pull out now, everything we’ve done will collapse and we’ll have to go back in again 10 years from now,” he says.

The Morning News

First, a public service announcement-

The Pastafarian Service Council wants to remind you that today,
September 19th, be Talk Like A Pirate Day.

As Slushy the Polar Bear says-
“Only you can prevent Global Warming.  Arrgh.”

The Morning News is an Open Thread.  Any resemblence to any other essays at any other sites is due to my inherent laziness and outstanding unoriginality.

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News THE TOP STORY

1 Iraq expels American security firm
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
13 minutes ago

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi government announced Monday it was ordering Blackwater USA, the security firm that protects U.S. diplomats, to leave the country after what it said was the fatal shooting of eight Iraqi civilians following a car bomb attack against a State Department convoy.

The order by the Interior Ministry, if carried out, would deal a severe blow to U.S. government operations in Iraq by stripping diplomats, engineers, reconstruction officials and others of their security protection.

The presence of so many visible, aggressive Western security contractors has angered many Iraqis, who consider them a mercenary force that runs roughshod over people in their own country.

The Morning News

First, a public service announcement-

The Pastafarian Service Council wants to remind you that today,
September 19th, be Talk Like A Pirate Day.

As Slushy the Polar Bear says-
“Only you can prevent Global Warming.  Arrgh.”

The Morning News is an Open Thread.  Any resemblence to any other essays at any other sites is due to my inherent laziness and outstanding unoriginality.

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Greenspan reportedly warns on rate cuts
By Mark Felsenthal, Reuters
1 hour, 48 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said his successors at the U.S. central bank should be cautious about cutting interest rates because of inflation risks, and he forecast home prices will drop further, according to interviews published on Sunday.

Greenspan, whose memoirs hit book shelves on Monday, said the Fed should be careful not to cut rates too aggressively because the risk of an “inflationary resurgence” is greater now than when he was chairman, the Financial Times reported.

The U.S. central bank meets on Tuesday and is widely expected to cut benchmark federal funds rate — currently at 5.25 percent — by at least a quarter of a percent age point to help the economy weather a housing downturn and a credit crunch.

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