Tag: Docudharma Times

I Bet You Miss

Those May Day Parades

In Moscow’s Red Square    

WHO warns of impact on poor countries of large-scale swine flu outbreak



Chris McGreal in Washington and Xan Rice in Nairobi

The Guardian, Friday 1 May 2009

The World Health Organisation is distributing part of its stockpile of 3.5m anti-viral drugs to southern Africa and other vulnerable regions after warning about the risk of a health infrastructure ill-equipped to deal with a large-scale outbreak of swine flu, coupled with the onset of winter.

Keiji Fukuda, the WHO assistant director-general for health security, yesterday said the organisation had begun “distributing anti-flu drugs to countries most in need, as well as to Mexico”.

The WHO declined to say which countries were receiving the medicines but Fukuda said people in the southern hemisphere, where winter was on its way, were of particular concern. Previously the WHO said richer countries should act immediately to help the developing world prepare for a flu pandemic.

An edgy quiet descends over Mexico City

Fear of swine flu stills the noisy megalopolis, with parks and roads empty of children and traffic. But unlike the lull over a holiday weekend, this one is filled with dread.

By Ken Ellingwood

May 1, 2009

Reporting from Mexico City — Stroll around this city for long and a gnawing sensation grows. The children are missing. This is a place where, normally, children are noisy, abundant, doted upon.

In an instant, they seem to have disappeared.

The swine flu outbreak in Mexico City has achieved the seemingly impossible: It has stilled this clamorous megalopolis of 20 million people. The streets are suddenly emptier, safer to cross, but lonelier. The parks seem bigger without the children. Fear of infection and government restrictions on public gatherings have combined to produce something like a city in hiding.

A week after officials announced the outbreak of the H1N1 flu, Mexico City — a teeming, polluted, noisy, thrilling behemoth — feels more like Phoenix than it does the largest city in the Western Hemisphere.

USA

Souter Reportedly Planning to Retire From High Court

Justice Might Stay Until Nominee Confirmed

By Robert Barnes

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, May 1, 2009

Justice David H. Souter, the Republican-appointed New England jurist who has become a reliable member of the liberal bloc on the Supreme Court, has told friends that he plans to retire, according to a government official.

Court spokeswoman Kathleen L. Arberg said last night that Souter had no comment following reports that he plans to step down at the end of the court’s term in June. Souter would be likely to stay on until a replacement could be confirmed. The court’s next term starts in October.

Souter’s colleagues on the bench have been trying to talk him out of retiring, according to a source close to the court.

The First 100 Days Are

Important

Don’t Forget That There

Are More Than 3 Years Left

And They Are Just as Important    

Chrysler Bankruptcy Looms as Deal on Debt Falters



By ZACHERY KOUWE and MICHELINE MAYNARD

Published: April 29, 2009

DETROIT – Last-minute efforts by the Treasury Department to win over recalcitrant Chrysler debtholders failed Wednesday night, setting up a near-certain bankruptcy filing by the American automaker, according to people briefed on the talks.

Barring an agreement, which looked increasingly difficult, Chrysler was expected to seek Chapter 11 protection on Thursday, most likely in New York, these people said.

The automaker, which is in talks with the Italian automaker Fiat, would file for bankruptcy first. It subsequently would present an agreement with Fiat to the court for approval, possibly on Monday, these people said. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the government.

New health threat system was slow to alert

Scores were dead before authorities were fully aware of swine flu outbreak

By David Brown

WASHINGTON – Despite huge efforts in the past six years to make the reporting of disease outbreaks fast and automatic, there were significant delays in bringing Mexico’s swine flu outbreak to the full attention of international authorities.

News of an outbreak of severe respiratory illness in Mexico burst into public consciousness last Friday, April 24.

That was 18 days after public health authorities there started looking into unusual cases of pneumonia in their country, eight days after Mexican authorities notified the World Health Organization of the growing outbreak and four days after the events came to the full attention of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

USA

Swine Flu Is Suspected in Region; WHO Warns of Likely Pandemic

6 Possible Cases Investigated in Md. as Global Alert Is Raised

By Rob Stein

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, April 30, 2009

The World Health Organization took the unprecedented step yesterday of warning that the world is probably on the verge of a pandemic, as new cases of swine flu mounted, the first death was reported in the United States and the dangerous virus appeared to arrive just outside the nation’s capital.

The Geneva-based agency raised the alert level for the second time in three days, elevating it to one notch below a full-scale pandemic, after concluding that the virus was causing sustained outbreaks in the United States and Mexico.

The heightened alert is intended to prompt every nation to activate an emergency response plan, to spur pharmaceutical companies to increase production of antiviral drugs and help speed development of a vaccine, and to prod bankers to help poor countries afford measures to fight the virus, officials said.

Republicans Filibuster

HHS Nominee Seleblius Over An Issue

That Has Nothing To Do With The

Cabinet Post In Question. Flu Epidemic?  

Not Important. Playing Politics More Important    

Mexico outbreak traced to ‘manure lagoons’ at pig farm

From The Times

April 28, 2009

Chris Ayres in Mexico City

The first known case of swine flu emerged a fortnight earlier than previously thought in a village where residents have long complained about the smell and flies from a nearby pig farm, it emerged last night.

The Mexican Government said it initially thought that the victim, Edgar Hernandez, 4, was suffering from ordinary influenza but laboratory testing has since shown that he had contracted swine flu. The boy went on to make a full recovery, although it is thought that at least 148 others in Mexico have died from the disease, and the number is expected to rise.

News of the infected boy is expected to create controversy in Mexico because the boy lived in Veracruz state, home to thousands of farmers who claim that their land was stolen from them by the Mexican Government in 1992. The farmers, who call themselves Los 400 Pueblos – The 400 Towns – are famous for their naked marches through the streets of Mexico City.

Borders Are Tightened as Flu Cases Rise



By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: April 28, 2009

Countries around the world began tightening their border and immigration controls Tuesday as the number of confirmed cases of swine flu continued to rise.

The number of deaths believed attributable to swine flu climbed to as many as 152 on Tuesday – all of them in Mexico – as news agencies reported the number of confirmed cases of infection in the United States stood at 50 after further testing at a New York City school.

Other cases have been reported in Ohio, Kansas, Texas and California. In addition, The Associated Press reported that preliminary tests by health officials in New Jersey had identified five “probable” cases – four people who were recently in Mexico and one who had been in California.

USA

U.S. Tries to Broker Sale Of Chrysler’s Loan Arm

Takeover by GMAC Is Meeting Resistance

By David Cho, Binyamin Appelbaum and Peter Whoriskey

Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Treasury Department is racing to engineer the sale of Chrysler’s financing arm in a move the administration deems vital to saving the troubled automaker, but other federal agencies have not given their support, sources familiar with the matter said.

The Obama administration wants the nation’s largest auto-financing company, GMAC, to buy Chrysler Financial, which is the primary source of lending for Chrysler dealerships and car buyers, industry officials said. But GMAC needs a new round of backing to buy its longtime rival, sources said.

Treasury officials have not yet obtained the agreement of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve, sources said.

Headlines Like This

Don’t Help

Is swine flu ‘the big one’  

I Guess They Just Love

Instilling Fear In People    

U.S. Steps Up Alert as More Swine Flu Is Found

Precaution Taken Despite Mildness Of Cases Detected Domestically

By David Brown

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, April 27, 2009

The United States declared a “public health emergency” yesterday as countries from New Zealand to Scotland investigated suspected cases of illness that they feared might be a strain of swine flu that has been identified in Mexico, the United States and Canada.

As of yesterday, however, no confirmed cases of the newly emerged flu strain had been found outside those three countries. Many of the people under observation around the world reported recent travel to Mexico.

With the U.S. announcement, civilian and military stockpiles of antiviral drugs were being readied for rapid distribution in the event that transmission of swine flu virus accelerates.

Swine flu death toll exceeds 100 as pandemic fears grow

• World Health Organisation urges global vigilance

• US declares national health emergency

Chris McGreal in Washington, Jo Tuckman in Mexico City and agencies

guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 April 2009 07.26 BST

Governments around the world are on high alert for a swine flu pandemic today as the death toll from the virus in Mexico rose to more than 100 and possible cases were reported as far afield as Israel, New Zealand and Scotland.

A declaration at the weekend by the World Health Organisation of an international public health emergency was followed by a call for worldwide surveillance of the spread of the virus. The illness has rapidly claimed 103 lives, confined hundreds of people to hospital, and brought Mexico City, one of the world’s largest, to a near standstill.The United States last night separately declared its own emergency after officials said the virus was now so widespread it was unlikely it could be contained. However, White House officials urged people not to panic and pointed out that no case outside Mexico had proved fatal.

USA

Shortage of Doctors Proves Obstacle to Obama Goals



By ROBERT PEAR

Published: April 26, 2009

WASHINGTON – Obama administration officials, alarmed at doctor shortages, are looking for ways to increase the supply of physicians to meet the needs of an aging population and millions of uninsured people who would gain coverage under legislation championed by the president.

The officials said they were particularly concerned about shortages of primary care providers who are the main source of health care for most Americans.

One proposal – to increase Medicare payments to general practitioners, at the expense of high-paid specialists – has touched off a lobbying fight.

Family doctors and internists are pressing Congress for an increase in their Medicare payments.

Torture Has Achieved

Nothing But Disgrace For

The Bush Administration

Effectiveness Of Harsh Questioning Is Unclear

Detainee May Have Faced Few Traditional Tactics

By Joby Warrick and Peter Finn

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, April 26, 2009

During his first days in detention, senior al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheik Mohammed was stripped of his clothes, beaten, given a forced enema and shackled with his arms chained above his head, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. It was then, a Red Cross report says, that his American captors told him to prepare for “a hard time.”

Over the next 25 days, beginning on March 6, 2003, Mohammed was put through a routine in which he was deprived of sleep, doused with cold water and had his head repeatedly slammed into a plywood wall, according to the report. The interrogation also included days of extensive waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning.

Global flu fears as 68 die and virus spreads

• BA cabin steward in isolation ward

• Mexico invokes special measures

Tracy McVeigh and Jo Tuckman in Mexico City

The Observer, Sunday 26 April 2009

A British Airways cabin steward is being treated in an isolation unit at a London hospital after falling ill on a flight from Mexico, where a killer virus is believed to have caused at least 68 deaths and sparked widespread panic. Health experts say it has the potential to become a global pandemic.

The BA steward was undergoing tests in a London hospital for the swine flu virus after arriving on a flight from Mexico City. It is the first suspected case of the new flu strain to be reported in Europe, prompting fears it may have spread across the Atlantic from Mexico.

The World Health Organisation says the swine flu strain – a unique mix of human, pig and bird viruses – constituted a public health emergency of international concern.

Torture? It probably killed more Americans than 9/11

A US major reveals the inside story of military interrogation in Iraq. By Patrick Cockburn, winner of the 2009 Orwell Prize for journalism

Sunday, 26 April 2009

The use of torture by the US has proved so counter-productive that it may have led to the death of as many US soldiers as civilians killed in 9/11, says the leader of a crack US interrogation team in Iraq.

“The reason why foreign fighters joined al-Qa’ida in Iraq was overwhelmingly because of abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and not Islamic ideology,” says Major Matthew Alexander, who personally conducted 300 interrogations of prisoners in Iraq. It was the team led by Major Alexander [a named assumed for security reasons] that obtained the information that led to the US military being able to locate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qa’ida in Iraq. Zarqawi was then killed by bombs dropped by two US aircraft on the farm where he was hiding outside Baghdad on 7 June 2006. Major Alexander said that he learnt where Zarqawi was during a six-hour interrogation of a prisoner with whom he established relations of trust.

Major Alexander’s attitude to torture by the US is a combination of moral outrage and professional contempt. “It plays into the hands of al-Qa’ida in Iraq because it shows us up as hypocrites when we talk about human rights,” he says. An eloquent and highly intelligent man with experience as a criminal investigator within the US military, he says that torture is ineffective, as well as counter-productive. “People will only tell you the minimum to make the pain stop,” he says. “They might tell you the location of a house used by insurgents but not that it is booby-trapped.”

 Torture Leads Straight To Cheney

He Has Committed War Crimes

Flu virus outbreak in Mexico kills 70 and causes fear

The head of the World Health Organisation arrived in Geneva today for an emergency meeting as concern mounted over a frightening new flu strain.

By Sunday Telegraph reporter and agencies in Mexico

Last Updated: 9:43AM BST 25 Apr 2009

The outbreak of swine fever in Mexico has killed nearly 70 people and spread into the United States, raising fears of a global pandemic.

In Mexico, sports stadiums have been empty, schools and museums have shut and public events cancelled. Mexicans have started wearing surgical masks which soldiers handed out in the streets.

Margaret Chan, head of the WHO, broke off a visit to Washington to return to the agency’s headquarters in Switzerland to coordinate a response to the emergency.

Experts stopped short of declaring a pandemic but warned that there would probably be more cases of the swine flu, a mixture of viruses which has not previously been seen.

Officials from the WHO said the virus from 12 of the Mexican patients was the same genetically as a new strain of swine flu, designated H1N1, seen in eight people in California and Texas who later recovered.

Indonesia’s Voters Retreat From Radical Islam



By NORIMITSU ONISHI

Published: April 24, 2009

JAKARTA, Indonesia – From Pakistan to Gaza and Lebanon, militant Islamic movements have gained ground rapidly in recent years, fanning Western fears of a consolidation of radical Muslim governments. But here in the world’s most populous Muslim nation just the opposite is happening, with Islamic parties suffering a steep drop in popular support.

In parliamentary elections this month, voters punished Islamic parties that focused narrowly on religious issues, and even the parties’ best efforts to appeal to the country’s mainstream failed to sway the public.

The largest Islamic party, the Prosperous Justice Party, ran television commercials of young women without head scarves and distributed pamphlets in the colors of the country’s major secular parties. But the party fell far short of its goal of garnering 15 percent of the vote, squeezing out a gain of less than one percentage point over its 7.2 percent showing in 2004.

USA

In 2002, Military Agency Warned Against ‘Torture’

Extreme Duress Could Yield Unreliable Information, It Said

By Peter Finn and Joby Warrick

Washington Post Staff Writers

Saturday, April 25, 2009

The military agency that provided advice on harsh interrogation techniques for use against terrorism suspects referred to the application of extreme duress as “torture” in a July 2002 document sent to the Pentagon’s chief lawyer and warned that it would produce “unreliable information.”

“The unintended consequence of a U.S. policy that provides for the torture of prisoners is that it could be used by our adversaries as justification for the torture of captured U.S. personnel,” says the document, an unsigned two-page attachment to a memo by the military’s Joint Personnel Recovery Agency. Parts of the attachment, obtained in full by The Washington Post, were quoted in a Senate report on harsh interrogation released this week.

 Sri Lanka Is

What Happens When

The World Doesn’t Care  

In Obama’s Inner Circle, Debate Over Memos’ Release Was Intense

Some Feared That a Partisan Outcry Could Obstruct Larger Agenda

By R. Jeffrey Smith, Michael D. Shear and Walter Pincus

Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, April 24, 2009

As President Obama met with top advisers on the evening of April 15, he faced one of the sharpest policy divides of his young administration.Five CIA directors — including Leon E. Panetta and his four immediate predecessors — and Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser had expressed firm opposition to the release of interrogation details in four “top secret” memos in which Bush administration lawyers sanctioned harsh tactics.

On the other side of the issue were Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair and White House counsel Gregory B. Craig, whose colleagues during the campaign recall him expressing enthusiasm for fixing U.S. detainee policy.

Sri Lanka war toll near 6,500, UN report says

At least 14,000 wounded over last three months, according to United Nations figures

David Pallister, Gethin Chamberlain and agencies

guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 April 2009 09.51 BST

The United Nations says nearly 6,500 civilians have been killed and 14,000 wounded in fighting in Sri Lanka over the last three months, according to a UN document circulated among diplomatic missions.

Two UN officials privately confirmed the figures to the Guardian today. At least 2,000 people are understood to have been killed in the last month but the death toll does not include all of those killed in this week’s intense fighting. The UN has declined to publicly release its casualty figures.

The quarter-century civil war has flared in recent months as government forces pushed to crush the Tamil Tiger rebels in their remaining territory in the north.

According to the UN figures, 6,432 civilians have been killed in the fighting since 20 January and another 13,946 have been wounded.

USA

U.S. Said to Seek a Chrysler Plan for Bankruptcy



By MICHELINE MAYNARD and MICHAEL J. de la MERCED

Published: April 23, 2009

DETROIT – The Treasury Department is directing Chrysler to prepare a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing as soon as next week, people with direct knowledge of the talks said Thursday.

The company faces a deadline of April 30 to come up with a viable business plan supported by its creditors, the United Automobile Workers union, and Fiat, the Italian car company that wants to acquire a stake in Chrysler.

The Obama administration has told Chrysler it will provide up to $6 billion in new financing, on top of the $4 billion in loans it has already given the company, if Chrysler can complete a deal by next Thursday with a cost structure that gives it a chance of survival. The creditors have so far balked at the terms suggested by the Treasury.

Weatherboarded To Prove

A False Connection

Between Al Qaida And Iraq    

Interrogation tactics got the OK early on

A Senate report says Bush administration officials signed off on CIA methods without the input of key agencies.

By Greg Miller and Julian E. Barnes

April 23, 2009

Reporting from Washington — Senior Bush administration officials signed off on the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation measures in July 2002 after a series of secret meetings that apparently excluded the State and Defense departments, according to information released Wednesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Senate report indicated that then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice, then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and other officials gave the CIA’s interrogation plan political backing even before the methods had been approved by the Justice Department.

The document also revealed the existence of a series of Justice Department memos written in 2006 and 2007 that in some cases undermined congressional efforts to rein in the CIA’s interrogation authorities — memos that were excluded from the batch released by the Obama administration last week.

The Senate document represents the most complete chronology to date of the Bush administration’s embrace of simulated drowning and other interrogation methods now widely denounced as torture.

Taliban oust Pakistani authorities in Swat Valley sharia zone

• Fighters force out judiciary, police, politicians and aid agencies

• Clinton attacks Islamabad’s appeasement of Islamist militants

Declan Walsh in Mingora

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 23 April 2009 09.34 BST

Taliban fighters spilling out of the Swat Valley have swept across Buner, a district 60 miles from Islamabad, as Hillary Clinton warned the situation in Pakistan now poses a “mortal threat” to the security of the world.

The US secretary of state told Congress yesterday that Pakistan faced an “existential” threat from Islamist militants. “I think the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists,” she said. Any further deterioration in the situation “poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world”, she said.

In Buner, Taliban fighters occupied government buildings, ransacked the offices of aid agencies and ordered aid employees to leave. Fighters brandishing guns and rocket launchers patrolled villages, forcing beleaguered local police to retreat to their stations. Local courts have stopped functioning and judicial officials have gone on indefinite leave.

USA

Congress Debates Fresh Investigation Of Interrogations

White House Tries to Quell Controversy

By Dan Balz and Perry Bacon Jr.

Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, April 23, 2009

The legacy of George W. Bush continued to dog President Obama and his administration yesterday, as Congress divided over creating a panel to investigate the harsh interrogation techniques employed under Bush’s authorization and the White House tried to contain the controversy over the president’s decision to release Justice Department memos justifying and outlining those procedures.

Obama had hoped to put the whole matter behind him, first by banning those interrogation methods early in his presidency and then by releasing the memos last week with the proviso that no CIA official who carried out interrogations should be prosecuted.

Instead, the latest decision has stirred controversy on the right and the left. Obama has drawn sharp criticism from former vice president Richard B. Cheney, former CIA directors and Republican elected officials for releasing the memos. Those critics see softness in the commander in chief. He faces equally strong reaction from the left, where there is a desire to punish Bush administration officials for their actions and to conduct a more thorough investigation of what happened.

 For The Rest

Of The World

Torture Is Illegal

For Former Bush

Administration Officials

And CIA Torturers

No Worries    

Health-Care Dialogue Alarms Obama’s Allies



By Ceci Connolly

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

As Congress returns to begin an intense debate over reshaping the nation’s $2.2 trillion health-care system, prominent left-leaning organizations and liberal House members are issuing a warning to their Democratic allies: Don’t cave on us.

The early skirmishing — essentially amounting to friendly fire — is perhaps the clearest indication yet of the uphill battle President Obama faces in delivering on his promise to make affordable, high-quality care available to every American.

Disputes over whether to create a new government-sponsored insurance program to compete with private companies shine a light on the intraparty fissures that may prove more problematic than any partisan brawl.

Thousands flee to safety as Sri Lanka breaks through Tamil Tigers’ defence

President calls for Tigers’ leader to surrender and ‘face charges for his actions’

Gethin Chamberlain in Colombo

Tens of thousands of civilians trapped by fighting in Sri Lanka fled to safety today after the military smashed through one of the Tamil Tigers’ last major defensive lines. Video footage released by the Sri Lankan defence ministry showed civilians pouring through a breach in an earth barrier which the rebels had been using to hold back the military onslaught.

The civilians waded through a lagoon towards the army’s lines, some carrying possessions in bags on their heads.

The military clearly regards today’s events as a major breakthrough in its stand-off against the last remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and is expected to step up its offensive after issuing a deadline of noon tomorrow for the rebels to surrender.

A senior UN official told the Guardian that the UN had been briefed by the Sri Lankan government to expect thousands more people to come out of the area in coming days.

USA

Pressure Grows to Investigate Interrogations



By PETER BAKER and SCOTT SHANE

Published: April 20, 2009

WASHINGTON – Pressure mounted on President Obama on Monday for more thorough investigation into harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects under the Bush administration, even as he tried to reassure the Central Intelligence Agency that it would not be blamed for following legal advice.

Mr. Obama said it was time to admit “mistakes” and “move forward.” But there were signs that he might not be able to avoid a protracted inquiry into the use of interrogation techniques that the president’s top aides and many critics say crossed the line into torture.

And while Mr. Obama vowed not to prosecute C.I.A. officers for acting on legal advice, on Monday aides did not rule out legal sanctions for the Bush lawyers who developed the legal basis for the use of the techniques.

Bosnian Serbs And Their

Leaders Have been Taken To

And Tried In The Hague

With America Asking This

Be Done

Yet Americans Who Tortured

Are Somehow Exempt From

U.S. And International Law    

Obama to Order Cabinet to Quickly Cut $100 Million From Department Budgets



By Michael A. Fletcher

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, April 20, 2009; 12:08 AM

President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, where he will order members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official.

The budget cuts, while they would account to a minuscule portion of federal spending, are intended to signal the president’s determination to cut spending and reform government, the official said.

Obama’s order comes as he is under increasing pressure to show momentum toward his goal of eventually reducing the federal deficit, even as he goes about increasing spending in the short run to prop up the economy and support his priorities.

Extremist tide rises in Pakistan

After deal in north, Islamists aim to install religious law nationwide

By Pamela Constable

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A potentially troubling era dawned Sunday in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, where a top Islamist militant leader, emboldened by a peace agreement with the federal government, laid out an ambitious plan to bring a “complete Islamic system” to the surrounding northwest region and the entire country.

Speaking to thousands of followers in an address aired live from Swat on national news channels, cleric Sufi Mohammed bluntly defied the constitution and federal judiciary, saying he would not allow any appeals to state courts under the system of sharia, or Islamic law, that will prevail there as a result of the peace accord signed by the president Tuesday.

USA

Gates tailors defense plan to win battles with Congress



By David Lightman and William Douglas | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ plan to overhaul military spending practices and strategy signals a new Pentagon willingness to play hardball politics with lawmakers in Congress.

Gates presented his changes April 6 as though they were another piece of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package.

“I am concerned for the possibility that these decisions will have an impact on individual companies and workers around the country,” Gates said at a media briefing. He proceeded to describe job losses resulting from the proposed end of the F-22 fighter jet program – and noted that they’d be offset by likely gains from expanded production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The Tea Parties

Have Come And Gone

Then The Torture Memo’s Were

Released

More Whining Ensued

As Former Bush Administration Officals

Tried To Justify Their Actions  

High Court Poised To Closely Weigh Civil Rights Laws

Cases Heard as Nation Debates Race

By Robert Barnes

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, April 19, 2009

The Supreme Court has an opportunity to reaffirm or reshape the nation’s civil rights laws as it faces a rare confluence of cases over the next two weeks, including a high-profile challenge brought by white firefighters who claim they lost out on promotions because of the “color of their skin.”

The cases also touch on the Voting Rights Act, the need to provide English classes for immigrant children and, more tangentially, discriminatory mortgage lending.

The most emotionally charged case is from the New Haven, Conn., firefighters, whose complaints define the real-life quandary that sometimes accompanies government efforts to ensure racial equality.

China quake survivors still wait for word

Eleven months after the devastating earthquake in Sichuan province, the government has issued no official death toll and families yearn for DNA confirmation of their losses.

By Barbara Demick

April 19, 2009

Reporting from Hanwang, China — In the 11 months since China’s devastating earthquake, Wang Tingzhang and his wife have been transformed from docile, law-abiding citizens into defiant troublemakers, at least in the eyes of authorities.

Along the way, they’ve been pushed, punched, wiretapped, tailed and detained.

Their offense? Asking too many questions about what happened to their only child, an 18-year-old girl who was buried under the rubble of her high school in the May 12 earthquake here in Sichuan province.

In the early weeks after the magnitude 7.9 quake, Beijing was widely applauded for its efficiency, compassion and openness in handling China’s worst natural disaster in decades. But since then, the curtain has fallen.

Even the death toll is shrouded in secrecy. Although about 70,000 people are believed to have died, the government has yet to release an official toll. DNA testing that could identify thousands of victims has stalled, with no explanation from authorities.

USA

F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases



By SOLOMON MOORE

Published: April 18, 2009

Law enforcement officials are vastly expanding their collection of DNA to include millions more people who have been arrested or detained but not yet convicted. The move, intended to help solve more crimes, is raising concerns about the privacy of petty offenders and people who are presumed innocent.

Until now, the federal government genetically tracked only convicts. But starting this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will join 15 states that collect DNA samples from those awaiting trial and will collect DNA from detained immigrants – the vanguard of a growing class of genetic registrants.

The F.B.I., with a DNA database of 6.7 million profiles, expects to accelerate its growth rate from 80,000 new entries a year to 1.2 million by 2012 – a 17-fold increase. F.B.I. officials say they expect DNA processing backlogs – which now stand at more than 500,000 cases – to increase.