Tag: Docudharma Times

McCain picks Palin as running mate

MSNBC

With The Democratic Convention Over

The Republican Whine Tasting Party

Can Begin    

Obama Takes Aim at Bush and McCain With a Forceful Call to Change America



By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY

Published: August 29, 2008

DENVER – Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party presidential nomination on Thursday, declaring that the “American promise has been threatened” by eight years under President Bush and that John McCain represented a continuation of policies that undermined the nation’s economy and imperiled its standing around the world.

The speech by Senator Obama, in front of an audience of nearly 80,000 people on a warm night in a football stadium refashioned into a vast political stage for television viewers, left little doubt how he intended to press his campaign against Mr. McCain this fall.

Chalabi aide arrested on suspicion of Baghdad bombings

?

By Nicholas Spangler and Hussein Kadhim | McClatchy Newspapers  

BAGHDAD – U.S. forces have arrested a deputy of Ahmad Chalabi, who was once the Bush administration’s favorite Iraqi politician, and implicated him in bombings that killed Americans and Iraqis, Chalabi and Iraqi government officials said Thursday.

The U.S. military alleged that the arrested official was working with the “highest echelons” of the Iranian “special groups” criminals, referring to what the U.S. military says are Iranian-backed militias operating in Iraq.

Ali Faisal al Lami, a Shiite Muslim official and a member of the Sadrist Party who’s serving as an executive of the Justice and Accountability Committee, which Chalabi heads, was arrested Wednesday at Baghdad International Airport as he returned from a family vacation in Lebanon, Iraqi officials said. The Justice and Accountability Committee screens former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party who are applying for jobs in the government.

USA

Pentagon Reports U.S. Airstrike Killed 5 Afghan Civilians, Not 90



 By Ann Scott Tyson

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, August 29, 2008; Page A04

A U.S. military review of an airstrike last week in western Afghanistan maintains that only five civilians were killed, Pentagon officials said yesterday, a finding that starkly contradicts reports by the United Nations and Afghan officials that the civilian death toll from the bombing was at least 90.

The completed review corroborates an initial assessment by the military of the operation Friday by U.S. and Afghan forces in a village in Herat province. The review determined that 25 militants, including a Taliban commander, and five civilians had been killed, the officials said.

To The Media: I’m Sorry That The

Democrats United Behind Barack Obama

I’m Sure You’ll Make Up Some Other

Ridiculous Controversy Straight Out Of Your

Little Imaginations I Have Faith In You    

Obama Wins Nomination; Biden and Bill Clinton Rally Party  



 By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: August 27, 2008

DENVER – Barack Hussein Obama, a freshman senator who defeated the first family of Democratic Party politics with a call for a fundamentally new course in politics, was nominated by his party today to be the 44th president of the United States.

The unanimous vote made Mr. Obama the first African-American to become a major party nominee for president. It brought to an end an often-bitter, two-year political struggle for the nomination with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, standing on a packed convention floor electric with anticipation, moved to halt the roll call in progress so that the convention could nominate Mr. Obama by acclamation. That it did with a succession of loud roars, followed by a swirl of dancing, embracing, high-fiving and chants of “Yes, we can.”

Black Delegates Also Bask in Obama’s Big Moment

?

By Alec MacGillis

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, August 28, 2008; Page A23

DENVER, Aug. 27 — Lena Taylor, a Wisconsin state senator from Milwaukee, is “overwhelmed” by the history that will be made Thursday night, when Sen. Barack Obama will become the first African American to accept a major-party presidential nomination. Add in that his acceptance will come on the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, that it has been 40 years since Robert F. Kennedy predicted the country might elect a black president in four decades, and that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy made a dramatic appearance here this week, and the symbolism boggles her mind

USA

Businesses Cite a Catch-22 After Miss. Immigration Raid



By Spencer S. Hsu, Alejandro Lazo and Darryl Fears

Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, August 28, 2008; Page A01

The arrests this week of nearly 600 immigrant workers at a manufacturing plant in Laurel, Miss., are fueling a national debate over a federal system to check new hires’ work documents, a program whose expansion the Bush administration has made a cornerstone of its fight against illegal immigration.

In what they called the largest immigration sweep at a single site in U.S. history, federal agents raided a Howard Industries electrical transformer plant Monday despite the fact that the company last year joined the work eligibility system, called E-Verify.

Darth Vader The Shot Gun Master

Goes On A Peace Mission

The Irony In This Is Just To Much

U.N. troops offer lessons in peace in Lebanon

Yoga, French poetry, pizza making — the international forces stationed there give war-weary residents a respite from their cares.

By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 26, 2008  

EBEL AL SAQI, LEBANON — The yoga instructor chuckles, and the three dozen or so women follow along, giggling nervously before bursting through some invisible layer of restraint or sorrow and laughing with abandon. Grins widen into smiles, tentative squeals bloom into full-bore howls.

The yoga instructor is teaching inner peace, but he’s also trying to keep the peace: He’s Warrant Officer Mal Singh of the Indian army, part of a 30-year-old United Nations force stationed in southern Lebanon.

The laughs peter out, some of the women wiping tears from their eyes as they gather up their handbags and head home.

“If we feel peace inside ourselves, maybe we will have peace,” says Hoda Munzer, a 35-year-old owner of a nearby clothing shop, who has taken a break from work to attend the class with her 9-year-old daughter, Sueen, in this hilltop community near the Israeli border.

Cheney To Visit Georgia Next Week

Ukraine, Azerbaijan Also on Itinerary?

By Dan Eggen

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 26, 2008; Page A03  

Vice President Cheney will travel next week to war-ravaged Georgia as part of a swing through several former Soviet republics, making him the highest-level U.S. emissary to visit the country since hostilities between Russia and Georgia broke out this month, officials said yesterday.

The trip will put the Bush administration’s most prominent hawk in a war zone still occupied by lingering Russian troops, and is likely to irritate leaders in Moscow, who have condemned the United States for siding with Georgia in the conflict.

USA

Obama’s Family Night Out

After Kennedy Electrifies Crowd, the Would-Be First Lady Calls on Democrats to ‘Stop Doubting’ and ‘Start Dreaming’

By Jonathan Weisman

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 26, 2008; Page A01

DENVER Aug. 25 — After an emotional speech by an ailing Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the face of the Democratic Party shifted on Monday night to a new generation of leaders, as Michelle Obama opened the Democratic National Convention with a tribute to her husband and a call to the country to listen “to our hopes instead of our fears,” and “to stop doubting and to start dreaming.”

Seeking to ground Sen. Barack Obama in the experience of America’s working class while recapturing the lofty ideals that propelled him toward his party’s presidential nomination, Michelle Obama’s family-themed speech was the climax of a dramatic opening day for a political party confident of its chances of capturing the White House but still struggling to lay aside its own divisions.

Its Sunday And The Talking Heads Come Out

To Play

But As Usual Have Nothing To Say

Child malnutrition: Old stain on new India

Half of young Indians are malnourished. In a nation seen as a rising power, combating the problem ‘has not been a policy priority . . . for the last 40 years,’ a U.N. expert says.

By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 24, 2008  

SARAIYA, INDIA — Sitting in the basket of a hanging scale, 20-month-old Deep Kumar epitomizes the silent but monumental crisis gripping this country: The needle stops at 14 pounds.

A healthy child his age ought to weigh nearly twice as much. But very little about Deep is healthy. Whereas a normal toddler would run around, the boy seems to struggle to keep his stunted frame sitting upright. His limbs are pitifully thin, the bones within as fragile as glass.These are classic signs of severe malnutrition, and they are branded on the wasted bodies of millions of youngsters across India.

Astonishingly, an estimated 40% of all the world’s severely malnourished children younger than 5 live in this country, a dark stain on the record of a nation that touts its high rate of economic growth and fancies itself a rising power.

Al-Qaeda Masters Terrorism On the Cheap

Financial Dragnet Largely Bypassed?

By Craig Whitlock

Washington Post Foreign Service

Sunday, August 24, 2008; Page A01  

LONDON — Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, al-Qaeda has increasingly turned to local cells that run extremely low-cost operations and generate cash through criminal scams, bypassing the global financial dragnet set up by the United States and Europe.

Although al-Qaeda spent an estimated $500,000 to plan and execute the Sept. 11 attacks, many of the group’s bombings and assaults since then in Europe, North Africa and Southeast Asia have cost one-tenth as much, or less.

The cheap plots are evidence that the U.S. government and its allies fundamentally miscalculated in assuming they could defeat the network by hunting for wealthy financiers and freezing bank accounts, according to many U.S. and European counterterrorism officials.

USA

Choice of Biden is a demographic calculation too

Joe Biden adds experience and foreign policy expertise, yes, but he could also help with Catholics, blue-collar whites and women.

By Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 24, 2008  

Barack Obama’s Harvard pedigree, soaring rhetoric and professorial demeanor have helped critics paint him as an elitist. So when he stood Saturday next to his running mate, a new set of characteristics was on display: a public university graduate of modest means, a Roman Catholic who talks like regular folks.

It is true that Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s foreign policy experience may help assure voters who wonder whether the youthful Obama is ready to be commander in chief, and may give the Democrats a voice of gravitas to challenge the Republicans’ war-hero presidential candidate.

But it was clear Saturday that Biden’s potential appeal to white, blue-collar Democrats — those who did not support Obama during the primaries and remained wary of his candidacy — was also important in Obama’s selection of the Delaware senator.

The newly minted partners made no secret of such a goal.

As they shared the stage for the first time as the Democratic ticket, they invoked Biden’s native Scranton, Pa., no fewer than five times, and Obama called the 65-year-old Biden the “scrappy kid from Scranton.”

Someone Sent A Message

About Something Important Today

Despite Pullout, Russia Envisions Long-Term Shift



By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

Published: August 22, 2008  

MOSCOW – As the Russian Army withdrew most of its forces from Georgia, it was becoming ever more clear on Friday that Moscow had no intention of restoring what once was – either on the ground or diplomatically.The West wants a return to early August, before an obscure territorial dispute on the fringes of the old Soviet empire erupted into an international crisis. But Russia’s forces are digging in and seizing ribbons of Georgian land that abut two breakaway enclaves allied with Moscow, effectively extending its zone of influence.

Guards’ Lapses Cited in Detainee Suicides

Probe Also Faults Lenient Policies At Guantanamo

By Josh White

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, August 23, 2008; Page A01  

As the lights flickered off above them, more than two dozen detainees began to raise their voices in prayer and other songs, a din the guards dismissed as harmless. Three of the detainees furtively stuffed water bottles and toilet paper under their bedsheets to create the illusion of sleeping bodies, and they each strung up walls of blue blankets in their metal-mesh cells, seeking cover from their captors’ glances.

Then, with strips of white sheets, T-shirts and towels wound into nooses, the three detainees in Guantanamo Bay’s Camp 1, Block Alpha, hid behind the blankets and hanged themselves, their toes dangling inches above the floor while their bodies became blue and rigid. For hours, the guards failed to notice the first deaths to occur at the controversial U.S. military detention facility.

USA

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke sees unemployment and weak growth as bigger problems than inflation

The central bank chief says he and other Fed members believe inflation will ease on its own.

By Maura Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 23, 2008

WASHINGTON — Prices may be rising unpleasantly fast, but what really worries the Federal Reserve is the weak economy, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Friday.

Using careful language, the central bank chief said the Fed’s forecasts suggested that if energy costs and other commodity prices held their recent declines and the dollar stabilized, inflation would moderate by the end of this year.

Bernanke’s comments at a Fed conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., were widely seen as a signal that the bank intended to keep its benchmark interest rate at 2%, a low level by historical standards, for much of this year and possibly into 2009.

The remarks, along with a more than $6-a-barrel drop in oil prices, fueled a rally in the stock market Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average surged 197.85 points, or 1.7%, to close at 11,628.06.

How Many Homes Do You Own?

I Don’t Know

You’re Qualified To Run For President

Iraq Takes Aim at Leaders of U.S.-Tied Sunni Groups



By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

Published: August 21, 2008  

BAGHDAD – The Shiite-dominated government in Iraq is driving out many leaders of Sunni citizen patrols, the groups of former insurgents who joined the American payroll and have been a major pillar in the decline in violence around the nation.

In restive Diyala Province, United States and Iraqi military officials say there were orders to arrest hundreds of members of what is known as the Awakening movement as part of large security operations by the Iraqi military. At least five senior members have been arrested there in recent weeks, leaders of the groups say.

Edgy Georgians now thinking about resisting invasion



By Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers  

GORI, Georgia – After more than a week of Russian troops occupying his town, Kishvardi Taturashvili said the time for resistance was drawing near.

The Russian armored fighting vehicles that are blocking routes in and out of Gori are slowing the flow of humanitarian aid and stifling trade, he said.

Travel is controlled by Russian soldiers; a McClatchy reporter was turned back at checkpoints, and had to slip in via a footbridge.

USA

US candidates face up to image problem

· Obama seems too anxious and McCain lacks emotion

· Facial and vocal analysis shows poll race weakness

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington

The Guardian,

Friday August 22 2008

Barack Obama, who is generally regarded as a gifted orator, would do well to find time to unwind before he delivers the speech of his lifetime to the Democratic party’s convention next week.

A new analysis of Obama’s voice patterns and the delivery of his speeches made available to the Guardian yesterday, found the Democratic candidate somewhat restricted in his range of facial expression.

Specifically, Obama’s face is locked in an almost permanent attitude of anxiety, with his forehead muscles contracted.

Joe Lieberman

Republican Sock Puppet Or Is

That Concern Troll

A True Party Of One

Russia to keep soldiers in Georgia

Moscow plans to set up 18 checkpoints, some in Georgia proper, a Kremlin official says. The plan appears to violate the terms of a cease-fire.

By Sergei L. Loiko and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

August 21, 2008  

MOSCOW — Russia plans to establish a long-term presence in Georgia and one of its breakaway republics by adding 18 checkpoints, including at least eight within undisputed Georgian territory outside the pro-Russian enclave of South Ossetia, a ranking Russian military official told reporters Wednesday.

The checkpoints will be staffed by hundreds of Russian troops, the official said, and those within Georgia proper will have supplies ferried to them from breakaway South Ossetia.

If implemented, the plan would in effect put under Russian control the border between Georgia and the South Ossetia region, which is seeking independence, as well as a small chunk of Georgia proper.

“This is the essence of it,” Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the army general staff, told reporters at a briefing. He showed maps detailing the proposed Russian positions, one just outside the Georgian city of Gori, which lies along a crucial juncture of the country’s main east-west highway.

Report Rejects Medicare Boast of Paring Fraud  



By CHARLES DUHIGG

Published: August 20, 2008

Medicare’s top officials said in 2006 that they had reduced the number of fraudulent and improper claims paid by the agency, keeping billions of dollars out of the hands of people trying to game the system.But according to a confidential draft of a federal inspector general’s report, those claims of success, which earned Medicare wide praise from lawmakers, were misleading.

In calculating the agency’s rate of improper payments, Medicare officials told outside auditors to ignore government policies that would have accurately measured fraud, according to the report.

USA

A Few Speculators Dominate Vast Market for Oil Trading



 By David Cho

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, August 21, 2008; Page A01  

Regulators had long classified a private Swiss energy conglomerate called Vitol as a trader that primarily helped industrial firms that needed oil to run their businesses.

But when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission examined Vitol’s books last month, it found that the firm was in fact more of a speculator, holding oil contracts as a profit-making investment rather than a means of lining up the actual delivery of fuel. Even more surprising to the commodities markets was the massive size of Vitol’s portfolio — at one point in July, the firm held 11 percent of all the oil contracts on the regulated New York Mercantile Exchange.

Bill O’Reilly Proof Positive That

Evolution Is A Complete

Failure

Eastern Europe gets jittery over Russia

Poland, Ukraine, Moldova and the Czech Republic are among those worried that they could be next after the invasion of Georgia.

By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 19, 2008

WARSAW — Signing a missile-defense deal with its good friend the United States has earned Poland nothing less than the threat of nuclear attack from Russia — a threat that might not sound so empty these days, given Moscow’s bloody battle with Georgia.

That conflict has plunged Europe into crisis, sending waves of jitters through Poland and other eastern nations, once-occupied parts of a Soviet empire that some fear Russia may want to reconstruct. Moscow’s actions have also succeeded in driving deeper the wedge between Europe’s East and West.

As Oil Giants Lose Influence, Supply Drops  



By JAD MOUAWAD

Published: August 18, 2008

Oil production has begun falling at all of the major Western oil companies, and they are finding it harder than ever to find new prospects even though they are awash in profits and eager to expand.

Part of the reason is political. From the Caspian Sea to South America, Western oil companies are being squeezed out of resource-rich provinces. They are being forced to renegotiate contracts on less-favorable terms and are fighting losing battles with assertive state-owned oil companies.

And much of their production is in mature regions that are declining, like the North Sea.

USA

Some Nonprofits Push for Increased Federal Involvement



By Philip Rucker

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 19, 2008; Page A01  

In the world of philanthropy, where independence from government has long been sacred, a revolution is underway. Social entrepreneurs are clamoring for a realignment of the way the federal government and nonprofit groups work together to maximize the impact of American generosity.

With the presidential campaign in full swing, nonprofit leaders are organizing what some call an unprecedented effort to boost the presence of philanthropy and community service in a new administration. They are calling for a White House office or an agency similar to the Small Business Administration to match nonprofit programs with government priorities, help successful community-based initiatives grow and organize a corps of service volunteers.

Are Barack Obama And John McCain

Running For President

Or To Make Conservative Religious

Leaders Feel Good About Themselves  

Musharraf Announces His Resignation



By JANE PERLEZ and TOM RACHMAN

Published: August 18, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Facing the threat of impeachment, President Pervez Musharraf announced Monday that he would resign, saying the charges against him were false but that he would step down for the sake of his nation.

“In the future, I put myself to the people of Pakistan to decide about my future and they will do justice,” he said, in a televised address to the country. “I am very satisfied with whatever I could do for this country.”

Pakistan has been plagued by political uncertainty ever since the four-month-old civilian government announced 11 days ago that it would bring impeachment charges on the grounds that Mr. Musharraf violated the Constitution when he declared a state of emergency in November, firing 60 judges under the decree.

Russia Vows Pullout as Troops Dig In

Occupied Georgian City Struggles With Aftermath

 By Jonathan Finer

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, August 18, 2008; Page A01

GORI, Georgia, Aug. 17 — Russia pledged Sunday to begin removing its troops from Georgia on Monday, but the streets of this occupied city reflected a broadening, not a waning, of Russia’s military incursion. President Dmitry Medvedev vowed to “begin the withdrawal of the military contingent” starting Monday. Russian leaders have made contradictory and at times clearly false statements about their troops’ plans and positions ever since the Georgia operation began. On Saturday, a top Russian general told reporters that his country had no troops in Gori.

USA

DNC plan: Portray Obama as all-American

Speakers will seek to define Democratic candidate on his own terms

 By Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg

WASHINGTON – One of the first images prime-time viewers will see of the Democratic National Convention next week is that of Michelle Obama, who will begin the four-day introduction of her husband, and her family, on her terms.

Like everything else at the orchestrated gala, that is by design.

Democrats face a number of imperatives at their convention, none trickier than making more voters comfortable with the prospect of putting a candidate with a most unusual background – the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, who grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia – and his family in the White House.

John McCain Is President

Already In A Parallel Universe

Or His Own Diluted Universe

Neither Of Which Is The Real Universe  

Phelps’s Epic Journey Ends in Perfection



By KAREN CROUSE

Published: August 16, 2008

BEIJING – It was so surreal to be Michael Phelps here, to listen to people debate whether he is the greatest athlete in Olympic history after he passed a group that included the runners Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi to become the one with the most gold medals.

Phelps is a self-described klutz, a real fish out of water on land, and he has a surgical scar on his right wrist to prove it. In October he took a nasty stumble that imperiled his pursuit of Mark Spitz’s single Games record of seven gold medals. Phelps, 23, slipped on a patch of ice and fell while climbing into a friend’s car in Michigan and broke his right wrist.

Georgia, Russia took a path of belligerence and bluster

Russia supported separatists and distrusted Georgian leader Saakashvili, whose mocking attitude and head-long rush to embrace the U.S. made matters worse.

By Borzou Daragahi and Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

August 17, 2008  

TBILISI, GEORGIA — The Russian diplomat said he couldn’t make it. He had a flat tire. The Georgian official in charge of bringing breakaway regions back into the fold was incredulous.

Temur Iakobashvili had driven up to South Ossetia from the Georgian capital to begin Russian-mediated peace talks to end months of escalating fighting in the pro-Moscow republic. But his Russian counterpart hadn’t shown up.

“Can’t you change the tire?” Iakobashvili says he asked Yuri Popov. No, the Russian diplomat replied. The spare was flat, too.

Less than 12 hours later, war between Russia and Georgia began, a conflict that has roiled the volatile, oil-rich Caucasus, raised tensions between Moscow and the West and nearly crushed this small U.S. ally.

But long before that flat tire, both sides had set their course for conflict, analysts and officials in Washington, Tbilisi and Moscow say: A combination of Russia’s relentless drive toward confrontation and Georgian hubris made last week’s warfare inevitable

USA

Justice Dept. Moves Toward Charges Against Contractors in Iraq Shooting



 By Del Quentin Wilber and Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, August 17, 2008; Page A01  

Federal prosecutors have sent target letters to six Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a September shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, indicating a high likelihood the Justice Department will seek to indict at least some of the men, according to three sources close to the case.

The guards, all former U.S. military personnel, were working as security contractors for the State Department, assigned to protect U.S. diplomats and other non-military officials in Iraq. The shooting occurred when their convoy arrived at a busy square in central Baghdad and guards tried to stop traffic.< /blockquote>

Building A Better Police State

Through More Domestic Spying

Welcome To Bush’s America

Six days that broke one country – and reshaped the world order



Ian Traynor

The Guardian,

Saturday August 16 2008

Pity Georgia’s bedraggled first infantry brigade. And its second. And its hapless navy.

For the past few evenings in the foothills of the Southern Caucasus on the outskirts of Joseph Stalin’s hometown of Gori, reconnaissance units of Russia’s 58th army have been raking through the spoils of war at what was the Georgian army’s pride and joy, a shiny new military base inaugurated only last January for the first infantry, the army engineers, and an artillery brigade.

A couple of hours to the west, in the town of Senaki, it’s the same picture. A flagship military base, home to the second infantry brigade, is in Russian hands. And down on the Black Sea coast, the radars and installations for Georgia’s sole naval base at Poti have been scrupulously pinpointed by the Russians and destroyed.

No Cold War, but Big Chill Over Georgia



By STEVEN LEE MYERS

Published: August 15, 2008  

CRAWFORD, Tex. – “The cold war is over,” President Bush declared Friday, but a new era of enmity between the United States and Russia has emerged nevertheless. It may not be as tense as the nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union, for now, but it could become as strained.

Russia’s military offensive into Georgia has shattered, perhaps irrevocably, the strategy of three successive presidential administrations to coax Russia into alliance with the West and integration into its institutions.

From Russia’s point of view, those efforts were never truly sincere or respectful of its own legitimate political and security interests. Those interests, it is now clear, are at odds with those of Europe and the United States.

USA

U.S. May Ease Police Spy Rules

More Federal Intelligence Changes Planned

By Spencer S. Hsu and Carrie Johnson

Washington Post Staff Writers

Saturday, August 16, 2008; Page A01  

The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.

The proposed changes would revise the federal government’s rules for police intelligence-gathering for the first time since 1993 and would apply to any of the nation’s 18,000 state and local police agencies that receive roughly $1.6 billion each year in federal grants.

The Russian Government

Is Paranoid

So Let’s Take Their Paranoia

To Higher Plane By

Installing Missiles In Countries Which Boarder Russia

Pakistani President Expected to Resign

Musharraf, Facing Impeachment, Likely To Step Down Within Days, Officials Say

By Candace Rondeaux and Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Foreign Service

Friday, August 15, 2008; Page A01

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 14 — Faced with mounting pressure from former political allies and dwindling support from his international backers, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, once a top U.S. ally, is expected to resign in the next few days, according to Pakistani officials.

A week after leaders of the ruling coalition said they planned to impeach Musharraf, the capital was abuzz with speculation that he would step down before formal impeachment charges are filed in Parliament on Monday

Bush Aides Say Russia Actions in Georgia Jeopardize Ties  



 By STEVEN LEE MYERS and THOM SHANKER

Published: August 14, 2008

WASHINGTON – Russia’s military offensive into Georgia has jolted the Bush administration’s relationship with Moscow, senior officials said Thursday, forcing a wholesale reassessment of American dealings with Russia and jeopardizing talks on everything from halting Iran’s nuclear ambitions to reducing strategic arsenals to cooperation on missiles defenses.

The conflict punctuated a stark turnabout in the administration’s view of Vladimir V. Putin, the president turned prime minister whom President Bush has repeatedly described as a trustworthy friend. Now Mr. Bush’s aides complain that Russian officials have been misleading or at least evasive about Russia’s intentions in Georgia.

USA

Anthrax scientist Bruce Ivins slipped under the radar because of FBI obsession

Records show agents overlooked a series of early clues pointing to Ivins as the source of the 2001 deadly anthrax mailings and that the investigation remained locked on a former Army researcher.

By David Willman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 15, 2008  

WASHINGTON — As federal authorities pursued the wrong suspect in the deadly anthrax mailings of 2001, they ignored or overlooked a series of early clues that pointed to Army scientist Bruce E. Ivins, a review of investigative records by the Los Angeles Times shows.

Law enforcement documents unsealed by a federal judge last week, along with other materials reviewed by The Times, show that within a few months of the mailings, FBI leaders were positioned to know important details spotlighting Ivins, who killed himself last month and has now been identified as the government’s prime suspect.

The information available to investigators in those early months included: