Tag: Docudharma Times

You Can Lie To Me If You Like

Just As Long As You Tell The Truth

Committee Questions State Dept. Role in Iraq Oil Deal

By JAMES GLANZ and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

Published: July 3, 2008

Bush administration officials knew that a Texas oil company with close ties to President Bush was planning to sign an oil deal with the regional Kurdistan government that ran counter to American policy and undercut Iraq’s central government, a Congressional committee has concluded.The conclusions were based on e-mail messages and other documents that the committee released Wednesday.

United States policy is to warn companies that they incur risks in signing contracts until Iraq passes an oil law and to strengthen Iraq’s central government. The Kurdistan deal, by ceding responsibility for writing contracts directly to a regional government, infuriated Iraqi officials. But State Department officials did nothing to discourage the deal and in some cases appeared to welcome it, the documents show.

Risk to U.S. troops seen if Israel strikes Iran

Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen says a new conflict could entangle and strain soldiers already in the region.

By Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 3, 2008  

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military’s top officer warned Wednesday that an Israeli airstrike against Iran would make the Middle East more unstable and could add to the stress on overworked American forces in the region.

The comments by Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came days after he visited Israel and amid growing international concern that Jerusalem is actively considering such an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Mullen spoke at a Pentagon news briefing shortly after President Bush addressed the subject. Bush was asked at a Rose Garden news conference whether he would strongly discourage Israel from an attack, but he sidestepped the question, saying only that he believed the best way to deal with the Iranian nuclear program was through multilateral negotiations.

USA

FBI might use profiling in terror investigations

Critics worry the change would single out Muslims, Arabs or other groups

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups.

Law enforcement officials say the proposed policy would help them do exactly what Congress demanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: Root out terrorists before they strike.

Although President Bush has disavowed targeting suspects based on their race or ethnicity, the new rules would allow the FBI to consider those factors among a number of traits that could trigger a national security investigation.

We’re Having An Olympics

Please Stay Away

Wounded Iraqi Forces Say They’ve Been Abandoned

By MICHAEL KAMBER

Published: July 1, 2008

BAGHDAD – Dawoud Ameen, a former Iraqi soldier, lay in bed, his shattered legs splayed before him, worrying about the rent for his family of five.

Mr. Ameen’s legs were shredded by shrapnel from a roadside bomb in September 2006 and now, like many wounded members of the Iraqi security forces, he is deeply in debt and struggling to survive. For now, he gets by on $125 a month brought to him by members of his old army unit, charity and whatever his wife, Jinan, can beg from her relatives. But he worries that he could lose even that meager monthly stipend.

African leaders stay silent on Mugabe

By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor

Tuesday, 1 July 2008

Africa’s leaders have failed publicly to condemn Robert Mugabe for stealing Zimbabwe’s presidential election by proceeding with a run-off vote in which he was sole candidate at the height of an officially orchestrated intimidation campaign.

At a summit of the 53 member states of the African Union – in which stable democracies remain a minority – Mr Mugabe was praised as a “hero” by the veteran President of Gabon, Omar Bongo.

Although he was not addressed as “Mr President” by fellow summiteers gathered in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the embattled Zimbabwean leader was comforted by speeches in which few spoke out about the political violence in his country.

USA

Evidence Faulted in Detainee Case

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

Published: July 1, 2008

In the first case to review the government’s secret evidence for holding a detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, a federal appeals court found that accusations against a Muslim from western China held for more than six years were based on bare and unverifiable claims. The unclassified parts of the decision were released on Monday.

With some derision for the Bush administration’s arguments, a three-judge panel said the government contended that its accusations against the detainee should be accepted as true because they had been repeated in at least three secret documents.

The court compared that to the absurd declaration of a character in the Lewis Carroll poem “The Hunting of the Snark”: “I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.”

This Is The 200th Issue

Of This Publication

Amid Policy Disputes, Qaeda Grows in Pakistan

By MARK MAZZETTI and DAVID ROHDE

Published: June 30, 2008

WASHINGTON – Late last year, top Bush administration officials decided to take a step they had long resisted. They drafted a secret plan to make it easer for the Pentagon’s Special Operations forces to launch missions into the snow-capped mountains of Pakistan to capture or kill top leaders of Al Qaeda.

Intelligence reports for more than a year had been streaming in about Osama bin Laden’s terrorism network rebuilding in the Pakistani tribal areas, a problem that had been exacerbated by years of missteps in Washington and the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, sharp policy disagreements, and turf battles between American counterterrorism agencies.

U.S. Advised Iraqi Ministry on Oil Deals

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

Published: June 30, 2008

A group of American advisers led by a small State Department team played an integral part in drawing up contracts between the Iraqi government and five major Western oil companies to develop some of the largest fields in Iraq, American officials say.

The disclosure, coming on the eve of the contracts’ announcement, is the first confirmation of direct involvement by the Bush administration in deals to open Iraq’s oil to commercial development and is likely to stoke criticism.

USA

Pentagon Fights EPA On Pollution Cleanup

By Lyndsey Layton

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, June 30, 2008; Page A01

The Defense Department, the nation’s biggest polluter, is resisting orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up Fort Meade and two other military bases where the EPA says dumped chemicals pose “imminent and substantial” dangers to public health and the environment.

The Pentagon has also declined to sign agreements required by law that cover 12 other military sites on the Superfund list of the most polluted places in the country. The contracts would spell out a remediation plan, set schedules, and allow the EPA to oversee the work and assess penalties if milestones are missed.

Invading Iraq

On The 7/11 Plan

Troops welcomed home as Australia quits Iraq

Barbara McMahon in Sydney

The Observer,

Sunday June 29, 2008

Australian soldiers who served in Iraq were given a rousing reception by about 10,000 people yesterday at a ‘welcome home’ parade in Brisbane that marked the country’s withdrawal from combat operations.

Well-wishers waved flags and banners and cheered as some 700 troops, many only recently returned from the war zone, marched through the streets in desert camouflage uniforms with an army band playing ‘Waltzing Matilda’. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was among a host of dignitaries who paid tribute at the ceremony, described as Australia’s biggest military homecoming parade since the Second World War.

Nigerian conflicts tighten oil bottleneck

An increasingly bold rebel campaign has slashed the country’s output, rattling world markets and underscoring their vulnerability.

By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

June 29, 2008

WASHINGTON — Amid surging demand for oil, a severe bottleneck has developed in production of high-quality West African crude, alarming world leaders and demonstrating a new vulnerability in fragile oil markets.

With production declining elsewhere, consumer nations had been looking hopefully toward Nigeria. But rebels who have waged an increasingly bold campaign in the oil-rich Niger Delta have slashed the country’s output in their most recent attacks.

The deepening disruptions in Nigeria represent a “huge hole in world oil markets,” said Daniel Yergin, a top oil expert and chairman of the Cambridge Energy Research Associates consulting firm, who warns of an increasingly crisis-prone oil economy.

USA

A New Political Geography

Role Reversals in Virginias Reflect National Shifts

By Alec MacGillis

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, June 29, 2008; Page A01  

When Sen. Barack Obama chose the Nissan Pavilion in the outer suburbs of Northern Virginia to kick off his general-election campaign, one of the 10,000 supporters there was David Bruzas, who recently moved to the fastest-growing part of a state that is moving rapidly away from its Republican past.

“Being in this area has made me a lot more politically in tune with what’s going on,” said Bruzas, 27, a systems engineer from Illinois who moved to Fairfax County to work for Cisco Systems in 2005. “And I identify with Obama.”

What’s the Difference?

…Between A Blood-Sucking Leech…

…And A Hedge Fund Manager?

The Leech Hasn’t

Been Arrested,Yet.

U.S. and Europe Near Agreement on Private Data

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

Published: June 28, 2008

WASHINGTON – The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement allowing law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information – like credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits – about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

The potential agreement, as outlined in an internal report obtained by The New York Times, would represent a diplomatic breakthrough for American counterterrorism officials, who have clashed with the European Union over demands for personal data. Europe generally has more stringent laws restricting how governments and businesses can collect and transfer such information.

Report: Iran will use oil as weapon if attacked

Military chief warns of controls on route where two-fifths of oil is shipped

MSNBC News Services

updated 6:33 a.m. ET June 28, 2008

TEHRAN, Iran – The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the country would impose controls on shipping in the vital Gulf oil route if Iran was attacked, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Fear of an escalation in the standoff between the West and Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, have been one factor propping up sky-high oil prices. Crude hit a record level on international markets near $143 a barrel on Friday.

Envisioning a world of $200-a-barrel oil

As forecasters take that possibility more seriously, they describe fundamental shifts in the way we work, where we live and how we spend our free time.

By Martin Zimmerman : times staff writer

June 28, 2008

The more expensive oil gets, the more Katherine Carver’s life shrinks. She’s given up RV trips. She stays home most weekends. She’s scrapped her twice-a-month volunteer stint at a Malibu wildlife refuge — the trek from her home in Palmdale just got too expensive.

How much higher would fuel prices have to go before she quit her job? Already, the 170-mile round-trip commute to her job with Los Angeles County Child Support Services in Commerce is costing her close to $1,000 a month — a fifth of her salary. It’s got the 55-year-old thinking about retirement.

“It’s definitely pushing me to that point,” Carver said.

The point could be closer than anyone thinks.

USA

Bust, boom or treading water? What’s up with the economy?

 By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers  

 WASHINGTON – Everywhere you turn, the news on the economy seems dire. Oil prices are through the roof, home prices are through the floor, the stock market’s plunging and the entire U.S. economy seems shaky. Here’s a look at what’s going on, why and when we’ll know things are turning around.

Q. What’s hurting the U.S. economy now?

A. There are three big drags on our economy: the slumping housing market, the sustained rise in oil prices and an increasingly fragile banking system. Combined, they’re socking it to the economy.

Making Sure There Are Guns

For Everyone

The U.S. Supreme Court

Who Needs Any Restraint

North Korea Destroys Tower at Nuclear Plant

By CHOE SANG-HUN

Published: June 28, 2008

SEOUL, South Korea — With international TV networks filming the scene, North Korea blew up the most visible symbol of its nuclear program on Friday in a gesture demonstrating its commitment to stop making plutonium for weapons.

The 60-foot-tall cooling tower at the North’s main nuclear power plant was blasted away shortly after 4 p.m. Friday before an audience of international TV cameras, reported South Korea’s MBC-TV. MBC has a crew at the demolition site in Yongbyon, 60 miles north of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.

Tsvangirai: vote Mugabe to stay alive

Militia warns voters of reprisals if they back opposition in sham pol

Chris McGreal in Harare

The Guardian,

Friday June 27, 2008  

Zimbabwe’s opposition has advised its supporters to vote for Robert Mugabe for their own safety when they are herded to the polls today amid threats of violence if there is not a resounding victory for the only ruler the country has known.

In a final push to intimidate voters, the ruling Zanu-PF’s militia forced people to political meetings across large parts of Zimbabwe yesterday.

They were again warned that their “vote is their bullet” if they did not support Mugabe even though the opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai has pulled out of the race because a state-orchestrated campaign of murder, abduction, beatings and rape made it too dangerous for his supporters to vote.

USA

U.S. Embassy refuses to pay London’s road tolls

Owes $3.9 million in unpaid congestion levies since Feb. 2003

Associated Press    

LONDON – The U.S. Embassy in London has failed to pay more than $3.9 million in traffic congestion charges, according to figures published Thursday by Britain’s foreign ministry.

British lawmakers condemned U.S. diplomats, after they topped a list of embassies refusing to pay the charge.

The list of fees owed by embassies showed that the United States refused to pay the levy 23,188 times between February 2003 and last month.

Shrub Love

No What It Use To Be

A tragic failure of leadership: Mandela’s verdict on Mugabe

Julian Borger, diplomatic editor

The Guardian,

Thursday June 26, 2008

Nelson Mandela last night broke his silence on the political and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, saying the country was suffering due to “a tragic failure of leadership”.

The former South African president and political icon made the remarks at a dinner in London last night attended by Gordon Brown and Bill Clinton. Mandela is reported to be deeply troubled by events in Zimbabwe which have sent thousands of refugees into South Africa, but he has been careful not to create a rift with his successor as president, Thabo Mbeki, who has emerged as Robert Mugabe’s most important protector on the African continent.

“We watch with sadness the continuing tragedy in Darfur. Nearer to home we had seen the outbreak of violence against fellow Africans in our own country and the tragic failure of leadership in our neighbouring Zimbabwe,” Mandela said.

U.S. border agents copying contents of travelers’ laptops

By Federica Narancio | McClatchy Newspapers  

WASHINGTON – U.S. border agents are copying and seizing the contents of laptops, cell phones and digital cameras from U.S. and foreign travelers entering the United States, witnesses told a Senate subcommittee Wednesday.

The extent of this practice is unknown despite requests to the Department of Homeland Security from the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution and several nonprofit agencies.

The department also declined to send a representative to the hearing. Subcommittee Chairman Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said Homeland Security had told him that its “preferred” witness was unavailable Wednesday.

Feingold added that he’d submitted written questions about the seizures of electronic data – and of some devices – to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in April. To date, Feingold said, he’s gotten no reply.

USA

Senator Stalls Housing Relief With Call for Energy Credits

Ensign’s Demand Spurs Showdown as Foreclosures Keep Mounting

  By Lori Montgomery

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, June 26, 2008; Page D01

A Republican senator from Nevada, home to the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, yesterday blocked an ambitious plan to help troubled borrowers save their homes, saying he will not permit the measure to go forward unless the Senate adds tax breaks to encourage the production of renewable energy.

The demand by Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) stalled a massive housing package with broad bipartisan support even as a report showed that new-home sales continued to tumble, underscoring the severity of the nation’s housing slump

Republicans Love Fear Because?

They Are Afraid Of The Dark

And Those Scary Monsters Under The Bed

Zimbabwe: more beatings, more abductions as the world watches

· UN security council says free and fair election impossible

· Opposition leader Tsvangirai seeks shelter in embassy

· Armed police take families away from opposition’s HQ

Chris McGreal in Harare and Julian Borger, diplomatic editor

The Guardian,

Tuesday June 24, 2008

The UN security council last night warned Robert Mugabe that a free and fair election in Zimbabwe was “impossible”, after the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai quit the presidential race and sought refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare amid escalating violence.

As Mugabe’s forces kept up their assault on the opposition, raiding the opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s HQ and hauling away scores of people sheltering from abductions, beatings and worse, the security council unanimously adopted a statement condemning the government’s “campaign of violence” that had “denied its political opponents the right to campaign freely”.

It was the security council’s first formal action on the crisis. South Africa, Mugabe’s strongest regional backer, had hitherto blocked UN involvement in the crisis, but it agreed to the statement, a move described as significant by British diplomats.

Al-Qaeda’s Growing Online Offensive

CAIRO Second of two articles

By Craig Whitlock

Washington Post Foreign Service

Tuesday, June 24, 2008; Page A01

Early this year, a religious radical calling himself Abu Hamza had a question for the deputy leader of al-Qaeda regarding the Egyptian secret police. “Are they committing unbelief?” he tapped on his keyboard. “And is it permissible to kill them?”

A few weeks later, an answer came from a man with a $25 million bounty on his head, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Killing the police is justified, Zawahiri replied, because they are “infidels, each and every one of them.”

USA

McCain gambling on offshore drilling

He thinks the nation’s high gas prices will trump concerns about protecting the environment, especially in key Midwest states.

By Cathleen Decker and Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

June 24, 2008  

SANTA BARBARA — For decades it has been a bipartisan political staple — the jaunt to the beaches of Santa Barbara to profess opposition to oil drilling at the spot where a massive 1969 spill despoiled sea life and ocean waters, launching the modern environmental movement.

With visits here and elsewhere, Republicans Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger used their environmental credentials to win the governor’s office. George Bush the elder announced his support for a delay in oil drilling leases en route to victory in November 1988, when he became the last Republican to win the state in a presidential contest.  

Most Of Us Dream Of Change

Others Just Flip and Flop

Agreements Are Elusive at Oil Talks in Saudi Arabia

By ROBERT F. WORTH and JAD MOUAWAD

Published: June 23, 2008

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia – A hastily convened global energy summit meeting led by Saudi Arabia ended largely in disagreement on Sunday, with only a modest pledge of increased production by the Saudis and no resolution on what other practical steps should be taken to ease the crisis over soaring oil prices.

The Saudis, who considered the meeting a success because of the high attendance, announced a production increase of 200,000 barrels a day and an expansion of their output capacity if needed in coming years.

But news of the immediate production increase had already been absorbed by the world market for oil. Some experts had anticipated that the Saudis might announce a bigger increase.

U.S. Network Falters in Mideast Mission

CAIRO First of two articles

By Craig Whitlock

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, June 23, 2008; Page A01  

The Egyptian bureau of al-Hurra, an Arabic-language television network financed by the U.S. government, boasts a spectacular view of the Nile River and the capital’s bustling streets. But inside, all is quiet.

The bureau’s satellite link was unplugged with little explanation a few weeks ago by a local company, making it impossible to broadcast live. Since then, staffers have had to use a studio controlled by the Egyptian secret police, who have warned guests not to say anything controversial on the air.

Al-Hurra — “The Free One” in Arabic — is the centerpiece of a U.S. government campaign to spread democracy in the Middle East

USA

Obama Camp Closely Linked With Ethanol

By LARRY ROHTER

Published: June 23, 2008  

When VeraSun Energy inaugurated a new ethanol processing plant last summer in Charles City, Iowa, some of that industry’s most prominent boosters showed up. Leaders of the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association, for instance, came to help cut the ribbon – and so did Senator Barack Obama.

Then running far behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in name recognition and in the polls, Mr. Obama was in the midst of a campaign swing through the state where he would eventually register his first caucus victory. And as befits a senator from Illinois, the country’s second largest corn-producing state, he delivered a ringing endorsement of ethanol as an alternative fuel.

Beer For Everyone

John And Cindy Are Buying

Inside a 9/11 Mastermind’s Interrogation

By SCOTT SHANE

Published: June 22, 2008

WASHINGTON – In a makeshift prison in the north of Poland, Al Qaeda’s engineer of mass murder faced off against his Central Intelligence Agency interrogator. It was 18 months after the 9/11 attacks, and the invasion of Iraq was giving Muslim extremists new motives for havoc. If anyone knew about the next plot, it was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

The interrogator, Deuce Martinez, a soft-spoken analyst who spoke no Arabic, had turned down a C.I.A. offer to be trained in waterboarding. He chose to leave the infliction of pain and panic to others, the gung-ho paramilitary types whom the more cerebral interrogators called “knuckledraggers.”

Philippines ferry hit by typhoon

BBC

Fears are growing for more than 700 people on a ferry which officials say has capsized in the central Philippines in the wake of a typhoon.

Rescuers are scouring the area but their efforts are being hampered by heavy seas and gale force winds.

Officials on Sibuyan island say four bodies have been recovered. There are unconfirmed reports of three survivors.

Typhoon Fengshen has caused flash floods and landslides, killing at least 80 people elsewhere in the Philippines.

The Philippine President, Gloria Arroyo, has demanded an explanation as to why the ferry was allowed to leave port on Friday despite warnings that a typhoon was about to hit.

USA

3 in 10 Americans Admit to Race Bias

Survey Shows Age, Too, May Affect Election Views

 By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, June 22, 2008; Page A01  

As Sen. Barack Obama opens his campaign as the first African American on a major party presidential ticket, nearly half of all Americans say race relations in the country are in bad shape and three in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Lingering racial bias affects the public’s assessments of the Democrat from Illinois, but offsetting advantages and Sen. John McCain’s age could be bigger factors in determining the next occupant of the White House.

For the consciousness of the nation

Wait! First You Have To Have One

That Leaves Out The Democratic Leadership

Big Gains for Iraq Security, but Questions Linger

By STEPHEN FARRELL and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.

Published: June 21, 2008

BAGHDAD – What’s going right? And can it last?

Violence in all of Iraq is the lowest since March 2004. The two largest cities, Baghdad and Basra, are calmer than they have been for years. The third largest, Mosul, is in the midst of a major security operation. On Thursday, Iraqi forces swept unopposed through the southern city of Amara, which has been controlled by Shiite militias. There is a sense that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government has more political traction than any of its predecessors.

Consider the latest caricatures of Mr. Maliki put up on posters by the followers of Moktada al-Sadr, the fiery cleric who commands deep loyalty among poor Shiites.

Frustrated Burmese Organize Aid Forays

Ad Hoc Groups Formed In Cyclone’s Aftermath, But Causes May Widen

Washington Post Foreign Service

Saturday, June 21, 2008; Page A01

RANGOON — Seven weeks after huge swaths of Burma were savaged by a cyclone and tidal wave, a new and remarkable citizen movement is delivering emergency supplies to survivors neglected by the military government’s haphazard relief effort.

The scores of ad hoc Burmese groups, many of them based here in the country’s largest city, are not overtly political. But they are reviving a kind of social activism that has been largely repressed by successive military rulers here.

USA

White House Dismissed Legal Advice On Detainees

By Michael Abramowitz

Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, June 21, 2008; Page A01  

Senior lawyers inside and outside the Bush administration repeatedly warned the White House that it was risking judicial scrutiny of its detention policies in Guantanamo Bay if it did not pursue a more pragmatic legal strategy that considered the likely reaction of the Supreme Court. But such advice, issued periodically over the past six years, was ignored or discounted, according to current and former administration officials familiar with the debates.

In August 2006, for example, the top lawyer at the State Department told senior officials at the White House that unless they won a congressional mandate that broadly supported their system of detaining terrorism suspects, their goal of keeping the detainees locked up was in jeopardy. “I can virtually guarantee you, without a legislative basis, federal courts are not going to be willing to uphold the indefinite detention of unlawful combatants,” John B. Bellinger III warned in an e-mail.

Like A Pro Wrestler

John McCain

Flips and Flops

All Over The Ring

U.S. Says Exercise by Israel Seemed Directed at Iran

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT

Published: June 20, 2008

WASHINGTON – Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop the military’s capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran’s nuclear program.

More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece during the first week of June, American officials said.

Taliban ambassador wielded power within Guantanamo

By Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers

KABUL, Afghanistan – When U.S. guards frog-marched Abdul Salam Zaeef through the cellblocks of Guantanamo, detainees would roar his name, “Mullah Zaeef! Mullah Zaeef!”

Zaeef, in shackles, looked at the guards and smiled.

“The soldiers told me, ‘You are the king of this prison,’ ” he later recalled.

Zaeef is the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, famous for his defiant news conferences after 9-11, in which he said the militant Islamist group would never surrender Osama bin Laden.

USA

Midwestern towns wonder whether to rebuild after floods

Some businesses and residents have already thrown in the towel.

By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

8:48 PM PDT, June 19, 2008    

NEW HARTFORD, IOWA — A small sign taped to the glass front door of the town’s hardware store still pleads for donations to the victims of the tornado.

Less than four weeks ago, a funnel cut down the northern edge of this farming town of nearly 650 people. The wind flung tractors more than a mile, crumbled Civil War tombstones and killed two people.

Then, before the white roses had wilted in their cemetery urns, the rest of the town was destroyed — by a flood.

When Beaver Creek swelled June 8, the tributary of the Cedar River swallowed dirt levees and miles of rolling cornfields.