Posted on 12/17/2006 4:03:30 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
[this has a part posted a couple back]
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-2-15/51755.html
Macau Professor: How the Chinese Regime Forced Me to Spy—Part 2
Regime seeks to destroy independent paper
Feb 15, 2007
Dr. Wang Lian (Zeng Ni/The Epoch Times)
Related Articles
- 'Chinese Agents Forced Me to Spy' Thursday, February 15, 2007
- Macau Professor: How the Chinese Regime Forced Me to Spy Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Part 2
Please also read Part I.
Editor's Note: Dr. Wang Lian was kidnapped in Zhu Hai City in Canton (Guangdong) Province on Sept. 12, 2006 by special agents of the Chinese regime's notorious Public Security Bureau (PSB). After intense brainwashing Dr. Wang was forced into spying for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on the Hong Kong Epoch Times. He was given the mission to bring down the Hong Kong Epoch Times as soon as possible.
In the eyes of the CCP, The Epoch Times is an outspoken news agency that does not bow submissively to Chinese censorship and has significant influence on social and human rights issues in mainland China. The CCP sees it as a serious "thorn in the side" and has continuously harassed the normal operations of the Epoch Times in Hong Kong since its inception.
As a result of interference by CCP agents, The Epoch Times was suddenly in May 2005 unable to find a print shop in Hong Kong that would take its money. After the news agency established its own print shop the CCP hired thugs to break in and destroy valuable computer equipment programmed to print the newspaper. Now Dr. Wang reveals how the CCP has targeted individuals, seeking to undermine The Epoch Times from within.
After fleeing to Australia, Dr. Wang e-mailed the account below to the editors of the Hong Kong Epoch Times. Having experienced mental torments that left him wishing he were dead, Dr. Wang nonetheless wished to reveal the crimes of the CCP and to show the extent to which it will go to persecute Falun Gong and damage The Epoch Times. He believes that there are likely to be others like him and hopes that his frank account may encourage others with similar experiences to stand up and expose the truth about the vile deeds of the CCP. He adds that only by remaining true to one's principles may one be free of fear and truly happy.
Here is the second and final part of Dr. Wang's statement.
This is an odd report, I was about to pass it up, as a lefty post, but take a look at the prisoners who are seperated from the others:
http://freethoughtmanifesto.blogspot.com/index.html
[snipped]
Who's In The Program?
The federal penitentiary where the most dangerous criminals are held, including the Unabomber and the Millennium Bomber, is the maximum security prison known as ADMax at Florence, Colorado. The CMU is not being implemented there, however; instead it is being implemented in Terre Haute Federal Correctional Institution in Indiana.
The CMU is said to be targeting terrorists or suspected terrorists, but many being held are not considered high risk or even convicted of violent crimes.
According to a letter obtained by RAW STORY, sent by CMU inmate Dr. Rafil Dhafir to one of his supporters, the current unit has at present only 16 prisoners, but is expected to have 60-70 more added soon. Dhafir writes that the CMU "is still not fully understood. The staff here is struggling to make sense of the whole situation," and says that the prisoners are "so far treated with great respect and good accommodation" but "with the new system we will have absolutely no privacy." The letter has been posted on a support site for Dhafir.
Dr. Dhafir was convicted for violating US sanctions against Iraq, because he had sent humanitarian aid to the country during the restricted period. Dhafir was not charged with any terrorism related activities or a violent offense.
Also in CMU detention are also five of the "Lackawanna Six," a group of six American citizens who traveled to Afghanistan before Sept. 11, 2001 and were indicted for giving material support to Al Qaeda. Yahya Goba, one of the group's members -- who turns up as a government witness in numerous cases -- is not in the system, although he was sentenced to ten years along with the other Lackawanna defendants.
Unconstitutional?
Howard Keiffer believes that the program not only violates federal law but the Constitution as well, saying it abridges the prisoners' right to freedom of expression and association. These inmates are "not able to communicate like other inmates," he said.
continues....
http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=111737
Updated Friday, February 16 at 5:51 PM
Bomb threat closes Wrigley plant and surrounding roads
by Fokes Link
FLOWERY BRANCH - After two searches by Hall County deputies and bomb sniffing dogs from Gwinnett, DeKalb, Dawson and Hall Counties, the Wrigley’s Plant is back open for business after a Friday afternoon bomb threat.
Captain Mark McGinnis said Wrigley's received the threatening call around 12:30. Atlanta Highway and surrounding roads near the plant were temporarily closed, and the plant was evacuated for nearly 5 hours.
continues.........
http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=111728
Updated Saturday, February 17 at 7:50 AM
Student faces discipline after cookies contaminated
by The Associated Press
WOODSTOCK - A 14-year-old middle school student is facing discipline and possible charges after being accused of contaminating cookies served in the cafeteria.
The boy, an eighth-grader at E.T. Booth Middle School, sprinkled a powdery substance from a hand-warming packet Thursday on the cookies, which were eaten by at least two students, school officials said. The packet contains a powdered form of iron.
The students began to feel ill, Cherokee County School District spokesman Mike McGowan said. But he said the students were able to remain at school.
continues...
[Utah]
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/210620/4/
Friday, February 16, 2007
Threatening call prompts bomb dogs, police to Edgemont Elementary
NATALIE ANDREWS - Daily Herald
A threatening call to Edgemont Elementary School brought out bomb dogs and the Provo bomb squad on Thursday.
"Someone called in and said there was a bomb in the school and hung up," Provo police Lt. Cliff Argyle said.
This is the second threat to a Utah County school in just three days. Authorities answered questions about the incidents being related.
"I'm sure it is. Anytime there is any kind of disruption, people feed off of it," said Greg Hudnall, director of student services for Provo City School District.
Salem Police Chief Brad James said a man called the Salem Post Office on Tuesday morning, telling a postal employee that a shooting was going to occur at a school that day.
The employee called police, who decided to partially lock down four Salem schools.
Argyle said that the 9:30 a.m. call to Edgemont on Thursday did not require a lock-down or evacuation, but faculty was notified of the threat.
"We treat it as very concerning," Argyle said, "We think it would be safer just to keep everybody in place."
Hudnall said the most primary concern was to maintain a calm environment, so students were not told about the call. He said they don't want students alarmed.
He said that threatening calls have the potential to create a disturbance, which is why people do it.
"It's a public place," he said. "When you call a home, you disrupt two people. When you call a school, you disrupt 600."
The school was searched for about three hours. Police looked for a suspicious package, and did find a random backpack. Argyle said that the bomb squad X-rayed it, and discovered that it was simply unclaimed.
Before the school was cleared, Argyle said police were tracking down the caller, starting with the school's caller identification system and working backward.
In Salem, the caller was tracked down on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the threat was made. James credits teamwork.
"It's a complicated process," James said. "It's not like CSI that's solved in a 45-minute show. There's a lot that takes place in order for that to happen."
James said police worked with telephone companies and out-of-state agencies to track the call.
If arrested, callers in both cases could face a charge of making a terrorist threat.
"We expect to find out shortly," Hudnall said of tracking the caller. "When someone makes a prank phone call this serious, we involve the authorities and when we do find them, we will press charges."
Natalie Andrews is available at 344-2548 or nandrews@heraldextra.com.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D1.
http://www.amtonline.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=3420
Mechanic 'Tasered' As Disabled Plane Circles Castle AirportVictor A. Patton
The Merced Sun-Star
CASTLE, Calif. -- A pilot and his student are safe on the ground after a landing gear malfunction prevented them from landing at Castle Airport for more than an hour.
While the airplane circled the airport, a brief altercation also occurred between a member of the Merced County Sheriff's Department and a flight school maintenance technician.
Jim Price, operator for Gemeni Flight Support, said the right main landing gear of the plane, a four-seat Piper Arrow, apparently became jammed around 4 p.m.
After making two attempts to shake the jammed gear loose by bumping the plane against the runway, the pilot finally was able to land the aircraft on its nose and left landing gear in a grassy area about 50 feet away from the runway at 6:06 p.m.
Although there was minor damage done to the aircraft, both occupants of the plane were unharmed, according to Deputy Paul Barile, Merced County Sheriff's Department spokesman.
Price said the plane also landed without catching on fire, although several fire engines and an ambulance were on standby at the airport throughout the duration of the ordeal.
The pilot and his student belonged to American School of Aviation, a flight school based at the former Air Force base.
Those who witnessed the incident credited the experience of the pilot and the airport tower's personnel for bringing the plane down safely.
"The pilot did as well as anybody putting that wheel down," said Stan Thurston, president of Gemeni Flight Support.
"This is exactly why having an active (airport) tower is important to Merced County," said Mark Hendrickson, Merced County director of governmental affairs. "They helped prevent a potential catastrophe."
Prince Singh, president of American School of Aviation, refused to provide the names of the pilot and his student, saying that he preferred to keep them confidential.
While the airplane was circling the airport, at approximately 5:30 p.m. a maintenance technician for American School of Aviation was shot with a Taser by a member of the sheriff's department, according to Barile.
Barile said Lupe Gonzalez, 47, was tased by a member of the sheriff's department after he became belligerent -- a charge Gonzalez and members of ASA staunchly deny.
Barile said Gonzalez and other members of the flight school wanted to drive a truck on the runway and position it underneath the plane to pull the jammed landing gear from the plane with a hook-type device.
Airport officials told Gonzalez and flight school staff, according to Barile, not to perform such a maneuver, saying that it was too dangerous, Barile said.
"They told him not to and he told the sheriff (deputy) that he was going out there regardless," Barile said.
Barile said the deputy then tased Gonzalez and arrested him for obstruction, which is considered a misdemeanor.
Gonzalez was released shortly thereafter, Barile said.
While Gonzalez acknowledged that he wanted to position a truck under the airplane to remove the jammed landing gear, he said he was never violent toward the deputy and did not threaten him.
"I'm walking away from the confrontation with the guy and I get tased," Gonzelez said.
"My only concern was the guy in the air, I made that clear to them," he added.
Singh said he is so upset about the Taser, which he considered to be excessive force, that he is considering filing a lawsuit against the sheriff's department.
"He wasn't violent. He wasn't going anywhere," Singh said.
Singh also said the airplane and truck maneuver is not unheard of -- and said he and his staff were only thinking of his pilot's safety.
Mark Canlas, an ASA flight instructor who witnessed the tasing, said he also believes it was unnecessary, and took digital photos of the confrontation on his cell phone.
"He did not break any law. Basically this (deputy) was on a power trip," Canlas said. "It was all a verbal exchange. This event could have been easily prevented."
"In my opinion, it was justified," Thurston said, in regards to the tasing.
http://www.amtonline.com/article/article.jsp?id=3421&siteSection=1
Small Jet with Busted Landing Gear Lands at Chino AirportWes Woods II
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
CHINO - A Learjet with faulty front landing gear circled LA/Ontario International Airport for more than an hour Thursday, before it was able to safely land at Chino Airport.
Neither the pilot nor a passenger on board were injured.
The front wheel of the model 55 Learjet became cocked at a 20- to 45-degree angle after a 4:45 a.m. take-off from French Valley Airport near Murrieta in southwestern Riverside County. The plane was headed to Palm Springs.
When the gear retracted after takeoff, a light went on that indicated a possible problem with the nose gear or door, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.
The pilot flew to ONT and radioed the air traffic control tower asking controllers there if any problem could be seen on the plane.
They told the pilot that the nose gear was not completely retracted, Gregor said.
The pilot flew around ONT for more than an hour to burn off fuel in the wing tanks.
At the end of the hour, the pilot had fuel only in the plane's center tank, which kept weight toward the back of the plane. That made it easier to keep the nose of the plane up before the landing, Gregor said.
The plane landed at Chino Airport about 7:15 a.m.
"He landed and kept the nose up until the last second," he said. "It's a picture-perfect landing."
The pilot and passenger's previous training made them well-prepared to deal with the situation, Gregor said.
Both the pilot and passenger have air transport pilot ratings and have practiced similar flight scenarios in simulations, Gregor said.
"That's a high pilot rating," Gregor said.
The names of the pilot and passenger were not available.
The plane was registered to Redlands company International Jet Fleet Holdings Inc., Gregor said.
"Initially, he reported he wanted to make an emergency landing at Ontario," Gregor said. "At some point he changed his mind and landed at Chino. In situations like this, being in air traffic control, we try to accommodate the pilot as much as possible."
Gregor said the pilot's maintenance company is based at Chino Airport, which may have led to the change in direction.
John Frymyer, airport manager for Chino Airport, said at least two or three times a year a "nose scare" occurs at Southern California airports.
The incident Thursday didn't cause any problems to operations at ONT or Chino Airport.
Staff writer Wes Woods II can be reached by e-mail at, or by phone at (909) 483-9378.
http://cutandpasteaviation.blogspot.com/2007/02/milestones-of-flight-216.html
The online aviation athenaeum providing daily milestones and opinions of flight -- past and present, links to books, articles, documentaries, and other online resources celebrating and educating the public about the world-changing achievements of flight.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Milestones of Flight: 2/16
2006 - Kobe Airport, a controversial offshore airport in Kobe, Japan, opens for airline service.
2001 - Two dozen US and British aircraft bombed 5 radar and other anti-aircraft sites around Baghdad with guided missiles.
A number of new guided bombs, AGM-154A priced from $250-700k, missed their targets.
1993 - First flight of An-32N airplane designed for fighting forest fires.
1989 - Investigators in Lockerbie, Scotland, said a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player was what brought down Pan Am Flight 103 the previous December, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground.
1982 - The first production Airbus Industrie A310 is rolled out at the factory in Toulouse, France, destined for Swissair as the launch customer.
1962 - Five female selected for Cosmonaut Training Group.
The group was selected to provide female cosmonauts for the Vostok manned spaceflight program.
The five female cosmonaut went through the complete course of cosmonaut training, including weightless flights, parachute jumps, isolation tests, centrifuge tests, and academic studies of rocket theory and spacecraft engineering. The women undertook 120 parachute jumps and received pilot training in MiG-15UTI jet trainers.
Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space on June 16, 1963. Following her flight there were plans for all-female Vostok or Soyuz flights, but these never materialised. The female training group was disbanded in October 1969. The Soviet Union used only male cosmonauts until the 1980's, when women were again recruited, in order to again have a Soviet woman in space before the Americans finally began flying female astronauts on the space shuttle.
1960 - The Vought F8U-2N Crusader interceptor makes its maiden flight in Dallas, Texas.
1955 - First flight of the MiG OKB I-370 interceptor with Mikoyan test pilot Fyodor I. Burtsev at the controls.
Its performance was very good, particularly after it was refitted with an afterburning VK-7F engine, but even before the first flight both the VK-7 and I-370 had been axed. Centrifugal-flow engines were clearly not the way of the future, and the test program was simply performed on inertia, as an experiment.
1953 - Marine Corps Captain Ted Williams, future baseball hall of famer, had his F9F Panther jet fighter badly crippled by anti-aircraft fire.
Rather than ditch the aircraft, Captain Williams opted to return to base, an action that required exceptional skill and daring. He received the Air Medal for his actions. Williams walked away from the wheels-up landing.
1953 - Air Force Captain Joseph C. McConnell, Jr., 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, flying his F-86 Beauteous Butch shot down his fifth MiG.
The delayed confirmation of the kill resulted in him being recognized as the 27th ace of the war rather than the 26th.
1951 - The U.S. Army began using the L-19 Bird Dog for forward air control, artillery spotting and other front-line duties.
1946 - First flight of the first commercial helicopter, the four-seat Sikorsky S51, single rotor helicopter.
It was the first Sikorsky helicopter to be licensed by the U.S. Civil Aviation Administration for commercial operations. The world's first commercial sale was confirmed, with deliveries in Aug 1946, to Helicopter Air Transport of Philadelphia. It marked the end of the first phase of the helicopter's evolution. The design established would be followed by others to this day. It could carry 3 passengers over 250 miles at a speed of 100 miles per hour.
1945 - First carrier strikes from Vice Adm. Marc A. Mitscher's Task Force 58 on Tokyo pre-invasion offensive on Iwo Jima.
1937 - Valentin Vasilyevich Bondarenko, Ukrainian Pilot Cosmonaut, is born in Kharkov, Ukraine.
Killed in a fire in a spacecraft simulator run using a a pure oxygen atmosphere, 23 March 1961. A lunar crater was named after him. His accident had a profound effect on future design of Soviet manned spacecraft, which avoided pure-oxygen atmospheres.
1935 - Flight of Goddard A series rocket.
Rocket had no automatic guiding device; short and rapid flight, during which the parachute was released and checked the fall.
1912 - Frank Coffyn takes aerial views of New York City with a cinema camera while controlling his airplane with his feet and knees.
1903 - Traian Vuia presented to the Académie des Sciences of Paris the possibility of flying with a heavier-than-air mechanical machine and his procedure for taking off, but it was rejected for being an utopia, adding the comments: The problem of flight with a machine which weighs more than air cannot be solved and it is only a dream.
Posted by KenInfinite at 8:37 PM
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1786509/posts
Dole Cantaloupes Recalled
WBZTV.COM ^ | 17 FEBRUARY 2007 | AP
Posted on 02/17/2007 7:04:48 AM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
The Fruit Tested Positive For Salmonella
(AP) WASHINGTON -- The Dole Fresh Fruit Co. recalled several thousand cartons of imported cantaloupes Friday after the fruit tested positive for salmonella.
The recall, which covers the eastern United States and the Canadian province of Quebec, is the second sparked by salmonella fears this week.
On Wednesday, ConAgra Foods Inc. recalled its Peter Pan brand and certain batches of Wal-Mart's Great Value house brand of peanut butter after they were linked to a salmonella outbreak that's sickened nearly 300 people in 39 states.
Dole said there have been no reports of illness due to the contaminated cantaloupes, which were grown in Costa Rica.
The company said the recall covered roughly 6,104 cartons of cantaloupes distributed to wholesalers in the eastern United States and Quebec between Feb. 5 and Feb. 8.
continues
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1786477/posts
Plane windshields crack at Colo. airport
Miami Herald ^ | 02/17/2007 | CHASE SQUIRES
Posted on 02/17/2007 6:21:04 AM PST by devane617
DENVER - Airlines are investigating why windshields cracked on at least 13 planes at Denver International Airport while a storm was whipping through the area with wind of up to 100 mph.
No emergencies were declared and no injuries were reported. None of the pilots reported flying debris, officials said.
Several major highways had reopened after being closed Friday because of blowing snow and whiteout conditions, although some mountain sections remained closed Saturday - including U.S. 40 over Berthoud Pass, where an avalanche buried two cars last month.
The storm system, which brought nearly a foot of fresh powder to ski resorts, had mostly moved out of the state Saturday.
Elsewhere, a twin-engine Cessna crashed during a snowstorm southeast of the airport at Council Bluffs, Iowa, killing at least three people late Friday, officials said.
The cause of the crash was not yet known. The National Weather Service said a fast-moving storm was pushing through the area with snow, wind gusting up to 53 mph and poor visibility.
SkyWest Airlines reported cracked windshields on eight planes that were taking off or landing Friday as wind gusted up to 50 mph, spokeswoman Marissa Snow said. One plane's windshield cracked while it was airborne.
"Only the outermost layer was affected," Snow said of the windshields, which are made of multiple layers of glass.
SkyWest, a regional carrier for United Airlines, said the planes were Embraer EMB120 Brasilias and Bombardier Canadair Regional Jets.
Frontier Airlines Airbus had two planes whose windshields cracked in flight, and two others that cracked while sitting at gates, airline spokesman Joe Hodas said.
Hodas said it wasn't clear if the wind was to blame.
"It's not exactly unusual weather for Denver," Hodas said. "We don't know what it is... It's kind of a mystery at this point."
At least 55 flights were canceled and others were diverted.
Parts of Interstate 80 were closed in southern Wyoming between Cheyenne and Laramie because of windblown snow and icy patches.
Before the closing, the driver and passenger of a tractor-trailer were killed in a crash at Laramie, the highway patrol said.
In Pennsylvania, the last of hundreds of motorists stranded on a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 78 were freed Friday, but several other highways remained shut as crews struggled to clear ice and snow following the monster storm that was blamed for at least 24 deaths in the Northeast and Midwest.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell apologized for the state's "totally unacceptable" handling of the storm and the I-78 tie-up, where some motorists were stranded for as long as 24 hours. He blamed an "almost total breakdown in communication" among state agencies.
At least 24 deaths were blamed on the storm system and accompanying cold: six in Ohio; three in Nebraska; two each in Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Jersey and Delaware; and one each in Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Hampshire and Louisiana.
[Could these be related to the others that have been reported?]
Soros thread.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1786453/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1786593/posts
Father of Shooter Believes Someone Told His Son to Kill People (Trolley Square Terror)
KSL.com ^ | February 16th, 2007 | Andrew Adams
Posted on 02/17/2007 10:47:30 AM PST by Species8472
The father of Trolley Square shooter Sulejmen Talovic apologizes over and over for the ordeal. Suljo Talovic says no one who knew his son saw this coming, and he believes someone pushed him to do it.
Suljo Talovic doesn't know where his son got the guns or how he learned how to use them.
Suljo Talovic, Father of Shooter: "Somebody got (the guns)…and maybe (they were) training him and tell(ing) him (to), ‘go shoot somebody.'"
Question: So you think that somebody influenced him maybe to do this?
Suljo Talovic: "Yeah. I think somebody."
Talovic says the tragedy is taking a toll on his family.
Repeatedly, in a lengthy interview with KSL Newsradio, Talovic expressed the sentiment that someone trained and pushed his son to kill. He apologizes for the ordeal, saying it makes him feel horrible, like killing himself.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070217/us_nm/cuba_castro_matthews_dc_2;_ylt=AgNkPe.t1NTv2dAw21HkzhFn.3QA
Cuba honors American who made Castro a legend
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba unveiled a marble plaque on Saturday
commemorating the interview 50 years ago by New York Times reporter
Herbert Matthews that helped build the legend of Fidel Castro, the
state news agency Prensa Latina reported.
The plaque was placed on the spot where Matthews met with Castro at
his hideout in the Sierra Maestra mountains of south eastern Cuba.
Castro had taken to the hills two months earlier with a handful of men
who survived a disastrous landing from Mexico to launch a guerrilla
movement against U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
The government had claimed Castro was dead. Matthews' article,
published by The New York Times on Feb 24, 1957, showed Castro was
still alive and fighting. It immediately made the 30-year-old
firebrand an international figure.
In that glowing article Matthews wrote: "The personality of the man
(Castro) is overpowering. It was easy to see that his men adored him
and also to see why he has caught the imagination of the youth of Cuba
all over the island. Here was an educated, dedicated fanatic, a man of
ideals, of courage and of remarkable qualities of leadership."
The interview may also have helped Castro by exaggerating the size of
his rebel force. Castro later bragged he only had 18 men at the time,
but made them pass in front of the American reporter several times.
Less than two years after the interview, Castro and his revolutionary
companion Ernesto "Che" Guevara swept down from the hills and
overthrew the Batista government in a leftist revolution that steered
Cuba toward communism.
continues....
[the writer worked for NYT]
FT: Police seek to break impasse on Litvinenko
Financial Times
Police seek to break impasse on Litvinenko
By Ben Hall andDaniel Dombey in London andNeil Buckley in,Moscow
February 17 2007
The deadlock between Moscow and London over the murder of Alexander
Litvinenko could be nearing an end following Scotland Yard's invitation
to Russian prosecutors for a discussion over the two countries'
conflicting lines of inquiry.
The probe into the death last November by polonium-210 poisoning of the
former Russian spy had threatened to spiral into a diplomatic row.
Advertisement
Russian investigators are thought to have sent London three weeks ago a
list of around 100 individuals they wish to question in the UK,
including prominent exiles they have tried and failed to extradite to
Russia.
The British police, meanwhile, have identified Alexander Lugovoi, a
former KGB agent living in Russia, as the prime suspect in the murder.
They are unlikely to get further help unless London accedes to Russian
demands.
Russia's request for mutual legal assistance was passed on by John
Reid,
home secretary, to the Metropolitan police, which will decide how to
respond.
The police's willingness to discuss the request suggests London wishes
to break the impasse.
A senior UK official said Britain wanted to be "helpful", but that
Russian prosecutors would have to scale down the list of witnesses they
wanted to interview.
One objection, the official said, was that the investigation into the
Litvinenko murder was being led by the Met's counter-terrorism unit.
Since its officers would have to accompany Russian investigators in
each
of their interviews, it could prove a huge drain on resources.
Scotland Yard will discuss the extent of Russia's demands and the
practicalities of meeting them.
Among the witnesses Russian prosecutors want to question are Boris
Berezovsky, the exiled businessmen, and Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen
leader.
Aides of both men insist there is no evidence pointing to their
involvement in Litvinenko's death.
Yury Fedotov, Russia's ambassador in London, told journalists yesterday
that the UK had now answered the Russian request. "I think that the
answer is positive but I don't know exactly what the answer is."
British prosecutors fear Russia may demand the extradition of Mr
Berezovsky and others in exchange for helping to investigate Mr
Lugovoi,
even though the UK's independent judiciary would never countenance such
a quid pro quo.
Mr Lugovoi has admitted meeting Litvinenko in the run-up to his death
but has denied involvement.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/53ca9aac-be2c-11db-bd86-0000779e2340.html
The Caucasus
Hanging together
Feb 8th 2007 | BAKU
From The Economist print edition
The implications of a diplomatic shift in an important oil-rich region
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8670422
WHEN God was parcelling out land to the peoples of the earth, the
Georgians arrived late. But their explanation—that they had been
drinking in his honour—so delighted God that, according to a Georgian
creation myth, he granted them the world's choicest spot. The gods have
indeed favoured Georgia this winter, bestowing a mild one when a harsh
one might have been disastrous. But the Georgians owe thanks also to an
earthly benefactor: their neighbour Azerbaijan, whose oil-fuelled
foreign policy is transforming the volatile but vital Caucasus.
Since the revolution of 2003 that swept Mikhail Saakashvili to
Georgia's
presidency, his yen to join NATO and the European Union has infuriated
the Kremlin. Last autumn, the Russians imposed postal and aviation
blockades, alongside the existing embargoes on Georgia's water, wine
and
fruit. Then, with winter approaching, they doubled the price for
Russian
gas—in theory for commercial reasons, but with the real aim of taming
Mr
Saakashvili.
Yet, for all Mr Saakashvili's high-profile rambunctiousness, the most
important country in the Caucasus is Azerbaijan. With around 8m people,
most of them Shia Muslims, it has the biggest population. It also has
oil and gas, which a consortium led by BP is extracting from the
Caspian
Sea and pumping through new pipelines across Georgia to Turkey and
beyond. All the Caucasian economies are now picking up, after
collapsing
with the Soviet Union—even corrupt Armenia's, dependent though it
mostly
is on remittances. But the growth created by Azerbaijan's second oil
boom (the first was 100 years ago) was the highest in the world last
year: 34.5%, says the finance minister.
Azerbaijan's president is Ilham Aliev, who inherited the job from
Heidar, his strongman father. The younger Aliev seemed also to have
inherited the Caucasian skill of diplomatic balance, eschewing
Georgian-style pyrotechnics. But that careful equilibrium appeared to
change in December, when the Russians tried to hike the price of the
gas
that, despite its own reserves, Azerbaijan was itself still importing.
The idea was apparently to stop Azerbaijan helping the Georgians with
cheaper supplies.
“Commercial blackmail,” said Mr Aliev. Azerbaijan stopped importing
Russian gas altogether—and, thanks to the warm weather, gas from
Azerbaijan seems set to help Georgia through the winter. Elmar
Mammadyarov, Azerbaijan's foreign minister, says his country is merely
“taking responsibility as a regional leader.” Mr Saakashvili is more
exuberant: “a geopolitical coup”, he says of the new gas arrangements.
The truth is, Mr Aliev now needs Mr Saakashvili too. Azerbaijan's
future, and Mr Aliev's power, rest on the new pipelines, which have
bound their two countries together, and bound both of them to the West.
In a few years they may also carry Kazakh oil from the other side of
Caspian, and—perhaps—gas from Turkmenistan. That would undo Russia's
grip on the supply of Central Asian gas to Europe, and is as unpopular
an idea in Moscow as it is welcome elsewhere.
Two things undermine the hope that the fractious Caucasians have
finally
learned to hang together, to their own benefit and that of Western
energy consumers.
One is domestic politics. Russia's diplomatic power may be waning, but
its political model remains popular. Armen Darbinian, a former Armenian
prime minister, quips that his and other post-Soviet countries have
become “one-and-a-half party states”: a party of power, plus others
that
are basically decorative. In Azerbaijan, opposition activists are
regularly harassed and locked up. Like Russia, Georgia, Armenia and
Azerbaijan will all hold presidential polls next year. Mr Aliev will
surely win his; the whisper in Baku is that his wife will take over
next. But another whisper is that, in the absence of democracy,
Islamism
is on the rise—encouraged, say some, by Iran to the south.
The Islamists, says Ali Kerimli, a disgruntled oppositionist, curry
favour with their complaint that “the West sells democracy for oil.”
Others say the threat is fanciful. The call to prayer rings across the
boutiques and restaurants of downtown Baku, but there are actually more
hijabs on the streets of London, says Ilgar Ibrahimoglu, an imam. All
the same, things may change if too much of the oil money goes into
nepotistic contracts and vanity projects, and too little on
diversifying
the economy and easing the grinding poverty in which many Azerbaijanis
still live
The other big Caucasian danger is war. Russian support for South
Ossetia
and Abkhazia, two enclaves that broke away from Georgia in the 1990s
(see map), is one of Mr Saakashvili's main gripes. Azerbaijan also lost
a secessionist conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, a part of Soviet
Azerbaijan mostly populated by Armenians. Mr Aliev periodically makes
dark threats about retaking Azerbaijan's lost territory by force,
though
a flare-up in Georgia currently looks likelier.
Mr Saakashvili says Russia's economic embargo “achieved the opposite of
what was intended”, and that Georgia has found new markets. Suitably
cheered, he this week hosted Mr Aliev and Turkey's Recep Tayyip
Erdogan,
shaking hands on a new railway that will link the Caucasus to
Europe—but
miss out Armenia. Vartan Oskanian, Armenia's foreign minister,
complains
that there is an existing railway across Armenian-controlled territory
that could be used instead. The railway, like the pipelines, symbolises
what the countries of the Caucasus can achieve together, but also how
far apart they remain.
Adygeyan problem did not darken Putin's visit to Jordan
Prague, February 14th, Caucasus Times - In the television reportings
about the Putin's meeting with the king of Jordan Abdallah,
broadcasted by all Russian central TV-channels, the journalists
especially accented on that the king's personal guards consists of
the Circassian descendants which in the XIX century left Russia. TV-
cameras demonstrated straight-standing dark-haired moustached
handsome men, dressed in the Circassian military dresses of the time
of the Great Caucasian war. However the Russian audience, spectators
and readers learned nothing about the not taken place meeting of
president Putin with the Jordanian Circassians. The information that
it had been prepared, being the subject of the expectations of the
Circassian Diaspora influential in the Near East, had been
widespread with the efforts of the same Diaspora before the Putin's
visit to Jordan.
The essence of the information report which, probably, all the
Russian mass-media had unintentionally ignored can be briefly shown
to the Adygeyan problem which the Diaspora hoped to discuss during
the recent Vladimir Putin's visit to Jordan (where lives about 75
thousand descendants of Circassian muhadjeers (refugees who left
Russia in the XIX century during the persecutions against them).
The question of returning to the historical native land of the
Circassians living in the countries of the Near East, according to
information of some western mass-media, should be discussed during
Vladimir Putin's meeting with representatives of the Central Khase
of Jordan.
The reference or the letter to the president of Russia on behalf of
over 2 million Circassians living abroad, the naive descendants of
the muhadjeers had been preparing not one day, coordinating the text
with the Circassian Diasporas of Israel, Syria, Turkey and Jordan.
Circassians considered as necessary to make the following demands to
the Russian state:
1. To simplify the procedure of granting the Jordanian Adygs with
residence permit in Russian Federation, having cancelled the
practice of unreasonable delays and preliminary conditions.
2. To give the Jordanian Adygs the unconditional right to get the
Russian citizenship with simultaneous keeping after them their
citizenship of Jordan.
3. To create the simplified procedure of giving out the Russian
visas to representatives of the Adygeyan Diaspora of Jordan on the
basis of a recommendation of a Circassian (Adygeyan) charitable
society.
4. To solve positively the problem of full restoration the Russian
citizenship for the Jordanian Adygs who expressed will to return to
the historical native land for the constant residing, according to
the operating Russian legislation.
5. To give the Jordanian Adygs the right to purchase a habitation
and commercial objects in the territories of Russian Federation with
the right of use them for residing, tenancy, tourist activities or
for industrial purposes.
6. To give the Jordanian Adygs the right to free purchase of land
areas in the territories of Russia: agricultural lands, sites under
construction of any kinds of objects – commercial, industrial,
tourist, etc.
7. To reconsider the positions of the Russian legislation on
investments to facilitate for the Jordanian Adygs the opportunity of
capital investing in the Russian economy.
8. To open regular (weekly) air flights between one of cities of the
Northern Caucasus and Jordan which would stimulate development of
the trade communications, tourist exchange, support of interactions
among the relatives living in the opposite sides of the state
borders.
The question on opening similar flights could be solved urgently -
by coordination with the Jordanian airlines or the Aeroflot of the
question on forming additional point of landing in the flights Amman-
Moscow and Moscow-Amman in the cities of Nalchik or Maykop. If
landing in the capitals of the Adygeyan republics for any reasons
would be complicated, it could be possible to take advantage of the
Mineral Waters international airport.
And this is all!
In the foreign Circassians' opinion, their requirements are
absolutely lawful from the position of the historical truth. In the
legal relations the truth is based on the Decree of the president of
Russian Federation from June 22nd, 2006 # 637 "About measures on
assistance to voluntary resettlement to Russian Federation for
compatriots living abroad". Besides there is also the federal law,
interpreting the term "compatriots": " they are the persons born in
one state, living or lived in it and have attributes of the common
language, religion, cultural heritage, traditions and customs, as
well as the descendants of the specified persons according to the
direct descending relate line".
Here are the lines, called to restore justice, to return peace into
the souls of the exiles.
But alas. The leader of the Russian state Vladimir Putin had not
learned what the compatriots (not so native for many years) applied
to.
The descendants of the muhadjeers met the heads of Adygeya and
Kabardino-Balkaria Aslan Tkhakushinov and Arsen Kanokov which had
arrived to Jordan several days earlier the visit to the country of
the president of Russia. They tried to convince the foreign
Circassians to not hasten with Adygs' requirements to Putin, and
suggested them to sign for a beginning a cooperation memorandum and
to limit that cooperation by the triangle, formed by Kabardino-
Balkaria, Adygeya and the Circassian organization in Jordan "Aman".
While the Diaspora had the complex negotiations with the leaders of
the Northern Caucasian republics, Vladimir Putin had left Jordan.
He had not have an opportunity to familiarize with the special
letter in which the descendants of the muhadjeers tried to inform
the Russian president the truth about the sad destiny of Circassians
in the imperial Russia. More than a hundred years ago when the
Russian armies were conquering the Northern Caucasus Circassians
being for that moment the most numerous ethnos in Caucasus (about
1,5 million people), were exterminated in a half, and the survived
(except for several tens thousand people) were deported to the
Ottoman empire. There from the suffered muhadjeers dispersed all
over the Near East.
After Putin Arsen Kanokov and Aslan Tkhakushinov left Jordan, too,
not having signed the Memorandum of cooperation with the Diaspora.
But, despite of such malicious joke played with Circassians, all of
them are still sure that the Memorandum which they worked out with
such inspiration and hopes, will have been yet signed by the heads
of Kabardino-Balkaria and Adygeya and the `straight road' to
Vladimir Putin will be open then.
Natpress
http://www.natpress.net/stat_e.php?id=2486
German intelligence official poisoned?
http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/print/politik/629625.html
A mysterious death and a suspicion
A high Federal Intelligence Service (BND) official died in a Munich
hospital - realtives belive he has been poisoned
BERLIN. It seemed to be first only a tragic death, which occurred in
past December, a week before Christmas, in the Munich clinical center
Gross-Hadern. A patient, who had been hospitalized a few weeks earlier
because of mysterious paralysis features and about to improvement, had
deceased abruptly. The family of the man was shocked, since a dismissal
of the 57yrs old man to the holidays seemed to be for sure. Physicians
seemed to be helpless, but excluded medical malpractice categorically.
In the meantime the public prosecutor's office in Munich is
investigating the case, and an enormous suspicion is going to emerge:
Before he died the patient told his relatives that he is supicious to
be
poisoned and that he has knowledge of the attackers. If this should be
true, the case would get a political dimension since the deceased
Ulrich Woessner, a high-ranking official of the Federal Intelligence
Service (BND), who was amongst the central figures of the recent BND
affair and was considered as an important witness to the Bundestag
committee of inquiry.
Facts are so far meager. A first autopsy immediately after death had
resulted in no remarkablenesses. But when relatives expressed
suspicions
of medical malpractice to authorities, the public prosecutor's office
opened a death preliminary investigation. According to a statement by
Munich senior public prosecutor Winkler medical investigastions are
still underway, results are expected earliest in a week.
Authorities look now as well for traces of poison, amongst them nuclear
material like polonium. Winkler stressed that so far no indications of
poison were found, "We follow therefore so far only to the suspicion of
a possible medical malpractice." Investigations are not for homicide,
but should any trace of poison be found it has to be altered.
Woessner joined in the 1970s the Federal Intelligence Service, where he
was run by the pseudonym "Doring". He achieved his highest position in
summer 1998 as head of the departement of internal security. His
predecessor, was veteran director of Federal Intelligence Service
Volker
Foertsch, who was sacked in the range of a never-solved affair on
Russian moles in the agency. Woessner was involved as section chief of
internal security.
Becoming 1998 new head of internal security Wössner started illegal
spying on journalists, already practiced of its predecessor, and forced
co-operatian with media represantatives, which is forbidden by BND
rules. Woessner gave the order to search waste paper bags of journalist
and secret service expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom for BND material. At
the
same time he gave order to recruit Schmidt-Eenboom to spy on
journalists
- without success.
For medical reasons Woessner resignated in 2002 as head of internal
security and became deputy branch head of the acquisition departement,
where he was responsible for co-operation with foreign intelligence
agencies. He emphasized on US agencies. His knowledge and role played
on
alleged German support for US agencies during 2003 Operation Iraqi
Freedom remains unknown.
Woessner's recent illness had strong similarities with the last
illness.
Also at that time physicians were not able to determine clearly cause
and kind of the illness. In 2002 Woessner runned a diary on the course
of disease, but it is not known whether he did so this time. So far
actual recordings over the hospitalization were not found.
Berliner Zeitung, 17.02.2007
U.S. Military Detains Iranian Delegates in Baghdad
http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/1437/US_Military_Detains_Iranian_Delegates_in_Baghdad
U.S. Military Detains Iranian Delegates in Baghdad
The Scoop from Key Arabic-Language Web Sites
By ZEYAD
Al-Melaf reports that U.S. troops have detained the members of a
Shiite delegation visiting parliament minister Sheikh Jalal Al-Din
Al-Sagheer at his home in Baghdad. The delegation included two Iranian
nationals, Abdul Zahra Al-Daghiri, a cleric from Iran's Arab Khuzestan
province, and Ahmed Frauzenda. Al-Daghiri entered Iraq after 2003 and
joined the Shaheed Al-Mihrab Foundation, headed by the son of Aziz
Al-Hakim, head of the largest Shia bloc in Iraqi parliament
Al-Sagheer's office issued a press release calling claims made by U.S.
troops at Camp Victory as "false." The U.S. statement said that the
Buratha Mosque, raided two days ago by Iraqi troops, was harboring
militias and was used as a weapons storage. Al-Sagheer denied that the
mosque was raided by Iraqi troops, explaining that it was an Iraqi
Special Forces battalion under direct U.S. command, and not Iraqi
governmental troops that are part of the Defense and Interior
ministries. It also denied that the mosque contains torture chambers,
as "terrorists" have claimed, or that militias have used it to stage
attacks against other areas. The statement added that all weapons and
ammunitions confiscated by U.S. troops from the mosque were registered
as property of the Interior Ministry, and that the guards were also
employees of the Defense and Interior ministries.
Al-Melaf also published the findings of a recent survey in Najaf
revealing that 75 percent of the city's residents will not participate
in any upcoming elections in Iraq, citing widespread corruption among
current elected officials and a failure to improve services and
respond to the needs of the community. Other reasons included the
struggle for political power between different Islamic movements in
the city and the evident overnight rise in the wealth of elected
officials. The source added that the report was sent to the leaders of
several Shi'ite political parties.
Hundreds of young men have signed up to carry out "martyrdom
operations" against U.S. troops if there is an attempt to detain or
move against Muqtada Al-Sadr, according to unnamed sources in the
Hawza of Najaf, the Sadrist Nahrain Net website reports.
The sources stated that not all volunteers are Sadrists or members of
the Mahdi Army but come from various Shi'ite movements and follow
different clerics, and many of them have been seeking legal permission
from their clerics to carry out "martyrdom operations" against U.S.
troops. The sources, which added that this phenomenon was registered
in Najaf, Karbala and other southern cities, did not divulge if this
was spontaneous or an organized effort to counter any American action
against Sadr or the Mahdi Army.
And in regard to Sadr's whereabouts, a senior Mahdi Army commander
stated that Sadr would be returning to Iraqi within days, and that any
attempt to detain him would be an "uncalculated risk aiming to
escalate the situation in Iraq and to end the political process." He
added that although Muqtada Sadr had ordered his followers to exercise
restraint and not to respond to provocative actions by U.S. and Iraqi
troops, his arrest would "inflame the emotions of millions of his
followers resulting in an uncontrollable situation."
The Ansar Al-Sunnah insurgent group published an Internet statement
today calling on Iraqi Sunnis not to abandon their homes in Baghdad
during the U.S. security operation. "To our people in Baghdad," the
statement reads, "Do not leave your homes and your Baghdad, because if
you do, it means that you have given up Baghdad for the rejectionists
(Shia)."
The statement, which was signed by the Diwan Al-Jund of the Ansar
Al-Sunnah, said that the group is planning its response to the
operation. "We will confront, with great wisdom, the large numbers of
Crusader troops and their lackeys of apostate rejectionists and
Peshmerga on the streets of Baghdad, by gradually exhausting them, now
that we have forced them to take to the streets and expose themselves
for us."
Islam Memo had also reported that "resistance groups" in Baghdad had
announced the "zero hour" for its counterattack against U.S. and Iraqi
troops in the capital in response to the security operation in several
Sunni districts south of Baghdad.
Eye on Iraq Media Agency reports that Iraqi security forces arrested
26 suspected members of the Jund Al-Samaa' movement at a small village
north of Kut, in the Wasit Governorate, according to a source in the
governorate's police command. While SCIRI's Buratha News Agency
reported that the Interior Ministry's Scorpion Brigade in the Babel
Governorate, south of Baghdad, arrested 35 suspected members of Jund
Al-Samaa' during raids on several districts of Hilla, according to
police sources.
The Sunni fundamentalist Islam Memo website denied U.S. reports
yesterday of the injury of Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Hamza
Al-Muhajir (identified as Abu Ayoub Al-Masri by the Iraqi Interior
Ministry) and the killing of Abdullah Al-Mujama'I, one of his senior
aides. The website quoted an "official from the Islamic Emirate of
Iraq" in Balad who compared these reports to the rumors he said U.S.
troops had spread during the Fallujah battles in 2004 to demoralize
"the resistance," adding that they can't even get the name of their
leader right.
Burning death stuns Bay Area
Social workers finally coaxed Leslie May off the streets of San Francisco, but she was abducted and killed over a $150 drug debt.
By Lee Romney, Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-burned16feb16,0,4096704,full.story
February 16, 2007
'In 17 years as a prosecutor, I've seen people do terrible things to each other, but this is sickening.'
— San Francisco Dist. Atty. Kamala Harris
SAN FRANCISCO — Hers was a hard-won success: a chronically homeless drug addict on city streets for decades finally steered — in baby steps — into housing and the promise of a future.
But the death of Leslie "Jill" May has now become one of the most dismaying tragedies of San Francisco's pervasive homeless culture.
Known as "Jilly," the 49-year-old was beaten and stripped as warning to repay a $150 drug debt — possibly her boyfriend's, authorities say. Then, after reporting the assault to police, the birdlike woman who had once stunned the Tenderloin sex trade with her leggy beauty was forced into a car in broad daylight, driven to the city's desolate football stadium, doused with gasoline and burned alive.
"A gust of wind would blow her away. She was not a threat to anybody," said city social worker Ben Amyes, who spent years coaxing May onto methadone and off the streets as part of Mayor Gavin Newsom's Homeless Outreach Team.
"Street life is difficult," Amyes said. "For a $150 drug debt, I wasn't surprised to hear that they beat her up and stripped her naked. But the manner in which she was murdered is shocking."
Two women are now in custody in connection with the Jan. 12 slaying. Mia Sagote, 29, was charged with murder and kidnapping after her Jan. 23 arrest. She also faces a robbery charge in connection with the Jan. 11 incident in which May's clothes were taken.
Authorities waited until the arrest of Leslie Siliga, 30, on Tuesday to go public with the case. Siliga faces charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy, and prosecutors expect to add a conspiracy charge to Sagote's case.
The women, who are not homeless, also face three special circumstance allegations: that they committed the murder while engaged in a kidnapping and to avoid arrest and prosecution for the robbery, and that the crime was "especially heinous, atrocious and cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity."
continues............
Alleged Islamist financier and son walk to freedom
http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143964919
By Judy Ogutu
The suspected financier of the Islamic Courts Union is now a free man.
Charges of being in Kenya illegally against Mr Abubakar Omar Adan and
his son, Omar Abubakar Omar, were terminated when the State entered a
nolle prosequi in the case.
State counsel, Mr Vincent Wahoro, presented before court the document
signed by Director of Public Prosecution Mr Keriako Tobiko, on
Thursday.
The State's move comes hardly a month after the father and son
convinced
a magistrate's court to refer the case to High Court for Constitutional
interpretation.
Their lawyer, Mr James Orengo, had told Senior Principal Magistrate,
Mrs
Margaret Wachira, that the proceedings against them "were oppressive,
arbitrary and being undertaken to achieve extraneous purpose of
deporting them without due process".
Adan, who had already admitted to charges of being in Kenya illegally
and failing to register as an alien, had complained that charges
against
him were misdemeanors and did not warrant his being held in custody for
a month.
His clients, he argued, were refugees running away from their country
and should be treated as such.
Adan, 70, was arrested in Liboi last December 26 while fleeing Somalia
after the fall of the Islamic Courts Union. Together with his son, they
were detained for a month in a move described by the State as a measure
to safeguard the national security.
Wahoro had told Wachira that they were detained to establish how they
entered Kenya and what role they played while in Mogadishu.
Wahoro informed High Court Judge, Justice Joseph Nyamu, that the State
wished to terminate the charges.
He did not give explanation for the new twist, only informing the judge
that they were before him to seek directions as to how the court should
be furnished with the nolle prosequi.
Orengo said Section 84 of the Constitution gave the court power to
determine any case referred to it.
Nyamu terminated the Constitutional reference before him and ordered
the
file placed before Wachira to make necessary orders in terms of the
nolle prosequi.
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