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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1504817/posts

Security Passes Pulled in Threat Leak Probe
AP ^ | 10/18/5 | DEVLIN BARRETT

Posted on 10/18/2005 3:06:19 PM PDT by SmithL

WASHINGTON -- Security clearances were taken away from two
federal anti-terrorism employees as investigators look into allegations
they warned family and friends about the threat against the New York
City subway system three days ahead of the official announcement.

The workers were identified after government security officials began
looking into the source for e-mails alluding to the threat that began
circulating before New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg went public
Oct. 6. Security in the transit network was ramped up based on an
overseas informant's claim there was a plot to bomb the system.

The e-mails apparently started with a relative of one worker and a
friend of another, who passed on information warning against using
the subway system, according to two federal officials familiar with the
Homeland Security Department investigation.

The officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the
probe is ongoing, said the two federal employees who lost their
security clearances were one employee of the Coast Guard and a
former Coast Guard captain who now works for the Transportation
Security Administration.

continued at the link.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1504835/posts

Back In The USSR? (Russian Proliferation)
Investor's Business Daily ^ | October 18, 2005 | The Editors

Posted on 10/18/2005 3:33:39 PM PDT by RWR8189

Arms Proliferation: Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, who recently visited Iran,
reportedly is seeking nuclear weapons. Will they come from Russia with love?

Maybe — if Russia continues to run a weapons bazaar where rogue
nations are given special-shopper privileges.

Already, it appears Russia has acted as a broker by greasing the way
for North Korea to transfer technology that will let Iran build missiles
with a 2,200-mile reach. That puts several European capitals,
including Athens, Rome and Berlin, within Tehran's range.

Russia also is supporting Iran's "nuclear power" program, having sold
it a reactor. Which is to say Russia supports Iran's nuclear-weapons
program.

All this is ominous enough. But compounding matters would be
Russia's support, either directly or through Tehran, of the nuclear
ambitions of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. In fact, it's an all-too-realistic
possibility that a weapons-trade relationship has already been
established. According to the White House, Venezuela has begun to
take delivery of 100,000 Russian-made AK47s.

Given Chavez's thick-as-thieves relationship with Fidel Castro, we
could someday find Cuba again pointing nuclear missiles our way.
That's not idle speculation. Castro and the mullahs have long,
documented ties on energy cooperation that are just beginning to get
congressional scrutiny. We've already lived through one Cuban missile
crisis. Those of us old enough to remember don't need another.

Imagine a world in which radical mullahs in Iran, a malevolent tyrant
in Venezuela

(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=14790

2005-10-18
Iraq reports anomalies in charter vote results
Election officials begin nationwide verification of
constitution vote results due to anomalies in most
provinces.
By Mehdi Lebouachera - BAGHDAD

Iraqi election officials have begun a nationwide audit of results from
the referendum on the new constitution because of "anomalies" in
most provinces, a senior electoral official said Tuesday.

"The first controls are now taking place," the official said on condition
of anonymity. "We are not ruling out technical error or fraud, but for
now it is only a question of anomalies."

According to the source, problems with initial figures sent to the
Independent Electoral Commission were found in southern Shiite
provinces as well as in Kurdish areas in the north, where "the figures
were very high."

Those provinces voted overwhelmingly on Saturday in favour of the
draft charter, which aims to lay the democratic foundations for a new
Iraq following the ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime.

But "if intentional irregularities are found those responsible will face
prosecution because failing to apply electoral rules amounts to
trampling on civil rights."

Voters cast their ballots Saturday, a few days before former Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein stands trial on Wednesday on the first count
of what could be several charges of crimes against humanity.

The source said that Sunni Arabs, who were dominant under Saddam
and who strongly oppose the constitution in fear it will divide Iraq,
"appear to have played by the rules."

But if irregularities emerged in Shiite and Kurdish zones, Sunnis who
snubbed elections in January but turned out in force on Saturday could
cry foul, and the Iraqi insurgency that is rife in their areas could grow
stronger.

The charter will pass if approved by a simple majority, but will be
rejected if a two-thirds majority voted "no" in at least three of Iraq's
18 provinces.

Sunni Arabs are a majority in four provinces, but initial indications said
one had reached the two-thirds majority of "no" votes, while a second
had not.

A third province, the volatile Al-Anbar in western Iraq, might be
headed for a possible massive rejection, leaving northern Nineveh,
with its restive regional capital Mosul as the major point of focus.

The process underway now "is like an audit. No one can touch urns or
tally sheets from now on.

"If problems persist we can even say we are going to do a total
recount."

The official, echoing comments on Monday by colleagues who vowed
to present a credible, transparent result, stressed: "The results
announced will be the true results."

Noting that election irregularities can occur on virtually every
continent around the globe, the source concluded: "Attempts at fraud
are possible in any country around the world during elections."

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=14799

2005-10-18
Britain, Libya sign deal on deporting terror suspects
Deal allows British government to deport Libyan terror
suspects without fear of their being mistreated.
By Robin Millard - LONDON

The British government signed a deal on Tuesday with Libya which it
said will allow the deportation of Libyan terror suspects without fear of
their being mistreated.

The agreement follows the signing of a similar deal with Jordan in
August, though human rights groups charge that promises from such
countries are worthless.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed in Tripoli on
Tuesday by Britain's Ambassador to Libya, Anthony Layden, and the
Libyan Acting Secretary for European Affairs, Abdulati Ibrahim
al-Obidi, the Foreign Office said.

Britain hopes to clinch similar agreements with other countries which
will allow it to deport foreigners regarded as a threat to security
because of their inflammatory statements or other prohibited
activities.

Under international conventions, Prime Minister Tony Blair's
government cannot send people back to a country where they might
face inhuman or degrading treatment.

It also has a policy of not returning people to face the death penalty.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the deal "demonstrates that we
are making progress in concluding agreements that will allow us to
safely deport foreign nationals.

"I believe these, and the other ongoing negotiations, are an example
of the effective international cooperation that we need in order to
confront and defeat the type of terrorism we now face."

The Foreign Office said: "The government firmly believes that the
assurances provided by this type of MOU should enable the British
courts to allow the deportation of foreign nationals who threaten
national security or whose presence is not conducive to the public
good."

Britain began a crackdown on foreign terror suspects in the wake of
the July 7 bombings in London which left 56 people dead, including the
four presumed suicide bombers.

Leading human rights organisation Amnesty International slammed
the government's policy of striking deals with states like Libya.

"Torture and suspicious deaths in custody are still being reported in
Libya and it's dangerously misguided to expect countries with a known
record of torturing people to respect bits of paper promising not to
torture," said director Kate Allen.

"The government has a duty to prevent any repeat of the London
bombings outrage but going soft on torture is not the answer to
terrorism."

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of civil rights group Liberty, said
although it would be "very good news" if Libyan leader Moamer
Kadhafi could be trusted on torture, "fundamental rights are too
precious to gamble with".

Earlier this month, five suspected Islamist extremists -- one of them
reportedly a Libyan national - were held in nationwide raids, adding to
the seven suspected foreign extremists detained pending deportation
in September.

In August, 10 men were likewise detained, including Jordanian radical
Muslim cleric Abu Qatada, dubbed the "spiritual ambassador in
Europe" for Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terror network.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=14793

2005-10-18
Tripoli rejects US demand to free Bulgarian nurses
Libyan FM says it is legal matter which cannot be
influenced by any political decision.

DUBAI - Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgam on Monday
rejected a call by US President George W. Bush for Tripoli to spare the
lives of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death for infecting
hundreds of Libyan children with the AIDS virus.

"This is a legal matter which cannot be influenced by any political
decision," the minister told the Arab satellite television network
Al-Jazeera.

In Washington, where he was meeting with Bulgarian President Georgi
Parvanov, Bush earlier called on Libya to free the nurses.

"There should be no confusion in the Libyan government's mind that
those nurses ought to be, not only spared their life, but out of prison,"
Bush told reporters. "We will continue to make that message perfectly
clear."

The five nurses and a Palestinian doctor are under death sentence in a
Libyan jail and could face a firing squad. They were convicted last
year, after six-and-a-half years in jail, of deliberately infecting
children with the AIDS virus at a hospital in Benghazi, in northern
Libya.

Of the 380 children that were infected, 47 have died.

Two nurses and the doctor initially confessed to the charges but later
claimed police extracted their confessions with torture including
beatings and electric shocks.

But in a controversial ruling in June, a Libyan court cleared police of
mistreating the nurses and doctor.

Numerous AIDS experts, including Dr Luc Montagnier, who discovered
the AIDS virus, have testified that the children were infected as a
result of poor hygiene at the hospital and that the epidemic was under
way before the nurses arrived in the country, an argument rejected by
Libyan authorities.

Last year the Libyan government, in a move to allow the six to be
freed, sought compensation for the victims' families equal to that paid
out by Libya to relatives of those killed in a bomb attack on a Pan Am
plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

Bulgaria rejected the request as absurd and said it would not pay
"blood money" as the nurses were not guilty.

Meanwhile the European Union as well as human rights groups have
lobbied intensively for the Libyan government to show clemency in the
case.

Libya's ambassador to London Mohammed al-Zoui said in August that
the only way to resolve the issue is for Bulgarian authorities to
conclude an accord with the families.

Such an outcome would "have a positive influence over the case of the
Bulgarians and will be in line with Islamic law which foresees the
paying of blood money," he said.

However in June the families of the Libyan victims ruled out any
negotiations to reach an amicable agreement and demanded that the
death sentences be executed.

Critics say the nurses and the doctor are being used as scapegoats by
Libya and criticize the West for putting the issue on the back burner
for years while at the same time bringing the former pariah state back
into the international fold.