Posted on 09/30/2006 10:18:39 AM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
New warrant for ex-Mexico leader
A judge in Mexico has issued a warrant for the arrest of former President Luis Echeverria on genocide charges.
A judge ordered the arrest of Mr Echeverria, 84, over the killing of up to 300 students in Mexico City in 1968.
The latest ruling in a long-running affair came just four months after a court dismissed the charges, saying the killings happened too long ago.
Mr Echeverria was interior minister when troops opened fire on protesters days before the Olympic Games opened.
In July, a judge ruled that the events of 2 October 1968 fell outside Mexico's 30-year statute of limitations, ruling out a trial.
But prosecutors successfully argued that Mr Echeverria had effective immunity until he left office on 1 December 1976, and the statute should be considered from that date.
House arrest
Because of his age, Mr Echeverria would be likely to face house arrest, but there was no confirmation whether the warrant would be used immediately.
He was originally placed under house arrest in June, but released after the July ruling.
Juan Velazquez, a lawyer for Mr Echeverria, said he would appeal against the latest decision.
Mr Echeverria was interior minister in 1968 at the time of the killings in Tlatelolco Square in Mexico City.
Human rights activists say up to 300 people were killed in the shootings, although officials said the death toll was just 30.
Mr Echeverria denies allegations that he posted snipers on scores of buildings and gave orders to shoot anti-government protesters, and disputes that the deaths on 2 October 1968 constitute genocide.
Mr Echeverria was president from 1970 to 1976 during which hundreds of people died or disappeared during the "Dirty War" on leftists.
Story from BBC NEWS:
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Published: 2006/11/30 00:44:16 GMT
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UN troops face child abuse claims
Children have been subjected to rape and prostitution by United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia, a BBC investigation has found.
Girls have told of regular encounters with soldiers where sex is demanded in return for food or money.
A senior official with the organisation has accepted the claims are credible.
The UN has faced several scandals involving its troops in recent years, including a DR Congo paedophile ring and prostitute trafficking in Kosovo.
The assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations acknowledges that sexual abuse is widespread.
"We've had a problem probably since the inception of peacekeeping - problems of this kind of exploitation of vulnerable populations," Jane Holl Lute told the BBC.
"My operating presumption is that this is either a problem or a potential problem in every single one of our missions."
'Rampant'
The UN is scheduled to hold a special conference in New York on Monday 4 December, to address the issue.
The BBC inquiry was commissioned as part of Generation Next - a week of programmes focusing on people under 18.
In Haiti, the BBC's Mike Williams spoke to a street girl as young as 11 who had reported sexual abuse by peacekeepers outside the gates of the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince.
A 14-year-old described her abduction and rape inside a UN naval base in the country two years ago.
Despite detailed medical and circumstantial evidence, the allegation was dismissed by the UN for lack of evidence - and the alleged attacker returned to his home country.
In Liberia, meanwhile, a 15-year-old said she had been attacked by a UN officer on 15 November.
In May this year, another BBC investigation discovered systematic abuse in Liberia, involving food being given out to teenage refugees in return for sex.
The UN responded by heightening policing measures, appointing 500 monitors across the country, and introducing mandatory training of all personnel on appropriate conduct.
A local NGO worker said reports of sexual abuse involving peacekeepers were "still rampant, despite pronouncements that they have been curbed".
'Culture of silence'
UN chief Kofi Annan has pledged a policy of "zero tolerance".
To prey upon the very populations that you are sent to protect is one of the worst forms of violation and betrayal that there is
Sarah Martin
Refugees International
The UN's own figures show 316 peacekeeping personnel in all missions have been investigated, resulting in the summary dismissal of 18 civilians, repatriation of 17 members of Formed Police Units and 144 repatriations or rotations home on disciplinary grounds.
However allegations remain that measures to police and curb misconduct are nowhere near as strong as they should be.
Refugees International says there remains a "culture of silence" in some military deployments, and fear of punishment is not enough to ensure compliance with UN rules.
"They may be military men but they are also humanitarian workers," Sarah Martin told the BBC.
"To prey upon the very populations that you are sent to protect is one of the worst forms of violation and betrayal that there is."
Under UN regulations, military personnel cannot be prosecuted in the country where they are serving, and it is up to the courts in their home countries to prosecute crimes committed.
The UN said it had firm knowledge of only two concrete examples of sex offenders being sent to jail, although it believed there could be others it did not know about.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6195830.stm
Published: 2006/11/30 02:11:42 GMT
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Russian ex-PM has mystery illness
Former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar is being treated in a Moscow hospital after falling violently ill on a trip to Ireland on 24 November.
Speculation is rife that he may have been poisoned. He fell ill a day after former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died of radiation poisoning in London.
Mr Gaidar's daughter Maria said "doctors incline towards the view that his symptoms... indicate poisoning".
Mr Gaidar was rushed to intensive care in Dublin, then flown to Moscow.
Mr Gaidar, 50, suffered from a nose bleed and vomiting before fainting in Dublin last Friday, during a visit to promote his book The Death of Empire: Lessons for Contemporary Russia.
His daughter was quoted as saying he had eaten "a simple breakfast of fruit salad and a cup of tea".
Economic role
He has criticised President Vladimir Putin's economic policies, but is not regarded as a prominent political opponent of the Russian leader.
His programme of economic "shock therapy" under Mr Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin angered many Russians who saw their savings devalued. The programme lifted price controls and launched large-scale privatisations.
Maria Gaidar said she expected doctors to announce their diagnosis of his mystery illness on Friday.
"His condition is satisfactory and he is speaking, but he looks very bad - he looks pale and thin," she told Reuters news agency.
Anatoly Chubais, who oversaw Boris Yeltsin's privatisation programme and now heads Russia's electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems, saw his illness as suspicious.
He linked the case to Mr Litvinenko's death and last month's murder of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya - both of whom were fierce critics of President Putin.
"The theory of attempted poisoning, attempted murder should undoubtedly be considered seriously," Mr Chubais told state-run Rossiya television.
"A chain of deaths of... Politkovskaya, Litvinenko and Gaidar would perfectly correspond to the interests and vision of those people who are openly talking about a forceful, unconstitutional change of power in Russia as a possible option."
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Published: 2006/11/30 12:14:52 GMT
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[photos at link]
Paraguay man crucified in public
Protesters in Paraguay have staged a public crucifixion calling for a jailed former army general to be set free.
Tomas Velazquez, a supporter of General Lino Oviedo, popular among Paraguay's indigenous people, was tied and nailed to a cross outside the Supreme Court.
Mr Velazquez called on the court to review Gen Oviedo's 10-year jail sentence for plotting a 1996 coup.
Gen Oviedo remains popular in parts of Paraguay, with supporters saying his sentence was politically motivated.
He was convicted by a military tribunal in 1998 of plotting to overthrow Paraguay's government.
He was arrested after returning to Paraguay in 2004 from exile in Brazil.
Nailed tight
In the Paraguayan capital, Asuncion, dozens of Gen Oviedo's supporters gathered outside the Supreme Court for the dramatic crucifixion.
Oviedo was convicted by a military tribunal but that is illegal in times of peace
Tomas Velasquez
Protester
Draped in banners calling for Gen Oviedo to be set free, Mr Velazquez was hoisted onto a wooden cross and tied by the arms and legs.
Nails were then driven through the palms of his hands.
Grimacing with pain, Mr Velazquez - who is also undergoing a hunger strike - demanded that Gen Oviedo's sentence be reviewed.
"The Supreme Court must review this conviction. In 1998, Oviedo was convicted by a military tribunal but that is illegal in times of peace.
"We believe that he is being politically persecuted."
The Associated Press reported that the Supreme Court said it would review the case as a matter of course.
Coup country
Gen Oviedo initially rose to prominence in Paraguay in February 1989.
He played a prominent part in the uprising that overthrew the regime of Gen Alfredo Stroessner and set the country on the path back to civilian government.
Before being jailed, he had his political ambitions, first within the governing Colorado Party and then as head of his own Unace (National Union of Ethical Citizens) political movement.
But his jail term stems from a short-lived 1996 rebellion against former then-President Juan Carlos Wasmosy.
He is being held at a military prison, and continues to deny plotting against Mr Wasmosy, who was Paraguay's first elected civilian president after Gen Stroessner was ousted.
During five years of exile in Brazil, Gen Oviedo indicated he was considering running for the Paraguayan presidency in 2008.
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Published: 2006/11/30 00:58:19 GMT
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UK pair lose US extradition fight
Two UK men held on Afghanistan-related terror charges have lost their legal fight to avoid extradition to the US.
Babar Ahmad, 32, from Tooting, south-west London is accused of running websites inciting murder, urging holy war and raising money for the Taleban.
Haroon Aswat, from Yorkshire, is accused of plotting to set up a terror camp to train fighters for Afghanistan.
The men said they risked mistreatment by the US, but High Court judges said these claims were not proven.
'Spirit of the letter'
Lord Justice Laws, sitting in London with Mr Justice Walker, said the men's legal team had not proved to a required standard their allegations that the US might violate undertakings given to the UK that the men would be fairly treated.
He said the court was "acting on the faith that the United States will be true to the spirit and the letter" of diplomatic exchanges with the UK government and obligations under the 1972 UK - USA Extradition Treaty.
Lawyers for the two men say they hope to appeal to the House of Lords to argue over two points of law surrounding the extradition decision.
They argued against the use of diplomatic letters as a basis for guaranteeing human rights, and to raise concern over US military detention and "rendition" of suspects to third countries for questioning.
"This is extreme public importance, not just in this country," said human rights solicitor Gareth Peirce.
The judges said they would take time to consider whether both men should be allowed to take their case to the House of Lords.
'Flexible tool'
Edward Fitzgerald, QC, representing both men, earlier asked the judges to stop the extradition process.
He said there was a danger the suspects' human rights would be abused, despite the assurances from US authorities.
Mr Fitzgerald said the two were in danger of being kept indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, taken to a third country for questioning, or tried and sentenced by a military tribunal as enemy combatants.
However, lawyers for the US said the assertions made by Mr Fitzgerald were "speculative".
They said the assurances they had been given, that the men would be fairly treated, were "an intrinsic, accepted and flexible tool in the extradition process".
'Very disappointed'
Mr Aswat, of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, was arrested in Zambia and deported to the UK in August 2005.
He has been indicted by a federal grand jury in New York City, accused of conspiring with radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri to set up a "jihad training camp" in Oregon in the United States.
Mr Ahmad, 32, is a computer expert from Tooting, South London.
He was arrested under anti-terror laws in August 2004 and charged with terror crimes by a US court two months later.
After the extradition appeal hearing, his father Ashfaq Ahmed, said: "We are very disappointed at the High Court decision.
"We are hopeful that the High Court will certify that there is a point of law of public importance on military detention and rendition, and allow this matter to go to the House of Lords."
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Published: 2006/11/30 12:00:50 GMT
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Castro misses birthday ceremony
Frail Cuban leader Fidel Castro has stayed away from the opening ceremony of his 80th birthday celebrations in Havana on doctors' orders.
A message apparently written by Mr Castro was read out saying he was not yet strong enough to attend the event.
President Castro underwent emergency intestinal surgery at the end of July and has not been seen in public since.
He then temporarily handed over power to his brother Raul, and was last seen in a video on 28 October.
Since falling ill, he has only been seen in officially-sanctioned photographs and videos.
Reports in the US suggest that officials in Washington now believe Mr Castro is suffering from terminal cancer and may never recover.
Parade hope
The birthday festivities had been originally scheduled for August but were postponed.
I sign off with the great pain of not having been able to personally give you thanks
Note by Fidel Castro
They were rescheduled around 2 December, the 50th anniversary of the day Mr Castro and others landed in Cuba to start a guerrilla movement and eventually seize power in 1959.
There is speculation that he will attend a military parade in the capital on Saturday to mark that anniversary.
Bolivian President Evo Morales and the Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez are among some 1,500 notable guests heading to Cuba for the celebrations.
But if Mr Castro does not appear, many will wonder whether the president will ever return to power, says the BBC's Stephen Gibbs, in Havana.
'Challenging engagement'
Up to 5,000 people were packed into Havana's Karl Marx theatre when the president's note was read out.
In a note read from the stage to widespread applause, Mr Castro said his doctors had advised him not to appear before such a large crowd.
"It was only in the Karl Marx theatre that all guests could be seated but, according to the doctors, I was not yet ready for such a challenging engagement," he said.
The note did not rule out the possibility that he might appear at other events planned for later this week.
But it did veer off onto a range of other subjects, including a brief criticism of US President George W Bush and the voicing of concerns over the state of the global environment.
Those in the hall gave the absent author of the note a rapturous round of applause.
"I sign off with the great pain of not having been able to personally give you thanks and hugs to each and every one of you," the note read.
Are you in Cuba? How have people there reacted to Mr Castro's inability to attend his 80th birthday celebrations? Send us your comments. If you have any pictures of the celebrations you can send them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk.
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Published: 2006/11/29 05:46:08 GMT
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Bolivia passes land reform bill
The Bolivian Senate has approved a controversial reform bill proposed by President Evo Morales to redistribute under-used land to rural communities.
A week-long stand-off ended when three opposition senators broke ranks with their conservative parties to vote in favour of the bill.
Thousands of indigenous protesters had marched on La Paz on Tuesday to put pressure on the senate to pass the law.
It could lead to the redistribution of up to 20m hectares of land to the poor.
Big landowners oppose the move, saying it will destroy Bolivian agriculture, and have threatened to use force to defend their property.
'Time for change'
The opposition has accused Mr Morales of manipulating his indigenous supporters to push through the reforms.
This is the struggle of our ancestors, the struggle for power and territory
President Evo Morales
The bill, passed by the lower house of congress two weeks ago, had been blocked by a boycott of the senate by conservative groups.
But three opposition senators changed their allegiance following Tuesday's protest rally, giving the president the support of 15 of the senate's 27 seats.
News that the law had finally been approved late in the evening surprised even the president's own supporters camped outside the senate, the BBC's Damian Kahya in La Paz says.
Shortly after signing the bill into law, Mr Morales told a jubilant crowd that it was "not possible to have so much land in so few hands".
"This is the struggle of our ancestors, the struggle for power and territory," he said. "Now, the change is in our hands."
Strike planned
The new law states that only unused or corruptly obtained land will be targeted.
The government argues too much land is owned merely as security on loans or to be re-sold.
A recent survey by the Catholic Church found that just 50,000 families own almost 90% of Bolivia's productive land.
Opponents accuse Mr Morales of trampling on democracy in his desire to advance his reform agenda.
Conservative groups have been holding their own protests over the agrarian reforms and proposed changes to the constitution.
A strike by opposition groups and civic movements is planned for Friday.
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Published: 2006/11/29 08:06:25 GMT
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HK stepmother ordered chopping
A Hong Kong woman has been found guilty of ordering the chopping off of her seven-year-old stepson's right hand.
Hung Man-yee, 20, was convicted of wounding after she paid an ex-boyfriend to arrange the attack.
Judge Peter Line said her "deep hatred" of the boy was prompted by jealousy. She wanted the boy's father to give preference to their new-born son.
Sentencing was deferred for psychiatric reports, in a case that has shocked Hong Kong.
Five other people on trial received sentences of between two and 18 years.
The boy, Shum Ho-yin, was attacked by two masked men in August 2005 as he walked home with his grandmother.
While one held the grandmother, the other chopped at the boy's wrist several times in an attempt to sever his hand. He was left with broken bones and severed tendons and nerves.
'Deep hatred'
Judge Peter Line called it "one of the most wicked woundings with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in many years".
He said Hung had been motivated by "deep hatred" of the boy, who she reportedly wanted her husband to give up following the birth of her own son.
Hung's former boyfriend Tsang Ho-wai was found guilty of recruiting three others - two of them 16 - to help in the attack.
The judge condemned Tsang - who he sentenced to 18 years in prison - for showing no remorse.
The boy is reported to have since recovered, though he still has restricted movement in his hand.
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Published: 2006/11/29 12:06:15 GMT
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Reality behind Aceh's 'orphans'
More than 85% of children sent to orphanages in the Indonesian province of Aceh after the tsunami have at least one parent alive, according to a report by the charity Save the Children and the Indonesian government.
The BBC's Lucy Williamson finds out why many children are unlikely to go home soon.
Every morning, before leaving for school, the staff at Rumah Asuh do a head-count. Fifty children, all victims of the tsunami, stand in rows to shout out their number.
Among them is eight-year-old Apriliya Adisaputra - one of the youngest here.
Apriliya's parents are both still alive. They live in temporary housing 30 minutes drive away. This is the story of how he came to be here, and why he cannot go home.
After breakfast, he sits down and tells me his story.
"After the tsunami, my mum told me I should come here because I could meet a lot of friends," he says. "I was sad when they told me I had to come here because it meant I couldn't see my mother. If I stayed at home, I could see her all the time."
There are around 2,000 children like Apriliya in Aceh; children sent away from home, not because the tsunami took away their parents, but because it took away the means to care for them.
It's really difficult here. There's no aid any more, the food stopped last year, and it's hard to find work.
Apriliya Adisaputra's mother
In his office at the top of Rumah Asuh, the director, Mr Iskander explains why Apriliya is better off in care.
"We have quite a lot of funding at the moment; around $5,300 each month. It's quite a lot, yes, but we have lots to pay for - school books, clothes, food, transport. We provide everything these children need."
There is plenty to pay for, but there are no accounts. Mr Iskander has no clear record of where exactly the money is going each month.
Lump sum payments
Donor money is pouring into Aceh, but why do children need to live in institutions to get a proper education or a decent meal?
In Banda Aceh, Apriliya's parents live in a warren of temporary housing - blank wooden huts clutching the remains of homes and families.
Seated on the wooden floor of their tiny, one-room hut, Apriliya's mother tells me why they sent him away.
"It's really difficult here," she says. "There's no aid any more, the food stopped last year, and it's hard to find work. Usually we just eat rice with salt, three times a day."
Apriliya gazes at his mother as she talks. When we leave, he holds his father's hand all the way back to the main road.
According to Save The Children, 17 new children's homes have opened in Aceh since the tsunami, and more are planned.
And as long as there are children like Apriliya to fill them, the funding channels remain open.
Children should be with their families if possible, says Delsey Ronni, head of social affairs at the BRR - Jakarta's department for the reconstruction of Aceh.
But the BRR gives vulnerable children inside the panti (orphanage) twice as much subsidy as those living with their families.
And it also hands out lump sum payments to the institutions themselves.
Free education
Delsey Ronni says his department gives priority to homes that are new, over-crowded and full of tsunami victims.
Reason enough for institutions to seek out children like Apriliya and reason enough for families like his to let them go.
Apriliya first heard about Rumah Asuh when the home sent representatives to the refugee camp where he was living after the tsunami.
The home organised prayer meetings to gather families together, and handed out application forms to anyone interested in a free education for their child.
Most of the homes in Aceh are not bad places. Often, it is the only way parents can secure a better life for their child.
But the issue is more one of why children with parents are being placed here at all. And why funding is not reaching families like Apriliya's.
Back at Rumah Asuh, Apriliya is focusing on his dream of becoming a policeman. That, and playing football, like his hero Ronaldo.
Two years on from the tsunami, there is still no plan for him to return home.
He has already lost his two younger brothers to the tsunami. Unless something changes in Aceh, he is in danger of growing up without his parents too.
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Published: 2006/11/27 14:35:32 GMT
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Australian aircraft down off Fiji
One person has been killed and another is missing after an Australian Black Hawk helicopter crashed near the Pacific island of Fiji.
Six of the 10 crew were members of the elite Special Air Service Regiment (SAS), defence officials said.
The helicopter was operating off the HMAS Kanimbla warship, which was sent to the region earlier this month amid heightened tensions in Fiji.
The helicopter crashed into the sea as it tried to land on the Kanimbla.
Defence Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said nine of the 10 crew on board were rescued, although one later died from his injuries.
Seven had suffered light injuries and were being treated on board the Kanimbla, he said.
Ships in the area are "continuing to search the area for the missing person,'' he added, giving no further details about the dead or missing soldiers.
The Kanimbla is one of three naval warships sent by Australia to be ready to evacuate citizens if fears of a coup in Fiji are realised.
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Published: 2006/11/29 11:31:08 GMT
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Chinese activist's wife detained
The wife of a blind Chinese activist has been detained by police, one day after the end of her husband's retrial.
Yuan Weijing was held outside court in Yinan County, where Chen Guangcheng was tried on public order charges.
Mr Chen was sentenced to four years in prison in August, but the verdict was quashed earlier this month.
Mr Chen's supporters say the charges against him are politically motivated, because he has exposed abuses of the Chinese government's one-child policy.
Monday's retrial ended with one of the defence lawyers walking out in protest at key witnesses going missing.
A verdict could come as soon as this week, and defence lawyers expressed optimism at the end of the trial that the court would find Mr Chen not guilty.
Beijing theory
Lawyers for Mr Chen said they had not been informed of any reason for his wife's detention by police.
They produced a summons which didn't state on what grounds Yuan could be held
Teng Biao
Family lawyer
"They [police] came from a car without a licence plate and produced a summons which didn't state on what grounds Yuan could be held," Teng Biao told the Reuters news agency.
The lawyers said they believed Ms Yuan was held to prevent her travelling to Beijing to complain officially about her family's experiences with authority.
"If Yuan Weijing comes to Beijing, our legal team will be able to better understand which police have been trying to torture a confession out of Chen Guangcheng," lawyer Li Jinsong told the AFP news agency.
"We could then sue the police for torture."
Violations
Chen Guangcheng was originally sentenced to four years and three months in jail for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic".
The official Xinhua news agency reported that he had launched an attack on government offices and police cars in Yinan County, because he was upset with workers carrying out poverty relief programmes.
But Mr Chen's supporters said that local officials had fabricated these charges in order to punish him for exposing violations of China's one-child policy.
Mr Chen had accused local health workers in Linyi city, in Shandong province, of illegally forcing hundreds of people to have late-term abortions or sterilisations.
China brought in its one-child policy 27 years ago, in a drive to curb population growth, but forced sterilisation and abortion are prohibited.
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Published: 2006/11/28 22:46:47 GMT
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China ordains new Catholic bishop
By Dan Griffiths
BBC News, Beijing
China's state-controlled Catholic Church has ordained a new bishop - without the consent of Pope Benedict.
The move is likely to underline the differences between the Vatican and the Chinese government.
Father Wang Renlei was ordained in a church in the eastern province of Jiangsu.
He is the third bishop this year to be ordained without the Vatican's approval, a move which will increase tensions between the two sides.
It will also undermine recent efforts to restore diplomatic ties between China and the Vatican, which have been severed since the 1950s.
Since then, China has organised its own Catholic church which it says has the right to appoint bishops, something the Vatican has always disputed.
The state-run Chinese Catholic Church has four million followers, but it is thought that millions more belong to underground organisations loyal to the Vatican.
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Published: 2006/11/30 08:42:45 GMT
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Russia law on killing 'extremists' abroad
By Steven Eke
BBC Russia analyst
A new Russian law, adopted earlier in the year, formally permits the extra-judicial killings abroad of those Moscow accuses of "extremism".
In the wake of the death of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London, the Sunday Telegraph has alleged that Russian spy agencies - "emboldened" by the new law - have carried out a number of such targeted killings.
In July, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament - the Federation Council - approved a law which permits the Russian president to use the country's armed forces and special services outside Russia's borders to combat terrorism and extremism.
At the same time, amendments to several other laws, governing the security services, mass media and communications, were adopted.
The overall result was to dramatically expand those defined as terrorist or extremist.
Along with those seeking to overthrow the Russian government, the term is also applied to "those causing mass disturbances, committing hooliganism or acts of vandalism".
Much more controversially, the law also defines "those slandering the individual occupying the post of president of the Russian Federation" as extremists.
Specific law
Russian lawmakers insisted that they were emulating Israeli and US actions in adopting a law allowing the use of military and special forces outside the country's borders against external threats.
But the Russian law is very specific in that it permits the president - alone, and apparently without consultation - to take such a decision.
The only proviso is that he must inform the Federation Council within five days.
At the same time, he is not obliged to disclose the location of the operation, which units are involved, or the timescale for its execution.
Memorial, one of the oldest and most-respected Russian human rights groups, reacted strongly to the new law.
In an open letter addressed to Vladimir Putin, it accused the Russian leader of sanctioning extra-judicial executions.
It said the country's "highest leaders" had turned a blind eye to the activities of "death squads" in the North Caucasus for some years. And, it predicted, with the adoption of the new law, those activities would now be seen in other countries too.
'Poison umbrella'
The case of Mr Litvinenko has led to an outpouring of conspiracy theories, many of which suggest he was killed by a Russian secret service, of which there are several.
But in reality, there have been only a very small number of killings by poison of Russia's opponents abroad.
Indeed, the last known case abroad of this type of execution was of Georgi Markov, the Bulgarian dissident assassinated by "poison umbrella" in London in 1978.
Many years later, during the perestroika era, a retired KGB general admitted that he had provided the toxin.
Such events were, however, widespread inside the Soviet Union during the terror of the 1930s to 50s.
The 1958 trial of Pavel Sudoplatov - a lieutenant general in the Soviet secret service, who was closely involved in the execution in Mexico of Trotsky - heard how toxins were "illegally tested" on a large number of prisoners who had been sentenced to death.
In more recent years, there is convincing evidence that an extra-judicial killing was carried out by Russian special forces in Qatar in 2004 when the former Chechen separatist president, Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, was blown up by a car-bomb.
Story from BBC NEWS:
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Published: 2006/11/27 15:49:42 GMT
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Hezbollah calls for huge protests
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has called for a huge turnout for opposition protests aimed at bringing down the anti-Syrian government.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah called on Lebanese people to join protests and civil disobedience starting on Friday.
The government of PM Fouad Siniora has been under pressure over its backing for the setting up of a UN tribunal to try the killers of Rafik Hariri.
The government has said that it will not back down over the tribunal.
"We appeal to all Lebanese, from every region and political movement, to take part in a peaceful and civilised demonstration on Friday to rid us of an incapable government that has failed in its mission," Sheikh Nasrallah said in a television broadcast.
Tensions
Hezbollah and its allies have been threatening these protests for weeks.
Six pro-Syrian ministers resigned from the Lebanese cabinet earlier this month after it approved draft United Nations plans for an international tribunal on Mr Hariri's murder.
Tensions between the pro-Syrian and pro-Western factions escalated after the killing of industry minister Pierre Gemayel last week.
Allies of Damascus argue that the cabinet's backing for the tribunal is unconstitutional because the Shia community in Lebanon was not represented in the cabinet when it made its final decision.
Many in Lebanon accuse Damascus of orchestrating the killings of Mr Hariri, Mr Gemayel and other prominent anti-Syrian figures. Syria denies any involvement in the deaths.
In 2005, Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon after a presence of 29 years, following massive domestic and international pressure following the assassination of Mr Hariri.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6159461.stm
Published: 2006/11/30 14:06:21 GMT
© BBC MMVI
November 30, 2006 Anti-Terrorism News
(Thailand) Two killed, two injured in Thai south
http://www.thenews.com.pk/update_detail.asp?id=13729
(Afghanistan) Teacher disembowelled and murdered for teaching girls -
one of four teachers killed in rapid succession by the Islamists at
Ghazni
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=500838&ObjectID=10413099
(Iraq) Maliki: Iran has no influence over Iraq
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2006/November/focusoniraq_November250.xml§ion=focusoniraq
Iraq panel to call for troop pullback - Iraq Study Group to unveil
report on December 6
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/30/america/web.1130policy.php
Joint Chiefs oppose Iraq pullout
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061130-123121-9493r.htm
Commentary: Talking to the rogues - Iran and Syria
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20061129-091012-4449r.htm
Indian police file charges alleging Pakistan ties to Mumbai blasts
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061130/wl_sthasia_afp/indiapakistantrainattacksprobe_061130121926
(India) 3 suspected Islamic rebels killed in Indian Kashmir: army
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/30/asia/AS_GEN_Kashmir_Fighting.php
(Lebanon) Hezbollah seeks government downfall
http://www.washtimes.com/upi/20061130-063614-9733r.htm
Lebanon's pro-Syrian opposition calls for protests - Hezbollah-led
campaign on Friday in Beirut
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061130/wl_nm/lebanon_protest_dc_3
Bush tells Jordan's Abdullah time not ripe for dialogue with Syria
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061130/pl_afp/jordanusbushsyria_061130003855
Hezbollah in Latin America
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10694
(Somalia) Islamic fighters ambush Ethiopian convoy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061130/ap_on_re_af/somalia_1
Ethiopian parliament authorizes action against Somali Islamists
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061130/ts_afp/somaliaunrest_061130114540
Al-Qaeda ensconced comfortably in Somalia, U.S. official says
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20061129-1420-us-somalia.html
Terror Watch: Showdown over Jose Padilla
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15958572/site/newsweek/
(UK) Terrorist suspects lose extradition battle - to United States:
Babar Ahmad and Haroon Rashid Aswat
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,29389-2479448,00.html
(Egypt) Terrorists condemned to death for Taba bombings
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881788352&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Terrorism: Philippines and Indonesia Forge Closer Police Ties
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.364833534&par=0
(Australia) Missing pilot 'counter-terrorist'
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20851771-1702,00.html
Iran issues fatwa on Azeri writer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6158195.stm
Iran's nuclear ambitions seen similar to Holocaust
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20061130-121342-7687r.htm
(Spain) Head of ETA logistics cell is arrested in France
http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=81&story_id=34729
Border security system posts just 1 terror case
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-11-30T003618Z_01_N29385299_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-USA-FINGERPRINTS.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C1-topNews-3
Commentary: Free Speech in an age of terrorism - Newt Gingrich
http://www.newt.org/backpage.asp?art=3819
Related News:
Pope In Turkey: Protest By Islamic Ultra-Nationalists Flops
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Religion&loid=8.0.364789228&par=0
New York Times Is Handed A Defeat in Charity Probe Case - investigation
into leaks about raids against Islamic charities in 2001
http://www.nysun.com/article/44195
More Muslims gaining political ground - Although Maryland
delegate-elect doesn't trumpet faith, his win signals surge
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15958637/
Alleged Nazi war criminal wins time
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20848396-1702,00.html
Nuclear poison: the deadly trade
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1957301,00.html
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1957301,00.html
The killing of Alexander Litvinenko with polonium 210 created headlines
around the world. It also raised disturbing questions about Russian
secret
agents and a lethal and growing black market in radioactive waste
Sunday November 26, 2006
http://www.observer.co.uk/
The Observer
It was hardly the stuff of international espionage. On the day
Alexander
Litvinenko's was fatally poisoned, the former Russian spy's last public
meeting rarely deviated from football, Irish wolfhounds and, befitting
his
adopted country, the weather.
Around mid-afternoon, Litvinenko met Russian businessmen Dmitry Kovtun
and
Alexandrei Lugovei - who says that Litvinenko did not drink anything
while
they were with him. Later Kovtun left the lobby of the Millennium Hotel
in
London's Grosvenor Square and headed north to watch CSKA Moscow take on
Arsenal. Litvinenko went home in the drizzle to Muswell Hill, his trip
caught by grainy CCTV, which is still being studied by Scotland Yard
last
night.
They would never meet again. Even before the full-time whistle,
Litvinenko
felt odd. The former Russian spy called Kovtun the following day to
cancel
their meeting. He felt worse. The dissident had no idea he was dying.
Neither could the 43-year-old have deduced he was the victim of what
could
be one of the most elaborate assassinations in political history, a
killing
never before seen on British soil, orchestrated with such audacity that
his
death has bewildered Scotland Yard's most experienced detectives.
It promises to be one of the most bewildering and diplomatically
challenging
investigations in the force's history. Little more than two days since
Litvinenko died after becoming the first human to have been killed with
the
rare, powerfully toxic radioactive material polonium 210, inquiries
have
shifted thousands of miles east to the vast interior of the Russian
steppes,
in particular the rusting relics of the Soviet nuclear trade and its
burgeoning black market in radioactive materials.
The sheer difficulty of acquiring polonium 210 has though, for now,
shifted
the spotlight on to state-sponsored scientists working in Russian
research
laboratories and the country's massive nuclear reprocessing plants.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), obtaining
the
material would require a level of access unthinkable only the most
well-connected of individuals - just possibly with state backing.
A United Nations expert in the trade of nuclear materials said the
sophistication required to harness polonium's poison as a murder weapon
meant it could not have been executed by a 'lone assassin', a madman
with a
grudge to take out. Such is the difficulty of obtaining radioactive
material, it would have to be someone with skill and powerful
connections.
And, whoever they are, they collected enough extremely rare radioactive
material to ensure doctors discovered a 'major dose' in the frail,
sallow
body of Litvinenko. Such material, it is believed by experts, could
only
have come from the massive nuclear structures of the old Soviet Union
where,
during the collapse of the empire, security was often sacrificed.
Polonium
can only be gained from such reprocessing plants or equally complex
nuclear
research plants. You cannot buy this stuff from local criminals.
The UN is expected to begin investigating which of the nuclear
reprocessing
plants the polonium 210 that destroyed the internal organs of the
Russian
exile may have come from.
First up, will be the principal plant in Krasnoyarsk, 600km east of
Tomsk, a
massive, remote structure notorious for the radioactive contamination
of
Siberia's major rivers. Although UN officials remain sceptical the
material
may have been procured on the black market, British police are though
to be
liaising with the IAEA on whether the rare isotope may have originated
on
Russia's flourishing underground trade in nuclear and radioactive
sources.
After all, on several occasions in the past 15 years, Russian police
have
intercepted smugglers trying to carry the alpha-radiation emitting
substance
out of the former Soviet Union. In 1999 an army officer was caught
trying to
cross from Kazakhstan into Uzbekistan clutching a glass capsule marked
'RA
23-54' and a metal canister covered with lead foil. Under
interrogation, he
admitted it contained a radioactive mixture of polonium and beryllium,
used
in Russia to trigger nuclear chain reactions. He had stolen the
material
from the Baikonur cosmodrome, where he worked, and intended to sell it
in
Uzbekistan. Other cases involve the theft of several canisters of
polonium
210 from a secretive research centre in the city of Sarov called the
All
Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, a sprawling complex
known as Russia's Los Alamos.
Beyond rows of barbed wire and troop patrols, experts have admitted
polonium
isotopes are still produced there. Disturbing reports of thefts from
the
site continue to surface. In 1993 the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
reported
that 10kg of polonium had gone missing from the plant. Two years ago
the
IAEA established that Iran has been conducting experiments with
polonium 210
as part of its nuclear programme, possibly using material obtained from
Russia.
Meanwhile, the National Threat Initiative in Washington warns that
Russia's
porous borders present little obstacle to smugglers carrying
radioactive
substances out of the country and that concern over Russia's huge
stockpile
of nuclear and radioactive materials slipping on to the international
black
market remained undimmed. Yesterday Vladimir Slivyak of the Eco-Defence
organisation in Moscow, warned that radioactive substances are often
poorly
guarded and vulnerable to theft. Even so, IAEA sources say they have
never
confirmed a single case of polonium 210 being smuggled on the black
market,
indirectly giving weight to allegations that Litvinenko's death was a
state-
sponsored assassination.
But Litvinenko's death holds even greater resonance; claims that a
terrorist
organisation managed to acquired a rare, powerful radioactive material
which
was smuggled into Britain where it was targeted with deadly effect have
caused much concern among UK security services. Officials are concerned
that
next time the target might be greater than the internal organs of a
single
human.
Intelligence sources said they had recently confirmed al-Qaeda is
intensifying efforts to obtain a radioactive device amid new figures
revealing that the black market of radioactive material is prospering.
Smugglers have been caught trying to traffic nuclear material more than
300
times in the past four years, a doubling of such seizures.
It is little surprise that the man charged with investigating
Litvinenko's
death is Peter Clarke, Scotland Yard's deputy assistant commissioner
who has
taken the lead in protecting Britain from Islamic terrorists. He is
understood to believe that tracking down the polonium 210 found in
Litvinenko could unlock the key to his death, the toxic material's very
rarity the factor that guides British police to those responsible.
Officials from the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston and
Porton
Down, the government Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, will
today
continue studying samples of the radioactive material extracted from
the
tablecloth of the sushi restaurant where Litvinenko ate the day he
died.
Experts maintain that the sample will yield its own 'fingerprint' which
can
be used to track down where the polonium came from. So far, all they
can say
with reasonable surety is that the polonium 210 looks likely to have
come
from Russia and must have been smuggled into Britain relatively
recently; it
has a half-life (the length of time during which is radioactivity
declines
by 50 per cent) of just 138 days. Whoever is responsible knew what they
were
doing, appreciating the ease and safety with which the material could
be
transported in, say, a glass jar without detection or risk to its
carrier.
'For anybody looking to kill an individual using nuclear material,
polonium-
210 would be the radioactive isotope of choice,' said a IAEA source. A
perpetrator may have entered Britain shortly before 1 November, the
date
Litvinenko is thought to have been poisoned, and one line of inquiry is
that
they a may have fled London after administering the deadly dose, safe
in the
knowledge that as the first alpha rays entered Litvineko's body, he was
good
as finished.
No on disputes that Litvinenko had mustered his fair share of enemies.
Some
were dangerous, others less so, yet whether light can ever pierce the
fog of
claim, counter-claim and smoke and mirrors that characterise this case
is
hard to predict. Litvineko's dissident friends blame the Kremlin. The
Kremlin blames Litvineko's dissident friends. Rogue Russian agents have
been
named, but still no central suspect has emerged.
Scotland Yard is thought to have sought the first tentative help from
the
Kremlin via Foreign Office officials. Officers too are examining four
sheets
of A4 thrust before Litvinenko by Italian lawyer Mario Scarmella on the
day
it is presumed he was poisoned. They reveal how Russia's security
services
'had decided to use force' against Litvinenko for 'incessant
anti-Russian
activities'. But, in keeping with such a case, it is impossible to
determine
whether the documents are a hoax or genuine. The more outlandish
theories
speculate that Litvinenko's own allies could have been the culprits.
Even by
the Machiavellian standards of Russian politics, such a plot would mark
something of a new nadir.
Moscow's elite has been stunned at the British response to the scandal
amid
suspicion that the whole affair was some elaborate lie designed to
discredit
a post-soviet Russia. Vladimir Kuznetsov, former chief of Russia's
state
atomic control agency, even came out to describe Litvinenko's death by
polonium 210 as mere 'journalistic invention'.
They also point at the police's response to the death, which veered
from an
investigation into a 'suspicious poisoning' to 'how this man became
ill'.
Officially Scotland Yard has yet to launch a murder inquiry, claiming
they
still do not have enough evidence to rule out Litvinenko's death as an
accident or suicide. But could it be suicide? Was this a desperate
final act
of man marginalised by the mainstream for whom his anti-Kremlin message
depended on the oxygen of publicity?
Certainly, Litvinenko's profile has never been greater. Even his most
incendiary allegations against the Kremlin had played to little effect
in
Russia. Yet his deathbed description of Putin as a 'barbaric and
ruthless'
president played to millions worldwide. And, regardless of which
direction
the case twists next, the inquest and accompanying attacks on Putin
from
dissidents promise fresh embarrassment for the president.
The involvement of Russia's intelligence service also remains a matter
of
scorn in the Kremlin. Sergei Ivanov, spokesman for the SVR, one of the
organisations that replaced the KGB, said accusations of an
assassination
plot organised by his service, were 'some kind of science fiction'.
Sergei
Markov, an analyst and Kremlin consultant, pointed the finger at
renegade
elements within the security services, still vengeful over his claims
of
corruption and murder among Russia's intelligence agencies. He added
that
suggesting the Kremlin arranged the poisoning was absurd: 'That is just
a
symptom of Russophobia, one of the main prejudices now active in
Europe.'
Police will also examine the so-called Chechen connection, in
particular
alliance with the Chechen separatist envoy, Akhmed Zakayerebel Akhmed
Zakayev, who lives on the same Muswell Hill street as Litvinenko and is
rumoured to be on a hit list after the Russian parliament passed a law
approving use of hit squads to eliminate terrorists abroad. Yet one
nagging
issue torments those looking into the case; Litvinenko was small-fry,
an
exile whose anti-Kremlin criticisms were largely ignored in his
homeland. In
London, only his closest friends would recognise him. 'Litvinenko just
wasn't worth it. He didn't pose a threat,' one FSB veteran told The
Observer
We may never know how damaged Litvinenko's insides were by the
polonium, his
body remaining so contaminated it may be deemed simply too toxic to
touch.
As his friend Alex Goldfarb said: 'It is like being exposed to
Chernobyl but
not from outside but within.'
This week police will begin questioning witnesses. Kovtun is likely to
be
among those to be notified to ascertain precisely what, if anything of
interest, may have arisen in the Millennium Hotel. So too his business
partner, Andrei Lugovoi who also met Litvinenko on 1 November.
Yesterday
Kovtun said the fact traces of polonium 210 were found at several
different
locations across London supported his claim that he was not involved
with
Litvinenko's illness.
The former KGB officer, told The Observer that he met Litvinenko that
day
principally to discuss a simple business deal. 'It's quite clear that
we had
nothing to do with it,' he said. 'Of course, we will be very happy if
all
suspicion is removed from us, but on the other hand there's now this
information and the possibility that we may have received a dose of
radiation while meeting him [Litvinenko].'
No arrests are expected imminently, but Metropolitan Police sources say
that
a list of witnesses has been prepared - and Foreign Office sources are
not
expecting the Kremlin to prevaricate or refuse to help with British
inquiries for help.
Key figures in a plot straight out of a Cold War thriller
Mario Scaramella
Italian academic and security expert who is part of an Italian
parliamentary
inquiry into KGB activity. Says he met Litvinenko for lunch lasting 35
minutes in the Itsu sushi bar on London's Piccadilly on 1 November, the
day
he became ill. Claims they met because both their names were on a hit
list
which he had received an email about. Scotland Yard plan to interview
him.
Alex Goldfarb
Friend of Litvinenko. Runs the International Foundation for Civil
Liberties,
a human rights group funded by Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch
emigre
who lives in London and is a critic of Vladimir Putin. Berezovsky is
the man
Litvinenko claims he was ordered to assassinate by the FSB, the KGB's
successor. Goldfarb has accused the Kremlin of ordering his friend's
murder
and implicated Andrei Logovoi.
Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun
Lugovoi, another ex-KGB officer, and Kovtun, another Russian, met
Litvinenko
at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, just after his encounter
with
Scaramella. Lugovoi, now a security operator in Moscow, insists he had
nothing to do with any poisoning, and that the trio met to discuss a
potential business deal. Claims the dead man drank nothing at their
meeting
and has offered to give an interview to the police.
Anna Politkovskaya
A prominent Russian journalist with the liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta
who
was shot dead in her Moscow block of flats on 7 October. Litvinenko is
known
to have been investigating her death when he was poisoned. Courageous
and
outspoken critic of President Putin and Russia's policy towards
Chechnya.
Wrote regularly about human rights abuses. Joint winner in 2004 of the
Olof
Palme Prize for human rights work. Politkovskaya had previously
received
death threats in response to her work.
Final 2 sentences say it all: Islam's message to non-Muslims:
convert,
submit to slavery, or die.
Iran's Ahmadinejad: America's New Pen Pal
Kenneth R. Timmerman
Thursday, Nov. 30, 2006
http://newsmax.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/11/29/154329.shtml?s=lh
WASHINGTON -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has followed up his
18-page letter to President George W. Bush earlier this year with a
five-page missive to the American people.
In the earlier letter, which left the Bush White House shaking their
heads
with wonderment, the Iranian leader invited Bush to embrace Islam. That
is a
well-established Islamic tradition when dealing with an enemy just
prior to
war. If they refuse, then the Muslims are "justified" in destroying
them.
The letter released today follows a similar pattern. In it, Ahmadinejad
lays
out his case for America's "injustice," using the term no fewer than 12
times in the five pages.
The concept of Justice lies at the very center of the Islamic faith.
Justice
is considered the backbone of all creation, handed down by the
Almighty. The
faithful should strive to achieve justice, to "secure justice," as
Ahmadinejad puts it. Those who pursue injustice, on the contrary, are
spitting in the face of Allah.
Ahmadinejad claims that America, under Bush, is pursuing injustice.
In making his case, he does not position himself as president of Iran,
but
attempts to set himself up as a spokesman for all Muslims. Thus, Iran
itself
barely figures in his letter.
Instead, Ahmadinejad focuses on America's support for Israel, the U.S.
occupation of Iraq, and the Bush administration's "moral corruption,"
or as
he puts it, the administration's pursuit of "darkness, deceit, lies,
and
distortion."
Students of recent Iranian history will recall that the "crime" most
often
used to justify a death sentence by Islamic Republic revolutionary
courts
during the early years of the revolution was "corruption on earth."
This was
how the regime simply eliminated its opponents or those who rejected
absolute clerical rule.
Media commentators in the U.S. are likely to pick up on the "public
relations" side of the letter. Ahmadinejad calls on the U.S. to bring
the
troops home from Iraq, to cut off support for Israel, and to stop
"kidnapping presumed opponents from across the globe" and holding them
in
secret prisons.
He even has some advice for the new Democrat majority in Congress: Bend
to
the Muslim agenda, or you will be tossed out of power.
Ahmadinejad repeatedly tries to appeal to Americans as people of faith,
who
share Islamic values. "We, like you, are aggrieved by the
ever-worsening
pain and misery of the Palestinian people," he drones. "Persistent
aggressions by the Zionists are making life more and more difficult for
the
rightful owners of the land of Palestine."
And he trots out his old anti-Semitic saw, claiming that "the Zionists"
control America "because they have imposed themselves on a substantial
portion of the banking, financial, cultural, and media sectors."
But to focus on these parts of his letter, however silly and
objectionable
they may be, would be to miss the main point. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is
not the
Hugo Chavez of the Persian Gulf. He knows that soon he will have his
finger
on the nuclear trigger.
Citing from the Quran at the close of his letter, he says that if
Americans
"repent" of their "injustice," they will be blessed with many gifts.
"We
should all heed the divine Word of the Holy Qur'an," he says.
The context of this particular verse (28:67-28, Sura "Al-Qasas," or The
Narration), is very clear. It follows a graphic description of
destruction
and devastation that will befall those who fail to repent of their
injustice.
It also sets out the terms of the tradition Muslim warning to the
enemies of
Allah. "And never will your Lord destroy the towns until He sends to
their
mother town a Messenger reciting to them Our Verses." This is is
precisely
what Ahmadinejad is doing in his letter.
Dump Bush, allow the Muslims to destroy Israel, and adopt Islam - or
else
you will be destroyed. This is Ahmadinejad's message.
Kenneth R. Timmerman is president of the Middle East Data Project,
author of
"Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran," and a
contributing editor to NewsMax.com.
Stolen cars in U.S., Mexico may be aiding terrorists
http://www.khou.com/news/local/crime/stories/khou061128_cd_cartheft.34f2a2bd.html
Stolen cars in U.S., Mexico may be aiding terrorists
It is a crime that affects us all: car theft costs Americans $8 billion
dollars a year.
We all pay for it through higher insurance rates.
Authorities think some of that money and even the cars themselves may
actually be aiding terrorists
If that's not enough, 11 News learned there is a huge hole in the
system
that makes it even easier for the criminals
It happens thousands of times a year, another car vanishes, stolen.
"In the city of Houston we have approximately 60 vehicles stolen a
day,"
said T.J. Salazar, HPD Auto Theft Division.
It is Salazar's job to find them
What is the scope of this problem? Salazar said it's huge.
Think of Jose Luis Cayon as Salazar's mirror image. He works for a
Mexican
private insurance consortium.
It is his job to find vehicles, too. Those are vehicles that have been
reported stolen in Mexico.
He looks everywhere.
"We have already recover cars from New York, from Florida, from Ohio,
from
Virginia..." he said.
He also located one in the city of South Houston.
"The vehicle was stolen in Baja California in 2002," said Salazar.
It's now seized.
Salazar and Cayon have been working together looking for stolen cars on
both
sides of the border
"Overall I believe that it is going to be well organized theft rings,
international theft rings that are doing this. They know that the
consequences of being caught are nil," said Salazar.
So Salazar and Cayon are doing the job that their governments won't do.
The problem is the stolen car found in South Houston.
"It is legitimate registration and she has a title to it," said
Salazar.
It was stolen in Mexico and legally re-titled here in Texas
How can that happen?
The problem is Texas and Mexico don't exchange information about their
stolen vehicles.
That leaves the Texas Department of Transportations Title and
Registration
system missing something.
"We just take the information that is transmitted to us via the
Department
of Public Safety," said Bill Dobson, Regional Director for TxDOT.
If there is an indication that it's stolen, it stops the registration
process, or it should.
"We can pick by license plate, VIN, or document number," Dobson said.
When asked if someone walked up today with paperwork information on the
vehicle, a title would be issued, Dobson said it would and the title
would
be transferred.
The state may not know but it is simple for you to find out.
We went to Carfax and entered the same VIN number. The Texas title info
is
clear, but so is the fact that the vehicle has been reported as stolen.
Dobson can't answer why TxDOT can't make that check.
The difference is Carfax has accepted stolen vehicle information from
the
Mexican Insurance consortium.
In fact that consortium has already given its database of Mexican
stolen
cars to both the Department of Transportation and the Department of
Public
Safety.
DPS would not do an interview for this story, saying in a statement
simply
that it only enters stolen information from incidents that occur in
Texas.
Harris County Tax Assessor Collector Paul Bettencourt's office operates
the
state's title and registration system here.
"If they have offered that and we haven't accepted then they are the
geniuses and we are the idiots," said Bettencourt.
It is a two-way hot car highway. Cars stolen here are just as easy to
move
to Central America
Cayon and Salazar have gone around the system, exchanged the
information
the government won't and found, "At the present time we have 548 that
are
stolen from the City of Houston alone that are registered in 12
different
states in Mexico. Legally," according to Salazar.
"This is not a few hundred bucks or millions. This is multi-digit
million
dollar fraud," Bettencourt said.
The legally re-titled cars are often resold and the cash is pure
profit.
This is multi-million dollars on both sides.
That's a frightening thought to international law enforcement.
"They know that many of the money that comes from auto theft goes to
finance
the terrorist," said Cayon.
"Terrorists are known to use vehicles," said Salazar.
Stopping the flow of cash to terror groups is something the feds have
spent
billions on.
What is the fix for this? It is frighteningly simple and costs next to
nothing.
"Mexico stolen vehicles entered in our national crime information
center
like we do with Canada. That would be the ideal thing. That way there
is no
question," Salazar said.
That's right. The federal government already cooperates with Canada and
trades the stolen vehicle information, but not with Mexico
Why?
"They are still thinking that the Mexican part is not secure," said
Cayon.
"On our side very closed minded and not wanting to cooperate in that
type of
flowing of information," Salazar said.
But at least one Mexican and one American aren't afraid to work
together.
So this car is off the street.
One car, one title at a time.
But more are coming. Every day the holes in the system and the border
stay
open.
The Department of Public Safety would not do an on-camera interview for
this
story, saying only it only enters information on cars stolen in Texas.
DPS suggested it was the FBI's jurisdiction to cover foreign stolen
vehicles.
In fact, we have discovered the FBI's counterterrorism unit has an
ongoing
investigation into cars stolen in the U.S., even some from here in
Texas,
being used in car bombings in Iraq.
Law enforcement officials within the FBI and other local jurisdictions
told
11 News that car theft is a significant source of cash for some terror
groups.
Dog eats dog in fractured Iraq
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK30Ak15.html
Dog eats dog in fractured Iraq
By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - Nearly 40 years ago, a senior Syrian diplomat was
apprehended at
gunpoint by Iraqi border security, charged with spying on the Ba'athist
regime in Baghdad. Angrily the Syrian took out his diplomatic passport
and
said: "You cannot arrest me. I have immunity!" Unable to hold back his
laughter, the Iraqi officer chuckled: "We killed Nuri al-Said [the
14-time
prime minister of Iraq under the monarchy]. What in the world makes you
think that
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http://goldsea.com/GAAN/adview.php?what=zone:117&n=a923457d
we cannot kill you as well?"
His statement applies equally to Iraq today. Nobody is immune, and any
person, no matter how senior or seemingly well protected, runs the high
risk
of being kidnapped, mugged or assassinated. In such a chaotic
environment,
the Egyptian-educated Sunni heavyweight Harith al-Dari, leader of the
Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), should not have been surprised
when
Interior Minister Jawad al-Boulani issued a warrant for his arrest
recently.
He was charged with spreading "division and strife" among the Iraqi
people.
The order to arrest Dari was clearly inspired by Shi'ite politicians
and
supported by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Some say it was a very
unwise
decision on Maliki's part, since the AMS controls the imams of 3,000
Sunni
mosques, all of which could be used to ignite violence against the
Baghdad
government. Others say it is a great publicity stunt for Dari himself,
because he was sinking into oblivion and the arrest warrant made him
famous
and popular, not only in the Arab world, but throughout the Middle East.
Dari, however, was in Amman, Jordan, when the warrant was issued. Had
Boulani and Maliki actually wanted to arrest him, they could have done
that
before he left the country. This, however, would have caused an
uncontrollable increase in sectarian violence. They wanted the warrant
as a
warning message to Dari: to play Iraqi politics by their rules, or
remain in
exile - or jail.
Muqtada al-Sadr, who is Dari's counterpart in Shi'ite politics, called
on
the outspoken Sunni cleric to issue religious fatwas prohibiting Sunnis
from
attacking Shi'ites "because they are Muslims". He asked for another
fatwa
prohibiting Sunnis from "joining the terrorist al-Qaeda organization
because
it kills Muslims". Finally, he asked Dari to support the rebuilding of
the
Golden Mosque in Samarra - a revered Shi'ite shrine that was destroyed
in a
terrorist attack, believed to be al-Qaeda's doing, in February.
Only when Dari accepted these demands, Muqtada added, would he condemn
the
arrest warrant made by Boulani, who himself is a former Sadrist.
AMS spokesman Mohammad Bashar Faydi said the warrant revealed the
"bankruptcy of the sectarian government". He accused Boulani of
"supporting
terrorism" by covering for militias "that are killing the Iraqi
people".
Scores of politicians have come out to condemn the warrant at a time
when
Shi'ite clerics are allowed to roam freely, under protection of the
Shi'ite
government of Maliki. Even Sunni politicians, such as parliament
Speaker
Mahmud al-Mashadani, whom Dari has criticized for assuming office under
the
Americans, are now sympathetic to Dari. Shi'ite cleric Mahmud
al-Hasani, a
challenger to Muqtada in Shi'ite politics, and former prime minister
Iyad
Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, have also criticized the warrant.
The reason everyone in the Shi'ite community is so annoyed with the
Sunnis
is their vocal criticism of the new Shi'ite-dominated post-Saddam
Hussein
Iraq. Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leading Sunni leader, had spoken from Amman
on the
100th birthday of Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim
Brotherhood,
warning against making Iraq a satellite state to Iran. He called for
action
"lest Baghdad become a capital for the Safavids".
The AMS, after all, is a product of Banna's Brotherhood, which has had
a
branch in Mosul since the 1930s. The Safavids Dulaimi was referring to
were
the Shi'ite dynasty that ruled Baghdad from 1508 to 1534. They were
replaced
by the Sunni Ottomans. Dari himself called on the United States, the
United
Nations and Arab states to refrain from supporting Maliki, "otherwise,
the
disaster will occur and the turmoil will happen in Iraq and other
countries".
The Arab League, under the urging of Saudi Arabia and Jordan,
intervened on
Dari's behalf, and he spoke to the Saudi daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat,
saying he
was undeterred by the arrest warrant, adding that those who had taken
up
arms against the US would not disarm for the sake of entering the
political
process.
Reprisal attacks over the Dari affair led to the kidnapping of Ammar
al-Saffar, a member of Maliki's al-Da'wa Party, in Baghdad and the
assassination of Ali al-Adhadh, of the Shura Council for the Supreme
Council
for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), and his wife as they were
driving through a Sunni neighborhood of the Iraqi capital. Adhadh had
been
earmarked to become the new Iraqi ambassador to the UN, and the SCIRI
had
loudly supported the decision to put Dari behind bars. A Sadrist member
of
the Ministry of Health were kidnapped as well, and Muqtada's offices in
Baquba were raided by Sunni militants.
As all of this was taking place in Iraq, US Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) director Michael Hayden admitted that only 1,300 members of the
insurgency are actually members of al-Qaeda. This means that of the
40,000-strong insurgency, only 3.25% are from al-Qaeda. The Sunni
tribes
operating in the insurgency are, in Hayden's words, "in the low tens of
thousands". This implies that the remainder of the armed groups are
Shi'ite.
Is it entirely surprising, then, that none other than Muqtada came out
with
an unusual offer. Speaking to his followers, he called for
rapprochement
between political and religious forces, saying: "Let us shake hands,
and I
want nothing from you. Is it not enough that in our division and
arguments
there is a service to the enemy?"
Speaking on the seventh anniversary of his father's martyrdom, Muqtada
said:
"If the late Sadr had been among you, he would have said, 'Preserve
your
unity. Don't carry out any act before you ask the hawza [Shi'ite
seminary in
Najaf]. Be the ones who are unjustly treated and not the ones who treat
others unjustly.'" Members of Muqtada's movement had threatened to
resign
from the cabinet if Maliki agreed to meet with President George W Bush
in
Amman on Wednesday.
For the first time since his name began to shine, Muqtada's "wise"
words
fell on deaf ears. Over the past week, in response to the massive
sectarian
attacks on the Shi'ite enclave, Sadr City, in Baghdad - and despite
Muqtada's calls for calm - armed Shi'ite groups stormed the offices of
the
AMS and the Sunni shrine Abu Hanifa, damaging them extensively. One
group
invaded the Huriyya district of Baghdad, burning four Sunni mosques,
killing
30 people and wounding 48. Six of those killed were burned alive with
gasoline as they left the mosque on Friday.
The UN declared that 3,709 people were killed last month - the highest
death
toll since the US invasion took place 44 months ago.
In the Sunni stronghold al-Anbar province, gun battles have taken place
between former Ba'athists belonging to al-Awda Party and Sunni militias
loyal to al-Qaeda. Prominent cleric Abdul-Sattar Abu Risheh has called
on
the Sunnis of Anbar to resist al-Qaeda. This spells out an increasing
Sunni
divide. The former Ba'athists have been so successful, and recently
created
a secular paramilitary Sunni party called al-Awda (The Return), that
al-Qaeda guerrillas are forced to divert some of their attention from
fighting the Americans and members of the post-Saddam order to fighting
the
Ba'athists.
Al-Qaeda has gone so far as to drop flyers in Anbar saying that any
member
of al-Awda will be shot. The flyer read: "The Ba'ath secular party will
find
no quarter in the new principality of the Islamic state of Iraq."
Former
generals in Saddam's regime have since been murdered in Anbar. A tribal
council in Anbar said last weekend that Sunni tribesmen had killed 55
members of al-Qaeda.
All of this boils down to one fact: Maliki's security plan of which he
boasted when coming to power in May has proved an utter failure. Not
only
has he disappointed Sunnis but even the Shi'ites - after the latest
bombings
in Sadr City - have lost faith in him. This was made clear when he
visited
the slum there to pay respect to the hundreds of victims who were
killed
last week. Rather than be welcomed in his own constituency, Maliki was
received with stones and angry Shi'ites.
These divisions in the Shi'ite front challenge the CIA director's
claim,
which says the Sunnis are not as powerful as they seem to be in the
insurgency. If the Sunnis are not in control, and apparently nor are
the
Shi'ites, then who is? The answer is: nobody! The Sunni insurgency is
clear
divided, more so after the killing of al-Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
in the
summer. It is now becoming Ba'athists, or secularists and tribesmen,
versus
al-Qaeda.
The Shi'ite street is also divided, with one group clearly emerging
around
Maliki and Muqtada, and the other loyal to Iran and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim
and
his SCIRI. The US is caught in the middle of this labyrinth, and
clearly has
no clue on how to get out. The now-dominant Democrats in the US
Congress are
expected in January to demand some sort of troop withdrawal, starting
mid-2007. But until then, chaos is becoming stronger by the minute in
Iraq.
This might explain why the Americans have explored, over the past few
weeks,
several options to stabilize the country. One option is to talk to Iran
to
control the Shi'ite insurgency. The other is to talk to Syria to
control the
Sunni insurgency. The third option - too difficult for the Bush
administration - is to talk to both.
Talking to Iran, in any way, is too difficult for the Americans, and if
they
were to acknowledge the need to deal with Tehran, it would have to be
through the Syrians. The US approved the sending of a senior British
envoy
to Damascus last month to meet with President Bashar al-Assad and
demand -
among other things - Syrian support for the Maliki government.
Syria responded promptly by sending Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualim
to
Baghdad, which agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations with Syria.
This
gives great credibility to Maliki's cabinet in the eyes of Iraqi
Sunnis.
Syria is also preparing to receive a senior Iraqi security delegation,
which
includes Interior Minister Boulani, to discuss bilateral relations - an
act
that surely is pleasing to the Americans.
But bringing the Sunnis to order in Iraq will not be easy without the
support of Saudi Arabia. And Syria's relations with Riyadh are
currently
tense because of the situation in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia's support
for
Syria's opponents in Beirut, including parliamentarian Saad al-Hariri
and
Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora.
As long as there is no Syrian-Saudi rapprochement, the Sunni street of
Iraq
will remain divided, because Saudi Arabia has control over Iraqi
Sunnis, and
uses it extensively to counterbalance the meddling of Iran in Iraqi
affairs.
And Iran's influence on the Shi'ite street is paramount. If the US
wants to
pacify the Shi'ite street, it must talk to Tehran. Unless this happens,
the
situation will remain as chaotic as it has become since February.
The motto will remain: "We killed Nuri al-Said. What in the world makes
you
think that we cannot kill you as well?"
Exploding e-passports? Depends on the country
As RFID-chipped passports gain adoption around the world, successful
attempts to crack them are on the rise as well. Germany, the
Netherlands and
the United Kingdom have already reported compromised data, while
countries
such as New Zealand remain sure it can't happen there. But what if the
goal
wasn't data theft but detonation?
http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/1054404/107300/42758/2/
E-passport security? Depends on the country
U.K., Germany report cracks; New Zealand steady; U.S. goes boom
Juha Saarinen Today's Top Stories or Other Security Stories
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Anywhere
to Virtually Any Device
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Voice-over-IP will dominate the enterprise in the next few years - are
you
ready?
IP Communications
November 29, 2006 (Computerworld New Zealand) -- Reports from the U.K.
indicate that radio frequency identification chips in passports can be
cracked. "Smart" passports from Germany and the Netherlands have been
compromised as well, according to researchers. However, differences in
chip
implementation from nation to nation may mean that some passports are
easier
to crack than others.
For instance, British newspaper The Guardian reports that it was able
to
access the data stored on RFID cards in Britain's newly launched smart
passports in as little as 48 hours. On the other hand, the New Zealand
Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) says there isn't enough
information
contained within New Zealand's passports' chips to create counterfeit
travel
documents.
DIA passport manager David Philp confirms that it is possible to access
the
information stored on the RFID chips and use it to make a clone.
However,
the RFID chip in the e-passports currently issued in New Zealand is
just one
security feature out of more than 50 contained in the passport.
Having just a cloned chip isn't sufficient to create a counterfeit
passport,
says Philp says, adding that such an endeavor is quite involved. While
New Zealand passports are "highly desirable," the DIA has seen very few
credible
counterfeited ones, he says.
While the general design goal of the e-passport is to lock the holder's
identity to the document in a secure manner, Philp says that there has
to be
a balance between risk management and customer service.
The passport has to be readable around the world in a reasonable amount
of
time and ideally in more situations than just immigration.
Philp gives airport check-ins as one example of where RFID-equipped
passports should be readable.
Making the e-passport harder to read is possible, Philp says, but it
would
make immigration processing take longer and inconvenience people.
Researcher Peter Gutmann at the University of Auckland's department of
computer science is skeptical that RFID chips provide any real security
benefit. In fact, Gutmann goes further and says in a technical
background
paper, "Why biometrics is not a panacea" (download PDF), that RFIDs in
passports "are a disaster waiting to happen."
German and Dutch passports have already been compromised, according to
Gutmann, and this can be done remotely as well. He points to successful
attacks by Dutch RFID security specialist Harko Robroch, who has
intercepted
passport and reader device communications from five meters away.
Gutmann
says eavesdropping on the reader was possible up to 27.3 yards.
In comparison, the Guardian article says U.K. passports are readable
from
within three inches away. That's far closer than the distance from
which
Robroch was able to intercept data, but in crowded settings, such as
public
transportation, it's possible that people would be that close to one
another
and that someone would be able to siphon off data stored in an RFID
chip.
However, Gutmann's worst-case scenario for RFIDs in passports occurs
not
when they're being compromised for counterfeiting purposes, but when
they're
being used to identify the holder. Moreover, the RFID chip could be
used to
trigger explosive charges, and Gutmann points to a study that shows the
current U.S. passport design caused a small, nonlethal explosive charge
concealed in a rubbish bin to detonate.
Terrorists could then use the RFID chips in passports to target
specific
nationalities automatically, says Gutmann.
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