Posted on 06/09/2003 9:05:35 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
Welcome to the daily thread of Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. Im addition to the ongoing conversations related to terrorism and our place in it's ultimate defeat, this thread is a clearinghouse of links to War On Terrorism threads. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information and mutual support.
Tomorrow night when you start the new thread there is one typo if you wish to correct it.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. Im addition to the ongoing conversations related to terrorism and our place in it's ultimate defeat, this thread is a clearinghouse of links to War On Terrorism threads. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information and mutual support.
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court kept alive hopes of cancer-stricken Vietnam veterans who want to recover damages for Agent Orange exposure, deadlocking Monday in a case that has implications for anyone who misses out on a settlement of a class-action lawsuit.
Businesses had anxiously awaited a clear-cut decision from the court on when — or how — old class-action settlements can be reopened.
Instead, justices deadlocked 4-4 on a case involving two veterans who blame Agent Orange for their cancer, but got sick too late to claim a piece of the $180 million settlement with makers of the chemical in 1984. The non-decision allows veterans to pursue lawsuits claiming they were wrongfully shut out of the settlement.
The ninth court member, Justice John Paul Stevens, did not give a reason for recusing himself, but his only son was a Vietnam veteran who apparently suffered from cancer before his death in 1996.
Tie votes are rare, though the court had another just six months ago on a major wetlands protection case. When ties occur, the ruling from the previous court that considered the case takes effect. Monday's tie left undisturbed a lower court ruling that found the veterans were not adequately represented in the Agent Orange settlement, which included no cash for people who got sick after 1994.
"A lot of veterans have been waiting for 10 years to hear this, their rights are vindicated," said Gerson Smoger of Oakland, Calif., the attorney for the two veterans.
New York attorney Andrew Frey, who represents Dow Chemical Co., said it's important for companies to have finality in class-action settlements or they may be wary about settling future cases out of court.
"It's very frustrating for the companies to lose it 4-4 and not know why they lost," said Frey, who predicts the issue will be back at the high court eventually.
Businesses also suffered a setback in another case Monday. The court overrode the Bush administration in a 9-0 ruling making it easier for people to sue their employers for discrimination.
Justices said that forklift operator Catharina Costa did not have to produce "direct evidence" of discrimination under a federal anti-discrimination law to place her type of claim before a jury. Direct evidence requires proof based on personal knowledge or observation, which can be difficult to produce.
Her employer, Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, contended it had a valid reason to fire her — discipline problems.
An employee "need only present sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to conclude, by a preponderance of the evidence, that `race, color, religion, sex, or national origin was a motivating factor for any employment practice,'" Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court.
Eric Schnapper, a University of Washington law school professor who represented Costa, said he hopes the defeat sends a message to the Bush administration, which wanted a stricter standard for lawsuits under the anti-discrimination law.
"Hopefully the more moderate people in the administration will take heart from this and press the government not to do this sort of thing again," he said. "This should make employers want to work harder at stopping discrimination."
Robert Stewart, spokesman for Park Place Entertainment, the parent company for Caesars, said the Supreme Court seemed to change the rules for lawsuits. "It appears that many employers accused of workplace discrimination will be considered guilty until they can prove themselves innocent," he said.
In the Agent Orange case, the court issued a brief, unsigned opinion. It ordered more consideration on the proper venue for claims of veteran Joe Isaacson, a vice principal in Irvington, N.J. Justices left undisturbed a decision allowing the lawsuit of Daniel Stephenson, a retired helicopter pilot living in Florida.
Both men claim their cancers are related to Agent Orange, used in the 1960s and 1970s to clear dense jungle foliage that provided cover for enemy forces.
Companies that made the herbicide Agent Orange thought their liability ended with the class-action settlement. Dow, Monsanto Co. and other companies tried to reach veterans with ads in local and national newspapers and magazines. They also dispute that illnesses reported by aging vets are related to the chemical.
Susan Koniak, a law professor at Boston University School, said challenges to class-actions are important to all people.
"There's almost no American who hasn't been in a class action, whether you know it or not," she said, "whether it's a computer you bought, or rental charges on your car, or an insurance policy."
She said that after-the-fact challenges should be allowed in some circumstances.
The case is Dow Chemical Co. v. Stephenson, 02-271.
WASHINGTON - The bidding on Iraqi postwar reconstruction contracts at the U.S. Agency for International Development is flawed, with the education contract essentially awarded without competition, an internal investigation concluded.
The total contract to Creative Associates International is worth $157 million, including optional extensions, the USAID inspector general's office said.
The office made public Monday the second of a series of inquiries into the limited bid awards of contracts for Iraqi capital construction, airports, seaports, local governance, primary and secondary education and others.
WASHINGTON - The Transportation Security Administration says non-lethal stun guns could be allowed on airplanes as another layer of security.
In a report to Congress, the agency said electronic shock devices could be an effective deterrent against hijackers. But it deferred a decision on whether to approve requests by United Airlines and Mesa Air Group to let their pilots carry the weapons.
Mesa Air Group operates America West Express, US Airways Express and Mesa Airlines.
PHILADELPHIA - The new generation of air traffic control technology was fully deployed Monday at Philadelphia International Airport, the first to rely solely on the new system.
STARS, for Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System, allows more planes to fly safely in increasingly crowded air space and reduces the workload for controllers.
"It's like comparing an eight-track tape player to a CD player," said Tom Bayalis, an air traffic controller, as he showed off the crisp, multicolored computer displays in the new Philadelphia terminal radar control center built to house the new system.
WASHINGTON - A federal employees' union said Monday it will ask Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to let them represent airport security screeners.
The American Federation of Government Employees plans to send a letter to Ridge this week, asking him to overrule a January decision by Transportation Security Administration head James Loy.
"When 9-11 happened, we didn't say, 'Wait a minute, our collective bargaining agreement says we have to do this,'" said Bobby L. Harnage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees. "We did what was necessary. This has nothing to do with national security."
WASHINGTON - The Homeland Security Department is ill-equipped to analyze the bioterror threat to the nation, which brings into question a $6 billion administration-backed plan to stockpile antidotes, House Democrats said Monday.
Rep. Jim Turner of Texas, top Democrat on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, said in a letter to President Bush the department's office responsible for analyzing bioterror threats "is not remotely close to having the tools it needs to meet its critical mandate."
A department spokesman, responding to the allegation, said officials were moving quickly to rectify staffing and space shortcomings.
Craig said Monday that he had been promised since 1996 that the Air Force would add four C-130 transport planes to the four already stationed at Gowen Air National Guard Base in Boise, Idaho, and he has secured $40 million in construction to prepare for the full squadron.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States is asking the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution on Thursday renewing the exemption of U.S. peacekeepers from prosecution by the new war crimes tribunal, diplomats said.
Despite misgivings on the controversial resolution, the measure will easily be adopted, with members wary of another bruising fight with the Bush administration after refusing to authorize the invasion of Iraq.
Unclear, however, is whether Germany and possibly France, will express opposition by abstaining instead of voting "yes." Last year's vote was 15-0 after the United States threatened to veto U.N. peacekeeping missions, one by one.
U.N. Envoy Says Suu Kyi Was Not Injured
YANGON (Reuters) - U.N. envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday and said she was "in good spirits" and had not been injured.
He met her for an hour at the junta's headquarters.
International concern had intensified over the health and whereabouts of the Nobel peace prize winner since a clash between her supporters and those of the junta on May 30 as she was touring a provincial town in the north. She has been in detention since then.
French troops defend a group of foreigners awaiting evacuation in Monrovia, Liberia, Monday June 9 2003. The evacuations came as President Charles Taylor's soldiers reported more fighting with rebel forces bearing down on the western edge of the city, and explosions sounded in the distance.
They were flown by helicopter to a waiting French vessel bound for the Ivory Coast. Reeker thanked France for its role in facilitating the evacuation.
"We are committed to the full protection of our citizens and expect the government of Liberia and the rebels to honor their international obligations to do the same," he said.
The evacuation followed reports of more fighting from President Charles Taylor's soldiers, with rebel forces bearing down on the western edge of the capital.
About 100 Americans, who had gathered overnight at the embassy compound, were ferried out of Liberia.
U.S. Ambassador John Blaney and a coterie of Marine guards, U.S. special forces and security contractors planned to remain behind at the American embassy, U.S. authorities in Monrovia said.
Reeker said the embassy remained open and continued to provide emergency services to American citizens. The spokesman renewed a warning against travel to Liberia.
He said rebels identified with the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy had engaged government forces on Bushroad Island, northwest of the capital. "They must quickly adhere to their cease-fire pledge and strictly avoid any violence toward civilians," Reeker said.
The spokesman said the United States remained committed to reconciliation and cease-fire talks. "We call on all combatants to cease their campaigns of violence, to spare the lives and property of innocent civilians," Reeker said.
TBILISI (Reuters) - President Eduard Shevardnadze said Monday that Georgian authorities were ready to talk to kidnappers demanding $3 million for the release of four United Nations staff.
Unidentified gunmen seized three U.N. military observers, two Germans and a Dane, last week along with their Georgian interpreter in a remote gorge on the frontier with the breakaway province of Abkhazia.
"Authorities are ready for dialogue and negotiations, even with criminals, to prevent (the observers) being exposed to danger," Shevardnadze told Georgian radio, adding that a search was continuing and that he had faith in the local population.
The observers were part of a 100-strong U.N. team monitoring the border with Abkhazia, which broke away from Georgia in 1993 in a conflict that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The men were abducted Thursday while on a routine patrol in the Kodori Gorge, site of several similar kidnappings.
The U.N. office in the Georgian capital Tbilisi has named the hostages as Klaus Ott and Herbert Bauer from Germany, Henrik Soerensen from Denmark and Georgian interpreter Lasha Chikashua. The United Nations has said it will pay no ransom.
In the last such incident, Polish and Greek observers were held for a few days in December 2000. According to official accounts, they were released without conditions.
UNITED NATIONS - There is a "high probability" that al-Qaida will attempt an attack with a weapon of mass destruction in the next two years, the U.S. government said in a report Monday.
The report to a U.N. Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against the terrorist group did not say where the Bush administration believes such an attack might be launched.
But the United States said it believes that despite recent setbacks, "al-Qaida maintains the ability to inflict significant casualties in the United States with little or no warning."
The FBI is draining a pond Monday, June 9, 2003, near Frederick, Md., in a search for evidence of how anthrax-laced letters were assembled in the deadly 2001 attacks, drawing work crews with heavy equipment to a municipal forest to begin the work. The FBI's Washington field office issued a statement saying that its agents and Postal Service agents were conducting ``searches related to the investigation of the origin of the anthrax-laced letters'' mailed in 2001.
FBI Drains Md. Pond for Anthrax Evidence
U.S. National - AP FBI Drains Md. Pond for Anthrax Evidence Mon Jun 9,10:30 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo! By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press Writer FREDERICK, Md. - The FBI began draining a pond Monday in a search for evidence that the person who carried out the deadly anthrax-by-mail attacks in 2001 filled the envelopes with the deadly spores under water for his own protection.
The draining of the one-acre pond in the Frederick Municipal Forest is expected to take three to four weeks. The pond is 4 to 5 feet deep.
The work drew FBI agents, other law enforcement officials and contractors, who operated dump trucks and backhoes at the site several miles northwest of the city. A generator and a pump were brought in, and a hose ran into the pond.
Tue June 10, 2003 01:28 AM ET BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An explosion at an Iraqi ammunition facility has killed three Iraqis and wounded two others, the United States Central Command said.
The explosion at Ad Diwaniyah, about 75 miles south of the capital Baghdad, occurred on Monday morning, CentCom said in a statement posted on its Web site early on Tuesday.
It said U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq sustained no casualties in the explosion.
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Sad to hear but as I said before why aren't the Iraqis guarding the checkpoints. Why aren't they in charge of destroying muntions.
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