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Islamabad, Sept. 27. (PTI): Admitting that wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden was "freely moving" between Pakistan and Afghanistan, President Pervez Musharraf said besides himself and the ISI, US President George W Bush and CIA should equally share the bl ame for failure to capture the al-Qaeda leader. "Let it be clear to everyone. If I am to be blamed, President Bush is equally to be blamed. If the ISI is to be blamed, then the CIA is equally to be blamed," he said in an interview to Canadian newspaper The Globe and The Mail yesterday. Musharraf, who was on a...

<p>According to the Northeast Intelligence Network, after reviewing hundreds of jihad posts, it would appear that al Qaeda is behind the blackouts worldwide, either via the internet or physical sabotage of strategic power substation locations. This is the preamble for bigger events to come worldwide. Posts from hidden, members only Jihad message boards include schematic drawings of and detailed explanations of the transportation infrastructure within the United States, which are obviously behind the threats we have been seeing within the last few months pertaining to the subway systems. Additionally, the major power outages are a means to have attention distracted for other terrorist events to start building, for instance, known terrorists and al Qaeda operatives crossing into the US during the East Coast power outage.</p>

Staff leave blamed for heat deaths Amelia Gentleman in Paris Tuesday September 9, 2003 France's first official inquiry into how at least 11,000 people died during a heatwave this summer yesterday criticised its health system for allowing so many of its staff to take a holiday in August. The government report also blamed the 35-hour week, introduced by the previous socialist regime, for the acute shortages in medical staff. The healthcare "catastrophe" had been exacerbated by the excessive bureaucratic divisions between ministries involved, which meant that they failed to sound the alarm swiftly enough. The health minister, Jean-François Mattei, ordered...

CNSNews.com) - Senate Democrats won't have Miguel Estrada to filibuster anymore: Twenty-eight months after President Bush named the Hispanic attorney to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Estrada is saying "never mind," The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. In a letter to President Bush, the 41-year-old attorney asked that his nomination be withdrawn so he can end two-and-a-half years of limbo and return to his law practice -- and who can blame him, the newspaper said in an editorial. "His withdrawal should embarrass Republicans who have been outwitted on judgeships by Ted Kennedy and...

Teens blame video game for shootings WKRN, TN There is an update on the teens accused of shooting innocent drivers along Interstate 40. 16-year-old William Buckner and his 13-year old stepbrother, Joshua, now claim the video game Grand Theft Auto inspired them to hide in the woods and shoot at cars driving down I-40. The boys say they never meant to hurt anyone, but they did. Two people were injured in the sniper-style shootings.

<p>WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats blamed the White House Thursday for the Senate's failure to confirm judicial nominee Miguel Estrada (search), nominated 28 months ago to a seat on the federal bench.</p> <p>Estrada sent a letter to President Bush on Thursday, and wrote that he was taking his name out of the ring for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals (search) in Washington, D.C., to return his focus to his legal career and his family.</p>

<p>Shortly after the "Blackout of 2003," Sen. Hillary Clinton, New York Democrat, used her appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live" not to discuss solutions to our energy problems but to blame all our problems on deregulation.</p> <p>This attack was misguided and shortsighted. There are risks associated with any major policy proposal, particularly one as complex as the energy plan. We have to take into account a number of different factors &#8212; reliability, cost, safety, and equity are just a few. We also have to consider the stakes &#8212; without a reliable power supply, our lives grind to a halt.</p>

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jayson Blair, the discredited reporter who sparked a plagiarism scandal at The New York Times that caused its top editors to resign, has finally explained himself, blaming his missteps on eccentricity and junk food. Writing in a light, almost flippant tone for Jane magazine, aimed at young women, Blair offers a half dozen reasons why he left "in a ball of flames" after fabricating and plagiarising dozens of articles during nearly four years at the nation's most influential newspaper. Blair writes that he "kissed ass", "flaunted the rules", "avoided professional help" and "had something to prove...

<p>PARIS — French politicians, after two weeks of taking the heat for thousands of deaths among mainly elderly people during a mid-August heatwave, have begun turning the blame back on the families of the dead.</p> <p>Many of the victims appear to have been left alone during July and August, when France virtually shuts down as families go on holiday.</p>

WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi blamed former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other Baathists for the explosion which killed the top Iraqi Shi'ite politician and dozens of others in the city of Najaf on Friday. Chalabi, a Shi'ite who heads the Iraqi National Council, said: "There's no doubt in my mind. It's Saddam, remnants of the Baathists and their new allies from across the border, the fundamentalists coming across to participate in these things." Saddam's Baath party was the main vehicle for his dictatorial rule. The explosion in Najaf killed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, leader...

General blames US for Iraq 'chaos' The former commander of Nato forces in Europe, General Wesley Clark, says American policy has "created chaos" in Iraq. General Clark said the fundamental problem was the US tendency to fight states to get at "terrorists", rather than take on the "terrorists" themselves. "We may have given Osama Bin Laden the recharge he needed to rebuild his arsenal and his ranks," he told the BBC's World Today programme. General Clark is being encouraged to become a [D]emocratic [sic] candidate for next year's presidential election, but has not yet announced if he will stand. His...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The massive blackout in Northern states and Canada is an indictment of the Bush administration's failed deregulatory energy policies, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Saturday. In the Democratic Party's weekly radio address, Schumer blamed an outdated and loosely regulated power system for the power outage, which stretched from New York to Ontario, Canada, to Michigan, and left 50 million people in the dark."Under-investment in transmission lines and a weak oversight board controlled by utilities have created an unstable, unreliable and overloaded patchwork system for transmitting power from one place to the other," Schumer said. "I can think...

LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) -- A paranormal expert in Los Angeles thinks he may know the culprit to last week's blackout: E.T. Dr. Franklin Ruehl -- the resident UFO expert on Tom Green's new MTV talk show -- says it's not uncommon for UFOs to be seen hovering near power plants right before blackouts. Ruehl claims that prior to the big blackout in November, 1965, two pilots reported seeing UFOs near Indianapolis and Syracuse, New York. The phenomenon may be inadvertant but Ruehl says it's possible a UFO caused this year's blackout by trying to draw power from a provider...

&#65279;&#65279;Not two hours after the lights went out in the Northeast last Thursday, Sen. Hillary Clinton was in front of the microphones doing what she does best: carping, criticizing, dividing. Her first thoughts in a time of crisis were not about how she might help her constituents in their time of need, but about how she might exploit the situation for selfish political gain. While other, far more responsible, elected officials were offering consolation and advice to a concerned citizenry, Hillary was in full campaign mode. While those affected by the power outage were worried about relatives, friends and fellow...

Some of the Nine Dwarves are trying to spice up their foundering presidential campaigns by blaming President Bush for the deadly bombing at the U.N.'s headquarters in Baghdad. "Had the president pursued the war on terrorism prior to initiating military action against Saddam Hussein, as I advocated last year, it is likely that al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks would not have been able to take advantage of the chaos that now exists in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq," said Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla. "It is becoming increasingly clear each day that the administration misread the situation on the ground...

Paul Krugman began his Tuesday column for the New York Times — inevitably, about the blackout — with one of the few truthful statements I can ever recall him uttering: "We still don't know what started the chain reaction on Thursday." But after that admission, he proceeded to spend the next 649 words of his column telling us exactly what caused the blackout. Can you guess? On Monday, Krugman explained it to the German magazine Der Spiegel: According to American economics professor Paul Krugman, public services have been cut back in many areas to the benefit of "tax breaks for...

Paul Krugman began his Tuesday column for the New York Times — inevitably, about the blackout — with one of the few truthful statements I can ever recall him uttering: "We still don't know what started the chain reaction on Thursday." But after that admission, he proceeded to spend the next 649 words of his column telling us exactly what caused the blackout. Can you guess? On Monday, Krugman explained it to the German magazine Der Spiegel: According to American economics professor Paul Krugman, public services have been cut back in many areas to the benefit of "tax breaks for...

Those of us who served during the Clinton Administration were shocked by the mindless, directionless, and often times silly agenda of his Secretaries of Energy.  From a professional security man’s vantage point, an intelligence brownout at DOE seriously threatened our national security on a continual basis. During the Clinton Administration, national energy policy took a backseat to political correctness and pleasure on the job.Clinton’s first DOE Secretary, Hazel O’Leary, was certainly no shining light for the Clinton Legacy.  One of her first moves was to question why some DOE security badges were blue, whereas others were brown.  Security men tried...

<p>Within hours of the lights going out in New York, Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton was blaming President Bush for the power failure. While the rest of us thought Mr. Bush was in California visiting a military base, she spotted him in Akron, Ohio, turning out the warning lights at the FirstEnergy facility there.</p>

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Democrat hopefuls for the White House wasted little time after the lights came back on to attack President Bush's energy policies but had little to say on America's electricity network before last week's blackout. "The unfortunate events on the East Coast, parts of the Midwest, and in Canada yesterday are further evidence that the Bush administration is inexorably tied to Persian Gulf oil and old energy, and is incapable of devising a comprehensive, forward looking energy strategy," Dick Gephardt (D-MO) said in a statement released on Friday following the major electricity blackout that crossed several Northeast...