Some blogs from around the Mideast

By The Associated Press Fri Feb 9, 2:23 PM ET

Some blogs in the Middle East:
ADVERTISEMENT

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EGYPT:

• http://misrdigital.blogspirit.com Arabic-language blog by democracy activist Wael Abbas. Has been instrumental in bringing attention to police torture and sexual attacks on women, publishing videotaped accounts of both in recent months.

• http://karam903.blogspot.com Arabic blog by Abdel Kareem Nabil, on trial for allegedly insulting Islam and causing sectarian strife with Internet writings critical of Islamic institutions in Egypt.

• http://www.manalla.net Arabic and English political blog by husband and wife team, Alaa Abdel-Fattah and Manal Hassan. Abdel-Fattah held six weeks last year after being arrested during rally at Cairo court in support of other detained democracy activists.

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SYRIA:

• http://saroujah.blogspot.com English blog by Sasa Kajam. Called
Syria News Wire, says it features "independent news from the streets of Syria and Lebanon."

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SAUDI ARABIA:

• http://saudijeans.blogspot.com English blog by Ahmed al-Omran, pharmacy student who writes about politics, social issues and trends.

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IRAN:

• http://hamedmottaghi.blogfa.com Farsi blog by Hamed Mottaghi, freelance journalist who lives in holy city of Qom and writes about human rights, culture and other social issues.

• http://www.kosoof.com Farsi photo blog that publishes pictures of Iranian dissidents with their families after release from prison.

(Both Iranian blogs were awarded Reporters Without Borders prize during 2006 Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards for taking strong stands on freedom of information.)

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BAHRAIN:

• http://mahmood.tv English blog by Mahmood al-Yousif, Bahraini businessman who writes about politics, human rights and daily life on Persian Gulf island kingdom.

• http://www.mideastyouth.com; http://www.mefaith.com; http://www.inter-iman.com Run by Esra'a al-Shafei, first two are in English, third in Arabic. Focus on bringing together voices from across region, including
Israel and
Iran, to discuss politics, gender and religion.

...but Crapper had no comment!
Paris court tosses Duchamp urinal fine

Fri Feb 9, 7:28 AM ET

PARIS - A French appeals court ruled Friday that a 78-year-old Frenchman who attacked Marcel Duchamp's famed porcelain urinal with a hammer last year does not have to pay $260,000 in damages.

Pierre Pinoncelli chipped the work, valued at $3.6 million, during a January 2006 exhibition of the Dada movement at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

He also scrawled "Dada" on the urinal.

At the time Pinoncelli said his actions were not vandalism but a "wink" at the early 20th century art movement that had Duchamp's blessing. Duchamp, who died in 1968, emphasized the creative process and a role for the spectator.

The lower court that convicted Pinoncelli last year gave him a three-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay the Pompidou $18,600 for repairs and another $260,000 to cover the artwork's depreciation.

The appeals court upheld the suspended sentence and the smaller fine but said Pinoncelli did not have to pay the Pompidou for any loss of value to the "Fountain" because the museum doesn't own the work.

Pinoncelli urinated on "Fountain" during a 1993 exhibition in Nimes in southern France, and cut off his own finger as an expression of solidarity with Colombian-French politician Ingrid Betancourt, held hostage by leftist guerrillas in Colombia since 2002.

This is how the Pope/Church murders and blames their errors on the victims!
Catholic Church slams free Brazil Carnival condoms

Fri Feb 9, 3:09 PM ET

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Catholic bishops criticized on Friday Brazil's plan to hand out millions of free condoms in the world's largest Catholic country when its famously bacchanalian Carnival begins next week.

The health ministry will roll out a new marketing campaign for safe sex on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro and start giving away 35 million free condoms in the streets for Carnival, a festival celebrated by Catholics the world over before the strict period of Lent.

With 150 million Catholics, Brazil has a Carnival that is a five-day street party legendary for liberal amounts of dancing, drinking and sex.

"Is this going to help? I don't think so," Cardinal Geraldo Majella, president of Brazil's Catholic Bishops Council, told journalists in Brasilia on Friday.

After Carnival ends this year,
Pope Benedict will make his first visit to Brazil in May.

The free Carnival condoms are meant to help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases like
AIDS after Brazil slowed transmission rates by giving out condoms in past years.

But the church is against birth control and preaches abstinence from sex before marriage.

It has long questioned Brazil's safe-sex program, which has made condoms available for years in health centers and in some high schools. The
United Nations has praised the program as a model for other developing countries.

In January the government asked students to design a better vending machine to widen distribution. The students with the best idea will win $25,000 and test machines could hit schools in 2008.

"Rules need to be established. If this is the sex education they want ... on this we cannot agree," said Majella.

This year's Carnival slogan is tipped to be: "With condoms, the good feeling goes on after the party is over."

Clever, but most likely nearly accurate...
Top Russian aide likens Putin to FDR

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 8, 10:48 PM ET

MOSCOW -
Vladimir Putin has been likened to czars and Communist Party chiefs, but a top aide came up with an unusual comparison Thursday for the Russian president: Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Speaking at a conference marking 125 years since Roosevelt's birth, Vladislav Surkov, the deputy chief of staff seen as the Kremlin's main ideologue, drew a parallel between one of America's most famous Democrats and a Russian leader who has been accused by Washington of backtracking on democracy.

Surkov found echoes of the United States in Roosevelt's time in today's Russia, news agencies reported.

Likening Russia following the 1991 Soviet collapse to Depression-era America, Surkov suggested that Putin needs to use a firm hand to put the country on the road to recovery.

"Like Roosevelt in his time, today Putin must and should strengthen administrative control and use the potential of presidential power to the maximum degree for the sake of overcoming the crisis," RIA-Novosti quoted him as saying.

"In the 20th century, Roosevelt was our military ally, and in the 21st century he is our ideological ally," the agency quoted him as saying.

Putin and his supporters have often evoked — and sometimes exaggerated — the chaos and uncertainty of the 1990s when explaining their policies and touting their achievements. At the conference, called "Lessons of the New Deal for Modern Russia and the World," Surkov suggested that both Russians in that decade and Americans in the Depression struggled with a frighteningly dark vision of the future.

He said Roosevelt kept America "from catastrophic social upheaval," the report said.

Roosevelt, who was president from 1932 until his death in 1945, oversaw an economic recovery package that sought to lift America out of the Depression. One of the most enduring policies of his New Deal was
Social Security, but he also instituted work relief programs, imposed stricter controls on public utilities and levied heavier taxes on the wealthy.

This just in, python scarfs down gator, explodes...
Python Eats Gator, Explodes
By Denise Kalette
Associated Press
posted: 06 October 2005
10:21 am ET


MIAMI (AP) -- The alligator has some foreign competition at the top of the Everglades food chain, and the results of the struggle are horror-movie messy.

A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said.

The incident has heightened biologists' fears that the nonnative snakes could threaten a host of other animal species in the Everglades.

"It means nothing in the Everglades is safe from pythons, a top-down predator,'' said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor.

Over the years, many pythons have been abandoned in the Everglades by pet owners.

The gory evidence of the latest gator-python encounter -- the fourth documented in the past three years -- was discovered and photographed last week by a helicopter pilot and wildlife researcher.

The snake was found with the gator's hindquarters protruding from its midsection. Mazzotti said the alligator may have clawed at the python's stomach as the snake tried to digest it.

In previous incidents, the alligator won or the battle was an apparent draw.

"There had been some hope that alligators can control Burmese pythons,'' Mazzotti said. "This indicates to me it's going to be an even draw. Sometimes alligators are going to win and sometimes the python will win.''

It is unknown how many pythons are competing with the thousands of alligators in the Everglades, but at least 150 have been captured in the past two years, said Joe Wasilewski, a wildlife biologist and crocodile tracker.

Pythons could threaten many smaller species that conservationists are trying to protect, including other reptiles, otters, squirrels, woodstorks and sparrows, Mazzotti said.

Wasilewski said a 10- or 20-foot python also could pose a risk to an unwary human, especially a child. He added, however, "I don't think this is an imminent threat. This is not a `Be afraid, be very afraid' situation.'''

GROW UP!
Cuba warns satellite TV pirates

By JOHN RICE, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 8, 2:40 PM ET

HAVANA - The U.S. government strives mightily to stamp out intellectual property theft all over the world — except for Cuba, where it tries to broadcast anti-communist messages to anyone able to see U.S. programming through illegal satellite dishes.

Now the Cuban government is striking back, warning TV signal pirates that they face stiff fines and jail terms.

The Communist Party newspaper Granma dedicated a full page Thursday to an account of the discovery and prosecution of four men who sold or maintained the sort of jerry-built satellite TV systems believed to be hidden on thousands of rooftops across Cuba.

It came three days after Cuba denounced a U.S. government strategy that began in December to use Florida television stations to get around Cuban jamming of TV Marti — a move that has made the U.S.-funded station, aimed at undermining
Fidel Castro's government, accessible to thousands of Cubans who could never see it before.

By law, TV Marti is barred from broadcasting propaganda inside the United States, but anti-Castro advocates believe they've found a loophole, and that the Florida stations can be used to reach the island as long as any U.S. viewing is "inadvertent."

At any rate, Cubans themselves aren't saying much about the programs. This may be due to the fact that several households typically share a single antenna and decoding box; all must watch the same program, and most prefer the same sort of shows that are popular anywhere else — music, soap operas, comedy, drama and movies.

Commercial U.S. signals provide a rich alternative to the thin programming on Cuba's four state channels, whose offerings include courses in mathematics, nightly 90-minute pro-government debates and local baseball games.

Miami-based commercial Spanish language stations are particularly popular, and their news and political programs — many of them created by Cuban exiles — are often as stridently anti-Castro as TV Marti's programming.

Granma said Thursday that many of those U.S. channels, along with TV Marti, transmit a message that "is destabilizing and interventionist and forms part of the Bush administration plan aimed at destroying the revolution and with it the Cuban nation."

There is a government-approved satellite television service in Cuba, but it's offered only to resident foreigners, tourists and a select group of officials, and subscribers need a special license to receive the Florida programming.

Under the new U.S. plan, officials pay commercial stations in Florida to carry TV Marti programs. The stations are included in satellite TV packages picked up by the clandestine receivers in Cuba.

Granma's story reflected the grass roots nature of satellite piracy in Cuba, where private business is tightly restricted to promote social and economic equality: Three culprits were caught in a small bicycle tire repair shop in Havana where satellite dishes were made. Also seized were materials to build 30 satellite dishes, metal-cutting equipment, coaxial cable and paint.

Another man who allegedly reactivated satellite reception cards was found with 14 satellite dishes and fined $44,390 — a hefty figure in a country where many official salaries are as low as $14 a month.

All face prison terms as well.

In 2004, U.S. officials estimated there were roughly 10,000 satellite TV dishes in Cuba. Many dishes serve several homes at once and their influence spreads as people tape programs and rent them around the neighborhood for a few cents.

But few Cubans talk openly about the dishes: They're strictly banned for homes and police raids periodically are staged to confiscate illegal antennas hidden in water tanks, behind windows or in air conditioner boxes.

Everyone gets that OJ is a creep, but Fred Goldman SEEMS TO BE revealing himself to be a bigger one!
Simpson barred from spending book money

Thu Feb 8, 7:52 AM ET

Ed: Everyone gets that OJ is a creep, but Fred Goldman SEEMS TO BE revealing himself to be a bigger one! Denying credibility to the Jury on the criminal case just because you can and do gain a fleeting sense of revenge which may be totally misplaced is maniacal and self-destructive! Denying OJ income, while pursuing him relentlessly so that you can win by default because he can't afford to fight you, is seriously, a symptom of moral corruption beyond anything you imagine OJ might've done in the heat of the moment, for which there was no evidence to put him at the scene, at the time, and make the theories skillfully constructed to make the superficial evidence and a DAof questionable integrity seem to likely make OJ the murderer. You don't agree with the Jury, but that is all you have to justify your self-righteousness! Get over yourself, Freddie! Did it occur to you OJ might've been encouraged to do this to screw with you, and you played right into his hands? Dumbass! Apparently, OJ enjoys playing people like you and the Browns, white people whom he can humiliate, and you don't catch on, Captain Ahab.


LOS ANGELES - A state judge has ordered
O.J. Simpson to stop spending money he received for his unpublished book, "If I Did It," about the slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg's ruling on Wednesday extended a restraining order issued last month barring Simpson from spending any earnings from past deals, including books, films and sports memorabilia.

The order, which was sought by Goldman's father, initially did not apply to the advance Simpson received from the book-and-TV deal for "If I Did It" because Fred Goldman had filed a federal lawsuit over the funds. However, the federal lawsuit was dismissed Jan. 24 by a judge in Los Angeles who said he had no jurisdiction over Simpson, who lives in Florida.

The new order will remain in effect until a Feb. 20 hearing, in which Simpson's attorneys must provide the former football star's financial records if they want to ask the court to make an exemption on his spending.

"We dare him to provide a financial statement under oath," said Goldman's attorney, David J. Cook.

An after-hours message left for Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, was not immediately returned. Simpson told The Associated Press in November that the advance had already been spent, some of it on tax obligations.

The ruling is the latest in a decade-long battle following a 1997 civil judgment against Simpson that held him liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Fred Goldman alleges Simpson is trying to avoid paying the $33.5 million judgment, which has ballooned to about $40 million with interest.

Simpson's book, which was spiked in November by the publisher, reportedly described how he theoretically would have killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

Cook said the Goldman family remains concerned Simpson is shopping another book deal.

Posted by hotelbravo.org at 1:57 PM CST | post your comment (0) | link to this post
Updated: Thursday, 8 February 2007 2:50 PM CST

Obama opposes Boomer polerization as though it is silly, but this will take him down...!
Black voters still unsure about Obama

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent 55 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) opened his 2008 drive for the White House with a promise to bridge historic political divides, but so far it is unclear how many black voters will come along for the ride.

Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, has promised to wage "a different kind of politics" in a run for the White House that could shatter U.S. racial barriers and make him the first black president.

But polls show he lags well behind Democratic rival Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York among black voters, the most loyal Democratic voting bloc, and his candidacy has been greeted cautiously by some veteran black leaders uncertain about his experience and views.

The wary approach is not surprising given Obama is a relative newcomer on the national stage and, unlike many established black leaders, did not build his reputation during the civil-rights struggles of the 1960s, analysts said.

"People don't know who he is. Outside of Illinois, black voters and everybody else are asking, 'Who is this guy?"' said Ron Walters, a former adviser to civil rights leader
Jesse Jackson and head of the African-American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland.

"They don't know his record, they don't know his background or where he came from, so they are asking very understandable questions," he said. "He has to win their vote like anyone else."

Obama, the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, has quickly become a leading contender for the heavily contested Democratic nomination, along with Clinton and 2004 vice presidential nominee
John Edwards.

He is to formally launch his campaign on Saturday at the old state capitol in Springfield, Illinois, where the man who freed the slaves as president, Abraham Lincoln, delivered a famous 1858 "House Divided" speech decrying the country's divisions over slavery.

But Obama's status as the first black presidential contender considered to have a real shot at winning the White House has not translated into automatic black support.

Jackson, a veteran of losing Democratic presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988, has not endorsed Obama. Neither has the Rev.
Al Sharpton, a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 who has not ruled out another run.

CLINTON LEADS POLLS

Polls show Clinton is favored by a majority of black voters, with Obama a distant second. Clinton, whose husband President
Bill Clinton is popular with black voters, receives much higher favorable ratings from blacks than Obama.

Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, also is making a concerted pitch for black support and launched his campaign in December from a poor, primarily black New Orleans neighborhood ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

"Black voters have choices now, they have
Hillary Clinton and John Edwards," Walters said. "And this time there is a context in this election that might be even more persuasive than race, and that's the war."

Polls show blacks oppose the
Iraq war at higher percentages than white voters, making Obama's early opposition to the war a potential selling point. Clinton, attacked by some Democrats for voting to authorize the war and being too slow to renounce her vote, has stepped up her criticism of the conflict.

Black voters constitute about 10 percent of the U.S. electorate, and they often make up more than 40 percent of the Democratic primary vote in key Southern states like South Carolina, the fourth state to cast ballots in the 2008 Democratic nomination race.

David Bositis, a political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which researches issues affecting blacks, said Obama has plenty of time to win over black voters.

His first and bigger task, he said, will be winning white votes in the heavily white early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as gaining support from Hispanics in Nevada, the second state to vote in the Democratic race.

"Black voters are looking for a candidate who is capable of winning the general election, and ultimately how Obama is viewed by black voters will depend on his prospects," Bositis said.

"If he comes out of those early primaries looking like he could win it all and be elected president, he will get a substantial boost in black support," he said.

...and more since then as Body Count mentality emirges...and about time!
Four Marines killed; U.S. toll now 3,114

21 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four U.S. Marines were killed in fighting in Anbar province, the military said Thursday. The Marines, who were assigned to Multi-National Force — West, died Wednesday from wounds sustained due to enemy action in two separate incidents in the insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, according to a statement. The deaths raised to at least 3,114 members of the U.S. military who have died since the
Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The U.S. Embassy, meanwhile, said U.S. officials were investigating a previously undisclosed Jan. 31 incident involving a civilian helicopter. A military official in Washington said the helicopter either crashed or was forced to land by gunfire. The passengers and crew were rescued by another U.S. helicopter, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

If confirmed, it would be the sixth helicopter to crash or be forced down in Iraq since Jan. 20, prompting the U.S. military to review flight operations. The most recent crash occurred Wednesday when a Marine CH-46 Sea Knight went down northwest of Baghdad, killing seven people.

Gen. James Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, told a group of government officials in Washington on Thursday that the military did not believe the Sea Knight was shot down. An Iraqi air force officer said, however, that it was shot down with a missile. An al-Qaida-linked Sunni group claimed responsibility.

Iraqi forces Thursday detained a senior Health Ministry official accused of corruption and helping to funnel millions of dollars to Shiite militiamen blamed for much of the recent sectarian violence in the capital, the U.S. military said. The raid was the latest in a crackdown on radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, coming a day after the chief U.S. military spokesman said a security sweep to stop the rampant attacks in the capital was under way.

In Washington, a military official said it was the highest-level arrest so far and provided an example of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's assertion that nobody and no place will be exempt from the crackdown.

Maj. Gen. Abdullah Khamis, the Iraq army commander for eastern Baghdad, said the arrest of the Health Ministry official was not part of the security operation, which he said would be different from two previous attempts that failed to pacify the capital.

"The elements of the new plan will be completely different in all aspects from the previous plans," he said. "It will be comprehensive ... it will enjoy political support."

West of Baghdad, a U.S. airstrike killed 13 insurgents in a raid on two safe houses where intelligence showed foreign fighters were assembled near Amiriyah, the military said. Five militants were detained and a weapons cache was found in an initial raid on a target near the safe houses.

Police and hospital officials in the area offered a conflicting account, saying the airstrike hit the village of Zaidan south of
Abu Ghraib and flattened four houses, killing 45 people, including women, children and old people.

An Associated Press photo showed the body of a boy in the back of a pickup truck at the nearby Fallujah hospital and people there said he was a victim of the Zaydan airstrike. Other photos showed several wounded children being treated in the hospital.

Amiriyah is in volatile Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad where hundreds of U.S. troops have been killed.

At least 43 other people were killed or found dead in Iraq. Car bombs struck Shiite targets in Baghdad and south of the capital.

The military statement did not identify the official detained Thursday, but a ministry spokesman said earlier that U.S. and Iraqi forces had seized deputy Health Minister Hakim al-Zamili, an al-Sadr supporter, from his office in northern Baghdad.

A large white boot print was left on the bullet-pocked office door, which apparently had been kicked in by the troops, and shattered glass and overturned computers and phones were scattered on the floor.

The Shiite Health Minister Ali al-Shemari, who also has been linked to al-Sadr, and several other members of the movement denounced the raid.

"This is a violation of Iraq's sovereignty," he said. "They should have a court order to carry out a raid like this."

The detainee was implicated in the deaths of several ministry officials, including the director-general in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

He reportedly orchestrated several kickback schemes related to inflated contracts for equipment and services, with millions of dollars allegedly funneled to the Mahdi Army militia that is loyal to al-Sadr, according to the statement.

The official also was suspected of providing large-scale employment of militia members who used Health Ministry facilities and services for "sectarian kidnapping and murder," the military said.

Joint U.S.-Iraqi forces stormed the Health Ministry compound early Thursday, causing its employees to flee, spokesman Qassim Yahya said.

One of al-Zamili's bodyguards said he heard gunshots, then the Americans asked him to step aside and approached the deputy health minister, who introduced himself by name and title. A U.S. soldier told al-Zamili he was on a list of wanted names and handcuffed him before leading him away, the bodyguard said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

In the deadliest attack Thursday, a parked car bomb exploded at a meat market in the predominantly Shiite town of Aziziyah, 56 miles south of Baghdad, killing 20 people and wounding 45, police said.

Another parked car bomb tore through a minibus in the mainly Shiite Amin neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad, killing seven passengers and wounding 10, police said. The blast blew out the windows of at least one car parked nearby and left piles of rubble and ashes that were being cleared away by street sweepers as the burned out frame of the bus stood nearby.

Baghdad's streets have been tense as U.S. officials confirmed the new security operation was under way. U.S. armor rushed through streets and Iraqi armored personnel carriers guarded bridges and major intersections.

New coils of barbed-wire and blast barriers marked checkpoints that caused traffic bottlenecks. U.S. Apache helicopters flew over parts of the city where they hadn't been seen before. Gunfire still rang out and some residents said they doubted life would get better.

"Nothing will work; it's too late," said Hashem al-Moussawi, a resident of the Sadr City Shiite enclave who was badly wounded in a bombing in December.

The chief U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, said Wednesday the Baghdad security operation would be implemented gradually. It is the third attempt by al-Maliki and his U.S. backers to pacify Baghdad since the Shiite leader came to office in May. The operation, which will involve about 90,000 Iraqi and American troops, was seen by many as a last chance to curb Iraq's sectarian war.

Just as Sharon was obviously baiting the Palistinians, so too is Olmert, to prove their racist perceptions correct!

Reuters
Olmert spurns bid to reconsider Jerusalem dig

By Jeffrey Heller Thu Feb 8, 9:52 AM ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has spurned a call by his defense minister to consider halting excavations near Jerusalem's most sacred Islamic shrine that have angered Muslims, an official said on Thursday.

The dig, outside a compound housing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque, has exposed the depth of Arab suspicions over Israeli activities in Arab East Jerusalem and the simmering tensions between Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

Arab states have asked
Israel to halt the work at Islam's third holiest shrine, charging it could damage the mosque's foundations. Palestinian militants have threatened to end a three-month old Gaza truce with Israel.

Israel said the holy places would not be harmed by what it called an attempt, mandated by law, to salvage artifacts before construction of a pedestrian bridge leading to the complex known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount.

An Israeli official, confirming a report in the Haaretz newspaper, said Peretz, leader of Olmert's main coalition partner, the centre-left Labor Party, had sent a written appeal to the prime minister asking for the project to be reassessed.

"Our problem with the work at the Temple Mount ... is its effect on our relations with important, moderate elements in the Arab world who are very angered by it," Labor's Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israel Radio.

Israeli officials called the project essential as an existing ramp leading up to the complex was considered unsafe after it was damaged by a snowstorm and an earthquake in 2004.

Olmert's office said the excavations, some 50 meters (yards) from the base of the compound, would go on.

"A thorough examination of the matter would reveal that nothing about the work underway will harm anyone, and there is no truth in the contentions against the work," it said, in a snub to Peretz.

Israeli media have been rife with reports that Olmert wants to replace the former trade union chief, who has little military experience, and appoint former Prime Minister
Ehud Barak as defense minister.

Peretz and Barak, Israel's most decorated soldier, will do battle in a Labor Party leadership vote in May.

Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, on Thursday condemned the Israeli excavations as a provocation and appealed for international intervention to stop them. "The kingdom expresses its condemnation of these aggressive Israeli actions," state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted an official as saying.

GAZA ROCKETS

Citing the Jerusalem excavations, the militant group Islamic Jihad, which had not signed on to the November ceasefire, said it fired rockets from Gaza at Israel. The attack caused no serious damage.

In a series of skirmishes with Palestinians, police have arrested some 30 people in Jerusalem since the work began on Tuesday and many are still detained, a police spokesman said.

"There is no doubt that tomorrow will be the test," Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco told Army Radio, referring to Muslim prayers on Friday.

Israeli police, out in force, blocked the Mufti, the most senior Islamic cleric in Jerusalem, and officials of the Islamic religious trust from approaching the compound.

The shrine has been a flashpoint of violence in the past. A Palestinian uprising began in 2000 after then-opposition leader
Ariel Sharon toured the hilltop area.

Israel's opening of an entrance to an archaeological tunnel near al-Haram al-Sharif in 1996 triggered Palestinian protests and led to clashes in which 61 Arabs and 15 Israeli soldiers died.

The compound, where two biblical temples once stood and Muslims believe Mohammad ascended to heaven, is in Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a step that has not won international recognition.

Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future state.

Wars instigated by the US, require US leadership to stand trial along side the warriors!
Anfal officer wants U.S. to face justice

By BUSHRA JUHI, Associated Press Writer 48 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A former military officer on trial for the mass killing of Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s testified Thursday he was defending the country from
Iran and that U.S. commanders should also face prosecution for waging an "illegal" war in
Iraq.

Rashid Hussein Mohammed, a former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi military, is among six defendants on trial for crimes against humanity and other offenses allegedly committed during Operation Anfal, a deadly crackdown against pro-Iranian Kurdish rebels in the 1980-88 war with Iran.

More than 180,000 Kurds, mostly civilians, were killed, according to the prosecution.

"If defending our country is our crime, then we are proud of it," Mohammed said. "We do not regret liberating our country."

Mohammed said that top U.S. commanders should also face prosecution for the 2003 invasion of Iraq to topple
Saddam Hussein.

"This war was illegal," Mohammed said of the Iraq invasion. "No U.S. military commander has asked his government about the legitimacy of the occupation."

Since the invasion, a legal arrangement has existed under which American troops are immune from prosecution under Iraqi law. The
U.N. Security Council has also authorized the U.S. and coalition presence at the request of the Iraqi government.

During his testimony, Mohammed maintained his role in the Anfal crackdown was to provide technical advice and that he did not take a direct part in killing anyone.

"I did not commit any crime against humanity," he said. "The ethnic cleansing was a big lie."

He said the Iraqi army had to take severe measures in Kurdistan because Iranian forces were planning to flood Baghdad by blowing up two major dams in the north.

Saddam was a defendant in the Anfal trial but was sentenced to death after his conviction for the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt against him in Dujail. He was hanged Dec. 30, even though the Anfal trial had begun.

___

Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.

Pressure? Dollars to Donuts, Lisa Nowak was brought up on being a "Role Model," rather than on "Reality!"
Astronaut suffered 'mental anguish'

Ed: The Key here is to evaluate the substance and fluff of being a role model vs. worshipping at the feet of one!

By RASHA MADKOUR and DAVID CRARY, Associated Press Writers 1 hour, 28 minutes ago

HOUSTON - Lisa Nowak chose a juggling act of dauntingly high difficulty: to be an astronaut and a mother of three. Her background — high school valedictorian, Naval Academy graduate, test pilot — seemed to equip her for the challenge. Yet as she and some of her acquaintances acknowledged, the stresses on her and her family were extraordinarily intense.

On Wednesday, transformed from space hero to criminal suspect, Nowak returned to Houston for a medical assessment, a day after she was charged in Florida with attempted murder and attempted kidnapping in what police depicted as a love triangle involving a fellow astronaut.

The woman viewed as a role model by the schoolchildren she often addressed was met on the tarmac by police and escorted into a waiting squad car after her release on bail. Her head was covered by a jacket. She faced a medical exam at Johnson Space Center.

NASA, at a loss to explain what went wrong, said it would revamp its psychological screening process in light of Nowak's arrest. The review will look at how astronauts are screened for psychological problems and whether Nowak's dealings with co-workers signaled complications.

Nowak's children were with her husband, Richard, who works for a NASA contractor. She was being replaced as a ground communicator for the next space shuttle mission in March, a job in which she would talk to the astronauts from Houston during their flight.

Some part of any breakdown may defy rational explanation, but those who know Nowak and NASA could sense the stress she was under.

Dr. Jon Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who lost his wife, astronaut Laurel Clark, in the 2003 Columbia disaster, said Nowak provided invaluable support to his family then, at the cost of losing time with her own family.

"She was the epitome of managing a very hectic career, making sacrifices to accommodate her family," Clark said in a telephone interview. "All those stresses can conspire to be overwhelming. ... Clearly she suffered a lot of mental anguish.

"There is a lot of marital stress in the astronaut corps in general — a huge amount," Clark said. "It's not unheard of for things to change into relationships that are beyond professional."

Clark also said there can be extra pressure on NASA's female astronauts — and the men, like himself, who marry them.

"They made more sacrifices than the 'Right Stuff' guys," he said, comparing women astronauts to the original all-male astronaut corps. "They have to balance two careers — to be a mom and wife and an astronaut. ... You don't come home at night, like most of the male astronauts, and have everything ready for you."

Clark expressed empathy with Richard Nowak, who separated from his wife a few weeks ago after 19 years of marriage.

"He was a real low-key, go-with-the flow, unobtrusive person," Clark said. "You almost have to be to survive in the realm. ... It was hard on our marriage to have my wife gone all the time, and eventually have her career surpass mine."

Lisa Nowak grew up in Rockville, Md., where she was co-valedictorian and member of the track team in high school. After graduating from the Naval Academy, she received a master's degree in aeronautical engineering, flew as a test pilot in the mid-1990s while caring for an infant son, and became a full-fledged astronaut in 1998.

"It's definitely a challenge to do the flying and take care of even one child and do all the other things you have to do. But I learned that you can do it," she said in a recent interview with Ladies Home Journal.

Last July, in the climax of her career, she flew on the space shuttle Discovery, helping operate its robotic arm and winning praise for her performance.

However, there were signs of turmoil in her life as she tried to balance her career with raising a teenage son and 5-year-old twin girls.

In November, a neighbor reported hearing the sounds of dishes being thrown inside Nowak's Houston home. And she had begun to form a relationship with William Oefelein, a fellow astronaut and father of two whose own marriage ended in divorce in 2005.

Nowak told police Monday that the relationship was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship."

Charlene Davis, the mother of Oefelein's ex-wife, Michaella, said Wednesday that Nowak — although friends with Oefelein for years — had nothing to do with his marriage breakup.

"I think there were a lot of bad choices being made, and Lisa just made a horrible one," Davis said in a telephone interview. "And I just feel sorry for her. What the hell was she thinking?"

The final unraveling came this week when police arrested Nowak for allegedly trying to kidnap Colleen Shipman, an Air Force captain from Florida whom she believed was her rival for Oefelein's affections.

Police charged Nowak with attempting to murder Shipman based on weapons and other items found with Nowak or in her car: pepper spray, a BB-gun, a new steel mallet, knife and rubber tubing.

Those who know Nowak away from the high-pressure atmosphere of NASA were stunned.

"I was very surprised... She always seemed very normal to me," said Candis Silva, who lives three houses down from the Nowaks. "She was a good role model for our daughters."

Thomas Nagy, a Palo Alto, Calif., psychologist who has studied the stresses facing dual-career couples, hesitated to offer any specific diagnosis of Nowak, but said such seemingly desperate acts could result from a chronic personality disorder or from a period of high stress that clouds one's judgment.

"When people are in that role of trying to do everything to the Nth degree, they don't get enough sleep, they don't do enough activities that are fun, they don't get enough exercise," he said.

"If we ignore those because we're trying to do it all, we pay a price — more anxiety, more depression."

Jon Clark expressed hope that Americans would empathize with Nowak, rather than condemning her.

"Obviously, she had some things that didn't go well," he said. "Any of us could be there. All of us have a dark side."

___

Rasha Madkour reported from Houston and David Crary from Austin, Texas. Associated Press writer Joe Stinebaker in Houston also contributed to this report.

Running away to clear brush in Paraguay when your reign is over, Mr. President?
U.S. soldier to be tried in Italy

By MARTA FALCONI, Associated Press Writer Wed Feb 7, 11:35 AM ET

ROME - A judge Wednesday ordered a U.S. soldier to stand trial in absentia for the fatal shooting of an Italian intelligence agent at a checkpoint in Baghdad, the prosecutor said.

Spc. Mario Lozano is indicted for murder and attempted murder in the death of Nicola Calipari, who was shot on March 4, 2005, on his way to the Baghdad airport shortly after securing the release of an Italian journalist who had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital, prosecutor Pietro Saviotti said.

Another agent, who was driving the car, and the journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, were wounded.

"This looks to me like the first step on a long road toward truth and justice, and I hope justice will come in the end," said a visibly emotional Rosa Calipari, the agent's widow.

Lozano was not at the hearing and his whereabouts are not known. Judge Sante Spinaci set his trial date for April 17.

According to prosecutors, the judge said in his ruling that Lozano can be tried for "political murder," because Calipari was a civil servant and his slaying damaged Italy's interests.

Italian law does not allow foreigners charged with killing Italians abroad to be tried in absentia unless the murder has political connotations, prosecutors have said in the past.

Sgrena's lawyer, Alessandro Gamberini, said the judge agreed to attach a civil lawsuit against the Defense Department.

Prosecutors so far have not sought the soldier's arrest. Lozano, a member of the New York-based 69th Infantry Regiment, has said through friends in the military that he had no idea the car was carrying the Italians.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there are no plans to make Lozano available for the trial.

"We conducted a very thorough investigation ... involved the Italians ... made available all the information," Whitman said. "As far as the Defense Department is concerned, we and the Ministry of Defense in Italy consider this a closed matter."

The defense had tried to have the case dismissed, arguing that Lozano had merely been following orders.

"I wasn't expecting this, because I think there were grounds for a dismissal because of the fact that he was following orders," said Lozano's court-appointed lawyer, Fabrizio Cardinali.

Sgrena said she was satisfied with the judge's decision. "It was what we have asked for," she said.

If convicted, Lozano could be sentenced to life in prison, said Francesca Coppi, who is Rosa Calipari's lawyer.

The case has strained U.S.-Italian relations. The United States and Italy drew different conclusions in reports on the incident. U.S. authorities have said the vehicle was traveling fast, alarming soldiers, who feared an insurgent attack. Italian officials claimed the car was traveling at normal speed and accused the U.S. military of failing to signal there was a checkpoint.

Calipari's death angered Italians, already largely opposed to the war in
Iraq, and the agent was mourned as a national hero.

Cheney to testify on his behalf, but Libby will remain silent...Russert brings huge credibility to proceedings...
TV reporter contradicts Libby in perjury trial

By Andy Sullivan Wed Feb 7, 6:05 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prominent TV reporter contradicted testimony by Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Wednesday as the prosecution neared the end of its perjury case against the former vice presidential aide.

Libby resigned as Vice President
Dick Cheney's chief of staff when he was charged with lying to investigators as they sought to determine who leaked the identity of a
CIA operative after her husband Joseph Wilson criticized the Bush administration. Nobody has been charged with intentionally blowing CIA operative
Valerie Plame's cover.

Journalist Tim Russert of NBC News said he did not discuss the CIA operative with Libby in July 2003, offering an account sharply at odds with Libby's recorded testimony heard earlier by the jury.

Instead, their conversation was devoted to Libby's complaints about a show on NBC's cable network, Russert said.

"What the hell's going on with 'Hardball'?" Russert recalled Libby saying. "Damn it, I'm tired of hearing my name over and over again."

"He was very quick with his words," Russert added.

Russert is likely the prosecution's last witness. Other government officials and journalists have testified that the White House was bent on discrediting Wilson after he said the Bush administration twisted intelligence about
Iraq's nuclear ambitions as it built a case for invasion.

Jurors earlier in the day heard Libby say, in an audio recording of his grand jury testimony, that Cheney first told him about Plame in June 2003, after Wilson had made his charges anonymously.

Libby said he forgot about Plame until Russert mentioned her in a phone conversation a month later, after Wilson had gone public.

Russert said he couldn't have told Libby about Plame because he didn't know about her until her identity was made public a few days later by columnist Robert Novak.

Defense attorney Theodore Wells asked Russert why he didn't try to pry information about Wilson from Libby while he had him on the phone.

"I didn't have the opportunity, because he was focused on complaining about a program I had not seen," Russert said.

Libby's defense team will try to show that he did not intentionally lie to prosecutors, but simply could not accurately remember conversations he might have had about Plame because he was preoccupied with national security matters.

Jurors have heard Libby speak on tape, but they might not hear him in person.

Libby's lawyers have indicated in a court filing that he might not take the stand, although Cheney is expected to testify on his behalf.

Army insistance on charging Watada only brought this mini-quagmire on themselves.
Mistrial declared in war objector court-martial

By Daisuke Wakabayashi Wed Feb 7, 8:31 PM ET

FORT LEWIS, Washington (Reuters) - A military judge declared a mistrial on Wednesday and set a new trial date for the court-martial of a U.S. Army officer who publicly refused to fight in
Iraq and criticized the war.

First Lt. Ehren Watada had faced up to four years in prison and a dishonorable discharge if found guilty on a charge of missing movements for not deploying to Iraq and two charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for his criticism of the war.

Lt. Col. John Head, the military judge, declared a mistrial after throwing out a "stipulation of fact" -- an agreement over certain facts of the trial -- that forced the government to request a mistrial instead of immediately arguing its entire case over to prove those facts with new witnesses.

The judge said he could not accept the stipulation, because it amounts to a confession to the missing movements charge when Watada, 28, stated he is not guilty.

At the center of the dispute is the defense's assertion that Watada would not go to Iraq because he considered it an unlawful order that would make him party to war crimes and as result, it was not his duty to obey it.

"There is a material misunderstanding over what this stipulation is," said Head.

It was an unexpected ending to a case that had rallied the anti-war movement in the first known court-martial of a U.S. Army officer for publicly refusing to serve in Iraq.

Army officials said the mistrial was an example of how the military justice system protects the rights of the accused. Watada's lawyer, Eric Seitz, called it "significantly positive."

"The mistrial is very likely to have the consequence of ending this case because double jeopardy may prevent the government from proceeding with a retrial," he said in a statement.

The judge set the new trial to start on the week of March 19, but agreed the timing would be subject to change. Watada will report to duty at Fort Lewis until the new trial begins.

'START FROM SCRATCH'

Watada agreed to the stipulation before the court-martial began in exchange for the government dropping two additional charges of conduct unbecoming an officer.

In the stipulation, Watada said he did not board the plane with the rest of his unit to Iraq and admitted to making public statements criticizing the war and accusing U.S.
President George W. Bush's administration of deceiving the American people to enter into a war of aggression.

Watada does not dispute the facts, but said it was not an admission of guilt because it does not take into account the intent behind his actions.

When asked by the judge if he thought it was his duty to board the aircraft to Iraq, Watada said no. "I felt the order was illegal," he said in the courtroom where he wore his dark-green dress uniform.

The defense had aimed to show that Watada acted on principle and tried to avoid a public confrontation with the Army by offering to resign his commission or fight elsewhere.

In a new trial, the defense will be allowed to again file a motion to argue the legality of the war. A new judge may preside over the case and all the proceedings before and during the first trial will be wiped clean.

"Everything will start from scratch," said Lt. Col. Robert Resnick, chief of administrative law at Ft. Lewis.

Before the trial, the judge had ruled that the defense was not allowed to argue whether the war itself is illegal, asserting the matter could not be settled in military court.