Docudharma Times Thursday Dec.13

This is an Open Thread: Its Still Free

Headlines For Thursday December 13: From a Critic of Tribunals to Top Judge: Study Faults Charities for Veterans: State accuses Blue Shield of illegal cancellations: Kasparov won’t run for Russian president:

USA

From a Critic of Tribunals to Top Judge

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

Published: December 13, 2007

Back in 2002, a master’s degree candidate at the Naval War College wrote a paper on the Bush administration’s plan to use military commissions to try Guantánamo suspects, concluding that “even a good military tribunal is a bad idea.”

It drew little notice at the time, but the paper has gained a second life because of its author’s big promotion: Col. Ralph H. Kohlmann of the Marines is now the chief judge of the military commissions at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The system, Judge Kohlmann wrote in 2002, would face criticism for the “apparent lack of independence” of military judges and would have “credibility problems,” the very argument made by Guantánamo’s critics.

Study Faults Charities for Veterans

Some Nonprofits Shortchange Troops, Watchdog Group Says

By Philip Rucker

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, December 13, 2007; Page A01

Americans gave millions of dollars in the past year to veterans charities designed to help troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, but several of the groups spent relatively little money on the wounded, according to a leading watchdog organization and federal tax filings.

Eight veterans charities, including some of the nation’s largest, gave less than a third of the money raised to the causes they champion, far below the recommended standard, the American Institute of Philanthropy says in a report. One group passed along 1 cent for every dollar raised, the report says. Another paid its founder and his wife a combined $540,000 in compensation and benefits last year, a Washington Post analysis of tax filings showed.

State accuses Blue Shield of illegal cancellations

By Lisa Girion, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 13, 2007

California’s top insurance regulator has accused Blue Shield, one of the state’s largest health plans, of 1,262 violations of claims-handling laws and regulations that resulted in more than 200 people losing their medical coverage.

Calling the allegations “serious violations that completely undermine the public’s trust in our healthcare delivery system and are potentially devastating to patients,” Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said he would announce today that he would seek a $12.6-million fine.

Blue Shield called the charges “grossly unfair” and vowed to vigorously contest them and the proposed fine.

Europe

Kasparov won’t run for Russian president

MOSCOW – Kremlin critic and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov will not run in Russia’s presidential election after authorities repeatedly blocked supporters’ efforts to hold a nominating conference, his spokeswoman said Thursday.

Under election law, Thursday is the last day that potential candidates for the March 2 vote have to hold such conferences.

A spokeswoman for the broad-based opposition coalition that Kasparov heads told The Associated Press that organizers have been unable to find an auditorium or hall in Moscow where activists could gather and vote to put forth Kasparov as a candidate.

Spokeswoman Marina Litvinovich accused the government of pressuring landlords to not rent to the coalition, Other Russia.

EU heads to sign landmark treaty

EU leaders are preparing to sign a treaty in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, that will greatly alter the way members govern themselves.

The treaty creates an EU president and a vastly more powerful foreign policy chief for the Union’s 27 nations.

At the same time the document scraps veto powers in many policy areas.

It is a replacement for the EU constitution abandoned following French and Dutch opposition. EU leaders insist the two texts are in no way equivalent.

Middle East

First Palestinian policewomen begin work

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian pedestrians gawked at the unusual sight of female police officers directing traffic in Ramallah on Wednesday, the first batch of women to venture into a job traditionally reserved for men in the West Bank.

The women wore uniforms of navy blue pants and light blue shirts and many donned navy blue headscarves, a sign of Muslim modesty. Some male police officers sneered at the women as they directed traffic and kept pedestrians from jaywalking on their first day on the job.

The new recruits are part of the first class of Palestinian policewomen who recently completed a European Union-sponsored training program, part of a broader EU effort to improve ill-equipped Palestinian law enforcement agencies.

Murder of general deepens crisis in Lebanon

· Chief of operations dies in Beirut explosion

· Attack linked to split over presidency candidates

Ian Black, Middle East editor

Thursday December 13, 2007

The Guardian

Lebanon’s political crisis deepened further yesterday when a senior general was killed in a bomb attack in a Christian suburb on the outskirts of Beirut.

General Francois al-Hajj, the army chief of operations, had been widely expected to become chief of staff if the incumbent, General Michel Suleiman, were chosen as the country’s next president.

Three other people were also reported to have died in Baabda when a parked car exploded as the general’s vehicle drove past in the morning rush hour. Hajj’s body and that of a bodyguard were thrown into a ravine by the force of the blast.

Latin America

5 charged in alleged plot to fund Argentine candidate

The U.S. says the men concealed their role in a Venezuelan bid to send $800,000 to President Fernandez’s campaign.

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 13, 2007

BUENOS AIRES — U.S. authorities have charged five foreign men as unregistered Venezuelan agents in connection with an alleged scheme to smuggle $800,000 to the election campaign of newly inaugurated Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, federal officials in Miami said Wednesday.

The defendants, four of whom have been arrested in South Florida and appeared in court Wednesday, stand accused of trying to conceal the source and destination of the cash that was seized in August in a suitcase at an airport here, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Miami.

The four men in custody include three Venezuelan citizens and a Uruguayan national. Another Venezuelan suspect remained at large.

Africa

Senate OKs cutting investment with Sudan

WASHINGTON – State and local governments and other institutions could divest Sudan related investments under legislation passed by the Senate late Wednesday despite administration opposition.

The bill, designed to pressure Sudan to ease suffering in its Darfur region and sponsored by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was approved shortly before midnight under a consent agreement in which no vote was taken.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions driven from their homes in four years of violence in the Darfur region since ethnic African rebels took up arms against militia supported by the Arab-dominated central government.

Thabo Mbeki faces humiliation as rival’s bandwagon rolls on

With only three days to go until South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) holds its most important conference since the end of apartheid, the populist politician Jacob Zuma has shored up a coalition that looks likely to humiliate President Thabo Mbeki.

Mr Zuma, 65, who holds a clear lead over Mr Mbeki in the battle to be the ANC’s next President, was campaigning in his Zulu heartland today alongside the man who has made his victory a near certainty.

Asia

NATO chief urges Japan to support Afghan efforts

TOKYO (AFP) – The head of NATO called Thursday for Japan’s support for efforts to quell insurgency in Afghanistan amid intense debate in this pacifist nation about how to contribute to global security.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer urged closer ties between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Japan, the world’s second largest economy.

His visit comes as Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda struggles to push through legislation to resume an Indian Ocean naval refuelling mission in support of US-led operations in Afghanistan.

After seven years, Dutch diplomat puts adopted daughter back up for adoption

Vaudine England in Hong Kong and Kate Connolly in Berlin

Thursday December 13, 2007

The Guardian

A Dutch couple living in Hong Kong yesterday found themselves at the centre of an international controversy after they gave up their daughter for adoption seven years after they adopted her themselves.

Raymond Poeteray, 55, who has worked as a Dutch diplomat for more than 20 years, and his wife, Meta, adopted Jade, an ethnic Korean girl, when she was four months old.

Poeteray told the South China Morning Post that the adoption had gone wrong. He said that his family was “trying hard to deal with it”.