Docudharma Times Sunday June 22

Beer For Everyone

John And Cindy Are Buying

Inside a 9/11 Mastermind’s Interrogation

By SCOTT SHANE

Published: June 22, 2008

WASHINGTON – In a makeshift prison in the north of Poland, Al Qaeda’s engineer of mass murder faced off against his Central Intelligence Agency interrogator. It was 18 months after the 9/11 attacks, and the invasion of Iraq was giving Muslim extremists new motives for havoc. If anyone knew about the next plot, it was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

The interrogator, Deuce Martinez, a soft-spoken analyst who spoke no Arabic, had turned down a C.I.A. offer to be trained in waterboarding. He chose to leave the infliction of pain and panic to others, the gung-ho paramilitary types whom the more cerebral interrogators called “knuckledraggers.”

Philippines ferry hit by typhoon

BBC

Fears are growing for more than 700 people on a ferry which officials say has capsized in the central Philippines in the wake of a typhoon.

Rescuers are scouring the area but their efforts are being hampered by heavy seas and gale force winds.

Officials on Sibuyan island say four bodies have been recovered. There are unconfirmed reports of three survivors.

Typhoon Fengshen has caused flash floods and landslides, killing at least 80 people elsewhere in the Philippines.

The Philippine President, Gloria Arroyo, has demanded an explanation as to why the ferry was allowed to leave port on Friday despite warnings that a typhoon was about to hit.

USA

3 in 10 Americans Admit to Race Bias

Survey Shows Age, Too, May Affect Election Views

 By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, June 22, 2008; Page A01  

As Sen. Barack Obama opens his campaign as the first African American on a major party presidential ticket, nearly half of all Americans say race relations in the country are in bad shape and three in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Lingering racial bias affects the public’s assessments of the Democrat from Illinois, but offsetting advantages and Sen. John McCain’s age could be bigger factors in determining the next occupant of the White House.

John McCain could have a conflict brewing

His wife, Cindy McCain, owns a beer distribution company that has engaged in lobbying. As senator he’s recused himself from alcohol issues, but as president he wouldn’t be able to.

By Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

June 22, 2008  

Hensley & Co., one of the nation’s major beer wholesalers, has brought the family of Cindy McCain wealth, prestige and influence in Phoenix, but it could also create conflicts for her husband, Sen. John McCain, if he is elected president in November.

Hensley, founded by Cindy McCain’s late father, holds federal and state licenses to distribute beer and lobbies regulatory agencies on alcohol issues that involve public health and safety.

The company has opposed such groups as Mothers Against Drunk Driving in fighting proposed federal rules requiring alcohol content information on every package of beer, wine and liquor.

Its executives, including John McCain’s son Andrew, have written at least 10 letters in recent years to the Treasury Department, have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to a beer industry political action committee, and hold a seat on the board of the politically powerful National Beer Wholesalers Assn.

Middle East

Haditha victims’ kin outraged as Marines go free

By Leila Fadel | McClatchy Newspapers

HADITHA, Iraq – Khadija Hassan still shrouds her body in black, nearly three years after the deaths of her four sons. They were killed on Nov. 19, 2005, along with 20 other people in the deadliest documented case of U.S. troops killing civilians since the Vietnam War.

Eight Marines were charged in the case, but in the intervening years, criminal charges have been dismissed against six. A seventh Marine was acquitted. The residents of Haditha, after being told they could depend on U.S. justice, feel betrayed.

ElBaradei warns against strike on Iran

(CNN)

A military strike on Iran would turn the Middle East “into a ball of fire,” said Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency.

ElBaradei made the remarks in an interview aired on Saturday by Al Arabiya TV. The interview comes a day after reports emerged that Israel conducted a large-scale military exercise that the United States believes is in part a message to Iran that Israel has the capability to attack its nuclear program.

“In my opinion, any military strike — as I mentioned — is the worst thing that can happen now,” said ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Asia

Pakistan troops ‘aid Taliban’

New classified US documents reveal that mass infiltration of Frontier Corps by Afghan insurgents is helping latest offensive

Peter Beaumont and Mark Townsend

The Observer,

Sunday June 22, 2008

The Pakistani Frontier Corps has been heavily infiltrated and influenced by Taliban militants, sometimes joining in attacks on coalition forces, according to classified US ‘after-action’ reports compiled following clashes on the border.

According to those familiar with the material, regarded as deeply sensitive by the Pentagon in view of America’s fragile relationship with Pakistan, there are ‘box loads’ of such reports at US bases along the length of the Pakistan-Afghan border. Details of the level of infiltration emerged yesterday on a day when five more US-led soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan. Four of the soldiers died in a bomb and gunfire attack outside the southern city of Kandahar.

China grabs cut of star athlete Liu Xiang’s gold

From The Sunday Times

June 22, 2008

Michael Sheridan, Shanghai

ALL that glisters is not gold for Chinese athletes aspiring to triumph at the Olympics this summer.

Take China’s top Olympian, 24-year-old Liu Xiang, the standard bearer for the nation’s hopes. Liu was chosen to receive the Olympic torch from the hands of President Hu Jintao in Tiananmen Square. He is the most lavishly rewarded Chinese athlete to come out of the 2004 Athens Games, where he won gold in the 110 metres hurdles.

A picture of health, he is the smiling face of Coca-Cola, Nike and several domestic brands. But Liu’s gross earnings, reputed to be £1.9m a year from advertising and sponsorship, are dwarfed by those of Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball star who plays in the United States and picked up £29.6m last year.

Africa

No justice for Congo’s child soldiers as trial of militia chief fails

International Criminal Court to hold hearing this week to consider the release of Thomas Lubanga

By Ian Johnston and Rhiannon Harries

Sunday, 22 June 2008

Victim number A105 was 10 years old when he was kidnapped from his village near the gold fields of central Africa and conscripted into the militia. Like thousands of others, the child – his name has been replaced with a number to keep him safe – was forced to fight in the armed wing of the UPC movement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), under orders to slaughter all their enemies: men, women and children. Friends and comrades who tried to escape the horror were shot.

On Tuesday, Thomas Lubanga, the man allegedly responsible for that horror, should have been facing justice at the start of the first trial by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Instead, with the proceedings lying in ruins, the court will hold a hearing to consider his release.

Mugabe allies ‘set up’ political terror



Chris McGreal in Harare and Tracy McVeigh

The Observer,

Sunday June 22, 2008

Secret documents drawn up by Zimbabwe’s ruling party and obtained by The Observer reveal that the campaign of violence and voter intimidation which has marred this week’s presidential run-off election was meticulously planned by Robert Mugabe’s allies.

The papers name one of Mugabe’s closest and most powerful allies, Emmerson Mnangagwa, as ‘supervising’ a ‘plan of action’ that includes ‘harassing MDC activists’, ‘declaring no-go areas’ for the opposition and purging independent election officers, replacing them with party loyalists.

The dossier provides clear evidence that the violence has been orchestrated at the top of Zanu-PF and the security organs it controls. More than 100 people have been killed, 200-plus are missing and thousands have been tortured, raped and mutilated as Zanu-PF seeks to overturn Mugabe’s defeat in the first round of elections three months ago. Tens of thousands have fled their homes

Europe

Italian Wag admits she was an illegal immigrant

Tom Kington in Rome

The Observer,

Sunday June 22, 2008

Italy’s growing hostility towards illegal immigrants has been condemned by one of the country’s best-known models, who has admitted that she too was a clandestino living in fear of arrest and deportation.

Czech-born Alena Seredová, 30, is a household name in Italy after carving out a successful career as a model, TV presenter and actress. She is also the partner of the goalkeeper for Italy’s national football team, Gigi Buffon, with whom she has just had a child.

After Buffon saved a crucial penalty in the Euro 2008 championship match against Romania this month, fans queued up in the stadium to ask for an autograph from Seredová, who had watched the match kitted out in Italy’s football strip

Soaring fuel prices clip Air Berlin’s wings

by Laure Fillon  Sun Jun 22

FRANKFURT (AFP) – Air Berlin’s spreading wings have been clipped badly by soaring fuel prices and a series of austerity measures may not suffice to keep the German low-cost carrier in the air, analysts say.

From November, the second-biggest German airline behind Lufthansa will trim its fleet by 10 percent, cut long-distance services by nearly one-third and return 14 leased planes to their owners.

The carrier will also reduce administrative services at dba, another budget airline it owns, in southern Munich and lay off 52 workers, “to absorb part of the increased kerosene cost,” it said last week.

Latin America

Mexico suspends officials in club deaths

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY – Mexico City’s mayor expressed outrage Saturday that youths as young as 13 were among the dozen people killed in a nightclub stampede and said the officials involved in the police raid that sparked the crush had been suspended.

Police went to check reports of underage drinking and drugs in the News Divine club in a working-class Mexico City neighborhood Friday evening, causing hundreds of customers to try to flee the club.

About 500 young people – more than the club’s capacity – had packed the bar to celebrate the end of the school year, according to police.

Tariff dispute unsettles Argentina

Farmers fighting a grain tax find allies among the middle class, and the government turns to the poor for support. Political stability and economic growth are at risk.

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

June 22, 2008

BUENOS AIRES — An atmosphere of crisis and tumbling confidence has enveloped Argentina after five years of political stability and robust economic growth.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is facing a rancorous farm revolt in one of the world’s major grain- and beef-producing nations. Growers on Saturday ended their fourth strike this year, but the battle rages on more than 100 days after it erupted when the government imposed new tariffs on farmers selling grain abroad.

Road closures, export shutdowns and a sense of looming calamity have replaced the relative calm and prosperity of recent years in Latin America’s third-largest economy, after Brazil and Mexico.Scattered shortages of food and fuel have shaken consumers already anxious that rising prices and a looming energy crisis may signal a new downturn in Argentina’s long history of boom-and-bust cycles.