Docudharma Times Friday October 10

We Only Listen To Terrorist Phone Calls

That’s Why We Listened To The Phone Calls

Of Americans Living Overseas

Markets in Europe and Asia Plunge  

 

By DAVID JOLLY and BETTINA WASSENER

Published: October 10, 2008  

PARIS — Global stocks plummeted Friday, with selling momentum accelerating after a Japanese insurance company was driven out of business by failed investments.

European markets fell sharply at the opening, with the FTSE 100 index in London falling 10 percent, the CAC-40 in Paris fell down more than 9 percent, and the DAX in Frankfurt down 10 percent.

Shares in Asia plunged after the rout Thursday on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted 7.3 percent, or 678 points, closing below the 9,000-mark for the first time since 2003.

U.S. tapped intimate calls from Americans overseas, 2 eavesdroppers say

 They say government monitors transcribed and passed around embarrassing information for their own enjoyment.

 By Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 10, 2008  

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence analysts eavesdropped on personal calls between Americans overseas and their families back home and monitored the communications of workers with the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations, according to two military linguists involved in U.S. surveillance programs.

The accounts are the most detailed to date to challenge the assertions of President Bush, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and other administration officials that the government’s controversial overseas wiretapping activities have been carefully monitored to prevent abuse and invasion of U.S. citizens’ privacy.

Describing the allegations as “extremely disturbing,” Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said the panel had launched an inquiry and requested records from the Bush administration.

USA

Investor Confidence Dashed as Bailout Fails to Quickly Loosen Credit



  By Renae Merle, Michael A. Fletcher and Neil Irwin

Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, October 10, 2008; Page A01  

Fear and foreboding took hold on Wall Street yesterday, as the stock market again plunged and investors became convinced that the nation is on the verge of a deep and prolonged recession. The rout continued in Japan, where stocks plummeted in early trading.

The government took steps toward an extraordinary public investment in U.S. banks and General Motors stock fell to its lowest price since 1950 on fears it will not be able to weather the downturn. Share prices fell across every industry and for each of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average, which was down 679 points, or 7.3 percent, to 8579.19.

Children of Vietnam War servicemen seek U.S. citizenship

In one homeland they were treated as outcasts, in the other as refugees. Now thousands of these Amerasians are uniting and lobbying Congress for what they feel is a birthright: ‘We are Americans.’?

By My-Thuan Tran, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 10, 2008  

Randy Tran walked quickly past the majestic domes and marble statues of Capitol Hill, looking for the Cannon House Office building and the people he believed could help him.

Tran, a Vietnamese pop singer who lives in a Bay Area suburb and sleeps on a friend’s couch, flew 2,900 miles to be here. He rehearsed what he wanted to say. His English was not perfect. He was afraid he would have just a few minutes to make his case.

He had a 3 p.m. appointment in the office of a Wisconsin congressman. He was not exactly sure what the congressman did, but he was certain that this was a powerful man who could help untangle a political process that had ensnared him and thousands like him.

Asia

Pakistanis unite to fight extremism



Saeed Shah in Islamabad

The Guardian,

Friday October 10 2008

An anti-terror petition in Pakistan has attracted almost 63m signatures in what is believed to be the biggest such lobby effort anywhere in the world.

A third of Pakistanis signed up to denounce acts of terrorism in a campaign titled Yeh Hum Naheen – This is Not Us – over a period of just four weeks. That easily shattered the previous record for the largest petition, the 24 million people who signed the Jubilee 2000 campaign against developing-world debt. Children over the age of 11 were allowed to take part, given the young age at which extremism is taking hold in society.

But the militants are not listening. There were two terrorist attacks in Pakistan yesterday, even while parliamentarians were locked in the second day of a confidential briefing on the security situation by the country’s spy chief.

The Bruce Lee legend

 The iconic Kung Fu star’s films were banned from Communist China by Chairman Mao. But now his legacy is being reclaimed with an epic 50-part documentary on state TV. By Clifford Coonan

Friday, 10 October 2008  

His body, glistening with sweat, is compact and ripples with muscles. The fighter is impervious to the pain of the slashes that have been made across his midriff. Glaring from beneath fierce thickeyebrows at the unfortunate enemy who has foolishly crossed him, he tenses his fists before striking out at his opponent. Scores of villains are no match for his kung fu powers. Bruce Lee always prevails.

Next to raise his ire is a sign outside a Shanghai park declaring “No Dogs or Chinese”. His lip curls and the man born in the Hour of the Dragon in the Year of the Dragon smashes the sign with an overhead kick.

Europe

Turkish air force chief attacked for directing anti-insurgency operation from golf course  

 

Robert Tait in Istanbul

The Guardian,

Friday October 10 2008

For decades Turkey’s armed forces have been virtually beyond criticism in a country where the military sees itself as a defender of the modern secular state.

But its status is being questioned after a senior commander was pictured playing golf hours after 17 soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdish militants.

General Aydogan Babaoglu, head of the air force, took part in a golf tournament in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya last weekend after reports emerged of a deadly attack on a military outpost in Aktutun, near Turkey’s border with Iraq, by the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK).

Romanian actress battles racism in Italy

Emigrant heads ‘charm offensive’ to counter anti-Romanian feeling

By Peter Popham in Rome

Friday, 10 October 2008  

As Italy struggles to contain a rising tide of xenophobia and racism, the largest and most despised minority in the country has acquired a glamorous standard-bearer. Like 1.2 million other residents of Italy, Ramona Badescu is an immigrant from Romania. The willowy actress and singer from Bucharest moved to Italy after the fall of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989 and is the closest thing Italy possesses to a Romanian household name.

Middle East

 Corruption blamed as cholera rips through Iraq  

 

 By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad

Friday, 10 October 2008

A deadly outbreak of cholera in Iraq is being blamed on a scandal involving corrupt officials who failed to sterilise the local drinking water because they were bribed to buy chlorine from Iran that was long past its expiration date.

The centre of the epidemic is in Babil province, south of Baghdad, in the marshy lands east of the Euphrates river, not far from the ruins of ancient Babylon. In Baghdad, where half the six million population has no access to clean drinking water, people are now drinking only bottled or boiled water.

DiCaprio film glamorizes Jordan’s feared spy agency >

 Human rights groups charge the mukhabarat, portrayed in the new Ridley Scott movie ‘Body of Lies,’ with systematic torture.

By Willow Belden and Nicholas Seeley  | Contributors to The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 10, 2008 edition

AMMAN, JORDAN –  The new Ridley Scott thriller “Body of Lies,” which opens Friday, tells the story of a fictional collaboration between the CIA and Jordan’s secret police. While Hollywood may romanticize Jordan’s intelligence service, the facts, according to numerous reports, are more brutal than shown on the big screen.

Based on the novel “Penetration” by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, “Body of Lies” tells the story of a CIA operative played by Leonardo DiCaprio who attempts to infiltrate and destroy an Al Qaeda cell with the assistance of Hani Salaam, the fictional head of the General Intelligence Department (GID), or mukhabarat in Arabic.

Mr. Ignatius describes Mr. Salaam as an Arab-world James Bond: good looking, cool, and too savvy to use “inefficient” methods like torture. But international observers say the real GID is a far cry from its depiction in art.

Africa

Migrant vessel sinks off Morocco  

Scores are missing after a boat laden with some 50 economic migrants capsized in rough seas off the coast of Morocco.  

The BBC

The boat was reportedly attempting a dangerous open-sea journey from Morocco to Spain, often used by illegal migrants trying to reach Europe.

The body of one man has been found on a beach near the northern city of Kenitra and at least one male survivor has been rescued. Both were Moroccan.

The fate and nationalities of the other passengers remains unknown.

Helicopters were being used to scour the ocean for survivors, Morocco’s MAP state news agency reported.

Thousands of migrants attempt the difficult sea crossing every year but many do not make it, says the BBC’s James Copnall in Rabat.

Out Of Africa

The start of the first U.S. strategic command marks a policy shift toward lighter military involvement on the continent.

By Scott Johnson | NEWSWEEK

The U.S. military was content for years to keep half an eye on Africa’s security, sharing oversight of the continent with Europe, but in recent years U.S. strategic interest in Africa has grown. Not only does Al Qaeda have a presence on the continent, but the value of Africa’s oil has soared and China has grown more aggressive in courting African nations. That was the reasoning behind the creation of AFRICOM, the first American strategic military command with sole responsibility for the 53 nations on the African continent, which officially started operations last week.