Docudharma Times Thursday October 9

They Are Not Terrorist And Never Have Been

So, Why Not Let Them Go?

Because Bush Wants Them To Be Terrorists

Innocence Be Damned.

U.S. May Take Ownership Stake in Banks

 

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS and MARK LANDLER

Published: October 8, 2008  

WASHINGTON – Having tried without success to unlock frozen credit markets, the Treasury Department is considering taking ownership stakes in many United States banks to try to restore confidence in the financial system, according to government officials.

Treasury officials say the just-passed $700 billion bailout bill gives them the authority to inject cash directly into banks that request it. Such a move would quickly strengthen banks’ balance sheets and, officials hope, persuade them to resume lending. In return, the law gives the Treasury the right to take ownership positions in banks, including healthy ones.

China’s small dairy farmers caught in milk scandal

Consumer anxiety and stricter milk collection rules are threatening their livelihoods. Analysts say it’s unlikely small farmers were involved in the melamine scandal.  

By John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 9, 2008  

PANZHUANGZI, CHINA — Before dawn each day, Gao Penghong and his wife join scores of other farmers in this dairy-rich village who must walk their cows to a local milk collection station because of new safety requirements.

A byproduct of China’s deadly tainted-milk scandal, the mile-long walks to the station come as officials push for more critical supervision of dairy farmers. Only weeks ago, farmers were free to milk their cows at home and deliver the product in heavy metal containers.

But now some observers see dairy farmers, who exist at the lowest level of the milk production cycle, as having the most financial incentive to spike milk to boost protein readings. Other food safety experts say it’s unlikely that small-time farmers are behind the scandal, because they generally lack the knowledge to cause such widespread contamination.

USA

U.S. Urgently Reviews Policy On Afghanistan



 By Karen DeYoung

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, October 9, 2008; Page A01  

The White House has launched an urgent review of Afghanistan policy, fast-tracked for completion in the next several weeks, amid growing concern that the administration lacks a comprehensive strategy for the foundering war there and as intelligence officials warn of a rapidly worsening situation on the ground.

Underlying the deliberations is a nearly completed National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan and the Pakistan-based extremists fighting there. Analysts have concluded that reconstituted elements of al-Qaeda and the resurgent Taliban are collaborating with an expanding network of militant groups, making the counterinsurgency war infinitely more complicated.

States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal

By IAN URBINA

Published: October 8, 2008

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.

Appeals court blocks release of Guantanamo detainees

?

   By Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers  

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court temporarily blocked the release of 17 Chinese-born Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a day after a landmark decision required them to be shipped to the U.S.

The move Wednesday night by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sets the stage for a protracted court battle over the fate of the men, who’ve been held for nearly seven years despite being cleared for release by the U.S. military. Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina had ordered the Bush administration to transfer the men to the U.S. by Friday.

Europe

Medvedev promotes new security pact



Julian Borger, diplomatic editor and Luke Harding in Moscow

The Guardian,

Thursday October 9 2008

Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, outlined plans yesterday for a new security pact to ban the use of force in Europe and defuse increasing tensions between Moscow and Nato.

Yesterday’s speech at the World Policy Conference in Evian, France, was intended as a bridge-building exercise after Russia’s occupation of Georgia in August, which threatened a new cold war.

Medvedev promised that by midnight last night Russian troops would leave “security zones” in the undisputed areas of Georgian territory. However, the Georgian government claimed the withdrawal was only partial and that Russian troops showed no signs of leaving the strategic outpost of Akhalgori, near the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, and outside the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Ukraine’s Orange revolution victors to become election rivals after coalition collapses

 

From The Times

October 9, 2008  

Tony Halpin, Moscow Correspondent  

Ukraine’s pro-Western coalition succumbed to bitter personal rivalry last night after the President dissolved parliament and called a snap election.

The move pits President Yushchenko against his former ally Yuliya Tymoshenko in a struggle for political dominance. The feud between the leaders of the 2004 Orange revolution threatens to open the door for their pro-Russian rival Viktor Yanukovych to make a stunning comeback and tilt Ukraine back towards Moscow.

Middle East

Criticism of perks provokes uproar in Iranian parliament

 

Robert Tait

The Guardian,

Thursday October 9 2008

There are many ways for an MP to win over fellow parliamentarians but for Hasan Kamran, blowing the whistle on their cushy expenses was never likely to be one of them. Kamran, a fundamentalist member of Iran’s parliament, has been ostracised by colleagues after condemning handouts to them worth 1bn rial (£58,697) to buy a car and rent a home in Tehran.

The expenses, partly in the form of an interest-free loan, are given at the start of each four-year term in addition to the MP’s estimated £6,000 annual salary.

Kamran, a supporter of Iran’s populist president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told the semi-official news agency Fars that the perks showed the MPs behaved like nobility while millions of Iranians suffered economic hardships.

As violence drops, Iraqi tribes begin to make amends

Tribal elders are reviving a traditional process to heal the deep animosities resulting from sectarian bloodshed between Shiites and Sunnis.

By Scott Peterson  | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 9, 2008 edition

Baghdad –  Tears rarely roll down Iraqi farmer Hassan Mohammed Hamoud’s proud, sun-creased face.

But as this Shiite father describes his losses to war, the impact overwhelms him: a brother, two sons, two nephews, all killed by Sunni militant neighbors during the peak of sectarian violence in 2006.

Instead of seeking revenge, though, Mr. Hamoud is trying to forgive. He wants to end this feud and restore peace using a traditional process that is revitalizing the role of tribes in halting the cycle of violence.

“If reconciliation goes well and [the Sunni families] swear on the Koran, I think fighting will end after that,” he says.

The effort is one example of how Sunni and Shiite tribes are meeting to accept responsibility for atrocities committed against each other during the war – in face-to-face talks between tribal elders – that involve mediators and often the paying of blood money by the guilty party.

Asia

Holy war strikes India    

35 Christians killed and 50,000 forced from their homes by Hindu mobs enraged at Swami’s murder

 By Andrew Buncombe in Phulbani, Orissa

Thursday, 9 October 2008  

As she recalled her awful story, Puspanjali Panda made no attempt to halt the tears flooding down her face.

Holding her daughter close, she told how a baying Hindu mob dragged her husband – a Christian pastor – from his bed, beat him to death with stones and iron rods and then threw him into a river. She found his corpse two days later, washed up on the bank. When she went to the police, they told her to go away.

Mrs Panda and thousands of others like her are victims of the worst communal violence between Hindus and Christians that India has seen for decades.

Leaders of Thailand’s anti-government movement will surrender >

 

From the Associated Press

October 9, 2008

The leaders of Thailand’s anti-government protesters said Thursday they will surrender to police after a court dropped treason charges against them, but vowed to continue their sit-in at the prime minister’s office after posting bail.

Sondhi Limthongkul said he and other leaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy would report to police and apply for bail as early as Thursday afternoon.

Arrest warrants were issued for the alliance’s nine leaders Aug. 27, the day after they led thousands of protesters into the main government office complex, Government House, where they have been camped ever since to demand electoral changes and an end to corruption in Thai politics.

Africa

Sudan makes case abroad while still bombing Darfur  

 President Omar al-Bashir says international interference will hamper peace. Darfuris ask: ‘What peace?’

By Heba Aly  | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 9, 2008 edition

Tawila, Sudan –  During the US vice presidential debate last week, Sen. Joe Biden (D) and Gov. Sarah Palin (R) found common ground on at least one topic: Both support imposing a no-fly zone in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region.

Some 6,000 miles away, Darfuris fleeing their homes welcome such talk, especially after a recent spate of indiscriminate government bombings.

“The government said it was only looking for rebels. It said it didn’t want to harm the people,” says villager Abdullah Isshac, who spent one week hiding in the countryside after a government attack on the village of Khazan Tungur. “But the rebels are out in the mountains, not in the village.”

To the outside world, Sudan’s government sings a different tune, claiming since July – when the International Criminal Court (ICC) sought an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide for his role in the Darfur conflict – that the prosecution of its leader would jeopardize the peace process.

Zimbabwe inflation hits new high

Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate – already the world’s highest – has soared to 231,000,000%, newly released official figures show.

The BBC

The rise – from 11,200,000% – was largely due to increases in the prices of bread and cereals.

A landmark power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has not eased the country’s economic crisis.

The UN estimates that two million people are in need of food aid.

In September, it was agreed that Mr Mugabe – Zimbabwe’s leader for three decades – would remain president while Mr Tsvangirai would become prime minister.

But the two sides cannot reach agreement on the make-up of the new cabinet.

Latin America

Rampant violence is Latin America’s ‘worst epidemic’

 

Rory Carroll in Caracas

The Guardian,

Thursday October 9 2008

Violent crime in Latin America kills more people and wreaks more economic havoc than Aids, the head of the Organisation of American States warned this week. Drug trafficking, gang warfare, kidnapping and other crimes pose one of the gravest threats to the region’s stability, said José Miguel Insulza. “It is an epidemic, a plague on our continent that kills more people than Aids or any other known epidemic. It destroys more homes than any economic crisis.”

The warning came amid a backdrop of horrific violence in Mexico, where drug cartels are waging war against the state, and evidence that cities from Caracas to Buenos Aires are becoming more dangerous.