Category: News

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

1 Judge urged not to ask about CIA tapes

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

7 minutes ago

This is an Open Thread: No Cover Charge

Headlines For Saturday December 15: Justice Dept. Seeks Delay on C.I.A. Inquiry: Nations Agree on Steps to Revive Climate Treaty: Bush’s Budget Wins May Cost Him : Ethiopians Said to Push Civilians Into Rebel War: Sealed Off by Israel, Gaza Reduced to Beggary

USA

Justice Dept. Seeks Delay on C.I.A. Inquiry

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department asked the House Intelligence Committee on Friday to postpone its investigation into the destruction of videotapes by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2005, saying the Congressional inquiry presented “significant risks” to its own preliminary investigation into the matter.

The department is taking an even harder line with other Congressional committees looking into the matter, and is refusing to provide information about any role it might have played in the destruction of the videotapes. The recordings covered hundreds of hours of interrogations of two operatives of Al Qaeda.

The Justice Department and the C.I.A.’s inspector general have begun a preliminary inquiry into the destruction of the tapes, and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said the department would not comply with Congressional requests for information now because of “our interest in avoiding any perception that our law enforcement decisions are subject to political influence.”

Nations Agree on Steps to Revive Climate Treaty

NUSA DUA, Indonesia – The world’s countries wrapped up two weeks of intense and at times emotional talks here on Saturday with a two-year timetable for reviving an ailing, aging climate treaty.

After negotiations went through the night on a compromise between the United States and Europe, an agreement appeared close at hand. But some developing countries remained dissatisfied with some aspects of the deal, including the help they would receive from rich countries.

American delegates then said they could not accept the compromise, leading to a series of verbal attacks on the country. But in a dramatic turnabout less than an hour later, the Americans reversed themselves, accepting the changes sought by the developing countries.

1. The earth is close if not past a tipping point on climate change, and what does the negotiators eco-saboteurs of the Bush administration do, why undermine any real commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, of course! And while The Guardian reports the World is poised to sign climate deal. It’s a watered down climate deal, Bush made sure of that. “Europe was reported tonight to have dropped its demands for a 25%-40% cut on 1990 levels by 2020, a proposal that was bitterly opposed by the US.” According to the AP, “Environmentalists accused the U.S. of trying to wreck future talks… The Europeans and others showed little enthusiasm for this ‘voluntary’ approach, and environmentalists denounced it as an effort to subvert the U.N. climate treaty process.” Europe makes threats, but isn’t prepared to carry through with any of them.

2. Thank you corporate America and your Republican puppets for being so thoroughly short-sighted, contemptible, and detestable. The New York Times reports Industry flexes muscle, weakens energy bill. “Pared-down energy legislation cleared the Senate on Thursday by a wide margin after the oil industry and utilities succeeded in stripping out… a $13 billion tax increase on oil companies and a requirement that utilities nationwide produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources”. Oh and “separately, Congress reached a tentative agreement on a major energy package that it plans to enact outside the energy bill… the agreement would guarantee loans of up to $25 billion for new nuclear plants and $2 billion for a uranium enrichment plant… It would also provide guarantees of… $10 billion for plants to turn coal into liquid vehicle fuel and $2 billion to turn coal into natural gas.” Liquefied coal – the fuel that powered Apartheid and higher greenhouse gas emissions – is an idiotic, expensive, and short-sighted choice.

   Meanwhile our country’s other idiotic ‘energy policy’, Mongabay reports U.S. corn subsidies drive Amazon destruction.

   U.S. corn subsidies for ethanol production are contributing to deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, reports a tropical forest scientist writing in this week’s issue of the journal Science.

   Dr. William Laurance, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, says that a recent spike in Amazonian forest fires may be linked to U.S. subsidies that promote American corn production for ethanol over soy production. The shift from soy to corn has led to a near doubling in soy prices during the past 14 months. High prices are, in turn, driving conversion of rainforest and savanna in Brazil for soy expansion.

   “American taxpayers are spending $11 billion a year to subsidize corn producers-and this is having some surprising global consequences,” said Laurance.

3. Our planet’s oceans are doing stunningly bad. According to Nature News, Lice threaten Canada’s salmon. “Lice harboured by farmed fish are killing wild salmon on Canada’s west coast, new work has confirmed. The study shows serious declines in fish populations, which could lead to the total collapse of runs in those rivers in less than a decade… At the current rate of decline, the runs in these rivers will drop to less than 1% of their natural levels in four generations, or eight years, [Fisheries ecologist Martin Krkošek at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and his colleagues] reports in Science.

   The Guardian adds that Acidic seas may kill 98% of world’s reefs by 2050. “The majority of the world’s coral reefs are in danger of being killed off by rising levels of greenhouse gases, scientists warned yesterday. Researchers from Britain, the US and Australia, working with teams from the UN and the World Bank, voiced their concerns after a study revealed 98% of the world’s reef habitats are likely to become too acidic for corals to grow by 2050… Among the first victims of acidifying oceans will be Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest organic structure. The oceans absorb around a third of the 20bn tonnes of carbon dioxide produced each year by human activity. While the process helps to slow global warming by keeping the gas from the atmosphere, in sea water it dissolves to form carbonic acid – rising levels of which cause carbonates to dissolve.”

4. 

   Once again a headline states Ice-free Arctic in summer seen in 7 years. This time it’s the Chicago Tribune reporting that “the pace of melting of sea ice has been ‘dramatic,’ said Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the UN agency, noting that the extent of Arctic summer sea ice has fallen 23 percent in just two years… Preliminary agency data for 2007 suggest this year will be the second hottest year on record, behind 2005, and that the most recent decade will be the hottest in recorded history, he said.” And Reuters basically lays its on the line when it reports, U.S. scientists state Carbon cuts a must to halt warming. “There is already enough carbon in Earth’s atmosphere to ensure that sea levels will rise several feet (meters) in coming decades and summertime ice will vanish from the North Pole, scientists warned on Thursday. To mitigate global warming’s worst effects, including severe drought and flooding, people must not only cut current carbon emissions but also remove some carbon that has collected in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, they said.”

   “We’re a lot closer to climate tipping points than we thought we were,” said James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “If we are to have any chance in avoiding the points of no return, we’re going to have to make some changes.” …

   The concentration of carbon in the atmosphere is now about 380 parts per million and increasing by 2 parts per million each year. To stabilize Earth’s climate, the concentration needs to fall to at least 350 parts per million, Hansen said.

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Headlines For Friday December 14: House Passes Bill to Ban CIA’s Use of Harsh Interrogation Tactics: Arizona Is Split Over Hard Line on Immigrants: Writers file labor charges against studios:

USA

House Passes Bill to Ban CIA’s Use of Harsh Interrogation Tactics

Friday, December 14, 2007; Page A07

The House approved legislation yesterday that would bar the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics, drawing an immediate veto threat from the White House and setting up another political showdown over what constitutes torture.

The measure, approved by a largely party-line vote of 222 to 199, would require U.S. intelligence agencies to follow Army rules adopted last year that explicitly forbid waterboarding. It also would require interrogators to adhere to a strict interpretation of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war. The rules, required by Congress for all Defense Department personnel, also ban sexual humiliation, “mock” executions and the use of attack dogs, and prohibit the withholding of food and medical care.

Some news and afternoon OPEN THREAD.

1. The Guardian reports US told to ‘wake up’ over climate change. Next month, the U.S. “is hosting a meeting of 17 of the world’s top-emitting nations, including China, Russia and India, to discuss long-term curbs on greenhouse gases.” But, the Bush administration opposes a EU-backed plan to reduce emissions in industrialized countries between 25% and 40% by 2020. So, “Humberto Rosa, the environment secretary of Portugal, which currently holds the EU presidency, said today: ‘If we [were to] have a failure in Bali it would be meaningless to have a Major Economies’ Meeting (MEM) in the United States. ‘We are not blackmailing,’ he said at the 190-nation meeting. ‘If no Bali, no MEM.'” Meanwhile, Reuters reports Al Gore lays blame for Bali stalemate on U.S.

2. Can the Republicans be any more slimy and idiotic? Yeah, probably, but the Washington Post reports Senate Republicans block energy bill. “By a narrow margin, the Senate today failed again to block a Republican-led filibuster on an energy bill as GOP leaders made a stand against a $21.8 billion, 10-year tax package that would have extended incentives for wind and solar energy and reduced some tax breaks for oil companies… The 59-40 vote — one vote short of the margin needed to end debate and clear the way for a vote on the measure — came after warnings from the White House and Sen. Pete V. Domenici (N.M.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, that President Bush would veto the bill because of the tax component.”

3. The LA Times reports Clinton says race will be over Feb. 5. “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is anticipating that she will not have to wait long to become the Democratic presidential nominee, privately telling campaign donors in California that the race ‘is all going to be over by Feb. 5… You’ve got to realize that people in California will start voting absentee about the time Iowa and New Hampshire happen,’ the senator from New York said at a closed-door fundraising reception Tuesday evening. ‘In fact, more people will have voted absentee by the middle of January than will have voted in New Hampshire, Iowa and a lot of other places combined.'” Donors were asked to pay $2,300 for VIP status and a mere $500 for admittance.

4. Reuters report that Latinos hurt by immigration debate: study. “The intense debate over illegal immigration has made life more difficult for U.S. Hispanics, the fastest-growing minority in the country, with many fearing deportation and having difficulty finding work and housing, study found. The report by the Pew Hispanic Center released on Thursday found that just over half of all Hispanic adults in the United States worry that they, a family member or a close friend could be deported… The survey said smaller numbers of Hispanics — ranging from about one-in-eight to one-in-four — said the heightened attention to immigration issues has had a specific negative effect on them personally.”

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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.

1. The Guardian reports Climate talks progressing despite US opposition to targets. “A stand-off between the United States and Europe over carbon reduction targets should not overshadow the “significant” progress made on a new climate deal, Hilary Benn said today. [Britain’s] environment secretary said the so-called Bali roadmap, which negotiators hope to produce on Friday as the first step towards a new treaty, did not need a fixed target to be considered a success…The US is trying to remove a reference to 25-40% target cuts in carbon pollution by 2020 for developed nations, which remained in the latest draft roadmap released by the UN today.”

2. Bombs in the Middle East. First Lebanon, where the NY Times reports that Brig. Gen. François al-Hajj was assassinated by a bomb attack today. Al-Hajj “was closely involved in the army’s fierce offensive over the summer to clear out Fatah al Islam, a militia group inspired by Al Qaeda, from a refugee camp north of Tripoli… The general was also one of several candidates to succeed Gen. Michel Suleiman, the army’s chief of staff, who is being considered as the country’s next president.” And in Iraq, the Washington Post reports Three car bombs kill at least 46 in Iraq. At least 149 were injured in the attacks “Amarah in Maysan province was believed to be its first mass bombing since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The area is considered one of the country’s safest, and the bombings shattered a hopeful, if brittle, lull in Iraq’s violence.” The British withdrew from Amarah in April.

3. The Hill reports Pelosi backs down in spending battle. “In the face of stiff opposition from powerful fellow Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has abandoned a proposal she supported less than 24 hours ago to eliminate lawmakers’ earmarks from the omnibus spending package… By leaving earmarks largely untouched and agreeing to Bush’s budget ceiling, Democrats have capitulated in their spending battle with Republicans. In the end, Democrats realized they would not be able to muster enough Republican votes to override Bush’s veto. The president vowed to reject any spending package that exceeded the $933 billion limit he set.” It’s becoming part of the traditional media now. From the Rubber stamp 109th Congress to the Capitulation 110th Congress. Congressional Dems are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in 2008.

4. Okay, so it’s from Politico via the Washington Post, but still… this is crazy. In her column, Ruth Marcus writes Gentlemen First: The Vice President gets the vapors. “Dick Cheney is worried that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has shrunken the ‘big sticks’ of the once-tough guys who were the vice president’s colleagues in Congress.”

   In case you missed it, the vice president made those comments in an interview with the Politico. “Most striking were his virtually taunting remarks of two men he described as friends from his own days in the House: Democratic Reps. John Dingell (Mich.) and John P. Murtha (Pa.),” wrote my former Post colleagues Mike Allen, Jim VandeHei and John F. Harris.

   Cheney, they wrote, “scoffed at the idea of two men who spent years accruing power showing so much deference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the big spending and energy debates of the year.” The House’s senior Democrats “march to the tune of Nancy Pelosi to an extent I had not seen, frankly, with any previous speaker,” Cheney said. “I’m trying to think how to say all of this in a gentlemanly fashion, but [in] the Congress I served in, that wouldn’t have happened.”

   Asked if these men had lost their spines, he responded, “They are not carrying the big sticks I would have expected.”

   Gentlemanly, indeed. Once, Murthas and Dingells were Big Men on the Hill, swinging the Big Sticks of committee chairmen, Cheney is saying. Now they are, if not nancy boys, Nancy’s Boys. Somehow, Newt Gingrich took on the committee chairs when he was speaker, and no one questioned their, um, equipment.

   Now of course in addition to the sexism in Cheney’s statements, I and many others are disappointed with the lack of aggressive oversight and use of subpoena ‘power’ being displayed by the house chairs, but Cheney isn’t seeing it like that. He’s upset about the House passing any positive environmental/energy bills. But, really I think Cheney cannot believe how lucky he and Bush has gotten with the Dem’s strategy of “we need more Dems to do anything”. Going by how they looked in pictures last November, I suspect Cheney and Bush thought things would be a little hotter for them up on the Hill.

1 Questions linger after Hayden testimony

By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer

3 minutes ago

Some news and the afternoon’s open thread.

1. Well, it’s a start – according to The Guardian, Forest protection expected to form key part of Bali climate deal. “Officials said steps to protect forests were included in a new draft of the so-called Bali roadmap, and that they expected them to appear in the final text produced at the end of the talks on Friday. The move would make financial rewards for not cutting down trees a key part of a new climate deal.” But, of course, the Bush administration is obstructing progress on emissions target. From the NY Times: “the United States and the European Union remained deadlocked today on whether countries should commit now to including specific cuts in climate-warming emissions in a new climate pact.” EU wants each industrialized country to cut emissions 25-40% by 2020, which is opposed by the Bush administration and its polluting partners in Canada, Japan, India, and China.

   “Logic requires that we listen to the science,” Stavros Dimas, the European Union’s environment commissioner, said today. “I would expect others to follow that logic.”

2. According to the AP, the U.S. Military undergoes command changes in Iraq. “With the exception of Petraeus, senior commanders generally arrive and depart with their units, which means most of those now leaving or preparing to leave have been there for up to 15 months. Topping the list of departures is Petraeus’ second-in-command, Army Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, who is due to leave in February when the 3rd Corps finishes its command tour and returns to Fort Hood, Texas. He will be replaced by Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of 18th Airborne Corps, from Fort Bragg, N.C.”

3. We’re still in Iraq and the Democrats in Congress might have noticed this time that we’re pissed about it. The LA Times reports Democrats face outrage from liberals over funding for the war and a veto of the $500-billion package. “Senior Democrats are facing a restive liberal base incensed by talk that a budget deal would provide more money for the war in Iraq without attaching any conditions aimed at forcing troop withdrawals. Additional war funding would represent a major concession to the president”.

4. The Los Angeles Times reports Study finds humans still evolving, and quickly. “The pace of human evolution has been increasing at a stunning rate since our ancestors began spreading through Europe, Asia and Africa 40,000 years ago, quickening to 100 times historical levels after agriculture became widespread, according to a study published today. By examining more than 3 million variants of DNA in 269 people, researchers identified about 1,800 genes that have been widely adopted in relatively recent times because they offer some evolutionary benefit.”

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Headlines For Tuesday December 11: Poll Finds G.O.P. Field Isn’t Touching Voters: Waterboarding Recounted: Lost tapes may entangle CIA: Putin anoints deputy prime minister as heir to presidency:

USA

Poll Finds G.O.P. Field Isn’t Touching Voters

Three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Republican voters across the country appear uninspired by their field of presidential candidates, with a vast majority saying they have not made a final decision about whom to support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Not one of the Republican candidates is viewed favorably by even half the Republican electorate, the poll found. And in a sign of the fluidity of the race, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, who barely registered in early polls several months ago, is now locked in a tight contest nationally with Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mitt Romney

Waterboarding Recounted

Ex-CIA Officer Says It ‘Probably Saved Lives’ but Is Torture

By Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen

Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, December 11, 2007; Page A01

A former CIA officer who participated in the capture and questioning of the first al-Qaeda terrorist suspect to be waterboarded said yesterday that the harsh technique provided an intelligence breakthrough that “probably saved lives,” but that he now regards the tactic as torture.

Zayn Abidin Muhammed Hussein abu Zubaida, the first high-ranking al-Qaeda member captured after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, broke in less than a minute after he was subjected to the technique and began providing interrogators with information that led to the disruption of several planned attacks, said John Kiriakou, who served as a CIA interrogator in Pakistan.

Afternoon news and open thread.

1. Al Gore and Rajendra Pachauri of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were in Oslo today to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. Here are excerpts from Gore’s Nobel Lecture.

   Seven years ago tomorrow, I read my own political obituary in a judgment that seemed to me harsh and mistaken – if not premature. But that unwelcome verdict also brought a precious if painful gift: an opportunity to search for fresh new ways to serve my purpose…

   We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst – though not all – of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.

   However, despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.” …

   Now comes the threat of climate crisis – a threat that is real, rising, imminent, and universal. Once again, it is the 11th hour. The penalties for ignoring this challenge are immense and growing, and at some near point would be unsustainable and unrecoverable. For now we still have the power to choose our fate, and the remaining question is only this: Have we the will to act vigorously and in time, or will we remain imprisoned by a dangerous illusion? …

   The world needs an alliance – especially of those nations that weigh heaviest in the scales where Earth is in the balance… But the outcome will be decisively influenced by two nations that are now failing to do enough: the United States and China…

   Both countries should stop using the other’s behavior as an excuse for stalemate and instead develop an agenda for mutual survival in a shared global environment.

2. The Telegraph reports the US refuses to set Bali target for emissions. “The United States warned it was unwilling to accept numeric targets in the plan which will be at the centre of debate among negotiators attempting to hammer out a final document by Friday. Harlan Watson, the United States’s chief negotiator, said the US was in Bali to work in a ‘constructive manner’ to get a roadmap for negotiations to be completed by 2009… Dr Watson also said the figures, which were derived from… IPCC most recent assessment report this year, are surrounded by ‘many uncertainties’… Mr Watson also told a press conference in Bali he does not think the EU target of limiting global warming to 2ºC above pre-industrial levels was a ‘helpful’starting point.”

3. In an interview with the AP, John Kerry indicated the US Senate wouldn’t ratify climate deal without developing countries. “If China and other emerging economies don’t contribute to reining in greenhouse gases, ‘it would be very difficult’ to get a new global climate deal through the U.S. Senate, even under a Democratic president, Sen. John Kerry said Monday. ‘At some point in time, they will have to take on those reductions, for several reasons, most importantly the developed countries are not going to be able to do this on their own,’ Kerry said… Kerry noted that one reason Kyoto found no support in the late 1990s in the Senate, which must ratify such international accords, was that it didn’t demand emissions cuts by developing nations.”

4. The AP reports Huckabee Pardons Under Scrutiny. “As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee had a hand in twice as many pardons and commutations as his three predecessors combined. The case he’s asked about most concerns the parole of a castrated rapist who later killed a woman… The [other] acts of clemency benefited the stepson of a staff member, murderers who worked at the governor’s mansion, a rock star and inmates who received good words from their pastors.”

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Headline For Monday December 10: Hoyer Is Proof of Earmarks’ Endurance: Republicans sing new tune on Iraq for Spanish station : U.S. Is No Haven, Canadian Judge Finds: Mortar shells hit Iraq prison, killing 7: Iraq calmer, but more divided: PM: Quick conclusion needed on Kosovo: CIA photos ‘show UK Guantanamo detainee was tortured’: Merkel’s comment on Zimbabwe fascist: official: Archbishop discards dog collar ‘until tyrant goes’: New York Philharmonic to play in N.Korea: paper: US balks at Bali carbon targets

USA

Hoyer Is Proof of Earmarks’ Endurance

Md. Democrat’s Campaign Donors Among Grantees

By Mary Beth Sheridan

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, December 10, 2007; Page A01

Even as House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer has joined in steps to clean up pork-barrel spending, the Maryland congressman has tucked $96 million worth of pet projects into next year’s federal budget, including $450,000 for a campaign donor’s foundation.

Hoyer (D) is one of the top 10 earmarkers in the House for 2008, based on budget requests in bills so far, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, an independent watchdog group.

Earmarks are spending items inserted into bills to benefit designated companies or projects, often in the sponsoring lawmaker’s district. They make up a small percentage of the federal budget.

Republicans sing new tune on Iraq for Spanish station

The GOP hopefuls speak out for the ‘surge’ and minimize illegal immigration concerns at the Univision debate.

By Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

December 10, 2007

CORAL GABLES, FLA. — Citing a recent decline in violence in Iraq, top Republican presidential candidates on Sunday offered gushing assessments of the U.S. war effort there — an unusual moment in a GOP primary campaign that for months usually has stepped gingerly around the Bush administration’s unpopular policies in that country.

The candidates’ comments, coming in a debate on the Spanish-language television network Univision, went further than even the White House and top military leaders have gone as they have watched civilian and military deaths ebb since President Bush launched a controversial U.S. troop “surge” strategy.