Tag: Six In The Morning

Mohammed says he beheaded U.S. reporter despite warnings  

Chilling portraits of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind, and other Guantanamo detainees emerge in the latest release of classified material from WikiLeaks.

Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

Reporting from Washington- A senior Al Qaeda military commander strongly warned Khalid Shaikh Mohammed not to kill Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, cautioning him “it would not be wise to murder Pearl” and that he should “be returned back to one of the previous groups who held him, or freed.”

But Mohammed told his U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay that he cut off Pearl’s head anyway, according to U.S. military documents posted on the Internet on Monday by WikiLeaks.

Guantánamo leaks lift lid on world’s most controversial prison  

• Innocent people interrogated for years on slimmest pretexts

• Children, elderly and mentally ill among those wrongfully held

• 172 prisoners remain, some with no prospect of trial or release

David Leigh, James Ball, Ian Cobain and Jason Burke

The Guardian, Monday 25 April 2011

More than 700 leaked secret files on the Guantánamo detainees lay bare the inner workings of America’s controversial prison camp in Cuba.

The US military dossiers, obtained by the New York Times and the Guardian, reveal how, alongside the so-called “worst of the worst”, many prisoners were flown to the Guantánamo cages and held captive for years on the flimsiest grounds, or on the basis of lurid confessions extracted by maltreatment.

The 759 Guantánamo files, classified “secret”, cover almost every inmate since the camp was opened in 2002. More than two years after President Obama ordered the closure of the prison, 172 are still held there

 Majestic views, ancient culture, money fight

Spectacular Skywalk is center of a legal battle between developer and tribe

By MARC LACEY

GRAND CANYON WEST, Ariz. – Think of a Caribbean glass-bottomed boat hung out over the edge of the Grand Canyon and you have the idea behind the Skywalk, a modern, vertigo-inducing moneymaker that is drawing hundreds of thousands of people annually onto the Hualapai Indians’ reservation to stare down beneath their feet at the distant canyon floor.

That the views are spectacular, no one would dispute. But a fierce legal battle has erupted over whether these are million-dollar views or whether they are considerably more valuable than that.

Powerful storm blows out windows at St. Louis airport

Some injuries reported from possible tornado; cars overturned, baseball fans evacuated

NBC, msnbc.com and news services

ST. LOUIS – A powerful storm packing heavy rain, hail and tornadoes pummeled the St. Louis area late Friday, blowing out glass at the airport and overturning cars in the garage, authorities said.

At least five people were treated for minor injuries at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, said airport spokesman Jerry Lea. Four were taken to the hospital.

Lea said the injuries were believed to be from shattered glass.

The storm lifted the roof and blew out glass on Concord C, airport officials said. Upper-level terminals were damaged and vehicles were reported overturned at the parking garage. An Air National Guard facility at the airport was also reportedly damaged.

Earth Day’s 41st anniversary celebrated by Google

Earth Day, credited with launching modern environmental movement in US, appears as Google doodle again



If you open Google’s homepage you will be greeted by an Eden-like scene of diverse wild animals in their natural habitats.

This Google doodle, built around the search giant’s logo, is its latest celebration of Earth Day, started 41 years ago to raise awareness of and appreciation for the natural world.

The interactive scene features two pandas, one of which shocks the other with a sneeze when you place your mouse on it, a nod to this YouTube video.

Bahrain’s secret terror

Desperate emails speak of ‘genocide’ as doctors who have treated injured protesters are rounded up

By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor Thursday, 21 April 2011

The intimidation and detention of doctors treating dying and injured pro-democracy protesters in Bahrain is revealed today in a series of chilling emails obtained by The Independent.

At least 32 doctors, including surgeons, physicians, paediatricians and obstetricians, have been arrested and detained by Bahrain’s police in the last month in a campaign of intimidation that runs directly counter to the Geneva Convention guaranteeing medical care to people wounded in conflict. Doctors around the world have expressed their shock and outrage.

Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq



By Paul Bignell Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Plans to exploit Iraq’s oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world’s largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show.

The papers, revealed here for the first time, raise new questions over Britain’s involvement in the war, which had divided Tony Blair’s cabinet and was voted through only after his claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

U.S. secretly backed Syrian opposition groups, cables released by WikiLeaks show



By Craig Whitlock

The State Department has secretly financed Syrian political opposition groups and related projects, including a satellite TV channel that beams anti-government programming into the country, according to previously undisclosed diplomatic cables.

The London-based satellite channel, Barada TV, began broadcasting in April 2009 but has ramped up operations to cover the mass protests in Syria as part of a long-standing campaign to overthrow the country’s autocratic leader, Bashar al-Assad. Human rights groups say scores of people have been killed by Assad’s security forces since the demonstrations began March 18; Syria has blamed the violence on “armed gangs.”

Japan nuclear crisis ‘over in nine months’

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has said it expects to bring the crisis under control by the end of the year.



Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it aimed to reduce radiation leaks in three months and to cool the reactors within nine months.

The utility said it also plans to cover the reactor building, which was hit by a huge quake and tsunami on 11 March.

Nearly 14,000 people died and another 14,000 are still unaccounted for.

Tepco unveiled its roadmap as Hillary Clinton flew into Tokyo to pledge America’s “steadfast support” for Japan’s reconstruction.

Libya conflict: Gaddafi ‘cluster bombing Misrata’

Abdullah, a doctor in Misrata, told the BBC he had seen evidence of the use of cluster bombs

The BBc

Human Rights Watch said one of its photographers had seen three mortar-launched projectiles explode over a residential area of Misrata.

A Libyan government spokesman denied the allegation.

Government troops have intensified their siege of Misrata, the only west Libyan city still in rebel hands.

The BBC’s Orla Guerin reports from inside the battle-scarred city that local residents fear a massacre without greater action by Nato air forces to break the siege.

As Bahrain stifles protest movement, U.S.’s muted objections draw criticism



By Joby Warrickand Michael Birnbaum, Friday, April 15,  

Two months after the eruption of mass protests in Bahrain, the kingdom has largely silenced the opposition, jailing hundreds of activists in a crackdown that has left the Obama administration vulnerable to charges that it is upholding democratic values in the Middle East selectively.

Bahrain’s monarchy, since calling in Saudi troops last month to help crush the protest movement, has been quietly dismantling the country’s Shiite-led opposition. On Friday, the Sunni government announced an investigation into the activities of Bahrain’s largest political party, the Shiite-dominated al-Wefaq, which could lead to its ban.

The Obama administration has repeatedly appealed to the Bahraini government for restraint, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton this week called for a political process that “advances the rights and aspirations of all the citizens of Bahrain.”

A Syrian plan to attack protesters?

Human rights activist says document lays out how to brutally suppress the opposition

By Michael Isikoff National investigative correspondent

WASHINGTON – A document purportedly drafted by senior Syrian intelligence officials details a chilling plan to infiltrate the ranks of anti-regime protesters, arrest and assassinate their leaders, and link anti-regime demonstrations to the work of “Zionist” and other outside agitators.

The document was circulated by Syrian opposition figures Wednesday and cited by dissidents as fresh evidence of the brutality of the regime of President Bashar Assad. “It is very scary – this is the work of a Mafia state,” said Radwan Ziadeh, a prominent Syrian human rights activist and visiting scholar at George Washington University, who said he obtained the document from sources inside Syria on Tuesday night.