Bush Aides Seek To Contain Furor
Washington Post

Energy Secretary wants to Expand Yucca Mountain Project
From Fox News
Excerpts: Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham acknowledged on Thursday that a proposed Nevada waste dump will be too small to accommodate all the nation's nuclear waste and might have to be expanded. Under intense questioning from Nevada's two senators, Abraham conceded that the Yucca Mountain repository as currently envisioned could handle only a fraction of the waste expected to be generated by commercial power plants and the government in the coming decade...
About 45,000 tons of radioactive waste currently are kept around the country. Another 20,000 tons are expected to be generated by power reactors before Yucca Mountain can be opened, Abraham said.

Soldier Arrested for Planting Explosives in Florida
From the Savanah Morning News
Excerpts: Jacksonville, Fla., police arrested a Fort Stewart soldier Saturday after finding him armed, wearing black clothes and leaving a power plant where he allegedly left an explosive. Spc. Derek Lawrence Peterson, 27, is being held on a $5 million bond by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Department of Corrections. He has been charged with attempting to detonate an explosive device.
The officer searched Peterson's truck and found a 12-inch knife, a six-inch knife, a 12-gauge shotgun, shotgun shells, .45-caliber bullets, four ammo magazines, a six-volt battery, duct tape, speaker wire and plastic from an explosive device, the report said.
Peterson allegedly told police he had placed a Hoffman explosive device, equal in power to a half-stick of dynamite. He had planned to detonate the explosive but was worried that he would be injured in the blast, the report said. Instead, Peterson removed a six-volt battery and threw it into the woods.

Bush Warned Before Sept. 11 of Bin Laden Plot to Hijack Planes
From Fox News
Bush Told of Hijacking Danger
From MSNBC
Also see:
Bush asks Daschle to limit Sept. 11 probes
From CNN January 29, 2002
Access Denied: Justice Dept. denied FBI a pre-911 warrant to search Moussauoi's computer
MSNBC October 1, 2001
and
FBI told to back off Bin Ladens
Streaming video from the BBC. Real Player required. Read transcript

Before and After
Before:
Panel recommends sweeping national security changes
January 31, 2001 from CNN
After:
Disaster agency to coordinate terrorism response
May 8, 2001 from CNN
In a nutshell, Bush rejected the panel's recommendations and instead put Dick Cheney in charge of a "task force on weapons of mass destruction and on how attacks with such weapons against U.S. citizens or personnel at home and overseas may be detected and stopped."
At this time Dick Cheney was also responsible for putting together our nation's energy policy, so he had a pretty full plate.
In a Salon.com article dated September 12, some members of that panel spoke out about the frustration and regret they felt at having Bush scorn all of the panel's recommendations.

Senate asks Bush for special counsel to investigate Enron
Los Angeles Times

Mystery illness strikes UK troops in Afghanistan
From the BBC

Quality of government marijuana called "poor"
Washington Post

Antibiotics found in imported shrimp
Houma, Louisiana Courier

Pre-Attack FBI Memo Cited Bin Laden
New York Times - Free registration required

U.S. Reviews Its Performance in Venezuela
ABC News

Text of Jimmy Carter's Speech
Guardian Unlimited

Senate Defies Bush in Trade Bill
Associated Press via Yahoo

Crusader a Boon to Carlyle Group Even if Pentagon Scraps Project
From the Washington Post
Excerpt: Whatever the fate of the Army's multibillion-dollar Crusader mobile artillery system, it has already helped provide an ample return for some of Washington's most prominent power brokers...But the biggest winner has been the Carlyle Group, the Washington investment firm headed by former Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci and other stars of past administrations, Republican and Democratic.
Also see Meet The Carlyle Group

Judge who opposed Miranda confirmed by Senate
From Reuters via Iwon
Excerpts: By a 67-20 vote, the U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed as a federal judge a Utah professor who tried to topple a pillar of American justice -- the requirement police inform suspects of their right to remain silent and have an attorney...Cassell helped lead a crusade to get the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down its 1966 Miranda ruling. He argued a 1968 law had eased the Miranda requirement, permitting voluntary confessions to be introduced as evidence -- even if police did not read suspects their rights.
...Many Democrats backed off their opposition to Cassell since he was nominated to a district court, where he would basically preside over cases, and not a circuit court, where he would handle appeals and help interpret the law, Democratic aides said. Bush could expect a much tougher fight if he tried to elevate Cassell to a circuit court, the Senate aides said.

Suspicious Package Explodes while being diffused in Philedelphia
From the Associated Press via NJ.com
A suspicious package found inside a mail drop box exploded Monday as it was being defused by a police bomb squad, authorities said.
The blast sprayed shrapnel for 100 feet, but no one was injured, FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said....A mail carrier discovered the package inside the mailbox in a residential neighborhood and became alarmed by writing on its exterior...A police official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity said a note attached to the package said "Free Palestine" and mentioned al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

Carter's Statement on Security Briefing
From Fox News
"In preparation for this unprecedented visit, I requested, and we all received, intense briefings from the State Department, the intelligence agencies of my country, and high officials in the White House. I asked them specifically on more than one occasion is there any evidence that Cuba has been involved in sharing any information to any other country on Earth that could be used for terrorist purposes. And the answer from our experts on intelligence was 'no.'

Afghanistan plans gas pipeline
Surprise!
From the BBC
Excerpt: Afghanistan hopes to strike a deal later this month to build a $2bn pipeline through the country to take gas from energy-rich Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India...The construction of the 850-kilometre pipeline had been previously discussed between Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, US oil company Unocal and Bridas of Argentina. The project was abandoned after the US launched missile attacks on Afghanistan in 1999.
...The pipeline is expected to be built with funds from donor countries for the reconstruction of Afghanistan as well as ADB loans, he said.

Cheap, Potent Heroin in Portland, Maine
From the Boston Globe
Excerpts: In just over a week, three people died of suspected overdoses...One reason for the deaths, he said, is an increase in the toxicity of drugs being sold here. While heroin a decade ago was on average 30 percent pure, much of the heroin now available is 80 percent to 90 percent pure, and far more potent. And it costs less. A gram of heroin that sold for $30-$35 last year costs roughly $20 now.
In the past six months, the number of opiate users seeking treatment at methadone clinics near Portland has doubled to 900. And residential burglaries, which police say directly correlate with drug use, are up 91 percent.

How can you trust a man who has never danced to the National Anthem?
I do not object to one idiot having as many guns as one genius; but I do object
to two idiots having twice as many guns as does one genius.

FBI agent’s notes pointed to possible WTC attack
From Newsweek via MSNBC
Excerpt: Last week, in little-noticed testimony before a Senate panel, FBI Director Robert Mueller referred to another internal document that may prove more explosive: notes by a Minneapolis agent worrying that French Moroccan flight student Zacarias Moussaoui might be planning to “fly something into the World Trade Center.” The notes are especially eerie because Moussaoui faces charges that he was part of the 9-11 plot. Sources say the notes Mueller referred to were written in early September 2001—days before the attack. The author was part of a counterterrorism team desperately trying to figure out what Moussaoui was up to.
...Congressional investigators believe there are more embarrassing documents to come.
End excerpt.
What this article doesn't mention is that these FBI guys tried to get a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer, but the Justice Department wouldn't give them one.
:^(

Opec chief warned Chavez about coup
From the Guardian
Excerpts: The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, had advance warning of last month's coup attempt against him from the secretary general of Opec, Ali Rodriguez, allowing him to prepare an extraordinary plan which saved both his government and his life, an investigation has revealed
...He said Opec had learned that some Arab countries, later revealed to be Libya and Iraq, planned to call for a new oil embargo against the United States because of its support for Israel. The Opec chief warned Mr Chavez that the US would prod a long-simmering coup into action to break any embargo threat. It was likely to act on April 11, the day a general strike was due to start.
...Mr Chavez told Newsnight: "I have written proof of the time of the entries and exits of two US military officers into the headquarters of the coup plotters - their names, whom they met with, what they said - proof on video and on still photographs." Last month the Guardian reported a former US intelligence officer's claims that the US had been considering a coup to overthrow the Venezuelan president for nearly a year.

Moussaoui Could Be Ruled Incompetent to Stand Trial
From the Washington Post
Excerpts: The federal judge who must decide whetherZacarias Moussaoui can fire his attorneys and represent himself in his terrorism conspiracy trial could face a stark choice, legal analysts say: allow an alleged terrorist to use his defense as a political platform or find him mentally incompetent and cancel the trial. That's because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1993 that defendants who are not competent to waive counsel are not any more competent to stand trial.
...If Brinkema allows Moussaoui to represent himself, she will have to deal with a slew of other legal issues: Is an alleged terrorist allowed to see classified information that might help clear him?

House Defense Bill includes $475 million for Carlyle's Crusader
From MSNBC
Excerpts: The House passed the biggest increase in military spending in decades Friday to help fight the war on terrorism, including money for a new mobile artillery system that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ordered to be killed...The House-passed legislation includes $475 million for the Crusader’s development. The bill also contains nonbinding language directing the Pentagon not to kill the program until the Army has given Congress a study on alternatives.
...The Crusader was slated to be built by United Defense Industries, a company whose majority owner is the Carlyle Group, a Washington-based investment firm headed by former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, who is a friend and former college roommate of Rumsfeld.
Former President Bush is a consultant to the Carlyle Group and former Secretary of State James Baker, who advised the current president during the Florida election recount, is a managing director of the firm.

Feds try to block subpoena of Cheney's Aid
From the New Haven Register
Excerpts: Calling the subpoena "wholly inappropriate," the Justice Department said Thursday in court papers that Lundquist, the task force's former executive director, doesn't have any information relevant to NRDC's lawsuit against the government. It is too soon in the case to question him, said the Justice Department, which plans to ask for dismissal of NRDC's lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler.
NRDC is suing the Energy Department, which had a key role in formulating the Cheney plan. Lundquist was an Energy Department employee detailed to the Cheney task force. "The administration continues to deny the public information about what their government is doing," said NRDC attorney Sharon Buccino. "Lundquist holds a critical missing piece of the puzzle about how the Bush energy plan was developed," said Buccino.

McKinney Draws Support
From the Miami Herald
Excerpts: McKinney's most recent claim - that Bush administration officials may have ignored warnings of the Sept. 11 attacks and that their political allies have profited from the war on terrorism - drew rebukes in Washington but tapped into a surprising undercurrent in her home district.
"I think she's telling the truth and no one wants to hear it," said Sharnita Marshall, a 32-year-old mother who describes herself as "a big, big fan" of the congresswoman.
Sen. Zell Miller, a fellow Georgia Democrat, called McKinney "loony" and "dangerous and irresponsible" after her March 25 comments that the Bush administration may have known the Sept. 11 attacks were likely.
None of the criticism seemed to bother constituent David Hernandez, a landscaper from Decatur who has voted for McKinney since she was in the Georgia Legislature in the 1980s. "She'll stand up and say it. I like that," Hernandez said. "I like the way she stands up for us in DeKalb County because we're thinking the same thing, you know? She's coming out with hidden secrets about the government that everybody should know."

Bush goes behind Congress's back with corporate tax breaks
From The Hill
Excerpts: In a series of little-noticed executive orders intended to ease the tax burden on corporate America, the Bush administration has implemented a number of new policies that will provide corporations with billions of dollars in tax relief without the consent of Congress. The actions include new regulations, notices of new rulemaking, and tax collection policies on issues ranging from tax-free compensation for corporate executives to tax deductions for “intangible” assets to greatly expanded tax accounting flexibility for small- and medium-sized businesses.
When asked about the new policies implemented by the Treasury Department, Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he was not familiar with them.
So did Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, along with Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who are also members of the tax-writing panel.

Bush: California's Energy Problems should be solved by Californians
Flashback from CNN January 29, 2001
Highlights: President Bush said Monday that California's electricity shortages should be solved "in California by Californians" as he convened a Cabinet task force to examine long-term energy policy. Bush said his administration will examine California's problems, but he offered little hope of federal help for the state...The panel Bush announced Monday will be led by Vice President Dick Cheney and include Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.
...Bush said "it's becoming very clear" that the country needs to develop new sources of energy, and the group that met Monday would explore ways of doing that. Seeking new sources of energy was a prominent part of Bush's campaign, which included a controversial plan to allow oil exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Other proposals included developing alternative sources and coaxing U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf region and Latin America to provide reliable supplies.

Texas farmers plan blockade of bridges
From WorldNet Daily
Excerpts: South Texas farmers growing impatient with Mexican and U.S. officials over diplomatic failure to resolve a water issue say they will blockade three major international bridges if they can't get relief for their crops soon...Givens says a blockade "could spread along the border and affect industries all across the United States," most of which buy parts from Mexican distributors or have assembly plants there.
For earlier articles about the Border Water Crisis, click here.

Daschle: Somebody Ought to Go to Jail
From the Associated Press via Yahoo
Excerpts: Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said Thursday he believes Enron Corp. broke laws while manipulating electricity supply and prices during the California energy crisis. "I don't think there's any doubt that somebody ought to go to jail and that we ought to find a way through public policy to fix a system that needs to be addressed," said Daschle, D-S.D.
Democrats continue to fault the Bush administration and Republican leaders in Congress for taking a hands-off approach to the crisis, despite pleas from California to help control wholesale prices. "The Bush administration and congressional Republicans sided with the energy companies and did nothing to help," said Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif.
Two panels in the Democrat-controlled Senate announced hearings Wednesday on price manipulation in energy markets. The commission chairman, Pat Wood, is expected to testify before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Waiting for the Hammer to Fall in Gaza
Dog writes:
Here are two related stories. If you read them now, you'll be
ready...or more ready...for tomorrows mainstream media screamers.
The first story is by Robert Fisk. It is constantly surprising to
encounter (north) Americans who have never heard of Fisk. He may well be
one of the best reporters writing in English today. He is certainly one of
the bravest...and most polemical. He knows his stuff; he knows his beat.
He has been covering the mid-east since the days of courier pigeons.
Written two weeks ago, this story should be -- or should have been -- a
red-flag.
But it won't be. The madmen will keep on killing each other. Religious
wars are always the most interesting.
The second story is from the NYTimes; so to some degree it is
questionable -- how much of it is propaganda, how much is dis-information,
how much is selling woof-cookies -- but even with those considerations, it
probably has usable truth in it.
If the NYTimes is correct (Israel is going to attack Gaza) and Robert
Fisk is right (Gaza is armed to the teeth), this thing is going to get much
worse much sooner.
These folks will undoubtedly keep killing each other as long as there is
a rock to throw or a stick with which to club. Nonetheless, Dog would feel
much better if U.S. money wasn't financing it.
Robert Fisk's story from Gaza, then, is at
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=289939
And the more recent NYTimes speculation/announcement of deaths foretold
is at
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/09/international/09CND-MIDE.html

First Humans to receive ID Chips
From the Los Angeles Times
Highlights: Eight people will be injected with silicon chips Friday, making them scannable just like a jar of peanut butter in the supermarket checkout line. The miniature devices, about the size of a grain of rice, were developed by a Florida company.
...The chip will be put in Isaacson's upper back, effectively invisible unless a hand-held scanner is waved over it...Emergency room personnel, for instance, could find out who Isaacson is and where he lives. They'd know that he is prone to forgetfulness, that has a pacemaker and is allergic to penicillin.
It's a prospect deeply unsettling to privacy advocates, no matter how voluntary the process may initially appear. "Who gets to decide who gets chipped?" asked Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "Parents will decide that their kids should be implanted, or maybe their own aging parents. It's an easier way to manage someone, like putting a leash on a pet."
Applied Digital, which says it has a waiting list of 4,000 to 5,000 people who want a VeriChip, plans to operate a "chipmobile" that visits Florida senior citizen's centers.
Applied Digital is charging $200 for a chip, plus a $10 monthly fee to store the information.

Jury to hear testimony of FBI corruption
From the Boston Globe
Excerpts: As (FBI Special Agent) Connolly's federal racketeering trial began yesterday, a federal prosecutor revealed that a former Bulger confidant will testify that he personally delivered envelopes to Connolly containing $5,000 for him and $1,000 for another unnamed agent.
...Connolly, who retired from the bureau in 1990, is charged with racketeering and obstruction of justice for allegedly leaking information to Bulger and Flemmi that led to the murders of three potential witnesses against them; and thwarting the FBI's ongoing efforts to convict the pair.
...Attorney Tracy Miner, who represents Connolly, described her client as a loyal bureau foot soldier who was just following orders when he recruited Bulger and Flemmi as informants - unaware that they were suspected for 21 murders between them throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Death to Carlyle's Crusader...Sad for the new Stockholders
United Defense's $11 billion Crusader program has officially been cancelled. What's really sad about this is that United Defense and The Carlyle Group sold $400 million dollars worth of United Defense stock to the public last December for around $19 a share. The stock is currently selling at just over $21, after a high of almost $30 a share a few weeks ago.

No comment on the alleged "tiff" between Donald Rumsfeld and Army Secretary Thomas E(nron) White over killing the Crusader project, because I feel like it was contrived to steer the public's attention away from the fact that White, while an executive at Enron, was in charge of the division that was responsible for manipulating California's energy prices during the energy crisis last year.
Also see: The Axis of Corporate Evil

Congress OK's Yucca Mountain Project
From Fox News
Excerpts: ...By a vote of 306-117 the House has voted to override objections from Gov. Kenny Guinn and go ahead with President Bush's plan to make Yucca the national repository for nuclear waste...Nevada lawmakers have been fighting furiously to prevent the radioactive waste dump from opening, saying they don't want it in their backyard, and opponents say they don't want it shipped there through their backyards.
"Over 10,000 train, truck and barge shipments, each carrying deadly high-level nuclear waste, would have to go through 45 states, over 300 congressional districts and hundreds of cities and towns," said Rep. Lynn Rivers, D-Mich.
Also see Raping the Mountainside
and An Open Letter to Nevadans
Contact your lawmakers and let them know how you feel.

Papers Show That Enron Manipulated Calif. Crisis
From the Washington Post
Excerpts: Enron Corp. manipulated the California electricity market with such maneuvers as transferring energy outside the state to evade price caps and creating phony "congestion" on power lines, according to internal Enron documents released yesterday.
The techniques described in two memos written by lawyers for Enron in December 2000 were given names such as "Fat Boy," "Death Star," "Get Shorty" and "Ricochet."
...U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said she will ask the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation of power sales in California.

Placebos Outperform Antidepressants
From the Washington Post
Highlights: A new analysis has found that in the majority of trials conducted by drug companies in recent decades, sugar pills have done as well as -- or better than -- antidepressants. Companies have had to conduct numerous trials to get two that show a positive result, which is the Food and Drug Administration's minimum for approval.
What's more, the sugar pills, or placebos, cause profound changes in the same areas of the brain affected by the medicines, according to research published last week.
...Khan said the makers of Prozac had to run five trials to obtain two that were positive, and the makers of Paxil and Zoloft had to run even more.
...Once the trial was over and the patients who had been given placebos were told as much, they quickly deteriorated. People's belief in the power of antidepressants may explain why they do well on placebos.

Northwest Police Face Off with the Justice Department
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Excerpts: Northwest police chiefs and sheriffs are headed for an uncomfortable face-off with the U.S. Department of Justice when Attorney General John Ashcroft follows through with plans to authorize local police to enforce immigration laws.
Washington state's top law enforcement officials say their resources are already stretched thin, and they want answers to a raft of questions before they agree to take on responsibilities now handled by the Justice Department. Topping the list: Who is going to pay?
"We don't have enough people to do what we are supposed to do -- without taking on jobs that the federal government is supposed to do," said Larry Erickson, executive director of the Washington Association of Sheriff's and Police Chiefs.
...Essentially deputizing local police as immigration agents would greatly increase distrust of police in immigrant and refugee communities, which make up one-fifth of Seattle's population, she said. Those communities would be more reluctant to report crimes if doing so could jeopardize their ability to remain in the country.
If violent crimes go unreported, that affects the entire community, Jayapal said.

Jefferson group rejects Hemings descendants
From the Boston Globe
Excerpts: The Monticello Association decided in a closed meeting to continue to restrict membership to Jefferson's descendants through his daughters Martha and Maria.
The group will continue to exclude descendants of Sally Hemings, a slave at Monticello with whom Jefferson has long been rumored to have had a sexual relationship.
...During his presidency, Jefferson was accused publicly of fathering several of Hemings's children after his wife died. DNA tests have shown a male in Jefferson's family - possibly the former president - fathered Hemings's son Eston.

Murderer mistakenly set free in Nashville
From Fox News
Excerpts: Officials at Turney Center Industrial Prison and Farm apparently mistook inmate Donald L. White for another inmate scheduled for release and loaded him into a van bound for Nashville, said state Correction Department spokesman Steve Hayes.
"He matched the description of the other inmate," Hayes said. "There is some indication [the switch] may have been planned."
...White was described as black male, 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing 150 pounds. He has a large afro haircut and several tattoos, including one on his right forearm. He was serving an 18-year sentence for a second-degree murder conviction.

U.S. Withdraws from World Court
From CBS News
Excerpts: The United States has renounced formal involvement in a treaty creating the first permanent war crimes tribunal, Ambassador Pierre Richard-Prosper said Monday...President Clinton signed the treaty, but never submitted it to the Senate for ratification. The Bush administration has made its opposition clear.
...But he said President Bush has made clear the decision does not mean the United States is waging war against the court.
Instead, the United States favors working with nongovernment organizations, private industry and universities and law schools to help individual countries set up tribunals if and when they need them.
..."We are the leader in the world with respect to bringing people to justice," Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday. "But ... we found that this was not a situation that we believed was appropriate for our men and women in the armed forces or our diplomats and political leaders."

Dutch Prime Minister Candidate Assasinated
From the BBC
Excerpts: Fortuyn, 54, was shot six times and suffered multiple wounds in the head, chest and neck. He died of his injuries shortly afterwards. He was attacked as he left a radio studio in the central Dutch city of Hilversum after giving an interview.
Fortuyn has provoked public indignation by calling for the Netherlands' borders to be closed to immigrants and by describing Islam as a 'backward' religion.
The BBC's world affairs correspondent, John Simpson, who interviewed him last week, said: "He was aware of the kind of feelings he was stirring up and, to some extent, he enjoyed that because he knew his message was getting through."

Chavez Raises Idea Of U.S. Role in Coup

From the Washington Post
Excerpts: Chavez has begun his own investigation into the four days that saw him toppled, then returned to power, in a spate of political violence that left more than 60 people dead. In an interview late Friday, Chavez said "worrying details" have emerged that point to a foreign hand behind his temporary ouster -- perhaps, he suggested, one guided by the United States...
In the months before the coup, members of Venezuela's opposition met with U.S. officials here and in Washington on several occasions. Those meetings involved some of the business leaders and military officials who ended up in the short-lived provisional government, which lost the support of the military on April 13, a day after dissolving the national legislature and the constitution.

Texas Governor Declares Bush's Records "Public"
From the HoustonChronicle
Excerpts: AUSTIN -- President Bush's gubernatorial records are Texas property and subject to the state's Public Information Act, even though they are housed at his father's presidential library, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn ruled Friday...Bush placed his records in his father's George Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Texas A&M University in College Station. That library is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and not subject to state open records act...
In 1997, Bush, who served as Texas governor from 1995 to 2000, signed into law a bill that said a governor may designate an alternate repository for his records instead of the state archives commission.

Intelligence Inquiry Hits Obstacles
From the Los Angeles Times
Excerpts: WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers leading the investigation of intelligence agencies' failures surrounding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are increasingly concerned that tactics by the CIA and the Justice Department are actively impeding their efforts, congressional sources said Friday. Members of the Senate and House intelligence committees are so frustrated with the tactics, sources said, that they intend to complain directly to CIA Director George J. Tenet and Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft.
...At the Justice Department, the intelligence committees' requests for records take weeks to wind their way through the department's bureaucracy and sometimes are simply not acted upon, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
...Small teams of investigators have been based at the Justice Department and the CIA, gathering documents and conducting interviews. They have come back with a litany of complaints about tactics they say are designed to slow their progress and restrict their access to documents and potential informants, sources said.
All interviews with agency employees are supervised by CIA officials who have prevented investigators even from collecting business cards or phone numbers from interview subjects, sources said.

Camp X-ray detainee sent back because of "emotional breakdown"
From the Washington Post
Highlights: One of the 332 al Qaeda or Taliban prisoners held at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba was flown back to Afghanistan because he is suffering from what appears to be an emotional breakdown, military sources said...In early February, military doctors at the prison camp said they were prescribing medication to two detainees for psychiatric illnesses--one was a manic-depressive who cycled into a psychotic state, and the other was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome from battle and was "acting out." ...
...Officials said doctors at the camp also have tried to relieve their discomfort through counseling, but have been hampered in part because of language difficulties. That raises the possibility that the return of the detainee this week was in part an effort to place him in a setting where he could communicate more easily with other people...
...Meanwhile, on Wednesday U.S.-based attorneys filed a petition in federal court in Washington on behalf of 11 Kuwaiti nationals who are being held in Guantanamo Bay and who say they are being held unfairly...The families assert their relatives were working in Pakistan and Afghanistan as aid volunteers, and were mistakenly rounded up by local tribesmen who were paid bounties to produce Taliban and al Qaeda sympathizers.

Mailbox Pipe Bombs injure 5 in Midwest
From Fox News
Excerpts: In what authorities said was a case of domestic terrorism, five pipe bombs accompanied by anti-government propaganda exploded Friday in rural mailboxes in Illinois and Iowa. At least five people were injured....Postal Service vice president Azeezaly Jaffer said the bombs were accompanied by a note that began: "Mailboxes are exploding! Why, you ask?" Then it said, in part: "If the government controls what you want to do they control what you can do. ... I'm obtaining your attention in the only way I can. More info is on its way. More 'attention getters' are on the way."

FBI was warned about terror pilots
From USA Today
Excerpts: Two months before September's suicide hijackings, an FBI agent in Arizona alerted Washington headquarters that several Middle Easterners were training at a U.S. aviation school and recommended contacting other schools nationwide where Arabs might be studying, law enforcement officials said...The FBI's concerns about the U.S. flight schools is the latest revelation about information, much of it sketchy, that the government possessed before Sept. 11 concerning the possibility of terrorism in the skies.
End Excerpt
Also see: FBI agents denied pre-911 warrant to search Moussaoui's hard drive by the Justice Department
From MSNBC
Excerpts: Oct. 1 — Top Justice Department and FBI officials turned down a request by Minneapolis FBI agents early last month for a special counterintelligence surveillance warrant on a suspected Islamic terrorist who officials now believe may have been part of the Sept. 11 plot to attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon, NEWSWEEK has learned...Sources familiar with the case tell NEWSWEEK that FBI agents in Minneapolis seized Moussaoui’s computer in mid-August after officials at an Eagan, Minn., flight school tipped them off that the 33-year-old French citizen was acting suspiciously. Moussaoui had sought training only in making turns—not take-offs and landings—and specifically asked about flying over New York air space, officials said.
But, while Moussaoui himself was placed in detention on minor immigration charges on August 17, agents in Minneapolis were never given approval by Justice Department officials in Washington to open up the hard drive on the suspect’s computer.

GOP Pages Spared Prosecution for Marijuana
From New York Daily News
"High"lights: The House quietly booted 11 pages this week after at least one was caught with a small amount of marijuana, sources confirmed yesterday. The pages were dealt with administratively, according to Capitol Police Lt. Dan Nichols, a department spokesman. They apparently were spared prosecution — perhaps because the amount of pot involved was minimal, sources said...The National Organization for the Reform Marijuana Law Reform offered the dismissed pages summer internships.

Democrats in Congress Questioning "Patriot Act"
From The Hill
Excerpts: Secret court subpoenas, examinations of bookstore records, revised immigration policies and other uses of sweeping new powers have some Senate Democrats taking a new critical look at the USA Patriot Act, enacted in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), the lone senator to vote against the measure last fall, has been its most vocal critic, warning that the act infringes on constitutional freedoms. “I would cast the same vote today, but even more confidently, as we see how law enforcement is beginning to use the new powers in the bill and how the Department of Justice has proceeded on a variety of fronts not directly addressed in the bill,” he said last week.

Pentagon May Kill Carlyle Group's Crusader
Sorry, all you United Defense and CalPERS investors, this smells like Enron. I wonder what effect this will have on the friendship of Donald Rumsfeld and Frank Carlucci? Will President Bush take action? Part of that $11 billion would have feathered the nest of his future inheritance.
From Reuters via the Miami Herald
Excerpt: The Pentagon said on Thursday it had ordered the U.S. Army to come up with alternatives to its Crusader artillery system, foreshadowing possible cancellation of the $11 billion United Defense Industries program derided by critics as an obsolete Cold War system backed by vested interests...

Ridge Snubs Committee for Senate Photo Op
From MSNBC
Highlights: RIDGE’S 50-MINUTE appearance coincided with a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on domestic security to which he had been invited to testify by Byrd, D-W.Va., the committee’s chairman.
The administration timed Ridge’s briefing to highlight its contention that although he would not formally testify before Congress, he is readily accessible to lawmakers, a White House official said on condition of anonymity. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who helped organize the briefing, said the timing was coincidental. Either way, a clearly offended Byrd lashed out at the White House for an “orchestrated event"...“Instead of allowing Director Ridge to testify, the administration would rather trivialize homeland security with these made-for-television stunts,” Byrd said. “This committee cannot be distracted from our efforts by these sophomoric political antics,” he added. “This committee has a job to do, and the committee will do it.”

VA Governor Apologizes for Forced Sterilization
From AP via Yahoo
Excerpts: Gov. Mark R. Warner issued a formal apology Thursday for the state's decision to forcibly sterilize thousands of Virginians from 1924 to 1979..."Today, I offer the commonwealth's sincere apology for Virginia's participation in eugenics," the Democratic governor said in the statement. "The eugenics movement was a shameful effort in which state government never should have been involved."...Virginia forcibly sterilized about 7,450 people under the banner of eugenics, or selective human breeding and social engineering...The law targeted virtually any human shortcoming that was believed to be hereditary, including mental illness, mental retardation, epilepsy, alcoholism and criminal behavior.

Fighting Between Warlords undermines Afghanistan Campaign
From the Guardian (UK)
Excerpts: News from the second war is not so good for the US and its allies because there is not supposed to be a second war. Waged mostly in the north and east, it turns bloodier by the week. Several days ago more than 300 rockets rained into the town of Gardez, killing and wounding more than 100 civilians. Yesterday shooting and shelling continued near the towns of Shulgara and Sare Pul where fighting has left 12 dead and wounded.
Despite the body count this second conflict receives less attention because it is an internal affair: rival Afghan warlords battling each other for territory and influence. Usually the combatants swear loyalty to the Americans and offer to help hunt for the Islamists...American forces based on a hill outside the town have urged Zadran to back off, a US military spokesman said, but they avoided close involvement since their priority was to fight Islamist guerrillas, not guarantee security...The Americans do have leverage over Zadran. Recognising his control over the countryside, they have plied him with money and satellite phones and trained 400 of his men to bolster the hunt for al-Qaida, despite evidence that he called in air strikes against rivals falsely identified as guerrillas.

7-Year-Old Charged With Felony for Pencil Stabbing
From Tampa Bay Online
Excerpt: Police have charged a 7-year-old with felony aggravated battery after he allegedly stabbed four elementary school classmates with a pencil. No one was seriously hurt during Tuesday's incident about 70 miles north of Orlando, police said...The boy began yelling during class after he was asked to share his crayons, police said. The 7-year-old then began chasing students and stabbed a classmate in the back, causing a puncture mark. The boy also stabbed three other children, causing red marks, authorities said...Earlier in the morning, school officials said the boy had taken his medication, Irwin said. She didn't know what kind of medication the boy was taking.

Scientists Create Remote-Controlled Rats
From Fox News
Highlights: By implanting electrodes in rats' brains, scientists have created remote-controlled rodents they can command to turn left or right, climb trees and navigate piles of rubble— and maybe someday, with the rats outfitted with tiny video cameras, use to search for disaster survivors...Chapin's team fitted five rats with electrodes and power-pack backpacks. When signaled by a laptop computer, the electrodes stimulated the rodents' brains and cued them to scurry in the desired direction, then rewarded them by stimulating a pleasure center in the brain...The rats' movements could be controlled up to 1,640 feet away, the length of more than five football fields...The potential of using such implantable electrodes to control humans — which a Tulane University researcher tried during the 1960s, with unclear results — is something Chapin said he opposes so strongly he believes it should be illegal.

Clinton delivers Yucca pep talk
From the Las Vegas Review-Journal
Excerpt:President Clinton advised Nevadans on how to turn back the Bush administration's plans for a nuclear waste repository: Focus on senators from small states. "You ought to go to senators from every one of the small states and ask them how they'd feel if it was being done to them," Clinton told an audience of about 6,000 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Monday night. "Don't give up. Just keeping making the case." ...Citing his concerns about scientific doubts that remain unanswered, he said: "I just think it's a mistake. I don't think it can be justified on the merits."

Judge Rejects Jailing Of Material Witnesses
From the Washington Post
Highlights: The judge, Shira A. Scheindlin, ruled that the Justice Department has overreached in imprisoning as "material witnesses" men the authorities believe might have information for grand juries investigating terrorism..."If the government has probable cause to believe a person has committed a crime, it may arrest that person," Scheindlin wrote. "But since 1789, no Congress has granted the government the authority to imprison an innocent person in order to guarantee that he will testify before a grand jury conducting a criminal investigation."