Patriot Act's reach may be as much myth as reality: Some powers associated with law existed or were in motion previouslyPoet Amir Sulaiman was on a professional high after his taped performance aired across the country on HBO's Def Poetry Jam in February 2004.
He had performed a piece titled "Dangerous," a poem he describes as passionate and intense.
But just six days after his performance first aired, the 26-year-old African-American father of three had FBI agents waiting to question him at his mother-in-law's house in San Francisco.
"I'm not sure," he said about the ... (more)
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Bush says he may need more power in disasters: He wants Congress to look into whether presidential authority should be expanded in times of catastrophes like KatrinaWASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday urged Congress to examine whether the White House needs stronger powers to deal with catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina.
Bush’s backing for the congressional inquiry raised the possibility that lawmakers might expand presidential authority to:
• Order mandatory civilian evacuations
• Dispatch U.S.-based armed forces for emergency search-and-rescue operations
• Grant wider... (more)
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Mystery surrounds floodwall breachesOne of the central mysteries emerging in the Hurricane Katrina disaster is why concrete floodwalls in three canals breached during the storm, causing much of the catastrophic flooding, while earthen hurricane levees surrounding the city remained intact.
It probably will take months to investigate and make a conclusive determination about what happened, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. But two Louisiana State University scientists who have examined the breaches suggest tha... (more)
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Security gridlock as New York prepares for UN World SummitNew York has gone into security gridlock with 170 world leaders descending on the city for this week's UN World Summit and general assembly which marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the world body.
"This is a general assembly like no other," said New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who is deploying 4,000 officers for what will be the city's largest security operation since last year's Republican National Convention.
The massive police contingent will c... (more)
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UN investigating use of Shannon by CIA ‘torture plane’The United Nations is reportedly planning to investigate the use of Shannon Airport by the US military as part of the Bush administration's "war on terrorism".
Reports this morning said the Government's decision to allow the US to use the airport would be scrutinised as part of an inquiry into the alleged torture of suspected Islamic militants.
The inquiry centres on an aircraft allegedly used by the CIA to transport detainees to countries where they can be tortured... (more)
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County in Shandong forcibly sterilizes at least 7,000 peopleAt least 7,000 people in eastern China were forcibly sterilized earlier this year by officials under pressure to limit the growth of the country's massive population, Time magazine reported in an edition published yesterday.
Quoting lawyers who spoke to local family-planning officials, the magazine said that between March and July, 7,000 people underwent forced abortions and sterilizations in Yinan County, Shandong Province.
"They told me they were doing this for my... (more)
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San Francisco Gun Ban A Losing PropositionIf there's anything Americans have learned from the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it's that there are times when the government is simply unable to protect its citizens. The looting of nonessential items, robberies, carjackings, murders and rapes that overtook New Orleans as chaos gripped the city demonstrated what can happen when the government loses control.
Countless stories were told about unarmed citizens who were defenseless against the criminals who preyed upon the... (more)
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Iraqi witness tells court of beating by paratroopersAn Iraqi taxi driver was beaten unconscious by a group of British soldiers using rifle butts and fists, a court was told yesterday.
Athar Finjan Saddam was felled next to his Toyota pick-up truck on the afternoon of 11 May 2003, in the village of al-Ferkah, near al-U'Zayra in southern Iraq.
The court was told he was attacked alongside his friend Nadhem Abdullah, 18, who was sitting in the truck's passenger seat. Mr Abdullah died in the early hours of the next mornin... (more)
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Iran Accuses US of Being Behind Iraq Bomb AttacksIran’s top military commander accused the United States and Israel of planning the non-stop bomb attacks that killed thousands of civilians in Iraq.
Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr, the deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), told a gathering of senior officials, that the U.S. needs those attacks to justify the continuation of its military presence in Iraq.
“The Americans blame weak and feeble groups in Iraq f... (more)
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The Man Beneath The Hood Speaks Out: “They tortured me, they humiliated me"09/14/05 "ICH" -- -- “They tortured me, they humiliated me, they have destroyed me inside. I want that what has happened to me never happens again, that everyone knows what those months in Abu Ghraib were like. This is my new life: to denounce that which is happening in the Iraqi prisons, to defend the rights of those who are inside of them”. Former prisoner number 151716 of the prison of shame speaks. The man who has been recognised in one of the photo-symbols of the violence of Abu... (more)
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FEMA, La. outsource Katrina body count to firm implicated in body-dumping scandalsThe Federal Emergency Management Agency has hired Kenyon International to set up a mobile morgue for handling bodies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, RAW STORY has learned.
Kenyon is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses.
Louisiana governor Katherine Blan... (more)
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Concerned citizen Harris offers county camera adviceConcerned citizen Bobby Harris disputed the efficacy of a proposed camera system at each of the county's compactor stations during last week's Bandera County Commissioners' Court. Harris said that a single camera would not be sufficient in securing a station from loss or theft.
During a special meeting on Aug 8, Precinct 2 Commissioner Ronnie Basinger prompted the need for a surveillance system, due to a six-month loss in revenue at the Lakehills dump station. He estimated that a ... (more)
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U.S. Deploys Slide Show to Press Case Against IranUNITED NATIONS, Sept. 13 -- With an hour-long slide show that blends satellite imagery with disquieting assumptions about Iran's nuclear energy program, Bush administration officials have been trying to convince allies that Tehran is on a fast track toward nuclear weapons.
The PowerPoint briefing, titled "A History of Concealment and Deception," has been presented to diplomats from more than a dozen countries. Several diplomats said the presentation, intended to win allies for inc... (more)
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Bush Seeks Russian Help to Ensure Iran Gets No Nuclear WeaponsU.S. President George W. Bush said that he would try to rally China and Russia this week behind possible UN action to ensure Iran does not get nuclear weapons, the AFP news agency reports.
“Iran with a nuclear weapon will be incredibly destabilizing. And therefore, we must work together to prevent them from having the wherewithal to develop a nuclear weapon,” he said at the White House after meeting Iraq’s president.
Bush stopped short of saying th... (more)
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U.S. May Start Pulling Out of Afghanistan Next SpringKABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 13 - Senior Pentagon and military officials are discussing a proposal to cut American troop levels in Afghanistan next spring, perhaps by as much as 20 percent, the largest withdrawal since the Taliban were ousted in late 2001.
The troops would be replaced by NATO soldiers, who now oversee security and reconstruction missions in northern and western Afghanistan and are to take over an American command in the south next spring. American troops have been ta... (more)
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Al-Qaeda threat appears authentic, says GovtAn al-Qaeda threat singling out Melbourne for a terrorist attack, the first time an Australian city has been targeted, appeared to be authentic, the Federal Government said yesterday.
Terrorism experts said the latest warning should be taken very seriously, while the Victorian Government advised people not to panic.
The threat, made on the anniversary of the 2001 bombings in the United States, came in a video aired on the American ABC network which says it obtained ... (more)
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California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has filed a lawsuit to force top makers of potato chips and french fries to warn consumers about a potential cancer-causing chemical found in french friesIn a complaint filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Lockyer sought an injunction to stop restaurant chains such as McDonald's Corp. and Wendy's International Inc. from selling french fries without some form of warning.
Also named were producers of potato chips and other packaged potato products like PepsiCo's Frito-Lay Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co., makers of Pringles chips.
The suit asks manufacturers of these products to identify the dangers of high levels ... (more)
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Chertoff Delayed Federal Response, Memo ShowsWASHINGTON - The federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal response to Hurricane Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, not the former FEMA chief who was relieved of his duties and resigned earlier this week, federal documents reviewed by Knight Ridder show.
Even before the storm struck the Gulf Coast, Chertoff could have ordered federal agencies into action without any request from state or local officials. Federal Emergency Management Agenc... (more)
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The beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisonersA Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.
Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "tradit... (more)
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Texas Police Will Take Blood By Force in Suspected DUI CasesAfter completing a training course, Dalworthington Gardens police officers have been certified to draw blood from any motorist whom they suspect of driving under the influence of alcohol. The small North Texas city joins three counties -- Montague, Archer and Clay -- which have recently adopted similar policies.
These jurisdictions are seeking to make drunk driving convictions less vulnerable to court challenge as mounting evidence shows breathalyzer machines can be inaccurate. Un... (more)
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F.A.A. Alerted on Qaeda in '98, 9/11 Panel Said: Al Qaeda could "seek to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark"WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 - American aviation officials were warned as early as 1998 that Al Qaeda could "seek to hijack a commercial jet and slam it into a U.S. landmark," according to previously secret portions of a report prepared last year by the Sept. 11 commission. The officials also realized months before the Sept. 11 attacks that two of the three airports used in the hijackings had suffered repeated security lapses.
Federal Aviation Administration officials were also warned in ... (more)
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