Apr 27 2011

Wikileaks War Log: Guantanamo Files

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

There wasn’t much in these files that wasn’t mostly already known. What they did confirm was that there were a lot of people tortured and some innocent people are still in Guantanamo because of that torture.

Newly leaked documents show the ongoing travesty of Guantanamo

by Glenn Greenwald April 25, 2011

Numerous media outlets — The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and NPR, among others – last night published classified files on more than 700 past and present Guantanamo detainees. The leak was originally provided to WikiLeaks, which then gave them to the Post, NPR and others; the NYT and The Guardian claim to have received them from “another source” (WikiLeaks suggested the “other source” was Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former WikiLeaks associate who WikiLeaks claims took, without authorization, many WikiLeaks files when he left).

The documents reveal vast new information about these detainees and, in particular, the shoddy and unreliable nature of the “evidence” used (both before and now) to justify their due-process-free detentions. There are several points worth noting about all this . . . .

WikiLeaks: Just 8 at Gitmo gave evidence against 255 others

by Tom Lasseter and Carol Rosenberg | McClatchy Newspapers April 25, 2011

WASHINGTON – U.S. military intelligence assessing the threat of nearly 800 men held at Guantanamo in many cases used information from a small group of captives whose accounts now appear to be questionable, according to a McClatchy analysis of a trove of secret documents from the facility.

The allegations and observations of just eight detainees were used to help build cases against some 255 men at Guantanamo – roughly a third of all who passed through the prison. Yet the testimony of some of the eight was later questioned by Guantanamo analysts themselves, and the others were subjected to interrogation tactics that defense attorneys say amounted to torture and compromised the veracity of their information.

Concerns about the quality of the “facts” from the eight men goes to the heart of Guantanamo’s “mosaic” approach of piecing together detainees’ involvement with insurgent or terrorist groups that usually did not depend on one slam-dunk piece of evidence. Rather, intelligence analysts combined an array of details such as the items in detainees’ pants pockets at capture and whether they had confessed to interrogators – American or otherwise.

Just to add to the outrageous actions of the Bush administration, Obama continues along the same path by denying the remaining detainees due process.

DOJ Warns Gitmo Defense Attorneys Not to Use Gitmo Files

by emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler)

The defense attorneys representing detainees at Gitmo in habeas proceedings received this email today.

   Subject: Information in the public domain 2nd reminder

   All:

   As many of you have undoubtedly heard or read, government documents that may contain classified information have been released via the news media. As a reminder, information that is marked as classified, or that a person with access to classified information knows to be classified, remains as such despite a potential public disclosure by unauthorized means. Classified National Security Information only becomes declassified when the appropriate original classification authority makes their determination that the information may no longer cause damage to national security and may be declassified. Accordingly, consistent with your Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreements and Memorandum of Understanding that you signed as a participant in the Guantanamo Habeas proceedings, counsel are hereby cautioned that this presumptively classified information must be handled in accordance with all relevant security precautions and safeguards, including but not limited to, use and preparation in the Secure Facility and filing under seal with the Court Security Officer.

   Thank you.

   Court Security

In other words, in spite of the fact that the entire world now sees the flimsy evidence on which many Gitmo detainees are being held, Gitmo detainees’ lawyers can’t use that now very public information to defend their clients without going through the court security officer first. In fact, they can’t even talk about this information, for example in public appearances to explain their client’s plight, without asking the government for permission first.

And this gem from Marcy that further restricts the tools that any defense attorney in a civilian court could use to refute the prosecution’s evidence:

While some of the changes are just procedural, others are more telling. A central difference is the assertion that everything a High Value Detainee says will be presumptively treated as Top Secret/SCI (an update to the DC District order, issued before Abu Zubaydah’s lawyers got materials in his habeas case, includes treatment of TS/SCI information). So anything al-Nashiri tells his attorney about the torture he suffered-including the torture still allegedly being investigated by DOJ-will be considered TS/SCI.

In a similar vein, the prohibition on sharing detainee statements in classified documents I mentioned earlier is an addition to the DC District order.

   Statements of the detainee that detainee’s counsel acquires from classified documents cannot be shared with the detainee absent authorization from the appropriate government agency authorized to declassify the classified information.

None of this would stand in a civilian court but that is not to say that the DOJ couldn’t get convictions. There are clearly cases where they could but it would be harder. Military commissioned tribunals are easier because they make up the rules as the circumstances change. Then there are those who will be held indefinitely, regardless of a lack of evidence or, quite possibly because that evidence is so tainted it could never be used in any court military or otherwise, Way to go there , Con-law professor.

Apr 27 2011

DocuDharma Digest

Regular Features-

Featured Essays for April 26, 2011-

DocuDharma

Apr 27 2011

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 France, Italy call for reform of EU open-border treaty

by Nadege Puljak and Gildas Le Roux, AFP

2 hrs 27 mins ago

ROME (AFP) – France and Italy issued a joint call on Tuesday for a reform of the European Union’s visa-free treaty that would allow EU member states to re-impose internal border controls more easily.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi agreed on a letter outlining their demands to EU leaders at a summit in Rome following the arrival of thousands of migrants from Tunisia.

“We both believe that in exceptional circumstances there should be variations to the Schengen treaty,” Berlusconi told reporters after the meeting, as Sarkozy said a joint letter had been sent to EU leaders.

AFP

2 Kadhafi forces attack key port of Misrata

by Marc Bastian, AFP

Tue Apr 26, 1:11 pm ET

MISRATA, Libya (AFP) – Moamer Kadhafi’s forces attacked the key port in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata with rockets Tuesday, wounding refugees, as NATO said it may send an envoy to the rebel capital of Benghazi.

Several Grad rockets hit the port 12 kilometres (seven miles) east of the city and an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) ship that had come to rescue refugees stood offshore as a precaution, an AFP journalist said.

The attack came after a lull in fighting as rebels in Misrata said they pushed forces loyal to Kadhafi out of the city, although the Libyan strongman remained defiant despite NATO bombing his compound.

3 Fighting wanes in Misrata but Kadhafi defiant

by Marc Bastian, AFP

Tue Apr 26, 10:28 am ET

MISRATA, Libya (AFP) – Fighting waned Tuesday in Misrata as rebels said they pushed Moamer Kadhafi’s troops out of the besieged city, but the Libyan leader stayed defiant despite NATO bombing his compound.

Russia, meanwhile, said it would not back a new UN Security Council resolution on further intervention in Libya, as Italy and France called on the international community to stop shipping oil products to Kadhafi’s regime.

NATO offered details of bombing raids on several targets near Misrata, Kadhafi’s hometown of Sirte and Tripoli, including the strongman’s compound in the capital and missile launchers.

4 Syria deploys troops as UN meeting urged

AFP

2 hrs 21 mins ago

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syria bolstered its troops Tuesday in the flashpoint town of Daraa as a rights group appealed for UN intervention in a bloody crackdown it said has killed 400 people since mid-March.

As the Daraa crackdown raged into a second day, Britain said it was working with its partners to send a “strong signal” to Damascus while France and Italy denounced the “unacceptable” situation in Syria.

Washington ordered non-essential embassy staff to leave Syria, which has been shaken by six weeks of protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s autocratic rule.

5 Tanks storm Syrian flashpoint town, 25 dead: activists

AFP

Mon Apr 25, 5:50 pm ET

DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian troops backed by tanks rolled into the flashpoint town of Daraa Monday, killing at least 25 people, witnesses said, as Damascus was accused of choosing the military option to crush dissent.

The Syrian army however, insisted it had been invited into the southern town at the request of citizens to hunt “extremist terrorist groups.”

Witnesses said troops also launched assaults on the Damascus suburbs of Douma and Al-Maadamiyeh, as a leading Syrian rights activist accused the regime of going for the “military solution” to end six weeks of dissent.

6 Thailand, Cambodia eye truce as fighting spreads

by Janesara Fugal, AFP

Tue Apr 26, 10:11 am ET

PHANOM DONG RAK, Thailand (AFP) – Thailand and Cambodia were on Tuesday preparing for ceasefire talks after a new front opened in their worst border fighting in recent history, in which 13 troops have died.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been forced to flee their homes on both sides as heavy weapons fire pounded the jungle frontier, shattering a fragile truce that had held since February.

“Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh has agreed to meet his Thai counterpart in Phnom Penh shortly to discuss a ceasefire between the two countries,” the Cambodian defence ministry said in a statement.

7 Russia, Ukraine leaders mourn Chernobyl nightmare

by Zoya Zhminko, AFP

1 hr 44 mins ago

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine (AFP) – The Russian and Ukrainian leaders marked 25 years since the world’s worst nuclear disaster Tuesday on a historic visit to Chernobyl, shadowed by new fears over atomic energy safety.

Dmitry Medvedev, making the first ever visit by a Russian president to the now defunct Chernobyl Atomic Power Station, and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych paid tribute to the victims of the April 1986 catastrophe.

Speaking outside the mothballed plant where higher-than-normal radiation levels persist to this day, the leaders called for greater security at atomic power stations as they hailed the sacrifice of the Soviet clean-up workers.

8 Sony challenges iPad in tablet war

by Karyn Poupee, AFP

Tue Apr 26, 12:51 pm ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony on Tuesday unveiled its first tablet computers, codenamed S1 and S2, in a direct but belated challenge to Apple’s iPad.

The larger “Sony Tablet” S1 has a single screen while the pocketable S2 has twin screens, company officials told a news conference, with both devices using Google’s Android operating system and equipped with Wi-Fi for Internet access.

Competitors have rushed to cash in on soaring demand for tablets since the iPad was released in April last year, but Sony’s devices are not due to go on sale globally until the northern hemisphere autumn, well behind its rivals.

9 Poles prepare for beatification of John Paul II

by Stanislaw Waszak, AFP

Tue Apr 26, 12:53 pm ET

WARSAW (AFP) – Travelling on a fleet of planes, trains and cars, more than 50,000 Poles are expected to flock to the Vatican for the beatification of “their” saint-to-be, Polish-born pope John Paul II.

The funeral of Karol Wojtyla in April 2005 drew half a million Poles.

While his fast-track beatification — a key step towards canonisation as a saint — is a cause for joy among his countrymen, it nonetheless isn’t generating the same kind of mass pilgrimage to Rome this time around.

10 WikiLeaks reveals US blunders at Guantanamo

by Dan De Luce, AFP

Mon Apr 25, 5:57 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States has botched the handling of inmates at Guantanamo, holding men for years without reliable evidence while releasing others who posed a grave threat, according to leaked secret documents.

The trove of classified files released by the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks showed US officials struggling with often flawed evidence and confused about the guilt or innocence of detainees held at the prison at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Hundreds of inmates who turned out to have no serious terror links were held without trial, based on vague or inaccurate information, including accounts from unreliable fellow detainees or statements from men who had been abused or tortured, the New York Times quoted the documents as saying.

11 Mass deaths in Sri Lanka may be ‘war crimes’: UN

AFP

Mon Apr 25, 7:19 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The Sri Lankan army killed most of the tens of thousands of civilian victims of a final offensive against Tamil separatists in 2009 but both sides may be guilty of war crimes, a UN panel said Monday.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he could not order an international investigation into the deaths. But the UN will hold an inquiry into its actions in the final months of the war following criticism by the panel that more could have been done to save lives.

The panel’s report — angrily opposed by the Sri Lankan government — painted a barbarous picture of the final offensive on the Tamil enclave in the north of the island that ended a three-decade war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

12 Soaring food prices a threat across Asia

by Cecil Morella, AFP

Tue Apr 26, 5:40 am ET

MANILA (AFP) – Soaring global food prices threaten to push tens of millions of Asians into extreme poverty and cut the region’s economic growth this year, the Asian Development Bank warned in a report on Tuesday.

Coupled with skyrocketing oil prices, the spike poses a serious setback for developing Asia after having rebounded rapidly and strongly from the 2008 global economic crisis, said chief ADB economist Rhee Changyong.

“Left unchecked, the food crisis will badly undermine recent gains in poverty reduction made in Asia,” Rhee said in a statement.

13 Heart surgeons find their way in Senegal

by Coumba Sylla, AFP

Tue Apr 26, 3:23 am ET

DAKAR (AFP) – When Mouhamadou Ndiaye began talking about open-heart surgery in Senegal in 1990, authorities told him it wasn’t a priority.

“We don’t have open-heart surgery problems,” they said, according to Ndiaye, head of the thoracic and cardiovascular surgery department at Dakar’s Fann university teaching hospital. “Our problems are malaria, diarrhoea, vomiting.”

“My reply, invariably, was that all patients were patients and needed care,” said Ndiaye, who received his training in Europe and returned to Senegal in 1989.

Reuters

14 Consumers perk up but home prices fall again

By Leah Schnurr, Reuters

Tue Apr 26, 1:30 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Consumers perked up a bit in April as they lowered their forecasts for inflation and worried less about the jobs market, but yet another fall in house prices underscored the challenges facing the recovery.

The overall confidence level, as measured by the Conference Board, an industry group, was still historically low.

A separate report on Tuesday showed the housing market continues to struggle as home prices fell for an eighth month in February, inching closer to an April 2009 trough.

Yup, it’s a bottom all right, just like June 30, 2009 and August 5, 2008.

15 Rajaratnam jury asks to hear call replays

By Grant McCool and Jonathan Stempel, Reuters

2 hrs 52 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The jury in Raj Rajaratnam’s insider trading trial asked to listen to replays of nine FBI phone taps of the hedge fund manager chatting and chuckling in conversations central to government allegations that he ran a web of informants to leak corporate secrets.

As the jury studied the evidence on its second day of deliberations, a former trader associated with Rajaratnam’s Galleon Group became the latest to plead guilty in a sweeping government probe of insider trading on Wall Street.

Craig Drimal, who prosecutors said had an office on Galleon Group premises but was not an employee of the fund at the time of his November 2009 arrest, pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy. His hearing in Manhattan federal court took place four floors above a locked room where 12 jurors have weighed Rajaratnam’s fate since Monday.

16 European governments condemn Syria

By Suleiman al-Khalidi, Reuters

1 hr 29 mins ago

AMMAN (Reuters) – Security forces deployed in a suburb of the Syrian capital and in the city of Banias on Tuesday, witnesses said, even as President Bashar al-Assad drew international criticism for sending in tanks to crush a revolt.

In Deraa, the city where the uprising against Assad’s 11-year rule began, authorities sent in tanks on Monday and witnesses said the army was firing randomly and bodies were lying on the streets.

Residents said an army brigade led by Assad’s younger brother Maher had cut off roads, were shelling homes, storming houses and rounding people up.

17 Yemen deal may be done within week: officials

By Mohamed Sudam and Mohammed Ghobari, Reuters

Tue Apr 26, 11:48 am ET

SANAA (Reuters) – An agreement brokered by Gulf Arab states for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to give up power could be finalized within a week, officials said on Tuesday, as Yemen struggles to avoid plunging deeper into chaos. An opposition official said the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Abdullatif al-Zayani, was expected to visit the capital Sanaa on Wednesday with an invitation to a signing ceremony on Monday in Riyadh.

“We expect an arrangement and signing of a deal to be completed — the sooner the better,” said another opposition leader, Mohammed Basindwa, who is seen as a top candidate to lead a transitional government.

Yemen’s Western and Gulf Arab allies have tried for weeks to mediate a solution to a three-month crisis in which protesters, inspired by the toppling of leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, have taken to the street demanding an end to Saleh’s 32-year rule.

18 U.S. and Britain aim to step up pressure on Gaddafi

By Lin Noueihed, Reuters

1 hr 47 mins ago

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – British and U.S. officials met on Tuesday to discuss how to step up military pressure on Muammar Gaddafi, as the Libyan leader’s army fought fierce clashes with rebels in besieged Misrata.

More than a month of air strikes in a British and French-led NATO mission have failed to dislodge Gaddafi or bring major gains for anti-government rebels who hold much of east Libya, raising fears of a stalemate.

British Defense Secretary Liam Fox and Britain’s Chief of the Defense Staff General David Richards met U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington.

19 Kremlin chief wants new nuclear rules post-Chernobyl

By Denis Dyomkin and Pavel Polityuk, Reuters

Tue Apr 26, 11:06 am ET

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday called on the world community to tighten safety rules at nuclear plants and tell the truth when there were accidents like those at Chernobyl and Fukushima.

Medvedev spoke alongside Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich at a solemn ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine when a reactor exploded, sending radiation billowing across Europe.

The ceremony, at which the two leaders paid homage to the clean-up workers and victims of the 1986 accident, took on added significance amid efforts by Japan to control the crisis at its Fukushima plant, damaged by an earthquake and tsunami.

20 Afghan justice minister says mass jail escape had inside help

By Hamid Shalizi, Reuters

Tue Apr 26, 9:42 am ET

KABUL (Reuters) – Hundreds of insurgents who escaped from a jail in Afghanistan’s volatile south through a tunnel dug by the Taliban must have received inside help from prison guards or officials, the Afghan government said on Tuesday.

Afghan authorities and foreign troops have launched a manhunt after Monday’s embarrassing breakout, which President Hamid Karzai’s office called a “disaster” ahead of the summer fighting months and as NATO and the United States begin preparing for a gradual withdrawal.

Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of southern Kandahar province, also said on Tuesday 65 of the 488 prisoners who escaped had been recaptured. The Taliban said as many 541 had escaped through the tunnel and were later driven away.

21 Libya coalition has no right to kill Gaddafi: Putin

By Gleb Bryanski, Reuters

2 hrs 13 mins ago

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sharply criticized the Western coalition attacking Libya on Tuesday, saying it had neither a right nor a mandate to kill Muammar Gaddafi.

Putin said the coalition had gone beyond the bounds of a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing intervention to protect civilians and suggested Gaddafi’s actions did not justify foreign interference, let alone attempts to remove him.

“They said they didn’t want to kill Gaddafi. Now some officials say, yes, we are trying to kill Gaddafi,” Putin said on a visit to Denmark. “Who permitted this, was there any trial? Who took on the right to execute this man, no matter who he is?”

22 Exclusive: Libya imports gasoline from Italy’s Saras

By Jessica Donati and Emma Farge, Reuters

2 hrs 9 mins ago

LONDON (Reuters) – Libya imported gasoline from Italian refiner Saras in early April, taking advantage of a loophole in United Nations sanctions that permits purchases by companies not on a U.N. list of banned entities.

Three shipping sources with direct knowledge of the transaction said the cargo was delivered via ship-to-ship transfer in Tunisia before sailing to Libya.

Saras initially declined to comment but late on Tuesday issued a statement saying it had always acted in full compliance with all applicable restrictive measures concerning Libya.

23 Analysis: NATO initiatives not seen decisive in Libya war

By David Brunnstrom, Reuters

Tue Apr 26, 12:42 pm ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The Western bombing campaign in Libya is now in its sixth week but despite a series of eye-catching NATO initiatives there is little sign of a decisive military shift that will bring a quick end to the war.

And there are few signs either of significant divisions within Muammar Gaddafi’s government that would hasten a political solution to the conflict.

NATO, which took over the air campaign from a coalition led by France, Britain and the United States a month ago, can point to some successes in protecting civilian populations in eastern Libya from attack including in Benghazi and Ajdabiyah.

24 Libyan mountain refugees tell of fearsome assault

By Tarek Amara, Reuters

Mon Apr 25, 6:52 pm ET

TUNISIAN-LIBYAN BORDER (Reuters) – Refugees fleeing Libya’s Western Mountains told of heavy bombardment by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces as they try to dislodge rebels in remote Berber towns.

The capture of the Dehiba-Wazin crossing on the Tunisian border by rebels last week has let refugees flee in cars or on foot along rocky paths, swelling the numbers of Libyans sheltering in southern Tunisia to an estimated 30,000 people.

While the world’s attention has been on the bloody siege of the western rebel stronghold of Misrata and battles further east, fighting is intensifying in the region known as the Western Mountains.

25 Saudi elections – Women seek vote

By Asma Alsharif, Reuters

Tue Apr 26, 5:03 am ET

JEDDAH (Reuters) – Sara Abbar knew what would happen when she and her 28-year-old daughter tried to register to vote in Saudi Arabia’s municipal elections.

The vote, set for September, ruled out in advance any participation by the country’s 9 million women.

“We will keep trying again and again until we get our right,” she said after meeting a resolute “no” from the election official she encountered at a voter registration center in Jeddah when registration began on April 23.

26 Nigeria heads for polls finale after bloody riots

By Nick Tattersall, Reuters

Tue Apr 26, 8:17 am ET

UYO, Nigeria (Reuters) – Nigeria headed to the polls on Tuesday to choose powerful state governors amid fears of a resurgence of the violence that left hundreds dead after a presidential election earlier this month.

Tuesday’s vote is the last stage of an election process that while considered to have been the fairest in decades has not escaped the violence long associated with Nigerian politics.

There were outbreaks of unrest in the oil-rich Niger Delta, where six people were arrested attempting to steal ballot boxes in Rivers state, and opposition party members made accusations of political thuggery in areas of President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state of Bayelsa, where there were also arrests.

27 China raises bar for polluters in restructuring plan

By Jim Bai and Tom Miles, Reuters

Tue Apr 26, 5:22 am ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top economic planning agency on Tuesday published a detailed list of industries that it would encourage, restrict or ban, a blueprint that could have a far-reaching impact on investment activity in China over the coming years.

The 111-page list published by the National Development and Reform Commission ratcheted up the minimum size requirement for coal mines, oil refineries and steelmaking blast furnaces while lending support to alternative energy sources.

The list, an update of one published in 2005, will serve as a guideline for Chinese regulators in making policies on tax, bank credit, land and trade, and will also be a reference for Beijing to decide which foreign investors are welcomed.

28 Auto production faces bigger hit after Japan quake

By James Topham, Reuters

Mon Apr 25, 8:45 pm ET

TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Co may slip to No. 3 in the automaker production rankings behind General Motors and Volkswagen due to Japan’s earthquake and nuclear crisis, which slashed local output by almost two-thirds in March alone.

A shortage of parts in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has savaged Japan’s auto sector supply chain, while damage to a major nuclear plant has disrupted power supplies.

Investors expecting overseas rivals to benefit from a prolonged slump in Japanese output pushed up shares in South Korea’s Hyundai Motors and associate Kia Motors to record highs on Monday.

AP

29 Gadhafi’s grip on western Libya may be slipping

By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press

1 hr 21 mins ago

TRIPOLI, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi has suffered military setbacks in recent days in western Libya, a sign that his grip may be slipping in the very region he needs to cling to power.

His loyalists were driven out of the city of Misrata, a key rebel stronghold in Gadhafi-controlled territory. A NATO airstrike turned parts of his Tripoli headquarters into smoldering rubble. And rebel fighters seized a border crossing, breaking open a supply line to besieged rebel towns in a remote western mountain area.

Front lines have shifted repeatedly in two months of fighting, and the poorly trained, ill-equipped rebels have given no evidence that they could defeat Gadhafi on the battlefield. The Libyan leader has deep pockets, including several billion dollars in gold reserves, that could keep him afloat for months. And his forces continue to bombard Misrata from afar, unleashing a fierce barrage Tuesday against the port area – the city’s only lifeline to the world.

30 Hundreds detained after bloody Syrian crackdown

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press

4 mins ago

CAIRO – Syrian forces heaped more punishment Tuesday on residents of restive towns, detaining hundreds in raids or at checkpoints, firing on people trying to retrieve the bodies of anti-government protesters and even shooting holes in rooftop water tanks in a region parched by drought, witnesses said.

In the southern city of Daraa, where Syrian army tanks and snipers killed at least 22 people a day earlier, a resident said security forces shot and killed a man as he walked out of the main Omari mosque and shouted at them though a bullhorn: “Enough! Enough! Enough! Stop killing your brothers!”

The crackdown by President Bashar Assad has intensified since Friday, when more than 100 people were killed. Security forces also conducted raids in the Damascus suburb of Douma and the northern coastal town of Jableh.

31 Campaign to bar Syria from UN human rights body

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press

Tue Apr 26, 11:24 am ET

UNITED NATIONS – Human rights groups and a growing number of governments are working to prevent Syria from being elected to the U.N.’s top human rights body, as President Bashar Assad’s security forces crack down on pro-democracy protesters.

Syria is a frontrunner for a seat on the Geneva-based Human Rights Council as one of four candidates selected to fill four Asian seats, and it is likely to win unless another candidate enters the race or it fails to win a majority of votes in the May 20 secret ballot election in the 192-member General Assembly.

Since the 53-member Asian Group endorsed its slate – which also includes India, Indonesia and the Philippines – for the council in January, rights groups and some governments have engaged in a behind-the-scenes effort to keep Syria off the council.

32 Afghan forces recapture 71 from Kandahar jailbreak

By MIRWAIS KHAN and HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press

Tue Apr 26, 11:59 am ET

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – The massive security breach that allowed the Taliban to spirit more than 480 Afghan inmates out southern Afghanistan’s largest prison must have involved inside collaborators, the Justice Ministry said Tuesday, as security forces worked to recapture the escaped convicts.

Prison officials discovered early Monday morning that the inmates_ nearly all of them Taliban militants – were missing from their cells, and then found the tunnel through which they appeared to have made their getaway.

The Taliban said the prison break was five months in the making, with diggers starting the tunnel from under a nearby house while they arranged for inmates to get keys so that they could open their cells on the night of the escape.

33 Bus bombings kill 4 in Pakistan’s biggest city

By ASHRAF KHAN, Associated Press

Tue Apr 26, 11:04 am ET

KARACHI, Pakistan – Islamist militants bombed two Pakistani navy buses taking employees to work on Tuesday, killing four people and again bringing their war to the streets of the country’s largest city. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

Also Tuesday, Pakistan’s interior minister defended the country’s premier spy service against what he called defamation, a day after the release of leaked documents showing U.S. officials at Guantanamo Bay had listed the agency as a terrorist organization.

The roadside blasts took place roughly 15 minutes apart in different areas of Karachi, a southern port city that is Pakistan’s economic heart. More than 50 people were wounded, Navy Commander Salman Ali said.

34 In a first, women surpass men in advanced degrees

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press

51 mins ago

WASHINGTON – For the first time, American women have passed men in gaining advanced college degrees as well as bachelor’s degrees, part of a trend that is helping redefine who goes off to work and who stays home with the kids.

Census figures released Tuesday highlight the latest education milestone for women, who began to exceed men in college enrollment in the early 1980s. The findings come amid record shares of women in the workplace and a steady decline in stay-at-home mothers.

The educational gains for women are giving them greater access to a wider range of jobs, contributing to a shift of traditional gender roles at home and work. Based on one demographer’s estimate, the number of stay-at-home dads who are the primary caregivers for their children reached nearly 2 million last year, or one in 15 fathers. The official census tally was 154,000, based on a narrower definition that excludes those working part-time or looking for jobs.

35 AP survey: Only oil shock can stop economy now

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer

1 hr 5 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The American economy is now strong enough to withstand Middle East turmoil and the Japanese nuclear crisis. Only a big rise in the price of oil could stop it now.

Those are the findings of an Associated Press survey of leading economists, who are increasingly confident in a recovery that is nearly two years old. They expect the economy to grow faster every quarter this year.

In part, that’s because the economists think Americans will spend more freely in the coming months. Higher stock prices have made people wealthier. And a cut in the Social Security payroll tax is giving most households an extra $1,000 to $2,000 this year.

This is what morons think and corporate shills tell you.  Economics is not science, it’s shamanism.

36 Bargain prices help reduce glut of foreclosures

By DEREK KRAVITZ and JANNA HERRON, AP Business Writers

1 hr 3 mins ago

WASHINGTON – A wave of foreclosures is forcing down home prices in most major U.S. cities. But economists and real estate agents point to what they call a key first step for any housing recovery: a decline in the glut of homes for sale in markets hit hardest by foreclosures.

Low prices are leading investors to snap up foreclosed homes in Detroit, Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix and Tampa. That’s reducing prices in the short run. Yet it is also thinning the supply of homes, which must happen to clear the way for higher prices in the long run.

For some, the deals are too good to pass up on. A studio apartment on the Las Vegas strip that cost $500,000 at the height of the housing boom is now selling for roughly one-third the price. Half of the homes listed in the Tampa Bay area are selling for less than $100,000, not far from some of Florida’s nicest Gulf coast beaches.

More of the same.

37 Trickle of NFL players head back to work – sort of

By DAVE CAMPBELL, AP Sports Writer

2 hrs 21 mins ago

MINNEAPOLIS – The NFL and the players’ union were in a holding pattern Tuesday, the day after a federal judge ended a 45-day lockout.

Small groups of players showed up at team facilities and were allowed inside, but couldn’t work out. Most left in a matter of minutes.

League operations were left in limbo when U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson said she wouldn’t rule on the NFL’s request for a stay of her order until at least Wednesday. She said she wanted to hear from players – even as attorneys for players asked her to clarify the order.

38 Russia calls for stricter nuclear safety rules

By MARIA DANILOVA, Associated Press

Tue Apr 26, 12:29 pm ET

KIEV, Ukraine – Russia’s president argued Tuesday that tough international guidelines could help prevent accidents like the massive Chernobyl meltdown, defending nuclear energy during solemn ceremonies commemorating the 25th anniversary of the worst nuclear accident in history.

Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych took part in a religious service outside Chernobyl’s damaged No. 4 nuclear reactor, laying the first stone of a monument to cleanup workers and laying bouquets of red roses at another monument to Chernobyl victims.

Medvedev said he has invited world leaders to work on rules for safer nuclear energy. His economic adviser, Arkady Dvorkovich, said Russia forwarded its proposals to leaders of other Group of Eight countries Tuesday, and he hoped they would be discussed at next month’s summit in France.

39 Farmers protest against Japanese nuke plant owner

By SHINO YUASA and JACOB ADELMAN, Associated Press

Tue Apr 26, 8:07 am ET

TOKYO – Angry farmers brought two cows to Tokyo, shouting and punching the air Tuesday in a protest to demand compensation for products contaminated by radiation spewing from Japan’s crippled nuclear plant.

The 200 farmers, mostly from northeastern Japan, wore green bandanas, held aloft cabbages they said they couldn’t sell and carried signs saying “Stop nuclear energy” outside the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the plant damaged in the March 11 tsunami.

“My patience has run out. The nuclear crisis is totally destroying our farming business,” said 72-year-old Katsuo Okazaki, who grows peaches and apples.

40 Judge’s relationship at issue in gay marriage case

By LISA LEFF, Associated Press

Tue Apr 26, 9:20 am ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Rumors swirled that the federal judge who had struck down California’s same-sex marriage ban last summer was gay, but the lawyers charged with defending the measure remained silent on the subject. Their preferred strategy for getting the ruling overturned on appeal was to focus on the law, not a judge’s personal life, they said.

Eight months later, Proposition 8’s proponents and their attorneys have taken a new position. They filed a motion Monday seeking to vacate Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s historic ruling, a move they said was prompted by the now-retired jurist’s recent disclosure that he is in a long-term relationship with another man.

Lawyers for the ban’s backers argue that the judge’s relationship status, not his sexual orientation, gave him too much in common with the couples who successfully sued to overturn the ban in his court. The judge should have recused himself or at least revealed the relationship to avoid a real or perceived conflict of interest, the lawyers say.

41 Study: More states falling short on pension money

By CHRISTOPHER WILLS, Associated Press

Tue Apr 26, 6:20 am ET

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Bad decisions and a sour economy combined to leave 31 states below the safety line set for investing money to meet future pension costs, according to a study released Monday.

The double-whammy also has increased the chance that officials may eventually have to fix the problem by cutting benefits or raising taxes.

Many experts recommend states save at least 80 percent of the money they’ll eventually need to pay the pensions promised to government employees. Twenty-two states failed to previously meet that threshold and nine more fell short in fiscal 2009, according to the Pew Center on the States.

A pension is a contract, just like a CDS.  Is it fair to pay off the one that goes to the wealthiest and not the one that goes to the other 99.9%?

42 Ky. family to sell massive Coca-Cola collection

By BRUCE SCHREINER, Associated Press

26 mins ago

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. – In the world of Coca-Cola memorabilia, the Schmidt family’s collection is like the Smithsonian.

The most treasured items are from the company’s earliest days in the late 1800s, and some are so rare they don’t even appear at the Coca-Cola Co. museum in Atlanta. And now, they’re all for sale.

The family, one of the earliest bottlers of the soft drink, spent years scouring the country for pieces branded with the iconic Coca-Cola name. They opened up a museum to show off their prized collection, but they’re ready to move on and have decided to auction 80,000 items piecemeal, beginning in mid-September.

43 Refinery warnings way of life in Texas City

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press

32 mins ago

TEXAS CITY, Texas – The sirens from the nearby BP refinery were wailing in Dwight Crawford’s neighborhood and he could see the glow from burning flares at the plant.

Crawford, a retired carpenter, said he knew “something messed up” was going on there. Then, the 66-year-old said, he went to sleep.

“It’s just a hazard of living close to this plant,” he said Tuesday, taking a moment while sipping coffee and reading the newspaper at a table in front of his home.

44 Court questions limits on use of prescription data

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

1 hr 30 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court cast doubt Tuesday on efforts by states to limit drug manufacturers’ use of information about the prescription drugs that doctors like to prescribe.

The court took up a dispute between the state of Vermont and companies that sell doctors’ prescribing information to pharmaceutical companies, though without patient names. The drug makers use the data to tailor their pitch to individual doctors.

The Vermont law had prevented the sale of information about individual doctors’ prescribing records without the doctors’ permission.

45 Obama reissues call to end oil company tax breaks

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press

1 hr 43 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Amid rising gasoline prices at the pump, President Barack Obama urged congressional leaders Tuesday to take steps to repeal oil industry tax breaks, reiterating a call he made in his 2012 budget proposal earlier this year. The White House conceded his plan would do nothing in the short term to lower gas prices.

The president wrote a letter to the bipartisan congressional leadership on Tuesday, a day after Republican House Speaker John Boehner said he was willing to “take a look at” repealing the multibillion-dollar tax subsidies enjoyed by the major oil companies.

Rising gas prices have become a political weight for the White House, with polls showing that as the cost rises at the pump, the president’s approval ratings have slipped. Obama has increasingly sought to display action on oil, even as he acknowledges that there is no immediate answer to stem costs

46 US court grants new sentencing for Mumia Abu-Jamal

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

2 hrs 8 mins ago

PHILADELPHIA – A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered a new sentencing hearing for convicted police killer and death-row activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, finding for a second time that the death-penalty instructions given to the jury at his 1982 trial were potentially misleading.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told prosecutors to conduct the new sentencing hearing for the former Black Panther within six months or agree to a life sentence. Abu-Jamal’s first-degree murder conviction still stands in the fatal shooting of Officer Daniel Faulkner, who was white.

District Attorney Seth Williams pledged to mount another appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, at the urging of Faulkner’s widow, Maureen.

47 At Oregon gym, you burn calories, move electrons

By TIM FOUGHT, Associated Press

Tue Apr 26, 6:16 am ET

PORTLAND, Ore. – Reddening, a rivulet of sweat running across her cheek, Amy McCullough hunched over the stationary bike, pumped her legs like crazy and began producing serious power – enough watts to run a flat-panel TV and a ceiling fan.

She thrust her arms upward and exclaimed: “Oh, 180!”

And, with that, her electrical output drooped. The generator attached to her exercise machine slowed, and the digital readout from the device on the handlebars fell below 100 watts.

Apr 26 2011

BREAKING!: Ezra Klein goes hours without a Category Error!

I won’t link Ezra directly because as far as I’m concerned he’s not just a poor writer and below average intellect, he’s also a thoroughgoing Beltway Buttkissing hypocritical “pretend” liberal.

But that won’t stop my pointing out like a broken clock, he’s right for once.

Ezra Klein: Obama is "a moderate Republican of the early 1990s"

by Gaius Publius, Americablog

4/26/2011 01:05:00 PM

(T)his is just the logical endpoint of two years spent arguing over what Barack Obama is – or isn’t. … We’ve obsessed over every answer except the right one: President Obama, if you look closely at his positions, is a moderate Republican of the early 1990s.

First, the “Obama is a Republican” meme is getting mainstreamed. Great news. Time to call it right, in the same way that Krugman is starting to call it right – out loud.

Second, Klein seems to be bending over to praise Republicans; either that, or he’s an admirer himself, and sincerely so. We need to acknowledge that about Klein. (In that sense, this is a “state of the Klein” piece as much as a “state of the Obama” article.)

(h/t lambert)

Apr 26 2011

Punting the Pundits

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”

Dean Baker: The Battle Is Over Money, Not Philosophy

Ever since House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan put out his proposal for voucherizing Medicare we have seen a steady drumbeat of stories telling us that this is a battle over the size and role of government. This is not true. It is a battle over money.

This point is important because there are very few people in this country who are interested in debates over philosophy. Insofar as they do give it any thought, most people will say that they prefer small government over big government. They want to see government play a less intrusive role in our lives.

There are probably less than a hundred people in the entire country who support “big government” as a matter of principle. Unfortunately, most of them write columns in major national papers.

Eugene Robinson: The word most politicians ignore: Jobs

What is it about the word “jobs” that our nation’s leaders fail to understand? How has the most painful economic crisis in decades somehow escaped their notice? Why do they ignore the issues that Americans care most desperately about?

Listening to the debate in Washington, you’d think the nation was absorbed by the compelling saga of deficit reduction. You’d get the impression that in households across America, parents put their children to bed and then stay up half the night sifting through piles of think-tank reports on the kitchen table, trying to calculate whether there will be enough in the Social Security trust fund to pay benefits beyond 2037.

And you’d be wrong. Those parents are looking at a pile of bills on the kitchen table, trying to decide which ones have to be paid now and which can slide. The question isn’t how to manage health care or retirement costs two decades from now. It’s how the family can make it to the end of the month.

Bruce Fein: A Choice Between Honor and Ignominy

Vice President Joe Biden is an honorable man.

It is not that he loves the Constitution less, but that he adores political power more, which explains his tacit endorsement of President Barack Obama’s usurpation of the exclusive congressional power to commence war. In Reid v. Covert, the Supreme Court declared that treaties and laws enacted pursuant to them must comply with the provisions of the Constitution.

Last March 19, President Obama initiated war against Libya without congressional authorization as mandated by Article I, section 8, clause 11 of the Constitution (“the War Clause”). Moreover, the president proclaimed that the White House is empowered to unilaterally commence war not only to play Good Samaritan to the Milky Way, but also to advance “regional stability” or the “credibility” of the United Nations Security Council. That unprecedented principle would justify endless presidential wars anywhere, including South Ossetia, Chechnya, Tibet, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kashmir, the South China Sea, etc. Unless repudiated by the political leadership of the United States, the principle will lie around like a loaded weapon ready for invocation by some future self-deified Caligula to justify martial law.

Robert Auerbach: Bernanke’s Press Conferences Will Not Remedy the Fed’s Corrupt and Deceptive Public Records Policies

Chairman Ben Bernanke’s public press conferences are intended to open the nation’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, to needed public sunlight. Bernanke may well dodge any questions on Fed policies, the only policies the Fed has authority to alter. He will be eager to talk about fiscal and budget policy over which the Fed has no direct control except for Fed loans. Some of these loans were forced into public view by the recent Fed audit required under the 2010 Chris Dodd-Barney Frank Act.

What is needed is a complete record of the discussions at the Fed meetings of the Federal Open Market Committee, FOMC (12 members), and its Board of Governors (7 governors when all seats are filled). These unelected officials determine the size of the nation’s money supply and the payment of billions of dollars of interest to private sector banks that currently (4/20/2011) hold $1.486 trillion in reserves at the Fed. Bernanke has said he may raise the rate of interest on these reserves, as he will be forced to do if market interest rates rise.

John Nichols: As Congressional GOP Faces Voter Anger at Town Meetings, Senator Urges Hiding Out in DC

Polls show that Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to GOP proposals to start hacking away at Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in order to cut deficits, Instead, voters favor raising taxes on the wealthy.

How overwhelmingly?

Eighty percent of Americans oppose cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll. Just 18 percent agree with approach approved by most House Republicans.

In contrast, 64 percent of Americans back using tax hikes for the rich to balance budgets, while just 33 percent oppose.

But voters aren’t just telling it to the pollsters. They are telling it to Republican members of the House and Senate.

George Zornick: With Economy as a Hostage, the GOP Presents Extreme Demands

The standoff du jour in Washington is about a vote to raise the federal debt ceiling. Democrats and the White House insist it must be done-as does Wall Street-while fiscal conservatives and Tea Party activists are demanding serious concessions, and in some cases, an unconditional “no” vote. As the conversation reaches a crescendo, it’s useful to take a quick look at what the debt ceiling actually is, and what forces are at play in the debate.

When the United States needs to borrow money, the Treasury Department issues bonds in order to pay for the deficit spending. Before 1917, Congress had to approve this borrowing every time it happened, but World War I created a need for more flexibility and lawmakers gave the federal government unchecked borrowing powers, provided the total amount was less than a certain limit.

Congress now needs to approve any borrowing past the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, which the United States will reach “no later” than May 16, according to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. If Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, the government would have to stop spending-including stopping interest payments on those Treasury bonds, meaning that the United States would effectively default on its debt.

Apr 26 2011

Where is the outrage? It’s Here

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

All in all I’d rather have been a judge than a miner. And what is more, being a miner, as soon as you are too old and tired and sick and stupid to do the job properly, you have to go. Well, the very opposite applies with the judges. ~~ Peter Cook

Jon Stewart asked where is the outrage over Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) budget plan that includes not only ending Medicare with a voucher system but also raising the eligibility age for Medicare. Yes, Medicare, not just Social Security as has been proposed by both Republicans and Democrats, including the White House, as if the one where not enough.

Under current law, you become eligible for Medicare on the day you turn 65. If the Republicans get their way, you wouldn’t become eligible for the new Medicare voucher until the day you turn 67.

The change would happen gradually, with the eligibility age rising two months every year, starting in 2022. And, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not like that many people are between the ages of 65 and 67 anyway. But think for a second about who those people are–and the insurance options they’d have available to them without Medicare.

Remember, the House Republican budget would also repeal the Affordable Care Act. That would leave insurance companies free to charge higher premiums, restrict benefits, or deny coverage altogether to individual applicants who have pre-existing conditions. Given the relatively high incidence of conditions like hypertension, arthritis, and vision problems among older Americans, it’s safe to assume many seniors would have trouble finding affordable coverage–if, indeed, they could find coverage at all.

Economist Paul Krugman in his Conscience of a Liberal blog this morning points out that “in our increasingly polarized society, life expectancy is more and more a class-related issue.”

As the Social Security Administration has shown, the gap between life expectancy in the top and bottom halves of the wage distribution has risen sharply:

Photobucket

Since most of the corporate media is controlled by the right wing oligarchs, it’s a little difficult to get the real message out to the people or at least an unbiased reporting of what the Republicans have been plotting. The Murdochs and Redstones have controlled the message but because of shows like Jon’s, Stephen’s, Rachel’s and Keith’s, the real agenda is finally getting out there. Evidence the events in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio where the voters are enraged, we now need to take this to a national level. Witness also the latest DCCC message that call the Republicans out on their lies to constituents about Medicare in this MSNBC’s segment with Cenk Uygur:

Finally, we are starting these corporate puppets being held to account for their lies and hypocrisy. Now, throw all the bums out from top to bottom.

Apr 26 2011

Chernobyl

First I’d like to draw your attention to this excellent 3 part series by Alexandra Odynova of The Moscow Times–

From a section of the last piece titled More Disasters Ahead?–

The key problem, he (Glushchenko) said, is plant lifetime – which is limited at 25 to 30 years but routinely extended for financial reasons by many countries.

Of the 444 reactors currently in operation worldwide, 178 have exceeded their lifetime. In Russia, 19 out of 32 reactors will be working past their expiration date by 2013, Glushchenko said.

There is no better illustration to his point than the Fukushima plant, which was commissioned in 1971 and also had its official lifetime extended.

Despite warnings from global nuclear safety bodies, Fukushima continued to operate – until a tsunami hit in March, disabling the emergency generators and putting the reactor on the brink of a meltdown. A handful of “nuclear samurais” are still trying to clean up the disaster, much like Glushchenko and his team did at Chernobyl 25 years ago.

“Liquidators” is what the 600,000 Russians who worked on containing Chernobyl called themselves.  From The Telegraph–

Chernobyl’s managers initially tried pumping water into the reactor core but when this proved unsuccessful they turned to dumping boron carbide and a total of 4,000 tons of lead, sand and clay on the facility.

The material was dropped from helicopters, and pilots on the initial flights received abnormal doses of radiation as they hovered in stationary mode over the reactor.

Later they dumped their loads while moving over the reactor, causing additional destruction around the area that may have assisted the spread of the radiation.

…

In October, a concrete shelter, called a sarcophagus, was completed to prevent further leakage of radiation from reactor number four and allow the other reactors at the Chernobyl plant to continue producing power for Ukraine.

How are things going at our new Chernobyl?

Leaks Probed as Japan Moves to Cool Reactors

By MITSURU OBE, The Wall Street Journal

APRIL 26, 2011, 5:35 A.M. ET

(A)n apparent leakage in the pressure vessel of the No. 1 reactor has left the fuel partially exposed above the level of the cooling water, with a steady supply of fresh water keeping it cool. By filling up the entire containment vessel, Tepco hopes to submerge both the fuel and the pressure vessel in water.

…

Concerns also have grown about a possible leak in the spent fuel pool of Reactor No. 4, said Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman of the government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. The pool holds the most fuel rods among the complex’s six reactor buildings, including both spent and active nuclear fuel.

…

A week-old operation to drain radioactive water from the complex continues to suffer fresh setbacks. While the operator has focused on dealing with water in Reactor No. 2, seen as the most radioactive in the complex, the flooding situation has slowly deteriorated in Reactors Nos. 3 and 4, where the levels of water in the basements of their respective turbine buildings have increased in the last 10 days.

Radiation contamination also has spread from the turbine building of No. 3 to the Reactor No. 4 turbine building, raising the possibility that water in No. 4 may need to be cleansed of radiation before being stored in one of the makeshift tanks Tepco is planning to build.

Apr 26 2011

On This Day In History April 26

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

April 26 is the 116th day of the year (117th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 249 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1986, the world’s worst nuclear power plant accident occurs at the Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union. Thirty-two people died and dozens more suffered radiation burns in the opening days of the crisis, but only after Swedish authorities reported the fallout did Soviet authorities reluctantly admit that an accident had occurred.

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western Russia and Europe. It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima I nuclear incident, which is considered far less serious and has caused no direct deaths). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles, crippling the Soviet economy.

The disaster began during a systems test on 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the town of Pripyat. There was a sudden power output surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, a more extreme spike in power output occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of explosions. These events exposed the graphite moderator of the reactor to air, causing it to ignite. The resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive smoke fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe. From 1986 to 2000, 350,400 people were evacuated and resettled from the most severely contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus.

The accident raised concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry, as well as nuclear power in general, slowing its expansion for a number of years and forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive about its procedures.

(Click on image to enlarge) Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. Thirty one deaths are directly attributed to the accident, all among the reactor staff and emergency workers. A UNSCEAR report places the total confirmed deaths from radiation at 64 as of 2008. Estimates of the number of deaths potentially resulting from the accident vary enormously: the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest it could reach 4,000; a Greenpeace report puts this figure at 200,000 or more; a Russian publication, Chernobyl, concludes that 985,000 excess deaths occurred between 1986 and 2004 as a result of radioactive contamination.

Decommissioning

After the explosion at reactor four, the remaining three reactors at the power plant continued to operate. In 1991, reactor two suffered a major fire, and was subsequently decommissioned. In November 1996, reactor one was shut down, followed by reactor three on December 15, 2000, making good on a promise by Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma that the entire plant would be closed.

Even after the last reactor shutdown, people continue to work at the Chernobyl plant until reactor units 1, 2, and 3 are totally decommissioned, which is expected to take years. The first stage of decommissioning is the removal of the highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel, which is placed in deep water cooling ponds. However, storage facilities for this are not suitable for long term containment, and those on site do not have the capacity for all the spent fuel from units 1, 2 and 3. A second facility is planned for construction that will use dry storage technology suitable for long term storage and have the required capacity.

Removal of uncontaminated equipment has begun at unit 1 and this work could be complete by 2020-2022.

The remains of reactor unit 4 will remain radioactive for some time. The isotope responsible for the majority of the external gamma radiation dose at the site is Caesium-137 which has a half-life of about 30 years. It is likely that with no further decontamination work the gamma ray dosage at the site will return to background levels in about three hundred years. However, as most of the alpha emitters are longer lived, the soil and many surfaces in and around the plant are likely to be contaminated with transuranic metals such as plutonium and americium, which have much longer half-lives. It is planned that the reactor buildings will be disassembled as soon as it is radiologically safe to do so.

 1336 – Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ascends Mont Ventoux

1478 – The Pazzi attack Lorenzo de’ Medici and kill his brother Giuliano during High Mass in the Duomo of Florence.

 1607 – English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.

1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte signs a general amnesty to allow all but about one thousand of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France, as part of a reconciliary gesture with the factions of the Ancien Regime and to eventually consolidate his own rule.

 1805 – First Barbary War: United States Marines captured Derne, Tripoli under the command of First Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon.

1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina.

1865 – Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, in Virginia.

1925 – Paul von Hindenburg defeats Wilhelm Marx in the second round of the German presidential election to become the first directly elected head of state of the Weimar Republic.

1928 – Los Angeles City Hall dedicated.

1933 – The Gestapo, the official secret police force of Nazi Germany, is established.

1937 – Spanish Civil War: Guernica (or Gernika in Basque, Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.

1942 – The Benxihu Colliery accident occurs in Manchukuo : 1549 Chinese miners are dead.

1944 – Georgios Papandreou becomes head of the Greek government-in-exile based in Egypt.

1945 – World War II: Battle of Bautzen – last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.

1954 – The Geneva Conference, an effort to restore peace in Indochina and Korea, begins.

1956 – First container ship left Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.

1958 – Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.

1960 – Forced out by the April Revolution, President of South Korea Syngman Rhee resigns after twelve years of dictatorial rule.

1962 – NASA’s Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.

1963 – In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.

1964 – Tanganyika and Zanzibar merge to form Tanzania.

1965 – A Rolling Stones concert in London, Ontario is shut down by police after 15 minutes due to rioting.

1966 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 destroys Tashkent.

1966 – A new government is formed in the Republic of Congo, led by Ambroise Noumazalaye.

1970 – The Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization enters into force.

1981 – Dr. Michael R. Harrison of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center performs the world’s first human open fetal surgery.

1982 – 57 people are killed by former police officer Woo Bum-kon in a shooting spree in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.

1986 – A nuclear reactor accident occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), creating the world’s worst nuclear disaster.

1989 – The deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing upwards of 1,300, injuring 12,000, and leaving as many as 80,000 homeless.

1989 – An editorial in the People’s Daily denounces the recent protests in Tiananmen Square.

1991 – Seventy tornadoes break out in the central United States. Before the outbreak’s end, Andover, Kansas, would record the year’s only F5 tornado (see Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak).

1994 – China Airlines flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.

2002 – Robert Steinhauser infiltrates and kills 17 at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt, Germany before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot.

Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

       Aldobrandesca

       Franca Visalta

       Lucidius of Verona

       Our Lady of Good Counsel

       Pope Anacletus and Marcellinus

       Riquier

       Radbertus Paschasius

       Stephen of Perm, see also Old Permic Alphabet Day

       Trudpert

       April 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Confederate Memorial Day (States of Florida and Georgia)

   * Day of Remembrance of the Chernobyl tragedy (Belarus)

   * Union Day (Tanzania)

   * Vallenato Legend Festival usually begins on this day. (Valledupar, Colombia)

   * World Intellectual Property Day (International)

Apr 26 2011

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 Bay files rewrite the story of Osama bin Laden’s Tora Bora escape

Several documents claim al-Qaida leader evaded US offensive by heading north, rather than into Pakistan as widely thought

Jason Burke

The Guardian, Tuesday 26 April 2011

Osama bin Laden escaped American and British special forces closing in on his refuge in December 2001 with the help of a minor local warlord who provided fighters to guide him to safety in the north-east of Afghanistan, claims a secret intelligence report compiled by officials at Guantánamo Bay.

The al-Qaida leader’s successful flight from Tora Bora has long been seen as one of the key early lapses of the international military effort in Afghanistan. Though various theories have been floated, no firm account of how Bin Laden evaded the coalition forces and their Afghan auxiliaries has yet emerged.

However documents obtained by the Guardian reveal a host of new details about the escape of the world’s most wanted man.  

UN chief sets conditions for Sri Lanka probe



AP Tuesday, 26 April 2011

 Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday that he will only launch an international investigation into allegations of possible war crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lanka’s civil war two years ago if the government agrees, which is highly unlikely, or member states call for a probe.

A UN statement publicly releasing a report by a UN panel said the secretary-general has been advised that he needs government consent or a decision from member states in an international forum. He didn’t specify a forum but it could include the UN Security Council, General Assembly or Human Rights Council.

Syria intensifies crackdown on protests

At least 500 pro-democracy activists arrested, rights group says, after authorities deployed troops to quell protests.

Last Modified: 26 Apr 2011

Syrian security forces have arrested at least 500 pro-democracy activists, a rights group said, as the government continues a violent crackdown on anti-government protests across the country.

The arrests followed the deployment of Syrian troops backed by tanks and heavy armour on the streets of two southern towns, the Syrian rights organisation Sawasiah said on Tuesday.

The group said it had received reports that at least 20 people were killed in the city of Deraa in the aftermath of the raid by troops loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Monday. But communications have been cut in the city, making it difficult to confirm the information.

25 years on: Ukraine remembers Chernobyl

The world on Tuesday marks a quarter of a century since the world’s worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. The anniversary has added resonance after the recent Fukushima disaster in Japan.  

DISASTERS | 26.04.2011  

Ceremonies are taking place Tuesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, amid heightened fears over nuclear safety in the wake of the recent Fukushima accident in Japan.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is visiting the site of the Chernobyl accident on Tuesday to take part in a memorial service, joined by his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych. President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, is however not joining the ceremony.

How wrong is Time’s most influential people list?

Really wrong. Time has a strange definition of ‘influence.’

By Dan Murphy, Staff writer  

Time’s List of the 100 “most influential people in the world” came out last week. I only noticed it today because I came across a news item about Egyptian Internet activist Wael Ghonim taking a sabbatical from his job at Google to, according to his Twitter account, “start a technology focused NGO to help fight poverty & foster education in Egypt.”

Mr. Ghonim was the little known Google marketing executive who, with friends, started the “We are all Khaled Said” Facebook page to commemorate the murder of a middle-class Egyptian man by the police. That site evolved into the online rallying point for the Egyptian revolution. He was arrested in the early days of the Egyptian uprising and upon his release gave an emotional television interview that briefly made him the revolution’s media star.

Apr 26 2011

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