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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/15541846.htm
Posted on Sun, Sep. 17, 2006
IRS probes anti-war sermon in Pasadena
Liberal church told to hand over documents, could lose tax-exempt status
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES - The Internal Revenue Service has ordered a prominent liberal church to turn over documents and e-mails it produced during the 2004 election year that contain references to political candidates.
The IRS is investigating whether All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena
violated the federal tax code when its former rector, the Rev. George Regas, delivered an anti-war sermon on the eve of the past presidential election.
Tax-exempt organizations are barred from intervening in political campaigns and elections, and the church could lose its tax-exempt status.
The Rev. Ed Bacon received a summons Thursday ordering the church to present any politically charged sermons, newsletters and electronic communications
by Sept. 29.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801506.html?referrer=email
From Victim To Accused Army Deserter
Harassment Allegations Have Galvanized Activists
By Donna St. George
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; A01
EUGENE, Ore. -- Suzanne Swift remembers standing in her mother's living room, hours away from her second deployment to Iraq. Her military gear had already been shipped -- along with her Game Boy, her DVDs and books, her favorite pink pillow, her stash of sunflower seeds. She had the car keys in her hand, ready to drive to the base. Suddenly, she turned to her mother.
"I can't do this," she remembers saying. "I can't go."
The Army specialist, now 22, recalls her churning stomach. Her mother's surprise. All at once, she said, she could not bear the idea of another year like her first. She was sexually harassed by one superior, she said, and coerced into a sexual affair with another.
"I didn't want it to happen to me again," she said in an interview.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/stories/2006/09/18/0919metprison.html?cxntnid=amn091906e
Lawsuit: Poverty keeps woman jailed
Day job off-site not enough for expenses and $705 fine
By CARLOS CAMPOS / ccampos@ajc.com
Published on: 09/19/06
All Ora Lee Hurley has to do to get out of prison is pay a $705 fine, according to her attorney.
But every month, she pays the Georgia Department of Corrections $600 for room and board and spends $76 a month for a MARTA card, laundry and some meals. As a result, Hurley has stayed locked up more than eight months past her original 120-day sentence, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by the Southern Center for Human Rights seeking her release.
"This is another debtor's prison case," said Sarah Geraghty, a Southern Center lawyer. "This is a situation where if this woman was able to write a check for the amount of the fine, she would be out of there. And because she can't, she's still in custody. It's as simple as that."
Hurley is an inmate held at the Gateway Diversion Center in Atlanta. She leaves the center for work five days a week at the K&K Soul Food restaurant on Donald L. Hollowell Parkway, earning $6.50 an hour.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
Chicago Sun-Times
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gang17.html
Report: Official who told of gangs in military quits
September 17, 2006
BY FRANK MAIN Crime Reporter
A Defense Department investigator reprimanded by his bosses for speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times about gang and extremist activity in the military has reportedly quit to become a civilian police officer.
Scott Barfield drew the ire of his superiors at Fort Lewis, Wash., when he was quoted by the newspaper May 1 as saying he identified 320 soldiers as gang members since 2002, calling them the "tip of the iceberg."
The comments were in a story that described how graffiti of Chicago-based gangs such as the Latin Kings have shown up in Iraq as part of what experts described as a growing problem of gang activity in the military.
Barfield, a civilian investigator who served seven years in the Army as a military police officer, quit Aug. 15 after he was reprimanded for violating policies about speaking to the media, the Associated Press has reported, adding he joined a civilian police department.
After the story ran, Barfield was directed to review his files, authorities said.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/elections/article/0,2808,DRMN_24736_4998586,00.html
Poll: GOP is in deep trouble
Coloradans 'blue' over Iraq, economy
By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
September 16, 2006
Colorado voters are in a "blue" mood over the war in Iraq, the economy and a host of other issues, and that's putting a serious scare into candidates with "Republican" associated with their names.
A new Rocky Mountain News/CBS 4 poll shows Coloradans are mirroring a national trend that gives Democrats a serious head start going into the seven-week sprint to November's mid-term elections.
With President Bush's popularity sinking in Colorado, Republicans have a steep uphill climb, said pollster Lori Weigel.
At the same time, the state's key unaffiliated voters are leaning Democratic, said political consultant David Kenney.
"On issue after issue, the unaffiliated voters that are the key to the kingdom in Colorado are aligning themselves with Democratics," said Kenney.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/opinion/19allen.html?pagewanted=print
September 19, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
A Challenge, Not a Crusade
By JOHN L. ALLEN Jr.
SEEN in context, Pope Benedict XVI's citation last week of a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who claimed that the Prophet Muhammad brought "things only evil and inhuman" to the world was not intended as an anti-Islamicbroadside. The pope's real target in his lecture at the University ofRegensburg, in Germany, was not Islam but the West, especially its tendencyto separate reason and faith. He also denounced religious violence, hardly acrusader's sentiment.
The uproar in the Muslim world over the comments is thus to some extent acase of "German professor meets sound-bite culture," with a phrase from atightly wrapped academic argument shot into global circulation, provoking anunintended firestorm.
In fact, had Benedict wanted to make a point about Islam, he wouldn't haveleft us guessing about what he meant. He's spoken and written on the subjectbefore and since his election as pope, and a clear stance has emerged in thefirst 18 months of his pontificate.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/opinion/19tue2.html?pagewanted=print
September 19, 2006
Editorial
Immigration's Lost Year
Congressional leaders and President Bush insisted for months that they wereserious about fixing the immigration system. They weren't, and the more talkyou hear about border security, about building walls and getting tough thistime, the clearer it will be that hopes for effective immigration reformthis year are past saving, pinned down by strong arms in the Republican- controlled House and kicked until dead.
The latest proposals are the product of a Republicans-only "forum" last weekthat distilled the bilge water of a summer's worth of immigration "hearings," which were actually badly disguised campaign events. Thehearings - with titles like "How Does Illegal Immigration Impact AmericanTaxpayers and Will the Reid-Kennedy Amnesty Worsen the Blow?" - were showtrials put on to destroy comprehensive reform by any means necessary. "WhatI wanted was witnesses who agree with me, not disagree with me," saidRepresentative Charlie Norwood of Georgia, putting it perfectly.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/09/19/clinton_global_initiative_meets_in_nyc?mode=PF
Clinton Global Initiative meets in NYC
By Deepti Hajela, Associated Press Writer | September 19, 2006
NEW YORK --Some of the participants at this week's Clinton Global Initiativeconference should come as no surprise.
Former president Bill Clinton will be there, of course, as will his senatorwife, his former vice president, and a number of high-profile people withwhom he has worked, including Bill and Melinda Gates.
But there are also a few people one might not expect to see at an event withthe Clinton name attached -- including First Lady Laura Bush and publisherRupert Murdoch. Bush is scheduled to be among the first speakers Wednesdayat the conference, which aims to spur action on such issues as poverty,health care and global warming.
Her presence is proof of the conference's commitment to overlooking partisanpolitics, Clinton told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/opinion/19tue1.html?pagewanted=print
September 19, 2006
Editorial
Take the Lead on Darfur
President Bush will face a tough, and in many cases hostile, crowd when headdresses the United Nations General Assembly today.The mayhem in Iraq, his flouting of the Geneva Conventions, the hectoringtone of his previous appearances will all make it much harder for him toelicit the respect or even the full attention that any American presidentshould command.
Still, Mr. Bush could make a difference if he threw aside his usual script,devoted this speech to the horrors of Darfur, and committed himselfpersonally to stopping the genocide.
The tally of human suffering should make even the most jaded listener takenotice: at least 200,000 dead and two million more driven from their homesby three years of rape and mutilation led by Sudanese troops and their proxyArab militias.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/opinion/19tue3.html?pagewanted=print
September 19, 2006
Editorial
Judicial Politics Run Amok
Contests for important state judgeships around the country are gettingnastier, more partisan and tons more expensive. Monied interests seeking toinfluence court decisions are spending lavishly to boost preferredcandidates, much as they do in campaigns for regular political office. Today'sround of judicial elections in Washington State points to the seriousness ofthe problem and its threat to judicial integrity, independence andimpartiality.
With three seats on the Washington State Supreme Court up for grabs, arecord amount of money - some $2 million - has poured in to underwrite thecontested races. Some of the television and radio attack ads against theincumbent chief justice, GerryAlexander, were so unfair or misleading they would have seemed out of lineeven if the contests were for local alderman instead of a lofty position onthe state's highest court. The inevitable result: reinforced ties betweenwould-be judges and their partisan supporters, and diminished public respectand confidence in judicial decision making no matter which candidates wintoday.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/science/19women.html?pagewanted=print
September 19, 2006
Bias Is Hurting Women in Science, Panel Reports
By CORNELIA DEAN
Women in science and engineering are hindered not by lack of ability but bybias and "outmoded institutional structures" in academia, an expert panelreported yesterday. The panel, convened by the National Academy of Sciences,said that in an era of global competition the nation could not afford "suchunderuse of precious human capital." Among other steps, the reportrecommends altering procedures for hiring and evaluation, changing typicaltimetables for tenure and promotion, and providing more support for workingparents.
"Unless a deeper talent pool is tapped, it will be difficult for our countryto maintain our competitiveness in science and engineering," the panel'schairwoman, Donna E. Shalala, said at a news conference at which the reportwas made public. The report, "Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling thePotential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering," is online at www.nationalacademies.org.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091800994_pf.html
Time for Integrity
McCain Should Stick to His Principles
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; A21
In the early 1960s, Johnny Carson hosted an afternoon TV show called "Who Do You Trust?" The title was grammatically incorrect, but I will use it anyway to pose a question regarding the current fuss over the Geneva Conventions: When it comes to George Bush and John McCain, who -- or whom -- do you trust?
This is about as dumb a question as the Groucho Marx standard from "You Bet Your Life," yet another old TV show: Who's buried in Grant's Tomb? The contest, after all, is between a president who has repeatedly broken faith with the American people over the war in Iraq -- everything from weapons of mass destruction to disingenuous assurances that torture has not been used in the interrogation of suspects -- and a former Vietnam War prisoner who was tortured by his jailers because, among other things, he refused an offer of early release. There is nothing in George Bush's life that even approaches what McCain has done.
Of course, McCain does not stand alone against Bush. He was joined on the Senate Armed Services Committee by three other Republicans: Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins and, importantly, the chairman, John W. Warner. They were in turn joined by the Democrats, who, for once, have wisely stepped out of the way to allow the Republicans to duke it out among themselves.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091800996.html
Poverty's Changing Faces
By Bradley R. Schiller
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; A21
The recently released poverty data paint a grim picture of life in America. Once again the U.S. Census Bureau tells us that 37 million people -- one of every 12 residents -- is living hand-to-mouth in the United States. This is a shocking statistic, especially in view of our extraordinarily high average incomes (around $60,000 per household), three years of robust economic growth, declining unemployment rates and a dramatic drop in welfare rolls.
Critics of the administration, of course, are quick to interpret this picture. They point to "tax cuts for the rich," punitive welfare reforms, a stagnant federal minimum wage, cutbacks in education and increasingly cutthroat international trade as explanations for both persistent poverty and the widening gap between rich and poor Americans. But whatever merit some of these explanations might have, they are not focused on the right subject. The most important picture that emerges from census data is not the size of the poverty population but its transitory nature.
The number of people living in poverty has been in a narrow range of 32 million to 37 million for the past 25 years. The 1991 recession briefly pushed the number of poor people up to 39 million; the 1995-99 economic boom shrank it to 31.6 million. The year-to-year changes have been about a million people, up or down.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801414_pf.html
Bush Detainee Plan Adds to World Doubts Of U.S., Powell Says
Ex-Secretary of State Defends Conventions
By Karen DeYoung and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; A04
Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell said yesterday that he decided to publicly oppose the Bush administration's proposed rules for the treatment of terrorism suspects in part because the plan would add to growing doubts about whether the United States adheres to its own moral code.
"If you just look at how we are perceived in the world and the kind of criticism we have taken over Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and renditions," Powell said in an interview, "whether we believe it or not, people are now starting to question whether we're following our own high standards."
Powell, elaborating on a position first expressed last week in a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), also argued that the administration's plan to "clarify" U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions would set a precedent for other nations that would endanger U.S. troops.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091800512.html
France's Chirac Not in Favor of Iran Sanctions
On Eve of Bush U.N. Speech, Words Complicate U.S. Push
By Glenn Kessler and Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; A14
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 18 -- In a potential break with the Bush administration, French President Jacques Chirac said Monday that he is "never in favor of sanctions" and suggested that the United States and other nations could begin talks with Iran on its nuclear program before Iran formally suspends its nuclear activities.
Chirac's remarks came as President Bush prepared to address the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, part of an intensifying U.S. drive to secure international sanctions against Iran. The French president, in a 45-minute interview on European radio, appeared to upend that diplomatic drive and signaled a widening breach on Iran between the United States and European partners, reminiscent of the debate over the Iraq invasion four years ago.
Perhaps mindful of those tensions, some U.S. officials both publicly and privately played down Chirac's comments, insisting there was little daylight between the U.S. and French positions. But others said that the remarks took them by surprise and that they would seek an explanation from the French at meetings on Tuesday.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/health/15546540.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
MEN
For some, sperm bank offers genetic insurance
The loss of sperm samples at a University of Florida storage tank zapped the hopes of some men who are fighting cancer.
BY CAROLYN SUSMAN
Cox News Service
The news was buried inside and chopped down to a few paragraphs. It seemed funny at first.
``High temps in UF tank destroy sperm samples.''
Thoughts of Michael Jackson's fatherhood raced through my head, as well asstories about those genius sperm banks that were supposedly selling thematerial of Nobel prize winners to mothers desperate for the ultimateintellectual.
But then the story spelled out that these samples weren't all from anonymousdonors, or men with astounding IQs. Some were from men who banked theirsperm before undergoing chemotherapy and facing the possibility of neverbeing able to father a child if they lived.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/world/europe/19pope.html?pagewanted=print
September 19, 2006
Pope's Regrets Over Statement Fail to Quiet a Storm of Protests
By IAN FISHER
ROME, Sept. 18 - Many Muslims insisted Monday that Pope Benedict XVI did not go far enough in his apology on Sunday for the offense caused by a speech he gave last week that discussed Islam and holy war.
In the southern Iraqi city of Basra, protesters burned an effigy of the pope, and an Iraqi group linked to Al Qaeda posted a warning on a Web site threatening war against "worshipers of the cross."
The supreme leader in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the pope's remarks "the latest link" in the "chain of conspiracy to set off a crusade."
And, as a Vatican official said its ambassadors would seek to better explain the pope's statement, a Turkish man with a fake gun tried to storm a Protestant church in Turkey's capital, Ankara. He was arrested after worshipers trapped him in the church entryway.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/09/19/when_campaign_gifts_qualify_as_corruption?mode=PF
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE | PETER S. CANELLOS
When campaign gifts qualify as corruption
By Peter S. Canellos, Globe Columnist | September 19, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The news last Friday that Representative Bob Ney of Ohio was pleading guilty to corruption and faced 10 years in prison probably sentmany lawmakers scrambling for their own fund-raising lists. For in additionto receiving the usual trips and gifts, Ney pleaded guilty to acceptingcampaign contributions in exchange for favors -- an offense that comesuncomfortably close to business as usual in Washington.
Most members of Congress raise money constantly, and the donors are almostby definition people who benefit from particular votes and particularprovisions in bills. And while members of Congress know that they must steerclear of any explicit quid pro quos -- promising to take specific actions inexchange for contributions -- they also know that such deals have beenalmost impossible to prove.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801030.html
The Genocide Test
Surely China does not believe Sudan's brazen lies.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; A20
THE NEXT FEW days will show whether China means to let Sudan's dictatorship get away with genocide. A series of meetings at the United Nations in New York offers the best and possibly the last chance to persuade the Sudanese to allow U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur. The deployment is required by a Security Council resolution passed last month. It is supported by nearly all the leading powers and even by factions within Sudan's government. But China has so far refused to tell Sudan's isolated leaders to drop their opposition to a U.N. contingent, even though its extensive investments in Sudan give it the power to do so. If it wants to be regarded as a responsible power, China should use its leverage.
Consider the arguments for not doing so, as presented by Sudan's spokesmen. Yesterday, Sudan's deputy ambassador to the United Nations protested that blaming hundreds of thousands of deaths on his government was unfair: "The armed groups in Darfur are the real culprits," he asserted. But China's leaders surely know this is absurd: The leading murderers in Darfur are the Janjaweed militia, which has been equipped by Sudan's government. Meanwhile, at the World Bank-International Monetary Fund meetings yesterday, Sudan's finance minister argued that "what Darfur needs is not peacekeepers. . . . What Darfur needs most is resources for water, resources for schools, for hospitals."
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http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/09/19/al_gore_urges_action_on_climate_crisis?mode=PF
Al Gore urges action on 'climate crisis'
By Beth Fouhy, Associated Press Writer | September 19, 2006
NEW YORK --Former Vice President Al Gore stepped up his call for immediateaction to halt global warming, urging politicians on both sides of the aisleto "have the courage to do better."
"Each passing day brings yet more evidence that we are now facing aplanetary emergency, a climate crisis that demands immediate attention,"Gore said Monday.
In an hour-long speech at New York University Law School, Gore, who narrowlylost the 2000 presidential race to George W. Bush, framed the pursuit ofrenewable energy as an economic and national security issue as well as anenvironmental imperative.
"When we make big mistakes in America, it is usually because the people havenot been given an honest accounting of the choices before us," Gore said."It also is often because too many members of both parties who knew betterdid not have the courage to do better."
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http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060919/OPINION05/609190323/1006/OPINION&template=printart
A tissue, soap and planning can help us fight the flu
By Jack Pittman
MY VIEW
Seasonal influenza begins in October, lasts through March and on averagekills about 36,000 Americans each year.
This is more than double the number of Americans killed annually by drunkendrivers; nearly four times the number of deaths from skin cancer; 360 timesmore deaths than from lightning strikes; and 1,000 times more thanfatalities from shark attacks.
In 2001, there were 18 cases and five deaths from anthrax spores sentthrough the mail. People reacted with great anxiety - afraid of spilledcreamer at the coffee counter and boxes of detergent in supermarkets tornopen by a passing cart. Yet, they seem unconcerned about the potential forserious illness and death from a passerby's uncovered cough or sneeze.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/19/ap/politics/printableD8K7K3F01.shtml
Democrats' Spending Gives Edge to GOP
WASHINGTON, Sep. 19, 2006
(AP) The national Democratic Party has spent millions on raising money,consultants and building state parties, entering the weeks before ElectionDay with only about one-fifth as much as the Republicans for races thatcould decide control of Congress.
The Republican National Committee is prepared to spend $60 million over thenext seven weeks on advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts to protect theGOP's narrow majorities in the House and Senate.
The Democratic National Committee plans to use about $12 million, alldevoted to getting voters to the polls. Even in that effort, though, it hasset aside only an average of $60,000 in each of the 40 most competitivecongressional races in the country.
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http://www.latimes.com/wireless/avantgo/la-na-mccain19sep19,0,3359771.story
McCain Stand Comes at a Price
Battling Bush over rules for detainee treatment, senator jeopardizes his courtship of the right.
By Janet Hook and Richard Simon, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON - Conservative activists are heaping criticism on Sen. JohnMcCain for fighting President Bush over proposed rules for the interrogationof terrorism suspects, a dispute that has reopened long-standing divisionsbetween the maverick Republican lawmaker and his party's establishment.
The attack from the right, which coalesced over the weekend, could undercutMcCain's effort to woo Bush backers and other party regulars for ananticipated 2008 presidential bid. His position on terrorism prisoners hasfueled critics' skepticism about McCain's conservative credentials.
"This very definitely is going to put a chilling effect on the tremendousstrides he has made in the conservative evangelical community," said theRev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, one ofseveral conservative activists who support Bush's proposal on interrogationtechniques.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091800995.html
Torture Is Torture
Bush's 'Program' Disgraces All Americans
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; A21
I wish I could turn to cheerier matters, but I just can't get past this torture issue -- the fact that George W. Bush, the president of the United States of America, persists in demanding that Congress give him the right to torture anyone he considers a "high-value" terrorist suspect. The president of the United States. Interrogation by torture. This just can't be happening.It's past time to stop mincing words. The Decider, or maybe we should now call him the Inquisitor, sticks to anodyne euphemisms. He speaks of "alternative" questioning techniques, and his umbrella term for the whole shop of horrors is "the program." Of course, he won't fully detail the methods that were used in the secret CIA prisons -- and who knows where else? -- but various sources have said they have included not just the infamous "waterboarding," which the administration apparently will reluctantly forswear, but also sleep deprivation, exposure to cold, bombardment with ear-splitting noise and other assaults that cause not just mental duress but physical agony. That is torture, and to call it anything else is a lie.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/19/ap/politics/printableD8K7KA100.shtml
Kerry Speaks About Faith, 'Godly Tasks'
MALIBU, Calif., Sep. 19, 2006
(AP) Democratic Sen. John Kerry on Monday urged people of faith to workcooperatively on problems such as poverty, global warming and reducing thenumber of abortions _ "godly tasks" that transcend the nation's culturewars.
In a speech laced with anecdotes of his own journey of faith, Kerry, a RomanCatholic, told students in a speech at Pepperdine University that "we cantake up God's work as our own.
"Shame on us if we use our faith to divide and alienate people from oneanother, or if we draft God into partisan service," Kerry said. "As Godgives us the ability to see, let us take up the tasks associated with lovingour neighbors as ourselves."
Even with the nation riven over reproductive rights, Kerry said a sharedgoal should be reducing the high number of abortions. The first step, hesaid, it to accept the responsibility of making abortion rare.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091800992.html
Enough Apologies
By Anne Applebaum
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; A21
Already, angry Palestinian militants have assaulted seven West Bank and Gaza churches, destroying two of them. In Somalia, gunmen shot dead an elderly Italian nun. Radical clerics from Qatar to Qom have called, variously, for a "day of anger" or for worshipers to "hunt down" the pope and his followers. From Turkey to Malaysia, Muslim politicians have condemned the pope and called his apology "insufficient." And all of this because Benedict XVI, speaking at the University of Regensburg, quoted a Byzantine emperor who, more than 600 years ago, called Islam a faith "spread by the sword." We've been here before, of course. Similar protests were sparked last winter by cartoon portrayals of Muhammad in the Danish press. Similar apologies resulted, though Benedict's is more surprising than those of the Danish government. No one, apparently, can remember any pope, not even the media-friendly John Paul II, apologizing for anything in such specific terms: not for the Inquisition, not for the persecution of Galileo and certainly not for a single comment made to an academic audience in an unimportant German city.
But Western reactions to Muslim "days of anger" have followed a familiar pattern, too. Last winter, some Western newspapers defended their Danish colleagues, even going so far as to reprint the cartoons -- but others, including the Vatican, attacked the Danes for giving offense. Some leading Catholics have now defended the pope -- but others, no doubt including some Danes, have complained that his statement should have been better vetted, or never given at all. This isn't surprising: By definition, the West is not monolithic. Left-leaning journalists don't identify with right-leaning colleagues (or right-leaning Catholic colleagues), and vice versa. Not all Christians, let alone all Catholics -- even all German Catholics -- identify with the pope either, and certainly they don't want to defend his every scholarly quotation.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/world/americas/19canada.html?ei=5094&en=19cef65f49917a76&hp=&ex=1158724800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
The New York Times
September 19, 2006
Canadians Fault U.S. for Its Role in Torture Case
By IAN AUSTEN
OTTAWA, Sept. 18 - A government commission on Monday exonerated a Canadian computer engineer of any ties to terrorism and issued a scathing report that faulted Canada and the United States for his deportation four years ago to Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured.
The report on the engineer, Maher Arar, said American officials had apparently acted on inaccurate information from Canadian investigators and then misled Canadian authorities about their plans for Mr. Arar before transporting him to Syria.
"I am able to say categorically that there is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Arar has committed any offense or that his activities constituted a threat to the security of Canada," Justice Dennis R. O'Connor, head of the commission, said at a news conference.The report's findings could reverberate heavily through the leadership of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which handled the initial intelligence on Mr. Arar that led security officials in both Canada and the United States to assume he was a suspected Al Qaeda terrorist.
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Forwarded from Ron Mills
http://www.RonMills.us
CNN explores the possibility of midterm e-vote hacks in the following videoclips. In one clip, investigators demonstrate that a single hacker could use avirus to infect large numbers of electronic voting machines.
http://www.youtube.com/p.swf?video_id=JxKnlgvlwBY&eurl=http%3A//ronnmills.blogspot.com/2006/09/video-demonstrates-e-vote-hacks.html&iurl=http%3A//sjl-static7.sjl.youtube.com/vi/JxKnlgvlwBY/2.jpg&t=OEgsToPDskKz9s-UymTSQRcgjCmQUyXe
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Israel-NJ-Governor.html?pagewanted=print
September 18, 2006
Ex - Aide Denies McGreevey Relationship
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:40 p.m. ET
JERUSALEM (AP) -- An Israeli who served as homeland security adviser to former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey said Monday that he never had a relationship with McGreevey, whom he accused of sexually assaulting him.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Golan Cipel denied McGreevey's claims that the two were lovers, saying instead that he was the victim of sexual assault. He said he was speaking out now because the former governor's forthcoming book distorts the truth.
McGreevey's lawyer denied Cipel's accusations. McGreevey contends he had a consensual relationship with Cipel, as described in his book.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/news-security-canada-arar.html?ei=5094&en=d1983127f6d506a4&hp=&ex=1158638400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
September 18, 2006
Canadian Police Errors Led to Man's Torture, Inquiry Finds
By REUTERS
Filed at 6:21 p.m. ET
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian police wrongly identified an Ottawa software engineer as an Islamic extremist, prompting U.S. agents to deport him to Syria, where he was tortured, an official inquiry concluded on Monday.
Maher Arar, who holds Canadian and Syrian nationality, was arrested in New York in September 2002 and accused of being an al-Qaeda member. In fact, said the judge who led the probe, all the signs point to the fact Arar was innocent.Arar, 36, says he was repeatedly tortured in the year he spent in Damascus jails, and the inquiry agreed that he had been tortured. He was freed in 2003.
Judge Dennis O'Connor, who was asked by the Canadian government in 2004 to examine what had happened, found the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had wrongly told U.S. authorities that Arar was an Islamic extremist.``The provision of this inaccurate information ...totally unacceptable'' and guaranteed the United States
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091800597.html
Anti-Muslim Harassment Complaints Jump 30 Percent
By Michelle Boorstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 18, 2006; 4:20 PM
Complaints of anti-Muslim harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment registered with a national Muslim civil rights group jumped 30 percent in 2005 from the previous year, the group said today in releasing its annual report .
The 1,972 complaints made to the Council on American-Islamic Relations are the most the group has received since it began the annual reports following anti-Muslim incidents after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The group said it actually received 2,300 reports but deemed some of them illegitimate.
The number of complaints has continually risen since 1995, but began spiking significantly in 2003, the report said. CAIR officials said the jump between 2004 and 2005 seems to be due to "a rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric fed by the Internet and also on talk radio," group spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said at a news conference. "You can't turn on the radio without hearing negative, bigoted comments about Islam."
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September 17, 2006
Papal Insults
A Bavarian Provocation By TARIQ ALI
from CounterPunch
Was Benedict's most recent provocation accidental or deliberate? TheBavarian is a razor-sharp reactionary cleric. A man who organises his ownsuccession to the Papacy with a ruthless purge of potential dissidents andsupervises the selection of Cardinals with great care leaves little tochance.
I think he knew what he was saying and why.
Choosing a quote from Manuel II Paleologos, not the most intelligent of theByzantine rulers, was somewhat disingenuous, especially on the eve of avisit to Turkey. He could have found more effective quotes and closer tohome. Perhaps it was his unique tribute to Oriana Fallaci. Perhaps.
The Muslim world with two of its countries---Iraq and Afghanistan-- directlyoccupied by Western troops does not need to be reminded of the language ofthe Crusades. In a neo-liberal world suffering from environmentaldegradation, poverty, hunger, repression, a 'planet of slums' (in thegraphic phrase of Mike Davis), the Pope chooses to insult the founder of a rival faith.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-harris18sep18,1,4919002.story
Los Angeles Times
Head-in-the-Sand Liberals
Western civilization really is at risk from Muslim extremists.
By Sam Harris
SAM HARRIS is the author of The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason. His next book, Letter to a Christian Nation, will be published this week by Knopf. (www.samharris.org)
September 18, 2006
TWO YEARS AGO I published a book highly critical of religion, "The Endof Faith." In it, I argued that the world's major religions aregenuinely incompatible, inevitably cause conflict and now prevent theemergence of a viable, global civilization. In response, I havereceived many thousands of letters and e-mails from priests,journalists, scientists, politicians, soldiers, rabbis, actors, aidworkers, students - from people young and old who occupy every pointon the spectrum of belief and nonbelief.
This has offered me a special opportunity to see how people of allcreeds and political persuasions react when religion is criticized. Iam here to report that liberals and conservatives respond verydifferently to the notion that religion can be a direct cause of humanconflict.
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