Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
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rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
All
rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Security grants neglect basics
If terrorists bomb a building in Denver, Fire Chief Larry Trujillo has a new $89,000 air vacuum shovel, bought with a federal grant, to suck up debris and reach buried bodies.
It's a nifty high-tech machine, but Trujillo says what Denver really needs is basics. Denver today has fewer firefighters than it did Sept. 11, and their main rescue truck for responding to downtown emergencies is 19 years old.
Denver also has fewer police officers, who lack a radio system that's sure not to fail.
And anxieties reverberate as some $12 billion in Department of Homeland Security grants finally trickle through bureaucratic pipes. The grants cover specialized equipment and training deemed essential to steel the nation against terrorism, but not basic needs such as manpower - traditionally a local responsibility.
Now experts say a frontline security dilemma is emerging: Hundreds of new biohazard suits hang ready, with fewer first-responders available to wear them. More national workshops address how to handle a public health crisis, while local health directors scramble to register potential volunteers to respond.
Around the country, municipal and state officials say that, although they welcome the Homeland Security funds now available, they're increasingly concerned that lack of manpower and basic equipment is setting back overall safety.
A flat economy has limited what local governments can afford.
"We are much better prepared to handle a small-scale event. But we are worse prepared, much worse prepared, to handle a moderate- to large- scale event," said Dr. Rex Archer, president-elect of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. "The fact is, we have so much fewer staff, we will be hard-pressed to deal with a large-scale event."
In Denver, Fire Chief Trujillo said the air vac "will sit there ready to be used" if terrorists attack a building, "but I'd rather have newer firetrucks and more people. That's what is going to do the work."
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2503005,00.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:21 AM
matt@lefande.com
The Myth of the "Missing Explosives": a Shameless Lie
Should the United Nations decide who be comes our president? Sen. John Kerry wouldn't mind. He's shamelessly promoting the lies that the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency is telling about Iraq.
A devious IAEA report suggests that 400 tons of explosives were spirited away by our enemies under the noses of our Keystone-Cops troops after the fall of Baghdad. The document just happened to be released in the closing days of our presidential election. Purely a coincidence, of course. Brought to you by those selfless U.N. bureaucrats who failed in Iraq and are now failing in Iran.
Since Kerry's willing to blame our troops for a scandal invented by America-haters, let's look at the story the military way, by the numbers.
One: The IAEA claims its inspectors visited the ammo dump at Al-Qaqaa on March 9, 2003, and found the agency's seals intact on bunkers containing sensitive munitions. Unverifiable, but let's assume that much is true.
Two: Faced with an impending invasion, Saddam's forces did what any military would do. They began dispersing ammunition stocks from every storage site that might be a Coalition bombing target. If the Iraqis valued it, they tried to move it. Before the war.
Three: Members of our 3rd Infantry Division — the heroes who led the march to Baghdad — reached the site in question in early April. Despite the pressures of combat, they combed the dump. Nothing was found. Al-Qaqaa was a vast junkyard.
Four: Our 101st Airborne Division assumed responsibility for the sector as the 3ID closed on Baghdad. None of the Screaming Eagles found any IAEA markers — even one would have been a red flag to be reported immediately.
Five: At the end of May, military teams searching for key Iraqi weapons scoured Al-Qaqaa. They found plenty of odds and ends — the detritus of war — but no IAEA seals. And no major stockpiles.
Six: Now, just before Election Day, the IAEA, a discredited organization embarrassed by the Bush administration's decision to call it on the carpet, suddenly realizes that 400 tons of phantom explosives went missing from the dump.
Seven: Even if repeated inspections by U.S. troops had somehow missed this deadly elephant on the front porch, and even if the otherwise-incompetent Iraqis had been so skilled and organized they were able to sneak into Al-Qaqaa and load up 400 tons of Saddam's love-powder, it would have taken a Teamsters' convention to get the job done.
Eight: If the Iraqis had used military transport vehicles of five-ton capacity, it would have required 80 trucks for one big lift, or, say, 20 trucks each making four trips. They would have needed special trolleys, forklifts, handling experts and skilled drivers (explosives aren't groceries). This operation could not have happened either during or after the war, while the Al-Qaqaa area was flooded with U.S. troops.
Nine: We owned the skies. And when you own the skies, you own the roads. We were watching for any sign of organized movement. A gaggle of non-Coalition vehicles driving in and out of an ammo dump would have attracted the attention of our surveillance systems immediately.
Ten: And you don't just drive high explosives cross-country, unless you want to hear a very loud bang. Besides, the Iraqis would have needed to hide those 400 tons of explosives somewhere else. Unless the uploaded trucks are still driving around Iraq.
Eleven: Even if the IAEA told the truth and the Iraqis were stealth-logistics geniuses who emptied the site's ammo bunkers under our noses, the entire issue misses a greater point: 400 tons of explosives amounted to a miniscule fraction of the stocks Saddam had built up. Coalition demolition experts spent months destroying more than 400,000 tons of Iraqi war-making materiel.
Our soldiers eliminated more than a thousand tons of packaged death for every ton the United Nations claims they missed. Does that sound like incompetence? Why hasn't our success been mentioned? Can't our troops get credit for anything?
Twelve: The bottom line is that, if the explosives were ever there, the Iraqis moved them before our troops arrived. There is no other plausible scenario.
Sen. Kerry knows this is a bogus issue. And he doesn't care. He's willing to accuse our troops of negligence and incompetence to further his political career. Of course, he did that once before.
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/32832.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:04 AM
matt@lefande.com
CBS eyed '60 Minutes' Bush bombshell
CBS News apparently had an October surprise of its own for President Bush.
The network, already reeling from accusations of bias over anchorman Dan Rather's use of bogus memos to challenge Mr. Bush's Texas Air National Guard record, acknowledged yesterday in a statement that it had planned to air a story critical of the Bush administration's handling of Iraqi munitions Sunday on "60 Minutes," two days before the presidential election.
CBS opted to allow its "reporting partner," the New York Times, to run the story Monday, citing concerns over competition, and ran it on its network news Monday night.
"This was a timely story that was developing quickly, and we wanted to air it as soon as possible on '60 Minutes,' " spokesman Kevin Tedesco said. "Then it became apparent the story was already breaking elsewhere, so we agreed to run it in the Times, and on our own evening news Monday night."
Both news outlets reported that the Iraqi government has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that 380 tons of plastic explosives went missing during postwar looting.
The Pentagon stands by its statements that U.S. forces found no IAEA-sealed explosives there and that the site already had been looted by April 10.
Nevertheless, the tale emerged as an instant political weapon for Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, who called it a Bush administration "blunder" and promptly based a campaign TV spot on the revelation.
"Kerry gins up his attack machine based on a flawed New York Times story," the Republican National Committee stated yesterday.
"Major media outlets have constructed this story to appear that the Bush administration is to blame, a week short of an election. It's become fodder for the campaign, and in a close race like this, the story easily could sway voters," said Clifford May, a syndicated columnist and president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a District-based nonprofit group that analyzes global terrorist threats.
Attempts to manipulate the U.S. election with strategically timed leaks goes beyond journalists, Mr. May said.
"What has to be investigated here is whether [IAEA Director-General] Mohamed ElBaradei has attempted to manipulate an American election, and whether certain components of the American media helped him by not exercising sufficient journalistic skepticism," he said.
"The IAEA and its head, the anti-American Mohamed ElBaradei, leaked a false letter on this issue to the media to embarrass the Bush administration. The U.S. is trying to deny ElBaradei a second term, and we have been on his case for missing the Libyan nuclear-weapons program and for weakness on the Iranian nuclear-weapons program."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20041027-123351-4664r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:37 AM
matt@lefande.com
Officials accuse cops of 'silent strike' in ticket writing
Patrolmen in Danvers, MA have cost the town $173,000 by refusing to write traffic tickets in a ploy to influence contract negotiations, top police brass and town management officials allege in a complaint filed with the state last week.
Town officials claim police union members are handing out warnings rather than tickets in an effort to cost the town money and gain leverage at the bargaining table, according to their complaint to the state Labor Relations Commission. The 44-strong police union has gone nearly a year-and-a-half without a new contract in a dispute over raises.
But at least on police union official has accused the town of buttressing its case with "immoral and unethical behavior."
The union has demanded a 3 percent raise for fiscal year 2004. The town, citing huge cuts in state aid during that year, first offered no pay increase as part of a new contract.
Money brought in from traffic citations is put into the town's general fund and used for expenses or to cut the tax rate.
During the first nine months of 2003, Danvers police issued 2,069 traffic citations with fines. During the first nine months of 2004, only 254 traffic fines have been issued, according to the complaint. At the same time, the number of warnings issued has soared.
Nonunion police brass and town employees began investigating a drop in citations after they became apparent late last winter. The resulting accusations were based on the plummeting number of tickets, threats allegedly made by union leaders and e-mails sent among union members using the town's Internet service.
Police union President Dana "Mike" Hagan, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, told Town Attorney Brian Callahan and other members of the bargaining team last December that "If the town continues to insist on no raise for the first year, then the $255,000 in traffic fees can change," according to a passage in the complaint.
http://www.ecnnews.com/cgi-bin/04/s/sstory.pl?fn-dcopy
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:19 PM
matt@lefande.com
Apologizing to Saddam is groovy
http://blog.gleeson.us/sean/2004/10/16/apologizing_to_saddam_is_groovy
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:48 AM
matt@lefande.com
NZ Police admit mistake sending taxi to distress call
Police have admitted they should have sent a police patrol car instead of a taxi to collect distressed Iraena Asher the night she disappeared.
The 25-year-old Auckland model has not been seen since she disappeared from the beach settlement of Piha on Auckland's west coast 10 days ago.
Ms Asher called 111 around 9pm on October 10 telling police she was scared and may have been drugged.
Police sent a taxi to collect her, but have since confirmed the taxi went to the wrong address 35 kilometres away at Paihia Rd in Auckland.
Police have apologised to Ms Asher's family after the inquiry findings "exposed a deficiency in police practice around arrangements of taxi services for callers to police communication centres."
Police said Ms Asher called the police and "made it clear she wanted assistance". A Waitakere police sergeant made the decision to send the taxi instead of a police car. During this call Ms Asher "expressed fresh concerns about her position including the belief she may have been given drugs".
Police said "these concerns appear not to have been picked up on by the dispatcher".
When police called Ms Asher back to tell her a taxi was on the way she "indicated concern that police would not be attending".
Police Minister George Hawkins today dismissed accusations a taxi was sent to collect Iraena Asher because patrol cars were too busy revenue-gathering.
New Zealand First police spokesman Ron Mark suggested police were not available to attend her call because they were too busy issuing speeding tickets.
He conceded the decision to send a taxi was a very bad judgement.
Police were continuing their hunt for Ms Asher.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3602458&thesection=news&thesubsection=general
posted by Matthew LeFande 11:10 AM
matt@lefande.com
The Silence of the Domes
"For a guy who's been known derisively to the Bush crowd as the Breck girl," observes Shearer, vice presidential candidate John Edwards seems "way too interested in his hair." He tries to straighten it with his fingers. A makeup technician approaches with a comb, but the senator likes it just so and does the combing himself. He signals he's ready for hair spray by closing his eyes expectantly, like a child. Then Edwards and the technician straighten a little more with their fingers. Please don't tell me that thing in his hand is a compact. Oh, dear. It is.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2108216/slideshow/2108085/entry/2108087/speed/100?prettyboy
posted by Matthew LeFande 2:41 PM
matt@lefande.com
Second Chance files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Second Chance Body Armor Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the wake of lawsuits accusing it of selling defective bullet-resistant vests to police officers.
The northern Michigan company is the nation's largest manufacturer of soft, concealable body armor for law enforcement. In a statement, the company announced the filing Sunday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Grand Rapids.
The accusations generated several lawsuits, as well as federal and state investigations, and finger-pointing between Second Chance and the producer of Zylon, a high-tech synthetic fiber woven into many of Second Chance's vests.
Pennsylvania is among the states that sued Second Chance. In a civil lawsuit filed in Commonwealth Court in July, the attorney general is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil penalties and refunds for Pennsylvania law enforcement agencies that bought the vests.
Second Chance faced lawsuits since announcing more than a year ago that it had concerns about Zylon. Defending against them has left no time to run the company, Second Chance chief executive Paul Banducci said.
"For almost a year management has been involved in these draining Zylon related legal actions," Banducci said in a statement Sunday. "The filing will allow Second Chance management to focus on the management of the business so as to continue to serve its law enforcement and military customers."
The company said Chapter 11 protection will allow it to stop spending money and resources on the litigation.
http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/9958236.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:11 AM
matt@lefande.com
Armenian authorities arrest man found with radioactive cesium-137 in trunk of car
Authorities have arrested a man found with radioactive cesium-137 in the trunk of his car, a state official said Monday.
The highly toxic material, which could contaminate large areas if used in a "dirty bomb," was found Friday and "rendered harmless," Ashot Martirosian, chief of the State Atomic Oversight department, said.
Yerevan resident Gagik Tovmasian was arrested on charges of illegal trade in radioactive materials, Martirosian said.
It was unclear how the man obtained the material, but various sources for it exist in Armenia, a small former Soviet republic in the Caucasus Mountains, Martirosian said.
Various industries use cesium-137 in density gauges and for machine calibration. Authorities in neighboring Georgia have spoken of the need to create a storage site for gauges in which cesium-137 was used to measure the level of gasoline in underground tanks at gas stations.
Martirosian did not say how much cesium was found, but he said the substance is very hazardous to human health.
Devices containing cesium-137 can cause serious radiation exposure if broken and held. Depending on the amount and form, experts say a dirty bomb made with cesium-137 could spread intense radioactivity over a section of a city, making it uninhabitable.
In February, Martirosian said a powerful source of radiation was found on the Armenian-Iranian border, among scrap metal headed for Iran.
http://wire.jacksonville.com/pstories/world/europe/20041018/2521511.shtml
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:20 AM
matt@lefande.com
Man Accused Of Being Paid Crack For False Voter Registrations
An Ohio man was arrested and accused of filling out more than 100 voter registration forms that were ficticious, the Defiance County Sheriff's Office announced Monday.
Defiance County sheriff's deputies allege the man "was paid crack cocaine for the falsified registrations."
According to Sheriff David J. Westrick, Defiance deputies along with Toledo Police Department detectives searched a residence in Toledo, believed to be the home of the woman who hired the man to solicit voter registration.
Officers confiscated drug paraphernalia along with voter registration forms from the home, Westrick said.
The occupant of the home, Georgianne Pitts, 41, advised law enforcement that she had been recruited by Thaddeus J. Jackson, II, of Cleveland, to obtain voter registrations.
Pitts admitted to paying the suspect crack cocaine for the registrations in lieu of money, the sheriff's department said.
A business card provided by Pitts indicated that Jackson is the Assistant NVF Ohio Director of the NAACP National Voter Fund, Westrick said.
http://www.nbc4i.com/politics/3829743/detail.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:58 AM
matt@lefande.com
Holding down the block
Video of a crackhead desperately searching for an armed citizen to take him out of the gene pool.
What would you have done?
http://www.lefande.com/weblog/holdingitdown.wmv
posted by Matthew LeFande 4:48 PM
matt@lefande.com
Armed Grannies of the Week
Elbert County Georgia investigators say they have no idea why home invasions are becoming popular these days. Elbert County has had three in two weeks.
Police are looking for a man who they think tried to invade two homes owned by 80-year-old women.
"The suspect went to the house on Longcreek Road and tried to kick the front door in. The elderly women let the suspect know she had a gun and when she did, he took of running. Minutes later, there was another home invasion on Middleton Road and she shot at the suspect and he left," says Sheriff Barry Haston.
He thinks the invasions are connected because the houses were six miles away from each other. The sheriff says the man didn't steal anything from the second home, but did try to rape the woman. Sheriff Haston says having the guns kept those women alive.
"In these two cases I'm actually glad they did because it could have been a different story if they didn't," says Haston.
The Crime Scene Unit and GBI are investigating the cases and other home invasions in the area. But the sheriff's department wants people to learn from two women in their eighties and protect themselves.
"That's why we give these courses so people will know firearm safety, how to operate a firearm, it just gives the elderly a sense of security when they take these classes," says Haston.
>http://www.wneg32.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WNEG/MGArticle/NEG_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031778537908&path=
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:36 AM
matt@lefande.com
Driver blows .217 in court
An Austrailian motorist has shown why he should not be behind the wheel after blowing .217 during a court appearance to get his licence back.
The driver, in his 30s, faced Dandenong Magistrates' Court at 10.30am on Monday seeking return of his driver's licence after losing it several years earlier.
When he struggled with his own name, magistrate Clive Alsop asked the prosecutor to breath-test him.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11066083^2862,00.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:35 AM
matt@lefande.com
Officer graduates, loses job
Shawn J. Weyer might go down in history as having the shortest career with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.
Hours after graduating from the corrections academy and celebrating with friends, Weyer, 24, was arrested early Wednesday while off duty. He is charged with accidentally shooting himself in the left hand and a woman in the leg while drunk - and lying about it to police.
Cincinnati police charged Weyer with the misdemeanor crimes of improperly firing his weapon while intoxicated, discharging a firearm in city limits, negligent assault and obstructing official business.
But before Weyer was released from the county jail Wednesday, Sheriff Simon Leis had fired him. "He obviously doesn't fit our criteria to be an employee of this department," Steve Barnett, sheriff's spokesman, said.
Weyer said he wants to make amends with Leis. "I will say: 'Hey, I don't want to lose my job. It's unfortunate this happened,' " Weyer said. He'd like to get his job back, he said, but he wouldn't fight the firing if Leis doesn't relent.
About 2:30 a.m., Weyer and four of his friends were wrapping up their celebration at Emily Arner's University Heights apartment.
Weyer said he was showing his personal, 9mm handgun to Stephanie O'Campo and another man when it accidentally fired while he was putting it away.
The bullet nicked him and struck O'Campo, whose age and address were unavailable. She was treated and released at Mercy Hospital Fairfield.
Police charged Arner with obstructing official business, saying she gave officers false statements. She denies that.
The shooting has been blown out of proportion, Weyer said. He said he wasn't drunk, saying he drank four beers over 10 hours. And, he said, he didn't lie to police.
"I'm tired of looking like a big old drunk whaling my gun around and I'm not," he said.
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/14/loc_officerarrest14.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:31 AM
matt@lefande.com
NY Asshats charge Store Clerk with Assault after Shooting Robbery Suspect
A store clerk who turned the tables and shot a bandit during the getaway finds himself charged with assault.
27-year-old Michael Budd finds himself in a legal jam.
Buffalo police say he shot a suspected robber outside an Elmwood Avenue service station Sunday night.
Budd, who was working behind the counter, said the suspect put a gun to his stomach, then to his head, telling him to hand over the money.
He says he struggled with the suspect, wrestled the gun away, and followed him outside the store.
Budd said, "...and I layed off one warning shot and I said 'stop', and he didn't stop, and then [on] the second shot, I shot him."
Buffalo police say 18-year-old Joseph Davis was shot once in the arm.
He's been charged in connection with the Elmwood Avenue attempted robbery, and one that happened an hour earlier on Grant Street.
But now, Michael Budd, the store clerk, is charged with assault for shooting Davis outside the store.
Buffalo Police Captain Mark Morgan said, "The danger to the clerk was over. Once that suspect took flight and was fleeing from the scene, there was no more justification to use deadly physical force."*
Erie County District Attorney Frank Clark tells me that robbery, not attempted robbery, is when a private citizen may use deadly physical force under the law.
And Clark says there must be an imminent threat to safety.
Clark said, "The further he [the suspect] runs, and the more he tries to escape, the less of an immediate danger he is."
*Apparently the Fleeing Felon Rule doesn't apply in New York. Under Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, police may not shoot an unarmed, non-dangerous fleeing felon. However, in this case, the victim had just been assaulted with a functional firearm and his life threatened during a failed robbery. Furthermore, the robbery was the second in an apparent string of robberies that was stopped only with this intervention by the victim. Nothing like a prosecutor prosecuting the victim of a violent crime just to get his name in the paper.
http://www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421934
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:25 AM
matt@lefande.com
Police Rugby team subdues plane drunk
A drunk passenger picked the wrong flight on which to cause trouble and was restrained by members of a British police rugby league team.
When the troublemaker became aggressive and nasty towards other passengers, the cabin crew turned to the police contingent, which included one officer who specialised in airline security, Auckland's Sunday News reported.
"Really, it was about the worst flight for this guy to be an idiot on," said David Jenkins, the manager of the British police team, which was heading to New Zealand for a Test series against their Kiwi counterparts.
"Although there wasn't much of him, it took three police officers to restrain him," he told the newspaper.
Mr Jenkins said the pilot on the Singapore Airlines flight to New Zealand last weekend considered diverting to Australia to offload the drunk, but continued on to Christchurch when the man was subdued and moved to the back of the plane.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11030748^1702,00.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:46 AM
matt@lefande.com
Google IDs 1993 hit-and-run victim
Google, the Internet search engine, has done something that law enforcement officials and their computer tools could not: Identify a man who died in an apparent hit-and-run accident 11 years ago in this small town outside Yakima.
Detective Pat Ditter of the Washington State Patrol searched with Google for about a week before identifying the victim as David Glen Lewis, 39, who died 1,606 miles from his home in Amarillo, Texas.
Lewis' brother, Larry, praised Ditter's persistence.
"If he hadn't looked at those cases, we would still be back at square one, thinking he's alive and going to give us a call one of these days," Larry Lewis said.
Lewis had no known ties to central Washington, and his presence in the area is still a mystery, Ditter said. Relatives believe Lewis was kidnapped.
Over the years, investigators in Yakima and Amarillo combed through missing-person databases in vain.
Ditter said he turned to Google after reading a series of newspaper stories about long-unsolved missing-person cases. After a week he was focusing on about a dozen cases.
Finally, he came across a distinctive pair of glasses in a photograph on the Web sites of the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Doe Network, an international volunteer organization devoted to solving unidentified cases.
On Monday, officials at a laboratory in Texas confirmed a DNA match between the long unidentified pedestrian and Lewis' mother.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/10/08/google.finds.id.ap/index.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:59 AM
matt@lefande.com
Cop Suspected Of DUI, Found With Dead Pig
A Sunnyvale police officer has been arrested for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol with a slew of firearms and a dead pig in his truck, Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu said today.
Lt. Douglas Michael Sims was pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer shortly before midnight on Sept. 22 as he was traveling northbound on Highway 85 just south of Camden Avenue in San Jose, according to Sinunu.
She said the officer noticed Sims' black GMC truck weaving through traffic and initiated the stop, at which time Sims identified himself as a lieutenant with the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety.
Sims was allegedly uncooperative and refused to submit to field sobriety tests or acknowledge that he had been drinking.
The officer subsequently found eight firearms in the vehicle and a dead wild pig in the bed of the truck.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/100704_nw_cop_dui.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:23 PM
matt@lefande.com
Saddam worked secretly on WMDs
Saddam Hussein's goal through the 1990s and until the 2003 U.S. invasion was to end U.N. sanctions on Iraq, while working covertly to restore the country's ability to produce weapons of mass destruction, a report by the chief U.S. weapons inspector says.
"Saddam wanted to re-create Iraq's WMD capability — which was essentially destroyed in 1991 — after sanctions were removed and Iraq's economy stabilized, but probably with a different mix of capabilities," the report said.
Charles A. Duelfer told the Senate Armed Services Committee in testimony yesterday that "Saddam sought to sustain the requisite knowledge base to restart the program eventually."
In the interim, Mr. Duelfer said, Saddam hoped to keep "the inherent capability to produce such weapons as circumstances permitted in the future."
Mr. Duelfer yesterday said inspectors still cannot "definitively say whether or not WMD materials were transferred out of Iraq before the war," although he stressed how Iraq's ability to produce them weakened under the U.N. sanctions implemented after the 1991 Gulf war.
With Iraq's economy badly damaged and U.N. sanctions, Mr. Duelfer's report says, Saddam's plans for a skeletal weapons program that could be mobilized quickly led him to pursue the needed materials through illegal and indirect channels.
Starting in 1997 and peaking in 2001, he developed a giant smuggling operation that hinged on the establishment of "a network of Iraqi front companies, some with close relationships to high-ranking foreign-government officials," the report says.
Those officials, it says, "worked through their respective ministries, state-run companies and ministry-sponsored front companies to procure illicit goods, services and technologies for Iraq's WMD-related, conventional arms, and/or dual-use goods programs."
Syria was Iraq's "primary conduit for illicit imports" from late 2000 until the start of the U.S. invasion last year, according to the report, which also maintains that the Iraqi Intelligence Service set up front companies to buy prohibited arms from a Syrian totaling $1.2 billion.
"The central bank of Syria was the repository of funds used by Iraq to purchase goods and materials both prohibited and allowed under U.N. sanctions," the report says.
Regarding nuclear weapons, Mr. Duelfer said that during the 12 years after the Persian Gulf war "Iraq's ability to produce a weapon decayed" and that "the time for Iraq to build a nuclear weapon tended to increase for the duration of the sanctions."
"Despite this decay," he said. "Saddam did not abandon his nuclear ambitions."
Regarding chemical weapons, the report outlines Saddam's belief that the extensive use of such weapons and of long-range ballistic missiles was key to Iraq's ability to avoid defeat in the eight-year war with Iran.
Mr. Duelfer also noted that Saddam "used chemical weapons for domestic purposes — in the late-80s against the Kurds and during the Shi'a uprisings after the 1991 war" — a point noted regularly by administration officials in justifying to critics the need to invade Iraq.
While Iraqi chemical-weapons activity "shifted from production to research and development of more potent and stabilized agents" after the Iran-Iraq war, Mr. Duelfer said that when U.N. sanctions were on Iraq, Saddam sought to sustain the knowledge base to restart the program eventually.
"With the infusion of funding and resources following acceptance of the oil-for-food program, Iraq effectively shortened the time that would be required to re-establish [chemical weapon] production capacity," Mr. Duelfer said. "By 2003, Iraq would have been able to produce mustard agent in a period of months and nerve agent in less than a year or two."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20041007-014021-1051r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:46 AM
matt@lefande.com
Vice Presidential Debate Coverage
The photo Fox News refused to show.
posted by Matthew LeFande 3:23 PM
matt@lefande.com
Secret Service takes over fire, rescue responsibilities
The U.S. Secret Service has developed a fire-and-rescue unit to operate exclusively on the grounds of the White House and the vice president's mansion at the Naval Observatory, according to public-safety sources with knowledge of the operation.
The unit will replace the duties of the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, whose traditional responsibilities have included responding to emergency calls at the executive mansion and standing by during takeoff and landing of Marine One, the presidential helicopter.
The D.C. fire department will no longer be [dispatched to the White House] as a primary responder," said one source, who confirmed the existence of the unit on the condition of anonymity. "It will only be there to support the Secret Service unit during a crisis."
The sources said the Secret Service unit was instituted largely because of security concerns about D.C. fire department personnel, who have not been required to undergo FBI background checks since 1992.
The background check currently used by D.C. fire officials only looks at the recruit's driving history and whether he or she has a criminal record.
In the past, D.C. firefighters were required to undergo a "public trust" background check, which looked into their driving and financial records, checked for any criminal record and interviewed references and past associates.
The new unit is made up of uniformed Secret Service officers who have been cross-trained at the Maryland Fire Rescue Institute in College Park as firefighters, emergency medical technicians, hazardous-materials technicians and rescue technicians. The unit recently became operational, although it could not be determined how long ago.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20041005-022527-3285r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:24 AM
matt@lefande.com
Black Voters 'Afraid' of Electronic Voting Machines, Activist Says
An African-American civil rights spokeswoman said on Wednesday that the new computerized voting machines "terrify" her, and that blacks are "afraid of machines like that."
Joanne Bland, the director and co-founder of the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute in Selma, Ala., said Wednesday that the new computerized voting machines are going to intimidate black voters in Florida and elsewhere and suppress their vote in the November presidential election because many blacks are not "technologically savvy."
"The computers really terrify me. The electronic voting -- the new machines -- I think it will turn off a segment in my community, particularly the elderly. We are not as technically savvy, and we are afraid of machines like that, and they (African-Americans) probably won't go [to the polls] and they probably won't ask for assistance, said Bland, who spent the last week in Florida.
When asked if she preferred low-tech punch-card ballots that produced the controversial hanging chads in Florida in 2000, Bland responded, "Now that was low technology to who? People that have been privileged to learn technology? There have been lots of changes in the United States, but if you look at the statistics, our biggest block of voters would be between 40 and 80, so when did those people have access to any kind of technology?"
As an 11-year-old in 1965, Bland took part in the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She has just concluded a speaking tour on the history of the civil rights movement in the Miami area.
"I got the hell out of there Saturday, and I would suggest you do, too. Until we get rid of those Bushes (President George W. Bush and his brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush), we're going to have a problem in Florida," Bland said.
African-American GOP consultant Tara Setmayer, who has worked on Florida congressional campaigns, called Bland's remarks "insulting" to black Americans.
"I think it's insulting to imply that African-Americans are unable to comprehend or assimilate modern-day technology," Setmayer said.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=\SpecialReports\archive\200409\SPE20040930a.html
It just so happens that Jesse Jackson has been re-employed by the Kerry campaign just this week. And just this week, the "Bushes are trying to steal the election by hurting black people" campaign mantra is now re-emerging. It also just so happens to mark the re-ignition by the Kerry campaign of the debate on whether or not young black men will be drafted secretly after the election. CBS even repeated this in yet another example of disgraced journalism, but promptly got caught and spanked for it by Internet bloggers.
Efforts to get African Americans to hate President Bush will not be successful this time for one big reason: African Americans – at least many of them who live in large urban metros have had a chance to examine him and decide for themselves what they think of him. Bush got less than one vote in every 10 from the black community in 2000. This time, if he gets upward somewhere of three in 10 or four in 10, he will win at least 4 more states that Gore took in 2000.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40720
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:01 PM
matt@lefande.com
Police Union Disputes D.C. Crime Statistics
The D.C. police union has asked the District's inspector general to investigate how the department gathers crime statistics, saying that it has uncovered problems in one of the city's busiest police districts.
Union officials said they received a complaint that about 200 crime reports were set aside at the 7th Police District and never counted in crime statistics or were downgraded to lesser offenses. They said they have photocopies of these reports, which allegedly were stashed in a box at the station.
The 7th District covers much of Southeast Washington, and the reports that came to the union's attention involved such crimes as assaults, burglaries, car thefts, minor thefts and attempted thefts, officials said. Most of the crimes had occurred in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Several were from this year; others were from the 1990s.
Union officials said they conducted an audit of the reports and found that some crimes were never entered into databases, according to a letter delivered to Interim Inspector General Austin A. Andersen on Thursday.
The letter urging an investigation was signed by Sgt. Gregory I. Greene, chairman of the D.C. police labor committee of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 1. It expressed concern that the department was engaging in a "systematic effort" to misrepresent its crime-fighting success.
D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey and other police officials dismissed the union's claims, saying the department's crime statistics are thoroughly vetted and reviewed. They said the number of questionable reports was tiny compared with the 800,000 reports taken each year by D.C. officers.
Ramsey also criticized union officials for taking their problems to the inspector general and not presenting them to police commanders.
"If they have a beef, they need to come forward with it officially," the chief said.
Maybe the department's continued policy of retaliation towards whistleblowers has something to do with it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4481-2004Oct3.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:32 AM
matt@lefande.com
The Real Struggle For Iraq
While kidnappings and head-choppings in the Sunni Triangle dominate the news from Iraq, the real battle for that nation's future is fought in diplomatic, political and media arenas outside that country.
The terrorist movement in Iraq, at times graced with the label of "insurgency," is in no position to impose its will on the nation. With the help of its outside backers, it could, to be sure, continue kidnappings and killings for years.
More than a dozen countries (Colombia, Peru, Malaysia, the Philippines, Algeria, Egypt, etc.) have experienced similar terrorist movements in recent decades. In every case, the terrorists, having pushed the limits of brutality as far as they could, were ultimately defeated.
It took Peru almost a quarter-century to defeat and destroy the vicious Shining Path. At no time, however, did it manage to threaten the basic structures of the nation or, ultimately, to divert its process of democratization. In Colombia, an insurgency that dates back almost 40 years is now facing certain defeat. It took the British almost 12 years to defeat the so-called "insurgency" in Malaya which, despite massive support from China and the U.S.S.R., was doomed from the start.
The ultimate reason for terrorist movements' failure is the same that constitutes their raison d'etre: Individuals and groups choose terrorism because they know they cannot mobilize popular support.
The terrorist hopes to force history in his direction with the help of bombs and guns. He tries to substitute his will for the will of the people. While claiming to fight in the name of the people he is, in fact, excluding the people from the political process if only because "ordinary citizens" are not prepared to die, let alone kill, for abstract ideas.
So the "insurgency" in Iraq is going nowhere fast. It will be as roundly defeated as were its predecessors in so many other countries. The danger for Iraq's future lies elsewhere.
It comes, in part, from Americans who want Iraq to fail because they want President Bush to fail. Some 81 books paint the president as the devil incarnate; Bush-bashing is also the theme of three "documentaries" plus half a dozen Hollywood feature films. Never before in any mature democracy has a political leader aroused so much hatred from his domestic opponents.
Others want Iraq to fail because they want America to fail, with or without Bush. The bitter tone of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan when he declared the liberation of Iraq "illegal" shows that it is not the future of Iraq but the vilification of the United States that interests him.
Add to this the recent bizarre phrase from French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. The head of the Figaro press group went to see him about the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq; Raffarin assured him they would soon be freed, reportedly saying, "The Iraqi insurgents are our best allies."
In plain language, this means that, in the struggle in Iraq, Raffarin does not see France on the side of its NATO allies — the U.S., Britain, Italy and Denmark among others — but on the side of the "insurgents."
Those who want Iraq to fail because they hate Bush and/or America as a whole (for reasons that have nothing to do with Iraq) know that "the insurgents" can't get anywhere. Nor would the Bush- or America-bashers really want Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi to become ruler of Iraq.
If Jimmy Carter had been U.S. president or if Iraq had been liberated by the European Union, we would have none of the hot air that is blown about the war throughout the world. But someone like Carter or an entity like the European Union could never say boo to a goose, let alone destroy a vicious tyranny.
Those who want Iraq to fail so that Bush and/or America will also fail are now focusing their energies towards a single goal: postponing elections in Iraq for as long as possible. To achieve that goal, they will stop at nothing.
www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/29325.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 1:15 PM
matt@lefande.com
Gun-Toting Protesters Shake Up Falls Church
It seemed simple enough. Falls Church officials recently drafted a policy that would require city workers to call 911 immediately if anyone stepped onto city property carrying a gun. Police who responded would check to see if the gun was properly licensed and report their findings to city officials.
With all seven council members and many residents of this little city inside the Capital Beltway firmly in the anti-gun camp, only a few officials expected any problems with the procedures.
Think again. If the intent was to discourage gun-toting in the city, the effort has backfired.
About 30 people, pistols strapped to their hips, strode into the council's meeting this week protesting the policy and warning that it violates their constitutional right to bear arms -- and possibly state laws, as well.
The group was largely organized by Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun owners group, who drove up from his home near Richmond. He had hardly set foot in Falls Church before, but now, he vowed, the city "is going to be under a microscope."
"We weren't paying any attention to them until they did this," he said. "If they try to set some standard like this and we ignore them, then it's going to send the wrong message. . . . But if they violate state law, we are prepared to sue them."
But gun advocates say the Falls Church policy assumes that people are doing something wrong just because they carry a gun.
Kelly Hobbs, spokesman for the Fairfax-based National Rifle Association, noted: "It's common sense to alert the proper authorities about any suspicious activity. But [Falls Church's] regulation doesn't address suspicious activities; it singles out anyone who is carrying a firearm. The concern is that law-abiding citizens will be unfairly targeted, and unnecessary strain will be put on law enforcement resources."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1361-2004Oct1.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 12:48 PM
matt@lefande.com
