Tuesday, September 20, 2005

lots of news this week

Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, an Army intelligence officer who worked on the program, said Thursday that before the Able Danger data was destroyed, he had briefed senior officials in the Pentagon and White House on ways to excise U.S. persons' names without losing the entire database. He said the Pentagon must have obliterated the data for another reason that it is not disclosing. .( By John M. Donnelly from The Congressional Quarterly)

The chart topping hip hop rapper star who used a network hurricane fundraiser to charge "George Bush doesn't care about black people" was loudly and lustily booed during last night's NFL kickoff show. The appearance of Kanye West, who was beamed into the Boston stadium via remote from Los Angeles, received a strongly negative response from the crowd. "The boos were thunderous and lasted for much of his number," reports the BOSTON GLOBE.

Red Cross workers arrived in New Orleans with enough food, water and blankets for thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims the night before levees broke and flooded the city, but were prevented from delivering the aid to stranded citizens by state officials."I'm told that they were ready as soon as the winds died down and the roads were passable, which means before the levees broke," Fox News Channel's Major Garrett reported Thursday.(NEWSMAX)

Americans used 4% less gasoline amid skyrocketing pump prices last week than they did the week before Hurricane Katrina hit, the federal government reported. But whether that indicates consumers have decided to conserve or merely that they couldn't find all the gasoline they wanted isn't clear. (WSJ)

KUWAIT (Reuters) – Wealthy OPEC nation Kuwait is donating $500 million worth of oil products and other humanitarian aid to its ally the United States to ease the impact of Hurricane Katrina, state news agency KUNA reported on Sunday."The humanitarian aid is oil products that the devastated (U.S.) states need in these circumstances, plus other humanitarian aid to lessen the devastation these three states have been subjected to," Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah told KUNA.Sheikh Ahmad said the gesture was a duty toward a friend by the tiny Gulf Arab state which was liberated in 1991 by a U.S.-led multinational coalition from seven months of occupation by IraqThe minister, who is also the OPEC chief, was speaking after the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers. Tiny Kuwait controls nearly a tenth of global petroleum reserves.

“The floodgates would have blocked the flow of water from the Gulf of Mexico, through Lake Borgne, through the Rigolets [and Chef Mentuer] into Lake Pontchartrain,” declared Professor Gregory Stone, the James P. Morgan Distinguished Professor and Director of the Coastal Studies Institute of Louisiana State University. “This would likely have reduced storm surge coming from the Gulf and into the Lake Pontchartrain,” Professor Stone told Michael P. Tremoglie during an interview on September 6. The professor concluded, “[T]hese floodgates would have alleviated the flooding of New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina.”… Why was this project aborted? As the Times-Picayune wrote, “Those plans were abandoned after environmental advocates successfully sued to stop the projects as too damaging to the wetlands and the lake's eco-system.” (FrontPageMagazine.com)

"The inescapable conclusion from the committee's work is that the United Nations organization needs thorough reform -- and it needs it urgently," the report said (WSJ)

The document — the fourth report released by the IIC, headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker— lays out a pattern of "illicit, unethical and corrupt behavior" that overwhelmed the United Nations. It criticizes Annan and slams his stewardship and management skills, as well as the oversight of the Security Council. (FOXNEWS)

An analysis of the confidential medical report on Yasser Arafat's death reveals three main possibilities as to the cause: poisoning, AIDS or an infection. (By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - A large solar flare was reported Wednesday and forecasters warned of potential electrical and communications disruptions. The flare was reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo. Significant solar eruptions are possible in the coming days and there could be disruptions in spacecraft operations, electric power systems, high frequency communications and low-frequency navigation systems, the agency said. "This flare, the fourth largest in the last 15 years, erupted just as the ... sunspot cluster was rotating onto the visible disk of the sun," said Larry Combs, solar forecaster at the center. The flare has affected some high-frequency communications on the sunlit side of Earth, NOAA reported.

"The equity research [analysts] question the investment bank's ability to accept stricter rating standards at the expense of revenues," wrote John Hoffmann, then head of research for Salomon Smith Barney, Citi's securities unit, to its banking boss Michael Carpenter in a 2002 memo. (NY POST)

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