Paul E. Ester's Flogger

¥ Rebels Assault Kunduz; Talks in Doubt
¥ Conn. Anthrax Case Baffles Investigators
¥ N.Y. Firemen Biking Across America
¥ More Top News from ABCNEWS.com
¥ Add ABCNEWS Top Stories to My Yahoo!


Search ABCNEWS
 Go
  The Justice Department has turned down a congressional request that it identify people detained as a result of the investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In a letter to seven lawmakers who had requested the information, Assistant Attorney General Daniel Bryant said releasing the names of those arrested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service could invade their privacy and hamper the ongoing probe. He said other requested documents were sealed by court order.

“The disclosure of the identities of individuals in INS custody and their whereabouts could adversely impact our pending criminal investigation,” Bryant wrote. “Additionally, some of these individuals might choose not to cooperate with law enforcement if their identities were disclosed.”

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who initiated the request to the Justice Department, described the response as “less than satisfactory.” In a written statement, Feingold said, “At a minimum, the department can and should produce a list of who is being held in connection with this investigation and why.” … Rest of Article

Secret Legal Document Gave Bush Wartime Powers,
Including Holding Secret Tribunals

NEW YORK, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ — After he signed an order allowing the
use of military tribunals in terrorist cases, President George W. Bush
insisted he alone should decide who goes before such a military court, his
aides tell Newsweek. The tribunal document gives the government the power to
try, sentence — and even execute — suspected foreign terrorists in secrecy,
under special rules that would deny them constitutional rights and allow no
chance to appeal.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20011118/HSSA005 )
Bush’s powers to form a military court came from a secret legal
memorandum, which the U.S. Justice Department began drafting in the days after
Sept. 11, Newsweek has learned. The memo allows Bush to invoke his broad
wartime powers, since the U.S., they concluded, was in a state of “armed
conflict.” Bush used the memo as the legal basis for his order to bomb
Afghanistan. Weeks later, the lawyers concluded that Bush would use his
expanded powers to form a military court for captured terrorists. Officials
envision holding the trials on aircraft carriers or desert islands, report
Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff and Contributing Editor Stuart
Taylor Jr. in the November 26 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday,
November 19).
The idea for a secret military tribunal was first presented by William
Barr, a Justice Department lawyer — and later attorney general — under the
first President Bush, as a way to handle the terrorists responsible for the
1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The idea didn’t take back
then. But Barr floated it to top White House officials in the days after
Sept. 11 and this time he found allies, Newsweek reports. Barr’s inspiration
came when he walked by a plaque outside his office commemorating the trial of
Nazi saboteurs captured during World War II. The men were tried and most were
executed in secret by a special military tribunal.… Rest of Article

Brian,Here is the new java applet “PanneRotto!”. I just released new version justtonight.http://home.earthlink.net/~jsurfer/menue.htmAnd here is screenshot of the i-mode version of “PanneRotto!” I am currentlyworking on.http://home.earthlink.net/~jsurfer/ipannerotto01.gifLet me know any feedbacks you may have.masa

LANGLEY, VAÑ Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet conceded Monday that the organization excels at overthrowing foreign governments but isn’t so hot at the actual intelligence gathering. “Iran, Zaire, Guatemala, Chile, Indonesia, Greece, Panama, Australia, Haiti… we’re real good at toppling regimes,” Tenet said. “But just collecting your basic data about who’s up to what in the U.S. and whatnot, that’s not our strong suit.” Tenet added that if the U.S. needed to “swoop in and take out Colombia’s current government, man, we could have that done by the weekend.”

… Rest of Article

Molded by wartime politics and passed a week and a half ago in furious haste, the new anti-terrorism bill lays the foundation for a domestic intelligence-gathering system of unprecedented scale and technological prowess, according to both supporters and critics of the legislation.

Overshadowed by the public focus on new Internet surveillance and “roving wiretaps” were numerous obscure features in the bill that will enable the Bush administration to make fundamental changes at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and several Treasury Department law enforcement agencies.

Known as the U.S.A. Patriot Act, the law empowers the government to shift the primary mission of the FBI from solving crimes to gathering domestic intelligence. In addition, the Treasury Department has been charged with building a financial intelligence-gathering system whose data can be accessed by the CIA.

Most significantly, the CIA will have the authority for the first time to influence FBI surveillance operations inside the United States and to obtain evidence gathered by federal grand juries and criminal wiretaps.

“We are going to have to get used to a new way of thinking,” Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, who is overseeing the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks, said in an interview. “What we are going to have is a Federal Bureau of Investigation that combines intelligence with effective law enforcement.”

The new law reflects how profoundly the attacks changed the nation’s thinking about the balance between domestic security and civil liberties. The bill effectively tears down legal fire walls erected 25 years ago during the Watergate era, when the nation was stunned by disclosures about presidential abuses of domestic intelligence-gathering against political activists.

The overwhelming support in Congress shows that the nation’s political leadership was persuaded that intelligence-gathering can no longer be restricted by the reforms that emerged out of a landmark 1975 Senate investigation.
… Rest of Article

LONDON, NOVEMBER 4: PAKISTAN is under pressure to move all or part of its nuclear weapons to China for safekeeping from fundamentalists and it is apprehensive of pre-emptive strikes on its nuclear sites by America, India or Israel to prevent the weapons falling into fundamentalist hands, media report said today quoting Pakistani sources.

The threat to weapons widely regarded as the Pakistan militaryÕs ÔÔcrown jewelsÕÕ has forced Islamabad ÔÔto consider removing warheads to China, PakistanÕs closest strategic ally in the region,ÕÕ the Sunday Times reported.

The prospect that loose warheads might be loaded onto helicopters or moved around a region foaming with fundamentalist turmoil is adding to fears in Washington that the war in Afghanistan might provoke a nuclear crisis.

According to the report, Abdul Sattar, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, insisted last week the arsenal was secure. But Washington officials have expressed mounting alarm that any coup attempt against General Pervez Musharraf, the military President, might put PakistanÕs nuclear arsenal at risk.

Pakistani generals were appalled by one authoritative American report last week that an elite Pentagon undercover unit, trained to disarm nuclear weapons, was exploring plans for a mission inside Pakistan. (PTI)

Ê … Rest of Article

THE Chinese state-run propaganda machine is cashing in on the terror attacks in New York and Washington, producing books, films and video games glorifying the strikes as a humbling blow against an arrogant nation.

Video discs filled with lurid images along with dramatic opera music and even the theme from Jaws have flooded the nation’s markets in the wake of the attacks.

Disc after disc bear the imprimatur of the Communist Party-controlled media. The most popular DVDs have been produced by the Xinhua information agency, Beijing Television and China Central Television.

Communist Party officials say President Jiang Zemin has obsessively watched and re-watched pictures of the aircraft crashing into the World Trade Centre. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, workers at Beijing Television worked round-the-clock to produce a documentary they called Attack America.

Scenes from Hollywood films have been spliced between shots of the events of September 11, including footage from the 1998 remake of Godzilla, in which a monster destroys New York buildings.

As rescue workers pick through the rubble of the twin towers, the commentator proclaims that the city had reaped the consequences of decades of American bullying of weaker nations.… Rest of Article