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Monday, January 23, 2012
Streaming Movie of the Night: Star Wars Uncut [Video]
Plea deal for Marine in Iraqi deaths at Haditha (AP)
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. ? A Marine accused of killing unarmed Iraqi women and children pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty on Monday, reaching a deal that will mean a maximum of three months confinement and end the largest and longest-running criminal case against U.S. troops to emerge from the Iraq War.
Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., led the Marine squad in 2005 that killed 24 Iraqis in the town of Haditha after a roadside bomb exploded near a Marine convoy, killing one Marine and wounding two others.
Wuterich's plea Monday interrupted his trial at Camp Pendleton before a jury of all combat Marines who served in Iraq.
Wuterich faces a maximum of three months confinement, two-thirds forfeiture of pay and a rank demotion to private when he's sentenced, likely on Tuesday. The plea agreement calls for manslaughter charges to be dropped.
"No one denies that the events .... were tragic, most of all Frank Wuterich," defense attorney Neal Puckett told the North County Times on Monday. "But the fact of the matter is that he has now been totally exonerated of the homicide charges brought against him by the government and the media. For the last six years, he has had his name dragged through the mud. Today, we hope, is the beginning of his redemption."
Phone messages left for Puckett and co-counsel Mark Zaid weren't immediately returned.
The issue at the court martial was whether Wuterich reacted appropriately as a Marine squad leader in protecting his troops in the midst of a chaotic war or disregarded combat rules and ordered his men to shoot and blast indiscriminately at Iraqi civilians. Wuterich was charged with nine counts of manslaughter, among other charges, and is one of eight Marines initially charged. None has been convicted.
Prosecutors said he lost control after seeing the body of his friend blown apart by the bomb and led his men on a rampage in which they stormed two nearby homes, blasting their way in with gunfire and grenades. Among the dead were women, children and elderly, including a man in a wheelchair.
Wuterich's former squad members testified that they did not take any gunfire during the 45-minute raid on the homes nor find any weapons, but several squad members testified that they do not believe they did anything wrong, fearing insurgents were inside hiding.
The prosecution was further hurt by the testimony of Wuterich's former platoon commander who said the squad was justified in its actions because house was declared "hostile," and from what he understood of the rules of combat at the time that meant any use of force could be used and Marines did not need to positively identify their targets.
Wuterich has said he regretted the loss of civilian lives but believed he was operating within military combat rules.
After Haditha, Marines commanders ordered troops to try and distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The killings in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, still fuel anger in Iraq and was the primary reason behind demands that U.S. troops not be given immunity from their court system. It is considered among the war's defining moments, further tainting America's reputation when it was already at a low point after the release of photos of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison.
The trial was delayed for years by pre-trial wrangling between the defense and prosecution, including over whether the military could use unaired outtakes from an interview Wuterich gave in 2007 to CBS "60 Minutes." Prosecutors eventually won the right to view the footage
Six squad members have had charges dropped or dismissed, including some in exchange for testifying at the trial. One was acquitted.
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
In bin Laden town, father mourns another militant (AP)
ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan ? On Jan. 14 at 8:12 p.m., Khushal Khan's wife got a call on her cell phone.
"Your son has been martyred," the voice said at the other end of the line. The man then hung up.
The end for Khan's youngest son, Aslam Awan, came when a drone piloted remotely from the United States fired a missile at a house along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. Awan was among four people killed, U.S. officials said this week, describing Awan as an "external operations planner" for al-Qaida. British authorities say he was a member of a militant cell in northern England who had fought in Afghanistan.
The Jan. 10 strike in the militant stronghold of North Waziristan that killed Awan was a victory for the CIA-led drone program at time when relations between Washington and Islamabad are very strained, in part by the missile strikes. It was one of the first drone attacks after a hiatus of some six weeks following a friendly fire incident in which U.S. forces killed 24 Pakistani border troops, nearly leading to a severing of ties with Islamabad.
The drone attacks generate anti-American sentiment inside Pakistan, but have been credited with significantly weakening al-Qaida in one of its global hubs.
For his family, the call came as a final curt word about the fate of a son they had heard little from in over a year.
Awan grew up in the northwestern Pakistani town of Abbottabad, a few kilometers away from the house where Osama bin Laden was slain. His father worked in a bank in Britain in the 70s and then in Abbottabad until he retired a few years ago. His four other sons remain in Britain, where they have prospered ? one is a surgeon, another is a doctor, the third an engineer and the fourth is a banker.
It seems doubtful Awan had any contact with bin Laden in the town. But Awan's background here reinforces a striking association between this well-ordered, wealthy Pakistani army town and al-Qaida militants, which began before bin Laden was killed here in May last year when a team of American commandos flew in from Afghanistan.
Now 75 and recovering from a heart operation, Khushal Khan answered questions Saturday from an Associated Press reporter in the garden of his house, making the most of some winter sun. He defended his son's memory against charges of militancy.
"I don't believe this is true, my son was not indulging in these things," he said. "It can't be correct."
Khan said Awan followed his brothers' footsteps and went to Britain in 2002 on a student visa.
Awan lived in Manchester for four years, during which time he joined a militant cell that aimed to bring Muslims to Pakistan for militant training, according to prosecutors at the time and a British media report. He told his father he was studying at Manchester University, but it's unclear whether he ever graduated.
The cell was headed by a British al-Qaida commander called Rangzieb Ahmed who was captured in Pakistan in 2006 and sent for trial in Britain, where he was sentenced to life in prison for directing terrorism, according to Britain's Daily Telegraph.
A letter he wrote a to a longtime friend and fellow Pakistani, Abdul Rahman, rhapsodized over the "fragrance of blood" from the battlefield of jihad and his commitment to militancy, according to prosecutors in the trial of Rahman, who was sentenced to six years in jail in 2007 for spreading terrorist propaganda in Manchester. It apparently referred to a stint fighting jihad in Afghanistan, but when that occurred is not known.
The judge said then Awan was believed to have left England for Afghanistan.
"Awan was very well connected to known extremists in the UK. It highlights that the threat is still there," said Valentina Soria, a terrorism researcher at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. "This group were not just wannabes, they were active and with links to al-Qaida central."
There are thought to be about 900,000 Pakistani Muslims in England ? many of them living in London and in northern cities. British authorities have said nearly all the plots and attacks on British soil have some connection to Pakistan.
Awan returned to Abbottabad in 2007, around the time that bin Laden was settling in to his large house, though that doesn't mean Awan was in touch with him or any of his couriers. U.S. officials have previously said the al-Qaida leader was cut off from the rest of his network and wasn't meeting other militants for security reasons.
Awan began to associate with Sipah-e-Sahaba, an extremist group that has a political wing as well links to al-Qaida, according to a police officer in the town who knows the family. The officer didn't give his name because he didn't want to be seen as adding to Khan's pain.
Khan said he last saw his son or heard his voice in 2010, when Awan asked for funds to build a house and they fought over the fact he wasn't working.
"That was the point when I had to forcefully ask him to go out earn some money," he said. "But my words hurt him, and he left home with only the clothes he was wearing."
Khan said he initially feared his son had been kidnapped when he didn't return or contact him. But after a few months, Awan called his wife and told her he was in Miran Shah, the largest town in North Waziristan. He said he was running a general store and dealing in second-hand clothes.
Local intelligence officials said Awan was known by the nom de guerre Abdullah Khurasani, and was highly prized in al-Qaida circles because of his education, computer skills and foreign contacts.
Al-Qaida, Taliban and other militants from around the world congregate for training and networking in North Waziristan, and Miran Shah is a key logistical base. The town is too dangerous for reporters to visit, but locals who have traveled there say hundreds of Pakistan and foreign militants live there openly, unmolested other than by the U.S. missile attacks on its outskirts. The Pakistani army says it doesn't have enough resources to launch an operation in the region.
The missile strike program began in earnest in 2009 and has been stepped up by the Obama administration.
Abbottabad is home to the Pakistan army's top military academy and hundreds of officers and soldiers live in what is one of the country's more secure towns. The fact that bin Laden hid there for so long in plain sight triggered intense international suspicions that the military was sheltering him.
Al-Qaida's No. 3, Abu Faraj al-Libi, lived in Abbottabad before his arrest in 2005 elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, American and Pakistani officials have said. Five months prior to the bin Laden raid, Indonesian al-Qaida operative Umar Patek was arrested in the town following the arrest of an al-Qaida courier who worked at the post office.
U.S. officials have said Patek's arrest in Abbottabad was a coincidence.
_____
Brummitt reported from Islamabad. Associated Press reporters Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Ishtiaq Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this story.
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In bin Laden town, father mourns another militant
In this Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012 photo, plainclothes Pakistani security men stand outside the family house of al-Qaida militant Aslam Awan, who was killed in an American drone attack at a house along the Afghan border. On Jan. 14 at 8:12 pm, Khushal Khan's wife got a call on her cell phone. "Your son has been martyred," the voice said at the other end of the line. The man then rang off. Four days earlier, an American drone fired a missile at a house along the Afghan border just before midnight, killing Khan's youngest son, Aslam Awan, and three other suspected militants. American officials have since described Awan as an "external operations planner" for al-Qaida. British prosecutors in 2007 said he a member of a militant cell who had fought in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Aqeel Ahmed)
In this Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012 photo, plainclothes Pakistani security men stand outside the family house of al-Qaida militant Aslam Awan, who was killed in an American drone attack at a house along the Afghan border. On Jan. 14 at 8:12 pm, Khushal Khan's wife got a call on her cell phone. "Your son has been martyred," the voice said at the other end of the line. The man then rang off. Four days earlier, an American drone fired a missile at a house along the Afghan border just before midnight, killing Khan's youngest son, Aslam Awan, and three other suspected militants. American officials have since described Awan as an "external operations planner" for al-Qaida. British prosecutors in 2007 said he a member of a militant cell who had fought in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Aqeel Ahmed)
ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan (AP) ? On Jan. 14 at 8:12 p.m., Khushal Khan's wife got a call on her cell phone.
"Your son has been martyred," the voice said at the other end of the line. The man then hung up.
The end for Khan's youngest son, Aslam Awan, came when a drone piloted remotely from the United States fired a missile at a house along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. Awan was among four people killed, U.S. officials said this week, describing Awan as an "external operations planner" for al-Qaida. British authorities say he was a member of a militant cell in northern England who had fought in Afghanistan.
The Jan. 10 strike in the militant stronghold of North Waziristan that killed Awan was a victory for the CIA-led drone program at time when relations between Washington and Islamabad are very strained, in part by the missile strikes. It was one of the first drone attacks after a hiatus of some six weeks following a friendly fire incident in which U.S. forces killed 24 Pakistani border troops, nearly leading to a severing of ties with Islamabad.
The drone attacks generate anti-American sentiment inside Pakistan, but have been credited with significantly weakening al-Qaida in one of its global hubs.
For his family, the call came as a final curt word about the fate of a son they had heard little from in over a year.
Awan grew up in the northwestern Pakistani town of Abbottabad, a few kilometers away from the house where Osama bin Laden was slain. His father worked in a bank in Britain in the 70s and then in Abbottabad until he retired a few years ago. His four other sons remain in Britain, where they have prospered ? one is a surgeon, another is a doctor, the third an engineer and the fourth is a banker.
It seems doubtful Awan had any contact with bin Laden in the town. But Awan's background here reinforces a striking association between this well-ordered, wealthy Pakistani army town and al-Qaida militants, which began before bin Laden was killed here in May last year when a team of American commandos flew in from Afghanistan.
Now 75 and recovering from a heart operation, Khushal Khan answered questions Saturday from an Associated Press reporter in the garden of his house, making the most of some winter sun. He defended his son's memory against charges of militancy.
"I don't believe this is true, my son was not indulging in these things," he said. "It can't be correct."
Khan said Awan followed his brothers' footsteps and went to Britain in 2002 on a student visa.
Awan lived in Manchester for four years, during which time he joined a militant cell that aimed to bring Muslims to Pakistan for militant training, according to prosecutors at the time and a British media report. He told his father he was studying at Manchester University, but it's unclear whether he ever graduated.
The cell was headed by a British al-Qaida commander called Rangzieb Ahmed who was captured in Pakistan in 2006 and sent for trial in Britain, where he was sentenced to life in prison for directing terrorism, according to Britain's Daily Telegraph.
A letter he wrote a to a longtime friend and fellow Pakistani, Abdul Rahman, rhapsodized over the "fragrance of blood" from the battlefield of jihad and his commitment to militancy, according to prosecutors in the trial of Rahman, who was sentenced to six years in jail in 2007 for spreading terrorist propaganda in Manchester. It apparently referred to a stint fighting jihad in Afghanistan, but when that occurred is not known.
The judge said then Awan was believed to have left England for Afghanistan.
"Awan was very well connected to known extremists in the UK. It highlights that the threat is still there," said Valentina Soria, a terrorism researcher at the London-based Royal United Services Institute. "This group were not just wannabes, they were active and with links to al-Qaida central."
There are thought to be about 900,000 Pakistani Muslims in England ? many of them living in London and in northern cities. British authorities have said nearly all the plots and attacks on British soil have some connection to Pakistan.
Awan returned to Abbottabad in 2007, around the time that bin Laden was settling in to his large house, though that doesn't mean Awan was in touch with him or any of his couriers. U.S. officials have previously said the al-Qaida leader was cut off from the rest of his network and wasn't meeting other militants for security reasons.
Awan began to associate with Sipah-e-Sahaba, an extremist group that has a political wing as well links to al-Qaida, according to a police officer in the town who knows the family. The officer didn't give his name because he didn't want to be seen as adding to Khan's pain.
Khan said he last saw his son or heard his voice in 2010, when Awan asked for funds to build a house and they fought over the fact he wasn't working.
"That was the point when I had to forcefully ask him to go out earn some money," he said. "But my words hurt him, and he left home with only the clothes he was wearing."
Khan said he initially feared his son had been kidnapped when he didn't return or contact him. But after a few months, Awan called his wife and told her he was in Miran Shah, the largest town in North Waziristan. He said he was running a general store and dealing in second-hand clothes.
Local intelligence officials said Awan was known by the nom de guerre Abdullah Khurasani, and was highly prized in al-Qaida circles because of his education, computer skills and foreign contacts.
Al-Qaida, Taliban and other militants from around the world congregate for training and networking in North Waziristan, and Miran Shah is a key logistical base. The town is too dangerous for reporters to visit, but locals who have traveled there say hundreds of Pakistan and foreign militants live there openly, unmolested other than by the U.S. missile attacks on its outskirts. The Pakistani army says it doesn't have enough resources to launch an operation in the region.
The missile strike program began in earnest in 2009 and has been stepped up by the Obama administration.
Abbottabad is home to the Pakistan army's top military academy and hundreds of officers and soldiers live in what is one of the country's more secure towns. The fact that bin Laden hid there for so long in plain sight triggered intense international suspicions that the military was sheltering him.
Al-Qaida's No. 3, Abu Faraj al-Libi, lived in Abbottabad before his arrest in 2005 elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, American and Pakistani officials have said. Five months prior to the bin Laden raid, Indonesian al-Qaida operative Umar Patek was arrested in the town following the arrest of an al-Qaida courier who worked at the post office.
U.S. officials have said Patek's arrest in Abbottabad was a coincidence.
_____
Brummitt reported from Islamabad. Associated Press reporters Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Ishtiaq Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this story.
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Video: Press Pass with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray
High stakes in South Carolina, where Republicans there have picked the party?s eventual nominee for the last 32 years. We?ll have complete analysis of the crucial contest and breakdown the results, including what they will mean for the road ahead. Joining us: Host of MSNBC?s ?Morning Joe,? Joe Scarborough, Republican strategist Mike Murphy, the BBC?s Katty Kay, and NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/46064556#46064556
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Santorum and the Health Insurance Mandate - Ed Brayton ...
By ED BRAYTON - DISPATCHES FROM THE CULTURE WARS
Added: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:59:49 UTC
It seems that Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are not the only candidates trying to pretend that they never took a position in favor of an individual mandate to buy health insurance. Rick Santorum did it too, and to make it even better, he did it in 1994 when that was part of the Republican alternative to the Clinton administration?s health care reform plan. ThinkProgress has the excerpts from articles written in the Pennsylvania press during that campaign. From Pennsylvania?s Morning Call on April 7, 1994:
U.S. Rep. Rick Santorum, R-Pittsburgh area, and Joe Watkins, a Philadelphia businessman who worked in the Bush White House, are seeking the Republican Senate nomination, creating the only true Senate primary race?.Santorum and Watkins both called for a ?comprehensive restructuring? of health care. But they differed sharply on what elements should comprise a basic benefits package.
Watkins would include mental health services, long-term care, prescription drug coverage, dental services and preventive care such as immunizations. Santorum would not. Both reject abortion services. Santorum and Watkins both oppose having businesses provide health care for their employees. Instead, they would require individuals to purchase insurance.
And on May 2, 1994:
. . .
This has been the pattern in this race all along. One candidate after another now claim that the very position they took in years past is proof that Obama is a socialist out to destroy America. Funny that. Read more
Source: http://richarddawkins.net/articles/644665-santorum-and-the-health-insurance-mandate
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Zoe Saldana Rescues Elderly Woman After Crash
Zoe Saldana is apparently an action hero on screen and in real life.
The Avatar star, 33, rushed to the aid of an elderly woman who had reportedly gotten into a car accident in Culver City, Calif., on Wednesday afternoon.
"Zoe witnessed the accident and was so quick to help," says an onlooker. She "immediately got on the phone with 911 and seemed very concerned."
The actress, reportedly dating Bradley Cooper, and another passerby transported the woman – who was conscious but injured – from her car to the curb.
They called 911 and waited for police and paramedics on the scene.
The onlooker also told People: "While waiting for help to arrive, Zoe returned to the woman's car and picked up the woman's handbag and sweater."
"Zoe was very caring and sweet to the woman."
[Photo: WENN.com]
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/zoe-saldana-rescues-elderly-woman-after-crash/
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