USA Releases Iraqi Bio-Chem Experts

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi High Tribunal, the special court trying ousted President Saddam Hussein, on Wednesday publicly disagreed with a U.S. decision to release Rihab Taha (known as Dr. Germ) and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, (known as Mrs. Anthrax) after deciding that they no longer posed a security threat.

The Iraqi High Tribunal said it would hunt them down and continue taking "judicial measures" against them.

U.S. forces are providing protection for most of a group of top officials from Saddam Hussein's government who were recently released from custody. Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said that eight individuals formerly designated as 'high-value detainees' were released Saturday (12/17/05) after a board process found they were no longer a security threat

No formal charges were filed against Rihab Taha, a British-educated biological weapons expert who was known as "Dr. Germ" for her role in making bio-weapons for Saddam's regime in the 1980s or against Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as "Mrs. Anthrax," a former top Baath Party official and biotech researcher.

Lawyers acting for Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash have said she is gravely ill with cancer. She was the only woman included in the US. military's list of the 55 most-wanted members of Saddam's regime and was the Five of Hearts in a deck of cards issued to help US soldiers identify fugitives. She has a master's degree from Texas Women's University and a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Missouri.

Rihab Taha was not on the US most-wanted list but was described by American officials as a former director of the Iraqi bacterial and biological warfare programme. She has admitted producing germ warfare agents but said all such weapons were destroyed long before the US invasion. Rihab Taha has a doctorate in plant toxins from the University of East Anglia in Britain, and is married to Amir Muhammad Rashid, a former Iraqi oil minister also in U.S. detention.

Bush Quotes on Wiretaps

"[...] if you got a wiretap by court order and by the way, everything you hear about requires court order, requires there's to be permission from a FISA court, for example."

-G.W. Bush, Hershey, PA, April 19, 2004

"[...] any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way."

-Information Sharing, Patriot Act Vital to Homeland Security, April 20, 2004

FISA Court Judge Resigns

U.S. District Judge James Robertson has resigned from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program. District Judge James Robertson sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts late Monday notifying him of his resignation.

Source: Houston Chronicle

White House Defense Crumbling in Leak Case

The evidence prosecutors have assembled in the CIA leak case suggests Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff sought out reporters in the weeks before an undercover operative's identity was compromised in the news media, casting doubt on one of the White House's main lines of defense. And in a new twist, presidential political adviser Karl Rove has testified that it's possible Libby was his source before Rove talked to two reporters about the CIA operative.

In light of all the disclosures, "it's going to be as difficult for the defense to prove the theory that the White House got the information from reporters as it is for Fitzgerald to prove that the White House leaked the information about Wilson's wife," said Washington-based white-collar defense attorney James D. Wareham.

Source: AP: San Francisco Gate

Tom DeLay Mug Shot

Suitable for Framing

Web Site of the Day: Fresh Media

Fresh Media

Christian Coalition Leader Molested Kids

After news broke that local law enforcement officials were investigating complaints that Louis Beres, longtime chairman of the Christian Coalition of Oregon, had molested three female family members when they were pre-teens, The Oregonian in Portland went out and interviewed Beres' family members.

Two of the alleged molestations occurred decades ago and likely would not result in criminal charges because state law limits prosecution of certain crimes. But one case may fall within statutory timelines. It involves a female family member who was allegedly molested by Beres when she was in elementary school, authorities said.

Source: Editor & Publisher

UK SAS Troops Arrested as Iraqi Insurgents

Two British commandos, members of the secretive SAS were arrested by Iraqi police yesterday in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The two men, dressed in Arab garb and driving an unmarked car, drew the attention of police.

British forces using tanks broke down the walls of Basra jail to free two service personnel arrested for firing on Iraqi policemen. Defence secretary John Reid has defended the actions of the British forces.

The MoD refused to comment after officials said that they were undercover officers dressed as Arabs.

Sources: PEJ News, Manchester Evening News, ePolitix.com

One Billion US Dollars Missing in Iraq

One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq's defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history. The money, intended to train and equip an Iraqi army, was instead siphoned abroad in cash and has disappeared.

Most of the money was supposedly spent buying arms from Poland and Pakistan. The contracts were peculiar in four ways. According to Mr Allawi, they were awarded without bidding, and were signed with a Baghdad-based company, and not directly with the foreign supplier.

Source: Independant Online

Pastor: God Destroyed New Orleans

Is the recent hurricane something to celebrate? Reverend William Shanks, pastor of the New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans seems to think so;

"New Orleans now is abortion free. New Orleans now is Mardi Gras free. New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion - it's free of all of those things now" said Rev. Bill Shanks, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, and he continued; "One Category 5 hurricane coming up the river will take care of all Sodomite marriages ... I believe this will open the floodgate for God to bring judgment on our land."

Source: Workbench, Agape Press

Homeland Security bans Red Cross

As the National Guard delivered food to the New Orleans convention center yesterday, American Red Cross officials said that federal emergency management authorities would not allow them into New Orleans.

"The Homeland Security Department has requested and continues to request that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans," said Renita Hosler, spokeswoman for the Red Cross.

Calls to the Department of Homeland Security and its subagency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, were not returned yesterday

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

New Orleans: Rescue or Combat Operation?

According to the Army Times, combat operations are underway on the streets "to take this city back" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation operations. Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes.

"This place is going to look like Little Somalia," Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive city-wide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. "We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control."

Source: Army Times