Friday, November 30, 2001
European Cities Targeted for Nuclear DestructionAlthough Western European cities were always suspected as being targeted, this is the first time that obliteration of specific cities is confirmed from top-secret planning records. The Hungarian document describes a highest-level command exercise indistinguishable from actual war plans -- such as was the 1964 Warsaw Pact plan for an attack on Western Europe published on the PHP website in May 2000.
11/30/2001 08:49:02 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
MediaGuardian.co.uk | Special reports | Taliban offer £30,000 a head to kill reportersMullah Omar's offer was coupled with his attempt to rally the dwindling ranks of his Taliban hard core into standing and fighting the Americans who are increasing their firepower at an air base outside Kandahar.
11/30/2001 08:47:21 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
ABCNEWS.com : Iraq Papers: U.S. Looking for a Fight"Bush and his American administration -- should not be blinded by the illusion of alleged victory in Afghanistan to mix up their cards [and attack Iraq] under the so-called 'war on terrorism'," the official al-Qadissiya newspaper said in an editorial.
11/30/2001 08:15:29 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
MEMRI: Saudi Government Efforts to Curtail Incitement in Mosques and Press via Ken LayneThe Crown Prince said: "I wish to remind you of the unjust attack being waged these days by the foreign media against the Saudi kingdom. I mean foreign papers, and you know who is behind them..."
"These papers, behind which stands 'you-know-who,' criticize your religion, criticize the things most precious to you, your faith and your holy scriptures? There is no choice for them but to understand that you are strong in your faith in Allah the exalted, and in your devotion to your faith, your belief, and your loyalty."
"You know who", Abdullah ibn Abd Al-'Aziz? Whut?
11/30/2001 08:14:23 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
SatireWire | Mullah Omar Apparently Fuzzy on the "We" Thing"I don't know, to me, when you say We, it seems like that should mean all of us. You know, me, the other soldiers, him," said 22-year-old Saudi Salaam Rabdul as U.S. fighter jets strafed his hilltop lookout. "But there's no him here. Only me and the other soldiers."
11/30/2001 08:04:28 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Anti - Terror Surveillance Law Mulled``It is perfectly normal that committees will reach out to executive agencies for input about changes they want to make and language that facilitates that,'' Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said. ``In this case, the intelligence committees reached out to the Justice Department for technical guidance.''
11/30/2001 07:57:50 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
MediaLifeMagazine: News Shorts:Osama's in the running for Time's Man of the YearYou know the millennium has gotten off to a bad start when a guy like Osama bin Laden is up for Time magazine's Man of the Year. That's right: Time's editors have whittled down their choices to a handful, and the chief Evil One is a top contender, according to a report in the Sacramento Bee. Though the Person of the Year designation is often thought of as an honor, it is supposed to be a way to recognize the individual (or individuals, or even an abstract concept) who has had the most impact on current events in the past year. Adolf Hitler was named Man of the Year, and so was Ayatollah Khomeini. Joseph Stalin was Man of the Year twice. Even so, if Osama "wins," it will very likely spark a rash of subscription cancellations and even some advertiser pullouts. But Jim Kelly, Time's managing editor, says he is more concerned that bin Laden's followers would seize on the issue as something to rally around.
11/30/2001 07:42:49 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Anti terror law could be used to crack down on separatists: PQ ministerBill C-42 says: "If it is necessary, in the opinion of the Minister (of Defence), for the protection of international relations or national defence or security, the Minister (may)...designate as a military security zone an area of land or water."
11/30/2001 05:53:55 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Victim unwilling to join sentencing circle for Saskatoon cops who dumped himThe officers, who were fired from the Saskatoon force after their conviction this fall of unlawful confinement, have requested a sentencing circle.
Sentencing circles focus on healing for both victims and offenders and are usually reserved for aboriginals.
However, Night's lawyer said the officers have shown no remorse and do not deserve a sentencing circle.
11/30/2001 05:47:11 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ananova - Dummy missile to be shot out of sky in Son of Star Wars testDefensive measures designed to confuse the interceptor, are next on the check-list for the president's Son of Star Wars plan.
11/30/2001 05:42:44 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
news.telegraph.co.uk: Zimbabwe to ban foreign journalistsThe government said the law was designed to curb unprofessional journalism and to protect personal privacy.
11/30/2001 05:32:05 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ananova - 'Offensive' personal number plate recalledJehad Al Iweiwi has had the plate for seven years but has now been ordered to remove it.
11/30/2001 05:27:54 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Independent News: the Castle of DeathThe incompetence of the Northern Alliance soldiers -- who, guided by the US and British special forces, failed to search the prisoners properly and thus allowed them to smuggle in knives and grenades hidden in their clothes -- must be seen as a key factor in the disaster. The men were also housed next to the fortress's well-stocked armoury.
11/30/2001 05:00:30 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Montreal Mirror: November 29, 2001: A message from the editor
Ken Hechtman, the Montreal-based freelance journalist who has been filing reports for the Mirror from Pakistan and Afghanistan, has gone missing, the Mirror was informed Tuesday. Initial reports said that he was being held by gunmen in the Afghani border town of Spin Boldak.
Reporters from USA Today and the British daily The Guardian called the Mirror offices with the news that Hechtman was being held alone, in a cell, under armed guard and for ransom.
11/30/2001 04:02:58 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: U.K. rejects call for inquiry into prison 'slaughter'The victims were mostly foreign Taliban supporters who had been taken prisoner following the fall of Kunduz. The U.S. launched air strikes on the fortress after the fighters apparently began attacking their guards last weekend. The brutal battle lasted for days.
11/30/2001 03:56:42 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Terror suspect Samir Ait Mohamed may have been planning Montreal attackThe Immigration Department tried to impose a news blackout on the case, but media outlets were allowed access to documents.
11/30/2001 03:55:24 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Mein Kampf royalties well spentIn October, 2000, Houghton Mifflin announced it would donate to charity all the royalties it had collected from Mein Kampf since 1979, as well as any future royalties. Ms. Glaser said three charities, all based in the United States, are receiving Mein Kampf money and know where it's coming from. "We hired a consultant to find the best people to receive it."
11/30/2001 03:53:59 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Taliban leader tells fighters to 'achieve martyrdom'Several Taliban commanders are said to be negotiating conditions for their defections.
11/30/2001 03:48:55 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Independent News: Taliban loot Afghan cashMahmoud Sharif, deputy head of the bank's strongroom section, said yesterday: "He came with the key, opened the lock, took the money and locked it again.''
11/30/2001 03:37:23 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Independent News: Taliban loot Afghan cashMahmoud Sharif, deputy head of the bank's strongroom section, said yesterday: "He came with the key, opened the lock, took the money and locked it again.''
11/30/2001 03:32:59 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Al Gore Says Now Restaurateur in TennesseeGore, who became a vice chairman for U.S. investment firm Metropolitan West Financial Inc earlier this month, said playing with his grandchildren has become another priority since leaving office.
11/30/2001 03:31:33 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Montreal residents react to alleged terrorist threatThe FBI alleges Mohamed discussed placing explosives in Outremont because of its predominant Hasidic Jewish community. The terrorists allegedly planned to use a gasoline truck for a larger and more serious explosion.
11/30/2001 07:43:24 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Somalia: no bases for al-Qaida organizationThe Somalia prime minister added that if the US and Ethiopia have confirmed information on the existence of al-Qaida organization inside Somalia " we are ready to co-operate with them ( the US and Ethiopia) in order to fight this organization."
11/30/2001 04:56:42 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thursday, November 29, 2001
IHT: Militia Battles Tribal Forces Threatening KandaharThe Taliban still control the city center, the travelers said, but their ranks appear to be thinning, and they have lost significant ground in the outlying areas and may be surrounded, the Kandahar residents said.
11/29/2001 11:33:36 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
U.S. Offers Citizenship to Foreigners Who Inform on TerroristsThe program will provide foreigners long-term visas that could lead to permanent residency or citizenship, Ashcroft said. He stressed that even illegal immigrants with valuable information could be aided.
11/29/2001 10:53:54 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Afghan House of AnthraxAn upstairs room of the house had been used as a workshop. What appeared to be a Russian rocket had been disassembled, and a canister labelled "helium" had been left on the worktop. On the floor were multiple copies of documents about anthrax downloaded from the Internet, and details about the American army's vaccination plans for its troops. The number of copies suggests that seminars were also taking place there.
11/29/2001 08:04:07 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
politechbot.com: FBI snoops on cable modems; transcript of Senate hearing Wednesday on Preserving Freedoms While Defending Against Terrorism11/29/2001 04:55:11 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Routes of Least Surveillance in New York City"We've designed iSee to be useful to a wide range of ordinary people," said an IAA operative who declined to be identified. "The demonstrated tendency of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) operators to single out ethnic minorities for observation and to voyeuristically focus on women's breasts and buttocks provides the majority of the population ample legitimate reasons to avoid public surveillance cameras."
11/29/2001 04:51:04 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Afghan delegates unite behind deposed king - smh.com.au - WorldSignificantly, the consensus involved the Northern Alliance, which now controls most of Afghanistan, abandoning its demand that the former government of its titular leader, Burhanudin Rabbani be returned.
11/29/2001 04:26:11 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Independent News:Bin Laden 'is in White Mountains cave stronghold'Haji Zaman Ghamsharik, the chief of defence for the ruling council of Nangarhar province, said he is 90 per cent sure that Mr bin Laden is in the Tora Bora area of the White Mountains, 35 miles south of Jalalabad. He confirmed that he had met with "American representatives'' and that he is sharing intelligence with them on the al-Qa'ida leader and up to 2,000 guerrillas believed to be holed up in a heavily defended cave complex.
11/29/2001 04:25:07 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
RollingStone.com: News: The Press vs. Al GoreSo who coined the phrase "invented the Internet" and attached it to Gore? His Republican opponents, who faxed out a press release suggesting Gore had claimed to have done exactly that.
11/29/2001 04:24:26 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
National Geographic: Afghanistan interactive map11/29/2001 04:15:51 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The weakest linkBack in the late 1970s I had an occasion to speak with a retired CIA official. We shared a brief discussion about constitutional freedom. The gentleman's assurance seemed to imply that, while what he was saying would never be uttered in any official capacity, he spoke for the majority in our intelligence community. Essentially he told me that Americans didn't give a twit for the Bill of Rights if the defense of it threatened their "lifestyle." As long as the vast majority of Americans can continue to drive their boat-sized automobiles, he told me, and to go about their daily lives in their current fashion, the Bill of Rights is nothing more than a proud fable. It's kind of like the story about Washington throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac.
11/29/2001 04:13:41 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
washingtonpost.com: Ex-FBI Officials Criticize Tactics On TerrorismThe aggressive FBI dragnet -- championed by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft -- has provoked much commentary and criticism for its impact on civil liberties. Now, in a series of on-the-record interviews, eight former high-ranking FBI officials have offered the first substantive critique of the Ashcroft program, questioning whether the new approach will have the desired effect.
11/29/2001 04:10:14 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Pashtuns marginalised at Bonn meetingAlthough UN and Western diplomats and media as well as the Northern Alliance often refer to the former Afghan king Zahir Shah as an ethnic Pashtun who would safeguard his community's interest in Tuesday's power-sharing talks, only two out of the eight delegates chosen to represent him at the inter-Afghan conference in Bonn speak Pashto.
11/29/2001 04:03:32 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/Senior Taliban, Al Qaeda die in air strikesTwo senior officials, who requested anonymity, said the captives include Sayef Abdel-Rahman, close bin Laden associate and the son of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 as the ringleader of a plot to bomb the United Nations, the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln and Holland tunnels in New York City.
11/29/2001 01:24:43 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
NAFTA commission says planned expansion of electricity plants means more pollution - 11/28/2001 - ENN.comThe Commission for Environmental Cooperation, which monitors the environmental affects of the North American Free Trade Agreement, estimated carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. electricity sector could increase from 14 percent to 38 percent by the year 2007. Emissions from the electricity sector now account for 35 percent of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.
11/29/2001 01:21:25 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Anti-terror bill passes House, despite critics"I have a deep and abiding fear that in the name of national security, we may sacrifice civil liberties, and in so doing endanger our democracy and the democratic process," read the release.
11/29/2001 01:17:11 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Alliance enters Kandahar: reportAt the same time the commander of another anti-Taliban tribal force said his soldiers have advanced to within five kilometeres of the Kandahar airport and are closing in on the city.
11/29/2001 01:15:31 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Register: Antivirus vendors allow FBI Trojans, or notEric Chien, chief researcher at Symantec's antivirus research lab, said that provided a hypothetical keystroke logging tool was used only by the FBI, then Symantec would avoid updating its antivirus tools to detect such a Trojan.
[...]
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, disagrees. He says it it wrong to deliberately refrain from detecting the virus, because its customers outside the US would expect protection against the Trojan. Such a move also creates an awkward precedent.
11/29/2001 01:13:29 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Have Soviet-era bio-weapons infected Afghan refugees? - Jane's International Security NewsIn Pakistan, at least 75 people have been diagnosed in Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province, with Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever in the largest outbreak of the disease ever recorded. Eight have already died. All the infected are refugees recently arrived from Afghanistan or people living close to the border. An isolation ward surrounded by barbed wire has been established at the Fatima Jinnah chest and general hospital in Quetta.
11/29/2001 12:48:32 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The mother of all nightmares - Jane's Asia/Pacific NewsClearly the quickest way for the world's most wanted man to obtain the ultimate deterrent would be to get a ready-made weapon from just across the border, so how safe is Pakistan's arsenal and how secure is the man with his finger on the button?
11/29/2001 12:47:57 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
MediaLifeMagazine: Web Shorts: Nothing stays dead on the webSince the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, federal agencies have been scrambling to reconsider and sometimes delete sensitive online information regarding nuclear or biological weapons. But the data rarely disappears for good. The federal agency Toxic Substances and Disease Registry quickly pulled a potentially dangerous report from its web site after the Sept. 11 attacks. Entitled "Industrial Chemicals and Terrorism," the document listed sources for homemade nerve gases and improvised explosives. But the report currently lives on in several locations on the web, including the site for the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, a personal web site for a UC Santa Cruz graduate student, and the Internet Archive, a running history of the web that regularly indexes the internet through a webcrawler. The Archive allows for retroactive removal, but site owners hope this option is not overused, as the historical accuracy of the project will be compromised. Site purveyors can also use insert a few lines of code into the HTML, a process known as "robot exclusion," which lets search bots know they should move along.
11/29/2001 12:08:18 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Top Taliban defector recalls the militia's final hours in KabulTheir situation was pressing. Less than 10 kilometres away, American bombs were blasting Taliban defences, and the northern alliance tanks were being ordered to encircle the city.
What unfolded next was recounted in detail Wednesday by Mullah Mohammed Khaqzar, a Taliban official who said he was called to the meeting by a leadership that didn't know he had been in secret contact with the northern alliance for months.
11/29/2001 11:55:06 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Northern alliance won't oppose peacekeeping force during interim administration"Our official stand is that once a transitional mechanism is established, and the need for international force is inevitable, we are not opposed to the arrival of an international force," said Younus Qanooni of the alliance, one of four factions at the talks.
11/29/2001 11:52:34 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Taliban reported to hang spy as foes close inPakistan-based AIP quoted the witness as saying the Taliban told the crowd the man had been giving information to the United States and directing its bombing, now in its 54th day.
11/29/2001 11:50:49 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CIA Agent First U.S. Fatality in Afghan CombatCIA spokesman Bill Harlow, who reported that Spann's body was en route to the United States, said it was still unclear how he died.
Fitting.
11/29/2001 11:49:46 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Al Qaeda Suspect Is ApprehendedRahman has been an important and popular figure in Al Qaeda, intelligence sources said. He has been widely used in recruiting for the network, they said, because he was believed to be carrying on the work of his father, Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called Blind Sheik who is being held in one of the highest-security federal prisons in the United States. The father remains an enormously influential figure in the jihad, or holy war, movement even as he languishes behind bars.
11/29/2001 11:48:38 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Reuters AlertNet - New fighting erupts in Philippines, mobs kill rebelThe new fighting involved about 30 rebel stragglers left behind in the retreat of the main body of guerrillas from the mainly Christian city of 750,000 people on Wednesday, southern military commander Lieutenant-General Roy Cimatu told reporters.
11/29/2001 11:46:07 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Warships escorting U.S. carriersCanadian warships are on duty in the Arabian Sea, but this country's aircraft have yet to find a base from which to fly, said Defence Minister Art Eggleton.
11/29/2001 11:42:02 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Reisman bans Mein Kampf from Chapters and Indigo"We consider it hate literature," she said. "With freedom of expression, the line is drawn on hate literature. It's a corporate decision. It's what we stand for."
11/29/2001 11:37:55 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Times: Berlin in conflict over war imagesIn the new version of the exhibition, the finger is pointed at individual units rather than the German Army as a whole. The 707 Infantry Division, commanded by the anti-Semitic General Gustav von Bechtolsheim, is exposed as a particularly vicious unit. About 19,000 people, mainly Jews, were killed under his command in Belarus in the months before December 1941. The general died in 1969, a locally respected war veteran.
11/29/2001 12:43:44 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Wednesday, November 28, 2001
NATIONAL POST ONLINE | Ottawa accused of confiscating gay pensions"It's an incredibly unfair law," said 59-year-old Vancouver resident Gail Meredith, one of two representative plaintiffs for the B.C. Supreme Court action. "To pay for this for years and years and then not benefit is just not fair. It's very hard to have your relationship denied when somebody you love has died."
11/28/2001 11:02:09 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Bernard Landry and Quebec's futureThen why not sell the idea of Canada without fear? The answer is that in Quebeckers, feeling for Canada is an "emotion too deep to be exploited," in the felicitous phrase of McGill University historian Desmond Morton. Economics is safer ground.
11/28/2001 10:57:18 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
NATIONAL POST ONLINE | Quebec Premier should visit Canadians more oftenWhat was most striking about Mr. Landry's lunchtime speech to the Toronto Board of Trade was that the Premier was, for the first few minutes anyway, terrified.
11/28/2001 10:54:27 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/Ottawa doing what it can for reporter: Manley"It's difficult to do, given we have a war situation in the region. Several officers from our embassy in Islamabad have been tasked with trying to make the appropriate contacts and endeavouring to get the information required."
11/28/2001 10:49:27 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
allAfrica.com: 'Nobody Can Impeach Me' - ObasanjoPresident Obasanjo, who reacted to the request by the National Assembly for explanation on how the 2001 budget was spent, said it was not possible to spend money that was not available.
11/28/2001 10:35:03 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
American backed Northern Alliance soldiers tried to rape British journalist Lara LoganShe had interviewed the gun- carrying Alliance fighters and faced having to stay in the area overnight because it would be unsafe to travel after dark. The pair tried to bribe translator Mohammed Mohammadullah into delaying her departure and told him they planned to "have their way" with her.
11/28/2001 10:24:10 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | EUROPE | UN tribunal demands war suspects' arrestMs Del Ponte said the tribunal was also facing a lack of co-operation from the authorities in Bosnia Hercegovina, where another indicted politician, the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, is believed to be living.
11/28/2001 10:17:10 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Day to step down Dec. 12In July, Day promised to step down 90 days in advance of a leadership convention. That convention has been scheduled for late March.
Not that long ago I would've been overjoyed by this. Today I'm ambivalent, at worst, toward anyone publicly attacking the wrong-headed antiterrorism legislation Chretien is ramming through. Even Stock, evil goon that he is, knows that what Chretien is doing is no good.
11/28/2001 08:16:13 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Alliance rejects outside force in Afghanistan"We don't feel a need for an outside force. There is security in place," said Northern Alliance delegation leader Younus Qanooni, speaking in Bonn as talks to form a new government entered a second day.
Err, bullshit?
11/28/2001 02:09:13 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
Laili Helms Spoke for Taliban and Now Pays a PriceSome acquaintances, particularly American officials, paint her as an apologist. One official said that conversations with Ms. Helms were like "seeing documentary footage of Axis Sally or Tokyo Rose."
But journalists who have worked with her in Afghanistan in the past describe her as well connected, well informed and reasonable.
11/27/2001 02:00:02 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Channel Surfing Brings Birth of Think Tank (washingtonpost.com)"One of the lessons of September 11 is that we are beginning to understand there is a combustible mix of poverty, lack of education, coupled with poor governance in states that are not necessarily failed, but are weak in many respects," said Birdsall, who will serve as the center's president. "It is in our enlightened self-interest to address those problems."
11/27/2001 01:45:47 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/Oops, U.S. nearly snubs Canada againSpain, France and Great Britain were singled out for fulsome gratitude.
Then, as if visibly recalling some dusty page from an aide's briefing book, Ashcroft stopped in mid-sentence.
"And I shouldn't have started naming, because I certainly don't want -- I mean, our Canadian friends are at work full time to help us almost all the time, and we're in constant touch with them."
11/27/2001 01:42:34 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
MediaGuardian.co.uk | Press&publishing | Editors tell Mugabe to withdraw threatsThe IPI also expressed concern that the government was using the terrorism issue to lay the foundations for new media restrictions, including a ban on "false statements prejudicial to the state or that incite public disorder, violence, affect the defence and economic interests of the country or undermine public confidence in the security forces".
11/27/2001 01:23:17 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
allAfrica.com: "Terrorist" Journalists Vow to Continue"I take great exception to being called a terrorist, I'll carry on reporting the truth," said Basildon Peta, who files for Britain's Independent and South Africa's Star. "I'm now getting death threats on a daily basis, today I found a box of live ammunition on my doorstep," he added.
11/27/2001 01:20:00 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
SecurityFocus: Ashcroft's Global Internet Power-Grab via PATRIOTAn amendment to the definition of a "protected computer" for the first time explicitly enables U.S. law enforcement to prosecute computer hackers outside the United States in cases where neither the hackers nor their victims are in the U.S., provided only that packets related to that activity traveled through U.S. computers or routers.
11/27/2001 01:18:46 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Keeping a Who's-Naughty List in the UKKids who tag buildings with graffiti, skip school, or even talk back to adults run the risk of being entered into a database program that will be used to monitor their behavior as they grow up, according to police sources.
11/27/2001 01:04:40 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
U.S. Pressures Foreign Airlines Over ManifestsUnder the law, airlines had two months to begin the electronic transmission of passenger lists for all flights to the United States. But the commissioner of customs, Robert C. Bonner, sent letters to the airlines last week saying that they must comply earlier, by Thursday, or else customs inspectors will search "all hand-carried and checked baggage on every flight arriving in the United States." The searches could add hours to the clearance process for overseas travelers.
Mr. Bonner sent the ultimatum to 58 carriers, including Saudi Arabian Airlines, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Pakistan International Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Aeroflot and Air China, Beijing's main international carrier. China Eastern, based in Shanghai, and China Southern, based in Guangdong Province, also received the letters. Mr. Bonner said any delay could put security at risk.
The Customs Service said it had received hardly any responses. A spokesman for the Jordanian airline said it would comply. Other carriers said they did not know much about the new requirement or were still studying it.
11/27/2001 01:03:45 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Marines Begin Directing Air AttacksAbout 500 marines dug in today at a primitive desert airstrip less than 80 miles southwest of Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold, but still within easy helicopter striking distance of the city. Officials said the Marine vanguard, along with another 500 marines who were expected to land Tuesday, will intercept military traffic, cut off escape routes for enemy fighters and, given credible intelligence, strike at leaders of the Taliban and at Osama bin Laden's organization, Al Qaeda.
11/27/2001 12:51:05 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Russian president says 12 planes have landed in Kabul on humanitarian mission"This action was carried out at the request of the Islamic State of Afghanistan," Putin said, using the name of the Afghan government of ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani.
11/27/2001 12:39:32 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/Ottawa warns journalists of kidnap risk"In exchange for the captured journalists, what's left of the Taliban regime would demand that Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners be freed and the bombing campaign stopped," said Reynald Doiron, a department spokesman.
Somewhere, Nixon is smiling.
11/27/2001 12:34:18 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Monday, November 26, 2001
CBC News: Liberal backbencher breaks ranks over anti-terror bill...and criticized the anti-terrorism bill as "a deal with the devil."
11/26/2001 08:22:29 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Quebec changes passport rules two years after arrest of millennium bomb plotterUnder the new rules, any Quebec native who wishes to obtain a Canadian passport must present either a birth certificate issued by the province after 1993 or a certificate of citizenship.
11/26/2001 06:09:06 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - Leahy says anthrax letter could have killed 100,000 - November 26, 2001"It appears that the letter sent to me may contain enough spores to kill well over a 100,000 people, but it also may well have evidence, fingerprints or anything else," Leahy said.
But it may contain a Fruit-Roll-Up and a coupon for 10% off at Denny's. It's appalling that public figures bandy phrases like "kill 100,000 people" when a little patience would show exactly how many people could have killed. But didn't.
11/26/2001 05:57:55 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Intelligence Relative, Study SaysIgor Aleksander, a computer scientist at Imperial College, said the experiment demonstrates a saying by the famous mathematician Norbert Weiner: "What gives a person the edge is the amount of information they get about everyone else."
11/26/2001 04:32:49 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Reason | Matt Welch | The Libertine RightRight-wing attitudes toward gays clearly experienced a significant shift after the September 11 deaths of gay firefighter Fr. Mychal Judge, and Flight 93 hero Mark Bingham. Patrick Phillips, an ex-GI and self-described member of the "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy," says these events changed his mind about allowing gays to serve openly in the military. "If Mark Bingham (a gay Republican, I might note) could step up and help make sure that Flight 93 didn't smash into anything more populated than a farm field -- well, it's time to admit that I was wrong," Phillips said in a post to my own Web site.
11/26/2001 11:24:09 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Economist.com: Sending in the marinesFour groups are to be represented at the conference. The Northern Alliance itself will be there, although its leader, Nurhanuddin Rabbani, who remained the internationally recognised president of Afghanistan during the five years of Taliban rule, last week dismissed the talks as "largely symbolic".
11/26/2001 11:04:14 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Widow of slain Canadian says confession forcedMary Jane Bitos, 26, insisted in an interview with her lawyer that the man who killed her husband, Luc Ethier, 36, and injured her in the same Oct. 10 attack, was a stranger she later identified in a police lineup.
11/26/2001 10:52:30 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CIA Agent Possibly Dead in Mazar Revolt - MediaIf the man was confirmed as a soldier, it would be the first known U.S. combat death in Afghanistan since Washington began attacking Taliban forces hosting Saudi-born exile Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) on Oct. 7. Bin Laden and his al Qaeda guerrillas are prime suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that killed nearly 4,000 people.
11/26/2001 10:48:09 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Nepal's king declares state of emergency after rebels kill 76 over weekendKing Gyanendra accepted a cabinet recommendation that will allow the government to use the army for the first time to hunt down Maoist rebels fighting to establish a socialist state since 1996. The police were previously used against the rebels. The cabinet's recommendation came in the wake of a devastating rebel attack Sunday night that killed at least 34 soldiers, said police officers and government officials in a mountainous village.
11/26/2001 10:46:04 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
In Kabul children's hospital: 'No salaries, no medicine, no food, no heat'"We distribute our drugs and then find them in the bazaar"
11/26/2001 10:45:07 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
McDonough easily fends off NDP leadership challenger at Winnipeg conventionIt was a weekend of passionate, fierce debate and tempers continued to flare Sunday. One speaker, apparently angry at being cut off, rushed the stage in fury.
11/26/2001 10:43:56 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
iafrica.com | news | features New lease on life for Afghan womenSpeaking to the paper, Dr Mohammed Hashem, the director of Kabul's Malalai Maternity Hospital, said that if a woman's X-ray indicated she had a tumour in her womb, he was not allowed to perform a proper examination. He could only reach under the sheet which covered every inch of his patient and hope that by touching her abdomen he could detect with his hands what his eyes were not permitted to see.
11/26/2001 10:38:31 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - S. Africa facing child rape crisis - November 26, 2001"South Africa's infants are under siege. Now is the time for President Thabo Mbeki to break his silence on the abomination destroying not only the country but eating away at our nation's soul," the Sowetan newspaper said in a front page editorial on Monday.
11/26/2001 10:27:01 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
3 Teenagers Held in Plot at Massachusetts SchoolJames Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University in Boston, called the New Bedford case highly positive "because it shows that more and more students are willing to come forward and inform on classmates." Snitching was unacceptable before Columbine, Mr. Fox said, but is "now O.K., and is often the only thing to do when you can prevent a tragedy to classmates."
11/26/2001 10:11:21 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Historical hypocrisies at CBCMany in Quebec are hailing Radio-Canada reporter Normand Lester as the new martyr, a victim of the CBC's federalist agenda; his latest book, a strident pamphlet that paints English Canada as a ferociously xenophobic colonial power, became an instant bestseller. The first printing of 5,000 copies was sold out in less than three days.
11/26/2001 10:09:47 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Gorbachev Picked to Head New Party"While the left believes the rule of capital is absolutely evil and the right believes it is the final aim of history, Social Democrats occupy a position of compromise,'' Gorbachev said in an address to the congress. "They are not against capital, but against wild capitalism.''
11/26/2001 10:07:21 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Sunday, November 25, 2001
FOXNews.com: Arm the Afghan womenThe best defense against "guys with guns" is women with guns. This is especially true if the woman is alone in her home, protecting her daughter from rape or her young son from being kidnapped into the military.
11/25/2001 01:41:25 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Los Angeles Times: Aloof Terrorists Were Town's Elite via cursor.orgLike the rest of Afghanistan, the Al Qaeda properties now linger in eerie limbo. The buildings have been seized by the new local government, such as it is. In the sandy hills outside town, a listless guard keeps watch over a deserted terrorist camp. "I'm just watching it," he said, "until the government decides what to do with it."
11/25/2001 01:28:32 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Northern Alliance takes Kunduz, little resistanceAfter 12 days under siege, and 10 days of negotiations, most Taliban fighters decided to avoid the bloodbath expected in a promised fight to the finish.
11/25/2001 01:15:33 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Taliban prisoners riot, hundreds killedStoneking said U.S. warplanes had bombed the fortress to help end the fighting.
11/25/2001 01:14:13 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Saturday, November 24, 2001
The Dallas Morning News: Found and lost: Afghanistan's two decades of war erasing 4,000 years of riches via GoodShitPeace alone will not be enough to persuade archaeologists to do fieldwork in a country with millions of land mines, though. Archaeologists, Dr. Hammond says, would need to include a new line in their grant proposals -- for a "herd of goats" to walk first through suspicious terrain.
11/24/2001 06:47:30 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - War games: Military training goes high-tech - November 23, 2001"Many of our soldiers are computer literate and grew up with computers," says Seay, referring to the youthful members of the military as the "twitch generation." "We are creating the type of technology that allows us to embed a soldier in any environment."
11/24/2001 06:31:54 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Women want to change Indian Act in CanadaThe NWAC represents women on and off reserves. Brown says the Indian Act perpetuates a system that's so male-dominated that 72 per cent of aboriginal woman choose not to live on a reserve.
11/24/2001 05:02:30 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Afghan women call for constitutional rights"These things we can not compromise upon," she said. "And we are quite a strong voice."
11/24/2001 04:58:42 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | AMERICAS | Fujimori's regrets over spy chiefThe current Peruvian President, Alejandro Toledo, has urged Japan to hand over Mr Fujimori for allegedly sanctioning two massacres and on charges of dereliction of duty, abandonment of office and embezzlement.
11/24/2001 03:00:15 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ananova - Bin Laden supporters surrenderThey have been greeted by their northern alliance enemies with handshakes, and shouts of "Welcome!"
11/24/2001 10:59:41 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
For Holiday Shoppers, Sale Is the Only Thing"I thought, the day after Thanksgiving is so busy, it would be a day they would probably do something," she said. "But then I thought, `What are they going to do, bomb every single mall in the world?' "
11/24/2001 01:31:11 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Friday, November 23, 2001
CBC News: Turkey revises civil code to give women more rights11/23/2001 04:10:06 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Taliban Took an Ax to AntiquitiesOn the first day, the delegation arrived about 4:30 p.m. and spent about two hours in the museum, breaking objects with stones. The next day, they returned with axes. When Taliban soldiers from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice joined in, they used sledgehammers, Mohebzadah said.
11/23/2001 04:08:04 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
A Year Later, It's Still a ShamMr. Gore comes off as a sincere but hapless figure, in thrall to the opinions of newspaper editors who never cared for him.
Yet whenever Mr. Toobin takes his readers inside the back rooms, it is the ruthless character of modern Republicanism that stands out.
11/23/2001 02:53:45 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Hypercube Photo of the Day: November 23, 2001,"Black Lake", Gabrielle Taylor, Oct 99 Gatineau National Park, Quebec11/23/2001 01:54:38 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Economist.com: Eight down, many more to goAlthough the network's most senior bosses have always kept a close eye -- through various ultra-secret lines of communication -- on what their agents are doing, that may now change. After the American attack on Afghanistan, al-Qaeda's foot-soldiers have reportedly been given the green light to attack "targets of opportunity" without authorisation at the highest levels. But if the network is plotting any really spectacular attack on western targets, that conspiracy will almost certainly have been under way since long before September 11th.
11/23/2001 01:53:31 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Quebec opens official residenceIt certainly does not have the grandeur of 24 Sussex Drive nor the rich setting of Stornaway, but the apartment located on the 16th and 17th floor of the Price Building, which towers over Quebec's Old City, is befitting of what Quebec Premier Bernard Landry calls the leader of the Quebec nation.
11/23/2001 01:14:02 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Los Angeles Times: To Taliban Forces, White Flags Often Aren't"We need bombing because, behind this front line, there are Taliban forces as far as Kandahar. And they are all local armed people," the general [Haji Sher Alam] added.
The signature vapor trails of huge B-52 Stratofortress bombers crossed the horizon far behind the Taliban lines several times during Thursday's fighting, but the bombers headed onward, apparently to other targets.
11/23/2001 12:45:39 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Taliban-Microsoft site hacked"The United States will destroy you! Project Afganistand!!! Knock them out! You will pay for this you stupid fools!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God bless the United States of America!"
11/23/2001 12:37:07 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | Swiss banks say 'Terrorists too smart for us'"I would not be able to detect it beforehand in order to prevent the terrorist from being a terrorist and doing an attack," he said.
11/23/2001 12:06:18 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Zimbabwe proposes opponents be hangedDescribing opposition work as "terrorist activities," the government said the new bill also would prohibit courts from granting bail to suspects in allegedly politically motivated crimes, The Herald, a state-run newspaper, reported.
11/23/2001 11:14:25 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Nando Times: Chinese authorities reportedly shut more than 17,000 Internet bars"Some youths will submerge themselves in Internet bars for long periods, playing unhealthy games and adversely affecting their development as normal students," the newspaper said.
11/23/2001 11:10:02 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | AFRICA | US shuts down Somalia internetAlong with denying all internet access to Somalis, the closures have severely restricted international telephone lines and shut down vitally needed money transfer facilities.
11/23/2001 11:08:15 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Front"Osama bin Laden didn't have enough competence and ammunition to blow up the Pentagon and hopes the UN will sponsor a broad-based government for Afghanistan and bring peace to the country.
the World Trade Center." As for who had really done it, he declared, "It was done by terrorism, maybe by some other parties," adding that possibly American members of al-Qaeda might have been responsible.
The mullah, who was 13 when civil war broke out, said he hopes the UN will sponsor a broad-based government for Afghanistan and bring peace to the country.
11/23/2001 11:04:03 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Taliban Expel 100 Journalists, Canceling a Tour of Kandahar"The program is finished," said Najibullah Sheerzio, the Taliban foreign ministry representative in Spinbaldak. "We had the press conference, and we showed you the refugee camps."
11/23/2001 10:14:47 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Cashing in bin Laden By Inigo ThomasWealth counseling might be required-evidence from the United States suggests that instant riches can be immensely dangerous for one's mental health-although years of Taliban rule and Soviet occupation has probably drained the country of such experts. In fact, $25 million might simply be just too much because it may pose a threat to that individual's life. If you're a multimillionaire in today's Afghanistan, you probably have no choice but to become a warlord since you'll need a small army to protect yourself in the middle of the night.
11/23/2001 10:13:01 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Los Angeles Times: Opium Poppies Take Root Once Again in Afghanistan"We know we are creating addicts," Shah said. "The only reason we are doing this is because we are poor. If I could find another job, I would stop growing poppies."
11/23/2001 10:09:20 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Bush and Nixon: A Cautionary Tale | Richard ReevesAll presidents,sooner or later, are frustrated by that Constitution and its deliberate checks and balances on the power wielded by the three branches of government established after a revolution against monarchy. It was only forty years or so after the American Revolution that the 7th president, Andrew Jackson, was reputed to have reacted to a Supreme Court decision he did not like by saying: "The Court has made its decision, now let?s see them enforce it."
11/23/2001 10:04:40 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thursday, November 22, 2001
CBC News: Russia has no plan to join NATO: PutinThe move "would give Russia a right of equality, but also a responsibility, and also an obligation that would come from being part of a consensus-building organization," Robertson said. Creating such a council would represent "a huge change, a sea change, in the way we do business."
11/22/2001 08:10:33 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ananova - Pope is Bin Laden's Christmas target - ex-CIA chief"He looks at the Pope as the symbolic head of the crusaders and a natural target."
11/22/2001 08:08:23 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Canada a perfect haven for bin LadenEven worse, Canadian taxpayers would be forced to pay for a Legal Aid lawyer to help them fight extradition to the United States on the basis that they may be put to death.
11/22/2001 08:06:55 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ananova - The battle for Kunduz continues despite 'ceasefire'In Mazar-e Sharif, 110 miles from Kunduz, Northern Alliance warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum insists a surrender has been agreed after a meeting with top Taliban commanders, including Deputy Defence Minister Mullah Fazil.
11/22/2001 01:23:41 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Adbusters: Buy Nothing Day, Nov 23 2001If you haven't decided what to do for Buy Nothing Day and beyond, consider this simple, effective jam. George W. and Tony Blair say shopping is the best way to protect First World freedoms and support the new war. We say, "Buy Nothing - For Peace!"
11/22/2001 01:09:32 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Don't go to Mecca this year, Egyptian President urgesMubarak, who on Wednesday reshuffled his Cabinet and introduced new measures to deal with worsening economic conditions, said the annual pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia costs Egypt more than $700 million in foreign currency a year.
11/22/2001 12:46:03 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Quebec immigration minister rejects idea of Quebec citizenshipHe says it would create a division among Quebecers and all those who first swear allegiance to Canada would see it as a P-Q trick.
11/22/2001 12:41:05 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | AMERICAS | Spy plane hunting Bin LadenUS Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed the long-range Global Hawk had joined the hunt, even though testing of the aircraft had not yet been completed.
11/22/2001 12:29:15 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
NATO chief urges new level of ties with RussiaRussia and NATO were "essential security players in Europe" and "there can be no lasting solutions to the most serious security challenges we face unless NATO and Russia cooperate".
11/22/2001 12:28:01 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Alliance moves to seize KunduzThe Reuters news agency quoted Northern Alliance Interior Minister Yunus Qanuni as saying talks on a surrender of Taleban forces had failed.
11/22/2001 12:27:09 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
ACLU facial recognition info clearinghouseAnyone who claims that facial recognition technology is an effective law enforcement tool is probably working for the one of the companies trying to sell it to the government.
11/22/2001 09:55:46 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
No TV, No Chess, No Kites: Taliban Penal Code, From A to ZNothing was left to chance or the imagination under the Taliban. Merchants importing products like shampoo would find that Taliban customs officials had gouged out the eyes of the female models on the boxes. The merchants were then required to display the products with black tape over female faces, or be subject to a beating or jailing.
11/22/2001 09:51:33 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ottawa Sun: NUCLEAR FALLOUT: Agency to rehire fired engineerHigh-ranking federal sources say Atomic Energy of Canada will be offering to rehire Mohamed Attiah today, two months after his security clearance was suddenly revoked, his contract terminated and his life virtually ruined -- all within minutes of his being interviewed by two federal intelligence agents.
11/22/2001 09:00:41 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Wednesday, November 21, 2001
FuckedCompany.com - bin Laden's doodleFourth: food. I bought a box of Cheez-Its recently, clearly wrote "Osama" on the front, and put it on the top shelf. Today, my Cheez-Its were gone. Consideration. That's all I'm saying.
11/21/2001 11:43:01 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Ontario premier begins testifying in wrongful death suitThe wrongful death suit springs from the shooting of Dudley George. He died in a confrontation with Ontario Provincial Police at Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1995.
11/21/2001 11:38:34 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Man who hit PM with pie appeals sentenceThe Crown says the trial judge felt Brown's total lack of remorse would make an apology and community service meaningless, so the jail sentence was in order.
11/21/2001 11:35:56 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Afghan Agriculture Ministry labs had supplies of anthraxThat "the one place where the only vial that had English on it said anthrax kind of gives you pause," Pace said.
11/21/2001 07:20:27 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Are Americans getting the full picture? - smh.com.au - WorldAt a media industry conference this week in Barcelona, Spain, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC's) news chief said he was startled by the contrast between US and European small-screen coverage of the 40-day-old war.
"It's like watching two different wars," said Tony Burman, executive director of Canada's national public broadcaster.
11/21/2001 07:13:10 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Are Americans getting the full picture? - smh.com.au - WorldAt a media industry conference this week in Barcelona, Spain, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC's) news chief said he was startled by the contrast between US and European small-screen coverage of the 40-day-old war.
"It's like watching two different wars," said Tony Burman, executive director of Canada's national public broadcaster.
11/21/2001 07:13:09 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Afghan Bombing to Affect Birds Migrating to IndiaAbout 200 species of birds including the Siberian crane, shoveller duck, crested poacher and Arctic tern begin their journey from Russia and central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to India at the end of October or the beginning of November each year.
11/21/2001 07:11:29 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Afghan Bombing to Affect Birds Migrating to IndiaAbout 200 species of birds including the Siberian crane, shoveller duck, crested poacher and Arctic tern begin their journey from Russia and central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to India at the end of October or the beginning of November each year.
11/21/2001 07:08:42 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Nando Times: Group seeks to rebuild Afghan Buddha destroyed by TalibanFirst, a virtual Buddha would be generated, using high-tech photographic and computer technology. Then a 20-foot replica would be built at the Afghanistan Institute and Museum in the northern Swiss town of Bubendorf. The replica would be used as the model for rebuilding the full-size Buddha on location in Afghanistan.
11/21/2001 07:04:10 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Playmates to give their e-all for the war effortThe Playboy official did not say how Marines will be involved in the campaign or why Playmates responding to e-mails would need to wear full bunny regalia.
11/21/2001 07:01:18 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Cybercrime Treaty Finally ReadyThe official said many people still see computer hacking and other electronic crimes as mainly a moral issue, without realizing the associated material damage and risk to life.
11/21/2001 06:59:47 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNEWS Politics: Richard Cleroux: Oh, those silly G-20 copsIf you go through the trouble of dressing up in thousands of dollars of Darth Vader riot gear, with heavy masks, Kevlar jackets, carry plastic shields, long truncheons, equipment, just to frighten off demonstrators, hauling out a garden hose just doesn't work.
11/21/2001 01:21:36 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | BUSINESS | Vitamin pricefixers fined $750m"This is the most damaging series of cartels the commission has ever investigated due to the sheer range of vitamins covered, which are found in a multitude of products from cereals, biscuits and drinks to animal feed, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics," EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said.
11/21/2001 01:20:06 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: No burqa required for Afghan women aid workers"He assured us that we were welcome to have a larger participation of women in our activities, there would be no restrictions on women and they would not have to wear burqas. Headscarves would be enough," said Falt.
11/21/2001 01:15:56 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Defiant Taleban to fight onFlanked by Taleban soldiers clutching Kalashnikov rifles, Mr Agha dismissed recent reports that Mullah Omar was prepared to leave his southern stronghold of Kandahar and said the Taleban leader had a "religious duty" to remain in the province.
11/21/2001 01:14:09 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
politechbot.com: Friendship and the House of SaudThat was only the beginning of the Saudis' unhelpfulness. When Washington asked for background information on the Sept. 11 terrorists, the Saudis stonewalled. While 94 airlines agreed to identify passengers on planes flying to the United States, Saudi Arabian Airlines refused. A month after the attacks, The New York Times reported that "Saudi Arabia has so far refused to freeze the assets of Osama bin Laden and his associates." Of particular concern was Riyadh's unwillingness to shut down the Islamic "charities" that are Al Qaeda's lifeline.
11/21/2001 01:09:10 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
U.S. envoy pledges to fight terrorism against India"They are not freedom fighters. No country will be permitted to provide sanctuaries to terrorists," Blackwill said.
11/21/2001 10:32:46 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Update: Hot Recount Docs! Written evidence that Gore might have won-and that the NYT blew it. via bushwacker...Newsweek's Michael Isikoff found the proof, months ago, in the form of notes that Judge Lewis wrote on faxes he sent to two state canvassing boards. Isikoff has now posted a story with this information on Newsweek's Web site. The annotated faxes show, in Isikoff's words, that "just hours before the U.S. Supreme Court issued [its order] Lewis was actively considering directing the counties" to count the overvotes. (One of these faxes is reprinted here-that's Lewis' handwriting in the upper right corner.)
11/21/2001 06:39:06 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
British Taliban Fighters 'May Face Treason Charges'Only in the most "crystal clear" case - where it could be proved a person was actually fighting on the ground - might a charge of treason be brought.
11/21/2001 06:35:59 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Taliban asks UN for help to surrenderLakhdar Brahimi said a religious leader and another unidentified person formally approached the UN in Islamabad on Monday night saying that Taliban commanders from inside Kunduz wanted to surrender unconditionally and wanted to do it to the UN.
11/21/2001 06:30:31 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Companies Compete to Provide Saudi Internet VeilTo critics of the sale of content filters, software company executives say that they are only providing politically neutral tools. "Once we sell them the product, we can't enforce how they use it," said Matthew Holt, a sales executive for Secure Computing, of San Jose, Calif., that currently provides Internet-filtering software to the Saudi government under a contract that expires in 2003.
11/21/2001 06:29:17 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Bin Laden: They'll never take me alive...Turncoat Taliban commanders who have joined the hunt for bin Laden have told U.S. agents that bin Laden has asked those closest to him, including his son, Mohammed, to reward him with a "martyr's death" rather than allow him to be captured by the "infidels," U.S. military and intelligence sources said last night.
11/21/2001 06:27:20 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Are Women in Afghanistan as Repressed as Ever? FOXnews interview with Queen Noor of Jordan...I think it's terribly important to recognize that the war -- the military campaign against terrorism is something very different from the long-term development of the role of women and other members of society representing all groups in a country like Afghanistan or any other.
11/21/2001 06:23:28 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
TV war reporter Ashleigh Banfield finds 'infobabe' obsession despicable"We just lost four of our colleagues yesterday. They're putting their lives on the line every day to cover this story. And for someone to sit behind a desk at the Wall Street Journal and criticize our hair, our demeanour and our makeup, is absolutely abysmal."
11/21/2001 06:16:24 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
New Democrats say quest for new party not intended to undermine leader"A lot of people like myself who were in the party in the '80s (and) quit the party are very cynical about the potential for change. Young people, the NDP's not even on their radar map."
11/21/2001 06:13:57 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Toll from attack at Trade Center is down sharplyCity officials said yesterday that the trade center tally, which dropped by at least 200 over the last weekend alone, could continue to fall, perhaps to 3,000, as duplications and errors are resolved. Unofficial compilations by news organizations, using information from companies, the airlines and other sources, so far have reached no higher than 2,950.
11/21/2001 06:11:28 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/Chretien admits thoughts of quitting politics"I won't make a decision for a good while because I received a mandate from the people with an increase in the number of seats and I have to respect the mandate."
11/21/2001 05:30:29 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
In Utah, a Government Hater Sells a Germ-Warfare Book"I don't trust him completely, and I don't trust the government completely," a former nurse named Linda said of Mr. Tobiason after buying a $10 CD from him last weekend. One element of her mistrust of the government was the F.B.I., which she said is "taking away civil liberties all the time."
11/21/2001 05:24:14 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Ottawa seeks to deport 92-year-old alleged former NaziThe judge agreed Fast really is suffering from Alzheimer's and isn't faking his condition. But he ruled because the case is actually a civil proceeding and not a criminal trial it can go ahead.
Under civil law a party to an action doesn't have to be present.
11/21/2001 05:19:05 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Tuesday, November 20, 2001
Canada Post suspends three employees who refuse to work over anthrax fearsThe workers were given a one-day suspension after telling their employer they didn't want to work in an area that housed mail that had come from a U.S. postal office where anthrax had been detected. The employees - two men and a woman - said they've asked Canada Post repeatedly since last month to test the massive warehouse for the deadly spores, but the agency has refused.
11/20/2001 09:04:18 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Irish Times - US efforts to make peace summed up by 'oil'O'Neill investigated the bombings of the World Trade Centre in 1993, a US base in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-Es-Salaam in 1998, and the USS Cole last year.
Jean-Charles Brisard, who wrote a report on bin Laden's finances for the French intelligence agency DST and is co-author of Hidden Truth, met O'Neill several times last summer. He complained bitterly that the US State Department - and behind it the oil lobby who make up President Bush's entourage - blocked attempts to prove bin Laden's guilt.
11/20/2001 08:44:39 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Quebec culture ministry facing discrimination complaintsThey centre around the arrival of a new director of computer services, who didn't renew the contracts of four ethnic employees.
They were all replaced by francophones.
11/20/2001 07:58:44 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Montreal Gazette - What Landry actually said"While Tony Blair, the prime minister of Great Britain, would never for a fraction of a second deny the existence of the Quebec nation, why does Jean Chrétien, a Québécois himself, have an attitude that is totally opposed?
11/20/2001 07:58:12 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Canadian government sunsets anti-terrorism billOn Tuesday, Ms. McLellan said the government would narrow the definition of terrorism in the bill, clarifying it to make it clear that it does not include things such as illegal strikes or minor property damage during protests, which critics had charged would have fallen under the bill's old language.
11/20/2001 07:47:24 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/Chretien calls Landry on Sept. 11 commentsPrime Minister Jean Chretien says he'd like a clearer explanation of controversial comments by Premier Bernard Landry linking the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. to Quebec sovereignty.
11/20/2001 07:43:25 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Slashdot | Message from Kabul"I could still see the dust of the pick-up trucks carrying the Taliban out of my village," he wrote, "and some friends and I went and dug up the boards of a chicken coop where I had hid the computer. They might have beaten or killed us if they'd found it. It was forbidden, although they used computers all of the time." He claims American commandos are skulking around dressed as Northern Alliance tribesmen.
11/20/2001 07:39:55 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Scotsman Online - Zimbabwe journalists arrested for tortureThe Daily News, whose offices were bombed last January and whose editor and publisher were arrested ten days ago on an accounting fraud charge, said the two journalists had their notebooks and cameras confiscated, and were denied access to their lawyers.
11/20/2001 07:27:22 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
AfricaOnline.com - EGYPT: Military court starts trial of 94 IslamistsLawyers say they believe it is the first time Egypt has tried preachers in a military court.
11/20/2001 07:18:48 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Arab TV satire angers IsraelUS consumer giant Procter & Gamble is withdrawing an advert for shampoo from the show, saying it avoided "morally ambivalent" programmes.
11/20/2001 06:59:12 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
TIME.com: Are there bin Laden Doubles?Imagine the difficulties. U.S. special forces happen upon a cave entrance having been pointed there by a local Afghan warlord thinking about all the Toyota pickups he could buy with the $25 million reward. There's a fierce shootout and the terrorist-in-chief goes down in a hail of bullets. Or the Air Force is summoned to finish the job with a bunker-buster bomb. The moment of vengeance has arrived, even possibly "closure" for the loved ones of his victims. But two weeks later, there "he" is again on Al Jezeera, wearing the flak jacket and linens, AK propped up against he wall behind him, ranting about Lawrence of Arabia and how his nuclear and chemical arsenal is strictly a deterrent. Will the real Osama bin Laden please stand up?
11/20/2001 06:43:23 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
New al-Qaeda link prompts Ottawa probeA U.S. news report said the 1996 letter informed a man named Amro Abouelmaati that his citizenship certificate was enclosed. The house apparently had been abandoned in a hurry when the Northern Alliance took over Kabul last week.
11/20/2001 05:46:19 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Foreigners arrested in Falun Gong protestChina's official news agency, Xinhua, said, "Their behaviour violated Chinese laws governing parades and demonstrations and cults."
11/20/2001 03:54:57 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Rising Fears That What We Do Know Can Hurt UsThe document seemed innocuous enough: a survey of government data on reservoirs and dams on CD-ROM. But then came last month's federal directive to U.S. libraries: "Destroy the report."
11/20/2001 02:37:03 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Boston Globe Online / Business / Patriot Act would make watchdogs of firmsBuried in the more than 300 pages of the new law is a provision that ''any person engaged in a trade or business'' has to file a government report if a customer spends $10,000 or more in cash. The threshold is cumulative and applies to multiple purchases if they're somehow related - three $4,000 pieces of furniture, for example, might trigger a filing.
11/20/2001 01:08:55 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Monday, November 19, 2001
CNEWS Politics - Western Canadian separatists to form partyA group calling itself the Western Independent Nation organized the gathering. Spokesman David Sawkiw said formation of one unified federal party for western separation was one common goal for the various groups in attendance.
11/19/2001 08:46:05 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Beating death shocks B.C.'s gay communityWebster's mother was at the vigil, as well as a friend who found him just before he died. Tim Chisholm spoke of his grief and feelings of helplessness:
"The experience is of having somebody that you really care about die in your arms, and you can't control it. You have no control over it, and they're beaten very badly."
11/19/2001 07:23:15 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Bush Team Is Reversing Environmental PoliciesThese include moves to allow road- building in national forests, reverse the phaseout of snowmobiles in national parks, make it easier for mining companies to dig for gold, copper and zinc on public lands, ease energy-saving standards for air-conditioners, bar the reintroduction of grizzly bears in the Northwest and, environmentalists say, make it easier for developers to eliminate wetlands.
11/19/2001 07:22:09 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
This is not a test | The Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsFrom the White House bunker, Cheney ordered the evacuation of everyone designated as a successor to the president, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Cong. Dennis Hastert, Republican of Illinois; the president pro tempore of the Senate, Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia; and the entire Cabinet (except Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who remained at the Pentagon), as well as the rest of the congressional leadership. The Secret Service tried at least twice to convince Cheney to evacuate as well, "but I didn't want to leave the node that we?d established there in terms of having all this capability tied together by communications . . . and if I?d left . . . all of that would have been broken down . . . so I thought it was appropriate for me to stay there in the White House."
11/19/2001 07:12:21 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Dream persuades Taliban to keep bastion - oppositionHe said the delegation reported the Taliban had been considering handing over control of their southern stronghold to former mujahideen commander Haji Bashar, but the idea was abandoned after Mullah Omar revealed his dream on Friday.
11/19/2001 07:08:29 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
IHT Russian economy on delicate upswingAndrei Illarionov, the Kremlin's iconoclastic economic adviser, often prescribes more bitter economic medicine than his counterparts and frequently has been right. He prefers to withhold judgment on whether a turnaround is at hand.
"If you would start to conduct the wrong economic policy," he said, "then in a relatively short period you could destroy all these achievements. It's like cycling. You have to push the pedal every day."
11/19/2001 07:05:43 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Esquire Suspends 'Dubious' AwardsEven before the events of Sept. 11, he was feeling, well, dubious about the feature's snarky tone and its poor fit with the year's other 11 issues. "People remember it fondly," he said. "But I'm not sure that those people have read it in a long time."
11/19/2001 06:58:35 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
U.S. says Iraq has germ war program?The United States strongly suspects that Iraq has taken advantage of three years of no U.N. inspections to improve all phases of its offensive biological weapons program,? Bolton said. ?The existence of Iraq?s program is beyond dispute.?
11/19/2001 06:56:20 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Economist.com: Replacing the TalibanThere are still worries that the final rout of the Taliban may be a murderous affair. In Kunduz especially, where American bombers continue to pound Taliban positions, there are fears of a bloodbath. Hopes of avoiding one through a negotiated surrender are made harder by the presence of thousands of foreign fighters -- Pakistanis and Arabs, but also, according to some accounts, Chechens, Uighurs from China and even Indonesians. They know that soldiers from the victorious Northern Alliance have been particularly brutal to captured foreigners.
11/19/2001 06:54:35 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Economist.com: Replacing the TalibanThere are still worries that the final rout of the Taliban may be a murderous affair. In Kunduz especially, where American bombers continue to pound Taliban positions, there are fears of a bloodbath. Hopes of avoiding one through a negotiated surrender are made harder by the presence of thousands of foreign fighters -- Pakistanis and Arabs, but also, according to some accounts, Chechens, Uighurs from China and even Indonesians. They know that soldiers from the victorious Northern Alliance have been particularly brutal to captured foreigners.
11/19/2001 06:54:35 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Chretien waffles on Afghan ground troops"The principal role that we hope they will have if, whenever and if they go there - because there is no final conclusion - will be to make sure that (aid gets) to the people who need it," [Chretien] said. "And the troops will be there to help pave the way.
"We don't want to have a big fight there."
Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day snapped a sarcastic reply. "I don't know if the prime minister is watching news, but there is a big fight there."
I hate to say anything nice about Stockwell Day, so I won't, but I nearly did.
11/19/2001 06:47:40 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Landry must retract comments linking Sept. 11 to Quebec sovereignty: Charest"Since the events of Sept. 11, if there is one conclusion to draw in relation to the project of Quebec sovereignty and the sovereignty and liberty of all peoples, that is it."
11/19/2001 06:44:56 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Fun comes back to KabulThe screen was an old canvas cloth painted white, the wooden chairs were splintered and the ceiling tiles had fallen out. There was no popcorn and a musty smell filled the air.
Still, the entertainment-starved Kabulis filled all 750 seats and 250 more were standing in the aisles.
When the film broke down at one point, howls of frustration filled the theatre. When it was fixed minutes later, the crowd roared with approval.
11/19/2001 06:42:23 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
iWon - Senator Wants Bioterrorism 'Manhattan Project'"This is a race for the best minds, the best talent and the best technology we can find in the realm of biological, chemical and radiological warfare," said Cleland, who was joined by CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan, Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes and several public health advocates.
11/19/2001 06:38:52 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
To Forestall a 'Digital Pearl Harbor,' U.S. Looks to System Separate From Internet"Prior to 9/11," he said in an interview, "there were a lot of people who thought that the only thing the terrorists could do is what they have already done. Now we know they can do something really catastrophic."
11/19/2001 06:36:21 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
NATIONAL POST ONLINE | Uzbekistan bureaucracy delaying aid, agencies say"It's very frustrating to see Afghanistan right there across the river and not be allowed to get there, knowing the desperate needs on the other side," said Louis Sida, the emergency co-ordinator for Save the Children.
11/19/2001 06:30:07 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | Conrad's black mark for Canada"You're not going to see the end of me until the undertaker tells you I am gone," the media mogul said after turning in his Canadian passport.
11/19/2001 06:28:02 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
MediaGuardian.co.uk | Press&publishing | Zimbabwe police seize reportersThe state-owned Herald newspaper reported on Monday that the two witnessed the assault of a man in Bulawayo by MDC supporters who made him confess that the murder of war veteran Cain Nkala was the work of Zimbabwe's central intelligence organisation.
11/19/2001 06:24:12 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Behind the Veil: Women Subtly Fought Taliban"I thought of killing myself many times," she said of life under the Taliban. As a woman she was not supposed to leave home without a male relative; as a widow she had no choice. Buying groceries could bring a beating from the religious police. "Only my love for my students saved me."
11/19/2001 06:20:49 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Taleban in Kunduz 'near surrender'But he said the alliance would never allow safe passage for the foreign militants in the town who have been fighting for the Taleban, as has also been demanded by Mullah Dadullah.
11/19/2001 06:18:23 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Journalists killed in Afghan ambush"They took the journalists, and when the journalists turned to look at them, the gunmen shot."
11/19/2001 06:17:07 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Times: Taleban abandon bin LadenWith most of Afghanistan now in the hands of opposition groups, and the Taleban reduced to two shrinking pockets of control around Konduz and Kandahar, bin Laden and his al-Qaeda supporters found themselves alone and for the first time on the front line of the war.
11/19/2001 01:02:13 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Sunday, November 18, 2001
CNN.com - Konduz surrounded; Taliban urged to defect - November 18, 2001Some Taliban leaders have expressed willingness to surrender -- but not to the Northern Alliance. A group of Afghan tribal elders in Peshawar, Pakistan, announced that the Taliban commander of Afghanistan's northern zone, Mullah Dadullah, and the Konduz governor, Haji Omar Khan, were willing to surrender to the United Nations.
11/18/2001 09:39:31 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
IHT Could Qaida Set off 'Dirty' Bomb?Probably not, say U.S. officials and most independent analysts, who are skeptical of claims by Mr. bin Laden that he has nuclear weapons or other sophisticated devices capable of causing much greater numbers of casualties than those of Sept. 11.
But they caution that his supporters have dabbled in chemical experiments and shown an interest in acquiring nuclear materials that could be used in conjunction with conventional explosives for a "dirty bomb."
11/18/2001 09:35:00 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Irreproducible Nuke meets the Taliban After displaying images of this weaponry, and papers littering the floor, Simpson [of the BBC] shows us his two most horrifying finds: A piece of paper with the word "ricin" on it, and plans for a thermonuclear device!
[..]
...those words appear on a semi-famous document that has made the rounds on the Internet since the late 1980's. It's a reprint of a scientific parody called "How to Build an Atom Bomb" from a humor newsletter called The Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). At the time this document was originally written (1979!), the newsletter was called the "Journal of Irreproducible Results".
11/18/2001 09:32:29 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Daily Telegraph: 'Terror network awaiting orders' [19nov01]Jean-Jacques Pascal, head of France's DST counterintelligence agency, said a number of "neo-Afghans," or Algerians who trained in Afghan terrorist camps, had resettled in Europe.
11/18/2001 09:21:04 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: G-20 makes promises, protesters make noiseEven before the meetings began, police arrested at least a dozen people from a group of protesters who said the meetings of the G-20, International Monetary Fund and World Bank are designed to maximize corporate profits, not to help poorer countries.
11/18/2001 09:15:23 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
FOXNews.com: British, American Troops May Be Close to Capturing Bin LadenBritish and American special forces have narrowed their search for Usama bin Laden to a hilly area of just 30 square miles in southeastern Afghanistan, defence sources revealed Saturday.
11/18/2001 08:29:15 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Oh Yes I Will!You can do this for fun (it's like playing "Mad Libs," or those surrealist word games we all played as tots) or, for even more fun, you can use it to obtain speaking opportunities on behalf of your adopted organization, whether it be the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, the European Union, the White House, or even just any old c o r p o r a t i o n .
11/18/2001 05:21:37 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Friday, November 16, 2001
Newhouse: History be damned, let's danceThere is nothing that dismays the Chomskyites more than American success, regardless of the consequence to the people on whose behalf the protesters protest. Better a thousand Kuwaiti women be shipped off to Republican Guard rape camps than the U.S. keep Saddam's hands off the world's economic jugular. Better the Taliban dig its claws into the neck of a nation than the U.S. actually be seen as a liberator. Better that evil triumph, as long as flawed men don't act.
11/16/2001 12:14:57 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Interview with Mullah Omar - transcriptThis is not a matter of weapons. We are hopeful for God's help. The real matter is the extinction of America. And, God willing, it [America] will fall to the ground.
11/16/2001 10:52:04 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/Top court rules Canada `not a police state',In two separate 9-0 judgments, the court said reporters can now publish details of police tactics used to entice confessions from murder suspects in Manitoba and British Columbia. Both cases ended in acquittals.
11/16/2001 10:39:17 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/CBC-TV reporter arrested in Tehran, footage erased"They were forced to play their taped material, then their material was erased,'' [CBC spokesperson Ruth-Ellen Soles] said, adding, "But everyone was released and everyone's fine."
11/16/2001 10:34:11 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Economist.com: bin Laden's dreamworldMr bin Laden and his kind may be sloppy historians and faulty interpreters of their own faith, let alone others. But even now he could win the propaganda war, and make his predictions of a clash self-fulfilling, unless serious people in the "Christian West" and the "Muslim East" are prepared to take his arguments seriously and demonstrate that there are no such places.
11/16/2001 10:31:19 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Microsoft says 'sign here and we'll pick up the tab' (washingtonpost.com)A Microsoft spokesman described the offer as a formality, but it is the latest in a series of moves by the company to woo states that declined to sign on to the settlement deal. Although several of those states left open the possibility that they would agree to the deal after further study, so far they are pushing ahead with preparations for court hearings on how the company should be penalized for breaking antitrust laws.
11/16/2001 10:25:52 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | AMERICAS | Flight 93 hijack recording released"Hi. This is the captain, I would like you all to remain seated. There is a bomb on board and we are going back to the airport. They have our demands..." the hijacker says.
11/16/2001 10:03:28 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Sleeper terrorists still asleepIn particular, said one senior law enforcement official, "no links have been established" between the hijackers and the four men believed to be the strongest terrorism suspects: two men from India arrested Sept. 12 on a train in Texas, a former Boston cabdriver arrested outside Chicago and a former flight school student who was arrested in Minnesota in August. Some authorities emphasize the possibility that investigators, whose efforts have been frustrated by uncooperative witnesses, might still uncover evidence linking the jailed suspects to the plots or other terrorist or criminal activities.
11/16/2001 10:01:26 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Black castigates CanadiansAmong many stinging rebukes directed at his native land, Lord Black quoted with approval poet Irving Layton's accusation that Canada's political and intellectual communities tend to regard "cowardice as wisdom, Philistinism as Olympian serenity and the spitefulness of the weak as moral indignation."
11/16/2001 09:58:41 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thursday, November 15, 2001
Daily Mail&Guardian: Tracking the Congo gun trade: A small arms study released says that as many as 41 000 weapons are in the possession of militias and are scattered throughout the country, reports IRINIn terms of internal trade, SAS found "a strong market for military weapons destined for poaching in the wildlife reserves throughout Congo", with evidence revealing that this trade is "widespread and highly profitable" due to the low prices of weapons (particularly outside Brazzaville) and due to "the relative impunity with which poachers operate". Most weapons are reportedly sold directly from Brazzaville, Impfondo and other regions near wildlife reserves.
11/15/2001 09:28:21 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Economist.com: Send in the dronesThe use of missile-firing Predators is particularly noteworthy. It was only in February that the first test-firing of a Hellfire air-to-surface missile from a Predator was carried out, at the Indian Springs base in Nevada. The aircraft in question had been fitted with a laser designator, which illuminates a target and enables a missile (usually launched from another aircraft) to home in. So it was a logical step to launch missiles from the Predator itself. During the tests three missiles were fired, all of which hit their targets.
11/15/2001 09:26:57 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/Parti Quebecois must target youth, Parizeau says"The greatest challenge is to find a way of discussing things with people, and particularly with young people, in terms of the world today and the framework of thoughts today rather than the one of Nov. 15, 1976," Parizeau said following a reception celebrating the release of a book about the PQ.
11/15/2001 05:58:44 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Journalists 'not legitimate targets'Gowing said the British special forces had told him: "When a war is not declared, journalists are legitimate targets where they are inconvenient."
11/15/2001 05:32:07 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | BUSINESS | Russia defies Opec oil cartelRussia has said it will not scale back exports to help support plunging prices. Brent crude today fell to $16.80 a barrel, the lowest level since June 1999.
11/15/2001 05:29:48 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
United pilots to get stun gunsElk Grove Township-based United said the Tasers will be available to pilots in the event of a hijacking to defend the cockpit. United along with other airlines has also reinforced cockpit doors with special metal bars.
11/15/2001 05:27:45 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Top Taliban leaders reported killedOpposition sources say there could be as many as 20,000 to 40,000 Taliban soldiers in the largely Pashtun city, which is the Taliban's ethnic power base.
11/15/2001 01:47:05 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
One way Bush "would" win, the other Gore "might"No matter how you count it, Gore should have won Florida, and hence the presidency. And that's not even factoring in Gore's enormous lead in the national popular vote -- only one candidate in the history of the country, Ronald Reagan, received more votes.
11/15/2001 10:23:15 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Times: Smoking nuke plans found in KabulThe Times discovered the partly burnt documents in a hastily abandoned safe house in the Karta Parwan quarter of the city. Written in Arabic, German, Urdu and English, the notes give detailed designs for missiles, bombs and nuclear weapons. There are descriptions of how the detonation of TNT compresses plutonium into a critical mass, sparking a chain reaction, and ultimately a thermonuclear reaction.
11/15/2001 10:13:58 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Taliban not quite gone; medical crisis in TaloqanAbdul-Mawlood, who like most Afghans uses no surname, did not believe the Taliban are finished quite yet. "They are still very strong in that area," he added, referring to the one remaining pocket of Taliban strength in the north, near Kunduz.
11/15/2001 09:49:51 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Taliban control crumbling but bin Laden elusive"Some have been killed, others are hiding, and there are no particular reports of senior leadership having been located," said Rumsfeld during a tour of the World Trade Center wreckage.
11/15/2001 09:35:55 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Reuters AlertNet - Amnesty urges the world not to ignore Burundi"Human life continues to be treated with contempt, while cynical efforts are made to drag children as young as 12 into the horrendous cycle of violence that has plagued the country in recent years."
11/15/2001 09:29:20 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | UN seeks to unite Afghan factionsMeanwhile, a defiant Mullah Omar exclusively told the BBC's Pashto-language service: "We would prefer death to the government of fascists."
And he said a plan for the "destruction of America" was going ahead.
11/15/2001 09:12:29 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Military Order: Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against TerrorismAny individual subject to this order shall, when tried, be tried by military commission for any and all offenses triable by military commission that such individual is alleged to have committed, and may be punished in accordance with the penalties provided under applicable law, including life imprisonment or death.
11/15/2001 09:01:19 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Wednesday, November 14, 2001
In a fit of sheer brilliance, the Canadian federal government decided to host the G20 within spitting distance of the Byward Market, which includes or is very proximate to houses, schools, small food shops, restaurants, malls, highrises, lowrises, two of the main bridges to Place du Portage (loaded with thousands of civil servants), the National Gallery, the biggest bus interchange in a transit system serving a million people, the American embassy, the Governor General's residence, the Prime Minister's residence, and Parliament.
This entire area will be emptied or kept under guard, which will cost businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars for the privilege of hosting this global economic summit.
I'd sell my pineal gland to be there -- would've driven up but I have a contract for web monkey work with the aforementioned government who claimed they wanted me to work this week, and has sent me no goddamn work, so I'm sitting on my ass in New Brunswick instead of covering Tear Gas Summit Winter 2001 like I would be if I was in the closest thing I've got to a hometown. Admittedly, New Brunswick was my idea... and the book is going well. There's at least an outside chance of hitting episode 37 by the end of this weekend (depending on whether the work magically shows up after all, some benevolent fairy offers me a pittance to drive like a banshee to Ottawa tomorrow for the weekend, or a plane falls on me.) But if you've wondered why I'm peculiarly non-opinate on this weblog, it's 'cause I'm savin' all my love for my work... Although I've also been doing a lot of photo.
11/14/2001 11:00:10 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Taliban Wants Bush Tried in Sharia CourtWhen the news anchor asked if Kandahar had fallen into the hands of the opposition, Agha said: "That is not correct; it is false news. We are here in Kandahar. The situation here is stable. Life here is normal, and there is no danger for the city of Kandahar and the districts around it."
11/14/2001 10:34:21 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
'Talibanization' of Bangladesh allegedly under way"They raped me and my nine-year-old daughter. How can I stay in that country?" says Shefali Das, 40, of Bhola in southern Bangladesh. Now a refugee in Bongaon, West Bengal, Shefali lives in fear of being deported. "We have been threatened with death if we go back. We have already lost our honor, now we will lose our lives," she says.
11/14/2001 10:33:01 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Taleban 'collapsing' across AfghanistanDespite these territorial losses, the Taleban leadership remained defiant, claiming to be regrouping after what they called a tactical withdrawal from some cities.
11/14/2001 10:10:43 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CTVNews.com - Canada sending ground troops to AfghanistanCTV News has learned that Canada is preparing to send 1,000 ground troops to Afghanistan. A 48-hour stand-by alert has been issued to a combat unit based in Edmonton.
11/14/2001 10:09:53 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNEWS Law & Order - Men sentenced for homosexualityThe men were put to trial after police raided a Nile boat restaurant in May and accused them of taking part in a gay sex party. Egyptian law does not explicitly refer to homosexuality, and prosecutors leveled charges including debauchery and contempt of religion.
11/14/2001 06:26:10 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
How far Americans would go to fight terror | csmonitor.comA new Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll shows sizeable segments of the public support other "taboos," too: One in 3 could accept government-sanctioned torture of suspects. One in 4 could envision a scenario in which they'd back use of nuclear weapons.
11/14/2001 04:04:24 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Boston Globe Online: Women, war and peaceRina Amiri, who left Afghanistan when she was a child in 1973, says it is no surprise that the Taliban regime's attack on women's rights has coincided with a growing extremism. ''When you shut out the women you don't leave voices that can be a moderating force,'' she said. ''It is the women who supply a stable, cohesive community .... If the international community wants stability they have to empower the women as well.''
11/14/2001 03:53:29 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ananova - French workers threaten to blow up factoryThe 100 former staff at the Moulinex plant in Cormelles-le-Royal have set a deadline of the end of the day, after about 30 workers set fire to part of the building yesterday.
11/14/2001 03:41:29 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The fall of Kabul - Jane's Defence NewsThe first hours of daylight revealed a power-vacuum in the city. In some quarters looting broke out immediately, while in others armed local pro-UF groups, that had earlier been hidden, moved in to take control. A small number of Pakistanis and Arabs who had failed to escape during the night were hunted down and killed by local mobs. In the Shahr-e-Nao Park in Central Kabul, three Pakistanis were shot and beaten to death while jubilant crowds of local men and boys chanted "Death to Pakistan, death to Musharraff".
11/14/2001 03:36:36 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | EUROPE | French children urged to disarmThe charity Medecins du monde hopes to create a stockpile of plastic guns as children are asked to make a symbolic gesture by giving up one of their toys.
11/14/2001 02:58:44 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
China Daily: Nation signs anti-terrorism protocolsTang made the statement at a UN meeting, known as "the Six Plus Two" meeting on Afghanistan. The six countries are China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan - all countries bordering Afghanistan. The two countries are the United States and Russia.
11/14/2001 02:56:56 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Cop hopes not to arrest momConst. William Barlow still doesn't know what his duties will be, but the patrol officer hopes his mother, renowned Canadian activist Maude Barlow, won't get caught in any violent skirmishes.
11/14/2001 02:54:21 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Financial Gazette: Judge backs Press freedom in landmark rulingA ZIMBABWEAN High Court judge has defended the right of the Press to expose corruption, dishonesty and graft wherever they occur and to name the perpetrators of the malpractices.
11/14/2001 02:52:45 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
MediaGuardian.co.uk | Special reports | Simpson of Kabul: a brief history of war scoops"I'm still reeling at the BBC being first in and taking Kabul," said the home secretary. "Well done John Simpson, eh?"
11/14/2001 02:45:04 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
iWon - Northern Alliance: 'Total Chaos' Reigns in KandaharAbdullah said that in certain areas of Mazar-i-Sharif Taliban were putting up resistance and clashes were continuing, "but we have put a complete siege around them, and since they are positioned in residential areas our forces are taking care not to harm civilians."
11/14/2001 02:41:48 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Fortune.com: You have to walk the talkThe U.S., meanwhile, had taken a most peculiar position on globalization. There was a huge gap between what America and its European allies preached and what they practiced. They told developing countries to eliminate subsidies and trust free markets, yet they continued to subsidize their own agriculture massively. The U.S. used anti-dumping laws to keep out foreign goods that undersold American products, and tried to set up global cartels to protect aluminum and steel. While America and Europe worked to force developing countries to open their markets, they kept their own markets closed to many imports from developing countries, such as agriculture and textiles. America and Europe were--quite rightly--accused of hypocrisy.
11/14/2001 02:01:41 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ottawa Citizen - Protesters ready for violenceMr. Kneen said that in his opinion, breaking into the conference facility where delegates of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the G20 are meeting this weekend does not constitute "violence."
11/14/2001 01:50:42 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
G20 protester arrested on arrival"She's been in and out of Canada several times in the last year without incident," said Mr. Kneen. "We're wondering why all of a sudden there's a problem."
11/14/2001 01:48:39 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Technology to find a suspect's face in the crowd: Facial recognition technology approved at Va. BeachSupport for the technology increased after the September 11 terrorist attacks, particularly once it was learned that some of the suspected hijackers spent time in Virginia Beach.
Some tourists, citizens and council members called the system an invasion of privacy.
Others said you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.
11/14/2001 10:07:57 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Tuesday, November 13, 2001
TNR Online | Idiocy Watch: Readers' PollFor the past two months, Idiocy Watch has been our attempt to keep up with all the dumb and outrageous things said about America and the terrorists. While it will continue to appear from time to time here in the Notebook section of TNR, it is retiring as a fixed feature at TNR Online. For the final installment, we invite readers to vote for the comment they consider to be the dumbest and most outrageous to date.
11/13/2001 03:51:06 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
TNR Online | Personal Time by Michael Crowley...Leahy's insularity appears to have made the bill less protective of civil liberties. Had Leahy been more open to working with his fellow senators, some observers say, he might have had enough support in his committee to alter the [wiretap] bill more to his liking.
11/13/2001 03:47:54 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | US allies tighten grip on KabulWomen, already casting off their veils, have been told they can go back to work, and girls to school - activities banned by the city's strict former rulers, whose troops fled south towards their heartland.
11/13/2001 03:06:52 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Gore-Bush Consortium Report: How Bush Lost Florida But Won In The Supreme Court And The MediaFirst, it is an established fact that Gore beat Bush in the national popular vote by over a half million votes. (*) Secondly, Consortium interpretations of the voting data conclude that thousands more people voted for Gore in Florida than Bush. The problem for Gore is that many more votes in his favor were declared invalid than similar votes for Bush. Third, discounting such invalid votes, Consortium interpretations conclude that Gore still beat Bush statewide in Florida by a thin margin of under 200 votes. Which brings us back to the Supreme Court decision.
11/13/2001 02:41:48 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The true battlefront of the 21st century: Open systems versus closed systems | csmonitor.com...politicians and TV commentators hate complexity and nuance, and love generalities and easy-to-digest theories, so it this more simplistic "us-versus-them' version of 'the clash of civilizations' that has become the foreign policy flavor-of-the-month.
11/13/2001 02:37:43 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Economist.com: Arms and the menIt appears that Russia may now waive some of its objections to the testing of new anti-missile systems by the Bush administration. In particular, Russia may agree to ?overlook? American plans for a provisional deployment of five interceptor missiles at Fort Greely, in Alaska, next spring. But Russia has still talked only about allowing the testing of anti-missile systems; it has not yet said it would tolerate the deployment of any new interceptors, over and above the very limited defences which are permitted under the ABM treaty.
11/13/2001 02:25:20 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
U.S. missile destroys Kabul office of Arab TV station Al-JazeeraIt was unclear whether the TV station had been deliberately targeted by U.S. forces.
11/13/2001 02:15:38 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Italy wants Vancouver war criminal returnedAn Italian court found 77-year-old Michael Seifert guilty of murders, rape and torture in that country during the Second World War. He immigrated to Canada in the 1950's and was recently convicted in absentia.
11/13/2001 02:09:15 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Secrecy News 11/13/01"In this day and age, Washington can no longer afford to hand any interested individual a road map to the chemical calamities they could cause with the toxic materials located in communities nationwide," Smithson testified at a House Transportation subcommittee hearing last week on "Right to Know After September 11th." The hearing examined the policies governing public disclosure of chemical hazards at various industrial facilities.
11/13/2001 12:37:17 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
GOP Was the Real Victim in Fla. VoteThe new findings show that African American Republicans who voted in Florida were in excess of 50 times more likely than the average African American to have had a ballot declared invalid because it was spoiled.
11/13/2001 10:39:00 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Executions of P.O.W.'s Cast Doubts on AllianceLooting was widespread. Alliance soldiers, who have received extensive backing from the United States, plundered Taliban bodies and bunkers, stealing shoes, bags of sugar, flashlights and anything else that they could find. "I got 700,000 afghani!" a soldier who was leaving an abandoned Taliban bunker shouted, flashing a wad of bills worth $20. "I got 700,000!"
Surprise, surprise, surprise.
11/13/2001 10:28:56 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Hundreds of Pakistanis believed massacred"We gave them warnings to surrender," Mohammed Muhahiq, a spokesman for the opposition Shia militia, the Hizb-i-Wahdat, said. "They asked us to send representatives over several times, but unfortunately they shot them. Finally we gave the order to attack them. Some 200 of them [Pakistanis] have been killed."
11/13/2001 10:26:59 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Why Is The Electoral College Still There? - Chads were never the issue. By Timothy NoahDoes that mean George W. Bush is the rightful winner of the 2000 election? No. To be sure, Dubya's occupation of the Oval Office is consistent with the U.S. Constitution, and Chatterbox certainly recognizes Bush as his president (a courtesy Dick Armey famously failed to extend to Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton). Bush is certainly welcome to stay in the White House through 2004. As a matter of democratic principle, though, Chatterbox thinks the president of the United States ought to be whoever wins a plurality of the popular vote. In this instance, that would be Al Gore.
11/13/2001 10:25:38 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Michael Schaffer: Subject: Entry 1Two months after the World Trade Center put this troubled country back on the map, this sleepy government town has become a bit like Casablanca: Everyone's waiting for a visa. And there are vultures, vultures everywhere. One day, the price to get to the top of the list is supposed to be $1,000. The next day, it's $3,500. How much of it goes to the nice Pakistani journalist who's hooking you up? Who knows?
11/13/2001 10:09:02 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Monday, November 12, 2001
iWon - Woman Says She Befriended Hijacker Online"We had a lovable correspondence. He was very enchanting and a charming person," the woman was quoted as telling tabloid Ilta-Sanomat on Monday. It said she was a 58-year-old Muslim and a citizen of Australia who had lived in Finland since 1971.
11/12/2001 09:49:29 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Opposition sweeps to edge of Kabul"We should evaluate the situation. We should try our best not to enter Kabul. That will be a focus," [Abdullah Abdullah] said.
11/12/2001 09:04:31 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
'Rambo' returning to take on Bin Laden?The London Times is reporting the 55-year-old Stallone is at work on the script for a fourth entry in the "Rambo" series, in which the title hero launches a one-main invasion of Afghanistan to do battle with the Taliban.
11/12/2001 06:39:05 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
IHT: Russians Acknowledge Nuclear Security BreachesRussian officials have privately acknowledged that in the last year there have been dozens of violations of their own rules regarding nuclear security, that there has been at least one loss of fissile material, that Taliban emissaries have tried to recruit Russian scientists and that there have been at least two efforts by terrorists to stake out a secret Russian nuclear storage facility, according to senior officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Western governments.
11/12/2001 06:28:46 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ananova - New genocide charge against MilosevicDetails of the Bosnia indictment were not available, but it was expected to accuse Milosevic of responsibility for the deaths of hundreds and perhaps thousands of people during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. It was delayed by several weeks to include evidence from the recent exhumations of mass graves of Bosnian civilians.
11/12/2001 06:24:50 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | NEWSNIGHT | Greg Palest report transcript - 6/11/01 via cursor.orgTheir official line is that the Bin Ladens are above suspicion - apart from Osama, the black sheep, who they say hijacked the family name. That's fortunate for the Bush family and the Saudi royal household, whose links with the Bin Ladens could otherwise prove embarrassing. But Newsnight has obtained evidence that the FBI was on the trail of other members of the] Bin Laden family for links to terrorist organisations before and after September 11th.
11/12/2001 04:52:02 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
politechbot.com: Three DOJ documents: Wiretapping, searches, computer seizures[The first manual is from January 2001, but worth reviewing. The second two documents -- USA PATRIOT Act powers and attorney-client wiretapping -- are post-Sep-11. --DBM]
11/12/2001 04:47:24 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | AFRICA | Zambians killed by Angolan troopsThe Angolan soldiers crossed the border in hot pursuit of Unita rebels.
11/12/2001 04:09:54 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
OpinionJournal - Parachute Journalism Redux -Thank goodness there are alternatives to Christiane Amanpour.Clear-headed, clever and deeply unostentatious, [Canadian war correspondent Lyse Doucet] has neither Ms. Banfield's residual insecurity with the subject matter nor Ms. Amanpour's gaudy egotism. Besides--as she told me over her satellite phone on Friday--she abhors flak jackets. ("Listen, I'm in Islamabad. I'm here to clarify things. I'm not going to give a false impression of danger by wearing one. There isn't a war going on here on the roof of the Marriott.")
11/12/2001 04:09:01 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Afghans' aid packages stolen for trade by Northern Alliance"When we came they pushed us and threatened us," said one woman. "If the Americans really want to help the poor people here they shouldn't drop everything from the sky. They must give it to us directly."
11/12/2001 04:03:03 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
New Statesman - No fighting today: it's rainingThis bombing is not rattling "every window-pane on the Shomali plains", as the BBC World Service reported last week; in the 14th century, which pervades most of the country, houses don't have glass in their windows - and anyway, the raids are momentary and geographically spread out. Every day, we groan as we read another colleague's copy describing how "yesterday's bombing was the most intense yet". You would be forgiven for believing that, at this rate, the plains will soon look like a First World War battleground, all stumps and craters.
11/12/2001 04:00:50 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
It's All Arabic-English to HimFour weeks ago, Ajeeb introduced what its founder says is the first free online service that instantly translates Arabic websites into English. The company, a division of Arabic-language programming firm Sakhr Software, has been running an English-to-Arabic translation service for more than a year.
11/12/2001 11:56:48 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Slashdot | Another Plane Down in New York11/12/2001 11:55:12 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Yahoo! News - Reuters PhotoAmerican Airlines flight 587 from New York City to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic crashed shortly after take-off from John F. Kennedy airport on November 12, 2001, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said. The wide-body Airbus A-300 twin engine passenger jet crashed five miles from the airport in a residential area of Rockaway, in the Queens borough of New York City, said FAA spokesman William Shumann. (Michael Sales/Reuters Graphic)
11/12/2001 11:12:11 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Plane Crashed Near Kennedy Airport (washingtonpost.com)All metropolitan area airports -- Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J. -- were closed after the crash, which took place in the Rockaway section of Queens. All bridges and tunnels into the city were closed except to emergency vehicles. The United Nations was partially locked down.
11/12/2001 11:11:00 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Poison Gas Plot Alleged in EuropeOne plan to test a poison gas weapon in France was disrupted by European intelligence agents in March, officials said. The foiled test was an apparent prelude to unspecified future attacks. The terrorists wanted to try out what they called "the product"--a vapor that suffocates victims when inhaled. Authorities believe the product was hydrogen cyanide, a potentially lethal substance commonly used in metallurgy and gas chambers.
11/12/2001 10:03:24 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
EAGAN Gum theft stars in busy night for police (11/11/2001) via cursor.org"[The FBI] think it's a hoax," Johnson said. "But we still don't know why they wanted the gum."
11/12/2001 09:45:54 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Drudge Report: Gore topped Bush if all under/over votes counted; legal strategy destroyed chancesGore sought a recount of a small number of disputed ballots while the review indicates his only chance lay in a course he advocated publicly but did not pursue in court -- a full statewide recount of untallied votes!
11/12/2001 09:29:19 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Jonah Goldberg's Goldberg File on National Review Online: War and Patience...the media generally which assumes that every new development is a permanent one. Mark my words, if the Northern Alliance took control of Mazar-e Sharif today, tomorrow the talking heads will be predicting victory before Christmas, which is just as baseless as yesterday's pronouncements that we were losing.
11/12/2001 09:24:37 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Northern alliance claims capture of Herat, key city in western AfghanistanHerat is the most valuable prize in western Afghanistan. It also sits on the main highway that heads south to the Taliban's spiritual headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar.
11/12/2001 09:05:33 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: RCMP seek to arrest Ottawa businessmanOfficials alleged Wednesday that Liban Hussein's company, Barakaat North America Inc., is part of an underground network that funnelled millions of dollars to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.
11/12/2001 09:03:22 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Election tally finds Bush won Florida (probably)The only way Mr. Gore could have pulled ahead, the results show, was to persuade the courts to order a full statewide recount of all votes. Even then, the margin would have been so slender that different recounts of the same ballots might have yielded different results.
11/12/2001 09:01:30 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Gore may have beaten Bush: recount studyBut if Gore could have forced a statewide review of all untallied votes, the study suggests he would likely have become president by an edge of between 42 and 171 votes. Gore had publicly called for a review of all contested ballots, but his lawyers never pursued the tack in court.
11/12/2001 08:53:28 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - Gore, White House dismiss election report - November 11, 2001"But this latest media recount was an undertaking that turned up additional inconclusive data. The election was settled last year and the American people have moved on. The data's inconclusive and people around here [the White House] have felt for a long time the country has moved on."
Nonsense.
11/12/2001 08:52:02 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | BUSINESS | WTO breakthrough on medicinesThe text reportedly accepted by a ministerial working group states that the World Trade Organisation's intellectual property rights accord, known as TRIPS, "shall not prevent (WTO) members from taking measures to protect public health".
11/12/2001 08:42:12 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | One dead in Israel dawn raidThe Israeli army said merely that troops were in Tell to arrest people who participated in attacks against Israelis, and did not confirm any deaths.
11/12/2001 08:40:50 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Florida Recounts Would Have Favored Bush (washingtonpost.com) unless, as they say a paragraph later, all the votes were countedGore's narrow margin in the statewide count was the result of a windfall in overvotes. Those ballots -- on which a voter may have marked a candidate's name and also written it in -- were rejected by machines as a double vote on Election Day and most also would not have been included in either of the limited recounts.
11/12/2001 08:39:13 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Charest's Constitutional proposal 'shameful': Landry"Already the phrase 'distinct society' is weak because Quebec is a nation and a people. So this withdrawal of a distinct society really shatters and abandons any notion of a proud and dignified Quebec."
Being Canadian is undignified and shameful?
11/12/2001 08:36:20 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CTVNews.com - Three journalists killed in Taliban ambushMcGeough said the vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade that exploded not on impact but when it hit the ground. Three reporters were thrown off the carrier, while the others managed to hang on.
11/12/2001 08:25:45 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Sunday, November 11, 2001
Business Day: Mugabe issues decree evicting whitesThe move is expected to cause new anxiety of arbitrary mass evictions of white farmers as Mugabe attempts to build up support ahead of presidential elections due by the end of March 2002.
11/11/2001 04:54:32 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ananova - Israel tortures prisoners despite court ban, says reportInstances of torture include a 16-year-old youth who said he was soaked in freezing water, made to carry a heavy wooden beam while manacled and then beaten.
11/11/2001 03:50:01 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
news.telegraph.co.uk - Bin Laden: Yes, I did itThe hijackers were "blessed by Allah to destroy America's economic and military landmarks". He freely admits to being behind the attacks: "If avenging the killing of our people is terrorism then history should be a witness that we are terrorists. Yes, we kill their innocents and this is legal religiously and logically."
11/11/2001 03:48:22 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Doctors Worried as Americans Get Organs of Chinese InmatesExecuted prisoners are China's primary source of transplantable organs, though few of the condemned, if any, consent to having their organs removed, people involved with the process say. Some of the unwitting donors may even be innocent, having been executed as part of a surge of executions propelled by accelerated trials and confessions that sometimes were extracted through torture.
11/11/2001 12:49:52 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Rich Face Poor-Country Phalanx in WTO Trade Talks"If you have...a country that is hit by, say, AIDS or malaria, who can say that country can be a good trading partner?" Rugumayo asked.
11/11/2001 12:39:32 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Suspected mass destruction weapon sites in Afghanistan have been bombed - U.S.The New York Times reported Sunday that the United States had identified three possible weapons of mass destruction sites in Afghanistan used by bin Laden's al-Qaida network, and had avoided bombing them.
11/11/2001 12:37:15 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ken Kesey: the real warThen why does it all sound so familiar? So cozy and comfortable? Was it the row after row of dark blue suits, broken only by grim clusters of highranking uniforms all drizzling ribbons and medals? If everything has changed (as we all knew that it had on that first day) why does it all wear the same old outfits and say the same old words?
11/11/2001 10:25:35 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Bushwacker: Bush Jr., Carlyisle Group, Bin Laden: the connection"This conflict of interest has now turned into a scandal. The idea of the President's father, an ex-president himself, doing business with a company under investigation by the FBI in the terror attacks of September 11 is horrible. President Bush should not ask, but demand, that his father pull out of the Carlyle Group."
11/11/2001 10:18:30 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
IHT:New Status as Taiwan Enters WTOThe lines started forming all over Taiwan on Thursday. People mobbed supermarkets and corner stores to buy bottles of rice wine, a potent brew that is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cooking.
The price of the wine will increase five-fold after Taiwan enters the World Trade Organization because, under the terms of its membership, the government must dismantle the monopoly that has controlled prices.
11/11/2001 10:14:08 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
washingtonpost.com: Holding City Could Open a Route for Arms and AidMost immediately, however, the city's seizure would open a strategic road link into Afghanistan from Uzbekistan about 40 miles to the north. It would allow the United States and its allies to transport substantial quantities of military gear and ammunition to the Northern Alliance, and would provide a route for far greater humanitarian relief supplies than U.S. air drops have been able to supply to up to now.
11/11/2001 10:08:58 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Aerial photo of Ground Zero11/11/2001 10:04:47 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Advancing Afghan rebels cast eye on KabulNorthern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah told Reuters on Sunday the opposition would prefer to await a political agreement before entering Kabul, but might take the city if there was a power vacuum.
11/11/2001 09:49:08 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Canadians go from distant to distraught / Once-aloof northern neighbors feeling a little too close to U.S.Even when the lights go out momentarily in the shopping mall where he displays his products, he says to himself, "My God, what's happening?"
11/11/2001 09:43:20 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thousands pour into Rome for rival rallies - one pro-US, the other anti-warAt one point in the march, demonstrators stomped on a U.S. flag in the street. An elderly woman on the sidelines swept it up in her hands and kissed it before the flag was handed back to marchers, who then threw it back on the ground.
11/11/2001 09:37:57 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/Quebec Grits vote for key policy changeThe Quebec Liberal party's general council unanimously adopted a proposal Saturday that calls for the inclusion of a mention of Quebec's "specificity" within the framework of the Constitution.
Screw that. Screw Quebec. I was born in British Columbia, and I say British Columbia is every bit as bizarre and unique as Quebec. So how about Quebec just shuts the hell up and quits acting so stupidly superior? Equal to British Columbia is a remarkably high rating -- but I'll never stand for "better".
11/11/2001 09:36:17 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Alberta to defy Ottawa, cut health coverageAlberta intends to lead a challenge to determine exactly what the word "comprehensive" means in the Canada Health Act, Klein said.
11/11/2001 09:31:20 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Reuters AlertNet - Kenya's Mau Mau veterans to sue government - paperThe veterans are seeking six billion shillings ($76 million) compensation, charging torture, imprisonment, unlawful detention, loss of land, property and loss of loved ones during the colonial period, Kenya's People on Sunday said.
11/11/2001 09:29:23 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Guardian Unlimited Observer | Observer site | Britain placed under state of emergencyIn a historic initiative that will incense civil liberties groups, David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, will lay the order before the House of Commons in the next 48 hours, to be followed by anti-terrorist legislation which will be rushed through in the next four weeks.
11/11/2001 09:21:06 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
India News - "Bin Laden's Next Target Is Not India. It's Israel"Mir said the first time (1997) when he went to meet Laden, the latter had entertained him with many things to eat, including roasted sheep. "But when I met him last time, he could offer me only bread and tea. That shows that his position is not good. If he was not able to entertain his guests, so how could he manage a big army of volunteers in Afghanistan? I don't think he has many people. Actually the Western media and governments are projecting him as a King Kong," the Ausaf editor said, and added that bin Laden is not capable of doing what has happened in the US.
11/11/2001 09:19:05 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Saturday, November 10, 2001
BBC News | BUSINESS | China admitted to WTOBut it put the WTO on notice that a trade round could only succeed if it addressed the gap between rich and poor nations, and ensured that all countries would gain from globalisation, as it staked its claim to lead the group of developing countries.
11/10/2001 04:37:55 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Frontier Post From Peshawar Pakistan: Al-Qaeda nukes may have reached US shoresThe investigators have been able to identify at least one briefcase weapon acquired by Al Qaeda from Central Asian rogue groups.
11/10/2001 04:33:45 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
World Subjectrights DayRather than protesting by carrying signs, or by marching, citizens will protest by going on shooting sprees. Armed with their own photographic or videographic cameras and recording devices, and shielded with masks or disguises, ordinary citizens will dish out some accountability while remaining anonymous to the massive proliferation of face tracking surveillance.
11/10/2001 11:18:26 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ottawa Citizen - Merchants fear worst from G20"The RCMP came in and told us to report anybody who is looking for things like gas masks," said Dan Ferran, manager of Irving Rivers work clothing shop. "They said to keep an eye out ... because you never know, if those protesters get armed, you don't want to see that."
11/10/2001 10:38:12 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Times: Chelsea joins the hecklers at rallyMiss Clinton left with her Secret Service bodyguards shortly afterwards, stopping to buy a copy of the Morning Star from a vendor, and making "yet more noise", according to Ms Beinart.
11/10/2001 10:35:40 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Charest says Quebec can be autonomous within Canada"We want Canada to evolve and modernize its way of practising federalism," Mr. Mr. Charest told delegates at a Liberal party meeting to adopt a new constitutional position. "Before proposing constitutional amendments, we have to prepare the way and establish a climate of confidence."
11/10/2001 10:20:49 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Friday, November 09, 2001
Osama Family's Suspicious SiteWhat makes Saudi-binladin-group.com so interesting is not just that it was once an official SBG website, but that it was registered on Sept. 11, 2000, with a pre-set expiration date of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a "whois" search of the Internet domain registry VeriSign.
11/9/2001 08:17:38 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Splits open in UK-US allianceThe British government is also intent on opposing the expansion of the war beyond Afghanistan and is horrified at elements within the Pentagon pushing for an all-out assault on Iraq.
11/9/2001 08:15:23 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Military hamstrung by dated policies: reportSaying that maintaining a combat-capable force is "essential" to ensuring that Canada has a legitimate voice on the international stage, the report prepared for the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies (CMSS) says that the authors are "somewhat incredulous of recent statements by senior military leaders that the Canadian Forces are more combat capable today than they were a decade ago."
11/9/2001 05:08:47 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Opposition claims to have taken strategic northern city of Mazar-e-SharifThe Taliban confirmed that opposition troops had entered southern parts of Mazar-e-Sharif "after heavy American bombing," according to the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press. The agency said Taliban forces were assembling outside the city.
11/9/2001 05:08:11 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Two Israeli cabinet ministers advised to leave homes over assassination fearsThe precautions followed the Oct. 17 assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi by militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The group said the killing was meant to avenge Israel's assassination of PFLP leader Mustafa Zibri in his office.
11/9/2001 05:05:58 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Iran Hard-Liners Want ISP Control"Providing Internet service is a monopoly of the state.... Any organization providing ISP shall dismantle their installations or transfer them to the state sector within six months," the paper quoted a council decree as saying.
11/9/2001 04:06:45 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Reuters AlertNet - Burundi rebels kidnap hundreds of students"They told us we had to follow them, because they too had abandoned school (to join the rebellion)," he said. "Some of them I recognised because we had studied together, and shared school meals at the same table. One knew me and said 'I'm glad you are with us now, let's go to the forest together'."
11/9/2001 04:01:51 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
AfricaOnline.com - Somali internet provider named on US blacklistOne of its shareholders is the Al-Barakaat group of companies, whose interests include banking and telecommunications services. Several Barakaat operations have been named as having links to terrorist groups in a new blacklist published by the US Treasury on 7 November.
11/9/2001 03:59:28 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | BUSINESS | Protesters barred from trade summitWhen anti-globalisation protesters laid siege to the G8 summit in Genoa it took steel barricades, ranks of riot police and clouds of tear gas to allow the world's industrial leaders to do business.
The detailed objections of the more thoughtful campaigners may have been drowned in the uproar, but world trade was a headline issue.
11/9/2001 03:51:50 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
NATIONAL POST ONLINE | Ottawa approach akin to Nazis, judge chargesThe bill, which came into force yesterday, requires lawyers, bankers, realtors, investors and other financial agents to secretly report to the government when they suspect a client may be involved in money laundering.
11/9/2001 03:46:27 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Canadian bio-terrorism defence technology in demand worldwideThe U.S. army is using it in Washington because of the anthrax scare. It was standard equipment at the Sydney Olympics and the system is being shipped to Singapore, Denmark and Korea.
But National Defence hasn't placed a large order even though Canada has admitted it needs a decontamination system.
[...]
The federal government's competitive bid process will take until 2005.
11/9/2001 02:52:12 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Lawsuit alleges negligence, stereotyping at federal agenciesUntil Sept. 20, Mohamed Attiah worked as an engineer at AECL. Attiah, 54, was born in Egypt, and his name sounds like that of Mohammad Atta, one of the alleged ringleaders of the Sept. hijackings.
A third man, named Mohamed Attia, was arrested in Toronto. Police say he had a homemade bomb.
11/9/2001 02:47:57 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
U.S. Will Monitor Calls to Lawyers (washingtonpost.com)Attorney General John D. Ashcroft approved the eavesdropping rule on an emergency basis last week, without the usual waiting period for public comment. It went into effect immediately, permitting the government to monitor conversations and intercept mail between people in custody and their attorneys for up to a year at a time.
11/9/2001 02:39:52 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thursday, November 08, 2001
Byron York on NRO: Bush?s Nagging ProblemEven when Bush is riding high, nearly half of Americans don't believe he won the election fair and square.
11/8/2001 06:03:26 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Beat: One year after Florida debacle: Jesse Jackson Jr. presses for fundamental election reforms"Most Americans will be shocked, appalled and outraged to learn that their Constitution does not grant them the right to vote. The 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments prohibit 'discrimination' in voting on the basis of race, sex and age -- but does not extend to (Americans) the right to vote," Jackson said, recalling Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's admonition to Al Gore's lawyers during last year's Florida dispute that no such protection exists. "Even though the right to vote is the supreme right in a democracy, the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore told Americans there is no explicit fundamental right to suffrage in the Constitution."
11/8/2001 06:01:46 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Pentagon flies home 18 body bagsThe sources confirmed that these bodies are of US Special Forces troops who lost their lives on the course of the campaign in Afghanistan.
11/8/2001 05:59:06 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Canada must take leading aid role, Axworthy saysThe same amount of money put into military efforts must go toward socioeconomic efforts in the country, Mr. Axworthy said.
11/8/2001 05:42:59 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Military needs more funding, committee saysWhile the committee didn't set a figure for an increased defence budget, it did point out a Conference of Defence Associations study that concluded the annual shortfall was $1-billion and recommended the $11-billion budget be boosted by $5-billion over five years.
11/8/2001 05:41:31 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Letter From UzbekistanThe bathroom did have water, even hot water as promised. No soap or toilet paper. I asked the floor lady. Toilet paper and shampoo appeared. She offered to change money too, at a pretty good rate. It was, it turned out, a full service kind of place. When she returned with the money, she offered me a prostitute too -- eering, laughing, and making obscene gestures all at the same time. No thanks.
11/8/2001 05:26:22 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
White House summons biz chieftains``Once we work out some specific objectives, the creative community will be invited back in,'' one source said.
11/8/2001 05:23:33 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - Zimbabwe editor arrested again - November 8, 2001Nyarota said he was told their arrests were part of a police probe into the investment structure of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), which publishes the Daily News.
11/8/2001 05:21:11 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
freedomforum.org: Sri Lankan presidential statement suggests government killing of journalistsAccording to the Daily News story, the president said Dissanayake had pleaded with her to become an absolute dictator. Dissanayake told Kumaratunga to gag the independent news media, which were critical of the government, and then made this statement: "Madam, the government is very weak and it could collapse at any time. If necessary I will even kill an editor or two who is critical of the government."
11/8/2001 05:19:18 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - Bush decides on N-weapons deal - November 7, 2001"I think it's best that I share with Mr. Putin the acceptable level of offensive weapons before I do with you," Bush told a reporter during a news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
11/8/2001 05:16:31 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | US raid 'kills 85 Pakistani militants'Abu Okasha, a spokesman for Harkat-e-Jihad-e-Islami, told the BBC that the fighters were killed on Thursday south of the key northern town of Mazar-e-Sharif.
11/8/2001 05:10:28 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Web Shorts: U.N.: We?re sick of forwarded e-petitionsStill passing around electronic peace petitions? The United Nations wants you to know that it is not interested. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, the U.N.?s online information center put up a message that entreats folks to quit forwarding petitions and other emails to the U.N. and its officials. The web site says that the organization has received an overwhelming number of email messages tied to a petition asking the U.S. not to go to war. ?While we were heartened by this effort, the United Nations Secretariat (to which we are employed) is an implementing organ for the actions and programs agreed upon and supported by its 189 Member States,? the site says. ?If individuals really want their voices heard by these decision-makers, they should contact their governments and mission to the UN to express concerns and views.? Despite this plea, however, well-meaning but misguided electronic anti-war petitions are still making the inbox rounds.
11/8/2001 05:08:40 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Population growth a global crisis: UNPilot projects in developing countries show that the birth rate declines when women have an equal say in family planning, the report notes.
[What a shocker! -- GT]
11/8/2001 05:03:17 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Wednesday, November 07, 2001
Ananova - Taliban ambassador says they will never hand over Osama bin Laden"Arabs live in Afghanistan, but they have no such camps which can be used against any other country," Zaeef said. "If necessary, Afghans will fight for 100 years, but they won't abandon Islam. Jihad is now mandatory."
11/7/2001 04:22:19 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
icSouthlondon - Fears over ancient Kabul treasure[The Treasure of Bactria] was excavated in 1978, when the county's former Communist ruler President Najibullah sealed it in seven trunks and hid it in a vault carved out of rock, protected by a steel door, bolted shut by seven locks with keys held by seven different people.
11/7/2001 03:25:08 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - Taiwan drops China trade ban - November 7, 2001...Taiwan would scrap its "no haste, be patient" policy which had restricted China-bound projects, and replace it with the so-called "aggressive opening, effective management" approach to help lift the economy.
11/7/2001 12:04:30 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
freedomforum.org: National Guardsman orders reporter to destroy photos at L.A. airport"You can't take pictures here," the guard told him.
"Says who?" Scheide asked.
"Says me," the guard yelled.
11/7/2001 10:40:19 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
IHT: Bush Sees Threat to 'Civilization' From TerroristsAfter an initial wave of international support and sympathy following the attacks on Washington and New York, the United States has seen signs of wavering opinion not only in Muslim countries, angered by reports of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, but in Europe.
11/7/2001 10:36:20 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ottawa Sun: Taliban kin target of alertThe list includes Mullah Mohammad Rabbani, chairman of the ruling council, and his deputy ministers, including those responsible for aviation, army staff, intelligence, martyrs and repatriation and preventing vice and propagating virtue.
11/7/2001 09:37:33 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Tuesday, November 06, 2001
Turkish Police Detain Suspects Selling UraniumThe suspects had agreed to sell the officers 2.56 pounds of uranium of a quality which could be used to develop a nuclear weapon, the police official told Reuters.
11/6/2001 09:46:24 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Yahoo! News - Associated Press Photo via Ken LayneA stealth bomber flies over Bank One Ballpark before Game 7 of the World Series Sunday Nov. 4, 2001, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Joe Cavaretta)
11/6/2001 09:40:53 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
IHT: Media Stoke Debate on Torture as U.S. Option"They're sitting around and not talking and may have information that could save American lives here and abroad," Bill Shine, the executive producer of the Fox News Channel, said of current government detainees. "And people are starting to say how can we get information out of them while respecting their constitutional rights."
11/6/2001 09:38:01 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The New Yorker: Fact: ESCAPE AND EVASIONThe Delta team stormed the complex, and found little of value: no Mullah and no significant documents.
"As they came out of the house, the shit hit the fan," one senior officer recounted. "It was like an ambush. The Taliban were firing light arms and either R.P.G.s" -- rocket-propelled grenades -- "or mortars." The chaos was terrifying. A high-ranking officer who has had access to debriefing reports told me that the Taliban forces were firing grenades, and that they seemed to have an unlimited supply.
11/6/2001 09:34:39 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Osama bin Laden - al Qaeda Network Governemnt Files5,000 pages of U.S. government documents covering the activities of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda (Arabic for the Base) network, archived on CD-ROM. Osama bin Laden (Osama bin Ladin) and al Qaeda (al Qaida) have been accused of several acts and conspiracies against the United States, including the September 11th, 2001, attack on New York's World Trade Center twin towers and the Pentagon building.
11/6/2001 09:29:50 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - Former envoys: Clinton gave Taliban evidence on bin Laden - November 6, 2001"They would say bin Laden was an honored guest. It would not be appropriate to expel him," said Inderfurth. "They would say he was under their control, which we knew was not the case."
Asked if the evidence was clear enough to convince the Taliban of bin Laden's guilt, Inderfurth said, "There was enough evidence that we got the U.N. Security Council to go along, 15 to zero, on a demand that they turn over bin Laden."
11/6/2001 09:27:16 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
allAfrica.com: Church Helped Mastermind Genocide, Says ExpertSeventh Day Adventist pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana is being jointly tried with his son Gerald Ntakirutimana. At the time of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Elizaphan was pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist church at Mugonero in Kibuye, western Rwanda. Gerald was a medical doctor at the infirmary which lay in the same complex. The two are charged with five counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
11/6/2001 09:26:11 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
allAfrica.com: Muslim Youths March for Bin Laden in Ibadan, Burn US FlagNational president of NACOMYO, Alhaji Isaaq Kunle Sanni, who addressed a press conference before they took off chronicled what he described as the atrocities of the US against the world, describing the American government as "evil personified."
11/6/2001 09:25:16 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Israel begins new pull-backBut Israel's defence ministry says it will maintain a security blockade around Ramallah - the seat of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority in the West Bank - after the withdrawal.
11/6/2001 09:23:06 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Muslims, Arabs denounce Canada's anti-terror bill"This bill is obscene," said Rocco Galati, lawyer for the CIC. "You might as well delete the Constitution from our landscape." He told committee members, "You are invoking extraordinary measures that we haven't seen since June 21 of 1941 (Second World War) and October of 1970 (War Measures Act)."
11/6/2001 09:18:22 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Press Spins Self-Serving MythsYet, as George Orwell noted, "any fair-minded person with journalistic experience will admit that during this war, official censorship has not been particularly irksome." By and large, most U.S. reporters agreed with him. No one wanted to report anything that might jeopardize Allied operations or hurt civilian morale. Even when confronted on the battlefield with what would now be denounced as Allied atrocities, reporters kept quiet.
11/6/2001 04:38:24 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Village Voice: Features: Outside Chance by Erik BaardAs panicky residents in Mississippi cry anthrax, FBI scientists are still begging their administrative superiors to talk to a Virginia resident who, as a Soviet researcher, helped make the lion's share of the world's biological weapons. Then there's the robotics firm in Little Italy that designs deep-digging probes for NASA's Mars missions 35 million miles away, but doesn't know who to call to help look through the World Trade Center rubble a few blocks south.
11/6/2001 04:32:22 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Justice Department won't let agent testifyNichols' attorneys asked Judge Ray Dean Linder if former FBI Agent Dan Vogel could testify that he had received 22 affidavits from Oklahomans who had seen McVeigh in the company of Middle Eastern men in the months, weeks, and days leading up to the bombing, and on the day of the attack.
11/6/2001 04:30:15 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Economist.com: Escalation??This war is fundamentally religious,? he claimed. ?It is a question of faith, not a war against terrorism, as Bush and Blair try to depict it.?
This tirade may seem bizarre, almost comical, to most westerners. [...] But government leaders in many Muslim countries know that Mr bin Laden?s analysis, however far-fetched, is finding a ready audience among many of their citizens.
11/6/2001 04:03:14 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Terrorism is terrorism, Putin saysBoth Russia and India are eager to convince the West that they are each already fighting their own front-line battle against terrorism, thereby hoping to be given free rein to choose their methods.
11/6/2001 03:55:23 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Car bomb injures 100 in Madrid; police arrest two linked to separatist ETAThe bomb mangled more than a dozen cars and shattered windows along Corazon de Maria street in northeastern Madrid as thousands of people headed to nearby offices and schools. The street parallels the main highway to the international airport and is in one of the capital's busiest areas.
11/6/2001 03:51:54 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ashcroft to Pursue Suicide DoctorsAshcroft said assisted suicide is not a ``legitimate medical purpose'' for prescribing, dispensing or administering federally controlled substances. However, he said pain management is a valid medical use of controlled substances.
11/6/2001 03:50:33 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
DAILY NEWS: Iranian Filmmaker Awaits Fate; Toronto Fest Changes; and a Letter to the Editor(indieWIRE/11.05.01) -- Iranian authorities arrested filmmaker Tahmineh Milani ("Two Women") last month and held her for eight days on charges yet to be made public. Milani's arrest is the most recent action in an ongoing struggle between religious conservatives and reformers in Iran. Journalists, academics and even translators have been sentenced to prison for over ten years for distributing information the right-wing judiciary disapproved of. Milani is the first filmmaker to be arrested.
11/6/2001 03:44:36 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
U.S. Names Envoy to RebelsIn announcing the appointment today, the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said Mr. Dobbins would travel extensively in the Middle East and South Asia to confer with Afghan tribal leaders and major representatives of the Northern Alliance and southern Pashtun factions, many of whom consider one another mortal enemies.
11/6/2001 03:43:59 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Afghan Opposition Says It Takes Areas Near Major Northern CityIf confirmed, the capture would be the opposition's biggest breakthrough since the United States began its bombing campaign nearly a month ago, a New York Times correspondent, Dexter Filkins, reported from Khoja Bahauddin, near Afghanistan's border with Tajikistan.
11/6/2001 03:42:24 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
itv.com: 99 injured by Madrid car bombWithin an hour of the explosion, police arrested a man and woman suspected of carrying out the attack.
11/6/2001 03:35:42 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/Germany readies 3,900 troops for war on terrorismThe request includes help in combating nuclear, biological and chemical weapons; medical services; special forces; air transport and naval forces to protect shipping lanes, Schroeder told a news conference. But specific decisions on deployment would have to be made by parliament, he said.
11/6/2001 03:34:37 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNEWS Law & Order - Kuwaiti murder plot?The wife of a Canadian man and five of her accomplices have confessed to killing him in Kuwait last month in a plot to collect his insurance money, the interior ministry said Tuesday.
11/6/2001 03:22:17 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Quebec Liberal MP pleads guilty to hit-and-runJean-Guy Carignan, the Liberal MP for the Québec City riding of Québec-Est, was charged after a 20-year-old woman suffered minor injuries when hit by a car on Oct. 3, 2000.
11/6/2001 03:21:21 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
InternetParodies.Org/JerryFalwellParodyI am the author of a web site, which as you note uses the domain names jerryfallwell.com and jerryfalwell.com, that parodies your client, Jerry Falwell. The parody both reminds the public of your client's hateful remarks about the causes of the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States, and evokes his criticism of the hypocritical attitudes that some Christians display toward compliance with biblical dictates, by suggesting that he himself ignores a significant biblical dictate. This is a completely non-commercial web site, which exists for the sole purpose of expressing, through a parody, my opinion that your client is a jerk.
11/6/2001 03:19:10 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Monday, November 05, 2001
CNN.com In-Depth Specials: WEAPONS FOUND AT AIRPORTS 1991-2000The three airports from which the September 11 terrorist hijackers departed -- Logan in Boston, Washington Dulles and Newark International -- had some of the lowest rates for detecting weapons among the 25 U.S. airports with the largest passenger volume. Industry experts believe that rates should not vary greatly airport to airport. The detection rates are the percentage of violations that involve weapons.
The nation's top 25 airports are listed below alphabetically, broken down by the number and type of weapons security screeners detected between 1991-2000.
11/5/2001 05:09:20 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Sweden sheds its neutrality when it comes to terrorism"What has changed is Sweden's freedom to maneuver. It's now possible to do things with other countries that couldn't have been done before the Cold War ended," says Dahlgren, noting Sweden's participation in joint NATO military maneuvers that would have angered the Soviet Union of a dozen years ago.
11/5/2001 04:42:52 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
IWon Money - Canada Wants Probe of U.S. Softwood DutiesCountries can object just once to the setting up of a panel and if Canada renews its request at next month's meeting of the disputes panel, the request will go through automatically, the officials said.
11/5/2001 04:39:50 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | AFRICA | Liberia 'illegally importing arms'In addition to the arms embargo, the UN has already banned Liberia from trading in diamonds, accusing it of selling them on behalf of a rebel group in neighbouring Sierra Leone, in exchange for weapons.
11/5/2001 04:38:39 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Mike Ruppert - www.copvcia.com -IF CIA AND THE GOVERNMENT WEREN?T INVOLVED IN THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS WHAT WERE THEY DOING?A more complete timeline listing crucial events both before and after the September 11th suicide attacks, which have been blamed on bin Laden, establishes CIA foreknowledge of them and strongly suggests that there was criminal complicity on the part of the U.S. government in their execution. It also makes clear that the events which have taken place since September 11th are based upon an agenda that has little to do with the attacks.
11/5/2001 04:36:12 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - FBI arrests man who tried to board flight armed with knives, weapons - November 5, 2001Gurung had been arrested Saturday night and charged with unlawful possession of a weapon and attempting to board an aircraft with a weapon, both misdemeanor charges. Gurung, who said he was from Nepal, was initially released on bond and told to appear in court December 19.
11/5/2001 04:28:02 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Canada hosts G-20 G20 IMF World Bank meetings 16 Nov 2001Two committees from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will hold concurrent meetings in Ottawa.
I would give my left ovary to get back up to Ottawa in time for this. Book's stable enough to travel and the bucolic splendors of New Brunswick (as illustrated in the Hypercube picture of the day are wearing pretty darn thin.
11/5/2001 02:22:25 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
In Ads, Death Makes a Hasty Exit via...after Sept. 11, said Joel Tractenberg, partner and copywriter at Tractenberg Advertising in New York, which created the ad, "people went from thinking we were comic geniuses to sociopaths really quickly."
11/5/2001 10:59:23 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Australian: When columnists take to the barricades [October 04, 2001]via Matt WelchJanet Daley, in the right-leaning British broadsheet The Daily Telegraph, went further: "A whole swathe of this country's educated class is unable to distinguish between right and wrong. There is no other possible conclusion. There are apparently thousands of people out there who think that it is quite acceptable to see the mass murder of innocent people as a message that needed to be delivered."
11/5/2001 10:56:23 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Osama spotted in Kandahar: Report : World News : IndiaExpress.ComBin Laden was in the city mainly to "boost the morale of the people who have been braving the carpet bombing (by the US) for the last couple of days", the 'Pakistan Observer' quoted "reliable sources" as saying.
11/5/2001 10:50:32 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ananova - Jailed animal rights bomber dies after hunger strikeDuring previous hunger strikes by Horne, militant supporters threatened to assassinate 10 leading scientists and animal breeders if he died.
11/5/2001 10:39:51 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Economist.com: A nervous nationBizarrely, the area where security was most obviously breached -- airlines -- is the one area that is taking longest to sort out. All agree that airline security needs to be improved. However, while the Senate believes baggage screeners should be federal employees, the administration and Republicans in Congress are loth to add 28,000 potential union members to the federal payroll. The House Republicans got their way, and there will now be further weeks of wrangling over a compromise before America gets the airline security bill it so badly needs.
11/5/2001 10:37:01 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
'Regional rivalries activated' in Kashmir - Jane's International Security NewsThe heightened strain between the South Asian adversaries - who continue to daily trade artillery and small arms fire across the volatile Kashmir frontier in what the Indian Army calls a 'no-war-no-peace' situation - comes at a crucial, albeit highly avoidable, juncture in the US-led alliance's war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorist network in Afghanistan.
11/5/2001 10:34:20 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The worst is yet to comeThe dismal U.S. employment figures - which translate to 415,000 people losing their jobs in a month - mean "the U.S. economy will definitely be on the downside in the coming months," he said, and "unless something pretty unlikely happens," Canada will follow.
11/5/2001 10:30:09 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Afghans wonder if Osama bin Laden's presence is worth the pain"You think this is democracy?" he asked. "We don't have democracy in our country. Before it was (Burhanuddin) Rabbani and (Gulbuddin) Hekmatyar who killed us with their rockets," referring to the country's rulers before the Taliban took power in 1996.
"And now the Taliban will kill us with their guns," he added. "The people in this country have no tongue with which to speak anymore."
11/5/2001 10:19:02 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
FBI arrests Saudi national for issuing American visas for moneyAbdulla Noman, who works for the U.S. Department of Commerce issuing visas at the American Consulate in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, was arrested Thursday in a Las Vegas Strip hotel room, authorities said. He is being held in federal custody.
11/5/2001 10:17:34 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | EUROPE | Austria hints at ending neutrality[Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang] Schuessel stirred controversy on Austria's national day last month, saying, "the old cliches - Lippizaner, Mozart chocolate balls and neutrality - are no longer applicable in the complex reality of the 21st Century".
11/5/2001 10:15:13 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
IHT: U.S. Weighs Taking War on Terror to SomaliaSomalia has been a center of Qaida activity since 1993, when Mr. bin Laden sent several top lieutenants to provide assistance to General Mohammed Farah Aideed, a local warlord. General Aideed's forces killed 18 U.S. Army soldiers serving in a UN peacekeeping force in October that year. Television images of a dead American being dragged through the streets of the capital, Mogadishu, shocked the Clinton administration and precipitated its decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from the country.
11/5/2001 10:14:05 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Prop up economy, Canadians tell OttawaGenerally, people said they don't want to see the job-creation programs paid for through cuts to health care or education, higher taxes or by running up a deficit. Even new security requirements would not justify cutting health care spending or raising taxes, according to 82 per cent of respondents.
But the ranks of people willing to tolerate a deficit or tax increase appear to be growing -- 43 per cent cent said they would not mind a deficit, and 37 per cent said they would rather have a rise in personal taxes than a deficit.
11/5/2001 09:54:01 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thestar.com/Canadians want tougher immigration rules: Poll"You've got people saying Yes, we should be more strict," said Bourque.
"But also Yes, we should remain true to how we've defined ourselves as Canadians as being a welcoming country for people from around the world."
In other words, change the process, not the values, he added.
11/5/2001 09:52:27 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | ASIA-PACIFIC | Chinese river poisoned by cyanideThe official China Daily newspaper said 11 tons of liquid sodium cyanide had leaked into a tributary of the Luohe river in Henan province, about 800 kilometres southwest of Beijing, following a traffic accident.
11/5/2001 09:49:38 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Patents or Poverty? A New Debate Over Poor AIDS Care in AfricaThe study addresses a simple question: how many of the 15 recognized antiretroviral drugs for treating AIDS have been patented by their makers in how many of Africa's 53 countries?
It calculates that only 22 percent of the 795 patents theoretically available across Africa have been awarded, in most cases because the companies that own the patents have not bothered to apply.
And yet, everyone acknowledges that anti-retroviral drugs are still too expensive to be widely obtainable in Africa at prices people can afford.
11/5/2001 09:48:27 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Time To Save ‘Just In Time’Flynn believes that the new [Canada-US border] controls are imposing a horrendous economic cost. Even worse, they are ultimately unworkable. "We will never have the manpower to keep this up. We're inspecting in the dark. We have no sense of what's high risk and what's low risk."
11/5/2001 09:45:28 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Pakistan News Service: Foreign journalists at mercy of illiterate guidesAt hotels, guest houses where the foreign media teams were staying, guides, receptionists, taxi drivers and other made contacts with the foreign journalists and began to guide them about the individuals, places, organization and even some sensitive issues about which they had neither an a idea nor any understanding.
11/5/2001 09:37:51 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Independent News: Freed journalist says Taliban are in high spiritsMichel Peyrard of Paris-Match, who was freed on Saturday night, said he had taught his Taliban guards the words of a French pop song, "Les Champs Elysees" by Joe Dassin. When American aircraft raided Jalalabad, the city where he was being held, the guards climbed on to the prison roof and sang: "Hey, Mr Bush, aux Champs Elysees."
11/5/2001 09:36:14 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Archbishop of Canterbury to appear on al-JazeeraIt will be the first time a Christian cleric has appeared on the station.
11/5/2001 09:33:00 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - Rumsfeld follows Islamabad talks with visit to India - November 5, 2001Pakistan's leader said Saturday he would not press Rumsfeld for a temporary end to the military campaign by the beginning of Ramadan. While saying he would like the campaign to be short and would prefer an end by Ramadan, Musharraf said he understands it is difficult to set timetables on military objectives.
11/5/2001 09:30:36 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
IHT: Defector Bolts Taliban and Brings 1,350 of His Fighters"I didn't want the fighting to destroy the country," the commander, Mohammed Hasham Habib Gorzovani, also known as Hasham Khan, said by telephone Saturday. "I wanted to surrender in peace."
11/5/2001 09:29:09 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
NATIONAL POST ONLINE | Canadian companies doing little about securityMeanwhile, 83% of respondents said they believe it is important or very important for companies to have emergency plans for the safety of staff, though almost half of those responding -- 47% -- said "little or no thought has been given to the subject." Only 29% said they have plans or are in the process of developing such plans for the protection of employees.
11/5/2001 09:26:23 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Adams to meet Chretien MondayIf his reception is less than entirely welcoming, Adams wouldn't be the first foreign dignitary to be accused of terrorism. Last June, Canadian Alliance MP Rob Anders denounced Nelson Mandela as a terrorist.
11/5/2001 09:24:54 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | SOUTH ASIA | Taleban fighters 'killed in Kabul raid'The fighters died when American missiles hit a hotel used as a Taleban base in western Kabul, eyewitnesses told Reuters news agency.
11/5/2001 09:22:59 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Sunday, November 04, 2001
India Clashes Leave 15 People DeadThe soldiers chased them, and then the two sides engaged in a four-hour gunbattle, the official said. The troops found 10 bodies at daybreak and recovered a large amount of arms and ammunition from a nearby guerrilla hide-out.
11/4/2001 10:28:19 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Gunmen Injure 16 in Jerusalem Ambush``He was standing there and shooting,'' Marcus told Israel radio. ``I got out of the car. I fired. I emptied an entire clip. He fell. Then two soldiers came, and I showed them where he was, and they shot him with their M-16s,'' he said.
11/4/2001 10:26:45 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Experts See Smarter Spying in FutureWe need more kids with ponytails and earrings that are computer literate,'' Cetron said.
11/4/2001 10:22:25 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Secret C.I.A. Site in New York Was Destroyed on Sept. 11It could not be learned whether the agency was successful in retrieving its classified records from the wreckage.
11/4/2001 10:12:56 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ottawa Sun Columnist: Greg WestonThe Communications Security Establishment (CSE) will be able to intercept communications between Canadians and foreigners, whether by phone, fax, e-mail, street-corner whisper, or encrypted smoke-signals -- all without the muss and fuss of having to get a judge's permission.
11/4/2001 10:08:27 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
MATT DRUDGE // DRUDGE REPORT 2001® // MAG: 12 U.S. DELTA MEMBERS WOUNDED ON RAID OF OMAR'S COMPLEX, THREE SERIOUSLY; PENTAGON RETHINKS 'SPECIAL FORCES OPERATIONS'The Pentagon could not give details of what really happened near Kandahar "because it doesn't want to appear that it doesn't know what it's doing." Another senior officer says, "I don't know where the adult supervision for these operations is. Franks -- the general in charge of the U.S. Central Command -- is clueless."
11/4/2001 10:07:14 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | ENGLAND | Bomb blast in Birmingham"Even though it is at an early stage, we do believe it is a dissident grouping - probably that group that is behind this."
11/4/2001 10:04:54 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | MIDDLE EAST | Israeli rockets hit GazaMr Arafat urged Israel to "withdraw its troops from areas under Palestinian sovereignty, raise the blockade imposed for the last 14 months and suspend its policy of murdering Palestinian activists".
But Mr Peres replied: "You must understand there are limits to what we can do. We want to be your neighbours and friends, but we don't want to commit suicide".
11/4/2001 10:03:17 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
World Tribune.com --Six Islamic terrorists are in U.S. carrying Israeli passportsU.S. security officials said the Israeli passports were discovered in the investigation that immediately followed the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington. They said the passports were either stolen or forged.
11/4/2001 10:01:11 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Sunday Times: ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF TERROR: Revealed: the bloody pages of Al-Qaeda's killing manualFilling 11 volumes and circulated both in book form and on CD-Rom to terrorist instructors, it offers guidance on how to inject frozen food with biochemical agents to create mass panic, rig up a door lock to explode when the handle is turned, and bring down a plane with a missile.
11/4/2001 09:59:27 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Saturday, November 03, 2001
Salman Rushdie: Yes, This Is About IslamWhatever the public rhetoric, there's little love lost between the Taliban and Iranian regimes. Dissensions between Muslim nations run at least as deep, if not deeper, than those nations' resentment of the West. Nevertheless, it would be absurd to deny that this self-exculpatory, paranoiac Islam is an ideology with widespread appeal.
11/3/2001 07:57:52 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Ananova - Taliban claim they've killed 40 to 50 US troops in helicopterThe US Defence Department said in a statement: "The landing severely damaged the helicopter. Four members of the crew were injured, none life-threatening.
11/3/2001 07:54:59 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
news.com.au - Proof of Iraq/Bin Laden links: report [04nov01]The newspaper said that the former officer told of a training camp called Salman Pak in Iraq where members of bin Laden's terror network had trained as pilots and on how to seize control of aircraft.
11/3/2001 07:51:38 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
sunspot.net - Providing context in war CNN's Nic Robertson is one of a small group of Western journalists allowed into Taliban-held territory to be shown damage purportedly caused by the raids. His reports already carry disclaimers that those contentions can't be verified independently, but CNN officials wanted more. "We must continue to make sure that we do not inadvertently seem to be reporting uncritically from the perspective or vantage of the Taliban," wrote Richard Davis, executive vice president of news standards and practices.11/3/2001 08:15:52 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
AsianWeek.com: National News: Journalists Converge to Cover an Odd Conflict...in Quetta, a Pakistani border town where armed escorts must accompany any journalist who leaves the Serena Hotel, the desk took to calling a correspondent in her room to inform her: "Madam, your gunman is here."
11/3/2001 08:12:35 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Yahoo! News Search ResultsStephen Schwartz, publisher of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, holds the famous Doomsday Clock, which symbolizes the threat of world nuclear holocaust, Friday, Nov. 2, 2001, at the University of Chicago. After three years of immobility, the board of the Bulletin will deliberate later this month on recent world events and maybe decide to move the hands of the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight. (AP Photo/Charles Bennett)
11/3/2001 08:08:37 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Friday, November 02, 2001
CNN.com - U.S. helicopter crash-lands in Afghanistan; crew rescued - November 2, 2001The U.S. Central Command said F-14 Tomcats from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt have since destroyed the damaged helicopter. The location of where in Afghanistan the accident happened was not disclosed.
11/2/2001 09:09:31 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Toronto resident may be Sept. 11 mastermind"Three Michigan men suspected of having knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks were arrested on charges of possessing false documents," Ashcroft said Wednesday.
This is the first time a senior U.S. government official has acknowledged that any of the more than 900 men detained after Sept. 11 were tied to the attacks.
11/2/2001 09:05:45 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Bush signs order blocking public access to White House papersThe order amends - and some argue, reverses - a 1978 law that allowed journalists, historians and other interested parties to read presidential papers twelve years after the term of office finished.
The law, known as the Presidential Records Act, was the result of a lengthy legal battle over the papers of Watergate president Richard Nixon.
11/2/2001 03:39:20 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
White House: Cheney Not 'Hiding,' Not in 'Woodshed'"It's done to ensure that there would be a continuity in government should our president be incapacitated for any reason,'' Card said.
[Woodshed? -- GT]
11/2/2001 03:35:54 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
freedomforum.org: Kenyan news media under siege as government pushes draconian lawsThe Media Owners Association and Advertising Practitioners Association said on Oct. 30 they were surprised to learn that draft legislation they described as "an attempt to censor the media" had already gone through the first of three required readings in Parliament.
11/2/2001 03:27:58 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Indiatimes News: Pentagon to change colour of food packetsChildren could "mistake the colourful yellow bomblets released by cluster bombs for either air-dropped food packets - which are also yellow - or for toys," Andrew Wilder of the group Save the Children told a House panel Thursday.
11/2/2001 03:20:30 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Indiatimes News: US spooked by ‘spirited’ Pak nuclear scientistSultan Bashir Mohammed, a top Pakistani nuclear expert now in custody for suspected links with the Taliban, is a believer in djinns, described in the Holy Koran as beings made of fire. A proponent of "Islamic science," he has written papers suggesting that these entities could be tapped to solve the energy crisis. He has also spoken about the possibility of developing souls and communicating with them.
11/2/2001 03:18:40 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Economists urge Martin to spend"We think it's really important that we have a number of short-term spending increases," said David Robinson, an economist with the Canadian Association of University Teachers. "Put together a package that's worth at least $10 billion, something that's equivalent to about one per cent of GDP. That's the same kind of package that we're seeing in the United States."
11/2/2001 03:06:09 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in JulyThe CIA chief was seen in the lift, on his way to see Bin Laden, and later, it is alleged, boasted to friends about his contact. He was recalled to Washington soon afterwards.
11/2/2001 12:02:39 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Lemar-Aftaab - www.afghanmagazine.comafghanmagzine.com hopes to change that by promoting and raising awareness to the arts, culture and history of the Afghan people. Through the humanities, we hope to build a bridge between the West and Afghanistan.
11/2/2001 11:53:36 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Gadfly Online: THIRTEEN QUESTIONS FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSHInstead of rewarding the CIA with billions of additional dollars to fight terrorism, shouldn't you hold accountable those shortsighted and perilously na?ve U.S. intelligence officials who ran the covert operation in Afghanistan that got us into this mess?
11/2/2001 11:51:33 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
A whole new ballot game...she's never seen anything as incomprehensible as the municipal ballot Montrealers will be asked to fill out for the megacity vote on Sunday.
11/2/2001 11:42:16 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Police oppose sunset clauseTheir recommendation comes as a Senate committee threw its support behind a five-year lifespan for most of the controversial bill's provisions, siding with lawyers, opposition MPs, Liberal backbenchers and even a couple of cabinet ministers.
11/2/2001 11:38:04 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - Trimble loses key N.Ireland poll - November 2, 2001The UK government must now decide whether to suspend the assembly or call fresh elections and Friday afternoon Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid was holding urgent talks with all the province's parties.
11/2/2001 11:35:42 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
nationalThe pins in passengers' Remembrance Day poppies, an international symbol of respect for war veterans, were sharp, and so a potential danger to fellow passengers and crew members on the awaiting flights.
11/2/2001 11:34:42 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CNN.com - Public backs Trimble in N. Ireland poll - November 2, 2001Some 52 percent of [Protestants] say they do not believe decommissioning chief General John de Chastelain's report, compared with an overwhelming majority of Catholics who believe it is a "significant" development.
11/2/2001 11:31:01 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
freedomforum.org: Media-freedom battle erupts into crisis in former Soviet republic of GeorgiaRustavi-2 director general Nika Tabatadze said the company had gone through a tax audit a week earlier and was clear of any debt to the state, according to the BBC, which quoted Tabatadze as saying, "This all is clearly happening on a political order from the authorities."
11/2/2001 11:20:53 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Times"If you went to a war zone 15 years ago you went with two large suitcases -- one a portable darkroom and the other a scanner and wiring machine," says Simon Walker, the Times photographer who has recently returned from Quetta. "You also had your cameras and loads of film stock, and you still needed to find a phone line. Now I carry two digital cameras, mini hard disks instead of film, a satellite phone and a laptop. I can file from anywhere in the world."
11/2/2001 11:17:44 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week...short-term sales gains from the current [automotive] promotions probably won't be enough to save a bleak upcoming quarter.... airlines pocketed a multibillion-dollar federal payout ... but they're either too incompetent or too stingy to ensure a level of security that would help reassure the public.... an estimated 83% of brokers and 60% of direct-marketed mutual funds didn't have measures to detect and report suspicious behavior that might be linked to money laundering....
11/2/2001 11:14:06 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Anthrax found at leading Pakistani paperWith a team of doctors and security officials supervising, editorial offices on one floor of the newspaper were closed off.
11/2/2001 11:04:00 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Trouble in Deploying Commandos Is Said to Hurt U.S. Air CampaignThe delays have complicated a campaign to oust the Taliban and capture or kill the accused terrorist Osama bin Laden. More than three weeks into the bombing, the Northern Alliance shows little sign of being ready to advance. At the same time, the bombardment has complicated efforts to form a "Southern Alliance" among the Pashtuns dominant the south of Afghanistan. Angered by the attacks, some Pashtuns seem to have rallied to the Taliban.
11/2/2001 10:50:29 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Anthrax hits GermanyTwo tests on a letter delivered in the eastern state of Thuringia confirmed the presence of spores, a health authority spokesman said.
11/2/2001 10:48:36 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Thursday, November 01, 2001
BBC News | AMERICAS | 'Credible' threat to California bridgesThe bridges at risk, according to Governor Davis, are the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges in San Francisco, the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles and the Coronado Bridge in San Diego.
11/1/2001 09:22:44 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | MEDIA REPORTS | Full text: Bin Laden's 'letter to Muslims'The Pakistani Government has fallen under the banner of the cross. The Almighty God says: To the hypocrites give the glad tidings that there is for them but a grievous penalty; yea, to those who take for friends unbelievers rather than believers: Is it honour they seek among them? Nay, all honour is with God.
11/1/2001 05:11:18 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Blair scolds Israel for Palestinian killingsIn Jerusalem, Sharon defended the targeted killings of Palestinian militants. "What will bring peace earlier, that they (Palestinian militants) kill another 30, 40, 50 Israeli citizens, or that they be stopped on their way there?" Sharon said.
11/1/2001 05:08:30 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Think again, Mr Bush - Jane's International Security NewsThe problem: America wants the Biological Weapons Convention to work well but it does not want to give anyone the right to make surprise checks on its facilities. This would be seen as a loss of sovereignty. Foreign Report explains.
11/1/2001 05:06:27 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Infoculture in the Summer:Ad Agency wants anti-death penalty commercial to air in U.S."We wish that this death penalty issue can be discussed more openly in the States among younger audiences, because I think it's more difficult to change the mind of an older audience."
11/1/2001 04:48:24 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
RAWA | Powered by CafePress.comRevolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is a political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan.
11/1/2001 01:48:18 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Five years to sundown on terrorism bill: SenateMacKay wants a free vote on the bill in the House, which Chretien rejected.
11/1/2001 01:38:48 PM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
FBI searches for six men who had nuclear, pipeline informationAs the nation again stands on high alert, the FBI is searching for six men stopped by police in the Midwest last weekend but released - even though they possessed photographs and descriptions of a nuclear power plant in Florida and the Trans-Alaska pipeline, a senior law enforcement official said Tuesday.
11/1/2001 10:24:42 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Times: 'I dream only of having my hand again'"There was a sigh and murmur from the crowd when they finished. It had taken about five minutes. Taleban guards threw me into the back of the pick-up. One was crying too. Nothing was said. Even now I am unaware why I was chosen for amputation".
11/1/2001 10:22:21 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Terrorist e-trailPolice sources told The Toronto Sun yesterday that the Toronto-to-Afghanistan phone call was intercepted by the RCMP and Canadian Security Establishment as late as last Saturday.
11/1/2001 09:57:13 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Checkpoint Chocolate: Fence keeps Park Extension trick-or-treaters out of the Town of Mount Royal"If it reassures parents and reduces the number of people on the streets, I don't know why we would stop doing it," said T.M.R. councillor Suzanne Caron, adding only three out of five gates would be closed. "There are lots of little children, and we are only trying to give them a controlled environment."
But on top of segregating one of Montreal's poorest neighbourhoods and one of its richest - average family income in Park Ex is about $32,000 compared with about $104,000 in T.M.R. - the sticky issue has divided people within T.M.R.
11/1/2001 09:52:47 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
The Globe and Mail: Sentencing circle wrong punishment, native leader saysMr. Stickney said that since sentencing circles are a part of the Canadian Criminal Code, they should be available to anyone who requests them -- no matter what their race.
But Mr. Joseph said the goal of a sentencing circle is to rehabilitate people so they can rejoin a community.
11/1/2001 09:48:30 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Renegade spy wins right to appealThe former MI5 officer had challenged a High Court ruling in May that he could not use the Human Rights Act as part of his defence against allegations that he broke the Official Secrets Act by giving intelligence secrets to a newspaper in 1997.
11/1/2001 09:45:44 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Australian student sues school over alleged bullyingMr Emonson has told the Victorian County Court, sitting in Ballarat, that one student tried to strangle him with a cord, while he had been drenched by another student and had spent the rest of the day at school in his soaking school suit.
11/1/2001 09:43:52 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Georgian president Shevardnadze fires entire cabinet amidst security scandalNews of the cabinet's ouster came in the wake of a scandalous security service raid on an independent television station this week that prompted opposition calls for Shevardnadze and his team to step down. Thousands of demonstrators, mostly students, gathered outside parliament Thursday to demand that the government go.
11/1/2001 09:34:24 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
U.S. woman charged in '70s bombing pleads guilty, says fair trial impossibleThe 54-year-old Olson admitted to possessing bombs and attempting to explode them in two incidents - one at the Hollenbeck Police Station in Los Angeles and another near a House of Pancakes restaurant in Hollywood on Aug. 21, 1975.
11/1/2001 09:32:18 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Anthrax scare could claim unexpected victim - mail from Santa ClausThis year, however, piles of mail might go unopened, as postal workers grapple with how to handle such a large volume while dealing with the ongoing anthrax danger.
11/1/2001 09:30:37 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Handelsblatt.com: Iraq Used People-Traffickers to Smuggle Agents into GermanyWhile other secret services point to Prague as one of Iraq's people trafficking hubs in Europe, a BfV spokesman told Handelsblatt that the Czech Republic could not be seen as an isolated case. The spokesman said that people, including some with "secret service backgrounds", had also been smuggled into Germany from Poland and Austria.
11/1/2001 09:27:53 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: U.S. expands list of banned terrorist groupsU.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the expanded list and new rules that will give immigration authorities wider discretionary powers to refuse visas to those with suspected ties to terrorists.
11/1/2001 09:24:13 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | AFRICA | New government for BurundiAlthough fighting continues between the army and Hutu rebel groups, a new administration, incorporating both the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis ethnic groups, is seen as a vital step towards ending eight years of civil war.
11/1/2001 09:22:27 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
ReliefWeb: Somalia: Parliament votes out interim government...after it failed to defeat a no-confidence motion tabled by disgruntled members of the Transitional National Assembly (TNA).
11/1/2001 09:21:08 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
AfricaOnline.com - Ghana: Stop speculative journalism, reporters toldReacting to two separate publications in the Chronicle and Free Press at a press conference in Accra, Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor, Minister of Defence, urged the media to crosscheck their information, especially on matters concerning the nation's security.
11/1/2001 09:07:44 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
Journalists visit damaged hospital (11/01/2001)The tour was the first time Western journalists have been allowed into Kandahar, where the Taliban's headquarters are located, since the U.S. air attacks began Oct. 7.
11/1/2001 09:06:12 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
CBC News: Ottawa to study border guards' demand for guns"Society is becoming more dangerous and more violent and our officers see that at the border," said Serge Charette, national president of the Customs Excise Union.
But while border guards have the power to arrest suspicious people, Minister of National Revenue Martin Cauchon, who is responsible for the Canada Customs Revenue Agency, says they don't need guns to do it.
11/1/2001 09:00:11 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark
BBC News | AMERICAS | Nuclear agency warns of threatThe UN nuclear watchdog, which is holding a special session on nuclear terrorism on Friday, warned that security at some nuclear sites and centres where radioactive material is stored was disturbingly weak.
11/1/2001 08:58:32 AM Gabrielle Taylor bookmark