by Jane Mayer
from “The New Yorker”

from an article first published October 2006

On the official Web site of Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, there is a section devoted to a subsidiary called Jeppesen International Trip Planning, based in San Jose, California. The write-up mentions that the division “offers everything needed for efficient, hassle-free, international flight operations,” spanning the globe “from Aachen to Zhengzhou.” The paragraph concludes, “Jeppesen has done it all.”

Boeing does not mention, either on its Web site or in its annual report, that Jeppesen’s clients include the C.I.A., and that among the international trips that the company plans for the agency are secret “extraordinary rendition” flights for terrorism suspects. Most of the planes used in rendition flights are owned and operated by tiny charter airlines that function as C.I.A. front companies, but it is not widely known that the agency has turned to a division of Boeing, the publicly traded blue-chip behemoth, to handle many of the logistical and navigational details for these trips, including flight plans, clearance to fly over other countries, hotel reservations, and ground-crew arrangements.

The Bush Administration has defended the clandestine rendition program, which began during the Clinton years, as an effective method of transporting terrorists to countries where they can be questioned or held. Human-rights activists and others have said the program’s primary intent is to send suspects to detention centers where they can be interrogated harshly, and have criticized it as an illegal means of “outsourcing torture.”

A former Jeppesen employee, who asked not to be identified, said recently that he had been startled to learn, during an internal corporate meeting, about the company’s involvement with the rendition flights. At the meeting, he recalled, Bob Overby, the managing director of Jeppesen International Trip Planning, said, “We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights-you know, the torture flights. Let’s face it, some of these flights end up that way.” The former employee said that another executive told him, “We do the spook flights.” He was told that two of the company’s trip planners were specially designated to handle renditions. He was deeply troubled by the rendition program, he said, and eventually quit his job. He recalled Overby saying, “It certainly pays well. They”-the C.I.A.-”spare no expense. They have absolutely no worry about costs. What they have to get done, they get done.”

Overby, who was travelling last week, did not return several phone calls. Mike Pound, the head of corporate communications for Jeppesen, said that he would have no comment, and he added, “Bob Overby will have no comment as well.” Tim Neale, the director of media relations for Boeing’s corporate office in Chicago, said, “The flight-planning services we provide our customers are confidential, and we do not comment publicly on any work done for any customer without their consent.” The C.I.A. had no comment.

read more at THE NEW YORKER

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By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON - America may spew more greenhouse gases than any other country, but some states are astonishingly more prolific polluters than others - and it’s not always the ones you might expect.

The Associated Press analyzed state-by’state emissions of carbon dioxide from 2003, the latest U.S. Energy Department numbers available. The review shows startling differences in states’ contribution to climate change.

The biggest reason? The burning of high-carbon coal to produce cheap electricity.

_Wyoming’s coal-fired power plants produce more carbon dioxide in just eight hours than the power generators of more populous Vermont do in a year.

_Texas, the leader in emitting this greenhouse gas, cranks out more than the next two biggest producers combined, California and Pennsylvania, which together have twice Texas’ population.

_In sparsely populated Alaska, the carbon dioxide produced per person by all the flying and driving is six times the per capita amount generated by travelers in New York state.

“There’s no question that some states have made choices to be greener than others,” said former top Energy Department official Joseph Romm, author of the new book “Hell and High Water” and executive director of a nonprofit energy conservation group.

The disparity in carbon dioxide emissions is one of the reasons there is no strong national effort to reduce global warming gases, some experts say. National emissions dipped ever so slightly last year, but that was mostly because of mild weather, according to the Energy Department.

read more at YAHOO!

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Harvey & The Moonglows
Sincerely & Ten Commandments of Love

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from National Geographic Magazine Online

by Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News

How did humans learn to walk the walk that sets us apart from our closest kin-the apes?

A new study of Sumatran orangutans in Indonesia suggests that ancient apes may have developed upright walking while still living in the trees-well before human ancestors, known as hominids, ever descended to the ground.

The study authors spent many hours observing Sumatran orangutans as they moved about the canopy of their rain forest home in Gunung Leuser National Park.

The critically endangered animals-which number about 7,300 in the wild-live nearly their whole lives aloft.

On sturdier branches the orangutans use all four limbs. But on thinner branches in search of fruit, the apes move on two legs and use their arms for balance.

“When they are on the very fine stuff, they are using bipedalism,” said study co-author Robin Crompton of the University of Liverpool in England.

“It shows that bipedalism can be adaptive in the trees,” Crompton said. “People have suspected that it evolved in the trees, but no one has been able to see a sensible reason why it should happen.”

The researchers think they’ve uncovered that sensible reason: Upright bipedalism in human ancestors was quite likely an adaptation to moving and feeding on ripe fruit in the peripheries of trees, they say.

A Unique Ability

The ability to walk on two legs is one of the things that make humans unique and separates them from close relatives like chimps and bonobos.

Many theories seek to explain just when-and why-our ancestors first developed an upright gait.

read more at NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

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from Agence France-Presse

ROSTOCK, Germany (AFP) - More than 140 police were injured in violent clashes with Molotov cocktail-throwing protestors here on Saturday at a demonstration ahead of next week’s G8 summit.

Riots broke out as tens of thousands of people marched through this northeastern German port, 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm, where the leaders of the world’s richest nations will begin a three-day meeting on Wednesday.

Several hundred demonstrators from a group of about 2,000 wearing black masks and hoods hurled Molotov cocktails, stones and bottles at police and several cars were set on fire or overturned.

Police used water cannons in an attempt to disperse the troublemakers, who were believed to be from a far-left group.

Some 25 police had serious injuries, a spokeswoman said, while 78 protesters had been arrested. A total of 146 officers were hurt, according to the spokeswoman.

It remained unclear at 2000 GMT how many protesters were injured.

The violence only involved a small percentage of the 20,000 people that took part in the march, according to police figures. The organisers of the march — a collection of anti-globalisation and anti-poverty groups — claimed 80,000 people had taken part. Police put the figure at 30,000.

Werner Ratz of the ATTAC anti-globalisation organisation said clashes began when the group of violent protesters threw rocks at a police vehicle with an officer inside.

Police then sent in two anti-riot squads to rescue the officer, which led to clashes, he said.
Anti-G8 demonstrators display effigies of the G8 leaders as they stage a protest

“There is no justification for such violence against people and we formally distance ourselves from it,” Ratz said.

The clashes bore out fears expressed by German authorities that left-wing militants would cause unrest during protests against the summit.

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By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS - The bodies are no longer being dragged from houses and buildings toppled by Hurricane Katrina, but nearly two years later many in the medical community think the storm is still killing.

Storm survivors are dying from the effects of both psychological and physical stress, from the dust and mold still in dwellings to financial problems to fear of crime, health experts and officials say.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Katrina is still killing our residents,” Orleans Parish coroner Dr. Frank Minyard (pictured at left) said this week.

“People with pre-existing conditions that are made worse by the stress of living here after the storm. Old people who are just giving up. People who are killing themselves because they feel they can’t go on,” Minyard said.

Some say an in-depth federal analysis is needed, despite a new state report that found no significant increase in deaths in the New Orleans area from January 2006 through June 2006. The state Department of Health and Hospitals is still compiling figures for the last six months of 2006.

Dr. Raoult Ratard, the state epidemiologist, said “the only slight increase” in deaths was in the first three months of 2006 in Orleans Parish.

But New Orleans medical officials say that jump, from 11.3 per 1,000 deaths to 14.3 per 1,000, - a leap of more than 25 percent - was anything but slight. Moreover, the report doesn’t take into account evacuees who died while away from the city and were returned for burial.

“Our death rate was already high, that’s huge,” said Dr. Kevin Stephens Sr., director of the New Orleans Health Department.

Some New Orleans doctors questioned the accuracy of the population figures used to determine the death rate, saying they might have been too high. DHH secretary Dr. Fred Cerise said he was comfortable with the population data, which he said came from the Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

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By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - At his sentencing Tuesday, former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby will learn whether he will go to prison and, if so, whether it will be right away for his conviction in the CIA leak case.

Once Libby’s fate is known, then there is this ultimate question: Will President Bush pardon him?

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and assistant to Bush, was convicted in March of lying and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is calling for Libby to spend up to three years in prison.

Libby maintains his innocence. With the support of several current and former White House, State Department and Pentagon officials, he has asked U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, not to send him to prison.

Walton has a reputation as one of the district’s strictest judges.

Since Libby’s conviction, the White House has sidestepped talk of pardoning Libby. Some of Libby’s supporters have spoken publicly about a pardon, while Democrats are asking Bush to promise not to issue one.

Bush said he is “pretty much going to stay out of” the case until the legal fight is over.

That becomes harder to do if Walton sends Libby to prison. Bush will have to decide whether to pardon his former aide or let him serve his time.

“If jail time is issued, I would hope the president would issue a pardon,” said former Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., a member of Libby’s legal defense fund.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

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By Michael Kinsley
Saturday, June 2, 2007

What are you supposed to do, according to supporters of the Iraq war, if you think that the war is a dreadful mistake? Suppose you are a member of Congress, elected by constituents who also, like most Americans, according to opinion polls, oppose the war. Is there any legitimate action you can take? Or must you simply allow the war to go on and let young Americans die in what you regard as a bad cause? What are your options?

The Constitution says, “The Congress shall have the Power . . . to declare War.” That power does not mean much unless it includes the power not to declare war as well. But presidents from both parties have pretty much stolen Congress’s war power, with the ordinarily “strict constructionist” Republicans taking the lead. Congress has stood by and not done much — but what could it do? As Stalin supposedly said about military advice from the Vatican, “The Pope! How many divisions has he got?”

Last week President Bush condescended to sign a bill authorizing $100 billion for his war, but only after any serious timetables or criteria or deadlines for troop withdrawal were stripped from the legislation. There was a time, circa 1999, when Republicans considered it the height of naivete, irresponsibility and indifference to the fate of American soldiers to commit any troops to action in a foreign country without what used to be called an “exit strategy.” That was when the president was a Democrat. Now it is considered the height of naivete, irresponsibility and indifference to the fate of American soldiers to suggest the possibility of any exit strategy short of triumph. If you do, you are betraying the troops. And no one sees actual triumph in the cards, so there is no exit strategy.

And woe betide any politician who suggests that waiting for complete triumph might not be the only alternative — just in case democracy, prosperity, peace and brotherhood don’t flower in Iraq next week. Sens . Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama opposed the war-funding bill because it lacked even the mealy-mouthed timetables in an earlier version that Bush vetoed.
Last week President Bush condescended to sign a bill authorizing $100 billion for his war, but only after any serious timetables or criteria or deadlines for troop withdrawal were stripped from the legislation. There was a time, circa 1999, when Republicans considered it the height of naivete, irresponsibility and indifference to the fate of American soldiers to commit any troops to action in a foreign country without what used to be called an “exit strategy.” That was when the president was a Democrat. Now it is considered the height of naivete, irresponsibility and indifference to the fate of American soldiers to suggest the possibility of any exit strategy short of triumph. If you do, you are betraying the troops. And no one sees actual triumph in the cards, so there is no exit strategy.

And woe betide any politician who suggests that waiting for complete triumph might not be the only alternative — just in case democracy, prosperity, peace and brotherhood don’t flower in Iraq next week. Sens . Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama opposed the war-funding bill because it lacked even the mealy-mouthed timetables in an earlier version that Bush vetoed.

read more at THE WASHINGTON POST

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By ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Three people were arrested and another was being sought Saturday for allegedly plotting to blow up a fuel line that feeds John F. Kennedy International Airport and runs through residential neighborhoods, authorities said.

The plot never got past the planning stages. It posed no threat to air safety or the public, the
FBI said Saturday.

At a news conference, U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf called it “one of the most chilling plots imaginable.”

“The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable,” she said.

Authorities arrested Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana and former JFK employee. He was in custody in Brooklyn and was expected to be arraigned Saturday afternoon.

Two other men, Abdul Kadir of Guyana and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad, are in custody in Trinidad. A fourth man, Abdel Nur of Guyana, was still being sought.

All four have been charged with conspiring to attack the airport, one of the nation’s busiest, by blowing up major fuel supply tanks and the pipeline, according to the indictment.

The pipeline takes fuel from a facility in Linden, N.J., to the airport. Other lines service LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.

Kadir, a Muslim and former member of Parliament in Guyana, was arrested in Trinidad for attempting to secure money for “terrorist operations,” according to a Guyanese police commander who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kadir left his position in Parliament last year. Muslims make up about 9 percent of the former Dutch and British colony’s 770,000 population, mostly from the Sunni sect.

An official said the plotters had conducted surveillance on giant jet fuel tanks at JFK and the pipeline. They had taken surveillance video of the targets and took it to Trinidad to review the tape, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the arrests were not yet announced.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

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By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Fish and Wildlife Service wants to replace four decades of federal protections for the American bald eagle with new rules against disturbing it.

In a push to remove the nation’s symbol from the endangered species list, the wildlife agency is writing new regulations under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act to protect the birds and their nesting, breeding and feeding areas from anything likely to cause them harm.

The law, which dates to 1940, says only that bald eagles cannot be disturbed. Since 1967, when the bald eagle was listed as an endangered species, it has benefited from much tougher protections.

The government’s new interpretation of the 1940 law, proposed Friday, would allow the birds to be moved in rare cases if their nests or breeding and feeding grounds were in the way of an airport runway or some other development. Killing or injuring them accidentally would not be punishable.

Fish and Wildlife, which is part of the Interior Department, must meet a June 29 court-ordered deadline in deciding whether to remove the bald eagle from the endangered species list.

A federal judge in Minnesota ordered the agency last year to remove the eagle from the list unless the government could prove further delays were necessary. The order came in a lawsuit brought by Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of a Minnesota landowner who wants to develop property with an active bald eagle nest.

In 1963, there were just 417 known nesting pairs left in the lower 48 states, mainly because of DDT and other pesticides that weakened the eggshells and reduced the birth rate. Outside Alaska and Canada, where tens of thousands of bald eagles live and their existence has not been in doubt, at least 9,789 known nesting pairs now exist in the wild, officials say.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

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GAMBIER, Ohio - Paul Newman is donating $10 million to Kenyon College to help start a scholarship fund, the private liberal arts school said. Newman, 82, graduated from the central Ohio college in 1949 with a degree in drama and economics.

“My days there were among the happiest and most formative of my life,” Newman said in a statement from Kenyon on Friday. “I believe strongly that we should be doing whatever we can to make all higher education opportunities available to deserving students. I hope others will support Kenyon in this manner.”

The donation will fund partial and full scholarships for 15 to 20 students a year, college spokesman Shawn Presley said. The first Newman’s Own scholars will be announced this summer.

Newman and his wife,
Joanne Woodward, have donated privately to Kenyon in the past. The couple went public at the college’s request because Kenyon hopes the contribution will spur donations from other alumni, Forrester said.

Newman has given more than $175 million to charities from the profits earned by his Newman’s Own brand of dressings, pasta sauces, popcorn and salsa.

Newman, star of films including “Cool Hand Luke,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Color of Money,” said last week that he’s retiring from acting after more than 50 years.

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By ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - Three people were arrested and one other was being sought Saturday in connection to a plan to set off explosives in a fuel line that feeds John F. Kennedy International Airport and runs through residential neighborhoods, officials close to the investigation said.

The plot, which never got past the planning stages, did not involve airplanes or passenger terminals, according to the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the arrests had not yet been announced.

The plot posed no threat to air safety or the public, the FBI said Saturday.

Details were to be given out at a 1 p.m. news conference.

The pipeline takes fuel from a facility in Linden, N.J., to the airport. Other lines service LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.

A third law enforcement official said the suspects include a Guyanese man who used to work at the airport and was arrested in New York City on Friday night. Two other suspects were apprehended in Trinidad.

Investigators were seeking a fourth suspect in Trinidad.

The official said the plotters had conducted surveillance on giant jet fuel tanks at JFK and the pipeline. They had taken surveillance video of the targets and took it to Trinidad to review the tape, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the arrests were not yet announced.

The official said investigators first found out about the plot in January 2006. After that, an informant infiltrated the group.

more at YAHOO! NEWS

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A screen grab from MSNBC.com this morning:

Positive news for a tanking economy. I think I know what the talking heads will be discussing this Sunday.
(Hint: it won’t be about Iraq or Republican scandal)

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Waldo is no more. The Mrs. bashed him in the head with a shovel and buried his arse in the back yard long ago. What do y’a say we keep looking for him anyways?

U.N. team still looking for Iraq’s WMD

Though work is seen as irrelevant, Security Council can-t agree to end it

UNITED NATIONS - More than four years after the fall of Baghdad, the United Nations is spending millions of dollars in Iraqi oil money to continue the hunt for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
[...]

“I recognize this is unhealthy,” said Dimitri Perricos, a Greek weapons expert who runs the team, known as the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), and manages its $10 million annual budget. But, he added, “we are not the ones who are holding the purse; the one who is holding the purse is the council.”

A-There is no WMD there-

But the inspectors’ primary mission — ridding Hussein’s regime of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons — has become irrelevant since a U.S.-led coalition toppled the Iraqi leader and discovered that his government had destroyed its most lethal weapons shortly after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

“The reality on the ground is there is no WMD there,” said Charles Duelfer, a former U.N. weapons inspector who published the landmark 2004 report of the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group, which concluded that Iraq’s weapons had been destroyed. “I think they understand the distance their work is from reality.”

Full article at MSNBC.com

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