01/12/06 “New York Times” — — MIAMI, Jan. 12 – Jose Padilla, who was transferred from military to civilian custody last week, was ordered held without bail by a federal judge after he pleaded not guilty to criminal charges that he provided money and support to terrorism forces overseas.

“He pleads absolutely not guilty to the charges contained in the indictment,” Mr. Padilla’s lawyer, Michael Caruso, said before Magistrate Judge Barry Garber of the Federal District Court in Miami.

Mr. Padilla, 35, was indicted in November by a federal grand jury in Miami on charges he provided “material support” to terrorists. The indictment states that Mr. Padilla and four co-conspirators were part of a North American cell that sent money and recruits overseas to participate in violent jihad.

At the hearing attended by Mr. Padilla’s mother, stepfather and brother, Prosecutor Stephanie Pell discussed Mr. Padilla’s suspected involvement with terrorist cells over the years, saying that he had traveled to Afghanistan to attend a terrorist training camp. Ms. Pell argued Mr. Padilla is a flight risk and listed past legal problems in requesting denial of bail.

“The defendant, we believe, has numerous contacts overseas,” Ms. Pell told the judge. “He is also a danger to the community. He has a history of violent crimes.”

Mr. Caruso called the possibility of holding Mr. Padilla in pretrial detention “especially brutal” after he had been in a military brig without charges as an enemy combatant for over three years.

“His confinement went far beyond what any other American citizen has ever had to endure without charges being filed against them,” Mr. Caruso told the judge. “There is simply no evidence proffered by the government today or contained in the indictment that Jose Padilla has ever, ever engaged in any violent act towards anyone in this country or towards anyone in any other country,” Mr. Caruso said.
informationclearinghouse.info

We found Padilla’s al Qaeda application, U.S. says
After the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan to oust its Taliban rulers, authorities found a locker full of applications to join al Qaeda’s holy war overseas.

Among the alleged applicants: José Padilla, the former ”enemy combatant” who once lived in Broward County.

A prosecutor produced the alleged document for the first time Thursday in Miami federal court, where Padilla pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges that he was a recruit for a North American terrorist cell with South Florida links that aided Islamic jihad abroad.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Garber denied bond for Padilla, who had been held in military detention for about four years before his transfer to Miami to face a criminal indictment.

”It was recovered by U.S. personnel in late 2001 after the United States began bombing Afghanistan,” Justice Department lawyer Stephanie Pell said, referring to Padilla’s alleged al Qaeda application.

She added it was found among 80 to 100 other mujahadeen (holy warrior) applications found in the country, which harbored al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before he masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. terrorist attacks.

”Several links in this case prove this is his document,” Pell said after submitting it at Padilla’s bond hearing.

whaaa???

U.S. Seeks to Avoid Detainee Ruling
The Bush administration took the unusual step yesterday of asking the Supreme Court to call off a landmark confrontation over the legality of military trials for terrorism suspects, arguing that a law enacted last month eliminates the court’s ability to consider the issue.

In a 23-page brief, U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement said the justices should throw out an appeal by Yemeni national Salim Hamdan, an alleged driver and bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, because a new statute governing the treatment of U.S. detainees “removes the court’s jurisdiction to hear this action.”

The brief represents the latest escalation in the showdown between the Bush administration and critics of the government over the legal rights of military detainees captured overseas. Hamdan’s case is one of several high-stakes legal battles working their way through the courts, and the Supreme Court’s November decision to consider his appeal was a blow to the government.

President Hugo Chávez’ remarks on an alleged plot against the administration of Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales were strongly rejected in Bolivia by incumbent President Eduardo Rodríguez, the Army commander and several media.

Rodríguez stressed that Bolivia “is not a protectorate” but it is “a peaceful, sovereign country with an absolute and clear notion of its own sovereignty, self-determination. We need no one to come and tell us what to do,” AP reported.

Bolivian Army commander general Marcelo Antezana Thursday replied to Chávez’ declarations on Tuesday suggesting that some Bolivian military officers would be involved in a conspiracy against Morales allegedly planned by the US Embassy in La Paz.

“I do not accept that President Chávez makes reference to the military. He should tell us the names (of the officers involved) so that we can punish them or act cautiously. Here and anywhere around the world any coup d’etat requires support from a part of the Armed Forces, if not all,” Antezana told TV network ATB.

In Bolivia, he added, “Army generals are the major defenders of democracy.”

Chávez stated that the United States was surely trying to contact “coup-plotters” in Bolivia to destabilize the future government of Morales. He ensured that Washington was behind a plot to overthrow Morales and that Venezuela would support Morales in the face of a likely US attack.
english.eluniversal.com

With one week to go, socialist candidate Michelle Bachelet maintains a strong lead over conservative tycoon Sebastian Pinera

From the imposing Atacama Desert in the north to the inspiring iced peaks in the far south of the country – and the world – Chile, the most stable economy of Latin America, prepares for the final battle between the continuity of the 16-year rule of the centre-left Concertacion and a turn to the right. With one week to go, socialist presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet maintains a strong lead over the conservative tycoon Sebastian Pinera, but about 30% of Chilean polled are still undecided ahead of Sunday elections.

According to opinion polls published by the local media after the TV debate aired last week, Mrs. Bachelet is close to become the first female president, as she has 41 percent of the vote, while Pinera has almost 30 percent of the voices. With another 30 percent of undecided Chileans, the runoff is far from being an easy journey for Bachelet but Pinera will have to make big efforts to frustrate the former minister of Defense in the incumbent administration of fellow socialist Ricardo Lagos.
english.pravda.ru

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, openly criticized the Russian government in connection with the gas conflict with Ukraine. Ms. Rice used quite a trivial technique of psychological pressure, which is mostly practiced in the field of education.

According to Condoleezza Rice, Russia’s actions towards Ukraine did not characterize it as a respectable member of the Group of Eight. The statement from the high-ranking US official sounded like a reprimand from a strict babysitter that was teaching its baby to behave.

It goes without saying that the largest Eurasian power is not a baby. In addition, the geopolitical system in the world has undergone dramatic changes since the 1990s. The US Secretary of State, however, has seemingly lost the sense of time and reality. Ms. Rice’s wish to exercise her political power became a surprise for both the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and proponents of traditional liberal values.

Ms. Rice’s criticism can be explained with the politician’s personal peculiarities. Why is Condoleezza Rice so fond of her “strict teacher” role? Is it her technique that she follows to stay in the center of political attention? The leader of the Liberal and Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Vladimir Zhirinovsky, expressed his opinion on the matter in an exclusive interview with Pravda.Ru.

“Condoleezza Rice released a coarse anti-Russian statement. This is because she is a single woman who has no children. She loses her reason because of her late single status. Nature takes it all.

“Such women are very rough. They are all workaholics, public workaholics. They can be happy only when they are talked and written about everywhere: “Oh, Condoleezza, what a remarkable woman, what a charming Afro-American lady! How well she can play the piano and speak Russian! What a courageous, tough and strong female she is!

“This is the only way to satisfy her needs of a female. She derives pleasure from it. If she has no man by her side at her age, he will never appear. Even if she had a whole selection of men to choose from she would stay single because her soul and heart have hardened. Like Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, or Alexander the Great of Macedon Ms. Rice needs to fight and release tough public statements in global scale. She needs to be on top of the world.”
english.pravda.ru

wow

A classic example of Washington’s hypocrisy and many questions to answer

Human rights, freedom of expression, the rule of law, the state of law, the importance of following legal norms…words and expressions used by Washington over the years as it criticizes governments which restrict access for US companies to their markets. At the end of the day, Washington is the one which perpetrates the worst crimes. A shining example is provided by Guantanamo, the US concentration camp in Cuba.
english.pravda.ru

Thousands gathered Tuesday on a beach to celebrate Benin’s once-banned Voodoo, slaughtering animals and welcoming revelers from Brazil and the United States whose slave ancestors took the religion to the Americas centuries ago.

At a ceremony in Ouidah, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the commercial capital, Cotonou, Voodoo high priestess Nagbo Hounon Gbeffa sacrificed a goat, a rooster and a chicken as divine offerings.

“I’m very moved,” said Faith McDouglas, a 37-year-old nurse from Omaha, Nebraska. “I’ve understood many things regarding my origins, because I’m a descendant of slaves.”

Voodoo originated in West Africa and holds that all life is driven by spiritual forces of natural phenomena like water, fire, earth and air that should be honored through rituals that include animal sacrifices. There are no zombies or pin-skewered dolls here, but followers believe they can communicate with divinities and spirits by putting themselves into a trance.

Countless Africans were shipped into slavery from the West African coast, taking with them Voodoo, whose cults still survive in the Caribbean, Latin American and the American South.

The annual celebration “is an occasion for us in Ouidah to remember the hundreds of thousands of blacks deported to the Americas as slaves,” said Albert Dossou, a member of the Daagbo Hounon family, which traces its lineage to a 15th-century Voodoo chief.
naijanet.com

…For half a millennium, the Spanish have held on to this little piece of Africa, an enclave carved by conquistadors chasing the last Moors from Catholic Spain. Melilla and its sister enclave, Ceuta, are sovereign Spanish territory with Spanish citizens and flag, geographically in what is today Morocco: the last remnants of Europe in Africa.

The city’s leaders hold up Melilla, the more remote of the two enclaves, as a shining example of ethnic coexistence that can serve as a model for an increasingly divided world. The Melilla mantra, repeated faithfully by politicians and community leaders, goes like this: four religions living side by side in harmony sharing less than 5 square miles and 500 years of history.

Catholics, Muslims, Jews and Hindus do get along better here than in most places these days. But just below the surface, there is tension, latent mistrust and uncertainty over Melilla’s identity, economic well-being and future.
latimes.com

Was Colombus really a Catalan pirate? DNA test will decide
Spanish scientists are to test the DNA of hundreds of Catalans with the surname Colom to prove that Christopher Columbus, far from the Italian gentleman he has long been believed to be, was in fact a pirate born in Catalonia.

The experiment, in determining whether any of the participants are related to the explorer, is designed to clarify the disputed origins of the man who made landfall in America in 1492. While historians have mostly reckoned he was born in Genoa in 1451, a counter-lobby argues that he was the Catalan Cristofol Colom, who airbrushed his past to conceal activities as a pirate and conspirator against the king.

Some 120 Catalans are to donate samples of saliva next week to a team of geneticists headed by Jose Antonio Lorente Acosta, head of the Laboratory of Genetic Identification at Granada University. Similar tests on another 180 sharing the name Colom will follow in Mallorca and Valencia. Investigators will compare the results with DNA from Columbus’ illegitimate son Hernando, whose remains lie in Seville cathedral.

Genetically modified crops that benefit consumers or the environment are yet to materialise despite renewed promises by biotech corporations, according to a new report by an environmental group.

The biotech industry continues to misleadingly claim that GM crops play a role in solving world hunger, the Friends of the Earth International report said.

“Contrary to the promises made by the biotech industry, the reality of the last 10 years shows that the safety of GM crops cannot be ensured and that these crops are neither cheaper nor better quality. Biotech crops are not a solution to solve hunger in Africa or elsewhere,” said in Nnimmo Bassey of Friends of the Earth Nigeria.

The 100-page report said the world’s largest producer of GM seeds, Monsanto, has an objectionable influence over agriculture and food policies in many countries and international bodies.
aljazeera.net

They have long been thought of as the antidote to harmful greenhouse gases, sufferers of, rather than contributors to, the effects of global warming. But in a startling discovery, scientists have realised that plants are part of the problem.

According to a study published today, living plants may emit almost a third of the methane entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

The result has come as a shock to climate scientists. “This is a genuinely remarkable result,” said Richard Betts of the climate change monitoring organisation the Hadley Centre. “It adds an important new piece of understanding of how plants interact with the climate.”
guardian.co.uk

Cool. Cut down the rest of the trees then.

Private sector will defeat climate change, US tells anti-Kyoto summit

BAGHDAD – Many Iraqis see dismal days ahead in the face of rising violence and the decision by the U.S. government not to seek any further funds for reconstruction.

“It is obvious that the situation is much worse than it used to be,” retired army general Ahmed Abdul Aziz told IPS. “Can you walk free in the streets? Did you receive your food ration last month? It is essential for most Iraqis to receive the food ration just to feed their families.”

The former Iraqi general added: “When you go to the hospital, do you find medicines? The answer is no medicines, no services, no sheets or pillows, no beds, no nursing, and no ambulances to carry you from your house.”

World Bank president and former U.S. deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz had said Iraq could “really finance its own reconstruction.” But such words have fallen flat because the state of the infrastructure is clearly worse now than even during the harsh economic sanctions of the 1990s.
antiwar.com