WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 – Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session on Tuesday over the Bush administration’s use of intelligence to justify the Iraq war and the Senate’s willingness to examine it.

The move provoked a sharp public confrontation between the two parties as the Republicans lost control of the chamber for two hours and were left to complain bitterly about what they called an unnecessary “stunt.” The confrontation demonstrated an escalation of partisan tensions in the wake of last week’s indictment of the White House aide I. Lewis Libby Jr. in the C.I.A. leak case.

Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, and other senior Republicans said Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, had blindsided them by invoking a seldom-used rule and that the maneuver had seriously damaged relations in the Senate, where partisan tension was already high.

Jamie Rose for The New York Times”This is an affront to me personally,” an angry Mr. Frist said.

He said would find it difficult to trust Mr. Reid any longer.

“It’s an affront to our leadership,” Mr. Frist said. “It’s an affront to the United States of America. And it is wrong.”

But Democrats said last week’s indictment of Mr. Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, highlighted anew the need for the Senate to examine the administration’s handling of intelligence. They said the unusual demand for a closed session was made out of frustration with the refusal of the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, to make good on his February 2004 pledge to pursue such an investigation.

“We see the lengths they’ve gone to,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, referring to the disclosure of a C.I.A. officer’s identity. “And now the question is, Will this Senate meet its responsibility under the Constitution to hold this administration, as every administration should be held, accountable?”

After Mr. Reid invoked Senate Rule 21 allowing senators to request a closed session, the galleries were cleared, C-Span coverage was terminated and the chamber’s doors were closed for about two hours. In the end, lawmakers agreed to name three members from each party to assess the state of the Intelligence Committee’s inquiry into prewar intelligence and report back by Nov. 14.
nytimes.com

‘Partisan quarrel’? We’re talking about treason here. Frist should be in jail–his very presence as a ‘leader’ is an affront to every person in this country. He and so many others are using government as a money-laundering racket. And this is the least of their crimes.

The White House announced last week that it would reinstate the Davis-Bacon Act, the law that guarantees that construction workers on federally financed projects be paid at least the minimum prevailing wage. In an executive proclamation shortly after Hurricane Katrina, President Bush had revoked the law’s wage protections for workers in storm-struck parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Let’s hope this reversal is the start of a trend because more wrongs need righting.

…In the months since Katrina, plans to increase unemployment aid have flitted across Congress’s legislative radar screen, only to vanish as Republican lawmakers prepare to push a $70 billion tax cut package, much of it to benefit millionaire investors. As they did with the Davis-Bacon law, government leaders have to turn back from their wrongheaded pursuits and do the right things instead – and, preferably, soon.
nytimes.com

If emissions of heat-trapping gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere at the current rate, there may be many centuries of warming and a near-total loss of Arctic tundra, according to a new climate study.

Over all, the world would experience profound transformations, some potentially beneficial but many disruptive, and all at a pace rarely seen in nature, said the authors of the study, being published today in The Journal of Climate.
nytimes.com

The annual worldwide press freedom index from Reporters Without Borders shows the United States, which is supposedly spreading freedom and liberty throughout the world, is in a fast decline regarding the freedom of its own press.

The report ranked the United States in 44th place, an atomic drop from a favorable position of 22nd held last year, and from a handsome 17th place in 2002.

The organization mentioned that several journalists were expelled from the country since the terrorist attacks of 2001.

…Open source journalism and Internet blogs are hooking more and more readers for every day. At the same time the mainstream media, or established media, has been on a steady decline by losing readership and subscriptions during the last years.

Repeated evidence of the media printing government propaganda and misleading information leading up to the U.S.-led Iraq invasion have surely made the decline of mainstream readers accelerate.
informationclearinghouse.info

Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that led to the Iraq war and deriding a lack of congressional inquiry.

“I demand on behalf of the America people that we understand why these investigations aren’t being conducted,” Democratic leader Harry Reid said.

Taken by surprise, Republicans derided the move as a political stunt.

“The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership,” said Majority Leader Bill Frist. “They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas,” the Republican leader said.

Reid demanded the Senate go into closed session. The public was ordered out of the chamber, the lights were dimmed, and the doors were closed. No vote is required in such circumstances.

Reid’s move shone a spotlight on the continuing controversy over intelligence that President Bush cited in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Despite prewar claims, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, and some Democrats have accused the administration of manipulating the information that was in their possession.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was indicted last Friday in an investigation that touched on the war, the leak of the identity of a CIA official married to a critic of the administration’s Iraq policy.

“The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions,” Reid said before invoking Senate rules that led to the closed session.

Libby resigned from his White House post after being indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury.

Democrats contend that the unmasking of Valerie Plame was retribution for her husband, Joseph Wilson, publicly challenging the Bush administration’s contention that Iraq was seeking to purchase uranium from Africa. That claim was part of the White House’s justification for going to war.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Reid was making “some sort of stink about Scooter Libby and the CIA leak.”

A former majority leader, Lott said a closed session was appropriate for such overarching matters as impeachment and chemical weapons _ the two topics that last sent the senators into such sessions.

In addition, Lott said, Reid’s move violated the Senate’s tradition of courtesy and consent. But there was nothing in Senate rules enabling Republicans to thwart Reid’s effort.

As Reid spoke, Frist met in the back of the chamber with a half-dozen senior GOP senators, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, who bore the brunt of Reid’s criticism. Reid said Roberts reneged on a promise to fully investigate whether the administration exaggerated and manipulated intelligence leading up to the war.
breitbart.com

UNITED NATIONS – Syria’s foreign minister faced off with the U.N. Security Council, angrily rejecting a unanimous resolution that demands Damascus cooperate fully with an investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Diplomats said they were shocked by Farouk al-Sharaa’s response on Monday. He said accusing Syrian security forces of having advance knowledge of Hariri’s killing was tantamount to saying U.S. officials knew ahead of time about the Sept. 11 attacks, Spain knew about the 2004 train bombings or Britain knew about this summer’s London transit bombings.

“We know that such security organs, particularly the British, were fully aware that such attacks would take place and had prior training to face up to them,” al-Sharaa said, jabbing his finger toward British Foreign Minister Jack Straw as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other foreign ministers looked on.

Britain, along with the U.S. and France, co-sponsored the resolution which passed with the support of all 15 nations on the Security Council, including Algeria, the only Arab nation on the council.

Al-Sharaa’s reaction visibly angered Straw, who called it “the most grotesque and insensitive comparison,” “appalling,” and “absurd.”

Rice called his outburst “a tirade which made the most bizarre connection.”

The resolution threatened “further measures” if Syria does not start cooperating fully with the probe of Hariri’s Feb. 14 slaying which also killed 20 other people.
news.yahoo.com

July 7 Tube bomber argued with cashier shortly before blast

One of the suicide bombers who attacked London on 7 July was filmed arguing with a cashier about being short-changed hours before he blew himself up.

Another of the terrorists – the teenager who destroyed a double-decker bus – was also captured on surveillance cameras wandering around the streets of London, “bumping into people”, before detonating his rucksack bomb.

New details of the behaviour and last movements of the four suicide bombers, who killed 52 people, were disclosed by a representative of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch, the magazine Police Review has reported.

The counter terrorist expert also told a seminar that the policing bill for the attacks on 7 July and the failed bombings on 21 July so far stands at £77m.

He warned traffic officers that the four terrorists – Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Germaine Lindsay, 19, and Hasib Hussain, 18, – did not fit the preconceived terrorist profile.

Tanweer hired a Nissan Micra and is believed to have been used to bring the other two Leeds-based terrorists, Hussain and Khan, to Luton railway station, from where they took the train into London for the bombing mission.

As an example the unnamed official told delegates that Tanweer argued with a cashier that he had been short changed, after stopping off at a petrol station on his way to the intended target in London.

The official told the seminar held in Preston, Lancashire two weeks ago: “This is not the behaviour of a terrorist – you’d think this is normal.

“Tanweer also played a game of cricket the night before he travelled down to London – now are these the actions of someone who is going to blow themselves up the next day?

“I’ve seen the CCTV footage of these people. They do not appear to be on their way to commit any crime at all. The Russell Square bomber [Hasib Hussain] is actually seen going into shops and bumping into people [prior to his attack].