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| CIA finds chemical weapons ties between Al Qaida and Saddam regime |
| Saturday, April 23, 2005 |
The U.S. intelligence community has determined that Al Qaida joined the former Saddam Hussein regime to develop chemical weapons.
The Iraqi insurgency CW effort was attributed to the Mohammed Army, based in Fallujah and regarded as an Al Qaida offshoot. A CIA report said the group recruited a Baghdad chemist in late 2003 to develop chemical agents, including tabun and mustard.
The CIA said a network of Sunni insurgents sought to develop chemical weapons against the U.S.-led coalition in 2004. The network, called Al Abud, was detected and tracked by the Iraq Survey Group (ISG).
The Abud network sought chemicals and equipment needed to conduct CW experiments. The network encountered little difficulty in acquiring desired chemicals, including malathion pesticide and nitrogen mustard precursors. Most of the chemicals were acquired from farmers who looted state companies.
Al Abud also used the Mohammed Army to supply delivery systems for CW agents. The army reportedly provided mortar shells to be filled with CW agents. An experiment that mixed malathion and other chemicals to produce the nerve agent tabun in late December 2003 was termed a failure.
"ISG created a team of experts � including operators, analysts and technical ops officers � to systematically investigate and disrupt the Al Abud network and diffuse the immediate threat posed by the insurgents," stated the CIA report, dated Sept. 30, 2004. "The team also focused on identifying links between Al Abud players and former regime CBW experts to determine whether WMD intellectual capital was being tapped by insurgent elements throughout Iraq."
By June 2004, ISG was able to identify and neutralize the chemical suppliers and chemists, including Saddam operatives, who supported the Abud network. U.S. Special Forces conducted a series of raids of Al Abud laboratories and safe houses and detained members.
"The most alarming aspect of the Abud network is how quickly and effectively the group was able to mobilize key resources and tap relevant expertise to develop a program for weaponizing CW agents," the report said.
"If the insurgents had been able to acquire the necessary materials, fine-tune their agent production techniques and better understand the principles behind effectively dispersing CW, then the consequences of the Abud network's project could have been devastating to coalition forces," the report stated.
"The Al Abud network used their malathion mixture to weaponize nine mortar rounds," the report said. "The mortars likely are an ineffective means of dispersing the malathional because the detonation of the mortar will consume the poison. Malathion and tabun have similar chemical structures, however it is not possible to create tabun from malathion. The Al Abud chemist understood this limitation, but probably continued with the experiments to appease the insurgents."
In February 2004, Al Abud tried to produce nitrogen mustard. This also failed. The network then tried to produce binary mustard, again unsuccessfully.
The report said ISG failed to find evidence to confirm that the Abud network comprised an integrated part of a larger insurgency campaign in Iraq. Most of the figures in the Abud network have been sympathetic to the insurgency cause.
"ISG has found no evidence that the recent chemical weaponization attempts stem from the former regime's CW program or represent a prescribed plan by the former regime to fuel an insurgency," the report said. "However, many of the known Al Abud personalities have ties to the former regime through either business relationships or political affiliations."
[On April 12, the U.S. Justice Department reported the indictment of three British nationals accused of planning a WMD attack on New York and Washington in 2000 and 2001. One of the three was said to include a leading Al Qaida operative.]
[On April 12, the U.S. military reported the capture of leaders of three Al Qaida-aligned groups during an operation in Baghdad. Officers identified the groups as Ansar Al Sunna group, Ansar Al Islam and the Tawhid and Jihad group, led by Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi.]
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posted by J.R. @ 12:59:00 PM   |
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| NSA had 'mountain of evidence' on Saddam's WMDs |
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Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, director of the National Security Agency, said last week that NSA analysts had high confidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
Testifying on his nomination to be deputy director of national intelligence, Hayden said he asked NSA analysts on the eve of the Iraq war about their confidence in the intelligence on the weapons programs.
"And without betraying their privacy I got some pretty high numbers. They had confidence," Hayden said.
Hayden said NSA had a "mountain of evidence" from its electronic intelligence-gathering efforts on the WMD program. However, he said the "mountain was essentially inferential."
"No smoking gun. It was indirect. It was oblique. It was dual-use chemicals, it was dual-use equipment. It was suspicious equipment bought in a very suspicious way," he said.
As to the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraqi WMD, Hayden said: "There was nothing in that NIE that signals intelligence contradicted."
The signals intelligence ranged from "ambiguous to confirmatory" in support of the judgment that Iraq had covert stocks of chemical weapons and covert nuclear and biological programs and missile systems.
Hayden said the fault was "a process that wasn't good enough."
"We had a process that didn't allow the right wholeness of view, holistic view, and we ended up where we were," he said.
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| posted by J.R. @ 12:55:00 PM |
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| The big lie on Saddam's WMD |
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Even UN agency concludes they were removed
One of the biggest lies being bandied about was that U.S. intelligence failed to find a weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq. The United States looked for chemical weapons, biological weapons and nuclear facilities and couldn't find any.
The conclusion was that Saddam had no WMD facility.
Here's another, far more plausible, view. The Saddam Hussein regime dismantled all WMD facilities and either concealed them in Iraq or shipped them to Syria. This is more than the assessment of agencies within the U.S. intelligence community: It is even the assessment of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Last week, the IAEA concluded that Iraq dismantled dozens of nuclear sites that had been operating under the Saddam regime. In a letter to the UN Security Council, the IAEA said satellite imagery revealed significant dismantling and removal activities at 37 Iraqi sites linked to Saddam's clandestine nuclear program since 2003.
"But without on-site inspections no conclusions can be drawn," the IAEA said.
The IAEA's investigation was logical. They focused on areas where destroyed equipment from the former nuclear program had been stored or discarded.
"Satellite imagery has indicated that at least one site containing buried contaminated rubble has been extensively excavated," the letter said.
The agency has sought permission for on-site inspections of these facilities to determine what took place. So far, the United States, fighting an insurgency war in Iraq, has not allowed these inspections.
Regardless, the evidence is clear. Saddam's nuclear sites were systematically dismantled. The question is not the U.S. failure to locate them � but what the former regime did with these WMD facilities.
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| posted by J.R. @ 12:53:00 PM |
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| Dems Crawfish on Ethics Panel Debate |
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The Democratic leadership has railed against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's alleged ethics violations. But now that Republican Ethics Committee Chairman Doc Hastings is offering to open an investigation, Democrats won't take yes for an answer.
Since the committee is evenly split with five members from each party, a lengthy investigation requires crossover support from at least one member of the other party.
Of course, the boycott also keeps Democrats from being investigated, a point made by House Speaker Dennis Hastert in an interview with FOX News' Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
"We know there's probably four or five cases out there dealing with top-level Democrats. There's a reason that they don't want to go to the ethics process," Hastert said.
A former DeLay aide, Bob Rusbuldt said Democrats may not really want an investigation of the Republican leader.
"If Tom DeLay is exonerated, they've lost their 'devil incarnate' in the press. And they might not want to have Tom DeLay exonerated or actually know the true facts," he said.
"As long as they can keep someone dangling out there like they have with Tom DeLay, they take great glee in that," Hastert said.
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:41:00 AM |
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| Greenpeace co-founder says the environmental movement "has lost its objectivity, morality and humanity." |
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When I helped organize the first Earth Day on my college campus in 1970, I never dreamed we'd be celebrating #35 this year, or that we'd come so far in cleaning up our environment. But the improvements are remarkable.
Since 1976, airborne sulfur dioxide has been reduced 72 percent ... carbon monoxide 76 percent ... lead 98 percent - according to the Pacific Research Institute's annual Index of Leading Environmental Indicators. Automobile tailpipe emissions are down 95 percent from 1975 levels.
About 80 percent of U.S. community water systems had no violations of health-based EPA standards in 1993. Last year, 95 percent had no violations.
For the past five years, our wetlands have increased by 26,000 acres a year - reversing years of decline. We've gone from 500 nesting pairs of bald eagles in 1965 to 7,500 today, including a half dozen on the river where I grew up, less than a half mile from a big paper mill whose effluents once contaminated the area.
Progress since the "good old days" is even more dramatic. In 1905, average U.S. life expectancy was 47 years; today it's 78. Few homes had electricity; instead, coal and wood fires created clouds of pollution, and the average home generated 5,000 pounds of wood or coal ash a year.
Over 3 million horses worked in American cities - producing 11 million tons of manure and 9 million gallons of urine annually. Most got left on streets or dumped into rivers; during summers, manure dust was a primary cause of tuberculosis. In New York City alone, crews had to remove 15,000 horse carcasses from streets every year.
The arrival of automobiles changed all that. It also meant we no longer needed vast forage and pasture land for horses, modern farming began increasing production per acre, and we've been able to add a million acres of new U.S. forestland annually since 1910.
All is not rosy, of course. For instance, Alaskan stellar sea lion populations continue to decline, though exact causes are unclear. But overall - in sharp contrast to gloomy reports from some activist groups and news media - environmental progress has been steady, not only in the U.S., but throughout the developed world.
Most importantly, remember that our remaining problems are relatively minor.
Today's truly serious health and environmental problems are in the poorest countries. That's where we should focus our attention. That's why we should have an annual People Day, when we can resolve to address real, immediate, life-or-death problems that threaten poor nations - rather than fixate on minor, distant, fashionable, theoretical problems.
The reality is, impoverished countries have little to celebrate. Two billion of their people still don't have electricity. Four in ten Indian families - 150 million households - do not. In sub-Saharan Africa, it's nine of ten families.
The consequences are far worse than merely doing without modern homes, hospitals, schools, offices and factories. These families are forced to burn wood, animal dung and agricultural waste in unventilated homes - and live with constant toxic pollution that causes up to three million children to die every year from respiratory diseases.
And still radical greens conjure up specters of catastrophic global warming to justify their demands that the Third World not build coal or gas-fired power plants. Others use Earth Day to justify their campaigns against hydroelectric projects and nuclear power. The inevitable result, of course is perpetual deprivation, dung fires, poverty, disease and premature death.
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:31:00 AM |
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| Army Clears Top Abu Ghraib Case Officers |
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The Army has cleared four top officers - including the three-star general who commanded all U.S. forces in Iraq - of all allegations of wrongdoing in connection with prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and will not be punished, officials said Friday.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who became the senior commander in Iraq in June 2003, two months after the fall of Baghdad, had been faulted in earlier investigations for leadership lapses that may have contributed to prisoner abuse. He is the highest ranking officer to face official allegations of leadership failures in Iraq, but he has not been accused of criminal violations.
After assessing the allegations against Sanchez and taking sworn statements from 37 people involved in Iraq, the Army's inspector general, Lt. Gen. Stanley E. Green, concluded that the allegations were unsubstantiated, said the officials who were familiar with the details of Green's probe.
Green reached the same conclusion in the cases of two generals and a colonel who worked for Sanchez.
The officials who disclosed the findings spoke only on condition of anonymity because Congress has not yet been fully briefed on Green's findings and the information has not yet been publicly released. Green had scrutinized the actions of Sanchez and 11 other officers.
Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib were physically abused and sexually humiliated by military police and intelligence soldiers in the fall of 2003. Photos of some of the abuse created a firestorm of criticism worldwide.
Congress has hotly debated the question of accountability among senior Army and Defense Department officials who were in positions of responsibility on Iraq detention and interrogation policy. Some Democrats have accused the Pentagon of foisting all the blame onto low-ranking soldiers.
In a statement Friday that did not mention specific cases, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said that as soon as all Pentagon assessments of accountability are complete he will hold a hearing "to examine the adequacy of those reviews" and to hear senior civilian and military officials address the issue.
Warner said he strongly agrees with one investigation report that concluded last year that commanders should be held accountable for their action or inaction and that military as well as civilian leaders in the Pentagon "share this burden of responsibility."
The office of Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, declined to comment on the matter.
Some have said the blame should rest with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, although none of the 10 investigations done so far has concluded that he was directly at fault.
Asked about public expectations of punishment for senior officers associated with Abu Ghraib, the Army's chief public affairs officer, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, said the Army went to great lengths to make its investigations thorough and fair, with no preconceived judgments.
"The thoroughness of the investigative process preserves the rights of all individuals involved while ensuring that the presumption of innocence must be disproved by facts before any allegation is determined to be substantiated," Brooks said.
In an interview Friday, three senior defense officials associated with the Green investigations cited mitigating circumstances in the Sanchez case, including the fact that his organization in Iraq, known as Combined Joint Task Force 7, initially was short of the senior officers it required. They also cited other complicating factors, including the upsurge in insurgent violence shortly after Sanchez took command and the intense pressure the military faced in hunting down Saddam Hussein, who was in hiding and thought to have a hand in the insurgency.
The three officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
Sanchez has been at the center of the Abu Ghraib controversy from its start.
He issued a policy on acceptable interrogation techniques on Sept. 14, 2003, then revised it on Oct. 12, about the time the abuses were happening. The Army inspector general found in an investigation last year that the policies were ambiguous and subject to misinterpretation by soldiers.
A separate investigation by a panel headed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger concluded that Sanchez should have taken stronger action in November 2003 when he realized the extent of problems among military intelligence and military police units running Abu Ghraib.
A subsequent Army investigation, made public last summer in what was called the Kern-Fay-Jones report, concluded that although Sanchez and his most senior deputies were not directly involved in the bases at Abu Ghraib, their "action and inaction did indirectly contribute" to some abuses.
Sanchez remains commander of the Army's 5th Corps, based in Germany. It is unclear whether he will be promoted to four-star ranking and given another assignment after he finishes with 5th Corps.
Sanchez and his former top deputy, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, were cited in the Kern-Fay-Jones report for failure to "ensure proper staff oversight of detention and interrogation operations" in Iraq, specifically at the Abu Ghraib prison.
It was left to Green, the Army inspector general, to weigh the gravity of the various allegations against Sanchez and other senior officers and determine whether they could be substantiated. In only one case - that of Janis Karpinski, an Army Reserve brigadier general who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade at Abu Ghraib - did Green decide that the allegations were substantiated. She has been suspended from her command and given a written reprimand.
In addition to clearing Sanchez, the Army inspector general has determined that there should be no punishment given to Wojdakowski or to Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, who was Sanchez's intelligence chief in Baghdad, or to Col. Mark Warren, Sanchez's top legal adviser at the time.
In addition to those five cases, which have been the main focus of attention by the Senate Armed Services Committee, Green examined allegations against seven other senior officers, all at or above the rank of colonel. The names of the seven have not been disclosed, and it is not yet known how many - if any - will be punished. One of the seven cases is not yet closed.
Those seven others do not include two accused officers whose cases are being considered by field commanders rather than by the Army inspector general because they face possible criminal charges. Those two are Col. Thomas Pappas, commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade at Abu Ghraib, and Lt. Col. Stephen Jordan, who directed the prison's interrogation center.
Fast was promoted to two-star general and given command of Fort Huachuca, Ariz., and its Army Intelligence Center.
After her change-of-command ceremony at Huachuca last month, Fast said of the Abu Ghraib debacle, "Could I have done something to prevent this? I think we all ask ourselves that question."
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:23:00 AM |
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| ACLU caught red-handed? |
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Changes view of precedent when it favors Christian group
The ACLU's support of a legal precedent used to gain recognition of a student homosexual group has reversed now that the ruling is being used to back the rights of a Christian club on campus, claims a public-interest law firm.
The Associated Student Body at Kentridge High School in Kent, Wash., has rejected the Truth Bible Club because it required all members to adhere to a code of Christian conduct and voting members to sign a statement of faith. Also, the name of the club was deemed "offensive" and "proselytizes."
The case is governed by the Equal Access Act, a federal statute that requires schools to treat student clubs equally, notes the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which is defending the Truth Bible Club.
In Prince v. Jacoby, ADF argues, the Ninth Circuit held that denying official sponsorship of a club violates the Equal Access Act.
ADF points out that in 2003, shortly after Prince v. Jacoby was decided, the ACLU sent an information letter to school officials in Washington state explaining the case "makes it clear that student clubs promoting tolerance for gay students are entitled to the same resources as other clubs."
But now, the ACLU has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Truth case that takes the opposite position.
The ACLU now wants to strike down the Prince case if it will be used to allow a Bible club on campus, the ADF's Tim Chandler told WorldNetDaily.
"This goes to show how far the ACLU will manipulate the legal system to further their radical agenda," said Chandler, a litigation specialist who is working on the case.
"They are backtracking," Chandler said. "They used these laws to get what they wanted � equal rights for the gay-straight alliance � and now that they've gotten that, they want to retriact it so the Bible club doesn't get the same benefits."
An ACLU of Washington lawyer did not respond to WND for comment by press time.
The ACLU argues that the Equal Access Act only requires schools to allow clubs to meet on campus but does not require them to have equal access to all other benefits, such as funding and yearbook recognition.
The ACLU insists Prince should be overruled to avoid giving Truth any benefits beyond the right to meet on campus.
ADF spokesman Greg Scott said Truth applied for ASB status three times and was rejected each time. After numerous requests and demand letters to the principal and district counsel went without response, ADF filed suit.
ASB status is required to receive funding from the school, recognition in the yearbook, and access to the public address system and other forms of on-campus advertising. Non-ASB groups are permitted to meet on campus during non-instructional time, but cannot receive any other benefits.
Scott notes that in the Prince case, the successful petitioners were part of a religious club seeking Equal Access.
"The ACLU is obviously engaged in religious bigotry � in cases concerning homosexual groups, they argue that Prince fully applies, but now, when it clearly applies, using the ACLU's own standard, to a religious club, they are seeking to overturn the Prince decision," he said.
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:17:00 AM |
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| Gay rights measure rejected by Wash State Senate |
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Two Democrats join Republicans on vote
In a vote the Senate had managed to avoid for almost 30 years, 23 Republicans and two Democrats joined forces yesterday to kill a bill that would have banned discrimination against gay people.
Gay rights advocates and Democratic leaders who have said the civil rights bill was among their top priorities wept openly and vowed to continue their fight after the bill failed.
"The lesbian and gay community, to say the least, is hurt and angry and suffering at this moment," said Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, one of four gay lawmakers. "But this for us is not a time to be angry. It is a time for action."
Murray, who has championed the legislation for a decade, said just bringing the measure to a vote in the Senate was progress because it forced lawmakers to reveal their true feelings. The bill has passed the House several times, including this session, but had never come to a vote in the upper chamber.
"We have furthered the cause of justice," Murray said. "We have exposed bigotry and prejudice in this state and we will win."
Republicans said they had blocked an unnecessary law that runs contrary to their religious tenets because it would have promoted homosexuality and advanced the cause of gay marriage.
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, could not muster 25 yes votes from her 26-member caucus. But she said all was not lost.
"The people of Washington want to know what we believe and how we vote on these issues," Brown said.
Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, voted to bring the bill to a floor vote only to vote against it. He said it was only fair to give fellow lawmakers a chance to vote on the bill. Sen. Jim Hargrove of Hoquiam was the other Democrat who voted no.
"I believe adultery is wrong, I believe sex outside marriage is wrong, I believe homosexuality is wrong. Therefore, I cannot give government protection to this behavior," Hargrove said.
But Democrats aimed the blame across the aisle. And although several other suburban Republicans had been viewed as possible crossover votes, Minority Leader Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, took most of the heat yesterday for his no vote.
Republicans had avoided a vote once already this session with a parliamentary maneuver that sent the bill back from the floor to a committee, where it was expected to languish another year.
Finkbeiner, who has broken ranks with the majority of his caucus on stem cell research legislation and the gas tax for transportation, voted with his party on the earlier procedural move on the gay rights bill.
Democrats thought bringing the gay rights bill up for a vote would force Finkbeiner to support it because, as a House Democrat in the early 1990s, Finkbeiner twice voted in support of the measure.
They were wrong.
Finkbeiner said although he was conflicted about the vote, he didn't think the new law was necessary.
"There's a lot of things that I think are wrong, and we don't have a law against them," Finkbeiner said. "I don't believe that in any way this vote condones discrimination in any way, shape or form. I still absolutely believe that it's wrong. I still believe that it does happen in some occurrences, but this state is actually pretty progressive and open minded."
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| posted by J.R. @ 8:21:00 AM |
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| Spain Opens Trial of 9/11 Suspects |
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Twenty-four Muslim men went on trial Friday as suspected members of an al-Qaida cell accused of using Spain as a staging ground to plot the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The defendants - mostly of Syrian and Moroccan origin - sat on wooden benches in a cramped, bullet-proof chamber at a makeshift courtroom as the trial before a three-judge panel got under way. Spain is only the second foreign country after Germany to try suspects in the suicide airliner attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The main suspect is Imad Yarkas, a 42-year-old father of six who, under the guise of being a used-car salesman, is alleged to have overseen a cell that provided logistical cover for Sept. 11 plotters like Mohamed Atta, believed to have piloted one of the two airliners that destroyed the World Trade Center.
Before the trial began, police with submachine guns stood guard as vans brought the handcuffed defendants to the courthouse, unloading them behind a tall iron fence and escorting them into the squat, red-brick building on the outskirts of Madrid, which has been specially adapted for the trial.
A police helicopter circled low overhead, and agents with bomb-sniffing German shepherd dogs searched shrubs in a park across the street.
The trial is the culmination of an eight-year investigation by anti-terrorism magistrate Baltasar Garzon, which determined that Muslim militants leading quiet lives as businessmen, laborers or waiters operated freely in Spain for years, allegedly recruiting men for terrorist training in Afghanistan, preaching holy war and laundering money for al-Qaida operations.
Two other suspects also are accused of planning the attacks. Moroccan Driss Chebli, 33, allegedly helped Yarkas arrange a July 2001 meeting in Spain attended by Atta and Sept. 11 coordinator Ramzi bin al-Shibh. Syrian-born Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, 39, made detailed video footage of the World Trade Center and other landmarks while visiting the United States in 1997.
Those tapes were eventually passed on to "operative members of al-Qaida and would become the preliminary information on the attacks against the Twin Towers," Garzon wrote in a September 2003 indictment against the three men and 32 other suspects, including Osama bin Laden himself and other key members of al-Qaida.
The other 21 on trial are charged with terrorism offenses but are not directly linked to the Sept. 11 attacks.
The three judges sat in front of a long row of cardboard boxes containing some of the 100,000 pages of documents accumulated over eight years of investigation leading up to the proceedings.
During one break for a procedural question, the defendants chatted animatedly, smiled and appeared to be waving at someone through a wall of frosted glass on one side of the chamber.
Al-Jazeera journalist Tayssir Alouny, the only one of the 24 defendants who is out on bail, was allowed to leave the bulletproof chamber because he has a heart condition. He sat in the main part of the courtroom.
Yarkas, accused cell leader, had been scheduled to testify first but instead it was Luis Jose Galan, the only native-born Spaniard among the 24 people on trial. He is accused of weapons possession and belonging to al-Qaida but not specific involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Under questioning from the prosecutor he acknowledged knowing some of the defendants on trial and fugitives indicted in the case but said it was only from going to the same mosques as they did in Madrid.
Galan called the post Sept. 11 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan to topple the Taliban unjustified and said "Muslims are not terrorists."
"All we want is to live in peace," he said.
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| posted by J.R. @ 8:19:00 AM |
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| Moussaoui Pleads Guilty to 9/11 Plot |
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Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty Friday to helping al-Qaida carry out the Sept. 11 hijackings and said he understood he could be put to death for his role in the deadliest terror attack in American history.
U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema accepted the plea, making the French citizen the lone person convicted in a U.S. court for the 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Moussaoui, more subdued than in earlier court appearances during which he sometimes ranted at Brinkema, answered her questions politely.
"How do you plead?" she asked him for each of the six felony counts against him. Each time, Moussaoui answered, "Guilty."
Brinkema asked defense lawyer Alan Yamamoto, the only lawyer Moussaoui would talk to in recent weeks, if he was satisfied the defendant understood what he was doing.
"When I have spoken to him, we have disagreed," Yamamoto said. "He is facing the possibility of death or life in prison. He has told me that he understands that."
"The court is accepting today the defendant's six pleas of guilty to the six counts of the indictment," Brinkema said.
"You are found guilty at this time," she told Moussaoui.
She said she had discussed Moussaoui's pleas at length with him earlier.
"He has a better understanding of the legal system than some lawyers I have seen in court," the judge said.
Moussaoui stood quietly before her on Friday, with two security officers behind him. He was not shackled.
He wore a green prison jumpsuit. He had a full beard.
After standing for five minutes to review the statement of facts against him, he asked to sit down. The courtroom was hushed as reviewed the document, then signed it.
� 2005 The Associated Press
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| posted by J.R. @ 8:16:00 AM |
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| ACLU sues Federal Air Marshal Service |
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Marshals not allowed to exercise free speech, suit says
The Federal Air Marshal Service is squelching the First Amendment rights of its rank-and-file employees by not allowing them to speak out about alleged security lapses in the commercial airline industry, the American Civil Liberties Union charged in a lawsuit Thursday.
The lawsuit, which claims the policy of not allowing air marshals to speak to the press or public is unconstitutional, was filed Thursday on behalf of Frank Terreri, an air marshal based in Los Angeles. Terreri, currently on non-flying administrative status due to a disciplinary proceeding unrelated to the current lawsuit, has been in a long-running dispute with air marshal officials to correct several policy areas he believes compromise commercial air travel.
�One of the fundamental lessons of the horrific events of 9/11 and the heroic efforts of the 9/11 widows to force the Bush administration to set up the 9/11 commission is that secrecy can be the enemy of accountability and good security,� said Peter Eliasberg, an ACLU lawyer in the group�s Southern California office.
'Secrecy can be the enemy of accountability and good security.�
� Peter Eliasberg
ACLU attorney
�Unfortunately, the Federal Air Marshal Service has not learned this lesson,� Eliasberg said. �Instead of promoting accountability they have set up a series of rules that are so restrictive that our client, Mr. Terreri � can�t appear here today or speak with any of you any day or any time.�
David Adams, a spokesman for the Federal Air Marshal Service, declined to comment on the specifics of the litigation, saying the agency hadn�t yet seen anything from the court. However, on the general issue of whether air marshal policies restricting speech were unconstitutional, Adams said, �We never violate anybody�s civil rights; however, we are strictly adhering to Department of Homeland Security policies on these issues.�
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| posted by J.R. @ 8:11:00 AM |
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| Bush Urges Congress to Pass 'Clear Skies' Proposal |
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On a stormy day that prevented President Bush from visiting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, he said "it would sure be helpful" if Congress would pass the air pollution proposal he calls "Clear Skies" legislation.
The legislation is Bush's top environmental priority, and would give power plants, factories and refineries more time to reduce their air pollution.
Last month, a Senate committee rejected the bill. Opponents want a plan that also puts limits on carbon dioxide, the "greenhouse" gas scientists blame for global warming, which Bush opposes regulating.
Bush's proposal would reduce nitrogen oxides, a big factor in smog; sulfur dioxide, which is blamed for acid rain; and mercury, a toxic chemical that contaminates water. Smokestack industries would trade pollution rights among themselves, within overall caps set by the government, and have a 2018 deadline for reducing the three pollutants by 70 percent.
The president pointed to the regulatory changes his administration has made on its own while the bill has languished. Those rules set new limits on smog and soot pollution to benefit the people who live downwind of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the East, South and Midwest; order power plants to cut mercury pollution smokestacks but left an out for the worst polluters; an aim to cut diesel pollution.
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| posted by J.R. @ 7:55:00 AM |
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| Kennedy In-Law Secretly Taped Hillary Aide |
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Sen. Ted Kennedy's brother-in-law, who pled guilty to bank fraud charges yesterday in New Orleans, secretly tape recorded former top Hillary Clinton campaign aide David Rosen - and may have taped Hillary herself - as part of an FBI probe into an Aug. 12, 2000 gala fundraiser for Mrs. Clinton's Senate campaign.
Ray Reggie, the brother of Kennedy's wife Victoria Reggie, was identified by prosecutors yesterday as the confidential witness who had been cooperating with investigators for three years as part of his bank fraud plea bargain. "I wasn't sure if anybody made any of these connections yet or not," Assistant U.S. Attorney in New Orleans, Jan Mann, told the New York Sun, which first reported the wiretapping on Thursday.
Prosecutors say Rosen, who served as finance chairman for Mrs. Clinton's 2000 Senate race, "made a number of incriminating statements" on the Reggie tapes, which they intend to introduce at his trial, set to begin on May 3.
In an indictment announced in January, Rosen was charged with hiding from the Federal Election Commission hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the related to the Hollywood gala.
Mr. Reggie traveled extensively with both Bill and Hillary Clinton, put together fundraisers for the former first couple and was an overnight guest at the Clinton White House.
During a June 2000 White House visit, the Clintons and the Reggies stayed up late into the night "chatting," the New York Post said.
Asked if Reggie may have also recorded one or both of the Clintons, attorney David Kendall "had no immediate response," the Sun said. The key government witness was "wearing a wire and making secret tapes as recently as last December," the Post said.
Another key witness in the probe, celebrity fundraiser Aaron Tonken, says the FBI asked him to record his conversations with Mrs. Clinton, in a bid to gather evidence about the Aug. 2000 fundraiser, which Tonken helped produce.
But Clinton insiders suspected he was cooperating with investigators and refused to take his calls.
If Mrs. Clinton was captured on tape making comments indicating she knew the extent of Rosen's alleged misdeeds, it could have a devastating impact on her plans to run for president in 2008.
Both Tonken and Hollywood mogul Peter Paul - who bankrolled the Clinton gala - say they personally apprised the top Democrat about the costs of the fundraiser.
"I told her about virtually every penny I'd spent on her behalf," Tonken recalled in his recent book "King of Cons."
"I told her about the money and what a pleasure it was to spend it on her [Senate] candidacy."
Mr. Paul says Mrs. Clinton was even involved in trying to trim some of the event's production costs.
"Hillary Clinton personally called the producer of the concert part of this event," he told Fox News Channel's Eric Shawn last November.
"She asked him to lower the fee that he was charging of $850,000 at my request. So I don't understand how she could possibly say that she didn't know" about the costs.
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| posted by J.R. @ 7:51:00 AM |
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| Schiavo Autopsy Will Not Confirm Diagnosis |
| Friday, April 22, 2005 |
Neurologists say the autopsy that is planned to be performed on Terri Schiavo will not definitively confirm a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state.
"Persistent vegetative state or minimally conscious state is a clinical diagnosis," says Michael De Georgia, MD, head of the neurology/neurosurgery intensive care unit at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. "It cannot be confirmed by autopsy."
Patients in a persistent vegetative state are a subgroup who suffer severe anoxic brain injury and progress to a state of wakefulness without awareness.
"The [pathologic examination of the] brain can't tell if there is a persistent vegetative state or not," says Harvard neuropathologist E. Tessa Hedley Whyte, MD. "The autopsy will show damage -- probably mostly scarring now -- and that damage will most likely correspond to some extent to what was seen on images."
According to court records, CT scans performed in 1996 and 2002 revealed "diffuse encephalomalacia and infarction consistent with anoxia, hydrocephalus ex vacuo, neural stimulator present."
Dr. De Georgia says that the extent of brain damage, confirmed on autopsy, "does reflect the absence of viable brain cells and the fewer brains cells a patient has the less likely it is that the patient will be conscious. But there is no standard cutoff that says if you lose this many brain cells you are in a persistent vegetative state."
Michael Williams, MD, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, puts it this way. "If you only had the brain to look at and you didn't know anything about the history of the patient, pathology alone cannot prove or disprove a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state."
Dr. Williams says it is likely that autopsy will show "widespread damage to the cortex -- a condition called laminar necrosis -- and it is likely that there will also be significant damage to the thalamus."
While Dr. Williams says the autopsy can't confirm the diagnosis of persistent vegetative state, he says that receiving an autopsy report sometimes helps a family that is struggling to accept the diagnosis. "Sometimes additional evidence from a CT scan or an autopsy report -- something concrete -- helps bring some final understanding or acceptance," he says.
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:22:00 AM |
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| Italian Court Rules Woman's Feeding Tube Must Stay |
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Italy's Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a man's appeal to remove a feeding tube keeping his daughter alive, weeks after a bitter row over brain-damaged Terri Schiavo divided the United States.
The Italian court confirmed an earlier ruling that called feeding Eluana Englaro, in a vegetative state following a 1992 car crash, a "necessary act."
It said a decision to remove the tube required "valuations of life and death that are rooted in concepts of an ethical or religious nature, which are extrajudicial," and said that the issue was also outside the powers of Englaro's father.
Some of doctors looking after the 35-year-old Englaro at a hospital in Lecco, a lakeside town in Northern Italy, have said she reacts to stimulus. Her father Beppino Englaro believes his daughter would want to die.
"Eluana has clearly expressed the wish to die in case of an accident that left her in a coma or a vegetative state," he said some weeks ago.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that since there was no specific evidence of the woman's views on life and death, it was impossible to say that her father's opinion reflected her own.
In Schiavo's case, her husband said it would have been her wish to die, while her parents pursued a legal battle to keep her alive. Her feeding tube was eventually pulled out by court order. Schiavo, who fell into a vegetative state after a cardiac arrest in 1990, died two weeks later.
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:11:00 AM |
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| House Committee Holds Hearing on Terri Schiavo, Protecting Disabled |
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A House committee held a hearing on the debate surrounding the death of Terri Schiavo, the disabled woman who was starved during a painful thirteen day long process.
The hearing was supposed to include Terri and her estranged husband Michael, but judges ignored Congressional subpoenas asking them to appear and allowed her death.
Dave Weldon, a Florida Republican congressman who is also a doctor by profession, testified in front of members of the House Committee on Government Reform.
He told them that feeding tubes should not be removed from incapacitated people whose medical costs are paid in part by the federal government unless the patient has previously given explicit instructions to withdraw food and water.
Weldon told members of the committee he is writing legislation to require Medicare and Medicaid to have a national standard that requires providing all patients with food and water when necessary unless patient's say otherwise beforehand.
"You're going to see more and more people who are less and less disabled being denied care if we do not at least establish some kind of floor or basement or fundamental standard," Weldon said.
Weldon said the federal government system should have a "biased toward life," according to a Ft. Wayne Journal newspaper report.
Indiana Rep. Mark Souder, also a Republican, chaired the meeting.
He agreed with Weldon and said the federal government "should protect patients rather than pave the way to hasten their death."
Souder said legislation is needed to presume a patient would want lifesaving medical treatment when no treatment decisions have been made in advance. Without such legislation, courts or doctors can decide patients should die, as happened with Terri.
"This creates a vacuum where someone else may determine that a patient's life is one not worth living, and this is most definitely a slippery slope," Souder said, the Journal reported.
A Department of Health and Human Services official who works with Medicare and Medicaid said the agency doesn't make patient treatments decisions and said patients, families and doctors do.
Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, a Florida Republican, told members she was concerned that private insurance companies will not follow the same guidelines, if Weldon's proposal becomes law, as the federal government.
However, Weldon said insurance companies usually track with federal law concerning the two major programs.
The Ft. Wayne paper reported that Bob Sedlmeyer, the father of a 19 year old Indiana woman whose birth defects left her incapacitated, told members of the committee that legislation like Weldon's is necessary.
Sedlmeyer worried that, as support for euthanasia grows, "her right to die may become her duty to die."
He said it was frightening "that the value of [Terri's] life, as measured by the scales of our justice system, did not merit even food and water."
Last month, Weldon was a lead House sponsor of the bill asking courts to stop Terri's starvation death and to allow her parents to take their lawsuit to federal courts.
Earlier this month, a Senate health committee held hearings on the plight of Terri Schiavo and end of life care. The meeting was marked by partisan division as lawmakers sparred over the best way to address patient treatment issues.
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:04:00 AM |
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| University of Miami Releases Schiavo-Schindler Court Documents |
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The Schiavo Post-Mortem
The University of Miami has released some interesting court papers related to the Terri Schiavo murder, although they are difficult to find, and even more difficult to sort out. The three papers are pdf files, and can be found at the following addresses:
http://www.miami.edu/ethics2/schiavo/DCF%20Abuse%20Investigations%20part%201.pdf
http://www.miami.edu/ethics2/schiavo/DCF%20Abuse%20Investigations%20part%202.pdf
http://www.miami.edu/ethics2/schiavo/DCF%20Abuse%20Investigations%20part%203.pdf
If you click on these links, however, what may happen is you will given a �404 Error� screen, telling you the documents cannot be found, and offering a search screen. If you search �Schiavo DCF Abuse� on the U-Miami screen, however, these documents will then be presented and available. I don�t know why the link works that way, but it did for me.
Anyone looking for proof to support either the validity or criminality of anyone in the case will be disappointed, as these documents do not provide anything a court would accept as proof. However, the 45 pages in the report do illuminate the debate, and present interesting points of reference, and some confirmation of essential facts in the background of the case. The context presented by these facts is chilling.
Here are the essentials:
BASELESS CLAIMS1. Michael Schiavo accused the Schindlers of exploiting Terri, by making a video of her at the hospice for the purpose of selling it at $100 per copy. Investigation revealed there were four videos, there made in the normal process of doctors� evaluations (brought by the Schindlers, not by the hospice of Michael Schiavo, who have produced no public records from any evaluations by medical doctors on their contentions) , and a video extracted from old film. The videos were available for free, although the Schindlers accepted donations to provide a legal defense for Terri.
2. The Schindlers accused Michael Schiavo of causing bone fractures. Examination by doctors revealed the fractures were consistent with compression fractures caused by degenerative bone loss from long periods without exercise.
UNRESOLVED CLAIMS
1. The Schindlers accused Michael of withholding food and/or water, even when the feeding tube was in place. The hospice has claimed they investigated, but did not categorically confirm or deny the allegations
2. The Schindlers claimed that on five separate occasions, Michael visited Terri and demanded he be left alone with her, after which time Terri was sick, which the Schindlers claim was caused by something Michael did. The hospice never addressed this specific 2003 allegation.
3. A nurse from the hospice has claimed that Michael Schiavo repeatedly demanded to know �Is the b---h ever going to die?� and similar statements. The hospice stated there was no support for these claims, but did not formally interview the relevant staff or ask for corroborating evidence from any source.
4. The Schindlers claimed that Terri was, in fact, responsive to her surroundings. The hospice denied this claim, but admitted that she did open and close her eyes, move at times, and made sounds.
SUPPORTED CLAIMS
1. The Schindlers claimed that Michael Schiavo was not paying for Terri�s care. The hospice did not directly address the question of whether Terri�s bills were being paid (claiming the financial matters were being handled by courts), but on several occasions confirmed that Michael Schiavo was not responsible for payments to the hospice.
2. The Schindlers claim that Terri lost teeth on at least two occasions, due to neglect. The hospice denied any neglect, but admitted several teeth were �darkened�, and admitted the tooth loss on two occasions.
3. The Schindlers claimed Terri had an untreated yeast infection, and that Terri had not had a GYN exam while at the hospice. The hospice did not respond to the yeast infection allegation, but admitted that Terri Schiavo never had a GYN exam while at the hospice.
4. The Schindlers claimed Michael Schiavo controlled access to Terri, and restricted or prohibited family visits. The hospice admitted this was correct.
5. The Schindlers claimed that Michael Schiavo had demanded that Terri not be given antibiotics for infections. The hospice did not address the question of whether thy had denied Terri antibiotics, but admitted that on 2 previous occasions at other hospices, Michael had demanded antibiotics not be given to Terri, and had been told that antibiotics would be administered in treatment of infection, and if he did not like it, he could move Terri to another hospice, which is what happened.
6. The Schindlers claimed Terri had bed sores from neglect. The hospice denied neglect, but admitted treating Terri for �stage two� bed sores.
7. The Schindlers claimed someone had injected Terri with an unknown substance. The hospice confirmed what appeared to be puncture marks on Terri�s arm, along with scratches on the other arm, and found a purple �needle cap� in the room which was not from the hospice. Strangely, the hospice interviewed Mrs. Schindler about the cap, but did not interview Michael Schiavo about the cap, although nurse reports indicate he was the last person alone with Terri before the puncture marks and needle cap were found.
STRANGE EVIDENCE
1. The hospice repeatedly claimed that Terri Schiavo was unable to feel pain, but admitted that on each occasion where the feeding tube was removed, �morphine, ativan, tylenol, and compazine� were all administered, which is only done to alleviate pain and suffering
2. The hospice noted that Michael Schiavo�s stated assets were $29,000 in October 1992, $139,000 in April 1996, and $776,000 in July 2002, after which time his financial assets were sealed by Judge Greer.
3. There were nine reports of �Collateral Communication� made as part of hospice investigations into allegations. Only two allegations, the exploitation claim made by Michael against the Schindlers and the police involvement in the unexplained injections, received any sort of follow-up or witness corroboration. In seven of nine cases, the hospice made no attempt to verify claims or obtain witness statements.
The details of relevant documents are noted here, in chronological order. Decide for yourself:
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| posted by J.R. @ 9:52:00 AM |
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| Dangers of "Living Will" and "Brain Death" Exposed on Florida Talk Show |
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Appearing last night on the David Allen Show, which airs on AM 1320 in Jacksonville, FL, and across the world via the Internet, Dr. Paul Byrne described the dangers of the misnamed "living will," which he said "has nothing to do with living and everything to do with dying."
Dr. Byrne is a neonatologist and physician in practice for more than 30 years. He has authored medical text books on death and dying, and has appeared before numerous state legislatures in defense of life.
An uncompromising opponent of euthanasia, Dr. Byrne presented the medical truth behind the legal fiction of "brain death" and the transplantation of vital organs it was concocted to facilitate.
Returning to the matter of advance directives, the past president of the Catholic Medical Association endorsed CURE's Life Support Directive, as the directive affording the greatest degree of protection to its users.
Supplemental Resources
You may listen to or download, Allen's interview with Dr. Byrne on the show's website.
You may request a free copy of the Life Support Directive by e-mailing CURE.
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| posted by J.R. @ 9:40:00 AM |
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| House Passes Energy Bill |
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By a vote of 249 to 183, the House approved an $8 billion energy bill which would give tax breaks over 10 years to promote more long-term production of domestic oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear and other forms of energy, as well as to boost production of ethanol.
House Majority Leader Tom Delay praised passage of the bill, saying it "provides our nation with a comprehensive, environmentally friendly energy policy."
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) called the bill "a balanced approach to promoting our energy security while preserving our natural resources and creating jobs."
"Passage of this bill moves the country one step closer to a more affordable and reliable energy supply," said Blunt. "This bill also creates nearly a half a million jobs in the manufacturing, construction, agriculture and technology sectors while protecting thousands of jobs that would potentially be lost due to an unstable supply of energy."
Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.), who applauds the bill, said more still needs to be done "to increase the availability of clean-burning natural gas."
Democrats and liberal interest groups are opposed to the bill
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| posted by J.R. @ 9:24:00 AM |
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| Who Paid for Pelosi's Trip? |
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House Republicans yesterday called on Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to provide documentation to prove that a Washington lobbyist firm did not pay for a trip she and other Democrats took to Puerto Rico in 2001.
"We feel that such lingering questions undermine the integrity of the institution and we hope [the questions] will be cleared up as soon as possible," wrote Republican Reps. Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia.
The Washington Times reported earlier this week that Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio Democrat and member of the House ethics committee, listed a registered lobbyist as the trip's sponsor. House rules prohibit registered lobbyists from paying for travel by members.
On travel disclosure forms filed with the House clerk, Mrs. Pelosi and others on the trip listed a group called Todo Puerto Rico con Vieques as its sponsor.
After the discrepancy was made public, Mrs. Jones amended her travel disclosure form to match those of Mrs. Pelosi and other travelers. A spokeswoman in Mrs. Jones' office blamed the conflicting information on "human error" but declined to provide proof that the trip was paid for by Todo Puerto Rico con Vieques, rather than D.C. lobbyist Smith, Dawson & Andrews.
Mrs. Pelosi also refused to provide any such documentation, and testily dismissed questions yesterday about the matter.
"There's no discrepancy in the records on my trip," the California Democrat said. "So that's all I can answer for."
Meanwhile, Rep. Tom Feeney, Florida Republican, yesterday became the latest to be ensnared in the escalating bipartisan hunt for ethical lapses in congressional travel.
Mr. Feeney and his wife traveled from Orlando to West Palm Beach, Fla., to deliver a speech in November 2003. According to records he filed with the House clerk, the $1,946 tab for the trip was picked up by Rotterman & Associates, a North Carolina-based lobbying firm.
Mr. Feeney amended his report this week, saying the California-based Center for the Study of Popular Culture had funded the trip.
The charges and countercharges about congressional travel come amid a prolonged standoff between Democrats and Republicans that has kept the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct from meeting this year.
The questions also come after months of claims against Majority Leader Tom DeLay, accused of accepting a trip paid for by a lobbyist. Mr DeLay and the nonprofit group he listed as the trip's sponsor insist the lobbyist did not pay the bill.
Mrs. Pelosi has called for a full investigation into that matter, which is an inconsistency, say Mr. McHenry and Mr. Westmoreland.
"If you are serious that the mere allegation that a lobbyist paid for member travel warrants a full ethics investigation, it would seem that a member actually disclosing it as fact would more than merit it," the Republicans wrote.
"We would hope that you would come forward with any and all documentation your office has proving that in fact the group, Todo Puerto Rico con Vieques, initiated and paid for your trip," Mr. McHenry and Mr. Westmoreland added. "Ms. Jones' disclosures that a lobbyist in fact paid for it, and her subsequent statement that the lobbying firm handled the logistics, has created an appearance that the true source of the funds may not actually be Todo Puerto Rico con Vieques."
Jose Paralitici, who organized the group to oppose the U.S. Navy bombing range in Vieques, yesterday returned a telephone message left earlier in the week by The Times. Mr. Paralitici said he operates the group from his home and that the group paid for the 2001 trips.
Mr. Paralitici said he hadn't spoken to anyone in Congress this week but that he was volunteering the information after coming across The Times story on the Internet. He said the money to pay the more than $8,000 in travel bills came from "a lot of donations."
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| posted by J.R. @ 9:17:00 AM |
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| What Are U.S. Military Options in Iran? |
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WASHINGTON � U.S. officials are still trying to find a diplomatic resolution over Iran's interest in creating nuclear facilities. But if diplomacy fails, the Bush administration is also looking at its military options.
Covert Action: The Bush administration might send CIA agents or commandos to sabotage Iran�s nuclear facilities.
�There were no smoking guns, no fingerprints,� said Walter Russell Mead (search), with the Council on Foreign Relations. �We wouldn�t be faced with that ugly, ugly choice of, we have a war or they get a weapon.�
Naval Blockade: U.S. warships would be sent into the Strait of Hormuz (search) to stop the export of Iranian oil. This would pressure the mullahs to give up enriching uranium and allow intrusive inspections.
One downside is that Iran is OPEC (search)�s second largest oil producer, so a blockade could also put a stranglehold on the economies of many U.S. allies. Other potential problems are that it may not work fast enough and it would leave Iran�s existing nuclear facilities intact.
�So the question is not whether we could do it. We could. The question is, at what cost?� Mead said.
Surgical Strikes: U.S. forces could zero in on Iranian nuclear targets, hitting the country�s highest-risk sites � such as Bushier, Natanz, Arak, Isfahan and a dozen or more others � using cruise missiles launched from land or sea.
�We are moving some aircraft carrier groups into the Persian Gulf as we speak," said retired Army Major Gen. Paul Vallely (search). "They will be positioned to launch any aircraft from the Mediterranean Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.�
Next, F-117 stealth fighter jets could take out a radar system by firing missiles and anti-aircraft guns at Isfahan or surface-to-air missiles around the Bushier reactor (search). B-2 bombers carrying eight 5,000-pound laser-guided bunker busters would hit buried targets like the Natanz (search) enrichment site or the deep tunnels in Isfahan (search).
Surgical strikes would also aim to hurt Iran's ability to counterattack while limiting | | |
