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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (748230)	8/24/2006 4:22:12 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

Olbermann: the politics of fear Posted by David DeGraw at 11:55 AM on August 23, 2006. alternet.org

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (748230)	8/24/2006 4:50:14 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

N.J. Governor to Name New Attorney General E-MailPrint Save By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 24, 2006 TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine will tap his chief counsel, Stuart Rabner, to replace outgoing Attorney General Zulima Farber, according to a senior state official. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity, so as not to upstage a news conference the governor has planned for 5 p.m. Thursday. Before he was tapped as Corzine's chief legal adviser, Rabner, 46, headed the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's office in Newark, supervising 100 attorneys and staff prosecuting terrorism and corruption cases. Rabner graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and summa cum laude from Princeton University. His nomination would need to be confirmed by the state Senate. Rabner did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Farber announced her resignation last week, hours after a special prosecutor released a report saying she violated state ethics laws by going to the scene of her boyfriend's traffic stop in May and allowing police to give him preferential treatment. Her last day is Aug. 31. The attorney general is the state's top law enforcement officer and, arguably, the governor's most important Cabinet pick. That person will oversee the Department of Law and Public Safety, whose nearly 9,000 employees include the New Jersey State Police and who work to protect citizens' civil and consumer rights. Unlike other Cabinet-level posts, the attorney general is appointed to a four-year term by the governor and cannot be fired at will. The governor can remove the attorney general "for cause," but that has never been tested before. The attorney general has more job protection than other Cabinet members so that they can make prosecutorial decisions -- and even investigate or prosecute the governor -- without fear of retaliation. Cabinet members earn $141,000 a year.

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (748230)	8/24/2006 5:07:10 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

does Germany send troops to IRAQ ??? 2nd German Terror Plot Suspect Arrested By Craig Whitlock Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, August 24, 2006; 3:52 PM BERLIN, Aug. 24 -- A second suspect in last month's attempted train bombings in Germany was taken into custody Thursday after an international manhunt. But investigators appeared no closer to answering the central questions surrounding the plot: what was the motive and why was Germany the target? Jihad Hamad, 20, a Lebanese citizen who had been living in Germany, turned himself in to Lebanese authorities early Thursday in the city of Tripoli, according to the German federal prosecutor's office. Investigators said Hamad and his accomplice had fled Germany after they planted suitcase bombs on two trains in Cologne on July 31 in an attempt to kill scores of people. A photo released by the German Federal Crime Office on Wednesday Aug. 23, 2006 shows Jihad Hamad, the second suspect in the failed train bombing plot. The second main suspect in a failed plot to bomb two German trains last month turned himself in to authorities in his native Lebanon on Thursday, German federal prosecutors said. Jihad Hamad, 19, was arrested Thursday morning after turning himself in to police in the city of Tripoli, prosecutors said in a statement. The other main suspect, a 21-year-old Lebanese student, was arrested in Germany last weekend. The bombs failed to detonate and German police were able to identify two men who left the suitcases from surveillance videos taken from the Cologne train station. The other suspect, a Lebanese student identified as Youssef Mohamad el Hajdib, 21, was arrested early Saturday. Both men face charges of attempted mass murder, among other crimes. After downplaying the incident at first, German authorities in recent days have called the train plot the biggest terrorist threat the country has faced since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, which were led by a cell of al-Qaeda operatives based in the northern German city of Hamburg. "The threat has never been so close," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in a television interview. "We do not know what could still happen." The case has also undermined a common assumption among many Germans that their country's opposition to the war in Iraq -- as well as German willingness to criticize U.S. foreign policy in general -- meant they were unlikely to draw the ire of Islamic radicals. "It is clear that Germany is part of the Western and transatlantic community and is a potential target," said Hans-Joachim Giessmann, deputy director of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. "Many people thought that staying out of the war in Iraq would make Germany safer than other countries, but that clearly is not the case." Revelations about the plot have prompted lawmakers to resurrect proposals to increase electronic surveillance in public places and to create a national database of suspected radicals. Similar plans have been shelved in the past because of concerns that they would infringe on privacy rights. Despite an intensive investigation, little is known about the two suspects, their motivations and whether their alleged plot included anyone else. Both men have been charged with belonging to terrorist organizations, although prosecutors have not specified what group they allegedly belonged to. Hajdib arrived in Germany from Lebanon in September 2004 and was taking preparatory classes in the northern city of Kiel in hopes of enrolling at a German university, according to German media reports. Hamad had been living in Cologne, although it was unclear when he entered the country. German police found bombmaking materials and a receipt for gasoline canisters in his apartment during a search this week, said Frauke-Katrin Scheuten, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office. German investigators said the pair flew to Istanbul shortly after leaving the suitcase bombs on the two trains in Cologne. Hajdib returned to Germany last week and was arrested a few days later at the train station in Kiel; officials said he has been cooperating with interrogators since then. Lebanese military intelligence officials provided tips on both suspects' whereabouts, leading to the arrests, German officials said. According to German authorities, Hajdib had a brother who was killed in an Israeli air raid in southern Lebanon last month. Investigators have declined to say whether they believe the war in Lebanon was a factor in the planned attack, although they said the plot may have had international support and that more accomplices could be at large. "We're not out of danger," Joerg Ziercke, chief of the German federal police, said on German television Wednesday. He said investigators were trying to determine "if this was a network, if there were supporters, or if this is simply about radicalized perpetrators acting alone to send some signal of their fanatic delusions." Special correspondent Shannon Smiley contributed to this report.