truesee's Blog

Bin Laden warns US against executing 9/11 mastermind

 

AFP/File – An undated picture of Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden has warned Al-Qaeda will kill Americans if the mastermind … by Lynne Nahhas Lynne Nahhas – Thu Mar 25, 3:13 pm ET

DUBAI (AFP) – Osama bin Laden warned that Al-Qaeda will kill Americans if the mastermind of the 2001 attacks on the United States, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, is executed, in a tape aired on Al-Jazeera on Thursday.

"The White House has declared its wish to execute (Sheikh Mohammed and his co-accused). The day the United States takes such a decision, it would be also taking the decision that any of you falling into our hands will be executed," bin Laden said in the audio message.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, flying with US President Barack Obama to Iowa on Air Force One, did not directly respond to the comments.

But he said: "We see that Al-Qaeda has nothing to spread but hate and that?s why the administration will keep up the pressure to destroy the Al-Qaeda network."

Bin Laden said Obama was "still walking in the footsteps" of his predecessor, George W. Bush, by escalating the war in Afghanistan.

He also condemned Obama for "oppressing our prisoners that you are holding, beginning with the mujahid (holy warrior) hero Khaled al-Sheikh Mohammed."

US politicians, he added, had "oppressed us and still do, especially by backing Israel, which occupies the land of Palestine."

The US-based IntelCenter monitoring service said the tape "appears to be authentic."

"Bin Laden's specific threat serves as a valid indicator of an increased threat of kidnappings targeting Americans in the immediate period and following through the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial in the US," it warned in a statement.

"Attempts to kidnap Americans would not be limited to core Al-Qaeda. The group's regional arms such as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb, which has been aggressively targeting Westerners for kidnapping in North Africa, may follow through on bin Laden's threat."

The Kuwaiti-born Sheikh Mohammed is being held in Guantanamo Bay and was subjected to repeated water-boarding, a now banned interrogation technique that simulates drowning, after his 2003 arrest in Pakistan.

He told a military tribunal in 2008 that he did not "want to waste time" and would plead guilty to the terror charges.

The United States is just weeks away from a landmark decision on whether to try him and four alleged co-conspirators in a civilian federal court or in a military tribunal.

The Obama administration had announced it would try them in a New York courthouse just steps from where the World Trade Center that collapsed in the 2001 attacks had stood.

But the plans have met a backlash from Republican lawmakers who introduced legislation to require a military trial, throwing a challenge to Obama months ahead of mid-term elections in November.

Obama made bringing Sheikh Mohammed to a civilian trial a centrepiece of a broader plan to end what he saw as serious abuses of law under Bush and his powerful vice president Dick Cheney.

Bin Laden's latest statement was his first since he issued two in January, one of them claiming responsibility for the botched Christmas Day bombing of a US airliner and vowing further strikes on American targets.

Bin Laden also referred to US support for Israel in the January message.

"God willing, our attacks against you will continue as long as you maintain your support to Israel," he said.

"America should not dream of security until we enjoy it as a reality in Palestine," added the Saudi-born militant who has a 50-million-dollar bounty on his head.

In the other tape released in January, bin Laden blamed major industrial nations for climate change, a statement the US State Department said showed that the Al-Qaeda chief was struggling to stay relevant.

Congress Passes Final Piece of Healthcare Legislation

Noam N. Levey

Washington DC Bureau

March 25, 2010

After a final surge to overcome Republican opposition, Congressional Democrats Thursday approved the last piece of their health overhaul, sending President Obama a package of changes to the main health bill the president signed Tuesday.

The so-called reconciliation package, which also includes a major reorganization of the federal student loan program, passed the Senate Thursday afternoon 56-43 on a nearly party-line vote after a grueling night and day of roll-call votes during which Republicans sought to derail the bill.

Later Thursday evening, House Democrats approved the same package 220 to 207 and formally concluded Democrats' tortuous 14-month drive to move major healthcare legislation through Congress for the first time in nearly half a century.

"More than 80 years ago, Franklin Roosevelt identified four freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom from want and freedom from fear," said Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), one of the architects of the healthcare overhaul.

"Today in many ways we are fulfilling that last of the great freedoms, the fear that you or your family could suffer a health-care crisis."

The president, who traveled to Iowa Thursday to tout the healthcare overhaul, is expected to the sign the legislation in the next several days.

Paralleling earlier healthcare votes this year, not a single Republican voted for the final package in the House or Senate.

Many GOP lawmakers have criticized the legislation as an unwarranted expansion of federal authority over the healthcare sector. And Thursday, Republicans kept up their call to roll back the legislation, previewing a debate that is expected to only intensify as election day approaches this fall.

"The important thing now … is to replace those who voted for the healthcare bill and to repeal it when we get some new members here," Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) told Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity Thursday.

Three Senate Democrats and 32 House Democrats also voted against the package Thursday, including several facing difficult reelection campaigns in traditionally Republican states such as Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

The bill required only a simple majority in the Senate because Democrats used the budget reconciliation process to avoid a filibuster, which requires a 60-vote supermajority to squash.

The 153-page reconciliation package represents a small fraction of the gargantuan healthcare legislation that the House approved over the weekend and the president signed Tuesday.

But it makes several major changes to the main healthcare bill, including expanding subsidies that the federal government will provide to low- and moderate-income Americans starting in 2014 to help them buy health insurance.

The package also scales back a new 40% excise tax on high-end "Cadillac" health plans and delays its implementation until 2018.

It imposes a new tax on couples making more than $250,000, who will pay a 3.8% Medicare tax on capital gains and other investment income for the first time.

The bill boosts federal aid to states to help them expand their Medicaid programs, replacing a provision in the main healthcare bill that singled out Nebraska for special assistance.

And it would gradually close the gap in Medicare drug coverage known as the "doughnut hole," phasing it out completely by 2020.

Together, the healthcare legislation signed by the president and the reconciliation package approved Thursday are expected to cover an additional 32 million Americans by 2019, boosting the percentage of non-elderly Americans with insurance from 83% to 94%, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The bill also establishes a broad new framework of government regulation to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people who are sick and to require insurers to provide a minimal level of benefits.

The coverage expansion would not be cheap, requiring an estimated $938 billion over the next decade to expand Medicaid, to give tax credits to small businesses to help them cover their employees and to provide insurance subsidies to Americans who do not get benefits at work.

Most Americans will for the first time be required to carry health insurance or pay a penalty.

Because the cost of the expanding coverage is offset by new taxes and cuts in what Medicare will pay insurers, hospitals and other providers over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the legislation will actually reduce the deficit slightly by 2019 by an estimated $143 billion.

Republicans have repeatedly criticized the new taxes and Medicare cuts.

And over a day and half of almost continuous voting on amendment, GOP senators tried to get Democrats to remove sections of the bill designed to raise revenue to pay for the legislation.

In the end, however, it was a provision of the bill unrelated to healthcare that almost tripped up the legislation.

The reconciliation bill includes a major change in the way the federal government helps students pay for college, giving the government authority to provide loans directly to students, instead of using private financial institutions as intermediaries. The student loan section of the legislation would use part of the projected savings from this change to expand the federal Pell Grant program for low-income students.

But very early Thursday morning, Republicans successfully objected to a minor provision designed to prevent the Pell Grants from decreasing in periods of deflation. The provision did not reduce the deficit, as required by the budget rules.

That forced Democrats to change the package, which in turn forced the House to take it up Thursday even though the House had approved an earlier version Sunday.

A spokeswoman for the House Education and Labor Committee said Democrats may add the provision to future legislation in the future if there are any signs of deflation.

13-Year-Old Charged In Holdup Attempt On Ice Cream Truck

Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office ABC26 News 

March 25, 2010

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Strange-News/Chinese-Boy-Undergoes-Operation-To-Remove-Extra-Fingers-And-Toes/Article/201003415582439?f=rss

http://www.wotv.com/dpps/news/strange/middletown-3-year-old-smoking-pot_3288172

Senate's fix to health care law slowed by snag

By ALAN FRAM

Associated Press Writer

9 AM EST

WASHINGTON – After nine straight hours of beating back Republican amendments, Senate Democrats hit a temporary snag Thursday in their drive to rush through a package of fixes to the big health care law signed by President Barack Obama.

Democratic Senate leaders had hoped to complete work on the fix-it bill by midday Thursday and get it quickly to Obama to avoid prolonging what has been a politically painful ordeal for the party.

But Republicans learned early Thursday they will be able to kill some language in the bill that relates to Pell grants for low-income college students. That means the altered bill will have to be returned to the House for final congressional approval before it can be sent to Obama.

Democrats described the situation as a minor glitch, but did not rule out that Republicans might be able to remove additional sections of the bill.

The president, who signed the landmark legislation into law on Tuesday, was flying to Iowa later in the day for the first of many appearances around the country to sell his health care revamp before the fall congressional elections.

Obama was appearing in Iowa City, where as a presidential candidate in 2007 he touted his ideas for health coverage for all. His trip comes as polls show people are divided over the new health law, and Democratic lawmakers from competitive districts hope he can convince more voters by November that it was the right move.

As an exhausted Senate labored past 2 a.m. on a stack of GOP amendments, Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, told reporters that Republicans consulting with the chamber's parliamentarian had found "two minor provisions" that violate Congress' budget rules.

Republicans have been hunting for such violations in hopes of bringing down the legislation. Democrats had also been consulting with the parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, and hoped they had written a measure that would not be vulnerable to such problems.

The two provisions are expected to be formally removed from the bill on Thursday. Manley said he expected the Senate to approve the measure without them and send it to the House. He said Senate leaders, after conversations with top House Democrats, expect the House to approve the revised measure.

The Senate scheduled passage of the health bill for Thursday afternoon. Both chambers are hoping to begin a spring recess by this weekend.

Besides reshaping parts of the landmark health overhaul, the legislation transforms the federal student loan program — in which private banks distribute the money — into one in which the government issues the loans directly. That produces some federal savings, which the bill uses in part to increase Pell grants to needy students.

Democratic aides said the problematic provisions deal with safeguarding students from future cuts in their grants if Congress does not provide enough money for them. The provisions violate budget rules because they do not produce savings, one aide said.

The development came as the Senate completed nine hours of uninterrupted voting on 29 GOP amendments to the legislation. Majority Democrats defeated every amendment.

The legislation would change the new health care law by making drug benefits for Medicare recipients more generous by gradually closing a gap in coverage, increasing tax subsidies to help low-income people afford health care, and boosting federal Medicaid payments to states.

It kills part of the new statute uniquely giving Nebraska extra Medicaid funds — designed to lure support from that state's Sen. Ben Nelson — that had become a glaring embarrassment to Democrats. It also eases a new tax on expensive health coverage bitterly opposed by unions and many House Democrats, while delaying and increasing a new levy on drug makers.

As they began pushing the bill to passage on Wednesday afternoon, Democrats ran into a mountain of GOP amendments. Outnumbered and all but assured of defeat, Republicans forced votes on amendments aimed at reshaping the measure — or at least forcing Democrats to take votes that could be used against them in TV ads in the fall campaigns.

"There's no attempt to improve the bill. There's an attempt to destroy this bill," said an exasperated Reid, D-Nev.

"The majority leader may not think we're serious about changing the bill, but we'd like to change the bill, and with a little help from our friends on the other side we could improve the bill significantly," answered Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Senators voted on 29 consecutive GOP amendments between 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and 2:30 a.m. Thursday, when they recessed.

By 57-42, Democrats rejected an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., barring federal purchases of Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs for sex offenders. Coburn said it would save millions of dollars, while Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., called it "a crass political stunt."

Democrats also deflected GOP amendments rolling back the health law's Medicare cuts; killing extra Medicaid funds for Tennessee and other state-specific spending; barring tax increases for families earning under $250,000; and requiring the president and other administration officials to purchase health care from exchanges the statute creates.

The landmark legislation that Obama signed Tuesday would provide health care to 32 million uninsured people, and make coverage more affordable to millions of others by expanding the reach of Medicaid and creating new subsidies. Insurance companies would be forbidden to refuse coverage to people with pre-existing illnesses, individuals could buy policies on newly created exchanges and parents could keep children on their family plans until their 26th birthdays.

The $938 billion, 10-year price tag would be financed largely by culling savings from Medicare and imposing new taxes on higher income people and the insurance, pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

___

Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

Woman, 'Trapped,' Calls 911 From Police Station

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36008428/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/?pg=1#Tech_PCWorld_BathroomTech

Hurled bricks, threats surround health overhaul

 AP – This picture provided on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 by the Monroe County Democratic Committee in Rochester, …

EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

Associated Press Writer

Unrest over sweeping federal health care legislation has turned to vandalism and threats, with bricks hurled through Democrats' windows, a propane line cut at the home of a congressman's brother and menacing phone messages left for lawmakers who supported the bill.

The FBI is investigating the instances, which include shattered windows at four Democratic offices in New York, Arizona and Kansas. At least 10 members of Congress have reported some sort of threat as of Wednesday, and no arrests have been made.

The brick flung through the window of a county Democratic Party office in Rochester, N.Y., over the weekend had a note attached: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice," roughly quoting 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.

A New York congresswoman whose office window also was smashed with a brick accused the Republican leadership of failing to denounce attacks against lawmakers who supported the legislation. The vandalism was at Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter's district office in Niagara Falls early Friday, two days before the House passed the health care overhaul bill.

"It's more disturbing to me that Republican leadership has not condemned these attacks and instead appears to be fanning the flames with coded rhetoric," said Slaughter, a key supporter of the bill.

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said in a statement that while many Americans are angry over the bill's passage, "violence and threats are unacceptable."

"That's not the American way," Boehner said. "We need to take that anger and channel it into positive change."

The FBI and Capitol Police were briefing Democratic lawmakers on how to handle perceived security threats, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Those who feel they are at risk will be "getting attention from the proper authorities," Hoyer said, declining to say whether any are receiving extra security. Normally only those in leadership positions have personal security guards.

At a news conference in Washington, Hoyer said people have yelled that Democratic lawmakers should be put on firing lines and posters have appeared with the faces of lawmakers in the cross hairs of a target.

While not directly criticizing Republicans, Hoyer said that "any show of appreciation for such actions encourages such action."

Gun imagery was used in a posting on the Facebook page of Sarah Palin urging people to organize against 20 House Democrats who voted for the health care bill and whose districts went for the John McCain-Palin ticket two years ago. Palin's post featured a U.S. map with circles and cross hairs over the 20 districts.

Some of the anger over the bill spilled over in a flood of obscenity and threat-filled phone and fax messages to the office of Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. His office released some of the messages it has received since the health care bill passed, declining to add further comment.

"I hope you bleed ... (get) cancer and die," one male caller told the congressman between curses.

A fax with the title "Defecating on Stupak" carried a picture of a gallows with "Bart (SS) Stupak" on it and a noose attached. It was captioned, "All Baby Killers come to unseemly ends Either by the hand of man or by the hand of God."

The vandalism and threats surprised a researcher at a think tank that monitors extremist groups.

"I think it is astounding that we are seeing this wave of vigilantism," said Mark Potok of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.

In Virginia, someone cut a propane line leading to a grill at the Charlottesville home of U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello's brother after the address was posted online by activists angry about the health care overhaul. Perriello also said a threatening letter was sent to his brother's house. The FBI and local authorities were investigating.

Tea party activists had posted the brother's address online thinking it was the congressman's home. The post urged opponents to drop by and "express their thanks" for the Democrat's vote in favor of the sweeping health care reform.

Nigel Coleman, chairman of the Danville Tea Party, said he re-posted the comment that originated on another conservative blog, including the address, Monday on his Facebook page. The posts were taken down after the mistake was discovered.

"We've never been associated with any violence or any vandalism," he said. "We're definitely sorry that we posted the incorrect address."

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who has filed a lawsuit challenging the health care overhaul and is a favorite of the Tea Party, said for activists to post an address of Perriello's family shows that things are going too far.

"That is way over the line," he said. "It's not civil discourse, it's an invitation to intimidation and it's totally unacceptable."

Potok compared the online posting of a public official's address to tactics used by hate groups.

"This is what neo Nazi leaders in America do today," Potok said. "They post personal information about their enemies and sit back and wait for somebody else to act."

Lyndsay Stauble, executive director of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party in Wichita, Kan., said a brick was hurled through the party's storefront plate glass window late Friday or early Saturday, landing in her office and gouging her wooden desk.

She said that written in marker on the brick were the slogans, "No to Obama" and "No Obamycare."

"The tone is not surprising, but the aggressiveness is," Stauble said Wednesday. "I'm not shocked that people are not reacting well to a large piece of legislation passed by a president that they don't like."

In Tucson, Ariz., someone either kicked in or shot out a glass door and a side window at the congressional office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords early Monday, a few hours after the House health care vote. Giffords voted for the bill.

Giffords' press secretary C.J. Karamargin in Tucson said the vandalism left the local congressional staff shaken and worried.

Atlantic rowing pair crash into reef ONE MILE from finish after racing 2,500 miles

Daily Mail Reporter
9:05 AM on 23rd March 2010

Two British rowers who spent almost three months racing 2,500 miles across the Atlantic had to be rescued after hitting a reef less than a mile from the finish line.

Phil Pring and Ben Cummings, who had been at sea for 76 days, were disqualified from the Canaries to the West Indies race after they ran aground.

The pair, members of Zennor Gig Club, were picked up by authorities after the incident near the Caribbean island of Antigua on Sunday.

Scuppered: Phil Pring, left, and Ben Cummings were disqualified from the race after running aground

The men were taking part in the Atlantic Rowing Race in their boat Vision Of Cornwall and were in 15th place when they hit the reef.

Falmouth Coastguard said that the two friends, who were raising money for the Cornwall Blind Association, were safe and well. 

According to organisers Woodvale Challenge, although Mr Cummings, 36, and Mr Pring, 32, from Falmouth, Cornwall, did not complete the race, they did offcially complete a transatlantic crossing as they had passed the eastern tip of Antigua, the landmark used for such events.

A spokesman said: 'The boat passed over a first reef and narrowly avoided capsizing but despite the efforts of the guys to row clear the breaking surf rolled the vessel which became trapped on the reef.

'It's absolutely gutting - to be so close to the finish line must be very hard to take.

'But they did complete a transatlantic crossing and hopefully that achievement will be enough for them.'

Last month the men said there had been a lot of 'niggling problems' during the voyage in their boat, which was built in a barn near Helston, Cornwall. 

As well as having to cope with heat and weight-loss, just two weeks after setting off from the Canary Island of La Gomera on January 4, their drinking water maker failed when a charger from their solar panels broke - resulting in them having to be supplied from a support boat. 

LINK TO PHOTO

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259969/Atlantic-rowing-pair-crash-reef-ONE-MILE-finish-racing-2-500-miles.html#ixzz0j9gdbQEQ

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36010637/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Associated Press

Mar 23, 2010 9:30 pm US/Central

Flying Baby Puts The Brakes On Dallas Repo Man

DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21)

A southeast Dallas mother is accused of taking extreme measures that endangered her baby in order to keep her SUV from being repossessed.

Dallas Police say 28-year-old Krystal Gardner tossed her one-year-old through an open window seconds before a repo man was about to drive her Ford Expedition away.

Luke Ross was the repo man involved in the bizarre chain of events. Ross says his correct title is recovery agent. "It sounds like it's going to be easy, but none of them are ever easy… when people know their car is up for repo, they will go to any extent to keep it."

It was late in the afternoon when he showed up at a house on Lansdowne Drive in southeast Dallas. The 31-year-old already had the keys to repossess Gardner's Expedition. "I open the door and I don't even have the door closed when I'm in. I put the key in and start it. I look out of the corner of my eye and I see a baby fly through the window."

The Dallas Police report says Gardner tossed her baby through the open window of her SUV. Ross says the one-year-old landed hard on the back seat. "Like a kid bouncing on a bed."

The boy immediately started crying, so Ross put the Expedition in park. State law forbids a car from being repossessed if a person is inside.  When Ross stepped out, he was greeted by a 15-year-old with a shot gun. "He shot once in the air and then shot once at me and hit me with a couple of pellets in the leg. It's not worth taking someone's life over a car. We're just guys out here trying to make a living."

But Gardner's family and neighbors say the teenage boy fired just once in the air and no more, but they declined to speak to CBS 11. As for Ross, he chalks it up to another strange chapter in the dangerous profession of recovering cars. "I do something I love, but I'm lucky that I make it home every day."

Gardner was charged with endangering a child. The 15-year-old who lives in Gardner's house and fired the shot gun was also arrested. Meanwhile, Ross successfully repossessed the Expedition after Dallas Police responded to the altercation.

 
KTVT / KTXA

LINK TO VIDEO

http://cbs11tv.com/local/Repo.Man.Dallas.2.1584962.html

http://www.wbaltv.com/irresistible/22927230/detail.html