Federal regulators have charged a pair of big-time traders and their firms with illegally manipulating oil prices during the 2008 oil crisis. According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the firms made $50 million in “unlawful profits” by hoarding nearly two-thirds of the oil available in one major US trading…
Continue reading …Yes, local issues played a role in Democrat Kathy Hochul’s upset win in the Buffalo-area congressional race last night, but Republicans would be foolish to take solace in that. The results deliver a clear message: “The backlash against Tea Party governance is real,” writes Steve Kornacki at Salon . Hochul used…
Continue reading …Prosecutors are grilling a string of Casey Anthony’s friends to drive home a main point: She sure didn’t act like a concerned mother during the time Caylee was either missing or already dead, reports the Orlando Sentinel . “She was your average 22-year-old girl,” said one male acquaintance, a roommate of…
Continue reading …Oprah Winfrey is famous for giving gifts to her audience, and those gifts have ranged from the extravagant (diamonds, cars) to the just plain bizarre (glitter Uggs?!). Slate lists her nine most memorable gifts: Spanx, 2000 : The slimming undergarments might seem ubiquitous now, but they were new and still…
Continue reading …Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has given Northern Sudan troops the “green light” to attack their southern counterparts at will if they feel threatened, as the dispute over the Abyei region threatens to balloon into a full-scale civil war in the soon-to-be-divided nation. Northern tanks rolled into the fertile and oil-rich…
Continue reading …The conspiracy theories about the Gabrielle Giffords shooting have started to crop up—and one website in particular has been alarming survivors and others connected to the tragedy. The site, run by a Texas man, claims the Tucson shootings were actually a hoax staged by the government using actors. Two…
Continue reading …President Obama just can’t catch a break in London. After screwing up the date in the Westminster Abbey guest book yesterday, Politico reports that he miscued while toasting Queen Elizabeth at last night’s Buckingham Palace state dinner. The orchestra, apparently believing he was finished with his remarks, started playing “God…
Continue reading …Syria “very likely” had a secret nuclear weapons program, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency report released yesterday, which concludes that the Dair Alzour site Israel bombed in 2007 was almost certainly an under-construction nuclear reactor. The allegations themselves are old news—US intelligence agencies presented evidence of them…
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Residents flee capital city of Sana’a as bloody clashes continue over future of President Ali Abdullah Saleh Yemen’s president has vowed to resist pressure from armed opposition tribes after a third day of bloody clashes in the capital, Sana’a, insisting he will not step down or leave the country. Residents are fleeing the city in large numbers amid gun battles which have already killed at least 50 people, with the airport also choked with foreign nationals trying to escape. Fears of civil war were fanned further late on Wednesday as troops loyal to the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, began firing on defecting government forces. Saleh said he would not allow Yemen to become a “failed state” or a refuge for al-Qaida. “I will not leave power and I will not leave Yemen,” he said in a brief statement released by aides. Saleh also rounded on the US, a former ally which is pressuring him to leave office, saying: “I don’t take orders from outside.” He also pledged to stop the violence “dragging the country into a civil war”. In a severe escalation to the three-month-long uprising against the president’s 33-year rule, government security forces have waged gun battles in recent days against fighters loyal to Yemen’s most powerful tribal leader, who has backed calls for the president’s removal. Gunfire continued in streets around the heavily defended mansion of Sadiq al-Ahmar, head of the Saleh’s own Hashid tribal federation. Some tribal fighters remain holed up in the munitions-marker compound in the eastern neighbourhood of Hasaba, but others now control nearby streets, covering a series of government buildings. In the north of the capital Saleh’s troops opened fire on the 1st armoured brigade, under the command of a former loyalist, Major General Ali Mohsin. Following a shelling on Tuesday night which killed 10 tribesman Ahmar’s compound was in disarray, with burned-out 4×4 vehicles in the courtyard, a swimming pool filled with rubble and camels and peacocks wandering about amid the confusion. The tribal fighters nonetheless remain well supplied. Toyota pickup trucks filled with cartons of juice, fig rolls and boxes of ammunition entered the compound throughout the day. The conflict appears to be the climax of long-souring relations between the president and the Ahmar clan, which are believed to be bankrolling the opposition as well as supporting the upkeep of the hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters camping out in Sana’a. The conflict is steadily escalating, with both sides occupying more ground and bombarding the other more frequently, using a combination of machine guns, snipers and mortars. “Saleh would like to start a war on the tribes,” said Muhammad Abdel Qadhi, a sheikh the president’s own tribe, the Sanhan. “But he will fail. No leader in Yemen has ever been able to defeat the tribes.” The chaos in the capital has prompted many locals to flee, with long lines of cars lining up on roads leaving the city, bags piled high on their roofs. “It’s no longer possible to stay in Sana’a. The confrontations will reach all parts of the city,” said one driver, Murad Abdullah, heading out of the city. Rivalling Pakistan and Afghanistan as an incubator of and shelter for al-Qaida, Yemen shows signs of becoming a serious international threat. Even before the popular uprising, its economy was prostrate and the government, reliant on foreign aid and dwindling revenue from oil, was running out of the cash needed to keep its patronage system going. The clashes, in the sandbagged streets surrounding Ahmar’s compound in Sana’s, erupted after Saleh refused on Sunday at the last minute to sign the Gulf-brokered deal that would ease him out of power within a month. Although he has backed out of previous deals, the latest turnabout was the one that most angered mediators, since loyalist gunmen had earlier trapped western and Arab diplomats in the United Arab Emirates embassy for several hours. Saleh, however, claims that the deal remained on the table. “I am ready to sign within a national dialogue and a clear mechanism,” he said. “If the mechanism is sound, we will sign the transition of power deal and we will give up power.” The opposition had warned that attacks by loyalist forces could trigger a civil war and crush hopes for a political solution to the revolt, inspired by protests that swept aside the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia. The next step, according to one analyst, could be the intervention of neighbouring Saudi Arabia to bring about Saleh’s exit and avoid civil war. “Riyadh will not keep watching for long. They have their own network with tribal leaders in Yemen. The next step will be strong intervention from Riyadh to defuse the tension,” said Khaled Fattah a researcher at the University of St Andrews. Saleh, he added, “has reached the stage when he is unable to defuse the tension domestically and [is causing more] headaches than before. So I think the Saudis will interfere in the coming few days.” Yemen Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Peter Walker Matthew Weaver Tom Finn guardian.co.uk
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Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles says General Petraeus has increased levels of violence and should be ashamed of himself Britain’s former ambassador to Afghanistan has attacked the conduct of the war by the US commander, General David Petraeus, describing the future CIA chief’s tactics as counter-productive and “profoundly wrong”. Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, who also served as the UK’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, added that Petraeus should be “ashamed of himself” for making claims of the number of insurgent commanders his forces had killed. “He has increased the violence, trebled the number of special forces raids by British, American, Dutch and Australian special forces going out killing Taliban commanders, and there has been a lot more rather regrettable boasting from the military about the body count,” said Cowper-Coles. He added that the use of statistics was reminiscent of the Vietnam war. “It is profoundly wrong and it’s not conducive to a stable political settlement.” Petraeus is due to leave Afghanistan to become CIA director this summer. Since taking command of US and coalition troops in Afghanistan last June, he has increased the use of special forces raids and drone attacks against Taliban commanders. Earlier this year, Petraeus told Congress that his forces were killing or capturing 360 insurgent leaders every three months. His officers argue that the tactic is demoralising the Taliban and will ultimately make the movement more likely to agree to a peace deal on the terms of Kabul and the west. Cowper-Coles insists the tactic will make it harder for the west to find a political settlement and end the war. “There is no doubt that Petraeus has hammered the Taliban extremely hard,” he said. “I am sure that some of them are more willing to parlay. But, equally, for every dead Pashtun warrior, there will be 10 pledged to revenge. “Of course it produces tactical success in cleansing insurgents out of particular areas, but it’s essentially moving water around a puddle, and I think any general who boasts of the number of Pashtun insurgents he’s killed should be ashamed of himself.” He added: “Regrettably, General Petraeus has curiously ignored his own principles of counter-insurgency in the field manual, which speaks of politics being the predominant factor in dealing with an insurgency.” He compared the US commander unfavourably with his predecessor, General Stanley McChrystal, whose central approach was to protect Afghan civilians, even if meant greater caution in the pursuit of the Taliban. Alongside the former foreign secretary, David Miliband, Cowper-Coles focused his efforts while UK special envoy on persuading the Obama administration to concentrate on a political settlement and start talking to the Taliban. Some reports suggest that Washington has initiated such contacts. But British officials say that Marc Grossman, the US special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan leading the outreach effort, is having trouble finding any credible Taliban representatives to engage in even talks about talks. Few serving British and European officials are as critical of Petraeus as Cowper-Coles. Most argue that the Taliban have to be put under some kind of focused military pressure to persuade them that a negotiated settlement was in their interest. However, there is growing unease in Whitehall that, despite orders to the contrary from Obama and the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, the military effort was still taking priority. “There are different parts of the Washington establishment who are pulling in different ways,” one official said. “But as long as Petraeus is in Kabul, the military approach will take precedence.” Petraeus is expected to leave Afghanistan in September. In any case, there are few expectations of much progress towards contacts with the Taliban until at least the end of the summer fighting season. Most serving officials are also less confident than Cowper-Coles that senior ranks in the Taliban are interested in a political settlement. “In 2011, there have been more feelers coming out from more senior people, but there is no solid evidence that anyone in the movement has been tasked with finding a route to peace,” one official said. There have been several backdoor attempts to draw the movement into a dialogue, but they have made little progress. “Why would they negotiate?” asked Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden unit and an expert on the Taliban. “They are winning; they are no longer ostracised in the Islamic world for links to Osama bin Laden. Why would you throw that away?” But Scheuer, the author of a new book on Bin Laden, said that Petraeus’s “decapitation” approach was also unlikely to work.”The Red Army tried that for 10 years, and they were far more ruthless and cruel about it than us, and it didn’t work so well for them,” Scheuer said. Afghanistan David Petraeus Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
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