EU terror chief lacks proof of CIA prisons

BRUSSELS The European Union’s anti-terrorism chief told a hearing Thursday that he had not been able to prove that secret CIA prisons existed in Europe.

“We’ve heard all kinds of allegations,” the official, Gijs de Vries, said before a packed Chamber of Deputies. “It does not appear to be proven beyond reasonable doubt.”

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Russia has ruled out sanctions against Iran unless there is proof that its nuclear programme is not peaceful.

Mikhail Kamynin of the foreign ministry said Russia must see “concrete facts” proving Iran’s non-peaceful activities.

The US has been trying to rally support from UN Security Council members like Russia for tougher action against Iran.

The UN says there is so far no proof that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons – as suspected in the West – but nor has Iran proved that it is not.

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Israeli troops could reoccupy part of Gaza

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli troops could reoccupy parts of the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip if cross border violence escalates, a senior army general told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Friday.

Major-General Yoav Gallant, commander of Israel’s southern forces, said the army had stepped up an offensive against militants firing rockets into Israel since the militant Islamist group Hamas took over the Palestinian government last month.

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Beating NSA e-mail surveillance — use the “blue pill” and your e-mail will not go down the rabbit hole.

Beating Bush’s NSA e-mail surveillance simple. According to NSA sources, there is a simple method to avoid having one’s e-mail captured by NSA Internet filters that have been installed within major Internet exchanges, such as the AT&T facility in San Francisco, which is the subject of a class action suit against AT&T. By typing “Viagra” or “Cialis” in the message text, the filters will automatically identify the e-mail as spam and ignore it. The e-mail could contain the words “Al Qaeda” or “Bin Laden,” but as long as Viagra or Cialis are also contained in the text, the e-mail will pass through the filters without being intercepted.

Source…

Iran shells Kurd positions in Iraq: Kurd official

Is this false news, a hoax or could the Iranians be that stupid?

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) – Iranian forces shelled Iranian Kurdish guerrilla positions inside mountainous northern Iraq early on Friday morning to repel an attack, a Kurdish official said.

“This morning Iranian Kurdish fighters infiltrated the border into the Iranian side and the Iranian army bombed the area and repelled them. The shelling hit Iraqi land at Sidakan,” said Saadi Pira, an official of the Iraqi Kurdish, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, party.

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Yahoo ! implicated in third cyberdissident trial US company’s collaboration with Chinese courts highlighted in Jiang Lijun case

Reporters Without Borders has obtained a copy of the verdict in the case of Jiang Lijun, sentenced to four years in prison in November 2003 for his online pro-democracy articles, showing that Yahoo ! helped Chinese police to identify him.

It is the third such case, following those of Shi Tao and Li Zhi, proving the implication of the American Internet company.

The verdict, made available and translated into English by the human rights group, the Dui Hua Foundation, can be downloaded below.

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Gaza Strip has been under heavy rocket attacks from Israel since Friday, said a spokesman for the Israeli military.
Israel responded to an attack of Qassam -type missiles by throwing about 2,000 rockets in the last couple of weeks, a statement from the Israeli military spokesman read. The statement also gave news of the Israeli military firing a total of 12 missiles, 10 of which blew off in Palestinian soil.

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Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been doing a series of softball interviews with hosts like Rush Limbaugh in an effort to rehabilitate his image. On Monday, Rumsfeld appeared on the Bill Cunningham Show and had this to say about the retired generals criticizing his management of the Iraq war:

Of course the implication that there was something wrong with the war plan is amusing almost because of the fact that the war plan’s fashioned by the combatant commanders and it’s reviewed in great detail by the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then it’s recommended to me and the President.

In other words, Rumsfeld is arguing that there is nothing wrong with the Iraq war planning — but if there was anything wrong it wasn’t his fault. He’s blaming the combat commanders and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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Usually watching CNN with one eye as we blog from our undisclosed location doesn’t give us much new fodder, except for the occasional “stuck landing gear” crisis. But today we are aghast at the coverage of Chinese President Hu Jintao at the White House.
At an outdoor ceremony, Bush told Hu:

China has become successful because the Chinese people are experience the freedom to buy, and to sell, and to produce — and China can grow even more successful by allowing the Chinese people the freedom to assemble, to speak freely, and to worship.
Seconds later, one of the people assembled on the White House south lawn actually tried to speak freely right here in America — about both the lack of free speech and religious freedom in China.

That free-speaking woman was promptly hauled off and arrested:

She shouted in heavily accented English, “President Bush: Stop him from killing” and, “President Bush, stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong.”

Bush, standing next to Hu, leaned over and whispered a comment to the Chinese leader, who paused briefly when the shouting began and then resumed his remarks.

The protester was waving a banner with the red and yellow colors used by Falun Gong, a banned religious movement in China. She kept shouting for several minutes before Secret Service uniformed agents were able to make their way to her position at the top of the camera stand. They dragged her off the stand.

A photographer who was standing next to the protester tried momentarily to quiet her by putting his hand in front of her mouth.