Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister of Iraq, has denied telling investigators that George Galloway personally profited from the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq.

Mr Aziz’s lawyer, Badia Aref, described claims regarding the Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow as “lies”. Republican Senator Norm Coleman used interviews with Aziz as evidence that Saddam’s regime granted 23 million barrels of oil to Mr Galloway and his Mariam Appeal fund. The US Congressional report said Aziz, under questioning by the subcommittee, had discussed oil allocations with Galloway. “These are lies … He [Aziz] denied this,” Mr Aref said. “It is part of a media campaign aimed at smearing Galloway’s reputation,” said the lawyer.
independent.co.uk

Sleaze, leaks and an indictment add up to the worst presidential crisis since Nixon. And it will get worse. The White House has lost one key man but the whole chain of command may be engulfed by a scandal slowly revealing the lies that led to war.

…”The responsibility for lying to the American people and targeting critics and dissidents needs to go all the way up the chain of command. Scooter Libby was clearly one of the administration’s attack dogs unleashed on opponents of this fraudulent war, but he serves higher masters.”
independent.co.uk

The political meltdown around a coming election in Haiti could tarnish Canada’s peacekeeping reputation. Canada is taking a lead role in Haiti’s reconstruction, but increasing violence and political repression is making free and fair elections impossible, critics warn.

Canada is the third largest donor to Haiti, after the United States and the European Union. Canada has contributed $180 million for Haiti’s reconstruction over the next two years, including over $26 million for the upcoming elections.

But there are thousands of political prisoners in Haiti, according to journalist Kevin Pina, and Canada has the daunting task of reforming the police, court and prison systems

“The situation is horrible right now,” said Pina, an American who has lived in Haiti for the past six years. “You have a situation where the majority political party is basically confronting a campaign of extermination. It’s a nightmare situation and Canada is up to its neck in it.”
thetyee.ca

FBI Raises National Security Concerns Amid Military Corruption
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2005 — – Several cases of corruption in the military ranks have revealed a dangerous vulnerability in the nation’s security, ABC News has learned.

Dozens of active and former soldiers have abused their military uniforms and authority in a drug smuggling ring, government sources tell ABC News.

A U.S. army sergeant fighting the war on drugs in Colombia was recently sentenced to six years in prison for using military aircraft to smuggle cocaine into the United States.

In April, an Air National Guard pilot and a sergeant used a C-5 Galaxy military transport plane to sneak nearly 300,000 Ecstasy pills from Germany into New York.

In another case, three U.S. airmen were arrested in March for stealing military-issue bulletproof vests from Moody Air Force Base in Georgia and selling them to drug dealers for $100 each.

Chip Burrus, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s criminal division, says the corruption “has the potential to be a cancer that spreads in individual units.”

The FBI has launched a major initiative to find out whether other members of the military and law enforcement are willing to engage in similar behavior for profit.
abcnews.go.com

HADITHA, Iraq – The Marines call it a necessary evil — taking over houses and buildings for military use. For the Iraqis who become unwilling hosts, it can be anything from a mild inconvenience to a disruption that tears apart lives.

In a recent offensive in Haditha, the headmaster of one school where Marines were based pressed them for a departure date so he could resume classes. At another school, Marines fortified the building with blast walls and sandbags for long-term use.

A trembling woman wept when Marines tried to requisition her home to set up an observation post with a view of a nearby road where a bomb had been planted. The Marines quickly left, using her neighbor’s rooftop instead.

“We try to be respectful and not destroy anything in their homes,” said Cpl. Joseph Dudley of Los Gatos, Calif., with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. “We just borrow their house and try to complete our missions.”

Requisitioning homes or other buildings has been widespread in Iraq for U.S. troops on missions who stay far away from bases, sometimes for several days or weeks. During major offensives, the temporary bases deep inside cities allow troops to send out more patrols and respond quickly to attacks rather than going all the way back to bases on the outskirts of town.
news.yahoo.com

Gee I guess that new Iraqi constitution doesn’t contain a US-style Bill of Rights…

“We all knew it was contrary to the Geneva Conventions. And we were told that this – these instructions were being given by Secretary Rumsfeld”
informationclearinghouse.info

Dozens of Abu Ghraibs
U.S. human rights groups have denounced before the U.N. Human Rights Committee that there are perhaps dozens of secret detention centres around the world where Washington is holding an unknown number of prisoners as part of its “war on terror”.

This week in Geneva, the Committee began to examine the United States’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, particularly with regard to its anti-terrorism activities.

On Monday, the members of the Committee, made up of 18 independent experts with recognised competence in the field of human rights, heard presentations from U.S. non-governmental organisations that accuse Washington of grave rights violations.

Priti Patel, an attorney and representative of the New-York based group Human Rights First, reported to the Committee members on the secret detention centres for individuals allegedly linked to terrorism.

“There are locations you know about, like Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram in Afghanistan,” commented Patel, “but there are other locations which you know exist, but you don’t know exactly how many or where they are.”

According to Patel, these are transient facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan that are close to conflict zones, but move around, to wherever the United States decides.

“There are around 20 of them in Afghanistan, but you don’t know how many people are being held there, and you don’t know how they are being treated,” Patel told IPS.

“And then there is the worst case scenario, which is you don’t know even their location,” she added.

For example, Patel remarked, “we don’t know if people have been held in Diego Garcia (a small island in the Indian Ocean, home to a U.S. military base), but we have enough credible reports to make us believe it.”

And while the United States refuses to deny or confirm the existence of these secret detention centres, “we know that at least 36 people have been held in secret locations,” she stressed.

…Should he accept this challenge the film star, who was elected a politician on the promise of making a difference, has an opportunity to deliver on his pledge; should he fail California will have taken a further step towards permanently forfeiting its place among the 12 civilised states of the union that do not have the death penalty.

For the third time since he became governor a year ago, Schwarzenegger will consider a request for clemency from a prisoner facing execution.

The last time clemency was granted to a murderer in California was by that other Hollywood Republican Governor Ronald Reagan in 1967. But this is a case like no other: it has a gangster-turned-educator, a 51-year-old man who has already served 24 years in prison; it involves a flawed trial and a questionable conviction; the man behind bars has been nominated for Nobel prizes and is the subject of a Hollywood movie; and he also recently received a commendation from President Bush.

That the case of Stanley “Tookie” Williams has come to Governor Schwarzenegger’s desk is the result of one of the first acts of the US supreme court under Chief Justice John Roberts. In mid-October, the court refused to consider an appeal from Williams against his death sentence for the 1981 murder of a convenience store worker. He was also convicted of the murders of three other people.
guardian.co.uk

George Galloway faces fresh allegations of benefiting from Saddam Hussein’s regime in a report into corruption in the United Nation’s oil-for-food programme for Iraq.

An independent investigation by the former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker has charged that the MP received an allocation of 18 million barrels of oil from the regime. It also claims that $120,000 (£67,000) in revenues from oil sales was paid into the bank account of Mr Galloway’s estranged wife.

The money allegedly paid to Amineh Abu Zayyad is a separate sum from the $150,000 that another investigation, by the US Senate, claimed she had received from oil sales.

As Mr Volcker’s report was published in New York yesterday, the former government minister Denis MacShane demanded a joint committee of the House of Commons and US Congress should inquire into the “serious allegations” against Mr Galloway.

…Mr Galloway said last night: “How many times must I repeat this; I’ve never had a penny through oil deals and no one has produced a shred of evidence that I have.

“I have never asked anyone to act for me, as Fawaz Zureikat, who is alleged to be my intermediary, has said repeatedly. This is all a tissue of lies and a lie doesn’t become a truth through repetition.”
independent.co.uk

…Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp., Japans top telephone company, says it is developing the technology to perhaps make video games more realistic. But more sinister applications also come to mind.

I can envision it being added to militaries’ arsenals of so-called “non-lethal” weapons.

A special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent demonstration at an NTT research center. It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head _ either from left to right or right to left, depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved.

I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off.

The technology is called galvanic vestibular stimulation _ essentially, electricity messes with the delicate nerves inside the ear that help maintain balance.
breitbart.com

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) rewrote the corporate record books Thursday as the oil company’s third-quarter earnings soared to almost $10 billion and it became the first public company ever with quarterly sales topping $100 billion. Anglo-Dutch competitor Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) wasn’t far behind, posting a profit of $9 billion for the quarter.
apnews.myway.com