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Soldier suspected in WikiLeaks case moved from Kuwait to Virginia military jail

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:33:00 +0000

WASHINGTON —

The Army intelligence specialist charged with leaking U.S. military secrets to the WikiLeaks website has been moved from Kuwait to a military jail in Virginia.

In a statement Friday, the Army said Pvt. Bradley Manning was flown Thursday to Quantico Marine Base where he will be held while awaiting trial for leaking top-secret military intelligence to WikiLeaks.

The 22-year-old intelligence analyst is accused of leaking a classified helicopter cockpit video of a 2007 firefight in Baghdad that left a Reuters photographer and his driver dead.

Taliban negotiating over captured Navy personnel in Afghanistan

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:22:00 +0000

A Taliban faction that said it had killed one U.S. serviceman and captured another offered to exchange the slain man’s body for an unspecified number of insurgent prisoners, an Afghan official said Sunday.

The two Americans, identified by Western officials as U.S. Navy personnel, were last seen Friday in a dangerous part of Logar province, south of the Afghan capital. A massive ground and air search by NATO and Afghan forces was underway, with the men’s photos plastered at military checkpoints and a reward offered for information about them.

Afghan officials in Logar said the two, who were driving an armored sport-utility vehicle, may have taken a wrong turn and accidentally ended up in a Taliban-held area. NATO has not disclosed why the pair traveled to Logar after leaving their base in Kabul, or said whether the trip was authorized by their superiors.

U.S. charges top leaders of Tijuana-based drug cartel

admin — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Reporting from San Diego —

Federal authorities announced a wide-ranging criminal case Friday against top leaders of a Tijuana-based drug cartel that ran much of its operations from the San Diego area, allegedly ordering murders, kidnappings and torture of rival traffickers in Mexico.

The racketeering conspiracy case charges 43 cartel lieutenants, enforcers and drug traffickers, among them half a dozen current or former Mexican law enforcement officers, including a top official in the Baja California attorney general’s office who allegedly passed along information obtained from U.S. law enforcement to cartel leaders.

The organized crime group, an offshoot of the Arellano Felix drug cartel, moved some operations to San Diego in recent years, seeking a safe haven from gang wars and law enforcement crackdowns south of the border, said Laura Duffy, the U.S. attorney in San Diego.

In Oakland, young heroes seek justice

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Oakland dodged a bullet last week after the verdict in the racially charged case of a young black man shot by a Bay Area Rapid Transit policeman.

The day ended with a few rubbish fires, looting at a Foot Locker and scattered broken windows downtown. But it was nothing like the mayhem after the shooting last year, when hundreds of looters rampaged for hours, ravaging businesses and torching cars.

The response this time was a textbook case of collaboration. Downtown employees were sent home early to clear the area for protesters. Churches and civic groups organized forums to let residents vent. The family of the dead man issued public appeals for calm. And police turned out in such force, there seemed to be more officers than protesters.

Nuclear scientist on way home, Iran says

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:51:00 +0000

Reporting from Beirut —

– An Iranian nuclear scientist involved in a murky and clandestine tug-of-war between Tehran and Washington is on his way back to the Islamic Republic, a government spokesman said Wednesday morning.

Shahram Amiri, a 32- or 33-year-old scientist who was in the United States as a result of a defection or a kidnapping, has left America and is en route to Tehran, said the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

“Shahram Amiri left America with a convoy from the interest section of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Washington a few minutes ago,” Ramin Mehmanparast said in comments reported by the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Iranian nuclear scientist turns up in D.C.

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:10:00 +0000

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Beirut —

An Iranian nuclear scientist who Tehran claims was kidnapped by the United States has sought refuge at the Pakistani Embassy’s Iranian interests section in Washington and is seeking to return home to Iran, Pakistani authorities said Tuesday.

Shahram Amiri, a onetime researcher at Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization who disappeared during a trip to Saudi Arabia last year, appeared at the Iranian interests section office at 6:30 p.m. Monday, said Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit.

Iranian state television said Amiri has already been in touch with Iranian media in New York and quoted him as saying he had been held by armed men and under extreme psychological pressure for 14 months and called for his immediate return home.

Teaching ’stuff’ about ecology

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 07:35:00 +0000

Annie Leonard used to spout jargon. She reveled in the sort of geek-speak that glazes your eyeballs.

Externalized costs, paradigm shifts, the precautionary principle, extended producer responsibility.

That was before she discovered cartoons.

Microsoft makes a new push into cellphone operating systems

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Microsoft is the undisputed king of operating systems — except for the ones you hold in your hand.

The company, whose Windows software dominates on desktops and laptops, has been also developing systems for mobile phones for more than a decade.

But its Windows Mobile operating system is not a big hit with consumers. As of the first quarter of this year, it had only about 10% of the nation’s smart-phone market, according to the research firm NPD Group. It lagged behind Research in Motion (BlackBerry phones), Android (from Google, used in a variety of models) and iOS (Apple’s iPhone).

Microsoft’s piece of the pie is not only small, but it has been shrinking. In 2008, it had 30% of the smart-phone market.

War zone drone crashes add up

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan —

The U.S. military often portrays its drone aircraft as high-tech marvels that can be operated seamlessly from thousands of miles away. But Pentagon accident reports reveal that the pilotless aircraft suffer from frequent system failures, computer glitches and human error.

Design and system problems were never fully addressed in the haste to push the fragile plane into combat over Afghanistan shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks more than eight years ago. Air Force investigators continue to cite pilot mistakes, coordination snafus, software failures, outdated technology and inadequate flight manuals.

Thirty-eight Predator and Reaper drones have crashed during combat missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and nine more during training on bases in the U.S. — with each crash costing between $3.7 million and $5 million. Altogether, the Air Force says there have been 79 drone accidents costing at least $1 million each.

Top general in Afghan war apologizes for profile, is summoned home

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:54:00 +0000

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has been summoned to Washington to explain his controversial comments about colleagues in a recent interview, Obama administration officials said Tuesday.

The officials say Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who has issued an apology for his comments, has been ordered to attend the monthly White House meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in person Wednesday rather than over a secure video teleconference, so he can discuss his comments with President Barack Obama and top Pentagon officials.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in discussing the general’s schedule.