NEWS FROM THE UNITED STATES             ALL THE NEWS

SUMMARY OF HEADLINES

*CIA officer at centre of the leak case fills her life with twins and a desk job

*White House denies Bush said God told him to invade Iraq and create Palestinian state.              *President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy.                                            *U.S. warning allies of Hamas takeover of Palestinian Authority.                                                           *Bush says the United States is sending cash and helicopters to Pakistan.                                               *New York subway terror threat remains uncorroborated, concerns ease.                                           *Israel denies 'spying against US' .

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U.S. on sidelines over Kyoto

FEMA was warned about unprepared response teams in 2004: documents

WASHINGTON, DC- The Federal Emergency Management Agency's top official was told more than a year before hurricane Katrina that the U.S. government agency's emergency response teams were unprepared for a major disaster and operating under outdated plans, documents show. Additionally, e-mails obtained Wednesday indicate U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff tried to call Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco the afternoon before Katrina hit. The e-mails indicate she could not be immediately reached and may have been napping. A spokeswoman for the governor said Wednesday that Blanco was picking up personal items at her residence when Chertoff called. "There was no time for napping," Denise Bottcher said. An 11-page memo to Michael Brown, former head of FEMA, from June 2004 described teams of national response managers that were not prepared and were receiving "zero funding for training, exercise or team equipment." Those responders "provide the only practical, expeditious option for the (FEMA) director to field a cohesive team of his best people to handle the next big one," wrote William Carwile, one of FEMA's federal co-ordinating officers. As for the plans response teams use during an emergency, Carwile wrote: "Revision should be a priority, since not one word of response doctrine...has been published in over two years." Carwile told U.S. Senate aides in a meeting this week his memo largely was ignored at FEMA's headquarters, as were four budget requests over an 18-month period for money for the teams. He said each team needed about $1.2 million for training and equipment, said an aide who attended the meeting. Brown resigned from FEMA on Sept. 12, under fire in the wake of the government's sluggish reaction to Katrina and questions about his own professional experience in responding to disasters. FEMA's two national response teams are sent from Washington only during catastrophic events. The teams include FEMA's most experienced emergency managers, who co-ordinate response and recovery operations with state officials and assign tasks to other federal agencies. FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said one team was sent to Louisiana on Aug. 27, two days before Katrina hit. The teams were redesigned this May 2005 to make them "more responsive and more nimble," Andrews said. She said the agency budgeted $6.2 million last year to boost similar response operations. Asked if any of the changes reflected Carwile's concerns, Andrews said: "It certainly addressed the process of making them more efficient and effective." Carwile, who retired from the agency in October, wrote the memo on behalf of the agency's other regional co-ordinating officers. He planned to testify Thursday at a Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee hearing on FEMA's response operations.

The committee's top aide, Michael Bopp, questioned Carwile during the meeting this week and said the former FEMA official described himself as "very uncomfortable that the teams weren't ready to go." "You have your most senior operations people within FEMA telling you, loud and clear, what needs to be changed to make the response and recovery to major disasters to be effective, and nothing is ever done," Bopp said. "That is a real failure in management." A separate batch of U.S. government documents details Chertoff's efforts to reach Blanco as Katrina neared the Gulf Coast. "Your assistance would be appreciated," Homeland Security senior intelligence analyst Mark Fischer wrote in an e-mail to two of Blanco's press aides. It was dated 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 28, the day before Katrina hit. "Secretary Chertoff, Department of Homeland Security, is attempting to contact Governor Blanco via telephone," the e-mail said. Subsequent e-mails between Blanco's aides show their attempts to relay the message to the governor. One, at 1:59 p.m. noted: "I think she's asleep now." At 2:13 p.m., the e-mails show, Blanco deputy press secretary Roderick Hawkins wrote Fischer back to report: "Governor Blanco is unavailable at the present time. However, I have given her staff the numbers you provided in your original message." "You may try to reach her at approximately 3 p.m." Bottcher, the governor's spokeswoman, said Blanco spoke with President George W. Bush that day and talked with Chertoff "several times during the course of the storm." She said Blanco started her day at 4:30 a.m. and worked until after midnight, returning to her residence briefly for some personal items and to make some phone calls. "No one got confirmation that she was napping," Bottcher said. "There was no time for napping."

Air Marshal shoots passenger dead

Photo: Image from the tarmac at Miami International Airport.

MIAMI, Florida- A passenger who claimed to have a bomb in a carry-on bag was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday on a jetway to an American Airlines plane that had arrived from Colombia, officials said. Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said the dead passenger was a 44-year-old U.S. citizen. It was the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that an air marshal had shot at a passenger or suspect, he said. A witness said that the man frantically ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757 and that a woman with him said he was mentally ill. The passenger, who indicated there was a bomb in the bag, was confronted by air marshals but ran off the aircraft, Doyle said. The marshals pursued and ordered the passenger to get on the ground, but the man did not comply and was shot when he apparently reached into the bag, Doyle said. Authorities did not immediately say whether any bomb was found. Passenger Mary Gardner told WTVJ in Miami that the man ran down the aisle from the rear of the plane. "He was frantic, his arms flailing in the air," she said. She said a woman followed, shouting, "My husband! My husband!" Gardner said she heard the woman say her husband was bipolar and had not had his medication. The plane, Flight 924, had arrived from Medellin, Colombia, at 12:16 p.m. and was scheduled to depart two hours later for Orlando, American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner said. "I don't know yet if the passenger had been on the plane and was getting off, or was starting to board the aircraft," he said. The shooting happened shortly after 2 p.m., suggesting passengers may have already been preparing to depart, he said. About 105 passengers were scheduled to fly to Orlando, he said. Martin Gonzalez, spokesman for Colombia's civil aviation agency, said the flight "left normally with no problems." There were only 32 air marshals at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. The U.S. administration hired thousands more afterward, though the exact number is classified.

Rumsfeld touts progress in Iraq

Some Democrats renewed calls for Rumsfeld to be removed from his post.

Rumsfeld: "Media focuses too much on negative."

Photo: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld conceded Monday that the insurgency in Iraq has been stronger than anticipated but also said the news media have focused on the war's growing body count rather than the progress that has been achieved. "To be responsible, one needs to stop defining success in Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks," Rumsfeld said in remarks at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He added, "It's appropriate to note not only how many Americans have been killed - and may God bless them and their families - but what they died for or, more accurately, what they lived for." Continuing recent U.S. administration efforts to defend war policies, Rumsfeld said Americans should be optimistic about progress that has been made politically and militarily in Iraq, as that country prepares for next week's parliamentary election. In a change of focus, Rumsfeld also aimed some of his remarks at the media for presenting a "jarring contrast between what the American people are reading and hearing about Iraq and the views of the Iraqi people." The Iraqis, he said, are more upbeat about their country, their security forces are growing, and they are on the road to democracy. Rumsfeld's speech came five days after President George W. Bush released a strategy for victory in Iraq that was meant to better explain the U.S. mission there. It also came amid increasing discontent with the war among some members of Congress. In addition, more than half of Americans now say it was a mistake to send troops to Iraq, according to recent polls. Bush's approval on handling Iraq is at 37 per cent, the lowest yet. Pressure on the administration has grown as the number of U.S. military deaths has surpassed 2,100. Rumsfeld said focusing on that number would be as misleading as concentrating on the large numbers of casualties at battles like Iwo Jima during the Second World War, without acknowledging the victories eventually achieved. He denounced as unsubstantiated recent reports out of Iraq, including allegations from two former Iraqi detainees who said they were thrust into a cage of lions in Baghdad and then pulled out as an interrogation technique. Rumsfeld also questioned stories about a military propaganda program that secretly paid Iraqi newspapers and journalists to publish favourable articles about the war and rebuilding in Iraq. He said he didn't know if the allegations were true, and questioned whether a contractor properly implemented military policy, which was supposed to require the articles to be labelled as ads or opinion pieces. U.S. military leaders in Iraq confirmed the existence of the propaganda program last week. "It's a classic case of blaming the messenger," said Steve Rendall, a senior analyst at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a media watchdog group in New York. "When the news is bad, blame the journalists for ignoring the good news. Rumsfeld is confusing bias with bad news. Reporting bad news is not bias." Rumsfeld acknowledged that the war has not gone according to plan, but said many things that were feared, including destruction of oil fields, have not happened. He said the insurgency was larger than some had expected, and early efforts to counter it were hampered when infantry units were not allowed to go into northern Iraq through Turkey. From Bush's declaration of an end of major combat in May 2003 to Vice-President Dick Cheney's assertion in May 2005 that the insurgency was "in the last throes," the administration has taken a positive stance. But the deadly groups, including Sunni extremists and foreign terrorists coming across the borders, have continued to kill U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Some Democrats renewed calls for Rumsfeld to be removed from his post. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts said U.S. troops "have been put in greater danger by the mistakes of this secretary of defence who refuses to tell the truth about what is happening in Iraq and pushes aside anyone who dares speak truth to power."-By L. Bador.

10 U.S. marines killed in Iraq and casualties are mounting

WASHINGTON, DC- Ten Marines on foot patrol were killed and 11 wounded by a roadside bomb near Fallujah in one of the deadliest attack on American troops in Iraq in recent months, the U.S. Marine Corps disclosed Friday. A brief statement said the marines were from Regimental Combat Team 8, of the 2nd Marine Division. They were hit Thursday by a roadside bomb, which the military calls an improvised explosive device, or IED, made from several large artillery shells, the marines said. IEDs are the most common cause of U.S. casualties in Iraq. The marines were attacked outside of Fallujah, about 50 kilometres west of Baghdad. Of the 11 who were wounded, seven have returned to duty, the marine statement said. It added that marines from the same unit continue to conduct counterinsurgency operations throughout Fallujah and surrounding areas. Fallujah had been a stronghold of the insurgents until U.S. forces, led by marines, captured the city in November 2004. Since then the U.S. military and the Iraqi government have been working to rebuild the city and limit the return of insurgents. Deadly insurgent attacks in the Fallujah area had become less common in recent months, although one marine died of wounds from small-arms fire while conducting combat operations in the city on Wednesday. The 10 deaths on Thursday marked the deadliest incident for marines in Iraq since 14 were killed by a roadside bomb on Aug. 3 near Haditha, about 225 kilometres northwest of Baghdad. Those marines were travelling in a lightly armoured amphibious assault vehicle when it a bomb, flipped into the air and exploded in a fireball.

44 Acres of Coastline Collapse in Hawaii

HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, Hawaii- About 44 acres of coastline collapsed into the ocean this week, setting loose a glowing stream of lava that shot out from the newly exposed cliffside 45 feet above the water. The plume, 6 feet in diameter, sent up a tower of steam as it hit the water and began forming a ramp of new land. The collapse of solidified lava shelf and sea cliff Monday was the largest since Kilauea Volcano began its current eruption in 1983. Jim Kauahikaua, scientist-in-charge of the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, said a collapse warning was issued in June because the shelf had become large and had formed cracks. Large collapses had happened in the area before. Rumblings tipped scientists to Monday's collapse, which took about 4 1/2 hours. Even at that relatively slow pace, the effect was spectacular. "The cliff just caved away like a glacier," said park spokesman Jim Gale. "It just sheared off that old wall. There's this gigantic steam plume and you see the red just falling down — an incredible fire hose display." The collapse sent out globs of lava and head-size boulders. Sheets of volcanic glass called limu o Pele, after the Hawaiian goddess of fire, and thin strands of volcanic glass known as Pele's hair were found 1,800 feet inland.

Rescuers drain pond in Indiana to see if more victims left there by tornado

Photo: An Evansville Police Department officer drives through the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park in Evansville, Ind., Monday.

EVANSVILLE, Indiana- Crews looking for victims of a weekend tornado finished searching the wreckage of a mobile home park and turned their attention Monday to draining a large pond where it was feared more bodies would be found. The death toll stood at 21 from the tornado, which struck at 2 a.m. Sunday as people slept, making it the deadliest in Indiana in more than three decades. Seventeen people died at Eastbrook Mobile Home Park, including some victims found in the pond, authorities said. The search for victims and survivors broke off several hours after dark Sunday night. Vanderburgh County Sheriff Brad Ellsworth said the two-metre-deep pond nearby, where some victims were found, would be drained to determine whether it held any other bodies. Chief Dale Naylor of the Knight Township fire department said he believed that all survivors or bodies left in the wreckage had otherwise been found. Four others, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, died from the tornado in neighbouring Warrick County, east of Evansville. More than 100 people were taken to hospitals. Ellsworth said authorities did not have a count of any people missing because so many had left the area on their own. Authorities were not yet allowing residents to return to check on their homes as crews continued to clean up and check that utilities had been shut off. National Guard troops were called in to help with search-recovery efforts. "Mother Nature picked the worst place to drop in a tornado," Ellsworth said. "There's not a safe place to escape to. You're just up to fate at this point." The tornado struck a horse racing track near Henderson, Ky., then crossed into Indiana. All the dead were in Indiana. The youngest victim at the trailer park was a two-year-old boy who was killed along with his 61-year-old grandmother, the Vanderburgh County coroner's office said. The deaths in Warrick County included Cheryl Warren, a dental assistant who was eight months pregnant, her four-year-old son, Isaac, and her husband, Jeremy, a truck driver. Authorities there also were counting as a fifth death the woman's fetus. Mobile home park resident Tim Martin, 42, said he and his parents were awakened by the wind, which lifted their home and moved it halfway into the neighbour's yard. They escaped unharmed, but he said they heard several neighbours calling for help. A neighbouring mobile home was overturned, he said, and another appeared to have been destroyed. "All I could see was debris," he said. "I thought it was a bad dream." Indiana homeland security spokeswoman Pam Bright said the tornado was the deadliest in Indiana since April 3, 1974, when 47 people were killed. Those storms were part of one of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history, which killed more than 300 in the South and Midwest and devastated Xenia, Ohio. Ryan Presley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the tornado appears to have been an F3 on the Fujita scale, with winds ranging from 254 km/h to 331 km/h. The scale ranges from F0, the weakest, to F5, the strongest. -By Ryan Lenzs

First U.S. casualties reported in offensive near Iraq-Syria border

BAGHDAD, Iraq- U.S. and Iraqi troops battled insurgents house-to-house on Monday, the third day of a major offensive against al-Qaida insurgents in a town near the Syrian border, and the U.S. command reported the first American death in the operation. The U.S. commander of the joint force, Col. Stephen Davis, said late Sunday that his troops had moved "about halfway" through Husaybah, a market town along the Euphrates River about 322 kilometres northwest of Baghdad. At least 36 insurgents have been killed since the assault began Saturday, and about 200 men have been detained, Davis said. He did not give a breakdown of nationalities of the detainees. Many were expected to be from a pro-insurgent Iraqi tribe. A U.S. marine was killed by small arms fire in Husaybah on Sunday, the military said. The New York Times, which has a journalist embedded with the U.S. forces, reported that three marines were also wounded Sunday. The death raised to at least 2,046 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. CNN, which also had a reporter accompanying the offensive, said at least one Iraqi soldier has been wounded and that as many as 80 insurgents have died in the fighting. In a live report from the scene Monday morning, CNN said the house-to-house battles were continuing, with ground forces supported by Humvees and tanks working their way through the narrow streets of the bleak desert town. Scores of terrified Iraqis fled the besieged town on Sunday, waving white flags and hauling their belongings. The U.S. military announced Monday that it had killed two regional al-Qaida in Iraq leaders operating in the Husaybah area during air strikes that destroyed several insurgent "safe houses" on Oct. 31 near the towns of Karabilah and Obeidi. It identified one of them as Abu Umar, who helped smuggle foreign insurgents into the region and stage deadly roadside bomb attacks against Iraqi and American forces. The other militant was identified as Abu Hamza, who commanded several al-Qaida cells and helped launch attacks against coalition forces, including ones based at U.S. Camp Gannon in the Husaybah area, the military said. Davis said the militants were putting up a tough fight in Husaybah because "this area is near and dear to the insurgents, particularly the foreign fighters." Speaking by telephone, he said: "This has been the first stop for foreign fighters, and this is strategic ground for them." The U.S. marines said American jets struck at least 10 targets around the town Sunday and that the American-Iraqi force was "clearing the city, house by house," taking fire from insurgents holed up in homes, mosques and schools. Residents of the area said by satellite phone that sounds of explosions diminished somewhat Sunday, although bursts of automatic weapons fire could be heard throughout the day. The residents said coalition forces warned people by loudspeakers to leave on foot because troops would fire on vehicles.

"I left everything behind - my car, my house," said Ahmed Mukhlef, 35, a teacher who fled Husaybah early Sunday with his wife and two children while carrying a white bed sheet tied to a stick. "I don't care if my house is bombed or looted, as long as I have my kids and wife safe with me." The marines said in a statement that about 450 people had taken refuge in a vacant housing area in Husaybah under the control of Iraqi forces. Others were believed to have fled to relatives in nearby towns and villages in the predominantly Sunni Arab area of Anbar province. U.S. officials have described Husaybah, which used to have a population of about 30,000, as a stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq, which is led by Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Husaybah had long been identified as an entry point for foreign fighters, weapons and ammunition entering from Syria. From Husaybah, the fighters head down the Euphrates valley to Baghdad and other cities. -Thomas Wager

CIA officer at centre of the leak case fills her life with twins and a desk job

Photo: Valerie Plame, left, is seated with her husband, former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson, in Washington in this Nov. 18, 2003, photograph for the opening spread of Vanity Fair.

WASHINGTON, DC- Joe Wilson says it was mutual love at first sight when he and Valerie Plame spotted each other at a crowded diplomatic reception eight years ago. Well, yes and no. For Plame, the stars in her eyes that night were quickly followed by a LexisNexis computer search the next day to make sure the guy with all the fantastic stories about his life as a globe-trotting diplomat was really legit. It is classic Valerie Plame..

Black Muslim leader says delayed help for New Orleans was 'criminal neglect?

Photo: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan addresses the crowd attending the Millions More Movement rally gathered on the National Mall in Washington Saturday.

WASHINGTON, DC- Railing against the delayed relief for victims of hurricane Katrina, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said Saturday the U.S. government should be charged with "criminal neglect of the people of New Orleans." "For five days, the government did not act. Lives were lost," Farrakhan said at the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March. "We charge America with criminal neglect." ...

U.S. forces report killing 20 insurgents sheltering foreign militants near Syrian border

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. soldiers and warplanes killed 20 insurgents and destroyed five "safe houses" Saturday during an operation against militants who shelter foreign fighters for Al-Qaida in Iraq near the Syrian border, the military said. Meanwhile, defence lawyers in Saddam Hussein's trial rejected protection offered by the Iraqi Interior Ministry after the kidnap-slaying of a colleague..

Waiting for weakening Wilma: Floridians wary of ferocious storm

KEY WEST, Florida- A hurricane watch was posted Saturday for the low-lying Florida Keys and a mandatory evacuation order was issued for the islands' residents as southern Florida made preparations for Hurricane Wilma. Hurricane-force wind of at least 120 km/h could begin affecting the Keys within 36 hours, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm's outermost rain already had reached parts of the state. At the same time, an area of rain showers south of Puerto Rico developed into a tropical depression, the centre said. If that strengthens into a tropical storm, it would be called Alpha because Wilma was the last name on this year's official storm list. ..

U.S. briefs multiple nations on Iran's nuclear warhead program

LONDON - Diplomatic sources said Iran installed an empty nuclear warhead on  the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile for two tests in mid-2004.  The warhead appeared similar to a Soviet-based ICBM that Moscow deployed in  the 1960s. The United States has briefed several nations and the International Atomic  Energy Agency on an Iranian program to develop a nuclear warhead for the  Shihab-3. The sources said the U.S. briefers asserted that from 2001 to 2003  Iran designed and developed a circular warhead that could detonate at an  altitude designed to ensure optimal damage. The sources said that in August the U.S. delegation briefed such countries  as China, India, Russia, and South Africa ahead of last month's IAEA board  of governors meeting in Vienna. The briefing helped persuade some members to  either support or abstain in the vote on a British resolution to refer the  Iranian nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council. India supported the British resolution, which did not set a date for the submission of the Iranian file. The Iranian program, termed Project 111, was commissioned by the Islamic  Revolutionary Guard Corps, the sources said. They said the Iranian Defense Ministry's Aerospace Industries Organization conducted work on the Shihab-3 warhead. Iran has designed a Shihab-3 circular warhead that would explode at a height  of 600 meters, the sources said. They said the IAEA and several member nations were shown Iranian blueprints as well as data on tests of the Shihab-3 warhead's so-called black box. In July the U.S. gave IAEA Director-general Mohammed El Baradei the first briefing concerning Iran's purported nuclear warhead. The U.S. delegation  urged El Baradei to demand information from Iran on the warhead and  interview the purported chief of Project 111, Mohsen Fakrizadeh.
 

US Internet Hosting Company Stops Hosting PLO Office's Website

GAZA, (WAFA - PLO News Agency)- The National Office to Defend the Land and Resist the Colonization, a PLO body, said its website stopped working on the internet because of intervention from the hosting American Company. Taysser Khaled, PLO Executive Committee Member and Head of the National Office, said the website will remain closed unless the Office reaches a settlement with the hosting company. Khaled revealed that the American company subjected to Israeli pressures to  stop hosting the Website after those Israeli organizations failed to hack it.
 

President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy

U.S. warning allies of Hamas takeover of Palestinian Authority. Bush officials and congressional sources said the administration has been quietly bracing for a Hamas takeover of the PA. State Department officials have been briefing Arab and Western allies about the prospect that Hamas would dominate either the Palestinian government or PA areas by mid-2006. "There is a very serious risk that unless we make much more progress on the peace process than I now think is likely, that regardless of Hamas we may see the Islamists take over there," Anthony Cordesman, a senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the House Armed Services Committee.

White House denies Bush said God told him to invade Iraq and create Palestinian state.

Office of the White House Press Secretary. Press Briefing by Scott McClellan, James S. Brady Press Briefing Room


Q: Have you ever heard the President say that God told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, and I've been in many meetings with him and never heard such a thing.

Q: Are you aware of the -- there's a BBC broadcast tonight that's quoting the Palestinian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister as saying that they were in a meeting with the President in June of '03, and there are some very detailed quotes here, saying that the President said to them, "God told me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan,' and I did," and then "God told me, 'George go and end the tyranny in the Iraq'" and so forth and so on?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, that's absurd. He's never made such comments.

Q: Were you in the meeting when that took place?

MR. McCLELLAN: I've been in meetings with him with President Abbas; I didn't travel on that trip, if you're talking about to Jordan. But I've been in many meetings with the President with world leaders where he's talked about this.

Q: So you don't know about the June '03 meeting?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I checked into that report and I stand by what I just
said.