HyerStandard.com

Saddam told FBI : I was no al-Qaeda ally

admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:38:49 +0000

Saddam Hussein told an FBI interviewer before he was hanged that he allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction because he was worried about appearing weak to Iran, according to declassified accounts of the interviews just released. The former Iraqi president also denounced Osama bin Laden as “a zealot” and said he had no dealings with al-Qaeda.

Saddam, in fact, said he felt so vulnerable to the “fanatic” leaders in Tehran that he would have been prepared to seek a “security agreement with the United States to protect it [Iraq] from threats in the region”.

The then US president George Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq six years ago on the grounds that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a threat to international security. At the time Bush administration officials strongly suggested Iraq had significant links to al-Qaeda, which was responsible for the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001.

Saddam, who during the interviews was often defiant and boastful, at one point wistfully acknowledged he should have permitted the United Nations to witness the destruction of Iraq’s weapons stockpile after the 1990-91 Gulf War.

The FBI summaries of the interviews – 20 formal interrogations and five “casual conversations” in 2004 – were obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive, a non-government research institute, and posted on its website this week. The detailed accounts of the interviews were released with few deletions, though one, a last formal interview on May 1, 2004, was blacked out.

The director of the archive, Thomas Blanton, said he could conceive of no possible national security reason to keep Saddam’s conversations with the FBI secret. An FBI spokesman, Paul Bresson, said he could not immediately explain the reason for the redactions.

The 20 formal interviews took place in 2004, between February 7 and May 1, followed by the casual conversations between May 10 and June 28.

Saddam was later transferred to Iraqi custody, and hanged in December 2006.

Technorati Tags: george bush, Paul Bresson, saddam hussein, Thomas Blanton, WMD

The Queen’s costs rising

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:59:19 +0000

Buckingham Palace says public funding for the Queen and the royal family cost British taxpayers the equivalent of 69 pence each last year.

The Queen’s office published her latest accounts on Monday. It showed that the costs incurred by the royal family were 41.5 million pounds in the year to March 31, an increase of 1.5 million pounds on the previous year.

Public money is used to pay the costs of travel and running homes used by the royal family, including the Queen’s Buckingham Palace residence.

The accounts don’t include the cost of security provided by the police and army.

Figures showed travel costs rose to 6.5 million pounds from 6.2 million pounds.

Technorati Tags: costs rising, Queen, The queen

Michael Jackson dies of heart attack

admin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:03:28 +0000

Pop legend Michael Jackson is reported to have died of a heart attack after he was rushed to hospital in Los Angeles.

The entertainment TMZ website reports Jackson suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him.

Earlier, a fire department official told the Los Angeles Times that Michael Jackson had been rushed to the hospital.

Steve Ruda told the newspaper on Thursday that Jackson was not breathing when Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics responded to a call at his Los Angeles home about 12:30pm.

The paramedics performed CPR and took him to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda told the paper.

The report of the heart attack was confirmed by the OK! website, which said streets surrounding the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in LA had been blocked off with yellow tape.

TMZ reports that it had spoken with a Jackson family member, who said Michael was in “really bad shape”.

His family were heading to the hospital, the report said.

The story still developing…

http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-dies-death-dead-cardiac-arrest/

Technorati Tags: heart attack, Michael jackson

Madoff lawyer seeks 12 year sentence : $US50 billion fraud

admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:27:49 +0000

A lawyer for disgraced financier Bernard Madoff has sought a sentence of 12 years or less for his aging client, who he says “has an approximate life expectancy of 13 years”.

In a letter to the judge overseeing the case in New York, lawyer Ira Sorkin said any sentence longer than 12 years would constitute “an effective life sentence” for his client.

Madoff, 71, is due to be sentenced next week in a New York federal court. The former investor, who is accused of perpetrating a $US50 billion fraud, could face up to 150 years in prison.

Sorkin said the court should take into consideration Madoff’s surrender to police, acceptance of responsibility, cooperation with authorities, and the non-violent nature of his offence.

The letter said:

“A prison term of 12 years, just short of an effective sentence, will sufficiently address the goals of deterrence, protecting the public and promoting respect for the law, without being ‘greater than necessary’ to achieve them,”

Sorkin’s letter added that Madoff would describe his “pain” at the suffering his actions caused during an upcoming sentencing hearing.

“Both he and his counsel acknowledge the scope and magnitude of those losses and understand the victims’ calls for reprisal,”

But Sorkin urged the court to:

“set aside the emotion and hysteria attendant to this case and render a sentence that is just and proportionate to the conduct at issue.”

Technorati Tags: $50billion fraud, Bernard M, Bernard Madoff, fraud

Sarkozy : Burka a sign of subservience

admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:32:03 +0000

The Islamic burka is “not welcome” in France because it is not a symbol of religion but a sign of subservience for women, President Nicolas Sarkozy says.

“We cannot accept to have in our country women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity,”

“That is not the idea that the French republic has of women’s dignity.”

“The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience,”

“It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic.”

Sarkozy told a special session of parliament he was in favour of holding the inquiry sought by some French lawmakers into whether Muslim women who cover themselves fully in public undermine French secularism and women’s rights.

But the president added :

“we must not fight the wrong battle, in the republic the Muslim religion must be respected as much as other religions”

France has Europe’s biggest Muslim population estimated at several million.

The proposal to hold an inquiry has won support from many politicians from both the left and right, but France’s official Muslim council accused lawmakers of wasting time focusing on a fringe phenomenon.

Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM), said last week:

“To raise the subject like this, via a parliamentary committee, is a way of stigmatising Islam and the Muslims of France,”

Technorati Tags: Burka, France, Mohammed Moussaoui, Nicolas Sarkozy, Sarkozy

Women paid to party with Berlusconi

admin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:47:51 +0000

The Italian Government is bracing for a fresh of wave of scandal after prosecutors investigating a cash-for-contracts rort allegedly unearthed wiretaps suggesting payments to young women to attend Silvio Berlusconi’s house parties.

The investigators had been probing claims of favouritism and corruption in the awarding of lucrative public health-care tenders in the south-eastern port city of Bari and had focused attention on a company owned by two brothers who are well-known local entrepreneurs. The company, Tecnohospital, has won a series of important contracts in a relatively short time. One of the owner-brothers, Giampaolo Tarantini, is believed to have been heard on the phonetaps discussing the parties he had attended at the Prime Minister’s Roman and Sardinian residences.

Local investigators have now brought in several young women for questioning in a bid to work out if the taped discussions were purely boastful or serious inducements to prostitution.

News of the investigation has emerged at the same time as an explosive front-page interview with a young blonde, Patrizia D’Addario, who told Corriere Della Sera that she attended two parties at the Prime Minister’s Roman residence — one on the night that Barack Obama was elected US President.

She said she asked for €2000 to travel from Bari to attend the first one but was only paid €1000 for the first “because she did not stay” but did overnight at the Palazzo on the second occasion.

Ms D’Addario claimed that she was offered the opportunity to stand in a local poll as a candidate for a party associated with Mr Berlusconi’s proposed new People of Freedom Party and that she has both proof of the trips — and tapes of the evenings. The newspaper itself urged readers to exercise caution when reading the interview.

But yesterday La Repubblica appeared to confirm that she was indeed a candidate for the Apulia First party, which fought a local election recently and published a series of photos of her campaigning alongside both the Prime Minister and one of Mr Berlusconi’s ministers, Raffaele Fitto, late last year.

Ms D’Addario, who does not state her age or occupation, said she had been asked to attend the dinner party at Palazzo Grazioli by a friend in Bari and had been introduced by a man called “Giampaolo”. She said she agreed to attend the event for payment and described the evenings in detail, saying she had worn a recording device on both occasions.

She said she was picked up from her hotel on both evenings by “Giampaolo” and she and two other young women travelled to the Prime Minister’s residence in a limousine with darkened windows.

There she was told she had to adopt the name Alessia and found another 20 or so young women drinking champagne. She said the Prime Minister sang, told jokes and showed videos including footage of his Sardinian villa and his meeting with George Bush. She described a second evening in which she spent the night and insisted she had recordings and proof of both encounters.

In a written statement issued yesterday, Mr Berlusconi has categorically denied the allegations saying he would not allow such “garbage” to distract him from the business of government. He bitterly attacked the newspaper – and Italian journalists – claiming the printed press was

“full of falsehoods and rubbish”.

“I will not be affected or moved by these assaults on me and will continue to work, as always, for the good of my country,”

Technorati Tags: house parties, Italian Government, Silvio, Silvio Berlusconi, young women

Air France replaces speed sensors on entire fleet

admin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:34:25 +0000

Air France has replaced the air speed sensors on its entire fleet of Airbus A330 and A340 long-haul aircraft, a pilots’ union official says. The company had been under pressure from pilots who feared the devices could be linked to the crash of Flight 447.

In the deep waters of the mid-Atlantic, a Dutch ship began trolling with a high-tech US Navy listening device on Monday in search of the flight data and voice recorders. Investigators say information from those black boxes may be key to determining what caused Flight 447 to crash into the ocean with 228 people on board.

Experts looking into the May 31 crash of the four-year-old Airbus A330 jet have so far focused on the possibility that external speed monitors – called pitot tubes – iced over and gave false readings to the plane’s computers.

Air France had begun replacing the tubes on its A330 and A340 jets before the accident, but had not yet changed them on the plane that crashed.

After pilot complaints, the airline pledged to speed up the switch and it has now equipped all planes with the new sensors, said Erick Derivry, a spokesman for the SNPL pilots’ union.

Derivry stressed it is still “not proven or established” that the old sensors caused the accident.

Airbus chief executive Tom Enders defended the A300 on Monday as his company sought to sell more of the planes at the Paris Air Show.

“Their record is very, very impressive,”

“(They have) more than 16 million flight hours, more than 3 million flights, and this is so far one of the safest commercial aircraft built.”

“We are supporting the investigation as much as we can and we very much hope that the recorders will be found soon, so that we find out what really happened,”

At sea, searchers began towing a US Navy Towed Pinger Locator in a grid pattern in hopes of detecting emergency beacons from Flight 447’s black boxes, which could be lying thousands of metres below the ocean surface. The sounds begin to quickly fade 30 days after a crash.

The initial search spans 5,200 sq km of the Atlantic, said US Air Force colonel Willie Berges, commander of the American military forces supporting the search.

French military officials also are using nuclear submarine to hunt for the black boxes and a second Dutch ship carrying another pinger locater was to arrive on Monday afternoon.

“We have a limited amount of time to cover the search area,”

Berges said, but added the hunt will go on even if no pings are detected beyond the 30-day timeframe.

In Geneva, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said French president Nicholas Sarkozy assured him the French government would compensate the families of crash victims. The two leaders were attending the International Labour Conference.

Silva told reporters, speaking through a translator:

“He (Sarkozy) said that they will take the responsibility to pay the indemnity for all the families that suffered with the crash, the Brazilian and French families and of other countries,”

An Air France spokesman, however, said the airline and its insurance company – not the government – are handling compensation. The official, who declined to name the insurance company, spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorised to discuss the matter.

A spokeswoman for the French transport ministry also denied the government would pay compensation, saying this would be handled by Air France’s insurance. She was speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with ministry policy.

The French presidential palace in Paris and the French mission in Geneva would not immediately comment.

Experts say the evidence uncovered up until now points to at least a partial midair break-up of the plane, with no evidence so far of an explosion or terrorist act.

French ambassador Pierre-Jean Vandoorne, a liaison between the victims’ families and authorities, said on Monday he met in Recife with leaders of Brazil’s search effort and was told they were keeping up their effort.

He said Brazilian and French aviators have spent 1,000 flight hours looking for victims and debris.

Brazilian authorities say they have recovered 43 bodies and another six have been found by French ships.

Vandoorne would not comment on the nationality or any other details of the bodies pulled from the ocean. Coroners say victims’ dental records and DNA samples from relatives will be needed to confirm the identities of the 16 bodies examined so far.

Technorati Tags: A330, a340, Air France, airbus, speed sensors

‘Got any ideas?’ : Captain to co-pilot

admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:25:18 +0000

The captain of the US Airways Flight 1549 jet that landed in the Hudson River in January asked his co-pilot less than 20 seconds before splashing into the river,

“Got any ideas?”

The first officer, Jeffrey Skiles, replied to the captain, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger:

“Actually not,”

The exchange, disclosed on a cockpit voice recorder transcript released in Washington, came after the crew unsuccessfully tried to restart engines and ruled out being able to bring the plane to a nearby airport.

The National Transportation Safety Board opened three days of hearings on the water landing, with Captain Sullenberger as the first witness. All 155 people on board made it out alive, scrambling onto the decks of ferries that came to the rescue as the jet drifted downstream.

Evidence in the January 15 incident indicates that a bird strike by migrating Canada geese robbed the Airbus SAS A320 engines of thrust after take-off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport en route to Charlotte, North Carolina.

According to the transcript, Captain Sullenberger said:

“Birds,”

The first officer said:

“Whoa,”

“Oh f****”

The comments began a 3½-minute period during which the plane’s engines lost almost all thrust.

The transcript records the captain addressing the passengers.

“This is the captain,”

“Brace for impact.”

Just before the plane hit the water, he said:

“We’re gonna brace.”

Captain Sullenberger, who grabbed the controls from his younger co-pilot after the power loss, told the board that “big, dark brown birds” filled his windshield just before he heard “booms”. At least three Canada geese hit the engines – the remains of two were found in one engine and one in the other, the Smithsonian Institution said.

The safety board is examining issues such as crew training, bird detection and engine safety standards at the hearings. It is months away from determining a cause of the accident.

The pilots have drawn praise for their professional demeanour in the cockpit. The Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, who awarded the crew the keys to his city, called Captain Sullenberger “Captain Cool.”

When a controller asked the captain if he wanted to land at LaGuardia, he replied: “We’re unable,” according to a transcript released in February. When asked about a different LaGuardia runway, he responded with one word: “Unable.” Finally he informed the controller:

“We’re gonna be in the Hudson.”

Technorati Tags: Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, Chesley Sullenberger, US Airways Flight 1549

Air tools review

admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:27:23 +0000

Air tools can be so handy in variety of situations. Firstly they can be used in wet conditions, such as in the rain, as they have no electrical current running through them ( except perhaps in the compressor itself ).

What better way to use tools in wet without fear of electrocution or other nasty consequences.

Air tools generally require much less maintenance than their electrical counterparts, and they last a lot longer as a result.

Compressed air is pretty powerful when released, so pneumatic tools can be used to perform some neat and efficient tasks!

Air tools, as the name implies, obviously needs air to work. Source of this air is usually the compressor. The bigger the compressor, more air you will get, but this also applies to more expensive models.

SJDiscountsTools.com has some neat tools. They have a great range of air tools to suit all your needs.

This includes Air Die Grinders, Air Drills, Air Grinders, Air Hammers, Air Impact Wrenches, Air Ratchets, Air Rivet Guns & Kits, Air Sanders, Polishers and Buffers, Air Tool Accessories, Air Saws, Air Cut-Off Tools, Air Specialty Tools and more.

Air tools are a great investment for your workshop, particularly if you already have a nice large compressor and love to use air tools.

* This is a sponsored review

Technorati Tags: air tools

Fashionistas: Michelle Obama meets Carla Bruni

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:15:05 +0000

Michelle Obama, whom French fashionistas regard as the best-dressed American first lady since Jackie Kennedy, has lived up to her sartorial reputation during her trip to Paris, sporting a wardrobe of fashion-forward classics by top American designers.

But the woman who put more-casual retailers such as J Crew on the fashion map also showed a weakness for high-end fashion “a la Francaise”, taking her two daughters on a private shopping trip to the exclusive children’s couture house Bonpoint.

Mrs Obama’s visit to the City of Light was widely billed as a rematch of the “duel of charm” that pitted her in a glamour contest against France’s first lady, the former supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

The two faced off before the cameras only once during Mrs Obama’s latest visit from Friday until Monday. For D-Day commemorations in Normandy, the first ladies chose strikingly similar looks, both in creamy white, knee-length dresses with contrasting belts and kitten heels.

The heels were a departure for Ms Bruni-Sarkozy, a leggy Italian-born heiress who leaped to fame in the early 1990s as a top model. Since she married France’s diminutive leader Nicolas Sarkozy last year, the 175-centimetre-tall first lady has largely stuck to flats for her public appearances.

Ms Bruni-Sarkozy’s outfit, which also included a swingy black cashmere coat, was signed Christian Dior -- her favourite label. Also true to form, Mrs Obama’s dress was by Narciso Rodriguez, one of the stable of American designers she champions.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph said photos of the two striding side-by-side on the red carpet at Saturday’s commemorations were

“surreally interchangeable with shots from a catwalk show … They could almost have been modelling some designers’ collection named ‘First Lady Spring 2009′ “.

French fashion weekly Elle said the two looked like “twin sisters” and hailed their “sophisticated, feminine” 1950s-era looks as “a success: We want more!”

A similar thing happened at their last meeting, at a G-8 summit in the French border city of Strasbourg in April, when both showed up in stylish but proper coats embellished with flowing bows at the neckline and co-ordinated with matching dresses.

Then, the European fashion press generally concurred that Mrs Obama’s Thakoon ensemble, in black silk with fuchsia flowers, stole the show from Ms Bruni-Sarkozy’s Dior outfit in putty grey.

But it appeared that Ms Bruni-Sarkozy’s sophisticated Parisian style might be winning Mrs Obama over.

On Sunday, the US first lady and daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, went shopping at Bonpoint, a children’s clothing store favoured by wealthy Parisians and international jet-setters such as Sofia Coppola.

Bonpoint’s store in the Saint Germain des Pres neighbourhood was closed for inventory on Monday and store officials were not available to discuss what, if anything, they bought. The brand, known for its airy stores carrying cashmere baby sweaters and smocked pastel frocks, was a far cry from CrewCuts, J Crew’s children’s line, which the Obama girls wore to the inauguration.

Mrs Obama and the girls met the President in Paris, on the last leg of his six-day tour of four Middle Eastern and European countries. Barack Obama left Paris for Washington, DC, on Sunday morning, leaving his wife and children to enjoy the French capital on their own.

Apart from the D-Day commemorations, Mrs Obama’s Paris visit was a private one, closed to the press. Photographers and camera crews caught images of her and the girls visiting the city’s must-see monuments, including the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Pompidou Centre modern art museum and Notre Dame cathedral.

For those visits, Mrs Obama stuck to her signature looks, wearing cardigans and flats for her trip to Bonpoint and a teal jacket and printed scarf for the Eiffel Tower.

Mrs Obama and the girls also attended a private luncheon hosted by the Sarkozys. The event, at the gilded Elysee presidential palace, looked like an advance fete for Sasha’s eighth birthday on Wednesday.

It wasn’t immediately clear what Mrs Obama or Ms Bruni-Sarkozy wore to the lunch, so fashion watchers will have to hold on for round three of the first ladies’ fashion face-off.

Technorati Tags: Carla Bruni, Michelle Obama