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April 14, 1999, Wednesday COMMITTEE HEARING SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS: SUBCOMMITTEE ON NEAR EASTERN AND SOUTH U.S. SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS) HOLDS HEARING ON THE CRISIS IN AFGANISTAN  WASHINGTON, D.C. SPEAKERS: U.S. SENATOR SAM BROWNBACK (R-KS), CHAIRMAN U.S. SENATOR JOHN ASHCROFT (R-MO) U.S. SENATOR GORDON H. SMITH (R-OR) U.S. SENATOR ROD GRAMS (R-MN) U.S. SENATOR CRAIG THOMAS (R-WY) U.S. SENATOR PAUL DAVID WELLSTONE (D-MN), RANKING MEMBER U.S. SENATOR ROBERT G. TORRICELLI (D-NJ) U.S. SENATOR PAUL S. SARBANES (D-MD) U.S. SENATOR CHRISTOPHER J. DODD (D-CT) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DANA ROHRABACHER (R-CA) THE HONORABLE KARL F. INDERFURTH ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SOUTH ...

Ahmed Shah Masood (c. 1953–September 9, 2001) (variant transliterations include Ahmad, Massoud, etc.) was a Kabul University engineering student turned Afghan military leader who played a leading role in driving the Soviet army out of Afghanistan, earning him the nickname Lion of Panjshir. Various transliterations include: Ahmad / Ahmed / Akhmad / Achmad, Shah / Schah / Chah, Massoud / Massud / Massood / Mas’ud. Ahmad Shah Massoud was born 10.06.1332 (01.09.1953)[2] in Jangalak[3]/ Panjsher[5]as son of police commander Dost Mohammad Khan. At the age of five, he started grammar school at Bazarak and stayed there until second grade....

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) - The Inter-American Court of Human Rights Tuesday refused a request by American Lori Berenson to review its ruling that upheld her 20-year sentence in Peru for terrorism. In a decision issued in November, the Costa Rica-based court - the legal arm of the Organization of American States - rejected Berenson's arguments that Peru violated her rights in a 2001 civilian retrial. It was Berenson's last formal avenue of appeal. The former New York City resident has denied any wrongdoing and maintains she is a political prisoner whose concern for social justice was distorted by...

The Obama administration reportedly is considering former Clinton administration official Jamie Gorelick, among others, to become the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Perez first reported the news last week, citing “U.S. officials” familiar with the situation. Gorelick served as vice chairman of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) when the government-sponsored enterprise began bundling subprime loans into securitized financial instruments. Prior to that, she served as deputy attorney general in the Clinton Justice Department under then-Attorney General Janet Reno from 1994 to 1997. ... But Gorelick is perhaps best known...

The conflict that raged throughout the former Yugoslavia was met by a wall of silence when it came to important issues. These important issues apply to America and the United Kingdom supporting Islamists in a brutal civil war in Bosnia and then installing a new nation by ignoring international law in Kosovo. Also, is it credible to believe that the vast majority of major news agencies and national governments did not know about thousands of Islamists in Europe who were sent to slit the throats and behead Orthodox Christians? Shoeless Holbrooke sits with Muslim Albanian gunmen that ran the organ...

Reading "Masters and Commanders," Andrew Roberts's magnificent account of British and American leaders in World War II, I was struck by how many of them, working prodigious hours and under great strain, were struck down by heart attacks while in their 60s. This doesn't happen anymore, I thought, with the blood pressure and cholesterol medicines many of us routinely take. But it does, as we were reminded by the sudden death at age 69 this week of Richard Holbrooke, who was working prodigiously as Barack Obama's special representative for AfPak, i.e., Afghanistan and Pakistan. Holbrooke was known in cynical Washington...

** EXCERPT ** Two State Department employees were fired recently and a third disciplined for improperly accessing electronic personal data on Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, Bush administration officials said yesterday. ~snip~ A similar data breach took place in 1992 when State Department officials looked up data on presidential candidate Bill Clinton, in an attempt to find out information from the late 1960s, amid unfounded political campaign rumors that Mr. Clinton had sought to renounce his citizenship to dodge the draft during the Vietnam War while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. That incident triggered a three-year investigation by a...

When the always provocative American Council of Trustees and Alumni issued its critical report of the Universities of North Carolina, the group’s typically thorough review got a surprising fan letter. “As I prepared for this job, I read your report [Governance in the Public Interest: A Case Study of the University of North Carolina System] thoroughly some time ago,” the incoming president of the UNC system had written. “There are many recommendations in this report that I agree with totally.” “Thank you for doing it; it has been an extraordinary help to me.” In its first decade of existence, ACTA...

NEW YORK, May 7 — Newly unearthed documents, mostly letters from the CIA to Congress, lay out evidence of an intensive intelligence effort to help U.S. corporations win contracts overseas. The documents, all published during the Clinton administration, appear to confirm reports that America’s electronic eavesdropping apparatus was involved in commercial espionage.

Anthony Pellicano, the high-profile private investigator whose clients included some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, was charged today with conspiracy and making threats against a Los Angeles Times reporter. Anita Busch was researching a story in 2002 about the relationship between actor Steven Seagal and a reputed Mafia figure when someone fired a bullet through the windshield of her unoccupied car. Left on top of the vehicle was a dead fish with a rose in its mouth and a sign reading: "Stop." The charges today were filed by Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley after a lengthy investigation...

President Bush has issued a statement on "Ten Years of Democracy in South Africa," conveniently ignoring the fact that South African President Thabo Mbeki is a Marxist who has surrounded himself with followers of radical Islam. The other curious omission is that while the president complimented "South Africa's commitment to progress at home and around the world," evidence is emerging that South Africa has played a role in nuclear weapons proliferation, including to Iran. The evidence is contained in a hot new book, Iran's Nuclear Option: Tehran's Quest for the Atom Bomb, by journalist Al Venter. Some people forget that...

Journalist Ron Suskind is one-stop shopping for Bush administration castaways. But what if John DiIulio -- Suskind gave him a platform in Esquire magazine in 2002 to call the administration "the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis" -- and Paul O'Neill had been shopping a conservative critique of Bush? Would Suskind have cracked open his notebook? Not likely. Few events excite liberal journalists more than the inevitable defection of an "insider" from a Republican administration, provided that the defector is a liberal who is telling the media what it wants to hear. What interests the Suskinds are not conservative defectors but...

WASHINGTON (AP)--A South Korean man who met with John Kerry's fund-raisers to discuss creating a new political group for Korean-Americans was an intelligence agent for his country, raising concerns among some U.S. officials that either he or his government may have tried to influence this fall's election. South Korean officials and U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Chung Byung-Man, a consular officer in Los Angeles, actually worked for South Korea's National Intelligence Service. A spokesman for the South Korean consulate office said Chung was sent home in May amid "speculation" he became involved with the Kerry campaign and...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Fisk University's new president, Clinton administration Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, was escorted off a flight and questioned by the FBI after she became abusive and tried to get into the cockpit while the plane was delayed on the tarmac, authorities said. O'Leary said she simply wanted to get off the plane. "I regret the unfortunate misunderstanding that occurred," she said in a statement. "The situation was resolved. At no time was I rude or disrespectful to anyone." The United Airlines crew told police that O'Leary was "getting loud and abusive" after the flight was diverted to Richmond,...

HOW SOON THEY FORGETAs Secretary Of State And National Security Advisor, Albright And Berger Said Saddam Posed Threat To United States If Left To His Own Devices_______________________________________________________ SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT On Iraq, Albright Pledge To “Use Force On Our Timetable In Response To Threats.”  ALBRIGHT: “In the meantime we’re not going to play Saddam’s game on his terms. He wants to create a U.S./Iraq confrontation. This is an issue between Iraq and the United Nations. But let me also make clear that, if necessary, we will use force on our timetable in response to threats at a...

RESULTS OF POPULATION DELPHI ROUNDS I and II In the first round, the panelists were asked to rate some forces that led to the reduction of the world population growth rate from 2.06% in the late 1960s to 1.7% currently and to assess how these forces might change over the next 25 years. They were invited to add forces, which were rated in the second round by the same Scale A below. Table 1: orders these forces by their historic influence Table 2: orders them by their future influence. Scale AHistoric Influence 1 = Very Important 2 = Important...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 — The executive director of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has become a witness in the inquiry and has been interviewed by his own staff about his involvement in shaping the Bush administration's early counterterrorism strategy, officials said on Wednesday. In addition, one of the 10 commissioners on the panel, a deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, was also interviewed this week. The unusual dual roles of the director, Philip D. Zelikow, and the commissioner, Jamie S. Gorelick, have raised fresh questions about potential conflicts of interest in the commission, which...

Hidden biological weapons in Iraq. Nukes in North Korea. Terror from al Qaeda. These challenges combined would be overwhelming for any US president. But then add France, South Korea, Russia, the EU, and the UN to the mix and things get really dicey. "Our friends" continue to berate US foreign policy, as they remain eager to trust the pledges of dictators. The "world community" tells us to slow down in Iraq when Iraq is still lying. We are lectured endlessly about the dangers of acting unilaterally. Yet this constant critique of US foreign policy should give way to a more...

<p>Two former high-ranking Pentagon officials in the Clinton administration were arrested yesterday on charges of extortion, bribery, money-laundering and witness tampering in a suspected scheme involving the awarding of contracts to minority firms.      U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said Robert L. Neal Jr., 50, of Bowie, and Francis D. Jones Jr., 40, of Fort Washington, are accused of having used for "their own private enrichment" their management positions at the Pentagon's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (SADBU), a $28 million annual program.      The suspected scheme, according to Mr. McNulty, netted the two men more than $1.1 million in illicit profits.      "Those who hold public offices at high levels of the Pentagon owe the highest duties of loyalty to the public and to our men and women who have the distinction of serving in uniform," Mr. McNulty said, adding that Mr. Neal and Mr. Jones "abused" their public offices.      "They took advantage of the very disadvantaged business people whose interests they were supposed to promote," he said. "Those who have been granted the privilege of serving at the highest levels of public office need to understand that if they betray the public trust they will be prosecuted."      According to an affidavit unsealed by prosecutors yesterday, Mr. Neal — a Clinton political appointee — served as SADBU director from June 1996 until June 2001. Mr. Jones worked as his assistant. Neither is now employed by the U.S. government.      Neither was available yesterday for comment.      SADBU is the office within the Defense Department chiefly responsible for the development and promulgation of policies and management initiatives designed to ensure that small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, historically black colleges and universities and minority institutions were given an equal opportunity to compete for Defense Department contracts.      The affidavit said Mr. Neal controlled a $28 million annual budget and that he and Mr. Jones could substantially influence whether a prospective minority bidder was accepted or denied. They also had direct influence over contractors who sought to provide services and materials to SADBU, the affidavit said.      According to the affidavit, Mr. Neal and Mr. Jones, both of whom are black, engaged in a wide range of criminal activities during their tenure at the Pentagon, using their positions as leverage to receive illegal extortion payments, bribes and gratuities from minority or disadvantaged Defense Department contractors seeking to participate in the preference programs.      The affidavit said the two men "coordinated their illegal activities and worked together as partners," conspiring with others in a sophisticated scheme to launder the proceeds of their illegal activities through phony companies, offshore bank accounts and multilayered sham transactions.      It also said they conspired to embezzle more than $100,000 in funds from federal programs.      A search yesterday by Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and FBI agents of houses belonging to Mr. Neal and Mr. Jones uncovered $7,000 in cash from the Jones residence and gold Rolex watches from both houses.      The affidavit said the watches were purchased for Mr. Neal and Mr. Jones "by an individual whose company held contracts with DOD over which Neal and Jones were in a position to exert influence."      Mr. Neal was named to head SADBU on June 24, 1996. At the time, he was the associate administrator for the Office of Enterprise Development of the General Services Administration (GSA). At GSA, his responsibilities also included the administration of preference programs and conducting outreach to small, minority and women-owned businesses to increase their participation in government contracting.      He also served as an associate deputy administrator for government contracting and minority enterprise development at the Small Business Administration and held a number of positions at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). As a deputy associate administrator with the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, he was co-chairman for the OMB's regulatory efforts to implement the Drug-free Workplace Act.      Mr. Neal has been awarded the Secretary of Defense's Outstanding Public Service Medal and Outstanding Achievement Award, the OMB's Special Performance Awards, OMB's EEO Award and OMB's Divisional Awards for Special Performance.      Prosecution of the case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Friedrich.</p>

The Clinton administration has repeatedly intervened since last fall to delay or prevent intrusive weapons inspections in Iraq by United Nations teams, according to knowledgeable American and diplomatic accounts. The interventions included at least six occasions, beginning in November 1997, in which Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright or other top administration officials sought - with success in each case but one - to persuade chief U.N. inspector Richard butler to rescind orders for surprise searches for weapons of mass destruction or to remove a controversial inspector from Iraq.