links for 2008-05-05

• Government Intensifies Mortgage Investigation - New York Times
• All of Inflation’s Little Parts - The New York Times
• The Open Secret of Success - James Surowiecki
• Internet Says: 'Me Want Cookie' - WSJ.com
• Helping the Unemployed - New York Times
• On Economy, Unlikely Allies Forge Winning Strategy - washingtonpost.com

Comments

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/world/middleeast/05iran.html

May 5, 2008

Hezbollah Trains Iraqis in Iran, Officials Say
By MICHAEL R. GORDON

An American official said the account of Hezbollah's role was provided by four Shiite militia members who were captured in Iraq late last year and questioned separately.

[anne]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/01/AR2008050100274_pf.html

May 2, 2008

U.S. Airstrike Kills Somali Accused of Links to Al-Qaeda
By Stephanie McCrummen and Karen DeYoung - Washington Post

NAIROBI -- A top insurgent leader in Somalia whom U.S. officials have accused of having ties to al-Qaeda was killed in a U.S. airstrike early Thursday, according to the Islamist group he led.

The attack in the town of Dusa Marreb in central Somalia leveled a house belonging to the reclusive leader, Aden Hashi Ayro, who was inside at the time with at least one of his top commanders, according to his followers.

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command confirmed that the United States had attacked "a known al-Qaeda operative and militia leader" in the vicinity of Dusa Marreb, about 300 miles northeast of Mogadishu, the Somali capital.

A U.S. military official said five Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched against the village from a U.S. naval vessel. The official would not confirm the type of vessel or its home base but said ships from the Navy's 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, "routinely operate in the Horn of Africa area."

The group that Ayro headed issued a statement calling him a "martyr." ...

[anne]

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/5/thousands_of_somalis_protest_deadly_us

May 5, 2008

Thousands of Somalis Protest Deadly U.S. Air Strike
By Amy Goodman

Thousands of people in central Somalia came out Sunday to protest a US air raid that killed more than a dozen people Thursday. Among the dead is Aden Hashi Ayro, a man the United States says was Al-Qaeda's leader in Somalia.

Ayro was a military commander of the armed opposition group, Shabaab. The group had functioned as the military wing of the short-lived government led by the Union of Islamic Courts before it was forced from power in December 2006 by US-backed Ethiopian troops....

Thursday's air strike comes in the midst of a deepening humanitarian crisis in Somalia that the International Committee of the Red Cross described as "catastrophic."

Over one million people have been made internal refugees and 3.5 million – or nearly half the country's population – may need food aid by the end of the year, the UN Food and Agriculture organization warned.

Nearly a hundred people have been killed in the past three weeks alone. Late last month Ethiopian soldiers raided a mosque in the Somali capital, killing 21 and kidnapping 41 children, according to Amnesty International.

To discuss the latest in Somalia I am joined now from Minneapolis by Abdi Samatar. He is professor Geography and Global Studies at the University of Minnesota. Welcome, Professor Samatar.

ABDI SAMATAR: Thank you, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the reaction to the US air strike?

ABDI SAMATAR: I think it's quite befuddling to Somalis and many other peace-loving people around the world as to why the United States has chosen to bomb people who are desperate for assistance and food and who have been dislocated and traumatized by an Ethiopian invasion, a country that has its own people under tyranny in itself. So it's surprising to Somalis that the United States, who is supposed to be the beacon of democracy, is using all the terror tactics that it condemns in this instance, and people across the country have been demonstrating against this.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain exactly what happened with the air strike. Who got hit? Who got killed?

ABDI SAMATAR: Well, according to the reports and telephone calls from Dusa Marreb in central Somalia, it's not quite certain whether it was planes or missiles sent from a ship on the Indian Ocean or a plane from—based in Gode, Ethiopia.

But that—the gentleman by the name Aden Hashi Ayro, who was a target of the United States Department of Defense and the CIA for quite a long time, him being accused that he was trained in Afghanistan, and therefore because he's trained in Afghanistan, he is by nature guilty of being a terrorist. There has been no evidence produced so far that he has been linked to any terror attacks in Somalia against anybody else other than the Ethiopians themselves. So it seems to be that presumptions repeated sufficient times become a replacement or a substitute for reality.

The other people who have been killed, an area about the size of a sort of two blocks in places like Minnesota, for instance, has been leveled, and the majority of the people who were killed were innocent civilians, much like what the Ethiopians have been doing in Mogadishu itself....

[anne]

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/5/thousands_of_somalis_protest_deadly_us

AMY GOODMAN: Just after this happened, word has come out today of tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets of Mogadishu over soaring food prices. Can you talk about what's happening today?

ABDI SAMATAR: Well, what you see in Mogadishu over the last year and a half or so, since the Ethiopian invasion, which was sanctioned by the US government, has destroyed virtually all the life-sustaining economic systems which the population have built without the government for the last fifteen, sixteen years, and that the militia that's supposed to be the very people who protect the population have been looting shops. For instance, the Bakara market, which is the largest market in Mogadishu and in the country, have been looted repeatedly by the militias of the so-called Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, supported by Ethiopian troops. And the new prime minister of Somalia, Mr. Hassan Nur Hussein, has himself announced in the BBC that it was his militias that—who have looted this place. So what you have is a population that's hit from both ends—on one end, by the militias of the so-called Transitional Federal Government, which is recognized by the United States, and on the other hand, by the Ethiopian invaders who seem to be bent on ensuring that they break the will of the people to resist as free people in their own country.

So the prices of—for instance, if I tell you a kilo of rice, which used to be somewhere in the order of about seventy cents, US cents, is now anywhere up to 250 cents—that's $2.50. The average day's income per person for anybody who's able to hold a job in that incredible environment is less than a dollar a day. So the mismatch between incomes and the prices of commodities that are primarily imported from overseas is horrific, that nobody can afford this. And what you have is really terror in the worst sense of the word, that a million people have been displaced, that the Ethiopians and the Transitional Government have been denying them access to humanitarian input, and that the United States seems to just watch and let that happen itself. It's as if there has been a calculated decision made somewhere in the world, maybe in Washington, maybe in Addis Ababa, maybe in Mogadishu itself, to starve these people until they submit themselves to the whims of the American military, in this instance, and the Ethiopians, who are acting on their behalf....

[anne]

http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=78024

May 2, 2008

Some 3.5 Million Could Need Food Aid By End of Year
By IRIN

NAIROBI - Faced with a worsening humanitarian crisis, 3.5 million people - nearly half of Somalia's population - may need food aid by the end of the year, a food security analysis has warned.

The Somali situation was deteriorating fast due to rapidly rising food prices, an abnormally harsh dry season and a delayed start to the main April-June rains, the Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU) of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a statement.

"The number of people in need of assistance [right now] has increased to 2.6 million people... an increase of more than 40 percent since January," it said. "This increase is mainly due to the addition of 600,000 urban poor."

The number of pastoralists in crisis and of internally displaced persons fleeing clashes in Mogadishu, has also increased.

For the first time, the FSAU said, the 600,000 urban poor (20 percent of the total urban population) were facing an acute food and livelihood crisis and a humanitarian emergency, as they struggled to cope with rising food and basic commodity prices....

[anne]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/world/africa/02somalia.html?ref=world

May 2, 2008

Qaeda Leader Reported Killed in Somalia
By ERIC SCHMITT and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

WASHINGTON — An American missile strike in Somalia apparently killed a militant long identified as one of Al Qaeda’s top operatives in East Africa on Thursday, but while Bush administration officials claimed success they also acknowledged facing an uphill battle to score lasting blows in their final months against the terrorist group around the world.

Political resistance from the new government in Pakistan, restrictions on pursuing militants across Afghanistan’s borders and the possibility of popular resentment in Somalia driving new recruits to militant Islam are the kinds of hurdles administration officials said could be left to the next president.

American officials portrayed the attack on the operative, Aden Hashi Ayro, as a product of intensified intelligence gathering in which they tracked him for weeks and made use of the free rein granted to the Pentagon in carrying out attacks in Somalia’s largely ungoverned spaces....

[anne]

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/5/thousands_of_somalis_protest_deadly_us

ABDI SAMATAR: Well, what you have here is, you know, the Somalis have supported the war against terrorists, but they ask our country—that’s the United States—the simple question that the President, Bush, has asked the international community: are you with us, or are you against us? Here are people whose livelihoods have been destroyed, who are dealing with an illegal occupation of Ethiopian forces, a government in Ethiopia that’s not a democracy, that’s harassing its own people and brutalizing its own people, and the Somali people are asking the United States: why are you supporting our terrorists, when we don’t support the terrorists who are acting against you?

We don’t have an answer for the Somali people as Americans. And for me, this is quite critical for the so-called public diplomacy that the United States State Department has been an impact on. And that is, if we are interested in winning the hearts and minds of people around the world, and particularly the Muslim world, then what we need to do is be true to our ideals of democracy and respect for human rights, tell the Ethiopians get out of there, let the Somalis sort themselves out and promise the Somalis to support them as long as they play with internationally sanctioned rules of human rights and whatnot. That’s what the Somali people are asking, in my opinion.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Abdi Samatar, I want to thank you very much for being with us, a professor of geography and global studies at the University of Minnesota, author of several books and publications on Somali history, politics and culture.

[anne]

http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/iraqafghanistan_linkages.php

May 5, 2008

Iraq-Afghanistan Linkages
By Matthew Yglesias

The idea that we need to withdraw from Iraq in order to, among other things, focus more effort on Afghanistan is, among other things, a good political talking points for the anti-war side of the Iraq debate. My sense it that very fact has convinced a lot of people that it's just a good talking point for the anti-war side of the Iraq debate. In fact, however, it's totally true....

[War, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war, war.]

[anne]

http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=77739

April 13, 2008

Over 400,000 People Receive Food Aid Amid Soaring Prices
By IRIN

KABUL - To counter growing food insecurity in the country, more than 400,000 Afghans have so far been assisted through a joint UN and government "safety net" programme over the past two months, the World Food Programme (WFP) said.

Skyrocketing food prices, particularly for wheat flour, and a shortfall in domestic agricultural production have pushed millions of vulnerable Afghans into the "high risk" category of food insecurity, UN and Afghan officials say.

Average wheat prices in Afghanistan have increased by 67 percent over the past 12 months and Afghans who are not involved in agriculture now spend on average 75 percent of their income on food, WFP reported on 11 April....

[anne]

http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=78005

May 1, 2008

Thousands Flee As US Military Operation Gets Under Way
By IRIN

KABUL - Thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in different parts of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, as a US military operation in and around Garmsir District against Taliban insurgents gets under way, provincial officials said....

[ddt]

More Than 200 Economists Denounce Clinton, McCain Gas-Tax Plans
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aTzCmqCNyLho&refer=home

May 5 (Bloomberg) -- More than 200 economists, including four Nobel prize winners, signed a petition rejecting proposals by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain to offer a gas-tax holiday.

Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz, former Congressional Budget Office Director Alice Rivlin and 2007 Nobel winner Roger Myerson are among those who signed the letter calling proposals to temporarily lift the tax a bad idea. Another is Richard Schmalensee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was member of President George H.W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.

The moratorium would mostly benefit oil companies while increasing the federal budget deficit and reducing funding for the government highway maintenance trust fund, the economists said.

``Suspending the federal tax on gasoline this summer is a bad idea, and we oppose it,'' the petition says. Economist Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution is among those circulating the letter and said most signers are economists. Aaron said that while he supports Obama, the list includes Republicans and Clinton supporters.

The gas-tax suspension has become a flashpoint in the race for the Democrat presidential nomination between New York Senator Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Clinton and Republican McCain tout the proposal as an example of their concern for struggling middle-class families. Obama calls the idea a ``gimmick,'' rejecting it on similar grounds as the economists.

Proposal Rebuffed

Obama's opposition shows he is ``somebody who just doesn't seem to understand that middle-class families are hurting,'' Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said yesterday.

Clinton yesterday dismissed economists' objections to the plan.

``I'm not going to put my lot in with economists,'' she said in an interview on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. ``We would design it in such a way that it would be implemented effectively.''

The proposal has been rebuffed by House Democratic leaders including Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts.

The environmental group Friends of the Earth endorsed Obama over the weekend and called Clinton and McCain's moratorium proposals ``sham solutions that won't ease the pain at the pump.''

Rivlin, who headed the CBO before running the White House budget office during the Clinton administration, was among the Clinton backers signing the petition.

``I don't have to agree with everything she says, and I think she was wrong on this one,'' Rivlin said in an interview today. ``If anything, we need higher gas taxes.''

[anne]

"If anything, we need higher gas taxes."

Especially for the poor, we must bash and smash the poor.

[kthomas]

anne, the poor will always be poor. Your heart bleeds too much for them.

[Vikki]

Natalie Nicole Mejia (born May 7, 1988 in West Covina, California) is one of the four members of the American Pop/R&B group Girlicious.
keno game
aaliyah
adriana karembeu
pregnancy

[anne]

"More Than 200 Economists Denounce Clinton, McCain Gas-Tax Plans"

Sort of like denouncing occupying Iraq, only not so like. Cheers.

[anne]

"The poor will always be poor. Your heart bleeds too much for them."

There we have it, instant immorality.

[anne]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/29/politics/main4056059.shtml?source=RSSattr=Politics_4056059

April 29, 2008

Obama took a different view on the issue when he was an Illinois legislator, voting at least three times in favor of temporarily lifting the state's 5 percent sales tax on gasoline.

The tax holiday was finally approved during a special session in June of 2000, when Illinois motorists were furious that gas prices had just topped $2 a gallon in Chicago.

During one debate, he joked that he wanted signs on gas pumps in his district to say, “Senator Obama reduced your gasoline prices.”

"More Than 200,000 Economists Denounce Obama Gas-Tax Plans"

[anne]

"More Than 200 Economists Denounce the War In and Occupation Of Iraq"

Huh???

[Informer]

Greedy. How many money is necessary for war?