John McCain believes Iraq war can be won in 4 years
US presidential candidate John McCain said he believes the Iraq war can be won within four years, leaving a functioning democracy there and allowing most US troops to come home.
It was the first time the Arizona senator has put a date on when US troops could be withdrawn from Iraq.
The five-year war is unpopular with the US public and McCain's Democratic rivals for the White House, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have pledged to begin bringing US troops home right away.
McCain has called such promises reckless. He has rejected withdrawal timetables and agrees with President George W Bush that troop levels should be governed by conditions on the ground.
McCain, who will run against either Obama or Clinton in November to succeed Bush in January 2009, laid out a scenario he thought was achievable within his first four-year term.
"By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom," McCain said in a speech in Columbus, Ohio.
"The Iraq war has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced," McCain said.
Under that scenario, US troops would still be present, but those soldiers would not play a "direct combat role" because Iraqi forces would be capable of providing order.
Speaking with reporters after the speech, McCain insisted he was not talking about a timetable for withdrawal but discussing what he believed would be achieved.
"I'm saying that we are succeeding in Iraq and we will have succeeded further in Iraq in 2013," he said.
McCain also predicted that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden would be captured or killed within four years and the militant group's presence in Afghanistan would be reduced to remnants.
On the economy, he promised taxpayers the option of filing under a simpler system than the current multilayered code and said he would overhaul government spending practices that have led to "extravagantly wasted money."
Ohio is expected to be a hard-fought state in the general election and McCain's visit there came as Obama, the Democratic front-runner, moves closer to his party's nomination.
Obama has charged that McCain wants to keep the United States entangled in Iraq for 100 years, referring to a comment McCain made in January, when he asked how many years the United States might have a presence in Iraq.
McCain responded, "Maybe a hundred."
He has since said that remark was taken out of context and he was talking about a troop presence aimed at maintaining stability, like the US presence now in Japan, South Korea and Germany.
McCain said on Wednesday he recognized his party's battered image posed challenges for him.
"We've got a lot of work to do," McCain said. "I have a lot of work to do."
Reuters
Mom indicted in MySpace suicide case
Computer charges against woman whose daughter feuded with victim
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/9...olwidecuo3.jpg
Tina Meier holds two pictures of her daughter Megan, who committed suicide in October.
updated 5:49 p.m. ET May 15, 2008
LOS ANGELES - A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.
Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis allegedly helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact Megan Meier, who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. Josh didn't exist.
Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006 after receiving cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.
Salvador Hernandez, assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, called the case heart-rending.
"The Internet is a world unto itself. People must know how far they can go before they must stop. They exploited a young girl's weaknesses," Hernandez said. "Whether the defendant could have foreseen the results, she's responsible for her actions."
She's denied sending messages
Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.
Drew has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan.
U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said this was the first time the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used in a social-networking case. It has been used in the past to address hacking.
"This was a tragedy that did not have to happen," O'Brien said.
Both the girl and MySpace are named as victims in the case, he said.
MySpace is a subsidiary of Beverly Hills-based Fox Interactive Media Inc., which is owned by News Corp. The indictment noted that MySpace computer servers are located in Los Angeles County.
Due to juvenile privacy rules, the U.S. attorney's office said, the indictment refers to the girl as M.T.M.
FBI agents in St. Louis and Los Angeles investigated the case, Hernandez said.
Each of the four counts carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison. Drew will be arraigned in St. Louis and then moved to Los Angeles for trial.
Citing terms of MySpace service
The indictment says MySpace members agree to abide by terms of service that include, among other things, not promoting information they know to be false or misleading; soliciting personal information from anyone under age 18 and not using information gathered from the Web site to "harass, abuse or harm other people."
Drew and others who were not named conspired to violate the service terms from about September 2006 to mid-October that year, according to the indictment. It alleges they registered as a MySpace member under a phony name and used the account to obtain information on the girl.
Drew and her coconspirators "used the information obtained over the MySpace computer system to torment, harass, humiliate, and embarrass the juvenile MySpace member," the indictment charged.
After the girl killed herself, Drew and the others deleted the information for the account, the indictment said.
Last month, an employee of Drew, 19-year-old Ashley Grills, told ABC's "Good Morning America" she created the false MySpace profile but Drew wrote some of the messages to Megan.
A joke taken too far
Grills said Drew suggested talking to Megan via the Internet to find out what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter, who was a former friend.
Quote:
TIMELINE: Megan Meier Internet suicide case
Introduction
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Missouri mother for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against 13-year-old Megan, who committed suicide.
September 2006:
Megan, of Dardenne Prairie, Mo., begins communicating online on MySpace with "Josh Evans," who she thinks is a good-looking boy living in her area.
Oct. 15, 2006:
She receives a message from Josh, saying he doesn't want to be her friend anymore.
Oct. 16, 2006:
Megan receives cruel messages through MySpace, including one from "Josh," allegedly telling her the world would be a better place without her. Megan runs upstairs. About 20 minutes later, Megan's mother finds her daughter has hanged herself in her closet.
Oct. 17, 2006:
Megan dies at a hospital, a few weeks before her 14th birthday.
Fall 2006:
Megan's parents learn from a neighbor that Josh was the creation of another neighbor, Lori Drew, her teenage employee Ashley Grills, and Drew's teenage daughter, a former friend of Megan. They are told the MySpace profile was created to see what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter online. Drew, through her attorney, later disputes she helped create the site or knew of mean messages prior to Megan's death.
Fall 2007:
Media accounts of Megan's suicide fuel public outrage in the case.
Dec. 3, 2007:
St. Charles County, Mo., prosecutor Jack Banas says he reviewed laws related to stalking, harassment and child endangerment and couldn't find statutes allowing him to file charges.
May 15, 2008:
A Los Angeles federal grand jury indicts the mother, charging her with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization.
Grills also said she wrote the message to Megan about the world being a better place without her. The message was supposed to end the online relationship with "Josh" because Grills felt the joke had gone too far.
"I was trying to get her angry so she would leave him alone and I could get rid of the whole MySpace," Grills told the morning show.
Megan's death was investigated by Missouri authorities, but no state charges were filed because no laws appeared to apply to the case.
msnbc.msn.com
NSW to trial medical cannabis
Doctors will prescribe cannabis-based drugs to cancer, multiple sclerosis and AIDS patients in a planned NSW Government trial.
NSW Health Minister Reba Meagher will write to Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon in the next few weeks for permission to import and trial a drug expected to be Sativex, which delivers cannabis compounds through an oral spray.
"While the Iemma Government is opposed to the legalisation of marijuana, we do support a therapeutic trial of a cannabis-based drug," a spokeswoman for Ms Meagher said.
"We want the trial to start as soon as possible. However the support of the Rudd Government would be needed to get TGA [Therapeutic Goods Administration] approval of the drug for use in the trial. We're hopeful the Government will approve."
The Australian Medical Association welcomed the trial.
"We believe medicinal cannabis may be of benefit in HIV-related wasting and cancer-related wasting," said chairman of the association's public health committee Dr John Gullotta, adding that it might also relieve nausea and vomiting in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
The Cancer Council NSW welcomed the move.
Ms Meagher may also ask for approval for other cannabis-based drugs.
UK company GW Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Sativex, grows cannabis then extracts cannabinoids CBD and THC. "The formulation is believed to enhance the pain relief of THC while modulating the unwanted psychotropic and other THC-related side effects, such as tachycardia [rapid heartbeat]," the company says.
Sun Herald
