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TORTURE CLAIMS: A Canadian terror suspcet held in Guantanamo Bay is accusing his captors of threatening him with rape as a way of getting him to talk.
A young Canadian prisoner held at Guantanamo said in legal documents that US interrogators repeatedly threatened to rape him and Canadian government visitors told him they were powerless to do anything.

The claims were part of an affidavit sworn by Omar Khadr, 21, who is charged in the Guantanamo war court with murdering a US soldier with a grenade during a firefight in Afghanistan when Khadr was 15.

Khadr has long claimed he was abused by American interrogators in Bagram, Afghanistan, after his capture in July 2002 and at the Guantanamo Bay US Naval base in Cuba, where he was taken a few months later.

The previously undisclosed allegations of the rape threats were part of a nine-page affidavit released by the US military on Wednesday, with some of the names and details blacked out.

"On several occasions at Bagram, interrogators threatened to have me raped, or sent to other countries like Egypt, Syria, Jordan or Israel to be raped," Khadr said in the document.

He said interrogators told him at one point that the Egyptians wound send "Soldier No 9" to rape him.

Khadr was shot twice in the back and suffered shrapnel wounds in the eye during the battle that led to his capture at a suspected al Qaeda compound.

After treatment at a field hospital, he was taken to a prison in Bagram, where he was hooded, threatened him with barking dogs and had water thrown on him, he said in the document.

Khadr said he was often shackled for hours during interrogations and denied use of a bathroom, forcing him to urinate on himself.

FLOOR CLEANING

"While my wounds were still healing, interrogators made me clean the floors on my hands and knees. They woke me up in the middle of the night after midnight and made me clean the floor with a brush and dry it with towels until dawn, carry heavy buckets of water," he said.

Later at Guantanamo, Khadr said an Afghan with a US flag on his pants threatened to send him back to Afghanistan unless he cooperated, telling him: "They like small boys in Afghanistan."

Khadr said he gave "answers that made interrogators happy" to protect himself from further harm, but the information was untrue.

The US military has said captives at Guantanamo are treated humanely and that claims of abuse are an al Qaeda tactic. They have confirmed that Canadian government representatives visited Khadr at Guantanamo.

During one such visit in 2003, Khadr said, he complained about his treatment and a man claiming to be a Canadian government representative told him:

"'The US and Canada are like an elephant and an ant sleeping in the same bed' and there was nothing the Canadian government could do against the power of the US"

Khadr is charged with murdering US Army sergeant Christopher Speer and injuring other American soldiers with a grenade during the firefight.

He is also charged with attempted murder, providing material support for terrorism and conspiring with al Qaeda. He could face life in prison if convicted.

He was scheduled to go to trial in May in the Guantanamo tribunal created by the Bush administration to try suspected terrorists.

But a judge last week postponed the trial indefinitely to allow military defence lawyers more time to receive and review evidence they accused prosecutors of withholding

.

Reuters

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The shooting apart of a crippled US spy satellite last month created no significant new space debris, with all but small bits burning on re-entry to the atmosphere, the mission commander said.

"We thought there would be much larger pieces," Rear Admiral Alan Hicks, who heads the Pentagon's Aegis ballistic missile defence programme, said in the most comprehensive report yet on the destruction of the satellite known as USA-193.

In fact, none of the debris was larger than a football, he told a briefing at an annual conference of the US Navy League, a booster group for the navy.

"That was a very very good thing," Hicks said, citing the force of a collision at about 35,000km per hour between the satellite, tumbling and rolling in decaying orbit, and the Raytheon Co ship-launched Standard Missile-3 that slammed into its fuel tank.

The Bush administration has said its goal was to protect populated areas from the spacecraft's unused supply of deadly hydrazine propellant by destroying it in space. Minimizing the debris field was a secondary objective, he said.

"We achieved both," said Hicks, of the Pentagon's Missile defence Agency.

The satellite and its fuel tank were destroyed on February 20 250km over the Pacific using arms designed for the ship-based leg of a multibillion-dollar shield against ballistic missiles.

Thirteen months before, China used one of its aging weather satellites, in polar orbit at 850km, for target practice.

The US Air Force Space Command said last April the resulting debris increased the risk of a collision with a spacecraft by up to 40 per cent in some orbits.

Of the debris from USA-193, Hicks said: "There's very little left up there of any size. We're down to where there are very very small particles that will burn off as they come down in the atmosphere."

In addition, no reports had been received of any USA-193 shards landing on earth, he said.

Although the satellite shoot-up showed the flexibility of Aegis ballistic missile defence, it was a one-time mission, he said.

Hicks said about 250 people took part in planning and rehearsing starting about six weeks before the interception took place. They used a wide range of radar and other sensors around the world to maximize the chance of a bulls-eye while minimizing space debris, he said.

The Bush administration has insisted it was not trying to show off anti-satellite capabilities of the Lockheed Martin Corp-built Aegis ballistic missile defence, although experts said the event's effect was just that.

Hicks said the biggest lesson was the gains to be had from stitching together data from sensors "that normally don't work together on a daily basis."

"When you bring them together, and you can co-ordinate them, integrate them, you can get a lot more value added."

Reuters

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Convicted serial paedophile Raymond Horne will arrive in London today - to the outrage of child advocacy groups - after his deportation from Australia.

Horne, 61, who moved to Australia aged five, has a 43-year history of sexual assaults on under-age boys.

The Times today reported the notorious child sex offender, who has spent a total of 14 years in jail for offences against boys as young as 13, was likely to reoffend.

Australian immigration officials, who escorted Horne on the flight from Brisbane yesterday, are expected to hand him over to Scotland Yard upon arrival.

After his most recent stint in jail, the Department of Immigration declared Horne an unlawful person to be deported back to England. He will be placed on a sex offenders' register but will largely be free to go where he pleases.

English child protection official Paul Roffey told the Daily Mail that Horne was a danger to local children and should have stayed locked up in Australia, where he committed all his crimes.

"Let's make it English children instead of Australian children, that seems to be (the) attitude," he said. "Someone like Horne who has lived most of his life in Australia would have little or no residual networks here so he will be even more isolated and that will increase the risk of him reoffending."

Queensland Police Minister Judy Spence said Australia "would be well rid of him".

"His heinous crimes speak for themselves. If he wasn't being thrown out of the country we would have applied to the court to have him kept in jail," she said.

"I'm told UK authorities know he's coming. My advice to them is to keep him under close supervision."

The Age

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Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatened the European Union with grave punishment on Wednesday over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

In an audio recording posted on the internet, Bin Laden said the cartoons were part of a "crusade" in which he said the Catholic Pope Benedict was involved.

The message was released on the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

The cartoons were first published by the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 but a furore erupted only after other papers reprinted them in 2006.

At least 50 people were killed in the protests against the publication of the cartoons, which Muslims say are an affront to Islam. Newspapers which have reprinted the cartoons argue they are defending the right to media freedom.

Bin Laden's message was entitled "The Response Will Be What You See, Not What You Hear", according to the password-protected Ekhlaas Web, which carries messages and statements from al Qaeda-affiliated groups around the world.

The banner message appeared in bright red, labelled "urgent" with plain Arabic text. It carried no picture of the Saudi-born militant leader nor the insignia of al Qaeda's media arm As-Sahab, which usually releases his videos and audio tapes.

The message apparently is the first by bin Laden since November 29 when he urged European countries to end military participation with US forces in the Afghan conflict.

The al Qaeda leader, blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on US cities, issued a number of messages late last year after a hiatus of well over a year raised speculation that he might be dead or incapacitated.

Bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in remote areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan, has tended to release messages to mark significant dates or events.

On September 7, 2007, bin Laden appeared in a videotape marking the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and said the United States remained vulnerable despite its economic and military power. He then eulogised a September 11 hijacker in an al Qaeda tape that appeared on the anniversary date itself.

Later the same month bin Laden vowed to retaliate against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for the killing of a rebel cleric and a raid on his mosque.

Bin Laden is blamed for masterminding a series of attacks on US targets in Africa and the Middle East in the early 1990s.

His wealthy family has disowned him and he has been stripped of his Saudi citizenship.

Reuters

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Floods that ravaged a broad swathe of the US Midwest from Missouri eastward to the Ohio Valley have contributed to deaths of more than a dozen people.
President George W Bush declared 70 Missouri counties as disaster areas, and the National Guard was deployed in hard-hit areas of the state after deadly storms that dumped up to a foot (0.3 metres) of rain sent rivers out of their banks.

Media and official reports across the US Midwest region said more than a dozen people had died, some swept away by flood waters, others in traffic accidents blamed on the storms and high waters.

"The worst of the rain is over with," said Rob Miller, a meteorologist with AccuWeather. But he said flood waters will not peak in some areas until Saturday.

The Missouri Emergency Management Agency reported dozens of homes destroyed or damaged across the state, and widespread evacuations. It listed five flood-related deaths in the state and said state roads were closed by high water at more than 200 points.

Forecasters meanwhile greeted the first day of spring with winter weather warnings, with a new storm expected to dump up to 6 inches (15 cm) of snow from southeastern North Dakota through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, eastward to the mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia on Friday and Saturday.

Reuters

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Chinese police opened fire and wounded four protesters earlier this week in unrest in a Tibetan town, its first admission that lethal weapons were used by its security forces to crack down on anti-government demonstrations.
Citing police sources, the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Thursday that police acted in self-defence when they fired on protesters on Sunday in Aba county, an ethnic Tibetan part of the western province of Sichuan.

Tibet authorities also said they had arrested dozens of people involved in the wave of protests that have swept the mountain region and prompted Beijing to pour in troops to crush further unrest.

China's response to last week's violence – which it says was orchestrated by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader – has sparked international criticism and has clouded preparations for the Beijing Olympics.

Earlier on Thursday, in a phone call with her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for China to show restraint toward protesters and resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

China says 13 "innocent civilians" were killed in riots last week in Tibet's capital Lhasa that capped several days of peaceful protests. Exiled Tibetan groups say as many as 100 Tibetans have died.

Mindful of the legacy of its military crackdown on pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989, China says its security forces in Lhasa exercised "maximum restraint" and did not use lethal weapons.

But the Xinhua report makes clear the same did not apply in other parts of western China, where it has been sealing Tibetan areas from foreigners and tightening security.

State television on Thursday broadcast pictures of protests in Sichuan as well as Gansu province, both home to Tibetan communities, which showed men on horseback crying out Tibet independence slogans, burning cars and raising the Tibetan flag.

The report said the situation was now calm and showed pictures of barricades and police in riot gear. In Gansu's Gannan region, eight police and three government officials were injured in the unrest, it said.

In Kangding, a Tibetan town in Sichuan, roads were crowded with troops who blocked most travel. Notices on walls warned locals not to protest and to stay away from the "Dalai clique".

ARRESTS

In Lhasa, the prosecutor's office said 24 people faced charges of "endangering national security as well as beating, smashing, looting, arson and other grave crimes" in last Friday's riots, the Tibet Daily reported.

They were the first arrests since rioting erupted across the remote region. Some outside groups say hundreds of Tibetans may have already been detained, and the China News Service reported Lhasa has broadcast wanted pictures of more suspects.

"The facts of the crimes are clear and the evidence is solid, and they should be severely punished," a Lhasa deputy chief prosecutor, Xie Yanjun, said.

Xinhua reported that so far more than 170 people involved in the riots have given themselves up.

"Most of the people who surrendered themselves were ordinary members of the public who did not understand the true situation," it said.

China's unyielding response to the unrest has brought demands for a boycott of the opening ceremony for the August 8-24 Games from pro-Tibetan independence groups and some politicians.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said there was no change in U.S. President George W. Bush's plans to attend the ceremony, and said the spotlight on Beijing could be a good thing.

"... That way the Chinese can hear how people feel and then maybe have an opportunity to either explain their position or maybe even change the things that they are doing," Perino said.

The Olympic torch relay across 19 countries that starts next week, and which will also pass through Tibet, is also likely to be dogged by protests.

"READY FOR TALKS"

The Chinese government has resisted international calls for dialogue over the unrest and expressed serious concern that Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to meet the Dalai Lama during a visit to Britain in May.

"If those acts can be tolerated, is there any law in the world? Is there any justice in the world?" Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference when asked to respond to a call for dialogue from Pope Benedict.

The Dalai Lama, speaking in his exile home in the Indian town of Dharamsala, said he was ready to travel to Beijing to meet Chinese leaders, calling on Tibetans to end the violence.

Beijing has long said it would meet him only if he forsakes claims to Tibet's independence. The 72-year-old monk says he just wants greater autonomy for his homeland.

China has struggled to convince the international community that the Nobel Peace Prize winner orchestrated the violence and that its own policies are free from blame.

On Thursday, six fellow Nobel laureates sent an open letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao, urging restraint in Tibet.

"We call on you to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the men and women of Tibet to address their legitimate concerns and genuine grievances," the letter said.

Reuters

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Osama bin Laden has urged Palestinians to use "iron and fire" to end an Israeli blockade of Gaza, in a recording after the Vatican rejected accusations by the al Qaeda chief of a "new crusade".
In an audiotape broadcast by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite channel on Thursday, bin Laden urged Muslims to keep up the struggle against US forces in Iraq as a path to "liberating Palestine". The tape was released around the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.

"My speech is about the Gaza siege and the way to retrieve it and the rest of Palestine from the hands of the Zionist enemy," the Saudi-born militant said.

"Our enemies did not take it by negotiations and dialogue but with fire and iron. And this is the way to get it back."

On Wednesday, an Islamist website had issued another bin Laden recording which threatened the European Union with grave punishment for the publication of cartoons mocking Islam's Prophet Mohammad.

In that recording, which coincided with the birthday of Islam's founder, bin Laden said the drawings were part of a "crusade" against Muslims in which Pope Benedict was involved.

The Vatican has rejected those accusations.

"These accusations are totally unfounded," chief Vatican spokesman Rev Federico Lombardi said.

Italian security officials said they were examining the new bin Laden message and its impact on the Pope, who is preparing for busy Easter weekend celebrations.

"Obviously we can't ignore it but at this moment that doesn't mean the threat is being taken seriously," said an Italian security source.

Bin Laden's message showed he regards Europe as fertile soil for al Qaeda, especially at a time of tension between free speech and Muslim values, but is unlikely to signal an imminent attack, security analysts and officials said.

There is no evidence bin Laden's statements contain coded instructions to al Qaeda operatives and he has no track record of delivering warnings immediately before an attack, they said.

Bin Laden said Europe would be punished for the cartoons, which were first published by a Danish paper in September 2005. The images ignited bloody unrest among Muslims when other newspapers around the world reprinted them the following year.

Last month, some Danish papers republished one of the cartoons in solidarity with the cartoonist after three men were arrested on suspicion of plans to kill him, sparking more anger.

"Your publications of these drawings -- part of a new crusade in which the Pope of the Vatican has a significant role -- is a confirmation from you that the war continues," said bin Laden, addressing "those who are wise at the European Union".

US officials said the CIA was confident the voice was that of the fugitive leader of al Qaeda, blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Last month, the Vatican's top official for relations with Islam, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, condemned the cartoons. Lombardi pointed out Pope Benedict recently launched a permanent official dialogue with Muslim leaders.

Al Qaeda has criticised the Pope before. Many Muslims were offended by a 2006 speech he made which they perceived as depicting Islam as a violent faith.

The group's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said in December Benedict had "insulted Islam and Muslims".

Responding to the bin Laden statement, a spokeswoman for the EU presidency said: "The European Union and its member states apply the principle of freedom of expression and freedom of religion, these are parts of our values and traditions.

"The EU and its member states respect Islam."

The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said there was currently "a heightened threat from militant extremists abroad against Denmark and Danes and Danish interests abroad", and that the bin Laden comments did not change that assessment.

The Netherlands has said it fears a Muslim backlash when a right-wing lawmaker releases a film critical of the Koran.

Reuters

Will somebody please just put a bullet in Bin Ladens head and make him shut the hell up.....

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the story.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.