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Key Stories |
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12/31/06
"Fast growth in the highest denomination notes, especially the €500 note, has raised suspicions that they are popular among criminals, although the ECB plays down this factor."
(When the black market switches to euros, the writing is officially on the wall.)
"In terms of impact on food production, sometime in 2007 world biodiesel consumption is expected to outstrip world soybean production, and also in 2007, US corn for ethanol consumption will again outstrip US corn exports. Because of land increasingly being allocated to growing biofuel, the global grain market reserves have fallen from 120 days in 2000 to an estimated reserve of only 40 days by 2008, with corn reserves projected at falling to even lower levels of 20 days reserves. With US corn, there is a significant gap between USDA projections for corn supply vs. the amount of corn required for ethanol production - requiring a further 15 million acres to be planted by 2010 just to negate this initial gap."
Poll by the Associated Press
12/21/06 - 12/22/06
12/19/06 - 12/20/06
"The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading."
"When asked how he could have pulled off such an escape, Mr. Alsammarae, who moved to Chicago in 1976 but returned to Iraq just after the invasion, laughed uproariously for 20 seconds. Then, recycling a famous line from an exchange about Al Capone in “The Untouchables,” Mr. Alsammarae said with undisguised glee: “The Chicago way.”
...His career over the past three years has had a meteoric trajectory, from his meeting with President Bush at the White House in September 2003 to his arrest in August."
"Interior Ministry officials said the armed Americans arrived at the station in Humvee four-wheel drive vehicles and removed Samarraie, who had been allowed to move freely around the building by the station commander.
The identity of the Americans is not clear, but the public integrity commission says Samarraie previously employed a private American security firm to protect him."
"Leverett said there were two key paragraphs that the CIA board wanted to cut. The first was about U.S. cooperation with Iran concerning Afghanistan about the time of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
The second dealt with an offer by Iran to the United States in early 2003 to discuss the possibility of a "grand bargain" that would settle several disputes between the two countries."
(That "grand bargain" involved the Pentagon's anti-Iranian proxy terror force, the Mujahedeen-e Khalq.)
12/17/06 - 12/18/06
"Corn-based ethanol production in the United States doubled between 2001 and 2005, and is likely to double again the next few years.
...According to a new report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, if only 25 percent of proposed ethanol plants are built, the Midwest could see its corn exports cut in half. If 100 percent are built, Midwest ethanol would use up all the corn that currently goes for exports."
12/13/06 - 12/14/06
12/11/06 - 12/12/06
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Daniel Pearl case appeals resume
--BBC News (There is no mention in this article that the man said to have been wrongly convicted for Pearl's execution, Omar Sheikh, was the 'paymaster' of the 9/11 attacks and a reported a CIA asset.)
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12/08/06 - 12/10/06
12/07/06
12/04/06 - 12/06/06
12/03/06
"...Ozgur Der member Bahadir Kurbanoglu, Mersin 78's Association Chairman Ethem Dincer, "Agos" newspaper Editor in Chief Hrant Dink and Sarkis Seropyan, editor Arat Dink were subject to new charges alongside the "Birgun" newspaper for a report on Saudi businessman Yasin El Kadi and "Leman" magazine as well as its cartoonist Mehmet Cagdag."
"...as Gates awaits Senate confirmation as President Bush's secretary of Defense, ethics watchdogs worry about the revolving door between government and private business that allowed Gates to align himself with defense contractors, investment houses and a global drilling company involved with Vice President Dick Cheney's former employer, Halliburton Co.
...Gates' personal holdings have grown substantially since he left government, when he had no more than $165,000 in savings and retirement accounts. Now, he has $1.1 million in holdings with Fidelity Investments, as well as stock holdings in some of the companies where he has served as director..."
"Although the drug trade is believed to provide some financing to the Taliban, most experts believe it is largely an organized criminal enterprise. According to a major report on the Afghan drug industry jointly released last week by the World Bank and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, key narcotics traffickers "work closely with sponsors in top government and political positions."
...Opium cultivation was outlawed during Taliban rule in the late 1990s and was nearly eliminated by 2001. After the overthrow of the Taliban government by U.S. forces in the fall of that year, the Bush administration said that keeping a lid on production was among its highest priorities. But corruption and alliances formed by Washington and the Afghan government with anti-Taliban tribal chieftains, some of whom are believed to be deeply involved in the trade, undercut the effort."
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