Brooklyn, NY -- Open Letter to Constituents:

For three millennia the land of Israel has been at the heart of the Jewish people; the Homeland from where the ancient traditions, culture and values emanated.

The state of Israel has served as a refuge for Jews the world over, a country rebuilt following the horrors of the Holocaust on the principles of freedom and democracy.

The United States and the State of Israel share a special relationship and, as a Member of Congress, I am committed to working to strengthen this relationship.

Brooklyn's 11th Congressional District, which I have the honor to represent ...

Gentle Persuasion: A delegation of Orthodox constituents and other Jewish leaders met with Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn) and convinced her to renounce her support for a congressional letter calling on President Obama to press Israel to ease its blockade of civilian goods and raw materials moving in and out of Gaza. [Photo: COLlive.com]

(ABC News) - The government's response to the financial meltdown has made it more likely the United States will face a deeper crisis in the future, an independent watchdog at the Treasury Department warned.

The problems that led to the last crisis have not yet been addressed, and in some cases have grown worse, says Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the trouble asset relief program, or TARP. The quarterly report to Congress was released Sunday.

"Even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car," Barofsky wrote.

Barofsky also said his office is investigating 77 cases of possible criminal and civil fraud, including crimes of tax evasion, insider trading, mortgage lending and payment collection, false statements and public corruption.

Much of Barofsky's report focused on the government's growing role in the housing market, which he said has increased the risk of another housing bubble.

Over the past year, the federal government has spent hundreds of billions propping up the housing market. About 90 percent of home loans are backed by government controlled entities, mainly Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration.

The Federal Reserve is spending $1.25 trillion to hold down mortgage rates, and millions of homeowners have refinanced at lower rates.

Pakistan's military trying to verify reports that Taliban leader, who had been targeted by drone attacks, has been killed.

An elder in the Mamuzai area of Orakzai tribal agency said he attended Mehsud's funeral on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation, the elder said Mehsud died at his in-laws' home.

A Reuters report, quoting a Pakistani intelligence official, said the Taliban leader may have been fatally wounded following a 17 January drone attack on two vehicles in North Waziristan.

Mehsud's fate has been the subject of intense speculation since a drone attack on 13 January on a remote madrasa on the border between South and North Waziristan.

A Taliban spokesman admitted that Mehsud had been present in the building moments earlier, but insisted he left before the American missile struck.

Days later Mehsud quelled rumours of his demise by phoning several Pakistani journalists in Peshawar. But he was apparently targeted a second time in a drone strike on two vehicles in North Waziristan on 17 January.

Unconfirmed reports since then have suggested Hakimullah was seriously injured in that strike and was shifted to his former stomping ground of Orakzai tribal agency for treatment.

(The Nation) - I watched President Obama's Cairo speech from Dubai, the sprawling and frenzied city of gold and shopping malls on the shores of the Arabian Gulf.

Based on early returns from a decidedly unrepresentative sample of Arab public opinion, Obama hit a home run. I agree. In Dubai, at least, and in its media, Obama's speech was topic one, two and three all week.

That's good and bad. Obama's arrival in Saudi Arabia and Egypt was greeted in two ways. First, it had the trappings of a visit by an all-powerful but distant Great White Father - okay, he's black, but anyway - on whose words the fate of the Arab and Muslim world hangs - which is understandable in light of the fact that American troops and sailors are everywhere.

Palestinians commemorate the 61st anniversary of Nakba,
Arabic term for "the catastrophe", in Aida
refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

And second, in contrast, sophisticated Arab opinion was truly hopeful that Obama's remarks would make concrete the sharp break with the Imperial America as represented by the administration of George W. "Crusader" Bush. I think the latter prevailed. Obama was appropriately humble, and he laid down important markers that signal a new US approach to the Middle East and beyond.

Before the 1968 revolution, Ali Hassan was a motorcycle messenger in the army. Under Saddam Hussein, he served as Chief of Security; Secretary, Office of Northern Iraqi affairs; Military Governor of Kuwait (1990-1991); Director of the Revolutionary Command Council; Defence minister (91-95) and finally Director of Intelligence and Interior Minister.

He was called Chemical Ali and the Butcher of Kurdistan for allegedly ordering a poison gas attack in 1988 that killed thousands of Kurds (the Halabja poison gas attack).

Peter Galbraith: One man's battle to stop Iraq

On March 16, 1988 Saddam's horrific plan became clear to the entire world. Saddam's helicopters [Bell helicopters delivered by the US for "crop dusting" - Oui] swept over the Kurdish city of Halabja leaving clouds of chemical gas behind. Five thousand innocent civilians died in the first few hours. The images of bodies piled on the streets were broadcast around the world. (read more)

Galbraith went to northern Iraq to document the terrible toll.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Slashing red tape or ignoring ordinarily required paperwork, officials in the United States and the Netherlands have cleared the way for scores of Haitian orphans to leave their earthquake-ravaged homeland, according to officials from the two countries.

All of the children had adoptions pending with prospective parents in the two countries before Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude quake, and government officials said paperwork was expedited or put on hold to make transfers happen on an emergency basis.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has chartered a plane to pick up about 100 children, according to spokesman Aad Meijer. The children arrived today, see report and photo's.

President Préval gave his personal approval for the flight of the orphans for adoption. (NRC)

Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin over the weekend granted the children entry into the country, although their paperwork, including travel and adoption documents, was incomplete, Justice Ministry spokesman Patrick Mikkelsen told CNN.

300 children have pending adoption cases with American families. Six children arrived in Florida Sunday night, met by their adoptive parents with hugs and tears of happiness.

Haiti quake creates thousands of new orphans

Haiti is home to about 380,000 orphans, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, and that number is expected to grow in the wake of Tuesday's earthquake. And those who lived in orphanages before may be homeless now, as reports of destroyed orphanages have come throughout the quake zone.

Some children who lost parents in the quake or were separated from parents are being relocated to the Dominican Republic, a child advocacy group Kids Alive International said.

(DutchNews.nl) Sept. 3, 2009 - The justice ministry authorised taps on 26,425 telephones last year, justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin told MPs.

The figure does not include the number of taps operated by the intelligence services (AIVD), which is considered to be a state secret.

The Netherlands sanctions more phone taps per capita than any other country in the world. For example, US officials sanctioned just 2,208 phone taps last year and the UK 1,881. And although France and Germany agreed to more taps, their populations are also far larger.

Hirsch Ballin told MPs no conclusions could be drawn about phone tapping because of the different legal systems involved. But there are enough safeguards to make sure taps are used properly in the Netherlands, he said.

Unlike in many countries, the Netherlands allows the police to record all conversations made by crime suspects, including calls to their lawyers. Several court cases have come unstuck in recent years because officials have failed to destroy recordings of such conversations as they are supposed to by law.

Prison phone tap threatens court cases

... a case against a number of Hells Angels collapsed because secret recordings between suspects and their lawyers had not been destroyed. Judges said the public prosecution department had 'seriously... and repeatedly broken the rules'.

(AP) - Since the summer, dozens of Palestinian and Israeli activists have been picked up, including those organizing weekly protests against Israel's West Bank separation barrier as well as others advocating international boycotts of Israeli goods.

Some of the Palestinians were released without charge only after weeks and months of questioning.

The arrests come at a time of shifting tactics in the protests against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and annexation of east Jerusalem, territories the Palestinians want for their future state. Israel captured both from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war.

The violence of the second Palestinian uprising, with mass marches and violent attacks, has given way to carefully calibrated protests and legal action in which Israeli and Palestinian activists now often work together.

Palestinians and international protesters try to escape from teargas shot by
Israeli soldiers in the West Bank village of Bil'in. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPA

The main protest efforts are Friday demonstrations against the West Bank barrier in the Palestinian villages of Bilin and Na'alin and vigils in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah, where Palestinians have been evicted.

There appears to be an increased police crackdown on the protests with greater numbers of activists being arrested.

(PressTV/AP) -- Ayalon called in the Turkish ambassador earlier this week to reprimand him over a TV program that showed Israeli agents kidnapping children and shooting old men. He was forced to apologize after Turkey threatened to summon its ambassador home.

He seated Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol on a sofa lower than his own chair and wouldn't shake his hand in televised images of the meeting.

Israel's diplomatic flap with Turkey grows. (Photo: Globe and Mail)

Ayalon told Channel 2 TV Saturday that his intent was not to humiliate Celikkol. Still, he said Israel was right to make it clear to the Turks that there would be a "price tag" for what he said amounted to trampling upon the dignity of the Jewish state.

Asked what Israel would do if another objectionable TV segment were shown, Ayalon replied, "Maybe we would summon the ambassador; maybe we would expel their ambassador."

(Counterpunch) April 16, 2008 - I'm starting to get funny emails. I haven't felt threatened in Haiti since 2005 when Apaid and the boys had their man Latortue in office.

The police came into the hotel and arrested some of my musicians in the middle of a show. As if that wasn't enough Leon Charles' (police chief) men used to come over during RAM shows, heavily armed, dressed in black with black ski masks on their faces. They'd walk through the dance floor bumping into the guests. I complained to the American Embassy (Ambassador Foley) but they ignored me. I tried to talk to Leon Charles but he wouldn't see me. So, I wrote an email to the political officer at the US Embassy (former student of my Dad's) in the Dominican Republic.

I then went to Washington with Lionel Delatour and explained to many (State Department, Pentagon, members of the House and Senate), the political situation in Haiti. Fortunately, I also found time to vent a few of my personal issues (which often reflect Haiti's national issues). Shortly thereafter, Leon Charles and The American Ambassador were shipped out. I think their departure was a coincidence, but perhaps my complaints highlighted their ineptitude. Haiti Democracy Project

The same people that were backing Latortue, including Group 184, Leon Charles, Ambassador Foley, Boulos, Baker, etc. were stunned at President Preval's victory in 2006. They tried, through various means to manipulate the election and the Electoral Council so as to put one of their own in power but the Haitian people took to the streets and put an end to the charade. This same group of folks (The Commercial Class) has been galvanized by the pressure being put on Mr Boulos for his dual nationality. Boulos went to the DR and threatened to bring down the Haitian government.

(Washington Post) Oct. 11, 1998 - UNSCOM was a product of the uneven conclusion of the Gulf War, which left the Iraqi regime defeated but still in power. The war also shaped Ritter's eventual role.

Ritter spent the conflict fixed on Iraq's special weapons as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Central Command, responsible for watching Scud missiles. Like everything Ritter does, he took it personally. As a lowly captain, his stubborn intensity led him into career-endangering disputes with the allies' commander in chief, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf. These foreshadowed later battles in UNSCOM with the French armed services chief, a senior British defense official, the director of the CIA's Near East operations and National Security Adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger.

Ritter "was a man who had not always toed the line," Ekeus said with a smile in the wood-toned office where he now holds court as Sweden's ambassador to Washington. When Ekeus first began recruiting for UNSCOM, he heard about a young Marine who stuck to wartime judgments "that I don't think were popular at the time. I knew he was a man of his own opinions. I liked that. We wanted to have strong personalities, but the very best talent."

Ritter had been on his way out of the Marines when war came. He resigned in 1990 to try to save a troubled first marriage to the former Heidi Evans, politely rebuffing a phone call to reconsider from the commandant, Gen. Alfred Gray. But Ritter changed his mind when President Bush began dispatching troops. "I can't leave the Marine Corps when my country's getting ready to go to war," Ritter said. "That's a dishonorable thing to do."

(KVUE news) - An Australian TV crew pulled a healthy 16-month-old girl from the wreckage of her house Friday - about 68 hours after the earthquake struck. In a collapsed house, neighbors and reporters heard a cry and found an air pocket: part of the top floor had been held up by a cabinet.

"I could see a dead body that was there, sort of on top of the cabinet; I could hear the baby on the left side of the body screaming," said David Celestino of the Dominican Republic, who had been working with the TV crew.

Although her parents were dead, Winnie Tilin survived with only scratches and soon was in the arms of her uncle, whose pregnant wife also was killed.

VIDEO: Australian TV crew rescues infant

In May 2000, after the U.N. Security Council had decided to send thousands of troops to keep a band of psychotic killers known as the RUF from toppling the government of Sierra Leone, a delegation of 25 officials from the Clinton administration descended on his office, Hédi Annabi said:

"And one of them just looked at me and said, 'What are you going to do about this mess?'" "And I said, 'Are you coming to tell me how I'm going to fix it with the troops you're not giving me, or are you coming to help me figure out how to fix it? Because if it's the first, this is going to be a short meeting.'"  

Annabi was no more known to the public than any other U.N. lifer, and could scarcely have borne less resemblance to Sergio Vieira de Mello, the dashing and impossibly handsome U.N. envoy who was killed in a truck bombing in Baghdad in 2003. George Clooney would have played de Mello in the movie; Annabi, an extra-dry and sometimes cryptic Tunisian, was more the Peter Sellers of Being There.

Hédi Annabi: Country Has 'Unique Moment of Opportunity' to Break with Destructive Cycles of Past