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Lockerbie: Megrahi Was Framed : Information Clearing House - ICH : "'The endgame came down to damage limitation,' said the former CIA officer Robert Baer, who took part in the original investigation, 'because the evidence amassed by [Megrahi's] appeal is explosive and extremely damning to the system of justice.' New witnesses would show that it was impossible for Megrahi to have bought clothes that were found in the wreckage of the Pan Am aircraft – he was convicted on the word of a Maltese shopowner who claimed to have sold him the clothes, then gave a false description of him in 19 separate statements and even failed to recognize him in the courtroom. The new evidence would have shown that a fragment of a circuit board and bomb timer, 'discovered' in the Scottish countryside and said to have been in Megrahi’s suitcase, was probably a plant. A forensic scientist found no trace of an explosion on it. The new evidence would demo...

US killed Zia with Pak internal power help: Ex-spymaster - Pakistan - World - NEWS - The Times of India : "Imtiaz Ahmed, a former chief of the Intelligence Bureau, said the US collaborated with 'internal powers' in Pakistan to assassinate Zia. Ahmed, who also served in the ISI, has shaken up political parties with revelations of huge payments allegedly made by the Inter-Services Intelligence to strengthen the opposition to former premier Benazir Bhutto in 1990."

Palestinians 'Seriously Considering' One-state: : Information Clearing House - ICH : "Late last month I traveled to the region with a group of 'Elders,' including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Mary Robinson of Ireland, former prime minister Gro Brundtland of Norway and women's activist Ela Bhatt of India. Three of us had previously visited Gaza, which is now a walled-in ghetto inhabited by 1.6 million Palestinians, 1.1 million of whom are refugees from Israel and the West Bank and receive basic humanitarian assistance from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Israel prevents any cement, lumber, seeds, fertilizer and hundreds of other needed materials from entering through Gaza's gates. Some additional goods from Egypt reach Gaza through underground tunnels. Gazans cannot produce their own food nor repair schools, hospitals, business establishments or the 50,000 homes that...

GQ’s Article on Russia Will Be Hard to Find in Russia - NYTimes.com : "Vladimir V. Putin consolidated his power in Russia a decade ago, in part by taking a hard line against Chechen separatists, whom the government had blamed for a series of bombings. In a long investigative article in the current issue of GQ, the writer Scott Anderson explores the possibility that the bombers actually had been working for the Russian government."

Chalabi aide: I went from White House to secret U.S. prisoner | McClatchy : "In one early session, Lami said, interrogators who knew of his training as a mathematician wrote on a dry-erase board: 'Ali Feisal + Cooperation = Release.' 'They told me, 'You're good at math. When you solve this equation, you can go home,' ' Lami said. Lami said he asked what kind of cooperation they had in mind, and they responded that they wanted the links between Chalabi and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Infuriated by his refusal to 'solve the equation,' Lami said, his American captors turned up the pressure. Lami said they kept him in a frigid cell with lights on 24 hours a day. He said he had no mattress, blanket or pillow, and bathroom breaks were so infrequent that he soiled himself. He couldn't wash himself as necessary before Muslim prayer. Without a toothbrush for so long, Lami said, his lower gums gradually separated from his teeth and he often...

Ex-soldier gets 5 life sentences Iraqi deaths - Yahoo! News : "PADUCAH, Ky. – A former soldier received five consecutive life sentences Friday for his role in the rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager and the slaying of three of her family members. 'What the defendant did was horrifying and inexcusable,' U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell said in sentencing to Steven Dale Green, 24, of Midland, Texas. 'The court believes any lesser sentence would be insufficient.' A civilian jury in western Kentucky convicted Green in May of raping Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, conspiracy and multiple counts of murder. Green shot and killed the teen's mother, father and sister, then became the third soldier to rape her before shooting her in the face. Her body was set on fire March 12, 2006, at their rural home outside Mahmoudiya, Iraq, about 20 miles south of Baghdad."

Jack Straw admits Lockerbie bomber's release was linked to oil - Telegraph : "In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Straw also suggested that Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice minister, released the terminally-ill bomber on compassionate grounds earlier than the British Government would have done. Mr Brown has been accused of putting Britain’s trade interests before justice for the Lockerbie victims. Earlier this week, the outcry forced him to say: “There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to instruct Scottish ministers, no private assurances.” Megrahi, who is suffering from prostate cancer, was freed last month by the Scottish Executive on compassionate grounds after it was said he was only months from death. Last night it emerged he has been moved out of intensive care. In his interview today, Mr Straw admits that when he was considering in 2007 whether the bomber should be included in a prisoner transfer agreement (PTA) ...