Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/31555
8A Daily News – Friday, May 13, 2011 WORLD BRIEFING Senate holds gas hearing WASHINGTON (AP) — The hearing was for ver- bally flogging oil company CEOs, and no senator both- ered to pretend it was about making gasoline prices more affordable or helping the economy recover. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch set the tone Thursday when he opened with a portrait of a dog sit- ting on a pony. Sen. Charles Schumer countered with a reference to a unicorn. Sen. Pat Roberts suggested a rhinoc- eros. It was a fit opening for a show where the oil execu- tives served as props for politicians needing to show voters that they, too, are angry about $4 a gallon gasoline. ‘‘This is not going to change the price at the gas pump,’’ Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus admitted as he gaveled the proceedings to a close. ‘‘I grant you,’’ the Mon- tana Democrat added, ‘‘we’ve got to develop an energy policy in this coun- try.’’ The hearing didn’t get Congress any closer to doing that. But it did provide Senate Democrats a tele- vised chance to challenge the nation’s five largest oil companies to defend their generous tax breaks amid huge profits. At issue, Democrats said, was a bill by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., to repeal the tax breaks granted to the five companies testifying. bin Laden had system to send emails WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite having no Inter- net access in his hideout, Osama bin Laden was a pro- lific email writer who built a painstaking system that kept him one step ahead of the U.S. government’s best eavesdroppers. His methods, described in new detail to The Associ- ated Press by a counterter- rorism official and a second person briefed on the U.S. investigation, served him well for years and frustrated Western efforts to trace him through cyberspace. The arrangement allowed bin Laden to stay in touch worldwide without leaving any digital fingerprints behind. The people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence analy- sis. Bin Laden’s system was built on discipline and trust. But it also left behind an extensive archive of email exchanges for the U.S. to scour. The trove of electron- ic records pulled out of his compound after he was killed last week is revealing thousands of messages and potentially hundreds of email addresses, the AP has learned. Holed up in his walled compound in northeast Pak- istan with no phone or Inter- net capabilities, bin Laden would type a message on his computer without an Inter- net connection, then save it using a thumb-sized flash drive. He then passed the flash drive to a trusted couri- er, who would head for a distant Internet cafe. McCain says torture did not provide clues WASHINGTON (AP) — Waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tech- niques were not a factor in tracking down Osama bin Laden, a leading Republican senator insisted Thursday. Sen. John McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years as a prison- er of war in North Vietnam, also rejected the argument that any form of torture is critical to U.S. success in the fight against terrorism. In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, the Arizona Republican said former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and oth- ers who back those tactics were wrong to claim that waterboarding al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, provided information that led to bin Laden’s compound in Pak- istan. McCain spoke with an unrivaled record on the issue. He’s the top Republican on the Senate Armed Ser- vices Committee, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee who consistently challenged the Bush administration and Vice President Dick Cheney on the use of torture and a man who endured brutal treatment during the Viet- nam War. Mississippi takes aim at Cajun country BUTTE LAROSE, La. (AP) — In the latest ago- nizing decision along the swollen Mississippi River, federal engineers are close to opening a massive spill- way that would protect Baton Rouge and New Orleans but flood hundreds of thousands of acres in Louisiana Cajun country. With that threat loom- ing, some 25,000 people in an area known for small farms, fish camps, crawfish and a drawling French dialect are hurriedly pack- ing their things and worry- ing that their homes and way of life might soon be drowned. People in this riverfront The Red Bluff Pro-Am Committee thanks the following Sponsors for their tremendous support and encouragement: Diamond Sponsors LES SCHWAB TIRES Platinum Sponsors ThankYou 2011 YAMAHA GOLF CART ROLLING HILLS CASINO BIG O TIRES Team Sponsors SHASTA PIZZA COMPANY DAVE CARR GOLF INSTRUCTION GROWNEY MOTORS B & T MASONRY LOU SARONI BLUE ROCK SPRINGS GC GARY GANS ANDERSON TUCKER OAKS GC LONE TREE INC. EAGLE’S NEST PIZZA/TEDON SPECIALTIES D L FIRE PROTECTION STEVE LANNING CONSTRUCTION SEALE RECYCLING CENTER MUNSON PUMP SERVICE JUDSON ENGINEERING THE DEWILDT FAMILY CORNERSTONE COMMUNITY BANK SCOTT VALLEY BANK EAGLE EYE PAINTING WAYNE’S GUIDE SERVICE LAKE SHASTINA GOLF RESORT THE GOLF CLUB OF TIERRA OAKS LARRY DEBENI TONY’S REFRIGERATION COORS LIGHT community gathered at their volunteer fire station to hear a man dressed in Army fatigues deliver an ominous flood forecast. Col. Ed Fleming leaned over a podium this week and warned that projections by the Army Corps of Engineers call for the sta- tion to be inundated by up to 15 feet of water. The crowd let out a collective gasp. ‘‘From the ground?’’ an incredulous resident shout- ed at the meeting. Demjanjuk convicted of war crimes MUNICH (AP) — A German court convicted retired U.S. autoworker John Demjanjuk on Thursday of taking part in the murder of tens of thousands of Jews as a Nazi death camp guard, breaking legal ground that could pave the way for the prosecution of many low- level cogs in Hitler’s machinery of destruction. The 91-year-old Dem- janjuk was sentenced to five years in prison on 28,060 counts of accesso- ry to murder — one each for the number of people killed at the Sobibor death camp during the six months in 1943 when he was convicted of standing guard there. But Demjanjuk will spend no immediate time behind bars. Presiding Judge Ralph Alt ordered him released from cus- tody pending his appeal — a process that could take at least a year. It was not immediately clear when Demjanjuk would be released or where he would go. The case was consid- ered groundbreaking because although scores of Nazi war criminals have been tried and con- victed in Germany, in this case there was no evi- dence that Demjanjuk (dem-YAHN’-yuk) com- $36.00 in Discount Coupons were published last week in the D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY … And that does not Count all the ads offering percentage discounts, two-for-ones and Free-with-Purchase offers! Don’t miss a Day of it! Subscribe Today 527-2151 It pays for itself. mitted a specific crime. His prosecution was based on the theory that if Demjanjuk was at the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, he was a partici- pant in the killing there — the first time such a legal argument has been made in German courts. Romney defends Mass. health law ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Mitt Romney says last year’s Democra- tic-passed health care law is a federal government takeover of health deliv- ery. But he says his some- what similar Massachu- setts law was right for his state. The likely Republican presidential candidate on Thursday defended the law enacted in 2006 when he was Massachusetts governor. Both the state and federal laws require people to obtain health insurance. Romney said his pro- gram was a state solution to a state problem. He said the Obama-backed law is a power-grab by the federal government to impose a one-size-fits-all plan on all 50 states. Many conservatives say Romney should dis- tance himself from the Massachusetts law’s man- dated insurance coverage. Officials: 2 men arrested in terror plot NEW YORK (AP) — Two U.S. residents have been formally charged with state terrorism counts after authorities said they plotted to blow up synagogues and pur- chased weapons from undercover officers. Ahmed Ferhani (Fur- HAHNI’) and Mohamed Mamdouh (MAM’-doo) were arraigned in Man- hattan court Thursday. They were being held without bail and face life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors say the two were caught on a wiretap conspiring to bomb synagogues. They purchased weapons including an inert hand grenade from undercover officers in a sting. There was no indica- tion that the plot ever put New Yorkers in danger and no evidence that the men had any affiliation with a terrorist organiza- tion. Obama asks to expand FBI chief’s term WASHINGTON (AP) — Reluctant to see anoth- er shake-up in his national security team, President Barack Obama said Thursday he wants to stick with FBI Director Robert Mueller, the stur- dy face of the bureau whose term has spanned from the Sept. 11 attacks on America to the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Key lawmak- ers indicated support for Obama’s surprise deci- sion. Keeping Mueller on the job would require an act of Congress since the law allows an FBI direc- tor to serve only for 10 years, and Mueller’s term is up on Sept. 4.Obama said he wants Mueller to remain for two more years, which would keep him in place well after the next presidential election, into September 2013. Mueller is the longest- serving FBI chief since J. Edgar Hoover, whose checkered 48-year term ended with his death in 1972 and led Congress to put the term limit in place. Obama said the rare exemption for Mueller was needed for continuity and ‘‘for the sake of our nation’s safety and securi- ty.’’ Obama already is in the midst of a reshuffling of his national security leadership, shifting CIA Director Leon Panetta to be Pentagon chief and Gen. David Petraeus to head up the spy agency. The changes await Senate confirmation at a time of renewed worldwide atten- tion to the threat of terror- ism.