Tales of Horror Continue Emerging In Gosnell Abortion Case; UPDATE: Bail Denied

New details continue emerging on the sick and twisted case of Kermit Gosnell. Victims say that they were scarred for life, and their harrowing tales highlight the malfeasance and evil that lurked in Gosnell's offices:

FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD Robyn Reid didn't want an abortion. But when her grandmother forcibly took her to an abortion clinic one wintry day in 1998, Reid figured she'd just tell the doctor her wishes and then sneak away.

Instead, Kermit Gosnell barked: "I don't have time for this!" He then ripped off her clothes, spanked her, wrestled her onto a dirty surgical stretcher, tied her flailing arms and legs down and pumped sedatives into her until she quit screaming and lost consciousness, she told the Daily News yesterday.

Nicole Gaither got an abortion from Gosnell in 2001. After four days, she said, the pain was so bad she could barely walk. She returned to the clinic, where, she said Gosnell blithely told her he'd left fetal remains in her.

"Stand up! It don't hurt that bad!" he yelled at her, she said, before suctioning - without any medication - her insides.

In 2001, Davida Johnson changed her mind about aborting her 6-month fetus after seeing Gosnell's dazed, bloodied patients in his recovery room, she said. But in the treatment room, Gosnell's staffers ignored her protests, smacked her, tied her arms down and sedated her into unconsciousness, she said. She awoke no longer pregnant.

Because of the stigma attached with abortion, some of these young women had no where to turn, and the state authorities were unresponsive.

As I noted yesterday, Gosnell's case would not have come to light except for an independent investigation into Gosnell operating a pill mill. It was when investigators searched his offices, that the horror show came to light.

Former employees said that Gosnell at least nominally complied with state notification requirements, but that by 2008 Gosnell was ignoring the rules, and was carrying out illegal late-term (3d trimester) abortions with no regard for the patient's lives.

The Inquirer's editorial is stinging in its rebuke of Gosnell and the state:

The grand jury said that a man who can only be described as a back-alley abortionist pulled in as much as $15,000 per night. His patients were mostly low-income, minority women who lacked health insurance. Many came from out of state.

If the charges are true, Gosnell and several former employees at his Women's Medical Society should have the book thrown at them. The doctor also is under federal investigation for an allegedly illegal prescription-drug operation.

It's even more disturbing that the state, which could have shut down the clinic or revoked Gosnell's medical license, ignored complaints repeatedly. Gosnell's clinic was inspected in 1989, 1992, and 1993. Deficiencies were found each time. Yet state evaluators reapproved it without requiring corrective action.

The state Health Department decided after 1993 to stop inspecting abortion clinics for "political reasons," the grand jury concluded. That occurred during the administration of Gov. Tom Ridge, a supporter of abortion rights.

As a result, nail salons in Pennsylvania received tougher government scrutiny than Gosnell's clinic.

The grand jury recommended that the state Health Department license abortion clinics, obviously a needed step. Abortion services are medical care, and providers should be held to the same standards as nonhospital, ambulatory surgical facilities.

Now Gosnell and several of his employees stand accused of multiple counts of murder, and the DA says that he likely committed hundreds of murders by delivering hundreds of babies alive, and then killing them in a ghastly, immoral and illegal manner to perform the late-term abortions.

UPDATE:
The judge denied Gosnell and his cohorts bail, which is entirely sensible considering the alleged crimes - multiple murders, and the fact that he amassed a significant fortune in carrying out those abortions.

Yet, he had the audacity to ask why he wasn't able to post bail. Moreover, he doesn't consider the late term abortions - illegal under then (and current) Pennsylvania law - or the delivery of live babies and killing them outside the womb - to be murder:

"Is there some cause to believe I'm a risk or might flee?" he asked District Judge Jane Rice.

Rice explained to Gosnell, 69, that there is no bail for murder - and he was facing eight counts of it.

"Is it possible you could explain the seven counts?" he asked, while on closed-circuit television from Police Headquarters. "I understand the one count because of the patient who died but not the others."

The others were for babies who were born alive and viable, well past the state law allowing abortions for the first 24 weeks, and whose spinal cords he allegedly cut with scissors.

Science Fiction Becoming Reality

One of the great materials concocted in the Star Trek lore is transparent aluminum. It was a central feature to the plot of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, since the crew of the Enterprise needed something that was lightweight and able to be able to withstand tremendous pressures. Scotty "invented" transparent aluminum, using his knowledge of the future.

Now, scientists have developed a super-strong glass that mimics many of the properties of that fictional transparent aluminum.

That's why researchers have created a new type of glass that is stronger and tougher than steel.

In fact, this new type of damage-tolerant glass has actually demonstrated a durability greater than any known material.

The new metallic glass is a microalloy that features palladium, a metal with a high "bulk-to-shear" stiffness ratio that counteracts the intrinsic brittleness of glassy materials.

An initially sharp impact does not develop into a fully opened crack. (Image courtesy Robert Ritchie and Marios Demetriou)Those findings come from experiments conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology.

Robert Richie is the materials scientist who led the Berkely contribution to the research. In a press release, he says the new glass is stronger than steel because "that glass undergoes extensive plasticity in response to stress, allowing it to bend rather than crack."

For now, the sample sizes are quite small, but the scientists figure to enlarge the size and work on making their discoveries marketable.

French Foreign Minister Mobbed Entering Gaza After Meeting With Shalit Family

(you'll have to scroll through videos to locate the appropriate one b/c of a kludgy video interface)

Crowds of Palestinians mobbed the French Foreign Minister Michelle Alliot-Marie as she was entering Gaza following a meeting with Gilad Shalit's father in Israel. They threw shoes and eggs at Alliot-Marie, believing that she called Gilad Shalit's kidnapping a war crime and that she'd press the EU to do the same. Gilad's father had requested that Shalit's kidnapping be characterized as a war crime, but the media reports attributed them to Alliot-Marie.

Gilad Shalit remains in the clutches of the terrorist group Hamas and there's no sign that he will be released anytime soon. He was captured when Hamas infiltrated into Israel and took Shalit while killing several of Shalit's fellow soldiers. It was an act of war and Hamas continues to refuse to grant humanitarian groups like the ICRC access to Shalit.

Palestinian Authority Blocks West Bank Rally Supporting Tunisian Protests

You really can't make this stuff up. The Palestinian Authority, which in the West Bank is essentially Fatah, has no interest in ceding power to anyone, whether it is Hamas, or allowing demonstrations that might raise awareness about the corruption and failures of Palestinian leadership to accomplish anything since they were given civil administrative control over much of the West Bank.

The PA has banned demonstrations supporting the Tunisian overthrow of the odious Ben Ali government and demands for a house-cleaning of those allied with Ben Ali.

The Palestinian Authority refused to grant permission for a rally to celebrate the overthrow of Tunisia’s authoritarian president on Wednesday in Ramallah, the administrative capital of the West Bank.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported that a few dozen Palestinians who defied the ban arrived in the square in Ramallah where the rally was to take place only to find that they were outnumbered by members of the ruling Fatah party, who chose the same time and place to stage a demonstration in support of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

According to the Palestinian Maan news agency, “It was not clear whose demonstration was planned first.”

A correspondent for Le Monde, Benjamin Barthe, observed that a police cordon around the square and “the presence among the demonstrators of many mukhabarat (secret police) officers left little doubt about the Palestinian Authority’s intention to prevent any expression of solidarity with the ‘jasmine revolution’ ” in Tunisia, which led the president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, to flee into exile.

The reporter added that just as one young Palestinian began to wave a Tunisian flag, an officer grabbed it, on the grounds that it was disturbing the demonstration in honor of the prisoners. .

Omar Barghouti, a leading Palestinian human rights activist who was present at the thwarted celebration, told the French newspaper: “It’s unbelievable. … The police are in the process of confirming the charge that the Palestinian Authority is on the side of Ben Ali and that it also fears the people and the street.”

The Palestinian security forces have banned all displays of the Tunisian flag or anything that can reference the Jasmine uprising.

This goes back to what I've been saying about the lessons learned from the Tunisian uprising and overthrow of Ben Ali. Middle Eastern regimes and despots have learned that tolerance of demonstrators and protesters may lead to their overthrow so that regimes will now try to nip any protests or demonstrations in the bud before they can blossom into events that they can no longer control or shape.

The PA and Fatah has learned this lesson well, and the Palestinians are worse off for it. Fatah has repeatedly failed the Palestinian people - refusing deal after deal to have a 2-state solution, and isn't a partner in peace. Fatah's Abbas would much rather retain the status quo - where he can profit from the situation without having to actually do any work towards building a civil society that is engaged in constructive activities rather than peddling a nihilistic worldview that sees eliminating Israel as the cure-all for what ails the Palestinian people.

Wind and Solar Power Projects Thwarted By Red Tape; NIMBY Preventing Transmission Line Projects

Accelerating the construction of wind power and/or solar power projects around the country requires having not only the proper sites to take advantage of the wind or sun, but access to transmission lines to deliver the power to where it is needed.

Texas is a huge market for wind power, but much of that capacity is untapped because of opposition to building new transmission lines.

The lack of transmission lines — and the relatively low price of natural gas — has thwarted the ambitions of wind-power advocates to expand the use of this alternative energy source in Texas. The oilman T. Boone Pickens, for example, bet heavily on wind a couple of years ago, ordering hundreds of turbines and announcing plans to build the world’s largest wind farm in the Panhandle at a cost of up to $12 billion. He later scaled back, canceling some of the turbine orders, giving up his land lease and saying he was looking elsewhere to build.

To encourage others, the state is moving forward on a contentious project to erect $5 billion worth of transmission wires to connect the turbines to the cities that need power. On Thursday, state regulators met in Austin and approved the route of a controversial line that will run about 140 miles through the Hill Country, one of the state’s most scenic regions.

Construction of the line — a project of the Lower Colorado River Authority that will run from Schleicher County to a substation near Comfort — should start next year. Last year, vigorous opposition, by landowners, wealthy newcomers and old-time families, succeeded in derailing plans for another line that the state had wanted to build through the area. Instead, the existing electric infrastructure will be upgraded to carry a greater load. The Public Utility Commission, which is overseeing the process, has also canceled plans for an additional segment of the Hill Country line discussed at the meeting Thursday.

“All Texans love their land,” Barry T. Smitherman, the commission chairman, said in an interview a few days ago. During the process of planning the routes for transmission lines, Mr. Smitherman said, “we didn’t please everyone, but I think with each of these we really tried to work hard to make it as acceptable as possible for the landowners.”

Texas embarked on the transmission line project, known as Competitive Renewable Energy Zones, several years ago. The need was clear: in West Texas, home to the vast majority of the state’s wind farms, so many turbines have been built over the past decade that some must be shut down during windy periods because there are not enough wires to transport the power. Texas is the leading wind-power state by far, with nearly three times as much capacity as the next-closest state, Iowa. Once built, the new lines are expected to span more than 2,300 miles.

The Hill Country is not the only part of Texas where resistance to new power lines has been fierce. Landowners near Palo Duro Canyon State Park in the Panhandle also put up vigorous opposition. Their arguments against one of the proposed lines prevailed, so it will be built elsewhere and not cross the dramatic canyon landscape. Nonetheless, another line could still go across the canyon. Residents of Denton County, north of Fort Worth, worry that a proposed line could cross landmarks like a park area called the Greenbelt or a Girl Scout camp.

The arguments against the transmission lines mirror those of the wind turbines or solar collectors - that their presence mars the landscape.

Then, there's the issue of red tape in getting permits and approvals to build solar power projects. The amount of bureaucracy and red tape to build solar power projects - including retrofits on existing buildings, is curbing wider acceptance and implementation because of the added costs.

A Belated Rollback of Vaccine-Autism Psuedoscience

Dr. Andrew Wakefield has been outed as an outright fraud and charlatan, and now the same can be said of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who penned a 2005 article claiming a link between autism and vaccines containing thimerosal.

Salon, which in conjunction with Rolling Stone, published Kennedy's piece, has now fully retracted the piece.

In 2005, Salon published online an exclusive story by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that offered an explosive premise: that the mercury-based thimerosal compound present in vaccines until 2001 was dangerous, and that he was "convinced that the link between thimerosal and the epidemic of childhood neurological disorders is real."

The piece was co-published with Rolling Stone magazine -- they fact-checked it and published it in print; we posted it online. In the days after running "Deadly Immunity," we amended the story with five corrections (which can still be found logged here) that went far in undermining Kennedy's exposé. At the time, we felt that correcting the piece -- and keeping it on the site, in the spirit of transparency -- was the best way to operate. But subsequent critics, including most recently, Seth Mnookin in his book "The Panic Virus," further eroded any faith we had in the story's value. We've grown to believe the best reader service is to delete the piece entirely.

"I regret we didn't move on this more quickly, as evidence continued to emerge debunking the vaccines and autism link," says former Salon editor in chief Joan Walsh, now editor at large.

It was on the basis of Wakefield's fraud ridden "study" published in the Lancet, and Kennedy's op-ed that spurred parents to avoid giving their children vaccines that could prevent a wide range of easily preventable diseases. Since so many parents have foregone vaccines for their kids, outbreaks of preventable diseases like whooping cough, measles, mumps, have exploded all over the US and around the world.

Salon's writers admit that they screwed up by giving the anti-vaccine crowd ammunition long after evidence emerged showing Kennedy's statements to be bunk. The outlet also acknowledges that the rest of the media didn't do much better as they continue to go to outdated sources of information and continue to hype folks like Jenny McCarthy who tout the vaccine-autism link despite the scientific evidence showing no link and Wakefield's outright fraud.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 125

Today marks the end of the former Deutsche Bank building after years of delays, a deadly fire that resulted in two firefighters losing their lives when standpipes and other safety measures were not in place, and decontamination of the building that took much longer than expected.

The building had been damaged by falling debris from the South Tower on 9/11 and the LMDC took ownership of the property so that it could make room for the vehicle security center and another office tower for the WTC complex. It was an ongoing symbol of the failure to rebuild in a timely fashion.

Freedom Tower viewed from WTC Memorial

Good riddance.

Meanwhile, construction proceeds throughout Ground Zero and workers continue raising steel on the Freedom Tower/1WTC along with 4WTC, and Fiterman Hall is being built out as well. The Freedom Tower's glass cladding is being installed above the 25th floor level, and you begin to get a sense of how close the tower will resemble its sketches and elevation views.


The 9/11 Memorial and Museum construction continues as more trees are being planted in the memorial grove and the museum structures are being built out. The PATH transit hub is also underway.

Here's an overhead view of the construction at Ground Zero:

Pamela Geller Equates Building Mosque With 9/11 Attacks

Pamela Geller, who had been leading the opposition against the construction of a mosque and community center near Ground Zero, the Park51/Cordoba House project, is busy equating building mosques with the second wave of 9/11 attacks.

This couldn't be any further from reality or the facts. There's nothing about the Cordoba House project that is related to 9/11 other than the proximity to Ground Zero. Those involved in the development of the community center and mosque (which received all the necessary approvals from the local community board and Landmarks Preservation Commission) have no relationship to the 9/11 attackers other than their religion being Muslim.

What Geller and her supporters are suggesting is that all Muslims are behind the attacks, rather than a specific subset of Islamists who seek to impose their worldview on all nonbelievers - including fellow Muslims who do not practice Islam the way they do.

She will be appearing before CPAC, Conservative Political Action Conference next month and headline a panel entitled: "The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks", which is also a movie created by Geller and Robert Spencer.

After the movie, the duo will discuss how to stop what they characterize as an Islamic supremacist mega-mosque at Ground Zero.

Of course, this isn't a mega-mosque and it isn't at Ground Zero, but the facts are not getting in their way. The site of the proposed community center is 49/51 Park Place, which is two blocks north of Ground Zero and the proposed center would provide all manner of amenities that the Lower Manhattan community and financial district need - a pool, community center, theater, and other public spaces akin to the 92nd Street Y or the JCC of Manhattan. That's what the Park51/Cordoba House project modeled their proposal on, and Geller and Spencer have repeatedly lied and manipulated the media cover to mischaracterize the project.

For example, they say that the project is taking place at Ground Zero, but Park Place is not within the confines of the 16 acres that comprises Ground Zero. Nor will Park51 somehow overshadow and dominate Ground Zero. Mind you that the Park51 site would be a 13 story building that wouldn't even be the tallest on its block, and that the Freedom Tower/1WTC that is being built is now close to 60 stories tall on its way to being the tallest building in the US at 1,776 feet. The other office towers proposed for Ground Zero would each rise more than 1,000 feet and rank among the tallest in the US.

UPDATE:
In another setback for Geller and her friends, Judge Paul Feinman rejected FDNY firefighter Timothy Brown's motion for a temporary restraining order on the proposed project.

"We are delighted that the judge is allowing the completion of the community center to go forward," said Adam Leitman Bailey, Soho Properties' attorney. "We are looking forward to the final resolution of the case. May all Americans be able to pray when they want, where they want."

Jack Lester, Brown's attorney, now says the TRO would not have had a major impact on the case since lawyers for the developer stated that the existing site would remain intact for the near term. It was not immediately clear when demolition will begin.

"One of the standards for a TRO is there has to be imminent danger or imminent threat," Lester said. "We were trying to get a TRO to prevent demolition of the building. The case is exactly where it was the day we filed it."

Brown filed a so-called Article 78 lawsuit to overturn the 2010 decision by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission denying landmark status to the site of the Islamic center and mosque.

A separate motion will be considered in February to decide whether Brown is even entitled to be a party to the action (whether he has standing to sue):

Meanwhile a hearing is scheduled for Feb. 22, when lawyers for the plaintiff will fight a motion to dismiss filed last week by Soho Properties.

In that filing, Soho Properties argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the firefighter is not an injured party due to the Islamic center plan. The developer also noted that the lawsuit named Soho Properties as a defendant, but failed to name the actual owner of the building, 45 Park Place Partners.

Investigators Accidentally Uncovered Gosnell's House of Horrors

The sickening case of Kermit Gosnell just keeps getting worse. Every time you think this is as bad as it gets, some new revelation comes out that proves even worse. Not only did state regulators and investigators fail in their duty to protect women from this guy's sick actions, his house of horrors was discovered by accident. Investigators weren't looking into botched abortions when they finally visited his offices. They were looking into claims that he was running a "pill mill" there, giving out prescription medications to anyone who would pay. It's once they got inside that Gosnell's evil emerged:

Semiconscious, moaning women sat in dirty recliners and on bloodstained blankets. The air reeked of urine from the flea-infested cats permitted to roam the clinic. There was blood on the floor and cat feces on the stairs. One investigator likened the scene to "a bad gas-station restroom."

That was just the tip of the iceberg as the grand jury report notes as Gosnell allegedly murdered babies that were born alive during botched late term abortion procedures. Gosnell allegedly carried out abortions at all times during the pregnancy regardless of state law restrictions. He paid no attention to sanitary conditions and his patients suffered horribly and needlessly as unlicensed and unskilled assistants aided Gosnell in his his procedures.

State regulators failed to stop Gosnell for years. The grand jury report slams regulators across multiple state administrations and law enforcement agencies that should have done their due diligence to investigate multiple claims against Gosnell over the years.

Not only should the AMA and the individual specialty boards better police their own members, but the state department of healths/ licensing boards must do a better job weeding out the bad doctors.

They need to better investigate claims of malfeasance and take action in a prompt manner. Gosnell was able to practice for years on end without any state official reviewing his case files or even going to his offices to see the horrendous conditions for themselves. The state of Pennsylvania failed to protect these women from Gosnell botching abortion after abortion and putting lives in jeopardy - to say nothing of murdering those babies that were born alive after botched abortions.

Some states are moving ahead with online databases to review license statuses and disciplinary records, but that effort is limited should a doctor move around the country one step ahead of the regulatory agencies. A doctor in NJ could move over to PA or NY to continue practicing.

What's probably needed is a multistate compact that requires mandatory reporting and licensing issues to all states and allows states to coordinate their efforts to weed out bad doctors.

That would also help go to reduce the cost of health care since bad doctors are more likely to engage in medical malpractice and have complications arise from their procedures.

The District Attorney prosecuting the case, Seth Williams notes that the seven murder charges is probably only the tip of the iceberg and that Gosnell and his nine associates likely murdered hundreds:

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams charged Dr. Kermit Gosnell and nine associates with seven counts of murder involving babies, but said hundreds of others likely died in the squalid clinic that Gosnell ran from 1979 to 2010.

The defendants face first-degree murder in the cases of seven babies for which there is substantial evidence, Williams said. The babies were born alive and viable, he said.

"My comprehension of the English language can't adequately describe the barbaric nature of Dr. Gosnell," Williams said at a news conference.

Williams said he may seek the death penalty for Gosnell, 69, who with his associates was arrested on Wednesday.

Gosnell was charged with murder, infanticide, conspiracy, abortion at 24 or more weeks and other charges.

Pennsylvania law prohibits abortion after 24 weeks except to save the life of the mother or avoid serious health risk to her.

Turkey; Qatar Quit Efforts To Mediate Lebanese Crisis

Just days after the Saudis gave up in their efforts to mediate the Lebanese political crisis and Turkey and Qatar picked up the role, Turkey and Qatar have given up as well.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's diplomats at the UN proffered a resolution condemning Israel building housing. It's typical of Middle Eastern regimes to go after Israel when their domestic political situation is in flux, and this is no different. Lebanon's Saad Hariri needs to bolster support and pushing UN resolutions is seen as one way to do so.

The UN move is calculated to help garner support among other Middle Eastern regimes to back Hariri over Hizbullah, Syria and Iran.

Body Identified In Long Island Serial Killer Case

The medical examiners have identified one of four bodies recovered from a Long Island beach and are in the process of identifying the other three bodies, but are no closer to figuring out who murdered them and proceeded to dump the bodies near Gilgo Beach:

A Maine prostitute missing since June has been identified as one of four bodies found on an isolated Long Island beach late last year, authorities said Wednesday.

The Suffolk County medical examiner identified Megan Waterman's body through a DNA match, police said.

Investigators say Waterman was the victim of foul play, but would not disclose the exact cause of death.

The three other bodies remain unidentified - for now, police said.

"We're very close to identifying the other three bodies," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said.

Waterman's family was notified of the match early Wednesday, said her mother Lorraine Ela, of Portland, Maine.

Investigators continue looking at whether this case is related to a similar incident in Atlantic City.

The case originally began as a search for another missing woman:

It was the hunt for a missing Craigslist prostitute, Shannon Gilbert, which led cops to the bodies in the first place. Gilbert had vanished in Oak Beach, miles from the discovery, around the same time as Waterman. But when dental records disqualified Gilbert as a match, investigators said they did not believe Waterman would turn out to be one of the victims. For that reason, family members say, they were stunned to hear the news this morning. Two Suffolk County homicide detectives made the trip to Maine to notify them in person.

If you have any information leading to the arrest of the person(s) responsible, please call the Scarborough Police Department at 207-883-6361, or their anonymous tip line at 207-730-4200, ext 3093, or the Suffolk County Police Department at 631-854-8400.

FBI Investigating Bomb Left At MLK Jr. Parade In Spokane, WA

The FBI is investigating a bomb that, had it detonated, would have caused a mass casualty incident with significant loss of life in Spokane, Washington. It was discovered on Monday along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr parade minutes before the parade was to pass the area. The parade was rerouted away from the device as the bomb squad deactivated the device (blew it up preemptively).

The device inside "clearly would have had the potential to inflict multiple casualties, injury and death, to humans," Harrill said in an interview Tuesday. He declined to describe the device.

The FBI said the backpack also contained two T-shirts — one from the 2010 Stevens County Relay for Life, an American Cancer Society fundraiser, and the other reading, "Treasure Island Spring 2009."

About 1,500 people marched along the new route without incident while the Spokane Explosives Disposal Unit neutralized the device.

No one has claimed responsibility or offered a motive, Harrill said. But he called the connection with the King Day march "inescapable."

The FBI certainly isn't ignoring the target.

The head of the FBI office in the region, Frank Harrill, said the bomb was potentially deadly, and called the incident an act of domestic terrorism that was meant to advance a political or social agenda.Harrill said agents have not yet determined a motive, but recognize that it could be linked to the federal holiday honoring King, an African-American who was assassinated in 1968.

Spokane is a hotbed of racist activities, and it is in close proximity to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, which is home to several white supremacist groups.

Philadelphia Doctor Arrested Over Murder of Patients and Botched Abortions

This story is wrong on several levels and indicates a failure of Pennsylvania medical officials and investigators to properly treat complaints about the doctor's malfeasance for years on end. If these claims are true, the doctor, Kermit Gosnell, should have been kicked out of the profession years ago before he could do any more harm to women. Prosecutors have finally indicted Gosnell on the murder of a female patient and seven babies that were born alive:

A Philadelphia abortion doctor has been charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a woman patient and seven babies that prosecutors say were born alive and then killed with scissors.

The charges against Dr. Kermit Gosnell follow a long grand jury investigation.

District Attorney Seth Williams said state regulators ignored complaints and failed to visit the clinic since 1993.

Williams said the women were subjected to squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell's Women's Medical Society, which was shut down last year.

Gosnell has been named in at least 10 malpractice suits, including one over the death of a woman who died of sepsis and a perforated uterus.

Pro life groups will cite this as a reason to make abortion illegal, and pro choice will cite this as a reason to keep it legal with better oversight - to prevent back room abortions that engage in unethical, illegal, or medical malpractice.

What this case seems to indicate is a state that was indifferent to complaints and that investigators/regulators did not even visit the clinic since 1993. This allowed the doctor to carry out abortions that put womens' lives at risk and carried out multiple botched abortions.

Making abortions illegal would increase the likelihood that women will visit doctors who botch abortions putting their lives in danger.

UPDATE:


The state's culpability in this case is startling in just how they failed the patients who were butchered by this doctor. The 281 page grand jury report is ghastly in its details and catalogs the state's failures nearly as much as Gosnell's physical acts. Ultimately, this case should lead to a major shift in the way the state oversees abortionists because Gosnell was butchering his patients:

Butcher of women
Dr. Gosnell didn’t just kill babies. He was also a deadly threat to mothers. Not every abortion could be completed by inducing labor and delivery. On these occasions, Gosnell would attempt to remove the fetus himself. The consequences were often calamitous – though that didn’t stop the doctor from trying to cover them up.
One woman, for example, was left lying in place for hours after Gosnell tore her cervix and colon while trying, unsuccessfully, to extract the fetus. Relatives who came to pick her up were refused entry into the building; they had to threaten to call the police.

They eventually found her inside, bleeding and incoherent, and transported her to the hospital, where doctors had to remove almost half a foot of her intestines.

On another occasion, Gosnell simply sent a patient home, after keeping her mother waiting for hours, without telling either of them that she still had fetal parts inside her. Gosnell insisted she was fine, even after signs of serious infection set in over the next several days. By the time her mother got her to the emergency room, she was unconscious and near death.

A nineteen-year-old girl was held for several hours after Gosnell punctured her uterus. As a result of the delay, she fell into shock from blood loss, and had to undergo a hysterectomy.

One patient went into convulsions during an abortion, fell off the procedure table, and hit her head on the floor. Gosnell wouldn’t call an ambulance, and wouldn’t let the woman’s companion leave the building so that he could call an ambulance.

Each one of those instances should have raised red flags with the authorities - at the hospitals that treated these patients after Gosnell's "procedures" and by law enforcement, but no steps were taken for years on end.

Thankfully someone finally did put Gosnell's bloody trail of malfeasance to an end by shutting down his clinic.

Getting back to the state's failures, the report sets out that the state purposefully turned a blind eye to Gosnell, because of decisions made by politicians going back to 1993:

Instead, the Pennsylvania
Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all. The politics in question were not anti-abortion, but pro. With the change of administration from Governor Casey to Governor Ridge, officials concluded that inspections would be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions. Better to leave clinics to do as they pleased, even though, as Gosnell proved, that meant both women and babies would pay.

The only exception to this live-and-let-die policy was supposed to be for complaints dumped directly on the department’s doorstep. Those, at least, would be investigated. Except that there were complaints about Gosnell, repeatedly. Several different attorneys, representing women injured by Gosnell, contacted the department. A doctor from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia hand-delivered a complaint, advising the department that numerous patients he had referred for abortions came back from Gosnell with the same venereal disease. The medical examiner of Delaware County informed the department that Gosnell had performed an illegal abortion on a 14-year-old girl carrying a 30-week-old baby. And the department received official notice that a woman named Karnamaya Mongar had died at Gosnell’s hands.

Yet not one of these alarm bells – not even Mrs. Mongar’s death – prompted the department to look at Gosnell or the Women’s Medical Society. Only after the raid occurred, and the story hit the press, did the department choose to act. Suddenly there were no administrative, legal, or policy barriers; within weeks an order was issued to close the clinic. And as this grand jury investigation widened, department officials “lawyered up,” hiring a high-priced law firm to represent them at taxpayer expense. Had they spent as much effort on inspection as they did on attorneys, none of this would have happened to begin with.

But even this total abdication by the Department of Health might not have been fatal. Another agency with authority in the health field, the Pennsylvania Department of State, could have stopped Gosnell single-handedly. While the Department of Health regulates facilities, the Department of State, through its Board of Medicine, licenses and oversees individual physicians. Like their colleagues at Health, however, Department of State officials were repeatedly confronted with evidence about Gosnell, and repeatedly chose to do nothing.

Indeed, in many ways State had more damning information than anyone else.

As this case proceeds, the revelations about Gosnell's actions and the Pennsylvania's failure to act to stop him from butchering his patients are likely to become even more scandalous and heinous.

This report is a difficult read under the best of circumstances, and reads like something straight out of a horror movie.

Plastic bags and mineral water bottles holding aborted fetuses were found stashed in Dr. Gosnell’s clinic. Jars containing the severed feet of babies lined a shelf, the Philadelphia district attorney, Seth Williams, said in a statement.

Dr. Gosnell, a family practitioner who was not certified in obstetrics, performed late-term abortions, after 24 weeks, which are illegal, and employed staff members who were not trained medical professionals, including a teenage girl, prosecutors said. Nine of his employees were also charged.

“It is very important to remember that Dr. Gosnell is presumed innocent,” a lawyer for Dr. Gosnell, William J. Brennan, said. “I would hope there is not a rush to judgment and that he has an opportunity to review this very lengthy charging document.”

In the grand jury document, prosecutors called Dr. Gosnell’s clinic “a baby charnel house,” riddled with fetal remains and reeking of cat urine, with furniture and blankets stained with blood. Medical equipment was broken and supplies were reused.

Saudis Give Up On Lebanese Mediation Efforts As Hizbullah Struts Its Stuff

The Saudis have been trying to mediate the difficult political situation in Lebanon following Hizbullah's withdrawal from the government. They've given up on the mediation efforts and the hope is that Qatar and Turkey will pick up where the Saudis left off.

Prince Saud al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's minister of foreign affairs, said Wednesday that his country had abandoned mediation talks to resolve Lebanon's political crisis that caused the government's collapse last week.

Al-Faisal made the comments in an interview with state-run Saudi TV in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt where he was attending an Arab economic summit to discuss economic challenges facing Arab nations. He also described the political situation in Lebanon as "dangerous."

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar Assad have been personally involved in an attempt to resolve Lebanon's political crisis, the Saudi foreign minister said.

But when no agreement was near the Saudi king "lifted his hands and kept away from the negotiations," al-Faisal said.

Meanwhile, Qatari and Turkish foreign ministers arrived in Lebanon Tuesday in an apparent attempt to pick up where Saudi and Syrian efforts left off.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani met with President Michel Suleiman, and caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri among other leading political figures, state-run Lebanese news agency (NNA) reported Tuesday.

Hizbullah withdrew from the government ahead of a report that was likely to name members of the terror group along with Syrian and Iranian officials in the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The tribunal investigating the assassination may call on Interpol to assist with the arrests of those that are eventually indicted.

While the diplomats are busy doing their work, Hizbullah is not so quietly or subtly laying the groundwork for their own takeover.

Hizbullah staged a quiet show of force Tuesday that rattled nerves, hours before senior Qatari and Turkish officials began talks in Beirut in an attempt to contain political tension over a U.N.-backed tribunal probing the 2005 killing of statesman Rafik Hariri.

Hizbullah’s actions came hours before Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Bin Jaber al-Thani and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu began a series of talks with Lebanon’s political leaders aimed at preventing a slide toward sectarian strife.

As The Daily Star went to press early Wednesday, Sheikh Hamad and Davutoglu were in talks with Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. The two officials will spend the night in the capital to hold further talks with other political leaders Wednesday.

Hizbullah is the reason that the Lebanese government is in the position it is in, and its terror outfit is likely among those behind the assassination of Hariri, but should that become official the terror group would lose support from the Lebanese people as the group has long claimed to be a resistance group to Israel (even though Israel has not occupied Lebanon since 2005 and Hizbullah caused a devastating war after its terrorists invaded Israel and killed several soldiers and kidnapped two others (Regev and Goldwasser), leading to a brief, but devastating war for large parts of Southern Lebanon where Hizbullah openly operates in defiance of UNIFIL and SCR 1701).

Pakistan Still Playing Both Sides In Afghanistan

The Washington Post has reported that Pakistan's ISI (its intelligence service) has managed to provide medical assistance to Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban that controlled Afghanistan and gave shelter to Osama bin Laden before 9/11. Of course, the Pakistani government and the ISI deny the report:

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was treated in hospital with the help of Pakistan's intelligence agency after suffering a heart attack earlier this month, the Washington Post reported.

Citing "The Eclipse Group," a private network run by ex-CIA, State Department and military officials, the newspaper said the elusive Taliban chief spent several days at a hospital in Karachi, Pakistan.

Most of the senior members of the Afghan Taliban, including Mullah Omar, fled to neighboring Pakistan when U.S.-backed Afghan forces toppled their strict Islamist regime in late 2001.

'Some brain damage'
The firm said its source was a doctor, who was not identified. According to the report, Mullah Omar was "rushed" to hospital by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency on Jan. 7.

"While I was not personally in the operating theater, my evaluation based on what I have heard and seeing the patient in the hospital is that Mullah Omar had a cardiac catheter complication resulting in either bleeding or a small cerebral vascular incident, or both," the Post quoted the doctor as saying.

"After the operation, there seemed to be some brain damage with Mullah Omar having slurred speech," he added.

The Eclipse Group's report said that "after 3-4 days of post-operative care in the hospital, he was released to the ISI and ordered to take absolute bed rest when at home for at least several days."

It said that Mullah Omar was staying at "an ISI 'guest house' in Karachi under ISI guard."

Pakistan continues to play the US for foreign assistance and military aid despite continuing to provide safe havens for al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists. They utilize the frontier provinces with impunity and carry out attacks inside Afghanistan and repeatedly threaten US and ISAF supply lines inside Pakistan.

Protests Continue In Tunisia

The entire political system put in place by now exiled leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali remains, and the opposition insists on clearing away the entire existing political structure. They are continuing to demonstrate and protest the government, which is still comprised of many allied to Ben Ali.



Tunisians are protesting the new premier, and the protests don't show any sign of abating, despite security forces continuing to use tear gas.

The demonstrators marched down the capital’s central Avenue Bourguiba, chanting slogans against the prime minister and seeking to reinforce pressure on the tottering new administration that has pledged to lead the country to elections after weeks of turmoil and bloodshed.

Mr. Ghannouchi has insisted that ministers who have remained in control of the powerful portfolios they held under Mr. Ben Ali all have “clean hands.”

On Wednesday, the Swiss government announced that it would move to freeze the Swiss assets of Mr. Ben Ali “and his entourage,” Reuters reported, and the United Nations said at a news conference that a team of human rights officials would head to Tunisia within a week to investigate possible abuses during the weeks of protests that forced Mr. Ben Ali from power.

Amid efforts to begin addressing the wrongs of the past government, it remained unclear when Mr. Ghannouchi would summon the new administration to its first, formal meeting.

In Tunis, protesters — fewer than at earlier marches — held up banners demanding that all vestiges of Mr. Ben Ali’s party be expunged. Police vans lined their route, but compared with previous days, when billows of tear-gas rolled over the city center, the police seemed initially at least to be holding back from such confrontation. The authorities also said they would ease a curfew, allowing people to say on the street until 8 p.m.

The new government is backed by the military and a tiny group of recognized opposition leaders, but it seems caught in a war on two fronts. On one side are Mr. Ben Ali’s former security forces, which the government has accused of continued acts of violence.

On the other are the grass-roots protesters in the streets, who demanded a faster and more radical purge of the old government and whose loyalties the new government is battling to maintain. “You sympathize with the current government,” one woman shouted, expressing a common sentiment. “How are you supposed to represent the people?”

Tunisian prosecutors are looking at whether Ben Ali looted the Tunisian treasury, and the Swiss are also looking to freeze his assets.

And to think that the protests began in earnest after a Tunisian man immolated himself to protest the awful economic situation in the country:

Labor unions, students and members of the Ennahdha Islamist party — which Ben Ali banned in 1992 and cracked down upon for years — have been among those protesting since his ouster.

A new unity government announced Monday was mostly made up of old guard politicians. A day later, at least four opposition ministers quit, aligning themselves with demonstrators who insist democratic change is impossible with former Ben Ali supporters still in power.

Ghannouchi and interim president Fouad Mebazaa, the former speaker of the lower house of parliament, quit the ruling RCD party Tuesday in an attempt to distance themselves from Ben Ali. The party itself kicked out Ben Ali, its founder, national TV reported.

The protests began in December, after an educated but unemployed 26-year-old man set himself on fire when police confiscated the fruit and vegetables he was selling without a permit. The move hit a nerve among frustrated jobless youths and prompted protests around the nation. Officials say 78 protesters and civilians died in the protests that swept Ben Ali from power — many killed by police bullets.

Ben Ali was often criticized for a heavy-handed repression against his opponents, curbing civil liberties and running a police state — though he was praised for developing tourism and allying with the U.S. against terrorism.

UPDATE:
The Tunisian government says that it has released the last of political prisoners that were detained under Ben Ali, but that has done little to stem the calls for the interim government to step aside.

On My Nightstand: Wild West 2.0

The latest book to grace my nightstand is Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier by Michael Fertik and David Thompson and it's quite a read for anyone who uses the Internet, and even those who don't.

As someone who has used the Internet since its real early days - going back to USENET and the relays/IRC and BBS systems, a lot of the book reads like a history lesson, but it manages to provide some good ideas for how to protect your online reputation no matter if you're an experienced user (who probably has a much larger online footprint than you realize) or a newbie.

Developing: 7.4 Quake Hits Pakistan

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake has hit Southwestern Pakistan. Thus far, no reports of damage or casualties, but with a significant quake of this magnitude and the poor construction techniques prevalent in the region, I would expect to see damage and casualty reports coming in soon. A saving grace against a high death toll is the relatively low population density in this part of Pakistan.

Baby Doc Duvalier Being Questioned In Advance Of Possible Arrest; UPDATE: Charged and Taken Into Custody

The Haitian government has threatened former Haitian despot Baby Doc Duvalier with arrest ever since he went into exile 25 years ago should he return to the country he plundered. At this point, government officials are just questioning him in advance of whether they will bring charges against him for looting the Haitian treasury for years.

Haitian authorities will question former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier to determine whether he should be prosecuted for stealing from the treasury during his rule, a senior government official said Tuesday.

"He will be questioned and he will remain at the disposal of the judicial system," the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

The statement came as senior police officials and a judge were holding a private meeting with Duvalier.

The officials would not tell journalists the purpose of the meeting at the high-end hotel where the former leader has been staying since his surprise return to the country. Haiti's chief prosecutor was also at the meeting in the Hotel Karibe.

Now it will be interesting to see what Duvalier's supporters will do - since they were in a position to benefit from Duvalier's appearance and resurgence.

Duvalier was nothing but bad jobu for the Haitian people, and he's the last thing the country needed a year after suffering from a devastating earthquake that claimed nearly 300,000 lives. Much of the capital remains uncleared of debris and lacks the wherewithal to rebuild. 95% of the city debris has yet to be cleared, and millions remain in tent cities around the city and countryside.

UPDATE:
Duvalier has been charged with multiple crimes and is now in custody of the government.

A Haitian prosecutor Tuesday formally charged former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier with corruption, theft, misappropriation of funds and other alleged crimes committed during his 1971-1986 rule.

"His fate is now in the hands of the investigating judge. We have brought charges against him," Port-au-Prince Chief Prosecutor Aristidas Auguste told Reuters.

The charges must now be investigated by the judge who will decide whether a judicial case should go ahead. Earlier, Haitian police detained the former dictator. Armed police escorted Duvalier, 59, from the luxury hotel in Port-au-Prince where he had been staying since his surprise return on Sunday to his poor, earthquake-battered Caribbean homeland after 25 years in exile in France. Officers put him in a police SUV with tinted windows which drove away.

Park51 Suit May Be Tossed On Technicality

Always name all the potential parties to a suit because if you fail to do so, you might end up losing your right to sue. That's the situation potentially facing Timothy Brown and opponents to the Park51/Cordoba House project near Ground Zero.

A lawsuit aimed at shutting down the controversial Ground Zero mosque may get tossed on a technicality because opponents failed to properly name the project's owners.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative advocacy group suing on behalf of retired firefighter and 9/11 responder Timothy Brown, had named mosque financier Sharif El-Gamal's company, Soho Properties -- rather than the legal owner, 45 Park Place Partners LLC -- in court papers.

That technicality, argued 45 Park Place Partners attorney Adam Leitman Bailey in papers filed Friday, is one more reason why the suit should be tossed.

The two sides are scheduled to be back in Manhattan Supreme Court tomorrow.

"I think it's a pretty specious argument," countered Brett Joshpe, lawyer for the American Center for Law and Justice.

"Sharif El-Gamal, everyone knows he is the owner of the project. He might have various entities set up, but he was the one served and represented all along that Soho Properties is the owner."

But Bailey said by naming the wrong party, Brown and the ACLJ missed their opportunity to sue because their 120-day window had passed.

Sounds like an issue with Article 10 of the CLPR, including misjoinder of parties and that the plaintiffs could get a stipulation to correct the summons and complaint, but it is bad lawyering on their part to have not named all potential parties to the action.

Upheaval Continues In Tunisia

Despite the exile of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi stepping aside so that the head of the parliament could run things, the political situation in Tunisia remains in flux.

Tunisia's new coalition government hit trouble Tuesday, with three ministers quitting and an opposition party threatening to walk out in protest at the presence of members of the party of the ousted president.

Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi brought opposition leaders into the coalition Monday after president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia following weeks of street protests. But key figures from the old guard kept their jobs, angering many.

Police in Tunis repeatedly used teargas in an attempt to break up a protest by several hundred opposition party supporters and trade unionists who labeled the new government a "sham." Protesters would scatter, but then regroup to continue.

Several hundred people also protested against the new government in Monastir, south of Tunis.

Abid al-Briki of the Tunisian labor union UGTT said its three ministers would withdraw from the government because it included members of Ben Ali's RCD party.

"This is in response to the demands of people on the streets," Briki said.

Far too many people in the government are closely associated with Ben Ali and are seen as nothing more than a continuation of the Ben Ali government and its policies. The crackdown against protesters isn't helping matters either.


Ghannouchi was interviewed and he hoped that elections could be held so that the Tunisians could have their views aired and the government formed on that basis:



Meanwhile, the upheaval in Tunisia has brought out demonstrators in other parts of the Middle East, and several men set themselves on fire in Egypt to protest the situation.

As the leaders of the established opposition parties renounced the unity government, the revolutionary passions unleashed across the region continued to reverberate, as two more men in Egypt set themselves ablaze and a third was stopped before he could do so. Those self-immolations added to a wave of six others, all in apparent imitation of the one that set off the Tunisian uprising a month ago.



The new unity government was showing strains practically from the moment it was sworn in on Monday, with new protests focused on its links to the ousted president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

It's no wonder that there are reports that the situation in Tunisia could be a tipping point for other autocratic and despotic regimes in the Middle East.

The “Jasmine Revolution” in Tunisia today may well go down in history as the Arab equivalent of the Solidarity movement in the Gdansk shipyard in Poland in 1980 that sparked wider protests that a decade later ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and its empire. (In fairness, the Sudanese people probably should be credited with the first modern popular protest that changed their leadership, when protracted street demonstrations overthrew President Jaafar Nimeiry in 1985 – though that change did not last, and Sudan soon after found itself under military rule once again.)

2. The grievances that the Tunisian demonstrators have articulated in recent weeks – and in other forms in recent decades – are also widely shared across the entire Arab world, with the possible exception of some of the smaller wealthy countries in the Gulf. These complaints are about rising prices and job shortages, but also about the heavy-handed and condescending manner in which ruling Arab elites treat their citizens and deny them the most basic human rights of expression, credible representation, political participation, holding power accountable, and equitable access to the resources of the state and the opportunities of the free market.

That includes countries that are seen as allies and key to US foreign policy in the region like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as Iran, Lebanon, and Syria. Expect those other regimes to learn from the mistakes of Ben Ali - and to avoid any sign of weakness, including making any form of concession to demonstrators like refusing to run for upcoming elections or telling security forces to cease firing on crowds. Once Ben Ali made those declarations, his time in power was limited.

Indictments Filed In Hariri Assassination Probe

The indictments have been filed, but their contents wont be made public for several leaks despite leaks hinting at the possibility that Hizbullah, Syria, and Iran were involved in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. The draft indictment will now be reviewed by pre-trial judge Daniel Fransen.

The pretrial judge will decide whether the case presented by the prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare of Canada, is strong enough to go to trial. The court said that if he chooses to issue formal indictments, he will then make the names public. Officials close to the investigation said this process will likely take six to eight weeks.

"The Registrar of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon can confirm that the prosecutor of the tribunal has submitted an indictment," the court said.

The court also said the investigation into the murder of Mr. Hariri, and other linked cases, is continuing and that other suspects could be indicted.

"The indictment marks the beginning of the judicial phase of the tribunal's work," the court said. "The prosecutor and his team will continue to vigorously pursue his mandate with respect to both continued investigative activity and the prosecution of this case."

In Beirut, talks over the formation of a new government were postponed Monday as a regional emergency meeting was under way in Damascus to resolve Lebanon's crisis. Last week, Hezbollah, the Shiite political and militant group, and its political allies toppled the government headed by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Rafik's son, due to its support for the international tribunal.

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman said talks with the parliament to nominate a new prime minister will take place next Monday and Tuesday.

The international court investigating Mr. Hariri's murder has exacerbated tensions inside Lebanon, as the tribunal is expected to indict between two and five Hezbollah members, according to officials briefed on the case.

Hizbullah has threatened violence if the indictments come down against its members. Hizbullah's top thug Nasrallah says that they would not acccept the results of the indictment and continue to claim that the US and Israel were behind the assassination and that the ongoing political crisis in Lebanon is the result of US and Israeli actions.

It goes without saying that Nasrallah and Hizbullah wont support current Prime Minister Saad Hariri's attempts to reconstitute the government after Hizbullah and its allies withdrew from the government.



Diplomats from around the world are pledging to back a stable government in Lebanon, including from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Spain and Russia.

U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly, who met Sunday with Zahle M.P. Nicholas Fattouch, reiterated her country’s support for the divisive U.N.-backed court probing the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Connelly was quoted as calling the tribunal “the Lebanese people’s best hope for putting its tragic and bloody history of political violence behind it.”

The tribunal is expected to name Hizbullah members in an indictment to be issued Monday and antipathy surrounding the court – as well as the issue of “false witnesses” – last week prompted the resignation of 10 March 8 ministers and independent M.P. Adnan Sayyed Hussein, toppling Hariri’s national unity government.

Fattouch, who successfully headed March 14’s Zahle list for 2009’s parliamentary polls before splitting from the bloc, is considered a key target to vote with March 8 following imminent consultations to find a new prime minister.

“Until now, we are communicating to reach a final decision which strengthens the unity that Zahle and the Bekaa have always enjoyed,” Fattouch said after meeting Connelly. “The most important thing [discussed] during our meeting was the major challenge, which is not how to form a new government, but how to re-establish the Lebanese nation.

“How do we take steps to build political platforms to reach national unity in an environment of active constitutional institutions which can only save the Lebanese?” Fattouch said.

An unidentified European diplomat told A.F.P. Friday France had requested the formation of an emergency “contact group,” consisting of representatives from Syria, Saudi Arabia, France, the U.S., Qatar, Turkey “and possibly other countries with a stake in Lebanon,” in order to confront the country’s worst political crisis since May 2008.

Considering that the Saudis and Egyptians are backing the Hariri government, it is not a surprise that Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah are in opposition; one theory as to why the assassination was carried out was that Hizbullah and Iran were opposed to Rafik Hariri getting closer to the Saudis. In other words, this is another front in the longstanding Sunni-Shi'ite conflict that has manifested itself in recent years as Iran (and its proxies and allies) versus the Sunni majority Saudis (and Egyptians).

Illinois Wakes Up To Higher Taxes and the New York Times Cheers

Illinois taxpayers are going to be taking on the chin with massive tax hikes enacted by the lame duck legislature. The legislature had hoped that the tax hikes, which include raising the personal income tax from 3% to 5% and the corporate income tax rate from 4.8% to 7%, would raise $7 billion.

The New York Times thinks that this tax hike is a good thing in that it shows that Illinois is finally getting serious about fiscal responsibility. And it thinks that Illinois is somehow a model for righting the fiscal ships of so many other states that are facing massive budget deficits. Yet, its very premise is undercut by its own facts and observations:

For years, Illinois, like so many states, pretended that it had not fallen off a budgetary cliff. It was spending too much and taking in too little revenue, but every year it would kick its problems into the next. Unable to pay its bills, it finally accepted reality last week and raised taxes on incomes and businesses — a first step toward getting its house in order.

The action was immediately ridiculed by several governors around the nation who are still pretending that they can cut their way out of the enormous shortfalls they face, without raising taxes. Wisconsin and Indiana predicted a windfall of angry corporations and residents would head their way from Illinois. Even Gov. Chris Christie, the New Jersey Republican, vowed to fly to Illinois to invite businesses there to defect to his state.

That makes great political theater. But businesses and voters in Illinois, and around the country, should take a closer look at the facts and figures, including their own.

After 22 years of not raising income taxes, Illinois saw its budget shortfall grow to $15 billion. It had the lowest state credit rating in the nation, and it wasn’t paying its bills to hospitals and schools.

The Illinois tax rate was low before and remains low for big states. The income tax will rise from a flat 3 percent to a flat 5 percent. That will cause pain at the lower and middle levels of the economic scale, but the state’s millionaires will probably stay put. (The top rate is 10.55 percent in California, 8.97 percent in New Jersey and New York, and 7.75 percent in Wisconsin.)

Right there in the first paragraph epitomizes the problem with Illinois and other states whose budgets are now massively out of whack.

The states were spending far more than the revenue they were taking in - regardless of the tax rates that were being imposed. Raising the taxes, which is what states like New Jersey and New York have done in the past did not solve the budget equation.

These states simply continued spending more than their revenues would allow. Over time, that built up massive structural budget deficits that required deficit spending - taking out debt to pay for ongoing operating costs.

The Illinois solution of raising taxes is not going to solve the state's fiscal problems because the state refuses to address the spending component. Years of inadequate control on spending resulted in the deficits, and raising the taxes wont solve the problem either - and the Illinois legislature has already acknowledged as much.

No Good Can Come From This

Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier, the former despot who ran Haiti with an iron fist and who sought exile in France 25 years ago, has made a very surprising return to the devastated country.

No good can come from this. Duvalier is widely reviled among Haitians and his fleecing of the country has left a lasting mark on the country although those close to Duvalier while he was in power would probably love to see him make a return to power.

Photos posted on Twitter showed Duvalier, 59, walking off an Air France plane with his companion, Veronique Roy, to be greeted by supporters.

It was his first visit to Haiti since he was deposed by a popular uprising in 1986.

Agence France-Presse reported he was met by a delegation of former officials who had served as his cabinet ministers 25 years ago.

Duvalier's intentions for returning were unclear. Some feared he would try to seize power amid the paralysis following November's disputed elections.

He told the press at the airport that he came back "to help."

Port-au-Prince erupted in a frenzy of rumors and ringing phones.

Haiti is in the middle of a major political crisis.

President Rene Preval, who is supposed to leave office in three weeks, is resisting international pressure to remove his handpicked candidate from a runoff election. A first round of balloting on Nov. 28 was widely considered rigged.

Hizbullah Defends The Indefensible

The terror group Hizbullah attempts to defend the indefensible actions it has taken in the past week. The terror group, which is a proxy army for Iran and Syria, is expected to be implicated in the assassination of Rafik Hariri by a United Nations investigation report to be issued tomorrow along with Syria's President Bashar Assad and Iranian officials.

The crisis is the climax of long-simmering tensions over the U.N. tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The court is expected to indict members of Hezbollah, which could re-ignite hostilities between Lebanon's rival Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Rafik Hariri was a Sunni.

Hezbollah is Lebanon's most powerful military force, with an arsenal that far outweighs that of the national army.

Saad Hariri had refused Hezbollah's demands to cease cooperation with the court, prompting Wednesday's walkout.

Nasrallah's speech was seen as important sign of his movement's mindset at a time when many fear the country's political tension could descend into civil strife. His demeanor was calm and he emphasized that Hezbollah will work for change through democratic means.

The U.S. has denounced Hezbollah's walkout as a transparent effort to subvert justice.

"The tribunal is an independent, international judicial process whose work is not subject to political influence, either from inside Lebanon or from outside," U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly said Sunday after meeting with Hariri. "The efforts by the Hezbollah-led coalition to collapse the Lebanese government only demonstrate their own fear and determination to undermine Lebanon's sovereignty and independence."

The Times report notes that Hizbullah's military capability exceeds that of the Lebanese military but doesn't note that the terror group should have been disarmed by the UN and the same Lebanese military as part of UN SCR 1701.

The terror group continues operating with impunity and it is increasingly throwing its weight around Lebanon to the detriment of the Lebanese people. It brought down Prime Minister Saad Hariri's (Rafik's son's) government when it saw the writing on the wall with the impending UN report implicating top Hizbullah, Syrian, and Iranian officials. Since it, and its terror masters in Damascus and Tehran, couldn't tolerate such revelations, it has attempted to subvert the process by bringing down the government amid claims that the report is the work of the US and Israel.

Hizbullah's claims aren't justified by the facts or any evidence. Unfounded claims and threats are the currency that Hizbullah is dealing in. It hopes that enough people throughout the Middle East buy into the nonsense that the US and Israel were behind the assassination of Rafik Hariri.