Monday Morning Headlines

U.S. Provides More Aid to Big Insurer

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH, NYTimes

Key Points:

• "The revised bailout came as A.I.G. reported a loss Monday of $24.47 billion, or $9.05 a share in the third quarter, after a profit of $3.09 billion, or $1.19 a share, a year ago."
• "When the restructured deal is complete, taxpayers will have invested and lent a total of $150 billion to A.I.G., the most the government has ever directed to a single private enterprise. It is a stark reversal of the government’s assurance that its earlier moves had stemmed the bleeding at A.I.G.."
• "The new deal makes the government a long-term investor in A.I.G., something that Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had said he hoped to avoid."
• "Finally, the government will invest another $22.5 billion in A.I.G. to help the company buy residential mortgage-backed securities that it also insured, and similarly place them into another entity off the company’s balance sheet. A.I.G. will put up $1 billion itself."

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US Admits to Killing 37 Afghans in Attack on Wedding

In Afghanistan, the US has admitted to killing thirty-seven civilians and wounding dozens more in a military attack last week. The victims were bombed as they attended a wedding party outside the city of Kandahar. The Pentagon says the US bombed the area after coming under fire from nearby militants. It was the Pentagon’s quickest admission of a mass killing of Afghan civilians to date. It took nearly two months before the US admitted killing up to ninety civilians in a similar attack in August.

Source: Democracy Now!

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Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries

By ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI,NYTimes

Key Points:

• "[M]ilitary raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush"
• "Some of the military missions have been conducted in close coordination with the C.I.A., according to senior American officials, who said that in others, like the Special Operations raid in Syria on Oct. 26 of this year, the military commandos acted in support of C.I.A.-directed operations."
• "The 2004 order was a step in the evolution of how the American government sought to kill or capture Qaeda terrorists around the world. It was issued after the Bush administration had already granted America’s intelligence agencies sweeping power to secretly detain and interrogate terrorism suspects in overseas prisons and to conduct warrantless eavesdropping on telephone and electronic communications."
• "The Pentagon has exercised its authority frequently, dispatching commandos to countries including Pakistan and Somalia. Details of a few of these strikes have previously been reported."
• "Administration officials said that Mr. Bush’s approval had paved the way for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to sign an order — separate from the 2004 order — that specifically directed the military to plan a series of operations, in cooperation with the C.I.A., on the Qaeda network and other militant groups linked to it in Pakistan."

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Israeli soldier beats Palestinian laborers with rock; three in hospital with multiple fractures
Ma'an News Agency

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Olmert: To honor Rabin, Israel must cede land

Haaretz Newspaper

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New Settlements...what peace?

The Associated Press is reporting that Israel is planning to expand their settlements in the West Bank by building a new settlement post. How will peace be achieved if the power broker in the deal, Israel, continues to build new settlements and expand old ones? Will the U.S. stand firm in their demands for Israel to halt their expansion?

I doubt it.

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NYTimes op-ed columnist, Nicholas Kristof, has written an interesting article this morning regarding the future of US policy in Israel.

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Ali Abunimah, the co-founder of Electronic Intifada (EI), details Obama's visit to Israel/Palestine and the disproportionate time he spent with Israeli officials compared to Palestinian officials. It's a good read.

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Democracy Now! has published the following headline regarding Obama's visit to the Middle East:

Obama Avoids Gaza Strip on Mideast Trip

Senator Barack Obama has wrapped up his Mideast tour. On Wednesday, Obama held a series of meetings with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem.

Senator Barack Obama: “I’m here on this trip to reaffirm the special relationship between Israel and the United States, my abiding commitment to Israel’s security and my hope that I can serve as an effective partner, whether as a United States senator or as a president in bringing about a more lasting peace in the region.”

Obama also visited Ramallah for a low-key visit with Palestinian officials. He did not visit the Gaza Strip, where Israel has recently intensified its blockade. In Gaza, Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said Obama is offering no alternative to Bush administration policy in the region.

Sami Abu Zuhri: “These positions mean that there is no minimal hope to any change in the US foreign policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. And this means that we are in front of one American policy, and the Palestinian people should depend on their own and on the Arab and Muslim world in facing this opposing American policy, which both the Democratic and Republican parties are adopting."