http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/27/politics/main2210357.shtml
Secret U.S. Wiretapping Program Eyed
Justice Department Opens Internal Probe Of Information Obtained From Warrantless Surveillance Operation

(AP) The Justice Department's internal watchdog said Monday it has opened an investigation into the agency's use of information gathered in the government's warrantless surveillance program.

In a letter to House Judiciary Committee leaders and obtained by The Associated Press, Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said his investigators would focus on the Justice Department's role in carrying out the spying program run by the National Security Agency.

Fine wrote that he wants to ensure that prosecutors and agents are following laws governing the handling of information NSA gathers when spying on suspected terrorists in the United States.

"After conducting initial inquiries into the program, we have decided to open a program review that will examine the department's controls and use of information related to the program," Fine wrote in the four-paragraph letter.

The review comes a week after a federal judge ruled that the NSA is not required to publicly release details about its secret wiretapping program, in which the agency monitors phone calls and e-mails between people in the U.S. and people in other countries when a link to terrorism is suspected.

Civil liberties groups criticize it as an expansion of presidential power, but the Justice Department says it is a necessary tool to fight terrorism.

"This is a long overdue investigation of a highly controversial program," incoming House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a statement.

The White House agreed to give investigators special clearances to probe the program, Fine noted in his letter to Conyers and the panel's current chair, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. The request for clearances came Oct. 20, and was approved last week — following the Nov. 7 elections that gave Democrats control of Congress.

Earlier this year, Fine's office said it did not have jurisdiction to open an investigation into the legality of the administration's domestic eavesdropping program. At the time, Fine's office referred calls for an inquiry to the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, which reviews allegations of misconduct involving employees' actions when providing legal advice.

The Office of Professional Responsibility was denied extra security clearances to conduct an investigation that would include looking at some classified documents and other information that the Justice Department already possesses.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/666CE826-6550-4A92-80A4-A0A31F831CD0.htm
Rockets fail to break Gaza truce

Palestinian security officers are patrolling the northern Gaza strip

A ceasefire between Israeli and Palestinian fighters in Gaza has held, despite a rocket attack on an Israeli town just hours after the truce began.

Islamic Jihad earlier claimed responsibility for firing several rockets into Sderot and said it would not agree to a ceasefire unless Israeli military activity also ended in the occupied West Bank.




Israel later pledged restraint and after public backing of the truce by Hamas and Fatah, the attacks halted during Sunday afternoon.

Thousands of Palestinian security officers have taken up positions across northern Gaza in an attempt to prevent fighters from launching more raids on Israel.






Abdel Razek Mejaidie, the security adviser to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, said: "The instructions are clear. Anyone violating the national agreement will be considered to be breaking the law."

An official said 13,000 Palestinian security officials were on the ground in Gaza to stop the rocket attacks.

Domestic pressure
"Everyone is included in this agreement ... it is necessary to make all efforts to respect it"

Ghazi Hamid, Palestinian government spokesman

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Referring to the ceasefire Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said: "All of these things ultimately could lead to one thing - the opening of serious, real, open and direct negotiations between us ... so that we can move forward towards a comprehensive agreement between us and the Palestinians."


He said the truce could help revive long-term peace negotiations to resolve the conflict.

A deal could help ease pressure on Olmert following the Israeli military's failure to defeat the Lebanese Shia group, Hezbollah, during the summer conflict in Lebanon.

The ceasefire also comes at a time of growing US pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to end the ongoing violence.

George Bush, the US president, is due to visit the region next week.

Truce agreement

The ceasefire went into effect at 6am (4:00 GMT) on Sunday.

"All of these things ultimately could lead to one thing - the opening of serious, real, open and direct negotiations between us"

Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister

Q & A on Gaza truce

Mahmoud Abbas had earlier told Olmert that he had arrived at an agreement with all Palestinian factions that rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip would stop.

In Jerusalem Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Olmert, said: "Abbas asked in response that Israel stop all military operations in the Gaza Strip and withdraw all the forces."

The Israeli army said on Sunday morning it had withdrawn all forces from the Gaza Strip ahead of the ceasefire.

Palestinian fighters had been firing rockets into southern Israel daily in what they say is a response to Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.

Israel withdrew troops from the territory last year but resumed ground operations there in June after fighters from Gaza tunnelled across the border and captured an Israeli soldier, who is still being held.
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Have to disagree with the last part of this .... Israel did withdraw but never stopped the attacks. Never was perdictable in keeping the borders open and there was no peace and Israel never kept it's side of the creasefire. The shelling of hte family on the beach was the final straw for Hamas and the called an end to the pretense of having a ceasefire and everyone began fighting back. Israel could have had a ceasefire in 2005 if they would have honored it but they didn't and we should not pretend that they did.

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=17498
13,000 men take up position to enforce ceasefire
Date: 26 / 11 / 2006 Time: 14:25

Gaza - Ma'an – The Palestinian commander in chief of Palestinian security forces has revealed to Ma'an News Agency that almost 13,000 men are to be deployed along the confrontation lines, starting at 1.30pm Sunday. This deployment will start from the Kerem Shalom area up to the Sodaniya area in the north of the strip.

General Jamal Kayed told Ma'an that the deployment will be in accordance with the president's orders, and the general leader of the Palestinian national forces, General Suleiman Hillis, in order to implement the ceasefire agreement.

The general clarifies that a meting for all bodies of the security forces, including the Force 17, the military police, and others, has been held, and that a case of higher alert was announced within these bodies.

General Kayed confirmed that the security forces deployed will be operating under three leaders, and that these forces will exchange positions with Israelis who were holding key locations, before the truce was announced. He also stressed that the forces will prevent the projectile launching at Israeli towns and outposts. "Any one who attempts to launch projectiles or infiltrate Israel will be arrested. These people will be looked at as standing against the Palestinian national unity. Even as Palestinian nationals, they will be prevented in any way, even by force."

http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=17503
Al-Quds Brigades: no need for presidential decision on appeasement
Date: 26 / 11 / 2006 Time: 15:22



Gaza - Ma'an - Abu Ahmad, the spokesperson of the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement, has on Sunday declared that the presidential declaration of "appeasement" was unnecessary. He told Ma'an, in response, "the decision wasn't necessary, since we always stick to conciliation, as long as the Israeli occupation sticks to it. It is our task to defend our people against aggression."

Concerning the alleged violation of the ceasefire by the brigades during its first hour, he commented, "It wasn't us who violated the decision. It was the Israelis who invaded Jenin in the northern West Bank this morning, injuring one, and arresting others in Nablus, in addition to shelling Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip."

In the same regard, he said that Palestinian factions would not be able to agree unanimously over retaliation to Israeli violations, "since that will result in disagreement amongst them". So, he affirmed, factions should respond as appropriately as they determine.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3320446,00.html
Independent: Israel used Uranium in Lebanon

British journal publishes opinion of gov't scientist stating two IDF bombing sites indicate elevated radiation signatures

News agencies Published: 10.28.06, 09:20

According to a report in the British journal 'The Independent', Israel used bombs containing Uranium during its bombardment of Lebanon in the war this summer.

"We know that they drenched southern Lebanon with cluster bombs in the last 72 hours of the war, leaving tens of thousands of bomblets
which are still killing Lebanese civilians every week," read the article.

"And we now know - after it first categorically denied using such munitions - that the Israeli army also used phosphorous bombs, weapons which are supposed to be restricted under the third protocol of the Geneva Conventions, which neither Israel nor the United States have signed," it continued.

Dr. Chris Busby, the British Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, said that two soil samples thrown up by Israeli guided bombs showed "elevated radiation signatures".

He states that laboratory tests of soil gathered from at least two bomb craters in Khiam and At-Tiri, suggest the use of bombs containing Uranium

Dr Busby's initial report states that there are two possible reasons for the contamination. "The first is that the weapon was some novel small experimental nuclear fission device or other experimental weapon (eg, a thermobaric weapon) based on the high temperature of a uranium oxidation flash."

"The second is that the weapon was a bunker-busting conventional uranium penetrator weapon employing enriched uranium rather than depleted uranium." A photograph of the explosion of the first bomb shows large clouds of black smoke that might result from burning uranium.

"When a uranium penetrator hits a hard target, the particles of the explosion are very long-lived in the environment…They spread over long distances. They can be inhaled into the lungs. The military really seem to believe that this stuff is not as dangerous as it is," Dr. Busby said.

The IDF said that the claim was being investigated.