Al Qaeda member surrenders, Saudi Arabia says

 

By Laura Rozen laura Rozen – 1 hr 18 mins ago

In the wake of Osama bin Laden's demise, is al Qaeda falling apart?
The Saudi Interior Ministry said today that a senior al Qaeda member on Riyadh's most-wanted list named Khaled al-Qahtani called from abroad and turned himself in.
"Interior Ministry's spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said in a statement Wednesday that Khaled Hathal Abdullah al-Atifi al-Qahtani contacted the security authorities from an undisclosed country and expressed his wish to come home," the Associated Press reports.
"Al-Qahtani was reunited with his family and his surrender will be taken into consideration while looking into his case, Al-Turki said."
The Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman did not indicate when Khaled al-Qahtani gave himself up, but many members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have recently fled from Yemen, the AP writes.
It wasn't immediately possible to ascertain whether Khaled Al-Qahtani is the brother of Mohammed al-Qahtani (pictured at right), a Saudi-born al Qaeda militant detained at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba after being picked up in the battle of Tora Bora, Afghanistan from which bin Laden is believed to have escaped. Mohammed al-Qahtani, 32, was reportedly subjected to severe U.S. torture at the facility, the senior official in charge of the U.S. office of military commissions told the Washington Post's Bob Woodward.
Of note is that Mohammed al-Qahtani flew to Orlando, Florida from Dubai in August 2001, a month before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but was sent back to Dubai by U.S. immigration authorities dubious about whether he intended to be an illegal immigrant to the country. U.S. interrogators later said they found airport video surveillance showing the car of lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta waiting to pick al-Qahtani up at the Orlando airport.
But the United States dropped charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani in May 2008, for reasons it did not disclose, but presumably related to the inadmissability of evidence obtained under torture. Al-Qahtani is still detained at Gitmo, but his habeas corpus case was reinstated after a Supreme Court ruling in 2008.
(Photo: Wikipedia)

America's most polutted cities

Remember the fog that lingered over Beijing during the 2008 Summer Olympics? It wasn't fog. It was dirty air. Yes, China faces a world-class air quality problem. But before you get too smug about its smog, consider this: 154.5 million Americans, just over half the nation's population, live in areas where air pollution levels are often dangerous to breathe. That's according to the American Lung Association's (ALA) just-released report 2011 State of the Air.
The cities ranked worst in air quality? California metros like Los Angeles, Visalia, Hanford and Fresno. Bakersfield, Calif., ranked the worst in terms of short-term and year-round particle pollution. It also ranked second-worst, behind Los Angeles, for smog levels, known formally as ozone pollution.
 California metros "really have made great strides to try to clean up, but they have a lot of sources--a lot of people driving, a lot of ships coming into the port, especially ocean-going vessels," explains Janice Nolen, lead author of the report and an assistant vice president of national policy and advocacy at the ALA. "Plus, California has the warm, sunny climate that encourages pollutants to form and the geography that helps trap them."
Behind The Numbers
The American Lung Association's study ranks the air quality of 900 counties and more than 200 U.S. Census-defined Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Combined Statistical Areas--cities and their surrounding suburbs--where an air pollution monitor is present.
The ALA analyzed data from 2007 to 2009 that had been collected daily through monitors operated by federal agencies, states and Native American tribes. The data was reviewed by the Environmental Protection Agency. The ALA analyzed the data based on ozone pollution, short-term particle pollution and year-round particle pollution. Its report grades cities using, in part, the EPA's color-coded Air Quality Index, as well as its own weighting system that ranks the severity of pollution on a daily basis.
The EPA defines particle pollution as "a complex mixture of extremely small particles and liquid droplets ... made up of a number of components, including acids (such as nitrates and sulfates), organic chemicals, metals, and soil or dust particles." Year-round air pollution is an average of the daily levels of particle pollution on all 365 days. Short-term particle pollution measures the number of times in a year when levels spike above healthy standards for several days to several weeks. Ozone pollution has adverse effects on health as well, but is not as dangerous in the short-term.
"All three can kill people, and all three can cause asthma attacks," asserts Nolen. "But short-term and year-round particle pollution are more deadly than ozone."
For that reason Forbes focused on the metros most affected by year-round particle pollution for this list. The ALA compiled a list of the 10 worst culprits. (A total of 11 metros made the list due to a tie in the data.)
Many major urban hubs in the Golden State ranked high on the list, but one other southwestern U.S. city tied Los Angeles for second place: Phoenix, Ariz. Like California's hardest-hit cities, the foreclosure mecca's climate and geography serve as incubators for airborne toxins. But one of the biggest reasons for Phoenix's high pollution levels is actually cattle ranches found south of the city, in Pinal County and vicinity. "Those cattle ranches are contributing a lot of fine particle pollution to the small communities near them that are part of the Phoenix metro area, but also to the tribe adjacent to it," says Nolen. "It's also being blown into other parts of the city."
Closer to the east coast, Pittsburgh, Pa., has long been associated with coal, and it shows in the numbers. The Steel City ranks seventh on the list of most polluted, followed by another metro chock-full of coal-fired power plants: Birmingham, Ala.
Nolen says air pollution can cause asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes, lung conditions and difficulty breathing for some people. California, for example, estimates that 9,000 people die each year from air pollution-related illnesses.
"We have a lot of folks that see this report and call up and ask 'where should I go?'" says Nolen. "We want people to do things like check the Air Quality Index. If it's going to be a very unhealthy day, you can take steps to avoid exercising outside or working outdoors strenuously." She also adds that people should avoid running within 300 to 500 meters of major roads, which tend to have elevated levels of air pollution.
The good news is that most metros and counties around the country have been improving their air quality, thanks in part to support from the EPA and the implementation, albeit slow, of the 1990 Clean Air Act. Most cities that topped the ALA's most polluted lists for particle and ozone pollution have seen their levels decrease. The only city in the top 10 to actually get worse in terms of year-round particle pollution levels was Bakersfield.
Here are the nation's five most polluted cities:
No. 5 Hanford, Calif.

Hanford is the nation's fifth most polluted metro area

MSA: Hanford-Corcoran, Calif.
Worst county: Kings County
PM2.5 annual design value (2007-2009): 17.3
Total population: 148,800 people potentially exposed

No. 2 (tie) Visalia, Calif.

Visalia is tied for the nation's second most polluted metro area

MSA: Visalia-Porterville, Calif.
Worst county: Tulare County
PM2.5 annual design value (2007-2009): 18.8
Total population: 429,700 people potentially exposed

No. 2 (tie) Phoenix, Ariz.

Phoenix is tied for the nation's second most polluted metro area Photo: iStock

MSA: Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Ariz.
Worst county: Pinal County
PM2.5 annual design value (2007-2009): 18.8
Total population: 4.36 million people potentially exposed

No. 2 (tie) Los Angeles, Calif.

Los Angeles is tied for the nation's second most polluted metro area Photo: iStock

CSA: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, Calif.
Worst county: Riverside County
PM2.5 annual design value (2007-2009): 18.8
Total population: 17.82 million people potentially exposed

No. 1 Bakersfield, Calif.

Bakersfield is the nation's most polluted city Photo: David Jordan

MSA: Bakersfield, Calif.
Worst county: Kern County
PM2.5 annual design value (2007-2009): 22.6
Total population: 807,400 people potentially exposed

USA v UN: Who Best To Win the Future?

The protests were sparked by the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi on December 17, 2010, and continued until the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali 28 days later, on January 14, 2011.  This was the beginning of the Jasmine Revolution – still struggling to come to its feet – that has not only rocked north Africa, but set off a chain of uprisings that extended further into Africa and the middle East, mirroring in many ways the mounting class warfare throughout Europe and North America.
Four months later that promise of hope has met with not only the surmountable, practical, challenge of establishing responsible, democratic governance, but the harsh reality of having conflicting interests with a global economic system that supported the dictator they are trying to depose, and desperately fears the democratic will of the people they represent whom the Empire has been exploiting for so long.
There is a new, divergent, direction to the script of the drama that is unfolding. What started out as organic revolutions, and became popularly supported international humanitarian interventions under the UN, have been hi-jacked and are now the propagandized counter-revolutions (dressed up to look like revolutionary support) and non-UN, regionally controlled, USA dominated, expansions of empire through NATO.   The British, American, and French governments seem to be competing to see who can whip out the biggest guns and therefore command either more  in the inevitable division of the spoils, privatization, and war debt, or earn more political capital as the saviors of the Arab uprising and inadvertently aid in the possible, potential, emancipation of the Arab people.
The UN was right to be the body under which aid and support to the Libyan people in their struggle for emancipation and democratic self-governance was organized and executed.  This action, in response to the request of the Libyan people, and in defense of their rights under the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, from the international community, was correct.  This entire operation, for the sake of the Libyan revolutionaries, and for the sake of all revolutionaries throughout North Africa and the Middle East, needed to stay under the supervision and authority of the United Nations.  The United Nations is far from perfect.  It could stand a lot of reform; for instance, getting rid of the Security Counsel and exploring a more representative, equal, just, global, federated approach to governance.  But, it does provide a little more protection from thorough exploitation at the hands of global financiers, profiteers, and Empire expansionists in this situation.
The UN has abdicated its responsibility.  It has lost an opportunity to strengthen its position and it has provided individual nations, as well as corporate and financial interests, the chance to exploit the situation.  The Arab League has effectively relinquished power in North Africa to NATO, through UN brokerage, and at the behest of America’s favorite Monarchy, the Sauds.   In exchange for Saudi Arabia’s support for the Libyan intervention, the United States had to agree to tacitly support the Saudi invasion of Bahrain.
America had no business making this trade, and Saudi Arabia had no business asking for it.  Under a democratic UN, global federation, or government of the people, both issues should have been handled separately, and justly, with respect to the lives of the individuals residing in those countries rather than those that would rule over them and exploit their resources.

To date, there have been revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt; a civil war in Libya; major protests in Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Oman, Yemen, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Western Sahara, Kuwait, and the one one you’d think Americans would be hearing the most about, Iraq.  Few of these have received any news coverage at all.  Apparently there are too many for western, and particularly the American, media to keep up with, or too much global discontent to risk sharing with an increasingly  disgruntled global population.  The 48 hour news cycle has left Tunisia and Algeria in the distant past. Egypt is last month’s story, and Libya is rapidly sliding off the front page.  Military juntas are the new dictators. Libyan rebels have lost their novelty and have been tarnished with corporate media driven doubt and fear.  As public attention is diverted, international human rights intervention has been outsourced.
Reports suggest that Libyan rebels are forced to endure stoppages in NATO air support, ushering in advancements from Quaddafi’s forces, as concessions are extracted from them and deals are struck.  These terms of support, and what favors, allowances, and contracts are coerced in return, no longer resemble the international humanitarian intervention that gained popular global support.  The human rights that the people of north Africa and the middle east are fighting for, as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human rights, have been subverted by the interests of western expansionism that now combine NATO with AFRICOM for the first time.

Four months later, the Revolution that the western media forgot is still alive and well and suffering under the weight of entrenched dictators, fascist military regimes, greedy corporate interests, exploiting financiers, and power-hungry, bought-and-paid-for, politicians. The celebrated courage of the Tunisian people has been traded in for the next big ‘Arab Spring’ spectacle ( a unhelpful term that puts a time limit on this uprising and avoids the nature of this ‘revolution’), particularly one where the military didn’t back the revolutionaries as is the case with both Egypt and Libya.
International support for the people of Libya, as well as for the peoples of Bahrain, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, et al, must revert to the UN under full transparency without regional, hegemonic, corporate, capitalist, or industrialist influence.  Corporate and global financial interests can work easier through NATO than the UN.  NATO and the western allied countries are far more likely to ensure IMF and World Bank involvement to keep Libya in a state of over-burdened debt like the rest of the third world countries and Banana Republics they’ve created through neo-colonialism than the UN general assembly would.
For the sake of all the people of our planet, and the planet itself, expansionist powers that exploit the southern hemisphere, and much of the northern hemisphere, like the United States, cannot be trusted to dictate the direction for the planet.  An empowered and reformed United Nations is our only hope of surviving the gluttonous rise, and cannibalistic fall, of this latest empire, and protect us from repeating the cycle so that we stand a chance to win the future.

Osama Bin Laden Dead

With chants of "USA, USA," revelers celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden, the man behind the attacks, have spilled into the street, bringing traffic to a standstill.

"It's like the World Series down here," CBS News chief national correspondent Byron Pitts reported from the celebration.

Osama Bin Laden is dead

For Ashley Smith, the news of Bin Laden's death brings a bit of closure. She worked two blocks from Ground Zero on the day of the attacks and was forced to run from her office for safety when the buildings collapsed. She joined the impromptu rally in lowerManhattan.

Key dates in the hunt for Osama bin Laden

She was skeptical of the U.S.'s response initially but now says it was all worth it. "I felt like we had all of our money fighting this endless war over there, now it totally validates it," said Smith.

Diane Massaroli lost her husband, Michael, nearly 10 years ago on 9/11. She only comes to Ground Zero once a year on the anniversary of the attacks but felt compelled to come tonight.

"We can never celebrate ever since this happened. [Tonight] is sad also but it's a celebration," Massaroli said.

President Barack Obama said in an address from the White House late Sunday night that a small team of Americans carried out the operation to kill bin Laden in Pakistan, and that cooperation from Pakistani authorities was crucial.

"Shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda," Mr. Obama said. "Tonight, we can say to those who have lost loved ones to al Qaeda's terror, justice has been done."

Osama Bin Laden is killed in Pakistan

Sony issues PlayStation Network warning

Six days after a security breach of its PlayStation Network, Sony said Tuesday that the incursion was much worse than expected and hackers had obtained personal information on 70 million subscribers.
The company, in a blog entry posted Tuesday afternoon, added it is still unsure if the intruder also obtained credit card data for members who have that on file with the service, which provides online functionality for the PlayStation 3.
"Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID," wrote Patrick Seybold, senior director of corporate communications for Sony Computer Entertainment America. "It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address ... and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. ... While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility."

Sony (SNE) says the attack has led it to begin rebuilding the system. It expects to restore some services within a week.
The company is urging subscribers to be on alert for identity theft attempts as well as email, telephone and postal scams. (Users can contact the three major U.S. credit bureaus - Experian, Equifax and TransUnion - and have their accounts put in "high alert" status for no charge.) It is also advising them to change their password when service is ultimately restored.
Sony's stock was down just one percent in after-hours trading. Analysts say they don't believe investors will punish the company substantially, given that this was an external attack and not the result of an internal error.
"Any time you have a break of fidelity like that, it's an issue," said Mike Hickey of Janco Partners. "It's pretty clear that someone has taken an illegal action to make a point. So do I hold Sony to blame for that? No. But should Sony have better security to protect their subscribers personal information? Probably."
So far, no hacker group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The rogue group known as Anonymous, which has famously launched attacks on both Gene Simmons and Hustler Magazine, was initially suspected, after it vowed in early April to target Sony after the company's legal action against a hacker who dismantled the PS3's security.
The group managed to disrupt the service with a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack earlier this month. (Anonymous attackers, using software known as "Low Orbit Ion Cannons," repeatedly pinged the company's servers. When done simultaneously by enough users, this can bring the site down - usually quickly and without warning.)
However, Anonymous denies responsibility for this incident, saying on its site, "While it could be the case that other Anons have acted by themselves, AnonOps was not related to this incident and does not take responsibility for whatever has happened."
While consumers impacted by the hack are Sony's first priority, the continued outage of the PlayStation Network is also impacting its developer partners (both internal and external).
The company released "SOCOM 4," a multiplayer focused action game that is traditionally one of its biggest franchises, last week. Additionally, the eagerly anticipated "Portal 2," which comes with a co-operative mode, also hit store shelves last week - with an integration of Valve's Steam online service into the PlayStation Network being touted as one of the chief reasons to opt for the PS3 version of the game, rather than the Xbox 360 version.
The company has reportedly vowed to help some of the game makers who are seeing their revenues dry up.
"Sony will be helping us retain key focus [PSN store promotion] for a few extra weeks as they understand how something like this can affect a small dev studio like ours," Paddy Murphy, CEO of Open Emotion, told IGN.
The outage and data breach could give Microsoft (MSFT) an advantage in the online gaming space, as its Xbox Live service has never suffered such a compromise. Unlike Microsoft, which requires a $60 annual subscription fee for access to most features of its Xbox Live service, Sony does not charge most users for access to the PlayStation Network. (A PlayStation Plus program is available, giving early access to demos, priority invitations to game beta tests and discounts on products in its online store.)

Beijing removes controversial 'Confucius'

A large statue of ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, controversially erected outside a Communist Party museum incentral Beijing, has quietly been removed from its plinth following an online uproar about its location. The 9.5-metre (30 foot), 17-tonne statue had pride of place in front of the north gate of the recently renovated National Museum Of China, just off Tiananmen Square and not far from the gaze of...

Libya Fighting: U.S. Warns Of 'Stalemate' As Misrata Battle Rages

 The top U.S. military officer said air strikes had hobbled Libyan forces but the conflict was moving into "stalemate" as Muammar Gaddafi's troops pressed on with their punishing siege of rebel Misrata. Rebels welcomed U.S. plans to deploy unmanned aircraft, typically operated remotely from the United States. But it emerged that bad weather had forced the first two drones sent to Libya to turn back. "It's certainly moving toward a stalemate," said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. military's joint chiefs of staff, addressing U.S. troops during a visit to Baghdad. "At the same time we've attrited somewhere between 30 and 40...