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| tjpatel |
Libya, Lockerbie Families Agree on Fund
47 minutes ago Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS - The Libyan government signed an agreement Wednesday setting up a $2.7 billion fund for families of the 270 victims of the 1988 Pan Am bombing — a key step to lifting U.N. sanctions against Libya, according to an e-mail from the families' lawyers.
AP Photo
The agreement setting up an escrow account at the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland was reached after an 11-hour session in London, said the e-mail signed by attorneys James P. Kreindler and Steven R. Pounian and read to The Associated Press.
The bank, which is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, and known as the BIS, confirmed earlier Wednesday it was asked to manage an escrow account "from which claimants will be compensated." Libya will pay up to $10 million for each victim, lawyers have said.
Under the deal, U.N. diplomats said the Libyan government would start transferring the $2.7 billion into the escrow account immediately and complete the transaction Thursday.
The Libyan government then would send a letter to the Security Council saying it met the conditions for lifting sanctions — by taking responsibility for the bombing, renouncing terrorism and paying compensation to the families, the diplomats said.
The United States and Britain also would send letters to the council saying they believe Libya has met the requirements to have sanctions lifted and Britain would circulate a draft resolution doing so, the diplomats said.
Friday is the target date for sending the letters, circulating the draft resolution and holding a meeting at the State Department with victims' families, the diplomats said.
Susan Cohen, of Cape May Court House, N.J., whose 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, died in the bombing, said the State Department called her to say victims' families were invited to Washington on Friday.
The compensation deal calls for Libya to pay each victim's family $4 million when U.N. sanctions against Libya are lifted, another $4 million when the United States lifts its own sanctions against the country, and $2 million when Libya is removed from the State Department's list of countries sponsoring terrorism, said Mark Zaid, an attorney representing more than 50 relatives of victims.
After Libya deposits the money in Switzerland and sends its letter to the Security Council, "we expect the U.N. Security Council to enter a resolution lifting the U.N. sanctions against Libya which will trigger the payment of $4 million per case to our New York trust account," Kreindler and Pounian said in their e-mail to family members.
Kreindler did not immediately return a message left at his office after business hours.
Theodora Cohen's father, Daniel, said money was not the issue.
"This is supposed to be about justice, it's supposed to be about punishment. It is not supposed to be about blood money and a tawdry payoff and that's all I'm afraid we're going to get out of this," he said.
"Moammar Gadhafi is going to profit because although he may have to shell out as much as 2.7 billion dollars, with those sanctions gone he's going to make that back in a New York minute."
While the attorneys appeared confident that sanctions would be lifted quickly, U.N. diplomats were not as confident.
That's because Moammar Gadhafi's government agreed in 1999 to pay only $33 million to families of the 170 people killed in the 1989 bombing of a French passenger jet over Niger.
Six Libyans, including Gadhafi's brother-in-law, were convicted in absentia by a French court in March 1999 of bombing the UTA flight and sentenced to life in prison.
The $33 million Libyan payout for the UTA bombing would provide just $194,000 for each of the 170 victims — a point stressed by French diplomats. While Paris is not expecting the same deal the Pan Am victims are getting, U.N. diplomats said France wants equity for the UTA victims.
Also, a U.S. official in Washington said the Bush administration, skeptical about lifting the U.N. sanctions, was weighing whether to abstain or support the British-drafted resolution. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
A Security Council resolution passed in 1992 banned arms sales and air links to Libya to try to force Gadhafi's government to hand over two Libyans indicted for the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. After the men were handed over for trial in April 1999, the council suspended sanctions indefinitely.
In 2001, a Scottish court convicted Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi of the bombing and sentenced him to life imprisonment. A second Libyan was acquitted.
Under the U.N. resolution, sanctions cannot be lifted permanently until Libya acknowledges responsibility for the bombing, pays fair compensation, renounces terrorism and discloses all it knows about the explosion. |
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| tjpatel |
FBI: Suspected Dealer Sought 50 Missiles
1 hour, 22 minutes ago Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!
By STEVE STRUNSKY, Associated Press Writer
NEWARK, N.J. - A suspected arms dealer ordered held without bond Wednesday began arranging to smuggle 50 more shoulder-fired missiles into the United States soon after securing one of the weapons, which he thought was intended to shoot down a jetliner, according to an FBI (news - web sites) affidavit.
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The document also said that Hemant Lakhani, dealing with an undercover FBI agent he believed to be a Muslim terrorist, was recorded as saying Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) "did a good thing" and "straightened them all out."
Lakhani, 68, a Briton described as a "significant international arms dealer," is charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to terrorists and acting as an arms broker without a license.
"The terrorists who have threatened America lost an ally in their attempts to kill our citizens," Christopher J. Christie, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said after Lakhani's arraignment.
Lakhani and two other men were arrested Tuesday after an 18-month investigation by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force in Newark and Russian and British authorities, Christie said.
The most serious charge Lakhani faces carries a 15-year maximum prison sentence. Counts against the other men carry a five-year maximum sentence.
Speaking to reporters from his ranch in Texas, President Bush (news - web sites) said Lakhani's arrest undercut criticism by Democrats that his administration was not doing enough to fight terrorism.
"The fact that we're able to sting this guy is a pretty good example of what we're doing in order to protect the American people," Bush said.
Lakhani was arrested at a hotel near Newark Liberty International Airport, a day after a sealed arrest warrant was issued for him and the other men.
Lakhani had agreed to deliver a missile to U.S. agents posing as buyers after he obtained it from Russian agents posing as sellers, Christie said.
Lakhani's lawyer, Assistant Federal Public Defender Donald J. McCauley, refused to comment on the case.
Moinuddeen Ahmed Hameed, 38, who was arrested in New York on Tuesday, is charged with conspiring to operate a money laundering operation as part of a scheme to pay for the missiles. Hameed, an Indian citizen residing in Malaysia, appeared in court with Lakhani and was ordered held without bail pending an Aug. 20 hearing.
Even as Justice Department (news - web sites) officials in Washington applauded the sting, some expressed frustration that news of Lakhani's arrest leaked Tuesday before investigators could determine whether he might cooperate or lead them to other alleged operatives.
In a news conference after the Newark hearing, Christie said Hameed flew to the U.S. from Malaysia after being summoned by Lakhani, in order to launder a $500,000 down payment on an additional 50 missiles that undercover agents sought from Lakhani, after one missile was shipped at a cost of $86,000.
Lakhani and Hameed were brought into the packed courtroom in civilian clothes, with their hands cuffed in front of them. Neither man spoke, and both declined interpreters.
Hameed's lawyer, Cathy Fleming, said her client maintained his innocence. "He is upset, bewildered, and he has expressed confidence in the American justice system," she said.
Officials also announced money laundering charges against Yehuda Abraham, 76, of New York City, whom Christie said had handled the funds for the initial missile purchase.
Abraham was arrested in Manhattan with Hameed at Abraham's gem dealership just off Fifth Avenue. His bail was set at $10 million during an appearance in federal court in Manhattan, when a judge ordered him extradited to New Jersey.
Abraham, Lakhani and Hameed were all being held at the Passaic County Jail, where the government routinely houses federal prisoners.
People going in and out of the gem dealership Wednesday afternoon said they knew nothing about him. A reporter who went there Wednesday evening was asked to leave by building security.
Abraham's four children, his rabbi and about a dozen other supporters attended the court appearance but did not speak to reporters afterward.
Abraham's lawyer, Larry Krantz, told U.S. Magistrate Andrew Peck that his client is in poor health. Arguing for a lower bail, Krantz noted the charge against Abraham does not say his client knew he was dealing with terrorists.
According to the FBI affidavit, the probe began in December 2001, when a "cooperating witness" under federal law enforcement control began talking to Lakhani about obtaining anti-aircraft guns and missiles.
Lakhani is not believed to be connected to al-Qaida or any other known terrorist group, federal officials say. Authorities also stressed that there was no specific, credible threat to shoot down an airliner in the United States.
But one official said the understanding between Lakhani and the undercover FBI agent was that the missile needed to be capable of bringing down a commercial airliner.
Christie said evidence against Lakhani includes audio and video recordings in which he discusses the plot, speaks favorably of bin Laden and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The cooperating witness told Lakhani he was representing a Somali group that wanted to buy one missile initially "with a purchase of a greater number of missiles to follow," the affidavit said.
Lakhani traveled to Moscow on July 12 to finalize the sale of a missile. Lakhani met there with the cooperating witness and two officers of Russia's Federal Security Service posing as suppliers.
They displayed what appeared to be a sophisticated Russian SA-18 Igla missile, but Christie said it was an inoperable copy later brought to the United States aboard a ship to make the bogus deal seem real.
On July 15, Lakhani asked for a commitment from the Russian "suppliers" for 50 more missiles to be sent to the United States by Aug. 30. Lakhani also said he was interested in purchasing a ton of C-4 plastic explosive, according to the affidavit. |
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| tjpatel |
135 Candidates Make Calif. Recall Ballot
6 minutes ago
By JIM WASSERMAN, Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Voters will have 135 candidates to choose from to replace Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) in California's historic recall election, the secretary of state's office said Wednesday after certifying the ballot.
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More than 110 of the 247 would-be governors who had submitted papers to run in the Oct. 7 special election were disqualified because of incomplete paperwork, state officials said.
The number of candidates likely surpasses any previous number of gubernatorial candidates in one election, which would probably be fewer than a dozen, said Bruce Cain, a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
"There's nothing comes close," Cain said.
The final list of candidates includes the well-known, the unknown and the offbeat, including a discount cigarette retailer, a used car salesman, a golf pro and a sumo wrestler.
Better-known candidates include Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante; commentator Arianna Huffington, an independent; and four Republicans: businessman Bill Simon, who lost the governor's race to Davis in November, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth and state Sen. Tom McClintock.
Candidates include 50 Democrats, 42 Republicans and 32 independents. There also were four Green Party members, three Libertarians, two Natural Law Party members, and one each from the American Independent and Peace and Freedom parties.
As the ballot became official, elections supervisors throughout California worried about how they would pay for it all. Estimates on the cost of the recall started at $30 million, increased to as much as $67 million and elections officials throughout the state said it could go higher because of the number of candidates.
Potential costs to California's 58 counties range from $50,000 in rural Plumas County to $13 million in Los Angeles County.
Clerk Stephen Weir said Contra Costa is facing election costs that may pass $2 million.
"That's a lot of immunization shots or meals or services to people," Weir said.
Deficit-strapped counties are tapping emergency reserves, using money budgeted for the March primary and hoping the state makes good on its previous history of paying for special elections. The higher election costs are hitting counties during a budget crisis that has led to hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts.
The ballot was being completed a day before President Bush (news - web sites) was scheduled to arrive for a two-day fund-raising swing through Southern California that could put him in the eye of the state's political storm.
Meanwhile, records show Schwarzenegger didn't vote in five of the past 11 statewide elections.
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder said Schwarzenegger voted in the 2002 primary and general elections, which included a ballot initiative that he sponsored on after-school programs. But he didn't return absentee ballots for the 2000 general and primary elections after requesting them.
That means Schwarzenegger twice missed a chance to vote for Bush. Records show he also didn't vote in the June 1998 primary, when voters approved an initiative banning bilingual education, or the 1996 primary and general elections.
His campaign aides said they are researching the four 1996 and 2000 absentee ballots Schwarzenegger requested. They blamed an assistant who may have forgotten to mail them, or said sometimes ballots are rejected or not recorded by elections officials.
With 55 days until the election, some of the expected front-runners were plotting strategy, making appearances and taking shots at the competition.
Schwarzenegger, who gave his campaign $1 million Tuesday, named billionaire investor Warren Buffett (news - web sites) as a senior financial and economic adviser Wednesday, the latest in a number of strategic personnel moves by the actor's campaign.
Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, will bring together other business leaders and economists to address the state's financial issues, campaign spokesman Sean Walsh said.
Davis appeared with abortion-rights activists in San Francisco to announce his support for five legislative bills that would expand sex education for teenagers and improve access to emergency contraception.
A coalition including the Sierra Club (news - web sites), the California National Organization for Women (news - web sites) and the California Congress of Seniors has agreed to help conduct an anti-recall campaign through mass mailings and phone banks, said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
Huffington said she will campaign with Green Party candidate Peter Camejo to push a progressive agenda. Both candidates said they will consider stepping down if the other pulls ahead in polls. |
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| trancEyes22 |
| ^^^ um, what? |
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| tjpatel |
| when i meet, you were so |
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| tjpatel |
| unique had a little thing |
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| tjpatel |
| i'd love to keep every |
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