Exclusive: Report Charges Broad White House Efforts to Stifle Climate Research

March 27, 2007 -- U.S.

Exclusive: Report Charges Broad White House Efforts to Stifle Climate Research

Bush administration officials throughout the government have engaged in White House-directed efforts to stifle, delay or dampen the release of climate change research that casts the White House or its policies in a bad light, says a new report that purports to be the most comprehensive assessment to date of the subject. (ABC News)

Ordinary Customers Flagged as Terrorists

Private businesses such as rental and mortgage companies and car dealers are checking the names of customers against a list of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers made publicly available by the Treasury Department, sometimes denying services to ordinary people whose names are similar to those on the list. (Washington Post)

U.S. Can't Account for 600,000 Fugitives

Teams assigned to make sure foreigners ordered out of the United States actually leave are grappling with a backlog of more than 600,000 cases and can't accurately account for the fugitives' whereabouts, the government reported Monday. (AP)

Complaints Over Debt Collectors Break Record

Allegations of abusive practices by the private debt collection industry drove complaints to the Federal Trade Commission to record highs last year, a new report reveals. (ABC News)

White House Aides Tried to Hide E-mails, Lawmaker Charges

White House staff are using non-governmental e-mail addresses to avoid leaving a paper trail of their communications, a senior congressman charged Monday. (ABC News)

CHILE/SYRIA

Chilean Diplomat Found Dead In Syrian Capital, Victim Of 'Criminal Act'

Chile's consul in the Syrian capital of Damascus was found dead at his home on Monday, the victim "of a criminal act," the Foreign Ministry said. (AP)

GUANTANAMO HEARINGS

Australian Pleads Guilty at Guantanamo

Australian David Hicks, the first prisoner to face a new U.S. war crimes tribunal, unexpectedly pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge of helping al Qaeda fight American troops and their allies during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. (Reuters)

US Moves Kenya Terror Suspect At Guantanamo

Kenya has handed over an al Qaeda suspect accused in two terror attacks in East Africa to US authorities who have moved him into the Guantanamo Bay military prison, officials said yesterday. (Reuters)

IRAQ NEWS

Two Blasts Target Iraqi Tribal Leader, Son Killed

Four people, including the son of an anti-al Qaeda tribal leader, were killed in an insurgent attack on the chief's home on Tuesday just west of Baghdad, a provincial official and relatives said. (Reuters)

U.S. Says Caught Iraq Car Bombers Blamed For 900 Dead

U.S. forces captured two leaders of a major car bomb cell responsible for attacks that killed around 900 Iraqis, mostly in the Shi'ite district of Sadr City in Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Insurgents Report a Split with Al Qaeda in Iraq

Insurgent leaders and Sunni Arab politicians say divisions between insurgent groups and Al Qaeda in Iraq have widened and have led to combat in some areas of the country, a schism that U.S. officials hope to exploit. (LA Times)

Anti-Qaeda Tribes Targeted In Iraq Attack
sSuspected al Qaeda militants in Iraq killed 21 people on Tuesday in bomb attacks targeting Sunni Arab tribes who have formed an alliance against the hardline Islamist group, officials said. (Reuters)

IRAN/IRAQ WEAPONS

U.S. Long Worried That Iran Supplied Arms in Iraq

More than 20 months ago, the United States secretly sent Iran a diplomatic protest charging that Tehran was supplying lethal roadside explosive devices to Shiite extremists in Iraq, according to American officials familiar with the message. (NY Times)

AFGHANISTAN

Suicide Bomber at Afghan Police Station

A suicide bomber on foot blew himself up outside a police station in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, wounding at least seven officers and civilians, a police official said. (AP)

INDONESIA

In Indonesia's Aceh, a Former Rebel Takes the Reins

The little green car accelerated around a mountain curve and flashed through a village here in Aceh Province, scattering chickens, children, dust and pebbles. It swerved past potholes, skidding precisely to the edge of the road before speeding ahead. (International Herald Tribune)

RUSSIA

Georgia Files Case against Russia

Georgia has lodged a case against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights after hundreds of its nationals were deported by Moscow. (BBC)

SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka Rebel Suicide Blast Kills 7 After Air Raid

A Tamil Tiger suicide bomber tried to blow up an army camp in Sri Lanka on Tuesday, killing seven people a day after rebels carried out their first air strike since fighting began in 1983. (Reuters)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

It's Time to Stop Making 'War' on Terrorists

By William M. Arkin

Controversies surrounding the war in Iraq -- the manipulation of intelligence, ideology feeding overconfidence, mismanagement and potential failure -- have so stained the Bush administration there is a tendency on the part of many to reject all of the government's endeavors when it comes to the so-called "war" against terrorism. (Washington Post)

'In the Name of Justice'

By Jailan Halawi

Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, aka Abu Omar, is an Egyptian Muslim cleric allegedly abducted in February 2003 in Milan, Italy, under the so- called "extraordinary renditions" programme run by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in which terror suspects are secretly transferred to detention centres around the world for questioning. (Al-Ahram)

Iran: This Hot-Headed US Approach

By Ammar Ali Qureshi

In January 1945, four and a half years before coming to power in China, Mao Zedong and Chou En-Lai expressed their desire to talk in person with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington. The United States remained silent and ignored the offer. (Dawn)

In The New Europe, Unity Is the Best Defense

The American plan to install the forward edge of its anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic has raised memories of the great Cold War struggle over Washington's decision to deploy medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe. (International Herald Tribune)

Pakistan Crosses a Dangerous Boundary

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

Even as the administration of President General Pervez Musharraf faces one of its biggest political challenges in seven years, the Pakistan Army has made the potentially explosive decision to intervene in the internecine strife in the volatile South Waziristan tribal area. (Asia Times)

Don't Count on Arab Rulers to Save Themselves, Let Alone Their Peoples

Changing one's position on a matter of substance is a time-honored tradition of politics, but nowhere is this more true than in the Middle East. (The Daily Star)

The Insider Daily Investigative Report (DIR) is a summary of major news articles and broadcasts relating to investigative news, including international terrorism and developments in Iraq. The DIR is edited daily from foreign and U.S. sources by Chris Isham, Hoda Osman and Elizabeth Sprague of the ABC News Investigative Unit. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.