Obama wants answers

Obama wants answers after botched terror attack
HONOLULU – President Barack Obama is demanding answers on why information was never pieced together by the U.S. intelligence community to trigger red flags about an alleged terrorist and possibly prevent his botched Christmas Day attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.
Administration officials are poring over reams of data, looking for failings that allowed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian with suspected ties to al-Qaida, to board the Northwest Airlines flight from Nigeria by way of Amsterdam.
Obama's criticism came as senior U.S. officials told The Associated Press that intelligence authorities now are looking at conversations between the suspect in the failed attack and at least one al-Qaida member. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said the conversations were vague or coded, but the intelligence community believes that, in hindsight, the communications may have been referring to the Detroit attack. One official said a link between the suspect's planning and al-Qaida's goals was becoming clearer.
The New York Times reported in Wednesday's editions that the government had intelligence from Yemen before Christmas that leaders of a branch of al-Qaida there were talking about "a Nigerian" being prepared for a terrorist attack. The newspaper said the information did not include the name of the Nigerian.
Obama's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, is due to present the president with an early report by Thursday, based on recommendations and summaries from across the government.
"There were bits of information available within the intelligence community that could have — and should have — been pieced together," Obama said in a brief statement to reporters Tuesday.
"Had this critical information been shared, it could have been compiled with other intelligence, and a fuller, clearer picture of the suspect would have emerged," Obama said. "The warning signs would have triggered red flags, and the suspect would have never been allowed to board that plane for America."
Senior administration officials said the system to protect the nation's skies was deeply flawed and, even then, the government failed to follow its own directives. They described a breakdown that would have been much worse had Abdulmutallab been successful; an angry Obama called the situation "totally unacceptable."
"It now appears that weeks ago this information was passed to a component of our intelligence community but was not effectively distributed so as to get the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, on a no-fly list," Obama said.
Obama first spoke to reporters Monday after three days of silence. On Tuesday, he chided officials for what he called a "potential catastrophic breach of security." Critics have questioned why Obama didn't talk sooner about the issue publicly.
Officials said Obama chose to make his second statement in as many days after a morning briefing offered him new information about the suspect's activities and thinking, along with al-Qaida's plans.
It will take weeks for a more comprehensive investigation into what allowed Abdulmutallab to board the airliner he is accused of trying to blow up with more than 300 people aboard. Law enforcement officials believe the suspect tried to ignite a two-part concoction of the high explosive PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive, setting off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation. Abdulmutallab, charged with trying to destroy an aircraft, is being held at the federal prison in Milan, Mich.
Abdulmutallab had been placed in one expansive database, but he never made it onto more restrictive lists that would have caught the attention of U.S. counterterrorist screeners, despite his father's warnings to U.S. Embassy officials in Nigeria last month. Those warnings also did not result in Abdulmutallab's U.S. visa being revoked.
Intelligence officials began laying blame on other agencies.
The CIA said it worked with embassy officials to make sure that Abdulmutallab's name made it into the government's database of suspected terrorists and noted his potential extremist connections in Yemen. The CIA said it forwarded that information to the National Counterterrorism Center.
Intelligence officials say they learned the suspect's name in November, when his father came to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria and sought help in finding him.
One U.S. intelligence official said Abdulmutallab's father didn't provide sufficient information to earn him a spot on the no-fly list.
"Abdulmutallab's father didn't say his son was a terrorist, let alone planning an attack. Not at all," the official said on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive intelligence matters. "I'm not aware of some magic piece of intelligence that suddenly would have flagged this guy — whose name nobody even had until November — as a killer en route to America, let alone something that anybody withheld."
Officials in Yemen were investigating whether Abdulmutallab spent time with al-Qaida militants there during the months leading up to Friday's attack.

By PHILIP ELLIOTT and LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press

Charlie Sheen Arrested

ASPEN, Colo. – Authorities say actor Charlie Sheen has been accused of using a weapon in an alleged case of domestic violence in Aspen.
Sheen spent part of Christmas Day in jail after being arrested at a home in the Colorado ski resort town.
Police spokeswoman Stephanie Dasaro did not provide details on what kind of weapon Sheen is accused of using.
Sheen also was arrested on investigation of second-degree assault, a felony, and criminal mischief, a misdemeanor.
Sheen's lawyer didn't return a telephone call Sunday seeking comment.
Sheen hasn't been charged and was released Friday after posting an $8,500 bond. Prosecutors will determine whether to file charges.

Flight 253 passenger

Sharp-dressed man aided terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab onto plane without passport (MLive.com exclusive)
By Sheena Harrison | MLive.com

A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.
Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.
Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man.
Kurt and Lori Haskell are attorneys with Haskell Law Firm in Taylor. Their expertise includes bankruptcy, family law and estate planning.
While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'”
Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab's lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.
The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn't see Mutallab again until after he allegedly tried to detonate an explosive on the plane.
Haskell said the flight was mostly unremarkable. That was until he heard a flight attendant say she smelled smoke, just after the pilot announced the plane would land in Detroit in 10 minutes. Haskell got out of his seat to view the brewing commotion.
“I stood up and walked a couple feet ahead to get a closer look, and that's when I saw the flames,” said Haskell, who sat about seven rows behind Mutallab. “It started to spread pretty quickly. It went up the wall, all the way to ceiling.”
Haskell, who described Mutallab as a diminutive man who looks like a teenager, said about 30 seconds passed between the first mention of smoke and when Mutallab was subdued by fellow passengers.
“He didn't fight back at all. This wasn't a big skirmish,” Haskell said. “A couple guys jumped on him and hauled him away.”
The ordeal has Haskell and his wife a little shaken. Flight attendants were screaming during the fire and the pilot sounded notably nervous when bringing the plane in for a landing, he said.
“Immediately, the pilot came on and said two words: emergency landing,” Haskell said. “And that was it. The plane sped up instead of slowing down. You could tell he floored it.”
As Mutallab was being led out of the plane in handcuffs, Haskell said he realized that was the same man he saw trying to board the plane in Amsterdam.
Passengers had to wait about 20 minutes before they were allowed to exit the plane. Haskell said he and other passengers waited about six hours to be interviewed by the FBI.
About an hour after landing, Haskell said he saw another man being taken into custody. But a spokeswoman from the FBI in Detroit said Mutallab was the only person taken into custody.

Christmas eve vote on U.S. debt limit

Senate sets Christmas eve vote on U.S. debt limit
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday set a Christmas Eve vote on final congressional approval of a bill to provide a two-month increase in the federal debt limit.
The measure, passed last week by the House of Representatives, would increase the debt limit, now at $12.1 trillion, by $290 billion.
Senate Democrats may approve the measure largely by themselves because most, if not all, Republicans are expected to vote against it, Republican aides said. Democrats control the Senate, 60-40.
Republicans have objected to raising the debt limit, accusing Democrats of reckless spending. Democrats counter by noting that the debt exploded during the administration of Republican President George W. Bush, which ended in January.
Democratic President Barack Obama is expected to promptly sign the debt-limit measure into law after Senate approval.
The Treasury Department has warned that it would likely reach the current debt limit by December 31, potentially putting the United States at risk of default.
U.S. lawmakers want to avoid default but have refused to provide a long-term increase amid mounting concern about the debt limit.
Democratic leaders had hoped to raise the limit by at least $1.8 trillion, enough to ensure they would not have to revisit the issue before the November 2010 congressional elections. But they were unable to agree on measures that lawmakers had hoped to attach to the legislation to control the debt. The two-month hike provides more time to reach a deal.
The government posted a record $1.4 trillion deficit in the fiscal year ended September 30 and is on track this year to spend at least $1 trillion more than it collects.
The debt has more than doubled since 2001, due to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tax cuts and the worst recession since the 1930s, one that has caused tax revenues to plunge and spending on federal safety-net programs to rise.
Senate leaders set the debt-limit vote for Thursday, Christmas Eve, just before lawmakers go home for the holidays.
The vote is to occur after anticipated Senate passage of a bill to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, a measure that has tied up the chamber for weeks, delaying departure.

Iran - Montazeri ceremony

Iranian security forces have clashed with crowds of opposition supporters in the city of Isfahan, according to opposition website reports. Activists said police used tear gas and batons to disperse people gathering to commemorate Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri, who died at the weekend. The cleric was one of the country's most influential dissidents. On Monday, tens of thousands attended his funeral in the holy city of Qom - many shouting anti-government slogans. 'Fiercely confronted' The funeral saw reports of clashes between security forces and mourners - with confrontations continuing Qom on Tuesday. State television reported that government supporters staged counter-demonstrations on Tuesday and Wednesday in Qom. Reformists say there has also been unrest in the ayatollah's home city of Najafabad over the past two days. BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne says the confrontations are all part of a build-up to a big series of demonstrations expected at the weekend. The authorities have not yet confirmed the unrest in Isfahan, but the country's police chief warned on Wednesday that protests would not be tolerated. "We advise this movement to end their activities," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam as saying. "Otherwise those who violate the order will be fiercely confronted, based on the law." The Rahesabz website said crowds of opposition supporters had gathered at a mosque in Isfahan for a memorial service for the ayatollah. But hundreds of police and plain-clothes security officers were already there. The website said opposition supporters had been injured and there were a number of arrests. Another reformist website, Parlemannews, said more than 50 people had been detained. The ayatollah's funeral was attended by several leading opposition figures, including Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mr Mousavi, who came second in this year's presidential election, has been an outspoken critic of the current government and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. On Tuesday, Mr Mousavi was dismissed as head of the Council for Cultural Revolution, an arts institution affiliated to the president's office. In recent days hardliners have urged Iran's judiciary to put Mr Mousavi on trial for instigating unrest.
BBC

Iran nuclear Bomb tests

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed as a US forgery a document allegedly showing plans by Tehran to test a nuclear bomb trigger.
In a US TV interview Mr Ahmadinejad said the report in the Times newspaper was "fundamentally not true".
He said criticism of Iran's nuclear program had become "a repetitive and tasteless joke".
Iran denies claims it wants to build atomic weapons, saying its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.
The BBC's Jane O'Brien in Washington says the interview offered a rare opportunity to see an Iranian leader being questioned by the US media.
But Mr Ahmadinejad's answers gave little indication that his administration is moving towards a more conciliatory position, says our correspondent.
'Fabricated papers'
The Times reported last week that it had obtained a document, dating from 2007, describing a four-year plan by Iran to test a nuclear trigger using uranium deuteride.
The product can be used as a neutron initiator: the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion.
The memo apparently details how some work on the trigger should be outsourced to universities, but other work is too secret and must be carried out by "trustworthy personnel" within the organisation allegedly carrying out Iran's secret nuclear weapons research.
Another document seen by the Times is said to be a memo from Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, naming him as the chairman of the Field for the Expansion of Deployment of Advance Technology (Fedat) - which the newspaper says is a cover for a secret nuclear weapons programme.
In his first public response to the report, Mr Ahmadinejad said the accusations were "fundamentally not true".
In an interview filmed on Friday with ABC News, but broadcast on Monday, he dismissed the documents, saying: "They are all a fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government."
When asked if there would "be no nuclear weapon in Iran, ever", Mr Ahmadinejad said his view was already known.
"You should say something only once. We have said once that we don't want a nuclear bomb. We don't accept it."
A senior adviser to US President Barack Obama, David Axelrod, said it was "nonsense" that the US had fabricated the documents.
"Nobody has any illusions about what the intent of the Iranian government is," he told ABC.
'Bullying'
Iran is already subject to three sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.
It is at risk of further sanctions after it rejected a deal to send low-enriched uranium abroad to be refined into fuel for a research reactor.
A defiant Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran would welcome talks "under fair conditions".
"We don't welcome confrontation, but we don't surrender to bullying either," he said.
"If you are saying you are going to impose sanctions, then go and do it."
Ahmadinejad also rejected criticism of Iran's human rights situation and allegations of mass arrests following the elections which returned him to office in June.
"These things have to do with the judiciary. We have good laws. There is the judge. These people have got lawyers. These are not political questions."
He said people in Iran had more freedom than in the US.
The ABC interview took place before the latest protests held at the funeral of the influential dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri.
Iran says its uranium enrichment program is for purely peaceful purposes, aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more gas and oil.
But the US and its allies say it could be used to develop weapons.

Source: BBC News

Obama Gets " A " from Schwarezenegger

From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart
Washington (CNN) – Not every Republican is a critic of President Obama. At least one thinks the president is doing a fine job – at least when it comes to the effort involved in being the country’s chief executive.
Asked to give Obama a grade as the end of the president’s first year in office approaches, Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Republican governor, gave Obama high marks.
“When it comes to effort, Obama should get a straight A,” Schwarzenegger told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King in an interview that aired Sunday on State of the Union.
“He’s out there with tremendous energy and he’s selling his ideas. And he has great enthusiasm there. He’s a great speaker, a great communicator.”
The one-time Hollywood action star also had some advice for Obama as the president tries to push his agenda through Capitol Hill’s partisanship.
“He has to hang in there,” Schwarzenegger told King, “be tough, just continue on, never give up, eventually he’s going to get all those things done.”
The California governor was echoing the sentiments of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg who joined Schwarzenegger in the interview on State of the Union.
Bloomberg, a identified Independent and longtime Obama ally, was more circumspect in his assessment of the president’s first year.
After noting several challenges Obama has been facing since taking office, Bloomberg said he would give the president “a pretty high grade.”
“I hate to use letters,” Bloomberg said. “But Obama is working very hard and trying. And he’s got enthusiasm and drive. And I would just urge him to don’t – if he doesn’t get everything he wants – don’t get beaten down, don’t go back into your shell.”

The police might come

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez launched a federal police force on Sunday that he hopes will change the overwhelmingly negative image most Venezuelans have of their public security forces while reducing crime in one of Latin America's most violent countries.
"We are going to defeat crime," Chavez told uniformed cadets belonging to the newly formed National Bolivian Police Force during his weekly television and radio show. "We are tackling one of our population's most sensitive problems: crime prevention."
Chavez greeted and shook hands with the officers before they began patrolling in Catia, one of the most dangerous districts of Caracas.
The 950-agent force will initially operate in the capital's most crime-ridden neighborhoods, but the government plans to boost the number of officers to 6,000 and extend its reach beyond Caracas by the end of next year.
Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said the nascent police force would seek to reduce crime through preventative rather than repressive measures and embrace the socialist ideals of Chavez's "Bolivian Revolution," a political movement named after 19th-century independence hero Simon Bolivar.
"The National Police will impose a culture of peace in the barrios to eliminate the violence of the capitalist, bourgeois model that we've inherited," El Aissami said.
Armed robbery, kidnapping and murder are widespread in this poverty-stricken South American country, and polls consistently show that most Venezuelans view violent crime as the nation's most pressing problem.
Police figures released by the Justice Ministry show there were 12,257 homicides nationwide in the first 11 months of 2009 — more than eight times higher than in Texas, which has roughly the same population as Venezuela.
Venezuelans are generally distrustful of the country's police. Many citizens were not surprised when El Aissami revealed earlier this month that police are involved in 15 to 20 percent of all crimes, particularly kidnapping and murder.
In its annual report released this month, the local Provea human rights groups said police were responsible for more than 200 slayings over the last year, including 55 people who died of excessive force or torture.
"You can't trust them because you don't know if they're honest or not," said Gabriela Silva, a 34-year-old street vendor.
Silva repeated a joke that some Caracas residents tell visitors: "If you get robbed, don't shout. The police might come."

Hackers steal SKorean-US military secrets

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's military said Friday it was investigating a hacking attack that netted secret defense plans with the United States and may have been carried out by North Korea.
The suspected hacking occurred late last month when a South Korean officer failed to remove a USB device when he switched a military computer from a restricted-access intranet to the Internet, Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said.
The USB device contained a summary of plans for military operations by South Korean and U.S. troops in case of war on the Korean peninsula. Won said the stolen document was not a full text of the operational plans, but an 11-page file used to brief military officials. He said it did not contain critical information.
Won said authorities have not ruled out the possibility that Pyongyang may have been involved in the hacking attack by using a Chinese IP address — the Web equivalent of a street address or phone number.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported, citing the January edition of its sister magazine Monthly Chosun, that hackers used a Chinese IP address and that North Korea is suspected of involvement. The Monthly Chosun cited South Korea's National Intelligence Service and Defense Security Command.
Yonhap news agency also reported the hackers used a Chinese IP address. It said the North's involvement was not immediately confirmed, also citing military officials it did not identify.
Officials at the NIS — South Korea's main spy agency — were not immediately available for comment.
The U.S. stations 28,500 troops in South Korea to deter any potential North Korean aggression. The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
"As a matter of policy, we do not comment on operational planning or intelligence matters, nor would we confirm details pertaining to any security investigation," said David Oten, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Seoul.
The latest case came months after hackers launched high-profile cyberattacks that caused Web outages on prominent government-run sites in the U.S. and South Korea. Affected sites include those of the White House and the South's presidential Blue House.
The IP address that triggered the Web attacks in July was traced back to North Korea's Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, the chief of South Korean's main spy agency reportedly told lawmakers, noting the ministry leased the IP address from China. The spy agency declined to confirm those reports at the time.
South Korean media reported at the time that North Korea runs an Internet warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service, and the regime has between 500 and 1,000 hacking specialists.
North Korea, one of the world's most secretive countries, is believed to have a keen interest in information technology, while tightly controlling access for ordinary citizens.

By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press

Obama to investment guru Buffett: Hi cuz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama, who won political support and has sought advice from investment guru Warren Buffett, may now feel even closer to the world's second richest man.
According to their family trees, the two men who at times shared the stage together during the 2008 presidential campaign are seventh cousins three times removed.
Genealogists at ancestry.com announced on Tuesday that Obama and Buffett are related through a 17th century Frenchman named Mareen Duvall.
According to the online genealogists, Duvall -- who immigrated to Maryland from France in the 1650s -- is Obama's 9th great grandfather and Buffett's 6th great grandfather.
The discovery was made by accident when the same team of genealogists who had researched Obama's family tree went on to investigate details about Buffett's relatives.
"We recognized the name Duvall and it made us wonder if this was a connection," said Anastasia Tyler, the lead researcher on the project. "So we started focusing on Duvall."
"We're always looking for a way to show how interesting family history is. Like this, when you start finding similarities in family trees," Tyler said in an interview. "The tree leads you in directions you don't expect."
The family tree shows Obama related to Duvall through his mother Stanley Ann Dunham while Buffett is linked to Duvall through his father Howard Buffett.
Tyler called Duvall's life a "rags-to-riches" story. He arrived in America as an indentured servant but by 1659 he had bought property in Maryland and became a planter and merchant and was considered a "country gentleman."
"It's quite an achievement," Tyler said of Duvall's rise in society. "You can see similarities to him in both (Obama's and Buffett's) lives."
During the presidential campaign, Lynne Cheney said she found while tracing her family roots that her husband, then Vice President Dick Cheney, was a distant cousin of Obama's.
Obama has also been found to have had German roots through his sixth great grandfather, and a connection to Ireland through his third great grandfather.

Tiger Woods

The top 10 things you need to know about Loredana Jolie

Tiger Woods ferocious appetite for stunning blondes appears to know no bounds – as another alleged mistress is named.
The golf legend reportedly paid $15,000-a-time to sleep with Playboy beauty Loredana Jolie.
Here Mirror.co.uk runs through the top 10 things you need to know about the Italian stunner.
1. Loredana Jolie is a Sicilian-born model from Long Island, New York who has allegedly worked as a high-end call girl.
2. The blonde is a former Playboy model who won "Cyber Girl of the Week" in September 2002.
3. Tiger allegedly paid $15,000 to sleep with her – and up to $60,000 for her to join him and other girls in threesomes
4. Hollywood madam Michelle Braun claims Woods’ liaisons with Loredana took place between 2006 and 2007
5. Loredana used to work for Metro Parties – a company supplying strippers for private parties.
6. Metro Parties boss Chris Kellund claims the Italian beauty was always desperate for fame. He said: “She was an innocent girl with too much ambition. Everything about her was about fast movement and fame. She wanted to be a star.”
7. Kellund said he hired Loredana in the early 2000s, but that they parted ways months later because she constantly badgered customers for larger tips.
8. The latest alleged Tiger girl – a petite, 5ft 3ins with a 34B chest – has taken part in American “Hawaiian Tropics” beauty pageants.
9. Loredana has listed her turn-ons as “intelligence, confidence and happiness” and her turn-offs as “drugs, arrogance and rudeness”.
10. She describes herself as “quiet, shy and ambitious” and claims her celebrity role model is Britney Spears.

By Tom McTague, Mirror.co.uk

Car Insurance Quotes

Auto Insurance Quotes- New Online Auto Insurance Report Released
Auto Insurance- Consumers Flock Online To Obtain The Cheapest Possible Auto Insurance


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SC first lady files for divorce from cheating gov

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina's first lady, a former Wall Street vice president who helped launch her husband's political career, filed for divorce Friday more than five months after his tearful public confession of an affair with an Argentine woman.

"This came after many unsuccessful efforts at reconciliation, yet I am still dedicated to keeping the process that lies ahead peaceful for our family," Jenny Sanford said in a statement.

The governor blamed himself and said he and Jenny will "work earnestly to be the best mom and dad we can be to four of the finest boys on earth.

"While it is not the course I would have hoped for, or would choose, I want to take full responsibility for the moral failure that led us to this tragic point," he said in a statement.

Jenny Sanford's announcement came after a week of wrenching twists, including a legislative panel's decision Wednesday to turn aside an impeachment push in favor of a formal rebuke for the governor's conduct.

He told reporters he still wanted to reconcile with his wife, while she said in a television interview that it was a simple decision to not stand with him as he publicly confessed the affair.

"Certainly his actions hurt me, and they caused consequences for me, but they don't in any way take away my own self-esteem," she told ABC's Barbara Walters. "They reflect poorly on him."

A divorce complaint filed in Charleston County Family Court did not mention money, property or custody arrangements for the couple's sons.

"The defendant has engaged in a sexual relationship with a woman other than plaintiff," the complaint reads. "Plaintiff has not condoned that relationship and is informed and believes that she is entitled to a divorce ... from the defendant on the grounds of adultery."

As first lady, Jenny Sanford has little official role in state government, but she has been a quiet presence since her husband took office in 2003, often attending morning meetings with his top staff and working on a public health campaign.

Just last week, she welcomed visitors to a holiday open house at the governor's mansion. Mark Sanford arrived about two hours after the event began and gave his wife a quick kiss, but they spent much of the night 10 feet apart, entertaining separate groups.

Jenny Sanford had said after news of the scandal broke in June that she was willing to reconcile with the two-term Republican governor. She weathered the publication of e-mail exchanges between him and his lover, Maria Belen Chapur, and an Associated Press interview in which Sanford called Chapur his "soul mate" and admitted "crossing the line" with other women.

Mark Sanford, 49, disappeared for almost a week in late June to see Chapur, leaving his staff and his wife in the dark about his whereabouts. His staff told reporters he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

Jenny Sanford said she learned about the affair in January when she found a copy of a letter her husband wrote to Chapur. In the months following, he asked several times to visit his mistress.

"It's one thing to forgive adultery; it's another thing to condone it," she told the AP two days after her husband revealed the affair at a news conference.

"He was told in no uncertain terms not to see her," she said. "I was hoping he was on the Appalachian Trail. But I was not worried about his safety. I was hoping he was doing some real soul searching somewhere and devastated to find out it was Argentina. It's tragic."

Days later, after the governor told AP he was relying on religious faith to help salvage his marriage even though the love of his life was in Argentina, Jenny Sanford said it was up to the people of South Carolina whether they wanted to give their governor a second chance.

In May, the governor seemed uncertain of what road to take. As the couple was in the midst of a series of religious counseling sessions, he wrote a letter to his spiritual adviser describing himself as emotionally torn.

"The one part where my heart at this point is not where I wish it was is with Jenny," Sanford wrote. She "is a great girl, great mom, great wife and best friend and I am committed to her in a commitment sense, but my heart is just not alive here as it ought to be."

No South Carolina governor has divorced while in office. The state in 1949 became the last in the nation to allow divorce, said Walter Edgar, a historian at the University of South Carolina.

Born Jennifer Sullivan, the first lady grew up near Chicago. Her grandfather founded the Skil Corp., a power tool manufacturer. She graduated from Georgetown University in 1984 with a degree in finance, then worked for the Wall Street investment banking firm Lazard Freres & Co., where she was a vice president. The Sanfords met in New York in the 1980s, when Mark Sanford also was working in finance.

The couple married in 1989 and relocated to South Carolina, where Sanford worked in real estate before serving three terms in Congress. Jenny Sanford managed several of her husband's campaigns. Until revelations of the affair, he had been considered a possible 2012 Republican presidential candidate.

The couple separated two weeks before news of the affair became public. Jenny Sanford and her sons sought refuge at the couple's beachfront home on Sullivans Island while Sanford remained in the state capital of Columbia, occasionally visiting his family.

Unlike some political wives, Jenny Sanford did not stand next to her husband when he revealed the affair with Chapur, whom he met on a trip to Uruguay in 2001.

Facebook draws criticism for privacy changes

Privacy groups are assailing Facebook after the world’s largest social networking website made changes to its privacy settings this week.

The changes allow users to apply more specific privacy settings to the content they post on the site. But many of the default settings mean that, unless users follow a prompt to go in and change their settings, they end up sharing most of their information with everyone on the internet.

“Under the banner of simplification, Facebook has pushed users to downgrade their privacy,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a US advocacy group.

Facebook first announced the changes in July. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive, reiterated them in an open letter to users last week when he also announced the site had 350m users.

As Facebook has grown, privacy advocates have grown increasingly concerned that users are ceding control of their most intimate – and valuable – information.

“These new ‘privacy’ changes are clearly intended to push Facebook users to publicly share even more information,” said Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a US digital rights group. “Even worse, the changes will actually reduce the amount of control that users have over some of their personal data.”

Facebook maintains that it is not trying to trick users into sharing more data. The latest settings offer more control of what information users share and with whom, it has said.

However, the company acknowledged that the introduction of the settings could lead users to make more of their information publicly available.

“As a result of providing more control, there will be more sharing,” said Elliot Schrage, vice-president of public policy for Facebook, on a conference call on Wednesday.

Along with other internet companies, Facebook has been working on the delicate balance between storing personal data and using that information to enhance services and gain a business edge. The issue of privacy has dogged Facebook since its inception in 2005.

Google, the search engine, has also faced criticism for storing users’ information and using it to enhance its targeted advertising.

“The data is more valuable to the companies that possess it when it can be more widely used,” said Mr Rotenberg. “It’s more valuable for advertisers and more valuable for search companies. It’s not clear what the user benefit is.”

Because of Facebook’s sizeable social footprint, Mr Rotenberg said it was unlikely users would abandon it for a newer social network. But he expects a push for better regulation.

“I think you’re going to see a political maturing of the Facebook community,” he said. “These are issues that require legislation and some regulation.”

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Blackwater tied to clandestine CIA raids

Firm's personnel were drawn into operations on ad-hoc basis

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 11, 2009

Highly trained personnel employed with the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide sometimes operated side by side with CIA field officers in Iraq and Afghanistan as the agency undertook missions to kill or capture members of insurgent groups in those countries, according to a former government official and a source familiar with the operations.

The actions taken by the private personnel went beyond the protective role specified in a classified Blackwater contract with the CIA and included active participation in raids overseen by CIA or special forces personnel, these sources said. They emphasized that roles and responsibilities often are blurred or altered in a battlefield setting, and that Blackwater personnel were drawn into the operations on an ad-hoc basis because they were present and had the necessary skills.

Still, the involvement of Blackwater's officers in raids is likely to raise new questions about the degree to which deadly actions in Iraq and Afghanistan were outsourced to contract personnel who operated without direct contractual authority or without the kind of oversight and accountability applied to CIA and military personnel.

CIA Director Leon Panetta earlier this year ordered the agency to terminate many of its contracts with Blackwater, but CIA officials said Thursday that Panetta has ordered a special internal review of the agency's contracts with the company to ensure that its work is strictly security-related -- a review that may wind up shining a new light on intelligence practices during the Bush administration.

The agency still relies on the firm, now named Xe Services, to provide security for agency employees and assets. Panetta told Congress in the summer that he had shut down a CIA assassination program that employed Blackwater personnel in a supporting role. The CIA has publicly stated that the program, which dated from President George W. Bush's first term in office, was never fully implemented and that no one was killed. A House committee is investigating that program.

The CIA declined to comment yesterday on specific intelligence operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Xe Services, said Blackwater was never under contract to participate in covert raids with CIA or Special Forces troops "in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else." Corallo added: "Any allegation to the contrary by any news organization would be false." The New York Times published on its Web site Thursday evening a story saying Blackwater guards had participated in clandestine CIA raids.

Several former CIA counterterrorism officials who were based in Washington at the time said CIA headquarters was not aware of such actions and did not authorize them. They said they knew of occasions when Blackwater personnel took part in firefights while protecting CIA officers undertaking lethal raids, but the officials characterized these actions as defensive, not offensive.

A former intelligence officer who managed covert teams overseas said contractors would have been authorized to use deadly force if fired upon. "That was clearly understood and part of the rules," the official said.

The source familiar with the operations said that they had been reviewed and approved in advance by CIA lawyers, and that agency personnel typically played the dominant role in their planning. Some requests from the field for lethal raids were rejected at CIA headquarters because they posed excessive risks to the U.S. teams or to civilians, or because intelligence experts merely wanted to keep watching the prospective targets.

But when the time came to carry out those raids -- often against figures who were thought to be al-Qaeda leaders -- some CIA field officers assigned responsibilities among the available personnel without regard to which ones were contractors or federal employees, according to the source, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss classified operations.

That meant Blackwater personnel helped to kill some of the targets and did not merely defend the CIA officers taking part in the raids, the source said.

A former agency officer experienced in covert operations in the Middle East said it was common knowledge that military contractors would sometimes participate in missions alongside Special Forces and paramilitary teams. He said the arrangements were made locally and were "practical," because the active-duty forces and contractors typically shared the same training and were used to working together.

For government employees, working with contractors offered ways to circumvent red tape, said the retired officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "There was no bench strength with either the CIA or Special Forces, so sometimes they would turn to contractors, who often had lots of the same skills," the former operative said.

Robert Baer, a former CIA officer, said such informal arrangements would undoubtedly lead to problems because they short-circuit normal chains of command. "Once you cede your authorities, people are no longer restrained by regulations and federal law," Baer said. "There have been abuses; there's no question about it."

The CIA's new review of its Blackwater dealings is only the latest in a series of investigations focused on the firm. Five Blackwater guards are on trial in federal court in the District on manslaughter and other charges in connection with the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007. The guards' attorneys contend that the government does not have jurisdiction to bring such charges and that the guards' conduct was justified. The Justice Department said in November that it would drop charges against one of the guards. A sixth guard pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and is expected to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

The company is also named in a separate civil case in federal court in Virginia in which 70 Iraqi civilians are alleging that the company engaged in "lawless behavior" and that it covered up killings and hired mercenaries. Attorneys for the company have denied the allegations and sought to dismiss the lawsuit.

In an interview with the magazine Vanity Fair this month, Blackwater's founder and principal owner, Erik Prince -- whose conservative leanings are widely known -- depicted those who revealed the company's links to the CIA as motivated in part by politics. "People acting for political reasons disclosed not only the existence of a very sensitive program but my name along with it," he said.