Titles:

• US knew Guantanamo detainees were innocent
• US helps Libyan rebels, fighting rages in west
• Syrian Tanks Roll Into Cities as Security Crackdown Kills At Least 20
• Afghan military pilot kills 9 Americans in Kabul
• Radioactivity seawater near Fukushima 20-thousand times higher than permissible annual standard
• Pakistan’s ISI spy service listed as terrorist group by US

News Details:

US knew Guantanamo detainees were innocent
The United States held hundreds of inmates who were either totally innocent or low-risk for years and released dozens of high-risk Guantanamo inmates, according to leaked classified files. The new leaks reveal that inmates were held without trial on the basis of often seriously flawed information, such as from mentally ill or otherwise unreliable co-detainees or statements from suspects who had been abused or tortured, The New York Times reported. The Times was among a group of US and European media outlets that also included The Daily Telegraph, NPR, El Pais, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and La Repubblica to receive 779 documents from the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.

US helps Libyan rebels, fighting rages in west
The United States took steps to throw a financial lifeline to rebels controlling eastern Libya while forces loyal to Muammar Qadhafi focused their firepower on pockets of resistance in the west. The United States voiced confidence in the Benghazi-based main opposition council Wednesday as the US Treasury moved to permit oil deals with the group, which is struggling to provide funding for the battle-scarred areas under its control. The order by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control may help to clear up concerns among potential buyers over legal complications related to ownership of Libyan oil and the impact of international sanctions. The first major oil shipment from rebel-held east Libya, reported to be 80,000 tonnes of crude, was expected to arrive in Singapore on Thursday for refuelling but oil traders told Reuters finding a buyer was not straightforward, with many of the usual traders still worried about legal complications.

Syrian Tanks Roll Into Cities as Security Crackdown Kills At Least 20
Witnesses say several thousand Syrian army troops, flanked by special forces, shot their way into the southern city of Daraa before dawn Monday, causing numerous casualties. Tanks reportedly began the assault, shelling the city as they moved in from four sides. Videos distributed by human rights activists show black smoke over the city center and fires burning as shell-fire crackled in the background. Reports say Syrian special forces stormed private homes to make arrests, Witnesses say snipers began shooting from rooftops and many victims remain lying in the streets. The crackdown came as Syrian government media condemned what was called the “crimes of armed gangs” and “outside plots to divide the country.” Syrian television reported that 15 members of the army and security forces were killed in recent violence.

Afghan military pilot kills 9 Americans in Kabul
Eight U.S. troops and an American contractor were killed early Wednesday when a veteran Afghan military pilot fired on trainers during a meeting in a military compound near Kabul International Airport. The Taliban claimed responsibility in what it said was the latest attack by an insurgent infiltrator. U.S. Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins, a Pentagon spokeswoman, confirmed that all nine foreigners killed were Americans. Such attacks are part of a Taliban strategy to undermine the Afghan population’s faith in NATO troops and their own security forces as the U.S. prepares to begin drawing down its forces this summer, said Martine van Bijlert, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a Kabul-based think tank. “The image they’re portraying is, ‘We’re everywhere,'” she said of the Taliban. “‘We’re the one who are staying and we can go wherever we want.'”

Pakistan’s ISI spy service listed as terrorist group by US
US authorities describe the main Pakistani intelligence service as a terrorist organisation in secret files obtained by the Guardian. Recommendations to interrogators at Guantánamo Bay rank the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) alongside al-Qaida, Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon as threats. Being linked to any of these groups is an indication of terrorist or insurgent activity, the documents say. “Through associations with these … organisations, a detainee may have provided support to al-Qaida or the Taliban, or engaged in hostilities against US or coalition forces [in Afghanistan],” says the document, dated September 2007 and called the Joint Task Force Guantánamo Matrix of Threat Indicators for Enemy Combatants. It adds that links to these groups is evidence that an individual poses a future threat.

Radioactivity seawater near Fukushima 20-thousand times higher than permissible annual standard
The amount of radioactivity in seawater near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is about to hit the highest-ever level recorded in history. According to the Asahi Shimhun on Sunday, officials measured 1-hundred-86 becquerels per liter of radioactive substances in the sea just 34 kilometers from the crippled power plant on April 15th. This level is about 20-thousand times higher than the permissible annual standard set by the Japanese government. The highest level of contamination in history was 2-hundred becquerels per liter in the Irish Sea in the 1970s when a nuclear fuel reprocessing factory discharged cesium-137. Meanwhile, Tokyo is reportedly considering building an underground wall near the Fukushima power plant to contain the spread of radioactive material through soil and groundwater.

26 Jumada I 1432
2011/04/29