Panetta hopeful of Iraqi deal on US troops (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed hope Monday that the United States and Iraq can soon reach agreement on a possible U.S. military training role in Iraq beyond Dec. 31, when all American troops are scheduled to depart.

Panetta's remarks contrasted with indications from a senior Obama administration official and a senior U.S. military official on Saturday that the U.S. is abandoning plans to keep any troops in Iraq past the year-end withdrawal deadline ? other than about 160 troops who would be attached to the U.S. Embassy.

Panetta and other top U.S. officials have pressed the Iraqis for months to decide whether they want a substantial U.S. military training mission in 2012. During his first visit to Baghdad as Pentagon chief in July, Panetta appeared exasperated by the Iraqis, at one point saying, "Damn it, make a decision."

But more recently Obama administration officials have displayed less of a public sense of urgency, while noting that the current U.S. force of about 39,500 troops is on track to shrink to zero by year's end.

"At the present time I'm not discouraged because we're still in negotiations with the Iraqis," Panetta said Monday when asked by a reporter whether the talks had hit an impasse. He said James Jeffrey, the U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, and Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the top U.S. commander there, were in "discussions with Iraqi leaders" that could still yield agreement on a post-2011 U.S. military presence.

Asked whether the U.S. had given the Iraqis a "drop dead" date beyond which the U.S. would not agree to halt its troop drawdown, Panetta said, "No, not at this point," adding, "We're continuing to negotiate."

In comments aired Monday in Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said there will be no post-2011 U.S. military training mission if the Obama administration insists on legal immunity for its troops.

Speaking to Al-Masar television station, which is affiliated with al-Maliki's Dawa Party, he emphasized the Iraq security forces' need for further training but said the immunity issue remains a sticking point. The U.S. routinely negotiates legal protections for troops based abroad.

"We have said from the beginning and the political blocs have said as well that there is a necessity for training, but the size is being left to the Iraqi technical side, while the immunity we had said is not possible and from the beginning we have said that it can't get the approval from the parliament," he said.

The prime minister said there is a "NATO alternative," although he did not describe what he meant by that.

NATO has a small training presence in Iraq now and is in talks over continuing that mission into next year. But putting more U.S. troops under the NATO umbrella would face similar challenges over how to protect them legally.

Al-Maliki also mentioned the possibility of using non-military personnel such as contractors to provide training.

The interview with Al-Masar television was recorded Saturday.

At the State Department, spokesman Mark Toner said no final decisions about a future U.S. military presence have been made. He would not discuss what is preventing the sides from reaching agreement.

"I would just say that discussions with Iraqis about the nature of that relationship are ongoing," Toner said.

Panetta did not specify what was under negotiation, but his press secretary, George Little, told reporters that the talks on the future U.S.-Iraqi security relationship include discussion of a U.S. military training mission. He said this would be in addition to the work of the Office of Security Cooperation, which is an arm of the U.S. Embassy and is headed by a three-star U.S. Army general. That office is charged with facilitating Iraqi arms purchases and training the Iraqis on how to use and maintain them.

What would be lacking, if there is no broader U.S. military training mission, is the collective training of Iraqi ground and air forces on how to maneuver on the battlefield with key weapons like tanks and artillery. U.S. officials have said the Iraqi military currently lacks the ability to defend the country's borders and air space. It also has substantial gaps in the fields of intelligence, logistics and medical evacuation.

___

Associated Press writer Mazin Yahya in Baghdad contributed to this report.

___

Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111017/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_iraq

aj burnett jason wu jason wu the fall the fall kellen winslow ben folds

Sea levels to continue to rise for 500 years? Long-term climate calculations suggest so

ScienceDaily (Oct. 17, 2011) ? Rising sea levels in the coming centuries is perhaps one of the most catastrophic consequences of rising temperatures. Massive economic costs, social consequences and forced migrations could result from global warming. But how frightening of times are we facing? Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute are part of a team that has calculated the long-term outlook for rising sea levels in relation to the emission of greenhouse gases and pollution of the atmosphere using climate models.

The results have been published in the scientific journal Global and Planetary Change.

"Based on the current situation we have projected changes in sea level 500 years into the future. We are not looking at what is happening with the climate, but are focusing exclusively on sea levels," explains Aslak Grinsted, a researcher at the Centre for Ice and Climate, the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen.

Model based on actual measurements

He has developed a model in collaboration with researchers from England and China that is based on what happens with the emission of greenhouse gases and aerosols and the pollution of the atmosphere. Their model has been adjusted backwards to the actual measurements and was then used to predict the outlook for rising sea levels.

The research group has made calculations for four scenarios: a pessimistic one, an optimistic one, and two more realistic ones.

In the pessimistic scenario, emissions continue to increase. This will mean that sea levels will rise 1.1 meters by the year 2100 and will have risen 5.5 meters by the year 2500.

Even in the most optimistic scenario, which requires extremely dramatic climate change goals, major technological advances and strong international cooperation to stop emitting greenhouse gases and polluting the atmosphere, the sea would continue to rise. By the year 2100 it will have risen by 60 cm and by the year 2500 the rise in sea level will be 1.8 meters.

For the two more realistic scenarios, calculated based on the emissions and pollution stabilizing, the results show that there will be a sea level rise of about 75 cm by the year 2100 and that by the year 2500 the sea will have risen by 2 meters.

Rising sea levels for centuries

"In the 20th century sea has risen by an average of 2mm per year, but it is accelerating and over the last decades the rise in sea level has gone approximately 70% faster. Even if we stabilize the concentrations in the atmosphere and stop emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we can see that the rise in sea level will continue to accelerate for several centuries because of the sea and ice caps long reaction time. So it would be 2-400 years before we returned to the 20th century level of a 2 mm rise per year," says Aslak Grinsted.

He points out that even though long-term calculations are subject to uncertainties, the sea will continue to rise in the coming centuries and it will most likely rise by 75 cm by the year 2100 and by the year 2500 the sea will have risen by 2 meters.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Copenhagen, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

  1. S. Jevrejeva, J.C. Moore, A. Grinsted. Sea level projections to AD2500 with a new generation of climate change scenarios. Global and Planetary Change, 2011; DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2011.09.006

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111017102601.htm

j. cole joe namath austin weather sacramento kings lisa vanderpump pef pef

NBC uses Twitter to help launch new drama 'Grimm' (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? NBC is giving Twitter users a sneak peek at one of its new fall series.

Two weeks before the drama "Grimm" debuts on NBC, the network is making the first episode available to those who follow the show handle on Twitter.

Starting Friday, those people will receive a direct tweet with access information to preview the Oct. 28 premiere episode of "Grimm" (9 p.m. EDT).

NBC will also be screening the episode in 10 cities nationwide, starting Tuesday in Los Angeles and including Portland, Ore., where "Grimm" is filmed. Some of the show's producers and cast members will be on hand for the Los Angeles and Portland events.

Showings are also set for Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Denver, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Seattle.

NBC Entertainment Marketing President Len Fogge, who announced the campaign Friday, said it's a unique approach that matches the nature of the drama.

"Grimm" is a crime drama with supernatural overtones inspired by the classic Grimm Brothers fairy tales. The show stars David Giuntoli as a homicide detective who discovers he's the descendant of an elite line of criminal profilers.

Other cast members are Bitsie Tulloch, Russell Hornsby, Silas Weir Mitchell, Reggie Lee and Sasha Roiz.

NBC's promotion of the series also includes a 20-minute preview available on the network's website, Hulu, iTunes and elsewhere.

___

Online:

"Grimm" Twitter handle: http://www.twitter.com/NBCGrimm

http://www.nbc.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111014/ap_en_tv/us_tv_nbc_grimm

national geographic patrick swayze apartments apartments route 66 cindy crawford lynyrd skynyrd

Genetic Profiling Adds New Dimension to Breast Cancer Treatment (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Treatment for breast cancer has advanced in recent years by becoming more and more personalized.

Not personalized to the patient, mind you, but to the particular tumors and cancer cells inside that patient.

New tests are allowing doctors to figure out what genetic or biological factors are driving each individual woman's type of cancer, and new therapies are being targeted to directly attack those specific factors.

"When it comes to treating breast cancer, we used to throw the book at everyone," said Dr. Christy A. Russell, a board member of the American Cancer Society's California division and an associate professor at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. "Now it's much more targeted."

That's a message worth sharing during October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The same five treatment options are still available to women with breast cancer: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy and targeted therapy. But researchers are honing and improving each option, either to better target the cancer cells or to provide women with a wider range of treatment choices.

"Within each of those types of treatment modalities, we are refining how the treatment is delivered or how we choose which treatment is appropriate for each patient," said Susan Brown, a registered nurse and director of health education for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a nonprofit group focused on fighting breast cancer.

For example, there have been few advances in creating new chemotherapy drugs to battle breast cancer, Russell said. "What has changed is trying to figure out who will benefit from chemotherapy," she said. "We are taking the cancers and having them evaluated genetically, to give us some genetic signatures to tell us if those cancers would shrink if they got chemotherapy."

This "genomic profiling" of a woman's specific cancer has "reduced the number of women with early breast cancer who are having to be treated with chemotherapy," Russell said.

One new test in particular, Oncotype DX, is being used to help women who would most likely benefit from hormone therapy because their cancer is spurred by estrogen or other female hormones.

Oncotype DX analyzes the genetic makeup of breast cancer cells to determine the likelihood that a woman's particular cancer will recur after hormone therapy treatment. If the likelihood is high, doctors will recommend that the woman undergo both hormone therapy and chemotherapy, Brown said.

"This information can help doctors decide whether to add chemotherapy to a treatment regimen that already includes hormone therapy," she said.

Doctors also have learned to analyze cancers for specific factors that, if blocked, can make chemotherapy more effective in killing the cancer cells.

About one-fourth of all breast cancer patients have cancer cells containing mutated forms of HER2neu, a gene that promotes the creation of a growth factor protein.

"In some breast cancers, instead of the cancer cells having two copies of the gene, the cells have 10 or 20 or more copies of the gene," Russell said. "The gene is producing a protein that causes the cell to grow much more rapidly and uncontrollably."

Treatment with a drug called trastuzumab (Herceptin) can block the growth signals transmitted by the gene, slowing the progress of the cancer and making it more susceptible to chemotherapy, Russell said.

"Most of the research going on now is trying to figure out how to combine these new targeted agents with chemotherapy so we can focus in on the specific gene abnormalities that are going on in the cells," she said.

This type of research also is combating the ability of cancer to grow resistant to chemotherapy and hormone therapy.

Researchers have learned that a growth factor protein known as mTOR promotes the spread of cancer cells and can bolster their resistance to hormone therapy, Russell said.

"Medications that act as mTOR inhibitors appear to be able to make some cancer cells that have become resistant to hormone therapy become sensitive to the therapy again," Russell said. "There are many pathways we are aware of that cancer cells are able [to use] to overcome their ability to be killed by chemotherapy. All of these different gene pathways are becoming known, and, as they are becoming known, they are developing drugs that are targeting those pathways. That's where the majority of the clinical trials are occurring."

Which means it is essential for women with breast cancer to participate in clinical trials, Brown said.

"Currently, fewer than 5 percent of patients enroll in clinical trials," she said. "The only way we're going to know more is if we are able to translate what we think we've learned in a lab into a clinical situation," Brown explained.

"Everything we know about breast cancer now is because of the very courageous women who came before us and enrolled in clinical trials," Brown added.

More information

The American Cancer Society has a detailed guide to breast cancer.

A companion article describes one woman's account of how breast cancer changed her life.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111014/hl_hsn/geneticprofilingaddsnewdimensiontobreastcancertreatment

silver bullet cj wilson joshua komisarjevsky russell simmons russell simmons joseph kony joseph kony

Video: Cain mistakes flavor

iPhone launch turns into remembrance for Jobs

It wasn't just the latest iPhone that drew people to Apple stores Friday. Many consumers waited in lines for hours ? sometimes enduring chilly temperatures and overnight thunderstorms ? to remember Steve Jobs, Apple's visionary who died last week.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/44909289#44909289

michael jackson autopsy michael jackson autopsy liberace liberace repudiate mitt romney avengers

More than 100 authors support Wall St. protests

NEW YORK (AP) ? Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists Jennifer Egan and Michael Cunningham are among more than 100 authors who in an online petition are declaring their support for Occupy Wall Street.

The petition on http://occupywriters.com/ reads: "We, the undersigned writers and all who will join us, support Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement around the world."

Others supporting the protests include "Lemony Snicket" author Daniel Handler, Barbara Ehrenreich, Ann Patchett and Andre Dubus III.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-10-14-Books-Occupy%20Wall%20Street/id-9caaa81d43444544b37753c815828df0

andy whitfield dr. phil dr. phil philippines hgtv design star definition of love creature

Life Insurance Tips to Save Money

Life Insurance Tips to Save Money is what you find in this page. You can also get recent images and videos for : Life Insurance Tips to Save Money.



Expression life insurance will be the quickest sort of life insurance to be aware of. To place it purely, the insured man or woman pays a minimum top quality for each thousand pounds of protection on an yearly, semi yearly, quarterly or once a month foundation. If she or he dies inside the phrase on the coverage, the life insurance provider pays the beneficiary the confront appeal in the coverage.

Unique Attributes of Expression Life Insurance

To greater recognize several of the unique benefits of expression life insurance give consideration to the next factors:

To begin with, expression life insurance is "pure insurance" given that after you acquire a phrase insurance coverage you're only purchasing a "death benefit". ?n contrast to with other variations of "permanent insurance" these as complete life, universal life, and variable universal life, there isn't any increased dollars worth created up using this form of coverage. Phrase insurance only provides you with a particular loss of life reward.

2nd, the protection is for just a defined time frame (the "term") this kind of as one yr, five decades, ten ages, fifteen ages, and so forth. One time the coverage is in power, it only stays in pressure till the conclusion from the expression -- assuming you shell out the rates, not surprisingly.

3rd, most expression insurance policies are renewable for the conclude from the phrase. With what on earth is often known as "Level Expression Life Insurance", the loss of life profit stays similar all over the phrase with the coverage, but considering the fact that the insured individual is obtaining older, the top quality will progressively improve. As time goes because of the expenses of the stage expression insurance coverage can come to be better than you might be inclined to pay for for any uncomplicated loss of life reward. An alternate stands out as the "Decreasing Phrase Life Insurance" coverage during which the top quality stays precisely the same, however the loss of life gain goes down as time goes by.

Fourth, most expression policies is usually transformed to everlasting policies inside a particular amount of a long time. If you make your mind up it truly is vital to keep the insurance protection, changing might be some thing you'll want to approach for. You'll be able to anticipate the accelerating expenses of phrase insurance rates and transform your coverage prior to the rates end up prohibitively huge. It is legitimate that with the limited expression the top quality will ordinarily be increased than in the event you stayed along with the expression coverage. But about the extended phrase this big difference will lower due to the quick acceleration in the phrase insurance top quality while you get older. A everlasting coverage also accumulates money worth which improves the whole demise profit compensated in your beneficiary.

Common Makes use of of Expression Life Insurance

Life Insurance


Expression life insurance is most correct each time you desire to defend your beneficiaries from a sudden personal stress because the final result of your respective loss of life. Right here are a few of the most frequent works by using of expression life insurance.

Individual Expenses Because of to Loss of life - Each time a husband or wife or member of the family dies there'll be speedy fees. Some people order a comparatively small-scale phrase life insurance coverage to cover these charges.

Mortgage loan Insurance - Financial institutions and personal establishments frequently insist that home loan holders keep a phrase life insurance coverage enough to pay for out their mortgage loan. This sort of policies make the financial institution the beneficiary from the coverage. If the mortgage loan holder should really transpire to die prior to the home loan is compensated off, the insurance coverage can pay it out. This is often also an excellent advantage to some partner whose earning electricity will possible be diminished because of the demise of her or his associate.

Enterprise Companion Insurance - Phrase insurance can also be put to use by home business many people to cover excellent loans with their lender, or to buy a deceased partner's shares on demise, whenever they had an arrangement to take action. Most partnerships have an arrangement of this kind, as well as coverage rates are compensated because of the company.

  1. Life Insurance Tips to Save Money images
  2. Picture gallery of Life Insurance Tips to Save Money

Very informative article about Life Insurance Tips to Save Money. Thank you so much

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/googlemoneyscam/~3/zIFJR8S2FkA/life-insurance-tips-to-save-money.html

iaa blackberry torch 2 the closer ea sports miami dolphins ovarian cancer symptoms angola

A Legal Loophole For Raw Milk Lovers: Call It 'Pet Food' | KOSU Radio

Filed by KOSU News in US News.
October 13, 2011

Food fresh from the farm is undeniably appealing. Raw milk enthusiasts take it one step further: They like their milk fresh from the cow ? skipping pasteurization.

But it?s illegal to sell raw milk in stores in most U.S. states, and fans have been known to go to great lengths to buy dairy in its purest form. Last year, we told you about one Maryland mom who regularly drives almost two hours to a farm in Pennsylvania to buy unpasteurized milk for her family ? paying $5 to $7 per gallon.

In a handful of states that ban raw dairy sales for human consumption, however, it seems some aficionados are taking advantage of a legal loophole: It?s perfectly legit to buy it as pet food.

That appears to be the case in Florida, where about a dozen new farms signed up to sell raw milk as ?commercial feed? in the past year, bringing the total number of registered farms to 46, according to the Sun Sentinel. Of course, it?s impossible to know how much of this ?pet milk? is getting slurped up by Fido or by his masters. But ?state officials acknowledge that there?s an underground supply chain? for human consumption, the paper reports.

In fact, labeling raw milk as pet food is one of several known ?moo-nshine? strategies employed by farmers looking to circumvent state and federal legal bans. ?FDA is aware of reports like those in the Florida Sun Sentinel,? FDA spokesperson Stephanie Yao tells The Salt.

Such subterfuge is necessary in a ?dysfunctional? legal landscape, argues Pete Kennedy, the president of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which represents some 2,000 individual farmers across the U.S. who sell raw milk, and some 3,000 members of raw milk-buying clubs.

?The consumption of raw milk is legal in every state in the country,? Kennedy says. ?But you have 20 states where the sale is illegal. So you have this right with some people unable to exercise it.?

Laws against raw milk sales stem from health concerns. The FDA says pasteurization is necessary to kill harmful bacteria like E. coli, Salmonella and listeria that might linger in raw milk. Between 1998 an 2008, drinking raw milk was linked to two deaths and more than 1,600 reports of illness, according to the FDA.

But advocates for raw milk say it?s worth the risk. It has a creamier, more complex flavor than the pasteurized variety. They say pasteurization ? in which milk is heated to 161 degrees Fahrenheit to kill microbes ? also kills vital nutrients, a claim the FDA dismisses.

It?s up to individual states to decide how raw milk is sold within their boundaries, and 30 of them allow it in some form, according to a recent survey by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

But federal law prohibits the interstate sale of raw milk for human consumption. And in recent years, the feds have cracked down on at least one California dairy farmer, Mark McAfee, who tried to skirt the ban by selling the raw stuff to out-of-state customers as ?pet food.? It probably didn?t help McAfee?s case that he bragged about his legal loophole to a Portland newspaper. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]

Source: http://kosu.org/2011/10/a-legal-loophole-for-raw-milk-lovers-call-it-pet-food/

kelly cutrone kelly cutrone florida marlins dancing with the stars 2011 dwts bill buckner christmas island

UN Torture Report Stirs Pressure for Congressional Response (The Nation)

The Nation -- Ten years after promising that human rights would be protected in Afghanistan, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has verified ?systemic torture? by Afghan security forces trained and funded by the United States.

The UN report, described in a lead New York Times story on October 10, is triggering calls once again for enforcement of the so-called Leahy Law, passed in the 1990s, which prohibits any US funding, weapons or training to security force units in other countries committing gross human rights violations. A loophole in the Leahy Law, however, allows Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to waive the ban by issuing a finding that the Afghan government is taking remedial measures, including bringing responsible members of the torture units ?to justice,? and that ?all necessary corrective steps have been taken.?

No one in Congress has introduced language to expose and defund US assistance to human rights violators like the Afghan security forces, but the time may be approaching. The gravity of the UN report is stirring new concern in NATO countries and may make it impossible to continue routine evasions of the Leahy Law here.

Responding to the report, Tom Malinowski of Human Rights Watch told The Nation that the United States ?should suspend any training or assistance to the Afghan security units implicated in this abuse until it?s clear that the government is taking remedial action, including by holding those responsible accountable.? Malinowski questioned whether secret CIA assistance to Afghanistan?s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, will be included in any action taken by the administration. The prohibition, he said, ?should be applied to any assistance provided to the NDS, whether it is coming through accounts technically governed by the Leahy amendment or not.?

A senior staff representative of Senator Leahy told The Nation that ?we have been back and forth with the Pentagon about this for months.?

A more cynical view is that periodic efforts to end torture and implement human rights are a game of cosmetic necessity for Western governments stung by the Abu Ghraib scandal in Iraq and those who promised a new day for women's rights in a modern Afghanistan.

The United Nations, which officially authorized the Afghanistan military mission, is sensitive to claims that a regime of systemic torture has been the result. The new finding of systemic torture is a stinging new development, but the UN report still goes on to maintain that ?reform is both possible and desired,? despite the voluminous evidence their investigators collected in the 2010-11 period. Top diplomats fret that the report might ?undermine the strategic partnership? envisioned between Afghanistan, the European Union and the United States.?

A 2009 report by the UN's Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), ?Arbitrary Detention in Afghanistan ?- A Call for Action,? had virtually no impact on the internal organs of torture revealed in the current document. Of 379 detainees interviewed in the current study, UNAMA found a pattern and practice of torture including twisting of genitals, electric shock, beatings with rubber hoses, clubs and cables, ripping out of toenails, blindfolding, hanging from the wrists, forced standing--an entire repertoire of standard torture techniques in violation of the international Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The patterns often seem purely sadistic, not attempts to gather actual information: ??it was not necessarily inflicted with the primary purpose of acquiring a particular piece of information during the beating itself.?

The physical terror is accompanied by a denial of the human rights standards required by international law and treaties, all signed by the Afghan government. In one of many telling examples, an NDS official stated this view of the right of detainees to defense counsel: ?Of course not! Lawyers have no access to the facility during the pre-trial detention; this is one of NDS? principles?. Lawyers can influence their clients and compromise the investigation. If we allow lawyers to interact with our detainees they will damage our work. Interrogation of the arrested person must be performed in the absence of any external person.? Only one of the 324 conflict-related detainees interviewed said they had defense counsel.

In almost all criminal cases, the report notes, the case against a defendant is based on a confession ?which the court usually finds both persuasive and conclusive of the defendant?s guilt?[often] confessions are the sole form of evidence.? Confessions are rarely examined at trial and rarely challenged.? The list of possible offenses under Afghanistan?s ?Law on Crimes against Internal and External Security? include treason, sabotage, terrorism and ?propaganda against the government.?

The report confirms that most if not all the funding for the NDS comes from international sources. The NDS is a secret agency whose payroll is estimated at 15,000-30,000. The agency operates without any judicial oversight.

Between 2009 and 2010 alone, the United States, Canada, Britain and other Western militaries transferred some 2,000 individuals to the Afghan detention system. Public pressure and court rulings in Canada and Britain led to a suspension of many of those transfers and implemented certain monitoring programs. But the new report says on page 39 that the United States ?has not yet put in place a monitoring program to track detainees it hands over to Afghan authorities,? though such a program was ordered by President Obama in January 2009.

There are troubling questions the UN report never touches. With US leverage waning as 33,000 troops prepare to leave Afghanistan in the next year, what reason is there to believe that any human rights safeguards will be left behind? Or has the outsourcing of torture been a way to protect funding, keep human rights groups at bay and protect the US image after Abu Ghraib? Is this what remains of the concept of humanitarian intervention?

Like this article? Try 4 issues of The Nation at home (and online) FREE.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20111014/cm_thenation/163999

seven days in utopia seo seo national geographic patrick swayze apartments apartments