Saturday, April 21, 2007
Tillman's death led Armyto seal off information
SAN FRANCISCO -- Within hours of Pat Tillman's death, the Army went into information-lockdown mode, cutting off phone and Internet connections at a base in Afghanistan, posting guards on a wounded platoon mate and ordering a sergeant to burn Tillman's uniform. New Army investigative documents reviewed by The Associated Press describe how the military sealed off information about Tillman's death from all but a small ring of soldiers. Officers quietly passed their suspicion of friendly fire up the chain to the highest ranks of the military, but the truth did not reach Tillman's family for five weeks. The clampdown, and the misinformation issued by the military, lie at the heart of a burgeoning congressional investigation. "We want to find out how this happened," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House oversight committee, which has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday.
Government postedSocial Security numbers
WASHINGTON -- The Social Security numbers of 63,000 people who received Agriculture Department grants have been posted on a government Web site since 1996, but they were taken down last week. Free credit monitoring is being offered to those affected. The security breach was only noticed last week and promptly closed, the Agriculture Department and Census Bureau announced Friday. The Agriculture data that included Social Security numbers were removed from the Web on April 13, and similar data from 32 other agencies were taken down Tuesday as a precaution, said Agriculture spokeswoman Terri Teuber. A review has determined that none of the other 32 agencies had a similar problem, said Sean Kevelighan, spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget. "There is no evidence that this information has been misused," Teuber added.
Governor breatheswithout ventilator
CAMDEN, N.J. -- Gov. Jon S. Corzine was breathing on his own again Friday after doctors removed a breathing tube he'd been using since he was critically injured in an April 12 high-speed crash, his spokesman said. Doctors removed the tube shortly before 12:30 p.m. Friday, spokesman Anthony Coley said. Breathing unassisted moves Corzine closer to having his condition upgraded. He has been listed as critical but stable since he was brought to Cooper University Hospital last week. Corzine broke a leg and several bones in his chest, including 11 ribs, when the sport utility vehicle he was riding in wrecked on the Garden State Parkway north of Atlantic City. He was placed on a ventilator to ease the pain of breathing, doctors said.
Pope revises limbo
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI has reversed centuries of traditional Roman Catholic teaching on limbo, approving a Vatican report released Friday that says there were "serious" grounds to hope that children who die without being baptized can go to heaven. Theologians said the move was highly significant -- both for what it says about Benedict's willingness to buck a long-standing tenet of Catholic belief and for what it means theologically about the Church's views on heaven, hell and original sin -- the sin that the faithful believe all children are born with. Although Catholics have long believed that children who die without being baptized are with original sin and thus excluded from heaven, the Church has no formal doctrine on the matter. Theologians, however, have long taught that such children enjoy an eternal state of perfect natural happiness, a state commonly called limbo, but without being in communion with God.
Pakistani militantbeheaded by boy
KILI FAQIRAN, Pakistan -- The boy with the knife looks barely 12. In a high-pitched voice, he denounces the bound, blindfolded man before him as an American spy. Then he hacks off the captive's head to cries of "God is great!" and hoists it in triumph by the hair. A video circulating in Pakistan records the grisly death of Ghulam Nabi, a Pakistani militant accused of betraying a top Taliban official who was killed in a December airstrike in Afghanistan. An Associated Press reporter confirmed Nabi's identity by visiting his family in Kili Faqiran, their remote village in southwestern Pakistan. The video, which was obtained by AP Television News in the border city of Peshawar on Tuesday, appears authentic and is unprecedented in jihadist propaganda because of the youth of the executioner. Captions mention Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban's current top commander in southern Afghanistan, although he does not appear in the video. The soundtrack features songs praising Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar and "Sheik Osama" -- an apparent reference to Osama bin Laden, who is suspected of hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
Associated Press