Greenspan elaborates about Iraq war and oil

Greenspan elaborates
about Iraq war and oil

WASHINGTON — Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said in an interview that the removal of Saddam Hussein had been “essential” to secure world oil supplies, a point he emphasized to the White House in private conversations before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Greenspan, who was the country’s top voice on monetary policy at the time Bush decided to go to war in Iraq, has refrained from extensive public comment on it until now, but he made the striking comment in a new memoir out today that “the Iraq war is largely about oil.” In the interview, he clarified that sentence in his 531-page book, saying that while securing global oil supplies was “not the administration’s motive,” he had presented the White House with the case for why removing Saddam was important for the global economy. “I was not saying that that’s the administration’s motive,” Greenspan said in a weekend interview. “I’m just saying that if somebody asked me, ‘Are we fortunate in taking out Saddam?’ I would say it was essential.”

Woman, 2 sons stabbed
to death at Dallas home

DALLAS — A woman and her two sons were found stabbed to death at a Dallas home and her two teenage daughters were found bound and gagged in a closet, police said. The woman’s husband remained at large Sunday. A capital murder warrant was issued Saturday for Robert Sparks, 33. Family members said Sparks was the woman’s longtime boyfriend and that the two got married earlier this year. The girls were taken to a hospital and released, police said. Authorities identified the victims as Chare Agnew, 30; Raeqwon Agnew, 10; and Harold Sublet, 9.

Conn. data was on tape
stolen in Ohio in June

HARTFORD, Conn. — A computer tape stolen in Ohio in June contained banking data on Connecticut state agencies, making the security breach more serious than previously thought, Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Sunday. Rell said in a news release that the data included information on nearly every bank account held by state agencies, including account numbers and bank names. “In essence, the state’s banking information has been laid bare,” Rell said. State Comptroller Nancy Wyman had said Friday that the tape contained only the names and Social Security numbers of 57 Connecticut residents, and that the affected people would be receiving free credit protection. Some Connecticut data was on the tape because a worker for Accenture, a consulting company working on computer systems in both states, apparently had transferred it into the Ohio computer by mistake.

7 hurt in stack demolition

CONCORD, N.H. — The demolition of three smokestacks at Berlin’s former pulp mill was meant to be a spectacle, but the big event went awry when flying debris injured seven people, none seriously.The demolition Saturday drew thousands of spectators to witness the end of the era when pulp mill smokestacks ruled Berlin’s skyline. The first two smokestacks came down without a hitch. The injuries occurred after explosives failed to topple the last of the three stacks and workers used to a cutting torch to loosen its foundation before it finally came down. Seven people were treated at a hospital for cuts and bruises.

Greek leader is re-elected

ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s conservative prime minister won re-election Sunday with a diminished majority in parliament after a financial scandal and devastating forest fires that killed more than 65 people last month. The slimmer majority could make it harder for the government to carry out crucial economic and educational reforms, including overhauling Greece’s fractured and debt-ridden pension system. “Thank you for your trust. You have spoken loud and clear and chosen the course the country will take in the next few years,” Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said as thousands of party supporters thronged the streets of central Athens, honking horns, chanting slogans and waving the blue flags of his New Democracy party.

17 die in Mexico bus crash

MEXICO CITY — An American citizen and members of a family traveling to Mexico from the U.S. for a funeral were among at least 17 passengers who died in a bus crash in western Mexico over the weekend. The bus was carrying 35 passengers from the resort city of Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara — including passengers of several detoured flights — when it went off a mountain road Saturday, bus company and government officials said.

Combined dispatches