U.S. issues travel alert after bin Laden killing

WASHINGTON: The U.S. State Department on Sunday warned Americans worldwide of “enhanced potential for anti-American violence” following the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

“Given the uncertainty and volatility of the current situation, U.S. citizens in areas where events could cause anti-American violence are strongly urged to limit their travel outside of their homes and hotels and avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations,” the State Department said in a statement.

WikiLeaks Release of Classified Information to be Condemned: Clinton

The United States deeply regrets any disclosure of classified information, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday in her first comment on the release of State Department cables by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.

I can say that the United States deeply regrets the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential, including private discussions between counterparts or our diplomats’ personal assessments and observations. I want to make clear that our official foreign policy is not set through these messages but here in Washington, she told reporters at a press conference. I want you to know that we are taking aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information. I have directed that specific actions be taken at the State Department. In addition to new security safe guards at the Department of Defense and elsewhere to protect State Department information so this kind of breech cannot and does not ever happen again, Clinton said.

Clinton said the release of such documents undermines US efforts to work with other countries but she was confident US relations would withstand the challenge posed by the disclosures. The White House, Pentagon and State Department have all said that they are tightening up procedures to ensure that such disclosures do not occur again.

US Worried at New WikiLeaks’ Release

WASHINGTON: The United States is concerned about a big dumping of classified documents by WikiLeaks which is expected to include diplomatic cables.

“We are gearing up for the worst-case scenario, that leaked cables will touch on a wide range of issues and countries,” Crowley told media.

The spokesman added that “we’ve known all along that WikiLeaks has in its possession State Department cables.”

“We are prepared if this upcoming tranche of documents includes State Department cables. We are in touch with our posts around the world. They have begun the process of informing governments that a release of documents is possible in the near future,” Crowley said.

He said that diplomatic cables, messages between US posts around the world, “involve discussions that we had with government officials, with private citizens.”

“Inherent in this day-to-day action is trust that we can convey our perspectives to other governments in confidence,” he said. Breaking that confidence “has an impact.”

“These revelations… are going to create tensions on our relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world,” he said.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said that US officials were expecting a possible release of documents “late this week or early next week.”

“I’m not going to talk specifics but I would say that even though they are believed to be State Department documents, classified cables, there are some that contain DoD (Department of Defense) related issues.

WikiLeaks has not said what will be contained in its coming release, indicating only that it will be “seven times” the Iraq War logs in which it posted 400,000 secret documents.

A new posting would mark WikiLeaks’ third mass release of classified documents after it published 77,000 secret US files on the Afghan conflict in July.

WikiLeaks argues the release of the documents, US-soldier authored incident reports from 2004 to 2009, has shed light on the wars, including allegations of torture by Iraqi forces and reports that suggested 15,000 additional civilian deaths in Iraq.

WikiLeaks’ announcement Monday came just days after Sweden issued an international arrest warrant for the website’s head, Australian national Julian Assange, wanted for questioning related to rape and sexual molestation accusations.

US worried about new WikiLeaks’ release

WASHINGTON: The United States is concerned about a big dumping of classified documents by WikiLeaks which is expected to include diplomatic cables, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.

“We are gearing up for the worst-case scenario, that leaked cables will touch on a wide range of issues and countries,” Crowley told AFP.

The spokesman added that “we’ve known all along that WikiLeaks has in its possession State Department cables.”

“We are prepared if this upcoming tranche of documents includes State Department cables. We are in touch with our posts around the world. They have begun the process of informing governments that a release of documents is possible in the near future,” Crowley said.

He said that diplomatic cables, messages between US posts around the world, “involve discussions that we had with government officials, with private

‘Blackwater’ Clinches Part of $10b Deal With US State Dept

A notorious private military company ‘Blackwater’ has won yet another government security contract, despite its long and continuing trail of legal problems, an Arab TV reported on Saturday.
Bidding under a new name, Xe Services won a share this week of a $10 billion State Department deal to provide protective services for American embassies abroad. Two months ago a Xe affiliate, US Training Center, won a $100 million security contract from the CIA. But at least it used its own name for that.
In its latest score, Xe employed a new business vehicle, International Development Solutions, a blandly named cut-out, in the description of Danger Rooms Spencer Ackerman, who first reported the deal on Friday. No one who looks at the official announcement of the contract award would have any idea that firm is connected to Blackwater, Ackerman wrote. But the State Department confirmed that US Training Center, which it described as part of International Development Solutions (IDS), won the contract in a joint venture with Kaseman, a McLean, Va., security services firm, whose board is stocked with top former State Department and CIA officials.Kasemans board of directors includes Henry A. Crumpton, a former coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department, and Kara L. Bue, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for regional stability who had previously served as special assistant to Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage during the George W. Bush administration. Other board members include former NSA and CIA director Michael V. Hayden; Donald M. Kerr, a longtime former CIA official who also served as principal deputy to the director of national intelligence; and former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who sat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. A number of top former military officials also serve on the board, including retired Marine Corps general and U.S Central Command chief Anthony Zinni, and retired Navy Adm. Stephen F. Loftus, a former chief financial officer at the powerhouse D.C. firm Carlyle Management Group. On Tuesday, Sept. 28, the day before the State Department deal was announced, Kaseman added Herbert J. Lanese, a former president of security giant DynCorp, to its board. DynCorp is one of the eight firms sharing in the new security contract.Spokesmen for Kaseman declined to answer questions about its partnership with Xe and what role, if any, it played in securing the State Department contract. For its part, the State Department said, This joint venture was determined by the Departments source selection authority to be eligible for award.In August Xe, which is up for sale, negotiated a $42 million fine with the federal government related to illegal weapons exports to Afghanistan, as well as to other accusations. In addition, former Blackwater executives have been targeted in a half dozen civil suits and prosecutions, including one against five former Blackwater guards in connection with the death of 17 Iraqis during a Baghdad shootout in September 2007. Two company-affiliated guards are also being prosecuted on murder charges stemming from a 2009 shooting in Afghanistan. In the meantime, two former Blackwater employees have filed a suit alleging that the firm’s founder, Erik Prince, and his companies defrauded the departments of State and Homeland Security. Xe has denied wrongdoing.

‘Blackwater’ clinches part of $10b deal with US State Dept

A notorious private military company ‘Blackwater’ has won yet another government security contract, despite its long and continuing trail of legal problems, an Arab TV reported on Saturday.
Bidding under a new name, Xe Services won a share this week of a $10 billion State Department deal to provide protective services for American embassies abroad. Two months ago a Xe affiliate, US Training Center, won a $100 million security contract from the CIA. But at least it used its own name for that.
In its latest score, Xe employed a new business vehicle, International Development Solutions, a blandly named cut-out, in the description of Danger Rooms Spencer Ackerman, who first reported the deal on Friday. No one who looks at the official announcement of the contract award would have any idea that firm is connected to Blackwater, Ackerman wrote. But the State Department confirmed that US Training Center, which it described as part of International Development Solutions (IDS), won the contract in a joint venture with Kaseman, a McLean, Va., security services firm, whose board is stocked with top former State Department and CIA officials.Kasemans board of directors includes Henry A. Crumpton, a former coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department, and Kara L. Bue, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for regional stability who had previously served as special assistant to Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage during the George W. Bush administration. Other board members include former NSA and CIA director Michael V. Hayden; Donald M. Kerr, a longtime former CIA official who also served as principal deputy to the director of national intelligence; and former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who sat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. A number of top former military officials also serve on the board, including retired Marine Corps general and U.S Central Command chief Anthony Zinni, and retired Navy Adm. Stephen F. Loftus, a former chief financial officer at the powerhouse D.C. firm Carlyle Management Group. On Tuesday, Sept. 28, the day before the State Department deal was announced, Kaseman added Herbert J. Lanese, a former president of security giant DynCorp, to its board. DynCorp is one of the eight firms sharing in the new security contract.Spokesmen for Kaseman declined to answer questions about its partnership with Xe and what role, if any, it played in securing the State Department contract. For its part, the State Department said, This joint venture was determined by the Departments source selection authority to be eligible for award.In August Xe, which is up for sale, negotiated a $42 million fine with the federal government related to illegal weapons exports to Afghanistan, as well as to other accusations. In addition, former Blackwater executives have been targeted in a half dozen civil suits and prosecutions, including one against five former Blackwater guards in connection with the death of 17 Iraqis during a Baghdad shootout in September 2007. Two company-affiliated guards are also being prosecuted on murder charges stemming from a 2009 shooting in Afghanistan. In the meantime, two former Blackwater employees have filed a suit alleging that the firm’s founder, Erik Prince, and his companies defrauded the departments of State and Homeland Security. Xe has denied wrongdoing.

‘Blackwater’ clinches part of $10b deal with US State Dept

A notorious private military company ‘Blackwater’ has won yet another government security contract, despite its long and continuing trail of legal problems, an Arab TV reported on Saturday.
Bidding under a new name, Xe Services won a share this week of a $10 billion State Department deal to provide protective services for American embassies abroad. Two months ago a Xe affiliate, US Training Center, won a $100 million security contract from the CIA. But at least it used its own name for that.
In its latest score, Xe employed a new business vehicle, International Development Solutions, a blandly named cut-out, in the description of Danger Rooms Spencer Ackerman, who first reported the deal on Friday. No one who looks at the official announcement of the contract award would have any idea that firm is connected to Blackwater, Ackerman wrote. But the State Department confirmed that US Training Center, which it described as part of International Development Solutions (IDS), won the contract in a joint venture with Kaseman, a McLean, Va., security services firm, whose board is stocked with top former State Department and CIA officials.Kasemans board of directors includes Henry A. Crumpton, a former coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department, and Kara L. Bue, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for regional stability who had previously served as special assistant to Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage during the George W. Bush administration. Other board members include former NSA and CIA director Michael V. Hayden; Donald M. Kerr, a longtime former CIA official who also served as principal deputy to the director of national intelligence; and former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who sat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. A number of top former military officials also serve on the board, including retired Marine Corps general and U.S Central Command chief Anthony Zinni, and retired Navy Adm. Stephen F. Loftus, a former chief financial officer at the powerhouse D.C. firm Carlyle Management Group. On Tuesday, Sept. 28, the day before the State Department deal was announced, Kaseman added Herbert J. Lanese, a former president of security giant DynCorp, to its board. DynCorp is one of the eight firms sharing in the new security contract.Spokesmen for Kaseman declined to answer questions about its partnership with Xe and what role, if any, it played in securing the State Department contract. For its part, the State Department said, This joint venture was determined by the Departments source selection authority to be eligible for award.In August Xe, which is up for sale, negotiated a $42 million fine with the federal government related to illegal weapons exports to Afghanistan, as well as to other accusations. In addition, former Blackwater executives have been targeted in a half dozen civil suits and prosecutions, including one against five former Blackwater guards in connection with the death of 17 Iraqis during a Baghdad shootout in September 2007. Two company-affiliated guards are also being prosecuted on murder charges stemming from a 2009 shooting in Afghanistan. In the meantime, two former Blackwater employees have filed a suit alleging that the firm’s founder, Erik Prince, and his companies defrauded the departments of State and Homeland Security. Xe has denied wrongdoing.

US Implores Americans not to Visit NKorea

US Implores Americans not to Visit NKorea , The State Department on Friday urged Americans to respect its warning against traveling to North Korea, saying in a cheeky Twitter message that there are not too many former U.S. presidents left available for rescue missions.

In a Tweet posted shortly after former President Jimmy Carter arrived in Boston from North Korea with American Aijalon Gomes who had been detained in the communist country for seven months, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said: “Americans should heed our travel warning and avoid North Korea. We only have a handful of former presidents.”

His message referred to the fact that Carter was the second former U.S. president to travel to North Korea in the past year to win the release of American citizens imprisoned there. Last August, former President Bill Clinton secured the release of two television reporters who had been arrested for illegally entering North Korea.

Carter’s trip means that the only living former presidents not to have rescued Americans imprisoned in North Korea are George H.W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush.

Immediately after Carter flew out of the North Korean capital of Pyongyang with Gomes late Thursday, the State Department renewed its long-standing warning for Americans not to visit the country.

“Travel by U.S. citizens to North Korea is not routine, and U.S. citizens crossing into North Korea without proper documentation, even accidentally, have been subject to arrest and long-term detention,” the warning said in bold letters.

Gomes who entered North Korea illegally in January was convicted and sentenced to a hefty fine and eight years of hard labor. The U.S. had appealed for his release on humanitarian grounds for months before Carter’s visit.

Crowley said that although the U.S. appreciated the resolution of the Gomes’ case, it was still concerned about North Korea’s “broader behavior,” a reference to its nuclear weapons program and belligerent attitude and actions toward South Korea.

1 Million Mmore Displaced by Pakistan Floods: UN

Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis fled floodwaters Friday after the surging Indus River smashed through levees in two places, but many refused to leave the danger zone while others took shelter in an ancient graveyard for Muslim saints.

More than 8 million people are in need of emergency assistance across the country. The floods began in the mountainous northwest about a month ago with the onset of monsoon rains and have moved slowly down the country toward the coast in the south, inundating vast swaths of prime agricultural land and damaging or destroying more than 1 million homes.

About 175,000 people are believed to have fled their homes overnight in the southern city of Thatta after the levee protecting the city was breached. Authorities were trying to repair the levee, about 75 miles (125 kilometers) southeast of the major coastal city of Karachi. The situation is getting worse. The water is flowing into a nearby canal endangering Thatta city.

A second breach occurred in the Soorjani levee in the same region. Thousands of people are sitting with their cattle and belongings and their lives are in danger. They are not willing to leave. Dozens of people taking shelter in the Makli Hill burial ground, one of the largest such sites in the world. The graveyard, which is not believed to be in danger, houses the ornate tombs of hundreds of Muslim saints dating from the 14th century. Protesters blocked a nearby highway with burning tires. They said they heeded evacuation orders, but now had no food, water or shelter.

UN spokesman Maurizio Giuliano said about 1 million people have been displaced in Thatta and Qambar-Shadadkot districts since Wednesday. The United Nations, the Pakistani army and a host of other local and international relief groups have been rushing aid workers, medicine, food and water to the affected regions, but are unable to reach many people.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said the U.N. remained committed to helping the flood victims. We will obviously take these threats seriously as we did before, and take appropriate precautions, but we will not be deterred from doing what we believe we need to do, which is help the people of Pakistan, he told a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Nawaz Reiterates Demand for Single Flood Commission

Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Nawaz Sharif has urged that the all stake holders should stay away from politics and work jointly to provide relief to the flood affected masses of the country.
Nawaz Sharif was addressing a press conference in Lahore where he said, that despite all the shortcomings and criticism by the media, PML-N has supported the PPP-government efforts to provide relief to the flood stricken people. He added that Punjab government within its capacity is actively involved in providing relief to the masses.
Nawaz stressed that PML-N will not criticize the government and is ready to jointly tackle the menace of the flood. He urged all parties to jointly cooperate in order to send a strong message to the outside world.
PML-N chief reiterated his demand to constitute a single commission instead of multiple commissions for flood relief. He was of the view that both the military and the federal government should curb on their expenses in order to provide relief to the masses.

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