Anthony Sampson, Anatomist of Political Power, Dies at 78

Margalit Fox, New York Times

Anthony Sampson, a British investigative journalist who was Nelson Mandela's authorized biographer, died on Saturday at his home in Wiltshire, England. He was 78 and also resided in London. No cause of death was made public, but his wife, Sally, said that Mr. Sampson had had heart trouble in the past.

The author of more than 20 books on political and social issues, Mr. Sampson was concerned throughout his career with examining imbalances of political power, both in Britain and South Africa. He was a weekly columnist for The Independent of London; his most recent column, published the day he died, condemned what he saw as the threat to civil liberties posed by the expanded power of Britain's Home Office since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Seymour Melman, 86, Dies;

Spurred Antiwar Movement

Jennifer Bayot, New York Times

Seymour Melman, a Columbia University scholar who helped galvanize the antiwar movement from the 1950's on with analyses of the social costs of military spending, died on Dec. 16 at his home in Manhattan. He was 86.

Pinochet Charged With Homicide and Kidnapping

Reuters

Santiago, Chile — A Chilean judge has formally charged former dictator
Agusto Pinochet with homicide and kidnapping in one of many pending cases
related to human rights abuses committed during his 17-year rule.

"General Pinochet was declared mentally fit to stand trial in Chile,"
Special Judge Juan Guzman told reporters on Monday. Pinochet's defence had
tried to argue he was not mentally competent to face the charges.

Pinochet, who resides in a Santiago mansion and recently turned 89, could be
placed under house arrest after formal notification of the charges, which
usually takes a day.

Tap writes:

Pentagon Weighs Use of Deception in a Broad Arena

Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 — The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians and military officers say. Such missions, if approved, could take the deceptive techniques endorsed for use on the battlefield to confuse an adversary and adopt them for covert propaganda campaigns aimed at neutral and even allied nations.

Critics of the proposals say such deceptive missions could shatter the Pentagon's credibility, leaving the American public and a world audience skeptical of anything the Defense Department and military say — a repeat of the credibility gap that roiled America during the Vietnam War.

"Group Claims To Have Bombed Quebec Hydro Tower"

Canadian Broadcasting Company

MONTREAL — A group opposed to the export of power from Quebec to the
United States has claimed responsibility for damaging a Hydro-Québec tower
by setting off an explosive charge.

"An Economic 9/11"

Patrick C. Doherty, TomPaine.com

When the chief economist at Morgan Stanley says we have a
one-in-10 chance of avoiding economic Armageddon, one tends
to take notice. When America's second-largest creditor tells
us to get our economic house in order the same week, two
points begin to determine a line. But the Bush administration
has not so much as flinched.

'Democrats play for lunch. We play for keeps.' — Grover
Norquist

Last week, America received two pieces of monstrously bad
news. First, the chief economist of Morgan Stanley (along
with Robert Reich, Larry Summers, Paul Krugman, China and the
currency markets) warned us that the U.S. economy is about to
collapse. Second, we learned that the Bush administration is
willing to ignore the likelihood of collapse and will push
ahead aggressively with tax and Social Security reform. Put
these two pieces of information together and you get a
nightmare scenario.

Sistani Poll Official in 'US Custody'

al Jazeera

The man in charge of drawing up an electoral list backed by Grand Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani, the influential Iraqi Shia Muslim leader, has been arrested by the US military, an aide said.

"American forces on Saturday arrested Muhammad Hashim al-Yahya, coordinator of the six-person committee set up by the Marjaiya (Iraq's highest Shiite authority) to supervise the drawing up of an electoral list with the backing of the ayatollah," a Sistani representative in the holy city of Najaf said.

"If he is not released, there will be serious consequences," the source said, giving no reason for Yahya's arrest in Baghdad.

The US military said it had heard reports of the arrest but was unable to give any further information.

On Tuesday, Shia political leaders said that they were in the final stages of drawing up an electoral list that had Sistani's blessing, in advance of the landmark elections scheduled for 30 January.

"Japan Threatens Huge Dollar Sell-Off"

Heather Stewart, The London Observer

Japan is warning the White House that there will be 'enormous capital flight' from the dollar if the Bush administration maintains its laissez-faire approach to the mounting currency crisis.

Tokyo fears that Japan's strongest economic recovery in a decade could be derailed by the sudden appreciation in the yen against the greenback.

"U.S. OKs Evidence Gained Through Torture"

Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Evidence gained by torture can be used by the U.S. military in deciding whether to imprison a foreigner indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant, the government says.

Statements produced under torture have been inadmissible in U.S. courts for about 70 years. But the U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of 550 foreigners as enemy combatants at the U.S. naval base in Cuba are allowed to use such evidence, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle acknowledged at a U.S. District Court hearing Thursday.

"Dead Wrong on the Iraqi Elections"

Juan Cole, AntiWar.com

At least 12 persons died violently in the guerrilla war on Saturday
in Iraq. There was a major battle over control of police stations in
Khalis, and Marines found more bodies in Mosul. The U.S. military
said that guerrillas had launched a major campaign of intimidation
aimed at frightening Sunni Arabs into boycotting the forthcoming
elections.

Seventeen parties, mostly small Sunni Arab groupings along with the
two major Kurdish parties, made a plea Saturday that elections be
postponed. Some major Sunni Arab groups, such as the Association of
Muslim Scholars, had already called for a Sunni Arab boycott.