News Blurbs for July 14, 2004

A one-page summary of prewar intelligence in Iraq prepared for Our Employee, Mr. Bush could show exactly what intelligence agencies told Bush about Iraq’s WMD — but the White House and CIA won’t hand it over to the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Administration and the CIA say the White House is protected by executive privilege. [Source : New York Times]

Our Employee, Mr. Bush, failed today in his attempt to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage when a divided U.S. Senate blocked the measure, virtually killing it for at least this election year. On a vote of 48-to-50, proponents fell 12 short of the needed 60 in the 100-member Senate to clear a Democratic procedural hurdle. Sixty-seven votes would be needed for passage of a constitutional amendment. [Source : Reuters]

Bush was on the defensive again today amid new criticism — this time from Britain — of the intelligence used to justify the Iraq war. In findings that mirrored those of a Senate Intelligence Committee report issued in Washington last week, a British report criticized the intelligence on Iraq’s weaponry as ridden with flaws — for which Prime Minister Tony Blair said he accepted “full personal responsibility.” Instead of accepting that responsibility as Blair has, “Although we haven’t found the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq, and America is safer today because we did,” Bush said, reiterating a Monday speech in which he said “we were right to go into Iraq.” [Source : Reuters] How he figures we’re safer from all of that is a mystery I cannot fathom, since all reports I’ve read indicate just the opposite.

The top U.N. envoy to the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, is no longer welcome in the Palestinian territories after he harshly criticized Yasser Arafat “for passivity and inaction.” On the other hand, Arafat is under virtual “house arrest” confined to his West Bank headquarters and surrounded by Israeli forces. [Source : Reuters] Makes one wonder what they expect 75-year-old Arafat to do, teleport out of there?

Google on Tuesday acquired Picasa, a digital photo management company, aiming to improve the quality of Blogger’s photo-publishing features. Picasa, founded in 2001 by Idealab, owns technology for organizing digital photos and sharing them over peer-to-peer networks. [Source : NewsFactor]

Israeli troops opened fire for 45 minutes today on a crew of United Nations Relief and Working Agency (UNRWA) people that intended to deliver food supplies to the residents of the besieged northern Gaza Strip village of Beit Hanoun. Israel has claimed that the operation into Beit Hanoun was carried out in order to prevent Palestinian militants from launching homemade rockets at southern Israel. [Source : Xinhuanet] I guess they can’t tell the difference between UN Relief workers and Palestinians with rockets.