The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Friday, March 16, 2007 - 3
NEWS BRIEFS
WASHINGTON
r Measures to end
war pass in House,
but fail in Senate
Democrats aggressively chal-
lenged President Bush's Iraq policy
atbothendsofthe Capitolyesterday,
gaining House committee approval
for a troop withdrawal deadline of
Sept. 1,2008, but suffering defeat in
the Senate on a less sweeping plan
to end U.S. participation in the war.
Anti-war Democrats prevailed
on a near-party line vote of 36-28 in
the House Appropriations Commit-
tee, brushing aside a week-old veto
threat from the administration and
overcoming unyielding opposition
from Republicans.
"I want this war to end. I don't
want to go to any more funerals,"
said New York Rep. Jose Serrano,
one of several liberal Democrats
who have pledged their support for
the legislation despite preferring a
faster end to the war.
In Lebanon camp, a new
face of jihad vows attacks
By SOUAD MEKHENNET
and MICHAEL MOSS
The New York Times
TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Deep in a
violent and lawless slum just north
of this coastal city, 12 men whose
faces were shrouded by scarves
drilled with Kalashnikovs.
In unison, they lunged in one
direction, turned and lunged in
another. "Allah-u akbar," the men
shouted in praiseto God as they fired
their machine guns into a wall.
The men belong to a new militant
Islamic organization called Fatah
al Islam, whose leader, a fugitive
Palestinian named Shakir al-Abssi,
has set up operations in a refugee
camp here where trains fighters and
spreads the ideology of al-Qaida.
He has solid terrorist credentials.
A former associate of Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida
in Iraq who was killed last sum-
mer, Abssi was sentenced to death
in absentia along with al-Zarqawi in
the 2002 assassination of a U.S. dip-
lomat in Jordan, Laurence Foley.
Just four months after arriving
here from Syria, Abssi has a militia
that intelligence officials estimate
at 150 men and an arsenal of explo-
sives, rockets and even an anti-air-
craft gun.
During a recent interview with
The New York Times, Abssi dis-
played his makeshift training facil-
ity and his strident message that
America needed to be punished for
its presence in the Islamic world.
"The only way to achieve our
rights is by force," he said. "This is
the way America deals with us. So
when the Americans feel that their
lives and their economy are threat-
ened, they will know that they
should leave."
Abssi's organization is the image
of what intelligence officials have
warned is the re-emergence of al-
Qaida. Shattered after 2001, the
organization founded by Osama
bin Laden is now reforming as an
alliance of small groups around the
world that share a fundamental-
ist interpretation of Islam but have
developed their own independent
terror capabilities, these officials
have said. If Khalid Sheikh Moham-
med, who has acknowledged direct-
ing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and
a string of other terror plots, rep-
resents the previous generation of
Qaida leaders, Abssi and others like
him represent the new.
U.S. and Middle Eastern intel-
ligence officials say Abssi is viewed
as a dangerous militant who can
assemble small teams of operatives
with acute military skill.
"Guys like Abssihave the capabil-
ity on the ground that al-Qaida has
lost and is looking to tap into," said
a U.S. intelligence official, speaking
on condition of anonymity.
Abssi has shown himself to be a
canny operator.Despite beingonter-
rorism watch lists around the world,
he has set himself up in a Palestin-
ian refugee camp where, because
of Lebanese politics, he is largely
shielded from the government. The
camp also gives him ready access
to a pool of recruits, young Pales-
tinians whose militant vision has
evolved from the struggle against
Israel to a larger Islamic cause.
Intelligence officials here say that
he has also exploited another source
of manpower: They estimate he that
has 50 militants from Saudi Arabia
and other Arab countries fresh from
fighting with the insurgency in Iraq.
The officials say they fear that he
is seeking to establish himself as a
terror leader on the order of al-Zar-
qawi. "He is trying to fill a void and
do so in a high-profile manner that
will attract the attention of support-
ers," the U.S. intelligence official
See LEBANON, Page 8
ANGELA CESERE/Daly
Dr. David Prentice speaks at a forum on stem cell research presented by the Student
Society for Stem Cell Research and Students For Life in Angell Hall last night
D E TROIT Gopsfcof
GM to seek reduced face
health care, pension
costs from unions
General Motors Corp. will seek
relief from its whopping $68 bil-
lion post-retirement employee
health care obligation in contract
talks with the United Auto Work-
ers union, according to its annual
report filed with federal regulators.
In the filing yesterday with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Com-
mission, GM said health care is
the largest cost disadvantage to its
competitors, and the burden could
grow on a global basis.
The world's largest automaker
also said it has determined its
internal financial controls are inef-
fective and that it is working to fix
them. It has said previously that
federal authorities are investigat-
ing its financial reporting.
JERUSALEM
Palestinians form
unity government
The Islamic militant Hamas
and its Fatah rivals forged a unity
government yesterday to end more
than a year of political wrangling,
isolation and bloodshed. Israel
quickly rejected the new leader-
ship, saying it failed to recognize
the Jewish state.
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
of Hamas said he hoped the govern-
ment would "launch a new era" for
the Palestinians, putting an end to
lethal infighting while satisfying
international demands ahead of a
crucialArab summit in Saudi Arabia
at the end of the month and a visit to
the region this weekend by Secre-
tary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Israel urged its Western allies to
maintain an aid embargo imposed
after Hamas won election in Janu-
ary 2006 and set up a government
by itself.
WASHINGTON
Kansas Sen. backs
general's comments
on homosexuality
Republican presidential candi-
date Sam Brownback is backing
the Pentagon's top general over his
remarks that homosexual acts are
immoral.
The Kansas senator planned to
send a letter yesterday to President
Bush supporting Marine Gen. Peter
Pace, who earlier this week likened
homosexuality to adultery and said
the military should not condone it
by allowing gay personnel to serve
openly.
Lawmakers of both parties criti-
cized the remarks, but Brownback's
letter called the criticism "both
unfair and unfortunate."
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
4,350
Dollars requested in a lawsuit by
William Elich who said he was hit in
the head with a snowball, The Port-
land Oregonian reported. Elich said
Greg Scott Ely launched a snowball
while driving a Hummer past Elich.
Elich, a private investigator, claimed
Ely's toss broke his glasses, forcing
him to miss work. Ely denied Elich's
account, saying it was impossible to
fit an arm out of a Hummer's win-
dow.
on stem cells
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ed, man
udents for Life, remain unresolved.
One discrepancy was on the
m Cell Research question of whether adult stemcells
have the same research potential as
embryonic ones.
Prentice strongly suggested they
ARIKIA MILLIKAN did, citing studies claiming stem
Daily StaffReporter cells from liposuctioned fat and
umbilical cord blood have the abil-
rs an unlikely sight. Yester- ity to become many different kinds
Angell Hall the president of of body cells, like embryonic stem
s for Life and the Student cells. O'Shea, though, maintained
for Stem Cell Research sat that such adult stem cells do not
-side as they watched advo- have this ability, and he said that
om both sides of the stem some of the original papers Pren-
ate make their cases. tice quoted had been withdrawn.
event featured paired panel- "Cord blood and fat cells just
politician, a researcher and simply don't turn into neurons," she
vist from each side - who said.
:ed order in giving presen- Another point of contention was
about their stances on the the matter of donated embryos
available for research.
ents for Life was represent- O'Shea and others in favor of
ep. Jack Hoogendyk (R-Kal- rescinding laws that prohibit
), Dr. David Prentice and research said that there is an abun-
activist Cindy Northon. dance of embryos in in-vitro fertil-
:R picked former U.S. Rep. ization clinics that could potentially
warz, Dr. Sue O'Shea - the be used for research.
r of the University's human Hoogendyk and Northon,
nic stem cell core facility - though, both cited a study that list-
thleen Russell, who suffers ed the embryos with donor consent
n advanced stage of early- for research at less than 3 percentof
arkinson's disease. the total and said the vast majority
event was initiated by of the embryos are designated for
which e-mailed the presi- couples to attempt pregnancy in
Students for Life and invited the future.
up to join them in a "non- For the most part, the panelists
effort to promote education were respectful of each other and
ontroversy regarding stem the views of the opposition.
earch," as SSSCR education The forum grew heated, though,
andon Krantz put it. when Northon suggested that Rus-
controversy there was. sell, the next speaker, might use her
speaker had a pre-prepared Parkinson's disease to gain sup-
they gave, but some of the port. When she got on stage, Rus-
'resented directly contra- sell, shaking with tremors from her
other speakers. As expect- disease, condemned Northon's use
ty of the arguments raised of her name in her speech.
Program in Science, Technology & Society
Reformulating the
Nature/Nurture Opposition
Anne Fausto~Sterling
Brown University
Introduced by UM President Mary Sue Coleman
Monday, 19 March 2007, 4pm
Forum Hall, Palmer Commons
Co-sponsored by ADVANCE, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, IEWG, Women's Studies
For more infornation: umsts crniruch.edu; www.utnich.edu/-msts/
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