Botched (wrong address or wrong person) raids or raids where it appears excessive force has been used are certainly not a new phenomenon, as journalist Radley Balko documented in his 2006 study, "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Policing in America." But most raids gone bad do not get such wide public or media attention.
SWAT Raids Gone Wrong -- Paramilitary Policing Is Out of Control
Secretive Bilderberg Club ready for protests
It is all terribly confidential — breathe a word about it and you’re out of the club — but the Bilderberg watcher Daniel Estulin claims to have a copy of the agenda. The big question this time around is whether the euro will survive. “They are afraid that the countries in trouble will leave and the euro will fall apart,” said Mr Estulin. “The biggest nightmare is if EU members return to nationally orientated policies.”
Halliburton campaign donations spike
As Congress investigated its role in the doomed Deep Horizon oil rig, Halliburton donated $17,000 to candidates running for federal office, giving money to several lawmakers on committees that have launched inquiries into the massive spill.
BP hires Cheney spokeswoman to lead PR effort
As if the water wasn't deep -- or oily -- enough around British Petroleum's public relations, the company has hired a former spokeswoman for Vice President Dick Cheney to be its public face for the disaster.
Anne Womack Kolton, former head of public affairs at the Department of Energy and Cheney's onetime campaign press secretary, will take the baton from BP this week.
Former minister: I misled MPs over hooding of prisoners in Iraq
A former Labour defence minister was forced to admit yesterday that he misled MPs when he denied that British soldiers had hooded Iraqi detainees during interrogations.
Adam Ingram, the ex-armed forces minister, denied in a Parliamentary answer that UK forces hooded detainees as an interrogation technique despite seeing a document suggesting they did, a public inquiry in London heard.
Iraq bomb deaths blamed on 'useless' detectors
![Iraq bomb deaths blamed on 'useless' detectors](http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00385/pg-36-iraq-afp-gett_385783t.jpg)
The continuing reliance of the Iraqi security forces on the instrument may explain how al-Qa'ida has succeeded in sending vehicles packed with explosives undetected into Baghdad, where they have killed and wounded several thousand people over the last year.
Will the Cardinal Be Indicted?
No U.S. Catholic leader has been prosecuted for the church’s child sex scandals. But officials are weighing obstruction and perjury charges against Cardinal Roger Mahony—and studying emails showing Mahony discussing with his lawyers ways to avoid giving law enforcement the names of abusive priests. Philip Shenon reports.
Obama extends benefits for gay federal employees
Obama said he had directed government agencies to offer a number of new benefits to the families of gay and lesbian federal employees, including family assistance services, hardship transfers and relocation expenses.
His directive builds on a move he made last year to offer healthcare benefits, sick leave and medical evacuation for same-sex partners of federal employees.
Evidence of Undersea Oil Plumes
Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP, claimed recently that his company’s testing has shown “no evidence” that any of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico is lurking beneath the ocean surface.
Oil is lighter than water, Mr. Hayward explained, and will rise to the top.
Apparently, Mr. Hayward is not familiar with the results of a test conducted in Norway, in which his company took part, that suggested exactly the opposite would happen when oil was released in very deep water. A demand has come from Congress that Mr. Hayward explain himself.
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