Blog Heap of Links for the day 7 May 2011

[White House Insider:] During that meeting, Hillary Clinton was first to pledge her full support for Panetta, indicating she would defend him if necessary. Similar support was then followed by Gates. The following day, and with Panetta's permission, Clinton met in private with Bill Daley and urged him to get the president's full and open approval of the Panetta plan. Daley agreed such approval would be of great benefit to the action, and instructed Clinton to delay proceeding until he had secured that approval. Daley contacted Clinton within hours of their meeting indicating Jarrett refused to allow the president to give that approval. Daley then informed Clinton that he too would fully support Panetta in his actions, even if it meant disclosing the president's indecision to the American public should that action fail to produce a successful conclusion. ... Jarrett, having been caught off guard, was now scrambling to determine who had initiated the plan. She was furious, repeating the acronym "CoC" and saying it was not being followed. This is where Bill Daley intervened directly. The particulars of that intervention are not clear to me beyond knowing he did meet with Jarrett in his office and following that meeting, Valerie Jarrett was not seen in the West Wing for some time, and apparently no longer offered up any resistance to the Osama Bin Laden mission. ... [Heh... Son and Brother of Da Mayor knows where ALL the Chicago skeletons are buried!]

Said Obama: "I asked Michelle the other day, I said, 'What's your favorite food' -- because we were sitting around with the girls. She said, 'Ah, Mexican food.'" The crowd loved the news. "You do not want to be between Michelle and a tamale," joked the president. "It's true. It's true. But she's moving, though, so she can afford to have as many tamales as she wants," said Obama in a nod to his wife's "Let's Move" healthy campaign. [I don't usually say this, but, OMG! This man has less than no class at all!]

Intense fighting is taking place in Afghanistan's second city of Kandahar amid co-ordinated militant attacks, including at least six suicide bombs. The Taliban says it is behind the triple assault on the provincial governor's office, the Afghan spy agency and a police station. About 23 people including three police have been injured in the fighting, which spread panic on the streets. US helicopter gunships are reported to have been involved.

Intelligence analysts are sifting through phone numbers and email addresses found at Osama bin Laden's compound to determine potential links to Pakistani government and military officials while U.S. officials and analysts raise concerns about the safety of Pakistan's nuclear materials.

An international series of protests known as SlutWalks, sparked by a Toronto police officer's flippant comment that women should avoid dressing like "sluts" to avoid being raped or victimized, is taking root in the United States.... The police officer made his comments in January to a group of York University students at a safety forum. He later apologized, but his comments were publicized widely on Facebook and Twitter. They inspired a march in Toronto last month that drew more than 3,000 people, as well as SlutWalks since then in Dallas, Asheville, North Carolina, and Ottawa, Ontario....

... climbed over a four- to five-foot railing at the Sedgwick County Zoo and approached the Amur leopard, which then grabbed him with a paw or paws and tried to bite the boy... mauled on the head and neck.... enclosure is eight feet from the protective railing. A sign outside the enclosure reads: "DANGEROUS ANIMALS: Please respect their space by staying on your side of the guardrail." ... The Amur leopard, which lives in the Far East, is considered "critically endangered," with only 30 to 35 known to remain....

Minor delays on BART trains in Oakland Friday morning ... unruly passenger talking loudly about weapons of mass destruction ... someone named Michelle King posted on Twitter, "on the train to sf; Of the many crazy people, there's one right now clapping loudly and talking about WOMD...." About five minutes later, King posted, "update — bart police came and got him...."

Two Muslim religious leaders say they were asked to leave a commercial airliner in Memphis on Friday and were told it was because the pilot refused to fly with them aboard. [There's more to the story]

A bulletin issued Thursday by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and obtained by ABC News describes the terror organization's chilling desire to derail a train on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. "As of February 2010, al-Qa'ida was allegedly contemplating conducting an operation against trains at an unspecified location in the United States on the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001," the document reads, using an alternate spelling for bin Laden's terror group. "As one option, al-Qa'ida was looking into trying to tip a train by tampering with the rails so that the train would fall off the track at either a valley or a bridge."

The intelligence source said that there are "numerous" leads giving them locations but cautioned that they are fluid as al Qaeda leaders may be on the run, changing their locations. [Heh, yeah, I would think so!]

Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, said Bin Laden believed "his network was strong enough [that] he'd get a heads-up" before any US strike against him. He suggested that Bin Laden's confidence might have been the reason his compound was only lightly guarded. It may also explain why Bin Laden was not armed when he was killed during the operation in the early hours of Monday. ... Seal teams had to "breach three or four walls" inside the compound to get to Bin Laden's building because the Black Hawk helicopter carrying commandos whose mission was to land on the roof was the one that suffered mechanical failure. His disclosure that Bin Laden was carrying 500 Euros in cash raised obvious questions about whether the al-Qa'ida chief was intending to flee to Europe, as US dollars would have been the obvious choice of currency to carry if he intended to change it in countries neighbouring Pakistan....

Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, said Thursday the helicopter damaged when it hit the compound's wall was heavily loaded and lost lift because of a change in air temperature. "It was not a mechanical failure," he said. One reason for the skittishness about discussing the helicopters is now becoming clear: They were stealthy choppers not known to be used in the field.

Al Qaeda confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden on Friday in an Internet message that vowed revenge on the United States and its allies, including Pakistan [YAY! Confirmation from Al Qaeda!]

U.S. commandos missed with their first shot at the world's most wanted man poked his head out of a third-floor room in his fortress.... U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee: "I hope they went in with the idea of killing him, not capturing him. We needed to take this guy out. And I know that's what the executive order said. "The other thing you have to remember is that this was pitch dark. When they got into the room with bin Laden, they already had to go through some other folks downstairs, two of which they killed. And they were having to use explosives to blow doors open. By the time they got to him, they didn't know what they would find. "They blew the door open, and they looked down the hallway and he stuck his head out of the room that he was in, and saw them, and ducked back in. They fired a shot, and missed him the first time — and then went to the room. And that's when they killed him. "They did in fact find an AK-47 and a pistol in bin Laden's room. Whether he was making any move to get to that is not clear. But taking him down in pitch-dark conditions was the right thing to do." ["...taking him down in pitch-dark conditions was the right thing to do."]

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) doubles down…. "The initial information on the courier was obtained from waterboarding in 2003. That came from Khalid Sheik Mohammad… People who were on the ground and very familiar to the situation told me this."

seen as an aging terrorist hiding in barren rooms, short of money and struggling to maintain his grip on al-Qaida.... Three of bin Laden's wives were living with him in the compound and are being interrogated by Pakistani authorities, who took them into custody after Monday's raid, along with 13 children, eight of them bin Laden's.... One of the wives, identified as Yemeni-born Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah, told interrogators she had been staying in bin Laden's hideout since 2006 and never left the upper floors of the large but sparsely furnished building,... Disputes over money between bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, led the group to split into two factions five or six years ago.... Bin Laden was "cash strapped" in his final days....

Commandos who conducted the assault on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan gave Obama first-hand accounts of what happened, and he awarded them the highest presidential honor a military unit can receive... most Americans regard the secretive special operations unit that killed bin Laden -- the mastermind of the September 11 hijack-plane attacks on the United States -- as national heroes... A huge "Job well done!" banner hung from the wall.... ["MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!"]

PWND - Osama Bin Laden T-Shirt

...pushing her [4-month-old] baby in a stroller down a flight of stairs at the Lake Street light rail train station Tuesday evening ... during an argument between the mother ... and her boyfriend ... She was heard yelling at him, "You already got a 12 and 14 year old you don't give a s*** about and now you don't give a s*** about this one! I'm gonna push this one down the steps! I'm pregnant again!" ... instead of picking the baby up to check on its welfare, ran to her boyfriend and started punching him in the face ... she kicked two officers and spat at one of them ... admitted to drinking at least five beers before the fight.... [The world's most popular beverage!]

Rita Chretien, 56, was found alive on Friday by hunters near the Humboldt National Forest, in northeastern Nevada. Her husband Al Chretien is still missing. The couple vanished shortly after leaving their Penticton, B.C., home March 19. They were on their way to a trade show in Las Vegas, but didn't check into the hotel they had reserved. Rita survived 49 days in the wilderness on snow, a small amount of trail mix and prayer, said long-time family friend Dave Goertzen. She lost about 30 pounds and they're working on balancing her electrolytes at a hospital in Twin Falls, Idaho

...says he was also told his mother would need an extra-large casket and burial vault or a double grave site. The woman weighed 230 pounds. ... At the April 9 funeral, the gravesite ended up being too small for the oversize casket, and ended up being damaged in an attempt to force it into the grave....

A Swiss adventurer dubbed "JetMan" told a TV station in Los Angeles that his planned flight over the Grand Canyon was canceled Friday. It would have been the first time he made the attempt in the U.S. and three years after he flew into the record books by crossing the Channel between Britain and France.

He knew everyone and he knew their comings and goings, their kith and kin and the joke around town as I was growing up was that he always knew the size casket you would need. The joke never really was funny and it certainly isn't now but humor is one of the ways people deal with those who see to the end of the life needs and necessities that Arnold did for way over 50 years. And he was a handsome man right to the end; strong and well-groomed and well-informed on top of it all. I always thought he looked a bit like Omar Sharif. He had that sturdy dependable look about him all the years I remember him and never seemed to really age up until about the time of Richard Kane's funeral. That's the first hint that I had that Arnold might indeed be mortal after all when he took a fall outside the church.

Robert Boyce, 50, appeared Tuesday in Washington County District Court for a preliminary hearing during which the state presented testimony by Mike Lippman and Millard Latimer as witnesses. The judge ruled there was "reasonable and probable cause" to charge Boyce with two counts of second degree arson, conspiracy to commit second degree arson, manufacturing meth, conspiracy to manufacture meth, filing a false insurance claim and concealing hazardous waste unlawfully. The judge then ordered him to appear in court on June 22 for formal arraignment. Boyce is being held at the Washington County jail on a $500,000 bond.

"In a Town This Size," by director Patrick V. Brown, will be shown as part of the BareBones International Film Festival on Saturday. The documentary, dealing with a long-suppressed tragedy of childhood sexual abuse, initially premiered in Oklahoma at the Trail Dance Film Festival in Duncan in January. It has since been shown at the Litchfield Hills Film Festival in Connecticut earlier this month and is scheduled to be shown at Tulsa's Circle Theatre on June 5 as part of a fundraiser and community awareness panel. No date for a Bartlesville screening has yet been announced. Brown, 50, now resides in Los Angeles, but grew up in Bartlesville and counts himself among the victims portrayed in the film.

Lance Corporal Bryce Crostwait, United States Marine Corps, received a hero's welcome as he returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Lisa Croswait, Bryce's mother: "I'm so glad you're back!" Marine Lance Corporal Bryce Croswait: "I am too, Mom." Crostwait, whose mother works as a teacher's assistant at Bartlesville Public Schools, was greeted not only by loved ones but also by students from his former middle school.... Crostwait's unit endured a particularly high number of casualties while serving in Afghanistan We're used to seeing the Patriot Guard at the homecomings and military women they've never even met. But Friday, they stuck around at the airport for a very personal arrival. "I knew it would come. Just had to wait for it. My turn," Tommy Johnson, father, said. Tommy Johnson's a veteran and a member of the Patriot Guard. His son Justin spent a year in Afghanistan serving in the 101st Airborne. "Our mission was to secure the area they call the home of the Taliban," SPC Justin Johnson said. Shaking the hands of soldiers who walked in his shoes left the 24-year-old speechless. SPC Justin Johnson: "It's rewarding. I mean, some of the people here, I don't even know. Just the fact that they took the time to come up here to welcome me home." Tommy Johnson,: It means a lot. SPC Justin Johnson: It means a whole lot. Both military men will only be home a few weeks. They say they don't have any big plans, just quality time with friends and family. They both return from Afghanistan days after the world learns Osama Bin Laden was killed by American forces -- a victory they're proud of but say the war on terror goes on.

The PaperPhone has a flexible electronic display that is set to herald a new generation of computers. Extremely lightweight and made out of a thin-film, the prototype device can do everything a smartphone currently does.

The U.S. military has tried in the past to build a stealth helicopter, but has kept secret if it has indeed succeeded. The wreckage in Abbottabad appeared to have exotic coatings and distinct surfaces and edges reminiscent of stealth aircraft such as the B-2 bomber and the F-22 fighter, aviation experts say. Equally important, they pointed to an unusual dishpan-shaped cover over the tail rotor, perhaps designed to make the aircraft quieter. ... remnants of the aircraft suggested extensive use of nonmetallic composite parts, which reflect less radar energy. Likewise, he said the tail's remains suggested that it was designed to shroud or mask metal parts, which are much more visible to radar. ...

The helicopter has been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent days after photos of its tail-end were circulated online following the 40-minute night raid. Some experts have speculated that the vehicle may be a highly modified helicopter that is part of one of the military's secret "black stealth projects..." could be a modified Blackhawk helicopter that is designed to fly quietly and evade radar detection, David Cenciotti, a military aviation journalist and information securities expert.... [So, doing the raid this way instead of bombing not only risked American lives but may have cost us technologically.]

The quasi-Christian mix of science and religion in "The Urantia Book" — the text Stockhausen bought from the wizardly figure — became the spiritual basis for a huge operatic cycle, "Licht" ("Light"). Written from 1977 to 2003, "Licht" exceeds even Wagner's "Ring" cycle in its epic proportions, comprising seven full operas, one for each day of the week, and clocking in at 29 hours total. Stockhausen died in 2007, without having seen "Licht" staged in its entirety. But his work has found new life at the Cologne Opera, which in recent weeks presented the culmination of the cycle, "Sonntag" ("Sunday"). To house the production the company built two theaters within the cavernous Staatenhaus am Rheinpark, part of the city's exhibition center.