Brooklyn, NY – August 27,2009 – The race to represent New York City Council District 39 is heating up with the September 19 Democratic primary approaching fast. John Heyer who is one of several vying for that seat, paid a visit to our offices and sat down for an interview.
Weekly Link: Thank you Mr. Heyer for stopping by. Let’s get right to it. There seems to be lots of excitement in the community around your candidacy. Why all the excitement?
John Heyer: First thank you for having me. Now you see, I think many people are excited because there is someone running who shares their values, who speaks their language, well not literally because I don’t speak Yiddish, but I do care about the same moral and social issues the community cares about. It’s our link as religious people, in things like the way I uniquely understand and appreciate the need for private schooling in the community.
You see, if you have a candidate who is supported by the UFT (teachers union who are the principle fighters against school vouchers) for instance, when that candidate gets into office he is then beholden and controlled by the UFT. That’s why the UFT is very strong. But if I’m elected with the support of this community I will be the elected official who is beholden to your issues, who is your voice on school vouchers and for more funding for private schools.
Weekly Link: What can the city government do to help our schools?
John Heyer: The city can do many things. For instance let’s take a look at bussing. For many private schools and yeshivas, a big portion of their budget is bussing. Now, bussing is something the government does provide for. The only problem is that yeshivas start early in the morning and end late in the evening and the city only provides bussing within a certain timeframe.
I propose that the city privatize the bussing. They should just give the yeshivas X amount of dollars per student for transportation and let the yeshivos make their own transportation arrangements. I believe the city would actually save money this way.
Another thing the city can do is playgrounds. Many yeshivos don’t have play grounds while the public schools have huge play areas that are locked up at night and on weekends. There’s a not for profit organizations that actually went ahead and got grants to renovate public school lots. They put in playgrounds, trees and benches, and fought to have them open to the public in the after noon after school hours so that the people in the neighborhood can enjoy the space which was up until then dead space under lock and key.
Another thing, when city council members go up to Albany on lobby days, it’s important to have someone who advocates for tax credits for school tuition. What-ever money a parent pays for schooling, tutoring and the like, should not be taxable. If you let parents keep let’s say one thousand dollars in tax saving, that one thousand dollars and not 14 thousand dollars it costs the board of education per student on average to keep a student in public school. That’s a saving of 13 thousand dollars. The board of Ed. should be throwing the money at the community; instead the UFT won’t allow it.
Weekly Link: What does the UFT have against assistance to private schools and yeshivos?
John Heyer: Let me ask you this. How does the UFT make its money?
Weekly Link: Through membership fees (union dues)
John Heyer: Yeah, so if you have money going to private schools, that means less teachers and therefore less union dues.
Weekly Link: So it’s all about money for the union to the point where they don’t care about people who have to send to yeshiva or private school?
John Heyer: Unfortunately that is the case. Actually, my wife is a member of that union. But I am honest to the point where I will say what I believe, no matter what. Sometimes I say things that are unpopular but I’m always honest.
Weekly Link: So what brings you to politics?
John Heyer: I have always felt like I should give back. I have been given to many talents. Some people will do other things like sports or business to make them feel good. For me it’s always been about giving back to the community, that’s what feels good to me.
I started working in politics at age 14 when I worked as an intern for the state assembly and later as a full time employee, and it grew from there. Four years ago, Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz called me and asked me to work for him. I have been working for Marty doing community outreach and the like. So I have been dealing with all the issues the people of the district are concerned with. That’s why I’m here. I feel like I can give back to the community by being there for them in the city council.
Weekly Link: What can be done about the aggressive ticketing that has been going on for the last couple of years?
John Heyer: It’s no secret that the city needs revenue to run the city, but no one wants to come out and raise taxes. What do they do? They increase the water bill and hand out more parking and sanitation tickets. It’s called “indirect taxation,” whereby the city raises taxes indirectly by slapping fines left and right.
This hurts the middle class the most. The poorest don’t have cars at all, the rich don’t care about a few parking tickets, it’s the middle class that really gets stuck holding the bag. You know, when the truck delivering the milk gets a parking ticket because he has no choice but to double park, (most stores in Brooklyn don’t have loading docks) who do you think pays that ticket? The price of the milk goes up and you and I pay that ticket. The same goes with every item in the store. Pretty soon it adds up to huge sums, the middle class and the working poor get squeezed most by this.
Weekly Link: So what’s the solution?
John Heyer: First of all, the traffic police should have an independent panel just like the regular police have internal affairs that checks to make sure the police act appropriately. If there would be an independent body to look into some of the abuses done by traffic agents there would be fewer abuses and the traffic police would be more transparent and responsive to the people.
Weekly Link: What about the revenue, how can the city raise revenue if you do away with the aggressive ticketing?
John Heyer: First we have to look at the spending side. If you cut just one percent of the city budget, that’s 600 million dollars. So like in your home, when times are tough you don’t go out and try to find who you can squeeze for more money, rather you find where you may be wasting money and you try to get a handle on your budget that way. The city does just the opposite. Instead of looking to tighten its budget in though years the city goes and squeezes the hard working families who are already having a hard time making ends meet in this tough economy. That just doesn’t make any sense.
There are many places the city should look to save money. For instance the sanitation or parks department, they can probably cut 15 percent of their office staff, like secretaries making 65 thousand a year, send them to early retirement and save the taxpayers millions of dollars.
Streamlining; for instance, the city gets new fax machines every two years. Why? Why can’t we keep the fax machines and buy new ones when they break?
The parks, right now the city doesn’t maintain the parks. Instead, they wait for a park to completely fall apart, then they tear it down and build a new one. Why not maintain the parks so that they don’t fall apart and save hundreds of millions of dollars?
Weekly Link: The mood on the street is very apathetic. People have pretty much given up hope and are itching to leave the city. The cost of living in the city keeps rising, the tickets and all, what can be done to make people feel like this is their city again, that this is a place where they can raise their families and enjoy quality of life?
John Heyer: That’s exactly the problem. People don’t feel like they are being heard. That why we just launched a program where if you see a problem that needs to be taken care of, like a pothole that’s been there forever, you take a picture of it and send it to my office and we will make sure to take care of the problem right away.
Furthermore, my mission statement for this campaign is two things. 1, I will work the hardest I can to make sure that no one has to leave the city because they are being priced out of the city and they can’t afford to live here anymore. 2, I don’t want anyone to feel like they have to leave the city because they feel like the city if not a good and safe place to raise their children.
Weekly Link: How you make sure people aren’t priced out of the city?
John Heyer: Listen, it is families that build neighborhoods that build cities. You can’t have a great city without great neighborhoods, and you can’t have great neighborhoods without families willing to put down their roots and grow and prosper here in the city. That’s why it’s in everyone’s interest to make sure that there’s enough affordable housing so we don’t lose the most vital foundation of our great city, its families and neighborhoods.
Look, we have been saying that we wanted to get a democrat into the Whitehouse to get us some affordable housing. We now have a democrat in the Whitehouse. We need to apply pressure to get the federal government to invest in our neighborhoods. Now is the time, when the market is soft.
Also there needs to be some type of assistance not only for those all the way at the bottom. At some point it almost doesn’t pay to get a raise, because you lose a lot more in government programs. In a way, the government if discouraging the poor from moving up. For instance, if you’re making 10 thousand dollars a year and you’re collecting 50 thousand in government assistance, with food stamps, Medicaid and section 8, and you get offered a job that will pay you 25 thousand dollars a year, you would have to be crazy to take that job. Government assistance shouldn’t be like a cliff, all or nothing.
Weekly Link: I got to tell you Mr. Heyer, from the parks and assistance to schools you’re proposing, to your views on aggressive ticketing and affordable housing, your agenda sounds like just what Boro Park needs.
John Heyer: Thank you. But people have to come out and vote. Because not everyone believes like you and me on these issues and if we don’t come out and vote we will lose and the city will go about doing its business without your concerns being addressed. You can’t just walk into city hall and say I want this and that, that’s what the voting booth is for, that’s when the people of the district can speak up and make their voices heard.
Weekly Link: One final thing, historically speaking this meeting we are having now is quite a rear occurrence. Jews have rarely enjoyed such freedom and equality. When Jews met with politicians it used to be to beg for their lives. I just wanted to get that out so you can appreciate the novelty of this get-together in historical terms.
Anyway, we thank you again for stopping by. Your ideas are refreshing and you make a lot of sense. We wish you well in the upcoming election. If only half the things we spoke about come to be, we and the city at large will be in much better shape.
John Heyer: I thank you for the opportunity and appreciate the kind words. With Rosh Hashanah coming up, I’d like to wish your readers a sweet, peaceful and prosperous new year.
Edward Moore Kennedy, Camelot’s youngest brother who never reached the White House but grew into the most accomplished legislator of his generation in the Senate, died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. Elected first in 1962, the 77-year-old Massachusetts liberal was rooted in the civil rights and Great Society battles of that decade, but his enduring strength was an ability to renew himself through his mastery of issues and the changing personalities of the Senate. Nowhere was this clearer than in Kennedy’s early support of Barack Obama in 2008, when the young Illinois Democrat needed to establish himself against more veteran rivals for the White House. Kennedy not only campaigned for Obama but, at risk to his own health, opened the Democratic National Convention a year ago in Denver and returned to Washington repeatedly last winter to cast needed votes to move the new president’s economic recovery agenda. The arc between their careers was striking. Obama was born just a year before Kennedy came to the Senate in November 1962, and the younger man’s election as president marked an historic fulfillment of the civil rights debate in which Kennedy took part as a freshman lawmaker.There were bittersweet moments too as the senator’s illness took its toll. August found Obama vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, just across the water from the Cape Cod home where Kennedy lay ill. And the senator couldn’t fully participate in the great health care debate, which had been his passion for decades and remains central to Obama’s legislative agenda.
President Obama was notified of Sen. Kennedy’s death just after 2 a.m., the White House said. The President spoke with the senator’s wife, Victoria Kennedy, at about 2:25 a.m. In a public statement, the President said: “Michelle and I were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of our dear friend, Senator Ted Kennedy. For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts. I valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the Presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I’ve profited as President from his encouragement and wisdom. “An important chapter in our history has come to an end. Our country has lost a great leader, who picked up the torch of his fallen brothers and became the greatest United States Senator of our time. And the Kennedy family has lost their patriarch, a tower of strength and support through good times and bad. Our hearts and prayers go out to them today — to his wonderful wife, Vicki, his children Ted Jr., Patrick and Kara, his grandchildren and his extended family.” As moving about the Capitol became more difficult, Kennedy didn’t return after an appearance in April. And despite early hopes, he was never strong enough to be the player he wanted to be as a healthcare bill moved through the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he chaired. Behind the scenes, Kennedy remained a force and had left in place a division of labor for the committee, which his old friend Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) helped to implement. Kennedy could typically work the telephones back to Washington for several hours a day as his energy permitted, and when the bill was finally reported July 15 after a marathon series of markups, he was described as almost giddy, laughing on the phone.
But Republicans complained that without Kennedy, Democrats were less willing to make the concessions needed for true compromise. As Senate action stalled before the August recess—and the national debate swung wildly at the grassroots level—Kennedy’s absence was felt more sharply. This was one of the great ironies of the senator’s career. For decades, his liberalism and labor ties made him a butt of ridicule for the right. Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) first came to Congress literally campaigning against Ted Kennedy liberalism.But over time, that standing allowed Kennedy to be an agent for compromise, an independent actor with a penchant for deal-making that even annoyed his own party leaders. This was true on education, immigration and health issues in the past decade. No other single Democrat could provide such political cover for others when he opted to move to the center.
Kennedy was helped by his famous name and liberal credentials but also by his roots in an older, more clubby Senate that has virtually disappeared in the less personal, more partisan politics of today’s Washington. Kennedy was third behind only two other senators in history — the late Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and West Virginia’s Robert Byrd — in the length of his tenure. Byrd, an early rival, rose higher in the leadership, but neither he nor Thurmond matched Kennedy’s legislative output. And Byrd, who grew closer to Kennedy over time, proudly boasts of one title they share: the only two men in U.S. history elected nine times to the Senate.
“They stood for nine elections. No one else had ever done that,” said Richard Barker, the Senate historian. “Their seniority is off the charts.” nAlways the showman, Kennedy delighted in the grand entrance. But with the lights fading on his career, he seemed genuinely in awe of what he was witnessing. Civil rights had been a recurring, dominant theme his entire public life: from the voting rights debates in the ’60s, through the bitter school busing battles in his birthplace, Boston, in the ’70s, to, most recently, his stubborn pursuit of immigration reform — despite misgivings in both parties. “It’s breathtaking just thinking about it,” he told POLITICO prior to Obama’s Inauguration. “Two centuries of our struggle for civil rights come down to this defining moment. … Barack will be facing Abraham Lincoln and the sacred ground where Martin Luther King gave his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. And just behind the Capitol will be the Supreme Court, which inspired the modern civil rights revolution with its desegregation decision 55 years ago. Unbelievable.” Inauguration Day proved to be cold and a strain for Kennedy. He insisted on attending, sitting outside in the stands, reminiscing with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Soon after — at a luncheon for the president inside the Capitol — Kennedy suffered a seizure and was rushed to the hospital. Nonetheless, he returned in February when Reid needed him for pivotal votes to advance the president’s economic agenda. He decided to sit out the final roll call — but only after his wife, Victoria, first called three Republican moderates, whose support was needed by Obama, to be sure that the bill would not fail without Kennedy’s vote. It was classic Kennedy: trademark attention to personal details and persuasion. He always spoke of the Senate as something organic, fragmented but capable of coming together at historic moments.
His very early experiences — as the youngest son listening to his father plot his brother John Kennedy’s Senate bid in the ‘50s or years later, coming to the Senate himself as a newcomer at a time of huge change in the ‘60s — never left him. And this taught him, like a sports fan at a football game, to watch the whole field, not just the player with the ball. It was not always easy. As a younger man, overshadowed by two bigger-than-life brothers, Kennedy seemed forever condemned to be the shallow young prince awaiting his place in the White House. His single run for the presidency in 1980 — when he challenged and then lost in the primaries to Jimmy Carter — was a dismal failure. As the nation shifted right, with Carter losing to Ronald Reagan, Kennedy was dismissed by many as a failed relic of the past. He hurt himself further with a penchant for drinking and night life that better resembled Falstaff than Prince Hal. Many would never forgive him for the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident, in which he drove his car off a bridge on Martha’s Vineyard and his young companion, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. Twenty-two years later, he was severely embarrassed again after late-night carousing on Easter weekend with younger relatives in Palm Beach, Fla. But in time, Kennedy discovered himself in the Senate, just as the Senate discovered more in him.
His career spanned almost a half-century of American history, and covering Kennedy was like a relay race, in which those who knew him best in the early years have long ago retired. Education and healthcare initiatives will always be associated with his name, and the enactment this year of legislation authorizing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco is a Kennedy legacy. But this was also a senator who played a major role in airline deregulation, criminal code revisions and battles over the Supreme Court. Conservatives still resent him for his wholesale assault on Robert Bork’s nomination in 1987, and Kennedy is one of the few senators in history to see a former aide, Stephen Breyer, move up to the high bench. Kennedy’s power base rested on three major committees: Judiciary; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; and Armed Services, the first two of which he chaired at different points in his career. And he never lost an old-school style of politics, which set him apart in the increasingly impersonal Senate.
His booming voice filled the chamber when he spoke from his desk, always in the back row on the Democratic side and a gathering point over the years for younger members. “He is the only senator who could bring tears to my eyes when I was presiding and he rose to speak on the floor of the Senate,” said former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska. “There is something in the tone of the voice and the undisguised passion.” Few senators could better read a vote than Kennedy. Walking from the Capitol steps to his office in the Senate Russell building, he could dissect in a few short sentences who switched sides and why. He understood the chemistry of legislation, when the moment was ripe to bring forces together. And his personal skills were a huge asset for him in the long decades when Washington shifted away from the liberal activism of the 1960s. Kennedy’s energy was legendary. He once jumped out of a car at a traffic light to corral a House Democrat on immigration legislation. Looking for some help on a defense issue — and discovering that the father of a House Appropriations Committee aide was ill in a facility on Cape Cod — Kennedy surprised the family by showing up for a visit. Republicans such as Lott came to Congress railing against the Kennedy name, but they treasured small gifts from the senator — or kindnesses in the course of legislation. Kennedy’s deal making could frustrate his fellow Democrats, as when he jumped ahead of party leaders in being willing to work with Republicans on prescription drug legislation in 2003. But he was also someone who risked his own political capital for a fight in which he believed, such as when he stood up for labor against a powerful Federal Express lobby in 1996. Kennedy was riding high at the time, having been a major player in forcing concessions from the Republican leadership that summer and fall on minimum wage and health insurance coverage. To have walked away would have been the safer course, since there was almost no chance of prevailing given FedEx’s lobbying prowess — and fleet of corporate jets to help carry top Democrats as well as Republicans. But instead, he stalled adjournment and forced a series of showdown votes on a pro-FedEx labor provision inserted during House-Senate negotiations on an otherwise noncontroversial authorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration.FedEx prevailed on a 56-39 roll call in which 10 Democrats joined 46 Republicans in overruling the Senate parliamentarian to keep the provision in the bill and send it on to the White House intact. Lott boasted later that he had brought his old foe down a peg or two. But Kennedy walked off smiling, the true winner for many for having made the fight.
This past Thursday August 20th, the Weekly Link staff had the pleasure of having Senator State Senator Eric Adams visit and tour the offices of the Weekly Link. The senator was accompanied by his long time adviser on Jewish community matters, the asken Yoel Eisdorfer.
“I admire you” he told the Weekly Link staff after hearing about the phenomenal growth of the Weekly Link in its’ 2 1/2 year existence. The Weekly Link is the fastest growing magazine catering to the Brooklyn Jewish Community, with a weekly circulation of 30.000 copies.
Senator Adams sat down with the editorial board of the Weekly Link and spoke on and off the record of his vision and ideas for the community, as well as his future political aspirations. The atmosphere was casual and relaxed as Mr. Adams spoke of his former career as police officer and later as police captain.
Mr. Adams stressed the need to “keep [my] his ears to the ground” and listen to his constituents. “When it comes to making laws and budgeting decisions, there is no one at the table that looks like you, that comes from your community and understands your concerns… that’s why I’m here, to listen to your concerns and be your voice at the table” the senator said.
He expressed his dismay at how the middle class, “9 to 5′ers” as the state senator likes to call them, get squeezed by heavy handed aggressive parking tickets, which are very regressive, and punitive to the middle class. “For someone who makes 30 thousand dollars a year, a ticket of 115 dollars means no shoes for the kids, or skipping meals. Now, that is just not right” the Senator declared passionately.
Members of the editorial board at the Weekly Link came away impressed with the senators ideas and vision. “I feel like we have a friend in Senator Eric Adams” said Yossi Sigall, an executive at the magazine. Senior sales executive Zishe Rosenblum put it this way: “The senator was candid and frank, and seemed very serious about being there for us, as a community, which is quite refreshing. Such leadership usually gets rewarded with loyalty and votes come election day. We wish Senator Adams great success in all his future endeavors. He’s a friend of the community and we support him fully.”
We at the Weekly Link would like to thank Senator Adams for his leadership and dedication to the community, and for stopping by. We extend our support, and wish the senator well in his long and distinguished political career ahead.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies have pronounced the country’s election a success, after voting passed off largely peacefully. Mr Karzai hailed Afghans for braving Taliban “bombs and intimidations”. His praise was echoed by the US and Nato. There were some attacks by insurgents, but the UN says the vast majority of polling stations were able to function. President Karzai is facing challenges from about 30 rivals. Official results are not expected for two weeks. “The Afghan people dared rockets, bombs and intimidations,” he told reporters as polls closed following a one-hour extension. “We’ll see what the turnout was. But they came out to vote. That’s great.” In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: “Lots of people have defied threats of violence and terror to express their thoughts about the next government for the people of Afghanistan.” Mr Karzai said that based on reports by the interior ministry, 73 attacks had taken place in 15 provinces.Among the violent incidents reported:
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- Taliban militants stormed a town in Baghlan, northern Afghanistan, preventing polling stations from opening, police tell AFP news agency. At least eight died in ensuing clashes with police
- Taliban militants set fire to a bus on the Kandahar-Kabul highway in Ghazni, after offloading passengers and the driver, reportedly as punishment for violating a Taliban ban on using the road
- Rockets hitting houses in Khost and Kandahar provinces killed two women and several children
- More than 20 rockets landed in the capital of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold
- In northern Baghlan province, a district police chief was killed when Taliban militants attacked a police post
Some 300,000 Afghan and Nato troops were on patrol to prevent attacks during the presidential and local polls.
The United States strongly condemned Thursday’s decision by Scottish authorities to free a terminally ill Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing, saying there was no justification for his release. The Scottish government said Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence agent who was serving a life sentence in a Scottish prison, was freed on compassionate grounds because he is dying of cancer. Megrahi was flying home to Libya. “The interests of justice have not been served by this decision,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the top U.S. justice official, said in a statement. “There is simply no justification for releasing this convicted terrorist whose actions took the lives of 270 individuals, including 189 Americans.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the White House also expressed dismay.
Clinton called the bombing a “heinous crime” and said Washington had lobbied to keep Megrahi behind bars. “We have continued to communicate our long-standing position to U.K. government officials and Scottish authorities that Megrahi should serve out the entirety of his sentence in Scotland,” she said in a statement. Pan Am Flight 103 was en route from London to New York when it blew up in mid-air over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988. Many of the U.S. victims were from New York and New Jersey. Earlier this week Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, with the support of six other U.S. senators, wrote to Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill to ask that Megrahi serve out his sentence. The release “sends the wrong message about the consequences of international terrorism and increases the threat of terror in the United States, the United Kingdom and around the world,” Lautenberg said Thursday. Megrahi, 57, was the only person convicted for the bombing. He lost an appeal against his conviction in 2002, but a Scottish review of his case ruled in 2007 that there may have been a miscarriage of justice. Suse Lowenstein, of Montauk, New York, whose Alexander Lowenstein was killed at age 21, said of Thursday’s news: “It is so devastating and it is difficult for me to accept that the one man we had responsible for the murders of our son and the 270 victims in total is now going home to die in the arms of his family. It is just beyond comprehension. “He has the luxury to be at home with his family, which our son did not have. He was murdered at the age of 21, and surely if he had to die he would have liked to die with us as well.” Megrahi’s release came against the backdrop of improving relations between Libya and Western nations, spurred by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s decision in 2003 to drop his nuclear weapons program. The United States and Britain had ostracized Gaddafi following the Lockerbie bombing.
France’s accident investigation agency has abandoned a search for the ‘black boxes’ from the Air France passenger jet that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean. The research ship leading the hunt had left the area of the crash and would soon arrive in Senegal, concluding the “second phase” of the effort, it said. Experts will gather in the coming weeks to decide whether to launch a third. The Airbus A330 crashed in a storm en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on 1 June, killing all 228 people on board. Pieces of wreckage which have been recovered indicate that it broke up on contact with water, and not in the air. Investigators also believe the plane’s speed sensors had been “a factor but not the cause” of the crash. There had been speculation that old-style sensors may have given the pilots faulty information. However, information from the two flight recorders is needed for an exact account of how, when and why the crash happened. The first search phase to find the black boxes ended on 10 July, when the batteries powering their locator signals were thought to have run out. A second phase to locate the black boxes and the wreckage began at the end of July, with submarines working for the French Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis (BEA) for Civil Aviation Safety sweeping the site with sonar. “The search having failed to locate the wreck of the aircraft, the BEA will gather an international team of investigators and experts in the coming weeks to exploit the data gathered with a view to launching a third search phase, and to determine its modalities and means,” the agency said in a statement on Thursday. The BEA warned that the task of finding the flight recorders was formidable after debris was found scattered across a remote area some 1,000km (600 miles) off the Brazilian coast. The ocean floor at this point can reach a depth of 3,500m (11,500ft).
The CIA hired contractors from the US private security firm Blackwater as part of a secret programme to track and kill top al-Qaeda figures, reports say. The New York Times quotes current and ex-government officials as saying Blackwater helped the CIA with planning, training and surveillance. Several million dollars were spent on the programme but no militants were caught or captured, the report says. Blackwater staff were used to guard US government personnel in Iraq from 2003. But they were accused of using excessive force on a number of occasions, including the killing of 17 civilians in Baghdad in 2007. The North Carolina-based firm has not had its licence to operate in Iraq renewed. The company, which was founded by Erik Prince, has since been re-named Xe.
Lethal authority’ The New York Times reports that the CIA did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for the programme to locate and kill senior members of al-Qaeda. Instead, they had individual agreements with top officials in the firm, the paper goes on to say. It is not clear whether the US spy agency planned to use Blackwater contractors to actually capture and kill the militants, or just help with the training and surveillance of the programme, the report says. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that the assassination programme was initially launched in 2001 as a CIA-led effort to kill or capture top al-Qaeda figures using the agency’s paramilitary forces. But in 2004, after briefly terminating the programme, the CIA decided to revive it using outside contractors, the Post quotes officials as saying. Leon Panetta - who became director of the CIA under President Obama’s administration - is said to have learnt about the secret programme in June. The next day he called an emergency meeting with congressional intelligence committees to tell them about its existence, and to say that it was being cancelled. The New York Times quotes officials as saying the fact that the CIA used an outside company for the programme was a major reason Mr Panetta became alarmed and called the meeting. Although some controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners, has been outsourced in recent years, the fact that outsiders were used in a programme with “lethal authority” raised concerns about accountability in covert operations, officials were quoted as saying. The House of Representatives’ intelligence committee is investigating whether the CIA broke the law by not informing Congress about the programme for eight years. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, said last month that Mr Panetta told Congress former Vice-President Dick Cheney was behind the secrecy. But some Republicans accuse the Democrats of trying to make political capital from the situation. “I think there was a little more drama and intrigue than was warranted,” Representative Peter Hoekstra, the most senior Republican on the House intelligence committee, told the Times.
A widespread computer attack has hit several US government agencies while some South Korean government websites also appear to be affected. The White House, Defense Department and New York stock exchange were all hit by the attack that started on July 4. An analysis of the software used revealed its targets also included the National Security Agency, the Nasdaq stock market and the Washington Post. Many of the organisations appear to have warded off the attack. In South Korea, the presidential Blue House and Defence Ministry, National Assembly fell victim. US officials have not released details of the attack. Ben Rushlo, head of internet technologies at web performance firm Keynote Systems described it as a “massive outage”. Amy Kudwa, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said the body’s US Computer Emergency Readiness Team told federal departments about the issue and of steps “to mitigate against such attacks”. Recently the US homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano told the BBC that protecting against virtual attacks was a matter of “great concern” and something the US was “moving forward on with great alacrity”. The attacks in South Korea seemed to be connected to the attack of US government services, said Ahn Jeong-eun, a spokesperson at Korea’s Information Security Agency. South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency is reporting that North Korea may be behind Tuesday’s cyber attack. The country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) suspects North Korea or its sympathisers may have been behind the attack, according to sources who spoke to the news agency on condition of anonymity. It will present a report to the parliamentary intelligence committee on Thursday. The attack slowed down and, in some cases, shut government websites, including the site of the presidential office, for several hours.
Google is developing an operating system (OS) for personal computers, in a direct challenge to market leader Microsoft and its Windows system. Google Chrome OS will be aimed initially at small, low-cost netbooks, but will eventually be used on PCs as well. Google said netbooks with Chrome OS could be on sale by the middle of 2010. “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS,” the firm said in its official blog. The operating system, which will run on an open source licence, was a “natural extension” of its Chrome browser, the firm said. The news comes just months before Microsoft launches the latest version of its operating system, called Windows 7.
‘Back to basics’ “We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you on to the web in a few seconds,” said the blog post written by Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management, and Google’s engineering director Linus Upson. Both men said that “the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web” and that this OS was “our attempt to rethink what operating systems should be”. To that end, the search giant said the new OS would go back to basics. “We are completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. “It should just work,” said Google. Google already has an operating system for mobile phones called Android which can also be used to run on netbooks. Google Chrome OS will be aimed not just at laptops but also at desktops for those who spend a lot of time on the web.
‘Truly competitive’ The announcement could dramatically change the market for operating systems, especially for Microsoft, the biggest player with around 90% share. “This announcement is huge,” said Rob Enderle, industry watcher and president of the Enderle Group. “This is the first time we have had a truly competitive OS on the market in years. This is potentially disruptive and is the first real attempt by anyone to go after Microsoft. “Google is coming at this fresh and, because it is based on a set of services that reside on the web, it is the first really post-web operating system, designed from the ground up, and reconceived for a web world,” Mr Enderle told the BBC. Last year Google launched the Chrome browser, which it said was designed for “people who live on the web - searching for information, checking e-mail, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends”. Stephen Shankland at CNET said the move had widespread implications. “One is that it shows just how serious Google is about making the web into a foundation not just for static pages but for active applications, notably its own such as Google Docs and G-mail. “Another, it opens new competition with Microsoft and, potentially, a new reason for anti-trust regulators to pay close attention to Google’s moves.” Some commentators said Google’s motivation in all this was pretty clear. “One of Google’s major goals is to take Microsoft out, to systematically destroy their hold on the market,” said Mr Enderle. “Google wants to eliminate Microsoft and it’s a unique battle. The strategy is good. The big question is, will it work?” At the popular blog, TechCrunch, MG Siegler said: “Let’s be clear on what this really is. This is Google dropping the mother of all bombs on its rival, Microsoft.” Microsoft releases Windows 7 later this year to replace Windows Vista and Windows XP, which is eight years old. The Redmond-based company claims that 96% of netbooks run Windows to date.
Out of beta In a separate announcement Google also revealed that many of its most popular applications had finally moved out of trial, or beta, phase. Gmail, for example, has worn the beta tag for five years. “We realise this situation puzzles some people, particularly those who subscribe to the traditional definition of beta software as being not yet ready for prime time,” wrote Matthew Glotzbach, the director of product management in the official Google blog. The decision to ditch the beta tag was taken because the apps had finally reached the “high bar” mark, he wrote. More than 1.75 million companies use Google apps, according to the firm.
Up to 50 suspected militants have been killed in two US attacks in north-west Pakistan, In the first attack, suspected US drones attacked a Taliban forest camp in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border, killing at least 10 militants. Hours later, officials said about 40 militants died when five missiles hit a vehicle convoy in the same region. It has been one of the Taliban’s deadliest days since the drone campaign began last August. Separately, a top Taliban commander, Maulana Fazlullah, was reported to have been wounded during the Pakistani military’s ongoing offensive in the Swat Valley. Wednesday’s suspected drone strikes were targeting militants in a stronghold of Pakistan’s top Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud. The Pakistani army is now bracing itself for a major offensive against him. In the first of Wednesday’s attacks, missiles hit the thickly-forested and mountainous Karwan Manza area, some 10km (six miles) south-east of Ladha. Officials say six missiles were fired, completely destroying a Taliban hideout, a day after another camp was hit in a similar attack nearby. In the second attack, five missiles were fired at vehicles carrying militants on the main road between Ladha and another town, Sararogha, according to local officials. They said all the vehicles were destroyed and the dead were mostly Taliban militants, as well as members of banned militant organisations from Pakistan’s Punjab province. The BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says the militants targeted in the double strike were loyal to Baitullah Mehsud. US officials believe he is providing both the Taliban and al-Qaeda with a refuge in the region. They are offering a reward of $5m for his capture. Our correspondent says the increased number of drone attacks has caused a great deal of insecurity among the Pakistan Taliban commander’s fighters. Meanwhile, there was confusion over the fate of Maulana Fazlullah - a radical cleric and a commander of the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat Valley - who is said to have been wounded in an air strike on Monday. Army spokesman, Maj Gen Athar Abbas, told reporters: “We have credible information Maulana Fazlullah has been injured… But it is not possible to confirm whether he is alive or not.” Analysts describe him as the “architect” of the two-year uprising aimed at enforcing Sharia law in the Swat Valley, where government troops have been engaged in a bitter campaign to oust Islamist fighters for the last two months. The Pakistan Taliban has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings and other attacks which have killed scores inside the country. There have been dozens of suspected US pilotless air strikes since last August, mostly in the tribal North and South Waziristan regions, killing hundreds of militants and civilians. Last month, a suspected drone struck twice within hours killing more than 60 people - most of them militants who had gathered for the funeral of those killed in the first strike. Pakistan has been publicly critical of drone attacks, arguing that they fuel support for the militants. The US military does not routinely confirm such strikes but the armed forces and the CIA in Afghanistan are believed to be the only elements capable of deploying drones in the region. In March, US President Barack Obama said his government would consult Pakistan on drone attacks.