Snow warns of isolationist policies
WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of the Treasury John Snow has warned against isolationist policies following the collapse of a deal on foreign management of some U.S. ports.
"It is vital that we avoid taking steps in the name of national security that instead are isolationist, having the effect of choking off vital investments in America," Snow said Tuesday in a speech to the America's Community Bankers Government Affairs Conference.
Snow said the Treasury Department would be working with congressional committees on changes to policies of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. That body vetted the deal in which Dubai Ports World, from the United Arab Emirates, was to have managed six U.S. East Coast ports. The company has since said it will sell those rights to a U.S. company.
Opponents of the original deal questioned security aspects of a U.A.E.-owned company running the ports.
Snow said CFIUS should increase scrutiny of deals involving state-owned companies while preserving the independence of the committee's intelligence and security reviews.
Al-Qaida's No. 2 visited Calif. in '90s.
SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 14 (UPI) -- An FBI informant in a California terror trial says Osama bin Ladin's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, spent time in Lodi, Calif. during the 1990s.
The informant, a Pakistan native, testified that he saw al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor, in Lodi but never had a conversation with him, the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee reported.
The informant was testifying at the terror trial of Hamid Hayat, 23. The Lodi man is accused of supporting terrorism by attending a training camp in Pakistan in 2003. Hayat is on trial in Sacramento along with his father, who is charged with lying about his son's alleged camp attendance.
Hayat's attorney said Monday al-Zawahiri was "definitely not in Lodi in 1998 or 1999," and claimed the informant "told the story because he was interested in securing a job with the FBI."
The San Francisco Chronicle has reported previously that al-Zawahiri, who is suspected of involvement in a number of crimes including the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, appears to have visited San Francisco-area mosques in the late 1980s or 1990s, raising money while traveling under a fake name, although he had not been linked to Lodi before.
Milosevic's son arrives to take body
THE HAGUE, Netherlands, March 14 (UPI) -- Slobodan Milosevic's son came to collect his father's body Tuesday.
Marco Milosevic arrived in the Netherlands to ensure that the body of the former president of Yugoslavia was accompanied for a funeral set for Thursday or Friday.
Slobodan Milosevic died Saturday of a heart attack while awaiting a verdict in his trial for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
Milosevic's widow, Mira Markovic, would like to see her husband buried in Belgrade, but she risks arrest there on charges of abuse of power. Through Serbia has said that it will allow a funeral for the former dictator, Marco Milosevic said that he is considering a Moscow funeral unless he can ensure that his mother will not be arrested. The Serbian court has said that Markovic will not be arrested, but that she must submit to a hearing and surrender her passport if she returns home.
Milosevic's lawyer, Zdenko Tomanovic, said that prior to his death Milosevic had sent a letter to a Russian foreign minister asking for help. Milosevic's lawyers had also asked the judge's permission for him to travel to Moscow for treatment. Trial judges denied this request in February.
Robertson: Muslims are 'crazed fanatics'
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., March 14 (UPI) -- Muslims are "crazed fanatics" motivated by "demonic power" whose goal is "world domination," religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said.
Robertson's comments during Monday's "700 Club" program followed a segment about radical Muslims in Europe.
"These people are crazed fanatics and I want to say it now; I believe it's motivated by demonic power, it is satanic and it's time we recognize what we're dealing with," watchdog group Americans United for Separation of Church and State quoted Robertson as saying.
"The goal of Islam ... is world domination," Robertson said.
Americans United said Robertson "seems determined to throw gasoline on the fire" of worldwide religious tensions, the Virginian Pilot reported.
"When will Robertson ever learn to think before he speaks?" said the group's the Rev. Barry Lynn.
Robertson drew criticism earlier for advocating the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and suggesting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was God's retribution for pulling out of the Gaza Strip.
Just last month, though, Robertson told World magazine he would have a monitor on an earphone check his more incendiary remarks.
Costly FBI computer update continues
WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- An effort to update the FBI's computer system could cost another $500 million and is in danger of additional cost overruns, a Justice Department report said.
The FBI has been working to bring its computer system up to date through a program called Sentinel, but The New York Times reports that the FBI office is still not fully staffed.
The update could run to $500 million over the next three years, the newspaper said.
Additionally, a report from the Justice Department's inspector general, released Monday, said that while some improvement has been made in program efficacies there are "continuing concerns" regarding management issues and budgets, the Times said.
The FBI has been working since the mid 1990s to improve its computer systems. The bureau recently ended its Virtual Case File system, which cost $170 million and didn't work. Poor management was cited as at least part of the problem, the inspector general said.
An FBI spokesman told the Times a management system mentioned in the report "should help us identify and minimize failures and better ensure success."
Protest staged at memorial work
NEW YORK, March 14 (UPI) -- Construction started Monday on New York's World Trade Center Memorial even as families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks staged a protest.
Construction workers began clearing gravel to bring in lumber and equipment, a spokeswoman for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation told Crain's New York Business.
The report said wooden boxes were placed around support beams to preserve the Twin Towers' footprints, which the victims' families group wants to protect. The memorial is set to be completed in 2009.
A coalition of the victims' families has filed a lawsuit, claiming the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and New York state Parks Commissioner have violates the state's historic preservation law.
LMDC spokesman John Gallagher said in a statement, "This obstructionist lawsuit is without merit and we plan to proceed on schedule with building a memorial that both pays tribute to those we lost and honors historic preservation principles."
Nearly 3,000 people were killed after al-Qaida members fly two airplanes into the towers of the World Trade Center, causing fires that eventually caused the 110-story building to collapse on Sept. 11, 2001.
