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Blackwater guards linked to CIA missions

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Blackwater Worldwide guards in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeded their role of guarding CIA officers by taking part in highly sensitive missions, sources said.

The missions included raids on suspected insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and transporting captives, The New York Times reported, quoting former company employees and intelligence officials. In Iraq, such actions against suspected al-Qaida insurgents were almost a nightly routine between 2004 and 2006, former employees and current and former intelligence officers told the newspaper.

This kind of partnership, which apparently was deeper than what has been officially disclosed, had proved quite profitable for the company, the report said.

"It became a very brotherly relationship," one former top CIA officer told The Times. "There was a feeling that Blackwater eventually became an extension of the agency."

The North Carolina-based Blackwater is now called Xe Services. Iraqis have accused its guards of reckless conduct, the report said.

CIA spokesman George Little declined comment on Blackwater's connections but said contractors hired by the agency give "flexibility in shaping and managing your talent mix -- especially in the short term -- but the accountability's still yours."

Blackwater spokesman Mark Corallo was quoted as saying Thursday the company was never under contract to participate in clandestine raids with the CIA or with Special Operations personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else.

The Times report said it was not clear whether top CIA officials in the United States knew or approved of Blackwater officials' involvement in the raids or whether they were known only to those on the ground.

TARP to be used to help small businesses?

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The Obama administration plans to provide major incentives for banks to make loans to small businesses as a way of creating jobs, sources said.

One proposal would create a new unit from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the sources told The Washington Post. Banks would be able to get government aid without the kind of restrictions accompanying TARP bailouts but would have to use it to make loans to small businesses.

The administration is also considering asking Congress to make changes in TARP, including ending limits on pay increases for executives.

Unemployment rose while many of the banks helped by the federal bailout reported high profits, the Post noted.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, testifying before a Congressional panel Thursday, said TARP would be used to help small businesses and community banks and to assist homeowners at risk of foreclosure.

$447B spending bill wins approval

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. House Democrats, without a single Republican vote, passed a $447 billion appropriations bill Thursday to fund several government agencies next fiscal year.

The House approved the conference committee report on a 221-202 vote, over GOP concerns about spending increases.

Senate Democrats and Republicans were at odds over when to vote on the conference report that combines six of the seven remaining 2010 appropriations bills.

Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that the chamber will be in session during the weekend to take up the measure, adding that the rest of the chamber's healthcare debate was unclear, Roll Call reported. Senate Republicans earlier indicated they would draw out debate on the measure, forcing the weekend session.

"We will certainly have discussion about a bill that has 4,072 earmarks totaling $3.7 billion in it," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said.

The spending bills in the package are for departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Justice, Labor, Veterans Affairs and State.

Congress faces a Dec. 18 deadline to get President Barack Obama to sign the conference report on the fiscal year 2010 appropriations bills into law to avoid a government shutdown. A continuing resolution, which allowed government to operate without approved funding after the new fiscal year started Oct. 1, expires on Dec. 18.

House OKs arbitration for auto dealers

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- More than 2,000 General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group dealerships could fight forced closings in arbitration under a bill passed Thursday by the U.S. House.

Binding arbitration for the dealerships and automakers would come as part of a $447 billion spending bill, approved 221-202, The Detroit News reported.

The bill now moves to the Senate, which is to consider it Sunday.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., worked out the process allowing dealerships to appeal closings.

"This is a fair opportunity to resolve the disputes and to have a fair hearing, which is all these dealers have asked for," Durbin said.

He said he expected the Senate to approve the provisions and predicted automakers would not oppose them.

Passage of the bill comes a week after General Motors and Chrysler proposed a much more limited appeals process that would focus only on whether the automakers adhered to their own criteria in deciding dealership closings.

The News said Chrysler closed 789 dealerships in June and GM plans to close at least 1,350 by October.

The bill would require an arbitrator to consider the economic interests of a closed dealership, the company and the public; the dealership's profitability since 2006 and "current economic viability;" and the automaker's business plan.

Dealers would be given 45 days to seek arbitration and the arbiter would get six months to make a decision.

GM would not say if it planned to fight the proposal but pledged to work with lawmakers and dealers "on a resolution that balances the interests of GM and its dealers," GM spokesman Greg Martin said.

In a statement, Chrysler said, "We agree with Congress that arbitration is the best way to resolve the issues involving discontinued dealers."

Man gets at least 18 years for terror plot

LONDON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A British judge sentenced a Muslim man to at least 18 years in prison Thursday for a plot to blow up passenger planes over the Atlantic.

Adam Khatib, 23, of London was given a life sentence, with a minimum of 18 years before he can be released, a day after a jury found him guilty, The Daily Telegraph reported.

During his two-month trial in Woolwich Crown Court, prosecutors described Khatib as an assistant to Abdullah Ahmed Ali, the plot's mastermind, The Times of London said. Ali was convicted in September and given a sentence of at least 40 years.

"The gravity of your offense is extreme," the judge, Justice David Calvert-Smith, said during sentencing. "You are clearly a character capable of being charming. However, you are immature, attention-seeking and cold-hearted. "

Two other men have been given shorter sentences.

The arrests in 2006 set off a new tightening of airline security. Because investigators said the group planned to use bombs concealed in bottles, liquids were banned from carry-on luggage.

Pakistanis say 5 men have U.S. passports

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Five Americans arrested in Pakistan were going to terrorist safe havens to train to fight against U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Pakistani police said Thursday.

Pakistani officials said the men tried to make contact with two groups banned in Pakistan and labeled as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, The Washington Post reported.

Pakistani police in Sarghona said the men had valid U.S. passports and Pakistani visas, ABC News reported. Two were Pakistani-born Americans and the others were born in Egypt, Algeria and Ethiopia.

"They are proudly saying, 'We are here for jihad,'" Usman Anwar, a Pakistani police chief involved in the investigation of the five men from northern Virginia. He said police recovered jihadist literature, computers and maps of Pakistan when the men were arrested near Lahore this week.

"We had a tip off that some Americans are here who seem to be suspicious, upon which we made a raid and arrested all five," Anwar said.

Police also took into custody the father of two of the U.S. nationals, Pakistani officials said.

Unclear was whether the U.S. officials shared the Pakistanis' view that the five men intended to train for holy war, the Post reported. U.S. officials said they didn't have information about what the men wanted to do, or evidence they trained at terror camps or were otherwise involved in terror plots.

The men left their homes in the United States without telling their families, raising concern, said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The council arranged for family members to contact the FBI, when they played an 11-minute video with jihadist overtones, the Post said.

"I was very disturbed by the contents," Awad said. "It made references to the ongoing conflicts in the world and that a Muslim has to do something about them."

President Barack Obama, in Norway to receive his Nobel Peace Prize, did not comment on the arrests, saying the matter was under investigation, the Post said. However, he praised the contributions of U.S. Muslim community.

Calif. gets first openly gay House speaker

SACRAMENTO, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- First-term California Assemblyman John Perez was chosen to become the legislative body's next speaker Thursday, the first openly gay person to hold the post.

Perez, who represents a Los Angeles district, was voted for the position by the Assembly Democratic Caucus, which he leads, and is expected to be officially named in January when the full Assembly votes, KXTV, Sacramento, reported. He will succeed Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, another Los Angeles politician who had been appointed in 2008.

"I want to thank the members of the Assembly Democratic Caucus for the faith they have placed in me," Perez said. "It is a humbling privilege. I will work every day to justify that faith and to earn the enormous honor of having been drafted to serve as speaker.

"As speaker, I will look forward to working with a united Democratic caucus as we continue tackling our No. 1 priority -- helping the state recover from the recession and helping the California families who have been hit so hard by it."

Perez, a cousin of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, aced out Kevin de Leon for the post.