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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The trail began with a single, false name and ended, years later, with Osama bin Laden's body sinking into the sea Viewed backwards, from Osama bin Laden's hideout to the scraps of intelligence that led to it, the trail seems obvious. Tracing it from end to beginning obscures the level of difficulty: the years of frustration and patient effort, the technological innovation, the lives lost, the mistakes made, the money spent. The trail to Abbottabad represented a triumph of dot connecting. In this case, it began with a name. It was not even a real name, and the reference was to someone reported, falsely, to be dead. The name Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti was first mentioned to authorities in Mauritania by an al-Qaida operative, Mohamedou Ould Salahi. It was obviously a pseudonym. The name meant "the Father of Ahmed from Kuwait". It was just one name among thousands that were daily being entered into what would become the Terrorism Information Awareness database. The same pseudonym, and person, would be fleshed out in more detail by three more detainees. A fourth, Abu Faraj al-Libi, al-Qaida's number three, who was captured in May 2005, said he had never heard of him. That was interesting. Five different detainees had been asked about him. Four said they knew of him. Three placed him close to Bin Laden, one named him as a "courier" (although one of those three said he was dead) and one, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, also a senior figure, said he had left al-Qaida. Here's what the analysts gathered: their two most important captives either minimised the importance of the Kuwaiti or denied his existence altogether. This might mean that Ahmed the Kuwaiti was very important indeed. Add the fact that the Kuwaiti had dropped off the map… just like Bin Laden. For the first time, the CIA teams began to consider that the Kuwaiti was with "the Sheikh" even now. In 2007, the agency learned that the Kuwaiti's real name was Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed. He came from a large Pakistani family that had moved to Kuwait. He and his brothers had grown up speaking Pashto and Arabic. One of his brothers had been killed fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan. In June 2010, because of either some change in his cell phone or its service package, or some improvement in their own capability, the US was able to pinpoint Ahmed's phone's location when it was in use. This meant they could find the Kuwaiti, and watch him. Ahmed and his family lived in a large compound in Abbottabad, with his brother Abrar and his family. They went by assumed names in the neighbourhood; Ibrahim called himself Arshad Khan and his brother went by the name Tariq Khan. Both had been born in Kuwait, but ethnically they were tall, fair-skinned, bearded Pakistani Pashtuns. They had never been wealthy, but their compound appeared extremely pricey. And in addition to the high walls, it seemed that the brothers observed extraordinarily strict security measures. Other than to attend the local religious school or to visit a doctor, none of their children left the compound. In telephone calls to other far-flung family members, always made from locations distant from the compound itself, they lied about where they were living. The agency had been investigating the compound quietly, snapping pictures from above and spying on it with agents on the ground – who couldn't see inside, but who asked casual questions of those living nearby, always careful not to appear too curious. Who lives in that big place? I wonder what the people who live there do? That and telephone intercepts produced two discoveries that the agency considered greatly significant, and that persuaded CIA director Leon Panetta he ought to bring the discovery to the president. The first was that living inside the compound on the upper two floors of the big house was a third family. No member of that family ever left the grounds. Its children did not even leave to attend school with the others. And there were signs that the brothers, who ostensibly owned the place, served this hidden family. The second discovery was that Ibrahim Ahmed was apparently still working for al-Qaida. In a telephone conversation with an old friend that summer, Ahmed was peppered with the standard questions – "What are you doing now? What are you up to?" At first he didn't answer. But his friend was insistent, and he finally gave in, albeit cryptically. "I'm with the same ones as before," he said. His friend seemed to know immediately what that meant and, after uttering, "May Allah be with you", dropped the subject. That suggested that whomever Ahmed and his brother were minding in Abbottabad belonged to al-Qaida. Panetta brought two of the agency's Bin Laden team leaders with him to the Oval Office. The lead analyst, who would become known as "John" (his middle name), had devoted himself to the hunt for most of the previous 10 years. The agency men walked the president and his deputy national security adviser, Thomas Donilon, through the reverse engineering that had helped them identify "Ahmed the Kuwaiti" and the suspicious nature of the compound itself. Panetta compared Abbottabad to a well-to-do northern Virginia suburb. The compound was eight times larger than any of the surrounding residences. Its walls were built unusually high, topped by 2ft of barbed wire. There was no way to see inside the house itself, from the ground or from above. The windows were made of reflective glass or had been coated to achieve the same effect. Obama was familiar enough with Bin Laden's background to have long ago stopped picturing him crouched in a cave or living in some sparse mountaintop camp. But to find him in a sprawling compound in an affluent neighbourhood – they were all surprised by that. Still, the president wasn't especially hopeful. The connection to Bin Laden was tenuous at best. He encouraged Panetta to press on. He wanted the identity of the hidden family nailed down. He also wanted a "close hold" on the lead, meaning it was not to leave his office. "Just emotionally," Obama told me, "I was not particularly optimistic about it. I mean, I think my general view was, OK, these guys are carrying out my orders to pursue every lead. Did I think at that stage that we had the goods? I think I was pretty guarded about not letting myself get overly excited about the prospects." Only one member of the hidden family in Abbottabad could be seen regularly, a tall man in traditional Pashtun dress and prayer cap who took daily walks inside the compound walls. Overhead cameras were able to get images of him, but they were not very good. He appeared to be tall and thin. They called the man "the Pacer". The CIA determined that the hidden family was large: three wives, a young man and 10 or more children, several of them teenagers or young adults. The number of wives and children corresponded with their theorising about who might surround Bin Laden on the run. He had always kept most of his family with him. Obama was struck, as others were, by actually being able to see the mystery man. "At this point, you're saying to yourself, this is all circumstantial, but it's hard to figure out what the explanation would be for that particular pattern," Obama said. "And so at that point I think there's a part of me that's thinking this might be for real." Still, the president was cautious. He instructed Panetta to figure out a way to nail it down. He said to continue keeping a tight lid on it. And he also instructed Panetta to start preparing options for action. Planning for either an air or a ground assault on the compound proceeded through February 2011, ready for a meeting with Obama on 14 March. It was time to start making important decisions. By early March, the agency had determined that the Abbottabad compound held a "high value target" and that it was most likely Osama bin Laden. "John", the team leader at the CIA, was close to convinced. He put his confidence level at 95%. Others were less certain. Some were as low as 40% or even 30%. Ever since the agency's erroneous call, a decade earlier, that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, the CIA had instituted an almost comically elaborate process for weighing certainty. Analysts up and down the chain were now asked not only for their opinion, but to assign it a confidence level. Michael Morell, deputy director of the CIA, had been personally involved in the finding about Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction, and had felt more certain about that than he felt about this. "Mr President, if we had a human source who had told us directly that Bin Laden was living in that compound, I still wouldn't be above 60%." Morell said he had spent a lot of time on both questions – WMDs and Abbottabad. "And I'm telling you, the case for WMDs wasn't just stronger, it was much stronger," he said. The president listened, but he had already pretty much made up his mind. "One of the things you learn as president is you're always dealing with probabilities," he told me. "No issue comes to my desk that is perfectly solvable... Because if people were absolutely certain, then it would have been decided by somebody else... In this situation, what you started getting was probabilities that disguised uncertainty as opposed to actually providing you with more useful information." Obama had no trouble admitting it to himself. If he acted on this, he was going to be taking a gamble, pure and simple. A big gamble. "This is 50-50," he said. "Look, guys, this is a flip of the coin. I can't base this decision on the notion that we have any greater certainty than that." So, if he decided to act, what were his options? Obama was presented with two. The simplest, and the one that posed the least risk to US forces, was to reduce the compound to dust, along with everyone and everything in and around it. To do the job right, the air force had calculated that would mean raining as many as 30 or more precision bombs from a high-flying B-2, or launching a comparable number of missiles. Obama asked how many people were living at the compound and was informed that there were four adult males, five women and nearly 20 children. He asked about the houses that were close to the compound. Those, too, would be completely destroyed, along with every resident man, woman and child. This really gave the president pause. America was not going to obliterate them on a 50-50 chance of also killing Osama bin Laden. So the president scrapped that plan immediately. Then Vice Admiral William McRaven, commander of joint special operations command, explained the ground option for the first time. His team had not yet fleshed out the mission completely. One thing he could tell the president for sure was that if his team could be delivered to the compound, they could clear it and kill or capture Bin Laden with minimal loss of life. Two weeks later, at the end of March, McRaven was back in the Situation Room with a full plan. The air force also came back with a plan for smaller bombs and smaller blast circles. They could hit the compound without harming people living in homes outside its walls, but the lesser assault meant they could not guarantee taking out anything underground. There would still be a lot of bodies, women and children included, and no way to tell if one of the dead was Bin Laden. But there was another air option, one that appealed especially to Vice Chairman James Cartwright, one of Obama's favourite generals. Cartwright's new proposal for Abbottabad was to target the Pacer alone. Wait for the tall man to emerge for his daily exercise around the vegetable garden and shoot him down with a small missile fired from a drone. It felt too good to be true. What if it worked and you dropped the Pacer in his tracks? How would you know that you had killed Osama bin Laden? And it was strictly a one-shot deal. If you missed, the Pacer and his entourage would vanish. McRaven said that his team would be ready to conduct the raid by the first week of May, when the moon would vanish for a few days over Abbottabad. Obama told McRaven to start full dress rehearsals. He also told Cartwright to get ready to attempt the drone strike. He wanted both options kept alive until he made a decision. Raiding the compound was the riskiest option. It posed a slew of hard questions that the air option did not. One of the most interesting was what to do if Bin Laden was not killed but captured. In the unlikely event that Bin Laden surrendered, Obama saw an opportunity to resurrect the idea of a criminal trial. "We worked through the sort of legal and political issues that would have been involved, and Congress and the desire to send him to Guantánamo, and to not try him, and Article Three," the president told me. "I mean, we had worked through a whole bunch of those scenarios. But, frankly, my belief was if we had captured him, that I would be in a pretty strong position, politically, here, to argue that displaying due process and rule of law would be our best weapon against al-Qaida, in preventing him from appearing as a martyr." Obama added, "I think it's important to emphasise, having made those plans, our expectation was that if, in fact, he was there, that he would go down fighting." The final meeting was held in the Situation Room on the afternoon of Thursday 28 April. Popular accounts of this decisive session have portrayed Obama facing down a wall of opposition and doubt among his top advisers. In fact, there was overwhelming support for launching the raid. One by one, the principals around the room were asked to choose one of the three options: the raid, the missile strike or doing nothing – and then to defend their choice. The only major dissenters were Joe Biden and defence secretary Robert Gates, and, by the next morning, Gates had changed his mind. Everyone else favoured sending in the Seals. At first it didn't seem like Hillary Clinton would. She had famously faulted Obama years earlier for asserting that he would take a shot in Pakistan unilaterally if there was a good chance of getting Bin Laden and now, as secretary of state, she would bear the brunt of the diplomatic fallout if he did. Suspense built as Clinton worked her way around to her surprising bottom line. They could not ignore a chance to get Osama bin Laden. It was too important to the country. It outweighed the risks. The Thursday meeting ended early in the evening. "You'll have my decision in the morning," Obama said. In truth, as the president told me, he had all but made up his mind when he left the Thursday meeting. He had been thinking about it for months. The advantages of the raid were obvious and, to his way of thinking, outweighed the risks. A missile might go astray and, unlike taking a shot from a drone, the raid offered certainty. If Bin Laden was there, they would know it and they would bring him out, dead or alive. There was another compelling reason to send in the Seal team. If this had been Bin Laden's hideout for years, it might hold a trove of valuable information, perhaps the kind that would enable the US to further dismantle al-Qaida. He reviewed the process over and over again in his mind Thursday night into Friday morning. His habit was to stay up much later than Michelle and his girls. They had turned in at 10 o'clock. He was up another three hours, pacing and thinking in the Treaty Room, the upstairs room that functions as the family's living room and also the president's private office. "It was a matter of taking one last breath and just making sure, asking is there something that I haven't thought of?" Obama explained to me. "Is there something that we need to do?" The questions stayed with him even as he tried to sleep that night. He believed that waiting longer would not accomplish anything, and might risk everything. They were not likely to get better intelligence, that had been clear. On Friday morning, before he walked out to the South Lawn to board a helicopter on a trip to the southern states to view tornado damage, he called a meeting. "It's a go," Obama said. "We're going to do the raid. Prepare the directives." McRaven's men were in Jalalabad, poised. The earliest they would go would be early the following evening, Saturday 30 April. Most of the 24 handpicked team were members of Red Squadron of Seal Team Six. Behind this initial force were the men and choppers and planes that McRaven hoped he would not need. There were three MH-47E Chinooks, big as tractor trailers, with flat rotors front and back. Also on alert were the fighters and combat-control aircraft that might be needed to fend off Pakistani fighters and ground-to-air defences. There had been some conversation the evening before about the timing. The correspondents' dinner was the major black-tie social gala of the year in Washington: televised, and attended by celebrities from Hollywood and the sports world, and by all of the most prominent government leaders and journalists. The main attraction was always the president of the United States, who typically delivered a standup comedy routine poking fun at himself and the press. If Obama chose the raid, it would likely take place at the same time as the dinner. How would it look for the president to be making jokes at a podium while the men were risking their lives? And what if something went wrong and everyone had to suddenly leave the party? When someone floated the idea of asking McRaven to postpone the mission for a day, Clinton had heard enough. "We are not going to let a White House correspondents' dinner drive an operational decision," she said. That ended it. Obama told Donilon, "Tom, if it turns out that's when we decide to go, you'll just tell them I have a stomach ache and I have to bow out." The question of what to do about the dinner became moot when McRaven's weather experts predicted fog in the Abbottabad area for Saturday night, so he decided to push the mission back one day. They would launch on Sunday night. So in this tense moment, the most suspenseful of Obama's presidency, he and his staff dressed for a formal party. Obama lived up to his reputation for cool. If he was anxious about the next day's mission, he didn't show it, garnering laughs as he poked fun at the long-running dispute over his origins and his own sometimes messianic public image. Great care was taken to preserve the appearance of normality on Sunday. President Obama left for his weekly golf outing at Andrews Air Force Base, but this time he would play only nine holes. Arrival times at the White House for all the top staffers and cabinet members were staggered. The West Wing tours normally booked for Sunday had been cancelled. Obama's personal secretary had planned one for that day, intending to show around the cast members of the hit movie The Hangover, who had come to town for the previous night's gala, but was told there were no exceptions. In the Situation Room and the complex of small meeting rooms around it, staffers worked on setting up the video conferencing. Panetta, who would officially command the mission from his conference room at the CIA HQ in Langley, would be up on the big screen, relaying the running commentary of McRaven, who would be at his post in Jalalabad. High over Abbottabad was an RQ-170 Sentinel, a stealthy drone with a high-powered lens, which would provide a live video feed of the assault. Two stealth Black Hawks lifted off from the airfield at Jalalabad precisely at 11pm local time. They were blacked out and both carried a full, minutely calculated load. Each of the Seals was in full kit. They carried only light arms because the compound was not heavily defended. About 10 minutes into the flight, the choppers rose above a series of rugged peaks and crossed into Pakistan. As soon as they did, the three big Chinooks lifted off from Jalalabad. One would set down just inside the border on the Afghan side; the other two would proceed to the staging area north of Abbottabad by a different route. Up on the big screen in the White House Situation Room, Panetta read out occasional updates on the choppers' progress. One of Obama's aides said, "Mr President, this is going to take a while, you might not want to sit here and watch the whole thing unfold." "No, I think I'm going to go ahead and watch," Obama said. Approaching the compound from the north-west, the Black Hawks were now visible in the grainy overhead feed from the Sentinel. After that, things happened very fast. Everyone watched with shock as the first chopper, instead of hovering over the compound as planned, to drop the Seal team from ropes and then move off, abruptly wheeled, clipping the compound wall with its tail and hitting the ground. This clearly wasn't good. The Night Stalker pilot had tried to bring his Black Hawk to a hover, but the chopper wouldn't perform the manoeuvre. It began to skid uncontrollably. The pilot of the faltering Black Hawk moved with practised speed. The landing was hard, but upright, which was key. No one watching the small screen in the White House could see exactly what had happened. They could see only that it was down inside the compound. They knew that was not the plan. Here in the first seconds of the mission, they had a Black Hawk down. Obama had been receiving mission updates secondhand, talking with Panetta via the video hook-up in the Situation Room, and letting others monitor the video feed and chat lines in the side room, but when the chopper went down, he abruptly got up and crossed the hall. "I'll just take this chair here," he said, sliding into the corner. "I need to watch this." Clinton followed and took one of the remaining chairs at the table. Other staffers began crowding into the small room to see what would happen next. Obama's face was etched with worry. A White House photographer snapped a picture of the now-crowded side room that would become famous. When the first chopper went down, the second Black Hawk diverted from its planned course and landed outside the compound walls in a newly planted field. It seemed to the viewers that the entire assault plan had gone awry. Then, abruptly, Seals began streaming out of both choppers, inside the compound and out. The assault was on. The team from the crashed chopper moved quickly along the inside wall of the compound, pausing only to blow open a metal door that led to the house. The team from the chopper outside the wall blasted in through another entrance. There were flashes of light on the screen. The men were moving on the house itself now, and then were inside. Upstairs in that house, according to accounts given by Bin Laden's family, the household had been startled awake by a loud crash. Bin Laden instructed his wife, Amal, to leave the lights off. They would not have been able to turn them on anyway, because in advance of the assault CIA operatives had cut off electricity to the entire neighbourhood. One group of Seals entered the garage area of the guest house. There was a single brief spray of gunfire as they approached, but it was wild and ineffective. It had most likely come from the courier Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed – Ahmed the Kuwaiti. The Seals returned fire, killing Ahmed and wounding his wife in the shoulder. Another part of the team moved on the main house, clearing it methodically. Abrar Ahmed, the courier's brother, was in a first-floor bedroom with his wife, Bushra. Both were shot dead. They cleared the first floor room by room, encountering no further gunfire. They passed through two large storage rooms and a kitchen. No one knew the layout of the interior. When they encountered a locked metal door in the rear, sealing off a stairway to the upper floors, they slapped on a small C-4 charge, blew it off its hinges and moved up the stairs. Bin Laden's 23-year-old son, Khalid, a slender, bearded man wearing a white T-shirt, was shot dead at the top. There were wailing women and children on this floor, none of whom posed a threat. The team didn't know it yet, but there was only one adult male left in the compound, and he was in the third-floor bedroom. Originally, half the assaulting Seals were to have come down through the balcony into the third floor, in which case Bin Laden would have been encountered immediately, at about the same time the Ahmed brothers were being shot downstairs. Instead, he had about 15 long minutes to wait in the darkness as the Seals methodically approached. The assaulters blew off the door barring the third floor and he would have heard men ascending, coming for him. Three Seals came up those stairs, scanning different angles, searching while protecting each other. According to one of the Seals, the first man up spotted a tall, bearded, swarthy man in a prayer cap wearing traditional flowing Pakistani clothes, the knee-length shirt worn over pyjama-like bottoms. One or more of the Seals fired at him. The man retreated quickly into a bedroom and the Seals followed. In the bedroom they found two women leaning over a fatally wounded Bin Laden, who had been shot in the head. The first Seal violently moved the women out of the way and the other two stood over him and fired several more shots into his chest. The engagement was over in seconds. Amal had been shot in the leg. Bin Laden had weapons on a shelf in his bedroom but had not picked them up. His identity was unmistakable, even with the grotesque hole through his right forehead. McRaven heard "for God and country, pass Geronimo. Geronimo. Geronimo." The word "Geronimo" was part of a coded "mission execution checklist". It meant the critical milestone of the raid had been passed successfully, securing Bin Laden. McRaven conveyed the report immediately to Panetta, and it began to spread waves of excitement through the CIA and White House. In the White House, in the corner of the small, crowded conference room, Obama heard "Geronimo ID'd". The president knew the ID was still tentative, so he didn't let himself fully believe it. But after McRaven had passed that along, it occurred to him that he had not asked specifically whether Bin Laden had been killed or captured. So he asked, "Find out whether it's Geronimo EKIA [Enemy Killed In Action]." The answer came back, "Roger, Geronimo EKIA." "Looks like we got him," said Obama, only half believing it. The delay between these two reports would cause some confusion in later accounts, which suggested that the Seals had first found Bin Laden, chased him and then, a few minutes later, killed him. The finding and the shooting had happened in the time it took the three Seals to crash into his room. Eighteen minutes had elapsed since the choppers had arrived. The video on the screen now showed Seals emerging from the house, herding the uninjured women and children to one corner of the compound, away from the downed chopper. Some of the men came out carrying a body bag – Bin Laden's body had been dragged feet-first down the stairs, leaving a bloody trail. The Seals eventually zipped it into a nylon bag. The assaulters moved deliberately, and Obama felt they were taking too long. Everyone was waiting for the Pakistani response at this point. The president just wanted them in the air. Upstairs, Seals were hastily bagging Bin Laden's papers and computer, discs, flash drives, anything that might contain useful intelligence. Bin Laden's youngest wife, Amal, wounded, was helped down the stairs, and once outside started haranguing the Americans in Arabic. All four men who had lived in the compound, along with one woman, were dead. The surviving women and children were flex-cuffed. The women assumed they were going to be taken away. Questioned by an Arabic-speaking Seal, the women confirmed that they had killed "the Sheikh". One of the children confirmed that it was Osama bin Laden. The Chinook summoned by McRaven now landed noisily outside the compound walls. Men were working on planting explosives on the downed Black Hawk and destroying its secret avionics with a hammer. A medic from the Chinook unzipped Bin Laden's body bag, took swabs of blood and inserted needles to extract bone marrow for DNA testing. Twenty more minutes elapsed before the body bag was carried out to the Black Hawk. One of the bone marrow samples was placed on the Chinook. The intelligence haul was likewise distributed between the two choppers. Finally, the White House audience saw the downed Black Hawk explode with the set charges. The demolition team scurried to the Chinook and the choppers lifted off, leaving behind a huge blaze, a stunned collection of cuffed women and children, and four bodies. A photo purporting to be the bloody corpse of Khalid bin Laden would turn up on the internet in the coming days. The choppers landed back in Jalalabad at 3am local time. None of the men who went on the raid had been hurt. They had lost a helicopter, but they had avoided Pakistan's defences completely. And they had killed Osama bin Laden. The Seals were certain of it, but the White House and the world would demand more proof. The body bag was unzipped, and photographs were taken and transmitted immediately to Washington and Langley. The man had been dead for an hour and 40 minutes, and he had taken a shot to the head, so the face was swollen and distorted. McRaven called CIA headquarters with a question for the Bin Laden team. "How tall is this guy?" he asked. He was told, "Between six-four and six-five." The dead man was certainly tall, but no one had a tape measure, so one of the Seals who was exactly 6ft 4in lay down next to the body. It was roughly the same height. Early on Sunday evening in Washington, Obama surveyed the first photos with other members of the team. When McRaven returned to his command centre, Obama asked him, "What do you think?" "Without DNA I can't tell you I'm 100% sure," the admiral said. "But I'm pretty damned sure." Still, the president was inclined to be cautious. It wasn't until 11.35pm that the president appeared on television, striding up the red carpet towards a podium, and began: "Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida, and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children." In the days after the raid, an album of photographs was delivered to the White House, a series of shots of the dead Bin Laden. There would be much discussion that week about whether these images should be made public, as proof of death, but the president had firmly decided that they would not. After much discussion and advice, it had been decided that the best option would be burial at sea. That way, there would be no shrine for the martyr's misguided followers. So the body was washed, photographed from every conceivable angle and flown on a V-22 Osprey to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, cruising in the North Arabian Sea. Procedures for a simple Muslim burial were performed on the carrier. The body was wrapped in a white shroud with weights to sink it. The last sequence of colour photos in the death album were not grotesque. They were strangely moving. A navy photographer recorded the burial in full sunlight on Monday morning, 2 May. One frame shows the body wrapped in the weighted white shroud. The next shows it diagonal on a flat board, feet overboard. In the next frame the body is hitting the water with a small splash. In the next it is visible just below the surface, a ghostly torpedo descending. In the next shot there are only circular ripples on the blue surface. In the final frame the waters are calm. The mortal remains of Osama bin Laden were gone for good. • This is an edited extract from The Finish: The Killing Of Osama Bin Laden, by Mark Bowden, published next week by Atlantic Books at £20. To order a copy for £16, with free UK p&p, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rolling report: New York Yankees visit the Baltimore Orioles for ALDS Game 5
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | New England Compounding Center cited in court papers over role in health scare as number of cases hits 185 A Minnesota woman has become the first patient to sue the pharmacy compounder at the heart of the deadly meningitis outbreak in the US, as the number of patients known to have been infected by contaminated steroid shots continues to rise. Health authorities said Friday that the total number of known cases resulting from the suspect injections stood at 185. Fourteen patients are known to have died as a result of the rare form of fungal meningitis. The New England Compounding Centre (NECC) – to which the cause of the outbreak has been traced – has been cited in court papers over its role in the growing health scare. In legal documents filed in Minnesota on Thursday, a woman named as Barbe Puro launched a class action on behalf of patients who had been administered the contaminated steroid shots. The lawsuit seeks redress from the compounding pharmacy over the sale of "defective and dangerously contaminated steroids, which has caused plaintiff and others bodily harm, emotional distress, other personal injuries, and to incur medical and other expenses". It is the first such action lodged in the courts since cases of the rare form of fungal meningitis began to be linked to NECC last week. The outbreak is believed to have originated from batches of contaminated methylprednisolone acetate – a steroid used to ease back pain – that were prepared by NECC and shipped to 76 clinics in 23 states between July and September. Visiting the pharmacy last week, investigators from the Food and Drug Administration found a fungal contaminate in a sealed vial and a "foreign material" in another, opened container. It has since emerged that the pharmacy compounder has a checkered history, and has been cited in the past for health and safety violations. Despite this, clinics from across the US were able to order close to 18,000 doses of the steroid. This has prompted a large-scale search for all those who were injected. In an update Friday, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added 14 new cases to its tally of those infected. Clinics in 12 states are now known to have administered the drug to patients, health officials said.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Republicans claim Joe Biden misled Americans by suggesting that he and Obama 'did not know' about security concerns The White House was under intense pressure on Friday to disclose whether any senior administration officials were aware of requests for increased diplomatic security in Libya ahead of the fatal 9/11 attack in Benghazi, following Joe Biden's insistence in the vice-presidential debate that "we weren't told". The Republicans have gone on the offensive over Biden's remarks, claiming he misled the American people by claiming ignorance over security concerns in advance of the assault on the US consulate in Benghazi in which the ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed. Early on in the TV debate, the vice-president said: "We weren't told they wanted more security; we did not know they wanted more security." Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, came under repeated questioning during Friday's news briefing about what precisely Biden had meant when he made that comment. The Romney campaign has seized upon testimony given to a congressional committee the day before the debate that suggested requests for beefed-up diplomatic security had indeed been made to the Obama administration before the 11 September attack. Carney said that Biden's "we weren't told" remark related specifically and only to the White House. "The vice-president was speaking about himself and the president and the White House. He was not referring to the administration." Carney added that there were countless diplomatic facilities around the world and it was left to security experts in the state department to ensure adequate protection for embassy staff abroad. In a news conference almost exclusively dominated by the Benghazi issue, Carney tried to turn the controversy back on the Republicans by accusing Republican congress members of slashing the budget for diplomatic security "in order to cut taxes for the wealthiest 2% in this country". Under the budget proposal of Paul Ryan, Romney's running mate, non-military discretionary funding would be cut by 19% by 2014, which the Obama campaign has calculated would lead to a cut of $300m in embassy security. Carney also accused the Romney campaign of trying to "politicise this, to turn this into a campaign issue." He said: "That's a shame when we're talking about brave men and women in our diplomatic service who represent the American people." But Carney's counter-punches are unlikely to hold back the wave of questions that the Obama administration is now facing over exactly what it knew and when about requests for extra protection in Libya before the attack. The press spokesman repeatedly side-stepped questions from reporters about whether Obama had been informed about several previous threats to attack the Benghazi consulate in the days leading up to 11 September. "I cannot get into the specific details of a classified briefing," he said, adding "there was no actionable intelligence that suggested there would be an attack at the Benghazi facility." As the White House tried to fight back the flames of the Benghazi controversy, leading Republicans fanned them. Newt Gingrich, a failed candidate for the Republican nomination now backing Romney, predicted on CBS television Friday morning that Biden's remarks on Benghazi would "haunt them from now until the next debate". A senior Romney adviser, Dan Senor, questioned the administration's grasp of vital national security issues. He said Biden's comment had pointed to "the larger failures of the administration to be completely transparent about the terrorist attacks in Benghazi and the security situations leading up to the attacks." Even before Thursday night's debate, pressure was mounting on the administration over whether it had done enough to protect US diplomatic staff in Libya. On Wednesday the congressional oversight and government reform committee was presented with a diplomatic cable sent on 2 August by Stevens to the state department in Washington asking for an additional 11 security personnel to be added to the rotation of 24. Though the 11 were to replace temporary security staff who were leaving, Stevens made clear in the cable that violence and terrorism were a threat amid a volatile political landscape. He wrote: "Due to the level of threat in regards to crime, political violence and terrorism, post feels this is an appropriate number of LES [locally employed staff] security personnel needed to further embassy diplomatic outreach missions. Violent security incidents continue to take place due to the lack of a coherent national Libyan security force and the strength of local militias and large numbers of armed groups. "Host national security support is lacking and cannot be depended on to provide a safe and secure environment." The Republican-controlled committee also heard from two former US security chiefs in Libya who testified that they had found it impossible to get the message across back home that security was a critical problem. Andrew Wood, former head of a US military team in Libya, told the committee that "the security in Benghazi was a struggle and remained a struggle throughout my time there". He added that the head of US security in the region had pushed for more people "but was never able to attain the numbers he felt comfortable with". Eric Nordstrom, the former security chief for US diplomats in Libya, said that in his view he had been fighting a losing battle over numbers in which "we couldn't even keep what we had". Pointedly, he said that he concluded after contact with state department bosses that "we were not going to get resources until the aftermath of an incident".
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Yekaterina Samutsevich promises band mates, who remain in prison, she will continue struggle against president Yekaterina Samutsevich, the Pussy Riot member freed by a Moscow court this week, has promised to continue taking part in the band's anti-Putin protests, saying she would be "more careful and more clever" to avoid another arrest. On Friday, in her first newspaper interview, Samutsevich said her parting words to the two band members who remain in jail were that she would continue their struggle against the president. But she expects state pressure on her to grow despite her new-found freedom "They didn't overturn the verdict, they didn't say I'm not guilty – they gave me a suspended sentence. If I do the slightest thing [wrong], even an administrative violation, they can send me back to jail," she told the Guardian. The three women were sentenced to two years in a prison colony on charges of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" following their anti-Putin "punk prayer" in a Moscow cathedral. Samutsevich was unexpectedly freed by an appeals court on Wednesday after successfully arguing that she didn't fully take part in the performance. "I didn't expect it," Samutsevich said, sitting in a central Moscow cafe wearing the same jeans and white sweater she wore to the appeal hearing. At her feet lay a canvas sack and large plastic bag filled with clothes, letters and books. She had just collected her belongings from the southern Moscow detention centre that still holds her bandmates, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. Samutsevich described how the three friends had prepared themselves for prison during the appeal hearing. "In court, we were talking about how we would go to the prison colony, what it would be like. When they took us back into the courtroom, we said: that was a very short deliberation, they probably won't change the verdict." (A panel of three judges deliberated for just 40 minutes before announcing Samutsevich's release.) She struggled to explain the judges' thinking. "Maybe the authorities wanted to imitate the independence of the court system," she said. "But it is just that – an imitation."The case against Pussy Riot was one of most high-profile political trials in Russia since Putin first came to power 12 years ago. The president has condemned their performance and their name, while Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, said he was "nauseated" by the group's action. Samutsevich said Putin stood behind the decision to prosecute the band. "Such decisions don't happen without the president," she said. "It was either motivated by personal hate or it was a political step." The appeal judges held a rare press conference on Thursday to press that they made the decision independently and with no pressure from above. "They're trying to marginalise us, to say we're not normal people," she said. "We were jailed for our political beliefs." Pussy Riot formed after Putin announced late last year that he planned to return to the presidency – a move that prompted mounting discontent to spill into the streets with a growing protest movement which vowed to prevent a return to totalitarianism. The arrest of the three band members in early March was seen as a signal to other protesters. The Duma, Russia's parliament, has since adopted a series of restrictive laws imposing fines on illegal protests and broadening a law on treason. "Putin is a person who doesn't want to listen to the citizens of Russia," Samutsevich said. "People complain and he ignores it all. Instead his government adopts awful laws – that's his answer to citizens' attempts to talk to him," she said. Samutsevich said she would continue taking part in Pussy Riot's anonymous performances. She does not worry that she is now recognised, often by people on the street. "When a person is in a mask and a dress, she can become anonymous again," she said. As for the fear of getting caught, she said: "I will be more careful and more clever." She thought Russia's security services would step up their surveillance. "I must live imagining that everything is listened to, everything is read." Samutsevich said Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were happy with her release. As they hugged goodbye inside the courtroom's glass cage, her fellow band members said: "Finally, one of us is free." Samutsevich recalled: "They said: keep going with the group and I said: of course." Alyokhina, 24, and Tolokonnikova, 22, both mothers to young children, are expected to be sent to distant prison colonies to serve the rest of their sentence until March 2014. "Masha [Alyokhina] especially is suffering for her child," Samutsevich said. "It's a big blow for her– for Nadya too. They have hardly seen their kids." Samutsevich described her seven months in pre-trial detention as a time of cold isolation in which the system exercised "total control". Wake-up came at 6am and lights out at 9pm. In between, there were three meals a day – porridge for breakfast, soup or a potato for lunch, and porridge or soup for dinner. Once a week, she was allowed 30 minutes of privacy for a shower. Otherwise, she was led everywhere by a guard. She shared her cell with three women, all charged with economic crimes. They were subjected to random searches, as guards hunted for banned items such as mobile phones. "That's what they said, but they always read my letters." Samutsevich said she would get around a dozen letters a day from supporters. Sometimes she read classics from the prison library, turning especially to Nikolai Chernyshevsky, the philosopher who wrote Russia's classic revolutionary novel, What is to be Done? Other times, she watched television in her cell. At first, her cellmates treated her with suspicion. "They didn't understand who I was or what we did," she said. That changed as reports on the Pussy Riot case started to run on television. "Then they started to support me, and by the end they really took care of me," she said. Samutsevich said she was sorry to leave Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova – but added that even in jail they were unable to spend time together: each one was held on a separate floor. "I miss them. But I missed them [in prison] too – we could never talk. "We could only talk when we were driven to court and back during the trial," she said. "Those were the best times in the whole seven months. We had time to talk about different subjects – films, books, articles, and, of course the case, our thoughts about the day." The three women were deprived of information from the outside world, but kept informed of events by their lawyers. "One day in court, the lawyers showed us photos. We didn't understand what it was. Then they explained it was Madonna, with writing on her back supporting us," she said. That was when she understood the whole world was watching. Madonna was one of a handful of artists who performed in Moscow, and who came out in support of the jailed band. "All this solidarity meant we were understood in modern cultural society," Samutsevich said. "That was very important to us." She has spent her two days of freedom shuttling between Russia's few independent media outlets, hoping to keep the spotlight on her two jailed friends. Asked if she could repeat the church performance, she hesitated for just a moment. "Yes, I would probably do it. It was important for us to do it, to express our opinion. "I saw the system from the inside," she said of her time in prison. "I saw how this punitive system doesn't work, how it doesn't acknowledge personal dignity." Asked about performing with some of the western artists who have come out in support of the band, she declined. "Our group is made for unsanctioned concerts," Samutsevich said. "The symbol of the group is still a girl in a balaclava."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Clip posted online shows woman shouting at the driver before being knocked to the floor and bustled off the bus A Cleveland bus driver who delivered a vicious uppercut to a female passenger during a video-taped confrontation has been suspended and removed from duty, the city's transport authority said Friday. In a clip posted online, the unidentified woman – thought to be a teenager – is seen berating the driver before being floored by the man with a single punch and violently bustled off the bus. "I don't care. She want to be a man, I'm going to treat you like a man," the driver is heard shouting, as other passengers protest against her treatment. The altercation was recorded by another passenger, and is now part of an investigation into the incident. The initial cause of the confrontation is not apparent during the clip posted on WorldStarHipHop.com. What is captured is the lead-up to the punch, during which the female passenger is heard calling the driver a "nigger" and a "bitch" during an exchange of insults between the two. She then appears to approach the driver's booth, but the image is obscured by a bystander and it is unclear what exactly happens. It is immediately followed by the driver getting to his feat and punching the passenger with a powerful uppercut. In the struggle, it appears that the city employee has his hands around her neck before bundling the woman off the bus. Amid screams from other passengers, a voice – presumably the female passenger who has been struck – is heard shouting: "You going to jail, bitch". In a statement, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority said: "The RTA saw the video posted on YouTube of the operator incident on October 11. Through the investigation, we believe the incident occurred on September 18. Upon identifying the driver, he was immediately suspended and removed from duty. "His behaviour is absolutely unacceptable. The RTA apologises to our customers for this incident. A full investigation continues."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Fans have been braced for disaster since Dan Harmon left the project but the inventive and offbeat sitcom could yet flourish Since NBC announced it was parting ways with series-creator Dan Harmon and airing Community in the Friday deadzone, fans of the college-set sitcom have been braced for disaster. That disaster appeared to arrive this week, with the news that the channel had decided to delay the start of the fourth series indefinitely. Such postponements are rarely good news – just ask fans of Cougar Town, another interesting sitcom unfairly treated by its network (in this case ABC), which was saved only by the intervention of cable channel TNT. During the furore over Cougar Town I interviewed Bill Lawrence, the show's creator, who said: "Had we not been left off the schedule we would have been fine. It was a death blow." So is there any hope for Community? In its favor is the fact that NBC's new sitcom slate is not especially strong – and in the case of Animal Practice, downright horrible. This means that a new slot could open up earlier than expected. It's also true that the shortened final run of 30 Rock will mean that there will be space, later in the year, in what was Community's old slot. Yet its also the case that any show, even one with a fervent (if small) fanbase, such as Community, will struggle to build momentum if viewers can never be sure when it is going to air. In the UK, critically acclaimed shows like Breaking Bad and Oz failed to find wider audiences because they were shuffled around the schedules. Mention "BBC2" to a British Seinfeld fan and the chances are they'll mutter darkly about midnight airings and seasons out of sync. It's also true that ahead of this season, Community had more column inches lavished upon it than usual – it is a show that garners a lot of column inches in proportion to its ratings. Whereas Whitney fans (presuming such people exist) could rightly claim that their show has also been yanked from the schedules while being pretty much ignored, the US media, in print and online, has been full of interviews with Community's new show runners, Moses Port and David Guarascio, as they outline their plans for a brave new Harmon-less world. Such press makes it seem doubly strange that NBC would pull Community now. There are also those who worry that even when the show does come back, it won't be the same. Community fans are a committed bunch, delighting in the show's parodies and in-jokes and enjoying the fact that this is a show which can reference everything from Doctor Who to My Dinner With Andre, often in the same episode. For those fans, and I'll admit I'm one, the fear is that a large part of the show's anarchic appeal will be lost as the new writers reshape it into something with a broader appeal. And while Port and Guarascio are brave to agree to take on a comedy with such a singular voice – both noted in interviews that they originally turned the offer down – the plot lines outlined by them in interviews raise more than a sliver of concern. There was a lot of talk about relationships and change and character growth, all sitcom staples but which feel a little weird when applied to Community, a show which has never been afraid to play around with and even completely ignore traditional tropes. That said, it's unfair to dismiss a show before an episode has aired. Harmon might have gone but he left behind a strong writing room including the brilliant Megan Ganz. Furthermore, Happy Endings, the relationship sitcom on which Port and Guarascio previously worked, was both cleverer and more quirky than it initially appeared.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The costumed masses have returned for day two of the East Coast's largest comic book and pop culture celebration, in New York
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Oslo committee focuses on union's historical role in ending conflict, but Eurosceptics and many Greeks react with scorn Applause and derision greeted the news that the European Union had won the 2012 Nobel peace prize, with British Eurosceptics dismissing the award as a "farce" and EU leaders rapturously welcoming a boost to the bloc's sagging self-esteem. The Nobel committee in Oslo chose to ignore the multiple crises threatening the EU. Instead, it took the longer and bigger view, praising the EU's historical role in promoting reconciliation and peace, and warning its collapse would see an ominous return to "extremism and nationalism". Announcing the decision, Thorbjørn Jagland, head of the Nobel committee, said: "The main message is that we need to keep in mind what we have achieved on this continent, and not let the continent go into disintegration again." The alternative was "awful wars", he warned bluntly. The award brought an overjoyed reaction at EU headquarters in Brussels. "The EU is the biggest peacemaking institution ever created in human history," said Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European council, who chairs EU summits. The award was "the strongest possible recognition of the deep political motives behind our union", he said. José Manuel Barroso, head of the European commission, tweeted that the prize had been awarded to all 500 million EU citizens. "At its origins, the European Union brought together nations emerging from the ruins of devastating world wars – which originated on this continent – and united them in a project for peace," he said. He added that the EU had reunited a continent "split by the cold war" around common values. But EU critics reacted with scorn. Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: "This goes to show that the Norwegians really do have a sense of humour. The EU may be getting the booby prize for peace because it sure hasn't created prosperity. The EU has created poverty and unemployment for millions." Martin Callanan, the Tories' leader in the European parliament, said: "The Nobel peace prize was devalued when it was given to newly elected Barack Obama. By giving the prize to the EU, the Nobel committee has undermined the excellent work of the other deserving winners of this prize. Twenty years ago this prize would have been sycophantic but maybe more justified. Today, it is downright out of touch." The government, unenthusiastic about the European project, made no comment on the prize. Lord Lamont, the former chancellor, however, called it "ridiculous, preposterous and absurd" at a time when people in the streets of Athens "are dressing up as Nazis". There was astonishment from some in Greece. Panos Skourletis, spokesman for Syriza, the main opposition party, said: "This decision cheapens the prize and more importantly harms the institution of the Nobel peace award. I just cannot understand what the reasoning would be behind it. In many parts of Europe, but especially in Greece, we are experiencing what really is a war situation on a daily basis albeit a war that has not been formally declared. There is nothing peaceful about it." Speaking in Oslo, however, Jagland reeled off the EU's achievements. He said a conflict between France and Germany was "unthinkable" after 70 years as postwar allies. He cited the EU's successful expansion in the 1980s, which saw the rightwing dictatorships of southern Europe (Greece, Portugal and Spain) become democracies. He also praised the inclusion of the former communist regimes of eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall came down. He said the EU had played a key role in Balkan reconciliation. "Ethnically based national conflicts have been settled," he declared. Croatia would join the EU next year, Montenegro was opening membership negotiations and Serbia had candidate status, he said. The EU had also "advanced democracy and human rights" in Turkey, he suggested, overlooking the fact that Turkey's membership application has dragged on inconclusively for decades. Jagland admitted that the 27-member bloc was not in great shape, wracked by its worst crisis of confidence. He said: "The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest." But he stressed: "The Norwegian Nobel committee wishes to focus on what it sees as the EU's most important result: the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy and human rights. The stabilising part played by the EU has helped to transform most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace." The Dutch Eurosceptic Geert Wilders was unimpressed, saying: "Nobel prize for the EU. At a time Brussels and all of Europe is collapsing in misery. What next? An Oscar for Van Rompuy?" Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of France's far-left Front de Gauche, called the award an example of "black humour". Le Parisien newspaper said the Nobel "comes at a time when European unity is being greatly tested. The eurozone crisis has put difficulties of solidarity between states worried about protecting their interests, in the spotlight. The rich economies of the north are dragging their feet over coming to the aid of southern countries financially strangled by public debt and suffering severe austerity cures." Jagland defended the committee's seemingly counter-intuitive decision. He spoke repeatedly of the EU's policy of integration towards former Yugoslavia, the scene of bloodbaths just 20 years ago: "We have to keep in mind that not so many years ago people from this part of Europe killed each other in awful wars … We are only focusing on what we have achieved on this continent and what could happen if disintegration starts again." Slovenia is already a member and Croatia is slated to become the EU's 28th member next year. The praise for the Balkan policy came despite the EU's failures to stop the bloodshed in Bosnia in 1992-95. In a further paradox, given the emphasis on the EU's prowess at reconciliation, the current six-month presidency is held by Cyprus, a country whose intractable conflict and partition has defied decades of mediation and has contributed hugely to the freeze in Turkey's negotiations to join the EU. Jagland said the Nobel committee, made up of members from non-EU Norway, was not trying "to save the euro" or attempting to dig Europe out of its current hole. Asked what citizens from Greece, Spain and Ireland would make of its unanimous decision, he said most people from these countries still supported the EU: "I think this historic empathy still remains in the heads of so many Europeans. They don't want to lose what has been achieved. Many may criticise the current policy but that is a different matter." Jagland said it was up to "EU institutions" to decide who would pick up the gold medal and give a lecture at the ceremony in Oslo on 10 December. One candidate is the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, though he is in poor health. He said: "The Nobel peace prize for the EU is above all a confirmation of the European peace project." Additional reporting by Helena Smith in Athens and Kim Willsher in Paris
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Biden lifts Democratic morale with combative debate display in Kentucky but polls show president still trailing Romney Barack Obama embarked on four days of intensive preparation for next week's showdown with Mitt Romney as he sought to capitalise on Joe Biden's dominant debate performance on Thursday night. Biden eased the pressure on Obama in his clash with Romney's running mate Paul Ryan in Kentucky, overwhelming proceedings with a combative approach that will have lifted Democratic morale but that could risk alienating swing voters. But there is no sign that Romney's surge since the first debate is going away. The latest national Gallup tracking poll released on Friday gave the Republican a two-point, 49-47%, lead over the president. The second clash between Obama and Romney on Tuesday night in Long Island is now shaping up into a 90-minute contest that could decide the race for the White House. Biden overwhelmed opponent Ryan with the kind of aggression that was lacking in Obama's disastrous debate with Romney in Denver last week. But his demeanour in the first half of the contest, which showed him laughing, smirking, talking over and interrupting as Ryan spoke, may have grated with some of the tens of millions of television viewers. Ryan, over breakfast on Friday in Lexington, Kentucky, told reporters he felt great about his own performance and had not felt overwhelmed by Biden. "No, it was what I expected," he said. Obama cleared his diary on Friday, apart from honouring a commitment to dinner with campaign donors, the prize in one of the Democratic party's fundraising drives. He is devoting Saturday, Sunday and Monday almost exclusively to debate preparation for the clash in Hempstead, New York, the second of three presidential debates before election day on November 6. His chief adviser, David Axelrod, speaking in the Spin Rooom in Danville, Kentucky, minutes after the Biden-Ryan debate ended, said: "The president is looking forward to meeting Governor Romney again next week." Asked about the risk of Biden's laughter being seen as rude and irritating to independent voters, Axelrod insisted laughter was inevitable "when you are debating an opponent who is seriously evading and distorting facts. You react to that." The Republican national committee issued a a new web video after the debate, showing clips of Biden laughing, in contrast with a serious Ryan. One of Romney's senior advisers, Ed Gillespie, on Fox television Friday, said: "I thought it was very disrespectful to the American people." Republicans compared it to the 2000 presidential debate in which the Democratic challenger Al Gore lost voters irritated by his sighing and rolling his eyes while George Bush was talking. The architect of the Bush victories, Karl Rove, described Biden as looking "unhinged". Democratic congressman Chris Van Hollen, who played the part of Ryan during Biden's debate preparations, told MSNBC: "I don't think [Biden] was over the top. I thought what you saw was Joe Biden's passion for these issues." Before the vice-presidential debate, Republicans had been eagerly anticipating that Congressman Ryan, who has a reputation for being cerebral – he is the author of a Republican House plan for bringing down the deficit – would overcome the gaffe-prone and long-winded Biden. But Ryan seemed overcome by Biden's cajoling, forceful debating style. While Biden's performance will have cheered Democratic activists and supporters, it was not a game-changer capable alone of arresting the slide in Obama's fortunes. The consensus among US commentators was that the debate was a draw. The US electoral map has changed dramatically in the week since the Denver debate, with Obama's poll ratings sliding and Romney now marginally ahead or at least even with the president nationally and in most of the eight swing states. The Real Clear Politics website, which averages out the daily polls, has Romney on 47% and Obama on 46% nationally. Romney is three points ahead in North Carolina and two in Florida, with Obama three points ahead in Iowa. But the two are statistically tied in Ohio, Virginia, New Hampshire, Nevada and Colorado. Apart from Biden's facial expressions, Republicans claimed the vice-president had made a major gaffe when he denied that there had been a request by US security forces in Libya to retain or increase protection staff at the embassy and the consulates. The state department admitted at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday there had been such a request. In the debate, Biden was adamant: "We weren't told they wanted more security there. "We did not know they wanted more security." This comes after a series of conflicting statements from the Obama administration over what happened at the Benghazi consulate attack in which US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed. Former House Republican speaker Newt Gingrich, told CBS television: "Biden on Benghazi was so wrong last night. It's going to haunt them from now until the next debate." During the Kentucky debate, Biden, talking about Iran and Syria, tried to portray the Romney-Ryan ticket as leaning towards taking the US into another conflict, one that war-weary Americans did not want. "Facts matter," he said, lecturing Ryan on the details of Iran's nuclear programme, saying it was not yet close to achieving a weapons capability. On domestic policy, Biden pushed Ryan on plans to cut the tax bills of the wealthy, saying they did not need it, and also questioned how Ryan could get the deficit down. Biden said no one in history had managed to do this. "Jack Kennedy lowered tax rates, increased growth," Ryan said. "Oh, now you are Jack Kennedy?" Biden asked sarcastically. It was a refrain of the most famous vice-presidential debate quote in US political history when the Democratic nominee Lloyd Bentsen, told Dan Quayle he was "no Jack Kennedy." At several points in the night, Biden dismissed points made by Ryan as "malarkey". Ryan got in a hit when he got personal, noting that unemployment in Scranton, Pennsylvania – Biden's hometown – had risen. But when Ryan went on to say, "That's how things are going all across America," the vice-president interrupted. "That's not how things are going. You don't read the statistics," he said, referring to the drop in unemployment to 7.8% announced last Friday. Biden raised the secret video in which Romney was dismissive of 47% of the population as freeloaders, a line that Obama singularly failed to bring up last week, to the dismay of Democrats. Ryan said the 47% remark was not what Romney had meant to say. Biden may join the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, a race that could pit him against Hillary Clinton, and this performance will have helped him with the constituency that matters, Democratic activists. If Romney fails to win next month, Ryan is among potential Repbublican contenders in 2016. While Biden dominated the debate, Ryan made no gaffes and did not harm to his chances in 2016.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | No shots were fired, but move is interpreted as a sign that PM Erdogan may be prepared to enforce a de facto no-fly zone Turkey has scrambled fighter jets to its border with Syria for the first time since warning its southern neighbour that fast escalating tensions between the two former allies could lead to war. Officials in Ankara said on Friday the jets were deployed in response to the presence of a Syrian helicopter firing near the town of Azmarin, around 8km from Turkey's south-western border. The town has seen intense fighting between regime forces and rebels since Monday. The Turkish jets fired no shots, but their response to a Syrian aircraft flying close to the frontier is being interpreted as a sign that prime minister Recep Erdogan may be prepared to enforce a de facto no-fly zone inside Syrian airspace. Officials told Turkish media last week that Syria had agreed to keep its forces up to 10km from the restive 900km-long border with Turkey. Damascus did not respond to the claim, which came after Ankara won parliamentary approval to enter Syrian territory on hit and run missions, following the shelling of the Turkish town of Akçakale, which killed five civilians. The cross-border shellfire that led to Turkey's dramatic move continued for at least six days after the law was passed, stirring already incendiary tensions and casting doubt on the Turkish claim of a deal, which if true would mark a significant moment in the Syrian civil war. The Syrian air force has been increasingly deployed over the country's towns and cities since July and has been a formidable foe for opposition groups with limited means to down regime jets and helicopters. Although several of each have been shot down with anti-aircraft cannons, rebels have taken to attacking airbases. One such attack on the Taaneh base east of Aleppo late on Thursday is believed to have left the giant airfield in rebel hands. Claims of the base's capture were supported by videos posted online, which showed large missiles and several aircraft as uniformed rebels moved among them. Eyewitness accounts of Syrian jets bombing weapons depots within the airfield's boundaries also supported the rebel claims to have taken the base. The bombing seemed to be aimed at preventing planes and weapons from falling into opposition hands. Opposition groups in Idlib have also attacked airbases, with a confirmed raid on one airfield in September destroying five helicopters and damaging several more. Meanwhile, Turkish officials suggested that a Syrian commercial airliner intercepted by the Turkish air force on Wednesday was carrying components for weapons systems sent by Russia. The plane and its passengers, which took off from Moscow, were allowed to continue to Damascus after being grounded at Ankara's Esenboga airport for several hours. However, the incident continues to draw fierce criticism from Moscow, which denies that it had sent a cargo of weapons or ammunition, and from Damascus, which accuses the Turks of air piracy. The flight engineer of the plane told Syrian media on Friday that he and other officers were handcuffed by Turkish officials as the plane was searched. As the civil war has escalated over the past year, Turkey has also twice brought to ground Iranian planes flying over its airspace that it suspected of carrying weapons to Damascus. Both groundings drew similar protests from Tehran. In the wake of the tensions, Turkey on Thursday said it had banned its carriers from travelling over Syrian airspace.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | BP and Transocean to submit clean-up operation, after scientists link three-mile oil slick to Deepwater Horizon disaster Government scientists have definitively linked a new oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico to the BP oil spill disaster of 2010. A senior government scientist said the most likely source of the new oil is the mile-long length of pipe from the Deepwater Horizon rig, now lying in a crumpled loop on the ocean floor. At worst, he said, the pipe was thought to contain some 1,800 barrels of oil – a minuscule amount compared with the 4.9m barrels that gushed into the ocean from BP's well during the 2010 oil disaster. "When you look at all those pieces of information and put them together there is a high degree of confidence that the oil we are seeing and the sheening on the surface is coming from the riser, and that this is residual oil," said Frank Csulak, who is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's scientific co-ordinator for the Deepwater Horizon disaster site. BP said in a statement to reporters that its tests confirmed the oil was from the riser, and that samples contained compounds found in drilling mud. BP spokesman Brett Clanton said: "The size of the sheen, its persistent point of origin and other factors indicate the most likely source is the bent riser pipe that once connected the rig to the well head, where a mix of oil, drilling mud and sea water were trapped after the top kill operation. "It's very reasonable and logical to conclude that maybe a little crack formed in one of the creases, in one of the bends, and that is where the oil is leaking out of." BP and Transocean, which were partners on Deepwater Horizon, have until Friday afternoon to submit a clean-up plan for the site. The sheen, only microns thick, varies in size. Earlier this week it extended for three miles near the site of the doomed well, about 50 miles off the shore of Louisiana. The United States Coast Guard said in a statement on Wednesday night that lab tests, performed at a government facility in Connecticut, had matched oil from the slick to the Deepwater Horizon. Oil sheens are pretty common in the Gulf of Mexico, where there are tens of thousands of idled offshore wells – many of which were abandoned without being completely sealed off. But the size and persistence of the sheen near the BP disaster site, first detected by satellite images on 9 September, prompted further investigation. The Coast Guard in its statement said it was still investigating the source of the new oil. "The exact source of the oil is unclear at this time but [it] could be residual oil associated with the wreckage or debris left on the seabed from the Deepwater Horizon incident." Other government officials, speaking to the Washington Post, have said it is unlikely that oil could be leaking again from the original well head. Engineers poured thick plugs of cement into both ends of the well to finally cap it last July 2010, and officials said a new breach was very unlikely. "With what we did to it it's pretty hard to imagine," Marcia McNutt, who heads the US Geological Survey, told the Post. A more detailed chemical analysis also ruled out a natural seep from the well reservoir. Csulak said researchers discovered the presence of drilling mud, which had been in the riser. However, he appeared to downplay concerns about more oil entering the Gulf. The sheen, at this point, is not recoverable, Csulak said. "We don't feel that is causing an environmental impact. It's not going to reach the shore-line," he said.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow live coverage of the fallout from last night's vice-presidential debate, where Joe Biden delivered for Democrats
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • Christian Prudhomme says 'era remains stained for ever'
• Armstrong won race seven times between 1999 and 2005 The Tour de France organiser, Christian Prudhomme, has called for Lance Armstrong's seven victories in the world's greatest cycle race to be erased from the record books following the release of a US Anti-Doping Agency report which said there had been systematic doping at the Texan's US Postal Service team between 1999 and 2005. "What we would like is for there to be no winner in those years," Prudhomme said. Usada has called for Armstrong to be stripped of his titles and his third place in the 2009 Tour, but that has yet to be ratified. If Prudhomme has his way, that would mean the Tours from 1999 to 2005 being left without a winner. Prudhomme, who has been in the Alps reconnoitring stage finishes for the 2013 Tour, said that he was shocked by the findings of Usada. "We cannot be indifferent to what Usada has uncovered. It is a dark and deeply disturbing picture. It has called into question a system and an entire era which remains stained for ever. It is a lost decade." The Tour organiser pointed out that he and his organisation do not have the power to remove Armstrong's name from the Tour's official records: that lies with the International Cycling Union, which is currently studying the 1000-page dossier drawn up by Usada. "As astonishing as it may seem, the Tour de France is not the master of its record books. That goes through the UCI rather than the race organisers." The UCI has yet to comment on the report or to indicate how it will react. Quoting Victor Hugo – "those who live on, fight on" – Prudhomme added that in his view the only response to the report is a sharpened focus on anti-doping. "The problems which occurred in the Armstrong years meant that progress has already happened. Cycling today bears no resemblance to yesterday's cycling. "The anti-doping fight of recent years was based on those problems and there has been considerable progress in recent years: cycling has been a pioneer in areas such as targeted testing and the biological passport. Today, the cheats are caught, and caught more rapidly than before. We have to continue in this direction. There is no other way." Six years ago, the presentation of the 2007 Tour route in Paris featured a unique image: a shattered pane of glass to represent the first time the race's winner – in this case the American Floyd Landis – had been stripped of his title. Prudhomme now faces a challenge similar to that, ironically enough at the end of a process of revelation which was largely initiated by Landis, whose tardy confession to the US anti-doping authorities of years of doping at Armstrong's side was the spark that led to Usada's inquiry. The difficulty faced by the UCI is that if it ratifies the Usada's conclusions it is in effect ratifying a process over which it has taken contradictory positions; a further difficulty is that sections of the report are deeply critical of cycling's governing body, while one passage raises the possibility that the UCI failed to act on a positive test from Armstrong in the 2001 Tour of Switzerland, although it has always denied any wrongdoing. If Usada's decision is ratified, Prudhomme's wish that there be no winner of the Tour from 1999 to 2005 has logic on its side, given that many of those who finished behind Armstrong in the upper reaches of the standings in those years have subsequently been banned for doping. As the Tour head conceded, "Our challenge is to regain credibility". That process will be long and painful and an early decision from the UCI is a prerequisite.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Greek-owned Free Goddess and 21 Filipino crew members head to Oman after ransom is delivered Somali pirates have released the Greek-owned bulk carrier Free Goddess and its 21 Filipino crew members after holding the vessel for more than eight months, the secretary general of the Seafarers Union of Kenya has said. Andrew Mwangura, whose role involves contact with ships sailing the Indian Ocean and catering for crews' welfare, said a ransom was dropped on to the vessel from the air on Wednesday. "The Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Free Goddess is now free and she is heading to Salalah, Oman, for … fuel, fresh water and a crew change," Mwangura said. Pirates said the ship had been held at Garad, a haven in Puntland that they use. "We took $5.7m ransom after holding the ship for months," a pirate in Garad called Mohamed told Reuters. The amount of the ransom could not immediately be verified independently. Mwangura is a former head of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, an independent organisation for the welfare of seafarers and a piracy monitoring group. International navies have cracked down on pirates, including strikes on their coastal bases, and shipping firms are increasingly using armed guards and defensive measures on vessels including barbed wire, scaring off Somali seaborne gangs. That reduced the number of incidents involving Somali pirates to 69 in the first half of 2012, compared with 163 in the same period last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau. However, the commander of the European Union's anti-piracy taskforce has warned that pirates will "try their luck" again following a lull in attacks off Somalia now that the monsoon period has ended.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | CEO Jamie Dimon says he believes US housing market has 'turned a corner' as bank reports significant revenue rise JP Morgan Chase, the US's biggest bank by assets, reported a record quarterly profit Friday. The bank said it made $5.3bn in earnings for common shareholders, a widely used measurement, from July through September, up 36% from the same period a year ago. Earnings for common shareholders includes expenses for making payments to preferred shareholders. Without those expenses, net income would have been even higher, at $5.7bn. Either way, the bank blew away analysts' expectations. Earnings were $1.40 per share, far exceeding the $1.21 predicted by analysts polled by FactSet, a provider of financial data. Revenue rose 6% to $25.1bn, beating expectations of $24.4bn. Earnings were helped because the bank set aside less money for bad loans. It set aside $1.8bn for potential loan losses, down 26% from $2.4bn a year ago. Revenue from mortgage loans shot up 29%. Low interest rates, as well as a government program called Home Affordable Refinance Programs, encouraged homeowners to refinance. In a statement, CEO Jamie Dimon said he believed the housing market "has turned a corner." He noted, however, that the bank was still seeing a high level of souring mortgage loans, and said he expects high default-related expenses "for a while longer." And he noted the homeowners still struggling under mortgages they can't afford, saying the bank was working to modify such loans. The bank gave few details on the surprise $6bn trading loss that dominated its previous earnings report. It did mention that a credit portfolio moved to the investment bank from the chief investment office, which was responsible for bad trade, "experienced a modest loss. JPMorgan's investment banking unit earned more in fees for underwriting stock offerings and debt offerings, which could signal that wary companies and investors are more willing to get back into the market. Debit card revenue fell, which the bank blamed on new rules crimping the fees that banks charge stores whenever customers pay via debit card. JPMorgan stock was up 58 cents at $42.68 in premarket trading. The stock was as low as $31 in early June, after the bank announced a surprise trading loss that ballooned to $6bn.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Christine Lagarde of the IMF warns that without growth, the future of the global economy is in jeopardy, as Germany's Wolfgang Schäuble hits back over study that shows austerity doesn't work
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Follow the day's developments as sparks fly over Syrian airliner intercepted by Turkey
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Can you spin it? Joe Biden and Paul Ryan squared off in a heated war of words, but can you use what they said to create something completely new?
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | EU HQ savours respite from eurozone crisis pain as anti-union Brits accuse Oslo committee of being out of touch Wracked by its worst ever crisis of confidence in almost 60 years, the European Union received a surprise boost to its self-esteem when it won the Nobel peace prize. In a decision that many saw as paradoxical given the multiple frictions and disputes afflicting the union as it struggles to save its single currency, the Nobel committee in Oslo took the bigger and longer view, citing the EU's long record of generating reconciliation between historical foes and helping to restore democracy and peace to the erstwhile dictatorships of southern Europe and the former communist regimes of the old Soviet bloc. The award brought a rapturous reaction at EU headquarters in Brussels, as well as sour and embittered criticism from europhobes and Eurosceptics, principally British. "The EU is the biggest peacemaking institution ever created in human history," said Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European council who chairs EU summits. The award was "the strongest possible recognition of the deep political motives behind our union". José Manuel Barroso, head of the European commission, said the prize had been awarded to all 500 million EU citizens. Politicians and officials from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean used the unexpected award to point out what they saw as at stake in Europe's current existential crisis, triggered by ballooning debt levels, bailouts, austerity and deep divisions over how to regenerate the EU and save the single currency, the euro. "A timely reminder to the EU of its strengths at this time of crisis," said Rebecca Harms, a Green leader in the European parliament. The generosity inspired by the award did not extend to British anti-EU campaigners. "This goes to show that the Norwegians really do have a sense of humour. The EU may be getting the booby prize for peace because it sure hasn't created prosperity. The EU has created poverty and unemployment for millions," complained Nigel Farage, leader of Ukip, which exists to try to get Britain out of the EU. Martin Callanan, the Tories' leader in the European parliament, said: "The Nobel peace prize was devalued when it was given to newly elected Barack Obama. By giving the prize to the EU the Nobel committee has undermined the excellent work of the other deserving winners of this prize. Twenty years ago this prize would have been sycophantic but maybe more justified. Today it is downright out of touch." Rather than dwelling on the crisis of the past three years, the Nobel committee looked back two generations to the founding of what was to become the modern EU as a political and economic instrument above all aimed at halting the historical rivalries and enmities between Germany and France that saw the two countries fight three wars in the century before the EU was established. The committee said the EU's powers of healing were being brought to bear on the Balkans, the scene of bloodbaths only 20 years ago, through a policy of integration towards former Yugoslavia. Slovenia is already a member and Croatia is slated to become the EU's 28th member next year. The praise for the Balkan policy came despite the EU's failures to stop the bloodshed in Bosnia in 1992-95. In a further paradox given the emphasis on the EU's prowess at reconciliation, the current six-month presidency is held by Cyprus, a country whose intractable conflict and partition has defied decades of mediation and has contributed hugely to the freeze in Turkey's negotiations to join the EU.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Hacker collective says whistleblowers website has become the 'Julian Assange show' The computer hacker collective Anonymous has distanced itself from WikiLeaks, claiming the whistleblowers' site has become too focused on the personal tribulations of its founder, Julian Assange. A statement posted on the Anonymous Twitter account, AnonymousIRC, described WikiLeaks as "the one man Julian Assange show" after the website began asking users to pay for access to millions of leaked documents. "The idea behind WikiLeaks was to provide the public with information that would otherwise be kept secret by industries and governments. Information we strongly believe the public has a right to know," said the statement on behalf of Anonymous. "But this has been pushed more and more into the background, instead we only hear about Julian Assange, like he had dinner last night with Lady Gaga. That's great for him but not much of our interest. We are more interested in transparent governments and bringing out documents and information they want to hide from the public." Anonymous has long been one of WikiLeaks's most loyal and vocal allies. Supporters bearing Anonymous posters regularly turned out at Assange's public announcements, and members of the group have waged an online campaign against critics of the whistleblowers' site. WikiLeaks said it is funded entirely by donations from members of the public. The site angered some users on Thursday after it made a donation page automatically appear before it allowed access to leaked documents. Some users are unable to view WikiLeaks material unless they choose to donate money to the site. WikiLeaks said on Twitter that the move was an attempt to counter what it called "high costs in military courts". In the statement, Anonymous told its 285,000 followers that WikiLeaks was an "awesome idea ruined by egos" and claimed the site had abandoned the ideals of freedom of expression. The group added: "We have been worried about the direction WikiLeaks is going for a while. In the recent month the focus moved away from actual leaks and the fight for freedom of information further and further while it concentrated more and more on Julian Assange. It goes without saying that we oppose any plans of extraditing Julian to the USA. He is a content provider and publisher, not a criminal." The dispute could starve WikiLeaks of potentially newsworthy leaks in the future, as some of the site's recent disclosures – including the cache of Stratfor emails – are alleged to have come from Anonymous.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Nobel committee praises EU as force for peace after second world war The 2012 Nobel peace prize has been awarded to the European Union, with the Norwegian committee ignoring the current economic crisis and instead praising the EU's decades-long historical role in promoting reconciliation and peace. Speaking in Oslo, Thorbjørn Jagland, head of the Nobel committee, shrugged off the euro's woes and said the EU had been a force for peace both after the second world war, binding Germany and France together, and following the bloody slaughter of the 1990s in the Balkans. He said: "The main message is that we need to keep in mind what we have achieved on this continent, and not let the continent go into disintegration again." The collapse of the EU could lead to a resurgence of the "extremism and nationalism" that had led to so many "awful wars", he warned bluntly. Jagland cited several key EU achievements. He said another conflict between France and Germany was "unthinkable" following 70 years as close allies. He mentioned the EU's successful expansion, with the accession of Greece, Portugal and Spain to the EU in the 1980s spreading democracy, and the admission of eastern European nations after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He also praised the EU's role in the Balkans. "Ethnically based national conflicts have been settled," he declared. Croatia will join the EU next year, Montenegro was opening up membership negotiations and Serbia has candidate status, he said. The EU had also "advanced democracy and human rights" in Turkey, he suggested, overlooking the fact that Turkey's membership application has dragged on inconclusively for decades. Jagland conceded that the 27-member bloc was not in great shape, saying: "The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest." But he stressed: "The Norwegian Nobel committee wishes to focus on what it sees as the EU's most important result: the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy and human rights. The stabilising part played by the EU has helped to transform most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace." Reaction to the news was sharply divided. Within minutes of the award being announced in Oslo at 10am GMT on Friday, the president of the European commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, tweeted: "It is a great honour for the whole of the #EU, all 500 million citizens, to be awarded the 2012 #Nobel Peace prize." He later called it a "justified recognition" of a unique project that works for the benefit of its citizens and the world. But the award provoked derision from British Eurosceptics and some rightwing Tory MPs. Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, allegedly remarked: "This goes to show the Norwegians really do have a sense of humour." Another Ukip MEP, Marta Andreasen, said: "If this is their definition of peace then the Norwegians need a new dictionary." Taking questions from reporters, Jagland defended the committee's seemingly counterintuitive decision and spoke repeatedly of the wars in former Yugoslavia: "We have to keep in mind that not so many years ago people from this part of Europe killed each other in awful wars … We are only focusing on what we have achieved on this continent and what could happen if disintegration starts again." Jagland said the committee, made up of members from non-EU Norway, wasn't trying "to save the euro" or attempting to dig Europe out of its current hole. Asked what citizens from Greece, Spain and Ireland would make of their unanimous decision, he said a majority of citizens from these countries still supported the EU: "I think this historic empathy still remains in the heads of so many Europeans. They don't want to lose what has been achieved. Many may criticise the current policy but that is a different matter." It is not clear who will actually pick up the award, to be presented in Oslo on 10 December. Jagland said it was up to "EU institutions" to decide which individual would pick up the gold medal and give a lecture at the presentation ceremony. One obvious candidate is the former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, though he is in poor health.
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