December 27th Headline

Latest News
Pair arrested in 6 Christmas Eve deaths
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56 min

Omaha mall shooter tried suicide 2 years ago
document.write(cnnRenderTimeStamp(1198721842601,['December 26, 2007 -- Updated 0217 GMT (1017 HKT)','updated 9:17 p.m. EST, Wed December 26, 2007']));Mom of 13-year-old crash survivor grateful

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CNNMoney: Hilton giving his billions to charity

NRA returning guns to Katrina survivors
document.write(cnnRenderTimeStamp(1198722498163,['December 26, 2007 -- Updated 0228 GMT (1028 HKT)','updated 9:28 p.m. EST, Wed December 26, 2007']));Ticker: Huckabee kills a pheasant on camera

SI: NFL caves, will air Pats' 16-0 try on all TVs

Town wants to let seniors work off taxes
document.write(cnnRenderTimeStamp(1198680600486,['December 26, 2007 -- Updated 1450 GMT (2250 HKT)','updated 9:50 a.m. EST, Wed December 26, 2007']));4 cameras capture van slamming into store

Biodegradable coffins let bodies nourish Earth
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WFSB: $9 million lottery ticket goes unclaimed

Woman in wheelchair left on tarmac

Young girl killed riding new Christmas bike

Grieving parents find hope in holiday triplets

Lohan: I was sober before 2005 car crash
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CNN Wire: Latest updates on top stories

Headlines December 28, 2007

Latest NewsCouple arrested in six Christmas Eve deaths
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New York homicide rate on pace for record low
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Census shows state populations rising, falling
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CNNMoney: Hilton giving his billions to charity

Teen sold T-shirts to fund school for poor

NRA returning guns to Katrina survivors
document.write(cnnRenderTimeStamp(1198722498163,['December 26, 2007 -- Updated 0228 GMT (1028 HKT)','updated 9:28 p.m. EST, Wed December 26, 2007']));Kid finds knife in Xmas toy, family claims

WPTZ: Stolen art ends up at scrap yard

Ticker: Huckabee kills a pheasant on camera

SI: NFL caves, will air Pats' 16-0 try on all TVs

KABC: Dogs shot returning to mauling scene

4 cameras capture van slamming into store

Biodegradable coffins let bodies nourish Earth
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Young girl killed riding new Christmas bike

CNNMoney: Santa good to Hollywood box office

CNN Wire: Latest updates on top stories

FOX NEWS

Couple Arrested in Washington Massacre
The daughter and boyfriend of home owners where family of 6 was shot to death on Christmas eve are arrested | PHOTOS

'Crunch Time' for Candidates
The most wide-open presidential race in a half century heads into the final stretch with candidates ramping up the rhetoric• S. Carolina Ministers Deny Backing Obama• Huckabee Accepts, Donates $10G for Church Speech• Full FOX Election Coverage: You Decide 2008

Was Killer Tiger Let Out?

Cops open criminal probe into attack
Investigators and parents of teen killed by a Siberian tiger at San Francisco Zoo question how the cat escaped | PHOTOS• Calif. Woman Mauled, Killed by Pack of Pit Bulls

December 29, 2007

Mark Levin, a FOX News Radio personality, is one of the most 'disorienting' personalities on the aire. He is late night and believes there are no boardcast ethics which applies to that time of day.

All the personalities involved with Murdoch no matter the media is corrupted with the 'technique and orientation' to take a fact and pervert it to their purpose without conscience.

Mark Levin in his very early minutes of radio broadcast on December 14, 2007 (click here), beginning with the 5:23 minute to be exact began to manipulate the truth and reputations of those he attacked. He did this by 'yelling' to his audience, abusing them verbally and emotionally to achieve a 'right to dissent' rather than addressing in dignity the points he attempted to make.

He continues in his 'rant' to diss most that do not hold his opinion calling them bigots. At the 7:35 minute he embarks on aligning those he opposes to specific bigots and racists. He uses all the 'Catch Phrases' such as Well Paid Democratic Operative, Communist, Hollywood Type that 'clues' his audience to certain understandings about the 'context of character' people can be 'lumped into' without regard to actual attributes of actions as a human being.

This is stereotyping that allows for higher tensions with the audience and could conceivably direct actions by them including potential violence in individual acts of hate as well as the intended use that will disaffect election results.

At the minute 10:17, Levin starts more misdirection of values when he uses bigoted descriptions of Muslims, called Islamo-Nazis, as a 'group' akin to that of Mormons. The analogy is clear, his own bigotry toward Muslims is clear; the Mormons are generalized in that statement and the analogy of criminals related to political icons allow an analogy to the complete context of Muslim.

Mr. Levin spews hate. It's just that simple and the actions by the Murdoch media results in support at every venue of that hate.

The tragedy of Katrina alone should have been a wake up call to everyone. Even in February of 2006 we were all still guessing about the total number dead. And this wasn't even the 1920s where lack of emergency management would have justified such a death toll. This was 2005 when state of the art prediction and warning should have saved nearly everyone. To realize there are over 1000 dead from that storm is simply inexcusable.

Number of bodies found offers only partial indicator of deaths, experts say (click here)

NEW ORLEANS - Nearly six months after Hurricane Katrina, more than 1,300 bodies have been found, but the real death toll is clearly higher. How much higher, no one can say with any certainty.
Hundreds of people are still unaccounted for, and some of them — again, no one is sure how many — were probably washed into the Gulf of Mexico, drowned when their fishing boats sank, swept into Lake Pontchartrain or alligator-infested swamps, or buried under crushed homes, said Dr. Louis Cataldie, Louisiana medical examiner.
Cataldie noted that coffins, disgorged from the earth by the floodwaters, have been found great distances from their graveyards, and “if we have coffins that have washed 30 miles away, I can assure you there are people who have.”...

Hundreds fast to benefit hurricane victims* (click here)
Thomas Himes
Media Credit: Mustafa Al-amar
MSA members and other attendees break their fast with dates at a sundown dinner. Funds from the evening will be spent on hurricane relief.[Click to enlarge]

Corrections appended

Hundreds of students went hungry for a day to experience a popular Muslim ritual and raise money for charity.

Over 400 participants fasted from sunrise to sundown on Saturday at the annual Muslim Student Association Fast-a-Thon to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina, concluding with an end-of-fast banquet held in Houston Hall.

Filing in to The Hall of Flags, attendees were asked to donate money, receiving one raffle ticket for each dollar they donated in return; various local businesses sponsored the event by donating gift certificates for the raffle.

Following an end-of-fast prayer by practicing Muslims, participants were treated to an array of Middle-Eastern styled plates, including tandoori chicken, curry and papri chat, a combination of chickpeas and vegetables."

Our goal was to raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims, especially in Mississippi, and share awarness of our religion," said MSA board member Amanda El-Dakhakhni.

"We'll be donating all of the $1,100 raised to a health clinic in Biloxi, Miss.," that recently replaced the clinic wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, she added.

According to MSA figures, 350 out of the 400 people who attended this year's banquet were non-Muslim....

This is a Murdoch paper (click here). They are morons that deliberately lie and contrive any and all reality to suit their constituency. This is one of the most laughable articles I have ever read to date.

Ready?

Here we go...I mean it has to be obvious to you. I hope it's obvious to you.

The article is grossly flawed. For the sake of argument, let's just say that the facts are correct. They make no reference to their sources and don't ask me what a Green Scientist is, but, at any rate the 'idea' that one can compare apples to oranges and get away with it is astounding. What is even more astounding is to realize there are actually people in the world that read this crap and believe it !!

The article at issue maps out the fact the deaths due to severe weather has dropped from the 1920s.

1920s.

1920s.

It goes on to make conclusions that climate change is bogus because a fall in deaths due to weather issues.

Was there Doppler Radar in the 1920s? NO !!!!

Was there the National Weather Service in the 1920s? NO !!!!!

Were their emergency rooms with high tech equipment and state of the art treatment for broken bones and damaged bodies in the 1920s? NO !!!!!!!!!!

These are contrived and BOGUS analogies to absolutely no sense of importance or RESPECT for the integrity of the minds of the people they print this trash to read. Murdoch wouldn't know good journalism if it bit him. He is a tabloid publisher and this kind or JUNK mail publication serves to endanger lives rather than serve them to a higher understanding of life and the importance of making well informed decisions. The Wall Street Journal has now joined the Murdoch Tabloid Press. What a darn shame !


Fall in weather deaths dents climate warnings
David Smith
GREEN scientists have been accused of overstating the dangers of climate change by researchers who found that the number of people killed each year by weather-related disasters is falling.
Their report suggests that a central plank in the global warming argument – that it will result in a big increase in deaths from weather-related disasters – is undermined by the facts.


....It shows deaths in such disasters peaked in the 1920s and have been declining ever since....

Average annual deaths from weather-related events in the period 1990-2006 – considered by scientists to be when global warming has been most intense – were down by 87% on the 1900-89 average. The mortality rate from catastrophes, measured in deaths per million people, dropped by 93%.
The report by the Civil Society Coalition on Climate Change, a grouping of 41 mainly free-market bodies, comes on the eve of an international meeting on climate change in Bali.
Indur Goklany, a US-based expert on weather-related catastrophes, charted global deaths through the 20th century from “extreme” weather events.
Compared with the peak rate of deaths from weather-related events in the 1920s of nearly 500,000 a year, the death toll during the period 2000-06 averaged 19,900. “The United Nations has got the issues and their relative importance backward,” Goklany said.
The number of deaths had fallen sharply because of better warning systems, improved flood defences and other measures. Poor countries remained most vulnerable.
Greenpeace attacked the International Policy Network, one of the Civil Society organisations, which is publishing the report in Britain.
“The International Policy Network is known for being in the pay of the world’s biggest oil company,” a spokesman said.
The network said: “Funding for this project has come entirely from private individuals and foundations.”
60mph winds blow balmy month away
High winds and rain are likely this weekend, ending the spell of unusually settled autumn weather.
Met Office forecasters say a large depression, which formed over the mid-Atlantic last week, will pass over Britain today.
The strongest winds will be felt over the south coast, with winds reaching 60mph and cloudy wet skies. The rest of Britain should be mainly dry with sunny spells for central and northern Scotland.
Tomorrow will also be unsettled, starting mainly dry but with further wet and windy weather expected.
The arrival of unsettled weather marks the end of one of the warmest and quietest Novembers in the weather records.

When are people going to start suing these Anti-American Liars for the lack of facts they put forward and indict honest people along the way? Moyers should sue for misrepresentation of the facts and slander. Famous personalities have to sue tabloids such as The National Enquirer from time to time to stop this hideousness. It's going to have to happen a few dozen times to these radio announcers before everything comes into context !!! Lies are lies. They should be held liable for them !

Limbaugh misrepresented Bill Moyers, said "I'm pretty sure he's lost his mind"
Summary: On his radio show, Rush Limbaugh aired a clip of Bill Moyers saying: "And you couldn't say, 'How are we going to defeat the nigger?' How are we going to -- which is the word that was so common when I was growing up in the South. 'How are you going to defeat the kike?' referring to Jews -- you wouldn't do -- that woman would not have done that, I don't think." After the clip, Limbaugh said: "I have no idea what he's talking about. I do -- I'm pretty sure he's lost his mind. Meanwhile, they accuse us of saying those words and harboring those thoughts, and now look who's out saying them on PBS." At no point during the show did Limbaugh note that Moyers was discussing Sen. John McCain's response to a woman who asked him: "How do we beat the bitch?"

On the December 10 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh aired a clip of PBS' Bill Moyers saying on the December 7 edition of Bill Moyers Journal, "And you couldn't say, 'How are we going to defeat the nigger?' How are we going to -- which is the word that was so common when I was growing up in the South. 'How are you going to defeat the kike?' referring to Jews -- you wouldn't do -- that woman would not have done that, I don't think." Immediately after playing the clip, Limbaugh said: "I have no idea what he's talking about. I do -- I'm pretty sure he's lost his mind. Meanwhile, they accuse us of saying those words and harboring those thoughts, and now look who's out saying them on PBS." At no point during the show did Limbaugh note that Moyers was discussing Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) response to a woman who asked him at a presidential campaign event in November: "How do we beat the bitch?" Moyers was arguing that there is much greater tolerance in public discourse of misogynistic language than other forms of bigotry.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200712120007?f=h_latest

Is it "W"rong to believe that Iran is incapable of a nuclear threat actually Anti-Semitic?

You've got to be joking?

The President of Iran hates Israel. There is a reason for that, as it carries a lot of clout with people that were afraid of the illegal invasion by the USA into Iraq. That does not make Iran an Anti-Semitic country. Even if it were, does that justify the deaths of vast populations of people on the basis of fear alone?

The United States of America and the IAEA are in agreement that the CAPACITY of Iran isn't at the stage where it is a threat to the region. Russia has also made that assessment and reported it to the UN, allies and the United States of America. Bush ignores it. He and Cheney ignore everything. They subscribe to their own reality based in their electorates fears for political gains.

Iran has been and will continue to become a force to contend with, in that it feels the brevity of being the only Shia nation on Earth. If one analogy, and this will be very difficult for some to even entertain, but if there is one analogy that can be made; it's that Israel is supposed to be a religious haven for Hebrews and what then is Iran if not a religious haven for the Shia?

Does that justify Iran's aggression against Israel at any point in time? No. Does it entitle Israel it's aggression against Iran? No, unless it's a direct threat to the country and people of Israel there is absolutely no reason for aggressions of any kind.

The region needs peace.

Iran needs better leadership. That leadership will be roled back to fundamentalism until the USA is out of Iraq and the threat of a USA invasion into Iran is gone.

One might ask why if there is such a nuclear threat in the region is Gates turning away from troop redeployment into Afghanistan and insisting NATO carry the burden. NATO can't. It has constraints on the size of it's force by treaty. Russia has been objecting to the size of the NATO forces and to increase them would go beyond what the treaty allows. Here again, Bush, Cheney and Gates create their own scenarios of reality and seek only to push off the responsiblity of the USA in the country of Afghanistan.

Pakistan, in it's instability is just as much of a concern about nuclear weapons of which it already has then Iran could ever be now, but yet, when it comes to USA commitment of forces to stop the increasing instability they are not forthcoming in the face of Marine generals that insist upon it.

The Bush/Cheney White House is waiting for the other shoe to drop in Iraq. For the Shia to revolt and cause some war that will ignite the violence all over again. That's not possible. Iraq has at least one third of it's populous in poverty and needs infrastructure rebuilt. The potential for more war by Iraqis is slim at best. In order to carry out a war, the people waging it have to be strong enough to lift a gun and execute it's purpose. Iraqis don't have that capacity and it's time the USA redeploy it's military in an effective way. The National Guard needs to return home and the Marines need to deploy to Afghanistan. The generals need to take their case to Congress, a majority Democratic congress and get this over with !!!

The reason Bush/Cheney/Gates are insisting on an Iranian invasion is due to the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline and that's the only reason !

Campbell Brown Reports' Iran: Fact & Fiction'
An intelligence bombshell about Iran.. and nuclear weapons. But this time, is the intelligence correct? Campbell Brown investigates: "Iran: Fact & Fiction."
Sat & Sun, 7 & 11 p.m. ET

Whether it's fact of fiction depends on what side of the political fodder you stand and considering CNN prides itself on having a "Week at War" with segments 90 seconds long to impose wrongful and biased and bigoted views of the Middle East it's safe to say the Neocons have found a cozy home to lend their support in attempting to vanquish Murdoch. You would think all those that despise Murdoch for his overt and chronic lies would side with CNN, but, one lie is better than another? I don't think so.

The slimeballs haven't changed their rant but only hope to revitalize it ! Maybe at CNN, this time with a female voice. It wasn't enough to ruin one career of a former mainstream female anchor, they're going to try it a second time.

CNN is dedicating Megahours to transforming the USA National Intelligence Estimate into a Bogus document. They are seeking to match their rival FOX in propaganda that is Anti-American.

These news networks are not only seeking ratings based on their own 'intelligence' approach, they are seeking to undermine the very government agency that Bush/Cheney precide over. The problem of course is that the National Intelligence Estimate doesn't say what the Bush/Cheney/Gates administration wants it to say. They, evidently, couldn't muscle the agency in time to oppress the truth, so, as with Iraq, they are seeking to change the truth after it's known with the assistance of Neocon networks intent on promoting war.

I'll tell you how stupid their assessments are. They have coined al Sadr as a fallen leader. He was never that. He wasn't really a militia leader at all. He was a beseiged cleric. He still is. Al Sadr never carried a weapon but only a Qur'an. Everything about al Sadr became political rather than religious in the Western Press because Bush/Cheney needed a scapegoat.

The Huckabee Phenomena

Otherwise known as How the Religious Right can't come to grips with the separation of Chruch and State.

Romney is speaking in regard to the pretext of religion as an overriding principle to the USA Constitution. The Republicans involved are so desperate to reel in the Right Wing of the Republican Party that they are willing to unmind the USA Constitution. They are all guilty of it, it's just that Huckabee is more covert and less offensive to the Average American and we wonder how all this happens?

Huckabee gets last spot on ballot for GOP primary (click here)
By Rick Pearson Tribune political reporter
December 6, 2007
Barring any objections, Illinois' Feb. 5 Republican primary ballot will feature Iowa presidential front-runner Mike Huckabee along with major rivals Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and John McCain, candidacy filings with state elections officials showed Wednesday.Also filing for the ballot were unsuccessful 2004 Republican U.S. Senate nominee Alan Keyes, Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado and James Mitchell of Lindenhurst, though none of the three filed any candidates for delegates to the national nominating convention....


Romney: No Religious Test for President (click here)
By GLEN JOHNSON – 55 minutes ago
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Republican Mitt Romney, confronting voters' skepticism about his Mormon faith, declared Thursday that as president he would "serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause," and said calls for him to explain and justify his religious beliefs go against the profound wishes of the nation's founders.
At the same time, he decried those who would remove from public life "any acknowledgment of God," and he said that "during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places."
In a speech prepared for delivery less than a month before the first nomination primaries, Romney said he shares "moral convictions" with Americans of all faiths, though surveys suggest up to half of likely voters have qualms about electing the first Mormon president.
"There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church's distinctive doctrines," Romney said. "To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes president, he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths."
Excerpts from Romney's speech, which he was delivering at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum at 10:30 a.m. EST, were released in advance by his campaign....


The Constitution of the United States of America guarantees Religious Freedom to it's citizens. It does not guarantee a goverment comprising of religious components or the basis of law. The Republicans have aligned themselves with the only people that care to be affiliated with this corrupt and corruptable party. They have found a group of religiously biased partisans and have made them a priority to elections when they could not otherwise achieve a majority vote in any election.

The actions of the Republcian National Committee are to undermine the USA Constitution replacing it with pretext of Christianity as the soul basis of USA Law. We are far from under the Mushroom Cloud of extremists with 'exclusively' religious demands of the USA and it's military ambitions.

If one cannot get to either link below that places clear evidence to the 'strategy' against the American People, from this blog it's because FOX has done something to 'the net' illegally and is affecting Google's Blogger. Probably with permission and/or assistance from Bush's adversely influenced Powell FCC.

Either that or the blog is blacked out from FOX videos by pending lawsuit. It's an independant blog with agreement to Blogger. I ain't taking nothing down. It's all legitimate entries of news items presented elsewhere.

The fact is the Murdoch empire is full of lies and deceit and war mongering that needs to be pursued in the World Courts. They are human rights violators using a 'pet' to portray themselves otherwise.

FOX treats American People like Monkeys (click here) or 'chronic loop below'

For weeks now, the FOX News channels have been promoting a book written by Levin regarding a dog he once owned. They have been living and breathing this book in order to win sympathy for 'their softer side.' I am sure Levin is making a 'killing (they like that word)' on the book, but, that is besides the point. The book was engineered to place on the market this time of year as holiday giving can be fun when it's a touching book about a dog.

That is all fine and good, but, the FOX News morons have taken the book one step further. Out of one side of their mouths they are touting their compassionate and soft side, while out of the other corner of their mouth they are defaming the intelligence agencies that rendered the NIE.

They are NOT "great" Americans and they are exploitive of their audience. They lure them in with sympathy and then feed them Anti-American and paranoid rhetoric. Their license to broadcast should be pulled ! It isn't freedom of speech that is the issue, it's lies and harboring an American enemy on the aire waves. That American enemy is the deceit of the Murdock empire that promotes hate, war and paranoya.

They are doing it again. Since the NIE came out, the Neocon Press is going nuts trying to find their footing one more time. They are attempting every trick in the book. The Iranian influence in Iraq isn't going anywhere, and I have been over and over that. Iran is directly responsible for much of the Humanitarian Aid in Southern Iraq. The Bush/Cheney White House should be grateful because without Iran's efforts, Southern Iraq would be a wasteland of starved and starving bodies.

Additionally, the USA has never had control of the borders of Iraq. As a result every country surrounding Iraq has had to bolster their own borders to prevent the USA occupation from infiltrating their lands and causing chaos and the same anarchy that is exhibited in Iraq. Iran is no different than Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey. They are forced to hold the line on 'infiltration' of Bush's occupation into their country. It's a sovereignty issue and one of their own National Security. If those countries were to turn out like Iraq has turned out, imagine the mess we would all be witnessing. The fact of the matter is, war doesn't stop at lines in the sand, it is chaotic and the neighbors to Iraq have done all they had to hold the line on an expansionist war.


The Neocons are pathetic. They hate peace, they thrive on war and killing. It's just that simple.

"Golly, gee, whiz, Wolf; ain't promoting the fear of Iran great. We get to stay and kill more Iraqis,' huh, Wolf??

"Yes, Michael, and it has been a pleasure, thank you."

BLITZER : President Bush is stepping up pressure on Iran despite new intelligence contradicting his earlier statements about the country's nuclear weapons program. He's warning President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to "come clean" and Mr. Bush is seeking new sanctions against Iran.

CNN's White House correspondent, Ed Henry, is standing by.

He's joining us.
What else did the president have to say -- Ed?

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the president made clear that he believes this new National Intelligence Estimate is no vindication for Iran and he's also sticking with his contention that, in fact, Tehran is still a threat.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY (voice-over): President Bush laughed when asked about a demand for an apology from irregular president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Then, after the TV cameras were off, the president told reporters: "You can mark down I chuckled."
Earlier in the day, he was equally as defiant.

GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Iranian nuclear issue is a problem and continues to be a problem that must be addressed by the international community.

HENRY: At a quick stop in Nebraska, the president was supposed to focus on health care and raising political cash for Republicans. But when he landed in Omaha, Mr. Bush brought up Iran -- a clear sign the White House realizes the president's Tuesday press conference did not do enough to stem the tide of negative publicity from the National Intelligence Estimate, reviewing that, contrary to public statements by the president and Vice President Cheney, Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program four years ago.

BUSH: The Iranians have a strategic choice to make. They can come clean with the international community about the scope of their nuclear activities or they can continue on a path of isolation.

HENRY: The president is focusing on the part of the report which found Iran did, at one point, have an active nuclear weapons program that could be restarted. That's why White House officials say they're moving full speed ahead on seeking a new round of United Nations sanctions against Iran and have gotten positive feedback from key allies in France, Germany and Great Britain.

BUSH: The Iranian government has more to explain about its nuclear intentions and past actions -- especially the covert nuclear weapons program pursued until the fall of 2003.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HENRY: but another round of tough sanctions was already going to be an uphill battle, even before this new intelligence emerged. Now it's going to be even tougher to get China and Russia on board-- Wolf.

BLITZER: Ed Henry, stand by.

Thanks very much for that.

In Iraq, meanwhile, a car bomb killed at least 15 people on a busy shopping street in Baghdad, just as the defense secretary, Robert Gates, was visiting another part of the city. And those who know the situation there say the overall violence is intertwined with the tense relationship between the United States and Iran.

And joining us, now, from Baghdad, our correspondent Michael Ware.

We know this National Intelligence Estimate now saying that the Iranians actually stopped building a nuclear bomb back in 2004.

But what about these conflicting reports that we're getting about Iran still meddling in Iraq?
What's going on?

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, what I can tell you is the latest that the U.S. military intelligence is telling Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on his sixth visit here to Iraq. What they're saying is that the number of attacks that they can directly link to Iranian support is down. Whether they can attribute that to a downturn in Iranian influence, that they cannot answer.

The other thing I can tell you, Iranian nuclear issues and Iranian issues on attacks on America here in Iraq are not unrelated.
Now, during the historic talks between the Iranian ambassador here in Iraq and the American ambassador, Ryan Crocker, here in Iraq, it was made very clear they would only talk Iraq. They would not talk nuclear issues or anything else.

Iran's strategy has been forced to -- has been to force to America to bleed here in Iraq to gain concessions elsewhere. Indeed, we got to a point where top American commanders were saying just a few months ago, more American troops were dying as a result of Iranian- backed violence than Al Qaeda-backed violence. We've now seen that dip.

But right now, I can tell you, Secretary Gates is being told that Iran, according to U.S. military intelligence, is still training Iraqis to kill Americans. None of this, Wolf, is unrelated.

BLITZER: Robert Gates -- he's in Baghdad right now -- an unannounced visit. And he and others are suggesting things clearly are getting better.

Is security and stability in Iraq right now within reach?

WARE: The short answer is that, yes, things are better. Where we would have 1,500 or 1,600 attacks a week -- be it bombs or shootings or suicide detonations or whatever you want -- it's down to something like 500 on a week.

Can you imagine if there was 500 and something attacks in Pakistan or Israel or America?

Yet this is our idea of success now. That's how numbed we've become to the violence. Nonetheless, less Americans, less Iraqis are dying. There's two reasons for that. One, America is backing Sunni militias. They're protecting their areas. America has finally cut a deal with the insurgency.

Secondly, Iran has cut down its military activity. You talk to the top U.S. officials, they don't yet know why. They don't believe it will old. But there's a key question there. It's quite a dilemma -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Michael Ware, our reporter in Baghdad.

Michael, thanks.

WARE: Thank you, Wolf.

It's a pleasure.

BLITZER: All right, we're going to take a quick break.

When we come back, we'll have the new reports coming in on the fatalities in that Omaha mall shooting. Police now confirming nine people are dead. The gunman, an apparent suicide, as well. We're going to have the latest for you from Omaha.

Also, the U.S. Supreme Court case that could determine the future of hundreds of suspected terrorists.
And a warning that could impact everyone who flies about a looming danger in the sky.
Stay with us.

You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)