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September 2009

Krakauer's new book examines Pat Tillman's death (AP)

BOULDER, Colo. – Jon Krakauer has never shied away from assigning blame for blunders, especially fatal blunders. In his best-selling account of a disastrous 1996 climb of Mount Everest, "Into Thin Air," he dished out stinging criticism to a professional guide and even chastised himself.
His new book, "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman," pulses with indignation at the generals, politicians and soldiers he holds responsible for the death of Tillman, the NFL star-turned-Army Ranger killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004.
But the sharpest rebukes are aimed at those Krakauer accuses of covering up the truth of Tillman's death, fabricating a more heroic story and then using it to distract the media and the public from bad news coming out of Iraq.
"You've got to explain what happened, and when you explain what happened, you've got to name names," Krakauer said in an interview in Boulder, where he lives.
"It doesn't do any good to say, 'Mistakes were committed, mistakes were made,' in that passive voice that's so annoying."
Publisher Doubleday is giving the book, which goes on sale Sept. 15, a first print run of 500,000 copies.
The book chronicles Tillman's short but remarkable life, interwoven with threads of American politics and global geopolitics, Afghan history and geography, even philosophy and Greek epic poetry.
Krakauer said a longtime fascination with Afghanistan and the news of Tillman's death attracted him to the story. Some of it is well known: Tillman's standout career with the Arizona Cardinals and his decision to leave the NFL to join the Rangers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But much of Krakauer's account is new, or at least not widely known. As a high school student, Tillman served time in juvenile jail for beating up another teen he mistakenly thought had attacked his friend. He kept a journal and had a lively intellectual life. He opposed the war in Iraq but didn't hesitate to serve when his unit was sent there. He was an agnostic and maybe even an atheist. He loved cats.
In a detailed but fluid narrative, Krakauer juxtaposes milestones in Tillman's early life with contemporaneous events in the collapse of Afghan society and the rise of al-Qaida. The story lines converge when Tillman enters the Army in June 2002, compelled by a sense of honor and duty after the 9/11 attacks.
After retracing Tillman's training and his deployments to Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan 2004, Krakauer lays out a step-by-step accounting of Tillman's movements on April 22, 2004, the day he was killed.
A few of the key players emerge as competent, even valiant. Krakauer spent five months with U.S. and Afghan troops in Afghanistan researching the book, and that gave him "a tremendous appreciation of how hard a job it is" to be a soldier, he said.
But other players come across as bunglers, self-interested careerists, cynical political operatives or ideologues. Their sins, in Krakauer's account, range from firing at someone without first making sure it was the enemy to staging an unjustified war in Iraq that diverted much-needed troops and equipment from Afghanistan.
The upshot was that Tillman's platoon was ordered to drag a disabled Humvee back to base while also keeping to a tight schedule for clearing insurgents out of isolated villages in a rugged corner of Afghanistan. That required splitting the platoon in two, which contributed to the ensuing chaos when the unit was ambushed. And that's when Tillman was killed by friendly fire.
Then came "a very calculated effort to deceive not just the Tillman family but also the American public" about the circumstances of his death, Krakauer writes.
The Defense Department didn't disclose that Tillman died by friendly fire for more than a month. In the meantime, he was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for valor and promoted from specialist to corporal. A Navy officer said at a televised memorial service that Tillman died heroically, a victim of the ambush.
The reason for allowing the more heroic but misleading account to proliferate, Krakauer argues, was the same reason behind the leak of a highly embellished account of Pvt. Jessica Lynch's capture in Iraq a year earlier: to distract the public and the media from bad news just breaking in Iraq.
In Lynch's case, Krakauer says, the bad news was a cluster of friendly fire deaths of Marines in Nasiriyah, Iraq — he says it was at least 17, while the military says it was no more than 10. In Tillman's case, it was bloody fighting in Fallujah and an expose on the abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.

"White House officials guessed that selling (Tillman) as a fallen war hero would send the media into an orgy of adulatory coverage," Krakauer writes. "They were not disappointed."

Army Secretary Pete Geren said there was no conspiracy, just a "perfect storm of mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership." A retired general was censured over Tillman's death and the misinformation that followed. Seven other officers and enlisted men received punishments ranging from reprimands and demotions to expulsion from the elite Rangers. One was effectively forced out of the Army altogether. No one was charged with a crime.

Krakauer calls the punishments a slap on the wrist, and he doesn't buy Geren's explanation. In the book, he ticks off a list of irregularities, including the fact that Tillman's uniform was burned in Afghanistan instead of returned with his body for the autopsy.

"That's a very conscious effort to cover things up, up and down the chain of command. And the Army still hasn't come clean," Krakauer said in the interview. "That bothers me. So I guess, when that kind of stuff happens, it's easy for me — my outrage seeps in and I don't feel any qualms about naming names."

The Tillman story is more deeply entwined in politics than Krakauer's previous books — "Under the Banner of Heaven," "Into Thin Air," "Into the Wild" and "Eiger Dreams" — but he doesn't see that as a departure. Politics are an essential part of the story, he says, just as religion and church power were essential parts of the story he told in "Under the Banner of Heaven," about Mormon polygamists.

"So this book doesn't feel like a great departure to me. None of them ever have," he said with a laugh. "I find a story that intrigues me and I run with it."

Krakauer's work has appeared in Outside, Rolling Stone and National Geographic. He practices what Robert Boynton of New York University calls "New New Journalism" — intensively reported and beautifully written nonfiction that builds on the work of the earlier "New Journalists," such as Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese and John McPhee.

Boynton calls Krakauer the "gold standard" of New New Journalism because of his commitment to reporting, climbing Everest for "Into Thin Air" and spending five months in Afghanistan for "Where Men Win Glory."

Before writing was lucrative enough to pay the bills, Krakauer was a carpenter. He still looks the part, with a wiry build, tousled gray hair and an easy, rapid-fire style of talking. Even now, after five books — including "Into the Wild," which became a movie directed by Sean Penn — he professes to be not much of a writer.

"I'm not a good writer. I'm a good editor of my own stuff," he said. "I kind of throw stuff on the page," and then he rewrites and rewrites again. He estimates he wrote 30 drafts of "Where Men Win Glory."

Krakauer said he doesn't know what his next project will be; he's still recovering from this one, and he has a full calendar of appearances — including one at West Point.

What will he talk to the cadets about?

"The danger of putting your career before the truth," he said.

Question remains: What will rise at ground zero? (AP)

NEW YORK – The five skyscrapers were all supposed to rise by early next decade to replace the ravaged World Trade Center, with the city's tallest towers set in a spiral evoking the Statue of Liberty's torch.
They would frame a massive memorial in a tree-filled park, plus a theater and a transportation hub with uplifted wings — one of several symbols intended to defy the terrorists who destroyed the 16-acre site in under two hours.
Standing on the site now — a multi-level labyrinth of concrete and steel, from the entrance resembling the rooftops of an underground city — the sweeping design unveiled 6 1/2 years ago still hasn't materialized.
And while the most symbolic pieces of the puzzle at ground zero are taking shape, it's become increasingly clear that the grand scheme will take decades to be fully completed, if it ever is at all.
Vickie Cooper had mixed feelings as she peered through a fence at the site's stark northeast corner, a spot reserved for a skyscraper now mired in arbitration over its financing.
Its history is "too sad to even really think about progress," said the 48-year-old Austin, Texas, insurance worker. But "I am a little surprised — I thought there'd be something built there."
When will there be? As the eighth anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks approaches, there's no firm due date for that office tower or two others supposed to help line the eastern side of the site; only one is under construction.
Developer Larry Silverstein has gone to an arbitrator to renegotiate his lease with the site's government owner after months of fruitless negotiations. An analysis done for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey this spring projected there might be no market for Silverstein's third tower until 2030.
The fifth tower in the spiral is rarely discussed as viable. The spot reserved for it is still covered by a skyscraper contaminated with toxic debris from the attacks, its dismantling slowed after a 2007 blaze killed two firefighters. There's no finished design or money and little public pressure for the performing arts center.
A poll last month found that more than half of New York City voters believe the rebuilding is going badly. More than 60 percent don't believe the highest-priority projects — the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower and the Sept. 11 memorial — will be finished by announced deadlines. The Quinnipiac University poll of 1,290 voters had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
The doubts don't surprise Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward.
"The only way you could cure that skepticism is to deliver on the things we are now delivering on," he said this week as roughly 1,000 workers labored on the site.
The Freedom Tower's frame is several stories above street level. Work has begun on one Silverstein tower and continues on underground elements of the $3.2 billion transit hub. The memorial pools' outline and plaza — some built from a pit 70 feet below ground to street level — have filled in a swath of the site.
"It's not a pit," Ward said. "Now, it's a sense of rebirth."
Daniel Libeskind's master design was chosen in early 2003 amid an atmosphere of unfettered possibility. Officials praised the plan's bold symbolism and its vision of a bustling business district enhanced by shops, restaurants and arts that repair the broken skyline and honor the nearly 2,800 people killed.
To Libeskind, it was and remains "a coherent and a complete vision."
"My hopes and my vision haven't changed," he said in an interview this week. "At the center of the desire to do this is really to create an inspiring place ... an affirmation of American values."
Political wrangling, engineering complications and the recession pushed completion dates back and sent cost estimates up by billions of dollars since the first plans were released. The Port Authority pushed back its timeline last fall, saying the memorial, Freedom Tower and transit hub would open between 2011 and 2014.

Ward said the four office towers — three planned by Silverstein — would be built when the battered economy, which has emptied existing towers of commercial space across the city, allows it.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose district includes ground zero, said it's crucial to build all the planned the office space, noting that terrorists deliberately struck at the nation's financial capital.

"We committed eight years ago that we were going to rebuild bigger and better than ever. If we're not going to do that, then we're sending a terrible message," he said.

Silverstein — who leased the towers six weeks before the attacks — has said the delays that he has blamed on the Port Authority have cost the project public confidence.

Putting off the office towers much longer would dishonor a commitment to respond to the attacks and "would really be a stain on New York's reputation and image," said Janno Lieber, who runs the project for Silverstein Properties.

Other local businesses fear being stuck around a construction site for years, said Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business group.

"Can the site be made functional and attractive without completing it?" she said.

Some other key players involved in the planning now stress deliberation over bold strokes.

Former Gov. George Pataki stressed urgency at the site in dozens of speeches after unveiling a since-delayed timetable for the Freedom Tower in 2003.

In the beginning, "there was a tremendous sense of time urgency, and personally, I would like to see that continue today to every element of the site," said Pataki, who left office in 2006.

But how long ground zero takes to rebuild won't matter to future generations, he said.

"I'd rather have it right than yesterday, and this is being done right," Pataki said.

Libeskind — who envisioned it all — watches the construction from his studio window blocks away.

What ultimately gets built — whenever that happens — "will really be the plan that I drew, at its core."

He would not, he says, have done anything differently.

UK court convicts 3 of plot to blow up airliners (AP)

LONDON – Three British Muslims were convicted Monday of plotting to murder thousands by downing at least seven airliners bound for the U.S. and Canada in what was intended as the largest terrorist attack since Sept. 11.
A jury at a London court found Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, Assad Sarwar, 29, and Tanvir Hussain, 28, guilty of conspiracy to murder by detonating explosives on aircraft while they were in-flight.
Four other alleged conspirators — whom the prosecution said were to have smuggled liquid explosives onboard jetliners disguised as soft drinks — were acquitted of conspiring to blow up planes. The jury could not reach a verdict on an eighth man.
British and U.S. security officials said the plan — unlike many recent homegrown European terrorist plots — was directly linked to al-Qaida and guided by senior Islamic militants in Pakistan, who hoped to mount a spectacular strike on the West.
The officials said British plotters were likely just days away from mounting their suicide attacks when police rounded up 25 people in dawn raids in August 2006.
Their arrests led to travel chaos as hundreds of jetliners were grounded across Europe. Discovery of the plot also triggered changes to airport security, including new restrictions on the amount of liquids and gels passengers can take onto flights.
Prosecutors said suspects had identified seven specific flights from London's Heathrow airport to New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and Montreal, as their targets.
British authorities estimate that, if successful, around 2,000 passengers would have died. If bombs were detonated over U.S. and Canadian cities, hundreds more would have been killed on the ground.
Plotters planned to assemble bombs in airplane toilets using hydrogen peroxide-based explosives injected into soda bottles.
"They were to be detonated in-flight by suicide bombers," including several of the accused, prosecutor Peter Wright said.
Tests by scientists who replicated the bombs in a laboratory showed the devices could produce powerful explosions, though there is no evidence that the terrorist cell had perfected the technique.
Wright told the trial that the group's suicide attacks were planned by "men with the cold-eyed certainty of the fanatic" and intended as "a violent and deadly statement of intent that would have a truly global impact."
He said the plot would have caused "a civilian death toll from terrorism on an almost unprecedented scale."
All eight defendants had denied most charges against them, claiming they were planning a stunt — and not a terrorist attack — to expose failings in Western foreign policy.
Prosecutors were unable to produce evidence that the men had produced a single viable bomb. The trial was the second to take place in a case which has frustrated prosecutors.
Last year, Ali, Sarwar and Hussain were convicted of conspiracy to murder, but the jury could not reach a verdict on whether they specifically targeted aircraft. The jury at that trial failed to reach verdicts against other four defendants.
Jurors on Monday cleared Donald Stewart-Whyte, 23, of all charges. They found Umar Islam, 31, guilty of a charge of conspiracy to murder, but could not decide if he was involved in targeting aircraft.
They found three other men: Ibrahim Savant, 28, Arafat Waheed Khan, 28 and Waheed Zaman, 25, not guilty of planning to blow up airliners, but could not reach verdicts on whether the three men were guilty of conspiracy to murder.

Each defendant, except Stewart-Whyte, had pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance.

Prosecutor Adina Ezekiel said authorities will announce if they will seek a third retrial.

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Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Obama exhorts kids to pay attention in school (AP)

WASHINGTON – In a speech that drew fire even before he delivered it, President Barack Obama will tell the nation's schoolchildren he "expects great things from each of you."
The White House posted Obama's remarks, scheduled for Tuesday, in advance on its Web site at midday Monday.
Obama's planned talk has been controversial, with several conservative organizations and individuals accusing him of trying to delve too directly into local education. But White House officials, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have said the charges are silly.
In the remarks set for Tuesday, Obama tells young people that all the work of parents, educators and others won't matter "unless you show up for those schools, pay attention to those teaches."
Obama made no reference in his prepared remarks to the uproar surrounding his speech. He used the talk to tell kids about his at-times clumsy ways as a child and to urge them to identify an area of interest, set goals and work hard to achieve them.
He noted that he was raised by a single mother and that she made him buckle down and work harder at times, and said he's glad she did. The president acknowledged that "it's hard to be successful," but told the students in his prepared speech that the country badly needs their best effort to cope in an increasingly competitive global economy.

Girls Christening Gowns

"O Thou who, through holy Baptism, hast given unto Thy servant remission of sins, and hast bestowed upon him (her) a life of regeneration: Do Thou, the same Lord and Master, ever tgraciously illumine his (her) heart with the light of Thy countenance. Maintain the shield of his (her) faith unassailed by the enemy [i.e., Satan]. Preserve pure and unpolluted the garment of incorruption wherewith Thou hast endued him (her), upholding inviolate in him (her), by Thy grace, the seal of the Spirit, and showing mercy unto him (her) and unto us, through the multitude of Thy mercies..."

A wide variety of practices are found in the spectrum of Protestantism. Some main-stream Protestant churches practice infant baptism, and thus make use of the christening gown; while others encourage or practice exclusive adult baptism. In some of the latter churches, special white clothing may be worn by both the person being baptized and the person performing the baptism.

Girls Christening Gowns

Gabon recovering from postelection violence (AP)

PORT GENTIL, Gabon – Shopkeepers swept glass from streets littered with burned-out cars and hungry residents braved long lines to buy bread as Gabon inched back to normal Monday after several days of postelection violence.
Evidence of the chaos was still ubiquitous in Port Gentil, the country's oil hub and second-largest city, which bore the brunt of the rioting. Torched shops scarred many neighborhoods, and, with public services still on hold, trash lay in heaps on the sides of roads and debris was strewn in the street.
Still, the city showed signs of recovery on its second day of calm since rioting began Thursday after the government announced that Ali Bongo won the nation's Aug. 30 election. He is accused of rigging the vote to replace his father, Omar Bongo, who died in June after ruling for 41 years.
Gas stations reopened for the first time on Monday, as did shops selling meat and rice. Residents desperate to buy bread began mobbing bakeries before dawn, waiting up to six hours in lines stretching 150 people long.
"Bongo we accepted, but his son, no. We want someone new," said Noelle Mve, a housewife who had been waiting in line for three hours for bread and still had 100 people in front of her.
Angry protesters last week torched a police station, markets and the French Consulate. French oil company Total evacuated employees and their families to the capital, Libreville.
The country's constitutional court declared Bongo the winner of the divisive presidential race, but no date has been set for his inauguration, and many expect the opposition to challenge the results.
Jean Eyeghe Ndong, a former prime minister and a spokesman for the 16 independent and opposition candidates, has said the election results "were false." The country's top three opposition leaders have said they feared security forces were trying to kill them.
The elder Bongo was viewed by many as the father of the nation and although he amassed a fortune, including 66 private bank accounts and more than 45 homes in the names of his immediate family, he was mostly tolerated and seen as a vestige from another era, when Africa was ruled by autocrats.
The special election was called to replace the late president, and many had hoped that it would mark the country's first chance at democracy. The elder Bongo ran in multiple elections where he was the only candidate. After intense pressure, he allowed the opposition to run against him and won multiple other elections riddled with irregularities and fraud accusations.
His son, nicknamed "Baby Zeus" when he was a child because of his heir apparent status, is seen by critics as a usurper of power. Others, though, say they have little choice but to accept the results
"What can we do? He was elected and the court confirmed it," said Daniel Essebe said, a Total oil platform worker who has been idled. "We can't keep not working."
The violence "no longer serves a purpose," Essebe said, sitting at a beach-side drinks stand with the oil platform he works on visible just offshore behind him. "The people are suffering. They have no bread, no food."

Case of Abramoff protege puts lobbying on trial (AP)

WASHINGTON – Years into the scandal, a protege of Jack Abramoff is the first member of the imprisoned lobbyist's team going before a jury to fight federal corruption charges that will put their very profession on trial.
Prosecutors argue the lavish meals and box seats that Kevin Ring provided government officials were an illegal pay-to-play scheme. Ring says he merely used traditional tools of his trade to build influence.
Ring is making a rare and bold move in putting his case before a jury, considering the public's distaste for the influence of lobbyists and the cache of Ring's often sarcastic and chummy e-mails that prosecutors plan to use against him.
Ring is only the second person in the Abramoff investigation to go to trial, which begins Tuesday with jury selection. The other was David Safavian, the government's former chief procurement officer, who was found guilty of lying to investigators by two separate juries after winning a second trial on appeal. Sixteen other lobbyists and federal officials charged in the influence-trading scandal, including Abramoff and former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, have pleaded guilty in deals with the government rather than take their chance in court.
"How this all works out in front of a jury will be interesting," said Washington attorney Stan Brand, who has defended other bribery cases. "The e-mails are embarrassing. But the question I have is: Are they as evidence persuasive that somebody committed a crime? It's one thing to take officials on a golf trip to Scotland (as Abramoff did). A meal or a ticket to an event isn't a trip to Scotland."
Ring, a 38-year-old father of two from suburban Kensington, Md., is charged with 10 felonies, including several with penalties up to 20 years in prison. The prosecutors charge Ring conspired with other Abramoff lobbyists to secretly give "a stream of things of value" to federal officials in return for favorable treatment. The charges include lying about his knowledge that Abramoff arranged a $5,000-a-month consulting job for the wife of former Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif.
In exchange, the prosecutors charge, the officials Ring cultivated helped advance his professional interests — reclaiming a piece of New Mexico land for an Indian tribe he was working for, securing federal grants for his clients and getting expedited review of Abramoff's application to admit foreigners to a school he was trying to start.
Ring initially cooperated with investigators. He sat for more than 100 hours of interviews. But his attorneys say that ended when prosecutors insisted he plead guilty and implicate others. Instead, Ring insisted he did nothing illegal and decided to fight.
A former aide to two powerful Republican lawmakers, Doolittle and Sen. John Ashcroft of Missouri, Ring in 1999 joined more than a dozen former Capitol Hill aides whom Abramoff lured to work with him.
The prosecutors plan to introduce e-mails that show Ring shared the Abramoff team's zeal to bring in clients and build government contacts who would help them.
Ring helped spread their firm's perks to officials helped or might in the future. Ring and other Abramoff lobbyists hosted fundraisers for lawmakers seeking re-election. They gave staffers tickets to take their friends to watch professional sports, in-demand concerts featuring Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and family events such as the Wiggles and Disney on Ice. They bought them expensive meals, at times spending more than $2,000 on a feast for an entire Capitol Hill office at Signatures, an Abramoff-owned restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue between the Capitol and the White House.
"You are going to eat free off our clients," Ring wrote in March 2002 to former Oklahoma Rep. Ernest Istook's chief of staff, John Albaugh, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the House.
In October 2000, Ring wrote Abramoff an e-mail describing Doolittle as "such a good soldier, doing everything we asked of him. ... I know you are great about making sure he gets his fair share of contributions, but if (client) is feeling generous, this would be a very opportune time to get something" to him, according to the indictment.
However lucrative the entertaining and donations were, Ring argues there was nothing illegal about them. His actions came before Congress passed a 2007 law, partially in response to the Abramoff scandal, that strengthened lobbyist disclosure requirements and further restricted gift-giving to lawmakers and their staffs.
In court documents, Ring's lawyers argue that he never made any agreement to provide gifts in exchange for their official action.
"All the indictment does is list drinks, meals, and entertainment over a four-year period and issues relevant to Mr. Ring's clients upon which he lobbied federal officials and sought official actions," they wrote.
Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who has represented lobbyists and has written a handbook on gift rules, said the Supreme Court has found that gift-giving shouldn't be a crime unless it can be directly connected to an official action.
"It's just how business is done in the world, not just in Washington, but the world," she said. "Getting to know people in a social setting — not just a business setting — that's how the world works in real life."

But she acknowledged Ring is taking a risk.

Fred Wertheimer, president of the nonprofit group Democracy21 that tries to counter the influence of money in politics, added, "Claiming that you are doing the normal lobbying practices in Washington may or may not be true, depending on the facts, but in any event don't justify the legitimacy of the activities."

Facebook scam leads woman to wire funds abroad (AP)

ST. LOUIS – Police say a Missouri woman was tricked into wiring about $4,000 to an account in England after receiving messages from a friend on Facebook asking for help.
Cape Girardeau Police Sgt. Jason Selzer said Wednesday that a woman told his department last week that she had been tricked into sending the money by Western Union after hearing her friend and her friend's husband were being detained in London and needed money to leave.
The friend, Grace Parry, told the Southeast Missourian newspaper that someone took over her Facebook account and posed as her. She has since suspended the account.
Facebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif., said Internet scams like this aren't uncommon.
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Information from: Southeast Missourian, http://www.semissourian.com

Scottish lawmakers disapprove of Lockerbie release (AP)

EDINBURGH, Scotland – Scottish lawmakers held a symbolic vote Wednesday to disapprove of the Lockerbie bomber's release, as the British government emphatically denied that Abdel Baset al-Megrahi's freedom was motivated by economic or diplomatic reasons.
The Scottish government had asked the parliament to endorse the decision as "consistent with the principles of Scottish justice." But by a 73-50 vote with one abstention, legislators backed an opposition amendment condemning Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill's decision as mishandled — and saying they disagreed with the government's actions in freeing the Libyan convicted in the 1988 explosion that killed 270 people.
"Releasing the Lockerbie bomber was a bad decision, made badly," Annabel Goldie, a Conservative Party member in the Scottish Parliament.
The vote is largely symbolic and was not an attempt to topple the Scottish government. MacAskill has said he released al-Megrahi because the Libyan was dying of terminal prostate cancer and compassionate releases are a key part of Scottish justice.
Criticism over the Lockerbie bomber's Aug. 20 release intensified Wednesday, despite the disclosure of confidential British and Scottish documents and denials that the release was linked to Britain's growing ties to Libya.
After keeping silent for days, Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered his strongest denial yet that no promises had been made to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi over the fate of the 57-year-old al-Megrahi — the only man convicted in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
There was no conspiracy, no cover up, no double dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to instruct Scottish ministers," Brown said emphatically. "We made absolutely clear to the Libyans and everybody else that this was a decision for the Scottish government."
Questions are now turning to everything that still hasn't been said — or disclosed.
Britain's opposition Conservative Party wants an inquiry into al-Megrahi's release, but the results will unlikely appease the families of bombing victims.
Countering the compassionate release argument, critics point to the lives lost during the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Some have also questioned why Brown hasn't come out in support or against the release.
The British government released the documents Tuesday in an attempt to quell speculation that it had pushed al-Megrahi's release to boost economic cooperation with Libya. But the documents fanned more resentment in the United States, where al-Megrahi's release was vehemently opposed.
Although the documents contain several references to British authorities deferring to Scotland on a potential release, they also contain repeated mentions of how important U.K.-Libyan relations had become. One document also showed that the British justice secretary did not want to exclude al-Megrahi from a possible prisoner transfer agreement — another way that al-Megrahi could have been released if Scotland didn't free him on compassionate grounds.
Britain has regional governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that are responsible for local issues but retains power over foreign policy.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband confirmed details in the documents that suggested Britain had not sought to have al-Megrahi serve out his life sentence in a Scottish prison.
"We did not want him to die in prison, no, we weren't seeking his death in prison," Miliband told the BBC on Wednesday.
Miliband did not elaborate, but some in the Arab world would have been suspicious about any death in custody.
In Tripoli, Libya, al-Megrahi was reportedly taken to intensive care Wednesday, according to family members who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Al-Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison in 2001 for the explosion, Britain's worst terrorist attack. He has long maintained his innocence.

Lawyers have said the evidence used to convict him was largely circumstantial — prosecutors said he bought clothes from a shop on the Mediterranean island of Malta that were packed around the bomb before it was placed on the plane.

Just days before Scotland approved his release on compassionate grounds, al-Megrahi's attorneys dropped his appeal against his conviction so he could be eligible for release.

Analysts at the time of the bombing pointed fingers toward Iran and Syria, not Libya, and said evidence was weak.

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Associated Press writers David Stringer and Jill Lawless in London and Alfred De Montesquiou in Tripoli, Libya, contributed to this report.

Twitter opens a door to Iowa operating room (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa – From anesthesia to the recovery room, 70-year-old Monna Cleary's children followed her surgery — 140 characters or less at a time.
Twitter is opening doors to the sterile confines of operating rooms, paving the way for families — and anyone else for that matter — to follow a patient's progress as they go under the knife.
Most of the Cleary family chose to track the developments from a laptop computer in the hospital's waiting room. But one daughter-in-law kept tabs from work.
"It's real time information instead of sitting and not knowing in the waiting room," said Cleary's son Joe, hours after his mother's surgery Monday at St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids.
"It made the time go by," said Cleary, who was joined by a brother, two sisters and a sister-in-law at the hospital. "We all feel it was a positive experience."
His mother, who underwent a hysterectomy and uterine prolapse surgery, had given her OK for hospital spokeswoman Sarah Corizzo to post a play-by-play of the operation on Twitter, a social-networking site that lets users send out snippets of information up to 140 characters long using cell phones or computers.
Corizzo sent more than 300 tweets over more than three hours from a computer just outside the operating room's sterile field. Nearly 700 people followed them. Eight tweeted questions to Corizzo about the procedure and a Cleary family member commented on how fascinating it was to follow the surgery.
The primary goal of the Twitter posts was education, Corizzo said, but it had the added benefit of keeping the family informed during surgery. It also helps to raise the profile of the hospital.
The idea to follow the surgery on Twitter at St. Luke's evolved after a similar surgery was Webcast several months ago.
"A lot of people would like to go into the operating room and see what happens but don't want all the visuals and stuff," said Laura Rainey, another hospital spokeswoman. "This is a more gentle way to help inform patients and consumers."
The Iowa hospital isn't the first to describe a surgery on Twitter. Others include Children's Medical Center in Dallas, which tweeted in May when a father donated a kidney to his son, and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where officials have tweeted about several surgeries since January.
Dian Luffman, a spokeswoman with Change:healthcare, a business that helps clients save money on procedures, said hospitals using Twitter during surgery is a sign that it's entering the mainstream, especially among the 20-and-30 somethings.
"I think hospitals are trying to build relationships," she said.
Amanda Gillbret, whose husband and son were involved in the Dallas kidney transplant, said she appreciated being able to monitor her husband's surgery at another hospital while she was at Children's Medical Center with her son.
"I felt like I was part of my husband's surgery and connected to what he was going through but was there with my son, too," Gillbret said. "It gave me a huge peace and it was just comforting knowing what was happening."
She noted that typically a person can sit for hours in a waiting room and maybe get two phone calls from the operating room.
"I received updates every two to three minutes," Gillbret said. "It not only helped the family stay in the loop but friends who weren't able to be there."
While the Detroit hospital has tweeted during several surgeries, neither the Cedar Rapids hospital nor the one in Dallas have immediate plans to do it again.

Officials at both hospitals said they would be open to the possibility if both the surgeon and patient are willing.

Cleary said she agreed to have her procedure posted on Twitter — but only after being educated to what tweeting was.

"I'm not much of a computer bug so I didn't know that much about it," Cleary said. "I didn't know they did that sort of thing."

During her surgery, Corizzo relayed tweets ever few minutes.

"Putting numbing medication where the incisions will be. Making first incision right now," Corizzo tweeted at the beginning of the procedure.

Later, Corizzo sent a message that read: "Right now doctor is cutting across some vessels & ligaments that connect the ovaries to the uterus."

Then: "Opening up the peritoneum right now," which led to a tweet questioning what the peritoneum is. Corizzo explained it is the sac that lines the abdomen.

The surgeon, Dr. Jerry Rozeboom, said he asked Cleary to participate because she is "very open, conversant and willing to be part of the education process.

"It was mostly a patient who I thought was open to helping other people learn about new technology and maybe helping other women in her situation," Rozeboom said.

Before the surgery, Rozeboom said no restrictions would be placed on what could be included, but he made it clear that if it became a distraction or a complication arose, the tweeting would stop.

In her tweets, Corizzo detailed the robotic equipment used for the surgery and included photos that showed Rozeboom at the control panel of the equipment and an internal image showing stitches being put in place.

She also tweeted about the causes and symptoms of the condition that led to Cleary's surgery.

Once the procedure was done, Corizzo sent a final tweet to Cleary's family.

"She's doing great. She'll see you soon."