Brad-Jen split leaves many feeling hurt
By Alison apRoberts -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Tuesday, January 11, 2005
How could they do this to us? Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston left countless admirers feeling dumped when they announced this past weekend that they were breaking up. "I can't tell you how many people have said to me, ‘If they can't make it, who can?' " said Ken Baker, West Coast executive editor for Us Weekly magazine, speaking by phone Monday from Los Angeles. You don't need to have been at the wedding in 2000 to feel jilted. "It's kind of depressing; I'm a single girl myself, and it's like there's no hope," said Michelle Biggs, who lives in Sacramento and is 35, the same age as Aniston. "I was hoping it would turn out to be forever."
Tuesday, January 11th, 2005
Four Remaining British Guantanamo Detainees To Be Freed
The British government has announced that the four remaining British citizens held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo will be released. The four Brits are: Moazzam Begg, Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar. We speak with Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
The British government has announced that the four remaining British citizens held in U.S. custody at Guantanamo will be released. This follows months of negotiations between Washington and London and a direct appeal by Prime Minister Tony Blair to U.S. President George W. Bush, as well as multiple lawsuits filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights. The four Brits are: Moazzam Begg, Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar. It is not clear when they will be released.
On Democracy Now!, we have covered these cases extensively, particularly that of Moazzam Begg. He was detained in Pakistan in 2001 and has been imprisoned without charge or trial in Guanatanmo after being transferred there from a base in Afghanistan. Last April, his father Azmat Begg joined us in our studio to talk about his son"s imprisonment. Here is some of what he had to say.Meanwhile, the Australian government says one of its citizens held at Guantanamo will also be released. Mamdouh Habib has been held at Guantanamo Bay for three years. He filed a lawsuit charging that in 2001 the U.S. transferred him to Egypt for 6 months, where he was electrocuted, beaten and nearly drowned. Habib alleges that while under Egyptian detention, he was hung by his arms from hooks, repeatedly shocked, nearly drowned and brutally beaten. Habib's case is only the second to describe a secret practice called "rendition," under which the CIA has sent suspected terrorists to be interrogated in countries where torture has been well documented. It is unclear which U.S. agency transferred him to Egypt. His was the first case to challenge the legality of the practice and could have implications for U.S. plans to send large numbers of Guantanamo Bay detainees to Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and other countries with poor human rights records.
Dan Rather Saves His Job, but Reputation Takes a Hit After Critical Report on Bush Guard Story
NEW YORK Jan 11, 2005 — As his anchor career nears its end in March, Dan Rather's reputation as a hard-charging news reporter took some damaging blows from the independent panel that probed CBS's discredited story on President Bush's National Guard service.
Three CBS News executives and the producer of last September's "60 Minutes Wednesday" report were fired Monday by CBS chief Leslie Moonves for rushing the story to air and then blindly defending it.
Rather was portrayed by the panel retired Associated Press chief executive officer Louis D. Boccardi and former GOP Attorney General Dick Thornburgh as "pushed to the limit" by coverage of the Republican National Convenion and Hurricane Frances as final reporting on the story was done.
