Bin Laden urges jihad for Palestinians

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF and KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writers

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden lashed out Thursday at Palestinian peace negotiations with Israel and called for a holy war to liberate the Palestinian lands. A day after a bin Laden audio on a militant Web site threatened Europeans, Al-Jazeera TV broadcast audio excerpts attributed to the al-Qaida leader that urge Palestinians to ignore political parties "mired in trickery of the blasphemous democracy" and to rely on armed might.
"Palestine cannot be retaken by negotiations and dialogue, but with fire and iron," he said.
It was the first time bin Laden spoke of the Palestinian question at length since the deteriorating situation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military has been fighting with militants who fire rockets into southern Israel.
Bin Laden added that Palestinians who are unable to fight in the "land of Al-Quds" — a Muslim reference to Jerusalem — should join the al-Qaida fight in Iraq.
"The nearest field of jihad today to support our people in Palestine is the Iraqi field," he said.
He also called on the people of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to "help in support of their mujahedeen brothers in Iraq, which is the greatest opportunity and the biggest task."
Al-Jazeera did not say how it obtained the recording, which was broadcast with an old photograph of bin Laden in a white headscarf and traditional Arab dress.
There was no indication how recently the recording was made, or if it was an unreleased part of the audio posted late Wednesday on an extremist Web site that has carried al-Qaida statements in the past. The two messages were bin Laden's first this year.
In the first recording, bin Laden accused Pope Benedict XVI of helping in a "new Crusade" against Muslims and warned of a "severe" reaction for Europeans' publication of cartoons seen by Muslims as insulting Islam's prophet.
In the audio on Al-Jazeera, bin Laden said the sufferings of Palestinians in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip began when Arab leaders supported the U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., and the "Zionist entity," the militant name for Israel
The mention of the Annapolis summit in November was the only time reference given in the audio.
"By their support, they are considered partners to this horrible crime," bin Laden said of Arab leaders who are backing the Mideast peace talks.
He appeared to be seeking to merge the Palestinian cause into the wider al-Qaida struggle. There have been concerns al-Qaida would try to increase its influence in Palestinian territories, with supporters of the terror network calling for such action on Web sites.
Israel has been battling Hamas in Gaza since the Islamic militant group took control of the strip last June from followers of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli air raids are common in Gaza and militants fire rockets into Israeli towns near the strip.
"Palestine will not return to us with the negotiations by the submissive rulers, their conferences, nor by demonstrations and elections," bin Laden said. "Palestine will come back to us if we awaken from our ignorance and adhere to our religion and sacrifice our lives and means to it."
Although al-Qaida has previously released two messages in as many days — most recently by bin Laden's top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri in December — the latest two appeared to be the closest by bin Laden, said Ben Venzke, head of IntelCenter, a U.S. group that monitors militant messages.
"Al-Qaida has been making a concerted effort to be responsive to developments in news cycle and to respond to current events with their perspective on it," Venzke said. "The situation in Gaza and the reprinting of cartoons was something bin Laden felt was important to address."
A militant Web site that frequently carries al-Qaida postings, said later Thursday that it expected bin Laden's new audio on "The Way to Salvage Palestine" soon.
In Israel, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel told The Associated Press that Israel does not comment on bin Laden's statements.
Saeb Erekat, a negotiator for Abbas' Palestinian administration, said it was up to all parties in the talks to show that bin Laden's path isn't the way.
"We and the international community must prove him wrong, because we have been pursuing peace through negotiations, and I believe the parties involved must make every effort to make the year 2008 a year of peace," Erekat said.
The audio released Wednesday raised concerns al-Qaida was plotting attacks in Europe. Some experts said bin Laden, believed to be hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan area, might be unable to organize attacks himself and was trying to fan anger over the cartoons to inspire violence by supporters.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the contents of bin Laden's message "are filled with hate and encouraging people to murder innocents in the name of a perverted and depraved cause."
A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Thursday that bin Laden's accusation about the pope was baseless. He said Benedict repeatedly criticized the Muhammad cartoons, first published in some European newspapers in 2006 and republished by Danish papers in February.
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Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

Feds fire 2 for looking at Obama file

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
WASHINGTON - Two contract employees for the State Department have been fired and a third disciplined for inappropriately looking at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's passport file, and the department is investigating whether political or other motives were involved, senior officials said Thursday. Spokesman Sean McCormack said that for now it appears that nothing other than "imprudent curiosity" was involved in three separate breaches of the Illinois senator's personal information. It is not clear whether the employees saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age and place of birth that is required when a person fills out a passport application.
The breaches occurred on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14, and were detected by internal State Department computer checks, McCormack said. The department's top management officer, Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy, said certain records, including those of high-profile people, are "flagged" with a computer tag that tips off supervisors when someone tries to view the records without a proper reason.
The State Department would not release the names of those who were fired and disciplined, or the names of the two companies they worked for. The department's inspector general is investigating.
"We believe this was out of imprudent curiosity, but we are taking steps to reassure ourselves that that is, in fact, the case," McCormack said.
The firings and unspecified discipline of the third employee already had occurred when senior State Department officials learned of the breaches. Kennedy called that a failing.
"I will fully acknowledge this information should have been passed up the line," Kennedy told reporters in a conference call Thursday night. "It was dealt with at the office level."
Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama's presidential campaign, called for a complete investigation.
"This is an outrageous breach of security and privacy, even from an administration that has shown little regard for either over the last eight years. Our government's duty is to protect the private information of the American people, not use it for political purposes," Burton said.
"This is a serious matter that merits a complete investigation, and we demand to know who looked at Senator Obama's passport file, for what purpose and why it took so long for them to reveal this security breach," he said.
The department informed Obama's Senate office of the breach on Thursday. Kennedy said that at the office's request, he will provide a personal briefing for the senator's staff on Friday. No one from the State Department spoke to Obama personally on Thursday, the officials said.
Obama was born in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia for several years as a child before returning to the states. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he has traveled to the Middle East, the former Soviet states with Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Africa, where in 2006 he and his wife, Michelle, publicly took HIV tests in Kenya to encourage people there to do the same.
Obama's father was born in Kenya, and the senator still has relatives there.
The disclosure of inappropriate passport inquiries recalled an incident in 1992, when a Republican political appointee at the State Department was demoted over a search of presidential candidate Bill Clinton's passport records. The State Department's inspector general said the official had helped arrange the search in an attempt to find politically damaging information about Clinton, who had been rumored to have considered renouncing his citizenship to avoid the Vietnam war draft.
The State Department said the official, Steven Berry, had shown "serious lapses in judgment."
Doug Hattaway, a spokesman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady who is challenging Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, said of the breach: "It's outrageous and the Bush administration has to get to the bottom of it."
In the current case, Kennedy and McCormack said it was too soon to say whether a crime was committed. The searches may violate the federal Privacy Act, and Kennedy said he is consulting State Department lawyers.
The State Department inspector general's power is limited, because two of the employees are no longer working for the department. McCormack said it was premature to consider whether the FBI or Justice Department should be involved.
McCormack said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was informed of the breaches on Thursday.
The State Department conducts background checks of its contract employees who perform passport applications work, but does not ask about political affiliations, Kennedy said.

Vista upgrades available for download

By JESSICA MINTZ, AP Technology Writer
SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. posted a major package of updates and security fixes for its Windows Vista operating system for download starting Tuesday.
People whose PCs run the newest Microsoft operating system can use Microsoft's Windows Update tool or visit its Download Center Web site and download the free Service Pack 1. In some cases, computer users may need to download older updates before they'll be able to install SP1.
Many of the fixes contained in SP1 have already been released as part of regular monthly updates in the year since the operating system went on sale to consumers. Microsoft has said SP1 improves Vista's reliability, security and performance.
Before SP1 was made widely available, Microsoft had determined that a handful of programs will fail in some way after SP1 is installed. On Tuesday, a Windows team blog said PC users with some drivers installed will "temporarily" not be able to get SP1 at all.
Microsoft said SP1 will block several applications from running for "reliability reasons." The list includes BitDefender Antivirus and Internet Security, version 10; Fujitsu's Shock Sensor hard drive protection for rugged laptops; two versions of Jiangmin KV Antivirus software and Check Point Technologies' Zone Alarm Security Suite.
The company said a few programs won't run on SP1, such as Web application design program Iron Speed Designer, while others will stop working well, like The New York Times Reader application.
Certain device drivers from RealTek AC, Intel and Symantec are among those Microsoft said would prevent an upgrade to SP1. The software maker said PC users can seek out updates from most of the makers of those devices to fix the problem.
Industry analysts offered mixed reports on whether Vista SP1 makes a noticeable difference on the way their computers run.
Michael Cherry, of the research group Directions on Microsoft, said that after installing SP1, the time it took to copy files over a network "returned to normal" — meaning, the operation felt as speedy as it did using Windows XP, Vista's predecessor.
But he said one thing SP1 didn't fix was his ability to wake his PC from sleep mode, which he described as "a hit or miss affair."
Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, said it took an hour or so to install the service pack on each of two of his computers, but once the machines were upgraded they both seemed "snappier" and less prone to crashing.
Is Vista "as fast as XP or not — now it's close enough where you can have the argument, where before, (Vista) was clearly slower," Enderle said.
While Cherry argued that breaking a short list of security programs was unacceptable, Enderle said that's par for the course with service packs, which often make changes to the deepest layers of the operating system, which security programs also access.
For now, the service pack is available for copies of Vista in five languages: English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. The service pack for other languages will be released for manufacturing in mid-April, which Microsoft is also expected to push the upgrades to computer users who have set their PCs to receive automatic updates.
While Microsoft has not specified when retailers will start stocking boxed copies of Vista SP1, Web retailer Amazon.com Inc. is selling the software for shipping Wednesday.

Deadline looms for Tibetans to surrender

By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writers
BEIJING - Tibet's governor denounced anti-Chinese protesters as criminals and threatened harsh consequences for those who do not turn themselves in by a midnight deadline Monday. More clashes erupted in other Chinese provinces.
The threat by China-appointed governor Champa Phuntsok heightened tensions. The Washington, D.C.-based International Campaign for Tibet said residents feared a military sweep after midnight.
The fiercest protests against Chinese rule of Tibet in almost two decades have attracted more international scrutiny of the communist government's human rights record in the run-up to the Beijing Summer Olympics, which is a great source of pride to China.
Tibet's legal authorities issued the surrender notice to demonstrators on Saturday.
"If these people turn themselves in, they will be treated with leniency within the framework of the law," said Champa Phuntsok, an ethnic Tibetan. Otherwise "we will deal with them harshly," he added.
He said those who turn themselves in and inform on others will earn even more leniency.
"No country would allow those offenders or criminals to escape the arm of justice and China is no exception," Champa Phuntsok said at news briefing.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, said Sunday that he felt "helpless" in the face of a Chinese ultimatum for protesters to surrender.
"The deadline is at midnight tomorrow. So now every second it goes nearer," the Nobel Peace laureate told reporters at the Himalayan headquarters of Tibet's government-in-exile. "I feel very sad, very serious, very anxious. Cannot do anything."
The unrest in Tibet began March 10 on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule in the region that sent the Dalai Lama and much of the leading Buddhist clergy into exile. Tibet was effectively independent for decades before Communist troops entered in 1950.
But what began as largely peaceful protests by monks spiraled Friday into a melee with Tibetans attacking Chinese and burning their businesses in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. The outburst came after several years of intensifying government control over Buddhist practices and vilification of the Dalai Lama, whom Tibetans still revere.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reiterated on Monday her call for China to show restraint in fighting the protests and urged Beijing to find a way to engage the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
"There's been a kind of missed opportunity for the Chinese to engage the Dalai Lama," Rice told reporters Monday. She said the Dalai Lama is a voice of authority, not a separatist, and he could "lend his moral weight" to helping stabilize Tibet.
Champa Phuntsok said the death toll from last week's violent demonstrations in Lhasa was 16 and dozens were injured. The Dalai Lama's exiled Tibetan government in India has said that 80 people were killed — a claim the governor denied.
Over the weekend, Chinese troops on foot and in armored vehicles poured into the streets of Lhasa and enforced a curfew that kept most people off the streets.
Authorities paraded handcuffed Tibetan prisoners in Lhasa on Monday, The Times of London reported on its online edition. The report said four trucks in a convoy drove through the city, with 40 people, mostly young Tibetan men and women, standing in the back, their wrists handcuffed and a soldier behind each one holding the prisoner's head bowed.
Going house-to-house, police checked identity cards and residence permits, detaining any without permission to stay in Lhasa, the Times said.
While Lhasa was still swarming with troops, Chinese troops fanned out to quell sympathy protests that have spread to three neighboring provinces. More forces were mobilizing across western China's mountain valleys and broad plains to deal with protests in Tibetan communities in Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai provinces.
In Gansu's Maqu county, which borders Sichuan, thousands of monks and ordinary Tibetans clashed with police Monday in various locations, police and a Tibet rights group said.
"We have nothing to protect ourselves and we can't fight back," said an officer at the county police headquarters who refused to give his name or other details. He said about 10 police were injured.
In the city of Lanzhou, about 500 Tibetan students who gathered Sunday on the Northwest Minorities University's soccer field abandoned an overnight vigil. Fifty tried to march into the city, only to be blocked by security forces from leaving the campus, said the London-based Free Tibet Campaign.
A witness in Sichuan said troops moved into Ma'erkang county, next to an area where clashes between monks and police broke out Sunday with unconfirmed reports that as many as seven were killed.
At Central Nationalities University in Beijing, an elite school for ethnic minorities, 100 students held a silent candlelight vigil, sitting down in an outdoor plaza Monday night.
"We're doing this for those who are suffering," said a young Tibetan student.
Uniformed and plainclothes security kept watch but did not interfere with the vigil. Foreign journalists were prevented from taking photos and told to leave.
The government also began to tighten its already firm hold on information. Officials expelled foreign reporters from Tibetan areas in Qinghai and Gansu provinces, contravening regulations that opened most of China to foreign media for the Olympics.
Some of the few independent media remaining in Lhasa were also ordered out, making it difficult to verify casualties and other details.
Police in Lhasa kicked out reporters from three Hong Kong television stations — Cable TV, TVB and ATV — and made TVB delete footage of Friday's violence, TVB reported.
There were also more sympathy protests outside China. In Nepal, police used bamboo batons to disperse about 100 Tibetan protesters and Buddhist monks near the main U.N. office in Katmandu on Monday. Some 44 people were arrested.
In the wake of Friday's violence, Beijing ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Dalai Lama, accusing his supporters of masterminding the riot.
"This was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique and it was created under the collusion of Tibet independence separatist forces both inside and outside China," said Champa Phuntsok.
He said three of the 16 people killed Friday in Lhasa were protesters who jumped out of a building to avoid arrest. He called the other 13 "innocent civilians," — apparently a reference to Chinese killed by demonstrators.
In one case, a person died after being covered in gasoline and then set on fire, he said. In another incident, the protesters "knocked out a police officer on patrol and then they used a knife to cut a piece of flesh from his buttocks the size of a fist," he said.
Champa Phuntsok said calm had been restored to Lhasa. Residents said Monday that police were patrolling the streets and had sealed off key roads in the downtown area, where the riots occurred, but that conditions were not as tense as over the weekend.
"Today, many people went back to work and some schools are open," said a tour guide. "Prices of food, gasoline and other things are soaring."
Another woman said there was "still a general mood of fear about going out. But it's better than a few days ago." She said a public announcement on a local television station was encouraging people to give themselves up.
Champa Phuntsok said he did not know if anyone had surrendered and police and government officials in Lhasa refused to comment.
In a further sign of China's concern about repairing the situation, Tibet's hard-line Communist Party secretary Zhang Qingli — the region's most powerful official — returned to Lhasa over the weekend and met with security forces, the official Tibet Daily newspaper said. Zhang had been attending the national legislature's annual session in Beijing, which ends Tuesday.
The Tibet Daily quoted Zhang as saying security forces "carried out a frontal assault against the thugs" who rioted in Lhasa.
Russia voiced support for the Chinese government over the violence in Tibet, saying it hopes "Chinese authorities will take all necessary measures to stop illegal actions and provide for the swiftest possible normalization of the situation." The Foreign Ministry said any efforts to boycott the Beijing Olympics are "unacceptable."
Olympic officials have also said they oppose any boycott over Tibet.