SPB News for Saturday.

Carter: 'Delighted' to meet with Hezbollah

Iraq urges Obama to talk to Iran, Syria
Also, US gen. says Iranian support for Iraq insurgency appears to wane.

McCain camp sells Blackberry to reporter
High-tech flub as journo buys device with confidential campaign info.

Reid Plans Pro Forma Sessions Throughout Holidays

Stevens Has Yet To Return Begich's Post-Election Call

Guilty Plea For Another Member Of Team Abramoff

Prosecute Rumsfeld, says leading lawyer

West funding insurgency in Afghanistan with Taleban payoff system --"We estimate that approximately 25 per cent of the money we pay for security to get the fuel in goes into the pockets of the Taleban," said one fuel importer. The West is indirectly funding the insurgency in Afghanistan thanks to a system of payoffs to Taleban commanders who charge protection money to allow convoys of military supplies to reach Nato bases in the south of the country. Contracts to supply British bases and those of other Western forces with fuel, supplies and equipment are held by multinational companies. However, the business of moving supplies from the Pakistani port of Karachi to British, US and other military contingents in the country is largely subcontracted to local trucking companies. The Times has learnt that it is in the outsourcing of convoys that payoffs amounting to millions of pounds, including money from British taxpayers, are given to the Taleban.

Fed Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. Bloomberg filed suit Nov. 7 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs, most created during the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression. "In its considered judgment and in view of current circumstances, it would be a dangerous step to release this otherwise confidential information," Jennifer J. Johnson, the secretary for the Fed’s Board of Governors, said in a letter e-mailed to Bloomberg News.

Pentagon approves Iraq weapons sales worth up to $6 billion The U.S. 'Defense' Department on Wednesday said it had approved the sale to Iraq of weapons valued at up to $6 billion, including 400 Stryker wheeled vehicles, military radios, training aircraft, 20 coastal patrol boats and 140 M1A1 Abrams tanks.

Confiscating toy guns part of US mission in Iraq Two boys approached a U.S. soldier, pulled out a pistol and handed it over... American soldiers have a new mission in this "triangle of death" city south of Baghdad: clearing all toy guns from the bustling shopping area as they search for suspected 'insurgents' and weapons caches. The toy gun ban shows how jittery the U.S. and Iraqi forces still are in a country where the enemy doesn't wear a uniform.

Panel blames White House, not soldiers, for abuse The physical and mental abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was the direct result of Bush administration detention policies and should not be dismissed as the work of bad guards or interrogators, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Thursday. The Senate Armed Services Committee report concludes that torture used by the CIA and the U.S. military were directly adapted from the training techniques used to prepare special forces personnel to resist interrogation by enemies that torture and abuse prisoners.

WH Tells Obamas, No Room at the Blair House The Bush administration has denied President-elect Barack Obama's request to move early into an official guest house across from the White House, citing previously scheduled commitments, a transition official. The Obamas wanted to move into Blair House before Jan. 5, so that daughters Malia and Sasha could start classes on time at Sidwell Friends School in Washington.

Environmentalists blast changes to Endangered Species rules The Bush regime cleared the way Thursday for federal agencies to skip consultations with government scientists when embarking on projects that could impact endangered wildlife, the interior secretary said. The final regulations to the Endangered Species Act take effect before President [sic] Bush leaves office in January, but wildlife conservation groups say undoing the damage could take months.