Shorter Question Everything

US: Anthrax
Firedoglake: Steven Aftergood has just published Robert Mueller’s responses to questions for the record he received from the Senate Judiciary Committee this spring. Chuck Grassley asked Mueller several questions about the anthrax investigation. (The questions start on page 42 of these QFRs.) Mueller’s answers make it clear the FBI was–and is still–trying to cover up details about its investigation of the anthrax attack.

UK and Russia
Britain’s visiting foreign secretary pressed Russia on Monday to turn over the main suspect in the 2006 killing of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died from radioactive polonium poisoning in a London hospital. Russia has refused to extradite ex-KGB officer-turned-businessman Andrei Lugovoi, saying its constitution forbids extraditing its citizens.

Afghanistan
Not surprisingly, the US vowed to support Karzai, as his challenger pulls out ahead of the election runoff. Karzai has, by default, been declared the winner of the “election”.

US and Canada
Lawyer: Ruling places executive officials ‘above the law’. A Canadian citizen who was wrongly identified as a terrorist suspect and reportedly tortured in a Syrian prison for nearly a year after US authorities sent him there has lost his bid to sue the US government. In a 7 to 4 decision, judges on the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian engineer, cannot sue the Justice Department because the lawsuit would “offend the separation of powers and inhibit this country’s foreign policy,” the judges stated…Arar has had better luck extracting justice from the Canadian government than he has from the US government. In 2006, Canada agreed to pay him $10 million for his suffering, and issued a formal apology. The US has not followed suit, and the Justice Department continued to claim that Arar was a risk to the US, despite being cleared by the very authorities who alerted them.

Canada
Canada has been named one of the most peaceful nations in the world for its support of UN peacekeeping missions, low levels of violent crime and political stability. The Global Symposium of Peaceful Nations named Canada as the most peaceful country in the North and Central America and Caribbean region and put it eighth place worldwide on its global peace index.

Karadzic
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic says he will appear at his trial in The Hague on genocide and war crimes charges. He boycotted the trial’s start last week saying he needed more time to prepare his defence. In a letter to the presiding judge, Mr Karadzic says he will attend a procedural hearing at the court on Tuesday to discuss his defence. His letter also calls for a fair and expeditious trial.

US and Koreas
The United States and its ally South Korea have drawn up a contingency plan to cope with emergencies in North Korea, including a possible regime change there, a report said Sunday. “Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029″ was completed by Seoul and Washington recently, Yonhap news agency said, quoting an unnamed Seoul source.

Iraq and US
Ground forces chief Lt. Gen. Jacoby says for now any election law delay, or the vote set for Jan. 16, may not affect U.S. withdrawal plans, though the election is an important factor in the timetable.

Kyrgyzstan and Russia
A science teacher from Kyrgyzstan was held at the Yekaterinburg (Russia) train station while carrying 3 kilograms of pure heroin through the border, the Russian media reported.

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