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"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now." October 01 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Pertinent To Persia - Why Do We Demonize People BEFORE They're Our 'Enemies'? [Pop Out Player? Click Here] Prefer An MP3 Playlist? It's Here: [192kbps VBR 14:01 Minutes] Other Audio Formats Available [ Here ] Twitter This Commentary |
APIA, Samoa — Police in green reflective vests searched a ghastly landscape of mud-strewn streets, pulverized homes and bodies scattered in a swamp Wednesday as dazed survivors emerged from the muck and mire of an earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 119 in the South Pacific.
Military transports flew medical personnel, food, water and medicine to Samoa and American Samoa, both devastated by a tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake. A cargo plane from New Zealand brought in a temporary morgue and a body identification team.
Officials expect the death toll to rise as more areas are searched.
Survivors fled to higher ground on the islands after the magnitude 8.0 quake struck at 6:48 a.m. local time (1:48 p.m. EDT; 1748 GMT) Tuesday. The residents then were engulfed by four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet (4 to 6 meters) high that reached up to a mile (1.5 kilometers) inland.
The waves splintered houses and left cars and boats — many battered and upside down — scattered about the coastline. Debris as small as a spoon and as large as a piece of masonry weighing several tons were strewn in the mud. [In Full]
President Obama is confronting a split among his closest advisers on Afghanistan, with military commanders solidly behind the request for additional troops but other key figures in the administration divided.
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, and Richard Holbrooke, the special Afghan and Pakistan envoy, appear to be leaning toward supporting a troop increase, a White House official revealed after a strategy meeting yesterday.
Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, and General James Jones, Mr Obama’s national security adviser, appeared to be less supportive, the official said.
Joe Biden, the US Vice President who attended the meeting, has been reluctant to support a troop increase, preferring to step up the US's controversial airborne campaign to fire missiles at al-Qaeda fighters sheltering in Pakistan. Unmanned drone attacks save US troops from harm's way but have taken a heavy toll in civilian lives.
The fault lines within the administration emerged last night as Mr Obama pressed key members of his national security team for their views during an intense, three-hour session in a packed White House Situation Room. [In Full at the TimesOnline (UK)]
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