• Gitmo Military Commission Hands Down Guilty Verdict in Hamdan Case
• Court Orders Unsealing of FBI Anthrax Papers
• White House Denies Forgery Allegations
• Military Coup in Mauritania
• Protests Across Bolivia Ahead of Recall Referendum
• Strikes in South Africa Against Rising Cost of Living

Click here for newscast for Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Gitmo Military Commission Hands Down Guilty Verdict in Hamdan Case
Guantanamo Bay's first military commissions trial has ended in a conviction for Osama bin Laden's former driver. Salim Hamdan was found guilty of providing material support for terrorism by a panel of military officers. He was acquitted on one count of conspiracy. Unlike the US criminal justice system, the military commissions system allows the use of secret evidence, hearsay, and statements made under coercion or provoked by interrogation methods considered by most Western countries to be torture. Hamdan faces a life sentence.

Court Orders Unsealing of FBI Anthrax Papers
A federal judge in Washington DC has ordered the unsealing of documents related to the wave of anthrax attacks in the Fall of 2001. Naji Mujahid has more on the story.

The DC District Court ordered the release of about 65 sets of lengthy FBI documents that included affidavits, search warrants and attachments that the agency had gathered for its case against the alleged anthrax culprit, Bruce Ivins. The court order comes after the apparent suicide of Ivins, the army scientist the FBI claims was its primary suspect in the attacks. Ivins died after a medication overdose last week. The documents lay out six reasons why the FBI suspected Ivins to have carried out the attacks and point to possible uncontrollable mental behavior. Some are skeptical of Ivins' culpability, accusing the government of using the dead man as a fall guy in order to close the case. Just last month, the government agreed to a multi-million dollar settlement for defamation of character with bioweapons expert Stephen Hatfill, a former colleague of Ivins and someone the FBI had previously identified as a "person of interest" in the case. Reporting for FSRN, I'm Naji Mujahid of the DC Radio Coop.

White House Denies Forgery Allegations
The White House has denied allegations made by a Pulitzer Prize winning author that the Bush administration ordered former CIA Director George Tenet to produce forged documents in order to create a fake link between the 9/11 attacks and the regime of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The claims appear in the new book, "The Way of the World" by Ron Suskind. White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto called the allegations "absurd". In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, the White House had claimed that the Hussein regime had provided support for 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, although this claim was never supported by any credible evidence.

Military Coup in Mauritania
Senior military figures staged a coup today in Mauritania, taking the elected president and prime minister into custody. The West African country has lived through more than ten coups since winning it's independence from France in 1960. The senior military officials that took power today had recently been fired by the president and included the former head of the presidential guard.

Protests Across Bolivia Ahead of Recall Referendum
Social conflicts are raging across Bolivia, just days before President Evo Morales and provincial governors face a recall referendum. Aldo Orellano has more from Cochabamba.

Protests led by public sector workers turned deadly yesterday when police opened fire on miners blocking a major interstate highway. Two miners were killed and another 34 were injured. The workers had been blockading the highway for 2 days as part of nationwide mobilizations to call on the government to reform the country's social security system. A few hours after police broke up the highway blockade, protestors took over the airport in the city of Tarija, forcing the cancellation of a summit President Morales was scheduled to hold with his Argentine and Venezuelan counterparts. The protestors in Tarija are allied with a conservative movement in Bolivia's gas-rich provinces. The opposition-led governments in the gas-rich provinces oppose a national program that channels gas royalties away from local governments and into public assistance programs for senior citizens. Despite the conflicts in various parts of the country, Morales says the recall referendum will proceed as planned on August 10th. The referendum is expected to favor Morales and weaken the right-wing opposition. For FSRN, I'm Leni Olivera with Aldo Orellano in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Strikes in South Africa Against Rising Cost of Living
Across South Africa today, thousands of workers staged a massive a 1-day strike to protest rising energy, food and fuel prices - which workers say are pushing them into poverty. Miners, auto manufacturing workers, and textile employees were just some of the workers taking to the streets and forcing the shut-down of their employers' operations. Students stayed home from school and public transportation was also suspended in some areas. Amid a strong police presence, thousands rallied in the capital, Pretoria, and in Cape Town, carrying signs that read "Say no to the high food prices!" and "My take-home salary is not even enough to take me home!" The two-million member Congress of South African Trade Unions says the strike is a warning to employers. The union is demanding pay raises and is pressuring President Thabo Mbeki to provide subsidies for basic goods.