2 | TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2009 the chronicle
worldandnation
TODAY:
8065
WEDNESDAY:
8368
Afghan officals upset with movement of US troops
Justice deptartment plans FCC backs “net neutrality” to investigate ACORN WASHINGTON — The government would play a far more aggressive role in policing the public’s unfettered access to Internet services and content under a proposal offered Monday by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski. The agency would be the “smart cop on the beat,” Genachowski said in a speech, outlining a plan to prohibit Internet service providers from blocking or slowing certain technologies and content on their networks. The chairman proposed that firms be required to make public the steps they are taking to control Web traffic. The proposal raised concerns among several providers, who said the regulation could hurt their business by limiting their ability to manage their networks. Some of the loudest protests came from wireless service providers, including telecommunications giant AT&T.
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I am not young enough to know everything. — Oscar Wilde
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WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s inspector general announced Monday that he plans a review into whether the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) ever applied for or received grant funds from the department—and if so, whether Justice has ever reviewed how such funds were spent. Maryland’s top law enforcement officer also moved to launch an investigation into ACORN. Attorney General Douglas Gansler announced Monday that he had asked for and received permission from Gov. Martin O’Malley to investigate and, if necessary, prosecute “conduct involving” ACORN. Both officials are Democrats. ACORN came under criticism from lawmakers last week after videos circulated that appear to show employees of the group offering tax help to a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute.
TODAY IN HISTORY 1981: Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed to the Supreme Court.
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top military officer in Afghanistan, has told his commanders to pull forces out of sparsely populated areas where U.S. troops have fought bloody battles with the Taliban for several years and focus them on protecting major Afghan population centers. But the changes, which amount to a retreat from some areas, have already begun to draw resistance from senior Afghan officials who worry that any pullback from Taliban-held territory will make the weak Afghan government appear even more powerless in the eyes of its people. Senior U.S. officials said the moves were driven by the realization that some remote regions of Afghanistan, particularly in the Hindu Kush mountains that range through the northeast,were not going to be brought
under government control anytime soon. “Personally, I think I am being realistic about this,” said Maj. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, the commander of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan.“I have more combat power than my predecessors did, but I won’t be as spread out.... This is all about freeing up some forces so I can get them out more among the people.” The changes are in line with McChrystal’s confidential assessment of the war, which urges U.S. and NATO forces to “initially focus on critical high-population areas that are contested or controlled by insurgents.” The conflict between McChrystal’s new strategy and the Afghan government has been most pronounced in Nurestan province, a forbidding region bordering Pakistan where U.S. commanders have been readying plans since late last year to pull out their soldiers and shutter outposts.
Chris kraul/los angeles times
In Buenaventura, Colombia, police officers search coffee sacks for cocaine. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe decided to crack down on drug trafficking by deploying hundreds of additional police to monitor cargo movements. Uribe is also offering more options to local residents by moving poor residents from seaside shacks in crime-ridden areas into 3,000 new housing units.