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Petraeus orders probe into failed UK aid worker rescue
The US commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, has ordered an investigation into the death of a British aid worker held hostage.Linda Norgrove’s death on Friday as US forces tried to rescue her was initially blamed on her Afghan captors.But Prime Minister David Cameron said she may have been accidentally killed by a US grenade.US military sources said surveillance of the operation from overhead and on the ground was conflicting.The joint US-UK investigation into the failed rescue attempt will be led by US Maj Gen Joseph Votel, the chief of staff of the US Special Operations Command, the sources told the BBC’s Washington correspondent, Adam Brookes.The investigators will look at surveillance footage of the operation taken by helicopters or pilotless drone aircraft as well as footage from cameras mounted on the helmets of the soldiers on the ground, the sources said.The different angles reveal ”conflicting evidence” as to whether Ms Norgrove was killed by a US grenade, an Afghan suicide vest, or both, they said.The investigators will also interview the US soldiers who took part in the operation and possibly attempt to return to the site, in a remote and mountainous area of north-eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan.BBC correspondents say Ms Norgrove was being held by a militant group based in Kunar, some of whose members are closer to al-Qaeda in ideology than to mainstream Taliban.Six of them were killed, none were detained and none escaped, the military sources said. Sources also said there had been no casualties among the Special Forces team that tried to save Ms Norgrove.’Right decision’ It had been thought that she was killed by her abductors just as US forces reached the compound in which she was being held.But Mr Cameron said Gen Petraeus had telephoned him on Monday morning to say she could have died as a result of a grenade detonated by the taskforce during the assault.Click to playClick to playAdvertisementDavid Cameron: ”Linda may not have died at the hands of her captors, as originally believed”Ms Norgrove, 36, from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, was employed by US aid group DAI. She was seized in the Dewagal valley in Kunar province on 26 September.Three local staff were kidnapped with her when the two cars they were travelling in were ambushed. The staff were released unharmed last week.The BBC’s Bilal Sarwary in Kabul said the Dewagal valley, in eastern Kunar province, where she was held, is known for its difficult terrain. It is mountainous and densely forested. The valley is extremely remote.

The Stimulus Spending: Trust the Numbers, Not the Politicians(2)
Economists who doubt that government spending can turn around a recession — and there are many who challenge that Keynesian notion — were not invited to the party. If they had been, the range of guesstimates probably would have started with a negative number, suggesting jobs lost because of a delayed recovery. These economists say FDR’s spending programs did nothing to produce recovery during the Great Depression and lament that the Obama administration is making the same mistake. But what is important to know is that the claim that millions of jobs are being created is based on theoretical models (from one side of the argument), not real data.
What is real is the coming crisis facing many state and local governments. More than a third of the stimulus money spent thus far has gone to state and local governments. Some funds are used to expand Medicaid, unemployment benefits, and food assistance, while others are propping up state workforces and avoiding public school layoffs. The stimulus funds are enabling spending-addicted politicians in states such as New York to avoid trimming budgets in response to lower tax revenues.
Unfortunately the Biden report treats public and private jobs the same. But not all jobs are created equal. Private sector jobs make wealth. Public sector jobs consume it, taking money out of our pockets that we could spend on our own families. Since the recession began, the nation has lost millions of private sector jobs, but added public jobs. The stimulus law is worsening that pernicious trend.
The CBO’s panel of true believers speculates that in 2012, the stimulus funds will be responsible for only 300,000 to one million more jobs than if the law had not passed. In other words, most effects of the law will be gone. So will your money, all $787 billion.