South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • 3

SB Friday, November 16, 2007 SUN-SENTINELCOM SOUTH FLORIDA 3A am rvrrnnAM ai niMnr ai in Ml IM MIM CAUrilUIMML UIINItOAUK A University of Chicago paleontologist on Thursday unveiled Nigersaurus taqueti, a strange creature that is helping rewrite theories about long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs. Nigersaurus appears to have spent a lifetime with its head down in a hang-dog position. 12A AFP photo ort itiozed HandlincB of He should be been declared a terrorist, congressman says county and returned to Miami in 2005, he held two surreptitious press conferences before being apprehended and charged with lying to immigration officials. A federal judge in El Paso dismissed the charges and freed Posada in May while chastising government attorneys for presenting a weak case. The government has appealed the ruling to an appellate court in New Orleans, and Posada has joined his family in Miami, where he recently exhibited his artwork.

"And we wonder why our prestige has fallen," Delahunt remarked. nism through Central America and aided U.S. officials during the Cuban missile crisis. Detractors say his zeal to depose Fidel Castro drove him to plot violent acts that killed civilians, including teenagers aboard the Cuban airliner. Blake Fleetwood, a freelance journalist who interviewed Posada when he was detained in Venezuela, told the subcommittee the prisoner boasted of planning the airliner attack and of financing a series of bombings and assassinations in Latin America.

Posada was charged in Venezuela for the bombing of the aircraft, which was bound from Caracas to Havana. He was escaped from prison in Venezuela and traveled through Central America. When Posada slipped back into this people in 1976. "Compelling evidence exists implicating Posada in the worst single act of international terror in this hemisphere prior to 9-11," said Delahunt, chairman of the House subcommittee on international organizations, human rights and oversight. "The attorney general could have and should have, in my opinion, designated Posada as a terrorist, based on the government's own abundant evidence," Delahunt said.

"This is the administration that has repeatedly vowed to give no quarter to terrorists, and has condemned those nations that do." The hearing, one of a series on falter ing U.S. prestige abroad, drew attention to a case that has embarrassed government officials and divided South Florida, where Posada is hailed as a hero fighting for democracy or condemned as an unrepentant terrorist. Posada's attorney, Arturo Hernandez, asserted his client's innocence of the airliner attack and said "no American jury would convict him on these facts." Nearly 80, Posada remains a staunch ally of the United States who is trying to do his duty and "does not represent a threat to anyone," Hernandez testified. A long-time operative for the CIA, Posada fought the spread of commu BY WILLIAM E. GIBSON WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF Washington The Bush administration's bungled prosecution of an anti-Castro militant from Miami who allegedly blew up a Cuban airliner has jeopardized America's credibility around the world, a subcommittee chairman in Congress said on Thursday.

Rep. William Delahunt and witnesses at a congressional hearing wondered why Luis Posada Carriles is living freely in Miami, where he is lionized by the community, despite evidence that he planned the bombing of a Cuban airliner that crashed, killing 73 William E. Gibson can be reached at wgibson(ti or 202-824-8256 in Washington. PRAYERSBRING STORMS House defies Bush, approves surveillance bill urn ii Ji r-s -wt i 1 iiii.iiW I I i BY PAMELA HESS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Washington The House voted Thursday night to strengthen court oversight of the government's surveillance of terrorist suspects but stopped short of providing legal immunity to telecommunication companies that helped eavesdrop on Americans. The Democratic bill, approved 227-189, was a rebuke to President Bush, who has promised to veto any legislation that does not shield telecom companies from civil lawsuits.

About 40 civil suits have been filed alleging the companies broke wiretapping and privacy lawsuits for monitoring phone calls and e-mails without permission of a secret court created 30 years ago for that purpose. Bush argues that such lawsuits could bankrupt the tele-corns, reveal classified information and discourage cooperation with legal surveillance requests. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, left the door open to an immunity deal in the future. But he said the White House must first give Congress access to classified documents specifying what the companies did that requires legal immunity. "Until then, it's out," Conyers said.

The House bill would allow unfettered telephone and e-mail surveillance of foreign intelligence targets but would require special authorization if the foreign targets are likely to be in contact with people inside the United States a provision designed to safeguard Americans' privacy. The special authorization is called a "blanket" or "umbrella" warrant and would let the government obtain a single order that authorizes the surveillance of multiple targets. Republican critics say even blanket warrants would impede intelligence agents by slowing their ability to collect intelligence on terror suspects. "This is all about lawyering up the process," said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

HOUSE SUSTAINS VETO House Republicans on Thursday night easily sustained President Bush's veto of a Democratic health and education spending bill. The 277-14 1 vote looked deceptively close, falling just two votes short of the two-thirds tally required to overturn Bush's veto. But as they did on three previous occasions, GOP leaders confidently managed their ranks to make sure Bush would not be embarrassed. Some of the congressional combatants already were looking past the veto in hopes that it might prompt the White House to negotiate on that measure and 10 other bills that provide money to Cabinet departments for the budget year that began Oct. 1.

V-. yf OUT OF THE RUBBLE: Chris Jordan blows dust off trophies he found while sorting through the wreckage of a friend's house Thursday in Kimball, Tenn. The house was destroyed by a tornado on Wednesday. AP photoGillian Bolsover But rain isn't enough to ease drought Storms hit elsewhere in the Southeast, injuring at least nine in Tennessee. In Kentucky, a tornado hit a rural stretch of the southeastern part of the state Wednesday afternoon.

No injuries were reported. "It was real intense," Laurel County Sheriff Fred Yaden said. "The winds were really strong, and the rain was coming in gushes." In Tennessee's Marion County, the roof of a Baptist church was heavily damaged in the storms, said Jeremy Heidt of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. Three children were hurt by flying glass and were taken to hospitals, said Heidt. County schools were closed Thursday due to the storm.

More than a quarter of the Southeast is covered by an "exceptional" drought the National Weather Service's worst drought category. great affirmation of what we asked for." As the drought has worsened, Perdue has ordered water restrictions, launched a legal battle against the release of water from federal reservoirs and appealed to President Bush. About an inch of rain fell through north Georgia, and Atlanta received about a half an inch. It wasn't enough to ease the ease the drought, forecasters said. "It puts a little bit of extra water in some of the smaller tributaries and reservoirs, but it doesn't provide any significant long-term benefit," said Matt Sena, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

"We need months of above-average rainfall to start putting a dent in this," he added. BY GREG BLUESTEIN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Atlanta A storm system crashed through the Southeast and brought up to an inch of rain in parts of drought-stricken Georgia, but forecasters said the storm likely did little to ease the state's historic drought. The rain late Wednesday and early Thursday brought some precipitation to the parched hills of northern Georgia. The showers began a day after Gov. Sonny Perdue led a prayer service on the steps of the state Capitol to beg the heavens to end the drought.

"Certainly, we're not gloating about it," Perdue said from a trade mission in Canada. "We're thankful for the rain and hopefully it's the beginning of more. Frankly, it's TEXAS WASHINGTON, D.C. Hastert gives last speech in House, will resign soon Bird watcher who shot cat could face 2 years in prison 1 Wire reports WASHINGTON, D.C NASA could take a year to release pilot survey NASA may take as long as a year to tell the public what thousands of airline pilots had to say about air safety in an unprecedented survey. Congressional overseers on Thursday criticized the time frame as unac-ceptablylong.

The agency told Congress it could take that long to pore through more than 24,000 interviews and remove anything that could potentially help identify the pilots who were interviewed anonymously between 2001 and 2004. Some information is expected by the end of the year, as promised by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, possibly with fields of data removed pending conclusion of the vetting. Griffin had agreed to release the survey information that is not confidential after legislators criticized his agency's denial of an Associated Press request for the results. The pilots were promised confidentiality in the 1 1 .3 million survey. TENNESSEE Jack Daniel's whiskey might go down the drain nashville Here's a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel's whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.

Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennessee town where the whiskey is distilled. "Punish the person, not the whiskey," said an outraged Kyle MacDon-ald, 28, a Jack Daniel's drinker from British Columbia who promotes the whiskey on his blog. "Jack never did anything wrong, and the whiskey itself is innocent." Investigators are also looking into whether some of the bottles had been stolen from the distillery. No one has been arrested. Authorities are still determining how much of the liquor will be disposed of.

TEXAS Man shot by convicted border agents is indicted el paso A Mexican man shot by a pair of U.S. Border Patrol agents who were later convicted in the shooting has been indicted on federal drug smuggling charges. Osvaldo Aldrete Davila was arrested Thursday at an international port of entry in El Paso, according to U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton. A sealed indictment was issued in October charging him with smuggling marijuana in September and October of 2005, several months after he was shot in the buttocks while fleeing from a pair of Border Patrol agents.

The agents, Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, were convicted last yearof shooting Aldrete and lying about it. Aldrete is scheduled to appear in federal court in El Paso today. Sutton noted that critics of the prosecution of the agents have complained that Aldrete, "the fleeing, unarmed drug smuggler they shot," should have been prosecuted. Rep. J.

Dennis Hastert, who served as House speaker longer than any other Republican, bade farewell to his colleagues Thursday, confirming that he will not complete his 1 1th term. Hastert, 65, did not say exactly when he will resign, but indicated it will be soon. He said his speech would be his last from the House floor. The 1 10th Congress will end in January 2009. He later told reporters, "I think I'll be gone by the first of the year." In his 16-minute address, Hastert recounted his career's high points, concluding: "It's time for this legislator to return to being a private citizen." The speech marked a rare moment of bipartisan warmth in the House.

Most members attended and gave Hastert a long ovation. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, introduced him by his old title, calling him "the distinguished speaker of the House." Galveston Jurors on Thursday began weighing the fate of a prominent bird watcher accused of animal cruelty for shooting a cat that lived under a bridge. The trial has sparked a hot Internet debate between cat lovers who decry Jim Stevenson's actions and birders upset by the toll feral cats take on bird species. It's also raised questions about what makes an animal a pet. Stevenson, founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society, would face up to two years in prison and a 1 0,000 fine if convicted.

He said he shot the cat last fall because he saw it hunting a threatened species of bird. Texas bars the killing of domesticated animals without the owner's permission, but defense attorney Tad Nelson said his client thought the cat was a stray. Prosecutors have argued that a toll bridge worker fed the cat, gave it toys and bedding and named it "Mama Cat," effectively becoming the pet's owner..