text: The 9/11 Commission Report stated that 8 to 10 of the hijackers previously passed through Iran and their travel was facilitated by Iranian border guards. The report also found "circumstantial evidence that senior Hezbollah operatives were closely tracking the travel of some of these future muscle hijackers into Iran in November 2000." Judge George B. Daniels ruled in a federal district court in Manhattan that Iran bears legal responsibility for providing "material support" to the 9/11 plotters and hijackers in "Havlish, et al. v. Osama bin Laden, Iran, et al." Included in Judge Daniels' findings were claims that Iran "used front companies to obtain a Boeing 757-767-777 flight simulator for training the terrorists", Ramzi bin al-Shibh traveled to Iran in January 2001, and an Iranian government memorandum from May 14, 2001 demonstrates Iranian culpability in planning the attacks. Defectors from Iran's intelligence service testified that Iranian officials had "foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks." By contrast, the 9/11 Commission "found no evidence that Iran or Hezbollah was aware of the planning for what later became the 9/11 attack. At the time of their travel through Iran, the al Qaeda operatives themselves were probably not aware of the specific details of their future operation." In addition, both bin al-Shibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed denied "any relationship between the hijackers and Hezbollah" and "any other reason for the hijackers' travel to Iran" besides "taking advantage of the Iranian practice of not stamping Saudi passports."


title: Responsibility for the September 11 attacks

text: The 9/11 Commission Report concluded that both presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were "not well served" by the FBI and CIA prior to 9/11. It also explained that the military response protocols were unsuited for the nature of the attack, and identified operational failures in the emergency response.


text: Immediately following the attacks, the Bush Administration stated that "nobody in our government at least, and I don't think the prior government, could envisage flying air planes into buildings" (George Bush) and that no-one "could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile" (Condoleezza Rice). An Air Force general called the attack "something we had never seen before, something we had never even thought of." FBI Director Robert Mueller announced "there were no warning signs that I'm aware of."


text: The 9/11 Commission Report stated that "the 9/11 attacks were a shock, but they should not have come as a surprise. Islamic extremists had given plenty of warnings that they meant to kill Americans indiscriminately and in large numbers." During the spring and summer of 2001, US intelligence agencies received a stream of warnings about an imminent al-Qaeda attack; according to George Tenet, Director of Central Intelligence, "the system was blinking red." The warnings varied in their level of detail and specificity, and included warnings from both domestic intelligence operations and warnings from foreign governments and intelligence agencies.


text: In her testimony to the 9/11 Commission, Condoleezza Rice stated that "the threat reporting that we received in the spring and summer of 2001 was not specific as to time nor place nor manner of attack. Almost all the reports focused on al-Qaeda activities outside the United States." On August 6, 2001, the President's Daily Brief was titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US". It warned that bin Laden was planning to exploit his operatives' access to the US to mount a terrorist strike: "FBI information ... indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country, consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attack."


text: The 9/11 Commission Report outlined the following "opportunities that were not or could not be exploited by the organizations and systems of the time":


text: With regard to the failures of the US air defense system on the morning of the attacks, the Report explains that:


text: Existing protocols on 9/11 were unsuited in every respect for an attack in which hijacked planes were used as weapons. What ensued was a hurried attempt to improvise a defense by civilians who had never handled a hijacked aircraft that attempted to disappear, and by a military unprepared for the transformation of commercial aircraft into weapons of mass destruction.


text: The Report explains that the emergency response was also "necessarily improvised": there were "weaknesses in preparations for disaster, failure to achieve unified incident command, and inadequate communications among responding agencies ... At the Pentagon, [there were] problems of command and control."


title: Sandfly

text: Sandfly (or sand fly) is a colloquial name for any species or genus of flying, biting, blood-sucking dipteran (fly) encountered in sandy areas. In the United States, "sandfly" may refer to certain horse flies that are also known as "greenheads" (family Tabanidae), or to members of the family Ceratopogonidae. The bites usually result in a small, intensely itchy bump or welt, the strength of which intensifies over a period of 5-7 days before dissipating. Moderate relief is achieved with varying success through the application of over the counter products such as Benadryl (ingested) or an analgesic cream such as After Bite (applied topically). Outside the United States, "sandfly" may refer to members of the subfamily Phlebotominae within the Psychodidae. Biting midges (Ceratopogonidae) are sometimes called sandflies or no-see-ums (no-see-em, noseeum). New Zealand sandflies are in the genus "Austrosimulium", a type of black fly.


title: Sandfly

text: In the various sorts of sandfly only the female is responsible for biting and sucking the blood of mammals, reptiles and birds; the protein in the blood is necessary for the production of eggs, making the sandfly an anautogenous reproducer.


title: Sandfly

text: Some sandfly genera of the subfamily Phlebotominae are the primary vectors of leishmaniasis and pappataci fever; both diseases are confusingly referred to as sandfly fever. In Asia, Africa, and Europe, leishmaniasis is spread by sand flies of the genus "Phlebotomus"; in the Americas, the disease is spread by sandflies of the genus "Lutzomyia". Belize and Honduras are notorious in the Caribbean for their sandfly populations and travel pages frequently warn tourists to bring bug spray containing high concentrations of DEET.


title: Sandfly

text: Among the viruses that sandflies can carry is the Chandipura virus, which, as a cousin of rabies, is very deadly. There was an outbreak in India in 2010.


title: Sandfly

text: Leishmaniasis, a disease caused by several species of the genus Leishmania, is transmitted by various sandflies.


title: Sandfly

text: "Leishmania donovani" causes spiking fevers, hepatosplenomegaly, and pancytopenia. It can be diagnosed through microscopic review by visualizing amastigotes in containing macrophages, and is treatable with sodium stibogluconate.


title: Sandfly

text: "Bartonella bacilliformis", the causal agent of Carrion's disease, is transmitted by different members of the genus "Lutzomyia". This disease is restricted to Andean areas of Peru and Ecuador, with historical reports in Southern Colombia.


title: Sandfly

text: Over-the-counter repellents with high concentrations of DEET or picaridin are proven to work; however effectiveness seems to differ among individuals with some people reporting better results with one product over another while other people finding neither product effective for them. This may be partially due to various species living in different areas.


title: Sandfly

text: A particular extract of lemon eucalyptus oil (not the essential oil) has now been shown to be as effective as DEET in various studies.


title: Sandfly

text: Most information on repellents focuses on mosquitoes, but mosquito repellents are effective for sandflies and midges as well.


title: Sandfly

text: New Zealand sandflies (which are taxonomically blackflies—Simulidae) have a native Māori legend wherein "the god Tu-te-raki-whanoa had just finished creating the landscape of Fiordland, it was absolutely stunning... so stunning that it stopped people from working. They just stood around gazing at the beauty instead. The goddess Hine-nui-te-pō became angry at these unproductive people, so she created the sandfly to bite them and get them moving".


title: Rachel Matthews

text: Rachel Lynn Matthews (born October 25, 1993) is an American actress. She is known for starring in the film "Happy Death Day" and its sequel, "Happy Death Day 2U".


title: Rachel Matthews

text: A native of Los Angeles, Matthews was born in 1993, the eldest daughter of actress Leslie Landon and Brian Matthews. She became interested in acting at an early age by watching Shirley Temple movies, leading to tap and voice classes, and ultimately joining a local theater program at the age of 10. Matthews continued to pursue the stage life by studying acting at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. In college, Matthews became friends with fellow actress Camila Mendes, who would become her roommate upon returning to Los Angeles, and musician Maggie Rogers, who would feature both in her music video "Give a Little".


title: Rachel Matthews

text: In 2017, Matthews had her film debut in "Happy Death Day", directed by her uncle Christopher Landon, playing sorority house president Danielle Bouseman, a role she would play again in the 2019 sequel "Happy Death Day 2U". That same year, Matthews was cast as the villainous thief Magpie in the TV series "Batwoman", had a small role in the Hulu series "Looking for Alaska" and voiced a character in "Frozen II.


title: Rachel Matthews

text: In March 2020, it was reported that she had tested positive for COVID-19 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's length" public body of the Department for Transport with no shareholders, which reinvests its income in the railways.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail's main customers are the private train operating companies (TOCs), responsible for passenger transport, and freight operating companies (FOCs), who provide train services on the infrastructure that the company owns and maintains. Since 1 September 2014, Network Rail has been classified as a "public sector body".


title: Network Rail

text: To cope with fast-increasing passenger numbers, () Network Rail has been undertaking a £38 billion programme of upgrades to the network, including Crossrail, electrification of lines and upgrading Thameslink.


title: Network Rail

text: In May 2021, the Government announced its intent to replace Network Rail in 2023 with a new public body called Great British Railways. In 2022 it was announced that Great British Railways would not replace Network Rail until 2024.


title: Network Rail

text: Britain's railway system was built by private companies, but it was nationalised by the Transport Act 1947 and run by British Railways until re-privatisation which was begun in 1994 and completed in 1997. As a part of the privatisation process, the railway infrastructure, passenger and freight services were separated into separate organisations. Between 1994 and 2002, the infrastructure was owned and operated by Railtrack, a privately-owned company.


title: Network Rail

text: A spate of accidents, including the Southall rail crash in 1997 and the Ladbroke Grove rail crash in 1999 called into question the negative consequences that the fragmentation of the railway network had introduced to both safety and maintenance procedures. Railtrack was severely criticised for both its performance for infrastructure improvement and for its safety record. The Hatfield train crash on 17 October 2000 was a defining moment in the collapse of Railtrack. The immediate major repairs undertaken across the whole British railway network were estimated to have cost in the order of £580 million and Railtrack had no idea how many more 'Hatfields' were waiting to happen because it had lost considerable in-house engineering skill following the sale or closure of many of the engineering and maintenance functions of British Rail to external companies; nor did the company have any way of assessing the consequence of the speed restrictions it was ordering. These restrictions brought the railway network to an almost total standstill and drew significant public ire. According to Wolmar, Railtrack's board panicked in the wake of Hatfield. Railtrack's first chief executive, John Edmonds, had pursued a deliberate strategy of outsourcing engineers' work wherever possible with the goal of reducing costs.


title: Network Rail

text: Various major schemes being undertaken by Railtrack had also go awry. The modernisation of the West Coast Main Line had suffered from spiralling costs, rising from an estimated £2 billion to roughly £10 billion. This programme suffered failures that were technical as well as managerial, such as the moving block signalling apparatus being immature for such a busy mixed-traffic mainline. In 2000, reports emerged that Railtrack may not be able to go through with its planned commitment to purchase section 2 of High Speed 1, resulting in disruption and uncertainty for that programme as well.


title: Network Rail

text: In February 2001, Steve Marshall, Railtrack's chairman, warned that Railtrack could have a net debt of approximately £8 billion by 2003. During May 2001, Railtrack announced that, despite making a pre-tax profit before exceptional expenses of £199m, the £733m of costs and compensation paid out over the Hatfield crash had plunged Railtrack from profit into a loss of £534m, and it approached the government for funding, which it controversially used to pay a £137m dividend to its shareholders in May 2001. Months later, Railtrack sought another bailout from the government. On 7 October 2001, Railtrack plc was placed into railway administration under the Railways Act 1993, following an application to the High Court by the then Transport Secretary, Stephen Byers.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail Ltd. was created with the express purpose of taking over Britain's railway infrastructure control; this was achieved via its purchase of Railtrack plc from Railtrack Group plc for £500 million; Railtrack plc was then renamed and reconstituted as "Network Rail Infrastructure Limited". The transaction was completed on 3 October 2002. The former company had thus never ceased to exist but continued under another name: for this reason Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd was the defendant in later prosecutions in respect of events which had occurred in the days of Railtrack.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail owns the infrastructure, including the railway tracks, signals, overhead wires, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and most stations, but not the passenger or commercial freight rolling stock, other than its limited departmental stock. While it owns over 2,500 railway stations, it manages only 20 of the biggest and busiest of them as all the other stations are managed by the various train operating companies (TOCs). Network Rail should not be confused with National Rail, the latter is a brand rather than an organisation, used to inform and promote a nationwide network of passenger railway services. The majority of Network Rail lines also carry freight traffic; some lines are freight only. A few lines that carry passenger traffic are not part of the National Rail network (such as the Tyne and Wear Metro and the London Underground). Conversely, a few National Rail services operate over track which is not part of the Network Rail network.


title: Network Rail

text: Following an initial period in which Network Rail established itself and demonstrated its competence in addressing the principal challenges of improving asset condition, reducing unit costs and tackling delay, the Government's Rail Review in 2004 said that Network Rail should be given responsibility for whole-industry performance reporting, timetable development, specification of small and medium network enhancements, and the delivery of route-specific utilisation strategies (RUS). Some of these are functions which Network Rail already had; others – such as the obligation to devise route utilisation strategies – were transferred to Network Rail from the Strategic Rail Authority, a non-departmental public body, part of the UK government. The SRA was abolished in November 2006.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail initially sub-contracted much of the infrastructure work to private maintenance companies, such as Carillion and First Engineering; other sub-contractors perform specialist work or additional labour, such as Prima Services Group, Sky Blue, Balfour Beatty, Laboursite, BCL, Atkins (Atkins Rail) and McGinleys. In October 2003, Network Rail announced that it would take over all infrastructure maintenance work from private contractors, following concerns about the quality of work carried out by certain private firms and spiralling costs. In 2007, it was announced that the number of track renewal contractors would be reduced from six to four; Amey/SECO, Balfour Beatty, Babcock First Engineering and Jarvis plc. Network Rail has expanded its in-house engineering skills, including funding of apprenticeship and foundation degree schemes, and has reported significant savings from transferring work away from contracting companies. Additional work was taken back in-house after the serious accident at Potters Bar and other accidents at Rotherham and King's Cross led to Jarvis's collapse into administration in March 2010.


title: Network Rail

text: The company moved its headquarters to Kings Place, 90 York Way, from 40 Melton Street, Euston, in August 2008. Two months later, Sir Ian McAllister announced that he would not stand for re-election as chairman of Network Rail after holding the position for six years. He noted that as Network Rail moved to a "new phase in its development" it was appropriate for a new chairman to lead it there. Network Rail also has a 15-year lease on Square One in Manchester with 800 staff in one of Manchester's largest refurbished office spaces. During June 2012, work was completed on the company's new national centre, known as the . Based in Milton Keynes about five minutes' walk from , it comprises four buildings connected to a central street, accommodating more than 3,000 people. Various divisions, including engineering, logistics, operations (including timetable planning), IT, procurement, planning and finance departments, and Route Services Supply Chain operations have been transferred to the Quadrant.


title: Network Rail

text: In 2009, allegations appeared in the media from the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association concerning treatment of Network Rail employees. Former chief executive Iain Coucher was also accused of financial impropriety involving unspecified payments to his business partner Victoria Pender during his tenure at Network Rail. An internal investigation held by Network Rail in 2010, vetted by its auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing. An independent enquiry headed by Anthony White QC in 2011 further examined the claims, but also exonerated Coucher.


title: Network Rail

text: Critical commentary appeared in the media concerning the knighthood awarded to John Armitt in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to engineering and construction. Armitt was Chief Executive of Network Rail at the time of the 2007 Grayrigg derailment and the family of a victim of the accident criticised the award, which coincidentally was conferred on the same day that Network Rail were prosecuted for the accident.


title: Network Rail

text: During February 2011, it was announced that Network Rail had begun the process of reorganising its operational structure into nine semi-autonomous regional entities, each with their own managing director; the first two units to be created were Scotland and Wessex regions. The reorganisation has been interpreted as a move back towards vertical integration of track and train operations.


title: Network Rail

text: In December 2016, the Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling announced that Network Rail would lose sole control of track maintenance and repairs, and instead would share this with the Train Operating Companies.


title: Network Rail

text: During March 2011, the British government announced that the Great Western Main Line would be electrified as far as Bristol Temple Meads. Within four years, this programme, which was headed by Network Rail, was beset by poor planning and cost overruns, leading to the shortcomings being scrutinised by Parliament. Specifically, the projected cost had increased from £1.2 billion to £2.8 billion by the end of 2015, while the project's timetable was also delayed to the extent that the government had to request Hitachi to retrofit the new high speed trainsets procured under the Intercity Express Programme with diesel engines as well as electric traction. In July 2017, the government announced that, in response to the programme's continued difficulties, the scope of the electrification scheme had been decreased; specifically, it would only be completed as far as Thingley Junction, west of Chippenham, while the electrification of other lines, including Bristol Parkway to Temple Meads and Didcot to Oxford, was also postponed.


title: Network Rail

text: During 2011, work commenced to extend the electrification of the Midland Main Line, including to both Corby and Nottingham. In July 2017, it was announced the then-Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling that the electrification scheme north of Kettering to Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield had been cancelled and that bi-mode trains would be used instead. However, in May 2022, a briefing to contractors was released ahead of an invitation to tender for Midland Mainline Electrification project work to extend electrification to Nottingham and Sheffield. This scheme is expected to cost £1.3 billion.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail has undertaken numerous schemes to develop its own renewable electrical generation footprint, which is used in part to power the operational railway. In January 2014, Network Rail opened the world's largest solar-powered bridge, adjacent to the remains of the old Blackfriars Railway Bridge, across the River Thames. The roof of the new railway bridge is covered with 4,400 photovoltaic panels, providing up to half of the energy requirement for London Blackfriars station. Various locations across Network Rail's property portfolio, including stations and depots. In August 2022, an agreement between the company and EDF was signed to provide more solar energy.


title: Network Rail

text: In May 2021, the Government announced that Network Rail is to superseded by a new body, Great British Railways, in 2023.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail is a not-for-profit organisation. The majority of funding comes from a mix of direct grants and borrowing from the UK and Scottish Governments, payments from train and freight operators and a small amount of income from commercial property estate.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail works in five-year funding cycles called "Control Periods" (CP for short). The government specifies what is needed from Network Rail and sets out how much the government can afford to contribute. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) then sets the level of fixed income that Network Rail is allowed to charge and assesses the amount of money needed by Network Rail to run efficiently. The last Control Period ran from 2014 to 2019; 1 April 2019 was the start of "Control Period 6".


title: Network Rail

text: In 2019, government funding for train operating companies amounted to £4.1 billion, paying access charges to use the rail network, £2.1 billion and freight £58 million. In 2019, it spent £3.1 billion on renewals (restoring existing infrastructure back to how it was when new) and £3.2 billion on enhancements, with the rest spent on maintenance and other costs.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail covers 20,000 miles of track, and 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts. They claim to run the world's largest third rail network.


title: Network Rail

text: In February 2004, an operations centre at Waterloo station in London was opened, which was operated jointly by Network Rail and South West Trains. This was the first full collaboration of its kind since privatisation, and it is regarded as a model for other areas of the network, with a further six integrated Network Rail + TOC Control Centres having opened since then, at Blackfriars, Croydon (Leading Control for Thameslink), , , Glasgow and, most recently, Liverpool Street and South Wales based in Cardiff Canton.


title: Network Rail

text: Track renewal, the ongoing modernisation of the railway network by replacing track and signalling, continues to be carried out by private engineering firms under contract. The biggest renewals projects include the multibillion-pound upgrade of the London – Glasgow West Coast Main Line, which was completed in 2008, the Thameslink Programme to upgrade the north–south railway through London and work on the part of Crossrail which is operated by Network Rail. A line closure for engineering or renewal works is known as a possession.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail has an internal infrastructure database known as GEOGIS. The system uses codes for four-digit Track IDs to identify which line at any location is referred to. The first number refers to track direction, with values of 1 (Up), 2 (Down), 3 (Reversible/Bi-directional), or 4 (Merry Go Round Loop). The second number refers to track use, which can be 1 (Main or Fast), 2 (Slow, Local or Relief), 3 (Goods), 4 (Single line), 5 (Loop), 6 (Terminal or Bay), 7 (Crossover), 8 (Other or Engine), or 9 (Single Siding). The third and fourth numbers refer to the track number, which can be any number from 00 to 99 inclusive, and are usually numbered sequentially.


title: Network Rail

text: In 2006, Network Rail made public a high-tech plan to combat the effects of slippery rail. This plan involves the use of satellites for tracking trouble areas, water-jetting trains and crews using railhead scrubbers, sand sticks and a substance called Natrusolve, which dissolves leaf mulch.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail owns more than 2,500 railway stations, divided into six categories. Management and operation of most of them is carried out mostly by the principal train operating company serving that station; however, in a few cases the train operating company does not serve the station. For example, is served by CrossCountry, but it is managed by East Midlands Railway. As of April 2018, Network Rail manages 20 stations directly, with Clapham Junction and Guildford becoming managed stations on 1 April 2018. The stations Network Rail operate are:


title: Network Rail

text: Glasgow Central and Liverpool Lime Street stations are divided into high and low-level stations – the high-level stations are all termini used primarily by the main inter-city services to those stations. The low-level stations are through routes on local commuter networks that are largely separate from other routes to the main station; these platforms are not managed by Network Rail, but instead the rail operator that primarily uses them (Abellio ScotRail and Merseyrail respectively).


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail operated station until January 2012 when it was transferred to Southern, and until November 2014 when it was transferred to c2c. Network Rail took over management of Bristol Temple Meads and Reading in April 2014.


title: Network Rail

text: A DfT franchise report in 2014 stated Network Rail's intention to subsume more major stations into Network Rail's directly operated portfolio. The report earmarked for Network Rail management, as well as Manchester Oxford Road and Manchester Victoria which are currently undergoing major rebuilding as part of the Northern Hub. However the two Manchester stations remained under the operatorship of Arriva Rail North.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail has several training and development sites around Britain. These include sites in York, Peterborough, Derby, Leeds, Walsall and Larbert which provide refresher courses, and train staff in new equipment. Advanced Apprentice Scheme trainees are trained at Network Rail's Westwood training centre for the first five months of their apprenticeship and then are trained further at in Gosport over seven 2-week periods or five 3-week periods (throughout their second and third year) of their apprenticeship, using a combination of Royal Navy facilities and a specially installed training centre. All courses are taught by VT Flagship (part of Babcock International) in the first year but apprentices are trained by Network Rail staff in the second and third years. Network Rail bought a residential centre from Cable and Wireless in the Westwood Business Centre near Coventry for leadership development. The company and other industry partners such as VolkerRail and Balfour Beatty also operate a Foundation Degree in conjunction with Sheffield Hallam University.


title: Network Rail

text: In 2008, Network Rail piloted its first qualification in "track engineering". It has been given permission to develop courses equivalent to GCSE and A-levels.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail operates various essential telecommunication circuits for signalling and electrification control systems, train radio systems, lineside communications, level crossing CCTV, station information and security systems as well as more general IT and business telephony needs. The fixed bearer network infrastructure comprises transmission systems and telephone exchanges linked by a fibre optic and copper cable network that is located mainly within trackside troughing routes on the former British Rail Telecommunications network. (It is the largest private telecoms network in the UK).


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail operates several analogue radio networks that support mobile communication applications for drivers and lineside workers which consist of base stations, antenna systems and control equipment. The National Radio Network (NRN) was developed specifically for the operational railway; it provides radio coverage for 98% of the rail network through 500 base stations and 21 radio exchanges. The Radio Electronic Token Block RETB system is based on similar technology as the NRN and ORN but provides data communication for signalling token exchange as well as voice communication.


title: Network Rail

text: Fixed communication at trackside is provided by telephone. These are primarily provided for signallers to communicate with train crew, via telephones mounted on signal posts, and with the public through telephones located at level crossings.


title: Network Rail

text: GAI-Tronics provides many of the telephones sited on trackside and at level crossings. They also provide Public Access Help Points on platforms and stations to provide passengers with easy access to Information and Emergency control centres.


title: Network Rail

text: GSM-R radio systems are being introduced across Europe under EU legislation for interoperability. In the UK, as of March 2014, Network Rail is well underway in the UK implementation of GSM-R to replace its legacy National Radio Network (NRN) and Cab Secure Radio (CSR) systems currently in use.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail operates a large variety of DMUs, locomotives and rolling stock to perform safety checks and maintenance (this fleet is not to be confused with the combined rolling stock assets of Rail Delivery Group members who work in combination as "National Rail"). As well as the multiple units and locomotives detailed below, Network Rail own and operate a large stock of rolling stock for particular testing duties and track maintenance. Network Rail also hire freight locomotives from various freight operators including DB Cargo UK, Freightliner, Colas Rail and GB Railfreight amongst others to operate engineers' trains in support of maintenance and renewal work. Network Rail's Infrastructure Monitoring fleet of test trains is operated by Colas Rail, primarily using locomotives from Colas' and Network Rail's own fleets, but have also used locomotives hired from other companies such as Direct Rail Services, GB Railfreight and Europhoenix as required.


title: Network Rail

text: From 1997 to 2014 (inclusive), passenger numbers have more than doubled, following little growth in the previous decades. To cope with the increasing passenger numbers, Network Rail is currently undertaking a £38 billion programme of upgrades to the network, including Crossrail, electrification of lines, in-cab signalling, new inter-city trains, upgrading Thameslink, and a new high-speed line.


title: Network Rail

text: For investment projects, as opposed to routine maintenance, Network Rail has developed an eight-stage process designed to minimise and mitigate risks. This is known as the Governance for Railway Investment Projects (GRIP), previously known as “Guide to Rail Investment Projects”. The stages are as follows:


title: Network Rail

text: Each stage delivers an agreed set of outputs to defined quality criteria. The process has been criticised as cumbersome by some and it is proposed to replace it with a new process with the acronym PACE- Project Acceleration in a Controlled Environment.


title: Network Rail

text: For financial and other planning purposes, Network Rail works within 5-year "Control Periods", each one beginning on 1 April and ending on 31 March to coincide with the financial reporting year. These periods were inherited from Railtrack, so that the earlier ones are retrospective, and not necessarily of 5 years duration. They are as follows:


title: Network Rail

text: The Secretary of State for Transport regularly issues a "High-Level Output Specification" (HLOS) indicating what work the Government wishes to be undertaken during a given Control Period.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail regularly publishes a Strategic Business Plan detailing their policies, processes and plans, as well as financial expenditure and other data. The most recent complete business plan was published in January 2013. Within these plans the rail network is divided into ten “devolved routes” or “operational routes”, with a Route Plan for each being published annually.


title: Network Rail

text: Each route or other plan covers a number of railway lines usually defined by geographical area and the routes are further subdivided into 17 “strategic routes”, each divided into Strategic Route Sections (SRS) and given an SRS number and name. The plans also detail the geography of routes, stations, major junctions, capacity constraints and other issues and provide data on freight gauge, electrification, line speed, number of tracks, capacity and other information. The plans also detail the expected future demand and development of each route, their predicted expenditure and their maintenance and investment requirements.


title: Network Rail

text: The devolved routes were introduced in 2011, and the 17 strategic routes labelled "A" to "Q" were introduced in 2010. From 2004 to 2009, the network had been divided into 26 strategic routes numbered "1" to "26". In 2003, the network had been divided into 41 strategic routes numbered "1" to "41".


title: Network Rail

text: The company is accountable to a body of members through its corporate constitution, to its commercial train operator customers through its contracts with them (the contracts are subject to regulatory oversight), and to the public interest through the statutory powers of the Office of Rail and Road (ORR).


title: Network Rail

text: Since Network Rail does not have shareholders, its members hold the board of directors to account for their management of the business. From 1 July 2015 all the members were removed leaving the special member, the Secretary of State for Transport, as the sole member of Network Rail.


title: Network Rail

text: Previously at any one time there were around 100 members in total, drawn from a wide range of industry partners and members of the public. There were two general categories of membership, industry members comprising any organisation holding a licence to operate on the railway or preferred bidder for a railway franchise, and public members who were drawn from the wider stakeholder community. Members were appointed by an independent panel and served a three-year term. They had a number of statutory rights and duties which included attending annual general meetings, receiving the Annual Report and Accounts, and approving the appointment or re-appointment of Network Rail's directors. Members had a duty to act in the best interests of the company without personal bias. They received no payments other than travel expenses.


title: Network Rail

text: Setting the strategic direction and the day-to-day management of Network Rail is the responsibility of the company's board of directors. That direction must be consistent with the regulatory jurisdiction of the ORR, and with the requirements of its contracts. The ORR in turn operates within the overall transport policy set by the UK Department for Transport and the Scottish government, including as to what the government wants the railway industry to achieve and how much money the government is prepared to put into the industry. This means that the degree of government influence and control over the company is higher than it was before these enlargements of the powers and role of the government were introduced by the Railways Act 2005.


title: Network Rail

text: The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) monitors Network Rail's performance on a continuous basis against targets established by the regulatory authority in the most recent access charges review (2003), against obligations in the company's network licence and against forecasts in its own business plan. If performance is poor, the company will face criticism and possible enforcement action from its commercial customers (under their contracts) and from the ORR (enforcing the company's network licence). It may also be criticised by its members in general meeting.


title: Network Rail

text: In the annual report 2014/15, the ORR reported that the Public Performance Measure (PPM) was 89.6%, 1.4 percentage points (pp) below target in England and Wales, and PPM in Scotland was 90.5%, 1.5pp below its regulatory performance target of 92%.


title: Network Rail

text: The Railway Industry Planning Group (RIPG), chaired by Network Rail, has as its purpose railway industry input into the structure and development of the national railway strategic planning processes. Its members are drawn from railway funders, operators and users, and the group meets quarterly to consider:


title: Network Rail

text: While generally good, the safety record of the company was marred in February 2007 when a Virgin express derailed at Grayrigg in Cumbria. Network Rail admitted responsibility for the incident. The RAIB investigation concluded in 2009 that a faulty set of points had caused the derailment. In 2012 the Office of Rail Regulation announced that Network Rail was to be prosecuted under the Health and Safety Act for "failure to provide and implement suitable and sufficient standards, procedures, guidance, training, tools and resources for the inspection and maintenance of fixed stretcher bar points". Network Rail pleaded guilty and were fined £4.1 million including legal costs.


title: Network Rail

text: In December 2005, two young girls were killed by a train as they were crossing the railway line via a pedestrian level crossing at in Essex. Network Rail was prosecuted for breaching health and safety law and fined £1 million in March 2012. The court heard that risk assessments carried out by Network Rail staff in 2002 had identified potential dangers with the crossing and recommended the installation of gates that would lock automatically as trains approached, but this was not acted upon.


title: Network Rail

text: Many track safety initiatives have been introduced in the time Network Rail has been operational. One high-profile measure, announced in December 2008, known as "All Orange", states that all track personnel must not only wear orange hi-vis waistcoats or jackets, but must also wear orange hi-vis trousers at all times when working on or near the track. This ruling came into force in January 2009 for maintenance and property workers and in April 2009 for infrastructure and investment sites.


title: Network Rail

text: All workers working on or near the line or trackside have to pass a medical assessment and a drug and alcohol test. They must also sit a Personal Track Safety training course and undergo assessment to be issued with a PTS card (reassessment is required every two years). Network Rail workers undergo periodic assessments as part of the Skills Assessment Scheme, formerly called the AITL process (Assessment in the Line). This requires each worker to go through questions on a computer based program on all the competencies held.


title: Network Rail

text: In 2001, the then Labour government denied that it had nationalised the rail network in order to prevent Railtrack's shareholders claiming, via the European Court of Human Rights, the four-year average price of Railtrack, about £10 per share. Instead, Railtrack's shareholders were given only £2.60. "The Times" reported that Gordon Brown's aide, Shriti Vadera e-mailed Stephen Byers in July 2001 asking: "Can we engineer the solution through insolvency ... and therefore avoid compensation under the Human Rights Act?"


title: Network Rail

text: Railtrack plc was placed into railway administration under the Railways Act 1993 on 7 October 2001, following an application to the High Court by the then Transport Secretary, Stephen Byers. It was reported in November 2001 that a further £3.5 billion might be needed to keep the national railway network running, a sum disputed by Ernst & Young, the administrators. To get Railtrack out of administration, the government had to return to the High Court and present evidence that the company was no longer insolvent. The principal reason given by the government to the court for this assertion was the decision of the rail regulator in 2002 to carry out an interim review of the company's finances, with the potential to advance significant additional sums to the company. The High Court accepted that the company was not insolvent, and the railway administration order was discharged in October 2002.


title: Network Rail

text: Until 2013, there was discussion over whether Network Rail should be classified as a public-sector or a private-sector entity. Although it was officially a private sector organisation, the fact that its debts were underwritten by the government, and it was partly funded by the government, led to the description of "nationalisation in all but name". It was also claimed that the government is keen for Network Rail not to be classified as a public-sector organisation, as this would mean that the company's debt would be counted as public expenditure liabilities. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) repeatedly clashed with the National Audit Office and the Statistics Commission over whether the successor to Railtrack should be considered a private company – as the ONS believed – or included on the Government's books, as the National Audit Office argued. The NAO said that as the Government is bearing the risk that would normally be borne by equity capital, and as it can appoint, through the SRA, a director who cannot be removed by members, Network Rail is effectively a subsidiary of the Government-controlled SRA.


title: Network Rail

text: In December 2013, the ONS announced that Network Rail would be classified as a "government body" from September 2014. As a result, the company's debt of £34 billion was added to the national debt. In the 2016–17 financial year, Network Rail's net debt rose from £41.6 billion to £46.3 billion.


title: Network Rail

text: Network Rail organises the Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. Shortlisted photos are displayed at London Waterloo and other major stations.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: John Clemens Ryan (born October 6, 1959) is an American former investment banker and politician who was a candidate in the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois. In 2000, he retired as an active partner at Goldman Sachs to teach at Hales Franciscan High School, a private Catholic high school in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: His 2004 campaign for the Senate, against Barack Obama, received widespread media attention for the disclosure of sealed custody documents stemming from his divorce from actress Jeri Ryan. The unsealing of those documents, detailing allegations that Ryan had pressured his wife to perform sexual acts in public, led to Ryan's withdrawal from the campaign.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: In March 2005, Ryan launched 22nd Century Media, a news media company dedicated to providing hyper-local news in both print and digital media formats. In 2015, Ryan left 22nd Century Media to launch REX, a technology-based real estate services company that works outside the MLS to sell homes.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: Ryan spent his childhood in Wilmette, Illinois, the son of Helen Marie (Bruns) and Donald Robert Ryan, a managing partner at a trade and clearing house. One of six siblings, he attended New Trier High School. He graduated from high school in 1977 and went on to Dartmouth College, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his JD from Harvard Law School, with honors.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: Ryan worked at Casa Juan Diego, a refugee camp for Latinos fleeing the Central American civil wars. He worked for Goldman Sachs as an investment banker and eventual partner, first in New York City, and then in the Chicago branch.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: In 2000, after Goldman Sachs went public, Ryan's net worth was in the tens of millions. He retired from Goldman as a partner and taught for three years at Hales Franciscan High School in Chicago. He left his teaching position to run for the Senate in 2004.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: Starting in 2005, he ran 22nd Century Media, which published 15 separate localized newspapers and websites in the Chicago area.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: He runs REX, a technology-based real estate services company that works outside the MLS to sell homes. Ryan has dedicated the wealth created from the venture to building homes and schools for children. As part of its social mission, for every 50 homes it sells, REX builds a home for someone who doesn't have one.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: Ryan hoped to succeed retiring Republican Peter Fitzgerald in the United States Senate. On March 16, 2004, he won the Republican primary, pitting him against Democrat Barack Obama. However, after his divorce records containing damaging allegations were unsealed and made public, he announced his decision to withdraw his candidacy on June 25, 2004, and officially filed the documentation to do so on July 29. During his Senate campaign, Ryan was a proponent of across-the-board tax cuts and tort reform, reductions in federal spending, as well as a proponent of equal opportunity in education.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: In 2004, Ryan's staff had Justin Warfel (a campaign worker) follow Barack Obama throughout the day and record everything he did in public on videotape. The tactic backfired when Barack Obama and others, including Ryan's supporters, criticized this activity. Ryan's spokesman apologized and promised that Warfel would give Obama more space. Obama said he was satisfied with Ryan's decision.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: Ryan married actress Jeri Ryan (née Zimmerman) in 1991; together they have a son, Alex Ryan, born 1994. They divorced in 1999 in California, and the records of the divorce were open but their custody documents were sealed at their mutual request. Five years later, when Ryan's Senate campaign began, the "Chicago Tribune" newspaper and WLS-TV, the local ABC affiliate, sought to have the records released. On March 3, 2004, several of Ryan's GOP primary opponents urged release of the records. Both Ryan and his wife had agreed to make their divorce records public, but not make the custody records public, claiming that the custody records could be harmful to their son if released. On March 16, 2004, Ryan won the GOP primary with 36 percent to 23 percent against businessman and perennial political candidate Jim Oberweis, who came in second. Obama won the Democratic primary, with 53 percent to 23 percent against Dan Hynes, who came in second.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: On March 29, 2004, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider ruled that several of the Ryans' custody records should be opened to the public. The following week, on April 2, 2004, Barack Obama called on Democrats not to inject them into the campaign. The Ryan campaign characterized Obama's stance as hypocritical because people they alleged to be Obama's backers had been emailing reports about the divorce records before Judge Schnider's decision and urging the press to seek to open them.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: In May 2004, a "Chicago Tribune" poll found Ryan trailing Obama 52% to 30%. On June 22, 2004, after receiving a report from the referee, Judge Schnider released the files that were deemed consistent with the interests of Ryan's young child. In those files, Jeri Ryan alleged that Jack Ryan had wanted her to perform sexual acts with him in public in sex clubs in New York City, New Orleans, and Paris, but no sex occurred. Jeri Ryan described one as "a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling." The decision to release these files generated much controversy because it went against both parents' direct request, and because it reversed the earlier decision to seal the papers in the best interest of the child, who had special needs. On the same day, Jim Oberweis, Ryan's defeated opponent in the GOP primary, commented that if the allegations were true, "it would end the candidacy."


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: Ryan's campaign indeed ended less than a week after the custody records were opened, and Ryan officially filed the documentation to withdraw on July 29, 2004. The same party leaders who called for Ryan's resignation chose Alan Keyes as Ryan's replacement in the race; Keyes lost to Obama, 27% to 70%.


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: Subsequent to his withdrawal from the U.S. Senate race in Illinois, Jack Ryan has characterized what happened to him as a "new low for politics in America". According to Ryan, it was unprecedented in American politics for a newspaper to sue for access to sealed custody documents. Ryan opposed unsealing the divorce records of Senator John Kerry during Kerry's race against George W. Bush in 2004, and Kerry's divorce records remained sealed. Ryan subsequently made a statement requesting "Let me be the only person this has happened to. Don't ask for Ted Kennedy's. Don't ask for John McCain's. Don't ask for Joe Lieberman's. Just stop. This is not a good precedent for American society if you really want the best and brightest to run."


title: Jack Ryan (politician)

text: Following his political career, Ryan resumed his newspaper business. On February 27, 2014, he launched the "Highland Park Landmark", the 12th hyper-local news publication published by his company, 22nd Century Media, and the fifth hyper-local product to serve Chicago's North Shore suburbs. When asked why he chose to enter the news media industry, Ryan told "Chicago Reader", "I was committed to improving the communities in which we live, and our profession seemed like a very good way to do so." Ryan also related that while at Goldman Sachs, he had observed how large retailer chains lost business to "category killers" whose specialization in specific products allowed them dominate those markets, as Best Buy and Toys R Us, for example, did with electronics and toys, respectively. Feeling that a similar process would take place with the various sections of traditional newspapers, Ryan felt his speciality was local journalism. Lastly, Ryan felt that the way the media handled the scandal that ended his political career showed that there were ways in which that profession could be improved.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: Fly by Night is the second studio album by the Canadian rock band, Rush, released on Feb. 15, 1975 on Mercury Records. It was the first Rush album to showcase elements of progressive rock for which the band has become known. It was also the first to feature lyricist and drummer Neil Peart, who replaced original drummer John Rutsey the previous summer just prior to the band's first North American tour. Peart took over as Rush's primary lyricist, and the abundance of fantastical and philosophical themes in his compositions contrasted greatly with the simpler hard rock of the band's debut album.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: In March 1974, the second Rush line-up, consisting of guitarist Alex Lifeson, drummer John Rutsey, and singer and bassist Geddy Lee, released their self-titled debut album. In the following four months, however, Rutsey fell ill following complications with diabetes and had to sit out while the group continued with a replacement, Jerry Fielding. Rutsey rejoined the group for a month of club dates before Lifeson and Lee decided it was best for Rutsey to leave due to the difficulty in managing his health on tour and musical differences between them. Lee recalled: "We were guilt-ridden at first, but we realised that it's just the way it had to be. He wasn't happy and we weren't happy".


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: Rush auditioned five drummers, the fourth of which was Neil Peart of a local band named J.R. Flood. The three played along to "Anthem," a song mostly written while Rutsey was in the group that Rush later recorded for "Fly by Night". Lifeson and Lee were so impressed with Peart's style they felt embarrassed for the fifth drummer who had prepared by writing charts to their songs to follow. Peart joined on July 29, 1974, Lee's 21st birthday, two weeks before the band's first U.S. tour kicked off on Aug. 14 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, opening for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann. By the end of the year the group had written new material for a follow-up album.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: After a five-day break Rush recorded "Fly by Night" in December 1974 and mixed in January 1975 at Toronto Sound Studios during a gap in their U.S. and Canadian tour. Lifeson said it took around five days to record and once the mixing had finished, the group packed their cases and travelled to Winnipeg for a concert on January 15. It was the band's first album co-produced by Terry Brown who would maintain this role through to "Signals" (1982). Lifeson was pleased with the songs on the album and felt like it was a second beginning for the group. Lee recalled the difficulty that their label's management had in understanding the material on the album, particularly "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" as they had wanted material in the style of their debut.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: The band wanted each song on "Fly by Night" to show a different side to their writing and playing, which resulted in an album of varied styles. As Peart was a keen reader, he became the group's primary lyricist, which suited Lifeson and Lee because they preferred to write music. A "Rolling Stone" article reasoned this shift in roles to the "massive" difference in the lyrical styles between their first album and "Fly by Night" which contains more literary themes and references. The songs "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" and "Rivendell" are examples of the inclusion of fantasy themes into Rush's music. The original hand-penned lyrics for "Anthem" and "Fly by Night" include different or additional lyrics not sung in the final recording, including a prologue for the latter. The tracks "Best I Can" and "In the End" were written before Peart joined the band, and were performed regularly during Rush's first North American tour.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: "Anthem" originated by Lifeson and Lee while Rutsey was still in the band and features a heavier sound with more complex arrangements than previous Rush tracks. Peart named the track and its lyrics after the same-titled dystopian novella by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand, who would become a greater inspiration to lyrics on their later album "2112" (1976).


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: The lyrics to "Beneath, Between and Behind" were the first that Peart wrote for Rush, for which Lifeson and Lee would write music.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: The eight-minute "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" is arranged in eight distinct sections and marked a key point in the development of the group's songwriting. The first part, "At the Tobes of Hades," remained a mystery to the group years later in regard to its meaning, which is what Peart liked about the track in particular. "But it's something that my friend's father used to say: 'It's hotter than the Tobes of Hades!'" It is a good versus evil fantasy song that originated from two dogs owned by Rush's manager Ray Danniels which their lighting man Howard Ungerleider named Biter and Snow Dog. Lee later said: "We must have been high one day, imagining a song about these two dogs. And then Neil went ahead and wrote it" which had the two characters fight with Snow Dog emerging victorious. He later deemed the track "a joke that got out of control". On the original vinyl release, the chimes at the end continue into a locked groove, and thus plays indefinitely on manual record players. The song "The Necromancer" from their following album "Caress of Steel" (1975) was described by Peart as the "mythological sequel" to "By-Tor and the Snow Dog."


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: "Fly by Night" is based on Peart's experience of moving from Canada to London as a young musician before joining Rush.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: "Making Memories" came about after the band had taken a wrong turn on a drive. Lifeson proceeded to write a tune on his acoustic guitar, and had a fully arranged piece by the time the band had entered the studio to record.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: "Rivendell" is a slower ballad, named after the fictional Elven settlement in "The Lord of the Rings" legendarium by J. R. R. Tolkien.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: "Fly by Night" was released in February 1975 and reached No. 9 in Canada and No. 113 on the U.S. "Billboard" 200. The title track was released as a single in May 1975, reaching No. 45 in Canada and No. 88 in the United States. This was followed by "Making Memories" in May 1977. By October 1975, the album had sold 110,000 copies. The original vinyl pressings contained an inner sleeve of photographs and handwritten lyrics by Peart.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: Rush supported the album with a U.S. and Canadian tour that covered more than 70 cities from February to June 1975, opening for Kiss and Aerosmith. They performed their first major headline shows across Canada, including a sold-out gig at Massey Hall in Toronto for 4,000 people.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: In a review for "Statesville Record & Landmark", Pam Simon thought the album "is a strange schizophrenic album, almost evenly divided between second-rate acoustic music and the dated concept of the power-trio format". She was critical of their more heavy metal direction and the pretentious nature of their songs and picked out "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" as such an example which she called "especially horrendous". Though Simon praised Lifeson's "more than competent" guitar work and Peart's drumming, she criticised Lee's voice for sounding too similar to Robert Plant. Michael Dolgy in "RPM Weekly" wrote the album is "a loud but sensitive excursion into ball-blaster rock/roll". Greg Prato of AllMusic said that the album was less straightforward than their debut album, and while it was not one of their best albums, it was one of their most important.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: "Ultimate Classic Rock" included the album on their list of the "Top 100 '70s Rock Albums", writing "Neil Peart wasn't just the new drummer; he was the spark that pushed them to greatness."


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: A remaster was issued in 1997. It was remastered again in 2011 by Andy VanDette as part of the three-volume "Sector" box sets, which re-released all of Rush's Mercury-era albums. In addition to the standard audio CD, the album was also included on an audio DVD in the "Sector 1" set, remixed into 5.1 surround sound.


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: The complete album, along with the self-titled debut and "Caress of Steel", was included as part of the 1978 Anthem release "Archives."


title: Fly by Night (album)

text: "Fly By Night" was remastered for vinyl in 2015 by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios as a part of the official "12 Months of Rush" promotion. The high definition master prepared for this release was also made available for purchase in 24-bit/96 kHz and 24-bit/192 kHz formats, at several high-resolution audio online music stores. These masters have significantly less dynamic range compression than the 1997 remasters and the "Sector" remasters by Andy VanDette.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: The Standard & Poor's CoreLogic Case–Shiller Home Price Indices are repeat-sales house price indices for the United States. There are multiple Case–Shiller home price indices: A national home price index, a 20-city composite index, a 10-city composite index, and twenty individual metro area indices. These indices were first produced commercially by Case Shiller Weiss. They are now calculated and kept monthly by Standard & Poor's, with data calculated for January 1987 to present. The indices kept by Standard & Poor are normalized to a value of 100 in January 2000. They are based on original work by economists Karl Case and Robert Shiller, whose team calculated the home price index back to 1890. Case and Shiller's index is normalized to a value of 100 in 1890. The Case-Shiller index on Shiller's website is updated quarterly. The two datasets can greatly differ due to different reference points and calculations. For example, in the 4th quarter of 2013, the Standard and Poor 20 city index point was in the 160's, while the index point for 4th quarter on the Shiller data was in the 130's. Shiller claims in his book "Irrational Exuberance" that such a long series of home prices does not appear to have been published for any country.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: The indices are calculated from data on repeat sales of single-family homes, an approach developed by economists Case, Shiller and Allan Weiss who served as the CEO of Case Shiller Weiss from the company's 1991 inception until its sale to Fiserv in 2002. Case developed a method for comparing repeat sales of the same homes in an effort to study home pricing trends. He was using data from house sales in Boston in the early 1980s, which was going through a housing price boom. While Case argued that such a boom was ultimately unsustainable, he had not considered it a bubble, a commonly used term to describe similar market trends. Case sat down with Shiller, who was researching behavioral finance and economic bubbles, and together formed a repeat-sales index using home sales prices data from other cities across the country. In 1991, while Weiss was in graduate school he formed an informal working relationship with Shiller. Weiss proposed to Case and Shiller to form a company, Case Shiller Weiss, to produce the index periodically with the intent of selling the information to the markets. The FinTech giant Fiserv bought Case Shiller Weiss in 2002 and, together with Standard & Poor's, developed tradable indices based on the data for the markets which are now commonly called the Case-Shiller index. CoreLogic acquired the Case Shiller Weiss business from Fiserv in April 2013.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: The years 2006–2012 saw the largest crash in global real estate markets in recent history; whether this could have been predicted using the Case–Shiller index is up for dispute. Shiller did see some early signs. He released the second edition of his "Irrational Exuberance" book in 2005, when, according to him, the data looked like "a rocket taking off". In his book he expresses skepticism over "the long-run stability of home prices", given that the rise in home prices was much higher than the rise in income. However, he refrains from explicitly stating that this may be a bubble, after all the period after World War II had seen a substantial rise in real prices without any subsequent drop as apparent in the chart. The prices peaked in the first quarter of 2006, when the index kept by Shiller recorded a level of 198.01, but fell rapidly after that to 113.89 in the first quarter of 2012.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: The index is a simplification of home values and does not account for imputed rent and home mortgage interest deduction, both of which are included in profit/loss considerations for investment purposes.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: Shiller draws some key insights from his analysis of long term home prices in his book "Irrational Exuberance". Contrary to popular belief, there has been no continuous uptrend in home prices in the US and the home prices show a strong tendency to return to their 1890 level in real terms. Moreover, he illustrates how the pattern of changes in home prices bears no relation to changes in construction costs, interest rates or population.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: Shiller notes that there is a strong perception across the globe that home prices are continuously increasing, and that this kind of sentiment and paradigm may be fueling bubbles in real estate markets. He points to some psychological heuristics that may be responsible for creating this perception. He says that since homes are relatively infrequent purchases, people tend to remember the purchase price of a home from long ago and are surprised at the difference between then and now. However, most of the difference in the prices can be explained by inflation. He also discusses how people consistently overestimate the appreciation in the value of their homes. The US Census, since 1940, has asked home owners to estimate the value of their homes. The home-owners' estimates reflect an appreciation of 2% per year in real terms, which is significantly more than the 0.7% actual increase over the same interval as reflected in Case-Shiller index.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: Shiller also offers some explanations as to why a continuous uptrend is not observed in real home prices:


title: Case–Shiller index

text: Thus, real home prices are essentially trend-less and do not show any continuous uptrend or downtrend in the long-run. This is not limited to the US as it is also observed in the real home price indices of Netherlands and Norway.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: Shiller's key observation, as outlined in his book "Irrational Exuberance", is that real home prices show a remarkable tendency to return to their 1890 level. However, there have been some key periods where the prices have departed from this level. Shiller offers some explanations for these episodes in his book:


title: Case–Shiller index

text: The S&P CoreLogic Case–Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index is a composite of single-family home price indices for the nine U.S. Census divisions. It is calculated monthly, using a three-month moving average. The S&P national index is normalized to have a value of 100 in the January 2000.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: The index kept by Shiller (available on his website at http://www.econ.yale.edu/~shiller/data.htm) is updated quarterly, and is normalized to have a value of 100 in 1890.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: The S&P index family includes 20 metropolitan area indices and two composite indices as aggregates of the metropolitan areas. These indices are three-month moving averages. The composite and city indices are normalized to have a value of 100 in January 2000.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: CSXR is a composite index of the home price index for 10 major Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States. The index is published monthly by Standard & Poor's and uses the Case and Shiller method of a house price index using a modified version of the weighted-repeat sales methodology. This method is able to adjust for the quality of the homes sold, unlike simple indices based on averages. The CSXR is a three-month moving average as are the indices that compose it.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: SPCS20R is a composite index of the home price index for 20 major Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States. The index is published monthly by Standard & Poor's and uses the Case and Shiller method of a house price index using a modified version of the weighted-repeat sales methodology. This method is able to adjust for the quality of the homes sold, unlike simple indices based on averages.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: Macromarkets.com reports the US index has a slightly negative correlation with stocks and bonds, but slightly positive correlation with commodities and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT). REIT's track commercial real estate most closely, rather than home prices, explaining the low correlation.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: Using Case and Shiller's original methods, the national index attained its all-time high of 198.01 in 2006 Q1. The S&P index attained an all-time high in July 2006, at a value of 206.52. On December 30, 2008, the index recorded its largest year-to-year drop. Since World War II, the original index has mostly fluctuated between 100 and 120, with peaks (followed by precipitous falls) in 1Q 1979 (which peaked at 122), 3Q 1989 (at 126), and 1Q 2006 (at 198). After the 2000s housing bubble, the low point of the index was in 1Q 2012, at 114. By 4Q 2013 the index had rebounded to 134. As of December 2019 (as per: "fred.stlouisfed.org") the S&P/Case‑Shiller U. S. National Home Price Index was at 213.789.


title: Case–Shiller index

text: According to Shiller, one of the main purposes of futures and options trading in the Case-Shiller indices is to allow people to hedge the real estate market. The problem, however, is that the volume of trading in these markets is small enough as to make them relatively illiquid which creates a risk for the investor in these securities. Shiller himself has said that “there has been a disappointing volume of trade in these futures markets.” The volume traded in the CME S&P Case-Shiller Index for the full year 2007 was 2,995 contracts. That number declined over the following years, and throughout 2017 only 136 contracts traded.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Abu Zubaydah ( ; , "Abū Zubaydah"; born March 12, 1971, as Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn) is a Saudi Arabian currently held by the U.S. in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He is held under the authority of Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF).


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan in March 2002 and has been in United States custody ever since, including four-and-a-half years in the secret prison network of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He was transferred among prisons in various countries including a year in Poland, as part of a United States' extraordinary rendition program. During his time in CIA custody, Zubaydah was extensively interrogated; he was waterboarded 83 times and subjected to numerous other torture techniques including forced nudity, sleep deprivation, confinement in small dark boxes, deprivation of solid food, stress positions, and physical assaults. Videotapes of some of Zubaydah's interrogations are amongst those destroyed by the CIA in 2005.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Zubaydah and ten other "high-value detainees" were transferred to Guantanamo in September 2006. He and other former CIA detainees are held in Camp 7, where conditions are the most isolating. At his Combatant Status Review Tribunal in 2007, Zubaydah said he was told that the CIA realized he was not significant.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: On July 24, 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered the Polish government to pay Zubaydah damages. Zubaydah said through his US lawyer that he would be donating the awarded funds to victims of torture.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: According to his younger brother Hesham, they had eight siblings. Hesham remembers his older brother "as a happy-go-lucky guy, and something of a womanizer". Born in Saudi Arabia, Zubaydah moved to the West Bank as a teenager, where he joined in Palestinian demonstrations against the Israelis. Zubaydah is reported to have studied computer science in Mysore, India, prior to his travel to Afghanistan/Pakistan at the age of 20 in 1991. He joined the mujahideen in the Afghan civil war, perhaps serving under Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi. In 1992, Zubaydah was injured in a mortar shell blast, which left shrapnel in his head and caused severe memory loss, as well as the loss of the ability to speak for over one year.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Zubaydah eventually became involved in the jihad training site known as the Khalden training camp, where he oversaw the flow of recruits and obtained passports and paperwork for men transferring out of Khalden. He may also have worked as an instructor there. Although originally described as an al-Qaeda training camp, this alleged connection, which has been used as justification for holding Zubaydah and others as enemy combatants, has come under scrutiny from multiple sources,<ref name="9/11CommissionReport">"9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States" , July 22, 2006</ref> and the camp may have shut its doors in 2001 in response to an ideological division with al-Qaeda.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: By 1999, the United States government was attempting to surveil Zubaydah. By March 2000, United States officials were reporting that Zubaydah was a "senior bin Laden official", the "former head of Egypt-based Islamic Jihad", a "trusted aide" to bin Laden with "growing power", who had "played a key role in the East Africa embassy attacks". Zubaydah was convicted "in absentia" in Jordan and sentenced to death by a Jordanian court for his role in plots to bomb U.S. and Israeli targets there. A senior Middle East security official said Zubaydah had directed the Jordanian cell and was part of "bin Laden's inner circle".


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: In August 2001, the classified FBI report, "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US", said that the foiled millennium bomber, Ahmed Ressam, had confessed that Zubaydah had encouraged him to blow up the Los Angeles airport and facilitated his mission. The report said that Zubaydah was also planning his own attack on the U.S. However, when Ressam was tried in December 2001, federal prosecutors did not try to connect him to Zubaydah or refer to any of this supposed evidence in its case. After the trial, Ressam recanted his confession, saying he had been coerced into giving it.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: According to a psychological evaluation conducted upon his capture, Zubaydah allegedly served as Osama bin Laden's senior lieutenant and counter-intelligence officer (i.e. third or fourth highest-ranking member of al Qaeda), managed a network of training camps, was involved in every major terrorist operation carried out by al Qaeda (including the planning of 9/11), and was engaged in planning future terrorist attacks against U.S. interests. These statements were widely echoed by members of the Bush administration and other US officials. Zubaydah's perceived "value" as a detainee would later be used by President George W. Bush to justify the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and Zubaydah's detention in secret CIA prisons around the world. However, Zubaydah's connection to al Qaeda is now often said to have beenaccording to Rebecca Gordon writing about "The al Qaeda Leader Who Wasn't"a fictitious charge. Others have said instead that it is merely overstated, and in response to his habeas corpus petition, the U.S. Government stated in 2009 that it did not contend Zubaydah had any involvement with the 9/11 attacks, or that he had even been a member of al Qaeda, simply because they did not have to: "In simple terms, the issue in this habeas corpus action is Petitioner's conduct", rather than membership or inclination: "Petitioner's personal philosophy is not relevant except to the extent that it is reflected in his actions".


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: On March 28, 2002, CIA and FBI agents, in conjunction with Pakistani intelligence agency, raided several safe houses in Pakistan searching for Zubaydah. Zubaydah was apprehended from one of the targeted safe houses in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The Pakistani intelligence service had paid a small amount for a tip on his whereabouts. The United States paid far more to Pakistan for its assistance; a CIA source later said: "We paid $10 million for Zubaydah."


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: During the raid, Zubaydah was shot in the thigh, the testicle, and the stomach with rounds from a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Not recognized at first, he was piled into a pickup truck along with other prisoners by the Pakistani forces until a senior CIA officer identified him. He was taken by the Pakistanis to a Pakistani hospital nearby and treated for his wounds. The attending doctor told the CIA lead officer of the group which apprehended Zubaydah that he had never before seen a patient survive such severe wounds. The CIA flew in a doctor from Johns Hopkins University to ensure Zubaydah would survive during transit out of Pakistan.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: His pocket litter supposedly contained two bank cards, which showed that he had access to Saudi and Kuwaiti bank accounts; most al-Qaeda members used the preferred, untraceable hawala banking. According to James Risen: "It is not clear whether an investigation of the cards simply fell through the cracks, or whether they were ignored because no one wanted to know the answers about connections between al Qaeda and important figures in the Middle East – particularly in Saudi Arabia." One of Risen's sources chalks up the failure to investigate the cards to incompetence rather than foul play: "The cards were sent back to Washington and were never fully exploited. I think nobody ever looked at them because of incompetence."


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: When Americans investigated the cards, Risen wrote that they worked with a Muslim financier with a questionable past, and with connections to the Afghan Taliban, al Qaeda, and Saudi intelligence. ... Saudi intelligence officials had seized all of the records related to the card from the Saudi financial institution in question; the records then disappeared. There was no longer any way to trace the money that had gone into the account.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: A search of the safehouse turned up Zubaydah's 10,000-page diaries, in which he recorded his thoughts as a young boy, older man, and at his current age. What appears to be multiple separate identities is how Zubaydah was piecing his memories together after his 1992 shrapnel head wound. As part of his therapy to regain his memories, he began recording a diary that detailed his life, emotions, and what people were telling him. He split information into categories, such as what he knew about himself and what people told him, and listed them under different names to distinguish one set from the other. This was later interpreted by some analysts reviewing the diary as symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder, which some others disputed and said to be incorrect.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Zubaydah was handed to the CIA. Reports later alleged that he was transferred to secret CIA-operated prisons, known as black sites, in Pakistan, Thailand, Afghanistan, Poland, Northern Africa, and Diego Garcia. Historically, renditions of prisoners to countries which commit torture have been illegal. A memo written by John Yoo and signed by Jay Bybee of the Office of the Legal Counsel, DOJ, days before Zubaydah's capture, provided a legal opinion providing for CIA renditions of detainees to places such as Thailand. In March 2009, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee launched a year-long study on how the CIA operated the secret prisons, or black sites, around the world.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: In the spring of 2002, immediately following the capture of Zubaydah, top Bush administration officials, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and US Attorney General John Ashcroft discussed at length whether or not the CIA could legally use harsh techniques against him. Condoleezza Rice specifically mentioned the SERE program during the meeting, saying, "I recall being told that U.S. military personnel were subjected to training to certain physical and psychological interrogation techniques".


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: In addition, in 2002 and 2003, the administration briefed several Democratic Congressional leaders on the proposed "enhanced interrogation techniques". These congressional leaders included Nancy Pelosi, the future Speaker of the House, and Representative Jane Harman. Congressional officials have stated that the attitude in the briefings ranged from "quiet acquiescence, if not downright support". The documents show that top U.S. officials were intimately involved in the discussion and approval of the harsher interrogation techniques used on Zubaydah. Condoleezza Rice ultimately told the CIA the harsher interrogation tactics were acceptable, and Dick Cheney stated, "I signed off on it; so did others." During the discussions, US Attorney General John Ashcroft is reported as saying, "Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly."


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: In December 2019, "The New York Times" published an article in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting which was based upon drawings made by Zubaydah, showing how he was tortured in "vivid and disturbing ways". The article includes some of the drawings as well as a link to a 61-page report titled "How America Tortures", and asserts that Zubaydah was never a member of Al Qaeda. In the article Zubaydah gives gruesome details of numerous types of torture including being locked up inside a small box called "the dog box" for "countless hours", which caused muscle contractions. "The very strong pain", he said, "made me scream unconsciously". According to the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture, over a single 20 day period, Zubaydah spent over 11 days locked in a "coffin size" box, and 29 hours in a box measuring 21 inches wide, 2 feet deep, and 2 feet high ().


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Zubaydah was interrogated by two separate interrogation teams: the first from the FBI and one from the CIA. Ali Soufan, one of the FBI interrogators, later testified in 2009 on these issues to the Senate Committee that was investigating detainee treatment. Soufan, who witnessed part of the CIA interrogation of Zubaydah, described his treatment under the CIA as torture. The International Committee of the Red Cross and others later reached the same conclusion. While in CIA custody, Zubaydah lost his left eye.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Because of the urgency felt about the interrogation of Zubaydah, the CIA had consulted with the president about how to proceed. The General Counsel of the CIA asked for a legal opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice about what was permissible during interrogation.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: In early July 2002, the Associate General Counsel CTC/Legal Group started drafting a memo to the Attorney General requesting the approval of "aggressive" interrogation methods, which otherwise would be prohibited under the provisions of Section 2340-2340B, Title 18, United States Code, on Abu Zubaydah. This memo, drafted by Office of Legal Counsel, Jay Bybee and his assistant John Yoo, is also referred to as the first Torture Memo. Addressed to CIA acting General Counsel John A. Rizzo at his request, the purpose of the memo was to describe and authorize specific "enhanced interrogation techniques" to be used on Zubaydah. On July 26, 2002, Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo informed the CIA that Attorney General John Ashcroft had approved waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Journalists including Jane Mayer, Joby Warrick and Peter Finn, and Alex Koppelman have reported the CIA was already using these harsh tactics before the memo authorizing their use was written, and that it was used to provide after-the-fact legal support for harsh interrogation techniques. A Department of Justice 2009 report regarding prisoner abuses reportedly stated the memos were prepared one month after Zubaydah had already been subjected to the specific techniques authorized in an August 1, 2002, memo. John Kiriakou stated in July 2009 that Zubaydah was waterboarded in the early summer of 2002, months before the August 1, 2002, memo was written.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: The memo described ten techniques which the interrogators wanted to use: "(1) attention grasp, (2) walling, (3) facial hold, (4) facial slap (insult slap), (5) cramped confinement, (6) wall standing, (7) stress positions, (8) sleep deprivation, (9) insects placed in a confinement box, and (10) the waterboard." Many of the techniques were, until then, generally considered illegal. Many other techniques developed by the CIA were held to constitute inhumane and degrading treatment and torture under the United Nations Convention against Torture and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: As reported later, many of these interrogation techniques were previously considered illegal under U.S. and international law and treaties at the time of Zubaydah's capture. For instance, the United States had prosecuted Japanese military officials after World War II and American soldiers after the Vietnam War for waterboarding. Since 1930, the United States had defined sleep deprivation as an illegal form of torture. Many other techniques developed by the CIA constitute inhuman and degrading treatment and torture under the United Nations Convention against Torture, and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: At a CIA black site in Thailand, Zubaydah was subjected to various forms of increasingly harsh interrogation techniques, including temperature extremes, music played at debilitating volumes, and sexual humiliation. Zubaydah was also subjected to beatings, isolation, waterboarding, long-time standing, continuous cramped confinement, and sleep deprivation.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Former CIA analyst and case officer John Kiriakou asserted that while Zubaydah was in CIA custody, a box of cockroaches were poured on him inside of a coffin he was confined to for two weeks, because of an irrational fear Zubaydah has of cockroaches.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: During Zubaydah's interrogation, President Bush learned he was on painkillers for his wounds and was proving resistant. He said to the CIA director George Tenet, "Who authorized putting him on pain medication?" It was later reported that Zubaydah was denied painkillers during his interrogation.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Zubaydah was one of three or more high-value detainees to be waterboarded. The Bush administration in 2007 said that Zubaydah had been waterboarded once. John Kiriakou, a CIA officer who had seen the cables regarding Zubaydah's interrogation, publicly said in 2009 that Zubaydah was waterboarded once for 35 seconds before he started talking.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Intelligence sources claimed as early as 2008 that Zubaydah had been waterboarded no less than ten times in the span of one week. Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times within the month of August 2002, the month the CIA was authorized to use this enhanced interrogation techniques for him. In January 2010, Kiriakou, in a memoir, said, "Now we know that Zubaydah was waterboarded eighty-three times in a single month, raising questions about how much useful information he actually supplied."


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: In August 2010, the Associated Press reported that the CIA, having concluded its agents had gotten most of the information from Zubaydah, in September 2003 transferred him and three other high-value detainees to Guantanamo. They were held at what was informally known as "Strawberry Fields", a secret camp within the complex built especially for former CIA detainees. Concerned that a pending Supreme Court decision, "Rasul v. Bush" (2004), might go against the Bush administration and require providing the prisoners with counsel and having to reveal data about them, on March 27, 2004, the CIA took the four men back into custody and transported them out of Guantanamo to one of their secret sites. At the time, the moves were all kept secret.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: In February 2007, the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded a report on the treatment of "14 high-value detainees", who had been held by the CIA and, after September 2006, by the military at Guantanamo. The ICRC described the twelve enhanced interrogation techniques covered in the OLC memos to the CIA: suffocation by water (which is described as "torture" by numerous US officials), prolonged stress standing position, beatings by use of a collar, beating and kicking, confinement in a box, prolonged nudity, sleep deprivation, exposure to cold temperature, prolonged shackling, threats of ill-treatment, forced shaving, and deprivation/restricted provision of solid food. Zubaydah was the only detainee of the 14 interviewed who had been subjected to all 12 of these interrogation techniques. He was also the only one of the 14 detainees to be put into close confinement.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: The final memo mentioned Zubaydah several times. It claimed that due to the enhanced interrogation techniques, Zubaydah "provided significant information on two operatives, [including] José Padilla[,] who planned to build and detonate a 'dirty bomb' in the Washington DC area." This claim is strongly disputed by Ali Soufan, the FBI interrogator who first interrogated Zubaydah following his capture, by traditional means. He said the most valuable information was gained before torture was used. Other intelligence officers have also disputed that claim. Soufan, when asked in 2009 by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse during a Congressional hearing if the memo was incorrect, testified that it was. The memo noted that not all of the waterboarding sessions were necessary for Zubaydah, since the on-scene interrogation team determined he had stopped producing actionable intelligence. The memo reads:


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: This is not to say that the interrogation program has worked perfectly. According to the IG Report, the CIA, at least initially, could not always distinguish detainees who had information but were successfully resisting interrogation from those who did not actually have the information. See IG Report at 83–85. On at least one occasion, this may have resulted in what might be deemed in retrospect to have been the unnecessary use of enhanced techniques. On that occasion, although the on-scene interrogation team judged Zubaydah to be compliant, elements within CIA Headquarters still believed he was withholding information. See id at 84. At the direction of CIA Headquarters, interrogators therefore used the waterboard one more time on Zubaydah.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: John McLaughlin, former acting CIA director, stated in 2006, "I totally disagree with the view that the capture of Zubaydah was unimportant. Zubaydah was woven through all of the intelligence prior to 9/11 that signaled a major attack was coming, and his capture yielded a great deal of important information."


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: A published report in 2006 contended that Zubaydah was mentally unstable and that the administration had overstated his importance. Baloney. Zubaydah had been at the crossroads of many al-Qa'ida operations and was in position to – and did – share critical information with his interrogators. Apparently, the source of the rumor that Zubaydah was unbalanced was his personal diary, in which he adopted various personas. From that shaky perch, some junior Freudians leapt to the conclusion that Zubaydah had multiple personalities. In fact, Agency psychiatrists eventually determined that in his diary he was using a sophisticated literary device to express himself.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Zubaydah's capture was touted as the biggest of the War on Terror until that of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.<ref name="9/11MastermindNabbed">"Alleged 9-11 Mastermind Nabbed" CBS News, March 1, 2003</ref> The director of the FBI stated Zubaydah's capture would help deter future attacks.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: In a speech in 2006, President Bush claimed that Zubaydah revealed useful intelligence when enhanced interrogation was used, including identification of two important suspects and information that allegedly helped foil a terrorist attack on American soil. These claims directly conflict with the reports of the FBI agents who first interrogated Zubaydah. He gave them the names before torture was used, and the third piece of information came from other sources who had been receiving crucial pieces of information from him without the use of harsher techniques, as well as other government officials.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: The Bush administration relied on some of Zubaydah's claims in justifying the invasion of Iraq. U.S. officials stated that the allegations that Iraq and al-Qaeda were linked in the training of people on chemical weapons came from Zubaydah. The officials noted there was no independent verification of his claims.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: The U.S. government included statements made by Zubaydah in regards to al Qaeda's ability to obtain a dirty bomb to show a link between Iraq and al Qaeda. According to a Senate Intelligence Committee report of 2004, Zubaydah said that "he had heard that an important al Qaeda associate, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, and others had good relationships with Iraqi intelligence." However, the year before, in June 2003, Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed were reported as saying there was no link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: In the Senate Armed Services Committee 2008 report on the abuses of detainees, the Bush administration was described as having applied pressure to interrogators to find a link between Iraq and al Qaeda prior to the Iraq War. Major Paul Burney, a psychiatrist with the United States Army, said to the committee, "while we were [at Guantanamo] a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al Qaeda and Iraq and we were not being successful." He said that higher-ups were "frustrated" and applied "more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results."


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Colonel Lawrence B. Wilkerson, the former chief of staff for former Secretary of State Colin Powell said:


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Likewise, what I have learned is that as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May 2002—well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion—its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa'ida.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: So furious was this effort that on one particular detainee, even when the interrogation team had reported to Cheney's office that their detainee "was compliant" (meaning the team recommended no more torture), the VP's office ordered them to continue the enhanced methods. The detainee had not revealed any al-Qa'ida-Baghdad contacts yet. This ceased only after Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, under waterboarding in Egypt, "revealed" such contacts. Of course, later we learned that al-Libi revealed these contacts only to get the torture to stop.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: In 2004, media coverage of Abu Zubaydah began listing him as a "disappeared" prisoner, stating he had no access to the International Red Cross. In February 2005, the CIA was reported as uncomfortable keeping Zubaydah in indefinite custody. Less than 18 months later, Zubaydah and the thirteen other high-value detainees who had been in secret CIA custody were transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: After his transfer, the CIA denied access to Zubaydah. In 2008, the Office of the Inspector General, Department of Justice, complained that it had been prevented from seeing him, although it was conducting a study of the US treatment of its detainees.


title: Abu Zubaydah

text: Some people are concerned about Zubaydah's mental stability and how that has affected information he has given to interrogators. Ron Suskind noted in his book, "The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11" (2006), that Zubaydah was mentally ill or disabled due to a severe head injury. He described Zubaydah as keeping a diary "in the voice of three people: Hani 1, Hani 2, and Hani 3"—a boy, a young man and a middle-aged alter ego. Zubaydah's diaries spanned ten years and recorded in numbing detail "what he ate, or wore, or trifling things [people] said". Dan Coleman, then the FBI's top al-Qaeda analyst, told a senior bureau official, "This guy is insane, certifiable, split personality." According to Suskind, this judgment was "echoed at the top of CIA and was briefed to the President and Vice President." Coleman stated Zubaydah was a "safehouse keeper" with mental problems, who "claimed to know more about al-Qaeda and its inner workings than he really did."