EDMONTON (CP) - A former Mountie who lost his job after leaking police anti-biker strategy may get a chance to question his old boss after a court ruled his disciplinary hearing was unfair and ordered a new one.

"I would like to have the opportunity to cross-examine (RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli)," said former staff sergeant Bob Stenhouse, who wiped tears from his eyes Friday as he talked about his five-year fight with the RCMP.

"I would like to have the opportunity to cross-examine some very senior executives."

A March 12 judicial review from the Federal Court found that while the verdict in Stenhouse's 2001 hearing was fair, the punishment he received may be tainted.

It was wrong for Zaccardelli, who was closely involved with the prosecution of the case, to rule on the penalty, the court said.

"The decision of the commissioner is unreasonable with respect to bias, and must be set aside," wrote Justice Michael Kelen.

As well, the court found RCMP lawyers failed to produce documents that suggested senior officers may have ignored Stenhouse's concerns.

A 2000 memo from then-assistant commissioner Rob Leatherdale calls one memo that Stenhouse received "a strong signal that he had identified his frustrations and nobody listened."

Stenhouse, 42, then a much-decorated, 18-year veteran of the force with extensive undercover experience, landed in hot water in 1999 when he disclosed RCMP plans for outlaw biker gangs to a journalist. Stenhouse said that strategy left him frustrated and angry.

"I committed my life to fighting evil," he said. "I saw the ultimate bully, the Hells Angels, getting away with a lot of crime, a lot of murder, and yet I saw our response being more of a public relations response."

He immediately apologized to his superiors and colleagues when the documents appeared in Yves Lavigne's book Hells Angels at War.

But at his disciplinary hearing, he remained sharply critical of RCMP anti-gang tactics.

[. . . . ] "I believe that the RCMP overreacted to what I had done," he said. "I knew there was some influences that were probably inappropriate, so I thought I couldn't just roll over and die. I had to take this as far as I could.

[. . . . ] Stenhouse's status with the force is also being discussed, Marsh said.

[. . . . ] Stenhouse says that RCMP anti-gang tactics have changed, often along lines that he proposed years ago. [. . . .]

Canada's top Mountie, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, appeared to be "biased" in the case of former RCMP officer Bob Stenhouse, who leaked embarrassing internal documents to the author of a book on the Hells Angels, the Federal Court has ruled.

As a result, Zaccardelli's stamp of approval in June 2002 of an external review committee recommendation to fire the former staff sergeant for discreditable conduct must be set aside, the court ruled as a result of an appeal launched by Stenhouse.

The case has been referred back to the RCMP External Review Committee.

Ottawa Justice Michael Kelen also ordered that the commissioner must now delegate "the most senior officer not involved in the case" to make a decision on Stenhouse's fate for leaking the documents in the late '90s.

"The previous involvement of the commissioner in the applicant's disciplinary case cannot but give rise to a reasonable apprehension, which reasonably well-informed persons could properly have, of a biased appraisal and judgment by the commissioner," wrote Kelen in a March 12 decision.

Stenhouse . . . "It would appear the Federal Court is saying that the RCMP commissioner is accountable to his members," Stenhouse said Thursday.

"RCMP members are entitled to due process, fairness, and natural justice. This is a victory for all RCMP members and the public. It is a step in ensuring transparency and accountability when the RCMP deals with the disciplinary process of its members," he said.

[. . . .] The document in question was from Assistant Commissioner Rob Leatherdale. It suggested the RCMP did not properly consider or deal with Stenhouse's complaints and frustrations, particularly given his "stellar and unblemished career."

Other documents that were withheld pointed to the deep involvement of Zaccardelli, who at the time was deputy commissioner in charge of organized crime and operational policy.

Zaccardelli later excused himself from personal involvement in another disciplinary hearing involving an RCMP corporal.

Stenhouse eventually obtained all of these documents through the Freedom of Information Act.

In his appeal of the decision to terminate him, Stenhouse sought protection afforded to whistle-blowers.

[. . . .] In 1998 and 1999 Stenhouse gave confidential RCMP documents to Toronto author Yves Lavigne, assuming they would be used for background information.

The documents were published in full in Lavigne's 1999 book, Hells Angels at War.

Stenhouse confessed to having leaked the documents as soon as he learned they were in the book, always maintaining he did so out of frustration because RCMP were "doing little in the way of investigating" and were simply monitoring the Hells Angels.

[. . . .] Several RCMP members testified the release of the documents resulted in no harm, only embarrassment to the RCMP.

The RCMP adjudication board called Stenhouse, who headed a successful operation that saw an infiltration of the former Rebel outlaw motorcycle club, an "outstanding and courageous officer without any blemish on his record until the incident in question."

Throughout his career, the 18-year veteran received a number of promotions and a commendation for bravery.

"I still have tremendous love and respect for the RCMP and the policing profession," said Stenhouse.

"We all make errors in judgment and it is important to me that the public be assured of the inherent integrity and goodness of the vast majority of RCMP members. One or two errors in judgment by the people in power should not be the measuring stick for the profession and the RCMP as a whole," he said.

Montreal—Canadian taxpayers were billed more than $1.5 million for reports worth $50,000 or less, says a former executive at a Montreal ad firm now co-operating in the RCMP investigation of the Liberal government's sponsorship program.

"I'd say that you might have been able to do the same work for even $25,000," said Alain Richard, a former executive of Groupaction, a Montreal ad firm under investigation in the $250 million controversy. "Even then, you would have been happy with that piece of business for the amount of work it took — maybe three or four days."

One of the few past executives of Groupaction to speak on the record, Richard said that he was twice contacted by RCMP investigators, who are probing three federal contracts of $1.6 million to the firm.

Auditor-General Sheila Fraser says it is one of a number of Liberal party connected companies that squandered $100 million in taxpayers' money.

In an interview, Richard described astronomical profits and a champagne-style life at Groupaction. . . . fresh-cut flowers and executives enjoyed long, liquid lunches, often billed to the government without any real work being done. . . . $125 bottles of wine, two or three or more, where you'd sit and not really talk about anything," he recalled.

[. . . .] Richard recalled yesterday that he had seen then-public works minister Alfonso Gagliano numerous times while he was working at Groupaction.

[. . . .] Richard was fired at the end of 1997, a dismissal he says came after he asked questions about the sponsorship contracts and the bills submitted to Ottawa.

He said the Mounties, in late 2002, took him to their headquarters to review evidence they had collected, including three reports called Visibility Canada, which they took out of plastic evidence bags.

The reports, he said, were Groupaction products that presented lists of potential places that Ottawa could advertise its logo, as part of the $250 million sponsorship program to push national unity in Quebec after the 1995 referendum.

Richard said that aside from a different introduction and covering letters, which would have represented little work, the reports were identical and contained information that could have been easily lifted from the Internet. He said it would have taken only a few days for company employees to format that information into the reports he saw.

[. . . . The] Mounties showed him an invoice suggesting he had worked more than 300 hours on the Visibility Canada reports. The time was billed to the government at more than $50,000.

"I told them I had never worked on any government accounts," Richard said.

*** In fact, recent Quebec press reports put all three friends -- Ouellet, Lapierre and Lafleur -- at a sumptuous party which was hosted by Lafleur at the Montreal Casino where rare wines, fine cigars and foie gras were consumed.

Other reports claim that Mr. Lapierre has worked for Mr. Lafleur.

Living la dolce vita is something Mr. Ouellet has done ever since he agreed to get out of Mr. Chretien's way in 1996 by giving up his safe seat for a Chretien favorite, Pierre Pettigrew. His reward was the chairman's job at Canada Post which led to the CEO's job after capable CEO Georges Clermont, who says he was pushed out.

Mr. Ouellet ended up with the CEO's job in 1999 where it is rumoured he will make $500,000 this year in salary and bonuses. If true, this makes him Ottawa's highest paid civil servant. ***

Why hasn't Prime Minister Paul Martin fired Andre Ouellet, top trough artist and head of Canada Post? Why was he the only crown corporation CEO who was suspended with pay even though the Auditor-General's report on Adscam shows his crown corporation is more implicated than most in the sponsorship scandal?

The kid gloves treatment is due to a number of factors which link Paul Martin to the Liberal culture of corruption that he is trying to distance himself from.

For starters, Mr. Ouellet is a closeted Martin supporter, according to sources. Both men supported John Turner as opposed to Jean Chretien in that leadership tangle.

Both [Martin and Ouellet] are fans of Jean Lapierre, Ouellet's protege and friend who began as his aide, ran as a Liberal and became a Bloc Quebecois MP. Mr. Lapierre left politics and has been wooed out of his broadcast and consultancy career by Paul Martin to become his Quebec lieutenant and fixer. His candidacy was announced just before the sponsorship scandal broke.

Unfortunately, another one of Mr. Lapierre's and Mr. Ouellet's pals is at the epicentre of the scandal, Jean Lafleur of Lafleur Communications, now part of Groupaction. In fact, recent Quebec press reports put all three friends -- Ouellet, Lapierre and Lafleur -- at a sumptuous party which was hosted by Lafleur at the Montreal Casino where rare wines, fine cigars and foie gras were consumed.

Other reports claim that Mr. Lapierre has worked for Mr. Lafleur.

Living la dolce vita is something Mr. Ouellet has done ever since he agreed to get out of Mr. Chretien's way in 1996 by giving up his safe seat for a Chretien favorite, Pierre Pettigrew. His reward was the chairman's job at Canada Post which led to the CEO's job after capable CEO Georges Clermont, who says he was pushed out.
Mr. Ouellet ended up with the CEO's job in 1999 where it is rumoured he will make $500,000 this year in salary and bonuses. If true, this makes him Ottawa's highest paid civil servant.

[. . . .] Fraser writes, for example, "We are concerned about a lack of documentation to support payments made by Canada Post for the Maurice Richard [television] series. Canada Post paid L'Information essentielle $1,625,000 (plus taxes) with no signed contract. There was no signed proposal or written business case to support the decision to spend $1,625,000."

With such evidence at hand, it's incomprehensible that Paul Martin has not given Andre Ouellet a pink slip instead of a paid vacation. Why?

Nothing now looms so large in this stressed-out capital as nothing.

Nothing is what Auditor-General Sheila Fraser found when looking for taxpayer value in Quebec sponsorship advertising. And nothing is what she too often finds trying to retrace the money trail furiously obscured by self-serving politicians and a few obsequious bureaucrats.

[. . . .] After all, files with nothing in them were at the centre of the Human Resources grants and loans boondoggle and nothing is what defrocked cabinet minister and diplomat Alfonso Gagliano will likely remember today when he testifies to his former peers.

[. . . .] Fearing that the 20-year-old Access to Information Act will expose them to unwanted scrutiny, politicians, mandarins and savvy contractors now treat paper as the enemy. Oral reports are better than written, hard to trace e-mails trump letters and easily crumpled post-it notes fill the blanks in files.

In the word of Deputy Information Commissioner Alan Leadbeater, those demonstrably unprofessional practices are now rampant. So rampant, he says, that Ottawa's oral culture threatens to destroy the records needed by decision makers, investigators and historians.

But, deliciously, that secrecy is now being hoisted on its own petard. Suddenly those who didn't keep records are vulnerable to those who did and government contractors are scrambling to prove they were only paid for an honest day's work.

Nothing quite captures that change as well as Allan Cutler's appearance before the parliamentary committee that will hear from Gagliano. Along with documenting deals auditors couldn't find, the quintessentially mild-mannered civil servant is waving red flags at the issue that may yet prove most troubling for Paul Martin.

Cutler is focusing attention on the relationship between the Prime Minister and Earnscliffe, the Ottawa communications firm that rose to prominence when Tories were last in power and then made a seamless transition to Martin.

In a 1995 memo delivered to the committee, Cutler expresses misgivings about an unusual, perhaps unique in government, $15,000 monthly finance department retainer for Earnscliffe.

Normally, governments issue contracts for specific services; they don't keep firms on standby with the meter running.

But David Herle, an Earnscliffe partner and Liberal election co-chair, says the arrangement was good for the department, good for taxpayers.

[. . . .] Only the very naïve will be shocked if the various inquiries and police investigations prove that, along with registered campaign contributions, at least some of the advertising firms played a clandestine role in advancing the Liberal cause.

Here in Ottawa, that happens in other ways that too often blur the lines separating ministers from mandarins.

Polling and consulting carry a concealed partisan component and bureaucrats who serve one master too long forget to say "no" when asked to design policy that best fits an election platform.

It happens, too, when partisans morph too easily into public servants. Just for example, Gagliano will surely be asked today to explain how top aide Pierre Tremblay replaced Chuck Guité as the point man on advertising contracts.

Those are all fault lines in a system that has conveniently forgotten that records are what make it possible to demonstrate to an understandably cynical electorate that work was done for money spent, that there is a buffer between policy and politics, that the civil service is not hopelessly politicized. But that's not Ottawa's system.

Unlike the U.S., no law requires bureaucrats here to document decisions.

TORONTO -- A Canadian whose family has strong ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network pleaded with the federal government Friday to help his paralysed 14-year-old brother return to Canada from Pakistan.

Abdurahman Khadr, 21, described his brother Karim, who was badly injured in a clash with security forces that killed their father, as an innocent victim.

"As a child, forget what his father or his mother thinks," Khadr said at a news conference.

"As just a child, a Canadian child, I think he needs help."

Karim has been in a hospital in Pakistan since the shootout last October.

Khadr, who lives in Toronto, also pleaded with the Canadian government to ensure his mother and sister, who have expressed sympathy for al-Qaida, are able to return from Pakistan.

He said he worries they are under the spell of Muslim extremists and need to be away from them.

The Canadian government has denied them passports because they have repeatedly lost previous ones.

"My mother and my sister, they haven't done anything and I'm trying to save them before they do something," he said, noting they may try to travel illegally. [Mama Khadr helped raise a family of terrorists. The daughter, mother of children whom she would be happy to see become sahids or jihadists is a vocal spokesman for the right thinking of her family. She was quite happy to see Americans killed. Why would we want them here to help raise and create more little terrorists? NJC]

"That's why I want them to come back to Canada - to be away from that influence of al-Qaida."

[. . . .] Some facts:

Abdullah Khadr: Age 23. Whereabouts unknown but believed to be somewhere in Afghanistan.

Omar Khadr: Age 17. Held almost two years by the Americans in Guantanamo Bay.

Karim Khadr: Age 14. In hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Paralysed from the waist down in shootout with security forces last October.

Abdurahman Khadr: Age 21. Lives in Toronto. Returned to Canada last fall.

Zaynab Khadr (sister) and Maha Elsamna (mother): Living in Islamabad. Have previously refused assistance to return to Canada.

TORONTO - [. . . . ] Abdurahman Khadr, 21, a Canadian who was trained by al-Qaeda but says he later cooperated with the CIA, gave his impression of the elusive terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri at a news conference.

"I met him three times only, with my father," Mr. Khadr told reporters. "He's a very quiet type, as it seems. He's a mysterious person in al-Qaeda and that's as much as I know about him. I haven't seen him for almost two years and a half now."

He said al-Zawahiri was a friend of his father, Ahmed Khadr, a Canadian who went to the region in the 1980s to do aid work, and that both men shared a deep conviction in the al-Qaeda cause.

[. . . . ] At a hotel in downtown Toronto, Mr. Khadr pleaded with the federal government to help bring his family back to Canada, particularly his 14-year-old brother, Karim, who was injured in a shootout with Pakistani soldiers.

"He's in hospital [in Pakistan] and paralyzed. Karim has been through a lot and I think that he should be brought back to Canada," Mr. Khadr said, adding doctors had indicated he might walk again with proper medical treatment.

He also said Ottawa should be doing more to help his brother Omar, who is detained by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay after he was captured following a deadly firefight in Afghanistan.

"I'm pleading with the Canadian government to do more for him to be released, and the rest of my family," he said.

Although his sister and mother condoned suicide bombings in a CBC television interview recently, Mr. Khadr said Canadians should understand they are under the influence of al-Qaeda.

"I'm just saying that my family deserves one last chance. And it's just the life they've been dragged into by my father -- was the life where you had to hate an American to be part of it."

He said he believes his family members would soften their views once they returned to Canada.

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said the Khadrs are free to return to Canada at any time but they will have to pay their own way and the high commission in Islamabad will give them temporary travel permits rather than passports.

"What I'm saying is give them a chance to come back to Canada," Mr. Khadr said, standing with his lawyer.

"For Omar, I don't want you to let him go on the street, I want you to take him to court. Even the Americans are OK with me but I trust the Canadian court more, so I would want him to be tried here in Canada.

SHAWINIGAN, Que. (CP) — Jean Chrétien spoke out in defence of his political legacy today but the retired prime minister who prided himself as a political streetfighter declined to throw any punches at foes who questioned his integrity.

[. . . .] "You know, attacks are a part of life for a politician and you fight back. I loved to fight back but now I'm not in politics anymore."
He said he didn't have to offer any explanations for the sponsorship program [. . . .]

"I've already said I've answered 200 times in the House of Commons. There were 200 questions on this so I've had a chance to say in English and French and maybe a few times in joual (French slang). What do you want? I answered those questions. I don't answer questions about current affairs anymore."

[. . . . ] He added that the French newspaper L'Express said in December "that Canada was the country that the French people would like to be in. So that was when I left." [Thanks to JC and his claque, Canada has moved away from alignment and more toward France and the EU. NJC]

But the loudest cheers for Chrétien during a speech Thursday night came when he reminded his audience of 700 that it was the one-year anniversary of his decision not to join the American-led war in Iraq.

He cited the Iraq announcement as a "great day" for Canada.

"Because it was a chance for us to show we are an independent country, with its own convictions, principles and a policy that respects the international situation," he said. "We believe in the United Nations, we believe in peace in the world."

[. . . .] [Pierrette Bureau, owner of the Cafe Caloca ] said her restaurant was packed last summer because of the 60,000 visitors — many of them tourists — visiting the art exhibit Chrétien helped bring to the town.

[. . . .] Then he ended his speech with a twist on the habitual salute to Canada that usually concluded his addresses.

"Thank you very much. And vive Shawinigan!"

MANAMA, Bahrain (Reuters) -- Some 100 Bahraini Islamists shouting "God is Greatest" stormed a French restaurant serving alcohol in the pro-Western Gulf Arab state and threatened diners with knives, witnesses said Thursday.

One diner managed to wrest a knife away from the Islamists and stabbed one with it, causing him severe injuries, a witness said.

They said the assailants, opposed to the consumption of alcohol banned by Islam, also threw Molotov cocktails at customers' cars parked outside the restaurant near the capital Manama late Wednesday, damaging nine vehicles.

"Around 100 young men, shouting 'Allahu Akbar' [God is greatest], came to the restaurant carrying knives and shouted at the customers: 'Why do you drink?'" Jahanshah Bakhtiar, owner of La Terrasse Restaurant, said. [Maybe it's better than killing? NJC]

[. . . .] Bahrain, headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet and the Gulf's banking hub, has traditionally enjoyed a more liberal atmosphere than some of its more conservative neighbors.

It allows restaurants, bars and night clubs to serve alcohol but has recently witnessed a rise in protests against Western-style events deemed immoral by Islamists.

This is a fateful moment for the world's democracies. The question before us could not be plainer. Do we stand together against the mortal threat posed by Islamic totalitarianism and terror? Or do we allow these murderers to divide and defeat us?

For that is quite obviously their strategy: divide and conquer. If the events of the past week are anything to go by, it is working.

The commuter-train attacks in Madrid have succeeded beyond the terrorists' fondest hopes. Not only did they cause shocking bloodshed -- 202 dead as of yesterday, tying the toll of the Bali bombings in 2002 -- they also toppled their first government.

[. . . .] Imagine the grins and nods when he declared yesterday that the postwar occupation of Iraq is a "fiasco," and urged Americans to get rid of President George W. Bush. That was precisely what the terrorists wanted, and Mr. Zapatero handed it to them on a platter.

For months now, they have been working to break apart the coalition that is striving to stabilize and rebuild Iraq.

That is why they attacked the Red Cross and the United Nations in Baghdad. That is why they have murdered Italian policemen and Japanese diplomats and Spanish intelligence agents. That is why they attacked British targets in Istanbul, too. One by one, the members of the U.S.-led coalition have felt their sting.

Their aim is clear. By chasing everyone but the Americans out of Iraq, they hope to isolate the United States and portray its nation-building exercise in Iraq as a repressive occupation motivated by oil lust and imperial ambition -- a conspiracy theory that many in the West, not to mention the Islamic world, are all too ready to swallow.

[. . . .] Whatever Mr. Zapatero and his ilk may believe about the rights and wrongs of overthrowing Saddam Hussein in the first place, it is clear that if the extremists manage to break up the coalition and drive out the Americans before Iraq is ready to govern itself, they will have scored a historic victory.

It is just as clear that if the Americans and their allies succeed in planting a representative government in Iraq, the extremists will have suffered a loss that could turn the tide in the whole Arab world against them.

Al-Qaeda clearly grasps what is at stake. It is time the democracies understood, too. To beat terrorism, we have to win in Iraq. And to win in Iraq, we have to stay united when the bombs go off. There is no other way.

Retailers asked to sell Canadian flags to the federal Department of Public Works in the late 1990s didn't supply the merchandise but got kickbacks when they submitted fake invoices, CBC-TV's National News reported last night.

B.C. flag retailer Don Williams told the CBC his company received about $5,000 in return for a fake invoice documenting flags he never supplied.

[. . . . ] The CBC report didn't explain why the government would solicit fake invoices and pay for flags it didn't receive, nor where the flags the government distributed came from, though some retailers said they suspected they were cheap knock-offs made in China.

The flag giveaway lasted five years and cost at least $23 million.

[. . . . ] Another flag retailer, Doreen Braverman, said last week she, too, was paid for a phoney invoice. "It was a little kickback, yes," she told the CBC.

Braverman said she complained for years about the scheme to then-prime minister Jean Chrétien, Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano and Finance Minister Paul Martin.

Martin replied, in 1997, that it was Sheila Copps' jurisdiction.

OTTAWA—Auditor-General Sheila Fraser flushed deep red yesterday under grilling by Liberal MPs, who suggested her sponsorship program findings fed a public "misperception" that Liberals funnelled money "out the back door" into friendly ad firms.

Liberal MP Dennis Mills (Toronto Danforth) called it "the big lie" fuelled by her report.

Fraser found that of $250 million spent on the sponsorship program about 40 per cent, or $100 million, was spent on commissions and fees that went to a small group of hand-picked ad agencies, mostly in Quebec.

Fraser did not point out what public documents confirm — that the ad agencies were also generous contributors to the federal Liberal party.

But MP Beth Phinney (Hamilton Mountain) suggested yesterday Fraser jumped to conclusions, without enough documentation, about how the $100 million was spent.

Maybe, Phinney said, it's "like the HRDC billion-dollar boondoggle, which turned out to be $600 or something they couldn't find the paper for. There wasn't a billion dollars lost, but the opposition still uses those quotes."

[. . . .] Is it absolutely a fact that $100 million has disappeared illegally into somebody's pocket?"

"No," Fraser replied, "that was not a finding of the audit."

[. . . .] A visibly irritated Fraser responded: "Well, the point that we've said is that of a program of $250 million, $100 million went to communications agencies. We did not make an assessment of what would have been an appropriate amount for the management and production fees.... I would question that 40 per cent of the program is not a little high, but we are not saying it is or it isn't."

Phinney suggested Fraser stepped beyond her bounds as an auditor in concluding 40 per cent was "high" without having documents to help decide whether the government got value for its money.

Mills said he had difficulty understanding how an auditor could "judge the appropriateness or inappropriateness of a political intervention on a file."

[. . . .] But Fraser pointed out that even the government's own database did not track expenses and costs.

And in the case of hundreds of thousands of dollars in "production fees," work was further sub-contracted out and more commissions were paid, so it was impossible to get a clear picture what actual work was done for the money.

She offered "a personal comment" that everyone with a role in spending taxpayers' money has "a responsibility to do the right thing."

[. . . .] The challenges to Fraser's findings prompted Conservative MP Vic Toews (Provencher) to object to what he called a "full-scale attack" on Fraser and her report.

Nasty new viruses that can make computer users' financial and personal information available to hackers and are activated simply by looking at e-mail are working their way around the world, Internet security experts said Thursday.

The new and more dangerous variations of the Bagle virus -- first discovered in January -- have been unleashed with a new twist: users no longer have to open an accompanying attachment to get the virus.

[. . . .] the virus is still triggered if users try to save the message on computers that have already been patched with the Microsoft fix.

"We found that even a patched computer is still vulnerable if someone tries to save the message," Kwon said. "This means people are going to have to change the way they send messages to one another."

[. . . .] Microsoft's patch can be found at Microsoft.


BAGLE VIRUS HAS NEW VARIANTS

The new variants of the Bagle virus discovered Thursday are transmitted through an e-mail message without an attachment. The variants are known as Bagle-P, Bagle-Q,, Bagle-R, Bagle-S and Bagle-T.

[. . . .] Here are some of the randomly-chosen subject lines the virus selects when mailing itself to other computers:

* E-mail account security warning.
* Notify about using the e-mail account.
* Warning about your e-mail account.
* Important notify about your e-mail account.
* Email account utilization warning.
* E-mail technical support warning.
* Email report.
* Important notify.
* Account notify.
* E-mail warning.
* Re: Msg reply.
* Re: Hello.
* Re: Yahoo! -Re: Thank you!
* Re: Thanks :).
* Re: Document.
* RE: Text message.
* Incoming message.
* Encrypted document.

The viruses exploit a known flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Outlook programs. Microsoft's patch can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com.