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Editorial: Spiegel Interview With Iran's President Ahmadinejad: : "We Are Determined"
May 30, 2006
Der Spiegel
In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discusses the Holocaust, the future of the state of Israel, mistakes made by the United States in Iraq and Tehran's nuclear dispute with the West.
SPIEGEL: Mr. President, you are a soccer fan and you like to play soccer. Will you be sitting in the stadium in Nuremberg on June 11, when the Iranian national team plays against Mexico in Germany?
Ahmadinejad: It depends. Naturally, I'll be watching the game in any case. I don't know yet whether I'll be at home in front of the television set or somewhere else. My decision depends upon a number of things.
SPIEGEL: For example?
Ahmadinejad: How much time I have, how the state of various relationships are going, whether I feel like it and a number of other things.
SPIEGEL: There was great indignation in Germany when it became known that you might be coming to the soccer world championship. Did that surprise you?
Ahmadinejad: No, that's not important. I didn't even understand how that came about. It also had no meaning for me. I don't know what all the excitement is about.
SPIEGEL: It concerned your remarks about the Holocaust. It was inevitable that the Iranian president's denial of the systematic murder of the Jews by the Germans would trigger outrage.Ahmadinejad: I don't exactly understand the connection.
SPIEGEL: First you make your remarks about the Holocaust. Then comes the news that you may travel to Germany -- this causes an uproar. So you were surprised after all?
Ahmadinejad: No, not at all, because the network of Zionism is very active around the world, in Europe too. So I wasn't surprised. We were addressing the German people. We have nothing to do with Zionists.
SPIEGEL: Denying the Holocaust is punishable in Germany. Are you indifferent when confronted with so much outrage?
Ahmadinejad: I know that DER SPIEGEL is a respected magazine. But I don't know whether it is possible for you to publish the truth about the Holocaust. Are you permitted to write everything about it?
SPIEGEL: Of course we are entitled to write about the findings of the past 60 years' historical research. In our view there is no doubt that the Germans -- unfortunately -- bear the guilt for the murder of 6 million Jews.
Ahmadinejad: Well, then we have stirred up a very concrete discussion. We are posing two very clear questions. The first is: Did the Holocaust actually take place? You answer this question in the affirmative. So, the second question is: Whose fault was it? The answer to that has to be found in Europe and not in Palestine. It is perfectly clear: If the Holocaust took place in Europe, one also has to find the answer to it in Europe.
On the other hand, if the Holocaust didn't take place, why then did this regime of occupation ...
SPIEGEL: ... You mean the state of Israel...
Ahmadinejad: ... come about? Why do the European countries commit themselves to defending this regime? Permit me to make one more point. We are of the opinion that, if an historical occurrence conforms to the truth, this truth will be revealed all the more clearly if there is more research into it and more discussion about it.
SPIEGEL: That has long since happened in Germany.
Ahmadinejad: We don't want to confirm or deny the Holocaust. We oppose every type of crime against any people. But we want to know whether this crime actually took place or not. If it did, then those who bear the responsibility for it have to be punished, and not the Palestinians. Why isn't research into a deed that occurred 60 years ago permitted? After all, other historical occurrences, some of which lie several thousand years in the past, are open to research, and even the governments support this.
SPIEGEL: Mr. President, with all due respect, the Holocaust occurred, there were concentration camps, there are dossiers on the extermination of the Jews, there has been a great deal of research, and there is neither the slightest doubt about the Holocaust nor about the fact - we greatly regret this - that the Germans are responsible for it. If we may now add one remark: the fate of the Palestinians is an entirely different issue, and this brings us into the present.
Ahmadinejad: No, no, the roots of the Palestinian conflict must be sought in history. The Holocaust and Palestine are directly connected with one another. And if the Holocaust actually occurred, then you should permit impartial groups from the whole world to research this. Why do you restrict the research to a certain group? Of course, I don't mean you, but rather the European governments.
SPIEGEL: Are you still saying that the Holocaust is just "a myth?"
Ahmadinejad: I will only accept something as truth if I am actually convinced of it.
SPIEGEL: Even though no Western scholars harbor any doubt about the Holocaust?
Ahmadinejad: But there are two opinions on this in Europe. One group of scholars or persons, most of them politically motivated, say the Holocaust occurred. Then there is the group of scholars who represent the opposite position and have therefore been imprisoned for the most part. Hence, an impartial group has to come together to investigate and to render an opinion on this very important subject, because the clarification of this issue will contribute to the solution of global problems. Under the pretext of the Holocaust, a very strong polarization has taken place in the world and fronts have been formed. It would therefore be very good if an international and impartial group looked into the matter in order to clarify it once and for all. Normally, governments promote and support the work of researchers on historical events and do not put them in prison.
SPIEGEL: Who is that supposed to be? Which researchers do you mean?
Ahmadinejad: You would know this better than I; you have the list. There are people from England, from Germany, France and from Australia.
SPIEGEL: You presumably mean, for example, the Englishman David Irving, the German-Canadian Ernst Zündel, who is on trial in Mannheim, and the Frenchman Georges Theil, all of whom deny the Holocaust.
Ahmadinejad: The mere fact that my comments have caused such strong protests, although I'm not a European, and also the fact that I have been compared with certain persons in German history indicates how charged with conflict the atmosphere for research is in your country. Here in Iran you needn't worry.
SPIEGEL: Well, we are conducting this historical debate with you for a very timely purpose. Are you questioning Israel's right to exist?
Ahmadinejad: Look here, my views are quite clear. We are saying that if the Holocaust occurred, then Europe must draw the consequences and that it is not Palestine that should pay the price for it. If it did not occur, then the Jews have to go back to where they came from. I believe that the German people today are also prisoners of the Holocaust. Sixty million people died in the Second World War. World War II was a gigantic crime. We condemn it all. We are against bloodshed, regardless of whether a crime was committed against a Muslim or against a Christian or a Jew. But the question is: Why among these 60 million victims are only the Jews the center of attention?
SPIEGEL: That's just not the case. All peoples mourn the victims claimed by the Second World War, Germans and Russians and Poles and others as well. Yet, we as Germans cannot absolve ourselves of a special guilt, namely for the systematic murder of the Jews. But perhaps we should now move on to the next subject.
Ahmadinejad: No, I have a question for you. What kind of a role did today's youth play in World War II?
SPIEGEL: None.
Ahmadinejad: Why should they have feelings of guilt toward Zionists? Why should the costs of the Zionists be paid out of their pockets? If people committed crimes in the past, then they would have to have been tried 60 years ago. End of story! Why must the German people be humiliated today because a group of people committed crimes in the name of the Germans during the course of history?
SPIEGEL: The German people today can't do anything about it. But there is a sort of collective shame for those deeds done in the German name by our fathers or grandfathers.
Ahmadinejad: How can a person who wasn't even alive at the time be held legally responsible?
SPIEGEL: Not legally but morally.
Ahmadinejad: Why is such a burden heaped on the German people? The German people of today bear no guilt. Why are the German people not permitted the right to defend themselves? Why are the crimes of one group emphasized so greatly, instead of highlighting the great German cultural heritage? Why should the Germans not have the right to express their opinion freely?
SPIEGEL: Mr. President, we are well aware that German history is not made up of only the 12 years of the Third Reich. Nevertheless, we have to accept that horrible crimes have been committed in the German name. We also own up to this, and it is a great achievement of the Germans in post-war history that they have grappled critically with their past.
Ahmadinejad: Are you also prepared to tell that to the German people?
SPIEGEL: Oh yes, we do that.
Ahmadinejad: Then would you also permit an impartial group to ask the German people whether it shares your opinion? No people accepts its own humiliation.
SPIEGEL: All questions are allowed in our country. But of course there are right-wing radicals in Germany who are not only anti-Semitic, but xenophobic as well, and we do indeed consider them a threat.
Ahmadinejad: Let me ask you one thing: How much longer can this go on? How much longer do you think the German people have to accept being taken hostage by the Zionists? When will that end - in 20, 50, 1,000 years?
SPIEGEL: We can only speak for ourselves. DER SPIEGEL is nobody's hostage; SPIEGEL does not deal only with Germany's past and the Germans' crimes. We're not Israel's uncritical ally in the Palestian conflict. But we want to make one thing very clear: We are critical, we are independent, but we won't simply stand by without protest when the existential right of the state of Israel, where many Holocaust survivors live, is being questioned.
Ahmadinejad: Precisely that is our point. Why should you feel obliged to the Zionists? If there really had been a Holocaust, Israel ought to be located in Europe, not in Palestine.
SPIEGEL: Do you want to resettle a whole people 60 years after the end of the war?
Ahmadinejad: Five million Palestinians have not had a home for 60 years. It is amazing really: You have been paying reparations for the Holocaust for 60 years and will have to keep paying up for another 100 years. Why then is the fate of the Palestinians no issue here?
SPIEGEL: The Europeans support the Palestinians in many ways. After all, we also have an historic responsibility to help bring peace to this region finally. But don't you share that responsibility?
Ahmadinejad: Yes, but aggression, occupation and a repetition of the Holocaust won't bring peace. What we want is a sustainable peace. This means that we have to tackle the root of the problem. I am pleased to note that you are honest people and admit that you are obliged to support the Zionists.
SPIEGEL: That's not what we said, Mr. President.
Ahmadinejad: You said Israelis.
SPIEGEL: Mr. President, we're talking about the Holocaust because we want to talk about the possible nuclear armament of Iran -- which is why the West sees you as a threat.
Ahmadinejad: Some groups in the West enjoy calling things or people a threat. Of course you're free to make your own judgment.
SPIEGEL: The key question is: Do you want nuclear weapons for your country?
Ahmadinejad: Allow me to encourage a discussion on the following question: How long do you think the world can be governed by the rhetoric of a handful of Western powers? Whenever they hold something against someone, they start spreading propaganda and lies, defamation and blackmail. How much longer can that go on?
SPIEGEL: We're here to find out the truth. The head of state of a neighboring country, for example, told SPIEGEL: "They are very keen on building the bomb." Is that true?
Ahmadinejad: You see, we conduct our discussions with you and the European governments on an entirely different, higher level. In our view, the legal system whereby a handful of countries force their will on the rest of the world is discriminatory and unstable. One-hundred and thirty-nine countries, including us, are members of the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) in Vienna. Both the statutes of IAEA and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as well as all security agreements grant the member countries the right to produce nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes. That is the legitimate legal right of any people. Beyond this, however, IAEA was also established to promote the disarmament of those powers that already possessed nuclear weapons. And now look at what's happening today: Iran has had an excellent cooperation with IAEA. We have had more than 2,000 inspections of our plants, and the inspectors have obtained more than 1,000 pages of documentation from us. Their cameras are installed in our nuclear centers. IAEA has emphasized in all its reports that there are no indications of any irregularities in Iran. That is one side of this matter.
SPIEGEL: IAEA doesn't quite share your view of this matter.
Ahmadinejad: But the other side is that there are a number of countries that possess both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. They use their atomic weapons to threaten other peoples. And it is these powers who say that they are worried about Iran deviating from the path of peaceful use of atomic energy. We say that these powers are free to monitor us if they are worried. But what these powers say is that the Iranians must not complete the nuclear fuel cycle because deviation from peaceful use might then be possible. What we say is that these countries themselves have long deviated from peaceful usage. These powers have no right to talk to us in this manner. This order is unjust and unsustainable.
SPIEGEL: But, Mr. President, the key question is: How dangerous will this world become if even more countries become nuclear powers -- if a country like Iran, whose president makes threats, builds the bomb in a crisis-ridden region?
Ahmadinejad: We're fundamentally opposed to the expansion of nuclear-weapons arsenals. This is why we have proposed the formation of an unbiased organization and the disarmament of the nuclear powers. We don't need any weapons. We're a civilized, cultured people, and our history shows that we have never attacked another country.
SPIEGEL: Iran doesn't need the bomb that it wants to build?
Ahmadinejad: It's interesting to note that European nations wanted to allow the shah's dictatorship the use of nuclear technology. That was a dangerous regime. Yet those nations were willing to supply it with nuclear technology. Ever since the Islamic Republic has existed, however, these powers have been opposed to it. I stress once again, we don't need any nuclear weapons.
We stand by our statements because we're honest and act legally. We're no fraudsters. We only want to claim our legitimate right. Incidentally, I never threatened anyone - that, too, is part of the propaganda machine that you've got running against me.
SPIEGEL: If this were so, shouldn't you be making an effort to ensure that no one need fear your producing nuclear weapons that you might use against Israel, thus possibly unleashing a world war? You're sitting on a tinderbox, Mr. President.
Ahmadinejad: Allow me to say two things. No people in the region are afraid of us. And no one should instill fear in these peoples. We believe that if the United States and these two or three European countries did not interfere, the peoples in this region would live peacefully together as they did in the thousands of years before. In 1980, it was also the nations of Europe and the United States that encouraged Saddam Hussein to attack us.
Our stance with respect to Palestine is clear. We say: Allow those to whom this country belongs to express their opinion. Let Jews, Christians and Muslims say what they think. The opponents of this proposal prefer war and threaten the region. Why are the United States and these two or three European nations opposed to this? I believe that those who imprison Holocaust researchers prefer war to peace. Our stance is democratic and peaceful.
SPIEGEL: The Palestinians have long gone a step further than you and recognize Israel as a fact, while you still wish to erase it from the map. The Palestinians are ready to accept a two-state solution while you deny Israel its right to existence.
Ahmadinejad: You're wrong. You saw that the Palestinian people elected Hamas in free elections. We argue that neither you nor we should claim to speak for the Palestian people. The Palestinians themselves should say what they want. In Europe it is customary to call a referendum on any issue. We should also give the Palestinians the opportunity to express their opinion.
SPIEGEL: The Palestinians have the right to their own state, but in our view the Israelis naturally have the same right.
Ahmadinejad: Where did the Israelis come from?
SPIEGEL: Well, if we tried to work out where people have come from, the Europeans would have to return to east Africa where all humans originated.
Ahmadinejad: We're not talking about the Europeans; we're talking about the Palestinians. The Palestinians were there, in Palestine. Now 5 million of them have become refugees. Don't they have a right to live?
SPIEGEL: Mr. President, doesn't there come a time when one should accept that the world is the way it is and that we must accept the status quo? The war against Iraq has put Iran in a favorable position. The United States has suffered a de facto defeat in Iraq. Isn't it now time for Iran to become a constructive power of peace in the Middle East? Which would mean giving up its nuclear plans and inflammatory talk?
Ahmadinejad: I'm wondering why you're adopting and fanatically defending the stance of the European politicians. You're a magazine, not a government. Saying that we should accept the world as it is would mean that the winners of World War II would remain the victorious powers for another 1,000 years and that the German people would be humiliated for another 1,000 years. Do you think that is the correct logic?
SPIEGEL: No, that's not the right logic, nor is it true. The Germans have played a modest, but important role in post-war developments. They do not feel as though they have been humiliated and dishonored since 1945. We are too self-confident for that. But today we want to talk about Iran's current mission.
Ahmadinejad: Then we would accept that Palestinians are killed every day, that they die in terrorist attacks, and that houses are being destroyed. But let me say something about Iraq. We have always favored peace and security in the region. For eight years, the Western countries provided arms to Saddam in the war against us, including chemical weapons, and gave him political support. We were against Saddam and suffered severely because of him, so we're happy that he has been toppled. But we don't accept a whole country being swallowed under the pretext of wanting to topple Saddam. More than 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives under the rule of the occupying forces. Fortunately, the Germans haven't been involved in this. We want security in Iraq.
SPIEGEL: But, Mr. President, who is swallowing Iraq? The United States has practically lost this war. By cooperating constructively, Iran might help the Americans consider their retreat from the country.
Ahmadinejad: This is very interesting: The Americans occupy the country, kill people, sell the oil and when they have lost, they blame others. We have very close ties to the Iraqi people. Many people on both sides of the border are related. We have lived side by side for thousands of years. Our holy pilgrimage sites are located in Iraq. Just like Iran, Iraq used to be a center of civilization.
SPIEGEL: What are you trying to say?
Ahmadinejad: We have always said that we support the popularly elected government of Iraq. But in my view the Americans are doing a bad job. They have sent us messages several times asking us for help and cooperation. They have said that we should talk together about Iraq. We publicly accepted this offer, although our people do not trust the Americans. But America has responded negatively and insulted us. Even now we're contributing to security in Iraq. We will hold talks only if the Americans change their behavior.
SPIEGEL: Do you enjoy provoking the Americans and the rest of the world now and then?
Ahmadinejad: No, I'm not insulting anyone. The letter that I wrote to Mr. Bush was polite.
SPIEGEL: We don't mean insult, but provoke.
Ahmadinejad: No, we feel animosity toward no one. We're concerned about the American soldiers who die in Iraq. Why do they have to die there? This war makes no sense. Why is there war when there is reason as well?
SPIEGEL: Is your letter to the president also a gesture toward the Americans that you wish to enter into direct negotiations?
Ahmadinejad: We clearly stated our position in this letter on how we view the problems in the world. Some powers have befouled the political atmosphere in the world because they consider lies and fraud to be legitimate. In our view that is very bad. We believe that all people deserve respect. Relationships have to be regulated on the basis of justice. When justice reigns, peace reigns. Unjust conditions aren't sustainable, even if Ahmadinejad does not criticize them.
SPIEGEL: This letter to the American president includes a passage about Sept. 11, 2001. The quote: "How could such an operation be planned and implemented without the coordination with secret and security services or without the far-reaching infiltration of these services?" Your statements always include so many innuendos. What is that supposed to mean? Did the CIA help Mohammed Atta and the other 18 terrorists conduct their attacks?
Ahmadinejad: No, that's not what I meant. We think that they should just say who is to blame. They should not use Sept. 11 as an excuse to launch a military attack against the Middle East. They should take those who are responsible for the attacks to court. We're not opposed to that; we condemned the attacks. We condemn any attack against innocent people.
SPIEGEL: In this letter you also write that Western liberalism has failed. What makes you say that?
Ahmadinejad: You see, for example you have a thousand definitions of the Palestian problem and you offer all sorts of different definitions of democracy in its various forms. It does not make sense that a phenomenon depends on the opinions of many individuals who are free to interpret the phenomenon as they wish. You can't solve the problems of the world that way. We need a new approach. Of course we want the free will of the people to reign, but we need sustainable principles that enjoy universal acceptance - such as justice. Iran and the West agree on this.
SPIEGEL: What role can Europe play in the resolution of the nuclear conflict, and what do you expect of Germany?
Ahmadinejad: We have always cultivated good relations with Europe, especially with Germany. Our two peoples like each other. We're eager to deepen this relationship.
Europe has made three mistakes with respect to our people. The first mistake was to support the shah's government. This has left our people disappointed and discontent. However, by offering asylum to Imam Khomeini, France earned a special position that it lost again later. The second mistake was to support Saddam in his war against us. The truth is that our people expected Europe to be on our side, not against us. The third mistake was Europe's stance on the nuclear issue. Europe will be the big loser and will achieve nothing. We don't want to see that happen.
SPIEGEL: What will happen now in the conflict between the West and Iran?
Ahmadinejad: We understand the Americans' logic. They suffered damage as a result of the victory of the Islamic Revolution. But we're puzzled why some European countries are opposed to us. I sent out a message on the nuclear issue, asking why the Europeans were translating the Americans' words for us. After all, they know that our actions are aimed toward peace. By siding with Iran, the Europeans would serve their own and our interests. But they will suffer only damage if they oppose us. For our people is strong and determined.
The Europeans risk losing their position in the Middle East entirely, and they are ruining their reputation in other parts of the world. The others will think that the Europeans aren't capable of solving problems.
SPIEGEL: Mr. President, we thank you for this interview.
Interview conducted by Stefan Aust, Gerhard Spörl and Dieter Bednarz in Tehran.
Original
Comment on this Editorial
Editorial: Remember Vote Fraud: A Review - Part 1
by Mark S. Tucker
OpEdNews.com
May 29, 2006
It's Election Time, Don't Let Your Guard Down
On January 15, 2006, in OpEdNews, which has not been loathe to cover the issue, I wrote "Vote Fraud: Our #1 Concern - Exposing Lies Kills 'The Fruit of the Poison Tree' ", which can be read here.
As June 6 draws near, however, the absolute silence in mainstream media on this issue should be causing extreme anxiety in most everyone. Not only is it the most important subject in our country, bar none (because nothing can proceed properly without a clean vote...nothing), but the indications of past prolificities of the debacle and the drop-dead likelihood of it occurring once again, when the conservative boat is in so precarious a position, is nearly 100%. The matter left to address, then, is: how widespread will it be?
This we cannot know until after all is said and done. Though I'm hoping for some scandalous exposés of fell activities caught amidships the very day of the elections, brought forth by zealous election watchers, with Republicans hip to the fact their scam is known, how much more sophisticated can we imagine the new wave of attack will be?
Here in my district, Congressional candidate Marcy Winograd is leaving nothing to chance. She's organizing observation teams to monitor polling places throughout the day, from the moment they open until the second they close. Her plan is well thought out, disciplined, all inclusive, and with good reason: her opponent is Jane Harman, a self-confessed "Republican Democrat" and a woman fighting for her political life in every possible way (Nancy Pelosi recently came out squarely against Harman). Many of us here in the 36th have no doubt that there may very easily be an attempt to pull more of the Vote Fraud of the past and we're preparing for it, with Winograd as the focus point. After all, Harman has been a key Intel affiliate and the Intel community has been extraordinarily cowardly about the VOTE FRAUD issue, consummately so, remaining stolidly silent, refusing to comment or investigate something they have cardinal knowledge about and which should shock them to the depths of their carnivorous souls.
John Perkins' unbelievable exposé, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, directly and by implication leaves no doubt that Vote Fraud would be a hit man activity, a crucial one. We're presently under attack through it. The evidence is abundant once one stops being programmed by Rupert Murdoch & Co. (Hillary's new bestest bud). What all that really means, I'll leave for another time, that it's even present should be more than alarming. That it needs to be expunged is paramount.
There's still time to look after your own district and I cannot recommend highly enough that you do. Just follow the Winograd Method: 1) any campaign can send reps to monitor and check against its roles who has and has not voted, 2) it can check voter rolls and call those who haven't voted, and 3) it can also just poll watch. This last may be the most important.
Toward addressing this, what can be done pre-emptively is to remind everyone of many of the details uncovered to this point in Vote Fraud. Herewith, then, a decent, but perhaps occasionally somewhat duplicative, selection of overviews (credited where I could):
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In "Kerry Won", by Greg Palast (Nov. 4, 2004 - TomPaine.com), we read that:
* Kerry won...Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry...CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state...Although the exit polls show that most voters in Ohio punched cards for Kerry-Edwards, thousands of these votes were simply not recorded.
* ...in Florida in 2000. Exit polls showed Gore with a plurality of at least 50,000, but it didn't match the official count. That's because the official, Secretary of State Katherine Harris, excluded 179,855 spoiled votes...Expert statisticians investigating spoilage for the government calculated that 54 percent of the ballots thrown in the dumpster were cast by black folks.
* In Ohio, Wisconsin, and Florida, the GOP laid plans for poll workers to ambush citizens under arcane laws-almost never used, allowing party-designated poll watchers to finger individual voters and demand they be denied a ballot. The Ohio courts were horrified...But our Supreme Court was prepared to let Republicans stand in the voting booth door.
* New Mexico. Hispanic voters in the Enchanted State, who voted more than two to one for Kerry, are five times as likely to have their vote spoil as a white voter. Counting these uncounted votes would easily overtake the Bush 'plurality.'
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Peter Schurman in "Subject: Investigate the Vote" (MoveOn.org - Nov. 11, 2004) wrote:
* Six prominent members of Congress have requested an investigation into the integrity of the vote.
* In Broward County, Florida, electronic voting machines counted backwards: as more people voted, the official vote count went down.
* In one Columbus, Ohio, suburb, election officials have acknowledged that electronic voting machines credited Bush with winning 4,258 votes, even though only 638 people voted there.
* There were also lots of reports of people being denied ballots on Election Day.
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Palast then penned "Kerry Won Ohio - Just Count the Ballots at the Back of the Bus" (In These Times - Nov. 12, 2004):
* In a typical presidential election, two million ballots are simply chucked in the garbage, marked "spoiled" and not counted...In a careful county-by-county, precinct-by-precinct analysis of the Florida 2000 race, the US Civil Rights Commission discovered that 54% of the votes in the spoilage bin were cast by African-Americans...The other million in the no-count pit come mainly from Hispanic, Native-American and poor white precincts, a decidedly Democratic demographic.
* In Florida in 2000, federal investigators determined that Black voters' ballots spoiled 900% more often than white voters, mainly due to punch card error. Ohio Republicans found those racial odds quite attractive. The state was the only one of fifty to refuse to eliminate or fix these vote-eating machines, even in the face of a lawsuit by the ACLU.
* The [ACLU]'s expert testimony concluded that Ohio's cussed insistence on forcing 73% of its electorate to use punch card machines had an "overwhelming" racial bias, voiding votes mostly in Black precincts.
* For the first time in memory, the Secretary of State has banned counting ballots cast in the "wrong" precinct, though all neighborhoods share the same President. Over 155,000 Ohio voters were shunted to these second-class ballots. The election-shifting bulge in provisional ballots (more than 3% of the electorate) was the direct result of the national Republican strategy that targeted African-American precincts for mass challenges on election day.
* We found that every single address of the thousands on these Republican hit lists was located in Black-majority precincts.
* ...Kerry became the first presidential candidate in history to break a campaign promise after losing an election. The Senator waited less than 24 hours to abandon more than a quarter million Ohio voters still waiting for their provisional and chad-spoiled ballots to be counted...Given the odds and the cost to his political career, Kerry bent, not to the will of the people, but to the will to power of the Ohio Republican machine.
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Steven Rosenfeld's "The Perfect Election Day Crime" (Nov. 12, 2004) noted:
* ...the big unanswered question of Nov. 2, 2004, is which tactic, technical breakdown, or error lost the most votes.
* Across Ohio's minority-rich cities, there were fewer voting machines than during past elections, including March's presidential primary. The lack of voting machines was a disaster...The shortage of voting machines didn't just create long lines. It kept thousands of new and longtime voters from casting ballots in the state's minority communities - the Democratic strongholds.
* "It's interesting to note that the inner-city precincts where we spent most of our time working, turnout was about 50 percent higher than it was in 2000," Clark said. "Yet the Franklin County Board of Elections moved voting machines from the inner city precincts out to the suburbs...."
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I have no clue as to this one's origin, but it's necessary to know:
* For meticulous calculations and a clear, scholarly analysis of the election exit poll anomalies, please read this treatise by Professor Steven Freeman, Ph.D., a statistician at the University of Pennsylvania, which conclusively proves that there is only 1 chance in 250 MILLION that the 3 main exit polls (OH, FL, PA) could all be wrong. In essence, it is virtually impossible. The inescapable conclusion is that fraud was the cause and the election was stolen: http://truthout.org/unexplainedexitpoll.pdf
* Another compelling analysis of exit polls was conducted by Colin Shea, who looks at a variety of factors. He focuses on an analysis of Florida by Kathy Dopp, which revealed one over-riding factor: whether the county used electronic touch-screen voting, or paper ballots which were optically scanned into a computer. ALL of those with touch-screen voting had results relatively in line with expected results, while ALL of those with extreme variance were in counties with optical scanning and ALL that had unexpected results favored Bush: http://ustogether.org/
* More important proof from Bev Harris on HOW the Diebold system was hacked is at: http://www.blackboxvoting.org
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Even the normally wimpy Center for American Progress (11/10/04) said:
* EXTRA VOTES: Ever since election night, the evidence has mounted that computer glitches in electronic voting machines caused substantial errors. In a suburban Columbus precinct in Ohio, "An electronic voting machine added 3,893 votes to President Bush's tally...even though there are just 800 voters there."
* MSNBC's Keith Olbermann reported that "in Cuyahoga County, that is greater Cleveland, the official records of 29 different voting precincts show more votes than registered voters to a total of 93,000 extra votes in that county alone."
* Similar glitches were discovered in e-voting machines across the country. In Broward County, FL, "software subtracted votes rather than added them." There were as many as 10,000 extra e-votes cast in Nebraska and 19,000 mysterious "extra ballots" were added on electronic machines elsewhere in Florida.
* In North Carolina's Carteret County, "more than 4,000 early votes were lost because the electronic voting system could not store the volume of votes it received."
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Allen L Roland's "How The Election Was Stolen" showed this chilling stat chart:
* You may have seen the associated press story about the precinct in Cuyahoga county, Ohio that had less than 1,000 voters, and gave Bush almost 4,000 extra votes. But that turns out to be only the tip of a very ugly iceberg...In last Tuesday's election, 29 precincts in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, reported votes cast IN EXCESS of the number of registered voters - at least 93,136 extra votes total. And the numbers are right there on the official Cuyahoga County Board of Elections website:
Bay Village............................13,710 registered voters / 18,663 ballots cast
Beachwood..........................9,943 registered voters / 13,939 ballots cast
Bedford.................................9,942 registered voters / 14,465 ballots cast
Bedford Heights..................8,142 registered voters / 13,512 ballots cast
Brooklyn................................8,016 registered voters / 12,303 ballots cast
Brooklyn Heights.................1,144 registered voters / 1,869 ballots cast
Chagrin Falls Village..........3,557 registered voters / 4,860 ballots cast
Cuyahoga Heights..............570 registered voters / 1,382 ballots cast
Fairview Park .......................13,342 registered voters / 18,472 ballots cast
Highland Hills Village.........760 registered voters / 8,822 ballots cast
Independence......................5,735 registered voters / 6,226 ballots cast
Mayfield Village.....................2,764 registered voters / 3,145 ballots cast
Middleburg Heights.............12,173 registered voters / 14,854 ballots cast
Moreland Hills Village.........2,990 registered voters / 4,616 ballots cast
North Olmstead....................25,794 registered voters / 25,887 ballots cast
Olmstead Falls.....................6,538 registered voters / 7,328 ballots cast
Pepper Pike...........................5,131 registered voters / 6,479 ballots cast
Rocky River............................16,600 registered voters / 20,070 ballots cast
Solon (WD6)..........................2,292 registered voters / 4,300 ballots cast
South Euclid.......................... 16,902 registered voters / 16,917 ballots cast
Strongsville (WD3)................7,806 registered voters / 12,108 ballots cast
University Heights.................10,072 registered voters / 11,982 ballots cast
Valley View Village.................1,787 registered voters / 3,409 ballots cast
Warrensville Heights.............10,562 registered voters / 15,039 ballots cast
Woodmere Village.................558 registered voters / 8,854 ballots cast
Bedford (CSD)........................22,777 registered voters / 27,856 ballots cast
Independence (LSD).............5,735 registered voters / 6,226 ballots cast
Orange (CSD).........................11,640 registered voters / 22,931 ballots cast
Warrensville (CSD)................12,218 registered voters / 15,822 ballots cast
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Alan Waldman's 11/18/04 "Was it hacked?", from the Orlando Weekly, showed:
* Consider that The Wall Street Journal recently revealed that "Verified Voting, a group formed by a Stanford University professor to assess electronic voting, has collected 31,000 reports of election fraud and other problems."
* Unlike Europe, where citizens count the ballots, in the United States employees of a highly secretive Republican-leaning company, ES&S, managed every aspect of the 2004 election. That included everything from registering voters, printing ballots and programming voting machines to tabulating votes (often with armed guards keeping the media and members of the public who wished to witness the count at bay) and reporting the results, for 60 million voters in 47 states, according to Christopher Bollyn, writing in American Free Press. Most other votes were counted by three other firms that are snugly in bed with the GOP.
* In Georgia, in November 2002, Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes led by 11 percent and Democratic Sen. Max Cleland was in front by 5 percent just before the election, the first ever conducted entirely on touch-screen electronic machines, and counted entirely by company employees, rather than public officials, but mysterious election-day swings of 16 percent and 12 percent defeated both of these popular incumbents.
* In Minnesota, Democrat Walter Mondale (replacing beloved Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash), lost in an amazing last-moment 11 percent vote swing recorded on electronic machines.
* Then, in 2003, what's known as "black box voting" helped Arnold Schwarzenegger - who had deeply offended female, Latino, and Jewish voters - defeat a popular Latino Democrat who substantially led in polls a week before the election.
* Florida Democratic congressional candidate Jeff Fisher charged that he has and will show the FBI evidence that Florida results were hacked; he also claims to have knowledge of who hacked it -- in 2004 and in the 2002 Democratic primary...
* On a CNBC cable TV program, Black Box Voting exec Harris showed guest host Howard Dean how to alter vote totals within 90 seconds, by entering a two-digit code in a hidden program on Diebold's election software. Harris declared, "This is not a 'bug' or accidental oversight; it is there on purpose."
* A quartet of companies control the U.S. vote count. Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia, and SAIC are all hard-wired into the Bush campaign and power structure. Diebold chief Walden O'Dell is a top Bush fund-raiser. According to "online anarchist community" Infoshop.org, "At Diebold, the election division is run by Bob Urosevich. Bob's brother, Todd, is a top executive at 'rival' ES&S. The brothers were originally staked by Howard Ahmanson, a member of the Council For National Policy, a right-wing steering group stacked with Bush true believers. Ahmanson is also one of the bagmen behind the extremist Christian Reconstruction Movement, which advocates the theocratic takeover of American democracy." Sequoia is owned by a partner member of the Carlyle Group, which is believed to have dictated foreign policy in both Bush administrations and has employed former President Bush for quite a while.
* Kathy Dopp's eye-opening examination of Florida's county-by-county record of votes cast and people registered by party affiliation (http://ustogether.org/florida_election.htm) suggests systematic and widespread election fraud in 47 of the state's 67 counties.
* Colin Shea of Zogby International analyzed and double-checked Dopp's figures and confirmed that optical-scan counties gave Bush 16 percent more votes than he should have gotten.
* In 47 Florida counties, the number of presidential votes exceeded the number of registered voters. Palm Beach County recorded 90,774 more votes than voters and Miami-Dade had 51,979 more, while relatively honest Orange County had only 1,648 more votes than voters. Overall, Florida reported 237,522 more presidential votes (7.59 million) than citizens who turned out to cast ballots (7.35 million).
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Someone noted that:
* Columnist and editor of the Chicago Tribune Media Service, Robert Koehler's article on election fraud was rejected, for first time in his career.
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In Mother Jones, Andrew Gumbel Interviewed By Julian Brookes in "Steal This Vote" (10/18/05):
* Gumbel, an award-winning U.S. correspondent for the London Independent, was one of the first journalists to sound the alarm about electronic voting machines. He recently spoke with Mother Jones by phone from his home in southern California.
* Well, the first thing was the impeachment of Bill Clinton, which didn't strike me as being grassroots democracy at its finest. And then there was the 2000 election, and the very weird, utterly baffling 36-day battle in Florida...
* The short answer is that it has fundamentally to do with the two-party system and the way it has developed. Both the Republicans and the Democrats over the past century have shown more interest in preserving than reforming a system that does not involve all of the voters. The US has had a low turnout rate for the past 100 years, and the parties are much more interested in controlling the voters they know than in expanding the electorate or having other parties crashing in on their duopoly.
* You don't have to go very far back in time to see a period where it's the Democrats who were the greater perpetrators. I reject the idea that the Republicans are the bad guys and the Democrats the good guys. It tends to be much more structural than that, more a question of how high the stakes are and who has the opportunity.
* Well, there isn't really an open market in voting machines. They tend to be sold very much on a local basis. There is no oversight of the technical standards, nor is there oversight of the prices that are being charged for these machines....The problem with the certification process is that it is done on a very informal basis. Essentially, it's carried out by private, independent testing labs, which aren't as independent as the name suggests, because they compete for the vendors' business and are paid directly by them. There is no congressional oversight of them. There is a sort of volunteer body called the Election Center, a private foundation based in Texas that agrees on behalf of state election directors to keep an eye on whoever is doing the certification, but it also receives money from voting machine companies. So the whole situation is rife with lack of accountability and conflict of interest.
* My argument about Ohio in the end is that, for all the problems, this was not an exceptional instance of how elections are conducted in the United States; rather, it's a very well documented instance of how they almost always are conducted...What you've got to focus on is that the system has allowed this to go on for a very long time.
* From a strictly technical point of view, there's no mystery about what needs to be done. Many, many experts who have looked at the question, and they've all come to broadly the same conclusions. If you look globally, the system of casting and counting votes that works best is, strangely enough, hand-marked paper ballots counted by hand.
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NEXT: Part 2. If you're not already paranoid...we'll see if we can't remedy that.
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Mark S. Tucker, a critic, has written for numerous national indie and newsrack magazines and websites over the past 20 years: Sound Choice, i/e, Progression, Expose, On Reflection, Camera Obscura, OPtion, Perfect Sound Forever, and others, as well as for this forum. He was co-founding editor for E/I and can be reached at progdawg@hotmail.com. This article is originally published at opednews.com. Copyright Mark S. Tucker, but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached.
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Amerika the Beautiful
U.S. court rules no whistle-blower free-speech right
Tue May 30, 2006 4:53 PM ET
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON, May 30 (Reuters) - A closely divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that government whistle-blowers are not protected by free-speech rights when they face employer discipline for trying to expose possible misconduct at work.
By a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled against a California prosecutor who said he was demoted, denied a promotion and transferred for trying to expose a lie by a county sheriff's deputy in a search-warrant affidavit.
Adopting the position of the Los Angeles prosecutor's office and the U.S. Justice Department, the high court ruled that a public employee has no First Amendment right in speech expressed as part of performing job-required duties.
Writing for the court majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said there is protection for whistle-blowers in federal and state laws and rules of conduct for government attorneys.
The case had been closely watched for its affect on the at-work, free-speech rights of the nation's 21 million public employees. About 100 cases involving internal communications are brought each year in federal court.
Steven Shapiro of the American Civil Liberties Union said, "In an age of excessive government secrecy, the Supreme Court has made it easier to engage in a government cover-up by discouraging internal whistle-blowing."
Other ACLU officials predicted the ruling will deter government employees from speaking out about wrongdoing for fear of losing their jobs.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Richard Ceballos had sued his employer for retaliating against him for exercising his free-speech rights when he reported suspected wrongdoing in a memo to senior officials in his department.
The justices overturned a ruling by a U.S. appeals court that Ceballos' action was protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution because he was speaking on an issue of public concern.
Kennedy said exposing government inefficiency and misconduct was a matter of considerable significance, and that various measures have been adopted to protect employees and provide checks on supervisors who would order unlawful or inappropriate actions.
"When public employees made statement pursuant to their official duties, the employees are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline," he wrote.
JUDICIAL INTRUSION IN THE WORKPLACE?
Kennedy said a ruling for Ceballos would result in a "new, permanent and intrusive role" for the courts in overseeing communications between government workers and their superiors, replacing managerial discretion with judicial supervision.
He was joined by the court's conservatives -- Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
The court's liberals, Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, dissented.
Stevens wrote, "The notion that there is a categorical difference between speaking as a citizen and speaking in the course of one's employment is quite wrong." He called the majority ruling "misguided."
Souter wrote in a separate dissent that government employees who speak out about about official wrongdoing should be eligible for First Amendment protection against reprisals.
Comment: The effects of loading the US Supreme Court with fascist Christian extremists is now being felt. Voilà! Your right to freedom of speech is now subservient to your role as a cog in the machine.
It's official.
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Wash. Police Arrest 22 in Anti-War Protest
Wednesday May 31, 2006 8:01 AM
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Police fired pepper spray as about 150 anti-war protesters tried to enter the Port of Olympia amid demonstrations against the shipment of Army equipment to Iraq. Twenty-two people were arrested Tuesday, officials said.
All of those arrested were taken to Thurston County Jail for investigation of criminal trespassing. No one was seriously injured, sheriff's Capt. Brad Watkins said.
Officers are guarding the military cargo ship docked at the port, sheriff's officials said.
Late Monday, protesters had chanted "Out of Olympia, Out of Iraq'' as they rocked a chain-link gate to the port, and at least three tried to use wooden boards to pry the gate open, The Olympian newspaper reported. A 50-ton piece of equipment was moved to reinforce the gate on the other side.
Police and sheriff's deputies clad in riot gear fired at least four rounds of pepper spray in an hour after asking the demonstrators several times to stop, authorities said. No one was arrested, but paramedics were dispatched to treat some activists.
Dozens of demonstrators crouched in the port plaza, dousing each other's eyes with water and offering slices of onion to soothe their throats.
"It burned. I couldn't open my eyes for 20 minutes,'' said Rachel Graham, who was among those hit. "My face is burning. I dunked my face in water and in Puget Sound.''
Activists began watching for a military ship more than a week ago after learning that Stryker vehicles and other Army gear from the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, a 4,000-soldier unit stationed at Fort Lewis, was being shipped to Iraq through the port.
Sixteen people were arrested in three days last week, mostly for pedestrian interference. The vessel arrived in Budd Inlet at the south end of Puget Sound about 7:30 p.m. Monday, accompanied by Coast Guard vessels with large guns to secure the waterway.
"The majority were very peaceful, nonviolent, just exercising their constitutional rights,'' sheriff's Capt. Bradley Watkins said.
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Washington sniper convicted for 2nd time
Last Updated Tue, 30 May 2006 15:05:59 EDT
CBC News
John Allen Muhammad has been found guilty for a second time in the Washington-area sniper killings.
A jury in Maryland convicted him on Tuesday in six more deaths.
In a previous trial, Muhammad, 45, was convicted of one murder in Virginia. He faces the death penalty for that killing.
In Maryland, the maximum sentence is life in prison without parole.
The attacks happened in October 2002 in the area around Washington, D.C.
Muhammad and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, terrorized nearby communities by randomly shooting at people in parking lots, gas stations and bus stops.
Ten people were killed in the attacks, while three others were injured.
Malvo, 21, was convicted in Virginia for his part in the crimes and sentenced to life in prison.
During the trial in Maryland, Muhammad acted as his own lawyer and Malvo gave evidence against his former partner.
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Terrorism invoked in ISP snooping proposal
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 30, 2006
In a radical departure from earlier statements, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said that requiring Internet service providers to save records of their customers' online activities is necessary in the fight against terrorism, CNET News.com has learned.
Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller privately met with representatives of AOL, Comcast, Google, Microsoft and Verizon last week and said that Internet providers--and perhaps search engines--must retain data for two years to aid in anti-terrorism prosecutions, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity on Tuesday.
"We want this for terrorism," Gonzales said, according to one person familiar with the discussion.
Gonzales' earlier position had only emphasized how mandatory data retention would help thwart child exploitation.
In a speech last month at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Gonzales said that Internet providers must retain records to aid investigations of criminals "abusing kids and sending images of the abuse around the world through the Internet."
If data retention becomes viewed primarily as an anti-terrorism measure, recent legal and political spats could complicate the Justice Department's efforts to make it standard practice.
Especially after recent reports that AT&T has opened its databases to the National Security Agency, Internet and telecommunications executives have become skittish about appearing to be cooperating too closely with the federal government's surveillance efforts.
In addition, the positive publicity that Google received during its legal dispute with the Justice Department over search terms has demonstrated to Internet companies the benefits of objecting to government requests on privacy grounds.
"A monumental data trove is a crazy thing from a privacy perspective," said one person familiar with Friday's discussions. "It's crazy that the U.S. government is going to retain more data than the Chinese government does."
Comcast said in a statement that "we fully share the attorney general's concern with the need to combat illegal use of the Internet for child pornography, terrorism and other illegal activities. We applaud the attorney general's initiative in convening an internal task force on this issue and look forward to continuing to cooperate with him and the FBI."
"The reasons for skepticism are growing," said Jim Harper, an analyst at the free-market Cato Institute and member of the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. He predicted the reaction among Internet and telecom companies will be "mildly unfavorable but people are not yet to the point where they'll say the emperor has no clothes."
Details of the Justice Department's proposal remain murky. One possibility is requiring Internet providers to record the Internet addresses that their customers are temporarily assigned. A more extensive mandate would require them to keep track of the identities of Americans' e-mail and instant messaging correspondents and save the logs of Internet phone calls.
A Justice Department representative said Tuesday that the proposal would not require Internet providers to retain records of the actual contents of conversations and other Internet traffic.
Until Gonzales' public remarks last month, the Bush administration had generally opposed laws requiring data retention, saying it had "serious reservations" (click for PDF) about them. But after the European Parliament last December approved such a requirement for Internet, telephone and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers, top administration officials began talking about it more favorably.
Two proposals to mandate data retention have surfaced in the U.S. Congress. One, backed by Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, says that any Internet service that "enables users to access content" must permanently retain records that would permit police to identify each user. The records could be discarded only at least one year after the user's account was closed.
The other was drafted by aides to Wisconsin Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a close ally of President Bush. Sensenbrenner said through a spokesman earlier this month, though, that his proposal is on hold because "our committee's agenda is tremendously overcrowded already."
'Preservation' vs. 'retention'
At the moment, Internet service providers typically discard any log file that's no longer required for business reasons such as network monitoring, fraud prevention or billing disputes. Companies do, however, alter that general rule when contacted by police agencies performing an investigation--a practice called data preservation.
A 1996 federal law called the Electronic Communication Transactional Records Act regulates data preservation. It requires Internet providers to retain any "record" in their possession for 90 days "upon the request of a governmental entity."
Because Internet addresses remain a relatively scarce commodity, ISPs tend to allocate them to customers from a pool based on if a computer is in use at the time. (Two standard techniques used are the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet.)
In addition, Internet providers are required by another federal law to report child pornography sightings to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is in turn charged with forwarding that report to the appropriate police agency.
When adopting its data retention rules, the European Parliament approved U.K.-backed requirements saying that communications providers in its 25 member countries--several of which had enacted their own data retention laws already--must retain customer data for a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years.
The Europe-wide requirement applies to a wide variety of "traffic" and "location" data, including the identities of the customers' correspondents; the date, time, and duration of phone calls, VoIP calls, or e-mail messages; and the location of the device used for the communications. But the "content" of the communications is not supposed to be retained. The rules are expected to take effect in 2008.
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Govt. must reveal some eavesdropping info
By ELIZABETH LeSURE
Associated Press
Wed May 31, 2006
NEW YORK - Justice Department employees involved in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Sept. 11 detainees must disclose whether they know of any government monitoring of conversations between the detainees and their attorneys, a judge ruled Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Gold ruled in response to a motion by the Center for Constitutional Rights, a human rights group representing the detainees. It filed the motion after the public disclosure in December of a secret government program that allowed investigators to eavesdrop on international communications between Americans and people suspected of terrorist ties.
The class action lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York in 2002 on behalf of hundreds of Arab and Muslim men who were detained and deported as part of the government's investigation into the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The center had asked the judge to order the government to disclose whether telephone, e-mail or other communication between detainees and their lawyers had been monitored or intercepted since the detainees left the country.
The Justice Department said its lawyers and support staff hadn't received any attorney-client communications and that such conversations wouldn't be used in its defense.
But the government would not say whether employees or potential witnesses knew of any monitoring, saying such a disclosure could reveal classified information. It said it would allow witnesses to pick one of a series of statements about what they knew but reserved the right to call witnesses who refused to sign any statement.
The Center for Constitutional Rights applauded the ruling.
"Now they have to step forward and answer some tough questions," said the center's legal director, Bill Goodman.
The center said it would seek testimony from former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, both named in the lawsuit.
Telephone messages left for lawyers representing the government were not returned Tuesday. A woman who answered the telephone at the Justice Department said she could not contact a spokesperson after 9 p.m.
The judge said his order applied only to people involved in the lawsuit, which alleges that detainees were jailed on the basis of their race or religion and physically abused at a federal lockup in New York.
The lawsuit seeks restitution for the plaintiffs, who claim they were held for months without evidence linking them to terrorism, and an order saying the government can't resort to "preventive detention."
The government has denied any wrongdoing.
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Top Democrat slams AIPAC prosecution
JTA
May 31, 2006
The top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee questioned the statute used to prosecute two former AIPAC lobbyists.
The committee heard testimony last Friday on how to balance First Amendment protections with the need to stem leaks.
Some Republicans counseled the prosecution of recipients of leaks, including journalists.
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, blasted such talk. "If anyone here wants to imprison journalists, I invite them to spend some time in China, Cuba or North Korea and see whether they feel safer," she said. She singled out for criticism the prosecution of Steve Rosen, the former foreign policy director at American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Keith Weissman, its former Iran analyst.
Harman said the 1917 statute used in the case was too broad. It is the first time the statute has been used in a prosecution.
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Resolution focuses on Jewish refugees
JTA
May 31, 2006
Resolutions introduced in the U.S. Congress call for any reference to Palestinian refugees to be matched by similar references to Jewish and other refugees.
The bipartisan resolutions, introduced May 25, were sponsored by four senators and four representatives, as well as Justice for Jews From Arab Countries, an organization that seeks rights for Jews displaced from Arab lands.
ccording to the organization, the number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries far surpasses the number of Palestinians who became refugees in 1948.
"This resolution urges the international community to place all refugees on equal footing when Middle East refugee matters are discussed," said Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), one of the co-sponsors of the Senate resolution.
A similar resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives.
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Pentagon postpones detonation of explosive in Nevada
www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-31 11:50:07
WASHINGTON, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon had postponed its plan to detonate a 700-ton explosive in the Nevada desert amid fears of its environmental impact, according the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Pentagon agency said the plan, dubbed "Divine Strake," had sparked protests from Nevada residents who feared the test would harm the local environment.
"The experiment, originally scheduled for June 2, 2006, will not be conducted earlier than June 23, 2006," said the statement.
The anticipated blast has long been described as being so powerful that it could send up a mushroom-like cloud 3,048 meters into the air.
Previously, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which runs the test site in Nevada, had declared that the planned detonation of the explosive comprising ammonium nitrate and fuel oil would cause "no significant" environmental impact.
It had now "decided to postpone the experiment due to the scheduling of legal proceedings," the agency said.
Opponents were reported to have filed lawsuits in an attempt tostop the test blast, which they feared could spread radioactive dust into the air.
Divine Strake, an equivalent of 593 ton of TNT, is part of a U.S. effort to develop weapons capable of destroying deeply buried bunkers housing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
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Spanish version of US national anthem debuts at Ellis Island
AFP
May 30, 2006
A controversial Spanish version of the US national anthem was given its first live performance at Ellis Island -- the former immigration gateway to the United States.
"We chose Ellis Island because of the obvious symbolism it has for the whole American immigrant experience," said New York-based British music producer Adam Kidron.
Kidron, 46, provoked a heated debate last month when his recording label, Urban Box Office (UBO), released "Nuestro Himno" (Our Anthem), a Spanish version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" which he hoped would become a rallying song for protest marches against immigration reform.
Tuesday's event coincided with the launch by UBO of an album "Somos Americanos" (We Are Americans) which features the anthem and other songs about the immigrant experience by artists from across the United States and Latin America.
"Nuestro Himno" became the target of angry criticism on its release, with US President George W. Bush echoing others who argued that the national anthem should be sung in English.
"We're not political. We didn't do this to create a big stink," Kidron said. "But the fact is that the worst thing you can do is make people leave their culture at the border, because that's not what made America great."
The mini-concert on Ellis Island in the middle of New York harbour was held under a white marquee with the skyline of downtown Manhattan offering an impressive backdrop.
The island was formerly used as a processing station for millions of immigrants seeking entry into the United States. It is now a museum.
After a group of schoolchildren sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" in its original form, an a cappella trio from the Dominican Republic, Voz a Voz, sang the Spanish version.
One of the trio, Gio D'Olio, said he was unfazed by the controversy surrounding the "Nuestro Himno" recording, on which his group was just one of many featured artists.
"When you do something for the first time, you're always going to have differences of opinion," D'Olio said.
"But we haven't changed the music or the lyrics. Music is the same language for everybody in the world," he added.
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Show Me The Money!
Dow Ends Down 184, Nasdaq Closes Down 46
By CHRISTOPHER WANG
AP
May 30, 2006
NEW YORK - Higher oil prices and sliding consumer confidence sent stocks plunging Tuesday as a weak sales report from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) raised concerns about discretionary spending. The Dow Jones industrial skidded almost 185 points.
Although the Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell less than expected, investors were nervous about an eroding consumer picture after Wal-Mart blamed its modest sales on the impact of gasoline and utilities prices on its customers.
More declines for the U.S. dollar fueled jitters about inflation and slowing global growth amid sharp drops in overseas stock markets. A broker's downgrade of General Motors Corp. (GM) also added pressure to the Dow industrials.
Tuesday's selling followed three straight days of gains last week, when mild economic data calmed inflation fears and temporarily halted a steep two-week slide. Investors have been wary of the chance for more rate hikes; this week's key figures on labor costs and wages are expected to provide some guidance on the Federal Reserve's next move.
Ken Tower, chief market strategist for Schwab's CyberTrader, said he was still optimistic about a growing consensus that the economy remains in good shape and that inflation is under control, which could keep the Fed from boosting rates.
"This pullback is not what you would've wished for, but it's still in the context of a recovering market," Tower said. "If we're in an ongoing rally phase, this is where we ought to bottom out and see the market move higher."
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow plummeted 184.18, or 1.63 percent, to 11,094.43, giving back all of the 180 points it gained in last week's runup. The Dow lost 214 points on May 10, its biggest one-day decline in three years.
Broader stock indicators retreated. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 20.28, or 1.58 percent, to 1,259.88; the Nasdaq composite index plunged 45.63, or 2.06 percent, to 2,164.74, falling back into negative territory for 2006.
Renewed uncertainty about interest rates sent bonds lower, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbing to 5.08 percent from 5.05 percent late Friday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar slumped against other major currencies as Wall Street questioned the impact of Henry Paulson's nomination as Treasury secretary on the nation's foreign exchange policy. Paulson, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GSPB), is believed to push for a strong dollar to encourage the in-flow of foreign capital, but traders nonetheless showed their anxiety.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index for May fell to 103.2 from a four-year high of 109.8 the month before, but the reading still topped estimates of 100.9. While investors have been hoping for a gentle economic slowdown, some fear that persistently high energy prices could trigger a sudden dropoff that leads the economy into a downturn.
Rick Pendergraft, an equity trader at Schaeffer's Investment Research, said the market will be fixated on this week's data for evidence of moderating economic activity. He noted that consumers were most concerned about employment in the Conference Board report; the Labor Department reports monthly job growth on Friday.
"We're walking a fine line right now: We want to see growth, but too strong of growth is going to lead the Fed to raise rates again," Pendergraft said of the upcoming data. "That's going to scare the market."
Crude futures rose amid expectations of greater fuel demand during the summer driving season, and as forecasters warn of hurricane activity in the coming months. A barrel of light crude surged 78 cents to $72.15 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In corporate news, Wal-Mart said its May same-store sales grew 2.3 percent, at the low end of forecasts. Wal-Mart dropped $1.35 to $48.30.
Deutsche Bank cut GM to "sell" on concerns about valuation and moderating vehicle sales. GM sank $1.51 to $26.57.
Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) said its chairman and chief executive officer is leading a $13.4 billion bid to take the pipeline operator private for $100 per share. Kinder Morgan surged $15.90 to $100.31.
Albertsons Inc. posted a higher first-quarter profit that handily topped Wall Street estimates, although its revenue was flat and missed targets. Albertsons added 5 cents to $25.67.
Declining issues outpaced advancers by more than 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume of 1.56 billion shares led the 1.34 billion shares that changed hands Friday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies declined 18.51, or 2.54 percent, to 711.04.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.35 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 2.4 percent, Germany's DAX index dropped 2.3 percent and France's CAC-40 was lower by 2.42 percent.
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Dollar plunges on Paulson appointment
By Steve Johnson
Financial Times
May 30, 2006
The US dollar fell sharply on Tuesday as Hank Paulson, Goldman Sachs' chief executive, was named as the new US Treasury secretary, replacing the increasingly pressurised John Snow.
Mr Paulson has extensive links with China and some saw him as potentially better equipped than his predecessor to encourage Beijing, and the wider emerging Asian bloc, to allow a faster appreciation of the renminbi in order to help reduce global economic imbalances.
Beijing has allowed the renminbi to crawl just 1 per cent higher against the dollar since last July's 2.1 per cent revaluation, with the currency falling to a nine-week low of Rmb8.032 on Tuesday. The importance of this issue was made clear by George W. Bush, US president, who said one of Mr Paulson's objectives would be to ensure the currency flexibility of the US's trading partners.
"China has not taken kindly to pounding the pulpit and speakers who seem to convey an antagonistic approach," said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York. "Mr Paulson has considerable experience in China and is well regarded over there. He could reinvigorate the discussions over currency policy."
He added: "Paulson represents a window of opportunity to accomplish a soft landing to a rapidly growing global imbalances problem. If anyone is capable of carrying this off, he is one of the best placed. The 'strong dollar' policy may quite quickly have an epitaph written for it: 'rest in peace'."
Monica Fan, global head of FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets, also saw Mr Paulson's Chinese links as crucial. "Paulson's intimate knowledge of the Chinese administration and pro-environmental stance means he is more popular in China. He may be more effective in persuading China to allow greater currency appreciation," she said.
However, Ms Fan argued this could allow the dollar to strengthen against the euro, with European currencies no longer having to bear as much of the burden of dollar adjustment.
Tony Norfield, global head of FX strategy at ABN Amro, argued that Mr Paulson would not be as bad for the dollar as several other candidates for the Treasury job would have been, notably Don Evans, who was seen as reacting to the concerns of industry, and Martin Feldstein, who had said the dollar needed to fall by 30-40 per cent to help rein in global imbalances.
Indeed, the dollar had fallen in morning trading on speculation that Mr Evans was to be appointed, before initially firming on the news that Mr Paulson had been named, only to hit new lows later on. By mid-session New York trade, the dollar was down 1 per cent at $1.2866 to the euro, 1.3 per cent to $1.8818 against sterling, 1 per cent to SFr1.2119 against the Swiss franc, 0.2 per cent at Y112.23 against the yen, and 0.6 per cent to C$1.0995 against its Canadian counterpart, brushing 28-year lows.
Some attributed part of the dollar's sell-off to a slide in US consumer confidence in May, although the reading still came in ahead of market expectations.
The dollar did gain 2.3 per cent to R$2.3245 against the Brazilian real and 0.8 per cent to 11.274 pesos against the Mexican peso as a selective withdrawal from emerging markets continued.
Sterling was strong, rising 0.3 per cent to £0.6835 to the euro, 0.8 per cent to $A2.4704 against the Australian dollar and 1 per cent to Y211.08 against the yen, amid a view that housing data due on Wednesday might prove strong enough to tilt the Bank of England towards a near-term rate rise.
The yen fell 0.7 per cent to Y144.34 to the euro as Toshihiko Fukui, the governor of the Bank of Japan, reiterated his view that the end of quantitative easing would not automatically spell the end for Tokyo's zero interest rate policy.
Comment: "...a faster appreciation of the renminbi in order to help reduce global economic imbalances" is no picnic. The key words are "global economic imbalances". Right now, the state of the US economy is a huge part of those imbalances, and the natural course correction would involve a very large fall in the value of the dollar. Even from a very simple perspective, a stronger renminbi versus the dollar means that goods made in China - which is pretty much everything - all of a sudden become more expensive. You know, kind of like US gas prices right now...
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Oil prices climb above $72 a barrel
AP
Tue May 30, 2006
WASHINGTON - Oil prices rose above $72 a barrel Tuesday ahead of an OPEC meeting in Venezuela and the start of the Atlantic hurricane season later this week.
The Memorial Day holiday marked the beginning of the peak driving season in the U.S., a period when energy traders are extra skittish about any loss of oil production or refining capacity.
This nervousness is palpable even though domestic crude-oil inventories are ample and gasoline demand in recent weeks has been flat compared with a year ago.
"The market's more sensitive to bullish news than bearish news right now," said Aaron Kildow, a broker at Prudential Securities in New York.
To explain this, analysts point to the world's limited spare production capacity, which has the effect of making any real or perceived hiccup in the global energy trade that much more threatening.
Some of the top international concerns keeping prices elevated include diplomatic tensions between the West and
Iran over Tehran's nuclear goals, violence in Nigeria and rising energy demand in China.
After climbing as high as $72.75 per barrel, light sweet crude for July delivery settled 63 cents higher at $72.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
July Brent crude at London's ICE Futures exchange gained 78 cents to $71.37 a barrel.
"Thursday's OPEC summit is going to be the big fundamental story of the week," said Citigroup oil analyst Timothy Evans.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wants the cartel to cut production - a familiar refrain from a country known as a price hawk - but other OPEC countries, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, are calling for no change to the group's official 28 million barrel per day production quota.
Traders also are watching the June 1 official start of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico hurricane season, which is expected to be more active than normal, but not as harsh as last year's. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused heavy damage to offshore platforms and pipelines, as well as onshore refineries, sending gasoline prices skyrocketing amid spot shortages and emergency imports from Europe.
Oil industry and government officials asserted at a press conference in Washington that they would be better prepared this summer to respond to any hurricane-related damage to energy infrastructure, mainly because of better coordination and communication now in place.
"We did it as good as we could" following last year's hurricanes, said Red Cavaney, head of the American Petroleum Institute. "But we look forward to doing it better next time." Cavaney said the U.S. will again be able to rely on Europe for emergency gasoline imports should that become necessary.
Elmer P. Danenberger, chief of offshore regulatory programs at the Minerals Management Service, said the industry has made significant progress in the past year strengthening offshore drilling units so that they are better moored to the ocean floor. "As much as possible has been done in the offseason," Danenberger said.
On Tuesday, Nymex gasoline futures rose by 1.31 cent to finish at $2.1499 a gallon while heating oil futures rose 2.34 cents to close at $2.0039 a gallon.
Nymex natural gas futures fell 3.1 cents to settle at $6.123 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Natural gas futures are near a one-year low and some analysts say that if inventories continue to grow at this pace, the country could run out of natural-gas storage capacity before winter, a prospect which should exert downward pressure on prices.
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Many young adults in US lack health insurance
Reuters
Tue May 30, 2006
NEW YORK - Americans in their 20s are one of the largest segments of the population lacking health insurance, and new research suggests the problem is growing.
In 2004, nearly 14 million Americans between 19 and 29 years old were uninsured, an increase of 2.5 million since 2000, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, a private research foundation that focuses on health and social issues.
The findings, based on data from government and Commonwealth Fund surveys, suggest that the age of 19 or just after graduation from high school or college are crucial turning points in young Americans' health coverage. At these ages, private and public health plans often cut off benefits.
Dependents who were covered under their parents' employer-sponsored insurance are usually dropped at age 18 or 19 if they are not full-time students. Similarly, low-income teenagers insured under Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) lose coverage at age 19 unless they qualify for Medicaid as adults, which often does not happen because of the program's requirements become more strict, according to the report authors, led by Dr. Sara R. Collins, who is a senior program officer at The Commonwealth Fund.
The result is that the health coverage problem is most acute among low-income young adults, who often do not attend college and frequently have jobs with no health benefits.
At any given time, 40 percent of 19- to 23-year-olds who do not attend college or are part-time students have no health insurance, according to Collins and her colleagues. A Commonwealth Fund survey in 2005 found that among workers ages 19 to 29, 43 percent of those who earned less than $10 an hour were uninsured.
But even many college graduates face a significant period without health insurance, the study authors say. Of students who graduated between 1996 and 2000, they report, 38 percent were uninsured for at least part of the following year, with 21 percent going without coverage for six months or longer.
Collins and her colleagues offer three broad measures they say could address the problem. Regarding Medicaid and SCHIP, they suggest Congress require states to extend coverage several years beyond age 18.
"Such a policy change," the researchers write, "could help the 2.9 million uninsured young adults ages 19 to 23 with incomes under 100 percent of poverty."
Similarly, they add, more states could require private insurers to extend coverage for unmarried dependents beyond age 19. Several states have already done so; in a law that took effect this month, New Jersey is requiring most group health plans to cover single adult dependents up to age 30.
States could also ensure that all colleges require students to have health coverage, as many institutions already do, Collins and her colleagues suggest. These schools offer health insurance to students who lack it, with the cost ranging from $500 to $2,400 a year.
Requiring all colleges and universities to have such policies, the researchers note, would help cover the 2 million full- and part-time students between 19 and 23 who lack health insurance.
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Asian shares tumble again as Wall Street sparks fresh attack of nerves
AFP
Wednesday May 31, 2006
Asian stocks took a fresh drubbing after a sharp sell-off on Wall Street overnight, with investors fearful this month's correction still has much further to go, dealers said.
They said nervous regional markets were hit hard by the 1.63 percent fall in New York where investors were rattled by a spike in oil prices and a large drop in consumer confidence figures, compounding concerns over risks to inflation and growth.
Tokyo was down 2.47 percent and Mumbai in full retreat with a loss of nearly 5.0 percent in mid-afternoon trade but the impact could have been even greater if Hong Kong, Seoul and Taiwan had not been closed for public holidays.
The danger now is that if Wall Street has another bad day, the closed markets will have even more ground to make up Thursday and Hong Kong, one of the most international in the region, could have an especially hard time.
A weak start in European trade was not encouraging.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 255 index closed below 15,500 points for the first time in three months, extending the recent slide in worrying fashion.
Crucially, foreign investors remained net sellers in pre-opening orders, fanning concerns about an outflow of funds from Asian markets en masse.
"As selling by risk-averse foreign investors continues on the back of worries over prospects for the US economy, as well as on concerns over an expected rise in local interest rates, the Japanese market will continue to have a difficult time going forward," Naito Securities analyst Youzo Asai said.
"While there is some bargain-hunting from local players on the downside, this lacks the ability to absorb and cancel out the impact of foreign investor selling," Asai said.
Worse still, there is a potential overhang from investors who borrowed money to bet the market would rise but now face pressure to close those positions.
"Retail investors have been buying equities on margin since last year, which helped buoy the Japanese market but those long positions that have not been settled are now weighing on the top-side of the market," Asai said.
In Sydney, down 2.03 percent, CMC Markets senior dealer James Foulsham said investors remained on edge after recent losses and sold aggressively.
With the negative US lead, "people were set to quickly unwind positions," he said, adding that a fall in metals prices put pressure on the leading stocks.
"A majority of traders expect the choppy conditions to continue for while so they are not willing to weather negative moves," Foulsham said.
In Mumbai, down 5.5 percent at one stage, the sell-off threatened to turn more serious still as fund outflows prompted concerns about the current account deficit, still a weak point despite India's recent strong economic performance.
Dealers there noted how the rupee was being quoted at a three-year low of 46.5 to the dollar, reflecting sustained dollar demand from foreign funds selling down their Indian equity holdings.
"India's central bank has not yet stepped in to curb the trend," said a dealer with a private bank, hoping for some action to stop the slide.
Dealers said foreign funds continued to sell but stocks are still overvalued, suggesting more losses are in store before the correction is over.
Market data Tuesday showed overseas funds had sold 2.47 billion dollars worth of India stocks over the 13 trading days to Tuesday, leaving their net position at 2.49 billion dollars for the year so far.
Elsewhere, Singapore was down 2.49 percent in mid-afternoon trade, with Bangkok off 1.70 percent and Jakarta down 2.31 percent while Kuala Lumpur held up relatively well with a loss of 1.13 percent.
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German figures suggest recovery
BBC
Wednesday, 31 May 2006
Germany's retail sales rose in April, indicating that Europe's largest economy is improving, data shows.
Retail sales rose 2.8% in April compared to March, including seasonal adjustments, the Federal Statistics Office said.
But sales were 1% lower in real terms on a year-by-year basis, in contrast to analysts' expected 0.6% rise.
The data echoed an earlier consumer confidence survey, which showed that households are likely to spend more.
The retail sales data came as figures showed that Germany's unemployment rate also fell in May.
Unemployment was down to 11% in May, compared to 11.3% in April, according to seasonally-adjusted figures from the Federal Labour Agency.
One of the factors prompting greater job opportunities is the World Cup, both for employment in services and construction, the agency said.
French economy
However, while Germany's economy seems set for a recovery, data for France was not as positive.
Consumer confidence for May declined to a net -30, according to INSEE, France's National Statistics Office.
"We have extremely weak confidence and the only thing that could be a catalyst to help this would be a change in government," said Emmanuel Ferry, economist with Exane BNP Paribas.
However, French producer prices were up slightly less than expected, rising by 0.6% in April for the month, and 3.6% on a year-by-year basis.
Meanwhile, unemployment was lower in April at 9.3%, compared to 9.5% in March.
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Generation X's Debt Headache
By Laura Barcella
AlterNet
May 31, 2006
"Government no longer has our back," explains Tamara Draut, author of the recently published book Strapped, in an email. "Young adults today, working to get into the middle class -- they're being hit by a one-two punch: The economy no longer generates widespread opportunity, and our public policies haven't picked up any of the slack."
Her words ring uncomfortably true. As a "young adult" (age 29, thank you very much) from the generation Draut is covering, I've watched more than a few college-grad friends struggle to pay off their towering school loans and credit card debt -- usually on "creative sector" annual salaries ranging from $25K to $40K (while attempting to thrive in notoriously overpriced cities such as New York, Boston and San Francisco).
According to Strapped, Gen X-ers have it much worse than our Baby Boomer parents, because while typical earnings for college grads have stayed the same for three decades, the costs of housing, education and health care have grown exponentially -- much faster than inflation.
The grim financial situation many young folks are now facing is part of a broad governmental failure to regulate the rising costs of higher education, to boost the minimum wage to a livable wage, and to create a sufficient number of full-time jobs -- with benefits -- to ensure that America's massive twenty- and thirty-something work force is healthy and paid well enough to provide for their families.
The result of this sweeping federal failure isn't pretty. Attending college, for many middle-class as well as low-income families, is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" proposition, and in 2003, less than a third of young adults aged 25 to 29 had a bachelor's degree. College is just too expensive for all but the luckiest few to afford -- but not having a degree means difficulty in landing a job. According to Draut, in 1972, the typical male high school graduate, aged 25 to 34, earned $42,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars; three decades later, male high school graduates of the same age were earning just over $29,000.
Because of the scarcity -- and competition to find -- full-time salaried jobs, growing numbers of young people are turning to part-time or temp gigs. During the '90s, the number of jobs handled by temp agencies doubled. And more and more young people are being forced to move back home with their parents; nowadays, four out of 10 people move home at least once after college.
I discussed all of these issues, and more, with Strapped author Tamara Draut in an email interview.
Laura Barcella: What inspired you to write this book?
Tamara Draut: I wanted to counter the conventional wisdom that young people today are struggling financially because they lack a strong work ethic or because they're profligate spenders. There is so much frustration out there among both parents and young people who can't understand why they're having such a difficult time getting ahead. I wrote Strapped with the hope of raising awareness that the challenges facing this generation are not personal, but the result of political decisions made over the last three decades.
LB: What sort of social or economic impact do you hope the book will have on American culture, and young people in particular?
TD: Already the book is having impact. I get countless emails from young people thanking me for telling this story. I've even gotten emails from parents telling me that they now better understand the lives of their twenty-something children. On a larger scale, I hope the book inspires more young people to fight for reforms by showing that the breakdown in opportunity and economic security didn't "just happen," and it can be changed.
LB: Can you give us a brief overview of why exactly "getting ahead" has gotten so much harder for young people today?
TD: Today's generation of twenty- and thirty-somethings are experiencing the fallout of a three-decade-long shift in our culture and politics. A generation ago, three factors helped smooth the transition to adulthood. The first was the fact that there were jobs that provided good wages, even for high school graduates. A college degree wasn't necessary to earn a decent living. But even if you wanted to go, it wasn't that expensive, and grants were widely available.
The second was an economy that lifted all boats, with productivity gains shared by workers and CEOs alike. The result was a massive growth of the middle class, which provided security and stability for families.
Third, a range of public policies helped facilitate economic mobility and opportunity: a strong minimum wage, low college tuition and generous financial aid, major incentives for homeownership and a solid safety net for those falling on hard times. Simply put, the government had your back. This world no longer exists. The story of what happened is well-known.
As the nation's shift to a service-based economy accelerated, the new economy dramatically changed the way we lived and worked. Relationships between employers and employees became more tenuous, as corporations faced global competitors and quarterly bottom-line pressures from Wall Street. Increasingly, fringe benefits like health care and pension plans were only provided to well-paid workers. Wages rose quickly for educated workers and declined for those with only high school degrees, resulting in new demands for college credentials.
As most families saw their incomes stagnate or decline, they needed two full-time incomes just to stay afloat, creating new demands on working parents. Getting into the middle class now required a four-year college degree, and even that was no guarantee of the American dream.
While adults of all ages have endured the economic and social changes brought by post-industrialization, today's young adults are the first to experience its full weight as they try to start their adult lives. But the challenges facing young adults also reflect the failure of public policy to address the changing realities of building a life in the 21st century. Government no longer has our back. As young adults today are working to get into the middle class, they're being hit by a one-two punch: The economy no longer generates widespread opportunity, and our public policies haven't picked up any of the slack.
LB: Why are so few college-qualified students enrolling, when now -- more than ever -- one seems to need a college degree to land a decent job? Is it because the price of university has risen so dramatically, or are other factors also at play?
TD: Young people have gotten the message loud and clear that they need a college degree to get into the middle class. Today, three-quarters of high school grads continue their education with some type of college experience. The problem is that college has become a luxury-priced necessity. Over the last two decades, the cost of tuition has more than doubled, and federal financial aid has fossilized. As a result, young people from low-income households often can't scrape together enough loans, grants or cash to foot the bill.
LB: Tell me a bit about college loans and their insidious impact on the lives and financial security of younger folks.
TD: Today, the average student loan debt for a college grad is close to $20,000. That's a $200 monthly bite out your paycheck for ten years. For those who continue on to grad school, the combined debt is about $46,000 -- a $500 monthly payment for ten years.
The problem is that the typical earnings for college grads have been flat for three decades, while the cost of housing, health care and education have all risen much faster than inflation. So essentially young people must figure out how to do more with less money.
Another layer to this problem is that about 1 out of 5 students who borrow money end up dropping out of college. So they've got the debt, but no degree. The enormous debt load means that today's generation has less money to save, whether for retirement or for a down payment on a home.
LB: I'm part of the general demographic of people you profiled in "Strapped." Can you explain how and why our parents' generation had it easier when it came to graduating from college, getting good jobs with benefits and raising a family?
TD: A generation ago, a young person entered the labor market on an escalator. Young workers could count on a swift and stead progression in their earnings. Today, young workers enter the labor market on one of those automated airport walkways. Productivity may be rising, but young workers' paychecks are staying flat.
Back in 1972, the typical 25- to 34-year-old male high school graduate earned just over $42,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars. Three decades later, male high school graduates are earning just over $29,000. But the earnings for college grads have remained fairly steady over the last three decades.
Young women's earnings have also declined, but not as steeply. Young female workers with college degrees have experienced growth in their incomes compared to three decades ago as career opportunities have grown, though women in this age group earn less than their male counterparts at every level of education.
The earnings picture is grim. But add to that the reality that while paychecks have been stuck in first gear, the price of housing has soared in the last ten years. This is especially true for young professionals because the hottest job markets are still clustered around our nation's largest and most expensive cities. Between 1995 and 2002, median rents in nearly all the largest metropolitan areas rose by more than 50 percent.
LB: What's shifted politically to keep people of this generation down?
TD: Over the last three decades, the triumph of conservative ideology has resulted in a major shift away from shared responsibility toward personal responsibility. States slashed their support of higher education, leading to steep tuition hikes.
At the federal level, financial aid shifted from being a grant-based system to a loan-based system. Guaranteed pensions got replaced with individual retirement plans. After Ronald Reagan's firing of striking airline workers, businesses ramped up their anti-union efforts, and states passed legislation making it more difficult for workers to unionize. The minimum wage lost its purchasing power. ...
Over the last three decades, we've witnessed a steady retrenchment from investing in the common good. We've failed to shore up the public structures that provide individuals with the opportunities to get ahead. As I write in the book, in this era of hyper-individualism, our national spirit has shifted from "We're all in this together" to "Hey, look out, I'm about to step on you."
LB: How have the Bush administration's policies affected the lives of Generation X (and Y) for better or -- more likely -- for worse?
TD: The policies of the Bush administration and Congress have made the future look even grimmer for young people. The soaring national deficit and debt will be our burden to pay. Three rounds of tax cuts have further constrained our nation's ability to get serious about shoring up our investments in education and health care. Most recently, Congress made major cuts to financial aid for college, including raising the cost of federal student loans. The Bush administration has taken the creed of selfish individualism to new heights -- and the public good has suffered as a result.
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Sudden loss of boss creates cloud over Michelin
AFP
May 29, 2006
PARIS - Shares in the Michelin tyre company fell on Monday on uncertainty over group strategy following the death by drowning of company chief Edouard Michelin.
Analysts expressed confidence in joint manager Michel Rollier who has been appointed to run the business, the biggest tyre manufacturer in the world, until a new president is named.
But the price of shares in the group was showing a fall of 1.37 percent to EUR 50.50 at mid-day.
Brokerage CMCIC commented: "A period of deep uncertainty has begun." It said the "no member of the (Michelin) family of five brothers and sisters appears likely to succeed Edouard".
And at Exane BNP Paribas, analyst Petra Horn said: "The ultimate succession could be a delicate matter because traditionally the position of the president and managing director has been held by a member of the Michelin family."
She also noted that the company had an unusual share structure whereby decision-making was concentrated in a few hands to limit the influence of shareholders.
Edouard Michelin drowned on Friday while fishing from a boat off northwest France.
Analysts said that the group was in good shape and that Edouard Michelin had laid down and driven clear strategic direction for the business.
Under Edouard Michelin, the Michelin group had changed fundamentally and had adapted its strategy, aiming increasingly at the high end of the tyre market and expanding in Asia in a highly competitive market, they said.
Analysts said that they were confident that Rollier could run the company until a successor to Edouard Michelin was appointed.
Horn said that Rollier knew the company well and was well known in the financial sector because he had been group finance director from 1999 to 2005.
Analysts also remarked that Rollier would work with the 13 members of the group's executive council.
It was also possible that the man Rollier had replaced, the former joint manager Rene Zingraff, might be asked to return to help.
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Tensions rise between Bolivian govt, Brazil's Petrobras
www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-31 11:21:34
LIMA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Tensions between the Bolivian government and Brazil's energy company Petrobras mounted on Tuesday, as the authorities accused the Brazilian company of "sabotage," blaming it for diesel fuel shortages felt across Bolivia, said reports from La Paz on Tuesday.
Petrobras was one of the companies responsible for exporting government-subsidized diesel to Bolivia, but it had stopped doing so in recent days, said Jorge Alvarado, the president of Bolivia's state oil company, Yaciemientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos.
"Petrobras (has been)... the only company that is not delivering (diesel) in recent days. This is because, allegedly, it has not received government credit notes," said Alvarado.
He said the Bolivian government might have been late in paying Petrobras for the subsidized fuel, but that it had never been a problem before.
"I see... the act of Petrobras as an approach intended to sabotage the country," Alvarado said.
The relations between Petrobras and Bolivia have been tense since May 1, when the country decided to nationalize its fossil fuel resources.
Petrobras, which produces 60 percent of the natural gas that Bolivia exports to Brazil, was hard hit by the decision.
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Around the World
Carrots, sticks and the isolation of Iran
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
May 27, 2006
Asia Times
Germany is playing a leading role in formulating a European response to the ongoing row over Iran's nuclear program, and that is bound to have direct implications for the larger issue of Germany's role and identity in the international system and resolution of the crisis.
For the past three years, the German government has been one of the European troika, along with France and Britain (the EU-3), engaged in nuclear diplomacy with Iran and, despite a change of guards, there is considerable policy continuity on the part of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Initially Merkel, being a novice and highly critical of her predecessor's policy of distancing German foreign policy from the US, rattled a few cages with her post-election leaps in bandaging German-US relations, citing Iran as an "example" of how things work between the two countries.
Then came Merkel's blistering criticisms of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad for his remarks on Israel, which she compared in no unmistakable language to fascism. In her trips to both Israel and the United States, Merkel consistently criticized Iran's nuclear and foreign policies, which, in turn, fueled Germany's current role in the Security Council debates on Iran, referred to as "Permanent Five plus one".
While still short of the formal veto power, the historical precedence set by Germany's critical role in the Iran crisis will undoubtedly be an important catalyst in paving the road for Germany's eventual inclusion in the Security Council's exclusive club, which is now limited to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia.
This depends to some extent on the global perception of how Germany plays its diplomatic card with regard to Iran. A compliant Germany, subservient to the policy dictates of Washington, is unlikely to receive much backing from the other powers in its current bid to gain a permanent seat at the Security Council. On the other hand, an independent, self-generating diplomacy, based on Germany's, and the European Union's, calculations of risks and benefits, will have the opposite effect. So far, Germany is evincing a middle position, where signs of autonomous diplomacy and old US dependency converge.
On the positive side, Germany's adamant objection to the military option against Iran, which Merkel communicated to President George W Bush in her recent White House visit, is a welcome development that in a certain sense brings Germany closer to Russia and China, both of whom oppose any reference to UN's Article 42, which would set the stage for a future US military action against Iran.
Among the EU-3, Germany is, in fact, the most enthusiastic proponent of the so-called "carrot" approach, including the security approach, favoring direct Iran-US talks.
Yet, contrary to Berlin's wishes, the US has turned down both the Iranian offer of direct talks as well as any "security guarantee" for Iran, the justification being that Iran is a "troublemaker in the world", to paraphrase Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
But don't expect the fissures between Berlin and Washington to spill into the open any time soon. Merkel and her ardent pro-American coalition are committed to avoiding any "crisis of confidence" with Washington, which she has blamed on Gerhard Schroeder and his former Green Party foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, who was intensely disliked by the White House.
Fischer's replacement, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a member of the leftist Social Democrats, has so far proved an invaluable "balancer", bringing a measure of equilibrium to the unbounded tendency of Merkel's Christian Democratic Party to appease the Americans.
Germany's stakes in the Iran crisis
Germany is Iran's No 1 European trade partner and its booming import-export with Iran will be a net casualty of any UN (or other) sanctions on Iran, compared with the United States, which has practically no economic interests at stake in Iran as a result of 27 years of US sanctions.
Iran is a major market for Germany's industrial and technological products, just as Germany is an importer of Iranian oil and such goods as rugs; some 35% of Iranian rugs are exported to Germany. According to a recent article in Der Spiegel, "Between 2000 and 2005, German exports to Iran more than doubled. Last year they reached a new record of 4.4 billion euros [US$5.6 billion], or 0.6% of Germany's total export volume. Manufacturers of machinery and equipment are the main beneficiaries because Iran is using German know-how to develop its economy."
Another report by the Iran-German Chamber of Commerce indicates that as much as 75% of Iran's small and medium industries rely on imported goods and technology from Germany. German companies and banks are also involved in projects in Iran's industrial free zones.
Indeed, in light of their physical proximity, a large Iranian community in Germany, and so on, there is every expectation of growing economic exchanges and interdependencies between Germany and Iran, absent the nuclear crisis. Because of the crisis, however, these relations have suffered, not the least because of growing US pressure, reflected in the recent news that the US is utilizing anti-terrorist laws to curb European banks' involvement with Iran - with a measure of success.
As a result, as the nuclear row has been upgraded to "pre-sanction sanctions", many German companies have stayed away from Iran and numerous deals in the pipeline, such as on airplanes and parts, power generators, machinery, have been put in limbo. Undoubtedly, such setbacks will be minuscule compared with a few months or a year or so from now when and if the UN or a "coalition of the willing" imposes sanctions on Iran, which will only benefit German black-marketeers.
Indeed, as Mohammed Nahavandian, an economist with Iran's Supreme National Security Council, recently stated, the implementation of sanctions on Iran would be "impractical" because of the size and nature of Iran's many frontiers, but Iran would "incur extra expenses".
Therefore, to safeguard its vested economic interests with Iran, the German government must show a greater independence from the hitherto coercive US approach, thinly disguised as "diplomacy". The US pseudo-diplomacy, if sheepishly followed by Germany and other European countries, will harm their economic interests, this when, to quote former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, "Europe has to compete with the US in the area of economics and trade, rather than in politics."
What Berlusconi misses is that by following the US diplomatic prescriptions over Iran, Europe's economic and trade interests will suffer, whereas what is needed is an alternative European Iran policy that fully recognizes "Iran's legitimate rights to nuclear technology", to quote Javier Solana, the EU's foreign-policy chief.
However, the problem with the EU's present approach is that, first of all, Iran's right under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to nuclear technology does not really require any "recognition" by the EU and others, and to the extent that under the present circumstances such a statement is laden with special meanings, then it must be taken to its logical conclusion and extend to recognizing Iran's right to produce nuclear fuel, per Article IV of the NPT, under the necessary safeguards and surveillance measures of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Otherwise, the statement by Solana and other European officials remains vague and indeterminate, denuded of substantive legal connotations.
The question of security guarantee
Security is a two-way process, and if Germany and other Western powers seek Iran's cooperation against global terrorism and the threats of nuclear terrorism, then they must show a better understanding and appreciation of Iran's post-September 11, 2001, security anxieties. The unprecedented influx of US military might in Iran's vicinity has "securitized" Iran's foreign-policy debates for the foreseeable future. Yet the nub of dilemma on the question of security has largely bypassed policy-makers throughout Europe.
That dilemma is as follows: the European suggestion of Iran's inclusion in any regional security infrastructure is naive and simplistic, given the structural conflict between the US and Iran and their ongoing games of strategy. The main reason the US is incapable of formulating an Iran-inclusive security framework in the Persian Gulf is precisely because the operation of Iranian power in the oil region works against the United States' interventionist policies aimed at controlling the access and flow of the strategic commodity relied on by the industrial world, that is, oil and gas.
That is precisely why the US quest for regime change in Iran will never completely disappear, no matter what deals are brokered on the nuclear front. A more prudent political realism on Germany's, and Europe's, part would step down from the wishful hope of full normalization of relations between Iran and the US. Instead, it would work toward bringing a semblance of order and predictability to the antagonistic relations between Tehran and Washington.
Thus calls for more European pressure on the US to make explicit pledges not to interfere in Iran's internal affairs and to put the regime change recipe (for disaster) on the back burner are insufficiently mustered at the present moment. After all, Europe is much more cognizant of the perils of Iran's potential "breakup", and the threats of irredentism with regard to its own security, should the US make good on its own policy of fomenting ethnic divisions inside Iran.
That would mean escalating the Middle East boiling pot to new heights of insecurity, in light of Iran's present importance as a strong centralized government contributing to regional integration and cooperation, something the EU countries can ill-afford.
Unfortunately, neither Germany alone nor the EU as a whole can provide any security guarantee to Iran without US backing, but that does not mean that the EU cannot take proactive steps, such as with respect to influencing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) against taking stern anti-Iran steps or promoting Iran-OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) cooperation, both in the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. The OSCE advances the objective of a UN-like cooperative security framework potentially favored by Iran. Already, Iran has participated in a number of OSCE-sponsored events, for example, on environmental security.
Building on the past, but which past?
In crafting its Iran policy, Merkel's government must deepen "constructive engagement" with Iran and disregard any suggestion that the EU's Iran diplomacy has been a failure. Rather, the result so far has been mixed, in light of Iran's marathon negotiations, its willingness to implement the Additional Protocol of the NPT, allowing intrusive inspections of its nuclear facilities, as requested by the EU-3 in 2003, until January 2006, when Tehran dropped it in reaction to the EU's backtracking on its promises in the Paris Agreement.
This included, above all, a pledge to respect Iran's "exercise" of its nuclear rights "without discrimination". But, as stated by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, Iran is willing to re-adopt the Additional Protocol and to pass it through the parliament (majlis).
Also, learning from past errors of "nuclear reductionism", that is, reducing the sum of Iran-German relations to the nuclear issue, as warned by some top German experts on Iran, such as Johannes Reissner of the Berlin think-tank Stiftung fur Wissenschaft und Politik, is mandatory if Merkel wishes to make a tangible difference in the present crisis.
As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently stated, "isolating Iran" will have the adverse effect of augmenting Iran's non-cooperative behavior. The obverse strategy of integrating Iran, reflected in the new European package approach, should not be tactical, however, but only if it is buffeted with the firm guarantees of faithful implementation, will it have a decent chance of success.
From Iran's vantage point, Germany's role in Iran's nuclear program leaves a lot to be desired. The German government failed to take any action when Siemens reneged on its lucrative contract to build the Bushehr power plant, forcing Iran to turn to Russia in the mid-1990s for a project half-finished. Consequently, the present European offer of light water reactors to Iran cannot possibly be taken seriously, short of serious stipulations by the EU that would preclude the recycling of such bitter experiences in the past.
Fortunately, Germany resisted some calls, by Israel and its Washington lobbyists, for excluding Iran from the upcoming soccer World Cup, and there is a possibility of Ahmadinejad's presence at the games, preemptively denounced by the hawkish editorials of the Washington Times, among others.
Merkel would be wise to send Steinmeier to Iran ahead of those games and or to invite Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to Berlin, and to decouple to some extent Iran-German trade and economic cooperation from the nuclear row, as an intermediary measure that could well have salutary effects on the nuclear crisis.
The more Germany shows its ability to engage in creative diplomacy toward Iran, the better the chances of a mutually-satisfactory resolution of this crisis, following the assumption that Iran greatly values its continuous interaction with Germany and other EU countries.
The crucial question at this critical juncture is whether or not trans-Atlantic considerations and US pressure will impede or neutralize the present drift of Germany toward finding its own voice on Iran.
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and co-author of "Negotiating Iran's Nuclear Populism", Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume XII, Issue 2, Summer 2005, with Mustafa Kibaroglu. He also wrote "Keeping Iran's Nuclear Potential Latent", Harvard International Review. He is author of Iran's Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction .
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Belgium to appoint 13 terrorism judges
www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-30 22:59:48
BRUSSELS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Belgium will appoint 13 investigative judges to preside over cases involving terrorism in an attempt to deal with a perceived increasing threat of the crime,Belgian newspaper 'De Tijd' reported on Tuesday.
The specialist terrorism judges will be officially appointed inabout a month's time, the report said, citing Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx.
It was initially intended that only five specialized examining magistrates would be appointed, but due to a growing backlog and the sheer volume of cases requiring attention, the number of posts was expanded to 13.
Federal terrorism magistrate Johan Delmulle said police and public prosecution offices already had employed terrorism specialists, and it was only logical their investigations should be led by an investigative judge with the same expertise.
Of the judges, four will be working in the capital of Brussels,and two in each of the three major cities -- Antwerp, Gent and Mons. Liege is to get three, one of whom will be responsible for the German speaking community.
The number of posts was based on an analysis of the terrorism threat and the number of cases that are already being investigatedin certain regions.
The 13 will be directly responsible for their posted region although they will also be empowered to operate on a national level.
The federal public prosecution office started 223 investigations into alleged terrorist crimes in the past four years. Some 40 percent of them, or 89 investigations, were opened in 2005.
Belgium's Federal Public Prosecutor's Office said that the appointment of the specialist examining magistrates was vital to terrorism prevention efforts. Recent high profile terrorist trialshave highlighted the need for specialists in the field.
Comment: Are we really to believe that there are enough "terrorist" threats in Belgium to warrant so many judges? How exactly are they defining "terrorism"? Who exactly are they targeting?
Islamic fundamentalists?
Or anyone who doesn't agree with the pathocratic order?
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New violence breaks out in French suburbs
www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-31 11:56:16
PARIS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Riot police were deployed in a troubled suburb of Paris on Tuesday night after around 100 youths armed with sticks and baseball bats clashed with police.
In the worst such violence since the riots of last November, the youths hurled Molotov cocktails at public buildings and peltedpolice with projectiles.
The violence broke out in the town of Montfermeil just 15 kilometers east of Paris, with trouble also erupting in nearby Clichy-sous-Bois -- the flash point of last year's riots.
Dozens of vans carrying riot police officers were stationed around Montfermeil Tuesday night. A helicopter was used to keep the area under surveillance.
Clashes erupted on Monday night when a gang attacked the mayor's home in Montfermeil, shaking its gates and hurling stones at the windows.
They also targeted the town hall, shattering its glass facade with stones, throwing Molotov cocktails and setting fire to cars and a large number of garbage bins.
The violence was a stark reminder of the anger of residents in the suburbs, despite new government efforts to tackle high youth unemployment and racial inequalities following the three weeks of rioting last fall which shook the country.
National police said nine officers suffered light injuries, mostly from projectiles, during the three hours of unrest in Montfermeil on Monday.
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Greek cultural minister targeted by bomb blast
www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-31 08:33:24
ATHENS, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A strong explosion occurred early Tuesday in central Athens near the residence of Greek Culture Minister George Voulgarakis, causing no injuries but extensive damage to several parked cars.
Police believed that the minister was the target of the home-made explosive device, but there was no previous warning of the explosion nor has any group claimed responsibility as at noon.
Voulgarakis, who held the portfolio of Public Order Minister before the cabinet reshuffle in early February, admitted that he has received a barrage of threats, adding "I have been targeted".
"Every bomb, in a period of democracy, is targeted against democracy itself, and not against specific individuals," he said.
The explosion, just 200 meters from Voulgarakis' apartment at 7:42 a.m. (local time), was due to a home-made bomb placed in a travel bag that the perpetrators had hung on a bicycle they placed between two parked cars, police said.
Police were in the area with a bomb sniffing dog as part of normal precautions, and the explosive device went off three minutes before the minister was due to pass the area.
Police disclosed that a car was approaching the spot when the bomb went off, and police believe this could have misled the perpetrators who possibly thought that the approaching car was an escort for the minister's car, thus causing them to detonate the explosive device earlier.
It was as yet unknown how the bomb was detonated, since the explosion destroyed the entire mechanism and remnants have not been found, but bomb-disposal experts said that, given the strength of the explosive material, which was equal to about 2 kilograms of ammonia dynamite, it was very likely that the device was detonated by remote control.
The strong explosion causes extensive damage to the two cars between which the bicycle had been placed, the police car and to other cars parked along the curb, while debris from the cars was hurled at least 10 meters away, breaking the windows of a nearby school, which was empty at the time.
Government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos condemned the attack and expressed the government' s support for Voulgarakis' family, which he said, had become the target of such an attack forthe second time in three years.
Such attacks actually targeted democracy itself, the spokesman added, while noting that Greek democracy was strong and not threatened by such incidents.
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Chilean police tear gas student marchers
By Fiona Ortiz
Reuters
Tue May 30, 2006
SANTIAGO, Chile - Police used tear gas and water cannons to try to break up Chile's biggest student protests in decades on Tuesday as thousands of students marched to demand the government spend more of its fat budget surplus on education.
Dozens of students were arrested in the capital and protest leaders said half a million students occupied hundreds of schools all over Chile calling for free bus fare, free college entrance exams, more teachers and improved school buildings.
"We are protesting on behalf of our school. The bathrooms are disgusting, you can't even take a shower in the locker room, and they don't do anything about it," said Bernardo Ferrada, 15, his nose and eyes burning from tear gas.
Ferrada said he and 25 other students from the Arturo Prats high school in the middle class neighborhood of Puente Alto joined a march headed to the national palace before police sprayed them with tear gas from armored vehicles.
Protests began two weeks ago when students took over a few schools in the capital -- sleeping overnight in classrooms and eating food brought in by sympathetic parents.
The movement spread all over the country and has turned into the biggest street protest faced by new President Michelle Bachelet. Local media said Chile hasn't seen student protests on this scale since the early 1970s when Socialist President Salvador Allende was in office.
Bachelet is highly popular and her center-left coalition has been in power for 16 years in Chile, one of Latin America's wealthiest countries. But students say schools should be seeing more government funding at a time when profit from high-priced copper, Chile's main product, has handed the government billions of dollars of budget surpluses.
"Copper sky high and education in the gutter," read a banner at one school.
MINISTER TO MEET STUDENTS
Bachelet initially said her government would not negotiate with students who had occupied schools but on Tuesday Education Minister Martin Zilic said he would meet with student leaders to hear their demands.
Students and parents have criticized what they have said was heavy-handed police reaction to peaceful marches.
"The police did what they had to do to dissuade the students from marching, so that they don't interrupt traffic and disturb the peace," Santiago city administrator Victor Barrueto told TVN television.
Santiago's main avenue was closed all afternoon and into the evening as protesters regrouped after repeated bouts of tear gas and water cannons. Bus service was interrupted in some areas and some subway stations were closed.
Protesters said they want the $40 college entrance exam fee and 20 cent student bus fair both to be eliminated.
While protesters marched in the capital, students in Valparaiso, Concepcion and other cities held demonstrations and college students stayed away from classes in sympathy.
Students at elite private schools -- including the school Bachelet's youngest daughter attends -- went to school but held solidarity events on Tuesday instead of classes.
The well-organized student leaders in their grey-and-blue school uniforms have taken over the nightly news and the public agenda in the last two weeks.
In recent decades, Chile has expanded school coverage to most of the population, but students say quality has lagged.
"We have not improved the quality of education as we wanted. The big new challenge for us is closing the quality gap," Deputy Education Minister Pilar Romanguera acknowledged in a recent radio interview.
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Suspected Taliban occupy police station
By NOOR KHAN
Associated Press
May 31, 2006
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Hundreds of suspected Taliban fighters attacked a remote central Afghan town on Wednesday and occupied a district police headquarters after the battle, driving out security forces, an official said.
Also Wednesday, Afghanistan's parliament approved a motion calling for the government to prosecute the U.S. soldiers responsible for a deadly road crash that sparked the worst riots in Kabul in years, officials said.
The assembly passed the nonbinding motion Tuesday, after debating Monday's crash in which a U.S. truck plowed into a line of cars, killing up to five Afghans and sparking citywide, anti-foreigner riots, said Saleh Mohammed Saljuqi, an assistant to the parliamentary speaker.
Elsewhere, suspected Taliban fighters fired a grenade at a police vehicle in southwestern Afghanistan, killing the Zabul Province deputy police chief, Ghulam Rasool, and wounding three policemen, officials said.
Rasool was driving through the province to warn security forces of an impending militant attack on police posts when his vehicle was hit, said a spokesman for the region, Ali Khail.
The militants took control of the police compound in the Uruzgan province town of Chora around dawn Wednesday after hours of fighting, said a senior regional official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to media.
He said no police were wounded in the battle.
In recent weeks, Afghanistan has seen some of the deadliest fighting since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Militants have stepped up attacks, particularly in the south, drawing a fierce response from coalition and Afghan forces.
As many as 376 people, mostly militants, have been reported killed in attacks or fighting since May 17, according to coalition and Afghan statistics.
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At least 6 die in new outbreak of Somalia fighting
Reuters
Wednesday, May 31, 2006; 3:21 AM
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A new outbreak of fighting between rival militias in the Somali capital Mogadishu killed at least six people including two civilians early on Wednesday, residents said.
"We woke up to the noises of the mortars and other guns used by both sides," resident Ahmed Dige told Reuters.
Islamist militiamen attacked early in the morning in northeastern Mogadishu, and seized several positions previously held by fighters loyal to an alliance of warlords who say they have banded together to fight terrorism, residents said.
The fighting broke three days of relative peace in the city, as the militias re-armed and gird for new turf wars.
The two sides have been battling for control of Mogadishu in fighting that has killed at least 326 people since February, among the worst ever seen in Somalia.
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Earth Changes
647,000 Indonesians Displaced by Quake
Wednesday May 31, 2006 9:01 AM
By CHRIS BRUMMITT
Associated Press Writer
BANTUL, Indonesia (AP) - U.S. Marines joined an international effort to deliver aid and medical care to nearly 650,000 Indonesians displaced by a devastating earthquake, as hopes faded of finding more survivors.
Two U.S. Marine cargo planes carrying a mobile field hospital landed Tuesday in Yogyakarta, closest to the quake area in central Java, after cracks in the airport runway were patched.
A disaster assistance response team from the U.S. Agency for International Development is being readied and the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, which has extensive medical facilities, is en route to the area, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.
The United States also increased its aid contribution to $5 million.
The United Nations said at least 21 other countries have joined the effort to help those left homeless by Saturday's magnitude-6.3 quake, which killed more than 5,800 people. An estimated 647,000 people were displaced by the quake, nearly a third of them homeless and the rest staying with relatives, said Bambang Priyohadi, a senior provincial government official.
The government said Wednesday the temblor destroyed more than 135,000 homes, reducing them to piles of bricks, tiles and wood in less than a minute. Priyohadi based the displaced figure on the number of homes destroyed and a family index of 4.8 people per house.
The main hospital in hardest-hit Bantul district was still overwhelmed, with 400 patients for just over 100 beds, and doctors complained of a lack of supplies.
"We are short of splints, gauze, even beds,'' said Dr. Hidayat, the hospital's earthquake emergency coordinator, adding that 90 percent of the victims had bone fractures. "The minute we get fresh splits, they are gone.''
But conditions improved at several other hospitals, where parking lots and hallways that had been filled with hundreds of victims in the days after the quake were clear, with most patients now being treated in beds.
Workers removed a tent outside Yogyakarta's largest hospital, Sardjito, that had been used to shelter the injured.
The U.N.'s top humanitarian official said the aid effort was going well, and there had been major improvements in coordination among aid organizations and nations since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 131,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province alone.
"We are now reaching more and more victims,'' Jan Egeland told The Associated Press in Brussels, Belgium. "I am getting reports that we are making enormous progress.''
The government's Social Affairs Ministry said the official death toll rose Wednesday to 5,846.
Most survivors were still living in improvised shacks or group shelters erected in rice fields. Groups of families cooked together, each contributing scavenged food.
Despite government promises of aid, shortages of food and fresh water remained a pressing concern, and thousands of people used cardboard boxes to beg for cash and supplies from passing drivers.
The head of a Malaysia search and rescue team said hope had faded of finding more survivors or bodies, and his group had turned to clearing rubble from streets instead.
"The collapsed homes were all so small that anyone who was trapped would have been extracted by their family members,'' Abdul Aziz Ahmad said, adding his team found only one body Monday.
A 44-member team of Chinese doctors, search and rescue workers and seismologists also arrived with five tons of supplies, including a field hospital, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Thailand said it would send 48 military medical personnel, medicine and equipment.
Teams from Malaysia, Singapore, Norway and other nations already are working in the area.
The Asian Development Bank announced a total of $60 million in grants and low-interest loans to rebuild the earthquake zone.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has temporarily moved his office to Yogyakarta and spent a night sleeping in a tent with survivors, vowed to fight corruption in delivering aid money.
"I am ordering that not even one dollar will be misused,'' he said.
The quake was the fourth destructive temblor to hit Indonesia in the past 17 months, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami.
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As Hurricane Season Looms, States Aim to Scare
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
The New York Times
May 31, 2006
MIAMI - Convinced that tough tactics are needed, officials in hurricane-prone states are trumpeting dire warnings about the storm season that starts on Thursday, preaching self-reliance and prodding the public to prepare early and well.
Cities are circulating storm-preparation checklists, counties are holding hurricane expositions at shopping malls and states are dangling carrots like free home inspections and tax-free storm supplies in hopes of conquering complacency.
But the main strategy, it seems, is to scare the multitudes of people who emergency officials say remain blasé even after last year's record-breaking storm season.
To persuade residents to heed evacuation orders, the Florida Division of Emergency Management is broadcasting public service announcements with recordings of 911 calls placed during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
"The roof has completely caved in on us," a woman cries as chilling music swells, only to be told that rescuers cannot come out during the storm.
Speaking of the tactics, Craig Fugate, Florida's emergency management director, said last week at a news conference in Tallahassee, "We're going to use a sledgehammer."
This save-yourselves approach comes after government agencies were overwhelmed by pleas for help after last year's storms and strongly criticized as not responding swiftly or thoroughly enough to the public need. Now, officials have said repeatedly, only the elderly, the poor and the disabled should count on the government to help them escape a hurricane or endure its immediate aftermath.
Mississippi, where more than 200 residents died in Hurricane Katrina, unrolled a "Stay Alert. Stay Alive" hurricane awareness campaign in April. State officials told residents what to pack in a "go-kit" for evacuating (flashlight, radio, nonelectric can opener) and, like many others, commanded them to stockpile at least three days' worth of water and food.
Horry County, S.C., home to Myrtle Beach, held a hurricane exposition last month and is giving similar presentations at Kiwanis clubs and homeowners associations.
"The big shortfall is complacency with the community," said Randall Webster, director of Horry County Emergency Management. "Our main theme is, take interest as an individual and make preparations."
But will it work? Emergency management officials groaned this month at a poll by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research Inc., which found that of 1,100 adults along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, 83 percent had taken no steps to fortify their homes this year, 68 percent had no hurricane survival kits and 60 percent had no family disaster plan.
"I can't rightfully say I see any increased sense of people getting ready," said Larry Gispert, emergency management director in Hillsborough County, Fla., home to Tampa. "It's like a psychological issue - 'If I don't think about bad things, bad things won't happen.' "
In Nags Head, N.C., Jimmy Austin, a former commercial fisherman who now operates his own seafood market, said he was unfazed by this year's predictions, some of which suggest that the Carolinas will be especially hard hit. He keeps his insurance current, Mr. Austin said, but sees no need for special precautions.
"I don't pay these things a whole lot of mind," said Mr. Austin, 69, a native of the Outer Banks. "Because they say so doesn't mean it's going to happen that way."
In Galveston, Tex., Keith Patterson, a resident there for 30 years, dismissed the urgency of a hurricane survival kit on Thursday. No use worrying about a hurricane until it is near, he said.
"When one is coming, I'll make preparations," said Mr. Patterson, 68, a retired purchasing clerk. "I'll get what I have to get then."
In Florida, the second annual tax holiday on hurricane supplies, from May 21 through June 1, has not drawn an overwhelming response, several store representatives said. But at least one store, the Lowe's in South Fort Myers, was selling more generators than barbecue grills last week, said John Sandford, operations manager there.
At a Home Depot, Brenda and Jerry Dyche of South Fort Myers were shopping for a generator last Wednesday. With that and a new roof, they said, they had no reason to flee.
"We'd just as soon be in our house," Mr. Dyche said. "Where are we going to go? I-75 is a parking lot by the time they evacuate everybody."
Likewise, Ronda Burke, who did not go inland last year to avoid Hurricane Rita but stayed on South Padre Island, Tex., to watch over her new health food cafe, Naturally's, said she would probably do the same this year if necessary.
"We feel about our store like you feel about a person," said Ms. Burke, whose husband took their two young children to higher ground as Hurricane Rita neared the Texas coast (and eventually came ashore far from South Padre Island). "We'd probably ride it out again."
Meanwhile, government agencies are preparing more thoroughly than ever, stockpiling water and food, improving communication technology and outfitting supply trucks with global positioning systems.
Hattiesburg, Miss., is buying $4 million worth of generators for its public buildings and water system. Broward County, Fla., bought a $500,000 command post vehicle to shuttle emergency managers among crisis spots. Many areas will offer more hurricane shelters this year, though officials like Herminio Lorenzo, the Miami-Dade County fire chief, are portraying them bleakly to encourage people to make their own plans.
"The very last place you would want to go is a Red Cross shelter," Mr. Lorenzo said last week at a community hurricane preparation meeting. "You're so close to the people sleeping next to you that you can feel the hair of their mustache on the side of your head."
Some communities are coaxing the public to prepare in a piecemeal way, like saving old milk jugs as emergency water containers and buying one extra can of food on every grocery trip. Escambia County, Fla., is publishing weekly shopping lists to try to get residents to stock up little by little. Martiza Vazquez of Miami said that approach had made preparing more manageable.
"Every time I go to the supermarket I buy four or five cans of tuna or soup or whatever," Ms. Vazquez, 37, said. "I have a checklist that came with the paper the other day, and I am using that to figure out how much is enough."
Waiting for a taxi to take her to her job at McDonald's, Chanavia Williams of Galveston, who makes $5.75 an hour, laughed at the notion of buying provisions to sock away.
"We got food, but I got none saved," said Ms. Williams, 17, the single parent of a 2-year-old, who lives in public housing.
Ms. Williams said she would have to sacrifice buying diapers and baby clothes to afford a hurricane survival kit.
Still, Ms. Williams, who evacuated on a bus as Hurricane Rita neared, said she wanted to prepare, echoing others who had frightening experiences last year. Wayne P. Sallade, emergency management director in Charlotte County, Fla., which was devastated by Hurricane Charley in 2004, said the Mason-Dixon poll numbers on hurricane preparation were skewed by people in states that had not had hurricanes recently.
"You talk to people in cities here, and there's an absolute fever for information," Mr. Sallade said.
That is also true in New Orleans and along the Mississippi coast, where post-Hurricane Katrina anxiety has compelled many to prepare diligently this year.
But in Houston, Joe Laud, spokesman for the city's emergency center, said only 1,000 people with special needs had registered for public transportation to pick them up in an evacuation. During Hurricane Rita, Mr. Laud said, 25,000 such residents needed help evacuating.
Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, at his annual hurricane conference this month in Fort Lauderdale, sourly recalled the chaos after Hurricane Wilma last year, where throngs of residents lined up for free emergency supplies that quickly ran out.
"It makes it a lot harder when people line up in their Lexuses or Mercedeses to get ice and water at a public distribution site when the Publix is open a block away," Mr. Bush said.
As his audience of emergency workers applauded, he added, "I don't know about you, but it sure made me feel better to get that off my chest."
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Big Rodents Overrun Washington Seniors
AP
May 30, 2006
"The marmots are coming, the marmots are coming." Seniors living in Wine Country Villa probably wish they had gotten such a warning.
Residents say the oversized rodents are swarming through the 75-unit development of manufactured homes near the airport of this Eastern Washington town, burrowing under homes, fouling front porches with their droppings and - according to some unconfirmed accounts - attacking people.
Many species of marmots, including some known as woodchucks and groundhogs, are found across North America. They are closely related to ground squirrels and are among the largest of rodents, some reaching 30 pounds.
"Can you imagine what they'd do to cats?" asked Dick Bain, 78, a Wine Country resident who dispatched two of the animals with a shovel Friday.
Bain said he doesn't like killing animals but had to act after finding two marmots beneath a stack of carpentry wood next to his house.
"My neighbor got tackled (by marmots) two years ago and got chewed up pretty bad," Bain told the Yakima Herald-Republic.
The account could not be verified by the newspaper. Bain would not identify the man, saying his neighbor was embarrassed.
Also unconfirmed was an account that a resident got badly bitten after reaching into a water tank to remove a marmot that only appeared to be dead.
Ray Borgens, 81, said marmots leave unsavory calling cards in his carport, burrow under his house and once scooted up a ladder he left leaning against the roof.
"They were snooping around the air ducts up there," Borgens said.
Concerned about the droppings, which Bain said often are tracked indoors "even though you think you've cleaned it off," residents say officials in the Benton-Franklin Health Department have told them there's nothing the agency can do because the animals pose no public health risk, including the spread of infectious disease.
Police add that town ordinances prohibit residents from shooting the critters.
Officials in the state Department of Fish and Wildlife say residents likely will have to pay if they want to eradicate the infestation, and then only after clearing some bureaucratic hurdles. First, they must file a complaint with the agency's Yakima office, which then may refer them to a certified exterminator.
"These are not free services," agency spokeswoman Madonna Luers said. "We do not have the staff to go out there and deal with these situations."
To make the area less attractive to marmots, she advised securing garbage cans and other potential sources of food or nesting material.
She also advised trying to avoid marmot confrontations.
"They've probably become pretty accustomed to people," Luers said, "and it's not an animal you want to tangle with."
Comment: Ha! That's nothing. Have you seen the giant rodents that have invaded Washington, DC?
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Java earthquake toll passes 5,800
BBC
Wednesday, 31 May 2006
Indonesia has upped the death toll from the earthquake which hit the island of Java on Saturday to more than 5,800.
Large quantities of aid started flowing into affected areas, and the UN spoke of "enormous progress" being made.
But many survivors spent a fourth night without shelter or supplies, as congested roads hampered access to more remote areas.
The 6.3 magnitude quake near the city of Yogyakarta left thousands injured and as many as 200,000 without homes.
Donations from around the world have continued to arrive as the relief operation, involving at least 22 countries, gathered pace.
The aid supplies, brought in by a succession of planes landing at Yogyakarta's airport, were unloaded into warehouses before being trucked south.
The UN has set up a co-ordination centre close to the airport to bring order to the flow of goods.
More international medical teams have flown in to help treat the injured, including personnel from the US, Japan and a 40-strong team and five tonnes of medical supplies from China.
A Singaporean field hospital has been treating patients, and fears of a health crisis appear to be receding, aid workers say.
The UN's top humanitarian co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, said the aid effort had made "enormous progress".
"The most critical need is medical assistance and after that it's water and sanitation, and third is emergency shelter," he told the Associated Press.
Distribution problems
But many areas are still waiting for aid deliveries.
On roads around Yogyakarta, people were begging motorists for money.
"Our village has many victims, houses are all destroyed and we have not received aid from the government," a teenage boy, Jumadi, told Reuters news agency.
"What else can we do?" he said.
The UN co-ordinator in Bantul, hardest hit by the earthquake, told the BBC the problem was not a shortage of aid but a problem of "distribution networks".
"The problem is how to bring these goods to those who really need it," he said.
One man, Trimoseh, whose house in Prenggan village near Bantul was destroyed, said he had very little food or water.
"Until now we haven't had any aid," he told Reuters. "But we are not angry, we are just hungry. We will wait for food."
The Asian Development Bank has promised $60m (£32m) in aid and loans to help the affected region.
The Indonesian government has pledged an initial 12kg of rice per family, and 200,000 rupiah ($21) for each survivor to cover clothing and household goods, and compensation for damaged houses.
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Monsoon leads to flooding, rough seas in south India
AFP
May 30, 2006
Mumbai - Three people died and two were missing at sea as annual monsoon rains Tuesday caused floods in India's south that saw parts of Kerala state flooded and fishing in the Arabian Sea curtailed, reports said.
Two women were killed after a coconut trees uprooted by the heavy rains fell on them and a man was killed when a tree landed on a passenger bus in Kerala, Press Trust of India reported.
Elsewhere in the state, hundreds of families were moved to relief camps as villages in low-lying districts were flooded after the monsoon hit Friday, a week earlier than expected PTI said.
The heavy rains and rough winds also saw several boats capsize off India's western coast, leading a local weather department to warn fishermen not to go to sea.
"Gusty winds and heavy rains will continue for the next 24 hours and we have sent a warning to fishermen asking them not to venture out to sea," weather official K.V. Singh said from the western coastal state of Goa where five trawlers capsized Tuesday. One sailor was reported missing.
Early Tuesday morning, a merchant vessel with 21 people aboard ran aground because of the strong winds and current, the Indian Coast Guard said.
"Twenty were rescued and handed over to port authorities," Commandant M. Prasad told AFP, adding that one person remained missing.
The advance of the rains upwards from the south is keenly watched as two-thirds of the country's billion-plus population earn their livelihood from agriculture, but poor infrastructure often means heavy flooding and loss of life.
Last year 400 people died in the financial hub Mumbai, in western Maharashtra state, after nearly 100 centimetres (40 inches) of rain fell in 24 hours.
The state's top official however promised that there would be no repeat of that disaster.
A project to desilt the river that runs through the city, to prevent this year's rains from overrunning badly neglected drainage facilities, has almost been completed, he said.
"I assure Mumbai's citizens that there won't be a repeat of last year during the monsoons," Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times Tuesday.
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Netherlands must boost flood defences
by Stephanie van den Berg
AFP
May 30, 2006
The Hague - Dutch authorities will have to boost their already significant flood protection measures to cope with increasingly warmer, wetter winters and summer droughts, according to forecasts released Tuesday.
Four possible future climate scenarios for 2050 presented by the official Dutch Meteorological Institute (KNMI) show global warming continuing apace and sea levels rising.
For the Netherlands, the next four and a half decades will bring milder but wetter winters and drier summers interspersed with sudden extreme rainfall.
Already the Netherlands has one of the world's highest standards of flood protection, enough to withstand a storm of a magnitude that statisticians say occurs only once every 10,000 years.
Around 60 percent of the Netherlands is below sea level, protected by an intricate system of dams and dykes. The Dutch also invented the polder, land reclaimed from the water.
"The effects of a future rise in sea level will be felt very strongly here," Deputy Transport Minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen said.
A devastating flood in 1953 that killed more than 2,000 people prompted the authorities to launch an unprecedented plan for coastal protection.
But with the KNMI predicting a rise in sea level of up to 35 centimeters (13.5 inches) by 2050, protection would have to be stepped up.
"We must be prepared for climate change," Schultz van Haegen said.
She said drier summers were also a cause for concern because dykes could dry out and burst.
The KNMI stressed they had left out the worst-case scenarios with the most extreme results.
"With these four scenarios you have a good chance that what happens in the next 50 years will be within these expectations," KNMI director Frits Brouwer said.
The predictions were released to enable the government to anticipate the pace of climate change and adapt policies accordingly, the KNMI said.
There will be changes in energy demand if winters warm up, while a warmer climate can influence agriculture because more can be grown but summer droughts could have adverse effects, and yields from wind energy parks can drop if wind speeds drop, as some scenarios predict, Schultz predicted.
The Netherlands is also working with other European countries on water management.
The country is the end point for several big rivers coming from Germany and Belgium, such as The Rhine and the Meuse that can be affected by either sudden droughts or rising water levels as the earth's temperature rises.
"Hopefully in June the European Union will present a new 'high water' plan based on a joint French-Dutch initiative to make sure the low lying countries are not stuck with the problems," Schultz said.
"We cannot stop glaciers melting but if we work together we can prevent that the Netherlands becomes Europe's drain," she added.
But the hardest blow the KNMI delivered to the Dutch Tuesday was that, according to the latest scenarios, the legendary Elfstedentocht ice skating marathon, held on over 200 kilometers of natural ice in the Friesland province, is less likely to occur in future.
Although the last marathon, named Elfstedentocht because it goes past 11 (elf) towns (steden), was held in 1997, each winter when the temperature drops below zero Celsius the Dutch get so-called Elfsteden fever.
The national primetime news shows report daily on the marathon's "ice masters" who check the state of the ice and have to give the all clear before the marathon can start.
In 1997 over 16,000 people participated in the Elfstedentocht.
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Coalition of the Willing
Coalition of the Willing to Kill for Pathocracy
Multi-National Fascists in Iraq
Via CBC
A look at countries in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. At least 25 countries now support a U.S. contingent of nearly 132,000.
Albania - 120 non-combat troops, mainly patrolling airport in Mosul; no plans to withdraw.
Armenia - 46 soldiers serving under Polish command through end of 2006; no plans to withdraw.
Australia - Roughly 470 troops and support personnel in Iraq, plus several hundred in the Persian Gulf region; no dates set for any pullout.
Azerbaijan - 150 troops, mostly serving as sentries, on patrols and protecting a dam near the city of Hadid Ha; no plans to withdraw.
Bosnia-Herzegovina - 36 experts identifying and destroying unexploded ordnance; experts being rotated every six months; no plans to withdraw.
Britain - About 8,000 troops in southern Iraq, roughly 2,000 others in the Persian Gulf region.
Bulgaria - Deployed 120 non-combat troops to guard refugee camp north of Baghdad after pulling out 380 infantry troops in December.
Czech Republic - 100 military police training Iraqi officers; mission extended to end of 2006.
Denmark - 530 troops patrolling southern city of Basra; parliament on Tuesday cut force by 80 and extended mission to June 30, 2007.
El Salvador - 380 soldiers doing peacekeeping and humanitarian work in Hillah; no immediate plans to withdraw.
Estonia - 40 troops, mostly infantry, serving under U.S. command in Baghdad, manning checkpoints, patrolling neighbourhoods, searching houses for weapons, escorting convoys; extension beyond end of 2006 expected.
Georgia - About 900 combat forces, medics and support personnel serving under U.S. command in Baqouba; no plans to withdraw or reduce contingent.
Italy - About 2,600 troops, most in southern city of Nasiriyah, involved in training, security and reconstruction; force to be reduced to 1,600 by mid-June and remaining troops expected to be withdrawn by year's end.
Japan - 600 non-combat troops based in Samawah to purify water, do other humanitarian tasks; decision on possible withdrawal postponed until Baghdad appoints new defence, interior ministers.
Kazahstan - 27 military engineers; defence minister has suggested a pullout by July.
Latvia - 135 soldiers, mostly infantry, manning checkpoints, patrolling and escorting materials; mission expires at end of 2006.
Lithuania - 60 soldiers, mostly infantry, serving with Danish contingent near Basra in southern Iraq; mission to last at least through end of 2006.
Macedonia - 32 troops providing security in Taji, north of Baghdad; no plans to withdraw.
Moldova - 11 bomb defusal experts; mission expires in July; extension expected.
Mongolia 160 troops; no plans to withdraw.
Netherlands - 15 soldiers as part of NATO mission training police, army officers; mandate expires in August.
Poland - 900 non-combat troops; commands multinational force south of Baghdad; mission expires at end of year; government weighing whether to extend.
Romania - 860 troops, including 400 infantry, 150 mine experts, 100 military police, 50 military intelligence plus medics and UN guards; no plans to withdraw.
Slovakia - 104 troops stationed in Hillah in Polish sector, mostly engaged in de-mining; no plans to withdraw.
South Korea - In process of reducing its 3,200-member contingent in northern Iraq by 1,000 troops by end of year.
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U.S.-led coalition in Iraq dwindles as Italy and South Korea cut troops
16:33:33 EDT May 30, 2006
WILLIAM J. KOLE
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - It's a coalition of the dwindling.
The U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq is losing troops from two of its most important allies - Italy and South Korea - and up to a half dozen other members could draw down their forces or pull out entirely by year's end.
The withdrawals are complicating the U.S. effort to begin extracting itself from the country, where a fresh onslaught of deadly attacks on coalition forces is testing the resolve of key partners such as Britain and Poland.
Some observers say Iraq's deteriorating security situation is an argument for coalition forces to stay - not leave - and perhaps even deploy additional forces to tamp down violence as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki works to shift security duties to Iraqis over the next 18 months.
Underscoring the reality, the Pentagon said Tuesday it was shifting about 1,500 U.S. troops from Kuwait to western Iraq's volatile Anbar province to help the Iraqis establish order there.
Increased instability, violence and Islamic extremism in Iraq could require "a larger role for overt, co-ordinated, multilateral intervention, involving the key regional powers, to stabilize the situation," defence analyst Christopher Langton of the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies warns in a new report.
Defence Secretary Des Browne of Britain, the No. 2 military presence in Iraq with about 8,000 troops, conceded Tuesday that the latest attacks were "a major concern."
Two British soldiers were killed and two others wounded in a roadside bombing in Basra on Sunday, bringing to nine the number of British personnel who have died in the southern Iraqi city this month and pushing total British deaths in the past three years to 113. American deaths, meanwhile, are approaching 2,500.
Despite the bloodshed, public opposition to Britain's involvement and reports that more than 1,000 British troops may have deserted since 2003, Browne insisted there were no plans to pull British troops from Iraq.
"We will continue to remain in Iraq until the Iraqi government is confident that the Iraqi security forces are capable of providing security without assistance from the coalition forces," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.
"That will, of course, be in consultation with us and our allies. But the decision on withdrawal will be based on achieving the right conditions but not on a particular timetable."
The United States still provides most of the muscle for the mission, with about 132,000 troops in Iraq.
Officials have said they would like that number reduced to about 100,000 by the end of 2006, although White House spokesman Tony Snow cautioned last week that U.S. President George W. Bush is unlikely to say "we're going to be out in one year, two years, four years."
In the months after the March 2003 invasion, the multinational force peaked at about 300,000 soldiers from 38 countries, including 250,000 U.S. troops. But the coalition has shrunk steadily ever since, with Spain and Ukraine among the larger contributors to pull out.
The latest blow to the current 26-country coalition is Italy's decision to pull its remaining 2,600 troops out by the end of the year.
Italy's new defence minister, Arturo Parisi, was quoted by Italian media Tuesday as saying "Italy won't turn its back on Iraq" and would offer unspecified political, civil and humanitarian support.
And Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema wrote in Tuesday's Corriere della Sera newspaper that the pullout would be carried out "with the minimum possible risk for our soldiers, who have paid a high price," referring to the deaths of 31 Italian troops in Iraq.
"We'll be able to deal with this decision while keeping in mind the consequences for the Iraqi people and the need to co-ordinate with coalition forces," said D'Alema, confirming the force would be reduced to 1,600 by mid-June.
South Korea, the third-largest contributor of forces, began bringing troops home this week as part of a plan to withdraw about 1,000 of its 3,200 soldiers from northern Iraq by year's end.
Other coalition members are thinking about drawing down their forces.
Legislators in Denmark, which has 530 personnel in Iraq, approved a government plan Tuesday to cut the contingent by 80 troops. They also extended the mission to June 30, 2007.
Japan has about 600 non-combat troops doing humanitarian work in southern Iraq, and says it won't decide whether to withdraw them until Baghdad appoints new defence and interior ministers. There has been speculation the Japanese force will be withdrawn this year.
And in Poland, the prime minister said this month that his government was weighing whether to keep troops in Iraq beyond the end of 2006. Poland has 900 troops in central Iraq, where it leads an international force.
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US to send reinforcements to W. Iraq: report
www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-30 23:50:48
WASHINGTON, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. military is to send some Kuwait-based troops to volatile western Iraq to help quell rising insurgency in the area, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Although some soldiers from a 3,500-member brigade in Kuwait have already moved into Iraq in recent months, the military has decided to send in the remainder of the unit following consultations with Iraqi officials during the past few days, the report said, quoting U.S. military sources.
The movement of the brigade comes as senior U.S. officials in Iraq begin to raise doubts about whether security conditions therewill permit significant troop reductions in the coming months, it said.
The brigade comes from the U.S. Army First Armored Division, which has been deployed in Kuwait for months as a reserve in case conditions in Iraq deteriorated.
U.S. officials said the additional troops would be deployed at multiple hotspots in Anbar Province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.
Some of the troops are likely to be sent to the city of Ramadi,where a U.S. brigade has been trying to quell a surge in violence.
Earlier this year, reports here said top U.S. commanders in Iraq were considering options for reducing troop levels during 2006 if ground conditions improved. Some reports have suggested that the number might drop to about 100,000 from the approximately133,000 currently stationed in the country.
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Bush sends 1,500 more troops to Iraq and dashes hopes of withdrawal
Michael Howard in Irbil and Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday May 31, 2006
The Guardian
The US said yesterday it had sent combat troop reinforcements into Iraq, dashing hopes of a substantial withdrawal, as American commanders scrambled to contain a wave of violence and help the new Iraqi government assert control.
About 1,500 soldiers from a reserve force based in Kuwait were deployed in Anbar province, an insurgent stronghold stretching from Baghdad to the Syrian border. The deployment was described officially as "short-term". Military officials quoted anonymously yesterday said it should last no more than four months, but it was a blow to the Bush administration's hopes of bringing troops home after the formation of the new government in Baghdad. There were about 130,000 US troops in Iraq before the deployment and that figure is unlikely to change for several months, military officials said.
"The situation in al-Anbar province is currently a challenge but is not representative of the overall security situation in Iraq, which continues to improve as the Iraqi security forces increasingly take the lead," Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Martin-Hing said yesterday.
But the bloodshed nationwide showed no sign of abating yesterday when bomb attacks killed at least 46 people, wounding dozens more.
A car bomb exploded at a market in Husseiniyah, a Shia neighbourhood north of Baghdad, killing 25, and 12 more were killed when a car packed with explosives detonated at a car sales centre in Hillah, 60 miles south of the capital. A bomb left in a plastic bag in a Baghdad bakery blew up, killing nine.
The new Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, held talks yesterday in an attempt to forge an agreement on who should serve as defence and interior ministers in his government. More than a week since the government took office and nearly six months since elections, Iraqi parties cannot agree on the two crucial portfolios.
Mr Maliki faces huge challenges. He demanded "answers" from US commanders on civilian deaths at the hands of their troops, after news emerged that an official report would find that American marines killed 24 civilians in cold blood in the town of Haditha last November.
Alarmed by the increasing turmoil in Basra, he is set to head south today in a bid to wrest Iraq's increasingly restive second city from the clutches of warring Shia factions and oil smuggling gangs.
"We must restore security in Basra and if any defy peaceful solutions then force will be the solution," he told Reuters. "There's no way we can leave Basra, the gateway to Iraq, our imports and exports, at the mercy of criminal, terrorist gangs. We will use force against these gangs."
Officials said they hoped Mr Maliki's visit would help calm tensions. Predominantly Shia Basra has largely escaped the violence of more mixed cities such as Baghdad. But the last year has seen a rapid deterioration in security as competing Shia factions vie for control and influence.
The main rivals are the armed Badr organisation, which is close to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, led by militant Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and the smaller Fadhila party, whose power base is in Basra. They blame each other for corruption and organised crime and for controlling militias which have infiltrated police units.
The rivalry worsened earlier this month when the governor of Basra province, a member of Fadhila, demanded the dismissal of the city's police chief. Basra residents, meanwhile, criticise the British forces there for allowing the city to slip steadily out of control. Mr Maliki said: "I will go tomorrow with a delegation from the government and from the parliament. We will spare nothing to find a solution."
At the weekend, officials from Fadhila, which controls the governorship of Basra province, said it could halt oil exports to win concessions from Baghdad. During talks to form the government, the party demanded control of the oil ministry.
The post went to Hussein Sharistani, the former nuclear scientist with close ties to Ayatollah Sistani, who took office vowing to stamp out corruption in the country's oil sector. Basra dominates the drilling and export of the majority of Iraq's oil. But oil officials estimate that smugglers, some of whom are linked to the Shia militias, are siphoning millions of dollars a week of much-needed reconstruction revenues.
Backstory
Iraq has taken more troops to occupy than to invade. About 100,000 US soldiers and marines (alongside 26,000 British troops) entered in March 2001; neo-cons in Washington who pushed for the war assumed most would be home by the end of 2001. More than three years on, there are 130,000 US and 7,200 British troops in the country, and the insurgency shows no sign of waning after December's elections and last week's new government. However, the US is down from a peak of 150,000 troops in January last year.
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Western influences and unending poverty sour many Afghans on foreigners
15:51:19 EDT May 30, 2006
EDWARD HARRIS
KABUL (AP) - Western aid workers drive past Afghan beggars cradling naked, dirty children. U.S. military vehicles race through trash-strewn streets with their guns pointed into traffic.
To many Afghans, foreigners are a privileged elite, earning hefty salaries and given to drinking alcohol while this shattered Islamic country remains mired in violence and poverty.
That divide helped stoke Monday's deadly anti-western riots, the latest of several bouts of unrest that have wracked Afghanistan in the past year. The worst riots seen in Kabul for years began after a U.S. military truck whose brakes failed careered down a hill and plowed into cars at an intersection, killing at least one Afghan.
Afghans generally are grateful to the U.S.-led military alliance for ousting the Taliban in 2001 and welcome help from international charities. But many residents also long to lift themselves out of poverty and take control of their destinies, more than four years after the downfall of the Taliban's strict Islamic rule.
"We don't want these foreigners, they should go home. They're damaging our society, the economy is terrible and we're so poor. And they're looting Afghanistan. Why aren't they building factories?" asked Faisal Agha, 45, a policeman who was injured in the riots that left at least 11 dead and scores wounded.
"Now there's prostitution, alcohol. There's more vice," he said from his hospital bed, his eyes puffy and his face bruised after falling during Monday's chaos.
Between 3,000 and 4,000 foreign civilians are believed to be working in Afghanistan alongside 23,000 American troops and 9,000 members of a NATO-led multinational force, mostly from western countries.
Foreign intervention has been a thread running through the past quarter-century of strife in Afghanistan.
Soviet forces invaded in 1979, and Arab fighters helped drive them out a decade later. After the Taliban took control in 1996, establishing a theocracy that banned music and television, and sheltered Osama bin Laden.
The U.S.-led invasion in late 2001 pushed the Taliban aside, a wrenching change that exposed many Afghans directly to western culture for the first time as aid workers and military forces came to help rebuild the country.
Four years later, many Afghans are unimpressed by what they have seen, although they are quick to distinguish between foreigners who are here to help and those seen as a negative influence.
"We have two kinds of foreigners here. Those that indulge in prostitution and alcohol, and we reject them," said Mohammed Anwar, standing outside a shop still smouldering Tuesday after rioters burned it because they believed it sold alcohol.
"But the others have come to help us in reconstruction and we welcome them," said the unemployed 45-year-old father of eight. "And they're far more numerous."
Still, even Afghans' famed hospitality - tea or soft drinks are mandatory for all guests - is being strained by the economic inequities and foreign military presence.
Unemployment for Afghans is about 40 per cent, while foreigners live in spacious compounds and manoeuvre expensive four-wheel-drive vehicles past blue-shrouded women holding unclothed children and begging for money.
Rents in some areas have risen by 1,000 per cent since the Taliban's ouster as international organizations have moved in, pricing most Afghans out of the market.
Prices of mutton quadrupled as comparatively expensive restaurants with largely foreign clientele blossomed around Kabul.
While the economy grew by eight per cent last year, spurred by the influx of aid and illicit revenues from the drug industry, many Afghans now feel worse off because inflation reached 16 per cent.
There also is anger over the civilian deaths caused by coalition military action against Taliban guerrillas. The latest incident occurred last week, when a U.S. air strike killed at least 16 civilians in a southern village. A human rights group said as many as 34 civilians died.
During the past four years, at least 180 civilians have died as a result of coalition action, according to a count based on Associated Press reports. The U.S. military says it does all it can to prevent such casualties.
After Monday's traffic accident in Kabul, rioters stoned the American vehicles and then poured into the city centre, looting goods and ransacking the offices of foreign aid groups, buildings associated with the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, stores where liquor was believed sold and a brothel.
At least 11 people were killed, most of them from gunshot wounds, according to three city hospitals. More than 100 people were wounded.
In the past year, Afghans have rioted after reports that the Muslim holy book was allegedly placed in a toilet by a guard at the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and after western newspapers published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Each time, about a dozen people were killed.
Despite suspicions that anti-government elements could be fomenting the unrest, the main protagonists seemed to be angry young men.
Still, the signs on the street are that the irritation with foreigners has not hardened into widespread xenophobia.
"We want the good foreigners to stay in Afghanistan, to help us. Not these people who kill us, they must go," said Ahmed Mirwais Kabuli, 17, a wedding photographer.
Kabuli wore a black shirt emblazoned with the Union Jack. One of his life's dreams?
"I'd love to visit London," he said.
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For Your Health
Public smoking bans hit Ont., Que.
Last Updated Wed, 31 May 2006 01:02:49 EDT
CBC News
Smokers in Quebec and Ontario will be spending more time outside as laws that ban smoking in all enclosed public places kicked in at midnight Tuesday.
The Quebec government has vowed to crack down immediately, with inspectors fanning out to check bars, restaurants, bingo halls, shopping centres, and other facilities - even tents and churches.
Any business owner who allows illegal smoking will be fined $400 for a first violation of the new law.
Ontario, on the other hand, plans to phase in its legislation gradually. Although its law is also tough - banning cigarettes even in enclosed smoking rooms or partially roofed patios - the province plans to initially hand out warnings instead of fines to violators.
As well, people in many Ontario municipalities - including Ottawa and Toronto - have long faced bans on smoking in many public spaces.
Quebecers, on the other hand, have rarely been forced to butt out.
Many bar and restaurant owners in Quebec have fiercely opposed the crackdown, predicting the new law would bring financial disaster, lead to job losses, lower video lottery terminal (VLT) revenues and slimmer profits for bars and restaurants.
But the provincial health minister, Philippe Couillard, dismissed concerns that a smoking ban would damage the economy and put bars out of business.
Couillard said the province hopes that banning tobacco use will drop the percentage of Quebecers who smoke to 20 per cent, from 23.
The ban is sound fiscal policy, because any reduction will help the province reduce health-care costs, the health minister said.
He also dismissed the dire warnings that many bars and restaurants would fold because of the new ban.
He recalled the banning of cigarettes from drugstores in Quebec. At the time, retailers warned it meant imminent bankruptcy, Couillard said - but the financial disasters never materialized.
Comment: They hope that the result of these new fascist measures against smokers will "will drop the percentage of Quebecers who smoke to 20 per cent, from 23."
Let's get this right. A totalitarian mentality is going to be instilled in the entire province of Quebec in order to cut the percentage of smokers by 3%!
Indeed, the degree of freedom in a country can be seen by the anti-smoking laws.
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Greenpeace: Nuke Waste in France Water
Wednesday May 31, 2006 8:16 AM
By INGRID ROUSSEAU
Associated Press Writer
PARIS (AP) - Greenpeace said nuclear waste from a storage facility is seeping into groundwater in the Champagne region of France and threatening vineyards that produce the sparkling wine.
The environmental group presented the French Senate on Tuesday with a report saying that groundwater samples 6 miles from champagne vineyards showed contamination from a nuclear waste facility in Soulaines.
The group also took samples from near the other major nuclear waste site in France - the Manche region on the English Channel - that they said contained radioactivity levels 170 times higher than European legislation allows.
The French Senate is to debate a bill this week that calls for storing the country's most dangerous nuclear waste deep underground in sealed containers. Other countries, including the United States, already bury nuclear waste.
The government has insisted that radiation levels around the storage sites do not exceed norms.
However, the national nuclear waste agency issued a statement on May 24 in which it acknowledged a "defect in the design of storage air pockets'' at the Aube facility in the Champagne region.
Waste at the site is stored in successive concrete containers. While workers were filling in the concrete for the last container in April 2005, one of the inner containers cracked, the statement said.
The nuclear safety agency ordered it rebuilt, but said it caused no environmental damage.
Currently, 85 percent of France's 1.3 billion cubic yards of radioactive waste is stored in the Manche and Aube storage sites. The remaining 15 percent - which includes the most highly radioactive materials - is in temporary facilities around the country.
The most nuclear energy-dependent country in the world, France has 59 reactors churning out nearly 80 percent of its electricity. It also has nuclear weapons and imported waste from nuclear warheads and reactors in the United States and other countries for reprocessing.
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WHO to focus on 'tobacco industry's lies'
Manila, Philippines
30 May 2006 11:03
The World Health Organisation on Tuesday accused the global tobacco industry of continuing to use misleading labels to lure millions of people, including children, to take up smoking.
On the eve of World No Tobacco Day, WHO said it would focus on the "tobacco industry's lies" and the great variety of deadly tobacco products.
"The purpose of World No Tobacco Day is to remove the deceit and unveil the truth behind tobacco products," Shigeru Omi, regional director for the Western Pacific, said in a statement from WHO's regional headquarters in Manila.
"Tobacco products are deadly in any form, whether it be cigarettes, pipes, clove cigarettes, chewing tobacco, betel nut used with tobacco or cigars," he said.
The industry's use of misleading descriptions and manufacturing methods -- like mild, light, low tar, fruit-flavoured, chocolate-flavoured, natural, additive-free and organic -- did not make tobacco products safer, he said.
"All these products and practices are deadly and addictive, and thus the absence of truthful information deprives even well-intended people of the ability to make healthy choices," he said.
He called on regional governments to implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's tobacco-control treaty, which is binding for most countries in the Western Pacific, including Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam.
WHO said smoking was the single biggest preventable cause of death in the world, claiming 4,9-million lives a year.
If present consumption patterns continued, the number of deaths would increase by 2020 to 10-million, 70% of them in developing countries, it said.
"There are an estimated 1,3-billion smokers and half of them are expected to die prematurely of a tobacco-related disease," the WHO statement said.
At the current rate, the number of smokers worldwide would rise to 1,7-billion by 2025, the statement added. - AFP
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Canadians healthier than Americans: study
By Maggie Fox
Reuters
Tue May 30, 2006
WASHINGTON - Despite complaints about long waits for services, Canadians are healthier than their U.S. neighbors and receive more consistent medical care, according to a report released on Tuesday.
A telephone survey of more than 8,000 people showed that even though Americans spend nearly twice as much per capita for health care, they have more trouble getting care and have more unmet health needs than Canadians do.
The survey was done by Harvard Medical School researchers who include members of Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates for a national health program in the United States.
"These findings raise serious questions about what we're getting for the $2.1 trillion we're spending on health care this year," said Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard.
"We pay almost twice what Canada does for care, more than $6,000 for every American, yet Canadians are healthier, and live two to three years longer," Himmelstein added in a statement.
"Canadians had better access to most types of medical care (with the single exception of pap smears)," Himmelstein and colleagues wrote in the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health.
"Canadians were 7 percent more likely to have a regular doctor and 19 percent less likely to have an unmet health need. U.S. respondents were almost twice as likely to go without a needed medicine due to cost (9.9 percent of U.S. respondents couldn't afford medicine versus 5.1 percent in Canada)," they added.
UNMET NEEDS
"After taking into account income, age, sex, race and immigrant status, Canadians were 33 percent more likely to have a regular doctor and 27 percent less likely to have an unmet health need."
The researchers analyzed data from a telephone survey of 3,505 Canadian and 5,103 U.S. adults.
They wanted to see if there were any differences in health between Canadians, who have a tax-supported national health care system, and Americans, whose health care largely depends on private insurers, employers or the free market, with older Americans and the very poor cared for by Medicare, Medicaid and other joint federal-state health insurance plans.
The researchers found that U.S. residents had higher rates of diabetes, arthritis, chronic lung disease, high blood pressure and obesity.
"Most of what we hear about the Canadian health care system is negative; in particular, the long waiting times for medical procedures," Dr. Karen Lasser an instructor of medicine at Harvard who worked on the study, said in a statement.
"But we found that waiting times affect few patients, only 3.5 percent of Canadians versus 0.7 percent of people in the U.S. No one ever talks about the fact that low-income and minority patients fare better in Canada," she added.
"Based on our findings, if I had to choose between the two systems for my patients, I would choose the Canadian system hands down."
The researchers said the study population was representative of 206 million U.S. adults and 24 million Canadian adults but noted that only half the Americans contacted took part in the survey, and 60 percent of the Canadians.
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Neocon Nightmare
Russia's search for collective security
By M K Bhadrakumar May 31, 2006
In a terse announcement in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia last week signaled that the time had come for it to revisit the doctrine of collective security in the face of growing encirclement by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
After a meeting at the summer vacation home of Russian President Vladimir Putin at Sochi with the secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Nikolai Bordyuzha, it was announced that the regional security body (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) proposed to transform into an "international, multi-functional and universal structure".
Second, CSTO would form "collective emergency reaction forces" with wide-ranging functions that included responding to natural or other disasters. Third, CSTO would operate not only within its present jurisdiction (consisting of the territories of its member states) but also "outside this area".
These decisions will be formalized at a CSTO summit in Minsk on June 23. In a modest way, CSTO proposes to follow NATO's lead as a collective security alliance with global reach.
An impression prevailed since the very inception of the Commonwealth of Independent States' (CIS's) Collective Security Treaty in 1992 that its purpose was twofold, namely to prevent NATO's eastward expansion and, second, to provide Russian military protection to some former Soviet republics.
But the CSTO lacked credibility for most of its life. NATO continued to expand, while CSTO member countries often lacked unity of purpose, largely due to ambivalences in Russia's own "Euro-Atlantic" outlook.
The CSTO's stated objectives are to ensure peace and to preserve the territorial integrity of its member states, to coordinate activities against international terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime, and to provide immediate military assistance to a member country in the event of a military threat.
In June 2004, the CSTO first proposed cooperation with NATO. But NATO was determined that the CSTO ought to wither away in the fullness of time - and nothing should be done or said that might give the CSTO a habitation and a name.
Even in the Afghan theater, where the CSTO would have legitimate interests and a certain utility, despite repeated Russian demarche, NATO preferred to be the lone ranger.
Moscow also has taken note that regardless of its sensitivities regarding any further NATO expansion into the territories of the former Soviet republics (especially Ukraine), Washington is all set to get NATO to do precisely that. In fact, US officials went on record this month that Ukraine would be admitted as a NATO member by 2008.
Equally, Moscow realizes there is really no "breaking mechanism" within NATO to challenge Washington's writ on such matters. French President Jacques Chirac is far too preoccupied with the morass in French political life to bother about US "hyperpower" anymore, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel remains keen not to annoy Washington.
US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs Daniel Fried noted in a briefing in New York last September that the "atmosphere has changed" within NATO - "trans-Atlantic discord and dysfunctionality" was no longer hampering NATO decision-making.
"It is our intention now, the intention of the United States, to take these good atmospherics and put the US-European relationship to work for common objectives based on our common values and common assessments," Fried said.
NATO is also demonstratively making an exception for Ukraine by not insisting that before it become a member country, Kiev must resolve the problem of the presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, or that it should do something about the manifest opposition to NATO membership among the majority of Ukraine's population. And at the same time, Ukraine's membership of the European Union remains highly problematic.
The newly appointed US ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor (who, incidentally, represented the United States in Kabul as the "coordinator" during the US intervention in 2001-02), almost claimed Ukraine as a de facto NATO ally already. During the congressional hearing in Washington on his appointment two weeks ago, Taylor expressed dissatisfaction with the agreement between Russia and Ukraine over gas deliveries.
He said, "If the new government [in Kiev] decides that it wants to review the deal, then we [the United States] would support such a step. We have already made this known. We will provide assistance to Ukraine on this question."
Meanwhile, in an extraordinary speech at the Washington Press Club last Thursday, the commander of US and European forces, General James Jones, said NATO was not "an alliance that is showing signs of fatigue or irrelevance". To the contrary, this year "is a pivotal year" for NATO, perhaps more so than any of the past several years, he said.
The general spoke of NATO's phenomenal transformation as a security organization: "The future of NATO is not to be a reactive, defensive static alliance, but it is to be more flexible, more proactive." Beyond peacekeeping (and peace-enforcing, as in Afghanistan and Sudan), NATO will also work for "conflict prevention", according to Jones.
NATO will increasingly involve itself in the political decision-making processes. Thus the agenda of the NATO summit in November in the Latvian capital Riga includes such topics as energy security, critical infrastructure security, nuclear non-proliferation, the "frozen conflicts" in the post-Soviet space, etc.
All the same, Ukraine's impending NATO membership is a defining moment for Russia. As a leading Russian political observer, Fedor Lukyanov, wrote in the Gazeta, "This will almost constitute the biggest challenge to Moscow in the entire period of its post-Soviet relations with the West ... the main trouble is not so much at the practical level as at the ideological ... We are not dealing here with the realization of a plan, but rather with an unstoppable momentum that supplants conscious future policy."
"One of the fatal mistakes of [Soviet president Mikhail] Gorbachev's leadership," Lukyanov wrote, "was the fact that the Kremlin did not get the organization that personified the 50-year-old ideological confrontation eliminated. The Warsaw Pact was dispatched to meet its 'maker', but NATO, which was formed to oppose the USSR, was preserved. And no matter what is said about NATO's new character, no one will convince the Russian generals and politicians that the expansion is not directed against Moscow."
Furthermore, NATO enlargement has exacerbated differences regarding the future of the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). The CFE (which was designed to maintain a balance of forces between the Warsaw Pact and NATO) has begun to lose its effectiveness.
On Friday, Washington issued the first explicit signal that the US would not ratify the CFE's Adaptation Agreement (signed in Istanbul in November 1999) until Russia withdrew its 1,500-strong military contingent and equipment from the Dneister River region in Moldova. Announcing this, the US official in charge of arms control, assistant secretary of state Paula De Sutter, said NATO sided with Washington on this issue.
Moscow considers any such linkage "illegitimate and counterproductive". A question mark has arisen over the further fate of the CFE, which was indeed one of the biggest arms-control projects in all of European history. An international conference is going on in Vienna until Friday to discuss the differences. Moscow has warned that if the CFE remained unratified by NATO, it may be forced to make "fundamental decisions as to the future of the cornerstone of European security".
The CFE was designed to reduce conventional armaments further and on the whole greatly lower the role of military power as a factor in interstate relations on the European continent. It prescribes enhanced weapons-verification measures. For Moscow, with the Warsaw Pact defunct (and with erstwhile Warsaw Pact member states already having joined NATO), the implications of the "non-ratification" of the CFE by NATO are far-reaching.
If the US would have its way, Moscow could not insist on being kept informed or exercise its right (under CFE) to verify the extent of NATO's military power being amassed close to Russia's border.
In this context, Moscow began revisiting the doctrine of collective security. The meeting of the foreign and defense ministers of the CSTO countries in Moscow last November was the first sign that Russia would be "creating its own version of NATO", as the Russian opposition daily Kommersant wryly noted at that time.
Russian officials have begun sounding acrimonious in recent months. Addressing the CSTO gathering in Moscow in November, Igor Ivanov, secretary of Russia's National Security Council, accused the US and NATO of stoking tensions in the territories of the former Soviet republics. The chief of Russian General Staff, General Yury Baluyevsky, was quoted as saying, "We are following NATO's attempts to involve CIS states in the bloc's activity and to weaken their relations with Russia."
Ivanov announced in April that Russia and Belarus would start integrating their air-defense systems by the end of the year. Ivanov also said the CSTO would carry out large-scale military exercises in the "Eastern European direction" in June in which crack Russian units deployed in the Moscow Military District and various kinds of aircraft, including long-range AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System), would take part.
On April 22, Russia announced the test flight of its new intermediate-range missile with multiple warheads at Kapustiny Yar in the Astrakhan region. Large-scale exercises were held at the end of April as part of the unified CIS air-defense system (in which Uzbekistan also took part). On May 11, Ivanov said NATO had no political or military reasons to expand further into the former Soviet republics. Ivanov warned that Russia would adjust its foreign policy and military doctrine to meet the new challenge.
As the director of the Russian Academy of Science's Institute of US and Canada Studies, Sergei Rogov, put it, "This decision [Ukraine's NATO membership] would be very significant for Russia, because it could radically change its relations with NATO for the worse."
Influential Russian commentator Gleb Pavlovsky concurred that Russia was unlikely to let Ukraine's accession pass by default.
Significantly, General Baluyevsky revealed on May 18 that possible joint military maneuvers of the member countries of the CSTO and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) were under discussion. In essence, this would be tantamount to joint military exercises involving Russia and its (remaining) allies in the post-Soviet space and China.
Now comes the Russian statement that the CSTO intends to assume the role and character of an international organization that is geared for undertaking operations even beyond Eurasia. The SCO and CSTO summits in June are without doubt invested with profound significance for the international system.
M K Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for more than 29 years, with postings including ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-98) and to Turkey (1998-2001).
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Chinese top legislator, Russian president meet on ties
www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-30 23:20:48
MOSCOW, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo met here with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss bilateral ties and exchange views on international and regional issues of common concern.
During the meeting with Putin in the Kremlin, Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, saidbilateral ties between China and Russia were developing at a fast pace.
He added that the countries' mutually beneficial cooperation had continued to expand since the establishment of the strategic partnership and the signing of the treaty of friendly cooperation.
The two countries have offered mutual understanding and supporton major issues regarding sovereignty and territory and maintainedeffective coordination in international and regional affairs, Wu said.
President Putin's successful visit to China, the Year of Russiabeing held in China and the scheduled meetings of the two countries' top leaders have made this year an important one in bilateral ties, the Chinese top legislator said.
Wu expressed China's readiness to work with Russia to deepen political mutual trust, boost practical cooperation in such areas as economy, trade, investment, energy and continually push forwardthe strategic partnership.
Putin, for his part, said he looked forward to meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Shanghai next month to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the group's establishment since 2001.
China's rapid growth has provided opportunities for the expansion of cooperation between the two countries in various areas, he said, adding that with joint efforts Russian-Chinese ties had reached unprecedented high levels, he said.
The Russian president said deepening political trust, expandingeconomic and trade cooperation between Russia and China and strengthening coordination in international and regional affairs are in the interests of the two countries and two peoples and are conducive to safeguarding regional and world peace and stability.
The first meeting of SCO's top legislators was a major event inthe development of the group, Putin said.
Strengthening parliamentary cooperation in the SCO can provide a more solid legal guarantee for the growth of the organization, he added.
Earlier in the day, top legislators from the member states of the group gathered in the Russian capital for their first meeting.
The SCO groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
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Russia, China close ranks in Central Asia
by Christopher Boian
AFP
Tue May 30, 2006
MOSCOW - Russia and China moved to fortify their growing security cooperation in Central Asia but reassured the United States that their new-found unity of purpose in the prized region was not designed to subvert US interests there.
Russian President Vladimir Putin however acknowledged growing "competition" to a new Central Asian security organization led by Moscow and Beijing while Chinese President Hu Jintao said the new group had become an "important force" for peace and stability in the world.
In the first meeting of its kind, parliamentary leaders from the six countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) met Tuesday in Moscow to discuss ways to harmonize their laws and begin building a legislative dimension for the grouping.
The SCO parliamentary leaders, including Wu Bangguo, chairman of the standing committee of the Chinese legislature, held a meeting at the Kremlin with Putin, who said involvement of national legislatures in the organization would "enrich the partnership" of its member states.
Led by China and Russia, the SCO, founded five years ago, also includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Other key countries in the region -- India,
Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan -- currently have observer status and have also expressed interest in becoming full members.
The United States however is not a member and, according to sources, is growing increasingly uneasy at the direction and purpose of the organization, which has been described by experts as the foundation of a new Eurasian counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
One source who asked not to named said the US embassy in Beijing earlier this month delivered a message to the SCO secretariat voicing concern that some members may regard the group as a vehicle for countering US influence in the region. This could not immediately be confirmed in Moscow.
In his meeting with the lawmakers, Putin said there was growing international interest in the SCO which he said "has become an important, influential regional organization" in the five years since its founding.
He also cited efforts to counter this growing influence.
"We see in the international arena there are attempts to create competition to our organization," Putin said.
"I think it would be right if we did not engage in this and instead continued with the positive, constructive work that we have been doing for the past several years."
Putin did not refer to the United States explicitly but Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of the Russian parliament, made clear afterwards that Moscow had Washington foremost in its mind.
"Is it possible to fight terrorism and drug trafficking in the region without the participation of the states of the region? Of course not," Gryzlov said in remarks broadcast on state television.
"But a proposal to create in Central Asia an organization parallel to the SCO, which the United States has called for, suggest that this can be done. This does not help the fight against threats. It only makes the threats bigger."
Gryzlov did not elaborate, but reports in Russian and Chinese media in recent months have evoked a "big Central Asia" initiative, described as a US plan to set up a new grouping of Central Asian states -- excluding Russia and China -- to coordinate work in various fields.
A report in the Russian government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta on May 13 speculated that even Iran could be asked to participate in the new US-inspired grouping.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alekseyev however said Tuesday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was among the leaders who had confirmed his attendance at an SCO summit scheduled to be held in Shanghai next month, ITAR-TASS news agency said.
Meanwhile, speaking in Beijing, the Chinese president sought to reassure Washington that the SCO was not aimed at subverting US interests in Central Asia.
"Since its founding, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has not been a close, exclusive organization," Hu said in remarks carried on Chinese state television.
"It is aimed against no country whatsoever," he said, adding that the organization had become "an important force for promoting peace and stability in the region and throughout the world."
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Science and Quirks
Ancient Female Skeleton Found in Rome
AP
May 31, 2006
ROME - Archaeologists said Tuesday they have dug up a woman skeleton dating to the 10th century B.C. in an ancient necropolis in the heart of Rome.
The well-preserved skeleton appears to be that of a woman aged about 30, said Anna De Santis, one of the archaeologists who took part in the excavations under the Caesar's Forum, part of the sprawling complex of the Imperial Forums in central Rome.
An amber necklace and four pins were also found near the 5.25 foot-long skeleton, she said.
The bones, dug up Monday, would likely be put on display in a museum after being examined further, De Santis said.
It was the first skeleton to be found in the 3,000-year-old necropolis, she said. Early this year, a funerary urn that contained human ashes, as well as bone fragments that appeared to be from a sheep, were found in one of the necropolis' tombs.
Alessandro Delfino, another archaeologist who took part in the excavations, said Monday's discovery highlighted a "social change" in the funerary habits of the people who dwelled in the area, from incinerating to burying the dead.
Experts have said the necropolis was destined for high-ranking personalities - such as warriors and ancient priests - heading the tribes and clans that lived in small villages scattered on hills near the area that later spawned one of the world's greatest civilizations.
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Titan Ringed
SPX
May 31, 2006
Pasadena CA - The Cassini spacecraft captured this view of Saturn's largest moon, Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles across) looking out from slightly beneath the giant planet's ringplane.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
The dark Encke gap (325 kilometers, or 200 miles wide) is visible here, as is the narrow F ring.
Cassini took the natural-color image on April 28 using red, green and blue spectral filters on its narrow-angle camera. The spacecraft's distance at the time was approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Titan. Image scale is 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Titan.
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Ark's Quantum Quirks
Ark
Signs of the Times
May 31, 2006
One Against Many
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Oh Dear...
Man held in the killing, dismembering of kin
The Phildelphia Inquirer
Sun, May. 28, 2006
MOUNT BETHEL, Pa. - It's a story as old as the Bible.
One brother is dead. The other brother is accused of killing him.
For Stephen J. Austin, 26, the end came early Friday after he was arrested during a traffic stop in Berks County, and authorities found the head and severed hands of his 22-year-old brother, Jonathan N. Austin, inside the red Jeep Cherokee, according to an arrest affidavit.
Austin was arrested on charges of killing and dismembering his younger brother and then scattering parts of his body in several locations, police said.
Police allege that the two brothers argued Thursday, and Stephen Austin struck his brother with a crowbar and then strangled him inside the garage of their mother's home in Upper Mount Bethel Township in Northampton County.
After the murder, police said, the defendant put his brother's body into the vehicle, drove to another point on the property about 200 yards away from the garage, and dismembered the body with a bow saw and hatchet.
Both tools and parts of the body were recovered at several places in Berks County, at French Creek State Park and in Maxatawny Township.
Police said they received a report Thursday night that there was a body in the defendant's car, and a statewide bulletin was issued. The car was stopped near French Creek State Park in Berks County.
Stephen Austin, who lives with his wife and two children in Birdsboro, was charged with criminal homicide, abusing a corpse, and tampering with or fabricating evidence. Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said he believed it was clearly a case of first-degree murder.
The defendant was arraigned Friday evening before Senior District Judge Sherwood Grigg in Bangor and sent to Northampton County Prison. A preliminary hearing was tentatively scheduled for June 2.
Public Defender Anthony Martino, who represented Austin at the hearing, declined comment on the case.
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Police Probe Bizarre Goat Head Display
AP
May 30, 2006
TORRINGTON, Conn. - Police are investigating a bizarre discovery involving severed goat heads, put on display at the end of a driveway.
Last week, police found two severed goat heads, a coconut and a pentagram drawn in chalk in a driveway of a home, police Lt. Francis Balzano said.
"We're not saying this is illegal," Balzano said. "We would just like to know what it means."
Police do not know if the incident was some kind of ritual, practical joke or a crime.
Balzano said police find such combinations a couple times a year, usually in wooded areas.
"This is an isolated incident," Balzano said. "It could be people who use these things in a ritual or copycat kids that saw this somewhere."
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