Sections on today's Signs Page:
Signs Editorials
Editorial: Unacceptable indeed
Dave Neiwert
Orcinus
Monday, October 16, 2006
The Bush administration and its defenders -- lost in the Bizarro Universe they have created for themselves -- have been using words like "incomprehensible" and "inconceivable" to explain away incontrovertible evidence of their malfeasance and incompetence.
These are fairly benign words, though, that indicate at best a kind of naivete but at worst (and most likely) a self-absorbed obtuseness bordering on stupidity.
But the president himself has been using a word with genuinely sinister connotations: "unacceptable":
- In speeches, statements and news conferences this year, the president has repeatedly declared a range of problems "unacceptable," including rising health costs, immigrants who live outside the law, North Korea's claimed nuclear test, genocide in Sudan and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Even more remarkably, he used the word to describe Colin Powell's criticism of Bush's military tribunals.
The word turned up again this weekend, this time in the context of a Kafkaesque case of an American citizen being sentenced to death by an Iraqi judge on the mere say-so of American government officials whose behavior was nothing short of outrageous:
- Lawyers for an American citizen facing execution in Iraq appealed Friday in U.S. federal court to keep the man in American custody -- preventing his death -- while another case is being appealed.
The citizen, Mohammad Munaf, was convicted and sentenced to death by an Iraqi judge earlier this week on charges he helped in the 2005 kidnapping of three Romanian journalists in Baghdad, court papers show.
Iraqi-born Munaf, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2000, was working as their translator and guide. He maintains his innocence.
In an emergency request filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, Munaf's attorneys claim his rights to a fair trial in Iraq were violated when he was convicted without being able to present evidence in his defense -- or to see the evidence against him.
"This court's failure to temporarily halt Mr. Munaf's transfer to Iraqi custody will not only send Mr. Munaf to his death without due process, it will eviscerate ... core protections against arbitrary and lawless executive action," Munaf's attorneys wrote.
Scott Horton at Balkinization looked into the matter and found this:
- Yesterday afternoon I spoke with one of Munaf's American lawyers, and in the evening I discussed the case with one of the Iraqi lawyers who handled it. The judge, he said, had at a prior hearing informed defense counsel that he had reviewed the entire file and had reached a decision to dismiss the charges. "There is no material evidence against your client," he was quoted as stating. When two US officers appeared at the trial date with the prisoner, they reacted with anger when told of the Court's decision -- and made clear it was "unacceptable." One of these US officers purported to speak on behalf of the Romanian Embassy, which, he said "demanded the death penalty." (The Government of Romania has since stated both that it had no authorized representative at the hearing and that it did not demand the death penalty). They then insisted upon and got an ex parte meeting with the judge - from which the defendant and his lawyers were excluded. Afterwards an ashen-faced judge emerged, returned to his court and proceeded to sentence the American to death. No evidence was taken; no trial was conducted. The sentence was entered on the basis of a demand by the two American officers that their fellow countryman be put to death.
A couple of weeks ago, when Bush called Powell's criticism "unacceptable," Keith Olbermann lit into the president with all the outrage this kind of talk deserves:
- Some will think that our actions at Abu Ghraib, or in Guantanamo, or in secret prisons in Eastern Europe, are all too comparable to the actions of the extremists.
Some will think that there is no similarity, or, if there is one, it is to the slightest and most unavoidable of degrees.
What all of us will agree on, is that we have the right -- we have the duty -- to think about the comparison.
And, most importantly, that the other guy, whose opinion about this we cannot fathom, has exactly the same right as we do: to think -- and say -- what his mind and his heart and his conscience tell him, is right.
All of us agree about that.
Except, it seems, this President.
The problem with a government whose officials -- led by the president himself -- are in the business of declaring what is "unacceptable" goes deeper, I think, than just speech issues.
It's a word used by totalitarians, an arrogation of power unto themselves. A president, or his military, who can make life-and-death decisions based on what they deem acceptable or not is an executive branch wildly out of control, living in a fantasy world of their own making. And dragging the rest of us into their abyss.
Original
Comment on this Editorial
Editorial: Black Op Mujahideen Shura Council Declares Islamic State in Iraq
Kurt Nimmo
16/10/2006
Iraqi speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani is on to something. "Everyone who believes statements made by [the Mujahideen Shura Council] know nothing. All the followers of this organization are fools. It is obvious that the purpose of the council is to stir up hatred between the Sunnis and the Shiites."
The precisely timed statement was devised, with western intelligence connivance, not only to "stir up hatred between the Sunnis and the Shiites," but break the country into three pieces based on ethnic and religious affiliation, a plan formulated in Israel, adopted by the neocons, and approved by the bankster global elite.
The Mujahideen Shura Council has declared the establishment of the "Islamist Republic of Iraq," consisting of "six central Iraqi provinces, including Baghdad and several districts of two southern Iraqi provinces," according to NewsLab. "Mujahideen Shura Council posted the video with such a statement on a website, RBC news agency reports. A man who read a message out told about necessity to struggle against 'betrayers' and suggested all Sunni Muslims should support 'the new government headed by Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, a militant reported to be Mujahideen Shura Council leader by US and Iraqi special services.'"
In the "Ministry of Information" video, a man with a white circle imposed over his face declares: "Your brothers announce the establishment of the Islamic State in Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salah al-Din, Ninawa, and in other parts of the governorate of Babel, in order to protect our religion and our people" and fealty to "Emir of the Believers," Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, is demanded, as well as "financial support, men, and prayers," according to the SITE Institute. As the newly declared Sunni Islamic state includes Shi'ite areas of Iraq, conflict is assured to continue, as planned.
Abu Maysarah al-Iraqi-supposedly the former "media coordinator" for "al-Qaeda jihad organization in the Land of the Two Rivers," that is to say the al-Zarqawi black op in Iraq-is a prominent figure in the Mujahideen Shura Council and for this reason the above declaration is highly suspect.
It appears the "umbrella group led by Iraq's branch of al Qaeda," as CNN characterizes the Mujahideen Shura Council, specializes in abducting and murdering embassy employees and issuing death threats against Pope Benedict XVI, guaranteed to outrage Christians and others, a required element of the "clash of civilizations" forever war planned by the neocons, their Zionist collaborators, and the military-industrial complex that stands to profit handsomely from interminable war and destruction. "We shall break the cross and spill the wine.... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome.... God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen," declared a Mujahideen Shura Council communiqué last month after the Pope quoted a 14th-century emperor regarding Muslims. Of course, incendiary comments about invading Rome and slitting the throats of infidels are useful in the on-going propaganda effort to portray Muslims as butchers who will one day be on the streets of America, killing toddlers with blood-caked scimitars.
It is hardly a mistake all of this dovetails nicely with the "three state solution" proposed by the Council on Foreign Relations and others. "For decades, the United States has worshiped at the altar of a unified yet unnatural Iraqi state. Allowing all three communities within that false state to emerge at least as self-governing regions would be both difficult and dangerous. Washington would have to be very hard-headed, and hard-hearted, to engineer this breakup. But such a course is manageable, even necessary, because it would allow us to find Iraq's future in its denied but natural past," writes Leslie H. Gelb, CFR President Emeritus and Board Senior Fellow and, not surprisingly, a Pulitzer Prize winner, former correspondent for the New York Times, and senior official in state and defense departments.
No doubt, when Gelb mentions Iraq's "natural past," he is talking about Iraq under Ottoman rule. "For administrative purposes Ottoman Iraq was divided into the three central eyalets of Mosul, Baghdad, and Al-Basrah, with the northern eyalet of Shahrizur, east of the Tigris, and the southern eyalet of Al-Hasa, on the western coast of the Persian Gulf. These provinces only roughly reflected the geographic, linguistic, and religious divisions of Ottoman Iraq," notes Encyclopedia Britannica. As Oded Yinon noted in his A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties, a "division into provinces along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times" is the plan. "[T]hree (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, and Shi'ite areas in the south will separate from the Sunni and Kurdish north."
Likewise, for "administrative purposes," the globalists, under the direction of the neocon faction currently in sway, are determined to impose a "three state solution" in Iraq, a recycling of Sir Cyril Radcliffe's "partition" of the Indian sub-continent, a "colonial finale." As for the "solution" imposed on India, "[p]erhaps one million people died in the turmoil following the sub-continent's partition, and millions more were uprooted," writes Drew Hamre. "Fifty years later, the border remains the world's most dangerous nuclear flashpoint. Whatever odds you give our damnable occupation, it would be a moral disaster to bomb, and then partition, and then run."
Of course, the United States will not "run," as, upon implementing the "three state solution," the Pentagon will "pull back" to "permanent bases" located in Balad, al-Asad, and Tallil, all "in line to receive substantial chunks of the 2006 emergency budget," according to the BBC earlier this year. "The United States may want to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq to bolster moderates against extremists in the region and protect oil supplies, the army general overseeing US operations in Iraq has said," Aljazeera reported in March.
In other words, the United States will maintain three massive Fort Apaches in Iraq, part of an effort to "prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals" and "keep tributaries pliant and protected," as Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote in The Grand Chessboard.
Naturally, the Mujahideen Shura Council-read, "al-Qaeda"-declaration of an Islamic state underscores the threat of "collusion" and, as well, maintains the neocon assertion that Iraq is the frontline of the generational war against terrorism. Part of the "three state solution" is the emergence of a terrorist state requiring vigilance, well-stocked "enduring" military bases built by Cheney's Halliburton, and never-ending "commitment," that is to say continuous profit for the war profiteers.
Addendum
On October 15, Zaman Online reported the "United States is allegedly planning to construct a big military base in northern Iraq as part of its military plans for the Middle East." According to "the Firat News Agency website, which is known to have close connections to the Kurdish Workers Party," the Pentagon has started construction of "a military airport in the Arbil region. A small model of the base will be established in Suleymaniya."
Comment on this Editorial
Needless War And Rumors Of More
Iraq Through a Rebel's Eyes
Andrew Greene
16/10/2006
Thomas Jefferson was a rebel, as
so many of his comments demonstrated. He also was a gun
enthusiast, and not the bird-shooting kind. His gang of
insurgents fought the British with the eighteenth century
equivalents of assault rifles, RPGs, and roadside bombs - and
that is why they are worth recalling when our conversation turns
to Iraq.
Before going further, I should declare that I am a patriot,
but a qualified one. My loyalty is to the kinds of ideas
Jefferson put in the Declaration: the sanctity of property,
suspicion of power, and extra suspicion of the state. I am
saying so now because some of what follows might sound deeply
unpatriotic to the modern ear, but I think it would have sounded
just fine to Jefferson's classical one.
The shock of September 11th did some damage to my political
resolve. The murder of two thousand innocents was an act so
outrageous that it demanded a quick and violent response. So,
like many Americans, I wanted to see someone punished, and the
federal government appeared ideally placed to do the punishing.
I silently agreed with the plan to go after the bombers and
their friends.
The way I saw it, the army could pummel some bad guys (not
necessarily the 9-11 culprits) and that would be one way to get
our revenge. Self-declared allies of the killers would find
themselves being treated as such.
It was a classical liberal's rationale: a stand for the
subjective individual and his property; finally, the government
doing its job. Of course the logic was twisted by emotion, and I
knew the whole enterprise might end badly, but I felt like
punching anyway, at least until my arm was completely exhausted
and the anger was gone.
But the Jeffersonian in me had other ideas about Iraq, and
they do not make happy reading - not for neocons who like the
war or apologists who don't. If we woke Jefferson's gang up
today, what would they make of it all? Well, the first thing
they would see is the US government punching away on our behalf,
and that they would probably endorse. Knowing about the carnage
in New York and Washington, the attempted assassinations of two
Presidents, the invasion of Kuwait, and the chemical attacks on
Saddam's subjects (and, of course, the fact that he had
subjects) would be reason enough.
But then, as their excitement subsided, I think they might
notice a few disturbing things: the sheer size of the US force,
for one, and how far it is reaching across the ocean, for
another. And they could only be dismayed to discover that their
libertarian brainchild had grown up to be an empire, feeding off
its citizens' labor, with legions stationed around the world,
fighting in foreign civil wars, enforcing a Pax Americana,
and tasting the bitter fruit of its adventures.
Once over that disappointment, though, Jefferson and his
friends might spot a ray of hope in Iraq. Their radical eyes
would pick up on something about the guerilla war that we -
after two hundred years of relative comfort and ease - have
missed.
The US government's arm is tired. Even with one hundred and
fifty thousand troops, a fortune in fuel and supplies, and the
best weapons ever invented, all that power is having a rough
ride. Humvees loaded with high-tech regulars are sitting targets
for bits of plumbing packed with C-4, left at the side of the
road. There are plenty of surprises from the front, but such
news would only elicit a sad smile from Jefferson, and the same
from his fellow insurgent, Madison, who wrote this:
The highest number to which a standing army can be
carried in any country does not exceed one hundredth part of
the souls, or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to
bear arms. This portion would not yield, in the United
States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand
men.
To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near
half a million citizens with arms in their hands, officered
by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for their
common liberties and united and conducted by governments
possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be
doubted whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be
conquered by such a proportion of regular troops.
Even though Madison was talking about a war between the feds
and the people, the parallel with Iraq makes it a devastating
tactical appraisal. The biggest military machine - even the
GPS-guided, kevlar-toting, night-fighting, uranium-shooting US
Army of 2006 - can't subjugate a rabble of ornery civilians if a
good number of them have guns. Yes, it can obliterate them, but
that's not the same as governing them. Madison knew, and Iraq
proves, that a rifle over every mantlepiece can safegaurd
freedom.
American insurgents from 1776 would see Iraq through the
filter of their own occupation: the struggle against the Crown
and its Hamiltonian successors. They would see the setbacks of
the 75th Rangers in Baghdad and the 8th Cavalry in Fallujah, and
would mourn the casualties among the professional soldiers, as
we do, but another part of them would be saying I told you so -
and might even be glad. They couldn't feel anything else,
because they were rebels to the core:
The governments of Europe are afraid to trust the people
with arms. If they did, the people would surely shake off
the yoke of tyranny, as America did.
The man who wrote that would not have rooted for Iraq's
fanatics and murderers, out to become tyrants themselves, but
neither would he have cheered the federal juggernaut fighting
them now. The Iraqi insurgents are the bad guys, for sure, but
they are sovereign men, too, armed with nothing but light
assault weapons, trip wires, and explosives. Just as Madison
predicted, they are holding their own against the attack
helicopters of the King. Our government is against them today,
but that doesn't change their tactical likeness to the snipers
of 1776.
The comparison is a disturbing one to make in the middle of
our war, but we need to make it. And maybe it would put Madison
and Jefferson at ease about the monster they fathered - the
global superpower. A successful insurgency, independent of its
underlying purpose, is a reason for every man who loves liberty
to cheer.
For both of our modern wings of politics, Iraq is a lesson in
government, and not the one either of them wants to learn. It
proves the assertion that the best way to keep the state down is
to get everyone a weapon.
Some part of the gun rights lobby should want the army to
lose in Iraq, and some part of the gun control lobby should want
it to win.
Let neocon Republicans, who support the war and guns
in the home, and leftist Democrats, who despise both, put that
contradiction in their pipes and smoke it. Do they like state
power or not? I am afraid the answer is: they like it when it
suits them. That is why we - who can be true patriots only by
being rebels ourselves - must not forget how our patriotism was
born.
Here is one last quotation, this from the insurgent commander
himself:
... the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. The
very atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil
interference, they deserve a place of honor with all that's
good.
That's not Moqtada al-Sadr talking, but George Washington.
You get the idea. Staring into Iraq's quagmire, we should see a
second chance for freedom everywhere, including the United
States.
Comment on this Article
The End of Press Freedom in Iraq?
Juan Cole
Informed Comment
October 17, 2006
Al-Zaman, the Times of Baghdad, reports [Ar.] that press freedom may soon be a thing of the past in Iraq. The Iraqi parliament on Monday passed a resolution calling on the president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, to intervene to close down the offices of the al-Sharqiyah television channel in Iraq, and to close down a newspaper, al-Zaman itself! Both are owned by a media group headed by Saad al-Bazzaz, and they have a mild secular, Arab nationalist tone. It is not a point of view welcome to the Shiite fundamentalists who dominate the Iraqi parliament.
The parliamentarians were upset about the negative coverage in the two news outlets of the vote last Wednesday by a bare majority to create the rules for the establishment of provincial confederacies. The vote was rammed through by a simple majority once a bare quorum had been established, despite the boycott of the vote by several major political blocs, including those of the Sunni Arabs.
The parliamentary maneuver was contrary to the spirit of the promises made to the Sunni Arab community last year this time that if they joined the political process they would be given a voice on such matters. Al-Zaman covered the vote critically and called it a black day for Iraq.
The parliamentarians, presumably mainly members of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, accused the two of calling into question the patriotism of the politicians who favor regional confederacies.
Ammar al-Hakim, the son of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim (the leader of the United Iraqi Alliance, the largest bloc in parliament), also complained the some Iraqi media and question the patriotism of certain parties in the dispute. The reference appears to have been to al-Zaman and al-Iraqiyah.
I see this resolution as an extension of a virtual doctrine of the tyranny of the Shiite majority, and aimed at silencing a major Sunni Arab newspaper.
al-Sharqiya Television employs 400 reporters, administrators and technicians. Al-Zaman newspaper employs 150 reporters, 160 technicians and administrators in all of its Iraq-based operations. The parliament warned these two media organs against repeating their "unacceptable coverage."
Please write your legislators and urge them to pressure the Iraqi government to abide by the freedom of the press provisions of the Iraqi constitution.
I already see less controversial news in al-Zaman than I used to. I think the window of relative press freedom may be closing. Al-Zaman has a London edition and can be kept alive abroad, but would lose something important if its editorial offices ceased being in Iraq.
Al-Zaman also reports that some MPs did insist that parliament does not have the authority to close newspapers and television stations, warning that such a move would represent a return of the dictatorial methods of the former regime.
You hope they are in the majority.
Comment on this Article
Twenty killed in two simultaneous car bombs in Baghdad
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-17 00:02:37
BAGHDAD, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Two car bombs went off simultaneously in a mixed neighborhood in northern Baghdad on Monday, killing 20 civilians and wounding 17 others, a well-informed Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.
The first car bomb exploded at about 5:10 p.m. (1410 GMT) in a market in Ur district at sunset shortly before iftar, when Muslims break their fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, the source said on customary condition of anonymity.
Almost simultaneously, a second car bomb rocked a square in the same district, the source added.
"So far, a total of 20 people were killed and another 17 injured in the attacks," the source said.
Earlier Monday, three Iraqis were killed and seven others, including policemen, wounded in two bomb attacks targeted an Iraqi bank and police forces in Baghdad, according to Iraqi police.
Separately, a third roadside bomb targeted a police patrol on the highway of Muhammad al-Qassim, near the Technology University, went off, wounding three policemen.
In Suwaiyra, a town some 60 km south of Baghdad, a car bomb killed ten people and wounded 15 others also on Monday.
Comment on this Article
The numbers do add up
October 12, 2006
UK Guardian
As Richard Horton's post says, the latest Johns Hopkins University study of mortality in Iraq, published in the Lancet is horrible news. When the previous study was published, a horrendous chorus of hacks sprung up and suddenly discovered a new-found expertise in epidemiological statistics.
Tim Lambert, the Australian science-blogger, and I ended up spending a lot of time and energy fighting on the online front of this Campaign For Real Statistics, and so it is with heavy heart that I see that President Bush - who is probably a better statistician that many of his online supporters as he has at least been to business school - has already expressed an uninformed opinion on the matter.
There will be a concerted attempt to persuade people that the statistical issues involved in this study are difficult. They aren't. The correct way to think about this is as follows:
First, don't concentrate on the number 600,000 (or 655,000, depending on where you read). This is a point estimate of the number of excess Iraqi deaths - it's basically equal to the change in the death rate since the invasion, multiplied by the population of Iraq, multiplied by three-and-a-quarter years. Point estimates are almost never the important results of statistical studies and I wish the statistics profession would stop printing them as headlines.
The question that this study was set up to answer was: as a result of the invasion, have things got better or worse in Iraq? And if they have got worse, have they got a little bit worse or a lot worse. Point estimates are only interesting in so far as they demonstrate or dramatise the answer to this question.
The results speak for themselves. There was a sample of 12,801 individuals in 1,849 households, in 47 geographical locations. That is a big sample, not a small one. The opinion polls from Mori and such which measure political support use a sample size of about 2,000 individuals, and they have a margin of error of +/- 3%. If Margaret Beckett looks at the Labour party's rating in the polls, she presumably considers this to be reasonably reliable, so she should not contribute to public ignorance by allowing her department to disparage "small samples extrapolated to the whole country". The Iraq Body Count website and the Iraqi government statistics are not better measures than the survey results, because one of the things we know about war zones is that casualties are under-reported, usually by a factor of more than five.
And the results were shocking. In the 18 months before the invasion, the sample reported 82 deaths, two of them from violence. In the 39 months since the invasion, the sample households had seen 547 deaths, 300 of them from violence. The death rate expressed as deaths per 1,000 per year had gone up from 5.5 to 13.3.
Talk of confidence intervals becomes frankly irrelevant at this point. If you want to pick a figure for the precise number of excess deaths, then (1.33% - 0.55%) x 26,000,000 x 3.25 = 659,000 is as good as any, multiplying out the difference between the death rates by the population of Iraq and the time since the invasion. But we're interested in the qualitative conclusion here.
That qualitative conclusion is this: things have got worse, and they have got a lot worse, not a little bit worse. Whatever detailed criticisms one might make of the methodology of the study (and I have searched assiduously for the last two years, with the assistance of a lot of partisans of the Iraq war who have tried to pick holes in the study, and not found any), the numbers are too big. If you go out and ask 12,000 people whether a family member has died and get reports of 300 deaths from violence, then that is not consistent with there being only 60,000 deaths from violence in a country of 26 million. It is not even nearly consistent.
This is the question to always keep at the front of your mind when arguments are being slung around (and it is the general question one should always be thinking of when people talk statistics). How Would One Get This Sample, If The Facts Were Not This Way? There is really only one answer - that the study was fraudulent.[1] It really could not have happened by chance. If a Mori poll puts the Labour party on 40% support, then we know that there is some inaccuracy in the poll, but we also know that there is basically zero chance that the true level of support is 2% or 96%, and for the Lancet survey to have delivered the results it did if the true body count is 60,000 would be about as improbable as this. Anyone who wants to dispute the important conclusion of the study has to be prepared to accuse the authors of fraud, and presumably to accept the legal consequences of doing so.
So what? This is always the other line from the people who want to ignore this study. Even if we accept that the invasion has been a disaster (in the strictest sense, the doubling of the civilian death-rate is usually taken to constitute a humanitarian crisis) for the Iraqi people, what should we do differently? The majority of the deaths by violence are a result of action by the insurgents, so we can't just pull the troops home. Isn't this kind of study just "picking over the rubble", to quote the Euston Manifesto and a distraction from the real debate about humanitarian intervention?
Well, there is something that we can do. We can ensure that the people responsible for this outrage suffer the consequences of their actions. A particularly disgusting theme of some right-wing American critics of the study as been to impugn it by talking about it being "conveniently" released before the November congressional elections. As if a war that doubled the death rate in Iraq was not the sort of thing that ought to be a political issue. Nobody is doing anything about this disaster, and nobody will do until people start suffering some kind of consequences for their actions (for example, no British politician, soldier or spy has lost his job over the handling of the Iraq war and no senior member of the Bush administration either).
There has to be some accountability here. It is not good enough for the pro-intervention community to shrug their shoulders and say that the fatalities caused by the insurgents are not our fault and not part of the moral calculus. I would surely like to see the insurgents in the ICC on war crimes charges, but the Nuremberg convention was also correct to say that aggression was "the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole". The people who started this war of aggression need to face up to the fact, and that is a political issue.
[1] In the context of the 2004 study, I was prepared to countenance another explanation: that the Iraqis were lying and systematically exaggerating the number of deaths. But in the 2006 study, death certificates were checked and found in 92% of cases.
Comment on this Article
Coalition, NATO forces kill known Taliban leader, 10 militants
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-17 15:26:52
KABUL, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- NATO and the U.S.-led coalition troops killed a known Taliban leader and at least 10 other Taliban militants in the southern Uruzgan province on Tuesday, the military said in a statement.
The joint forces conducted an air strike at 1:01 a.m. near Bagh-Khosak in the Khod Valley with three 500 pound bombs, killing "a known mid-level Taliban commander" and "10 to 15 additional Taliban militants," it said.
The commander and militants had previously conducted ambush attacks on Afghan and NATO soldiers, it added.
NATO troops "are actively and aggressively extending the security reach of the Afghan government," a spokesman for the forces said.
Uruzgan has been a hotbed of Taliban insurgents, who clash with Afghan and NATO troops frequently.
Due to rising Taliban-linked violence this year, Afghanistan has plunged into the worst spate of bloodshed since the Taliban regime was toppled down nearly five years ago.
Over 2,400 people, mostly Taliban militants, have been killed in this volatile country this year.
Comment on this Article
N. Korea: UN sanctions tantamount to declaration of war
News Agencies
10.17.06
Responding to adoption of international measures against it, country says will 'mercilessly strike' if its sovereignty is violated. 'We resolutely condemn and totally reject the UN Security Council resolution,' Foreign Ministry says in statement
The UN sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear test are a declaration of war, and the country will "deal merciless blows" if the nation's sovereignty is violated, the North's central government said Tuesday in its first response to the UN measures.
The North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency that the country wants "peace but is not afraid of war."
The North "vehemently denounces the resolution, a product of the US hostile policy toward (the North) and totally refutes it," the statement said.
"The resolution cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war" against the North, it said.
The country warned that if
anyone used the UN resolution to infringe on the country's sovereignty, "It will deal merciless blows at him through strong actions."
The U.N. Sanctions, passed Saturday, bans the sale of major arms to the North and orders the inspection of cargo to and from the country. It also calls for the freezing of assets of business supplying the North's nuclear and ballistic weapons programs.
The North "will closely follow the future US Attitude and take corresponding measures," the statement said, without specifying what those measures would be.
Second nuclear test?
On Monday, US television networks reported that US spy satellites have detected suspicious vehicle and people activity near the site of North Korea's nuclear test that may signal preparations for another test.
US officials said they could not be certain of what the North Koreans were doing in the area, but the activity there could be preparations for a second nuclear blast, NBC and ABC said.
In Seoul, a South Korean government official told Reuters on Tuesday: "The government is aware of signs related to North Korea's possible second nuclear test. We cannot exclude the possibility of a second test."
But he added there was no firm information on a possible new test.
Comment on this Article
DPRK lashes out at UNSC resolution
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-17 17:48:47
PYONGYANG, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Tuesday lashed out at the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions resolution, saying it's "a declaration of a war."
A statement issued by the DPRK Foreign Ministry denounced the UNSC resolution as "a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
This is the first official reaction from Pyongyang since the UNSC adopted its 1718 resolution on the DPRK's nuclear test last Saturday.
"The UNSC resolution ... can not be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war against the DPRK," said the statement.
The DPRK reaffirmed that it didn't abandon the effort of denuclearization and peace, but it "is not afraid of war."
"If anyone attempts to infringe upon the DPRK's sovereignty and right to existence even a bit under the signboard of the UNSC resolution, it will deal merciless blows at him through strong action," it said.
The statement didn't say what action the DPRK will take on "attempt of infringement," just adding that it "will closely follow the future U.S. attitude and take corresponding measures."
The DPRK also said that its nuclear test last Monday was just a way of self-defense due to the "U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail and foiling its attempt to ignite a new war."
The KCNA announced last Monday that the DPRK had conducted a successful underground nuclear test.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution, condemning the nuclear test proclaimed by the DPRK, demanding that the DPRK eliminate its nuclear weapons and nuclear programs, and imposing sanctions on the DPRK in spheres related to its nuclear, ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction.
Comment on this Article
US and China at odds over N Korea cargo
October 17, 2006 07:41 AM ET
Financial Times
The US insisted on Monday on the right to intercept suspicious North Korean cargo under the authority of the UN Security Council resolution passed on Saturday, setting the stage for a difficult trip to Asia for Condoleezza Rice this week.
As the US secretary of state prepared to leave for talks in Japan, China, South Korea and Russia, US intelligence said air samples it had collected confirmed North Korea's claim to have carried out an underground nuclear test last Monday.
Describing resolution 1718 passed unanimously as "a very powerful tool", Ms Rice said it made possible the "interdiction of dangerous and suspicious cargo".
"We expect every member of the international community to fully implement all aspects of this resolution and we expect the Security Council to aggressively monitor the process," she said.
However, Wang Guangya, China's ambassador to the UN, disagreed, telling reporters: "Inspections yes, but inspections are different from interception and interdiction."
He said the resolution did not make it mandatory for all nations to inspect cargo going to and from North Korea. States could carry out such an operation as necessary "in accordance with their national legal authorities", he said.
Kim Holmes, a former senior US official who dealt with North Korea and the UN and is now vice-president of the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, appeared to concur with the Chinese interpretation, saying the resolution did not approve the use of force needed for interdiction. The resolution speaks of inspection, not interdiction.
China had succeeded in watering down the resolution in a week of debate, by insisting that inspections also required the "co-operation" of North Korea, Mr Holmes said.
Ms Rice said she would discuss how to design "a practical architecture for detecting and screening" dangerous materials.
Dismissing the notion of differences with China, she said: "I am not concerned that the Chinese are going to turn their backs on their obligations. I don't think they would have voted for a resolution that they did not intend to carry through on."
China had already started checking North Korean trucks crossing its border, Nicholas Burns, under-secretary of state, commented.
Ms Rice repeated that the US was ready to hold talks with North Korea if it returned to the six-party forum mediated by China.
"My goal on this trip is, certainly, to reiterate that we're prepared to return to the talks. But North Korea also needs to understand?.?.?.? that they will pay a price here," she said.
North Korea becomes the ninth state believed to possess a nuclear weapon, although it is not widely thought to have perfected the process needed to deliver one by missile.
Iran as a potential customer of nuclear materials is the Bush administration's greatest concern. Senior US officials are visiting Gulf allies this week to prepare for naval exercises testing their joint ability to intercept North Korean ships bound for Iran.
"The Iranian government is watching and it can now see that the international community will respond to threats from nuclear proliferation," Ms Rice told reporters.
Later this week the US is expected to table a draft Security Council resolution that seeks to impose sanctions on Iran for rejecting a UN demand that it suspend its nuclear fuel cycle programme. US officials said they expect tough negotiations with China and Russia.
Yasuhisa Shiozaki, chief cabinet secretary, said Monday Japan had no plans to change its ban on nuclear weapons. Thomas Schieffer, US ambassador to Japan, said that, as long as Japan believed the US remained prepared to "trade New York for Tokyo", an independent nuclear deterrent would not make it any safer. "This is not a new situation for Japan. We have been here for 50 years."
Australia - one of the few western countries to have diplomatic relations with Pyongyang as well as being Washington's most important defence ally in the Asia-Pacific region - said it would go beyond the UN resolution by banning North Korean ships from entering its ports.
Additional reporting by David Pilling in Tokyo and Virginia Marsh in Sydney
Comment: In other words, the US can do it because nobody is going to stop them. The Bush gang of zio-cons is a law unto themselves. No international treaty, no moral code, no voice of conscience will stop them from their dastardly deeds.
Comment on this Article
Kim's message: War is coming to US soil
By Kim Myong Chol ("Unofficial" spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea.)
Asia Times
6 October 06
The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced on October 3 that the DPRK planned to conduct a nuclear test. The Foreign Ministry stated that the planned nuclear test was in response to the grave situation created by the US, where "the supreme national security interests of the DPRK are at stake with the Korean nation standing at the crossroads of life and death".
The nuclear test, once conducted, will have far-reaching implications for the Koreas and the rest of the world. It carries five messages.
The first message is that Kim Jong-il is the greatest of the peerless national heroes Korea has ever produced. Kim is unique in that he is the first to equip Korea with sufficient military capability to take the war all the way to the continental US. Under his leadership the DPRK has become a nuclear-weapons state with intercontinental means of delivery. Kim is certainly in the process of achieving the long-elusive goal of neutralizing the American intervention in Korean affairs and bringing together North and South Korea under the umbrella of a confederated state.
Unlike all the previous wars Korea fought, a next war will be better called the American War or the DPRK-US War because the main theater will be the continental US, with major cities transformed into towering infernos. The DPRK is now the fourth-most powerful nuclear weapons state just after the US, Russia, and China.
The DPRK has all types of nuclear bombs and warheads, atomic, hydrogen and neutron, and the means of delivery, short-range, medium-range and long-range, putting the whole of the continental US within effective range. The Korean People's Army also is capable of knocking hostile satellites out of action.
All the past Korean heroes let the Land of Morning Calm be reduced to smoking ruins as the wars were fought on its soil, even though they repelled the invaders. One of the two major aspirations of the Korean people has been the buildup of military capability enough to turn enemy land into the war theater. Kim has splendidly achieved this aspiration.
The other has been the neutralization and phasing out of the American presence in Korea before the two Koreas come together as a reunified state. When President George W Bush agreed on the 2009 transfer of wartime operational control over South Korean forces to the South Korean president, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signaled the withdrawal of US troops with combat troops relocated from the front line to bases behind Seoul.
The title "the greatest iron-willed, brilliant commander" is reserved for Kim Jong-il, who has led tiny North Korea to acquire the most coveted membership of the elite nuclear club, braving all the nuclear war threats, sanctions and isolation efforts on the part of the US. It is little short of a miracle that the leader has outmaneuvered and outpowered the Bush administration against heavy odds.
Kim is adding to the glory of Koguryo and Dankun Korea, vindicating the military-first policy inspired by tamul (the Koguryo term for standing up to a major power, valuing the pride of being descendants of Dankun Korea, developing newer weapons, restoring lost land and settling old scores with foreign invaders).
Revealing are headlines of New York Times articles. One op-ed on February 9, 2005, by Nicholas Kristof is headlined "Bush Bites His Tongue". The article says: "There are two words the Bush administration doesn't want you to think about: North Korea. That's because the most dangerous failure of US policy these days is in North Korea. President Bush has been startlingly passive as North Korea has begun churning out nuclear weapons like hot cakes."
One article dated February 13, 2005, by B R Myers is "Stranger Than Fiction". He writes: "To North Korea, diplomacy is another form of war. Under the leadership of Kim Jong-il, the Foreign Ministry has bullied the United Nations into submission and outwitted the United States into providing food aid - all the while developing a formidable nuclear arsenal. This is, of course, the hardline view of North Korea that prevails in some quarters in Washington. Yet it is also the official North Korean view of North Korea."
The February 20, 2005. article by David Sanger is headlined "America Loses Bite," with a senior Bush administration official quoted as saying, "It's counterproductive to draw a red line for North Korea because they will only view it as a challenge." The article notes: "In North Korea's case, red lines may be what Kim Jong-il sees in his rear-view mirror."
In his September 9, 2006, address to the 4th Global Strategic Review of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, Mitchell Reiss offered a remarkable observation:
"Perhaps the least-noted and most astonishing aspect of the entire diplomatic process involving North Korea during the past few years has been the almost complete inability of four of the world's strongest military and economic powers, including three nuclear weapons states and three members of the UN Security Council - the United States, China and Russia and Japan - to shape the strategic environment in Northeast Asia.
"They have proven thoroughly incapable of preventing an impoverished, dysfunctional country of only 23 million people from consistently endangering the peace and stability of the world's most economically dynamic region. This has been nothing less than a collective failure."
The December 29, 2002, Washington Post article by Michael Dobbs says: "US officials note that North Korea's action has been condemned by most of its neighbors and potential big-power patrons, such as China and Russia, Japan and South Korea. Such logic is unconvincing to many experts on North Korea. They contend that Kim is trying to set up a situation in which he wins, whatever happens."
The second point is that a nuclear test will be a legitimate exercise of North Korea's sovereign right in supreme national-security interests of the country. The sole reason for the development of nuclear weapons is more than 50 years of direct exposure to naked nuclear threats and sanctions from the US. The Kim administration seeks to commit nuclear weapons to actual use against the US in case of war, never to use them as a tool of negotiations.
It is sheer illusion to think that sanctions and isolation will stop North Korea from the planned nuclear test. US hostility, threats and sanctions are the very engines that have propelled the development of nuclear weapons. Absent US hostility, nuclear blackmailing, sanctions, threats of isolation and regime change, the Kim administration would never have thought at all of acquiring nuclear deterrence.
What makes North Korea unique among those states Bush lumped together as the "axis of evil" is that only it has been subjected to US nuclear threats and sanctions and singled out as a prime target of nuclear preemption. The US refuses to end the state of war with North Korea while keeping combat-ready nuclear-attack forces ready in bases in Japan and South Korea. North Korea is not host to any foreign military bases. The US is engaged in ceaseless nuclear-attack exercises in and around Japan and South Korea.
The US, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan and Israel conducted numerous nuclear detonation experiments in legitimate exercise of their sovereignty. There is no international convention or treaty that prohibits North Korea from conducting underground nuclear tests. No country is allowed to infringe on the sovereignty of North Korea in material breach of Chapter 2 of the UN charter, unless they are prepared to risk triggering nuclear war with North Korea.
The third message is that the nuclear-armed North Korea will be a major boon to China and Russia. Nuclear-armed, the two countries are friendless in case of war with the US. The US has nuclear-armed allies, such as the UK and France. The Americans have a network of military bases around the two countries, while they have none. The presence of a mighty nuclear weapons state in Korea should be most welcome to Russia and China.
The People's Republic of China has every reason to welcome a nuclear-armed North Korea, whatever it may say in public. The nuclear deterrence of North Korea is a major factor in reducing US military pressure on China on the question of the independence of Taiwan.
The fourth point is that the North Korea government of Kim does not care at all whether Japan goes nuclear, or that South Korea and Australia follow suit. In the first place, those countries are practically nuclear-armed because they are under the nuclear umbrella of the US and house American nuclear bases and because Tokyo's military spending is 10 times that of Pyongyang's and Seoul's defense budget is five times that of Pyongyang's. It is too obvious that they are capable of acquiring nuclear weapons at short notice.
The factor that has prevented them from developing their own nuclear weapons is political pressure from the US, not because North Korea was only conventionally armed. The US has insisted that they should be under the nuclear umbrella and buy expensive high-tech weapons from them.
Their becoming nuclear powers will signal that the US is no longer a reliable cop. At long last de-Americanization of the US allies and neutralization of the US in the rest of the world will be set into motion. This is one of the reasons why the Kim administration has every reason to secretly welcome the nuclear arming of junior US allies.
The main enemy to North Korea is the US, the sole surviving superpower in the world. Acquisition of hundreds of nuclear weapons by Japan and South Korea will not have any serious impact on the total balance of nuclear power. Japan and South Korea have too much to lose in a nuclear war with North Korea, while North Korea has little.
It is important to note that the nuclear weapons and long-range means of delivery are not aimed at South Korea and will be common property shared with South Korea under a confederated government.
The fifth and last point is a long, overdue farewell to the nuclear non-proliferation regime, with the Bush administration standing in the dock as prime defendant accused of sabotaging nuclear non-proliferation. Had the Americans been steadfast in upholding the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty by reducing their nuclear weapons and respecting the sovereignty and independence of the non-nuclear states, North Korea would not have felt any need to defend itself with nuclear weapons.
A nuclear test by North Korea will go a long way toward emboldening anti-American states around the world to acquire nuclear weapons. There is a long line of candidate states.
It is important to note that the North Korean Foreign Ministry pledges to faithfully implement its international commitment in the field of nuclear non-proliferation as a responsible nuclear-weapons state and to prohibit nuclear transfer.
Kim Myong-chol is author of a number of books and papers in Korean, Japanese and English on North Korea. He is executive director of the Center for Korean-American Peace. He has a PhD from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Academy of Social Sciences and is often called an "unofficial" spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd.
Comment on this Article
ElBaradei: more countries "hedging bets" on nuclear weapons
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-17 10:47:46
VIENNA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), warned here on Monday that "up to 30 countries could develop the technology for nuclear weapons in a very short time."
Speaking at a conference on ways to improve controls to prevent proliferation, Mohamed ElBaradei said that more countries than ever are "hedging their bets" on nuclear proliferation as they seek to develop the technology that will allow them to develop such weapons on short notice.
ElBaradei said countries that have started uranium enrichment programs or have the technology to do so quickly had created "virtual new weapons states."
The IAEA chief did not single out any country as being among the "almost virtual new weapons states."
"The knowledge is out of the tube ... both for peaceful purpose and unfortunately also for not peaceful purposes," ElBaradei said.
"It's becoming fashionable for countries to try to look into possibilities of shielding themselves ... through the possibility of nuclear weapons," he said.
ElBaradei said more money and international commitment were needed for his agency's verification efforts to keep pace with the new era of suspicions prompting some countries to contemplate developing weapons programs..."
"It's important that the system continues to be ahead of the game," he said.
"We cannot continue to do business as usual," he added.
Comment on this Article
Chavez suffers setback in bid for Security Council seat
UK Independent
17/10/2006
Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela who has based his political appeal partly on waging a personal vendetta against the "imperialist" United States, appeared last night to have been thwarted in his efforts to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
After 10 inconclusive rounds of secret voting at the General Assembly to decide which Latin American country should take up one of five non-permanent seats open in January, neither Venezuela nor its rival Guatemala had reached the two-thirds majority required. Further rounds will be held today.
Support for both countries fluctuated significantly between rounds, creating an unusual sense of drama in the chamber. Guatemala ended the day with a clear edge but if it fails to reach the two-thirds mark this morning, Latin American states may have to offer an alternative candidate, possibly Costa Rica.
A failed Venezuela bid would be a setback for Mr Chavez who spent months traveling the world lobbying for support often lavishing countries with aid.
Some diplomats said he had erred with his less-than-diplomatic address to the Assembly last month when he branded President George Bush the "devil".
By contrast, it would represent a signal victory for the US, which had made no secret of its opposition to Venezuela's bid. After 10 rounds, Guatemala had support from 110 countries against 77 for Venezuela. "There is a clear preponderance for Guatemala," claimed US Ambassador John Bolton " This reminds me of Florida in 2000, votes go up and votes go down."
Mr Chavez, who faces reelection in December, is likely to come under domestic criticism for squandering money on the Council bid.
Venezuela would have held the seat for two years and Mr Chavez had vowed to use it to frustrate the US in the chamber.
Elected without contest to represent other regions yesterday were Italy, Belgium, South Africa and Indonesia.
Comment: Bolton just couldn't resist giving it away! "This reminds me of Florida in 2000", when Bush stole the Presidential election. So we wonder, which mechanism is the US using this time to quash any chance of an honest vote? Bribes? Threats? Or both?
Comment on this Article
Four done, one to go for UNSC membership
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-17 05:40:41
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly failed on Monday to produce a fifth winner after electing Belgium, Indonesia, Italy and South Africa to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms.
Since the fifth non-permanent seat, to be awarded to a member of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, is still in contention after ten rounds of election, Sheikha Haya Al Khalifa, the president of the UN General Assembly, announced to set further voting on Tuesday.
During the daylong elections, neither Guatemala nor Venezuela, which are candidates from their regional group, obtained the needed two-thirds majority. In the tenth round of voting where 125 votes were needed to win, Guatemala received 110 votes and Venezuela 77 with 4 abstentions.
In fact, after the first three rounds of election, the assembly has to carry out unrestricted election in accordance with the UN Charter, which means the election is open to all members in the region.
Unrestricted balloting will continue until a state from the region achieves the required majority. The winner will replace Argentina, whose term expires on Dec. 31.
In the first round of election held on Monday morning, Belgium, Italy, South Africa and Indonesia were elected to serve two-year terms starting Jan. 1, 2007.
The United States is lobbying against the bid of Venezuela for the council's membership. Francisco Javier Arias Cardenas, Venezuela's ambassador to the UN, accused the United States of trying to turn the vote into a contest between his government and Washington, and stressed votes cast for Venezuela would be "votes of conscience" in favor of the developing world.
"We are not competing with a brother country. We are competing with the biggest power on the planet," he told reporters, adding that Venezuela would not withdraw from the race.
The members were elected according to an agreed geographic allocation, which awards two seats to African and Asian countries, two to Western European and Other States, and one to Latin America and the Caribbean during this year's round of elections.
Council elections are held by secret ballot, and a winning candidate requires a two-thirds majority of ballots from present members and voting. Formal balloting takes place even in those regions where there is only one candidate per available seat.
Belgium and Italy were the only contenders in the Western European and Other States category, and they received 180 and 186 votes respectively. South Africa, the only candidate in the African group, was elected after picking up 186 votes. In Asia, where there were two contenders, Indonesia received 158 votes and Nepal received 28.
The council's five other nonpermanent members, whose terms on Dec. 31, 2007, are Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia. The five permanent members are China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States.
The longest election in the UN history for the membership of the Security Council occurred in 1979. A tense race between Cuba and Colombia began on Oct. 26, 1979 and ended on Jan. 7, 1980. After two months and 155 rounds of election, Mexico, a third candidate, was elected when both Colombia and Cuba decided to withdraw.
Comment on this Article
US claims that China has used lasers to attack satellites
By: janes.com on: 17.10.2006 [04:21 ]
China has used high-energy lasers to interfere with US satellites, according to a US Army space-warfare specialist. Tests have been reported previously but it is now confirmed that the laser attacks were at least partially effective.
Command Sergeant Major David Lady of the Joint Functional Combat Command for Integrated Missile Defense, said at the Strategic Space & Defense conference in Omaha on 12 October that the attacks were detected after US satellite operators - most likely users of the National Reconnaissance Office's secret imaging satellites - observed that the satellites occasionally failed to perform over China.
"There had been times when we wondered at the sudden decline in effectiveness as the satellites passed over China," CSM Lady said. Sensors at the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein atoll in the South Pacific were tasked with tracking the satellites and observing any unusual phenomena. "We sensed the projection of beams against the spacecraft and could identify the streams of photons," CSM Lady said.
The Kwajalein data confirmed that the Chinese appeared to have "some level of confidence" in their laser countermeasures system, according to CSM Lady.
Comment on this Article
America - A Democratic Sham
Bush Signs Torture Bill
truthdig
17/10/2006
It's official. We just got medieval.
AP calls it "tough interrogation." We call it 'the indefinite-detainment, unyielding-torture, habeas-corpus-suspending, mortgage America's bedrock principles upon the altar of anti-terrorism bill.'
But different strokes for different folks.
AP:
President Bush is signing a law that sets tough standards for interrogation and prosecution of terror suspects, a major White House victory that demonstrates Bush still has the political power to set the rules of war even as Iraq clouds his presidency.
Bush's plan becomes law just six weeks after he acknowledged that the CIA had been secretly interrogating suspected terrorists overseas and pressed Congress to quickly give authority to try them in military commissions.
White House press secretary Tony Snow said that after Bush signs the legislation Tuesday, the government will immediately begin moving toward the goal of prosecuting some of the high-value suspects being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He expected it would take a month or two to get "things moving toward a trial phase."
Comment on this Article
Bush to sign harsh torture laws
October 17, 2006 - 4:34PM
A US bill that allows tough interrogation and prosecution of terrorism suspects will be signed into law on Tuesday by President George W Bush.
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 sets standards for interrogating suspects through a complex set of rules that human rights groups say could allow harsh techniques bordering on torture, such as sleep deprivation and induced hypothermia.
It establishes military tribunals that would allow some use of evidence obtained by coercion, but would give defendants access to classified evidence being used to convict them.
"The president will mark a historic day in which he will sign a bill that he knows will help prevent terrorist attacks," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Bush is expected to speak briefly at the ceremony, which will also be attended by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales.
Bush is trying to help Republicans maintain control of the US Congress by contending they are stronger on national security, a stance with which Democrats vehemently disagree.
Comment: It is being whitewashed because "Americans don't torture people", but the facts speak for themselves. The Bush administration is the problem, it is the enemy of people of conscience the world over.
Comment on this Article
Peace Activists Beware: Homeland Security May Be Reading Your E-Mail, and Passing it on to the Pentagon
The Progressive
16/10/2006
More information keeps coming out, thanks to the ACLU, about the Bush Administration's equation of protest with terrorism-and the snooping it then engages in.
Homeland Security is monitoring peace groups and even peering at their e-mails.
"This information is being provided only to alert commanders and staff to potential terrorist activity or apprise them of other force protection issues."
It then shares that information with Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which include the FBI and state and local law enforcement, as well as with the Pentagon's notorious Talon (Threat and Local Observation Notice) program.
For instance, an April 12, 2005, Talon document, just released by the ACLU, shows that the Pentagon was concerned about "suspicious activity" at an upcoming event sponsored by the Broward Anti-War Coalition in Florida.
This peace group, according to the document, was planning-hold your breath here-"guerrilla theater and other forms of subversive propaganda" at the Fort Lauderdale Air and Sea Show.
The source of the information was the Miami-Dade Police Department, and members of Army Recruiting and the Miami Joint Terrorism Task Force were briefed on it, the document states.
Another Talon document, dated March 1, 2005, released by the ACLU, reveals that Homeland Security agents are monitoring e-mails of such scary groups as the Quakers.
"The source received an e-mail on 25 Feb 05, subject: upcoming peace/anti-war events. The e-mail was from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Northeast Ohio," the document states. And that source is identified as "a special agent of the Federal Protective Service, US Department of Homeland Security." The document adds, "Source is reliable."
The Joint Terrorism Task Force of Dayton, Ohio, was briefed on this one.
The planned activity of the Quakers that so concerned the Pentagon, Homeland Security, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force was this: "On 19 Mar 05, there will be a 'Stop the War NOW!' rally in commemoration of the second anniversary of the U.S. Invasion/Occupation of Iraq. The Akron rally will have a march and reading of names of war dead. . . . The Akron march begins at noon and goes past a local military recruiting station and the FBI office. The march will end at the Federal Building in Akron, for a rally, followed by reading of names of U.S. and Iraqi war dead."
A third Talon document, dated March 7, 2005, also relies on an e-mail from the Quakers. "Source received an e-mail from the American Friends Service Committee" about "actions at military recruitment offices with the goals to include: raising awareness, education, visibility." The source is again identified as "a special agent of the Federal Protective Service, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Source is reliable."
All three Talon documents state at the top: "This information is being provided only to alert commanders and staff to potential terrorist activity or apprise them of other force protection issues."
"Potential terrorist activity." Isn't that delightful?
Word to the wise: If you're a peace activist, the government may be watching you and reading your e-mails.
Something just to keep in mind.
Comment on this Article
Web could be terror training camp in U.S., politician says
Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:49pm ET
BOSTON (Reuters) - Disaffected people living in the United States may develop radical ideologies and potentially violent skills over the Internet and that could present the next major U.S. security threat, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Monday.
"We now have a capability of someone to radicalize themselves over the Internet," Chertoff said on the sidelines of a meeting of International Association of the Chiefs of Police.
"They can train themselves over the Internet. They never have to necessarily go to the training camp or speak with anybody else and that diffusion of a combination of hatred and technical skills in things like bomb-making is a dangerous combination," Chertoff said. "Those are the kind of terrorists that we may not be able to detect with spies and satellites."
Chertoff pointed to the July 7, 2005 attacks on London's transit system, which killed 56 people, as an example a home-grown threat.
To help gather intelligence on possible home-grown attackers, Chertoff said Homeland Security would deploy 20 field agents this fiscal year into "intelligence fusion centers," where they would work with local police agencies.
By the end of the next fiscal year, he said the department aims to up that to 35 staffers.
Comment on this Article
Radical U.S. lawyer jailed
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-17 12:57:45
BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. civil rights lawyer Lynne F. Stewart, who smuggled messages between an imprisoned terrorist client and his violent followers in Egypt, was sentenced Monday to nearly two-and-half years in prison, according to media reports.
The sentence, handed down by Judge John G. Koeltl in Federal District Court in Manhattan, was significantly lower than the 30 years sought by prosecutors.
Lynne Stewart, 67, was convicted in February 2005 of helping her imprisoned client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, contact the Islamic Group, which is listed by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.
Outside court, Stewart said she thought the sentence was "a victory for doing good work all one's life." She added: "You get time off for good behavior usually at the end of your prison term. I got it at the beginning."
Ever since she was charged, Stewart has insisted she was being unfairly targeted for her unorthodox choice of clients over a 30-year career that has seen her represent mobsters and political radicals.
Tagged as both heroine and radical leftist, Stewart is the only U.S. lawyer to be indicted on terrorism charges. Some observers said the case stemmed from Bush administration efforts to discourage the defense of accused terrorists.
Comment on this Article
Don't mention the president: how Republicans hope to stay in power
Suzanne Goldenberg in Phoebus, Virginia
Tuesday October 17, 2006
The Guardian
Bush factor is proving a negative for voters and candidates along the campaign trail
The congresswoman curls her bare toes into the white leather seat of a Lincoln stretch convertible, and leans back to wave at the crowd lining the parade route, basking in the warm autumn sun and the attention of the two small grandsons riding in the car with her.
It rarely gets as good as this on the campaign trail for Thelma Drake, a first-term Republican member of Congress fighting for her political survival in the November 7 midterm elections. This was supposed to have been one of the safest seats in the country. "Borderline of vicious, that's how it's been," said her husband, Ted Drake.
The 2nd congressional district of Virginia is deeply conservative terrain. It is home to the world's largest naval base, and more than 20% of the population is military, on active duty or retired. George Bush carried 58% of the vote here in 2004. Ms Drake took her seat with a 10-point margin, and that was as a last-minute replacement for a conservative Republican who resigned after being outed as gay.
But in this election season, where opinion polls and analysts suggest the Republicans are in serious peril of losing control of the House of Representatives, the president is now seen as a liability for Republicans like Ms Drake who are in tight races. Mr Bush's image has been scrubbed from Republican television ads in all but the most secure districts - although he is everywhere in Democratic attack ads. When he goes out on the campaign trail, it's for closed door high-ticket fundraisers, with a guaranteed friendly crowd.
But even that was too much exposure for Ms Drake. The congresswoman was so nervous about being seen in public with an unpopular president that she stayed behind in Washington when Mr Bush visited the district last summer for a $5,000 (£2,700) a plate fundraiser.
Ms Drake's biggest challenge remains deflecting charges from her Democratic challenger, Phil Kellam, that she is a rubber stamp for the White House. "They are trying to say that I vote for President Bush all the time, but if I disagree with President Bush I don't go along with that," she insisted.
Mr Kellam is scornful. "She just blindly follows the president and hasn't asked the tough questions," he said.
Such exchanges are being played out in dozens of congressional districts across America in an increasingly competitive election. Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia, believes as many as 50 seats could change hands in these elections, of which 42 are held by Republicans. For Ms Drake and others who are locked in tight races, being seen with Mr Bush is just not worth the risk.
With the president's approval ratings hovering in the low to mid-30s, many Republican candidates are finding it necessary to dissociate themselves from Mr Bush. "Republicans are trying to run not as Republicans, not as surrogates for Bush, they are trying to run as themselves," said Stuart Rothenburg, who publishes a well-regarded political newsletter in Washington.
Ms Drake was not the only candidate to flee when the president came to call. (In her defence, Ms Drake said she stayed behind to vote on a bill that would direct projects to her district. The bill passed 395-0).
Michael Steele, who is running for a Senate seat in Maryland, left for Las Vegas when Mr Bush visited his state for a fundraiser. Tom Kean, who is running for the Senate in New Jersey, did not go to those extremes - but he made sure not to turn up at his fundraiser until the president had left.
"I think the country is upset with the president. It's making Republican races throughout the country very tough," said Tom Gear, the local representative to the Virginia house of delegates, who is also a Republican.
Republicans are also giving a wide berth to their party leadership in the House of Representatives following reports that the speaker, Dennis Hastert, tolerated for years the behaviour of a Florida congressman who made sexual overtures towards teenage congressional pages. Would Ms Drake welcome a campaign swing by Mr Hastert in the final heat of the campaign? "That is something we have to decide, whether he can do an appearance," she said. "We are down to a time crunch."
While Republicans such as Ms Drake may be camera shy when Mr Bush is around, they continue to rely on the campaign funds that the president and the house leadership can provide. Mr Bush has personally raised more than $180m for candidates this year, and his White House is more actively engaged in the congressional elections than any other in recent memory.
If Republican candidates need to step away from the administration to win re-election, Mr Bush, it appears, is willing to turn the other cheek. The disavowals of Mr Bush are a radical departure from the 2002 congressional elections. In those midterm elections, 20% of Republican candidates relied on images of Mr Bush in their campaign ads, said Joel Rivlin, of the University of Wisconsin project on political advertising.
This time around, Republicans are keen to flaunt their independence. In Minnesota, Mark Kennedy, a Republican fighting for a seat in the Senate, has gone out of his way to point out his disagreements with the White House. "I am not afraid to work for the other side," his ads say.
In Pennsylvania, Republican congressman Jim Gerlach has run ads claiming: "When I believe President Bush is right, I'm behind him. But when I think he is wrong, I let him know that."
Other candidates have tried a stealth approach by removing references to the Republican party in television advertisements. When it comes to posting pictures of Republican leaders on their websites, they are careful to choose mavericks such as the former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, and the Arizona senator John McCain.
Some candidates have stayed away from humans altogether. In Maryland, Mr Steele tried to pre-empt Democratic attacks on his proximity to Mr Bush by appearing with a puppy in his arms.
The tactic didn't work. The Democrats snapped back immediately with a television ad showing Mr Steele and Mr Bush, locked together within a heart-shaped frame. "Michael Steele. He likes puppies, but he loves George Bush," the voiceover said.
Explainer: The crucial seats
At stake in the congressional mid-term elections on November 7 are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 33 Senate seats, and 36 governorships.
In the house, the Republicans hold 231 seats, the Democrats 202. The one independent usually votes with the Democrats. One seat is vacant. The Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats to win the house, and more than 40 Republican seats are thought vulnerable, compared with nine Democrat. The battlegrounds are in the east: Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, New York and Florida.
In the Senate there are 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one independent. Of the 33 up for election, 15 are Republican-held, 17 Democrat, and the independent seat, Vermont, is almost certain to go Democrat. The Democrats must make a net gain of six seats to win. There are eight vulnerable Republicans: in Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Tennessee, and Arizona. The Democrats' most vulnerable seat is in New Jersey.
The Republicans have 28 governors, the Democrats 22. Of those up for election the Republicans have the most to lose. Five states seem to have slipped from their grasp - New York, Ohio, Arkansas, Colorado and Massachusetts. Maryland, Nevada and Minnesota could go either way. Democrats are in danger in Iowa, Michigan, Oregon and Wisconsin.
Comment: It is easy to rig the next election. It comes down to about 50 seats. By concentrating on those seats, ensuring that blacks are excluded, either by accusing them of being criminals or by having so few voting machines available that long lines drive voters away, "your man" can be assured of his seat. And if that doesn't work, then there are the touchscreen voting machines that have no paper trace.
Your vote doesn't count. You can take that to the bank.
Comment on this Article
Police predict new round of violence in suburbs
PARIS, Oct 16, 2006 (AFP)
Almost a year after France's suburban riots, police warned Monday of a new spiral of violence in the country's high-immigration 'banlieues' - where they say they are increasingly the target of attacks with intent to maim, or worse.
A crescendo of outraged alarm from police unions has been triggered by three serious clashes in tough estates near the capital, where officers were stoned and beaten by gangs of youths, as well as by figures showing a growing defiance towards the forces of law and order.
In the latest attack on Friday night in the southern Paris 'banlieue' of Epinay-sur-Seine, three officers were ambushed in their patrol car and set upon by around 30 youths with stones and metal bars. According to police, shots were even fired by one of the assailants.
The squad used "flash-ball" stun-guns and fired their hand weapons in the air to deter the crowd, but was only rescued when reinforcements arrived on the scene. One officer was hospitalised, requiring 30 stitches on his face.
Two similar clashes have occurred in the last three weeks at the Les Tartarets estate in Corbeil-Essonnes and at Les Mureaux, in the western Paris outskirts.
"For me all three incidents are obviously linked. There is a disturbance, the cops are called, and then they lay into them," said Bruno Beschizza of the Synergie Officiers union. "In the last month there has been a change. Now it is like they want to kill."
"These guys came to kill. They were hooded and they had baseball bats and iron bars," Joaquin Masanet, of the UNSA union, told Libération newspaper of the incident in Epinay.
Another union - Action Police - said in a statement: "It shows that what we are dealing with here is not youths in need of more social aid, but individuals declaring war on the Republic."
Several police officials warned that it could only be a matter of time before either a rioter or a policeman is killed, further poisoning the climate in France's out-of-city estates and hastening a resurgence of last November's unrest.
Speaking on condition of not being identified, one young police officer told AFP that conditions in the poor 'banlieues' are becoming unbearable for new recruits, many of whom demand an early transfer.
"When we go into the estates for the smallest job, we are surrounded and prevented from acting. So in order to do anything we have to move in quickly and in force - which undermines our human contact with the community," he said.
"No-one has drawn the lessons of the 2005 riots. We are not sufficiently trained for urban violence, yet we are often in face-to-face situations," said another officer.
Le Monde newspaper meanwhile published ministry figures that appeared to confirm a growing willingness among young delinquents to choose police and other representatives of public services as targets.
Some 480 incidents of this type were recorded in September - a 30 percent increase on August, Le Monde said. And it quoted interior ministry figures showing that 2,458 police officers were hurt on service in the first six months of the year - compared to 4,246 for the whole of 2005.
"Behind the statistics police specialists detect a harder, better organised type of delinquency. However they are unwilling to draw definitive conclusions about the increase in attacks on police," Le Monde said.
Interior ministry officials noted that police unions are exploiting the media impact of the recent attacks to the full, ahead of union elections next months.
With France's presidential elections due to take place in April, the resurgence of tensions in the 'banlieues' has major political implications - raising questions over the tactics of Interior Minister and presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy.
Manuel Valls, socialist mayor of Evry in the southern Paris suburbs, said Sarkozy - who is widely hated by youth in the poor estates - had "uncontestably created disorder."
Thousands of cars and hundreds of buildings were torched last year in three weeks of nightly confrontations. With the October 27 anniversary approaching, police say there is no sign of a coordinated plot to rekindle violence, but warn that the half-term holiday and end of Ramadan coincide at the end of the month.
Comment on this Article
Iowa: Cops Seize Cars to Keep for Themselves and Family
The Newspaper
16/10/2006
Law enforcement officials in Polk County, Iowa have been seizing cars, then purchasing them for friends and family for as little as one cent.
Automobile auctionPolk County, Iowa sheriff's deputies and employees of a local towing company purchased seized vehicles at cut-rate prices as low as one cent. Earlier this month Iowa's Attorney General charged two fifteen-year veteran officers with "felonious misconduct" for falsifying sales receipts so that R&R Towing employees could buy vehicles before they were offered to the public at auction.
R&R Towing, founded by two reserve deputies, has long had a close relationship with the department. The attorney general charged the company's manager, Tim Cox, with fraud after Cox purchased a seized $10,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycle for just $100.
A new investigation by the Des Moines Register found that even relatives of the sheriff's department and towing company employees have been buying seized automobiles at cut-rate prices. For example, Senior Deputy John R. Taylor helped Jamie Taylor buy a $5000 1997 Chevy Blazer for just $800 in November 2005. He also helped Jake Taylor buy a 2002 Honda motorcycle for $1265. At the same November 2005 auction, a 1999 Chevy Tahoe and 1992 Jeep Cherokee sold for one cent each.
Many police departments forbid the practice of allowing officers to purchase seized vehicles.
Comment on this Article
350K Paycheck For City's 9/11 Scrooge
NT Post
15/10/2006
The woman in charge of the $1 billion fund that's fighting claims by sickened World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers is collecting $350,000 a year plus benefits from the federal fund - a pay package that has stunned and angered advocates for the 9/11 responders.
Christine LaSala, president and CEO of the city-controlled WTC Captive Insurance Co., which is managing the 9/11 fund created by Congress, gets the entity's top salary - which has never before been publicly revealed - plus $20,000 in health benefits for herself and her family, documents obtained by The Post show.
Meanwhile, teams of lawyers hired by the fund to dispute and deny more than 5,000 claims for illnesses blamed on toxic exposure at Ground Zero earn up to $550 an hour for "senior partners," the records show. Other top lawyers working for the entity earn higher rates, sources said.
The Post has reported that Captive, a self-insurance fund set up by the city in 2004 to cover claims from the WTC cleanup, had spent more than $40 million as of four months ago on overhead and lawyers. The company has refused to pay a single ill Ground Zero responder.
LaSala, 56, a former partner at insurance brokerage Johnson & Higgins, took the helm of the captive in mid-2004.
"It's amazing that Ms. LaSala gets $20,000 for health insurance while the 9/11 heroes she's fighting often have no health coverage at all," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
"If the city wanted someone to do nothing, I'm sure they could find someone a lot cheaper than $370,000 per year," Maloney said. "This salary could have helped a lot of sick and injured workers take care of their families."
Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which keeps a registry of cops suffering respiratory illness, cancer and other diseases since working at the toxic WTC pit and Fresh Kills landfill, was taken aback.
"They're paying that kind of salary to someone overseeing a campaign where lawyers are working to deprive people of benefits for the illnesses they developed at Ground Zero," Lynch said. "9/11 responders are struggling with medical bills."
LaSala's pay exceeds by $100,000 the $250,000 salary of Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, the highest-paid city employee, who oversees a $14 billion budget, 110,000 employees and 1.1 million kids.
Comment on this Article
Pentagon to resume forced anthrax vaccine program
Reuters
16/10/2006
The Pentagon on Monday said it will force troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and South Korea to be vaccinated against anthrax, restarting a court-halted program after U.S. regulators declared the shots safe and effective.
But William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said the Pentagon has no plans to vaccinate troops serving elsewhere, including those in the United States -- site of the only major anthrax attack against Americans, which killed five people in 2001.
"There are terrorists operating in and around Iraq and in that part of the world," Winkenwerder said. "That's a higher threat area."
The move to reopen the mandatory vaccination program follows a final order from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2005 that found the anthrax vaccine safe and effective in preventing anthrax disease.
But attorneys whose lawsuit previously shut down the mandatory anthrax vaccination program said they plan to file a new suit to challenge its resumption.
"The forthcoming mandatory program is just as senseless as before and the FDA's new determination remains legally and scientifically flawed," said Mark Zaid, one of the attorneys.
Winkenwerder, who has not taken the anthrax vaccine, said the FDA's final order settles legal questions and the Pentagon is prepared for a court challenge.
Anthrax spores can be used in germ warfare to give victims the deadly bacterial disease. The Pentagon argues the shots are needed to protect troops against bioterrorism.
Comment on this Article
General: Officer allowed detainee abuse
By DAVID DISHNEAU
Associated Press
Mon Oct 16, 2006
FORT MEADE, Md. - The highest-ranking officer charged with crimes at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq allowed detainee abuses and then lied about it, a general who investigated the scandal testified Monday.
Maj. Gen. George Fay, who wrote a report on mistreatment of detainees at the prison, testified at a hearing to determine whether the director of the prison's interrogation center should be court-martialed.
Fay said his investigation found that Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan was in charge of the center, despite Jordan's insistence to Fay that he was just a liaison between the center and superior officers.
Fay said Jordan knew about some of the abuses and did not stop them. He said Jordan "told us a story that was deceptive and it was misleading, and he tried to avoid responsibility for his role at Abu Ghraib."
Jordan, 50, of Fredericksburg, Va., is charged with 12 offenses, including one count of cruelty and maltreatment for allegedly subjecting detainees to forced nudity and intimidation by dogs. He faces a maximum of 42 years in prison if convicted of all counts.
Fay said that when he asked Jordan if he had seen prisoners stripped naked, Jordan told him he had, but that the nudity had nothing to do with interrogations.
Under cross-examination, Fay acknowledged that Jordan had reported some abusive episodes. He also testified that the
Pentagon's rules regarding harsh interrogation techniques, such as the use of dogs, had gone through several rapid changes in late 2003, confounding workers at Abu Ghraib.
"It was a confusing situation," Fay said.
Defense attorney Maj. Kris Poppe said in opening statements that Jordan was thrust into an unfamiliar, ill-defined role in an ad hoc command structure. Poppe said most of the abuses at Abu Ghraib were committed by rogue military police soldiers who were not under Jordan's command.
"In the end, we believe the story will show to you that Col. Jordan did not commit criminal misconduct," Poppe told hearing officer Col. Daniel Cummings.
Prosecutor Lt. Col. John P. Tracy said Jordan had embarrassed the Army by ignoring the abuse. He said Jordan had not personally committed egregious acts but that his negligence created an atmosphere conducive to mistreatment.
Jordan, a military intelligence reservist, was director of the interrogation center from mid-September through late November 2003, when detainees were physically abused, threatened with dogs and sexually humiliated. He is now assigned to the Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Va.
Jordan's supervisor at Abu Ghraib, Col. Thomas Pappas, was reprimanded and fined $8,000 for once approving the use of dogs during an interrogation without higher approval. Several other officers have been reprimanded for their roles in the abuse.
Eleven lower-ranking soldiers have also been convicted in the scandal.
The Article 32 hearing - the military's equivalent of a grand jury proceeding - is expected to last three to six days at Fort Meade.
Comment on this Article
Euro Fascism - Is History Repeating Itself?
Universities urged to spy on Muslims
Monday October 16, 2006
The Guardian
Lecturers and university staff across Britain are to be asked to spy on "Asian-looking" and Muslim students they suspect of involvement in Islamic extremism and supporting terrorist violence, the Guardian has learned.
They will be told to inform on students to special branch because the government believes campuses have become "fertile recruiting grounds" for extremists.
The Department for Education has drawn up a series of proposals which are to be sent to universities and other centres of higher education before the end of the year. The 18-page document acknowledges that universities will be anxious about passing information to special branch, for fear it amounts to "collaborating with the 'secret police'". It says there will be "concerns about police targeting certain sections of the student population (eg Muslims)".
The proposals are likely to cause anxiety among academics, and provoke anger from British Muslim groups at a time when ministers are at the focus of rows over issues such as the wearing of the veil and forcing Islamic schools to accept pupils from other faiths.
Wakkas Khan, president of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, said: "It sounds to me to be potentially the widest infringement of the rights of Muslim students that there ever has been in this country. It is clearly targeting Muslim students and treating them to a higher level of suspicion and scrutiny. It sounds like you're guilty until you're proven innocent."
Gemma Tumelty, president of the National Union of Students, said: "They are going to treat everyone Muslim with suspicion on the basis of their faith. It's bearing on the side of McCarthyism."
The document, which has been obtained by the Guardian, was sent within the last month to selected official bodies for consultation and reveals the full extent of what the authorities fear is happening in universities.
It claims that Islamic societies at universities have become increasingly political in recent years and discusses monitoring their leaflets and speakers. The document warns of talent-spotting by terrorists on campuses and of students being "groomed" for extremism.
In a section on factors that can radicalise students, the document identifies Muslims from "segregated" backgrounds as more likely to hold radical views than those who have "integrated into wider society". It also claims that students who study in their home towns could act as a link between extremism on campuses and in their local communities.
The government wants universities to crack down on extremism, and the document says campus staff should volunteer information to special branch and not wait to be contacted by detectives.
It says: "Special branch are aware that many HEIs [higher education institutions] will have a number of concerns about working closely with special branch. Some common concerns are that institutions will be seen to be collaborating with the 'secret police'.
"HEIs may also worry about what special branch will do with any information supplied by an HEI and what action the police may subsequently take ... Special branch are not the 'secret police' and are accountable."
The document says radicalisation on campus is unlikely to be overt: "While radicalisation may not be widespread, there is some evidence to suggest that students at further and higher educational establishments have been involved in terrorist- related activity, which could include actively radicalising fellow students on campus." The document adds: "Perhaps most importantly, universities and colleges provide a fertile recruiting ground for students.
"There are different categories of students who may be 'sucked in' to an Islamist extremist ideology ... There are those who may be new to a university or college environment and vulnerable to 'grooming' by individuals with their own agenda as they search for friends and social groups; there are those who may be actively looking for extremist individuals with whom to associate. Campuses provide an opportunity for individuals who are already radicalised to form new networks, and extend existing ones."
The document urges close attention be paid to university Islamic societies and - under the heading "inspiring radical speakers" - says: "Islamic societies have tended to invite more radical speakers or preachers on to campuses ... They can be forceful, persuasive and eloquent. They are able to fill a vacuum created by young Muslims' feelings of alienation from their parents' generation by providing greater 'clarity' from an Islamic point of view on a range of issues, and potentially a greater sense of purpose about how Muslim students can respond."
It suggests checks should be made on external speakers at Islamic society events: "The control of university or college Islamic societies by certain extremist individuals can play a significant role in the extent of Islamist extremism on campus."
The document says potential extremists can be talent-spotted at campus meetings then channelled to events off campus.
The document gives five real-life examples of extremism in universities. The first talks of suspicious computer use by "Asian" students, which was reported by library staff. In language some may balk at, it talks of students of "Asian appearance" being suspected extremists.
A senior education department source told the Guardian: "There's loads of anecdotal evidence of radicalisation. At the same time there are people who pushing this who have their own agendas, and the government has to strike the right balance.
Comment on this Article
UK Home Secretary Told Head Of Prisons To "Machinegun Prisoners"
BBC News
17/10/2006
David Blunkett told the head of the Prison Service to call in the Army and "machine-gun" rioting inmates to regain control of a jail in 2002, reports say.
Martin Narey, then director general, said the then home secretary told him he did not care about possible deaths during bids to retake Lincoln prison.
Mr Narey's comments in the Times are in response to Mr Blunkett's diaries which accuse him of dithering over the riots.
A spokesman for Mr Blunkett denied he had made any reference to machine guns.
The diaries, which record Mr Blunkett's eight years in Cabinet, were published on Monday.
Mr Narey said when he read Mr Blunkett's account of the riot he was "very angry".
"And on behalf of all those who worked so bravely that night - particularly my deputy, Phil Wheatley - I was determined to put the record straight," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
He said that, during a telephone conversation in October 2002, he told Mr Blunkett he would not rush into ordering staff back into jail if it put lives at risk.
He told The Times: "[Mr Blunkett] shrieked at me that he didn't care about lives, told me to call in the Army and 'machine-gun' the prisoners and - still shrieking - again ordered me to take the prison back immediately.
"I refused. David hung up."
Mr Narey acknowledged that the comments were not meant literally.
"He surely cannot have intended us to take (them) seriously," he wrote in the Times.
Mr Narey described Mr Blunkett as being "reckless" during the crisis.
"What you are looking for is calm guidance, it's leadership, from a Secretary of State, and that was sadly lacking on that occasion."
Martin Narey
Martin Narey claimed Mr Blunkett was "reckless"
He added: "I don't think David was decisive that evening; I think he was reckless."
Mr Narey said he "was well aware of the capacity for riots to spread" because of his experience of the riots at Strangeways prison in 1990.
But the ex-minister has stood by his account of the Lincoln prison riot and denied Mr Narey's account.
A spokesman for Mr Blunkett told the newspaper: "The diary records precisely what happened.
"He did order the retaking of the prison. He did not say anything about machine guns. Quite apart from anything else, they do not carry machine guns in the Prison Service.
"Any such phone call would have been monitored by Mr Blunkett's private office."
Mr Narey said he would be "delighted" to hear such a recording.
"I promise you my account is absolutely true."
Comment on this Article
Paisley pulls out of Stormont talks
Mark Oliver and agencies
Tuesday October 17, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
The Democratic Unionist party leader, Ian Paisley, today pulled out of roundtable talks with Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams as a row over ministerial pledges intensified.
Mr Paisley had been due to attend the talks at Stormont on a new programme for government in a future power-sharing administration in the province.
It had been hoped that his appearance at the talks with Mr Adams would build confidence in a series of choreographed moves towards a plan for full devolution and power-sharing by March 26 next year.
Mr Paisley and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness are likely to be nominated first and deputy first minister at Stormont on November 24.
But a new row has broken out, with the DUP demanding that an agreement is in place before then for Mr McGuinness - Sinn Féin's chief negotiator and a former IRA commander - to swear an oath supporting the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the rule of law.
The DUP believed it had a commitment that Mr McGuinness would sign up to the new ministerial pledge and code on November 24.
However, the party has been concerned at recent suggestions that the code will not be in place by time of the nominations.
Republicans are resisting moves to have the code in place before the nominations, partly because they take place before a special conference the party is holding to decide policies on policing.
This morning, Mr Paisley's son, Ian Jr, said: "The party leader will not be going to today's meeting. We need to talk with the government about these matters before he starts going to programme for government meetings."
Mr Paisley's decision to pull out of the meeting was being seen as a first warning sign of problems with the British and Irish governments' elaborate deal for re-installing power-sharing.
The prime minister, Tony Blair, and the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, announced details of the deal at St Andrews in Scotland last week.
The DUP's Jim Allister MEP today expressed reservations about the St Andrew's agreement and said the IRA army council would have to disband if Sinn Féin was to sit in government.
He also expressed concern about the prospect of Mr Adams' party being able to sit in government in perpetuity and the lack of any default mechanism to punish parties which fail to live up to their ministerial obligations.
The MEP recognised that progress had been made and said he was raising these concerns to encourage healthy debate within the ranks of the DUP.
It would be a significant blow for both the UK and Irish governments if the nominations for first and deputy first minister did not take place.
In a statement to MPs yesterday in the House of Commons, the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, said: "I do not have to spell out to the house the great significance of these nominations - the more so given those who are likely to be nominated: the leader of the DUP and the chief negotiator of Sinn Féin.
"I pay tribute to the Right Honourable Member for North Antrim [Mr Paisley.] Like anyone who understands something of the history of Northern Ireland, I realise that this is not an easy step for him or for his party."
Comment: As we notice in the case of Israel, the occupier and aggressor is always reluctant to sit down at the negotiating table with the oppressed because to do so means that some of their dominant position will have to be ceded. For the Unionists in Northern Ireland the the Zionists in Israel, everything must be done to thwart that day when they recognise their opponents as having the same rights as they do. Tactics generally revolve around demonisation, throught the use of dirty tricks and false flag attacks, of the oppressed opponent.
Comment on this Article
Amateur 'video bloggers' under threat from EU broadcast rules
By Adam Sherwin, Media Correspondent
Sunday Times
October 17, 2006
THE Government is seeking to prevent an EU directive that could extend broadcasting regulations to the internet, hitting popular video-sharing websites such as YouTube.
The European Commission proposal would require websites and mobile phone services that feature video images to conform to standards laid down in Brussels.
Ministers fear that the directive would hit not only successful sites such as YouTube but also amateur "video bloggers" who post material on their own sites. Personal websites would have to be licensed as a "television-like service".
Viviane Reding, the Media Commissioner, argues that the purpose is simply to set minimum standards on areas such as advertising, hate speech and the protection of children.
But Shaun Woodward, the Broadcasting Minister, described the draft proposal as catastrophic. He said: "Supposing you set up a website for your amateur rugby club, uploaded some images and added a link advertising your local sports shop. You would then be a supplier of moving images and need to be licensed and comply with the regulations."
The draft rules, known as the Television Without Frontiers directive, extend the definition of broadcasting to cover services such as video-on-demand or mobile phone clips.
Ministers argue that while television programmes should be subject to minimum standards, the content of websites should not be subject to EU regulation.
Mr Woodward is proposing a compromise that requires EU states to agree a new definition of what constitutes "television". He said: "It's common sense. If it looks like a TV programme and sounds like one then it probably is. A programme transmitted by a broadcaster over the net could be covered by extending existing legislation. But video clips uploaded by someone is not television. YouTube and MySpace should not be regulated."
British criminal law already covers material that might incite hate or cause harm to children, Mr Woodward added. The Government's definition of online broadcasting covers feature films, sports events, situation comedy, documentary, children's programmes and original drama. It excludes personal websites and sites where people upload and exchange video images.
"The real risk is we drive out the next MySpace because of the cost of complying with unnecessary regulations," Mr Woodward said. "These businesses can easily operate outside the EU."
Ofcom, the media regulator, is also opposing the proposed directive, which it believes could discourage new multimedia business in Europe.
Mr Woodward is seeking EU member state support for the British compromise. So far only Slovakia has pledged support, but Mr Woodward believes that other nations will come onboard before a key EU Council meeting on November 13.
The influence of "user-generated" websites was demonstrated last week when Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion (£883 million). Launched in February 2005, it has grown into one of the most popular websites. YouTube has 100 million videos viewed every day.
The House of Lords European Union Committee began an inquiry yesterday into the directive, which could also introduce paid-for product placement on UK television for the first time.
Lord Woolmer, the committee chairman, said: "The proposals bring within the regulatory framework areas of the media previously untouched by broadcasting legislation.
"Britain is at the cutting edge of new media and alternative broadcasters in Europe, and we are keen to ensure that the proposals will not damage this growing industry in seeking to incorporate them into EU regulation."
Comment on this Article
Chirac leading plot to block Sarkozy succession
PARIS, Oct 15, 2006 (AFP)
French President Jacques Chirac is carrying out a behind-the-scenes plot to stop his ambitious interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, succeeding him in elections next year, media reports said on Sunday.
The plan is to destablise Sarkozy, whom Chirac sees as too arrogant, too pro-American and too insolent, ahead of the polls due to take place in April 2007, newspapers including Le Journal du Dimanche and the newsmagazine Marianne claimed.
But Chirac and his closest ally, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, are having to tread a careful line between trying to trip up Sarkozy and making sure the conservative ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) they all belong to - and which Sarkozy heads - does not lose in the elections.
Le Journal du Dimanche called the plot an "anti-Sarkozy offensive" and printed an interview with the leader of the UMP in parliament, Jean-Louis Debré, that it suggested was the latest Chirac manoeuvre.
Debré, another firm ally of the president, railed against Sarkozy's repeated pledge to "break" with the political tone and traditions laid down during the decade Chirac has been head of state.
"Those who put out too much hot air should watch out - they could quickly find themselves in the middle of a storm," Debré warned.
"To denigrate, challenge, criticise the policies of a government you belong to is not only a mistake but a political error," he said.
The magazine Marianne said Chirac and Villepin had only one idea in mind: "to attack (Sarkozy) from all sides, rob him of legitimacy as a presidential candidate."
They are buoyed by recent surveys that show public support for Sarkozy slipping, though he remains the most popular figure in the UMP.
A poll in Le Journal du Dimanche showed a five-point dip for the interior minister over the past month, to 40 percent.
His fortunes in France were not helped by a recent trip he made to the United States, during which he met President George W. Bush, and criticised French foreign policy.
The problem for Chirac, however, is that no other figure in the party comes close to Sarkozy in looking like they could emerge victorious in the elections, which are to be contested by a hugely popular Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal.
Royal stands a reasonable chance of becoming France's first woman president, according to polls that put her neck-and-neck with Sarkozy.
At 73, Chirac is considered unlikely to run for a third term, though he has obstinately refused to rule it out, complicating Sarkozy's efforts to bolster support ahead of the elections.
Villepin and France's defence minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, another Chirac loyalist, have also dropped heavy hints that they should be considered as conservative candidates - regardless of whether Sarkozy wins the formal party nomination.
Each have less than a third of Sarkozy's public support, though they are narrowing the gap.
The tensions in the UMP camp were evident last week when Sarkozy suddenly came down with a "migraine" to avoid a weekly breakfast with Villepin and other UMP leaders.
Villepin, who visibly detests Sarkozy, was quoted Sunday in Le Monde as saying the ruling party could still resolve its internal strife before heading into the elections.
"There is a time for everything in politics," he said during a trip to the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.
Comment on this Article
Barroso warns of semantic distraction to EU progress
Nicholas Watt, Europe editor
Tuesday October 17, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
José Manuel Barroso delivered the last rites to the EU constitution yesterday, when he declared that European leaders had created a "hostage to fortune" by giving it such a grand name.
In one of his most significant pronouncements, the president of the European commission declared that the title of the measure had allowed both sides of the European debate to rally against it.
"Perhaps the grand finality of the word 'constitution' set it up as a hostage to fortune, both to inter-governmentalists who felt it went too far, and to federalists, who felt it did not go far enough," Mr Barroso said in the annual Hugo Young memorial lecture at Chatham House.
Mr Barroso's remarks echo the memorable conclusion of Sir John Kerr, the former head of the Foreign Office, who said that European leaders had created a "cavalry charge to disaster" by naming the measure a constitution. Sir John, who was the most senior official on the convention, which drew up the constitution, was speaking after French and Dutch voters rejected it in referendums last year.
Britain, which never felt comfortable with the constitution, is hoping that the treaty will quietly die. But Mr Barroso indicated in his speech last night that he agrees with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who believes that many of the institutional changes in the constitution should be introduced under a new label.
"Let us be clear about the label which should be attached to further institutional reform," Mr Barroso said. "What Europe needs is a Capacity to Act.
"The fact remains that the current set-up is less than optimal. In any event, the Nice Treaty legally obliges us to revise the composition of the commission as soon as there are 27 member states - and that day is less than three months away."
Mr Barroso's remarks, in a speech designed to encourage Britain to be more enthusiastic about the EU, show that key European leaders accept that it will be impossible to revive the constitution in its current form after last year's no votes. But his speech also shows strong support for Mrs Merkel's ambitions of maintaining many of the constitution's key measures -reforming the voting system in the council of ministers, opening up the chambers of the EU and creating a foreign minister.
Mr Barroso said: "We must improve the efficiency of decision-making. As the number of member states rises, the time it takes to reach a decision increases. Agreement, and action, becomes more difficult to reach. This has to change. There is no point reaching the right policies on globalisation if they arrive five years too late.
"The distance is growing between Europe and its citizens. Again, that must change. Injecting greater accountability and transparency into Europe's institutions will help to close that gap. That means letting fresh air into the smoke-filled rooms, and developing a more political way of building Europe, rather than a diplomatic or technocratic one.
"There can be no global Europe without greater external coherence. There is no single number for the United States to call. The EU is not a federal state. But a European Foreign Minister...would go a long way to achieving that coherence."
His remarks show there will be a stormy debate when Mrs Merkel carries out her instructions from fellow European leaders, to draw up proposals on what to do with the constitution when Germany assumes the EU's rotating presidency on January 1.
Her plans are likely to be tentative because the real work cannot take place until France elects a new president next spring. Major negotiations are due to be held in the latter half of 2008, by which time France will hold the EU presidency.
European leaders are expecting a battle because the original constitution was a balance between federalists, who wanted to deepen the EU, and so called "nation staters", such as Britain, who are wary of deeper integration. Unpicking the measure will upset that balance.
Mr Barroso indicated that Britain should be able to buy into the process of institutional change because the reform of the EU budget will be launched at around the same time. Britain is hoping to cut spending on "old" areas, such as farming, in favour of "new" areas, such as research and development to meet the challenge from China and India.
Mr Barroso said: "A new institutional settlement for the EU should be seen within the same intellectual framework as the continued reform of existing EU policies...The budget for 2007 to 2013 points in a more forward-looking direction, thanks to the deal brokered under the British Presidency."
Comment on this Article
Ukraine Seeks to Declare Soviet-Era Famine Genocide
Created: 17.10.2006 12:13 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 12:13 MSK
MosNews
Ukrainian officials and scientists on Monday again called on the country's parliament to declare a Soviet-era famine that killed up to 10 million people as genocide, AP said.
"Parliaments of 10 countries have recognized the famine as genocide against Ukrainian people, but Ukraine's parliament has not yet done it itself," Ivan Vasyunuk, a top aide to President Viktor Yushchenko, said during a round-table dedicated to the anniversary of the event.
Up to 10 million people died in the 1932-33 Great Famine, which was provoked by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin as part of his campaign to force peasants to join collective farms.
Countries including the United States, Canada, Austria, Hungary and Lithuania have recognized the event as genocide, but the issue remains highly charged in the former Soviet republic, since declaring the famine as genocide would amount to an indictment of Soviet policies - something that Communists, Socialists and many pro-Russian politicians loathe to do.
Vasyunyk said Yushchenko aides were drawing up legislation proposing that parliament recognize the event as genocide.
"Unfortunately our society has not yet realized not only the necessity to condemn the tragedy but also the necessity to commemorate the victims", Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk said.
"There are no doubts that the famine was man made, that it was genocide. We must recognize it (as such) if we respect our people," scientist Vladyslav Barsyuk said.
Comment on this Article
Business Chief of Russian News Agency Itar-Tass Found Dead
Created: 16.10.2006 17:35 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 19:57 MSK
MosNews
The business chief of Russian state news agency Itar-Tass was found knifed to death at his flat in central Moscow on Monday, Itar-Tass is quoted by the Reuters news agency.
Anatoly Voronin, 55, Tass's business manager, died "as a result of multiple knife wounds," a source in Moscow's Prosecutor General told Tass.
Tass sources told Reuters that Voronin was supposed to return to work on Monday from holiday and his driver waited 3 hours for him outside his block of flats in Moscow this morning before returning to Tass to report him missing.
With Tass officials, the driver went up to his flat and found the door open with all of his things scattered all over the flat and saw Voronin's body, the sources told Reuters.
"It is a colossal loss for Tass," said Ludmila Perkina, an editorial official at Tass's main news center.
"He did so much for Tass. He tried to do everything so that we - the journalists - could work. Our hearts are very heavy today."
Voronin had worked at Tass for 23 years.
Comment on this Article
Israel And Facism - Is There A Difference?
IDF Murders 16 year old Palestinian Stone-Thrower Near Jenin
Haaretz
17/10/2006
Israel Defense Forces troops shot and killed three Palestinians, including a 16-year-old stone thrower, in a West Bank town Tuesday, Palestinian security officials and hospital doctors said.
Later Tuesday, two more Palestinians were killed by IDF gunfire in Qabatiya, Palestinian security officials said.
The two were throwing stones at the IDF jeeps, the security officials said. The dead were identified as Mohammed Kmeil, 16, who was shot in the neck, and Hani Khalil Kmeil, 20, who was shot in the chest.
The IDF said it fired at stone-throwers, killing one who was on Israel's wanted list. The military has not released his name.
Comment on this Article
Israel Soldiers Murder Three Palestinian Youths
IMEMC & Agencies
Tuesday, 17 October 2006
Palestinian medical sources in Jenin reported that two residents was killed on Tuesday at noon, in Qabatia town near the West Bank city of Jenin. Earlier on Tuesday, one youth was shot and killed by Israeli military fire in the town.
The sources stated that residents Hani Khaleel Al Samady 17, and Iz Ed Deen Ikmel, 15, were shot and killed on Tuesday noon by the Israeli army during a military offensive that started in the village late on Monday night.
Local sources in the village reported that both were killed when soldiers opened fire at them during the invasion. Medical sources said that Iz Ed Deen died after sustaining a fatal wound in the cervix, while Iz Ed Deen was hit by a round of live ammunition in his throat.
He was shot while he was standing in front of his house when soldiers who topped several houses in the town fired in several directions.
Also, clashes erupted between the soldiers and resistance fighters in the town after the army invading its center. The invasion was described as a the widest since last year. At least ten residents were injured and suffered moderate-to-sever injuries; most of the injured are children.
Soldiers stamped papers on several houses in preparation to demolish them which raised fears among the residents of a wider invasion to level these houses and conduct collective punishment against the residents.
Palestinian youth killed as Israeli army invades Jenin
George Rishmawi-IMEMC & Agencies - Tuesday, 17 October 2006, 09:30
One Palestinian was killed, another injured as a large force of the Israeli army invaded the town of Qabatia, near the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday morning.
Palestinian medical sources identified the dead as Omar Abdul-Raouf Zakarneh, 18, and said he was killed by a shell not bullets. His body was severely dismembered, the source added.
The Islamic Jihad movement said Zakarneh is a member of Al-Auds brigade, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad and was killed as Israeli troops exchanged fire with resistance fighters who tried to force the soldiers out of the town.
Another Palestinian was wounded in the clashes with the soldiers, but his name was not revealed.
During the invasion, troops forcefully occupied some houses and turned them into military posts, and seized several residents from the village and took them to an unknown destination.
Meanwhile, the Israeli air force fired missiles at northern Gaza Strip late Monday, hours after a home-made Qassam shell landed near the southern town of Sderot. The Israeli army said its air strike was aimed to stop the launching of Qassams from the Gaza Strip.
Earlier in the day, resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip had fired at least two Qassams, one of which landed next to a home in the town of Sderot, lightly wounding a woman in the leg.
Comment on this Article
Death Toll Passes 23 as Israel Claims To Hunt Down Gaza Rockets
UK Independent
16/10/2006
Amir Peretz, the Defence Minister, said Israel had learnt the lesson of Lebanon, where it turned a blind eye for years to Hizbollah's weapons build-up.
Israeli infantrymen, backed by tanks, were combing the northern Gaza Strip for Qassam rocket launchers and sabotage tunnels in a search-and-destroy operation that has killed at least 23 Palestinians in five days.
Most of the dead were combatants but they also included two children, aged 10 and 14, and a 29-year-old mother of five who, the Palestinians said, was shot by a sniper in the doorway of her home in the southern town of Khan Yunis.
Israeli ground and air forces have killed a total of 320 Palestinians since Hamas abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid at the end of June. All efforts to broker a prisoner exchange have so far failed. Border guards yesterday shot and wounded a 36-year-old man they said was behaving suspiciously near the Karni freight crossing between Gaza and Israel. He was taken to Gaza hospital.
A helicopter gunship fired five missiles on Saturday at a Hamas squad said to have been making its way to attack Israeli troops. Seven fighters were killed and dozens wounded. On the same day, soldiers killed two Fatah militants allegedly involved in preparing Qassam rockets. Seven people were killed on Friady, including Imad al-Makusi, a local Hamas commander and two of his men.
The Hamas Government's minister for refugee affairs, Ataf Adwan, said: "We are calling on the international community to curb Israeli crimes against the Palestinians. Israel is killing people to try to make our society collapse. They are attacking and besieging us all because of one soldier. They are punishing every Palestinian, not just in Gaza, but in the West Bank too. They are depriving our people of the essentials for their lives." The Israeli army went on the offensive after Palestinian militants continued firing home-made Qassam rockets into the western Negev during the Jewish autumn holiday season, which ended yesterday. Three civilians were injured in the border town of Sderot.
Israel is also trying to stem the large-scale smuggling of arms and explosives into southern Gaza from Egypt because military commanders fear their tactical advantage is being eroded. It's been reported that recent shipments included advanced, Russian-made anti-tank rockets of the kind used with deadly effect by Hizbollah during this summer's Lebanon war, as well as upgraded Grad ground-to-ground missiles and sniper rifles. Israeli commanders fear their tactical advantage is being eroded.
Amir Peretz, the Defence Minister, said Israel had learnt the lesson of Lebanon, where it turned a blind eye for years to Hizbollah's weapons build-up. "We will not allow the terrorist organisations to become stronger," he said.
He also urged Egyptian forces stationed on the Sinai side of the border to try harder to stop the smugglers. Ehud Olmert, Israel's Prime Minister, appeared frustrated yesterday that efforts to arrange a summit meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, the relatively moderate Palestinian President who is locked in a power struggle with the Hamas Government, had stalled. The Palestinians are reported to be demanding the release of prisoners as a condition for resuming talks. Mr Olmert refuses to free any prisoners until Corporal Shalit comes home. Mr Olmert's spokeswoman said he was willing to meet Mr Abbas without conditions. "He's putting the ball in the Palestinian court. There is no reason for delay."
Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel, is resisting the attempts by Mr Abbas to form a national-unity coalition as a way out of the impasse.
* Police recommended yesterday that Israeli President Moshe Katsav be charged with rape, sexual assault and fraud, the most serious charges ever levelled at an Israeli leader. The recommendation came at a meeting between police investigators and Attorney General Meni Mazuz. The final decision on whether to put the president on trial rests with Mr Mazuz.
Comment on this Article
How Israel Cluster Bombed Future of South Lebanon, with US Help
James Brooks
Palestine Chronicle
17/10/2006
The specifics of the available evidence support one "logical" objective for this attack: Israel used cluster munitions as substitutes for landmines.
On September 26, the UN announced that the number of unexploded cluster "bomblets" left in southern Lebanon by Israeli forces may be three times higher than previous estimates. A million or more antipersonnel weapons may be strewn across a region one-third the size of Rhode Island.(1)
Israel has yet to respond to repeated requests for information about the locations of its cluster bomb strikes in Lebanon. UN demining experts say this has made their job 'far more difficult'.(2) Two hundred thousand people cannot return to their homes due to the severity of destruction and the massive quantities of unexploded ordnance and cluster bomblets covering their communities.(3) Since the beginning of the ceasefire less than two months ago, 20 people have been killed and 120 others have been injured by cluster bomblets and unexploded ordnance.(4)
UN humanitarian coordinator David Shearer wants to know why the IDF deployed 90 percent of its cluster bombs during the last 72 hours of the conflict, while the UN ceasefire resolution was being approved.(5) UN officials are reportedly "dumbfounded".(6) What could explain Israel's intention in such an act, when peace was at hand?
The IDF responds that the "use of cluster munitions is legal under international law," and claims its military "uses such munitions in accordance with international standards."(7) Yet reports from deminers, aid workers, and civilians in the region clearly state that cluster bomblets are being found on roofs, in gardens, streets, and yards, everywhere people live.(8) To say that Israel used cluster bombs indiscriminately in Lebanon would miss the point. Israel deployed cluster bombs heavily in civilian areas. A number of villages were hit with multiple cluster munitions attacks. Well over a million of these antipersonnel weapons were fired by highly accurate artillery batteries, frequently at targets that were civilian beyond a shadow of a doubt.(9)
The explosive and destructive powers of these bomblets range roughly from those of a hand grenade to those of an anti-tank landmine. One type is designed to hurl projectiles that penetrate up to seven inches of steel armor. In shape and size they are similar to toy balls, candy bars, and cans of soda.(10)
In the lexicon of cluster bombs, the "dud rate" is the percentage of deployed submunitions (bomblets) that fail to explode when deployed. Unexploded cluster bomblets continue to kill and maim innocent people, especially children, for decades. In effect, Israel has left a million small, soulless suicide bombers in south Lebanon, each awaiting its call to action.
The UN Mine Action Coordination Centre (UN-MACC) has documented and cleared cluster munitions in several theatres of war. Working with NGOs and the Lebanese Armed Forces in southern Lebanon, UN-MACC continues to report that approximately 40 percent of Israel's bomblets failed to explode.(11) An overall dud rate of 40 percent is unusually high. We will explore possible reasons for this reported poor performance of Israel's cluster munitions.
In terms of dud rates, two classes of cluster bombs are available on the market today: high dud rate and low dud rate. It appears the cluster munitions Israel used in Lebanon were predominantly, perhaps exclusively, of the 'high dud rate' variety.
The vast majority of bomblets reported from Lebanon have published dud rates ranging from 14 to 23 percent.(12) To explode, most of them must impact a relatively solid surface at an angle fairly close to vertical. Sloping or soft terrain can raise dud rates significantly. The drag ribbons attached to some of these bomblets can interfere with obstacles during descent, preventing detonation.
A cluster bomb, rocket, or shell opens in mid-air to spin out many bomblets over a wide area. Dud rates jump when the trajectory of the "parent" projectile is too high or too low. Cluster munitions also lose reliability with age, another common cause of dud rates significantly higher than manufacturers' published rates.(13)
Low dud rate bomblets are a relatively recent alternative. They are usually fitted with a self-destruct fuse and a more sensitive detonator, and sometimes include other 'failsafe' features. The objective for designers of these antipersonnel weapons is a dud rate of less than one percent.
This is a long-delayed victory for the anti-cluster bomb campaigners who began advocating these simple changes four decades ago. At the time it was a pragmatic compromise to try to save Vietnamese children, who were being blown up by the unexploded forerunners of a bomblet that Israel uses today, the BLU 63.
Unfortunately, our government did not respond. Since the war ended in 1975, an estimated 38,000 Vietnamese have been killed by unexploded cluster bomblets. As bomblets deteriorate, death and injury rates are escalating.(14) In Laos, over 12,000 people have died, and the 'bombies' are now killing 120 people a year. Half are children.(15)
In the last six to eight years, the Israeli and US militaries have finally begun to show an interest in low dud rate cluster munitions, mainly for their own protection. It's a significant and welcome improvement, but it does not address the other crucial question about cluster bombs: where are the civilians when the other 99 percent of the bomblets explode?
Israeli Military Industries (IMI) makes low dud rate M85 cluster bomblets to "ensure[] that no hazardous duds are encountered by advancing friendly forces." They leave "a clean [sic] operating area after the firing ends".(16)
In addition to cluster bombs, IMI produces the self-destruct fuses that are the key to low dud rate performance. Israel's top defense contractor also enjoys a strategic alliance with ATK - Alliant Techsystems, a multibillion-dollar US defense contractor, with whom it produces Israeli-technology cluster munitions in the US.(17)(18)
Israel prizes such relationships, since the resulting IDF-spec weapons may often be purchased from the US at a steep discount, if not simply received as gifts, through Israel's rapidly growing military aid package from the US, now approaching $3 billion per year.(19)
Israeli Military Industries says that its self-destruct fuses exceed the Pentagon's requirements, which are reportedly "stringent": they must produce a dud rate of no more than one percent at a cost of no more than $10 per unit.(20) (Although the military has not shied from the expense of packing titanium pellets and radar units into mass-produced cluster bomblets, it refuses to spend more than ten bucks to make sure one doesn't lie in wait to blow up a GI, or an innocent civilian.)
IMI is seeking buyers for its self-destructing M85 DPICM (Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition) cluster bomblets. It has produced more than 60 million M85s. Until 1998, they had a published failure rate of 14 percent. That year the M85 was converted to a low dud rate bomblet: too many Israeli soldiers were being injured and killed by unexploded M85s.(21)
An obvious question arises: If Israel was already making cluster bombs that would not have turned southern Lebanon into a minefield, why didn't it use them?
The early results of submunitions clearing efforts conducted by the Lebanese Army and NGOs indicate that some M85s were deployed. They comprise about 8 percent of the dud submunitions reported by type.(22)
One might assume that these would be low dud rate bomblets made after 1998. However, it's quite possible that when the new 'soldier-sparing' M85 became available, the IDF mothballed its remaining 'high dud' M85s. If so, they were probably saved for use when Israeli soldiers would not have to enter target zones after the cluster bombing; for example, immediately preceding a ceasefire or withdrawal. This, however, is only speculation.
Until we learn more about the type(s) of M85s used, we'll have to assume that around 90 percent of the submunitions deployed by Israel were high dud rate cluster bomblets fired primarily in artillery shells and rocket warheads.
The Israeli commander who famously told Ha'aretz that, "in Lebanon, we covered entire villages with cluster bombs...what we did there was crazy and monstrous," was an officer in the IDF's Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) unit. He said the army had launched 1,800 rockets that dropped 1.2 million cluster bomblets on Lebanon.
Soldiers were ordered to "flood" target areas with the unguided rockets, ostensibly because they were inaccurate. Reservists were reportedly "surprised" that the army was using the MLRS rocket launchers. They had been told the rockets were "the IDF's 'judgment day weapons'" and were "intended for use in a full-scale war."(23)
Yet UN-MACC estimates that IDF artillery units fired even more bomblets than were carried by the "judgment day" rockets, probably between 1.4 million and 2.8 million.(24)
If the early clearance data is a rough reflection of the whole, an additional 500,000 BLU 63 bomblets may have been dropped by Israeli warplanes. When we add up UN-MACC's most conservative estimates and modest estimates of BLU 63 and M85 deployment based on early data,(25) the lowest reasonable estimate for the number of cluster submunitions released over southern Lebanon is three million.
In that case, the roughly 500 square mile target region would have "received" one cluster bomblet for every 4400 square feet of land, or thirteen bomblets for every (American) football field.(26) If three million bomblets had been evenly dispersed, every living thing would have been within killing range-eventually.
If the 40 percent dud rate repeatedly found in the first 45,000 recovered bomblets is confirmed across the region, the total number of unexploded cluster submunitions in Lebanon may be 1.2 million or more, a possibility that must concern UN and Lebanese officials.
Why would Israel's cluster submunitions perform so poorly? Part of the answer may lie in the IDF's reliance on US-made M26 rockets and their M77 bomblets, which have posted wartime dud rates as high as 40 percent.(27) Meron Rapoport of Ha'aretz wrote that in some cases the IDF fired its M26 rockets "at a range of less than 15 kilometers, even though the manufacturer's guidelines state that firing at this range considerably increases the number of duds." (28)
However, the M77's problems don't explain the equally poor performance of the artillery's M42 bomblets, or the dud BLU 63s. In the absence of evidence that the Lebanese terrain or other conditions were at fault, our search for a common "failure factor" must focus on the IDF and its weapons.
One possibility is that the IDF deliberately increased dud rates by "shooting" its cluster bombs, rockets, and shells too high or too low, as discussed above. However, without further evidence this is merely speculation.
Another possibility is that the IDF's cluster munitions inventory may have been stocked with outdated weapons. Some could have been leftovers from Israel's last war against Lebanon. Others could have come from the expired inventories of another nation that wished to dump its outdated munitions. This is a growing international problem that threatens to saddle the world with high dud rate cluster bombs for decades to come.(29)
Excepting the M85, Israel is believed to purchase most, if not all, of its cluster munitions from the United States. This factor may have significantly contributed to the abysmal performance of the IDF's cluster bomblets in Lebanon.
The US hoards huge stockpiles of cluster munitions, including some types that date back to the Vietnam era. Human Rights Watch reported last year that Washington has 369,576 M26 rockets in its inventory.(30) They would presumably be capable of spinning out 238 million highly lethal M77 bomblets, 200 times as many as Israel spewed over south Lebanon this year. With the Pentagon debuting a new generation of lower dud rate antipersonnel and anti-vehicle weapons in Iraq, the US has an obvious interest in getting rid of these "notoriously inaccurate" rockets and the rest of its mountain of aging 'cluster junk'-to the right buyer, of course.
On the other hand, it can be "useful" to have some supplies of suitably aged cluster munitions on hand. According to Captain Josef Dirschka of the German Armed Forces in Kosovo, 1999:
"Unexploded duds are also used deliberately just to spread insecurity. You can't move around freely here as you don't know what state the bombs are in. Will they go off or won't they? If you drive too close to where unexploded duds are lying, it's possible that the vibrations of the vehicle will set the bomb off. You can't know for sure. A certain number of duds is desirable."(31)
Thus, a nation out to "spread insecurity" might have an interest in acquiring and maintaining an inventory of outdated cluster munitions.
On August 11, the first day of the cluster blitz and three days before the ceasefire, the New York Times reported that Israel had made an urgent request to the Bush administration for the delivery of more M26 cluster munition rockets. They "can be effective against hidden missile launchers", the Times explained.(32)
This report suggests one of two things: either the decision to launch the massive cluster bomb campaign was a last minute, ad hoc affair, or procurement specialists in Olmert's administration really dropped the ball.
The peculiarity of Israel's timing becomes acute when we consider how few targets were left for all those cluster bombs to kill. By the final week of the war, most people in the target zone had evacuated to escape Israel's relentless bombing and shelling, which had erased several villages from the face of the earth. Hezbollah fighters should have been able to ride out Israel's cluster bombing waves in the safety of their bunkers. Nonetheless, the IDF must have made an all-out effort to deploy nearly three million bomblets within 72 hours, probably involving all units capable of delivering such devices. What were they shooting at?
The specifics of the available evidence support one "logical" objective for this attack: Israel used cluster munitions as substitutes for landmines.
The IDF's proclivity for mining southern Lebanon is well known. The IDF mined the region heavily prior to its withdrawal in 2000, especially the border area, where mines still line the length of Lebanon's side of the Blue Line and plague adjacent fields and villages.(33) At the end of 2003, a staggering 410,000 landmines remained. By the end of 2005, 30 civilians had died and 173 had been wounded by Israel's landmines.(34)
The most plausible short-term military objective of Israel's cluster bomb campaign would have been to "demobilize" southern Lebanon with cluster duds, to deny safe passage to Hezbollah fighters on their home turf. Israel's leaders clearly sought to make the region uninhabitable, probably hoping to also deny Hezbollah its sympathetic civilian base. The strategic objective may have been to force Hezbollah to redeploy the bulk of its forces to safer ground, which is now well north of the Litani River.(35)
The most intensively cluster-bombed region of Lebanon is home to hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom are unable to return home. On the other hand, Israel considers Hezbollah's fighting force to number about 1,500 men.(36) Simple math reveals the shocking truth: Innocent civilians were perhaps 200 times more likely than Hezbollah militants to be killed or maimed by Israel's region-wide cluster bombing. This basic statistic could not have been unknown to Israeli strategists.
Faced with an apparently indisputable violation of several articles of the Geneva Conventions and a US-Israeli weapons trade agreement, the US State Department confirmed on September 1 that it had begun an investigation into Israel's use of US-supplied cluster munitions in Lebanon.(37)
The likelihood that anything substantive will emerge from this "investigation" is slim. Even slimmer is the chance that Congress and the administration will act as they did in 1982, when Reagan suspended cluster munitions sales to Israel in response to its gross abuses at the time-in Lebanon.
Ten years later, America was cheering its own cluster bombing of Iraq. During the infamously "fast and clean" Gulf War, US and Allied warplanes dropped 20 million bomblets, while the artillery fired another 30 million submunitions. The dud rates of some of these bomblets ranged as high as 30 percent. According to Human Rights Watch in 2003: "At least eighty U.S. casualties during the war were attributed to cluster munition duds. More than 4,000 civilians have been killed or injured by cluster munition duds since the end of the war."(38)
In the darkness of our own long and hideous record with cluster munitions, after al-Hilla and Fallujah and all the other cluster bomb massacres in the current wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, where can the US stand against Israel on the subject?(39)
Where, for that matter, is the political will to hold Israel accountable for any of the thousands of other crimes it has committed in Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories? The State Department "investigation" is merely a sop to diplomats in Brussels and the UN, who were demanding that the US 'do something' about Israel's behavior.
The long-running US-Israeli partnership in the manufacture, trade, and repetitive anti-civilian use of cluster bombs is emblematic of a larger relationship stubbornly mired in the ways of war. The US has dumped sixteen times more dud-prone cluster bomblets on Iraq than Israel seems to have fired on Lebanon this summer. Our government has created a yardstick by which Israelis can claim that "flooding" southern Lebanon with stay-behind cluster bomblets was a "proportionate response" to the crime of living in the wrong place.
International sanctions against the use of cluster munitions in civilian areas should be strengthened. But that would be unlikely to stop nations like Israel and the US from using cluster bombs as de facto landmines. We must also ban high dud rate cluster munitions altogether, through an internationally agreed timetable to phase in low dud rate standards and destroy high dud rate cluster bomb inventories. It is the logical, humane, and urgently needed sequel to the Mine Ban Treaty-which the US and Israel have so far refused to join.
Notes
1. 'Million bomblets' in S Lebanon
BBC, 9/26/2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5382192.stm
2. 9-Year-Old Boy, 4 Other People Hurt By Cluster Bomb Explosions
An Nahar, 9/27/2006
http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/story/5256B3C2305566E3C22571F6004FD063?OpenDocument
3. 200,000 remain displaced
Electronic Intifada/OCHA, 9/28/2006
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5790.shtml
4. South Lebanon Cluster Bomb Info Sheet
UN Mine Action Coordination Center, 10/10/2006
http://www.maccsl.org/reports/Leb%20UXO%20Fact%20Sheet%2010%20October%202006.pdf
5. UN: Israel cluster bomb use in Lebanon 'outrageous'
YNet News, 9/19/2006
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3305802,00.html
6. Cluster Bombs a Vestige of Israel's Lebanon Fight
NPR, All Things Considered, 9/27/2006
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6154818
7. Israel used cluster grenades on civilians
AlJazeera, 7/25/2006
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7BE824EC-6574-457D-A77D-2DD1B2EDFCCA.htm
8. LEBANON: Leftover Israeli cluster bombs kill civilians
IRIN - UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 8/21/2006
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=55201&SelectRegion=Middle_East&SelectCountry=LEBANON
9. South Lebanon Cluster Bomb Info Sheet, op. cit.
10. Drop Today, Kill Tomorrow
Mennonite Central Committee, 1997
http://www.mcc.org/clusterbombs/resources/research/tomorrow/killtomorrow.pdf
11. South Lebanon Cluster Bomb Info Sheet, op. cit.
12. Persian Gulf: U.S. cluster bomb duds a threat
Human Rights Watch, 3/18/2003
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/SKAR-647JHQ?OpenDocument
13. Cluster Bombs and Cluster Munitions: A Threat to Life
Aktionsbündnis Landmine.de, 1st edition 2004
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/files/Cluster%20Munitions%20-%20A%20Danger%20to%20Life.pdf
14. Vietnam
Wendy Waldeck and Sarah Sensamaust, Journal of Mine Action, 2/2006
http://maic.jmu.edu/journal/9.2/profiles/vietnam/vietnam.htm
15. LAOS: More than 30 Years On, the Unquiet Land
By Lynette Lee Corporal, IPS Asia-Pacific/Probe Media Foundation
http://www.newsmekong.org/laos_more_than_30_years_on_the_unquiet_land
16. M85 dual-purpose bomblet
GlobalSecurity.org
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/m85.htm
17. ibid.
18. Employee Liabilities of Weapon Manufacturers Under International Law
AlliantACTION, 2004
http://www.circlevision.org/alliantaction/info/book/ELWMILdocv3a.pdf
19. U.S. Military Assistance and Arms Transfers to Israel: U.S. Aid, Companies Fuel Israeli Military (PDF)
By Frida Berrigan and William D. Hartung, World Policy Institute, 7/20/2006
http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/israel.lebanon.FINAL2.pdf
20. M85 dual-purpose bomblet, op. cit.
21. ibid.
22. Latest update on cluster munition problem in south Lebanon
Cluster Munition Coalition, 9/20/2006 (?)
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/news.asp?id=33
23. IDF commander: We fired more than a million cluster bombs in Lebanon
Ha'aretz, 9/12/2006
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=761781
24. South Lebanon Cluster Bomb Info Sheet, op. cit.
25. Latest update on cluster munition problem in south Lebanon, op. cit.
26. 770 Cluster Bombs Strikes Map
UN Mine Action Coordination Center South Lebanon, 10/10/2006
http://www.maccsl.org/photogallery/Cluster%202006/cbu%20strike%2010%20oct%2006.jpg
27. Cluster Bombs and Cluster Munitions: A Threat to Life, op. cit.
28. When rockets and phosphorous cluster
By Meron Rapoport, Ha'aretz, 9/30/2006
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=761910
29. Cluster Bombs and Cluster Munitions: A Threat to Life, op. cit.
30. U.S.: Deny Israeli Request for Cluster Munitions
Human Rights Watch, 8/11/2006
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/08/11/israb13974.htm
31. [Speaking to Report Mainz, 11/17/2003] Cluster Bombs and Cluster Munitions: A Threat to Life, op. cit.
32. Israel Asks U.S. to Ship Rockets With Wide Blast
New York Times, 8/11/2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/world/middleeast/11military.html
33. 770 Cluster Bombs Strikes Map op. cit.
34. The Mine Problem: Southern Lebanon
UN Mine Action Coordination Center South Lebanon, 2006
http://www.maccsl.org/mineproblem.htm
35. 770 Cluster Bombs Strikes Map op. cit.
36. Peres: Israel achieved its war goals, weakened Hezbollah
Ha'aretz, 8/16/2006
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=750934
37. US investigating Israel cluster bomb use in Lebanon
Yahoo! News, 9/1/2006
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060825/pl_afp/mideastconflictisrael_060825231303
38. Persian Gulf: U.S. cluster bomb duds a threat op. cit.
39. America at War: Killing People in order to Save Them?
By Dave Lindorff, Baltimore Chronicle, 9/6/2006
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2006/090606Lindorff.shtml
Comment on this Article
Hamas slams reports of Abbas forming new forces
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-16 21:35:56
GAZA, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- The governing Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Monday slammed reports that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was forming new forces to face Hamas militia.
"Any decision to create an army or military forces controlled by the president should be subject to the term of defending the Palestinian people and face the occupation," said Hamas lawmaker Salah al-Bardawil, who is also Hamas spokesman in parliament.
Any new forces "should not be based on countering Hamas movement," al-Bardawil stressed.
Al-Bardawil made the remarks following Israeli press reports said an army was being established for President Abbas with U.S. fund and support.
In response, al-Bardawil asserted that Hamas movement "will not accept a Palestinian army trained by American hands."
Moreover, the Hamas lawmaker also revealed that the Interior Ministry, which controls Auxiliary Forces loyal to Hamas, is planning to expand the forces "to face corruption, lawlessness and counter the aggression."
Several armed clashes between security members loyal to Abbas and the Auxiliary Forces erupted in the past few days, deepening the rift between the two rival movements.
Some analysts here see the alleged Abbas' decision to boost his presidential guard troop as a measure to confront Hamas' Auxiliary Forces.
The Auxiliary Forces were established under a decision by Hamas government's Interior Minister Said Siam in April with most of its troops were members of Hamas and allied groups.
Comment on this Article
Israeli president may quit if indicted sex charges
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-17 10:13:11
BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Israeli President Moshe Katsav will resign if he is indicted for a variety of sexual-related offences, his attorney said Monday.
Katsav did not appear at the opening session of the parliament Monday after police recommended he be indicted on sex charges.
Police said their investigations had produced enough evidence to indict Katsav on charges including rape, sexual harassment and breaking wire-tapping law.
Moshe Katsav, who is under pressure to resign,has denied any wrongdoing and said he is the victim of a "public lynching without trial".
A statement from his office said: "He repeats that he is a victim of a plot and that sooner or later the allegations against him will be proven false."
Israel's attorney general is expected to decide within two to three weeks whether to file an indictment against the President.
The charges are the most serious faced by an Israeli leader to date, although several other senior figures, including the former prime minister Ariel Sharon, have faced inquiries into allegations of corruption.
In July, a senior female aide complained to police that she had been sexually harassed while working for Katsav, who filed a simultaneous complaint against her for extortion.
Police said Monday that there was no substantial evidence to back claims by Katsav's legal team that one of the complainants had attempted to blackmail him over the rape allegations.
Iran-born Katsav,61, is married with five children and six grandchildren. His wife has told reporters that she is confident her husband would be proven innocent.
Comment on this Article
In debt, under siege
Amira Hass
Haaretz, Oct 17, 2006
NABLUS - Out of the dark appeared a taxi, and behind it another and then another. Each of the drivers in turn slowed down, waved to the driver coming from the opposite direction, from the east, and told him that there was no point in driving any further. Even without him saying, they knew what the cab driver between the villages of Tel and Sara to the west of Nablus was doing: Like them, he was looking for fuel there last Monday. Yakub the driver had two passengers, young men holding empty jerricans in their hands, hoping to find a single gas station that would sell them 10 or 20 liters.
The drivers on their way back related that at one station there were 200 liters left and 20 cars waiting in line. The proximity of Tel and Sara to the main road (which is blocked with concrete cubes) that leads to the Jewish settlements in the West Bank sometimes makes it possible to bring in a bit of fuel from one of the Israeli gas stations.
I'll bring you gas tomorrow, promised Yakub to the two disappointed passengers who had paid NIS 30 for the fruitless trip. He has a friend who has a friend outside of Nablus, who can buy at the Kedumim gas station, and he'll bring it to Nablus, via the Beit Iba checkpoint west of the city. This, in any case, is how Yakub will obtain diesel fuel for himself.
For more than a week now, there has been an acute shortage of fuel in Nablus. The Palestinian Authority has not paid its debts to Dor Energy, and the latter has suspended the fuel supply. In parallel, the Palestinian fuel company has cut back the quantities it distributes to the various cities. In Nablus, more than any other town in the West Bank, a drop in the fuel supply is felt immediately. Nablus is under a prolonged "encirclement," as military jargon calls the siege. The city is surrounded by six checkpoints manned by soldiers, who strictly supervise traffic in and out. About six or seven other routes out of the city are blocked by iron gates and concrete cubes or inspected from observation towers and by army patrols.
At three of the manned checkpoints, entry and exit is permitted only to inhabitants of certain villages, and prohibited to everyone else. The Israel Defense Forces allow only a few hundred cars that have special permits to enter and leave Nablus. Thus, unlike Ramallah, for example, where departure through most of the manned checkpoints is not contingent on a special permit, people cannot leave Nablus, fill their gas tank at the gas station of the nearby Jewish settlement and return.
For several months now, the IDF has again prohibited men between the ages of 16 and 35 from leaving Nablus, so that people 35 and under cannot do what people over 35 do: stand in line at the Hawara checkpoint at the southern exit from the city for an hour or two, behind the turnstiles, holding a jerrican or two in their hands. When the soldiers finally let them through, they walk to the gas station located 80 or 100 meters from the checkpoint. This shabby-looking gas station is operated by Palestinians, but owned by Israelis.
The young men of 35 and younger wait at Hawara - the southern end of the world for them - with empty jerricans: They wait for someone they know who is going through the roadblock anyway and will agree to fill the jerricans for them and come back. Another possibility is to wait until one of the two or three porters who have a work permit from the Civil Administration passes from one side of the checkpoint to the other, collects a few gallons worth of containers and trundles them in their carts to the gas station.
Life without salaries
Siham takes no interest in the fuel shortage. The few thousand shekels she managed to save up last year to buy a car for her family - parents and two children - were eaten up long ago. She and her husband are officials in offices of the Palestinian Authority. Eight months without their average salaries (about NIS 2,500 a month). Their comfortable rented apartment has an average middle class atmosphere; it does not at first glance disclose the meaning of life without a salary. They have not paid rent for four months now. Nor have they paid the school registration fees. Nor the monthly payment to the private school, which is run by a church. Their bills for electricity and water have not been paid. The municipality is not cutting off the power supply to them and thousands of others like them, and is getting deeper and deeper into debt - because it pays Israel for the electricity.
Their son, who is 8, gets an allowance of one shekel instead of two. Their daughter, who is 11, has relinquished her pocket money. Two gas canisters stand on the balcony, empty. When it starts getting cold outside, they will not be replaced by full ones to heat the apartment. A faucet that is broken has not been fixed.
"And our situation is still better than other people's," says Siham. A work colleague of hers is lucky: He managed to borrow money from the bank before the salary crisis. Now the banks are not lending to public servants, as though they were lepers. The friend started to lend to his friends, among them Siham, the money that he had borrowed himself, until it ran out. Heartbroken, Siham cancelled her daughter's violin lessons. When relatives invite them now for a Ramadan meal, she accepts. It used to be that she was choosier. Now she calculates the savings of a meal. She never thought that she would need a donation of a sack of flour, but last week she overcame her shame and took a sack that was distributed at her workplace (which is half empty, as in any case most of the employees are on strike because their salaries have been withheld).
In recent weeks, several thousand civil servants whose salaries have been withheld had to overcome their shame and go to receive food coupons given out by various institutions: the churches, the telephone company and charitable organizations that had received money from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. After it emerged that distribution at a single central place creates an uproar and tensions, it was decided to distribute the coupons, which are worth between NIS 200 and NIS 500, among the houses. One of the conditions: Cigarettes and cards for mobile phones must not be purchased with these coupons.
Quarrels and shooting
Among the donors from abroad, there is a Turkish Islamic organization called There Is No One. Siham finds that this name is particularly apt in expressing the public's feeling: No one understands. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh doesn't understand what it is to live without a salary, nor does PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). Nor does the Hamas leadership or the Fatah leadership, which are quarreling with each other at everyone's expense.
As usual in Nablus, rounds of shooting are heard continuously. Sometimes they are from the IDF position on Mount Gerizim, sometimes from the direction of the Balata refugee camp or the Old City. Later the meaning of the shooting becomes clear: IDF soldiers have killed an activist of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade; somewhere else in town armed men were greeting their comrade who had been released from prison; in a third place a memorial evening was held for another armed man who had been killed.
On Tuesday afternoon, some of the firing accompanied the funeral of a young man, Muhammad Sa'adeh from the village of Tel, whom soldiers had killed the previous day at the Hawara checkpoint. According to the IDF, soldiers shot and killed him because he tried to knife a soldier. Palestinian witnesses reported different versions. Bassem, a restaurant owner who was at the scene, related that t he young man was traveling in a taxi in the direction of Ramallah. He worked for the Palestinian police, and expected that despite his youth and the prohibition on going through the checkpoint, his job would convince the soldiers to let him through.
At the checkpoint, passengers get out of their cab and wait for it to be inspected in the line of cars, at a distance of several meters from them. Then the soldiers inspect them, one by one, including their possessions, their clothing and their documents. He forgot his briefcase in the taxi, and according to Bassem, he ran toward the taxi in order to take the briefcase, and then the soldiers shot him. Three at once, according to Bassem, before the eyes of the stunned onlookers.
Sa'adeh is the 18th Tel resident to be killed in this intifada. The village has a population of 5,000. Eight were killed in incidents and battles with the IDF, and the others, according to residents, were killed when they tried to leave the village via the hills because it was blocked from every direction. In the village, they remember the date when the roadblock that separated Tel and Nablus was removed, just as they remember a birthday or a wedding anniversary: March 9, 2005. Until then, for five years, people risked their lives whenever they went to Nablus via the hills. They would load a few cheeses on donkeys and go out to sell them in Nablus to earn a few shekels.
The village of Tel is famous for its figs - for the 12 different varieties that grow there, the sweetness of the fruit, the bountiful crop and the springs that water them. The picking season begins on August 1 and ends on October 1. Six hundred tons of lush, juicy figs were picked this season. But there is nowhere to market them. The varieties that grow in Tel are not suitable for drying. Fresh figs must not tarry along the way, but the only way it is possible to get agricultural produce out of Tel - as from other villages in the environs of besieged Nablus, is at a distant goods checkpoint, Awarta, to the west of Nablus, where crates are transferred by the "back-to-back" method from one truck that waits for hours, to a second truck that waits for hours. All the fast, direct, short routes along which the villagers traveled in the past to market figs in Tel Aviv (and afterward heard that they had been sold as Israeli produce abroad) or in Ramallah - are blocked. And thus the inhabitants of Nablus can buy figs cheaply - a kilo for NIS 3, and make a lot of jam.
Comment on this Article
Spaced Out
Active volcano may be changing Titan's bright spot
22:38 16 October 2006
NewScientist.com news service
David Shiga, Pasadena
The brightest spot on Saturn's moon Titan has been seen brightening and growing, suggesting it might be an active volcano, a controversial analysis of images from the Cassini spacecraft suggests. If so, it would be the first indication of current volcanic activity on the giant moon.
The brightest spot on Saturn's moon Titan has been seen brightening and growing, suggesting it might be an active volcano, a controversial analysis of images from the Cassini spacecraft suggests. If so, it would be the first indication of current volcanic activity on the giant moon.
Scientists are interested in whether Titan is volcanically active because volcanoes could help supply the large amount of methane seen in its atmosphere. The methane is quickly broken down by sunlight, so it must be getting replenished in some way.
Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) revealed a bright spot 400 kilometres across on Titan during its first flyby of the moon in July 2004 (see Titan's bright spot revealed by Cassini).
The spot - the brightest on the moon - lies southeast of a much larger, bright region called Xanadu. At the time of its discovery, Cassini scientists thought the spot might be a cloud or a patch of fog but also suggested it might be the site of volcanic activity.
Follow-up observations have shown it gets brighter and grows, only to dim and shrink again. For example, the spot had brightened to twice its discovery level in March 2005 but had returned to its original level by November 2005. In December, it brightened again, gradually dimming since then.
Successive eruptions
It also appears to grow during its outbursts, increasing in area from 70,000 square kilometres to about double that size.
Now, Cassini team member Robert Nelson of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, US, suggests the spot is the site of a volcano - and the brightening episodes are eruptions.
The spot is not likely to be a cloud, because these tend to break up within hours or days and have distinctive colours that do not match the spot, Nelson says.
It is also not likely to be a patch of ground fog, since Cassini measures dramatic changes in the spectrum of the spot's light during the brightening events, he says.
"As of today, we should add Titan to the group of objects that exhibit volcanism," he says. "We have seen active volcanism."
Just an illusion?
Karl Mitchell, also of JPL, says this is the best evidence so far of ongoing volcanic activity. "I wouldn't say that I am 100% convinced, but [Nelson] has put together a compelling case," he told New Scientist.
But Robert Brown, the leader of the Cassini VIMS team and a researcher at the University of Arizona in Tucson, US, says the apparent variations of the spot are likely just an illusion caused by the haze in Titan's atmosphere. This haze varies over time and is difficult to account for in observations.
"There is no conclusive evidence of any currently active volcanoes on Titan right now," Brown told New Scientist. "There's not even tantalising evidence."
Jason Barnes of the University of Arizona in Tucson, US, agrees. Volcanic activity could conceivably happen when a mixture of liquid water and ammonia comes from underground to the surface, he says.
Stable temperature
But its temperature would be at least 170 K (-103°C), and no extra heat has been observed in conjunction with the spot, which has a temperature of about 94 K (-179°C), just like the rest of the moon. "If there were a jump of even 10 or 20 K it would have been very evident," he told New Scientist.
David Stevenson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, US, suggests the brightening events could instead be the result of methane buried just beneath the surface getting heated and spurting above ground.
He says figuring out what type of material is causing the brightness variations could shed light on what is causing the events. "Identifying the composition is crucial," he says.
Cassini has found geological evidence of volcanoes elsewhere on Titan, but no other signs of current activity (see Slushy volcanoes might support life on Titan).
Nelson presented his study of the spot last week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences in Pasadena, California, US.
Comment on this Article
Keel Suffers Heart Attack
16-Oct-2006
Loren Coleman
I've learned that John A. Keel suffered a heart attack late last week, and is undergoing surgery in New York City, Monday, October 16, 2006.
John A. Keel in 2002, shown here during the release of The Mothman Prophecies motion picture.
Word is that he is not in great shape, but hopefully he has come through post-op recovery fine. I will update this information, as soon as I can.
Needless to say, Keel is well-known for his many books and articles on a variety of topics, most especially in recent years, of course, Mothman.
More later...
Comment on this Article
Mystery Hum in New Zealand Baffles Researchers
12/10/2006
NewstalkZB
Massey University researchers, investigating an unexplained hum in the environment, are being inundated by phone calls.
The callers report hearing hum-like noises, that others with them can not hear.
The research began when a North Shore woman said she was being made sick by a constant hum in and around her house in Brown's Bay.
A pair of Massey University scientists went to the house and failed to hear it.
Dr Tom Moir and Dr Alam Kakhrul say hearing a hum is common worldwide, and they have dubbed it the 'Unidentified Acoustic Phenomena'.
Dr Moir says there are two possible explanations for the noise.
He says it could be a very low frequency sound that only certain people can hear.
Or it could be that microwaves in the atmosphere trigger a hum-like sound in the heads of some people.
The research continues.
Comment on this Article
Human species 'may split in two'
Tuesday, 17 October 2006, 08:47 GMT 09:47 UK
Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.
Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.
The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.
People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added.
The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.
Race 'ironed out'
But in the nearer future, humans will evolve in 1,000 years into giants between 6ft and 7ft tall, he predicts, while life-spans will have extended to 120 years, Dr Curry claims.
Physical appearance, driven by indicators of health, youth and fertility, will improve, he says, while men will exhibit symmetrical facial features, look athletic, and have squarer jaws, deeper voices and bigger penises.
Women, on the other hand, will develop lighter, smooth, hairless skin, large clear eyes, pert breasts, glossy hair, and even features, he adds. Racial differences will be ironed out by interbreeding, producing a uniform race of coffee-coloured people.
However, Dr Curry warns, in 10,000 years time humans may have paid a genetic price for relying on technology.
Spoiled by gadgets designed to meet their every need, they could come to resemble domesticated animals.
Receding chins
Social skills, such as communicating and interacting with others, could be lost, along with emotions such as love, sympathy, trust and respect. People would become less able to care for others, or perform in teams.
Physically, they would start to appear more juvenile. Chins would recede, as a result of having to chew less on processed food.
There could also be health problems caused by reliance on medicine, resulting in weak immune systems. Preventing deaths would also help to preserve the genetic defects that cause cancer.
Further into the future, sexual selection - being choosy about one's partner - was likely to create more and more genetic inequality, said Dr Curry.
The logical outcome would be two sub-species, "gracile" and "robust" humans similar to the Eloi and Morlocks foretold by HG Wells in his 1895 novel The Time Machine.
"While science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is a possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance on technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease, or our evolved ability to get along with each other, said Dr Curry.
He carried out the report for men's satellite TV channel Bravo.
Comment on this Article
Russian Man Sets World Record in Fasting, Spends 50 Days on Water
Created: 17.10.2006 11:24 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 11:24 MSK
MosNews
A Russian man on Monday claimed to have set a new world record for fasting, AP reports. A bearded and hollow-cheeked Agasi Vartanyan finished what he said was his 50th day without food, climbing out of plastic cube on the banks of the Neva River outside of St. Petersburg.
"I feel offended because my efforts did not attract much attention," the 46-year-old said. "Only local media wrote about it."
He then hopped into a waiting car and drove away by himself.
Doctors who examined Vartanyan said he lost 51 pounds during the ordeal, dropping to 158 pounds.
A spokeswoman, Lybov Kobzar, told reporters that Vartanyan drank about 0.8 gallons of water a day. To pass the time, he watched TV, listened to the radio, and talked on his cell phone. As the weather in the northern Russian city turned colder, he got an electric heater.
Beginning his attempt on Aug. 27, Vartanyan said he was inspired by a similar effort by stuntman and illusionist David Blaine, who fasted for 44 days in 2003 while suspended in an acrylic box over the Thames River in London.
Vartanyan said he planned on submitting documentation of his efforts to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Comment on this Article
Diet products "boost appetite"
Herald Sun
15/10/2006
DIET products make people eat more, says nutritional toxicologist Peter Dingle.
He said some sweeteners in diet products were linked with stimulating appetite.
"Aspartame, commonly known as the sweetener NutraSweet, is a neuro-stimulant linked with stimulating appetite, so it can make you hungry," Prof Dingle, associate professor in health and the environment at Murdoch University, said.
"Diet stuff doesn't satisfy hunger like conventional food, because hunger is linked to certain texture and taste sensations. If you don't get them, you don't feel satisfied -- you don't have the feeling 'I've had enough, I'm full'."
He said people also ate more because they felt they had "done something healthy" by having diet products.
"Then they tend to consume just as much, if not more, than before," he said.
"There is little research to show that these foods have great benefit for long-term weight control.
"Long-term weight control is about eating good, healthy, nutritious foods, combined with a positive lifestyle, which includes keeping fit."
He said people focused on calories instead of nutrition.
Rather than diet food, people should eat healthier, with fewer processed grains and more "super foods" such as beans, nuts, vegetables and omega-3 oils, Prof Dingle said.
Instead of diet or soft drinks, people should drink water, which was healthier.
"Parents give their kids two cans a night and then they complain they can't sleep," he said.
The Aspartame Information Center website says scientific evidence overwhelmingly shows aspartame is safe and not associated with adverse health effects.
Comment on this Article
Money Matters
Ex-US FDA chief to plead guilty over stock holdings
By James Vicini and Susan Heavey
Reuters
Mon Oct 16, 2006
WASHINGTON - Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester Crawford, who resigned last year, will plead guilty to two counts of misdemeanor over his ownership of stock in companies regulated by the agency, his lawyer said on Monday.
Crawford is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday to face charges that he made false statements and violated conflict-of-interest law, according to court documents filed earlier on Monday.
Under a plea agreement, he could also face a $50,000 fine and either probation, home detention or up to 6 months in jail, Crawford's lawyer Barbara Van Gelder said.
She added U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson will have the final decision over sentencing. Misdemeanor charges can each carry up to 1 year of prison.
"The fact of the matter is there were errors," Van Gelder told Reuters. She added that Crawford "was not trying to influence" FDA matters because of the holdings.
Crawford held several senior posts at the agency, which regulates much of the food supply, medical devices, drugs, vaccines, cosmetics, animal feed and drugs. It is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
He served as deputy commissioner from February 25, 2002 until March 26, 2004, when he became acting commissioner. He was confirmed as commissioner on July 18, 2005, and then stepped down from the FDA's top post at the end of September 2005.
In 2003, Crawford headed an FDA obesity study group, which issued recommendations early in 2004 encouraging soda makers to relabel serving sizes of sugary carbonated drinks.
From August 2003 through June 2004, Crawford and his wife owned 1,400 shares of beverage maker PepsiCo Inc. stock worth at least $62,000 and 2,500 shares of food distributor Sysco Corp. stock, worth at least $78,000, according to court documents.
Both companies "had a financial interest" in the obesity group's conclusions and recommendations, prosecutors said.
They also said Crawford and his wife kept their shares of PepsiCo, Sysco and Kimberly-Clark Corp., which makes medical devices, despite being told by HHS ethics officials that they had to be sold.
In 2004, an HHS ethics official inquired about Crawford's ownership of Sysco and Kimberly-Clark stock. In an e-mail, Crawford stated, "Sysco and Kimberly-Clark have in fact been sold," prosecutors said. In reality, he and his wife held shares in the two companies throughout 2003 and 2004.
Crawford's wife also retained shares in Wal-Mart Stores Inc., another company regulated by the FDA, prosecutors said.
While at the agency, Crawford also retained stock options in Embrex Inc., an agriculture biotechnology company regulated by the FDA, prosecutors said. Before joining the FDA, Crawford served on the company's board of directors.
In 2003, Crawford exercised an option to buy 2,000 shares of Embrex stock, earning $8,150, prosecutors said. In 2004, he purchased 3,000 shares, earning $20,627.
Prosecutors said that Crawford, in a 2005 statement submitted to a Senate committee, failed to disclose his income from the exercise of the stock options.
Van Gelder said Crawford and his wife keep separate finances through a financial advisor but that mistakes were made. "He has very complicated financial transactions," she said.
She also said the stock holdings did not trigger Crawford's departure. "We did not know the government was looking at this until well after he retired," she said.
Comment on this Article
Wal-Mart to buy Chinese chain for $1 billion: source
By Tony Munroe and Jerker Hellstrom
Reuters
Tue Oct 17, 2006
HONG KONG/SHANGHAI - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to buy a Chinese hypermarket chain for about $1 billion to become the top foreign player in China's fragmented retail market, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
If approved by Chinese regulators, the deal to buy Trust-Mart, a closely held Taiwan company with 100 supercenters in China, would push Wal-Mart past Carrefour SA for the most supercenters in China, Asia's second-biggest retail market.
Spokespeople with Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, and Trust-Mart declined to comment on Tuesday.
Supercenters, also known as hypermarkets, are giant stores that sell a wide range of general food and merchandise. Wal-Mart beat Carrefour out in bidding for the Trust-Mart stores, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing sources.
Trust-Mart posted 2005 sales of about 13.2 billion yuan ($1.67 billion) at its Chinese hypermarkets, according to the China Chain Store and Franchise Association, well above Wal-Mart's 9.9 billion yuan in its Chinese stores.
By comparison, Carrefour had 2005 sales of 17.4 billion yuan at its Chinese hypermarkets while Germany's Metro recorded sales of 7.5 billion yuan, the data showed.
But China's retail market -- worth about $500 billion according to research firm Euromonitor -- is still dominated by Chinese chains, analysts said, with the foreigners lagging far behind industry leader Bailian Group Co. Ltd., which was created in 2003 through a merger of four major retail firms.
"When Wal-Mart expands, supposedly they are going to enjoy better economies of scale," said retail analyst Selina Sia with UBS in Hong Kong. [...]
Comment on this Article
Russian Police Uncover Criminal Group That Laundered $7 Billion
Created: 17.10.2006 12:28 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 12:28 MSK
MosNews
Russian police and financial intelligence service have uncovered a criminal community that laundered about $7 billion in 2004 and 2005, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported on Tuesday, quoting a release by the Interior Ministry's Directorate for Fighting Economic Crime.
The release said that the community, consisting of top managers of several banks and financial companies illegally converted into cash and transferred abroad over 390 million U.S. Dollars, 66 million Euros and over 200 billion Russian Rubles.
The Vek Bank and the Novaya Ekonomicheskaya Pozitsiya (New Economic Position) banks were mentioned in the release as the core of the illegal financial group.
Most of the funds were transferred abroad on the accounts of dummy organizations, RIA-Novosti quoted the release as saying.
Comment on this Article
Undercover probe reveals the 'buckets of money' made from speed cameras
Mail On Sunday
15th October 2006
Britain's booming speed camera network is at the centre of a giant 'scam' aimed at making 'buckets of money' for the Government, the boss of a leading supplier of the devices has admitted.
Watch our undercover report on the great speed camera scam here
The sensational confession was made by the chief executive of Tele-Traffic, which supplies cameras to virtually every police force in Britain.
His unguarded comments, made to an undercover reporter posing as a prospective buyer of speed cameras, will add new weight to the public's perception that the gadgets are designed more for making money than improving road safety.
The Tele-Traffic boss, Jon Bond, who was until a few months ago the police Chief Superintendent in charge of speed cameras in Warwickshire, urged our reporter to place an order and promised: 'There will be so much money coming in you won't know what to do with it.'
He and his colleagues revealed how:
So many motorists are being snared that courts are struggling to process the sheer volume of cheques sent to pay fines.
Tele-Traffic is run by former traffic police who offer to introduce customers to currently serving officers willing to give advice on the products.
The Government manipulates the speed camera system so that the Treasury rakes in the multi-million-pound profits without the cash going back to improve roads.
The Mail on Sunday posed as the London agents for an Eastern European firm keen to establish a speed camera network in their own country. We asked how the cameras operated in Britain - and the answers we received will shock many, but also confirm the darkest suspicions of millions of motorists.
The Tele-Traffic team encouraged our reporters to site any cameras they bought where they could catch 'businessmen in the morning and school-run mums in the afternoon.'
Setting up cameras in new areas was the equivalent of having 'a blank cheque book', they said, guaranteeing 'when you first set up you will have lots of offences, you will have bucketfuls'.
Britain's speed camera system is run by more than 40 regional road safety partnerships, made up of representatives from police, courts and councils.
The partnerships are funded by the Department of Transport, which demands that each region gives target figures for the number of motorists they plan to catch speeding over the next year. If these targets are not met, then Whitehall cuts the size of its funding.
This has the effect of making the local partnership set low targets, rather than risk losing cash by falling short of predictions. And that is good news for the Government, since the system is geared so that any extra fines go to the Treasury.
Warwickshire, for example, had set a target of issuing 80,000 tickets in a year. Under the recently amended rules all the revenue from the fines goes to central government, with a portion of it returned to local authorities and to fund the road safety partnerships.
If Warwickshire only managed to catch 60,000 motorists, then the local partnership would have to make good the shortfall itself so it dare not undershoot. If, however, it fined 100,000 motorists, then all revenue from the additional 20,000 fines would disappear to the Treasury.
So although it might appear that the Government's rules are intended to encourage partnerships - to set low targets and therefore not persecute an excessive number of motorists - the practical effect of them is to ensure that the targets are regularly broken and more, rather than fewer, motorists are ensnared.
And although it escapes any of the blame, the Government picks up all the profits.
Further, partnerships that easily overshoot their targets one year can set higher ones the next, so growing their empires.
Mr Bond claimed that the Government was so keen to increase this revenue that it announced changes to the rules last year.
Instead of fines going directly to fund the partnerships, that money will, from 2007, go direct to the Treasury. Whitehall will then allocate funds for road safety to local authorities to use as part of their general transport plan, in theory breaking the link between fines and revenue.
'This was done so the Government wasn't perceived to be revenue raising,' explained Mr Bond. 'But the reality is that the Government is actually raking off even more money than before. They are giving less money to the partnerships than they would have received through the old operation. So it's all a scam - it's smoke and mirrors.
'The Treasury cannot lose and they get the cash while the camera operators are the ones who get all the criticism. Brilliant, really.'
But successful partnerships do rake in increased grants, enabling them to engage more staff, move into bigger premises and methodically expand their empires. The result is an ever-burgeoning speed camera industry in which central Government, local worthies and gadget suppliers all have a stake. But it costs the motorist millions of pounds in fines, plus immeasurable inconvenience.
Again, critics said yesterday, road safety is forgotten. The speed camera system is a scandal that is all about hitting targets, building local empires and raising money for Government.
Paul Smith, of the motorist organisation Safespeed, said: 'This Mail on Sunday investigation has given us the first glimpse of the secret society behind the world of camera partnerships and the private firms which are picking up lucrative contracts from them.
'In Tele-Traffic you are showing us a company which has become a virtual retirement home for police officers. I believe that now this Pandora's box has been opened there will be more to come.'
Tele-Traffic UK supplies 97 per cent of the country's police forces with portable laser cameras which are hand-held or set up in special roving police vans.
Mr Bond's partners are Peter Gay, a former PC and now the firm's customer service manager, and Mike Ricketts, another former policeman.
Posing as foreign businessmen, The Mail on Sunday met them over dinner in a Michelin-starred restaurant at a five-star hotel in the Cotswolds.
At the beginning of the meeting the Tele-Traffic team stressed the importance of speed cameras in promoting road safety. But then the trio began to speak more openly about the 'revenue raising', truth behind the cameras and that remained the dominant theme of the evening.
Mr Bond at least is well qualified in that respect. Five years ago he set up the Warwickshire Safety Camera Partnership, which has a website mockingly called 'smilecamera. co.uk'. But Mr Bond admitted that during his tenure as chairman of the Warwickshire partnership the number of cameras in that county doubled and the courts were swamped with cheques from speeding motorists.
Mr Bond, who is due to address the annual conference of the Association of Chief Police Officers this week, said: 'The beauty of the mobile units we sell is their flexibility. They will catch businessmen going into work in the morning and school-run mums in the afternoon.
'There will be so much money coming in you won't know what to do with it.' Asked how Tele-Traffic could guarantee a return on the cost of their cameras, Mr Gay laughed and said: 'You are going to get your revenue. That, at the end of the day, is not a problem.'
Mr Bond said: 'The money will come in in buckets, a promise repeated during the course of the evening by his colleagues, who also spoke in terms of generating 'buckets' of money.
So much so, said Mr Bond, that the courts - which process fines and issue the points on a driver's licence - have been struggling to cope with all the cheques. Again, he made clear that the speed camera industry was all about meeting targets rather than preventing accidents.
He said: 'It will be too much for you to cope with. It will be too many offences - you won't be able to cope with them.
'In Warwickshire last year we issued 80,000 tickets when we could probably have done double that number. But we couldn't because the courts, which handle the fines, wouldn't have been able to cope.
'Imagine 80,000 cheques for £60 coming through your door in a given year. They were swamped and we are the smallest of all the speed partnerships.'
Mr Bond said that in his last year in Warwickshire he deliberately sent officers out to quiet roads when the number of fines approached the limit the courts could cope with an extraordinary story that makes a mockery of the police's claim that speeding tickets are about safety.
'I had to send the camera operators out to roads where they would only catch one or two people an hour,' he said.
Tele-Traffic sells basic hand-held laser speed cameras for £3,000 and the directors told how this could be recovered from speeding drivers in just an hour. Mr Gay said: 'Take the UK model of £60 a pop. If you buy a piece of our kit at £3,000, then operate it in a two-hour session, on an averagely busy road, you will catch about 100 drivers that's £6,000.
He also told how Tele-Traffic was expecting approval from the DoT for a camera the company has developed which can trap motorists from almost a mile away, raking in even more cash.
Tele-Traffic's business is not limited to the UK. Ireland has bought more than 400 laser cameras from their company - and over there, the government is quite open about using cameras to raise revenue.
Mr Ricketts said the Irish government had made an election promise to reduce stamp duty and had made it clear they would make up the lost revenue from speeding fines.
'We have produced for them a new system to make up that revenue,' Mr Ricketts said. 'So they are going the opposite way to the UK Government. They are actually openly promoting speed enforcement as their revenue raiser.'
One thing Tele-Traffic appeared less open about was an alarming discovery it made last year that thousands of motorists might have been wrongly prosecuted for speeding. Mr Gay told how the son of the firm's founder, another former chief superintendent, was caught speeding by a police officer using one of the firm's lasers in a camera on the A14 last year.
He added: 'We looked into it and the officer operating it had not been trained properly, which technically makes the prosecution invalid. We told them that meant every prosecution over the previous five years could also be invalid because of the absence of training. But they insisted on prosecuting him anyway.'
Despite having a news section on its website, Tele-Traffic never told the public about the 'unsafe', prosecutions and there is no record of any of the police forces covering the A14 making any such declaration either.
Happy that our meeting had gone well, Mr Bond and his colleagues promised that it would be 'no problem', for them to introduce the undercover reporters to serving policemen on the Warwickshire Safety Camera Partnership and get hold of unpublished figures for how much the Treasury is raking in from speed cameras.
Last night motorists campaign groups demanded an inquiry.
Tony Vickers, of the Association of British Drivers, said: 'Motorists have suspected for many years that the whole system is against them - now we have the proof that it starts with the Labour Government and goes downwards.
'While there is no evidence that any individual on the partnerships profits from this, the truth of the matter is that it is enabling certain police officers to build mini-empires which are completely unaccountable to anyone but the Treasury.'
Comment on this Article
Pin-ball to rescue French bars after smoking ban
PARIS, Oct 16, 2006 (AFP)
Pin-ball, table-football and billiards are to come to the rescue of French bars and cafes hit by an imminent smoking ban, under a tax reform announced Monday by the government.
From next year a flat annual payment to the treasury of EUR 5 will replace a variable municipal levy that could be nearly 80 times that and which has led to the steady disappearance of traditional games from bars and cafes.
"Bars are going to have to diversify their activities," said Budget Minister Jean-François Copé, explaining the measure on RMC radio.
From January 2008 all French bars, cafes and restaurants will be non-smoking unless they can provide a hermetically-sealed 'fumoir' - or smoking area - which unions say only about three percent can afford.
According to Le Parisien newspaper, some 140,000 pin-ball and other machines went out of circulation between 1999 and 2004 as a result of the municipal levy - which can be as high as EUR 368 a year for a billiard table in Paris.
"We have been waiting for this for years," said Jose Hody of the French Confederation of Automatic Games Suppliers.
In the 1980s some 4,000 companies employed 10,000 staff to install and maintain machines in bars and cafes, but the number of businesses has fallen to 800, the newspaper said. In addition some 40,000 pin-ball, table-football and other games are currently languishing in storage.
Cafe and bar owners are fearful of a dramatic loss of business once the smoking ban comes into force, even though between 70 and 80 percent of the public say they support it.
Comment on this Article
Mother Nature
Strong Quake Off Papua New Guinea
TheAge.com.au
17/10/2006
A strong undersea earthquake off the Papua New Guinea island of New Britain sparked a warning of a possible local tsunami.
But emergency officials said there had been no reports of damage or casualties.
The 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck at 11.25am local time, about 229km south-west of the island capital Rabaul, said the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The depth was recorded at 58kms below sea level.
Papua New Guinea emergency authorities said they were still checking with villages along the coast, but there were no immediate reports of a tsunami or quake damage.
In July 1998, two undersea quakes measuring 7.0 created three tsunamis that killed at least 2,100 people near the town of Aitape on Papua New Guinea's north coast.
"We haven't had any information that any tsunami was generated," seismologist Chris McKee from Port Moresby's Geophysical Observatory told Reuters via telephone from the capital.
"We're still trying to get any information about possible damage. We haven't had any yet."
The USGS described the quake as "strong" on its website.
"No destructive Pacific-wide tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data," it said.
"However, earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunami that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometres of the earthquake epicentre."
Papua New Guinea lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a seismically active area with frequent earthquakes and volcanoes.
Comment on this Article
'Micro' Quake Rattles North Carolina
AP
Oct 17, 2006
A "micro" earthquake with a 2.6 magnitude rattled central North Carolina early Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The epicenter was about 3 miles east-northeast of Winston-Salem at 4:56 a.m. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist with the USGS in Golden, Colo., said earthquakes are rare in that part of the country. Since the quake wasn't very strong, no major damage was expected, she said.
About 150 calls came into the Winston-Salem Police Department after the quake, said police Lt. David Kiger.
"They reported a loud explosion and ground shaking," he said. "They just want to know what was going on."
Comment on this Article
'Jolted' Fish Gave Early Warning Of Hawaii Quake
POSTED: 9:21 am EDT October 16, 2006
UPDATED: 10:35 am EDT October 17, 2006
Fish in a lagoon at a Hawaiian resort began to jump out the water like they were being jolted with electricity minutes before a 6.6 magnitude earthquake rattled the islands, causing blackouts and landslides, according to Local 6's Erik von Ancken, who is vacationing in the area.
on Ancken said he was on a beach during a visit to the islands over the weekend when he noticed the fish.
"The fish started to jump out of the water in a lagoon, like jump out of the water like a jolt," Local 6's Erik von Ancken said. "Obviously, they sensed it before we did and then everything started shaking."
The quake hit at 7:07 a.m. local time Sunday, 10 miles north-northwest of Kailua-Kona, a town on the west coast of Hawaii Island, also known as the Big Island, said Don Blakeman of the National Earthquake Information Center, part of the U.S. Geological Survey.
"The windows on all of the rooms started to buckle back and swaying and to wobble and making a loud noises and the rumbling was just intense," von Ancken said.
Gov. Linda Lingle issued a disaster declaration for the state and the state Civil Defense had several reports of minor injuries as aftershocks continued to shake the island chain.
"We were rocking and rolling," said Anne LaVasseur, who was on the second floor of a two-story, wood-framed house on the east side of the Big Island when the temblor struck. "I was pretty scared. We were swaying back and forth, like King Kong's pushing your house back and forth."
Lingle, who was in a hotel near the epicenter of the quake 10 miles northwest of Kailua-Kona, said the most serious injury reported to her was a broken arm.
The Pacific Tsunami Center reported a preliminary magnitude of 6.5, while the U.S. Geological Survey gave a preliminary magnitude of 6.6. To make matters worse, the quake struck during heavy rain, adding a risk of mudslides.
The earthquake was followed by several strong aftershocks, including one measuring a magnitude of 5.8, the Geological Survey said. Forecasters said there was no danger of a tsunami, though choppier-than-normal waves were predicted.
Earthquakes in the 6.0 magnitude range are rare in the region, which more commonly sees temblors in the 3- and 4-magnitude range caused by volcanic activity.
"We think this is a buildup from many volcanic earthquakes that they've had on the island," said Waverly Person, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
The power outages were largely due to power plants turning off automatically when built-in seismic monitors were triggered by the earthquake. All electricity systems needed to be rebooted, which was expected to take several hours in more populated areas.
"We were totally prepared for a disaster such as this, but obviously with a disaster this big you can't be prepared for everything," Haraga told ABC's "Good Morning America."
Kona Community Hospital on the western side of Big Island was evacuated after large chunks of ceiling collapsed and power was cut off, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
At least 10 acute care patients were evacuated to a medical center in Hilo, said Terry Lewis, spokeswoman for the hospital. About 30 nursing care patients were being moved temporarily to a nearby conference center, she said.
"We were very lucky that no one got hurt," said Lewis.
Mayor Harry Kim estimated that as many as 3,000 people were evacuated from three hotels on the Big Island. Brad Kurokawa, Hawaii County deputy planning director, confirmed the hotels were damaged, but could not say how many people had left. They were being taken to a gymnasium until alternate accommodations could be found, he said.
The earthquake caused water pipes to explode at Aston Kona By The Sea, a condominium resort, creating a dramatic waterfall down the front of the hotel from the fourth floor, said Kenneth Piper, who runs the front desk.
"You could almost see the cars bouncing up and down in the parking garage," Piper said.
Hawaii's largest quake on record was an 1868 magnitude-7.9 earthquake that triggered a tsunami and spawned numerous landslides that resulted in 31 deaths, according to the USGS. The last strongest temblor was in 1983, registering a magnitude 6.7.
A FEMA computer simulation of the latest quake estimated that as many as 170 bridges on the Big Island could have suffered damage in the temblor, said Bob Fenton, FEMA director of response for the region. More than 50 federal officials were en route to the Big Island to assess damage and begin recovery work, he said.
Lingle told radio station KSSK that she toured the Kona area by helicopter to view the damage, including earth falling into Kealakekua Bay.
"You could see the water was turning brown," said Lingle.
On Hawaii Island, there was some damage in Kailua-Kona and a landslide along a major highway, said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Center. Officials also said there were reports of people trapped in elevators in Oahu.
In Waikiki, a top tourist destination on Oahu, worried visitors began lining up outside convenience stores for food, water and other supplies. Managers were letting tourists into the darkened stores one at a time.
Karie and Bryan Croes waited an hour to buy bottles of water, chips and bread.
"It's quite a honeymoon story," said Karie Croes, as they sat poolside in lounge chairs surrounded by grocery bags at ResortQuest Waikiki Beach Hotel.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Les Dorr said planes were arriving at Honolulu International Airport, but there were few departures. Security checkpoints were without power, so screeners were screening passengers and baggage manually.
Resorts in Kona were asked to keep people close to hotels, Kim told television station KITV. Cruise ships were told to keep tourists on board, and ships that were due to dock were asked to move on to their next location, he said.
"We are dealing with a lot of scared people," he said. The Big Island has about 167,000 residents, many of them in and around Hilo, on the opposite site of the island from where the quake was centered.
Comment on this Article
Curb cheap flights, urge climate researchers
Hilary Osborne
Tuesday October 17, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Carbon dioxide emissions from air travel could account for two-thirds of the UK's emissions targets by 2050 unless the government takes action to restrict demand for flights, academics said today.
The government's policies on aviation, which support an expansion in airports that will more than double passenger numbers from 200 million in 2003 to 470 in 2030, will prevent it reaching its targets on emissions, a report by researchers from Oxford University said.
Emissions from air travel have doubled since 1990, to make up 6% of the UK's carbon footprint.
Forecasts suggest that the increase in flights will mean that, by 2050, emissions from aviation could be between four and 10 times higher than they were in 1990, making it almost impossible for the government to achieve its target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 60%.
"The government has to confront the contradictions in its policies," said Dr Brenda Boardman, the project leader of Oxford University's environmental change institute.
"Unless the rate of growth in flights is curbed, the UK cannot fulfil its commitments on climate change. If government wants to be confident about achieving its targets, it has to undertake demand management. Relying on technological fixes alone is totally unrealistic."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the government was looking for "a balanced approach" to aviation.
"The government's principle of sustainable development for aviation is that a proper balance should be struck and maintained between economic, environmental and social considerations," she said.
"We agree that the 'polluter pays' principle should apply to aviation as to other sections, and that aviation should meet its external costs, including the costs of its contribution to climate change."
She said this was behind the government's move to include aviation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which will allow airlines to effectively buy a carbon quota from other, less polluting industries.
However, she added: "The government recognises that emissions trading, while it is a central element of policy, may not provide a full solution to the climate change impacts of aviation.
"We are continuing to explore and discuss the options for the use of other economic instruments for tackling the climate change impacts of aviation."
The Oxford University report - Predict and Decide: Aviation, climate change and UK policy - says that including airlines in the ETS will not happen until at least 2008 and "does not appear to be an adequate strategy for ensuring that the aviation sector contributes proportionately to reducing the UK's climate impact".
It said improvements in technology and air traffic management would have some impact on emissions, but would not be enough on their own.
It argues that increasing the tax passengers pay on flights will be a much more immediate and effective way to deter them from travelling.
It says the cost of leisure and business flights has fallen in real terms over the past 15 years, and this has driven at least 40% of the growth in air travel.
Increasing ticket prices by 10%, by raising air passenger duty, could reduce demand by between 5 and 15%, the report's authors said.
As the majority of flights are made by better-off sections of society who are taking advantage of cheap air travel to fly more, this would not prevent the less well-off from travelling but deter richer members of society from taking unnecessary flights.
Dr Sally Cairns, one of the report's authors, said: 'If the government wants to reduce aviation growth, it has the power to act now.
"Raising air passenger duty would help to counter reductions in fares, which are estimated to have been responsible for at least 40% of recent aviation growth.'
Her co-author, Dr Carey Newson, said there was evidence that the public would back an increase in taxes on air tickets.
Dr Newson said: "Opinion polls should encourage the government to revisit its aviation policy. A majority now favour airlines paying higher taxes to reflect environmental damage, even if this means higher airfares."
Joss Garman, a spokesman for the anti-air travel group Plane Stupid, said either the prime minister's policy on aviation or his policy on climate change had to give.
"What we're talking about here is 'our ability to live on earth', as Al Gore put it, versus our ability to live in Tuscany on the weekends," he said.
"As we casually float around the point of no return, the government needs to face the reality that its tax breaks for the aviation industry and its plans for airport expansion fly in the face of the science."
Comment on this Article
Mars-bound technology finds rare meteorite in Kansas
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-17 17:22:08
BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. scientists located a rare meteorite on Monday in a Kansas wheat field famous for its meteorite finds thanks to new ground penetrating radar technology being perfected for use on Mars.
The dig, in an area named Brenham Field because of its proximity to the city of Brenham, is probably the most documented excavation yet of a meteorite. The newest find weighs 154 lbs and measures 18 by 12 by 12 inches, which is bigger than most such meteorites but average for this particular field.
Researchers painstakingly used brushes and hand tools in order to preserve evidence of the impact trail and to date the event of the meteorite strike. Soil samples were also bagged and tagged, and organic material preserved for dating purposes.
Researchers documented every aspect of the dig from various scientific disciplines. Among them were an archaeologist, a paleontologist, a naturalist, geologists, astronomers, and even an animator, who recreated the meteor fall.
But Essam Heggy received the most attention. A planetary scientist at the Johnson Space Center's Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, it was his ground-penetrating technology that pinpointed the site and proved for the first time that the technology could be used to find objects buried deep in the ground and to make an accurate three-dimensional image of them.
"It validates the technique so we can use something similar to that instrument when we go to Mars," Reiff said.
Its location in the Pleistocene epoch soil layer puts the date of impact closer to 10,000 years ago, which disputes the commonly held theory that the Brenham meteorite fell 20,000 years ago.
"We know it is recent," said Carolyn Sumners, director of Astronomy at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, as she surveyed progress on the dig. "Native Americans could have seen it."
The Brenham meteorite scattered more than three tons of meteorite fragments in the vicinity. The meteorite field was discovered in 1882. Pieces of the Brenham meteorite have also been found as far away as 1,000 miles -- transported by Native American traders and buried in mounds by the Hopewell people more than 1,500 years ago.
Some pieces were pounded into iron knives, ear ornaments, chisels, buttons and beads.
For thousands of years, meteorites were the primary source of iron metal for peoples around the world. All natural iron rusts, or oxidizes. But only meteoritic iron is mixed with nickel, forming a steel alloy that is extremely strong and rust-resistant.
The scientific expedition of the meteorite strewn field in western Kansas was put together by the Houston Museum of Natural Science and led by meteorite hunters Steve Arnold and Philip Mani. Johnson Space Center's Lunar and Planetary Institute, the Rice Space Institute at Rice University and George Observatory in Houston also sent researchers.
"What is unique is not the size, but the fact it was found in context," said Patricia Reiff, director of the Rice Space Institute.
Comment on this Article
General Mayhem
Two killed, 60 injured in Rome train crash
Reuters
17/10/2006
Two people were killed and about 60 others injured today when two underground trains collided during morning rush hour in a central Rome station.
Two people were killed and about 60 others injured today when two underground trains collided during morning rush hour in a central Rome station.
Fire department spokesman Giorgio Alocci told Sky television that two people had died.
Italian news reports said the victims were a Nigerian woman in her 30s and the driver of one of the two trains.
Officials said one train was stopped in the station when it was hit from behind by another travelling at a high speed.
Some passengers said the driver of the second train appeared to have jumped a red light.
About 60 people were injured, including 10 seriously, said another Rome fire department spokesman, Luca Cari.
Television footage showed stunned and bloodied passengers being led out of the station, while onlookers watched from behind police lines.
Ambulances, firefighters and rescue teams rushed to the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II subway station, near Rome's main railway station, after the crash soon after 9am local time. Rescue workers set up a field hospital nearby.
Firefighters had to free at least one more person trapped in the wreckage, Cari said.
"For now, we don't know about any more people trapped, but we can't rule it out," Cari said.
Comment on this Article
Dog saves owner, dies trying to save cat
AP
Mon Oct 16, 2006
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. - After a disabled woman's cat started a house fire, her specially trained dog came to the rescue, then died trying to help the cat still in the house. Jamie Hanson said the 13-year-old dog named Jesse brought the phone so she could call 911 and also brought her artificial leg.
"She got me outside and then she heard the cat upstairs and she went up there to get the cat and she wouldn't come back to me," Hanson, 49, said at a news conference Monday at Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center where she was being treated for her injuries.
She received third-degree burns to an arm in the fire Sunday night at her home in the town of Rhine south of Elkhart Lake, the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department said, adding that both pets died in the fire.
Hanson, who lost a leg in a car accident three years ago, said she was on the couch watching television when the cat ran over the back of the couch.
"And he jumped onto a table that had a candle on it and tipped it over and lighted the artificial plants on fire," she said.
Hanson said she fell off the couch and was unable to get her artificial leg from the table, "so my dog got my leg for me and went and got the phone and brought the phone to me so I could call 911."
She said she tried to put the prosthetic leg on, but it was too hot, and the dog, a golden retriever-German shepherd mix, came to her aid again before going back inside for the cat.
When rescuers arrived, the house was fully engulfed in flames, the sheriff's department said. Hanson was in the doorway and was assisted by a deputy.
She was no longer being treated at the hospital when The Associated Press called Monday evening for further comment.
Comment on this Article
Ship, vessel crash on Mississippi River
AP
Tue Oct 17, 2006
NEW ORLEANS - A cargo ship heading down the Mississippi River struck another vessel anchored near New Orleans on Monday, knocking a huge gash in the anchored vessel.
The anchored ship was listing, but the hole was above the water line, and the vessel was not believed to be taking on water, said Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Veronica Bandrowsky. No injuries were reported.
The vessels were the 712-foot Greek freighter Zagora, which was heading down river at the Kenner Bend area west of New Orleans, and the 737-foot Panamanian freighter Torm Anholt, which was at anchor at the time of the collision.
The Torm Anholt had a 12-foot-wide, 6-foot-long gash in its right side 6 to 9 feet above the water line. The ship listed after being struck, but the tilt may have been due to a loss of ballast, the Coast Guard said.
There were no reports of damage to the Zagora.
The Coast Guard established a one-way traffic safety zone in the area, but river traffic was not halted, Bandrowsky said.
Comment on this Article
U.S. Population Hits 300 Million Mark
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press
Oct 17, 2006
WASHINGTON - The nation's population officially hit 300 million at 7:46 a.m. EDT Tuesday, when the Census Bureau's population clock rolled over to the big number.
But there weren't any wild celebrations, fireworks or any other government-sponsored hoopla to mark the milestone. Why bother? Many experts think the population actually hit 300 million months ago.
"I don't think anybody believes it will be the precise moment when the population hits 300 million," Howard Hogan, the Census Bureau's associate director for demographic programs, said in an interview before the milestone was reached. But, he added, "We're confident that we're somewhat close."
It's not easy estimating the exact number of people in a country the size of the United States. It gets even more complicated when you take into account illegal immigration, another reason for the federal government to let the milestone pass quietly.
When the U.S. population officially hit 200 million in 1967, President Johnson held a news conference at the Commerce Department to hail America's past and to talk about the challenges ahead. Life magazine dispatched a cadre of photographers to find a baby born at the exact moment, anointing a boy born in Atlanta as the 200 millionth American.
This year, there's a good chance the 300 millionth American has already walked across the border from Mexico.
"It's a couple of weeks before an election when illegal immigration is a high-profile issue and they don't want to make a big deal out of it," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the Bush administration isn't playing down the milestone, though he said he had no plans for Tuesday. Census Bureau employees planned to mark the moment Tuesday afternoon with cake and punch.
"I would hate to think that we are going to be low key about this," said Gutierrez, whose department oversees the Census Bureau. "I would hope that we make a big deal about it."
Gutierrez said America's growing population is good for the economy. He noted that Japan and some European countries expect to lose population in the next few decades, raising concerns that there won't be enough young people entering the work force to support aging populations.
"This is one more area where we seem to have an advantage," Gutierrez said. "We should all feel good about reaching this milestone."
The U.S. adds about 2.8 million people a year, for a growth rate of less than 1 percent. About 40 percent of the growth comes from immigration. The rest comes from births outnumbering deaths.
The Census Bureau counts the population every 10 years. In between, it uses administrative records and surveys to estimate monthly averages for births, deaths and net immigration. The bureau has a "population clock" that estimates a birth every seven seconds, a death every 13 seconds and a new immigrant every 31 seconds. Add it together and you get one new American every 11 seconds.
The 300 millionth American - born months ago or on Tuesday - is probably Hispanic because they are the fastest growing demographic group in the U.S., Frey said.
Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, said the Census Bureau has improved its population estimates in the past few years, but it still undercounts illegal immigrants.
There are an estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. Experts differ on the specifics, but many estimate that more than 1 million of them don't show up in census figures.
"The census clearly misses people," said Passel, a former Census Bureau employee who used to help estimate the undercount. "Having said that, when they crossed 200 million, they were missing about 5 million people. We think the 2000 census missed a lot less than 5 million people."
Comment on this Article
Scientific Scruples
Aztec monolith unearthed in Mexico City
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-17 11:05:27
BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Archaeologists have unearthed what may be the largest monolith ever discovered near Mexico City's main square.
The monolith -- a 14-ton stone -- was found Oct. 2. It is rectangular and measures nearly 13 feet on its longest side.
The largest monolith from the city's center prior to this discovery was the circular-shaped Piedra del Sol. The Piedra del Sol is an Aztec Calendar. It weighs 24 tons, has a diameter of 12 feet and was unearthed in 1790.
"At this time, the most important thing about this is its size," said the lead archaeologist on the excavation project, Alvaro Barrera.
Barrera said the full significance of the discovery will not become clear until the excavation is complete, in about a month.
"We've excavated the top of the monolith but we still don't know what's beneath it," he said.
The archaeological team has removed 480 cubic feet of earth from the area around the top of the monolith. The group estimates that in order to be able to completely view the monolith, they need to remove another 13.5 cubic meters.
"It's tough to say which is the biggest, because the Piedra del Sol (Aztec Calendar) weighs more, but its circular radius is not as long as this monolith's largest side," said Angel Romas, information director of the Templo Mayor Museum, which is collaborating with the archaeological team.
Comment on this Article
Ah, he's got his daddy's scowl!
James Randerson, science correspondent
Tuesday October 17, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
New research shows that negative expressions are more easily inherited than positive ones
Besotted relatives cooing over a newborn baby should not be looking out for her father's nose or mother's eyes. New research suggests that the most striking resemblance will be in the family frown or the ancestral grimace.
A study that compared the facial expressions of blind subjects and their sighted relatives has found that negative facial expressions such as anger and disgust seem to be more strongly inherited by children than positive visages.
Because the blind subjects could not simply have learned family facial expressions by seeing and copying them, the researchers believe that genes play a major role in the way the details of expressions are passed on from parents to children.
Since Darwin, scientists have known that blind people spontaneously make expressions for emotions like surprise, fear and doubt even though they have never seen them.
"The inheritance of most of our expressive actions explains the fact that those born blind display them...equally well with those gifted with sight," the great evolutionary biologist wrote in his 1872 book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.
But Gili Peleg at the University of Haifa in Israel and her colleagues realised that by using subjects who were born sightless, they could work out whether the details of a playful smile or a hardened scowl are learned or innate.
They filmed 21 people who were born blind along with one or more of their sighted relatives while the subjects performed exercises designed to make them express a range of emotions. The team evoked sadness, anger, concentration, surprise, disgust and joy by, for example, asking subjects to recall emotional events. The team then broke each facial expression down into a combination of 43 individual facial movements such as a raised left eyebrow and compared this pared down description of each subject's emotional rendition with the same emotion in family members and other individuals.
In today's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team report that there is a family resemblance in facial expressions and that the similarities are most obvious in angry faces, followed by surprise, disgust, joy, sadness and concentration.
Ms Peleg rejects the notion that the blind subjects could have learned the family frown or parental smirk by touching their mother or father's face when they were young.
"Facial expression are too detailed and intricate to learn that way," she said, adding that subjects told the researchers that face touching was a "Hollywood myth" and considered by blind people to be impolite. "It happens only in the movies," she said.
She believes that negative emotions may be more crucial for infants to pick up quickly without the need for learning because they convey potentially life or death information to parents. "Negative emotions are very important in social communication," said Ms Peleg.
Alternatively, because negative expressions tend to involve more muscles to produce, they may be more distinctive and so easier to distinguish.
Comment on this Article
Scientists Announce Creation of Atomic Element, the Heaviest Yet
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; Page A03
Scientists in California and Russia announced yesterday that they have created the heaviest atomic element ever made, adding a new item to the universal menu of matter known as the periodic table and revealing fresh secrets about the nature of atoms, the fundamental units of physical stuff.
The new, radioactive element, which has not yet been formally named but is being referred to variously as ununoctium (Latin for "one-one-eight"), eka-radon (beneath radon on the periodic table) or simply element 118, did not linger long.
Indeed, as with most "super-heavy" elements -- which are not known to exist in nature but have been synthesized by slamming smaller atoms together -- the three atoms of ununoctium created in the latest experiments came and went in a literal flash.
But during their brief tenures of about nine ten-thousandths of a second each in a laboratory on Russia's Volga River, those three atoms revealed much about the laws that govern the behavior of matter, scientists said.
And while practical applications for such fleeting phenomena are difficult to envision, experts said they were confident some would appear -- especially if researchers can leverage the findings to make even larger atomic constructs that might have lifetimes of minutes, months or longer.
"One never knows what the application of the things you find may be," said Darleane Hoffman, a professor of chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, tossing out the example of plutonium-239, the key fissile ingredient in atomic bombs, first created in 1941.
Physicists cautioned that the finding must be considered provisional for now. That is true of all experiments that have yet to be independently replicated, but especially so for the finding of element 118, whose discovery was first reported by a Berkeley team in 1999 and then retracted two years later when it became clear that the results were fraudulent.
The last new element to be confirmed was No. 111, roentgenium, discovered in 1994.
But scientists involved in the new find -- and others who reviewed the report, published in the October issue of the journal Physical Review C -- said they were virtually certain that what they saw in that millimoment was indeed a microhunk of ununoctium.
"I would say we're very confident," said team member Nancy Stoyer of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., estimating that the odds of the result being false were less than 1 in 10,000.
The team was led by Dawn Shaughnessy of Livermore and Yuri Oganessian of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia.
Every naturally occurring thing in the universe is made from a modest celestial palette of 92 elements, from hydrogen to uranium. Each element has an atomic number (from 1 to 92) representing the number of positively charged protons in that atom's core, or nucleus. Many variants, or isotopes, of each element also exist through the addition of varying numbers of uncharged neutrons to those nuclei.
For decades, scientists have been making new elements, heavier than any found in nature, in part to help them understand the basic forces that hold atoms together and keep them apart. They also want to know the biggest element that can be made. Theory predicts a finite limit.
The technique involves spraying a target made of one kind of atom with atomic buckshot of another kind and hoping that a few of the incoming nuclei will hit a few of the target atoms with enough force to overcome their mutually repulsive positive charges and merge into one giant nucleus, at least briefly. To accomplish that requires a combination of ultra-precise engineering and outlandish brute force.
Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia have discovered element 118. In this animation, calcium ions are accelerated to high velocity in a cyclotron and travel toward a target of californium atoms.
In the latest experiments, which took more than 3,000 hours, the researchers fired about 40 billion billion atoms of calcium-48 -- a heavy, neutron-laden version of calcium -- at a target of californium-249, a highly radioactive synthetic element. Special sensors detected a total of three atoms of ununoctium flying off as a result of those painstaking efforts -- one in an experiment in 2002, and two in early 2005.
Each quickly threw off a pair of protons and a pair of neutrons to make element 116, then did so again to make element 114, and again to make element 112, which then split in two.
It is that trail of "daughters" that allows scientists to infer that a "mother" atom was there in the first place. But that kind of proof is tricky, said Walter Loveland, a chemistry professor at Oregon State University, because the super-heavy daughters are so poorly understood themselves.
Still, Loveland said he found the results "impressive and internally very self-consistent" and "a tremendous intellectual achievement."
One major question left unanswered by the experiment is whether there are super-heavy elements yet to be made that will be far more stable -- a predicted phenomenon that scientists have called "an island of stability."
An isotope of element 114, discovered by Livermore scientists, showed preliminary but now uncertain evidence of unusual longevity, on the order of 20 seconds. Some had predicted that ununoctium might stick around long enough for researchers to do some chemistry on it. The new work, while undermining that idea, offers new information that will help theoreticians revamp their predictions, which can then be tested by experimentalists.
"We're nibbling away at the shores of the island of stability," said Livermore's Ken Moody.
Comment on this Article
FDA Is Set To Approve Milk, Meat From Clones
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 17, 2006; A01
Three years after the Food and Drug Administration first hinted that it might permit the sale of milk and meat from cloned animals, prompting public reactions that ranged from curiosity to disgust, the agency is poised to endorse marketing of the mass-produced animals for public consumption.
The decision, expected by the end of this year, is based largely on new data indicating that milk and meat from cloned livestock and their offspring pose no unique risks to consumers.
"Our evaluation is that the food from cloned animals is as safe as the food we eat every day," said Stephen F. Sundlof, the FDA's chief of veterinary medicine, who has overseen the long-stalled risk assessment.
Farmers and companies that have been growing cloned barnyard animals from single cells in anticipation of a lucrative market say cloning will bring consumers a level of consistency and quality impossible to attain with conventional breeding, making perfectly marbled beef and reliably lean and tasty pork the norm on grocery shelves.
But groups opposed to the new technology, including a coalition of powerful food companies concerned that the public will reject Dolly-the-Lamb chops and clonal cream in their coffee, have not given up.
On Thursday, advocacy groups filed a petition asking the FDA to regulate cloned farm animals one type at a time, much as it regulates new drugs, a change that would drastically slow marketing approval. Some are also questioning the ethics of a technology that, while more efficient than it used to be, still poses risks for pregnant animals and their newborns.
"The government talks about being science-based, and that's great, but I think there is another pillar here: the question of whether we really want to do this," said Carol Tucker Foreman, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America.
That there is a debate at all about integrating clones into the food supply is evidence of the remarkable progress made since the 1996 birth of Dolly, the world's first mammalian clone, created from an udder cell of an anonymous ewe.
Scientists have now applied the technique successfully to cattle, horses, pigs, goats and other mammals. Each clone is a genetic replica of the animal that donated the cell from which it was grown.
Cloning could solve a number of long-standing farm problems. Many prize males are not recognized as such until long after they have been tamed by castration. With cloning, that lack of semen would not matter. Cloning also allows farmers to make many copies of exceptional milk producers; with natural breeding, cows have only one offspring per year, and half are males.
In the eyes of many in agriculture, cloning is simply the latest in a string of advances such as artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization that have given farmers better control over animal reproduction.
"Clones are just clones. They are not genetically engineered animals," said Barbara Glenn, chief of animal biotechnology at the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
The FDA agrees with that distinction, Sundlof said. The agency has already said it will regulate transgenic animals -- those that have been engineered by adding specific, valuable genes -- in much the way it regulates pharmaceuticals, under a new category called "New Animal Drugs." No such animals are currently on the market.
By contrast, proponents say, clones are simply twins, albeit born a generation apart.
It was October 2003 when the FDA released its first draft document concluding that clones and their offspring are safe to eat, prompting several cloning companies to scale up their operations.
But an agency advisory panel and the National Academies, while generally supportive, raised flags, citing a paucity of safety data.
That, and opposition led largely by the International Dairy Foods Association, which represents such large, brand-sensitive companies as Kraft Foods, Dannon, General Mills and Nestlé USA, put FDA approval on hold. For years the agency has asked producers to keep clones off the market voluntarily while the issues got sorted out, a delay that bankrupted one major company and has left others increasingly frustrated.
But now a large collection of new data submitted to the FDA has revitalized the effort, according to government officials and others.
The biggest new study is a detailed comparison of meat from the offspring of cloned and conventional boars created by Austin-based ViaGen Inc., a major producer of cloned farm animals. Company scientists agreed to share key results with a reporter but withheld details as required by the journal Theriogenology, which will publish the full report in its January issue.
Semen from four clones and three conventional boars was used to inseminate 89 females. A total of 404 progeny (242 from clones) were raised identically by government scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Meat Animal Research Center in Clay, Neb., and slaughtered when they reached market size. (Because clones are so valuable, companies for now anticipate sending only their offspring to market.) Of the 14,036 measures of protein composition, fatty acid profiles and other meat components done on the offspring of clones by an independent lab, all but three were within the same range as those of the conventional animals, and only one was outside what the Agriculture Department considers normal.
The other large research report came from Cyagra, a cloning company in Elizabethtown, Pa.
In that study, 80 blood and urine measures, including various hormone levels, were taken in 10 newborn, 46 weanling and 18 adult clones. Results were indistinguishable from those obtained from conventional animals. Then 79 biochemical measurements from three cuts of meat taken from five male and six female adult clones were compared with those from matched cuts from conventional animals. Again, no differences were found, said Cyagra's director of marketing, Steve A. Mower. The results have been submitted to the FDA and are being reviewed by a scientific journal.
"The data are very clear," said ViaGen President Mark Walton. "You really can't tell them apart."
In light of the new findings, and the FDA's near completion of a complicated, interagency review demanded by the White House Office of Management and Budget, Sundlof anticipates releasing a formal draft risk assessment by the end of the year, along with a proposed "risk management" plan. Those documents would allow the marketing of clones and their offspring for food and milk after a final period of public comment.
Unless, that is, the opponents manage to stop the process, which they are trying to do on two fronts.
One is the petition filed Thursday by the Washington-based Center for Food Safety. It asks the FDA to regulate clones, not just transgenics, as New Animal Drugs. It also calls for environmental impact statements to evaluate the environmental and health effects of each new proposed line of clones.
"The available science shows that cloning presents serious food safety risks, animal welfare concerns and unresolved ethical issues that require strict oversight," the petition states.
Industry scientists derided the petition's safety concerns, built largely on a theoretical possibility that subtle genetic changes seen in some clones may alter the nutritional nature of meat. If those genetic changes were significant, Mower said, they would cause biochemical changes in milk or meat, none of which have been found.
But issues of ethics and public acceptance are not easily dismissed, several experts said.
Surveys show that more than 60 percent of the U.S. population is uncomfortable with the idea of animal cloning for food and milk. The single biggest reason people give is "religious and ethical," with concerns about food safety coming in second, said Michael Fernandez, executive director of the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, a nonpartisan research and education project.
Those sentiments are a big concern to dairy companies, which fear that any association with cloning could harm milk's carefully honed image of wholesomeness.
Confidential documents from the International Dairy Foods Association, obtained by The Washington Post, indicate the group has played a key role in slowing FDA action and propose a strategy for blocking any future FDA approval.
Association spokeswoman Susan Ruland said the group opted not to adopt the lobbying strategy described in those documents, which included using friends in Congress and "continued outreach to the White House."
In any case, Sundlof said, the FDA has no authority to make decisions based on ethics concerns. Nor is it inclined to call for labeling of products from clones, as some have demanded. For one thing, clonal meat or milk would be impossible to authenticate, since there is no way to distinguish them from conventional products.
The FDA may already be too late. Several owners of clones have been selling semen to farm clubs and others vying to grow prize-winning cattle. Most of those animals end up being slaughtered, sold and eaten, experts said.
"That you can go online today to any number of different Web sites and purchase semen from cloned bulls tells you there are cloned sires out there fathering calves in the food supply," Walton said.
Like it or not, Walton and others said, the clones are out of the barn.
Comment on this Article
Remember, we need your help to collect information on what is going on in your part of the world!
Send your article suggestions to: sott(at)signs-of-the-times.org