Seattle v. Mayberry
Interesting collection of articles...Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper going after Bush and Company and not soft-pedaling their opinions; another secret organization created to further the Bush agenda; tracking ecoterrorists through years of layers without mentioning how the Patriot Act played a part; the Christian Right mouthing off about Christmas; Bill Clinton takes a stand.
Speaking the truth is our only defense in these times and the P.I. has pretty much hit the nail on the head with their article on ‘The Hammer’.
The new Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency which the Mayberry Machiavellis are trying to push through is just another secret Neo-Fascist ploy to undermine the rights of Americans and grant even more secrecy and secret powers to this bunch of criminals using public fear of pandemic to further their spurious take-over of America.
One has to marvel at how the government tracked ecoterrorists after many years—no doubt, using the powers of the Patriot Act that allow officials of this government to loot privacy in order to prove a favorable (to them) point. This event will justify the use and abuse of powers granted under the Patriot Act, no doubt in the same way the Reichstag Act of burgeoning Nazi Germany was used to squeeze the rights of German citizens and which allowed the Nazis to ultimately commit the horrific war crimes for which they were responsible.
This writer does not advocate civil disobedience or the destruction of property or the release of laboratory animals to prove a point. This writer is too old and cranky for activism. However, when you consider that our society ultimately is changed only by the actions of those most committed to change, whether Neo-Nazi extremists of the Bush Cabal, or leftist extremists committed to saving our public lands and assuaging the suffering of animals by attacking public property, activism surely gets attention. Just ask the Symbionese Liberation Army.
In the midst of America losing and in further danger of losing the rights which are most dear to her citizens, we have the Mayberry Bunch, crying because other people dare to say “Happy Holidays” instead of the Christian right’s preferred “Merry Christmas”. These folks certainly know instinctively how to take the pleasure out of something by instituting a rule for which the rest of us become “sinners” if we don’t comply. Bite me.
The best news of all is that ol’ Bill Clinton has decided to zip up and step out and a visceral reaction is the sense of relief that Bill is taking a stand on even so remote an issue as global warming. Perhaps he will realize that this country needs him, forgives him, and he is still our leader when it comes right down to it. Politics aside, Bill Clinton’s, as well as Jimmy Carter’s hearts are in the right place: for America as we know it, instead of against it.
It would be a pleasant change to have leaders whose intents are clearly to help, instead of hinder, the democratic process.
___________________________________________________________________________________
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/251376_delayed.asp
Congress: The Hammer rules
Friday, December 9, 2005
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Grand Theft Congress. That seems to be the crime favored by Republicans who obliterate American voting rights as gleefully as they would video game villains.
A newly uncovered U.S. Justice Department memo adds to abuse of power suspicions surrounding the GOP's control of the House of Representatives. The memorandum discredits Republicans' protection of their majority, accomplished by a manipulation of the redistricting of Texas congressional seats to gain five extra seats.
U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, hammered the scheme into place. His indictment over related political fund-raising has forced DeLay to drop his leadership title. But, in the manner of former Chinese Communist strongman Deng Xiaoping, DeLay remains the right-wing congressional bloc's paramount leader, at least for now.
The long-hidden memorandum from professionals in Justice's voting rights office unanimously concluded the redistricting scheme violated a landmark civil rights law by depriving minorities of representatives. Bush administration political appointees overruled the attorneys and staff.
Justice officials defend themselves, saying a court has upheld the Texas plan. But the court was influenced by the Justice Department opinion.
Theft can be simple or complicated. U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., went down for straightforward bribe-taking. When the U.S. Supreme Court eventually rules on a challenge to Texas' redistricting, we may get a clearer idea of how grandly House GOP leaders have been operating.
© 1998-2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
___________________________________________________________________________________
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/251375_bunting09.html
Government secrecy spreads disease
Friday, December 9, 2005
By KENNETH F. BUNTING
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Unless a ration of common sense takes hold of Congress soon, a federal agency being created to protect us from the spread of disease and the potential for biological mischief by terrorists will have accountability to almost no one.
Only an administration with an already well-documented penchant for excessive secrecy would have any significant degree of oversight over the new Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency.
The bill creating the biomedical super agency, backed by the drug industry and sponsored by U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was passed by a Senate committee on a voice vote Oct. 24 and could come up for a full Senate vote any day.
In the 40 years since President Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into law, no federal agency -- not even the CIA or Defense Department intelligence agencies -- has been given a carte blanche exclusion from the law's broad mandate for openness on at least at some level.
But BARDA, the shorthand acronym for the proposed new biodefense agency, would not be governed at all by FOIA or any other laws that protect against government secrecy.
What's more, there could be little or no congressional oversight. Even courts would have no say as to whether the agency was dispensing information to the public in appropriate doses.
The director of the new agency and the secretary of Health and Human Services would, by themselves, get to decide what the public deserves to know about the latest looming disease threat, the effectiveness or deadly side effects of new vaccines or whether the agency was spending the public's money prudently or wastefully.
Presumably, only the president could second-guess them with regard to the information they choose to share with the public.
Powerless to effectively investigate or monitor the agency's activities, the public, the news media and Congress itself would have to comfort themselves with the notion that when it comes to fighting the spread of disease and bioterrorism, the Bush administration knows what it is doing, won't dole out corporate favors and has all our best interests at heart.
Even for those who ardently support the administration and trust its competence and good faith, the broad secrecy provisions in the law creating the biodefense agency ought to be troubling. But for those who think this administration misled us into war, bungled the response to a hurricane disaster and can't give a straight answer on secret prisons or the torture of combat detainees, the thought of such unchecked power should be the nightmarish stuff of horror stories.
The bill's supporters say it is because of national security interests and the specter of panic over an epidemic that the new agency needs to be excluded from FOIA and its records-disclosure provisions.
But senior staff members for Burr, the principal sponsor, say the secrecy provisions critics find most objectionable may be the result of a drafting error.
"We're doing a do-over here," an unnamed Senate Committee staffer told Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper.
Burr, who reportedly is meeting with bill critics next week, had said the bill is necessary to "ensure the federal government acts as a partner with the private sector, providing the incentives and protections necessary to bring more and better drugs and vaccines to market faster."
Critics of the broad secrecy provisions say we should have been taught by history that secrecy does more to spread disease than to combat it, and they point to the Chinese government's handling of the SARS epidemic as an example.
With the threat of Asian bird flu and very real fears that biological weapons could be used on U.S. soil, the new biodefense agency makes sense on lots of levels. Having a single agency that can bring together the best minds in medicine, science and pharmacology seems wise. Incentives to researchers and drug manufacturers to make certain the government has first dibs and an adequate supply of best antidotes and vaccines make sense, too.
But the blanket of secrecy Congress seems ready to give the new agency does not. It's even scary.
Sen. Patty Murray, who sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said the secrecy provisions and others that shield drug makers from liability are among serious concerns she has with the bill as it is written. Murray said she was managing a transportation bill on the Senate floor and was not in attendance at the committee meeting the day the bill passed. "This bill is not going to pass as is," she promised.
The FOIA law already has more-than-adequate exceptions for classified information, national security and trade secrets and privacy concerns, enough that the CIA and the Pentagon can function without an all-encompassing exclusion like the one bill sponsors would give the new agency. It is to be hoped that some sensible amendments will find their way into the bill before it reaches President Bush's desk.
Kenneth F. Bunting is associate publisher. E-mail: kenbunting@seattlepi.com
© 1998-2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
____________________________________________________________________________________
December 9, 2005
6 Arrested Years After Ecoterrorist Acts
By TIMOTHY EGAN
SEATTLE, Dec. 8 - The attacks have been nearly forgotten. The places that were burned have been rebuilt or relocated. The cryptic communiqués taking responsibility are distant history.
But on Thursday, after years of investigation, federal officials announced one of the biggest roundups yet of people involved in a string of ecoterrorist attacks in the Pacific Northwest dating to 1998.
Six people from five states, from New York to Washington, were arrested on Wednesday, and indicted on charges related to arson attacks and sabotage in Washington and Oregon, including the millennium eve destruction of a transmission tower owned by the Bonneville Power Administration.
The arrests are intended to strike a blow against two related groups, the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front, which have claimed responsibility for burning and bombing research facilities, timber operations and sport-utility vehicle dealers, among other targets.
Both groups maintain Web sites where they discuss operating as independent cells and share letters from colleagues in prison.
"The Animal Liberation Front carries out direct action against animal abuse in the form of releasing animals and causing financial loss to animal exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of property," the group says on its Web site.
Some of the targets of those attacks expressed relief on Thursday, saying the arrests helped to close out a long period of uncertainty and fear.
"I'm gratified that that the F.B.I. has been diligent in their pursuit of these people," said Steve Swanson, president of family-owned timber company, Superior Lumber, in Glendale, Ore. The veneer and plywood plant was set on fire on Jan. 2, 2001, and the blaze caused about $500,000 in damage, Mr. Swanson said. The Earth Liberation Front took responsibility for the attack.
No one was injured in any of the attacks, but they used sophisticated fire-bombing techniques, officials said. The fires happened from 1998 to 2001.
"If left unchecked these are the kind of crimes that could really hurt someone," Mr. Swanson said.
The attacks have diminished in the Pacific Northwest of late, but they continue in California and the Rockies, where groups have targeted things like ski lifts and condominiums.
"Hopefully these arrests strike a deterrent blow, making these groups realize that the F.B.I. will come after them no matter how long it takes," said Gary Perlstein, a professor of criminology at Portland State University, who tracks ecoterrorism groups.
But Professor Perlstein said the arrests, coming after years of investigation, showed how long it took to bring domestic terrorists to justice.
Federal officials offered little on the arrests or indictments, beyond identifying those who were charged, most of them in their late 20's or 30's, and saying what the crimes were. But they touted the coordinated roundup as one of the biggest in the fight against ecoterrorism.
"This is a significant step in the government's effort to solve these crimes and to get at the activities of the E.L.F. and the A.L.F.," said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the United States attorney's office in Seattle.
Although ecoterrorist groups have tried to maintain independence, Ms. Langlie said the six people arrested "were all associates, and may have been involved with each other."
The arrests did not resolve one of the biggest ecocrimes in the Northwest, the 2001 fire at a University of Washington genetics research laboratory.
The fire fit the pattern of others, in which companies, universities or government agencies that carried out different types plant or animal research were the targets.
Animal and environmental sabotage groups pose the nation's top domestic terror threat, F.B.I. officials told a Senate committee earlier this year. The federal officials said they had 150 open investigations of 1,200 crimes from 1990 to 2004 in which ecosaboteurs had taken responsibility.
The F.B.I. identified both the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front as two groups that were "way out front" on different crimes.
"We have seen an escalation in violent rhetoric and tactics," John Lewis, the bureau's director of counterterrorism, said in his Senate testimony. "Attacks are also growing in frequency and size."
The arrests Wednesday were made in Charlottesville, Va., where a college student, Stanislas G. Meyerhoff, 28, was picked up, and in New York, where Daniel G. McGowan, 31, was arrested. They were indicted by a grand jury in Oregon for the arson at Superior Lumber and the May 21, 2001, fire at the Jefferson Poplar Farm in Oregon.
A 1998 fire at a government animal and plant health inspection site in Olympia, Wash., was the basis of indictments against Kevin M. Tubbs, 36, who was arrested in Oregon, and William C. Rodgers, 40, who was arrested in Arizona. Both men were indicted in Seattle.
Also in Arizona, Sarah K. Harvey, 28, a student at Northern Arizona University, was arrested and charged in connection with a 1998 arson at U.S. Forest Industries in Medford, Ore.
Chelsea D. Gerlach, 28, of Portland, Ore., was charged with two counts related to a crime that got a lot of attention during heightened terrorism fears on the eve of the millennium - the December 1999 destruction of a transmission tower near Bend, Ore.
Copyright 2005The New York Times Company
__________________________________________________________________________________
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/251380_means09.html
Santa wants his cookies back
Friday, December 9, 2005
By MARIANNE MEANS
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
WASHINGTON -- 'Tis the season to be jolly, tra-la-la. Or to wrangle about whether the holiday should be reserved for Christians who believe in the divinity of Jesus -- or enjoyed by anybody who wants to ooh and aah at the trees.
Why can't we just leave Christmas alone? It's fine as it is, with its mix of commercialism and gift-giving, "Jingle Bells" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."
Some conservative organizations, however, want to get rid of the generic greeting "happy holidays" that many party goers use to embrace all religions and restore the familiar Jesus-specific "Merry Christmas."
It's another distraction in the culture wars, fueled this year by a new book, "The War on Christmas," by John Gibson, a Fox News anchor. Gibson contends that the ACLU and other non-religious organizations are robbing the holiday of its spiritual nature by trying to secularize the way schools and public places celebrate the day. He sees a "liberal plot" and he doesn't like it.
That cause is being hyped on Fox News and spread by conservative commentators. It provides talking heads a break from plugging more tax cuts and the victorious Iraq war.
Bah, humbug. Nobody can ignore the holiday; the retail stores and the inescapable recorded carols see to that. The sense of cheerfulness, even though sometimes forced, is pervasive.
And nobody owns the day. The spirit of good will and generosity that the holiday embodies belongs to all of us, no matter how we observe it.
Even President Bush, whose White House constantly pushes the most conservative religious agenda in modern times, prefers the ecumenical Christmas greeting with which Muslims, Jews and the unchurched can also feel comfortable. In 2004, Bush pointedly opened and closed his final news conference of the year by saluting reporters with "happy holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas." This year, his family's holiday card, sent to more than 1 million of their nearest and dearest, offers "best wishes for a holiday season of hope and happiness."
But conservative groups, with a permanent eye on ways to arouse their troops, see this as another test of their influence. They are serious about wanting more manger scenes for baby Jesus and fewer jolly Santas in white beards and red suits. So they are getting tough.
Groups such as the Catholic League and the American Family Association have called for a sales boycott of retail chains they find insufficiently dedicated to the word "Christmas." It is not clear how well this is working, but some stores have begun downplaying "holiday" messages and acknowledging Christmas more aggressively. In response, Wal-Mart put a Christmas category on its Web site. Macy's, accused last year of instructing employees to wish customers a "happy holiday," is planning a "Merry Christmas" ad.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, demanded that the traditional decorated congressional tree on Capitol Hill be officially dubbed a "Christmas tree" rather than a "holiday tree," as it had been called in the past.
The current crusade to put Christ back in Christmas reeks of intolerance but may be gaining momentum. The religious right has been encouraged by support from conservative Republicans who control the legislative and executive branches of the federal government and are working to dominate the courts as well.
Ads touting conservative Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito have already begun appearing with the claim that he will defend Christmas against the secular devils who want to "scrub away our religious heritage."
If Alito is confirmed, could Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's days be numbered?
As an appeals court judge, Alito ruled in favor of allowing local governments to set up Nativity scenes alongside secular symbols. And he ruled against a school district that wanted to prevent an evangelical group from sending fliers home to elementary school children.
Ralph Neas, president of the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, and Barry Lynn, head of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, point out that the ads are inflammatory but meaningless. The Supreme Court has already held that religious symbols such as crosses and menorahs as permissible in public places if accompanied by secular symbols. And the Pew Research Center reports the public is evenly divided on whether stores or public institutions should use "happy holidays" or "season's greetings" instead of "Merry Christmas."
It is, it appears, the thought that counts. As it should be. Bring on the Santas!
Marianne Means is a Washington, D.C., columnist with Hearst Newspapers.
Copyright 2005 Hearst Newspapers.
She can be reached at 202-263-6400 or means@hearstdc.com.
© 1998-2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
___________________________________________________________________________________
Bill Clinton to Surprise U.N. Conference
Bill Clinton to Surprise U.N. Climate Conference, Reportedly Annoying White House Officials
By CHARLES J. HANLEY AP Special Correspondent
The Associated Press
MONTREAL - A contentious U.N. climate conference entered its final day Friday with the long-term future undecided in the fight against global warming, and with a surprise visitor on tap to rally the "pro-Kyoto" forces.
Bill Clinton, who as president championed the Kyoto Protocol clamping controls on "greenhouse gases," was scheduled to speak at the conference Friday afternoon in an unofficial capacity but potentially at a critical point in backroom talks involving the U.S. delegation.
The U.S. envoys, representing a Bush administration that renounced the Kyoto pact, were said to be displeased by the 11th-hour surprise, although there was no formal protest, according to an official in the Canadian government, the conference host.
This official spoke on condition of anonymity because as a civil servant not a politician he is barred from the public light during Canada's current election season.
The U.S. delegation was meeting late Thursday and had no immediate public comment, said spokeswoman Susan Povenmire.
Clinton, who was invited here by the City of Montreal, will speak in the main conference hall between the official morning and afternoon plenary sessions, said U.N. conference spokesman John Hay. Despite its unofficial nature, the speech was sure to attract hundreds of delegates from the more than 180 countries represented.
A city spokesman said the ex-president will be representing the William J. Clinton Foundation, which operates the Clinton Global Initiative, a program focusing on climate change as a business opportunity.
Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, was instrumental in final negotiations on the 1997 treaty protocol initialed in the Japanese city of Kyoto. It mandates cutbacks in 35 industrialized nations of emissions of carbon dioxide and five other gases by 2012.
A broad scientific consensus agrees that these gases accumulating in the atmosphere, byproducts of automobile engines, power plants and other fossil fuel-burning industries, contributed significantly to the past century's global temperature rise of 1 degree Fahrenheit. Continued warming is expected to disrupt the global climate.
In the late 1990s, the U.S. Senate balked at ratifying Kyoto, and President Bush in 2001 formally renounced the accord, saying it would harm the U.S. economy.
The Montreal meeting, attended by almost 10,000 delegates, environmentalists, business representatives and others, was the first annual U.N. climate conference since Kyoto took effect in February.
The protocol's language requires its member nations to begin talks now on emissions controls after 2012, when the Kyoto regime expires. Those governments appeared near agreement Thursday on a process for completing such talks by 2008.
But the Canadians and others also saw Montreal as an opportunity to draw the outsider United States into the emission-controls regime, through discussions under the broader 1992 U.N. climate treaty.
The Americans earlier this week rejected the idea of rejoining future negotiations to set post-2012 emissions controls. But the Canadians continued to press for agreement Thursday, presenting the U.S. delegation with vague language by which Washington would join only in "exploring" "approaches" to cooperative action. The Canadians hoped the wording was sufficiently noncommittal to gain U.S. approval.
The Bush administration says it prefers to deal with climate issues on a bilateral or regional basis, not through global negotiations, and favors voluntary approaches. As a demonstration of U.S. efforts to combat climate change, it points to $3 billion a year in U.S. government spending on research and development of energy-saving technologies.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
Speaking the truth is our only defense in these times and the P.I. has pretty much hit the nail on the head with their article on ‘The Hammer’.
The new Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency which the Mayberry Machiavellis are trying to push through is just another secret Neo-Fascist ploy to undermine the rights of Americans and grant even more secrecy and secret powers to this bunch of criminals using public fear of pandemic to further their spurious take-over of America.
One has to marvel at how the government tracked ecoterrorists after many years—no doubt, using the powers of the Patriot Act that allow officials of this government to loot privacy in order to prove a favorable (to them) point. This event will justify the use and abuse of powers granted under the Patriot Act, no doubt in the same way the Reichstag Act of burgeoning Nazi Germany was used to squeeze the rights of German citizens and which allowed the Nazis to ultimately commit the horrific war crimes for which they were responsible.
This writer does not advocate civil disobedience or the destruction of property or the release of laboratory animals to prove a point. This writer is too old and cranky for activism. However, when you consider that our society ultimately is changed only by the actions of those most committed to change, whether Neo-Nazi extremists of the Bush Cabal, or leftist extremists committed to saving our public lands and assuaging the suffering of animals by attacking public property, activism surely gets attention. Just ask the Symbionese Liberation Army.
In the midst of America losing and in further danger of losing the rights which are most dear to her citizens, we have the Mayberry Bunch, crying because other people dare to say “Happy Holidays” instead of the Christian right’s preferred “Merry Christmas”. These folks certainly know instinctively how to take the pleasure out of something by instituting a rule for which the rest of us become “sinners” if we don’t comply. Bite me.
The best news of all is that ol’ Bill Clinton has decided to zip up and step out and a visceral reaction is the sense of relief that Bill is taking a stand on even so remote an issue as global warming. Perhaps he will realize that this country needs him, forgives him, and he is still our leader when it comes right down to it. Politics aside, Bill Clinton’s, as well as Jimmy Carter’s hearts are in the right place: for America as we know it, instead of against it.
It would be a pleasant change to have leaders whose intents are clearly to help, instead of hinder, the democratic process.
___________________________________________________________________________________
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/251376_delayed.asp
Congress: The Hammer rules
Friday, December 9, 2005
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Grand Theft Congress. That seems to be the crime favored by Republicans who obliterate American voting rights as gleefully as they would video game villains.
A newly uncovered U.S. Justice Department memo adds to abuse of power suspicions surrounding the GOP's control of the House of Representatives. The memorandum discredits Republicans' protection of their majority, accomplished by a manipulation of the redistricting of Texas congressional seats to gain five extra seats.
U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, hammered the scheme into place. His indictment over related political fund-raising has forced DeLay to drop his leadership title. But, in the manner of former Chinese Communist strongman Deng Xiaoping, DeLay remains the right-wing congressional bloc's paramount leader, at least for now.
The long-hidden memorandum from professionals in Justice's voting rights office unanimously concluded the redistricting scheme violated a landmark civil rights law by depriving minorities of representatives. Bush administration political appointees overruled the attorneys and staff.
Justice officials defend themselves, saying a court has upheld the Texas plan. But the court was influenced by the Justice Department opinion.
Theft can be simple or complicated. U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., went down for straightforward bribe-taking. When the U.S. Supreme Court eventually rules on a challenge to Texas' redistricting, we may get a clearer idea of how grandly House GOP leaders have been operating.
© 1998-2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
___________________________________________________________________________________
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/251375_bunting09.html
Government secrecy spreads disease
Friday, December 9, 2005
By KENNETH F. BUNTING
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Unless a ration of common sense takes hold of Congress soon, a federal agency being created to protect us from the spread of disease and the potential for biological mischief by terrorists will have accountability to almost no one.
Only an administration with an already well-documented penchant for excessive secrecy would have any significant degree of oversight over the new Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency.
The bill creating the biomedical super agency, backed by the drug industry and sponsored by U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was passed by a Senate committee on a voice vote Oct. 24 and could come up for a full Senate vote any day.
In the 40 years since President Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into law, no federal agency -- not even the CIA or Defense Department intelligence agencies -- has been given a carte blanche exclusion from the law's broad mandate for openness on at least at some level.
But BARDA, the shorthand acronym for the proposed new biodefense agency, would not be governed at all by FOIA or any other laws that protect against government secrecy.
What's more, there could be little or no congressional oversight. Even courts would have no say as to whether the agency was dispensing information to the public in appropriate doses.
The director of the new agency and the secretary of Health and Human Services would, by themselves, get to decide what the public deserves to know about the latest looming disease threat, the effectiveness or deadly side effects of new vaccines or whether the agency was spending the public's money prudently or wastefully.
Presumably, only the president could second-guess them with regard to the information they choose to share with the public.
Powerless to effectively investigate or monitor the agency's activities, the public, the news media and Congress itself would have to comfort themselves with the notion that when it comes to fighting the spread of disease and bioterrorism, the Bush administration knows what it is doing, won't dole out corporate favors and has all our best interests at heart.
Even for those who ardently support the administration and trust its competence and good faith, the broad secrecy provisions in the law creating the biodefense agency ought to be troubling. But for those who think this administration misled us into war, bungled the response to a hurricane disaster and can't give a straight answer on secret prisons or the torture of combat detainees, the thought of such unchecked power should be the nightmarish stuff of horror stories.
The bill's supporters say it is because of national security interests and the specter of panic over an epidemic that the new agency needs to be excluded from FOIA and its records-disclosure provisions.
But senior staff members for Burr, the principal sponsor, say the secrecy provisions critics find most objectionable may be the result of a drafting error.
"We're doing a do-over here," an unnamed Senate Committee staffer told Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper.
Burr, who reportedly is meeting with bill critics next week, had said the bill is necessary to "ensure the federal government acts as a partner with the private sector, providing the incentives and protections necessary to bring more and better drugs and vaccines to market faster."
Critics of the broad secrecy provisions say we should have been taught by history that secrecy does more to spread disease than to combat it, and they point to the Chinese government's handling of the SARS epidemic as an example.
With the threat of Asian bird flu and very real fears that biological weapons could be used on U.S. soil, the new biodefense agency makes sense on lots of levels. Having a single agency that can bring together the best minds in medicine, science and pharmacology seems wise. Incentives to researchers and drug manufacturers to make certain the government has first dibs and an adequate supply of best antidotes and vaccines make sense, too.
But the blanket of secrecy Congress seems ready to give the new agency does not. It's even scary.
Sen. Patty Murray, who sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said the secrecy provisions and others that shield drug makers from liability are among serious concerns she has with the bill as it is written. Murray said she was managing a transportation bill on the Senate floor and was not in attendance at the committee meeting the day the bill passed. "This bill is not going to pass as is," she promised.
The FOIA law already has more-than-adequate exceptions for classified information, national security and trade secrets and privacy concerns, enough that the CIA and the Pentagon can function without an all-encompassing exclusion like the one bill sponsors would give the new agency. It is to be hoped that some sensible amendments will find their way into the bill before it reaches President Bush's desk.
Kenneth F. Bunting is associate publisher. E-mail: kenbunting@seattlepi.com
© 1998-2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
____________________________________________________________________________________
December 9, 2005
6 Arrested Years After Ecoterrorist Acts
By TIMOTHY EGAN
SEATTLE, Dec. 8 - The attacks have been nearly forgotten. The places that were burned have been rebuilt or relocated. The cryptic communiqués taking responsibility are distant history.
But on Thursday, after years of investigation, federal officials announced one of the biggest roundups yet of people involved in a string of ecoterrorist attacks in the Pacific Northwest dating to 1998.
Six people from five states, from New York to Washington, were arrested on Wednesday, and indicted on charges related to arson attacks and sabotage in Washington and Oregon, including the millennium eve destruction of a transmission tower owned by the Bonneville Power Administration.
The arrests are intended to strike a blow against two related groups, the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front, which have claimed responsibility for burning and bombing research facilities, timber operations and sport-utility vehicle dealers, among other targets.
Both groups maintain Web sites where they discuss operating as independent cells and share letters from colleagues in prison.
"The Animal Liberation Front carries out direct action against animal abuse in the form of releasing animals and causing financial loss to animal exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of property," the group says on its Web site.
Some of the targets of those attacks expressed relief on Thursday, saying the arrests helped to close out a long period of uncertainty and fear.
"I'm gratified that that the F.B.I. has been diligent in their pursuit of these people," said Steve Swanson, president of family-owned timber company, Superior Lumber, in Glendale, Ore. The veneer and plywood plant was set on fire on Jan. 2, 2001, and the blaze caused about $500,000 in damage, Mr. Swanson said. The Earth Liberation Front took responsibility for the attack.
No one was injured in any of the attacks, but they used sophisticated fire-bombing techniques, officials said. The fires happened from 1998 to 2001.
"If left unchecked these are the kind of crimes that could really hurt someone," Mr. Swanson said.
The attacks have diminished in the Pacific Northwest of late, but they continue in California and the Rockies, where groups have targeted things like ski lifts and condominiums.
"Hopefully these arrests strike a deterrent blow, making these groups realize that the F.B.I. will come after them no matter how long it takes," said Gary Perlstein, a professor of criminology at Portland State University, who tracks ecoterrorism groups.
But Professor Perlstein said the arrests, coming after years of investigation, showed how long it took to bring domestic terrorists to justice.
Federal officials offered little on the arrests or indictments, beyond identifying those who were charged, most of them in their late 20's or 30's, and saying what the crimes were. But they touted the coordinated roundup as one of the biggest in the fight against ecoterrorism.
"This is a significant step in the government's effort to solve these crimes and to get at the activities of the E.L.F. and the A.L.F.," said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the United States attorney's office in Seattle.
Although ecoterrorist groups have tried to maintain independence, Ms. Langlie said the six people arrested "were all associates, and may have been involved with each other."
The arrests did not resolve one of the biggest ecocrimes in the Northwest, the 2001 fire at a University of Washington genetics research laboratory.
The fire fit the pattern of others, in which companies, universities or government agencies that carried out different types plant or animal research were the targets.
Animal and environmental sabotage groups pose the nation's top domestic terror threat, F.B.I. officials told a Senate committee earlier this year. The federal officials said they had 150 open investigations of 1,200 crimes from 1990 to 2004 in which ecosaboteurs had taken responsibility.
The F.B.I. identified both the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front as two groups that were "way out front" on different crimes.
"We have seen an escalation in violent rhetoric and tactics," John Lewis, the bureau's director of counterterrorism, said in his Senate testimony. "Attacks are also growing in frequency and size."
The arrests Wednesday were made in Charlottesville, Va., where a college student, Stanislas G. Meyerhoff, 28, was picked up, and in New York, where Daniel G. McGowan, 31, was arrested. They were indicted by a grand jury in Oregon for the arson at Superior Lumber and the May 21, 2001, fire at the Jefferson Poplar Farm in Oregon.
A 1998 fire at a government animal and plant health inspection site in Olympia, Wash., was the basis of indictments against Kevin M. Tubbs, 36, who was arrested in Oregon, and William C. Rodgers, 40, who was arrested in Arizona. Both men were indicted in Seattle.
Also in Arizona, Sarah K. Harvey, 28, a student at Northern Arizona University, was arrested and charged in connection with a 1998 arson at U.S. Forest Industries in Medford, Ore.
Chelsea D. Gerlach, 28, of Portland, Ore., was charged with two counts related to a crime that got a lot of attention during heightened terrorism fears on the eve of the millennium - the December 1999 destruction of a transmission tower near Bend, Ore.
Copyright 2005The New York Times Company
__________________________________________________________________________________
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/251380_means09.html
Santa wants his cookies back
Friday, December 9, 2005
By MARIANNE MEANS
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
WASHINGTON -- 'Tis the season to be jolly, tra-la-la. Or to wrangle about whether the holiday should be reserved for Christians who believe in the divinity of Jesus -- or enjoyed by anybody who wants to ooh and aah at the trees.
Why can't we just leave Christmas alone? It's fine as it is, with its mix of commercialism and gift-giving, "Jingle Bells" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."
Some conservative organizations, however, want to get rid of the generic greeting "happy holidays" that many party goers use to embrace all religions and restore the familiar Jesus-specific "Merry Christmas."
It's another distraction in the culture wars, fueled this year by a new book, "The War on Christmas," by John Gibson, a Fox News anchor. Gibson contends that the ACLU and other non-religious organizations are robbing the holiday of its spiritual nature by trying to secularize the way schools and public places celebrate the day. He sees a "liberal plot" and he doesn't like it.
That cause is being hyped on Fox News and spread by conservative commentators. It provides talking heads a break from plugging more tax cuts and the victorious Iraq war.
Bah, humbug. Nobody can ignore the holiday; the retail stores and the inescapable recorded carols see to that. The sense of cheerfulness, even though sometimes forced, is pervasive.
And nobody owns the day. The spirit of good will and generosity that the holiday embodies belongs to all of us, no matter how we observe it.
Even President Bush, whose White House constantly pushes the most conservative religious agenda in modern times, prefers the ecumenical Christmas greeting with which Muslims, Jews and the unchurched can also feel comfortable. In 2004, Bush pointedly opened and closed his final news conference of the year by saluting reporters with "happy holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas." This year, his family's holiday card, sent to more than 1 million of their nearest and dearest, offers "best wishes for a holiday season of hope and happiness."
But conservative groups, with a permanent eye on ways to arouse their troops, see this as another test of their influence. They are serious about wanting more manger scenes for baby Jesus and fewer jolly Santas in white beards and red suits. So they are getting tough.
Groups such as the Catholic League and the American Family Association have called for a sales boycott of retail chains they find insufficiently dedicated to the word "Christmas." It is not clear how well this is working, but some stores have begun downplaying "holiday" messages and acknowledging Christmas more aggressively. In response, Wal-Mart put a Christmas category on its Web site. Macy's, accused last year of instructing employees to wish customers a "happy holiday," is planning a "Merry Christmas" ad.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill, demanded that the traditional decorated congressional tree on Capitol Hill be officially dubbed a "Christmas tree" rather than a "holiday tree," as it had been called in the past.
The current crusade to put Christ back in Christmas reeks of intolerance but may be gaining momentum. The religious right has been encouraged by support from conservative Republicans who control the legislative and executive branches of the federal government and are working to dominate the courts as well.
Ads touting conservative Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito have already begun appearing with the claim that he will defend Christmas against the secular devils who want to "scrub away our religious heritage."
If Alito is confirmed, could Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's days be numbered?
As an appeals court judge, Alito ruled in favor of allowing local governments to set up Nativity scenes alongside secular symbols. And he ruled against a school district that wanted to prevent an evangelical group from sending fliers home to elementary school children.
Ralph Neas, president of the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, and Barry Lynn, head of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, point out that the ads are inflammatory but meaningless. The Supreme Court has already held that religious symbols such as crosses and menorahs as permissible in public places if accompanied by secular symbols. And the Pew Research Center reports the public is evenly divided on whether stores or public institutions should use "happy holidays" or "season's greetings" instead of "Merry Christmas."
It is, it appears, the thought that counts. As it should be. Bring on the Santas!
Marianne Means is a Washington, D.C., columnist with Hearst Newspapers.
Copyright 2005 Hearst Newspapers.
She can be reached at 202-263-6400 or means@hearstdc.com.
© 1998-2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
___________________________________________________________________________________
Bill Clinton to Surprise U.N. Conference
Bill Clinton to Surprise U.N. Climate Conference, Reportedly Annoying White House Officials
By CHARLES J. HANLEY AP Special Correspondent
The Associated Press
MONTREAL - A contentious U.N. climate conference entered its final day Friday with the long-term future undecided in the fight against global warming, and with a surprise visitor on tap to rally the "pro-Kyoto" forces.
Bill Clinton, who as president championed the Kyoto Protocol clamping controls on "greenhouse gases," was scheduled to speak at the conference Friday afternoon in an unofficial capacity but potentially at a critical point in backroom talks involving the U.S. delegation.
The U.S. envoys, representing a Bush administration that renounced the Kyoto pact, were said to be displeased by the 11th-hour surprise, although there was no formal protest, according to an official in the Canadian government, the conference host.
This official spoke on condition of anonymity because as a civil servant not a politician he is barred from the public light during Canada's current election season.
The U.S. delegation was meeting late Thursday and had no immediate public comment, said spokeswoman Susan Povenmire.
Clinton, who was invited here by the City of Montreal, will speak in the main conference hall between the official morning and afternoon plenary sessions, said U.N. conference spokesman John Hay. Despite its unofficial nature, the speech was sure to attract hundreds of delegates from the more than 180 countries represented.
A city spokesman said the ex-president will be representing the William J. Clinton Foundation, which operates the Clinton Global Initiative, a program focusing on climate change as a business opportunity.
Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, was instrumental in final negotiations on the 1997 treaty protocol initialed in the Japanese city of Kyoto. It mandates cutbacks in 35 industrialized nations of emissions of carbon dioxide and five other gases by 2012.
A broad scientific consensus agrees that these gases accumulating in the atmosphere, byproducts of automobile engines, power plants and other fossil fuel-burning industries, contributed significantly to the past century's global temperature rise of 1 degree Fahrenheit. Continued warming is expected to disrupt the global climate.
In the late 1990s, the U.S. Senate balked at ratifying Kyoto, and President Bush in 2001 formally renounced the accord, saying it would harm the U.S. economy.
The Montreal meeting, attended by almost 10,000 delegates, environmentalists, business representatives and others, was the first annual U.N. climate conference since Kyoto took effect in February.
The protocol's language requires its member nations to begin talks now on emissions controls after 2012, when the Kyoto regime expires. Those governments appeared near agreement Thursday on a process for completing such talks by 2008.
But the Canadians and others also saw Montreal as an opportunity to draw the outsider United States into the emission-controls regime, through discussions under the broader 1992 U.N. climate treaty.
The Americans earlier this week rejected the idea of rejoining future negotiations to set post-2012 emissions controls. But the Canadians continued to press for agreement Thursday, presenting the U.S. delegation with vague language by which Washington would join only in "exploring" "approaches" to cooperative action. The Canadians hoped the wording was sufficiently noncommittal to gain U.S. approval.
The Bush administration says it prefers to deal with climate issues on a bilateral or regional basis, not through global negotiations, and favors voluntary approaches. As a demonstration of U.S. efforts to combat climate change, it points to $3 billion a year in U.S. government spending on research and development of energy-saving technologies.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
posted by FancyRage at 11:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home