News
postings throughout the day from the webmedia

6.17.05: U.S. Pressure Weakens G-8 Climate Plan: Global-Warming Science Assailed
-- Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post
Friday, June 17, 2005; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/16/AR2005061601666.html?sub=AR

Bush administration officials working behind the scenes have succeeded in weakening key sections of a proposal for joint action by the eight major industrialized nations to curb climate change.

Under U.S. pressure, negotiators in the past month have agreed to delete language that would detail how rising temperatures are affecting the globe, set ambitious targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions and set stricter environmental standards for World Bank-funded power projects, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Negotiators met this week in London to work out details of the document, which is slated to be adopted next month at the Group of Eight's annual meeting in Scotland. ~~

see 5.16.05: U.S. Mayors, Bush and Kyoto Treaty.

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6.16.05: Democrats urge inquiry on Bush, Iraq
-- Pete Yost
Associated Press
Jun 16, 11:20 PM EDT
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DOWNING_STREET_MEMO?SITE=CAVEN&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&SECTION=HOME

~~ WASHINGTON (AP) -- Amid new questions about President Bush's drive to topple Saddam Hussein, several House Democrats urged lawmakers on Thursday to conduct an official inquiry to determine whether the president intentionally misled Congress.

At a public forum where the word "impeachment" loomed large, Exhibit A was the so-called Downing Street memo, a prewar document leaked from inside the British government to The Sunday Times of London a month and a half ago. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, organized the event. ~~

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6.14.05: Kurdish Officials Sanction Abductions in Kirkuk:
U.S. Memo Says Arabs, Turkmens Secretly Sent to the North
-- Steve Fainaru and Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, June 15, 2005; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061401828.html?sub=AR

~~ KIRKUK, Iraq -- Police and security units, forces led by Kurdish political parties and backed by the U.S. military, have abducted hundreds of minority Arabs and Turkmens in this intensely volatile city and spirited them to prisons in Kurdish-held northern Iraq, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials, government documents and families of the victims.

Seized off the streets of Kirkuk or in joint U.S.-Iraqi raids, the men have been transferred secretly and in violation of Iraqi law to prisons in the Kurdish cities of Irbil and Sulaymaniyah, sometimes with the knowledge of U.S. forces. The detainees, including merchants, members of tribal families and soldiers, have often remained missing for months; some have been tortured, according to released prisoners and the Kirkuk police chief. ~~

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The secret Downing Street memo:
SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL - UK EYES ONLY
London Times Online
May 01, 2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html

~~ This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.

[...]

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

[...see Bob Woodward's Plan of Atack...]

It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force. ~~

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6.13.05: Insecurity: As President Bush looks to change Social Security, JMU professors weigh in on the positives and negatives of his plan
-- Megan Neal contributing writer
The Breeze
Thursday, April 28th, 2005
http://www.thebreeze.org/front/front1.shtml

`` While many in the nation stress about predictions of bankruptcy and Social Security reform, JMU professors have differing views on the subject.

In his State of the Union address in February, President George W. Bush explained how Social Security has changed. Longer lives resulted in more retirees receiving increased benefits as the worker to beneficiary ratio has gone from 16:1 to 3:1. He warned that soon, not three but two,workers would be supporting each retiree; making bankruptcy inevitable.

The threat of bankruptcy by the year 2042 sounds intimidating, but Kevin Cloonan, assistant professor of political science, felt the term’s application required further definition. ~~

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6..12.05: Part 1: Documents Suggest Merck Tried to Censor Vioxx Critics
-- Snigdha Prakash
All Things Considered
June 9, 2005
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4696609

~~ Because of intense interest in this report, NPR has decided to present a full transcript.

Introduction: At least 38,000 Americans are believed to have died from taking the pain pill Vioxx before it was withdrawn last year. Drug maker Merck is now facing thousands of lawsuits.

Over the past few months, it has emerged that the company was aware for years that Vioxx might be dangerous. Now, new documents obtained by NPR suggest that even as Merck was making Vioxx into a bestseller, the company was putting pressure on independent doctors. The company's apparent aim: to keep them from discussing evidence of Vioxx's potential safety problems. The documents show that Merck exerted pressure not only on individual doctors, but also on several of the nation's top medical schools. ~~

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5.20.05: Photos of Underwear-Clad Saddam Published
-- Patrick Quinn
Associated Press
May 20, 11:21 AM EDT
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_SADDAM_PHOTOS?SITE=MAFIT&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&SECTION=HOME>

~~ BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- British and American newspapers published photos Friday showing an imprisoned Saddam Hussein clad only in his underwear and washing his laundry, prompting an angry U.S. military to launch an investigation and the Red Cross to say the photos may violate the Geneva Conventions.

Britain's The Sun and the New York Post said the photos were provided by a U.S. military official it did not identify. The photos not only angered the U.S. military, which issued a condemnation rare for its immediacy, but also were expected to further fuel anti-American sentiment in a country edging toward open sectarian conflict.

"This is an insult to show the former president in such a condition. Saddam is from the past now, so what is the reason for this? It is bad work from the media. Do they want to degrade the Iraqi people? Or they want to provoke their feelings," said Baghdad businessman Abu Barick, 45. ~~

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5.18.05: Bush acknowledges problems in post-war Iraq
-- Reuters [Washington]
Wednesday May 18, 2005 9:04 PM ET
<http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-05-19T010350Z_01_N18653625_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-BUSH-DEMOCRACY-DC.XML>

~~ WASHINGTON - President Bush acknowledged problems with the post-war effort in Iraq on Wednesday and said the United States must respond more quickly to help new democracies build stable institutions.

"One of the lessons we learned from our experience in Iraq is that, while military personnel can be rapidly deployed anywhere in the world, the same is not true of U.S. government civilians," Bush said in a speech to the International Republican Institute, which aims to promote democracy worldwide.

To remedy this Bush cited an initiative in his budget that would create a corps of trained civilians who could be deployed on short notice to help in crises caused by war or revolution. ~~

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Bush looks to make space the final weapons frontier
-- Roland Watson and Amy Hunter [Washington]
London Times
May 19, 2005
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1618255,00.html>

~~ President Bush is preparing a shift in US space policy that could pave the way for the deployment of offensive and defensive weapons beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

It would overturn a 1996 directive signed by President Clinton, which drew the line at using satellites to support military operations, arms control and non-proliferation pacts.

Scott McClellan, Mr Bush’s spokesman, said that US space policy needed to be updated because in the past nine years there had been “a number of domestic and international developments that have changed the threats and challenges facing our space capabilities”.

In an apparent reference to China, but without mentioning it by name, Mr McClellan said: “There are countries that have taken an interest in space. And they have looked at technologies that could threaten our space systems. And so you obviously need to take that into account when you’re updating the policy.” ~~

Other sources:
Bush likely to back weapons in space
The Guardian
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1487124,00.html>

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5.17.05: Galloway and the mother of all invective
-- Oliver Burkeman {editorial}
Wednesday May 18, 2005
The Guardian
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1486432,00.html>

~~ Whatever else you made of him, when it came to delivering sustained barrages of political invective, you had to salute his indefatigability.

George Galloway stormed up to Capitol Hill yesterday morning for the confrontation of his career, firing scatter-shot insults at the senators who had accused him of profiting illegally from Iraqi oil sales.

They were "neo-cons" and "Zionists" and a "pro-war lynch mob", he raged, who belonged to a "lickspittle Republican committee" that was engaged in creating "the mother of all smokescreens". ~~

5.16.05: US 'backed illegal Iraqi oil deals'
-- Julian Borger and Jamie Wilson in Washington
Tuesday May 17, 2005
The Guardian
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1485648,00.html>

~~ The United States administration turned a blind eye to extensive sanctions-busting in the prewar sale of Iraqi oil, according to a new Senate investigation.

A report released last night by Democratic staff on a Senate investigations committee presents documentary evidence that the Bush administration was made aware of illegal oil sales and kickbacks paid to the Saddam Hussein regime but did nothing to stop them.

The scale of the shipments involved dwarfs those previously alleged by the Senate committee against UN staff and European politicians like the British MP, George Galloway, and the former French minister, Charles Pasqua. ~~

The Guardian is, if nothing else, provacotive.

 

Other sources:
The London Times are the only other site I've seen mention this story
London Times Online.

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While you're at it, read another great story from London's Guardian:

US cities snub Bush and sign up to Kyoto
-- Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Tuesday May 17, 2005
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1485595,00.html

~~ Mayors from across the US are signing up to an initiative to get American cities to meet the US's Kyoto environmental target which George Bush repudiated: cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 7% by 2010.

The response has astounded the scheme's founder, Seattle's mayor, Greg Nickels, who persuaded eight other mayors to write on March 30 to 400 colleagues across the country.

Dozens of cities have since contacted his office with the total reaching 134 in 35 states yesterday. ~~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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