EDITORIAL : THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA

What the Inspectors Say

Iran continues to stonewall about its illicit nuclear activities. The International Atomic Energy Agency isn’t falling for it. Nobody should.

The agency’s latest report is chilling. While Tehran claims that its program has solely peaceful ends, it lists seven activities with potential “military dimensions.” That includes “activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile”; new evidence that Iran has worked on a highly sophisticated nuclear triggering technology; and research on missile warhead designs — namely “studies involving the removal of the conventional high explosive payload from the warhead of the Shahab 3 missile and replacing it with a spherical nuclear payload.”

After the Iraq debacle, all claims must be examined closely. The I.A.E.A. has a strong record — in the run-up to the war it insisted there was no evidence that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program — and no ax to grind. There are still more questions to be answered.

American intelligence agencies, rightly chastened by their failure in Iraq, concluded in 2007 that Tehran had halted the weapons portion of its nuclear program four years earlier. United States officials now say that Iran’s massive “Manhattan Project” ended then but that many of the same scientists are still engaged in weapons-related pursuits. Meanwhile, Yukiya Amano, the head of the I.A.E.A., said in a news conference last week that “the activities in Iran related to the possible military dimension seem to have been continued until quite recently.” More explanation is needed.

Tehran insists the agency’s allegations are fabricated. At the same time, it is refusing to answer the inspectors’ questions about possible work on weapons designs and is blocking their access to sites, equipment and documents. Five years after the United Nations Security Council ordered it to halt uranium enrichment, Iran still has thousands of centrifuges spinning at its Natanz plant.

We don’t know if any mixture of sanctions and incentives will change that behavior. We are certain that without more pressure Tehran will keep pushing its program forward. The major powers’ last attempt at negotiations, in January, hit a wall, but Washington and its allies should keep looking for diplomatic openings. The fourth round of United Nations sanctions, imposed a year ago, is starting to bite, reducing Iran’s access to foreign capital, trade and investments. But implementation is still lagging.

The European Union finally moved last month to rein in the Iranian-owned bank in Germany, the European-Iranian Trade Bank, which is accused of facilitating billions of dollars of transactions for blacklisted Iranian companies. China has yet to sufficiently crack down on the Chinese firms that still do business with Iran’s sanctioned entities. Turkey, India and the United Arab Emirates, a major hub for Iranian commerce, are still too cozy with Tehran.

Iran has not wasted the intervening year and is always looking for signs of weakness. The United States and its allies need to tighten the current round of sanctions and start working on another Security Council resolution with even tougher sanctions.

If there is any good news in the I.A.E.A. report, it appears that Iran’s enrichment program is not advancing as fast as many feared — the result of the Stuxnet computer virus and sanctions that make it harder for Tehran to import needed materials from overseas. That has not blunted its ambitions. The Iranians said on Wednesday that they plan to triple production of the most concentrated nuclear fuel — the kind that could get them closer to a bomb.

False Claims About FOIA

It was a bad sign when the Supreme Court relied on the dictionary as the main authority in a recent ruling that made it harder for whistle-blowers to hold government contractors accountable for fraud.

The case, Schindler Elevator Corp. v. United States ex rel. Kirk, involves the federal False Claims Act, which allows a private party to bring an antifraud lawsuit on behalf of the federal government and receive part of the damages. The law bars such suits, however, if the allegations are based on publicly disclosed information, like a government report, investigation, criminal hearing or a news report. The ban exists to prevent superfluous private actions when the government can pursue a lawsuit.

In the current case, the plaintiff sued his former employer, Schindler Elevator, charging that it failed to comply with federal contracting rules on employing veterans. He based part of his case on written information from the Department of Labor, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The court’s ruling turns on whether that response is a publicly disclosed “report.” Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the 5-to-3 majority, finds that Webster’s Third New International Dictionary all but settles the matter: it defines “report” as “something that gives information.” The broad meaning there, he says, squares with the “broad scope” of the prohibition against lawsuits based on public disclosures. His view could rule out most antifraud lawsuits based on FOIA requests.

That simplistic logic will curtail lawsuits by whistle-blowers who suspect that a contractor may be defrauding the government but need information obtained from FOIA requests to help confirm their allegations.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the dissent, argues convincingly that the way to decide whether a document obtained through a FOIA request bars a lawsuit is to assess the nature of the document. In response to most FOIA requests, the government hands over copies of records it finds or notes their absence; it usually doesn’t analyze or synthesize the information. Only a fraction of the material disclosed would qualify as a report.

The False Claims Act aims to “encourage more private enforcement” by whistle-blowers, the legislative history says. The court’s ruling does exactly the opposite, reviving an approach Congress discarded in 1986 because it foiled too many needed lawsuits. Justice Thomas’s opinion is wrong about the text, context and history of the law.

Mr. Babbitt’s Protest

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt declared in a speech last week that President Obama’s failure to mount a persuasive counterattack to the Republicans’ “radical” assault on the country’s environmental safeguards amounts to a “form of appeasement.”

It is rare for someone of Mr. Babbitt’s stature to use such caustic language about a sitting president from his own party. But he was reflecting growing concern — which we share — that the president and his top aides have decided for political reasons to back away from the fight. In recent months the White House has been far too quiet on the problem of climate change, and its once-promising efforts to regulate industrial pollution, toxic coal ash and mountaintop mining are flagging.

Mr. Babbitt’s main complaint involved Mr. Obama’s failure to do more to conserve open space and protect sensitive areas threatened by imminent development. He was particularly dismayed by the White House’s acceptance of a Republican budget rider — pushed by the oil and gas industry — undercutting the Interior Department’s authority to identify and set aside valuable public lands for future designation as permanent wilderness.

Mr. Babbitt said Mr. Obama still represented “the best, and likely only, hope for meaningful progress” on energy and the environment, and we must hope, as he does, that the president’s temporizing is merely temporary. Even bigger fights lie ahead. The administration has proposed to limit power plant emissions of toxic pollutants like mercury and impose new rules governing power plant emissions of greenhouse gases. Any retreat from these pledges would be disastrous.

Mr. Babbitt also said President Obama should emulate President Bill Clinton, Mr. Babbitt’s old boss, who faced similar opposition after the 1994 Republican revolution but came roaring back. After wavering for a while, he seized the lead on conservation issues and threatened to veto all anti-environmental legislation. The public supported him; the Republicans retreated. It is sound advice.

 

EDITORIAL : THE GLOBAL TIMES, CHINA

Do not exaggerate impact of extreme cases

A female CCTV employee had her nose slashed Thursday when a stranger, rumored to be a petitioner with a grudge against the national TV network, attacked her. 

On Friday, a man set off an explosion at a government building in Tianjin, apparently to "take revenge against society."

The two attacks have been linked and magnified online, reinforcing a false impression that China is witnessing an outburst of social disturbance.

With such a large and populous country, the eruption of such extreme cases is probably inevitable. However, no evidence shows that the frequency of such attacks is climbing, and that such attacks only take place in China.

In 2005, a man drove a car and ran over nine pedestrians along Wangfujing Street in downtown Beijing, driven by hatred toward the rich. In 1994, an army officer shot at people randomly around Yabao Road, to vent frustration at personal issues.

In the US, shooting sprees are sadly common. In 2009, a mass shooting took place at Fort Hood, a US army base, during which a gunman killed 13 and wounded 29. Such tragic incidents are becoming a problem for governments worldwide.

These cases should trigger reflection concerning a few issues. Nevertheless, no government gives way to the irrationality of these criminals. Instead, all governments firmly strike out against such acts, and take steps to prevent them from happening.

In today's China, such violence is repulsive. However, when the violence targets the government, it wins applauds from a few hate-mongers.

True, social injustice does exist in China, as it does worldwide. The process of eradicating injustice should be accompanied by the improvement of the legal system, rather than violent disturbance.

All these perpetrators deserve to be punished according to the law. Local courts should firmly deal with their remit, rather than being swayed by online opinion.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) and even earlier, China experienced a period in which the masses passed sentence on any person at will. Today, the shades of that era still exist in China, but society has established that it can never return.

Local officials should clearly and instantly state where they stand when some extreme cases take place and cause social worries. The perpetrators must be punished. An ambiguous government stance may intensify a few hate-mongers' illusions that they represent social majority.

Society should break its silence too. Many people may have specific complaints and appeals, but they have no interest in breaking the existing social order and overturning overall social stability.

China is not a nation where public anger collectively seeks to topple the existing order. It is time to debunk this ludicrous lie.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY YOMIURI, JAPAN

      

 

Schools must be better equipped to handle disasters

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Many schools were used as evacuation centers in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Three months on from the March 11 disaster, evacuees still remain at more than 100 such facilities.
Schools become "fortresses" for children and community residents in times of emergency. To prepare for the massive earthquakes expected to eventually occur in the Tokai region and elsewhere, it is necessary to strengthen the earthquake-resistance and antidisaster functions of school buildings.
More than 6,000 public schools were damaged in the March 11 disaster, with much of the serious damage caused by tsunami that followed the massive earthquake. There have been no confirmed cases of students, teachers and other school staff being killed as a result of school buildings collapsing due to the earthquake.
Since the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, local governments have strengthened the earthquake resistance of school buildings and gymnasiums built before old quake-resistance standards were revised in 1981. Structures were rebuilt or reinforced, and these efforts can be said to have been effective to a certain degree.
But even if the projects to bolster quake resistance that are included in this fiscal year's first supplementary budget are implemented, 17,400 school buildings will be left untouched. That is 14 percent of the national total of public primary, middle and high schools.
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Ministry sets 2015 target
Last month, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry set fiscal 2015 as its target for finishing projects to reinforce quake resistance at public primary and middle schools. The projects must be moved up as much as possible so that all the schools can be fitted to better resist earthquakes by the target year.
The latest disaster revealed school buildings' deficiencies as evacuation centers.
Evacuees were forced to spend restless nights in darkness caused by power outages. With no protection from the cold, some wrapped classroom curtains around their bodies to warm themselves. Fixed-line phone services were cut, so many schools could not contact the outside world.
It is necessary to study such measures as the installation of in-house power generators and water storage tanks, stockpiling blankets and emergency food supplies, and the installation of satellite mobile phones.
Some school gymnasiums could not be used as shelters because their ceilings collapsed. We ask all schools to conduct safety inspections even of such nonstructural elements as ceilings, walls and windowpanes.
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Make schools safer refuges
A future challenge is how to improve schools' functions as antidisaster centers in local communities.
For example, it would be effective if schools in coastal areas were mid to high-rise reinforced concrete buildings to which residents can escape from tsunami.
Other measures include adopting more barrier-free designs to make it easier for elderly and physically disabled evacuees to use the facilities, and building welfare facilities near school buildings so elderly people can have peace of mind at all times.
It is essential for government offices, which have jurisdiction over education, welfare and disaster prevention, to break with the conventional concept of vertically divided administration and work together to display their ingenuity.

Politicians, bureaucrats must be on same side for rebuilding

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A key legislative step has come, albeit belatedly, almost three months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
The bill for a basic law that stipulates guiding principles and a fundamental framework for disaster reconstruction work cleared the House of Representatives at long last Friday after joint modifications by three major parties: the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the opposition Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito. The bill likely will become law next week.
Talks among the three parties over the modifications had been bogged down. The agreement was reached due to the fact that the government and the DPJ swallowed almost every demand the LDP and New Komeito made. We applaud the ruling and opposition parties for getting in step to get the bill passed despite the "divided Diet" in which the opposition bloc controls the House of Councillors and the ruling camp holds sway in the lower chamber.
The DPJ should make further concessions to opposition parties to ensure they cooperate with legislative matters.
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Avoid administrative overlap
A pillar of the basic law is the creation of a "reconstruction implementation headquarters." This will involve the prime minister and all other cabinet members laying out a framework for effectively implementing reconstruction projects by mobilizing all government ministries and agencies.
If a set of bills related to the basic law passes the legislature next year, a "reconstruction agency" will be launched to replace the current disaster countermeasures headquarters. The agency will work out and implement an overall plan to rebuild disaster-ravaged areas.
The envisioned agency should be truly efficient and have its powers and authority clearly defined to prevent overlap with other government entities.
A crucial question will be how this agency makes use of bureaucrats' knowledge and experience.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in his response to the earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear crisis, set up one committee after another, causing confusion in the administrative chain-of-command. Government support for disaster-stricken areas has been insufficient, removal of debris has been woefully slow and construction of temporary housing is not proceeding as quickly as it should.
It is imperative that the restoration and reconstruction of disaster-devastated areas moves full-steam ahead by uniting politicians and bureaucrats under the direction of a "reconstruction minister" to be appointed when the basic reconstruction law is enacted.
Regarding revenue sources for funding rebuilding projects, the basic reconstruction law will quite rightly incorporate clear-cut clauses calling for the issuance of "reconstruction bonds" and describing how the bonds can be redeemed.
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Bold, innovative ideas needed
Financing reconstruction programs, however, is expected to require a massive budget. The ruling and opposition camps must consider how to secure revenue to fund this, including possibly raising the consumption tax rate, which would impose a relatively light financial burden on a wide spectrum of people.
The bill of the basic law also calls for creating a "special reconstruction promotion district system" through which deregulatory measures and tax breaks would be introduced in designated areas. This should generate bold, innovative ideas that support reconstruction efforts.
At an upper house Budget Committee session Friday, Kan suggested he intended to stay in office until at least mid-August. LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki, however, has insisted that Kan's resignation is a "prerequisite" for his party to cooperate with the government on post-disaster reconstruction.
Having a prime minister who has announced he will step down but remains in office will stall not only reconstruction but also the entire administration. We think Kan should resign once the basic reconstruction bill is enacted.
Horse-trading in the DPJ over who should replace Kan has begun. This nation's next leader should be someone competent enough to earn the confidence of the opposition bloc and the bureaucracy.

                                                                             Dated-12/06/2011

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

The Sisyphean meet

The country last week celebrated the victory over the three decade war. It would probably be better called Peace (Victory) Day rather than a war victory as the victims were both, sadly Sri Lankan youth and citizens.

The victory celebrations also starred a seminar titled ‘Defeating Terrorism, Sri Lanka Experience, Sri Lanka Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya encouraged countries facing terrorism challenges to them head on and he said them Sri Lanka experience could be used to counter them.

We saw a similar approach in Chechnya in the late 90s. And still Russia is facing Human Rights issues, that are faced by Russia since then. The world, perhaps, has seen many a such tragic events.

The difference is Russia is now an “emerging market” (note the work market) while Sri Lanka is the only gateway to Central Asia as one US diplomat quite openly said in one of the seminars in Colombo some time ago.

And we do not have the economic prowess or resources prowess like China or Russia.

Many would still remember how the West propaganda machines repeatedly assaulted Russia and China over HR issue.

Now with trillions in business contracts the “Rights” have become well right, may be.

Meanwhile Indian newspaper Hindu reported the Army Commander as saying “Victory came with many sacrifices… [this is a] saga to be shared with the world. A saga of epic political resolve… National security is no longer confined to the borders as we see in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya”.

Defence Secretary also reminded how inappropriate regional foreign policies in 1987, stalled the military operation code named “Vadamarachchi Operation” which had pushed the LTTE to the brink of defeat.

But so far, sadly the media has not reported- or the seminar has not addressed the core issues of this “ism”-which makes people resort to terror as their voice. And more importantly why still there are armed terrorist groups like the Al qaeda.

There are more questions than answers, in fact. How are these groups getting these sophisticated arms? Black market? Try smuggling a pair of lingerie out of a garment factory in a remote village in Ampara!

And conveniently many countries avoided the confrontation chanting the HR mantra.

The fact is basically the civilians who are either getting caught or killed, it is just normal citizens who are caught in the global power plays too.

Generally our people are smartly stupid enough to bite the bait. And presto….the region goes on a downward spiral… sending enough free labour to the West. And it is the poor and the most vulnerable who get caught. That means more business for some.

 Afghanistan has never seen peace in, perhaps, more than a century now. So are the oil rich- the middle eastern countries.

And we all know-some may not know-that Norway is the LARGEST PETROLEUM PRODUCER in the world! (A Jaffna born Norwegian Christian claiming to be a descendant of the Jaffna King is also in Norway! )

But we know how the West, its agents and many others tried hard to protect a psychologically affected terrorist.

Even sadder is that fact that other southern leaders too fall into the trap, and always conveniently forget the geopolitcal facts when formulating foreign policies. We’ve just completed JR’s experiment. We have to wait and see where MR’s experiment will take us. It has just begun with the arrival of three wisemen!

Unless something drastic happens Sri Lanka will find it difficult to find stability.

Meanwhile the Sri Lankan ‘experience’ is not a just a single incident; it is a marker in the change of global power balance and these groups and their actions have far more regional and global ramifications than just terrorizing. It is a global issue.

THAT…. is hard to win.

EDITORIAL : THE HINDU, INDIA

Radiation and thyroid cancer

The frequency of papillary thyroid carcinoma occurrence in young people is about 1.5 per million a year. But following the 1986 Chernobyl calamity a sudden 100-fold increase was seen in its occurrence in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. In all, nearly 6,000 people developed thyroid cancer; about 4,000 of them had been children or adolescents at the time of the accident. But how does one distinguish naturally occurring thyroid cancer from that caused by radiation? A paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (“Gain of chromosome band 7q11 in papillary thyroid carcinomas of young patients is associated with exposure to low-dose radiation,” by Julia Heb et al.) provides the answer. Radiation-specific signature in a particular region of chromosome 7 was found in people who were exposed to radioactive Iodine-131 due to the Chernobyl accident. Changes in the number or structure of chromosome 7 were found to be associated with human cancers. While five genes have been identified as tumour-associated candidates, over-expression of one gene serves as a signature of radiation-induced tumour. While none of the patients from the control groups showed any change in the specific region on chromosome 7, 39 per cent of those exposed to radiation carried the signature. The study, which used samples obtained from the Chernobyl Tissue Bank, covered a cohort of 52 radiation-exposed patients and a validation cohort of 28 radiation-exposed patients. The age-matched control groups had no exposure to radiation. Since only a subgroup of those exposed to radiation carried the signature, the scientists postulate the existence of other typical genetic markers.

Unlike other cancers, radiation-induced papillary thyroid carcinoma is easily preventable. Radioisotope Iodine-131, which has a half-life of eight days and the same physical properties as stable iodine, competes with it, and the thyroid gland has no way of telling them apart. Saturating the gland with stable iodine drugs taken as a prophylactic and avoiding the consumption of milk can prevent Iodine-131 from entering the gland. Such preventive steps are extremely important in the case of children. These measures, which were unfortunately not taken after the Chernobyl accident, have been adopted post-Fukushima. The new study should serve as a warning to people running nuclear plants that in the light of what we now know about radiation exposure and thyroid cancer, any delay in taking preventive steps will be extremely costly in terms of human lives and well-being.

Syria on the boil

In a January 2011 interview to The Wall Street Journal, Bashar al Assad declared that the “jasmine revolution” was the result of stagnation in the region — “if you have stagnant water, you will have pollution and microbes.” Countries in the region had failed to bring changes in keeping with the world, he argued. But the Syrian President put his own country outside of that stagnation, asserting that while political reforms and economic growth were both necessary to keep people contended, one reason for the stability in his country was that it stood firmly against the United States — “it is about the ideology, the beliefs and the cause that you have.” Clearly, he was out of touch. Since March, the country has been in the grip of a people's uprising in which, unsurprisingly in this prolonged “Arab spring,” the main demands are democracy and freedom from four decades of rule by the Assad family. Syrians are questioning why they cannot have reform and be part of the “resistance” in the region against the U.S. and Israel. The regime in Syria responded initially by offering carrots. Twice, Mr. Assad, who inherited his position after the death of his father Hafez Al Assad in 2000, promised political reforms; the country's Emergency laws were lifted. But the promises were belied with the Syrian regime unleashing a series of repressive measures. Over 1,000 people are believed to have been killed in these counter-measures; thousands more are said to be in jail. Though it seemed at times that the Ba'athist regime had managed to suppress the movement, the 150 deaths reported between June 3 and 6 might prove to be the turning point in this uprising. Especially so if reports are true that the Army massacred 120 soldiers in Jisr al Shoghour to prevent them from defecting; this suggests serious disaffection in the armed forces, contrary to claims by the regime that the soldiers were killed by “armed gangs.”

Mr. Assad has lost important friends in the last few days. Within the region, only Iran stands by him, while others have been critical, albeit for their own reasons, for his high-handedness in handling the protests. France, which, earlier this year, helped end Syria's international isolation, has declared that the Assad regime has lost its legitimacy. It is now the main force, along with the United Kingdom, behind a proposed United Nations Security Council resolution criticising Syria for using force against civilians. But the idea of a resolution itself is questionable, although, unlike the resolution on Libya, this does not call for a military intervention. Any attempt to meddle in the happenings in Syria can only undermine the legitimacy of the protesters' demands.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

         

 

Hartals punishing citizens

Step back before the brink

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has exhorted her party leaders and workers to be prepared for a longer movement against the government. The BNP's ire has to do with the prime minister's taking a stand recently against a continuation of the caretaker system following a Supreme Court judgement on the matter. Sheikh Hasina has since softened her stance by publicly asking the BNP to make its own position known in the Jatiyo Sangsad. Her unambiguous statement that nothing one-sided will be done should have been taken advantage of by the BNP. Unfortunately, by opting for yet another hartal and implying that there will be more, the opposition has only contributed to a muddying of the waters.

We have always emphasised the primacy of Parliament in our politics. Because we have, we believe the BNP should be taking a hard look at the situation and return to the JS in order for the nation to hear it out on its position on the caretaker system. The JS is the only place, by virtue of its being an elected body, where the opposition can test the government's sincerity on a negotiated approach to the caretaker issue. Let the BNP come back to the House, present its arguments and in the process build up public opinion in its favour. What the opposition can gain through a lively presence in the House is something it cannot quite do through agitation on the streets. We note here Begum Zia's thinking on the need for a movement along the lines of the 1990s' struggle against autocracy. The analogy is wrong. It ignores present-day realities. By harking back to the 1990s, the BNP is only creating a myth around itself that is as unreal as it is fatuous.

Hartals cannot be supported or condoned, for reasons only too obvious. They punish citizens by impeding them in their normal pursuits; they damage an already frail economy, beset as it is by so many negative factors.

The opposition has opted for far too aggressive a course than finds a resonance with realities on the ground. If Begum Zia does not step back from here, the nation can only see the possibility of spiralling confrontation and violence. So, we urge BNP Chief to step back before the brink is reached.

Decimation of mangroves

A brazenly culpable act

We find it hard to understand the senseless act of plundering of national wealth, and that too at the behest, reportedly, of a lawmaker. This is an atrociously insensitive act that merits immediate cognisance of the relevant authorities.

A tract of land has been cleared by cutting down a large number of trees in Bhola, which is a part of a 20,000 acre mangrove forest, to construct a two and half mile of road designed to link the remote island of Char Kukri Mukri. This piece of land is not only a mangrove forest that helps to withstand the effects of tidal surge, it has also been designated as a wildlife sanctuary which shelters a large number of wildlife species. And the project does not have the clearance of the ministry of environment or the forest department, which is mandatory under the law of the land. The damage to the local ecology will be irreparable

We find it outrageous that the local lawmaker would himself break the law and indulge in such senseless acts. For one thing the High Court had issued injunction on the proposed road in 2010 following a writ by BELA. And what is even more outrageous is that it was announced in the name of the lawmaker that the road project would continue no sooner the order was verbally passed on 8 June by the Court.

There are a few more questions that we need answers to. We cannot rationalise why the project was proceeded with without necessary clearance, and why the two alternatives, as suggested by the forest department, had not been explored.

Clearly, the order of the High Court has been defied, which amounts to contempt of court. We would hope that the people concerned will be proceeded with for defiling the environment and defying legal injunctions, irrespective of the political affiliations.