Privacy Experts Scoff at Government's Plans to Secure E-Passports

eweek.com
Privacy Experts Scoff at Government's Plans to Secure E-Passports
By Lisa Vaas

Security experts and civil libertarians reacted with skepticism to the government's recent decision to reconsider data protection measures for new RFID passports. The "e-passports," as they've been nicknamed, were originally slated for spring release in the Los Angeles Passport Agency but are now planned for issuance in August beginning with diplomatic passports, according to a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Frank Moss, deputy assistant secretary for passport services at the U.S. State Department, on Monday told news outlets that the rollout of proposed radio frequency identification technology for passports will be delayed until RFID's privacy and security vulnerabilities are resolved.

The State Department has previously claimed that the data on the 64-bit RFID tags—name, date of birth, place of birth (a datum that the ACLU claims is a key to identity theft), a digital photograph and a digital face recognition template—can only be read at a distance of 10 centimeters. That has been disproved by a demonstration in April at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Seattle and by studies that prove that the radio tags' readable distance is as far away as 30 feet.

The question, privacy advocates say, is why the RFID technology is needed at all.

"Why do they feel they need to use an RFID chip?" asked Ari Schwartz, an associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, in Washington. "They're saying [e-passports] can be read 3 to 4 inches away. To me, why be 3 to 4 inches away? When you could just have [a chip that required reader] contact?"

The State Department is now considering two means of protecting data: encryption and metal threads in the passport booklet cover that would hamper data reading unless the booklet were to be opened. Data would be encrypted as it's transmitted from the radio chip to a reader. In addition, the reader would be required to provide a key or password before being enabled to read data on the RFID chip.

In other words, privacy advocates said, the government is opting to render hand's-free radio technology into hand's-on technology.

"Whereas before they had this wonderful dream of people being able to walk along and ping people as they walked along through airports and other areas and suck information off passports—which would be fine and wonderful, [because that's] what RFID is for; it's radio frequency—now they've moved away, and they're putting little tin cover hats on the covers of passports and encrypting the data on the chip," said Bill Scannell, a publicist, freelance privacy activist and former government intelligence officer who recently launched an Internet campaign called RFID Kills to stop the government from deploying RFID in passports.

"In order to get access, they'll scan the [machine readable code on the passport cover], which is what they do now, and take off a number, and beam that at the chip, and it would dump information back to you," he said.

"What's bad about this?" Scannell said. "It's a completely inappropriate use of the technology. The purpose of RFID is you don't have to touch or have contact with anything. Now you have to have contact. You're adding more time to the procedure, to make it do stuff it's not meant to do."

At issue is the potential for data skimming, where identity thieves carry scanners in, for example, briefcases, passing close by travelers and snatching their personal information.

Some security experts scoff at the idea of thieves wasting their time fishing for personal data in airports when there are bigger payloads available in databases.

"I'm not that worried about RFID," said Pete Lindstrom, research director of Spire Security LLC. "You're at the wrong end of the spectrum. It's on the read end. If someone's going to do a [big data theft], they'll go to the database and do a massive snag."

But privacy advocates classify such thinking as naïve: If it can be done, it will be done, they say. And as far as the government's acquiescence to look at data encryption, such a security practice won't help for most of the problem, said Bruce Schneier, founder and chief technology officer of Counterpane Internet Security Inc., since RFID tags require anti-collision protocols and a unique identification number.

The unique ID would still be broadcast and couldn't be encrypted, lest yammering tags all talk at once and say the same thing. "The problem we worry about is tracking," Schneier said. "It's still a unique number. You can still track people but you can't identify someone."

What's wrong with that, if the unique identifier doesn't reveal personal information? They would create, in effect, a global identification number.

"People get worried about national ID numbers," Scannell said. "What about an international number? Your own, unique identification number. That's what you'd end up with in the machine-readable part of the passport. A hash of the crypto that's unique and becomes a national identifier number. That would be scanned and beamed to the chip.

"I think that's truly frightening," he said. "For the first time in history, together with some 40 other countries, we'd have a unique identification number. You don't have to go into the mark of the beast world to find this awful."

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H-1B visa expansion clarified

CNET News.com http://www.news.com/
H-1B visa expansion clarified

By Ed Frauenheim


Federal officials have announced long-awaited guidelines for how 20,000 new H-1B guest worker visas will be awarded this year.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency in charge of the controversial visa program, on Wednesday said the visas will be reserved for foreign workers who have received a master's or higher degree from a U.S. institution of higher education.

Confusion had swirled around the 20,000 visas, which Congress added last year to the H-1B program's annual cap of 65,000 visas. USCIS in March indicated the additional visas would be available this year to a range of workers--not just to those with advanced degrees. That upset a business group, which accused the agency of reversing its position and undercutting congressional aims.

H-1B visas have long been a flashpoint of debate in the tech industry. Microsoft leader Bill Gates stirred up the pot recently by calling for the elimination of H-1B visa caps.


Thirty-nine percent of visa petitions approved in 2003 were for workers in computer-related occupations, with nearly 37 percent of all approvals that year for workers born in India.
Disharmony on your cell phone

Critics have blasted the H-1B program as undermining U.S. wages, being ripe for abuse and fueling the shift of skilled work overseas. Industry leaders have said the visas serve instead as a brake on offshoring. They have also rejected the claim that H-1Bs amount to a cheap-labor program, defending the visas as a means to fill shortages and give U.S. companies access to international talent as they compete globally.

The annual cap, which primarily applies to applications for initial employment, has fluctuated over the years. It fell from 195,000 in 2003 to 65,000 in 2004, when employers hit the visa limit less than halfway through the government's fiscal year, which begins October 1.

The cap for 2005 was reached on the very first day of the fiscal year. Provisions of the new H-1B law went into effect in March, but employers have not been able to apply yet for new visas for this year.

Applications for the additional 20,000 visas for this year will be accepted beginning next Thursday, May 12, USCIS said, assuming the new regulations are published according to schedule the in the Federal Register.

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Army to Issue Combat Badge For Soldiers Not in Infantry

washingtonpost.com
Army to Issue Combat Badge For Soldiers Not in Infantry

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer

Any Army soldier who has seen active combat while in Iraq or Afghanistan may now receive a new "Combat Action Badge," making tens of thousands of soldiers who are not in the infantry ranks -- including women -- eligible for a combat award for the first time.

The new award, which the Army announced yesterday, means that the thousands of soldiers who are exposed to enemy action but are not officially in combat roles can earn a prestigious badge for being involved in the fight. Army officials said the badge was designed to honor soldiers such as military police, truck drivers and fuel specialists who face perilous situations while doing their jobs in the ongoing wars.

"It recognizes that in the current realities of the battlefield, an insurgency, any soldier could be subject to a combat situation," said Col. Joseph Curtin, an Army spokesman. "It's going to be a tremendous morale booster to soldiers."


The Army has not designed or chosen colors for the badge, which would be worn above the left pocket of a soldier's dress uniform. The badges should begin appearing in military clothing stores by the end of the summer.

The badge is the first non-medical combat distinction to honor women who are caught in battle during U.S. wars, largely because women are not assigned to frontline combat duties.

The war in Iraq has demonstrated that any soldier -- from a cook to a driver to an infantryman -- can be exposed to insurgent attacks, and the Army is seeking to honor anyone who "is personally present and actively engaging or being engaged by the enemy."

Curtin said the award is retroactive to Sept. 18, 2001, the date President Bush authorized the wars against terrorism, and applies to all soldiers around the world who are assigned to an area where hostile fire pay or imminent danger pay is authorized, such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

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In Kansas, A Sharp Debate on Evolution

washingtonpost.com

In Kansas, A Sharp Debate on Evolution
Educators Consider Intelligent Design

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 6, 2005; A01

TOPEKA, Kan., May 5 -- Debating a question that the scientific establishment considers settled, Kansas education authorities put evolutionary theory on trial Thursday in a hearing marked by sharp exchanges over Earth's origins and what students should be taught in science class.

Scientists who support the idea of intelligent design, a set of assumptions that challenges established scientific thinking, told an approving Kansas State Board of Education subcommittee that modern Darwinian theory relies too much on unproven reasoning. Gaps in the science, they argued, leave open the possibility that a creator, or an unidentified "designing mind," is responsible for earthly development.

It would not be far-fetched, said William S. Harris, a Kansas City researcher who favors intelligent design, to conclude that DNA itself is the work of an intelligent being. Students, he said, should be told that.

Outside the auditorium, scientists and educators dismissed the arguments as claptrap.

"It's clear from the beginning that this is not a real science discussion. This is a showcase for intelligent design," said Jack Krebs, vice president of Kansas Citizens for Science, which is boycotting the four days of hearings. "They have created a straw man. They are trying to make science stand for atheism so they can fight atheism."


The debate is the highest-profile confrontation over evolutionary theory in years, pitting the impassioned corps of anti-Darwinists against a scientific establishment that considers the evidence of the chemical and biological origins of life to be beyond dispute. It was made possible by Republican gains in November elections that gave the Kansas board a 6-4 conservative majority.

Local and national science organizations are so disturbed by the proceedings that they are boycotting them, apart from advising Pedro Irigonegaray, a civil rights and defense lawyer recruited to defend the existing Kansas science standards. On the eve of the hearings, he predicted a "whitewash" but said he would fight nonetheless.

"I had a delicious fantasy," the Cuban-born Irigonegaray said with a smile, recalling the offer to defend evolutionary theory. "I saw myself in a large courtroom, the fan moving slowly over my head, perhaps a skull in my hand, while I'm cross-examining a key witness."

Take away the television cameras and the PowerPoint presentations, and Thursday's scene bore a resemblance to the 1925 Scopes trial in Dayton, Tenn., where a high school science teacher was famously convicted of violating a state law forbidding the teaching of evolution. This time, said Bruce Chapman, a former Reagan administration Census Bureau director, "This is the Scopes trial turned on its head."

Chapman heads the Discovery Institute, whose Seattle offices overlooking Puget Sound have become the headquarters of the intelligent design movement, which posits that modern Darwinian theory is limited and that life is too complex to be explained by evolutionary theory alone. An early witness was Jonathan Wells, a Discovery senior fellow who described himself as "an old Berkeley antiwar radical" who loves controversy.

Wells confirmed during cross-examination that he was a member of the Unification Church when he earned doctorates in theology from Yale and in biology from the University of California at Berkeley. In an Internet posting distributed outside the meeting by Kansas Citizens for Science, Wells refers to church leader Sun Myung Moon, saying, "Father's words, my studies and my prayers convinced me that I should devote my life to destroying Darwinism."

Testifying to the three-member education committee, Wells described himself as an embryologist and theologian, and said evolutionary theory "has left the realm of science" and instead has become a given, leaving many conclusions unproven. He described the common scientific conclusion that all living things come from a common ancestor as essentially an act of faith.

Harris, a specialist in omega-3 fatty acids, delivered the opening statement and outline of the testimony ahead. He said an essential goal of the hearings is to prove there is a scientific controversy about evolutionary theory and hence criticism that should be added to the school curriculum. A 26-member science standards committee concluded in March that the curriculum should remain unchanged. Harris and seven other members disagreed.

Harris disputed the accepted wisdom that ancient simple life forms became ever more complex, evolving over billions of years into human beings, beavers, tarpon and a multitude of other life forms. He also said it would not be an "irresponsible deduction from the data" to say the genetic code contained in DNA was produced by an intelligent "mind."

"Who's the designer?" asked Harris, a co-founder of Intelligent Design Network Inc. "I don't know."

Usually it is the evolution forces that accuse the intelligent design side of wanting to teach religion in science class. But Harris said educators who teach Darwinian evolution effectively introduce religion by rejecting the possibility that God created the universe and all living things.

Asked where he saw atheism in the Kansas science standards, Harris replied, "I see it between the lines."

Early in his remarks, Harris projected a strategy letter from a Kansas Citizens for Science member onto a large screen on stage. It said the way to defeat the anti-evolution forces was be to portray them as political opportunists, evangelical activists, unprincipled bullies and ignoramuses.

"Are we ignoramuses?" Harris asked the committee members. "Well, you'll have to decide."

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Smile, perv - you're busted!

nydailynews.com

Smile, perv - you're busted!

Girls snap cell phone photo in subway & run for cops

BY NICOLE BODE, OREN YANIV and ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

A subway pervert was caught in a flash yesterday by feisty Catholic schoolgirls armed with a cell phone camera in Queens, cops and witnesses said.

The suspect sicko flashed the teens twice last week as they rode the F train toward their high school in Jamaica Estates.

He got away - but made the mistake of lurking inside the 179th St. station yesterday just as the girls stepped off the train at 7:30 a.m.

Terrified, but determined to get the creep arrested, one of the girls snapped his photo with her cell phone and ran to NYPD Officer Vincent Tieniber for help, police sources said.

"The cop looked at the picture, ran down to the platform and spots the guy getting on a train," a high-ranking police source said.

"He grabs him and takes him upstairs where the girl IDs him," the source said. "A little bit of new-age policing."



The alleged pervert, 57-year-old vagrant Wilfredo Ponte, was wearing the same brown pants, short-sleeved button-down burgundy shirt, silver jacket and black shoes he had on Monday morning, police sources said. He wore the same ensemble last night when he was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court and held on $3,000 bond.

Although police say he told a detective, "Maybe I did it, maybe I didn't," his Legal Aid attorney said Ponte is no flasher.

Lawyer Joseph DiFlumeri said, "Mr. Ponte adamantly denies the allegations in the complaint. He's frustrated, he's upset that he's being accused of this."

The girls' principal at Mary Louis Academy, Sister Kathleen McKinney, said she was proud of her plucky students.

"Our girls wanted him arrested," she said. "They didn't want him doing this to anyone else. They were willing to do what they did to stop him."

A token booth clerk who helped the freshmen from nearby Mary Louis Academy praised them for staying calm and taking the photo.

"The girls came running up. They were really upset, but one had gotten the guy's picture, and wanted him stopped," said the clerk, who asked not to be named.

"For a grown man to be exposing himself to children at 7:30 in the morning, it's terrible," the clerk said. "That girl deserves a lot of credit for getting him off the street."

Ponte was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child and public lewdness.

Ponte is apparently homeless - the address he gave cops turned out to be a Bronx bridal shop where one of his longtime friends works.

"He liked little girls," said the friend, Eva Santana, who described Ponte as a homeless man who often visited E&E Bridal on Westchester Ave.

"He liked to see the girls go by," she said. "We used to say, 'Get married, get an apartment.' But he wouldn't do it. He needed help. We told him every day, but he didn't want it."

Ponte targeted the girls because he was attracted by their freshman uniforms - baby blue shirts and gray skirts, a police source said.

Ponte's arrest brought some comfort to the parents and students, even as some of the girls remained shaken.

"I'm in a really bad state of mind," one of the teens said yesterday through her apartment door.

"She's scared," said her mother. "She's only 14."

Caught on camera

Pictures taken with cell phones have helped nab a host of suspects:

# In Utah last week, cops said photos stored in a 31-year-old man's cell phone led to his arrest for sexually assaulting at least two kids. The suspect's friend saw the images and called police.

# Two Atlantic City bandits snapped pictures of themselves carrying an AK-47 that had been used to shoot three men last December. Cops found the photos when a suspect's cell phone kept ringing - as he was being interrogated.

# Last August, a 15-year-old Clifton, N.J., boy helped nab a man who tried to lure him into his car, cops said. The kid used his cell phone to snap the creep's license plate. Cops grabbed the 59-year-old suspect the next day.

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GOP Retracts Report Dems Call Slanderous

GOP Retracts Report Dems Call Slanderous

By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After a week of Democratic protests, Republicans agreed on Thursday to change a report that had said the Democrats' amendments to an abortion bill could assist sexual predators.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a floor speech that the changes made to the House Judiciary Committee report were "a tacit acknowledgment of the inaccuracy and untruthfulness of the original report."

He commended the committee chairman, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., for the change and said he hoped that, "with this correction of the slanderous report language, this unfortunate chapter can be brought to a close."

The dispute involved a bill, passed by the House last week, that would criminalize the transporting of a minor across state lines to get an abortion.


The report accompanying the bill, normally a dry, unremarkable explanation, set off protests because of the way it described several Democratic amendments, all defeated by the committee.

It said Nadler, who wanted to exempt some relatives from the act, "offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution under the bill if they were grandparents or adult siblings of a minor."

On Tuesday Democrats offered a resolution, defeated on a party-line vote, accusing the Republican majority of deliberately mischaracterizing the amendments.

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi demanded that Sensenbrenner apologize for "the disgusting misrepresentations."

Sensenbrenner, refused to back down, saying that "we were accurate, and if you do not want this to happen again, draft your amendments properly."

But on Thursday Sensenbrenner filed, without speaking on the House floor, the amended report that removed the references to sexual predators.

It did provide comment, common in reports, from the majority side expressing concerns that the amendments would create loopholes that sexual predators could exploit, and dissenting views from the Democratic side denying that this was the intent or effect of the amendments.

---

The abortion bill is H.R. 748

On the Net:

Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov

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Terror Suspect Gets Bush Fundraiser Invite

Terror Suspect Gets Bush Fundraiser Invite

By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A year after federal agents raided his home in a terrorism investigation, Muslim businessman Syed Maswood is lucky to get on an airplane without being detained and searched. But that didn't stop him from getting an invitation to dine with President Bush.

Maswood, a nuclear engineer who has not been charged with any crime and has been trying for months to get his name off no-fly lists, received an invitation to serve as an honorary chairman at a Republican fundraiser with Bush in Washington next month.

A Republican who has donated money to GOP campaigns, Maswood said he briefly considered attending but his wife refused to fly. The last time they were in Washington, he said, they were held for hours at the airport.

"I didn't want to go stag," Maswood said, "and she's absolutely adamant."



FBI and Homeland Security agents raided Maswood's home last year because he donated money to the Benevolence International Foundation, a once IRS-approved charity that was accused of supporting terrorism.

Investigators also said they uncovered an e-mail Maswood sent indicating support for Islamic rebels in Chechnya, but Maswood said he was simply trying to help humanitarian workers in the war-torn region.

A Bangladeshi immigrant who became an American citizen in 1997, Maswood spent much of the past year writing letters demanding to know why he is detained whenever he travels.

The U.S. attorney's office in Connecticut had no comment Thursday.

The President's Dinner is the National Republican Congressional Committee's largest annual fundraiser. Carl Forti, spokesman for the NRCC, said Maswood wouldn't have to worry about being hassled if he attends.

Only guests who pay for a photo with Bush are required to undergo security checks, Forti said.

Maswood said he voted for Bush in 2000 but not in 2004.

"I supported President Bush. I supported President Bush on Iraq. I really think he's a good guy," Maswood said. "But when you become a victim of this kind of thing over and over again, it becomes personal."

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Demotion for Abu Ghraib commander

BBC NEWS

Demotion for Abu Ghraib commander

The former US commander in charge of the Iraqi prison at the centre of the abuse scandal has been demoted on the orders of President George W Bush.

Army Reserve Brigadier General Janis Karpinski has been reduced in rank to colonel, a US army statement said.

She was found guilty of dereliction of duty and accused of concealing a past shoplifting arrest, the army added.

Gen Karpinski is the highest-ranking US soldier to be disciplined over prisoner abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.

She headed the military police unit that ran the facility when inmates were maltreated.

In the past she has said she had not been given full authority over the prison and had been made a "convenient scapegoat" for the orders made by others.

An investigation by the army's inspector general substantiated allegations of leadership failures, the army said.

But the general was absolved of any specific actions that contributed directly to the abuse.


Others disciplined

"Though Brigadier General Karpinski's performance of duty was found to be seriously lacking, the investigation determined that no action or lack of action on her part contributed specifically to the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib," the army said.

Her demotion needed the approval of the US president.

US officials said the shoplifting allegation related to her arrest on suspicion of stealing cosmetics from a shop at an air force base, and then failing to report the incident to her superiors.

Other high-ranking officers, including former commander of US troops in Iraq Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez and three of his top aides, have been cleared over the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Seven low-level soldiers have been convicted and two more are awaiting trial.

However in its latest statement, the army said disciplinary action has also been taken against five officers besides Janis Karpinski, but it did not identify them.

It said one colonel and two lieutenant colonels had been given unspecified administrative punishment, and two other lieutenant colonels had received letters of reprimand.

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Impeachment Time: "Facts Were Fixed."

Impeachment Time: "Facts Were Fixed."

A BUZZFLASH GUEST NEWS ANALYSIS
by Greg Palast

Here it is. The smoking gun. The memo that has "IMPEACH HIM" written all over it.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html

The top-level government memo marked "SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL," dated eight months before Bush sent us into Iraq, following a closed meeting with the President, reads, "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."

Read that again: "The intelligence and facts were being fixed...."

For years, after each damning report on BBC TV, viewers inevitably ask me, "Isn't this grounds for impeachment?" -- vote rigging, a blind eye to terror and the bin Ladens before 9-11, and so on. Evil, stupidity and self-dealing are shameful but not impeachable. What's needed is a " high crime or misdemeanor."

And if this ain't it, nothing is.

The memo, uncovered this week by the Times, goes on to describe an elaborate plan by George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to hoodwink the planet into supporting an attack on Iraq knowing full well the evidence for war was a phony.

A conspiracy to commit serial fraud is, under federal law, racketeering. However, the Mob's schemes never cost so many lives.


Here's more. "Bush had made up his mind to take military action. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbors, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran."

Really? But Mr. Bush told us, "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."

A month ago, the Silberman-Robb Commission issued its report on WMD intelligence before the war, dismissing claims that Bush fixed the facts with this snooty, condescending conclusion written directly to the President, "After a thorough review, the Commission found no indication that the Intelligence Community distorted the evidence regarding Iraq's weapons."

We now know the report was a bogus 618 pages of thick whitewash aimed to let Bush off the hook for his murderous mendacity.

Read on: The invasion build-up was then set, says the memo, "beginning 30 days before the US Congressional elections." Mission accomplished.

You should parse the entire memo and see if you can make it through its three pages without losing your lunch.

Now sharp readers may note they didn't see this memo, in fact, printed in the New York Times. It wasn't. Rather, it was splashed across the front pages of the Times of LONDON on Monday.

It has effectively finished the last, sorry remnants of Tony Blair's political career. (While his Labor Party will most assuredly win the elections Thursday, Prime Minister Blair is expected, possibly within months, to be shoved overboard in favor of his Chancellor of the Exchequer, a political execution which requires only a vote of the Labour party's members in Parliament.)

But in the US, barely a word. The New York Times covers this hard evidence of Bush's fabrication of a casus belli as some "British" elections story. Apparently, our President's fraud isn't "news fit to print."

My colleagues in the UK press have skewered Blair, digging out more incriminating memos, challenging the official government factoids and fibs. But in the US press …nada, bubkes, zilch. Bush fixed the facts and somehow that's a story for "over there."

The Republicans impeached Bill Clinton over his cigar and Monica's affections. And the US media could print nothing else.

Now, we have the stone, cold evidence of bending intelligence to sell us on death by the thousands, and neither a Republican Congress nor what is laughably called US journalism thought it worth a second look.

My friend Daniel Ellsberg once said that what's good about the American people is that you have to lie to them. What's bad about Americans is that it's so easy to do.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST NEWS ANALYSIS

Greg Palast, former columnist for Britain's Guardian papers, is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Subscribe to his columns at www.GregPalast.com.

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House cuts Homeland Security budget plan

USA TODAY

House cuts Homeland Security budget plan

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers cut nearly a half-billion dollars from the Homeland Security Department's 2006 budget proposal on Wednesday for what they called repeated failures to update Congress on counterterror spending.

The U.S. Coast Guard took the bulk of the cut — $466 million to its 20-year Deepwater project to modernize its ship and aircraft fleet.

"The department has been a reluctant partner and has ignored requests for information," said Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that approved the Homeland Security spending bill. "It is a simple equation — no information equals no money."

The House bill also eliminates $1.7 billion in fees the department hoped to generate by raising airline passenger costs by $3 per ticket. In all, the bill appropriates $31.8 billion for Homeland Security — a 7% drop from the $34.1 billion that the department requested.

Last year alone, Homeland Security was ordered to submit 230 reports to House and Senate appropriations committees. It is not unusual for federal agencies to miss some deadlines.

However, Republican House aides said, Homeland Security is avoiding congressional oversight through what they called a systematic problem in meeting deadlines for at least a dozen key reports.

Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the department has asked Congress to help it prioritize the reports.


The department's budget request "reflects the administration's continued commitment to preventing acts of terrorism protecting the homeland," Roehrkasse said. "We work very closely with Congress through the entire budget process to ensure together we provide the necessary resources to accomplish this important objective."

The House bill calls for more than $485 million in funding reductions, some of which would to be withheld until the department submits reports. Besides the Deepwater cuts, the reductions include:

_$11 million from the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection directorate, the department's intelligence arm.

_$82 million from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for programs on container security and immigration, and salaries and expenses.

_At least $54 million from the Transportation Security Administration headquarters, $4 million of which for "general lack of responsiveness."

_$40 million from the office of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff until the department enacts new air cargo screening standards, develops strategies to reduce the number of illegal immigrants in the United States, and submits all outstanding reports.

Coast Guard headquarters took an additional $5 million hit for "general lack of responsiveness," according to a House breakdown of the funding reductions. In all, Deepwater would get $500 million — down from the $966 million requested.

"To say the Coast Guard is disappointed in the subcommittee's cut of the president's funding request for Deepwater would be a gross understatement," said Coast Guard commandant Adm. Thomas H. Collins. "Fortunately, we recognize that this subcommittee action is only a first step in the fiscal year 2006 appropriations process."

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New rule opens national forests to roads

USA TODAY

New rule opens national forests to roads

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration, in one of its biggest decisions on environmental issues, moved Thursday to open up nearly a third of all remote national forest lands to road building, logging and other commercial ventures.

The 58.5 million acres involved, mainly in Alaska and in western states, had been put off limits to development by former President Clinton, eight days before he left office in January 2001.


Under existing local forest management plans, some 34.3 million acres of these pristine woodlands could be opened to road construction. That would be the first step in allowing logging, mining and other industry and wider recreational uses of the land. Under proposed rules, new management plans have to be written for the other 24.2 million acres before road building can commence.

Governors have 18 months to submit petitions to the U.S. Forest Service, challenging either the old plan to stop development, or calling for new plans to allow it.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said in announcing the rule that his agency "is committed to working closely with the nation's governors to meet the needs of our local communities while protecting and restoring the health and natural beauty of our national forests."

The Agriculture Department, which includes the Forest Service, said governors can base their petitions on requests to protect public health and safety; reduce wildfire risks to communities; conserve wildlife habitat; maintain dams, utilities or other infrastructure; or ensure that citizens have access to private property.

The Forest Service, which will review and have final say over the petitions, calls the new process voluntary and is setting up a national advisory committee on the rule. "If a governor does not want to propose changes ... then no petition need be submitted," the agency says in briefing documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Roadless areas in national forests stretch among 38 states and Puerto Rico. But 97%, or 56.6 million acres, are found in 12 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Environmentalists say the new rule also would let the administration rewrite the forest management plans to lift restrictions against development on most of that forest land.

"Yesterday, nearly 60 million acres of national forests were protected and today as a result of deliberate action by the administration they are not," said Robert Vandermark, director of the Heritage Forests Campaign, run by a coalition of environment groups. "The Bush administration plan is a 'leave no tree behind' policy that paves the way for increased logging, drilling and mining in some of our last wild areas."

The Clinton-era rule has been much debated in federal court.

A federal court in Idaho had issued a preliminary injunction against the roadless rule in 2001, but the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit overturned the injunction based on an appeal by environmental groups.

Then in 2003, a federal court in Wyoming overturned the rule. Many of those same groups appeals to the Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which heard arguments Wednesday.

The Forest Service believes its new rule "helps us to move forward with a policy that is not clouded by legal uncertainty, as was the case with the 2001 rule," says a current agency document entitled "National Key Messages & Talking Points."

Jim Angell, an attorney with Earthjustice law firm in Denver, who argued the case, called that just an excuse for pushing through a new rule that represents "a huge step back for the protection of our most pristine lands."

"Really, this is an effort to rush this rule through before the 10th Circuit can reverse that Wyoming judge, just like the 9th Circuit did before," he said. "It's incredibly cynical of them to use that judge's ruling as an excuse."

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Blinded by the Right

thenation.com
Blinded by the Right
05/05/2005

New York Times columnist David Brooks has some explaining to do. In his Sunday column, Brooks dropped a major bombshell in the ongoing fight over the "nuclear option"--Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's effort to ban the filibuster of all judicial nominees. Brooks wrote that he was "reliably informed" that Frist and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid made a secret deal last week, with Reid vowing "to prevent a filibuster on the next Supreme Court nominee. Reid said that if liberals tried to filibuster President Bush's pick, he'd come up with five or six Democratic votes to help Republicans close off debate. In other words, barring a scandal or some other exceptional circumstance, Reid would enable Bush's nominee to get a vote and probably be confirmed." Moreover, "Reid couldn't put this offer in writing because it would outrage liberal interest groups."

Unfortunately for Brooks, his "reliable source" was wrong.

Sources close to Reid, both inside and outside the Democratic Party, say that Reid never made, or offered to make, any kind of commitment to prevent a filibuster on an eventual Supreme Court nominee. The New York Times never ran a follow-up on Brooks' supposed scoop, nor did any other major paper. "I don't know what the GOP are saying to save themselves," one source said.

Ten days ago, Reid did attempt to defuse the crisis by offering a vote on four of the ten appellate court nominees blocked by Democrats (out of 215) if Frist dropped the nuclear option. Both the White House and the Senate Majority Leader immediately rejected the proposal. "The process is not well-served by these political games," quipped Karl Rove.

Two days later, however, the Republicans responded with a far less generous "compromise" plan: Frist would allow 100 hours of debate on each appellate court or Supreme Court nominee if Democrats relinquished the filibuster for the first time in Senate history. In a 55-44 Republican-controlled Senate, such an agreement could only delay an eventual conservative confirmation. Reid rightly labeled the ploy, "a big wet kiss to the far right."

It's all or nothing for the Republicans, as Frist pushes for the confirmation of every right-wing judicial nominee in an effort to appease his Christian conservative base. Going nuclear is now a tactical question of timing and whether Republicans have the 50 necessary votes. Frist says the vote will occur before Memorial Day; social conservatives want it to happen after the Senate reconvenes next week. "It would be considered intolerable to delay any further," says Manuel Miranda, a former aide to Frist and chairman of the National Coalition to End the Judicial Filibuster.

Conservative threats aside, the vote count remains uncertain. A GOP aide told the New York Daily News, "I don't think he has the votes. He's now in his own corner. If he doesn't have the votes, he's really screwed."

Frist may already be in trouble, despite his best "Justice Sunday" performance. Republican moderates are wavering. And two-thirds of Americans in a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll objected to changing the Senate confirmation rules. Not even David Brooks' misleading reporting can change that fact.

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Debate Over Evolution Becomes War of Words

ABC News
Debate Over Evolution Becomes War of Words
Kansas Subcommittee Begins Trial-Like Hearings Giving Evolution's Critics a Public Forum
By JOHN HANNA
The Associated Press

May. 5, 2005 - Eighty years after the first famed "Monkey Trial," a second one of sorts opened Thursday, giving critics of evolution a forum in which to attack the theory.

A State Board of Education subcommittee began four days of trial-like hearings on evolution, and witnesses were advocates of intelligent design, critics of evolution or both.

The entire board plans to consider changes in June to standards that determine how Kansas students are tested on science.

The three board members presiding over the hearings are all conservative Republicans and receptive to criticism of evolution. Two of them, Kathy Martin, of Clay Center, and Connie Morris, of St. Francis, agreed several times with witnesses critical of evolution.

"I was hoping this hearing would give me good, hard evidence that I could repeat," Morris said.


There were no protests, but over the lunch hour, the Kansas Highway Patrol brought in metal detectors for use outside the auditorium where the hearings were held. Lt. John Eichkorn said the patrol wasn't responding to a specific threat, adding, "We're constantly re-evaluating our security needs."

The board has sought to avoid comparisons of its hearings with the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tenn., in which a teacher was convicted of violating a law against teaching evolution. But the hearings resemble a trial, with attorneys managing each side's case.

In 1925, attorney Clarence Darrow, representing teacher John Scopes, attempted to make creationism look foolish. In the Kansas hearings, evolution is under attack.

Even before the hearing began, Pedro Irigonegary, a Topeka attorney representing what he called mainstream science, dismissed the event as a "kangaroo court."

Nor was Susan Gibbs, a Lawrence mother of two teenagers who attended the hearings, sure her thinking about evolution would change because of the testimony.

"I believe in God, but I'm not sure He created everything," she said during a break. "I'm right in the middle."

Last year, the board asked a committee of educators to recommend changes but eventually received two competing proposals. One, the majority plan, would continue the existing policy of treating evolution as a key concept for students to learn. The other, the minority plan, suggests more criticism of evolution.

Some science groups and many scientists contend the board is being pushed to adopt language that would enshrine tenets of intelligent design in the standards even if that concept isn't mentioned by name. National and state organizations are boycotting the hearings, viewing them as rigged against evolution.

But intelligent design advocates say that's not true and argue that they're only trying to give students a more balanced view of evolution.

Evolution says species change over time and that such changes can lead to new species, giving different ones, such as man and apes, common ancestors. Intelligent design says some features of the natural world, because of their well-ordered complexities, are best explained by an intelligent cause.

"Public science education is an institution," Harris testified. advocate. "It appoints a teacher to be a referee among ideas ... Nobody would tolerate a football game where the referee was obviously biased."

But Irigonegaray repeatedly attacked Harris' assertion that the majority's proposed standards stifle criticism of evolution in the classroom.

Irigonegaray asked him, referring to the majority proposal: "Where in the standards does it say teachers and students cannot discuss criticism of evolution?"

Harris replied: "It doesn't say that. I think it's implicit."

Charles Thaxton, who lives near Atlanta but is a visiting assistant professor of chemistry at the Charles University in the Czech Republic, also presented another key criticism of evolution. He testified that there's no evidence that life formed from a primordial soup.

Irigonegaray asked Thaxton whether he accepted the theory that humans and apes had a common ancestor.

"Personally, I do not," he said. "I'm not an expert on this. I don't study this."

On the Net:

State Board of Education: http://www.ksbe.state.ks.us

Kansas Citizens for Science: http://www.kcfs.org

Discovery Institute: http://www.discovery.org

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Homemade grenade blasts fan NY security fears

Yahoo! News
Homemade grenade blasts fan NY security fears

By Mark Egan and Claudia Parsons 11 minutes ago

Two homemade grenades exploded outside the building housing the British Consulate before dawn on Thursday just as election polls opened in Britain, raising concerns about New York's post-Sept. 11 security.

Windows were shattered, but no injuries were reported and no motive was known. Security experts said the incident highlighted the city's continued vulnerability despite its high-alert status and the protective measures undertaken since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The explosions at the midtown Manhattan office block near the United Nations occurred shortly after 3:30 a.m./0730 GMT when two metal dummy grenades packed with gunpowder exploded in a concrete flower box, police said.

"We do not at this point have any idea who did it or a motive," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a morning news conference near the building, which also houses other offices of foreign companies.

"It is true the British Consulate is in that building, but I don't think anybody should jump to conclusions," Bloomberg said, adding no one had claimed responsibility.

Police were examining videotape from security cameras that appeared to show a cyclist lighting and then throwing the grenades toward the building before fleeing the scene, law enforcement sources said.


Police were also questioning a man found loitering in the area. U.N. and police sources said he was a Dutch man who worked for the U.N. arms inspection agency, but was not considered a suspect.

The incident, which briefly upset British financial markets, occurred as British voters were deciding whether to return Prime Minister Tony Blair for a third term in office. In the short general election campaign Blair battled public anger against his support of the war in Iraq.

British Consul General Philip Thomas said: "I can't speculate about who this bomb might have been aimed at, whether it was us or someone else."

U.S. CITIES VULNERABLE

Howard Safir, police chief under former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, said security in New York remains a grave concern, given how easy it is to obtain explosives and parts that can be fashioned into crude but potentially deadly bombs in America.

He said such devices are typically used to generate publicity rather than casualties. The grenade shells, without explosives, can be bought freely on the Internet for about $7 each.

New York has remained on high alert since the Sept. 11 attacks, when hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Center's twin towers. City police now regularly hold security drills with machine gun toting police ever more common.

Following the bombing, the United Nations announced it was increasing security at its New York buildings as a precaution although it had no specific threat.

New York politicians complain that the city does not get its fair share of federal money being allocated to states to safeguard against terrorism.

A day earlier officials said that the Freedom Tower, the symbolic centerpiece of plans to rebuild at the World Trade Center site, must be redesigned to address security concerns raised by New York police.

Police fear the planned placement of the 1,776-foot (540-meter) office tower -- a height symbolic of the America's independence in 1776 -- would make it hard to guard against the threat of truck bombs. (Additional reporting by Walker Simon and Irwin Arieff, and Greg Frost in Boston)

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March of Living marks Holocaust

BBC NEWS
March of Living marks Holocaust

More than 18,000 people have taken part in the annual March of the Living between the notorious Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps in Poland.

It comes 60 years after the camps were liberated by Soviet troops.

More than one million people, most of them European Jews, were murdered by Nazi Germany in the two camps.

Israeli PM Ariel Sharon, addressing the marchers, called for people to remember that the world stood by while six million Jews died in the Holocaust.

Speaking at a memorial gathering at Birkenau after the march, he said: "Remember the victims and remember the murderers.

"Remember how millions of Jews were led to their deaths and the world remained silent."



Death marches

Organisers said this year's march was the biggest yet.

The 3km (2-mile) event, marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, began in 1988.


HISTORY OF AUSCHWITZ
Construction began in 1940 on site which grew to 40 sq km (15 sq mile)
At least 1.1 million deaths, one million of them Jewish
Other victims included Poles, Roma (Gypsies), Soviet POWs, homosexuals, disabled
people and dissidents
Of 7,000 Nazi guards, 750 were prosecuted and punished after the war


It symbolises the death marches that took place when the Germans began emptying the camps and forcing prisoners to walk hundreds of kilometres in freezing weather with little food. Thousands died on the marches.

Mr Sharon was accompanied to southern Poland by 20 Holocaust survivors and 20 of their grandchildren, who are serving in the Israeli army.

"With me are Holocaust survivors. Men and women who survived persecution, torture, mental and physical degradation; true heroes who experience the death marches, the deportations and searches, who survived ghettos, Auschwitz, Buchenwald... concentration and death camps whose monstrous names are carved in blood in the history of our people," he said.

The prime ministers of Poland and Hungary also took part in the event. Some 450,000 Hungarian Jews were killed at Auschwitz.

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Congress weighs 4 IDs for licenses

USA TODAY

Congress weighs 4 IDs for licenses
By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — It soon could be a lot more complicated for Americans to get driver's licenses.

Congress is on the verge of passing a plan that could discourage illegal immigration by requiring applicants for state-issued driver's licenses — roughly 70 million people a year — to produce four types of identification at motor vehicle offices.

Most who apply for new licenses — and presumably, those seeking renewals — would have to prove that they are in the USA legally, document their Social Security number and home address, and show a photo ID. Motor vehicle department employees then would have to verify the documents with federal databases, a potentially lengthy process that could mean an end to same-day license renewals.


States now typically require new drivers to produce proof of age and one or two other forms of ID, usually including a photo. Less is required of those renewing licenses; Maryland and a few other states allow renewals by mail. That could change under the Real ID Act, which along with extra security at airports and workplaces could represent the most significant differences in daily lives to stem from post-9/11 security concerns.

The act is likely to be passed by the House today and the Senate next week as an attachment to an $81 million emergency spending bill for the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. If states did not comply within three years, their driver's licenses could not be used as ID to board a plane or to enter certain federal buildings.

President Bush has expressed support for the act, which has created an uproar among state officials and civil liberties groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union. The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that it would cost states more than $500 million. "The number of documents is staggering," says the conference's Cheye Calvo. "You're not going to get your license in one day anymore. Over-the-counter driver's licenses will no longer exist."

The ACLU says the act threatens' Americans' privacy by creating links between databases that could be used to make licenses into de facto national ID cards that could be used to track residents' activities.

The Congressional Budget Office says it would cost states $100 million over five years. The act's author, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., says, "If somebody has to stand in line a few minutes more (for a license), that's a small price to pay than having thousands or tens of thousands of people die in a terrorist attack."

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2 in GOP to skip DeLay ethics probe

USA TODAY

2 in GOP to skip DeLay ethics probe

By Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Two of the five Republicans on the House ethics committee will not participate in any investigation of potentially improper travel by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the panel's chairman said Wednesday.

Lamar Smith of Texas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma contributed to DeLay's legal defense fund last year, creating what outside ethics experts regarded as a conflict of interest.

Those contributions "raise doubts — however unwarranted — about whether those members would be able to judge fairly allegations of impropriety against Mr. DeLay," committee chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said in a statement.

DeLay is the No. 2 House GOP leader — behind the speaker of the House — and a key strategist for President Bush's legislative agenda. He is credited with strengthening the GOP's hold on the House. Some of his recent trips are under scrutiny because of evidence they were paid for by lobbyists or representatives of foreign interests, which is against House rules.


Smith and Cole would be replaced in any committee deliberations involving DeLay by two other Republicans to be chosen by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. House records show that 85 of the current 231 Republican lawmakers have donated a total of $357,000 to the DeLay Legal Defense Trust since it was set up in 2000 to pay his legal bills. Both Smith and Cole gave $5,000 in 2004 to the fund. Smith gave an additional $5,000 in 2000, before the current travel issues arose.

"Providing money for their defense to somebody who comes before you (to be judged) is something that raises serious questions," said Kenneth Gross, an attorney who has advised Democrats and Republicans in campaign finance and ethics matters.

Hastings said his announcement should not be interpreted as a prediction that the committee will have to take action on DeLay, or that Smith and Cole could not be objective.

The announcement followed a meeting of the 10-member ethics panel, the only House committee with equal membership from the two parties. The panel formally organized itself after a four-month dispute over its rules was resolved last week.

Hastert backed down from rules changes that would have dismissed a complaint after 45 days if there was no majority to launch an investigation. Instead, the committee now must continue to grapple with a case unless a majority agrees to dismiss it or proceed. Hastert contended the proposed rules were designed to provide lawmakers with due process protections. Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, charged the rules were designed to rig the ethics process in favor of DeLay, who was admonished three times last year for missteps.

DeLay on Wednesday repeated his desire to go before the ethics panel with documentation of his privately financed travel over the past decade, saying he is optimistic he will be exonerated.

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U.S. Can't Account for $100M Spent in Iraq

Yahoo! News
U.S. Can't Account for $100M Spent in Iraq

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 7 minutes ago

U.S. civilian authorities in Iraq cannot properly account for nearly $100 million that was supposed to have been spent on reconstruction projects in south-central Iraq, government investigators said Wednesday.

There are indications of fraud in the use of the $96.6 million, according to a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. A separate investigation of possible wrongdoing continues.


More than $7 million of the total is unaccounted for, the report said. An additional $89.4 million in payments do not have the required supporting documents.

The report accused civilian contract managers of "simply washing accounts" to try to make the books balance. Staffing shortages and the quick turnover of those responsible for the cash contributed to the problems, the report said.

Col. Thomas Stefanko, the official now in charge of the program, wrote the investigators that he agreed with their conclusions. Stefanko said his office had corrected or was in the process of fixing or investigating the problems identified in the report.

A congressional critic of U.S. reconstruction spending in Iraq said Wednesday the findings showed "disorganized, sloppy management."

"The U.S. risks fostering a culture of corruption in Iraq," said Sen. Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), D-Wis.

The money at issue is from proceeds from Iraqi oil sales and seizures from the former government of Saddam Hussein. Distribution of the money was handled first by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-run occupation government in Iraq from 2003 to June 28, 2004.

After that, the money was overseen by the Joint Area Support Group-Central, which is managed from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

Managers gave the cash to "division-level agents" responsible for distributing the money for reconstruction programs in a certain area. Those agents — the report did not specify their nationalities — were supposed to keep detailed, signed receipts and other documentation for the money they spent but usually did not, the report said.

Part of the problem was a last-minute push to spend millions on reconstruction projects before the interim Iraqi government took over, the report said. One agent got $6.75 million in cash a week before the handover, with the expectation that the money would be spent before the Iraqis took power, the report said.

Several of these agents "were under the impression that it was more important to quickly distribute the money to the region than to obtain all necessary documentation," the report said.

"Securing the required documentation should not have been overlooked by those officials specifically charged with safeguarding Iraqi funds," investigators said.

Controls over the cash were so lax that two of the agents hired to distribute the money were allowed to leave Iraq before they had accounted for all of it, the report said. Between them, those two had been given more than $1.4 million in cash which remains unaccounted for, the report said.

A different agent failed to provide proper documentation for more than $12.4 million in spending but had his accounts cleared by his supervisors, the report said.

Yet another agent kept distributing money for three weeks after his authority to handle the funds was revoked, the report said. That agent, told that $1,878,870 was missing from his account, delivered precisely that amount to his supervisors three days later, the report said.

That suggests, the report said, that the agent had a reserve of cash and only turned in enough to make his account balance.

___

On the Net:

Iraq reconstruction Project and Contracting Office: http://www.rebuilding-iraq.net

Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction: www.sigir.mil

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China to trump U.S. in broadband subscribers

CNET
News.com.com
China to trump U.S. in broadband subscribers

By Marguerite Reardon
May 04 2005

China is on track to surpass the United States in broadband subscribers by 2007, according to new market research data.

While the U.S. has been criticized for falling behind in terms of its broadband penetration rates, slipping from 13th place to 16th in a recent International Telecommunication Union report, it has always had the most subscribers. But now it looks as though China will soon take top billing for broadband.

At the end of 2005, China is expected to have 34 million subscribers, compared with 39 million in the United States, according to new data from market research firm iSuppli. By the end of 2007, China will have 57 million broadband subscribers, compared with 54 million in the U.S., said iSuppli. In ensuing years, China is expected to widen its lead over the U.S.

Today there are more than 150 million broadband subscribers worldwide, according to IMS Research. More than 51 million have signed up for service since the beginning of 2004. This tremendous growth rate shows no signs of slowing, and it is forecast that the number of broadband subscribers will surpass 400 million in 2009.


It should come as little surprise that China will soon pull ahead of the U.S. in terms of raw numbers of subscribers, especially considering that China's population of 1 billion is more than three times that of the U.S. More than 10 million people live in Shanghai alone, and more than 7 million in Beijing. The U.S. population is a little more than 300 million.
Battle near for PDF market?

China’s economy is also booming, especially in the eastern cities of Shanghai and Beijing where the middle class is growing extremely fast. Some experts say that the country’s economy will quadruple over the next two decades, possibly eclipsing that of the U.S. in the next 20 to 50 years.

Still, predictions that China will surpass the U.S. in broadband subscribers only fuel arguments that the government needs to come up with a national broadband policy--and do it quickly. President Bush has already talked about having broadband universally available by the end of 2007.

But the debate over who will provide that access rages on. Some believe that it should be left up to the private sector, which today includes cable operators and regional phone providers, while others believe that local governments should be allowed to build out their own infrastructure.

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Australian state to ban workplace e-mail spying

Australian state to ban workplace e-mail spying
Reuters
Published on ZDNet News: May 4, 2005

Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, moved on Wednesday to outlaw employers from snooping on workers' private e-mails as part of anti-spying legislation aimed at stopping bosses from covertly observing employees.

In an Australian first, the New South Wales state government introduced surveillance legislation to outlaw unauthorized spying on employees using technologies including e-mail, video cameras and tracking devices.


"We don't tolerate employers unlawfully placing cameras in change rooms and toilets," Attorney General Bob Debus said in a statement. "Likewise we should not tolerate unscrupulous employers snooping into the private e-mails of workers."

Australia has national privacy laws but they do not cover e-mail monitoring.

The legislation is expected to be passed by next week, the minister's spokesman said. Penalties would include a fine of 5,500 Australian dollars ($4,278) for individuals, or for each director of a corporation.

Trade unions welcomed the move as a victory against "big brother" monitoring by employers, which they said has been on the rise.

"The e-mail is the modern version of the telephone and I think that most employees would reasonably say that their phones shouldn't be tapped at work automatically, and I think that should apply to the Internet," said Bill Shorten, secretary of the Australian Workers Union.

Australia, which has 20 million people, has one of the world's highest rates of Internet usage.

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Frist begins to squeeze the trigger

hillnews.com
The Hill

Frist begins to squeeze the trigger
By Alexander Bolton

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s (R-Tenn.) chief of staff has told conservative activist leaders and business-community representatives that Frist will soon trigger the so-called “nuclear option” to end threatened Democratic filibusters of President Bush’s judicial nominees this month.

The chief of staff, Eric Ueland, said the event will take place in “less than a month,” according to several people who attended a closed-door meeting late last week.

But social conservatives are anticipating from conversations with Frist’s staff that the controversial move will take place next week and are predicting a conservative backlash if Senate Republicans delay any longer.

A conservative lobbyist came away from a separate conversation with Frist’s staff convinced that the disaffected Republicans will make their move in “a matter of days.”

Socially conservative groups would be important potential allies for Frist should he decide to run for president in 2008.


The leader of a broad coalition of conservative groups fighting to end the Democratic filibuster of judicial nominees, Manuel Miranda, chairman of the National Coalition to End the Judicial Filibuster, said: “We all believe that it will be next week.”

“I believe it’s concrete,” Miranda said. “It must happen next week. It would be considered intolerable to delay any further than next week.” He added, “Were it to be delayed beyond the next week, the Senate GOP should expect tens of thousands of angry phone calls and faxes to tie up their lines.”

Next Monday is four years from the day when President Bush first introduced his slate of appellate-court nominees, several of whom Democrats blocked.

But a Senate source familiar with Ueland’s thinking strongly disputed that conservatives had been told in any way that the rare parliamentary maneuver, also known as the constitutional option, would take place next week.

“The day is fast approaching,” the source said. “But no member or staffer has said this will happen next week.”

The source said conservatives had predicted inaccurately that Frist would act before this week’s recess.

One GOP aide familiar with discussions on timing and strategy said that the drawback of executing the nuclear option before the congressional recess was that it would have denied Republican senators an optimal platform for responding to expected media criticism, as they would have been dispersed among their home states, away from the Capitol’s spotlight.

The conservative lobbyist who said that Frist’s staff had indicated that Republicans would act in the coming days agreed that conservative activists would respond critically if that did not happen.

“They’ve been kind of dragging us along for months,” the source said. “If it doesn’t happen next week, I’m going to be shocked.”

The lobbyist added that Frist’s staff has been cautious about revealing the timing because “they know that eventually the word gets out there and they don’t want to give the other side an absolute heads up.”

Frist aides who attended last week’s meeting with conservatives heard frustration expressed over the protracted timing of the nuclear option, participants said. Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) also attended the meeting.

“We’ve made it clear that patience is running out,” said Richard Lessner, executive director of the American Conservative Union.

“Pretty soon the steam starts to go out of it,” Lessner said of grassroots conservative support if lawmakers do not act soon. “In terms of maintaining grassroots intensity, people have to see progress being made, more than press conference after press conference with just the threat [of the constitutional option] being made.”

Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society, recently sent Santorum a strongly worded e-mail urging quick action on ending the filibuster, said two sources familiar with its content.

Conservative groups have provided significant impetus to Senate Republicans’ decision to move to end the judicial filibuster. Dr. Gary Cass, executive director of Reclaiming America, said that he had presented to Frist a petition with more than 170,000 signatories in favor of ending the judicial filibuster.

Many conservatives had thought that Frist would call up either Janice Rogers Brown, a filibustered nominee to the D.C. Circuit, or Priscilla Owen, a blocked nominee to the 5th Circuit, last week. Conservative activists said they were told earlier last month to ramp up their public communication effort to peak the week before the Senate left for its recess.

“We were not angry that it did not happen on April 28 because we were led to believe it would happen the first week the Senate came back” from this week’s recess, said Miranda, who used to handle judicial nominees as a senior aide to Frist.

Some Republican strategists said delaying the constitutional or nuclear option has provided a political benefit. The continued filibuster of judges along with staunch opposition to the president’s plans to reform Social Security makes it easier for Republicans to argue that Democrats are obstructionist.

Last week, Frist and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) exchanged compromise proposals to avoid a triggering of the nuclear option, but both the proposals fell flat as Democrats insisted they be able to filibuster nominees and Republicans clung tightly to their position that filibusters are unacceptable.

The final effort to reach a compromise was viewed as delaying the decision to end the judicial filibuster through a ruling of the Senate chair.

Some observers, particularly Democrats, have expressed doubts that Republicans have enough votes to sustain such a controversial ruling — only a simple majority would be needed. GOP lawmakers such as Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) said they were leaning against supporting it.

But Republican Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared last month that the Republican leadership has the support it needs.

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GOPer: New terror hijack 'no catastrophe'

NY Daily News
GOPer: New terror hijack 'no catastrophe'

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - A Georgia lawmaker has stunned congressional colleagues - and New Yorkers - with complaints about air security and saying another hijack attack wouldn't be a "catastrophe."


At two hearings of the House Homeland Security Committee last month, GOP Rep. John Linder blasted federal spending that focuses on "looking for toenail clippers and box cutters."

"It is my view that no airplane will ever hit a commercial building - which is the only value [terrorists] have in taking out large numbers of people," he said at an April 27 hearing. He added that "passengers won't allow that to happen."

"And if an airline is blown up in the air, that is a very bad circumstance for 200 or 300 people, but it is not a catastrophe," Linder said. He made similar remarks April 13 to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

But 9/11 relatives such as Carie Lemack, whose mother, Judy Larocque, died on American Airlines Flight 11 when it hit the World Trade Center, blasted the lawmaker's insensitivity.

"It's a catastrophe to me and to everyone who knew and loved her, and to all the families and friends and neighbors who knew everyone on those planes and in those buildings," Lemack said.

Linder's comments were "obviously insensitive," agreed Kristen Breitweiser, whose husband, Ron, was killed in the twin towers. "Any death from a terrorist attack that didn't need to happen is a catastrophe."

Asked whether Linder acknowledges that he crossed an emotional line, his spokeswoman, Gretchen Learman, said, "We certainly are." A lost jetliner "would be a devastating tragedy," she said.

Chertoff took exception to Linder's bizarre complaints about protecting air travel. "I certainly think that toenail clippers are not the thing we're worried about," Chertoff said.

New York lawmakers also expressed outrage. "I'm speechless. New Yorkers know we need to be strong on every front, not just worst-case scenarios," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan).

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Westchester) said it's "unbelievable" her fellow committee member doesn't see every terror attack as catastrophic.

Linder said more federal cash should be spent on hunting nuclear devices in terrorists' hands. "Preventing nuclear terrorism merits resources - but not at the expense of aviation security," Lemack said.

Originally published on May 4, 2005

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Mass. House Approves Stem-Cell Bill

nevadaappeal.com
Mass. House Approves Stem-Cell Bill

By STEVE LeBLANC
Associated Press Writer
May 4, 2005

BOSTON (AP) -- House lawmakers on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a final version of a bill that would give scientists in the state more freedom to conduct embryonic stem cell research, despite a promised veto by Gov. Mitt Romney.

The bill was approved by a 119-38 vote. The Senate approved it by a 34-2 vote last week. Both votes give supporters far more than the two-thirds majority needed to override a gubernatorial veto. A final procedural vote is needed in both chambers before the bill is sent to Romney's desk.

It would let scientists create cloned embryos and extract their stem cells for research into the potential treatment and cure of diabetes, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries and other conditions.



But critics say it will allow scientists to create new human life just to destroy it. They say there are other kinds of stem cell research that don't involve the creation of new embryos.

Romney supports research using adult stem cells or leftover frozen embryos from fertility clinics, but opposes the creation of new embryos.

Under current state law, scientists conducting stem cell research first need the approval of the local district attorney. The bill would remove that requirement, give the state Health Department some regulatory controls and ban cloning for reproductive purposes.

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Bush administration stepping up obscenity prosecutions

USA TODAY

Bush administration stepping up obscenity prosecutions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thomas Lambert made no attempt to hide the kind of videos he peddled from his Montana home — hard-core sex tapes involving bestiality, sadomasochism and simulated rape.

The 65-year-old former schoolteacher had little reason to believe he could get in trouble. He was selling tapes to adults who wanted them and there had not been a federal obscenity prosecution in Montana in at least 16 years, according to his lawyer, Mark Errebo.

But Lambert and co-defendant Sanford Wasserman were charged last spring with violating federal obscenity statutes. In pleading guilty, they joined a growing number of purveyors of pornography whom the Bush administration has pursued.

Since 2001, 40 people and businesses have been convicted and 20 additional indictments are pending, said Andrew Oosterbaan, chief of the Justice Department's child exploitation and obscenity section. By comparison, there were four such prosecutions during the eight years of the Clinton administration, he said.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, like his immediate predecessor, John Ashcroft, has pledged to make obscenity prosecutions a priority. The department is expected to announce soon the creation of a special unit within its criminal division to focus on adult obscenity cases.

"Enforcement is absolutely necessary if we are going to protect citizens from unwanted exposure to obscene materials," Gonzales recently told federal prosecutors. He directed U.S. attorneys to report back by late July on effective ways to crack down on obscenity and what tools the prosecutors might need.

Those kind of words please religious conservatives, who claim the Clinton administration virtually ignored the proliferation of pornography, particularly on the Internet, during the 1990s.


Critics say a few dozen criminal cases will not dent an industry with an estimated $10 billion a year in sales. Moreover, they say, the effort is an assault on the First Amendment protection of speech and expression, however distasteful.

"They'll find some sacrificial victims, but the porn industry will go on," said Marjorie Heins, founder of the Free Expression Policy Project at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice.

A proponent of strict enforcement of obscenity laws agreed with Heins that so far, the administration has aimed mostly at minor figures in the industry.

"At some point, they're going to have to ratchet it up if they want to do something meaningful," said Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media.

Oosterbaan said the government has won convictions in high-profile cases. He cited a guilty plea last year from John Coil of Highland Village, Texas, who owned and operated 27 adult-oriented businesses in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Coil forfeited an estimated $8.1 million in property to the government and was sentenced to more than five years in prison.

In addition, there is the 23-count indictment against Edward Wedelstedt of Littleton, Colo., and his Goalie Entertainment Holdings Inc. Wedelstedt owns pornographic bookstores in 18 states; the indictment lists six allegedly obscene videos and DVDs.

The government is seeking the forfeiture of millions of dollars in real estate and other property, including a Lear jet, in the Wedelstedt case.

Henry W. Asbill of Washington, Wedelstedt's lawyer, said the indictment was politically motivated.

"My client supplies his own stores with adult materials that are for adults only. Consenting adults come into the stores and view or rent or buy the movies," Asbill said.

In trying to prosecute obscenity, it long has been difficult to distinguish obscenity from indecent content. As former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once famously said about hard-core pornography, "I know it when I see it."

The Supreme Court has ruled that many dirty pictures are constitutionally protected free speech that adults have the right to see and buy. The high court also has rebuffed Congress' attempts to ban or restrict adult-oriented Web sites.

But the court also set out ground rules for obscenity in its landmark 1973 ruling in Miller v. California that allow the standards for offending material to vary from one community to the next.

The Justice Department's approach has been to identify videos that even some in the pornography business find unappealing and to bring charges in more socially conservatives places, where possible.

In the Montana case, Lambert distributed videos that even his lawyer said were "frankly, disgusting."

In the case against Wedelstedt, the government filed charges in Dallas, where the Colorado resident was indicted.

But a recent court decision in Pittsburgh could upset the administration's plans. U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster tossed out an obscenity indictment against Extreme Associates Inc. and its owners, Robert Zicari, and his wife, Janet Romano, both of Northridge, Calif.

Lancaster ruled that prosecutors overstepped their bounds while trying to block the company's hard-core movies from children and from adults who did not want to see such material. He said the company can market and distribute its materials because people have a right to view them in the privacy of their own homes.

The government has appealed.

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U.S. asks for more data on travelers

USA TODAY
U.S. asks for more data on travelers
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY

The federal government plans to begin collecting the full names and birth dates of air travelers this summer in its latest effort to screen passengers for possible links to terrorism.

In a few weeks, the Transportation Security Administration will notify airlines, travel agents and online reservation systems that they will be required to ask travelers for their legal names and birth dates when booking domestic flights.

Travelers will be encouraged — but not required — to give the personal information. Under the current system, only a last name and first initial are needed to reserve a flight.

Passengers who don't comply with the request will dramatically increase their chances of being stopped at airports for questioning or pat-downs, TSA assistant administrator Justin Oberman said. That's because their partial names are more likely to register a "hit" on terrorist watch lists.


More detailed personal information will enable security officials to distinguish innocent passengers from those who might be terrorism suspects.

"The vast majority of travelers will be willing to give their full name and date of birth," Oberman predicted.

The government's long-awaited takeover of background checks from airlines is getting a 60-day test run starting in August.

Two airlines will begin transmitting full names and birth dates of each passenger to the TSA for comparison with a terrorist watch list. The TSA expects to name the airlines within a week.

Other domestic airlines will follow over the next 18 months, said Oberman, who oversees the program.

The new program, called Secure Flight, comes on the heels of a failed government effort to collect passengers' personal information. The TSA killed a program known as CAPPS II last summer amid concerns, some from within TSA, that it was too intrusive.

Secure Flight has advanced far beyond CAPPS II, which never went past the planning stages.

Millions of passengers a year are given extra airport scrutiny or told they cannot board flights because their names resemble those of terrorism suspects.

The TSA also will compare passengers' names with the government's comprehensive watch list. Airlines screen travelers against a partial list that omits names the government considers too sensitive to release.

But privacy concerns linger as the TSA weighs whether to seek more passenger information, such as credit data. Greeley Koch, a member of the executive committee of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, says his group fears that the government may begin collecting too much personal information and will check passengers through commercial databases that reveal credit and purchasing histories.

In order for Secure Flight to go beyond the test phase, TSA must ensure that few passengers will be incorrectly tagged as terrorism suspects.

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In attacking Hillary Clinton, Janet Parshall revived debunked smear

mediamatters.org
In attacking Hillary Clinton, Janet Parshall revived debunked smear

During an extended attack on Democrats who oppose President Bush's judicial nominees, radio host Janet Parshall falsely accused Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) of promoting herself as an evangelical Christian. The source of Parshall's accusation was apparently a National Review Online column by "comic commentator" Rob Long.


From the May 2 edition of the nationally syndicated radio program Janet Parshall's America:

PARSHALL: And our challenge is going to be able to persevere, speak the truth, doing it in a loving fashion when they take our faith and use it as a bludgeoning tool against us. Dirty politics. In the final analysis, it will work against them. How do I know that? Because Hillary's already calling herself an evangelistic -- evangelical Christian. And last time around, she was Jewish. So before it's all said and done, she will be an evangelical Jewish Muslim. Trust me.

Long's November 16, 2004, column began with a bulletin from a fictitious church in Arkansas:

From "Light the Lamp!": The monthly newsletter of the Holy Flame Pentecostal Church of Little Rock: We welcome back to the area Senator Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.), who has been spending so much time here in Little Rock lately that she's practically joined the church choir! "I'm here spending time at my husband's library," she told the Lamp when we caught up with her after a Sunday camp meeting, "and of course, I always take time to worship God in as evangelical a way as is feasible, given time and location constraints. As you know, I consider myself an evangelical Christian, really a Christian conservative, if you want to know the truth, so it's nice to be 'home' again in the South, which I really consider my quote-unquote home even though I live in New York most of the time. Well, Washington, D.C., most of the time, actually, but if I'm not there I'm in New York, of course, but always thinking about being here, in the South, my spiritual home, where I shared so many wonderful evangelical ... moments and ... events. Can you read that back to me?"

When Long's piece appeared, numerous conservative websites published the alleged Clinton quote across the Internet, misrepresenting it as real. After realizing the quotation was fake, the authors of one website, Blogs for Bush, issued a correction: "That's what I get for not tracing the quote to the original source."

Further, contrary to Parshall's claim that "the last time around, [Clinton] was Jewish," Clinton has never identified herself as Jewish. Parshall was apparently referring to an August 1999 article in the Jewish newspaper The Forward, which revealed that Clinton's step-grandfather was a Jew.

According to an article in American Outlook, the quarterly magazine of the conservative Hudson Institute, Janet Parshall's America "reaches 3.5 million listeners five days a week." The show is syndicated by Salem Radio Network.

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A New Rumsfeld Rule

thenation.com
The Daily Outrage
A New Rumsfeld Rule

Preventing journalists from doing their jobs has become a new "Rumsfeld Rule." Reporters covering the court martial in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, of Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar--who was convicted on April 21 of murdering two fellow soldiers in a bomb attack in Kuwait--were forced to follow fourteen Army "ground rules."

According to the association of Military Reporters & Editors (MRE), the stipulations included "a pledge to not interview soldiers at Fort Bragg about the case or ask legal advisors in the media room to speculate on the outcome. To ensure compliance with the agreement, reporters were escorted everywhere while on base and some were monitored as they went to the restroom." While the general public could speak freely with soldiers at base, reporters could not. Even the bathroom was considered a potential hot spot for reportorial subversion.

A judge can only close a legal hearing, including a court martial, based on narrow, specific findings and when presented with no reasonable alternative, neither of which applied to the Akbar case. "The purported 'agreement' does not meet that test," the MRE wrote in a letter to Rumsfeld. "No public hearing was held, no showing was made and no judicial findings were rendered to justify press restrictions of any sort."

Instead, the press is caught in a post 9/11 crackdown where any type of secrecy can be justified in the name of national security.

A military affairs reporter in Wilmington, NC, experienced similar restrictions when covering the court martial of a Marine whose plane clipped the wires of a cable car in Italy, killing several people. Another man was tried in secret for an immigration violation until his case reached the Supreme Court. Last December, the Army barred the press from covering a trial in Colorado of several soldiers accused of killing an Iraqi general. A Denver Post lawsuit forced the Army to open the proceedings.

"That strikes me as crazy," Eugene Fidell, a Denver Post lawyer, said of the recent constraints in the Akbar case. Trial coverage by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Associated Press neglected to mention the hamstrung access.

Meanwhile, their press comrades in Iraq are facing far more severe pressures. A Knight-Ridder report says Iraqi journalists have been beaten and detained by Iraqi police for "snapping pictures of long lines at gas stations," "filming a mosque" and criticizing local Governors. Journalists now avoid covering Iraqi security forces and refrain from identifying themselves as press at police checkpoints. "Under such circumstances," says Israa Shakir, editor of Iraq Today, "We should be worried about the future of democracy." Why isn't Rummy?

ari_berman

The Daily Outrage aims to shine a spotlight on the forces that corrupt our democracy. The outrages come from all over these days: lobbyists stifling reformers in both parties, defense contractors profiting off pre-emptive war, the mainstream media echoing government deceptions, and a rightwing attack machine defending neo-imperialists and distorting progressive values. These stories rarely make the front-page, penetrate talk-radio, or appear on the evening news. So let The Daily Outrage guide you through the tangled web of media, money and politics at home and abroad. And click here to let us know of any outrages you think we should be covering.

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Oil projects may get less scrutiny

Yahoo! News
Oil projects may get less scrutiny

By Tom Kenworthy, USA TODAYWed May 4, 6:11 AM ET

When a Denver-based energy company proposed to explore and drill for natural gas in an area rich with ancient Indian art panels, the plan kicked off a rigorous environmental review.

The company, Bill Barrett Corp., spent two years and $1 million to comply with the federal law that requires studying what the drilling would do to the environment. The 1969 environmental law also requires consultations with government agencies, Indian tribes and residents before drilling and exploring can begin.

The result: The federal Bureau of Land Management forced changes in the project to protect thousands of rock art and artifacts, as well as wildlife and streams.

"It slowed things down a little bit, so the (Bureau of Land Management) could do it right," says Pam Miller of the College of Eastern Utah's Prehistoric Museum.

But in the future, companies like Barrett that produce oil and gas in the Rocky Mountain West may not have to undergo that kind of environmental analysis.

A section of the energy bill approved by the House of Representatives last month would exempt many federal energy projects from the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act.



If the Senate passes the bill and the president signs it into law, many oil-and-gas projects will no longer be analyzed for their environmental effects or be open to public comment. Some examples:

• Oil and gas wells that disturb less than 5 acres of land. Kermit Witherbee of the Bureau of Land Management says, "Most of our drill pads are less than 5 acres. Our average is less than 3 acres."

As of January, there were more than 63,000 oil and gas wells on federal land, and the Bush administration is accelerating approval for new ones. The energy bill, if it becomes law, will apply to new projects.

• Most seismic explorations, which use sound waves generated by trucks or small underground explosions to find likely pockets of gas and oil.

• New wells added to existing fields that were previously analyzed - a common practice that can double or triple the number of wells in an area.

The bill also would mean no environmental studies of water discharged from wells that coax methane gas from coal seams. These coal bed methane wells often bring large amounts of salty water to the surface, which can damage plants and pastures.

Coal bed methane, a form of natural gas used for heating homes and generating electricity, is rapidly growing in the West, with about 51,000 wells proposed just in one corner of Wyoming.

The change in the environmental law would be welcomed by the energy industry, which has long complained about meeting federal regulations while seeking to increase production of gas and oil.

The legislation "could prove to be a real benefit," Barrett Vice President Duane Zavadil says. He estimates "if not a majority, near a majority" of the company's projects would come under the environment exemptions in the energy bill.

But environmental groups say the legislation would open a loophole that would lead to abuses of public land.

"This is swinging the gate wide open. ... The scope of what it is going to affect is enormous," says Steve Bloch, an attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, a conservation group based in Salt Lake City.

"What you lose ... is the process of addressing potential impacts and the process of letting the public have a voice in what happens," says Sharon Buccino, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington.

Just how big the impact would be is uncertain. The Bureau of Land Management, the agency that oversees energy development on federal lands, has made no assessment yet.

"We haven't done a specific inventory," says Witherbee, a senior minerals official in the bureau's Washington headquarters. He says the agency must still comply with other environmental laws, so "it isn't going to have a huge effect."

U.S. Rep. John Peterson (news, bio, voting record), a Pennsylvania Republican who wrote the part of the energy bill allowing the exemptions, says the looser environmental requirement would spur energy production without harming the environment. Reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act often duplicate other studies, he says.

Peterson says the environmental law, passed during the Nixon presidency, is frequently "used to delay projects."

Here in eastern Utah, the law led to changes in the way Barrett drilled and explored for gas - and stronger protections for archaeological sites. "I think there's very little doubt the project would have been different," without the law's requirements, Bloch says.

The project Barrett proposed in 2002 involved land around Nine Mile Canyon, which is actually 40 miles long and includes thousands of Native American artworks carved into rock walls and artifacts. Many sites were used by the Fremont Indians and date back 1,000 years. There are also cabins and other structures built by the Buffalo Soldiers, the 19th-century African-American cavalry who helped explore the West.

Nine Mile Canyon was named last year by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of the nation's 11 most endangered places.

As a result of the environmental law, federal land managers ordered changes to the Barrett proposal:

• Gas wells planned for the canyon bottom were eliminated.

• Crews conducting the seismic work had training to avoid archaeological sites.

• Archaeological consultants conducted more surveys covering a larger area.

• Landscape architects were hired to help supervise the upgrading of a gas pipeline within the canyon.

• Extensive consultations were held by the Bureau of Land Management with Indian tribes and other agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, to gauge environmental threats.

With "so many resources out there," says Mark Mackiewicz, who supervised the project for the Bureau of Land Management, "I can't imagine this project without a process like (this)."

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Air Force Academy wrestles with alleged religious bias

Yahoo! News
Air Force Academy wrestles with alleged religious bias

By Patrick O'Driscoll, USA TODAYWed May 4, 6:11 AM ET

A Pentagon task force will investigate the religious climate at the Air Force Academy after allegations of anti-Semitism, favoritism for born-again Christian cadets and conversion attempts by evangelicals on the Colorado Springs campus.

The investigation, announced Tuesday by acting Air Force Secretary Michael Dominguez, will address the behavior of cadets and the academy's leadership. It comes four days after the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State issued a 14-page report citing instances of alleged religious bias and preferential treatment toward Christians at the academy.


A Pentagon statement Tuesday listed various steps already taken by the academy to address concerns of bias, including a mandatory class in religious tolerance for all 4,000 cadets and 5,000 other academy personnel. But the statement also noted that "lingering allegations," including those of Americans United, "are being taken very seriously."

The investigation grew out of a survey of cadets and staff last year after another academy controversy: a 2003 scandal in which nearly 150 female cadets alleged that they had been sexually assaulted by fellow cadets in the previous decade.

Write-in remarks on religion prompted officials to conduct focus groups during the summer. The academy's superintendent, Lt. Gen. John Rosa, told the school's civilian oversight board last month that those yielded complaints of 55 instances of religious bias in the past five years, including proselytizing by Christians, use of Bible quotes in official e-mail and an ad promoting Jesus in the base newspaper, signed by 200 academy leaders.

The Americans United report alleges that non-Christian cadets were harassed by seniors and that Christians were allowed to display crosses in the dorms while cadets were barred from hanging non-religious items.

The academy is in Colorado Springs, a hub of evangelical Christian groups including the International Bible Society, The Navigators and Youth with a Mission. Across Interstate 25 from the academy is the headquarters of Focus on the Family, which reaches millions on radio and is active on conservative social and political issues.

The most recognizable building on the academy's campus is the chapel, a non-denominational house of worship. The main-floor chapel is for Protestant denominations, which include 60% of Air Force cadets. Rooms downstairs include a chapel for Catholics (30%), a synagogue for Jews (1%), a prayer room for Muslims (less than 1%) and spaces for others.

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