It’s all political

December 4th, 2006

I may not be the next big thing in the world of psychics, but I did say a couple of weeks ago that John Bolton the US ambassador to the UN was on a hiding to nothing. Ok, I admit it wasn’t foresight on my part — Bolton’s position was increasingly untenable with the change in the political landscape, and now his pro Israel vocal gaff a couple of weeks ago to the UN has become his swan song as he and his bad hair day wander off, Bush really has started his spring cleaning early — with a little help from his friends.

There is some news on politics in the environment with rumours that Bush plans to allow oil drilling in the US in areas of environmental significance and a story from the UK on the political use of law in the name of terror protection for civilians.

Off at a tangent, though political in the deeper sense — here is a link about God from an ex- priest with the agnostic point of view — the religious equivalent of the Liberal some would say in this increasingly politicised mystical element of our lives, where science and religion and different religious ethos are being pitched against each other in such a do or die fashion. The other link is about a book on religion from an atheist scientist’s point of view — The God Delusion. It’s selling like hot cakes in the UK apparently, should make for some interesting post xmas dinner debates!

God. Who knows?
The God delusion

And if you haven’t already, pop over to Psychsound and catch Steve Bergstein’s thoughts on the report last week that the US is carrying out terror risk assessments on passengers without their knowledge. I’m still upset myself over the other disclosure that new x-ray screens are being tested in airports that show graphic images of the outline of your body — like my Gran said you should always be wearing your best knickers when you leave the house — you never know what may happen.

So wots your terror rating darling?
Phoenix airport to test X-ray screening

Mel

John Bolton resigns as ambassador to U.N.
MSNBC
Dec. 4, 2006

Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said Monday.

Bolton’s nomination has languished in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for more than a year, blocked by Democrats and several Republicans. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican who lost in the midterm elections Nov. 7 that swept Democrats to power in both houses of Congress, was adamantly opposed to Bolton.

Critics have questioned Bolton ’s brusque style and whether he could be an effective bureaucrat who could force reform at the U.N.

President Bush gave Bolton the job temporarily in August 2005, while Congress was in recess. Under that process, the appointment expires when Congress formally adjourns, no later than early January.

The White House resubmitted Bolton ’s nomination last month. But with Democrats capturing control of the next Congress, his chances of winning confirmation appeared slight. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, said he saw “no point in considering Mr. Bolton’s nomination again.”

While Bush could not give Bolton another recess appointment, the White House was believed to be exploring other ways of keeping him in the job, perhaps by giving him a title other than ambassador. But Bolton informed the White House he intended to leave when his current appointment expires, White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.

Bush planned to meet with Bolton and his wife later Monday in the Oval Office.

Bush loyal to the end

As late as last month, Bush, through his top aides, said he would not relent in his defense of Bolton, despite unwavering opposition from Democrats who view Bolton as too combative for international diplomacy.

Perino said that among Bolton ’s accomplishments, he assembled coalitions addressing North Korea’s nuclear activity, Iran ’s uranium enrichment and reprocessing work and the horrific violence in Darfur. She said he also made reform at the United Nations a top issue because the United States is searching for a more “credible” and more “effective.”

“Ambassador Bolton served his country with distinction and he achieved a great deal at the United Nations,” Perino said.

“Despite the support of a strong bipartisan majority of senators, Ambassdor Bolton’s confirmation was blocked by a Democratic filibuster, and this is a clear example of the breakdown in the Senate confirmation process,” she said. “Nominees deserve the opportunity for a clean up or down vote. Ambassador Bolton was never given that opportunity.”

Perino said Bush had reluctantly accepted Bolton ’s decision to leave when his current appointment expired. ++

Home Office mulls plan for dedicated terror judges
The Scotsman
Mon 4 Dec 2006

Britain could get dedicated “terror judges” to oversee court cases where intercepted phone calls would be used against people accused of terrorism. Creating “examining magistrates” like those who run cases in France and other continental countries would mark a fundamental change in British law.

It is one of two options understood to be being studied by a confidential Home Office review of “intercept” evidence, due to report to ministers by the end of the year. The final recommendations of the review group will help determine what proposals the government brings forward in its terrorism bill early next year.

Intercepted or “tapped” phone conversations cannot be legally admitted to court under current rules and the possible use of such material is intensely controversial within Whitehall.

Advocates say using the material could help secure more convictions against terrorists and reduce the need for control orders and other non-judicial penalties imposed on some suspects. Sceptics, including senior intelligence chiefs, worry the move could allow defence lawyers to request numerous transcripts of intercepted calls, placing an impossible administrative burden on the already over-stretched security agencies.

Almost every terrorist surveillance operation generates hundreds of hours of intercepted conversations, which some fear could be used in “fishing expeditions” by defence lawyers. However, John Reid, the Home Secretary, has appeared sceptical about the proposals. Last month he appeared to cast doubt on intercept evidence, telling MPs using wire-tap material would not be “a magic bullet” against terrorism. ++

Bush May End Drilling Ban in Alaskan Bay
Associated Press
Dec 2

President Bush is deciding whether to lift a ban on oil and gas drilling in federal waters off Alaska’s Bristol Bay , home to endangered whales and sea lions and the world’s largest sockeye salmon run.

Leasing in a portion of the area rich in oil and natural gas ended nearly two decades ago - while Bush’s father was president - in the outcry after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

But with natural gas prices higher, the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service proposed reopening up the North Aleutian Basin. That includes Bristol Bay and part of southeastern Bering Sea.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel confirmed Saturday the president was considering taking that step.Environmentalists oppose drilling there because of the potential for oil spills and harm to wildlife. They have speculated in recent days that Bush might allow such drilling before Democrats regain control of Congress in January.

“If the Bush administration decides to allow drilling in Bristol Bay, it will simply illustrate the level to which they will sink to satisfy Big Oil,” Carl Pope, the Sierra Club’s executive director, said Saturday. “They are willing to risk a valuable, renewable resource like Bristol Bay’s salmon fisheries for limited, shortsighted drilling plans.”

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass, a senior member of the House Resources Committee, said opening up Bristol Bay and expanding drilling off Florida’s coast - a goal of House Republicans before losing power to Democrats - would amount to “a last minute giveaway of public lands as an early Christmas present to the big oil companies.”

The Minerals Management Service said in its August proposal that reopening energy development in the basin’s federal waters, extending between three miles and 200 miles offshore, could produce $7.7 billion in oil and gas production and up to 11,500 jobs.

Some 200 million barrels of crude oil, about what the U.S. imports every 16 days, are thought to be there. The agency estimates the region could yield 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas - a quarter of all U.S. annual production.

Fourteen companies are said to be interested. The agency cited support among more than a dozen local and tribal governments nearby who believe the drilling would boost their economy. Lease payments go to the government.

Despite its fame among fishermen for its rich stocks of salmon, king crab and other seafood, the Bristol Bay fishing region has lost hundreds of millions of dollars over the past decade because of competition from less expensive farmed salmon.Alaska Native villages also depend on the annual sockeye and chinook salmon runs for protein in their diet.

The commercial fishing industry has plunged into a depression, giving more support to Royal Dutch Shell PLC and other oil companies that have lobbied the White House to lift the offshore drilling ban.

Environmentalists worry about the large populations of migratory seabirds and crab, the imperiled Steller’s sea lions and northern sea otters, or the North Pacific right whales - a population so decimated only about 100 are thought to still exist.

The Minerals Management Service said accidental spills could foul coastal water quality, and the noise and pollution from more ship traffic could disturb or kill seagoing creatures. It said even a large spill probably would harm only a small portion of the fish populations, but could pose a serious threat to marine mammals.

The Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association raised alarms about protecting the region, as did the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association, which said the drilling would threaten the salmon runs.On Friday, more than 30 people representing fishermen, native Alaskans and conservationists wrote Bush urging him not to lift the ban.

“These protections have been in place because of the great risk to Bristol Bay posed by oil and gas development,” wrote representatives of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, Alaska Wilderness League, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund and others. “The presidential withdrawal now stands as the last line of defense for this irreplaceable resource.”

The southwest segment of Bristol Bay was last open for lease sales in 1988 when the federal government collected more than $95 million. The government bought back the leases after the Exxon Valdez coated Prince William Sound and the waters of south-central Alaska with 11 million gallons of crude.

Congressional protections put on the area in 1989 were lifted in 2003 at the behest of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who said he had been acting at the request of constituents in the region.

Environmental groups said they are confident the new Democratic-controlled Congress would work to restore congressional protections on Bristol Bay. ++

UN chief tells of Iraq war sorrow
BBC
Monday, 4 December 2006

The situation in Iraq has become “much worse” than a civil war, the outgoing United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has told the BBC. Mr Annan, who leaves office after 10 years on 31 December, said life for the average Iraqi was now worse than under the regime of Saddam Hussein .

Expressing his sadness for being unable to prevent the war, he urged regional and international powers to help Iraq. But Mr Annan urged his successor, South Korean Ban Ki-moon, to “do it his way”.

Asked by the BBC’s Lyse Doucet whether the situation in Iraq could now be classified as a civil war, Mr Annan pointed to the level of “killing and bitterness” and the way forces in Iraq are now ranged against each other.

“A few years ago, when we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war. This is much worse.

“We have a very worrisome situation in the broader Middle East ,” Mr Annan said, linking the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Lebanon with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and tensions over Iran .

Tough situation

He admitted that the failure to prevent the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a major blow to the UN, one from which the organisation is only beginning to recover.

“It’s healing but we are not there yet, it hasn’t healed yet, and we feel the tension still in this organisation as a result of that.”

Mr Annan described the current situation in Iraq as “extremely dangerous” and empathised with the plight of ordinary Iraqis.

“If I were an average Iraqi obviously I would make the same comparison, that they had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying, ‘Am I going to see my child again?’

“The society needs security and a secure environment for it to get on - without security not much can be done - not recovery or reconstruction.”

‘No will’

Mr Annan, a Ghanaian who joined the UN in 1962, became the first sub-Sahara African secretary-general at the start of 1997. The years before his appointment were marred by the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing during the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Although the UN vowed “never again” in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide and killings at Srebrenica, the organisation has been unable to end a three-year crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region, where more than 200,000 people are thought to have died.

“It is deeply, deeply disappointing and it’s tragic,” said Mr Annan. “But we do not have the resources or the will to confront the situation.”

He pledged to work towards a solution in Darfur , which Sudan’s government has refused to allow UN peacekeepers to enter, until his very last moment in office. And he was clear in his advice to Mr Ban, the South Korean diplomat who will pick up the reins at the UN’s New York headquarters on 1 January.

“He should do it his way. I did it my way, my predecessors did it their way and he should do it his way.” ++

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Entry Filed under: Political Waves