(Stories that probably didn't make your paper's headlines, if they got mentioned at all)

April 30, 2004

Topics of the present issue:
• I. Chernobyl Anniversary
• II. Middle East News
• III. Legislation
• IV. Democracy in Crisis
• V. Reagan Legacy
• VI. Poverty

I. CHERNOBYL ANNIVERSARY

Lest we forget, this past week was the sad anniversary of the Chernobyl meltdown. About two months ago, Elena--who lives some 130 km from Chernobyl, loves biking and owns a Kawasaki ZZR-1100--put up a site that was unlike any other. The main attraction was her "Elena's Motorcycle Ride through Chernobyl," an easy to read essay with ample photographs.

But Elena took it down. Her reasons can be read at her original site. Upon closing said site she stated that the "[s]ite was mirrored and copied by many people and it must be somewhere on the internet." So I did a little search-- less hype than Google, less gripe than the others, better than all--and voil� here is her original account.

If you've got the time, you ought to read it. It is sobering and certainly reads differently from the report by the "Delegates to the International Conference on Environmental Protection held in the Soviet Union in October of 1988," whose e-text is (sic) "not currently available."

And now on to some other news:

II. MIDDLE EAST

THANKS, NO THANKS--THE COALITION OF THE UNWILLING GROWS

• Norway rejects US plea to stay in Iraq; see article.
• More Bulgarian troops want out of Iraq; see article.

NO THANKS, BUT MAY BE TANKS?

• While the Organization of the Islamic Conference condemned US policies in Israel and Iraq it has also indicated they could contribute troops to Iraq if under UN auspices. (You'll have to go through their press releases, and remember this is diplomatic lingo.)

PRESIDENT MUBARAK FINDS AN OPEN EAR--IN PARIS, NOT WASHINGTON

• Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has warned the US that Arab opinion is growing more negative because of the war in Iraq and support for Israel. He said that "There exists today a hatred never equaled in the region". (In French, alas: Hosni Moubarak : l'Am�rique r�colte la "haine" dans le monde arabe)

BET ON LIKUD VOTERS TO BUNGLE THIS ONE

• UN Middle East Envoy Roed-Larsen said that if the Gaza withdrawal is carried out in the right way it could lead to a new era in peacemaking; the wrong way could lead to more violence.
• Yet an Haaretz poll shows that 43% of Likud voters are against pullout plan, and barely 36% in favor; Poll shows PM's hints that he will quit if he loses referendum have had no real impact; April 21 poll showed 47% in favor, 40% against.

GUESS WHO'LL FEED THAT SUV NEXT YEAR

• The US Treasury has lifted most sanctions imposed on Libya.

IRAQ--LINKS GALORE WANTED?

• Then go to Future of Iraq Portal.

AN IRAQ TIME LINE WANTED?

• From the people who broke the Sibel Edmonds story. (Special report with timeline.)

III. LEGISLATION

'DOOMSDAY BILL'

• As previously brought to you in US LAWMAKERS PASS 'DOOMSDAY BILL' here is the full text re. the US House of Representatives having approved a bill to hold special elections to fill vacancies within 45 days in extraordinary circumstances (the death of 100 or more members).

Re. ENEMY COMBATANTS

• The US Supreme Court has begun hearings on two cases arising from the unlimited detention of "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay, Rasul v. Bush and al Odah v. Rumsfeld. The outcome will be of interest, especially since the US is increasingly relying on "security companies" (a.k.a. mercenaries, soldiers of fortune) in Iraq, e.g. "Hundreds of army officers resign to cash in on Iraqi security boom," and "Several other South Africans killed in Iraq have been employed by security organizations, which have been recruiting among former members of the South African military."

IV. DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS

DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS--LATIN AMERICA

• "Democracy in Latin America," an new report sponsored by the UN Development Program, finds a deep crisis of confidence in democracy throughout the region, where only half the people prefer democracy to authoritarian rule.
• The secretive Mexican armed forces are revealed in part by new materials declassified by the US and provided through the National Security Archive in "The Blind Man and the Elephant: Reporting on the Mexican Military"

DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS--REMEDY IN THE US

• New searchable database will chart among others Bush/Cheney lies. Here's the ad for the database.

V. REAGAN LEGACY

• On or around September 11, 2001, Ms Condaleeza Rice was supposed to give a talk on one of the GOP pet topics, i.e. ballistic missile defense, a.k.a. Starwars. Here's the what The US General Accounting Office (GAO) has to report: "The Department of Defense (DOD) has treated ballistic missile defense as a priority since the mid-1980s and has invested tens of billions of dollars to research and develop such capabilities. In 2002 two key events transformed DOD's approach in this area: (1) the Secretary of Defense consolidated existing missile defense elements into a single acquisition program and placed them under the management of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and (2) the President directed MDA to begin fielding an initial configuration, or block, of missile defense capabilities in 2004. MDA estimates it will need $53 billion between fiscal years 2004 and 2009 to continue the development, fielding, and evolution of ballistic missile defenses." It finds that the program tests are not reliable or complete, do not include life-cycle costs, and do not explain critical assumptions such as type and number of enemy decoys. The repetitive and scripted tests have achieved only 50 percent successful intercepts, offering no proven results. Furthermore, it is over budget, over cost and behind schedule."

VI. POVERTY

• The World Bank and IMF4 "Global Monitoring Report 2004" is out. It warns that "poor people in a large number of countries face little hope of emerging from lives of poverty and deprivation unless all actors in the development field-including governments in poor and rich countries alike-take urgent action now to address the root causes of poverty."
• And the World Bank's annual "World Development Indicators 2004" exhibits uneven progress. Although the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, on less than $1 a day, has dropped from 40 to 21 percent of the world's population, the proportion of poor has increased in many countries in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
• The US General Accounting Office also looked at poverty last week. Their report "Challenges in Financing Poor Countries' Economic Growth and Debt Relief Targets" looks at the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. They find that multilateral creditors have found it difficult to fund their commitments and that many poor countries are unlikely to achieve debt reduction targets because of significantly lower export earnings.