Arthur Silber

Once Upon a Time… . March 4, 2007

I could alternatively title this, “The Lies That Never End.” Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, writes in the Washington Post:

Under the national hydrocarbon law approved this week by Iraq’s Council of Ministers, oil will serve as a vehicle to unify Iraq and will give all Iraqis a shared stake in their country’s future. This is a significant achievement for Iraqis’ national reconciliation. It demonstrates that the leaders of Iraq’s principal communities can pull together to peacefully resolve difficult issues of national importance.

Resolving concerns about control of oil is central to overcoming internal divisions in Iraq. The country has the third-largest oil reserves in the world, and more than 90 percent of federal income comes from oil revenue. The effective and equitable management of these resources is critical to economic growth as well as to developing a greater sense of shared purpose among Iraqi communities.

The goal of Iraq’s leaders was to draft a law that ensured that all Iraqis could be confident they would receive their fair share of the benefits of developing the country’s resources, that the revenue from oil and gas would enable a decentralization of power while maintaining national unity, and that Iraq would adopt the best international practices for the development and management of its mineral wealth. By these standards, the hydrocarbon law is a great success.

…

This is the first time since 2003 that all major Iraqi communities have come together on a defining piece of legislation. A national reconciliation that stabilizes Iraq can be achieved if similar compromises are made on the future of de-Baathification and on amending the constitution. The agreement on the oil law should give us confidence that Iraqis are willing and able to take the steps needed for Iraq’s success.

The lies in this piece are beyond counting. The primary ones are those of omission. For example, in describing the provisions of the new oil law, Khalilzad says that it: “Creates a principal policymaking body for energy — the Federal Council on Oil and Gas — that will have representatives from all of Iraq’s regions and oil-producing provinces.” A bit later, Khalilzad writes: “It provides the legal framework to enable international investment in Iraq’s oil and gas sectors, a break from the statist and overcentralized practices of the past.”

It enables “international investment in Iraq’s oil and gas sectors…” You don’t say.

I barely have the strength to go through this again. I’ll simply refer you to my post of last week, where I quoted Chris Floyd, who wrote in part (about a NYT article concerning the same law):

[G]asp in shock-and-awed wonder that the leading newspaper in the United States could file a story like this and only note –in the next-to-last paragraph – that Iraq’s oil will controlled by the iron fist of a “central body called the Federal Oil and Gas Council” which will have “a panel of oil experts from inside and outside Iraq” as part of the operation… without telling us that these “oil experts” will in fact be executives and representatives of American and other Western oil companies.

In other words, the Bush-backing oil barons will now have an official stranglehold on the oil of the Iraqi people. No wonder the Administration has been so adamant that “a new oil law is crucial to the country’s political and economic development,” as the warm and fuzzy Times tells us.

And now the U.S. ambassador repeats the same lies in the official local propaganda outlet for the governing class.

My previous post was titled, “Slowly Going Insane…” Events of the last several days do not exactly help in this regard.

Do these people have any consciences or any souls at all? Never mind. Those of us who can still vaguely discern the outlines of reality as it recedes into the far distance know the answer.

Rami Almeghari

Al-Jazeerah.info . March 5, 2007

Since the abduction by Palestinian resistance groups of an Israeli soldier Gila’d Shalit in June25, 2006, the Israeli gun ships have prevented Palestinians from fishing off the coast. This has severely affected both fishermen and food security for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza fishing is a source of living for thirty thousand people, but since last June, the Israeli naval forces have harassed Palestinian fishing boats that dare leave the dock.

In the main fishing site of Gaza city, called Almina, there are dozens of fishermen, trying to feed their children under harsh economic conditions. Abdurrahman Abu Riyala approached us speaking out about his daily suffering.

” I have recently come under fire. While I was working on my boat, I was surprised by them approaching me. They took me to the west, then to Almajdal. They also forced me to strip off my clothes and jump into the water” Abu Riyal said.

The practice of forcing sailors to strip and swim naked from their boats has become a routine method of humiliation. Israeli Human Rights Group, Betselem, reports that near-naked fishermen must then endure freezing temperatures while being taken to an Israeli port. Fishermen are later returned to their boat and again forced to swim across.

Israeli gunboats have carried out hundreds of such attacks; shooting at fishing boats and forcing them back to shore or detaining those on board.

According to Oslo peace accord, signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, Palestinians are free to fish within 20 nautical miles of the coast. Theses incidents have taken place even within hundred yards of the shore.

Director of Gaza Center for Human Rights, lawyer Raji Alsourani, confirmed that Israeli harassment of Gaza fishermen happen on daily basis:

“On most days, Gazan fishermen are not even allowed to depart. Most of the time they can’t practice their fishing and we can talk about hundreds of violations against the fishing community, including the destruction of boats, including imprisonment, including injuries”.

Sarit Mikhaeli, spokesperson of BETSELEM, called the Israeli actions off Gaza coast ‘unjustified’:

“Since the abduction of Corporal Shalit at the end of June 2006, Israel has actually had a policy that every fisherman takes his boat to the sea beyond a very short distance, the boat is being prevented from boating, fishing. This policy has not been made public, I mean its not a kind of an official policy and there has not been any kind of official comment on it”.

The Israeli navy has said the ban on fishing is to prevent corporal Shalit from being taken to Egypt by his kidnappers. The effect has been to put thousands out of work and to deprive Gaza’s population of a vital food source.

The World Food Program states that Israel’s closure of Gaza’s borders has led to a steep rise in malnutrition due to the loss of fish and other animal protein.

In the UN-run clinic of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where Hala Abdurrahman, a staff nurse, sees many cases a day, we learned that there have been many cases of malnutrition and low hemoglobin among children and adults alike.

“The situations of the families are very poor, they can’t serve the children with principal food elements and that’s lead to many complications. First of all as I said, is Anemia, we have about fifty percent of children under five years have hemoglobin under 10 grams and seventy percent of adolescents at school have anemia under 10 percent as well”, Hala maintained.

In the market of Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, fish sellers are sitting idles as many men and women, shopping other basic goods and paying no attention to fish stands.

“A woman has got only 20 shekels ($US 0.5), with which she wants to buy vegetables, and some sweets for her children”, Eljorani, a local fish seller said when answered a question, how much does a kilogram of fish cost?

One kilogram of a popular fish called Ghobos, costs 10 shekels ($US quarter).

Fish is now too expensive for most Palestinians, who are suffering through a severe economic crisis which the World Bank has said is directly caused by the Israeli regime.

Rami Almeghari is a Freelance journalist and a translator based in the Gaza Strip.

Today in Iraq . March 5, 2007

A boy weeps while holding a placard during a rally near Kirkuk, about 250 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad, March 4, 2007. The boy joined the protest to ask for the release of his father, who protesters said was among those arrested during a joint U.S.and Iraqi military raid two days ago. REUTERS/Slahaldeen Rasheed (IRAQ) Note: I would have featured coverage of this event in the news of the day, but I find it mentioned only in picture captions. Other photos show a decent sized crowd. — C

Baghdad

Policeman killed when gunmen attack a police station in Azamiyah district. Perpetrators escaped.

AP also reports a bomb hidden in a cigarette cart exploded in central Baghdad, wounding four civilians and damaging two cars, police said.

Prominent journalist Mohan al-Zaher killed near his home in western Baghdad. Iraqi Journalists Syndicate says he was killed resisting a kidnapping. al-Zaher has written columns critical of the Iraqi government and the U.S. occupation. This DPA article also has additional information about the discovery yesterday of the body of Jamal al-Zubaidi, the managing editor of Baghdad’s al-Safir (the ambassador) newspaper.

DPA also reports:

• Iraqi forces freed Tamer Sultan, an Iraqi defence ministry advisor, after he was earlier captured by militants from the same area.
• Separately, a civilian was killed and three people were wounded when an explosive devise was detonated in a district in central Baghdad.

Hundreds of U.S. troops enter Sadr City, seal off streets, conduct house-to-house searches. They meet no resistance and apparently find nothing.

AP also reports that U.S. troops raided a mosque in Baghdad and captured three people they identify as “suspected insurgents.” An Iraqi woman was wounded in the incident and transported to a hospital.

A car bomb targeting a police patrol killed one person and wounded four others in the southern Doura district of Baghdad, police said. Note: This is the district the U.S. shelled overnight on Thursday. Reuters also reports

• A roadside bomb near an intersection wounded two people in Doura district, police said.
• A total of 10 bodies were found shot dead on Saturday in different districts of Baghdad, police said.
• Gunmen attacked a police patrol and killed a policeman and wounded two others in Adhamiya district in northern Baghdad, police said. This could refer to the same incident reported by AP, but they describe the attack as on a police station, rather than a patrol.

Baqubah

A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol, killing four soldiers in a village near Baquba.

Roadside bomb kills three women and a child, Shiite pilgrims on their way to Karbala. However, the target appears to have been a nearby U.S. convoy. Six people wounded, not stated whether any were Americans.

Basra

British military says that coalition troops raided the local headquarters of the Iraqi interior ministry’s domestic intelligence agency, and freed 37 prisoners. British say they found evidence of torture and links to bomb attacks. Iraqi police say that U.S., rather than British troops accompanied Iraqis in carrying out the raid. (If true, this would seem to be evidence that the British have already started to withdraw from active combat in the region. Note that in this case we have one faction of Iraqi forces joining the occupation in attacking another faction. — C

Salahuddin Province

The U.S. military announced that more than 50 insurgents were detained in a three-day operation last month in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad. Three suspected insurgents were killed in the raids, the military said. (As usual, we’re just expected to take their word for it that all of the detainees and all the dead are “insurgents.” –C)

KUNA, discussing the same announcement, says it also states that “10 terrorists were killed after proving that they financed attacks against the coalition forces stationed in Abu Ajil.” KUNA also provides details on specific locations of the activities. Tikrit

Two bodies found shot dead east of the city.

Mosul

Two police killed, three injured, when gunmen open fire on a checkpoint.

A total of nine bodies were found shot dead on Saturday in different districts of the city.

Other News of the Day

Sadrist MP Falah Hassan complains about the U.S. operations in Sadr City, saying “We told (Prime Minister Nouri) al-Maliki that if there is an arrest operation against anyone, it should be done by Iraqi forces. We understood that Iraqi forces only would conduct the search and if they faced resistance, then U.S. forces could intervene, but that was not the case with today’s operation.” AP report suggests that continued forbearance by Sadrist movement is in doubt.

Arab League calls on UN Security Council to set a timetable for withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq, articulates other goals for the country. (Nothing new here — C)

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Arab League said on Sunday the United Nations Security Council should set a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa listed what the Cairo-based organization believed were the key issues for easing the crisis in Iraq.

Apart from setting a timetable for U.S.-led coalition to leave, the list also includes a call for the fair distribution of wealth and the disbanding of all militias, which are demands that Arab leaders have repeated many times. “I suggest that these foundations be included in a binding U.N. Security Council resolution that all Iraqi and other parties with present roles in Iraq should respect and follow,” Moussa said in a speech to a meeting of Arab foreign ministers.

The United States has rejected calls for setting a date for its troops, who make up the vast majority of multinational forces, to leave the country they invaded in 2003. Arab governments have little influence in Baghdad. The Arab League representative in Iraq resigned in January because of his frustration over the situation in the country.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Gutierres, addressing the Arab Foreign Ministers, urges the International Community to do more for Iraqi refugees. Excerpt:

Cairo, March 4, (VOI) – On Sunday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), António Gutierres, urged the international community to shoulder its responsibilities towards Iraqi refugees and to help the countries that host them, particularly Jordan and Syria. “The mass media showed great interest in developments in Iraq but no one showed interest in the ensuing tragedy: the largest displacement in the region since 1948,” Guterres said in his inaugural address of the 127th session of the Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Sunday.

Guterres pointed out, “millions of Iraqis decided to leave their homes to escape threats against their lives or to relocate to other areas inside the country.” The UNHCR praised Jordan and Syria for having taken on the largest refugee burden. Syria hosts about one million Iraqis and Jordan 750,000, adding that these two countries have been left unassisted, which caused price hikes there as well as other problems.

“I totally understand the fears these two countries have about their own national security but after all the (Iraqi) refugees are victims of terrorism and can never be terrorists,” said Guterres.

The UNHCR chief also announced that an international conference on Iraqi refugees would be held in Geneva in April, and said he had discussed with Syria and Jordan “the preparation of this conference and the way to make it a success.” Between 600,000 and one million Iraqi refugees are believed to have fled to Syria, and around 750,000 are estimated to be in neighboring Jordan.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini tells state television that Iran has “received proposals” from the U.S. requesting talks about Iraqi security. Not stated whether this is in connection with the upcoming multilateral conference but that would appear to be the case.

30 to 50 Syrian companies expected to take part in Iraq Reconstruction Fair scheduled for November of this year. (I post this simply because it is instructive that the Iraq Reconstruction Fair will take place in Kuwait - C)

Deja vu Department: Maliki holds a press conference, says promised cabinet reshuffle will take place in “two weeks,” offers no specifics. Note: This story says he first promised it in November, but eve that was actually just the repetition of a pledge first made last summer — C) He discusses other issues, including the upcoming security conference and militia infiltration of the Interior Ministry, which he denies. Excerpt:

Baghdad, March 4, (VOI) – Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on Sunday that the cabinet reshuffle he had announced in November 2006 will take place “very soon,” in a couple of weeks.

Maliki, in a press conference held in Baghdad, declined to name the ministries or ministers that will be included in the shakeup. It is a message for all the ministers who have proved to be inefficient in their posts, that they will be subject to change,” Maliki said.

Iraqi politicians had urged Maliki to make changes to his cabinet lineup. Several observers warned that the Maliki government might collapse if the expected reshuffle failed to bring an end to the sectarian strife that has led to remarkable acts of violence in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Maliki said the Iraqi army represents a mainstay of the country’s security and stability, stressing that the former army officers attending a conference in Baghdad represent all groups from the Iraqi people and are far from sectarianism and political influences. The Baghdad security plan needs politicians, the military and the citizens,” said the Iraqi premier. sked whether there were flaws or infiltrations into the Iraqi interior ministry, Maliki said “there are no flaws or infiltrations in the interior ministry but bad people, not just in the interior ministry but also elsewhere. Reports in the Arab and foreign mass media should not be relied on because they rely on opponents of the government, whose aim is to render the Baghdad security plan a failure,” noted Maliki.

In-Depth Reporting, Commentary and Analysis

Hearst’s Eric Rosenberg reports that funding for Sunni militants in Iraq is coming from Saudi Arabia, discusses the proxy confrontation between S.A. and Iran in Iraq. Excerpt:

During his inaugural appearance before Congress last week, the new U.S. intelligence czar made a rare public reference to one of Washington’s secret dreads. Mike McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said there are funds coming from Saudi Arabia, an ostensible U.S. ally, to help Sunni insurgents in Iraq, while Iran is supporting the Shiite militias there.

McConnell’s testimony undergirds U.S. concerns that the Iraq civil war could turn into a direct Saudi-Iranian confrontation, with American military forces caught between warring combatants for Islam’s two dominant strains. Separately, Brian Jenkins, a military expert with Rand Corp., a national security and foreign policy research organization, said: “What we already are seeing in Iraq is an emerging proxy war between Saudi-backed Sunnis and Iranian-backed Shia.”

If that proxy war cascades into a direct Iranian-Saudi military clash, it could imperil much of the world’s oil supply. Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq are Nos. 1, 3 and 4, respectively, in terms of proven oil reserves.

Nawaf Obaid, then a security adviser to the Saudi government, alluded to the tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia in November when he warned in an op-ed column that a U.S. withdrawal of forces from Iraq would result in “massive Saudi intervention to stop Iranian-backed Shiite militias from butchering Iraqi Sunnis.” The Saudis fired Obaid after the column was published in the Washington Post.

Tensions between the two nations are the main topic at a summit this weekend that Saudi and Iranian leaders were holding in Saudi Arabia.

NYT’s Damien Cave discusses the hardening of sectarian divisions in Baghdad. Not news, exactly, but this is a detailed description of the situation. Excerpt:

BAGHDAD, March 3 — After centuries full of vibrant interaction, of marrying, sharing and selling across sects and classes, Baghdad has become a capital of corrosive and violent borderlines. Streets never crossed. Conversations never started. Doors never entered.

snip

The goal of the new Baghdad security plan is to fix all of this — to fashion a peace that stitches the city’s cleaved neighborhoods back together. After three weeks, there are a few signs of progress. The number of bodies found daily has decreased to 20 or fewer from 35 to 50. In some areas closely patrolled by American troops, a few of the families that fled the violence are said to be returning.

But even in neighborhoods that are improving or are relatively calm, borders loom. Streets once crossed without a thought are now bullet-riddled and abandoned, the front lines of a block-by-block war among Shiite militias, Sunni insurgents, competing criminal gangs and Iraqi and American troops.

Some Americans who have seen both Bosnia and Iraq say Baghdad has come to resemble Sarajevo as it began to unravel in the 1990s, latticed with boundaries that are never openly indicated but are passed on in fearful whispers among neighbors who have suffered horrific losses. Like jagged wounds, the boundaries mark histories of brutal violence. And for Iraqis, they underscore a vital question at the heart of the new plan: can scarred neighborhoods ever heal?

Blogger Wissam calls the Baghdad Security Plan the “Baghdad Chaos Plan. His English is sometimes hard to understand but I think you’ll get the idea.

Iraqi government call it (BAGHDAD SECURITY PLAN) and we call it (BAGHDAD CHAOS PLAN) every single member in the security system taking money from the people to be released like for example I have paid in one day 30,000 Iraqi dinars to the traffic police and the peace keeping forces to be forgiven for the mistake that I did, my mistake was that I was driving my car in the street to go to my work in the time that I not suppose to be driving I mean the government have silly law obligate me to drive three days a week in the street in Baghdad because the numbers of the car as you know the (odds and even ) numbers my car was odd and I was driving in the even day so can you imagine he took 15,000 Iraqi dinars to him self instead giving me the 30,000 Iraqi dinars penalty recede from the government and the keeping peace forces guy did the same thing at the time that it is non of his responsibility….

Can you imagine that you are driving very happy and suddenly an Iraqi army soldier taking a guy from his car because he was wanted to the American and the Iraqi Government because he was related to the Mahdi Militia I was very happy when sow [saw that I was feeling that there is some good will be happen in our future suddenly again the keeping peace forces show up again and they pulled there weapons to the soldiers head and they asked him to release the guy the Iraqi army in coincidence were driving by the same area and they sow that scene they got mad and they start shooting at each others and the funny thing that they didn’t mentioned about it on TV so we still have the big hope in Baghdad chaos plan to bring more chaos for us till Almaliky give Baghdad to mahdi militia successfully without any contradiction from the American side..

Thanks for your time

Blogger Sahar discusses the economic desperation in the capital. (And props once more to McClatchy for giving its Iraqi employees the opportunity to address us directly — C).

Yesterday I went to the bank. Wow! I thought. So many people! Iraqis are not “bank oriented” people, if they have any excess; they tend to keep it at home. Previous experiences have taught us not to trust banks; they have been known to hold on to your money when you need it in a jiffy!

But looking at the numbers inside that bank, I thought, “I have been out of touch; bad girl.” I go in, only to find people pushing and shoving one another; fighting, shouting and cursing each other. “This is not normal,” I said to myself. I try to reach the employee with whom I have business, but my efforts are to no avail. One human current pushes me this way and another pulls me that. A proper riot!

I began to have serious misgivings.

“What is this all about?” I asked a lady who was trying, in vain, to keep from being crushed between two men, to my right, “Have you got any idea?” “Where do you come from? Don’t you know that the government is giving people relief? At last we are remembered!”

“Really!! That’s excellent!!” It was my good fortune to be at the bank this day! Although half suffocated, I felt elated at being “remembered”. “How much?” “10 000 Dinars!” (Equivalent to $7.75, purchasing power: 50 eggs).

….. Numbness.. …..

Fighting ….. Rioting ….. Flayed nerves and hot tempers flying ….. for 10 000 Dinars. Where do I come from? How many thousands have been decommissioned? How many thousands were in Saddam’s army, police and intelligence agencies? Thousands of others – professionals - dismissed from their government jobs on pretext of debathhification? Yet more thousands displaced; and more still terrorized into a futile stay-at-home existence??

Riots in the bank for ID 10 000, $ 7.75. And for $100; what would they be prepared to do? For $500? For $1000??

How many will cross that line? It’s not easy to see your family starve for principles. Mercenaries on Iranian payroll. Mercenaries on American payroll. Mercenaries on ANY payroll.

Hear! Hear! An army for a pittance. Gather yea all, who have an interest to participate in this charade. Stakes are high! All of Iraq is the stage.

Whisker’s round-up of the wounded

It’s long, but I’m going to post the whole thing today, in the context of the recent revelations about the way some of these people have been treated by the national leaders who want people to believe that opponents of the war don’t “support the troops.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Dustin E. Kirby, a Navy corpsman whose efforts to save a wounded Marine in Iraq in October and his own wounding by a sniper on Christmas. Kirby was struck by a bullet in the left side of the face while near a bunker on the roof of Outpost Omar, a Marine position in Karma, a city in Anbar province. The bullet, which he said was an armor-piercing 7.62 mm round fired from a Dragunov-style sniper rifle at a range of 400 to 600 yards, passed through his head and exited at the side of his mouth. In traveling this path, it did not strike his brain, spinal column or major veins or arteries, he said. Kirby’s therapy and treatment are less extensive. The bullet tore away seven teeth, the right side of his lower jaw, several patches of nerve and a section of his tongue. It also shattered part of his lower skull, near the roof of his mouth. Surgeons have rebuilt his face with bone and skin from one of his legs, he said, and secured the damaged tissues with 14 metal plates.

Twenty-two-year-old Daniel Houghton was transferred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. He’d been recovering at a hospital in Germany since his Chinook Helicopter crashed in Afghanistan September 18th. His family from North Carolina was able to see him for the first time Sunday night and say he still remains in serious condition with multiple injuries. Houghton is a pararescuer with the 38th Rescue Squadron stationed at Moody Air Force Base. Eight troops were killed in that same crash.

Lance Cpl. Colin Smith, a machine gunner in the vehicle’s turret who was shot through the skull by a sniper in Karma in late October. The bullet that struck Smith, the same type that struck Kirby, destroyed the top regions of both frontal lobes of Smith’s brain. But since being medically stabilized and beginning a range of therapies, he has begun to walk with assistance and a four-pronged cane, to smile and to mimic sounds and repeat words he hears, his father said. Because of damage to areas of the brain that control speech, Bob Smith said, it was not clear how fully Colin Smith would recover his ability to converse. Similarly, he has extremely limited movement on the right side of his body. It is too soon to predict how much range of motion and strength will return.

A U.S. Marine from Bellefonte who was seriously wounded in Iraq is “still fighting” for life at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where his family and fellow Marines are keeping vigil, his father said. Marine Cpl. David Emery Jr.’s, legs and left arm were shattered on Feb. 7 in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq’s Anbar province. Emery, 21, nicknamed “D.J.,” also suffered a severe abdominal wound, including a severed artery that caused his kidneys to shut down, his family said. He is on a ventilator and is also suffering from pneumonia. “Right now he’s maintaining his own blood pressure,” David Emery. “They took him off the medication for that. So that’s a positive sign. He’s still on a ventilator, and they’re still doing dialysis every day. And every day they are cleaning his wounds. “They haven’t even started working on his fractures yet,” the elder Emery said. “We take it a day at a time. Every day he holds on, there’s some improvement. It means he’s not getting worse.” David Emery Jr. has not regained consciousness since he was wounded in the bombing.

Since he has been home from the hospital, the simple task of taking a shower has been a sort of awkward minuet for Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Edwards, a victim of burns in Iraq. It involves hopping to the bathroom door of their Cibolo home, rising and sitting in a wheelchair and, depending on how much verve either of them possesses, a cradle lift to get him seated beneath the water. After the shower, reverse the steps and repeat. the injuries came in Sunni Arab territory in April 2005, when, as he puts it, he “was blown up” in a security patrol. The fuel from his fighting vehicle left third-degree burns on about 80 percent of his body. He has since undergone some 30 surgeries, battling constant pain, his care supervised at Brooke Army Medical Center.

Ben Lunak, 22, a Marine corporal, was wounded in on Feb. 25, 2006 when the Humvee in which he was riding drove over a roadside bomb. He had been stationed near Ramadi, west of Baghdad. He lost part of a leg and has had multiple surgeries. His right leg had to be amputated below the knee. A year later, Lunak is home in Grand Forks, working at Northern Plains Grain Inspection and recovering from injuries. He gets around on one natural leg and his pick of two prosthetic legs, plus one more on the way.

Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Bain, 35, of Newberry, who, on April 8, 2004, suffered severe injuries as a result of enemy rocket-powered grenades. Bain, after spending extensive time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and undergoing surgery to both his arms and back over the last three years. Bain, after spending extensive time at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and undergoing surgery to both his arms and back over the last three years

On Friday, Angela Shepherd was the recipient of the phone call that no parent of military personnel stationed in Iraq wants to receive. Her 23-year-old son, Cory Shepherd, had been gunned down by a sniper while completing work for the day on a military bunker. reserve corporal with the U.S. Marine Engineer Support Battalion, had “taken a hit to the legs.” She was told to go home to await further word. A single bullet had passed through both of her son’s legs as he stood on top of the bunker his unit had been building, but it had not damaged bones or major blood vessels.

A relative of Specialist Johnny D. Jones of Derby says he is in serious condition after being flown to Walter Reed Hospital. Jones was the driver of the vehicle that Sgt. Dave Berry was riding in when an I.E.D. was detonated. Berry was killed and two other Kansas Guardsman, Peter Richert and Jerrod Hays, were seriously injured. All of the men serve in the 1st Battalion, 161st Field Artillery, Kansas Army National Guard. Families of the victims have told KAKE that other soldiers were injured, but neither the Department of Defense nor the Kansas National Guard are commenting on injuries, or the circumstances surrounding the attack.

Staff Sergeants Jerrod Hays, 38, was flown to a hospital in Germany where he underwent surgery Friday.Hays suffered injuries to his face, eye and left hand. His wife, Nancy Hays, said he took a good blow to the back from the impact. He is expected to survive

Last year, Sgt. Shurvon Phillip was on patrol when his Humvee hit a roadside bomb. The Marine took the brunt of the explosion. Phillip, a member of the Brook Park-based 3rd Battalion 25th Marines, is now confined to a wheelchair, trapped in a body he cannot control. Phillip understands everything going on around him. To respond favorably, he flares his nostrils or blinks his eyes. He keeps his face deadpan to show that he’s thinking about something or to respond unfavorably

A Hillsboro man wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq last week was still recuperating Monday from his injuries in a military hospital in Germany. Peter Richert, a specialist with the National Guard, was traveling with 12 other soldiers either Wednesday or Thursday when the bomb exploded in the vicinity of their vehicle. According to Roger Sinclair, a National Guard recruiter who lives in Hillsboro and has been in contact with officers in Richert’s battalion since the attack, one soldier was killed by the blast and 12 others, including Richert, were wounded to varying degrees. As of Monday night, the extent of Richert’s injuries were not fully known by his parents, Ed and Phyllis Richert of Hillsboro, even though they have been in contact with their son since the incident. “What I do know is that one leg was amputated,” said Phyllis Richert. “I don’t know exactly what point along the leg. We were told, verbally, below the knee, but the paperwork says above the knee.” She added that Peter apparently sustained other injuries as well, but doctors were most concerned about the leg.

23-year-old Sgt. Casey Helms of Bismarck, Missouri came home last weekend, after being seriously injured earlier this month. Casey Helms has an obvious limp and scars on his face and body, and while he’s very matter of fact about what happened to him - he’s also counting his blessings, because he’s home again in one piece. “There’s shrapnel down my right leg and stomach and colon. I have a collapsed lung, fractured cheek bone and shrapnel in my left eye,” Helms says. It all sounds pretty frightening, but it’s the wounds you can’t see like the memories of the suicide bomber walking towards him - that bother Sgt. Helms the most. “He was about 12 feet from me, and killed three others near me when he blew up.

Last July, a Green Bay soldier serving in Iraq was seriously injured in a roadside bomb attack. Jeff Vorpahl’s recovery continues. He wears the scars from a blast Vorpahl says he never saw coming. He was the driver of a Humvee near the Iraq-Kuwait border when the bomb exploded. The explosion left Vorpahl with massive head injuries, loss of hearing, and a broken jaw. “The major limitations right now are my back and neck problems, and my jaw, it was all broken up in here, but other than that I’ve been pretty lucky.”

Army Sgt. Mark R. Ecker II has begun the long process of healing, and his family says he’s determined to rise above his tragedy. The 21-year-old East Longmeadow man lost both his feet last week after stepping on an explosive in Ramadi, Iraq, where he was leading a platoon through the streets and buildings of the city on a hunt for insurgents.

Staff sergeant John Grissom, 28, suffered a severely perforated ear drum in the right ear and a head injury in November. The humvee in which he was riding on while on patrol in Iraq ran over approximately 60 pounds of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, linked to propane tanks. Grissom said after he got out from under the damaged vehicle, he soon realized he couldn’t hear anything.

Lance Cpl. Lukas Bell has been recovering after getting shot through both legs while serving in Iraq.

Shot by a sniper. A local soldier, Sgt. Matthew Keil, is seriously injured while fighting in Iraq. was shot in the shoulder by a sniper. The church’s reverend says the shooting left the 25-year-old paralyzed

Lance Corporal Derrick Sharpe, 19, was critically injured in an explosion September 23rd in Iraq. He was given only a 30 percent chance to live. His right leg was amputated. Sharpe will be home for a month before returning to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for rehabilitation.—His right leg had to be amputated. Scars mar much of his body. One of his kidneys doesn’t function. He has flashbacks that prompt him to reach for his rifle

Sgt. Paul Statzer has been getting medical care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Near Fallujah, a roadside bomb took away half his head and face. Statzer nearly died from his injuries. At Walter Reed, he underwent extensive reconstructive surgery – first on his skull, then his face. Last, he received a prosthetic eye. Now that he’s home, he won’t be going back to work. He’s on full disability, dealing with seizures and blood pressure problems.

Captain Larry Robinson M.D. was injured Thursday in Iraq when a humvee he was riding in hit an improvised explosive device. Robinson is a medic in the 82nd Airborne Division of the Army where he was serving as a family physician in Iraq. his injuries were not life threatening. His skull was fractured, and four bones in his face were broken, Emily said. Larry Robinson was cleared for travel to Germany and eventually the United States, where he will receive restorative surgery

A Teenage soldier has survived against the odds after being ripped apart by mortar bombs while serving in Iraq. Jamie Cooper, 18, from Kingswood, had to be brought back from the brink of death during a frantic evacuation flight and was told he would never walk again after losing the use of a leg. Then while in hospital in the UK he caught the superbug MRSA - twice. Jamie’s dramatic story began in the early hours of November 26 last year when he was serving in Iraq with the Royal Green Jackets regiment. Jamie was testing radio equipment prior to the regiment going out on a routine patrol. It was then that the camp outside the city’s Shatt al Arab Hotel came under attack and Jamie was hit by two mortar bombs which ripped a hole through his stomach. Jamie said: “We were getting mortared every night but this was the first time it hit the camp. The first bomb took out my hands and right arm. “I tried to crawl to cover but the second one landed and took out my left bum cheek and the nerves in my leg. Shrapnel went through my pelvis to my stomach. His dad Phillip said: “The military people lost him on the plane on the way back, but managed to revive him. They did not think he would survive.” “Doctors have said it will take another 18 months to a year for a recovery although his leg will always be damaged and of no use to him.

Chief Warrant Officer Patrick Scrogin, 24, was seriously injured Thursday as a U.S. Army helicopter he was in made a “hard landing” in northern Iraq Thursday. According to Scrogin’s brother Bill, Moberly, Patrick and his co-pilot were aboard an OH-58 Kiowa when the helicopter’s computer failed. Scrogin’s injuries are extensive. The two pilots were first taken to an American military hospital in Kirkuk, about 180 miles north of Baghdad. Currently he is in Landstuhl, Germany and Scrogin said he will probably be moved to Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C., by Tuesday. “So far,” said Scrogin, “he has lost his left leg below the knee and three fingers on his left hand. He has a crushed pelvis, five fractured vertebra in his upper back and fractured facial bones.”

Quote of the Day

Why are we trying to divide up the peoples of the Middle East? Why are we trying to chop them up, make them different, remind them - constantly, insidiously, viciously, cruelly - of their divisions, of their suspicions, of their capacity for mutual hatred? Is this just our casual racism? Or is there something darker in our Western souls?

Robert Fisk

BBC . March 4, 2007

Damascus, March 4, 2007

The Sabian Mandaeans - one of the oldest religious groups in the world - are facing extinction, according to its leaders.

They claim that Islamic extremists in Iraq are trying to wipe them out through forced conversions, rape and murder.

The Mandaeans are pacifists, followers of Adam, Noah and John the Baptist.

They have lived in what is now Iraq since before Islam and Christianity.

More than 80% have been forced to flee the country and now live as refugees in Syria and Jordan.

Even there they do not feel safe - but they say western governments are unwilling to take them in.

Victim voices

There are thought to be fewer than 70,000 of the Sabian Mandaeans spread across the world - only 5,000 are left in Iraq.

Nine-year-old Selwan likes watching cartoons and playing football.

But he is too scared to leave his flat. The other children tease him.

He has burns all down the side of his face and on 20% of his body.

He was kidnapped by Islamic militants who forced him to jump into a bonfire - because he is Mandaean.

Now his family lives in a tiny flat in a slum in Damascus.

I meet Luay. He is too scared to be identified and does not want to use his full name.

He was dragged off the street by armed men and forcibly circumcised - a practice not allowed in the Mandaean religion.

He is 19 and is now unlikely ever to find a bride from his own faith.

Worse, he was forcibly converted. That means in the eyes of those same extremists if he now declares himself Mandaean he is apostate.

That makes him a traitor to Islam, who may be murdered. He says he will not be safe in any Muslim country.

‘Convert or die’

Then there is Enhar, raped by a gang of masked men in front of her husband - because she would not wear a veil.

Mazen used to be a prosperous jeweller. Now he lives in a cramped flat, with his wife and children. Water drips through the ceiling.

His legs are peppered with machine-gun wounds, he can barely walk.

Shoaki wears a Manchester United hat and shows me the scars where a gang beat and cut him with a knife - he watched his brother murdered in front of him.

Mandaean elders use words like annihilation and genocide - they believe Islamic militants, both Sunni and Shia, offer them two choices - convert or die.

“Some will not consider us people of the book… they see us as unbelievers, as a result our killing is allowed,” says Kanzfra Sattar, one of only five Mandaean bishops left worldwide.

‘Wait in line’

He believes they are a litmus test for modern Iraq - in a secular state these doctors, engineers and jewellers would thrive.

In the country as it is without law and in the grip of religious extremism, he fears they will be destroyed.

“We are small in numbers, we ask all the governments of the world to extend a hand of help,” Kanzfra Sattar says.

He says he wants the West to accept his people as refugees.

I ask him what will happen if they do not - he replies simply: “Our ethnic minority and our ancient religion will die off.”

The UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, says there may be as many as a million Iraqis who have fled to Syria.

“The numbers that will be resettled are tiny compared to the very large numbers that are here,” says Laurens Jolles, the head of a UNHCR team.

He acknowledges that the Mandaeans will just have to “wait in line”, with other vulnerable groups.

Roughly two million Iraqis have fled to Syria, Jordan and Turkey. But there are no plans to welcome large numbers to the West.

The US has offered places to 7,000, while Britain says it will consider every case “on its merits”.

So the Mandaeans wait in line.

Shoaki puts it more simply: “Here, we live in despair.”

Jonathan Fildes

BBC . March 5, 2007

In 1987, Ronald Reagan declared that the US was about to enter an incredible new era of technology.

Levitating high-speed trains, super-efficient power generators and ultra-powerful supercomputers would become commonplace thanks to a new breed of materials known as high temperature superconductors (HTSC).

“The breakthroughs in superconductivity bring us to the threshold of a new age,” said the president. “It’s our task to herald in that new age with a rush.”

But 20 years on, the new world does not seem to have arrived. So what happened?

Early promise

Superconductivity was first discovered in 1911 by researchers at the University of Leiden who used solid mercury in their experiments.

Superconductors have no electrical resistance, so unlike conventional conductors they allow an electric current to flow through without any loss.

At the start, the phenomenon was only seen in materials cooled close to absolute zero, which according to theory is the state of zero heat energy.

Three-quarters of a century later, the highest temperature achieved for the onset of superconductivity, the so-called transition temperature, was a frigid 23 Kelvin (-250C).

This allowed scientists to exploit the phenomenon in specialist applications such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners and high energy physics particle colliders, cooled by liquid helium.

But more day-to-day applications, such as replacing the electricity grid with superconducting wires, remained impossible without materials able to operate at higher temperatures.

Closer to zero

The breakthrough came in 1986.

Two IBM researchers, Georg Bednorz and Alex Mueller, discovered a new family of ceramic superconductors, known as the copper oxide perovskites, that operated at 35K (-238C)

The work was rapidly followed up Paul Chu, of the University of Houston, who discovered materials operating at 93K (-182C)

The discovery meant that superconductors had entered the temperature range of liquid nitrogen (77K, -196C), an abundant and well understood coolant.

“All of a sudden everything was different,” said Professor Chu. “There was a euphoric feeling. People in the field thought nothing was impossible.”

The discovery prompted a huge gathering of physicists in New York to discuss the breakthrough, a meeting later called the “Woodstock of Physics”.

Precise structure

But large-scale commercialisation of the technology would prove more difficult.

“The material was not as simple as we originally thought,” said Professor Chu.

Despite an intensive two-decade search, the underlying mechanism of superconductivity in the ceramics is still disputed.

In addition, their exact structure, requiring ultra-thin layers of different elements stacked on top of each other, means they are very difficult and expensive to manufacture.

“Atomically, you have to line them up very precisely in order for the supercurrent to flow,” explained Professor Chu.

This, coupled with the fact that ceramics are brittle and difficult to turn into flexible wires and films, meant that prospects for immediate exploitation were not good.

“I think the expectations were a little unrealistic,” said Dr Dennis Newns of IBM.

“The typical time it takes from inventing a new concept to application is 20 years,” he said. “And that is exactly what we have seen.”

Cool running

Companies in Japan, Europe, China, South Korea and the US are forging ahead with applications.

In the US, American Superconductor has developed a way to “bend the unbendable”, creating HTSC wires that can carry 150 times more electricity than the equivalent copper cables.

“Twenty years ago you would see people making ceramic fibres and trying to bend them and it was like a dry stick of spaghetti,” said Greg Yurek, CEO and founder of the company.

To get around this brittleness, the company embeds up to 85 tiny filaments of superconducting ceramic in a ribbon of metal 4.4mm (0.17 inches) wide.

“Think of optical fibres,” said Dr Yurek. “If you have a rod of glass and you whack it on your desk it will shatter.

“Drop down to a fine optical fibre and it becomes flexible - it’s the same principle here.”

The company also produces wires with a coating of the ceramic just one micron (millionth of a metre) thick on a metal alloy. Both are cooled by a sheath of liquid nitrogen.

Short sections of the wires have already been installed in Columbus, Ohio, and a further half-mile of cable will soon be laid on Long Island, New York.

In the short term, longer stretches of the supercooled cable will be difficult to install, as it requires an infrastructure to pump liquid nitrogen around the grid.

But Dr Yurek believes that it will not be long before other firms start to offer utility companies these cryogenic services.

“This is the model they have used in the MRI industry to guarantee the cold,” he said.

Shrinking motors

The company also promotes its HTSC wires for other advanced applications.

Central Japan Railways uses coils of it for their superconducting experimental magnetic levitation (maglev) train.

American Superconductor has also developed an electric motor using coils of superconducting wire for use in the next generation of US Navy destroyers.

Electric motors are used by most commercial cruise liners, but are typically very bulky.

Using HTSC technology dramatically shrinks their size and also increases their efficiency.

The company is just about to start testing its latest 36.5-megawatt engine that is cooled by off-the-shelf liquid helium refrigerators and weighs 75 tonnes. By comparison, an engine based on copper wires would weigh 300 tonnes.

“That’s great for cruise ships and the navy, because they can use that space for other things like passenger cabins or munitions,” said Dr Yurek.

“New age”

Experimentally, things have also moved on.

New superconductors have been found. For example, a new mercury-based compound has a transition temperature of 134K (-139C)

“When we applied pressure we raised it up to 164K (-109C) - that’s a record,” said Professor Chu.

“Of course from an application point of view, it’s hopeless.”

However, other experimental work raises the possibility of discovering room temperature superconductors that would require no exotic cooling equipment.

A new theory, outlined in a paper in the journal Nature Physics by Dr Newns and his IBM colleague Dr Chang Tsuei, seeks to explain the elusive mechanism of superconductivity in the class of ceramics discovered in 1986.

“We don’t see any fundamental limits,” said Dr Tsuei.

“If someone discovered a room-temperature superconductor tomorrow that fits with what is outlined by our theory, we wouldn’t be surprised at all,” added Dr Newns.

This kind of optimism, seen for the first time in the mid-1980s, now seems to be deserved.

There has been a crescendo of research, while at the same time the first commercial HTSC products are rolling out of factories.

According to Dr Yurek, this is a sign that the new age promised by Ronald Reagan is finally here.

“I think we’re on a launching pad here and we’re now ready to take off,” he said.

Steven Ertelt

LifeNews.com . March 2, 2007

Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) — Iowa Governor Chet Culver signed a bill into law on Thursday that overturns the state’s ban on human cloning and allows scientists to use embryonic stem cells from days-old unborn children who are cloned and killed. SF 162 repeals a 2002 law that banned grisly research involving the destruction of human life.

In a signing message LifeNews.com obtained, Culver claimed the cloning bill would result in cures for patients.

“Today, thousands of Iowans who have been affected by serious illness and disease now have hope,” he alleged.

“Throughout the campaign, I promised Iowans that this administration would do everything in my power to repeal this law, and today, we keep that promise,” he said.

The governor said the new law would help in the “search for lifesaving cures for diseases like cardiovascular, diabetes, cancer, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.”

However, leading scientists say, for example, that embryonic stem cell research will likely never yield a cure for Alzheimer’s.

“Alzheimer’s is a more global disease, with an effect on numerous kinds of cells,” Steve Stice, a stem cell researcher at the University of Georgia, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. “That makes it much more difficult for a cell therapy to be effective.”

In sending the bill to the governor, the Iowa House approved the measure Thursday night on a 52-46 vote after the close 26-24 Senate vote.

The House only approved the bill because a pro-life legislator accidentally voted yes and Representative Brian Quirk, a Democrat who promised to oppose the bill, changed his mind at the last minute after a phone call from rock star Sheryl Crow.

Kim Lehman, the president of Iowa Right to Life, condemned the vote saying the new law “will allow scientists to begin cloning humans for research.”

“By doing this, Iowa is turning humans into a commodity for science,” she told LifeNews.com.

Other pro-life advocates were gravely disappointed by the bill’s passage.

“In a sad irony, lawmakers passed the bill on the 10th anniversary of the day that scientists announced the birth of Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal,” the Family Research Council said in a statement after the vote.

“Although the outcome was a setback, we are encouraged by the number of citizens who made their voices heard on behalf of the sanctity of human life. Hopefully, those same principled voters will remember this grave mistake as they elect their next leaders,” the pro-life organization added.

Related web sites:
Iowa Right to Life Committee - http://www.IRLC.org

Jonathan Beale

BBC . March 4, 2007

Opium production in Afghanistan reached record levels last year, the United States has said.

The US State Department’s annual report on narcotics also said the flourishing drugs trade was undermining the fight against the Taleban.

It warned of a possible increase in heroin overdoses in Europe and the Middle East as a result.

Poppy production rose 25% in 2006, a figure US Assistant Secretary of State Ann Patterson described as alarming.

Four years after the US and its British allies began combating poppy production, Afghanistan still accounts for 90% of the world’s opium trade.

The US has recently given the Afghan government more than $10bn in assistance, but most of that money will be spent in security rather than encouraging alternative sources of income.

The report also criticised South America’s left-wing leaders such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, for failing to do enough to fight the drugs trade.

Mike Schneider

AP . March 4, 2007

As NASA faces major budget issue, the ongoing Lust in Space saga of erstwhile astronaut Lisa Nowak has turned a new page this week with prosecutors charging her with trying to kidnap a woman she saw as a rival for a space shuttle pilot’s affections.

Florida prosecutors charged an astronaut Friday with trying to kidnap a woman she saw as a rival for a space shuttle pilot’s affections, but they declined to file an attempted murder charge that had been recommended by police.
Lisa Nowak, 43, was formally charged almost a month after she was arrested at an Orlando airport parking lot.

Police have said the Houston mother of three had raced 900 miles in her car from Texas to Orlando on Feb. 5 to confront the woman. She donned a wig and trench coat, then sprayed a chemical into the woman’s car when she wouldn’t let Nowak in, police said.

In addition to attempted kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily harm, state prosecutors charged Nowak on Friday with burglary with an assault using a weapon and battery.

A spokesman for Nowak’s attorney declined to comment because he hadn’t seen the charges. Nowak is free on bond with an ankle tracking device.

Nowak believed Colleen Shipman was romantically involved with Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, a pilot during space shuttle Discovery’s trip to the space station last December, according to police. After the confrontation, Shipman drove to a parking lot booth for help.

“We are pleased that the Office of State Attorney analyzed the facts and the law and was receptive to our input in deciding to formally charge Lisa Nowak,” said Kepler Funk, Shipman’s attorney.

Nowak flew on Discovery last summer and won praise for operating the shuttle’s robotic arm. NASA relieved her of all mission duties after her arrest and placed her on a 30-day leave, which is up next Thursday.

She had been scheduled to be the ground communicator with the space shuttle Atlantis crew that is scheduled to launch on a mission to the international space station no earlier than late April.

“As of this morning, there is no change in her status and I do not have information on what her status will be when the 30-day leave is up,” said NASA spokesman James Hartsfield in Houston.

© 2007 Associated Press/AP Online. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Sci-Tech Today. All rights reserved.

State Plan to Monitor Sex Offenders Goes Beyond Detention

DANNY HAKIM

NYT . March 4, 2007

New guidelines and procedures announced by Gov. Eliot Spitzer and legislative leaders on Thursday for confining sex offenders who have completed prison sentences go well beyond detaining the most violent predators. The law, which would be one of the most far-reaching of its kind in the country, would also provide mental health treatment to inmates while they are jailed or confined and impose supervision and treatment after their release.

Even those under 18 at the time of an offense could be subject to civil confinement under the agreement, though officials said such cases would probably be rare. Those convicted of any of a wide range of sex-related felonies would be reviewed for potential detainment after their prison sentences end, including those convicted of some nonviolent crimes like giving minors indecent material.

The agreement would eliminate parole for a greater number of sex crimes and give judges discretion to impose far longer terms of post-release supervision during an offender’s initial sentencing, to as much as 25 years from a maximum of 5 years now.

The agreement would also create a new “sexually motivated felony” that would apply to those who intended to commit a sex crime but did not.

“My hope and expectation is that our approach will become a national model,” Mr. Spitzer said at a joint news conference with legislative leaders. He noted that the proposed legislation went well beyond what has been discussed before by the Legislature.

Civil libertarians have long voiced concern about similar laws that exist in varying forms in nearly 20 other states.

Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said a legal challenge “would certainly be a possibility,” though it would require a test case. She said it was difficult to respond because the deal was negotiated behind closed doors.

“Despite all the talk of reform and openness and a new era in Albany, we once again have three men in a room cutting a deal on a very serious issue without the Legislature even being in town and with no plan for a hearing,” she said.

The legislation is virtually certain to pass because it was negotiated by the leaders of both houses and the governor. The issue of whether offenders younger than 18 could be confined after release was a major sticking point for Assembly Democrats, who relented after it was agreed that those classified by judges as youthful offenders would be exempt.

Washington State passed the first civil confinement law for sex offenders in 1990, and similar laws have been challenged in a number of other states. In 1997, in a 5-to-4 decision upholding a Kansas law, the Supreme Court ruled that states could confine violent sex offenders in mental hospitals even if the offenders did not meet the typical criteria for commitment of the mentally ill.

The new deal here would put in place a complex set of procedures. Before release from prison, sex offenders would be screened by mental health professionals to determine whether they might be predisposed to commit further sex offenses.

If an offender is judged a risk, the case will be referred to the attorney general’s office, which will decide if a jury should be convened to determine whether the inmate requires further supervision. A unanimous decision would leave it to a judge to decide whether to confine the person or impose supervision after release.

Most detainees would be housed in an existing mental health facility in St. Lawrence, north of Syracuse. Talks are continuing on building a dedicated facility to house sex offenders, which legislative officials have said could cost $200 million.

The deal was seen as a new victory for Mr. Spitzer, who succeeded in forging a compromise where George E. Pataki had failed, despite the fact that Mr. Spitzer has at times openly berated lawmakers in both parties. Republicans long accused Democrats of holding up a deal, while Democrats said their own proposals were rejected. And Mr. Pataki’s fractious relationship with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver often caused negotiations to break down.

The deal came two days after lawmakers announced a plan to overhaul the state’s workers’ compensation system, another divisive issue. Mr. Spitzer said the civil confinement legislation was “perhaps too long in the making,” adding, “Like workers’ comp, there was an impasse that required a concerted effort to overcome.”

Senate Republicans credited the governor’s aggressive approach to negotiating deals for breaking the deadlock.

“Steamrolling works,” said Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader, referring to a machine the new governor has likened himself to.

“Governor, thank you for providing the leadership, getting us together,” Mr. Bruno said. Referring to Mr. Silver, he added, “Shelly, thank you for being such a great partner — sometimes.”

Mr. Silver said, “For the record, I want to state very clearly that in 2005 we had a comprehensive child safety and sexual predator punishment and confinement strategy in the Assembly.”

There appeared to be concessions on both sides. The Senate conceded two key points to the Assembly. The trials would be held in the counties where the inmates were convicted, not where they are imprisoned. And initial screenings would be done by mental health professionals instead of by officials in the Division of Criminal Justice Services. Senators prevailed in creating a sexually motivated felony and apply the system to those under 18; the governor supported both provisions.

“It was a compromise that didn’t make either side happy,” said Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol, a Brooklyn Democrat who was a central player in the discussions.

Christine Anderson, a spokeswoman for the governor, said it was “extremely unlikely” that offenders younger than 18 would be affected. But she added that civil confinement should be considered at any age if the convict “has a mental abnormality and is determined likely to commit sex offenses if released.”

What all this would cost remains to be seen, but some said it would be far more than the $19 million in new financing that the governor has proposed in his budget.

Senator Dale M. Volker, a Republican from western New York who has sponsored bills on the issue for more than a decade, said the new law would require more parole officers and mental health workers, not to mention a new facility.

“This is not going to be cheap,” he said.

AP . March 4, 2007

This two image combination provided Saturday, March 3, 2007 by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History shows, at top, a photo of the skull of the new horned dinosaur, Albertaceratops nesmoi, and at bottom, an artist’s reconstruction of the skull. Michael Ryan, curator of vertebrate paleontology for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, published the discovery of the dinosaur in the March 2007 Journal of Paleontology. He dug up the fossil six years ago in southern Alberta, Canada, while a graduate student for the University of Calgary. (AP Photo/Cleveland Museum of Natural History, artist\’s rendering by Donna Sloan/Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, photo courtesy Michael J Ryan and the RTMP)

(AP) — A new dinosaur species was a plant-eater with yard-long horns over its eyebrows, suggesting an evolutionary middle step between older dinosaurs with even larger horns and the small-horned creatures that followed, experts said.
The dinosaur’s horns, thick as a human arm, are like those of triceratops - which came 10 million years later. However, this animal belonged to a subfamily that usually had bony nubbins a few inches long above their eyes.

Michael Ryan, curator of vertebrate paleontology for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, published the discovery in this month’s Journal of Paleontology. He dug up the fossil six years ago in southern Alberta, Canada, while a graduate student for the University of Calgary.

“Unquestionably, it’s an important find,” said Peter Dodson, a University of Pennsylvania paleontologist. “It was sort of the grandfather or great-uncle of the really diverse horned dinosaurs that came after it.”

Ryan named the new dinosaur Albertaceratops nesmoi, after the region and Cecil Nesmo, a rancher near Manyberries, Alberta, who has helped fossil hunters.

The creature was about 20 feet long and lived 78 million years ago.

The oldest known horned dinosaur in North America is called Zuniceratops. It lived 12 million years before Ryan’s find, and also had large horns.

That makes the newly found creature an intermediate between older forms with large horns and later small-horned relatives, said State of Utah paleontologist Jim Kirkland, who with Douglas Wolfe identified Zuniceratops in New Mexico in 1998. He predicted then that something like Ryan’s find would turn up.

“Lo and behold, evolutionary theory actually works,” he said.

—

On the Net:

Cleveland Museum: http://www.cmnh.org/

Southern Alberta Dinosaur Research: http://www.dinoresearch.ca/