Marcel Marceau, who revived the art of mime and brought poetry to silence, has died, his former assistant said Sunday. He was 84. . . .
Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau played the entire range of human emotions onstage for more than 50 years, never uttering a word. Offstage, however, he was famously chatty. "Never get a mime talking. He won't stop," he once said.
A French Jew, Marceau survived the Holocaust and also worked with the French Resistance to protect Jewish children. . . .
Marceau was born Marcel Mangel on March 22, 1923, in Strasbourg, France. His father Charles, a butcher who sang baritone, introduced his son to the world of music and theater at an early age. The boy adored the silent film stars of the era: Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Marx brothers.
When the Germans marched into eastern France, he and his family were given just hours to pack their bags. He fled to southwest France and changed his last name to Marceau to hide his Jewish origins.
With his brother Alain, Marceau became active in the French Resistance. Marceau altered children's identity cards, changing their birth dates to trick the Germans into thinking they were too young to be deported. Because he spoke English, he was recruited to be a liaison officer with Gen. George S. Patton's army. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
09/23/2007 08:17 ||
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words escape me
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/23/2007 8:23 Comments ||
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#8
IIRC, the part of Jane Fonda's boob will be repeated by Ted Turner
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/23/2007 13:30 Comments ||
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#9
Saw him in the 1980s. Absolutely jaw dropping talent. Convincingly created entire visual scenes on a bare stage without a single prop or backdrop. With the loss of Marcel Marceau and Victor Borg, two of the heavens' brightest stars have dimmed. Both were the epitome of truly class acts.
Ultimately, rising seas will likely swamp the first American settlement in Jamestown, Va., as well as the Florida launch pad that sent the first American into orbit, many climate scientists are predicting. In about a century, some of the places that make America what it is may be slowly erased.
Global warming through a combination of melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warmer waters expanding is expected to cause oceans to rise by one meter, or about 39 inches. It will happen regardless of any future actions to curb greenhouse gases, several leading scientists say. And it will reshape the nation. Good. Told you we didn't need Kyoto.
Rising waters will lap at the foundations of old money Wall Street and the new money towers of Silicon Valley. They will swamp the locations of big city airports and major interstate highways. Storm surges worsened by sea level rise will flood the waterfront getaways of rich politicians the Bushes' Kennebunkport and John Edwards' place on the Outer Banks. And gone will be many of the beaches in Texas and Florida favored by budget-conscious students on Spring Break. That's the troubling outlook projected by coastal maps reviewed by The Associated Press. The maps, created by scientists at the University of Arizona, are based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Few of the more than two dozen climate experts cherry-picked to be interviewed disagree with the one-meter projection. Some believe it could happen in 50 years, others say 100, and still others say 150.
Sea level rise is "the thing that I'm most concerned about as a scientist," says Benjamin Santer, a climate physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. "We're going to get a meter and there's nothing we can do about it," said University of Victoria climatologist Andrew Weaver, a lead author of the February report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Paris. "It's going to happen no matter what the question is when."
Sea level rise "has consequences about where people live and what they care about," said Donald Boesch, a University of Maryland scientist who has studied the issue. "We're going to be into this big national debate about what we protect and at what cost."
This week, beginning with a meeting at the United Nations on Monday, world leaders will convene to talk about fighting global warming. At week's end, leaders will gather in Washington with President Bush.
Experts say that protecting America's coastlines would run well into the billions and not all spots could be saved. And it's not just a rising ocean that is the problem. With it comes an even greater danger of storm surge, from hurricanes, winter storms and regular coastal storms, Boesch said. Sea level rise means higher and more frequent flooding from these extreme events, he said.
All told, one meter of sea level rise in just the lower 48 states would put about 25,000 square miles under water, according to Jonathan Overpeck, director of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona. That's an area the size of West Virginia. The amount of lost land is even greater when Hawaii and Alaska are included, Overpeck said.
The Environmental Protection Agency's calculation projects a land loss of about 22,000 square miles. The EPA, which studied only the Eastern and Gulf coasts, found that Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Texas and South Carolina would lose the most land. But even inland areas like Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia also have slivers of at-risk land, according to the EPA. This past summer's flooding of subways in New York could become far more regular, even an everyday occurrence, with the projected sea rise, other scientists said.
And New Orleans' Katrina experience and the daily loss of Louisiana wetlands which serve as a barrier that weakens hurricanes are previews of what's to come there.
Florida faces a serious public health risk from rising salt water tainting drinking water wells, said Joel Scheraga, the EPA's director of global change research. And the farm-rich San Joaquin Delta in California faces serious salt water flooding problems, other experts said.
"Sea level rise is going to have more general impact to the population and the infrastructure than almost anything else that I can think of," said S. Jeffress Williams, a U.S. Geological Survey coastal geologist in Woods Hole, Mass. Even John Christy at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, a scientist often quoted by global warming skeptics, said he figures the seas will rise at least 16 inches by the end of the century. But he tells people to prepare for a rise of about three feet just in case.
Williams says it's "not unreasonable at all" to expect that much in 100 years. "We've had a third of a meter in the last century." The change will be a gradual process, one that is so slow it will be easy to ignore for a while. "It's like sticking your finger in a pot of water on a burner and you turn the heat on, Williams said. "You kind of get used to it." Until somebody turns the burner off, and then it cools off so slowly you hardly notice it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/23/2007 15:08 ||
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I'm so sick of this histrionic bullshit. Man isn't making global warming. If it is getting warmer, it is the sun and there isn't a damn thing we can do. I think that we are about to go into a slight cooling trend and these idiots will really look dumb in 20 years. Much like their analysis of the coming Ice Age in the seventies because of pollution.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/23/2007 15:28 Comments ||
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#3
Back in the 1970s the vast majority just laughed them off as kooks. Unfortunately today, they are kooks with political power. So the best that can be hoped for is that they will lose political power.
This is because they don't care if they are wrong. MMGW is just means to an end. Once they are in control of things, MMGW will just cease to exist.
#4
Laugh now idiots. We'll see how much you'll be laughing when sea level rises by 400,000 feet. And you're attacked by ManBearPig!
Excelsior!!
I INVENTED THE INTERNET!! Yeeaaarrggghhhh!!!
Posted by: Al Gore ||
09/23/2007 17:47 Comments ||
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#5
Is anyone mass purchasing property twenty feet above the current sea level? If not, there is not one financial organization, government or wealthy investor on Earth who actually believes this crap.
#6
They are starting to use MMCC (Man Made Climate Change) to cover all the possible angles. In 25 years, people won't remember whether MMCC-ers were initially talking about warming or cooling.
The Prime Minister's decision to boycott a Europe-Africa summit in Lisbon if the Zimbabwean leader attends caused a diplomatic row and reopened old wounds.
Full story in the Guardian.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/23/2007 00:00 ||
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How many hours did Gordon Brown wrestle with his conscience over this?
Young Men Protest Cultural Strictures
College dropout Abdullah al-Alwani wanted to stand out among his friends, but he couldn't afford a splashy car or brand-name clothes. Bored by a lack of things to do in this conservative kingdom, he decided to make his mark by spray-painting X 5, his chosen nickname, hundreds of times across the city.
Mohamed Jamal Abo-Umara, the newly appointed official in charge of Jiddah's beautification, spent months on Alwani's trail. He alerted the police, told local newspapers he was looking for X 5 and offered a $1,300 reward to anyone who could lead him to the city's most prolific graffiti artist.
In May, a journalist offered to introduce the two men to each other on the condition that vandalism charges be waived, and both agreed. But the June encounter, widely covered by the local media because of X 5's notoriety, ended up addressing not just the graffiti problem but also what had fueled it -- a host of frustrations faced by Alwani's generation.
Since then, Alwani and his graffiti buddies have appeared smiling and apologetic in dozens of magazine, newspaper and television interviews, focusing a rare spotlight on Saudi youth.
Like many of his generation, Alwani, a slight 20-year-old with an Afro tinted volcano red, is buffeted between the Western culture piped into his life via satellite television and the Internet and the strict religious culture prevalent around him.
"I want graffiti walls like they have in the West. We need soccer fields and basketball courts in every neighborhood," said Alwani, who prefers low-riding jeans to the traditional white robe commonly worn here. "And I want to dress the way I want without people making fun of me."
Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy and one of the world's most socially repressive societies, also has one of the world's youngest populations, with more than 50 percent of its 22 million citizens younger than 21.
A strict form of Islam implemented by powerful clerics forces stores to close during the five daily prayers and forbids unrelated men and women to mingle in public. The result is that cinemas and theaters are banned, public schools are segregated beginning in first grade, women are not allowed to drive, and single men without female family members cannot enter most shopping malls. That's a new one on me!
Abo-Umara, the municipality official and a father of four, was criticized by colleagues for turning Alwani into a local celebrity instead of making an example out of him for vandals who have cost the city close to $1 million in graffiti cleanup.
But Abo-Umara, 45, said young men like Alwani should not be held accountable until officials are sure they've done right by local youth.A teen's dream.
"What have we done for young people? Have we asked them what they need or want?" said Abo-Umara, wearing a flowing white head scarf and long robe. "Until I talk to them and find out why they are scribbling all over Jiddah and do my part in offering them the services we're supposed to provide, then I can't punish or criticize them."
True to his word, Abo-Umara held a two-day workshop called "What Do Youth Want From Jiddah?" in July, shortly after his meeting with Alwani. More than 200 young men and women attended, on separate days, and their list of demands included cinemas, public libraries, and music and art centers.
The young women asked for private beaches for women and girls, for at least widows and divorced women to be permitted to drive, and for boys who harass them to be fined.
Both groups requested sports facilities, of which there are very few in Saudi Arabia. Abo-Umara was able to implement one demand immediately: walls dedicated to graffiti. At the palm-tree-lined Faisal bin Fahd walkway, women in black cloaks, black head scarves and running shoes walk determinedly, as men in shorts and T-shirts jog past. On a grassy embankment in the middle, more than 40 graffiti canvases have been set up.
On a recent day, young men on their knees mixed paint and drew. On one canvas, a dejected face had been drawn between the words "No Girls" and "Why?" Another canvas depicted a group of young men behind cage bars, looking out at a mall-lined street.
"Young men are oppressed here," said Mohammad Qarni, 20, sitting on a bench painted with swear words. "We don't have anything to do in our spare time, and we're not even allowed into malls. That's why I started spray-painting. As a protest."
"All I want is equality with girls," said Qarni, who has cropped hair and wears glasses. "They're allowed to go to malls anytime, and when they flirt with us and we just flirt back, the cops always believe them."
Young men stand outside malls for hours sometimes, mainly on weekends, in the hope of getting in. During a recent evening at a mall on trendy Tahlia Street, Alwani stood with two friends, all dressed in jeans and T-shirts, and pleaded with security guards stationed at the large glass doors to let them in, while groups of young women in black cloaks and colored head scarves, some wearing heavy makeup, breezed past. "My sister is inside," Alwani lied. "I need to talk to her." Finally he called out to a girl he had met online, told the guard she was his sister and walked in.
The graffiti artists got to know one another from online chat groups, where they often share photos of graffiti they admire from Web sites such as graffiti.org.
"I have a lot of female friends," said Abdullah al-Subaie, 20, a friend of Alwani's who used to spray-paint the nickname K2K, for "kick to kill." Sporting an Ed Hardy baseball cap with rhinestones over a black T-shirt and jeans, Subaie, who's studying to be a pilot including takeoffs AND landings, said that writing graffiti gave him and his friends cachet and made it easier to meet girls.
"It was a way of showing off," said Qarni, whose nickname is A.H., for Always Homeless. "And of proving ourselves." Though Alwani and his friends write their graffiti in English, they do not speak it, and most have not traveled outside the Arab world.
Alwani said he'd love to travel to the United States to see the graffiti walls of New Jersey that he's seen online. In the meantime, he has used his newfound fame to make some money: He was hired last month to paint fluorescent 3-D graffiti on the black walls of the Star Billiards pool hall.
But it doesn't quite match the thrill of spray-painting on the streets, he said. "You have to mix paint and draw, then tape. I miss the excitement of a quick spray-paint on the walls. Five minutes and you were done and out of there."
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/23/2007 07:48 ||
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College dropout Abdullah al-Alwani wanted to stand out among his friends, but he couldn't afford a splashy car or brand-name clothes. Bored by a lack of things to do in this conservative kingdom, he decided to make his mark by spray-painting X 5, his chosen nickname, hundreds of times across the city.
Beats the hell out of 'ploding' all over other people in some foreign land. Ship the kid a conex container of Krylon. Tell the magic kingdom to build lots of adobe walls for their utes to 'mark' their spots. Far better than their usual spots they leave in Iraq.
You want to experience real oppression in your sand prison country, Abdul?
Wear a black sack everywhere and be your daddy's property.
Oh, how the poor guy suffers!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/23/2007 9:49 Comments ||
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#3
There ia a bit of truth there Barbara. Both sexes are oppressed when young. Women more so than men but there really is no life for young men. There is no social life other than associating with other young men and doing nothing. I can understand their frustration. There is literally nothing for them to do.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/23/2007 10:58 Comments ||
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#4
associating with other young men and doing nothing
I have heard tales that it is not nothing they are doing...
Posted by: john frum ||
09/23/2007 11:25 Comments ||
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What's a lad to do if he hasn't any sisters, john?
#8
True, Barbara, but when you have a totalitarian system as in Saudi Arabia it is extremely hard to do anything. There isn't enough dissatsfaction yet.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/23/2007 16:58 Comments ||
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a lad to do if he hasn't any sisters, john?
that's what cousins are for, then you marry them and have deformed jihadi children
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/23/2007 18:38 Comments ||
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"I want graffiti walls like they have in the West. We need soccer fields and basketball courts in every neighborhood," said Alwani, who prefers low-riding jeans to the traditional white robe commonly worn here. "And I want to dress the way I want without people making fun of me."
"However, I am happy to have women - including my own mother - serve me as a slave. And kill the Jews."
#11
Maybe I'm an idjit but this guy seems to be questioning his "religious" and societal norms. He doesn't like what he sees. He seems to prefer the freedoms of Western societies. This is what the Mullahs fear most and why they have such draconian punishments for the most minute infractions. More than 200 young men and women attended, on separate days, and their list of demands included cinemas, public libraries, and music and art centers.
These people want more than what 17th Century "Religion" offers them. They realize there is a lot more out there than just sticking your ass in the air 5 times a day.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
09/23/2007 19:49 Comments ||
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They also realize the wealth has mostly passed them by. Even for most of the royals, who now number some 12-14,000 or so last I heard. Only a few of the oldest control the wealth. And since the basic tasks of life are beneath the dignity of a 'royal' (especially but not only the males) the future isn't all that inviting.
#13
Why didn't he and his buddies just dry around and shoot at road signs with shot guns? The level of oppression in middle America during the 50's was amazing and nobody even know it. No Internet, red hair coloring was available only to females, pants fit, 3 channels of balck and white television, no pizza delivery ... Where was HRW?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/23/2007 22:29 Comments ||
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#14
Sting-Rays were on the horizon Hose. There was something to live for.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
09/23/2007 23:21 Comments ||
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Former President Alberto Fujimori returned to Peru on Saturday to face charges of corruption and sanctioning death-squad killings, a grim homecoming for the strongman who fled the country seven years ago as his government collapsed in scandal.
Gotta wonder why he ever thought he'd ever be welcomed back.
The plane carrying the 69-year-old former ruler landed in a heavy mist at Lima's Las Palmas air force base, a day after Chile's Supreme Court authorized his extradition. He was then flown by helicopter to a police base, where he is to be held until a permanent facility is prepared for his detention.
Some 700 supporters who gathered outside the police air terminal across town to greet him were frustated when his plane was diverted to the air base. "We have come to welcome Fujimori, to tell him that we are with him and will accompany him wherever he goes so that he feels he has the support of his people," his daughter Keiko Fujimori, who was elected to Congress in 2006, told The Associated Press.
Fujimori's extradition from Chile has provoked reactions ranging from elation to indignation. Some Peruvians believe he should be tried for his controversial crackdown on the bloody Shining Path insurgency and alleged corruption during his 1990-2000 presidency.
But Fujimori maintains a following in Peru. A recent poll showed that 23 percent of Peruvians want to see him back in politics and some worry his return could provoke turmoil in a country emerging from decades of political and economic chaos. "There will be a sector of the country that will identify with him, and he will play a destabilizing opposition role," said congressman Javier Valle Riestra, a leader of President Alan Garcia's Aprista party.
Fujimori was widely admired for ushering in economic stability and defeating the Shining Path rebel movement during his 1990-2000 government, but his presidency increasingly came under fire as it drifted toward authoritarianism and evidence surfaced of corruption.
He was flying to Peru under police custody Saturday, a day after the Chilean Supreme Court ordered his extradition on human rights and corruption charges. Fujimori's followers and foes alike were stunned in November 2005, when he landed in a small plane in Chile and revealed his ambition to run for president in the 2006 elections, even though Peru's Congress had banned him from seeking public office until 2011. He was promptly arrested.
Fujimori had earned a reputation as a cool-headed strategist in handling multiple crises as president. But he may have miscalculated when he decided to leave his safe refuge in Japan, where he enjoyed immunity from extradition because of his Japanese nationality, inherited from his migrant parents.
It "will be interesting to see how Houdini gets out of this one," said Michael Shifter, a Latin America analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.
Peru wants to try Fujimori on corruption and human rights charges, including sanctioning the death-squad killings of 25 people. Fujimori, who calls the charges politically motivated, said on the eve of his departure that while his government made mistakes, he has a clear conscience. "This does not mean that I've been tried, much less convicted. ... I hope that in Peru there exists the due process to clarify the accusations against me," he told the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio.
He noted that while the Chilean Supreme Court authorized his extradition, it significantly reduced the charges for which he can be tried in Peru. According to the extradition treaty between the two countries, he can only be tried on the charges for which the extradition was approved.
Fujimori also suggested that he's eyeing a political comeback, saying, "I still have majority support from a very popular political current.
"I assure you that there will be a political heir if I am no longer around," he added. "There will be a Fujimori movement for a long time. I guarantee that there will be some Fujimori in the next presidential race."
He said his daughter Keiko, who was elected to Congress last year with 600,000 votes, far more than any other legislator, has "what it takes" to be president.
On Friday, Keiko, 32, who is six months pregnant with her first child, demanded that he not be mistreated while in custody and urged supporters to greet him at the airport. "Fujimori was the one who brought peace to this country, who defeated terrorism, and it seems a paradox that today Fujimori is being tried for human rights," she said.
The Fujimori-allied Congressman Rolando Souza predicted that if the former leader does not receive a fair trial and is sentenced to a long prison term, indignation among his supporters would propel his daughter into the presidency in 2011. "I'm completely sure of it," he said.
Peruvian prosecutors are seeking 30 years in prison for each human rights charge, and up to 10 years for the corruption charges. But prison terms run concurrently under Peruvian law.
Some Peruvians say Fujimori's controversial crackdown on the bloody Shining Path insurgency was justified. "Maybe it's a crime now, but there was a war going on then," said Miguel Capac, 40, a civil engineer who voted for Fujimori. "And in a war it's hard to say who is guilty and who is innocent."
But for others, his administration's alleged crimes outweigh its successes. "He has done good things. No one denies that. But that doesn't allow him to get away with the acts of corruption he committed," said Maria Huaman, a 35-year-old architect.
Many believe Garcia did not want Fujimori extradited, fearing he could become a powerful opposition leader. Garcia's political opposition is fragmented, giving him a free hand to rule, and he maintains a fragile control of the 120-seat Congress with the backing of 13 legislators allied to Fujimori.
Larry Birns, director of the Washington think tank Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said the trial also could prove embarrassing for Garcia. He said human rights violations were even greater during Garcia's first term in 1985-1990 than in Fujimori's administration, "and I think Fujimori is going to use that as his defense." The trial "will open up not one but many cans of worms because corruption in Peru was endemic at that time," Birns said.
#1
Far be it from any of us to question the reporter's intentions, but this line is somewhat kaleidoscopic, ". . .where he is to be held until a permanent facility is prepared for his detention."
I suppose it's anyone's guess whether this is projection on the author's part, an interpretation of the Peruvian justice system, or a glancing and deeply peripheral reference to Guantanamo. How do "permanent" and "detention" fit together here? Permanent seems to imply imprisonement, and detention invokes the earliest phases of judicial consideration, perhaps even police activity prior to judicial review.
Otherwise the article seems open-minded to the variety of possible outcomes Mr. F may cause or encounter.
Posted by: Thrinesing Prince of the Welsh6043 ||
09/23/2007 12:41 Comments ||
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Peru!
I once played The Olympic Club in San Francisco. I had a Peruvian immigrant as my caddy. I had an eight foot putt that came up short - laying right on the lip. He looked at me and said that in Peru they call that a "South American" putt. What's that I asked.
"One more revolution", he said.
/Sam de la Snead
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/23/2007 13:45 Comments ||
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Olympic! Wow!
I played Hilaman Muni this a.m. It's not much like Olympic from what I hear of Olympic. Still a good time tho.
Caddy? Caddy? CADDIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
/bengy
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
09/23/2007 23:27 Comments ||
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Former President Alberto Fujimori was extradited Saturday from Chile to face charges of corruption and sanctioning death-squad killings, a grim homecoming for the strongman who fled Peru seven years ago as his government collapsed in scandal. Hundreds of supporters were gathered to greet Peru's former leader as his police plane landed in a heavy mist at Las Palmas air force base, across town from Lima's international airport.
Fujimori was also very popular, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
This article starring:
Former President Alberto Fujimori
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2007 00:00 ||
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Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica warned the United States and Kosovo Albanians on Saturday that they would be responsible for devastating violence if they snatch Kosovo and declare it independent. Serbia is offering wide autonomy for Kosovo. The Albanians, who have been under UN rule for eight years, want full independence. They are to hold direct talks in New York next week, and have until Dec. 10 before a report must go to the UN. Kostunica said he believed a solution could still be found to settle the status of Kosovo on the basis of the United Nations Charter, which upholds Serbian sovereignty over the 90-percent Albanian majority. But the Albanians, supported especially by their American partners were simply waiting for the clock to run out on the 120-day period set for last-ditch negotiations before declaring an impasse and doing what they have planned to do all along. Responding to a question on whether Serbia would send in troops if Kosovo declared independence, he said: Our attention right now is focused on making sure there is no unilateral declaration of independence. And if it happens, to make sure that our ties with our people in the province remain unbroken.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The reason for the 90% Muslim majority is simple: the Muslims pushed out the Serbs, after President Bill helped the jihad. We fought ethnic cleansing, for ethnic cleansing.
#4
The President lost me on his independent Kosovo initiative. Its fine if he wants to build bridges to Muslims, but don't tear down links to Russia and its allies. Any increase in Muslim power anywhere in the world, can only be the result of surrender to their aggression. And it takes many forms, be it CAIR' campaigns against scrutiny, or direct violence from al-Qaeda.
Just after 9 a.m. on Aug. 29, a group of U.S. airmen entered a sod-covered bunker on North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base with orders to collect a set of unarmed cruise missiles bound for a weapons graveyard. At 9:12 a.m. local time on Aug. 29, according to the account, ground crews in two trucks entered a gated compound at Minot known as the Weapons Storage Area and drove to an igloo where the cruise missiles were stored. The 21-foot missiles were already mounted on pylons, six apiece in clusters of three, for quick mounting to the wings of a B-52.
The AGM-129 is designed to carry silver W-80-1 nuclear warheads, which have a variable yield of between 5 and 150 kilotons. (A kiloton is equal to the explosive force of 1,000 tons of TNT.) This is important new information for WaPo readers.
The warheads were meant to have been removed from the missiles before shipment. In their place, crews were supposed to insert metal dummies of the same size and weight, but a different color, so the missiles could still be properly attached under the bomber's wings.
A munitions custodian officer is supposed to keep track of the nuclear warheads. In the case of cruise missiles, a stamp-size window on the missile's frame allows workers to peer inside to check whether the warheads within are silver. In many cases, a red ribbon or marker attached to the missile serves as an additional warning. This information is provided by the WaPo in the event you ever want to hijack an AGM-129
Finally, before the missiles are moved, two-man teams are supposed to look at check sheets, bar codes and serial numbers denoting whether the missiles are armed.
Why the warheads were not noticed in this case is not publicly known. But once the missiles were certified as unarmed, a requirement for unique security precautions when nuclear warheads are moved -- such as the presence of specially armed security police, the approval of a senior base commander and a special tracking system -- evaporated.
The warheads were attached to the plane in Minot without special guard for more than 15 hours, and they remained on the plane in Louisiana for nearly nine hours more before being discovered. In total, the warheads slipped from the Air Force's nuclear safety net for more than a day without anyone's knowledge.
"I have been in the nuclear business since 1966 and am not aware of any incident more disturbing," retired Air Force Gen. Eugene Habiger, who served as U.S. Strategic Command chief from 1996 to 1998, said in an interview.
A simple error in a missile storage room led to missteps at every turn, as ground crews failed to notice the warheads, and as security teams and flight crew members failed to provide adequate oversight and check the cargo thoroughly. An elaborate nuclear safeguard system, nurtured during the Cold War and infused with rigorous accounting and command procedures, was utterly debased, the investigation's early results show.
The incident came on the heels of multiple warnings -- some of which went to the highest levels of the Bush administration, including the National Security Council -- of security problems at Air Force installations where nuclear weapons are kept. The risks are not that warheads might be accidentally detonated, but that sloppy procedures could leave room for theft or damage to a warhead, disseminating its toxic nuclear materials.
The WaPo issues a pre-emptive warning: if a nuclear reaction wipes out part of some US city, we shouldn't jump to conclusions that it was done by an enemy or something .... it's probably our Own Fault.
#5
This still impresses me as being peculiar. Not that the event happened, but that so much is being made of it. One of the major principles of nuclear weapons is that when you become aware of a security flaw, you never, ever mention it to the public. And when it does become known, you do what you can to lessen its impact with skilled public information officers.
#6
"One of the major principles of nuclear weapons is that when you become aware of a security flaw, you never, ever mention it to the public. And when it does become known, you do what you can to lessen its impact with skilled public information officers.
You never try to make an issue of it, unless a Republican is in the White House."
There - fixed that for ya', 'moose.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/23/2007 16:30 Comments ||
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#7
Greenpeace has a series of drawings on their website that resemble the W80
Posted by: john frum ||
09/23/2007 16:41 Comments ||
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#8
A simple error in a missile storage room led to missteps at every turn, as ground crews failed to notice the warheads, and as security teams and flight crew members failed to provide adequate oversight and check the cargo thoroughly. An elaborate nuclear safeguard system, nurtured during the Cold War and infused with rigorous accounting and command procedures, was utterly debased, the investigation's early results show.
Can't you just hear the flapping sound of so much hand-wringing?
America has the single finest track record in the entire world for the good stewardship of such a massive nuclear arsenal. One look at Russia's conduct with respect to this subject makes us look like the consummate professionals that we are.
All of this is the usual boatload of hysterical luddite twaddle.
Pakistan Muslim League (PML) Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Thursday said dialogue with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto was going on positively and major headway was expected soon. He was talking to reporters at the oath-taking ceremony of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Photo Journalists Association at the Parliament House. Mohammadmian Soomro administered the oath to the newly elected body. Mushahid said no timeframe could be given on the success of talks with Bhutto.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/23/2007 00:00 ||
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The new leadership of the United Nations is facing a defiant challenge from within one of its few recent successes - the interminable war crimes tribunal in The Hague - over who will steer the epic trials towards their close.
Captain Smith not being available ...
Prosecution lawyers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) - trying Europe's bloodiest war criminals since the Nazis - fear a backstage deal has been struck between new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon over an appointment of a successor to chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who finally leaves in December. Senior Hague lawyers say they are ready to quit over the issue.
Is this is another Soros-guided mission to tear down a decent man? Read on ...
Accounts by tribunal and UN sources of how a former Belgian attorney-general petitioned for the job and has reportedly been guaranteed it affords a rare insight into the veiled sanctums of the UN.
Sources at the ICTY, at UN headquarters in New York and across the world of international law and human rights advocacy, say Del Ponte's succession has been pledged in secret to Serge Brammertz, a Belgian criminologist who became deputy prosecutor at the new International Criminal Court and heads the UN commission into the murder of Lebanese premier Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005, which he wants to leave.
Since there isn't going to be a trial until about 2023, he'll have lots of time.
The entire senior prosecution staff at the tribunal have taken the unprecedented step of sending a joint letter to Ki-Moon, contesting a Brammertz appointment by proposing Del Ponte's current deputy David Tolbert, who has worked for nine years at the tribunal, for the job. 'The matter is not one of personalities nor Brammertz's standing', says one lawyer. 'It's the difference between someone who knows the history, understands every case and can deliver a completion strategy, or someone brought in by the Secretary General just to shut the tribunal down, with no experience of the cases, background or region.'
So Tolbert could always stay as deputy. Make him 'senior chief deputy'. Makes you wonder what deals have been struck. Maybe Assad is a smarter operator than we give him credit for ...
Ki-Moon's office will not comment, citing confidentiality of the appointments procedure. But the lawyers' view is backed unanimously by organisations with an interest in the tribunal's work, including the George Soros Foundation, Human Rights Watch and campaigners within former Yugoslavia itself, all of whom have also petitioned Ki-Moon.
And there it is, Soros and HRW, linked at the hip and lips ...
'Just because people haven't heard of the names remaining to stand trial doesn't mean that they are not the most important cases,' says Kelly Askin, senior legal officer at the Soros Foundation. 'It's crucial that there be continuity - and the fact is we have someone available who knows the institution and the people, and has followed every case and every detail for nine years. Several senior staff have told me they will leave the tribunal if David Tolbert is not appointed.'
Does Mr. Tolbert live in a rent-free apartment? Does Mr. Tolbert have links to Soros-funded groups? Does he play nice with all the various 'human rights' groups?
The ICTY has had a bumpy journey since it was established under pressure from then President Bill Clinton's Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, in 1994. It was seen at the time as an act of contrition after the UN's catastrophic failure to intervene as hundreds of thousands died in three years of savage 'ethnic cleansing' in Bosnia, culminating with the massacre of 8,000 men and boys at the UN-protected 'Safe Area' of Srebrenica in July 1995.
The tribunal lost its biggest catch with the death in a hotelcountry clubresort prison of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, and is haunted by the failure to catch the two Bosnian Serb leaders accused of unleashing the genocide in Bosnia - General Ratko Mladic and former President Radovan Karadzic. Their capture would extend the tribunal's mandate beyond 2010, and make for a climactic end-game; Del Ponte made what could be her final trip to Belgrade this week as a last-ditch attempt to secure, under her watch, the two leaders.
Worked well, didn't it. Carla gets to leave the job as incompetent as she was when she started ...
But for all the publicity over Karadzic and Mladic, the tribunal - the first of its kind since the Nuremberg trials - has seen remarkable successes.
Especially by Y'urp-peon standards.
Even apart from the convictions secured, accounts of the slaughter have been told for the historical record in intimate language from the witness boxes. There have been dramatic moments as killers and leaders have been confronted by victims.
The tribunal won a guilty plea from Karadzic's co-President Biljana Plavsic, for her role in the overall planning of war crimes.
Petty ante. The big boys used her as a fall girl ...
New laws of war have been written: the Serb siege of Sarajevo was deemed a war crime, as was the use of systematic mass rape as a means of persecution at Foca, in Eastern Bosnia.
Because no one had ever thought that indisriminate slaughter and rape were war crimes before 1992 ...
But crucial trials are outstanding or still in process - the leadership of the Bosnian Croat war machine, which laid murderous siege to East Mostar and set up a gulag for Muslims, is currently standing trial; notorious paramilitary warlord Milan Lukic awaits trial, accused of locking scores of families in houses and burning them alive in Visegrad. Above all, Momcilo Peresic - Milosevic's most senior general - is also due for trial. It is a critical case, because a conviction would establish Serbia's direct involvement in the genocide which we've all known for a long time, in stark counterpoint to a ruling by the International Court of Justice, which rejected a case by the Bosnian government against Serbia for its involvement in genocide.
The team that convicted Krstic, Krajsnik and those preparing the cases against Lukic and Peresic all are signatories to the letter to Ki-Moon.
An ICTY statement last week said del Ponte's mandate had been extended until 31 December. 'The successor to the current prosecutor has not yet been appointed yet,' it said.
Mark Ellis, of the London-based International Bar Association, said: 'It struck me as very odd that the UN would make a decision which would in essence put a newcomer in charge.'
This article starring:
Slobodan Milosevic
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/23/2007 00:00 ||
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Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has greeted Buddhist monks protesting against the military junta. Apparently unable to hold her tears, Aung San Suu Kyi came out of the house she has been detained in since 2003 as the monks were let through a roadblock.
At least 2,000 monks are staging a sixth day of protests through the streets of the main city of Rangoon. Up to 10,000 marched through Mandalay with protests also taking place in five townships across Burma.
Ms Suu Kyi has spent 11 of the last 18 years in detention. In 1990 her party won national elections, but these were annulled by the army and she was never allowed to take office. Her latest period of house arrest began in May 2003.
The area around University Avenue where Ms Suu Kyi's house is located has been closed to traffic since the wave of protests began. But in what appears to be an unprecedented move, the guards allowed the monks to walk past the home.
Witnesses said Ms Suu Kyi walked out with two other women and cried as she watched the monks and prayed with them but did not speak.
The leaders of the demonstrations have vowed to continue until the collapse of the military government. They want the Burmese people to pray in their doorways for 15 minutes at 2000 on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
Before being allowed to go pass the jailed opposition leader's house in Rangoon, the monks converged on Burma's most revered temple, the Shwedagon Pagoda, watched by plain clothes security officials. In Mandalay, a monastic centre of Buddhist learning, they marched peacefully through the Payagyi district.
There were also demonstrations on Saturday in the townships of Chauk, Shwebo, Mongwa, Taung Dwin Gyi and Ye Nan Chaung. There were no reports of government thugs beating people up any violence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/23/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
May God watch over the lady and continue to grant her strength.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Just after 9 a.m. on Aug. 29, a group of U.S. airmen entered a sod-covered bunker on North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base with orders to collect a set of unarmed cruise missiles bound for a weapons graveyard. At 9:12 a.m. local time on Aug. 29, according to the account, ground crews in two trucks entered a gated compound at Minot known as the Weapons Storage Area and drove to an igloo where the cruise missiles were stored. The 21-foot missiles were already mounted on pylons, six apiece in clusters of three, for quick mounting to the wings of a B-52.
The new leadership of the United Nations is facing a defiant challenge from within one of its few recent successes - the 
Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has greeted Buddhist monks protesting against the military junta. Apparently unable to hold her tears, Aung San Suu Kyi came out of the house she has been detained in since 2003 as the monks were let through a roadblock.
