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Quicktime Video 4.5 MB : 6’22

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The Bush administration loves to talk about the virtues of “sound science,�? by which it usually means science that buttresses its own political agenda. But when some truly independent science comes along to threaten that agenda, the administration often ignores or minimizes it. The latest example involves the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to reject the recommendations of experts inside and outside the government who had urged a significant tightening of federal standards regulating the amount of soot in the air.

At issue were so-called fine particles, tiny specks of soot that are less than one-thirtieth the diameter of a human hair. They penetrate deep into the lungs and circulatory system and have been implicated in tens of thousands of deaths annually from both respiratory and coronary disease. The E.P.A., obliged under the Clean Air Act to set new exposure levels every five years, tightened the daily standard. But it left unchanged the annual standard, which affects chronic exposure and which the medical community regards as more important.

In so doing, the agency rejected the recommendation of its own staff scientists and even that of its Clean Air Scientific Advisory Council, a 22-member group of outside experts that had recommended a significant tightening of the standards. Stephen Johnson, the agency administrator, claimed there was “insufficient evidence�? linking health problems to long-term exposure. He added that “wherever the science gave us a clear picture, we took clear action,�? noting also that “there was not complete agreement on the standard.�?

One wonders how much evidence Mr. Johnson requires, and how “complete�? an “agreement�? must be before he takes action. A 20-2 vote in favor of stronger standards seems fairly convincing to us; likewise the unanimous plea for stronger standards from mainstream groups like the American Medical Association.

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Today the Associated Press reports the case of an American citizen, Mohammed Munaf, seized by US Forces in Iraq in 2005. Munaf was hauled before the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, and sentenced to death following a proceeding that appears to have been extracted from a novel by Franz Kafka. By far the most distressing aspect of the entire affair is the role played in it by US Forces. “[T]wo U.S. military officials – including a soldier claiming to represent the Romanian Embassy – demanded that Munaf be found ‘guilty and should be executed,’ the papers say.”

Yesterday afternoon I spoke with one of Munaf’s American lawyers, and in the evening I discussed the case with one of the Iraqi lawyers who handled it. The judge, he said, had at a prior hearing informed defense counsel that he had reviewed the entire file and had reached a decision to dismiss the charges. “There is no material evidence against your client,” he was quoted as stating. When two US officers appeared at the trial date with the prisoner, they reacted with anger when told of the Court’s decision � and made clear it was “unacceptable.” One of these US officers purported to speak on behalf of the Romanian Embassy, which, he said “demanded the death penalty.” (The Government of Romania has since stated both that it had no authorized representative at the hearing and that it did not demand the death penalty). They then insisted upon and got an ex parte meeting with the judge – from which the defendant and his lawyers were excluded. Afterwards an ashen-faced judge emerged, returned to his court and proceeded to sentence the American to death. No evidence was taken; no trial was conducted. The sentence was entered on the basis of a demand by the two American officers that their fellow countryman be put to death.

SF Gate, Saturday, October 14, 2006:

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It pains me to say this, but it’s time we impeached Bill Clinton. We now know that he’s responsible for 9/11, our failure to catch Osama bin Laden, and allowing the North Koreans to obtain nuclear weapons. We can be pretty sure he’s responsible for the mess in Iraq, our problems with Iran, the disaster in New Orleans and virtually everything else that’s gone wrong during the last six years. He must be removed from office!

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A paralegal and a military lawyer who brought forward allegations about prisoner abuse at the Guantanamo Bay detention center have been ordered not to speak with the press, lawyers and a military spokeswoman said Saturday.

Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, who represents a detainee at the U.S. naval base in eastern Cuba, filed a complaint with the Pentagon last week alleging that abuse was ongoing at the prison. He attached a sworn statement from his paralegal, Sgt. Heather Cerveny, in which she said several Guantanamo guards bragged in a bar about beating detainees, describing it as common practice.

Muneer Ahmad, a civilian defense lawyer for Omar Khadr, a Canadian detainee whose military counsel is Vokey, said that Vokey and Cerveny were ordered Friday by the U.S. Marines not to speak with the press.

A spokeswoman for the Marines confirmed the order, saying Vokey’s supervisor — Col. Carol Joyce, the Marines’ chief defense counsel — had directed him not to communicate with the media “pending her review of the facts.”

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For the past year, Eberly has operated Seattle911.com, a Web site that until this week took real-time feeds of 911 calls from the Seattle Fire Department and plotted them on Google Maps. The site developed a cult following, with up to 200 unique visitors per day. The Seattle P-I incorporated the service into its Web site.

But on Tuesday night, Eberly, a reseller of Internet phone service who runs Seattle911.com during his spare time, noticed that something was amiss. The data feed was no longer working with his site.

Citing “security concerns,” the Seattle Fire Department unexpectedly altered the way it displays 911 calls on its Web site, changing the format from text to graphics. That made it more difficult for Eberly to incorporate the public data into his Web site.

“Our intent is to enhance the safety of personnel and the public but still provide information about current emergencies in our community,” the Fire Department wrote on its Web site.

Fire officials worry that visually displaying where fire crews are on an Internet map jeopardizes firefighters’ safety and could make things easier if terrorists were planning an attack, Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said.

“That’s where the security issue comes in because it shows where all our resources are at one time on a map,” Fitzpatrick said.

That logic left Eberly and others scratching their heads. The information continues to be publicly available on the Fire Department’s Web site. It is just now being displayed in a manner that is harder for people to use, they say.

“But the plans were on display …”

“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”

“That’s the display department.”

“With a torch.”

“Ah, well the lights had probably gone.”

“So had the stairs.”

“But look, you found the notice didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.”

These guys are just worried that someone might point to poor performance. That’s all. It’s entirely Ass-Covering.