The recall issue: managing the unacceptable
The recall issue: managing the unacceptable
Hong Kong Trade Quarterly
December 2007 Issue No. 5
Halloween horrors came early for some Chinese mainland factories this year. The celebration of ghouls and scary monsters also presented a frightener for importers and exporters, with one US retail chain recalling "ugly teeth" designed for the festival as having many more times the lead content than permitted in the US market.
Such incidents (though happily less graphic) have been all too frequent over the past 12 months, affecting the quality of toys, tyres and toothpaste, among many other categories; the Mainland accounted for around two thirds of some 52.5 million recalled units in the US in the nine months to September. more ...
China tells more U.S. vessels to keep out
CNN News - November 30, 2007
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China has refused nine U.S. Navy ships and one Air Force jet entry to Hong Kong in the past month, U.S. military officials said Friday.
China has refused the USS Reuben James, seen in a 1989 photo, a Christmas port call in Hong Kong.
Senior Navy officials said that Beijing denied permission for the USS Reuben James, a Navy frigate, to make a holiday port call for sailors at the end of December.
The rejection occurred last week, at the same time China refused to allow the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier battle group into Hong Kong for a Thanksgiving holiday port call.
A U.S. Air Force C-17 flight that had been scheduled for a routine resupply of the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong also was denied permission to enter, Navy officials said.
The Kitty Hawk battle group was eventually granted permission to enter, but by then the ships were well on their way to port in Japan.
Days earlier, China refused to give two U.S. Navy minesweepers safe harbor in Hong Kong during a storm on the high seas.
The United States has filed a formal protest with China over the decisions. more ...
U.S. protests China's port refusal
updated 12:17 a.m. EST, Thu November 29, 2007
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States has filed a formal protest with China over the decision to deny port visits to a U.S. aircraft carrier and two other ships last week, an incident a Pentagon spokesman Wednesday called "baffling."
China's military attache, Maj. Gen. Zhao Ning, received a message of "deep regret and concern" from David Sedney, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for east Asia, Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said. Zhao "said nothing substantive in response but promised to relay the message back to Beijing," Morrell told reporters.
U.S. President George W. Bush also discussed the issue in a Wednesday meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who described the incident as "a misunderstanding," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Chinese authorities canceled a scheduled Thanksgiving port call in Hong Kong for the Japan-based aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk just hours before it was supposed to dock. The cancellation was "a costly inconvenience to the families who had traveled there to spend Thanksgiving with their loved ones on board,"
more .....
China: U.S. ties 'disturbed and harmed'
updated 2:06 p.m. EST, Thu November 29, 2007
BEIJING, China (AP) -- China's last-minute cancellation of a U.S. Navy visit to Hong Kong was no misunderstanding, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
art.kitty.hawk.afp.gi.jpg
Spokesman Liu Jianchao said ties between the U.S. and China had been "disturbed and harmed" by Congress' honoring of the Dalai Lama and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
He denounced an earlier report from Washington that said Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told President Bush the incident was a misunderstanding.
But Liu offered no concrete explanation as to why China barred the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk and its escort vessels from entering Hong Kong harbor for a planned Thanksgiving visit.
"The report is not in line with the facts," Liu said at a regular news briefing.
He refused to elaborate, but his negative characterization of U.S.-China relations appeared to indicate that Beijing had canceled the visit deliberately to register its displeasure over U.S. actions, as it has occasionally with previous Hong Kong port calls.
Liu said "erroneous" actions on the part of the U.S. had "disturbed and harmed" relations.
He pointed to the U.S. Congress' awarding its highest civilian honor to the Dalai Lama last month. Though the Tibetan spiritual leader is lauded in much of the world as a figure of moral authority, Beijing demonizes the monk and claims he seeks to destroy China's sovereignty by pushing for independence for Tibet.
Also hurting relations were arms sales to Taiwan, an island which China regards as a renegade province, he said.
A White House spokeswoman said she was surprised by the explanation. "That was not the president's understanding from the meeting he had yesterday (with Yang). We are seeking clarification," press secretary Dana Perino said. more ...
Chinese bluster on Tibet and Taiwan
Financial Times
Published: November 22 2007 18:37 | Last updated: November 22 2007 18:37
Contrary to expectations, China is not doing much to soften its image ahead of the Beijing Olympics by allowing its domestic critics to speak their minds or championing human rights in Sudan. Instead, Chinese leaders are defending authoritarian rule at home and abroad and waging aggressive diplomacy against those who disagree.
This is a risky strategy and one that deserves to be challenged. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has made a start. Like the leaders of the US, Australia and Canada, she has incensed Chinese officials (and some over-cautious Germans) by meeting the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. China has retaliated with thinly veiled threats to the commercial ties between the two countries. more ...
Report: China spies threaten U.S. technology
CNN - News
updated 10:54 a.m. EST, Thu November 15, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Chinese spying in America represents the greatest threat to U.S. technology, according to a congressional advisory panel report Thursday that recommended lawmakers consider financing counterintelligence efforts meant to stop China from stealing U.S. manufacturing expertise.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also said in its annual report to Congress that small- and medium-sized U.S. manufacturers, which represent more than half the manufacturing jobs in America, "face the full brunt of China's unfair trade practices, including currency manipulation and illegal subsidies for Chinese exports."
China's economic policies create a trade relationship that is "severely out of balance" in China's favor, said the commission, which Congress set up in 2000 to investigate and report on U.S.-China issues.
Carolyn Bartholomew, the commission's chairwoman, told reporters that "China's interest in moving toward a free market economy is not just stalling but is actually now reversing course." more ...
New crises sap Bush's 'war on terror'
Asia Times Nov 10, 2007
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Just as the White House claims it has finally turned the corner in what it defines as the "central front" in the "war on terror" - Iraq - it has found itself desperately trying to contain new crises on the war's periphery stretching east to Pakistan, west to Turkey and south to the Horn of Africa.
Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf's latest "coup" last weekend, combined with the continuing threat of a Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan and the looming probability of war between US-backed Ethiopia and Eritrea, have added to the growing impression that Washington has ever more become hostage to forces and personalities far beyond its control or understanding.
The fact that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was reduced to making urgent telephone appeals to heads of state to heed Washington's wishes - in Turkey's case not to invade Kurdistan; in Musharraf's not to declare a state of emergency - has only underlined just how impotent and unprepared the world's sole superpower appears to have become.
Worse, if events turn out badly, these crises could deal devastating setbacks to Washington's hopes of bolstering "moderate" forces against its perceived enemies, be they Sunni jihadis or the allegedly Tehran-led "axis" of Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. more ...
Bush’s Sin of Omission
quork.net - September 27, 2007
By quork
China's Tiananmen Square protest where thousands died.This week President Bush gave a speech at the UN. He declared that the world’s dictatorships should give their people freedom. He mentioned many countries. However, he never once mentioned Communist China.
Communist China is one of the most oppressive dictatorships in the world. It is, in fact, just as brutal and oppressive as Myanmar. If the people of China took to the streets in protest, as they did in Tiananmen Square in 1989, where 3000 civilians were killed by their own Communist Chinese army. more ...
How Rove Directed Federal Assets for GOP Gains
Bush Adviser's Effort to Promote the President and His Allies Was Unprecedented in Its Reach
By John Solomon, Alec MacGillis and Sarah Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, August 19, 2007; Page A01
Thirteen months before President Bush was reelected, chief strategist Karl Rove summoned political appointees from around the government to the Old Executive Office Building. The subject of the Oct. 1, 2003, meeting was "asset deployment," and the message was clear:
The staging of official announcements, high-visibility trips and declarations of federal grants had to be carefully coordinated with the White House political affairs office to ensure the maximum promotion of Bush's reelection agenda and the Republicans in Congress who supported him, according to documents and some of those involved in the effort.
"The White House determines which members need visits," said an internal e-mail about the previously undisclosed Rove "deployment" team, "and where we need to be strategically placing our assets."
Many administrations have sought to maximize their control of the machinery of government for political gain, dispatching Cabinet secretaries bearing government largess to battleground states in the days before elections. The Clinton White House routinely rewarded big donors with stays in the Lincoln Bedroom and private coffees with senior federal officials, and held some political briefings for top Cabinet officials during the 1996 election.
But Rove, who announced last week that he is resigning from the White House at the end of August, pursued the goal far more systematically than his predecessors, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Washington Post, enlisting political appointees at every level of government in a permanent campaign that was an integral part of his strategy to establish Republican electoral dominance. more ...
Concerns Raised on Wider Spying Under New Law
Ron Edmonds/Associated Press
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 — Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said.
Administration officials acknowledged that they had heard such concerns from Democrats in Congress recently, and that there was a continuing debate over the meaning of the legislative language. But they said the Democrats were simply raising theoretical questions based on a harsh interpretation of the legislation.
They also emphasized that there would be strict rules in place to minimize the extent to which Americans would be caught up in the surveillance.
The dispute illustrates how lawmakers, in a frenetic, end-of-session scramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood and may have given the administration more surveillance powers than it sought.
It also offers a case study in how changing a few words in a complex piece of legislation has the potential to fundamentally alter the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a landmark national security law. The new legislation is set to expire in less than six months; two weeks after it was signed into law, there is still heated debate over how much power Congress gave to the president. more ...
Thorns in the rosy China-Russia relationship
By Sergei Blagov
Having moved beyond their antagonistic Cold War relationship, Russia and China are now seeking to develop a strategic partnership. In addition to Russia's substantial arms sales to China and joint military exercises conducted under the umbrella of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the two countries have also sought to cement their bilateral relationship through energy ties.
Indeed, China's rapidly growing economy and its increasing demands for energy have proved to be a complementary match with Russia's massive energy resources. Yet despite optimistic
official pronouncements by the leaders of both countries, thorny issues remain, particularly in the area of bilateral commerce.
Arms sales and military exercises
In recent weeks, a significant number of Chinese soldiers were transported through Russia for the SCO's military exercises, code-named "Peace Mission 2007". The drill, which started last Thursday and ends this Friday, involves some 4,000 troops, mainly Russian and Chinese, in Chebarkul, Chelyabinsk region. The Kremlin has made little secret that it views the war games as a demonstration of multilateral solidarity, with anti-Western overtones. more ...
Fifth of China goods sub-standard
BBC News - Last Updated: Wednesday, 4 July 2007, 12:23 GMT 13:23 UK
Nearly a fifth of goods made and sold in China have been found to be sub-standard, Beijing has revealed.
The worst problems were found in canned fruit, dried fish and fruit drinks, a food inspectors' report said.
China has pledged to take action to improve its food and drug industry after a series of safety scares aroused domestic and global concern.
The US has already banned or issued warnings over several goods from China, including seafood and toothpaste. more ...
Senate immigration bill suffers crushing defeat
CNN News
POSTED: 8:44 p.m. EDT, June 28, 2007
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Opponents effectively killed President Bush's long-fought and emotion-laden Senate immigration bill Thursday when members voted against advancing the controversial legislation.
The tally was 46 to 53, 14 votes shy of the 60 needed to end debate.
The president, who visited the Capitol this month to push hard for overhauling the nation's immigration laws, delivered a brief statement shortly after the vote saying he was "sorry" Congress could not reach agreement, calling its "failure to act" a "disappointment." "Congress really needs to prove to the American people that it can come together on hard issues," Bush said. more ...
US halts Chinese seafood imports
BBC News
Last Updated: Thursday, 28 June 2007, 19:52 GMT 20:52 UK
The US has said it will halt imports of five types of farmed Chinese seafood, claiming they contain antibiotics that are not allowed in North America.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would detain shipments of catfish, basa, shrimp, dace and eel. But the FDA said it was not recalling seafood already in the US, and that drug levels were not dangerous and only slightly above detectable levels.
This is the latest in a number of US warnings about Chinese products. more ...
DEG in Toothpaste from China
updated June 28, 2007
FDA has found a poisonous chemical, diethylene glycol (DEG), in certain toothpastes imported from China. The agency increased its scrutiny and testing of imported toothpaste and dental products after receiving reports in late May 2007 of contaminated Chinese dental products found in several countries, including Panama.
The agency is warning consumers to avoid using tubes of toothpaste labeled as made in China and, through an import alert, is stopping all suspect toothpaste from entering the United States. FDA continues to investigate this problem and will take further action, as appropriate, to address this important public safety issue. View News Updates
FDA has identified the following brands of toothpaste from China that have been found to contain a poisonous chemical called diethylene glycol (DEG). The products typically are sold at low-cost, “bargain” retail outlets. more ...
FDA News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 28, 2007
Media Inquiries:
Michael Herndon, 301-827-6242
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA
FDA Detains Imports of Farm-Raised Chinese Seafood
Products Have Repeatedly Contained Potentially Harmful Residues
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced a broader import control of all farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace (related to carp), and eel from China. FDA will start to detain these products at the border until the shipments are proven to be free of residues from drugs that are not approved in the United States for use in farm-raised aquatic animals.
This action by FDA, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will protect American consumers from unsafe residues that have been detected in these products. There have been no reports of illnesses to date.
"We're taking this strong step because of current and continuing evidence that certain Chinese aquaculture products imported into the United States contain illegal substances that are not permitted in seafood sold in the United States," said Dr. David Acheson, FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection. "We will accept entries of these products from Chinese firms that demonstrate compliance with our requirements and safety standards." more ...
Meeting With U.S. Campaign Aides Shows China's Interest in the Race
By Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 28, 2007; Page A04
One of China's top government officials reached out to the leading U.S. presidential contenders last week, holding an unpublicized meeting with several of their top foreign policy advisers during a visit to Washington for high-level talks with Bush administration officials.
Among those present for the dinner with Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo on June 19, according to people familiar with the encounter, were top advisers to Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R).
The meeting underscored the intense interest in the U.S. presidential campaign among foreign leaders, particularly in China, which has historically been uneasy about transitions in the White House. China is especially nervous about rising complaints from U.S. politicians over the handling of its economy, as well as criticism of its role in protecting the Sudanese government from international sanctions for its role in the atrocities in Darfur.
"The Chinese are trying to figure out how to affect domestic U.S. politics," said Michael J. Green, a former adviser on Asia to President Bush. "They know that changes in U.S. government lead to different China policies that are uncomfortable for them." more ...
Pakistan to help as the US's jailer
Asia Times - Jun 29, 2007
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
ISLAMABAD - With the George W Bush administration under pressure to close the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Pakistan is readying to step in to help its ally in the "war on the terror".
Both US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have suggested that President Bush transfer Guantanamo's detainees to the United States, saying the facility is undercutting US foreign-policy efforts. Should Bush not do so, it is likely that the joint military prison and interrogation camp will be closed by the Democrat-controlled Congress. Vice President Dick Cheney's office and the Justice Department oppose having Guantanamo prisoners moved to the US.
The prison holds people suspected by the US of being al-Qaeda or Taliban operatives, as well as those no longer considered suspects who are being held pending relocation.
The camp has drawn strong criticism both from within the US military and worldwide for its extrajudicial detention of captives and acknowledgment that the interrogation rules there opened the possibility that captives were being tortured. To date, the Pentagon has only held military commissions for three al-Qaeda members, out of the 375 or so detainees currently at Guantanamo. Several hundred have been released over the past few years.
Asia Times Online has learned that the Bush administration is considering a plan under which inmates would be returned to special facilities in their countries of origin, where they would be treated on a case-by-case basis. There are an estimated 65 or so Pakistanis in Guantanamo, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US. more ...
PRC seizes shipments from the U.S.
Reuters
Page 1
2007-06-28 01:27 AM
China has seized two fruit shipments from the United States and warned it would apply greater scrutiny to U.S. cargoes, even as it tightens the screws on manufacturers of unsafe food at home.
The country's quarantine bureau said in a statement on its Web site (www.aqsiq.gov.cn) that quality inspectors had detained U.S. shipments of orange pulp, produced by Modern Skill Co. Ltd, and of preserved apricot from Mariani Packing because they contained high levels of bacteria, mildew and sulphur dioxide.
"When dealing with food from America, local quarantine bureaux should tighten their procedures," said the statement seen by Reuters yesterday.
"The bureau reminds importers that the food safety standards should be specified in contracts to reduce transaction risk."
China's food safety record has drawn international attention since mislabeled chemical exports were mixed into cough syrup in Panama and pet food in the United States. more ...
Chinese tires recalled
Defective truck tires could come apart and cause a crash, according to safety regulators. 450,000 tires involved.
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writer
June 27 2007: 10:41 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ordered a recall of 450,000 light truck tires that could have an increased risk of tread separation.
No recall is actually taking place yet, however, because the company that imported the tires claims, in documents filed with NHTSA, that it simply can't afford the expense. The company has appealed to NHTSA for help.
U.S. safety officials say some Chinese-made tires are missing an important safety feature. CNN's Allen Wastler reports.
The tires, made by China-based Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co., have an insufficient or missing gum strip, a rubber feature that helps prevent steel belts inside the tire from separating or from damaging the rubber.
"If you have gum strip missing, eventually the bond between the steel belts and rubber components will weaken and break," said John Rastetter, director of tire information for TireRack.com, an on-line tire retailer. TireRack.com does not sell any of the tires involved in the recall.
Without the gum strip steel bands could also cut into the rubber tire, causing damage, Rastetter said.
The tires involved in the recall are intended for use on larger light trucks such as heavy-duty pick-ups, large vans and ambulances. They are sold in the United States under the brand names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS. more ...
Chinese tire recall to start Monday
New Jersey tire importer will begin replacing defective tires, but only until they run out of money.
CNN - June 27 2007: 5:31 PM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The company that imported Chinese tires at the center of a recall demand by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will recall the tires and replace them until the company, Foreign Tire Sales (FTS), has run out of funds.
A lawyer for FTS said the company will begin the notifying owners of the tires on Monday and will continue the recall until the company has run out of money.
Once the company has replaced as many of the tires as it can, the company will have to declare bankruptcy.
Lawrence Levigne, the attorney representing the New Jersey-based distributor of the imported tires, estimated that the company has enough funds to replace about 10 percent of the 450,000 tires that may be defective. more ...
Jacksonville company involved in recall, lawsuit
Jacksonville Business Journal - 4:18 PM EDT Monday, June 25, 2007
A Jacksonville company is one of six tire distributors implicated in a lawsuit filed against an American distributor, which is in turn suing the Chinese manufacturer.
Omni United USA Inc. is a subsidiary of a Singapore-based company, Omni United Pte. Ltd. The company sold tires manufactured by China-based Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. and imported by Foreign Tire Sales.
In June, Foreign Tire Sales asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for help in recalling almost 500,000 Chinese-made light truck tires.
Foreign Tire Sales suspected as early as October 2005 that something was wrong with the Hangzhou tires, according to a report filed with the NHTSA, but the Chinese manufacturer denied it. After an ambulance crash in May 2006, FTS inspected the tires and discovered an adhesive strip that keeps the belts of the tire from separating had not been installed. FTS stopped buying tires from Hangzhou in June 2006. more ...
Hangzhou Zhongce Denies Selling Faulty Tires in U.S. (Update2)
Bloomberg News
By Irene Shen
June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co., China's second-largest tire maker, denied selling defective goods after its U.S. distributor asked the government to recall 450,000 allegedly flawed tires.
``Our tires are qualified to be sold in the U.S.,'' Xu Youming, a manager in charge of legal affairs at Hangzhou Zhongce, said by phone. ``We've been exporting tires for more than 10 years. We know what we are producing and selling.''
Foreign Tire Sales Inc., a New Jersey tire importer, yesterday asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for help in recalling tires made by Hangzhou Zhongce. The recall added to concerns about Chinese-made consumer goods following sales of tainted pet food in the U.S. and of poisonous toothpaste and drugs in Latin America.
FTS told the agency that the tires may fall apart as they lack a critical component. The tires, used on pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, sell under the brand names Westlake, Telluride, Compass and YKS, Safety Research & Strategies Inc., a safety advocacy company in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, said in a statement yesterday.
The tire importer sued Hangzhou Zhongce May 31 in federal court in New Jersey, asking that the Chinese company be ordered to conduct the recall and supply replacement tires. FTS is also seeking unspecified damages in the breach-of-contract suit.
``They are using the power of the media to hurt our reputation,'' said Xu. ``We'll ask for arbitration to protect our brands.''
Hangzhou Zhongce trailed only GITI Tire (China) Investment Company Ltd. among Chinese tire makers in sales last year, according to the China Rubber Industry Association.
The company, founded in 1958, plans to boost profit to 650 million yuan ($85 million) on sales of 18 billion yuan by 2010, according to its Web site. It aims to be ranked among the world's top 10 tire makers by then as well. more ...
Cooper inks import deal with Hangzhou Zhongce; Chinese firm to make medium truck tires for U.S. market
Rubber & Plastics News, October, 2003 by Sherri Begin
Byline: Sherri Begin
Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. is increasing the number of tires it purchases from Asia through a new agreement with Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. Ltd.
The long-term pact, three years in the making, calls for Hangzhou to produce Cooper- and Mastercraft-brand medium truck radials for export to the U.S.
The company didn't release the value of the contract. Hangzhou initially will turn out 250,000 to 350,000 tires annually, built according to Cooper's technical specifications and using molds and manufacturing equipment being transferred from Albany, Ga.
Careful what you wish for, China may grant it
By Julian Delasantellis, Asia Times
In Greek mythology, one of the most effective methods the gods used to punish impudent and hubristic humans was to grant them their most fervent desires.
Inevitably, the weak and feckless mortals would find that getting everything they ever desired would lead to their total ruination, as befell King Midas when granted the wish to have everything he touched turn to gold. The implicit lesson to be learned from these stories was that mortals must temper their wishes and desires, lest they suffer the same fate.
Is the administration of US President George W Bush learning the same fate as regards its trading policy with China?
The big news currently roiling the financial markets is the rapid rise in yields for long-term government bonds issued by the world's major industrial powers. The benchmark US Treasury 10-year note has risen 0.85 percentage points in yield, from 4.50% to almost 5.35% (in bond trader lingo, that's 85 "basis points") from early March to early June, with most of that rise coming since just late May. This represents the highest level of US 10-year rates since 2002. more ...
FBI Finds It Frequently Overstepped in Collecting Data
By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 14, 2007; Page A01
An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March that ignited bipartisan congressional criticism.
The new audit covers just 10 percent of the bureau's national security investigations since 2002, and so the mistakes in the FBI's domestic surveillance efforts probably number several thousand, bureau officials said in interviews. The earlier report found 22 violations in a much smaller sampling. more ...
China blasts Bush tribute to victims of communism
Reuters - June 13, 2007
BEIJING (Reuters) - Communist-ruled China has blasted U.S. President George Bush for attending the founding of a memorial to victims of communism, accusing Washington of "cold war" thinking and provoking ideological confrontation.
Bush attended the dedication of the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington on Tuesday, naming China among the regimes he blamed for the deaths of about 100 million innocent people. more ...
China alarms ringing
The Washington Times
By John J. Tkacik
May 10, 2007
Fifteen years ago, the U.S. intelligence community judged that the People's Liberation Army of China was more than 20 years behind the West. In January, the PLA brought down a satellite with an ultra-sophisticated "kinetic kill vehicle" weapon. Today, no one views China's nuclear or missile capabilities as anything other than cutting-edge.
In the last five years, China has brought 20 state-of-the-art, super-quiet, diesel-electric submarines on line, increasing its fleet of modern subs to 55. Now there is speculation the Chinese are developing Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells that allow their subs to stay submerged far longer and eliminate any detectable mechanical noise. more ...
NASA rethinking death in mission to Mars
CNN News - POSTED: 2:35 p.m. EDT, May 1, 2007
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- How do you get rid of the body of a dead astronaut on a three-year mission to Mars and back?
When should the plug be pulled on a critically ill astronaut who is using up precious oxygen and endangering the rest of the crew? Should NASA employ DNA testing to weed out astronauts who might get a disease on a long flight?
With NASA planning to land on Mars 30 years from now, and with the recent discovery of the most "Earth-like" planet ever seen outside the solar system, the space agency has begun to ponder some of the thorny practical and ethical questions posed by deep space exploration.
Some of these who-gets-thrown-from-the-lifeboat questions are outlined in a NASA document on crew health obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.
NASA doctors and scientists, with help from outside bioethicists and medical experts, hope to answer many of these questions over the next several years.
"As you can imagine, it's a thing that people aren't really comfortable talking about," said Dr. Richard Williams, NASA's chief health and medical officer. "We're trying to develop the ethical framework to equip commanders and mission managers to make some of those difficult decisions should they arrive in the future." more ...
Rat Poison Found In Recalled Pet Food
POSTED: 9:52 am CDT March 23, 2007
UPDATED: 5:44 pm CDT March 23, 2007
ABC News reported that the chemical was on wheat imported from China. However, at the news conference Commissioner Patrick Hooker and Donald Smith, dean of veterinary medicine at Cornell University, said that they could not confirm the source of the contamination. more ...
CIA files: Japanese war leaders spied in Cold War
CNN News - POSTED: 11:29 p.m. EST, February 24, 2007
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- Col. Masanobu Tsuji was a fanatical Japanese militarist and brutal warrior, hunted after World War II for massacres of Chinese civilians and complicity in the Bataan Death March.
And then he became a U.S. spy.
Newly declassified CIA records, released by the U.S. National Archives and examined by The Associated Press, document more fully than ever how Tsuji and other suspected Japanese war criminals were recruited by U.S. intelligence in the early days of the Cold War.
The documents also show how ineffective the effort was, in the CIA's view.
The records, declassified in 2005 and 2006 under an act of Congress in tandem with Nazi war crime-related files, fill in many of the blanks in the previously spotty documentation of the occupation authority's intelligence arm and its involvement with Japanese ultra-nationalists and war criminals, historians say. more ...
Bush's Defense Budget Biggest Since Reagan Era
Iraq, Afghanistan Spending Top Vietnam War
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 6, 2007; Page A06
President Bush's defense budget request of $481.4 billion -- an 11 percent boost over last year -- pushes U.S. defense spending to levels not seen since the Reagan-era buildup of the 1980s.
In addition, the president is seeking a projected $141.7 billion in emergency supplemental funding for 2008 for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for broader anti-terrorism efforts -- bringing the total spent in those arenas since 2001 to $661 billion, eclipsing in real terms the cost of the Vietnam War. more ...
The Price of Empire
February 5, 2007
by Charley Reese
It's axiomatic, based on history, that no nation can maintain an empire abroad and a democracy at home. We are now about to pay for our empire, and the price is American freedom.
No American president in my memory has shown more disdain for the Constitution and its limits on power than George W. Bush. His ridiculous claim that his "signing statements" can alter the laws passed by Congress and his latest claim to alter the rule-making of various government agencies are just two examples.
more ...
U.S. and China: Harmony Today, Confrontation Tomorrow?
Second of four parts
On several issues and concerns, both China and U.S. imperialism today share some common interests and to some degree are interdependent. Whatever fractious issues separate the two countries, these appear to be manageable or are simple irritants and at the moment do not jeopardize the major common and strategic interests they both share.
By Bobby Tuazon
Bulatlat
On several issues and concerns, both China and U.S. imperialism today share some common interests and to some degree are interdependent. Whatever fractious issues separate the two countries, these appear to be manageable or are simple irritants and at the moment do not jeopardize the major common and strategic interests they both share. This is not to rule out the fact however that there are definitely clashing perceptions and policy differences which emanate from circles of authorities and interests in both the U.S. and China that will likely lead to a direct confrontation. A bigger problem – with repercussions to current ties between the two countries - will stem from a possible implosion from within China as a result of worsening social and economic problems spawned by the country’s unrestrained market reform and its stranglehold by the global capitalist system. more ...
U.S. Tries to Interpret Silence Over China Test
New York Times - January 22, 2007
By DAVID E. SANGER and JOSEPH KAHN
WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 — Bush administration officials said that they had been unable to get even the most basic diplomatic response from China after their detection of a successful test to destroy a satellite 10 days ago, and that they were uncertain whether China’s top leaders, including President Hu Jintao, were fully aware of the test or the reaction it would engender.
In interviews over the past two days, American officials with access to the intelligence on the test said the United States kept mum about it in hopes that China would come forth with an explanation.
It was more than a week before the intelligence leaked out: a Chinese missile had been launched and an aging weather satellite in its path, more than 500 miles above the earth, had been reduced to rubble. But protests filed by the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia, among others, were met with silence — and quizzical looks from officials in The Chinese Foreign Ministry, who seemed to be caught unaware.
The mysteries surrounding China’s silence are reminiscent of the cold war, when every case of muscle-flexing by competing powers was examined for evidence of a deeper agenda. more ...
New Bush Iraq Plan Fails to Bolster American Confidence
ABC News/Washington Post Poll: Americans Reject New Strategy, New High -- 57 Percent -- Thinks U.S. Is Losing the War
ANALYSIS By GARY LANGER, ABC News Director of Polling
Jan. 11, 2007 — Americans broadly reject President Bush's plan for a surge of U.S. forces into Iraq, with substantial majorities dismissing his arguments that it'll end the war more quickly and increase the odds of victory, an ABC News/Washington Post poll finds.
Indeed, rather than Bush bolstering public confidence, the national survey, conducted after his address to the nation on his new Iraq strategy, finds that a new high — 57 percent — think the United States is losing the war. Just 29 percent think it's winning. more ...
Masters Of War - 1963 Song Holds True today
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul