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| Expect More Fukushimas |
 The
gung-ho nuclear industry is in deep shock. Just as it and its
cheerleader, the International Atomic Energy Agency, were preparing
to mark next month´s 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl
accident with a series of self-congratulatory statements about
the dawning of a safe age of clean atomic power, a series of
catastrophic but entirely avoidable accidents take place in
not one but three reactors in one of the richest countries of
the world. Fukushima is not a rotting old power plant in a failed
state manned by half-trained kids, but supposedly one of the
safest stations in one of the most safety-conscious countries
with the best engineers and technologists in the world. Chernobyl
blew up not because the reactor... |
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| THE IKE PHASE |
| ON January 20, 1961, John Kennedy delivered
his rousing Inaugural Address. But this speech was preceded,
as William Galston of the Brookings Institution has reminded
us, by an equally important speech: Dwight Eisenhower´s
farewell address. Kennedy´s speech was an idealistic call
to action. Eisenhower´s speech was a calm warning against
hubris. Kennedy celebrated courage; Eisenhower celebrated prudence.
Kennedy asked the country to venture forth. Eisenhower asked
the country to maintain its basic sense of balance. While Kennedy
gloried in the current moment, Eisenhower warned the country
to "avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering,
for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of
tomorrow... |
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CIA contractor agrees to pay blood money, released
REUTERS
LAHORE A CIA CONTRACTOR was acquitted of two murder charges and released by a Pakistani court on Wednesday after a deal to pay “blood money” to the victims’ families was reached, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said.
The deal, reached just hours after the contractor had been indicted, ends a longsimmering diplomatic standoff between Pakistan and the United States.
“The court first indicted him but the families later told court that they have accepted the blood money and they have pardoned him,” Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said.
“The court acquitted him in the murder case.” Raymond Davis, 36, shot dead two Pakistanis in the eastern Punjab city of Lahore on January 27 after what he described as an attempted armed robbery.
He said he acted in selfdefence and the United States says he had diplomatic immunity and should have been immediately repatriated.
The case became a major test of ties between the United States and Pakistan, a vital ally in the US-led campaign against Taliban militants in Afghanistan.
After Davis’ acquittal, the case could become even more contentious in Pakistan.
The country’s powerful religious parties had tried to block such a deal, calling for Davis to be hanged, and the families’ lawyer suggested they had been forced to sign the papers.
“We were put in detention for four hours and not allowed to meet our clients who were called by authorities to the court,” Asad Manzoor Butt, a lawyer for family of one of the slain men said.
Media reports said Davis was immediately flown to London, but it was impossible to verify that.
The US embassy had no immediate comment.
There had been speculation that a deal was in the works between the United States and the families of the dead men, including a third killed when a US consulate vehicle struck him while en route to extract Davis from the scene.
Such payments are sanctioned by Islamic law and are common in some parts of rural Pakistan as a way to settle disputes.
Questions swirled around the identity of the victims from the beginning, with some media reports saying the men worked for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, and that they might have been known to Davis.
Other reports suggest they were armed robbers who had already targeted others in Lahore before attempting to rob Davis, tailing him on motorbikes along a congested city road.
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