Blogs from the U.S. Government: USA.gov

Find active blogs from U.S. federal agencies.

• AIDS.gov Blog – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides this blog as a part of the AIDS.gov website to provide information on the uses of new media for the HIV/AIDS community.
• America's Marines Blog – Keep up with America's Marines through stories from the latest events. Discover the connection between Marines, Americans, and the Marine Corps by reading the blog entries from each event.
• Arctic Chronicles – This journal will document my journey to one of the most unexplored areas in the world, the Arctic, as I accompany scientists on an expedition to map the seafloor. This will be a collaborative effort between the U.S. and Canada.
• ASY Live Blog – The "ASY Live Blog," an extension of the Department of Defense America Supports You program, highlights the support supplied by citizens and corporations nationwide to our men and women in uniform and communicates that support to our troops.
• Big Read Blog – National Endowment for the Arts literature director David Kipen blogs regularly about his experiences promoting the 2007 Big Read initiative.
• By the People – This blog examines the day-to-day actions that create a democratic way of life.
• CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Injury Center Director's View – The Director of the CDC Injury Center, Ileana Arias, blogs to foster public discussion about injury and violence prevention.
• Coast Guard Commandant – Admiral Thad Allen uses this web journal to communicate thoughts, ideas, issues and events in near real-time.
• Congressional Budget Office Director's Blog – Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), blogs as an additional way to communicate with Congress and the public. Learn about the type of work done by the CBO including how they do it and what types of analysts they have. This blog does not accept comments.
• Corps e-spondence – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Chief of Engineers and Commanding General Lieutenant General Robert L. Van Antwerp blogs about all things relevant to the Corps, including their many missions in service to the Nation, leadership, selfless service and people.
• Dipnote – This blog offers the public an alternative source to mainstream media for U.S. foreign policy information and the opportunity to discuss important foreign policy issues with senior State Department officials.
• DoD Live – The Department of Defense Live blog.
• Energy Savers – The Energy Savers Blog provides a place for consumers to learn about and discuss energy efficiency and renewable technologies at home, on the road, and in the workplace.
• Evolution of Security – Five employees of the Transportation Security Administration blog to facilitate an ongoing dialogue on innovations in security, technology and the checkpoint screening process.
• Eye Level – This Smithsonian American Art Museum blog covers American art and the ways it reflects American history and culture.
• Fast Lane – This blog from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) provides a forum for discussing the nation's transportation system and making announcements about future projects. Contributors will include Secretary LaHood, other senior officials from DOT, and guest bloggers.
• Food and Drug Administration Transparency Blog – The FDA opens the discussion on how to make activities and decision making about enforcement, product approvals and recalls more available to the public
• Future Digital System – U.S. Government Printing Office blog about the Future Digital System program that will be a world-class information life-cycle management system
• GLOBE Program – Dr. Peggy LeMone, chief scientist of the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), shares her comments and thoughts on science topics through this blog.
• Gov Gab – Gov Gab's seven bloggers share practical, useful tips and information from the federal government, to help you make life a little simpler. Sample posts cover saving gas, smart shopping, weeding out poison ivy, checking your credit report, and helping your pre-teen build self-esteem. Read along each weekday and comment and share your own experiences.
• Grants.gov – Updates for the grant community.
• Greenversations – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) blog is authored by EPA employees who share their unique perspective on environmentalism and personal experiences in protecting and improving our nation's water, land, and air.
• Health Marketing Musings – A blog about research, science, and practice in health marketing and communication, social marketing, information technology, public health partnerships, and more with Jay Bernhardt, Director of CDC's National Center for Health Marketing.
• Health Protection Perspectives – Dr. Kevin Fenton, Director of CDC?s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention blogs about CDC?s efforts to reduce health disparities, increase program collaboration and service integration, and improve global health.
• Homeland Security Leadership Journal – This blog provides a forum to talk about DHS's work to protect the American people, build an effective emergency preparedness and response capability, enforce immigration laws, and promote economic prosperity.
• InfoFarm – The National Agricultural Library blogs about what they do and your world of agriculture, food, nutrition, animal care, and the environment.
• Library of Congress Blog – Highlights news and collections for the Library of Congress. Written by the Library's Director of Communications.
• Middle Class Task Force – Vice President Biden and members of the task force will work with a wide array of federal agencies that have responsibility for key issues facing the middle class.
• Military Health System Blog – Department of Defense leadership discusses the future of the U.S. Military Health System.
• Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) CEO's Blog – Through this blog, Ambassador John J. Danilovich, the MCC CEO, directlycommunicates with the public to offer his first-hand perspective of MCC programs and the results that assistance to partner countries is producing on the ground for the benefit of the world's poor.
• Minority Biz Blog – Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) serves minority entrepreneurs who are pursuing growth in size, scale and capacity.
• Mount Rainier National Park Volunteers Blog – Get the latest news about the volunteer program at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington.
• NASA Ames Research Center – Chief Information Officer Chris Kemp discusses information, policy, web development and more.
• NASA Goddard CIO Blog – NASA Goddard CIO, Linda Y. Cureton, blogs about technology, leadership, and being a Chief Information Officer.
• National African HIV AIDS Initiative (NAHI) Blog – Margaret Korto, a member of the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health Resource Center's HIV Capacity Building Team, hosts this blog as a way for communities in Seattle, New York, Massachusetts, Atlanta and Washington, DC to communicate and gather ideas about upcoming health summits.
• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Science Blog – This blog helps NIOSH to fulfill it's mission of translating scientific research into practice. It also provides a forum for NIOSH partners and the public to present ideas to NIOSH scientists and each other while engaging in scientific discussion.
• National Parks – The National Park Foundation enriches the connection Americans have with our National Parks.
• Navy Department Chief Information Officer Blog – Robert Carey, CIO for the Department of the Navy, blogs about matters related to information management and information technology and how they impact the Navy Department.
• Obama Today – Follow President Obama's initiatives and policy directions. We'll look at presidential orders, policies on the economy, alternative energy and foreign affairs, and his use of new media.
• OMB Blog – Office of Management and Budget Director, Peter R. Orszag, discusses the agency's work.
• Peace Corps Volunteer Journals – Blogs about experiences of Peace Corps volunteers from around the globe.
• Public Health Matters – Rear Admiral Ali S. Khan, the Director of CDC?s National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne and Enteric Diseases, blogs about critical issues in infectious disease.
• Pushing Back – Office of National Drug Control Policy blog to educate Americans about illegal drugs and the latest international, federal, state, and local efforts to reduce drug use
• Returning Service Members – VA (Veterans Affairs) blog for Returning Service Members from Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Rumors, Myths, and Fabrications – This blog discusses deliberate disinformation, unintentional misinformation, cautionary tales known as "urban legends," and widely believed conspiracy theories.
• Sara Bellum Blog – Written by a team of National Institute on Drug Abuse scientists, science writers, and public health analysts of all ages. We connect you with the latest scientific research and news, so you can use that info to make healthy, smart decisions.
• Science and Technology Policy Blog – Learn about, and have real input into the science and technology policy making process
• Science Planet – The latest findings in the scientific literature and the policy decisions that influence how science is practiced. No jargon, just discovery.
• Smithsonian Institution – Bloggers offer insights and information about Smithsonian Institution exhibitions, events, collections, research projects, and more.
• Stories of Service – Inspiring stories of volunteer service in communities everywhere.
• Take Pride in America: The Blog – Take Pride in America, a national partnership program aimed at increasing volunteer service on America's public lands, hosts this blog to empower volunteers from every corner of America to maintain and enhance our natural, cultural, and historical sites.
• Talking Faith – This blog explores the complexity of life in a religiously diverse nation.
• The Blog @ Homeland Security – This blog provides an inside-out view of what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security does every day.
• U.S. Air Force Live – The official blog of the United States Air Force.
• USDA Blog – The blog of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• Walter Reed Health Care System Commander's Blog – Colonel Norvell V. Coots, Commander of the Walter Reed Health Care System, blogs as an added communication tool for staff, patients and their families, and for anyone else who is interested in the Walter Reed military medical institution.
• White House Blog – The White House blog is a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.
• White House Open Government Blog – Open and effective government can only be achieved with everyone's active engagement. Lend your insights, experience, and expertise to improve your government and strengthen democracy. Join the brainstorming that has already begun!

List Of Timor Leste State Officials July 2009

This specially-created webpage is the closest thing online to the kind of roster one would find in a good Timor-Leste government organization manual (which may not exist even offline). Some contact info is provided.

Use the documen to identify current positions of Timor-Leste officials you see mentioned on or off the net.

Then use the officially-spelled name in places like search engines to develop any available biographical info into a profile for the person involved.

http://file2.ws/officials

New Report Documents 10 Years of Anti-Homeless Violence

Source: National Coalition for the Homeless

Today the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) released the 2008 numbers of hate crimes and violent attacks against people experiencing homelessness. The numbers are from a new report entitled Hate, Violence, And Death on Main Street USA, 2008.

Key findings include:

• The total number of attacks for 2008: 106.
• The number of fatal attacks is the second highest since 2001: 27 deaths.
• 73 percent of the attacks were committed by individuals who were ages 25 and younger.
• Florida ranked #1 for the fourth year in a row for most attacks, California was second.

“Those experiencing homelessness are often ignored or misunderstood by society. If these brutal attacks were committed against any other religious or minority group to the same degree, there would be a national outcry and call for governmental action,” said Michael Stoops, executive director of NCH. “We must respond to this dehumanization and protect homeless persons against hate crimes and violence.”

The 42 percent of homeless people who are unsheltered are the most vulnerable to these attacks. Because crimes committed against homeless persons often go unreported, the actual numbers of non-lethal attacks may be much higher. While the motive for an attack is often unclear, some of the attackers said they committed the crime out of “boredom,” or for a “thrill” or “fun.”

+ Full Report

New/Recently Updated CRS Reports — International Relations

New/Recently Updated CRS Reports — International Relations (PDFs)
Source: Congressional Research Service (via OpenCRS)

+ Afghanistan: U.S. Foreign Assistance

+ Canada’s Financial System: an Overview

+ China-U.S. Trade Issues

+ East Asia’s Foreign Exchange Rate Policies

+ Ghana: Background and U.S. Relations

+ Guinea’s 2008 Military Coup and Relations with the United States

+ Human Rights in China: Trends and Policy Implications

+ Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA)

+ Iraq: Oil and Gas Legislation, Revenue Sharing, and U.S. Policy

+ Kyrgyzstans Closure of the Manas Airbase: Context and Implications

+ Latin America: Terrorism Issues

+ Long-Range Ballistic Missile Defense in Europe

+ North Korea’s Second Nuclear Test: Implications of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874

+ Panama: Political and Economic Conditions and U.S. Relations

+ Peru: Current Conditions and U.S. Relations

+ Russia’s Economic Performance and Policies and Their Implications for the United States

+ Saudi Arabia: Background and U.S. Relations

+ Science, Technology, and American Diplomacy: Background and Issues for Congress

+ Sudan: Humanitarian Crisis, Peace Talks, Terrorism, and U.S. Policy

+ Tax Havens: International Tax Avoidance and Evasion

+ U.S. Accession to ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC)

+ U.S. Foreign Assistance to the Middle East: Historical Background, Recent Trends, and the FY2006 Request

Asian Companies’ Thirst for African Oil

Source: Chatham House

A new report on the activities of Asian oil companies in Africa exposes the flaws in many general assumptions about Asian engagement with Africa. Thirst for African Oil: Asian National Oil Companies in Nigeria and Angola analyses the impact of these companies in the two leading oil producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and contrasts the stability and policy consistency that are features of the Angolan system with a more insecure and unstable system in Nigeria.

The report finds that fears in Western capitals about an Asian takeover in the Nigerian and Angolan oil sectors are ‘highly exaggerated’ - the oil majors still dominate production and hold the majority of reserves. Indeed, in Angola, there is growing fatigue among officials about the West’s fixation with China’s engagement with Angola.

Thirst for African Oil concludes that neither Nigeria nor Angola fits the stereotype of weak African states being ruthlessly exploited by resource hungry Asian tigers. In Nigeria’s case, a cash-hungry political class sought to profit from its Asian partners’ thirst for oil whilst in Angola the relationship with China was nurtured in a pragmatic, disciplined way to the mutual advantage of both countries.

The report also compares the experiences of Chinese companies with those of India, South Korea and Japan and assesses the growing competition between China and India where China’s deeper pockets have put a brake on India’s ambitions.

+ Full Report (PDF; 1.7 MB)

Mexican Immigrants: How Many Come? How Many Leave?

Source: Pew Hispanic Center

The flow of immigrants from Mexico to the United States has declined sharply since mid-decade, but there is no evidence of an increase during this period in the number of Mexican-born migrants returning home from the U.S., according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of government data from both countries.

The Mexican-born population in the U.S., which had been growing earlier in the decade, was 11.5 million in early 2009. That figure is not significantly different from the 11.6 million Mexican immigrants in 2008 or the 11.2 million in 2007.

The current recession has had a harsh impact on employment of Latino immigrants, raising the question of whether an increased number of Mexican-born residents are choosing to return home. This new Hispanic Center analysis finds no support for that hypothesis in government data from the United States or Mexico.

+ Full Report (PDF; 363 KB)

Economic Survey for Latin America and the Caribbean 2008-2009

Source: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN)

The publication of the sixty-first edition of the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean, corresponding to 2008-2009, comes at a critical point in the economic development of the Latin American and Caribbean region. A growth phase that the region’s recent history cannot equal in nature and duration has come to an end and output is contracting. The toll this state of affairs is taking on the well-being of the population will inevitably be reflected in setbacks in social variables. Two traits set the current situation apart from the many crises that have beset the region in decades past. First, this crisis did not originate in the region or even in another emerging economy, but in the world’s largest economy, whence the effects spread worldwide, albeit with significant differences among countries and regions. Second, since the countries have (albeit with major exceptions) reduced their debt and built up their reserves during the boom years, the region overall is better prepared than in the past, and than other regions this time around, to tackle the crisis. These traits, in turn, have two implications. First, the rate of contraction forecast for 2009 is relatively moderate although, again, with sharp differences among the countries of the region. Second, the recovery depends to a great extent on an upturn in the global economy overall.

The first part of this edition of the Economic Survey looks at the channels through which the crisis is affecting the economies of the region and its impact on variables such as economic growth, employment and external-sector indicators. It also discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the countries in dealing with the fallout from the global crisis and the economic policies they have deployed to this end. The analysis covers the performance of the region’s economy in 2008 and the first semester of 2009 and concludes with a discussion of the outlook for the second half of the year. This chapter draws on an extensive statistical appendix.

+ Full Document (PDF; 1 MB)

Same As It Ever Was?

Two orthodox Jewish men walk down a street in New Jersey. (AP Photo/Mike Derer)

Billionaire Jewish philanthropist Charles Bronfman is worried that Israel's conflict with the Palestinians is hurting the country's relationship with young Jews in the Diaspora. "We turned from David to Goliath in 1982, with the invasion into Lebanon, and the Arabs became David," he told the Israeli daily Ha'aretz last week. "Now everybody's worried about the Palestinians. Now we're occupiers, oppressors, who live by the sword. That's what you see in the media, and it festers and has effects on the general population and on Jews as well." Peace, he said, was crucial to maintaining the bond between Israel and the broader Jewish world.

Coming from Bronfman, this was a striking statement, because few have done more than he has to cement that bond. He's the co-founder of Birthright Israel, which offers free 10-day trips to the country for Jews between 18 and 26 years old; around 230,000 have participated in the program so far. He's also not alone in noticing that younger Jews are more ambivalent about their ostensible birthright than their parents are. Young Jews don't share past generations' automatic support for Israeli policies. In time, their alienation could profoundly transform the relationship between Israel and the United States.

Indeed, in the long run the pro-Israel lobby, often seen as an immutable part of American politics, may be headed toward obsolescence. Given how influential the lobby is, it's easy to forget that the airtight relationship between Israel and the United States, and between Zionism and American Jews, is a relatively recent phenomenon. Support for Israel, financial and political, is a crucial component of mainstream American Judaism. But that wasn’t always the case.

American Jewish donations to Israel actually fell throughout much of the 1960s. In 1961, when Commentary published a symposium of Jewish intellectuals contemplating Jewish identity, Israel often seemed like an afterthought, and many respondents professed a skepticism of Zionism that would be anathema to the magazine today. "The support of Israel by American Jews should … not be sentimental and uncritical support, but should be given only in a way that exerts a more liberal, internationalist, and humanitarian influence on Israeli politics," wrote one New York University philosophy professor. "I believe Israel can effectively represent the historic mission of the Jewish people only when it sacrifices its national interests for the sake of world peace and social justice."

Everything changed in 1967, when, in the run-up to the Six Day War, American Jews believed that Israel faced possible destruction. The bellicose rhetoric of Arab leaders seemed designed to awaken memories of the Holocaust. That made Israel's overwhelming victory all the more exhilarating. "The Six Day War -- and, even more, its anxious prelude and triumphal aftermath -- effected a permanent reorientation in the agenda of organized American Jewry," wrote the historian Peter Novick in The Holocaust and American Life. Novick quoted Oscar Cohen, an official with the Anti-Defamation League, who wrote that by the 1970s, organized American Jewry had become "an agency of the Israeli government … follow[ing] its directions from day to day."

For that generation, Israel represented Jewish redemption. It was David against the global anti-Semitic Goliath, its wars just, its feats of derring-do -- like the 1976 rescue of hostages on a hijacked plane in Entebbe, Uganda -- thrilling and legendary.

Israel presents a very different picture to people coming of age today. Its most recent wars have been aggressive, brutal, and inconclusive. Almost every week brings news of some new gratuitous cruelty, like the eviction of more than 50 Palestinians from their East Jerusalem homes this week -- homes that were quickly taken over by Jewish settlers. At the same time, distance from the Holocaust, and a dramatic lessening overt anti-Semitism in the United States, has reduced the sense that Israel is necessary for the Jews' ongoing survival.

"The emotional understanding that there's always got to be some place for the Jews to go was second nature for my parents and their parents," says Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director of J-Street, which was formed as an alternative to more hawkish pro-Israel lobbies like the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. "That formed the basis for all this in the early 20th century. It isn't as evident to an American Jewish young person in the early part of the 21st century."

Obviously, there are plenty militantly hawkish young Jews. (Max Blumenthal captured some of the most offensive of them in his notorious video earlier this summer, which featured drunk American college students in Jerusalem spewing racist invective against Obama. YouTube later censored it, though its sequel) is still available. Statistically, though, such ideology is on the decline. Younger Jews, says Steven M. Cohen, one of the leading sociologists of American Jewry, "are less engaged with Israel over all, and when they're engaged with Israel, it's not necessarily as much in the realm of political defense as it was maybe for their parents." Cohen was a co-author, with Ari Y. Kelman, of a 2007 study which found that, among non-Orthodox Jews under 35, only 54 percent are "comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state," compared to over 80 percent of those 65 and older. Younger Jews are significantly less likely to self-identity as either Zionist or pro-Israel. There are many reasons for this alienation, but part of it is that "the politics of Israel don't always sit so well with younger, especially left-of-center, Jews," Cohen says.

In Israel, Cohen says, analysts are trying to figure out how to contend with changing views in the United States. "Strategic analysts have long said that there has to be an adjustment in policies because American Jews can't be relied upon to support whatever policies that Israel advances," Cohen says.

This might be seen as good news for those who favor a more even-handed American approach to the Middle East. Yet Ben-Ami, who loves Israel even if he abhors many of its policies, mourns this growing estrangement, and fears that liberal young people might drift away from the Jewish community altogether. "One of the motivations of J-Street is a deep worry not only about Israel but really about the American Jewish community and the extent to which the Israel issue becomes a reason why younger American Jews disconnect from the community," he says. "The very same young Jews who don't have that gut understanding that my grandparents may have had about why there's a need for an Israel, they also can't relate to values they're being brought up with -- either the way the situation is playing out on the ground in Israel or advancing within the Jewish community."

Meanwhile, Orthodox Jews have grown progressively more hawkish on Israel over the years. Thus it's possible that, should other Jews fall away, they could come to dominate the major American Jewish organizations -- resulting in an even greater rift between the values most Jews hold and policies espoused by those who purport to speak for them. "I don't know that there's a clear generational happy ending to this story," Ben-Ami says.

In 1948, the year of Israel's birth, Hannah Arendt warned that a continuing conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine would result in a fundamental rift with the Diaspora. Under the pressure of constant conflict, Palestinian Jews would degenerate into a Spartan "warrior tribe," she wrote. "Their relations with world Jewry would become problematical, since their defense interests might clash at any moment with those of other countries where large numbers of Jews lived. Palestinian Jewry would eventually separate itself from the larger body of world Jewry and in its isolation develop into an entirely new people." This dire prediction hasn't quite come true yet. But Jews in the United States and those in Israel are evolving in a wholly different direction, and Arendt's analysis seems more relevant every day.

Michelle Goldberg | August 7, 2009 | web only

Aceh Economic Update

This economic update highlights the following in its overview: growth in Aceh's non-oil and gas economy declined sharply in 2008 as the reconstruction effort winds down; agriculture is not sustaining previous growth rates and has failed to become an engine of growth after the reconstruction effort; domestic consumption continues to drive the local economy; and inflation continues to decline. This paper includes sections on: overview; gross domestic product; employment; trade; banking sector; inflation; and economic outlook 2009.

Complete Report Official version of document (may contain signatures, etc)
PDF	6 pages	Official Version	[0.42 mb]
Text		Text Version*
*The text version is uncorrected OCR text and is included solely to benefit users with slow connectivity.

Document Date:	2009/05/01
Document Type:	Newsletter
Report Number:	49187
Volume No:	1 of 1

Aceh Growth Diagnostic

This report shows that some investors still perceive Aceh as a risky place to do business, despite being relatively peaceful for almost four years. Security incidents, relatively common in post-conflict environments, deter businesses and individuals from investing in Aceh, robbing the economy of necessary capital and innovation. Other consequences of the conflict, including forms of illegal taxation, also hurt investment. The Government of Aceh is aware that until businesses and people change their perceptions of security in Aceh and feel confident that they can reap the full benefits of their investments, little investment will be forthcoming. As a result, growth in the province will be limited and efforts to reduce poverty less effective. There are other problems affecting Aceh's economy. These include the business environment, access to capital and the quality of infrastructure. This report seeks to show how these different factors affect investment and growth, and provides recommendations on how the Government might prioritize and sequence policy changes to improve the investment climate.

Complete Report Official version of document (may contain signatures, etc)
PDF	77 pages	Official Version	[5.39 mb]
Text		Text Version*
*The text version is uncorrected OCR text and is included solely to benefit users with slow connectivity.

Document Date:	2009/07/01
Document Type:	Policy Note
Report Number:	49568
Volume No:	1 of 1

Malaysia: Drop Sedition Charges Against Parliamentarian

Repeal Sedition Act, Used as Political Weapon

August 10, 2009

(New York) - Malaysia's attorney general should immediately drop politically motivated sedition charges against Karpal Singh, a prominent lawyer and opposition member of parliament, Human Rights Watch said today. His trial is to begin on August 12, 2009. Human Rights Watch also urged the government to repeal without delay the colonial-era Sedition Act 1948, long used selectively against the government's political opponents.

On March 17, the government charged Karpal, national chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party, under Section 4 (1)(b) of the Sedition Act. He is accused of using "seditious words" in a February 6 comment to journalists that the legality of a decision to return control of Perak's state government to Malaysia's ruling coalition could be questioned in court. Karpal has pleaded not guilty and is free on bail. If found guilty, Karpal faces up to three years in prison or a fine of up to RM5,000 [US$1,400] or both. As of April, 45 prosecution witnesses were due to take the stand.

"These sedition charges against Karpal are utterly baseless," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Right Watch. "This is just an excuse to remove a powerful political opponent."

Perak was one of five states won, albeit by a razor-thin majority, by opposition candidates who worked in concert to defeat the ruling National Front (Barisan Nasional or BN) coalition in the March 2008 national elections. After several Perak assembly members crossed over to join the BN in January and February 2009, BN regained a majority. Rather than dissolve the state assembly and call for new elections, Sultan Azlan Shah decided in favor of BN, prompting Karpal's call for a court hearing. Suits related to the legitimacy of the newly constituted assembly are still in contention.

This is the second time Karpal has been charged under the Sedition Act. During his 2001 defense of Anwar Ibrahim against corruption charges in 2001, Karpal stated that Anwar's failing health in detention was "due to a high-level conspiracy to poison him with arsenic." The police charged Karpal with sedition, though then-Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail later withdrew the charges.

The Sedition Act defines "seditious tendency" as, "a tendency to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any ruler or against any government ... to raise discontent or disaffection among the subjects of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong [the Malaysian monarch] or of the ruler of any state ... (or) to question any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by" certain articles in the Federal Constitution.

Article 181 of the constitution provides that no ruler may be charged in his official capacity in a court of law. Karpal did not suggest that charges should be brought against the sultan but suggested that his decision was subject to judicial review. The Sedition Act states that it is not seditious to "show that any ruler has been misled or mistaken in any of his measures."

BN, which has ruled Malaysia since independence, relies on the Sedition Act as well as the Internal Security Act to repress free expression and assembly to silence and punish its critics.

Human Rights Watch urges that such laws be repealed or reviewed to conform to international standards.

"It's a fallacy to suggest Malaysia needs laws that violate basic rights in order to maintain a peaceful and harmonious society," said Pearson. "Malaysians have time and again proven themselves capable of exercising the basic democratic rights to which they are entitled. It's time their government listened."

Human Rights Activist Abducted in Chechnya

GROZNY, Russia — The leader of a human rights group in Chechnya and her husband were abducted by armed men on Monday, members of two other groups said, adding to a sense of insecurity in the Russian region.

"Today, towards two o'clock, unidentified armed men got into the offices of Let's Save the Generation and abducted its leader, Zarema Sadulayeva, and her husband," said Alexander Cherkasov of Memorial, the Interfax news agency and Moscow Echo Radio reported.

"They have taken them away to an unknown destination. They came back into the NGO's office and took the mobile telephone and the car of the husband," he added.

They had no word on where they were, he added.

One of Memorial's own activists, Natalya Estemirova, was abducted and murdered in July, sparking an international outcry.

Another senior human rights worker and a former colleague of Sadulayeva told AFP earlier: "A gang came into her office around midday while she was working and then forced her into a car.

"There has been no news of her since," the colleague said, asking not to be named.

Cherkasov said the interior ministry and the Russian federal security service, the FSB, have been informed of the abductions.

Sadulayeva's husband, Alik Djibralov, had been jailed for four years for links to illegal armed groups, he said. He had married Sadulayeva two months after leaving prison, he added.

Let's Save the Generation works with young people in Chechnya who have been marginalised, helping them get back on their feet to prevent them joining any of the armed groups in the unstable region.

The body of Memorial's award-winning activist Estemirova was found shortly after she was seen being bundled into a car outside her home in the Chechen capital Grozny on July 15.

In the wake of her killing, Memorial chairman Oleg Orlov accused Chechnya's pro-Kremlin leader Ramzan Kadyrov of being responsible for the murder, irrespective of who ordered the crime.

He refuted the allegation on Monday, saying in an interview with Radio Svoboda, the Russian service of Radio Free Europe: "Why should Kadyrov kill a woman who was useful to no-one?

"She was devoid of honour, merit and conscience," he added.

Kadyrov is praised by the Kremlin for restoring some stability to the Caucasus region but is detested by human rights activists who accuse him of letting his personal militia carry out kidnappings and torture.

Cherkasov said that Kadyrov's comments showed that "he does not believe it is necessary to guarantee the security of rights activists in Chechnya."

After her death, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised Estemirova for speaking "the truth."

Deadly clashes between government forces and Islamist rebels are common in Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim region in the North Caucasus mountains.

The region was the scene of two wars between separatists and Russia's central government after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the insurgency has spilled over into neighbouring regions, taking a steady toll of lives.

Former UN Human Rights Rapporteur Offers 7 Points of Action on Iran to the UN Secretary General

NEW YORK, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- In an unprecedented meeting at the UN, Professor Manouchehr Ganji, a former UN special Rapporteur on Human Rights and currently an opposition leader and human rights protagonist for Iran, met with senior ranking UN Officials regarding the gross & systematic violations of human rights by the regime in Iran.

"I conveyed my message of gratitude to the Secretary General for his June 22 statement of urgent concern over the Iranian Regime's disregard and gross neglect of human rights in Iran, especially the post election use of vicious and lethal force against defenseless civilians," said Dr. Ganji. "The Secretary-General's urging of Iranian authorities to immediately stop the arrest, threat and use of force against Iranian citizens, was timely and quite thoughtful, although ineffective as the regime continues its 'violence,'" he added.

Having served as the UN's 1st Special Rapporteur on apartheid & on economic, social and cultural rights, Dr. Ganji recommended the following seven points of action on Iran as the minimum demands of Iranians today, adding "the Iranian people are rightfully looking to the UN to exercise its moral and legal authority in defense of their basic fundamental rights."

1-Declaration by the Secretary General that the regime in Iran is a gross violator of the UN charter obligations, particularly in regards to gender, ethnic, linguistic and religious discriminations.

2-The urgent need for permanent presence in Iran of an UNHCHR representative to monitor observance of human rights.

3-The need for permanent presence of International Committee of Red Cross in Iran as once existed during the former regime, for surveillance of prison conditions throughout Iran.

4-The urgent need for full disclosure of all detention centers, large and small, throughout Iran.

5-The need for immediate abrogation of "law of vengeance".

6-The need for regular admittance and facilitation of tasks, by Iran, of the six most important UN Special Rapporteurs on: torture; right to freedom of opinion, expression and press; arbitrary arrest and detentions; status of women; and independence of judges and lawyers.

7-The need for appointment of a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Iran.

Formerly Dean faculty of Law, Tehran University, Professor Ganji was Minister of Education, and served in multiple capacities at the UN & as member of various Committees on Human Rights.

US Commission on Civil Rights Must Be Replaced, Rights Leaders Say

by Hazel Trice Edney NNPA Editor-in-Chief Originally posted 8/10/2009 WASHINGTON (NNPA) – The 52-year-old U. S. Commission on Civil Rights, historically a leading force for overturning racist policies and enacting civil rights laws against Jim Crow segregation, has become obsolete and must be replaced, say civil rights leaders who are moving to make it happen. Largely because of right wing political domination and appointees stacked by the former Bush Administration, rights leaders say the eight-member Commission has done little for civil rights progress lately and over the past several years has done more to turn back the clock. “There should be a new commission. You need a commission because you need a commission to do what it did when it was doing what it was supposed to do, which is look at all these new problems – the old ones and the new ones,” says constitutional law expert Mary Frances Berry, a former member of the commission, who served 11 years as its chair. “Discrimination complaints on the basis of race have increased exponentially at the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]. And most of them are found to be valid. This has just happened over the past few years.” Berry, who resigned from the Commission in late 2004, continues, “People are still having problems on their jobs, we’ve still got police - community issues and everything. People are getting shot, every kind of issue you can think of. “The fact that Obama is president doesn’t mean that the issues just went away,” she said in the interview with the NNPA News Service. “It doesn’t matter who the president is. You need an independent watch dog that will investigate and look at civil and human rights issues and try to build consensus and make recommendations, and work to try to get something done.” In her new book, “And Justice for All”, an extensively researched history of the Commission and America’s “continuing struggle for freedom”, Berry says the current commission must be replaced with a U. S. Commission on Civil and Human Rights in order to renew its power against injustice. “The addition of human rights could make clear a concern with the nexus between race, sex, disability, age, national origin, sexual orientation, religious discrimination, poverty and civil liberties concerns,” Berry writes at the conclusion of the 400-page book. “A civil and human rights commission could also monitor U. S. compliance with the international human rights covenants to which we are a party and encourage adoption of those we have not approved.” The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is supposed to be an independent, bi-partisan body that was established by Congress in 1957 under the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is primarily a fact-finding body that looks into allegations of discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, age, disability or national origin. Berry recalls how the Commission worked with civil rights greats Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, and others to document facts that led to civil rights laws. “The impact of the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights is sort of an overall missing piece of how we got over,” she describes. While civil rights battles raged in the streets, lunch counters and jail cells, the Commission - which still has an advisory committee in each state - would visit communities; using subpoena power to compel both Blacks and Whites to give often shocking testimony about their personal experiences of injustices as well as those that had witnessed. “The commission from that time until the Reagan Administration was a force for trying to make change. They would make recommendations. They worked with everybody,” Berry recalls. Then the Reagan politics began. In 1983, two years after he took office, Reagan fired Berry, Blandina C. Ramirez and Murray Saltzman from the commission after they publicly disagreed with him on his administration’s civil rights policies. “They decided to fire commissioners and appoint those who would be mouth pieces,” Berry said. Rather than accept Reagan’s action, Berry and Ramirez sued and won back their seats after the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. ruled that the commissioners served as watchdogs. Berry chuckles as she recalls the judge’s comment, “’You can’t fire a watchdog for biting.’” In her 24 years on the Commission, Berry became known for her fights with presidents, including challenges to Jimmy Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. She resigned from the Commission in late 2004 amidst intense disputes with President Bush and his appointees on the Commission. In the book she states, “President George W. Bush essentially ‘fired’ me.” Now – though she mentions him by name only three times in the book - she’s challenging both President Barack Obama and Congress from the outside. She clearly views his administration as an opportunity to strengthen the Commission and return it to its original mission and purpose. The movement is growing. Laura Murphy, a senior consultant for the Campaign for a New Domestic Human Rights Agenda, a coalition of more than 50 civil rights groups that’s pushing for a new Commission among other causes, says they’re making headway. “The United States has been cited for its failure to end racial profiling, for its failure to end the high rate of incarceration of juveniles. These are the very issues that a reformed and strengthened U. S. Commission on Civil and Human Rights could give attention to,” she says. Murphy, former director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, says the group is in conversation with members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. She says the Obama Administration has also been receptive. “I think we will see hearings before the end of the year,” she said. Currently the Commission has eight members, including six Republicans and two Democrats. A move by Bush in 2004 created the conservative majority. Bush solidified the conservative Commission after two Republicans who had been Republicans when appointed - Russell Redenbaugh (who has since resigned) and Abigail Thernstrom - reregistered as independents. Bush then installed a fifth and sixth Republican. Democratic President Obama will not get an appointment until 2010. And even then he’ll only get one. Meanwhile, divisive issues such as police profiling and misconduct; affirmative action and same-sex marriage are not being dealt with in fact-finding hearings by the Commission, Berry points out. Instead, in recent years, the Commission has been busy opposing civil rights progress, including its opposition to the renewal of the Voting Rights Act, hate crimes laws, and arguing against diversity as a benefit in public education. Other civil rights leaders agree a new Commission is the answer. A recent report issued by The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, led by its President Wade Henderson, says the current Commission is nearly irreparably flawed. “Today, the commission is so debilitated as to be considered moribund. With a new administration, there is the opportunity to take a fresh look at this venerable institution and make the necessary changes to restore it to its former status as the ‘conscience of the nation,’” states the report. The report pushes for an ''entirely new entity that returns to the commission’s original mandate and expands on it to preserve and protect the civil and human rights of all American citizens.” Titled, “Restoring the Conscience of a Nation”, the Report includes the following recommendations which essentially mirror those advocated by Berry: •Creation of a new commission, consisting of seven members. The members would serve four year staggered terms. Each commissioner will be appointed by the president, and be subject to Senate confirmation. •Authorization of the commission to hold hearings across the country to better understand the landscape of equal opportunity involving various regions and protected groups. Based on these hearings, and other information, the commission would have the responsibility to make policy recommendations to the president and Congress. The commission would retain the authority to subpoena witnesses to participate in such hearings. •The name of the commission would be the United States Commission on Civil and Human Rights in order to “reflect the human rights dimension of its work” and “make more explicit its authority to examine U.S. compliance with these international treaties as part of its existing mandate to examine compliance with legal obligations that affect civil rights.”

NGOs Say No to Internet Filtering by Government

Darshini Kandasamy [1]

Monday, August 10th, 2009 07:49:00

THE plan by Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim to develop an Internet filtering system targeting pornography, has not gone down well with many people.

Many feel that this could be misconstrued as curtailing freedom of information. Although such censorship has been refuted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, several people are not convinced.

Various NGO’s and parties familiar with the dissemination of information online questioned the effectiveness of filtering online pornographic sites.

Malaysian Insider chief executive officer Sreedhar Subramaniam said if people chose to look at such content, “filtering such sites would only force them to look for other channels to access such smut.”

Instead, he said the authorities should look at what made people seek such sites and address the issue there.

“It is not a simple problem to address. They must see what can be done at home, schools or even study people’s religious beliefs,” he said, adding personal censorship at home was another option.

While Sreedhar acknowledged people can be addicted to porn and it can affect one's relationship with his spouse or family, he stressed that filtering websites may be easy but is not the best solution.

Malaysiakini chief executive officer Premesh Chandran also reiterated that parents should be left to install firewalls in their home computers to monitor their family members’ use of the Internet.

He felt this would allow the government to censor other issues besides pornography due to the temptations of political demands for broader censorship.

Writers Alliance for Media Independence (WAMI) chairman Wong Chin Huat said :“There is no need for the state to decide what we can or cannot see. There has been a lot of porn censorship in the broadcast media but has it been helpful?”

Wong said the government should instead heighten enforcement by going after pornographic DVD sellers or those who own child pornography as there is the danger those who own such materials could be paedophiles.

He also questioned how the government defines pornography.

“What may seem like porn to one person may be art to me and what may seem like art to some may seem like pornography to me,” he said.

“Do not impose (restrictions) on all. It is their life and everyone has the right to sexual privacy. We are not supposed to watch porn in public but it is one’s own life should one choose to watch porn in his own bedroom,” he said.

Author of biography The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His time, Dr Ooi Kee Beng said such filtration was dangerous for Malaysia’s democracy.

He said the call by Rais was not about pornography. “You can’t help but think that that is just an excuse. Once a filtering system is put in place, it can be used for anything. It is not a technology meant for filtering pornography but technology meant to filter what the authorities want to be filtered.”

Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) executive director V. Gayathry said CIJ’s stance was that the government had no right to decide what individuals can access both offline and online.

“To us, any decision to filter is a form of censorship. Today, the government will try to justify filtering content that is pornographic and tomorrow it could be political or social.” She said the government has already installed filtering software for the Internet in government offices and questioned its effectiveness.

“Globally the debate on pornography online and offline is still unresolved. Pornography has always been
used as an excuse to justify controls, but the government ought to realise that controls have failed.

“Offline, people are able to access materials on nudity and sex anywhere despite bans on such publications. What makes the government think it can control it online?”

Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) commissioner, Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria said the government could work on increasing public awareness on the negative implications of pornography, such as how it affects marriages or cause women to be seen as sex objects.

However, he was personally not against filtering such sites, saying that people should not mistake freedom of information to include freedom for pornography.

“It is not something that should be encouraged, along with other sites that promote violence and terrorism,” said Dr Denison.

On Saturday, Rais confirmed he had requested authorities, such as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to look into the possibility of implementing an Internet filtering system for pornography.

It had been reported Malaysia had called for a tender to develop a filtering system, akin to China’s controversial Green Dam project.

These were however denied by Najib later the same day, who said the government would not impose any form of Internet censorship as it would not be effective and would cause much dissatisfaction.

Rights Group Criticizes Saudi Arabia's Al Qaeda Reeducation Program

By Caryle Murphy | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Saudi Arabia's much praised rehabilitation program for terror suspects is under fire from the US-based Human Rights Watch because its participants are detained for lengthy periods without charges.

The program – a key part of Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism campaign – relies on preventive efforts to teach detained men that terrorism is un-Islamic. But since most of the detainees haven't been convicted of any crime, it violates international law, the group argues in a report released Monday.

"Except as part of a sentence imposed after conviction for a crime, international human rights law does not permit the detention of persons to undergo a reeducation program," the report says. Such programs "cannot be forced upon persons whose guilt has not been established."

Rehab program praised by US

The program has drawn praise from US and Saudi officials who argue that conventional policing alone is insufficient to control Islamist militants.

While the program "may deserve credit for its intentions, innovations, and apparently low rate of acts of violence pursued by those released," Human Rights Watch says, those extolling it overlook that its enrollees "were not convicted criminals but rather men held in long-term detention without charge."

The report also says that the convictions of 330 Al Qaeda terror suspects announced by Saudi Arabia in July were "flawed" because the trials were held in secret. It criticizes the Saudi Interior Ministry for detaining thousands of suspects for years without charges, and in some cases, refusing to comply with court orders to release prisoners.

Gen. Mansour Turki, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said in an e-mail that he was unable to comment on the report until he had discussed it with ministry officials. An e-mail seeking comment to the Ministry of Justice spokesman went unanswered.

Indefinite detention is 'wrong'

Saudi human rights activist Mohammad Al Qahtani praised the report because "it documented the process of arresting people in indefinite detention." He disagreed with the protestation of a Saudi official quoted in the report, who said that public trials for terrorism suspects are unsuited to Saudi Arabia's tribal society.

"This is very wrong," said Mr. Qahtani. "A modern society should apply the law. This is an excuse to get away with illegal things. It doesn't make sense to hold secret tribunals."

The program has not been without its problems. In January of this year, Saudi Arabia disclosed that 11 graduates of the program, some of whom had previously been detained at the US prison camp in Guantánamo, Cuba, have been re-arrested for joining militant groups. Still, US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair described the program in glowing terms in a memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this year, calling it "the most comprehensive of its kind [designed] to address the religious, psychological, and socio-economic issues that contribute to radicalization."

The Human Rights Watch report follows a July 21 study by Amnesty International that alleged Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism campaign led to increased human rights violations.

One response to 2003 attacks

Saudi Arabia was rocked by a wave of violence from Al Qaeda extremists in 2003 and 2004 that left 74 security personnel and 90 civilians dead, according to Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi interior minister. Another 1,096 persons were injured.

The government responded with mass arrests. An unknown but large number of the 9,000 civilians detained since 2003 are still held, though Saudi law stipulates that six months is the longest a person can be jailed without charges. Some detainees are held even after the rehabilitation program or Saudi courts recommend their release.

The rehabilitation program began in 2004. Using psychological and religious counseling, it aims to convince prisoners to abandon what Saudi officials call the "deviant" or "misguided" beliefs that led them into extremist groups.

Saudi officials have said the program is voluntary but also acknowledge that completing it is a condition, though not a guarantee, for a prisoner's release.

Half-way house added

In 2007, a second component to the program was added with a half-way house to ease prisoners back into society. Of the 270 detainees who went through this part of the program, 117 were former inmates at the US-run Guantánamo Bay detention camp.

The latest Human Rights Watch report also criticizes the lack of information about the trials of 330 terror suspects. "The absence of public observers at these trials cast significant doubt on their fairness, underlined by indications that defendants do not have legal assistance and adequate time and facilities to prepare a defense," the report says.

UTSA Forms Research Partnerships with Cambodian Universities

San Antonio Business Journal - by Tamarind Phinisee

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has formed relationships with two Cambodian universities that will allow faculty and staff at all three schools to collaborate in research, teaching and study abroad programs.

UTSA formed partnerships with Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Cambodia’s first and largest university, and Pannasastra University. Pannasastra is a private university that was opened in 2000 by a group of Cambodian Americans who fled the country because of the genocide that took place during the 1970s. However, they decided to return home with advanced degrees to start the university.

The collaborative efforts between the universities began earlier this year when UTSA associate professor of bicultural-bilingual studies, Wayne Wright, traveled on a Fulbright Scholarship to teach at RUPP in the master of education program.

Wright, who is fluent in Cambodian, says he chose the country in order to contribute to the rebuilding of the education system devastated by genocide and decades of civil war. Additionally, he was able to introduce his children to the Cambodian language, history and culture and reconnect with his wife’s family who live near the capital.

Wright will be supervising five master’s students working on their theses at RUPP and will be finishing up a research project that he started with one of the faculty members there.

“My hope is to find funding to support a big collaborative research project related to teacher training in Cambodia that can involve all three universities,” Wright says.

UTSA president Ricardo Romo says agreements like these are important for UTSA students.

“We would be left behind if we didn’t try to be a bit more proactive in setting up programs that would allow the students to see other parts of the world,” Romo says. “We need to take advantage of these kinds of connections with other universities and let our students reap the benefits of those kinds of networks.”

Indonesia's Texas? Rural Java Braces for Oil Boom

By Ed Davies

BOJONEGORO, Indonesia (Reuters) - Few things seem to happen at speed in this sleepy Java town where rickshaws ply the streets. But this rural area of rice fields and teak forests is set to be transformed by Indonesia's biggest oil find in years.

Oil production could start to flow from the huge Cepu field straddling East and Central Java later this month and eventually add millions of dollars to the coffers of local governments, as well as an influx of workers and a wave of new expectations.

The head of the Bojonegoro district, where most of the Cepu field lies, wants people to keep their feet on the ground.

"I don't want my people to have false dreams. Yes maybe it will be like Texas here, but my people can't get access to that," regency head Suyoto said in an interview in his modest offices. Southeast Asia's biggest new oil field is estimated to contain 350 million barrels of crude, currently worth more than $24 billion on global markets. It also has big reserves of gas.

"They imagine that they will become rich with the oil and gas," said Suyoto, 44, who like many Indonesians goes by one name and was previously the rector of a local university.

The Bojonegoro regency, which has a population of about 1.2 million, is currently the 4th poorest district in East Java, relying on a rural economy based on rice, corn and tobacco.

Suyoto wants to prioritize using the district's share of oil revenue, which is due to hit an annual peak of 2 trillion rupiah (about $200 million) in the next few years, to develop its pot-holed roads and upgrade agriculture through irrigation and greater use of livestock such as cattle and sheep.

"Why agriculture? Why husbandry? Because most people can do that," he added, noting many of the oil and gas jobs would be far too skilled for local workers.

Cepu was discovered by U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil in 2001, but then faced hurdles ranging from land disputes to rows over revenue sharing and the routing of pipelines. The arguments raged despite a dire need for Indonesia to raise flagging oil output.

A deal was finally struck with state oil firm Pertamina in 2006 to jointly develop Cepu with Exxon as operator. Both firms hold 45 percent in the project and the remaining 10 percent is held by four local governments in Central and East Java.

SENSITIVE RESOURCES

Exploiting natural resources in Indonesia, particularly when it involves foreign companies, can often be sensitive.

The huge Grasberg copper and gold mine in Papua, operated by Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc, has been a frequent source of friction over its environmental impact and the share of revenue going to Papuans.

Exxon has also faced pressure over alleged abuses by the Indonesian military guarding its gas project in Aceh on the far northern tip of Sumatra.

Cepu is in the heart of densely populated Java and there have been some protests calling for more local jobs in the project.

The early stages of the project have not required much labor, but when the project cranks up toward full production then the numbers should jump, said Deddy Afidick, a spokesman for Mobil Cepu Ltd, a unit of Exxon Mobil.

"When we start full production we are going to have five major contractors, it will involve hundreds, probably, of sub contractors and other local contractors also," said Afidick, adding that thousands of workers might need to be hired.

The firm, which has set up an information office in Bojonegoro, had started programs such as vocational training to ensure host communities benefited from the project, he added.

The project would not be cut off from the local community in the way that some Indonesian resource projects have, pledged Maman Budiman, senior vice president at Exxon Mobil Indonesia.

Some resource projects involving foreign firms in more remote areas like Papua are basically self-contained guarded enclaves with on-site housing and other facilities.

Right now Bojonegoro and Cepu, the other main town near the field, only have a handful of fairly basic hotels between them to cater for growing numbers of visitors related to the project.

The Griya Dharma Kusuma in Bojonegoro has only 15 rooms and while perfectly comfortable the hotel does not exactly have the full set of amenities that some expatriate workers might expect.

The city has no shopping malls and few western brands, while only a handful of restaurants offer non-local dishes.

But closer to the oil field there are signs of a building boom in some villages with new homes emerging and a recently opened combined hotel and restaurant offering rooms and food.

District head Suyoto said he had given permits to build more hotels and was also looking at ways of promoting tourism including building a waterpark and even oil tourism.

TRADITIONAL MINERS

This part of Java has had a long association with oil and the Dutch, Indonesia's former colonial rulers, operated oil fields in the area although never realized the potential of Cepu.

Indonesian cities such as Balikpapan on the eastern coast of Borneo and Pangkalan Brandan in Sumatra saw earlier oil booms often led by the operations of the Royal Dutch Shell company, which has strong roots in Indonesia.

A short drive out of Bojonegoro and farm laborers toil in fields building irrigation trenches to grow rice, appearing oblivious to a huge oil drilling site being operated by Pertamina and Petrochina, which also has operations in the area.

In the Tuban area nearby towering flare stacks burn off gas as a by-product from pumping oil. The billowing flames emit heat that can be felt from the road, while artificially illuminating the night sky as villagers pray at a mosque besides the site.

In other parts of Bojonegoro, nodding donkey-style oil pumps dot the landscape, while in the Woncolo area traditional "oil miners" work in messy tar-stained camps reeking of oil.

Reminiscent of Texas oil prospectors of a century ago, these freelancer oil men use rickety wooden frames with pulleys, a few still operated by hand, to retrieve oil in wells up to 400 meters (1,300ft) deep. They then heat the oil on wood fires to burn off water.

At one well, the miners, some puffing away on cigarettes, said they got enough oil to fill two car tanks a day. Other miners said they could earn from 200,000 rupiah ($20) a day shared between a team of at least three.

The work can be dangerous with three killed so far this year after rigs collapsed, but one 67-year-old worker said authorities should not try to regulate them and be content with the wealth from the Cepu field.

"The small wells should be for people like me," said Soeroso. "The government should be happy because it has the deep well."

(Additional reporting by Beawiharta; Editing by Megan Goldin)

Indonesian Antiterror Victories

It looks like Indonesian police just missed catching Southeast Asia’s most wanted terror suspect over the weekend. But the operation to hunt down Noordin Mohamed Top and the related defusing of a bomb plot aimed at President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono still speak well of that country’s counterterror efforts.

Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism force, Detachment 88, has been hunting Noordin since the 2002 Bali bombings. The Malaysian-born terrorist is the head of a small splinter faction of al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiya and is thought to be the mastermind of a string of attacks culminating in last month’s Jakarta hotel bombings. On Saturday, Indonesian authorities raided a farmhouse several hundred miles from Jakarta and another house near the capital, arresting five and killing three. Despite early reports Noordin was among the dead, he’s probably still alive. But Jakarta is getting closer to nabbing him.

This weekend’s raids will go down as another victory in the larger war on terror even though Noordin is on the loose. Detachment 88 has rounded up hundreds of Jemaah Islamiya members since 2002, including Jemaah Islamiya leader Abu Dujana in 2007, to the point where the group may no longer function as an effective terrorist operation. (Noordin’s splinter faction is the exception, and even then has only about 30 members.) Success breeds success: Suspects arrested in the wake of the July 17 hotel attack in Jakarta tipped off authorities to the location of Noordin’s safe house.

Just as importantly, police thwarted an apparent assassination plot against President Yudhoyono Saturday when they recovered hundreds of kilograms of explosive materials from another house near Jakarta. Terrorists allegedly intended to set off an explosion near one of the president’s houses or his motorcade. It’s unclear whether they would have been able to pull off such an act, but last month’s hotel bombings showcased how sophisticated Indonesia’s terrorists can be.

One important factor that has helped Indonesia’s fight against terrorism is that the government has thrown itself wholeheartedly into the effort. Mr. Yudhoyono extended his “highest gratitude and respect” to the police for their “brilliant achievement” on Saturday. Detachment 88 is among the best-funded police units in the country. Jakarta has also embraced the help of Australia and the U.S., which have helped train Indonesia’s antiterror forces.

Now Indonesia’s political class needs to step up its fight on the ideas front. Up to now, Jakarta has been tolerant of radical teaching and preaching despite its successes arresting terrorists. Witness the release in 2006 of Abu Bakir Bashar, convicted of conspiracy in the Bali bombing and well known for his radical teachings, or last year’s antipornography law passed as a sop to Islamic parties. That may be starting to change after religious parties lost ground in this year’s elections. There are signs Mr. Yudhoyono’s next cabinet appointments may take Islamic-party politicians out of key posts.

Mr. Yudhoyono won election in 2004 in part of a platform of security, and he won re-election earlier this year with an even larger mandate to defend Indonesia’s tradition of moderate Islam. This weekend’s events show how far Indonesia has come in the fight against terror, and how much more remains to be done. Mr. Yudhoyono would do well to stay the course.

Clinton Addresses War Crimes in Congo

By SARAH CHILDRESS

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stopped in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday, making a two-day visit to highlight sexual violence, a weapon wielded in the long-running conflict by rebel groups as well as the Congolese army.

The conflict has raged for about 15 years in this vast nation. It began when Tutsi forces pursued Hutu perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide over the Congolese border, but has since devolved into clashes among several armed groups over the valuable minerals in the region. The Congolese people are caught in the middle. Tens of thousands of women and girls, and some men, have been raped.

"I will be pressing very hard for not just assistance -- to help those who are being abused and mistreated, in particular the women who are turned into weapons of war through the rape they experience -- but also looking for ways to try to end this conflict," Mrs. Clinton said in remarks after she arrived on the fourth stop of her seven-nation Africa tour.

The Congolese army is the largest force in the region, and the biggest perpetrator of sexual violence, according to Human Rights Watch, an independent watchdog group based in New York, in a July report on rape in the Congo.

The problem is compounded by impunity. No senior military officials have been prosecuted for any such offenses. Last year 27 soldiers were convicted of crimes of sexual violence in eastern Congo, according to Human Rights Watch. The U.N. logged 7,703 new cases, committed by army soldiers and other armed groups, in the same region.

Mrs. Clinton was expected to encourage the government and the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country, known as Monuc, to take a stronger stand on such crimes. In Goma, a major city in eastern Congo, she plans to meet with rape survivors to hear their stories.

Mrs. Clinton said she had spoken earlier in the day with Angolan President Jose Edouardo dos Santos during her visit with him about bringing an end to the mineral trade that fuels the conflict. Mr. dos Santos, she said, believes it will take a coordinated effort from the U.S., Britain, France and Rwanda "to prevent the mining from basically funding a lot of these militias that are keeping the fighting going."

Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to meet with Congolese President Joseph Kabila while in Goma, and she said she would press Mr. Kabila to work on creating "broader political legitimacy and credibility by his government" and to work on professionalizing the military. She also is scheduled to visit a hospital founded by former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo, a native of Congo, while in the capital, Kinshasa, and to hold a town-hall meeting.

The secretary's visit comes as the Congolese government has developed strong ties with China, which last year offered the impoverished country a multimillion-dollar deal to swap resources for infrastructure. The International Monetary Fund has tried to block the deal, threatening to cancel its debt-forgiveness with the Congo. The IMF believes the agreement would plunge the Congo deeper into debt.

On Monday, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the Chinese concerns had agreed to adjust the terms of the deal, and that if they did, the IMF would maintain its debt-forgiveness plan, according to Reuters.

Myanmar Exiles Eye New Path

By WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporters

With Myanmar's military government expected to sentence dissident Aung San Suu Kyi to further detention as early as Tuesday, some of her exiled supporters are considering new tactics -- such as negotiating with the regime -- to break a decades-old political stalemate in the troubled Southeast Asian nation.

Ms. Suu Kyi faces up to five years in prison for allegedly violating the terms of a government-imposed house arrest in May, when she allowed an uninvited American well-wisher to visit her lakeside home without state approval.

Myanmar officials have said a verdict will come Tuesday, though some analysts say the decision may be delayed due to the poor health of John Yettaw, the American visitor, who is also on trial and has reportedly suffered from epileptic seizures recently. The verdict was delayed once before, after authorities in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, said they needed more time to review the facts in the case.

Analysts and exiles expect the court to eventually find Ms. Suu Kyi guilty, resulting in further detention for the 64-year-old Nobel laureate who has spent nearly 14 of the past 20 years under arrest.

Such an outcome, combined with Myanmar's miserable economic conditions and the likelihood that Ms. Suu Kyi won't be able to participate in elections the government plans for 2010, are prodding exile groups to contemplate new strategies, including seeking negotiations with Myanmar's military regime and possibly dropping some earlier demands that have blocked rapprochement.

Ms. Suu Kyi's supporters have traditionally taken a hard-line approach towards talking with the regime, unless it agrees to free hundreds of political prisoners and recognize the results of a 1990 election won overwhelmingly by Ms. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party.

The military ignored that vote and subsequently tightened its grip on the country, locking away opponents and drawing widespread condemnation for its alleged human-rights abuses.

Last week, a group of senior opposition leaders, including Sein Win, head of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which describes itself as Myanmar's government-in-exile, announced plans for a new "proposal for national reconciliation" that involves negotiations with the regime. The proposal reiterates older goals such as the release of political prisoners and a review of the country's constitution, but acknowledges the need for dialogue with the military to make those goals a reality.

Other dissidents are pressing exile leaders to go further and possibly drop calls for the military to honor the 1990 vote if it helps advance the dissidents' other agendas, such as getting Ms. Suu Kyi freed.

Dissident groups plan to discuss further details at a convention in Jakarta, Indonesia on Wednesday and Thursday. At least 10 major dissident groups are expected to attend, including the Women's League of Burma and representatives from the NLD, along with Mr. Sein Win and others. People who intend to participate say it may be the first time in decades so many groups have come together to forge a common position in dealing with the Myanmar junta.

"We're not only thinking about what we want, but what the regime can and cannot accept. It's a move back to the center," says Nyo Ohn Myint, a senior opposition figure who's been in exile in Thailand and the U.S. for 20 years. He says a majority of senior NLD leaders now support some form of compromise with Myanmar's military government, including possibly writing off the 1990 vote.

Mr. Nyo Ohn Myint says he believes Ms. Suu Kyi is also willing to compromise, including accepting some kind of role for the military in government, though it is difficult to confirm Ms. Suu Kyi's views while she is under arrest.

Many dissidents are focusing on the regime's planned 2010 elections. Initially, opposition groups vowed to boycott the election as they believed that no vote overseen by the military could be free and fair. But some dissidents have softened their positions in the belief that participating in a flawed election may be better than sitting it out entirely.

"There is the danger that the main political activists or stakeholders like the NLD and major ethnic groups will be sidelined" if they don't in some way participate in the election, says Thaung Htun, who the government-in-exile calls its representative to the United Nations. "We need to publicly propose an alternative."

Some analysts are skeptical that any new approaches from exiles will yield results. Dialogue requires participation on both sides, and the regime has given little indication in the past that it wants to negotiate, though some dissidents believe that may change if military leaders are given face-saving options that allow them to claim the 2010 election is legitimate. The regime rarely speaks to the foreign media, Western diplomats or high-ranking dissidents, making it difficult to divine its intentions.

Myanmar's myriad exile groups have struggled to reach consensus in the past and the latest discussions could easily break down over the details of how far to go with any national reconciliation plan. Many exiles still view any form of rapprochement as totally unacceptable and worry that any participation in the 2010 election could legitimize a government widely viewed as a military dictatorship.

"The Burmese are too divided to suddenly put all their history behind them," retired Rutgers University professor and Myanmar expert Josef Silverstein said.

Some analysts who follow Myanmar say the new approach at least offers hope of a fresh start after more than two decades of worsening economic and social conditions in the country. Many leading dissidents are now in their 70s and 80s, and a new generation of intellectuals, including some based in Myanmar, has been highly critical of their elders' refusal to negotiate with the regime.

The Jakarta conference was planned in part "to stay relevant to meet the criticism" that older dissident groups are too inflexible, says Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Macquarie University in Sydney.

Dissidents are considering new approaches "probably because things are looking so dire" in the country, with little change in recent years, forcing exiles to look "for a new way," says Monique Skidmore, a Myanmar expert at the University of Canberra in Australia. "I'm pleased it's happening," she says.

The 2010 Census Will Violate the Constitution

By JOHN S. BAKER AND ELLIOTT STONECIPHER

Next year’s census will determine the apportionment of House members and Electoral College votes for each state. To accomplish these vital constitutional purposes, the enumeration should count only citizens and persons who are legal, permanent residents. But it won’t.

Instead, the U.S. Census Bureau is set to count all persons physically present in the country—including large numbers who are here illegally. The result will unconstitutionally increase the number of representatives in some states and deprive some other states of their rightful political representation. Citizens of “loser” states should be outraged. Yet few are even aware of what’s going on.

In 1790, the first Census Act provided that the enumeration of that year would count “inhabitants” and “distinguish” various subgroups by age, sex, status as free persons, etc. Inhabitant was a term with a well-defined meaning that encompassed, as the Oxford English Dictionary expressed it, one who “is a bona fide member of a State, subject to all the requisitions of its laws, and entitled to all the privileges which they confer.”

Thus early census questionnaires generally asked a question that got at the issue of citizenship or permanent resident status, e.g., “what state or foreign country were you born in?” or whether an individual who said he was foreign-born was naturalized. Over the years, however, Congress and the Census Bureau have added inquiries that have little or nothing to do with census’s constitutional purpose.

By 1980 there were two census forms. The shorter form went to every person physically present in the country and was used to establish congressional apportionment. It had no question pertaining to an individual’s citizenship or legal status as a resident. The longer form gathered various kinds of socioeconomic information including citizenship status, but it went only to a sample of U.S. households. That pattern was repeated for the 1990 and 2000 censuses.

The 2010 census will use only the short form. The long form has been replaced by the Census Bureau’s ongoing American Community Survey. Dr. Elizabeth Grieco, chief of the Census Bureau’s Immigration Statistics Staff, told us in a recent interview that the 2010 census short form does not ask about citizenship because “Congress has not asked us to do that.”

Because the census (since at least 1980) has not distinguished citizens and permanent, legal residents from individuals here illegally, the basis for apportionment of House seats has been skewed. According to the Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey data (2007), states with a significant net gain in population by inclusion of noncitizens include Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Texas. (There are tiny net gains for Hawaii and Massachusetts.)

This makes a real difference. Here’s why:

According to the latest American Community Survey, California has 5,622,422 noncitizens in its population of 36,264,467. Based on our round-number projection of a decade-end population in that state of 37,000,000 (including 5,750,000 noncitizens), California would have 57 members in the newly reapportioned U.S. House of Representatives.

However, with noncitizens not included for purposes of reapportionment, California would have 48 House seats (based on an estimated 308 million total population in 2010 with 283 million citizens, or 650,000 citizens per House seat). Using a similar projection, Texas would have 38 House members with noncitizens included. With only citizens counted, it would be entitled to 34 members.

Of course, other states lose out when noncitizens are counted for reapportionment. According to projections of the 2010 Census by Election Data Services, states certain to lose one seat in the 2010 reapportionment are Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania; states likely (though not certain) to lose a seat are Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Ohio could lose a second seat. But under a proper census enumeration that excluded illegal residents, some of the states projected to lose a representative—including our own state of Louisiana—would not do so.

The census has drifted far from its constitutional roots, and the 2010 enumeration will result in a malapportionment of Congress.

In the 1964 case of Wesberry v. Sanders, the Supreme Court said, “The House of Representatives, the [Constitutional] Convention agreed, was to represent the people as individuals and on a basis of complete equality for each voter.” It ruled that Georgia had violated the equal-vote principle because House districts within the state did not contain roughly the same number of voting citizens. Justice Hugo Black wrote in his majority opinion that “one man’s vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another’s.” The same principle is being violated now on a national basis because of our faulty census.

The Census Bureau can of course collect whatever data Congress authorizes. But Congress must not permit the bureau to unconstitutionally redefine who are “We the People of the United States.”

—Mr. Baker teaches constitutional law at Louisiana State University. Mr. Stonecipher is a Louisiana pollster and demographic analyst.