<a href=www.zwire.com>Litchfield County Times, By: E.L. Lefferts
06/20/2003

Rather than take a vote at that point, however, commissioners decided to hold off until after putting their thoughts down on paper. "We didn't vote," confirmed commission chairman Dorothy Hill. "We'll have further discussion at the next meeting [June 25], and we may vote then. It was agreed, to clarify concerns or opinions, that we would write them down to help in drafting the motion." Ms. Hill was very concerned that no one gets the impression the commission has already come to a conclusion. There was discussion, but no consensus last week, she said, as the commission wrapped up its meeting with the clock ticking toward midnight. The proposed project entails building two homes of between 4,000 and 8,000 square feet each, two swimming pools, two tennis courts and two ponds on property off of Carmel Hill Road. Ms. Maury, the wife of Diego Arria-the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations under UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and a former governor of Caracas, Venezuela-is reviewing her options as to whether she'll keep the property for personal use or build the houses to be sold. While two homes and their respective amenities on 73 acres is not what most would consider heavy development, Michael Klemens, a herpetologist and consultant for the commission whose fee was paid by the applicant, noted that the property plays host to some fragile vernal pools. He has also noted that the ponds could compromise Sprain Brook with an inflow of nutrients, or they could affect the stream's temperature, subsequently harming the habitat for salamanders, fish, frogs and mosquitoes. "From my point of view, there are some wetlands we don't need to spend a lot of time protecting," Mike Ajello, Washington's wetlands enforcement officer has said. "And there are pristine wetlands that have never been impacted or touched ... and much of the Maury/Cady site are of the latter description." Landscape architect Dirk Sabin has assured the commission that part of the plan is to make 68 percent of the property, which would include the acres containing the vernal pools and central wetlands, subject to a conservation easement held by either the Steep Rock Association or the town. Despite this assurance, at the June 11 meeting about 17 people were in the audience, prompting a commission member to comment that it was the largest crowd the application had yet attracted. "We use the stream for our geology and water ecology classes," said Glen Sherratt, of the Horace Mann School, which he noted is downstream from the Maury/Cady property. "A change in temperature may affect flora and fauna. There's also a hemlock grove that depends on the moisture from the stream. Diminished water flow could be harmful." Elizabeth Corrigan presented a laundry list of questions and complaints about the application. "I ask the commission to deny this application without prejudice," she said. "The project will permanently alter the natural characteristics of this rare wetland ecosystem, including its co-dependent upland review area. There are many uncertainties and unenforceable aspects to this plan. It is simply too big for the landscape." The sole voice that night in favor of the application came from Susan Payne, chairman of the Conservation Commission. "The consensus is that this is quite an outstanding development for a large piece of property," she said. In the past, complaints have been made that the plan, with all its amenities and landscaping, smacks of the kind of self-indulgence found in SUVs, and that it represents a typical weekender approach to the land. To Mr. Sabin's mind, such criticism merely distracts from the facts. "I think some of the opposition has made some characterizations that are unproductive to the process," he said. "I think it's uncalled for and irrelevant, particularly since the majority [of the land would be] in a conservation easement. It's just an attempt to slur the project and detract from the real facts of the case." Mr. Sabin noted that according to zoning regulations, Ms. Maury and Mr. Cady could conceivably build six houses on the property, which would fragment the site even if the plan could conserve 70 percent of the land, as the current proposal endeavors to do. "We are proposing some regulated activities, but the great bulk of the site would be left in its natural condition, including the vernal pool corridor," Mr. Sabin noted. "There are only two houses proposed, and between houses, drives, and terraces, there's approximately 2 percent impervious surfaces. The plans have been specifically designed to create a variety of natural habitats, which would be comprised of woodland, meadows and naturalistic ponds." "There are significant conservation elements in this plan that are in direct response to the natural character of the site," he added. Ms. Hill noted that the commission would weigh the pros and cons of the driveway, which would have an impact on wetlands, along with considering the impact of the ponds and one house that is proposed to be within 750 feet of the vernal pool area. "It's the wetlands issues that concern us," she said. "So no matter what the application, that's what determines our interest." While the motion to approve or deny is likely to be drafted at the commission's next meeting, it is under no obligation to make a decision until 35 days after the public hearing has closed, or by July 16.

Fri June 20, 2003 01:19 PM ET By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON, June 20 (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were expected to focus in meetings Friday on trade, regional hot spots and Lula's ambitions to help the poor.

One surprise has been warming relations between the Brazilian president, a former labor leader, and Bush, a conservative former businessman. Brazil has recently clashed with the United States over trade and the war in Iraq.

But the two countries were expected to announce joint initiatives including U.S. support for Lula's anti-hunger program in Brazil, cooperation on energy and poverty relief measures for Africa.

"Today the people of both our countries will see a series of initiatives on a variety of fronts, which indicate that this relationship is a mature relationship and an important relationship," Bush said as he welcomed Lula.

The two leaders took no questions in what was their third meeting.

"This is a novelty, it's not just a summit meeting with two presidents but it's a meeting that has Cabinet members of both governments. So that from this meeting onwards, our ministers can continue to work together independently of the two presidents," Lula said.

"Without any question, I believe that we can surprise the world in terms of the relationship between Brazil and the United States," he said.

Lula brought 10 ministers with him. For the United States, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Special Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham were expected to take part in the expanded meeting, a U.S. official said.

Brazil and the United States have clashed over trade in the past, particularly subsidies and tariff barriers slapped on key Brazilian exports like orange juice, textiles and steel.

Lula strongly opposed the Iraq invasion. In their public remarks, Iraq was not mentioned.

Brazil and the United States also co-chair the Free Trade Area of the Americas talks to create a hemisphere-wide free trade zone by January 2005. The FTAA is central to Bush's policy of promoting trade and democracy in Latin America.

Most of the region suffered a recession in 2002, with Venezuela and Argentina hard hit by sharp recessions and bouts of political upheaval.

The Manila Times, Saturday, June 21, 2003 By María Isabel García

THE US fight against terrorism is undermining human rights around the world, warned jurists speaking at the World Social Thematic Forum (WSTF) taking place this week in Colombia.

The “war on terrorism” launched in the wake of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington has given rise to “a new reading of international jurisprudence on human rights,” said Ignacio Saíz, deputy director of the Americas program of the London-based Amnesty International rights watchdog.

The new vision goes so far as to regard fundamental rights as perhaps a “luxury” enjoyed by people in stable countries, Saíz said at the opening of a WSTF panel in Cartagena, a Caribbean resort town on Colombia’s northern coast.

Chilean activist José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch (HRW), concurred with Saíz and other experts that September 11 marked the birth of “a new era” in international politics and the application of international human rights law.

Saíz was the opening speaker at the panel on “War, Terrorism, Security and Human Rights.”

Other participants were Federico Andreu, an adviser to the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Gustavo Gallón, the head of the Colombian Commission of Jurists, Marco Romero, a professor at the National University of Colombia’s law school, and Samuel Moncada, the head of the school of history at Venezuela’s Central University.

Defining terrorism

Andreu said that in the context of the new division of the world between “good” and “evil”–rather than “capitalists” and “communists” as in the past–“talk has even arisen as to whether torture might be a necessary tool” in the fight against terrorism.

The adviser to the ICJ said the mere fact that the possibility of torture being necessary is being toyed with “is a grave setback,” even if the word “torture” is not used, but the more euphemistic “use of necessary physical pressure” instead.

In Romero’s view, the question is whether “if in the current situation, it is possible to talk about political solutions to conflicts, and if security implies observance of human rights and respect for coexistence.”

The terrorist attacks on the United States provided an outlet for “currents” that were already vocal within the country, which he said recalled episodes of the Cold War, and made it possible for them “to rationalize a doctrine that is not new,” said the law professor.

Those groups had already identified “enemies including narco-states like Colombia and rogue-states like Iraq,” and followers had been won over to the idea that “imperialism is good if the empire is good,” he said.

The government of US President George W. Bush “dumped into the sack of antiterrorism everything it had in a bunch of other bags,” in order to build a policy that was “lax” on human rights, under which “if dictators are friends, they should be supported, as is the case in Pakistan,” said Romero.

Andreu pointed to the “gradual but steady emergence” of reforms aimed at suppressing legitimate, peaceful forms of social resistance.

He cited the case of Peru, where the government recently made allusions to the “infiltration of terrorists” in nationwide protests by teachers, campesinos and students that led the president to declare a state of emergency.

According to Andreu, a particularly “revealing” development in this respect was the September 28, 2001 approval of resolution 1373 by the United Nations Security Council, which established wide-ranging measures to combat terrorism.

The binding resolution required nations to criminalize terrorist activities, freeze the funds and financial assets of terrorists and their supporters, ban others from making funds available to terrorists, and deny safe haven to terrorists–without ever defining terrorism, Andreu underlined.

Since 1937, the international community has attempted to come up with a consensus on a definition of “terrorism,” and 250 proposed definitions have been debated, but agreement has not been reached, he noted.

No more greys

In a world where everything is seen in terms of black and white, and “greys are not accepted,” more and more civil liberties are being restricted, and the rights of the most vulnerable are being violated, said Andreu.

To illustrate that, he cited a European Union framework decision on the extradition of wanted criminals within the bloc, which limits guarantees for people who are extradited, by abolishing the requirement that the offense of which the person is accused must be classified as a crime in both countries in question.

The jurist also pointed out that the Algiers Convention, the African Union Convention and the Arab League’s Antiterrorism Convention all include disturbances or upsets in any key sector, such as public water or electricity utilities, as a form of terrorism.

With that approach, “legitimate forms of the exercise of trade union rights have formally begun to be criminalized in the international sphere.”

HRW’s Vivanco argued that while the international community agrees on the need to successfully fight terrorism, states “must not resort to the same methods they say they are combating.”

It is erroneous to see “human rights as an obstacle” in the fight against terrorism, which must not be reduced to “fear and intimidation, but requires moral supremacy on the part of the state, as well as the support of the people,” added the spokesman for the US-based Human Rights Watch.

He also said that although the United States was a pioneer in incorporating human rights into its foreign policy, its legitimacy and credibility in that sense is being damaged by the way the war on terrorism is being waged.

Cuba’s case

The most disturbing case, he said, is the violation of the human rights of prisoners accused of terrorism, who are being held at the US naval base in Guantánamo, Cuba.

Vivanco pointed out that prisoners in Guantánamo have been sent by the United States to Jordan and Egypt for interrogation, because the laws of those countries allow the use of torture to extract information.

In addition, the activist referred to the human rights situation in Cuba. “Cubans also have the right to freedom,” he said, stating that the socialist government of Fidel Castro has failed to live up to internationally accepted human rights standards.

Vivanco’s remarks drew an angry response from the Cuban Ambassador to Colombia, Antonio López, who was in the audience.

López, who cast aspersions on Vivanco, said that no one in Cuba was “forcibly disappeared or tortured,” and that the country’s prisons “are open” to observers–a claim that the Human Rights Watch activist disputed.

The experts sitting on the panel also issued warnings of the implications of a draconian counterterrorism law that has almost made its way through the Colombian Congress, and which will generalize measures which up to now have only been adopted during a state of emergency.

The controversial bill will broadly authorize phone-tapping and surveil­lance of mail and e-mails, and will grant powers of prosecution to the police and army.
-- Inter Press Service

<a href=www.arutzsheva.org>Arutz Sheva, 13:11 Jun. 20, '03 / 20 Sivan 5763

Ain al-Yaqeen, a Saudi-backed internet magazine, included in a recent edition a series of news briefs regarding the oil industry in Saudi Arabia.

"Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Ibn Ibrahim al-Naimi," reported Ain al-Yaqeen, "affirmed that all Oil producing countries are carrying out important roles and that relationships among them are on 'sound footing'." The minister reassured his audience at the 10th International Caspian Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference, in Baku, Azerbaijan. He said, "Oil is still the indispensable fuel for today's ever-industrializing world and it will certainly not relinquish its primary position over the next three decades at a minimum." Until then, he explained, the demand for oil will grow by up to "a full 40% of today's production." In order to meet that demand, the internet newspaper quoted the Saudi minister, the oil industry will require an "environment of stable oil prices, and will require large and continuing investments in all parts of the world and at all levels of industry."

In another cross-cultural oil industry moment, the Oil Ministers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Venezuela issued a joint statement on current international oil markets, reports the Saudi media. Following a tripartite meeting in the Spanish capital of Madrid, Minister al-Naimi, the Mexican Energy Minister, Ernesto Matenz, and the Venezuelan Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Rafael Ramirez, said that, thanks to cooperation between member states of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC countries, producing countries have been able to supply international oil markets with petroleum requirements. The oil-producing states, the ministers continued, used their recent surpluses to alleviate some potential crises; however, they also cited the importance of the return of Venezuela, Nigeria and Iraq to normal oil production. "The statement stressed the importance of the continuation of cooperation between the three countries to achieve their goal of oil market stability, in the interests of producer and consumer countries, the oil industry and the global economy," reported Ain al-Yaqeen.

But not all international oil-based relationships go smoothly... Saudi Arabia recently cancelled a $15 billion gas project, the largest in nearly 30 years, with the Exxon Corporation. The cancelled project, known as Core Venture One, was also to have involved such corporations as Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Conoco Phillips. Exxon and fellow consortium members were to develop gas reserves in the South Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia, reports Ain al-Yaqeen. No reasons for the cancellation were reported.