« March 2008 | Main | May 2008 »

Death and Your Digital Trail

April 30, 2008 3:30 PM

Science correspondent Ned Potter blogs:

Someone has posed a heartbreaking question on Slashdot this morning: "A good friend of mine had her younger brother apparently commit suicide last week. He was a young, promising CS major who was close to being accepted into a very prestigious school."

There was no suicide note, no explanation for the young man's death, says the writer.  "Some members of the family are hoping to find something, anything, that might explain why this all went down. Since I'm the most computer-skilled person the family knows, they have asked me if I could help them try to find some information. My possible approaches are: his Linux laptop, his university, Gmail And Hotmail email accounts, and a second MySpace profile that apparently has been tagged as private. How ethical would it be to, say, try to crack his root password in a situation like this?"

Continue reading on Ned's Science and Society blog.

April 30, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Environmentalists Pick Campaign 'Targets'

April 28, 2008 3:56 PM

Science correspondent Ned Potter blogs:

For fifteen years, there were few Congressmen more reviled by major environmental groups than Richard Pombo, a California Republican who opposed provisions of the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws.  The League of Conservation Voters gave him a lifetime "score" on environmental issues of 7%.

In 2006, they say, they got him voted out of office -- and his successor, Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney, scored 90% last year in his votes on environmental issues.

Now it's 2008, and the environmental groups have new "targets" (their word) in Congress. They say their main goal is for the Senate to be "receptive to change" (read: have a veto-proof majority of 60) if, as they advocate, there is national legislation to combat climate change. 

They say they are backing three Senate hopefuls in particular.

Continue reading on Ned's Science and Society blog.

April 28, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Why Can't Barack Obama Close the Deal?

April 24, 2008 5:16 PM

Senior Political Reporter and author of The Note Rick Klein blogs about how Clinton's blue-collar coalition is fueling critical wins and raising general election doubts:

The candidate who burst onto the national stage promising to bring red and blue states together is suddenly looking quite blue.

Sen. Barack Obama's second consecutive lopsided loss in a critical swing state has exposed soft spots in the support he's been able to secure.

The Illinois senator's had persistent problems in winning working-class, less-educated whites and Pennsylvania accentuated his seeming inability to connect with those voters.

Continue reading here.

April 24, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (31) | TrackBack (0)

Beirut U.S. Embassy Bombing 25 Years On

April 18, 2008 2:06 PM

State Department Producer Kirit Radia blogs:

Beirut was arguably the most dangerous city in the world. Car bombs inside the city were common, and extremist elements plotted in the nearby Bekaa Valley.

It was exactly 25 years ago today that a bomber detonated 2,000 lbs. of explosives in front of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon and killed more than 60 people, including 17 Americans. Forty-four people inside the embassy survived. (At left, rescue workers are shown carrying the body of a victim of the bomb blast at the American Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, on April 18, 1983. The entire front of the seven-story building collapsed.)

Among them was the man who leads the U.S. Embassy in what is now considered the most dangerous place for American diplomats: Baghdad. Ambassador Ryan Crocker was serving as a political officer in Beirut and survived the blast.

It was at the time the deadliest terror attack on Americans abroad; six months later another bomber killed 241 in an attack on the U.S. Marine barracks near the Beirut airport.

Today many of the survivors of the 1983 embassy bombing and the families of the victims gathered at the State Department to remember those who died.

The U.S. Ambassador at the time, Robert Dillon, spoke at the ceremony and described being pulled from the rubble by his deputy and secretary moments after the blast. Once they descended the stairs of the building, they discovered the full extent of the damage.

Finding wounded colleagues just below his office gave way, on the lower floors, to the sight of others who died in the attack. As Dillon concluded his remarks his voice cracked, and he struggled through his final sentences.

While Dillon escaped with only minor injuries, many were not so lucky, including aides waiting for him near the entrance where the explosion occurred, employees in the cafeteria, the CIA's entire Middle East team, an American journalist, several American servicemen and numerous Lebanese civilians who were either inside the embassy to apply for a visa or simply passing by the building.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who opened the ceremony, called the survivors "a source of hope" coming out of the tragedy and said the current situation in Lebanon, where pro-democracy politicians are killed in the streets, is "unacceptable to the U.S."

"It is in championing democracy in Lebanon that we honor those who died," Rice said.

Years later the issue of embassy security is still a hot topic as U.S. embassies around the world remain a prime target for protesters and terrorists. In recent years the embassies or consulates in Serbia, Chad, Yemen, Syria, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been targeted by mobs or terrorists.

Officials attributed the Beirut embassy's proximity to the street as its primary vulnerability to attack. Following similar attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, subsequent embassies have had to comply with strict guidelines designed to prevent attacks, including sufficient setback from the street.

The mammoth new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which after many delays and much controversy over its cost and size will finally be occupied in the coming weeks, is the most fortified U.S. embassy in the world, an attempt to avert the kind of attacks such as that on the embassy in Beirut.

The goal is to ensure that Ambassador Crocker and his colleagues will not have to live through another bombing, as Baghdad's tenuous security situation resembles that of Beirut in the 1980s.

April 18, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Live Blogging from the Democratic Debate.

April 16, 2008 5:52 PM

Senior Political Reporter Rick Klein live blogs tonight's Democratic Presidential Debate hosted by ABC News, the National Constitution Center and WPVI-TV:

Greetings from Philadelphia's Constitution Center. For you star-watchers, tonight's (cozy) crowd of 573 will include: Ted Danson, Richard Dreyfuss, and  Harvey Weinstein, in addition to famous-for-politics folks including Chelsea Clinton, Wes Clark, Gov.  Jon Corzine, Gov. Ed Rendell, and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Bill Clinton will not be in  attendance. Stephen Colbert wants in -- and the Constitution Center has scared up a ticket for him. (True story.)

Now for business: I wrote in this morning's Note that Barack Obama may have more pressure on him than Hillary Clinton. What I mean by that is, he's the one who has had big new questions about his  candidacy emerge in recent weeks. He's the one who's going to be in the spotlight (and Hillary Clinton will make sure that's the case). He's got to show he can close the deal.

Continue reading Rick's live blogging here.

April 16, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (30) | TrackBack (0)

New Quinnipiac PA Poll Numbers

April 15, 2008 7:48 AM

Senior political correspondent and Political Punch author Jake Tapper blogs:

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., maintains a 50 - 44 percent lead over Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., among likely primary voters, reports a Quinnipiac University poll released just now.

Those numbers are unchanged from April 8 numbers, though the poll was taken over the weekend -- after news broke of Obama's controversial remarks on "bitter" small-town Pennsylvanians clinging to guns, God, and xenophobia.

Twenty-six percent of Clinton supporters say that would vote for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., should Obama win the nomination, while 19% of Obama supporters say they would go GOP should Clinton win.

Other numbers:
White voters for Clinton 57 - 37 percent;

Women voters for Clinton 54 -40;

Voter over 45 for Clinton 55 - 40;

Black voters for Obama 86 - 8 percent;

Men voters for Obama 51 - 43 percent;

Voters under 45 for Obama 55 - 39.

Continue reading on Jake's Political Punch blog.

April 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Egypt: 'Wild' and 'Crazy' -- or a Girl Gone Mild?

April 14, 2008 6:30 PM

ABC's Bill Weir blogs about this week's "21 and the World is Yours" segment:

As the sun dips below the Great Pyramids, the Islamic call to prayer echoes across Cairo.
Ro'ya Zanaty shares her daily life in Cairo -- from prayers to Pepsi.

In her apartment next door to a mosque, Ro'ya Zanaty, 21, can hear the muezzin's wail loud and clear as she covers her hair and neck with the traditional veil. But she is not going to pray tonight. She is answering the call to fun.

Her cell phone rings, she grabs her purse, checks her reflection and locks the apartment door. After climbing into a BMW and greeting her friends, Zanaty's first order of business is plugging in her i-Pod and cranking Nickelback.

They sing along at full throat, dancing in their seats. They shuffle between Justin Timberlake and Lebanese pop as the car zips over the Nile, in and out of Cairo's epic honking traffic. They wave at passing cars and start a road game of "truth or dare."

Continue reading here.

April 14, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas

April 10, 2008 11:00 AM

ABC’s Sonia Gallego, part of our recent expansion of reporters stationed around the globe, blogs:

They’re objects of fascination with fierce and dangerous reputations: Ghettos caught in the shootouts between police and drug gangs, neither one relenting to the other. Neither one has so far won this seemingly never-ending battle for control.

According to police in Rio, there are just over 1,200 favelas in the city of Rio de Janeiro alone with an estimated 1.2 million people living in them -- but even the police admit that the number is probably greater.

Cut off from the rest of society, the favelas represent a type of disenfranchisement. As a result, most of them are under the control of criminal factions and dominate the city's drug-trafficking, be it the Red Command, the ADA or the Third Command. Other shanty towns are under the control of militia groups, a collection of former policemen and firemen who apply their law and are engaged in a fight to clear their areas of drug-traffickers.

Although the favela is commonly seen as a bastion of criminality, in the middle of the chaos there are those who are striving to create a spirit of dignity within these communities. One of these groups is Afroreggae, an NGO set up to provide people, especially young kids, with an alternative to drug running and other crimes, using music, performance and art to inspire.

Earlier this week, I paid a visit to one of their centers in the Cantagalo shanty town, a notorious favela under the control of the Red Command. That day, Afroreggae had some visitors in house, a group from New Delhi from the NGO ‘Breakthrough’ that works with disadvantaged people, predominantly women and children from the shanty towns in New Delhi.

Continue reading "Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas"

April 10, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

India: Through the Eyes of Nisha Mehta

April 09, 2008 6:30 PM

Producer Alice Maggin blogs:

Recently my boss, the executive producer of World News, called me into his office to ask if I’d like to go to India for a story. This is not an offer that comes along every day and the kind I had been ducking since becoming pregnant four years ago. But… I have always wanted to go to India, my daughter is 3½ and can certainly survive a few days without mommy… though my husband might not concur, and the story fascinated me: find a 21-year-old Indian who represents the massive economic and social changes happening in a country best known for its staggering poverty, enormous population and outsourcing of American jobs. How could I say no?

Fortunately for me ABC News has 2 digital reporters based in India, one in New Delhi and one in Mumbai. And they are both friends of mine. The first thing I did after calculating the 9 ½ hour time difference… I never got used to that… was to ask them both to start looking for candidates. You’d think in a country with more than 1.1 billion people it wouldn’t be so hard. But unlike reality-TV saturated America, finding someone who not only fit all the criteria (21, middle class, English speaker, interesting story to impart) they had to be willing to let us invade their lives as did their family, friends and colleagues.

I believe we lucked out and found the perfect person: Nisha Mehta. Karen Russo, ABC’s digital reporter in Mumbai, asked everyone she has befriended since moving to India in October. Her next door neighbor Amira Shah runs a medical testing company. Nisha works for her. When Karen met Nisha she was convinced. Nisha’s parents were surprisingly ok with us shooting in their small apartment. Getting Nisha at work was no problem since Amira was already on board. And Nisha’s friends went along with it.

That didn’t mean we were home free. Shooting in India was a challenge. Here in the US if you are on public property… a sidewalk, a park, a beach… no one can legally stop you from shooting. And if you want to shoot in a private place you ask permission and unless it is some huge retail chain it is usually not a problem. Not in India. First of all just being Western invites intense staring and scrutiny. And walking around with a camera is like having a blinking neon sign attached to your head. So trying to shoot what we call b-roll on the street was difficult. Getting permission to shoot on private property was almost impossible. Sometimes we get outright ‘no’s’. But the real problem was time. We had less than four days to set up the story and Indians, like most of the rest of the world, don’t move at the same pace as Americans. Thankfully Karen Russo had a lot of contacts and we were able to circumvent the biggest obstacles by calling in a lot of favors.

The next challenge was time… time to get to India, shoot the story, look at the footage, get back to the US, write the story and edit it. I had 9 days to do it. I left New York on Saturday night and arrived in Mumbai on Sunday night. The correspondent on the piece, Dan Harris, was already on the other side of the globe in Nepal shooting a story on endangered rhinoceros. So he flew from Katmandu and met me in Mumbai. We shot Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, looked at tape every night after shooting, wrote in the airport and on the plane Wednesday night. We arrived back in New York on Thursday morning. After taking my daughter to school and indulging in a very long, hot shower I went to work. We edited Thursday, Friday and Monday, when the piece aired.

Whew.

It was a humbling, eye-opening, exhausting experience I am so glad I said yes to.

April 9, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Is King's Dream Alive?

April 04, 2008 5:20 PM

ABC's Justice Department Correspondent Pierre Thomas's personal essay about the state of Black America today:

There is little doubt that some of Martin King Jr's dreams have come true.

There is a definable black middle class -- African Americans excelling in every profession from the arts to science -- and there are many more minority elected and appointed officials.

Could King have imagined Oprah as one of the powerful women in media? Will Smith as arguably the top box office draw in Hollywood? Noted heart surgeon Ben Carson, lawyers, astronauts. A black man leading in the race for the Democratic nomination?

But for all the progress, there are some painful truths about a significant segment of Black America. And we are left to ponder, what might Dr. King think?

What would Dr. King think if he knew some many young people, especially blacks, were dropping out school? In many major cities less than half of students graduate. And according to national statistics, blacks drop out at double the rate of their white counterparts.

What would Dr. King think about blacks dying of homicide at 6 times the rate of white Americans?

What would Dr. King think about the stunning number of African Americans in jail or on parole? Black make up 13 percent of the nation's population -- but are nearly 40 percent of those incarcerated.

The rate of AIDS in the black community is 10 times that of the whites.

8 percent of whites are poor in this country. 24 percent of blacks live in poverty –- 3 times mores.

What would Dr. King think?

Just before his assassination -- Dr. King spoke of the Promised Land of equality: "I might not get to the promised land with you. But one day we will get to the Promised Land."

The Promised Land. One day. But not yet.

April 4, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (13) | TrackBack (0)

Torture in Daylight

April 02, 2008 9:51 AM

Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg blogs:

Now that we've finally gotten the long-renounced and repudiated 2003 torture memo authorizing harsh interrogation techniques by the military, there are obvious questions about what took the White House so long to release it--and why.

In fact, there were some people at DOJ who argued for the release of this memo back in 2004---when the Washington Post broke the story about the CIA memo. Their point was that the legal analysis in this memo was essentially the same as the 2002 memo, which authorized harsh interrogation techniques by the CIA. In fact, reading it last night, I was struck by how much of it seems to have been cut-and-pasted from the 2002 CIA memo.

This memo is more expansive than the CIA memo, to be sure. It exempts military interrogators from more laws, treaties, etc than CIA--since some of those laws arguably didn't cover CIA. It is a staggering assertion of executive power. But it outlines similar defenses available to military interrogators (necessity and self defense), as well as the purported presidential override power.

Continue reading on Jan's Legalities blog.

April 2, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Black Hole? In Switzerland?

April 01, 2008 8:34 AM

Science correspondent Ned Potter blogs:

In a giant lab deep beneath the Alps, physicists have spent $8 billion and 14 years assembling a machine called the Large Hadron Collider, in which they hope to smash protons together to simulate the conditions right after the Big Bang.

In the arcane world of particle physics, the collider, at a lab called CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) is hallowed ground.  This, to many scientists, is where the origins of the universe will most likely become plain.

Just one minor detail: what if the collider, as it sends particles to pulverize each other at nearly the speed of light, just happens to swallow up the Earth and a fair amount of the universe around it?

Continue reading on Ned's Science and Society blog.

April 1, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)