Wikinews:Audio Wikinews/Transcripts/June 3, 2005

Audio Wikinews transcript – 2005 06 03 – 0530 UTC

As reported by Nicholas Gerda

June 3, 2005. This is Wikinews.

Lead Story

Department of Defense denies federal funding to schools that ban military recruiting
The U.S. Defense Department has denied federal funding to two law schools because they do not allow military recruiters on campus. Now the U.S. House of Representatives is putting forward a new law that would require the Secretary of Defense to compile a list of colleges and universities that don't allow the military to recruit on campus.

William Mitchell College of Law and Vermont Law School (not affiliated with the University of Vermont) have already been barred from federal funding for violating the Solomon amendment, a 10-year old law that "the armed forces cannot be denied access to students". Legislators recently passed a measure that would require the Secretary of Defense to provide a list of schools whose cooperation it is unsatisfied with.

Representative Cliff Sterns (R-FL) is pushing through the House an amendment that would toughen the Solomon amendment, a law which states "Any college that prohibits the U.S. military from establishing or operating an ROTC unit on campus or denies military recruiters access to students is ineligible for federal funding." Sterns' amendment is part of the Defense Department Authorization Act.

Sterns claims that Yale is discriminating against military recruiters. Yale denies this. Rich Jacobs, a representative of Yale, in a prepared statement, said "Yale has sought to comply fully with the Solomon amendment as it applies to ROTC and Yale university." Yale gives ROTC a room on campus, but does not help arrange interviews. According to Yale's website, "The defense department's 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy, which prevents openly gays, lesbians, and bisexuals from serving in the military, violates the school's non-discrimination policy." The Defense Department has declined to sign the school's non-discriminatory policy.

In the fall the U.S. Supreme Court is lined up to hear a case involving several colleges and regarding military recruitment at universities.

Headlines

John Kerry criticizes news media, joins call for inquiry on Downing Street Memo
In a swing through South Coast, Florida, former 2004 presidential candidate Senator John Kerry criticized the near silence of the U.S. mass media regarding the so-called "Downing Street Memo". The Downing Street Memo is a leaked secret British document that details the minutes of a 2002 meeting between top-level British and American government officials. The memo states that George W. Bush "was determined" to attack Iraq long before going to Congress with the matter, and that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." The accuracy of the memo is not being disputed by either government. The memo caused an uproar in Great Britain and made a significant impact in the British national elections, but has gotten little attention in American news. Kerry said of the memo:

"When I go back (to Washington) on Monday, I am going to raise the issue. I think it's a stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable statement of the truth and a profoundly important document that raises stunning issues here at home. And it's amazing to me the way it escaped major media discussion. It's not being missed on the Internet, I can tell you that."

He questioned Americans' understanding of the war and the idea that criticism equals disloyalty, saying, "Do you think that Americans, if they really understood it, would feel that way knowing that on Election Day, 77 percent of Americans who voted for Bush believed that weapons of mass destruction had been found and 77 percent believed Saddam did 9/11? Is there a way for this to break through, ever?"

Representative John Conyers has written to the President regarding the memo: "...a debate has raged in the United States over the last year and one half about whether the obviously flawed intelligence that falsely stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was a mere 'failure' or the result of intentional manipulation to reach foreordained conclusions supporting the case for war. The memo appears to close the case on that issue stating that in the United States the intelligence and facts were being 'fixed' around the decision to go to war."

There is a growing movement on the internet and in Congress for a "Resolution of Inquiry" into issues surrounding the planning and execution of the Iraq war, especially in regard to the Administration's handling of intelligence. John Dean, a key Watergate figure, wrote in a June 2003 column for findlaw.com, that, "To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked... Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be a 'high crime' under the Constitution's impeachment clause."

UN dismisses first official over oil-for-food scandal
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan fired the first UN official in connection with the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal. "After a thorough review of all aspects of the case, the Secretary General has decided that Mr. Joseph Stephanides be summarily dismissed for serious misconduct in accordance with UN staff regulations," relayed spokesman Stephane Dujarric. "Mr Stephanides was advised accordingly yesterday and separated from service with immediate effect. There is no allegation of any criminal act. This is a disciplinary action for a breach of staff rules regarding procurement."

The investigation concluded that Stephanides infringed on regulations by helping the British company, Lloyds Register Inspection Ltd., win a contract under the UN programme for Iraq. Mr. Stephanides acted as the head of the Security Council Affairs Division when he allegedly told the company how much to lower its price to be awarded a contract. He denies any wrong-doing and hired a lawyer to defend himself. Aged 59, Stephanides worked for the UN for 25 years, and was due to retire in September this year.

After a first food-for-oil interim report was released in February, Mr. Stephanides along with Benon Sevan were suspended. Sevan, the former head of the oil-for-food programme for 6 years, was also accused of breach of procurement rules in the report co-written by Paul Volcker. However, disciplinary measures against Sevan will not be carried out because of his status of diplomatic immunity.

A final report is scheduled for publication in three months which should further clarify whether Mr. Sevan received Iraqi oil allocations for a friend's company. In the meantime, he remains suspended from all UN duties, and is being given only a symbolic salary of one dollar a year. A central and unanswered question, is whether either Stephanides or Sevan profited directly by their actions in executing and implementing the complex programme.

NASA solar sail passes first major test
NASA has completed a major test of a 20-meter square solar sail, marking a "crucial milestone" in space propulsion technology. It is not the first to test solar sails, as the Japanese have deployed two solar sails in space. The Planetary Society is planning on launching a solar sail possibly by June 21. Shot into orbit by a converted intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Cosmos 1 would be launched from a submerged Russian submarine from within the Barents Sea. The spacecraft, powered by the sail, will have no destination. The purpose is simply to test the propulsion system that uses the pressure from solar light particles to move the ship outward from a starting orbit around the earth at 500 miles.

The propulsion technology is currently believed to be the most efficient available for interstellar space travel. Theoretically a craft propelled by the pressure of a constant light source, such as a purpose-built laser, could achieve speeds approaching the speed of light. This is due to the efficiencies of the spacecraft not having to carry its own fuel. Approaching the speed of light would, however, require a long period of constant acceleration. This will be impossible for the current test vehicles and any launched in the foreseeable future, as they rely on the light from the Sun, which rapidly becomes weaker with increasing distance.

According to the National Geographic News, "NASA, the European Space Agency, Japan, and Russia all have developed solar sails, but none has yet tried to prove that the sails can propel a spacecraft under controlled flight."

Wikipedia Current Events

• Anurag Kashyap, an eighth-grader from Poway, California, wins the 78th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee with the word appoggiatura.
• In a consultative referendum in the Netherlands, early results indicate that voters have rejected the proposed European Constitution by a wider margin than was seen in Sunday's French referendum, with 62% voting 'no'.
• Dominique de Villepin is appointed Prime Minister of France by President Jacques Chirac in response to the referendum defeat.
• Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward confirms that former FBI official W. Mark Felt was the Watergate source known as Deep Throat, after Felt revealed his identity in a Vanity Fair article.
• Metropolitan Cornelius of Petra is designated locum tenens of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem following the deposition of Patriarch Irenaios, amidst a scandal regarding the sale of church land in Jerusalem's Old City.

Today in History provided by Wikipedia

• 1889 - The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States was constructed betweeen Willamette Falls to downtown Portland, Oregon.
• 1937 - The Duke of Windsor married Wallis Simpson.
• 1940 - World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ended with a German tactical victory.
• 1944 - Charles de Gaulle became Prime Minister of France.

Today's fact provided by Wikipedia

The Terik language of Kenya is classified as endangered by UNESCO because the Terik people have increasingly become assimilated to the Nandi people in recent decades.

Thank you for joining us for today's segment. Join us again tomorrow for more headlines, news, facts, and anniversaries; and next Friday, we will have our very first Special Report.

I'm Nicholas Gerda.

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