Paul E. Ester's Flogger

Los Angeles Police Commission members didn’t shrink at ousting a powerful and popular police chief. But they seem to have found a more formidable adversary in DARE, the LAPD’s longtime drug-abuse education program.
Commissioners first talked about gutting DARE’s staff two months ago to free up more officers for the LAPD’s depleted narcotics and gang units.
The deliberations have unfolded quietly in recent months in the shadow of the higher-profile controversy over the commission’s rejection of a second five-year-term for Chief Bernard C. Parks. Parks is now out, but DARE remains standing. Despite commissioners’ repeated requests, LAPD officials have yet to provide them with the “creative solutions” they had requested so that most DARE officers might be temporarily shifted to other duties and the program replaced by something else.
In fact, as the debate stretches into its third month, LAPD brass appears to be more interested in arguing DARE’s merits and protecting it from further cuts than in responding to the commission’s requests.
At the commission’s most recent meeting on DARE, little progress was made, and the discussion was continued into next week.
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The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, today described the American monitors proposed as part of the deal to end Mr. Arafat’s confinement as “security officials,” but “not military, not troops.” He said the prisoners would be held in Palestinian jails, but British and American officials would monitor their detention.

He declined to say whether the monitors would be American intelligence officials. “These are not pin-striped diplomats,” he said. “These are security officials.”

Diplomats in Israel said they expected the observers to use a combination of electronic monitoring and a physical presence in Jericho, where the men are expected to be jailed.

If the plan is finally worked out, the siege at Mr. Arafat’s compound, which was tightened with the Israeli offensive that began on March 29, will end on Wednesday, at the earliest.
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Today on the radio they were called “Wardens” but usually there is only one of those and the rest are CO’s. The evolution of what actually constitutes a “monitor” continues.

The strike was said to be waning on Wednesday, with many businesses in the capital, Kathmandu, and elsewhere reopening.

President Bush’s administration says it will seek approval from the US Congress for $20m of military aid for the government to combat the rebels.

The Nepalese Government has now offered rewards of $64,000 for the capture of three of the leading Maoists.


Ministers targeted … Rest of Article

Opening up yet another front. China is almost completely surrounded

Israel pressed for changes Wednesday in a U.N. team due to look into its assault of the Jenin refugee camp, calling the investigation biased, but U.N. chief Kofi Annan refused to delay the mission.

With a confrontation brewing over the probe, Israel was sending officials to New York to try to persuade the U.N. secretary-general to add an American military expert to the core of the team and expand the probe’s mandate to look at Palestinian suicide bombings.

Israel has not said whether it would try to prevent the U.N. team from reaching Jenin if the changes are not made. … Rest of Article

The Americans – who backed Mr Bustani’s re-appointment just a year ago – accuse him of pursuing ill-conceived initiatives and of poor management.

But Mr Bustani’s supporters say his efforts to get Iraq to sign up to the chemical weapons convention have angered the Americans, as it would weaken the case for a US attack to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Washington opened a public campaign against Mr Bustani two months ago, less than a year after Secretary of State Colin Powell congratulated him for the achievements under his leadership.

The BBC defence correspondent says this episode is going to raise further concerns over US actions after similar American pressure, last week, led to the removal of the head of the United Nations climate control body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. … Rest of Article

A Colombian politician told the government it should not make any concessions to left-wing kidnappers, before being kidnapped during a peace march.

Guillermo Gaviria, the governor of Antioquia, was abducted by suspected members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) at a roadblock on Sunday with the state’s peace adviser Gilberto Echeverri Mejia. … Rest of Article

take the test

Walking into the Chilean courtroom, he would be greeted by families of victims who were tortured and murdered. These parents and orphans — still grieving almost 30 years later — would yell out his name in anger and disbelief, but Henry Kissinger would ignore their desperate shouts. Taking the stand, Kissinger would then tell the truth about any role he may have played in the death of former Chilean President Salvador Allende.

Might happen. Probably won’t. But the fact that Kissinger is being pursued today by Chile’s legal system gives hope to novelist Isabel Allende and others who say the former secretary of state should be held accountable for the coup d’etat that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power and led to thousands of deaths and desaparecidos (those who disappeared and are presumed killed by the military or the police). … Rest of Article

Mr. Ch‡vez was temporarily deposed but returned to power two days later with the help of officers loyal to him. Since he regained his post, he has been reorganizing the armed forces to ensure that he is surrounded by officers he can trust.

Four of those commanders died, though, when the Super Puma helicopter ferrying them from a ceremony at the naval academy on the Caribbean coast crashed on Friday.

Among the 10 members of the military who died were Gen. Luis Acevedo, who became the new air force chief on Wednesday, and three air force generals Ñ Pedro Torres, chief of operations; Rafael Quintana, chief of personnel, and Julio Ochoa, a member of the air force’s high command.

“It is a blow because he has to find Chavista officers like them and perhaps now he does not find them very easily,” said Mario Ivan Carratu, a retired vice admiral and former director of the Institute for National Defense Studies in Caracas.
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