Editorial Roundup: Excerpts from recent editorials

The Associated Press

Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:

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August 18

St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch on leaders stepping up:

It was reported Monday by Andrea Peterson of the Washington Post that the city of Ferguson had hired a Chesterfield public relations firm that specializes in crisis management. We tried contacting the firm to verify this, but no one answered the phone. As metaphors for the communications issues that have characterized the protests in Ferguson, this works very nicely.

As the 10th night of protests approached, a few things had sorted themselves out. More remain unsorted.

The family of Michael Brown, the unarmed 18-year-old whose death at the hands of a Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9 sparked the protests, has hired lawyers. Mr. Wilson apparently has hired lawyers. Three autopsies have been performed, none of which appear to conclusively support initial eyewitness testimony on either side.

The Ferguson and St. Louis County police departments, which could not have bungled communications worse if they’d tried, were relieved of overall command by Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol. For a couple of days, Capt. Johnson talked to everyone, leaving no doubt who was in charge.

After Sunday night, when protesters made a move on the police command center, Gov. Jay Nixon activated the National Guard to protect the command center, apparently surprising Capt. Johnson. As Monday evening began, Capt. Johnson was still in charge on the streets, which had been ordered cleared, but the Guard was in charge at the command center.

For all the uncertainty on the law enforcement side, there was more on the protesters’ side. The pastors and local activists who played a leading role in the first days of the insurgency, appeared to have no control over certain more aggressive elements in the crowd.

These awful events will not be calmed until leaders emerge, on both sides, and communicate clearly, among themselves, among each other and to the public. Law enforcement should speak with one, clear voice. It must engage on social media, where it is being creamed in the info-wars. It must treat reporters fairly. In return, reporters should respect lawful orders, as they would if they were embedded in a war zone. People are frightened, and frightened people sometimes make bad decisions.

On the other side, protesters should consider who they are following, and for what purpose. Mob mentality is not just a figure of speech. There are people in this crowd who are there to create trouble, not solve problems.

If progress is going to be made in dealing with very real issues facing Ferguson and St. Louis, responsible leaders must step forward and be heard.

Online:

http://www.stltoday.com

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August 18

Los Angeles Times on NSA:

A little more than a year after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the federal government was collecting and storing the telephone records of millions of Americans, Congress is poised to end the program and provide significant protection for a broad range of personal information sought by government investigators.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has proposed a version of the bill that is significantly more protective of privacy than one passed by the House in May. Like the House bill, Leahy’s proposal would end the NSA’s bulk collection of telephone “metadata” — information about the source, destination and duration of phone calls that investigators can “query” in search of possible connections to foreign terrorism.

But the Senate version, worked out in negotiations with the White House and civil liberties groups, imposes stricter limits on the search terms used to obtain not only phone data but other records as well. For example, the bill makes it clear that the government may not use a search term that would collect all information relating to a particular service provider or a broad geographic region denoted by a ZIP Code or area code.

Finally, the bill provides for the declassification and publication “to the greatest extent practicable” of opinions by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and its appellate arm, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review.

Important as it is, the Leahy bill addresses in only minor ways the collection of information about Americans as a byproduct of the electronic surveillance targeting foreigners living abroad. Unlike the collection of telephone metadata, these activities capture the actual contents of phone conversations, emails and social media postings, meaning that if an American is in contact with a friend or relative abroad, his private musings can be swept up in the electronic dragnet. That creates the possibility of “backdoor” surveillance of Americans without the individual warrants required by the 4th Amendment.

A panel appointed by President Obama recommended that information about Americans incidentally collected in foreign surveillance be “purged upon detection” unless it has foreign intelligence value or is necessary to prevent harm to others. Information about a U.S. citizen or permanent resident couldn’t be used in a legal proceeding against him, under another proposal by the panel.

For all its limitations, the USA Freedom Act is a testimony to the importance of informed public debate.

Online:

http://www.latimes.com

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August 19

Wall Street Journal on Syria’s disarmament mirage:

It wasn’t long ago that President Obama boasted of getting Syria to surrender its chemical weapons without firing a shot. “It turned out that we are actually getting all the chemical weapons,” Mr. Obama told the New Yorker last November. “And nobody reports that anymore.”

But it turned out there was a good reason to hold the applause. On Monday the White House released a statement in the President’s name celebrating the destruction of Bashar Assad’s declared stocks of chemical weapons aboard the MV Cape Ray, a U.S. ship fitted with specialized hydrolysis systems that neutralize sarin and other deadly agents.

Then came the caveat. “We will watch closely to see that Syria fulfills its commitment to destroy its remaining declared chemical weapons production facilities,” the statement read. “In addition, serious questions remain with respect to the omissions and discrepancies in Syria’s declaration to the OPCW and about continued allegations of use.”

The OPCW is the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Hague -based outfit that has overseen the removal of 1,300 tons of chemical agents from Syria. The organization complained for months that Damascus was slow-rolling the disarmament process as it continued to starve and bomb its enemies into submission. In April the Assad regime began dropping chlorine bombs against civilian targets. Chlorine violates the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined last year as part of the deal that Mr. Obama used to celebrate.

Then there are those “omissions and discrepancies” cited by the President. We are not privy to the intelligence, but every source we talk to says the Syrians have surely not declared everything in their possession. It’s also hard to believe the Administration would underline the defects in its own purported achievement if there weren’t serious doubts among U.S. spooks about the completeness of the Syrian declaration.

Syria maintains close ties to North Korea, which is believed to have a robust chemical weapons program capable of producing several thousand tons of deadly agents a year. In July 2007 reports surfaced of a chemical-weapons accident near Aleppo involving Syrian and North Korean technicians. That squares with Pyongyang’s known cooperation at the time in building a nuclear reactor for Assad that was destroyed that September by Israeli jets. If North Korea was prepared to supply Assad with deadly weapons then, why not again tomorrow?

Then there is China. In April videos surfaced of partially unexploded chlorine canisters marked with the name of Chinese arms-maker Norinco. The Assad regime also likely retains the network of scientists and engineers needed to reconstitute a weapons program once it feels secure enough to do so.

That day may not be far off, thanks in part to the chemical deal that spared Assad from U.S. bombing as he unleashed a new offensive against moderate rebel forces. Assad’s troops have now encircled the city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, and leaders of the Free Syrian Army trapped in the city are stockpiling food in preparation of a regime effort to starve them into submission. The moderate rebels are also losing ground to the Sunni radicals of ISIS.

No matter what happens to Syria’s chemical weapons, the country’s real weapons of mass destruction_the Assad regime and ISIS_have gained in their destructive power. Such has been the result of Mr. Obama’s abdication of global leadership, now cloaked as a triumph for disarmament.

Online:

http://online.wsj.com

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August 18

The Commercial, Memphis, Tennessee, on the Iraq culture:

The radical Islamic jihadists are good at many things — beheadings, amputations, terrorizing helpless schoolgirls, alienating populations — but public relations are not one of them.

They should have learned their lesson in March 2001, when they blew up, over the objections of most of the civilized world, including respected Muslim leaders and scholars, two massive sixth-century Buddhist sculptures in Afghanistan. Their argument, not supported by serious Muslim scholarship, was that they were pagan idols and thus under Islamic law had to be destroyed. Chagrined by the world’s hostile reaction, they revised their story to say that they, the al-Qaida-backed jihadis, were offended that the world would pay to preserve the statues while Afghan children were starving, due in part to the depredations and disruptions of the radical Islamists.

Having failed to learn, or at least remember, that lesson, the radical Sunni militias who recently overran the Iraqi city of Mosul set about destroying, on the grounds of idolatry, prominent religious sites like the tombs of the prophet Jonah, revered by three major religions; the prophet Seth, reputedly the third son of Adam and Eve; and Jersis, known to Iraqi Christians as St. George.

In all, according to a Shia website, the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and Syria destroyed 30 shrines and 15 mosques. Since among ISIS’ first steps was to expel all the Christians, no one seems sure what happened to their churches and holy sites. The rebels had planned to blow up a beloved local landmark, an 800-year-old minaret known as al-Hadba, the hunchback, for its distinctive lean. The townspeople, according to accounts from Mosul, surrounded the minaret to keep the militants from initially demolishing it.

The destruction of thousands of years of religious treasures and Iraqi culture goes on. If conversion is the goal of this conflict, a visit by more U.S. F-15s and A-10s might make true believers out of these vandals.

Online:

http://www.commercialappeal.com

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August 19

San Antonio (Texas) Express-News on Air Force changing recruiting:

The Air Force has come a ways in reforming recruit training since sex-abuse scandals rocked the service’s boot camp at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. And it is now making equally important strides with recruiters.

An Express-News article by Sig Christenson on Monday shed some light on the Air Force’s revamped training program for recruiters — Inspire, Dissuade, Detect, Deter and Hold Accountable, also known as ID3A.

It was bad enough when sexual abuse occurred during boot camp, where trainers occupied particularly powerful positions over vulnerable recruits. But recruiters also occupy a position of power, dictating whether an eager potential recruit can get in and under what circumstances.

One of the most important changes came in who could become recruiters. Air Force personnel used to volunteer for the duty. Now, they are chosen by commanders worldwide and are thoroughly vetted.

The revamped program emphasizes the service’s core values — integrity, excellence and service before self. And lines have been drawn.

There are now strict prohibitions on personal and social contacts with potential recruits. And applicants have been empowered to report inappropriate contact.

At least one task remains. It is, however, in Congress’ court. Congress earlier this year reformed much of how the military handles sexual assaults.

Commanders can no longer overturn convictions on sexual assaults. Victims now get their own lawyers to defend them against a system that seemed to re-victimize them. And civilian review is now required if a commander vetoes a prosecutor’s wish to go to trial.

While these are improvements, what’s significantly left undone is taking away such decisions away from commanders altogether and placing them with experts in the legal process.

The Senate rejected this measure by New York Democrat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. It should revisit the issue.

Online:

http://www.mysanantonio.com

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August 18

Khaleej Times, Dubai, on aid to eastern Ukraine:

As foreign ministers of several European countries and Russia met in Berlin, the pressing issue before them was one of ensuing a thaw between Kiev and Moscow.

The Sunday meeting was primarily meant to make way for the supply of aid and assistance to the besieged people in eastern Ukraine. Kiev has already refused to allow a Russian convoy waiting on the borders into its territory, fearing it will provide impetus to the separatists. Ukraine had said it would only allow international aid convoys to enter, and that too after ensuring that they contain only essentials of daily usage. The standoff along with skirmishes that had been going on in the region with rebels had created humanitarian crisis, leaving a maimed populace behind in chaos and confusion.

The security situation in eastern Ukraine, moreover, is fraught with serious consequences, as Kiev had gambled by allowing the formation of loosely controlled paramilitary groups. These units meant to buoy the state security forces are themselves in disarray. They come from various schools of thought and there is nothing common among them other than taking up arms in self-defense and for the country. The fact that many of these volunteers are far-right extremists can bring in a new set of problems for Kiev, especially when they cross sword with ethnic Russians.

The European leadership has a strategic conundrum to face and the least they should do is to let free-flow of humanitarian aid across the borders. This will help in addressing the soaring tension and provide a level-playing field for dialogue on irritant issues. Until and unless Kiev and Kremlin strike an understanding on the ethnic imbroglio, the region and Europe as a whole will remain mired in instability.

Online:

http://www.khaleejtimes.com

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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