Today on New Scientist: 16 February 2010

All today’s stories on newscientist.com at a glance, including: the key to regenerating bodies, the mock cyber-attack on the US, and why warp speed kills

UN refugee agency ‘cautiously optimistic’ over Yemen ceasefire

The United Nations refugee agency today said that it is encouraged by the first - and so far holding - ceasefire between Government forces and rebels in northern Yemen, where 250,000 civilians have been uprooted since clashes erupted in the country in 2004.

UN-African Union envoy urges calm following Darfur violence

The head of the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur today issued a call for maximum restraint by all parties following the eruption of deadly violence which has displaced thousands in the troubled Sudanese region in recent days.

‘Climategate’ scientist attacks bloggers

The scientist at the heart of the “climategate” affair has broken his silence, attacking bloggers and other critics, says Fred Pearce

Bang on the head

The EU’s finance ministers, and a handful of heads of state, are meeting today in another attempt to come up with answers to the ‘Greek question’. No details are expected to be announced, although an agreed decleration will give Greece a month to get down to business and deliver real deficit cuts (it’s unclear what the EU will do if these cuts aren’t delivered).

Apart from various wild swipes at the ‘markets’, EU leaders seem to be in disagreement over the involvement of the IMF in a possible Greek bailout. Sweden’s able Finance Minister Anders Borg is one of the biggest proponents of a strong role for the Washington-based outfit, making several comments to that effect in the last week (in addition to refusing to rule out a role for non-eurozone countries in a rescue operation).

But Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg PM and arch-federalist who heads the group of eurozone finance ministers, won’t have any of that. He apparently declared Borg’s call for greater IMF surveillance and monitoring of Greece to be an “absurd” irrelevance “fuelling by Anglo-Saxon voices” seen as hostile to the shared currency. “If California had a refinancing problem, the United States wouldn’t go to the IMF”, he said.

Well, California to the US is not exactly the same as Greece to the EU - although in Juncker’s world it probably should be.

As a side, according to Swedish news site Europaportalen, Juncker was seen banging Borg jokingly on the head with a copy of the Financial Times on their way in to yesterday’s summit. When arguments aren’t enough to pursuade…

Climate change threatens fog and redwoods: study

The coastal fog that gives San Francisco its romantic ambience is thinning out, a boon to drivers but a real threat to the giant redwoods there, researchers reported on Monday.

It in unclear if natural climate variations or human activity is to blame, but the result could be the loss of trees, they reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Fog prevents water loss from redwoods in summer, and is really important for both the tree and the forest,” biologist Todd Dawson of the University of California Berkeley said in a statement.

“The coast redwood is the tallest living tree species and notably long-lived, with some individuals exceeding 2,000 years in age,” the researchers wrote in their report, available here

“If the fog is gone, we might not have the redwood forests we do now.”

Dawson and colleagues estimated the frequency of fog by looking at weather records, especially airport records dating back to 1951.

“Since 1901, the average number of hours of fog along the coast in summer has dropped from 56 percent to 42 percent, which is a loss of about three hours per day,” said Berkeley’s James Johnstone, who led the study.

The fog is caused by cool surface waters of the Pacific Ocean meeting warm air from the interior of California. It is held in place by an inversion, caused when cooler air is trapped closer to the surface.

“The data support the idea that Northern California coastal fog has decreased in connection with a decline in the coast-inland temperature gradient and weakening of the summer temperature inversion,” Johnstone said.

“As fog decreases, the mature redwoods along the coast are not likely to die outright, but there may be less recruitment of new trees,” Dawson added. “They will look elsewhere for water, high humidity and cooler temperatures.”

The coast redwood, known scientifically as Sequoia sempervirens, is naturally found in a very narrow band along the northeast Pacific coast.

The researchers found changes all the way down the coast from northernmost California to San Diego.

“Fog is clearly a dominant climatic factor on the California coast, and long-term reductions likely have and may continue to impact the water and carbon economy of redwoods and other coastal endemic species,” they concluded.

Source:
Reuters, “Climate change threatens fog and redwoods: study“, accessed February 15, 2010

Lessons From the Legacy of Malcolm X

African-American History Month 2010 Series:

Lessons From the Legacy of Malcolm X

45 years after his assassination the national question and the oppression of Muslims remain major issues of struggle

by Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire

February 21 represents the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, El Hajj Malik Shabazz, in New York City at the Audubon Ballroom. Malcolm was beginning his address to a mass meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) when several men opened fire on him with shotguns and pistols.

At the time the corporate media framed the threats, attacks and assassination of Malcolm X as a feud between the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad and former members of the organization who were led by Malcolm X. Yet it has been well documented that the membersip of the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X were all under FBI and local police surveillance. The FBI wanted to cause a rift between Malcolm X and the members of Elijah Muhammad’s family in order to weaken the impact of this organization on developments within the broader African-American struggle.

Malcolm X’s assassination came at a critical period during the African-American political movement of the 1960s. The Nation of Islam’s newspaper, the Muhammad Speaks, had done a superb job in covering developments within the civil rights movement between 1961-1963, but had remained largely aloof from the direct action efforts of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and other organizations.

The program of the NOI called for the creation of a separate state for African-Americans in the United States or in Africa. The organization felt that based on the legacy of racism and national oppression it would be impossible for blacks and whites to be integrated into the same society on an equal basis.

After the April 1962 police attack on the NOI mosque in Los Angeles, that resulted in the murder of one of their members Ronald Stokes, and the wounding of several others, Malcolm X wanted to engage in broader political efforts to seek justice in the case, which was deemed justifiable by the city authorities. Differences between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad over the character of the NOI’s response to the murder of Ronald Stokes, coupled with the burgeoning mass movement for civil rights, increased tensions inside the organization.

When the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in September 1963, which left four African-American girls dead, Malcolm X’s statements became even more militant in response to this act of racist terrorism and the failure of the Kennedy administration to take effective action in support of civil rights. Consequently, when Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and Malcolm later made comments at the Manhattan Center on December 1 that his death was a case of the “chickens coming home to roost,” he was silenced by Elijah Muhammad and would eventually leave the organization by March 1964.

Despite Malcolm’s departure from the NOI, he formed two other organizations, the Muslim Mosque, Inc., a Sunni Islamic organization, and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), a pan-africanist group patterned on the Organization of African Unity in an effort to build a united front in the United States in solidarity with the struggle for independence and unity on the continent of Africa.

Malcolm X: A Transformative Figure in African-American History

Building on the legacy of Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X as a leader within the Nation of Islam, emerged during the 1950s as a militant spokesperson for urbanized African-Americans in the United States. Born to Garveyite activist parents, Earl and Louise Little in 1925, Malcolm exposure to nationalist and pan-africanist thought began at a very early age.

As one of seven children in the Little family, Malcolm stated in his autobiography that Earl, a Baptist minister, often carried him to the mass meetings he attended during the depression years of the 1930s. His father Earl was originally from Georgia and his mother Louise, had been born in the Caribbean nation of Grenada. (The Autobiography of Malcolm X)

Earl and Louise originally met at a Universal Negro Improvement Association-African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) conference, the organization founded by Marcus Garvey, in 1919 in Montreal. Louise and Earl were leading members of the UNIA-ACL. Louise’s articles were often published in the Garveyite newspaper the Negro World.

Despite the economic crisis facing the United States at the time, Malcolm’s family were a close unit and remained self-reliant. The nationalist mood and self-pride exhibited by this family caused tremendous hostility among racist whites in Nebraska where Malcolm was born. Malcolm and other family members believed that Earl Little was murdered by white racists in 1931 in Mason, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing.

As a result of the social pressure and economic isolation from the white power structure in the area around Lansing, Michigan, these factors precipitated a nervous breakdown for Louise Little. Her eventual commitment to a state mental hospital and the break up of the family by the welfare department had a tremendous impact on the Little children.

During his primary school years Malcolm exhibited intellectual capabilities and talents. He dreamed of being a lawyer but was discouraged by a racist teacher who told him that he had to be realistice because he was black. By 1941, Malcolm had relocated in Boston to stay with his older sister, Ella Collins, the daughter of Earl Little from a previous marriage.

Malcolm worked in menial jobs in pool halls and on transport trains during World War II. He eventually drifted into criminality and drug abuse that resulted in his arrest and sentencing to prison for burglary in 1946.

While in prison he was influenced by an older inmate to read and develop his mind. He then set out to learn as much as possible and to participate in the prison debating teams.

Malcolm soon accepted the teachings of the Nation of Islam at the aegis of his brothers who had entered the organization prior to him. When he was paroled in 1952, he immediately began to work as an organizer for the Nation of Islam under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad.

He rose swiftly through the ranks of the NOI to become the minister in Boston and later New York during the mid-to-late 1950s. After gaining national exposure through public speaking and media coverage, the press once again set out to discredit another fearless spokesperson for the African-American masses.

Like the Garvey movement, Malcolm X created a newspaper for the Muslim organization, the Muhammad Speaks, which proved to be a powerful vehicle for the transmission of its ideas to the general public. In addition, his radio and television interviews and debates drew national attention from both the African-American masses as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other law-enforcement agencies in the United States.

By 1963, Malcolm X’s speeches had become more decisively political and secular. He began to de-emphasize certain aspects of the Black Muslim theology of Elijah Muhammad. At a mass rally held during a grassroots organizers’ conference in Detroit in November 1963, his remarks reflected his developing world outlook.

In this address that was recorded and issued under the title “Message to the Grassroots”, Malcolm X said that “The same man that was colonizing our people in Kenya was colonizing our people in Congo. The same one in the Congo was colonizing our people in South Africa, and in Southern Rhodesia, and in Burma and in India, and in Afghanistan, and in Pakistan. They realized all over the world where the dark man was being oppressed, he was being oppressed by the white man; where the dark man was being exploited, he was being exploited by the white man.” (Malcolm X Speaks, 1965)

In March 1964, Malcolm announced the formation of a rival orthodox Muslim Mosque and arranged to make Hajj in April to Saudi Arabia in order to authenticate himself as a Sunni Islamic believer. When he returned to the U.S. in May 1964, he then established a political group, the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) whose objectives were decisively revolutionary nationalist and pan-africanist in orientation.

In July 1964, Malcolm departed again for Africa and the Middle East to engage in further study, analysis and research and to establish deeper contacts between the OAAU and other revolutionary movements in the so-called Third World. Although many writers have placed emphasis on his conversion to Sunni Islam, Malcolm never lessened his commitment to the revolutionary transformation of the United States and the world.

Malcolm spent the bulk of his time between July and November of 1964 in various revolutionary and progressive states in Africa, including Egypt, Ghana, Algeria, Tanzania and Guinea. He developed close political relations with Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea, Gamal Abdel Nassar of Egypt and Abdul Rahman Mohamed Babu, a leading government official and marxist theoretician from Tanzania.

It was Malcolm’s connections with Babu that resulted in a meeting with Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara during his visit to the United Nations in late 1964. Malcolm took a keen interest in Cuba’s pending intervention in Congo during 1965.

Malcolm had been one of the most outspoken critics of U.S. foreign policy towards Congo during 1964, when the Johnson administration had intervened to halt the advances of the revolutionary forces fighting against the western-backed forces that had overthrown and assassinated Patrice Lumumba in 1960-61. His public statements became more anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist in character and many believed that had he lived, Malcolm would have advanced socialism as a political objective.

Malcolm X also visited England and France during late 1964 and early 1965. In England he made alliances with organizations within the black and Islamic communities. In France, he embarked upon efforts to form alliances with expatriate Africans and Caribbean nationals residing in Paris. A few days prior to his assassination he was denied admission to France without explanation by the government or the Johnson administration.

During this period Malcolm began to emphasize the central role of women in the national liberation process. In an interview in Paris he told the public that “One thing I became aware of in my traveling recently through Africa and the Middle East, in every country you go to, usually the degree of progress can never be separated from the woman. If you’re in a country that’s progressive, the woman is progressive. If you’re in a country that reflects the consciousness toward the importance of education, it’s because the woman is aware of the imprtance of education.”

Malcolm continued on this point saying “But in every backward country you’ll find the women are backward, and in every country where education is not stressed it’s because the women don’t have education. So one of the things I became thoroughly convinced of in my recent travels is the importance of giving freedom to the woman, giving her education, and giving her the incentive to get out there and put that same spirit and understanding in her children. And I frankly am proud of the contributions that our women have made in the struggle for freedom and I’m one person who’s for giving them all the leeway possible because they’ve made a greater contribution than many of us men.” (By Any Means Necessary, p. 179, 1970)

Malcolm X’s Secure Position Within African-American History

Despite the efforts of the corporate media to distort his legacy and international image since his assassination on February 21, 1965, Malcolm X has been immortalized by many writers and commentators on African-American affairs. According to journalist M.S. Handler “No man in our time aroused fear and hatred in the white man as did Malcolm, because in him the white man sensed an implacable foe who could not be had for any price–a man unreservedly committed to the cause of liberating the black man in American society, rather than integrating the black man into that society.” (El Hajj Malik Shabazz, Documentary Film)

During the later years since his martyrdom Malcolm has gained a secure position within the collective consciousness of Africans, oppressed peoples and workers world-wide. His image proliferates the urban areas of America and his name and spirit is often evoked in relation to the uncompromising character of the African-American struggle for total liberation from national oppression and economic exploitation.

Consequently, the efforts of the mass media, the national intelligence services of the United States and the capitalist class in general, who have sought to either obscure or coop his message, have failed due to the efforts of the political heirs of Malcolm X who have continued to maintain the integrity and principled character of his legacy.

Human rights or corruption? Trotting out the real Fiji issues

Chinese support for sanctions? What about the Russians?

In light of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s February 11th announcement that his country is now a “nuclear nation” - which he has claimed before - there has been a renewed call for sanctions from the Obama Administration. The two actions are telling - Iran was supposed to have delivered “a punch” to the West on the 31st anniversary of the Iranian revolution, and it appears that the U.S. administration has finally woken up to the fact that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has long talked about new United Nations sanctions against Iran, all to no avail. The sticking point has been securing the cooperation of United Nations Security Council permanent members - with veto power - Russia and China. The other three members, the United States, United Kingdom and France, have been on board for some time.

There have been claims from the Russians that they do support sanctions, especially as Iran continues to thumb its nose at the world over demands that it halt its uranium enrichment program. On the other hand, the Chinese have been consistent in their position that diplomacy needs to be given more time before the imposition of another - there have been three thus far - round of sanctions. There does not appear to be any change in the Chinese position.

A closer look at the claimed Russian support reveals some positive spin on the part of the administration, particularly Mrs. Clinton. Although Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov makes the right noises about sanctions, the Russians still have an active contract to complete the Bushehr nuclear reactor. Granted, that reactor falls under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, but the fact that a nation - Russia - still willing to provide assistance to a country that is under sanction for a uranium enrichment program - Iran - should be troubling.

It goes further. While the world is concerned about Iran’s nuclear program, Russia has no intentions to stop selling advanced air defense systems to the Islamic Republic. The Russians believe that the sale of the S-300 missile system is not prohibited by the current sanctions protocols. Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Vladimir Nazarov clarified that the sale of the S-300 “is not restricted by any international sanctions, because these are merely defensive weapons.” Deliveries are to begain soon. (See my earlier, New sanctions on Iran? The Clinton spin….)

The Russian angle is interesting. Secretary Clinton would have you believe that she and Lavrov have some sort of special relationship that will further the aims of the international community when it comes to Iran. The reality appears to me to be far removed from that. Remember Mrs. Clinton’s much-publicized “reset button” debacle with Lavrov - incompetence beyond belief. (See my earlier article on another forum, Does the State Department have any competent Russian linguists?)

The China situation is even more problematic, and confusing. Vice President Joe Biden said during his Sunday talk show propaganda sessions that the United States expects to gain China’s support for sanctions on Iran. His words - “We have the support of everyone from Russia to Europe. And I believe we’ll get the support of China to continue to impose sanctions on Iran to isolate them, to make clear that in fact they cannot move forward.”

Why would Biden say that? There has been no indication that Beijing has moderated its position. Mrs. Clinton has just visited Saudi Arabia, hoping to get Saudi assurances that they would offer oil supplies to China to convince them to support the American position. No cush luck - our closest Arab ally has balked at taking a stance that would help convince the Chinese to go along with sanctions.

So, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton want us to believe that they will be able to bring China to the sanctions table. Meanwhile, the Russians continue work on the Bushehr reactor and are committed to delivering advanced weaponry to Iran.

Biden and Clinton can’t even deliver the Russians, let alone the Chinese.

US/NATO Offensive Meets Resistance From the Afghan People

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
07:07 Mecca time, 04:07 GMT

Afghan offensive meets resistance

Afghan and Nato troops have been hit by sniper attacks and booby-traps

Nato-led and Afghan forces have met sporadic resistance on the third day of a major offensive to secure a town in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province.

Troops taking part in Operation Moshtarak were reportedly targeted with heavy gunfire, sniper fire and booby-traps as they attempted to push forward in Marjah and the surrounding areas on Monday.

“We are making steady progress, but being very methodical about detecting and clearing routes in an area heavily saturated with IEDs [improvised explosive devices],” Abraham Sipe, a US Marine captain, told the Reuters news agency.

“In many parts of Marjah, we have seen very little opposition. There are areas where Marines have met with stiff resistance, but they are making steady progress throughout the area.”

US Marine units were twice beaten back by heavy gunfire as they tried to reach a market in the town and another armoured column reported that it had come under fire from three different sniper teams.

“It’s a pretty busy day but we expected that because we are penetrating,” Lieutenant Colonel Brian Christmas, the commander of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, told The Associated Press news agency.

Ambush tactics

Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Kabul, said the resistance, although limited, showed that Taliban fighters were still operating around Marjah.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays reports on the offensive to recapture Marjah
“Although we are not seeing, for example, face-to-face combat it seems that the Taliban is not going away for now,” she said.

“This has been their tactics, ambushing international forces, roadside bombings. The forces are advancing but it is a slow process simply because the area is heavily booby-trapped.”

However, Afghan military leaders said that Taliban fighters had fled as about 15,000 US, British and Afghan soldiers had moved in to take control of Marjah and Nad Ali.

“All of the areas of Marjah and Nad Ali have been taken by combined forces. They are under our control, almost all Nad Ali and Marjah,” General Aminullah Patiani, the senior Afghan commander in Operation Mushtarak, said.

“The Taliban have left the areas but the threat from IEDs remains.”

Rahim Wardak, Afghanistan’s defence minister, called on any remaining Taliban fighters to put down their weapons and take up a government reintegration offer.

“I want to call on all Afghan Taliban, the ones who are besieged or maybe hiding … put down your arms and join our reconciliation programme, take part with us in the rebuilding of our country,” he said.

Operation objectives

Operation Moshtarak, is the first major test of the strategy of Barack Obama, the US president, to take on the Taliban and end the eight-year conflict with one of the biggest offensives since the 2001 US-led invasion.

It is designed to clear Taliban fighters from the Marjah region of the southern province and hold it so that the civilian administration can establish itself.

“The objective here is to protect the people and help the government provide services to the people of Afghanistan, even in the most difficult areas,” Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to the region, told Al Jazeera.

Afghan officials say they have a “government-in-a-box” ready to sweep in and set up institutional services and security that will ensure the Taliban do not return to areas captured by US-led forces.

However, the long-term success of the offensive is likely to depend on securing the support of the local population, something which will be made more difficult by civilian casualties in the offensive.

Nato on Monday expressed its “deep regret” over the deaths of 12 civilians after their house was hit by a rocket that missed its target.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Civilian death toll climbs in Afghan offensive

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, Associated Press Writer

MARJAH, Afghanistan – Three more Afghan civilians have been killed in the assault on a southern Taliban stronghold, NATO forces said Tuesday, highlighting the toll on the population from an offensive aimed at making them safer.

The deaths — in three separate incidents — come after two errant U.S. missiles struck a house on the outskirts of the town of Marjah on Sunday, killing 12 people, half of them children. Afghan officials said Monday that three Taliban fighters were in the house at the time of the attack.

About 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops are taking part in the massive offensive around Marjah — the linchpin of the Taliban logistical and opium poppy smuggling network in the militant-influenced south. U.S. Marines are spearheading the assault.

The offensive is the biggest joint operation since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and a major test of a retooled NATO strategy to focus on protecting civilians rather than killing insurgents.
But in the fourth day of an assault that could take weeks, the drumbeat of gunfire and controlled detonations of planted bombs is sparking fear that civilians will bear the burden of the fight.

In two of the most recently reported incidents, Afghan men came toward NATO forces and ignored shouts and hand signals to stop, NATO said. The troops shot at the men and killed them. One of the shootings appeared to match an incident previously reported by The Associated Press.

In the third incident, two Afghan men were caught in the crossfire between insurgents and NATO forces. Both were wounded and one died of his injuries despite being given medical care, NATO said.

Taliban fighters have stepped up counterattacks against Marines and Afghan soldiers in Marjah, slowing the allied advance to a crawl despite Afghan government claims that the insurgents are broken and on the run.

Taliban fighters appeared to be slipping under cover of darkness into compounds already deemed free of weapons and explosives, then opening fire on the Marines from behind U.S. lines.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai approved the assault on Marjah only after instructing NATO and Afghan commanders to be careful about harming civilians. “This operation has been done with that in mind,” the top NATO commander, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, said Monday.

Despite those instructions, NATO reported its first civilian deaths Sunday, saying two U.S. rockets veered off target by up to 600 yards and slammed into a home — killing six children and six adults.

In London, Britain’s top military officer, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, called the missile strike a “very serious setback” to efforts to win the support of local communities, who are from the same Pashtun ethnic group as the Taliban.

NATO suspended the use of the rocket system that killed the civilians following the 12 deaths, pending an investigation.

In a separate incident unrelated to the Marjah offensive, a NATO airstrike in neighboring Kandahar province killed five civilians and wounded two. NATO said in a statement that they were mistakenly believed to have been planting roadside bombs.

On Monday, Afghan commanders spoke optimistically about progress in Marjah, a town of about 80,000 people that is seen as key to securing the south. They said resistance was low, Taliban were fleeing across the border and that the town should soon be cleared of insurgents.

In Marjah, however, there was little sign the Taliban were broken. Instead, small, mobile teams of insurgents repeatedly attacked U.S. and Afghan troops with rocket, rifle and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Insurgents moved close enough to the main road to fire repeatedly at columns of mine-clearing vehicles.

Allied officials have reported only two coalition deaths so far — one American and one Briton killed Saturday. There have been no reports of wounded. Afghan officials said at least 27 insurgents have been killed so far in the offensive.

Two NATO service members died Monday from bomb strikes in Helmand; neither was part of the Marjah offensive, military spokesman Sgt. Kevin Bell said. NATO did not provide their nationalities.

Nonetheless, the harassment tactics and the huge number of roadside bombs, mines and booby traps planted throughout Marjah have succeeded in slowing the movement of allied forces through the town.

As long as the town remains unstable, NATO officials cannot move to the second phase — restoring Afghan government control and rushing in aid and public services to win over inhabitants who have been living under Taliban rule for years.

The main attack began before dawn Saturday when dozens of helicopters dropped hundreds of Marines and Afghan soldiers into the heart of the city.