news.notes20090521a

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]

Thursday, May 21, 2009
Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser of the Liberal Party, born this day in 1930, served as prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, during which time he successfully reduced inflation and foreign debt but struggled to curb unemployment.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]

Thursday, May 21, 2009
1927: First transatlantic flight made by Charles Lindbergh
American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh completed the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean on this day in 1927, traveling from New York to Paris in the monoplane Spirit of Saint Louis in about 33.5 hours.


[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Flu infiltrates Tokyo as patient tally leaps to 267

By REIJI YOSHIDA and ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writers

Two female high school students who live in Hachioji, western Tokyo, and Kawasaki were confirmed Wednesday as having H1N1 swine flu — the first people in the Tokyo area to catch the contagion.

The 16-year-old girls, whose names are being withheld, attend the same high school in Kawasaki, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government said.

The two, who were sharing a room at a New York hotel from May 11 to 18 to attend a mock session of the United Nations, returned to Narita airport at 1:55 p.m. on Tuesday via Continental Airlines but have not yet returned to school.

Tokyo officials did not name the school, but Kyodo News reported that it was Senzoku Gakuen High School.

The cases are expected to send greater Tokyo, which includes Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa prefectures, scrambling to prepare for an epidemic, although the metro government decided late Tuesday it was not yet necessary to close any schools.

No one in Japan has died from swine flu and its effects are said to be mild in most cases.

The Tokyo students bring the total number of confirmed cases to 267 in Japan, including the four initially found during the quarantine inspections the government wants to eliminate at Narita airport.

The remaining 261 are in Osaka, Hyogo and Shiga prefectures, where thousands of schools have been shut down to contain the bug.

The girl in Hachioji was hospitalized in Tokyo and her symptoms are stable, metro officials said.

Although she developed a fever during the flight, she tested negative for the flu at Narita airport, metro government officials said.

As of Wednesday, Japan had the fourth-largest number of H1N1 patients in the world after the United States, Canada, and Mexico, where the vast majority of deaths occurred.

Teenagers and those predisposed to disease appear to be the most vulnerable to H1N1. More than 4,000 schools in the Kinki region will remain closed until next week.

The lone patient in Shiga, a 23-year-old student at Ritsumeikan University's Biwako-Kusatsu campus and a resident of Otsu, was confirmed Wednesday morning to have contracted the virus during a visit to Kobe last weekend. Shiga officials said he was given Tamiflu and is at home recovering.

Shiga Prefecture immediately announced measures to limit the virus' spread, beginning with the closure of 53 prefectural high schools between Thursday and Tuesday. Although the Shiga patient is an adult, the decision was made to close the schools because, as of Wednesday morning, the infection had hit mostly students, and schools in Hyogo and Osaka were closed, Shiga officials said.

Ritsumeikan's Biwako-Kusatsu campus closed Wednesday afternoon and won't reopen until May 26, a university spokeswoman said. Some 17,000 students attend the campus.

Other steps Shiga will take include closing day care centers in six cities and canceling prefecture-sponsored events.

"This strain of influenza is similar to seasonal influenza, and the Tamiflu medicine can be effective. But people should wear masks and wash their hands carefully, call fever hotlines before going to the hospital, and avoid unnecessary travel," said Shiga Prefecture Gov. Yukiko Kada.

Despite the increase in cases and the first outbreak in Shiga Prefecture, officials in Osaka and Hyogo are concerned about possible public apathy.

While people in Hyogo and Kobe remain vigilant and are wearing masks, fewer masked people were seen early Wednesday afternoon in and around the Umeda, Yodobashi, and Honmachi business districts of Osaka, and on city subway lines, than the day before.

The spread of the virus has affected Kansai businesses in areas were outbreaks were reported, but some that closed down are reopening.

A number of kiosks and shops in and around Sannomiya Station in Kobe closed earlier this week, including a JR kiosk where a female employee in her 50s fell ill.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Signs in North point to Kim's third son being heir

By ALEX MARTIN
Staff writer

Students in North Korea are singing songs in praise of Kim Jong Il's third son and potential successor, Kim Jong Un, a recently obtained report said, indicating that a full-scale power shift may be on as news of the North Korean leader's ailing health fuels speculation over who will lead the reclusive state in the days ahead.

Lee Young Hwa, head of Osaka-based activist organization Rescue the North Korean People! (RENK) said he had received word from a "collaborator" in the North who reported that when a group of elementary school children on a street corner in Pyongyang were asked what they were singing, they replied it was a song about Kim Jong Un.

The students said they were forced to practice the song all day long instead of taking their regular classes, and could not return home until they had thoroughly memorized it.

"The fact that schools are teaching students to sing such songs is tantamount to officially declaring the heir (to North Korea)," the report said.

The students recalled, with some uncertainty, that the lessons began in early May. The songs include passages such as "with crisp steps," and "the general of Mount Paektu," besides specifically naming Kim Jong Un. Mount Paektu, a stratovolcano on the China-North Korea border, is a sacred place in Korean culture. North Korea claims that the late President Kim Il Sung fought Japanese colonialist forces on its slopes.

The report also states North Korean troops were ordered to shout slogans in praise of Jong Un. "Let's protect Gen. Kim Jong Un — the young general, the morning star general who inherits the bloodline of Paektu — with all our hearts" goes one slogan, according to the report.

Little is known about Kim Jong Il's youngest son. His late mother, Ko Yong Hee, was one of Kim's consorts. He is around 26 and attended an international school in Switzerland.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency on Jan. 15 reported that Kim Jong Il appointed Kim Jong Un as his successor, and Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese who was Kim Jong Il's former chef, has appeared on Japanese television saying Jong Un was favored by his father over his older brother, Jong Chol, for his strong leadership skills, and that he looked very similar to his father.

Kim Jong Nam, the oldest of Kim's three sons, has in the past made clear to foreign media that he was not interested in the top slot, and was not his father's choice for the job.

"With that father and that son, what is there to look up to?" the report obtained from RENK cites local residents as saying among themselves since talk of Jong Un's succession emerged.

Mocking the myth that Jong Un is a genius who graduated from seven universities, the report said residents joked that if that was true, he would have had to attend school since he was in his mother's womb, since North Korea has a five-year university system.

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Electric car made in 1917 unveiled by GS Yuasa

KYOTO (Kyodo) GS Yuasa Corp., Japan's top maker of lead storage batteries, on Wednesday unveiled an electric car imported from the United States in 1917 to members of the press at its head office in Kyoto.

The company said it has restored the car and made it road-worthy to showcase it and promote its business amid growing public interest in eco-friendly electric cars.

The vehicle, named the Detroit, was imported by company cofounder Genzo Shimazu and put to company use for about 30 years. It has been on display at the head office ever since.

GS Yuasa's engineers have equipped the Detroit with a lead storage cell that can be recharged using a household power outlet, the company said.

news.notes20090521b

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Economy shrinks at record-setting pace
Annualized 15.2% drop in quarter reflects collapse in exports, output

By TAKAHIRO FUKADA
Staff writer

Gross domestic product plunged at a record annual pace of 15.2 percent in the three months to March as exports collapsed and businesses cut production, the government said Wednesday.

It was the biggest fall since records were first kept in 1955.

GDP for all of fiscal 2008 also saw its biggest ever fall of 3.5 percent.

The Cabinet Office said weak overseas and domestic demand caused the economy to contract for the fourth straight quarter, following an annualized 14.4 percent contraction in the October-December period.

Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said the worst may be over.

Despite the record contraction, Yosano said the January-March quarter is already "past" and that it is time to look to the future.

"It's important (we see) what has happened in April and May," he said, referring to signs of improvement in some recent economic figures.

Some economists agree with Yosano and expect GDP in the April-June quarter to show positive growth.

"Although the figures are the lowest ever, they are within our expectations," said Takahide Kiuchi, chief economist at Nomura Securities Co.

Kiuchi expects the Japanese economy to grow at an annualized pace of 3 percent to 5 percent in the April-June quarter as China and the United States rebound and exports to their economies recover.

Japan's economic stimulus measures will also contribute to growth, he predicted.

Kiuchi also noted the economy has started entering a period of deflation. The domestic demand deflator, a key measure of domestic price trends, fell 0.9 percent, compared with a rise of 0.3 percent in October-December last year.

"In the January-March period, the gap has further widened," said Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. "Certainly, the fall could not be stopped."

While expecting exports to recover as China's economy revives, Kumano said it remains extremely unclear how strong and how long the economic recovery will be amid the outbreak of H1N1 swine flu.

Export of goods and services plummeted 26 percent from the previous quarter, the largest fall on record. Private consumption declined 1.1 percent and private investment fell 10.4 percent.

Domestic demand contributed to lowering GDP by minus 2.6 percent and net exports of goods and services by minus 1.4 percent.

GDP, the broadest measure of economic activity, contracted 4.0 percent in January-March quarter from the previous quarter.

In nominal terms, before adjusting for inflation, the economy contracted 2.9 percent, or an annualized contraction of 10.9 percent.

The employment environment is becoming increasingly harsh, which may lead to a prolonged slump in consumer spending that accounts for about 55 percent of GDP.

Last month, the government predicted the economy would face a contraction of 3.3 percent in real terms in fiscal 2009. The economy will still need to expand about 0.7 percent each quarter to meet this forecast.

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Fuji Heavy may launch hybrid vehicle by '12

(Bloomberg) Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. may introduce a gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle by 2012, as the United States, Japan and Europe tighten their emission rules.

The company, the maker of Subaru-brand cars, plans to develop a new diesel engine that meets tougher environmental standards by 2011 or 2012 and "hopes to introduce a hybrid around the same time," President Ikuo Mori told reporters Wednesday in Tokyo.

Fuji Heavy has said it plans to use a hybrid system developed by Toyota Motor Corp., its biggest shareholder. U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday announced the first national standard for greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles and tougher rules for fuel mileage.

Automakers must now meet average efficiency standards of 15 km per liter by 2016, four years sooner than previously planned. The new standards would reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 900 million tons through 2016, according to the administration. Europe and Japan also plan to implement tougher regulations around the same time.

Separately, Mori said the company in the U.S. is encouraging dealers that operate showrooms both for bankrupt Chrysler LLC and Subaru to switch to Fuji Heavy's finance company. There are about 20 dealers that handle both brands, Mori said.

Chrysler on May 14 asked court permission to cancel 789 car dealership agreements. U.S. dealers are struggling with a 37 percent sales decline this year through April that may force General Motors Corp., the country's biggest automaker, to seek bankruptcy as well.

New Legacy models
Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the maker of Subaru-brand cars, aims to sell 3,000 units of its revamped Legacy a month in Japan and is betting on the redesign to help stem losses and plunging sales.

The new Legacy sedans and wagons went on sale Wednesday starting at \2.2 million, Fuji Heavy said in a statement Wednesday. The fifth-generation Legacy is the flagship model's first revamp in six years.

The Tokyo-based company plans to release the model in North America and Europe later this year and expects to sell 15,000 units a month globally. Fuji Heavy's domestic sales have plummeted 27 percent this year through April along with overall auto demand as falling wages and rising unemployment keeps buyers out of dealer showrooms.

Japan and U.S. auto sales may have "bottomed," after sliding 31 percent and 37 percent in the period, Fuji Heavy President Ikuo Mori told reporters at a press conference Wednesday in Tokyo.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday "a slight uptick" in its U.S. sales this month may mark the end of a collapse in industrywide demand. Still, major improvements are unlikely to happen before next year, Jim Lentz, president of Toyota's U.S. sales unit, said Tuesday in Washington.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Sony falls to third in global TV share

NEW YORK (Kyodo) Sony Corp. fell to third place in the global television market in the January-March quarter, down from second, U.S. research firm DisplaySearch said.

Sony commanded 13.1 percent of the world market in terms of shipments, down from 14.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

It was overtaken by South Korea's LG Electronics Inc., which climbed out of third place after growing its share to 13.3 percent from 11.5 percent, the research firm said.

Samsung Electronics Co. defended its No. 1 spot with a share of 21.5 percent, down from 22.1 percent, DisplaySearch said.

Coming in fourth was Sharp Corp., which commanded a 7.2 percent share, down slightly from 7.4 percent. Sharp was followed by Panasonic Corp. which had a 6.1 percent share, down from 8.8 percent.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Panasonic to slash pay 30% this year for president, chairman

OSAKA (Kyodo) Panasonic Corp. plans to cut the annual pay of its president and chairman by 30 percent this year to take responsibility for its projected red ink, sources said Wednesday.

President Fumio Otsubo, Chairman Kunio Nakamura, and other board members will see their pay slashed 20 percent, the sources said.

The electronics giant incurred a group net loss of \378.96 billion in fiscal 2008, its first red ink in six years, and is expecting a second straight annual net loss totaling \195 billion for fiscal 2009.

Panasonic, formerly Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., has cut pay between 10 percent and 20 percent for board members and 5 percent for managers since February because of its deteriorating performance.

Further top management cuts are part of restructuring efforts that include 15,000 job cuts and the closure of 40 production facilities worldwide by the end of fiscal 2009.

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Toshiba to outsource all cell phones

(Kyodo News) Toshiba Corp. said Wednesday it will end domestic production of mobile phones and shift to overseas outsourcing by October to cut costs amid shrinking demand for handsets.

The electronics giant will continue product development and design at its Hino factory in Tokyo, but all mobile phone production for the domestic market will be shifted abroad. Its 200 employees in charge of production at Hino will be reassigned to other divisions inside the company, it said.

Production of so-called smart phones for all markets meanwhile will continue to be carried out by its Chinese subsidiary, Toshiba said.

Japan has seen a double-digit annual decline in mobile phone sales after a new payment system encouraged customers to switch models less frequently in exchange for lower fees.

news.notes20090521c

[Today's Paper] from [Los Angeles Times]

Obama moves to regain initiative on Guantanamo closure
The president plans a speech to defend his plans in the face of growing opposition. One option may be to hold detainees indefinitely without trial.

By Julian E. Barnes and Josh Meyer
May 21, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- President Obama signaled his intention Wednesday to press forward on his plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, despite a growing challenge from both political parties and a limited set of options to make his detainee policy work.

In a sign of his lost momentum, the Senate on Wednesday voted 90 to 6 to block funding for the shutdown. The vote followed criticism that the administration was backtracking on Americans' security.

But Obama, in a bid to retake the initiative, plans an address today to forcefully defend his proposal for closing Guantanamo by year's end. In the morning speech at the National Archives in Washington, he also will address prospects for a controversial proposal to hold detainees indefinitely without trial, if necessary, and will reassert his argument that closing the prison would advance U.S. security.

"The president signed an order early in his administration to close it, and he intends to keep that promise," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

In a possible sign of a new approach, an administration official said that for the first time, a Guantanamo detainee is being sent to the U.S. to stand trial in a criminal court. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian captured in Pakistan in 2004, had been indicted by a federal grand jury in New York on allegations that he took part in attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.

Obama met with leaders of human rights organizations Wednesday as Congress debated the issue and the White House planned its response.

Since Obama's decision four months ago to close the prison, few new options have emerged to ease the way to a shutdown. To clear the political logjam, the administration and Congress face difficult and politically unpopular choices.

"The president is going to have to spend political capital; he will have to lean on people and call out the political cowards," said John D. Hutson, a retired Navy admiral and judge advocate general who advised Obama on detention policy during his presidential campaign. "He is going to have to regain the high ground and the initiative. He had the initiative and it slipped away."

The administration's counterattack began Wednesday, when a top Pentagon official challenged the growing congressional opposition to moving detainees to the U.S., saying some detainees must be placed in mainland prisons.

"This is a case where we need to ask members of Congress to take a more strategic view," said Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of Defense for policy. "Many of these members called for the closing of Guantanamo, and we need their partnership in making that possible."

But Republicans seized on remarks Wednesday by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, who told Congress that detainees could pose risks in U.S. prisons, such as radicalizing others. Mueller, appointed by former President George W. Bush, also noted that convicted criminals had run gangs from within prisons, suggesting that terrorists could coordinate attacks from behind bars.

Democratic lawmakers and human rights activists said that Obama must use today's speech to recover ground lost to the GOP in the Guantanamo debate. By expanding public support for his plan, he can avert future battles, they said.

"One thing he has to do is begin to articulate the specifics of a plan for closing Guantanamo," said Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster. "The Hill needs to hear that."

The administration has been caught up in a series of national security controversies in recent weeks. Liberals have criticized its reluctance to punish architects of the Bush administration's detention policies, its refusal to release photos of harsh interrogations, and its decision to stick with the Bush administration's military commissions.

Conservatives have denounced Obama's policies, charging that the president has lowered the nation's defenses and made terrorist attacks more likely. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, a frequent critic, is scheduled to speak today to the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank.

U.S. trials are seen as one solution to the detainee puzzle. A U.S. court trial in New York for Ghailani, indicted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, has been planned but was just announced.

"This was approved well before today and has been in the works for some time, but now we're in the position to make a final determination," the administration official said.

Gibbs said that Obama would not release a lengthy report today on his plan for Guantanamo. But experts and analysts said that clearing the political and legal logjam will probably require the Obama administration to endorse additional policies unpopular with its political allies.

For instance, with few nations volunteering to accept prisoners, the administration may have to transfer some back to their home countries -- even at the risk that those suspects could be abused in prison or be released to rejoin fighting against the U.S.

The Pentagon thinks that dozens of the more than 500 detainees released have gone back to militant activity. The most recent Pentagon figures put the return rate at 11%. The New York Times reported Wednesday on its website that an unreleased report shows that about 14% have returned to the fight.

The administration also is considering ways to hold detainees in the U.S. without trial. Two national security officials confirmed that administration officials were likely to establish a policy of detention without trial for at least some of the Guantanamo detainees.

The administration has created several task forces to examine detention and interrogation policies, and officials said the groups were wrestling with various proposals to hold detainees without traditional U.S. trials or military commissions. The task forces are to complete their work in July.

Another senior administration official said that some form of detention without trial was likely because, with some suspects, officials have little evidence that was not acquired through coercive techniques. Even in those cases, however, officials are searching for ways to assess detainees' past actions and future risk.

"Even if there is no evidence that will stand up in a criminal court, it could be possible that they could be adjudicated in some other system, and there are a range of options," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no administration official is authorized to speak publicly about the internal deliberations.

Options include an administrative court based on international treaty rules, or another kind of national security court.

The fight over who can be held and for how long will probably be difficult, said John B. Bellinger III, the former State Department legal advisor who pushed for Guantanamo's closure during the Bush years.

"Assuming President Obama does not back off his plan to close Guantanamo, the big fight will really be over the legal rules for holding the detainees when they are moved to the United States," Bellinger said.

Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, said his organization thought that suspects who must be detained for long periods should be tried in the U.S.

"The more we try to create something new, the greater the risk of challenge and defeat," he said. "In the short term, it may be easier to detain potentially dangerous people if you design a system specifically for that purpose. But in the longer term, the risk of having to release those people is greater because the system could collapse."

news.notes20090521d

[Today's Paper] from [The New York Times]

1 in 7 Freed Detainees Rejoins Fight, Report Finds

By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: May 20, 2009

WASHINGTON — An unreleased Pentagon report concludes that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has returned to terrorism or militant activity, according to administration officials.

The conclusion could strengthen the arguments of critics who have warned against the transfer or release of any more detainees as part of President Obama’s plan to shut down the prison by January. Past Pentagon reports on Guantánamo recidivism have been met with skepticism from civil liberties groups and criticized for their lack of detail.

The Pentagon promised in January that the latest report would be released soon, but Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said this week that the findings were still “under review.”

Two administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the report was being held up by Defense Department employees fearful of upsetting the White House, at a time when even Congressional Democrats have begun to show misgivings over Mr. Obama’s plan to close Guantánamo.

At the White House on Wednesday, Mr. Obama ran into a different kind of resistance when he met with human rights advocates who told him they would oppose any plan that would hold terrorism suspects without charges.

The White House has said Mr. Obama will provide further details about his plans for Guantánamo detainees in a speech Thursday.

To relocate the 240 prisoners now at Guantánamo Bay, administration officials have said the plan will ultimately rely on some combination of sending some overseas for release, transferring others to the custody of foreign governments, and moving the rest to facilities in the United States, either for military or civilian trials or, in some cases, perhaps, to be held without charges.

But the prospect that detainees might be moved to American soil has run into strong opposition in Congress. To show its misgivings, the Senate voted on Wednesday, 90 to 6, to cut from a war-spending bill the $80 million requested by Mr. Obama to close the prison, and overwhelmingly approved a second amendment requiring that a threat assessment be prepared for each prisoner now at Guantánamo to address what might happen on release.

The F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, said Wednesday that moving detainees to American prisons would bring with it risks including “the potential for individuals undertaking attacks in the United States.”

But Michele A. Flournoy, the under secretary of defense for policy, said of the detainees: “I think there will be some that need to end up in the United States.”

Pentagon officials said there had been no pressure from the Obama White House to suppress the report about the Guantánamo detainees who had been transferred abroad under the Bush administration. The officials said they believed that Defense Department employees, some of them holdovers from the Bush administration, were acting to protect their jobs.

The report is the subject of numerous Freedom of Information Act requests from news media organizations, and Mr. Whitman said he expected it to be released shortly. The report, a copy of which was made available to The New York Times, says the Pentagon believes that 74 prisoners released from Guantánamo have returned to terrorism or militant activity, making for a recidivism rate of nearly 14 percent.

The report was made available by an official who said the delay in releasing it was creating unnecessary “conspiracy theories” about the holdup.

A Defense Department official said there was little will at the Pentagon to release the report because it had become politically radioactive under Mr. Obama.

“If we hold it, then everybody claims it’s political and you’re protecting the Obama administration,” said the official, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. “And if we let it go, then everybody says you’re undermining Obama.”

Previous assertions by the Pentagon that substantial numbers of former Guantánamo prisoners had returned to terrorism were sharply criticized by civil liberties and human rights groups who said the information was too vague to be credible and amounted to propaganda in favor of keeping the prison open. The Pentagon began making the assertions in 2007 but stopped earlier this year, shortly before Mr. Obama took office.

Among the 74 former prisoners that the report says are again engaged in terrorism, 29 have been identified by name by the Pentagon, including 16 named for the first time in the report. The Pentagon has said that the remaining 45 could not be named because of national security and intelligence-gathering concerns.

In the report, the Pentagon confirmed that two former Guantánamo prisoners whose terrorist activities had been previously reported had indeed returned to the fight. They are Said Ali al-Shihri, a leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch suspected in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Sana, Yemen’s capital, last year, and Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, an Afghan Taliban commander, who also goes by the name Mullah Abdullah Zakir.

The Pentagon has provided no way of authenticating its 45 unnamed recidivists, and only a few of the 29 people identified by name can be independently verified as having engaged in terrorism since their release. Many of the 29 are simply described as associating with terrorists or training with terrorists, with almost no other details provided.

“It’s part of a campaign to win the hearts and minds of history for Guantánamo,” said Mark P. Denbeaux, a professor at Seton Hall University School of Law who has represented Guantánamo detainees and co-written three studies highly critical of the Pentagon’s previous recidivism reports. “They want to be able to claim there really were bad people there.”

Mr. Denbeaux acknowledged that some of the named detainees had engaged in verifiable terrorist acts since their release, but he said his research showed that their numbers were small.

“We’ve never said there weren’t some people who would return to the fight,” Mr. Denbeaux said. “It seems to be unavoidable. Nothing is perfect.”

Terrorism experts said a 14 percent recidivism rate was far lower than the rate for prisoners in the United States, which, they said, can run as high as 68 percent three years after release. They also said that while Americans might have a lower level of tolerance for recidivism among Guantánamo detainees, there was no evidence that any of those released had engaged in elaborate operations like the Sept. 11 attacks.

In addition to Mr. Shihri and Mr. Rasoul, at least three others among the 29 named have engaged in verifiable terrorist activity or have threatened terrorist acts.

news.notes20090521e

[Today's Newspaper] fom [The Washington Post]

Obama Will Try to Quell Concern on Detainees
Speech Today Comes As Congress Resists Guantanamo Shutdown

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 21, 2009

President Obama will attempt today to answer critics of his dismantling of Bush-era policies on detention and interrogation, in a speech reminding Americans that strong national security and adherence to laws and national values are not mutually exclusive.

Beyond this lofty reassurance, senior administration officials said, Obama will also repeat the case he made on his third day in office that the Bush administration's system of dealing with "enemy combatants" -- resulting in three prosecutions in seven years and challenged by U.S. courts and allies -- was not sustainable.

Four months ago, Obama announced his intention to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; release, transfer abroad or try all its remaining inmates; and outlaw the harsh interrogation techniques he defined as torture. But the implementation of those executive orders has proved far more complicated than he expected.

To the frustration of a White House that claims the moral high ground, virtually every detainee-related decision Obama has made since then -- including making public classified Bush administration descriptions of how to waterboard terrorism suspects and refusing to support the release of photographs depicting detainee abuse -- has provoked criticism from some or all of those who initially approved his policies.

Congressional dissatisfaction peaked yesterday when the Senate joined the House in overwhelmingly rejecting, 90 to 6, Obama's request for funds to shutter the Guantanamo facility until he explains what he plans to do with its 240 occupants. Lawmakers of both parties spoke out against imprisoning or releasing any of the detainees in the United States.

In a move that is likely to further antagonize lawmakers, a Justice Department task force reviewing the detainee cases has decided to send the first Guantanamo prisoner to the United States for criminal trial. A Justice Department official said that Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, an alleged al-Qaeda operative indicted in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, will be tried in New York. Ghailani, a Tanzanian, was captured in Pakistan in 2004, held at a secret site by the CIA and transferred to Guantanamo with other "high-value" prisoners in 2006.

Ghailani was first indicted in 1998 in the Southern District of New York on 236 counts related to the killing of more than 200 people, including 12 Americans, in the bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. His lawyers have sought dismissal of the New York indictments on grounds that his right to a speedy trial was violated. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, expressed confidence that the federal court will take into account the gravity of Ghailani's alleged crimes and that federal prosecutors built their case against him without information gleaned from CIA or military interrogations.

Congressional concerns about detainees gained credibility when FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, in testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, agreed that detainees' presence in this country could pose a threat, and when details leaked of a Pentagon finding that nearly 14 percent of the 534 detainees who have left Guantanamo since it opened in 2002 may have subsequently engaged in terrorist activities.

As Congress dug in its heels, human rights leaders who attended a White House meeting said that Obama told them he will try in his speech to "regain the initiative" on the detainee issue, which has emerged as one of his most troublesome inheritances.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the speech would cover "military commissions . . . photos, state secrets, transparency and protecting our national security." He said Obama will return to the two themes that have guided his decision making on detainees: the reclaiming of America's good name as a country that observes its own and international laws; and the protection of national security.

What Obama will not do, however, is provide a detailed outline of which of the remaining Guantanamo prisoners will be released or transferred to other countries and under what conditions, and which will be tried in U.S. civil courts or in Bush-era military commissions, which the administration announced last week it will revamp and reconvene. The issue is being discussed by an administration task force that is due to report in July.

"We share Congress's belief that before resources are given for a project, that they need and deserve a more detailed plan," Gibbs said. But he skirted questions about why the administration had asked for $80 million to close Guantanamo before it had a plan in place.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), who sponsored the amendment that blocked the funds, said it was "not a referendum on closing Guantanamo. Instead, it should serve as a reality check since, at this time, the administration has not yet forwarded a coherent plan for closing the prison."

Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), one of the six Democrats who voted to preserve the money, noted that numerous Republicans had supported the Guantanamo closure when it was announced, and he called claims that "this president -- or any president -- would be party to releasing dangerous people into the United States . . . absurd, offensive and baseless."

Led by the Justice Department, the administration task force has so far cleared 30 prisoners for release and expects more to be added to the list. But a refusal to accept any detainees in this country would probably frustrate U.S. efforts to persuade other nations to take any.

Obama yesterday invited to the White House leaders of about a dozen human and civil rights organizations as well as law professors. Administration participants in the 90-minute session included Holder, White House Counsel Gregory B. Craig and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Several participants discussed the meeting on the condition of anonymity. One said Obama argued that there was no trade-off between American values and national security, but that GOP demagoguery in Congress was dominating the issue. Another said Obama seemed irritated that some of those who attended the meeting had recently compared his policies to those of Bush.

Anthony D. Romero, head of the American Civil Liberties Union, who has used that comparison, declined to discuss what Obama said but in an interview after the meeting repeated the comparison.

"President Obama's decision to continue George Bush's policies essentially means that they become his own," Romero said. "And if he continues down this path, these policies will certainly become known in the history books as the Bush-Obama doctrine." Romero described the discussion as "freewheeling" and said Obama was "clearly deeply steeped in the issues. But he had little interest in revisiting his recent decisions."

Meanwhile, the Pentagon report on detainees, completed in December by the Defense Intelligence Agency and the subject of numerous Freedom of Information Act requests, found that 27 Guantanamo detainees released to other countries since 2002 had been confirmed as subsequently engaging in terrorist activities and another 47 are strongly suspected of doing so.

Release of the document, details of which were reported yesterday on the New York Times Web site, has been held up by fears at the Pentagon that it could further inflame the debate over closing the facility and upset the White House, according to a U.S. official who has followed the issue but who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk publicly about it.

The official said that there has been no White House pressure to suppress or delay its release but that some Pentagon officials, including Bush administration holdovers, were being overly cautious.

news.notes20090521f

[Today's Papers] from [Slate Magazine]

Is California Too Big To Fail?

By Daniel Politi
Posted Thursday, May 21, 2009, at 6:34 AM ET

The New York Times leads with word that a soon-to-be-released Pentagon report claims that 74 of the 534 prisoners who have already been released from Guantanamo "have returned to terrorism or militant activity." The Pentagon had promised in January that the report would be released soon but administration officials say Defense Department employees are holding it up, fearful that it could be seen as an attempt to undermine the White House efforts to close the detention center. The Washington Post leads with, and the Los Angeles Times fronts, a preview of the speech President Obama will give this morning at the National Archives, where he will attempt to answer critics of his plan to close Guantanamo. Obama will emphasize that it's in the nation's security interests to close the prison while also raising the issue that it might be necessary to hold some of the detainees indefinitely without trial.

The Wall Street Journal leads its world-wide newsbox with, and the NYT fronts, the arrest of four men in New York late last night who were apparently planning to bomb a synagogue and a Jewish community center in the Bronx (the NYT says they're both synagogues) and attack military planes at a New York National Guard air base with Stinger missiles. Investigators had been following the men for almost a year with the help of an informant, who helped them get dummy weapons. The men were arrested after planting what they thought were bombs outside the Riverdale Temple and the Riverdale Jewish Center. At least three of the men are U.S. citizens, and they are all Muslim. USA Today leads with claims by the Army's vice chief of staff that commanders often fail to punish or seek treatment for soldiers who test positive for drug use, maybe because "commanders feel a requirement to keep their numbers up," he said. Gen. Peter Chiarelli said that dealing with cases of drug abuse could help the army decrease the number of suicides, which reached a record 142 confirmed or suspected cases last year. As could be expected, the LAT goes all-out with the fallout from the overwhelming defeat of almost all the ballot measures in California's special election that were supposed to help the state deal with its massive budget deficit. In short: California is in deep, deep trouble as leaders are busy preparing for "brutal" budget cuts.

The revelation that around one in seven of the prisoners released from Guantanamo have resumed terrorist-related activities will undoubtedly give fodder to those opposed to President Obama's plan to close down the prison in January. But previous claims of recidivism among Guantanamo detainees have been met with skepticism from civil liberties groups who have said the Pentagon provides such few details that it's impossible to verify their claims. This latest report appears to be no exception, even though it identifies 29 by name, 16 of which are named for the first time. Of the 29 former detainees identified by name, only a few "can be independently verified as having engaged in terrorism since their release," notes the NYT. The other 45 aren't named, apparently out of national security concerns. Even if the figures are accurate, terrorism experts say some recidivism is to be expected and a rate of 14 percent is far lower than the rate for prisoners in the United States. "We've never said there weren't some people who would return to the fight," a professor who has represented Guantanamo detainees said. "It seems to be unavoidable."

On the same day as the Senate overwhelmingly voted against giving the White House funds to close down Guantanamo, the Justice Department decided to send the first Guantanamo prisoner to the United States to stand trial in a criminal court. Meanwhile, lawmakers who are insisting that Guantanamo detainees shouldn't be held in the United States got some help from FBI Director Robert Mueller III, who told Congress there were real risks to housing the detainees in U.S. prisons. In a meeting with human rights leaders at the White House, Obama said that he hopes to "regain the initiative" on the Guantanamo issue with today's speech.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the Obama administration wouldn't go forward with its threat to repeal $6.8 billion in federal stimulus cash. But that was the only bit of a good news in a gloomy day where "the most certain thing was the dark and angry mood of the voters" that overwhelmingly rejected a package of measures designed to bring in more money to the state. Schwarzenegger said the election results were a sign that voters were ready to support the deep cuts that he had previously outlined. "There was a sense that the warnings this time, unlike some earlier ones, were real," notes the LAT. In a front-page piece, the NYT points out that as California's troubles continue to grow there are increased calls for a constitutional convention to change the way the state does business, particularly in its reliance on ballot initiatives.

In a front-page column, the LAT's Michael Hiltzik eviscerates Schwarzenegger for failing to take advantage of his huge level of support when he first came into office "to tell the voters the harsh but necessary truths about California governance and force real reforms down their throats." But he chose to spew "the same lies about state government and proposed the same nostrums as many of his predecessors." Now, there's nowhere to run.

Well, there actually might be somewhere else to turn for help: the federal government. After bailing out numerous financial institutions and car companies, California leaders say it's time for a bailout of their own. And they're warning that unless the Obama administration comes through, the state could start running out of money in July and won't be able to pay its bills, which could have a negative effect on an already devastated economy. "A fiscal meltdown by California," the state treasurer wrote in an appeal to the Treasury Department, "would surely destabilize the U.S., if not worldwide, financial markets." Experts say this kind of federal assistance to a state would be a first. Even if lawmakers manage to balance the budget through devastating cuts, the state would still need as much as $20 billion in short-term loans, but no private lender is likely to put up that kind of cash without a guarantee from the federal government that they would be paid back. "The state's view is, if they can bail out the auto industry, they can do this for us," one expert said.

While Californians wonder whether their state is too big to fail, the WSJ reports that the Treasury is getting ready to pump more than $7 billion into GMAC, as part of a new package that could eventually reach $14 billion. This latest infusion of cash could mean that in the next few months the government might own majority stakes in both GMAC and General Motors. This latest aid would be on top of the $5 billion GMAC already received in December and is designed to help the auto-financing company continue to provide loans for car purchases at GM and Chrysler. Meanwhile, banks continue their efforts to raise the capital that the government said they needed after conducting the stress tests. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said yesterday that the nation's big banks had already raised, or are planning to raise, $48 billion to fill the $75 billion capital shortfall that regulators found as the result of the stress tests.

The private capital being raised by banks is the latest example of how the financial system "is in a spring thaw," declares the WP, pointing out that this is happening despite the fact that many of the rescue programs launched by the Obama administration still haven't really taken off. Experts say current conditions have to do with a variety of actions, but the most important is that there's confidence that the government is aggressively taking action to tackle the myriad of problems that froze the financial system for so long. And that's exactly what the administration intended. The "markets look forward, and to some degree improve in anticipation of measures that are to come," one expert said.

The LAT, NYT, and WP front the 2,600-page report released in Dublin yesterday that concluded boys and girls were sexually, emotionally, and physically abused in orphanages and reform schools that were run by the Roman Catholic Church from the 1930s to 1990s. After a nine-year investigation, the report concluded that sexual abuse was "endemic" and the state and church turned a blind eye to the pervasive problems. Some of the report "sounds as if it comes from the records of a P.O.W. camp" as it lays out in detail the abuse suffered by the children, notes the NYT. Some of the schools essentially operated as sweatshops. Despite the comprehensive nature of the report, many are angry that it doesn't name any of the individuals accused of abuse, meaning that it's unlikely the document could ever be used to prosecute the perpetrators.

CONTINUED ON news.notes20090521g

news.notes20090521g

[Today's Papers] from [Slate Magazine]

Is California Too Big To Fail?

By Daniel Politi
Posted Thursday, May 21, 2009, at 6:34 AM ET

CONTINUED FROM news.notes20090521f

In the WP's op-ed page, former Democratic senator Bob Graham says it's time to stop obsessing over what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was or wasn't told seven years ago and start talking about the "the reform urgently needed in the relationship between the intelligence community, the executive branch and Congress." But those who take the CIA's word over Pelosi's about what was or wasn't said at the interrogation briefings don't understand how much the agency's record management system is in deep need of an overhaul. Graham apparently keeps "a detailed log" of his daily activities. "From my collection of spiral notebooks and my schedule for the dates in question, I confirmed, and the CIA concurred, that three of the four briefings I supposedly attended never occurred," writes Graham.

In the LAT's op-ed page, Bill Maher writes that California "is designed to be ungovernable because we govern by ballot initiative, and we only write two kinds of them: 'Spend money on things I like' and 'Don't raise my taxes.'" And while Californians thought that "making an action hero our leader" could solve their problems, the truth is that "even superheroes couldn't get us out of the mess we're in now." But before the schadenfreude takes over, remember that wanting everything for nothing "is a national condition, not just a California thing," writes Maher. "Like everything else, we just take what's real, exaggerate it, add some explosions and give it a giant pair of fake breasts."


[News & Politics] from [Double X, Slate's magazine for women]

Is It Normal to be Transgender?

Posted: May 20, 2009 at 6:11 PM
By Hanna Rosin

Judy Berman writes a great story today in Salon's Broadsheet about transgender activists fighting to remove "gender identity disorder" as a category in the DSM, the Bible of psychiatric diseases. The activists argue that they are making the same case gay activists made in the 1970s, when they fought successfully to get "homosexuality" removed as a mental illness. Only, as I wrote in a story earlier this year in the Atlantic, it's not quite so simple.

For adults, the activists' case seems fairly straightforward. Strong feelings of identification with the opposite gender recur throughout history and across cultures. Many transgendered adults suffer a lifetime of shame and heartache before they finally get a sex change. More social acceptance would do them a world of good.

The real controversy centers around children. Many children identify with the opposite gender at a very young age, sometimes as soon as they can speak. And a growing group of parents are taking their kids at their word, and letting them live as the other gender as early as kindergarten. I met many of these parents. They are in an impossible situation, and doing what they think is best for their kids. I started out totally sympathetic, until I began to look at the research, both sociological and biological. Existing studies—almost all done on boys—show that the great majority of boys who identify strongly as girls when they are young turn out to be gay men, not transgendered. Since I wrote the story, I've heard from many older gay men who swear that when they were little they insisted they were girls. Does this mean gender confusion should be pathologized? Probably not. But it does mean that gender identity might be like all other identities: fluid, confusing, and not meant for a tidy box, of any kind.

news.notes20090521h

[Today's News] from [The Guardian]

Pump £1.7bn surplus back into NHS, ministers urged
• Spend record sum on patient care, says RCN
• Extra money intended to cushion downturn

Owen Bowcott
The Guardian, Thursday 21 May 2009
Article history

Health service bosses were yesterday urged to pump more money into frontline services after it was revealed that the NHS has amassed a record cash surplus of £1.7bn. The underspend, confirmed by the Commons public accounts committee yesterday, represents a rapid turnaround in health finances: three years ago, the organisation recorded a £500m deficit.

The exceptional figures delivered under the current health secretary, Alan Johnson, are in contrast to the experience of his predecessor, Patricia Hewitt, who was slow handclapped at a nurses' conference during a debate about NHS debt.

Large reserves, however, constitute a different form of political embarrassment. "It's not the case that the bigger a surplus the better," said Edward Leigh, chairman of the PAC. "Patients lose out if too much NHS funding is sitting unspent in bank accounts.

"The needs here and now of patients in parts of the country for drugs and better quality care must not be forgotten. [The surplus is] almost twice the amount planned and over £1bn more than the surplus generated in the previous year."

Janet Davies, of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "A £1.7bn surplus is £1.7bn which must be spent on improving patient care and the government must make clear how it plans to use this money.

"While we are encouraged that the NHS is on a firm financial footing, it is absolutely vital that this surplus goes straight to frontline services."

The £1.7bn represents almost 2% of annual NHS expenditure, the PAC report says. The cash came from a number of sources, including a fall in the price of generic medicines and the underuse of contingency funds.

Savings were also made by changing the habit of trusts spending all of their budget at the end of each year "regardless of whether it [was] in the most appropriate fashion".

The NHS is forecasting that it will return a similar surplus in the year 2008-09. The Department of Health will return part of the unspent funds to the NHS at an annual rate of £400m for the next two years, providing cushioning for the economic downturn. The NHS is receiving above-average annual budget increases of 5.5% up to and including 2010–11.

Some trusts, the committee notes, spent cash in an "inappropriate manner" for fear of losing it. About £280m was given by primary care trusts to NHS foundations "where no service had been received [but] in anticipation of future services". Despite the overall surplus a small proportion of NHS trusts and organisations - a total of 11 - recorded deficits in the year 2007-08; most were in the south-east. Barking, Havering and Redbridge hospitals trust was worst with a £35m overspend.

One immediate threat looming over balance sheets is a change in accounting procedures which will add in £10.9bn of liabilities from the government's public finance initiatives.

"The Treasury has given a commitment that this will not adversely affect NHS funding in the period up to 31 March 2011," the PAC said. "There are, however, no guarantees beyond that point."

The King's Fund, which monitors NHS performance, said: "'Delivering a £1.7bn underspend in a £100bn service is not ideal but we should remember that only three or four years ago the NHS was overspending and in serious financial trouble.

"The finances of the health service are now in much better shape and this will be crucial, given the NHS will have to prepare at best for very low or zero growth in funding from 2011 onwards."

Another report today claimed that NHS hospitals are subsidising treatment for private patients because they fail to charge the full costs of care.

The study compared what NHS hospitals charge patients for treatment with hospitals' own breakdown of what it costs them to provide the treatment.

Thirty per cent of patients were charged less than the hospital said their treatment cost, according to a survey by the Health Service Journal.

The subsidy is equivalent to £99 for each private patient and approximately £1.7m if replicated across all acute trusts.

The NHS chief executive, David Nicholson, yesterday said the organisation would have to prepare for leaner times in the future.

The organisation is expected to deliver efficiency savings in the order of £15bn over the three years after 2011.

news.notes20090521i

[News From Space and Beyond] from [ABCNEWS]

How to Land a Space Shuttle
Exclusive: Flying Lessons From Atlantis' Hubble Mission Astronauts

By NED POTTER
Johnson Space Center, Houston, May 21, 2009

I didn't crash. I am still, to this day, not sure how, but -- honest -- I made a safe landing.

It was a year before Atlantis' flight. The scene: NASA's so-called motion-base simulator for space shuttle crews at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. In the front-left seat rehearsing liftoffs and touchdowns, was Scott Altman, the commander of this month's mission to rescue the Hubble Space Telescope. In the front-right seat was a rank amateur: me.

The simulator -- a mockup of the shuttle cockpit mounted on stilts so that it moves and shakes like the real ship -- tilted upward so that we lay on our backs.

There was no countdown. Instead,

Altman talked me through a make-believe launch.

"There's the engines coming up right there," he said, and...

"Boom! Off the pad, 102, 102, auto, tower clear."

Outside the cockpit windows were projection screens showing a rudimentary view of the Florida coast from an astronaut's-eye view.

'Houston, Atlantis...'

The windows are surprisingly small. The graphics remind one of a 1990s video game; they've never been updated because the astronauts don't need more.

"At eight seconds, we see the shuttle roll," said Altman, keeping up the narrative for my benefit. "I move this switch to LVLH. My pilot would do the same, and I call, 'Houston, Atlantis, roll program.'"

Most of the communications during launch are not in conventional English, and maybe that relieves some pressure.

It masks some high drama at high altitude. Altman and his six crewmates have spent the last two weeks repairing the Hubble Space Telescope, whose gyroscopes, batteries and cameras were gradually failing in the extremes of space.

They now say they believe they have given the telescope another 5-10 years of useful life.

One milestone remains: landing safely. The astronauts are scheduled to make their first attempt on Friday morning, though the weather forecast at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is iffy at best.

ABC News was given extraordinary access to the astronauts over a period of more than a year as they prepared to fly. They showed us how they train, invited us to their homes, and talked about the importance to them of the Hubble rescue.

"Every time we get a new discovery with Hubble, it is something that is mind-bending," said John Grunsfeld, one of the four space walkers on Atlantis' crew. "You just go, 'Wow!'"

How to Fly a Space Shuttle

Grunsfeld went on three space walks with fellow astronaut Drew Feustel. Mike Massimino and Mike Good did two others. Megan McArthur helped them with the shuttle's robot arm. Greg Johnson was Altman's co-pilot.

They're a jocular bunch. Everyone has a nickname -- Scott Altman is "Scooter," Massimino becomes "Mass," and Mike Good takes on the Spanish "Bueno."

Massimino, a native New Yorker who lobbied to get biscotti on the ship's menu, showed us a notebook he kept during training for his previous flight -- complete with a photo of the Hubble in orbit.

"I figured the least I could do was make sure I was at the right satellite," he said.

But then they stop laughing. Fixing a $6 billion telescope in bulky space suits is a little like doing brain surgery in hockey gloves.

Engineers on the ground will not be sure until several months of checkout are finished, but the repairs appear to have gone smoothly. Some of the spacewalks were exhausting -- a couple ran as long as eight hours -- but the astronauts left no job unfinished.

Pilot Lessons

Scott Altman was set to give me a second simulator ride; there had been some minor glitches the first time around.

"Hey, make him let you land it!" called Massimino as we went off to do it.

Back at the controls, Altman gave me small jobs to do; he pointed me to a keypad on the control panel where I pressed OPS 51 PRO without being quite sure why (it's a command to the shuttle's computers to load just-in-case software if a launch is aborted).

Suddenly, we were 50,000 feet over that video-game rendition of Florida, coming in for a landing.

"Push those two buttons that are marked CSS," said Altman, "which is Control Stick Steering. And now you are responsible for flying."

At first it didn't look very hard. You look at a simple display projected in the window in front of you. A tiny green circle represents the shuttle as seen from behind, and all you have to do is move the controls to keep the circle inside a small green square, which shows where you're going.

The simulator operators were clearly going easier on me than they would on Altman. The weather was clear and the winds were calm. Altman said he's done a thousand simulator runs, and by tradition, only the last one before launch is done with no made-up malfunctions.

Hard Landing

The shuttle doesn't fly home, it glides -- or rather, it falls gracefully. Landing is hard, after all.

"Push the nose over a little bit," said Altman as I peered out the window. "Start the nose up, keep it coming up. ..."

We were plummeting. At the last minute -- Altman later insisted he wasn't helping, but I suspect he was being diplomatic -- the shuttle's nose came up and we came soaring over the imaginary runway, 60 feet up.

"Pull the nose up just a little bit ... good check -- we touched down, bounced a little bit."

Bounced? There are brake pedals beneath each pilot's feet. I couldn't find them. Altman took over.

"Looks like we're going to stop -- right at the end of the runway," said Altman.

And we did. But the shuttle runway is three miles long, and I stopped with 50 feet to spare.

"I don't believe I didn't total this thing," I said.

"You did a nice job," said Altman.

Then he added, more candidly, "Mission Control would have been just a little excited watching us."

"I'm going to let you command the next mission," I said. And he laughed.