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This page features brief excerpts of news stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Highlights
Breaking News
This page features brief excerpts of news stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used. Because most of our readers read the NYT we usually do not include the paper's stories in HIGHLIGHTS.
Name of source: Lawrence Journal-World
SOURCE: Lawrence Journal-World (11-25-05)
Most historical accounts, however, say the flu originated in Kansas, at Fort Riley’s Camp Funston. The first reports of soldiers getting sick occurred in March. Historians also think American soldiers sent to Europe were the main carriers of the disease to that continent.
According to the 2004 book “The Great Influenza” by John M. Barry, the origin of the flu may have been January or February in Haskell County in southwest Kansas. It then spread to Camp Funston.
Name of source: Newsday
SOURCE: Newsday (11-25-05)
"This is the last chance. Nature is reclaiming the site; much of it looks like a jungle. If we don't do anything now, we won't be able to save it," said Meyer, adding that many tombs already were almost beyond repair.
As a result, Berlin's Jewish community is looking to the German government for its rescue. And, Meyer plans to propose that Weissensee be put forward as a candidate for UNESCO's list of world heritage sites, a move that virtually would guarantee future funding by the German government.
The city of Berlin has said it is too broke to pay for the restoration. But Mayor Klaus Wowereit said he would support Meyer's appeal for federal funds and for UNESCO recognition.
"This is not just a problem for the Jewish community," Meyer said. "It's a problem for Germany as a whole. The graveyard reflects a history of Jewish life in Germany that no longer exists."
Historians agree that the site, opened in 1880, is a national treasure because the musicians, scientists, poets and business people buried there show how integrated and important Jews were in German society before the Nazis wiped them out.
There were more than 173,000 Jews living in Berlin in the early 1930s before Hitler came to power. By 1941, 100,000 had managed to flee; most of the rest were deported and murdered in the Holocaust. Just over 1,000 managed to survive underground in Berlin, and 12,000 live in Berlin today.
Name of source: Guardian
SOURCE: Guardian (11-25-05)
The police chief in what was then a small town of 7,000 was a young Zagreb-trained lawyer called Milivoj Asner. Now 92 and living in the southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt, Mr Asner both denies and indirectly confirms his role in the pogroms. "I was just the town police chief, dealing with traffic offences, petty crime, thievery," he told the Guardian. "I did not hate Jews as such. I have many Jewish friends."
But for Efraim Zuroff, the Israeli-American Nazi-hunter who has inherited the mission of the late Simon Wiesenthal, the Asner case is at the centre of his Operation Last Chance - his campaign, mainly in eastern and southern post-communist Europe, to bring ageing war crimes suspects to justice before they die. "As Simon would say," said Mr Zuroff, "he who ignores the murderers of the past paves the way for the murderers of the future. But it's very difficult in eastern Europe for these post-communist societies to face up to their complicity in genocide."
Name of source: USA Today
SOURCE: USA Today (11-24-05)
Since 1950, five of the eight other presidents who fell below 40% — Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush — lost their bids for re-election or opted not to run again. A sixth, Richard Nixon, was overwhelmed by the Watergate scandal and resigned.
Only two, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, turned things around. Both saw their approval ratings drop below 40% early in their presidencies, but each had time to recover and got elected to a second term.
The current President Bush's trouble arrived in his second term. Battered by high gasoline prices, declining public support for the Iraq war and lingering anger over the federal government's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, Bush saw his approval ratings slide to 39% in an Oct. 13-16 USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll, before climbing back to 40%-42% in four ensuing polls. In the most recent poll, taken Nov. 11-13, Bush's approval rating fell to 37%, the lowest the poll has recorded in his presidency.
Though he no longer has to think about re-election, Bush still has three years left in his presidency — time in which he'll work to improve the U.S. position in Iraq, hold the Republican majority in Congress in 2006, restart a stalled legislative agenda and try to build a legacy. Slumping approval ratings will make all of those tougher. Even as he sought the comfort of his Texas ranch for Thanksgiving this week, Iraq war protesters on nearby roads were a reminder of his troubles.
SOURCE: USA Today ()
The ornery ape with a thing for shrieking blondes hasn't looked this good since stop-motion master Willis O'Brien's groundbreaking creature first roared into theaters 72 years ago.
"This is unequivocally the most important film yet to be released on DVD," says George Feltenstein, the Warner Bros. senior VP and film historian who has overseen the disc transfers of such titles as Citizen Kane, Casablanca and Singin' in the Rain. "It's the No. 1 movie we are asked about."
Name of source: Yahoo News
SOURCE: Yahoo News (11-24-05)
"What we call it, is Unthanksgiving," Bear Lincoln of the Wailikie Tribe told AFP as he waved burning sage to purify the area and ward off evil spirits.
Traditional Thanksgiving feasting in the United States is a tribute to the meal the original European Pilgrims shared with the Native Americans who helped them survive in the new land. But it is not a day of celebration for the Wailkikie tribe.
"It was the saddest day for us. It was a big mistake for us to help the Pilgrims survive that first winter. They betrayed us once they got their strength."
"They have been terrorists since they landed on the East Coast in 1492, and they they are still doing it today in Iraq and other countries," Lincoln said of the pilgrims and their legacy.
"We are reminding them we are still here, and still surviving," Lincoln, 51, added.
Name of source: New Republic
SOURCE: New Republic (11-23-05)
Five years later, Bush is advocating an expansive American role in spreading freedom and democracy around the world; but much of the country and even segments of the foreign policy elite have reverted to the more constricted views that Bush promoted during the 2000 campaign. That's the provocative finding of an extensive poll of Americans' foreign policy views conducted in October by the Pew Research Center and released last week.
In the '20s and '30s, isolationism prevailed both among foreign policy elites and the general public. From 1940 to the end of the Cold War, liberal internationalism was favored by elites and, to a great extent, the general public. But since the '90s, there has been a clash among all four views. After September 11, liberal internationalism and neoconservatism enjoyed a resurgence, but as the Pew poll shows, isolationism has made a vigorous comeback, especially among the general public.
Since 1964, polls--first Gallup, then Pew--have been asking Americans whether the"United States should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own." An affirmative answer is a good indication of isolationist sentiment and hostility to both liberal internationalism and neoconservatism. In 1964, for instance, Gallup found only 18 percent of Americans agreed, while 70 percent disagreed, with this statement. The number began to rise soon afterwards; by June 1995, with the end of Cold War and the Republican capture of Congress, it had risen to 41 percent.
In September 2001, as Americans learned the hard way of our connection to the rest of the world, the number fell to 30 percent. Americans once more saw themselves as having global responsibilities. But according to the current Pew poll, it has now risen to an all-time high of 42 percent. That represents a sharp shift, and according to the Pew numbers, most of it took place in the last year, as Americans have become thoroughly disillusioned with the Iraq war.
Name of source: BBC
SOURCE: BBC (11-25-05)
The institute investigates war crimes in the Communist era. The archive reveals details about the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981.
SOURCE: BBC (11-25-05)
Mr Irving's lawyer has said the historian now no longer denies that gas chambers existed in Nazi death camps.
Mr Irving can appeal against the charges under Austrian law. No trial date has been set yet. He could face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty.
A court in Vienna ruled on Friday that Mr Irving must stay in custody as there was a risk he could abscond.
His lawyer Elmar Kresbach had offered to post bail.
Name of source: AP
SOURCE: AP (11-25-05)
The plaza-style memorial across the street from the National Mall would honor Eisenhower's legacy of public service, joining the collection of nearby monuments to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
"It was his total approach to domestic and international politics that set him apart," said Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Carl Reddel, executive director of the Eisenhower Memorial Commission. "He's a much more profound figure than many realized."
The memorial site, selected earlier this year, was approved this month by the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission. If it passes muster with two other advisory groups, the commission will formally recommend it to Congress next year.
Completion of the memorial itself remains at least five or six years away, Reddel said. There is no design yet, although planners envision both a physical structure and a "living element" that would offer programs explaining the president's role in history.
SOURCE: AP (11-20-05)
In a viral sense, the sky has fallen three times in the last century - in 1918, 1957 and 1968 - when "super-flu" strains killed millions more people than annual flu epidemics.
Back then, there weren't surveillance systems or modern genetic tools to detect and document viruses as they evolved into killer strains. Because scientists don't know how that evolution happened or how long it took, they can't tell us whether what we are seeing with bird flu now is the beginnings of a pandemic or a near miss.
"My crystal ball doesn't allow me to answer that," said Dr. Frederick Hayden, a flu expert at the University of Virginia.
Leading scientists discount the notion that flu pandemics happen in regular intervals, and that the world is overdue for a new one.
They don't even agree on how bad it is that bird flu has spread to more types of birds. Instead of an appetite for people, the germ is showing a growing fondness for birds, some say.
They do agree on the need to make vaccine, stockpile drugs and be prepared.
"We have to run scared" and be glad if precautions prove unneeded, said Dr. Edwin Kilbourne, a microbiologist and flu-virus expert at Cornell University.
Name of source: Guardian (UK)
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (11-25-05)
Prosecutors this week charged Irving, 67, under an Austrian law that makes denying the Holocaust a crime. The charges stem from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he allegedly denied the existence of the chambers. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Irving's attorney, Elmar Kresbach, said Thursday the historian has told him he now believes that Nazi gas chambers existed.
``He changed some of the views he is so famous for,'' Kresbach told The Associated Press. ``He told me: 'Look, there was a certain period when I drew conclusions from individual sources which are maybe provocative or could be misinterpreted or could be even wrong.'''
He said additional research Irving carried out after Soviet archives were opened to scholars persuaded him that his former beliefs were ``not really worthwhile to hold up,'' Kresbach said.
Irving's new position was met with skepticism from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which works to track down former Nazis before they die.
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (11-21-05)
When thousands of antiquities were looted from Baghdad's Iraq museum, US marine Matthew Bogdanos pledged to get them back. After two years of sleuthing, he has become a national hero.
By a peculiar turn of fate, she had stumbled on the one person in the whole of modern Mesopotamia who both cared deeply about the cultural calamity at Baghdad's Iraq museum and possessed the expertise, determination and clout to do something about it. His name was Matthew Bogdanos - a Greek-American classics scholar and a New York prosecutor, whose toughness and tenacity had earned him the nickname "pit bull" even before he went off to fight the "war on terror".
Colonel Bogdanos cannot remember the name of the reporter who vented her frustration at him, but she appears to have set off an extraordinary train of events. Five days after the encounter, he had overcome the objections of his superior officers and was at the gates of the Baghdad museum, heading a mixed bag of volunteer soldiers and investigators, ready to hunt down Iraq's lost legacy.
What followed over the next two years was an epic feat of wartime sleuthing which took Bogdanos along a trail from pitch-black underground chambers and submerged bank vaults in Baghdad to the sleek antiquity dealerships of Madison Avenue, in pursuit of lost treasures with Harry Potterish names, such as the Sacred Vase of Warka. Along the way, more than 5,000 artworks, including unique pieces from the first fluttering of civilisation, were recovered. Bogdanos left active duty in the marines last month, but he is still on the hunt for the thousands of objects still unaccounted for. When he returns to the Manhattan district attorney's office, where he worked before the September 11 attacks, he has permission, he says, to set up a new arts and antiquities unit.
Name of source: NYT
SOURCE: NYT (11-25-05)
James's biographer, Leon Edel, explained his vituperativeness toward New York - so out of character for this master of evasion and indirection - as a reflection of James's dismay at the vast changes he found in the Edenic city of his childhood. But for Colm Toibin, author of "The Master," the acclaimed biographical novel about James published last year, James's anger at the city has another meaning. It reflects his sexual ambivalence, and perhaps offers a clue to the nature of "the obscure hurt" that James claimed he suffered in his youth, which kept him out of the Civil War, but may also have paralyzed him emotionally.
The New York of his boyhood was, James wrote, "an earlier, quieter world, a New York of better manners and better morals and homelier beliefs," a place where he and his brother William could wander free "to stretch our legs and fill our lungs without prejudice."
But then in 1855, when Henry was 12, his father uprooted the family, first to Switzerland, then to Paris, London, Newport, then back again to Europe. For Henry it was a time of dismal upheaval. In a telephone interview from Dublin, Mr. Toibin called it "a very serious psychological break."
Mr. Toibin suggested that the uprooting occurred in a crucial year when James was going through puberty. "Before the move, there was the uncomplicated business of being a child," he said.
And after?
Mr. Toibin does not define James as homosexual. His sexuality was complex. "We can say with certainty he was not heterosexual," he said. But the uprooting "caused an area of him to freeze."
SOURCE: NYT (11-25-05)
Mr. Karabel writes that until the 1920's, Harvard, Yale and Princeton, "like the most prestigious universities of other nations," admitted students "almost entirely on the basis of academic criteria." Applicants "were required to take an examination, and those who passed were admitted." Though the exams exhibited a distinct class bias (Latin and Greek, after all, were not taught at most public schools), he says that "the system was meritocratic in an elemental way: if you met the academic requirements, you were admitted, regardless of social background."
This all changed after World War I, he argues, as it became "clear that a system of selection focused solely on scholastic performance would lead to the admission of increasing numbers of Jewish students, most of them of eastern European background."
SOURCE: NYT (1-25-05)
The recently declassified papers, from the first days of the Nixon presidency in 1969 until the end of 1974, show that Nixon wanted an alternative to the option of full-scale nuclear war - a plan for a gentler war, one that could ultimately vanquish the Soviet Union while avoiding the worst-case situation.
The papers provided a glimpse behind the scenes at efforts to find choices other than "the horror option," as the national security adviser, Henry A. Kissinger, called the worst-case scripts for all-out nuclear war that were then in place.
Qualms about causing so much death were hardly the only motivation. American officials worried that their nuclear threat lacked credibility because it was so awful that adversaries questioned whether the United States would ever use it.
In a 1969 diary entry, Nixon's chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, recalled the president's taking part in an exercise that day aboard the Boeing 707 outfitted to conduct nuclear warfare from the air.
"It was pretty scary," Mr. Haldeman wrote. The president asked many questions about "kill results," he wrote, adding about his boss: "Obviously worries about the lightly tossed-about millions of deaths."
SOURCE: NYT (11-24-05)
Officials said the compromise, still being worked out and requiring approval from the Met's board and the Italian government, could resolve Italy's longstanding claims to some of the Met's most prized antiquities, which include a 15-piece Hellenistic silver set and an urn from the sixth century B.C. decorated by the Greek painter Euphronios.
But in an interview, Philippe de Montebello, the Met's director, underscored that Italy would have to provide "incontrovertible evidence" to the museum that the works it claims were illegally excavated in Italy. "If we are convinced by the evidence, we will take appropriate action," he said.
SOURCE: NYT (11-23-05)
Nearly surrounded by pricey subdivisions, the cinderblock Yates Grocery and Farm Supply sells neither anymore. As if things weren't bad enough, style maven Martha Stewart has chosen this Raleigh suburb to build a signature neighborhood of houses designed after her homes in Maine and New York.
Holding court near a potbellied stove, the 69-year-old man in the suspenders and NASCAR shirt laments that his old customers have been replaced by fast-talking, SUV-driving Northerners who don't seem to be able to read a STOP sign.
''It's all gone,'' Yates, pausing for another spit of tobacco juice, says of the Southern town of his youth. ''Everything is completely different from what it used to be.''
Things are indeed changing in the South. And so is the notion of what it means to be ''Southern.''
In this most maligned and mused-upon of American regions, the term conjures a variety of images. Magnolias, front porch swings and sweet tea for some; football, stock cars and fried chicken for others; lynchings, burning crosses and civil rights marches for still others.
We've had the Solid South, the Old South and the New South.
But are we heading toward a ''No South''?
SOURCE: NYT ()
"Christmas Truce" of World War I.
Born June 25, 1896, he was an 18-year-old soldier in the Black Watch regiment when British and German troops cautiously emerged from the trenches that Christmas Day in 1914. The enemies swapped cigarettes and tunic buttons, sang carols and even played soccer amid the mud, barbed wire and shell holes of no man's land.
The informal truce spread along much of the 500-mile Western Front, in some cases lasting for days - alarming army commanders who feared fraternization would sap the troops' will to fight. The next year vast battles of attrition began, which claimed 10 million lives, and the Christmas truce was never repeated.
More than 80 years after the war, Mr. Anderson recalled the "eerie sound of silence" as shooting stopped and soldiers clambered from trenches to greet one another Dec. 25, 1914.
SOURCE: NYT (11-20-05)
On the night of Aug. 22, 1991, several construction cranes and a crowd of about 50,000 determined people gathered in central Moscow to seal that promise of something better than Soviet misery. In front of the sinister K.G.B. building, workers rocked, cracked and then toppled the formidable statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the father of the secret police, the founder of the gulag, the man whose people tortured and killed millions to create Lenin's dream state. It was not broken into pieces by protesters but relegated instead to an undistinguished patch of land behind the New Tretyakov Gallery.
Earlier this month, with little fanfare but plenty of dreary symbolism, Mr. Dzerzhinsky was returned to a position of honor in central Moscow. It is not the same statue, and it is not on the same plinth, in the center of a major traffic circle near the place where the K.G.B. tortured its many victims.
Instead, Iron Feliks is a few blocks away at the Interior Ministry, his bronze bust back on a pedestal in the new Russian society. This is the man who in 1917 founded the Cheka, the Extraordinary Commission, which terrorized the nation with the arrests and brutal executions that became known as the Red Terror. This invention was the precursor of the secret police and spy network, the K.G.B., that stood as a symbol of barbarism in the 20th century.
SOURCE: NYT ()
During his 15 years sitting in Newark as a member of a federal appeals court, Judge Alito has sided almost uniformly with those who have complained vigorously in recent years that zealousness in enforcing the Constitution's separation of church and state has unfairly inhibited religious practices.
Name of source: Agence France Presse (Summary by HNN intern Normand Forgues-Roy)
SOURCE: Agence France Presse (Summary by HNN intern Normand Forgues-Roy) (11-23-05)
The two men--John William Rooney and his friend, Marshall Lawrence Pierce--are suspected of stealing many documents between 1974 and 1988. The loss of the papers became known when the archives curator discovered they were put on sale at Sotheby’s. A quick search revealed the theft along with the others.
The two men, if they are convicted, could end in jail for up to three years. While many papers have been returned to France, others are still to be found.
PARIS, 24 nov 2005 (AFP) - Deux Américains qui avaient pillé les Archives nationales à Paris, y dérobant notamment un exemplaire du Traité de Fontainebleau (1814), ont été renvoyés mercredi devant le tribunal correctionnel de Paris, a-t-on appris jeudi de sources proches du dossier.
John William Rooney, 74 ans, historien, ancien professeur d'histoire et spécialiste de la Restauration française, et son ami Marshall Lawrence Pierce, 44 ans, sont renvoyés pour"recel de biens provenant d'un vol" conformément aux réquisitions du parquet. Le délit de"vol" est prescrit car les faits se sont déroulés entre 1974 et 1988.
L'affaire avait débuté en mai 1996 lorsque la conservatrice des Archives nationales à Paris avait repéré dans le catalogue d'une vente publique chez Sotheby's un exemplaire du traité de Fontainebleau, mis en vente par M. Pierce. Dans ce document du 11 avril 1814, Napoléon 1er renonçait à l'Empire, acceptant l'exil à l'île d'Elbe. Après une plainte contre X des autorités françaises, le FBI avait retiré de la vente le traité ainsi que des lettres de ratification qui l'accompagnaient.
Par la suite, les recherches aux Archives nationales de Paris ont démontré que nombre d'autres documents, qui se trouvaient dans des cartons consultés par M. Rooney, avaient disparu. Au total, plusieurs dizaines de documents ont disparu et la plupart n'ont jamais été retrouvés.
Le traité, qui a été conservé pendant plusieurs années dans les bureaux du FBI à New York, avait été restitué en grande pompe à l'ambassade des Etats-Unis en avril 2002 au juge français chargé de l'enquête Gérard Caddéo. Le procès pourrait se tenir dans le courant de l'année 2006 à Paris.
Name of source: BlackAmericaWeb.com
SOURCE: BlackAmericaWeb.com (11-22-05)
Only city leaders and two sculptors have been unable to satisfy the community's collective memory of what the civil rights leader looked like, even though King was among the most famous people of the 20th century.
"How you perceive a person, especially a person such as Dr. King, depends on at what point in time and at what era in his life and in what medium you actually met him - if you met him as a minister in a church, if you met him as an activist on the street, or if he was sitting in a restaurant or at your dinner table," city council member Lamont Wiggins said.
A city block-sized memorial park anchored by a sculpture of King was proposed several years ago in Rocky Mount. The city of 56,000 about an hour east of Raleigh has long prided itself on its association with King.
On Nov. 27, 1962, the civil rights leader addressed 2,000 people in the gym of Booker T. Washington High School, first using the now-famous words he rephrased the following August in his speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
"And so, my friends of Rocky Mount, I have a dream tonight," he said. "That one day, right here in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will meet at the table of brotherhood."
Name of source: Palm Beach Post
SOURCE: Palm Beach Post (11-24-05)
But when it comes to Thanksgiving, Florida historians have been saying the same thing for years: It happened first in the Sunshine State — with salt pork, sea biscuits and garbanzo beans.
In the 1560s, French and Spanish settlers arrived separately on Florida's northern coast, and each celebrated with prayer and a thanksgiving feast. The Spanish gathering at St. Augustine even featured guests from a local American Indian tribe.
"They were thanking God, they had food, they said prayers," said Paul George, a history professor at Miami-Dade College. "They were the first ones to essentially give us a recorded celebration."
It wasn't until 1621, more than 50 years later, that Pilgrims came to Plymouth, Mass., and held the feast that was later dubbed the first Thanksgiving.
But the Florida celebrations didn't become widely known until the second half of the 20th century, long after Abraham Lincoln's 1863 declaration that the last Thursday in November would be the national day of Thanksgiving.
Michael Gannon, a University of Florida professor, upset New Englanders in the 1980s when he started pointing out that a book he wrote decades earlier established that the first Thanksgiving took place in St. Augustine on Sept. 8. 1565.
They called him the Grinch who stole Thanksgiving.
But no one really disputed that Pedro Menendez de Aviles, a Spanish explorer, invited the Timucua Indians to dinner in St. Augustine in 1565 after a thanksgiving Mass celebrating the explorers' safe arrival.
Name of source: Is That Legal? (blog)
SOURCE: Is That Legal? (blog) (11-25-05)
Each of the articles is available online in full-text, and also in pdf format. You'll find lots of provocative reading if you're interested in the Japanese American internment of World War II and its relevance to current debates on antiterrorism policy and racial profiling.
Name of source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
SOURCE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (11-23-05)
"We talk about the principal of Congregational church government here as something that's so foundational to the way that Americans think about institutions today," said Peggy Bendroth, executive director of the American Congregational Association, which maintains the Congregational Library in Boston.
"And we want to be careful and not say that Congregationalism is the source of all American democracy, but I think it is really possible to say that it was in Congregational churches in New England where that principle of the consent of the governed took root," she added.
Jon Butler, a professor of religious studies and dean of the graduate school of arts and sciences at Yale University, differed.
"The origins of democracy in America are very complex, and they certainly don't depend on the Puritan tradition," said Butler, who acknowledged that some other historians would disagree. "Puritanism didn't care to recognize one of the core ideas of democracy, the importance of individualism. They were forever shunning people in their congregations, issuing judgments.... They were exclusive instead of inclusive."
Name of source: National Security Archive
SOURCE: National Security Archive (11-3-05)
Nixon and Kissinger sought alternatives to the massive Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) options which targeted up to 4000 nuclear weapons on Soviet military and industrial installations. During the 1960s, the SIOP had become a set of plans with five major preemptive and retaliatory options for massive nuclear strikes against the Soviet Union and other communist countries. The SIOP options were:
* a preemptive strike against Soviet bloc nuclear targets (the ALPHA task) only. In 1971, this strike required some 3200 bombs and missile warheads to destroy 1700 installations
* a preemptive strike against Soviet bloc nuclear (ALPHA task) and non-nuclear (BRAVO task) military targets; in 1971, this strike required some 3500 programmed weapons to destroy 2200 installations.
* a preemptive strike against bloc military (ALPHA and BRAVO) and war-supporting urban-industrial (CHARLIE task) targets; in 1971 this could have involved some 4200 programmed weapons targeting 6500 installations
* a retaliatory strike against bloc ALPHA, BRAVO, and CHARLIE target categories; in 1971 this required some 4000 programmed weapon targeting 6400 installations
* a retaliatory strike against bloc ALPHA and BRAVO military targets; in 1971, this option required 3200 programmed weapons to destroy 2100 installations.
The SIOP also included "withholds", e.g., attacks on command centers could be withheld to make it possible to communicate with authorities in the Soviet Union or China. Attacks on entire countries, e.g. China, Poland, or Romania, could also be withheld if they were not in the war or for other political or military reasons. Some 600 weapons were slated for a maximal China-only nuclear strike on military and industrial targets.
The massive SIOP attacks would have killed millions and Nixon and Kissinger were startled, even worried, by their scale when they first heard a SIOP briefing on January 27, 1969, only a week after the inauguration. Nixon's chief of staff later reported that the president "Obviously worries about the lightly tossed about millions of deaths." Concerned that threats of apocalyptic nuclear attacks lacked credibility, during the years that followed Kissinger sought plans for the limited use of strategic nuclear weapons. In this way, he wanted to avoid the "risk of our being paralyzed in a crisis because of the lack of plans short of an all-out SIOP response."
This electronic briefing book documents the Nixon White House's search for useable nuclear threats. Nixon issued an order to the bureaucracy in January 1974 calling for new war plans but elements of the national security bureaucracy were unenthusiastic doubting that nuclear weapons could be used in small numbers without touching off a conflagration. This briefing book also publishes for the first time Secretary of Defense's Nuclear Weapons Employment Policy (NUWEP) which provided guidance to war planners based on the new concepts of controlled escalation.
One of the studies in this briefing book includes data, as of 1971, on the nearly 13,000 U.S. nuclear weapons deployed overseas, with a breakdown of their regional locations (e.g., Europe, Pacific) and weapons types (see document 4, page 35).
SOURCE: National Security Archive ()
Today, twenty years after those seminal events, the National Security Archive is posting a series of newly declassified Soviet and U.S. documents which allow one to appreciate the depth and the speed of change occurring both inside the Soviet Union and in U.S.-Soviet relations in the pivotal year of 1985. Most of the documents are being published for the first time.
Major highlights include insights into Gorbachev's early thinking and his skillful use of his power of appointment to build a reform coalition and to achieve a breakthrough in foreign policy. The challenging road to Geneva is illustrated by the leaders' correspondence, which touched upon all the most difficult issues in U.S.-Soviet relations -- the arms control negotiations (especially the Strategic Defense Initiative), regional conflicts and humanitarian issues. The Geneva Summit itself became a tremendous learning and trust-building experience for both leaders, but also represented a missed opportunity in terms of their inability to move faster toward deep reductions of nuclear weapons, which were the highest priority for both Reagan and Gorbachev.
Name of source: David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
SOURCE: David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies (11-23-05)
The duo, known as "Prussian Blue," are 13 year-old twin sisters Lynx and Lamb Gaede, who wear Hitler t-shirts, deny the Holocaust, and frequently perform at neo-Nazi events. According to media reports, Teen People was planning to run a feature profile them in its February issue, but had promised to refrain from using the words "hate," "supremacist," and "Nazi" in the article. A web site preview of the article referred to the twins' beliefs only as "white pride." The upcoming article and the preview have been withdrawn, according to the magazine's publisher, Time Inc. (New York Post, Nov. 23, 2005)
But the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies has determined that Teen People is continuing to run another sanitized story about the Gaede twins on its web site--
See: http://www.teenpeople.com/teenpeople/article/0,22196,1130390,00.shtml
The Wyman Institute is urging Time Inc to withdraw this story.
Wyman Institute director Dr. Rafael Medoff said: "Time Inc. did the right thing by canceling the upcoming story whitewashing these neo-Nazi singers. But that wise decision is undermined by the continued presence on the Teen People web site of another article that fails to identify the Gaede sisters as racists and Holocaust-deniers. During the 1930s, too many in the news media failed to report accurately on the violent and racist nature of Adolf Hitler and his followers. We dare not repeat that tragic mistake."
Visitors to the "Teen People Plus" section of Teen People's web site still find a November 15, 2005 article about the twins which calls them only "white separatists" and fails to use the words "hate," "supremacist," or "Nazi." The article does not explain what it means by "white separatists," does not identify the girls as racists, and makes no mention of their admiration for Hitler or their denial of the Holocaust. It says they have "performed at separatist rallies all over the country," without explaining the racist and neo-Nazi nature of those rallies. A poll attached to the article asks readers only, "Do you think the girls are embracing this message because of their parents?" --without explaining what "this message" is.
Name of source: NY Daily News
SOURCE: NY Daily News (11-23-05)
A Web-based teaser for the February story originally called the hatemongering duo "aspiring musicians" and compared them to wide-eyed sensations Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
The only hint that 13-year-old Lynx and Lamb Gaede praise Hitler, call the Holocaust an "exaggeration" and count former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke among their fans was a watered-down description of their message as "white pride."
"The last thing we need is to celebrate hate in this country," said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, who helped lead a Monday demonstration outside the office of Teen People's parent company Time Warner. "I'm absolutely thrilled it's not running."
Time's initial response to the protest was the added mention of the girls' white separatist mom, National Vanguard member April Gaede, in the Web-based teaser.
Hours later, the company yanked the entire project.
Name of source: WSJ
SOURCE: WSJ (11-23-05)
To enforce the agreement, I sent 20,000 U.S. soldiers to Bosnia as part of a 60,000-troop NATO peacekeeping force, because it was the only way to ensure that the Dayton Agreement was more than words on a page. For three winters, the people of Sarajevo had inspired us all with their courage in the face of snipers, hunger and bitter cold. After the genocide of 1995, when more than 7,000 men were murdered in Srebrenica, it was clear that only NATO under America's leadership could ensure peace.
Still, a large majority of the American public opposed my decision. Some expected heavy casualties; some feared another round of war, with Bosnia split in two and the need for our troops never-ending. On the day before the Dayton Agreement was to take effect, the House of Representatives voted three-to-one against an American troop deployment to Bosnia. Despite this opposition, I felt the United States had to act in order to stop the atrocities and try to bring peace and stability to the region.
Ten years later, the people of Bosnia have validated those who stood with them. Dayton ended the war. It will not resume. The region is now stable and peaceful, and the brutal killings are only a memory, albeit a painful one for the many families who lost loved ones. In 10 years there have been no American or NATO casualties from hostile action and troop levels are now down to 7,000 overall, of which fewer than 200 are American.
Bosnia is one country. It does have two distinct entities, one Serb and one a Croat-Muslim Federation, but movement is unimpeded across the boundary line and there are no troops or roadblocks on that line. The country has a single currency and a single economy. Bosnia had more than 400,000 people under arms in 1995; today it has fewer than 10,000. Just under half the displaced people have returned, many of them to areas where they constitute a minority. Almost no one dared to predict these successes a decade ago.
To be sure, Dayton was not a perfect peace. It is hard to imagine such a thing. But it achieved vital national security interests. It ended the worst war in Europe in half a century, which threatened the peaceful integration of Europe after the Cold War. It, and subsequent events in Kosovo, laid the basis for a multiethnic state, which has lived in peace for a decade with its neighbors. It triggered the events that led to the dictator Slobodan Milosevic's removal and trial at The Hague for war crimes....
Name of source: Chronicle of Higher Education
SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education ()
The scholars had varying levels of optimism about the near-term prospects for democracy in the region. But all agreed that political scientists and popular writers tend to lean too heavily on religious and cultural explanations for the persistence of tyranny in Arab countries and in the broader Islamic world.
The tenets and institutions of Islam are not necessarily a serious barrier to democracy, said Feriha Perekli, a graduate student in Middle Eastern studies and linguistics at Indiana University at Bloomington. The Islamic tradition of consultative governance is theoretically compatible with modern democratic institutions, she said.
It is more useful, Ms. Perekli said, to look not at religion but at the institutional structures of Arab countries. Borrowing a model developed by Richard Snyder, an associate professor of political science at Brown University, Ms. Perekli argued that most Arab nations today lack the structural conditions that typically foreshadow the emergence of democracy.
First, she said, in most Middle Eastern countries the military is tightly bound to the state. In countries such as Saudi Arabia and Jordan, she said, the top military officials are typically close relatives of the monarchs.
Second, the countries' domestic elites are not highly alienated. Most Middle Eastern regimes, she said, have effectively co-opted their countries' economic elites and have permitted just enough freedom in civil society to provide a safety valve for elite discontent.
Finally, there is no coherent opposition with mass popular support. The divisions between secular and Islamist reform movements, Ms. Perekli said, have prevented the emergence of such a coherent opposition.
Until those three structural conditions change, Ms. Perekli argued, there is not likely to be a successful democratic upheaval. "This is not an optimistic picture," she said.
SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education (11-23-05)
Started in 1995 as part of the A&E Television network, the History Channel has become a cable-television staple. Mr. Mattson describes the channel as "the leading institution that popularizes history in the United States."
But to make history popular, Mr. Mattson says, the History Channel emphasizes scandals and conspiracy theories instead of historical debates and modern relevance. A History Channel memorandum about selecting commentators for shows reveals that the network prefers insights from attractive experts over respected ones, he explains.
"Entertainment over veracity, good looks over good history -- such are the operational principles of historical explanation in an age of entertainment," Mr. Mattson writes.
History becomes bizarre on the History Channel, he says. Without the omniscient narrator's endorsement or judgment, conspiracies and ghost stories share equal time with legitimate theories and real history.
Technology shows like Modern Marvels seem more like infomercials than analysis of technology's effect on society. An episode on air-conditioning, for example, features sound bites from public-relations executives at air-conditioning companies. The actor Tim Allen, promoting his new line of home-improvement equipment, appears on a show about power tools.
Mr. Mattson detects a larger trend in the History Channel's use of facts and trivia. The channel packages history in "bite-sized morsels for a bored and jaded audience," he writes, and in many ways, it's "no different from CNN."
Name of source: AKI
SOURCE: AKI (11-23-05)
The Iraqi newspaper al-Zaman reports that the artefacts, which date back to the era of the Sumerian civilisation around 4,000 years ago, were stolen by civilians, who returned them on Tuesday after hearing appeals from the Iraqi authorities and fatwas (religious edicts) issued by Shiite Imams calling on people to protect the country's archaeological assets.
Name of source: MLB.com
SOURCE: MLB.com ()
The 39 candidates were the finalists that a five-member screening committee presented to Hall of Fame officials last July after reviewing a five-year study into the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro League baseball.
"Holding the election is extremely important," said Jeff Idelson, vice president of communication and education at the Hall of Fame. "It verifies the research that has been completed over the last five years.
"The myth about how good Negro League players were can now be factually supported from the research."
In 2001, the screening committee, which former Commissioner Fay Vincent served on as a non-voting chair, took a mandate from the Hall of Fame, sifted through Hall-backed research done on black baseball from 1860 to 1960, discussed the data and came up with its candidates for possible induction.
The initial research, which has drew praise for its depth and scope, got a jump start in 2000 with a $250,000 grant from Major League Baseball, said Dale Petroskey, president of the Hall of Fame.
"It's right in our strike zone; baseball history is what we do at the Baseball Hall of Fame," Petroskey said. "We thought there was a real need to know more about the Negro Leagues and the pre-Negro Leagues.
"And once and for all, we have statistics to judge players on."
With the money, the Hall of Fame assembled a 50-person research team in February 2001 that put black baseball under a microscope. The study, which will be published in the next year to 18 months, went to Vincent's screening committee earlier this year, and the committee came up with the finalists.
On its list are more than a handful of players whom Negro League historians have long argued should have been in Cooperstown when the first wave of black players was inducted.
Name of source: Toqueville Connection
SOURCE: Toqueville Connection ()
After four times delaying a vote on Bruno Gollnisch, number two in France's extreme right National Front, the parliament's legal affairs committee voted overwhelmingly not to give him protection as a member of the European parliament (MEP) from court proceedings.
Gollnisch was charged over his comments at a press conference last year which trod a fine line on the edge of French laws against calling into question crimes against humanity.
The committee chairwoman, British MEP Diana Wallis, said her panel felt that the way Gollnisch had acted "was not fairly and fully and squarely within the member's exercise of his duties as a member of this parliament."
"We are not in any way entering into a debate on the nature of the charge in France or the nature of the law in France," she said.
Speaking in Lyon, France, in October 2004, Gollnisch said: "I do not deny the existence of deadly gas chambers. But I'm not a specialist on this issue, and I think we have to let the historians debate it."
He did not contest the "hundreds of thousands, the millions of deaths" during the Holocaust, but added: "As to the way those people died, a debate should take place."
Four days later, then French justice minister Dominique Perben, who is now transport minister and intends to run against Gollnisch in 2007 municipal elections, ordered police in Lyon to launch an inquiry.
They found he had no case to answer but Perben insisted charges be laid.
The trial of Gollnisch, who claims he is being persecuted by Perben, was scheduled for September but was pushed back until November 29 so that parliament could rule on his immunity.
The EU assembly will vote on the committee's recommendation in full session next week. In the unlikely event that it votes against the committee's advice, the case against Gollnisch would probably have to be dropped.
Name of source: Christian Science Monitor
SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor ()
Yet until last year, Masuda, who calls herself "pretty ordinary," rarely went out of her way to disagree. Few teachers do.
But when a Tokyo city councilman in an official meeting said "Japan never invaded Korea," her history class sent an apology to Korean President Roh Moo-hyan - an action that sparked her removal from her classroom.
The war history dispute in Asia is now so front-and-center that appears it was cited by South Korea as a reason to avoid an upcoming December visit to Japan by Mr. Roh. Alongside the diplomatic row, the Masuda case shows how nationalist policies are creeping into the minutiae of daily life in Japan's capital city.
Masuda, who says her two sons have Korean friends, got censured after her class did a study group on Japan's occupation of Korea. Her social studies class wrote a letter of apology to Roh, and sent it to the Korean Embassy in Toyko. In a cover letter, Masuda said that councilman Koga Toshiaki's remarks were "a disgrace" by objective historical standards, but "regrettably [they] can be presented proudly as a triumph in the assembly of Tokyo, the capital of this country."
The class never heard from the Korean consul. But Masuda did hear from the Tokyo Board of Education. Her letter was discovered by a Yasukuni shrine support group and they complained to city officials. Masuda was told that while Mr. Koga did speak in public, it was "inappropriate" for Masuda to repeat his name in a letter that was not private, and a violation of city employee codes.
Masuda is now ordered to spend her days in a small room studying public servant regulations, a serious humiliation she says. She in turn is trying to fight in court.
Masuda's experience shows the growing power of Japanese nationalists, and their grass-roots influence in Tokyo, analysts say.
Name of source: WP
SOURCE: WP (11-20-05)
From a balcony on the central tower of the fortresslike Villa Grande, he stares out over the treetops toward a cargo ship heading slowly out to sea. "And I'm sure Quisling came here to think, too," he adds.
Vidkun Quisling was the head of Norway's collaborationist government during the 1940-45 Nazi occupation, and the imposing Villa Grande was his home and headquarters.
Now the history professor and his team have moved in, and in the rooms where Quisling entertained his Nazi masters, they exhibit and study the Holocaust and other 20th-century genocides
And Fure wants to take the study of the Holocaust a step further.
He wants to explore the links between the breakdown of society in the Holocaust and the fracturing of relations between Muslims and Christian Europeans today.
By next year, 10 researchers from across the world and a resident academic will work at the HL Senter in Villa Grande. The H stands for Holocaust and the L for livssynsminoriteter , the Norwegian word for religious or ethnic minority.
"We will work on constructing models on how Muslim societies can live peacefully within predominantly Christian societies by looking back at the Holocaust," he said.
Name of source: Wa Po
SOURCE: Wa Po ()
His brother, Ed Sidey, reported the death to the Associated Press. He was told that Mr. Sidey had a heart attack, the wire service said.
Mr. Sidey covered the nation's chief executives from Dwight D. Eisenhower through Bill Clinton, traveled with them, saw them in times of triumph and in moments of disappointment and was witness to and chronicler of the history they made.
Sidey, who was a contributing editor at the time of his death, "proved you can write about people in power and still be the gentleman journalist," James Carney, Time's Washington bureau chief, told the Associated Press. "He's in some ways the model we all aspire to."
An Iowa-born heir to a family of journalistic tradition, Mr. Sidey wrote three books on individual presidents: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Gerald R. Ford.
SOURCE: Wa Po ()
One of the presentations at the three-day session revived doubts about the famous "single bullet theory" that the House Select Committee on Assassinations thought it had resolved in the late 1970s. Another demolished persistent claims that the Zapruder film -- the "clock" of the Kennedy assassination -- had somehow been altered or contradicted by other photographic evidence. Still another speaker demonstrated how the sounds on Dallas police tapes showed that four and perhaps five shots had been fired -- meaning that at least one other person besides alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had squeezed a trigger.
None of that solved the whodunit, although the conferees could still count themselves and like-minded historians and researchers winners in a way. Three out of every four Americans think President John F. Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, was the result of a conspiracy. Almost as many think there was a coverup.
But the proposition that drew about 135 people to a Bethesda hotel this past weekend -- that it is not too late "to solve the greatest mystery of the 20th century" -- has less traction with the public. According to the most recent poll, conducted in 2003 for the 40th anniversary of the JFK assassination, 75 percent of the public does not want another government investigation.
Washington lawyer Jim Lesar, president of the nonprofit Assassination Archives and Research Center, the main sponsor of the conference, was undeterred. "The lone assassin theory" -- the Warren Commission's conclusion in 1964 that Oswald was solely responsible for the killing -- "is more discredited than it has previously been," he said in opening remarks.
A key reason, he said, is that the CIA not only withheld crucial information from the commission about its assassination plots against Cuban President Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders, but it also held back other vital information from the House assassinations committee, which concluded in 1979 that Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."
Name of source: Newsletter of the American Revolution Round Table
Divided into two sections depicting New Amsterdam and New York before 1776, and then to slavery's abolishment in 1827, it is a multi-media presentation: you first view a five segment movie telling the story of slavery both before and during it's existence in New York, and then you enter a room of wire sculptures of slaves at various occupations.
As you travel through time, you learn facts that were never taught in class. Only Charleston, SC had more slaves before the Revolution than New York City; they represented 20% of the population (by comparison, Philadelphia had 6%, and Boston had 2%). No less than 40% of NYC's households owned slaves. Four maps detail the city in 1664 (when the British took over); 1741 (the "Great Negro Plot"); 1783 (American victory); and 1827 (end of NYS slavery). Each map shows, in detail, the continued growth of the city and the slaves' contribution to the story. The Society has on display many historical documents, including slave ships' freight records, an inquest into the slave revolt of 1712, ads seeking runaway slaves, and the Gradual Emancipation Law of 1799. There are portraits and decorative arts objects (furniture, silverware) showing the work of the slaves, and their masters' use of them to better their own lives, and around the corner, what the slaves had: not much of anything except tools for work. Special sections show how blacks were depicted in drawings, paintings and newspaper articles, and you can sit in a church and listen to black gospel music, work on an interactive computer project to help free slaves, or pick up a phone receiver to learn about the lives of slaves. How much were slaves worth?? In 1675, a slaver could buy a person for $350 in Africa, and sell him/her in NYC for $3,800; by 1775, slaves cost $2300 and sold for $6000. Big business, big profits, very little morality. By 1706 this profit was so greatly noticed that NYC passed a law stating that any child born of a slave woman was also a slave. Laws against slave movement, ownership of property, or social gatherings were just as restrictive at those we studied in the antebellum South. It is overwhelming!!
Just one thing bothered this observer -- the lack of the instruments used to keep the slaves in check; no handcuffs, chains, ropes, are seen; just a representation of a whip. Southern museums show these "tools" and we should also. It is not likely that most slaves were treated better north of the Mason-Dixon Line: brutality knows no borders. The exhibition closes March 5, 2006; on the second floor is a wonderful Hudson River School presentation until January 22. After seeing "Slavery" you need the quiet galleries for reflection.
Name of source: The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph (LONDON) (11-22-05)
The regimental colours seized in 1779 and 1780 by Lt Col Banastre Tarleton, who remains one of the conflict's most controversial figures, have already aroused huge interest among American military historians. They are expected to fetch between pounds 2.3 million and pounds 5.8 million at Sotheby's in New York next year.
Until recently the flags had hung in the Hampshire home of Capt Christopher Tarleton Fagan, the great-great-great-great nephew of the lieutenant colonel.
Capt Tarleton Fagan, a former Grenadier Guards officer, said: "I am very sad to sell them. They are an important part of our family history and we have had them for 225 years. However, there comes a time when their value is such that one can no longer afford to insure them.''
Only about 30 American revolutionary battle flags have survived, all of which, apart from the ones to be sold at Sotheby's, are in museums and in most cases only fragments remain. The ones captured by Tarleton are in excellent condition and their history is well documented. One is the flag of the 2nd Regiment of Continental Light Dragoons, raised in Connecticut by Col Elisha Sheldon, who were defeated by Tarleton in Westchester County, New York in July 1779. The other three flags were seized the following year in a still controversial battle in the southern United States. Tarleton crushed a Virginian regiment under Col Abraham Buford at Waxsaws near the border of North and South Carolina. Accounts of what happened next differ. According to the Americans, Tarleton ordered his men to slaughter more than 100 revolutionary soldiers who had already surrendered. But the British officer maintained that his horse was shot after a truce was declared and pinned him to the ground.
Name of source: Press Release from National Security Archive
SOURCE: Press Release from National Security Archive ()
On November 21, 1995, the world witnessed an event that for years many believed impossible: on a secluded, wind-swept U.S. Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, the leaders of Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia agreed to end a war. The signing of the Dayton Peace Accords concluded one of the most challenging diplomatic undertakings the United States had pursued since the end of the Cold War -- eighteen weeks of whirlwind shuttle diplomacy, followed by twenty-one intensive days of negotiations in Dayton. The agreement brought peace to a troubled corner of Europe, and established an ambitious blueprint to build a new Bosnia -- an effort that the international community remains deeply engaged in today.
The study is the result of a unique historical effort led by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Bennett Freeman in 1996 to capture the record of this achievement. In his capacity overseeing the State Department's Office of the Historian as well as serving as Chief Speechwriter for Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Freeman worked with that office and the Bureau of European Affairs to assemble a team to begin collecting documents and conduct interviews with all the key American participants in the Dayton process. After the initial research effort was underway and an archive of these materials had been created, Freeman then asked Derek Chollet to draft the study based on this research, which he completed in the spring of 1997.
Name of source: Rick Shenkman, reporting for HNN
SOURCE: Rick Shenkman, reporting for HNN (11-18-05)
Seven months after deciding to switch its annual convention from San Francisco to San Jose so its members wouldn't have to cross a picket line, the Organization of American Historians says it has struck a secret deal with the two hotels which lost money as a result of the change in venues.
San Francisco's Hilton Hotel had claimed it was owed $390,000 for booked rooms and meeting halls. The San Jose Doubletree said it was owed $42,000 for rooms that were booked but not rented.
The terms of the agreement are secret. In an email on 11-21-05 Mr. Formwalt clarified that"What will appear in the next treasurer's report is the total cost for Meetings and Conferences in FY 2005 .... We cannot and therefore will not disclose the terms of our settlement with Hilton as it is covered by a confidentiality agreement."
It should be possible, however, for members to determine from the numbers provided approximately what the settlement cost. This is because the OAH has already revealed that the switch to San Jose cost the organization over $100,000. (Members have contributed more $23,000 to a special fund to offset the costs of the move.)
The OAH contract with the Hilton did not include a provision allowing a cancellation in the event of a boycott. The organization says all future agreements will.
Name of source: BBC News
SOURCE: BBC News ()
Mr Irving had hit the international headlines five years earlier, when he sued American historian Deborah Lipstadt for libel in Britain.
He lost and the court branded him "an active Holocaust denier".
Lyn Smith, a professor of politics in London, is bewildered by people like Mr Irving, who deny there were gas chambers at Auschwitz or that Hitler knew his underlings were systematically murdering six million Jews, plus millions more Slavs, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals and political prisoners.
"That's something I just cannot understand - that people like Irving continue to deny, when there is so much evidence."
Mrs Smith is more familiar with the evidence than most.
Starting in the 1970s, she worked as an oral historian for London's Imperial War Museum, interviewing survivors of the Holocaust for the museum's sound archive.
She has recently assembled testimonies from the archive into an extraordinary book, Forgotten Voices Of The Holocaust.
'Near as you can get'
The book weaves together excerpts of recordings from survivors and witnesses, tracing the Holocaust chronologically, from the persecution that accompanied the rise of Hitler, through the ghettos, concentration camps and death camps, death marches, liberation and the aftermath.
"It is as near as you can possibly get to first-hand views of the Holocaust," Mrs Smith says.
SOURCE: BBC News ()
Published in the fourth of a series of papers that shook the foundations of physics in 1905, E=mc² is now linked with the power of the atom bomb.
No equation is anywhere near as recognisable as E=mc².
Name of source: News.Scotsman
SOURCE: News.Scotsman ()
Due to poor quality drinking water back in the 12th century, Londoners were forced to drink ale - as much as a gallon a day.
Artefacts from the time, which are due to go on display at the museum, including a selection of portly Toby jugs depict chubby individuals who look like they enjoyed a pint or two.
And historians claimed that 700 years ago, London had more than 1300 alehouses - one for every 50 people living in the city.
Name of source: Los Angeles Times
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times (11-19-05)
"Beethoven had hoped that some day it would be revealed why he acted the way he did," said Paul Kaufmann, the owner of the skull fragments, who loaned them to the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University.
"He was seen as angry and uncooperative at times. This finding helps shed some light on that," he said. "Now we know that this was the reason for his suffering."
Lead poisoning can lead to headaches, fatigue, concentration problems and other health issues.
Analysis in the late 1990s from a lock of Beethoven's hair indicated that he had lead poisoning at the time of his death, but the latest skull analysis revealed that the condition existed over a long period of time.
"You can't draw any conclusions from the hair sample. This is a more significant finding," Beethoven scholar and biographer Maynard Solomon, who was not involved in the skull testing, said in a telephone interview.
