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All aboard!
When David McKie and his family moved to Leeds as wartime refugees,
it was the
city's old green buses that came to mean home to him.
Here, in an extract from his new book,
he explains why the humble bus is such a
cornerstone of British culture
The Guardian G2
p.1 Friday February 17, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,1711688,00.html
The Guardian
p. 1 5.7.2007
The Guardian
p. 7 17.1.2007
The Guardian
p. 8 17.1.2007
The Guardian
p. 13 9.3.2006
The Guardian
Work p. 8
18.2.2006
The Guardian
Postgraduate courses p. 9
14.3.2006
The Guardian
p. 5 14.3.2006
The Guardian
Society 1 p. 27
8.3.2006
The Guardian
Technology p. 3
9.3.2006
The Guardian
Review p. 6
2.9.2006
Alabama
Wins in Ruling on Its
Immigration Law
September
28, 2011
The New York Times
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
A federal
judge on Wednesday upheld most of the sections of Alabama’s far-reaching
immigration law that had been challenged by the Obama administration, including
portions that had been blocked in other states.
The decision, by Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn of Federal District Court in
Birmingham, makes it much more likely that the fate of the recent flurry of
state laws against illegal immigration will eventually be decided by the Supreme
Court. It also means that Alabama now has by far the strictest such law of any
state.
“Today Judge Blackburn upheld the majority of our law,” Gov. Robert Bentley said
in a brief statement he delivered outside the State Capitol in Montgomery. “With
those parts that were upheld, we have the strongest immigration law in the
country.”
The judge did issue a preliminary injunction against several sections of the
law, agreeing with the government’s case that they pre-empted federal law. She
blocked a broad provision that outlawed the harboring or transporting of illegal
immigrants and another that barred illegal immigrants from enrolling in or
attending public universities.
The governor, in his statement, said he believed even the sections that were
temporarily enjoined on Wednesday would eventually be upheld, and added that the
state would consider appealing if that did not happen.
For the most part, Judge Blackburn, who was appointed by the elder President
George Bush, disagreed with the Justice Department’s arguments, including those
that had been successful in challenges to laws in Arizona and Georgia.
The judge upheld a section that requires state and local law enforcement
officials to try to verify a person’s immigration status during routine traffic
stops or arrests, if “a reasonable suspicion” exists that the person is in the
country illegally. And she ruled that a section that criminalized the “willful
failure” of a person in the country illegally to carry federal immigration
papers did not pre-empt federal law.
In both cases, she rejected the reasoning of district and appeals courts that
had blocked similar portions of Arizona’s law. Legal experts expected the
Justice Department to appeal.
“The department is reviewing the decision to determine next steps,” Xochitl
Hinojosa, a department spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We will continue to
evaluate state immigration-related laws and will not hesitate to bring suit if,
in fact, a state creates its own immigration policy or enforces state laws in a
manner that interferes with federal immigration law.”
The Alabama law was the latest, and broadest, of the state laws against illegal
immigration, going further than one passed in Arizona.
While Alabama is estimated to have a relatively small population of people who
are in the country illegally, the numbers have been growing.
Acting on a pledge that they would crack down on illegal immigration,
Republicans passed the bill when they won a supermajority in the State
Legislature in the 2010 elections. Mr. Bentley signed it into law in June.
Del Marsh, the Republican president pro tem of the Alabama Senate, said in a
statement after Wednesday’s ruling, “Our goal has always been to make sure
Alabama jobs and taxpayer-funded resources are going to legal Alabama residents,
and Judge Blackburn’s ruling is a significant win for this cause.”
All summer, rallies for and against the law have been taking place throughout
the state. Farmers and even the state agriculture commissioner have raised
concerns about the law’s effect on farms, sheriffs have condemned it as too
onerous for financially hurting counties and others have worried that it could
seriously hinder the state’s efforts to rebuild after last April’s devastating
tornadoes.
The law’s backers argued that most of the concerns arose out of a misreading of
the law that they believed in some cases was intentional.
The judge ruled on three suits challenging the law on Wednesday, one brought by
the federal government, another by a group of church leaders and another brought
by civil rights groups.
She dismissed the suit brought by church leaders, who had argued that the law
prevented them from carrying out crucial duties of their ministry, concluding
that they did not have standing to challenge one part of the law and that she
had addressed the other challenge in her ruling on the federal law.
Judge Blackburn agreed with the arguments of the civil rights groups on several
sections or subsections of the law, but did not address many of their arguments
because they overlapped with those put forth in the Justice Department’s suit.
“We’re really disappointed,” said Andre Segura of the American Civil Liberties
Union, which represents plaintiffs in one of the suits. “We already know that
this is going to cause a lot of problems in Alabama.”
The civil rights groups are planning an appeal.
Among the other sections Judge Blackburn upheld: one that nullifies any
contracts entered into by an illegal immigrant; another that forbids any
transaction between an illegal immigrant and any division of the state, a
proscription that has already led to the denial of a Montgomery man’s
application for water and sewage service; and, most controversially, a section
that requires elementary and secondary schools to determine the immigration
status of incoming students.
The civil rights groups challenged this last section on the ground that it would
unlawfully deter students from enrolling in school, even if it did not
explicitly allow schools to turn students away. The judge dismissed their
challenge for lack of standing, though she did not rule on the argument’s
merits.
Peter J. Spiro, a law professor at Temple University, said: “This decision
really gives the anti-immigration folks more of a victory than they’ve been
getting in other courts. There’s a lot for them to be happy about.”
Still, Professor Spiro added, “This is not the last word on the
constitutionality of this statute.”
This
article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: September 30, 2011
An article on Thursday about a federal judge’s ruling that upheld most of
Alabama’s far-reaching immigration law misstated the role of the American Civil
Liberties Union in one of the lawsuits challenging the law. The A.C.L.U.
represents plaintiffs in the suit; it is not itself a plaintiff.
Alabama Wins in Ruling on Its Immigration Law, NYT,
28.9.2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/us/alabama-immigration-law-upheld.html
Pakistan
Scorns U.S. Scolding on
Terrorism
September
23, 2011
The New York Times
By JANE PERLEZ
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The public assault by the Obama administration on the
Pakistani intelligence agency as a facilitator of terrorist attacks in
Afghanistan has been met with scorn in Pakistan, a signal that the country has
little intention of changing its ways, even perhaps at the price of the crumpled
alliance.
In injured tones similar to those used after the Navy Seals raid that killed
Osama bin Laden in May, Pakistani officials insisted on Friday that theirs was a
sovereign state that could not be pushed by America’s most senior military
officials, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Leon
E. Panetta, the secretary of defense.
The two Americans told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that
Pakistan’s spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI,
worked hand-in-glove with the Haqqani network, a potent militant outfit
sheltering in the Pakistani tribal areas, to subvert American war aims.
Admiral Mullen accused the spy agency of supporting Haqqani militants who
attacked the American Embassy in Kabul last week, and he called the Haqqanis a
“veritable arm” of the ISI. Mr. Panetta threatened “operational steps” against
Pakistan, shorthand for possible American raids against the Haqqani bases in
North Waziristan.
The connection between the spy agency and the militants has been at the center
of American complaints about Pakistan since the start of the war in Afghanistan,
but never before has the United States chosen to expose its grievances in such
unvarnished language in the most public of forums.
In his public reply, the chief of the Pakistani Army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani,
said Mr. Mullen’s accusations were “not based on facts,” and suggested that they
were unfair given “a rather constructive” recent meeting. The ISI did not
support the Haqqanis, General Kayani said.
Similarly, the country’s defense minister, Ahmad Mukhtar, said Pakistan was a
sovereign nation “which cannot be threatened.”
The foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, said it was “unacceptable” for one
ally, the United States, to “humiliate” another, Pakistan. “If they are choosing
to do so, it will be at their own cost,” Ms. Khar said.
Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States who is close
to the military, underscored that point. “Relations are headed towards a
breakdown if the U.S. continues its coercive approach of threats and public
accusations,” Ms. Lodhi said. “What is its plan B if there is an open rupture
with Pakistan?”
The anti-American feeling in Pakistan, and within the army, surged after the
raid that killed Bin Laden, which was kept secret from Pakistan’s leadership. It
remains intense, making the idea of bowing to American demands to take on the
Haqqanis almost unthinkable, Pakistani politicians, businessmen and analysts
said.
They said General Kayani, who was under great pressure from his troops after the
humiliation of the Bin Laden raid, had recovered some ground and recouped some
prestige. He has no intention of giving in to the Americans now because he is
betting that they still need Pakistan as the supply route for the Afghanistan
war, they said.
But the larger reason is a divergence of strategic interests with the United
States. The Haqqani network is seen as an important anti-India tool for the
Pakistani military as it assesses the future of an Afghanistan without the
Americans, a situation Pakistan sees as not far off.
General Kayani has said he fears that as the Americans exit, India will be
allowed to have influence in Afghanistan, squeezing Pakistan on both its eastern
and western borders, Pakistani analysts say.
Thus, the Haqqani fighters who hold sway over Paktika, Paktia and Khost
Provinces in Afghanistan, and who are also strong in the capital, Kabul, and in
the provinces around it, present a valuable hedge against the perceived India
threat, which American officials say is overblown.
The precise relationship between the Pakistani military and spy agency on the
one hand and the Haqqani network on the other remains murky, American officials
say.
In talks with the Americans, the leader of the ISI, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha,
has said he has “contact” with the Haqqanis, a senior American official said.
“But he denies he has command and control.” The official said it appeared that
the Haqqanis had developed into such skilled fighters over several decades that
they had the Pakistani Army cowed.
According to American officials and Pakistani analysts, it appeared that the
Pakistani Army had struck a bargain with the Haqqanis: The Haqqanis would be
free to fight in Afghanistan, in part looking after Pakistan’s interests, and in
return, the Haqqanis would not attack Pakistan.
If the Pakistani army attacked Haqqani fighters in their bases in North
Waziristan, the blowback in the form of terrorist attacks in Pakistani cities
and towns could be overwhelming, Pakistani military analysts say.
In a startling image of the apparent symbiosis between the Pakistani military —
which controls the ISI — and the Haqqani fighters, both forces have bases in
Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan.
Five brigades of the Pakistani Army, about 15,000 soldiers, and the Frontier
Corps, a paramilitary force of about 10,000 men, have never touched the
Haqqanis, American officials familiar with the situation say. Visitors to Miram
Shah have said the army facilities are within sight of the Haqqani compounds.
Estimates of the Haqqani fighting strength in North Waziristan vary from 10,000
to 15,000. Technically, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who runs the group, is a member of
the Afghan Taliban leadership headed by Mullah Muhammad Omar and based in
Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province in southwest Pakistan.
The Pakistani Army struggled to defeat the Pakistani Taliban in battles in the
Swat Valley and South Waziristan in 2009 and 2010, but the Taliban are still
present in both places, a senior American military official said. “So why would
they take on the Haqqanis, who are world class fighters?” the official asked.
As much as the Americans criticize the Pakistanis for not taking on the
Haqqanis, the Pakistanis scoff at the inability of the Americans to deal with
the Haqqanis on the war front in Afghanistan.
In a sarcastic column in the English-language newspaper The News on Thursday,
Farrukh Saleem wrote, “If over the past decade the lone superpower has failed to
tame 10,000 to 15,000 tribesmen, then the American military-intelligence complex
has really failed and should be heading home.”
Pakistani military officers have contended that it is up to the American troops
in Afghanistan to prevent the Haqqanis from launching terrorist attacks in Kabul
and elsewhere.
In order to get to Kabul, the Haqqani fighters pass through provinces with large
American bases, they say. Mr. Haqqani is believed to spend much of his time in
Afghanistan, organizing his fighters.
In an interview with Reuters this week, Mr. Haqqani said he was working solely
in Afghanistan. It is the same argument that Pakistani officials have been
making this week as a way to rebut the American accusations that the Haqqanis
live in Pakistan at all.
Pakistan Scorns U.S. Scolding on Terrorism, NYT,
23.9.2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/24/world/asia/pakistan-shows-no-sign-of-heeding-us-scolding-on-terrorism.html
On
9/11, Vows of Remembrance
September
11, 2011
The New York Times
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
They
played the bagpipes again and recited the names of the dead like poetry. Bells
tolled, and requiems by President Obama and other dignitaries filled the
amphitheater of ground zero on Sunday as America looked back upon a contagion of
terrorism and war and renewed its vows of remembrance.
On the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, as the nation reflected on its
losses, thousands of families gathered at the new World Trade Center rising in
Lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon and on a field of wildflowers in Pennsylvania
to commemorate nearly 3,000 killed on that infamous morning when jetliners were
turned into missiles and a new age of terrorism was born.
The day’s centerpiece unfolded at ground zero, where more than 10,000 members of
the victims’ families, and some dignitaries and their wives, gathered in a
parklike setting of swamp white oaks and emerald lawns — a strangely futuristic
plaza with precisely spaced trees rising from a five-acre granite floor,
surrounded by a gouged wasteland of unfinished skyscrapers and silent
construction cranes.
In that panorama of resurrection, with the skyline in the background and the
skirmishing harbor and the Statue of Liberty in the distance, the families
choked back tears, sobbed and cast flowers into the spillways of sunken granite
pools set in the footprints of the fallen towers, and crowded around the bronze
parapets of the “voids” where the names of the dead are etched.
Amid the sounds of waterfalls, family members bent low to touch or kiss the
names, and to weep. Many made paper tracings of the names, or inserted flowers
or American flags into the crevices, and the parapets were soon thick with the
colors and with red and yellow roses.
“It was real inspirational to come here after all these years and finally see
his name,” Dennis Baxter, 65, of King of Prussia, Pa., said of his brother,
Jasper, who died in the south tower. “I touched it. I didn’t know what else to
do.”
It seemed like only yesterday: the indelible images of the twin towers smoking
and disintegrating, of people falling as if in a dream. Yet a decade had gone,
thousands more had died in wars, America had endured economic hardships and
natural disasters, had learned to live with terrorist threats and had at last
killed Osama bin Laden.
“Yes, we are more vigilant against those who threaten us, and there are
inconveniences that come with our common defense,” Mr. Obama said Sunday night
during a commemoration at the Kennedy Center in Washington. “Debates about war
and peace, about security and civil liberties, have often been fierce these last
10 years. But it is precisely the rigor of these debates, and our ability to
resolve them in a way that honors our values and our democracy, that is a
measure of our strength.”
For most Americans, the catastrophe of Sept. 11, though still vivid, has
acquired the perspective of tragic history. But for the families and friends of
those who died, the milestone anniversary meant only that the haunting memories
of broken lives and shattered dreams had receded hardly at all.
“It’s still unbelievable — it still seems like a nightmare,” said Trisha Scudder
of Paoli, Pa., whose brother, Christopher R. Clarke, a bond salesman, was killed
at the trade center. At ground zero ceremonies, she found small comfort in his
name etched on the rolls of the victims.
The commemorations Sunday were the culmination of weeks of cultural and civic
events that revisited 9/11 and its global consequences, a national outpouring of
music, films, plays, visual arts, books, television documentaries and symposiums
that reflected America’s rich diversity and grew into an avalanche of
introspection and analyses unrivaled since the turn of the millennium.
In cities and towns across America, the anniversary was marked with solemn and
patriotic ceremonies, religious rites, tributes to the dead and even a political
hiatus, as major Republican presidential candidates stepped off the campaign
trail.
Giant flags were unfurled at football and baseball games, and in Queens at the
United States Open tennis tournament, a clip shown on a giant scoreboard had
Spike Lee, Mary Carillo, John McEnroe and Pete Hamill speaking of New Yorkers’
resilience.
The attacks were recalled in concerts, vigils, public forums and millions of
homes, where people watched televised memorial events and talked of the painful
things they had witnessed.
Around the world, smaller commemorations were held in many capitals, with
political and religious leaders voicing renewed commitments to democracy and the
fight against terrorism. The global scope was a stark reminder that the victims
of 9/11 had come from more than 90 countries.
On a resplendent morning in New York, with cool breezes and a blue sky
brush-stroked by clouds that thickened into an overcast as the day wore on, many
houses of worship, at the city’s behest, tolled bells in an interfaith gesture
of solidarity at 8:46 a.m., the time when the first plane struck the north
tower.
In New Jersey, which lost more than 700 residents on Sept. 11, nearly every
town, it seemed, had someone to mourn. Churches held special services, American
flags flew on numerous homes and ceremonies were conducted in communities across
the state.
On an elaborately choreographed morning, bells rang for silence six times: at
8:46 a.m., when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower; at 9:03,
when United Airlines Flight 175 hit the south tower; at 9:37, when American
Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon; at 9:59, when the south tower fell; at
10:03, when Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania; and at 10:28, when the north
tower came down.
And in an emotional catharsis that continued for more than three hours, family
members recited the names of the dead, this time including those killed in
Virginia and Pennsylvania as well as in the attacks on the trade center in 1993
and 2001.
The names have become central to the ceremonies, read over the years by first
responders, children, siblings, parents and others. This year any family member
could participate, and many of the 3,000 children who lost a parent joined in.
The recitation of 2,983 names was no dry ritual. Indeed, it became an
extraordinarily powerful drama, a kind of epic poem that forcefully and
relentlessly conveyed vivid memories of the dead, and touched upon the
implications of children growing up without a parent, of the emptiness of a home
without a companion, of years of shared dreams and poignant hopes destroyed.
Stepping to microphones in pairs, carrying flowers and photos of the dead or
wearing T-shirts bearing their likenesses, many added personal messages,
speaking intimately to their loved ones, saying, in effect, we love you, we miss
you, and renewing pledges of fidelity, telling of the births of grandchildren or
other family events.
Voices quavered and faltered, rang with force and hope.
And when it was over, the silence was profound. You could hear only the wind
sighing off the Hudson.
There were no religious services or formal prayers, not even a representative
clerical contingent. On an occasion deemed too solemn for speeches, dignitaries
led by President Obama and former President George W. Bush turned to poems and
passages of literature to address the nation and the families whose sacrifices,
they acknowledged, could hardly be assuaged with words.
Quoting from the 46th Psalm, Mr. Obama intoned: “Come behold the works of the
Lord, who’s made desolations in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of
the earth; he breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in two; he burns the chariot in
fire.”
Mr. Bush quoted an 1864 letter by Abraham Lincoln to a Massachusetts mother of
two sons killed in the Civil War: “I feel how weak and fruitless must be any
words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so
overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that
may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.”
Other readings were given by former Govs. George E. Pataki of New York and
Donald T. DiFrancesco of New Jersey and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who
were in office at the time of the attacks; by Govs. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York
and Chris Christie of New Jersey; and by relatives of victims of the Sept. 11
attacks. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who oversaw the arrangements, was master of
ceremonies, and firefighters, police officers, first responders and members of
the armed forces served as honor guards.
Musical selections captured the solemnity — Yo-Yo Ma performing “Sarabande” from
Bach’s First Suite for Cello Solo, James Taylor singing “Close Your Eyes,” the
flautist Emi Ferguson performing “Amazing Grace,” and Paul Simon intoning “The
Sounds of Silence.” The Brooklyn Youth Chorus sang the national anthem and “I
Will Remember You,” and 60 firefighters and police officers played the bagpipes.
The National September 11 Memorial Plaza was opened and dedicated on Sunday. It
is to be open to the public starting Monday, though there is a long backlog of
reservations.
While it has become a national shrine, like Pearl Harbor or Gettysburg, ground
zero is still a 16-acre construction site. One World Trade Center has 82 of 104
stories built, and 4 World Trade Center has 50 of 64 stories up. More towers, a
transportation hub and the National September 11 Museum are in various stages of
construction.
In a whirlwind day, Mr. Obama and the first lady, Michelle Obama, flew to
Shanksville, Pa., and to the Pentagon to lay wreaths and exchange words and hugs
with the families of Sept. 11 victims, before his speech at the Kennedy Center
in the evening. In Pennsylvania, thousands met in a field of goldenrod and Queen
Anne’s lace to honor the 40 passengers and crew members who are believed to have
saved the White House or the Capitol from destruction by rising up against the
hijackers.
The nation commemorated the day in myriad ways.
In Mississippi, the Rev. Jon Shonebarger, a chaplain at a prison near Natchez,
chose the occasion to open a new church. Faith Independent Baptist Church was
nothing fancy — just a hotel meeting room, coffee, muffins and a stack of
Bibles. But a dozen people attended, and the pastor called it a new beginning.
At the Lincoln County Fair in Fayetteville, Tenn., alongside mule races and
carnival rides, crowds doffed cowboy hats and saluted as two girls rode
horseback carrying the American and Tennessee flags in honor of the anniversary.
In Dallas, Christina Rancke, 21, a student at Southern Methodist University
whose father, Alfred Todd Rancke, an investment banker, was killed in the south
tower, attended church with Paige McInerney, a cousin who had been in the World
Trade Center on Sept. 11 and escaped.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about him,” Ms. Rancke said.
The commemorations were hardly free of controversy. In New York-area firehouses
and police stations, where the sense of loss ran deep for comrades lost on 9/11,
anger over Mr. Bloomberg’s refusal to invite a large contingent of first
responders was palpable. His decision to de-emphasize religion at the ground
zero events generated more discreet criticism.
Even as the anniversary unfolded, a nation that had not experienced a major
terrorist attack in a decade had the jitters. Intelligence officials in recent
days had rushed to assess a tip suggesting that two or three operatives of Al
Qaeda had slipped into the country to set off a car bomb in New York or
Washington to disrupt the ceremonies. Security at the trade center and other
sites was heavy.
As peace prevailed, the ground zero proceedings closed in the early afternoon
with trumpeters of the city and the Port Authority police, the Fire Department
and the military services playing taps, the hauntingly beautiful refrain that
closes the military day.
And as the sun went down and a rising full moon cast a silvery darkness over the
city, two powerful searchlight beams shot skyward from near ground zero,
creating likenesses of the fallen towers in a “Tribute in Light.” The
illuminations, it was said, would be seen for 50 miles until dawn.
Reporting was contributed by James Barron, Karen Crouse and Andy Newman from New
York; Robbie Brown from Fayetteville, Tenn.; Elisabeth Bumiller from Washington;
Manny Fernandez from Dallas; Campbell Robertson from Natchez, Miss.; and
Katharine Q. Seelye from Shanksville, Pa.
This article
has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: September 11, 2011
An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that plans for the
memorial and museum
at ground zero call for 8.151 tons of steel.
On 9/11, Vows of Remembrance, NYT, 11.9.2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/nyregion/september-11-anniversary.html
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