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Editorials
Tuesday, August 29, 2000Health director backs
away from transferThe issue: State Health Director Bruce Anderson has canceled a scheduled transfer of two programs from the Diamond Head Mental Health Center.
STATE Health Director Bruce Anderson set off a furor when he approved a transfer of adult mental health services for about 300 clients from the Diamond Head Mental Health Center to the Lanakila center in Kalihi-Palama. In addition, a life-skills program, with about 30 clients, which teaches persons with mental illness to live independently, was to be moved to a clinic on the Fort Street Mall.
The purpose of the moves was to make room at the Diamond Head center for the children's mental health program, which has been operating under cramped conditions since its expansion. The department is under court order to improve services for the developmentally disabled and for adult and child mental health clients, all of whom are located at Diamond Head.
The transfer decision was vehemently protested. Opponents said the move across town would be a difficult adjustment for many patients. Some clients might find it so inconvenient that they would drop out, the critics warned.
Last Friday Anderson backed off. He announced to a crowd in a state Capitol conference room that both the adult mental health and life-skills programs would remain at Diamond Head. The announcement was greeted with applause and cheers from members of mental health advocate groups and clients.
The health director acknowledged that the moves would have been too disruptive. "This was the right decision to make for the adult population," he said. "Certainly, we didn't want to hurt anyone through this process."
Anderson said he had learned a lot from the controversy -- presumably the need to canvass opinion before making such decisions.
There remains the need to find more space for the children's health program. Anderson said the staff is currently working under "unacceptable" conditions.
He said some space is becoming available through a transfer of the occupational and physical therapy program to Department of Education facilities. However, that won't be enough to accommodate future needs. He said the department is studying other options.
ONE possibility is moving a computerized information system needed to meet benchmarks in a federal consent decree aimed at improving special education services. But Anderson said that would mean "pulling the plug" for a period of time, which would result in missing deadlines set in the consent decree.
Whatever the decision, the health director isn't likely to make the same mistake of failing to consult all affected parties and run the risk of another emotional conflict with the people he is supposed to be helping. It's a lesson that many bureaucrats should heed.
CIA’s veil of secrecy
lifted in Lockerbie case
BOLD disclosures by the CIA of information related to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland are a deviation that lawyers can be expected to applaud but the agency may someday regret. While the disclosures in a foreign court don't create a legally binding precedent in U.S. courts, they are certain to be cited in future attempts to unveil secret government documents.
Reflecting Washington's eagerness to obtain a conviction, the CIA withdrew its censorship of parts of dispatches from a Libyan double agent, known as Abdul Majid Giaka, for use in the trial of two Libyans accused in the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing, which killed 270 people. The revised texts were presented to the Scottish prosecutor, Lord Advocate Colin Boyd, who provided copies to defense attorneys.
"I can tell the court that everything Mr. Majid is reported to have said in these cables is revealed except for three matters," relating to the identities of CIA informants and methods of operation, Boyd told the judge presiding over the trial, which is being held under Scottish law in the Netherlands. He said the CIA had allowed attorneys in the case to see more information than it had ever before revealed in a foreign court.
Defense attorneys had complained after seeing heavily edited copies of the CIA cables. The new version contains details of Majid's payment demands to the CIA. Majid, a former Libyan spy who offered his services to the CIA, has been under the federal witness protection program. He is likely to testify behind a screen with his voice altered.
The end of the Cold War could result in declassification of some intelligence information from the past. The success of the Lockerbie defense attorneys now can be cited in trying to counter the CIA's customary intransigence in other cases.
Judges and attorneys have been virtually powerless in trying to penetrate the CIA's shield of national security. The agency's flexibility in the Lockerbie case could make it hard-pressed to maintain that the status of secret material in other cases shouldn't be negotiable.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
