[ OUR OPINION ]
Isle summit targets
global terror networksLAST week's gathering in Honolulu of more than 600 delegates from 19 countries and U.S. Pacific territories to discuss the war on terrorism came as the need for such a conference was punctuated by new attacks, with signs of more to come. Governor Lingle has asked that a regional office of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security be located in Honolulu. Such an outpost would be useful in coordinating future conferences on security in Asia.
THE ISSUE
Terrorist attacks in Turkey resulted in a worldwide tightening of security as delegates from across Asia gathered in Honolulu.
The inaugural Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Summit & Exposition was more successful than expected, if attendance is a gauge; only about 500 delegates had been expected. Tom Ridge, secretary of homeland security, was noncommittal about Lingle's request for a regional office but acknowledged that the military presence and its entry point to the United States makes it an ideal location.
The summit was barely under way when the second suicide bomb in five days exploded in Istanbul, Turkey. The two bombings killed at least 50 people and caused world leaders to tighten security.
"The world is at war," said Philippines President Gloria Macapagal. "Our people must drive this deep into their consciousness so that our day-to-day vigilance and alertness will not wane." The United States is providing training assistance to Philippine units combatting terrorist elements in the Philippines with ties to al-Qaida.
Singapore Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng, who attended the summit, reminded delegates that the terrorist threat is as serious in the Pacific Rim as elsewhere in the world. Wong said Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida-linked terrorist network, is planning more attacks. The militant Islamic group is blamed for the August bombing at Jakarta's Marriott Hotel, which killed 12 people, and the October 2002 bombing of a Bali nightclub that killed 202.
"Our intelligence assessment is that (Jemaah Islamiyah) elements are on the run," Wong told the delegates. He says they "are likely to plan more suicide bomb attacks along the lines of Bali and the recent Hotel Marriott bombing in Jakarta." He also mentioned as a threat Azahari bin Husin, a British-educated Malaysian mathematician and bomb maker believed to have been involved in the Bali attack.
More than 200 Jemaah Islamiyah members have been arrested in five countries since the Bali blasts and other attacks. Those include the August arrest in Thailand of Hambali, its alleged operations chief.
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Energy bill mutates
into payoff to industryA FILIBUSTER is all that is staving off Senate approval of an unsavory energy bill that would hand tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks to oil, gas and coal industries -- rewarding companies headed by some of President Bush's biggest fund-raisers -- while doing little to enhance conservation or to move the country away from dependence on fossil fuels.
THE ISSUE
A filibuster has blocked a final vote by the Senate on an energy bill that provides billions of dollars in industry tax breaks.
As targets of Republican pressure to end the debate, Hawaii's senators should resist succumbing to the heat. The bill, formulated in secret from its beginning to its end and passed off to Congress at the last minute, is nothing more than a huge pork barrel for special interests and rollback of environmental regulations.
Late last week, GOP leaders in Congress foisted the 1,000-plus-page bill on their colleagues just before winter adjournment, hoping to push it through. The $31 billion measure cleared the House, but the 11th-hour ploy drew complaints from Hawaii Rep. Ed Case, who in voting against the bill characterized it as a "disgrace."
The bill hit a procedural roadblock in the Senate, where Demo-crats, joined by a few Republicans, spurned an effort to end the filibuster by a 57-40 vote, short of the 60 needed to cut off debate.
The energy bill supplies billions in benefits to companies run by executives who have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Bush's campaign, It provides $24.6 billion in tax breaks and $5.4 billion in subsidies and loan guarantees to the extraction industry.
There are no provisions for encouraging fuel-efficiency in cars and trucks, which consume the lion's share of oil from an increasingly unstable Middle East. The bill also fails to provide significant incentives for developing renewable energy resources.
What the bill does contain is a shield for manufacturers of the gasoline additive MTBE that has contaminated groundwater in Hawaii and across the country, protecting them from lawsuits that would force them to clean up their mess. Thank House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, whose state is home to MTBE producers.
The measure also doubles subsidies for corn-based ethanol production, a factor so seductive to Democratic leader Tom Daschle and his farm state colleagues that they choked down their opposition and sided with Republicans.
What was supposed to be an energy program to wean the country from fuel imports for economic and national security has become a generous pot of political payoff that sets aside the Clean Water Act and expedites drilling and exploration in protected public lands without regard for environmental concerns.
Republicans are working the back rooms to prod Hawaii Democrats Inouye and Akaka to change their minds. The senators must not surrender.
