In a day of legal theatrics, defence team ridicules prosecution case and tells jury not to let sympathy blur their judgement The judges and jurors who will decide whether Amanda Knox and her Italian former boyfriend stay in jail for much of the rest of their lives for the murder of Meredith Kercher were told on Thursday not to let sympathy for the victim’s family blur their judgment. The lawyer for the Kercher family had repeatedly stressed this week the horror of the crime and the suffering of the victim’s relatives. But that was not the point, said Knox’s counsel, Carlo Dalla Vedova. “Be respectful of the pain caused by the death of Meredith Kercher. But don’t make the mistake of keeping two innocent people in jail,” he declared. “Pain is not a legal argument.” His appeal came on a day of legal theatrics in which Knox’s two lawyers trained on the prosecution case a relentless barrage of indignation tinged with ridicule. Knox’s other counsel, Luciano Ghirga, a portly attorney with a showman’s touch, had his client stifling giggles as he poured scorn on a prosecution witness – a homeless man who had contradicted Knox’s alibi for the night of the killing. Earlier, Ghirga appeared close to losing his temper as he accused the prosecution of irregularities in the conduct of the investigation and trial. Like Dalla Vedova, he repeatedly implied that the prosecutors and police ignored evidence that failed to support their theories. He told the court that Knox was midway in age between his own two children and that her trial had caused him personal distress. He ridiculed the notion that Knox – “the best sort of guest this city could have” – would suddenly opt to take part in a vicious and bloody killing. As he ended the defence’s summing up, he twice extended a hand towards Knox and caressed the back of her head. She leant forward so that her hair fell in front of her face, hiding it from view. Dalla Vedova, an immaculately groomed Rome lawyer, wholly different from Ghirga, also hit an emotional note when he asked rhetorically how many times he and other members of her legal team, had heard Knox say: “Why won’t they believe me?” The Seattle student is appealing against a 26-year sentence for murder. Her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who is serving a 25-year sentence is also appealing. A decision is expected on Monday after both appellants have addressed the court. They are accused of taking part with a third man, Rudy Guede, in what a lower court decided was a drug-fuelled sex game that ended in tragedy when Knox slashed Kercher’s throat while she was held by the two men. Guede, a small-time drug dealer, was convicted separately. Dalla Vedova told the court his client had spent more than 1,000 days in prison because of “evidence that cannot stand up to other hypotheses”. During that time, she had been “crucified – impaled in the piazza” for a crime she never committed, he said. On Monday, another lawyer at the appeal had branded the 24 year-old Knox an “enchanting witch”. It was the latest of many religious or occult images to be deployed in a case that has also been laden with sexual allusion. The appellants argue Kercher was killed by Guede alone after the Ivory Coast-born drifter broke into the flat she shared with Knox. Dalla Vedova began a point-by-point examination of the case against the American by looking at a statement, made to police after an all-night interrogation. She had not been given any legal assistance and, at the time she was no more than a ragazzina , a young girl, with scant knowledge of Italian on her first trip abroad, he said. Knox had come to Italy less than a month before to study, along with Kercher, at Perugia’s university for foreigners. Much of the rest of the prosecution case, claimed her lawyer, was based on “conjecture”. Meredith Kercher Amanda Knox Italy Europe United States John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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In a day of legal theatrics, defence team ridicules prosecution case and tells jury not to let sympathy blur their judgement The judges and jurors who will decide whether Amanda Knox and her Italian former boyfriend stay in jail for much of the rest of their lives for the murder of Meredith Kercher were told on Thursday not to let sympathy for the victim’s family blur their judgment. The lawyer for the Kercher family had repeatedly stressed this week the horror of the crime and the suffering of the victim’s relatives. But that was not the point, said Knox’s counsel, Carlo Dalla Vedova. “Be respectful of the pain caused by the death of Meredith Kercher. But don’t make the mistake of keeping two innocent people in jail,” he declared. “Pain is not a legal argument.” His appeal came on a day of legal theatrics in which Knox’s two lawyers trained on the prosecution case a relentless barrage of indignation tinged with ridicule. Knox’s other counsel, Luciano Ghirga, a portly attorney with a showman’s touch, had his client stifling giggles as he poured scorn on a prosecution witness – a homeless man who had contradicted Knox’s alibi for the night of the killing. Earlier, Ghirga appeared close to losing his temper as he accused the prosecution of irregularities in the conduct of the investigation and trial. Like Dalla Vedova, he repeatedly implied that the prosecutors and police ignored evidence that failed to support their theories. He told the court that Knox was midway in age between his own two children and that her trial had caused him personal distress. He ridiculed the notion that Knox – “the best sort of guest this city could have” – would suddenly opt to take part in a vicious and bloody killing. As he ended the defence’s summing up, he twice extended a hand towards Knox and caressed the back of her head. She leant forward so that her hair fell in front of her face, hiding it from view. Dalla Vedova, an immaculately groomed Rome lawyer, wholly different from Ghirga, also hit an emotional note when he asked rhetorically how many times he and other members of her legal team, had heard Knox say: “Why won’t they believe me?” The Seattle student is appealing against a 26-year sentence for murder. Her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, who is serving a 25-year sentence is also appealing. A decision is expected on Monday after both appellants have addressed the court. They are accused of taking part with a third man, Rudy Guede, in what a lower court decided was a drug-fuelled sex game that ended in tragedy when Knox slashed Kercher’s throat while she was held by the two men. Guede, a small-time drug dealer, was convicted separately. Dalla Vedova told the court his client had spent more than 1,000 days in prison because of “evidence that cannot stand up to other hypotheses”. During that time, she had been “crucified – impaled in the piazza” for a crime she never committed, he said. On Monday, another lawyer at the appeal had branded the 24 year-old Knox an “enchanting witch”. It was the latest of many religious or occult images to be deployed in a case that has also been laden with sexual allusion. The appellants argue Kercher was killed by Guede alone after the Ivory Coast-born drifter broke into the flat she shared with Knox. Dalla Vedova began a point-by-point examination of the case against the American by looking at a statement, made to police after an all-night interrogation. She had not been given any legal assistance and, at the time she was no more than a ragazzina , a young girl, with scant knowledge of Italian on her first trip abroad, he said. Knox had come to Italy less than a month before to study, along with Kercher, at Perugia’s university for foreigners. Much of the rest of the prosecution case, claimed her lawyer, was based on “conjecture”. Meredith Kercher Amanda Knox Italy Europe United States John Hooper guardian.co.uk
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Sting operation to arrest physics graduate, 26, raises concerns that US Muslims might be targeted using entrapment techniques The dramatic arrest of a man in Massachusetts accused of plotting to crash explosive-filled miniature airplanes into the US Capitol and the Pentagon has sparked fresh concerns that the FBI might be using entrapment techniques aimed at Muslims in America. Rezwan Ferdaus, a 26-year-old US citizen and physics graduate who lived at home with his parents in Ashland, near Boston, was the target of an FBI sting in which he bought a miniature aircraft that he planned to outfit as a flying bomb. However, some legal organisations and Muslim groups have questioned whether Ferdaus, whose activities were carried out with two undercover FBI agents posing as terrorists, would have been able to carry out such a sophisticated plot if left to his own devices. In numerous previous cases in the US, the FBI has been accused of over-zealousness in its investigations and of entrapping people into terror plots who might otherwise not have carried out an attack. “It deeply concerns us. It is another in a pattern of high-profile cases. Would this person have conceived or executed this plot without the influence of the FBI?” said Heidi Boghosian, president of the National Lawyers Guild. The Council on American-Islamic Relations also expressed its concern and wondered if more details would later emerge at trial that showed the full scale of the FBI involvement in setting up the sting. “There is a big, big difference between a plot initiated by the FBI and a plot initiated by a suspect, and it seems this might have been initiated by the FBI,” said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s director of communications. The lengthy affidavit filed by prosecutors against Ferdaus details an elaborate plot in which he repeatedly expressed his desire to kill Americans and his support for Islamic jihad. The affidavit showed he came up with a detailed plan of attack and even scouted his targets in Washington in person. He also built mobile phone “detonators” that he supplied to undercover FBI agents posing as al-Qaida terrorists and expressed his pleasure when told him they had been used to kill American soldiers in Iraq. However, it also contains some areas of concern. Few details are given as to how Ferdaus came to the attention of the FBI. Mention is only made of a co-operating witness, known as CW, who met Ferdaus in December 2010 and soon began recording his conversations. No details are given as to CW’s identity, but it is mentioned that he or she has a criminal record and has served time in prison. That raises the prospect that the CW may have had some ulterior motive to bring an alleged terror suspect to the attention of the FBI or could be an unreliable witness. Another potential area of concern is a meeting on 19 April 2011, when the undercover agents met with Ferdaus and questioned the “feasibility” of his plan. That raises the prospect that the FBI agents were somehow goading Ferdaus into more action. “Ferdaus responded in a defensive manner that he had made progress,” the affidavit stated. At the same meeting the undercover agents also gave financial assistance for Ferdaus to travel to Washington on a scouting trip: a fact that raises the question of whether he would have made the trip without that financial help. The undercover agents also supplied thousands of dollars in cash for Ferdaus to buy the F-86 Sabre miniature plane to be used in an attack. Another portion of the affidavit also details Ferdaus’s enthusiasm for making mobile phone detonation devices that he believed were being sent to Iraq and used by terrorists. Ferdaus suggested sending a box of 50 mobile phones to war zones where terrorists were in need of them. He even wanted to set up a sort of workshop to produce up to 30 of the devices a week. “Ferdaus indicated that he could write instructions or make a video on how to construct the cell phone detonation devices,” the affidavit said. Such an apparently outlandish idea that hinges on the idea that Islamic terrorists are desperately short of cheap mobile phones might suggest Ferdaus was, to some extent, a fantasist rather than a genuine threat. However, some legal experts said that the case against Ferdaus appeared compelling, especially as he frequently and repeatedly indicated his desire and willingness to carry out terrorist attacks against Americans. In trying to mount a successful defence of entrapment it is vital to prove that a suspect has no pre-disposition to the crime they are accused of doing. In the Ferdaus case that would seem to be difficult, lawyers said. “He took the weaponry and agreed to do it. That demonstrates a propensity and willingness to do it,” said Anthony Barkow, a former terrorism prosecutor and executive director of the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at New York University. Barkow defended the FBI investigation and said that the US authorities took careful steps to avoid the issue of entrapment. “The Justice Department is very aware of this issue,” he said. Certainly the affidavit against Ferdaus paints a compelling picture of a man hellbent on waging jihad in America and eager to take the guns and explosives eventually supplied to him by the undercover FBI agents. He repeatedly states in recorded conversations that he is happy for Americans to die and that the idea for the attack was his own. “That’s excellent,” Ferdaus said when told one of his phone detonators had been used overseas and had killed Americans. The prosecution case also reveals how Ferdaus ordered the plane and rented a storage facility in which to keep it and then took delivery from the FBI agents of 25 pounds of C-4 explosives, three grenades and six AK-47 rifles. It also shows Ferdaus explaining how he had become convinced that he needed to attack America after viewing jihadist websites online. “I just can’t stop; there is no other choice for me,” he said of his decision to launch the attacks. Prosecutors have staunchly defended the FBI operation. “Our top priority is to protect our nation from terrorism and national security threats,” said US attorney Carmen Ortiz. FBI officials have also said the investigation was carried out responsibly and to head off a real threat. “We have an obligation to take action to protect the public whenever an individual expresses a desire to commit violence. A committed individual, even one with no direct connections to, or formal training from, an international terrorist organization, can pose a serious danger to the community,” said Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division FBI Global terrorism United States Massachusetts Race issues Paul Harris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Sting operation to arrest physics graduate, 26, raises concerns that US Muslims might be targeted using entrapment techniques The dramatic arrest of a man in Massachusetts accused of plotting to crash explosive-filled miniature airplanes into the US Capitol and the Pentagon has sparked fresh concerns that the FBI might be using entrapment techniques aimed at Muslims in America. Rezwan Ferdaus, a 26-year-old US citizen and physics graduate who lived at home with his parents in Ashland, near Boston, was the target of an FBI sting in which he bought a miniature aircraft that he planned to outfit as a flying bomb. However, some legal organisations and Muslim groups have questioned whether Ferdaus, whose activities were carried out with two undercover FBI agents posing as terrorists, would have been able to carry out such a sophisticated plot if left to his own devices. In numerous previous cases in the US, the FBI has been accused of over-zealousness in its investigations and of entrapping people into terror plots who might otherwise not have carried out an attack. “It deeply concerns us. It is another in a pattern of high-profile cases. Would this person have conceived or executed this plot without the influence of the FBI?” said Heidi Boghosian, president of the National Lawyers Guild. The Council on American-Islamic Relations also expressed its concern and wondered if more details would later emerge at trial that showed the full scale of the FBI involvement in setting up the sting. “There is a big, big difference between a plot initiated by the FBI and a plot initiated by a suspect, and it seems this might have been initiated by the FBI,” said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s director of communications. The lengthy affidavit filed by prosecutors against Ferdaus details an elaborate plot in which he repeatedly expressed his desire to kill Americans and his support for Islamic jihad. The affidavit showed he came up with a detailed plan of attack and even scouted his targets in Washington in person. He also built mobile phone “detonators” that he supplied to undercover FBI agents posing as al-Qaida terrorists and expressed his pleasure when told him they had been used to kill American soldiers in Iraq. However, it also contains some areas of concern. Few details are given as to how Ferdaus came to the attention of the FBI. Mention is only made of a co-operating witness, known as CW, who met Ferdaus in December 2010 and soon began recording his conversations. No details are given as to CW’s identity, but it is mentioned that he or she has a criminal record and has served time in prison. That raises the prospect that the CW may have had some ulterior motive to bring an alleged terror suspect to the attention of the FBI or could be an unreliable witness. Another potential area of concern is a meeting on 19 April 2011, when the undercover agents met with Ferdaus and questioned the “feasibility” of his plan. That raises the prospect that the FBI agents were somehow goading Ferdaus into more action. “Ferdaus responded in a defensive manner that he had made progress,” the affidavit stated. At the same meeting the undercover agents also gave financial assistance for Ferdaus to travel to Washington on a scouting trip: a fact that raises the question of whether he would have made the trip without that financial help. The undercover agents also supplied thousands of dollars in cash for Ferdaus to buy the F-86 Sabre miniature plane to be used in an attack. Another portion of the affidavit also details Ferdaus’s enthusiasm for making mobile phone detonation devices that he believed were being sent to Iraq and used by terrorists. Ferdaus suggested sending a box of 50 mobile phones to war zones where terrorists were in need of them. He even wanted to set up a sort of workshop to produce up to 30 of the devices a week. “Ferdaus indicated that he could write instructions or make a video on how to construct the cell phone detonation devices,” the affidavit said. Such an apparently outlandish idea that hinges on the idea that Islamic terrorists are desperately short of cheap mobile phones might suggest Ferdaus was, to some extent, a fantasist rather than a genuine threat. However, some legal experts said that the case against Ferdaus appeared compelling, especially as he frequently and repeatedly indicated his desire and willingness to carry out terrorist attacks against Americans. In trying to mount a successful defence of entrapment it is vital to prove that a suspect has no pre-disposition to the crime they are accused of doing. In the Ferdaus case that would seem to be difficult, lawyers said. “He took the weaponry and agreed to do it. That demonstrates a propensity and willingness to do it,” said Anthony Barkow, a former terrorism prosecutor and executive director of the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at New York University. Barkow defended the FBI investigation and said that the US authorities took careful steps to avoid the issue of entrapment. “The Justice Department is very aware of this issue,” he said. Certainly the affidavit against Ferdaus paints a compelling picture of a man hellbent on waging jihad in America and eager to take the guns and explosives eventually supplied to him by the undercover FBI agents. He repeatedly states in recorded conversations that he is happy for Americans to die and that the idea for the attack was his own. “That’s excellent,” Ferdaus said when told one of his phone detonators had been used overseas and had killed Americans. The prosecution case also reveals how Ferdaus ordered the plane and rented a storage facility in which to keep it and then took delivery from the FBI agents of 25 pounds of C-4 explosives, three grenades and six AK-47 rifles. It also shows Ferdaus explaining how he had become convinced that he needed to attack America after viewing jihadist websites online. “I just can’t stop; there is no other choice for me,” he said of his decision to launch the attacks. Prosecutors have staunchly defended the FBI operation. “Our top priority is to protect our nation from terrorism and national security threats,” said US attorney Carmen Ortiz. FBI officials have also said the investigation was carried out responsibly and to head off a real threat. “We have an obligation to take action to protect the public whenever an individual expresses a desire to commit violence. A committed individual, even one with no direct connections to, or formal training from, an international terrorist organization, can pose a serious danger to the community,” said Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division FBI Global terrorism United States Massachusetts Race issues Paul Harris guardian.co.uk
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Indiscriminate fire continues after National Transitional Council forces retake airport Libyan interim government forces recaptured the airport in Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi’s birthplace, on Thursday, amid mounting concern for civilians trapped inside the besieged city. National Transitional Council fighters took full control of Sirte airport, Reuters witnesses said. They had taken it two weeks ago, but then lost it again. Sirte’s pro-Gaddafi defenders have used sniper, rocket and artillery fire to fight off two NTC assaults on the city in the past week. Each side has accused the other of endangering civilians. “They’re shelling constantly. There’s indiscriminate fire within individual neighbourhoods and from one area to another,” said Hassan, a resident who escaped the city. Civilians have been fleeing the coastal city of 100,000 that is also under Nato aerial attack. Libyan authorities have asked the UN for fuel for ambulances to evacuate wounded people, a UN source in Libya said. The UN is sending trucks of clean drinking water for civilians crammed into vehicles leaving Sirte for Benghazi in the west or Misrata in the east, the source said. But fighting has prevented aid workers reaching Sirte and Bani Walid, another town held by Gaddafi loyalists. “There are two places we’d really like access to, Sirte and Ben Walid, because of concern on the impact of conflict on the civilian population,” the source told Reuters in Geneva. UN officials do not have any direct contact with pro-Gaddafi forces holed up in Sirte, where both sides accuse the other of cutting off water and electricity, he said. Aid agencies said on Wednesday a humanitarian disaster was looming in Sirte amid rising casualties and shrinking supplies of water, electricity and food. Fighting on Sirte’s eastern and western approaches was less intense on Thursday than on previous days, but the NTC said it had cleared a route between the two fronts, allowing its forces to link up – a strategic boost along with retaking the airport. More than a month after NTC fighters captured the capital Tripoli, Gaddafi remains on the run, trying to rally resistance to those who ended his 42-year rule, although some of his family members have taken refuge in neighbouring Algeria and Niger. Interpol issued an alert calling for the arrest of Gaddafi’s son Saadi who fled to Niger three weeks ago. The Lyon-based police agency said it was acting at the request of the NTC, which accuses Saadi of leading military units responsible for crackdowns on protests and of misappropriating property. Interpol has already issued “red notices” for the arrest of Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, all wanted for the international criminal court for alleged crimes against humanity. Gaddafi’s former prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, who had fled to Tunisia, only to be arrested for illegal entry, has started a hunger strike in prison in protest at a Libyan request for his extradition, his lawyer said. Tunisian prosecutors say Mahmoudi will stay in jail pending an extradition decision, even though he won an appeal against a six-month prison sentence for entering Tunisia illegally. Libya’s new rulers are trying to get a grip on the whole country, rein in their own unruly militias and get on with reconstruction and democratic reform. US Senator John McCain, visiting Tripoli, said Gaddafi’s overthrow had set an example to people all over the world, adding that US investors were keen to do business with oil-exporting Libya once fighting there had stopped. “We believe very strongly that the people of Libya today are inspiring the people in Tehran, in Damascus, and even in Beijing and Moscow. They continue to inspire the world – and let people know that even the worst dictators can be overthrown and be replaced by freedom and democracy,” he told a news conference. Libya Middle East guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Indiscriminate fire continues after National Transitional Council forces retake airport Libyan interim government forces recaptured the airport in Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi’s birthplace, on Thursday, amid mounting concern for civilians trapped inside the besieged city. National Transitional Council fighters took full control of Sirte airport, Reuters witnesses said. They had taken it two weeks ago, but then lost it again. Sirte’s pro-Gaddafi defenders have used sniper, rocket and artillery fire to fight off two NTC assaults on the city in the past week. Each side has accused the other of endangering civilians. “They’re shelling constantly. There’s indiscriminate fire within individual neighbourhoods and from one area to another,” said Hassan, a resident who escaped the city. Civilians have been fleeing the coastal city of 100,000 that is also under Nato aerial attack. Libyan authorities have asked the UN for fuel for ambulances to evacuate wounded people, a UN source in Libya said. The UN is sending trucks of clean drinking water for civilians crammed into vehicles leaving Sirte for Benghazi in the west or Misrata in the east, the source said. But fighting has prevented aid workers reaching Sirte and Bani Walid, another town held by Gaddafi loyalists. “There are two places we’d really like access to, Sirte and Ben Walid, because of concern on the impact of conflict on the civilian population,” the source told Reuters in Geneva. UN officials do not have any direct contact with pro-Gaddafi forces holed up in Sirte, where both sides accuse the other of cutting off water and electricity, he said. Aid agencies said on Wednesday a humanitarian disaster was looming in Sirte amid rising casualties and shrinking supplies of water, electricity and food. Fighting on Sirte’s eastern and western approaches was less intense on Thursday than on previous days, but the NTC said it had cleared a route between the two fronts, allowing its forces to link up – a strategic boost along with retaking the airport. More than a month after NTC fighters captured the capital Tripoli, Gaddafi remains on the run, trying to rally resistance to those who ended his 42-year rule, although some of his family members have taken refuge in neighbouring Algeria and Niger. Interpol issued an alert calling for the arrest of Gaddafi’s son Saadi who fled to Niger three weeks ago. The Lyon-based police agency said it was acting at the request of the NTC, which accuses Saadi of leading military units responsible for crackdowns on protests and of misappropriating property. Interpol has already issued “red notices” for the arrest of Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, all wanted for the international criminal court for alleged crimes against humanity. Gaddafi’s former prime minister, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, who had fled to Tunisia, only to be arrested for illegal entry, has started a hunger strike in prison in protest at a Libyan request for his extradition, his lawyer said. Tunisian prosecutors say Mahmoudi will stay in jail pending an extradition decision, even though he won an appeal against a six-month prison sentence for entering Tunisia illegally. Libya’s new rulers are trying to get a grip on the whole country, rein in their own unruly militias and get on with reconstruction and democratic reform. US Senator John McCain, visiting Tripoli, said Gaddafi’s overthrow had set an example to people all over the world, adding that US investors were keen to do business with oil-exporting Libya once fighting there had stopped. “We believe very strongly that the people of Libya today are inspiring the people in Tehran, in Damascus, and even in Beijing and Moscow. They continue to inspire the world – and let people know that even the worst dictators can be overthrown and be replaced by freedom and democracy,” he told a news conference. Libya Middle East guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …China’s great leap towards superpower status with space station test launch
September 29, 2011 No Comment
The launch of the unmanned Tiangong 1 module comes in a year when the US has wound down its space shuttle fleet China marked a new milestone on its road towards superpower status on Thursday night by putting its first research module – called the Heavenly Palace – into orbit. The unmanned Tiangong 1 laboratory, launched from a remote base in the Gobi desert, is a step towards the construction of a fully-fledged orbiting platform. This latest demonstration of Beijing’s otherworldly ambitions comes in a year when the US has wound down its space shuttle fleet and its partners have said the International Space Station should be buried at sea in 2020. China’s 10.5-metre cylinder will ride 220 miles into space on board the Long March 2F rocket that blasted off from the Jiuquan satellite launch centre. It will remain in orbit for two years and be used by Chinese scientists and astronauts to practise rendezvous and docking techniques needed to construct bigger space structures. Another vessel, Shenzhou 8, will launch later this year and attempt to link up with the lab. If this is successful and life support systems within the module remain stable, manned missions will be tried next year and yuhangyuan [astronauts] will spend two weeks inside the lab. Wu Ping, a spokeswoman, said these missions could include China’s first female astronauts. Following China’s first manned space flight in 2003 , the launch of the Heavenly Palace is the second stage in a 10-year programme to build a manned 60-tonne platform by 2020. This could give China the largest habitable space platform. That title currently belongs to the International Space Station (ISS), which is supported by the US, Europe, Russia, Japan and Canada. The 400-tonne ISS’s future is in doubt because of the high cost of ferrying supplies through space and the economic problems faced by its principal funders. China’s political differences with the US have so far stymied hopes to draw the country into this international programme. When the current commitments expire in 2020, Russian scientists have proposed that the ISS be left to fall into an ocean. China attaches great political prestige to its space programme – as evidenced by launch events in Beijing and Jiuquan attended by president Hu Jintao and key politburo members. At this stage, Beijing claims its programme is cheaper. While Russia and the US initially practised docking by sending up two vessels for each trial, China said it saves money by leaving one in space for an extended time. “The US is still ahead – they sent a man to the moon 40 years ago,” said Fu Song, a professor at the school of aerospace at Tsinghua University. “But there is the advantage for latecomers. The cost is less and wrong turns can be avoided. If the Tiangong is successful, it will be a significant symbol for the Chinese space industry.” Though the hardware is based primarily on Russian technology, China says it has enhanced navigation and other systems. The launch is part of a wider space strategy which has notched up several notable achievements in recent years. In 2003, China became only the third country to independently put a man – Yang Liwei – in space. Four years later, it put a satellite – the Chang-e – into lunar orbit and, more aggressively, proved the effectiveness of a satellite-busting rocket. In 2013, it will collaborate with Russia to send a probe to Mars. Four years after that, the country’s scientists expect to land a lunar rover as a step towards a manned moon landing. The Tiangong will provide useful preparation for all future missions, according to Ping. The forward momentum of China’s programme stands in contrast to that of the old space powers. The US mothballed its space shuttle programme in July, when the Atlantis completed its final mission. Now that Barack Obama has reversed plans for a new manned lunar mission, China is the only country with realistic plans to land humans on the moon. Such developments could also add to concerns in Washington that China’s space push may be driven my military motives. This is dismissed by Chinese academics. Jiao Weixin, professor in the school of earth and space at Peking University, said the spirit of space exploration now was different from the past. “During the cold war, the Soviet Union and the US competed in a space race. Today, the trend is towards peaceful, international co-operation. “China is involved for scientific reasons and to gain experience. It has no goal of surpassing other countries.” Different trajectories After edging out the Soviets and winning the race to land a human on the moon in 1969, the United States has enjoyed more than four decades unchallenged as the world’s dominant force in space. Today’s(Thursday) The launch on Thursday of the first stage of a new Chinese space station could be seen as the beginnings of a shift in that power. That China has joined the US and Russia as the third nation with the capability of a permanent crewed presence in space is not, in itself, a significant challenge to American supremacy. Nasa launched its first habitable research laboratory, Skylab, in 1973, and even if China’s Tiangong-1 remains safely into orbit after its arrival, it is still likely to be at least another year before its astronauts are able to make any kind of extended-duration stay. The wider concern of those who follow the US space programme is the converse trajectories the two nations appear to be taking in support of their ambitions in space. China, which has invested millions of dollars in recent years into a burgeoning space programme, now has a flagship piece of hardware already off the launchpad. Nasa currently has no manned launch capability of its own for crewed vehicles followingafter the retirement of the space shuttle fleet this summer. It is a situation that rankles with prominent figures in the US space community, among them Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, who last week lambasted the American programme as an embarrassment”embarrassing” that could soon be eclipsed by the achievements of other nations. “For a country that did so much for so long to achieve a leadership position in space exploration and exploitation, this is viewed by many as lamentably embarrassing and unacceptable,” he told a congressional hearing on the future of space flight. “Nasa leaders enthusiastically assured the American people that the agency was embarking on a new age of discovery. But the termination of the shuttle, the cancellation of existing rocket and spacecraft programmes, the lay-off of thousands of aerospace workers [and] the outlook for American space activity through the next decade is difficult to reconcile with agency assertions.” Nasa did, earlier this month, announce its vision of a future spacecraft, the Space Launch System , which will be the most powerful rocket ever built and is designed to carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. Its cost, estimated in leaked Nasa calculations at more than $62bn over the next 15 years, could yet prove a barrier and the first unmanned test flights are not scheduled until 2017. In the shorter term, Nasa is contracting out work that was previously its lifeblood. Cargo, and eventually crew, transportation to the international space station is being tendered to commercial enterprises such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, established respectively by internet entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. SpaceX plans its first cargo transfer launch in November. Until commercial spacecraft are deemed safe enough, US astronauts must hitch rides aboard Russia’s Soviet-era Soyuz spacecraft, at a cost of up to $63m per seat. But the Russian programme is embroiled in its own turmoil after an unmanned Soyuz failed on its way to the international space station last month, and the next manned mission was delayed until November. China’s progress, and uncertainty elsewhere, have led to renewed calls for greater partnership between the world’s space-faring nations, although US co-operation with the Chinese is specifically prohibited by an act of Congress. “China has the technology but doesn’t have the spaceflight experience that we do,” said Leroy Chiao, a former ISS commander and shuttle astronaut, and advocate for closer ties. “Co-operation is the way forward. You can argue that Nasa and Russia did all this before but China started its programme in 2003 and in eight years has demonstrated more ambitious flights. It has a modern vehicle with sophisticated technology, so this isn’t just a copy of Skylab. It leaves China on the verge of a major step forward.”Copy ends Richard Luscombe in Miami China Space The space shuttle Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …China’s great leap towards superpower status with space station test launch
September 29, 2011 No Comment
The launch of the unmanned Tiangong 1 module comes in a year when the US has wound down its space shuttle fleet China marked a new milestone on its road towards superpower status on Thursday night by putting its first research module – called the Heavenly Palace – into orbit. The unmanned Tiangong 1 laboratory, launched from a remote base in the Gobi desert, is a step towards the construction of a fully-fledged orbiting platform. This latest demonstration of Beijing’s otherworldly ambitions comes in a year when the US has wound down its space shuttle fleet and its partners have said the International Space Station should be buried at sea in 2020. China’s 10.5-metre cylinder will ride 220 miles into space on board the Long March 2F rocket that blasted off from the Jiuquan satellite launch centre. It will remain in orbit for two years and be used by Chinese scientists and astronauts to practise rendezvous and docking techniques needed to construct bigger space structures. Another vessel, Shenzhou 8, will launch later this year and attempt to link up with the lab. If this is successful and life support systems within the module remain stable, manned missions will be tried next year and yuhangyuan [astronauts] will spend two weeks inside the lab. Wu Ping, a spokeswoman, said these missions could include China’s first female astronauts. Following China’s first manned space flight in 2003 , the launch of the Heavenly Palace is the second stage in a 10-year programme to build a manned 60-tonne platform by 2020. This could give China the largest habitable space platform. That title currently belongs to the International Space Station (ISS), which is supported by the US, Europe, Russia, Japan and Canada. The 400-tonne ISS’s future is in doubt because of the high cost of ferrying supplies through space and the economic problems faced by its principal funders. China’s political differences with the US have so far stymied hopes to draw the country into this international programme. When the current commitments expire in 2020, Russian scientists have proposed that the ISS be left to fall into an ocean. China attaches great political prestige to its space programme – as evidenced by launch events in Beijing and Jiuquan attended by president Hu Jintao and key politburo members. At this stage, Beijing claims its programme is cheaper. While Russia and the US initially practised docking by sending up two vessels for each trial, China said it saves money by leaving one in space for an extended time. “The US is still ahead – they sent a man to the moon 40 years ago,” said Fu Song, a professor at the school of aerospace at Tsinghua University. “But there is the advantage for latecomers. The cost is less and wrong turns can be avoided. If the Tiangong is successful, it will be a significant symbol for the Chinese space industry.” Though the hardware is based primarily on Russian technology, China says it has enhanced navigation and other systems. The launch is part of a wider space strategy which has notched up several notable achievements in recent years. In 2003, China became only the third country to independently put a man – Yang Liwei – in space. Four years later, it put a satellite – the Chang-e – into lunar orbit and, more aggressively, proved the effectiveness of a satellite-busting rocket. In 2013, it will collaborate with Russia to send a probe to Mars. Four years after that, the country’s scientists expect to land a lunar rover as a step towards a manned moon landing. The Tiangong will provide useful preparation for all future missions, according to Ping. The forward momentum of China’s programme stands in contrast to that of the old space powers. The US mothballed its space shuttle programme in July, when the Atlantis completed its final mission. Now that Barack Obama has reversed plans for a new manned lunar mission, China is the only country with realistic plans to land humans on the moon. Such developments could also add to concerns in Washington that China’s space push may be driven my military motives. This is dismissed by Chinese academics. Jiao Weixin, professor in the school of earth and space at Peking University, said the spirit of space exploration now was different from the past. “During the cold war, the Soviet Union and the US competed in a space race. Today, the trend is towards peaceful, international co-operation. “China is involved for scientific reasons and to gain experience. It has no goal of surpassing other countries.” Different trajectories After edging out the Soviets and winning the race to land a human on the moon in 1969, the United States has enjoyed more than four decades unchallenged as the world’s dominant force in space. Today’s(Thursday) The launch on Thursday of the first stage of a new Chinese space station could be seen as the beginnings of a shift in that power. That China has joined the US and Russia as the third nation with the capability of a permanent crewed presence in space is not, in itself, a significant challenge to American supremacy. Nasa launched its first habitable research laboratory, Skylab, in 1973, and even if China’s Tiangong-1 remains safely into orbit after its arrival, it is still likely to be at least another year before its astronauts are able to make any kind of extended-duration stay. The wider concern of those who follow the US space programme is the converse trajectories the two nations appear to be taking in support of their ambitions in space. China, which has invested millions of dollars in recent years into a burgeoning space programme, now has a flagship piece of hardware already off the launchpad. Nasa currently has no manned launch capability of its own for crewed vehicles followingafter the retirement of the space shuttle fleet this summer. It is a situation that rankles with prominent figures in the US space community, among them Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, who last week lambasted the American programme as an embarrassment”embarrassing” that could soon be eclipsed by the achievements of other nations. “For a country that did so much for so long to achieve a leadership position in space exploration and exploitation, this is viewed by many as lamentably embarrassing and unacceptable,” he told a congressional hearing on the future of space flight. “Nasa leaders enthusiastically assured the American people that the agency was embarking on a new age of discovery. But the termination of the shuttle, the cancellation of existing rocket and spacecraft programmes, the lay-off of thousands of aerospace workers [and] the outlook for American space activity through the next decade is difficult to reconcile with agency assertions.” Nasa did, earlier this month, announce its vision of a future spacecraft, the Space Launch System , which will be the most powerful rocket ever built and is designed to carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. Its cost, estimated in leaked Nasa calculations at more than $62bn over the next 15 years, could yet prove a barrier and the first unmanned test flights are not scheduled until 2017. In the shorter term, Nasa is contracting out work that was previously its lifeblood. Cargo, and eventually crew, transportation to the international space station is being tendered to commercial enterprises such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, established respectively by internet entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. SpaceX plans its first cargo transfer launch in November. Until commercial spacecraft are deemed safe enough, US astronauts must hitch rides aboard Russia’s Soviet-era Soyuz spacecraft, at a cost of up to $63m per seat. But the Russian programme is embroiled in its own turmoil after an unmanned Soyuz failed on its way to the international space station last month, and the next manned mission was delayed until November. China’s progress, and uncertainty elsewhere, have led to renewed calls for greater partnership between the world’s space-faring nations, although US co-operation with the Chinese is specifically prohibited by an act of Congress. “China has the technology but doesn’t have the spaceflight experience that we do,” said Leroy Chiao, a former ISS commander and shuttle astronaut, and advocate for closer ties. “Co-operation is the way forward. You can argue that Nasa and Russia did all this before but China started its programme in 2003 and in eight years has demonstrated more ambitious flights. It has a modern vehicle with sophisticated technology, so this isn’t just a copy of Skylab. It leaves China on the verge of a major step forward.”Copy ends Richard Luscombe in Miami China Space The space shuttle Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Michigan Man Charged After Federal Authorities Find More Than 4,000 lbs of Explosives
September 29, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media A crank or another Timothy McVeigh is probably what the FBI would like to know. The Michigan Militia is a well-known extremist group as well, so I imagine any ties with their members will be examined closely. Video is from WWTV in Traverse City, Mich. (AP) TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Federal authorities say a Michigan man bought and hid more than 4,000 pounds of explosives with enough potential firepower to equal the Oklahoma City bombing and told an undercover informant that “when the government takes over, we will be mercenaries.” John Francis Lechner, 64, was arrested last week on a charge of possessing explosives while facing other charges and ordered held following a U.S. District Court hearing Monday. His attorney said Lechner, a builder and farmer from Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula, obtained the materials years ago for construction projects. “He’s not a terrorist, he’s not a mercenary, he’s not some freedom fighter,” defense attorney Charles Malette told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “He intended no type of violence, pro- or anti-government. The man is not like that.” However you slice it though that’s a staggering amount of explosives. DeClaire said he obtained a search warrant the same day and found 83 bags of the mixture, each weighing about 50 pounds. The combined weight was about 4,150 pounds. The next day, he found a supply of explosive boosters, detonating cord and blasting caps at Lechner’s mother’s nearby home. Another box of blasting caps was recovered in Sault Ste. Marie, he said. During the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Greeley asked how big an explosion could result from detonating the materials. “ The quantity we’re talking about would be at least that of an Oklahoma City bombing or more ,” DeClaire replied, according to The Mining Journal of Marquette ( http://bit.ly/nIoxFU ).
Continue reading …Michigan Man Charged After Federal Authorities Find More Than 4,000 lbs of Explosives
September 29, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media A crank or another Timothy McVeigh is probably what the FBI would like to know. The Michigan Militia is a well-known extremist group as well, so I imagine any ties with their members will be examined closely. Video is from WWTV in Traverse City, Mich. (AP) TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Federal authorities say a Michigan man bought and hid more than 4,000 pounds of explosives with enough potential firepower to equal the Oklahoma City bombing and told an undercover informant that “when the government takes over, we will be mercenaries.” John Francis Lechner, 64, was arrested last week on a charge of possessing explosives while facing other charges and ordered held following a U.S. District Court hearing Monday. His attorney said Lechner, a builder and farmer from Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula, obtained the materials years ago for construction projects. “He’s not a terrorist, he’s not a mercenary, he’s not some freedom fighter,” defense attorney Charles Malette told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “He intended no type of violence, pro- or anti-government. The man is not like that.” However you slice it though that’s a staggering amount of explosives. DeClaire said he obtained a search warrant the same day and found 83 bags of the mixture, each weighing about 50 pounds. The combined weight was about 4,150 pounds. The next day, he found a supply of explosive boosters, detonating cord and blasting caps at Lechner’s mother’s nearby home. Another box of blasting caps was recovered in Sault Ste. Marie, he said. During the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy Greeley asked how big an explosion could result from detonating the materials. “ The quantity we’re talking about would be at least that of an Oklahoma City bombing or more ,” DeClaire replied, according to The Mining Journal of Marquette ( http://bit.ly/nIoxFU ).
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