Leader of 1990s Serbian insurgency in Croatia makes no move to appeal or delay transfer after seven years on the run The Serbian authorities moved swiftly today to rid themselves of their last international war crimes suspect and fugitive, extraditing the 1990s warlord Goran Hadzic for trial at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague only 48 hours after he was arrested. The extradition was hastened by the fact that Hadzic, a leader of the armed Serbian insurgency in Croatia in the early 1990s, did not appeal or seek to delay the transfer after seven years on the run ended with his capture in the hills north of Belgrade on Wednesday. The capture crowned 18 years of operations for the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, with Hadzic the last of 161 wanted for trial . Wednesday’s arrest, two months after Belgrade captured genocide suspect General Ratko Mladic and dispatched him for trial in The Hague, also marked a turning point for Serbia in seeking to turn from a pariah past to a future in line with the European mainstream. Hadzic, a former warehouse worker from Slavonia, a region in east Croatia, was a political leader of the Serbian rebellion in 1991, armed and sponsored by Slobodan Milosevic’s regime in Belgrade. He led ethnic pogroms and armed insurrection against Zagreb, after Croatia’s secession from Yugoslavia in June 1991, resulting in partition of the country and the Serbian seizure of a quarter of the territory during the war. Hadzic was president of the self-styled breakaway Serbian republic in Croatia for almost two years in 1992-93. He was indicted seven years ago and faces 14 counts of crimes against humanity and violating the laws of war for “persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds; extermination; murder; imprisonment; torture; inhumane acts; deportation; inhumane acts (forcible transfers)”, according to the charge sheet. A puppet of the Milosevic regime, Hadzic was a local leader of the campaign to expel Croats from a third of Croatia and annex the territory to a “Greater Serbia” also including half of Bosnia. The campaign ended in disaster. Helped by the then Serbian government, Hadzic went into hiding when indicted by the tribunal in 2004. Detectives from The Hague tracked him to his house in Novi Sad, north of Belgrade, but the authorities failed to seize him. He was arrested in northern Serbia, where he was rumoured to enjoy the shelter of an Orthodox monastery. Serbia’s secret services, according to media reports in Belgrade, had been tracking Hadzic for several months and he was arrested after trying to raise money by selling a painting, said to be a Modigliani. Serbia Croatia Europe Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk
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Temperatures nearing 40C and high humidity leave 22 dead, fill hospital emergency rooms and exacerbate midwest drought A stifling US heatwave which has left at least 22 people dead and set dozens of all-time local temperature records is moving east across the country, bringing temperatures approaching 40C along with high humidity. The US National Weather Service had hot weather warnings in place for large sections of the country’s centre and east. The so-called heat index, a calculation of how warm it feels through the combination of temperature and humidity, exceeded 120F (49C) in parts of the midwest over recent days, with similar conditions expected into the weekend. “The combination of prolonged high levels of temperature and humidity will cause a potentially dangerous public health situation through Saturday,” the service warned on its website . On Wednesday, 55 different places saw record high temperatures, with another 60 all-time highs matched, the service said. It has blamed at least 22 deaths on the heatwave, many of them of older people. Ohio’s health department said hospital emergency rooms had been three to four times busier than normal due to cases of heatstroke and heat exhaustion. The heatwave has also reached the big cities of the east coast, with both New York and Washington DC expected to experience temperatures of around 38C or 39C over the next couple of days – bringing thousands flocking to swimming pools or coastal areas – before the mercury dips to a relatively tepid 30C. “Do not take this threat lightly,” the National Weather Service warned. “The length of this heatwave will pose a very real and dangerous health risk to at-risk groups and those that do not have access to air conditioning.” During the weekend the heatwave is expected to cover half the US. Many in the midwest have flocked to air-conditioned shopping malls or cinemas. Massive air conditioner use in southern Michigan on Thursday saw thousands of homes lose power, forcing officials to move older people without electricity to cooled communal buildings. The heat has exacerbated an existing drought in the midwest crop belt, affecting areas in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, the US Drought Monitor said. Texas remains gripped by a particularly severe drought, with 75% of the state affected. United States Natural disasters and extreme weather Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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US defence secretary to certify that repealing prohibition will not hurt military’s ability to fight The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, is set to end the ban on gay people serving openly in the armed forces, certifying that repealing the 17-year-old prohibition would not hurt the US military’s ability to fight. His decision comes two weeks after US military chiefs told Panetta that ending the ban would not affect military readiness. Dismantling the ban fulfils a 2008 campaign promise by Barack Obama, who helped usher the repeal through Congress and signed it into law late last December. The move triggered vehement opposition from some in Congress and initial reluctance from military leaders, who worried that it could trigger a backlash and erode troop cohesion on the battlefield. Defence officials said the announcement would be made later on Friday. Obama is also expected to certify the change. Repeal of the ban would become effective 60 days after certification, which could open the military to gay servicemen and women by the end of September. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, adopted under Bill Clinton, has come under an onslaught of legal challenges, including a federal court ruling early in July that ordered the US government to immediately stop enforcing the gay ban. Days later, however, the Obama administration appealed the ruling, saying that abruptly ending the ban would complicate the orderly process for repeal that had already been set in motion. A San Francisco appeals court agreed, but added a caveat: the government could not investigate, penalise or discharge anyone for being openly gay. The military services have conducted extensive internal studies and about five months of training to gauge how troops would react to the change. A survey last year found that some two-thirds would not care if the ban was lifted. Opposition to the repeal was strongest among combat troops, particularly marines. The bulk of the military has been trained on the new law, including a complex swath of details about how the change will or will not affect housing, transfers or other health and social benefits. In most cases, the guidelines demand that gay men and lesbians are treated just as any other soldier, sailor, air crew or marine is treated. As training went on this year, senior military leaders said they had seen no real problems. Panetta’s predecessor as US defence secretary, Robert Gates, told the Associated Press that people had been “mildly and pleasantly surprised at the lack of pushback in the training”. There will still be differences, however, since same sex partners will not be given the same housing and other benefits as married couples. Instead, they will be treated like unmarried couples. Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defence Network, a national organisation representing gay troops, said Panetta’s action was welcomed by gay and lesbian troops “who have had to serve their country in silence for far too long”. US military Gay rights United States guardian.co.uk
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US defence secretary to certify that repealing prohibition will not hurt military’s ability to fight The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, is set to end the ban on gay people serving openly in the armed forces, certifying that repealing the 17-year-old prohibition would not hurt the US military’s ability to fight. His decision comes two weeks after US military chiefs told Panetta that ending the ban would not affect military readiness. Dismantling the ban fulfils a 2008 campaign promise by Barack Obama, who helped usher the repeal through Congress and signed it into law late last December. The move triggered vehement opposition from some in Congress and initial reluctance from military leaders, who worried that it could trigger a backlash and erode troop cohesion on the battlefield. Defence officials said the announcement would be made later on Friday. Obama is also expected to certify the change. Repeal of the ban would become effective 60 days after certification, which could open the military to gay servicemen and women by the end of September. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, adopted under Bill Clinton, has come under an onslaught of legal challenges, including a federal court ruling early in July that ordered the US government to immediately stop enforcing the gay ban. Days later, however, the Obama administration appealed the ruling, saying that abruptly ending the ban would complicate the orderly process for repeal that had already been set in motion. A San Francisco appeals court agreed, but added a caveat: the government could not investigate, penalise or discharge anyone for being openly gay. The military services have conducted extensive internal studies and about five months of training to gauge how troops would react to the change. A survey last year found that some two-thirds would not care if the ban was lifted. Opposition to the repeal was strongest among combat troops, particularly marines. The bulk of the military has been trained on the new law, including a complex swath of details about how the change will or will not affect housing, transfers or other health and social benefits. In most cases, the guidelines demand that gay men and lesbians are treated just as any other soldier, sailor, air crew or marine is treated. As training went on this year, senior military leaders said they had seen no real problems. Panetta’s predecessor as US defence secretary, Robert Gates, told the Associated Press that people had been “mildly and pleasantly surprised at the lack of pushback in the training”. There will still be differences, however, since same sex partners will not be given the same housing and other benefits as married couples. Instead, they will be treated like unmarried couples. Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defence Network, a national organisation representing gay troops, said Panetta’s action was welcomed by gay and lesbian troops “who have had to serve their country in silence for far too long”. US military Gay rights United States guardian.co.uk
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Eurozone debt crisis takes a positive turn with bailout deal for Greece, hammered out at an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday night Financial markets have welcomed the long-awaited rescue package for Greece and the strengthening of the eurozone’s bailout fund. The €109bn (£95bn) bailout deal for Greece, which was hammered out at an emergency summit of eurozone leaders in Brussels on Thursday night, sent the euro and shares rallying across Europe on Friday morning. The value of government debt in crisis-hit Greece, Spain and Italy rose for a second day. Banking stocks, which have recently been battered by the eurozone debt crisis, were among the top risers, amid relief that a bank levy was off the table, at least for now. “It is encouraging they have come up with something and dealt with some of the restructuring,” said Louise Cooper, markets analyst at BGC Partners. “The markets have got excited about it. But the cuts to Greek debt do not put the country on a sustainable footing for growth and do not take us where we want to be.” As part of the deal, the eurozone’s €440bn rescue fund established in May last year, known as European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), will be given broader powers to help prevent the debt crisis spreading to Italy and Spain. The package agreed after weeks of bad-tempered, intense haggling, was the most radical action from the eurozone since it created the bailout fund. Currently the fund can only be used as a “last resort” to rescue a eurozone country whose plight jeopardises the stability of the euro as a whole. Under the 16-point blueprint agreed on Thursday night , the fund will be able to intervene on the secondary markets to buy up the bonds of struggling debtor countries from private investors. It can also take preemptive or “precautionary” action to nip a debt crisis in the bud by, for example, agreeing lines of credit, and supply loans to struggling eurozone countries who would use the money to shore up and recapitalise their banks. Such aid would apply, unlike at present, to countries not already in bailout programmes. The package will also allow Greece to roll over maturing debt and pay a lower interest rate on its bailout loans. The banking sector will exchange and roll over €54bn of Greek debt, with private investors taking a haircut worth 21% of the market value of their debts. Lacking detail Economists at Barclays Capital said the summit results were “more than expected but not enough to make us sleep comfortably”. “The official statement lacks detail in key areas such as private sector involvement for Greece and collateral requirements. Also, the envisaged reforms of the EFSF lack detail and we are struck that, given the additional tasks envisaged for the EFSF, the size of the EFSF is not even discussed in the document.” The euro rallied to a two-week high against the dollar, hitting $1.4440 before steadying around $1.4409. The FTSE 100 index in London climbed nearly 40 points to 5938, a gain of 0.65%, with insurers Aviva and Legal & General and banks Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland leading the gains. Spain’s Ibex and Italy’s FTSE MIB index gained nearly 1%. The yield, or interest rate, on government bonds fell in Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution Securities, said: “We questioned whether the proposals agreed in the euro area leaders’ summit would go down as the day they saved the eurozone and took the first steps towards a fiscal union or whether it would be the traditional short-term sugar rush proposal which does not stand up to scrutiny or the test of time … It might actually be somewhere in between.” “The proposals were slightly better than expected but maybe not good enough to take away the possibility of further contagion if the economic situation deteriorates. They did take Greece off the naughty step, put their arms around them and basically said ‘take your time, pay us back whenever you can’. By extending maturities and reducing interest rates they have certainly given more support to Greece, Ireland and Portugal.” European debt crisis European banks Europe Greece Euro Euro Julia Kollewe Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk
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Eurozone debt crisis takes a positive turn with bailout deal for Greece, hammered out at an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday night Financial markets have welcomed the long-awaited rescue package for Greece and the strengthening of the eurozone’s bailout fund. The €109bn (£95bn) bailout deal for Greece, which was hammered out at an emergency summit of eurozone leaders in Brussels on Thursday night, sent the euro and shares rallying across Europe on Friday morning. The value of government debt in crisis-hit Greece, Spain and Italy rose for a second day. Banking stocks, which have recently been battered by the eurozone debt crisis, were among the top risers, amid relief that a bank levy was off the table, at least for now. “It is encouraging they have come up with something and dealt with some of the restructuring,” said Louise Cooper, markets analyst at BGC Partners. “The markets have got excited about it. But the cuts to Greek debt do not put the country on a sustainable footing for growth and do not take us where we want to be.” As part of the deal, the eurozone’s €440bn rescue fund established in May last year, known as European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), will be given broader powers to help prevent the debt crisis spreading to Italy and Spain. The package agreed after weeks of bad-tempered, intense haggling, was the most radical action from the eurozone since it created the bailout fund. Currently the fund can only be used as a “last resort” to rescue a eurozone country whose plight jeopardises the stability of the euro as a whole. Under the 16-point blueprint agreed on Thursday night , the fund will be able to intervene on the secondary markets to buy up the bonds of struggling debtor countries from private investors. It can also take preemptive or “precautionary” action to nip a debt crisis in the bud by, for example, agreeing lines of credit, and supply loans to struggling eurozone countries who would use the money to shore up and recapitalise their banks. Such aid would apply, unlike at present, to countries not already in bailout programmes. The package will also allow Greece to roll over maturing debt and pay a lower interest rate on its bailout loans. The banking sector will exchange and roll over €54bn of Greek debt, with private investors taking a haircut worth 21% of the market value of their debts. Lacking detail Economists at Barclays Capital said the summit results were “more than expected but not enough to make us sleep comfortably”. “The official statement lacks detail in key areas such as private sector involvement for Greece and collateral requirements. Also, the envisaged reforms of the EFSF lack detail and we are struck that, given the additional tasks envisaged for the EFSF, the size of the EFSF is not even discussed in the document.” The euro rallied to a two-week high against the dollar, hitting $1.4440 before steadying around $1.4409. The FTSE 100 index in London climbed nearly 40 points to 5938, a gain of 0.65%, with insurers Aviva and Legal & General and banks Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland leading the gains. Spain’s Ibex and Italy’s FTSE MIB index gained nearly 1%. The yield, or interest rate, on government bonds fell in Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution Securities, said: “We questioned whether the proposals agreed in the euro area leaders’ summit would go down as the day they saved the eurozone and took the first steps towards a fiscal union or whether it would be the traditional short-term sugar rush proposal which does not stand up to scrutiny or the test of time … It might actually be somewhere in between.” “The proposals were slightly better than expected but maybe not good enough to take away the possibility of further contagion if the economic situation deteriorates. They did take Greece off the naughty step, put their arms around them and basically said ‘take your time, pay us back whenever you can’. By extending maturities and reducing interest rates they have certainly given more support to Greece, Ireland and Portugal.” European debt crisis European banks Europe Greece Euro Euro Julia Kollewe Ian Traynor guardian.co.uk
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China accuses Lai Changxing of running huge smuggling operation but rights activists say he will not receive fair trial China has welcomed a Canadian court’s decision to extradite Lai Changxing – its most-wanted fugitive, but lawyers and rights activists have expressed doubt that he would have access to a fair trial back home. The federal court cleared the way on Thursday for the extradition of Lai and he could be sent home as early as Saturday, dismissing concerns that he could be tortured or executed once he arrives back in China. Beijing has sought the deportation of Lai, accusing him of running a multibillion-dollar smuggling operation in the southeastern city of Xiamen in the 1990s. Lai fled to Canada with his family in 1999 and claimed refugee status, saying the allegations against him were politically motivated. “The Chinese government’s stance on Lai Changxing returning to China to stand trial is clear. We welcome the Canadian court’s decision,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. The verdict was issued just after the visit of Canada’s foreign minister, John Baird, to China, where he said “both the Canadian people and the Chinese people don’t have a lot of time for white-collar fraudsters”. China promised Canada in a diplomatic note that Lai would not be tortured or executed and that Canadian officials would have access to him. “The fact that Canadian government officials appear willing to accept on face value the Chinese government’s assurances that it will respect due legal process suggests a near-willful ignorance of the sharp deterioration in China’s human rights environment since mid-February 2011,” said Phelim Kine, a researcher for Human Rights Watch , in an email. “[The] Canadian government’s confidence in the Chinese legal system is curious given that since mid-February 2011, rule of law has been under intensified attack and the Chinese government has been routinely deploying thuggish, unlawful tactics to harass, silence and intimidate lawyers, artists and civil society activists.” The case exploded in the special economic zone of Xiamen in southeastern Fujian province in the mid-1990s when Jia Qinglin, now China’s fourth-ranked official, was head of the province. Beijing has accused Lai’s business empire, the Yuanhua Group, of bribing officials to allow a massive smuggling ring in a scandal that implicated more than 200 senior figures, including Jia’s wife at the time, Lin Youfang. China put more than 300 suspects on trial and sentenced 14 to death, including provincial officials and a former vice-minister of public security, in a case Beijing has used for a propaganda campaign against corruption. Lai admitted in a 2009 interview with Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper that he had avoided taxes by exploiting loopholes in the law, but he denies bribery charges. He said that had he not been in Canada he would have been executed. Canada has no death penalty and will not usually extradite anyone to a state where capital punishment is practised without assurances the suspect will not be executed. Many Chinese legal experts and human rights activists said it was unlikely Lai could receive a fair trial in China. “Unless the investigators, prosecutors and judges he will confront dramatically alter their customary practices, Lai will not receive a fair trial by international human rights standards or Canadian criminal justice standards,” Jerome Cohen, an expert in Chinese law at New York University, said. Cohen was called by the Canadian government as an expert witness at Lai’s refugee hearing several years ago. “The real question is what detailed provisions has the PRC promised to make to assure Canada that there will be little risk of torture before Lai is convicted and during the undoubtedly long period of his prison sentence.” Reflecting the intensity of China’s official position, state media in 2001 cited then-premier Zhu Rongji as saying Lai “should die three times, and even so that wouldn’t be enough”. John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, a US-based group that promotes prisoners’ rights in China, said: “Without a presumption of innocence – indeed with the presumption of guilt – how does one get a ‘fair trial?’” But he said Chinese assurances and the offer to allow Canadian diplomats access to Lai should offer some protection. “If he were tortured or executed, the damage to Sino-Canadian relations would be massive, and would no doubt deter other countries from extraditing suspects who allegedly committed capital crimes back to China,” he said. Canada China Human rights guardian.co.uk
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Panel of scientists and ethicists says research on animals that contain material from humans should be more tightly regulated Medical research on animals that contain material from humans – such as brain cells – should be more tightly regulated, according to a report from a leading panel of scientists and ethicists. The report, which included a public consultation, says such research needs more scrutiny and clearer legal boundaries. Scientists already use animals that contain human material in work to understand medical conditions such as Down’s syndrome. But the report’s authors said politicians should devise regulations to cover likely advances. The team highlighted future research into human cognition and reproduction as areas of greatest concern to the public. Martin Bobrow, professor of medical genetics at the University of Cambridge, led the panel set up by the Academy of Medical Sciences . He said: “Where people worry is when you get to the brain, the germ cells and the sentinel features that help people recognise what is a person, as opposed to a rat or a rabbit. “Things like skin texture, facial shape, speech, replacing brain cells with human cells, allowing the development of human germ cells in animals. And particularly where there is any possibility of fertilisation within an animal.” He said the public was also concerned about animals whose appearance was deeply disturbing. The professor said the panel was not recommending such work be banned outright, but that these were areas where the value of the science should be most carefully considered. Current laws around the use of animals in scientific research would cover most eventualities for now but these rules would not be enough for the techniques of the future, he said. One “animal model” that includes human material is the Down’s syndrome mouse . It carries a copy of human chromosome 21 among its DNA. Using this model, scientists are gaining insight into the condition. “Changing animals by putting human genes or cells into their structure is one way of making them more resemble the bit of the human condition you’re interested in studying,” said Bobrow. Tom Baldwin, a philosopher at the University of York and panel member, said ethical decisions might need to be based on the “great ape test”, referring to the UK moratorium against using humans’ closest animal relatives in medical research. “If you start putting very large numbers of human brain cells into primates, suddenly you might transform primates into something that has some of the capacities that we regard as distinctively human – speech or other ways of being able to manipulate or relate to a human,” he said. “These possibilities, at the moment, are largely being explored in fiction but we need to start thinking about them now.” The report recommends that a science and ethics committee with input from the public be set up to assess the merit of scientific projects in sensitive areas. Lovell-Badge said continuing public discussion about the issue was key, “so that those sorts of experiments are discussed openly. Some of them certainly should be done, but it needs to be done in an open way.” Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society , said this sort of research required open discussion to ensure it moved in a direction that the general public remained comfortable with. “The Royal Society is supportive of the recommendations made in this report, especially the call for a national expert body … Proper scrutiny and regulation of this developing field now will ensure that society benefits from its advances fully.” Medical research Science policy Alok Jha guardian.co.uk
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Analysis of official figures shows wide variations between constituencies, splitting country into ‘haves and have-nots’ One in nine adults have no qualifications, according to an analysis of official figures which highlights wide variations between different parts of the country. In some parliamentary constituencies such as Glasgow East and Birmingham Hodge Hill, more than a third of people of working age have no qualifications, compared with just 2% in other areas, according to the study. The analysis reveals pockets of educational underachievement next door to highly educated neighbourhoods. The UCU, the college lecturers’ union, analysed figures from the Office for National Statistics showing the proportions of adults aged 16-64 with no qualifications last year. The union found sharp divides between constituencies – for example, people living in Newcastle upon Tyne Central are twice as likely to be unqualified as their neighbours in Newcastle upon Tyne North. Of the 20 constituencies with the highest percentage of people with no qualifications, the West Midlands accounts for eight, and has four in the top 10. There is a clear east-west divide in London, the union found: of the 20 worst-performing constituencies in the capital, three-quarters are in the east. In Scotland, Glasgow has three constituencies ranked in the worst 10 in Britain for people lacking qualifications. In contrast, all of Edinburgh’s constituencies are well above average, with fewer than one in 10 people having no qualifications. The UCU warned that the figures showed Britain was divided into “the haves and the have-nots”. Overall, the findings are that 11.3% of British adults do not have any qualifications. In England, the figure is 11.1%, in Wales it is 13.3% and in Scotland 12.3%. The UCU analysed the qualification rates for 632 parliamentary constituencies in England, Scotland and Wales. The union argued that people in areas with the lowest levels of qualifications were likely to suffer most from government policies that would restrict access to education. These policies include allowing universities to charge higher tuition fees and scrapping the education maintenance allowance. The UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “We have two Britains divided between the educational haves and have-nots, and we have cities and counties where people with access to education are living alongside those with far fewer opportunities. Education is central to our country’s future, yet in some places thousands of people still have no qualifications. There is a danger that children growing up in certain areas will have their ambition blunted and never realise their full potential.” Other data published on Thursday shows that rising numbers of graduates are choosing to work for themselves or take professional qualifications after leaving university. Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that 4.4% of those who left university last summer were self-employed or working as freelances six months after graduation – an increase on the previous year. Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
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Iowa Senator Tom Harkin was at his worst Wednesday morning in a press conference. Sure, there was the usual immature Democratic Party name-calling — calling Republicans “dead-beat debtors” and characterizing Republicans who oppose raising the debt ceiling as a “cult fringe,” even though polls seem to be showing that 60% of Americans are in that “fringe.” But beyond that, Harkin uttered a demonstrably untrue statement, something so obviously untrue that if a Republican or conservative had said something similar against Democrats, the establishment press would have dwelt on it for days. In apportioning responsibilities for annual federal budget deficits and the staggering increases in the national debt, Harkin made the following claim : “Democrats are willing to do whatever is necessary to raise the debt ceiling, not for future borrowing but to pay the debts that we racked up in the past. Which, mostly was racked up by a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican President in the last 8 years. Yet, they're not willing to pay the bills,” Harkin said. Well, Tom, not exactly. Giving Harkin the greatest possible (and totally undeserved) benefit of the doubt, let's look at where the national debt stood at each fiscal year-end beginning with September 30, 2000: Let's take it in steps, assuming that each annual session of Congress and the President is fully responsible for the debt buildup occurring during the subsequent October through September fiscal year: Year ended September 30, 2001 — Bill Clinton was president in 2000, and the Republicans controlled Congress. The $133 billion debt buildup during that fiscal year doesn't make Harkin's list. (Gosh, I thought we were running surpluses?) Six years ended September 30, 2007 — George W. Bush was president and Republicans controlled Congress during calendar 2001-2006. Republicans get full credit for the $3.2 trillion increase in the national debt during that period. Two years ended September 30, 2009 — Bush was president, but Democrats controlled Congress during calendar 2007-2008. The $2.9 trillion increase in the national debt during that period doesn't make Harkin's list. Year ended September 30, 2010 — Barack Obama was president and Democrats controlled Congress during calendar 2009. The $1.62 trillion increase in the national debt during that year doesn't make Harkin's list. October 1, 2010 through July 19, 2011 (the day before Harkin spoke) — Obama was president and Democrats controlled Congress during calendar 2010. On July 19, 2011, the national debt was $14.34 trillion. The roughly $780 billion increase in the national debt during the current fiscal year doesn't make Harkin's list. The scoreboard: Republican President and Republican Congress — $3.2 trillion All other situations — over $5.4 trillion Most of the increases in the national debt occurred during all other situations. Republicans did not “mostly” up the national debt. Tom Harkin's statement was false. Assigning responsibility on a strict calendar year to calendar year basis would make Harkin's statement proportionally even more untrue. A search on Harkin's name at the Associated Press's main national web site returns nothing containing Harkin's statement above. A search on Harkin's full name at the New York Times comes up empty . I am so not surprised. Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com .
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