The US reluctance to join with three key allies ? Britain, France, and now Israel ? in concluding that Syria?s Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons in his country?s civil war confirms President Obama?s consistent wariness about US intervention in the two-year-old conflict.
Beyond that point, however, former officials and analysts are split over why Mr. Obama is so cautious about the issue ? he even refused to answer a reporter?s question on the topic Tuesday ? and what the apparently high bar the administration has set for evidence of chemical weapons use means.
?It?s a hard call as to whether the administration is trying to avoid something, or if they just don?t have the evidence,? says Wayne White, a former State Department official with experience in Middle East intelligence.
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Obama has said repeatedly since last August that Syria?s use of chemical weapons is a US ?red line? and would be a ?game changer? for the US. But now some critics say the president?s caution suggests a moving or ?fuzzy? red line.
For some, the president is simply being prudent, especially if the evidence presented so far is ?inconclusive,? as a number of senior administration officials, including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, have said. Obama, they add, wants to avoid a rush to judgment that turns out to be mistaken ? and which could appear to the world like a repeat of the 2003 US decision to invade Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that didn?t exist.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday that the US is being ?extremely deliberate? in investigating and evaluating the reports of chemical weapons use. And on Wednesday in Cairo, Secretary Hagel suggested the US would not be rushed to judgment by allies, saying, ?Suspicions are one thing. Evidence is another.? He then added, ?I think we have to be very careful here before we make any conclusions.?
But for others, the reason Obama is setting the bar high ? in a situation where incontrovertible evidence could remain very difficult to come by ? is because he has no desire to ratchet up US involvement in the Syrian conflict unless forced to.
The danger of this approach, critics say, is that it encourages an increasingly desperate President Assad to test the limits of US reluctance ? perhaps even with limited, hard-to-prove use of some chemical weapons.
And even if some isolated use of chemical weapons is proved, some analysts say, Obama is still unlikely to intervene in Syria in a manner that could tip the scales in the conflict.
?Even if CW [chemical weapons] were used, [the response] will depend a bit on how much and what we?re talking about,? says Mr. White, the former State Department official.
If chemical weapons use is proven ?there will have to be some response from the administration,? he adds, ?but unless it?s indiscriminate use, I don?t see us doing something like a no-fly zone that could really make a difference.?
Given Obama?s pattern to this point of gradually ramping up humanitarian aid and non-lethal material assistance to the rebels, the administration might bow to French and British pressure to approve providing the rebels with arms, White says. ?But something like that, that might have made a difference 18 months ago, won?t be a game-changer now.?
That?s because the rebels are now so divided, and because the groups the US would be willing to arm are not the ones ? specifically the more extremist Islamist factions ? achieving advances against Assad on the battlefield.
White, who is now an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, says the administration may be ?playing for time,? with its talk of deliberate evaluation of evidence, as it tries to overcome its deep divisions over how the US should approach the complex and ever-deepening Syria crisis.
But it also may be that the ?evidence? its allies have provided the US ? supposedly photos of victims with tell-tale signs of chemical-weapons contact from the Israelis, soil samples in the case of the French and British ? isn?t very convincing.
Secretary of State John Kerry said in Brussels Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him in a telephone conversation that he was unable to confirm assertions from Israeli Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, head of research and analysis for Israeli military intelligence, that Syria has used chemical weapons several times since the first of the year.
British military intelligence officials originally reported in late March their finding that Assad?s forces had actually used an intense military-grade tear gas in a reported attack March 19 on the city of Halab. Reports claimed that 30 people died in the attack, but the tear gas is not a chemical weapon and it was not clear what caused the deaths.
White says Iraq?s Saddam Hussein ? who used chemical weapons to kills thousands of Kurds in 1988 ? also used a military grade tear gas known as CS on Iranian troops who were advancing on the southern Iraqi city of Basra in 1982. The gas repelled the Iranian forces but did not kill them by the thousands as a nerve gas would have, White says.
The United Nations has formed an investigative group to go into Syria and determine what chemical weapons if any were used, but so far Assad is not letting the team in. And without such a team on the ground, it may remain impossible to deliver the kind of ?conclusive evidence? the Obama administration says it has yet to see.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chemical-weapons-syria-obamas-high-bar-proof-could-232636199.html
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More carbon dioxide is released from residential lawns than corn fields according to a new study. And much of the difference can likely be attributed to soil temperature. The data, from researchers at Elizabethtown College, suggest that urban heat islands may be working at smaller scales than previously thought.
These findings provide a better understanding of the changes that occur when agricultural lands undergo development and urbanization to support growing urban populations.
David Bowne, assistant professor of biology, led the study to look at the amount of carbon dioxide being released from residential lawns versus corn fields in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His co-author, Erin Johnson, was an undergraduate at the time of the study and did the work as part of her senior honors thesis. Their findings were published online today in Soil Science Society of America Journal.
For Bowne, the study allowed him to look beyond the obvious impact of losing agricultural fields to development ? the loss of food that was once produced on the land.
"That is a legitimate concern, but I wanted to look more at how this change could potentially impact the carbon cycle with the understanding that the carbon cycle has implications for global climate change," explains Bowne.
To begin to understand how the carbon cycle was changing, Bowne and Johnson measured carbon dioxide efflux, soil temperature, and soil moisture under the two different land uses. They found that both carbon dioxide efflux and soil temperature were higher in residential lawns than in corn fields. Additionally, temperature had the most influence on the levels of carbon dioxide efflux, followed by the type of land use.
Higher temperatures leading to increased carbon dioxide efflux was not a surprise for Bowne and Johnson as this relationship has been documented before. "As you increase temperature," Bowne explains, "you increase biological activity ? be it microbial, plant, fungal, or animal." That increased activity, then, leads to more respiration and higher levels of carbon dioxide leaving the soils.
What was unexpected, however, was that the higher temperatures found in residential lawns suggested urban heat islands working at small scales. Urban heat islands are well documented phenomena in which development leads to large areas of dark-colored surfaces such as roofs, buildings, and parking lots. The dark color means more heat is absorbed leading to an increase in temperature in the neighboring areas. Urban areas, then, are warmer than the surrounding countryside.
The interesting part of Bowne's study is that the urban heat islands in the areas he was looking seem to operate on much smaller scales than he previously thought. While heat islands are usually studied on large scales ? such as comparing a large city and its surrounding rural areas ? fewer studies have been done to work out how development may affect temperatures on small scales.
"Within a developed area, within a city or town, you could have local increases in soil temperature because of the amount of development within a really small area," says Bowne.
His research suggests that temperatures may vary even across short distances due to the influence of development. One source cited in his paper says that development within even 175 meters of a location can cause an increase in temperature. Bowne is planning further experiments to test soil temperatures over a range of development setups and sizes.
The other factor that Bowne will test in the future is the sequestration of carbon. Along with the carbon dioxide efflux data in the current study, information about carbon sequestration would give a bigger picture of carbon cycling. That picture could then help researchers determine how various land uses as well as management practices such as no-till agriculture or leaving grass clippings on lawns can change the carbon cycling.
"If we go from one land use to another land use, how does that impact carbon cycling which in turn can affect climate change? Our current study touches on one component of that cycle, and more research is needed to address this huge topic," says Bowne.
###
American Society of Agronomy: http://www.agronomy.org
Thanks to American Society of Agronomy for this article.
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FILE - This Feb. 11, 2013 file photo shows a Boeing 787 flight test jet taxing following a test flight, at Boeing Field, in Seattle. Boeing's beleaguered 787 Dreamliners will be able to resume flights under an order expected to be issued Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration, although the root cause of battery failures on two of the planes is still unknown, according to congressional sources briefed by the agency. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - This Feb. 11, 2013 file photo shows a Boeing 787 flight test jet taxing following a test flight, at Boeing Field, in Seattle. Boeing's beleaguered 787 Dreamliners will be able to resume flights under an order expected to be issued Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration, although the root cause of battery failures on two of the planes is still unknown, according to congressional sources briefed by the agency. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
Boeing reported a better-than-expected first-quarter profit even as it scrambled to fix its grounded 787.
The company said on Wednesday that deliveries of the 787 should resume in early May. Most of the 50 planes that have been delivered to airlines will be fixed by the middle of the month, Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney said on the company's quarterly earnings conference call.
Resuming deliveries and passenger flights would cap a notable turnaround for Boeing. The three-month grounding over battery problems frustrated airlines and turned a spotlight onto the way commercial planes are designed and regulated. Putting the problem behind it will let Boeing focus on building new versions of its best-selling 737 and 777.
Air safety authorities around the world grounded 787s after two different planes suffered from smoldering batteries ? one of them including a fire, one of them in-flight ? in January. The Federal Aviation Administration has approved Boeing's redesigned battery system, which the company says should sharply reduce the risk of a fire.
Once the FAA approves the fix on individual planes, airlines can start flying them again. United Airlines, the only U.S. airline with the planes, moved one of its six 787s to a Boeing facility in San Antonio, Texas, on Tuesday so it can get the battery fix. Neither of the battery incidents involved a United jet.
The new battery system includes extra insulation between the battery's individual cells, a box designed to contain any fire and changes that Boeing says will extinguish any fire almost instantly. The fix should keep any battery problems "from affecting the airplane or even being noticed by passengers," McNerney said.
The new battery setup has been installed on 10 787s that belong to airlines, and on nine more that have been built but not delivered, he said. Each installation takes about five days.
Boeing wouldn't say how much the 787 issue has cost. Much of the expense was soaked up by its research and development budget, Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith said.
Boeing's net income rose 20 percent in the quarter to $1.11 billion, or $1.44 per share. Excluding pension-related charges, Boeing would have earned $1.73 per share, well above analyst expectations.
The 787 troubles showed up in other places besides Boeing's bottom line. Revenue fell 3 percent to $18.89 billion in part because Boeing delivered just one 787 before the grounding. Airlines make their final payment for the plane when it's delivered. And Boeing generated almost no cash in the quarter. Free cash flow, a measure of cash generated by a business, dropped to $3 million, from $413 million a year ago.
Boeing loses money on each 787 it builds now. Smith said it should be breaking even on each plane in about two years.
Boeing still expects to meet its financial and delivery targets this year. That includes delivering at least 60 787s. It delivered 137 planes during the quarter, because faster production of 737s and 777s offset the lack of 787 deliveries.
Operating profit rose 12 percent in its defense unit as its space business grew sharply.
Shares of Chicago-based Boeing Co. rose $2.65, or 3 percent, to $90.83 in trading Wednesday after rising as high $92.65 earlier. That was the highest level for the shares since December 2007, according to FactSet.
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By Ellen Wulfhorst
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dark comedy "Trust Me," playing at the Tribeca Film Festival, paints an uncomfortable picture of backstabbing and subterfuge in the film industry that drew from all - and none - of creator Clark Gregg's personal experiences.
As the film's screenwriter, lead actor and director, Gregg said he had started out writing a big ensemble movie with several story lines, one of which became "Trust Me," about the travails of agent Howard Holloway.
The film tells the story of the hapless Holloway, a failed actor, as he represents a teen-aged actress trying to launch a Hollywood career. Joining Gregg in the cast are Sam Rockwell, William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman, Allison Janney and Amanda Peet.
As to the story's real-life roots, the 51-year-old Gregg, with decades of roles to his credit including agent Phil Coulson in the "Iron Man" action movie series, said he has seen "all of it and none of it."
"There was almost nothing that was literally based on anything that happened to me," he told Reuters this week. "At the same time, I felt I was kind of everybody in the movie, like in your dreams."
Speaking of "being everybody," Gregg tackled both directing and starring in "Trust Me," in spite of himself.
"I didn't want to direct myself in my script," he said. "But I had such a clear vision of what I wanted the piece to be and what I wanted the tone to be like.
"I even had a meeting with a director, and I never brought it up," he said. "I had the script in my bag, and I couldn't hand it to him."
But the chaos of being the film's screenwriter, director and lead ended up reflecting the chaos of the lead character's life, he said.
Gregg describes his movie, which is having its world premiere at New York's Tribeca Film Festival this month, as the tale of the "not incidental savagery" involved when many people are battling for a goal, such as stardom, that is attainable only to a very few.
"People will subvert everything that they grew up believing in at times to do it, so it's a kind of a metaphor about the distortive effect of our obsession with success," he said.
As to his own success, Gregg, who wrapped up his role as a regular on the television series "The New Adventures of Old Christine" three years ago, said he is working on a pilot featuring his Coulson character.
Also, he added, he is writing a period gangster movie, and heading back to "the usual attempts to get work as an actor that make me very much like all the beaten-up people in the film."
(Editing by Chris Michaud and Philip Barbara)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tribecas-trust-shows-dark-comic-side-hollywood-business-203409170.html
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