National Security

Raul Castro said the global economic crisis means tougher times ahead for Cuba but that the country has no one to blame but itself for poor farm production that leads to frequent shortages of fruits, vegetables and other basics. In a speech marking Revolution Day, the president said the island can't pin all its problems on Washington's 47-year trade embargo. He implored Cubans to take better advantage of a government program begun last year to turn unused state land over to private farmers.

Re "We don't need the pain of torture indictments," Opinion, Aug. 26 My hat is off to Tim Rutten, who has brought brilliant new insight to the administration of justice. With Rutten's approach, we can save literally billions of dollars. No more do we need "an absolutist, narrow reading of the law." From now on, there is no need to prosecute people who clearly and knowingly violated both the law and common decency, because "it would be a travesty" to go after them without also going after those above them.

Climate bill: An article in Section A on Sept. 14 about the politics of President Obama's clean-energy plan, which is making its way through Congress, said that the American Security Project was a member of Clean Energy Works, a coalition of groups pushing for climate change legislation. The Security Project has funded advertisements warning of the national security threats of climate change, but it is not a member of Clean Energy Works. It is a tax-exempt organization that is prohibited from participating in political campaigns.

It's a nightmare scenario: Foreign terrorists plan to blow up a passenger terminal at a major U.S. airport. Our spies know that much. But no one knows where or when the attack will occur because the criminals communicate using a super code--an encryption method exported from the United States, no less.

Just five days before crucial South Korean elections, Pyongyang's efforts to undermine the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War have suddenly made national security a major campaign issue. Responding to harsh North Korean rhetoric attacking the armistice, plus violation of the agreement by North Korean forces in the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korean President Kim Young Sam convened a special national security meeting Saturday and called for a "heightened, iron-tight defense."

Of all the terrible aspects of drugs in America, perhaps the worst is their effect on young people, particularly those in the inner cities. One needn't consider the consequences of drug use by children themselves to recognize the extent of the problem for urban youth: street crime related to drugs, a high incidence of substance abuse by parents, and the seduction of a dangerous, illegal but highly profitable "career" in the drug trade.

For much of the first half of Bill Clinton's first term, the presidential national security team had to work overtime to get the attention of a boss whose interest in the details as well as the broad sweep of the nation's foreign relations appeared to be minimal and grudging. The result was an approach to foreign policy that often seemed to be not just lacking in strong leadership but inconsistent and sometimes even incoherent.

In his first extensive public comments on foreign policy since being named the president's next national security advisor, Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger said Sunday that the United States will search for new ways to bring indicted Bosnian war crimes suspects before an international tribunal. At the same time, however, he specifically excluded the direct use of U.S. troops to track them down and haul them into court.

Rep. Chris Cox (R-Newport Beach) has been appointed to a nonpartisan anti-terrorism task force formed to beef up the nation's security in the wake of the crash of TWA's Flight 800 and the bombing at the Olympics, government officials announced Tuesday. Cox said following the announcement that the task force is "getting down to business very quickly" to find ways to "supercharge" current anti-terrorism laws.

The screams in the night, the torture by terrifying national security agents, the coercive demands for false confessions--none of this was supposed to happen anymore in the shining civilian democracy of South Korean President Kim Young Sam. But Park Choong Ryol claims that it still does. He experienced it all last year, he says, when the government accused him of meeting an alleged North Korean agent.