A Question of Torture

Monday evening, I attended a fascinating and somewhat depressing lecture about torture delivered by University of Wisconsin historian Alfred McCoy. The local UN Association was marking International Human Rights Day a bit early (it is December 10).

McCoy focused on a psychological torture, which his research indicates is a distinctly American contribution to the practice of interrogation. Under the auspices of the CIA, the US has developed a method based on sensory deprivation and self-inflicted pain that serves to break individuals.

McCoy's latest book is A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror. From the publisher comments on Powell's website:

McCoy traces the spread of these practices across the globe, from Vietnam to Iran to Central America, and argues that after 9/11, psychological torture became the weapon of choice in the CIA’s global prisons, reinforced by “rendition” of detainees to “torture-friendly” countries. Finally, McCoy shows that information extracted by coercion is worthless, making a strong case for the FBI’s legal methods of interrogation.

McCoy discussed all these concerns -- and more.

He noted, for instance, that the Bush administration has essentially operated outside both domestic and international law and that both Congress and the new Attorney General performed a farce when the former appeared to believe the latter's claim that he didn't know anything about waterboarding.



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Sustainability Report Card

In the College Sustainability Report Card, produced by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, the University of Louisville received a C+.

U of L did fairly well (B) on transportation, partly because of the free bus and shuttle service for students. Campus vehicles also use some alternative fuels.

The university did very poorly (D) for the "Green Buildings" category and for the lack of shareholder engagement in university endowment investments.

For Climate Change & Energy, the grade was C:

The university has gone to great lengths to improve energy efficiency across campus. New chillers and air handlers in the central plant save $150,000 per year. In addition, several boilers and HVAC systems have been replaced or upgraded. Energy audits have also been performed. However, there has been no formal commitment to reduce emissions or to purchase energy from renewable sources.

Under the rubric of the Partnership for a Green City, I'm a new member of multiple committees that will try to improve this score in the future.


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Sunday: Combating Global Warming workshop

The University of Louisville is hosting the Engaging Our World conference November 3-5. It is a Southeastern Global Leadership Conference featuring these aims:

raise awareness among students in our region of the country to contemporary problems confronting our global society, empower them to creatively engage these problems and participate in the creation of a better and safer world.

Sunday morning at 8:30 am in Humanities 106, I'm giving a workshop on "Combating Global Warming." This is the abstract I submitted weeks ago:

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that human activity is altering global climate in profound ways. Figuring out what to do about this reality poses substantial political, economic, and social problems. This workshop discusses actions that students and others can take as members of their communities, workplaces, states, nation, and planet.

It is free for UofL students and $35 for others. In all, organizers have lined up over 40 speakers and the program is interesting and diverse.

If you are in Louisville this weekend, check it out.

NOTE: I am giving this post a Sunday date so that it will remain at the top of my page even as I make other blog entries.


Followup: The session went fine, I focused discussion on efforts by colleges to meet Kyoto goals, "offset" their greenhouse gas emissions and/or promote renewable energy efforts. Many interesting student-powered initiatives have been launched at colleges from coast-to-coast.


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Filed as: Engaging our world

Death Penalty Panel

Tonight at 7 pm, I'm moderating "Views On Justice: A Panel Discussion on the Death Penalty.” This is from the sponsors:

The panel will be discussing the ethics of capital punishment, how fair it is in practice, if it should be abolished or reformed, and other relevant issues surrounding the death penalty.

Speakers Include:

•David Harshaw, an attorney for the Dept. of Public Advocacy and a member of the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

•Dr. Ricky Jones, Chair of the Pan-African Studies Dept. at the University of Louisville

•Jo Ann Phillips, Executive Director of Kentuckians’ Voice for Crime Victims

•Rev. Charles Sweeney, Pastor of the Full Gospel Neighborhood Church and a member of Kentuckians’ Voice for Crime Victims

If you are interested in attending, the event will be at the University of Louisville in Strickler Hall, room 102.

Again, the event is at 7 pm, Thursday, October 26.


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Filed as: death penalty

Outrageous fortune

From the Louisville Courier-Journal, July 14:

The University of Louisville joined college football's big spenders club yesterday. It now is paying its coach more than those at Oklahoma, Florida, Tennessee, Florida State and other national powers.

For that reason, U of L athletic director Tom Jurich said Bobby Petrino's new 10-year contract worth at least $25.5 million means more to the football program than simply having a better chance to hang on to one of the nation's hottest coaches.

"I think this says to the country and to everybody involved in college football that we're serious about being a major player," Jurich said. "A lot of people talk a good game. We've put our money where our mouth is.

Professors at Louisville get paid less than faculty members at Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

Wouldn't the Provost and Deans be saying, "we're serious about being a major academic institution" if they raised faculty salaries to a level above Harvard's?

Keep that $26 million figure in mind when you consider this fact: the entire College of Arts and Sciences budget at University of Louisville was $41 million (p. 39) in the fiscal year that just ended.

Here's another number to consider. The football stadium has 42,000 seats. Generously figure 7 home games per season over a 10 year period. Do the math and that's 2.94 million fans in attendance.

Petrino is going to be paid $8.67 per seat per game for the next decade, assuming they don't increase the size of the stadium (they want to do that, however).

One more number. I direct the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, which gives away $200,000 annually. There are also awards in Psychology, Music, Education and Religion, all giving away the same amount, totaling $1 million annually.

Petrino will be pulling in more than two and a half times the total awards of all 50 Grawemeyer winners over the next decade.

That's good work if you can get it.


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Filed as: Petrino

"Being a professor can be hard work"

Occasional guest blogger Avery was featured on the cover of last week's local weekly Velocity, which aims to be an alternative paper, but is published by the Gannett-owned Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper.

The story is about young faculty at various college campuses in Louisville -- focusing on their family and work pressures, connection with students, etc.

While some young professors share with their students a love for certain rock bands, Avery says he doesn't:

"I am such a geek that I don't really know much about pop culture," he said, laughing.

But Kolers, who was 27 when he started teaching, said his age still comes to his aid.

"Your students are more comfortable, and it kind of humanizes you because they see greater similarities," he said, adding that his students also often come to him with questions about graduate school since he can still vividly remember his days there.

This is my favorite line from the article, which is actually a caption to Avery's photo:

Avery...looks like he could be a student at the University of Louisville. But he's not — he's an assistant professor.

Actually, in a few months, my 33-year old colleague will be an Associate Professor with tenure.

There's also a nice pic of Avery feeding his young son Adam.

Congrats all around.


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McConnell's pork

I haven't seen this in the local papers, but the Washington Post of February 3 had news about my university. Note the last sentence:

Mark the date! Earmark Feb. 20 for the opening of the $14.2 million library wing at the University of Louisville.

No private fundraising was needed for this one, a university source said. It's all from the federal government, an earmark by an alum, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). And the new library's auditorium is to be named for his wife, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

Hat tip to Tom at Functional Ambivalent for the link.

The University's web story about the opening does not mention the new Chao auditorium by name.

Indeed, today's search of the University's entire website yields zero hits for "Elaine Chou." I get the same result after a search of the library's website too.

Thus, I'm posting in the service of transparency.


Correction: Avery pointed out in an email that I've spelled "Elaine Chao" incorrectly in my search. Apparently, the local newspaper covered this issue a year ago (while I was on sabbatical in Boston), after the university made its decision and announcement. Noted local conservative (and Board of Trustees member) Bill Stone calls Chao the "most significant Labor secretary of the past two generations." I hope that clears up this issue.

The correct search still yields zero hits at the library website.


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Filed as: Republican pork

In local news....

1. It's hot as hell here. According to WHAS-11 chief meterologist Ken Schulz, Louisville has had 27 days of 90 degrees or above this summer. Ugh.

2. So, what to do? Maybe...drink up! Perhaps to provide citizens with something to do over the weekend, the City Council of Louisville just voted (15-7) to allow Sunday sales of liquor.

The new law allows package stores as well as drugstores and other retailers to sell liquor or wine from 1 to 9 p.m. on Sundays.

This weekend will feature the first Sunday of liquor sales in this city since before Prohibition!

3. Who will be drinking? I don't know if he's a teetotaler or not, but one person that might be in a celebratory mood is the President of the University of Louisville, James Ramsey. He just got a big raise:

University of Louisville President James Ramsey received a glowing evaluation, a 5 percent raise and a potential bonus of nearly $98,000 yesterday from the board of trustees.

The package would bring Ramsey's compensation to just over $500,000 for the year if he gets the bonus.

One reason I find this interesting: According to the August 1 Daily Crimson, Harvard President Larry "Summers made $522,714 in salary in the fiscal year ended June 30." One member of Harvard's board thought this sum was outrageous, especially given the year Summers just had, and resigned in protest.

If you do the math, it works out that Ramsey's pay this coming year could be about 96% of Summers's annual pay.

That's good work if you can get it.

Now we know

Today's Louisville Courier-Journal has this interesting story: "Foundation releases donor list."

For many years, the newspaper has been trying to find out the identities of donors to the McConnell Center for Political Leadership at the University of Louisville. As you may have guessed from the name, the Center is named for Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is a graduate of the University's Department of Political Science.

McConnell helped raise funds for the Center, which gives scholarships to undergraduates from Kentucky, brings in speakers, funds trips (including to China), etc.

Here's the issue: The University launders donations through its Foundation, argues that the Foundation is a private (not public) entity, and then says it has no legal responsibility to disclose the Foundation's business.

A court ruled that the Foundation was a public entity and thus has to disclose its donors who do not explicitly request anonymity. In short, the Kentucky Open Records Law applies to the Foundation.

Basically, some critics of these types of Centers (many other members of Congress have them too) argue that corporations and wealthy individuals can make "back door" secret campaign contributions to members of Congress by writing these checks.

Think about it. Members of Congress often funnel pork to local projects, including to universities. Campaign contributions must be disclosed. How better to fund both pork and campaigns privately and secretly?

"Very often these companies give to these foundations or charities as a way of currying favor with a senator," said Larry Noble, executive director of the group [Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based campaign finance watchdog].

"(McConnell) has a number of loyal donors and companies that support him and they'll go wherever he directs. This is a tried and true method of supporting a member of Congress," Noble said.

The University has long argued that wealthy individuals and corporations value their privacy. Otherwise, I've heard more than one person argue, they will be asked for money by everyone.

Does that pass the laugh test? Even the donors say no:

But officials of some corporations and foundations that gave to the McConnell Center said they had no desire to keep their names private.

"Toyota's never made any secret of our contribution to the McConnell program," Barbara McDaniel, a spokeswoman for Toyota Motor Manufacturing of North America, said yesterday.

The company has given $833,333 to the McConnell Center since it was created, including a $250,000 gift pledged last month.

McDaniel said the company had told UofL it was willing to publicize the gift.

Former UofL President John Shumaker had sent Toyota officials letters saying their gifts would be kept anonymous.

The names of 62 donors are still secret, as the judge ruled that individuals who specifically request privacy may have a right to it. That part of the decision is under appeal. 40 unnamed individual donors gave donations totaling $6 million.

Who were the biggest donors? Well, this group plus Toyota gave over $8.7 million of the 11.2 million raised to date (for red entries, see correction below):

Alliant Health System (Norton Healthcare), $1,020,000
Brown-Forman Corp. $425,000
David A. Jones, $1,000,000 (this is the former Humana executive)
James Graham Brown Foundation, $650,000
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, $771,767 ??????????
Mildred V. Horn Foundation, $504,500
Papa John's, $1,008,430
Philip Morris Cos. Inc., $450,000
RJR Nabisco Foundation, $500,000
The Humana Foundation Inc., $800,000
United Defense, $500,000
United Parcel Service, $400,000

The "liberal" Brookings Institution gave $400, though that isn't the smallest figure listed.


Disclosure: since some of my scholarship is on transparency, I've sometimes been interviewed by the local papers about this issue.

Correction: The newspaper put McConnnell Center donations in boldface. Nonboldfaced listings were donations to the Foundation for other purposes. A C-J reporter pointed out to me via email that the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation should not appear on my list above.

Likewise, remove Alliant, the Mildren Horn Foundation, and Papa John's. That takes away $3.2 million and the math actually works out better now.

Sorry for my error.

(Foot)Note: Honorary Degree for Rice

I checked out the biography of Dr. Condoleezza Rice on the White House website and learned that she's received a number of honorary degrees:

She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, the University of Notre Dame in 1995 and the Mississippi College School of Law in 2003.

Why I am noting this?

Well, on September 13, 2002, the University of Louisville's Board of Trustees agreed to confer an honorary degree on Dr. Rice.

This March 8, Dr. Rice will be speaking in Louisville and will apparently receive this honor, in "Public Service."

As I've repeatedly noted, Dr. Rice often spoke about the "mushroom cloud" fear to justify attacking Iraq. And as regular readers know, that was a red herring.

Last summer, when the false Niger documents became public knowledge, Rice tried to argue that dissent within the intelligence community had been buried in (unread) footnotes.

All that I can tell you is that if there were doubts about the underlying intelligence in the NIE, those doubts were not communicated to the President. The only thing that was there in the NIE was a kind of a standard INR footnote, which is kind of 59 pages away from the bulk of the NIE. That's the only thing that's there. And you have footnotes all the time in CIA -- I mean, in NIEs. So if there was a concern about the underlying intelligence there, the President was unaware of that concern and as was I.

That's pretty clear.

Apparently, however, this claim was not true:

In a National Intelligence Estimate published last October, the intelligence arm of the State Department called "highly dubious" allegations that Iraq was shopping for uranium in Africa. The dissenting view was presented in the main body of the report, not buried in a footnote, sources say.

...doubts lodged by State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, known as INR, have since been validated. It turns out the intelligence was based at least in part on forged documents.

The White House now concedes it was a mistake to include the charge in the president's speech, though it argues it also relied on other intelligence from undisclosed foreign sources.

But National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the president's use of the uranium allegation was ultimately cleared by the CIA after some changes in wording. And she described State's objection to the allegation as only a "footnote" in the back of the 90-page report.

CIA Director George Tenet did not call it a footnote, however, in a carefully worded statement he released Friday as the scandal heated up.

"We stand fully behind DCI's [director of central intelligence] statement," CIA spokeswoman Michele Neff told WorldNetDaily. "If he doesn't refer to it as a footnote, then it's not a footnote."

It's not clear what part, if any, Rice read. She maintains that both she and Bush were "unaware" of concerns raised by the CIA when it vetted the uranium line in the State of the Union drafts sent to Langley.

However, Tenet says some of his analysts "raised several concerns about the fragmentary nature of the intelligence" with Rice's office, warning her staff against using it in the speech. What's more, Tenet just three months earlier reportedly called Rice's deputy to yank the line from the president's speech in Cincinnati.

Personally, I read both text and footnotes.

As it turns out though, State's views were in an Annex to the NIE:

INR's Alternative View: Iraq's Attempts to Acquire Aluminum Tubes

Some of the specialized but dual-use items being sought are, by all indications, bound for Iraq's missile program. Other cases are ambiguous, such as that of a planned magnet-production line whose suitability for centrifuge operations remains unknown. Some efforts involve non-controlled industrial material and equipment -- including a variety of machine tools -- and are troubling because they would help establish the infrastructure for a renewed nuclear program. But such efforts (which began well before the inspectors departed) are not clearly linked to a nuclear end-use. Finally, the claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are, in INR's assessment, highly dubious.

And yes, I'd probably read that too on something so important.


Update: I didn't thoroughly discuss all the back-and-forth that occurred last summer. Calpundit notes an additional admission by Rice's Deputy (Stephen Hadley) that the Niger line should not have been in the 2003 State of the Union address.

Paul Kerr of the Arms Control Association has the chronology on the Niger story through the beginning of the war in March 2003. The BBC has a timeline that has detail through mid-July.

British officials have long maintained that they had independent (but foreign) sources confirming that Iraq sought uranium in Africa. IAEA officials have requested documentation, but I haven't found any evidence on-line that this has been released.

Update II: A friend sent me a link to a Washington Post story from last summer that has a lot of good detail.

Scalia and the ISI

Brad DeLong has a great post about Justice Scalia's latest rant at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Presumably, Scalia is the topic of much blogging today.

Does everyone know what the ISI is and does? It is funded by Richard Scaife and family (noted rich Clinton haters) and seeks to "educate for liberty," meaning that it seeks to get college students to embrace "limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, free enterprise, and Judeo-Christian moral standards."

According to Media Transparency, it funds 70 conservative student newspapers, sponsors conferences and lectures on college campuses, and produces publications that seek to mount a "counteroffensive" against the left, which it views as entrenched in universities. Here's some material originally from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP):

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), a 44-year-old organization dedicated to free markets, limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility and "cultural norms" consistent with a free society, is one of the top grantees of the right wing movement. ISI now claims over 60,000 members and maintains an active presence on campuses by organizing forty conferences a year and more than 300 lectures. The Institute produced several publications including Campus, which attacks progressive trends in higher education, the Common Sense Guide to American Colleges, and an ISI leadership guide for conservative activists...

...As indicated above, funders have created and heavily supported academic change organizations and networks whose fundamental mission is to "take back" the universities from scholars and academic programs regarded either as too hostile to free markets or too critical of the values and history of Western civilization. This agenda was clearly articulated by T. Kenneth Cribb, president of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, who stated in a lecture to the Heritage Foundation:

"We must...provide resources and guidance to an elite which can take up anew the task of enculturation. Through its journals, lectures, seminars, books and fellowships, this is what ISI has done successfully for 36 years. The coming of age of such elites has provided the current leadership of the conservative revival. But we should add a major new component to our strategy: the conservative movement is now mature enough to sustain a counteroffensive on that last Leftist redoubt, the college campus...We are now strong enough to establish a contemporary presence for conservatism on campus, and contest the Left on its own turf. We plan to do this by greatly expanding the ISI field effort, its network of campus-based programming."

I wonder how the right would react if some overtly leftist organization announced an intent to recruit students into the progressive movement?

I know, I know, the right thinks campuses are already hotbets of leftist thought and action. But where are the left-wing student newspapers? Where are the sponsored lectures and conferences on progressive themes? Where are the liberal scholarship dollars? And if the left is so powerful on campuses, why do so many college graduates keep voting Republican?

Maybe all the dollars are spent at Harvard, where the students train to be the core of the Democratic Party?

In any event, academics and students might not know that ISI is close at hand on their own college campuses. Google your campus for evidence of ISI events...or money. Always follow the money.

Click here to see my results for University of Louisville.

Updates: Mark Kleiman notes a new article on the shoulder-fired missile problem from Federation of American Scientists.

Kleiman also has recent updates on the Plame affair, the Rumsfeld memo , General Boykins, and presidential candidate Wesley Clark -- all topics I've blogged about over the past few weeks.