October 02, 2000

Colombia's Drug War Spreading
Another Call for Freedom in Tiananmen Square
Jury Makes Dirty Harry's Day

Colombia's Drug War Spreading

Guerrillas and drug traffickers from Colombia have long crossed into Ecuador's frontier jungle for time off and to buy guns or drug-processing chemicals. But as the Colombian government, backed by a $1.3 billion U.S. aid package, prepares an offensive against the traffickers and their allies, Colombia's civil war is seeping into neighboring countries, and things there have suddenly taken a violent turn, according to The Washington Post.

Ecuadorian soldiers have uncovered and destroyed four small cocaine-processing labs on their side of the border in the past six months. Fighters from Colombia's right-wing militia groups have been arrested there for running extortion rings. And Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), crosses the porous border with increasing impunity.

In "Declaring an Armistice in the International Drug War," Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies Ted Galen Carpenter demanded an armistice to the failed international drug war that has hurt all sides of the conflict and. In "Time to End the Drug War," Assistant Director of the Project on Global Economic Liberty Jacobo L. Rodriguez explains that "efforts to eradicate crops and interdiction of traffic -- that is, efforts to reduce the supply of drugs -- put only a small dent in the profit margins of traffickers."

Another Call for Freedom in Tiananmen Square

Hundreds of followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement eluded a national dragnet, penetrated heavy security around Beijing and disrupted celebrations of China's most important holiday on Sunday with protests in Tiananmen Square that ended in violent clashes with police and mass arrests, according to The Washington Post. Tens of thousands of Chinese and foreign tourists attending ceremonies marking the 51st anniversary of Communist rule in China watched as security forces chased, kicked and punched adherents of the sect, who suddenly began unfurling banners and chanting slogans a few hours after a dawn flag-raising ceremony.

Police moved quickly, shoving and dragging the protesters -- mostly middle-aged men and women, some with children or elderly relatives -- into minivans. As soon as they finished subduing one group, another would appear elsewhere in the vast plaza. At times, dozens of demonstrators sat surrounded by officers waiting for new vans to navigate through the thick crowds. City buses were eventually brought in, and authorities closed most of the square for a half-hour to regain control. Scattered protests continued throughout the day.

Ted Galen Carpenter and James A. Dorn, editors of the new Cato book, "China's Future: Constructive Partner or Emerging Threat?" write in a commentary that "Cutting off -- or even limiting -- trade with China in the hope of improving human rights would be self-defeating. Isolating China would strengthen the party and the state while harming the nascent market sector and reducing economic freedom."

Jury Makes Dirty Harry's Day

A San Jose federal jury on Friday shot down a disability rights lawsuit against movie star Clint Eastwood, according to The San Jose Mercury News.

After less than a day of deliberations, a unanimous eight-member jury sided with Eastwood and rejected most of the claims of a woman who alleged the actor's Carmel resort violated state and federal disability laws and caused her grief and embarrassment during a 1996 visit.

For Eastwood, the ending was a relief, and lent support to his harsh criticism of lawsuits brought under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. The actor transformed the case into a referendum on the 10-year-old law, directing most of his venom at lawyers who bring ADA cases and at the legal fees they generate.

Quipping that lawyers were only after a "fistful of dollars," Eastwood remarked: "It's just all about attorneys making money. I think the jury did the right thing. They saw the truth in this whole thing."

In "How the ADA Handicaps Me," disabled lawyer Julie Hofius reflects on the 10th anniversary of the ADA. She writes that, "the physical obstacles have been removed, but they have been replaced with a more daunting obstacle: the employer's fear of lawsuits."

In "Handicapping Freedom: The Americans with Disabilities Act," Director of Regulatory Studies Edward L. Hudgins calls the law "one of the worst cases of the Bush-era regulation of the economy" and explains all its drawbacks.

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