Los Alamos Scientist Indicted
McCain's Anti-Tax Pledge
Falun Dafa in Hong Kong
Elian's Home?
Los Alamos Scientist Indicted
Los Alamos National Lab scientist Wen Ho Lee was indicted on Friday for allegedly mishandling classified nuclear weapons data. The Wall Street Journal reports that the information downloaded is so detailed that if it fell into the wrong hands, it "could shift the nuclear balance."
But in Chinese Nuclear Espionage: Is the Hysteria Warranted?, Ivan Eland questions how much of an impact the information stolen will have on overall U.S. security. "Despite the current hysteria about Chinese espionage, that vast U.S. nuclear superiority is likely to continue for the foreseeable future," he writes.
McCain's Anti-Tax Pledge
Senator John McCain, who has recently surged in the polls in New Hampshire, yesterday came out against taxing the Internet, reports the New York Times. Front-runner George Bush, like many other state governors, has expressed concern that revenue losses from a tax-free Internet shopping would leave states in a fiscal bind. "The governors are incredibly short-sighted when they want to tax this baby in its cradle," said McCain.
In "Should Internet Sales Be Taxed?" Aaron Lukas first examines the Internet taxation issue. As an advisor to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, he reports back on their summer meeting in "An Internet Tax Nightmare." Watch this space for Lukas' latest policy analysis, to be published later this week.
Falun Dafa in Hong Kong
Nearly 1000 members of the Falun Dafa, a spiritual movement banned in mainland China, held a conference in Hong Kong over the weekend to call for an end to suppression of their members in China. The mainland government outlawed the group earlier this year, branding it "antiscience, antisociety and antimankind." The group is legal in Hong Kong, where the former British colony's civil liberties remain intact under the "one country, two systems" formula.
This past summer, Cato held a conference to discuss the trade relationship between the U.S. and China and its impact on religious activity in the PRC. According to Ned Graham, son of Reverend Billy Graham, "expanding U.S. economic ties with China and especially China's admittance into the WTO will continue to benefit religious organizations working in China by 1) Encouraging China's adherence to international law and a rules based trading system, 2) Facilitating China's civil society in developing it's rule of law and 3) Expanding personal freedoms for it's population." Read the text of Graham's comments in US-China Trade Relations and Its Impact on Religious Activity in the PRC.
Elian's Home?
The case of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, found floating off the Florida coast, stirred up tensions between the U.S. and Cuba this past week. But negotiators for the two nations have much more to talk about as they meet today for their regularly scheduled meeting on immigration policy. The meetings began being held as a part of a 1994 agreement to stem the tide of Cubans leaving home in unseaworthy (and often deadly) craft.
In the Cato Handbook for Congress (pdf), the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and its Caribbean neighbor is examined. U.S. policy should call for an end all trade sanctions against Cuba; allow U.S. citizens and companies to visit and establish businesses in Cuba as they see fit; and move toward the normalization of diplomatic relations with Cuba.
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