Cato Daily Dispatch for December 29, 2003
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Experts: Mad Cow Risk to Humans SmallKurds Demand Sovereignty Rights in New Iraq
Congressman Calls for Color Alert System Changes
Experts: Mad Cow Risk to Humans Small
"Doubts about the safety of the U.S. beef supply abound despite government assurances that a case of mad cow disease discovered in Washington is being handled with 'an abundance of caution,'" the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
"Some consumer groups and foreign trading partners say the United States doesn't look hard enough for mad cow disease and fails to take precautions to prevent the spread of the disease."
"But risk analysis experts say that even in the worst-case scenario, the risk to humans is vanishingly small."
That's the conclusion also reached by Adjunct Scholar Steven Milloy in "BSE Scare Mostly Mania: Mad Cow Is a Bovine Disease; the Link to Humans Is Unproven." Milloy writes: " There's no question that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly called 'mad cow,' is a highly infectious, neurological disease in cattle. But the notion that people can contract a human form of the disease by eating beef from infected cows is more bun than burger. Despite its gaping holes, the infected beef theory has mutated into orthodoxy among many in the medical and public health community that few have been brave enough to challenge."
Kurds Demand Sovereignty Rights in New Iraq
"Kurdish members of Iraq's governing council are insisting the country's transitional law include wide-ranging sovereignty rights for the northern Kurdish areas--including control of their natural resources and veto powers over Iraqi military movements in the region," the Financial Times reports.
"The Kurdish demands are throwing up another hurdle to completing the statute by the proposed deadline of February 28 even though they appear highly unlikely to be adopted in full."
In "Squaring the Democratic Circle: Constitutional Options for Post-War Iraq," Patrick Basham, senior fellow in Cato's Center for Representative Government writes that one option for the make-up of the new governing structure is the "Kurdish Model": "Building on some small successes in self-ruled northern Iraq, some people advocate the creation of an Iraqi federation in which groups, such as the Kurds, enjoy a large amount of political autonomy that stops just short of statehood. This path may persuade Shiites on both sides of the Iraq-Iran border that a militant Islamic state cannot be carved out of the New Iraq."
Congressman Calls for Color Alert System Changes
"A leading House Republican said yesterday that the Homeland Security Department needs to reform its color-coded alert system to avoid alarming people who are not at risk and to reduce the impact of idle threats from al Qaeda terrorists," The Washington Post reports.
"Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, said the current terrorist threat system, which assigns a color to each of five risk levels, may be alarming 'an awful lot of people who really can't do much with this information other than hand-wring and hanky-twist.' Legislation co-sponsored by Cox would mandate a more regional approach.)
"Since its inception in March [2002], the color-coded homeland security advisory system has been nothing but government sound and fury signifying much of nothing," writes Director of Defense Policy Studies Charles Peña in "Homeland Security Alert System: Why Bother?"
He goes on to say, "The sad truth is that the best purpose for the homeland security advisory system is for the federal bureaucracy to be seen as 'doing something,' to prove to the public that politicians and government officials are not asleep at the wheel--if something actually does happen, they can claim they gave fair warning."
Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org
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