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The dog days of summer
And, the dog days are with us.
THE BOUDIN CHRONICLES
Kathy Boudin, daughter of a very wealthy communist lawyer in New York City, was a gun-happy criminal, who after a series of bank robberies said that she believed she was acting like Robin Hood when she and her comrades from the Weather Underground and Black Liberation Army lifted cash from banks and armored trucks. After her robbing and killing spree, Boudin was sentenced to 20 years to life in 1982. She became a model prisoner but was twice, in the past two years, rejected for parole. The "legal" left, led by the National Lawyers Guild, ran a campaign to free Boudin and last weekend they were celebrating.
Questions that should have been asked were never even heard.
Question One: The judge who sentenced Boudin recommended that after 20 years, she should be freed. What did Boudin do in jail that led to her being turned down twice for parole?
Question Two: What changed in Boudin's prison life that persuaded two experienced parole board members to turn her loose now?
Most important, Question Three: Will there be a Boudin book - a movie - or a campaign to get old terrorist comrades out of jail?
And, as a passing thought, will the voters, now more than ever security conscious, tolerate being fooled by Gov. George Pataki's appointees?
U.N. NONFEASANCE?
In the middle of these dog days that seem as they will never end, there was the terrorist truck bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. Decent yet misguided people were killed in a tragedy that need not have happened.
Tun Myat is from Burma, a country whose military junta now calls the place Myanmar. Tun Myat is a typical international civil servant and the U.N. Security Coordinator. At a press conference, after the bombing that killed 24, he admitted that a security survey had been made of the U.N. Baghdad operation, but he had not read it or even known of its existence until after the bomb exploded. Incredibly, he added that the use of a truck or a car bomb against the building had never been considered.
The U.N. always claims to be so concerned about the lives and rights of millions, all over the world. But it forgot to close an access road next to its offices or protect the lives of those who work for the U.N. And, only in the dog days of August would it not become an issue in the press.
NASTY ELFs
Either the Dog Star or the summer heat has been affecting members of the highly dangerous Earth Liberation Front -- the ELF -- who claim to have set a series of fires in California. The first target this month was a $50 million apartment complex under construction in San Diego. The environmental terrorists burned it to the ground. A 12-foot ELF banner left at the fire scene told the story: "If you build it, we will burn it."
Three weeks later, ELF targeted several car dealerships in the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles. One target was a Chevrolet and Hummer dealership in West Covina, Calif., where the showrooms were set on fire and dozens of expensive SUVs on the lot went up in flames. Again, a slogan told the story: "ELF" was spray-painted on the doors of burning cars. Another attack in nearby Arcadia involved not fire, but spray painting a score or more new SUVs with the words, "Polluter," "Killer" and "ELF."
The ELF is one British import we can live without. It was founded in the U.K. in 1992 by members of the radical environmental group, Earth First! Its reason for existence is a claimed frustration with the lack of progress in protecting nature. In the U.S., ELF activities against commercial entities that it claims threaten or damage the environment began in 1996. Since then, the damage this domestic terrorist cabal claims exceeds $100 million.
The ELF targets are predictable, and plentiful: lumber and mining companies, a ski lodge under construction, electric power pylons and new housing developments. Naturally, ELF has an Internet Web site. It is registered in Vancouver, B.C. to an animal rights activist. This month, the site features a "special" on how to set fires using timing devices. The authors use the mocking name "Fireant Collective."
Of course, the FBI is looking for these eco-terrorists. It says there are 26 FBI offices involved, but admit that there is a long way to go before authorities can make any arrests.
'THE TORCH' LIVES
If only Janet Reno had starlight to use as a guide, it would have been easier to indict Robert "The Torch" Torricelli. We last heard of "The Torch" when an old friend, now a New Jersey judge, appointed him as supervisor of a half-a-billion-dollar toxic waste clean up in Jersey City.
Now we learn that the former senator has become a strategic consultant to oil companies and mega-developers, a real estate investor, owns a country inn and is currently decorating his very own $1.3 million farmhouse. Torricelli is doing his own gardening and seeking to produce award-size tomatoes. He is immensely proud of his riding mower that moves at 10 mph and of his 110-pound St. Bernard, a pooch named Daisy.
And anyone with a St. Bernard named Daisy can't be all bad. Bob Torricelli has become a sportsman. Under the threat that the basketball team, the New Jersey Nets, might be purchased by New York interests and move out of his own state, Torricelli went into action. He is reported to be putting together investors to buy the team. Among them are U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine and Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia.
If the Torch succeeds in this ploy, forget the lawn mower and the giant tomatoes. They will go the way of the Senate Ethics Investigation - to that wonderful space between the stars where everything is forgiven and forgotten and where a disgraced senator can re-enter politics without any problems - except by those who read columns written by those rotten journalists.
Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British journalist and political observer.
