Politics

Demands grow for Iraq death count

Demands grow for Iraq death count
Forty-six eminent figures including military men,
ex-diplomats and bishops have written to Tony Blair
urging an inquiry into civilian deaths in Iraq.
A study in a medical journal said nearly 100,000 died
after the invasion. Other groups put the figure at
15,000.

Mr Blair told MPs the most accurate estimate - of
between 3,853 and 15,517 for April to October this
year - was from the Iraqi Ministry of Health.

And he argued terrorists, not US-led troops were to
blame for the deaths.


At prime minister's questions, Mr Blair said he did
not accept the casualties' inquiry was needed for the
UK to fulfil its international obligations.

He urged people to back efforts to hold elections in
Iraq in January.

"Those people that are killing innocent people in Iraq
today, who are responsible for innocent people dying,
are the terrorists and insurgents who want to stop the
elections happening in Iraq," he said.

"Any action that the multi-national force or the Iraqi
people are taking in Iraq is in order to defeat those
people who are ... killing anyone who wants to make
the country better."

Independent inquiry

The publication of the letter to Mr Blair marks the
launch of a new campaign by health charity Medact and
the Iraq Body Count project.

Names on the letter include retired General Sir Hugh
Beech, the bishop of Coventry and an ex-ambassador to
Iraq.

It also includes the former assistant chief of the
defence staff Lord Garden, now a Liberal Democrat
peer, and playwright Harold Pinter.


VARYING IRAQ DEATH ESTIMATES
Iraq Body Count:
14,000-16,800 since March 2003
Iraq-based People's Kifah:
27,000 March-October 2003
US-based Brookings Institute:
Up to 27,000 to August 2004
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
10,000 to March 2004
Lancet study
100,000 since March 2003


The letter urges Mr Blair to set up an independent
inquiry to establish just how many people have been
killed or injured in Iraq, along with reasons for the
casualties.

Lord Garden told BBC News: "We have taken it [Iraq]
over and we are going to try and make it a democratic
country.

"We need to show the rest of the world that we are
doing it in a proper, legal, moral way and one that
can get the hearts and minds of the Arab and Muslim
world.

"If we appear to be discarding the people there and
saying they are not really important we are going to
lose that battle."


'Make an effort'

Human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger, who is also a
signatory, said: "Since they don't want to catalogue
the deaths, they are giving the impression that
ordinary Iraqi lives are worth less than those of the
soldiers and that life is expendable.

"No figures in a war zone are going to be perfect -
but that's no excuse for not trying."


The letter says: "As you know, your government is
obliged under international humanitarian law to
protect the civilian population during military
operations in Iraq, and you have consistently promised
to do so.


HAVE YOUR SAY
The real inquiry will be the next UK elections
Gerry Noble, Salisbury, UK



"However, without counting the dead and injured,
no-one can know whether Britain and its coalition
partners are meeting these obligations."

The letter's publication marks the launch of a new
campaign by health charity Medact and the Iraq Body
Count project challenging the government to count
casualties.

Medact director Mike Rawson said: "We need casualty
estimates to assess the effect of weaponry on the
population and to plan health care for the injured.
Without information, everyone is working in the dark."


He argued the Iraqi health system should not be left
to keep a tally on its own and he argued the US-led
coalition had a responsibility to "commission and
resource this work themselves".



Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4076993.stm

Published: 2004/12/08 13:35:32 GMT

© BBC MMIV


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8.12.04 15:05, comment

Device for the Paralyzed Turns Thinking to Doing

Device for the Paralyzed Turns Thinking to Doing
By Robert Lee Hotz
Times Staff Writer

December 7, 2004

NEW YORK — Harnessing the electrical echoes of
thought, researchers have developed a way for people
to control a computer cursor simply by thinking about
it.

The device, which so far has been tested successfully
on four people, does not require implants, surgery or
any other invasive medical procedure, the researchers
reported Monday. Previous efforts required electrodes
wired directly into brain cells.

Instead, scientists at the New York State Department
of Health and the State University of New York
designed a system to monitor the faint electricity
that naturally radiates from every brain and then
created special computer software to translate those
reflections of thought into direct action.

The research, which was made public in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences, appears to offer
a means for people paralyzed by stroke, spinal cord
injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's
disease) to operate computers or prosthetic devices by
imagining the movement.

"It is an impressive achievement," said John Donoghue,
a senior neuroscientist at Brown University who was
not involved in the research project. "Such a device
has great potential to improve the lives of paralyzed
individuals."

Scientists have long sought to bridge the gulf of
damaged nerves between the brain cells that control
movement or speech and the muscles those cells seek to
animate.

By developing a link between mind and computer, they
hope that patients who are unable to move or speak can
resume their interaction with the world around them.
Researchers estimate that there are more than half a
million "locked-in" patients — people who, due to
disease or injury, are unable to control their muscles
enough to activate any communication device.

Experimental implants developed by independent
research groups at Brown, SUNY and Duke University
have enabled monkeys to control cursors and robotic
limbs through the power of thought, and even operate
devices at a distance.

Starting in 1999, several paralyzed patients in
Atlanta underwent experimental surgery for brain
implants that allowed them rudimentary control of a
computer.

Donoghue, who is also chief scientific officer of
Cyberkinetics Inc. in Foxborough, Mass., is conducting
clinical trials of an implant the size of an M&M that
could allow people to send e-mail, surf the Web and
command other computer resources simply by thinking
about them.

The new brain-computer interface, however, eliminates
the necessity for surgery.

The researchers used a skein of 64 electrodes in a cap
placed on the scalp to eavesdrop on the wasted energy
of thought, tapping into the patterns of neural
electricity that normally dissipate in the immediate
vicinity of the skull.

"Using signals recorded from the scalp, people can
learn to gain control of movement," said clinical
neurologist Jonathan R. Wolpaw, who spent the last
decade developing the experimental system with
psychologist Dennis J. McFarland. "They can achieve
impressively accurate and rapid control. It may not be
necessary to stick something into the brain."

In order to capture the proper neural signals, the
researchers needed only to position the electrodes
around the general location of the brain's sensory
motor cortex. The computer software was designed to
adapt to the patient's increasing ability to move the
cursor.

So far, three men and a woman have tested the system.
Two of the volunteers had spinal cord injuries that
confined them to wheelchairs. They appeared to master
the technique more quickly than the others, Wolpaw
said.

Even so, it is no panacea, Wolpaw cautioned.

The device required considerable practice, he said,
and for the foreseeable future, the close supervision
of an experienced scientist.

The volunteers needed more than five weeks of regular
lessons to master the basics of the technique, then
hours more in practice sessions to refine their new
ability.

The team has wasted no time in refining the technique.
Collaborating with a research group in Germany, they
have enlisted additional patients who are being
trained in its use.

"Everyone is rooting for the noninvasive stuff to be
as useful as possible because that is what would be
most helpful to most people," said John Chapin,
director of the SUNY center for neurorobotics and
neuroengineering. "The kind of patient who would
benefit from invasive [implants] is a very, very sick
patient."

In its current state, Chapin said, the new noninvasive
technique enabled movement in just two dimensions — up
and down and side to side — certainly adequate for a
computer cursor but short of the full range of
movement required by a robotic arm or prosthetic leg.

"The future," Chapin said, "is gong to be some
combination of the two."

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7.12.04 18:35, comment

Interesting Items from Newsweek Poll

Newsweek, as they did last week, provided a number of interesting subgroup horse race numbers for their 3-way RV matchup that are worth taking a look at:

1. Independents favor Kerry/Edwards by 14 points, 52-38.

2. Swing voters favor Kerry/Edwards by 8, 41-33.

3. First-time voters favor Kerry/Edwards by 3, 47-44.

4. Early voters favor Kerry/Edwards by 6, 50-44.

5. Young voters (18-29) favor Kerry/Edwards by 14, 54-40, and seniors (65+) favor Kerry/Edwards by 5, 48-43.

6. Men favor Bush-Cheney by 51-43 and women favor K/E by 49-42.

Note that this last finding reverses the rather strange reverse gender gap pattern in Newsweek's last poll, wher men favored K/E and women favored B/C.

Two other findings from the Newsweek poll illustrate the difficult challenge Bush faces in making the case for his re-election on two central issues. First, when asked whether "Bush's economic and tax policies" have done more to help or hurt economic conditions in the country, just 33 percent say these policies have helped the economy, compared to 62 percent who say they've either hurt the economy (43 percent) or made no difference (19 percent). Second, when asked whether the war with Iraq has made Americans safer from terrorism or not, 53 percent say no and only 42 percent say yes.

Iraq and the economy: for Bush, difficult issues to defend but even more difficult to avoid.-Ruy Tiexiera

26.10.04 20:16, comment