England Earns the Crown of Crime

And now the most intriguing two minutes in television, the latest from the wartime grapevine:

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Unexpected Inspection?
When U.N. inspectors spent three hours Saturday afternoon at an Iraqi complex formerly used for the manufacture of Scud missiles, a U.N. spokesman denied to reporters that there had been any advance warning of the inspection, which found nothing. But the United Nations now admits that the chief of the suspected site had been tipped off in advance. A spokesman for the inspection teams told the AFP, the French wire service, that the plant manager had been told the day before that a U.N. team would be coming the next day to remove an air sampler and put in a new one. The admission came after an Iraqi official told reporters there had been advance notice.

Not Happy With the Delayed Echo
Amnesty International, the human rights group that has been complaining for years of the widespread use of murder, torture and imprisonment by the Iraqi regime, is not a bit pleased that the British government is now echoing its complaints. The organization's Secretary General Irene Khan says, "This selective attention to human rights is nothing but a cold and calculated manipulation of the work of human rights activists." The human rights situation in Iraq, she says, is being invoked "to justify military action," which she argues would make things even worse.

Terrorists Represent the World's Views?
George McGovern, former Democratic senator and presidential candidate, disagrees with President Bush's view that terrorists hate America because of its freedom. He also apparently believes that terrorists reflect the views of the whole world. In an article in Harper's Magazine, he writes, "The world's people have always admired our freedom. What they don't like is the arrogance and indifference to world opinion inherent in so much of our international policy. Plenty of my fellow citizens don't like that either." McGovern says he agrees with those citizens and opposes the way the administration is waging the war on terrorism, the war with Iraq, and the use of the term "Axis of evil."

The Highest Crime Rate Goes To...
According to the United Nations, the highest crime rate among the world's leading economies now belongs to England. The London Telegraph quotes a new U.N. survey as showing that people in England, which prides itself on its strict gun control, are more likely to be mugged, burgled, robbed or assaulted here than in America, Germany, Russia, South Africa or any other of the world's 20 largest nations.