Syria scorns EU criticism, says it sows chaos (Reuters)

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria on Wednesday scorned the European Union's criticism of Damascus over its violent crackdown on popular unrest, saying this showed Europe wanted to sow chaos in the country.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said he was confident that despite mounting international pressure on Syria, three months into an uprising against the Assad family's 41-year rule, there would be no foreign military intervention in his country, nor a no-fly zone of the kind NATO has imposed over Libya.

"The reactions from European Union officials to President Assad's speech (show) they have a plan and they want to continue with it, (they want) to plant strife and chaos in Syria," Moualem told a news conference in Damascus.

"Stop intervening in Syria's affairs, do not stir chaos nor strife, the Syrian people ... are capable of making their own future away from you ... Any external intervention is rejected."

EU states reached a political agreement on Wednesday to extend sanctions against Syria to four military-linked entities and seven individuals, including three Iranians, linked to suppression of dissent.

"There is a political agreement on extending the list," an EU diplomat said, adding that the new sanctions would take effect on Friday, once all 27 EU states have written on Thursday to give their formal approval.

Moualem warned that Syria would turn to other regions for trade and support.

"We will forget that Europe is on the map, and we will turn to the east, to the south and all directions that extend a hand to Syria. The world is not only Europe. Syria will remain steadfast," he told a news conference in Damascus.

Before the uprising, Western countries had been re-cultivating relations with Damascus after a period in which they isolated it to try to weaken its strategic alliance with Iran.

Reuters monitored the televised broadcast from outside the country, since Syria has expelled its correspondents.

In a speech on Monday, only his third since the outbreak of protests in which rights groups say 1,300 civilians have been killed, Assad promised reforms and called for national dialogue.

Many Syrians and world leaders dismissed his pledges as stale and inadequate. Violence continued on Tuesday with the killing of seven people by gunmen in two cities during rival protests by Assad loyalists and opponents, an opposition activist said.

Moualem said his country would not accept demands from "outside Syria" and blamed American sanctions in 2003 for the delay in reforms in Syria.

He urged Turkey, once a close ally but now an increasingly vocal critic of Assad, to reconsider its frosty response to his speech and said Syria wanted the "best relations with Turkey."

Syria's ambassador to Turkey, Nidal Kabalan, said on Wednesday Turkey-Syria ties were a "strategic relationship" for both countries and for the whole region, but added Damascus expected a more "even-handed approach" from its neighbor.

"We believe that some of the statements that have been voiced were a little bit too strong," Kabalan told Reuters.

"Those (protesters) are Islamic fundamentalists, al Qaeda-types, who have their own agenda and foreign affiliations and programs. We have seen what they have done in Afghanistan, in Iraq and in some other Gulf countries," he said.

HUNDREDS ARRESTED AFTER AMNESTY

Residents and activists said hundreds of Syrians were arrested since Tuesday despite Assad's announcement of a general amnesty, the second in three weeks.

The arrests concentrated on the coast, the city of Homs and the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, which borders Iraq's Sunni Muslim heartland. Tens of students were also beaten and arrested overnight at Damascus University dormitories, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"The human rights situation in Syria is becoming even worse, with security forces and gangs increasingly attacking neighborhoods and more arbitrary arrests of Syrian citizens," the Observatory said in a statement.

After Assad's first amnesty, authorities freed hundreds of political prisoners but rights groups have not reported any releases after the second amnesty.

Rights groups say Syria has more than 14,000 political prisoners. Around 10,000 have been arrested during the uprising. Hundreds have gone missing after seen last being taken by secret police.

Authorities say more than 200 police and security forces have been killed by armed gangs.

Syria, a country of 20 million, has a Sunni majority, and the protests demanding political freedoms and the departure from power of the Assad family, which belongs to the Alawite sect, have been biggest in mostly Sunni rural areas and towns and cities, as opposed to mixed areas.

Fears are growing that Syria, a mosaic of Alawites, Sunnis, Christians, Kurds, Druzes and other groups, could implode into sectarian savagery similar to the conflict that ripped through Iraq after Saddam's ousting.

Syria, which borders Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Jordan, also exerts regional influence because of its alliance with Iran and its continued role in Lebanon, despite ending a 29-year military presence there in 2005.

It also has an influence in Iraq.

The new sanctions list was drawn up by Britain and France the brought the total number of individuals and entities targeted by EU sanctions on Syria to 34.

The EU diplomat said the Iranians were involved in providing equipment and technical support to help Syrian authorities suppress dissent.

Moualem denied that Iran or its Lebanese ally Hezbollah had intervened to confront Syrian protesters, and said that the killings of some police and soldiers indicated that Islamist group al Qaeda might be behind some of the violence.

"I cannot hide (the fact) that some of the practices that we have seen in the killings of security personnel gives an indication that these acts were carried out by al Qaeda," he said, without elaborating.

In May, the European Union added Assad and other senior officials to a list of those banned from traveling to the EU and subject to asset freezes.

(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, David Brunnstrom and Julien Toyer in Brussels, Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara; editing by Mark Heinrich)

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U.S. ambassador warns Karzai over criticism of West (Reuters)

KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. ambassador to Kabul has issued a thinly veiled warning to Afghan President Hamid Karzai that harsh criticisms of the West could jeopardize the troops and funding critical to the Afghan government's survival.

Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said he found comments from "some" Afghan leaders "hurtful and inappropriate," according to a transcript of a speech released late on Sunday.

Although he did not mention Karzai by name, the speech appeared to be a direct response to a string of verbal broadsides against Western troops serving in Afghanistan and the diplomatic and aid programs that accompany them.

In one recent fiery speech Karzai warned that foreign soldiers risked being seen as occupiers because of civilian casualties they caused. Last week he said the West was polluting the country with weapons containing toxic chemicals.

Eikenberry said those comments left him ashamed and speechless in front of the relatives of U.S. war dead.

"When I hear some of your leaders call us occupiers, I cannot look at these mourning parents, spouses, and children in the eye and give them a comforting reply," Eikenberry told an audience of students and academics at Herat University in western Afghanistan.

"When we hear ourselves being called occupiers and worse, our pride is offended and we begin to lose our inspiration to carry on," he added, in a personal addendum to a speech on education and transition.

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM?

But Karzai's spokesman said some of the president's comments had been misunderstood and warned against "over-reacting" to constructive criticism, saying that Afghan people standing up for their own interests should not be dubbed offensive.

Karzai's spokesman said that in his controversial speech on civilian casualties the president was only warning western allies that their image in his country was at risk, and that details may have been lost in a bad translation.

"The president has never termed international forces as occupying forces ... He has said if the bombardment of civilian homes and civilians continue, there is a risk that (this view of western troops as occupiers) could become part of public opinion in Afghanistan," Waheed Omer said.

But Omer also warned against "over-reacting" to criticism, and added that although effective assistance was appreciated, the west had not come to Afghanistan for altruistic reasons.

"No one can deny that international community came to Afghanistan for the sake of their own interests in the first place. We as Afghans have every right ... to make sure that international community's presence also serves the interests of the people of Afghanistan," Omer said.

"I don't see why this should be termed as offending."

DRAWDOWN LOOMS

Eikenberry was speaking as U.S. President Barack Obama mulls how steep a U.S. troop withdrawal that starts in July should be.

That will coincide with the first phase of a gradual handover of security control to the Afghan police and army, who are due to take responsibility for all of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, though critics warn this date is premature.

At present NATO is rushing to expand and train up security forces that have long struggled with problems ranging from widespread illiteracy, drug abuse and corruption to a dearth of leaders and equipment and a damaging rate of attrition.

Although the training team say progress is impressive, it will still be years before they have a real hope of holding off disciplined and battle-hardened insurgents across the country.

Even when they can fight alone, the size of the security forces and Afghanistan's sickly economy means they will need help paying salaries and buying equipment for years to come.

Eikenberry warned that patience to help Afghanistan seek security would not be infinite if Afghan partners were dismissive of U.S. sacrifices of lives and money.

"At the point your leaders believe that we are doing more harm than good ... especially at a time our economy is suffering and our needs are not being met, the American people will ask for our forces to come home," Eikenberry said.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

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Criticism up on Japan PM's handling of nuke crisis

TOKYO (AP) — Criticism of the Japanese government's handling of the crisis at a radiation-spewing nuclear power plant increased Saturday, with a new poll indicating three-quarters of the people disapprove and a key adviser quitting in protest.

var data = blocks.columnist;if (data != undefined){document.getElementById('columnistmug').innerHTML=data;} By Junji Kurokawa, AP

A masked man takes part in an anti-nuclear power plant protest rally in Tokyo Saturday.

By Junji Kurokawa, AP

A masked man takes part in an anti-nuclear power plant protest rally in Tokyo Saturday.

A Kyodo News service poll released Saturday showed that Prime Minister Naoto Kan's support ratings were plunging.

The poll reported that 76 percent of the respondents think Kan is not exercising sufficient leadership in handling the country's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear triple crisis, up from 63.7 percent in the previous survey in late March.

It also showed 23.6 percent of respondents think Kan should resign immediately, up from 13.8 percent in the previous survey.

The nationwide telephone survey of 1,010 people eligible to vote was conducted Friday and Saturday. No margin of error was provided.

Toshiso Kosako, a professor at the University of Tokyo's graduate school and an expert on radiation exposure, announced late Friday that he was stepping down as a government adviser over what he lambasted as unsafe, slipshod measures.

Kan appointed Kosako after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan on March 11. The disaster left 26,000 people dead or missing and damaged several reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, setting off the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

In a tearful news conference, Kosako said he could not stay and allow the government to set what he called improper radiation limits of 20 millisieverts a year for elementary schools in areas near the plant.

"I cannot allow this as a scholar," he said. "I feel the government response has been merely to bide time."

Kosako also criticized the government as lacking in transparency in disclosing radiation levels around the plant, and as improperly raising the limit for radiation exposure for workers at Fukushima Dai-ichi, Kyodo reported.

The prime minister defended the government's response as proper.

"We welcome different views among our advisers," Kan told parliament Saturday in response to an opposition legislator's questions.

A government advisory position is highly respected in Japan, and it is extremely rare for an academic to resign to protest government policy.

The science and education ministry has repeatedly defended the 20-millisievert limit for radiation exposure as safe, saying that efforts are under way to bring the limit down to 1 millisievert. Some people have expressed concerns, noting that children are more vulnerable to radiation than adults.

Workers in the U.S. nuclear industry are allowed an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. A typical individual might absorb 6 millisieverts a year from natural and man-made sources such as X-rays.

Radiation specialists say cumulative doses of 500 millisieverts raise cancer risks. Evidence is less clear on smaller amounts, but in theory, any increased radiation exposure raises the risk of cancer.

Japan, which has 54 nuclear reactors, has long been a major proponent of atomic power, constantly billing its technology as top-rate and super-safe. Japan's government has also been trying to make deals to build nuclear power plants in other countries, although such attempts are likely to fall flat after the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident.

As the only country in the world to suffer atomic bombings, as it did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, Japan has long had a powerful anti-nuclear movement, and such protests have become louder recently.

About 1,000 protesters gathered Saturday in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park, beating drums, shouting "No more nukes" and holding banners that read "Electricity in Tokyo, sacrifice in Fukushima."

"We knew all along nuclear power was dangerous. I just didn't know how to express myself," said one of the protesters, 50-year-old Yoshiko Nakamura, who was taking part in her second demonstration in two weeks. "This is a great opportunity to send a message and voice my fears."

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs Fukushima Dai-ichi, said Saturday that the radiation exposures for two workers, upon more careful recalculation, was found to have reached near the crisis-time limit of 250 millisieverts.

Usually, TEPCO plant workers are limited to 100 millisieverts of radiation exposure over five years, with no year exceeding 50 millisieverts. That was raised to 250 millisieverts, with government approval, because of the crisis.

One worker was measured at 240.8 millisieverts, while another at 226.6 millisieverts. Both workers were temporarily hospitalized last month after being exposed to highly radioactive water that had leaked into the reactor turbine room.

Last week, TEPCO said one female worker at Fukushima Dai-ichi was exposed to radiation three times the legal limit, at 17.55 millisieverts. Exposure for women is limited to 5 millisieverts over 3 months because of pregnancy concerns.

TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said the company had been preoccupied with monitoring radiation for male workers, and forgot that women's limits were far lower.

"We are extremely sorry," he told reporters last week.

Also on Saturday, parliament's lower house approved a special 4 trillion yen ($50 billion) budget to help finance post-tsunami rebuilding efforts, in what officials say will likely be the first installment of reconstruction funding.

The budget now goes to the less powerful upper house, where opposition is unlikely, and the budget is expected to win passage early next week.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

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Criticism up on Japan PM's handling of nuke crisis

TOKYO (AP) — Criticism of the Japanese government's handling of the crisis at a radiation-spewing nuclear power plant increased Saturday, with a new poll indicating three-quarters of the people disapprove and a key adviser quitting in protest.

A masked man takes part in an anti-nuclear power plant protest rally in Tokyo Saturday.

A Kyodo News service poll released Saturday showed that Prime Minister Naoto Kan's support ratings were plunging.

The poll reported that 76 percent of the respondents think Kan is not exercising sufficient leadership in handling the country's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear triple crisis, up from 63.7 percent in the previous survey in late March.

It also showed 23.6 percent of respondents think Kan should resign immediately, up from 13.8 percent in the previous survey.

The nationwide telephone survey of 1,010 people eligible to vote was conducted Friday and Saturday. No margin of error was provided.

Toshiso Kosako, a professor at the University of Tokyo's graduate school and an expert on radiation exposure, announced late Friday that he was stepping down as a government adviser over what he lambasted as unsafe, slipshod measures.

Kan appointed Kosako after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan on March 11. The disaster left 26,000 people dead or missing and damaged several reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, setting off the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

In a tearful news conference, Kosako said he could not stay and allow the government to set what he called improper radiation limits of 20 millisieverts a year for elementary schools in areas near the plant.

"I cannot allow this as a scholar," he said. "I feel the government response has been merely to bide time."

Kosako also criticized the government as lacking in transparency in disclosing radiation levels around the plant, and as improperly raising the limit for radiation exposure for workers at Fukushima Dai-ichi, Kyodo reported.

The prime minister defended the government's response as proper.

"We welcome different views among our advisers," Kan told parliament Saturday in response to an opposition legislator's questions.

A government advisory position is highly respected in Japan, and it is extremely rare for an academic to resign to protest government policy.

The science and education ministry has repeatedly defended the 20-millisievert limit for radiation exposure as safe, saying that efforts are under way to bring the limit down to 1 millisievert. Some people have expressed concerns, noting that children are more vulnerable to radiation than adults.

Workers in the U.S. nuclear industry are allowed an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. A typical individual might absorb 6 millisieverts a year from natural and man-made sources such as X-rays.

Radiation specialists say cumulative doses of 500 millisieverts raise cancer risks. Evidence is less clear on smaller amounts, but in theory, any increased radiation exposure raises the risk of cancer.

Japan, which has 54 nuclear reactors, has long been a major proponent of atomic power, constantly billing its technology as top-rate and super-safe. Japan's government has also been trying to make deals to build nuclear power plants in other countries, although such attempts are likely to fall flat after the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident.

As the only country in the world to suffer atomic bombings, as it did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, Japan has long had a powerful anti-nuclear movement, and such protests have become louder recently.

About 1,000 protesters gathered Saturday in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park, beating drums, shouting "No more nukes" and holding banners that read "Electricity in Tokyo, sacrifice in Fukushima."

"We knew all along nuclear power was dangerous. I just didn't know how to express myself," said one of the protesters, 50-year-old Yoshiko Nakamura, who was taking part in her second demonstration in two weeks. "This is a great opportunity to send a message and voice my fears."

Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that runs Fukushima Dai-ichi, said Saturday that the radiation exposures for two workers, upon more careful recalculation, was found to have reached near the crisis-time limit of 250 millisieverts.

Usually, TEPCO plant workers are limited to 100 millisieverts of radiation exposure over five years, with no year exceeding 50 millisieverts. That was raised to 250 millisieverts, with government approval, because of the crisis.

One worker was measured at 240.8 millisieverts, while another at 226.6 millisieverts. Both workers were temporarily hospitalized last month after being exposed to highly radioactive water that had leaked into the reactor turbine room.

Last week, TEPCO said one female worker at Fukushima Dai-ichi was exposed to radiation three times the legal limit, at 17.55 millisieverts. Exposure for women is limited to 5 millisieverts over 3 months because of pregnancy concerns.

TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said the company had been preoccupied with monitoring radiation for male workers, and forgot that women's limits were far lower.

"We are extremely sorry," he told reporters last week.

Also on Saturday, parliament's lower house approved a special 4 trillion yen ($50 billion) budget to help finance post-tsunami rebuilding efforts, in what officials say will likely be the first installment of reconstruction funding.

The budget now goes to the less powerful upper house, where opposition is unlikely, and the budget is expected to win passage early next week.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more.

USATODAY.com

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

U.S. Ambassador to Resign After Criticism Over Focus on Abortion, Faith

Associated Press

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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. ambassador to Malta, an important Roman Catholic supporter of President Obama, said Sunday he would resign after a State Department report criticized him for spending too much time writing and speaking about his religious beliefs. 

In letters to Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Douglas Kmiec said he would step down Aug. 15. He told The Associated Press that no one pressured him to leave.
Kmiec was a well-known conservative law professor and commentator before being taking the job in 2009. But a report this month by the State Department's inspector general rebuked Kmiec for concentrating too much on issues such as abortion and his faith, while neglecting his ambassadorial duties 

"I doubt very much whether one could ever spend too much time on this subject," Kmiec wrote Obama in his resignation letter. 

The audit was the second critical assessment of a politically appointed ambassador this year and illustrates the pitfalls that presidents can face when they appoint noncareer diplomats to ambassadorships, often as a reward for their political support. 

A February report blasted the 14-month tenure of Cynthia Stroum, a big Obama donor who became ambassador to Luxembourg. It described her service as fraught with personality conflicts, verbal abuse and questionable expenditures on travel, wine and liquor. Things were so bad in the wealthy European nation that some staff requested transfers to Iraq and Afghanistan, the report said. Stroum resigned effective Jan. 31, just days before the scathing assessment was made public. 

The audit of the U.S. Embassy in Malta said Kmiec's "outside activities have detracted from his attention to core mission goals" in the Mediterranean island nation, such as promoting maritime security and American business. It acknowledged the wide respect for Kmiec in the conservative, Roman Catholic country of Malta, but said his articles distracted him and embassy officials by forcing them to carefully review his writing. They upset administration officials in Washington, too, it noted. 

Kmiec responded by describing the criticism of his religious views was "especially odd" because his friendship with Obama began out of a common view that "too much of politics had been used to divide us, sometimes by excluding people of faith." 

Kmiec, a law professor at Pepperdine University and a lawyer in President Ronald Reagan's administration, was targeted by conservative Catholics and denied Communion by one priest for his support for Obama during the presidential campaign. 

In his letter to Clinton, Kmiec noted that he advised President George H.W. Bush in 1989 that government audits should focus on rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, and suggested that the criticism of his ambassadorship was in effect a "sting-back." He said inspectors use the audits to criticize support for Obama's policies such as his goal to promote interfaith dialogue. 

The State Department declined comment on Kmiec's announcement. 

The embassy in Malta has recently played an enhanced role as the nearest European country to Libya. More than 180 Americans were ferried to Malta when Muammar al-Qaddafi's forces violently cracked down on protesters seeking an end to his four-decade rule.

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Retired Justice O'Connor Draws Criticism Over Political, Judicial Activities

AP

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor speaks at the Women's Conference Oct. 26, 2010, in Long Beach, Calif.

WASHINGTON -- Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor continues to hear cases in U.S. appeals courts, while also playing a role in public policy issues. Her critics say she should do one or the other, but not both. 

O'Connor, 81, was forced to apologize for 50,000 recorded telephone calls made to Nevada voters in which she supported a ballot measure to change the way state judges are selected. O'Connor said she did not authorize the calls featuring her recorded voice, much less their post-midnight delivery. But she also defended her involvement in the campaign that included her appearance in a television commercial. 

In September, federal judges in Iowa stayed away from a conference on judicial elections at which O'Connor spoke in the midst of another campaign over ballot issues. The judges had received an informal opinion that their presence would violate the judiciary's ethics code. 

Most recently, O'Connor hosted an after-hours reception at the court that was billed as a celebration of Bristol Bay in Alaska. But the featured speakers, other than O'Connor, were opponents of a proposed Alaskan copper and gold mine. They were in Washington to lobby lawmakers and regulators against the proposed Pebble Mine. 

Arthur Hellman, an ethics expert at the University of Pittsburgh law school, said O'Connor should consider stopping her participation in court cases if she "wants to engage in this level of political or politically related activity." 

Partisan-tinged questioning of conduct by high court justices has grown. 

Liberal interest groups have faulted Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas for speaking at a private dinner hosted by Charles Koch, one of two energy-company-owning brothers who, liberal groups say, have too much sway on policymakers. 

Some liberals have called on Thomas to sit out the expected high court fight over the health care law because of his wife's public criticism of the law. Some conservatives say Justice Elena Kagan should not take part in the health care case because of her work in the Obama administration before joining the court. 

O'Connor has traveled the country since her retirement in 2006 to criticize costly election campaigns for state judges, promote enhanced civics education for schoolchildren and advocate for Alzheimer's research. Her husband, John, died in 2009 of complications from Alzheimer's disease. 

Her primary focus has been on judicial independence, which she believes is harmed by electing judges. 

At the same time, she has heard cases on appeal since her retirement. It is not uncommon for retired justices to sit with federal appeals courts from time to time. Justice David Souter, who left the court in 2009, has heard cases with the Boston-based court. 

Through the end of March, O'Connor had written two appellate decisions and joined the majority in a half-dozen others this year. None of the cases involved judicial elections or the fate of the Alaska bay. 

The continuing judicial work allows O'Connor, who earns $213,900, to receive salary increases that are tied to inflation. Judges who stop hearing cases receive a pension equal to their final annual salary as a full-time judge, but are excluded from subsequent cost-of-living increases. 

Last week, O'Connor was the host of a Supreme Court reception "to celebrate the economic, cultural and ecological values of Alaska's Bristol Bay Watershed." 

Opponents of the proposed huge mine near the bay fear it will devastate the world's largest wild sockeye salmon fishery. The Environmental Protection Agency recently said it would study potential effects from the mine. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson attended and briefly spoke at the reception. 

O'Connor declined to answer questions for this story. But the head of the Wild Salmon Center, lead sponsor of the event, said O'Connor's participation came about because of their friendship and her love of fly fishing. 

Guido Rahr, the center's president, said his group hasn't taken a position on the mine and that the speakers were careful to "make sure we were respecting the location" of the reception at the court. 

Rahr said participants mainly "ate yummy salmon treats" and looked at National Geographic photos of the bay. 

But one speaker was a former Alaska state Senate president, Rick Halford, who told reporters the next day that the proposal was a "very, very dangerous kind of mine." 

Supporters of the project made their own visit to Washington a couple of weeks earlier. They were not received at the high court. 

Hellman, the Pittsburgh ethics expert, said he finds the court reception particularly troubling because "we're talking about political activity. It's a lobbying effort and she is lending her considerable prestige to that effort." 

Another ethics professor, Stephen Gillers of New York University, said that if the speeches were not about advocacy, then the event itself probably does not pose an ethical problem for O'Connor. On the other hand, Gillers said it is possible O'Connor would have to step aside from any appellate case involving the groups that sponsored the reception. 

The court hosts 50 to 60 after-hours events a year, many related to the court. Guidelines for use of the building forbid partisan political activity and fundraising, and require a justice to sponsor an event. A cash bar and dancing are not permitted. 

Supreme Court justices are not covered by the ethics rules that apply to all federal judges. Still, justices generally adhere to those rules, Hellman said. 

O'Connor's involvement in last year's ballot issues in Iowa and Nevada also drew a rare rebuke from another federal judge. 

Senior Judge Laurence Silberman of the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., said "the issue of whether state court judges should be chosen or ratified by election or solely by appointment is a political issue on which serving federal judges should not publicly advocate, one way or the other." 

Silberman said that unlike the criticism of Scalia and Thomas, which he termed phony issues, O'Connor's advocacy "is a real ethical issue." 

O'Connor took part in a conference in Des Moines, Iowa, in September on the topic of judicial elections. That appearance came during a contentious campaign about whether voters should retain three Iowa Supreme Court justices who were part of a unanimous court ruling in favor of gay marriage. 

Federal judges in Iowa had been invited to attend by the Iowa State Bar Association, according to Chief Judge Robert Pratt of the Southern District of Iowa 

But Pratt wondered whether their attendance would be improper. 

Lacking the time for a formal opinion from the judiciary's ethics committee, the judge took advantage of a less formal process and called an ethics committee member for his views. 

Pratt said the committee member, U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf, informally advised the judges to stay away. 

They did, but O'Connor attended and said voters shouldn't punish judges when they disagree with their decisions. In the end, the three justices were ousted.

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