The Post-Standard, Syracuse, N.Y., Sept. 15

When the White House announced its Medicare prescription drug plan, it said the program would cost a whopping $400 billion. But the truth was the program would cost at least $100 billion more, a fact former Medicare chief Thomas Scully knew but wanted to keep secret, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Scully did not just keep his mouth shut; he apparently ordered Medicare actuary Richard S. Foster to keep quiet, too, or lose his job. The GAO said that action should have cost Scully his salary, based on a federal law that says an agency cannot pay an official who prevents a federal employee from providing information to Congress.

A Health and Human Services agency spokesman told The Washington Post that HHS, the umbrella agency for Medicare, and Scully acted properly. He also said the Bush and Clinton administrations did not believe the law requiring salary returns was constitutional.

But no agency has the right to ignore the law just because it doesn’t like it. Besides, Scully’s actions may not only be a violation of law they may also be a violation of the public trust.

If the GAOs’ accusations are true, Scully deliberately withheld public information, shook down a subordinate, and misled Congress and the American people. And if the Bush administration put pressure on Scully to put pressure on Foster, then the White House must share some of the blame. …

FDA too cozy with drug makers
St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, Sept. 14

Instead of protecting the public, the Food and Drug Administration has allowed pharmaceutical companies to withhold the outcome of tests that show some antidepressants used by children are no more effective than a sugar pill. And that isn’t the worst of it. The FDA even refused to let one company warn that its drug was linked to suicidal behavior in children, according to testimony in a recent congressional hearing.

Thanks to such revelations, it’s finally looking as though Congress is fed up with the cozy relationship between the FDA and the drug industry. …

Two fixes are needed quickly. First, drug studies should be made public from beginning to end. … Congress should pass a law making all drug studies accessible to the public no matter the outcome.

Finally, the FDA needs to start doing its job. There is no excuse for the agency to withhold information that could save a life.

Avoiding a new Cold War
Corriere della Sera, Milan, Italy, Sept. 15

Many think that the Chechen issue is only a pretext that will enable Putin to carry out his project of an authoritarian state. However, this is only partially true.

To carry out his plan of constitutional reforms Putin will appeal to Russian nationalism, will claim Russia’s rights as a great powerful nation and will react with growing irritation to the troublesome American presence in central Asia and in the Caucasus.

Shall we get ready for a new Cold War? Putin … is aware that his country has been delayed by the communist regime. He has to defend the unity of the state but he also has to make Russia new, free its extraordinary economic potential and let the country grow.

The result of an international match depends on the goodwill of all the players. Most importantly, in this case, the United States and the European Union. It is up to them to understand Russia and avoid its making too many mistakes.

U.N. must stop the genocide
East African Standard, Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 15

As blood continues to flow in Sudan, the U.N. has described the situation as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. It is more than this. With at least more than 10,000 people dying monthly from diseases and violence related causes, to call it a humanitarian crisis is an understatement.

The blinding fact the international community is reluctant to face is that what is happening in Darfur is simply genocide, racial annihilation of one of Sudan’s black communities by a government-sponsored militia.

But the core of the problem lies in the genocidal attacks waged by the bloodthirsty government-sponsored militia, baptized as Janjaweed, who kill, maim, rape and sexually molest girls and women with full state protection.

But the Khartoum government does not seem bothered by the killings. More vexing is that the international community, including the U.N., still dithers on how to resolve the situation.

This is reminiscent of what happened in Rwanda. Must it happen again in Sudan?

The U.N. is the custodian of international law. It must stop this madness.