(News Briefs April 26, 2007)

The Onteora Race
Petitions were handed in from three people vying for two seats on the Onteora District Board of Education. Richard Wolff of Shokan, Michelle Friedel of West Shokan and the current school board president Marino D’Orazio of Stone Ridge will campaign for a three-year term.
The deadline for handing in petitions to the central office ended at 5pm April 16, but a snow day was called, due to the nor’easter floods, that in turn closed the district. District Clerk Jeanne Shultis said the deadline did not need extending since no one else other than the three requested petitions and they all turned them in early before the Monday deadline.
West Hurley resident Dave Patterson and D’Orazio will both be coming to the end of their terms in July. Patterson will not seek re-election, but D’Orazio would like to continue.
The vote for the district’s budget and the two board seats is May 15, from 2-9pm.
The Onteora School District PTA Council will be hosting a “Meet the School Board Candidates Night” on Monday, May 7th at 7:00pm at the Onteora Middle/ High School cafeteria in Boiceville. The forum will be moderated by the Mid-Hudson Chapter of the League of Woman Voters. Each candidate will give a short presentation and then answer audience questions about issues facing the school district. All voters in the Onteora School District are invited to attend.

Merger Meetings
Five public information sessions are scheduled so Ulster County residents can discuss, receive information on and ask questions about the impending consolidation between Benedictine and Kingston hospitals. A statewide commission on healthcare mandated the two hospitals unite under a single governance body, reduce the number of total hospital beds available and consolidate services.
The meetings will be held at 7 p.m. on the following dates:
April 26: Ulster County Office Building, 244 Fair St., Kingston
May 3: Ulster BOCES, Route 32, New Paltz
May 10: Ulster County Community College, Cottekill Road, Stone Ridge
May 17: Cahill Elementary School, 134 Main St., Saugerties
May 24: Onteora High School, Route 28, Boiceville
Assemblyman Kevin A. Cahill, D-Kingston, will moderate the first four meetings. Brian Powers, publisher of this paper, will moderate the fifth. Thomas Dee, president and chief executive officer of the Benedictine Hospital and Michael Kaminski, president and CEO of The Kingston Hospital, will be present at these meetings to give information and answer questions.

Belleayre Talks...
What’s up with Dean Gitter’s long-pending Belleayre Resort project?
The gag order thrown over negotiations bring brokered by federal EPA Regional Administrator Alan Steinberg, New York City Department of Environmental Protection officials overseeing the Catskills watershed, and representatives of Governor Eliot Spitzer since last fall is still in effect. But word started leaking out that a compromise may be offered sometimes soon.
That, in turn, prompted one of the major parties in the negotiations – the Catskill Preservation Coalition representing a host of national, state and regional environmental organizations, to send out a press release noting that talks were continuing and that, as CPC Spokesperson Tom Alworth put it, “Contrary to rumors, there is no deal.”
The CPC release further noted that any understanding reached in the closed-door talks would be open for public review and comment, and that should an agreement not be reached, “the parties reserve their right to resume the adjudicatory process.”
The rumors, it turns out, started around the same time that a surprise statement was released from the usually non-partisan Coalition for Belleayre, a group of ski area enthusiasts who originally came together in the 1980s to protest and eventually stop a threatened state closing of its DEC-run Belleayre Ski Resort. They have more recently advocated, supported, and essentially run the Belleayre Music Festival each summer, as well as the fundraising Snowball gala each February.
“We strongly support the efforts of Governor Spitzer and Maurice Hinchey in effecting a timely, positive resolution of the controversy surrounding the Belleayre Resort Project,” their April 14 release read. “The solution has to address the needs of the local communities to have an economy that adds jobs for the present and provides a future for their children that does not force them to go elsewhere to build their lives. We understand this solution should include environmental controls that mitigate the effect of development but it must also provide the ability for this project to go forward in an economically viable manner. The time for a solution and for construction to begin is NOW!”
Justifying its movement off the proverbial bench, the Coalition’s press release noted, “In the past The Coalition for Belleayre has adopted a neutral stand on The Belleayre Resort Project because of the divisive nature of dispute.” More recently, the release went on, that stance was shifted by a downturn in the Catskills economy, heightened competition between Belleayre and other Northeast ski areas with greater amenities, and “the introduction of the probable integration of Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in the compromise solutions for a Belleayre Resort Project being discussed by governmental entities.”
It is that latter statement, sources are now saying, that caused CPC’s concern since it signaled that someone was letting out information from the gagged negotiations without authorization.
Did the release mean that the Coalition For Belleayre was backing the alternative Congressman Maurice Hinchey put forth two years ago, to forgo any development on the Resort’s eastern half and downscale its western ambitions, as well?
“We like a lot of what Maurice has said.” Coalition for Belleayre founder Joe Kelly replied. “Remember, the compromise has, how do I put this, progressed over the last year. Our position is to just do it.”
Asked if he had, as Kelly iunferred, actually compromised his alternative to Gitter’s proposal in any way, Hinchey said this week that he had not.
“It hasn’t progressed at all,” he said. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I feel that any development on the eastern portion of that ridgeline will have a very serious adverse impact on the water quality of the New York City reservoir system, which cannot be gambled with.
Gitter has often derided what the Congressman put forth. But then he announced his own “compromise,” which effectively kept two parts to his resort, but only one golf course, last fall. Instead of the second, he would build a world-class medical spa retreat. And cut back on a few of the condo rooms.
Meanwhile, reports that a compromise has been discussed that includes a close tie-in between the resort and state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center was scoffed at by the heads of other privately-owned ski centers in the Catskills, who noted that there was already a movement afoot among Northeast ski businesses to petition the state to get out of an already highly competitive and endangered industry.
“They try giving themselves even more of an advantage and they’ll be hearing from lawyers,” said Hunter Mountain owner Orville Slutsky, known as the grandfather of local skiing. “Enough’s enough…”
Stay tuned…

Reservoir Caps?
Ten members of the U.S. House, from Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, are calling for caps with the New York reservoirs in the aftermath of the recent floods. Rep. Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania Democrat, led a bipartisan coalition of Representatives from states along the Delaware River in writing a letter to Major General William Grisoli, the Chair and Federal Representative for the Delaware River Basin Commission. The other signatories include Reps. Robert Andrews (D-NJ), Michael Arcuri (D-NY), Robert Brady (D-PA), Chris Carney (D-PA), Chaka Fattah (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), Joe Sestak (D-PA) and Chris Smith (R-NJ). Murphy, a member of the Delaware River Basin Task Force and leader of a congressional advisory board of 8th district experts and municipalities is committed to preventing and mitigating damage from flooding. In the letter, Murphy cites the fact that the Delaware River came within inches of overflowing in most areas and actually did overrun its banks in several locations.
Murphy called for a “sense of urgency” as residents of this region have lived with the threat of flooding for years. Murphy urged General Grisoli, the four governors and the City of New York to maintain sufficient room in the reservoirs to avoid flooding downstream. The letter goes on to say that this is not an issue for one state or one political party, and that through cooperation we can improve the lives all families along the Delaware.
“We may have been lucky this week, but we can’t afford to leave it up to chance”, said Murphy. “In order to prevent flooding for all of the families along the Delaware we will need a cooperative effort and that includes relief from the New York reservoirs. We all have to do our part to prevent the devastating damage of a flood and we shouldn’t wait for another rainstorm or even another minute to act.”
Our own Congressman Maurice Hinchey has also been involved in the actions, both via active support and his work on the House Appropriations Committee. He said this week that he would like similar concerns addressed in other basins affected by the city reservoirs, and greater funding allotted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help alleviate local flooding problems that keep re-occuring.

Casino Watch…
Ulster County lawmakers are holding off of support for a bill sponsored by state Assemblyman Kevin Cahill that would compel the governor to gain approval from the county before allowing a casino within its borders, hoping to give towns and villages more of a say about casinos coming to the area first. The shift occurred after dissension appeared from the communities of Ulster and Ellenville, where proposals are either being courted or considered..
The governor currently has the authority to approve a total of three casinos in Sullivan and Ulster counties without prior approval from local governments. This power was granted shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as a way to help the state recoup lost revenue. One casino already has been approved for Monticello in Sullivan County… although it is continuing to face hurdles being thrown up by opponents in the region.
The current draft of what’s come to be called Ulster County’s “casino resolution” would ask the state to allow county towns, villages and the city of Kingston to decide whether a casino could be placed within their borders. The county would not hold decision-making authority under the proposal, but would still be able to weigh in through a full environmental assessment that would consider a casino’s impact on county roadways, resources and services.
Several municipalities around the county have adopted resolutions against casinos, while some areas in the southern part of the county are open to the potential tourism and employment opportunities casinos could bring. The town of Ulster and village of Ellenville have asked that they be granted a decision making voice of their own.
Some in the discussion have recalled when the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma sought to establish a casino in the town and the county, via then-Legislative Chairman Ward Todd, took control of negotiating the allocation of the $15 million offered by the tribe, ignoring the financial impact on local municipalities.
Meanwhile, in a move that will delay any final decision to approve the proposed Monticello Raceway casino, the U.S. government agreed this month that a decision must first be reached on the adequacy of the Interior Department’s assessment of the $500 million casino’s environmental impact on surrounding communities before the department would be allowed to take the land into trust. A consortium, led by the Natural Resources Defense League, filed a lawsuit in federal court earlier this year seeking to have a full environmental review conducted before any final approval is granted by the federal government.
According to the agreement among the parties to the lawsuit, the U.S. District Court must hear and rule on this case before U.S. Interior Department Secretary Kempthorne will be allowed to take the land into trust to allow the construction of the casino complex. The government also indicated in the court papers that Interior Department Secretary Kempthorne has not yet made a final decision on whether to actually approve the 29 acres land transfer for the Monticello Raceway casino. The land would have to be placed in trust for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe.

New Consultant
The Board of Directors of the Catskill Watershed Corporation authorized a contract this Spring with Liberty-based Dadras Architects to serve as a consultant for the CWC’s Business District and Historic Structure Rehabilitation Program. The firm was chosen through a bidding process to evaluate and provide restoration plans for commercial and mixed-use structures in business centers and gateways of Watershed communities. The CWC’s newest economic development program is intended to return deteriorated buildings to viable commercial use. Dadras’ first task will be to evaluate the structural integrity and rehabilitation potential of a Stamford building that has been identified as a possible pilot project for the new program.
Dadras co-founded the Sullivan County Main Street Redevelopment Center and, from 1997-2004, served as Main Street Coordinator for the Center, working to revitalize 31 communities. For the past several years, Dadras Architects have been consultants to the Main Street Programs of the Catskill Center for Conservation & Development and of Greene County. Deposit, Hobart, Phoenicia and several other communities have also engaged Dadras to help with community improvements.
For more information on economic development and other programs of the CWC, go to www.cwconline.org.

Timber Quotas…
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation cut only about half of the harvestable timber from state forests, falling well short of its annual timber harvest goals, according to an audit released recently by the New York State Comptroller’s office. As a result, the state lost approximately $14.6 million, about $4.85 million a year, in potential revenue from timber sales over a three-year period.
DEC manages about four million acres of state owned land, including about 762,000 acres of state forests which are regularly harvested to promote forest health, sustainability and biodiversity. Timber harvesting and other forest management activities are overseen by DEC foresters, along with other stewardship tasks, are responsible for determining the specific areas that should be harvested to achieve the desired forest density and mixture of species, and for placing a dollar value on the trees to be cut.
Auditors found that, between April 2001 and March 2006, the number of foresters working for DEC decreased from 46 to 33, about 28 percent reduction, while the amount of state-owned forested land increased by 18,700 acres. Because of the staff shortage and other competing priorities for the time of foresters, DEC could not fully achieve its forest management goals.
DEC generally agreed with the audit findings and has taken steps to implement auditors’ recommendations.
The future of the state forests were discussed at a public hearing hosted by the DEC April 23 in Margaretville. The agency is seeking input to help establish a long-term vision and goals to manage several; local forests, as well as overall policy.The specific forests in question cover parts of Delaware and Greene counties. The information will be used to develop a draft unit-management plan.
Comments can be submitted at the hearing or by mail or e-mail and will be accepted until May 23. Mail them to Matthew Swayze, NYSDEC Region 4 Stamford Suboffice, 65561 State Highway 10, Suite 1, Stamford, NY 12167 or e-mail r4ump@gw.dec.state.ny.us. For more information, call 607-652-3624.

New Watchdogs
Abused and neglected children have eleven more people in their corner. On April 20th, Ulster County Family Court Judges Marianne O. Mizel and Anthony McGinty swore in the newest group of Court Appointed Special Advocates. Taking the oath of office were Astrid Cernos, Marti Green and Josephine Oliva, of Marbletown; Roberta Falatyn and Stephanie Kovarnik, of Hurley; Laurie Hedlund, of New Paltz; Edward “Juma” Lewis, of West Hurley; John Miller, of Clintondale; Stephanie Turco, of Esopus; Johanna Trimboli, of Bearsville; and Tanya Williams, of Kerhonkson.
CASA volunteers review and monitor cases of children who have been abused or neglected. Most of these children are in foster care. Volunteer advocates work closely with the children, family members, caseworkers and others. They help ensure that children receive the services they need. Equally important, they develop an independent assessment of the case for the court, advising the judge about the child’s current needs and what they feel would be in the child’s best interest. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that foster care is temporary and that children have a safe, permanent home to call their own.
CASA of Ulster County was founded in 1987 and is a private, not-for-profit agency that is part of a nationwide movement of community volunteers who speak up for the best interests of abused, abandoned and neglected children, many of whom are in foster care. For more information about CASA, call 339-7543.

Libraries OK!
Ten years after some experts predicted the demise of the nation’s system of libraries as a result of the Internet explosion, the most current national data on library use shows that the exact opposite has happened. Data released by the American Library Association (ALA) indicates that the number of visits to public libraries in the United States increased 61 percent between 1994 and 2004.
According to the 2007 State of America’s Libraries report, there were nearly two billion visits to U.S. libraries in fiscal year 2004.
“Far from hurting American libraries, the Internet has actually helped to spur more people to use their local libraries because it has increased our hunger for knowledge and information,” said Loriene Roy, president-elect of the American Library Association. According the ALA report, virtually every library in the United States - 99 percent - provides free public computer access to the Internet, a four-fold increase in the percentage of libraries providing such free access over the last decade. By comparison, Roy pointed to another study released in March showing that only 69 percent of U.S. households have Internet access. But unlike the Internet, particularly when accessed at home, Roy said libraries still serve a unique function in providing those who seek knowledge and information with guidance from trained and educated professionals.
Overall circulation at public libraries in the U.S. rose by 28 percent during the decade, partly driven by significant growth in circulation of children’s materials, which grew by 44 percent. Attendance in library programs for children was also up 42 percent for this same period.
A full copy of the 2007 State of America’s Libraries is available at www.ala.org/2007State.

Choco-Hell?
The federal Food and Drug Administration is proposing to redefine the very essence of chocolate and to allow big manufacturers such as Hershey to sell a bar devoid of a key ingredient - cocoa butter. The butter’s natural texture could be replaced with alternatives, such as vegetable fats. And consumers would never know.
For every defender of traditional chocolate, there are powerful proponents who want to replace cocoa butter with vegetable oil: the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Snack Food Association. These industry titans have filed a “citizens petition” to the FDA, as the Los Angeles Times recently reported, as if there were some groundswell in society to water down chocolate.
At the moment, chocolate requires two basic ingredients - cocoa and cocoa butter. Cocoa provides much of the flavor; cocoa butter, the texture. So if, say, Hershey wanted to make a chocolate bar without cocoa butter, it can under today’s rules. The product has to be labeled “chocolate flavored” (for it still has the cocoa in it) rather than “chocolate.” That gives the consumer a signal that something less than chocolate lies beneath the wrapping.

Women’s Health…
U.S. women with health insurance are more likely than men to go without needed care because of higher premiums and related costs, a study said. A larger percentage of women also have trouble paying their medical bills.
More women didn’t fill prescriptions, skipped recommended visits with specialists, failed to get tests, or just didn’t seek treatment when they had a medical problem, according to a national survey by the Commonwealth Fund, a private, New York- based group that supports research on health and social issues. Other studies have suggested that women often pay more for care because they need more routine exams, such as those related to pregnancy. These issues should be part of the national debate as employers switch to plans with higher deductibles and policy makers seek flexible, lower-cost options for 44 million uninsured and 16 million “underinsured” adults, the report said.
More than 4,000 adults ages 19 and older participated in the survey, researchers said. Of that number, 33 percent of insured women and 68 percent of uninsured didn’t get the health care they needed because they couldn’t afford it, compared with 23 percent of insured men and 49 percent of uninsured men who went without care.
Among full-time workers, women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn, according to the most recent Labor Department figures.
Almost 38 percent of all women surveyed reported difficulty paying medical bills, compared with 29 percent of men, the report said. Among the insured, 31 percent of women had trouble with bills compared with 22 percent of men. About a quarter of the women said they weren’t able to pay their bills at all, and about the same percentage said they’re paying them off over time.
A separate study by Harvard Medical School researchers earlier this month said high-deductible or so-called “consumer- driven” plans hurt women. The authors said the median expense for men under 45 in the plans was less than $500, while women typically paid more than $1,200. About a third of insured men in that age group spent more than $1,050 in yearly medical costs, while 55 percent of women had out-of-pocket costs at the same level.
Meanwhile, in Congress, Democratshave reintroduced the Freedom of Choice Act in Congress a day after the Supreme Court upheld an abortion-procedure ban. The bill could lead to a reversal of the ban that broke legal precedent by providing no health exception for the woman. The Act would codify in federal law the rights established in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that found abortion was part of a woman’s constitutional right to privacy.
“We can no longer rely on the Supreme Court to protect a woman’s constitutional right to choose,” said Nadler, who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. “This Supreme Court may have gone out of the business of protecting women’s rights; it is time that Congress stand up to the challenge.”
Seven states have passed their own versions of the Freedom of Choice Act: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada and Washington. At the federal level prospects are cloudy for the bill, which has been introduced in previous Congresses but has failed to win passage.
It was also revealed recently that nearly all American women are in danger of heart disease or stroke and should be more aggressive about lowering their risk - including asking their doctors about daily aspirin use, the American Heart Association said in new guidelines. It is the first time guidelines have urged all women to consider aspirin for preventing strokes, although specialists warn that it can cause ulcers and dangerous bleeding. They said it is probably not a good idea for young women with no big health problems.

Get Healthy…
Two local events are currently available to ensure local health.
Frost Valley YMCA in Claryville will host a “Healthy Kids Day” on Sunday, April 29 from 1-4 p.m. The event is free. The day’s activities will include: a fun run, indoor climbing wall, obstacle course, hiking, a jumping castle, mountain boarding, bike rodeo, tips from firefighters, D.A.R.E./Child ID station, bike tune-ups, sun safety and hiking safety, yoga for kids, story corner, dental health station, composting/greenhouse and gardening and a health check station. To learn more about the Healthy Kids Day at Frost Valley YMCA, contact Sarah Balzano at (845) 985-2291, ext. 305, or e-mail sbalzano@frostvalley.org.
Also, the American Cancer Society is offering two free skin cancer screenings for individuals who are uninsured or for those with insurance who have never visited a dermatologist. The first screening will be Wednesday, May 2nd from 1:00 – 4:30pm at Advanced Dermatology, 2215 Route 5W in Lake Katrine. A second screening will be Tuesday, May 15th from 8:30am – 12:30pm at Kingston Medical Arts Building, Suite 204, 368 Broadway in Kingston. To schedule an appointment for either of these free screenings, call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345.

Host Family?
Local families are needed as hosts for international students from July 23 to August 16 during the first International Environmental Summer Institute at Ulster County Community College. Students from ages 16 to 19 from Asia, Europe and South America will be attending the program at SUNY Ulster in Stone Ridge, during which they will attend classes and participate in field trips related to environmental issues.
Interested families can apply by contacting Richard Cattabiani at (845) 687-5135 or cattabir@sunyulster.edu or Michelle Rodden at 687-5165 or roddenm@sunyulster.edu.

Cellular Bees
Some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world’s harvests fail. They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees’ navigation systems, preventing the famously home-loving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.
The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.
No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks. But German research has long shown that bees’ behaviour changes near power lines.
Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a “hint” to a possible cause.

Prevailing Wage?
The Ulster County Industrial Development Agency has opted to wait another month to change its longstanding prevailing wage policy, which has become a topic of contention as new project applications to the agency have dwindled. The policy mandates that businesses that receive tax benefits from the agency pay workers prevailing wage during the construction phase of the project. The state Department of Labor determines prevailing wage by occupation in the county. For instance, prevailing wage for a carpenter is $27.85 an hour and is $35 an hour for an electrician. One possible change to the prevailing wage policy is the implementation of a threshold. If a project is more than $5 million, it would be required to pay its construction workers prevailing wage. If it is less than $5 million, it would be required to pay construction workers at least 75 percent of prevailing wage.

Voter Politics
For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates, according to former department lawyers and a review of written records. The administration intensified its efforts last year as President Bush’s popularity and Republican support eroded heading into a midterm battle for control of Congress, which the Democrats won.
Facing nationwide voter registration drives by Democratic-leaning groups, the administration alleged widespread election fraud and endorsed proposals for tougher state and federal voter identification laws. Presidential political adviser Karl Rove alluded to the strategy in April 2006 when he railed about voter fraud in a speech to the Republican National Lawyers Association.
Questions about the administration’s campaign against alleged voter fraud have helped fuel the political tempest over the firings last year of eight U.S. attorneys, several of whom were ousted in part because they failed to bring voter fraud cases important to Republican politicians.
Civil rights advocates contend that the administration’s policies were intended to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of poor and minority voters who tend to support Democrats, and by filing state and federal lawsuits, civil rights groups have won court rulings blocking some of its actions.
The administration, however, has repeatedly invoked allegations of widespread voter fraud to justify tougher voter ID measures and other steps to restrict access to the ballot, even though research suggests that voter fraud is rare.
Meanwhile, computer vote-memory card totals researched inb an Ohio case failed to match electronic voting machine ballot tallies in more than one quarter of the samples checked from the November election in the state’s most populous county. In the 37 sample precincts where results didn’t match, there may have been corrupted memory cards, missing or torn reports, faulty printers or other problems, according to the independent audit commissioned by the Cuyahoga County elections board.
The audit was conducted by 40 volunteers under the direction of Cleveland State University’s Center for Election Integrity. The governor and a U.S. senator were chosen in the November election. Three of four county elections board members have since quit, and the resignation of chairman Bob Bennett, also the Ohio Republican chairman, will become effective May 1. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, demanded the resignations over problems including the conviction of two board employees for rigging a sample recount..
Meanwhile, federal investigators have found that the same e-mail accounts involved in the current White House attorney firings case were also involved in the Ohio vote scams.
Just wait on this one...

Terror Terms…
British officials have stopped using the expression “war on terror” favored by President Bush, saying the phrase strengthens terrorists by making them feel part of a bigger struggle and noting that such a larger war, as promulgated by the President in numerous speeches, cannot be won by military means alone. They further note that because this isn’t a war against one organized enemy with a clear identity and a coherent set of objectives, a different form of terminology is needed. Bush first used the expression “war on terror” shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks ; it still appears frequently in his speeches.