Letters to the Editor

EPA inspectors found no pollution problems

I am writing to you regarding the article "Fines issued for hazardous waste" (Nov. 7, 2003). Unfortunately, your article left readers with the impression that Princeton University had significant violations that posed an environmental threat, and that hefty fines were imposed.

In fact, the EPA found no hazardous waste violations. After a very comprehensive inspection, EPA only cited the University for paperwork, procedural or posting infractions, none of which resulted in any environmental impairment.

The EPA inspections, conducted by a team of inspectors over several days, actually took place in 2001. The inspections were very thorough and involved visits to more than 100 University laboratories and other campus operations, such as the garage, the paint shop and photo labs including the dark room at The Daily Princetonian.

Although the University was fined $30,000 for violations, the inspectors credited Princeton University as being one of the best the EPA has seen since they began their focus on colleges and universities. We are very proud of our environmental compliance record and consider the outcome of the 2001 EPA inspections a success. Garth G. Walter Director Environmental Health and Safety

Rahim's own claims need more support

In his Nov. 5 column, Taufiq Rahim argues there is a disturbing trend of "hate and conspiracy theories" in the Muslim world. This, according to Mr. Rahim, is partly due to the air of secrecy surrounding "Zionist" influences in American politics and investigations into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. I will not challenge the merits of his analysis, but will point out that his examples of suppressed knowledge range from silly and irrelevant to downright false. For example, so what if an Israeli spy ring was broken up following Sept. 11? Even the closest allies routinely spy on each other. There is one example he uses, however, that has been thoroughly discredited: the claim that "several of the hijackers have been spotted alive."

The BBC on Sept. 23 reported that some of the alleged terrorists were still alive. But this report was based on Arab news sources and the story was printed before photographs of the hijackers were released to the public. The Arab newspapers had only the names of the hijackers to work with (and one of the names was misspelled), and had simply interviewed people with the same names. And given that some of the hijackers' names are as common as "John Smith is in the United States," according to one editor of an Arab newspaper, the whole story was based on mistaken identity and bad reporting. (You can read more here: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/english/0,1518,druck-265160,00.html)

In other words, the hijackers are dead. The reason that the U.S. government isn't investigating the allegation is because it is false. It is interesting that Mr. Rahim does not provide a source for this allegation, whereas he provides citations for his other claims. I found that the only sources still repeating the live hijackers claim are conspiracy books and web sites. If Mr. Rahim truly wants an open dialogue, he should either provide sources for his claim or admit that it has been discredited. Frank Lee '04