May 22, 2016


News and Views


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/20/478838525/doctors-without-borders-suspends-work-in-parts-of-central-african-republic

Doctors Without Borders Suspends Work In Parts Of Central African Republic
MERRIT KENNEDY
May 20, 20162:43 PM ET

Photograph -- A member of Doctors Without Borders looks out over the general hospital in the Central African Republic's capital city, Bangui, in April 2014., Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images
Related: GOATS AND SODA, nWhy Doctors Without Borders Is Skipping The World Humanitarian Summit


Doctors Without Borders says it is suspending its work in areas the Central African Republic after gunmen ambushed a convoy and killed one of the aid group's drivers.

The attack near the border with Chad is one of many recent attacks on the group's staff members, highlighting the risks they are exposed to while treating patients in many of the world's most dangerous conflict zones.

The ambush happened Wednesday, when armed men stopped a two-car convoy carrying doctors and patients. "The team was forced out of the cars and onto the ground," the group said in a statement. "They were robbed of personal belongings and medication. In the course of the incident, which lasted for more than 40 minutes, one of the drivers was shot and killed."

Issues on the table at the World Humanitarian Summit range from conflict zones to refugees. Above, a herder moves his goats at the Dadaab refugee camp, created nearly 25 years ago. The Kenyan government now threatens to shut it down.

Michelle Chouinard, the group's head of mission in the CAR, said the staff and patients "endured prolonged harassment, including bullets shot close to their heads and repeated verbal threats that they would be killed."

She adds: "It is absolutely unacceptable that a team of medical workers and their patients were attacked while returning from providing lifesaving medical care."

Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF, says it will suspend operations in the area "until such time as it receives adequate guarantees for the safety for its staff and the acceptance of its medical and humanitarian activities."

The Central African Republic slid into chaos in 2013 when "mainly Muslim Seleka fighters toppled former president Francois Bozize. Christian militias responded to Seleka abuses by attacking the Muslim minority," Reuters reports. It adds that 1 in 5 people have fled their homes because of the violence.

Doctors Without Borders has faced repeated attacks against its staff and hospitals in the CAR.

NPR's Gregory Warner reports that attacks against the group have sharply increased around the world. He adds: "That's one reason the group is boycotting next week's World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, calling it a 'fig-leaf of good intentions' that fails to demand safety for unarmed aid workers or hold world leaders accountable for conflict."

Michiel Hofman, a senior security adviser for Doctors Without Borders, tells NPR's Jackie Northam that the group has regularly comes under "small-scale attack, such as looting and burning" over the years. But as Jackie reports, "over the last few years there's been a dramatic increase of aerial attacks on its clinics or hospitals it supports. Those have been in Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan, on civilian medical facilities that should be untouchable under international humanitarian law."

U.S. airstrikes killed 42 people when they hit a Doctors Without Borders trauma center in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in 2015, an incident that the Pentagon says was caused "by human errors, compounded by process and equipment failures."

In April, a missile hit a hospital in embattled Aleppo, Syria. The attack killed at least 27 people. And as NPR's Jason Beaubien reports, over the past seven months, "four MSF facilities in Yemen were hit by airstrikes."

The group says that last year, 75 hospitals it manages or supports were bombed.



“Doctors Without Borders says it is suspending its work in areas the Central African Republic after gunmen ambushed a convoy and killed one of the aid group's drivers. The attack near the border with Chad is one of many recent attacks on the group's staff members, highlighting the risks they are exposed to while treating patients in many of the world's most dangerous conflict zones. …. Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF, says it will suspend operations in the area "until such time as it receives adequate guarantees for the safety for its staff and the acceptance of its medical and humanitarian activities." The Central African Republic slid into chaos in 2013 when "mainly Muslim Seleka fighters toppled former president Francois Bozize. Christian militias responded to Seleka abuses by attacking the Muslim minority," Reuters reports. It adds that 1 in 5 people have fled their homes because of the violence. Doctors Without Borders has faced repeated attacks against its staff and hospitals in the CAR. …. But as Jackie reports, "over the last few years there's been a dramatic increase of aerial attacks on its clinics or hospitals it supports. Those have been in Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan, on civilian medical facilities that should be untouchable under international humanitarian law." …. The group says that last year, 75 hospitals it manages or supports were bombed.”


This last incident of the team of medical workers being brutally treated sounds as though it was more like a street assault in the US where a poor citizen is walking from the bus stop to his home and is violently assaulted and robbed. The goal isn’t murder, but deaths occur anyway. Sometimes local people do not receive a team like that with faith and good will. In the last five years in Africa (I don’t remember where exactly) a hospital serving only Ebola victims was destroyed by local citizens because they thought the doctors had caused the disease rather than working to cure it. That is the kind of misunderstanding that happens when highly technical people try to explain what a germ is to a tribesman whose family is being fed on “bushmeat,” a primary source of Ebola infection.

The more shocking thing to me is the statistical information in the article on the sheer number of hospital bombings that have occurred. At least one of those “friendly fire” hospital bombings was done by American drones, I remember. I find it hard to believe that drones, like driverless cars, are really as safe as a hands on human controlled airplane would be. Even in that situation, though, there have been news articles within my memory of hospitals, villages, churches since the US first went into Iraq. In addition, andmore famously in WWII, the German city of Dresden was bombed almost out of existence with no legitimate military gain. In reading the wiki article on the subject, it did occur to me that the US and British could conceivably have been performing an act of vengeance for Hitler’s attacks on London. I truly hope not. In 1953 a US Air Force report defended the assault as legitimate for Dresden’s military, industrial and communications importance. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II.

War is always a brutal business and full of true errors, but if civilian sites are hit, it is at least grotesquely unfair, and very often a true war crime. The US has not been actually -- or effectively -- charged with war crimes, but we easily could have been in more than one situation down through time. I don’t blame these medical teams for withdrawing from places where the government is incapable of protecting them, and to the degree that it may be due to our careless drone attacks, it makes me ashamed. It’s even worse that the very poor are often the victims when all aid is withdrawn.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/auburn-massachusetts-police-officer-shot-suspect-on-the-loose/

Mass. cop killed during routine traffic stop; manhunt launched
CBS NEWS
May 22, 2016, 9:37 AM

Photograph -- Officer Ronald Tarantino. AUBURN POLICE DEPARTMENT


AUBURN -- A police officer in central Massachusetts was shot and killed early Sunday morning during a routine traffic stop. A manhunt has been launched for the suspect in the shooting, who fled the scene in his vehicle.

Police said Officer Roland Tarantino, 42, was shot by the occupant of a vehicle he pulled over around 12:30 a.m. Sunday on Rochdale Street in Auburn, reports CBS Boston.

Officer Tarantino was taken to UMass Medical Center in Worcester and later died.

The suspect fled in a vehicle after the shooting, according to police.

According to police, Tarantino leaves behind a wife and three children. Auburn Police Chief Andrew Sluckis, Jr. said at a press conference Sunday that Tarantino had been with the department since he transferred there from the Leicester Police Department two years ago.

"The residents of Auburn have lost a brave and dedicated public servant," Chief Sluckis said. "We will leave no stone unturned in our investigation to determine who was responsible for Officer Tarantino's murder. Every investigative avenue is being pursued fully and completely."

Police are searching for Jorge Zambrano, 35, of Worcester, in connection with the murder.

If you see this vehicle or suspect contact police immediately! pic.twitter.com/Fl4f4rdw4g

— Littleton Police (@LittletonMAPD) May 22, 2016
A neighbor told CBS Boston that he heard at least four gunshots outside his home early Sunday morning.

A motorcade took Officer Tarantino's body to the office of the medical examiner in Boston Sunday morning.

Officers saluted as the fallen officer's body was taken into the medical examiner's office. Law enforcement officers from multiple departments were present along the route to pay their respects.


Auburn and Worcester Police, Mass. State Police, the FBI, and the Worcester County District Attorney's office are investigating.

#WPD officers including @TheIACP President salute the escort of the fallen @AuburnMAPolice officer this morning. pic.twitter.com/2NaDeZfWtp

— Wellesley Police (@WellesleyPolice) May 22, 2016



“The suspect fled in a vehicle after the shooting, according to police. According to police, Tarantino leaves behind a wife and three children. Auburn Police Chief Andrew Sluckis, Jr. said at a press conference Sunday that Tarantino had been with the department since he transferred there from the Leicester Police Department two years ago. "The residents of Auburn have lost a brave and dedicated public servant," Chief Sluckis said. "We will leave no stone unturned in our investigation to determine who was responsible for Officer Tarantino's murder. Every investigative avenue is being pursued fully and completely."


Incidents like this form some rationale for police officers’ becoming abusive. I don’t think it is sufficient reason to excuse several of the shocking police stories over the last year and a half since Ferguson, though, because they are hired to do a difficult job and they are well aware of the danger. They do get paid more than I used to think they did, but the home life of an officer, either male or female, suffers from the physical and mental toll that the job takes from them. There is a need for or cities to choose officers that can refrain from the temptation to abuse those who can’t defend themselves because of the residual anger they feel when a fellow officer is killed. The police funerals I have seen on the news are very moving, and I care about the welfare of policemen as much as I do the underdogs of the world. “…any man's death diminishes me.” That statement pretty much sums up my belief in eternity. All life is linked, and all life is beautiful.


'No Man is an Island'
John Donne

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.


John Donne (/ˈdʌn/ dun) (22 January 1572[1] – 31 March 1631) was an English poet and a cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are noted for their strong, sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, satires and sermons. His poetry is noted for its vibrancy of language and inventiveness of metaphor, especially compared to that of his contemporaries.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/another-american-led-assassination-on-its-soil-angers-pakistan/

Another U.S.-led assassination on its soil angers Pakistan
CBS/AP
May 22, 2016, 5:01 PM

30 PHOTOS -- 5 years ago: Osama bin Laden killed
Play VIDEO -- Questions arise about U.S. hostage policy and drones


It's become a somewhat familiar story in the war on terror: The United States was presented with strong evidence that one of its highest-valued terrorist targets was inside Pakistan and exposed, so they assassinated him. In response, Pakistan rails against what it says is a breach of its sovereignty.

Although there have been several instances like that, the most famous happened in 2011, with 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. He was found to be hiding in the town of Abbottabad in a compound a short distance from Pakistan's top military academy.

This weekend, it was the Taliban's leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, in Baluchistan province, in southwestern Pakistan.

In a statement late Sunday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry repeated the country's protest of drone attacks on its territory. It also repeated Pakistan's preference to settle the protracted war in Afghanistan through talks, calling on the Taliban to renounce violence in favor of negotiations.

"While further investigations are being carried out, Pakistan wishes to once again state that the drone attack was a violation of its sovereignty, an issue which has been raised with the United States in the past as well," it said.

The Pakistani government issued a similar angry call about the raid on bin Laden in 2011, and they have in other instances of U.S. drone strikes and assassinations of top terrorist targets in their territory since then.

Afghan and U.S. officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency of keeping the Taliban and other terrorist groups' leadership safe in cities across the porous and lawless border. A senior Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, complained before Mansour's death was announced that Taliban fighters were being taken from the battlefields of Afghanistan to Pakistani hospitals.

In 2012, after a drone strike killed al Qaeda's second-in-command in Pakistan, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta addressed the problem and dismissed Pakistan's complaint about its sovereignty, saying similar attacks will continue as long as the U.S. needs to defend itself against terrorists that threaten America.

"This is about our sovereignty as well," Panetta said.

He was blunt about the difficulties in the U.S. relationship with Pakistan, as insurgents continue to find safe haven there, despite repeated protests from American leaders.

"It's a complicated relationship, often times frustrating, often times difficult," Panetta said. "They have provided some cooperation. There are other times when frankly that cooperation is not there. But the United States cannot just walk away from that relationship. We have to continue to do what we can to try to improve (the) areas where we can find some mutual cooperation."



“It's become a somewhat familiar story in the war on terror: The United States was presented with strong evidence that one of its highest-valued terrorist targets was inside Pakistan and exposed, so they assassinated him. In response, Pakistan rails against what it says is a breach of its sovereignty. …. In a statement late Sunday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry repeated the country's protest of drone attacks on its territory. It also repeated Pakistan's preference to settle the protracted war in Afghanistan through talks, calling on the Taliban to renounce violence in favor of negotiations. …. Afghan and U.S. officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency of keeping the Taliban and other terrorist groups' leadership safe in cities across the porous and lawless border. A senior Afghan official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, complained before Mansour's death was announced that Taliban fighters were being taken from the battlefields of Afghanistan to Pakistani hospitals. In 2012, after a drone strike killed al Qaeda's second-in-command in Pakistan, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta addressed the problem and dismissed Pakistan's complaint about its sovereignty, saying similar attacks will continue as long as the U.S. needs to defend itself against terrorists that threaten America.”


“The Pakistani government issued a similar angry call about the raid on bin Laden in 2011, and they have in other instances of U.S. drone strikes and assassinations of top terrorist targets in their territory since then.” Much as I would like to be a pacifist and totally antiwar, I just can’t. Pakistan has been sheltering these International Criminals for decades. One article described Afghanistan and Pakistan as “tribal,” in social and political organization. What they do is to them legitimate war against “the Great Satan.”

Afghanistan and Pakistan are described as tribal. They make decisions by tribal decision, still, and the government seems to have little control over what goes on within its’ borders, but there was a belief at the time of his assassination that Bin Laden was specifically being protected. I just can’t believe a word they say. They’re just like Putin.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-should-keep-her-word-on-debates/

Sanders: Clinton should "keep her word" on debates
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS FACE THE NATION
May 22, 2016, 11:53 AM


Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders thinks Hillary Clinton needs to "keep her word" when it comes to debating him ahead of the June 7 California primary, he said Sunday morning.

"In terms of the debates, for example, we're still waiting--Secretary Clinton agreed way back when to do a debate in California in May," he said in an interview for CBS' "Face the Nation." "We are hoping that Democratic National Committee will ask her to keep her word and allow that debate to go forward."

Responding to his supporters' claims that the Democratic primary process has been "rigged" against him, Sanders said wouldn't go as far as to use the word "rigged"--but said the process in certain states have been fairer than others.

"In some states it has been great, people have been absolutely fair," he said. "Other states, not so much."

Still, Sanders said that despite his "steep hill" to the nomination it's far too early for Clinton to assert -- as she's done in recent days -- that she will certainly be the Democratic nominee.

"I think that Hillary Clinton has not looked at a lot of the national polls out there which have me doing a lot better than she is against Donald Trump, and that's true in almost all of the state polls as well," he said. "I think she may not have noticed that in the last three contests we won and we tied in Kentucky and that we have an excellent chance to win a majority of the states coming up in the next two weeks."

He reiterated his assertion that he would replace Debbie Wasserman Schultz as head of the Democratic National Committee, criticizing the national party's focus on raising money from "rich people."

"I've known Debbie for many years--personally, I like her," he said. "Do I think she is the kind of chair the Democratic Party needs? No, I don't."

"Frankly what the Democratic Party is about is people running around to rich people's homes and raising, you know, obscene sums of money from wealthy people," he added.

Sanders still maintained that he's in the race until the Democratic convention in Philadelphia this July.

"Oh we're going to the convention. We're going to the convention," he said. "At the very least if we do not end up winning the nomination, we're going to fight to win it."

Face The Nation



“Still, Sanders said that despite his "steep hill" to the nomination it's far too early for Clinton to assert -- as she's done in recent days -- that she will certainly be the Democratic nominee. "I think that Hillary Clinton has not looked at a lot of the national polls out there which have me doing a lot better than she is against Donald Trump, and that's true in almost all of the state polls as well," he said. "I think she may not have noticed that in the last three contests we won and we tied in Kentucky and that we have an excellent chance to win a majority of the states coming up in the next two weeks." …. "Oh we're going to the convention. We're going to the convention," he said. "At the very least if we do not end up winning the nomination, we're going to fight to win it."


Sanders is a believer in a purer and fairer vision than Hillary is. She and her camp think that winning is the only thing, that big money is the only way to go, that he is under an illusion that he can actually win in a national election, despite the fact that polls keep saying he can beat Trump (and she may not be able to). When a great and vitally important cause is emerging, there can be voters who were unknown to the DNC bosses who will be roused from their societal lethargy to put in their two cents. When Hillary ran against Obama there were millions of voters who popped up to support him, not because they hated Hillary, but because they loved Obama. I believe there is a similar situation here. I will also say, the more disrespectfully Hillary treats Bernie, the more those who, in their heart of hearts, do think he is right, will rise up to help him and conceivably turn against her in a devastating way! Bernie may be many things, but he is not boring, foolish or a liar. This could be one of those Excalibur moments!



http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/clinton-s-lead-over-trump-shrinks-3-points-new-nbc-n577726


Clinton's Lead Over Trump Shrinks to 3 Points: New NBC News/WSJ Poll
MEET THE PRESS by MARK MURRAY
MAY 22 2016, 10:27 AM ET


Hillary Clinton's advantage over Donald Trump has narrowed to just three points — resulting in a dead-heat general-election contest with more than five months to go until November, according to a new national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Clinton, who remains a heavy favorite to win the Democrat nomination, leads the presumptive GOP nominee 46 percent to 43 percent among registered voters, a difference that is within the poll's margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points. In April, Clinton held an 11-point advantage over Trump, 50 percent to 39 percent, and had led him consistently by double digits since December.

In a more hypothetical matchup, Democrat Bernie Sanders leads Trump by 15 points, 54 percent to 39 percent.

Looking inside the numbers of her race against Trump, Clinton holds the edge among African Americans (88 percent to 9 percent), Latinos (68 percent to 20 percent), women (51 percent to 38 percent) and those ages 18 to 34 (55 percent to 32 percent).

Trump, meanwhile, is ahead among whites (52 percent to 36 percent), seniors (52 percent to 41 percent), men (49 percent to 40 percent) and independents (42 percent to 37 percent).

The NBC/WSJ poll — conducted May 15-19 — comes after Trump became the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, but also as the ongoing Clinton-vs.-Sanders Democratic race has become more contentious in recent days.

Republicans are now supporting Trump over Clinton by an 86 percent-to-6 percent margin, which is up from 72 percent to 13 percent a month ago, suggesting that GOP voters are consolidating around their presumptive nominee.

Complete Coverage: Decision 2016

While Democrats are backing Clinton by an 83 percent-to-9 percent clip, just 66 percent of Democratic primary voters preferring Sanders support Clinton in a matchup against Trump (compared with 88 percent of Clinton primary voters who favor Sanders in a hypothetical general-election contest). Those numbers underscore Clinton's challenge in winning over Sanders voters once the Democratic primary contest concludes.

Mr. and Mrs. Unpopular

Trump and Clinton are currently the two most unpopular likely presidential nominees in the history of the NBC/WSJ poll.

Thirty four percent of registered voters have a positive opinion of Clinton, versus 54 percent who have a negative opinion (-20) — a slight uptick from her minus-24 score last month.

Trump's rating is even worse than Clinton's: Twenty nine percent have a positive opinion of him, while 58 percent have a negative opinion (-29) — an improvement from his minus-41 score in April.

"This has never been matched, or even close to being matched," Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff, says of these negative ratings for Trump and Clinton.

By contrast, Sanders is in positive territory. Forty-three percent have a positive view of the Vermont senator, versus 36 percent who have a negative view (+7). One difference Clinton and Sanders: Clinton's rating among Democratic voters supporting Sanders is 38 percent positive, 41 percent negative (-3); Sanders' rating among Clinton supporters is 54 percent positive, 23 percent negative (+31).

President Obama's overall score in the current NBC/WSJ poll is at 49 percent positive, 41 percent negative (+8).

Forty Seven Percent Would Consider a Third-Party Candidate

Asked if they would consider a third-party candidate if Clinton and Trump were the major party nominees, 47 percent of registered voters say yes -- a higher percentage than those who said yes on a similar question in 2008 and 2012.

Fifty percent of voters say they would not consider a third-party candidate.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted May 15-19 of 1,000 registered voters, including 450 cell phone-only respondents and another 46 reached on a cell but who also have a landline. The overall margin of error is plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.



“Clinton, who remains a heavy favorite to win the Democrat nomination, leads the presumptive GOP nominee 46 percent to 43 percent among registered voters, a difference that is within the poll's margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points. In April, Clinton held an 11-point advantage over Trump, 50 percent to 39 percent, and had led him consistently by double digits since December. In a more hypothetical matchup, Democrat Bernie Sanders leads Trump by 15 points, 54 percent to 39 percent. …. While Democrats are backing Clinton by an 83 percent-to-9 percent clip, just 66 percent of Democratic primary voters preferring Sanders support Clinton in a matchup against Trump (compared with 88 percent of Clinton primary voters who favor Sanders in a hypothetical general-election contest). Those numbers underscore Clinton's challenge in winning over Sanders voters once the Democratic primary contest concludes. …. Trump's rating is even worse than Clinton's: Twenty nine percent have a positive opinion of him, while 58 percent have a negative opinion (-29) — an improvement from his minus-41 score in April. …. By contrast, Sanders is in positive territory. Forty-three percent have a positive view of the Vermont senator, versus 36 percent who have a negative view (+7). One difference Clinton and Sanders: Clinton's rating among Democratic voters supporting Sanders is 38 percent positive, 41 percent negative (-3); Sanders' rating among Clinton supporters is 54 percent positive, 23 percent negative (+31). …. Forty Seven Percent Would Consider a Third-Party Candidate -- Asked if they would consider a third-party candidate if Clinton and Trump were the major party nominees, 47 percent of registered voters say yes -- a higher percentage than those who said yes on a similar question in 2008 and 2012. Fifty percent of voters say they would not consider a third-party candidate.”


What I get out of these findings is that if the DNC does not offer Sanders much more of his demands, that could make his followers more determined to withhold support for Hillary, and her margin of safety is not as great as she may have thought. There is a move afoot to write in Bernie’s name on the ballot in November, and others on the Net have mentioned just staying home. Whether or not I would do that depends on just how badly the Wasserman-Schulz continues to treat him, and how arrogant Hillary continues to be.



http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/scientists-want-bring-back-woolly-mammoths-why-n575581

Scientists Want to Bring Back Woolly Mammoths — But Why?
by HARRY SMITH, BRENDA BRESLAUER, HAYLEE BARBER and JON SCHUPPE
NEWS MAY 22 2016, 1:45 PM ET

Photograph -- Tourists take photos in front of a group of bronze mammoth sculptures in a paleontological park in the western Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk. Woolly mammoths inhabited the region thousands of years ago. Sergei Chirikov / EPA
Video -- The De-Extinction Download 2:31
Play -- Did researchers get blood from a mammoth? 1:11
Image: Mammoth tusk, A Mammoth tusk extracted from ice complex deposits along the Logata River in Taimyr, Russia, in an undated handout photo. HANDOUT / Courtesy Professor Per Moller via Reuters file
Photograph -- Ingrid Verwood and Mao Ishiguron look at baby mammoth Lyuba at an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London on May 21, 2014. Rex Features via AP file
Play -- The Clone Zone: Training Clones? 1:38
Photograph -- Dr. Hwang Woo-Suk, head of the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, during a 2012 trip to the Siberian Arctic. Courtesy of Insung Hwang


In a frozen corner of Siberia, far north of where most humans care to live, there is a wildlife refuge where scientists are trying to rebuild an ancient ecosystem that could help slow global warming.

The plan depends on cold-resistant animals that graze and trample the tundra as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, a process that exposes the underlying soil to frigid air and protects it from a thaw that could release massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

So far, "Pleistocene Park" has bison, oxen, moose, horses and reindeer — and the results are promising.

But it is missing the original ice-age icon: the woolly mammoth.

Yes, that woolly mammoth, the ancestral cousin of the elephant that walked the Earth thousands of years ago and now exists only in our imaginations — and in natural history museum dioramas.

Scientists want to bring it back.

It sounds outlandish, and, in some respects, it is. But a series of discoveries in recent years have made "de-extinction" of the mammoth and other lost species theoretically possible.

There are two teams trying in different ways to manufacture a mammoth — one by cloning, the other by DNA splicing — but they are united in a much larger effort to save endangered animals and bring back others that have disappeared. Both acknowledge that the goal is many years away, if it happens at all.

Watch Dateline's "On Assignment" on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET to see Harry Smith take viewers inside a cloning lab.

But why, of all things, the mammoth?

Getting its help to reclaim a lost ecosystem doesn't begin to explain.

The deeper answer lies in humankind's fascination with the earth's largest animals, and the mysterious circumstances under which many ancient giants disappeared.

"When we were children, we would go to the museum and see these large creatures that went extinct. One would be the dinosaur and the other would be ice age animals like the mammoth," said Insung Hwang, a biomedical engineer and project manager of a team that hopes to clone the mammoth. "That fascination carries over to when you become an adult. I had that fascination as a child."

Like many scientific endeavors, de-extinction follows people's hearts. Mammoths draw attention, and money. And it just so happens that massive mammoth graveyards, sealed for centuries under ice, are beginning to thaw as the Earth warms.

The discovery of well-preserved mammoths has sparked a rush of researchers who want to understand more about how the mammoths lived and died — and who want to find material that could help bring a mammoth, or something like it, to life.

Some of them, including Hwang, work for Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, a South Korean company best known for charging $100,000 to clone pet dogs. That process — taking a cell from a living or recently deceased animal, injecting its genetic material into a donor egg, then implanting the egg into a surrogate mother — has become relatively common.

But Sooam is trying to push the limits of the technology by harvesting intact DNA from mammoth remains. The team hopes to inject the DNA into an elephant egg and trigger the development of a mammoth embryo, which would then be implanted into an elephant's womb.

Myriad obstacles remain. The team has yet to find any viable mammoth DNA. And no one has figured out how to remove an egg from an elephant — or transplant an embryo into one.

"The general procedure, taking the nucleus of one cell and transferring into another, that's easy. You can do that in different labs all over the world. But all the other things that have to come together to make an animal is difficult," said Mark Westhusin, an expert in genetically engineered animals who teaches at Texas A&M University. "Getting the eggs, to begin with."

But Hwang pointed out that until a few years ago, it was considered unrealistic to find suitable mammoth remains at all.

"We're not close to finding viable material yet, but the samples are very well preserved, so that gives us hope that better samples can be found in the future," he said.

On the other side of the world, at Harvard Medical School, a team led by geneticist George Church is using newly developed genome-editing techniques to essentially build mammoth DNA and splice it into live elephant cells. But, again, if they pass that step, they would still need to create an embryo and put it in a surrogate mother.

But de-extinction has been proven possible with species that have vanished more recently. Thirteen years ago, a team of French and Spanish scientists managed to clone a bucardo, a type of goat that once lived in the Pyranees; the clone lived 10 minutes. Other projects have targeted the passenger pigeon, the gastric brooding frog and the heath hen — but they have not produced a clone.

On a separate but similar track, other teams are using similar techniques to try to save endangered species, such as the northern white rhinoceros.

But, one way or another, the discussion usually comes back to the mammoth.

That is why Beth Shapiro, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, titled her recent book about de-extinction, "How to Clone a Mammoth." It's not that she necessarily agrees with the attempts to bring the animal back — there are a number of ethical considerations, including the welfare of the animals, the drawing of resources from other conservation efforts and questions over "playing God." But Shapiro says some of the applications, namely the carbon-trapping transformation of the Siberian tundra, are exciting.

"If by doing that we can reestablish these interactions that have been gone, and thereby save living species and living ecosystems from extinction, then I think this is a compelling reason to think about this technology," she said.



“In a frozen corner of Siberia, far north of where most humans care to live, there is a wildlife refuge where scientists are trying to rebuild an ancient ecosystem that could help slow global warming. The plan depends on cold-resistant animals that graze and trample the tundra as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, a process that exposes the underlying soil to frigid air and protects it from a thaw that could release massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. So far, "Pleistocene Park" has bison, oxen, moose, horses and reindeer — and the results are promising. But it is missing the original ice-age icon: the woolly mammoth. …. There are two teams trying in different ways to manufacture a mammoth — one by cloning, the other by DNA splicing — but they are united in a much larger effort to save endangered animals and bring back others that have disappeared. Both acknowledge that the goal is many years away, if it happens at all. Watch Dateline's "On Assignment" on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET to see Harry Smith take viewers inside a cloning lab. …. Like many scientific endeavors, de-extinction follows people's hearts. Mammoths draw attention, and money. And it just so happens that massive mammoth graveyards, sealed for centuries under ice, are beginning to thaw as the Earth warms. …. But Sooam is trying to push the limits of the technology by harvesting intact DNA from mammoth remains. The team hopes to inject the DNA into an elephant egg and trigger the development of a mammoth embryo, which would then be implanted into an elephant's womb. …. But Hwang pointed out that until a few years ago, it was considered unrealistic to find suitable mammoth remains at all. "We're not close to finding viable material yet, but the samples are very well preserved, so that gives us hope that better samples can be found in the future," he said. On the other side of the world, at Harvard Medical School, a team led by geneticist George Church is using newly developed genome-editing techniques to essentially build mammoth DNA and splice it into live elephant cells. …. But de-extinction has been proven possible with species that have vanished more recently. Thirteen years ago, a team of French and Spanish scientists managed to clone a bucardo, a type of goat that once lived in the Pyranees; the clone lived 10 minutes. Other projects have targeted the passenger pigeon, the gastric brooding frog and the heath hen — but they have not produced a clone. On a separate but similar track, other teams are using similar techniques to try to save endangered species, such as the northern white rhinoceros.”


"If by doing that we can reestablish these interactions that have been gone, and thereby save living species and living ecosystems from extinction, then I think this is a compelling reason to think about this technology," she said.” The idea that we can stop the thawing of permafrost into ordinary soil that will give off “massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere” is an expensive but worthwhile effort, considering the CO2 and Methane made crisis we are in today. Up until the end of the article I thought the point would be the “Oh, wow!” moment of seeing a live mammoth, but it is the fact that a great deal of gas is still safely stored by Mother Nature at this time. That could really help our Climate Change problem considerably. There are also large quantities of methane frozen in parts of the Atlantic Ocean which if thawed would all rush up to the atmosphere to increase the Greenhouse gas problem tremendously. It all may be useful to pursue, but we still mustn’t forget to replant trees instead of clearcutting, cut down on our unnecessary driving, implement more and more renewables and solar energy, and so on. It’s a long climb uphill!