December 18, 2011 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Climate Change, Environment, International, Water
BOULDER - The U.S. government is deploying Colorado scientists to lead a $5.4 million effort to gauge the impact of shrinking Himalayan glaciers on water supplies across Asia.
The question is whether rivers that sustain more than 2 billion people are fed primarily by water from rainfall, by seasonal snowmelt or by the glaciers that are vulnerable to climate change.
A significant drop in water supply could lead to food shortages and, according to U.S. Agency for International Development officials, create new conflicts in already volatile areas.
The high-mountain glaciers, seen as water towers for Asia, have been shrinking at a rate of 0.5 percent a year - similar to glaciers in South America’s Andes and the European Alps . As Asia’s glaciers recede, Chinese and Indian governments are moving to control headwaters with at least 19 proposed dam projects, adding to eight or so existing major dams.
U.S. intelligence agencies were among those interested in enlisting University of Colorado senior research scientist Richard Armstrong and geography professor Mark Williams.
Read More
October 7, 2011 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Environment, International
BOULDER - A University of Colorado anthropologist who worked through Central America’s civil wars of the 1980s to unearth a 1,400-year-old Mayan village has made another unexpected discovery: an ancient roadway that may solve the mystery of how the villagers survived a sudden volcanic disaster.
Read More
August 25, 2011 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
International
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Wednesday said the “responsibility to protect” civilians from war crimes has become an operational basis for intervening in crises worldwide and urged expanded efforts to protect people.
In an interview before attending the annual University of Denver Korbel Dinner, Ban also said that “R2P” interventions — which in Libya and Ivory Coast involved military force — must include better post-conflict work to bring the rule of law.
Read More
May 12, 2011 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Human Rights, Immigrants, International
Colorado lawmakers on Wednesday called on the Obama administration to relax a freeze on Libyan assets — or extend visas — so that Libyan students aren’t deported back to war-torn Libya.
Read More
May 11, 2011 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Human Rights, Immigrants, International
Libyan students stuck as upheaval back home threatens civilians and cuts off their finances are dreading possible deportation and considering asking for asylum.
Read More
February 21, 2011 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Human Rights, International
LONGMONT — Human-rights activists, Hollywood stars and private Colorado satellite controllers have teamed up to try to prevent atrocities in Sudan.
Their scheme starts with three fridge-size satellites tilting in space — like giant digital cameras that can zoom in anywhere — capturing details down to gun barrels on tanks.
That imagery from volatile Sudan, which just held elections after a war that killed 2 million, then moves from DigitalGlobe’s control room here to activists coordinated by the Washington D.C.-based Enough Project. They post the images, with analysis, on the Internet (satsentinel.org).
The idea is that, if people everywhere can see atrocities in the making, they’ll blizzard leaders with messages demanding swift preventive intervention.
Read More
January 16, 2011 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
China, Environment, International, Natural Resources
China may rule the increasingly ravenous world market for rare metals used to make smartphones, clean-energy technology, guided missiles and bombs.
But Colorado and other Western states also contain significant caches of rare metals - the makings of a modern-day gold rush. Mining companies, the federal government and state agencies are pushing to find out just how much potential new money lies beneath the dirt.
The exploratory work is intensifying because, after undercutting global prices for rare earths in the 1990s, China now mines 97 percent of the world supply. Past mining operations left Colorado with 7,300 abandoned projects that still leak toxic waste into soil and water.
Read More
July 8, 2010 · The Denver Post
By Bruce Finley, Denver Post Staff Writer
Intelligence, International, Russia, Security
Deep-cover Russian spies posing as suburban Americans. Money covertly changing hands. Supposedly secret information moving via encryption software.
It’s an elaborate replay of Cold War intrigue that leaves some experts puzzled. But the FBI case against 11 people charged with conspiring to spy for Russia also raises concerns among counterintelligence veterans about new ways adversaries — including terrorists — may be seeking informational advantages.
Spying for foreign powers in the U.S. “is still active. Many, many countries are still engaged in it,” said David Szady, the FBI’s former top spy catcher and assistant director of counterintelligence, who retired in 2006 and works for a global security firm. “The threat now is probably as serious as ever.”
Read More
For 20 years, journalist Bruce Finley has investigated local, national and international issues with on-site reporting in more than 40 countries. A staff writer for 