Dow Responds to WikiLeaks Document Dump; Coe Advises Japanese Athletes

Dow Responds to WikiLeaks Document Dump

Dow Chemical tells Around the Rings it does not condone the "theft of any private documents" after a document dump from WikiLeaks portrayed the company in a negative light.

On Monday, the whistle-blowing website released a series of internal emails, claiming that an intelligence agency monitored activists for Dow Chemical.

Protesters criticize Dow for a disaster in 1984 in Bhopal, India where thousands died after a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide India Limited leaked gas into the city. Dow bought the Union Carbide Corporation in 2001.

In response to the document dump, spokesperson Scot Wheeler tells ATR that Dow often acts to protect the company and its people, but within the limitations of the law.

"Major companies, including Dow, are often required to take appropriate action to protect their people and safeguard their facilities around the world from those who would threaten, disrupt and misrepresent the company and its employees," he said.

"Dow takes the obligations to ensure the safety of its people and facilities seriously and will continue to do so within the bounds of the law."

The release by WikiLeaks appears to show that the intelligence agency Stratfor monitored Bhopal activists using information that was public domain.

Wheeler added that Dow does not support the practice of stealing internal documents.

"We are strong proponents of free speech and encourage public debate on important issues," he said.

"However, while we have not yet seen the specific documents in question, the theft of any private documents cannot be condoned."

Coe Advises Japanese Athletes

Japanese athletes and officials gained additional inspiration for the London Olympics during a two-day visit from LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe.

Coe met with Tsunekazu Takeda, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, briefing him on preparations for the Games this summer.

"This has been a major week for Tokyo and Japan. It has been a pleasure and true honour to welcome an Olympic legend in Sebastian Coe," said Takeda in a statement.

"It was a joy to discuss our mutual commitment to the Olympic Movement, which left me with a strong impression that Lord Coe and his colleagues will stage highly successful Games."

The LOCOG chairman also visited the Ajinomoto National Training Centre and encouraged the athletes.

"Japanese athletes are amongst the best in the world in sports as diverse as judo, swimming and gymnastics," said Coe. "I have no doubt that the Japanese team will enjoy a warm welcome to the Games from London's dynamic Japanese community as well as from British fans and also from the large number of Japanese visitors we expect to attend the Games."

During his visit, Coe also convened with Shintaro Ishihara, governor of Tokyo, and Tenzo Okumura ofthe Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Union Targets 2012 Olympics

Deputy PM Nick Clegg is asking Labour leader Ed Miliband to "rein in" the general secretary of Britain’s biggest trade union for targeting the 2012 Olympics.

"I just think people will be gobsmacked, appalled, that someone thinks that at a time when we are finally hosting one of the greatest events in the world, he is calling for civil disobedience," Clegg told ITV Daybreak hours after Unite leader Len McCluskey suggested workers could disrupt the Games in protest of ongoing government cutbacks.

"The attacks that are being launched on public sector workers at the moment are so deep and ideological that the idea the world should arrive in London and have these wonderful Olympic Games as though everything isnice and rosy in the garden is unthinkable," McCluskey told London’sThe Guardian.

McCluskey added that Unite had yet to discuss any specifics but that London bus drivers would be "examining what leverage points we have, and the Olympics will clearly come into play".

Football Appetizer for Olympics Opening Ceremony

Beijing 2008 is giving way to London 2012 in more ways than one.

English Premier League rivals Arsenal and Manchester City announced Wednesday they will contest a preseason friendly in the Bird’s Nest hours before the London Olympics begin.

"It is...fitting that two English clubs are playing each other on the opening day of the London 2012 Olympics, in the stadium which hosted the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games," Arsenal CEO Ivan Gazidis said in a statement.

Kickoff for the so-called China Cup is 8 p.m. Beijing time (noon in London) with the opening ceremony six-and-a-half hours later.

Media Watch

An editorial in The Korea Times warns of Korean tycoons profiting from the 2018 Olympics after purchasing land surrounding PyeongChang just before the city started bidding for the Games in 2000. "We don’t want to believe the large business groups, most of them official sponsors of the 2018 Olympics, struggled hard to lure the Games to Korea to jack up their property prices," the paper writes, "but [we] can hardly avoid some bitter feelings."

The International Sailing Federation continues its reflection on past Olympic sailing tournaments, this time setting sail for the 1924 Paris event.

Written by Ann Cantrell.

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