Micromanaging Micronesia? Playing politics with persecution

International | Reports of forced abortion and religious persecution in a U.S. island commonwealth played on the sympathies of religious conservatives in Washington. But a closer examination suggested a different conclusion: that the charges were trumped up for political advantage-greater federal control over a locally governed island and decreased economic competition for unions. Furthermore, taxpayer dollars may have been spent preparing and promoting a report that could be a sophisticated, unlawful lobbying operation. | Mindy Belz

People who know of the Northern Marianas, one of several Micronesian island chains that pin-dot the Pacific between Hawaii and the Philippines, might think of them as part of an out-of-the-way tropical paradise. The smaller islands are rocky volcanic ruins with just enough room for a two-lane highway.

It's a more complicated place than that. After World War II, the islands that make up Northern Marianas, along with the neighboring Marshall Islands, existed on a slim tourist trade-often made up of divers exploring the wrecks of Japanese warships-and welfare. Its conversion to a U.S. trust territory meant that many islanders could live in mind-numbing government dependence, with alcoholism and unemployment soaring.

Unlike other U.S. territories, when commonwealth status was bestowed on the Northern Marianas in 1976, the local government kept control over the islands' wage and immigration rules by a special "covenant," established in large part to attract U.S. investors. The local economy also attracts foreign workers, who nearly double the population of Saipan, the largest of the islands. There are 42,000 guestworkers, and 28,000 locals, who are U.S. citizens.