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Digest 122, originally sent Wed Jul 7 04:23:38 1999 :
There are 14 messages in this issue.
Topics in today's digest:
1. NucNews-12 7/06/99 - DU - Archival From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 2. NucNews-8 7/06/99 - Global Arms and War Preparations-1 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 3. NucNews-0 Brief 7/06/99 - From: Peace through Reason <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 4. NucNews-11 7/06/99 - DU-Conferences 9/99; Uranium plant fire; Puerto Rico (3); Uranium Bullets; From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 5. NucNews-13 7/06/99 - DU Manufacturers From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 6. NucNews-7 7/06/99 - US Idiocies From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 7. NucNews-6 7/06/99 - US--Cassini; Labs--Teller, LANL; WIPP; Terrorist Teams From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 8. NucNews-9 7/06/99 - Global Arms and War Preparations-2 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 9. NucNews-10 7/06/99 - Global Arms and War Preparations-3 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 10. NucNews-4 7/06/99 - India/Pakistan; Russia From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 11. NucNews-5 7/06/99 - Russia From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 12. NucNews-1 7/06/99 - Canada; China; Japan; Australia From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 13. NucNews-3 7/06/99 - Sweden; Cuba; Colombia; Germany-Politics, Ukraine From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx 14. NucNews-2 7/06/99 - Koreas - Nuc Plant; Missiles From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx
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Message: 1 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 21:55:06 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-12 7/06/99 - DU - Archival
51. Rand Corp Re DU:
A press release summarizing "A Review of the Scientific Literature as It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses, Volume 7: Depleted Uranium" can be found at http://www.rand.org/hot/Press/gulfwar.4.15.html, with links to the RAND document (http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/), including ordering information, and to the Department of Defense's page containing information on Gulf War illnesses.
You will see that RAND has published several documents in the series on Gulf War illness, this is just one. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
Amanda Gaylor, RAND Public Information Phone: 310-451-6913 Fax: 310-451-6988, amanda_gaylor@rand.org
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52. WAITING TO DIE:
After eight years of exposure to the debris of western weapons, Iraqi casualties are mounting
By Olivia Ward, Toronto Star - European Bureau, February 14, 1999 http://www.thestar.com/back_issues/ED19990214/opinion/990214BOD01_CO-WARD14. html
BASRA, Iraq - `YOU MAY not want to look,'' she says, as her fingers rest on the black cover of the photo album.
The book opens, like the lid rolling back from a tomb in a horror film. But the monsters pictured inside are all too real.
``This one, no head,'' recites Dr. Janan Ghalib Hassan, pointing at a mass of tissue that might, only vaguely, be human. She turns to the next page. ``This one, legs fused together.''
And the next: no limbs, and tiny buds on the misshapen chest, that might have become arms had the little creature lived. Then a face with no eyes, just flaps of skin over the gaping sockets. Another with a huge, water-swollen head masking the absence of a brain. And a body without natural openings or sexual organs.
These, says Hassan, are the children of war, many cursed with unknown mutations that defy the medical catalogue. Nameless beings stillborn in her hospital, only to be recorded and buried.
Iraqi doctors and scientists increasingly suspect the mutations were produced by the radioactive shells that rained down on the country during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and that are still taking a ferocious toll on its adults and children.
Tested for the first time in Iraq, the anti-tank bullets are tipped with depleted uranium that has unprecedented penetration power, and explodes into flames on contact.
Now, the debris lies on the desert floor among the radioactive ruins of the tanks they destroyed, a few minutes' drive from Iraq's southern villages, and two hours from Basra's 1 million people.
In Hassan's Maternity and Children's Hospital alone, the senior gynecologist has seen a threefold increase in malformed children over the decade, and the numbers are still rising. Cancers in children, especially leukemia - a key indicator of radiation damage - are striking more often and at younger and younger ages.
In other parts of the country, too, the figures are escalating. And some of the effects have been seen in the children of British and American soldiers who were sent to the Gulf after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded neighbouring Kuwait.
But in Basra, close to the dusty border area where at least 300 tonnes of shells containing depleted uranium were fired, the results are extreme.
``I'm a doctor, not a political person,'' says Hassan, closing her doomsday album, ``but I have terrible feelings of hatred against the people who did this. We were an experiment in warfare. Do they not think we are human beings''
A handful of western scientists, including the distinguished Canadian radiochemist Hari Sharma, has begun to take seriously the Iraqi claim of radioactive contamination.
Sharma, a retired professor from the University of Waterloo who helped American nuclear workers to obtain compensation for illnesses, is studying urine samples from western and Iraqi veterans who are now ill.
``When I tested samples from the American vets, I was quite surprised that there is evidence of radioactivity so long after the war,'' he told The Star.
``Uranium that's soluble is usually taken in through water and excreted quickly. This means they inhaled uranium oxide that was formed at high temperatures. It goes into the lungs.''
Depleted uranium is a metal residue left behind in the refining of natural uranium. It is supposed to be almost free of radioactivity. Even if that is so - a point disputed by some Iraqi physicists - its deleterious effects are vastly magnified. The depleted uranium explodes with the shell, blasting into millions of tiny particles of uranium oxide and causing damage to cells and tissues that develops over a period of years.
After repeated lobbying by Gulf War veterans' groups, the Pentagon and the British defence ministry have launched more detailed studies that take the uranium factor into account, and the United States Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses has admitted that thousands of troops may have been exposed to it.
But this is cold comfort to Hassan, walking the dingy wards of the Basra hospital.
She speaks with the mixture of pain, resentment and resignation common to the doctors who work in Iraq's under-equipped hospitals where the vital medicines they need to save lives have begun to arrive only recently, after eight years of sanctions. Even now, when Iraq is allowed to sell more oil to pay for humanitarian goods, supplies are woefully inadequate.
``Children die in front of me,'' the young doctor says, shaking her head. ``I cry every day. The parents cry. But no amount of tears will help us. What can help us now''
The question lies open, like a knife, as we tour the children's ward of the hospital.
I steel myself. Days before, on a visit to a Baghdad hospital, an American reporter bolted from the room, his face buried in his hands. The children's cancer ward is death row.
The doctors know it, the parents know it and the children, however young and handicapped, understand their fate very well.
-- `I'm a doctor, not a political person, but I have terrible feelings of hatred against the people who did this. We were an experiment in warfare. Do they not think we are human beings' - Dr. Janan Ghalib Hassan --
Children with leukemia lack up-to-date chemotherapy, transfusions of blood platelets to stop them from bleeding to death, antibiotics for the diseases that attack shattered immune systems, even painkillers.
Others suffering from lymphoma, cancer of the lymph nodes, have surgery in conditions no western hospital would allow. But here, the doctors say wearily, there is no choice.
``Hibe is the happiest,'' says Hassan, as a little girl with a swollen face and wisps of hair barely covering her skull gleefully reaches out her arms for a hug. ``She has Down syndrome and terminal leukemia. She's 4 1/2, but more like a child half her age.''
Hibe croons the same Arabic word over and over. What is she saying ``Amout,'' says Hassan. ``It means, `I will die.' ''
Across the room, the blank, grief-etched face of Hamsam al-Kabla says death is not the worst thing.
In her left arm, she cradles her 2 1/2-year-old child, whose breathing is a series of terrible rasps, like a nail running over sandpaper. Huge protruding eyes stare from a lopsided face. Over shrunken and misshapen legs, I can see a small stomach scarred by an operation to correct internal malformations. A gesture of futile defiance of the odds.
``She has almost no brain,'' whispers al-Kabla, as though breaking the news gently.
In Baghdad, 600 kilometres to the north, Dr. Selma al-Taha is all too familiar with these scenes. The founder of Iraq's Genetics Clinic - and now the only geneticist practising in the devastated country - she lives on the edge of total exhaustion, her face pale and deeply lined.
She has studied the rise in genetic defects, their varieties, and the risks faced by Iraqi parents as they approach parenthood with increasing fear. And the most difficult task of her over-pressured career is facing pregnant women who have learned they will deliver hopelessly impaired babies.
Al-Taha is convinced radioactivity has played a major role in the defects, a result that may be boosted by malnutrition and bad water. ``Some other form of pollution could be responsible,'' she says, ``but radiation has the biggest effect on a small subject like a child or a growing fetus. And it has been known for 50 years that radiation attacks the gonads, which are the organs of reproduction.
``The large number of unexplained miscarriages, and the new varieties of malformations indicate something very serious has happened here since the war.''
The figures in her files are startling. Between January, 1989, and December, 1996, she has seen a doubling of patients coming to her clinic for counselling and testing because of suspected genetic problems.
Chromosome defects leading to Down syndrome have doubled, families with more than one genetically damaged child have risen by one-third and the ages of women giving birth to malformed babies have dropped significantly. The most dramatic increases are in bone disfigurements, which have risen six times, and eye abnormalities, which have tripled.
``Eyes and bones are most sensitive organs when it comes to the effects of uranium,'' says al-Taha. ``That's why its effects are worst on pregnant women.''
One important clue to the genetic diseases, she says, is in the babies' fathers, many of them veterans of the Iraqi forces during the Gulf War, men who breathed contaminated dust and climbed over radioactive tanks.
``There is now a high percentage of abnormal sperm,'' she says. ``And the men suffer from unusual cancers. Many have cirrhosis of the liver, although they are young and have no history of drinking or viral infections.''
In Basra's main teaching hospital, Nadir Khalaf lies sprawled on a stained bed, in a ward reeking of stale urine. The 35-year-old former army medical aide is skeletal - alive, but only just - one of 1,400 Iraqi Gulf veterans known to be suffering from cancer.
Although interviews with Iraqi servicemen are out of bounds for western journalists, The Star has been given rare access.
``He has lymphoma, and we can do nothing for him,'' says Dr. Jawad al-Ali, a senior medical consultant. ``A couple of months ago, he came to Baghdad and attended a conference in a wheelchair. Now, as you see. . . . ''
There is no need for further explanation.
With dull, resigned eyes, Khalaf whispers his story. ``I was on the Saudi border (southeast of Basra). There was continuous bombing and big clouds of dust rising. Flames were everywhere. Some people used masks to breathe, but I didn't bother. I was moving casualties out of the attack zone and I didn't have time to think.''
After the war ended a couple of weeks later, at the end of February 1991, Khalaf remembers feeling sick. ``I was tired all the time. There was vomiting, fever and dizziness. I thought it was just stress.''
The malaise never left him. And seven years later he developed the lymphoma that will shortly kill him.
Amran Abed-Ali is praying to avoid that fate.
A husky, ruggedly good-looking man of 26, he was sent to Kuwait at 18 for what Saddam promised would be the mother of all battles. As the retreating Iraqi troops murdered and pillaged their way through Kuwait City, Abed-Ali was sent to bolster the elite Republican Guards as their units moved back into Iraq.
``They were bombing the Republican Guard less than 100 metres from me,'' he says. ``As the shelling ended, I could smell something very bad, a strange rotten smell where the shells had landed. Then I made it back to my base (about 100 kilometres west of Basra) and found everything had been destroyed. Tanks were smashed and metal was lying everywhere. Nobody told us to avoid the area.''
Once on base, Abed-Ali had peculiar symptoms, which he put down to the shock of the battle. ``I just kept losing weight. I was tired all the time, as though I'd been walking too much. I had fever, and my body shook uncontrollably.''
He opens the neck of his shirt to show the telltale swelling that means a recurrence of lymphoma. Before it's too late, he hopes, he will be able to buy newly developed chemotherapy medicine from Jordan. But in the mud hut he shares with his parents and five brothers in one of Basra's poorest suburbs, it's difficult to see how.
In the large, rundown teaching hospital, al-Ali is tired of adding up the depressing statistics.
``In 1988, we had 34 deaths from cancer in our hospital,'' says the specialist who, in better days, trained at London's Royal College of Physicians. ``Last year, we had 405 deaths. The numbers are increasing by about 30 per cent a year.''
Bone cancer and kidney failure are two of the most common illnesses, he says. Both could be related to depleted uranium, which leeches into the water system and is swallowed and flushed through the kidneys, causing fatal damage as it goes.
``There was a lot of debris lying around,'' recalls Ali Abdul, an auto mechanic in the desert town of az-Zoubayr, south of Basra. ``People picked it up and took it home, maybe for souvenirs, or maybe they thought it could be used for something.
``There was a yellow haze in the air, and lots of people got sick. My wife began to bleed internally. Later, we had a brain-damaged baby who died. Now we have only one child, who is also handicapped. The doctors say he will die by the age of 4.''
Al-Ali, the doctor, believes radioactivity has gone up through the food chain, poisoning vegetables and animals. Increasing reports of abnormally formed plants and animals add to his suspicions.
-- The most dramatic increases are in bone disfigurements, which have risen six times, and eye abnormalities, which have tripled. `Eyes and bones are most sensitive organs when it comes to the effects of uranium.' - Dr. Selma al-Taha --
The doctors would like to see wider studies to link more of their isolated results. But Iraq's priorities today are survival and military rebuilding, two goals that now seem bitterly at odds.
Iraqi officials give conflicting reports about how much war debris they have cleaned up and how long it was left to lie in towns and villages before they removed it. Now, most of the material sits in a radioactive compound near the Kuwaiti border, where dust storms are fast and frequent.
``We think up to 800 tonnes of uranium shells were left in Iraq,'' says Dr. Sami al-Araji, an engineer and member of Iraq's committee on assessing Gulf War damage. ``In the Basra area and the south, radioactivity levels have risen to 10 times normal levels in water and soil.''
But there is no money for the kind of massive clean-up that would take billions of dollars and years of concentrated effort. And, it appears, little government interest. Perversely, Saddam uses the suffering of Iraqi civilians as a tool to rid the country of the hated sanctions.
Nor can the beleaguered population expect any help from the West, or wealthy Arab countries Saddam has alienated with belligerent rhetoric. Meanwhile, eight years after the war, the silent carnage goes on, mysterious and relentless.
``Murder, extermination . . . or other inhuman acts done against any civilian population'' constitute a crime against humanity, according to the Nuremberg Principles of World War II.
But in the tangled web of the Gulf conflict, who is responsible Who would ever be brought to justice
``There's another sad case in labour now,'' says al-Ali, returning from his ward rounds.
``She'll deliver any moment. We are preparing her as best we can. The baby has no head.''
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53. Depleted UF6 Management
http://www.ead.anl.gov/uranium.html
Re: Stockpiled depleted uranium that Department of Energy has at three sites in the US.
Portsmouth, Ohio, Paducah, Kentucky and Oak Ridge, Tennessee are the sites where the DOE had uranium enrichment facilities. There is over 1.1 billion pounds of DU stored in canisters at these sites and the DOE is trying to come up with a plan to deal with it. Folks can access the report at: all for a hard copy 1-800-517-3191 or 301-903-4781....
Tara Thornton, MTP <mtpdu@ime.net> - Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 10:53:56 -0400 http://www.egroups.com/list/du-list/
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- Twelfth message - _____________________
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Message: 2 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 21:33:53 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-8 7/06/99 - Global Arms and War Preparations-1
35. The smog of war
Andy Coghlan, New Scientist, July 3, 1999 http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19990703/newsstory6.html
WAR IS A DIRTY BUSINESS . . . but just how dirty is only now becoming clear. By studying pockets of pollution in trees, chemists in Sheffield have shown that armaments factories in the Second World War choked the city's air with metals at levels higher than at any other time this century.
Cameron McLeod, Alan Cox and their colleagues at the University of Sheffield peered into the city's poisoned past by examining felled trees. Measuring levels of pollutants in tree rings is an established but sometimes unreliable technique. With time, says Cox, pollutants disperse throughout the tree and are diluted.
So the Sheffield team turned to a novel method developed by their collaborator Kenichi Satake of Japan's National Institute of Environmental Studies in Tsukuba. He became suspicious about the standard technique after discovering that uranium did not appear in the rings of trees around Nagasaki until 15 years after the atomic bomb had been dropped.
Satake turned to tree-bark pockets, pea-sized scars that form whenever a tree is injured, perhaps by losing a branch. The scars eventually become part of the trunk. "The tree protects itself to cover the wound," says Cox. "Any pollution is trapped in the scar and held, and there's no absorption or leaching from the wood into other parts of the tree. They're like tiny time capsules."
By vaporising material from bark pockets, the Sheffield team measured concentrations of trapped metals. In a 100-year-old beech tree on the outskirts of Sheffield, they found vastly increased levels of lead, uranium, cobalt, vanadium, chromium and mercury during wartime, probably because of pollution from the smelting of iron ores to produce steel.
"We did more than one sample because we couldn't believe the levels of lead were so high," says Cox. "All the large bombs such as Tallboys and Grand Slams were made in Sheffield, and it must have taken a phenomenal amount of steel."
Intrigued, the Sheffield researchers want to examine bark pockets from trees in other cities, such as London, Birmingham and Coventry. They also hope to examine bark pockets from the relatively clean environment of the Scilly Isles. "We need a baseline so we can say which levels are high and which are low," says Cox.
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36. EUROPE FACES MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER The Aftermath of NATO Air Strikes Threatens Millions Lev PAKHOMOV and Valery SPEKTOR *
From: "Laka Foundation" <laka@mail.antenna.nl> To: du-list@egroups.com - http://www.egroups.com/list/du-list/ Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 11:55:03 +0000
It turns out that NATO's blitz against Yugoslavia has entailed some extremely serious consequences, which directly threaten the population of South-Eastern and Central Europe. Thousands of tons of explosives were dropped by NATO warplanes on Yugoslavia, equalling the yield of several nominal (Hiroshima-type) A-bombs.
In this connection, a real danger of a European environmental disaster exists now. One had the impression only a short time ago that the end of the Cold-War period created pre-requisites for beating swords into plough-shares. At the same time, the Soviet Union's disintegration and the end of the Cold War induced some US circles to champion the idea of asserting their global domination. This gave rise to the development of military and data-exchange technologies, compelling the world's industrial countries to streamline their armed forces accordingly.
The so-called "smart" (high-precision) weapons, which are mostly fitted out with homing systems, were developed, coming to substitute traditional weapons systems within the framework of many armies in this world. Russian-US inter-academy discussions dealing with dual-purpose technologies were conducted over the 1991-1994 period, what with their participants proving the fact that the possible use of such weaponry at "technological" theaters of war, such as the United States of America, Canada, Europe and Japan would produce just about the same effect as traditional strategic mass-destruction weapons.
Along with "weather" weapons, smart weaponry supplements the traditional nuclear "triad", thereby constituting the fourth component of the mass-destruction weapons arsenal. The destruction of oil refineries and oil reservoirs deals irreparable damage to the European environment. At the same time, those particular European countries, whose warplanes bombed the afore-said oil refineries and oil reservoirs, continue to develop environmentally-friendly cars. And this is seen as a real farce.
NATO missiles destroyed fuel-and-lubricant dumps along the banks of the Danube River in mid-April. Consequently, Bulgaria was forced to fight a huge oil spill measuring 14 km long and 400 m wide. In fact, local farmers no longer pour Danube water on their truck gardens and fields. Apart from that, NATO warplanes hit an ammonia factory, with ammonia concentrations eventually exceeding maximum permissible levels 100-fold within a 5-km radius. And it's an open secret that not a single gas mask can protect its wearer against ammonia for more than 90 consecutive minutes. And a chemical factory in the vicinity of Baric was also damaged rather seriously. Besides, the industrial area of Belgrade's Pancevo suburb, which used to contain a number of oil refineries and chemical factories, was almost completely wiped out, what with oil and petroleum products gushing out of damaged reservoirs and filling the Danube River. More substantial combustion-product concentrations served to oxidize the atmosphere, causing acid rains in Yugoslavia and in neighboring "wind-ward" countries, whose list includes Rumania, Hungary, Macedonia, Slovakia, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland and Austria.
Such acid rains will cause substantial crop losses throughout 1999 and over the next 3-5 years (in line with the regeneration cycle).
Other gaseous and spray-style combustion products, which emanate from destroyed facilities, and which are heavier than carbon dioxide, are notorious for even more complicated fall-out patterns replete with the so-called "two-humped" maximum. 10-30 percent of such atmospheric pollutants entail the long-term contamination of adjacent territories (1-3 km), depending on their specific weight. And the rest are carried across the border, subsequently falling out over a 100-1,000-km distance, which depends on wind force, thermal atmospheric gradients, etc.
In other words, such pollutants will reach Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Meanwhile Novosibirsk researchers have obtained some preliminary results showing clearly that the above-mentioned pollutants can reach just about any European country (perhaps with the exception of Spain and Portugal), in case the so-called wind-rose changes accordingly. Such data was obtained from academician Marchuk.
As far as some components are concerned, it would take many years and even decades to reclaim soils and water bodies, which have been subjected to such chemical contamination. Such chemical contamination can produce a number of attendant and long-term effects, entailing the mutation of plants and animals, impairing the population's immune status (mutations, allergies, more impressive AIDS-and-hepatitis risk groups, as well as lower resistance to contamination), causing more widespread cancer and affecting internal organs, liver, first and foremost.
Chemical contaminations are aggravated by the fact that NATO kept using uranium-tipped munitions, which have a high penetrating capacity. Their rods consist of low-radiation materials, which, nonetheless, pose a serious environmental hazard. This can be explained by the fact that such munitions can affect biological entities by means of greater heavy-metal concentrations. Such contamination neutralizes various territories for 50-100 years in the course of the food-market competition.
Apart from that, the release of dangerous chemical substances, e.g. industrial feedstock, chemical products and by-products, as well as oil-refinery products and by-products (being entailed by the destruction of industrial facilities), causes their excessive atmospheric concentrations, whose levels can be compared to the use of chemical weapons.
All these toxic substances pass through inland water bodies, e.g. lakes, water reservoirs and rivers (including those for supplying drinking water to the population) and open water bodies, i.e. seas, subsequently mixing with bottom and shelf sedimentations. Such sedimentations, as well as oil-slick by-products, serve to contaminate drinking-water sources for several centuries in a row, also destroying the biological productivity of water bodies. Among other things, such contamination was caused by operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf.
Apart from that, the Black Sea faces some really serious problems. The thing is that its "dead" hydrogen-sulphide reservoir is located some 50-80 meters beneath the surface. And the introduction of additional organic components into the Black-Sea's marine-life layer can cause all those hydrogen-sulphide blobs to reach the surface, ultimately destroying the entire sea and all coastal territories.
The destruction of infrastructure components (sewage systems and water conduits, in the first place), as well as that of pharmaceutical factories, food-and-fodder additives, serves to produce or generate biologically active agents inside the atmosphere on a scale, which can be compared to the use of biological weapons (that affect people and animals alike).
The resultant epidemics (against the background of unfavorable environmental conditions) can easily escalate into "inter-continental" pandemics. The destruction of Yugoslav research and medical centers, which kept using radioactive isotopes, entails numerous small Chernobyl-type disasters.
Besides, even an insignificant increase in radiation levels (well above maximum permissible levels) triggers off a mechanism for affecting particularly sensitive people by means of extremely low radiation doses.
And here's yet another unfavorable environmental factor, e.g. a less transparent atmosphere (being caused by smoke-and-spray emissions) that upsets the relevant heat balance over large tracts of land, and which also disrupts traditional climatic cycles.
Well, this is tantamount to the use of "weather" weapons, whose long-term impact hasn't yet been reliably ascertained. The US armed forces had conducted the last such "field" experiment in Vietnam about 30 years ago; and the entire biosphere of Indochina hasn't yet become regenerated. The leaders of NATO's European members, who didn't know what they were doing, risked the lives and health of many millions of people, pushing the continent toward an environmental-disaster abyss.
* Footnote: Professor Lev Pakhomov is a presidium member and academician-secretary of the environmental-safety department at the international academy of sciences for national-security problems. Valery Spektor is a full-time member of the Continent international academy and academician-secretary of the national-security department at the international academy of spiritual unity of the world's peoples. (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, June 23. Abridged.)
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37. Iraq Finds Oil-for-Food Goods Substandard
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 6, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/iraq-sanctions-ap.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Large amounts of food and medicine arriving in Iraq under a United Nations oil-for-food program are substandard, damaged or unusable, a United Nations official said Monday.
Iraq is under an oil embargo and other sanctions imposed after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. The United Nations program allows it to export $5.2 billion in oil every six months and use the money to buy food and other goods needed for the well-being of Iraqi civilians.
The program's director, Benon Sevan, said after a tour of the country that many of the complaints about the program were legitimate.
But several Security Council members say Iraq caused its own problem by granting contracts to companies from friendly countries, regardless of the quality they offer.
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Report: Iraqi Troops Attack Village
By The Associated PressJuly 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Iraq-Opposition.html
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Iraqi soldiers backed by ruling party militia attacked a village in Iraq's southern marshes, razing homes and carting residents off to unknown locations, an opposition group said today.
The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq said state soldiers attacked the village of Al-Maeil in the Meisan province, 230 miles south of Baghdad, last week.
In a statement released by their Damascus office, the Iran-based group said the troop randomly fired machine guns at houses, forcing residents to flee. The rest of the villagers were taken away in government trucks, it said.
The soldiers set fire to 15 houses and razed them to the ground, the statement said.
The group did not give a reason for the attacks. However, anti-government Shiite rebels have recently stepped up the fighting against Iraqi army and party officials in the area.
President Saddam Hussein's government is made up of mostly Sunni Muslims, while Iraqis in the south are mainly Shiite Muslims. Saddam's forces brutally crushed a southern Shiite uprising after the 1991 Gulf war.
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Iraq Says Has Proof Air Defenses Hit Western Plane
Updated 8:48 AM ET July 4, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990704/08/news-iraq-usa
BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - A senior Iraqi official confirmed Sunday that Iraq's anti-aircraft defenses had hit a Western warplane patrolling a no-fly zone in the north of the country Friday.
"We have proof that one of their planes was hit during fighting between our air defenses and their planes on July 2 in the north," General Shaheen Yassin, commander of Iraqi Air Defenses, told the government newspaper al-Jumhouriya.
He did not elaborate on the content of the evidence.
An Iraqi military spokesman said Friday that Iraqi anti-aircraft systems might have hit a Western fighter jet in the country's no-fly zone in the north.
A statement by the U.S. Air Force's European Command said Friday that all of its aircraft had returned safely to base after bombing Iraqi radar facilities around the city of Mosul.
It said Iraqi anti-aircraft guns had fired at the planes.
Baghdad has reported on several occasions that its air defenses have hit or shot down U.S. or British aircraft flying over the north and south of the country to protect Iraqi minorities from possible attacks by Iraqi troops. Such statements from Baghdad have been denied by Washington and London.
"Officials of the U.S. and British air forces do not want to admit the ability of our air defenses and their daily confrontation with their planes and missiles," Yassin said.
"We have confirmed that many aggressive planes were shot down or hit and that they had to make emergency landings at Turkish, Saudi or Kuwaiti bases."
U.S. and British warplanes use a Turkish air base to patrol northern Iraq while they use Saudi and Kuwaiti air bases to fly over southern Iraq.
Meanwhile, Iraq has urged the Arab League to press Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to stop U.S. and British aircraft using their air bases to patrol Iraq.
The Baghdad press Sunday said Iraq's representative to the Arab League, Sultan al-Shaiwi, had submitted a memorandum to Secretary-General Esmat Abdul Meguid accusing Kuwait and Saudi Arabia of taking part in the U.S. and British air raids.
"The logistical support given by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the Americans and British make them key partners in aggression on Iraq," Shaiwi said in the memo.
U.S. and British air strikes have occurred regularly since late last year when disputes over arms inspections reached a breaking point and Iraqi anti-aircraft forces began challenging the patrols.
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Iraq blasts Turkey
Updated 2:35 PM ET July 1, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990701/14/international-turkey
BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 1 (UPI) Iraq's Foreign Ministry has blasted Turkey's parliament for extending by six months U.S. and British use of Turkish air bases to launch regular airstrikes against Iraq.
It said in a statement the Turkish decision contradicted the country's "claims that it is concerned with protecting the territorial integrity and unity of Iraq."
The statement said it also "contradicts Turkey's claims of abstaining from interfering in Iraq's internal affairs...and creates a perverse situation in northern Iraq."
Turkey's parliament last month extended the presence of U.S. and British planes on its southern Incirlik Air Base, where allied fighter jets have launched flights over Iraq's northern "no-fly" zone, bombing Iraqi sites since last December.
Baghdad said the U.S. and British forces in charge of the flights over northern Iraq were "illegal because they are not based on U.N. Security Council resolutions, but only on unilateral American and British measures, therefore their presence constitute a violation of international law."
Meanwhile, an Iraqi military spokesman today said in a statement carried by the official Iraq News Agency that Iraqi anti-aircraft defences have "confronted" U.S. and British jets flying over the southern "no-fly" zone in two separate incidents today.
He said the fighter jets "violated Iraqi airspace, coming from Saudi Arabia, at 9:50 a.m. (6:50 a.m. gmt) and again at 3:40 p.m. (12:40 p.m. gmt), conducting a total of 38 sorties over the provinces of Muthanna, Basra and Thiqar."
The spokesman said Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery "forced the enemy planes to flee from where they came."
He did not say whether the Western aircraft attacked any of the Iraqi sites and did not report any Iraqi casualties or damage.
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38. Kurdish Rebels Divided Over Peace
By The Associated Press, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Kurdish-Split.html
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- In mountain hideouts in southeastern Turkey, Kurdish rebel commanders allegedly seized radios from their fighters to prevent them from listening to peace calls from captured guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Ocalan's plea before a Turkish court for a political solution to the 15-year-old Kurdish insurgency has split the rebels between those who back the peace overtures and commanders who apparently are ready to step up attacks.
Turkish experts say the two factions seem to agree on only one point since the court brushed aside Ocalan's peace bid and sentenced him to death last week.
``Both sides want Ocalan hanged as soon as possible,'' said Sukru Elekdag, a columnist who writes extensively on Kurdish issues. ``They see him as a loose shoelace.''
In this view, hanging Ocalan would create a Kurdish martyr who died while calling for peace. This would likely galvanize support for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) among moderate Kurds who have been appalled by rebel attacks against unsympathetic Kurdish villagers.
It also would free the party from the shadow of a man who ruled it with an iron fist, often publicly scolding his commanders as though they were wayward children.
Those who see political gain in Ocalan's final demise won't be satisfied soon. In custody on a Turkish prison island, his appeals are likely to take months.
One wing of the rebel movement, strongly supported by hundreds of thousands of Kurds living in Europe, favors a peaceful political struggle by campaigning for international pressure on Ankara. Ocalan's longtime advocacy of violent means to achieve a separatist Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey hampers that effort.
``They want to strengthen their cause before the world with a leader who has not been involved in terror,'' Elekdag said.
The second wing of the PKK is made up of the estimated 4,500 well-armed rebel fighters hiding in the mountains of Turkey, northern Iraq and Iran. They want to continue the armed rebellion and favor stepping up attacks if Ocalan is hanged.
A 10,000-strong Turkish force, backed by helicopter gunships, launched a new cross-border offensive into northern Iraq to chase Kurdish rebels, private NTV television reported Monday.
The troops, which entered northern Iraq on Saturday, went about nine miles deep inside Iraqi territory, the report said.
They were targeting areas close to the Iranian border, after reports that the rebels were trying to infiltrate into Iran, the station added. No casualty figures were reported.
Turkey has rejected talks with the rebels and insists the PKK is simply a terrorist group. The government regards any nod toward Kurdish nationalism a threat to Turkey's unity.
A few days after Turkish commandos captured Ocalan in February, the PKK re-elected him as its president. But seven top commanders now run the movement and are expected to remain in power as long as Ocalan is alive.
Murat Karayilan, a leading hawk, is apparently the most powerful of the seven and is expected to take over if Ocalan is executed, said Umit Ozdag, an expert on terrorism at Gazi University in Ankara.
Ozdag thinks Karayilan would have the best chance of maintaining rebel unity. ``Ocalan's calls for peace had a shock effect among his sympathizers,'' he said. ``There is a crack, but they are trying to hide it.''
The fighting has claimed 37,000 lives since 1984. Most of the dead were Kurdish civilians or rebels killed by the Turkish military.
Some observers warn that the group could become more violent and unpredictable if the military wing wins the power struggle.
``There will be blind terror,'' said Professor Dogu Ergil, director of the Ankara-based Foundation for the Research of Societal Problems.
Sedat Yurtdas, a Kurdish former member of parliament who served 16 months in prison for alleged ties with the PKK, also thinks the movement could ``run out of control'' without Ocalan.
``It is not possible to think of the PKK without Apo (Ocalan's nickname),'' Yurtdas said. ``He has been the cement within the group.''
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- Sixth message - _____________________
_______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________
Message: 3 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 22:21:15 -0400 From: Peace through Reason <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-0 Brief 7/06/99 -
Please address replies to articles to the original publisher. Please send NucNews <prop1@prop1.org> copies? Refuting false information appreciated! -------------------------------------------------
[Editor's note -- I'll be busy a few days. Please send ME articles I might have missed? To keep up to date on nuclear issues, you might want to visit Ike Jeanes' excellent new "Nuclear News" website: http://www.nukefix.org/link.html#news.]
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NucNews-1 7/06/99 - Canada; China; Japan; Australia NucNews-2 7/06/99 - Koreas - Nuc Plant; Missiles NucNews-3 7/06/99 - Sweden; Cuba; Colombia; Germany-Politics, Ukraine NucNews-4 7/06/99 - India/Pakistan; Russia NucNews-5 7/06/99 - Russia NucNews-6 7/06/99 - US--Cassini; Labs--Teller, LANL; WIPP; Terrorist Teams NucNews-7 7/06/99 - US Idiocies NucNews-8 7/06/99 - Global Arms and War Preparations-1 NucNews-9 7/06/99 - Global Arms and War Preparations-2 NucNews-10 7/06/99 - Global Arms and War Preparations-3 NucNews-11 7/06/99 - DU-Conferences 9/99; Uranium plant fire; Puerto Rico (3); Uranium Bullets; NucNews-12 7/06/99 - DU - Archival NucNews-13 7/06/99 - DU Manufacturers
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1. Canada's naval bases fail nuclear leak test WebPosted Mon Jul 5 05:16:20 1999 - CBC News http://www.cbcnews.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/1999/07/05/nuclea r990705 -- Maritime Forces Pacific http://trotsky.resnet.gatech.edu/military/Canada/pacfleet.htm -- Maritime Forces Atlantic http://www.marlant.hlfx.dnd.ca/marlant/pg001e.html
2. Accident Setback Chinese Reactor Monday, July 5, 1999; 11:06 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990705/V000263-070599-idx.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-China-Nuclear-Accident.html BEIJING (AP) -- An accident a year ago crippled one of China's two nuclear power plants, leaving the reactor unable to generate electricity, an executive with the plant's state-run operator said today.... -- Japanese Media Alarmed By Secrecy Over Chinese Nuclear Trouble TOKYO, Jul 5, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=76952
3. China's Chief of Intelligence Reassigned Los Angeles Times Saturday, July 3, 1999; Page A06 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/03/065l-070399-idx.html BEIJING, July 2-The chief of Chinese military intelligence has been reassigned in a move that government officials here insisted was unrelated to his role in the U.S. campaign donations scandal.... -- Long March Home Leaving After 3 1/2 Years, Ambassador to China Reflects on Rocky Road to Mutual Understanding By Michael Laris, Washington Post, July 3, 1999; Page A15 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/03/086l-070399-idx.html BEIJING-After 3 1/2 years as the point man in one of America's most important international relationships, Jim Sasser, the outgoing ambassador to China, has learned a simple lesson: increasing mutual understanding is not always pretty....
4. OKINAWA JOURNAL Enmity Eases Among Hot Dogs and War Machines By CALVIN SIMS, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/070599japan-us-bases.html KADENA AIR BASE, Japan -- As Americans celebrated Independence Day, Natsuko Miyagi and Yukihiro Nakanishi ventured behind enemy lines to get a closer look at what they say imperils their freedom.... -- Okinawan Voters Oppose Planned U.S. Military Base (Dec. 22, 1997) http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/early/122297japan-us-bases.html -- Japan House Passes Bill Bolstering U.S. Bases (April 12, 1997) http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/early/041297japan-us.html -- One Pleads Guilty to Okinawa Rape; 2 Others Admit Role (Nov. 8, 1995) http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/early/120296okinawa-rape.html
5. Jabiluka stage one completed Monday 5 July, 1999 (11:10am AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-5jul1999-41.htm -- Jabiluka traditional owners to lobby heritage committee in Paris Saturday 3 July, 1999 (8:22am AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-3jul1999-21.htm -- Govt determined to stop Jabiluka in-danger listing: Bolkus Saturday 3 July, 1999 (10:08am AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-3jul1999-29.htm -- Planned legal challenge to Beverley mine dropped Monday 5 July, 1999 (7:38am CST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/sa/archive/metsa-5jul1999-1.htm Plans to mount a legal challenge against Australia's third uranium mine at Beverley in South Australia's far north have been abandoned. The Australian Conservation Foundation said it found no legal impediments that would stop the mine from going ahead....
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6. S.Korea signs on loan to N.Korea nuclear project 08:49 a.m. Jul 02, 1999 Eastern Infoseek http://www.dogpile.com SEOUL, July 2 (Reuters) - South Korea said it signed a contract on Friday to lend $3.22 billion to an international consortium building two nuclear reactors in North Korea....
7. A Report That North Korea Has Plans to Test-Launch a Missile By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, July 4, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/070499nkorea-missile.html TOKYO -- North Korea has confirmed that it is prepared to test a missile, a prominent Japanese visitor to the country said Saturday. Yasushi Akashi, a former U.N. undersecretary general who has completed a private trip to North Korea, said at a news conference in Beijing that a North Korean foreign ministry official had advised him that the country is ready to fire a missile, Kyodo News Service reported.... -- Japan Skeptical of Missile Launch Monday, July 5, 1999; 4:16 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990705/V000098-070599-idx.html -- Clinton Responds Cooly to South Korean Request to Boost Missile Range By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/skorea-us-afp.html -- North Korea May Abandon Missile Launch-Report Updated 1:42 AM ET July 5, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990705/01/international-korea-missile -- US To Begin Talks On S.Korea Missile Plan - Report Updated 8:10 AM ET July 5, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990705/08/international-korea-missile -- Clinton Meets With S. Korean Leader By George Gedda, Associated Press, July 2, 1999; 12:26 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990702/V000359-070299-idx.html WASHINGTON (AP) -- Troubled by signs that North Korea may test another long-range missile, President Clinton was meeting with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to compare notes on how to deal with the unpredictable regime in Pyongyang.... -- Clinton, Kim Urge North to Drop Missile Test Relations Between Koreas Tense as South's President Attends Third U.S. Summit By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 3, 1999; Page A06 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/03/074l-070399-idx.html South Korean President Kim Dae-jung met President Clinton here yesterday and discussed how to make North Korea "pay a substantial price" if it goes ahead with a long-range missile test that U.S. intelligence believes Pyongyang is preparing, officials said.... -- 2 Presidents Warn NKorea on Missiles By George Gedda, Associated Press, July 3, 1999; 2:44 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990703/V000931-070399-idx.html
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8. Sweden's Sydkraft makes fresh nuclear appeal to EU 09:55 a.m. Jul 05, 1999 Eastern (Infoseek) http://www.dogpile.com STOCKHOLM, July 5 (Reuters) - Swedish power company Sydkraft AB on Monday stepped up its battle against a government decision to shut down its nuclear reactors, saying it would make a fresh appeal to the European Union Commission....
9. Castro's son defends Cuban nuclear energy project 03:34 p.m Jul 04, 1999 Eastern HAVANA, July 4 (Reuters) - President Fidel Castro's son rebuffs foreign criticism of Cuba's aspirations to build and operate a nuclear power plant in a book presented by a Cuban newspaper on Sunday. -- Cuba Sues U.S. for $181 Billion By The Associated Press, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Cuba-US-Lawsuit.html HAVANA (AP) -- Cuba took the United States to court on Monday, seeking damages it says Cubans have suffered in a U.S.-backed dirty war stretching over four decades....
10. Schroeder cautious on Ukraine nuclear talks 01:05 p.m Jul 05, 1999 Eastern (Infoseek) http://www.dogpile.com BONN, July 5 (Reuters) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Monday tried to play down hopes in his centre-left coalition that Germany would be able to persuade Ukraine not to build nuclear power plants with Western funds. -- Risks linked to Ukraine nuclear decision-Schroeder 02:54 p.m Jul 02, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" BERLIN, July 2 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Friday that Western failure to fund new nuclear power plants in Ukraine could pose political risks in the region.
11. Schroeder coalition at risk over nuclear pledge 07:09 a.m. Jul 05, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" BONN, July 5 (Reuters) - A leader of Germany's Greens warned Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Monday that the ecologist party could walk out of his coalition if a controversial election pledge to phase out nuclear power was not honoured.... -- German Gov't Debates Nuclear Energy By The Associated Press, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Germany-Politics.html
12. German nuclear transports could restart this year 07:05 a.m. Jul 04, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" BONN, July 4 (Reuters) - Economics Minister Werner Mueller said on Sunday that the transportation of Germany's nuclear waste could resume in 1999....
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13. Correction Saturday, July 3, 1999; Page A20 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/03/006l-070399-idx.html There was an editing error in the letter to the editor yesterday by Govind Bangarbale. One sentence should have read: "India's foremost political party, the BJP, has said it would not indulge in a nuclear first strike and would not use nuclear weapons against a nonnuclear power in case of war."
14. Clinton, Sharif Agree On Kashmir Withdrawal Updated 9:14 PM ET July 4, 1999, By Arshad Mohammed http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990704/21/international-kashmir-usa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reached an agreement Sunday under which guerrillas who crossed into the Indian-held sections of Kashmir will withdraw, U.S. officials said. -- U.S. Expecting Kashmir Pullback by Pakistani Side U.S. officials declined to offer an date. JANE PERLEZ, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/070599us-pakistan.html --- U.S. Says Pakistan Will Withdraw By Bradley Graham and Nathan Abse Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A15 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/05/103l-070599-idx.html -- NEWS ANALYSIS Pakistani's Pullout Vow Is a Very Hard Sell at Home By CELIA W. DUGGER, July 6, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/070699india-pakistan.html -- In Pakistani Village, Distrust of Indians as Raw as Ever http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/070699pakistan-india.html
15. Syrian President Visiting Russia Monday, July 5, 1999; 10:18 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990705/V000239-070599-idx.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Syria.html MOSCOW (AP) -- Syrian President Hafez Assad came to Moscow today for talks on upgrading his military with Russian weapons. Assad will discuss the possible purchase of Su-27 fighter jets, T-80 tanks, and anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, the Interfax news agency reported.... -- [Debt forgiveness talk....] Syria's Debt To Russia Off Assad Agenda Updated 1:00 AM ET July 4, 1999, By Sultan Sleiman http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" ... "The army does not want to make troubles with Syria on debt, an old issue that will lead nowhere if discussed. It is trying to win influence in the region, plus cash from striking new arms deals."
16. Russia-Belarus Merger May Be Near By The Associated Press, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Belarus.html MOSCOW (AP) -- Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin said today that the final draft of an agreement to merge Russia and Belarus will be ready within a month....
17. Russian Satellite May Have Crashed By The Associated Press, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Rocket.html MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian military satellite disappeared from radar screens soon after liftoff Monday and may have crashed in Siberia, a news report said. A Proton booster rocket, launched a day late for technical reasons, blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan carrying a Raduga-1 satellite Monday evening.....
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18. Yeltsin Urges START II Ratification Friday, July 2, 1999; 10:05 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990702/V000255-070299-idx.html MOSCOW (AP) -- President Boris Yeltsin urged the Russian parliament on Friday to approve the long-delayed START II nuclear arms reduction treaty. Yeltsin told a meeting of top defense officials that START II must be ratified, and a follow-on agreement, START III, must be prepared.... -- Yeltsin, Ukrainian President Meet By The Associated Press, July 4, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Ukraine.html MOSCOW (AP) -- President Boris Yeltsin met Sunday with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to discuss outstanding problems in their countries' relationship.... -- Yeltsin Accepts Some Blame For Army Problems Updated 12:14 PM ET July 2, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990702/12/international-arms-russia MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Boris Yeltsin said he bore some responsibility for the problems facing Russia's underfunded and demoralized armed forces Friday....
19. Russian Forces Attack Chechen Fighters Updated 5:48 AM ET July 5, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990705/05/international-russia-chec hnya MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian interior ministry troops launched a preemptive attack with helicopters and mortars on a group of 150-200 Chechen fighters Monday, Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo said....
-- Russia Tries to Save Military By Barry Renfrew, Associated Press, July 2, 1999; 2:46 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990702/V000460-070299-idx.html MOSCOW (AP) -- The appearance of Russian bombers over the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in years coincides with new efforts by Moscow to stop its once enormous military from disintegrating....
20. Russia Tries to Save Military By Barry Renfrew, Associated Press, July 2, 1999; 2:46 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990702/V000460-070299-idx.html MOSCOW (AP) -- The appearance of Russian bombers over the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in years coincides with new efforts by Moscow to stop its once enormous military from disintegrating....
21. Russian Bombers May Have Been A Test -US Updated 12:24 AM ET July 2, 1999, By Randall Mikkelsen http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990702/00/international-arms-russia WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said Thursday that Russia may have been trying to test U.S. military reflexes when two bombers penetrated Iceland's air defenses last week, but said it was unconcerned by the incident....
22. Russian Premier Confident Of IMF Loan Updated 3:33 AM ET July 3, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990703/03/international-economy-russia MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin said Saturday he was confident the board of directors of the International Monetary Fund would approve a much-needed $4.5 billion loan to Russia. -- Russian defence budget eaten up by huge debts NIKOLAI NOVICHKOV, Jane's Defence Weekly, 25 JUNE 1999 http://jdw.janes.com/sample/jdw3751.html Moscow - Despite news that Russian defence expenditure is expected to reach a minimum of $6 billion, or 3% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in the year 2000, the 1999 allocation of $3.7 billion, or 2.3% of GDP for defence is already facing problems....
23. US Diplomat Expelled From Moscow - Embassy Official Updated 12:12 PM ET July 4, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990704/12/news-usa-diplomat MOSCOW (Reuters) - A U.S. diplomat was expelled from Moscow Thursday, ... after his accreditation was withdrawn for unspecified reasons.... -- Report: more Russians ready for Kosovo Updated 9:12 PM ET July 3, 1999 http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???" Another contingent of Russian paratroopers is set to fly into Kosovo despite reports that an early attempt to send Russian reinforcements into Pristina was foiled by the United States and NATO.
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24. Protests grow as spacecraft nears Ohio-Briefs, Columbus Dispatch, July 4, 1999 http://www.dispatch.com/pan/localarchive/dbrf04nws.html A space probe powered by 72.3 pounds of plutonium is hurtling back toward Earth and reawakening the controversy that accompanied its launch two years ago. Bound for Saturn after a journey that slingshots it around several planets, the Cassini probe will carry its radioactive and highly toxic fuel within 723 miles of Earth at 42,300 mph on Aug. 18. -- End is near for speculation on Nostradmus prediction July 5, 1999 St. Paul MN Pioneer-Press, RICH MILLER NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/1/living/docs/019533.htm ... In a passage known as Quatrain X:72, Nostradamus wrote: The Year 1999 seven months From the sky will come the great King of Terror To resuscitate the great king of the Mongols Before and after Mars reigns by good luck. The target date has generated excitement on the more than 40,000 Web pages devoted to Nostradamus, which perceive potential import in everything from a new comet to the Cassini space probe....
25. Physicist Pans Nuke Lab Probes Monday, July 5, 1999; 5:17 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990705/V000112-070599-idx.html LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) -- Rooting out spies should be done quietly, unlike recent Congressional probes at nuclear weapons labs, according to the man who helped design the hydrogen bomb....
26. Accident Forces LANL To Close Chemistry Lab By Ian Hoffman Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer, July 4, 1999 http://www.abqjournal.com/news/5news07-04.htm Work on mixed radioactive and hazardous waste went awry at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently, leaving a chemistry lab highly contaminated and a cleanup bill ranging up to $30,000....
27. Appeals Court Won't Review N.M. Nuke Dump (WIPP) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 2, 1999 http://www.sltrib.com/1999/jul/07021999/nation_w/5428.htm The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington has denied a petition to review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's certification of a federal nuclear-waste dump near Carlsbad, N.M....
28. Readying Emergency Teams for Terrorist Attacks By CARL HULSE, July 3, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/ky-terror.html ... "We are not preparing for if; it is when," said Mary McCormick, a local telecommunications executive involved in readying community services for this county of about 670,000 people. "There is just so much going on and there are just so many crazies." Specialists in domestic terrorism might not put it quite that way, but they agree that the nation could one day experience an act of terrorism involving a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon of mass destruction....
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29. Quick Political Scholastic Aptitude Test (QPSAT) This test consists of one (1) multiple-choice question: Here's a list of the countries that the U.S. has bombed since the end of World War II, compiled by historian William Blum... China, Korea, Guatemala, Indonesia, Cuba, Congo, Peru, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Grenada, Libya, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia...
[This needs a response: letters@nytimes.com (Letters to the Editor)]
30. The Cleanest Energy July 4, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/letters/llamb.html To the Editor: It is interesting that a stalwart foe of nuclear energy like the Environmental Defense Fund would be so concerned about global warning (news article*, June 29). Other than hydroelectric power, nuclear power is the only large-scale source of electricity that does not produce carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. -- Human Imprint on Climate Change Grows Clearer By WILLIAM K. STEVENS, New York Times June 29 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/062999sci-global-warming.html
[Another one needs a letter - reece@desnews.com (Letters to Editor)
31. Get the N-facts straight July 02, 1999, Deseret News http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,100009243,00.html? Once again the Deseret News misleads its readers by oversimplifying the used nuclear fuel storage issue. "Keep N-waste where generated," your June 22 editorial advises, echoing Gov. Michael Leavitt's view. On the surface, it may seem like a sensible thing to do, but consider these facts...
33. Bombs Are Smart, but People Are Smarter By ERIC SCHMITT, July 4, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/library/review/070499kosovo-decoys-review.html WASHINGTON -- Toward the end of the Balkans air war, rarely a day passed when NATO did not triumphantly declare that allied warplanes had destroyed several more Yugoslav tanks or artillery pieces with precision-guided bombs or missiles. Now it turns out that perhaps one-quarter of those weapons that looked fearsome from 15,000 feet up were nothing more than artfully designed decoys meant to fool allied pilots. Indeed, the Serb military, outgunned by a technologically superior foe, proved to a master of camouflage, concealment and deception....
[An indicator of plans for Latin America?]
34. New Colombia Peace Talks As US Warns On Rebel Drugs Updated 12:55 PM ET July 4, 1999, By Karl Penhaul http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990704/12/news-colombia-peace BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - ... Gen. Charles Wilhelm, commander of the Miami-based Southern Command, has said the rebels are endangering regional stability and warned the Pentagon could intervene unilaterally, particularly in Panama, if the rebels persisted in making cross border raids....
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35. The smog of war Andy Coghlan, New Scientist, July 3, 1999 http://www.newscientist.com/ns/19990703/newsstory6.html WAR IS A DIRTY BUSINESS . . . but just how dirty is only now becoming clear. By studying pockets of pollution in trees, chemists in Sheffield have shown that armaments factories in the Second World War choked the city's air with metals at levels higher than at any other time this century....
36. EUROPE FACES MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER The Aftermath of NATO Air Strikes Threatens Millions Lev PAKHOMOV and Valery SPEKTOR * From: "Laka Foundation" <laka@mail.antenna.nl> To: du-list@egroups.com - http://www.egroups.com/list/du-list/ Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 11:55:03 +0000 It turns out that NATO's blitz against Yugoslavia has entailed some extremely serious consequences, which directly threaten the population of South-Eastern and Central Europe. Thousands of tons of explosives were dropped by NATO warplanes on Yugoslavia, equalling the yield of several nominal (Hiroshima-type) A-bombs....
37. Iraq Finds Oil-for-Food Goods Substandard By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 6, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/iraq-sanctions-ap.html BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Large amounts of food and medicine arriving in Iraq under a United Nations oil-for-food program are substandard, damaged or unusable, a United Nations official said Monday.... -- Report: Iraqi Troops Attack Village By The Associated PressJuly 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Iraq-Opposition.html DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- Iraqi soldiers backed by ruling party militia attacked a village in Iraq's southern marshes, razing homes and carting residents off to unknown locations, an opposition group said today.... -- Iraq Says Has Proof Air Defenses Hit Western Plane Updated 8:48 AM ET July 4, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990704/08/news-iraq-usa -- Iraq blasts Turkey Updated 2:35 PM ET July 1, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/u/990701/14/international-turkey BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 1 (UPI) Iraq's Foreign Ministry has blasted Turkey's parliament for extending by six months U.S. and British use of Turkish air bases to launch regular airstrikes against Iraq...
38. Kurdish Rebels Divided Over Peace By The Associated Press, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Kurdish-Split.html ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- In mountain hideouts in southeastern Turkey, Kurdish rebel commanders allegedly seized radios from their fighters to prevent them from listening to peace calls from captured guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan....
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39. Army Reservists Keep Up Serbia Road Blockade Updated 12:23 PM ET July 3, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990703/12/international-yugoslavia- reservists BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslav Army reservists blocked roads in southern Serbia for the second successive day Saturday, demanding payment for service in Kosovo, the independent news agency Beta reported.... "If the ministry does not do that we shall inform the public that we do not accept any of our debts to the state," Beta quoted the teachers as saying in a statement....
40. Tearing Down Milosevic Washington resorts to a bag of tricks to try to get Yugoslavia a new leader BY DOUGLAS WALLER/WASHINGTON Time Magazine http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,27733,00.html http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,27733-2,00.html The CIA, to put it charitably, has a spotty record on overthrowing foreign governments. The times it has succeeded--in Guatemala, Iran and Chile, for example--it replaced fairly moderate governments with far more brutal regimes. And when dictators deserved the boot, the agency has been rather inept at toppling them. The CIA has been trying to oust Saddam Hussein ever since the Gulf War ended eight years ago, but he is more firmly entrenched than ever.... -- Stresses of Milosevic's Rule Blamed for Decline in Births By BLAINE HARDEN, New York Times, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/070599yugo-birthrate.html Statistics suggest that Serbian women of child-bearing age are deciding in unprecedented numbers that Serbia under the Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, is not a good place to raise children....
41. Bombing Serbia: A New Era? Letters Index July 6, 1999, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/letters/lmarsh.html
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42. TRIGAT-MR build phase imminent CHRISTOPHER F FOSS JDW Land Forces Editor, 24 JUNE 1999, Jane's Defense Weekly http://jdw.janes.com/sample/jdw3709.html London - The Euromissile Dynamics Group (EMDG) is awaiting the approval of the Belgian and Dutch governments to begin the industrialisation phase of the TRIGAT-MR (Medium- Range) anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW)....
43. Securing space for the military Hypersonic military spaceplanes go quietly about their business BY BILL SWEETMAN, Janes Defense Weekly, June 28, 1999 http://www.janes.com/defence/features/RAeS_awards/securingspace.html Photo: http://www.janes.com/defence/features/RAeS_awards/g0049009.jpg ...The next US administration is going to have to tackle the question of space warfare, and the AOV will be the most visible symbol of what may be an energetic controversy. The rights and wrongs of an increased military presence in space may be debated, but there is no disputing that the technical means to establish such a presence are closer to reality today than they have been in decades.
44. Spending by USA's 'big four' comes under Pentagon scrutiny 25 JUNE 1999 Jane's Defense Weekly http://jdw.janes.com/sample/jdw3728.html The expenditures of the four top defence companies in the USA are to be examined by the US Department of Defense (DoD) in an effort to strengthen government oversight of multi-billion-dollar military contracts....
45. Saudi F-15 buy could be critical BRYAN BENDER JDW Washington Bureau Chief, JANES Weekly, 25 JUNE 1999 http://jdw.janes.com/sample/jdw3722.html Paris - Boeing has begun discussions with the Royal Saudi Air Force about a possible sale of F-15 Eagles to replace an undisclosed number of aircraft lost to attrition and views such a sale as critical to maintaining the fighter's production line....
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45. 4th Annual Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Conference September 19 - 21, 1999 Las Vegas, Nevada You are cordially invited to the NGWRC's 4th annual Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Conference in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. This year's conference should be exciting and informative. The main objectives of our conference are to share new information about Gulf War illnesses from leading experts, decide upon our advocacy agenda for 2000 and beyond, and elect new Directors. If you have questions, please visit our website at: http://www.gulfweb.org/ngwrc, e-mail us at ngwrc@vva.org, or phone us at (800) 882-1316 ext 162. Chris Kornkven President, National Gulf War Resource Center, Inc. http://www.gulfweb.org/ngwrc/index.htm
46. Newfoundland scientist searching for answer to Gulf War syndrome WebPosted Mon Jul 5 16:30:28 1999 - Canadian Broadcasting http://www.cbcnews.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/1999/07/04/gulfwa r990704 ST. JOHN'S - Pat Horan spends a lot of time in her laboratory in St. John's. She's part of an international effort to find out what's behind so-called Gulf War Syndrome....
47. Uranium-processing plant won't appeal fine stemming from fire Regulatory officials say owners of the Piketon, Ohio, facility must pay $55,000 for failing to declare an alert. Saturday, July 03, 1999 By Bob Dreitzler Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch Staff Reporter http://www.dispatch.com/pan/localarchive/nrcnws.html
48. Barbados-based rights group to probe Navy's actions on Vieques July 3, 1999 Web posted at: 6:07 PM EDT (2207 GMT) http://cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9907/03/BC-Barbados-PuertoRico.ap/index.html BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) -- The Caribbean Human Rights Network says it will investigate U.S. Navy exercises on the populated Puerto Rican island of Vieques to determine if they violate citizens' rights.... -- Puerto Ricans protest U.S. war games on July 4th SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, July 4 (Reuters) - Nearly 50,000 Puerto Ricans observed U.S. Independence Day on Sunday by marching to a U.S. Naval base and demanding an end to the use of the nearby island of Vieques for target practice.... -- Navy Responds to FOIA: Okinawa and Puerto Rico depleted uranium tests http://www.egroups.com/list/du-list/ ... You requested to know what bases/training areas and/or firing ranges overseas have used depleted uranium munitions and/or tanks with armor made of depleted uranium, to include the U.S. training area of Grafenwoehr, Germany.... The locations overseas are Torii Shima (W-176) Island, Okinawa and Live Impact Area (LIA), Vieques, Puerto Rico. Fees for providing this information have been waived under the current provisions of the FOIA.
49. Armor-piercing ammo being sold as surplus Public buying bullets, report says Chicago Tribune, June 16, 1999, By William Gaines and Bob Secter http://archives.chicago.tribune.com/cgi-bin/slwebchi.pl?DBQUERY=armor-pierci ng&SORT=d%3Ah&NITEMS=50&DBLIST=ct99&action=Search Excess military stockpiles of highly destructive .50-caliber armor-piercing ammunition are being resold to the public through a little-known government program, according to a congressional report to. be released Wednesday....
50. Lockerbie fears over missing uranium by Robert McNeil The Observer, 1 June, 1990 Mystery surrounds the precise number of depleted uranium counterweights missing from the Lockerbie disaster Boeing 747, after police first told Edinburgh radiation experts that one-and- a-half were missing and then amended the figure to two. The issue has aroused serious concern because of fears that a missing half may have been burnt in the conflagration, creating conditions for a massive leak of radiation. Local authorities and a leading radation consultant are calling for the matter to be investigated....
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51. Rand Corp Re DU: A press release summarizing "A Review of the Scientific Literature as It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses, Volume 7: Depleted Uranium" can be found at http://www.rand.org/hot/Press/gulfwar.4.15.html, with links to the RAND document (http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.7/MR1018.7.html/), including ordering information, and to the Department of Defense's page containing information on Gulf War illnesses.
52. WAITING TO DIE: After eight years of exposure to the debris of western weapons, Iraqi casualties are mounting By Olivia Ward, Toronto Star - European Bureau, February 14, 1999 http://www.thestar.com/back_issues/ED19990214/opinion/990214BOD01_CO-WARD14. html ... Iraqi doctors and scientists increasingly suspect the mutations were produced by the radioactive shells that rained down on the country during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and that are still taking a ferocious toll on its adults and children....
53. Depleted UF6 Management http://www.ead.anl.gov/uranium.html Re: Stockpiled depleted uranium that Department of Energy has at three sites in the US. Portsmouth, Ohio, Paducah, Kentucky and Oak Ridge, Tennessee are the sites where the DOE had uranium enrichment facilities. There is over 1.1 billion pounds of DU stored in canisters at these sites and the DOE is trying to come up with a plan to deal with it. Folks can access the report at: all for a hard copy 1-800-517-3191 or 301-903-4781....
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54. Who are the manufacturers of d.u.? Compiled responses to the above question] du-list http://www.egroups.com/list/du-list/ _____________________________
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Message: 4 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 21:51:09 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-11 7/06/99 - DU-Conferences 9/99; Uranium plant fire; Puerto Rico (3); Uranium Bullets;
45. 4th Annual Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Conference
September 19 - 21, 1999 Las Vegas, Nevada
You are cordially invited to the NGWRC's 4th annual Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Conference in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada. This year's conference should be exciting and informative. The main objectives of our conference are to share new information about Gulf War illnesses from leading experts, decide upon our advocacy agenda for 2000 and beyond, and elect new Directors. If you have questions, please visit our website at:
http://www.gulfweb.org/ngwrc, e-mail us at ngwrc@vva.org, or phone us at (800) 882-1316 ext 162.
Chris Kornkven President National Gulf War Resource Center, Inc. http://www.gulfweb.org/ngwrc/index.htm http://www.globaldialog.com/~kornkven http://www.gulfweb.org
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46. Newfoundland scientist searching for answer to Gulf War syndrome
WebPosted Mon Jul 5 16:30:28 1999 - Canadian Broadcasting http://www.cbcnews.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/1999/07/04/gulfwa r990704
ST. JOHN'S - Pat Horan spends a lot of time in her laboratory in St. John's. She's part of an international effort to find out what's behind so-called Gulf War Syndrome.
Horan's examining the remains of Gulf War veterans and even the remains of one man who never went near the Gulf, to try to solve the mystery.
"They want to know why this man died," she says. "And they want to know if he came in contact with depleted uranium; if he ingested it; and if so, is it possible that this depleted uranium might have caused some of his illness?"
Horan doesn't even know the man's name. She does know he was a firefighter in Amsterdam when he was called out in October 1992 to fight a fire caused by the crash of an El Al 747, that had smashed into an apartment building.
She also knows depleted uranium was used in the manufacture of both that airplane and some weapons used in the Gulf War. And that the late firefighter, like hundreds of others who were at that crash scene got sick within weeks. Their symptoms are similar to those of some Gulf War veterans.
Louise Richards thinks depleted uranium may have caused her sickness. In 1991 she went to the Persian Gulf a healthy army nurse. Within months her hair and teeth were falling out and she was battered by neurological and digestive problems.
Eight years later she's still sick and hoping a cure will come from studies like Pat Horan's. Because, she says, the army isn't doing any. "We're like little mushrooms kept in the dark. Nice and cosy. And that's how Canada's dealing with us. By denying what's happened and abandoning us totally."
Military doctors like Colonel Scott Cameron argue they're not ignoring sick veterans. But at the same time they're not convinced depleted uranium is making veterans ill either. "We evaluate the studies that are done as they are done. But certainly a large amount of evidence available now would indicate that's not a significant causative factor."
Pat Horan isn't so sure. "What we're finding is that this depleted uranium went everywhere. It was in the air."
If her study finds similar results in human remains it could provide an important piece in a puzzle that's baffled scientists, and veterans, for years.
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47. Uranium-processing plant won't appeal fine stemming from fire
Regulatory officials say owners of the Piketon, Ohio, facility must pay $55,000 for failing to declare an alert.
Saturday, July 03, 1999
By Bob Dreitzler Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch Staff Reporter http://www.dispatch.com/pan/localarchive/nrcnws.html
The owners of the Pike County uranium enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, will not appeal a $55,000 fine levied by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a flawed emergency procedure that came to light during a major fire last winter.
"We are going to pay the civil penalty,'' USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said yesterday. "We changed our procedures right after the fire, so obviously we agree.''
USEC is the parent company of United States Enrichment Corp., which manages uranium-fuel processing plants taken over from the U.S. Department of Energy when privatization was completed a year ago.
The regulatory commission announced earlier this week that it was proposing the fine because officials at the gaseous diffusion plant 60 miles south of Columbus failed to declare an alert when a fire broke out Dec. 9, 1998.
Because an alert was not declared, the plant's emergency operations center was not activated, said James E. Dyer, NRC regional administrator.
Without the technical and management support of the emergency operations center, it took longer to put out the fire and delayed efforts to control any uranium still in the processing system, Dyer said.
In addition, he said, failing to issue an alert meant that local, state and federal agencies were not notified and could not fulfill their emergency response functions.
The fire raged out of control for nearly two hours in a portion of the plant where waste gases are removed from the uranium processing system. It burned through metal piping and buckled girders in a 100- by 30-foot area.
Two workers suffered smoke inhalation and two firefighters received minor injuries when they slipped in some of the 3,000 gallons of lubricating and hydraulic oil that was released during the blaze.
No one was exposed to radiation or chemical contamination, officials said.
NRC officials who conducted a hearing at Piketon in February said the fire, which destroyed everything in the area where it occurred, could not have been any worse.
The processing building is constructed of cells equipped with sprinklers and separated by secure walls that kept the fire from spreading.
The company acted promptly after the fire to revise its emergency procedures and provide additional training for plant staff, the NRC said in announcing the proposed fine.
The company had the option of protesting the fine, which could have resulted in another hearing.
The NRC also notified the company of three other violations in April that required corrective actions, but no fines.
Those violations involved other aspects of the plant's response to the fire, its preparedness and program for correcting problems.
Morris Brown, plant general manager, said after the February hearing that the company had already begun improving procedures. "We are handling it as a lesson learned,'' he said at the time.
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48. Barbados-based rights group to probe Navy's actions on Vieques
July 3, 1999 Web posted at: 6:07 PM EDT (2207 GMT) http://cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9907/03/BC-Barbados-PuertoRico.ap/index.html
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) -- The Caribbean Human Rights Network says it will investigate U.S. Navy exercises on the populated Puerto Rican island of Vieques to determine if they violate citizens' rights.
The Barbados-based group will send a three-member panel on a fact finding mission to Vieques July 9-12, responding to a request from the Puerto Rico Institute for Human Rights.
The panel will meet with fishermen, health professionals, environmental activists, lawyers and others on the island of 9,300 residents, the organization said in a statement issued Friday.
Caribbean Rights, as the organization is also known, will send attorneys Lloyd Barnett of Jamaica and Frank Solomon of Trinidad and Tobago, and human rights advocate Sheila Velez of Puerto Rico. Their report will be shared with governments and other rights organizations, Caribbean Rights said.
The Navy has occupied two-thirds of the 18-mile-by-4-mile island off Puerto Rico's east coast since 1940. It says its live-fire exercises in Vieques are vital.
Opposition to the Navy presence has flared since a civilian security guard was killed April 19 when two 500-pound bombs were dropped off-target. The Navy's admission in June that it had mistakenly fired radioactive uranium-tipped shells at the island in February -- in violation of local and federal law -- fueled the outcry.
Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rossello said Wednesday he'll urge Washington to have the Navy leave Vieques, in response to a government report calling for its departure.
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Puerto Ricans protest U.S. war games on July 4th
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, July 4 (Reuters) - Nearly 50,000 Puerto Ricans observed U.S. Independence Day on Sunday by marching to a U.S. Naval base and demanding an end to the use of the nearby island of Vieques for target practice.
The "All Puerto Rico with Vieques" march in the east coast town of Ceiba took demonstrators to the gates of the Roosevelt Roads Naval Base on Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth.
The march was called to protest the U.S. Navy's bombing of Vieques, an island municipality just off Ceiba's coast. Vieques has been used for target practice for 50 years.
While Vieques residents and the Navy have sparred for the past five decades over its use, public opinion across Puerto Rico turned sharply against the Navy war games when a civilian security guard employed by the Navy was killed on April 21 by a pair of stray bombs.
"The time has come for the Navy to leave Vieques," Police Superintendent Pedro Toledo said, while announcing preparations for the march.
"There's a lot of enthusiasm and excitement here," said Robert Rabin, of the community group Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, which has long opposed the Navy presence of Vieques.
The Navy owns two-third's of the island's 33,000 acres (13,200 hectares).
Organizers and police estimated 50,000 Puerto Ricans took part, many of them supporters of Puerto Rico's becoming the 51st U.S. state.
The march followed Wednesday's release of a report by the Special Committee on Vieques, a bipartisan committee appointed by Gov. Pedro Rossello.
The report said the Navy's use of the island violated the basic human and civil rights of Vieques residents, stunted economic development on the island, harmed the environment, and may pose direct health risks to residents.
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Navy Responds to FOIA: Okinawa and Puerto Rico depleted uranium tests
http://www.egroups.com/list/du-list/
Department Of The Navy Headquarters United States Marine Corps 2 Navy Annex Washington, DC 20380-1775
Ms. Tara Thornton The Military Toxics Project P.O. Box 558 Lewiston, ME 04243-0558
Dear Ms. Thornton:
I am responding to the referral of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request of February 2, 1999, for information that pertains to U.S. military bases overseas and U.S./NATO training areas. You requested to know what bases/training areas and/or firing ranges overseas have used depleted uranium munitions and/or tanks with armor made of depleted uranium, to include the U.S. training area of Grafenwoehr, Germany. Your request was directed to this Headquarters for action as it pertains to the Marine Corps on February 8, 1999.
The locations overseas are Torii Shima (W-176) Island, Okinawa and Live Impact Area (LIA), Vieques, Puerto Rico. Fees for providing this information have been waived under the current provisions of the FOIA.
Sincerely,
B.L. Thompson Head, Freedom of Information and Private Acts Section Administration and Resource Management By direction of the Commandant of the Marine Corps
[This seems incomplete. Notice how they slipped out of reporting where in the U.S depleted uranium has been tested. There's no mention of Panama here either. See http://prop1.org/2000/du/dulv.htm and scroll down to "Panama."]
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49. Armor-piercing ammo being sold as surplus Public buying bullets, report says
Chicago Tribune, June 16, 1999, By William Gaines and Bob Secter http://archives.chicago.tribune.com/cgi-bin/slwebchi.pl?DBQUERY=armor-pierci ng&SORT=d%3Ah&NITEMS=50&DBLIST=ct99&action=Search
Excess military stockpiles of highly destructive .50-caliber armor-piercing ammunition are being resold to the public through a little-known government program, according to a congressional report to. be released Wednesday.
More than 100,000 rounds of the ammunition designed for long-range military sniper weapons and, capable of blasting a hole in a tank from more than a mile away made their way from military caches to civilian weapons dealers in the last year alone, according to an executive summary of the study, obtained by the Tribune.
"The investigation showed. that the U.S. military is indirectly arming civilians with some of the most powerful and destructive ammunition currently available," said the report, commissioned by two outspoken Democratic gun control advocates, Rep. Rod Blagojevich of Chicago. and Rep. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles.
The report summary, relying heavily on findings of an under cover investigation conducted through the congressional General Accounting Office, said the Pentagon, is selling, excess and obsolete stocks of the brass-covered shells for $1 per ton to a West Virginia company under what in military jargon is known as the Conventional Demilitarization Program.
The firm, Talon Manufacturing Company, dismantles most of the shells and stills them for scrap, but some are reassembled and sold to buyers that range from the militaries of Brazil and Colombia to civilian weapons dealers in the United States, according to the report Last year, Talon even sold 35,000 rounds of refurbished .50-caliber projectiles back to the US military, which had discarded them in the first place.
The arrangement is strikingly similar to another program designed to dispose of surplus military small arms that was the focus of a 1997 Tribune investigation.
That probe showed how the military had auctioned off tons of broken semi-automatic weapons over the decades, only to see, them reincarnated by gunsmiths who salvaged the parts and put them back together. Many such remanufactured military weapons, including M-1 carbines and M-1 Garands, found their way into the hands of criminals, the investigation found.
But compared with the wallop packed by .50-caliber weapons, the M-1s look like popguns. The Blagojevich/Waxman report said, the refurbished .50-caliber military shells and the bulky weapons used to fire them can easily be purchased through gun shops and over the Internet.
Blagojevich, who tried unsuccessfully last year to ban the civilian sale of surplus M-1s and other military weapons, said he hoped his new report would increase the pressure on the Pentagon.
"It is my personal view that the purpose of the United States military is to provide for the national security." Blagojevich said. "It is not to augment the use of weapons on the street."
According to the report, GAO agents posing as potential buyers of .50-caliber shells contacted several weapons dealers across the country.
The agents were equipped with hidden recording devices, which captured. several dealers on tape willing to make sales even after agents stated they were looking for something that packed enough punch to pierce an armored limousine or take out a helicopter in flight. "They'll go through six inches of steel up to a 45-degree angle at 1,000 yards," boasted, an Alaskan gun dealer on one of the tapes.
".... So for sure then they'd go through an armored limousine?" the agent asked. "Oh, yeah," the dealer replied with a laugh.
A transcript of the conversation was included with the report, but the identity of the dealer was not revealed.
The ammunition study followed another report released by Blagojevich and Waxman last month that described the easy availability of the .50-caliber weapons themselves commonly referred to as long-range sniper weapons.
A semi-automatic version of the weapon saw extensive use in the Persian Gulf War and was credited with stopping Iraqi tanks. Weighing 28 pounds and using ammunition that is one-half inch in diameter and three to six inches long, the .50-caliber guns are considered accurate up to 2,000 yards and could still fire with some effectiveness at targets more than four miles away.
The Blagojevich/Waxman report quotes a training manual for military and police snipers as saying the weapons were designed to, penetrate bunkers and buildings.
"This means you can pulverize enemy positions and induce casualties without necessarily seeing an enemy soldier," the manual read. "When firing at positions, don't be thrifty; riddle them with enough bullets to ensure damage."
Despite their obvious. military applications, several gunmakers also produce .50-caliber sniper weapons for the civilian market, the report said. The largest, the Barrett Company of Murfreesboro, Tenn., has sold more than 2,800 of the guns since 1987, according to records of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
There are fewer legal obstacles to buying a .50-caliber gun than to buy a newly-manufactured handgun, the report argued. Federal law requires purchasers of handguns to produce identification showing they are at least 21. But .50-caliber gun buyers need only prove they are 18, the report said.
Age restrictions still apply to second-hand sales of handguns, but they are wiped away totally for .50-caliber resales.
The report said GAO investigators have traced .50-caliber weapons to suspected terrorist groups, drug dealers, a doomsday cult and a mentally ill cop killer. Seven members of a group opposed to Fidel Castro were arrested for allegedly plotting to use two of the weapons to shoot down the Cuban dictator's airplane, the Blagojevich/Waxman report said.
Talon, based in Paw Paw, W.Va., has the exclusive contract to purchase surplus .50-caliber shells from the Pentagon. The company dismantles approximately 98 percent of the rounds it buys for scrap. Even then, the firm had enough left over to market 419,000 rounds in the year that ended last March, the GAO investigators found.
Not all had armor-piercing and incendiary capabilities, but more than 100,000 rounds sold on the civilian market. last year did, the report said.
"Fifty-caliber armor-piercing ammunition has little, if any, legitimate sporting or recreational use," the report concluded.
Our question was: Does this ammunition contain DU as the hardened core? Winfried and Veronika Engl, Bielefeld (Germany)
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50. Lockerbie fears over missing uranium by Robert McNeil
The Observer, 1 June, 1990
Mystery surrounds the precise number of depleted uranium counterweights missing from the Lockerbie disaster Boeing 747, after police first told Edinburgh radiation experts that one-and- a-half were missing and then amended the figure to two.
The issue has aroused serious concern because of fears that a missing half may have been burnt in the conflagration, creating conditions for a massive leak of radiation. Local authorities and a leading radation consultant are calling for the matter to be investigated.
Dr Bob Wheaton, of Edinburgh Radiation Consultants, first wrote to Dumfries and Galloway Police last year and was told that one-and- a-half counterweights were missing. This aroused his concern, as an American phycicist, Dr Robert Parker, had claimed in Nature magazine of 22 December 1988 (the very week, ironically, of the disaster) that 'about 250.000 people, at worst, could be put at risk from the 1,000 lb of depleted uranium in a Boeing 747.'
Dr Parker claimed that the civilian use of depleted uranium could be hazardous. 'Uranium, depleted or not, is chemically toxic,' he said. 'In aircraft, depleted uranium is only a hazard in the event of high-temperature fires that can arise after a crash. It is the release of airborne and respirable oxide particles from such fires that presents a hazard.
Dr Wheaton, while keeping an open mind on Dr Parker's figures and conclusions, believes nonetheless that there could be a risk, particularly if half a counterweight had been destroyed in high- intensity flames. He wrote again to Dumfries and Galloway Police and received the following reply, dated 19 March, from Chief Constable George Esson: 'I must apologise for giving you inaccurate information in my letter of 1 November 1989. This was due to me being wrongly informed that 18.5 counterweights had been recovered when the correct figure is 18 counterweights.'
Asked by Observer Scotland to clarify the situation, a Lockerbie police spokesman said: 'The chief constable initially was in receipt of misinfomation and that's why he put it out as 18.5 recovered. He then had a full look at the situation and discovered that the proper figure was two missing and 18 recovered.' Asked where the misinformation came from, the spokesman said he could only go by the correspondence with Dr Wheaton 'and that it was misinformation.'
This weekend, Dr Wheaton said: 'We are interested in discovering whether or not these counterweights had been exposed to high temperatures, which is the crux of the matter. But when they discovered that we wanted to see the half they suddenly decided that there wasn't a half after all. I wouldn't say it was deliberate but it seems almost like a delaying tactic - I only got a letter back after months.'
Dr Wheaton, who stesses that the missing counterweights were as likely buries as burned, also contacted Boeing in Seattle and they assured him that the Nasa-tested counterweights were completely safe.
The Standing Conference of Local Authorities in the Forth Estuary, to which Dr Wheaton is consultant and which is concerned about aircraft movements in and out of Turnhouse, has urged him to continue his inquiries.
BNF was unable to give a figure for the number of counterweights held at Preston when contacted yesterday. A spokesman added that the counterweights had been tangled up with metal and debris when they arrived. However, he cast strong doubts on the risk calculation by Parker and said he could not recall seeing signs of burning on the counterweights.
Dr Wheaton accepts that radiation testing in the Lockerbie area after the disaster found no cause of alarm. However, he calims that the water sampling method used 'would be the one least likely to show up anything.' He said a better method would have been sediments sampling from the bottom of the same bodies of water that were tested.
'The uranium oxide created would be quite a dense material and if it did settle on to the water it would almost certainly drop straight to the bottom. This is the principle that Sellafield used for the discharge of uranium and plutonium into the Irish Sea. So we would expect a similar thing to happen in this case.'
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- Eleventh message - _____________________
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Message: 5 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 21:57:06 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-13 7/06/99 - DU Manufacturers
54. Who are the manufacturers of d.u.?
[Following are compiled responses to the above question] du-list http://www.egroups.com/list/du-list/
From:rochelle.harris@ucl.ac.uk 6/4/99
Lockheed Martin, Boeing (including McDonnel Douglas), General Electric, AT+T, Aerojet (USA), Primex (USA) - contracted to Raytheon, Buleva (Swiss), Fairchilds (USA), Rheinmetall (German), SM Swiss, Winchester, GIWS (German), and Honeywell (USA)
These mostly taken from the http://www.army-technology.com/contractors/ammunition/index.html
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Facility refurbishes depleted uranium tungsten counterweights http://www.sae.org/aeromag/1298p10.htm
Nuclear Metals Inc. is the only U.S. FAA-approved repair facility for refurbishing depleted uranium (DU) and tungsten counterweights used on commercial and military aircraft. The NMI Aircraft Counterweight Repair Facility strips and removes the existing plating and paint (this is really crazy!), then replates and paints in accordance with customer or OEM specifications. DU aircraft counterweights are comparable in weight to tungsten and have 1.68 times the density of lead.
A russian enterprise: http://chmz.udm.net/ JSC "Chepetsky mechanical plant" (this company make FREIGHT CONTAINERS out of DU!!!!)
[Here's what they say about d.u.] http://chmz.udm.net/uran_eng.shtml
Depleted Uranium - reliable biological irradiation shielding JSC "Chepetsky mechanical plant" is the enterprise with wide experience in producing of depleted uranium articles.
Depleted uranium is left after extraction of U235 from natural uranium. U235 is used in enrichment of nuclear reactor fuel. The level of depleted uranium irradiation can be compared with Earth's crust radiation background.
Depleted uranium has unique properties: - high density - 17 -19 g/cm3; - melting point - more than 1130o C; - tensile strength - to 150 kgs/mm2. - fast neutron absorption is better than that of lead; - simple mechanical treatment; - possibility of producing articles with complex configuration by means of casting and stamping; - in combination with stainless steel high resistance to corrosive medium. All these properties favour the producing of articles with complex configuration of this metal and the manufacturing of various devices and instruments for science and industry. Application of our depleted uranium by your company will be an important step forward in producing first-rate articles: flaw-detectors, freight containers, scientific and medical equipment - all apparatus which need reliable biological protection while operation.
We possess the latest depleted uranium machining methods which allow us to represent the wide range of uranium base a11oys with necessary physical, mechanical and service properties; we are ready to produce the required quantity of various depleted uranium articles in the shortest time at purchaser's request.
Our enterprise is interested in expansion of home and international deliveries of depleted uranium finished articles, rods and sheet. Thorough control of our production quality guarantees high level of all articles. Methodical check-up and satisfaction of changing purchasers' requirements is our principal task. We guarantee high quality of our production!
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From: Dennis092@aol.com
To find all those involved in the manufacturing process you need to search under, "Abrams," "A10 - Warthog," "Challenger" & "Apache" on "Jane's" websites at each you will find a list of ALL the manufacturers & customers & associated companies. Dennis
Sample from "Challenger"
Alcatel Telecom Norway - Tactical and Strategic Communications Systems Alkantpan (Pty) Ltd - Weapons Test Ranges and Facilites Alliant Techsystems Inc. - Fire Control Systems and Sensors Alliant Techsystems Inc. - High Performance Ammunition AMPEP plc - Self Lubricating Plain Bearings ASB Aerospatiale Batteries - Thermal Batteries Avon Technical Products - NBC Equipment and Clothing
BARRACUDA Technologies AB - Military Camouflage Systems BASE Nanoquest - Electro-optics and Sights BFR Combat Boots Pte Ltd - Blast Resistant Boots and Clothing Bofors AB - Anti-Armour Systems Bofors AB Weapon Systems - Combat Vehicle Systems Bofors Carl Gustaf AB - Assault Rifles and Small Arms Ammunition Bradley Electronics Ltd - Electrical Systems for Fighting Vehicles Brügger & Thomet Feinmechanik - Integrated Rifle Silencer Systems Bucher-Guyer Ltd. - 4 x 4 / 6 x 6 Military Vehicles Bulova Technologies, Inc. - Military Fuzes
CAE Invertron - Computer Based Trainers/Simulators CASE FRANCE - Mobile Materials Rehandling Machines CELERG - SNPE Group - Missile and Rocket Motors C E Niehoff & Co - Electrical Charging Systems CNIM - Rapid Deployment Military Bridges Cogent Defence Systems - Tactical Communications Systems Computing Devices Canada Ltd. - Digital Fire Control Systems Cyberchron Corp - Ruggedized Computers, Workstations & Peripherals Cummins Engine Company Ltd - Advanced Technology Diesel Engines Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG - Surveillance Radar and Control Systems Denel Aviation (Pty) Ltd. - Rooivalk Combat Helicopter Dolch Computer Systems Inc - Rugged Portable Computers/Display Systems DY 4 Systems Inc - VME Products and Support Software
EEV - Sensors and Surveillance Systems EG&G Rotron - Brushless Motors, Fans and Blowers Eickhorn-Solingen - Bayonets and Combat Knives Ericsson Microwave Systems AB - Electronic Defence/Coms Systems Eurobridge Mobile Brücken GmbH - Foldable, Modular Bridge Systems Evans & Sutherland - Visual Systems for Simulation and Training
Filtronic Components Ltd - Microwave Components and Subsystems FMC-NUROL - Armoured Combat Vehicles Forsheda AB - Military Respirators
GIWS - SMArt(r) 155 Artillery Shell Graseby Dynamics - Chemical/Biological Warfare Agent Detection Grenson Electronics - Military Power Supplies Grinaker Electronics Group - Defence Radio Communications
Hall & Watts Defence Optics - Surveillance/Survey/Fire Control Computers Harris Corporation - Military Communications Systems H C Slingsby plc - Materials Handling and Access Equipment
ICM (Plastic Moulding) Ltd - Precision Technical Moulding Instro Precision Limited - Electro Optical Sensor Systems Integrated Photomatrix Ltd - Meteorological Ultrasonic Sensors IRDAM SA - Meteorological Sensor Systems
Kerametal Company Limited - Armoured Vehicles and Artillery Systems
Lockheed Martin Solartron Systems - Military Training Systems
Mandator Teknik - Simulation and Training Systems MultiGen, Inc. - Realtime 3D Simulation Software
NABCO, Inc. - Bomb Containment Vessels Narvik Technology AS - Militarised Tracked Vehicle NFT-Ericsson - Tactical Communication Systems NICO-PYROTECHNIK - Pyrotechnics and Weapon Training Noricum - Long-Range Gun-Howitzers
Partek Cargotec Limited - Military Load Handling Equipment Prosolvia Clarus - Ground Based Simulation Systems
QED Design and Manufacture Ltd. - Military Packaging/Logistic Containers
Racal Radio Ltd. - Tactical and Strategic Communications Systems Radio Research Instrument Co., Inc. - Radar Equipment & Repair Radstone Technology - Modular Computer Subsystems Raychem - Electrical Interconnection Systems RENK - Transmission Systems for Military Vehicles Reumech OMC - Armoured 4 x 4 Crew Carrier Reumech OMC - Mine-Protected Armoured Personnel Carrier
Shorts Missile Systems - Close Air Defence Systems Siemens Defence Electronics Group - Coms/Command/Control/Air Defence Simrad Optronics ASA - Laser Rangefinders and Night Vision Devices SNPE - Reactive Armour Systems Consultants Services Ltd - Independent Defence Consultants
Textron Systems - Hornet Wide Area Munition Textron Systems - Sensor Fuzed Weapon System
VAMMAS OY - Mortars, Howitzers and Ammunition VarityPerkins - Advanced Technology Diesel Engines Vertec Ltd - Defence Simulation and Training Systems
Wilkinson Sword Ltd. - Fighting/Survival Knives and Swords
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Alliant Techsystems Inc. - High Performance Ammunition.
Alliant Techsystems, Inc. International Operations (MN11-2146) 600 Second Street NE Hopkins MN 55343-8384 USA Tel: +1 612 931 4558 Fax: +1 612 931 6077 E-mail: international_operations@atk.com
Tank Ammunition
As the largest U.S. manufacturer of 120mm ammunition, Alliant offers a complete line of effective, high-performance rounds to meet U.S. and international requirements. The ammunition interoperates with all 120mm smoothbore tank cannon systems. Common ammunition affords a decided advantage in logistics and maximises defence capabilities during combined operations.
Alliant has produced more than two million rounds. The 120mm ammunition group consists of kinetic energy (KE) rounds and high-explosive antitank (HEAT) rounds. The KE and HEAT rounds have a tactical and a target practice cartridge for service use. "Alliant has a full family of 120mm ammunition."
M829A1 Tactical Round - The M829A1 is a replacement for the M829 round. It uses a redesigned projectile and improved propulsion system to increase on-target performance. The M829A1 was combat proven during Desert Storm, where it received the nickname "The Silver Bullet." ...
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Alkantpan (Pty) Ltd - Weapons Test Ranges and Facilites Kerametal Company Limited - Armoured Vehicles and Artillery Systems FMC-NUROL - Armoured Combat Vehicles Reumech OMC - Mine-Protected Armoured Personnel Carrier Bofors AB Weapon Systems - Combat Vehicle Systems VAMMAS OY - Mortars, Howitzers and Ammunition Noricum - Long-Range Gun-Howitzers
Countries dealing with this Armour Series.
Albania Argentina Australia Austria Azerbaijan Belgium Belize Bolivia Bosnia Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Canada Chile China Colombia Congo, Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Kazakhstan Kenya Korea Macedonia Malaysia Malta Morocco Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Norway Oman Pakistan Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland Thailand Taiwan Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Of America Uruguay Vietnam
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UNITED KINGDOM
Kerametal Company Limited - Armoured Vehicles and Artillery Systems
British American Security Information Council Carrara House, 20 Cumberland Place London WC2N 6NN United Kingdom Tel: +44 171 925 0862 Fax: +44 171 925 0861
Centre for Defence Analysis Building R200 Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 6TD United Kingdom Tel: +44 1252 392464 Fax: +44 1252 393181
Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment Porton Down Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0JQ United Kingdom Tel: +44 1980 613000 Fax: +44 1980 611777
Defence Council Army Board Main Building, Whitehall London SW1A 2HB United Kingdom Tel: +44 171 218 9000
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency Farnborough Hampshire GU14 6TD United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1252 393300 Fax: +44 (0)1252 393399 URL: http://www.dra.hmg.gb/dera.htm
Defence Export Services Organisation Business Development Unit, Ministry of Defence London, W1V 5FJ United Kingdom Tel: +44 171 632 4823 Fax: +44 171 632 4733
Defence Manufacturers Association of Great Britain Marlborough House, Headley Road Grayshott, Hindhead, Surrey GU26 6LG United Kingdom Tel: +44 1428 607788 Fax: +44 1428 604567
Defence Research Agency St Andrews Road, Malvern Worcestershire, WR14 3PS United Kingdom Tel: +44 1684 894000 Fax: +44 1684 896113
Defence Test and Evaluation Organisation Boscombe Down Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0JF United Kingdom Tel: +44 1980 663262 Fax: +44 1980 663335
Federation of the Electronics Industry Russell Square House, 10-12 Russell Square London WC1B 5EC United Kingdom Tel: +44 171 331 2000 Fax: +44 171 331 2040
Ministry of Defence Main Building, Whitehall London SW14 2HB United Kingdom Tel: +44 171 218 9000 E-mail: webmaster@dgics.mod.uk URL: http://www.mod.uk/
Ministry of Defence Intelligence, Simulation and Information Systems Directorate c/o Maj RP Giles, Cedar 1c, MoD Abbey Wood 145 PO Box 702, Bristol, BS12 7DU United Kingdom Tel: +44 1179 133623 Fax: +44 1179 133902 E-mail: isis21b@pe.mod.uk
Simulation Interoperability Working Group c/o Wg Cdr MAF Ryan, Far End Chipstead Lane, Sevenoaks, Kent, TN13 2RG United Kingdom Tel: +44 1732 453530 Fax: +44 1732 453530 E-mail: ryanm@logica.com URL: http://siwg.dra.hmg.gb/ RAND Study on Depleted Uraniu
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[Fwd: on the lighter side...]
A friend of mine who does beadwork just gave me several small packages of glass beads which contain uranium; the glass is often referred to as "vaseline glass." They are mostly transparent and an interesting yellowish apple green in color with dark brown streaks throughout.
Since she creates bead jewelry, she offered to make me a piece using these "hot" beads. When I mentioned this at work, one of the staff exclaimed, "Hey! A check source that you can wear!" :-)
BTW, I tossed one bead (carved into the shape of a leaf and about 1.5" x .5" x .25") onto a GM pancake probe and got a net reading of around 700 cpm or so.
Melissa Woo, Health Physicist m-woo@uiuc.edu http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/m-woo/
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
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July 31, 1999 COMMISSION OF INQUIRY FOR INT'L WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL
MEMORANDUM #1: RESEARCH CATEGORIES and General Summary
http://www.iacenter.org
The International Action Center is pleased to announce that the preparation for the International War Crimes Tribunal is officially under way. We both welcome and encourage all who would like to participate in the research effort.
The initial hearing on the indictment will be held in New York City at Dubinsky Hall at the Fashion Institute of Technology on July 31st. Currently, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark is writing up a multi-charge complaint, naming William J. Clinton, Madeleine Albright, William Cohen, various US/NATO Generals and others, as defendants for their part in the war against Yugoslavia.
Below you will find the 21 categories where research is needed. Please feel free to e-mail (iacenter@iacenter.org) or fax (212-633-2889) the International Action Center all relevant research, or research reasonably calculated to lead to relevant information. All research sent to the IAC should be labeled by corresponding category number. Please also include your name, phone number and e-mail in case you need to be reached.
The indictment will be based on crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It will examine the laws of armed conflict, the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the Nuremberg Charter, the United Nations Charter, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The categories are as follows:
1. Research into concerted actions to dismember Yugoslavia and obtain military domination of the Balkans.
2. Research into actions to destroy Yugoslavia economically and militarily.
3. Gathering of information on the destruction of facilities essential to economic life throughout Yugoslavia.
4. Research into the targeting and destruction of facilities necessary for civilian life--hospitals, electrical plants, residential areas, bridges, water purification plants, and other vital structures.
5. Collection of information on the damage to cultural sites, including historical and religious sites.
6. Information on indiscriminate bombing throughout Yugoslavia.
7. Testimony on the use of prohibited weapons capable of mass destruction (including cluster bombs and depleted uranium) and inflicting indiscriminate death and unnecessary suffering against both military personnel and civilian targets.
8. Evidence on the attacks on facilities in Yugoslavia containing dangerous substances and forces.
9. Examination of the obstruction of justice and the bypassing of the UN charter by engaging in an offensive war against the people of Yugoslavia as a means of securing power for U.S. and other Western powers.
10. Investigation into the United States manipulation of NATO for purposes of securing long term US strategic goals of domination of Russia and other former Soviet Republics, Eastern Europe, and South Asian economic and political spheres and limiting defensive capabilities in the region so as not to interfere with US imperialist objectives.
11. Investigation into the corruption of the Constitutional power of Congress as a means of carrying out an illegal war, and committing crimes against peace, humanity, war crimes, and other high crimes.
12. Investigation into the destruction of the environment.
13. A study of the elevation of the number of refugees through a campaign of bombing,
14. An examination of a systematic policy of inflaming of fratricidal violence, financing and arming KLA militia forces.
15. After the 78 day bombardment, the severing of Kosovo into 5 "zones of control" as a means of implementing the premeditated divide and conquer policy towards the Balkans in specific, and Eastern Europe, Russia and other former Soviet Republics, and South Asia in general.
16. The policy to deprive the Yugoslav people of essential medicines, potable water, food, and other necessities.
17. Research into the systematic manipulation, control and restriction of press and media coverage to mobilize public support for their military and political goals.
18. An examination of the United States and NATO's permanent military presence in the Balkans, the control of its mineral resources and geopolitical domination of the Balkan region.
19. A study of the reconstruction contracts in Yugoslavia after the war, the impact on the economy of the United States and other NATO countries.
20. A gathering of examples of unsubstantiated rumors, lies and distortions by public figures in defending the war policy.
21. An analysis of the Ramboulliet Accords.
22. President Clinton, Congress, and the Pentagon conspired to use the war in Yugoslavia to vastly increase the trend towards militarism, including the large increases in the military budget. This not only leads to the danger of other wars, but constitutes a criminal cutback in spending on social programs designed to help poor and working people in the United States.
23. The attempt by U.S. and NATO to assassinate by aerial bombardment and missiles President Slobodan Milosevic and other top leaders of the Yugoslav government.
If you have additional questions or need information on how the research operation will work, contact Sarah Sloan at the International Action Center: (212) 633-6646.
ON THE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL
We project a massive people's tribunal on the war on Yugoslavia. It is essential that we develop an international forum that holds the U.S. and NATO accountable for its criminal acts.
A Commission of Inquiry into War Crimes that examines the U.S./NATO conduct of the war against Yugoslavia can incorporate the efforts of organizations and activists in many countries. What is needed is a public gathering of evidence worldwide in a form that can involve the efforts of many thousands of people. Eyewitness evidence, expert testimony from doctors, scientists and lawyers will be included. We will review the public statements of the leaders of the NATO countries describing their reasons for the war. The Ramboulliet Accords as a NATO ultimatum leading up to the bombing will be carefully examined and analyzed. Research will include the beneficiaries of war contracts and the new control of resources in the region. This International Commission will examine newspaper coverage, magazines and periodicals, TV news broadcasts radio and other public materials. Videotapes and photos will be used as evidence.
The indictment will be drawn up by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. It will be based on international law, international conventions to which the NATO countries are signatories, and the UN charter. This indictment will be ready in early July. The reading of the indictment and presentation of initial evidence will be held at a daylong hearing in New York City on Saturday, July 31.
This will be followed by other large public hearings of the initial evidence and new material gathered on an ongoing basis. These events will be organized by local activists in many cities in the U.S. and hopefully in all the NATO countries.
Many other countries around the world may also want to hold mass public hearings on the evidence gathered because NATO is projected now as a global police force. The major military and economic powers have set a dangerous new precedent on their right to intervene in the internal affairs of a small country.
We will help coordinate this effort through the internet and email. It will incorporate the use of videos and utilize satellite hook ups. Millions of people can be involved and educated on the aims of the war, the impact and the next stage of conflict.
At the end of several months of mass hearings the Commission of Inquiry will convene a final War Crimes Tribunal. The Commission will ask internationally acclaimed jurists, human rights activists, trade unionists, leaders of civil rights and women's organizations, members of parliaments and others to review the body of evidence and issue a public verdict.
Many groups and individuals from all over the world have already gathered and prepared extensive evidence of NATO crimes.
The international effort to gather material and hold hearings on war crimes will work with and utilize the material already gathered by many groups of lawyers, jurists, peace groups and NGOs along with the new material.
The body called the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is a political weapon initiated by the U.S. through the Security Council. Its very existence is a violation of the UN Charter and of the sovereignty of nations. This kangaroo court was established in 1993 as part of the effort to justify Western intervention in the Balkans. It is not in any way part of the International Court of Justice which has been based at the Hague in the Netherlands for 50 years.
This International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia is stacked with U.S. influenced appointees. No comparable institution exists that is capable of judging U.S./NATO war crimes. Now, an additional 300 investigators will be added by NATO countries to look into Serbian war crimes in Kosovo. No investigators were added to look into NATO war crimes in Kosovo. This reality exposes the tribunal's real agenda.
As the official NATO spokesperson Jamie Shea bragged, "We [NATO countries] are the biggest supporters of the War Crimes Tribunal [for the Former Yugoslavia]. NATO finances the International War Crimes Tribunal." Washington decided to brand President Milosevic a war criminal long before the actual events for which he is charged occurred in Kosovo. On July 18, 1998, the U.S. Senate voted for a resolution to indict Yugoslav President Milosevic as a war criminal.
Last year the U.S. government sabotaged an international effort in Rome, Italy to establish an authentically independent International War Crimes Tribunal. Washington was opposed to any effort to establish a court or any type of international mechanism where U.S. military and political personnel could also be charged with war crimes.
The only avenue open to a genuine public inquiry into the events surrounding the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia is a broad based grassroots people's effort. Such an international activity can educate millions of people to the wider war that is even now in preparation.
We welcome your support for this effort. Please feel free to contact our office at (212) 633-6646, fax (212) 633-2889, or email iacenter@iacenter.org.
Sincerely, Sara Flounders and Brian Becker
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From: Rosalie Bertell <IICPH@compuserve.com> May 5, 1999
It is my understanding from the Florida panhandle where Tomahawks are tested that the DU ballast adjustment is used IN PLACE OF a warhead. If that is the case, than armed Tomahawks may not need DU for balance.
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Maj. Gen. Chuck Wald May 3, 1999 Pentagon briefing
URL: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May1999/t05031999_t0503asd.html
Q: General, there's been some concern raised in Europe about the possibility of A-10s using the depleted uranium munitions, especially when they go after the armor. Are we using any of these munitions now against the...
Major General Wald: Yes. And the 30mm on the A-10. I think it's almost -- I've heard that question a lot, and I've been thinking about it. I've been around the A-10s for a long time. I know that I see the munitions handlers put these bullets in the aircraft, holding on to them for 20 years, so they've done a lot of scientific studies on these things, and there doesn't seem to be a problem. So I don't think there's a problem at all with that, and it hasn't been a problem for any of us, so it's kind of old news.
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- Thirteenth message - _________________________
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Message: 6 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 21:29:46 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-7 7/06/99 - US Idiocies
29. Quick Political Scholastic Aptitude Test (QPSAT)
This test consists of one (1) multiple-choice question: Here's a list of the countries that the U.S. has bombed since the end of World War II, compiled by historian William Blum:
China 1945-46 Korea 1950-53 China 1950-53 Guatemala 1954 Indonesia 1958 Cuba 1959-60 Guatemala 1960 Congo 1964 Peru 1965 Laos 1964-73 Vietnam 1961-73 Cambodia 1969-70 Guatemala 1967-69 Grenada 1983 Libya 1986 El Salvador 1980s Nicaragua 1980s Panama 1989 Iraq 1991-99 Sudan 1998 Afghanistan 1998 Yugoslavia 1999
In how many of these instances did a democratic government, respectful of human rights, occur as a direct result? Choose one of the following: (a) 0 (b) zero (c) none (d) not a one (e) a whole number between -1 and +1
From: gmdcnd@gn.apc.org (Greater Manchester and District CND) - Print this out and stick it on your wall.
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[This needs a response: letters@nytimes.com (Letters to the Editor)]
30. The Cleanest Energy
July 4, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/letters/llamb.html
To the Editor:
It is interesting that a stalwart foe of nuclear energy like the Environmental Defense Fund would be so concerned about global warning (news article*, June 29). Other than hydroelectric power, nuclear power is the only large-scale source of electricity that does not produce carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
Current United States strategy for controlling emissions requires significant contributions from nuclear power.
Fortunately, our current nuclear plants are more efficient than ever and have productions costs equal to those of coal, the lowest-priced competitor. There is a very compelling case for sustaining the nuclear option.
ROBERT BOYDEN LAMB New York June 30, 1999
The writer is a professor at the Stern School of Business, New York University.
*Related Article:
Human Imprint on Climate Change Grows Clearer By WILLIAM K. STEVENS, New York Times June 29 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/062999sci-global-warming.html
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[Another one needs a letter - reece@desnews.com (Letters to Editor)
32. Get the N-facts straight
July 02, 1999, Deseret News http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,100009243,00.html?
Once again the Deseret News misleads its readers by oversimplifying the used nuclear fuel storage issue. "Keep N-waste where generated," your June 22 editorial advises, echoing Gov. Michael Leavitt's view. On the surface, it may seem like a sensible thing to do, but consider these facts:
Nuclear power provides 20 percent of our nation's electricity in a safe and reliable fashion that helps keep our air and water clean. Without nuclear power, the United States will not be able to meet its commitment to reduce greenhouse gases and prevent global climate change. Many plants will be faced with building temporary, above-ground storage facilities. Plants that may be prohibited from expanding on-site storage will have to prematurely shut down.
While it is safe to store spent fuel temporarily at 72 reactor sites around the country, just as it is at a centralized facility, it's an enormous waste of money and resources for the utilities and their customers. If the federal government takes ownership and responsibility for temporary storage of spent fuel at reactor sites, as proposed by some lawmakers, then taxpayers bear the cost burden. A private centralized storage facility, such as the one Private Fuel Storage proposes to license, own and operate in Skull Valley, requires no federal, state or local investment. The costs, which will be paid by utilities and their customers, will be far less than the cost of 72 separate temporary facilities. PFS member utilities, as well as others in the nuclear industry, are encouraged by the federal government's proposals to assume its legal obligation to deal with the nuclear waste issue. But so far, the government's proposals have not addressed on-site storage space and economic issues. Therefore, the need for a safe, clean, temporary PFS facility is even more critical today than when the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Tribe first proposed the project in 1992.
Scott D. Northard Project manager, Private Fuel Storage LLC Salt Lake City
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33. Bombs Are Smart, but People Are Smarter
By ERIC SCHMITT, July 4, 1999 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/library/review/070499kosovo-decoys-review.html
WASHINGTON -- Toward the end of the Balkans air war, rarely a day passed when NATO did not triumphantly declare that allied warplanes had destroyed several more Yugoslav tanks or artillery pieces with precision-guided bombs or missiles.
Now it turns out that perhaps one-quarter of those weapons that looked fearsome from 15,000 feet up were nothing more than artfully designed decoys meant to fool allied pilots. Indeed, the Serb military, outgunned by a technologically superior foe, proved to a master of camouflage, concealment and deception.
Yugoslav commanders built "tanks" of wood and plastic sheeting, sometimes draping them with camouflage netting. To trick thermal sensors, they put metal tape or plates on some decoys and even set trays of water inside them that heated up in the sun, just like a real tank would.
Some suspected artillery revetments turned out to be disguised pits, empty but for a long tube protruding toward the sky. And to the dismay of the NATO air commanders, several Yugoslav MiG-21 fighter jets emerged from hidden caves once the war was over.
"One of the big surprises was the extent to which the Yugoslav military was able to use ground decoys to cause us to strike targets that weren't real," said one senior Defense Department official.
Of course, the air campaign's overall results were still devastating and no doubt instrumental in forcing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to cry uncle and withdraw his forces from Kosovo.
But the phony targets have become a sore point with NATO's military commander, Gen. Wesley Clark, who now says the alliance destroyed 110 of the roughly 300 tanks that Yugoslavia poured into Kosovo, not the 150 tanks NATO initially thought it blasted into scrap.
"For the most part, our pilots recognized those decoys," Clark bristled last week. "There is a concerted disinformation campaign underway by the government of Yugoslavia to protect the reputation of its armed forces and to diminish the reputation of NATO's air power campaign."
Yet one of the emerging lessons from the air war is that low-technology countermeasures can still fool high-technology weaponry and sensors enough of the time to make a difference. "The history of warfare suggests there are always countermeasures, and human ingenuity will find its way," said Eliot A. Cohen, a professor at Johns Hopkins who directed the Air Force's definitive study of the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
For this reason, even as most of the military pushes the envelope on futuristic warplanes, warships and battle tanks, and clamors for more and more accurate cruise missiles and other smart weapons, a new directorate in the Pentagon's Atlantic Command in Norfolk, Va., is examining another set of concerns: How do sophisticated warplanes detect concealed, mobile targets and distinguish the right targets from mock-ups?
One of the directorate's big efforts over the next two decades will be to enhance a wide array of existing heat-sensing, photographic and other sensors that verify a target is really what it appears to be, and then speed that information to pilots firing missiles or dropping bombs.
Unmanned surveillance drones, for example, played a new and important role in Kosovo, instantly sending battlefield images back to allied command posts and targeting experts.
"We can't think about things like we did 15 or 20 years ago," said Maj. Gen. Timothy Peppe, an Air Force officer who heads the Atlantic Command's new joint experimentation directorate. "Potential adversaries recognize our dominance in many areas, especially in precision weapons, so they'll look to thwart that."
Deception and concealment have been a part of warfare since the Trojan horse. In the Persian Gulf war, allied pilots hit a lot of dummy mobile Scud missile launchers, largely because even U.S. commandoes on the ground couldn't tell actual launchers from fake ones until they were about 25 yards away.
Low technology has also been employed effectively in weaponry to stymie a more powerful army. Somali militiamen jury-rigged rocket-propelled grenades to shoot down U.S. helicopters in Mogadishu. In the Balkans air war, commanders held the Army's premier tank-killing weapon, the Apache helicopter, out of combat because they feared the gunships were too vulnerable to shoulder-fired missiles.
Serbs used a long-shot, low-tech set of tactics to shoot down an Air Force F-117 stealth fighter, starting with spies monitoring the plane's takeoffs from Italy.
Land mines are the weapon of choice of many developing nations to thwart more technologically advanced armies. Indeed, one of the first and most dangerous jobs for NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo has been to identify and disarm thousands of mines.
"Some of our very sophisticated technology can be easily upset," said Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., who heads the House Intelligence Committee.
Yet it is fair to say that the United States helped write the modern book on deception when it used decoys to fool German aerial reconnaissance in the run-up to D-Day with its mockups of tanks and landing craft left visible in southeastern England, seeming to threaten Calais rather than Normandy.
Which raises the question, why are these kinds of ploys still so effective? "Most of our sensors can't see inside things," explained Michael O'Hanlon, a national security analyst at the Brookings Institution. "It's usually cheaper and easier for someone who's creative to fool a sensor."
And with U.S. commanders relying more on remote sensors and long-distance weapons to pinpoint targets and spare pilot casualties, the likelihood remains that even the best pilots and most advanced missiles will get duped every now and then.
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[An indicator of plans for Latin America?]
34. New Colombia Peace Talks As US Warns On Rebel Drugs
Updated 12:55 PM ET July 4, 1999, By Karl Penhaul http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990704/12/news-colombia-peace
BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Colombia's largest Marxist rebel force is set to meet the government for the latest round of peace talks this week amid warnings from the United States that Washington is ready to help fight the guerrillas to stop them trafficking drugs.
A recent U.S. report conceded Washington was losing the drug war as cocaine and heroin production spirals in rebel-held territories, allowing the insurgents to earn $600 million a year to fund their long-running uprising. The conflict in Colombia has claimed 35,000 lives in the last 10 years alone.
Political analysts have for some time accused Washington of covertly intervening in Colombia's three-decade-old civil conflict by blurring the line between counternarcotics and anti-guerrilla operations.
But the June report by the U.S. government General Accounting Office (GAO) and comments by a top military official offered some of the clearest indications yet that the United States is already taking a hand in counterinsurgency and is preparing to step up that involvement.
The rebels admit "taxing" the drug trade but deny trafficking. They say recent U.S. allegations are aimed at scuppering the peace process and gearing up for intervention.
"Just as we are engaged in talks with the government...the threats from the Pentagon, CIA, DEA and the hawks of war in the United States are all the more evident and damaging," said Marco Leon Calarca, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the oldest and largest guerrilla army in the Americas.
FARC commanders are due to meet a team of government negotiators and social leaders Wednesday for the start of full-blown negotiations -- the latest round of a peace process than began in January.
The FARC has rejected calls for a cease-fire and political violence has even surged over the last three months. The rebels say talks must go on in the midst of war.
Wednesday's talks are set to take place in the town of La Uribe, a former stronghold of the FARC leadership inside a Switzerland-sized zone of the southeast that has been cleared of government troops.
While Washington has welcomed peace talks it is adamant that action must be taken to smash what it sees as an alliance between guerrilla forces and drug lords.
The GAO said Colombian cocaine output could rise by as much as 50 percent in the next two years and that Colombia was now the main supplier of high-grade heroin to the East Coast.
"Recent offensives by the insurgents...suggest Colombian security forces will be unable to conduct effective anti-drug operations in regions where guerrilla forces dominate," it stated. In an effort to combat rising production, the GAO said U.S. officials were now "routinely sharing" intelligence on rebel movements.
This year the United States funneled a record $280 million into Colombia to wage a war on drugs -- making this Andean nation the third largest recipient of U.S. aid worldwide. The Department of Defense is also taking a lead role in helping the Colombian army set up a 950-man anti-drug battalion.
And the United States has put out even stronger signals.
Gen. Charles Wilhelm, commander of the Miami-based Southern Command, has said the rebels are endangering regional stability and warned the Pentagon could intervene unilaterally, particularly in Panama, if the rebels persisted in making cross border raids.
Since President Andres Pastrana formally launched the peace process, FARC warlords have repeatedly stated they have nothing to negotiate but insist on sweeping agrarian reform, radical wealth distribution and socialist economic policies.
Earlier this month FARC fighters killed 35 soldiers in clashes in northern Colombia.
The smaller National Liberation Army (ELN), meanwhile, is still holding more than 54 civilian hostages, from a plane hijack in April and a raid on a church during a mass in May.
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Message: 7 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 22:00:18 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-6 7/06/99 - US--Cassini; Labs--Teller, LANL; WIPP; Terrorist Teams
24. Protests grow as spacecraft nears
Ohio-Briefs, Columbus Dispatch, July 4, 1999 http://www.dispatch.com/pan/localarchive/dbrf04nws.html
A space probe powered by 72.3 pounds of plutonium is hurtling back toward Earth and reawakening the controversy that accompanied its launch two years ago.
Bound for Saturn after a journey that slingshots it around several planets, the Cassini probe will carry its radioactive and highly toxic fuel within 723 miles of Earth at 42,300 mph on Aug. 18.
"There is no chance it will cross Earth's trajectory,'' said Ralph Miles, an engineer and hazardous materials expert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "None.''
Nevertheless, anti-nuclear activists and environmentalists are gearing up their protests. They say hundreds, thousands, even millions of people could die if the probe crashes into Earth's atmosphere, explodes and spews plutonium.
From wire reports
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End is near for speculation on Nostradmus prediction
July 5, 1999 St. Paul MN Pioneer-Press, RICH MILLER NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/1/living/docs/019533.htm
His supporters say he predicted the rise of Napoleon and Hitler with uncanny accuracy and foresaw events, including the space shuttle disaster and math-processing problems with the Pentium computer chip.
His detractors say he was a mediocre 16th-century astrologer with no special gifts, whose vague writings have been wildly overinterpreted by prophecy enthusiasts.
History will render the final verdict on Michel Nostradamus very shortly. More than 430 years after his death, the July 1999 deadline is at hand for one of Nostradamus' most widely discussed predictions, generating wild speculation among some enthusiasts.
Nostradamus was a physician and astrologer widely believed to have predicted future events. His writings have been used to support a wide range of other prophecies and are a favorite topic of supermarket tabloid headlines.
In this year of millennial anticipation and anxiety, one of Nostradamus' predictions has become an ingredient in growing end-times speculation by prophecy enthusiasts.
In a passage known as Quatrain X:72, Nostradamus wrote:
The Year 1999 seven months From the sky will come the great King of Terror To resuscitate the great king of the Mongols Before and after Mars reigns by good luck.
The target date has generated excitement on the more than 40,000 Web pages devoted to Nostradamus, which perceive potential import in everything from a new comet to the Cassini space probe.
Some predicted July 4 would mark the beginning of a world war in which Russia will attack Europe with nuclear weapons. Some believe the newly discovered Comet Lee will strike the Earth, an event astronomers say is impossible. In Japan, the ``King of the Mongols'' reference has some worrying about an invasion by China.
The arrival of July 1999 has meant a busy time for James Randi, a former magician and Nostradamus expert whose James Randi Educational Foundation seeks to debunk suspect claims of the supernatural.
Randi said his 1990 book, ``The Mask of Nostradamus,'' is being reprinted in Japan in a bid to dampen millennial speculation.
``July 1999 is the only prophecy Nostradamus made which mentions an exact date,'' Randi said. ``All the conspiracy vendors and doomsday vendors out there are having a wonderful time. This has caused quite a bit of excitement in Japan. They are apparently building shelters and reacting with great excitement.''
Randi says they should calm down.
``Nostradamus has a record of being very, very wrong,'' he said. ``Most of his predictions are easily explained in matters of his own day.
``He made 104 verifiable predictions, in which he actually named a place or a person or a time,'' Randi added. ``He's been wrong on 103 of the 104. We can't find out about the 104th until [July]. We'll have to wait to see if he has a perfect record.''
Interpretations of Nostradamus often incorporate prophetic thought from a variety of traditions and belief systems, as well as current events.
An example is the interest in Cassini, a space probe launched in 1997 that has already photographed Venus and will eventually visit Jupiter and Saturn. To accomplish this, NASA first sent Cassini into orbit around the sun. On Aug. 18, it will do a ``fly-by'' that brings it within 729 miles of the Earth, using Earth's gravity to slingshot the spacecraft toward the outer planets.
Cassini carries 72 pounds of plutonium, which has sparked fears that a miscalculation or meteoroid could cause Cassini to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and cause a nuclear accident. NASA says the odds of this happening are less than one in 1 million.
But that's enough room for Nostradamus buffs, who have also extended the window of opportunity for prophetic fulfillment into August and even September to accommodate Cassini and other variables.
Randi said such expectations are common in prophecy and astrology, and are a part of human nature.
``People are hungry for this kind of thing,'' he said. ``They would like to have knowledge of the future. If you knew the future, you could know what stocks to buy, for example.
``Knowledge of the future represents power, and people are looking for power, so they pay money to astrologers and 1-900 numbers, not realizing that if the astrologers and operators of the 1-900 service really had all this power, they'd use it for themselves and not have to do all this marketing to others.''
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25. Physicist Pans Nuke Lab Probes
Monday, July 5, 1999; 5:17 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990705/V000112-070599-idx.html
LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) -- Rooting out spies should be done quietly, unlike recent Congressional probes at nuclear weapons labs, according to the man who helped design the hydrogen bomb.
Edward Teller, the physicist sometimes called the ``Father of the H-bomb,'' is skeptical of the spy hunt that has consumed Capitol Hill and shaken the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which he helped establish in 1952.
``Trying to find out about spies should be handled very, very quietly, and that is the exact opposite of what has happened,'' Teller told the Sacramento Bee in Sunday's editions. ``I would hope the Congress in Washington would be one-tenth as careful about not spreading secrets as the labs.''
Findings presented last week by an Energy Department security oversight team showed troublesome security gaps at Livermore, including inadequate monitoring of access to the unclassified computer system and deficiencies in the security force's response to potential terrorists.
In March, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson directed the firing of a scientist at the Los Alamos lab in New Mexico because the man had been under investigation since 1996 for allegedly sharing nuclear secrets with China. The scientist, Wen Ho Lee, has not been charged with any crime and has denied giving nuclear secrets to anyone.
No one would accuse Teller, 91, of being soft on national security. His Lawrence Livermore workers made the first miniaturized atomic warhead for firing from a Polaris submarine in the 1950s. He directed the lab from 1958 to 1960, and retained close ties as the lab developed warheads for the Poseidon, Spartan and Minuteman missiles.
And Teller's 1954 testimony against his one-time Manhattan Project atomic bomb colleague, J. Robert Oppenheimer, contributed to Oppenheimer's career-ending loss of security clearance.
Now emeritus director of the Livermore lab, the Hungarian-born Teller takes exception to a House proposal that would impose a moratorium on lab visitors from ``sensitive'' foreign countries. Teller, whose extensive collaborations often were with fellow foreign-born scientists, called that ``the opposite direction'' from the one labs should go.
``Attempting to keep secret what is not secret interferes with our obtaining information in other countries,'' Teller said, adding that ``peace can be assured through cooperation.''
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26. Accident Forces LANL To Close Chemistry Lab
By Ian Hoffman Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer, July 4, 1999 http://www.abqjournal.com/news/5news07-04.htm
Work on mixed radioactive and hazardous waste went awry at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently, leaving a chemistry lab highly contaminated and a cleanup bill ranging up to $30,000.
Lab and U.S. Department of Energy investigators are looking for the causes behind last week's release of brownish radioactive fumes into a room of the national laboratory's troubled Chemistry and Metallurgical Research building.
No one was in the room, so no workers were injured or contaminated. But the incident is likely to heighten scrutiny of work practices and safety equipment at the building, an aging warren of nuclear chemistry labs long troubled by safety accidents and cost overruns for repairs.
Lab officials acknowledged the most recent incident Friday, a week afterward, and issued this explanation:
Workers were cooking down a solution of nitric acid, highly enriched uranium and technetium-99 within a glove box when a glove popped off.
A technician next door heard the pop and looked through the lab door window to see brown fumes coming out of the now-open glove port. Workers shut off power to the room and evacuated the entire Wing 4 of the building. In about an hour, a team in full scuba gear and anti-acid/anti-contamination suits entered the room to survey the damage and contamination.
They found nitrous oxide and minimal radioactive particles in the air but widespread contamination of the floor and counter tops. The contamination averaged 900 disintegrations per minute but ranging up to the fairly high level of a million dpm of beta radiation. A disintegration is the decay of a single radioactive atom's nucleus; several thousand dpm is generally cause for health concern, especially for skin-penetrating beta radiation.
Neither the technician nor his supervisor entered the room during the radioactive release, and both were found to be free of contamination.
Lab managers decided to shut down chemistry work inside Wing 4 indefinitely. About 15 workers were moved elsewhere in the Chemistry and Metallurgical Research building; the shutdown will halt work for about four employees, said lab spokesman James Rickman.
Scientists and technicians in the facility often evaporate similar radioactive residues; the process is a common one.
Investigators are likely to focus on the glove box and its maintenance. A glove box has windows and plastic or rubber gloves so workers are not exposed to the hazardous materials that they are handling inside. Fans or pumps are supposed to keep the box's air at negative pressure, drawing it through high-efficiency filters.
In a properly functioning glove box, fumes evaporating from the cooking residues should have vented freely from the glove box and not built up enough pressure to pop loose a glove. Standard maintenance procedures at Los Alamos require workers to test glove boxes regularly for adequate negative pressure.
Rickman said the glove did not shoot across the room but dropped from its port, so investigators are looking at whether its clamp failed.
The residues inside the glove box were largely intact, Rickman said.
"The sludge was still in the pans," he said. "They did not go glooping over the edge."
Typical incident investigations at the weapons lab tend to take several months. Rickman said officials in Chemistry and Metallurgical Research estimate maximum cleanup costs at $30,000.
The incident is similar to a November 1996 explosion in a room in the same building where a lab worker inadvertently cooked a piece of plastic and caused an oven to blow apart. Investigators blamed workers and management for poor communication and lax safe-work practices.
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27. Appeals Court Won't Review N.M. Nuke Dump
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 2, 1999 http://www.sltrib.com/1999/jul/07021999/nation_w/5428.htm
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington has denied a petition to review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's certification of a federal nuclear-waste dump near Carlsbad, N.M.
The court denied the petition in this week's three-paragraph ruling, saying the issues raised "no need for oral argument or published opinion."
Environmental groups and the New Mexico Attorney General's Office last summer challenged the criteria used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to let the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant open. Atty. Gen. Patricia Madrid this spring pulled out of the lawsuit, filed by her predecessor.
There was no comment from the EPA on Thursday. In February, the agency filed court papers contending the site for disposal of radioactive waste from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and elsewhere was 10 times safer than required.
Don Hancock, executive director of the Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, one of two groups filing the petition for review last fall, could not be reached for comment. Hancock had said after the attorney general's office pulled out that he expected the challenge to be dismissed.
"We are pleased with the dismissal, although the suit was against the EPA," said Anne Elliott, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, which oversees the Carlsbad facility.
The Energy Department considers the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant an important step in cleaning up waste left from decades of defense work. The plant, which opened in March, will store some plutonium-contaminated waste in underground salt caverns.
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28. Readying Emergency Teams for Terrorist Attacks
By CARL HULSE, July 3, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/ky-terror.html
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- As a paramedic on the Jefferson County disaster response team, Rick Robbins is typically called on to handle chemical spills and rescues. He has never encountered CS, a powerful kind of tear gas, on the job.
"And I don't want to, either," said Robbins as he and a handful of his comrades were trained by a Federal expert in how to use a sampling kit to detect the tear gas and other poisons that can be spread through the air.
Noxious as CS can be, Federal and local authorities want Robbins and other public safety workers to be ready to handle it and even worse threats.
The officials say it is just a matter of time before a local emergency crew is first to arrive on a scene littered with the casualties of a terrorist gas attack, an assault with a biological agent or a nuclear incident. Perhaps it will be at the Kentucky Derby or Louisville's huge waterfront fireworks show in May, the state fair or one of many smaller local events.
"We are not preparing for if; it is when," said Mary McCormick, a local telecommunications executive involved in readying community services for this county of about 670,000 people. "There is just so much going on and there are just so many crazies."
Specialists in domestic terrorism might not put it quite that way, but they agree that the nation could one day experience an act of terrorism involving a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon of mass destruction.
To prevent communities from being caught completely off-guard by such an event, Congress created a domestic preparedness initiative in 1996, which is the most extensive since the civil defense effort of the early cold war era.
Under the current "first responder" program, emergency crews and health workers in the nation's 120 largest cities are being trained. The training of Louisville's crews marked the halfway point of a $157 million, five-year project that Samuel Berger, the White House national security adviser, said must be handled in a way that got the job done without scaring the public.
"There is obviously a tension here between dealing with this problem without trying to frighten the American people," Berger said. "We are trying to stay ahead of the curve. There is a genuine problem there, and we ignore it at our peril."
During the recent week of instruction, conducted by certified teams from the United States Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command in Aberdeen, Md., local firefighters, ambulance crews, hospital workers, police and other emergency personnel were schooled in the fine points of recognizing a biological attack that might first appear to be no more than a fast-spreading flu. They were told to respond cautiously and defensively if an unknown agent begins leveling victims at a shopping mall. They learned about donning protective gear and setting up decontamination showers.
They became familiar with the jargon of terrorism and weaponry, a vocabulary that defines "direct deposit" as a means of delivering a fatal germ and refers to the bubonic plague as a modern threat rather than a relic of the Middle Ages. And they were urged to remain calm.
"These events are manageable," an instructor, Zach Goldfarb, assured one of his classes of emergency medical technicians. "If we train for it and prepare for it and think about it in advance, we can manage these things like we do plane crashes and other crises and still get home safely."
While the military and other Federal specialists might be best suited to handle a terrorist incident over the long term, local emergency crews will have to cope with the consequences during the first crucial hours, making decisions that might reduce casualties and shape the ultimate outcome.
"They are the canaries in the coal mine," said Frank N. Cilluffo, a terrorism analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "These are the people who are going to be there first, not the F.B.I. or the Marine Corps. If they don't even know what to look for or have the equipment to protect themselves, then we will lose control right there."
Emergency planners are under no illusions that the training will eliminate panic if an attack does come.
"But I am confident the better trained they are, the less likely that will be," said Bud Fekete, assistant director of the Louisville-Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency. "If we don't learn anything else but who to contact if we have the real thing, this will be a success."
The most commonly cited case of biological terrorism in the United States occurred in the Pacific Northwest in 1986, when members of a cult trying to influence a local election spread salmonella on salad bars. There have been dozens of hoaxes since, including one here last October, when a letter purportedly contaminated with anthrax was sent to an abortion clinic.
Though the Federal Bureau of Investigation considers explosives and other conventional weapons to be the most likely terrorist tools over the next decade, the agency cannot rule out the use of a weapon of mass destruction.
"That is reality," said Carl Christiansen, an agent in the F.B.I. office in Louisville. "We have got to be ready."
The first-responder program has not been without its critics. A General Accounting Office study issued last year said the effort in some ways duplicated training conducted by individual Federal agencies. The report also noted that the selection of the training sites strictly by population created clusters of neighboring cities' getting the training while emergency and health care workers in 12 states -- mainly in New England and the West -- received no training at all.
Outside analysts also recommend more attention to preparing for biological attacks, like vaccinating responder teams against possible agents, something the program does not now envision. And partially to resolve any unease over such deep military involvement in domestic matters, control of the program is being shifted next year to the Department of Justice from the Army.
Still, its supporters are pleased with the progress thus far. And if the training is never needed, so much the better.
"I hope it is the worst use of taxpayers' money ever," said Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, director of weapons of mass destruction preparedness for the National Security Council.
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Message: 8 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 21:37:44 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-9 7/06/99 - Global Arms and War Preparations-2
[These guys are talking about quitting their unpaying jobs and ignoring all their debts to the government so they can get about living again. Sounds sound.]
39. Army Reservists Keep Up Serbia Road Blockade
Updated 12:23 PM ET July 3, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990703/12/international-yugoslavia- reservists
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Yugoslav Army reservists blocked roads in southern Serbia for the second successive day Saturday, demanding payment for service in Kosovo, the independent news agency Beta reported.
Friday, reservists barred roads leading in several directions from the town of Raska about 200 km (125 miles) south of Belgrade. The next day, they continued blockading the main road north toward the central city of Kraljevo.
Roads leading to Kosovska Mitrovica and Novi Pazar, which had been blocked Friday night, were now clear, Beta said.
It said reservists, some in army uniform and some in civilian clothes, were also blocking central parts of the town of Raska with passenger vehicles.
Beta said Friday's protest began at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) and the number of reservists rose in the evening. It did not say how many people were involved in the blockade Saturday.
Similar protests in central and eastern Serbia a week ago raised political tension in the country, until the government handed out money to demonstrators.
Reservists who served for three months in Kosovo during NATO air strikes began their protests shortly after the Yugoslav Army pulled out of the southern Serbian province under terms of an international peace agreement.
The reservists, some armed and drunk, protested for four days in cities in central Serbia, including Kraljevo.
Protesters began to demand unpaid wages but later focused on criticizing President Slobodan Milosevic, accusing him of making their families go hungry while they were away fighting.
Opposition parties and trade unions began protest campaigns in Serbia in an effort to oust Milosevic after NATO's air war which wrecked the economy and infrastructure.
The opposition Socialdemocracy party, led by former army general Vuk Obradovic, issued a statement Saturday attacking the government for its treatment of the reservists.
"While they were on the front line and participating in defense of the state, the authorities were taking care of their own interests and privileges," the party said in a statement.
Teachers from the central Serbian town of Cacak, where 10,000 people attended an anti-government rally Tuesday, were threatening mass resignations in a protest over unpaid wages.
Beta reported that the teachers' wages were three months late and employees had called on the state to pay their personal electricity and phone bills.
"If the ministry does not do that we shall inform the public that we do not accept any of our debts to the state," Beta quoted the teachers as saying in a statement.
They called on directors of schools in Serbia to resign if teachers did not receive their money by August 20.
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40. Tearing Down Milosevic
Washington resorts to a bag of tricks to try to get Yugoslavia a new leader BY DOUGLAS WALLER/WASHINGTON Time Magazine http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,27733,00.html and http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,27733-2,00.html
The CIA, to put it charitably, has a spotty record on overthrowing foreign governments. The times it has succeeded--in Guatemala, Iran and Chile, for example--it replaced fairly moderate governments with far more brutal regimes. And when dictators deserved the boot, the agency has been rather inept at toppling them. The CIA has been trying to oust Saddam Hussein ever since the Gulf War ended eight years ago, but he is more firmly entrenched than ever.
Now another American President has put his faith in the spooks from Langley to get rid of an unsavory leader, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. As NATO warplanes roared over Serbia this spring, Bill Clinton signed a secret presidential "finding" giving the CIA the green light to try to topple Milosevic's regime. The agency's covert operation, sources tell TIME, is part of a wide-ranging plan Clinton has approved to oust the Serbian strongman. On the record, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says, "We are making it quite clear that we don't see Milosevic in the future."
The CIA's covert action plan has its exotic aspects. Agency computer hackers will try to disrupt Milosevic's private financial transactions and electronically drain his overseas bank accounts. (Intelligence officials suspect he has money socked away in Switzerland, Cyprus, Greece, Russia and China.) The CIA also hopes to funnel cash secretly to opposition groups inside Yugoslavia as well as recruit dissidents within the Belgrade government and the Yugoslav military. Last month roads in four Serbian towns and villages were blocked by young reservists protesting the army's failure to pay them for two months.
Though Milosevic still commands the loyalty of his generals, a Pentagon intelligence officer says many of the colonels and junior officers who convoyed out of Kosovo are grumbling, "Why did we do this?"--particularly after they saw the destruction back home. There's no guarantee, of course, that a military coup would produce a more liberal government. Once tanks roll in Belgrade, power could fall into the hands of even more nationalist, anti-NATO hard-liners.
Far more of the Clinton plan will be carried out overtly by diplomats, bankers and even disk jockeys. To compete with Milosevic's formidable propaganda machine, the U.S. Information Agency plans to ring Serbia's border with six radio transmitters that will beam Western news programs into the country 24 hours a day. Last month Robert Gelbard, U.S. special envoy to the Balkans, flew to Serbia's rebellious republic of Montenegro to meet with some 20 Serbian opposition leaders and plead with them to join forces against the regime.
Albright met with the German, French, British and Italian foreign ministers in New York City last week to plot how each country might exploit its ties with dissident elements in Serbia. She asked Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini, for example, to place a phone call to the Vatican. The Serbian Orthodox Church last month demanded that Milosevic step down and instructed its priests to preach from the pulpit this past Sunday that Serbian forces are responsible for the atrocities in Kosovo. Washington wants Pope John Paul II, who helped engineer the toppling of Poland's communist regime, to join in taking a crack at Milosevic.
Money may be the most important weapon against Milosevic. The State Department is hatching a scheme much like the one a President uses to reward Congressmembers with federal pork when they vote his way. Clinton has told the Serbs that as long as they keep Milosevic in power, they won't get "one red cent" of the billions of dollars the West plans in economic reconstruction aid for the Balkans. But Washington has left open the possibility of sending some humanitarian aid to Serbia. The catch: Serbian municipal governments run by Milosevic's opponents, such as those in Cacak and Novi Sad, would get extra money for their local economies.
Nifty ideas, but will dollars and diplomatic maneuvers and CIA dirty tricks be enough to topple Milosevic? Serbia isn't a totalitarian state like Iraq, where Saddam puts a bullet into anyone who so much as whispers a complaint. Though Milosevic is a thug, he still has to keep the masses happy. And at the moment they're not. NATO warplanes caused almost $30 billion worth of damage in Serbia and left a quarter of a million people jobless. Last week some 10,000 Serbs in Cacak and Novi Sad staged anti-Milosevic rallies that security forces did little to curb. The regime "destroyed us," Cacak's mayor, Velimir Ilic, shouted to the crowd from a podium in his city's main square. "They humiliated us. We are ashamed to say we are Serbs."
Albright believes that Milosevic "was shaken" by the war-crimes indictment issued by the Hague and the $5 million bounty the U.S. offered for his capture. Some Milosevic backers in Belgrade's business community and even in his own Socialist Party have begun making private inquiries with intermediaries in Washington to explore what kind of deal the U.S. government might make for his graceful exit. Senior U.S. officials, for now, refuse to consider any comfortable retirement.
That hard line may change as Washington discovers Milosevic isn't a pushover. The CIA is having trouble just finding his bank accounts to tamper with, because most are under pseudonyms. The Serbian Orthodox Church is influential but not as powerful as the Roman Catholic Church was in Poland's revolution; most Serbs don't attend Sunday services. The U.S. radio transmissions are still being drowned out by regime-controlled media outlets, which flood the country with video and print propaganda.
Milosevic's biggest ally may end up being the opposition groups. "They call themselves zajedno, which in Serbian means 'together,' but they're not," Albright maintains. Instead, the coalition of some two dozen opposition parties is led by warring chieftains whose egos, says Serb Democratic Party vice president Slobodan Vuksanovic, have so far got in the way of mounting a credible political challenge. Gelbard left his Montenegro meeting with opposition leaders frustrated because their squabbling was squandering their best chance of unseating Milosevic. "They're all fighting over who will be President of Yugoslavia and not realizing that they're dealing with an extremely clever and ruthless adversary," says a senior U.S. diplomat.
Milosevic is an adversary who has faced worse odds and survived. More than two years ago, after hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Belgrade, Milosevic skillfully co-opted their leaders or intimidated the activists into submission. "He's an expert at dividing the opposition," says NATO's commander, General Wesley Clark. If his enemies again give him enough time to regroup, Milosevic could join Saddam, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and Cuba's Fidel Castro on the growing list of dictators the CIA just can't seem to overthrow.
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Stresses of Milosevic's Rule Blamed for Decline in Births
By BLAINE HARDEN, New York Times, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/070599yugo-birthrate.html
Statistics suggest that Serbian women of child-bearing age are deciding in unprecedented numbers that Serbia under the Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, is not a good place to raise children.
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41. Bombing Serbia: A New Era?
Letters Index July 6, 1999, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/letters/lmarsh.html
To the Editor:
Tina Rosenberg (Editorial Observer, July 2) grants that many people do not see NATO's intervention in Yugoslavia as "enforcing respect for international law" because the bombing was not done under United Nations auspices. But another reason to object is that the bombing itself was a violation of international law and exacerbated the human rights crisis.
NATO's intervention has deepened existing resentments between Serbs and Kosovars, provided an excuse for Serbian atrocities against the Kosovar Albanians, and led to another cycle of expulsions from Kosovo, this time of Gypsies, Serbs and other minorities. Intervention in the recent crisis while it was a civil war, with relatively few civilian casualties, should have taken the form of negotiations, not ultimatums.
Bombing inflicts indiscriminate death and destruction. To call it a way of enforcing international law is a distortion of language.
RACHELLE MARSHALL Stanford, Calif., July 2, 1999
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To the Editor:
Tina Rosenberg (Editorial Observer, July 2) sounds an increasingly familiar but flawed theme: that the NATO bombing campaign in Kosovo was a legitimate intervention that may herald a new era in international relations in which intervention to stem large-scale human rights abuses may take precedence over issues of national sovereignty.
Ms. Rosenberg's suggestion that sovereignty was a paramount consideration during the cold war doesn't hold up: the United States and the Soviet Union routinely and brutally intervened in the affairs of sovereign nations that fell within their presumed spheres of influence. Even now, the United States continues to arm regimes in Turkey and Indonesia that have bombed and burned villages and sponsored death squads.
Until the United States demonstrates a consistent interest in promoting human rights by stopping the flow of American weaponry to repressive governments, the action in Kosovo will stand as a monument to hypocrisy, not the beginning of a new era.
WILLIAM D. HARTUNG New York, July 2, 1999 The writer is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute.
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To the Editor:
Tina Rosenberg (Editorial Observer, July 2) correctly notes a "shift toward respecting a nation's sovereignty only when it respects the rights of its people as international law defines them," but who decides?
Meddlers and predators, too, invoke humanitarian concerns, and rights violations under international law can be stretched to include almost any debatable policy.
In Yugoslavia there was a need to act. But a bad year for sovereignty will not be a good year for people without procedural safeguards and nonmanipulable standards to regulate foreign intervention. Right now, we have neither.
BRAD R. ROTH Detroit, July 2, 1999 The writer teaches international law at Wayne State University.
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Message: 9 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 21:40:37 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-10 7/06/99 - Global Arms and War Preparations-3
42. TRIGAT-MR build phase imminent
CHRISTOPHER F FOSS JDW Land Forces Editor, 24 JUNE 1999, Jane's Defense Weekly http://jdw.janes.com/sample/jdw3709.html
London -
The Euromissile Dynamics Group (EMDG) is awaiting the approval of the Belgian and Dutch governments to begin the industrialisation phase of the TRIGAT-MR (Medium- Range) anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW).
France and Germany signed the Memorandum of Understanding last year; the UK government signed earlier this month (Jane's Defence Weekly 16 June).
The recent resignation of the government has delayed Belgium's signature, while the Netherlands may procure the US Javelin or Israeli Gill/Spike instead of the TRIGAT-MR (JDW 19 May). EMDG is confident that Belgium will sign the MoU but if the Netherlands withdraws from the programme, there will have to be some adjustment of production workshare.
EMDG expects the production contract to be awarded by year-end and management of the programme will then be transferred to the joint European agency, the Organisation de Co-opération Conjoint en Matière d'Armement (OCCAR).
According to Aerospatiale Missiles, the TRIGAT-MR industrialisation and production contract is expected to be worth more than FFr8 billion to cover the supply of 1,600 firing units, 1,200 thermal sights and more than 35,000 missiles. Assembly will take place at the Aerospatiale Missiles' Bourge facility, where production of the Eyrx 600m-range ATGW is already undertaken. It is expected that first production TRIGAT-MR missiles will be delivered in 2002. Other companies will feed subassemblies to Bourge. Matra BAe UK, for example, will supply almost 50% of the missile, while SAGEM of France will supply the thermal imager and LFK of Germany the firing post.
Germany and the UK will be the first TRIGAT-MR operational users. The UK, as the largest user, will take about 45% of total production.
In British Army service, the 2,400m-range TRIGAT-MR will replace the current 2,000m-range MILAN. It will be the first ground-launched ATGW to enter UK service with a tandem warhead capable of defeating tanks fitted with explosive reactive armour.
Analysis by Aerospatiale Missiles of conflicts over the last 20 years has shown that 30% of ATGW usage is against tanks and other armoured vehicles and about 70% against targets such as bunkers, buildings and moving soft targets.
Also, the thermal sighting system fitted to current ATGW, such as the Euromissile MILAN, has been widely used for surveillance, target acquisition and night observation roles in recent peacekeeping operations.
A TRIGAT-MR ATGW leaves its launcher during troop trials
Photo: Aerospatiale Missiles;
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43. Securing space for the military Hypersonic military spaceplanes go quietly about their business
BY BILL SWEETMAN, Janes Defense Weekly, June 28, 1999
http://www.janes.com/defence/features/RAeS_awards/securingspace.html Photo: http://www.janes.com/defence/features/RAeS_awards/g0049009.jpg
Some time next year, the rocket-powered Lockheed Martin X-33 lifting-body demonstrator is due to make its first flight from Edwards Air Force Base (AFB). A few miles away, Boeing engineers will be working on the Future-X prototype at Palmdale. Both these programs, at the cutting edge of high-speed aerodynamic and material technology, are sponsored by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and are ostensibly intended to foster the development of civil and scientific spaceflight.
Few people realize that they are also prototypes for a military spaceplane which the US Air Force's (USAF's) scientific advisors believe could be under full-scale development within three years. It would provide the USAF with the means to perform reconnaissance, space control and strike missions from orbit.
Dozens of projects - black, white and grey - for military spaceplanes have been proposed since the late 1950s. The technical snags were severe, but the fundamental problem was always the absence of a clear military need, combined with the reluctance of civilian leaders to 'militarize' space. That situation may be changing.
A quiet revolution in military affairs has taken place since the 1990-91 Gulf War. That conflict saw the first extensive use of satellite systems for communications, warning and navigation. Today, military operations without them are almost impossible to contemplate.
A National Missile Defense system will likewise depend entirely on space-based warning and communications systems. The US intelligence community relies on imaging and electronic surveillance satellites, and even air-breathing platforms rely on high-bandwidth satellite communications.
The implications of this change are ominous and not widely recognized. In fact, former US military leaders have charged that current administration policy is hampering changes that are critically needed for preventing that revolution from directly endangering US military capabilities in the future.
Space systems reside in a medium where the US has no exclusive access and no direct defense against attack. "If the DSCS satellites or the MILSTAR satellites went out of commission, even some of them, we'd be devastated," former Air Combat Command chief General Mike Loh remarked at a roundtable organized last year by the Washington-based Center for Security Policy. "We depend on space communications to knit together a theater battle management system that all of the services will use. It is dependent on space. There is no more 'belt-and-suspenders'." Loh went on to note that he knows of no current weapons-delivery or guidance system that does not rely on GPS (Global Positioning System).
At the same meeting, former vice-Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Stan Arthur commented: "I was fortunate enough to participate in an Air Force war game recently - Global Engagement '97, played in 2012 - where we were working a problem with a near peer who had the ability to influence events in space - and utter chaos ensued." These officers and others see a widening gap between the US military's dependence on space and its ability to secure its position outside the atmosphere.
USAF Space Command's present leader, Gen Richard Myers, and his predecessor, Gen Howell Estes, have made no secret of their view that the USAF must fill that gap. To protect US military and commercial assets, to prevent adversaries from using space-based systems against US interests, and - eventually - to permit US space-based systems to strike ground targets, the USAF needs to dominate and control space as it dominates the air today.
Space Command's ambitions have gathered support within the USAF as the problems of projecting air power with a smaller number of forward bases become apparent. Events such as the Saudi restriction on the use of its air bases to launch strikes against Iraq, and the bombing of the Khobar Towers and US embassies in Africa, have underlined the difficulties of maintaining forward bases and the imprudence of relying upon them. Space-based systems are assuming increasing importance in the USAF's new doctrine of 'global engagement'. However, this doctrine and Space Command's long-term plans run counter to the policy of the US administration, which remains committed to avoiding the militarization of space. The USAF is permitted to study needs for future military space systems, and to develop some of the technology for them, but is neither authorized nor funded to deploy them or conduct large-scale demonstrations.
This anomalous position has created a new alliance. After a long period in which the US government had three distinct communities in space - NASA, the USAF's 'white' side, and the 'black' world of intelligence operations - the different groups are collaborating as never before.
In the USAF view, the key to future space operations is better access to space. Better does not only mean cheaper (the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle meets that need), but also more responsive, so that payloads can be launched at shorter notice. The USAF wants the ability to maneuver outside the atmosphere - giving its systems greater freedom of movement than those of its adversaries - and to place systems in orbit that can be recovered and reused. NASA is also interested in improved access to space, because launch cost drives the cost of its civilian and scientific programs.
In February 1997, NASA and the USAF Space Command formed a partnership council to harmonize their future spaceflight plans and needs. The National Reconnaissance Office - responsible for intelligence-gathering spacecraft - joined this council in December. A subgroup of this council, the Space Technology Alliance, oversees cooperation in space vehicle technology.
Space Command, with technical support from the USAF's Phillips Laboratory, has drafted a concept of operations for an Aerospace Operations Vehicle (AOV), the first step to defining a requirement for such a vehicle. The AOV (also called the Space Operations Vehicle, SOV) is the successor to the Military Spaceplane, which was due to start in Fiscal Year (FY) 1998 but was terminated by the Clinton administration's line-item veto. This has since been ruled unconstitutional. As currently defined, the AOV is a two-stage-to-orbit system comprising a reusable booster and a mission-specific upper stage. The booster would follow a 'pop-up' flight profile, carrying about 5.5 tonnes of payload to a speed of M15-17 and an altitude of 300,000ft.
In a report published in November, the USAF Scientific Advisory Board recommended that the USAF should develop technology for the AOV, so that it would be ready for a full-scale go-ahead in 2002. In line with this recommendation, NASA and Space Command are collaborating on at least two dual-use programs, and the USAF is working on technologies with purely military applications.
Probably the leading candidate for the AOV booster would be a design based on Lockheed Martin's X-33 reusable launch vehicle technology demonstrator. The launch of this program in September 1996 represented a new start in USAF/NASA collaboration, because it drew technology from previously classified USAF programs.
The X-33's primary goal is to demonstrate technology for the VentureStar single-stage-to-orbit heavy launch vehicle. The first flight was originally scheduled for July, but may now slip for almost a year. It was first delayed until December this year, due to problems with building the linear aerospike rocket engine. Then, in January, one of the composite liquid hydrogen tanks suffered major damage while stabilizing patches were being cured in place. This is likely to delay the flight until mid-2000.
The most important new technologies to be demonstrated on the X-33 are the engine, the thermal protection system (TPS), and the stability and control of a lifting-body vehicle under re-entry conditions. The performance of the linear aerospike engine will be affected by the airflow around the vehicle, and flight test is the only way to confirm computer predictions of these effects. The TPS and other structural features are drawn from black USAF programs of the 1980s, aimed at creating a military spaceplane, and it is speculated that other, still-classified precursor projects may have proven other X-33 technologies, such as the engine - which, officially, has never been fired in flight.
A NASA experimental program, in which a linear aerospike engine was to be tested at transonic speeds on an SR-71, was terminated in November without firing the engine, adding weight to the speculation that the engine has been flown before.
The X-33 may be more likely to lead to an AOV than to a commercial launcher, because the AOV booster is a less risky departure from the X-33 than VentureStar. It is smaller and suborbital, so that it can accomplish its goals even if it has a higher structural weight fraction or a less efficient engine than the VentureStar.
The X-33 is not the only possible solution. Boeing, working on reusable booster concepts, is leaning towards a horizontal-landing solution with a blended wing-body configuration, based on its Boeing and Rockwell heritage, rather than a vertical take-off, vertical landing type similar to the McDonnell Douglas Delta Clipper. Moreover, there are commercial programs that could be suited to the AOV role. Space Access, for example, is proposing a two-stage horizontal-take-off/horizontal landing launch system with air-breathing ejector ramjet engines. The company claims that it could be fully operational in 2003.
The most important goal for an AOV booster can be described as 'aircraft-like operations'. This means being able to launch at short notice, to operate in all conditions from a variety of launch sites, and to recover the vehicle and ready it quickly for another mission. Rapid launch implies the use of non-toxic, easily handled fuels such as LOX/kerosene or LOX/ hydrogen. The key to being able to use many launch sites is reliability - avoiding the necessity for an over-water trajectory. A pre-requisite for the ability to launch in all conditions is that the vehicle is recoverable.
The AOV's sub-orbital trajectory covers a ground distance of 2,200km, so a launch from the continental US means a recovery elsewhere in the US, probably at Malmstrom AFB or one of the other northern-tier bomber bases. This requires a reliable all-weather automatic landing system, and a means of returning the vehicle to its launch point. The NASA/Orbital Sciences X-34 program is aimed at demonstrating technology to deal with these issues.
Development work is also under way on three optional upper stages for the AOV. The most sophisticated of these is the Space Maneuver Vehicle (SMV), designed to provide the USAF with a new level of flexibility in space operations. Today's spacecraft are limited in their ability to change their orbital paths. Any maneuver eats into the vehicle's finite fuel supply, and hence its lifetime. The SMV is a small spacecraft that carries a relatively large fuel supply, and when its fuel is used it can be recovered and refueled.
The SMV has a wide variety of uses. As a reconnaissance system, it can provide much faster response to a commander's needs than the National Reconnaissance Office's spacecraft, and can perform rapid orbital changes to approach a target at an unexpected time. In the space control mission, it uses its agility to perform a co-orbital maneuver or a fly-by, using multiple sensors to examine a suspicious spacecraft at close range. The logical extension of this role is to equip the SMV with the means to put a spacecraft out of action if it appears to be hostile.
The SMV is inexpensive enough to be used as a substitute or supplement for conventional satellites. With its own solar arrays and batteries, it has an endurance of up to 12 months. This would mean that SMVs could be stationed on-orbit as short-notice gap-fillers for LEO (low Earth orbit) satellite constellations.
NASA and the USAF are developing and building an SMV demonstrator. In December, NASA selected Boeing to build the first of a series of Future-X prototypes: the Boeing Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV), which is expected to carry the designation X-37. Designed by the former Rockwell unit at Seal Beach, California, the ATV is based on a 1993 concept called Refly, which was being pursued under USAF funding before the NASA contract was awarded. Last August, a low-speed test vehicle, designated X-40A, was released from a helicopter at 9,000ft above Holloman AFB in New Mexico, and glided safely to an autonomous landing.
Boeing will design and build the ATV at Palmdale, California. The 7.8m long vehicle will have a wingspan of 4.5m, an empty weight of 1,680kg, and a loaded weight of 5,350kg, including a 540kg payload in a 1.2 x 1.2 x 2.1m bay. It will be powered by a Rocketdyne AR-4 rocket engine burning RP-1 (kerosene) and hydrogen peroxide. The primary structure will comprise high-temperature graphite/bismaleimide composites, and will be protected by an advanced tile and blanket TPS.
The onboard electronics will use an open systems architecture and will provide the same support for the payload as a spacecraft 'bus'. The basic NASA program calls for the vehicle to use battery power on orbit, but it is designed to include solar-electric panels in the payload bay doors.
The first step in the ATV program will be to upgrade the X-40A so that it can be released at M0.8 and 40,000ft from NASA's NB-52. The ATV itself will be air-launched for about 30 envelope-expansion test flights, starting in early 2001. As currently planned, this will lead to a Shuttle-launched orbital flight in late 2001 or early 2002, supporting the Scientific Advisory Board's recommended decision date for a full-scale AOV program.
The second upper stage for the AOV is the Modular Insertion Stage (MIS), a small expendable rocket designed to orbit a payload of 900-1,800kg. The principal goal for MIS is low cost: the USAF is looking at a price tag of US$600,000 or less. Technologies under development for MIS include low-cost composite fuel tanks; uncooled, ablative nozzles; and a pressure-fed propulsion system using kerosene and either LOX or hydrogen peroxide.
The third (and potentially most controversial) upper stage for the AOV is the Common Aero Vehicle (CAV). The CAV is a lifting-body boost-glide vehicle designed to attack time-sensitive ground targets. Launched by an AOV booster, the CAV would re-enter the atmosphere in a hypersonic glide, descending to a speed and altitude where it could dispense conventional, aircraft-type precision-guided munitions. Plans and documents suggest that the CAV would have a range of about 14,000km and would weigh between 700-1,100kg. A CAV demonstration program has been identified by the USAF as the X-41.
The USAF plans to launch the CAV with both the AOV and a conventional ballistic missile (CBM). The USAF is already conducting an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) for the CBM. Textron Systems is developing a GPS-guided re-entry vehicle with a non-nuclear hard-target warhead. It will be mated to a surplus Minuteman II Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile booster and guidance bus, and a flight test from Vandenberg AFB to Kwajalein Missile Range is planned for FY01. Unlike most ACTDs, this program will not result in the deployment of operational systems, but the USAF expects this to lead to the development of a CAV-armed CBM, possibly with a new booster.
These are not 'on-orbit' weapons, so they technically avoid the US administration's ban on placing weapons in orbit. However, the fact that the AOV is potentially a strike system runs counter to the belief that space should be free from weapons.
The same kind of sensitivity applies to the invisible boundary in space control, between 'surveillance' and 'negation'. One program in this area is the XSS-10 'microsat', being jointly explored by Space Command and NASA. This 20kg spacecraft is designed to autonomously acquire and track targets in space, rendezvous with them and perform an imaging inspection. Formerly called Clementine II, the project was halted in late 1997 by the same (now reversed) line-item veto, as the AOV. The first XSS-10 will be ready for launch aboard the Shuttle in April 2000. Future microsats could be launched by the AOV/MIS combination.
The next US administration is going to have to tackle the question of space warfare, and the AOV will be the most visible symbol of what may be an energetic controversy. The rights and wrongs of an increased military presence in space may be debated, but there is no disputing that the technical means to establish such a presence are closer to reality today than they have been in decades.
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44. Spending by USA's 'big four' comes under Pentagon scrutiny
25 JUNE 1999 Jane's Defense Weekly http://jdw.janes.com/sample/jdw3728.html
The expenditures of the four top defence companies in the USA are to be examined by the US Department of Defense (DoD) in an effort to strengthen government oversight of multi-billion-dollar military contracts.
The DoD in April ordered each service to start conducting quarterly rather than annual contract reviews, officials revealed last week.
Defence companies such as Lockheed Martin have in the past year come under scrutiny, facing accusations of insufficient quality control when building major systems such as the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system.
Last month, senior DoD budget officials summoned Lockheed Martin executives to meetings in which 29 expensive contracts were scrutinised. DoD officials expect to conduct similar reviews with Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and Boeing. "It's an attempt to open up better and more frequent lines of communication," said DoD spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin. "It's in the interest of both the government and the contractors. You don't want to have an annual review and then a month later discover there's something you're not happy with."
Other DoD officials said concerns revolve around the fear that defence conglomerates are finding it difficult to keep track of expenses, schedules and quality because they are juggling too many contracts.
DoD officials stressed that the quarterly reviews of defence contractors will be an industry-wide effort, although for now they will just examine contracts with the three remaining defence giants.
The DoD plans to review contracts with Boeing officials on 11 September, Raytheon leaders on 25 September and Northrop Grumman executives on 23 October, Irwin said.
Industry officials say the unprecedented reviews are just business as usual.
Greg Seigle JDW Staff Reporter
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45. Saudi F-15 buy could be critical
BRYAN BENDER JDW Washington Bureau Chief, JANES Weekly, 25 JUNE 1999 http://jdw.janes.com/sample/jdw3722.html
Paris
Boeing has begun discussions with the Royal Saudi Air Force about a possible sale of F-15 Eagles to replace an undisclosed number of aircraft lost to attrition and views such a sale as critical to maintaining the fighter's production line.
"We've talked to the Saudis about an attrition buy," Mike Sears, president of Boeing Military Aircraft and Missile Systems, told Jane's Defence Weekly. He added, however, that low oil prices are affecting the Saudi decision and a purchase is unlikely until the market turns around.
At this point, F-15 orders are viewed as critical, as the production line in St Louis, Missouri, will have to shut down temporarily in February 2000, Sears said. The US Air Force only expected to purchase up to 17 attrition aircraft.
The Lockheed Martin F-16 has been selected over the F-15 most recently in competitions in the United Arab Emirates, which plans to buy 80, in Greece, which is expected to buy 36, and in Egypt, which has ordered 24.
The F-15 is vying with the F-16 to meet the Israeli requirement for up to 60 fighters. The Israeli Ministry of Defence is expected to decide in August and has discussed the possibility of splitting the order.
"We're beyond big production," Sears said. "Once the US completes its needs, you have to go head to toe to produce them efficiently".
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Message: 10 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 20:45:57 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-4 7/06/99 - India/Pakistan; Russia
13. Correction
Saturday, July 3, 1999; Page A20 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/03/006l-070399-idx.html
There was an editing error in the letter to the editor yesterday by Govind Bangarbale. One sentence should have read: "India's foremost political party, the BJP, has said it would not indulge in a nuclear first strike and would not use nuclear weapons against a nonnuclear power in case of war."
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14. Clinton, Sharif Agree On Kashmir Withdrawal
Updated 9:14 PM ET July 4, 1999, By Arshad Mohammed http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990704/21/international-kashmir-usa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reached an agreement Sunday under which guerrillas who crossed into the Indian-held sections of Kashmir will withdraw, U.S. officials said.
The agreement, if carried out, would appear to defuse a conflict that has pitted Indian armed forces against the guerrillas and that has been described as the worst crisis between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan in nearly 30 years.
"It was agreed between the president and the prime minister that concrete steps will be taken for the restoration of the Line of Control," Clinton and Sharif said in a joint statement after three hours of hastily arranged talks in Washington.
"The president urged an immediate cessation of the hostilities once these steps are taken," it added after the discussions, which consumed the better part of Clinton's U.S. Independence Day holiday.
Although Pakistan has publicly maintained that it has no control over the guerrillas, U.S. officials said the joint statement meant the insurgents would withdraw to the Pakistani side of the military line dividing the Himalayan province.
"Our understanding is that there will be withdrawal of the forces now," a senior U.S. official told reporters on condition that he not be identified. He declined to say exactly when the forces would pull out but added: "We would like to see positive steps in the very near future."
India launched an air and ground offensive on May 26 to dislodge what it says are Pakistan army regulars fighting alongside mercenaries who crossed the military line dividing the Himalayan province.
Although the major powers concur with India's description of the guerrillas, Pakistan has insisted it has no control over what it says are Muslim militants fighting for freedom in the two-thirds of Kashmir ruled by India.
The joint statement finessed the point, failing to specify who would take the "concrete steps" to restore the Line of Control or to make any explicit acknowledgment that Pakistan might hold some sway over the guerrillas.
A Pakistani official told reporters Clinton and Sharif had had "a good discussion." Tariq Altaf, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called the joint statement "a positive development as it is vindication of our position that the Line of Control should be mutually respected."
Asked what concrete steps might be taken to restore it, he replied: "We will appeal to them to end the fighting ... they have achieved their purpose of highlighting the Kashmir dispute."
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since they won independence from Britain in 1947 over Kashmir. The latest conflict raised special alarm in Washington because of their tit-for-tat nuclear tests in May 1998.
In their statement, Clinton and Sharif said they shared the view that the recent conflict was "dangerous and contains the seeds of a wider conflict."
"They also agreed that it was vital for the peace of South Asia that the Line of Control in Kashmir be respected by both parties in accordance with their 1972 Simla Accord," it added.
Senior U.S. officials said the Simla Accord established the military line dividing the two thirds of Kashmir controlled by India and the one third held by Pakistan.
The statement also finessed another issue -- India's long-standing rejection of any outside mediation over Kashmir and Washington's resulting reluctance to play such a role, even though Clinton intervened with Pakistan in this instance.
The White House said Clinton had spoken to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for about 10 minutes Sunday to brief him on the talks.
The statement said Clinton stressed that the best way for the two countries to settle their differences, including Kashmir, was to continue the direct talks that began when their prime ministers met in Lahore in February.
"The president said he would take a personal interest in encouraging an expeditious resumption and intensification of those bilateral efforts once the sanctity of the Line of Control has been full restored," the statement said.
It also said Clinton, who canceled plans to visit India and Pakistan last year after they conducted their nuclear tests, intended to pay "pay an early visit to South Asia."
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U.S. Expecting Kashmir Pullback by Pakistani Side U.S. officials declined to offer an date.
JANE PERLEZ, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/070599us-pakistan.html
After hastily arranged talks between President Clinton and the Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, administration officials said that they expect Pakistani-backed forces would withdraw from Kashmir.
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U.S. Says Pakistan Will Withdraw
By Bradley Graham and Nathan Abse Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A15
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/05/103l-070599-idx.html
After a hastily arranged Fourth of July meeting here between President Clinton and the leader of Pakistan, U.S. officials said yesterday they had received assurances that Pakistan would withdraw forces that had crossed into the Indian portion of Kashmir six weeks ago and triggered an escalation of fighting between the world's two newest nuclear powers.
A joint statement issued by Clinton and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said only that the two men had agreed that "concrete steps will be taken" to restore the 1972 cease-fire line separating the Indian and Pakistani parts of Kashmir.
But elaborating on the statement, administration officials indicated Sharif had pledged to abandon the strategic peaks seized in the Kargil sector of Kashmir--and to do so very soon.
"Our understanding is that there will be a withdrawal of the forces now," one U.S. official told reporters. "We want to see steps taken very quickly."
The confrontation over the Himalayan territory has risen quickly in the past month to one of the most serious in the half-century dispute between Pakistan and India over Kashmir, igniting fresh international concerns about a regional war erupting.
India remained skeptical yesterday about the results of the U.S.-Pakistani meeting, warning that its military forces, which launched an air and ground offensive in late May to dislodge the insurgents, would continue efforts to regain the embattled territory until there is evidence of a pullout. Earlier yesterday, India declared a major military victory, saying it had reclaimed a key 16,500-foot peak known as Tiger Hill that would allow Indian troops to retake other ridges still occupied by Islamic militants and Pakistani army troops.
The prospect of further military setbacks may have been a factor behind Sharif's decision. But the move is sure to draw criticism in Pakistan, particularly among Islamic fundamentalist and military groups, which have warned that they would attempt to bring down Sharif down if he withdrew from Kargil.
The meeting with Clinton was arranged at Sharif's request, U.S. officials said, in what some here saw as an attempt by the Pakistani leader to gain political cover for the decision to pull out. The seizure of the Kargil territory had been interpreted by many as an attempt to force the Kashmir issue into an international forum such as the United Nations.
While Clinton gave no sign yesterday that he would favor U.N. consideration of the matter, he did pledge to become more involved in fostering direct talks between Pakistan and India. The joint statement included a sentence saying that once the "sanctity" of the cease-fire line has been restored, Clinton "would take a personal interest in encouraging an expeditious resumption and intensification of" the high-level talks begun between Pakistan and India four months ago in Lahore, Pakistan.
It also said that Clinton, who canceled plans to visit India and Pakistan last year after they conducted their nuclear tests, intended to "pay an early visit to South Asia."
Meeting at Blair House, the official guest residence across the street from the White House, Clinton and Sharif talked for about three hours. They spent some of the time in one-on-one conversation, officials said.
Midway through the meeting, Clinton broke away to phone Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who had turned down an invitation the day before for his own talks in Washington, according to Indian officials. Vajpayee, whose government has been criticized for India's failure to foresee the enemy's strategy, faces a national election in September. He has rejected any dialogue with Pakistan over the fighting or the wider issue of Kashmir's status until Pakistani forces leave the Indian-controlled zone.
Just who has occupied the Kargil territory has been a subject of dispute. India has said the 700 Pakistanis who moved into the region included regular army soldiers as well as mercenaries. Pakistan has insisted the group consisted only of Muslim militants over whom it has no control and who are fighting for freedom in the two-thirds of Kashmir ruled by India.
U.S. officials have accepted India's description, saying they believe Pakistani soldiers are directly involved in the conflict. But the joint statement yesterday avoided the issue, making no reference to whether or not Pakistan exerted any control over the forces that crossed the cease-fire line.
Kashmir is the main issue that has disrupted relations between largely Hindu India and overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947. In the past half-century, the two countries have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.
The conflict became potentially more dangerous last year, when both countries tested nuclear weapons for the first time in back-to-back events.
Hopes that the two arch-rivals would reach a detente rose in February, when Sharif launched the "Lahore process" and entered into a direct dialogue with India. But the opening of the new military front in Kashmir appeared to dash that initiative.
With Pakistan depending heavily on international loans, some in Congress, angered by the Pakistani assault into Kashmir, threatened to withdraw U.S. support for additional funds from the International Monetary Fund and other multinational financial institutions.
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NEWS ANALYSIS Pakistani's Pullout Vow Is a Very Hard Sell at Home
By CELIA W. DUGGER, July 6, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/070699india-pakistan.html
LAHORE, Pakistan -- Once he gets home from his Washington tete-a-tete with President Clinton, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is likely to find it difficult to deliver on his pledge to the Americans that he would seek to withdraw Pakistani-backed forces from the Indian side of the cease-fire line in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Few in Pakistan saw Sharif's sudden decision to call on Clinton on Sunday -- and his promise to take "concrete steps" to restore the cease-fire line -- as a breakthrough that would help end a limited, undeclared war with India. Rather, the moves were viewed by most Pakistanis either as a sell-out of the Kashmir cause or another ill-fated move in a diplomatic game of chess.
Opposition political parties sharply criticized Sharif on Monday for apparently giving away what they believe to be hard-won military gains in Kashmir for nothing much in return.
The main Islamic opposition group, the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which is known more for its street power than its voting strength, called for rallies all over the country on Tuesday to protest what it called the prime minister's treasonous behavior.
Islamic militants fighting in Kashmir -- whom Sharif has all along said Pakistan does not control -- denounced the deal and vowed that they would not withdraw from the mountain peaks on the Indian side of the line.
"I'm not sure whether Nawaz Sharif or even the military have the influence to get the mujahedeen to withdraw," said Rifaat Hussain, a professor of international relations at Quaid-I-Azam University in Islamabad. "They do get support from Pakistan, but that doesn't mean they're willing to do Pakistan's bidding."
Political experts also questioned whether Sharif, who has quickly backed away from other unpopular decisions, would have the political will to insist on a withdrawal if it cost him dearly with the powerful military establishment, Islamic fundamentalist groups and the Pakistani people, who for the most part revere the forces in Kashmir as freedom fighters battling for the rights of Kashmir's Muslim majority.
The promise of a visit to Pakistan by Clinton would not be enough to sell a pullout, the experts said. Rather, Sharif would need a reciprocal withdrawal of Indian forces from the Kargil and Dras sectors of Kashmir, where fighting has raged for two months, or the strong prospect that India -- under pressure from the United States -- would seriously talk about settling the Kashmir conflict once and for all.
But India, which maintains that Pakistan has been a devious aggressor in this conflict, reiterated Monday its unequivocal position that the invaders must withdraw before India will talk about any issue.
And a day after its military triumphantly claimed victory in recapturing the strategic Tiger Hill ridge, an observation point overlooking a crucial supply route, India was in no mood for compromise. Asked if there was an acceptable timetable for a Pakistani pullout, Raminder Singh Jassal, spokesman for India's Foreign Ministry said, "Yes, there is a time frame, which is immediately."
India, whose army turned to another large operation in Kashmir on Monday, attacking positions in the Batalik sector, also plainly stated that there is no role for the United States in settling the dispute. And Washington, for its part, has reaffirmed its long-held position that it cannot serve as a mediator on Kashmir until India requests American help.
The festering, periodically violent conflict over Kashmir dates to 1947, when the two nations were created from the British Raj. Predominantly Hindu India claims Kashmir as one of its states, while Pakistan says the Muslim-majority territory should have the right to choose whether to be part of Pakistan or India.
The two nations have fought two wars over Kashmir, in 1947 and 1965, and the fighting this year is the most serious in almost 30 years. It is the first that has threatened to explode into full-fledged war since India and Pakistan became declared nuclear weapons states a year ago.
Already Monday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz seemed to be giving Sharif a way to avoid withdrawal. He told the BBC that it would be difficult for Pakistan to persuade the Islamic militants to pull out of Indian-held Kashmir unless the status of Kashmir was put back on the international agenda.
India scoffs at such statements because it says the men fighting in Kashmir are mainly Pakistani army regulars. But even if the fighters are Pakistan-backed militants who refuse to leave, it seems that the Sharif government could eventually force them to do so by cutting off their food and ammunition.
Majid Nizami, 70, chief editor of the Lahore newspaper The Nation as well as a friend and sometimes critic of the Sharif family, said he believed that there would be no withdrawal because the Kashmir cause is too close to the heart of most Pakistanis.
"I think it won't be implemented because it would be political suicide for Nawaz Sharif," he said. "He will come home and say, 'I'll try to persuade the mujahedeen to come back.' After a month or two, there will be the rainy season in Kargil. In areas the mujahedeen have held, they will stay if they can. If not, because of weather, they will retreat."
It remained unclear whether Pakistan's military, which has repeatedly usurped civilian authority in the last 50 years, would back Sharif's withdrawal plan. Some experts believe he consulted top military officers about his Washington strategy.
But others worry that powerful elements in the military will not tolerate a unilateral withdrawal from Kashmir and fret about the possibility of a coup.
"The international community has to be very careful about the demands it makes on Nawaz Sharif at this time," said one political expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Several retired senior military officers lashed out Monday at Sharif's government.
"They simply succumbed and surrendered to the U.S. and to India and deprived the mujahedeen of whatever advantage they had hitherto gained," said the former army chief of staff, Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg.
Lt. Gen. Hameed Gul, also retired, said, "It is a total sell-out."
RELATED ARTICLE: In Pakistani Village, Distrust of Indians as Raw as Ever http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/070699pakistan-india.html
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15. Syrian President Visiting Russia
Monday, July 5, 1999; 10:18 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990705/V000239-070599-idx.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Syria.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- Syrian President Hafez Assad came to Moscow today for talks on upgrading his military with Russian weapons.
Assad will discuss the possible purchase of Su-27 fighter jets, T-80 tanks, and anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, the Interfax news agency reported.
Syria was a major market for Soviet weapons during the Cold War. Interfax estimated that 90 percent of its military hardware was built in Russia or the Soviet Union.
Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov greeted Assad at the airport. Assad planned to meet with President Boris Yeltsin and other top officials before leaving Tuesday evening.
The two sides also were to discuss the possibility of renegotiating Syria's debt to Russia, which is estimated at about $12 billion.
Russia and Syria have sought to boost ties in recent years, to the protest of the United States. This May, Russia and Syria signed a 10-year deal on cooperating in the peaceful use of nuclear power.
The United States has slapped sanctions on three Russian companies involved in the sale of anti-tank weapons to Syria, and threatened to cancel $50 million in aid to Russia if the deal was completed.
The contract apparently never went through, because Assad abruptly canceled a planned trip to Moscow in May after the Russian government would not promise to finalize delivering the weapons.
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[Debt forgiveness talk....]
Syria's Debt To Russia Off Assad Agenda
Updated 1:00 AM ET July 4, 1999, By Sultan Sleiman http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Russia will gloss over a $12 billion debt owed by Syria when receiving President Hafez al-Assad next week in favor of exerting more influence in the Middle East, a senior Western diplomat said Saturday.
"After (Israeli Prime-Minister-elect) Ehud Barak opened the gate for resuming talks with Syria, Russia wanted to meet Assad to strengthen its position in the region ahead of a possible peace," the Damascus-based diplomat, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters.
Assad is to fly to Moscow Monday on an official invitation from President Boris Yeltsin. The two-day visit, originally planned for April, would be Assad's first since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Relations between the two countries have been strained because Syria never resolved a $12 billion debt for weapons supplied by the Soviet Union more than 20 years ago.
Russia's military and diplomatic apparatus is believed to favor opening a new page in relations with Syria, in contrast to the finance ministry that manages depleted state coffers.
"The two parties agreed not to agree on the debt, an issue unlikely to be raised with Assad," the diplomat said.
"The army does not want to make troubles with Syria on debt, an old issue that will lead nowhere if discussed. It is trying to win influence in the region, plus cash from striking new arms deals."
Syria's request for billions of dollars worth of new Russian weapons was an issue more likely to be on the table between Assad and Yeltsin next week, the diplomat said.
Syrian and Russian officials have been meeting recently to discuss a new arms deal the Kremlin said is worth $2 billion.
"For Assad, the trip is perfect in timing. Securing Russian agreement to supply Syria with weapons will strengthen its position in negotiating with Israel," said the diplomat.
Russian diplomats in Beirut have said Russia was prepared to supply Syria with the upgraded version of its MiG-29 fighter aircraft, the MiG-29 SMT version which has been in production since last December.
The discussions also include anti-tank systems, which sparked protests from the United States, Israel's backer. Washington threatened to cancel aid to Russia if the sale of anti-tank weapons goes ahead.
American law requires withholding aid if lethal military equipment is transferred to any country on the State Department blacklist of states considered to support or sponsor international terrorism.
Even though the Clinton administration considers Syria to be a pivotal player in the Middle East peace process, it has been on that list for years.
Assad, who trained as a soldier in the USSR, was scheduled to visit Russia on April 12 and 13, a period that coincided with the presence of Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon in Moscow.
He postponed the visit, without giving any reasons, just a few hours before he was due to arrive in the Russian capital.
In 1991, Russia and the United States sponsored the Madrid peace conference in which Syria and Israel talked to each other officially for the first time in their 51-year-old conflict, centered on the strategic Golan Heights which Israel occupied in 1967 and subsequently settled.
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16. Russia-Belarus Merger May Be Near
By The Associated Press, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Belarus.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin said today that the final draft of an agreement to merge Russia and Belarus will be ready within a month, a news report said.
The agreement is now undergoing several changes so it doesn't ``just have a declarative character,'' Stepashin said after a meeting with President Boris Yeltsin, the Interfax news agency reported.
``It's important for us that this agreement be workable, so it's necessary to form a program of economic measures, in particular concerning customs, tariffs and financial problems,'' he said.
If Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko approves the draft agreement, ``we'll quietly carry our work further. We'll see where it takes us,'' Stepashin said.
The authoritarian Lukashenko, a nostalgist for the Soviet Union, has long pushed for uniting his nation of 10 million people with Russia. He and Yeltsin have signed a union deal that brings their countries closer together.
But plans for a full union have stalled, partly because of Belarus' dire economic troubles. Russia has also been occupied by its own economic problems.
Lukashenko has criticized Russia for dragging its feet on the merger, and said last week he would improve frosty relations with the West if Russia doesn't push ahead with the union.
But Lukashenko's threat seemed to have backfired today. Stepashin said Yeltsin approves of Belarus seeking warmer ties with the West.
``We would welcome that, and a union between Russia and Belarus should not in any case stand as an obstacle in relation to creating a unified Europe,'' Stepashin said.
Stepashin said Yeltsin had asked him to personally oversee further work on the union. He said he would call Lukashenko immediately to iron out additional details about the merger agreement.
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17. Russian Satellite May Have Crashed
By The Associated Press, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Rocket.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian military satellite disappeared from radar screens soon after liftoff Monday and may have crashed in Siberia, a news report said.
A Proton booster rocket, launched a day late for technical reasons, blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakstan carrying a Raduga-1 satellite Monday evening. The launch went according to plan, Interfax news agency quoted officials at Moscow's Khrunichev Space Center as saying.
But 10 minutes after the satellite was placed in its preliminary orbit, it stopped responding to signals from mission control at Khrunichev, and all communications signals from the satellite were lost, Interfax said.
Interfax later cited an unnamed Defense Ministry official as saying the satellite probably fell in the Altai region of Siberia, 1,750 miles east of Moscow.
The report gave no other details, and calls to Khrunichev and the Defense Ministry went unanswered.
The liftoff had been delayed several times, Interfax said, with the latest postponement coming Sunday, when space officials decided that improvements were needed in the launch mechanism. The liftoff was rescheduled for Monday.
Thirty-four Raduga satellites are already orbiting the Earth, ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Their functions include missile detection for Russia's Defense Ministry.
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Message: 11 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 21:13:58 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-5 7/06/99 - Russia
18. Yeltsin Urges START II Ratification
Friday, July 2, 1999; 10:05 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990702/V000255-070299-idx.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- President Boris Yeltsin urged the Russian parliament on Friday to approve the long-delayed START II nuclear arms reduction treaty.
Yeltsin told a meeting of top defense officials that START II must be ratified, and a follow-on agreement, START III, must be prepared, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the head of parliament's defense committee, Roman Popkovich.
START II, which would cut Russian and American nuclear stocks to a maximum of 3,500 warheads each, has languished in the lower house, the State Duma, since it was signed in 1993. START III would further reduce the number warheads to 2,000.
The speaker of the lower house of Russian parliament, Gennady Seleznyov, recently said the house was likely to consider START II in the fall.
The Duma appeared ready to ratify it earlier this year, but scrapped debate on the document indefinitely when NATO launched airstrikes on Yugoslavia, a Russian ally, on March 24.
Russia played a major role in mediating a peace deal to the Yugoslavia crisis, and with the alliance bombing campaign now officially over, the Duma appeared to be warming to the idea of ratifying the treaty once again.
The top military command supports its ratification, saying the aging warheads would have to be discarded anyway, and need to be replaced with more modern weapons.
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Yeltsin, Ukrainian President Meet
By The Associated Press, July 4, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Ukraine.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- President Boris Yeltsin met Sunday with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to discuss outstanding problems in their countries' relationship.
The meeting, at Yeltsin's country residence outside Moscow, was intended ``to breathe new life into the Russian-Ukrainian partnership,'' presidential adviser Sergei Prikhodko told the ITAR-Tass news agency.
The talks concentrated on ways to strengthen the strategic partnership between Russia and Ukraine in the wake of NATO's recent bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, the Interfax news agency reported.
The two presidents also discussed economic issues, where there are now ``several big unresolved problems,'' including Ukraine's debt for supplies of Russian gas, Prikhodko said.
Kuchma's press secretary, Alexander Martynenko, told ITAR-Tass that the talks would also focus on outstanding problems on the relationship between the two countries following the long-delayed Russian approval of a friendship treaty with Ukraine.
The Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament, approved the treaty in February. It had been signed by Yeltsin and Kuchma in May 1997 and was ratified by Ukraine's legislature last year.
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Yeltsin Accepts Some Blame For Army Problems
Updated 12:14 PM ET July 2, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990702/12/international-arms-russia
MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Boris Yeltsin said he bore some responsibility for the problems facing Russia's underfunded and demoralized armed forces Friday.
"Delays in payments of financial support, the problem of housing and the decline of the social status of military personnel -- these are in many ways due to the shortcomings of government and of the president," he said in televised excerpts of an address to military leaders.
"None of us will be relieved of our responsibility."
Russia's military has received only scant funds, partly due to a crippling economic crisis in August last year.
Yeltsin was addressing a gathering of senior military and security officials at the Defense Ministry called to review Russia's recent military exercises code-named "Zapad (West) 99." The exercises, which took place late last month, were the largest of their kind since 1985.
During the exercises two Russian bombers penetrated NATO-member Iceland's air defenses, prompting Washington to say Moscow was trying to test U.S. military reflexes.
The Russian Air Force has denied any wrongdoing, and U.S. officials later played down the incident.
Yeltsin lauded Russia's diplomatic role in negotiating an end to NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia, saying he supported Russia's "independent" foreign policy.
"We have once again convinced ourselves that independence in Russia's foreign policy is the most important element for stability in Europe and the whole world," Yeltsin said.
He told the military chiefs that regional conflicts, not aggression by foreign powers, now posed the main threat to Russian security, Itar-Tass news agency said.
"The threat of major military aggression against Russia remains in the realm of theory, but the danger of regional conflicts exists," Tass quoted him as saying.
Roman Popkovich, head of the defense committee in the lower house of parliament who attended the meeting, said Yeltsin also spoke in favor of ratifying the START-2 nuclear disarmament treaty, signed with the United States in 1993.
The Duma has resisted ratifying the treaty, which commits both sides to deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals. But Yeltsin and U.S. officials are already hoping to launch talks on a START-3 treaty, which would bring even deeper cuts.
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19. Russian Forces Attack Chechen Fighters
Updated 5:48 AM ET July 5, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990705/05/international-russia-chec hnya
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian interior ministry troops launched a preemptive attack with helicopters and mortars on a group of 150-200 Chechen fighters Monday, Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo said.
He said on television that the attack had been launched near the border between the breakaway Chechnya region and Dagestan in southern Russia around dawn to prevent the Chechens from attacking a border post.
"As far as we know from monitoring radio conversations a number of the fighters were killed. We suffered no losses," Rushailo said in comments broadcast by NTV television.
He said the Russian forces had used helicopters and mortars, and the fighters had been armed with automatic weapons.
There was no immediate confirmation of the clashes from the Chechen side.
Chechnya and surrounding areas remain volatile despite the end of a 1994-96 war over the small region's independence bid, and criminal groups roam the area. Kidnappings are common and there have been several minor border clashes in recent weeks.
Rushailo told the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, Saturday that his forces were ready to carry out preemptive strikes against Chechen criminal groups.
He also accused prominent Chechen field commanders of trafficking in drugs and of building houses in Chechnya whose cellars would serve as dungeons for hostages held for ransom.
But Rushailo ruled out any repeat of the Chechen war in which tens of thousands of people were killed and which ended with a humiliating withdrawal of Russian federal troops.
"We are talking about (securing) territories along the administrative border (with Chechnya). It will be a local operation linked to attacks on our border posts and checkpoints," Rushailo said Saturday.
"We are not speaking of strategic strikes against Chechen territory," he said.
Chechnya says it is independent but Moscow says the small region remains part of the Russian Federation. No other country has recognized Chechnya's independence.
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20. Russia Tries to Save Military
By Barry Renfrew, Associated Press, July 2, 1999; 2:46 p.m. EDT
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990702/V000460-070299-idx.html
MOSCOW (AP) -- The appearance of Russian bombers over the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in years coincides with new efforts by Moscow to stop its once enormous military from disintegrating.
With the post-Cold War honeymoon giving way to growing disagreement with the West, Russia is trying to boost its armed forces after years of neglect.
The government, alarmed about the state of the military, has promised to boost spending on security to 28.5 percent of the budget -- $6.7 billion -- compared to a proposed U.S. defense budget of $280 billion.
Originally, the government had called for spending $5.1 billion on security, but even that figure appeared to be more than Russia could afford.
While the appearance of two bombers near Iceland during exercises last week alarmed some Western governments, the planes reflected Russia's military decline. They were TU-95 Bears, a 40-year-old propeller plane based on 1950s technology.
Two TU-160 jet bombers also cruised off the coast of Norway -- but the four bombers were apparently all the Russian air force could muster in what were billed as the country's biggest defense exercises in years.
More than 30 ships, several nuclear powered submarines, 10,000 troops and a number of aircraft from Russia's Baltic Fleet also took part in the exercises.
While Moscow isn't looking for confrontation with the West, it complains that it is not treated as an equal. The government's efforts to improve the military jumped after relations with the West were badly strained by NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia, a Russian ally.
Russian defense officials paint the following dismal picture of the military, which has been cut from 5 million personnel to 1.2 million in the past decade:
-- The air force has not received a new plane since 1992 and none are expected before 2001. The air force is so short of fuel that pilots average 25 hours flying time a year, compared to what is considered a minimum 200 hours in Western air forces.
-- Seventy percent of navy ships need major repairs. Scores of ships have sunk because their hulls rusted out. Just three nuclear submarines are thought to be on patrol at any one time out of a force that numbered 100 vessels a decade ago.
-- The army, which was defeated by a small guerrilla force in the 1994-96 Chechen war, hasn't received any new weapons in years. Alexander Lebed, a top politician and former general, estimates the country has fewer than 10,000 combat-ready troops.
With its conventional forces crumbling, Russia is relying on its still enormous nuclear forces. But the aging arsenal of nuclear missiles is fast approaching obsolescence and just a handful of new missiles have been built in recent years.
Military forces require constant supplies of new weapons plus regular maintenance to maintain effectiveness. Russian commanders say their forces won't get any new weapons before 2005.
The military still takes in tens of thousands of conscripts every year, but they receive only minimal training, often not enough to be effective in combat. Some officers hire their men out as laborers or make them beg on the streets.
Conditions in the ranks are bleak, with soldiers short of food, clothing and other necessities. Crime is rampant, with military prosecutors reporting that 17 generals and admirals were convicted of corruption in 1998.
Bullying and vicious hazing are endemic. Hundreds of soldiers desert each year, while scores commit suicide. Rampages by disgruntled soldiers who gun down other troops have become commonplace.
In a new twist, the Security Council, which oversees defense, said drug addiction, once almost unknown, is becoming a major problem in the military and could pose a threat to national security.
Also Friday, nearly 150 Russian paratroopers left for Yugoslavia by train, and more peacekeepers will be airlifted to Kosovo starting Sunday, news reports said.
Russia is already participating in a multinational peacekeeping operation in Yugoslavia's Kosovo province. A contingent of 700 paratroopers and technicians is based at the airport near Pristina, but their number is expected to reach 3,600 when the deployment is completed.
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21. Russian Bombers May Have Been A Test -US
Updated 12:24 AM ET July 2, 1999, By Randall Mikkelsen http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990702/00/international-arms-russia
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said Thursday that Russia may have been trying to test U.S. military reflexes when two bombers penetrated Iceland's air defenses last week, but said it was unconcerned by the incident.
"I assume that the Russians also want to learn lessons in terms of how quickly we can respond, and we demonstrated (that U.S. forces could respond) quite quickly," Defense Secretary William Cohen told reporters.
"I'm sure ... they have some multiple purposes, perhaps domestic purposes, international purposes. They want to be seen as remaining a force that one has to deal with," Cohen said.
U.S. officials echoed Russian statements playing down the incident and said it was not a surprise, even though it was the first time in several years Russian military planes had flown inside the air defense perimeter of NATO-member Iceland and been intercepted by U.S. jets.
The officials said the Russian planes had remained in international air space even though they had flown within the wider territory covered by Iceland's air-defense detection systems.
"It was not a militarily significant event," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said.
Four U.S. F-15 fighters intercepted the propeller-driven TU-95 Bear bombers near the North Atlantic nation last Friday and escorted them around the island, U.S. officials said.
"The U.S. routinely protects the airspace of Iceland and I don't think there's anyone who believed that these two propeller bombers posed a significant military threat." Lockhart said.
One defense official said such incidents were common in the Cold War era, but Friday's was the first such one in about a decade. Cohen said it had been probably five or six years since Russian bombers had flown in that area.
The flights were part of a military exercise announced in advance by Russia, but officials said Russia was not obligated to disclose flight paths in advance.
"Russia routinely holds military exercises and we are not particularly troubled by this," National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "I don't think that there's any need to over-dramatize this."
The Russian Air Force denied any wrongdoing.
"Our planes did not violate any laws in that area," a Russian Air Force spokesman said, declining further comment.
Norway also scrambled to send out jets to meet two TU-140 Blackjack bombers that had flown down the Norwegian coastline, but the Russian planes turned back before the jets reached them, U.S. officials said.
The Washington Post, which first reported the incident in Thursday's editions, quoted U.S. officials as saying the incident had taken place during Moscow's largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War.
Crowley disputed this assessment. "The Russians have had exercises of this nature on multiple occasions since the end of the Cold War," he said.
The exercise and interception came amid heightened concern in Washington about Russian President Boris Yeltsin's control over his government and armed forces.
About 200 Russian troops surprised NATO three weeks ago by occupying the airport in Pristina, the capital of the Serbian province of Kosovo, following an international peace deal with Yugoslavia and before NATO peacekeepers could arrive.
The ensuing standoff was resolved only after several days of negotiations over the terms for Russian troops to take part in the NATO-led peacekeeping force for Kosovo.
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22. Russian Premier Confident Of IMF Loan
Updated 3:33 AM ET July 3, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990703/03/international-economy-russia
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin said Saturday he was confident the board of directors of the International Monetary Fund would approve a much-needed $4.5 billion loan to Russia.
"We will get the credit, and everything will be all right," Stepashin told reporters on his arrival at the Federation Council (upper house of parliament), where he gave an address.
A spokeswoman for the Fund said Friday Moscow had settled most issues to win the loan, which could be approved within weeks.
The IMF spokeswoman in Washington said: "When the fund is satisfied that everything has been done, management could recommend Russia's request for a standby (loan) to the executive board, and we hope that this will be within the next few weeks."
She said the IMF was still waiting for the final results of independent audits into Russia's handling of foreign currency reserves held by an offshore company, and of the use of funds from an earlier IMF loan.
Russia reached a framework agreement on new IMF lending in April. Parliament, the government and the central bank have since agreed to several reforms aimed at securing the loans.
A previous IMF loan deal was suspended last year in the wake of a financial crisis that sent the rouble tumbling and forced Russia to default on billions of dollars worth of treasury bills and other debts.
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Russian defence budget eaten up by huge debts
NIKOLAI NOVICHKOV, Jane's Defence Weekly, 25 JUNE 1999 http://jdw.janes.com/sample/jdw3751.html
Moscow - Despite news that Russian defence expenditure is expected to reach a minimum of $6 billion, or 3% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in the year 2000, the 1999 allocation of $3.7 billion, or 2.3% of GDP for defence is already facing problems.
The original Russian presidential decision on the 1999 defence budget was $5.6 billion. This, however, failed to materialise.
To cover the minimum needs of the country's armed forces this year, the Russian government must pay its armed forces some $2.8 billion, according to Roman Popkovich, Chairman of the State Duma Defence Committee. A total of 112 to 114 billion roubles should have been allocated for these expenses.
Due to a delay in approving the 1999 budget it was approved by the Duma in February as of 26 May the Russian Defence Ministry had only received $1.25 billion, some 32.6% of the year's sum. At this point in the year, the ministry needed about 40% of the total yearly financing in order to cover combat training, maintenance and technical support, capital construction, military procurement and research and development (R&D) expenditure.
Of the total expenditure needed, combat training programmes and maintenance and technical support received only 21%, military procurement only 20%, research and development (R&D) only 22% and capital construction only 31%.
As of 31 May, wage arrears in the defence sector made up $340 million and more than $200 million was owed to cover the armed forces' food bill. The Russian Ministry of Finance still has to pay for the increases in service pensions for which there is no money, as well as pay the allowances for the previous year.
The quarterly 1999 financing limits for the defence sector have not yet been defined. According to Popkovich, this may result in financing basic expenditure at the end of the year.
Added to payment delays and rising inflation, this will lead to direct and indirect underfinancing of the defence sector needs, thus undermining military training programmes, R&D projects, production and supplies of new types of military equipment and the maintenance and repair of equipment in service.
Some positive trends have appeared, however. A number of critical programmes have been financed, including the Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile. Government regulatory measures to reduce defence debts, which stood at $1.8 billion as of 1 January, has led to the reduction of debt for military supplies and R&D programmes by $150 million. Some $130 million has been allocated to repay wage arrears in the defence sector.
The Defence Ministry received $40 million in the first three months of this year to repay wage arrears. In future, repayment of debts will be carried out in compliance with the 1999 Law On Budget. The federal budgets non-regulated debts will be paid off within five years, starting from 2000.
Russian Prime Minister Sergey Stepashin believes 3.5% of the forecast GDP should be spent on defence in 2000 and that there must also be a regular quarterly distribution of financing with the bulk of funds allocated for military and combat training in the first three quarters of 1999.
According to Stepashin, this 3.5% was fixed by presidential decree.
His position is supported by the Ministry of Economy, which considers the minimum level of defence financing to be no less than $6 billion, or 3% of GDP.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the following expenditure figures are more realistic: $4.53 billion, or 2.2% of GDP ($4.43 billion for national defence and $0.1 billion for military development support).
This depends on the restructuring of the country's foreign debt and on the share of budget expenditure when compared to the actual level of GDP.
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23. US Diplomat Expelled From Moscow -Embassy Official
Updated 12:12 PM ET July 4, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990704/12/news-usa-diplomat
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A U.S. diplomat was expelled from Moscow Thursday, an embassy official told Reuters.
The official, who asked not to be named, said Lt. Col. Peter Hoffman, an assistant Army attache, left Russia Thursday after his accreditation was withdrawn for unspecified reasons. Russia's Foreign Ministry was not available for comment.
In Washington, a White House spokesman said "We just have no comment."
Asked if any such expulsion might have something to do with Russian unhappiness over Kosovo peacekeeping arrangements, the spokesman replied: "I would steer you away from that."
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Report: more Russians ready for Kosovo
Updated 9:12 PM ET July 3, 1999 http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
Another contingent of Russian paratroopers is set to fly into Kosovo despite reports that an early attempt to send Russian reinforcements into Pristina was foiled by the United States and NATO.
The Itar-Tass news agency reports today that about 100 airborne troops will leave from the Russian city of Ivanova for Pristina Sunday morning. It would be the first new Russian troops to arrive in Kosovo for about a week.
More than 300 Russian troops are scheduled to fly into Pristina's Slatina Airport between Sunday and Tuesday. Joining the soldiers will be a contingent of Russian journalists.
A U.S. newspaper reported today that the Russians had tried to send the paratroopers in earlier this weekend, but they were turned back by the western allies. The New York Times says the Russians tried to enter the Yugoslav province before unresolved details of last month's Helsinki military agreement between NATO and Moscow could be worked out.
Moscow asked Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria for use of their air space to fly 10 planeloads of peacekeepers to Kosovo, but all three countries refused the request after consulting with top NATO leaders, administration officials said.
In Pristina, KFOR peacekeeping troops continue watching for further trouble after Friday night's noisy celebration by ethnic Albanians was marred by the shooting deaths of two revelers by British soldiers.
The incident occurred as crowds celebrated the ninth anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Kosovo and proclamation of a constitution. A car with several people inside approached a government building where about 50 Serbs had taken shelter.
A burst of automatic fire from the car was directed at the building, guarded by eight British paratroopers. The paratroopers returned fire, killing one occupant of the car instantly and wounding three others whom were taken to hospital, the reports said.
One of the three wounded later died in the hospital. KFOR troops found an automatic weapon in the car.
Major Jan Joosten, a KFOR spokesman, told the BBC today the British soldiers fired in self-defense and he rejected the notion that they mat have overreacted.
British military authorities will investigate the incident.
Thousands took part in the celebrations, marching through the streets of Pristina shooting into the air.
The celebrations coincided with the first face-to-face meeting between representatives of Kosovo Albanians and Serbs for quite some time.
The groups issued a joint appeal for an end to violence between the two communities. The two delegations also agreed to form a joint crisis council to enable them to react promptly to "all security problems at any moment".
As the ethnic Albanians celebrated in Pristina, more of their countrymen were waiting to return home.
An official repatriation program continued in Albania. A NATO general told reporters that the operation would likely run into September. Canadian immigration officials say arrangements are being made to fly some 300 Kosovar refugees home sometime next week.
In the meantime, the BBC reported today that war crimes investigators in western Kosovo have discovered the bodies of seven ethnic Albanian children between the ages of 4 to 12 who had been shot at close range near the village of Bella Cerka.
British forensic experts said it was the first time the bodies of children so young had been found in Kosovo.
The children were discovered with the bodies of five adults, two men and three women, near the village of Bella Cerka, near the western Kosovo town of Prizren.
David Gowan, the top British war crimes investigator, told the BBC that eyewitness accounts of a massacre in the village are included in the war crimes indictment against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. He said it was known from witnesses that children had died in the massacre, but their ages were not known until today.
Related Stories
Shooting mars Kosovo celebration (Jul 3 2:59 pm ET) file:///news/u/990703/14/international-kosovo
Thousands rally in Pristina, Novi Sad (Jul 2 9:44 pm ET) file:///news/u/990702/21/international-kosovo
Serbs, KLA call for end to violence (Jul 2 6:28 pm ET) file:///news/u/990702/18/international-kosovo
U.N. looking for funds for refugees (Jul 2 4:19 am ET) file:///news/u/990702/04/international-kosovo
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Message: 12 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 22:18:23 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-1 7/06/99 - Canada; China; Japan; Australia
1. Canada's naval bases fail nuclear leak test
WebPosted Mon Jul 5 05:16:20 1999 - CBC News http://www.cbcnews.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/1999/07/05/nuclea r990705
TORONTO - Department of National Defence report cards show Canada's naval bases aren't fully prepared for the possibility of a nuclear leak caused by a visiting foreign warship, the National Post reports.
LINKS: Websites related to this story
The nuclear readiness tests were conducted in late 1997 and 1998 at three naval bases, with CFB Halifax getting the worst grade.
During the simulated accident Halifax officials failed to promptly notify off-site authorities of the emergency, didn't adequately track air quality and didn't secure access to the contaminated area.
Two Vancouver Island bases -- CFB Esquimalt and test ranges at Nanoose Bay -- fared better but still had problems with unprepared equipment, deficient evacuation plans and ineffective communications.
The bases are sometimes host to visiting warships that may be nuclear powered or potentially armed with nuclear weapons.
In May British Columbia Premier Glen Clark had sought assurances against nuclear warheads entering B.C. waters while the province and Ottawa debated the role of Nanoose Bay.
Minister of National Defence Art Eggleton said no nuclear weapons are specifically tested at Nanoose Bay and the site has been accident free for 30 years. Still, Ottawa could not give B.C. the guarantee it was looking for.
LINKS:
Maritime Forces Pacific http://trotsky.resnet.gatech.edu/military/Canada/pacfleet.htm
Maritime Forces Atlantic http://www.marlant.hlfx.dnd.ca/marlant/pg001e.html
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2. Accident Setback Chinese Reactor
Monday, July 5, 1999; 11:06 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990705/V000263-070599-idx.html http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-China-Nuclear-Accident.html
BEIJING (AP) -- An accident a year ago crippled one of China's two nuclear power plants, leaving the reactor unable to generate electricity, an executive with the plant's state-run operator said today.
While he said no one was hurt and no radiation leaked out, the problem at Qinshan nuclear power plant was the latest setback for China's ambitious nuclear energy program.
In an indication of its sensitivity, the July 1998 accident was never reported by China's entirely state-run media.
Foreign and domestic engineers have worked to repair the plant, but the ``reactor is still down,'' said Pang Xiaoguang, with the international division of China National Nuclear Corp.
Although Pang refused to elaborate, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported Sunday that operators were forced to shut down the 300,000-kilowatt pressurized-water reactor after radioactive materials seeped into the water used to keep the reactor from overheating.
Guide pipes inside the reactor that had been bolted instead of welded on broke, damaging nine of 121 nuclear fuel assemblies and causing radioactive material to leak into the cooling water, Kyodo said, citing unnamed Chinese sources.
The problem was discovered during an inspection of the plant last July and if left unchecked could have resulted in serious damage, Kyodo reported.
Pang disputed the account, saying the accident ``was not as serious as Kyodo described.'' But he refused to explain the cause of the accident.
Among the foreign contractors called in, according to Kyodo, was U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Co. Telephone calls to Westinghouse's main China office in Beijing went unanswered Monday.
Qinshan, located 50 miles south of Shanghai, went into operation two years behind schedule in 1991. It was touted as China's first domestically designed and built nuclear power plant, despite its Japanese reactor vessel, German coolant pump and French computer controls.
China's only other operational nuclear reactor, at Daya Bay, near Hong Kong, was also plagued by construction delays and has had technical problems since it began operating in 1994.
Despite those difficulties, China is aggressively trying expand nuclear power, which it sees as a cleaner alternative to the coal- and oil-burning power plants it currently relies on.
Nuclear energy now accounts for one percent of China's energy production, but that proportion is set to triple in seven years.
Four more reactors are under construction at Qinshan. China will also build new plants at Ling'ao in booming southern Guangdong province and Lianyungang, near Shanghai.
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Japanese Media Alarmed By Secrecy Over Chinese Nuclear Trouble
TOKYO, Jul 5, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) http://www.insidechina.com/news.php3?id=76952
Japanese media expressed alarm Monday at a one-year delay in Beijing's revelation of an accident at China's first homegrown nuclear reactor, the 30-megawatt Qinshan 1.
Kyodo News agency, reporting from Beijing late Sunday, said the trouble had not been reported at all to the public during the 12 months following the discovery of damage in the reactor.
The influential Asahi Shimbun said Monday the accident showed "problems in technical standards and disclosure of information as China and other Asian nations are trying to speed up their development of nuclear power plants."
In Beijing, a nuclear safety official told AFP the reactor had been closed down for a year for repairs after bolts fell off and that it would resume operations next month.
Operations at the power plant in Zhejiang province had been suspended because of "a welding problem", said a spokeswoman from the nuclear safety department under the state environmental protection agency.
The Japanese government had been informed of the accident by the Chinese government "on condition it should not be made public," a Japanese official said.
Under a bilateral agreement, the two countries exchange information on problems at nuclear reactors, said the official at the agency of natural resources and energy. But he refused to give details of the accident.
The Chinese government has determined that the magnitude of the trouble was lower than Level Two on the scale of eight set by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the official said.
Any nuclear reactor accident with magnitude of Level Two or above should be reported to the international body.
"We presume the accident was of Level One or Level Zero," the official said. "Any question on details should be referred to the Chinese government." ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)
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3. China's Chief of Intelligence Reassigned
Los Angeles Times Saturday, July 3, 1999; Page A06 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/03/065l-070399-idx.html
BEIJING, July 2-The chief of Chinese military intelligence has been reassigned in a move that government officials here insisted was unrelated to his role in the U.S. campaign donations scandal.
Gen. Ji Shengde's apparent demotion -- from directing intelligence for the vast People's Liberation Army to running a department at a military research institute -- was described as a lateral transfer by a spokesman for the National Defense Ministry.
Democratic fund-raiser Johnny Chung testified that Ji gave him $300,000 in the summer of 1996 to help support President Clinton's reelection campaign. Chung gave only $35,000 to the Democratic National Committee. A Senate committee said most of the funds "went for [Chung's] personal use."
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Long March Home Leaving After 3 1/2 Years, Ambassador to China Reflects on Rocky Road to Mutual Understanding
By Michael Laris, Washington Post, July 3, 1999; Page A15 http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/03/086l-070399-idx.html
BEIJING-After 3 1/2 years as the point man in one of America's most important international relationships, Jim Sasser, the outgoing ambassador to China, has learned a simple lesson: increasing mutual understanding is not always pretty.
Take a night in 1997, a year in which he shepherded more than 100 members of Congress through Beijing as part of an effort to improve battered ties following a dangerous standoff over Taiwan. A Chinese deputy foreign minister hosted an elegant banquet, delivered a briefing on China's domestic and international challenges, then offered to take questions.
"One congressman asked: 'I just want to know if you've accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior,' " Sasser recalled. "The minister looked stunned, and he said 'no.' The whole table almost fell on the floor. The congressman was quite serious. That was his litmus test." Sasser declined to identify the congressman.
In an interview at his residence hours before movers came, Sasser told of the sometimes amusing and sometimes alarming mechanics of nurturing relations between the world's most powerful country and the world's most populous one. While the U.S. bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade seems to have wiped away most signs of recent progress, Sasser insists there are still reasons for optimism.
"The bridges are still intact," said the 61-year-old former senator from Tennessee, who has been tipped for a position in Vice President Gore's presidential campaign. "Some of them have been superficially damaged as a result of the Belgrade bombing, but the structures are still strong."
Sasser has differed from recent ambassadors to Beijing. The prior three -- Stapleton Roy, James Lilley and Winston Lord -- were all China experts. Sasser's appointment was criticized because he was a China novice. But the political skills he honed in Washington turned out to be useful in Beijing.
In March 1996, one month after he arrived here, provocative Chinese missile firings over the Taiwan Strait helped jolt the Clinton administration into pursing an aggressive, and controversial, engagement policy with China. Sasser was given responsibility for rebuilding relationships in Beijing and raising China's profile back home. As a longtime friend of the Gore family, Sasser had direct access to the White House, which is unusual for an ambassador.
Sasser's southern roots may have smoothed his way in China. Coming from a region that traditionally values personal ties, he understood intrinsically the Chinese concept of guanxi -- the trusting, give-and-take relationships that drive much of politics and culture here.
While efforts to increase contacts at all levels of government have sometimes resulted in culture clashes, they have also added a human element that can ease tensions, Sasser said.
Building military-to-military ties was a priority "because that's where a lot of the suspicion was coming from out here -- almost a paranoid suspicion -- and there was some of that in the United States as well," Sasser said.
Sasser said his high point as ambassador was standing outside the Great Hall of the People last year with Presidents Clinton and Jiang Zemin, watching the American flag flapping in the summer breeze during the June summit.
The low point was the Sunday morning after the embassy bombing seven weeks ago when he stood inside the U.S. Embassy destroying documents and sensitive equipment because "we thought Chinese mobs were coming over the fence and coming in."
Chinese officials continue to publicly reject the U.S. explanation, offered last month by presidential envoy Thomas Pickering, that the bombing was caused by a litany of mistakes. But Sasser said there are encouraging signs that China's ruling bureaucracy has nevertheless begun to "reexamine" its handling of the issue.
"They realize that they were mistaken in concealing the reason many countries were willing to risk their young people and treasure" over Kosovo, Sasser said. They are also questioning their decision to immediately declare that the embassy bombing was deliberate, he added.
Sasser criticized Washington's handling of the initial bombing apology, which Clinton made in answer to a reporter's question while touring a disaster area. Chinese leaders were offended by the tone and setting of the apology, Sasser said.
"I can understand why they did what they did. I'm sure that they thought it was important for us to get an apology out as quickly as we can," Sasser said. But, he added, "my sense of it is we could have done a better job in the initial reaction to this." He credited Clinton with making an unprecedented and effective personal apology "when he got to Washington and he realized the full gravity of the situation."
Administration critics in Congress and elsewhere cite China's alleged nuclear espionage and the government's brutal treatment of dissidents as justifications for a more confrontational policy.
But Sasser, who terms himself an "amateur historian" of the 20th century's major wars, argues that engagement is the best way to encourage China to be a responsible emerging power, unlike wartime Germany or Japan.
"If you want to treat China as an enemy, you have a much better chance of making them an enemy than if you treat them as a potential friend," he said.
The nominee to replace Sasser is retired Adm. Joseph W. Prueher. His nomination has not yet been officially confirmed by the U.S. Senate or accepted by the Chinese.
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4. OKINAWA JOURNAL Enmity Eases Among Hot Dogs and War Machines
By CALVIN SIMS, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/070599japan-us-bases.html
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan -- As Americans celebrated Independence Day, Natsuko Miyagi and Yukihiro Nakanishi ventured behind enemy lines to get a closer look at what they say imperils their freedom.
For as long as they can remember, Ms. Miyagi and Nakanishi have despised the vast U.S. military bases that make living in this sparkling, subtropical island in Okinawa prefecture less inviting than it could be.
Like many residents of cities surrounding the military bases, which take up one-fifth of island land, the couple wants them removed. Okinawans have long complained that noise and vibrations from military aircraft, combat and ammunitions exercises, and rude and drunken soldiers threaten not only their pastoral way of life but also their safety.
But this weekend, the couple attended what has become Kadena's annual "America Fest," a three-day carnival in which the air base, one of the largest in the world, and military aircraft are opened for local residents to peruse.
"I was a little nervous coming here because as a youngster I was taught these bases were places of great tyranny," Nakanishi, a computer programmer, said. "But just being allowed to come inside these gates to see what goes on in here has made me feel better about the military."
Ms. Miyagi, his companion, who is a teacher, needed more convincing. "We now know what it's like to be an American," she said. "We ate a hot dog, listened to country music, and saw some very big planes that are used to blow things up and kill."
Ms. Miyagi's sarcasm notwithstanding, American military officials here maintain that historically contentious relations between Okinawans and the U.S. military have improved remarkably in recent years, mainly because Washington and Tokyo have made efforts to reduce the negative effects of the bases on local residents.
"There is still a lot of anti-base rhetoric being bandied about for political purposes, and that is not likely to change," said Lt. Col. Brian Hoey, the base's public affairs chief. "But we believe there has been a significant change in the way the military views the community and how they view us."
Military officials estimated that 200,000 people turned out for the base festival, which caused huge traffic delays across the island. Nobu Okada, a college student who took pictures next to an Apache helicopter, said that he found it curious that so many Okinawans, who are adamantly opposed to the military bases, would attend a base party.
Several local political leaders and U.S. servicemen said they too had noted an improvement in relations since 1995, when the anti-base sentiment turned to rage after three American servicemen were convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl. All are now serving prison terms.
"Right after the rape incident, you could feel the distrust in the air," said Gordon Griffen, an Air Force crew chief. "Local folks seemed to be afraid of us, but I don't feel that any more. I think we have shown them that we can be a productive part of their community."
Under an agreement announced by both governments three years ago, military bases have taken steps to alter the times and procedures of training and operations, including flight patterns, to decrease the disturbance to neighboring residents.
Military personnel have received sensitivity training in dealing with the local community, officials said, and they have become more involved in public service activities, including volunteering at local orphanages and taking part in local sporting events.
Other factors contributing to better relations, local politicians said, were the election last year of a new prefecture governor who has been less radical than his predecessor in denouncing the bases, and a realization on the part of Okinawans that they are heavily dependent on the bases for jobs.
Still, little headway has been made on the core of that agreement -- the return of one-fifth of the land taken up by the bases -- which is the principal demand of the Okinawans.
Okinawans question the need for a foreign army to be stationed in Japan, especially in the aftermath of the Cold War. They have long held that they are being treated unfairly because 75 percent of the U.S. military installations in Japan are based in their prefecture.
In the final stages of World War II, Okinawa prefecture, which encompasses Japan's southernmost islands, was the scene of intense fighting between U.S. and Japanese forces. After the war, the island was put under U.S. control until it reverted to Japan in 1972. The islands, which have a population of 1.2 million people, are home to about two-thirds of the 45,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan.
Apart from the fireworks, concerts, games and aircraft displays, many Okinawans said that they came to the base festival as a way displaying their sovereignty over the military installations, which they say are off limits to them throughout the rest of the year.
"Some of my friends criticize me for coming and tell me that I am being a pawn of the military," said Akira Matsumoto, who has attended the event for the last 15 years. "But this is Okinawan land. And we have to express our right to be here."
Brig. Gen. James B. Smith, Kadena's base commander, said that while he sympathized with Okinawan residents who suffered because of the military presence in their community, the bases were crucial to the United States' strategy in Asia to maintain a balance of power.
The general said the importance of the military bases had increased in the last decade with the closure of bases in the Philippines. He said the bases were especially vital to respond to security threats from China, North Korea, or Russia.
But Smith said that while his principal job in Okinawa was as a soldier, he would be failing in that role if he did not address the concerns of the community in which he operated his air base.
"The days when the base commander had free rein and could do whatever he wanted to do without concern for the local population are long gone," as they should be, Smith said. "We are learning to get along."
But some anti-base political leaders in Okinawa said there was no room for compromise and they vow to press ahead with their efforts to remove all military installations.
Keiko Itokazu, an Okinawan prefecture assembly member, who is on the planning committee to reduce military installations, said that the presence of any military base or personnel puts Okinawans at risk. "These bases have machines and men whose sole purpose is to kill," she said. "You can try to make them more sensitive to the community's needs, but that contrasts sharply with what they are trained to do."
Related Articles
Okinawan Voters Oppose Planned U.S. Military Base (Dec. 22, 1997) http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/early/122297japan-us-bases.html
Japan House Passes Bill Bolstering U.S. Bases (April 12, 1997) http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/early/041297japan-us.html
One Pleads Guilty to Okinawa Rape; 2 Others Admit Role (Nov. 8, 1995) http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/early/120296okinawa-rape.html
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5. Jabiluka stage one completed
Monday 5 July, 1999 (11:10am AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-5jul1999-41.htm
The first stage of the Jabiluka uranium mine has been completed.
Mining company Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) says the underground work to access the ore body has been finished ahead of schedule and under budget.
ERA says safety and environmental studies will be carried out during the next six months.
The company plans to begin mining in 2001.
Meanwhile, ERA says it is not travelling to Paris to make submissions to a United Nations committee about the environmental status of Kakadu National Park.
The UNESCO committee will decide if the Jabiluka uranium mine threatens the park's natural heritage listing and whether to list it as being in-danger.
An ERA spokesman says the company has met all Australian environmental requirements and the committee has said those guidelines are inadequate.
The spokesman says it is more appropriate for the Federal Government to make submissions on its environmental policies to the committee.
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Jabiluka traditional owners to lobby heritage committee in Paris
Saturday 3 July, 1999 (8:22am AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-3jul1999-21.htm
Traditional owners of the Northern Territory's Jabiluka uranium mine site are leaving for Paris today to lobby the United Nations World Heritage Committee.
The UNESCO committee is expected to make a decision in just over a week.
The Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Mirrar people, says the group wants the Kakadu National Park listed as "in-danger".
The corporation's Jacqui Katona says it is a move to try and have the Australian Government isolated.
"The World Heritage Convention does not impinge on sovereignty of the state parties," Ms Katona said.
"The World Heritage Convention and any in-danger listing would simply be an assessment of Australia's performance in relation to the convention.
"And Australia has performed abysmally and that has already been accepted by the World Heritage Committee," she said.
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Govt determined to stop Jabiluka in-danger listing: Bolkus
Saturday 3 July, 1999 (10:08am AEST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-3jul1999-29.htm
The Federal Opposition says the Government will stop at nothing to prevent Kakadu National Park being listed as "in-danger".
Traditional owners of the Jabiluka uranium mine site are heading to Paris today to lobby the United Nations World Heritage Committee for the listing.
Federal Environment Minister Robert Hill is also going to Paris next week to lobby a sub-group of the UNESCO committee, which is expected to hand down its final report in just over a week.
Shadow Environment Minister Nick Bolkus says the Government is willing to do anything to allow mining at the site.
"What they're doing here is sparing no expense, sinking to all depths to try and overcome the protection of one of the most important natural areas in the world - an area on the World Heritage list, an area that 70 per cent of Australians do not want mined at Jabiluka," he said.
"This is not a cause worth putting millions of dollars into as this Government is doing."
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Planned legal challenge to Beverley mine dropped
Monday 5 July, 1999 (7:38am CST) http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/sa/archive/metsa-5jul1999-1.htm
Plans to mount a legal challenge against Australia's third uranium mine at Beverley in South Australia's far north have been abandoned.
The Australian Conservation Foundation said it found no legal impediments that would stop the mine from going ahead.
But campaign officer Dave Sweeney says the mine is still unjustified and the group is now looking to fight it in other ways, possibly with on-site protests.
He says the fact that the Jabiluka mine was proposed in the 1980s gives encouragement to opponents of Beverley.
"Fifteen years down the track there's still no mine there and the same applies with Honeymoon and the same applies with lots of other places," he said.
"The Beverley mine is not a new proposal, opposition to the Beverley mine is not a new thing.
"We are the next round of opposition and we will continue as creatively and as positively and as effectively as we can to ensure that the Beverley mine is not developed."
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Message: 13 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 20:38:20 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-3 7/06/99 - Sweden; Cuba; Colombia; Germany-Politics, Ukraine
8. Sweden's Sydkraft makes fresh nuclear appeal to EU
09:55 a.m. Jul 05, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
STOCKHOLM, July 5 (Reuters) - Swedish power company Sydkraft AB on Monday stepped up its battle against a government decision to shut down its nuclear reactors, saying it would make a fresh appeal to the European Union Commission.
Sydkraft said it would ask the Commission to examine a decision in mid-June by Sweden's Supreme Administrative Court to back the government's plans to phase out nuclear energy without waiting for an advance ruling from the EC Court of Justice.
``In cases such as this, the EU Commission can apply for a restraining order from the Court of Justice. The aim is to submit Sydkraft's application to the EU Commission at the end of July,'' it said in a statement.
One of Sydkraft's two reactors at Barseback in southern Sweden is due to be shut by the end of the November this year , and the other by 2001. There are no plans at present to close any of Sweden's other 10 nuclear reactors.
Sykdkraft first asked the EU Commission in February 1998 to examine the government's nuclear shutdown plans on grounds that closing the Barseback plants would unfairly help its main competitor, state-owned Vattenfall.
``We think this is an alternative way to get a response,'' Sydkraft spokesman Stieg Claesson told Reuters on Monday.
Vattenfall also operates two nuclear reactors but is about twice the size of Sydkraft, which is partly owned by German conglomerate Veba AG's Preussen Elektra and Norway's Statkraft.
Swedes voted to stop using nuclear power in a public referendum in 1980, but no action was taking on the highly politicised issue until last year when the government first proposed the closure of Barseback 1.
Sydkraft has fought the decision all the way. Sweden's Supreme Administrative Court suspended the closure plans in May 1998 while its courts reviewed the programme.
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9. Castro's son defends Cuban nuclear energy project
03:34 p.m Jul 04, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
HAVANA, July 4 (Reuters) - President Fidel Castro's son rebuffs foreign criticism of Cuba's aspirations to build and operate a nuclear power plant in a book presented by a Cuban newspaper on Sunday.
Foreign critics, especially in the neighbouring United States, have cited security and safety issues to attack communist-ruled Cuba's efforts to develop a nuclear power plant.
``The alleged danger does not exist,'' writes Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart in a book entitled ``Nuclear Energy. Environmental Threat or Solution for the 21st Century?,'' excerpts of which were published on Sunday by Juventud Rebelde newspaper.
Castro Diaz-Balart, the son of Fidel Castro's marriage to Mirta Diaz-Balart before his 1959 revolution, is a nuclear physicist who was head of Cuba's national nuclear programme from 1980 to 1992.
It was in 1992 that Cuba's government ordered a halt to the construction of the twin-pressurized water reactor nuclear plant it was building with assistance from the former Soviet Union at Juragua near Cienfuegos on the south-central coast.
The project was halted because of lack of funding after the collapse of Cuba's trade and aid ties with the ex-Soviet bloc.
In his book, Castro Diaz-Balart says foreign criticism of the Cuban programme is motivated by political and economic factors: ``They (the critics) cannot accept the idea of Cuba dominating the atom as a genuine product of the Revolution and the vision and tenacity of (president) Fidel (Castro).''
He adds that nuclear power plants of the same Soviet type and technology as the one planned in Cuba exist in Finland and Hungary and have worked without problems.
The Cuban plant remains unfinished but in May this year, Russia and Cuba announced they were forming a joint venture to complete the project. Western companies have appeared reluctant to participate in the Cuban nuclear power project, partly because of strong opposition against it from the United States.
Foreign analysts said they believed some $800 million dollars were needed to complete the first planned 430MW reactor and questioned whether the Russian-Cuban venture could raise the funds to do this.
Castro Diaz-Balart largely disappeared from public view after he was replaced as head of Cuba's nuclear programme.
Juventud Rebelde said he was currently working as a science and technology adviser to the Basic Industry Ministry.
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Cuba Sues U.S. for $181 Billion
By The Associated Press, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Cuba-US-Lawsuit.html
HAVANA (AP) -- Cuba took the United States to court on Monday, seeking damages it says Cubans have suffered in a U.S.-backed dirty war stretching over four decades.
The hearings opened Monday morning at the Palace of the Revolution -- the seat of Cuba's communist government -- rather than in a regular courtroom, demonstrating the political importance that President Fidel Castro is placing on the legal process.
The hearings will show ``the sick hostility signified by U.S. policy toward Cuba,'' the Communist Party workers' daily Trabajadores predicted Monday in a front-page story.
While the Cuban government is using the hearings to make a political point, it appeared unlikely the lawsuit would result in any damages being paid. There are no American funds in Cuba that can be frozen and seized.
No U.S. representative attended the court proceedings. And the U.S. government did not respond to the claim within 20 working days as required by Cuban law, said Juan Mendoza, one of Cuba's attorneys in the case.
The legal team hopes to show how U.S. policies have damaged Cuban society over the past 40 years, Mendoza said.
More than 100 people are expected to testify before the hearings finish July 22. Huge piles of written evidence also are expected to be presented.
The first witness before the five-member tribunal was Anibal Velaz Suarez, the retired former head of State Security for central Cuba during the early 1960s. He testified about ``the barbaric bloody acts that the CIA committed with the bandits'' in the years after Castro's 1959 rise to power, including killings of members of the new revolutionary government.
The lawsuit, filed in late May in Havana, asks for $181 billion in compensatory and punitive damages for the deaths of 3,478 Cubans and permanent physical damage to 2,099 more people in a variety of acts ranging from the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 to the bombing of Havana hotels in 1997.
The plaintiffs include the National Association of Small Farmers, the Federation of Cuban Women, the Communist Workers of Cuba and the Federation of University Students -- all mass organizations associated with Cuba's communist government.
Cuba's lawsuit appears to be Havana's answer to another lawsuit in the United States. In that case, a federal judge in Miami has ordered Cuba to pay $187 million to the families of three Americans killed in 1996 when Cuban military jets shot down two small private planes off the island's coast.
The three men, members of the Miami Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue, were among four shot from the sky by Cuban MiGs while on a mission searching for Cuban rafters.
Members of the exile group have said the pilots were always in international territory, but the Cuban government has insisted that they invaded Cuban airspace.
Cuban authorities remain infuriated by the American lawsuit, as well as attempts to seize Cuban funds from telephone companies operating long distance phone service between the two countries.
Cuba would need strong international backing in any attempt to force U.S. payment, perhaps from an international court.
New York attorney William H. Schaap, attending the hearings as a legal observer for the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild, said the case raises significant issues -- comparable to issues he said are raised by U.S. military attacks in Yugoslavia and Panama.
``I think it is a legitimate complaint under international law,'' he said. ``But the sad thing is that international law is no longer respected.''
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10. Schroeder cautious on Ukraine nuclear talks
01:05 p.m Jul 05, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
BONN, July 5 (Reuters) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Monday tried to play down hopes in his centre-left coalition that Germany would be able to persuade Ukraine not to build nuclear power plants with Western funds.
Schroeder, who is travelling to Ukraine on Wednesday, told a news conference the government had to face the fact that Ukraine and other Group of Seven rich industrial nations did not share the Bonn ruling coalition's desire to phase out nuclear power.
``The position of the Greens and the Social Democrats is not shared internationally as much as we would like,'' he said.
``There are two other players to deal with here -- the Ukrainian government and the rest of the G7.''
Schroeder said it might be necessary to back down on the issue to achieve the main priority of having the disaster-hit Chernobyl reactor switched off.
``Do we want Chernobyl, which I see as a time bomb, turned off or not? And if we do, are we prepared to pay for it?'' he said after a meeting of SPD leaders in Bonn.
Schroeder last week said Western failure to fund new nuclear plants in Ukraine could pose political risks in the region.
The G7 has entrusted Germany with negotiating a deal to finance new reactors in Ukraine, based on an agreement signed in 1995, in exchange for shutting Chernobyl.
A G7 summit in Cologne last month was due to approve $1.2 billion in funding for the new reactors, but a decision was delayed pending Schroeder's trip.
Schroeder has said he is still torn on whether or not to deny the aid to encourage Ukraine to produce non-nuclear power, as a rejection could have political consequences in the region.
The German parliament has demanded that Schroeder reject the funding. The Greens, junior partners in the coalition, insist the G7 should fund gas-fired power stations instead of replacement nuclear reactors.
Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst civil nuclear disaster in April 1986 when one of its four reactors exploded, sending massive clouds of radioactive dust to neighbouring Belarus and Russia and much of Europe.
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Risks linked to Ukraine nuclear decision-Schroeder
02:54 p.m Jul 02, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
BERLIN, July 2 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Friday that Western failure to fund new nuclear power plants in Ukraine could pose political risks in the region.
The Group of Seven (G7) rich nations has charged Germany with negotiating a deal on the financing of new nuclear reactors in Ukraine in exchange for shutting down the disaster-hit Chernobyl plant, based on an agreement signed in 1995.
The G7 summit in Cologne last month was due to approve $1.2 billion in funding for the new reactors but summit host Schroeder delayed a decision until his trip to Kiev, to begin on July 7.
Schroeder said on Friday he was still torn on the issue of whether to approve the aid or deny it in order to encourage the Ukraine to produce non-nuclear power as he said a rejection could unleash political consequences in the region.
``It is in our foreign and security policy interests that Ukraine not become too dependent on Russia,'' he said. He did not elaborate on specific risks a rejection might pose.
The German parliament has demanded that Schroeder reject the funding for Ukraine. The Greens, junior partners in the ruling coalition, have insisted the G7 fund gas-fired power stations rather than replacement nuclear reactors instead.
Schroeder said he would attempt to convince Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to turn to non-nuclear power.
Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst civil nuclear disaster in April 1986 when one of its four reactors exploded, sending massive clouds of radioactive dust to neighbouring Belarus and Russia and much of Europe.
The G7 and Ukraine signed an agreement in 1995 to shut down the plant in exchange for aid to complete two replacement reactors at Rivne and Khmelnitska nuclear plants.
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11. Schroeder coalition at risk over nuclear pledge
07:09 a.m. Jul 05, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
BONN, July 5 (Reuters) - A leader of Germany's Greens warned Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Monday that the ecologist party could walk out of his coalition if a controversial election pledge to phase out nuclear power was not honoured.
``This is perhaps the Greens' main reason for being in the coalition,'' said party co-leader Antje Radcke.
``If we don't achieve anything here, we must ask ourselves what exactly we want from this coalition,'' she told the Berlin tabloid newspaper B.Z. in an interview.
Schroeder's Social Democrats and Greens politicians are to hold an emergency meeting over the issue this Wednesday after the Greens rejected proposals that would spread the phase-out over 25 years.
The threat by Radke, a leader of the party's radical ``fundamentalist'' wing, is the most direct of several such comments by Greens leaders over the weekend.
The party is desperate to win back core support that has crumbled since its federal government debut last October.
It has suffered from the perception that it has been trampled on by Schroeder's much larger SPD in a series of policy disputes.
Schroeder has resisted any fast pull-out because of threats by the nuclear industry, which provides around a third of the country's power, to sue for billions of marks (dollars) in damages.
Economics Minister Werner Mueller, a former power sector executive brought in by Schroeder to handle the pull-out, came up with a plan last month under which the last of Germany's 19 reactors would shut down by 2024.
In return, the nuclear utilities -- Veba, RWE, Viag and Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg -- would refrain from legal action over the closures.
While the Greens rejected that timetable as too slow, Germany's four main nuclear operators also dismissed the plan because it would force the closure of reactors whose working life extends beyond that date.
The commitment to withdraw from nuclear power has been a headache for Schroeder since he entered office last October.
Not only has it brought him into conflict with big business -- which he needs to participate in his ambitious ``Alliance for Jobs'' employment creation scheme -- but the row has also acquired an international dimension.
Earlier this year he backed down on a related pledge to end shipments of German nuclear waste abroad for reprocessing after France and Britain said they would stand up for their firms if lucrative contracts were lost as a result.
The row has triggered speculation that Schroeder is preparing to sack Green Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, who has campaigned for a fast shutdown of atomic energy.
While Trittin is not universally loved among the Greens, such a move could in itself lead to a coalition split.
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German Gov't Debates Nuclear Energy
By The Associated Press, July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Germany-Politics.html
BERLIN (AP) -- Battered by the war over Kosovo, Germany's coalition government was under renewed strain Monday after some leaders of the environmental party threatened to walk out over the country's slow pace in scrapping nuclear energy.
Greens party leaders warned that, without the quick closure of the nation's remaining 19 nuclear plants, the party would have to re-evaluate its part in the nine-month-old coalition. But other Greens leaders rushed to play down the dispute.
The split within the Greens shows the party's struggle to remain true to its core programs while maintaining harmony with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's more middle-of-the-road Social Democrats.
The Greens have been bruised badly by internal disagreements between pacifists and pragmatists over the question of NATO's war in Kosovo.
With the war behind them, party leaders turned back to another defining issue -- the end to nuclear power -- that Schroeder committed his center-left government to achieving.
The squabbling intensified after recent reports that Economics Minister Werner Mueller was working on a deal with industry leaders to close the last of the nation's 19 nuclear power plants over 25 years.
The Greens, who have pressed for a 5- to 10-year phase-out period, have rejected the 25-year plan. Schroeder, however, said last month he thought the 25-year-plan would be ``a great success'' and has been trying to break a deadlock with the industry over its terms to rule out industry claims for government compensation.
Some Greens have started drawing lines in the sand ahead of a meeting with Schroeder on Wednesday.
``If we don't achieve anything with the exit from nuclear power, then what else is there for us in the coalition?'' party co-chairwoman Antje Radcke said in Monday's BZ newspaper. Ending the use of nuclear power is ``one of, if not the central concern of the Greens in the coalition.''
Winfried Hermann, vice-chair of parliament's environment committee, was even more direct: ``If no solution to this problem is found, it means the end of the coalition,'' he told the Bild newspaper.
But fellow co-chair Gunda Roestel played down the dispute.
``We're struggling with this compromise over nuclear policy, and nobody expected that that would go without some noise,'' she told a radio interviewer. ``I don't believe at all that there's an escalating conflict between the coalition partners.''
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12. German nuclear transports could restart this year
07:05 a.m. Jul 04, 1999 Eastern http://www.dogpile.com - infoseek newswires - "nuclear plutonium uranium radioactiv???"
BONN, July 4 (Reuters) - Economics Minister Werner Mueller said on Sunday that the transportation of Germany's nuclear waste could resume in 1999.
``If the processing is done correctly and efficiently, then it must be possible to approve restarting transportation this year,'' Mueller said in an interview with n-tv television.
The transportation of nuclear waste to storage facilities in Germany and to reprocessing plants in France and Britain was halted in 1998 by then Environment Minister Angela Merkel after it was discovered that radioactive leaks had occurred during loading and unloading waste.
Dietmar Kuhnt, management board chairman of German utility RWE AG, on Saturday renewed the energy industry's call for the reintroduction of the transport of nuclear waste because some of their plants' storage holds were reaching capacity.
Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, a member of the anti-nuclear Greens Party, has repeatedly spoken out against the resumption of the transportation of nuclear waste.
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Message: 14 Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 20:27:10 -0400 From: News <prop1@xxxxx.xxxx Subject: NucNews-2 7/06/99 - Koreas - Nuc Plant; Missiles
6. S.Korea signs on loan to N.Korea nuclear project
08:49 a.m. Jul 02, 1999 Eastern Infoseek http://www.dogpile.com
SEOUL, July 2 (Reuters) - South Korea said it signed a contract on Friday to lend $3.22 billion to an international consortium building two nuclear reactors in North Korea.
The foreign ministry said in a statement the contract was signed with the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) led by South Korea, Japan and the United States.
North Korea agreed with Washington in 1994 to freeze a suspected nuclear development programme in return for $5 billion worth of free fuel and safer, light-water nuclear reactors.
South Korea, technically still at war with the North after their 1950-53 war ended in a truce, has agreed to share 70 percent of the total construction cost estimated at $4.6 billion.
The upper house of Japan's parliament on Wednesday approved Japan's payment of $1 billion for the project.
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7. A Report That North Korea Has Plans to Test-Launch a Missile
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, July 4, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/070499nkorea-missile.html
TOKYO -- North Korea has confirmed that it is prepared to test a missile, a prominent Japanese visitor to the country said Saturday.
Yasushi Akashi, a former U.N. undersecretary general who has completed a private trip to North Korea, said at a news conference in Beijing that a North Korean foreign ministry official had advised him that the country is ready to fire a missile, Kyodo News Service reported.
North Korea launched a rocket last August, sending it soaring over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean, in what it says was a satellite launch but just about everybody else says was a test of a new class of missile. That rocket launch created a wave of alarm across East Asia and has encouraged Japan to move toward developing a greater military capability.
Another North Korean launch would have even greater ramifications, possibly destroying the 1994 "Agreed Framework" that is the basis of relations between North Korea and the West. Fearful of the consequences of another North Korean missile launch for stability in East Asia, President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who is now visiting the United States, delivered a joint warning Friday to North Korea not to fire a missile.
American and Japanese officials have said that they have detected signs that North Korea may be preparing to launch a missile, but until now North Korea has not commented. Akashi said that Song Il Ho, the director of Japanese affairs in the North Korean foreign ministry, had said that the North was "ready" to fire the missile but did not specifically say that it would launch it.
Song reportedly said that North Korea was besieged by threats from surrounding countries, so that there was no reason for other countries to protest North Korea's taking a "countermeasure."
A missile test would also create concern in the United States, because North Korea is developing its new Taepodong missile, which eventually may be able to threaten the continental United States. The test last August was apparently of a Taepodong that might have the ability to deliver a very small payload just about as far as Alaska.
The next test may be of Taepodong-2, which might be able to reach as far as the West Coast of the United States. Moreover, Aviation Week and Space Technology, a weekly magazine, has reported that North Korea is developing a Taepodong-3 that could hit nearly all parts of the United States.
The North Korean missiles are believed to be fairly inaccurate and thus would not be very useful militarily. But Japan has had the jitters about being in the sights even of inaccurate North Korean missiles.
A North Korean missile launch would come at a critical time, for William Perry, a former defense secretary, has been trying to develop a new Clinton administration policy toward North Korea. The new approach seems to involve an offer of a considerable expansion of Western ties with the North if it will curb its missile program and adopt more conciliatory policies. North Korea has not responded so far.
Hopes for a broader conciliation between North Korea and the West have been in doubt partly because of recent naval battles between North and South Korea in the Yellow Sea. The ill will from those battles led to the suspension on Friday of talks between North Korean and South Korean officials in Beijing.
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Japan Skeptical of Missile Launch
Monday, July 5, 1999; 4:16 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990705/V000098-070599-idx.html
TOKYO (AP) -- The Japanese government does not believe North Korea is likely to test-fire another missile anytime soon, a top official was quoted as saying today.
Japan believes that last August, North Korea launched a three-stage Taepodong missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean. North Korea says the fired object was a satellite.
Japan, South Korea and the United States are concerned about North Korea's missile development program, and some officials have expressed fears that North Korea may launch a longer-range missile this year.
However, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka was quoted as saying by Kyodo News agency that those fears may be unfounded.
``Based on the information we have, we don't think the launch of a Taepodong is imminent,'' Nonaka was quoted as saying today.
Nonaka's office would not confirm the statements.
The comments came after Kyodo quoted former U.N. Undersecretary Yasushi Akashi as saying in Beijing on Saturday that a North Korean official told him Pyongyang is ``ready'' to fire a missile.
The North Korean official did not elaborate or specify if or when the missile would be fired, Akashi reportedly said.
Akashi returned Sunday from a five-day private trip to North Korea. He was scheduled to meet with Nonaka later today to report the findings of his visit, according to a spokesman from Nonaka's office, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Separately, an official at Japan's Foreign Ministry denied earlier news reports that Tokyo might freeze its contribution to help North Korea build nuclear reactors if Pyongyang test launches another missile.
``That is absolutely not a fact,'' the official said on customary condition of anonymity.
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Clinton Responds Cooly to South Korean Request to Boost Missile Range
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE July 5, 1999 http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/skorea-us-afp.html
SEOUL - President Clinton has responded frostily to South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung's request that Seoul be allowed to boost the range of its missiles to 500 kilometers, reports said Monday.
Kim asked Clinton to consent to massively extending the range limit, currently set at 180 kilometers (113 miles) under a security agreement with Washington, to counter threats from communist North Korea.
The US leader reportedly balked at the proposal, which came during Friday's summit between the two presidents, a meeting which focused on reports North Korea is planning a fresh long-range missile launch.
"President Clinton expressed concern over missile proliferation in Northeast Asia following President Kim's suggestion that Seoul extend its missile range capability," Seoul officials were quoted by the press as saying.
Kim told journalists at a briefing for South Korean reporters in Washington that he told Clinton Seoul needed to develop new missiles with a range of 500 kilometers (300 miles) to counter the threat from communist Pyongyang.
Seoul officials say Washington has privately agreed to allow Seoul to boost its missile range to 300 kilometers.
"I delivered our position that because the two sides had already consented that we could develop a 300-kilometer range missile, we should also be allowed to develop and test-fire one with a range of 500 kilometers," Kim told reporters.
US officials have refused to comment on the discussion between the leaders over South Korea's missile ambitions, saying only that the subject had been raised in the third summit between the presidents.
The discussions over Seoul's missile programme come amid persistent reports that rival North Korea is on the verge of test-firing a new missile with a range of up to 1,600 kilometers which could hit Alaska or Hawaii.
Clinton and Kim formed a united front during their summit, warning Pyongyang that a fresh missile launch -- following its last test-firing in August -- would "pose a serious obstacle to peace."
Seoul had for years been pressuring Washington to increase its own missile reach, but US officials are worried such a move could start a Northeast Asian missile race.
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North Korea May Abandon Missile Launch-Report
Updated 1:42 AM ET July 5, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990705/01/international-korea-missile
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea showed signs of abandoning plans to conduct a second missile launch during U.S.-North Korea talks in Beijing late last month, a South Korean newspaper reported Monday.
Dong-A Ilbo quoted an unidentified South Korean government official accompanying President Kim Dae-jung on a visit to the United States as saying he heard the news from a senior U.S. official at the summit between Kim and President Clinton Saturday.
"There were positive signs, during the recent U.S.-North Korea talks in Beijing, that North Korea may suspend its plans to test-launch a missile," the Korean official quoted the U.S. official as saying.
The U.S. official declined to disclose details, such as what North Korea was demanding in exchange for abandoning its plans for a missile launch, the paper said.
North Korea sent shockwaves across the region last August by test-firing a new long-range rocket that soared over Japan and into the Pacific. Pyongyang said it was launching a satellite, which U.S. defense officials later confirmed.
Reports from the United States and Japan over the past month have suggested North Korea was preparing to launch a newer version of its Taepodong missile, whose range could reach the U.S. western shores.
U.S. envoy Charles Kartman met North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan in Beijing on June 23 and 24 to discuss a wide range of issues, although neither side has revealed the content of the high-level talks.
Dong-A said South Korean Foreign Minister Hong Soon-young, responding to the report, said North Korea might be restrained if warned by both the United States and South Korea.
But the U.S. officials involved in the Beijing talks believed there was still a fifty-fifty chance North Korea may fire another missile, Hong said.
Meanwhile, Japan's Kyodo News said Saturday North Korea has completed preparations to fire another ballistic missile.
In a report from Beijing, Kyodo reported that a North Korean diplomatic official told a visiting former Japanese diplomat that North Korea was ready to test another missile.
Yasushi Akashi, a former U.N. undersecretary-general, was told of the plans by a Japanese section chief in North Korea's Foreign Ministry. Akashi made the remarks at a news conference in Beijing, following his visit to Pyongyang.
Akashi arrived in North Korea Tuesday for a visit that included discussions with North Korean officials.
Wednesday, officials in Washington said North Korea appeared to be preparing for a new ballistic missile launch despite U.S. warnings that it could derail efforts to improve ties with the hardline communist state.
"I think it is fair to say that we have seen some preparations...some indications of a potential launch in the future," Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Kurt Campbell told reporters.
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US To Begin Talks On S.Korea Missile Plan - Report
Updated 8:10 AM ET July 5, 1999 http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/r/990705/08/international-korea-missile
SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. officials will begin talks soon on South Korea's proposal to develop missiles with a 500-km (310-mile) range which would put all of North Korea within reach, a South Korean newspaper said Monday.
"South Korean and U.S. officials will have talks over Seoul's proposal," an official at Seoul's defense ministry was quoted as saying by the English-language Korea Herald.
Local media reported South Korean President Kim Dae-jung had told President Clinton in Washington Friday that Seoul wanted to develop missiles with a 500 km range.
Clinton responded coolly to Kim's request, they said.
The United States and South Korea have a 20-year agreement that sharply limits Seoul's ability to deploy powerful missiles as a deterrent. Under the agreement, South Korea is banned from developing missiles with a range exceeding 180 km (108 miles).
South Korea's Yonhap News agency said a defense ministry official expected the agreement would be terminated by year-end.
North Korea sent shockwaves across the region last August by test-firing a new long-range rocket that soared over Japan and into the Pacific. North Korea said it was launching a satellite. U.S. defense officials later confirmed this.
Reports from the United States and Japan over the past month have suggested North Korea is preparing to launch a new version of its Taepodong missile, which could reach the western shores of the United States.
The two Koreas remain in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace agreement.
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Clinton Meets With S. Korean Leader
By George Gedda, Associated Press, July 2, 1999; 12:26 p.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990702/V000359-070299-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Troubled by signs that North Korea may test another long-range missile, President Clinton was meeting with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to compare notes on how to deal with the unpredictable regime in Pyongyang.
Just hours before Kim's scheduled arrival, here, South Korea suspended talks with North Korea in Beijing on reuniting families separated by the division of the two countries. The impasse resulted from a demand by North Korea for fertilizer shipments from the South.
Kim was flying here for a working luncheon with Clinton today followed by a separate meeting. He also planned a meeting later in the day with former Defense Secretary William Perry, who is conducting a lengthy review of U.S. policy toward North Korea.
Kim was expected to defend his policy of reaching out to North Korea in hopes of easing tensions between the two rivals. Lately, however, the tensions have been escalating.
A clash in the Yellow Sea two weeks ago sank a North Korean torpedo boat. In addition, the failure of the talks in Beijing was another setback. The talks were the highest level discussions in 14 months between the two neighbors.
There are deep divisions in both the United States and South Korea on how to cope with the North. Both governments are hopeful that North Korea will respond positively to friendly overtures, but critics in both countries call the policy naive and counterproductive.
Of particular concern to Washington and Seoul is evidence that North Korea is intent on following up a missile test last summer with a launch of a longer range missile this year. Last year's test prompted proposals for the development of regional missile defenses in Japan and South Korea. The new missile being developed is believed capable of reaching Alaska or Hawaii.
While the administration has generally remained silent about where Perry's policy review stands, Kim said in an interview last week that Perry offered a comprehensive package of proposals to Pyongyang during a visit there in May.
Kim said the proposals include normalization of diplomatic relations and an end to economic sanctions against North Korea. He said they contain a ``give-and-take that would end the Cold War on the Korean Peninsula.''
In return, Pyongyang would promise not to make or possess nuclear weapons, halt development and sales of ballistic missiles and refrain from military provocations against South Korea, he said.
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Clinton, Kim Urge North to Drop Missile Test Relations Between Koreas Tense as South's President Attends Third U.S. Summit
By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 3, 1999; Page A06 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-07/03/074l-070399-idx.html
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung met President Clinton here yesterday and discussed how to make North Korea "pay a substantial price" if it goes ahead with a long-range missile test that U.S. intelligence believes Pyongyang is preparing, officials said.
A senior White House official said that while Kim and Clinton were pressing North Korea to abandon plans to test a long-range ballistic missile that would be capable of hitting much of the United States, the two also discussed "how to deal with it if those efforts should fail."
Kim, here for his third summit with Clinton since his December 1997 election, praised U.S. efforts and said, "I do hope that this close cooperation sends a clear message to North Korea."
U.S. and South Korean relations have rarely been better. Clinton and Kim share views on efforts to engage North Korea and open up its hermit-like Stalinist government. Kim has also overseen economic reforms that have brought South Korea back from a financial crisis that struck on the eve of his election.
"We have seen an astonishing turnaround in the Korean economy, going from a period of contraction to a period of quite robust growth, in ways that no one could have predicted. It is a great, great success story," said Clinton. A senior administration official said that Clinton pressed Kim to pay further attention to the restructuring of giant conglomerates and financial institutions, a slow process considered the weak point in Korean economic recovery.
Clinton and Kim's meeting comes at a time of heightened tensions with North Korea. In addition to worries about a possible missile test similar to one last Aug. 31, the U.S. and South Korean efforts to engage North Korea's reclusive leadership have been thwarted by North Korean naval incursions into South Korean waters and detentions of a South Korean and an American citizen. The South Korean has been released; the American still has not received a consular visit after two weeks in custody.
Yesterday South Korea threatened to cut off deliveries of fertilizer to the north after the suspension of talks in Beijing over the reunification of Korean families divided by war nearly 50 years ago. North Korea a month ago agreed to discuss family reunions in return for 200,000 tons of fertilizer.
But South Korean delegates at the talks said that instead of discussing the issue of families, North Korean delegates had harped on a South Korean magazine article and the sinking of one of the North Korean vessels last month by South Korean ships. There was no contact between the two sides Thursday.
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2 Presidents Warn NKorea on Missiles
By George Gedda, Associated Press, July 3, 1999; 2:44 a.m. EDT http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WAPO/19990703/V000931-070399-idx.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung are sending a message to North Korea that peace could be at risk on the peninsula if it engages in further testing of long-range ballistic missiles.
But after two hours of talks, the two leaders left unclear what penalties the communist North could suffer if it carries out a new test in the wake of last year's surprise launch.
Senior U.S. officials who briefed reporters said Clinton and Kim agreed that a further test by the North would pose ``a serious obstacle to peace.'' U.S. monitors have picked up indications that the North may be poised to conduct such a launch.
After a stay in Washington of less than 24 hours, Kim was continuing his U.S. visit in Philadelphia today. On Sunday, he will receive an award for his contributions to democracy in South Korea.
In their talks Friday, Clinton and Kim agreed that a new North Korean missile test, however deplorable, would not trigger a dismantling of a 1994 agreement under which the Pyongyang government pledged not to become a nuclear power.
Under that agreement, reached with the United States, the North promised to replace its plutonium-producing nuclear reactors with safer ones financed primarily by South Korea and Japan. The United States has been providing North Korea with 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil each year to help the country meet its energy needs during an interim period.
The United States and South Korea have been hopeful that a policy of engagement with North Korea will help reduce tensions. But that approach has produced scant results so far.
Just hours before Kim's arrival here Friday, South Korea said it was suspending talks with North Korea in Beijing on reuniting families separated by the division of the two countries. The impasse resulted when North Korea refused to discuss that issue and instead demanded fertilizer shipments from the South.
However, a South Korean official said the two nations' top negotiators held a secretive, low-profile meeting today.
Soon after South Korea said it was quitting the talks and sending its delegation home, North Korean officials requested a meeting between the lead negotiators, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported. South Korean Embassy spokesman Han Jae-heuk confirmed the meeting, but said no details were available.
One possible response to a North Korean missile test would be a freeze on U.S. efforts to seek a better relationship with North Korea. This reportedly is a key element in a package of proposals being prepared by former Defense Secretary William Perry, who is undertaking a policy review of the situation on Clinton's behalf.
While the administration has generally remained silent about the review, Kim said in an interview last week that Perry offered a comprehensive package to Pyongyang during a visit there in May.
Kim said the proposals include normalization of diplomatic relations and an end to economic sanctions against the North.
In return, Pyongyang would promise not to make or possess nuclear weapons, halt development and sales of ballistic missiles and refrain from military provocations against South Korea, Kim said.