------------
Plutonium shipments win approval
Chalk River will get radioactive goods in spring
By Laura Eggertson Toronto Star Ottawa Bureau, November 11, 1999
http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/news/991111NEW07_NA-NUKE11.html
OTTAWA - The federal government is set to approve a plan to ship Russian and American plutonium along Ontario highways to its experimental reactor at nearby Chalk River.
Transport Canada officials will announce Monday they are giving the go-ahead to the emergency response plan Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) is required to submit for transporting dangerous goods, government sources say.
But AECL - which manufactures Candu reactors - will likely have to delay the shipments until spring. Transport Canada's emergency response plan is finally complete, but it is too late in the season to move ships on the St. Lawrence Seaway.
``It's not likely that we have any time left to get this thing in before the end of 1999,'' says Larry Shewchuk, AECL's spokesperson for the project.
``We're right on the cusp of running out of time to make the shipment happen this year. ''
The shipments contain 251 grams of weapons-grade plutonium in pellets of a radioactive mixture known as mixed oxide, or MOX. This round of shipments is intended as a test - the first wave of a Canadian promise to import tonnes of the plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads in Russia and the United States over the next 20 years.
The response plan the AECL was required to file includes its proposal on training workers on how to unload the material from the container ship, how truckers would handle it on route, and the communication plan should any accident occur. Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy announced the proposal to import plutonium last September, calling it a step forward in dismantling nuclear weapons. The plutonium was originally to have been shipped by the end of the year.
The AECL sells the plan as a way to protect the world from the danger of terrorists or organized crime getting hold of tonnes of the plutonium that is not being securely stored in the former Soviet Union.
But the project has raised the ire of environmental groups like Greenpeace, and organizations including the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, which don't believe the plutonium should be shipped around the world.
NDP Leader Alexa McDonough has denounced the plan as thinly disguised assistance to the country's struggling nuclear industry, rather than an attempt to aid non-proliferation. AECL hopes to get subsidies from among the G-7 nations - primarily the United States - to dispose of the MOX fuel.
Town councils along the shipments' route - from Sault St. Marie to Sudbury to North Bay and Nepean - have protested. Mohawks from the Akwesasne First Nation near Cornwall and Kahnawake near Montreal have threatened to block the highway to stop the trucks from rolling by.
The communities are not only concerned about the safety of the shipments - something the emergency response plan is designed to address - but also the precedent that Canada will become the dumping ground for radioactive waste. ``We don't want this,'' Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Steve Butland said yesterday.
`` After the burn is over, I am told that you're still left with the residue nuclear material. What do you do with that? Why don't the Americans burn it in their own reactors?''
But Butland said he was not surprised Transport Canada was approving the emergency response plan that gives the shipments the go-ahead.
``I suspect this was a done deal a while ago.''
Both Transport Canada and the AECL insist these protests are not the reason the shipments are likely being delayed until spring.
But the public consultation did lengthen the deliberations and close the window of opportunity for hiring a ship to move the plutonium before the Seaway ices over.
``We predicted there would be a high interest in plutonium,'' said John Read, director-general of Transport Canada's dangerous good directorate.
Shewchuk insists most of the public concern about the plutonium shipments is defused when AECL briefs people on their plans.
--------- y2k
A Year 2000 Launching?
November 11, 1999 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/99/11/11/letters/l11rus.html
Related Articles
Computer Worries Prompt Offer to Withdraw U.S. Diplomats (Nov. 8, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/11/biztech/articles/08russia.html
To the Editor:
Re "Computer Worries Fuel Withdrawal of U.S. Diplomats" (front page, Nov. 8):
Although American experts say the chances are "virtually nil" that the Year 2000 problem will set off an accidental firing of a Russian nuclear missile at a United States target, the exodus of American diplomats from Russia and three other former Soviet republics is an indication that many of them think otherwise.
Those of us who live in New York, a primary Russian target, should wonder why, instead of monitoring each other, the United States and Russia don't shut off their mutually assured destruction targeting mechanisms for the first week of 2000 so that no accidental launching can possibly take place.
PEDRO A. SANJUAN Mount Vernon, N.Y., Nov. 8, 1999
The writer is a former public affairs director at the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.
---
Home Leave for Y2K
November 11, 1999 New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/99/11/11/editorial/11thu3.html
Traveling around the world as an employee of the State Department has an adventurous sound to it -- the intrepid American facing daunting challenges abroad. That is why the news about Y2K furloughs from our embassies in the former Soviet Union sounds like such a faint-hearted idea. At American outposts in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, non-essential employees have been told that they can go to Washington over the New Year's holidays if they are nervous about what mischief foreign computers will cause as their time mechanisms shift from 1999 to the year 2000.
The cost of sending American employees to the nation's capital on Y2K leave, according to estimates given to Michael Gordon of The Times, ranges from $1.25 million to $8 million, depending on how many of the 800 authorized to go actually decide to take advantage of the offer.
Such a grand expense for employee safety might make sense if the real fear is another Chernobyl or an accidental nuclear weapons explosion or some computer glitch that releases the deadly ebola virus. But these possibilities have been deemed virtually nil, or at least no more likely than usual in countries where the worst possibilities always seem to loiter darkly on the horizon. American experts set up a Y2K stability center some time ago to double-check computers operating Russia's nuclear warning systems, weaponry and command and control centers. The science adviser to the American Embassy in Moscow investigated a broad range of potential year-end hazards and decided that, at the worst, Y2K problems would disrupt electricity and phones for a short while. That means American embassies would have to run on their own generators, with wattage rationed until experts could repair any befuddled computers.
As news of a potential diplomatic exodus spread, the State Department spokesman James Rubin downplayed the offering of home leave in those four countries, suggesting that maybe only a few dozen employees would opt to return for New Year's. He even surmised that emptying out the embassies might make room there for ordinary Americans, who number 10,000 in Moscow alone, to take refuge if they are stranded without heat during such a winter emergency.
The run-for-home policy, based on worst-case scenarios that fall far short of some accidental Armageddon, has baffled diplomats at other postings around the world. An American diplomat in Russia suggested that, if the Y2K crisis is defined as a mere power outage, it is Y2K every day or so in Vladivostok.
------- international
GREENPEACE CALLS ON SA GOVT TO STOP NUCLEAR SHIPMENTS CAPE TOWN
November 10 1999 Sapa (South Africa)
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/briefing/nw19991111/12.html
The international environmental group Greenpeace on Wednesday called on the South African government to co-ordinate commonwealth opposition to European plutonium and high level nuclear waste shipments to Japan at this week's Durban Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
At a press conference aboard the Greenpeace in Cape Town harbour, the environmental group warned of the imminent departure from France of a British flagged ship carrying high-level nuclear waste bound for Japan as France and the UK prepare for a massive escalation of such deadly transport.
Although no details have yet been made public of the exact timing and route of the high level nuclear waste transport, Mike Townsley warned that the nuclear shipment could pass Cape Town at Christmas time.
Townsley said the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was the ideal opportunity for South Africa and other countries in the path of nuclear shipments to take up the issue with the British government.
He described Britain as the "main culprit' in the transport of plutonium and other high level nuclear waste.
There was a real risk that the South African shipping route past Cape Town could become the soft option and preferred route if the government does not voice strong opposition to the transport of nuclear waste past its coastline.
"Just imagine there is an accident even outside South African international waters," Townsley said
"A ship in need must be assisted and the ship would try and make it for a South African port. If there is a nuclear leakage it would ruin your tourist market, your agriculture, your wine exports, your meat and diary industry as no country would import any goods from a country which had been subjected to major nuclear exposure."
Townsley said that during the last decade, several transports of nuclear material had been made between Europe and Japan. The current plutonium MOX fuel shipment is the third such nuclear cargo to round the Cape of Good Hope en route to Japan.
The others rounded the tip of South America (Cape Horn) or passed through the Panama Canal.
Because of stout resistance from countries on the other two routes the Cape of Good Hope route was becoming the route of choice.
He said a further two transports of "weapons-usable" plutonium MOX fuel, similar to that which routed the Cape in August, were also scheduled to take place next year.
"In August British nuclear fuels told the Western Cape government, that five nuclear shipments a year would pass the Cape of Good Hope.
"Surely the people of South Africa have the right to expect their government to take action and to stop this abuse of their coastline. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting presents an unique opportunity for the SA Government to take a strong stand," Townsley said.
---------
Cohen to urge use of Vieques in Navy training
By Bill Sammon THE WASHINGTON TIMES November 11, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/news/news1.html
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen plans to urge President Clinton to reopen the Vieques live-fire training range and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott yesterday warned Mr. Clinton that failing to do so will degrade military readiness.
The back-to-back appeals from prominent leaders inside and outside the administration are placing increased pressure on the president to resolve the six-month standoff quickly.
The Navy wants the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower battle group to train at the Puerto Rican island next month before it sails to the Persian Gulf.
"The rubber meets the road soon," Mr. Lott warned the president yesterday in a letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times. "If the Vieques issue is not settled soon, next week's headline will read: 'Eisenhower Battle Group Unfit to Deploy in February 2000.' "
The Mississippi Republican added: "Without live-fire training, they will not be able to accomplish their mission without unnecessary risk."
Mr. Cohen is expected to make a similar argument as early as today, when he meets with the president amid Veterans Day activities.
The Times has learned that Mr. Cohen will side with Navy commanders who have argued for a resumption of live-fire training on the island, but perhaps at a reduced level of intensity.
A senior defense official, who asked not to be named, said yesterday that without training at Vieques, three of the battle group's six ships will have a low readiness rating, a C-4, in their ability to deliver firepower for amphibious assaults. The other three warships were able to train at Vieques before Mr. Clinton ordered the range closed.
The Eisenhower's air wing of some 70 combat planes will carry a higher rating, a C-2, primarily because the Navy is finding alternative training ranges.
Overall however, the battle group will have "critical deficiencies" without a month of exercises at Vieques, the defense official said.
"There is an effort, as the president sees this as an important issue, to get together with the secretary near-term," an administration official acknowledged. The official emphasized that Mr. Clinton fully understands "the complexities involved here, the time lines involved."
The Navy has pressed the White House for a go-ahead by the middle of this month so that it can begin four to six weeks of combat training on the island in early December. That would allow the Eisenhower armada to head to the Persian Gulf on Feb. 18, as scheduled.
Although Mr. Clinton said last week he is searching for a compromise, he sided earlier with Berrios Martinez, president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, who wants the range kept closed.
"I agree with this," Mr. Clinton said in a July 26 handwritten note to National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger. "This is wrong I think. They don't want us there. That's the main point."
The president added: "The Navy can find a way to work around it."
But Mr. Lott said yesterday: "There are no current work-arounds or simulators that can be used to duplicate this testing."
Rep. C.W. Bill Young, chairman of House Appropriations Committee, agreed.
"It would be inexcusable to send a task force into an area of potential hostilities without proper training," the Florida Republican said. "The Navy tells me they have no other place for the Eisenhower to exercise prior to deployment.
"For the short term, the task force has to train and exercise," Mr. Young added. "I would not be part of sending military personnel into harm's way without proper training."
Vice President Al Gore this week sided with his boss on the issue.
"The Navy should search for an alternative way of training that did not have the harsh impact on Puerto Rico that the use of Vieques for the last six years has had," Mr. Gore said.
But the Navy has canvassed 18 alternative sites and reported that none matched Vieques' unique facilities to allow air, land and gunnery live-fire training.
After a presidential commission recommended closing the range in five years, Navy Secretary Richard Danzig asked the Center for Naval Analyses, a Navy-supported think tank, to examine other long-term alternatives.
Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rossello has adamantly opposed any resumption of live-fire combat training on Vieques.
He and other Puerto Rican officials were outraged when a Marine pilot mistakenly targeted an observation post in April, firing two 500-pound bombs that killed a Puerto Rican security guard and injured four other civilians.
"The governor of Puerto Rico has raised many good concerns," Mr. Lott told the president. "The Department of Defense and the Department of the Navy should have handled the Vieques range management and public relations better.
"We owe it to the Puerto Rican people to fix this relationship," he added. "I pledge my support to help restore a productive relationship."
Some Republicans charge that Mr. Clinton's opposition to reopening the range is a political calculation aimed at building support among New York's Puerto Rican voters for Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate bid and Mr. Gore's presidential campaign. There are about a million Puerto Ricans in New York City.
The Republicans point to White House memos that show Clinton aides weighing a political windfall to Mr. Gore if the president granted clemency to 16 convicted Puerto Rican terrorists.
Mr. Clinton granted the clemency, which created a political backlash against his wife and, in recent days, Mr. Gore.
If Mr. Clinton accepts Mr. Cohen's expected recommendation to reopen Vieques, the Justice Department would have to order the removal of Puerto Rican protesters camping out on the range.
---
REPORT ON TRIP TO VIEQUES:
Stop the Bombing Navy Out No Weapons in Space
By Bruce K. Gagnon, November 11, 1999 Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space <globenet@afn.org>
On November 4-8 a delegation of four Floridians traveled to Puerto Rico at the invitation of Victor Rodriguez , a leader of the Global Network affiliate called Comité Contra las Experimentaciones Ambientales. The four persons were Joe McIntire (Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice), Don & Matt Lockard (St Augustine) and Bruce Gagnon (Global Network).
The Comité Contra las Experimentaciones Ambientales is the organization that led the protests against NASA in 1998-99 that forced cancellation of the Coqui Two rocket launches in the town of Vega Baja. The Coqui Two were a series of atmospheric experiments by NASA. The rockets released chemicals into different layers of the atmosphere in order to test their effects on communications and radar signals. Protests forced NASA to close down the operation after eight tests even though 11 had been scheduled.
Upon arrival in Puerto Rico our four-person delegation met with several key Puerto Rican activists to discuss the content of a news conference that we would be speaking at the following day. The news conference, held at a beautiful cultural center in San Juan, featured representatives from the Comité Contra Las Experimentaciones Ambientales, el Proyecto Caribeño de Justicia y Paz, Misión Industrial de Puerto Rico, the FCPJ, and the Global Network. The content of the news conference covered the existence of nuclear weapons in Puerto Rico despite denials by the U.S. Navy and the plans to put weapons in space by the U.S. Space Command. The largest paper in Puerto Rico "El Mundo" covered the event and ran a good story with color picture the next day. The top ranked TV station in Puerto Rico, TPR also featured the news conference and ran the story two days in a row.
The next day our delegation, plus a large group from the Congreso Nacional Hostosiano, took the one-hour ferry ride from Fajardo to Vieques. Hundreds of people were on the ferry, some going to a baseball game on the island, other just visiting, but many going for protests against the Navy bombing on the beautiful island. I sat next to New York City Councilwoman Olga Mendez who was part of a 75 person New York political delegation going to Vieques Also on the ferry was an old man named Carmelo who was born on the island and remains one of the leaders in the struggle to stop the 50-year naval bombing of Vieques. He told me how he has trained wasps to attack Marines when they invade Vieques on maneuvers and how he disperses poison ivy dust, which gets into the troops' clothes and drives them crazy.
The Navy controls about 3/4 of Vieques. The people live near the center of the small, elongated island with the military bombing ranges on both sides of them. From the port in Vieques we took a 30 ft. fishing boat with two 200 horsepower engines on the 20- minute rough ride to the camps inside the occupied zone. Along the short journey we passed 3-4 other fully loaded boats heading back to the port with Puerto Rican flags flying and people waving to us.
My first reaction when we landed on the beach was awe at the sheer beauty of the water and the rock cliffs and mountains. My second reaction was disgust to see the evidence of bomb parts in the water and on the land. But the most remarkable thing was to see the Puerto Rican flags flying each direction I looked: up on top of one hill where there was a camp; down the beach at another camp; on a far away mountain top, another. People were taking over the island. The Navy must be going crazy!
I was to stay in the new "school" recently built by the Congresso Nacional. The chickee-style shelter with a tin roof was just next door to the small chapel, also newly erected. Immediately after we arrived people began installing the solar electric system that they had carried over from San Juan. Within a couple of hours three compact florescent light bulbs were working.
I learned that day that the U.S. is now saying that it will send in 350 Spanish speaking federal marshals in December to arrest those now occupying Vieques in opposition to Navy bombing. N.Y. Councilwoman Mendez had told me on the ferry that she would return to do civil disobedience if this happened even though she had never before believed in CD as a political tactic. Just down the beach a camp had been set up by a group of teachers from the village on Vieques. They were cooking fish and offered me food and drink. They told the story about Angel Rodriquez Cristóbal who had been hung just 20 years ago in a Tallahassee, Florida jail after having been arrested for non-violent civil resistance on Vieques. Twenty-one people had been arrested on that occasion, among them a Catholic bishop.
I also learned that 67% of Puerto Rican people receive food stamps. At the same time K-Mart, Sears and JC Penney stores sell more product in Puerto Rico than in 30 other states. It was so clear that the colonization process has had a staggering affect on the people and the environment of the "commonwealth". Puerto Ricans have been made to be dependent on the U.S. and our corporate masters. But in spite of that, the spirit for independence remains strong. The resistance on Vieques is but one example.
Our friends Victor and Juan Rosario showed us around old San Juan that, except for the cars and the paint on the buildings, reminded me of Havana in Cuba. One huge fountain with several statues of people and nature was a striking symbol of Puerto Rican nationalism. The statue and fountain had been commissioned as a celebration of 500 years since the Columbus discovery. We were told the story about how the artist had revealed that the centerpiece of the statue, a woman on a rock with arms raised to the sky and holding two eagle feathers, was really a celebration of her taking the feathers off the U.S. eagle. Signs of that pesky spirit of independence once again.
I was asked to do a presentation at the school on Vieques about the GN's work on space. With Joe McIntire ably translating, I spoke about U.S. plans for control and domination in space and showed the 20 people present the Vision for 2020 brochure and the poster of a space-based laser weapon with the U.S. flag flying overhead. I talked about the connections between space and Vieques, saying that the U.S. intends to make the whole earth and space above a colony like we have done to Puerto Rico. I later learned that this workshop was the first such event in the school on Vieques. It was an honor to have helped christen the school.
The next day was unforgettable. Victor took our delegation on a long hike, up the mountain top to one camp and then down the beach to another. We visited the camp of a national congress senator from the Puerto Rican independence party who has been on Vieques for the last six months. As we walked here and there we saw the enormous evidence of years of destruction on the island. Bombs -- exploded and unexploded - were everywhere. Wetlands were drained and bombed. Trucks, tanks, and planes were scattered everywhere as targets. One tank is now being used to hold up a tarp for shelter at one hill-top camp. As we looked out over the beautiful ocean beyond Vieques we saw a U.S. navy submarine in the near distance probably sending a warning to the occupiers.
When it was time to leave the island to return home our fishing boat anchor got caught on a bomb on the ocean floor. Our captain very carefully worked the anchor free and you could see the fear on the faces of the passengers. We saw bombs sticking up out of the water near the shore and we saw tiny islands just off Vieques that had been blasted to bits. In fact, endangered coral reefs are being destroyed all around Vieques from the years of bombing by the Navy.
Our friends in Puerto Rico are urging activists from all over the world to join them on Vieques as soon as possible to help block any attempts to remove them from the island. It is very easy to get there and once there all you need is a sleeping bag and some food and water to share. You will be made to feel most welcome on this otherwise tropical paradise. Be sure to bring your bathing suit!
If you'd like to go to Vieques just fly into San Juan and take a bus to the port of Fajardo and then for $2 take the ferry to Vieques. Once in Vieques there are regular fishing shuttles to the camps in the occupied zones. Call first and let Robert Rabin from the local Vieques committee know that you are coming. His phone is (787) 741-1717 or (787) 741-8651.
Please help do what you can to offer solidarity to our courageous friends in Puerto Rico.
-----------
U.S. Seeks to Curb Israeli Arms Sales to China
November 11, 1999, By STEVEN LEE MYERS New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/global/111199israel-china.html
WASHINGTON -- Israel's sale of a sophisticated $250 million airborne radar system to China has raised serious concerns at the Pentagon, and the Clinton administration has quietly urged Israeli officials to cancel delivery of additional radar planes and to curb other weapons sales to the Chinese military, administration and Defense Department officials said Wednesday.
Israel has long had a close, secretive military relationship with China that arms experts say has resulted in billions of dollars of weapons sales in recent years and raised a variety of concerns in the United States.
But senior Pentagon officials fear that the advanced radar system, in particular, will enhance China's ability to extend its military might beyond its borders and threaten Taiwan.
"It is a significant capability," a senior official said, "and it will improve significantly China's ability to conduct operations in and around the Taiwan Strait. That obviously is our major security interest in the region."
Workers at Elta, a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries, recently mounted the radar system on a Russian-made cargo plane destined for the Chinese Air Force, completing the first part of a complex deal that has been several years in the making.
Elta designed the system, known as the Phalcon, for the Israeli Air Force, to be installed in a Boeing 707. China is reportedly interested in buying four to eight more of the systems and placing them aboard Russian aircraft.
The sale of the radar system, as well as other Israeli arms deals with China, have put a strain on the administration's relationship with one of Washington's closest allies.
The Israeli government has assured administration officials that the sale does not involve American technology. But a Pentagon official said that given the amount of weaponry that the United States shared with Israel, it was difficult to separate American military technology from Israel's own.
"Given the very close relationship that we have, there is always the danger that some of this technology could pass from Israel to China," the official said.
Administration officials have repeatedly raised the issue with the Israelis, as Defense Secretary William S. Cohen did on his trip to Israel last month, the officials said.
A Pentagon delegation led by Jacques S. Gansler, the under secretary for defense acquisition and technology, arrived in Israel Wednesday for a previously arranged visit. Although the sale is not explicitly part of Gansler's agenda, it is very likely to come up.
During his visit, Cohen also expressed objections to Israel's reported plans to sell Popeye air-to-surface missiles to India, particularly at a time of tensions between India and Pakistan, the officials said. The Popeye missile was jointly developed by the United States and Israel.
"There is no treaty prohibiting conventional arms transfers to China, and our laws don't prohibit transfers when they do not involve American technology," the State Department's spokesman, James P. Rubin, said in the administration's only public statement on the issue Wednesday. "But it is true that Israeli arms transfers are an active subject of our dialogue with Israel."
The news of the sale to China has provoked sharp reactions on Capitol Hill, from opponents of China, as well as arms control advocates.
Representative Porter J. Goss, Republican of Florida, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said today that the sale underscored the fact that China's military was "extremely acquisitive" and raised questions about the possibility of "American parentage" of some of the technology.
He said he had sought further clarification from the administration, but left little doubt about what he viewed as China's intentions.
"What is the point of a long-range radar surveillance?" he said. "It has to do with an offense that extends their border or certainly their area of hegemony."
Representative Sam Gejdenson of Connecticut, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, said it was "bad policy" for Israel to sell advanced weaponry to China, particularly since China had a record of selling weapons to countries opposed to the United States and Israel, including Iran. He met today with Israel's ambassador to the United States, Zalman Shoval, but declined to discuss their meeting.
The political sensitivity of the Israeli sale has been heightened by a series of confrontations the United States has had with China over its arms programs, including the suspected transfer of advanced computer technology to China's military and accusations that China stole American nuclear secrets.
During the cold war, China bought weapons from many Western suppliers, including American allies like Britain, France and Italy, as well as from the United States, which sold Blackhawk helicopters to China.
Sanctions imposed by the United State and European Union after Chinese troops killed pro-democracy demonstrators around Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989 largely dried up those sales, though France and Italy have shown an eagerness to resume arms sales to the Chinese.
Since the 1990's, China has embarked on a major program to modernize its military and has looked elsewhere. By far its biggest arms supplier has been Russia, which has sold it MIG fighter jets, warships, submarines and missiles.
Israel is China's second-largest supplier. A recent report by Kenneth W. Allen and Eric A. McVadon of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a research organization in Washington, said Israel had provided China with a range of weapons -- including electronic components for tanks, communications and optical equipment, aircraft and missiles -- during a relationship that began at least two decades ago. Full diplomatic ties were not established until 1997.
"Both China and Israel appear to gain military and political benefits from the arms and technology transfer relationship," the report said. "Besides seeking money from China, some Israeli officials claim the sale of military technology to China will secure Beijing's agreement not to sell specific weapons to Israel's enemies in the Middle East."
The sale of the Phalcon radar system is part of a complicated arrangement that began with Israel and Russia competing to sell China an aircraft equipped with an early warning radar system. In 1997, Benjamin Netanyahu, then Israel's prime minister, went to Moscow and reached an agreement with Russia to develop the aircraft jointly, with Russia supplying the aircraft itself and Israel adding the radar system.
Israel does not disclose many details of its arms sales to China. A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy, Mark Regev, declined to discuss the radar sale Wednesday.
But, he said, when Israel considers any sale, "there is a very elaborate system whereby national security issues are taken into account."
The Russian aircraft arrived in Israel on Oct. 25. American intelligence reports say that the work is expected to be completed by the end of this year, and that after testing in Israel the radar system could be delivered to China in the spring.
What makes the sale troubling to Pentagon officials is that the radar system is comparable to and might exceed the abilities of the American early warning radar planes, called Awacs, a recent intelligence report concluded, according to a senior military officer.
The system will allow Chinese commanders to collect intelligence and direct aircraft from a distance of 250 miles. Access to advanced electronic and information-gathering equipment has long been one of the weaknesses of China's military, though one that it appears bent on addressing, arms experts say.
The United States has provided advanced weaponry, including fighter jets, to Taiwan, which China regards as rightfully part of its territory. In July, the administration notified Congress that it intended to sell Taiwan advanced early warning radar aircraft, including E-2T Hawkeyes, and other radar systems, but not the more sophisticated Awacs.
-----------
8] France Criticizes U.S. on Kosovo
Filed at 11:09 a.m. EST November 11, 1999 By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-France-US-Kosovo.html
PARIS (AP) -- Calling for ``reflection'' among NATO members, the French government has criticized the United States for sometimes acting outside the alliance during the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
France's defense ministry, in a report published this week, singled out attacks by American B-2 stealth bombers, which were based in Missouri and, the report said, outside of NATO's coordinated command.
``The conclusion cannot be avoided that part of the military operations were conducted by the United States outside the strict framework of NATO and its procedures,'' the report said.
France dropped out of NATO's integrated command in 1966, but has had an increasing role in military operations, most recently in Kosovo, where it undertook 12 percent of all aerial attacks, officials say.
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has said NATO's action in Kosovo did not have explicit authorization from the U.N. Security Council, but believes the need to act swiftly in Kosovo justified the military offensive.
Defense Minister Alain Richard, releasing the report on Kosovo, said Wednesday, ``There must be some reflection among NATO nations.''
``The Americans have employed cruise missiles and heavy bombers which weren't under a coordinated command,'' he told reporters, adding that there should have been wider consultation regarding the choice of targets.
He also renewed calls for better European defense capabilities, saying France, for example, did not have sufficient technology to allow its planes to evade detection by anti-aircraft radar defenses, or the precision weapons guidance systems used by the American B-2 planes.
The 78-day NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia last spring forced Belgrade to end a campaign against ethnic Albanians in its province of Kosovo, withdraw its forces and allow international peacekeepers to take control of the territory.
---
U.S. Military Acted Outside NATO Framework During Kosovo Conflict, France Says
November 11, 1999, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/111199france-kosovo.html
Related Article
With Milosevic Unyielding on Kosovo, NATO Moved Toward Invasion (Nov. 7, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/110799kosovo-invasion.html
By CRAIG R. WHITNEY
PARIS -- France drew up a list of lessons on Wednesday that it had learned from the allied bombing of Yugoslavia last spring. One of them was that some missions were not really allied at all, but 100 percent American.
"The conclusion cannot be avoided that part of the military operations were conducted by the United States outside the strict framework of NATO and its procedures," said the Ministry of Defense in a 55-page report approved by France's highest civilian political authorities.
The French statement added that the allied commander in charge of the bombing that ended with the withdrawal of Serbian military and police forces from Kosovo last June, Gen. Wesley K. Clark of the United States, was "responsible not only to the North Atlantic Council" of the alliance "but also to his national hierarchy, at the highest level." General Clark is both Supreme Allied Commander and the commander of all American forces in Europe.
Defense Minister Alain Richard, presenting the analysis to reporters today, said France was not complaining that the Americans had gone behind its back to hit targets like bridges over the Danube in Belgrade that President Jacques Chirac had refused to approve.
All he meant, Richard said with a smile, was that France was not the only member of the alliance whose military structure was not entirely subordinated to NATO command.
"There was another country not fully integrated into the alliance -- the United States," he said.
American planes that were not under allied command, like the sophisticated B-2 stealth bombers based in Missouri, flew many of the biggest bombing raids, including the one that the alliance said mistakenly hit the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.
France did not have the technology to enable its own planes to evade detection by antiaircraft radar defenses, the ministry conceded today.
The French also lacked the Americans' ability to confuse enemy radar defenses with airborne electronic devices, and they did not have any of the precision weapons guidance systems using navigation satellites that the B-2's used, French officials said.
France was still two to three years away, officials said, from developing cruise missiles like the American-made ones launched from American B-52's and British and American ships that landed with what the French said was "remarkable" accuracy and precision.
"A country that has cruise missiles retains control over how they are used, but on the other hand, a country that doesn't have any can find itself excluded from part of the decision-making process on strikes," the ministry's report noted, referring to planning for the allied strikes during the Kosovo campaign.
"There are a certain number of things that we, France and other Europeans, aren't yet able to do," said Gen. Jean-Pierre Kelche, the French Army chief of staff.
For example, the French lacked the ability to refuel in flight all of the many French Mirage, Jaguar, and Super Etendard planes that flew 12 percent of the 10,434 allied combat missions, General Kelche said. "Without American support, we couldn't have done all that we did," he conceded.
But on the whole, he and Richard said they were satisfied with the French performance in the Kosovo campaign, and confident that efforts to build stronger European defenses would rectify the shortcomings the operations had revealed.
Among these, the ministry's report said, were an inadequate stockpile of French-made laser-guidance systems to drop bombs with greater accuracy.
French planes dropped 582 laser-guided bombs during the campaign, the ministry has reported, but apparently it nearly ran out of them.
"The high consumption rate of this type of munitions raises the question of the adequacy and the rebuilding of those stocks," the ministry's report said, "since it is possible to imagine conflicts of greater intensity or longer duration."
Britain's Defense Ministry, in a similar analysis made public earlier this fall, concluded as the French have done that Europeans needed to build defense structures better suited to operations like Kosovo in the future.
And the British, like the French, said that Kosovo had shown that the ability of their armed forces to gather and pass battlefield information securely and quickly to and from headquarters and individual aircraft, tanks and ships needed much improvement.
France and Britain, Richard said, were now committed to building stronger European defenses.
"I tell my American friends that one day I hope they will be able to have as much confidence in European defense capabilities as they have in the Australians in East Timor," he said.
----------- china
China Warns of New Arms Race
Official Says U.S. Missile Shield Would Shift Balance of Power
By John Pomfret Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, November 11, 1999; Page A01
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/11/271l-111199-idx.html
BEIJING, Nov. 10-China's top arms control official assailed the United States today for its campaign to develop a shield against ballistic nuclear missiles, warning that such a program could lead to a nuclear arms race and dangerously alter the strategic balance in Asia and the rest of the world.
Sha Zukang, the Foreign Ministry's arms control director, also lambasted the Senate for its failure to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty last month, arguing that such an act could make countries like China reluctant to enter into arms control agreements with the United States.
"Because I'm a negotiator I ask myself, 'What should I do?' " Sha said in a rare, wide-ranging interview. "Should we follow the same practice? We know the United States is a superpower, but that does not give you super rights."
Sha's statements reflect China's deep unease with current American strategic thinking, specifically the push to amend or even abrogate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Underlying Sha's comments is a perception, shared by some European officials, that Washington is capitalizing on its status as the world's most powerful country to lock in a strategic advantage that would make it immune to intimidation.
The U.S. plan to create a shield against missiles would affect China because it would trump Beijing's single strategic ace. China's armed forces are still decades behind the American military. Its missiles, however, are top-notch and are the part of its arsenal that give it hope of becoming a world, or even regional, military power. "They are missile savants," said one Western military expert.
But creating an American national missile defense system would deny China the ability to threaten the United States with its nuclear warheads. That would severely skew the Asian security equation and leave China feeling trapped and powerless to pursue its interests, non-American Western diplomats say.
"Any amendment, or abolishing of the treaty, will lead to disastrous consequences," Sha warned. "This will bring a halt to nuclear disarmament now between the Russians and Americans, and in the future will halt multilateral disarmament as well."
Russia has already protested the American plan to modify the ABM treaty. On Nov. 3, Russia announced that it had tested a short-range interceptor rocket for the Moscow anti-ballistic missile system in what appeared to be a blunt warning about its own plans for an expanded ABM system. Western diplomats predict that an enhanced American missile shield will result in even closer security ties between Moscow and Beijing. Russia already sells about $1 billion of weapons a year to China.
In addition, some diplomats warn that a tough line from Washington on missile defense could prompt China to relax its new controls on nuclear proliferation and allow Chinese companies to resume selling nuclear weapons-related technology. And Sha said it would also threaten U.S. plans to bring China into the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international agreement that would place restrictions on China's sales of missiles and missile-related technology.
The American missile defense question is just one of several issues that have increased China's wariness of late. The May 7 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and allegations of Chinese espionage in the United States have roiled Beijing's ties with Washington.
Over the summer, the Communist Party is believed to have increased China's defense budget substantially. President Jiang Zemin met this week with officers from the armaments department of the People's Liberation Army and promised them more resources. The commander of China's air force, meanwhile, said his forces were planning to change their focus from a territorial defense force to one capable of attacking beyond China's borders.
Sha's comments revealed a significant shift in China's views about American plans for a missile defense system. In March, a senior Chinese official spent three hours warning a group of Western reporters that the most dangerous aspect of the U.S. campaign would be any moves to sell missile-defense technology to Taiwan, which China views as a renegade province.
Today, Sha did not mention Taiwan and instead focused on how the U.S. move threatened to skew the global strategic balance.
"It's the national missile defense that's really the most important," Sha said. "We are not rejecting the concept of missile defense completely, such as air defense to protect troops. But it is the advanced systems, in space and elsewhere, that are the problem. These are a violation of the ABM treaty. These may disturb or destroy the strategic balance."
Signed in 1972, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was one of the building blocks of the Cold War security system. Basically, it said that the Soviet Union and the United States would agree to forgo the development of weapons that could block a nuclear missile attack. The treaty was one of the main pillars of the strategic concept of mutual assured destruction, which said that the use of nuclear weapons by one side would immediately trigger a massive response by the other.
Washington has justified its interest in a missile defense system by saying it would not be targeted at any traditional power but rather at "rogue states" such as North Korea and Iraq.
Sha said this was difficult to accept. It is ironic, he contended, that the "United States . . . has been teaching the international community that the ABM treaty, though bilateral, is a cornerstone for strategic stability, that it's a precondition for further nuclear disarmament. Now suddenly they are attempting to amend it and threaten to abolish it. We have no words for this. Should we assume that the United States monopolizes all the truth in the world? This cannot be the case, I believe. So this will erode U.S. authority and credibility."
"Does this mean," Sha continued, "that the United States will negotiate treaties only for others, that the United States will expect others to honor all treaty obligations while the United States is free to do anything it wants? . . . Psychologically, that's bad for any new negotiations."
Sha said China is particularly worried that U.S. researchers have begun working with Japan to develop a missile defense system for U.S. allies in Asia. Chinese officials are alarmed by closer defense ties between Tokyo and Washington, which they see as part of a string of American defense relations--with South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, and now Kazakhstan and even Mongolia--that are designed to surround China.
Sha also condemned the Senate's failure to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. He said neither of the Senate's two main arguments--that verification measures were weak and that the United States still needed to test its nuclear warheads--were persuasive. The United States has conducted more than 1,000 tests, he noted, greater by far than any other nuclear power; China has conducted fewer than 50. If the Americans say they need more tests, "other nuclear countries should have even more reason to have more tests," he said.
As for the verification issue, Sha was blunt. "As the chief negotiator for China, I would say this is an insult to the intelligence and capabilities of all negotiators who worked so diligently day in and day out and for so long on the treaty. I would strongly advise those guys to read the treaty, particularly the verification protocol, before jumping to such a conclusion."
China, he added, plans to stick to the terms of the treaty and press for its early ratification by the National People's Congress.
---
Security for Taiwan
Thursday, November 11, 1999; Page A42
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/11/113l-111199-idx.html
As a Taiwanese American, I think David Lampton ["The Taiwan Security Reduction Act," op-ed, Oct. 30] has it backward.
The Taiwan Security Enhancement Act is a long-overdue piece of bipartisan legislation. It is in response to President Clinton's drift toward positions espoused by Beijing and away from the basic principles of democracy and human rights.
China has continued to threaten and bully Taiwan and has increased its preparations to go to war over Taiwan. Congress is now attempting to redress the security situation in Taiwan by establishing direct military communications between the United States and Taiwan, expanding U.S. training of Taiwanese military officers and selling U.S. defense articles and services to the island nation.
Mr. Lampton argues that this legislation is unnecessary because -- within the framework of the Taiwan Relations Act -- the president already has the legal authority to sell Taiwan the weapons it needs.
That is precisely where the problem is: The Clinton administration has hemmed and hawed when decisions needed to be made on new defensive weapon systems for Taiwan and has remained silent about the buildup of missiles on the Chinese coast facing Taiwan. The Taiwan Relations Act has fallen short on a number of points, and the proposed Taiwan Security Enhancement Act would be a welcome safeguard, ensuring stability in East Asia.
MEI-CHIN CHEN
Chairperson
International Committee for
Human Rights in Taiwan
Chevy Chase
-----------
Hotel owner shocked that food and nuclear waste delivered together
November 11, 1999 Australian Broadcasting
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-11nov1999-8.htm
The proprietor of a hotel in Western Australia's Pilbara region says he was shocked to discover radioactive material on the same truck that delivered beer to his establishment last month.
Food being transported to an Aboriginal community was also accompanied by the processed uranium ore samples.
The incidents were confirmed in answers to questions in Parliament put to the Health Minister John Day.
The proprietor of Marble Bar's Ironclad Hotel, Peter Swanson, says he was unaware of what was happening until a passerby pointed out the symbols on the delivery truck indicating it was carrying radioactive material.
Mr Swanson says despite his initial surprise, there does not seem to be anything to worry about.
"I've sort of turned the light off in the cool room and it doesn't seem to glow," he said.
Mr Day says people who consume the food and beer transported on trucks carrying nuclear waste have nothing to fear.
Mr Day says inquiries have revealed that all the correct procedures were followed in the delivery.
"All of the appropriate procedures have been followed and the level of radioactivity of this particular material, I'm also advised is very, very low and in fact lower than mineral sands which are mined around Cable for example," he said.
-----------
Washington Keeps 10 Russian Groups Blacklisted For Iran Links
WASHINGTON, Nov 11, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse)
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=108898
The United States will continue to blacklist 10 Russian research centers and companies for cooperating with Iran on nuclear or missile research, the White House said Wednesday.
"Despite the Russian government's non-proliferation and export control efforts, some Russian entities continued to cooperate with Iran's ballistic missile program and to engage in nuclear cooperation," the White House told Congress in its annual update on the situation.
In July 1998, Washington announced a boycott of seven scientific institutes and companies in Russia for such cooperation. Another three institutes joined the list in early 1999. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)
-----------
India General Criticizes Pakistan
Filed at 6:39 p.m. EST, November 11, 1999 The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Indian-General.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chief of staff of India's army accused Pakistan on Thursday of stepping up its infiltration of Indian-held Kashmir and said his government was taking a ``watch-and-wait'' stance toward Pakistan's new military rulers.
At a news conference, Gen. V.P. Malik also said India would be interested in purchasing weapons from the United States ``if they were the kind of weapons we need and also cost less.''
Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, who led the coup in Pakistan, is seen in India as having orchestrated the infiltration last summer of hundreds of militiamen and Pakistan army troops into Indian-held Kashmir near the town of Kargil.
Apparently referring to India's intelligence, Malik said India ``could have done better,'' although it is not possible for any military to predict events perfectly.
Possibly to avoid a potentially awkward meeting between Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Musharraf, India last week called for deferring a seven-nation regional summit scheduled for Nov. 26-28 in Katmandu, Nepal, because of ``concern and disquiet'' over the coup in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott is due to meet next week in London with Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh to discuss nuclear disarmament and preparations for a visit by President Clinton to India early next year.
Talbott has been urging India and Pakistan to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty since both countries detonated nuclear devices in May 1998.
The U.S. position was weakened when the Senate refused to endorse the treaty last month.
Malik said India was determined to maintain ``a credible nuclear deterrent'' while also pursuing disarmament as a long-range goal.
He said India's dialogue with the United States needs to be intensified. ``There is a phenomenal amount of commonality in our policies,'' he said, citing support for democracy and counterterrorism.
``We can learn from each other; we can cooperate with each other,'' the general said.
Malik said the proposed visit by Clinton to India would contribute to cooperation between the two countries.
On another front, the army chief said Taliban, the militant Islamic fundamentalist group that controls most of neighboring Afghanistan, poses an ``alarming security issue'' for India and a potential threat to secular Indians.
---
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com>
* The Effects of Nuclear Weapons
A year ago in May, India surprised the CIA -- and nearly everyone else except, perhaps, Pakistan, who seems to have been nearly ready -- by setting off several underground nuclear explosions. Then Pakistan, claiming self-defense, followed suit. But what would actually happen if India and Pakistan had a nuclear exchange?
Most people in India and in Pakistan (and in the U.S.) probably do not know that as many as 9 out of 10 people -- or more -- who die from a nuclear blast, do not die in the explosion itself. Most people probably think that if they die from a nuclear blast, they will simply see a flash and get quickly cooked.
Those within approximately a six square mile area (for a 1 megaton blast) will indeed be close enough to "ground zero" to be killed by the gamma rays emitting from the blast itself. Ghostly shadows of these people will be formed on any concrete or stone that lies behind them, and they will be no more. They literally won't know what hit them, since they will be vaporized before the electrical signals from their sense organs can reach their brains. Of the many victims of a nuclear war, these are the luckiest ones, of course.
Outside the circle where people will be instantly vaporized from the initial gamma radiation blast, the light from the explosion (which is many times hotter than the sun) is so bright that it will immediately and permanently blind every living thing, including farm animals (including cows, sacred or otherwise), pets, birds while in flight and not to mention peasants, Maharajah's, and Government officials -- and soldiers, of course. Whether their eyes are opened or closed. This will happen for perhaps 10 miles around in every direction (for a 1 megaton bomb) -- further for those who happen to be looking towards the blast at the moment of detonation. Even from fifty miles away, a 1 megaton blast will be many times brighter than the noonday sun. Those looking directly at the blast will have a large spot permanently burned into their retinas, where the light receptor cells will have been destroyed. The huge bright cloud being nearly instantly formed in front of them (made in part from those closer to the blast, who have already "become death"), will be the last clear image these people will see.
Most people who will die from the nuclear explosion will not die in the initial gamma ray burst, nor in the multi-spectral heat blast (mostly X-ray and ultraviolet wavelengths) which will come about a tenth of a second after the gamma burst. Nor will the pressure wave which follows over the next few seconds do most of them in, though it will cause bleeding from every orifice. Nor even will most people be killed by the momentary high winds which accompany the pressure wave. These winds will reach velocities of hundreds of miles an hour near the epicenter of the blast, and will reach velocities of 70 miles per hour as far as 6 miles from the blast (for a 1 megaton bomb). The high winds and flying debris will cause shrapnel-type wounds and blunt-trauma injuries.
Together, the pressure wave and the accompanying winds will do in quite a few, and damage most of the rest of the people (and animals, and structures) in a huge circle -- perhaps hundreds of square miles in area.
Later, these people will begin to suffer from vomiting, skin rashes, and an intense unquenchable thirst as their hair falls out in clumps. Their skin will begin to peel off. This is because the internal molecular structure of the living cells within their bodies is breaking down, a result of the disruptive effects of the high radiation dose they received. All the animals will be similarly suffering. Since they have already received the dose, these effects will show up even if the people are immediately evacuated from the area -- hardly likely, since everything around will be destroyed and the country would be at war.
But this will not concern them at this time: Their immediate threat after the gamma blast, heat blast, pressure wave and sudden fierce wind (first going in the direction of the pressure wave -- outwardly from the blast -- then a moment later, a somewhat weaker wind in the opposite direction), will be the firestorm which will quickly follow, with its intense heat and hurricane-force winds, all driving towards the center where the radioactive mushroom-shaped cloud will be rising, feeding it, enlarging it, and pushing it miles up into the sky.
The cloud from a 1 megaton blast will reach nearly 10 miles across and equally high. Soon after forming, it will turn white because of water condensation around it and within it. In an hour or so, it will have largely dissipated, which means that its cargo of death can no longer be tracked visually. People will need to be evacuated from under the fallout, but they will have a hard time knowing where to go. Only for the first day or so will visible pieces of fallout appear on the ground, such as marble-sized chunks of radioactive debris and flea-sized dots of blackened particles. After that the descending debris from the radioactive cloud will become invisible and harder to track; the fallout will only be detectible with geiger counters carried by people in "moon suits". But all the moon suits will already be in use in the known affected area. Probably, no one will be tracking the cloud. One U.S. test in the South Pacific resulted in a cigar-shaped contamination area 340 miles long and up to 60 miles wide. It spread 20 miles *upwind* from the test site, and 320 miles downwind. Where exactly it goes all depends on the winds and the rains at the time. It is difficult to predict where the cloud will travel before it happens, and it is likewise difficult to track the cloud as it moves and dissipates around the globe. While underground testing is bad enough for the environment, a single large above-ground explosion is likely to result in measurable global increases of a whole spectrum of health effects. India or Pakistan will deny culpability for these deaths, of course. The responsible nations, including my own, always do.
But the people who were affected by the blast itself will not be worrying about the fallout just yet.
A 1 megaton nuclear bomb creates a firestorm that can cover 100 square miles. A 20 megaton blast's firestorm can cover nearly 2500 square miles. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were small cities, and by today's standards the bombs dropped on them were small bombs.
The Allied firebombing of nearly 150 cities during World War Two in Germany and Japan seldom destroyed more than 25 square miles at a time, and each of those raids required upwards of 400 planes, and thousands of crewmembers going into harm's way. It was not done lightly. And, they did not leave a lingering legacy of lethal radioactive contamination.
In the span of a lunch hour, one multi-warhead nuclear missile can destroy more cities than all the incendiary raids in history, and the only thing the combatant needs to do to carry off such a horror is to sit in air-conditioned comfort hundreds or even thousands of miles away, and push a button. He would barely have to interrupt his lunch. With automation, he wouldn't even have to do that! The perpetrator of this crime against humanity may never have seen his adversary. He only needs to be good at following the simplest of orders. A robot could do it. One would think, that ONLY a robot WOULD do it.
Nuclear war is never anything less than genocide.
The developing firestorm is what the survivors of the initial blast will be worrying about -- if they can think straight at all. Many will have become instantly "shell-shocked" -- incapacitated and unable to proceed. Many will simply go mad. Perhaps they are among the "lucky" ones, as well. The firestorm produces hurricane-force winds in a matter of minutes. The fire burns so hot that the asphalt in the streets begins to melt and then burn, even as people are trying to run across it, literally melting into the pavement themselves as they run. Victims, on fire, jump into rivers, only to catch fire again when they surface for air. Yet it is hard to see even these pitiable souls as the least lucky ones in a nuclear attack.
For the survivors of the initial blast who do not then die in the firestorm that follows, many will die painfully over the next few weeks, often after a brief, hopeful period where they appear to be getting better. It might begin as a tingling sensation on the skin, or an itching, which starts shortly after the blast. These symptoms are signs that the body is starting to break down internally, at the molecular level. The insides of those who get a severe dose of gamma radiation, but manage to survive the other traumas, whose organs had once been well defined as lungs, liver, heart, intestines, etc., begin to resemble an undefined mass of bloody pulp.
Within days, or perhaps weeks, the victim, usually bleeding painfully from every hole and pore in their body, at last dies and receives their final mercy. But this too will probably not be how most victims of a nuclear attack will die.
A significant percentage, probably most, of the people who die from a nuclear attack will die much later, from the widespread release of radioactive material into the environment. These deaths will occur all over the world, for centuries to come. Scattered deaths, and pockets of higher mortality rates, will continue from cancer, leukemia, and other health effects, especially genetic damage to succeeding generations.
Nuclear weapons do not recognize the end of a war, or signed peace treaties, or even the deaths of all the combatants. They simply keep on killing a percentage of whoever happens to inhale or ingest their deadly byproducts. Some deaths will occur hundreds and even thousands of miles away, because low levels of ionizing radiation are capable of causing the full spectrum of health effects, albeit at a lower rate within the population. Not to mention the radioactive runoff from the rivers and streams that flow through the blast area and the area under the radioactive mushroom cloud's drift. It may carry its deadly cargo for thousands of miles, raining a fallout of death only on some cities, and not on others. It will land upon nations which had not been involved in any way in India's dispute with Pakistan. These nations will be mighty hurt and mighty upset.
Nuclear weapons do not recognize international borders.
Finally, an atmospheric blast of a nuclear "device" creates an EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) which can be as large as Pakistan or even India -- perhaps even larger than India and Pakistan together. The higher the altitude of the blast, the bigger the circle of damage will be from the EMP. This is a very serious concern for those of us in the high-tech industries, such as myself.
The Electro-Magnetic Pulse will electrify all sorts of metallic structures that are not normally electrified except by the occasional short circuit or lightening strike. This will be a lot like the whole country getting struck by lightening all at the same time.
As computer chips make better and better use of "real estate", using more and more delicate electronic circuits, the more tightly-packed transistors, capacitors, diodes and resistors become more and more vulnerable to the EMP which will be carried into the chips via the connecting wires. The Electro-Magnetic Pulse is one of the reasons above-ground testing was stopped. (The other reason was that it became impossible to deny that the radiation dispersed by the tests was killing people.)
Pacemakers, for example, may stop working because of the "hit" from the EMP. It will be quite something to see people in a thousand mile radius of the epicenter of the blast (or further) who are using pacemakers, suddenly drop dead, and all the computers permanently go down and all the lights go out, all at the same time. And commercial and private aircraft will drop out of the sky, since their sensitive electronics and fly-by-wire systems are not very well shielded from the EMP. These planes will then not be available for evacuation purposes, nor will they be available to air-drop food, water, morphine and cyanide, all of which will be in great demand throughout the area. A year ago people were dancing in the streets over this in both India and Pakistan. Why?
Home plumbing systems and most other plumbing systems are good examples of large metallic structures that will suddenly become electrified, destroying the motors, gauges, electronics, etc. which are attached to the plumbing systems. More and more pumping equipment is computer controlled nowadays for efficiency. Imbedded controllers are becoming prevalent but as they do, the potential damage from the Electro-Magnetic Pulse increases dramatically.
Train tracks will also carry the charge, as well as telephone wiring. All these things will have a nearly simultaneous surge of energy sent through them, igniting gas containers such as fuel storage tanks, propane tanks, and so on. Whatever doesn't blow up will at least stop working.
My country has lived under the Russian and Chinese threat of nuclear war for many decades now, and it is not a pleasant thought. This is nothing to dance about. There is no benefit to having, or using, nuclear weapons. I think the world would be a better place if we all stopped and said, "I will not be a part of this. I do not need these weapons, for I would never commit this sin against my own children, nor against my neighbor's children, nor against my enemy's children, nor even against my enemy. I choose not to be a part of this madness."
There is a greater battle mankind must fight than against each other. Humanity's fight right now, is for humanity's general survival despite depleted and poorly used resources, environmental degradation (there is none greater than that from a nuclear explosion), dwindling effectiveness of antibiotics and other wonder drugs, an uneven distribution of available food, knowledge and wealth, and against weapons of mass destruction. America had three excuses for her previous use of nuclear weapons in war, which we plead every time it is mentioned. First, we claim that we did not understand back then (over 50 years ago) all the ways nuclear weapons damage the Earth and her living inhabitants. Second, we claim that there was a war going on, and that had we not used these weapons, perhaps a million soldiers would have died invading Japan instead. But this second excuse is weakened by the knowledge that Japan was at that time very near collapse anyway. She was without an air defense, a sea defense, she did not have advanced radar, she had lost all her good pilots, millions of soldiers were either dead, wounded, captured, or uselessly stuck on nameless islands in the middle of the Pacific, and towns in her homeland was being firebombed on almost a nightly basis.
Our third excuse was that both Japan (and definitely Germany) were building their own nuclear weapons, and DEFINITELY would have used them against us had they succeeded in developing "the bomb" before the war ended. The war could not go on forever. We were, indeed, running out of time. Perhaps these excuses are insufficient, but India and Pakistan hasn't even got them. India can, and therefore should, along with Pakistan, renounce nuclear weapons and the nuclear option. Perhaps her populace does not understand the full nature of the threat of nuclear weapons, and thus they are dancing in the streets, but I hope that her leaders do. However, I strongly suspect most of them are unaware of the things I have written about in this newsletter. Perhaps you, dear reader, will help me to educate them in this matter.
Sincerely,
Russell D. Hoffman
The author is grateful for the assistance of Pamela Blockey-O'Brien and others in the research and preparation of this statement.
*For more information on the Electromagnetic Pulse (which can also be created with non-nuclear weapons) you might start with a visit to this URL (which is, actually, specifically about non-nuclear EMP devices):
----- FROM: http://www.infowar.com/mil_c4i/mil_c4i8.html-ssi -----
Computers used in data processing systems, communications systems, displays, industrial control applications, including road and rail signalling, and those embedded in military equipment, such as signal processors, electronic flight controls and digital engine control systems, are all potentially vulnerable to the EMP effect.
Other electronic devices and electrical equipment may also be destroyed by the EMP effect. Telecommunications equipment can be highly vulnerable, due to the presence of lengthy copper cables between devices. Receivers of all varieties are particularly sensitive to EMP, as the highly sensitive miniature high frequency transistors and diodes in such equipment are easily destroyed by exposure to high voltage electrical transients. Therefore radar and electronic warfare equipment, satellite, microwave, UHF, VHF, HF and low band communications equipment and television equipment are all potentially vulnerable to the EMP effect.
It is significant that modern military platforms are densely packed with electronic equipment, and unless these platforms are well hardened, an EMP device can substantially reduce their function or render them unusable.
----- END OF CLIP -----
Information on INFOWAR web site is available from:
Infowar.Com & Interpact, Inc.
WebWarrior@Infowar.Com
Voice: 727-556-0833 Fax: 727-556-0834 For a photo of the famous wooden-trestle electromagnetic pulse (EMP) simulator at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico (with a B-52 bomber sitting on top of it): http://www.brook.edu/FP/projects/nucwcost/trestle.htm Visit the Federation of American Scientists' web site for a more detailed discussion of the effect of nuclear weapons: http://www.fas.org/nuke/hew/Nwfaq/Nfaq5.html
In 1962 the Department of the Air Force produced Air Force Pamphlet No. 136-1-3, by order of the Secretary of the Air Force Curtis E. LeMay. Titled The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, it was published by the United States Atomic Energy Commission in April of that year and was a revision of the 1957 edition of the same title. In the forward by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Glenn T. Seaborg, we are told, "There is a need for widespread public understanding of the best information available on the effects of nuclear weapons. The purpose of this book is to present as accurately as possible, within the limits of national security, a comprehensive summary of this information." In other words, fiction where necessary. However, there are several interesting statements to STOP CASSINI readers:
----- FROM "THE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS" ----
>From Paragraph 11.197:
"...in the great majority of cases, mutations have deleterious effects of some kind."
Paragraph 11.218:
"Hemorrhage is a common phenomenon after radiation exposure because the megakaryocytes, from which the blood platelets necessary for clotting are formed, are destroyed and the platelets are not replenished. If hemorrhage occurs in vital centers, death can result. Often the hemorrhages are so widespread that severe anemia and death are the consequences."
Paragraph 11.219:
"The loss of the epithelial coverings of tissues, together with the loss of white cells and antibodies, lowers the resistance of the body to bacterial and viral invasion. if death does not take place in the first few days after a large dose of radiation, bacterial invasion of the blood stream usually occurs and the patient dies of infection. Often such infections are caused by bacteria which, under normal circumstances, are harmless." This newsletter is free and is not distributed for profit.
To subscribe, simply email the editor at rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
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BGE Pledges Better Response to Storms
By Hannah Allam Washington Post, November 11, 1999; Page M03
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/11/068l-111199-idx.html
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. officials admitted to Calvert County commissioners on Tuesday that the electric utility did not move fast enough to repair lines and restore service after Hurricane Floyd in September.
BGE officials pledged better future service than was available during that storm, which one BGE spokesman called "the most catastrophic event to hit our system in 40 years."
"We recognize that we did not meet public expectation," said Steve Wood, BGE's vice president of electrical transmission and distribution. "We know we have to do things differently."
Floyd wiped out power to nearly 4,000 Calvert homes, Wood said. The county was among the last to have power restored and Calvert residents received none of the dry ice distributed in Maryland, said Board President Linda L. Kelley (R-Owings).
BGE representatives offered few solid plans for change during their appearance at the commissioners' regular meeting on Tuesday, but said the company is looking into its electrical warning system, which alerts officials of problem areas, and also will gather information from other utilities. They also promised significant changes in power restoration policies--BGE now gives restoration priority according to public safety and the number of residents in a given area--and is looking into the possibility of recruiting workers from the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant to assist in restoration activities.
During Hurricane Floyd, 517 crews made up of employees from as far away as Ohio and Missouri worked to restore power to the nearly 500,000 BGE customers left without power across the state.
Most commissioners agreed that the electric company didn't move fast enough, leaving some residents without power for up to five days.
"We seem to be caught up in that prioritization schedule," Kelley said. "And when [Calvert residents] can't get through to you, guess who they call?"
At the suggestion of several commissioners, the officials agreed to look into better ways to handle the deluge of calls that come in during storms like Floyd. Many customers complained they couldn't reach the company to report outages. Smith said BGE receives about 10,000 calls on an average day, but during the storm that number swelled to 290,000.
"We are determined to extract every lesson learned from this storm," said Raymond Wenderlich, the manager of BGE's customer care department and a Calvert resident.
The BGE officials promised to have more support staff in place before the first snow storm.
At the end of September, calling BGE's response to Hurricane Floyd "unacceptably slow," Gov. Parris N. Glendening ordered Maryland's Public Service Commission to investigate how well BGE and other power companies in the state respond to natural disasters. Glendening also cited the Potomac Electric Power Co.'s performance during last winter's ice storm in the Washington suburbs, when service to thousands of homes was interrupted.
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Extra funds for radiation victims?
Senate committee approves changes
November 11, 1999
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,130006717,00.html?
WASHINGTON - More people harmed by radiation from above-ground nuclear tests or uranium mining could get compensation from the federal government under a measure approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The measure approved Tuesday would make changes sought by critics of a law that provides government payments to Westerners who became ill because of their involvement with Cold War nuclear weapons programs.
The bill would expand the list of cancers and other diseases that make the workers eligible for $100,000 government payments. It also would include people who worked in open-pit uranium mines, uranium mills and in transporting uranium from 1941 to 1971. Underground uranium miners already are getting compensation for their ailments.
Since the first payments began in 1992, the Justice Department has approved 3,135 claims worth nearly $232 billion, said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who co-sponsored the bill. He said the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the proposed changes to the compensation program would cost $1 billion during the next 21 years.
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Federal panel and state pick a new firm to cap N-tailings
Uranium waste near Moab will be covered with earth
By Robert Gehrke Associated Press November 11, 1999
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,130006716,00.html?
The state and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission have picked a new company to manage the capping of 10.5 million tons of uranium tailings near the Colorado River.
PricewaterhouseCooper will oversee cleanup of the tailings pile, which sits 750 feet from the Colorado River outside Moab.
Contaminants from the hill of Cold War-era uranium waste are slowly seeping into the river and threatening three endangered fish: the southwestern willow flycatcher, razorback sucker and Colorado squawfish.
Denver-based Atlas Corp., which operated a uranium mill from 1962 to 1984, filed for bankruptcy last year. Dames & Moore had been chosen as the trustee in September but backed out.
The NRC approved a plan to drain 500 million gallons of water from the pile to stop leakage, then put an earthen cap on the pile to prevent radon from escaping and new water from soaking in.
Atlas left behind a required cleanup bond, containing between $7 million and $8 million, which will be turned over to PricewaterhouseCooper to begin draining the pile.
The U.S. Department of Energy must pay 56 percent of cleanup costs, since that percentage of uranium milled by Atlas was used in government weapons programs.
However, the NRC estimated the cap and groundwater cleanup would cost about $47 million. The state estimated groundwater cleanup alone would cost $77 million.
It remains unclear where the rest of the money will come from.
"While we're just beginning now to get our arms around it, ultimately we believe there will be sufficient funds for the cleanup," said Dave Nestor, spokesman for PricewaterhouseCooper.
"I don't know what the other sources (of funding) will be. One of the things we're going to be doing is trying to increase the bond," Nestor said.
Bill Sinclair, director of the Utah Division of Radiation Control, said the appointment of a trustee is a good start toward stopping the contamination.
"There's no expectation that Pricewaterhouse is going to go in there and come up with a final solution, but we hope they can come up with some good things in the interim," he said.
The environmental group The Grand Canyon Trust, Grand County commissioners, Gov. Mike Leavitt, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Rep. Chris Cannon have said capping the pile is inadequate.
Those groups and individuals have argued to have the pile moved. Cannon, R-Utah, is sponsoring legislation that would enable the DOE to move the pile at an estimated cost of $150 million.
----------- US Politics
Bush Vows To Strengthen Military
Filed at 5:43 p.m. EST By The Associated Press, November 11, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/p/AP-Bush.html
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush lauded America's veterans Thursday as ``heroes who saved a century'' and vowed to strengthen the U.S. military during a Veterans' Day speech in this Detroit suburb.
``The greatest monument to America's veterans is the world they shaped,'' the Texas governor told more than 100 veterans and other onlookers, including Michigan Gov. John Engler and Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Stone, who was a prisoner of war in Yugoslavia.
Bush, who served in the Air National Guard during Vietnam, was light on specifics Thursday. But in South Carolina on Tuesday, he promised to undertake a top-to-bottom overhaul of the veteran's health care system.
Engler -- who is chairman of the Bush campaign in Michigan and a member of the Texas governor's advisory committee -- praised Bush's proposals, saying, ``He will not turn his back on America's veterans.'' ...
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Presidential Hopefuls Court Vets
By Ron Fournier AP Political Writer Thursday, Nov. 11, 1999; 9:20 a.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991111/aponline092015_000.htm
LACONIA, N.H. -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain today called the veterans' health care system American's "great embarrassment," as White House hopefuls in both parties marked Veterans Day in early primary states.
The only war hero in the presidential field, McCain boarded his "Straight Talk Express" campaign bus with several veterans who were Vietnam War prisoners with him in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton."
"My great privilege was to serve in the company of heroes, and they are here today," McCain said at a veterans' hall during his first stop of the day.
Many fellow presidential candidates had Veterans Day events scheduled, including GOP front-runner George W. Bush and Democratic Vice President Al Gore.
In Iowa, Gore was using his Veterans Day speech to argue that the United States must reassert its role as an international leader and increase defense spending. His rival, Bill Bradley, has said the Pentagon budget can be retained at current levels.
"Diplomacy together with military might is how we fight the spread of nuclear weapons in the world," the vice president said in a draft of his address.
McCain trails Bush in national polls of Republican voters, but a new survey in New Hampshire suggests that he is in a dead heat in this first-in-the-nation primary state. The Manchester Union Leader poll of GOP voters showed that 38 percent favored Bush and 35 percent McCain - a statistical tie.
Veterans are the cornerstone of McCain's political coalition in New Hampshire and South Carolina, two states with strong military ties. Though President Clinton earned a majority of the veterans' vote in 1992 and 1996, McCain's advisers believes that his war-hero biography and experience in foreign policy give him an upper hand in 2000.
Bush, who served in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, delivered a series of addresses aimed at veterans this week. In South Carolina on Tuesday, the Texas governor promised an overhaul of the veterans' health care system but offered no specific plans. McCain has promised to add $3 billion to veterans' health care program each year until the funding is adequate.
Under pressure, McCain today acknowledged that he made a mistake in allowing his campaign to film a political ad at Arlington National Cemetery without seeking permission of military authorities. The ad will be edited to delete the cemetery footage, McCain said.
The Arizona senator said it was not disrespectful to film the visit.
"I'm not embarrassed to be seen at a cemetery where my father, grandfather and a couple of uncles are buried, but we didn't get permission and we violated the regulations," McCain, the son and grandson of Navy admirals, told reporters.
In his remarks at a veterans hall, McCain vowed to root out government waste - including unnecessary Pentagon spending - to pour more money into veterans' programs.
"My great embarrassment as an American is that we're not providing those World War II veterans with health care benefits that we promised them," McCain said. "Thirty thousand (veterans) are dying every month, many of them without the geriatric care we promised them. That is a disgrace. I promise to fix that as president of the United States. You have my word on it."
"The money is there," he continued. "Don't be ... (fooled) by someone saying the money isn't there. If we can spend $235 million on a helicopter carrier the Navy does not want or need, if we can keep buying C-130 aircraft carriers the Air Force says we don't need ... we can find the money. It's your job and my job to remind Americans of their obligations."
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Gore To Unveil Defense Plan
By Mike Glover Associated Press Writer Wednesday, Nov. 10, 1999; 9:35 p.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991110/aponline213558_000.htm
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Vice President Al Gore will use a Veterans Day speech to call for increased spending to put the military "leaps and bounds ahead" of other countries, and to draw new contrasts with rival Bill Bradley, aides said.
"We support the military increase and Bradley doesn't," a Gore campaign aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In addition, Gore will use the speech at a veterans hospital to underscore differences on personal military background. Gore was in the military and served in Vietnam as an Army reporter. Bradley attained the rank of lieutenant in the Air Force reserves.
In remarks prepared for delivery Thursday, Gore also suggested that the administration has helped develop a new consensus behind increasing military spending that's closely tied to more effective diplomacy.
"We have rebuilt a consensus in our country for a strong national defense, but we also need a national consensus on the other great pillar of American foreign policy - waging peace through serious and sustained diplomacy," Gore said.
In his remarks, Gore also argues for combining diplomacy and military policy in the same package.
"Diplomacy together with military might is how we fight the spread of nuclear weapons in the world," he said. "It is how we are breaking up deadly drug cartels and crime syndicates around the world."
The address is the latest in a series of efforts by Gore to paint Bradley as too liberal to win the White House. Gore has assaulted Bradley's health care plan, arguing that it's too expensive and would blow the nation's budget surplus.
The latest campaign swing will see Gore focus largely on foreign policy and defense issues, hoping to open a new area of contrast with Bradley.
Bradley, a former senator, recently told a disarmament group that he saw no need to increase military spending. His spokesman also did not rule out pay or benefit increases.
"Military spending should be adjusted as needed to protect America's most vital and important interests. I believe current levels would suffice if the Department of Defense was led and managed effectively," Bradley replied on a candidate questionnaire circulated by Star.PAC, an Iowa-based group.
Polls have shown Bradley offering a surprisingly strong challenge to Gore in key early states like Iowa and New Hampshire, and Gore has moved more aggressively in recent weeks to counter that movement.
Aides who spoke on condition of anonymity paraphrased the thrust of Gore's speech, in which he hopes to draw a difference by arguing that he has experience in dealing with foreign governments and understands diplomacy in a changing world.
"The next president is going to have to use diplomacy with a great deal of precision," the aide said. "We've got to have the military to back that up. That means having a military at an appropriate readiness level."
The aide said Gore also will focus on his support for specific projects, such as the F-22 fighter.
"The next president will make sure we keep our military leaps and bounds ahead of other countries," the aide said.
In addition, the speech is likely to take a veiled shot at Republican rival Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who caused a stir last week when he couldn't name three of four heads of state in world hot spots after a reporter asked him to.
Gore will make the point that "in foreign policy, the next president will face more than three or four hot spots."
Gore has centered Thursday's campaign swing on the speech at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown, a long-term care facility for veterans that is state supported.
Though he has a town hall-style meeting and a fund-raiser built into his schedule, Gore was putting the heaviest focus on his Veteran's Day speech. Aides argued that they have made gains by assaulting Bradley on health care, and have launched new television commercials to seize on that.
By expanding into foreign policy, Gore hopes to cast himself as more mature and sophisticated about world affairs than Bradley, who served for 18 years in the Senate.
But some strategists discount the effort, saying foreign affairs traditionally plays a small role in presidential politics.
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Gore Wants U.S. To Be World Leader
Filed at 4:55 p.m. EST November 11, 1999 By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/p/AP-Gore-Defense.html
... Gore used his Veterans Day podium to push for a stronger American role in the world, decrying what he argued were isolationist trends sweeping through Congress.
While talking tough on defense spending, Gore warned ``the change we need requires more than just strong defense.''
``It also requires American engagement with the world, and it requires American leadership,'' Gore said.
Gore delivered his speech to more than 100 elderly veterans. While he hammered at diplomacy, he also talked about his ``unwavering dedication to a strong military'' and noted that he voted in favor of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
``We need to make every reasonable investment necessary to make sure that we can recruit and retain America's top talent for our armed forces.''
In the speech, Gore lamented Senate rejection of a nuclear test ban treaty that he said was ``sacrificed on the altar of partisan politics'' and pointed to what he argued were troubling trends in Congress.
``More and more each year, engagement abroad means a political struggle here at home,'' he said. ``When even free- and fair-trade agreements that deepen the ties among nations become political footballs, we threaten our very stability and security.''
Gore credited the administration with helping to build a new consensus behind increased military spending, but said agreement was lacking on the need for effective diplomacy.
``We have rebuilt a consensus in our country for a strong national defense policy, but we also need a national consensus on the other great pillar of American foreign policy -- waging peace through serious and sustained diplomacy,'' Gore said.
He also argued for combining diplomacy and military policy in one package.
``Diplomacy together with military might is how we fight the spread of nuclear weapons in the world,'' Gore said. ``It is how we are breaking up deadly drug cartels and crime syndicates around the world.''
The address was the latest effort by Gore to paint Bradley as too liberal to win the White House, as well as cast himself as a leader on the world stage.
Bradley, a former senator, recently told a disarmament group that he saw no need to boost military spending, although his spokesman did not rule out pay or benefit increases.
``Military spending should be adjusted as needed to protect America's most vital and important interests,'' Bradley replied on a candidate questionnaire circulated by Star.PAC, an Iowa-based group. ``I believe current levels would suffice if the Department of Defense was led and managed effectively.''
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Atomic Bomb Physicist Theodore Alvin Hall Dies at 74
By Bart Barnes Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, November 11, 1999; Page B07
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/11/264l-111199-idx.html
Theodore Alvin Hall, 74, who as a 19-year-old prodigy helped develop the atomic bomb and was later said to have passed along the vital secrets of this work to the Soviet Union, died of cancer Nov. 1 in Cambridge, England.
Early in 1944, Mr. Hall was one of four Harvard physicists recruited to work on a top-secret atomic weapon for military use against Japan or Nazi Germany during World War II. Arriving at the Los Alamos, N.M., headquarters for the Manhattan Project -- the code name for the bomb building enterprise -- he was assigned to the division responsible for mastering the physics of the implosion techniques that would be used to detonate the bomb.
In a 1997 book, "Bombshell: The Secret Story of America's Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy," authors Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel said Mr. Hall gave Soviet agents a detailed description of the "Fat Man" plutonium bomb, which the United States had tested in the New Mexican desert and later dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. From this information, the Soviets developed and tested their own bomb four years later. KGB archives opened after the 1989 collapse of the Soviet Union and declassified wartime cables between the United States and Moscow were among the sources for the material in the book.
According to Albright and Kunstel, the information given to the Soviets by Mr. Hall, with the assistance as a courier of his former Harvard University roommate, Saville Sax, preceded that supplied by Klaus Fuchs, the German-born Los Alamos scientist who later was convicted of spying for the Soviets. Evidence cited in "Bombshell" suggested that Fuchs only confirmed information the Soviets already had received from Mr. Hall. Damage to the Western Alliance resulting from Mr. Hall's information may have exceeded that resulting from the information supplied to the Soviets by the so-called Cambridge Comintern, whose members included the famed spies Kim Philby and Donald Maclean.
In 1947, according to Albright and Kunstel, Mr. Hall may have been the source of information that enabled the Soviets to build a hydrogen bomb.
In the early 1950s, Mr. Hall was interviewed by the FBI after his name was discovered in Soviet wartime codes that were deciphered by U.S. cryptanalysts. This code breakthrough eventually led to the espionage prosecution and execution in 1953 of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for what then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called "the crime of the century." But "Bombshell" suggests that the Rosenbergs were not major players in the theft of atomic secrets. "I was more responsible than they were," it quotes Mr. Hall as telling his Soviet control agent.
But no charges were ever brought against Mr. Hall. Robert McQueen, an FBI agent who interrogated him in 1951, told The Washington Post in 1996 that he "was convinced that Hall was guilty, but I could never develop enough evidence to prosecute him."
Last year, Mr. Hall told the British Broadcasting Corp. how his interrogation by the FBI ended: "I reached for my coat, I think, and I just got up and walked out. And step by step, waiting for the handcuffs to be put on before I walked into the elevator, expecting to be collared before I got on the elevator. But I called for the lift, and it came, and I went in, and I got in and went downstairs, and walked out onto the street. And they didn't come."
In 1962, he moved with his family to England, where he took a research position in biophysics at Cambridge University's Cavendish laboratory, where he was a pioneer in developing biological X-ray microanalysis.
A Soviet cable declassified by the U.S. National Security Agency in 1995 identified Mr. Hall and Sax as Soviet informants. In 1996 in two conversations with Michael Dobbs of The Washington Post at Mr. Hall's modest, two-story house in England and in later telephone conversations, Mr. Hall declined to answer questions about intelligence activity on behalf of the Soviet Union. He said he feared that a newspaper account of such a complicated episode would inevitably be "sensational" and that such material would best be handled "by an historian."
"These events or supposed events happened 50 years ago," he said. "If they are made public, there will be a certain amount of interest, but it will die down."
In a statement to Albright and Kunstel in 1997, Mr. Hall said he had been "immature, inexperienced and far too sure of myself" when he was working at Los Alamos.
"During 1944, I was worried about the dangers of an American monopoly of atomic weapons if there should be a postwar depression. . . . To help prevent that monopoly, I contemplated a brief encounter with a Soviet agent, just to inform them of the existence of the A-bomb project. I anticipated a very limited contact. With any luck, it might easily have turned out that way, but it was not to be."
Mr. Hall publicly confirmed his activities last year, his daughter Ruth Hall said, according to the Associated Press.
"I don't call it an admission. I call it an achievement," she said. "He wasn't a spy in the sense of someone who goes into it for glory or money."
Mr. Hall was born in New York and grew up there. He entered Harvard at age 16. Both he and his roommate Sax were active in communist youth organizations. As related in "Bombshell," Mr. Hall's Soviet handler was Sergei Kurnakov, a former czarist cavalry officer, who reported to his superiors that Mr. Hall "had an exceptionally keen mind and a broad outlook and is politically developed."
At one point the book said that Mr. Hall and Sax, fearing that the FBI might be hot on their trail, considered dressing up as women and walking into New York's Soviet consulate to seek asylum. They dropped the idea after Mr. Hall's wife, Joan, asked them whether they had ever tried walking in high heels.
Sax died in 1980. He had held various jobs during his working career, including a position as a teacher of "values clarification" in a federally funded education program. "Get in touch with your love feelings," he had written in a manual on meditation.
Mr. Hall's survivors include his wife, two daughters and three grandchildren.