* Russian Nuclear Plants OK for Y2K
* Russian Nuclear Plants Undergo Y2K Drill
* Experts: New Terrorists Harder to Track
Cite Homemade Nukes and Smaller Groups
* A MISSILE PROGRAM
Allies Fear U.S. Project May Renew Arms Race
* Europe Y2K nuclear weapons shutdown blasted
* Cramer in group heading for Russia
* Cold War Remembrances De-classified
Reports Show Dangerous, But Wary U.S.S.R.
* ANALYSIS: Bush's foreign policy vision full of contradictions
* ANALYSIS: Bush's foreign policy vision full of contradictions
* Bush Draws the Line Foreign Policy Speech Warns China and Russia
* Policies May Undercut Plea for Better Ties
* Bush Favors Internationalism
Candidate Calls China a 'Competitor,' Opposes Test Ban Treaty
* Nuclear Experts Fault Bush Beliefs on Test Ban Treaty
* Peace Action Urges: 'Ask Bush the Tough Questions'
* Bush Favors Internationalism
Candidate Calls China a 'Competitor,' Opposes Test Ban Treaty
* Bush Raises Money for GOP in Calif.
* Candidates on the Issues - EDUCATION / ENVIRONMENT / FARM POLICY / FOREIGN POLICY / GUN CONTROL / HEALTH CARE / IMMIGRATION etc
* Fired Lab Scientist Can't Account for Some Disks
* Spy Probe Expands, Adds Bomb Makers
* Deal with Russians in trouble, letter says
Nuclear disarmament
* Dawn Mining opponent gets 'hero' award
* Highlights of 1999 Congress
* Plea Deal for Parents Turned In by Daughter
* Feds May Upgrade Island Disease Lab
* Today In History
* Russian Military Researcher Suspected Of Spying For U.S.
* No Deal in US-S.Korea Missile Talks
* World Briefings
NORTH KOREA: PROGRESS AT TALKS
* Town Faces Emotional Fallout After Japan's Nuclear Accident

----------

Russian Nuclear Plants OK for Y2K

New York Times, November 19, 1999 Filed at 9:06 p.m. EST, Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Y2K-Russia-Nuclear.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Major systems at Russian nuclear plants should not be affected by Y2K computer bugs, but local residents could lose heat and electricity if some computers fail, the Energy Department reported Friday.

Energy officials said tests of the plants' crucial safety and communications systems revealed no problems.

``The nuclear parts are so old, they're largely not run by computer. There's practically nothing to fail,'' Energy Department spokeswoman Chris Kielich said. ``Hopefully, that's one more thing people don't have to worry about.''

Soviet-designed nuclear plants in other countries also did well in tests designed to see how the systems would respond when the calendar turns to Jan. 1, 2000, the department reported.

At the same time, the Energy Department said, other computer systems could fail, such as those monitoring plant conditions. In that case, local residents could find themselves without heat or electricity until the problems are corrected. Kielich said U.S. energy experts will be on call to answer any questions the Russians may have.

The Energy Department earlier found Russian plants free of Y2K problems that could cause catastrophic failures, according to a report by the U.S. Senate's Year 2000 committee.

Last week, the White House said Russia, Ukraine, China and Indonesia were making slow progress on Y2K repairs and were ``more likely to experience significant failures.'' Russia has 29 nuclear plants at nine sites. In some areas of the country those plants generate close to one-fourth the regions' electricity.

``We are increasing our attention to helping countries like Russia which rely heavily on nuclear power to resolve their Y2K problems,'' Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Friday.

Richardson was in Moscow in September working with the Russians on their Y2K readiness efforts. And at the invitation of the Russian government, he sent U.S. observers to Moscow this week to observe a Y2K distribution electric system drill.

In a significant move, the State Department urged Americans last month to defer travel to Russia during the rollover and warned of possible ``disruption of basic human services such as heat, water, telephones and other vital services.''

The State Department also announced two weeks ago it will pull out some embassy employees from Russia and three other ex-Soviet states because of possible Y2K failures.

That decision came after U.S. officials agreed that Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova will be among countries worst affected by potential changeover problems.

The White House expressed concern in the spring about the safety of 65 Russian-designed nuclear plants worldwide, including one not far from Alaska in eastern Russia.

That was despite assurances by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Bulgak, who said the Y2K problem will not threaten his country's nuclear missiles or its nuclear power stations.

---

Russian Nuclear Plants Undergo Y2K Drill

Washington Post, November 20, 1999; Page A10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/20/089l-112099-idx.html

Eight of nine Russian nuclear power plants have undergone a Y2K drill, which was monitored by U.S. experts, and no major problems were reported, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said.

The drill tested power distribution systems, communications systems and simulated the loss of off-site power at the Leningrad nuclear power plant, the Energy Department said.

Richardson sent a team of the department's nuclear energy and technology experts to monitor the Wednesday and Thursday Y2K drill at the invitation of the Russian government. An earlier drill, on Nov. 1, simulated a Y2K disruption at the Kursk nuclear power plant and found no major problems.

-------- us nuc weapons

Experts: New Terrorists Harder to Track
Cite Homemade Nukes and Smaller Groups

By Hans H. Chen APB News Nov. 18, 1999
http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/1999/11/18/terror1118_01.html

TORONTO (APBnews.com) -- The United States faces new terrorist threats that range from wayward nuclear weapons to increasingly organized skinhead groups, say researchers speaking at the American Society of Criminology's annual conference.

The experts say the new threats will require law enforcement agencies to adopt new tools and tactics.

Foremost among terrorism concerns may be the ability of rogue groups to construct their own nuclear bombs from the shambles of the Soviet weapons system.

"The biggest barrier to terrorists building a nuclear weapon was the acquisition of fissionable material," said Julie Anderson, a researcher with the City University of New York's graduate program. "Well, that barrier has fallen significantly."

Anderson based her observation on a 3 1/2-month tour this year of Soviet weapons sites in which she observed and listened to several cases of potential nuclear theft.

Bombs for blackmail or genocide

More than 100 nuclear-powered Soviet submarines have been decommissioned since 1991, Anderson said, but their highly enriched plutonium engines have not yet been disassembled.

"They haven't had the funds to do that, so you have these subs moored in the docks, often with just one guard watching over them," she said.

If terrorist groups have built nuclear bombs, as some think they have, a possible use for the arms may be to blackmail a nation or commit instant genocide in an ethnic conflict.

"They haven't used them yet, but the potential is becoming more real," Anderson said. "There's a lot of hate out there."

Skinheads use hippies as models

Within the United States, domestic terrorism from racist skinheads may become more common as they turn to new recruiting and organizing techniques.

Though there are fewer of them today than in their heyday in the mid-1980s, the 500 or so active skinheads in the Pacific Northwest have begun drawing on both revolutionary and far-right rhetoric to recruit new members.

Just as the hippies of the 1960s mobilized against conservatism, skinheads paint liberals of the older generation as the source of America's trouble. Skinheads have even co-opted some of the hippie terminology, albeit with a new racist and anti-Semitic slant.

"'The Man' now becomes 'ZOG,'" said Randy Blazak, a professor at Portland State University in Oregon, referring to the common belief among skinheads that a "Zionist Owned Government" runs the country.

Small leaderless groups

And from far-right militia groups, skinheads have learned the tactic of breaking into small groups that are easy to mobilize through faxes but harder for law enforcement agencies to infiltrate and track.

"There's fewer of them, but it's more efficient," Blazak said.

In fact, the trend toward smaller, leaderless groups of terrorists may be the most important change to terrorism that law enforcement agencies are facing around the world, said Harvey Kushner, a professor at Long Island University who studies terrorist activities.

Law enforcement agencies from the FBI down must recognize this change, and that their old tactics of infiltrating groups, recruiting informants or capturing or killing terrorist leaders may no longer work.

"They want us to believe that if we take this guy out, then the threat will go away," Kushner said. "But it won't. More people will step up to the plate -- hundreds will step up to the plate."

Avoiding confrontation

The new fight against terrorism may require a deeper understanding of terrorist grievances and even a willingness to work with extremists. Kushner pointed to the standoff several years ago between the FBI and a Montana anti-government group called the Freemen as an example of this new approach.

Instead of storming the Freemen's compound, the FBI brought in outside negotiators, some virulently anti-government themselves, to reach a settlement.

"If you're law enforcement and you're looking for terrorists based on old models, you're lost," Kushner said.

Hans H. Chen is an APBnews.com staff writer (hans.chen@apbnews.com)

---

A MISSILE PROGRAM
Allies Fear U.S. Project May Renew Arms Race

New York Times November 20, 1999 By ELIZABETH BECKER
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/112099summit-missile.html

WASHINGTON -- A senior State Department official flew to NATO headquarters this week to defend the administration's plans to deploy a national missile defense system in the face of growing criticism from European allies who say their security is being threatened.

Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott met with NATO members' representatives in Brussels, explaining American intentions and "getting an earful of complaints" from the Europeans, according to a senior diplomat here.

"This was the first time the Americans really discussed with us their plans for a missile defense that could become a big divide between us," said the European diplomat.

"It is very late to wait to talk to your allies."

As President Clinton prepares to decide next summer whether to build a $20 billion national missile defense system, the European allies have joined Russia and China in questioning why the United States needs to move so quickly.

"Nobody in his right mind would argue that this is welcome timing," Talbott said in an interview. "It is necessary because of what we need to do and when we need to do it in order to respond to a looming threat."

Chief among the complaints voiced in Brussels was the administration's threat, stated with even greater firmness by leading Republican candidates for the presidency, that the United States might withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty if necessary to field the system.

Under that treaty, Russia and the United States are restricted to deploying one limited ballistic missile system to defend a small area of their countries.

The administration now is negotiating with Russia to alter the treaty to allow for the construction of a missile system to protect the entire country from a limited attack by a state with an emerging missile threat, like North Korea.

Several officials, according to a European diplomat here, asked whether the deployment, even if approved by Russia, would trigger a new arms race as other countries felt compelled to find ways around a new missile defense system.

Others said they feared that a separate American system would undermine the trans-Atlantic network because Europe would be left unprotected.

"Ballistic missile defenses have become the hub where relations with Russia and China intersect, the future of nonproliferation intersects and where our European allies express their most severe disgruntlement with the American leadership," said George Perkovich, director at the W. Alton Jones Foundation and author of "India's Nuclear Bomb" (University of California, 1999).

Alaska would probably be home to the system, including at least 20 interceptor missiles ready to shoot down incoming missiles.

It would also use satellites and radar stations in the United States, as well as two radar sites the United States already maintains in Greenland and Britain.

Talks are under way with Copenhagen, for the site in Greenland, a Danish territory, and with London, for the British site, according to an American official. Neither country has yet approved allowing its site to be part of the new system.

---

Europe Y2K nuclear weapons shutdown blasted

By Reuters Special to CNET News.com November 19, 1999, 8:35 a.m. PT
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1009-200-1453707.html?tag=st

WASHINGTON--The chairman of a special Senate panel on the Year 2000 blasted as ill-informed a European Parliament call yesterday to shut down nuclear weapon alert systems over the New Year to avoid accidental launches.

"This vote is particularly troubling in that it demonstrates an overall lack of awareness with regard to Y2K's potential effects on a country's infrastructure," Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said in a statement.

He said the European move also showed "a profound misunderstanding of Y2K's potential effects on ballistic missile systems."

Deputies in Strasbourg voted to appeal to the United States and Russia in particular to guard against possible errors in computer systems that may not recognize the date change to 2000.

U.S. and Russian military officials are to spend New Year's Eve together in a special command center in Colorado Springs, Colo., to monitor launch data across the century date change.

Bennett--who was involved in setting up the U.S.-Russian Center for Year 2000 Strategic Stability--said shutting down missile warning systems would be "far more dangerous than any problem that may arise from Y2K."

"What the European Parliament is asking countries to do is wear blindfolds during the crucial date rollover," he said.

The so-called Y2K glitch could cause some computers and the systems they control to crash or malfunction when their internal clocks encounter "00" in areas that track dates.

Bennett said there was no danger of missiles being launched by a computer glitch because a person always is part of the command process.

"International cooperation and awareness are the keys to avoiding a Y2K catastrophe, not pulling the plug and hoping for the best," he said.

The European Parliament also voted to ask countries with nuclear power stations to shut them down over New Year's Eve unless they had been shown to be millennium compliant.

Deputies said their appeal would be aimed specifically at countries in central and Eastern Europe, Turkey, Russia and members of the former Soviet Union.

---

Cramer in group heading for Russia

By BRETT DAVIS Times Washington Correspondent Huntsville Times 11/17/99
http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/Nov1999/17-e33137.html

WASHINGTON - Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville, plans to leave for Russia Thursday as Congress makes its plans to adjourn.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., is leading the trip to Ukraine and Russia to discuss business ties with the United States, and also to quell fears about U.S. plans for a limited missile-defense system.

''We'll obviously talk about missile defense as one of the topics, but it's not the major topic for the trip,'' said Weldon, a noted missile-defense advocate in the House.

Share your thoughts in the forum

He said he will tell them, ''We're going ahead to protect the American people.''

Complicating the issue of missile defense is a new outside panel review of the National Missile Defense program, as it is called, which is largely handled by the Army in Huntsville.

That panel said that while the program is on a ''sensible'' path to a decision on whether it should be put in the field, it still faces stiff budget and schedule hurdles.

If its test schedule is delayed any more, next summer's decision on fielding the program should be postponed, the study says.

Department of Defense spokesman Craig Quigley said at a Pentagon briefing Tuesday that the military is ''heartened'' by the recent successful test of a National Missile Defense interceptor, and doesn't think the outside panel's report shows a program in disarray.

''The program is a high-risk one - we've said that from the beginning - but we're pretty happy with where it's going right now,'' Quigley said.

Weldon said opponents of the program have seized on the report to try to slow the program, but he said it's a helpful report.

''I think they've reinforced that the program is on track and is, as they call it, a sensible approach,'' Weldon said of the outside panel's report.

Asked whether the program should slow down, Weldon said, ''I don't feel that way at all.''

Russian officials have criticized the plan to deploy a system to defend the country against rogue missile attacks, saying it could be expanded to threaten Russia's nuclear arsenal and could spark a new arms race.

Cramer said he suspects some officials there just want to use the high-profile issue as a political bargaining chip.

''The Russians are extremely good at trying to hold everyone hostage and trying to get something in return. The barter economy is alive and well over there,'' Cramer said.

Weldon blamed Russian opposition on the White House, which he said has canceled cooperative programs between the two countries and fostered paranoia in Russia.

Cramer said the lawmakers will meet with leading members of the Duma, or Russian parliament, and he will meet with Russian space and defense officials. In Ukraine, the main topic will be agricultural issues.

This is the second trip this year that Cramer has made to Russia, and he also hosted some Russian lawmakers in Alabama in August and September.

The lawmakers will be in Russia for about a week.

---

Cold War Remembrances De-classified
Reports Show Dangerous, But Wary U.S.S.R.

By Tabassum Zakaria ABC News 11/18/99
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/ciareport991118.html

L A N G L E Y, Va., Nov. 18 - The Soviet Union had the capability of striking all U.S. missile silos with two warheads each near the end of the Cold War, but was wary of escalating the arms race for economic reasons, newly declassified U.S. intelligence documents said today.

The Central Intelligence Agency declassified 24 reports on the military and political state of the Soviet Union in the three years before it dissolved Dec. 31, 1991, ending the Cold War.

The documents were compiled by CIA historians in a 438-page volume entitled At Cold War's End, U.S. Intelligence on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 1989-1991, for release at a conference at Texas A&M University running through Saturday.

CIA Director George Tenet, former President George Bush, who was in the White House at that time, and various national security and intelligence officials will meet in Texas to discuss the years that changed the world with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Two of the most highly classified reports made public offer the U.S. intelligence community's assessment of the Soviet Union's nuclear capabilities at that time, and whether the Soviets were likely to push the button on nuclear war.

Intelligence Made Talks Possible

Those types of reports made it possible for U.S. policy makers to engage the Soviet Union in arms talks and led to the end of the arms race before the Cold War ended, the book said.

"It is no exaggeration to say that without U.S. national intelligence in this area, arms control negotiations, and agreements would have been impossible," said Lloyd Salvetti, director of CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence.

One of the reports, dated Dec. 1, 1988, said the Soviet Union had enough intercontinental ballistic missile nuclear warheads "to attack all U.S. missile silos and launch control centers with at least two warheads each."

But the Soviet Union believed the two sides could devastate each other in a nuclear war, and "thus the Soviets have strong incentives to avoid risking global nuclear war," it said.

At that time, intelligence estimates expected Soviet forces to be "extensively modernized" by the late 1990s and move from fixed silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles to more mobile systems, with weapons that could reach the United States to grow over five years to up to 15,000, from 10,000.

Concerns about the Soviet economy heightened Moscow's interest in arms control agreements as a way of avoiding the costs of an "escalated military competition" with the United States, the report said.

U.S. intelligence agencies believed the Soviet Union was unlikely to launch a "bolt-from-the-blue" nuclear attack and provoke a clash with the United States and NATO that could escalate into a global nuclear war.

The Soviets also saw "little likelihood" of a U.S.-launched surprise nuclear attack but believed a major nuclear war would most likely arise out of a conflict between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, the report said.

Mobility Became an Issue Nearly three years later, a U.S. intelligence report dated Aug. 8, 1991, just months before the Soviet Union ceased to exist, said its decline caused Soviet leaders to view their national security and superpower status as "hinging more than ever on strategic nuclear power."

The Soviets were moving to a force consisting mainly of mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and bombers, the report said. They also were developing five new ballistic missiles - two land-based and three sea-based.

"The Soviets have enough warheads to mount a comprehensive attack against fixed targets worldwide," the report said.

In the event of a major U.S. nuclear attack, if the B-2 bomber and advanced cruise missile became more stealth-like they would probably be able to penetrate most of Soviet airspace at low altitude, the report said.

The Soviet Union had established a tunnel system and secret subway lines to protect its leaders from nuclear war.

"For 40 years, the Soviet Union has had a vast program under way to ensure the survival of its leaders in the event of nuclear war," the intelligence report said.

"This program has involved the construction of an extensive network of deep underground bunkers, tunnels and secret subway lines in urban and rural areas," it said. "There is recent evidence that substantial construction activity continues."

A U.S. report dated April 1989 accused Moscow of employing "unsavory practices" of disinformation that suggested the United States invented AIDS and trafficked in body parts.

Still, Moscow had reduced the amount of "blatant disinformation in its own press" and begun to participate in bilateral talks in which U.S. complaints about disinformation were conveyed to Soviet leaders, the report said.

---

ANALYSIS: Bush's foreign policy vision full of contradictions

Nando Media November 20, 1999 1:05 a.m. EST
http://www2.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,500059556-500098269-500397630-1,00.html

WASHINGTON ( http://www.nandotimes.com) - In his first foray into foreign policy, Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush squarely tied his presidential candidacy to continuity of American leadership in the world, while setting a more confrontational course for dealing with China and Russia.

His Friday speech at the Reagan Library in California, with its ringing denunciation of isolationism, was designed to show voters that he's not a total novice in the field, following several stumbles about his knowledge of foreign places and leaders.

In defining himself for next year's campaign, Bush blasted Pat Buchanan's America-first ideology, warning that U.S. retreat from the world is a "shortcut to chaos" that would leave the country weak and "stagnant in a savage world."

He also sought to trump Al Gore by attacking President Clinton's foreign policy, calling it a record of drift, timidity, and poorly considered responses to international crises.

In seeking to stake out a more robust, bipartisan stance, the GOP front-runner went back to the Cold War for his foreign policy models - Ronald Reagan and Harry Truman.

But the speech was most notable when he switched from presidential politics to his vision of a stronger, more assertive American role in the world - focusing principally on new threats from Beijing and Moscow.

He faulted Clinton for being too chummy with China's repressive leadership and a Boris Yeltsin who tolerates rampant corruption and brutalizes civilians in a bloody war in Chechnya.

But in laying out his own prescriptions, Bush raised questions as to whether his strategies fit his objectives.

On China, he called for a cold recognition that Beijing is a "competitor -- not a strategic partner." He proposed a new policy with echoes of Cold War containment -- a NATO-like alliance with Australia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines to forge a stronger counter-weight to China's looming power. He also pushed for a regional missile defense to counter a Chinese buildup of strategic nuclear weapons.

Yet, at the same time, he welcomed China's entry into the World Trade Organization and expanding trade relations, and also pressed Beijing to help Washington to avert conflict on the Korean peninsula and to check proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Left unanswered was how or why a China, encircled by a U.S. military alliance, would join in furthering U.S. strategic interests.

Similarly, when he dealt with Russia, Bush outlined several vital areas requiring the Kremlin's cooperation -- ratification of the START 2 strategic arms-reduction treaty , stronger efforts to reduce its nuclear arsenal while maintaining better control over it, and ending transfer of weapons technology to rogue states.

Yet, Bush coupled his quest for greater Russian cooperation with a virtual ultimatum to Moscow that he was prepared to scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to proceed full steam ahead with deployment of a U.S. national missile defense system.

Russia already has served notice that all bets would be off on further arms control under these conditions because its strategic nuclear might could be wiped out without the ABM Treaty and its prohibition of missile defenses.

Nevertheless, Bush firmly put his top national security priority on rapid deployment of an anti-missile shield, a variant of Reagan's more ambitious "Star Wars" system, while declaring his total opposition to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which recently went down to defeat in the Senate.

Rejection of the test ban treaty has raised hackles not only in Moscow and Beijing, which view its fate as evidence of a U.S. intent to gain greater dominance over them, but also in allied capitals in Europe.

Yet, Bush issued a ringing call for strengthening U.S. leadership of the NATO alliance. "The United States needs it European allies to help us with security challenges," he said. In Europe, however, his strong attack on the ABM Treaty and the test ban treaty is bound to be viewed as a worrisome sign of a go-it-alone American security policy.

Stripped of its rhetoric, Bush's speech tracked Clinton's foreign policy in many respects -- from free trade and support of democracy in this hemisphere to support of the United Nations and international financial institutions as long as they adapt themselves to new realities. "I will never place U.S. troops under U.N. command," Bush declared. But he quickly added that if elected president, he will take up Clinton's efforts to pay up U.S. dues to the world body and use the United Nations for weapons inspections, peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts.

Still, Bush the son couldn't resist a couple of anti-Clinton whacks to defend the legacy of his father, who drew similar charges of drift and indecisiveness from Clinton in the 1992 campaign. Bush derisively recalled how Clinton attacked his father for caving in to the "butchers of Beijing" but later pronounced them "strategic partners."

In another bit of payback, Bush argued that his father did a better job of nurturing U.S. alliances, commenting that "the Gulf War coalition was raised on the foundation of a president's vision and effort and integrity."

It's less than coincidence that the son, in preparing his speech, drew liberally on the advice of some of his father's key foreign policy advisers.

The speech drew quick attacks from both the right and the left. GOP presidential candidate Gary Bauer said Bush's support of trade with China is "identical in every important respect with the appeasement policies of Bill Clinton and Al Gore." Peace Action, reflecting views of many liberal arms-control advocates, said Bush was charting a "dangerous path toward a new nuclear arms race."

---

Bush Favors Internationalism
Candidate Calls China a 'Competitor,' Opposes Test Ban Treaty

By Dan Balz Washington Post, November 20, 1999; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/20/066l-112099-idx.html
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/bush20.html

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., Nov. 19- Rejecting isolationism as "a shortcut to chaos," Texas Gov. George W. Bush today outlined the foreign policy principles that would guide his presidency, promising a "distinctly American internationalism" while avoiding what he called "management of crisis."

In a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Bush sought to reassure skeptics and supporters alike that, despite limited experience in foreign affairs, he commands a vision of the world that would make him an effective president in an unpredictable world.

While embracing internationalism, however, Bush enunciated specific policies that could strain relations with such nations as China and Russia, and possibly even with some U.S. allies.

Bush called for a U.S. policy that deals with China as "a competitor, not a strategic partner." While not as pugnacious as what some conservatives have advocated, this is a harder line than the one taken by the Clinton administration, which has at times considered a "strategic partnership" with Beijing. Bush's pledge to deploy missile defense systems could alienate both China and U.S. allies in Europe.

In another clear break with the administration that is likely to disturb allies, Bush restated his opposition to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which was rejected recently by the Senate. Bush said the treaty was not enforceable or verifiable. "We can fight the spread of nuclear weapons, but we cannot wish them away with unwise treaties," he said.

Bush sought to sketch out America's role in a post-Cold War world that is radically different than the one his father grappled with as president a decade ago, when the the collapse of the Soviet Union and the twilight of the Cold War framed America's approach to the world.

Instead he described an unstable world of emerging powers, rogue tyrants and proliferating weapons of mass destruction. "The empire has passed," he said, "but evil remains."

In this new world, Bush said, "America's first temptation is withdrawal, to build a proud tower of protectionism and isolationism." That approach, he argued, would lead inevitably to "a stagnant America and a savage world."

"American foreign policy," he said, "cannot be founded on fear" that American workers cannot compete internationally or that the United States "will corrupt the world or be corrupted by it."

His call to reject "the blinders of isolationism" appeared aimed at the forces within his own party (and at the departed Patrick J. Buchanan, who is seeking the Reform Party nomination) that have opposed U.S. intervention in various global crises--most recently in Kosovo. His criticism of foreign policy drift, however, was aimed squarely at the Clinton administration.

The speech came at a time when the Republican front-runner has faced increased scrutiny about his preparation for the presidency. Since failing a foreign policy pop quiz in a TV interview, which even adversaries called unfair, Bush has been peppered with questions about his foreign policy expertise.

Today, before an audience that included Nancy Reagan, Bush was introduced by George P. Shultz, a Bush adviser and Reagan's secretary of state, in effusive terms. He also won the endorsement of Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), one of the party's leading foreign policy experts.

But rivals in both parties found fault with Bush's prescriptions, criticizing the speech as vague and full of platitudes that glossed over tough questions about how to achieve sometimes competing goals, such as engaging China in trade while insisting that it stop human rights abuses.

"It was very, very bland," said GOP competitor Steve Forbes. "Who's against peace and prosperity and strength of purpose?"

Bush outlined a series of priorities, from trade in the Western Hemisphere to stability in the Middle East. But he devoted much of today's speech to U.S. policy in Europe and Asia, which he termed "our greatest priority." He said future speeches will deal with other priorities and problems.

He described Russia and China as great powers but noted that each nation is undergoing a transition that requires the United States to remain clear-eyed in encouraging democracy and freedom while checking the expansionist or undemocratic impulses of both governments.

On China, Bush called for U.S. policy to avoid the filters of partisanship or posturing. "We must deal with China without ill will--but without illusions."

He applauded China's entry into the World Trade Organization, while warning that he would hold China to its promise to open its markets. He also said he hoped China's WTO membership would open the door to entry by Taiwan as well and said Beijing should not seek to impose its will on Taiwan. "We will help Taiwan defend itself," he said.

Bush called for the establishment of a theater missile defense system in the region to deter aggression and said he would seek to preserve and enhance U.S. relationships with other democratic nations there. A Bush presidency, he said, would respect China but with this caveat: "It will be unthreatened," he said, "but not unchecked."

Russia, he argued, remains a great power despite what he called an "epic of deliverance and disappointment" since the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed a decade ago. But he warned against continuing to send U.S. or international assistance to corrupt officials, an area where his advisers have been critical of the Clinton administration.

Bush pledged to commit more U.S. funds to help Russia eliminate its nuclear stockpiles. But he also called for the United States to build a missile defense system--a sticky issue with the Russians because it could force the abrogation of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that bars such systems.

On Chechnya, Bush said, the West "cannot excuse Russian brutality." Continued attacks against civilians, he said, should lead to an end to assistance from international lending institutions, a policy similar to one advocated by Bush's rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

In other areas, Bush said the United States should pay more attention to India as a nation that will rise in prominence in the coming century. He advocated reforms in international monetary institutions and said that, if he became president, the United States would pay its United Nations dues so long as the institution is reformed.

Bush's 'Internationalism'

Highlights of George W. Bush's foreign policy speech:

ON ISOLATIONISM

America's first temptation is withdrawal -- to build a proud tower of protectionism and isolation. In a world that depends on America to reconcile old rivals and balance ancient ambitions, this is the shortcut to chaos. It is an approach that abandons our allies, and our ideals. The vacuum left by America's retreat would invite challenges to our power. And the result, in the long run, would be a stagnant America and a savage world.

ON MILITARY INTERVENTION

America's second temptation is drift -- for our nation to move from crisis to crisis like a cork in a current. Unless a president sets his own priorities, his priorities will be set by others -- by adversaries, or the crisis of the moment, live on CNN. . . America must be involved in the world. But that does not mean our military is the answer to every difficult foreign policy situation -- a substitute for strategy. American internationalism should not mean action without vision, activity without priority, and missions without end.

ON CHINA

China is rising, and that is inevitable. Here, our interests are plain: We welcome a free and prosperous China. We predict no conflict. We intend no threat. And there are areas where we must try to cooperate: preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction, attaining peace on the Korean peninsula. Yet the conduct of China's government can be alarming abroad, and appalling at home. . . . China is a competitor, not a strategic partner.

ON RUSSIA

Russia is a great power, and must always be treated as such. . . . Instead of confronting each other, we confront the legacy of a dead ideological rivalry -- thousands of nuclear weapons, which, in the case of Russia, may not be secure. . . . [A] great deal of Russian nuclear material cannot be accounted for. The next president must press for an accurate inventory of all this material. And we must do more. I'll ask the Congress to increase substantially our assistance to dismantle as many of Russia's weapons as possible, as quickly as possible.

ON MISSILE DEFENSE

We will still, however, need missile defense systems -- both theater and national. If I am commander-in-chief, we will develop and deploy them.

ON NUCLEAR TESTING

In the hard work of halting proliferation, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is not the answer. I've said that our nation should continue its moratorium on testing. . . . [But] the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty does nothing to gain these goals. It does not stop proliferation, especially to renegade regimes. It is not verifiable. It is not enforceable. And it would stop us from ensuring the safety and reliability of our nation's deterrent, should the need arise.

ON CHECHNYA

Even as we support Russian reform, we cannot excuse Russian brutality. When the Russian government attacks civilians -- killing women and children, leaving orphans and refugees -- it can no longer expect aid from international lending institutions.

ON INDIA

This coming century will see democratic India's arrival as a force in the world. A vast population, before long the world's most populous nation. A changing economy, in which 3 of its 5 wealthiest citizens are software entrepreneurs. India is now debating its future and its strategic path, and the United States must pay it more attention. This should not undermine our longstanding relationship with Pakistan, which remains crucial to the peace of the region.

---

Candidates on the Issues

By Calvin Woodward, Associated Press Saturday, Nov. 20, 1999; 11:28 a.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991120/aponline112819_000.htm

WASHINGTON -- In the gathering tempest of the 2000 presidential campaign, candidates are building their policy positions brick by brick.

Some are further along than others. There is a health care plan missing here, a tax-cut package absent there. But they will keep on swiftly building, as long as they can ride out the storm.

Here, on a variety of issues, are positions of the major candidates: for the Democratic nomination, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley and Vice President Al Gore; for the Republicans, activist Gary Bauer, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, publisher Steve Forbes, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, talk-show host Alan Keyes and Arizona Sen. John McCain; for the Reform Party, commentator Pat Buchanan....

DEFENSE:

Snapshot: The U.S. government spends about 16 percent of its budget on defense, down from about 50 percent in the early 1960s. The number of active-duty troops has dropped by about one third since the end of the Cold War.

Bauer: Increase military spending, expand NATO, develop national missile defense system.

Bradley: Sees no need to increase defense spending. As senator voted against Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) deployment and B-2 stealth bombers, and for sanctions instead of military force against Iraq.

Buchanan: "Retrench and rearm," return many troops from abroad, build national missile defense system. Assure Russia of no more NATO expansion on condition of Russia's non-intervention in nearby states. Opposes nuclear test ban treaty.

Bush: Increase weapons research and development spending by $20 billion over five years, spend extra $1 billion a year to raise military salaries beyond pending pay increase, build missile defense systems for deployment inside and outside U.S. Supports money for F-22 stealth fighters.

Forbes: Build national missile defense system. Says military spending is too low. Favored NATO expansion.

Gore: Wants unspecified "sensible" increase in defense spending. Has helped negotiate arms reduction and nuclear stability arrangements. As senator, voted for SDI and B-2s. Supported military force in Persian Gulf War and the nuclear test ban treaty also backed by Bradley but no other candidates.

Hatch: Voted to make closing of military bases by administration more difficult.

Keyes: Criticized U.S. intervention in Kosovo as precedent for "new internationalism," but supported strikes against alleged terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan.

McCain: Close more bases to save $4 billion, build national missile defense system, spend more on military pay, including $6 million a year to get thousands of personnel off food stamps. Reject foreign or shared command of U.S. operations. Opposed latest defense budget as pork-laden.

On whether they supported the treaty, rejected by the Senate, to ban nuclear tests:

Bauer: No.
Bradley: Yes.
Buchanan: No.
Bush: No.
Forbes: No.
Gore: Yes.
Hatch: No.
Keyes: No.
McCain: No.

--

EDUCATION:

Snapshot: More than 53 million children set a public school enrollment record in 1999. SAT scores for college-bound seniors have recovered to early 1970s levels in math but verbal scores are down. Spending per public school pupil has doubled in that time to $6,804, in part because of the rise in special education.

On whether federal tax dollars should be used to help parents send their children to private schools:

Bauer: Yes, and for home schooling as well.

Bradley: Undecided. Voted as senator for experimental voucher programs.

Buchanan: Yes.

Bush: Yes. Scholarships of $1,500 a year for children in public schools that fail state testing for three years. The money could be used for private schooling, tutoring or "whatever offers hope."

Forbes: Yes, and for home schooling as well.

Gore: No. Favors more choice among public schools.

Hatch: Yes.

Keyes: Unspecified aid to help parents choose schools.

McCain: Yes. School vouchers worth $2,000 for disadvantaged children under three-year, $5.4 billion program to be paid for by eliminating ethanol, gas and oil subsidies, and sugar price supports.

On public education:

Bauer: Turn more federal responsibilities over to states and localities.

Bradley: Forgive student loans for 60,000 college students, high school graduates and mid-career professionals who certify as teachers and commit to serving in poor urban or rural schools.

Buchanan: Opposes national testing or teaching standards. Close Education Department.

Bush: States that improve schools would get up to $500 million extra over five years from Washington; in states where test scores don't improve, 5 percent of federal education financing would be shifted to charter schools. $3 billion in loan guarantees in two years to help build 2,000 charter schools. Let families put $5,000 per year per student into education savings accounts from which money could be withdrawn tax-free for K-12 expenses.

Forbes: Send federal block grants to communities with the directive to let parents choose form of education. Eliminate federal Goals 2000 and School-to-Work program.

Gore: Expand federal education standards. Tougher testing of teachers. $10,000 bonuses and retraining aid to those who switch careers to teaching, plus bonuses of "up to $10,000" to those who go to college to become teachers and agree to serve in "a school that needs your help." National goal of reducing average class size to 20 pupils or fewer.

Hatch: Favors federal spending, normally reserved for states and localities, on school buildings.

Keyes: Close Education Department.

McCain: Favors tax-free savings accounts for children's education expenses such as tutoring, computers and private-school tuition. Tougher teacher testing.

---

ENVIRONMENT:

Snapshot: U.S. per-capita emissions of carbon dioxide - considered a greenhouse gas - and the nation's energy consumption dwarf rates in all other industrialized countries except Canada. Air quality overall has improved in the United States in the last 10 years, with declines in major pollutants ranging from 14 percent for nitrogen dioxide to 67 percent for lead.

Bauer: Strengthen property rights to limit federal government's ability to subject property owners to environmental regulation.

Bradley: As senator, fought for highway-billboard limits opposed by Gore. Tried to divert space-station money to clean-water programs.

Buchanan: Give hundreds of millions of acres of land managed by Washington to states unconditionally. Prohibit designation of endangered species without vote in Congress. Opposes treaty on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Bush: Supports existing moratorium on California and Florida offshore drilling. Is becoming "more convinced" global warming exists but opposes unratified treaty to cut greenhouse gases. Unspecified increase in spending on conservation. Created largely voluntary program to cut air pollution from 800 Texas factories and signed law forcing electrical utilities to clean up or close. In 1998 favored changing federal law to limit habitats eligible to be designated as endangered.

Forbes: Says claims about global warming are "deeply flawed."

Gore: Move beyond moratorium and ban all new offshore oil drilling in federal waters off Florida and California, including zones where companies have spent billions to secure drilling rights. Spend $2 billion over 10 years to set aside more parkland, paying for it by charging hardrock mining companies to extract minerals from federal lands. Led U.S. efforts for climate-change treaty. Clinton administration record includes tougher clean air standards and protection of Everglades and California desert but allowing clear cutting in some national forests.

Hatch: Backed subsidies, but not mandates, for use of alternative fuels. Would limit president's ability to designate vast tracts of land as national monuments by executive decision.

Keyes: No known position.

McCain: Backed stronger Clean Water Act and emission controls on gasoline and diesel engines.

---

FARM POLICY:

Snapshot: Direct government payments to farmers are expected to exceed $22 billion this year, eclipsing the old record of $17 billion in 1987. Tax breaks for ethanol, a corn-based fuel additive, cost some $600 million a year.

Bauer: Keep ethanol tax break, extend federally supported crop insurance to livestock farmers, let farmers put 20 percent of taxable income into five year, tax-deferred accounts.

Bradley: Former opponent of ethanol tax breaks now supports them. Says he regrets voting for the law that scaled back government price guarantees for crops.

Buchanan: "Support ethanol production," stop unfair competition from farm imports, exempt farmers from federal job-safety and most other regulations, eliminate inheritance and capital gains taxes.

Bush: Keep ethanol tax breaks, reduce estate taxes, open markets abroad.

Forbes: Lower taxes, trade barriers and interest rates. Supports ethanol tax breaks for about seven more years while preparing industry to live without them.

Gore: Keep ethanol tax breaks. Open more foreign markets. Supported farm subsidies in Senate, including tobacco subsidies.

Hatch: Keep ethanol tax breaks.

Keyes: Sees centralized banking system as key to decline of family farms, opposes unspecified "shortsighted socialist policies" in farm aid.

McCain: End ethanol subsidies, using savings for school vouchers, and reduce estate taxes. End price supports for sugar. Opposes tax breaks to help poultry farmers generate electricity from manure.

--

FOREIGN POLICY:

Snapshot: The U.S. government spends less than 1 percent of its budget on non-military foreign affairs, including foreign aid. That's down from 2 percent in 1975 and 4.5 percent in 1965.

Bauer: Defeat "isolationist voices" in United States. "America is called to use its power abroad." Abolish International Monetary Fund.

Bradley: Depend more on international organizations to respond to ethnic conflicts. In Senate, backed aid to Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Singles out Mexico, Japan, China, Russia, and Germany as the most important nations for U.S. foreign policy.

Buchanan: End foreign aid, except in response to natural disasters. Avoid foreign intervention not affecting U.S. vital interest: "I intend to isolate America from all the bloody territorial, tribal and ethnic wars." NATO campaign for Kosovo was "illegal war on Serbia." Would withdraw United States from unspecified "international organizations that imperil our financial stability and economic independence."

Bush: Isolationism and trade protectionism are a "shortcut to chaos, an approach that abandons our allies and our ideals. The vacuum left by America's retreat would invite challenges to our power." Move U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Keep sanctions on Cuba. Make aid to Russia conditional on its cessation of civilian killings in Chechnya.

Forbes: Goals include "free markets, free elections and freedom to worship around the globe." Abolish IMF. European Union is "misguided global institution."

Gore: Unspecified extra spending on foreign affairs. United States should show willingness to "use our strength - to lead the world toward what is right and just."

Hatch: No U.S. involvement in foreign struggles for independence. Backs IMF.

Keyes: Former ambassador to U.N. social and economic council calls U.N. "source of pernicious and dangerously naive globalist dreams."

McCain: "Despite the isolationist views of a distinct minority, we have every intention of continuing to use our primacy in world affairs for humanity's benefit." United States should support forces trying to overthrow regimes in Iraq, North Korea and other "rogue" states, and use IMF influence to press Russia to settle with Chechnya. United Nations cannot hold "the leading responsibility for international stability, freedom and justice."

--

GUN CONTROL:

Snapshot: The United States had 32,436 gun deaths in 1997, or 12.1 per 100,000 people. That's down from 39,595, or 15.4 per 100,000, in 1993. Two-third of homicides are from guns.

Bauer: Enforce existing laws.

Bradley: Supports mandatory licenses for handgun buyers and registration for their guns, as well as ban on "Saturday night specials." Would raise license fees on dealers to reduce their number.

Buchanan: "No compromise" on gun rights. Deny convicted felons right to own firearms.

Bush: Enforce existing laws. Raise age for handgun purchases to 21. Supports instant background checks at gun shows, opposes universal gun registration. Signed laws in Texas permitting carrying of concealed weapons and protecting gun makers from lawsuits from cities.

Forbes: Enforce existing laws. Favors 24-hour check at gun shows.

Gore: Supports mandatory photo ID licenses for handgun buyers. Would require manufacturers and federally licensed sellers to report gun sales to a state authority to help trace the owner when gun is used in crime. Supports banning "Saturday night specials." In 1999, cast tie-breaking Senate vote for instant background checks at gun shows. Voted against waiting period and dealer licensing in 1980s.

Hatch: Enforce existing laws. Extend background checks to gun shows and expand them to look for history of mental problems. Cosponsored bill to toughen gun-show restrictions and deny juveniles convicted of felonies the right to gun ownership for life.

Keyes: Right to gun ownership is essential to duty of citizens to "resist and overthrow the power responsible" if their rights are being "systematically violated."

McCain: Favors instant checks at gun shows and pawn shops. Opposes waiting periods. Opposed ban on assault-type weapons.

---

HEALTH CARE:

Snapshot: An estimated 44.3 million Americans - one in six - have no health insurance. Among them are 11 million children.

On expanding health coverage:

Bauer: Expand option of medical savings accounts - tax-free accounts people can use for routine health bills and to save up for premiums for high-deductible health plans covering major expenses.

Bradley: Ensure near-universal access to affordable health coverage by fully or partially subsidizing premiums for children and adults in low- to middle-income families and by offering everyone a tax break for premiums - replacing Medicaid. Expand Medicare by adding optional benefit for non-routine prescription drugs with $500 deductible, $25 monthly premium, 25 percent copay, and by increasing housing and transportation aid to elderly. His total estimated annual cost: up to $65 billion, to be paid from non-Social Security budget surplus (a projected $82 billion in 2002) and program efficiencies.

Buchanan: Allow workers to invest money they would otherwise put into Medicare, so they can provide for their own health care in retirement.

Bush: Expand medical savings accounts. Would consider charging wealthier Medicare recipients more for coverage. Strengthen tax incentives to small businesses that provide health care to employees.

Forbes: Expand medical savings accounts.

Gore: Expand coverage, without guaranteeing universal access, and create new prescription drug benefit under Medicare offering up to $1,000 a year to cover half the drug costs of recipients paying $24 a month in premiums. Children in families earning up to 250 percent of poverty level would qualify for federally supported state health coverage, up from 200 percent now. Families earning more and lacking insurance could buy into state program. Goal: All children covered by 2005. Also: 25 percent refundable tax credit for premiums for self-employed; long-term care tax credit. His estimated cost: more than $250 billion over 10 years.

Hatch: Expand medical savings accounts, allow full deductibility of health insurance premiums for self-employed. Worked with Democrats in Congress to expand health care protections.

Keyes: Previously supported medical savings accounts.

McCain: Expand medical savings accounts, offer full tax deductibility for self-employed health insurance and deductibility for long-term care.

---

IMMIGRATION:

Snapshot: About 660,000 legal immigrants a year come to the United States; an estimated 5 million are in the country illegally. Percentage of U.S. population born in another country: 8 in 1990, 7 in 1950.

Bauer: No position on immigration levels. English proficiency for immigrants.

Bradley: Voted in favor of public assistance for legal immigrants and against public assistance for illegal aliens. Cosponsored legislation to toughen enforcement of immigration laws.

Buchanan: Cut legal immigration by more than half to 250,000-300,000 a year. Expose immigrants to "national campaign of assimilation" that includes English proficiency. Deny government benefits to illegal immigrants and build barriers along Mexican border.

Bush: Rejects English-only mandates. Supports increasing visas for highly skilled workers. Has supported expansion of program letting temporary workers come in to fill demand for farm and service jobs.

Forbes: Says "controlled, orderly, legal immigration is good for America."

Gore: Says each wave of immigrants has enriched the nation, favors bilingual education and letting legal immigrant qualify for benefits.

Hatch: Voted to bar some public assistance to illegal immigrants and restrict some services to legal immigrants.

Keyes: Favors maintaining or expanding legal immigration.

McCain: Opposes English-only mandates or stripping all social services from illegal immigrants, has spoken in favor of increasing eligibility of legal immigrants for certain benefits....


-------- us nuc weapons labs

Fired Lab Scientist Can't Account for Some Disks

Washington Post Saturday, November 20, 1999; Page A04, By Walter Pincus and Vernon Loeb
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/20/074l-112099-idx.html

Former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee has told government investigators that he cannot account for several computer diskettes onto which he downloaded nuclear secrets, according to Clinton administration officials.

"At least two high-density [diskettes] that he purchased are missing," said one federal official familiar with the FBI investigation.

FBI Director Louis J. Freeh briefed some members of Congress about the case this week, saying he expects Lee to be indicted for gross negligence in handling classified information. The transfer of some of that information to computer diskettes, which are now missing, "increases the magnitude of the violation," the official said.

A congressional source said yesterday that there are indications that Lee copied nuclear weapons computer codes onto the diskettes, some of which have been retrieved by federal authorities. But Lee has failed to turn over--and says he does not know the whereabouts of--other diskettes that could contain millions of lines of computer code, the source said.

Lee, a Taiwan-born U.S. citizen, was fired in March from his job at Los Alamos's top-secret X Division for various security violations, including failing to report contacts with foreign scientists. He also showed deception on an FBI polygraph test.

At the time of his firing, he was identified as the government's prime suspect in China's alleged theft of classified information on America's most advanced thermonuclear warhead, the W-88. U.S. officials subsequently acknowledged that they have no hard evidence that he passed secrets to China, but they have continued to build a criminal case against him for downloading classified information to his unsecured office computer.

The downloading came to light only after Lee's firing, when he permitted investigators to look through his computer. He has maintained, however, that his multiple passwords guaranteed that unauthorized persons could not get access to the material.

Investigators also searched Lee's home and uncovered other classified information, according to government officials.

Lee's attorney, Mark Holscher, said last night that the government continues to leak false and misleading information about Lee without evidence that any of the computer files ended up in the hands of unauthorized parties.

"One should not forget that the leaks of six months ago falsely branded Dr. Lee as a spy," Holscher said. "We are facing a moving target."

Holscher added that the FBI has refused to give Lee an inventory of diskettes that were allegedly in his possession. Claiming now that he cannot account for diskettes, Holscher said, "is the most recent spin on events. It is impossible to disprove a negative."

The lawyer also suggested that U.S. officials may have leaked information about the diskettes to put Lee back on the defensive after it became known this week that the FBI has turned up evidence suggesting that China may have obtained nuclear secrets from facilities other than Los Alamos.

The FBI, which widened its probe in September, traced errors in a Chinese military document to one of the "integrators" that put together the W-88, officials said.

A Defense Department official explained that the "integration" process for the W-88 involves the Energy Department's national labs, which design and build nuclear warheads; Lockheed Martin Corp., which manufactures missiles and nose cones; and the Navy, which serves as the overall integrator.

Rod Geer, a spokesman for Sandia National Laboratories, said the lab has worked closely with federal investigators since the espionage investigation began four years ago.

"Since we are responsible for the design of the non-nuclear components of the W-88 and all other warheads, it's logical that they would want to talk to us," Geer said. "We are not under investigation ourselves, and we have not been implicated in any wrongdoing."

A spokesman for Lockheed Martin said the firm has no corporate involvement in the espionage probe. He said Lockheed is cooperating with federal investigators "in our role as manager of significant portions of DOE's weapons complex."

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who is investigating the Clinton administration's handling of Chinese espionage as chairman of the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on government oversight, said he still isn't sure the FBI is on the right track.

"It's about as hard to figure out what the bureau has done as it is to figure out what Wen Ho Lee has done," Specter said.

---

Spy Probe Expands, Adds Bomb Makers

Albuquerque Journal Saturday, November 20, 1999
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/6news11-20-99.htm

The FBI is looking at the people who mate nuclear missiles to warheads in an expansion of the China nuclear spy probe, the Washington Post reported Friday.

New evidence suggests China may have stolen information about the most advanced U.S. nuclear warhead from one of the weapon's assemblers, widening an investigation once focused almost exclusively on Los Alamos National Laboratory and one of its staff scientists, Wen Ho Lee, according to the Post.

While the new evidence does not completely eliminate Los Alamos or Lee, unnamed sources told the Post, it indicates the most likely origin of the information is one of the weapons "integrators."

These include Sandia National Laboratories, which puts together prototypes of some warheads; Lockheed Martin Corp., which attaches warheads to missiles; and the Navy, which supervises the process.

Sandia spokesman Rod Geer said Sandia has been cooperating with investigators since the spy probe began last spring but said the probe was not focused on Sandia.

"We are not under investigation ourselves and have not been implicated in any wrongdoing," Geer told the Albuquerque Journal.

A spokesman for Lockheed Martin said his company also is cooperating but is not a focus of the investigation.

Lockheed Martin manages Sandia, a nuclear-weapons design lab, for the U.S. Department of Energy. Separately, the company also manufactures the missiles in question.

The new evidence emerged after weapons scientists at Los Alamos noted errors in a Chinese intelligence document that sparked the initial FBI and congressional investigations into Los Alamos and Lee. The telltale errors, contained in a description of the miniaturized W88 warhead, were traced to one of the contractors and defense installations that assemble nuclear weapons, government sources told the Post.

The W88 is designed by Los Alamos and Sandia. Lockheed Martin builds the Navy missile on which the warhead is carried.

One source said the analysis "widened the circle and gave convincing evidence" backing up the contention, long voiced by scientists at Los Alamos and officials at the Department of Energy, that China could have obtained classified information about the W88 and other U.S. nuclear warheads from any of dozens of facilities, according to the Post.

U.S. Attorney John Kelly declined through a spokesman to comment on the Washington Post report.

A senior U.S. Energy Department official said the FBI's new targets do not translate into the end of the investigation of former Los Alamos lab weapons scientist Lee.

"The two are not connected," the official told the Journal.

Lee, 60, was fired in March for alleged security violations. He has denied giving weapons secrets to anyone, including China. Prosecutors are still considering whether to seek an indictment against Lee for allegedly moving weapons design and modeling data to an unsecured, unclassified computer system at Los Alamos.

Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh told Congress in September they were starting their investigation into Chinese espionage over again and assigning scores of additional agents to broaden the probe.

The decision to go back to square one, they said, came after they concluded the initial inquiry was botched by FBI agents and Department of Energy intelligence officials who focused prematurely on Lee, a Chinese American physicist who worked for almost 20 years at Los Alamos' top secret X Division.

Officials acknowledge the espionage case against Lee was circumstantial and they do not have evidence he turned over nuclear secrets to China.

Together with a dire report on Chinese espionage by a House select committee headed by Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., the FBI's espionage probe at Los Alamos created a political furor earlier this year.

Cracks in the case began to appear in June, when the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board criticized the Department of Energy and the FBI for focusing almost exclusively on Lee when there was no hard evidence that he, or anyone else at Los Alamos, was the source of classified information somehow obtained by China

-------- us nuc plants

Deal with Russians in trouble, letter says
Nuclear disarmament

By Jonathan Riskind Dispatch Washington Bureau
Columbus Dispatch Friday, November 19, 1999
http://www.dispatch.com/pan/localarchive/securenws.html

A committee chairman criticized Clinton over an Ohio plant's privatization.

WASHINGTON -- By bungling the privatization of southern Ohio's uranium-enrichment plant, the Clinton administration is endangering an agreement reducing Russia's nuclear arsenal, the powerful House Commerce Committee chairman says in a letter obtained by The Dispatch.

And the administration's "ineffective oversight'' since the United States Enrichment Corp. was privatized last year might have precipitated USEC to threaten to resign by Dec. 1 from its role in carrying out the arms-control deal unless it receives a government bailout, Rep. Tom Bliley, R-Va., said.

Bliley made his comments in a letter dated Tuesday to Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security adviser.

The Dispatch disclosed in August that Bliley's committee was investigating the USEC privatization, which critics predicted would interfere with the national security aims of a 1993 agreement to rid Russia of thousands of nuclear warheads.

Bliley told Berger that as part of that investigation he wants White House's National Security Council staff members to answer committee questions. He asked Berger to turn over various documents, including information about whether USEC is accepting less Russian uranium than it is supposed to under the deal.

Based on information already obtained by the committee, USEC's demand for up to $200 million from the government in exchange for carrying out the Russian deal caught the administration off guard and perhaps not in a position to find a suitable replacement, Bliley said.

"It appears your advice to the president to proceed with privatization did not anticipate the likelihood of such developments,'' Bliley wrote.

"I also am concerned that the (administration's) ineffective oversight of USEC's activities as executive agent in the 15 months since privatization occurred actually may have helped precipitate these developments.''

Officials of USEC said before the July 1998 privatization that they could carry out the Russian agreement as a for-profit corporation. The 20-year, $8 billion deal involves buying low-enriched uranium culled from Russian warheads and selling it to commercial nuclear-power plants to use as fuel.

But USEC now says the Russian deal is costing it tens of millions of dollars because it is forced to pay more for the material than it is now worth because of a contract price that runs through 2001.

USEC's attempt this week to get a taxpayer-funded bailout fell short as the House adjourned yesterday for the year. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson and a number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill balked at USEC's bailout request, citing USEC's refusal to guarantee workers' protection against layoffs.

The company's directors are to meet Wednesday to decide whether to give notice they will pull out of the Russian deal.

USEC says it can't afford to operate its plants in Piketon, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky., at full capacity because of the Russian deal, and has said hundreds of workers at both plants could be laid off beginning in August.

Critics say a government-run corporation wouldn't need to make a profit on the Russian deal. They point out that USEC, whose long- term credit rating has been downgraded, is paying $100 million a year in dividends to shareholders and suffering from a lagging stock value.

USEC officials have said they can't rule out layoffs even if the company receives taxpayer assistance.

Officials at the National Security Council did not return calls yesterday.

Bliley said in his letter to Berger that two weeks ago, security council officials told Commerce Committee staff members that the Russians would not adjust the price of their enriched uranium until the current contract is renegotiated at the end of 2001.

The administration oversight committee in charge of safeguarding the deal has not identified potential alternative agents to carry out the deal or "determined whether USEC's request for $200 million in federal support to sustain the (deal) is cred ible or even necessary,'' Bliley wrote.

-------- us nuc other

Dawn Mining opponent gets 'hero' award

Spokesman Review November 20, 1999 Karen Dorn Steele - Staff writer
http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=112099&ID=s709608&cat=

A Springdale activist who spent years fighting Dawn Mining Co.'s plans to import uranium wastes to Eastern Washington has been named an "environmental hero" by the Washington Environmental Council.

Owen Berio, founder of Dawn Watch, has opposed Dawn's plans to import millions of cubic feet of mildly radioactive waste from the East Coast to fill and cap a defunct milling pit near Ford.

"His work has helped to prevent Washington from becoming the radioactive landfill for the nation," said the environmental council's Tom Geiger.

In a major reversal in September, Dawn announced it would no longer pursue a federal contract to import uranium wastes and would instead use clean fill to complete the reclamation project at Ford by 2009.

As part of the new plan, Dawn also would like to dump uranium sludge from the Spokane Indian Reservation in the pit. The plan is under review at the Washington Department of Health in Olympia.

The environmental council presented five "environmental hero" awards Friday night at a banquet in Seattle.

Other recipients included:

• John Arum of Vashon Island, an environmental lawyer who has donated thousands of hours of his time to a variety of projects, including plans to protect the Loomis Forest from clearcutting and to prevent development along a federally protected wild and scenic stretch of the Skagit River.

• Frederick Ellis of Shaw Island in San Juan County, who has worked with his wife, Marilyn, to protect nearly 1,000 acres of shoreline and upland habitat on Shaw Island and 300 acres of agricultural land on Lopez Island. The Ellises have donated two pristine parcels of land to the University of Washington for a biological preserve.

• Marcy Golde of Seattle, who has worked for several decades to increase protection for streams and riparian areas from the effects of logging.

• Dr. Eloise Kailin of Sequim, a retired allergist who has worked to get the contaminated Rayonier Mill, a defunct pulp and paper mill in Port Angeles, listed as a Superfund site. She has also worked for years on habitat protection in Clallam County.

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Highlights of 1999 Congress

Associated Press Saturday, Nov. 20, 1999; 11:24 a.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991120/aponline112407_000.htm

Highlights of Congress' 1999 session: ...

-Authorization of intelligence programs for the coming year, including provisions to facilitate seizure of drug kingpins' assets.

-Protection of small businesses from lawsuits arising from Y2K-related computer problems.

-An order to deploy a U.S. missile defense system as soon as technologically feasible.

-Extension of long-term health care to veterans.

Legislation left for action by the second session of the 106th Congress, starting in January: ...

-New standards for encryption technology.

-Deregulation of the electric power industry.

-Nuclear waste storage.

-Overhaul of the Superfund chemical cleanup program.

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Plea Deal for Parents Turned In by Daughter
Probation Likely in Marijuana Case

By Fern Shen Washington Post Staff Writer, November 20, 1999; Page B01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/20/122l-112099-idx.html

The Takoma Park couple whose teenage daughter turned them in to police for growing marijuana in the basement each will plead guilty to a single misdemeanor, according to a plea deal outlined in court records.

The agreement, which is scheduled to be reviewed in court next month, would mean probation and no jail time for Robert Jason Alvarez, 54, and his wife, Katherine Marie "Kitty" Tucker, 55.

But a number of issues remain unresolved for Alvarez, who lost a senior policy job at the U.S. Department of Energy over his August arrest, and Tucker, a nationally known anti-nuclear activist whose attorneys say she used the marijuana for medical purposes.

The family is fighting for the return of two computers confiscated by the FBI and to ensure that their sentences will not be on their criminal records. But most importantly, their attorneys say, they want to sort out what happened and heal the family's wounds.

"It's been a hair-raising experience," said Steven Kupferberg, of Rockville, Tucker's attorney. "The family is doing as well as they can with that, considering the 300-pound gorilla in the living room."

Kupferberg was referring to a condition of the couple's release on bond that specified that Kerry Tucker, 16, may live with her parents--provided there is no family discussion of the marijuana arrest or events leading up to it. A judge initially had ordered that the teenager could not reside in the family home.

Defense attorneys are assuming that the restriction, put in place in September, will be lifted Dec. 14, when Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge DeLawrence Beard reviews the plea agreement and imposes sentences....

"We are very happy with the disposition," said Fred W. Bennett, of Greenbelt, Alvarez's attorney. Bennett said he will tell the judge about the counseling Kerry Tucker and her family are receiving, including a drug education and awareness program.

Both Bennett and Kupferberg plan to ask for a sentence of probation before judgment, meaning there would be no record of the conviction provided there are no violations for the duration of the probation. Prosecutors will oppose that effort, the documents say.

Kupferberg is seeking the return of items (two computers, a printer and some disks) seized by the Takoma Park police and handed over to the FBI.

Carol Bannerman, a police spokeswoman, said they routinely send computers for analysis to any of several laboratories, including the FBI's, in cases of alleged manufacture of illegal drugs.

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Feds May Upgrade Island Disease Lab

By Frank Eltman, Associated Press Saturday, Nov. 20, 1999; 3:36 p.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991120/aponline153646_000.htm

PLUM ISLAND, N.Y. -- Contrary to rumor, there are no three-headed pigs here.

Still, this tiny, high-security island, only a mile and a half off Long Island's prosperous North Fork, is the site of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, where scientists study some of the world's most infectious animal viruses.

It's the lab made famous in Nelson DeMille's 1997 best seller "Plum Island," about stolen viruses and murdered scientists. And because the public is usually kept out, there is wild speculation about what goes on inside the lab 135 miles east of Manhattan.

Now that the Agriculture Department wants to upgrade the laboratory, allowing scientists to also study animal diseases that endanger humans, officials are going out of their way to ease public concern, addressing local residents and taking elected officials and reporters on tours.

It's not likely to be an easy sell for residents of the east end of Long Island, which boasts the rich and famous in the Hamptons on the South Fork and miles of rolling wine country on the North Fork.

More than a decade ago, they helped halt construction of the Shoreham nuclear power plant. More recently, they lobbied the Energy Department into permanently shutting down a nuclear reactor at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Wilda Martinez, area director for the Agricultural Research Service, told about 100 people at a public hearing at the Greenport American Legion that a cutting-edge lab on Plum Island is essential to protecting public health.

She warned that new diseases were spreading - citing the West Nile virus blamed for killing six people in New York in September.

"The protection afforded by ocean barriers and geographical separation will no longer prevent the introduction of foreign animal diseases," Martinez said.

What's being considered is upgrading the lab to "Biosecurity Level 4" - the highest security level.

For the lab's current security level, reporters and photographers given a tour last week were ordered to strip naked and don plastic coveralls and clean sneakers - standard procedure for Plum Island employees. Photographers had to carry waterproof cameras that could be soaked in acetic acid after the tour. Everyone had to shower for at least three minutes when they left.

U.S. Rep. Michael Forbes, D-N.Y., whose district covers the east end of Long Island, said he had serious reservations about upgrading Plum Island.

"I think we need additional information about their plans," Forbes said. "I am not outright opposed to it, but neither have I embraced the idea."

Ed Barrett, a retired chemistry professor from Marion, asked if the BSL-4 lab could be located "somewhere where there is no possibility that some kind of error won't cause something that could be catastrophic for us?"

No everyone was so worried. Greenport Mayor Dave Kapell was one of the local elected officials who toured the facility.

"In every place that I went in that lab, I would see people that I see every day in the village," he said. "These are all our friends and our neighbors that operate this place.

"Frankly, if they're not scared, I don't feel scared."

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Today In History

New York Times November 20, 1999 Filed at 7:00 p.m. EST By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-History.html

One year ago: President Clinton, visiting South Korea, warned North Korea to forsake nuclear weapons and urged the North to seize a ``historic opportunity'' for peace with the South.

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Russian Military Researcher Suspected Of Spying For U.S.

Russia Today Sunday, Nov 21 at Prague 04:58 pm, N.Y. 10:58 am
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=111501

MOSCOW, Nov 20, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) A leading researcher at a Russian international relations institute has been charged with treason on suspicion of spying for the United States, the Itar-Tass news agency said Friday.

Igor Sutyagin, director of the department for military and technical cooperation at the prestigious Institute of the U.S. and Canada, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was arrested Thursday, said the agency citing FSB (ex-KGB) security services spokesman Alexander Zdanovich.

Sutyagin is suspected of passing secret documents to a U.S. nuclear security expert Joshua Handler.

Handler's Moscow apartment was searched last month and a computer and documents seized, said the daily Kommersant.

Handler is a Princeton University specialist in nuclear radiation and security. The pair met on several occasions when Handler was preparing a thesis on nuclear disarmament.

Sutyagin was arrested by the FSB near Kaluga, 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Moscow, the FSB spokesman said.

The spokesman refused to give any other details, invoking the "secret nature of the inquiry." ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

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No Deal in US-S.Korea Missile Talks

Associated Press, Saturday, Nov. 20, 1999; 12:57 a.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991120/aponline005725_000.htm

SEOUL, South Korea -- After three days of talks, U.S. and South Korean officials failed to reach an agreement on whether to allow Seoul to develop longer-range missiles that can cover all of North Korea, officials of both governments said Saturday.

"The discussions on the missile issue were productive and concrete," the U.S. Embassy in Seoul said in a statement. "Some differences remain, however, which the U.S. hopes will be resolved as soon as possible."

South Korean officials made similar remarks.

The two sides will meet again soon, but the time and venue have not been decided, the two sides said.

The meetings were held amid news reports that South Korea is hiding parts of its longer-range missile program from the United States in violation of a 1979 agreement with Washington.

The United States worries that it would provoke North Korea and wants South Korea to join the Missile Technology Control Regime, which was launched by Washington in 1987.

Meanwhile, U.S. and North Korean officials concluded week-long talks on Pyongyang's missile program and other issues in Berlin, Germany on Friday. They did not release details.

North Korea fired a long-range missile last year which flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific. It reportedly completed developing an advanced one that could strike Hawaii and Alaska.

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World Briefings
NORTH KOREA: PROGRESS AT TALKS

New York Times November 20, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/world-briefs.html

The United States and North Korea concluded four days of talks in Berlin aimed at improving relations that were described by Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan as "constructive and business-like." The meetings built upon Washington's recent announcement that it was easing sanctions against North Korea in exchange for its pledge to freeze long-range missile tests. Alan Maimon (NYT)

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Town Faces Emotional Fallout After Japan's Nuclear Accident

By VALERIE REITMAN, Los Angeles Times Saturday, November 20, 1999
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/19991120/t000105785.html

TOKYO--The signs at the city limits that once proudly proclaimed "Town of Nuclear Energy" have been replaced with bland placards that say simply, "Welcome to Tokaimura."

It is one tangible sign of the shame that the town--previously viewed as an elite center of nuclear power research--now feels in the wake of Japan's worst nuclear disaster.

The Sept. 30 accident at the privately owned JCO Co. nuclear fuel processing plant occurred when workers set off a fission reaction while loading excessive amounts of highly enriched uranium into a tank. The accident is known to have irradiated at least 83 people, three seriously.

Whereas the townspeople once "took pride that they were helping develop Japan's nuclear energy program," with 14 nuclear-related facilities in and around the town, outsiders now "see Tokaimura as an area polluted or dangerous, even equated with Chernobyl, Hiroshima or Nagasaki," Mayor Tatsuya Murakami told reporters here Friday.

Japan has embraced the peaceful use of nuclear power to supplant its dependence on imported fuel. The U.S. and most Western European nations, in contrast, halted nuclear-energy expansion programs over the past two decades amid high costs and fears after nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union.

The mayor spoke of his pain after receiving origami cranes--which are sent to the sick or injured or placed on graves--from students in Australia and Britain. "On the one hand, I was happy they were sending messages of encouragement," Murakami said. "On the other hand, I had mixed feelings that the image of Tokaimura had been bombarded with nuclear material."

The town's reputation has been so tarnished that there has been talk of changing its name, the mayor said. Farmers can't sell their produce because of consumer fears that it is tainted--even though the government has declared it safe and Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi recently ate a sample in a show of support.

In addition, the top bureaucrat at the Science and Technology Agency, Toshio Okazaki, recently submitted his resignation. He offered no explanation. The agency has come under fire for reacting too slowly to the disaster and not adequately policing the nuclear industry.

The agency's reputation took another hit Tuesday when it was forced to blow up a rocket carrying a satellite. The rocket had encountered engine trouble four minutes after liftoff.

Japan's parliament is considering legislation that would give the central government more authority in future nuclear accidents and strengthen safety measures at nuclear facilities. One bill would empower the prime minister to declare a state of emergency and set up emergency headquarters near accident sites, a role now carried out by local authorities. Another bill would require nuclear-related facilities to conduct the same safety checks as nuclear power plants. It also would require employees to report any illegal procedures to chiefs of related agencies or ministries.

Three victims of the Sept. 30 nuclear accident, all JCO workers, remain hospitalized. The condition of the most seriously injured victim, Hisashi Ouchi, is deteriorating. "The patient is extremely critical, and his physical conditions remain unpredictable," doctors at the Tokyo University Hospital said this week.

However, the condition of another worker, Masato Shinohara, is improving. The third worker, Yutaka Yokokawa, was less seriously injured and is reported to be in stable condition.

Mayor Murakami criticized the government's handling of the disaster and called for tougher regulations. Nevertheless, the majority of Tokaimura residents remain "quite calm" despite their proximity to nuclear-related facilities that generate two-thirds of the town's revenues, he said.

Reflecting the widespread view in Japan that nuclear power is necessary, Murakami stopped short of calling for the phaseout of the country's nuclear energy program. Japan plans to add as many as 20 nuclear reactors in the next decade.

"Personally, I feel nuclear power shouldn't be the only choice," he said. "In Europe, there are other options being explored and Japan should do likewise, not just say nuclear energy is everything."