----------- china

Analysts Criticize Cox Report

Albuqurque Journal Wednesday, December 15, 1999 By Martha Mendoza The Associated Press http://www.abqjournal.com/news/1livermore12-15-99.htm

STANFORD, Calif. -- A congressional report that accused China of widespread spying was misleading, inaccurate and damaging to U.S.-China relations, according to a team of foreign policy analysts with ties to a national laboratory in California.

"While China may spy on the U.S. nuclear program, the allegations are generally unproven," said Michael May, co-director of the Stanford Center for International Security and director emeritus of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

May and colleagues at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation distributed their report Wednesday disputing many of the conclusions reached last May by the committee headed by Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif.

The unclassified version of the Cox report claimed that Beijing had stolen technology used in making the most advanced warheads in the U.S. arsenal. It also said thousands of Chinese companies doing business in the United States were potential fronts for espionage activities.

A spokesman for Cox said Wednesday the committee's unanimous and bipartisan conclusions were based on solid evidence from sources the Clinton administration and Congress considered reliable.

"The committee did not 'cast a cloud' -- it reported facts," spokesman Paul Wilkinson said.

He said the Stanford authors did not have access to complete, classified information

"It is an academic exercise," he said.

Following earlier criticism, Cox defended his committee's findings about the theft of weapons secrets, saying the same conclusions were reached in a report released last month by the National Intelligence Council, a group composed of officials from major U.S. intelligence organizations.

The council report said that within 15 years China would deploy land- and sea-based missiles outfitted with small warheads influenced by technology stolen from the United States.

The Stanford analysts disagreed and say the Cox report is flawed because, among other things, it misquotes sources on Chinese nuclear doctrine and capabilities, reports unproven allegations of Chinese theft of sensitive nuclear information and never makes clear how much of what China learned came from unclassified sources rather than from spying.

In addition, May said, "The broad imputation of spying has cast a cloud of suspicion on both foreign and Asian-born U.S. citizens."

A four-year espionage probe resulted last week in the indictment and arrest of Wen Ho Lee, a Chinese-American physicist, on charges of illegally downloading secret data from computers at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Lee pleaded innocent Monday.

The Stanford analysts said a damaging result of the Cox report was the end of the U.S.-Chinese Technical Arms Control Information Exchange Program. In addition, they conclude that there is no evidence that any sensitive technologies were lost to China.

"Unfortunately, the Cox Committee and other reports over the past year have led to counterproductive security measures, which can damage U.S. ability to provide itself with the best research and development in the nuclear and other defense areas," May said.

The co-authors were Wolfgang Panofsky, former chair of the National Committee on International Security and Arms Control; Alastair Johnston, a professor of political science at Harvard University; Marco Di Capua, a physicist at Livermore; and Lewis Franklin, a career intelligence expert on Sino-Soviet missile and space programs.

----------- germany

German Greens seek 30-year limit on nuclear plants

GERMANY: December 15, 1999 http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=5090

BERLIN - Leaders of Germany's Greens said yesterday the party, junior partners in the ruling coalition, would demand that all the country's 19 nuclear reactors be allowed a maximum working life of 30 years before decommissioning.

This would eliminate Germany's dependence upon nuclear power entirely by 2018.

"I am confident we will win the support of the parliamentary party," Kerstin Mueller, parliamentary leader of the ecologist Greens, told German ZDF television.

The proposal has already been agreed by party board members and the parliamentary party will consider the plan at a meeting on Tuesday.

Talks between the government and industry over an election commitment to withdraw from nuclear energy have been stalled by disagreement within the Greens over how long it should take.

Many Greens have called for restricting the lifespan of existing reactors to 25 years maximum but Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats fear such a timeframe could leave the government open to legal action.

Germany's four main nuclear energy providers - Veba , Viag , RWE and EnBW - have warned they will sue for damages if they lose money as a result of legislation forcing them to wind down their plant.

Schroeder has said he is anxious to secure a compromise with industry by early next year but has not ruled out enforcing the pull-out by law if no consensus is reached.

----------- iraq

France Calls for More Talks Before U.N. Vote on Iraq

New York Times December 15, 1999By BARBARA CROSSETTE http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121599iraq-un.html

Related Articles

Security Council Backs Off Again on Vote on Inspections for Iraq (Dec. 14, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121499iraq-un.html

U.S. Is Trying to Put Teeth in Inspections of Iraq Arms (Dec. 11, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121199iraq-un.html

As U.N. Nears Action on Iraq, Inspections Remain Unsettled (Dec. 10, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121099iraq-un.html

UNITED NATIONS -- Hours before the Security Council was to vote on a new arms inspection system for Iraq Tuesday, France suddenly asked to stop the clock, stunning council members, and irritating some, by calling for more talks on a resolution that had been under discussion for more than six months.

A U.N. official described the move as "tragic," coming as it did just after Russia's deputy representative here, Gennady Gatilov, had told reporters that Russia would abstain, thereby removing the threat of veto from a measure that could send arms inspectors back to Iraq for the first time in a year.

No new date was set for a vote.

"This is not about the resolution," a diplomat said, adding that France appeared unable to take a stand that might damage its relations with Iraq.

"People are very irritated, very angry that France is prolonging this needlessly," the diplomat said. Another envoy said that the council was being held hostage to "domestic French politics."

Iraq, which demands that a nine-year-old embargo be lifted before inspections begin, threatened France last week with a diplomatic break and the loss of oil contracts being sought by French companies if France supported the resolution.

The French decision was conveyed late in the day in London to the British, the sponsor of the resolution creating the new inspection commission, and this month's Security Council president.

The British and Americans offered no explanation why they acquiesced to the French, after insisting for the last week that the resolution was ready for a vote, and that there would be no further negotiations. Richard Holbrooke, the chief U.S. representative, has not been involved in negotiations on the Iraq resolution, saying he had other pressing affairs.

The new inspection plan has been fine-tuned several times to take Russian and French concerns into account, including the addition of provisions that arms control experts say could reduce the independence of the inspection commission.

Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appeared to confirm the apprehensions when he told reporters that the U.N. disarmament department would help him draw up a list of staff members for the new commission. Arms experts say that should be left to the commission's executive chairman, to be chosen by Annan.

Annan pointedly did not mention the last chairman of Unscom, the now-defunct original inspection commission, when talking about what kind of candidate he was seeking for the new position. The last chairman, Richard Butler, was known for his aggressive, direct style in dealing with the Iraqis, who are accused of trying to mislead and hamper the inspectors.

The unexpected council setback on Iraq came as the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is responsible for all nuclear inspections in Iraq, was also meeting resistance in Baghdad as it tried to carry out monitoring unrelated to past or future U.N. inspections.

The agency, based in Vienna, said that if Iraq does not allow inspectors to check the Iraqis' store of low-enriched uranium this week, President Saddam Hussein will again be in violation of the 1968 nuclear nonproliferation treaty. Iraq violated the treaty consistently before the 1991 Gulf War, but those violations were not discovered until after the war, when clandestine caches of highly enriched uranium and plutonium were removed from the country by U. N. inspectors.

This week, the agency assembled a team of inspectors to make a routine annual inspection of Iraq's remaining permitted uranium stocks, which must be regularly monitored, David Kyd, spokesman for the agency, said Tuesday. The Iraqis have not issued them visas.

Although the Clinton administration has said that it does not have proof that the Iraqis have resumed building prohibited weapons -- nuclear, biological or chemical -- independent disarmament experts say that given a year without international inspections, it is more than likely that Iraq has continued to look for ways to reconstruct programs.

No agency inspectors have been permitted to work in Iraq since they and the inspectors of Unscom, which monitored biological, chemical and missile systems, were evacuated ahead of American and British airstrikes a year ago this week. At the Nuclear Control Institute, an independent organization in Washington, Paul L. Leventhal, the president, said that he feared that the atomic agency's proposed visit to Iraq would be no more than an effort to re-establish "a formal and largely symbolic inspection arrangement."

Leventhal, a consistent critic of the agency's record in Iraq, said the IAEA had the power to conduct a more vigorous search under the nonproliferation treaty.

---

Russia holds key to U.N. vote on Iraq

USA Today 12/15/99- Updated 01:29 PM ET World
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#terrorism

UNITED NATIONS - Britain again delayed a vote Tuesday on a Security Council resolution that would return U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq after France said it still wasn't satisfied and wanted more time to negotiate. The delay was announced after Britain amended the resolution to address Russian and Chinese concerns about the level of Iraqi cooperation with the inspectors that would be required before U.N. sanctions could be suspended. French Ambassador Alain Dejammet suggested a delay of more than a day would enable the foreign ministers of the seven major industrial powers and Russia to try to reach a consensus

----------- italy

[I spoke to a woman in Lafayette (Peace) Park who was born in Italy, lived there 19 years, then moved to France, where she now lives. When I told her about Italy dismantling its nuclear power plants, she knew about it. But she told me they get a lot of power from France, via nuclear plants right across the border. Some deal. Guin]

Italy to dismantle nuke plants

Yahoo News December 15, 1999
http://f1.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Login?YY=29657

ROME (AP) - Italy plans to spend nearly $3 billion over the next 20 years to dismantle its four nuclear power plants and create a national depot for nuclear waste, the industry minister said Tuesday. Italian nuclear plants have been shut down since citizens voted in a referendum banning nuclear power in 1987. "Until now there was no coherent policy on what to do with the results of the referendum: what to do with the power plants, the fuel, the waste," said Pierluigi Bersani, the industry minister. Most of the money will be spent on removing all traces of nuclear material from the four plants so the area can be used in other ways. Bersani also said the government was in the process of choosing a site to develop a national depot for nuclear waste.

----------- korea

N. Korea Getting Nuclear Reactors

01:51 PM ET 12/15/99 By SANG-HUN CHOE Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562635293-ffb

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) _ A U.S.-led consortium signed a $4.6 billion deal Wednesday to build two nuclear reactors in North Korea, a reward for the communist nation's promise to freeze and eventually dismantle its suspected nuclear weapons program.

The contract was the final phase of preparations to build the U.S.-designed reactors in Kumho, a rural village in North Korea's northeast.

``Today's event reflects the improving political climate surrounding the Korean Peninsula,'' said Desaix Anderson, the consortium's executive director, after signing the contract in Seoul with Choi Byung-soo, the president of the South's state utility company, Korea Electric Power Corp.

The South Korean firm will be the main builder of the reactors and other key facilities for the power plants. It has been doing ground-leveling and other preparatory work since 1997 but the main work has been delayed because of funding and other problems.

The consortium's three main members _ the United States, Japan and South Korea _ recently agreed on details of the funding.

South Korea will assume 70 percent of the cost, or $3.2 billion, with Japan providing $1 billion, the United States $115 million and the European Union $80 million. The balance has yet to be filled.

The funding will be made through the consortium, called the Korean Peninsula Energy Organization.

Under a 1994 accord, the consortium members promised to build the two reactors _ each with a rated capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

The light-water reactors will replace North Korea's Soviet-designed graphite-moderated reactors, which experts say produce greater amounts of weapons-grade plutonium.

U.S. experts say that before freezing its nuclear program, North Korea was suspected of having extracted enough plutonium to make one or two atomic bombs. The North claims its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

At a normal pace of construction, the first reactor will be built by 2007, four years behind schedule. The second reactor will be completed a year later. Under the accord, North Korea is also supposed to receive an annual shipment of 500,000 tons of fuel oil until the first reactor is built.

The delay _ caused by funding problems and international concern over North Korea's long-range missile development _ could complicate future negotiations on delivery schedule, performance, safety and North Korean repayment.

``This is an enormously complicated and challenging project,'' Anderson said. ``We have not proceeded as quickly as we would have liked. ... But I have to remind you that a target is a target.''

Japan welcomed the signing of the contract but urged North Korea to clear up lingering suspicions about nuclear weapons development by accepting the demands by the International Atomic Energy Agency to account for its past nuclear activity.

North Korea has rejected that, saying it is an issue that should be settled in talks with Washington.

``We strongly urge North Korea to fully cooperate with IAEA and nations concerned to fulfill its obligation to meet the request of international society,'' Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said.

Negotiations on the nuclear reactors with North Korea began after the Stalinist country threatened to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1993.

As part of the deal, North Korea retracted the threat.

---

Japan Restores Food Aid to North Korea

New York Times December 15, 1999 By CALVIN SIMS
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/121599japan-nkorea.html

Related Articles

North Korea Agrees to Resume Talks With Japan (Dec. 4, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/120499nkorea-japan.html

TOKYO -- In a move that could help North Korea feed its hungry people this winter, the Japanese government said Tuesday that it would lift restrictions on food aid to the Communist country and begin formal negotiations to establish diplomatic relations.

In announcing the lifting of sanctions, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Mikio Aoki, said Japan and North Korea planned to hold preliminary talks by the end of the year.

Restoring food aid to North Korea, which is in desperate need after years of shortages and famine, is seen as a necessary first step toward diplomatic relations.

Tokyo suspended all food aid after North Korea fired a multistage rocket that flew over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean in August 1998, setting off fears across East Asia.

"Given the dire hunger situation in North Korea, it would be difficult for Japan to come to the diplomatic table without at least offering some help," said Hajime Izumi, a professor of political science at Shizuoka University. "Lifting sanctions is important because it clears the way. The question now is what will North Korea do with this new opportunity."

Aoki said the government would not immediately restore food aid to North Korea but instead would "make a comprehensive decision after closely addressing the progress of the preliminary talks and North Korea's responses." There was no immediate comment from North Korea today.

There is still strong opposition in Japan to providing food to North Korea. Many Japanese are still upset that North Korea fired a missile over their territory and that the country has not accounted for the whereabouts of 10 Japanese citizens that intelligence officials here maintain were abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970's and 1980's.

Japan has proposed that during the talks, the Red Cross organizations of both countries hold discussions on issues including food aid, visits to Japan by Japanese spouses of North Koreans and the disappearance of the Japanese citizens.

The announcement on Tuesday underscores a remarkable improvement in historically bitter relations between North Korea and Japan, which only a few months ago appeared to be archenemies.

In August much of Japan was jittery after North Korea said it planned to test a new long-range ballistic missile. In retaliation, Japan threatened to bar Koreans living in Japan from sending cash and goods to North Korea. The remittances, estimated to be as much as $1 billion a year, are a major source of capital for North Korea.

But the missile crisis came to an abrupt end when North Korea agreed to suspend future missile launchings in exchange for Washington's relaxing its own sanctions.

In a separate development that also underscores the improving state of relations with North Korea, the Japanese government said today that an international consortium planned to sign an agreement on Wednesday in Seoul, South Korea, to begin construction of two nuclear power plants in North Korea.

The consortium, led by the United States, was formed in 1994 to build two Western reactors and provide shipments of fuel oil in exchange for North Korea's promise not to pursue its own nuclear program.

-----------nato

NATO foreign ministers meet

USA Today 12/15/99- Updated 11:11 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwswed01.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/15nato.html

BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO foreign ministers, meeting Wednesday for the first time since the European Union took its historic leap into the defense business, examined the consequences of having two defense organizations in Europe.

While the United States tacitly backs the 15-nation EU's decision to give itself defense capability, there is concern in Washington that such an organization might grow away from NATO, splitting the alliance that has kept overall peace in Europe for more than 50 years.

NATO countries who are not members of the EU, like Turkey, have strong reservations about the EU's defense plans.

The Europeans, on the other hand, still have a lot of serious questions about Washington's preparations to develop and deploy a national missile defense system aimed at protecting it against attack from rogue states that have, or could have, long-range missiles.

''I think that there continues to be the strongest consultation and cooperation between the United States and the European allies on ways of forging an even stronger trans-Atlantic relationship,'' said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, sitting in for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who remained in Washington for the Middle East peace talks.

At their year-end summit last week in Helsinki, Finland, EU leaders approved plans for EU-led military operations in response to international crises where NATO is not engaged. It underlined that NATO remains the ''foundation for collective defense.''

The key element of the plan is to create a new rapid-reaction corps of 50,000 to 60,000 troops by 2003, backed by hundreds of aircraft and a naval element, capable of deploying within 60 days and sustaining itself for a year.

The idea is to use the force in humanitarian crises, rescue operations and peacekeeping.

''Our discussions will focus on how to reflect the Helsinki decisions in the ongoing work of the alliance ... in such a way as to ensure that work in the EU and NATO remains harmonious, transparent and complementary,'' said Lord Robertson, the NATO secretary-general.

NATO backs the plan on the assumption that any improvement in Europe's defense capabilities is good for the alliance as a whole.

To deal with defense issues, the EU will create three new bodies - a standing Political and Security Committee, composed of national representatives at ambassadorial level; a Military Committee composed of national chiefs of defense, represented by military delegates; and a Military Staff, which will provide the European council with military expertise as needed.

The latest American intelligence estimates indicate North Korea, Iran and Iraq have the potential to launch missiles. U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen told the allies two weeks ago that the threat was real and the answer could involve a national missile defense system.

The United States says it won't make a final decision until next summer, but planning is going ahead. Most worrisome from the European view is how they fit into Washington's plans. Development of the new system also will require a partial renegotiation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia. Many of the allies are skeptical.

Talbott is to answer their questions on the missile defense system during the gathering.

Also on the agenda are a review of the NATO-led military operations in Bosnia and Kosovo, relations with Russia and the situation in Chechnya.

---

Why Europe Seeks A Military Identity

New York Times December 15, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/letters/l15eur.html

Related Articles

Military Posture of Europe to Turn More Independent (Dec. 13, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/121399europe-military.html

To the Editor:

I reject the concern voiced by some American officials that the European Union's efforts to create a new security and defense identity is partly founded on its resentment of the United States' role in the world (front page, Dec. 13). The European Union's current effort stems from its post-Kosovo realization that its members are poorly prepared to play a substantial military role in NATO.

Many European countries cannot deploy and support troops outside their respective territories without substantial United States assistance. The French Army, for example, could not have fought on the front lines in the Persian Gulf war without logistical support from the United States Army.

These and other shortcomings ultimately threaten NATO's credibility and undermine its solidarity.

It is far better to have strong allies we can depend on than weak allies who are dependent on us.

CHRIS SWIFT Washington, Dec. 13, 1999

----------- puerto rico

Puerto Rico Offers Spying Settlement

Yahoo News 08:09 PM ET 12/14/99 By VILMA PEREZ Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562619495-492

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ Attempting to close a painful chapter in U.S.-Puerto Rican relations, Gov. Pedro Rossello on Tuesday offered $5.7 million to settle suits filed by thousands of suspected independence supporters who were subjected to police spying operations.

The offer is an attempt to end 300 lawsuits filed by thousands of Puerto Ricans after the government admitted in the 1980s that it had been keeping secret dossiers on more than 135,000 people since the 1940s. Plaintiffs have demanded more than $100 billion in damages, saying their lives were destroyed by lies leaked from the files.

``I want to offer a solemn and sincere apology to those affected citizens and their families for the concoction and maintenance of these files,'' Rossello said at a news conference where he announced the offer.

Subjects of the dossiers reacted cautiously. ``I don't think any amount can compensate what many of us have suffered,'' said Carmen Rios Rivera, a lawyer who learned from her dossier that friends, neighbors and co-workers had been informing police for years about her pro-independence beliefs.

Charles Hey Maestre of the Puerto Rico Civil Rights Institute said he would not advise any of his hundreds of clients until Rossello put the offer in writing.

The decision comes as Puerto Ricans re-examine their often contentious relationship with the United States, which wrested the island from Spain in 1898.

President Clinton's release in September of 11 pro-independence militants jailed some 20 years ago for seditious conspiracy and weapons possession, combined with a battle with the U.S. Navy over a bombing range on an outlying Puerto Rican island, has reinvigorated the island's nationalist movement.

Rossello offered $6,000 each to lawsuit plaintiff with more than 30 pages in their dossiers. Others with lengthy files who have not sued would receive $3,000 apiece, he proposed.

Police began collecting information on suspected independence advocates after the government passed the so-called Gag Law of 1948, which made it illegal to show the Puerto Rican flag, sing nationalist songs or hold ``seditious'' rallies.

In 1987 the island's supreme court ruled such surveillance illegal, and over the next five years the government released more than 8,700 files to their subjects.

Stunned residents _ from housewives to prominent journalists _ discovered old friends had been transcribing their conversations, co-workers had been taking secret photographs of them and neighbors had been stealing their mail.

---

San Juan Questions Spy Settlement

Associated Press 03:23 PM ET 12/15/99 By CHRIS HAWLEY http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562636395-145

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ When the Puerto Rican police department released more than 135,000 secret dossiers on suspected independence supporters, it laid bare a landscape of deception in this U.S. territory.

Shocked islanders found that friends and co-workers had been spying on them in part of a vast effort to quash anti-U.S. sentiments. Students found themselves unaccountably linked to terrorists. Businessmen and women found evidence that they had been denied jobs and scholarships.

On Tuesday, after 10 years of legal battles, the government apologized and offered $5.7 million to compensate them.

Many say that's not enough.

``You can't heal people's lives so easily,'' said Felix Colon Morera, 47, who was stunned when he saw the 1,000-page file on his militant activities during his college days.

Inside were photos, descriptions of the inside of his house, interviews with neighbors and employers, careful notes from rallies he had attended and comments linking him to a terrorist group of which he says he had never heard. The last and most chilling item, filed in 1983, was a picture of his newly wed wife . ``It made you feel like ... something in a government laboratory,'' Colon said. The surveillance was declared unconstitutional and the files released to their subjects in 1989.

On Tuesday, Gov. Pedro Rossello offered ``a solemn and sincere apology ... for the concoction and maintenance of these files.''

In an attempt to settle lawsuits by thousands of victims, he offered to pay $6,000 to each plaintiff with more than 30 pages in their files. Others with more than 30 pages who had expressed interest in suing but have not yet filed claims would receive $3,000.

The announcement comes amid a surge in nationalistic sentiment fostered by a battle with the U.S. Navy over a bombing range on an outlying Puerto Rican island. President Clinton's recent release of 11 pro-independence militants jailed for seditious conspiracy has also reopened debate on Puerto Rico's relationship with the United States, which won the island from Spain in 1898.

Police began collecting information on suspected independence activists after the government passed a 1948 law making it illegal to show the Puerto Rican flag, sing nationalist songs or hold independence rallies.

It was part of government efforts to rein in radicals as it negotiated its current commonwealth arrangement with Washington. Later, FBI-trained agents expanded the program to track suspected communists and terrorists.

The operation was exposed during investigations into an undercover agent's role in a the police killing of two young independence supporters in 1978.

``An extraordinary amount of effort went into following people and maintaining these files, and the damage they caused was enormous,'' said civil rights lawyer Judith Berkan, whose own dossier contains hundreds of pages.

Former psychologist Carmen Rios Rivera trembled with anger when she read one typewritten 1972 entry from her dossier: ``Several patients of the psychiatric hospital escaped and the person above was identified as an employee of this institution with separatist tendencies.'' Another entry has her boss giving undercover agents permission to watch her.

``These kinds of implications are shameless,'' Rios said. She blames the dossier for a string of missed promotions and denied transfers that prompted her to quit psychology.

Thousands of unclaimed files _ as well as lists of undercover agents, informants and the people who read the dossiers _ remain sealed in a building in central San Juan.

Many activists say the surveillance hobbled the independence movement, which has won less than 5 percent of votes in recent referendums.

``The dossiers linked being pro-independence with being a criminal,'' said Javier Colon, 43, who wrote a book about the dossiers, including surveillance of him that began when he was 15. ``You get the feeling that there will always be people who mean well but have an agenda against you, and that fear stays with you for the rest of your life.''

----------- russia

Putin Launches a Broadside

At Missile Test, He Attacks West's 'Language of Force'
International Herald Tribune Paris, Wednesday, December 15, 1999 By David Hoffman Washington Post Service
http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/WED/IN/russia.2.html

MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in another broadside aimed at Western critics of the war in Chechnya, said Tuesday that Russia would not tolerate ''the language of force'' from other countries.

In remarks that echoed President Boris Yeltsin's stern warning last week while on a visit to China, Mr. Putin said, ''We are not used to such language, since Russia has a nuclear shield.''

On the war in Chechnya, he insisted, ''No one can accuse the government of inappropriate use of anti-terrorist measures in Chechnya, or call Russia an aggressor or occupier.''

The prime minister's comments came after he witnessed the ninth test launch of the Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile, the newest in Russia's arsenal and its most significant new strategic weapon.

The three-stage, single-warhead missile is designed to replace multiple-warhead missiles that have outlived their service life and that would be banned under the still-unratified START-2 treaty.

Mr. Putin flew to the military rocket testing grounds in Plesetsk, in the Arctic north, for the test launch, which Russian news agencies said was successful.

He was accompanied by Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev and Vladimir Yakovlev, the commander of rocket forces, both of whom have championed the Topol-M as Russia's missile of the future and a potential answer to any future anti-ballistic missile system.

The Topol-M missile is capable of evasive measures aimed at penetrating any anti-missile system. The warhead can maneuver and distribute space-based ''chaff'' to confuse a ground-based warning and tracking system.

Moscow recently announced it had deployed a second regiment of 10 Topol-M missiles. The Topol-M program has been hit by funding problems and years of delay but still is a top priority for Russia because the country's remaining strategic weapons - missiles based on submarines, airplanes and land - are aging without replacements.

Mr. Putin, speaking to officers at the rocket base, said that some powers have not given up on Cold War ''bloc thinking.''

''Some of the countries and blocs are interfering in the affairs of independent states,'' speaking the ''language of force,'' he said.

While the complaint is hardly a new one, it comes as the Western powers have been criticizing Moscow for the indiscriminate use of force in the war against Chechen rebels. Western countries were especially critical of an ultimatum delivered by Russia to residents of the Chechen capital that they must flee or be killed.

''We will not tolerate this,'' Mr. Putin said of pressure from abroad, ''and will use all the levers that we have, both diplomatic and military-political.''

''Russia has everything to keep its security assured,'' he added.

Mr. Putin noted that the Clinton administration had not yet decided to deploy an anti-missile system.

''We hope this will not happen,'' he said, but ''if it does, our response will be adequate, but much more economical than the ABM system itself.''

---

Heed Yeltsin's Warning

New York Times December 15, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/15/letters/l15yel.html

Related Articles

Russian Leader Complains of Lack of Respect From U.S. (Dec. 10, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/121099russia-us.html

To the Editor:

President Boris N. Yeltsin's comments about Russia's still having a full arsenal of nuclear weapons, made in reaction to President Clinton's criticism of Russia's assault on Chechnya, are alarming (news article, Dec. 10).

Mr. Yeltsin's comments add importance to our own debate as to the wisdom of considering a viable anti-ballistic missile defense. Though some may consider the comments as saber-rattling, they speak volumes about the potential destructiveness of such weapons and about our need to defend ourselves against them. I urge our legislators to support continuing efforts to develop a viable defense from this threat.

PETE WALTON Alexandria, Va., Dec. 10, 1999

---

Russia's Mission Control center says it's ready for Y2K

Deseret News Wednesday, December 15, 1999
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,145011349,00.html?
http://www.nando.net/24hour/adn/technology/story/0,1976,500142757-500169853-500640951-0,00.html

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's Mission Control center will not be affected by the year 2000 computer glitch, a top space official said Wednesday.

Computers at Mission Control, which helps monitor the still-unfinished International Space Station, were upgraded and checked for any Y2K glitches in early December, chief engineer Mikhail Pronin told the ITAR-Tass news agency.

"No Y2K troubles are expected," he said.

Pronin said Mission Control would have more workers on the overnight shift Dec. 31 to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Controllers of Russia's Mir space station also have said they won't be hit by any Y2K-related failures.

No one knows exactly what Y2K glitches - the result of unfixed older computers and embedded circuits mistaking 2000 for 1900 - might do in Russia, but Western observers say the country has been far behind in tackling the problem and can expect power and heating failures.

Russia has issued repeated assurances that it will get through the new year without any problems and says there is no chance that its nuclear power plants or missile systems will be affected.

Russia's gas monopoly, Gazprom, said Wednesday that it, too, was fully prepared for Y2K.

-----------

Bradford: we can afford F-16 deal

Pictured: Just some of the 28 American F-16 jet fighters earmarked for New Zealand.
New Zealand Herald 15/12/99 By AUDREY YOUNG political reporter http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nzherald99/print_this_story.cfm?theClassification=news&theStoryID=105431

Former National Defence Minister Max Bradford says he knows of no reason New Zealand cannot afford to buy F-16 aircraft from the United States, rejecting budget blowout claims by Prime Minister Helen Clark.

He says it will cost taxpayers $200 million to ditch the F-16 deal.

Helen Clark claims the Defence Force is "vastly overcommitted" in its capital purchase plans, and says the F-16 deal "cannot be achieved within current baseline - not remotely achieved."

The issue is central to whether New Zealand stays with its 10-year lease-to-buy contract with the United States for 28 mothballed, new F-16 fighter jets.

Helen Clark says removing the $700 million cost of the American aircraft would help Defence meet other priorities, such as buying new Hercules transport planes.

The new American Ambassador, Carol Moseley-Braun, maydiscuss the deal with Helen Clark on Friday.

She will present her credentials to the Governor-General, Sir Michael Hardie Boys, today.

Helen Clark said she had time to see the ambassador on Friday, but a meeting had not been confirmed.

She said the F-16 deal came up when President Clinton telephone her after the election to congratulate her.

He had told her his good friend Carol Moseley-Braun would be coming to New Zealand soon to discuss the F-16s.

He had said the aircraft were "a good deal for your country and a good deal for ours," she said.

"And that was the end of it. I said I'd look forward to meeting her."

Helen Clark said she was not ready yet to give details on the Defence Force budget overcommitment and what had contributed to it.

But she had always been suspicious of the July F-16 deal, which was additional to the capital spending programme in the 1997 defence assessment - a 20-year view of defence needs and a commitment of $663 million over five years.

"We simply didn't believe you could take this expenditure on the chin without either over-running your baseline or significantly cutting into other priorities in the 1997 defence assessment," she said.

But Mr Bradford says he was in charge of the figures until last Friday "and there is nothing I know of that says they can't meet their commitments out of the present budget."

He said the fall in the value of the New Zealand dollar meant the 20-year plan outlined in the 1997 defence assessment would be hard to meet.

But Defence and the Treasury were in the process of negotiating an arrangement to share the risk of fluctuating currency on capital purchases.

His $200 million estimate of the cost of quitting the deal was based on $100 million for terminating contractual obligations already let for re-commissioning, training, spares and support equipment and the loss of about $100 million from selling the A4 Skyhawks, which the F-16s are to replace.

-----------

Y-12 nuclear plant worker sues
Beryllium risk known, suit says

Knoxville Sentinel December 15, 1999 By Laura Ayo, News-Sentinel staff writer
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2985.shtml

Twelve companies that manufactured or distributed beryllium deliberately concealed the true health risks to those who worked with the substance, a Y-12 nuclear plant worker claims in a federal lawsuit Monday.

Jesse McDonald claims in the $15 million lawsuit that his exposure to airborne beryllium dust and fumes while working at the U.S. Department of Energy plant in Oak Ridge resulted in his developing a debilitating respiratory illness called chronic beryllium disease.

McDonald, who has worked at the Y-12 plant since 1968, claimed the companies "expressly or tacitly" agreed as early as 1951 that beryllium workers would not be told that they could develop the disease at airborne concentrations below 2 micrograms of beryllium dust per cubic meter of air.

Last week, the Energy Department imposed a rule that requires protection measures, such as respirators, at 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

The manufacturers, according to the lawsuit, ignored information which showed their beryllium products were likely to become "hazardous to the life, health and safety" of people exposed to them, and failed to warn of the risks.

The lawsuit names Brush Wellman Inc., Ceradyne Inc., Cabot Corp., NGK Metals Corp., Lockheed Martin Beryllium Corp., Microtechnologies Inc., Cercom Quality Products Inc., SSG Inc., Speedring Inc., Spire Corp., the Perkin-Elmer Corp. and Starmet Corp. as defendants.

At least 18 other plant workers have filed similar lawsuits against DOE, beryllium manufacturers or both in East Tennessee, attorneys said.

Hugh Haness, vice president of government affairs for Brush Wellman Inc., said the company does not comment about pending litigation as a matter of policy. However, he said the company --also as a matter of policy -- has always made available the latest information regarding the risks associated with the manufacturing of beryllium.

As of September, 29 Y-12 workers have been diagnosed with chronic beryllium disease, and 89 were found to be "sensitized" to beryllium, according to Dr. Donna Cragle, director of the Center for Epidemiologic Research at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.

Laura Ayo may be reached at 865-342-6341 or ayo@knews.com.

----------- ukraine

Reactor Restarted in Ukraine

Associated Press 11:37 AM ET 12/15/99
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562633503-cef

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) _ A nuclear reactor has been restarted at the Zaporizhia power plant _ the largest nuclear power plant in Europe _ after being shut down for emergency repairs, officials said Wednesday.

The reactor was shut down Sunday after a malfunction was detected in equipment that maintains equal pressure in its cooling system, said the state nuclear energy company, Energoatom.

No radiation leaks were reported and the reactor went back on line late Tuesday, it said.

Zaporizhia is located 390 miles southeast of the capital Kiev and has six Soviet-designed, VVER-1000 reactors. The malfunction came a day after the reactor had passed a safety test.

Ten out of 14 reactors at Ukraine's five atomic power plants are currently operational. The former Soviet republic depends on nuclear power for about 40 percent of its electricity.

---

Chernobyl Insists It's Y2K-Safe

Yahoo News 03:35 PM ET 12/15/99 By MARINA SYSOYEVA Associated Press

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine (AP) _ Rainer Goehring spends his days helping ensure the Chernobyl nuclear plant is safe, but he plans to be far away when the New Year rolls around. Just in case.

Ukrainian officials say Chernobyl, scene of the world's worst nuclear accident, has been purged of the Year 2000 computer problem.

``I'm not convinced,'' said Goehring, a Belgian. ``I propose everybody decide for themselves.''

International monitors say they do not expect all systems at Soviet-era nuclear power plants in Ukraine, Armenia and Lithuania to be Y2K compliant by the New Year, creating the possibility of widespread blackouts _ or perhaps worse.

Goehring's office is a few hundred yards from the towering concrete-and-steel structure known as the sarcophagus _ a haunting reminder of what happened at Chernobyl in April 1986 when its No. 4 reactor went up in flames and exploded.

The blast spewed radiation over much of Europe. The Ukrainian government has blamed at least 8,000 deaths on the accident _ including those killed immediately, workers who died in the massive cleanup operation and people who died later of radiation exposure.

No one is sure what Y2K glitches _ the result of unfixed older computers and embedded circuits mistaking 2000 for 1900 and going haywire _ might do in this former Soviet republic of 50 million people. Western analysts say cash-strapped Ukraine is among the world's least-prepared nations.

At Chernobyl, a wall separates the crumbling sarcophagus that covers the ruins of the No. 4 reactor from the plant's only functioning one, No. 3.

It is scheduled to be operating during the Dec. 31 rollover, with a normal shift of 178 workers on duty.

Chernobyl officials insist the Y2K glitch will not cause a repeat catastrophe.

``Of course, we guarantee that,'' said Anatoliy Iliichev, Chernobyl's Y2K expert, adding that all problems have been fixed.

Foreign observers say chances are slim of Y2K-induced nuclear accidents at Chernobyl or others of the 57 Soviet-era reactors in Russia and elsewhere in the old Soviet bloc. But they say bug-triggered failures are possible in some plant systems.

``The primary headaches are Ukraine which has 16 (reactors), Armenia which has only one and to a slightly lesser degree two Chernobyl-type reactors in Lithuania,'' said David Kyd, spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. body that monitors the industry.

Kyd said the IAEA expects some secondary Ukrainian reactor systems, including computers designed to detect radiation leaks, to not be Y2K compliant by year's end, though primary systems may be ready.

Nor are all systems at the Lithuanian reactors expected to be ready, he said.

In addition, Y2K problems may not only be confined to the New Year. Because 2000 is a leap year, Feb. 29, March 1 and Dec. 31 could also be problematic, Kyd said.

In any case, the 14 working reactors at Ukraine's five nuclear plants experience problems almost every week, frequently shutting down.

Chernobyl officials say reactor No. 3 underwent extensive Y2K tests before resuming operation on Nov. 26 following months of repairs. The plant has two computer systems, a more than 20-year-old Soviet-designed Skala and a new Western backup system.

Although the new computer is not date-sensitive, it has been tested for Y2K risk and the Soviet system was tested by simulating the Year 2000 changeover, officials say.

``The central control's main computer was found to be Y2K-sensitive. It controls all the reactor's parameters and that was our main headache,'' Iliichev said. ``But we have conducted tests and are certain now the main computer will pass the changeover.''

Both computers supply operators with information on the reactor, but the reactor itself is run by analog systems that are not susceptible to the Y2K glitch, said Borys Baranov, a Chernobyl shift manager.

Ukraine had pledged to shut down Chernobyl by 2000, but now says it needs foreign aid to complete two new reactors to compensate for Chernobyl's lost power and to find new jobs for most of the plant's 9,561 workers. Ukraine's economy is in tatters and it depends on nuclear power.

Overall, Ukrainian officials say they don't expect Y2K to cause major problems.

But as in much of eastern Europe, there may be a problem with non-nuclear power stations and the country's electricity distribution grid, officials say. If a power station crashes, it could cripple the grid by overloading some of the nuclear power plants and knocking them off line.

``We have no questions regarding the generating systems,'' said Nuclear Regulation Administration chief Oleksandr Smyshliayev. ``But nobody can give a 100-percent guarantee of the entire energy system's reliability.''

----------- nuc food

USDA Approves Irradiation of Meat

Yahoo News 1:37 AM ET 12/15/99By PHILIP BRASHER AP Farm Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991215/pl/meat_irradiation_3.html

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Meatpackers have received long-awaited approval to start irradiating beef, pork and lamb to kill deadly bacteria and other organisms. Whether shoppers will go for ground beef or pork chops that have been zapped remains to be seen.

Irradiation ``is not the most attractive term. It would have been nicer if it had been called cold pasteurization,'' said Tim Willard, a spokesman for the National Food Processors Association.

It is the only known method to eliminate deadly E. coli bacteria in raw meat. The technique also can significantly reduce levels of other pathogens, including listeria, salmonella and campylobacter, according to the Agriculture Department.

Initially, irradiated meat is likely to be most popular with hospitals and nursing homes, because of the danger E. coli poses to patients with weakened immune systems, said Carol Tucker Foreman, a distinguished fellow with the Consumer Federation of America.

``I don't expect you're going to get it for sale at McDonald's any time soon. It takes a while to build the facilities,'' she said.

Irradiation has been approved for poultry since 1992 and is under consideration for hot dogs, lunch meats and other ready-to-eat products.

``While there is no single silver bullet to cure all food safety problems, irradiation has been shown to be both safe and effective,'' Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said Tuesday in giving the final OK to the program.

Labels on irradiated products will have to carry the international symbol of irradiation, known as a ``radura,'' and a statement that they were treated. The symbol, colored green on a white background, depicts two leaves resting in a semicircle, with a green dot above it beneath a broken-lined semicircle. Sausage that contains irradiated meat would also have to be labeled.

Several companies, including ConAgra Inc., one of the nation's biggest meatpackers, have said they plan to use irradiation. But processors say the government needs to undertake a public education campaign to convince consumers that irradiation is safe.

``Ultimately, consumers' purchase behavior will drive the availability of this product,'' said J. Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute. ``If consumers embrace the product, the industry is in the business of meeting consumer demand and we will respond with more irradiated products.''

Irradiation had to be approved by both USDA, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of meat, and the Food and Drug Administration, which has authority over food additives. The FDA approved irradiation for red meat in 1997.

USDA has waived its authority over ready-to-eat products in order to expedite the approval process for them.

Irradiation is seldom used for poultry, but E. coli is considered a far bigger problem with beef.

Consumer groups wanted USDA to set a minimum radiation level that meat had to receive, but the agency decided to leave it up to processors. The necessary dosage could vary depending what else the processors do to treat the meat, USDA officials said.

E. coli O157 can cause serious illness and sometimes death, especially in children and the elderly. An estimated 73,480 people a year are infected, and about 600 of those cases are fatal, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

----------- nuc facilities

Seabrook -

USA Today 12/15/99
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Extra staff will be on hand at the Seabrook nuclear power plant on New Year's Eve, though officials are confident the plant is Y2K compliant. In all, more than 100 staff members will ring in the New Year at work.

-----------nuc weapons facilities

Thyroid Risk Near Nuke Plant Studied

Associated Press 10:03 AM ET 12/15/99 By JOHN K. WILEY
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562632259-c71

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) _ A federal review panel says a controversial study overstated its conclusion that there was no increased risk for thyroid disease among people living downwind from the Hanford nuclear reservation.

While agreeing that the risks of thyroid disease were probably small, a subcommittee of the National Research Council of the National Academies said Tuesday it found errors in the study made public in January.

``We agree with the investigators that the study provides no clear evidence of an association between levels of people's exposure to radioactive iodine and their rates of thyroid diseases,'' said advisory panel chairman Roy Shore, of the New York University School of Medicine.

``However, given both the statistical uncertainties in the data and the uncertainties associated with the estimated radiation doses to the thyroid, we do not believe a strong statement can be made that there is no association.''

Many in the Northwest for years have blamed Hanford for a variety of illnesses, particularly cancer. Some researchers have found that certain residents downwind from the facility were likely to have ingested radioactive iodine from Hanford releases.

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, which conducted the nine-year, $18 million study for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found no link between offsite releases of radioactive iodine and increased thyroid disease among nearly 3,500 people born near Hanford between 1940 and 1946.

The study began a decade ago after the federal government acknowledged intentional and accidental radiation releases during the early years of the Cold War.

Released as a ``draft final'' report Jan. 28 without the usual vetting by other scientists, the study suffered from a number of analytical and statistical shortcomings, the panel said.

While the panel found the epidemiological and clinical portions of the study were ``very well designed and carried out in an excellent manner,'' it said the study overestimated its ability to detect radiation effects, meaning the results were less definitive than had been reported.

Some independent scientists have contended the study's computer model may have lead to underestimation of exposure by about 30 percent. Shore said ``the risk of thyroid disease is rather small, if there is any.''

The panel, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, was asked to review the Hanford study for scientific soundness. It may recommend that the CDC make fixes in the study before a final report is released, Shore said.

Fred Hutchinson spokeswoman Kristen Woodward said all of the study's key researchers were in meetings in Washington, D.C., and wouldn't comment until after they had seen the report.

Judith Jurji, a leader of the Hanford Downwinders Coalition who suffers from thyroid disease, did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

---

Freeh Against Hearings That Could Air Spy Case Disputes

New York Times December 15, 1999 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/15china-espionage.html

Related Article

Foreign Policy Analysts Say Cox Report Inaccurate (Dec. 15, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/15cox-report.html

WASHINGTON -- In a rare plea, FBI Director Louis Freeh has asked Congress to avoid hearings that could divulge internal disputes in the government's espionage investigation of a former Los Alamos laboratory scientist, concerned that airing such information could harm prosecution, documents show.

Senate investigators recently gathered memos showing FBI agents doubted more than a year ago that Wen Ho Lee had leaked nuclear secrets to China and that Energy Secretary Bill Richardson had rebuked the FBI more recently for suggesting Energy officials were to blame for focusing too narrowly on Lee, government officials told The Associated Press.

Freeh wrote to senators on Friday asking them not to proceed with planned hearings on the espionage case, and followed up with a personal appeal in a closed-door meeting Tuesday.

"In my view, the potential that your hearings could inadvertently interfere with the prosecution is substantial," Freeh wrote. "Subcommittee hearings at this time risk impacting upon the government's ability to successfully prosecute Mr. Lee by creating issues that may not presently exist."

Among the issues Senate investigator were reviewing was whether the FBI and Energy Department focused too narrowly on Lee and the Los Alamos lab during the investigation's first three years, excluding other possible suspects and sites.

Freeh expressed concern that hearings would force potential trial witnesses to testify before Congress and create new documents that would be available to defense lawyers, officials said. Freeh, however, said he is willing to give Congress continued access to internal investigative documents.

Lee was charged Friday with 59 felonies alleging he downloaded a wide array of classified nuclear weapons design and testing information from secure lab computers, and then removed them from Los Alamos on computer tapes.

However, the indictment offered no evidence he shared information with China or other foreign countries.

Lee has steadfastly denied spying. And the AP reported Sunday that internal FBI documents showed the Albuquerque FBI office, which investigated Lee, began to doubt as early as November 1998 that he had passed secrets to China.

The memos, one addressed to Freeh in January, also raise questions about the original Energy Department administrative inquiry that in 1996 identified Lee and 11 other foreign-born scientists at Los Alamos as potential suspects for leaking secrets to China about the W-88 nuclear submarine warhead, one of America's most advanced.

The FBI doubts were fueled in part by an agent's interview in September 1998 in which Lee's boss divulged that an average of 250 workers each year at several federal facilities had access to the W-88 secrets, officials said.

In addition, FBI agents learned that at least one scientist who participated in the 1996 Energy review disagreed with its conclusions, officials said.

After months of internal discussions, the FBI recently refocused its investigation on other labs, facilities and suspects.

Other memos that could be aired at Senate hearings include a lengthy analysis written by an FBI agent in September that identified problems, assumptions and limitations in the original Energy inquiry, officials said.

That agent's analysis prompted a stern reply from Richardson. In a Nov. 29 letter to Freeh, Richardson rebuked the FBI for raising concerns with Congress about the original inquiry's heavy focus on Lee without fully disclosing the role its own agents played in that inquiry, according to officials who have seen the letter.

The officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because the letter is classified.

Richardson's letter also countered some of the FBI's criticisms that the original probe was too narrowly focused, noting that Energy only had authority to investigate its own employees, and since that time the FBI had had three years to expand the inquiry if it wanted, officials said.

Such dissension, if made public at hearings, would be available to Lee's lawyers at trial.

Despite the letter, officials at FBI and Energy say they continue to enjoy a good working relationship. They noted Richardson agreed to declassify memos to assist Lee's prosecution, and supported the FBI investigation's recent expansion to other suspects.

The memos were recently given to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., that is examining Justice Department and FBI conduct in several controversial cases ranging from Waco to China espionage.

----------- nuc other

Nunzio Joseph Palladino, Nuclear Engineer and Reagan Appointee, Dies at 83

New York Times December 15, 1999 By WOLFGANG SAXON
http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/15/news/national/obit-palladino.html

Nunzio Joseph Palladino, a retired nuclear engineer who steered the Nuclear Regulatory Commission through some rough years after the nuclear power accident at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pa., died on Sunday at Centre Community Hospital in College Park, Pa. He was 83 and lived in College Park.

He suffered a long illness, said officials at Pennsylvania State University, where he was dean emeritus of engineering.

The failure of a cooling valve to open allowed the radioactive core of a reactor at Three Mile Island to overheat on March 28, 1979, causing thousands of people to flee in fear of a nuclear meltdown. Fuel rods melted, spilling their radioactive contents into a containment structure, where the radiation was largely confined.

The crisis at Three Mile Island lasted 12 days and the accident took more than a decade to clean up, but there were no casualties.

An investigation found that the accident was caused by human, mechanical and design failures. The accident led to changes in reactor licensing and personnel training, as well as in the structure and function of the nuclear commission.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan chose Palladino as the commission's chairman to put the changes into effect; he served until 1986.

Palladino's specialties were the thermal and hydraulic problems encountered in the design of nuclear reactor cores and the mechanical problems associated with such designs. His expertise made him a natural for coping with the aftermath of Three Mile Island.

Palladino was born in Allentown, Pa., graduated from Lehigh University in 1938 and received a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Lehigh in 1939. He then became an engineer at the Westinghouse Electric Co. near Philadelphia, designing steam turbines. In World War II he was as a captain in the Army, and served in Europe.

After the war Palladino worked as a reactor designer and manager at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Argonne National Laboratory and the reactor design division of Westinghouse, where he headed a group that designed the reactor for the world's first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus. He joined the Penn State faculty in 1959.

Palladino was the first chairman of the university's department of nuclear engineering and was dean of the College of Engineering from 1966 to 1981, when he became the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

He was the author of articles in professional journals and, in retirement, served as a member of the National Nuclear Accrediting Board for several years.

----------- terrorism

AFGHANISTAN: U.S. WARNING

New York Times 12/15/99
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/world-briefs.html

The United States has told the ruling Taliban it will be held responsible for any terrorist actions by supporters of the Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, the White House said. Washington has warned Americans traveling abroad through the New Year and Ramadan, citing "credible information that terrorists are planning attacks" against them. (Reuters)

---

U.S.: Jordan arrests prompted warning

USA Today 12/15/99- Updated 01:58 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwswed02.htm
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562636520-b2b

WASHINGTON (AP) - Thirteen people suspected of planning year-end terrorist attacks against Americans have been arrested in Jordan, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The group included 11 Jordanian nationals, an Iraqi and an Algerian, said the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Previously, the officials would say only that about a dozen had been arrested in the Middle East, without specifying the country.

Those arrested had recently arrived from Afghanistan, where they had received military training, including training in using explosives and weapons, said the officials.

The suspects were arrested by Jordanian security forces.

At the White House, spokesman Joe Lockhart declined to discuss details of the arrests, other than to note they had been carried out by the Jordanian government. But, he said, ''We certainly believe these were members of bin Laden's organization that posed a threat to Americans.''

''We are following closely a number of threats and continue to be very vigilant on that front,'' Lockhart said.

The Clinton administration said there is a direct link between the terrorist group led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden and those arrested on grounds they were planning an attack against Americans.

Bin Laden has been indicted by a New York grand jury on charges of conspiracy and murder in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 259 people. He is living in Afghanistan under the protection of the ruling Taliban militia.

The State Department dispatched its top counter-terrorism official, Michael Sheehan, to New York on Monday to warn the Taliban representative there that Afghan leaders would be held responsible for any attacks committed by bin Laden's network.

Earlier, in Amman, Jordan, Prime Minister Abdur Ra'uf S. Rawabdeh told a parliament session that authorities had arrested Afghan-trained members of a terrorist group who had tried to carry out attacks against the state and Jordanian personalities.

He said the group has received military training in camps in Afghanistan and that the militants had entered Jordan on forged Jordanian and unidentified Arab passports.

A senior Jordanian security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that the group was ''seeking to build a structure and to survey the various targets in the country, including American and Israeli.'' He did not elaborate. The United States has an embassy in Amman, the capital.

The Jordanian official offered a different number for those arrested than supplied by U.S. officials, saying eight rather than 13 had been arrested - but adding that investigations would uncover more associates.

A U.S. official familiar with the case said indications are that Americans were to be targeted. The U.S. official also said that others may have been involved in the activity who have not yet been arrested.

The official Jordanian news agency, Petra, said that the group was arrested ''in the early stages of its plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in the Jordanian arena.''

----------- politics

Inside the Beltway: Near the ring

Consumer crusader Ralph Nader says his plans for 2000
could include running for president.

Washington Times December 15, 1999 John McCaslin
http://208.246.212.80/national/beltway-19991215.htm

Honored by the Bar Association of the District of Columbia at the National Press Club, Mr. Nader ripped corporate lawyer culture that puts rain making and the corporate bottom line ahead of justice and safety.

"I am going to decide early next year," Mr. Nader said of a possible presidential bid, adding that if he does run you'll find him on the Green Party ticket to divorce the "duo-poly" that dominates American politics.

His campaign theme, he said, will be corporate power and democracy, the environment and other issues.

----------- wto

No free-trade lunch
Embassy Row

Washington Times December 15, 1999 By James Morrison

The Brazilian ambassador was shocked at the scene in Seattle.

"In 40 years in the foreign service, I never saw anything like that," Ambassador Rubens Antonio Barbosa told editors and reporters at a luncheon at The Washington Times yesterday.

Mr. Barbosa, a member of the Brazilian delegation to the World Trade Organization summit, was caught up by street demonstrations as were other international representatives to the economic forum.

"We were blocked by demonstrators. They prevented us from entering the [convention] center until 3 or 4 in the afternoon," he said, referring to the demonstrations that nearly shut down the summit before it opened Nov. 30.

He criticized Seattle authorities for letting the demonstrations grow violent. More than 30,000 protesters stormed downtown Seattle on the first day of the summit.

"When they realized the numbers were enormous and the violence, then it went out of control, the police were slow to react," he said.

By the end of the week, "the fight was between the demonstrators and the police, and they forgot about the WTO," he said.

Mr. Barbosa said he was amused by some of the protest signs.

His favorite one read: "There is no free-trade lunch."

A full story on Mr. Barbosa's visit to The Times appears in today's World section.

-----------

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