----------- d.u.

Depleted uranium ban demanded

Author: Alex Kirby BBC (UK), December 17, 1999
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_568000/568234.stm

Two leading authorities on the effects of depleted uranium (DU) have told UK Members of Parliament of their fears for those exposed to the substance in Iraq and Kosovo.

DU is used in weapons fired at tanks and other armoured targets. It is 1.7 times as dense as lead, and is highly effective.

On impact, a DU projectile bursts into a spray of burning uranium, and veterans who served in Iraq believe it to be one factor implicated in Gulf War Syndrome, the group of ailments from which thousands of them suffer. The two are Hari Sharma, professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, and Doug Rokke, who teaches environmental engineering and nuclear physics at Jacksonville State University in Alabama.

Professor Rokke served in the US army medical corps, and was in charge of planning and implementing the clean-up of US equipment contaminated with DU in Iraq after the Gulf war.

Both men are visiting the UK, and have given evidence to the Parliamentary defence committee, and to MPs belonging to the Committee for Peace in the Balkans.

They told the MPs that medical care should be made available to everyone exposed to DU in both the Gulf and Balkan wars. That included civilians as well as troops.

They also urged a thorough environmental clean-up of both theatres of war, and of everywhere else where DU weapons have been tested. A number have been fired at an army range in southwest Scotland. Higher risk

And they said DU weapons should be banned, because their use was a crime against humanity. It contaminated the environment, and caused suffering to civilians.

Professor Sharma has examined urine samples from a number of Gulf veterans, and he believes the risk of cancer is higher than many recognise.

He told BBC News Online: "Based on the samples I have examined, I think between 5% and 12% of those who were exposed to DU may expect to die of cancer.

"It could take 20 years. And the figure could be greater or smaller. But there is a definite risk."

Professor Rokke said denials by the Pentagon and the UK Ministry of Defence that depleted uranium was likely to pose a significant risk were wrong.

He told BBC News Online: "To argue that there is little risk is to mistake the slight effect an inhaled particle of DU would have on the entire body with its effect on the lymph nodes.

"When a particle enters the lung, some lodges there. But 43% of it is soluble: it enters the blood, and can get anywhere in the body. The US Veterans' Administration has found DU in the semen of men who served in the Gulf, eight years after the event.

"That means chromosomal damage, and you would therefore expect birth defects. And there is some evidence of damage to veterans' children."

Professor Rokke said the Rand Corporation study on the use of DU in the Gulf, which does not accept a link with veterans' problems, had not interviewed any of them.

---

Subject: [du-list] question Re:
Australian Depleted Uranium Weapons

From: "Laurence Aboukhater" lozabouk@melbpc.org.au
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 22:05:16 +1100

After finding that six Australian frigates were fitted with a Phalanx close in weapons system, I approached Greens Senator Bob Brown who put in a number of questions on notice on my behalf.

According to the information given, the Australian Defence Forces received 24000, 20mm rounds between 1980 and 1981 from the US Navy with the first of three Guided missile frigates. Apart from 15 rounds which were broken down for testing, all other shells were "expended at sea". We are still working on finding out more specific areas. Any info on other marine tests would be appreciated. Australia now uses tungsten rounds and claims to have changed because of Occupational Health and Safety issues.

---

The Australian Government has not banned DU as such and although the military has a no DU policy at the moment, this could change at any moment with no need for public or parliamentary discussion. As we speak, the entire Australian defence policy is being re-written (due to the Timor situation) and we await the outcomes of these deliberations with interest.

The new armaments facility being built at Eden has facilities for assisting friendly foreign (read U.S.) ships. Am currently having the design specs for this facility gone over by an engineer with an eye for specialised containment.

While not using DU themeselves, the Australian military refuses to either confirm or deny whether US or UK troops training in Australia are using/have used DU equipment.

Jacob Grech FoE

---

Cold war veterans
Nuclear workers tell of health problems, ask for health care

December 17, 1999 By TERJE LANGELAND Colorado Daily Staff Writer
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news/cd991217.htm

As a project engineer for the W-88 warhead who worked at both Rocky Flats and Los Alamos National Laboratories, Janet Brown helped build the most advanced weapon in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

Today Brown, 42, is on long-term disability, diagnosed with a rare epileptic disorder. She has undergone a temporal lobectomy -- a procedure in which doctors removed a portion of her brain -- but still suffers incurable symptoms that will render her disabled for life, she says.

Like many disease-stricken current and former workers at Rocky Flats and throughout the nation's nuclear-weapons complex, Brown doesn't know what caused her illness. But she suspects it could have been caused by exposure to the myriad radioactive and toxic substances used in making atomic bombs.

In return for her contributions to her country, Brown says the least the government can do is guarantee her health care.

So, along with some 250 fellow nuclear workers and retirees, she came to Arvada Wednesday night to meet with Dr. David Michaels, the U.S. Department of Energy's assistant secretary for health and the environment.

"We are the Cold War warriors," Brown told Michaels. "Please grant us dignity by recognizing the health sacrifices we made, unwittingly, on behalf of our country."

The meeting was part of a series of informal hearings being conducted by Michaels to take testimony from people around the country who think they may have gotten sick from working at nuclear facilities.

Forced after decades of denial to recognize that the government may have made its nuclear workers sick, Congress and the DOE have recently introduced legislation to compensate some workers, mainly those afflicted with chronic beryllium disease.

The goal of Michaels' tour, he said, is to gather evidence to determine whether the current legislation should be expanded to include other illnesses.

Michaels admitted that the DOE hasn't done its job of looking after its Cold War veterans.

"DOE has not been very good in the past about stepping up to the plate," Michaels said. "If we made these people sick, it's our responsibility to take care of them."

At Wednesday night's meeting, some 40 current and former Rocky Flats workers spent a total of four hours testifying. One by one, they told Michaels heart-wrenching stories about their health problems, their fights to have their diseases officially recognized, and their struggles to get care and compensation. Their emotions ranged from fear to anger and disgust.

George Barrie, a 42-year-old former machinist, got choked up as he enumerated his illnesses: gastritis, osteoporosis, cancer, fibromyalgia. Barrie said he inhaled and ingested plutonium and americium during an accident in 1982. He took out a loan to file a workers' compensation claim but lost his case, he said.

Barrie and several others told Michaels it's often futile to file for workers' compensation, because the contractors running Rocky Flats will hire lawyers and medical experts to fight the claims. Some workers said they were harassed and marginalized as hypochondriacs.

"Everything is stacked against us," said Barrie's wife, Terrie.

Ed Peelman, who worked at Rocky Flats for two and a half years, said he hasn't noticed any illness yet but was worried about the future, since symptoms often don't show up for many years. As a machinist, he worked with many dangerous materials under unsafe conditions, he said.

"We practically ate and breathed beryllium," Peelman said. "I just want to let you know that I'm scared to death."

Workers said they would like to see a program that would guarantee all of them regular health screenings, medical treatment and compensation for lost wages due to sickness after Rocky Flats closes, which could happen as early as 2006.

"I believe it is a moral imperative to provide a comprehensive program for all these workers," said David Navarro, vice president of the Rocky Flats steelworkers union.

Retired workers, meanwhile, said they simply wanted to hang onto the health-insurance benefits they'd been told they would have when they left Rocky Flats. They said the main site contractor, Kaiser-Hill, has been trying to reduce their benefits.

"All we want is what was promised to us," said Jim Kelly, a retired steelworker.

Sam Dixion, acting mayor of Westminster, also made a plea on behalf of the retirees.

"Retired workers were given the promise of certain benefits," Dixion said. "If you make a promise, you should keep it."

Many current and former workers urged the DOE to improve safety at the site, so as to minimize future accidents that may cause illnesses.

"A lot of our safety issues out there are mocked," complained Clarence Buchholz, a member of the steelworkers union's safety committee.

Michaels said it was "humbling" to listen to the workers' stories. He promised to take their messages back to Washington, D.C., where they will become part of an official report that will help guide possible future legislation.

LeRoy Moore, a member of the Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, challenged Michaels to pledge that he would fight to make retired workers' benefits "sacrosanct."

"I will do that," Michaels replied, drawing cheers from the audience.

Still, many of those in attendance said they were skeptical and that the DOE might just be paying lip service to their concerns.

"I've been to many of these events," Buchholz said. "I don't see much happening from them."

Several people also said they were disappointed that only one member of Colorado's congressional delegation showed up and that the one who did, Rep. Mark Udall, left the meeting after just a few minutes to attend his son's basketball game.

"I will continue to fight for all of you," Udall promised as he left.

Peggy Guy of Denver, whose mother died of cancer after working at the Oak Ridge, Tenn., nuclear-weapons factory, said it was difficult to believe the government after all that's happened in the past.

"It is hard to maintain good faith in a government dominated by special interests like those of the nuclear industry, which consistently puts profit before people," Guy said.

----------- action

Reply-To: smirnowb@ix.netcom.com (Bill Smirnow Sender: owner-Y2K-nukes@envirolink.org

Friends,

For anyone wanting to try initiating legal action against the NRC, you contact C.C.R. [The Center For Constitutional Rights] in New York at: 212-614-6464. Also the ACLU whose chapter in New York is: 212-549-2500.

... The NRC is inviolation of its own rules, and is unilaterally redifining the meaning of terms.

http://www.bashar.com/GSP/houston1.htm

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

China Must Pay 2.78 Million Compensation to US
for Damages to US Diplomatic Facilities by Protesters

U.S., China Finally Agree On Embassy Bombing Compensation

December 17, 1999 China Online By William J. McMahon and Lester J. Gesteland
From: "detcom" - detcom@earthlink.net - JUSTICE INTERNATIONAL
http://www.go.to/justinusa

The U.S. State Department confirmed Thursday morning that China and the United States have reached an agreement on terms of compensation for the May 7 Nato bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

"The United States and China completed negotiations over the tragic mistaken bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade," a spokesperson from the State Department told ChinaOnline, reading from a prepared statement by David Andrews, legal advisor to the department.

Andrews represented the U.S. side in the talks and said the agreement was reached after five rounds of negotiations on the issue. The Chinese negotiating team was lead by Madame Xue Hanqin, Ministry of Foreign Affairs director general for treaties and law.

Under terms of the agreement, the U.S. will pay US$28 mln in compensation for damage done to the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

This is in addition to the humanitarian aid the U.S. already agreed to pay the families of the Chinese victims of the bombing.

Beijing will, in turn, pay US$2.87 mln in compensation to the U.S. for damage done by protesters to American diplomatic facilities in China.

The compensation deals were announced on the same day that Joseph Prueher presented his credentials to President Jiang Zemin as the new U.S. ambassador to Beijing.

Ezra Vogel, director of the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University (and a member of the advisory board for ChinaOnline) felt the deal will have a positive impact on relations between the two countries.

"It's a great step in U.S.-China relations," he told ChinaOnline.

"It also helps Prueher," Vogel said, "because personal relationships really do matter in China."

Andrews was also upbeat. "I hope this day marks the beginning of a more positive trend in U.S.-China relations," he said.

Although the deal has been signed, it is not 100% assured. Because the US$28 mln will come out of the FY2001 budget, the U.S. Congress still has to approve it.

Analysts worry that because 2000 is an election year, China opponents in the legislature could hold up approval for political reasons.

China Reaction

Both the official China Daily and People's Daily carried articles covering the agreement, but neither mentioned China's compensation to the United States.

Zhong Xin She (China News Service) explained why. The agency paraphrased Zhang Qiyue, spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Trade, who said "the U.S. bombing of our embassy in Belgrade is separate from the damage done to U.S. facilities in China."

China Daily featured comments from Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhu Bangzao who called on the U.S. to "conduct a comprehensive and thorough investigation into the bombing, severely punish the perpetrators and give a satisfactory account of the incident to the Chinese Government and people as soon as possible."

To contact Lester Gesteland or William J. McMahon: P: (312) 335-8881 F: (312) 335-9299 E: lgesteland@chinaonline.com

E: bmcmahon@chinaonline.com

----------- france

With a 'Don't Be Vexed' Air, Chirac Assesses U.S.

By CRAIG R. WHITNEY New York Times December 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/121799france-us.html

PARIS, Dec. 16 -- Among allies, France has had for 50 years a unique capacity to annoy Americans who may love French fries, French wine -- and sometimes even the French themselves, at least in those rare moments when they stop their constant hammering.

Irritation at the French is running high now in Washington, so President Jacques Chirac and other French officials are putting out the word that it is time to apply a little Gallic charm to their sensitive American friends.

"I do not feel in any way irritated or annoyed at the United States," Mr. Chirac said in a relaxed interview in French in Élysée Palace.

But Mr. Chirac, 67 and in his fifth year as president, spoke out critically on subjects ranging from the Senate's rejection of a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, to the failure of global trade talks in Seattle this month, to plans for a new European armed force early in the new century, which in his view will by no means be an American century.

"I sometimes read that France wants a multipolar world so as to take the United States down a notch, or create rivalries to American power," he said. "I talk about a multipolar world because I think it's inevitable."

China, India, Europe (as Mr. Chirac believes) and Russia (according to Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine) will all be great powers in the next century.

French criticism of American ebullience may seem as relentless as Cartesian logic.

"There are moments when Americans get exasperated and think all we're trying to do is create difficulties for them," Mr. Védrine told a group of American journalists here the other day, and those moments have sometimes stretched on endlessly since the days of de Gaulle.

Nothing irritates the French more than being dismissed as cranks rather than accepted as helpful critics. Mr. Chirac in particular bends over backward to assure Americans of his friendly predisposition, proudly telling visitors that he has credentials as a soda jerk from Howard Johnson from a student summer in Cambridge, Mass., and has scores of American friends he considers family.

So he feels entitled to offer a little constructive criticism.

"I have been, of course, an observer of Congress for quite some time," he said.

"To be perfectly frank, there used to be prominent people you could telephone, ask about things, discuss, consult, have a dialogue with.

Today it's more difficult."

On the whole, he said, Congress does not seem as open to the world as it once was -- "Not the best attitude, given the responsibilities the United States has in the world." He was particularly critical of the Senate's rejection of the test ban treaty this fall, a vote that threatens, he said, "to set a bad example and start the arms proliferation race again."

A decision by the Clinton administration next year to build a limited antimissile defense against intercontinental rockets launched by small nations like North Korea, Iran or Iraq would create more global strategic instability than it would eliminate, Mr. Chirac believes.

"If you look at world history," he said, "ever since men began waging war, you will see that there's a permanent race between sword and shield. The sword always wins.

The more improvements that are made to the shield, the more improvements are made to the sword."

"We think that with these systems," he said, referring to the possible United States antimissile shield, "we are just going to spur swordmakers to intensify their efforts."

"China, which was already working harder than we realized on both nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles for them, would of course be encouraged to intensify those efforts, and it has the resources to do so," he said.

"India would be encouraged to do the same thing, and it, too, has the resources.

"And it would also increase tensions within NATO, which would be too bad."

"The threat from North Korean missiles is sometimes mentioned as well," Mr. Chirac said.

"Quite honestly, it isn't persuasive, but I'm ready to talk about it. I could be wrong, but I'm not the only one who thinks this way.

But these are such important subjects that they ought to be discussed."

American criticisms of the rapid deployment force Europe plans to build for itself by 2003 as an attempt to torpedo the NATO alliance, Mr. Chirac said, just about caused him to fall off his chair. "The Americans kept saying Europe had to do more for its own defense, so we finally said, all right, we will," he said. "Now you shouldn't criticize us for doing what you wanted us to do."

American ambassadors in European capitals made coordinated approaches before the Europeans agreed on the details in Helsinki this month, asking in no uncertain terms for close coordination with NATO and assurances that the European force would strengthen the alliance and not weaken it, according to French and American officials.

"The United States has to make a choice," Mr. Védrine said.

"They have always been for sharing the burden.

They've never been much for sharing the decision-making.

Obviously, there are some real questions we have to answer, such as how are we going to organize this so as not to interfere with the alliance.

We are well aware that it's complicated."

Mr. Chirac was even more reassuring. "Very soon the Americans will understand that this is not going to cause them any problem," he said.

This time around, it was not the French but Tony Blair, the British prime minister, who in October 1998 first suggested a European armed force that could intervene in crisis situations where the United States did not want to get involved. Later, Britain and France, followed by other European allies, formally proposed one, and all 15 European Union leaders endorsed a 60,000-strong force in Helsinki last week.

"If there was going to be a real problem, Tony Blair would never have suggested it in the first place," Mr. Chirac said. "All this strengthens NATO, it doesn't in the least mean any diminution of our commitment to the alliance."

Mr. Chirac said he would not use Mr. Védrine's word, "hyperpower," to describe the economic, military and technological power of the United States, perhaps because he knew it sent American officials into overdrive.

Still, Mr. Chirac, a Gaullist conservative whose current term runs out in 2002, said he understood the foreign minister, a Socialist who came into office in 1997 when Mr. Chirac called a parliamentary election he mistakenly thought the conservatives were going to win.

"In French, 'hyper' is a word kids like to use," like "super," Mr. Chirac explained.

"When Védrine said that America was a hyperpower there was nothing pejorative about it."

Mr. Chirac and the Socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin, along with the rest of the European Union, have said no to imports of American beef treated with hormones, despite American assurances that it is safe. The World Trade Organization authorized the United States earlier this year to retaliate by imposing high tariffs on European delicacies and luxury goods.

"We have been through some big traumas in France, in particular with blood contaminated with the AIDS virus," Mr. Chirac said, "so you have to understand that these things are highly sensitive."

"There are five or six hormones in hormone-treated beef, and of those, one is officially recognized by the highest scientific authorities as being carcinogenic," he said.

American officials have disputed such assertions, but, Mr. Chirac said, "You can't make us eat something we don't want to eat." The same goes for British beef, which France is refusing to import even though the European Union recently decided that it was now free of so-called mad cow disease, a neurological disorder in cattle that may be communicable to humans.

Mr. Chirac has called for an international world scientific body to resolve such disputes in the future.

Mr. Chirac and other officials say they are not trying to cause trouble for their powerful ally across the sea. Both Mr. Chirac and Mr. Védrine, for example, charitably refrained from describing the collapse of the trade talks in Seattle early this month as an American failure.

"It's not an American failure, not a European failure, not a failure of the developing countries," Mr. Chirac said.

"It will work out next time."

----------- india

India lukewarm as US cuts N-test sanctions

By John Chalmers, NEW DELHI, Dec 17 1999 (Reuters) -

The United States said on Friday it would trim the list of Indian government agencies and private firms hit by U.S. export curbs after New Delhi's nuclear tests in 1998.

The sanctions easing comes ahead of a planned goodwill visit by President Bill Clinton to India early next year, and analysts said it was timed to encourage New Delhi to sign the global treaty banning nuclear tests.

India welcomed the decision as ``a step in the right direction.''

But branding such restrictions ``unjustified and counter-productive,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Raminder Singh Jassal said India still expected the entire list to be scrapped.

U.S. officials in New Delhi said the Commerce Department would drop 51 entities from a list of 212 barred from buying U.S. goods that might have nuclear or other military applications.

``The action is based on a consensus decision...to more tightly focus the sanctions on those Indian entities most directly involved in proliferation activities,'' the United States Information Services (USIS) office in New Delhi said.

NO EASING FOR PAKISTAN

In a statement, the USIS made no reference to the 92 Pakistani entities also subjected to sanction by Washington after Islamabad answered its arch-rival's underground nuclear blasts with tests of its own.

USIS said the 51 Indian organisations, which included several ordnance factories, would now find it easier to obtain U.S. goods and technology, especially non-sensitive products.

However, both India and Pakistan will continue to be denied access to dual-use technologies. Controls on such technologies, which could be used for civilian nuclear and space programmes, have been imposed because of their potential military spin-offs.

Washington announced its decision hours before the Indian government began an exercise to reach a cross-party consensus on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Late on Friday, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee met Sonia Gandhi, leader of the main opposition Congress party, and her colleagues on the issue.

``The leader of the opposition said she will reflect on the issues involved, go back and consult with her colleagues and if necessary either seek clarifications from any of the members of the government or seek another meeting in this regard,'' Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told reporters after the meeting.

A GESTURE BEFORE CLINTON VISIT

``I think that Washington is trying to send a message, essentially trying to encourage the debate forward in India and reassuring India that it is poised to do business in India,'' Kanti Bajpai, a disarmament expert at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, told the Star Television news channel.

Last year Clinton cancelled plans to visit South Asia after the tit-for-tat nuclear tests.

He is now expected to come to India -- but not Pakistan -- toward the end of the next quarter to build on improving diplomatic and economic ties between Washington and New Delhi.

Since India shocked the world with its nuclear trials in May 1998, Washington has led Western efforts to corral New Delhi into the global regime for nuclear arms control.

Although a cornerstone of that regime was rocked in October by the U.S. Senate's vote against ratification of the CTBT, the administration has kept up pressure on India to sign the pact.

India has declared a unilateral moratorium on underground nuclear tests, but says it needs time to reach a political consensus on joining the CTBT.

There was no official estimate of the export business likely to be revived by the easing of the sanctions.

Last year India protested to the World Trade Organisation against the restrictions, arguing they were unjustified and violated U.S. obligations under the trade body's rules.

12:02 12-17-99

---

U.S. to refine Entities List

By Sridhar Krishnaswami The Hindu Friday, December 17, 1999
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/1999/12/17/stories/0217000n.htm

WASHINGTON, DEC. 16. The Clinton administration is on the verge of formally releasing a revised Entities List for India that would perhaps see some 50 Indian companies being taken off the list of some 200 corporations on which restrictions had been slapped in the aftermath of the nuclear tests of May 1998. The formal announcement to this effect could be made sometime today.

The Entities List, which had long been a bone of contention between India and the United States, has had its share of criticism with several Members of Congress openly questioning the scope of restrictions that had been placed. Law makers have urged the administration to prune the list to reflect only those entities in India which were involved in nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

In fact, one of the stipulations of the Defence Authorisation Act passed in October was that the administration would forward to Capitol Hill a ``refined'' Entities List within 60 days. The legislation made it plain that the application of export controls on nearly 300 Indian and Pakistani firms was inconsistent with the national security interests of the U.S. Senior administration officials told law makers that a process was already under way and that the refined list would be released within 60 days or ``sooner''. The deadline expires next week.

The trimming of the list with respect to India can be seen as the Clinton administration's appreciation for the progress registered in bilateral negotiations. The Entities List had been one of the issues that has figured in the several rounds of talks between the External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, and the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Strobe Talbott.

---------- iraq

U.N. Votes To Return Iraq Monitors

Associated Press December 17, 1999 Filed at 6:46 p.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-UN-Iraq.html

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- With four countries abstaining, the U.N. Security Council ended a yearlong deadlock and voted Friday to send weapons inspectors back to Iraq and consider suspending sanctions if Baghdad cooperates.

The vote capped an acrimonious debate within the 15-member council that was sparked by U.S. and British airstrikes on Iraq last December and fueled by divisions over how to return inspectors who pulled out just before the bombs struck.

The passage of the resolution, however, is just the first step in what is expected to be a difficult and divisive process for the council to determine what Iraq must do to show it is cooperating with inspectors -- and when and if sanctions can be suspended.

Key to that process will be Iraq's reaction to the resolution.

Iraqi Ambassador Saeed Hasan said Friday he had no immediate comment. But Baghdad has indicated it would reject the resolution because it didn't immediately lift sanctions as Iraq demanded.

Late Friday, Iraqi satellite TV called the resolution ``wicked'' and said the abstention of three of the five permanent council members was a ``great political setback for the United States and Britain,'' the report monitored by the British Broadcasting Corp. said.

The resolution passed 11-0 with the four abstentions -- Russia, China, France and Malaysia said they couldn't vote in favor of the resolution, but agreed to allow it to pass. Nine votes were required for passage.

``If Iraq cannot see any hope at the end of the tunnel by implementing the resolutions, as is the case with the draft resolution, how could it be willing and ready to offer the cooperation we hope for?'' asked Chinese Ambassador Qin Huasun.

The abstentions were a blow to U.S. and British efforts to send a unified signal to Baghdad that the Security Council would stand for nothing less than full compliance with its demands.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said the United States was particularly disappointed with the French, ``given the fact that they said they supported the text of the resolution.''

Nevertheless, he and British officials downplayed the actual impact of the abstentions.

``The council now has the policy which it needs; and this resolution is now the law of the globe,'' proclaimed British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, who sponsored the resolution and spearheaded the eight months of negotiations required for it to pass.

He called the vote nothing short of ``miraculous.''

The resolution establishes a new inspection agency for Iraq called the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or UNMOVIC, to resume overseeing the destruction of Iraq's biological and chemical weapons, and missiles to deliver them.

The International Atomic Energy Agency remains in charge of monitoring Iraq's nuclear weapons program.

The resolution offers to consider suspending sanctions against Iraq for renewable 120-day periods if inspectors report that Iraq has cooperated ``in all respects'' with them and shown progress towards answering their outstanding questions about its disarmament.

Regardless the level of Iraqi cooperation with inspectors, the resolution allows for immediate improvements in the humanitarian situation by removing the $5.26 billion limit on the amount of oil Baghdad can sell over six months through the U.N. oil-for-food program.

Knowing the Iraqi position, the Russians and Chinese had wanted sanctions suspended soon after Iraq allows inspectors to return, and didn't want to require Baghdad to complete specific disarmament tasks for the suspension to take place.

The United States and Britain pressed for Iraqi answers to outstanding questions about its disarmament and a longer waiting period before sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, could be suspended.

In the end, the resolution is intentionally vague on the specific amount of cooperation that would trigger the suspension -- ambiguities cited by French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine as the reason for France's abstention.

``We think it may give rise to an interpretation allowing some countries to keep on forever saying that the cooperation hasn't taken place,'' Vedrine told reporters in Berlin after a meeting of the world's seven industrialized nations.

Dutch Ambassador Peter van Walsum said such arguments were without merit, and he sharply criticized the four abstaining members for having dragged out negotiations and weakening the original resolution without ever intending to vote in favor.

``Rarely have so many concessions gone so unrewarded,'' he said.

---

UN Council Narrowly OKs Key Resolution on Iraq

Reuters December 17, 1999 Filed at 5:58 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-un.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - After months of contentious negotiations, the U.N. Security Council narrowly adopted a resolution that could send U.N. weapons inspectors back to Iraq and ease sanctions if it cooperates with them.

The vote was 11-0, with abstentions by permanent council members China, France and Russia, along with Malaysia, thereby sending a message to Iraq of divisions in the council.

Despite the abstentions, the resolution, which required nine votes and no veto to be adopted, has the impact of international law.

``It was little short of miraculous that we got to a result on this very difficult subject,'' said British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock, its sponsor and key negotiator.

Baghdad, which has long claimed it no longer has any weapons of mass destruction, has already stated its rejection of the resolution, presenting the council with a looming new problem of whether it will accept the measure in future. Its ambassador Saeed Hassan said Baghdad would make a statement.

But U.S. representative Peter Burleigh said: ``Iraq has virtually rejected almost every resolution to begin with, and over time it often begins some level of cooperation.''

U.N. teams hunting down President Saddam Hussein's weapons have been barred from returning to Iraq since being withdrawn almost exactly a year ago.

They left shortly before the United States and Britain launched four days of air and missile attacks in retaliation for Iraq's failure to cooperate with U.N. weapons experts.

The resolution leaves many tasks to be fulfilled over months to come. But it immediately lifts the cap on how much oil Iraq can sell under the 3-year-old U.N. ``oil for food program,'' currently set at $5.26 billion every six months.

This enables Iraq to buy food, medicine and other necessities to help offset the effects of stringent economic sanctions in force since its August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The long and detailed document sets up a new arms inspection agency, called the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or UNMOVIC, to replace the old U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) that has been in limbo for most of the past year.

It is in charge of ballistic weapons and chemical, biological arms programs while the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency remains responsible for monitoring Iraq's nuclear weapons program.

The main issue of contention, and which brought the abstentions, was what Russia, China and France called the lack of clarity in spelling out exactly what disarmament tasks Iraq had to meet before a suspension of the sanctions, imposed after Baghdad invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

The resolution is intentionally vague on this point. It would suspend sanctions against Iraq, renewable every 120 days, if inspectors report that Baghdad had cooperated with them ``in all respects'' and shown progress toward answering their questions about its disarmament. Council members would have to take another vote.

U.S. envoy Peter Burleigh told the council: ``Today's resolution does not raise the bar on what is required of Iraq in the area of disarmament. But it also does not lower it.''

Russia and China had wanted the sanctions to be suspended soon after Iraq allows inspectors to return while the United States and Britain pressed for key, though not all, arms tasks to be fulfilled. The new UNMOVIC will draw up the tasks.

France was torn between joining the West or retaining its ties to Baghdad, and first delayed the resolution to try again for consensus and finally decided to abstain.

Russian Ambassador Lavrov said one of the most important steps was to choose a new chairman of UNMOVIC and see what disarmament demands would be drawn up.

In an indication of difficulties to come, he said it was ''unacceptable to allow the repetition of the situation where the fate of a whole country is in the hands of, or to put it mildly, the inadequate leadership of the former Special Commission.''

And he told the council: ``Without cooperation from Iraq, any plans or projects will just remain on the paper they are written on.''

China's Ambassador Qin Huasun said the lack of consensus made the resolution unenforceable. ``To put to vote a draft resolution under such circumstances, wherein no consensus is reached after prolonged consultations, will not possibly solve the age-old Iraq issue,'' he said.

The resolution also calls for the immediate streamlining of procedures for Iraqi imports of foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, agricultural equipment and educational items. But Iraq's oil revenues will still be paid into a U.N. escrow account, from which suppliers will be paid and about one-third deducted to pay Gulf War reparations and meet other expenses.

Parts and equipment to upgrade Iraq's oil industry will also be expedited on the basis of lists drawn up by a group of experts. A panel is to survey Iraq's oil industry and recommend long-term improvements that the Security Council would consider above the current limit of $300 million every six months.

---

U.N. votes to return inspectors to Iraq

USA Today 12/17/99- Updated 06:59 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#un

UNITED NATIONS - After a year-long stalemate, the United Nation Security Council narrowly approved a new U.N. policy for Iraq Friday that could restart weapons inspections and offer to suspend sanctions if Baghdad cooperates. Russia, France, China and Malaysia abstained - a major blow to U.S. and British efforts to send Baghdad a united signal that the Security Council would stand for nothing less than full compliance with its demands. Iraq, however, has already indicated it would reject the resolution, saying it was an American inspired attempt to impose its ''evil'' will on the Security Council.

---

U.N. Security Council Narrowly Approves New Iraq Policy

New York Times December 17, 1999 By BARBARA CROSSETTE
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/17iraq.html

At a Glance
Key Points in U.N. Resolution on Iraq
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/17iraq-side.html

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 17 -- A divided Security Council voted today to create a new arms inspection system for Iraq with the promise to President Saddam Hussein that sanctions against his country could be suspended within a year and eventually lifted if he cooperates.

The vote was 11 in favor and four abstentions. At the decisive moment, France broke ranks with the United States and the European Union and abstained along with Russia, China and Malaysia, which holds a nonpermanent Security Council seat.

With only two of the five permanent members of the council voting in favor of the plan, which immediately lifts the cap on how much oil Iraq can sell, some diplomats believe that Iraq will be emboldened to reject it outright or stall on putting it into effect. The two nations voting in favor, Britain and the United States, are endlessly portrayed in Iraq as the country's worst enemies, and they now appear isolated.

Peter Burleigh, the departing American deputy chief representative, who has negotiated the Iraq issue for the United States here for more than a year, called the vote "a profoundly important moment for the Security Council."

He said that what is now required of Iraq "could not be more clear." Iraq, he said, will be required to allow weapons inspectors to return, to maximize benefits for the Iraqi people from its earnings and to cooperate in the search for missing Kuwaitis unaccounted for nine years after Iraq seized Kuwait in August 1990.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock of Britain, president of the council for December and sponsor of today's resolution, called its adoption "an exceptional achievement" in linking relief for Iraqis living under sanctions to assigned disarmament tasks.

"We regret," he said, "that on this point, some have been more inclined to listen to the voice of the Iraqi leadership than the needs of the Iraqi people."

British and American diplomats played down the abstentions, saying that the important fact was that no nation had voted against the plan.

Iraq's envoy at the United Nations, Saeed Hassan, repeated his government's rejection of the inspection system because it does not lift sanctions first.

But a number of arms control experts say that whether or not Iraq agrees to the stationing of inspectors and the installation of sophisticated monitoring devices, the damage is already done as far as close surveillance of Iraq is concerned, and Iraq and the associates of President Hussein may reap a bonanza in income.

In addition to lifting the limit on Iraqi oil sales immediately, the new resolution may also allow iraq to make local purchases with the supervised oil income, which critics say will benefit the president's family and party loyalists who control much of the agricultural land and food processing industries. Additionally, a list will be drawn up of medical and agricultural goods and equipment that Iraq will be able to import without the approval of the Security Council sanctions committee that has been vetting Iraqi purchases.

To arms control experts, including inspectors of the soon-to-be-disbanded commission that had been charged with disarming Iraq in 1991, the mystery is why the Clinton Administration agreed to these provisions, or how American officials allowed themselves to be drawn into compromises that in the end did not deliver a united Security Council, and perhaps never could, given strong Russian and Chinese opposition to sanctions and France's unwillingness to jeopardize its commercial and diplomatic relations with Iraq.

There is a sense among many diplomats and officials here that the Clinton Administration does not want the problem of Iraq to resurface in an election year. Whether or not Iraq delays or bucks the system, it is not likely to be until late in 2000 that any inspections could resume.

Gary Milhollin, director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, in Washington, said in an interview that under the new plan "a much greater amount of equipment is going to go to Iraq without anybody looking at it."

"We know already that the Iraqis have abused the medical exception to import things that can be used to make nuclear weapons," he said. "Under the new system there is going to be this whole category of things that don't have to be individually approved. If the past is any guide, you have to assume that a lot of those things will be useful for making weapons, and nobody will be the wiser."

Mr. Milhollin, who reported recently in The New Yorker that an Iraqi order last year for half a dozen lithotripters, sophisticated machines for pulverizing kidney stones, said that this was an example of how Baghdad may be trying to hide purchases intended for building weapons.

The lithotripters, he said, require electronic switches that produce a high-power burst of electricity -- enough to trigger a nuclear bomb if 32 of them are used. In buying the lithotripters, Iraq tried to get 120 extra switches from Siemens, the German electronics company, which turned over the order to a supplier, the Thomson-C.S.F. company of France, at which point the French government stepped in and barred the sale.

The case would indicate that the French are aware of Iraq's continuing efforts to assemble the components of nuclear weapons. Moreover, Iraq is blocking routine inspections of its low-enriched uranium and natural uranium stocks by the International Atomic Energy Agency, raising speculation about what it may be trying to hide. Yet President Jacques Chirac said in an interview this week that nuclear weapons were no longer an issue in Iraq.

An informal discussion paper put together by the experts at Unscom -- the United Nations Special Commission, which was created after the Persian Gulf war in 1991 to disarm Iraq and dismantle industries that could rebuild biological, chemical and missile systems -- says there should be cause for alarm also in a Security Council decision to remove from the resolution passed today an earlier provision calling for the incorporation of Unscom inspectors in the new system.

Without some institutional memory to augment the archives the new commission will inherit, experts say, inspectors may not know what questions must be asked of Iraq, especially in the areas of biological and chemical weapons. Recent history shows that the commission is likely to feel political pressures in these areas. For example, in the past the Russian, Chinese and French governments have objected to Unscom's insistence on more information about the production and use of VX gas or the disposition of growth materials that can produce biological weapons, although scientists from those countries disagreed.

In their critique of the new resolution, the Unscom inspectors say that the burden of proof has been turned upside down. Where Iraq was normally expected to set out the tasks it would accomplish -- like accounting for certain materials or equipment, which could be accepted or rejected by Unscom -- the new system calls for the tasks to be assigned by inspectors. That allows Iraq to meet only those requirements, while concealing other activities outside the purview of the list.

The resolution passed today creates a new body under the Security Council to be called the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission.

It will have an executive chairman to be appointed within 30 days by Secretary General Kofi Annan and approved by the Security Council.

The resolution creating the new commission says that Iraq will have to allow inspection teams "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access" to all sites, documents and people they judge to be relevant to their monitoring.

The existing "oil for food" program under which Iraq has been able to sell oil to buy urgently needed civilian goods will be folded into the new resolution. Iraq may be able to open new oil-export routes and import equipment for its oil industry, pending a study by independent experts.

In another break with the past, Iraq will be allowed to fly pilgrims to Mecca for the Haj, an important Muslim religious pilgrimage. Otherwise, all air traffic in and out of Iraq remains barred until sanctions are suspended.

---

Key Points in U.N. Resolution on Iraq

New York Times December 17, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/17/late/17iraq-side.html

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council's new landmark resolution on Iraq would restart arms inspections in Iraq and suspend trade sanctions if Baghdad complies with disarmament demands.

The sanctions were imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. The scrapping of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are a key requirement for easing the sanctions. Arms inspectors have not been in Iraq since a bombing campaign by the United States and Britain a year ago.

Following are the main points of the resolution.

ARMS CONTROL

The new arms watchdog, called UNMOVIC, or the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, would replace the current U.N. Special Commission. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has to appoint an executive chairman of UNMOVIC subject to council approval within 30 days of adoption of the resolution.

UNMOVIC, Searching for Iraq's chemical, biological and ballistic-missile programs, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), concerned with Iraq's nuclear programs, would draw up work schedules within 60 days after they begin operations. They would submit a list of key disarmament tasks to Iraq, subject to council approval.

OIL EXPORTS

Immediately after the resolution is adopted, the cap is lifted on how much oil Iraq can sell, now set at $5.26 billion every six months under an "oil-for-food" program. But all other controls, including depositing Iraq's oil revenues into an escrow fund, would stay in place.

The council promises to consider additional Iraqi oil export routes in addition to those now used: the Gulf port of Mina al-Bakr and a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Parts and equipment to upgrade Iraq's oil industry will also be expedited through pre-approved lists by a group of experts. A panel first must survey Iraq's oil industry and recommend improvements. The current limit of $300 million every six months can be lifted.

Annan is to recommend options for allowing oil companies to invest in Iraq. But the council will not make a decision on his proposals until sanctions are suspended.

IMPORTS INTO IRAQ

The resolution would immediately streamline procedures for importing foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, agricultural equipment and educational items into Iraq. A list of approved goods would be drawn up without referring each item for approval to the Security Council's sanctions committee, as at present. But suppliers would still be paid from a U.N. escrow account into which the oil revenues are deposited.

Annan is to recommend how some of the oil revenues can be used for purchases of goods produced in Iraq.

AIR TRAVEL

Iraq, under an air embargo, can fly planes in the Haj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, after notifying the Security Council.

SANCTIONS SUSPENSION

Once a new arms control commission is organized and functional, sanctions could be suspended by a vote of the Security Council after UNMOVIC reports Iraq has made progress on key disarmament tasks and cooperated with inspectors during a 120-day test period. The precise level of progress or cooperation is left deliberately vague in the resolution.

Any suspension would have to be renewed every 120 days. If arms officials say Iraq is not cooperating, the suspension of the sanctions expires on the fifth day after their negative report unless the council decides otherwise.

The suspension will cover imports and exports of civilian goods. But the suspension of other sanctions, including air travel or financial transactions, has not been determined yet. Financial controls to make sure Iraq cannot import weapons will be worked out among council members over the next year.

---

France Seeking Consensus on Iraq Inspections

New York Times December 17, 1999 By CRAIG R. WHITNEY
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121799iraq-un.html

PARIS, Dec. 16 -- France, which has delayed a vote in the Security Council on a new arms-inspection system for Iraq until Friday, is hoping for an agreement that all five permanent council members can support.

"A text that not everybody on the Security Council votes for is a great victory for Saddam Hussein," President Jacques Chirac said in an interview.

"A unanimous resolution would be a real defeat for Saddam, and it would create real pressure on him."

France, which had close diplomatic and commercial ties with Iraq before the war in the Persian Gulf in 1991, would prefer a resolution that both China and Russia could support rather than merely let pass by abstaining, he said.

The United States has strongly resisted watering down the inspections.

France has been trying for months to have Washington agree to soften conditions to lift the trade embargo against Iraq, in hopes that Mr. Hussein would agree to let inspectors return.

They were expelled more than a year ago, prompting a relentless bombing campaign by the United States and Britain.

Although there is no indication that Mr. Hussein would let the weapons inspections resume even if the embargo were lifted, the French say even partial international supervision of compliance with a United Nations ban on producing nuclear, biological or chemical weapons would be better than none at all.

French officials also say they believe that Iraq has no way to resume its quest for nuclear arms.

"I don't think there's much to be worried about where nuclear weapons are concerned," Mr. Chirac said. "But there could be for other kinds of weapons of mass destruction that are smaller and easier to conceal.

"I think that the situation as it exists is one that is advantageous to Saddam.

His people have been reduced to a condition in which they no longer have political reflexes.

People are worrying about what they're going to eat that evening and how to take care of a sick child without any functioning hospitals or what to do about a grandfather who's dying, and when people are in that state, they don't think about much else.

"If there's a possibility of suspending the embargo, and people are better treated, then there would probably be a reaction, and people might start to ask where Saddam had taken them and why they had all become victims.

"There's a lot of money coming into Iraq, because it is exporting a lot of oil illegally.

And Saddam isn't using it to buy milk for children.

So I think we have to find a solution that in some way forces Saddam to accept a resumption of inspections. And the only possibility of doing this would be a resolution adopted unanimously by the Security Council. I think we are not far from one and I hope we can get there."

Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine said earlier this week: "We think the embargo is a crude and cruel tool that hurts civilians.

We need to agree on how to suspend it, what criteria to use for such a suspension, and we haven't got agreement on that yet."

Mr. Védrine plans to discuss the issue with Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and the Russian and British foreign ministers in Berlin on Friday, before the Security Council vote.

Dr. Albright is expected to travel later in the day to Paris.

Related Articles

France Calls for More Talks Before U.N. Vote on Iraq (Dec. 15, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121599iraq-un.html

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

----------- japan

Police Raid Japanese Nuclear Firm

Washington Post Friday, December 17, 1999; Page A31
WORLD In Brief From News Services ASIA
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/17/103l-121799-idx.html

TOKYO--Police raided the headquarters of Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. as part of a criminal investigation into the cause of Japan's worst-ever nuclear accident.

Three workers were severely injured Sept. 30 when they set off an uncontrolled nuclear reaction at a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant operated by JCO Co., which is owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining.

An investigation found that the workers at the plant in Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, violated safety procedures by mixing uranium in buckets to get the job done quickly. JCO executives could face criminal charges of professional negligence.

---

Japan halts use of British nuclear fuel
Shipper admits it falsified quality control data on 'MOX' pellets

MSNBC 12/17/99 ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
http://www.msnbc.com/news/347681.asp?cp1=1

TOKYO, Dec. 17 - British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. has admitted that quality control data was falsified for three lots of mixed plutonium-uranium (MOX) pellets shipped to Japan in September. The pellets were part of fuel assemblies sent to Japan for the Kansai Electric Power Co. nuclear reactor Takahama 4 in Fukui Prefecture.

THE KANSAI Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) has reported to Fukui prefecture that it has given up on the use of all eight fuel assemblies.

KEPCO's decision to refrain from using MOX fuel is expected to delay the use of plutonium in Japan's thermal neutron reactors, which was initially scheduled to begin early next year.

The Natural Resources and Energy Agency of the International Trade and Industry Ministry confirmed Thursday that safety inspection data on the MOX fuel casings imported from Britain had been falsified. The agency admitted failing to thoroughly investigate allegations of falsified reports.

The data was falsified by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. before pellets of the MOX fuel were shipped to Japan, the agency said. British Nuclear Fuels reportedly skipped some inspection procedures and tried to cover up the omissions with false data.

BNFL did not immediately admit the cover-up after an article in the December 9 edition of a British daily claimed that safety checks on batches of the MOX fuel had been falsified. But BNFL later accepted the newspaper allegation and notified KEPCO, which then notified the Japanese authorities Thursday.

MITI announced Thursday that it would not allow the fuel from British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) Sellafield plutonium reprocessing factory to be loaded into the Takahama 4 reactor.

MITI said it has postponed all further shipments of plutonium fuel from BNFL until the company can restore its "trustworthiness."

Greenpeace, which has demonstrated against the shipment of reprocessed nuclear fuel, says its position has been vindicated and applauded the Japanese decision.

"This latest blow should be the last in a series of scandals concerning the trade in nuclear weapons usable material," said campaigner Mike Townsley of Greenpeace. "The British and Japanese governments cannot now fail to act to bring the nuclear juggernaut to a halt. British Nuclear Fuels has a fifty year history of lies and cover-ups. It will never be able to demonstrate its trustworthiness; the damage to its reputation in Japan cannot be fixed. And its plans for a further 80 deadly shipments must be cancelled," added Townsley.

Kansai took delivery of the first ever shipment of MOX from BNFL to Japan on September 28. Governments en-route issued statements condemning the shipment and Greenpeace protested at both its departure from Sellafield in the UK and at its arrival in Japan.

The Greenpeace ship the MV Greenpeace was temporarily banned from UK waters as a result, and a Greenpeace International bank account frozen. At a press conference earlier today in Japan, the utility made the announcement, vindicating Greenpeace's evidence concerning falsification of the data relating to this consignment of fuel.

The group called for the UK government to cancel the Sellafield MOX program "to lift the threat of a massive escalation in the transport of this deadly nuclear material, which threatens the health and well-being of millions of people in en-route countries."

The data falsification scandal first emerged in September when the UK "Independent" newspaper revealed that fuel quality control data that assures the dimension of the plutonium MOX pellets intended for Takahama-3 reactor was confirmed as having been falsified by BNFL.

But BNFL claimed at the time that none of the fuel already shipped to Japan was affected. As a result of the scandal BNFL's MOX demonstration facility was closed on September 12 and it remains closed today.

Three workers accused by BNFL of undertaking the falsification, have been fired from their jobs, and have recently lost their second round of appeal against dismissal. They are currently considering further legal action to regain their jobs, and claim that BNFL has made them scapegoats.

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

Inside the Ring
Notes from the Pentagon

Washington Times December 17, 1999 By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
http://web4.washtimes.com/national/ring-19991217.htm

Taepo Dong test

North Korea is continuing to make preparations for the first test of its newest long-range missile, the Taepo Dong 2. That's the word according to Pentagon intelligence sources who reported last month that activities were photographed at a launch site at a place called Namgungni in North Korea.

The Nov. 19 report by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency appears to contradict promises made by Pyongyang during missile talks in Berlin several weeks ago that North Korea would suspend the test.

An earlier test of a Taepo Dong 1 missile, which carried a satellite, shocked Japan and the United States defense establishments, prompting Tokyo to move forward with developing missile defenses. Another missile test would scuttle all diplomatic progress made by the United States with the reclusive communist regime. The United States committed to a huge aid package under the 1994 Agreed Framework and agreed to lift some economic sanctions.

Asked about the consequences of another missile test, one analyst said: "Another missile test and all bets are off."

---

WORLD In Brief From News Services

Washington Post Friday, December 17, 1999; Page A31
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/17/103l-121799-idx.html

* TOKYO--Historic foes Japan and North Korea will meet in Beijing to discuss humanitarian issues early next week in a step toward establishing diplomatic relations, said Japan's top government spokesman.

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

Selling out Vieques

Washington Times December 17, 1999 Christopher M. Lehman
http://web4.washtimes.com/op-ed/Lehman-19991217.htm

The Clinton administration appears once again on the verge of selling out an important American security interest for campaign contributions and votes. The list is getting longer with each passing month, and one can only hope that we can make it to the 2000 election without more irreparable harm to America.

Nuclear secrets to China, illegal campaign contributions, pardoning Puerto Rican terrorists who killed Americans - what could be next? The answer is thousands of acres of prime real estate in the Caribbean.

President Clinton has already declared that he thinks it is "wrong" for the United States military to use a military training range on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, and he instructed his national security adviser to fix the problem. When this perfidious act was made public, the Clinton administration initiated a game of deception and distraction to confuse and deflate the issue. The administration ordered a study, but everyone knew what conclusion the president wanted.

The facts are pretty simple, however. The United States owns 22,000 acres of land on the sparsely inhabited island of Vieques near the island of Puerto Rico. Fifty-eight years ago the United States Navy bought the land at fair market value and since that time has used the land as a training range to develop the military readiness of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine units. The Navy owned another range on the nearby island of Culebra but returned that to Puerto Rico in 1976.

The remaining range at Vieques is "invaluable" and "irreplaceable," according to U.S. military leaders both active duty and retired. Without access to the training area, East Coast-based forces would be unable to practice the military skills necessary for modern combat. Nowhere else in the eastern half of the United States is there a place where full combined-arms training can take place. This is the only location where ships, submarines, fighters, bombers and amphibious and ground forces can train together using live ammunition and realistic terrain.

There is another important fact that should not be overlooked. Vieques island has beautiful beaches, excellent scuba diving and snorkeling and thousands of acres of prime land for resort development. It is a real estate developer's dream. Another more insidious fact that needs to be understood is that Puerto Rico's Gov. Rossello is a co-chairman of Al Gore's presidential campaign and has been a top fund-raiser for the Democratic Party. He is a FOB (Friend of Bill) and a friend of Al.

It all begins to add up. A president who said he "loathed" the military when he was a younger man now thinks that it is "wrong" for the U.S. military to train on land owned by the Navy where it has trained for the last 58 years. A governor of Puerto Rico who is a major fund-raiser for Bill Clinton and Al Gore wants the Navy out of Vieques. Hillary Clinton and Al Gore want the votes of the 1.4 million Puerto Ricans now living in the New York area. Janet Reno, Mr. Clinton's attorney general, said she was not in favor of sending FBI agents to remove the illegal protestors from the range because it would be a "difficult and unmanageable situation."

An administration without one single Cabinet-level security adviser who served in the military has now made a judgment that our nation doesn't need a military training facility that our military leaders unanimously declare to be "irreplaceable." It all adds up.

What doesn't add up is that the chief of naval operations and the commandant of the Marine Corps haven't resigned in protest over this charade.

On Dec. 3, these two distinguished and decorated military officers were dragged out to the Pentagon press briefing room to endorse Mr. Clinton's giveaway. They said that the Vieques training facility was an "irreplaceable asset, the crown jewel of live-fire, combined-arms training," and then they supported Mr. Clinton's offer to vacate Vieques in three to five years.

There is more. In addition to abandoning the training range, the president proposes to give Puerto Rico a $40 million aid package and then spend hundreds of millions of dollars doing a cleanup of the island.

Mr. Clinton has already proven that he is shameless and will never resign. However, the chief of naval operations and the commandant of the Marine Corps are both good and honorable men who have dedicated their lives to the defense of our country. For the good of their troops and the good of our nation, they should tell the president "no" on Vieques. They should resign rather than support such a giveaway.

Christopher M. Lehman served as national security adviser to President Reagan from 1983-1985.

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

Russia says threshold lower for nuclear weapons

By Martin Nesirky

MOSCOW, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Russia marked the 40th anniversary of its nuclear forces on Friday with lavish praise and a stark warning that Moscow had been forced to lower the threshold for using atomic weapons.

Russia is no longer a superpower but still has the world's second- largest nuclear arsenal of hundreds of missiles based on land, in prowling submarines and aboard long-range aircraft.

``Today, many thousands of missile troops are successfully carrying out a task of state importance,'' President Boris Yeltsin said in a message.

In interviews in Krasnaya Zvezda and the weekly Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, missile chief Vladimir Yakovlev made clear Russia's economic crisis and new security threats had prompted a dramatic rethink about the nuclear deterrent.

``Russia, for objective reasons, is forced to lower the threshold for using nuclear weapons, extend the nuclear deterrent to smaller-scale conflicts and openly warn potential opponents about this,'' he said in Krasnaya Zvezda.

The colonel-general said the reasons behind the shift were Russia's financial crisis -- which has meant rocket forces receive about half the funds they need -- and the emergence of regional powers armed with missiles and nuclear technology.

Officials have long said Russia is using its nuclear umbrella to let military reforms proceed beneath. But Yakovlev's comments were unusually blunt in setting out that Moscow is prepared to use its nuclear arms if attacked with chemical or biological weapons or outnumbered by conventional forces.

He told Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye Russia would continue to replace old arms with new Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles. Last week, Russia deployed a second batch of 10 and test-fired a silo- based Topol-M.

Defence experts say Russia may test-launch a mobile Topol-M early next year. Yakovlev said further down the line, an aircraft-based cruise version could be developed and more emphasis put on using space technology.

Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II joined Yakovlev and Yeltsin in congratulating the Strategic Rocket Forces, which have an unusually high number of servicewomen -- some 20,000, a seventh of the total in the entire armed forces.

``Not everyone can carry the heavy load of true service in the missile forces,'' the patriarch said in Krasnaya Zvezda, which was devoted to the anniversary and even printed half a page of poetry about nuclear weapons.

In the Soviet era, nuclear forces were a bastion of Communist orthodoxy. Now, Christian icons dedicated to the forces' patron saint, St Barbara, hang in the command centre.

``With our shield ready for a fight, we have warded off a war,'' read a line of the poetry in Krasnaya Zvezda. ``We have our hopes and love but Russia's interests go before.''

----------- us nuc waste

Plutonium OK'd To Ship Through Mich.

By LISA SINGHANIA Associated Press Writer DECEMBER 17, 23:44 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS71DH29G0

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - The Department of Energy indicated on Friday that it will ship a small quantity of plutonium from New Mexico to Canada after a judge rejected a request by environmentalists to block the transport.

Chief Judge Richard Enslen ruled that although the plaintiffs' contentions that the government violated the law appeared to have merit, the government's assertions that an injunction would hurt nuclear disarmament talks were more important.

``We are pleased by the judge's decision to allow ... this important, non-proliferation initiative,'' a Department of Energy spokeswoman said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. ``We are currently working with our Canadian government counterparts to finalize the shipment details.''

The transport is part of the Parallex Project, a joint American-Russian experiment to determine whether commercial nuclear reactors in Canada can use material from decommissioned Russian nuclear weapons as fuel.

As part of the experiment, the United States is shipping a sample of radioactive material from New Mexico to Canada. The sample, which contains about 4.2 ounces - or 119 grams - of plutonium, will be transported on an armored truck.

The truck's itinerary is not being publicly released. But when it does occur, the transport is expected to pass through Michigan.

The Energy Department says the test is a key component in its nuclear disarmament efforts with Russia. It is picking up the $20 million tab for the entire experiment.

But the six individuals and environmental group that sued the government had argued the law required the agency to conduct an environmental impact statement, instead of the less-exhaustive assessment the department did.

Verna Lawrence, mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, the last Michigan community the shipment will pass through before entering Canada, was upset with the ruling.

``I'm mad as hell,'' said Ms. Lawrence, who said she will stop the shipment's passage through her community if she can figure out a way to do it. ``It is too risky. The Great Lakes basin will be contaminated for years and years if there's an accident.''

---

Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad

USA Today 11/17/99
http://www.usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Santa Fe - Attorney General Patricia Madrid is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Energy Department challenging new state regulations for radioactive waste storage at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad. The plan calls for Westinghouse, the main contractor for WIPP, to provide $100 million in financial assurances that the state will not get stuck with the bill when the site is closed.

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

Witnesses back buffer zone at Rocky Flats

Denver Rocky Mountain News December 17, 1999 By John Sanko Denver Rocky Mountain News Capitol Bureau
http://insidedenver.com/news/1217flat9.shtml

More than a dozen witnesses, including Attorney General Ken Salazar, backed proposed legislation to create a buffer zone at the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant.

But several raised objections to -- or asked for more time to study -- a proposed amendment that would allow a private land owner on the west side of the facility near Boulder to swap land for a southeast corner of the site.

Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., called the hearing at the statehouse to get reaction to proposed revisions in a bill he introduced in Congress last June to keep the land in federal ownership, but designate the 6,000-acre area as open space.

The Udall bill does not touch on the 385-acre industrial area where plutonium triggers were produced for nuclear weapons, but requires all the surrounding area to go into a buffer zone.

Salazar testified that there were a wide range of issues that would need to be resolved, including mineral interests on the property and conservation actions that should be taken.

Jefferson County representatives as well as a consortium of surrounding communities such as Westminster, Arvada and Superior took no stand on the land-swap amendment, saying they needed more time to study its potential impact.

The swap would involved land west of the facility for land in the southwest corner.

---

EPA: Price tag at Rocky Flats could be cut

Denver Rocky Mountain News December 14, 1999 By Berny Morson
http://insidedenver.com/news/1214epa0.shtml

The Environmental Protection Agency says it could trim the $80 million price tag for cleaning up Rocky Flats' most contaminated outdoor site by taking over the project.

Estimates suggest the area known as "903 pad" could be decontaminated for 25 to 50 percent less than suggested by the private firm hired to coordinate the clean-up, said Tim Rehder, who coordinates Rocky Flats issues for the EPA's Denver office.

EPA and state officials also believe the contractor, Kaiser-Hill Co., is moving too slowly to clean 903 pad.

Kaiser-Hill executives disagree, saying more-contaminated buildings are higher priorities. The company is still exploring ways to clean up the pad and doesn't have a final cost, spokeswoman Jennifer Thompson said Monday.

But she added, "If EPA can contribute in that way and get the project done, it puts us closer to closure in 2006."

The 3.4-acre 903 pad was an unpaved area near the part of the plant where bombs were manufactured. About 5,000 barrels of oil contaminated with plutonium, uranium and other carcinogens were piled there during the 1950s and '60s.

The barrels rusted and leaked. Workers covered the pad with asphalt to stop rain from carrying contaminants into groundwater.

Less than an ounce of plutonium is believed to be under the pavement.

It is not a danger now, but could be if disturbed -- for example, during redevelopment, Rehder said.

Although Rocky Flats is a U.S. Department of Energy facility, the EPA must sign off on cleanup strategies. Under an agreement discussed for months by the EPA, DOE and the state health department, the EPA will explore running the 903 pad cleanup. The DOE would pay the EPA from funds that would otherwise go to Kaiser-Hill.

A decision will be made by June.

Kaiser-Hill plans to tackle the 903 pad in 2004 or 2005 -- just a year before cleanup is scheduled to be complete.

That's too late for the EPA and the state health department. They fear the 903 pad will get lost amid other final details, such as dealing with whatever is under building foundations.

"The EPA and the state had a lot of heartburn with that," Rehder said of the scheduling.

Also, Congress may not provide adequate funding once the high-profile part of the cleanup project -- tearing down the buildings -- is done, Rehder said.

Contact Berny Morson at (303) 892-5072 or morsonb@rockymountainnews.com.

---

Hanford firm plans to hire more workers for new year

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Friday, December 17, 1999 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.seattlep-i.com/local/hanf17.shtml

RICHLAND -- The contractor that manages the Hanford nuclear reservation for the U.S. Department of Energy has 530 job openings, many of which could result in new hires.

Most of the jobs are to handle increased work in the new year at the K Basins, where spent nuclear fuel will be moved from the pools for safer storage, and at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, where scrap plutonium is being stabilized.

Fluor said some of the positions will be filled by workers transferring from other projects at Hanford, but the company expects to hire a number of engineers and skilled union workers.

They will monitor people and buildings for radioactive materials and to handle and move nuclear fuel and other radioactive materials.

Fluor and its subcontractors had a total of 4,216 employees at the end of November.

"We're working pretty hard to fill the openings," said Jon Peterson, a human resources director for the company.

Fluor has made offers to 170 applicants for the new jobs and has another 230 possibilities.

The Plutonium Finishing Plant, which employed 482 people in September, plans to increase the daily volume of scrap plutonium it is converting into safer forms. There are about a half-dozen methods to neutralize the plutonium, two of which are in use. Fluor expects to add one or two more methods in 2000.

Also, one of the present methods -- baking plutonium in "muffle furnaces" -- will expand from two to five furnaces next year.

At the K Basins, people are being added to train for moving 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel from two indoor pools near the Columbia River next November to a safer underground vault in central Hanford. The project had 441 on the job in September.
From: Wheezin2@aol.com

This "bargain basement sale" reminds me of the contamination that found its way to the public salvage yards in Oak Ridge and Knoxville, the cleared equipment from the K-25 sale which was later found hot, and the vehicles from the Speedring plant in Alabama which contained Beryllium. Still not enough guarantee of public safety, and Tennessee wants to take the lead in the recycling of ORGDP's enrichment equipment? "Hey, Meester, wanna buy a really 'hot' deal?"

-->

Pantex Items at Public Auction Tomorrow

(12/17/99. Amarillo, Texas) by Don Moniak

Bentley's auction house of Amarillo (http://www.bentleysauction.com) is the venue for the third or fourth public auction of surplus materials from the Pantex nuclear weapons plant. The auction begins at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, December 18, 1999.

Among the items people can buy are:

--55 Gallon black barrels, possibly former hazardous waste containers

--A bin full of high explosives "AN" containers once certified by the Department of Transportation. Several of these containers had tags certifying that Pantex radioactive safety officers approved their release of the materials to the public.

--3 pallets of unused HP Laser Jet 74A printer cartridges.

--truckloads of "Y2K Status Unknown" mainframe and desktop computers. Several of the desktops also have the coveted label remaining stating "system certified to process up to and including sensitive unclassified information."

--An old radio frequency generator produced by the International Plasma Corporation with a label stating "Not for export. This item subject to U.S. Govt. Export Controls..."

--Dozens of old wooden crates formerly used to transport unexploded ordinance, much of it deriving from the Lockheed Martin Space and Missiles Department's Santa Cruz, California facility.

During a review of the junk that Pantex is recycling to the public, much of it there to avoid the cost of disposing of it as waste, an unidentified man with a clipboard was observed applying black spray paint to the Lockheed Martin crates, trying to hide the words:

"Small quantity of hazardous material packed herein Open carefully."

STANDpoint is a periodic email news source with a suppressed recipient list.

-----------

Airline Pleads Guilty to Illegal Storage of Hazardous Waste

New York Times December 17, 1999 By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/airline-fine.html

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 -- American Airlines today pleaded guilty to illegal storage of hazardous waste, a felony, and admitted that it had transported hazardous and poisonous materials improperly on its passenger jets for the last five years.

The company will pay an $8 million fine and has agreed to hire an auditor to review its operations worldwide, to add to its staff a vice president and officers for safety and environmental problems, and to try to educate shippers, prosecutors and the company announced today.

American will place a full-page advertisement in The Miami Herald to apologize for its actions and will be on probation for three years, during which a federal district court judge will review its efforts.

Donald J. Carty, chairman of the AMR Corporation, the airline's parent company, appeared in court in Miami this morning to enter the plea and said, "This is not our proudest day."

Steven P. Solow, chief of the environmental crimes section of the Justice Department, said in a telephone interview that this was the first time a major airline had pleaded guilty to illegal storage of hazardous waste.

The plea stemmed from an incident in July 1995 when a shipper delivered a drum containing an ignitable chemical to American Airlines in Mexico City.

Unloading the plane in Miami, airline workers rolled the drum on its side to put it on a forklift truck, but the top came off and the contents caught fire. Some airline employees exposed to the smoke complained of dizziness and difficulty breathing, according to court documents.

The airline workers put out the fire, placed the contents back in the drum and left it in an airline building, where it sat for three years. That was the violation of hazardous-waste laws, for which American pleaded guilty today.

Of greater concern, though, is the potential for chemical releases or fires aboard planes in flight.

"American Airlines put their passengers and employees at risk by handling hazardous materials in a dangerous way," said Lois Schiffer, the assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources division.

According to the Justice Department, American "admitted that it had placed hazardous materials on its passenger planes even though its employees had information from shippers that should have caused them to believe that the cargo should have been handled differently." But the employees "failed to make sufficient inquiries or to simply reject these shipments," the department said.

Last week a former aircraft maintenance company, SabreTech, was convicted in federal district court on eight charges growing out of the crash of a Valujet Airlines DC-9 in the Florida Everglades on May 11, 1996, for improperly handling the hazardous materials that caused a fire on the plane. The crash killed all 110 people aboard.

Since the ValuJet crash, the Federal Aviation Administration has been bringing civil cases for improper transportation of hazardous materials, but mostly against shippers rather then airlines.

---

American Air Admits Hazardous Cargo

Yahoo News 02:06 AM ET 12/17/99 By TERRY SPENCER Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562667256-359

MIAMI (AP) _ American Airlines is spending millions to change the way it handles hazardous waste after agreeing to pay an $8 million fine for not handling it properly over a three-year period.

American will pay $6 million to the federal government and $2 million to the Miami-Dade fire department to improve the airport's hazardous materials plan. The airline also must develop a program to improve inspection of cargo and passengers before they board American flights.

The airline on Thursday admitted it illegally stored hazardous material at Miami International between July 1995 and August 1998. In addition to the fine, American will be on probation for three years.

U.S. Attorney Thomas Scott said it is the first time a major U.S. airline has pleaded guilty to a federal hazardous-waste felony.

``This is not our proudest day,'' said Don Carty, chairman and chief executive of American's parent, AMR Corp. ``I want to publicly apologize and to state publicly our commitment to the spirit and intent of the compliance agreement.''

Scott said the airline kept a 55-gallon drum of the pesticide dioxital in a cargo storage area even after Miami-Dade County fire officials told American to get rid of it when some of it spilled and caused a fire.

The airline pleaded guilty to illegally storing flammable material at the airport on repeated occasions between 1995 and 1998. The dioxital incident was the only one specifically mentioned by the airline.

The investigation came during a federal crackdown on dangerous cargo following the 1996 ValuJet crash in the Everglades, which was blamed on a fire caused by an illegal shipment of oxygen generators in the cargo hold.

Sabretech, the aircraft maintenance company that delivered the generators to the ill-fated flight, was convicted in federal court earlier this month of mishandling the cargo.

The investigation of American began in 1997, after passengers at the airport were evacuated from an American plane when 500 pounds of pesticides being loaded as cargo released sickening fumes.

Three weeks later, 60 federal agents raided American's cargo terminal and offices, seizing documents.

----------- us nuc other

Earth Can Survive Until 3000
If We Start Thinking and Acting Globally

Salt Lake Tribune Friday, December 17, 1999 Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez
http://www.sltrib.com/1999/dec/12171999/commenta/6491.htm

The question of whether there will be life on Earth in the year 3000 is rooted not in wild speculation or science fiction, but in our present environmental course. Some who believe that our planet will survive do so on the basis that the Earth will cleanse itself naturally, that market forces will create the solution, or that science will save us from an environmental doomsday. Others think it matters little because by the time the planet is uninhabitable, we will all be living on other planets.

On the other end, there are those who believe that unchecked, our planet will not be safe in 100 years and will become inhabitable in several hundred years. Key, of course, is the belief that doomsday is not inevitable and that people can arrest the uncontrolled contamination by our world's corporations, which are in bed with compliant governments. As Lila Bird of the Water Information Network recently said before the environmental group's 10th anniversary conference, "With grass-roots support, you can defeat any corporation, regardless of its size."

WIN, for example, highlighted several such environmental victories, including the defeat of the Guadalupe Mountain Tailings site in New Mexico; the Animas-La Plata Water Project in Colorado; the nuclear waste sites in Prague, Okla., and Sierra Blanca, Texas; and various coal-mining issues by the Citizens' Coal Council in Colorado.

Despite these victories, the question remains: Will flailing away at nuclear windmills ensure that our planet will be alive and breathing in the year 3000? Even if there were a magic technological pill, the real issue is whether future generations should be subjected to the corporate decimation of our forests, the poisoning of our waters, the contamination of our air and the violation of our sacred Earth.

That's what the "battle in Seattle" was all about. Unrestrained (deregulated) transnational corporations have historically adopted slash-and-burn methods: As soon as maximum profits have been extracted -- at the expense of human beings and the environment -- they move on. Unfortunately, because the Earth is one ecosystem, there is nowhere else to run, particularly when it comes to nuclear and other toxic waste. There are still thousands of nuclear warheads and roughly 500 nuclear reactors worldwide. Despite the end of the Cold War, weapons production has not ceased.

Undeniably, ground zero for pollution and contamination is the poor and communities of color. However, deadly contaminants, including toxic pesticides that enter the food chain -- from plants to animals to humans -- know no borders. Additionally, ground zero is not faceless.

Dorothy Purley, a Laguna Pueblo, N.M., native woman, gave a human face to uranium contamination. She passed away several weeks ago as a result of cancer, fighting till the end, speaking around the world about the evils of radiation exposure. She worked in Anaconda's Jackpile Mine, reputedly the largest open-pit uranium mine in the Western Hemisphere. She contracted cancer in 1993.

Purley, who recently received a Nuclear-Free Future Award (in the resistance category), is a reminder that in this country, most uranium mines are located on Indian reservations. Her co-recipient was Grace Thorpe of the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma. Two decades ago, Indian reservations were targeted by the nuclear industry because they were ideal nuclear storage sites; their sovereignty can sidestep state environmental laws. As a result of Thorpe's organizing, there are now dozens of Indian nations that are nuclear-free zones, including her own nation.

But these zones are like sanctuaries or oases: They're critical, but, as we noted earlier, nuclear waste knows no borders and its radiation lasts for tens of thousands of years. No one is safe.

Will the Earth survive until the year 3000? As some said at the WIN conference, only if we start thinking globally and acting globally. Perhaps we should designate our planet as a world treasure. Or as Thorpe said, perhaps we should all view each other as national treasures, deserving to live and breathe on a healthy planet. %% LATINO VOICES

----------- military

Canada, U.S. Renew Torpedo Test Range Deal

Associated Press December 17, 1999 Filed at 9:20 p.m. EST
Friday's Canada News Briefs

VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) -- Canada and the United States agreed Friday to continue to share a controversial torpedo testing range on Vancouver Island.

The sharing agreement at Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges at Nanoose Bay, about 120 kilometers north of Victoria, was extended for 10 years, foreign affairs and defense ministry officials said.

Ottawa officially expropriated Nanoose land from the British Columbia government this year after negotiations to renew a 10-year seabed lease held by the province broke down.

Despite the new deal Friday, the British Columbia government plans to continue a court case challenging Ottawa's authority to expropriate provincial property. The case is expected to be heard sometime next year.

----------- spies

A Nuclear Spy -- or Not?

San Francisco Chronicle Friday, December 17, 1999
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/12/17/ED80783.DTL

WEN HO LEE has popped up as the poster boy for U.S.-China relations. Viewed darkly, he is the Los Alamos weapons scientist-turned-spy who slipped Chinese agents nuclear missile secrets. The other side pictures Lee as a victim of anti- Clinton forces, a target of racism, and small change in the espionage game.

This week, Lee was indicted for downloading secret data warhead designs from a secure government computer to his own desktop PC. The charge is considerably less than spying for China, but it raises grave questions about Lee's intentions. Does the government have a spy case, or are the mushy-sounding charges the end result of a weak investigation?

Lee's day in court will be an opportunity for others to argue larger issues than just his innocence or guilt. If the case goes wide- screen, observers may get a chance to see how resourceful and organized Chinese intelligence actually is. The trial may answer claims that Clinton officials played down spying to maintain relations with China.

The case may shed light on another debate about the worth of what Lee allegedly swiped. Were the weapons designs a major advance for China? A Stanford think tank this week downplayed the highly-critical Cox report that claimed widespread weapons technology theft by China. The Cox conclusions were based on skewed information and wrongfully dampened U.S.-China relations, the study claimed. A Cox spokesman shot back that the bipartisan panel's findings were based on classified information unavailable to the Stanford analysts.

Lee has become a symbol of the debate over proper relations with Beijing. In broad terms, trade and political links between this country and China are too important for a single espionage case to disrupt. But this general dictum must go with a watchful attitude and tough punishment for lapses in security. It's important to find just what he did, not just to settle his own case, but also to inform the rest of the country about how secure our nuclear arsenal is.

---

Asian-Americans Defend Wen Ho Lee

Associated Press December 17, 1999 Filed at 5:13 a.m. EST http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-China-Spying.html

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Wen Ho Lee, the scientist under indictment for mishandling U.S. weapons secrets, has won additional support as Asian Americans promoted his legal defense fund and accused the government of using him as a scapegoat.

``This is racial profiling at its worst. It is un-American and it is unconstitutional,'' author and civil rights activist Helen Zia said Thursday.

Zia joined San Francisco Supervisor Mabel Teng at a news conference for the Wen Ho Lee Legal Defense Fund. The San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus and Chinese for Affirmative Action groups were also there.

``The Chinese-American community feels that ... one of our members has been put on trial, put on a media trial in particular, without due process,'' said Teng, who is asking fellow supervisors to approve a resolution asking the government and the media to be fair to Lee.

Government officials deny Lee was singled out because of his race, and Energy Secretary Bill Richardson sent a memo recently saying that ``at this juncture it is appropriate that I reiterate emphatically my policy of zero tolerance of any form of racial profiling within the DOE workplace.'' The memo did not mention Lee.

The Taiwan-born Lee, 59, is charged with illegally downloading secret data from computers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He pleaded innocent and is being held without bail.

Lee acknowledged transferring ``legacy codes'' that provide a history of nuclear weapons development from a highly secure Los Alamos' computer system to his less-secure personal office computer. Lee said he was creating a backup in case of a computer crash.

He was the focus of a lengthy probe into whether nuclear secrets were leaked to China, but the U.S. government has not charged him with spying.

Also Thursday, prosecutors said evidence will go through a court-appointed security officer before it can be used in the case against Lee.

U.S. Attorney John Kelly, whose office in Albuquerque, N.M., requested the protective order, said U.S. Magistrate Don Svet has invoked the Classified Information Procedures Act of 1980 to ensure that U.S. nuclear weapons secrets aren't accidentally released in open court or in public documents.

A defense against the complex charges Lee faces will take money that Lee, who was fired in March, doesn't have, said longtime friend Cecilia Chang, one of the lead organizers of the defense fund,

Supporters have raised about $20,000. A fund-raiser is planned for Tuesday, Lee's birthday.

----------

Inside the Beltway
Political tidbits and other shenanigans from around the nation's capital.

Washington Times December 17, 1999 By John McCaslin
http://208.246.212.80/national/beltway-19991217.htm

Laughing with Hillary

We can't help but chuckle at the official Web site of convicted U.S. spy Jonathan Pollard, authorized by Esther Pollard, who emigrated to Israel from Toronto after marrying Pollard in jail six years ago.

Pollard's Web site, www.jonathanpollard.org, features a four-part cartoon of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the likely Democratic senatorial candidate in New York, seated behind her campaign desk.

"How can we guarantee crowds of cheering Israelis for my visit?" Mrs. Clinton asks an aide.

"That's easy," the aide replies. "Bring Jonathan Pollard with you."

"Har, har, har, har, har, har," laughs Mrs. Clinton. "Okay, now let's get serious."

A former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, Pollard was nabbed passing state secrets to Israel. But not before he leaked 40 file cabinets worth, plus more than 1,000 daily intelligence messages detailing U.S. operations around the world.

The last time you read about Mrs. Pollard in this space was three years ago, after she ended a 19-day hunger strike upon a promise from then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lobby for her husband's release.

Only three months ago there was concern that Mr. Netanyahu's efforts might yet succeed after President Clinton acted against the advice of the Justice Department and the FBI to grant clemency to 16 Puerto Rican terrorists.

Aware that the Jewish vote in New York is even more crucial than the Puerto Rican vote, law enforcement and intelligence authorities were understandably afraid Pollard would be the next to walk.

----------- y2k ukraine

Ukraine Stages Mock Y2K Disasters

New York Times December 17, 1999 Filed at 1:31 a.m. EST By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Y2K-Ukraine-Crisis-Center.html http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=EUROPE&STORYID=APIS71CTHBO0

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Hunched over a round table, alarmed officials peered into computer displays as they heard the news: A Boeing-747 crashed over the city of Lviv, killing all on board.

Soon, emergency services in Lviv were reporting that the disaster had been dealt with, and the victims were identified and buried.

``How can you bury them if I told you these were foreign passengers on board!'' roared Gen. Viktor Hrechaninov, Ukraine's first deputy emergency situations minister, his face red and sweating.

The exercise at Ukraine's main Y2K crisis center went on with more reports of frightening, though imaginary, events: An accident at a chemical plant spilled tons of poisonous substances; two subway trains collided in Kiev, trapping passengers in the burning cars.

Western government reports have listed this former Soviet republic as among the nations that might face serious millennium-bug disruptions and Ukraine is preparing itself for the big test on Dec. 31.

Hrechaninov's center will go on full alert and work round the clock in 12-hour shifts from 8 p.m. on Dec. 31, staffed by dozens of deputy ministers and emergency experts.

Located in the Emergency Situations Ministry headquarters in Kiev, the center has Internet, radio and telephone links with similar centers in Ukraine's outlying regions and with authorities in Russia, the United States and NATO.

On Thursday, Hrechaninov, the deputy minister, invented mock catastrophes for the regional crisis centers, who then reported to their superiors at the various government agencies. These came up with a plan of action that had to be approved or altered by the main center in Kiev.

Ministry spokesman Oleh Bykov boasted that it took only minutes for an action plan to be adopted.

Mine rescuers, firefighters, investigators and emergency medical vehicles, for instance, were sent to deal with the imaginary subway disaster. In 40 minutes, all passengers were reported lifted to the ground, but 150 of them required medical help.

``Cooperative efforts are bringing positive results,'' a worried-looking Hrechaninov told reporters. ``But a commander of any training mission cannot be satisfied 100 percent.''

The two-day exercise yielded some very real and alarming results.

Emergency officials decided that trains in Ukraine will halt all movement for an hour starting at 11:50 p.m. on Dec. 31 ``to make sure that the switches had been shifted correctly,'' said Hrechaninov.

They also recommended that all airlines avoid flying over Ukraine between 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 31 and 2 a.m. on Jan. 1; ordered the chiefs of dangerous enterprises to stay at work during the rollover, and ruled that the country's more than 200 coal mines would stop working on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

Asked to identify the main areas of Y2K concern, Hrechaninov cited the natural gas sector including international pipelines such as the Soviet-era Druzhba and air navigation systems.

``In Kiev, I'm mostly concerned about Kievenergo,'' the company that supplies energy to the city of more than 3 million people, Hrechaninov added.

Other officials, meanwhile, took pains to dispel millennium-bug fears.

The state Energoatom company said in a statement that all of Ukraine's five nuclear power plants were ``ready to confront the Year 2000 problem and ensure safe work of the plants.''

The Energy Ministry, in turn, said Ukraine's unstable electricity system would not collapse, provided that it adheres to the required balance of power production and consumption.

``We have taken all the measures in order to avoid the Y2K problem in the energy sphere and have the people meet New Year with lights in their homes,'' said Deputy Energy Minister Oleksandr Bolkisev.

But Hrechaninov, tensely surveying his busy subordinates, could not offer such assurances.

``We're doing everything to prevent Y2K disruptions,'' the general said, ``but I'm not giving a full guarantee.''

---

Chernobyl deemed Y2K ready; engineer not so sure

By Marina Sysoyeva ASSOCIATED PRESS Washington Times December 17, 1999
http://208.246.212.80/world/news4-19991217.htm

Ukrainian officials say Chernobyl has been purged of the year-2000 computer problem. International monitors say they do not expect all systems at Soviet-era nuclear power plants to be year-2000 compliant by the New Year.

CHERNOBYL, Ukraine -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.

Mr. Goehring, a civil engineer who manages a project on storing spent nuclear fuel, says he's heard the assurances and decided to leave. "I'm not convinced," said Mr. 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 year-2000 compliant by the New Year, creating the possibility of widespread blackouts - or perhaps worse.

Mr. 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 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 year-2000 glitch, known as "Y2K" in computer jargon, will not cause a repeat catastrophe.

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

Foreign observers say chances are slim of glitch-induced nuclear accidents at Chernobyl or any of the other 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.

Mr. Kyd said the IAEA expects some secondary Ukrainian reactor systems, including computers designed to detect radiation leaks, to not be year-2000 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, computer 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, Mr. 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 glitch 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 glitch 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," Mr. 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 year-2000 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.

Ukrainian officials say Chernobyl has been purged of the year-2000 computer problem. International monitors say they do not expect all systems at Soviet-era nuclear power plants to be year-2000 compliant by the New Year.

----------- y2k us

Military Y2K-ready, Pentagon says

December 17, 1999 Knight Ridder Spokesman Review
http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=121799&ID=s720380&cat=

The Pentagon on Thursday declared the U.S. military ready for a trouble-free Y2K turnover on Dec. 31 after a $3.6 billion overhaul of more than 7,600 computer systems that control everything from payrolls to nuclear weapons.

Senior defense officials said they also are confident that Russia, bolstered by $10 million in U.S. aid, will avert Y2K errors that could cause its dilapidated early warning systems falsely to detect a U.S. attack, triggering a nuclear crisis.

"We really do not worry about Russian missiles going off or early warning systems giving false reports or anything like that," Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre said at a Pentagon briefing.

Still, the Clinton administration is taking no chances. It has arranged for Russian and U.S. military officers to operate a joint monitoring station in Colorado, where they will analyze data from U.S. satellite and radar networks that watch for missile launches.

The Center for Y2K Strategic Stability, at Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs, "will provide... a common display of missile warning information so there will be no ambiguities," said Peter Verga, a senior Defense Department official.

Officers from each side will staff the center around the clock from Dec. 28 until at least Jan. 7, Verga said. American observers have also been invited to Russia to help its military operate U.S.-installed communications links between the two countries, he said.

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U.S. military finishes costly Y2K fixes

CNET News December 16, 1999, 5:30 p.m. PT By Reuters Special to CNET News.com
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1009-200-1498896.html?tag=st

WASHINGTON--U.S. military computers and weapons are now ready for high-tech war after the critical Y2K rollover on Dec. 31 because of a $3.6 billion fix over the past 18 months, the Pentagon said today.

"I think it was nearly miraculous," deputy defense secretary John Hamre told a news conference to announce that more than 7,600 U.S. military computer systems have been fixed, tested and are ready to advance to the year 2000 without major confusion.

"This is a war-fighting issue for us," he said. "This isn't a computer geek issue. We are ready. We anticipate absolutely no problems in the Department of Defense."

He also echoed a statement from the British Defense Ministry that no nuclear missile warning crisis is expected between the western allies and Russia because of possible computer glitches in Moscow.

Hamre and other officials said the Pentagon has provided Russia with about $10 million to help secure its nuclear weapons system and they are confident there will be no missile warning crisis between Moscow and Washington as the New Year dawns.

He told reporters that the Russian Defense Ministry has assured the Pentagon that its computers will not precipitate a crisis by perhaps mistakenly indicating a U.S. nuclear attack and that a U.S.-Russian military team will be set up in Colorado next week to help avert such a problem.

"We really do not worry about Russian missiles going off or early-warning systems giving false reports or anything like that," said Hamre.

"When they tell us that their radar systems are not going to suddenly plot trajectories of incoming U.S. missiles, we believe them."

The Pentagon said all but two of its 2,101 "mission critical" military computer systems, such as those involved with missile warning radar, have been upgraded over the last 18 months at a cost of $3.6 billion. Those two systems are used internally by the Defense Mapping Agency and will be fixed in January.

A total of about 5,500 military computer systems--ranging from bookkeeping to payroll--have also been updated and are ready to go, said Hamre.

Navy rear admiral Robert Willard, deputy director for current readiness and capabilities on the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. defense computers have been repeatedly tested worldwide and are ready to go.

Both Hamre and Willard said the military computers of NATO allies are generally prepared for the New Year although readiness variesfrom country to country.

Some U.S. military families could be affected overseas if local power and other systems fail, Hamre said, but U.S. troops and weapons will not be affected by such problems.

Hamre said there was some concern that computer hackers might try to take advantage of confusion in the New Year period and that viruses might be planted in defense computers that would be triggered by the rollover.

He said that special precautions are being taken to detect and neutralize such viruses.

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Gas, Electric Firms Said Y2K-Ready ss

Associated Press December 17, 1999 Filed at 4:29 a.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Y2K-Energy.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's gas and electric utilities and the computers that run them are 100 percent ready for the Y2K date change, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson says.

The last companies to get their systems ready did so over the past four months, Richardson said.

``The nation should be ready for the Y2K rollover'' without widespread power outages, Richardson said at a news conference Thursday with power-industry executives. He offered this advice: ``Stay cool, don't panic, plan as for a winter storm -- and that's it.''

The utility executives said that they are ready for any contingency and will have hundreds of thousands of workers in place or standing by when the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31.

Except for possible accidents and winter storms, they expect a normal, uneventful, stress-free New Year's Eve with no widespread loss of light or heat.

``We expect this to be a non-event,'' said John M. Derrick Jr., president and chief executive officer of Washington-based PEPCO, the Potomac Electric Power Co.

The Y2K bug stems from older computer coding that identified dates with the last two numbers only -- ``99'' for 1999, for example. When the year switches to 2000, some computers with that coding will think it's 1900, causing them to malfunction.

Over the last two years the federal government has led a nationwide crash prevention program to prepare for the changeover, spending billions of dollars in the effort.

Meanwhile, the United Nations-organized International Y2K Cooperation Center said that the world's more than 430 nuclear plants, including those in the former Soviet Union, were ready for the new year. They ``will operate as safely as they normally do,'' the report said.

The report cautioned, however, that some support systems in the world's nuclear plants are not Y2K-ready.

Those computers don't have a direct bearing on safety, but failures ``can reduce the ability of operators to analyze and respond to degraded equipment conditions,'' which ultimately could reduce safety and efficiency, the report said. But it said backup systems would permit safe operation or shutdown.

There are nuclear plants in 31 countries, generating about 17 percent of the world's electricity.

Related Information From Hoover's Inc. Potomac Electric Power
http://www.nytimes.com/partners/quote/hoovers.cgi?ticker=POM

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Programs for Poor Not Y2K Ready

Yahoo News 01:51 AM ET 12/17/99 By LAURA MECKLER Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) _ With barely two weeks until the new year, a handful of states are still scrambling to fix Y2K computer aproblems for programs that serve millions of poor Americans.

And many others have fixed their computers only very recently, putting at risk programs to write welfare checks, sign people up for government health care and hand out food stamps.

``Clearly some of them have cut it far too close,'' said John Koskinen, the White House Y2K coordinator.

Eight states and the District of Columbia remain at risk for Y2K computer glitches in welfare, health care and other federally funded programs, according to the federal government's final report on Y2K readiness, issued this week and based on data from a week earlier.

State benefits programs were among the last to begin fixing their computers to handle potential problems when the date changes to the Year 2000. They've been scrambling through 1999 to reprogram computers and test them, and most have certified that their systems are in good shape. But federal officials are concerned about stragglers.

``We're not interested in getting 95 percent of the work done or having 45 out of 50 states in good shape. We need to have every state prepared,'' Koskinen said.

Even states that just fixed problems are still at risk in correcting the computer glitch in which older machines that read only the last two digits of a date might might mistake 2000 for 1900, experts warn.

"When you're doing it this late and you're doing it with the kind of pressure they're under itreadng it this late and you're doing it with the kind of pressure they're under, the probability of errors goes up,'' said Margaret Anderson, a technology expert with the Center for Y2K and Society. The group has been tracking the impact of Y2K problems on programs that serve the poor.

The federal report found problems in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma and the District of Columbia. The U.S. territories also aren't ready, it said.

State officials minimized the problems, and at least one, Alabama, says there's nothing wrong.

In Oklahoma, the federal report found that the Women, Infants and Children program is not Y2K-ready. But state officials say the only trouble involves 20 laptop computers in counties that have not been checked.

``They have a minimal impact on the total program,'' said Terry Bryce, the program's chief of staff.

WIC provides vouchers for cereal and milk to mothers and their young children, and Bryce said the state is prepared to issue the vouchers without computers if necessary.

Other states on the list said they had finished their work andl report was out of date.

The report singled out Alabama as the state in the worst shape, with three systems still not ready _ welfare, child support and child care. State officials said otherwise.

``We're fully compliant,'' Tony Petellos, commissioner for the Alabama Department of Human Resources, said Thursday. ``Unless they (federal officials) came down yesterday to review everything, they wouldn't have the right information.''

The federal report also found that California and Illinois child support computers _ already plagued with problems _ were not ready. In Minnesota and Connecticut, there were glitches in the child welfare system, the agency that investigates child abuse and handles foster care.

Some states may have fixed problems since the report was prepared, but if nothing else, it underscores that many agencies are coming down to the wire. And many states that the government now considers ready finished their systems within the past several weeks.

Experts worry that problems inevitably will surface.

``We never fix things right the first time,'' said Anderson of the private Center for Y2K and Society. ``In (computer) testing, you miss 6 to 10 percent of problems or you generate other problems with the fix.''

The government is urging states to have contingency plans ready in case computers fail, particularly in the U.S. territories, which are probably in the worst shape. Guam, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa each have several programs that are not Y2K-ready, according to the federal report. And in Puerto Rico, the Medicaid program isn't fixed.

Even in Iowa, where state and federal officials agree that computers are ready, state officials are suggesting that clients hold onto their December Medicaid cards in case computers have trouble producing new cards in January.

``It doesn't cause any harm to keep it,'' said Ellen Gordon, who is in charge of contingency plans for Iowa. ``And if there's some reason they end up needing it, they have it.''

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States With Y2K Problems

Yahoo News 01:52 AM ET 12/17/99 By The Associated Press
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562667087-c8e

States not certified as Y2K-compliant in the White House Office of Management and Budget's final readiness report.

Programs examined were food stamps; child nutrition, including school breakfast and lunch programs; Women, Infants and Children (WIC); Medicaid; Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), or cash welfare; child support; Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program; child care; child welfare and unemployment insurance.

_Alabama: TANF, child support, child care. _California: Child support. _Connecticut: Child welfare. _District of Columbia: Unemployment. _Illinois: Child support. _Kentucky: Child care. _Minnesota: Child welfare. _North Dakota: Child support. _Oklahoma: Food stamps, WIC.

U.S. Territories:

_American Samoa: Medicaid, including both systems that pay bills and determine eligibility; child care.

_Guam: Food stamps, WIC, both Medicaid systems, TANF, child support, child care, child welfare.

_Puerto Rico: Medicaid, bill paying

_Virgin Islands: Both Medicaid systems, TANF, child support, child care.

----------- terrorists

ATF chief to head terrorism unit By Gary Fields, USA TODAY

USA Today 12/17/99- Updated 11:17 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsfri05.htm

WASHINGTON - John Magaw, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, steps down Monday to become the first full-time coordinator of terrorism response for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Magaw, 64, talked about the agency's role in the siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, in 1993. He also spoke of efforts to force Secret Service agents to testify before a grand jury last year in the investigation of President Clinton's relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky..

He talked, too, about changing a culture inside the ATF that had led some African-American employees to file a class-action lawsuit against the agency in 1990:

Q: What's the new job?

A: Director James Lee Witt (of FEMA) has been concerned for a number of months that he didn't have somebody who was spending full time coordinating terrorism preparedness. He's been looking for someone with a law enforcement background who could deal with and knows federal, state, city and county agencies' function in terrorism incidents. He's concerned with making sure there is no duplicatio