----------- activists
Subject: Julia Butterfly ends 2 year sit
Sat, 18 Dec 1999 - Andy Caffrey, Earth First Media - hayduke@efmedia.org
Julia rappelled down just awhile ago. The first thing she did was collapse as her bare feet touched soil, curling up around the rope and sobbing wildly. CNN Headline News has footage.
------ Begin Forwarded Message --------
Statement of The Pacific Lumber Company
on Preservation Agreement With Julia Hill
SCOTIA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 1999--In an effort to end a community controversy and concentrate its efforts upon implementing a viable harvesting program under the landmark environmental protections contained in the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) that is a part of the historic Headwaters Agreement, The Pacific Lumber Company has agreed to enter into a Preservation Agreement and Covenant with Sanctuary Forest with Julia "Butterfly" Hill to permanently protect an old-growth redwood tree and a protective buffer zone, on the Company's private property.
Ms. Hill has engaged in a 2-year "tree-sit" in a tree she refers to as "Luna" in order to call attention to the issue of protecting old-growth trees. During this time, Pacific Lumber has been deeply concerned about Ms. Hill's safety as well as the safety of several others who have followed her example to trespass on the Company's private property in order to protest.
Pacific Lumber believes that the controversy surrounding timber companies and environmentalists on the North Coast must stop, and that it is imperative that common ground be forged between these two groups. It hopes and believes that the Preservation Agreement will work toward this common ground, and help create a peaceful dialogue between two groups who ultimately care about the same thing -- the future of the North Coast of California.
John Campbell, president and CEO of The Pacific Lumber Company said, "We have reached this Preservation Agreement in order to end this controversy and focus positive public attention on Pacific Lumber's very real commitment to the environment, the community, and job preservation. As part of the landmark Headwaters Agreement we are very proud to be implementing an HCP that contains the most comprehensive and sensitive environmental protections ever approved for a private timber owner in U.S. history. The HCP provides assurances to the Company and our employees that we can harvest our property consistently with these protections. We are reaching out to the environmental community with an outstretched hand, and hope that they will join us in an effort to work together to preserve 1,300 jobs and protect the environment."
CONTACT:
Humboldt County media:
Pacific Lumber Company
Mary Bullwinkel, 707/764-4200
or
All other media:
Goddard Claussen
Shelly Sullivan, 916/448-4234
---
Tree's best friend returns to earth
12/18/99- Updated 03:16 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nphoto.htm
PHOTO: Julia "Butterfly" Hill atop a redwood tree
about 180 feet above ground near Stafford, Calif. (AP file).
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nphoto.jpg
STAFFORD, Calif. - After two years perched in an ancient redwood, environmental activist Julia ''Butterfly'' Hill came back to earth Saturday, legs wobbly after her sojourn in the towering tree she called ''Luna.'' The 25-year-old, who has lived in the tree since Dec. 10, 1997 to protest logging, reached an agreement Friday with Pacific Lumber Co. and promised to climb down from her 18-story-high perch, which is on company property. Pacific Lumber spokesman Josh Reiss confirmed the deal but would not give specifics. Two sources familiar with the pact said Hill and her supporters had been negotiating for her to pay $50,000 to Pacific Lumber to make up for lost logging revenue, while Pacific Lumber would spare Hill's redwood - and a surrounding 200-foot zone from logging.
----------- india
India Test Fires Short Range Missile- PTI
Reuters Updated 10:21 AM ET December 18, 1999
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991218/10/international-arms-india
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India on Saturday successfully test-fired surface-to-air and surface-to-surface versions of its quick-reaction short range "Trishul" missile, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
"The test firing was 100 percent successful," PTI quoted Siva Thanu Pillai, Chief Controller, Research and Development Wing of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as saying.
PTI quoted Pillai as saying Saturday's test firing was the fourth and was meant to test the missile's anti-sea skimmer capability.
The anti-sea skimmer capability enables the missile to travel just above the sea surface and destroy incoming missiles launched from submarines, ships or from the air, Pillai was quoted as saying. The missile had a range of 5.6 miles, he said.
More trials would have to be conducted before the missile could be deployed by the country's armed forces, Pillai added.
Related Stories
India Insists on Nuclear Deterrent in U.S. Talks (Dec 21 9:39 am ET)
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991221/09/international-arms-india
----------- iraq
U.N. Votes To Return Iraq Monitors
Associated Press Saturday, Dec. 18, 1999; 3:28 a.m. EST By Edith M. Lederer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991218/aponline032818_000.htm
UNITED NATIONS -- After a year of divisive debate, the Security Council finally has a new U.N. policy on Iraq. But Iraq's allies on the council are already saying it's unworkable.
And with Iraq demanding that U.N. sanctions be lifted if weapons inspectors return to the country - which isn't part of the deal - the stage appears set for more confrontation.
Britain and the United States had hoped to get all 15 council members behind the resolution in order to send a unified message to Baghdad that the Security Council would stand for nothing less than full compliance with its demands.
But in Friday's vote only 11 members backed the new U.N. policy, which is two more than the minimum required. Russia, China, France and Malaysia abstained.
The resolution creates a new inspection agency to restart monitoring and destruction of Iraq's biological and chemical weapons, and missiles to deliver them. And it offers Baghdad the possibility of having sanctions suspended for renewable periods of 120 days if it cooperates with the weapons inspectors "in all respects."
"This is a resolution that is mandatory," stressed Britain's U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, who steered the resolution through the council. "It is the law of the globe. Under the U.N. Charter, every member has to implement it. Iraq is a U.N. member."
In the past two weeks, however, Saddam Hussein's government has rejected the resolution using such words as "vicious" and "venomous."
China's U.N. Ambassador Qin Huasun said it was "highly questionable" whether the resolution could ever be implemented.
"As I am sure everyone understands, without Iraqi cooperation, implementation of any resolution will hardly be possible," he said. "If Iraq cannot see any hope at the end of the tunnel by implementing the resolutions ... how could it be willing and ready to offer the cooperation we hope for?"
The yearlong crisis with Iraq began when U.N. weapons inspectors departed a day before U.S. and British warplanes launched airstrikes to punish Baghdad for its failure to cooperate fully with their inspections.
Calling the resolution's wording "too ambiguous," French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said "we think it may give rise to an interpretation allowing some countries to keep on forever saying that the cooperation hasn't taken place and that, consequently, the embargo can't be suspended. That's what we fear."
His comments appeared to be directed especially at the United States, which reiterated Friday that it isn't easing up on its demands for Iraqi disarmament.
"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," said U.S. deputy ambassador Peter Burleigh.
The United States would welcome a favorable response from Baghdad and cooperation in clearing up outstanding disarmament issues so the council can consider suspending sanctions, he said.
"We are not seeking an excuse to use force," he said.
But Washington has "no illusion that the Iraqi regime is likely to change its spots," Burleigh said.
Regardless of Iraqi cooperation, Secretary-General Kofi Annan is now authorized by the council to appoint an executive chairman of the new inspection agency called the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or UNMOVIC, within 30 days.
The resolution also automatically removes the $5.26 billion limit on the amount of oil Baghdad can sell over six months through the U.N. oil-for-food program to finance the purchase of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies to help ordinary Iraqis cope with sanctions.
And Annan is authorized to appoint a special envoy to try to clear up two key issues stemming from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait: the fate of more than 600 missing people and third country nations and the whereabouts of stolen property.
---
Key Elements of UN Iraq Resolution
Associated Press DECEMBER 18, 03:29 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=MIDEAST&STORYID=APIS71DKBJ00
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991218/aponline032921_000.htm
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562688127-1f0
Some key elements of the Security Council resolution adopted Friday:
-The establishment of a new inspection agency for Iraq called the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or UNMOVIC, to oversee 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.
-Two months after starting work in Iraq, the two agencies must draw up a work program that includes a list of key remaining disarmament questions they have about Iraq's weapons programs.
-Four months after the inspectors report that a system of monitoring is operational in Iraq, they must tell the council whether Iraq has ``cooperated in all respects'' with inspectors and shown progress toward answering those questions.
-Based on those reports, council members would consider suspending sanctions for an initial 120 days, renewable by council vote. Financial controls on imports remain to be worked out.
-Regardless of Iraqi cooperation, the resolution allows for immediate improvements in the humanitarian situation in Iraq 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.
---
UN's Iraq resolution begins long, divisive process
Reuters Updated 1:02 AM ET December 18, 1999 By Evelyn Leopold
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991218/01/iraq-un2
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - With the adoption of a key resolution on future Iraqi policy, the U.N. Security Council begins the contentious process of setting up a new arms commission and convincing Iraq it must work with weapons inspectors if it wants stringent sanctions suspended.
Four countries abstained in the 11-0 vote Friday, a disappointment for the United States and for Britain, which sponsored the resolution and led eight months of negotiations among the five veto-bearing permanent council members.
While abstentions from permanent members Russia and China were expected, European ally France, which had approved the text, kept members guessing until a few hours before the vote, when it announced its decision to abstain. Malaysia, one of 10 non-permanent members, also abstained.
With only two of the five permanent council members voting in favor of the resolution, Iraq is expected to reject the document for months to come. Well before its passage, Baghdad said it would not abide by the resolution, contending all its weapons of mass destruction had been scrapped, a criteria for easing any of the sanctions.
Diplomats said Russia and China did not trust Washington to suspend sanctions, imposed in August 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait, while Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was in office unless criteria for the easing them were easier to meet.
Still, they decided not to veto the resolution because the status quo was even more untenable and the document allows them to have a say on future steps Iraq should take.
The Netherlands' ambassador, A. Peter van Walsum, head of the council's Iraqi sanctions committee, chastised the four abstaining countries, saying they dragged out negotiations, weakened the original resolution and then did not vote for it.
"Rarely have so many concessions gone so unrewarded," he told the council.
The immediate benefit to Iraq, whether or not it accepts the resolution, is a lifting of the cap on its oil revenues, now fixed at $5.26 billion every six months so it can purchase humanitarian supplies, controlled by the United Nations.
The council must now approve a series of complicated measures and Secretary-General Kofi Annan must set up numerous panels on Iraq's oil industry and the streamlining of procedures under which goods are imported into Iraq.
He and the council also have to choose the head of a new arms commission. The new chairman has to select staff, draw up a work plan, including key tasks Iraq must fulfill in regard to its weapons programs.
U.N. teams hunting down President Saddam Hussein's weapons have been barred from returning to Iraq since being withdrawn a year ago. They left shortly before the United States and Britain launched missile attacks in retaliation for Iraq's failure to cooperate with U.N. weapons experts.
The seven-page 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), which has been in limbo this past year.
UNMOVIC is to be in charge of ballistic weapons and chemical and biological arms programs while the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency remains responsible for monitoring Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
Britain and the United States downplayed the abstentions Friday, stressing that the resolution was now international law and all countries had promised to abide by it.
Peter Burleigh, the U.S. deputy chief representative who led American negotiations on Iraq, called the vote "a profoundly important moment for the Security Council."
Asked about Baghdad's rejection, Burleigh said: "Iraq has virtually rejected almost every resolution to begin with, and over time it often begins some level of cooperation."
British Ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock told reporters: "It was little short of miraculous that we got to a result on this very difficult subject."
"We regret 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," he added.
France's foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, said in Berlin Friday the resolution might "give rise to an interpretation allowing some countries to keep on forever saying that the cooperation hasn't taken place."
Paris has built up close ties with Iraq over the past few years and is in a good position to reap economic benefits when the embargoes are eased, a factor French officials deny was compelling in their decision. Iraq has also chosen the Banque Nationale de Paris-Paribas, as the keeper of its U.N. escrow account for oil revenues, now at $5.4 billion.
In Washington, Paul Leventhal, president of the Nuclear Control Institute, a non-government disarmament group, strongly objected to the IAEA handling nuclear inspections.
He said the agency had "shown itself far too willing to trust and accommodate what it calls its Iraqi 'counterparts."'
The IAEA, he said, permitted Iraq to retain enough low-enriched uranium for at least two nuclear bombs if Baghdad were able to set up a small enrichment plant to upgrade the uranium. He said this could have been accomplished during the past year, during which inspections were suspended.
---
U.N. Votes to Renew Iraq Inspections
Washington Post Saturday, December 18, 1999; Page A01 By Colum Lynch and John Lancaster Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/18/180l-121899-idx.html
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 17-A year after U.N. weapons inspectors left Baghdad on the eve of American and British airstrikes, the Security Council voted today to create a new inspection agency to complete the disarmament of Iraq and, possibly, set the stage for suspending the trade embargo that has ruined its economy.
U.S. diplomats hailed the resolution as a key step toward forcing Iraq to permit the return of inspectors whose presence they regard as crucial to preventing Saddam Hussein's government from developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
But their victory was hardly complete. Of the five permanent members of the council, only the United States and Britain voted in favor of the resolution; France, Russia and China abstained. Critics in Washington said that even if Iraq decides to admit new inspectors--an outcome that is far from assured--the council's failure to achieve unanimity on the resolution could compromise their effectiveness and strengthen the hand of those who would like to see sanctions eased or eliminated.
During the months of diplomatic maneuvering that culminated in yesterday's vote, the United States and Britain agreed to a number of concessions to make the new arms agency--known as the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC)--more palatable to Iraq and its allies on the council.
The resolution, for example, stipulates that the inspectors be "drawn from the broadest possible geographical base," creates a new "college of commissioners" to oversee their work and is ambiguous about what Iraq must do to win a suspension of the sanctions. It defers many hard questions, such as the identity of the agency's new chairman and the terms under which its inspectors would return to Baghdad.
"The danger is that you end up with inspection-lite," said Richard N. Haass, director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution and the top Middle East specialist in the Bush White House. "[If] the inspections come up with nothing, then we're faced with even greater pressure to lift sanctions. . . . We will be on the defensive big-time."
Clinton administration officials, however, said they built safeguards into the resolution to ensure that the new agency will have the same powers enjoyed by its predecessor, known as UNSCOM. "We had absolutely no intention of creating a Potemkin UNSCOM," a senior official said.
The resolution, the official said, "puts the leverage in our camp" because "it recognizes that Iraq is not disarmed, that Iraq has not fulfilled any of its obligations." Moreover, he noted, the resolution specifies that Iraq must fulfill "key disarmament tasks" before the sanctions can be suspended--a step that in any event could be vetoed by the United States.
Russia had argued that Iraq should be required only to show "progress" toward disarmament, a formulation that Washington rejected as unacceptably vague.
"We've got to make sure we get a good executive chairman, a good set of commissioners and a good group of [inspectors], but we believe we can do that," the official said. "We believe we got the resolution we needed."
Rolf Ekeus, UNSCOM's first chairman and now Sweden's ambassador to Washington, said it is too early to judge the new inspection system. "I don't want to denigrate the quality of the resolution because I know how painful it has been to get it together, but it is so open in its possibilities," he said. "Strong inspections are what we should look for, and I think the resolution gives space for that--provided it is implemented in full."
Iraqi officials have said for months that they would not permit the return of inspectors, whom they have long denounced as U.S. and Israeli spies. But administration officials expressed confidence that Saddam will allow the inspections to resume once he realizes the council will not agree to ease sanctions otherwise.
The sanctions against Iraq were imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and can be lifted only after the country demonstrates that it has rid itself of programs to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. But international support for the sanctions regime has eroded in the face of widespread suffering. The United States has sought to preserve the sanctions while giving Iraq some incentive to cooperate with inspections.
The result was yesterday's resolution, which was supported by 11 of the council's 15 members. Malaysia joined the three permanent council members in abstaining.
Russia's U.N. ambassador, Sergei Lavrov, warned that Moscow would not allow the council to coerce Baghdad into cooperating. Added China's ambassador, Qin Huasun: "It is highly questionable whether the draft resolution before us could ever be implemented."
As a sweetener for Iraq and its allies, the resolution lifts the cap on the volume of oil Iraq can sell to pay for food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies. It asks the U.N. secretary general, Kofi Annan, to issue a report early next year with recommendations that could authorize hundreds of millions of dollars of repairs to Iraq's deteriorating oil industry.
On the other hand, U.S. and British officials noted that the resolution legally obligates all council members, even those who did not vote for it, to support the effort to get inspectors back into Iraq. "This resolution is now the law of the globe," said Britain's U.N. ambassador, Jeremy Greenstock, who led the diplomatic effort to pass the resolution.
The chief American negotiator, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Peter Burleigh, noted that even the critics of the resolution pledged to use their influence with Iraq to secure cooperation with the new arms agency. And while Russia and China have condemned last year's U.S. and British air raids on Iraq, their envoys said today that Baghdad needs to go along with the resolution. "We are not trying to whitewash Iraq," said Lavrov. "We believe it must resume cooperation."
The resolution demands that Iraq grant the new inspectors "immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to any and all areas, facilities, equipment, records and means of transport they wish to inspect." In order for the sanctions to be suspended, Iraq must provide "cooperation in all respects" to U.N. inspectors seeking to resolve "key remaining disarmament tasks," it says.
If Iraq meets those requirements, the sanctions barring imports of civilian goods could be suspended for renewable periods of 120 days. U.S. officials say Iraq still must comply with a long list of Security Council disarmament resolutions before sanctions can be lifted permanently.
Some disarmament experts, however, voiced concern that the negotiations may have produced a weak inspection agency. "They have kicked so many cans down the road that they will have to be able to fight at every point along this process," said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security.
Key Points of the Resolution
Arms control
The new arms watchdog, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, will replace the U.N. Special Commission. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has 30 days to appoint UNMOVIC's executive chairman.
Sanctions suspension
Sanctions could be suspended by a vote of the Security Council if UNMOVIC reports Iraq has completed key disarmament tasks and cooperated with inspectors for a 120-day test period. The benchmarks for cooperation are left deliberately vague in the resolution. Any suspension would have to be renewed every 120 days.
Oil exports
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.
Imports
The resolution will streamline procedures for importing food, medical supplies, agricultural equipment and educational items into Iraq. A list of approved goods will be drawn up without referring each item for approval, but Iraq's oil revenues will still be deposited in an escrow account to pay for the goods.
Air travel
Iraq, though still under an air embargo, can fly planes in the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
SOURCE: Reuters
---
Iraq Rejects U.N. Inspection Plan
Saturday, Dec. 18, 1999; 8:16 p.m. EST Associated Press Writer By Waiel Faleh
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991218/aponline201654_000.htm
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562699320-524
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq rejected a new U.N. policy that would return weapons inspectors to Baghdad after a yearlong absence, saying Saturday that it is prepared to face the consequences.
The Security Council passed the resolution on Friday. But Iraq's allies on the council abstained from the vote, wrecking hopes for a united front to force Iraq to cooperate in return for a possible suspension of U.N. sanctions.
Iraq, which has expressed opposition to the resolution all along, formally rejected it Saturday, with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz saying it does not meet Baghdad's "legitimate demand for the lifting of the sanctions."
Iraq is "ready to face all of the consequences in defense of its sovereignty and legal rights," the state-run Iraqi News Agency quoted Aziz as saying.
In Washington, State Department spokesman James Foley said the United States was not surprised by Aziz's statement, but added that under international law Iraq must comply with the resolution, which passed 11-0. "It has the force of law internationally, having been passed with a large majority and no votes against it," Foley said.
"The practical consequence of the Iraqi rejection is there will not be any prospect for suspension of sanctions," he said. "This proves once again that Saddam Hussein's regime apparently cares more for its weapons programs than it does for improving the welfare of its people."
Later in the day, the state-run news agency quoted President Saddam Hussein, who spoke after a medal ceremony for soldiers and army commanders. "After this long period with them (Americans) they must have learned some lessons, otherwise they are stupid since the beginning and will continue to be stupid until the end. At the end they must learn a good lesson."
Saddam appeared to be referring to the new U.N. resolution, although he did not mention it directly.
In Baghdad, several hundred Iraqis took to the streets to denounce U.S. and British air strikes on Iraq. They shouted anti-U.S. slogans at the government-orchestrated protest in the heart of the capital, and raised banners denouncing the latest U.N. resolution.
Aziz derided the United States and Britain, chief backers of the resolution, saying their true objective is "to cheat international public opinion," and not to achieve an end to U.N. sanctions, imposed in 1990 for Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
A U.N. certification that Iraq no longer possesses weapons of mass destruction was the original condition for the lifting of the sanctions. But weapons inspectors left Iraq on Dec. 16, 1998, just before the United States and Britain launched the air strikes to punish Baghdad for failing to cooperate with their efforts.
Aziz criticized the omission of any reference in the resolution to daily flights by U.S. and British warplanes over Iraq.
Allied warplanes have been patrolling over northern and southern Iraq since after the 1991 Gulf War. So-called "no-fly" zones were set up to protect Kurds in the north and Shiites in the south from the Iraqi military. Iraq has been challenging the patrols all year.
The resolution establishes a new weapons inspection agency for Iraq, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, 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.
If inspectors report full cooperation and progress toward answering outstanding disarmament questions, the resolution offers to consider suspending sanctions imposed on Iraq for renewable 120-day periods.
Russia, China, France - three of the five permanent members of the Security Council - and Malaysia abstained from voting on the resolution, allowing it to pass although they said they couldn't vote in favor of it.
"We were hoping that some of the permanent members, which had maintained balanced positions during the deliberations, would have stopped the resolution by vetoing it. However, we appreciate their abstentions," Aziz said.
The resolution also removes the $5.26 billion limit on the amount of oil Baghdad can sell over six months through the U.N. oil-for-food program.
---
Iraq Rejects U.N. Decision to Create New Arms Inspection Plan
By BARBARA CROSSETTE New York Times December 18, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121999iraq-un.html
Related Articles
U.N. Passes New Plan to Track Iraqi Arms (Dec. 18, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121899iraq-un.html
France Seeking Consensus on Iraq Inspections (Dec. 17, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121799iraq-un.html
Barring of Uranium Inspectors Raises New Concern Over Iraq (Dec. 16, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121699iraq-nuke.html
France Calls for More Talks Before U.N. Vote on Iraq (Dec. 15, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121599iraq-un.html
Iraq yesterday formally rejected the new arms inspection plan adopted by the United Nations Security Council and sent demonstrators into the streets of Baghdad to protest what the government called "another trick" perpetrated by the United States and Britain.
Iraq's deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, who is President Saddam Hussein's point man in relations with the United Nations, said the Security Council had "failed to meet Iraq's legitimate demand for a lifting of sanctions." Mr. Aziz's remarks were distributed by the official Iraqi national news agency.
On Friday, after a year of intermittent debate, the council offered the Iraqis a plan that would lead to a suspension of sanctions next year if arms inspectors working with a new disarmament commission were allowed to begin monitoring in Iraq.
If Iraq provides satisfactory answers to outstanding questions about its prohibited biological, chemical, nuclear and missile systems, the renewable 120-day suspensions could become a full lifting of the embargo Iraq has lived under since its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
The Security Council was divided over the plan, with China, France, Russia and Malaysia abstaining. Some diplomats speculated that the public division would isolate the United States and Britain and strengthen Iraq's resolve to defy the United Nations.
At the same time, the vote contained several setbacks for Mr. Hussein.
No nation friendly to Iraq vetoed the measure, although Mr. Aziz recently spent a week in Moscow apparently trying to persuade Russia to sink the plan. The council's decision also reaffirmed the principle that Iraq must meet international obligations before sanctions end.
In addition, the Iraqis had made other demands, which were not met, including the elimination of the "no flight" zones set up by the United States and Britain over northern and southern Iraq, where American air raids take place nearly daily. Iraq also insisted that sanctions be lifted before any inspectors from the new United Nations team can enter Iraq.
Few if any diplomats on the Security Council take Iraq's first rejection of the arms inspection plan at face value, as their speeches on Friday before and after the vote demonstrated. In particular, the Russians and French, Iraq's closest friends and business partners, say that the United Nations should be prepared for a long period of haggling with Baghdad.
France's representative to the United Nations, Alain Dejammet, said in an interview that it was important to recall the history of the oil-for-food program under which Iraq has been permitted to sell petroleum products to pay for food, medicine and other necessary civilian goods.
The Iraqis were initially offered that option in 1991, when the first arms inspection system was getting under way and it became apparent that disarming Iraq would take longer than planned. Iraq rejected it.
Another version was offered in 1995, and it took almost a year of negotiating before Iraq accepted it, and another year before goods began to arrive in Iraq in any significant quantities. That program has now been folded into the new resolution.
Tough negotiations with Iraq are not likely to begin this time until Secretary General Kofi Annan names an executive chairman for the new commission and a body of experts assembles to begin work in Iraq.
In the meantime, Iraq has quickly seized on another provision of the resolution: the lifting of the ceiling on how much oil Iraq can export to pay for civilian goods and the reconstruction of Iraqi public services.
Iraq will also be able to import spare parts to upgrade its oil industry and may be permitted to open new export routes, possibly starting with an existing but unused pipeline to Syria. Legal Iraqi exports are now limited to a loading station at the Persian Gulf port of Mina al-Bakr and through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Iraqi officials confirmed yesterday that oil exports, stopped to protest short-term extensions of the oil-for-food plan, had now resumed at Mina al-Bakr in Iraq.
Iraq will also benefit from another provision in the new resolution. Although the money earned from oil will still go into an escrow account managed by the United Nations, Iraq will no longer have to submit every contract purchase to the Security Council sanctions committee. Purchases by Iraq should now be approved more quickly.
Related Articles
U.N. Passes New Plan to Track Iraqi Arms (Dec. 18, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121899iraq-un.html
France Seeking Consensus on Iraq Inspections (Dec. 17, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121799iraq-un.html
Barring of Uranium Inspectors Raises New Concern Over Iraq (Dec. 16, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121699iraq-nuke.html
France Calls for More Talks Before U.N. Vote on Iraq (Dec. 15, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/121599iraq-un.html
----------- japan
Japan blames nuclear accident on disregard for safety
Nando Media December 18, 1999 8:01 a.m. EST
http://www2.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,500144068-500172140-500660102-0,00.html
http://www.nando.net/24hour/adn/global/story/0,1970,500144068-500172140-500660102-0,00.html
TOKYO (December 18, 1999 8:01 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - A government panel has blamed Japan's worst nuclear accident on a disregard for safety procedures, according to a report received Saturday.
"The accident resulted from the pursuit of efficiency at the expense of safety," the Science Agency panel said in the report acquired by The Associated Press.
Confirming the findings of other investigations, the panel said that workers at the nuclear-fuel processing plant caused the Sept. 30 disaster by mixing uranium in buckets to get the job done quickly.
It also admitted that the government had been lackadaisical about inspecting the facility because it seemed less significant than a nuclear reactor.
The investigative team will release its final report next week.
The disaster occurred when workers at the plant, located in Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, set off an uncontrolled nuclear reaction that left three people in the hospital and exposed at least 66 others to radiation. Thousands of people were forced indoors or evacuated.
The government panel said the nation must now rethink its approach to safety in the field of nuclear power, as well as in other scientific pursuits.
"If we can use this accident as an opportunity to make Japan safe again, we will be able to ensure a bright future not just for the Japanese, but for the whole human race," the Yomiuri quoted the panel as saying.
---
Japan: Nuke Plant Ignored Safety
DECEMBER 18, 12:23 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS71DS6800
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991218/aponline122456_000.htm
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562693735-6da
TOKYO (AP) - A disregard for safety procedures led to Japan's worst nuclear accident, a government panel concluded, confirming the findings of other investigations.
The Science Agency panel said in a report, obtained Saturday by The Associated Press, that workers at the nuclear-fuel processing plant caused the Sept. 30 disaster by mixing uranium in buckets to get the job done quickly.
The panel also admitted that the government had been lackadaisical about inspecting the facility because it seemed less significant than a nuclear reactor.
``The accident resulted from the pursuit of efficiency at the expense of safety,'' the panel said.
The disaster happened when workers at the plant, located in Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, set off an uncontrolled nuclear reaction that left three people in the hospital and exposed at least 66 others to radiation. Thousands of people were forced indoors or evacuated.
The panel said failure to ensure safe nuclear energy generation will hurt the nation's long-term energy plans. Japan hopes to increase reliance on nuclear energy in the upcoming decade, while reducing dependency on petroleum.
---
Japan To Issue Nuke Accident Report
Associated Press Saturday, Dec. 18, 1999; 3:39 a.m. EST http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991218/aponline033947_000.htm
TOKYO -- A government panel investigating Japan's worst nuclear accident has blamed the disaster on a disregard for safety procedures, a news report said today.
"The accident resulted from the pursuit of efficiency at the expense of safety," the national Yomiuri newspaper quoted the Science Agency panel as saying in its final report.
Confirming the findings of other investigations, the panel said that workers at the nuclear-fuel processing plant caused the Sept. 30 disaster by mixing uranium in buckets to get the job done quickly.
It also admitted that the government had been lackadaisical about inspecting the facility because it seemed less significant than a nuclear reactor, the Yomiuri said.
The investigative team will release its final report next week. Science Agency officials were unavailable Saturday to confirm the facts of the Yomiuri article.
The disaster occurred when workers at the plant, located in Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, set off an uncontrolled nuclear reaction that left three people in the hospital and exposed at least 66 others to radiation. Thousands of people were forced indoors or evacuated.
The government panel said the nation must now rethink its approach to safety in the field of nuclear power, as well as in other scientific pursuits.
"If we can use this accident as an opportunity to make Japan safe again, we will be able to ensure a bright future not just for the Japanese, but for the whole human race," the Yomiuri quoted the panel as saying
----------- korea
N.Korea Defends Missile Development
DECEMBER 18, 08:48 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS71DP1D00
TOKYO (AP) - North Korea on Saturday defended its right to develop missiles, just two days before scheduled talks aimed at thawing relations with neighboring Japan.
The communist north said in a commentary in Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers' Party newspaper, that military cooperation among Japan, the United States and South Korea gave it the right to arm itself further.
``When our national sovereignty is threatened, strengthening our defense capabilities is clearly justified,'' said the commentary carried by Korean Central Radio and monitored in Tokyo by the Radiopress agency.
The commentary said missile development ``is a quintessential national affair.''
The comments came before a scheduled two-day meeting between North Korean and Japanese government officials in China on setting up diplomatic ties. The talks are to start Monday.
Reclusive North Korea rattled nerves in Asia last year after it fired a missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific.
North Korea promised in September to refrain from further missile tests while in talks to improve relations with the United States. But Japan remains worried, and has created closer defense ties with South Korea.
The navies of South Korea and Japan in August held five days of training exercises in the East China Sea, the first joint military exercises between their nations' forces.
----------- puerto rico
Puerto Rico Leader Resigns From Senate
By MANUEL ERNESTO RIVERA Associated Press Writer Yahoo News 02:41 AM ET 12/18/99
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562687581-d4d
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (AP) _ Puerto Rico's leading independence crusader, who announced his resignation from the local senate at the U.S. Navy-owned, bomb-ravaged beach where he has been protesting for months, is hardly leaving politics.
The move by the white-bearded Ruben Berrios on Friday aims to free him to continue fighting to expel the Navy from Vieques Island _ a cause which has galvanized Puerto Ricans.
His protests have won him his highest profile ever, making him the face of Vieques. And he hopes the Vieques controversy might also boost his push for the island's independence, a cause that Puerto Ricans have increasingly dropped.
At a news conference on the beach he and fellow activists have occupied for seven months, Berrios announced his resignation, saying he didn't want his prolonged absence in effect to deprive the Independence Party of its single seat in the 28-member senate.
``The party needs a senator for next year (and) I cannot perform this function because I will be on Vieques until they arrest me or we achieve the objective of the people of Puerto Rico ... for the Navy to pull out of Vieques,'' said Berrios, who has served as senator a total of nearly 16 years over the last three decades.
The 60-year-old law professor, educated at Oxford and Yale, was briefly jailed 27 years ago for a similar civil disobedience campaign that did lead the Navy to pull out of its training and bombing ground on another outlying island, Culebra.
This time, with a nationalist tide sweeping Puerto Rico, U.S. authorities have treaded lightly with the protesters, whose campaign began after a Navy jet dropped two bombs off target and killed a civilian security guard on the bombing range.
Puerto Rico's Gov. Pedro Rossello _ who favors U.S. statehood for the Spanish-speaking U.S. territory of 4 million _ and other mainstream leaders have joined Berrios in demanding the Navy's departure from Vieques. The Navy has said the facility, as the only Atlantic live-bombing site, is essential.
President Clinton proposed a compromise this month under which the Navy resume bombings next year, but only with dummy ammunition, and withdraw entirely from Vieques within five years. That was rejected by island leaders. Negotiations in Washington _ and Berrios' occupation of the range in Vieques _ go on.
Berrios is undeterred by polls and elections that show the overwhelming majority here supports the ties to the United States that have provided U.S. citizenship and unrestricted access to mainland jobs and have filled Puerto Rico with air-conditioned malls, fast-food restaurants and sport utility vehicles.
He has argued that independence would not necessarily cost Puerto Ricans the good life, as his critics contend.
Berrios is blamed by some for his party's declining fortunes _ 3 percent for independence in a referendum a year ago _ because he toned down its socialist rhetoric and committed it to the idea of a peaceful break from the United States, which has ruled here for over a century.
Ultra-leftists and nationalists who believed in a violent struggle have left the party in droves, and the party today remains something of an intellectual preserve.
---------- us nuc weapons facilities
Tight security ordered in nuclear secrets trial
San Jose Mercury News Saturday, December 18, 1999
NATIONAL AND WASHINGTON NEWS IN BRIEF http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/natdig18.htm
A federal magistrate has imposed tight restrictions on the release of nuclear secrets in court in the case of a former scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory charged with mishandling and copying classified materials. Don Svet, a U.S. magistrate in Albuquerque, N.M., ordered that all classified information the defense seeks to introduce in the case of the former Los Alamos scientist, Wen Ho Lee, must be screened.
-----------
Extra $2.2 billion sought to build missile shield
San Jose Mercury News Saturday, December 18, 1999
NATIONAL AND WASHINGTON NEWS IN BRIEF
http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/nation/docs/natdig18.htm
The Clinton administration plans to ask Congress for an additional $2.2 billion over the next five years to build a system for guarding the United States against ballistic missile attack, a jump of about 20 percent over the $10.5 billion price tag projected only a year ago, defense officials said Friday. The administration's 2001 budget request to Congress, now in the final weeks of drafting, will reflect the increase, the officials said.
President Clinton is will decide next summer whether to proceed with plans to deploy a limited anti-missile system by 2005. But the Pentagon has begun to budget money for the program on the assumption it will receive a green light.
---------
Doing Good And Making Money
Washington Post Saturday, December 18, 1999; Page A25
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/18/000l-121899-idx.html
About halfway through Sebastian Mallaby's column "Ben & Jerry & Seattle" [op-ed, Dec. 10], I found myself feeling bad for the sad, lonely guy being profiled in the piece--and then I remembered Mallaby was talking about me. But how can that be? Neither my company nor my life in any way resembles the straw man Mallaby built to make his point.
According to Mallaby, Ben & Jerry's is bleeding so badly the sharks are circling ready to gobble up a weak company. Mallaby also seems to believe that any business-led effort for social progress, such as the national campaign I lead, Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, has stalled in the cold reality of market forces. Then he jumps to the assumption I am somehow "isolated."
Let's start with the business. According to Mallaby, our company's social values have hurt profits so much that others are ready to move in and pick up the pieces. In the final analysis, he suggests, the Ben & Jerry's experiment was a failure.
Wait a minute. Ben & Jerry's isn't bleeding money. In fact, our philosophy of taking care of all of our stakeholders--our customers, our workers, shareholders and suppliers, and our larger community--continues to pay off. Our overall sales, market share and profits continue to rise steadily.
Ben & Jerry's model has been so successful it is now being copied by hundreds of profitable companies that sell everything from mutual funds to phone service. Nobody believes anymore that in order to make a profit you have to mistreat your employees, destroy the environment and turn your back on suffering in the world. Consumers are no longer willing to excuse a company's transgressions if it claims it was "just doing business."
This idea that doing good is good for the economy is catching on in the political world as well. That is why I am now working with more than 500 business executives from such companies as Hasbro, Eastman Kodak, Phillips Van Heusen, Visa Card International, Stride Rite and Men's Warehouse, as well as Ted Turner and Paul Newman, to get the federal government to invest in the kinds of programs that will pay real dividends in the next century--programs that invest in kids. Specifically, we are targeting health care programs and education programs such as Head Start and modernizing our public schools for increased investment.
After being advised by a slate of impressive military thinkers, including former CIA director Stansfield Turner and former assistant secretary of defense Lawrence Korb, we have determined that the best way to pay for this program is to trim 15 percent from the Cold War-era Pentagon budget. By cutting our nuclear forces down to 1,000 warheads we could, over time, save $15 billion per year and still have enough firepower to destroy every major city on earth four times over. That alone is enough savings to fully fund Head Start and supply health insurance to every American child who currently doesn't have any and doesn't qualify for any other program. By canceling the F-22 fighter plane, a position supported by much of the Republican House leadership, we would save enough money to rebuild almost half the public schools in the United States in need of repair.
Poll after poll shows education and health care are among Americans' top priorities. So here I am in the company of great corporate and military minds along with the overwhelming majority of the American public. And Mallaby believes this leaves me "somewhat isolated"?
The truth is that it is the people who defend 19th-century business practices and Cold War-era budgeting who are becoming increasingly isolated. Those who disagree with me can sit around and talk it over with the likes of Al "Chainsaw" Dunlop. The unemployed bad boy of corporate restructuring might have the time.
As for me, I have too much work to do.
--Ben Cohen
The writer, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., is president of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities
----------- us nuclear shipments
Judge clears way for plutonium shipment through Michigan
By Lisa Singhania / Associated Press Detroit News Saturday, December 18, 1999
http://detnews.com/1999/metro/9912/18/12180015.htm
GRAND RAPIDS -- Hours after a federal judge in Kalamazoo removed the last legal hurdle, the U.S. Department of Energy indicated Friday that it will ship a small quantity of plutonium to Canada through Michigan.
In a 26-page opinion issued earlier in the day, Chief Judge Richard Enslen rejected a request by environmentalists for a preliminary injunction that would have blocked the transport.
The judge ruled that although the plaintiffs' contentions that the government violated the law appeared to have merit, the DOE'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 DOE spokeswoman said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "We are currently working with our Canadian government counterparts to finalize the shipment details."
Lawyers for the plaintiffs sent a letter to DOE requesting the agency voluntarily stop the shipment out of "moral obligation" to the American people. There was no immediate response to the letter, but the lawyers said the decision is not a complete loss.
"The judge indicated that he is ... going to rule that environmental projects that have potential effects on United States, even if they take place outside our boundaries, have to be considered as having environmental impacts here," said Terry Lodge, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys.
Verna Lawrence, mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, the last Michigan community the shipment will pass through before entering Canada, was less sanguine.
"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."
She said there are at least 8 inches of snow on the ground now, and she questions how the agency can guarantee there won't be an accident.
Chief Earl Commanda, chairman of the North Shore Tribal Council in Canada which demonstrated peacefully against the shipment last month, said his tribe and others in the shipment's likely route through Canada are not convinced they will be safe.
"I have no idea if we can stop it, but certainly the feeling of the communities here is that they will not allow it to come through if they can," Commanda said.
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 Interstates 94, 69, 75 and cross the Mackinac Bridge before continuing to Canada across another bridge at Sault Ste. Marie.
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 DOE did.
They contended the government had an obligation to examine the environmental consequences of Russian and Canadian actions, since the Russian plutonium used in the test will likely be transported on the Saint Lawrence Riverway before being unloaded at a Canadian dock less than a mile from the U.S. border.
And despite the government's repeated statements that the shipment is a one-time occurrence and there is no other plan for Russia to ship any more plutonium to Canada, the plaintiffs told the judge they are convinced Parallex is part of a larger U.S. effort to help Russia dispose of its plutonium in Canadian reactors. Last week, Enslen issued a temporary restraining order, which expired Friday, blocking the shipment, saying there were serious questions about whether the DOE had complied with federal rules.
In his ruling Friday, the judge said it appears likely that the plaintiffs would win in court on some of their points of contention, but that wasn't enough to stop the project.
"Plaintiffs have demonstrated a serious procedural injury which ordinarily would warrant remedy," Enslen wrote in a 26-page opinion. "However, due to the weighty considerations of United States foreign policy, nuclear non-proliferation, and the general interest of the Executive office ... the Court declines on equitable grounds to issue a preliminary injunction."
No trial date has been set yet in the case. But opponents promised the issue won't go away anytime soon.
"This is a setback for those citizens in this country who are convinced the shipment ... goes against the foreign policy of the United States," said Alice Hirt, a Holland grandmother who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. "We feel this is proliferation."
---
Plutonium can be transported across Michigan
BY KELLY LECKER Toledo Blade December 18, 1999
http://www.toledoblade.com/editorial/news/9l18plut.htm
KALAMAZOO, Mich. - A federal judge refused yesterday to stop the U.S. Department of Energy from shipping plutonium across Michigan.
The temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Enslen in Kalamazoo expired yesterday. In a 28-page ruling, the judge said he would not issue an injunction to stop the plutonium shipment.
The Department of Energy plans to move a small amount of plutonium, about 119 grams, or 4 ounces, from New Mexico to Canada as part of the Parallex Project.
The program is a joint American-Russian experiment to see if it is feasible to burn plutonium for fuel in reactors in Canada.
The United States and Russia have agreed to each dispose of four tons of surplus plutonium a year, the ruling said. The Parallex Project is part of that effort.
The shipment to Canada is supposed to go through Michigan on interstates 94, 69, and 75 before traveling over the Mackinac Bridge.
A group of Michigan residents filed suit, asking Judge Enslen to stop the shipment for several reasons.
Some of their main contentions were that the shipment would be subject to terrorism, and thus a threat to residents, and that the government failed to adequately assess the possible environmental effects of moving the plutonium.
The plaintiffs claimed the U.S. Department of Energy acted in bad faith by building the fuel rods to transport the plutonium before the assessment of how it would affect the environment was finished.
They said the government should have considered the possible impacts of the shipment from Russia to Canada as well.
The Department of Energy contended that issuing an injunction might dissuade Russia from participating in the project and would send a message to the world that the United States was not serious about disposing of plutonium.
Judge Enslen said in his ruling that the concerned citizens do have merit in their claim that the DOE violated the law in planning for the plutonium shipment.
He said in the ruling that the plaintiffs likely will succeed in their claims that the United States. was committed to the Parallex Project well before completing an environmental assessment.
But he said he would not interfere with the executive branch's direction of foreign policy.
He said in the ruling that it was a tough decision because it likely will be the last ruling before the plutonium is shipped.
He also commented on the double-edge sword that is nuclear energy.
He said that while it provides "generally limitless amounts of electricity" and the "deterrent necessary to prevent the Cold War from turning hot," it "necessitates the construction of large nuclear reactors where the smallest mistake can mean the deaths of thousands."
Alice Hirt of Holland, Mich., who was one of the plaintiffs, said the case might have to go to trial.
"We don't think they should be transporting plutonium while a trial is pending," he said. "The Cold War is over. The Department of Energy is not above the law."
She said she did not regret asking for the injunction.
"We brought this to people's attention," she said.
It is unclear when the plutonium would be shipped.
----------- us military
Airman Pleads Guilty in Anthrax Case
Yahoo News 01:15 AM ET 12/18/99
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562686579-b68
ABILENE, Texas (AP) _ An airman who refused to submit to an anthrax vaccination has been sentenced to 21 days confinement and will be discharged from the Air Force.
A military court handed down the sentence Friday to Brent Rogers, 20, who had pleaded guilty to disobeying an order and making himself unavailable for deployment.
Rogers, who will receive a non-punitive administrative discharge from the Air Force, also will be docked $500 in pay, said Lt. Wes Ticer, a spokesman at Dyess Air Force Base.
The administrative discharge was ``very important to him,'' said Rogers' attorney, Capt. Sandra Kent. The airman denied that by refusing the vaccine he intended to avoid being deployed to Saudi Arabia, his next assignment.
Anthrax is an infectious bacterial disease that can be used in biological warfare, and the Pentagon is trying to inoculate the nation's 2.4 million service personnel.
Nationally, as many as 300 servicemen have cited health concerns in refusing the inoculation.
----------- terrorism
Man Seized at Border for Explosives
By LAURENCE M. CRUZ Associated Press Writer 04:03 AM ET 12/18/99
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562688477-a58
SEATTLE (AP) _ A man charged with bringing more than 30 ounces of the highly flammable, explosive oil nitroglycerin into the United States apparently was not planning to stay in the country very long.
Ahmed Ressam, 32, was charged Friday with bringing the explosive oil into the United States from Canada, having false identification and making false statements to U.S. Customs Service officials.
The charges follow his arrest Tuesday by authorities in Port Angeles, who said he had bomb-making ingredients in the trunk of his rental car.
The timing of his arrival _ shortly before the millennial New Year's Eve _ ``is very interesting,'' said Jesse Chester, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. ``It raises a lot of questions in a lot of our minds as far as motive.''
According to court papers, Ressam had reserved a room Tuesday in a downtown motel just blocks from the Space Needle and the Seattle Center, site of the city's huge millennial New Year's Eve bash.
Court papers show that after his arrival in Seattle on Tuesday, Ressam had planned to fly to New York the next day and then on to London. He already had booked the flights.
His travel plans unraveled in Port Angeles, on the Olympic Peninsula about 60 miles northwest of Seattle, where he was arrested after fleeing Customs agents who sought to question him on his arrival by ferry from Victoria, British Columbia.
Customs officials at the ferry crossing became suspicious when Ressam's itinerary showed he had come from Vancouver and was heading to Seattle _ a 140-mile drive that does not require a trip to Vancouver Island, a ferry ride or a stop in Port Angeles, said FBI spokesman Pat Jones in Washington, D.C.
When the inspector asked about his roundabout route, Ressam became nervous, Jones said. He fled after inspectors searched his car and was caught several blocks away.
Ressam carried two Canadian driver's licenses, each in a different name, and a Canadian passport. The names were Benni Antoine Noris and Mario Roig.
At a hearing Friday, Magistrate David E. Wilson authorized the destruction of two 22-ounce jars of the highly volatile and dangerous nitroglycerine. Defense lawyers wanted to test the material but the judge ordered its disposal, citing safety concerns.
Also found in the trunk of Ressam's rented vehicle were 10 plastic bags containing 110 pounds of a white powder identified as urea, a legal substance used to make explosives and fertilizers; two plastic bags containing about 14 pounds of sulfate, used to absorb water and keep things dry; and four small black boxes containing homemade timers _ a circuit board with a Casio watch and a nine-volt battery, court papers said.
``Preliminary analysis disclosed that when these materials are combined with a detonator, it would produce a large explosive device,'' court documents said.
Federal authorities did not say during the hearing what Ressam planned to do with the materials or why he was coming to the United States. His lawyers refused to comment. He was being held without bail pending arraignment Wednesday.
Calls made Friday night to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's office and Customs officials, to gauge the potential impact of such a device, were not returned to The Associated Press.
``This was an operation to blow something up. It's hard to see what else it could be,'' Vincent Cannistraro, a former chief of counter-terrorism at the CIA, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for today's editions. Cannistraro is a security consultant in McLean, Va.
Documents found on Ressam showed he recently traveled across Canada from Montreal to British Columbia by airplane and rented a car. He and a second, unidentified man, had apparently been living for the past three weeks in a British Columbia motel.
The second man was not mentioned in court papers. No other information was immediately available about him.
Court documents also show that Ressam has been the subject of a Canadian immigration arrest warrant, faced a British Columbia arrest warrant for theft under $5,000 and had a Canadian criminal record for theft under $5,000.
---
Experts Fear of Terrorist Attacks
By LUIS CABRERA Associated Press Writer Yahoo News 07:12 PM ET 12/18/99
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562698225-009
SEATTLE (AP) _ The arrest of an Algerian who allegedly drove a trunkful of bomb-making materials aboard a ferryboat into Washington state has raised fears that terrorists may be planning to strike in the United States during millennial New Year celebrations.
Ahmed Ressam was arrested Tuesday after taking a ferry to Port Angeles from Victoria, British Columbia. Two security experts believe reputed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden is behind the Port Angeles incident, and federal authorities increased security along U.S. borders.
Ressam's arrest was the latest event some people say point to planned terrorism during year 2000 celebrations.
In Arizona, authorities are investigating the theft of some 1,000 pounds of explosive materials from a mining camp.
Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA counter-terrorism chief, noted that federal authorities were warning tourists who planned to travel abroad about possible attacks. Now, it appears those attacks could take place on American soil.
``There is a foreign terrorist threat in the United States that I don't think we were aware of,'' said Cannistraro, who now is a private security consultant in McLean, Va.
Customs officials found bomb materials in Ressam's rented car, including two 22-ounce jars of nitroglycerine, a flammable, explosive oil, and 10 plastic bags containing 118 pounds of a white powder identified as urea, a legal substance used to make explosives and fertilizers.
``The capture of this guy at Port Angeles I think has taken everybody by surprise,'' Cannistraro said. ``They weren't looking for something to happen (in the United States), but clearly something was going to happen here.''
U.S. Customs Service spokesman Dennis Murphy said Saturday that because of Ressam's arrest, security had been tightened across the borders.
``Effective today we are assigning additional inspectors .... and redoubling our awareness level throughout the entire agency,'' he said.
Both Cannistraro and Larry Johnson, a former CIA agent and State Department deputy director for counter-terrorism, said they are certain the Port Angeles attempt was orchestrated by bin Laden.
The U.S. government believes bin Laden heads a terrorist network and is accused of involvement in the bombings last year of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Bin Laden was believed the reason for the State Department's warning to tourists earlier this month, citing ``credible evidence'' of terrorist threats aimed at Americans traveling abroad for millennial celebrations.
Ressam, 32, had reserved a room under a false name for last Tuesday at a motel a few blocks from the Seattle Center, downtown site of a New Year's celebration under the Space Needle expected to draw 60,000 people.
The intended target could have been ``the Space Needle or other tourist magnets throughout the season,'' Cannistraro said, noting that four timer devices were seized, each of which could have been used to make ``anti-personnel'' devices ``to kill as many people as possible in a public area.''
Cannistraro said the timers _ Casio watches on circuit boards with 9-volt batteries _ are identical to those used in attacks linked to bin Laden in the Philippines and Moscow.
Johnson said there may be further attempts by foreign groups to organize a terrorist attack on U.S. soil, but the bar to success will be high.
``The FBI has a lot of resources to throw at this,'' he said by phone from Silver Spring, Md., where he is a partner in a private security firm.
Debbie Weyerman, FBI spokeswoman at Washington D.C., headquarters, said the bureau is prepared to deal with any terrorist threat.
Ressam was charged Friday in federal court with bringing nitroglycerin into the United States, in addition to a charge of having false ID and making false statements to U.S. Customs officials.
Domestic terrorism also is a real possibility, Johnson said, though he noted that no domestic attacks had been recorded in the last two years. The FBI this year released ``Project Megiddo,'' a report warning of potential domestic terrorism related to new millennium.
In Arizona, officials are investigating the theft of 1,000 pounds of explosives from a mining camp. There was no immediate link to terrorism, but the amount taken _ enough to level a high-rise _ has raised concern.
In the Sacramento, Calif., suburb of Elk Grove, federal agents are investigating an alleged plot by two men to blow up two massive propane tanks.
The men hoped that blowing up the tanks would force federal authorities to declare martial law, leading to social unrest that would eventually topple the U.S. government, according to an affidavit filed by federal agents.
---
Potential Bomb Materials Stolen
07:04 AM ET 12/18/99 By MICHELLE RUSHLO Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562690420-448
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) _ Federal agents questioned rock quarry workers and examined footprints and tire tracks in an effort to determine who stole 1,000 pounds of explosive materials.
Authorities said Friday about 750 pounds of fuel-soaked ammonium nitrate, 225 pounds of dynamite, 6,000 feet of detonation cord and roughly 20 blasting caps were stolen from locked storage at the flagstone quarry.
The thefts occurred either Monday or Tuesday.
The materials are common mining equipment but also could be used to make a bomb strong enough to level a high-rise building, authorities said.
Ammonium nitrate was the main ingredient in the 4,800-pound device used to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995; 168 people were killed.
``If someone knew what they were doing, they could do a lot of damage,'' said Larry Bettendorf, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
The materials had been kept in two locked steel-plated boxes beside a dirt road in an area to which at least a dozen employees normally have access, authorities said.
``This is a very remote site,'' Bettendorf said. ``There was no security.''
Authorities would not say how the boxes were opened and said they also were looking into the late reporting of the theft. Workers apparently noticed the theft Monday or Tuesday, but didn't report it until Thursday.
Company officials could not be reached for comment.
The ATF, which regulates explosives and firearms, had 11 agents examining the site _ a remote, rocky canyon west of Flagstaff.
Bettendorf said there was no known motive.
``We don't know what their intention is, that's part of our concern,'' he said.
Coconino County Sheriff Joe Richards said authorities knew of no threats related to the theft and that no suspects had been identified.
----------- y2k
Pentagon Confident on Y2K Readiness
By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer DECEMBER 16, 13:42 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=TECHNOLOGY&STORYID=APIS71CJ5800
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pentagon leaders have ``100 percent confidence'' the far-flung network of computers controlling U.S. nuclear forces, early warning radars and other vital defense systems will operate normally in the new year, a top Pentagon official said Thursday.
``We anticipate absolutely no problems in the Department of Defense,'' John Hamre, the deputy secretary of defense, told a news conference. He said the Pentagon spent $3.6 billion to make 99.9 percent of its thousands of computer systems Y2K ready.
He and other Pentagon officials were less certain, however, about the potential for Y2K-related problems in other countries that could affect U.S. troops overseas.
``I think you can anticipate there are going to be some problems'' with computer systems abroad, Hamre said. He added, however, there is little likelihood these problems would lead to military hostilities.
``I think we're going to be fine,'' Hamre said.
As a precaution, as 1999 ends, all U.S. troops stationed abroad will operate at a slightly higher alert level than those in the United States, said Adm. Bob Willard, a Y2K planner for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Pentagon counts 2,101 of its computer systems as ``mission critical,'' meaning their operation is vital to the military carrying out its duties around the globe. Of those, only two are not ready for Y2K, Hamre said. Those two, which operate intelligence systems, will not be needed until May.
Another 5,488 Pentagon computers are ``non mission critical.'' All but 10 of them have been made Y2K compliant.
There is no way to be sure if the Russian military will have significant problems come Jan. 1, Hamre said. Russian officials have assured Washington they expect no major problems.
``We have 100 percent confidence on our side,'' Hamre said, and are reasonably confident the Russians are ready, too.
A group of 18 to 20 Russian military officers will join a like number of American officers at a Center for Y2K Strategic Stability in Colorado Springs, Colo., starting Dec. 28, to share missile early-warning radar data. The purpose is to reassure both Washington and Moscow that neither side misinterprets any missile-related activity or radar failures around the globe during the Y2K rollover, Hamre said.
Also, the Washington-Moscow ``hot line'' communication system to be used in time of crisis has been made Y2K ready, Hamre said.
``We really do not worry about Russia's missiles going off,'' Hamre said. He acknowledged, however, the Pentagon has very little firsthand knowledge of the degree of Russian preparations for Y2K.
``A lot of our confidence is based on what they tell us,'' Hamre said, as well as the knowledge that Moscow historically has taken great pains to ensure the Kremlin has firm control over its military forces.
``Russia is a society and a military establishment that has placed an enormous premium on positive control of the forces from the central leadership,'' he said.
The Y2K bug stems from programming in older software that expresses only the last two digits of a year. Uncorrected systems cannot distinguish between 2000 and 1900 and might suffer complications after Dec. 31.
Hamre said the Pentagon anticipates encountering computer viruses that have been set up by hackers to activate at midnight Dec. 31. ``We're apprehensive enough about it that we put special watch procedures in place,'' Hamre said.
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Power Grid Y2K Fears in E. Europe
Associated Press Sunday, Dec. 19, 1999; 12:10 p.m. EST By Anca Paduraru
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991219/aponline121044_000.htm
BUCHAREST, Romania -- The official line in much of eastern Europe goes like this: Computers aren't used as much as in the highly automated West, so the Y2K problem is less of a concern.
True, many computers in former East bloc nations are late-generation, increasing the chances that they are bug-free. And much government record-keeping is still manual, like Romania's Social Security records.
"I am not worried; things are under control," says Iuliu Bara, the Romanian government's Y2K coordinator.
But older computer systems that are most vulnerable to the millennium bug do exist, and often they control sectors like energy - which in Romania harbors the greatest potential for failure.
Y2K analysts and Western governments are worried about the power grids of Romania and other eastern European nations from the Baltic states to the Balkans. Because the region's power grids are interconnected, failures in one country could trigger a temporary collapse of a neighbor's network.
Aging Soviet-era nuclear power plants provide much energy to these countries. And while experts are reasonably certain Y2K-triggered failures at such plants would not lead to meltdowns or radiation releases, there is concern about widespread blackouts.
Adding to the uncertainty is Russia. Many of these countries get the bulk of their oil and gas from that vast eastern neighbor, whose ability to deliver fuel is in question because of poor Y2K readiness.
Many Romanians are anxious.
"What might happen is so terrible that not even during the World War II did Romania experience such a thing," offers 79-year-old retiree Elena Ionidi, who lives alone in a 10th-floor apartment.
If power fails, Ionidi's elevator wouldn't work and the electric pumps that lift water to her apartment would halt.
Officially, Romania's national electricity company Conel says it held readiness tests, but company sources who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press no such tests have occurred.
In many former Soviet bloc nations, old government secrecy habits die hard. With less transparency on Y2K readiness, crossing fingers and hoping for the best is often the rule of thumb.
"We don't actually know the extent of the possible damage because anything can happen - from nothing to a major disaster," said Dan Georgescu, an information technology official at Bucharest's water company.
While declining to specify areas of concern, the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest has advised Americans there to be prepared to "tough it out" a few days if the power goes out and recommended they have a full tank of gas and extra batteries, candles and cash.
Worried about disruptions in electricity and natural gas deliveries, Bulgaria's government declared Jan. 3 a holiday and the smaller of the nation's two oil refineries said it would suspend operations during the New Year's rollover.
In Estonia, the power company recently conducted tests that separated parts of its electrical grid from a regional network that includes Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus.
"We're just operating on the assumption Russia will have trouble," said the company's Y2K project manager, Toomas Tutt.
Fearing blackouts, Hungary's hospitals will perform only emergency surgery over New Year's and send ambulatory patients home, the country's hospital association director was quoted as saying.
In Poland, the state railway director, Tadeusz Sawa, rated just 14 of the 33 local power companies well-prepared for Y2K. All trains in Poland will halt, possibly for as long as 45 minutes, shortly before midnight Dec. 31.
Energy is not the region's only worry. Government records and health care systems in many countries are not fully Y2K-compliant.
Officials in Moldova expect power outages and anticipate failures in the railway network and police department. In Slovakia, work remains unfinished on purging life-sustaining medical devices of the Y2K bug. Officials say some patients may have to be transferred from less-prepared hospitals.
To be on the safe side, Hungary is closing its banks from Dec. 30 to Jan. 3; Romania from New Year's Eve through Jan. 3. Poland's banks will be closed Dec. 31 so employees can print out all balances before midnight.
Many eastern Europe officials boast that they have a Y2K advantage because so many of their computers are relatively new and thus bug-free.
Not necessarily true, says Y2K researcher Andrea Di Maio of the Gartner Group.
"It's been found that 47 percent of 1998 PCs weren't Y2K-compliant," he said. "If there are people who believe they don't have a problem because they have new computers, they could be in trouble."
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Gas, Electric Firms Said Y2K-Ready
By LAWRENCE L. KNUTSON Associated Press Writer DECEMBER 17, 04:29 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=TECHNOLOGY&STORYID=APIS71D05000
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.
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Y2K LOG A Millennium Potpourri
Washington Post Saturday, December 18, 1999; Page C01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/18/135l-121899-idx.html
The approach of the millennium has caused the following to happen:
* CAIRO--French musician Jean-Michel Jarre is planning a high-tech sunset-to-sunrise electronic opera among the pyramids on New Year's Eve, featuring 1,000 singers, dancers and musicians and, as a midnight climax, a helicopter lowering a golden sheath on the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
* SANTA CRUZ, Calif.--The Nuclear Whales Saxophone Orchestra (www.nuclearwhales.com) has been invited to China to lead a concert of 1,000 saxophones atop the Great Wall for China's New Millennium Gala next May 1.
----------- us politics
Excerpts From Democratic Debate
DECEMBER 18, 01:10 EST By The Associated Press
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ELECTION&STORYID=APIS71DIAOO0
Excerpts from Friday's debate in Nashua, N.H., between Democratic presidential candidates Vice President Al Gore and former Sen. Bill Bradley as transcribed by the Federal Document Clearing House and shown on ABC's ``Nightline'' program:
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On how to prevent school violence:
GORE: We need to get rid of the guns, get them out of the hands of the people who shouldn't have them. We should have a policy of zero tolerance in schools.
I think we need better parenting. And I don't think that's a cop-out, I think we need to focus on the policies that make it easier for parents to balance work and family, and take more time off to be with their children, to have more attention to their needs.
I think, also, we need more self-restraint in the media. You know, 20,000 murders viewed by the average child by the time of high school graduation is just ridiculous.
BRADLEY: I think that the first thing that we need--and this is not in order of priority--the first thing we need is common-sense gun control in this country that keeps guns out of the hands of children.
I'm the only candidate in this race who's called for mandatory licensing and registration of all handguns in this country. I would like to take all gun dealers out of residential neighborhoods, so that if kids walk down the block, they can't get the gun in a basement that they have to go to a commercial place at least where they can be better policed.
And I believe that the media has some responsibility. When I look at--whether it's gun dealers or tobacco companies, or large media enterprises, I think they have to be careful about putting their own personal financial interests ahead of all of us. And there needs to be a new ethic of responsibility in this country.
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On health care:
BRADLEY: I think we have to help middle-class Americans also pay for their health coverage, and we have to help cover 44 million Americans who don't have any health insurance.
I've offered a plan to do that. It's a plan that will make access to affordable health care available to everyone in this country. It saves billions of dollars in waste and fraud. It provides a prescription drug benefit for the elderly.
And I think that the question that I would ask Al is that the difference, the main difference between our programs is that I do provide access to affordable quality health care for all Americans and his plan does not.
So my question to you is, who will you leave out? Will you leave out the part-time worker who doesn't have health insurance? Will you leave out the downsized middle-class industrial worker who loses health insurance?
GORE: Look, there are teaching hospitals in New England right now that are short of Medicare funds. They're nursing homes, and home health care agencies, and rehabilitative services, and rural hospitals that need more Medicare funding right now.
We're going to see a doubling of the Medicare population over the next 30 years. The baby boomer generation is getting ready to retire. Everybody knows that more money has to be made available to Medicare. Now when you eliminate the whole surplus without saving a penny for Medicare, that is a serious problem for our economy.
On fighting terrorism:
BRADLEY: I think that we have to make sure that we have an approach to terrorism that is across the board. It has to include the best intelligence in the world. It has to include a credible threat, a response if terrorism takes place, going after them wherever they are.
It must also include a degree of honesty with the American people about the possibility that, in the next decade, there could be an act of terrorism in our homeland, which means we also have to involve the public health authorities and the civil defense authorities.
I think that if you put all of those together you have a strategy that allows you to deal with terrorism in the world. But the key thing is to make sure that the government is organized in a way that you get support among all agencies aimed at countering terrorism and not have the authority dispersed in a lot of different agencies in the government.
GORE: I think that we need robust budgets and personnel rosters in the counterintelligence agencies and bureaus - the FBI and CIA.
I think we've also got to work with our allies, and not only on the weapons of mass destruction, but also on the delivery systems. Along with John McCain, I was the author of the Gore-McCain legislation to focus these efforts to stop the flow of technology not only on the components of the weapons of mass destruction, but also on the delivery systems themselves.
And finally, I think that we need to look at this in the broader context and realize that that's yet another reason why it's so important for the United States of America to use our moral authority and leadership in the world to try to bring more peace with security.
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On relations with China and Taiwan:
GORE: We have been very careful not to tip our hand to either Taiwan or mainland China in saying: Here are exactly the circumstances that will lead to the United States getting militarily involved. Because, frankly, we don't want to embolden the hotheads or the hard-liners on either side of the Taiwan Straits to take some rash action.
Now, some kinds of missile defense systems are well within the bounds of the relationship. Others are not. We have a debate here in our country about when we cross the line that might threaten the future of the ABM Treaty, how we can get modifications to the ABM Treaty.
We sent the fleet right down through the Straits of Taiwan when there was a threat from mainland China, without ever saying a word about it publicly. And I think that the kind of diplomacy that has pushed both sides toward a peaceful resolution of the long-standing problems that they have is what we ought to pursue.
BRADLEY: I think we have to be very direct with both the Taiwanese and the Chinese. I think that we should say to the Taiwanese, any direct and serious moves towards independence would jeopardize our support for them. I think we ought to say to the Chinese, under the Taiwan Relations Act, we are required to take appropriate responses and that we would take appropriate responses if they decided, militarily, to move onto the island of Taiwan.
The balance here is very important. And I think that if we send that message, that - to both sides, that what we're going to really do is wait in the long run. You know, the presidential election is going on, the idea is there are some people who are running in Taiwan who would seek to have a better relationship with mainland China. That would begin to solve a lot of problems.
We have to bank on the long term. The Chinese believe in a kind of time that is very long. And so we tend to be involved with instant gratification. We have to appreciate the opportunity that we have.
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On politics and religion:
BRADLEY: All right. I think that a person's religious faith is the deepest, most intimate aspect of their lives. It goes to the very essence of their belief. And I believe that one must respect the religious faith of another person. I think when someone makes an open expression of their faith, it is something that I respect, whether they are a politician, or whether they are a banker or a plumber. But I think each politician then has to decide how they handle this in a world where you're running to be president of the United States.
In may own case, I've decided that that personal faith is private, and I will not discuss it with the public. So I am not going to get into the kind of things you saw in that debate in Iowa last week. And I think it's every candidate's personal choice. I respect anyone that handles it any way they choose to handle it, but that's how I choose to handle it.
GORE: I strongly support the separation of church and state. The bedrock principle on which our nation was founded, was the search for religious freedom, which clearly meant freedom from government interference in religion.
And I think that carries with it not only an obligation to respect the Constitution. For example, I think the Constitution forbids the teaching of evolution in schools, unless - except in religion class, not in science class.
And I think it also means that every single person in our public life ought to recognize an obligation to communicate tolerance of all religious faiths and traditions, especially the religious faiths and traditions that are held to by a minority in our country. That's what we're all about, religious freedom.
On education:
GORE: Now, I personally always opposed the vouchers. That's been a big disagreement for 18 years between Senator Bradley and myself. And Senator Bradley has not put forward a plan to turn around failing schools, or to lift up our public schools. I think that if you look at that ad, with those young people involved there - not represented there, I think that it's one of many signs that we simply have to do a lot more - not to have incremental improvement, not to settle for small changes, but to bring about truly revolutionary improvements.
Treat teachers like professionals. Reduce the class size. Have higher standards. Have teacher testing for new teachers. Make it easier within due process to get rid of the teachers who are not doing a good job.
BRADLEY: Al said that I hadn't offered an education program.
I think that shows the difference between us. If your staff had checked the proposals I've made, they would have found that there's an education component of almost each one of the proposals.
The difference is, I view education as integrated into the lives of people where they're living their lives, not as a program that comes from Washington. I believe in a strong federal commitment to education.
Now, I also think, as I said earlier, there's another element here, and it is violence. And that's why mandatory licensing and registration of all handguns is the way you make those schools safer.
And then, finally, Al mentioned the issue of vouchers. Yes, I did support some experimental programs in vouchers over 18 years in the Senate. But I do not believe that vouchers are the answer to the problems of public education.
...And I have never supported, even in experimental, any voucher program that took any public money from public education in this country.
-
On sending someone to Mars by 2010:
GORE: You know, when President--when Vice President Johnson advised President Kennedy that he should set that goal, it was partly because the best scientific opinion of the day was that we already knew all of the essential steps that had to be taken to reach that goal.
It was a question of implementing them properly. Yes, it was a bold vision. But we knew that if we did it the right way, we could do it.
With Mars there are two distinctions. Number one, as the recent two failures of these robotic landers show, there's still a lot we don't know. Second, the cost is in a completely different order of magnitude as the cost of a moon program.
There's no doubt that, eventually, we will land a human being on Mars. But we are right now, not at a point of where it makes good sense to outline that. We've got to get to universal health care. We've got to revolutionize our schools.
BRADLEY: Now, my personal view of the answer to your question is no. I will not set a target to get to Mars by any particular date. I will not do that, because I haven't been convinced that we can do so in a period of time. I think investment in space is important. Investment in space is important because of the research fallout. I would continue to make investment in space, but I would not make a commitment to Mars by a particular date.
I think that we need research in all areas of our national government. We need to increase research for the National Institutes of Health. I've been surprised that research in the Defense Department has dropped from $54 billion to $38 billion. We need more research in defense.
I think that you have to see the space program in the context of the kind of breakthroughs in subsidiary developments that you get from making that kind of commitment. So the commitment would stay strong, but no, the answer is, I wouldn't commit to a date certain for Mars.