-------- china
China building air-defense site
Washington Times December 22, 1999 By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/world/news3-19991222.htm
A U.S. spy satellite photographed construction of a surface-to-air missile base near the Chinese coastal city of Zhangzhou. The Pentagon sees this as part of the continuing military buildup against Taiwan.
China has begun construction of a new air-defense missile site near Taiwan that the Pentagon views as part of Beijing's military buildup near the island, according to defense officials.
A U.S. spy satellite photographed construction of the surface-to-air missile base in late November near the coastal city of Zhangzhou, about 175 miles due west of Taiwan, said officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The exact type of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) to be deployed at the base is not known. However, Pentagon intelligence agencies believe the SAM site will have either Russian-design SA-10s or China's indigenous CSA-1s.
The SA-10 is considered by Pentagon officials to be an advanced air-defense system capable of shooting down aircraft, cruise missiles and some ballistic missiles as far as 62 miles away. The systems are transportable and usually deployed in batteries of several launchers, each loaded with four missiles and tracking radar vehicles.
"They will be operational in the spring," said one official familiar with missile-construction reports.
Reports of the air-defense construction come amid growing tensions between Taiwan and the mainland over other military developments.
Taiwan's government announced this month that it might build long-range missiles to counter China's buildup of up to 600 short-range missiles at bases near Taiwan.
The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency reported to senior U.S. officials two weeks ago that China is building up its short-range missiles at two new bases near Taiwan that will give Beijing new attack capabilities.
Scores of new CSS-7 missiles will be deployed at the bases Xianyou and Yongan, and a third base further away at Leping already has CSS-6 missiles. Together, the bases will be able to fire missile barrages that can strike all of Taiwan's military bases with little or no warning, the DIA said.
The surface-to-air missiles at Zhangzhou are part of efforts to defend a major air base for the People's Liberation Army, which has been flying its warplanes close to the line of separation that runs down the middle of the Taiwan Strait.
China recently completed the deployment of 24 H-5 fighter bombers and six F-7 jets to Zhangzhou as part of the increased flights over the Taiwan Strait, the officials said. The jets returned to their home bases, although several F-8 reconnaissance aircraft remained based there.
Since July, when China reacted harshly to statements made by Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui about Taiwan's status as a "state," Chinese and Taiwanese jets have been engaged in a war of nerves over the strait.
President Clinton told reporters this month that the Chinese military is "modernizing . . . in a lot of ways." He said, however, that the dispute between the mainland and Taiwan must be resolved through "cross-strait dialogue" and that "we oppose and would view with grave concern any kind of violent action."
The president spoke in response to reports of the missile buildup that first appeared in The Washington Times.
Raymond F. Burghardt, director of the American Institute in Taiwan, the official U.S. government officer there, said in a speech Friday that the United States is closely watching China's buildup near Taiwan.
"We are well aware of [the People's Republic of China's] efforts to upgrade its military capability, and we understand Taiwan's concerns about being a target of that upgraded capability," he said. "We have noted the PRC's increased deployment of short-range ballistic missiles opposite Taiwan in recent years."
Mr. Burghardt said the buildup affects the decisions Washington makes about relations with China and Taiwan.
The United States, he noted, has helped Taiwan's air defenses by supplying E-2 airborne early-warning aircraft, Nike, HAWK and Chaparral anti-aircraft missiles and Patriot-type anti-aircraft missiles, along with 150 F-16 fighters.
Taiwan's Perry-class frigates also are armed with U.S. SM-1 standard anti-aircraft missiles "for protection of sea lines of communication."
However, Mr. Burghardt said the United States has not decided to provide Taiwan with anti-missile systems to counter the short-range missile threat.
Regional anti-missile defenses are "very much in the conceptualization and development stage," he said.
"Deployment is years away," he said. "We have briefed Taiwan, as we have other friends, on [theater missile defense]. We do not preclude providing TMD to Taiwan, but it is premature to make that decision now. And we must remember above all, TMD or any other military solution will not be the only or even the most important factor in ensuring Taiwan's future security."
Asked about the construction of a new surface-to-air missile base, Chinese Embassy press counselor Yu Shuning said such stories are part of an effort to highlight "the so-called China threat."
"As a sovereign state, we have the right to deploy weapons and armed forces within our territory," Mr. Yu said. "I don't think anyone would ask the U.S. government for information about its development of weapons in Alaska."
"We do not interfere in the internal affairs of other states, and we do not accept interference in our internal affairs," he said.
Mr. Yu said any inclusion of Taiwan within U.S. regional missile defenses would be "a gross encroachment on China's sovereignty."
-------- japan
Death fuels calls for N-retreat in Japan
Deseret News Wednesday, December 22, 1999 Associated Press
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,145013260,00.html?
TOKYO - The death of a worker exposed to a massive dose of radiation in Japan's worst nuclear accident fueled calls Wednesday for a slowdown in the country's atomic energy program.
Hisashi Ouchi, 35, died late Tuesday from radiation exposure he suffered in the Sept. 30 accident at a uranium-processing plant.
Critics of nuclear power said Wednesday that the death was evidence that Japan - which relies on nuclear power for 30 percent of its electricity - needs to rethink its energy policy.
"Ouchi's death signifies the loss of Japan's trust in technology," said Masako Sawai, of the Citizens Nuclear Information Center. "The government will be forced to change its nuclear policy, otherwise we fear Japanese engineers cannot prevent worse accidents from occurring."
About 60 protesters gathered Wednesday at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, the site of the 1945 atomic bomb attack, to urge the government to abandon its development of nuclear power, Kyodo News agency said.
An investigation into the accident at Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, found that workers at the plant routinely violated safety procedures, including mixing uranium in buckets to get the job done quickly.
Two workers in addition to Ouchi were severely injured in the accident. Wednesday, the government revised the tally of those exposed to radiation to 150, more than twice the previous count of 69.
The 81 additional people took part in the cleanup and investigation following the accident, the Science and Technology Agency said.
Greenpeace Japan urged the government Wednesday to cancel a program to develop reactors that produce plutonium.
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, however, promised only to step up safety standards.
"I think it is our duty to have the government, nuclear facility operators and other related institutions put top priority on safety, so that such an accident will never be repeated," Obuchi was quoted as saying by Kyodo.
Ouchi's chances for survival had been weak from the start, hospital director Yuji Taketani told reporters Wednesday. He was exposed to 17,000 times the maximum amount of radiation considered safe for a year in Japan.
One of the other two workers was released from the hospital Monday. The other remained hospitalized after receiving a skin transplant. His condition was not considered life-threatening.
---
Worker injured in Japan's worst nuclear accident dies
Critics say fatality signifies loss of Japan's trust in technology
Spokesman Review December 22, 1999 Scott Stoddard - Associated Press
http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=122299&ID=s722897&cat=
http://www.ardemgaz.com/today/nat/wworld22.html
http://www.foxnews.com/world/122199/japan.sml
http://www.seattlep-i.com/national/wrld227.shtml
http://detnews.com/1999/nation/9912/22/12220180.htm
TOKYO -- A worker who was severely injured in Japan's worst nuclear accident died late Tuesday, more than two months after being hit with a massive dose of radiation.
He was the nation's first fatality from radiation exposure caused by an accident at a nuclear facility.
Hisashi Ouchi, 35, had been in critical condition since the Sept. 30 accident at a uranium-reprocessing plant. He died after suffering various symptoms of radiation sickness, Tokyo University Hospital spokesman Hisao Yanagisawa said.
The accident in Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, severely undermined the public's faith in Japan's aggressive nuclear power program. It followed a string of smaller accidents at plants here.
Critics of nuclear power said the death was further evidence that Japan needs to rethink its energy policy. The country relies on atomic energy for about one-third of its electricity.
"Ouchi's death signifies the loss of Japan's trust in technology," said Masako Sawai, of the Citizens Nuclear Information Center. "The government will be forced to change its nuclear policy, otherwise we fear Japanese engineers cannot prevent worse accidents from occurring."
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi offered condolences to Ouchi's family and promised efforts to prevent the recurrence of nuclear accidents.
"The government has been working so that such an accident will never be repeated," Obuchi was quoted as saying by Kyodo News agency.
Two other workers were severely injured in the accident, which happened when Ouchi and another worker mixed uranium with nitric acid to make fuel and accidentally put too much uranium in the tank. That set off an atomic reaction.
The accident exposed at least 66 other people to less serious doses of radiation. Thousands of people living near the plant were forced indoors or evacuated.
Ouchi's body was devastated by the exposure, which Kyodo said was about 17,000 times the maximum amount Japanese standards consider safe for an entire year. After the accident, Ouchi's white blood cell count reportedly plummeted to nearly zero, effectively depriving him of an immune system.
An investigation into the Tokaimura accident found that workers at the plant, operated by JCO Co., routinely violated safety procedures, including mixing uranium in buckets to get the job done quickly.
---
Worker dies after Japanese nuclear leak
ABC News Wed, 22 Dec 1999 13:25 AEDT
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-22dec1999-52.htm
One of the Japanese workers exposed to massive doses of radiation in Japan's worst nuclear accident has died in hospital.
His death has brought a promise from the Japanese Prime Minister to tighten surveillance on Japan's nuclear industry to ensure the accident is not repeated.
Nuclear fuel factory worker Hisashi Ouchi, 35, died of multiple organ failure in a Tokyo hospital last night, 83 days after the nuclear accident at Tokaimura.
He was one of three workers who, when pushed to meet a production deadline, inadvertently mixed seven times the maximum dose of uranium, sparking a nuclear chain reaction that poured dangerous levels of radiation into the atmosphere and poisoned the workers.
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi sent his condolences to Ouchi's family and promised to tighten safety regulations in Japan's nuclear fuel processing plants, as well as to improve Japan's poor emergency response to nuclear accidents.
---
Worker in Japan Worst Nuclear Accident Dies
Reuters Updated 2:42 PM ET December 21, 1999
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991221/14/international-nuclear-death
TOKYO (Reuters) - One of three workers exposed to heavy doses of radiation in Japan's worst nuclear accident died Tuesday, a hospital spokesman said.
The death of Hisashi Ouchi, 35, was the first in Japan from a nuclear power-related accident.
The incident occurred at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, about 90 miles northeast of Tokyo, on September 30.
Ouchi and his two colleagues suffered high levels of radiation exposure from the accident and Ouchi's condition had worsened since his heart temporarily failed late in November.
Japanese media said he died of multiple organ failure.
Ouchi received 17 sieverts of radiation in the accident, the equivalent to about 17,000 times the average annual normal exposure in Japan. Experts have said seven sieverts was considered a lethal dose.
One of Ouchi's colleagues, Yutaka Yokokawa, 54, Monday morning left the Chiba Radiation Research Center where he was taken after the Tokaimura accident, hospital officials said.
Yokokawa's condition had been the least serious of the three.
A third worker, Masato Shinohara, 39, remains hospitalized and doctors said Monday that they did not know when and whether he would be able to leave.
The three workers were injured after they put nearly eight times the proper amount of condensed uranium into a mixing tank, setting off a nuclear chain reaction.
The accident was ranked at "four" on a seven-point scale -- a level indicating little off-site risk. At least 69 people were exposed to radiation according to the government count.
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine was rated seven.
Japan's government came under heavy fire after the accident for its lax supervision of the nuclear industry and its sluggish response and in a session of parliament ended last week passed a set of bills aimed at strengthening nuclear safety.
The head of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday that Japan's accident had highlighted the need for tighter international standards of training and technology in the industry.
"We need to tighten international standards, we need to make sure that there is continuing training to avoid any sense of complacency, and we need to continue to improve the technology," IAEA director general Mohammad el-Baradei said in an interview in Singapore.
Baradei said the atomic watchdog had told Tokyo it was ready to hold an international evaluation meeting on the accident but that Japan's government had not yet responded.
---
Nuclear Worker Dies in Japan
Washington Post 12/22/99
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/22/213l-122299-idx.html
TOKYO--More than two months after absorbing a massive dose of radiation, a worker injured in Japan's worst nuclear accident died. He was the country's first person to die from radiation exposure caused by an accident at a nuclear facility.
Hisashi Ouchi, 35, had been in critical condition since the Sept. 30 accident at a uranium reprocessing plant. He died after suffering various symptoms of radiation sickness, Tokyo University Hospital spokesman Hisao Yanagisawa said.
---
Calls for Change in Japanese Nuclear Policy After Worker Dies
New York Times December 22, 1999 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/22japan.html http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562770165-f0b
TOKYO -- The death of a worker exposed to a massive dose of radiation in Japan's worst nuclear accident fueled calls today for a slowdown in the country's atomic energy program.
Hisashi Ouchi, 35, died late Tuesday from radiation exposure he suffered in the Sept. 30 accident at a uranium-processing plant.
Critics of nuclear power said today that the death was evidence that Japan -- which relies on nuclear power for 30 percent of its electricity -- needs to rethink its energy policy.
"Ouchi's death signifies the loss of Japan's trust in technology," said Masako Sawai, of the Citizens Nuclear Information Center. "The government will be forced to change its nuclear policy, otherwise we fear Japanese engineers cannot prevent worse accidents from occurring."
About 60 protesters gathered today at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, the site of the 1945 atomic bomb attack, to urge the government to abandon its development of nuclear power, Kyodo News agency said.
An investigation into the accident at Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, found that workers at the plant routinely violated safety procedures, including mixing uranium in buckets to get the job done quickly.
Two workers in addition to Ouchi were severely injured in the accident. Today, the government revised the tally of those exposed to radiation to 150, more than twice the previous count of 69.
The 81 additional people took part in the cleanup and investigation following the accident, the Science and Technology Agency said.
Greenpeace Japan urged the government today to cancel a program to develop reactors that produce plutonium.
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, however, promised only to step up safety standards.
"I think it is our duty to have the government, nuclear facility operators and other related institutions put top priority on safety, so that such an accident will never be repeated," Obuchi was quoted as saying by Kyodo.
Ouchi's chances for survival had been weak from the start, hospital director Yuji Taketani told reporters today. He was exposed to 17,000 times the maximum amount of radiation considered safe for a year in Japan.
One of the other two workers was released from the hospital Monday. The other remained hospitalized after receiving a skin transplant. His condition was not considered life-threatening.
-------- korea
N. Korea opens several doors, reaching out to old foes
Preliminary talks Dec. 21 between Japan and N. Korea break one deadlock.
Christian Science Monitor WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1999 Cameron W. Barr
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/12/22/fp7s1-csm.shtml
TOKYO
Call it nice-guy diplomacy.
For nearly two years, South Korea has pursued a kinder, gentler policy toward its irascible, isolated, and well-armed neighbor, North Korea. The US adopted a similar strategy this fall. And just this week, Japan has fallen into step.
Stalinist North Korea does seem to be softening up a bit, giving analysts and diplomats the hope that the bad boy of Northeast Asia may soon become less of a threat. Burdened with a decrepit state-run economy, North Korea needs food and other assistance from the outside world.
But questions linger. "How much are they capable of giving?" says one US official, musing over the North Koreans' willingness to abandon its peace-for-food ploys and deal openly with other countries. "Or are they simply engaged in an extortion game?"
While some critics deride the nice-guy approach as the appeasement of a brutal and illegitimate regime, the governments of Japan, South Korea, and the US insist that engaging the North Koreans is the right way to go. "I think it's working," says one Japanese Foreign Ministry official, who, like his American counterpart, declined to be identified.
The Japanese have an immediate reason to be upbeat about talking to North Korea. Negotiators from the Japanese and North Korean Red Cross societies agreed on Dec. 21 to address humanitarian issues of concern to the two countries, including steps toward a resumption of food aid from Japan. That allowed diplomats to begin preparatory talks aimed at normalizing relations, a state of affairs that has never existed between Japan and North Korea.
This bilateral progress is only the latest box of chocolates in the wooing of North Korea. On Dec. 15, an international consortium signed a $4.6-billion deal to build two new nuclear reactors for the country. The US lifted economic sanctions in September. And South Korea is pursuing President Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine policy" - which has allowed South Korean companies to invest in North Korea and encouraged cultural exchanges.
The quid pro quo from North Korea is generally a promise to back away from some belligerent activity. The nuclear reactors, for instance, are part of a 1994 deal in which North Korea agreed to freeze operations at a nuclear facility capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium. (The new reactors will be less capable of generating such material.)
The lifting of US sanctions came in response to a North Korean promise not to test-fire another missile. In August 1998, North Korea launched a long-range Taepodong rocket over the northern Pacific, frightening the Japanese, who are easily within the missile's range, and catching the attention of the US. Experts say that with further development, North Korean missiles could hit US territory.
But diplomats argue that North Korea is too dangerous and too unpredictable to ignore or treat harshly. William Perry, a former US secretary of Defense who is now President Clinton's policy coordinator on North Korea, has advocated a two-path strategy.
It offers North Korea the chance to normalize relations with the US and opportunities for trade and economic assistance in exchange for "complete and verifiable assurances" that the country does not have a nuclear- weapons program and that it will stop developing and exporting long-range missiles.
Aside from the lifting of sanctions, which has not had much practical impact, the two countries are still talking about how to proceed along this road. The second path is what happens if North Korea doesn't go along: unspecified "other steps" by the US and its allies "to assure their security and contain the threat."
In the midst of all this diplomacy, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in North Korea. Once reliant on aid from fellow socialist states, the North Korean economy has faltered badly in the post-cold-war era. In recent years chronic food shortages exacerbated by bad weather have killed at least 220,000 people, according to North Korean official statistics, and maybe as many as 3.5 million - the estimate of a private South Korean relief organization.
This quiet famine - North Korea virtually bans foreign journalists - is another factor that has pushed governments to deal with the North Korean regime. "From a humanitarian point of view," says Peter Smerdon, a UN World Food Program official in Beijing, "any strategy that will lessen tensions will help the people of North Korea."
Analysts in China, North Korea's only ally of any significance, say South Korea's sunshine policy and what is now sometimes called the "Perry process" are having an effect. "Some people in North Korea are already starting to change their perception of the US and South Korea as 'eternal enemies,' " says Han Zhenshe, a North Korea expert at the government-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.
Perry's policy review has brought the US, South Korea, and Japan into closer coordination. "This time North Korea is not dealing with Japan alone," says the Japanese diplomat, explaining the apparent progress toward better bilateral relations with North Korea.
But no one is detecting any major changes in North Korea's outlook. There have been minor improvements, such as the cessation of missile testing, "But that's it," says Hideshi Takesada, a researcher on North Korea at the National Institute for Defense Studies in Tokyo. "There is no substantial achievement."
He says the Perry strategy is too focused on US concerns, such as long-range missile development, and does not adequately address the chemical and biological weapons the North may have, the most pressing issues for South Korea and Japan, he says.
Pyon Jin Il, Tokyo-based publisher of the Korea Report newsletter, says North Korea still has not been separated from the weapons it has developed: "North Korea still grasps the key."
Kevin Platt contributed to this report from Beijing.
'Alternative Food': At a Chongjin factory, North Korean workers produce a mixture of wheat, corncobs, and tree leaves for eating.
For further information:
Japan lifts North Korea sanctions
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_564000/564334.stm
N.Korea Defends Missile Development
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991218/wl/japan_nkorea_missile_1.html
North Korean Central News Agency
http://www.kcna.co.jp/
North Korea Factsheet Infoplease
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/factsheet-nkorea1.html
---
N. Korea, Japan talk about repairing ties
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 12/21/99
AROUND THE WORLD News briefs from around the world.
http://www.ardemgaz.com/today/nat/wworld22.html
BEIJING -- Japanese and North Korean officials began talks Tuesday aimed at repairing diplomatic ties after an agreement by the countries' Red Cross delegates on food aid for the North and other matters. The government negotiations, which Japan halted 15 months ago after North Korea test-fired a rocket over Japan, were restarted after the United States and South Korea persuaded the North to stop testing missiles. At the start of Tuesday's talks, which were held in the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, Koreshige Anami, director general of the Asian Bureau of Japan's Foreign Ministry, shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with O Ui Rok, director general of North Korea's Foreign Ministry. (AP)
---
North Korea and Japan Conduct Talks
Washington Post 12/22/99
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/22/213l-122299-idx.html
BEIJING--Japanese and North Korean officials began a second day of talks today aimed at repairing diplomatic ties, following an agreement by the countries' Red Cross delegates on food aid for North Korea and other issues.
The government negotiations, which Japan halted 15 months ago after North Korea test-fired a rocket over its territory, were restarted after the United States and South Korea persuaded North Korea to stop testing missiles.
---
Japan and North Korea discuss diplomatic ties
ABC News Wed, 22 Dec 1999 20:34 AEDT
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-22dec1999-87.htm
Japan and North Korea have edged closer to establishing diplomatic links for the first time after official negotiations in Beijing.
Despite being near-neighbours, long-standing tensions have prevented Japan and North Korea from ever enjoying close ties.
But with a new mood in Tokyo and a more open approach from Pyongyang to help for its shortage of food, has meant officials in Beijing have been talking about how, rather than if, the two sides might come together.
A Japanese official told how the talks were friendly and positive which is a long way from two years ago, when Tokyo suspended all aid programs after North Korea fired a nuclear missile over Japanese territory.
While nothing concrete emerged from the Beijing talks, plans were laid for a fresh round in the new year, and most likely the first steps towards diplomatic relations.
-------- russia
Submarine for sale on eBay
USA Today 12/22/99- Updated 10:45 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/nweird.htm
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Just in time for Christmas: a long-range, missile-capable submarine from the former Soviet Union. Asking price for the sub, listed on the online auction site eBay, is a cool $1 million. The diesel-powered vessel commissioned in 1965 - named Juliett by NATO during the Cold War - is up for bids. Plenty of other offbeat items have been auctioned previously on eBay, including a recent offer for a 1956 six-cylinder locomotive for $30,000, a company spokesman said. But this is the first submarine.
---
Russia Says No Prospect of Arms Compromise
Reuters Updated 1:51 PM ET December 22, 1999 By Elizabeth Piper
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991222/13/international-arms-russia
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian general dimmed already slim prospects of a breakthrough at arms control talks with the United States on Wednesday, saying Moscow would not drop its opposition to U.S. plans to build an anti-missile shield.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott met Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other officials for talks on issues including arms control, which has put further pressure on the two countries' already strained relations.
Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, head of the military's foreign affairs department, said Moscow opposed making changes to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which Washington wants altered to let it build the new missile defense.
"Why has a delegation arrived here? Russia is not holding any talks with the United States about its withdrawal from the ABM treaty," Ivashov told a news conference.
"The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is fundamental to all military disarmament agreements."
He dismissed Wednesday's talks as "routine,"
The ABM treaty bans systems designed to shoot enemy missiles out of the sky, under the logic that allowing such defenses would have tempted Cold War-era foes to stockpile ever larger arsenals of nuclear missiles to pierce the enemy's umbrella.
The United States wants the treaty modified to allow it to build a limited defense, to protect itself and its allies from a possible missile launch by what it calls "rogue" states, such as North Korea and Iran.
RUSSIA THREATENS NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES
Ivashov said any attempt to leave or scrap the treaty would make it harder for Moscow to persuade its parliament to ratify the START-2 treaty, which outlines big cuts in nuclear arsenals. The treaty was signed in 1993.
"Any attempt to withdraw from the treaty will have negative consequences," Ivashov said. "Concerning START-2...as soon as we get close to ratifying it, something always happens in our relations with the United States. This time they want to leave the ABM treaty."
Putin has said he hoped Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, would soon ratify START-2. A general election on Sunday reduced the opposition Communists' domination of the Duma and strengthened the hand of pro-government groups.
Interfax news agency quoted unnamed diplomatic sources as saying Talbott had failed to make headway in the talks.
Relations between the two countries have been strained by Russia's military campaign in the breakaway Chechnya region, where Washington accuses Moscow of indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force.
Putin, whose hard line on Chechnya has made him Russia's most popular politician, discussed the offensive with Talbott.
"Russia is ready to work with international bodies to solve humanitarian problems (in Chechnya)," Interfax quoted Putin as saying. "This year has not been the best for bilateral relations, however the two sides have been able to make a bridge to future mutual understanding."
Related Stories
Russian PM Hopeful on START-2 Before Talks (Dec 21 11:50 am ET)
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991221/11/international-arms-russia
Russia PM Wants Duma to Ratify START-2 (Dec 21 7:22 am ET)
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991221/07/international-arms-russia
---
Putin Pledges To Push START II Talks
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press Updated 3:26 PM ET December 22, 1999
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm
http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/news/ap/991222/15/int-russia-politics
MOSCOW (AP) - Riding moderates' success in parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised Wednesday to push ratification of the START II nuclear arms reduction treaty and long-stalled economic reforms through the Russian parliament.
"We will introduce bills which haven't been passed by the previous parliament," Putin said during a video hookup between Moscow and New York at the opening of a new media center. "I mean, among others, the START II treaty."
President Boris Yeltsin's government has long urged parliament to ratify the 1993 treaty, which would halve U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals to between 3,000 and 3,500 warheads each. The treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1996, but the Communists and other hard-liners have balked, saying the pact hurts Russian security.
The parliamentary elections on Sunday appear to have ended Communist control of the house, the State Duma. Communists will remain the largest faction, but they are expected to lose their dominance to the centrist parties that made a surprisingly strong showing in the election.
"We are extremely satisfied with the election's results," Putin said. "The makeup of the Duma will become more balanced. The entire Russian people have won."
Putin also promised to persuade parliament to approve economic legislation, including revamping the convoluted and ineffective tax system. Market-oriented reforms have long been thwarted by the Communists.
"We will move toward easing the tax burden, making the tax system less bureaucratic and making it more clear," Putin said. "And we will raise the land issue."
Ownership of land in Russia, especially farmland, remains highly controversial. Since the 1991 Soviet breakup, Russians have been permitted to own land in urban areas, but agricultural plots mostly remain state property and are farmed collectively as in Soviet times.
The government has long tried to allow the free sale of land, which it believes is vital to the success of free-market reforms. But the Communists have resisted the move, arguing that it would allow rich Russians and foreigners to buy land and take it out of agricultural production.
Earlier Wednesday, Putin met with Yeltsin, who praised the strong showing by centrist parties in the Duma vote.
"This is our common victory," Yeltsin said in his first televised appearance since the vote.
With more than 98 percent of ballots counted Tuesday, the Communists had a slight edge with 24.3 percent of the party-list vote, followed by the pro-government Unity party with 23.2 percent. Three of the remaining four parties are also centrist groups.
The results came a surprising breakthrough for the Kremlin, whose attempts at economic reforms during the past decade have been largely stymied by Communist-dominated legislatures.
"The Kremlin has received a historic chance to prove it was right," the popular daily Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote Wednesday. "It holds all the trump cards. The question is only whether it will manage to use them."
If the government again fails to improve Russia's economy despite having a more compliant parliament, the Kremlin "will only have itself to blame," the newspaper concluded.
---
Russia Sends Y2K Missile Team to U.S.
Washington Post 12/22/99
MOSCOW--Russian missile specialists left for the United States as part of a millennium operation to ensure none of the two countries' 4,400 nuclear missiles are fired in error.
Russian specialists will join U.S. experts at a center in Colorado to watch for any false warnings of missile attacks sparked by the Y2K computer bug, the Russian Tass news agency said.
---
U.S. and Russia Discuss Missiles
International Herald Tribune Paris, Thursday, December 23, 1999 By David Hoffman Washington Post Service
http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/THU/IN/moscow.2.html
MOSCOW - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin discussed arms control Wednesday, but both sides apparently failed to make headway in the disagreement over changes to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Interfax news agency reported that ''no progress was made'' in bridging the opposing views. The United States wants to change the treaty to allow the construction of a limited ballistic missile defense system, while Russia adamantly rejects any major modifications. Russia has said that if the United States unilaterally breaks out of the treaty, that would destroy 20 years of arms control agreements.
Mr. Talbott, after meeting with Foreign Ministry officials, asked for and got a meeting with Mr. Putin. The prime minister continues to enjoy a surge in his standing as reflected in the parliamentary election Sunday in which a new, centrist party backed by him placed second.
It was not clear what, if anything, Mr. Talbott said about the war in Chechnya, but some Russian media speculated that a deal was in the works: If the United States does not pressure Russia on the war, then Moscow will once again attempt to get the START-2 nuclear arms limitation treaty ratified.
The treaty, signed in 1993, has languished in the Russian Parliament, but the lower house, the State Duma, is soon to undergo major changes in composition as a result of the election.
---
Russia Calls for Action on Arms Treaty
New York Times December 22, 1999 By MICHAEL WINES
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/122299russia-arms-treaty.html
MOSCOW, Dec. 21 -- His domestic base cemented by Sunday's parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin signaled today that he wants to mend relations with the West by calling for ratification of the six-year-old Start II nuclear arms treaty.
Mr. Putin pressed for approval of the accord in a meeting with leaders of the newly elected Parliament, as Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott arrived here for talks on arms control and other issues.
The Communist Party, which will hold the largest number of seats in the Parliament, immediately rejected Mr. Putin's proposal. But after a year of East-West estrangement which seemed to have placed the treaty in a political deep freeze, it was notable that Mr. Putin publicly raised the issue at all.
Start II, which calls for the reduction of nuclear stockpiles, has languished in the Parliament since 1993, blocked by Communists and nationalists during dips in United States-Russian relations.
But with the Communists' hold on power seriously weakened by Sunday's election results, ratification now seemed a genuine possibility.
"For the first time, I think it is possible that they will be able to form a legislative majority without the Communists," said Thomas Graham, a former American diplomat who is now a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
With more than 98 percent of all ballots counted, election officials said the Communists had captured 24.3 percent of the popular vote for the new lower house of Parliament, known as the Duma. That is but a whisker above the 23.2 percent that went to a new pro-Kremlin coalition dubbed Unity.
A second pro-Kremlin bloc, the Union of Right Forces, took 8.6 percent, and a third faction, the bloc led by Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky, took 6 percent.
Political analysts said Mr. Putin's government was certain to pick up more support among independent legislators and other smaller factions in the Parliament.
By contrast, the only other major party leaning toward the Communists, the Fatherland-All Russia coalition, won 13.2 percent of the vote, well below its original expectations. Late today leaders of the Fatherland faction said that they would split from All Russia and form their own bloc in the legislature.
Those numbers constitute an indisputable victory for President Boris N. Yeltsin and especially for Mr. Putin, now the runaway favorite to succeed Mr. Yeltsin in elections next summer.
By waging a successful war in Chechnya and projecting an image of competence and strength -- something rare lately in Russian politics -- Mr. Putin became the political star to which many of the pro-Kremlin blocs hitched their wagons in the elections.
More than a few experts wonder whether that diverse mixture of political groups can really be knitted into a workable legislative force, particularly if the war in Chechnya turns sour for the Kremlin or Mr. Putin stumbles.
But at his meeting with parliamentary leaders today, Mr. Putin acted like a man in command. "The nation is pinning great hopes on the new Duma, the more so since there are many problems that need to be solved," he told them. "The composition of the new Duma shows that people want renewal -- not only new faces but also new results, new ideas, new decisions."
Mr. Putin has indicated that he will push for economic reforms of the sort long advocated by Western economists but never fully carried out here.
But ratification of Start II was the most specific issue discussed at today's session, and Mr. Talbott said on arrival here that he was pleased at the "reactivation" of the Russian government's effort.
Mr. Yeltsin and President Bush signed Start II in January 1993. Under its terms, both nations would reduce their nuclear forces to no more than 3,500 warheads by 2003 -- a drastic cut for the United States, which now has nearly 8,000 warheads, and for Russia, with about 6,700.
The Senate has approved the treaty, and the Russian military has supported it, in part because it can no longer afford the huge expense of keeping up a nuclear arsenal.
The Russian Parliament was poised to approve the treaty a year ago, but balked when the United States resumed bombing of Iraq.
The Duma was again prepared to ratify the treaty last spring, but the American-led war against Yugoslavia provoked the Kremlin to cancel that vote.
Mr. Putin's announcement today was not completely unexpected. A senior American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Kremlin has long said privately that it hoped to win approval of Start II after this month's elections, even if relations with Washington were less than optimal.
"It's following through on what they said they'd do," the official said. "I hope it shows some serious willingness to engage in arms control."
"Russia is always for the ratification of the Start II treaty because we believe it is important for the national interests of Russia," said the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Vladimir Rakhmanin. "To promote the process of strategic disarmament would be beneficial to Russia, first of all, and to the United States."
Some serious obstacles still remain, and Mr. Putin noted them today. They include the United States' proposal to abandon the antiballistic missile treaty so that it may build a limited defense against missiles launched by rogue states.
Skeptical military officials in Russia and China argue that the United States' real goal is to build a defense against the shrunken nuclear force that Russia would possess once Start II and future arms-control treaties are implemented.
The Russian Defense Ministry has informally proposed setting up a joint commission to study the nuclear threat posed by unstable or terrorist nations. But the Kremlin has bitterly protested the White House's proposal to change the antiballistic missile treaty, saying it is the foundation of arms control because its assurance of mutual destruction in a war reduces all nations' incentives to build more weapons.
Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, head of the military's foreign affairs department, repeated that today, saying the government is categorically opposed to changing the structure of the arms-control regime.
American officials said Mr. Talbott is likely to discuss Start II and the antiballistic missile treaties during visits this week with Mr. Putin and Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov, among others.
He is also likely to discuss Russia's political and economic situation and the course of the war in Chechnya, which was entering a crucial stage this week.
President Yeltsin was briefed on the Chechnya war today by the interior minister, Vladimir Rushailo, who later said the government is establishing temporary police departments to restore order in areas under its control.
In Chechnya, Russian troops were said to be locked in a fierce battle with rebels near Serzhen-Yury, about 18 miles south of the capital, Grozny. The village sits at the mouth of a gorge that leads into the Caucasus mountains, where rebels mainitain supply bases and headquarters.
Russian military officials also repeated that they had captured Grozny's civilian airport, but said they had yet to secure the field because it was mined. Last week the army occupied a military airfield just east of Grozny.
---
In Moscow Communists Reject Arms Treaty Appeal
By David Hoffman Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, December 22, 1999; Page A25
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/22/202l-122299-idx.html
MOSCOW, Dec. 21-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, meeting with newly elected party leaders in the lower house of parliament, expressed hope today for quick action in the expiring session of the State Duma on the long-delayed START II nuclear arms control treaty.
But the leader of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, and the outgoing Duma speaker, Gennady Seleznev, rejected Putin's appeal, leaving the pact with the United States stuck where it has been for nearly seven years--unratified. They said the outgoing parliament did not have time to consider it.
The new parliament will convene in January, and its members may be more favorably inclined toward the treaty. "The nation is pinning great hopes on the new Duma, the more so since there are many problems that need to be solved," Putin told the leaders of the top six parties after Sunday's election.
Putin's appeal on START II came on the same day that Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott arrived here for talks on arms control and the altered political landscape in the wake of Sunday's vote, in which centrist parties dramatically improved their position.
Putin suggested that the outgoing Duma remain in session for an extra month, which he said "means there is a chance to ratify START II." The treaty, signed in 1993, is backed by the Russian military and the Kremlin but has been stalled in parliament.
But Zyuganov said in a radio interview that "the outgoing Duma cannot in its final days examine this problem." The United States "will quit the . . . treaty tomorrow in the blink of an eye. We must answer the question of our own security; then they will be listening to us in the United States."
As the final returns from Sunday's election were being counted, party leaders began jockeying for position. Sergei Shoigu, a cabinet minister who headed the new Unity party ticket, which placed second in voting for party slates, is expected to quit the cabinet and head the party's faction in the Duma, associates said. Many of the 76 Duma seats won by the pro-Kremlin party, which owes its success to its endorsement by the popular Putin, will be filled by individuals selected from regional lists.
The parties also have begun wrangling over who will serve as Duma speaker. Sources said the leading candidate among the centrist parties is former prime minister Sergei Stepashin, who is backed by Unity, the Yabloko bloc and the Union of Right Forces, a pro-market party headed by another former prime minister, Sergei Kiriyenko.
However, Zyuganov, whose Communist Party lost strength in the election but remains the largest single faction in the chamber, said the prerogative of naming a speaker belongs to his party and suggested Unity could name the deputy speaker.
Zyuganov lambasted Unity, which won the second-largest number of seats, without spelling out a political platform. "This party, remarkably, has offered no ideology or a program for the country," he said.
Earlier today, Zyuganov marked the 120th anniversary of Joseph Stalin's birth, laying a wreath at his grave at the Kremlin wall. "Stalin is one of the greatest statesmen, not only of the 20th century but of all Russian history," Zyuganov said.
---
Talbott Seeks ABM Treaty Change
01:17 PM ET 12/22/99
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562775023-91f
MOSCOW (AP) _ Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott worked Wednesday to persuade Russia to let the United States amend the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, U.S. and Russian officials said.
The United States wants to change the 1972 treaty so it can build missile defenses to block possible missile attacks by rogue states such as Iran or North Korea. Russia has said that a U.S. retreat from the treaty would upset the strategic balance and could trigger a new arms race.
Washington has tried to convince Russia that its planned anti-missile system wouldn't be able to counter the kind of massive nuclear attack Russia is capable of launching.
Talbott met Wednesday with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Mamedov. A U.S. Embassy official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Talbott urged Russia to allow treaty amendments. But the meeting produced no breakthroughs, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Russians who attended the talks.
Talbott came to Moscow for consultations on a wide range of topics, including the ABM treaty, Russia's campaign in breakaway Chechnya and the START II arms reduction treaty.
START II, which would halve U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals to between 3,000 and 3,500 warheads each, was signed by both sides in 1993. The U.S. Senate ratified it in 1996, but hard-line lawmakers in the Russian parliament have blocked a vote on the pact.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who met with Talbott later Wednesday, has suggested that the outgoing Duma, or lower house of parliament, would have time to ratify START II before its term ends. But Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov has dismissed the possibility.
U.S.-Russian relations are at a post-Cold War low because of several disputes, including Washington's opposition to Russia's Chechnya campaign. But both sides say they don't want a return to confrontation. During the meeting with Talbott, Putin thanked the U.S. administration for supporting Russia's peacekeeping efforts in Kosovo, despite some disagreements over the Yugoslav province, Interfax reported.
``If we keep developing our interaction the way we are, we will be able to solve these problems through cooperation,'' Putin was quoted as saying.
----------- kazakhstan
U.S.-Kazakhstan Agree To Close Nuclear Reactor
Russia Today Wednesday, Dec 22 at Prague 07:09 pm, N.Y. 01:09 pm
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=120237
WASHINGTON, Dec 22, 1999 -- (Reuters) The Republic of Kazakhstan agreed this week to close and decommission a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor in response to concerns about its security, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson and Kazakh Minister Vladimir Shkolnik signed an implementing agreement on Sunday to permanently close the BN-350 nuclear reactor in Aktau, Western Kazakhstan, located near the Iranian border.
U.S. officials were concerned about the vulnerability of its security system and disposition of weapons-usable plutonium in spent fuel stored at the reactor site. DOE has already provided basic fire safety equipment to the reactor and Y2K-ready computers for the plant information system.
Working with U.S. nuclear experts, Kazakhstan officials will begin the process of removing the plutonium for long-term storage. Richardson said a joint U.S.-Kazakh group will launch a study on long-term storage options early next year.
"These agreements are strong steps that reemphasize the commitment of the United States and Kazakhstan to stem weapons proliferation and promote nuclear safety," Richardson told reporters during the U.S.-Kazakhstan Bilateral Commission meeting.
The United States is the largest source of foreign investment in oil-rich Kazakhstan.
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Chernobyl Roof Repairs Completed
01:20 PM ET 12/22/99 By MARINA SYSOYEVA= Associated Press Writer=
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562775070-d8c
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) _ The unstable concrete and steel sarcophagus covering the ruined reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has been strengthened, officials said Wednesday.
The structure, called the Shelter, was hastily built after the April 1986 explosion and fire at the reactor, the world's worst nuclear accident.
The shaky beams supporting the sarcophagus' roof and the cracks in its walls raised fears that the structure might collapse, releasing a cloud of radioactive dust.
Initial repairs began last month and were completed Tuesday, said Oleksandr Slavis, representative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's Chernobyl Fund in Ukraine.
``It should be noted that this work was urgent,'' Slavis said. ``It gives us the possibility to start other stabilization works.''
The first part of the $2.8 million repair effort was building a crane and an elevator to assess the roof of the sarcophagus. Workers also took measurements and underwent training at a model of the structure in the nearby town of Chernobyl.
The workers then assembled a radiation protection box and cut off roof parts to enter the sarcophagus. They welded and poured concrete into the beams while hanging over the reactor's ruined hall.
Because the workers were operating in highly radioactive conditions, they could stay inside for only 30 minutes at a time.
Richard Loos, co-director of a unit that oversees safety projects in the sarcophagus, was satisfied with the work's quality.
``The work which has been done in B1 and B2 (supportive beams) made the Shelter more safe,'' he said.
The strengthening of the sarcophagus is part of a $758 million project launched in 1997 to reduce Chernobyl's risk and protect the environment. It is mostly sponsored by Western governments, with Ukraine contributing about $50 million.
The project's goal is to build a new, safer sarcophagus by 2003 and help Ukraine develop a plan to deal with radioactive materials inside the Shelter.
-------- us nuc facilities
NRC Wants To Fine Uranium Operators
11:13 AM ET 12/22/99
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562773225-055
PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) _ The operator of a federal uranium enrichment plant faces a possible $88,000 fine for allegedly retaliating against a whistleblower who questioned safety at the facility.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission proposed the fine Tuesday against the United States Enrichment Corp., which runs the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant for the Department of Energy.
The plant enriches uranium for use as nuclear reactor fuel.
The plant's manager of quality systems was demoted in 1998 for telling a supervisor that the plant was not fulfilling all the requirements of an industry standard for quality assurance programs, the commission said in a statement issued Tuesday.
The commission said the manager also told a supervisor he was concerned of possible adverse effects caused by the quality systems staff having to perform other activities.
U.S. Enrichment has until Jan. 19 to either pay or challenge the fine, the second and largest fine the commission has issued against the company's Paducah operations.
The company is still reviewing the issue, said spokeswoman Georgeann Lookofsky. She said the manager left employment at the plant a few weeks ago but would not disclose the circumstances.
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FTC Says Nuclear Power Ads Are Unsubstantiated Yet Permissible
By MATTHEW L. WALD New York Times December 22, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/22/news/financial/nuke-power-ads.html
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Trade Commission has agreed with an environmental group and the Better Business Bureau that advertisements by the nuclear industry made unsubstantiated claims about the benefits of nuclear power.
Despite the ruling, the commission said it would not ban the ads because they were aimed at least in part at "opinion leaders" and thus were political speech protected by the First Amendment, rather than being commercial ads subject to close regulation.
The Better Business Bureau, through its National Advertising Division, appealed the case to the commission after mediation failed. Acting on a complaint brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit group, the Better Business Bureau determined in May that the nuclear industry had made "overly broad claims," but the industry continued to run the ads.
The Natural Resources Defense Council said the ads were an attempt by the nuclear industry to compete with companies that owned windmills and solar generators in an effort to get the business of environmentally minded consumers in states that have deregulated the utility industry, allowing households to choose their electricity suppliers.
The FTC, in a Dec. 15 letter to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade group that placed the ads, said the ad campaign had "failed to substantiate its general environmental benefit claim." The ads, for example, said that nuclear power was "environmentally clean," but the letter said that hot water discharged from the plants hurts the environment.
If the claims had been made in a direct mail campaign to consumers, the letter said, they would clearly have been "commercial speech" and thus not protected by the First Amendment.
The commission's letter, from Joan Bernstein, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the industry should "take to heart the evaluation of its advertising that has been rendered by its peers."
At the Natural Resources Defense Council, Kit Kennedy, a lawyer, said the decision was sending "a clear warning shot" to the Nuclear Energy Institute. "They cannot make these claims of environmental benefit in any type of retail advertising," Ms. Kennedy said.
But at the nuclear group, Scott Peterson, a spokesman, said, "When they began the investigation, it was to determine whether NEI had engaged in unfair or deceptive practices; by dismissing that, they concluded we did not."
He added, though, "If you're going door to door, you need to be careful in terms of how you portray environmental benefits."
The ads appeared in The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times and two papers published on Capitol Hill, Roll Call and The Hill.
---
F.T.C. Decides Not to Ban Nuclear Ads
New York Times December 22, 1999 By MATTHEW L. WALD
http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/22/news/financial/ftc-nuke-ads.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 -- The Federal Trade Commission has agreed with an environmental group and the Better Business Bureau that advertisements by the nuclear industry made unsubstantiated claims about the benefits of nuclear power.
Despite the ruling, the commission said it would not ban the ads because they were aimed at least in part at "opinion leaders" and thus were political speech protected by the First Amendment, rather than being commercial ads subject to close regulation.
The Better Business Bureau, through its National Advertising Division, appealed the case to the commission after mediation failed. Acting on a complaint brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit group, the Better Business Bureau determined in May that the nuclear industry had made "overly broad claims," but the industry continued to run the ads.
The Natural Resources Defense Council said the ads were an attempt by the nuclear industry to compete with companies that owned windmills and solar generators in an effort to get the business of environmentally minded consumers in states that have deregulated the utility industry, allowing households to choose their electricity suppliers.
The F.T.C., in a Dec. 15 letter to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the trade group that placed the ads, said the ad campaign had "failed to substantiate its general environmental benefit claim." The ads, for example, said that nuclear power was "environmentally clean," but the letter said that hot water discharged from the plants hurts the environment.
If the claims had been made in a direct mail campaign to consumers, the letter said, they would clearly have been "commercial speech" and thus not protected by the First Amendment.
The commission's letter, from Joan Z. Bernstein, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, said the industry should "take to heart the evaluation of its advertising that has been rendered by its peers."
At the Natural Resources Defense Council, Kit Kennedy, a lawyer, said the decision was sending "a clear warning shot" to the Nuclear Energy Institute. "They cannot make these claims of environmental benefit in any type of retail advertising," Ms. Kennedy said.
But at the nuclear group, Scott Peterson, a spokesman, said, "When they began the investigation, it was to determine whether N.E.I. had engaged in unfair or deceptive practices; by dismissing that, they concluded we did not."
He added, though, "If you're going door to door, you need to be careful in terms of how you portray environmental benefits."
The ads appeared in The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times and two papers published on Capitol Hill, Roll Call and The Hill.
-------- us nuc weapon facilities
Aiken - A Savannah River Site contractor has permission to begin operating a system that will reduce the volume of high-level radioactive waste. The $165 million plant will remove millions of gallons of water from the tanks each year, leaving behind a highly radioactive sludge and a less radioactive "saltcake."
USA Today 12/22/99
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm
---
Reno Called Inquiry Too Focused on Scientist
New York Times December 22, 1999 By JAMES RISEN
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/china-nuke.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 -- Attorney General Janet Reno told Congress in June that she thought federal investigators had prematurely focused on the weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee in their initial inquiry into whether China had stolen United States nuclear secrets, according to newly declassified Senate testimony.
In a secret hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ms. Reno said that an administrative inquiry conducted in 1995 by the Department of Energy, with help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had failed to adequately investigate others who had access to classified information about the United States' most advanced nuclear warhead, the W-88, according to a transcript of the hearing released by the committee tonight.
"The elimination of other logical suspects, having the same access and opportunity, did not occur," Ms. Reno told the committee.
Ms. Reno's testimony came in defense of the Justice Department's 1997 decision to reject an F.B.I. request to seek a court-authorized wiretap of Dr. Lee, who was then a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
After being the focus of a three-year federal investigation into China's apparent theft of data related to the W-88, Dr. Lee was fired from Los Alamos this March for security violations. The F.B.I. discovered later that he had conducted unauthorized transfers of vast amounts of secret material about nuclear weapons from the laboratory's classified computer system.
Dr. Lee was arrested on Dec. 10 and charged with mishandling classified information. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He has not been charged with espionage.
But even as the government has proceeded with its criminal case against Dr. Lee, government officials have acknowledged that the original espionage inquiry was not properly handled.
In September, Ms. Reno and the director of the F.B.I., Louis J. Freeh, ordered federal agents to broaden the W-88 investigation beyond Dr. Lee and Los Alamos to other possible sources of the secret information. Yet the newly released testimony shows that Ms. Reno was concerned that investigators had prematurely focused on Dr. Lee for months before she ordered the broadened inquiry.
The 1995 inquiry focused on Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories, the two laboratories that design the United States' nuclear weapons. The W-88 was designed at Los Alamos. The theft related to the W-88 was believed to have occurred between 1984 and 1988.
Ms. Reno said the Justice Department turned down the F.B.I.'s request for the wiretap in that inquiry because other laboratory employees had not been adequately investigated.
Her testimony also provided new insight into Dr. Lee's activities in the early 1980's, when he first came under scrutiny in a separate inquiry.
At that time, the F.B.I. questioned Dr. Lee after a wiretap picked up a phone conversation he had with a scientist from Lawrence Livermore who had been fired in connection with the government's investigation into China's theft of neutron bomb secrets. On Dec. 20, 1983, Dr. Lee told the F.B.I. that he had been in contact with Taiwanese nuclear researchers since 1977 or 1978, and had done consulting work for them in addition to giving them unclassified research papers, according to Ms. Reno's testimony.
Dr. Lee told the F.B.I. at the time that he had contacted the Lawrence Livermore scientist because he thought he had been fired for doing the same thing that Dr. Lee had been doing for Taiwan, Ms. Reno testified. On Jan. 24, 1984, Dr. Lee took a polygraph exam, answering questions about whether he had ever passed classified information to a foreign government and about the nature of his contacts with the Lawrence Livermore scientist and the Taiwanese Embassy.
"The polygraph confirmed that he had not passed classified information to any foreign government, and the accuracy of his claims concerning the nature of contacts" with the scientist and the embassy, Ms. Reno testified.
---
Reno Testifies About Lee Concerns
01:58 AM ET 12/22/99 By MATT KELLEY= Associated Press Writer=
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562767328-6e9
WASHINGTON (AP) _ As early as 1997, federal prosecutors feared the FBI had focused too narrowly on U.S. nuclear weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee and ignored other leads in their investigation of alleged Chinese spying, Attorney General Janet Reno disclosed to Congress.
The FBI probe focused on Lee and his wife, Sylvia, when there were others at the Los Alamos, N.M., weapons lab where Lee worked who may have had a better motive to help China, Reno told a closed-door meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee in June. A transcript of her testimony was released Tuesday.
Lee, a Taiwan-born U.S. citizen, had been investigated more than a decade earlier for his links to Taiwanese officials, Reno said. That made him even more of an unlikely suspect for spying for China, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province, Reno said.
Because of those concerns, Justice Department lawyers rejected an FBI request to seek court approval to bug Lee's home and office, Reno said.
Documents previously described to The Associated Press by government and law enforcement officials showed that doubts about the evidence against Lee surfaced more than a year ago and were expressed to FBI Director Louis Freeh.
The newly disclosed testimony shows Reno also was aware of problems in the case, and that she discussed them with Congress this summer.
At the time of the 1997 bugging request, Lee and his wife, who was a former data analyst at Los Alamos, were suspects in the alleged theft by China of information about the W-88, the smallest and most sophisticated warhead in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
The FBI focused on the Lees and did not follow up on other scientists at Los Alamos who knew the same secrets and had traveled to China, including four others of Chinese ancestry, Reno told the Senate panel on June 8.
``The elimination of other logical suspects having the same access and opportunity did not occur,'' Reno said. She later added: ``There are perhaps other leads that could have been followed. There are other people that have a motivation, perhaps a greater motivation than Wen Ho Lee.''
The number of other potential suspects at Los Alamos was among many details blacked out from the report released Tuesday.
A joint statement from Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., said senators haggled with Reno and Freeh for months about what information would be blocked out of the transcript.
Lee was fired from his job at the New Mexico weapons lab in March and indicted Dec. 10 on 59 felony charges that he transferred nuclear secrets to his desktop computer and portable data tapes.
The indictment does not accuse Lee of passing any classified information to China or any other foreign government.
Lee has said he was innocent. China also has denied stealing secrets about the W-88.
Lee sued the Justice and Energy departments and the FBI on Monday, saying officials violated his privacy by leaking information to reporters designed to make him appear to be a spy.
None of Lee's lawyers returned phone messages and pages seeking comment Tuesday.
At the June hearing, Reno defended her department's decision to reject the FBI's bugging request. She said that at the time, authorities did not have enough evidence against Lee to justify seeking such a deep intrusion into his privacy.
Several members of the committee were incredulous.
``A generation of Americans are going to live with the reality that a potential hostile power has access to nuclear weapons ... they may not otherwise have possessed, and they're now marrying those ... potentially with ballistic missiles that can reach the United States,'' Torricelli told Reno. ``This is not an inconsequential failure of law enforcement.''
Reno also discussed another FBI investigation of Lee from 1982 to 1984, when he was questioned about his contact with a scientist at another nuclear laboratory who was the target of an espionage investigation.
During that probe, Lee admitted giving unclassified nuclear information to Taiwanese officials, Reno said. The investigation of Lee was closed when he passed a lie-detector test by saying he had not given classified information to a foreign government, Reno said.
Those contacts with Taiwan, as well as Lee's reputation as being pro-Taiwan and anti-China, also raised questions about whether Lee would spy for China, Reno said.
``How are you that (a spy for China) if you are clearly working with the Taiwanese government on matters that apparently involve non-classified information?'' Reno asked.
But Reno and panel members also discussed an FBI report involving a 1994 visit of a Chinese delegation to Los Alamos. According to Reno, the FBI said Lee did not report his contacts with what the committee called ``a high-ranking official.''
The FBI concluded that Lee was trying to conceal his contact with that official, Reno said.
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Karen Silkwood Memorial Event Helps Spotlight Current Workplace Issues
PR Newswire Updated 9:27 AM ET December 22, 1999
http://news.excite.com/news/pr/991222/tn-pace-event
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Union activist Karen Silkwood's fight 25 years ago for safe working conditions at Kerr-McGee Corp.'s Cimarron Nuclear Facility in Crescent, Okla., was no different from the struggle many workers face today to correct on-the-job hazards.
Karen Silkwood was killed in a suspicious auto accident on Nov. 13, 1974, while on her way to meet with a reporter from the New York Times and a representative of her union, the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Intl. Union (OCAW). Reportedly, she had in her possession documents proving Kerr-McGee had falsified quality control records concerning the plutonium nuclear fuel rods it manufactured at the Crescent plant. The records were never found, and a union investigation turned up evidence of possible foul play in her death.
Actress Meryl Streep, who played the title role in "Silkwood," the 1983 movie based on Karen Silkwood's struggle; the film's director, Mike Nichols; Karen Silkwood's son, Michael Meadows; and people who had worked with Karen Silkwood paid tribute to her courage and willingness to stand up for her co- workers at a sold-out fundraiser in New York on December 17 for the Labor Party's Just Health Care Campaign.
"I'm not sure she saw herself as a hero," Streep said. "Karen Silkwood was a person who had courage, and was an activist in the truest sense of the word. I think the best way to honor her is to support the people who are fighting now to do what is right. We need more people like Karen Silkwood."
Also recognized at the event was Jim Key, the health & safety coordinator for PACE Local 5-550, whose members work in the federal government's uranium enrichment plant in Paducah, Ky. "Everything Karen Silkwood was saying 25 years ago about the lies told to workers and communities throughout the nuclear industry is being proven true today," said Key.
Union investigations in the 1990s have uncovered documentation of multiple hazards that were kept secret from nuclear workers, including plutonium contamination from the uranium used in the manufacturing processes in Paducah. "There is a memorandum dating from the early 1960s that says they didn't want to tell workers about the plutonium because they were afraid the union would demand hazardous duty pay," said Key.
Years of campaigning have won medical monitoring for workers and former employees at most of America's nuclear materials plants. But the Kerr-McGee Crescent Facility was closed in 1975, a year after Silkwood's death. These former Kerr-McGee workers there have yet to be included in any medical monitoring programs.
Former OCAW Representative Steve Wodka, whom Karen Silkwood was traveling to meet the night she died, said it had been discovered that 132 workers at the Kerr-McGee plant had been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation between 1970 and 1975. "These workers are approaching the peak of the latency period, between ages 45 and 55, when they are most likely to develop cancer from their exposure and die," said Wodka. "They must be monitored and compensated when cancers are found."
"Karen Silkwood is the personification of thousands of people who work every day in these difficult jobs in high-risk industries, trying to improve conditions for their coworkers," said Anthony Mazzocchi, a PACE presidential assistant, who as OCAW legislative director had worked with Karen Silkwood and her local union. "Few trade unionists are remembered for their heroic work. We're usually forgotten, even though we make the country run."
PACE, formed by the merger of the OCAW with the United Paperworkers Intl. Union early this year, has 320,000 members, who work in the paper, oil, nuclear, chemical, automobile and truck parts, cement and a variety of other manufacturing industries.
Contact: Keith Romig, Communications Director of PACE International Union, 615-831-6786
-------- y2k
Russia Sends Y2K Missile Team to U.S.
December 22, 1999 Washington Post
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/22/213l-122299-idx.html
MOSCOW--Russian missile specialists left for the United States as part of a millennium operation to ensure none of the two countries' 4,400 nuclear missiles are fired in error.
Russian specialists will join U.S. experts at a center in Colorado to watch for any false warnings of missile attacks sparked by the Y2K computer bug, the Russian Tass news agency said.
--------
If NASA Frets About Y2K, Who Can Be Sure?
Filed at 12:33 p.m. ET December 22, 1999 By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-yk-countdown.html
LONDON (Reuters) - Just when you thought the millennium computer bug had been swatted into submission, NASA reminds us that just maybe there could be serious problems.
If NASA, with all the brainpower and money at its disposal, curtailed its space shuttle mission to fix the Hubble telescope because of Y2K fears, perhaps other organizations that are not on the cutting edge of technology ought to watch out.
NASA mission managers not only wanted Discovery, launched on Dec. 17, back in its hangar with all systems powered down by Dec. 31. They also want all the computers at Mission Control in Houston and at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida turned off before the calendar rollover.
NASA said it does not expect any Y2K problems but officials said recently they did not want to take any chances either.
Other experts still worry about potential trouble from the bug. The fear is that some computers might succumb to the Y2K problem, where programs using double-digit dates like 97 might trip over the zeros in 2000, reading it as 1900.
Some experts see trouble in places where rickety technology is typical. Others claim that even America cannot rest easy.
AIR TRAFFIC, NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS
``I see problems with air traffic control and nuclear power station control and both of those in areas stretching from eastern Europe, not including Poland and the Czech Republic, but going east from there to Japan,'' Paul Beaver, spokesman for Jane's Defense Weekly, said.
``Japan will be OK, the Middle East will be OK -- oil is important to them and they're not stupid -- but central Asian republics, these are areas which don't have the resources (to fix problems) and have pirated much software in the past.''
Beaver is concerned about China, particularly its civil air traffic control and power stations. ``It's almost impossible to be sure (about China). There are so many things which could go wrong,'' he said.
BCS Consulting, in a report published this week, sees problems in Russia, but it includes countries like the United States and Britain, generally thought to be in the forefront of the fight against the Y2K bug, in its red for danger category.
BCS said this category is for Y2K failure which could have an immediate effect on business life and therefore local society. It said Japan, Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal are also in its most-at-risk category.
The United States and Britain, leaders in Y2K remediation, also rely more on computer networks than others, BCS said.
The safe operation of potentially dangerous materials in oil refineries and chemical plants is also causing concern.
WATCH OUT FOR CHEMICALS, REFINERIES
Big operators like Rhone-Poulenc of France and U.S. firms DuPont, Monsanto and Ashland have already decided to close down potentially dangerous installations on the New Year's weekend.
Regulatory bodies are concerned about the threat from small and medium-sized chemical facilities rather than those operated by big firms. As late as July, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board sent an open letter to the 50 state governors pointing to the possibility of Y2K-inspired catastrophic events in the nation's chemical and petroleum handling facilities.
Peter Kearns of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said he was concerned about the operation of potentially hazardous installations in less industrialized countries. Smaller operators in industrialized countries were also a worry.
``If things go wrong with computers in offices or banks, that obviously might be bad in some ways, but chemical incidents could endanger life and health,'' Kearns said.
Beaver also expressed concern about processes that often need to be continuous, but he was positive overall. ``Natural gas and mining can be shut down, although things like pumps need to be working continuously,'' he said.
``There are gases plants and crude oil pipelines, but overall we shouldn't have too many problems.''
---
Apocalypse not
Helle Bering Washington Times December 22, 1999
http://web3.washtimes.com/op-ed/bering-19991222.htm
The turn of a new millennium seems a good time to take stock. As a columnist, one feels blessed indeed. How many people get to be on the record with their view of human progress over the past 1,000 years, all in 800 words?
This event is something one has pondered for a while, of course. A favorite book of mine years ago was Douglas Adams' "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe," the second volume in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, a strange British sci-fi cult classic. The restaurant in question was perched in a time warp at the end of the universe and with panoramic windows offered its patrons a spectacular view of the end of time with dinner every night. The closing of the 20th century similarly has been with us in preview for some time.
Some resemblance does exist to the year 999, as James Finn Garner, author of the very politically incorrect "Apocalypse Wow!" points out. In 999 a.d. median life expectancy was 17, and today median emotional age is 17. "Coincidence or what?" he writes. In 999, "an ignorant, illiterate population relies on privileged, self-serving demagogues to interpret the world around them." Today we have "24-hour talk radio." (Of course, there are eminent exceptions in the world of conservative talk, as readers of this newspaper will be the first to recognize.) In 999, the end of the world was certainly anticipated with fear; farmers stopped feeding their livestock and harvesting their fields. Why bother? Pilgrims took off en masse for the Holy Land. All of which became a bit of a problem when the end failed to materialize.
Numerology still having a potent hold on the human mind, superstitions have crept up on us. Some have the flavor of old-fashioned Biblical Apocalyptic fears, such as those that motivated the Branch Davidians or the Aum Shinrikyo sect in Japan, or the group that left this earthly abode for a better life, they thought, on the Hale-Bopp comet. Sadly for the Branch Davidians, they were justified in a sense through the crazy actions of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Others have settled on more interesting superstitions, though, uniquely reflecting the state of technological progress. Fears of environmental apocalypse have been with us for a while, and have indeed been embraced by one of the major contenders for the presidency of the United States - a pretty disturbing thought. Though fluctuations in the climate have happened routinely over time, people like Vice President Gore have gotten it into their heads, that it is all our fault. Like Samuel Johnson's philosopher in the story "Rasselas" who fervently believed that the sun rose every day only through his agency and who consequently felt a terrible burden, Mr. Gore and friends cling to the myth that we are causing the temperature of the earth to rise, and they want us to stop doing what we are doing - this minute.
The much feared Y2K apocalypse seems to me to fall into the same category, the end of the world as written for the computer age. One may, of course, live to regret these words, but there is surely something bizarre in the fears that are causing people to prepare for a siege, stocking up on dried beans and purified water, and batteries enough to survive for years in their log cabins, expecting the world's computers to crash around them. A friend of mine is preparing to go into the next millennium in his basement fortified with a football helmet and a baseball bat and enough canned food to last him another thousand years.
Rather than give in to the multitude of fears that attend midnight Dec. 31 this year, we do instead have much to celebrate. It has persuasively been argued that the real end of the 20th century came in 1989, with the fall of the second of this century's most destructive philosophies - communism. The victims of this evil plague are counted by scholars up to 100 million, and the sooner we rid the world of its last vestiges the better it will be for us all.
As we survey the state of humanity, there is much to appreciate. We recently celebrated the birth of human being number 6 billion, with no dire consequences in sight as predicted by the population control movement (Perhaps another millennial superstition in disguise?) The auxiliary power of computers is transforming life at great speed, and promises untold future possibilities.
And just looking at statistics on the improvements in the quality of life here in the United States over the past 100 years is enough to cheer you up (as helpfully provided by the Cato Institute). Life expectancy has risen by 30 years to an average of 77 years. Infant mortality has fallen from 100 per 1,000 births to 7. Death from infectious diseases declined from 700 per 100,000 population to 50. Just think of the bout of suffering eased by science and better nutrition as revealed by these figures. There is, of course, the small problem that annual per capita telephone calls have gone up from 40 to 2,300, which unless you are a teen-age girl, might seem excessive.
Just in case none of these figures chase away the Y2K jitters,
consider this: It's not even the year 2000 for large parts of humanity. In China, it's the year of 4698, year of the dragon. The Hebrew calendar counts it the year 5760/61. The Islamic world believes this is the year 1421. Even the world of Christianity cannot agree exactly when to celebrate the new year.
And just consider this - now you can do your holiday shopping over the Internet without leaving the comfort of your home. Now, that's real progress for you.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.
E-mail: bering@washtimes.com.
Helle Bering is editorial page editor of The Washington Times. Her column appears on Wednesdays.
-------- terrorism
Canada Increases Terrorism Security
02:30 AM ET 12/22/99 By TOM COHEN Associated Press Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562767662-541
MONTREAL (AP) _ Under pressure from the United States and critics at home, Canada has increased security against terrorism following last week's arrest of an Algerian man charged with trying to smuggle explosives into America.
The subsequent arrest Sunday of another Algerian also using false documents to try to enter the United States focused further attention on security along the U.S.-Canada border as celebrations of the new millennium approach.
Customs Canada announced more agents will check bags and passengers at Canadian airports, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it was increasing security outside the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa.
The Canadian steps appeared to be in coordination with U.S. authorities, who also increased security at airports Tuesday and warned of possible terrorist attacks around the world.
Canadian officials previously said they already had in place sufficient measures against possible terrorist attacks at home or against the United States. But after opposition politicians and a U.S. member of Congress complained this week about the border arrests, Canada announced its new measures.
Customs Canada official Martin Bolduc said Canada believed the main security threat would be from overseas countries, prompting the beefed-up airport security.
``That doesn't mean that in the near future we couldn't have the same measures for border checkpoints,'' Bolduc said. ``But for now, it is more aimed at people from overseas who are coming to Canada to commit acts or to use Canada to get into the United States.''
No details of how many additional customs agents had been added were immediately available. Bolduc warned travelers to expect long lines when entering Canada by air from abroad.
Tougher U.S. security already was causing delays, with southbound traffic backed up more than three miles Tuesday night at the Lacolle, Quebec, border crossing into New York state, Quebec police reported.
U.S. officials increased border patrols and tightened security following the Dec. 14 arrest of Ahmed Ressam at Port Angeles, Wash., and the Sunday arrests of an Algerian man and a Canadian woman at a U.S.-Canada border post in Vermont.
In addition, U.S. law enforcement officials told The Associated Press they were searching for as many as three people who may have been accomplices to Ressam, who allegedly had a form of nitroglycerine and other bomb-making materials in his car. Police dogs also detected traces of what could be explosive material in the vehicle of the couple arrested at the Vermont border post.
The arrests raised fears in the United States that an Algerian Islamic fundamentalist group might be involved in planning terrorist attacks during new millennium celebrations.
U.S. Representative Lamar Smith, the Republican who heads a House subcommittee on immigration, this week criticized Canada for lax border security and promised hearings on the issue next year.
Opposition members of Parliament also criticized the government Tuesday for what they called inadequate border security.
Also Tuesday, Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigators searched a Montreal home for explosives, but found none. An Algerian man at the duplex was detained for questioning, and police seized magazines and books, papers and at least one computer disc.
RCMP official Leo Monbourquette said there was no information linking Ressam to the house raid. He described the Algerian man detained for questioning as a potential witness rather than any kind of suspect.
The Globe and Mail newspaper reported Tuesday that Ressam had a Canadian passport issued under the name Benni Noris, based on a false baptism certificate obtained in Quebec province. Baptism certificates serve as a primary source of identification in Quebec.
According to the report, Ressam told Canadian authorities when he first came to the country in 1994 he was escaping political persecution in Algeria after being falsely accused of belonging to an Islamic terrorist group there.
The newspaper said Ressam later evaded deportation orders for failing to appear at hearings on his claim for refugee status, then obtained the passport in 1998.
---
Added Border Security Brings Delays
New York Times December 22, 1999 By DAVID W. CHEN
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/terror-border.html
Related Article
Arrest at U.S. Border Reverberates in France
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/algerian-terror.html
BUFFALO, Dec. 21 -- The light was fading fast at the United States-Canada border, and the line of idling cars eager to cross the Peace Bridge into this city was perhaps twice, maybe three times, the normal length. But that did not stop Inspector Brian Murphy of the Immigration and Naturalization Service from doing a thorough check on this frigid, windy afternoon, car after car, person after person.
Out came his flashlight, peering into the back seats. Up popped the trunk, so Mr. Murphy could sift through mundane tools and Christmas gifts. On went the questions, more probing than usual, about a driver's citizenship, destination, residence, everything.
And so it went, not only at each of the half-dozen or so inspection stations here, but also at dozens of border crossings around the country, turning what is typically a cursory, routine matter into something more laborious and vigilant.
For months, federal officials have disseminated cautious warnings about the chaos that could be wreaked by terrorists or computer glitches at millennium's end. But the arrest last week of a man who the authorities say tried to slip into Washington State with a cache of bomb components might well have driven home the notion of how susceptible the nation could be, prompting officials from Buffalo to Seattle, Miami to California, to redouble their inspection efforts this week.
The United States Customs Service added 300 employees to remote locations along the Mexico and Canada borders to increase security.
And today, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that it would add bomb-sniffing dogs and uniformed police officers at the nation's airports and rely more heavily on devices that check airline passengers for trace amounts of explosives.
Last week, the Defense Department sent two advisories to United States military commanders worldwide highlighting cautions about terrorist threats against Americans abroad.
Asked if the Pentagon had taken any new precautions or put additional military assets on standby, a spokesman, Kenneth H. Bacon, said, "We're taking appropriate action."
The man arrested last week, Ahmed Ressam, was stopped on Dec. 14 as he tried to enter Port Angeles, Wash., on a ferry from Victoria, British Columbia. The authorities said Mr. Ressam, who tried to flee, had nitroglycerin and other combustible and potential bomb-making materials in the trunk of his car.
Officials declined to say how long the heightened security alert would last beyond the holidays. But at numerous border points today, there was ample evidence to suggest that the people on the front lines were taking these warnings to heart.
"You're just looking out for something that doesn't seem normal, like a license plate from a different state," said Mr. Murphy, the inspector at Peace Bridge, who has been assessing faces and cars at border crossings for nine years. "You want to know, 'Does their story make sense? Are they nervous in their responses?' "
In the Pacific Northwest, motorists reported that while it was a breeze traveling to Canada from the United States, the return trip was a chore, with lines that were much longer than normal.
At the Peace Bridge, the busiest checkpoint along the Canadian border, delays of 5 minutes, typical during the holiday season, have stretched now to 15 minutes and beyond, said Lenore M. Belzer, the port director of the immigration service office in Buffalo.
There were more highway patrol officers at the nation's busiest crossing in San Ysidro, Calif.; the same was true in Texas and New Mexico.
"There is absolutely a sense that there is a heightened risk and we are taking it very seriously," said Gurdit Dhillon, director of field operations for the Customs Management Center in El Paso, which supervises 800 miles of the nation's 2,000-mile border with Mexico. "We are looking at all of our remote ports and moving people around, adding resources and authorizing overtime to meet the threat."
Not everything went smoothly, particularly for those of Arab descent.
In Boston, Mourad Aribi -- an Algerian native who lives in Manchester, England, and is married to a Maine native -- said he was detained for more than 20 minutes upon his arrival at Logan International Airport in Boston.
"It's racism," said Mr. Aribi, 26. "They see the color of your skin and they go through each piece of luggage you have."
But at the Peace Bridge, where people normally shuttle seamlessly to eat and shop on both sides of the border, most motorists were taking the delays in stride, saying the inspectors were doing their best to be thorough without being disruptive.
Bill Davies, of Thorold, Ontario, was driving a friend to the Buffalo airport, something he does from time to time. When an inspector noticed several pieces of luggage in the back of Mr. Davies's truck, the inspector asked Mr. Davies to pull into the customs and immigration offices for further screening.
No problem, Mr. Davies said.
"I'd hate to be here if something happens," he said. "I don't mind."
---
US Embassies More Cautious
07:11 AM ET 12/22/99 By ERIC PRIDEAUX= Associated Press Writer=
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562770665-80e
TOKYO (AP) _ U.S. embassies were paying closer attention to security ahead of the New Year after State Department warnings that terrorists may target Americans abroad, officials said today.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing has asked the Chinese government to increase security around the compound, the ambassador's residence and the four consulates in China, spokesman Bill Palmer said.
The Chinese government was being ``cooperative,'' Palmer said, but he would not specify what steps were being taken.
The U.S. government issued a new worldwide warning Tuesday that Americans may be the target of terrorist attacks in the New Year period and said airport security at home was being tightened.
Groups of people, assembled for religious festivals or to mark the millennium, may be especially at risk, the State Department said in a stepped-up caution to citizens abroad.
In Pakistan, already tight security at the U.S. Embassy was increased. Cement blocks have been erected on roads leading to the embassy, forcing cars to slow down.
A dozen policemen with rifles stand guard outside the high-walled compound, and more razor wire was put around the walls. Similar steps were taken at consulates in Lahore and Karachi.
Still, the mood at U.S. installations overseas was one of caution rather than alarm.
The U.S. military in Japan asked that staff ``try not to participate in any events with large gatherings that might be a good terrorist target,'' said Col. Jeanette Minnich, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forces in Japan.
However, there have been no orders to cancel planned social activities, she said.
The embassy in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, will continue to maintain high security, as usual, but will not cancel parties, reduce staff or send people home, officials said.
The embassies in Beijing and Tokyo said they knew of no terrorist threats specific to their regions.
---
State Department Intensifies Warning on Terrorism
By DAVID STOUT New York Times December 22, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/terrorist-alert.html
Related Article
Arrest at U.S. Border Reverberates in France
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/algerian-terror.html
ASHINGTON, Dec. 21 -- The State Department intensified its alert tonight for Americans traveling overseas, warning that terrorists may be planning attacks against large groups in Jordan.
The department said that official Americans and ordinary citizens alike should be cautious, and that groups gathered for religious services or to commemorate the new millennium might be at risk.
The department's alert was similar to one issued on Dec. 11 but considerably more specific, especially in its references to Jordan.
"We have learned that possible sites in Jordan may have included hotels, tour buses and tourist sites," the latest advisory said.
Although the advisory did not say where the department got its information, it seemed all but certain that much of it came from the questioning by Jordanian authorities of 13 suspected terrorists who were arrested in recent weeks in the Middle East.
Clinton administration officials have said the suspects had links to Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi-born militant who is blamed for the bombing of two American embassies in Africa in August 1998.
Tonight's State Department advisory followed an acknowledgment by Pentagon officials that American military posts around the world had been warned to be extra careful.
The latest alert suggested that Americans abroad check the State Department Web site for advisories. And while it used low-key language and did not advise against travel, it warned Americans overseas to review their own security practices, to avoid large crowds and to vary their routes.
"We cannot rule out the possibility that attacks still may be planned for this and other parts of the world," the alert said, referring to Jordan.
---
Americans Warned on World Terror
Yahoo News 01:50 AM ET 12/22/99
By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562767240-2b8 http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562774743-e6b
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The government is telling Americans all over the world it believes terrorists may target them from now through mid-January, especially at holiday gatherings and millennial celebrations.
Airport security is being tightened, and manhunts are under way for up to three people suspected of ties to an Algerian arrested last week at Port Angeles, Wash., and for a California man said to have ties to a terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa last year.
The stepped-up warning Tuesday night from the State Department, the second in 11 days, said the arrest of 13 suspects in Jordan may have forestalled attacks on hotels, tour buses and tourist sites in the Arab kingdom.
``We cannot rule out the possibility that attacks still may be planned for this and other parts of the world,'' a department statement said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said travelers at U.S. airports should expect tightened security precautions, including stricter enforcement of parking regulations.
The agency said it would make more use of devices to check airline passengers for small traces of explosives and additional bomb-sniffing dogs and uniformed police would patrol airports as the new year approaches.
The new warning to Americans was stated clearly: ``The U.S. government believes that terrorists may be planning to conduct attacks, including against official and non-official Americans, in and around the New Year period, from now through mid-January 2000.''
In another development, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press they were searching for as many as three people who may have been accomplices to Ahmed Ressam, who allegedly tried to enter the United States from Canada with nitroglycerin and other potential bomb-making materials in his car on a false passport when he was arrested at Port Angeles.
In Vermont, U.S. Border Patrol officers said they had arrested two people Sunday at a border station at Beecher Falls. One was an Algerian national with a falsified Canadian passport; the other was a Canadian woman. A clerk at the U.S. District Court in Burlington identified them as Bouabide Chamchi and Lucia Garofalo.
Dogs sniffed out traces of what could be explosives in the car that carried them, officials said. But searches of the car turned up nothing more.
Mark Henry, assistant chief of the Border Patrol sector covering Vermont, said he knew of no link between the Washington state incident and the attempted entry in Vermont.
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said there was ``credible information'' about potential terrorist threats abroad, and that Americans should stay in touch with U.S. embassies and consulates.
An earlier worldwide caution was issued Dec. 11. At the time, a senior U.S. official said, the U.S. government knew a plot had been uncovered in Jordan.
``The announcement was designed to keep Americans abreast of the counter-terrorism operation,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official also said authorities were looking for a 31-year-old U.S. citizen from California with ties to bin Laden.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the Defense Department last week sent to U.S. military commanders worldwide two advisories highlighting State Department cautions about terrorist threats against Americans abroad.
The messages also provided ``other information'' relevant to the security of U.S. forces. Bacon would not be more specific, although he said no commanders abroad had requested additional equipment or other assets to increase security on their bases.
``Every commander is extremely aware of the need to be aggressive in pursuing force protection measures, and these advisories just alerted them to the fact that they should review all of their force protection plans and take appropriate action,'' Bacon said.
U.S. embassies also stepped up safety measures. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing asked the Chinese government to increase security around the embassy, the ambassador's residence and the four consulates elsewhere in China, spokesman Bill Palmer said, although he added that the embassy knew of ``no China-specific threat.''
Also Tuesday, Federal Election Commission employees in Washington were told to evacuate their building shortly after 5 p.m. because of a threat directed against the FBI building across the street, FEC spokeswoman Sharon Snyder said. The FBI denied there was a problem.
Travel of some suspected terrorists from one country to another, and reports a terrorist group linked to bin Laden may be planning attacks are the primary causes of concern, a U.S. official.
But there is no evidence of a specific threat at this point, he said.
Last week, Jordanian authorities announced the arrest of 13 members of the bin Laden organization and said they were planning attacks against Americans, Israelis and other targets.
The investigation produced information that spurred the issuance of the second travel warning, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
---
U.S. tightens airport security, warns travelers
By Jerry Seper Washington Times December 22, 1999
http://208.246.212.80/national/news1-19991222.htm
The federal government yesterday ordered tighter security in the nation's airports and stepped up its worldwide warning for possible anti-American terrorist attacks over the New Year.
The federal government yesterday ordered tighter security in the nation's airports and stepped up its worldwide warning for possible anti-American terrorist attacks over the New Year.
Responding to growing concern about terrorism at home, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that airport authorities will increase the use of devices to monitor passengers for trace amounts of explosives and will add more uniformed police officers and bomb-sniffing dogs to patrol airports.
Travelers over the holiday season should also expect stricter enforcement of parking regulations at airports across the country, the FAA said in a written statement.
As for Americans abroad, the State Department said that while some suspected terrorists have been arrested, such activities may be still being planned.
"The U.S. government believes that terrorists may be planning to conduct attacks against official and non-official Americans in and around the New Year period," the department said in a statement.
It noted the recent arrests in Jordan of suspects believed to be affiliated with suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and said "intensive investigative work" had shown their purported targets to be "hotels, tour buses and tourists sites" in the Middle Eastern country.
"We cannot rule out the possibility that attacks still may be planned for this and other parts of the world," the statement said.
Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Police Department and Metro Transit Police were placed on heightened alert yesterday - one week earlier than planned.
Treasury Department Officer Lou Cannon, president of the Washington Fraternal Order of Police, said he suspects the paranoia surrounding the new year will cause people to become suspicious of others.
"People's awareness is heightened," he said.
Two such incidents occurred yesterday. In one, Federal Election Commission employees were told to evacuate their building shortly after 5 p.m. yesterday because of a threat directed against the FBI building across the street, FEC spokeswoman Sharon Snyder said. The FBI denied there was a problem.
In the other, the Metropolitan Police Department sent out teletyped notices and radio broadcasts yesterday afternoon that officers should look out for a 1989 blue Mitsubishi van.
A law enforcement source said they were alerted to the van after two men bought it in Northeast Washington on Monday. One of the men said he was not concerned about transferring the Texas license plate since they wouldn't need the van long.
"There is no confirmation of explosives," the law enforcement source said. "Their activities raised some concerns because they were not worried about the paperwork [for transferring the tags]."
Also in Washington yesterday, the Pentagon said it was preparing to protect U.S. forces overseas. Asked specifically if the Pentagon had taken any new precautions or put any additional military assets on standby, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said only, "We're taking appropriate action."
Meanwhile, overseas, the U.S. Embassy in Quito, Ecuador, has been closed over concern it might be targeted by terrorists, the State Department's deputy spokesman, James B. Foley, said yesterday.
Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi, who is believed by U.S. intelligence authorities to have supported terrorism worldwide, said yesterday the United States has plenty of enemies.
"The U.S. government is hated," he said from Tripoli in an interview with CBS. "All the people in the world are against it; therefore, there is a threat. I hope it will not happen in this new year. I have no knowledge about this."
Concern about possible terrorist incidents - including those that could be directed by bin Laden -has spread to the highest levels of government.
Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright; CIA Director George Tenet; Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and several other high-ranking U.S. officials met at the White House for two hours Monday to discuss the matter, but no formal statement was issued.
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart declined to describe the meeting, but told reporters there was no "specific or general threats against particular targets in the U.S." He said only that there was "credible information, information gathered, including information gathered from arrests in Jordan, about potential terrorist threats."
"We have made the case in the past that the U.S. is not invulnerable to domestic terrorism, but there's no specific information now about particular targets here," Mr. Lockhart told reporters at his daily briefing.
"But . . . as we head into the millennium, it pays for people to be cautious and vigilant," he said. "We're telling people . . . if you see something suspicious, report it."
Jordan last week said it had arrested 13 members of a terrorist group linked to bin Laden who were planning "terrorist" attacks after training in Afghanistan. Another person was arrested in Pakistan.
Also last week, an Algerian man was arrested while trying to enter Port Angeles, Wash., on a ferry from Victoria, British Columbia. Authorities said Ahmed Ressam had nitroglycerin and other potential bomb-making materials in his car and was traveling on a false passport.
Yesterday, dogs found traces of what could be explosives in a car that carried another Algerian to a tiny border station in Vermont. A search of the car turned up nothing more.
The Algerian, Bouabide Chamchi, 20, and a Canadian woman, Lucia Garofalo, 35, were arrested Sunday evening at Beecher Falls. A federal prosecutor said Miss Garofalo has Algerian and Libyan relatives.
The two were charged with conspiring to use a false French passport and other immigration violations.
Mr. Foley of the State Department said a worldwide caution last week to Americans traveling abroad was prompted by its obligation to inform U.S. citizens of information it has that could impact on their security.
The warning, he said, was based on information developed with the arrest of a terrorist cell in Jordan, the possibility of activities by other groups, and the nature of the bin Laden organization.
"So we felt it was the prudent and responsible thing to inform the American public about this information that was derived especially from the successful closing down of a terrorist cell in Jordan," Mr. Foley said.
"At the same time, though, we have told the American public that this is a yellow light. It is not a red light. We are urging Americans to be vigilant and cautious as they travel, but we are not recommending to Americans that they change their plans and that they not travel overseas," he said.
Jim Keary contributed to this report.
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Algerian Arrested at Washington Border Indicted
New York Times December 22, 1999 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/22bomb-suspect-indict.html
SEATTLE -- Ahmed Ressam, the 32-year-old Algerian man accused of trying to smuggle bomb-making materials into the United States from Canada, was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday.
Ressam was accused of making false statements to U.S. Customs officers, smuggling nitroglycerin across the border, transporting explosives, being in possession of unregistered firearms, and carrying explosives during a felony, according to the five-count indictment. The firearms possession count referred to alleged timing devices for explosives found in Ressam's car.
Ressam was charged last week with using false identification at a border crossing in addition to smuggling nitroglycerin in his car. He was stopped by U.S. Customs officials Dec. 14 after he arrived in Port Angeles, about 60 miles northwest of Seattle, via ferry from Victoria, British Columbia.
Ressam was to appear later Wednesday before a U.S. District Court judge.
A pair of vans, escorted by a police motorcade, was seen entering the federal courthouse early Wednesday. U.S. Marshals would not confirm whether Ressam had actually been transferred there.
Ressam's arrest sparked concerns nationwide of possible terrorist actions during the holidays. U.S. officials from President Clinton on down have assured Americans they were doing all in their power to prevent such attacks, including tightening security at airports and investigating whether there were any links to terrorist Osama bin Laden.
Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press they are searching for up to three other people who may have ties to Ressam. In Vermont, U.S. Border Patrol officers said they had arrested two people Sunday at a border station at Beecher Falls. One was an Algerian national with a falsified Canadian passport; the other was a Canadian woman.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that French officials believe Ressam has links to an Algerian terrorist group responsible for a number of bombings in France in 1996.
The newspaper also reported that American officials have unconfirmed intelligence reports that Ressam had been seen in Islamic fundamentalist training camps during the 1980s.
The incidents along the U.S.-Canadian border have prompted the State Department to once again warn Americans abroad that terrorists may target U.S. citizens over the holidays.
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State Department Intensifies Warning on Terrorism
New York Times December 22, 1999 By DAVID STOUT
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/terrorist-alert.html
Related Article
Arrest at U.S. Border Reverberates in France
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/algerian-terror.html
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 -- The State Department intensified its alert tonight for Americans traveling overseas, warning that terrorists may be planning attacks against large groups in Jordan.
The department said that official Americans and ordinary citizens alike should be cautious, and that groups gathered for religious services or to commemorate the new millennium might be at risk.
The department's alert was similar to one issued on Dec. 11 but considerably more specific, especially in its references to Jordan.
"We have learned that possible sites in Jordan may have included hotels, tour buses and tourist sites," the latest advisory said.
Although the advisory did not say where the department got its information, it seemed all but certain that much of it came from the questioning by Jordanian authorities of 13 suspected terrorists who were arrested in recent weeks in the Middle East.
Clinton administration officials have said the suspects had links to Osama bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi-born militant who is blamed for the bombing of two American embassies in Africa in August 1998.
Tonight's State Department advisory followed an acknowledgment by Pentagon officials that American military posts around the world had been warned to be extra careful.
The latest alert suggested that Americans abroad check the State Department Web site for advisories. And while it used low-key language and did not advise against travel, it warned Americans overseas to review their own security practices, to avoid large crowds and to vary their routes.
"We cannot rule out the possibility that attacks still may be planned for this and other parts of the world," the alert said, referring to Jordan.
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U.S. embassies cautious on New Year
USA Today 12/22/99- Updated 03:29 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwswed02.htm
LONDON (AP) - U.S. embassies are advising Americans abroad to be wary of big public celebrations of the new year, but only a few missions admitted Wednesday that they were seeking stepped-up protection following warnings of terrorist threats.
On Tuesday, the State Department issued this warning: ''The U.S. government believes that terrorists may be planning to conduct attacks, including against official and nonofficial Americans, in and around the New Year period, from now through mid-January 2000.''
The warning, the second in 11 days, came after terror suspects were arrested in Jordan and an Algerian was arrested while trying to bring bomb-making equipment into Washington state.
In Beijing, the U.S. Embassy has asked the Chinese government to increase vigilance around the compound, the ambassador's residence and the four consulates in China, spokesman Bill Palmer said. The Chinese government was being ''cooperative,'' Palmer said, but he would not specify what steps were being taken.
In Hong Kong, closer monitoring at the U.S. consulate ''was warranted in light of the State Department's caution,'' spokesman Robert Laing said.
But they were the exception. Most embassies were content to say that security is always a concern and constantly under review.
The American Embassy in Kuwait says its security measures there remain the same - that is, very tight. However, its taped message for U.S. citizens urges them to ''review their security practices, to remain vigilant to their surroundings and to exercise caution.''
The recording, dated Dec. 22, asks Americans to ''avoid large crowds and gatherings'' because of terrorist threats in and around the New Year period.
At the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a spokeswoman said vigilance was high at all times. Though procedures were being reviewed in light of the latest threats, she said there were no plans to cancel parties or reduce staffing over the holidays. She spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.S. embassies in London, Paris and Rome said no events were being canceled and no one was being sent home because of the threats.
''Security is something we take very seriously and it is constantly being reviewed,'' said Claude Young, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. He refused to discuss security measures.
The U.S. military in Japan asked that staff ''try not to participate in any events with large gatherings that might be a good terrorist target,'' said Col. Jeanette Minnich, spokeswoman for U.S. forces in Japan. However, there have been no orders to cancel planned social activities, she said.
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Hint of Explosives Found in Car Stopped at Canadian Border
New York Times December 22, 1999 By THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/terror-vermont.html
Related Article
Arrest at U.S. Border Reverberates in France
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/algerian-terror.html
BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Bomb-sniffing dogs detected traces of what might be explosives in the car of a couple who were detained after trying to enter the United States from Canada with a forged French passport, but no explosives were found in the car, the authorities said on Tuesday.
The couple, Bouabide Chamchi, 20, an Algerian, and Lucia Garofalo, 35, of Montreal, were arrested Sunday night at a border post at Beechers Falls, Vt. They were charged with conspiring to use a false passport and other immigration violations.
Officials said they were led to question the pair and search Ms. Garofalo's car because she had appeared at border stations three times in the last two weeks.
An FBI forensics team is investigating the vehicle, Assistant U.S. Attorney Trist Coffin said at hearing on Tuesday in Federal District Court.
U.S. Attorney Charles Tetzlaff said there was no evidence of a connection between the pair and Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian charged last week with carrying bomb components into Washington state from Canada.
Coffin argued that both Chamchi and Ms. Garofalo pose a significant risk of fleeing the United States because of their lack of ties to this country and their connections to the Middle East.
Coffin said that Ms. Garofalo is married to a man of Algerian descent who was deported from Canada and is living in Italy. He said that federal officials did not know why he was deported.
Arguing for an expedited detention hearing, Maryann E. Kampmann, Ms. Garofalo's court-appointed lawyer, said her client has three children who are staying in Montreal with Ms. Garofalo's 72-year-old mother.
During their inspection at the border station on Sunday, customs agents found a false French passport in a coat in the car. The passport carries the name of Boudjemaa Ben Ali.
According to an FBI affidavit, Chamchi denied ever having seen the passport, but Ms. Garofalo is said to have told officials at the border that she had given the passport to Chamchi to hold. The passport had been given to her by someone else, Ms. Garofalo told investigators.
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Arrest at U.S. Border Reverberates in France
New York Times December 22, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/algerian-terror.html
This article was reported by Craig Pyes, John Kifner, Sam Howe Verhovek and John Burns, and was written by Mr. Burns.
When United States customs officials arrested Ahmed Ressam near Seattle last week after he came off a ferry from Canada in a car they say was loaded with jars of nitroglycerin, timing devices and other bomb-making materials, American intelligence officials knew little about him.
But the arrest set off alarms in France, where antiterrorist officials had been focusing on the 32-year-old Mr. Ressam because of his connections to a loosely organized group of Islamic radicals that French investigators suspect had carried out a series of attacks on supermarkets, armored security vehicles and banks in northern France in 1996.
French officials declined to provide specifics and did not suggest that Mr. Ressam, an Algerian, was involved in the attacks. But one senior French law-enforcement official said that Mr. Ressam had links to Fateh Kamel, an Algerian veteran of the Afghan war. The French have tied Mr. Kamel to the group that carried out the attacks in 1996, which left one bystander and several Islamic radicals dead.
Earlier this year, the French identified Said Atmani, an Algerian with a Bosnian passport who once roomed with Mr. Ressam in a Montreal apartment, as another figure with links to Mr. Kamel. French officials said they sent a delegation to Canada in October to interview Mr. Atmani and Mr. Ressam, but neither man could be located. A French antiterrorist official said that they briefed Canadian and American officials about their interest in Mr. Ressam, including his possible links to the financing of Islamic terror activities in Europe and elsewhere.
Much about Mr. Ressam remains unknown as officials in three countries trace his movements in an effort to learn what he planned to do with the explosives he was accused of bringing into the United States. But from interviews and a review of public records in Canada, a picture is emerging of a man who moved easily from country to country with falsified passports.
At the modest, $85-per-night hotel where he lived for two weeks in Vancouver, British Columbia, workers recalled that he was traveling with another man who spoke English with no discernible accent.
American officials now say they have unconfirmed intelligence reports that Mr. Ressam had been seen in trai