----------- arms / du

Risks and Restraint: Why the Apaches Never Flew in Kosovo

By Dana Priest Washington Post Staff Writer, December 29, 1999; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/29/084l-122999-idx.html

The Army spent a half billion dollars sending two dozen AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to Albania this spring for NATO's fight against Yugoslav troops tearing up Kosovo. But the Apaches never fired a shot in combat.

Instead, they were grounded by Pentagon fears about potential U.S. casualties. Field commanders were convinced the casualties would be low and they argued forcefully in secret video teleconferences to go into action. But top military officials and the White House never came close to using the helicopters.

A detailed reconstruction of the operation known as Task Force Hawk, based on interviews with more than four dozen pilots and U.S. military commanders in Europe and top defense officials in Washington, including seven four-star generals, reveals how White House and Pentagon concerns over the risks inherent in combat can sideline the very weapons that the government has spent decades and trillions of dollars to acquire and perfect.

The issue was particularly relevant to Kosovo. Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's campaign against ethnic Albanians killed 10,000 by U.S. government estimates before he withdrew his troops and allowed in NATO peacekeepers. Had the Apaches been used early enough, some military officials believe, the fearsome tank-killers may have saved some of those lives.

Instead, the vaunted helicopters came to symbolize everything wrong with the Army as it enters the 21st century: its inability to move quickly; its resistance to change; its obsession with casualties; its post-Cold War identity crisis.

"Task Force Hawk is a useful metaphor for the Army and why we need to transition to a lighter, more agile force," Army Secretary Louis Caldera said in an interview. "I use it to talk to senior leaders about whether the Army was willing and able to get into the fight."

Looking back on the Kosovo war, Caldera said, "We seem to be more willing to suffer casualties in training than in real operations. It sets the wrong standard for the soldiers."

Some current and former members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other Pentagon officials dismiss the notion that they were overly concerned about casualties. They say Task Force Hawk had many problems. It was too unconventional. Too slow getting to Albania. Unlikely to hit enough targets to make a difference. Unlikely to do anything the Air Force couldn't do more safely, especially by the time the slow-flying, tank-busting A-10 "Warthog" jets arrived in mid-May.

Retired Marine Corps commandant Gen. Charles C. Krulak, who voted against using the Apaches in the Joint Chiefs' secret "tank" sessions, said the difference of opinion with field commanders reflects the military's historical checks-and-balances system, one "that has kept mothers and fathers from suffering more white crosses. It is not bad. It is good."

Army Lays Out 'Risks'

From the beginning, the NATO mission in Kosovo was beset by a strategic Catch-22.

NATO political leaders ruled out sending ground troops to Kosovo because they believed their people would not support it. Instead, they backed a limited air campaign that used jets and Navy ships to hit Yugoslav targets with missiles and bombs from three miles up, a strategy designed to limit pilot losses. They believed that such a show of force would within days make Milosevic call off the Serbian paramilitaries and the Yugoslav army troops carrying out the "ethnic cleansing."

Top Pentagon officials and NATO's top commander, Gen. Wesley K. Clark, repeatedly warned the White House that jets could not reliably destroy troops and tanks on the ground.

Just hours after the cautious air war began on March 24, the White House was faced with reports of massacres and hordes of refugees created by Milosevic's rampaging forces. A senior Joint Staff official phoned Clark with a question from White House national security adviser Samuel "Sandy" R. Berger: When would they hit the Yugoslav troops and tanks?

There was no quick fix in sight, but it was the kind of mission the Apaches had been created to perform.

The Army has spent $15 billion over the past two decades to make the Apache the most lethal and least vulnerable attack helicopter in the world. It had proved its tank-killing capabilities in the Persian Gulf War. One Apache, carrying 46 rockets and missiles, can fly at night, just above the tree tops, at 100 miles per hour, without a single visible light. Armored flaps on the side windows shield the control panel's illumination, curved rotor blade tips dampen its noise and the exhaust system cools the engine quickly to fool heat sensors.

The Apache can also fly in the kind of rainy, cloudy weather that was grounding so many jets in the first month of the Kosovo war.

The notion of using the Apaches had surfaced earlier. The week before the war began, Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mentioned the Apaches to Clark, who then tasked his subordinates to develop a plan to use them.

Traditionally, Apaches are used to attack enemy troops far behind the front lines. Long-range artillery barrages secure safe passage for the Apaches deep inside enemy territory, and nearby Army troops and armor help spot and herd masses of enemy forces so the Apaches can destroy them.

But there were no U.S. ground troops in Kosovo, so Clark's plan would rely on drones, radars and satellites to find targets.

Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, the vice chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was immediately dubious. He and the service chiefs thought Clark's operational plan to use the Apaches was too vague and unconventional. Ralston believed a stepped-up air campaign by Air Force jets hitting "strategic" targets such as ministries and power stations in Belgrade was more likely to cause Milosevic to relent.

Clark and his field commanders disagreed. However, they weren't just dealing with Air Force qualms, but also with reluctance among the Army leadership.

Army Chief of Staff Dennis J. Reimer, then the top-ranking Army officer, saw a "classic risk-benefit analysis. Does the benefit exceed the risk?" He doubted the task force could locate good targets. "It's like looking through a soda straw," Reimer said. He worried that the Army's Apaches would be a step toward the use of ground forces, something the Army leadership did not favor.

Risk dominated the Army's thinking. Early in the war, Army officers gave Clark a preliminary briefing on the Apaches using three pages of slides labeled "Risks." They included every type of caliber of weapon known to be in use in Yugoslavia, from the smallest bullet to the biggest shell: "5.56 millimeter. 7.62 millimeter. 12.51 millimeter. . . ."

The briefing infuriated Clark, who believed it revealed that the Army was resistant to using the Apaches, according to two participants.

On March 29, five days after the war began, the Joint Chiefs met on Clark's proposal to use the Apaches. They were not supportive. As Clark later explained in a video teleconference with his commanders: "People look at this as a ground war if you put Apaches in."

Shelton and Ralston came up with a compromise. They recommended to Defense Secretary William S. Cohen that the Apaches be sent to Albania but not used in combat until the Pentagon generals were convinced that the mission made sense. Shelton would then make a recommendation to President Clinton, who had the final say.

Cohen bought the idea and on April 3 Clinton signed the order sending the Apaches to Albania.

In announcing the deployment, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth H. Bacon suggested that the Apaches' arrival could change the course of a war. The helicopters, he explained, "will give us the capability to get up-close and personal to the Milosevic armor units in Kosovo."

Albania's Sea of Mud

The expectation, even at the top levels of government, including Army Secretary Caldera, was that the Apaches would arrive within 10 days and dive into combat.

But that was not to be.

The Apaches were supposed to go to Macedonia, where a NATO base was set up in Skopje. But, flooded by hundreds of thousands of Kosovo refugees, Macedonia refused permission.

Albania quickly agreed to provide a base for the Apaches, but there was no suitable airport and no base close to the border for the artillery support the Apaches required. The Army settled on the Rinas airport in Tirana, about 45 miles from the border of Montenegro, where 40,000 troops from the Yugoslav 2nd Army and jets at the Podgorica Airfield were both within striking range.

Then there was the mud at Tirana. It was so thick that one military intelligence officer sank up to her chest. Soldiers were ordering thigh-high fishing boots from home.

It took just four days for the Army to remake the tiny Tirana airport into a 24-hour thoroughfare that could support 20 flights a day. This required 667,000 square meters of rock fill. Because of the muck and a record rainfall, engineers had to construct 58 specially designed landing pads for the Apache base. They were delayed for nearly a week in finishing because they did not have enough landing pad mesh.

To construct the base and make Task Force Hawk as invincible as possible, the Army brought in 10,300 pieces of equipment on 550 flights of the huge C-17. The cargo included 14 70-ton M1A1 Abrams tanks--too heavy to use on most Albanian roads--42 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 20 5-ton Expando Vans for the V Corps headquarters, 190 containers of ammunition and enough repair kits for twice the number of Apaches there. Thirty-seven Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters went along too.

All that heavy equipment was baffling to some.

"Those of us looking at it said to ourselves, 'Why are you bringing M1 tanks to Tirana?' " remarked one Air Force general involved in the move.

In all, the Army sent 6,200 troops and 26,000 tons of equipment to Tirana, at a cost of $480 million, to support and protect the Apaches.

"We probably went in a little too heavy," said Reimer. "Army people will always err on the side of overwhelming force necessary to do the job. I don't apologize for that. . . . The people on the ground knew they were protected and that gives them a lot of confidence."

While soldiers worked furiously to build the base, Gen. John W. Hendrix, then commander of Task Force Hawk and the Army's V Corps, said Washington was far from a decision to use the helicopters in combat, so "there was no rush."

"I didn't realize the world was waiting to see an Apache landing in Albania," Hendrix said.

The first Apaches finally lifted off on April 14 from their base in Germany, but it took 12 long days for all 24 of them to get to Albania. The weather delayed some. Then the Italian government held them in Pisa for five days while it debated whether to permit overflights with live ammunition. And the French, who were blocking the Apache landing ramp at the Tirana airport with a refueling depot, refused to budge for a week.

A 'Bleak' Casualty Estimate

Back in Washington, Shelton and Ralston were making a persuasive case to White House officials that the Apaches should not fly. It was not a hard sell, given the White House's own aversion to casualties. Key to the discussion were the casualty estimates, which commanders in the field said were merely fluid projections based on computer simulations. Privately, they called them "WAGs," Wild Ass Guesses.

Clark and Hendrix had told Pentagon officials that any casualty estimates would not be reliable, given the unique mission. But in an air war designed in part to safeguard pilots, it was a central question.

In a teleconference with top Pentagon officials April 16, Hendrix was pressed for an answer on what casualty rates could be. Around 5 per 100 sorties, maybe slightly higher, the Task Force Hawk leader said, according to interviews with Hendrix and several people who were at the meeting. One officer's notes show that Hendrix estimated there might be "zero to five" pilot casualties. But a senior Pentagon official recalls Hendrix giving a higher figure, six to 15, which was one estimate the Joint Staff used in White House discussions. That higher figure is disputed by several Army generals in attendance.

Somehow, an even higher figure made its way to the White House, although senior Pentagon officials said the Joint Staff produced no independent estimates of its own.

One senior White House official recalls Pentagon officials saying that the Apache deployment could result in casualties as high as "50 percent within days."

"Their assessment was so bleak," the official said. "It was almost a no-brainer."

Pentagon officials now say they have no record or recollection of having mentioned a 50 percent figure at the White House. But such a figure was included in a confidential message sent to officers in Germany by an Army major on an early base planning mission to Macedonia.

It was a back-of-the envelope guess, but it was informally passed on to the Joint Staff. One senior Pentagon official queried Clark about the figure.

"There was no analytical basis for the 50 percent figure," Clark said. "It was just pulled out of the air. I conveyed that."

The casualty estimates remain to this day a point of disagreement between the Pentagon and the commanders who were in the field.

Friction Between Services

These stratospheric discussions went on unbeknownst to the pilots, who believed they had been brought to Albania to fly into Kosovo within days.

They faced plenty of difficulties of their own.

The enemy had time to disperse into small groups before the Apaches arrived. The wooded mountain passes of Albania were shelter for scattered refugees and hundreds of Serbs with shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles.

And then there was the terrain itself. Chief Warrant Officer Dennis Seymour remembers the first time he saw the spiked Albanian mountains. "It's like, 'This is ugly, this is really ugly,' " he said in an interview in Germany.

Pilots would have to fly through three micro-climates to reach Kosovo from Albania. Extra fuel tanks made the aircraft hard to handle, and there were only a few mountain passes wide enough to navigate. On the third day of mission rehearsals, these conditions caused one pilot to lose control and crash. He survived, but the mission's public profile was wounded.

Although qualified to Army standards, none of the pilots was used to flying with night-vision goggles. More than 65 percent were relatively inexperienced. At times there was a "complete loss" of radio contact because of the high mountains, a confidential military after-action report states.

"It was painful and high risk [during] the first three weeks in Albania," Maj. Gen. Richard A. Cody, the task force deputy commander and a legendary special operations Apache pilot, wrote in a separate memo.

The Army and Air Force did not work well together, according to the report: "There was friction. . . . Individuals in both services neither understand nor appreciate the capabilities of one another."

Sixty percent of all rehearsals were canceled because the supporting Air Force aircraft were not available, either because they were engaged in air war operations or were grounded by weather.

To convince the Pentagon to employ the Apaches, task force commanders worked at speeding intelligence-gathering on targets and synchronizing operations with a huge array of aircraft: U-2 spy planes, AWACS airborne warning and control planes, three types of helicopters, air tankers and Air Force jets.

When two pilots died May 4 in a crash, apparently caused by a mechanical failure, their colleagues were determined that "it wasn't all for naught," said pilot Seymour. "Everybody was saying, 'Let's go in there and kick their tails now.' "

By mid-May, the commanders felt the risk had been minimized. What Washington saw as threats, the pilots viewed as advantages. "That terrain was our friend," said Cody. "That night-time was our friend."

Most of all, each pilot had a $14.5 million Apache, the world's best combat helicopter. The plan was to zip through the Albanian mountains at 90 miles per hour. Bomblet-spewing ATACMS tactical missiles would have already pummeled the enemy troops along the flight path. Dart-filled rockets would deal with the remnants. Six rescue helicopters would be 10 minutes away. Five Apaches would fly a feint close by. A half dozen Air Force jets would provide protective cover.

Like a mosquito darting for blood, each Apache would stay in the battle zone a mere five minutes, with its infrared jammer turned on to throw off incoming missiles.

Still, nothing could give a guarantee against what Seymour called "a little bullet in the big sky" shot by some lucky Serb with an AK-47 or, worse, a shoulder-fired SA-7 missile.

Fear of more losses seemed to obsess Washington visitors to Albania. Lt. Col. George M. Bilafer, a Task Force Hawk squadron commander, got asked repeatedly: Don't you think the Apaches are too risky?

"Listen," Bilafer said he would reply, "you're not the one who has to go notify the family, I am. . . . Am I worried about a guy with an SA-7 on the ground shooting at me? No, I'm not because he can't see me and he has to be able to see me to shoot me."

Hendrix said he tried "over and over again" to convince Pentagon officials that the risk would be less than they expected and the military rewards would be significant.

Around that time, Gen. Reimer faced a roomful of Apache pilots who had what he recalls as an "I-can-take-on-the-world" confidence. "I still felt," said Reimer, "that we really didn't have the targets to justify their use." Besides, he said, the Air Force's A-10 jets were about to arrive. But the A-10s, like the Air Force's high-flying jets, did not manage to destroy a large part of the Yugoslav Army in Kosovo.

Hendrix said in an interview he believed the Apaches would have hit "12 to 15 tanks" each mission. Pentagon officials still disagree that there were enough available targets. "There weren't 12 to 15 tanks to be taken out" in the open, said Krulak.

That's not the way Cody, the deputy commander, remembers it. By June, he said, "We would have taken [the Yugoslav army] out, and I don't think we would have lost anybody."

Some military officers suggest the nation has forgotten that the Army's job is inherently dangerous. "Wake up, hello! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!" said Col. Oliver R. Hunter IV, former commander of Task Force Hawk's 11th Aviation Regiment. "We were accepting the risk. It was within our limitations."

The Apaches are now back at their base in Germany. It took 30 trains, 20 ships and 81 C-17 flights to send Task Force Hawk back home.

The Army is now spending $1.9 billion to upgrade one-third of its 743-helicopter Apache fleet to make the helicopters even more lethal.

---

Arms smuggler accused in bank scheme

USA Today 12/29/99- Updated 12:58 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm#drug

MIAMI - An international arms dealer convicted of smuggling high-tech weapons to Iraq has been charged with bank fraud and money-laundering. Sarkis Soghanalian, 69, and four others are accused of scheming to steal two blank cashier's checks in 1995 from a California bank where one of them worked. A 10-count federal indictment alleges the defendants had one of the checks made out for $3 million and deposited in a Paris bank.

The other check, worth $300,000, allegedly was cashed in for chips at a Las Vegas casino. Soghanalian was arrested Dec. 22 when he arrived on a flight from Paris. His case is expected to be transferred to California.


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

Japan Nuclear Site To Pay Damages

Associated Press December 29, 1999 Filed at 11:16 a.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Japan-Nuclear.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991229/aponline111631_000.htm
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/991229/11/int-japan-nuclear
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562908974-dd7

TOKYO (AP) -- The company that ran the facility where Japan's worst nuclear accident happened said it is paying $52.3 million in damages to businesses hurt by the disaster, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Under an agreement with the local government, JCO Co. will settle 2,679 of the more than 5,000 claims from the accident, the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun reported, citing unidentified company officials.

The company was closed for the New Year holiday, and officials were unavailable for comment.

As JCO's liability insurance only covers $9.8 million in damages, most of the burden will be borne by JCO parent company Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., the newspaper said.

The Sept. 30 disaster in Tokaimura, 70 miles northeast of Tokyo, occurred when workers mixed too much uranium with nitric acid to make fuel, setting off an uncontrolled nuclear reaction.

An investigation into the Tokaimura accident found that workers at the plant routinely violated safety procedures, including mixing uranium in buckets to get the job done quickly.

Hisashi Ouchi, 35, the most severely injured of the workers who mixed the uranium, died on Dec. 21.

JCO attracted criticism when it initially said it would only redress claims from businesses within six miles from the Tokaimura plant, Kyodo News Agency said.

The company later agreed with the Ibaraki prefectural government to pay half of the total damages by the end of the year, it said.

-----------

Tokyo Unnerved by Pre-Y2K Bombs
Rail Commuters Warned, Massive Security Force on Alert

By Doug Struck Washington Post Foreign Service, December 29, 1999; Page A14
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/29/108l-122999-idx.html

TOKYO, Dec. 28-Three small fires set in trains and the explosion of two homemade bombs at rail stations in the last five days have added to the unease in Japan about the arrival of the new millennium.

Commuters bustled between trains today with loudspeakers blaring cautions, and strode past coin-operated lockers and trash cans that were sealed to prevent anyone from planting bombs inside them.

The incidents and the official warnings they brought came on the heels of the government's mixed messages about possible technological turmoil as the New Year arrives. Officials insist the country is ready for the Y2K computer rollover, but have told people to stockpile food and water, and have placed 96,000 troops on call for New Year's Eve--including teams trained to handle nuclear and chemical accidents. More than 106,000 police officers also will be on duty.

The extraordinary call for manpower and the rash of train incidents has spooked some residents. "I feel, undeniably, that something will happen," said commuter Masao Ikeda, 65, standing next to a bank of sealed coin lockers in a Tokyo subway station. "First, there's the Y2K problem itself. Then there are some criminals who would seize the opportunity to do something and make it look like [it was caused by] Y2K."

"Politically motivated guerrilla groups still are around," agreed fellow commuter Yoshikazu Adachi, 28. "It's kind of scary."

Authorities said they do not know who placed the explosives, apparently packed in small styrofoam balls with timing devices. They said they believe the fires were set by opponents of construction of a controversial second runway at Tokyo's Narita Airport.

One of the explosive devices was found by a locker attendant Monday morning at Urawa station, just north of Tokyo. Two of his fingers were injured when the device went off as he moved it. On Friday, a small bomb exploded in a bin at a train depot, apparently after it had been swept up with the trash from the high-speed Shinkansen train. No one was injured. On Sunday, three fires broke out under seats on trains serving Narita Airport, causing delays but no injuries.

In addition to cautions issued at home, the Foreign Ministry warned that Japanese living abroad and Japanese-affiliated companies should be wary about "becoming entangled" in terrorist incidents abroad.

The warnings have been echoed in the press. The Sankei Shimbun newspaper noted in an editorial today that even extra manpower "cannot oversee all the crowded trains and terminals that will be packed with travelers, and the temples and shrines that several million people will visit."

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi has sought to portray his government as in control of possible Y2K computer problems . He has been appearing in television ads, unusual for a Japanese leader, but even these messages have been ambiguous. "We don't think any big disruptions will take place, but it is important to be prepared for the worst," Obuchi said in one ad. He went on to urge people to stockpile two to three days' worth of water and food.

Both the central government and the Tokyo metropolitan government are setting up special disaster prevention headquarters to monitor events. Obuchi plans to spend New Year's Eve there and has scheduled a television appearance at 12:45 a.m., in which he hopes to tell the nation that all went smoothly.

----------- new zealand

U.S. to look to New Zealand for Y2K clues

Anchorage Daily News December 29, 1999 2:17 a.m. EST
http://www.nando.net/24hour/adn/technology/story/0,1976,500147742-500178620-500715461-0,00.html

WASHINGTON ( http://www.nandotimes.com) - If you suffer from Y2K angst, you can get a preview of what may or may not go wrong by keeping a close eye early Friday morning on what happens in New Zealand, the first modern, industrial country to cross the 2000 threshold.

Many hours before Americans pop champagne corks, any serious glitches in New Zealand will be quickly reported to a $50 million global information center established by the Clinton administration for up-to-date reports on possible Y2K problems at home and abroad.

For U.S. officials charged with keeping an eye on potential Y2K crises, New Zealand will serve as the proverbial canary in a coal mine -- as a critical early warning system.

Globally, the rollover into 2000 will start Friday at 6 a.m. (EST) in New Zealand, followed two hours later by Australia, and then moving through Asia, Eastern Europe and Western Europe before the United States starts checking into the new millennium.

"It's an advantage to us to have the international sector go first because it does give us some advance look at what's going to happen," said John Koskinen, chairman of President Clinton's Y2K Conversion Council.

So if computers don't crash and the lights don't go out and water keeps flowing from taps in New Zealand and Australia, the worry quotient may start dropping quickly in the United States even before America's infrastructure is put to the test.

More than 100 countries are expected to report in timely fashion to the U.S. clearinghouse, which will process more information at one time than the government has ever had to deal with. In addition to twice-daily news briefings, reports will be posted immediately on the council's web site -- www.y2k.gov -- which will be able to absorb as many as 40 million hits a day.

Operators also will man the government's hotline -- 1-888-USA-4Y2K. Except Koskinen cautions that it's not advisable for everybody to rush to the telephone after "Auld Lang Syne" and overload circuits -- even by just checking for dial tones. Telephone companies are worried about an avalanche of long-distance calls that might tax their systems even more than annual Mother's Day volumes.

The information center will handle Y2K progress reports from all federal agencies, state and local governments, private industry and foreign nations.

The State Department is geared up for round-the-clock monitoring of possible international problems through its embassies and consulates so it can assistant Americans abroad if they run into any Y2K difficulties. The Pentagon is ready for worst-case scenarios that might require evacuation of American citizens, particularly from less developed countries, which are most vulnerable to Y2K problems.

Russian and U.S. military officers gathered Tuesday at a missile early-warning center in Colorado Springs, Colo., where they will spend the next few days on the alert against possible Y2K glitches that might trigger erroneous signs of missile launches. Each side will have hot-line links to each other's top military commands.

In Moscow, Russian defense officials said their nuclear missiles are guaranteed trouble-free in the transition to 2000 -- with no possibility of accidental launch in case of radar blackouts.

At home, basic service industries -- telecommunications, banking, utilities and medical providers -- report a high level of confidence that their operations will be Y2K compliant.

But it may take a while -- perhaps weeks -- before the full picture emerges.

"Immediately after midnight, we won't know a lot more than everybody else by looking out the window and seeing what's going on," said Koskinen.

Actually, there will be some Y2K news a bit earlier. The U.S. air traffic control system, the National Weather Service and some electric power systems will move prematurely into 2000 Friday at 7 p.m. EST, because they operate on Greenwich Mean Time, which is five hours ahead of the eastern United States.

By 2 a.m. EST Saturday, information on major infrastructure systems -- electric power and telecommunications -- will become available for the eastern half of the country. The West Coast will check in a few hours later.

By Sunday afternoon, government monitors again will look for reports from abroad as the rest of the world opens for business on Monday.

Monday in the United States will be critical as the first U.S. business day in 2000, when banks, financial services, private businesses and government programs will be tested in real time.

"We will have our clearest picture of where we are by the end of Monday," said Koskinen. "We should not declare victory too early and go home. We're going to monitor this through Monday or Tuesday on an ongoing basis."

Even then, that won't be the end of the story. The information center will continue operating around the clock, checking how billing and payroll systems manage their first operating cycles throughout January.

The center is slated to shut down at the end of January, but will reopen in late February to monitor how computer systems deal with a second potential Y2K glitch -- an unusual Feb. 29 leap year phenomenon. Normally, centuries are not leap years, except when they are divisible by 400. Thus, 1900 was not a leap year but 2000 will be.

Some preliminary tests of that potential problem have found many errors, and the government is poised to keep a close watch on the situation.

While preparing for the worst, government officials predict few serious disruptions. "We're very confident there will be no disasters," said Koskinen. "We don't think there will be any nationwide or even regional problems."

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala added extra assurances Tuesday, advising people with implanted medical devices that they have nothing to worry about. "There is no one walking around that has anything implanted inside of them that has a date-certain or any date-related activity going on," she said.

Social Security checks will be in the mail as usual and Medicare and Medicaid are geared to operate without problems. The pharmaceutical industry has seen no signs of fear-induced stockpiling of extra medications and, in any case, has an extra 60- to 90-day supply on hand in nearly all categories.

The same goes for motorists who haven't rushed to fill up their gas tanks. Even if 200 million cars showed up at stations in the next two or three days to get 10 gallons of gas each, there'd still be 100 million gallons in reserve. Of course, that could create long lines at the pumps, but it wouldn't be a supply problem.

Koskinen's advice to the public is to be prepared for a long, mid-winter weekend with flashlights, batteries and battery-powered radios. But he adds: "People ought to celebrate the new millennium. There is no evidence people need to disrupt their lives in any way."

The information center will be quick to counter false rumors. Officials also caution not to read too much into a few ATM machines that might be on the blink or if there if there are isolated traffic-light malfunctions. These things happen all the time and may have nothing to do with Y2K.

To demonstrate confidence in air travel, Koskinen will fly the 6:30 p.m. EST shuttle to New York on Friday -- half an hour before the air traffic system rolls over into 2000. He will fly back to Washington two hours later.

Over the weekend, he will provide regular briefings to Vice President Al Gore, a longtime computer-age enthusiast. Clinton will be briefed only if anything important happens.

By LEO RENNERT, Nando Washington Bureau

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

Russia Acquits Retired Naval Officer Charged With Treason

Associated Press December 29, 1999 Filed at 11:35 a.m. EST
http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/29/late/29russia.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991229/aponline113520_000.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Whistle-blower.html
Photo: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/p/ap/19991229/wl/russia_whistle_blower.html

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- A Russian court on Wednesday acquitted a retired naval officer who was charged with treason after writing about unsafe storage of nuclear waste by the military.

In a 1996 report in a Norwegian journal, Alexander Nikitin discussed 52 abandoned nuclear submarines in a remote shipyard near Russia's border with Norway. The Cold War-era submarines hold spent nuclear fuel that is susceptible to leakage, overheating and explosion.

Nikitin, 45, was charged with revealing state secrets to the journal in a case that outraged environmental groups that are concerned over Russia's nuclear safety and human rights groups worried about the country's transition to an independent judicial system.

Prosecutors with the Federal Security Service had demanded that Nikitin be sentenced to 12 years in a labor colony and have his property confiscated. But the St. Petersburg federal court ruled Wednesday that there were insufficient grounds to make a case.

It was not immediately clear if the prosecutors would appeal the ruling.

The decision followed a protracted legal battle in which Russia's Supreme Court rejected Nikitin's appeal to drop the case. A lower court had ruled that prosecutors didn't have strong enough evidence and should prepare a new case.

Judge Sergei Golets said that the investigation had contained many procedural errors, and that the accusations had been based on information that was classified as secret only after Nikitin had been charged, the Interfax news agency reported.

"If time turned back, I would do it all again," Nikitin said at the trial Wednesday, referring to his report for the journal, published by the Norwegian environmental organization Bellona.

Nikitin had been charged with violating secret Defense Ministry decrees that have never been published. The decrees were shown to his lawyers for the first time when his initial trial began in October 1998.

Nikitin and Bellona said the information was not secret but came from public records, including school textbooks.

Igor Kudrik, co-author with Nikitin of Bellona's report on the Russian Northern Fleet, said in Oslo, Norway that the ruling "proves that justice exists in Russia."

"It took us four years to prove that Nikitin was not a spy and that Bellona was not a spy organization," he said.

Kudrik said environmentalists would have to overcome what he called "the Nikitin effect," which he said made many Russians afraid to speak out and take action on environmental matters, especially in the nuclear sphere.

"This victory in the Nikitin case will give a great boost to environmental work in Russia," he said.

---

Justice prevails, Nikitin acquitted!

Runar Forseth, 1999.12.29 13:15 Bellona Magazine
http://www.bellona.no/imaker?id=14048&sub=1

(Oslo:) There will be a happy New Year in Russia, for sure! At 14:50 St. Petersburg time today, 29 December 1999, Judge Sergey Golets revealed the verdict in the trial against Aleksandr Nikitin. Nikitin was acquitted of all charges against him.

Nikitin's victory is total. The verdict of St. Petersburg City Court left nothing for the Russian Security Police, FSB. After more than four years of legal violations and alleged 'investigations', Aleksandr Nikitin was acquitted on all charges.

The victory is even greater for the budding Russian democracy, the environment and the human rights movement in Russia. The acquittal of Aleksandr Nikitin means that the environmental movement in Russia may resume its important task of cleaning up the mess left after too many years of cold war and economical failure. It also means that the terror regime of the secret service may have come to an end, surpassed by the rule of law in Russia.

Our greetings go to the judge, Sergey Golets, who dared face the FSB without flinching. His verdict was indeed the only possible, if only Russian law had had the position it should in a proper democracy. The latter, though, was absolutely unsure until the last moment. Today, Golets made it clear that Russia is indeed moving towards a truly working legal system, after having chaired the trial proceedings commendably. In his verdict, Golets showed that there was no legal basis for the FSB's indictment, and also strongly criticised the way the investigations had been carried out.

Our greeting go also to the defence team, consisting of Yury Schmidt, Ivan Pavlov and Mikhael Matinov, who carried out their task in a truly professional way.

But first of all, obviously, we greet Aleksandr Nikitin, who fought his battle against the feared FSB - true successor to the KGB - for four long years. Ten months of those years he spent in pre trial detention, at the KGB prison in St. Petersburg. Today, Nikitin has been vindicated; the secret police utterly defeated.

----------

Russia sees no Y2K problems as new year dawns

CNET December 29, 1999, 2:00 p.m. PT By Reuters Special to CNET News.com
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1009-200-1508889.html?tag=st

MOSCOW--Russia's Y2K chief today said the world's largest country is fully prepared for the new year and will not be bitten by the millennium computer bug.

The United States and other Western nations have identified Russia--home to nine Soviet-era atomic power plants and thousands of nuclear missiles--as one of the countries most at risk when Jan. 1 arrives.

A programming glitch means some computers may read the year 2000 as 1900 and crash.

But Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who heads Russia's Y2K task force, said he is certain things will go smoothly, and the Strategic Rocket Forces reiterated that all of their 2,000 missiles will stay put when midnight strikes.

"Russia has prepared for this problem at least as well as the United States," Klebanov told Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy. "Nothing serious is going to happen."

He said the likelihood of problems with utilities--potentially severe in the harsh winter weather--is minimal.

An opinion poll suggests that most Russians, for whom the New Year holiday is particularly important, believe him. Two-thirds of the 667 people who telephoned Ekho Moskvy said they do not think Y2K will affect them.

In neighboring Finland, people are less sure. Officials said Finns have bought record amounts of iodine tablets as a precaution against radiation leaks at Russian nuclear plants.

Turkey said it is similarly worried about nuclear accidents in Ukraine, home to the Soviet-era Chernobyl plant where a reactor exploded in 1986. Ankara is also dissatisfied with guarantees about gas from Russia, its main supplier.

Klebanov said 58,000 of the government's 200,000 omputers and systems had needed upgrades.

All systems in the gas, oil and coal sectors have been updated and atomic power stations successfully checked, he said. The same goes for telecommunications and air transport.

At Russia's main international airport, Sheremetyevo-2, spokesman Pavel Vasin said, "There will be absolutely no emergency situations because of the Y2K problem."

Klebanov said a small number of computers needed to be upgraded in the banking sector. Micex, Russia's main trading floor, said it is prepared and confident.

The military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda said the Strategic Rocket Forces have completed checks on automatic nuclear missile systems and are satisfied all is under control.

As an extra safeguard, Russian specialists are in the United States at a command center in Colorado, and began work yesterday with U.S. experts to watch for any false warnings of missile attacks sparked by the millennium bug.

They will keep up their joint watch over Russia's 2,000 nuclear-tipped missiles and 2,440 U.S. rockets for three weeks.

"Russia and the United States have prepared with equal success and [military] problems can be ruled out," Klebanov said. Nuclear safety is one of the few areas where U.S.-Russian cooperation has continued almost unchanged even while relations have plunged to a post-Cold War low.

Several countries have withdrawn non-essential diplomatic staff from Moscow. The United States and Britain, among others, place Russia near the top of their Y2K worry list.

Russian officials say they may have started late and with little money but do not envision major problems when midnight strikes on the international date line opposite Alaska and then sweeps across Russia's 11 time zones.

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

Ukraine Shuts Reactor Briefly

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS New York Times December 29, 1999
http://www.nytimes.com/99/12/29/news/world/ukraine-nuke.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Ukraine-Chernobyl.html

KIEV, Ukraine, Dec. 28 -- A reactor at Ukraine's Yuzhnaya nuclear power plant was temporarily shut down after a thief tried to steal a power cable, nuclear officials said today.

The cable, which provides electricity to the No. 1 reactor, broke Monday night during the attempted theft, the Energoatom state nuclear company said. Operators repaired the cable and later restarted the reactor, increasing its output gradually.

The incident did not affect the plant's safety. It was the first time Energoatom had reported someone trying to steal a cable from a working reactor.

Metal thefts are common in Ukraine, with the thieves often trying to sell off the goods as scrap.

Ukraine, site of the world's worst nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl in 1986, operates five nuclear power plants.

Currently, 10 out of the country's 14 reactors are working, and produce about 40 percent of the country's electricity output.

---

Costs Could Shut Chernobyl Reactor

By Sergei Shargorodsky Associated Press, Dec. 29, 1999; 2:47 p.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991229/aponline144742_000.htm

KIEV, Ukraine -- Financial constraints could force Ukraine to stop the only operational reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant next year even if the government wants to keep it working, a top nuclear official said Wednesday.

The repairs that are already scheduled in 2000 on reactor No. 3 at Chernobyl, site of the world's worst nuclear accident, will cost some $100 million, said Viktor Stovbun, a high-level official at the Energoatom state nuclear power company.

Energoatom does not have the resources to finance such repairs, Stovbun said. Even now, he noted in remarks cited by Ukrainian news agencies, the reactor is losing money because of long closures for repairs. This year, for example, the reactor's generating unit produced only around half of its usual electricity output, he said.

If the government decides to keep the reactor in operation, it would have to replace its control, safety and other systems by 2003, Stovbun added.

Western governments and environmental groups have long urged Ukraine to fully close the Chernobyl plant, and Kiev had pledged to shut it down by 2000 under a 1995 agreement with the Group of Seven top industrialized nations.

But the energy-starved former Soviet republic says it has not received the money it was promised to complete two new reactors meant to compensate for Chernobyl's lost power, and therefore will keep Chernobyl running until an unspecified date next year.

Chernobyl was the site of a reactor explosion and fire in April 1986, an accident that contaminated large areas in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus and sent a radioactive cloud over much of Europe.

The Ukrainian government has blamed at least 8,000 deaths on the accident, including people who were killed immediately, workers who died in the massive cleanup operation, and people who later died of radiation-related illnesses.

Energoatom officials also said they would raise tariffs for electricity produced by nuclear power plants, which provide more than 40 percent of Ukraine's energy needs, and avoid any barter deals starting from Jan. 1.

Cash-strapped customers currently owe Energoatom more than $461 million, said the company's vice president, Tetiana Amosova. In 1998, customers paid in cash for only 6 percent of Energoatom's electricity, and the figure declined to 4 percent this year, she said.

As a result, reactors at atomic plants often stood idle, since the plants lacked funds to buy nuclear fuel.

Also Wednesday, authorities said they had detained an electricity worker at the Yuzhnaya nuclear plant who had confessed to trying to steal a power cable Monday night. The attempted theft led to a temporary shutdown of a reactor when the cable feeding it with electricity broke.


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

Incinerator opponents seek to expand lawsuit

12/29/1999 trib.com
http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news/nn10406.htm

CHEYENNE (AP) - Opponents of a proposed nuclear waste incinerator in eastern Idaho are seeking to expand their lawsuit to stop the project.

Gerry Spence, a Jackson attorney representing incinerator opponents, said opponents are seeking class action status and damages of more than a $1 billion.

In addition, they are asking to add about 50 additional defendants, including federal Energy Department Secretary Bill Richardson, to the action.

Jackson Hole residents are leading the opposition against the incinerator because they fear the operation will foul their air with cancer-causing chemicals. The incinerator is proposed for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, which is about 90 miles west of Jackson.

Federal and INEEL officials have said the proposed incinerator would not pose a health risk to surrounding residents.

The new complaint argues that plans for the nuclear waste incinerator would allow burning of about one metric ton of plutonium. That much plutonium "is approximately 166 times the amount of plutonium contained in the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II," the complaint states.

The lawsuit further alleges that the U.S. Department of Energy has an "extremely poor record of managing projects and assuring compliance with important environmental and safety laws," particularly when it deals with hazardous and mixed wastes.

When first filing the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed that DOE broke several laws while approving the incinerator project and failed to adequately notify Wyoming residents who live downwind of the proposed incinerator.

"The plutonium incinerator threatens to dump airborne radioactive and hazardous wastes over Jackson, Wyo., and such national treasures as Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park and Jebediah Smith Wilderness Area," the lawsuit states. "Yet, DOE has utterly failed to study the likely impacts upon the people, wildlife and natural resources of the impact areas in Wyoming - as if radioactive particles will simply halt at the state line."

Plaintiffs now claim that damages will exceed $1 billion, according to Spence.

Among the alleged damages are loss of their rights to privacy and bodily integrity "as a result of deadly nuclear contamination," death, medical care, burial expenses and destruction or loss of value of their properties.

The new complaint seeks to add the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance and others as plaintiffs to the lawsuit.

Original plaintiffs to the suit are Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free, the Environmental Defense Institute, the Snake River Alliance Education Fund and the Sierra Club.

---

Nuclear Waste Group Approved

Wednesday December 29, 1999 7:03 AM ET Yahoo News http://www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/news/nn10405.htm

(SALT LAKE CITY) -- A company planning to store nuclear waste on the Goshute reservation has passed a major hurdle. Private Fuel Storage met most of the guidelines required during a safety evaluation report filed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But the N-R-C says the group still has to resolve how it will deal with earthquakes and military over-flights.

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

The Death of Moral Distance
How the globalization of fear will make us all better people.

Slate Posted Wednesday, Dec. 29, 1999, at 4:30 p.m. PT By Robert Wright
http://www.slate.com/Earthling/99-12-29/Earthling.asp

Lately, various observers have proclaimed "the death of distance." A bit melodramatic, maybe, but it's true that, in an age of airplanes and optical fibers, the world seems pretty small. For that matter, distance has been in decline for millenniums. Ever since boats were first paddled and wagon wheels first turned, physical separation has become less and less of an obstacle to commerce and communication.

Unfortunately, distance has also become less of an obstacle to mayhem. Any vehicle that can carry merchants and merchandise can carry warriors and weapons. Germs can hitch a ride, too. The black death that ravaged Europe in the 14th century seems to have started in Asia and followed trade routes west. In general, the march of progress has brought fresh reasons to fear what lies beyond the horizon.

As distance enters its death throes, this sort of fear will have a richer grounding than ever. New conduits of harm will flourish. The current scare about millennium-eve terrorism is just one small example.

But cheer up! The coming globalization of fear isn't entirely regrettable. It could actually make us, in a sense, better people, more sensitive to suffering around the world. The 21st century may even witness what you could call the death--or at least the decline--of moral distance.

One big source of long-distance fear will be the Internet. The problem isn't just virus designers, privacy invaders, and other malicious hackers. The Net spreads dangerous data: how to build a conventional or nuclear bomb, a chemical or biological weapon, and where to get the ingredients. With these weapons in hand, a terrorist can use low-tech means of conquering distance--say, crossing a border with an atom bomb in a trunk or a vial of anthrax in a vest pocket.

Higher-tech transport will also be available. Already, a model-sized airplane--weighing 29 pounds, with a 9-foot wingspan--has flown across the Atlantic Ocean, steered precisely by global positioning satellites. It doesn't take great imagination to envision a poor man's cruise missile with a payload of chemical or biological weapons.

The general trend dates back at least to the invention of gunpowder: As technology advances, the growing power, compactness, and accessibility of lethal technologies mean that more people in more lands have the option of committing atrocities of greater and greater severity. But the trend is now reaching critical mass, a threshold that warrants a rethinking of America's stance toward the world.

After all, not even the most gung-ho Star Wars booster thinks that a missile shield can screen out eagle-sized airplanes or nukes in minivans. And the standard recipe for deterring aggression--assured retaliation--may work fine with states, but it's problematic with terrorists.

In the end, we may have to try a radical approach to fighting terrorism: reduce the number of people who feel alienated and aggrieved enough to become terrorists in the first place.

Obviously, this won't be easy, given the diversity of grievances and the geopolitical complexity surrounding them. Besides, to indulge specific grievances once they've become terrorist causes is to encourage terrorism. Still, there are a few things we can do.

First, we can acknowledge, and maybe even do something about, some of the disaffecting fallout from globalization, such as pollution and cultural dislocation. Rightly or wrongly, America is seen as globalization's prime mover and head cheerleader and will be blamed for its excesses until we start paying official attention to them.

Second, whereas traditional foreign policy has focused on winning respect from foreign governments, we will need to focus more and more on winning the respect of foreign peoples.

And, as for the type of respect we seek: Machiavelli's advice--that it is better to be feared than loved--will make much less sense in the 21st century than it did in the 16th. Goodwill toward America is becoming a national-security asset worth cultivating.

A prime example of an outmoded policy is the Clinton administration's response to the African embassy bombings. Even with a bunch of terrorists conveniently assembled in a single spot, the cruise missile strike in Afghanistan was self-defeating: It no doubt guaranteed Osama Bin Laden 10 new recruits for every terrorist who was killed. And torching that Sudanese pharmaceutical plant didn't do much to dampen anti-American sentiment in Sudan.

So what's a few radicalized Sudanese in the scheme of things? Several decades ago, the answer was: not much. Several decades from now, the answer could be: 10,000 deaths in midtown Manhattan.

There is a second sense in which the security of Americans will increasingly demand attention to the plight of foreigners. It took years for the bubonic plague to spread from China to Western Europe in the 14th century. Today it takes hours for the AIDS or Ebola virus to travel halfway around the world.

Here, as with terrorism, it is less feasible to wall ourselves off from the problem than to address the root cause: disease abroad, especially in developing nations, where industrialization has turned some cities into a paradise for viruses and bacteria.

In one realm of life--finance--almost everyone now accepts that technology is tying the welfare of Americans more closely to the welfare of foreigners; in a globalized economy, an economic downturn abroad can be contagious. Hence the International Monetary Fund. The same logic will apply more and more to medical health and what you might call cultural and political health. The less disease abroad, the less cultural alienation abroad, the less political grievance abroad, the healthier and safer Americans will be.

But if you care more about faraway people in faraway lands only because their welfare may affect yours, does that really count as moral improvement? Does self-interested concern for others make you a good person?

That depends on what you mean by good. In Flannery O'Connor's story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find," a crotchety and self-centered grandmother, held at gunpoint by an escaped convict in rural Georgia, becomes suddenly sensitive. She sympathizes with her captor, seeks the causes of his alienation, exhorts him to spiritual self-help. After killing her, the convict remarks, "She would of been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." With the decline of distance, there will be more and more minutes of our lives when somebody will be there to shoot us. Might as well make the best of it.

Robert Wright is the author of The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life and the new book Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny.

Illustrations by Robert Neubecker.

----------- us nuclear weapons facitlities / china spy

Ex-boss says Lee feared he had let nuke data leak

By Chris Roberts ASSOCIATED PRESS Washington Times December 29, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/national/news1-19991229.htm

A Los Alamos scientist fired a month after failing an FBI lie-detector test told a supervisor he "may have accidentally" passed information on American nuclear weapons to a foreign country, a lab official testified yesterday.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A Los Alamos scientist fired a month after failing an FBI lie-detector test told a supervisor he "may have accidentally" passed information on American nuclear weapons to a foreign country, a lab official testified yesterday.

Richard Krajcik, deputy director of Los Alamos National Laboratory's nuclear weapons division, testified that Wen Ho Lee visited him in his office after taking the test in February.

"He indicated that he did not intentionally pass on information to a foreign country," Mr. Krajcik said. "He said he may have accidentally passed on information to a foreign country."

Mr. Krajcik's testimony came on the second day of a hearing on Mr. Lee's request that a federal judge reconsider whether the Taiwan-born scientist should remain behind bars without bail until trial. U.S. District Judge James Parker was expected to decide whether to grant bail later in the week.

Mr. Krajcik said the polygraph questioning involved the W-88, the United States' smallest and most sophisticated nuclear warhead. Mr. Krajcik didn't give the exact date of the February test and didn't say whether Mr. Lee had identified the country that may have gotten the information.

He said the two questions Mr. Lee failed were whether he had passed information to a foreign country or passed classified codes to a foreign country.

Mr. Krajcik also said that he was present March 5 when the FBI interviewed Mr. Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen, and that he appeared "deceptive and evasive." Mr. Lee was fired March 8.

"My reaction was that Mr. Lee was not being candid and truthful in his response to the questions," Mr. Krajcik said.

On cross-examination, Lee attorney Mark Holscher asked Mr. Krajcik whether it was possible that when Mr. Lee said he may have passed on information he was referring to articles he had written that had been reviewed and approved by the lab.

"That did not appear to me to be the issue," Mr. Krajcik replied. "We did not talk about publications or publication records."

The judge asked Mr. Krajcik whether Mr. Lee could be released safely under numerous restrictions, including electronic monitoring, 24-hour FBI surveillance, limited visitation and the removal of all communication devices from his home, except for a monitored telephone.

Mr. Krajcik told the judge there were still ways for Mr. Lee to communicate with others, notably through a third party, such as his wife.

Paul Robinson, president of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, also urged caution. "This court faces a you-bet-your-country decision," he told the judge.

Mr. Lee, 60, has pleaded not guilty to the 59 counts against him. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

He has sued the government, claiming he has been the victim of a smear campaign labeling him as a spy for China.

The indictment does not accuse Mr. Lee of passing classified information to any foreign government. He is accused of transferring classified material from secure to unsecure computers and to computer tapes, seven of which remain missing. The defense contends the tapes were destroyed.

FBI agent Robert Messemer testified that Mr. Lee was not arrested immediately because authorities hoped to recover missing computer tapes through additional surveillance.

"It was determined that the national security interests outweighed the successful criminal prosecution of this case," Mr. Messemer said. "Today, we have the additional risk of hostile intelligence services knowing that the tapes exist."

A magistrate denied bond two weeks ago for Mr. Lee. It could be up to a year before his trial begins.

---

Indicted Scientist Worried He'd Let Secrets Slip, Ex-Boss Says

New York Times December 29, 1999 By JAMES STERNGOLD

Related Article
Two Sides Clash Over Bail for Indicted Atom Scientist (Dec. 28, 1999)
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/early/122899china-nuke.html

ALBUQUERQUE, Dec. 28 -- A supervisor of the weapons scientist charged with mishandling the country's most sensitive nuclear secrets testified today that the scientist, Wen Ho Lee, told him in February that he may have inadvertently disclosed secrets to a foreign country.

Testifying in the second day of an unusually detailed bail hearing for Dr. Lee, the supervisor, Richard Krajcik, said that Dr. Lee had made the statement after acknowledging that he had failed a lie detector test that had asked whether he had passed secrets to China.

But one of Dr. Lee's lawyers asked Dr. Krajcik, the deputy director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory's nuclear weapons division, whether Dr. Lee could have been referring to information in a scholarly paper he had published with the knowledge and approval of the laboratory. Dr. Krajcik said he and Dr. Lee had not talked about publications in February, but he said that at a meeting with Dr. Lee and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in March there was discussion of whether Dr. Lee in his paper might have disclosed secrets.

Dr. Krajcik said he had told an internal security official about Dr. Lee's anxious comments but had not informed the F.B.I. for perhaps five months.

Dr. Lee was indicted earlier this month on 59 counts of illegally removing highly classified data from the Los Alamos weapons laboratory, where he worked until he was fired in March for security violations. For five years he has been a focus of investigations into whether weapons secrets, including some about the sophisticated W-88 warhead, were disclosed to China. But he is not charged with espionage.

The indictment accuses Dr. Lee of improperly putting highly classified weapons secrets on unsecured computers and making tapes of them. Officials have said this was an enormously risky breach, but have also said there was no evidence that any outsider obtained the information.

Today's testimony was unusual because it went to the questions of whether Dr. Lee spied on behalf of China, and whether he provided secrets on the W-88 warhead, issues not included in the indictment.

In a bail hearing earlier this month, a Federal magistrate agreed with the prosecutors that Dr. Lee presented a great danger to national security if released and refused him bail. Today's hearing is on an appeal of that decision.

In one indication of what he may decide, Judge James A. Parker of federal District Court asked several witnesses what harm it would do if Dr. Lee were released on a form of highly restricted home detention with limited access to telephones and other means of communication. At one point, the judge said that perhaps Dr. Lee, a naturalized citizen who is a native of Taiwan, would even be prevented from speaking Chinese to assure that agents monitoring him would be able to understand any comments he made.

With witnesses providing highly detailed testimony about everything from the way in which Los Alamos computers work to how a foreign power might use the secret data, and with defense lawyers trying to rebut them through laborious cross-examination, the hearing has taken on the air of a highly spirited trial.

Senior government officials say unusually detailed evidence is being presented partly to counter criticisms that Dr. Lee was singled out for prosecution.

The depth of the security risk of Dr. Lee's actions was underscored by testimony today from some of the nation's top nuclear scientists. Dr. Paul Robinson, president of the Sandia National Laboratory and a weapons policy adviser, said that any release of the secrets could "truly change the world strategic balance."

The defense presented into evidence, and to reporters in the crowded courtroom, the results of a lie detector test Dr. Lee took in 1998, in which he was asked about passing secrets to unauthorized people.

The defense said that a report by experts at Wackenhut Services, which conducts polygraph exams under a contract with the Department of Energy, indicated that Dr. Lee was telling the truth in denying that he had spied or passed along secrets.

Defense lawyers said they had not been provided with the specific results of the polygraph test that the F.B.I. gave Dr. Lee in February.

---

Lee May Have Unwittingly Told Secrets, Official Says

By Vernon Loeb Washington Post, December 29, 1999; Page A02
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/29/109l-122999-idx.html

ALBUQUERQUE, Dec. 28-A top nuclear weapons designer at Los Alamos National Laboratory testified today in U.S. District Court that physicist Wen Ho Lee told him in a brief conversation last February that he may have inadvertently passed classified nuclear weapons data to a foreign country.

But the weapons designer, Richard Krajcik, conceded under cross-examination that he might have misunderstood Lee. He also acknowledged that he and Lee later argued over the possibility that classified weapons information was inadvertently contained in scientific articles written by Lee that were reviewed and approved for publication by his superiors at Los Alamos.

Krajcik's dramatic testimony represented the first time any U.S. official has publicly offered evidence that Lee may have passed classified information to another country since the former Los Alamos physicist was fired in March for security violations and identified by government officials as an espionage suspect.

Krajcik testified that Lee came to his office late one afternoon in February, having just been informed that he had failed an FBI polygraph investigation into whether he failed to report contacts with Chinese scientists.

"He then indicated to me that while he did not intentionally pass on [classified] information to a foreign country, he may have accidentally passed [classified] information to a foreign country," Krajcik said.

His testimony was attacked during cross-examination by Lee's lead defense attorney, Mark Holscher, who established through a series of questions that Krajcik failed to mention Lee's remark to FBI agents for five months, even though he was assisting them in a criminal investigation into China's apparent theft of design secrets related to the W-88, America's most sophisticated thermonuclear weapon.

Holscher pointed out that Krajcik, assisting FBI agents, argued with Lee during an all-day interrogation on March 5 about whether articles Lee had written with lab approval inadvertently disclosed classified information. Holscher also released copies of a Department of Energy polygraph examination that Lee passed on Dec. 23, 1998, in which he was asked whether he had ever committed espionage, inadvertently passed information to China or associated with anyone who committed espionage.

Holscher said Lee's scores, determined by three separate department polygraph reviewers, "were off-the-charts truthful."

As for Lee's truthfulness during the FBI-administered polygraph in February, FBI agent Robert A. Messemer took the witness stand after Krajcik and testified that Lee was deceptive when asked about his failure to report contacts with Chinese scientists during approved trips he made to Beijing in 1986 and 1988.

In describing Lee's polygraph results, Messemer revealed for the first time that Lee, during the polygraph examination, admitted helping a Chinese nuclear weapons scientist solve a problem during his 1986 trip. Messemer also testified that Lee, having admitted during his Department of Energy polygraph to having a clandestine hotel meeting with Chinese officials in 1988, subsequently told FBI examiners that he also provided assistance during that trip to a Chinese scientist.

The court recessed tonight before Messemer could be cross-examined by Lee's attorneys.

Testimony from Krajcik and Messemer came during the second day of a bail hearing requested by Lee's attorneys. Prosecutors are trying to keep Lee in jail for up to a year while he awaits trial on 59 felony counts of mishandling classified information.

U.S. Attorney John J. Kelly has argued in court papers that Lee's inability to account for computer tapes containing nuclear secrets sufficient to build a thermonuclear weapon, coupled with a pattern of deception at Los Alamos, makes his release on bail a threat to national security.

Lee's attorneys have asked Judge James A. Parker to revoke a magistrate's Dec. 13 denial of bail, arguing that an exhaustive FBI investigation has failed to turn up any evidence that the 59-year-old scientist revealed--or intended to reveal--any of the classified information he downloaded from Los Alamos's secure computer system to any unauthorized parties.

Lee was indicted Dec. 10 on 59 felony counts of mishandling classified information downloaded in 1993 and 1994. He is accused of transferring nearly all of the computer files--the equivalent of more than 800,000 pages of information--to 10 computer tapes. Prosecutors say seven tapes are missing.

Lee's attorneys say the tapes have been destroyed, asserting that Lee began deleting numerous classified files in his possession after he was transferred out of Los Alamos's top secret X Division in December 1998 and realized he was no longer cleared for such access.

While U.S. authorities identified Lee as a suspect in the Chinese espionage case at the time of his firing in March, they have subsequently acknowledged that they do not now have any evidence showing Lee spied for China or any other foreign government.

Lee's downloading of classified material was not discovered by investigators until late March, weeks after he was fired and publicly identified as an espionage suspect, and Kelly has said in court papers filed here that the charges brought against Lee for downloading nuclear weapons data are unrelated to the earlier espionage probe.

Prosecutors offered Krajcik's testimony about his brief conversation with Lee in February not to support espionage charges but to to bolster their contention that Lee remains a national security threat who should be denied bail.

Krajcik testified that Lee downloaded the "crown jewels" of America's nuclear weapons program from a secure to an unsecure network, which "increases the risk to 270 million Americans. . . . The specific risk is that [unauthorized users] could develop nuclear weapons that they wouldn't have been able to produce before."

But in cross-examining Krajcik and another Los Alamos official, Lee's attorneys have asserted that Lee never took a number of obvious steps, such as changing file names and deleting files, that would have made it harder for security officials to track his actions--steps that would have been taken, they said, by a spy or an avowed enemy of the United States.

Lee's lawyers have also attacked the government's claim that Lee surreptitiously set out to "cover his tracks" by deleting classified files after it became clear to him in January and February that he was under investigation for espionage. Under cross-examination, Los Alamos computer official Cheryl Wampler acknowledged that Lee called Los Alamos's computer help desk in January, three days after he was interviewed by FBI agents, and asked for help in deleting classified files.

At the close of testimony Monday, Parker asked Krajcik what harm it would do to let Lee out of jail on bail.

"If he were available to talk to people about the codes," Krajcik said, "he could pass on valuable information to people about [how to use] the codes."

To which Parker, perhaps offering a glimpse of how he was leaning on the question of bail, replied: "So it comes down to restricting his ability to communicate with others."

---

Nuke Scientist Denied Bail

By Chris Roberts Associated Press Writer Wednesday, Dec. 29, 1999; 7:45 p.m. EST
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991229/aponline194508_000.htm

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A federal judge denied bail for Wen Ho Lee on Wednesday, citing seven missing computer tapes filled with the nation's nuclear secrets and possible "enormous harm" to the country if the fired scientist were freed.

U.S. District Judge James Parker voiced "great concerns about the extreme restrictions" imposed on Lee in jail, but said prosecutors had shown "clear and convincing" evidence that community safety could not be guaranteed with Lee's release.

The judge said he would likely reconsider Lee's request for release, depending on the results of another lie-detector test. He encouraged both sides to agree to another test to try to determine what happened to the missing tapes and whether Lee shared information with a foreign country.

Lee, 60, is charged with 59 counts under the Atomic Energy and Espionage Acts. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison. The charges allege transfer of classified material from secure to unsecure computers and to computer tapes, seven of which remain missing.

The indictment does not accuse Lee of passing classified information to any foreign government.

Lee, a former scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has pleaded innocent and said he destroyed the tapes after losing his security clearance. He was fired in March and indicted in December.

On Tuesday, Paul Robinson, president of Sandia National Laboratories, testified that Lee's release on bond could compromise U.S. security.

Lee's son, Chung Lee, said the family would appeal. Any appeal would be heard by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

"The government is clearly blowing things out of proportion here - trying to raise hysteria with this McCarthyistic approach," he said.

Lee sought a reconsideration of bail after a magistrate earlier this month denied bail - requiring extra security that included monitoring of all family visits, limited telephone access and a bar on communication in Chinese.

The three-day hearing included testimony from lab officials who detailed what they described as a concerted effort by Lee to download the nuclear secrets. Lee is accused of placing 19 classified files from a classified computer at Los Alamos to an unclassified computer and portable computer tapes.

Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Taiwan, has sued the government, claiming he has been the victim of a smear campaign accusing him of spying for China.

The only defense witnesses were Jean and Don Marshall, Lee's longtime neighbors and former colleagues at the lab. They testified Wednesday they were willing to be Lee's custodians.

Prosecution witnesses spent two days offering testimony against Lee's release.

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Declassifier in a Class by Himself
Man Who Keeps Nation's Secrets Is Known for His Own Candor

By George Lardner Jr. Washington Post, December 29, 1999; Page A25
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/29/130l-122999-idx.html

For a government bureaucrat privy to the nation's most closely held secrets, Steven Garfinkel is in a class by himself. He's accessible to historians and researchers. He even talks to reporters.

And he never goes "off the record." It's a habit that's "almost" gotten him fired a couple of times, he says, but he's convinced it has been one of the keys to his survival as an appointee of three very different presidents: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

A lawyer who has worked for the government for almost 30 years, Garfinkel, 54, is director of the tiny Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), a little-known agency that keeps changing its address, but always takes with it the same responsibilities: overseeing the classification of sensitive national security information, making sure that real secrets are kept secret, and promoting the declassification of as much of the rest as soon as possible.

It's a delicate balancing act and Garfinkel necessarily takes a long view of what "as soon as possible" means. He's working under a 1995 executive order--which he helped draft--that says 25 years is long enough for most sensitive information, but he's had some setbacks recently, dictated by congressional fears that nuclear secrets might be lurking undetected on old records about to be released.

Thanks to legislation sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), a time-consuming, page-by-page review of the 700 million pages already "declassified" under the 1995 Clinton order is underway. Another 700 million pages await first-time review, most of which will be page by page, due to a law sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).

A husky man with a hearty voice, Garfinkel is unfazed.

"It's going to take a few years to get through this stuff," he said. "But I would very much like the public to look at this from a long-term perspective because I think in the long term, we're going to be writing history books using these declassified records for generations. So to worry about what's happening in 1999 or 2000 is a little bit short-sighted."

One of the few senior government officials who was born and raised in Washington, Garfinkel graduated from Anacostia High School and got his law degree from George Washington University in 1970. He wound up at ISOO in a sort of accidental progression that began when he went to work for the General Services Administration handling Freedom of Information Act cases and serving as counsel to the National Archives and Records Service, then part of GSA.

He became a fan of automatic or bulk declassification of old records when he was sent to inspect military procurement records from World War II that GSA had inherited. He was ushered into a vault stacked with boxes of still classified records about purchases of toilet paper, shirts, boots, chevrons, uniforms, "everything you can imagine."

Garfinkel spot-checked about 30 boxes in a single day and, assured he had the authority, announced before leaving: "This room is hereby declassified." If he'd had to do a page-by-page review, Garfinkel says, "I'd still be there."

He became ISOO director in 1980 after Carter's first appointee, former congressman Michael Blouin (D-Iowa), left the post. Technically he's appointed by the head of the office's parent agency, first GSA, then OMB, and now the Archives, but the appointments must be approved by the president.

Limited to a budget of less than $1 million and a staff of 12, including himself, Garfinkel is "the most thoughtful and best-informed critic" of the system he supervises, but he "has an impossible job," says Steven Aftergood, director of the secrecy and government project of the Federation of American Scientists.

For example, Garfinkel is supposed to oversee the operation of specially named top-secret "compartments" to which only those with a demonstrated need to know are admitted. "If he looked into one compartment a day, he wouldn't have much time for anything else," Aftergood says.

Garfinkel, who has, "in theory, access to more information than anyone else in government except the president and vice president," says there are still too many compartments and that he can look into them only "on an ad hoc basis," usually after they've been exposed by a newspaper article. In the 1980s, he says, compartments were sometimes used to hide information that shouldn't have been classified, but he's confident that Pentagon reforms of that era "have cured a lot of that problem."

At ISOO, Garfinkel quickly established a reputation for speaking his mind. He says people who deal in secrets and go "off the record" are much more "vulnerable" to retaliation and dismissal.

Back in 1991, "just for the fun of it," Garfinkel took an Air Force media relations course that included a battery of tests in which officers pretended to be reporters and subjected him to a newspaper interview, a TV interview, and surprise questions in an unexpected phone call and in a face-to-face encounter on the street.

"One of the things that came out of it was that perhaps I was a little too candid," Garfinkel said. Obviously, it was too late for him to change.

------------ us nuc politics

Bush adviser says U.S. should not be timid with Beijing

By Bill Gertz Washington Times December 29, 1999
http://www.washtimes.com/national/politics-19991229.htm

Condoleezza Rice sharply criticizes Clinton administration national security policies in the January-February issue of Foreign Affairs, arguing that the current U.S. stance toward Beijing must change.

The United States should "never be afraid to confront" communist China, says a top adviser to Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush.

Condoleezza Rice sharply criticizes Clinton administration national security policies in the January-February issue of Foreign Affairs, arguing that the present U.S. stance toward Beijing must change.

Miss Rice contends that President Clinton's policies toward China have undermined stability and upset U.S. ties with democratic Taiwan, and says the United States should be willing to challenge Beijing over activities that threaten U.S. interests.

"Cooperation should be pursued, but we should never be afraid to confront Beijing when our interests collide," she writes in the Foreign Affairs article titled "Promoting the National Interest."

Miss Rice would likely serve in a senior national security role if Mr. Bush is elected president in November. She served as a Russia expert on the National Security Council staff under President Bush, father of the Republican governor of Texas.

China is a rising power with growing military might that "resents" the U.S. presence in Asia, according to Miss Rice.

"This means that China is not a 'status quo' power but one that would like to alter Asia's balance of power in its own favor," she writes. "That alone makes it a strategic competitor, not the 'strategic partner' the Clinton administration once claimed. Add to this China's record of cooperation with Iran and Pakistan in the proliferation of ballistic missile technology, and the security problem is obvious."

President Clinton, in particular, "tilted toward Beijing" in announcing a new U.S. Taiwan policy last year, says Miss Rice, a former Stanford University provost.

The president altered long-standing U.S. policy when he announced in Shanghai in June 1998 that the United States does not support independence for Taiwan, opposes separate states in China and Taiwan and is against Taiwan's membership in international organizations requiring statehood.

Taiwan has been seeking "reassurances" from the United States ever since, she says.

The adviser to Mr. Bush stopped short of calling for the United States to announce, as Mr. Bush has advocated, that it will defend Taiwan if China attacks.

Miss Rice calls for continued trade with China as a way to press Beijing to move toward democratic political reform.

She says bluntly that "China is still a potential threat to stability in the Asia-Pacific region" - remarks that contrast with administration claims that China poses no threat to the United States.

The next Republican president's foreign policies should derive from U.S. national interests and "not from the interests of an illusory international community," Miss Rice concludes.

In Tokyo yesterday, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said the next U.S. president must abide by the so-called "one-China" policy on an independent Taiwan. Miss Rice's article also supports the continuation of that policy.

Miss Rice told The Washington Times yesterday that the Foreign Affairs article expresses views that complement those of Mr. Bush but do not simply reflect them.

The article also is a "representation of the fact that the security relationship [with China] is troubled," she said.

Miss Rice said she does not view China as "currently a threat" but it is "far too early" to regard Beijing as a partner.

A spokesman for the White House had no immediate comment. Mindy Tucker, a spokesman for Mr. Bush, said the governor has voiced many of the views expressed in Miss Rice's article.

Regarding defense issues, Miss Rice's article criticizes Mr. Clinton for "witlessly" cutting defense spending sharply at the same time he expanded such "questionable" military missions abroad as Haiti.

On Kosovo, Miss Rice's article says that the war was conducted "incompetently" because the Clinton administration shifted its goals and failed to use overwhelming military force from the start.

"The president must remember that the military is a special instrument," she writes. "It is lethal, and it is meant to be. It is not a civilian police force. It is not a political referee. And it is certainly not designed to build a civilian society."

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How decisions and appeals are handled

USA Today 12/29/99- Updated 08:53 AM ET By Edward T. Pound, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncswed03.htm

WASHINGTON - Most military contractor employees and Defense Department personnel get their security clearances from the Pentagon without running into trouble. However, if an initial decision is made to reject them, there are different procedures for contractor employees and Pentagon personnel who seek to overturn the decision.

The procedures work this way:

Contractor employees

A Pentagon agency, the Defense Security Service, does background inquiries on security applicants. If the review produces no derogatory information, the security service issues a clearance. That happens in most cases. However, the service has no authority to deny a clearance, so if it develops significant negative information, the case is referred to the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals. DOHA reviewed 10,190 cases last year.

DOHA either clears the employee, which is what usually happens, or its security specialists issue a formal ''Statement of Reasons,'' or SOR, detailing why the government believes the applicant should not be cleared. The SOR cites the factual and legal basis for why it is not in the ''national interest'' to issue the clearance. The SOR alleges that the applicant failed to live up to one or more of 13 ''adjudicative guidelines'' established by the government for access to classified information. Those guidelines, revised in 1997 and made government-wide, cover such issues as allegiance to the nation, personal conduct, security violations, financial problems, sexual behavior and drug and alcohol use.

An applicant can contest the SOR in writing under oath. The applicant can request a trial-like hearing before one of DOHA's 15 administrative judges or ask that a judge decide the case based on written submissions. DOHA lawyers, known as ''department counsel,'' represent the Pentagon in opposing the request for a clearance.

Hearings are generally held near the applicant's home area. DOHA attorneys and judges, based in Arlington, Va., Boston, and Van Nuys, Calif., travel to the home areas of applicants for hearings.

An applicant can be represented by a lawyer and is allowed to cross-examine government witnesses. The applicant can offer witnesses and other evidence mitigating misconduct because, the guidelines say, the ''adjudicative process'' requires evaluating the ''whole person.'' The judge decides whether it is in the ''national interest'' to issue a clearance.

Either the government or the employee can appeal to the DOHA Appeal Board, made up of three administrative judges. The board's decisions are final.

The process grew out of a 1959 Supreme Court decision. A contractor employee who was accused of having communist ties during the McCarthy era lost his clearance and his job. The court ruled that an employee was entitled to a full hearing if the government planned to deny a clearance application. In 1960, President Eisenhower signed an executive order requiring the hearing process. The Pentagon created the Directorate for Industrial Security Clearance Review. The directorate became DOHA years later.

DOHA also reviews appeals from employees of companies doing business with 20 other agencies, including the State, Justice, Treasury, and Commerce departments.

Pentagon civilian and military personnel

The procedure is markedly different. Employees do not have the right to a full trial-like hearing and can't cross-examine government witnesses or present their own witnesses. However, they do have the right to make a ''personal appearance'' before a DOHA judge.

Like contractor employees, Pentagon civilians and military personnel undergo a background investigation. The findings are referred to Pentagon organizations, known as CAFS, that judge whether a clearance should be issued. Separate CAFS are established in the Army, Navy and Air Force and in the Washington Headquarters Services, the Pentagon's administrative arm.

The CAFS also apply the adjudicative guidelines. They, too, issue Statements of Reasons why a clearance shouldn't be granted. An applicant can respond, but if not persuasive the CAFS issue a ''Letter of Denial.'' An applicant can appeal directly to an appeal board. Each branch and Washington Headquarters Services has its own Personnel Security Appeal Board, known as PSAB. Alternatively, an applicant can request a personal appearance before a DOHA administrative judge to present evidence. The judge issues a ''recommended decision'' to the appropriate PSAB, which makes the final decision.

This system was established under an executive order issued by President Clinton in August 1995. It was meant to balance the scales for government employees, including Defense Department personnel, who did not have the same appeal rights as contractor employees. Before the order, Pentagon employees could appeal only to a ''higher authority'' within the branch or agency in which they worked, according to Sheldon Cohen, an Arlington, Va., lawyer who represents clients in clearance cases. He said the personal appearance alternative allows for ''an impartial view'' from an administrative judge.

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Felons gain access to the nation's secrets

USA Today 12/29/99- Updated 12:35 PM ET By Edward T. Pound, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/acovwed.htm

WASHINGTON - As a teenager, he was in trouble many times and built an imposing rap sheet: delinquency, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, attempted theft, possession of a deadly weapon, possession of marijuana, five counts of burglary and three of theft. He got jail time and probation.

In 1978, at age 21 and a heavy drug user, he and two accomplices kidnapped, robbed and murdered a fellow drug user. He was charged in the murder, convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Today, at 42, he is out of prison and working in a white-collar job in the defense industry. He remains on parole until 2006. As a convicted felon, he can't vote in many states. But under federal law, he can and does hold a government-issued security clearance, a privilege that allows access to sensitive classified information off-limits to most Americans.

His case is not exceptional. A USA TODAY review of more than 1,500 security clearance decisions at the Department of Defense shows that a Pentagon agency regularly grants clearances to employees of defense contractors who have long histories of financial problems, drug use, alcoholism, sexual misconduct or criminal activity. Agency says clearance system designed to be fair

Applicants have been given sensitive clearances despite repeatedly lying about past misconduct to Defense Department investigators. One employee lied at least four times about his drug history, including twice in sworn statements . Officials didn't refer the matter to the Justice Department for prosecution, something they rarely do; instead, they allowed him to retain his secret-level clearance.

In other instances, contractor employees involved in significant criminal frauds were granted clearances. So, too, were applicants who had violated state and federal laws by not filing income tax returns for several years, including a woman who had not submitted timely returns for 11 years because she was depressed.

Another employee mishandled classified material during a five-year period but didn't lose his top-secret access. A clearance official excused his actions because he had been working in a "pressure-cooker environment."

All of these clearances were approved by the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals, or DOHA, a little-known Pentagon agency that decides whether to grant or deny clearances to employees of defense contractors. The decisions were made by DOHA (pronounced DOUGH-ha) administrative judges. They rule in cases in which applicants seek to overturn preliminary decisions denying them access to classified information.

DOHA's quasi-judicial program, now in its 40th year, was developed to give employees of contractors the right to review the evidence against them and to challenge denials in hearings, if they so choose, before an administrative judge. Most clearance decisions are made by other DOHA officials and never reach the judges.

About two-thirds of the time, the judges decide against granting clearances. However, their approval of clearances for some employees with deeply troubled histories concerns other clearance officials in the military as well as security investigators in the Defense Department.

They argue that DOHA has gone too far, granting clearances to unstable people who might pose a risk to national security. They worry that some employees with pressing financial problems might sell secrets to foreign powers or that others, vulnerable because of embarrassing personal problems, could be blackmailed into espionage.

Army and Navy clearance officials criticize the agency for being too "lenient." Along with former DOHA officials, they complain that the agency sometimes ignores the government's "adjudicative guidelines"- the standards for granting clearances - in issuing decisions.

"To be honest with you, I think DOHA often finds in favor of the individual and not national security," says Edwin Forrest, executive director of the Navy's Personnel Security Appeal Board, which reviews clearance appeals from Navy employees. "What we see coming from DOHA are decisions that go outside the envelope -- outside the adjudicative guidelines."

Howard Strouse, a former senior DOHA official who retired last January, is blunt: "Any American who looked at these DOHA decisions would be horrified. To know that we are giving clearances to some of these people is just intolerable."

But DOHA officials strongly defend their program and say they put national security first. "The decisions speak for themselves," says Leon Schachter, the agency's director the past 10 years. "Do I believe in, or agree, with every decision? Of course not. But it is important to treat people fairly, and we have a system designed to be fair."

He says the idea is not to punish security applicants for past misconduct. "The goal is to understand past conduct and predict the future on it," he says. "We are being asked to use a crystal ball. It is a very difficult job."

Indeed it is. On the one hand, President Clinton, in an August 1995 executive order governing access to classified information, directed that government clearances should be given only to people "whose personal and professional history affirmatively indicates loyalty to the United States, strength of character, trustworthiness, honesty, reliability, discretion, and sound judgment. "

But the guidelines for granting clearances give administrative judges and other federal clearance officials leeway to consider "mitigating" circumstances: an applicant who had committed a crime, for instance, might get a clearance if the crime was not recent and there was evidence of rehabilitation.

DOHA reviews cases involving access to classified information at three levels of sensitivity: top-secret, secret and confidential. A presidential directive says top-secret information, if disclosed, could cause "exceptionally grave damage" to national security; secret, if disclosed, could cause "serious damage"; and confidential, if revealed, could cause "damage."

Classified material covers a lot of ground. It includes the design plans and other data on dozens of weapons systems, such as bombers and nuclear submarines, and information on spy satellites, sophisticated technology and communications systems. But it also includes such things as the composition of the radar-absorbing coatings on Stealth bombers and the names of employees who work on sensitive projects.

People within the contracting community with access to classified information aren't just top officials. They include consultants, scientists, computer specialists, analysts, secretaries and even blue-collar workers such as janitors and truck drivers with access to classified areas.

The quality of DOHA's decisions is vital. Though none of the cases involved DOHA decisions, according to agency officials, a government report says 12 contractor employees have been convicted of espionage in the past 17 years. And in the aftermath of the Cold War, industrial espionage is on the upswing. Spies from dozens of nations -- some of them friendly - have stepped up efforts to gather industrial intelligence on technologies used in U.S. weapons systems.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is struggling to process security background investigations, which serve as the basis for clearance decisions. It has a backlog of more than 600,000 periodic reinvestigations - cases in which defense employees and contractor personnel are to be re-evaluated.

The backlog is significant. Spies traditionally are trusted insiders. Many cases reviewed by DOHA involve requests to retain clearances. This backlog was disclosed last summer by USA TODAY in an examination of the Defense Security Service, another Pentagon agency, which conducts the background checks.

In its inquiry into DOHA's actions, USA TODAY reviewed decisions issued by the agency's 15 administrative judges since 1994. Under the Privacy Act, DOHA deletes the names and other identifying information from the files. The judges review 300 to 400 cases a year. USA TODAY requested interviews with two senior judges, but the Pentagon wouldn't make them available.

In the case involving the murder, government lawyers sought to block the clearance, but Administrative Judge Paul Mason wrote that the man had earned a college degree and had reformed.

"Against the heinous nature of the crime," he wrote, "are the positive steps applicant has taken over the years in making himself a productive member of society." He said he was persuaded the "applicant was genuinely remorseful" and would not resume a criminal career.

The man's lawyer, James McCune of Williamsburg, Va., won't discuss the criminal case. But, he says, clearance decisions must be weighed carefully because employees often lose their jobs when they lose their clearances. "It is really a black mark,'' he says.

A sampling of other approvals:

On Aug. 27, 1997, Administrative Judge John Erck ruled that a 43-year-old man who had participated in a scheme to defraud the Navy of $2 million could keep his secret-level clearance. The man was employed at the time of the fraud, in 1991, as a ship's master for a company that operated ships for the Navy in the U.S. Merchant Marine program. He and other employees submitted false time sheets for overtime to assist their financially troubled company. Judge Erck wrote that the fraud was not recent and that although it amounted to "serious criminal activity," he was "impressed" with the applicant's "honesty and sincerity."

That same year, Administrative Judge Kathryn Moen Braeman allowed a 30-year-old employee of a defense contractor to keep his secret clearance, even though he was a convicted sex offender and on probation. The man was convicted in a state court of two felony charges of criminal sexual contact with a minor in June 1996, less than a year before the administrative judge's decision.

The case file shows the man fondled his 8-year-old stepdaughter and on 50 occasions entered her bedroom and masturbated while she was asleep. Braeman said there were "mitigating" circumstances: the man, she wrote, had completed counseling in a sex-offenders program and his therapist did not believe the pedophilia with his stepdaughter would recur. According to Braeman, the therapist concluded the man would always have a sexual interest in children but had learned through therapy to control himself.

A 42-year-old employee of a defense contractor was given a secret clearance by Chief Administrative Judge Robert Gales, although earlier in his career, as an investor, he had been convicted of bank fraud, imprisoned and ordered to pay $150,000 restitution. According to DOHA files, the man "made false entries" on loan forms to obtain $2.3 million in mortgages. He pleaded guilty in December 1994. Two years later, while the man remained on probation in the criminal case, Judge Gales approved his clearance; Gales cited his cooperation with prosecutors and said he had "clean(ed) up his act."

Judge Erck approved a secret clearance for the 53-year-old owner of a defense contracting business despite his long history of violent altercations with others. In one case, the decision shows, the man tried to bulldoze another car blocking his exit from a parking lot. In another incident, Erck wrote, he "challenged" a state court judge in court after the judge ruled in favor of the other party in a civil lawsuit. Police were called and "an altercation occurred," according to Erck. The man was arrested and jailed for resisting arrest. In a third incident, he left a threatening message on his ex-wife's answering machine advising her he had a "shotgun and two Uzis" and was coming to her house to get his son. Police arrested him at his former wife's house and he was jailed on an assault conviction.

"There is an obvious nexus between Applicant's criminal conduct and the national security," Erck wrote in his decision. "An individual who repeatedly loses his temper and breaks the law is much more likely to violate security rules and regulations." Nonetheless, Erck granted the clearance. He said the man had become active in the church and had learned to control his temper. He was, Erck wrote, a "changed man."

In February 1996, a 44-year-old computer software engineer was allowed to retain his top-secret clearance despite a 10-year history of sexual exhibitionism. Once, in the early morning, he stood naked outside the kitchen door of a 26-year-old woman and masturbated. The police were called and he was charged with two felonies, including "gross lewdness." The man's "history of exhibitionism reflects adversely on his judgment, reliability and trustworthiness," Administrative Judge Elizabeth Matchinski wrote. But, she added, "his contributions to the defense industry in combination with his recent pursuit of therapy" justified giving him a clearance.

Those cases are not unusual. There are other similar decisions in DOHA's files.

The DOHA process grew out of the abuses of the McCarthy era in the 1950s when many people were attacked for alleged Communist ties. President Eisenhower, acting after the Supreme Court ruled that contractor employees had the right to a hearing if their clearances were jeopardized, issued an executive order requiring hearing procedures.

The vast majority of cases processed by DOHA never go before the agency's 15 judges.

When they do review cases, the judges deny clearances in many egregious cases, or their approvals are overturned by the DOHA Appeal Board composed of three of their own members. One example: a 59-year-old man convicted of sexually abusing his granddaughter, a felony, was approved for a clearance by an administrative judge. The appeal board reversed the decision. It said the judge's decision was "arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law."

Judges and other government clearance officials make decisions based on government-wide adjudicative guidelines. The guidelines cover, among other things, allegiance to the United States, foreign influence, sexual behavior, financial considerations, alcohol and drug use, security violations and criminal conduct. Applicants are evaluated under the "whole person" concept, which requires both favorable and unfavorable information to be considered.

Clearance officials are urged to make "common sense" determinations. "The individual may be disqualified if available information reflects a recent or recurring pattern of questionable judgment, irresponsibility, or emotionally unstable behavior," the guidelines state.

They also require clearance officials to err on the side of national security. "Any doubt as to whether access to classified information is clearly consistent with national security," they state, "will be resolved in favor of the national security."

Most people pass the guidelines without a hitch. Tens of thousands of military and contractor personnel are cleared each year. The Defense Department says only 2% to 4% of its applicants are denied a clearance or have their existing access revoked. In 1998 the Pentagon denied or revoked clearances in 3,516 cases, including 628 contractor employees. About 2.4 million people hold Pentagon-issued clearances.

DOHA's role is not limited to contractor employees. Its judges also review appeals from military personnel and civilian employees of the Defense Department. The judges issue "recommended decisions," but those opinions are not binding. Final decisions are made by clearance boards established by the Pentagon. Each branch of the service and the Pentagon's administrative arm, Washington Headquarters Services, have their own clearance boards, known as Personnel Security Appeal Boards, or PSABs.

Those PSABs often reject the judges' recommendations to grant clearances to people with background problems. DOHA statistics show that the judges recommended granting clearances in 271 of 740 cases they have reviewed since 1995. The PSABs rejected the advice in 120 cases, or 44% of the time.

The PSABs say they are tougher.

"We are not saying that everybody who drinks too much is a security threat," says K. J. Weiman, executive secretary of the Army's PSAB. But, he says, screeners must be concerned when people have financial problems, histories of drug use or heavy drinking.

"For instance, are you a quiet drunk or are you a talkative drunk?" he asks. "Are you the kind who will have too many drinks and you are sitting in a bar and saying, 'Did you know this, that, there is a terrorist threat out for Y2K?' "

Private lawyers who represent clients in clearance cases defend DOHA. They say the military process doesn't give applicants all the rights they should have and say the importance of the whole-person concept cannot be over-emphasized.

Sheldon Cohen, an attorney in Arlington, Va., says the government must evaluate the whole person in deciding whether to approve or reject a clearance: "The use of a variety of drugs by a person in high school or college, even to a substantial degree, might not disqualify that person, while a single use of marijuana by an adult while that person held a security clearance would probably cause loss of a clearance."

Adds Elizabeth Newman, a Washington lawyer, "The fact we don't want them as neighbors does not mean they will misuse classified information."

But some former DOHA employees believe there has been too much "lawyering." A clearance is a privilege, not a right, and the Supreme Court has so ruled, they say.

Howard Strouse, the retired DOHA official who was based in Columbus, Ohio, supervised the preparation of many administrative cases against contractor employees over a 14-year-period. He is frank in his assessment of the agency.

DOHA is doing a lousy job, he says.

"DOHA is due process heaven, and I'm not proud of that," he says. "You want due process, yes, but these attorneys and judges who work for DOHA have to realize they work for the government, and we are talking about national security."

Strouse says there were countless times when he and his staff pressed cases against applicants with questionable backgrounds but were overruled by the headquarters office in Arlington, Va.

"In looking at some of these administrative judge decisions," he says, "you are only seeing the tip of the iceberg."

He says he had frequent disputes with senior DOHA lawyers and Schachter, the agency's director, over "liberal" decisions. He says Schachter talked about how no spies have ever been cleared by DOHA. But, Strouse says: "Of course, he can't be disputed because there hasn't been a spy to come up. But I'm sure they are out there. Industry has long been a problem for spying."

Schachter declined to answer many questions. In a letter to USA TODAY, he wrote: "Sensationalizing a few cases distorts the overall record of seriousness, professionalism and dedication reflected throughout the DOHA staff and judges."

But Thomas Ewald, who directed security background investigations for the Defense Department before retiring in 1996, worries that some DOHA decisions will come back to haunt the agency. "There is no question that all of us in the business felt that many clearances should be denied that weren't," he says. "It only takes one person to cause untold damage to national security."

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Panel orders audit of lobbyists' money

(RECA: Cummins & Brown DC law firm & Phil Harrison)
Page 2 ---- The Gallup Independent --- Gallup N.M.
Wednesday, December 29, 1999 By Nancy Watson Staff Writer

WINDOW ROCK -The Navajo Nation Council Budget and Finance Committee Tuesday ordered an audit of money for the tribe's lobbyists who have been working on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.

The committee requested the audit after Phil Harrison reported that $30,000 allocated for his salary was missing from lobby funds. He said he doesn't know where the money went or whether it was ever sent to his office in Shiprock.

Money for lawyers, consultants and lobbyists is funneled through the tribe's attorney general's office. A spokesman for that office said he did not know where the money went.

A total of $72,000 was budgeted by the Navajo Nation for the Shiprock Office of Uranium Workers. Half that money was for Harrison's salary and half was for expenses. Harrison told the committee he has been working since March without pay. He also said his contract ended in September.

He said he is continuing to work without pay because he is committed to RECA. "We need to finish this work." He said.

But other complaints and allegations about how RECA money's being spent surfaced prior to Tuesday's meeting, which led to the Budget and Finance Committee's request for an appearance by tribal RECA representatives, said Council Delegate Ben Shelly.

Tuesday was the first time in two years that RECA representatives have reported to the committee, he said. The Budget and Finance Committee has the authority to monitor how tribal offices spend money, but RECA has never provided the committee with a financial report, he said.

Committee members praised Navajo Nation Vice President Taylor McKenzie for a lengthy report he presented on RECA. In his report, McKenzie discussed the differences between the present uranium workers compensation law and a bill sponsored by Sen. Orrin hatch, R-Utah, that was recently passed by the U.S. Senate and is on it's way to the house, and another bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Joe Skeen, R-NM.

Senate Bill 1515, known as the Hatch Bill, is believed to be superior to the 1990 legislation because it provides more compensation to more people, but it falls short of meeting the 10 points that the Navajo Nation Council said the amendment must include.

The bill includes only six of the 10 points demanded by the council. But many people believe the groups that are working for the reform of the 1990 legislation, including the tribe, should throw their support behind the Hatch Bill.

McKenzie agrees the bill should be supported and the other four points negotiated. Those four points include an increase in the payment to uranium workers from $100,000 to $200,000; retroactive money paid to workers who received $100,000 under the 1990 law; the inclusion of an increase in the number of diseases caused by exposure to uranium, and a federal advisory committee on additional medical conditions.

Also included under those points is an increase in the window of time an employee worked for a uranium mine. Currently, that window is from 1947 to 1971. The tribe wants the time increased to include the years from 1942 to 1990.

The Skeen bill includes more than the 10 points, but it has not been approved by either the Senate or the House. Many people believe it is unlikely to pass either congressional body because it could be too costly for the federal government.

Time is a big issue. Speakers at the committee meeting expressed concern about the interference that next year's election will have on Congress. They believe only about six months is left to get a bill through the current session of Congress.

Furthermore, they believe they should work to get the Hatch Bill passed through the House and then into conference committee, where more negotiations on the remaining four points can take place.

Shelly said he would like to see the Hatch Bill passed.

"It would be fine if we got all 10 points, but at least we'd get something (with the Hatch bill passed)," he said. "I want to see some of the people who are dying enjoy some of the compensation they deserve."

----------- Y2K

Millennium Bug Gnaws at New Year Buildup

Reuters Updated 11:22 PM ET December 29, 1999 By Kevin Liffey
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991229/23/international-millennium-leadall

LONDON (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday it was sure that its vast infrastructure -- nuclear arms, reactors and all -- was ready for January 1, but elsewhere the "millennium bug" began to cast a shadow over the biggest party of all time.

In much of the world, the excitement of entering the third millennium has been tempered by fear of catastrophe if programmers have failed to beat the "Y2K" bug by persuading millions of computers to read the new year as 2000, not 1900.

Britain launched an Internet site designed to keep people up to date in case the millennium bug strikes anywhere across the world.

In Thailand, engaged couples decided the biggest day of their lives could wait until they were sure it was safe to fly.

And in Australia and New Zealand the dawn of the new age, at least as seen on television, was postponed for technical and financial reasons.

U.S. airlines have canceled numerous flights around New Year, citing slack demand, but there will still be plenty of planes in the air to test the millions of dollars spent to defeat any computer glitches, airline analysts said Wednesday.

Western experts see some of the biggest technical risks in Russia, the world's biggest country, where the fragility of the infrastructure is matched only by a shortage of cash.

But Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who heads Russia's Y2K task force, said he was "fully confident that Russia has successfully tackled this" and that atomic power stations, telecommunications and air transport had all been tested.

MISSILES SAID TO BE SAFE

More comfortingly for the rest of the world, the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda said the Strategic Rocket Forces had completed checks on all automatic nuclear missile systems.

But this has not stopped neighboring Finns buying more iodine tablets in two days than they normally do in two years as a precaution against radiation from Russia, officials said.

Equally skeptical of Russia was Turkey, where a senior government official expressed concern over Russian gas supplies at the millennium as well as over nuclear power plants in Ukraine, scene of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

As governments from Bulgaria to South Africa assured their people that they were Y2K-ready, American business technology analysts GartnerGroup Inc said worldwide preparations meant the year 2000 would be "an event, but not a catastrophe."

"We estimate only a small percentage of computer failures will be visible to the general public and they will be relatively minor," said research director Lou Marcoccio.

Brazil and Venezuela expressed confidence on Wednesday about their preparedness. Brazil said it was ready after a final test run of systems at its Y2K control center while the Caracas government said Venezuela was one of the best prepared in South America.

There was a foretaste of what could lie ahead when up to 20,000 credit card readers in British shops suffered what the manufacturer called a "software time and date-related issue," causing delays for post-Christmas shoppers.

"I wouldn't describe it as a Y2K bug, but it's very difficult trying to convince someone that it isn't," said Nicholas West, a spokesman for the manufacturer, Racal Electronics Plc (RCAL.L).

The full impact of the bug will be largely hidden until mid- to late January, according to Bruce McConnell, head of the International Y2K Cooperation Center, which is funded by the World Bank. "By the third week in January, we'll be able to really tell what the overall impact is," he said.

WEDDINGS STYMIED

In Thailand, about 150 foreign couples who had signed up for a mass wedding in Thailand on New Year's Eve pulled out at the last minute, afraid that it could be unsafe to travel.

But the organizers of "Amazing Love 2000" arranged for reserves to make the numbers back up to 2,000 couples.

The U.S. West Coast city of Seattle had already called off its downtown millennium party because of fears of a terrorist attack after the arrest of an Algerian near Seattle two weeks ago allegedly transporting bomb-making equipment.

But in New York, where well over a million revelers are expected to converge on Times Square, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said the city would not be cowed by any potential terrorist threat and was going ahead with the party.

Among extraordinary security measures, the city was sealing manhole covers and mail boxes, removing trash cans and assigning 8,000 police officers in the Times Square area, where bomb sniffing dogs will patrol the throngs.

In Washington, a Pentagon spokeswoman said the U.S. military would shut down some of its Internet sites during the rollover to 2000 to protect against computer hackers.

In Cape Town, South Africa, one of the world's major venues for Friday's millennium celebrations, police investigating a series of bomb blasts arrested the head of a Muslim vigilante group on Wednesday and seized bomb-making equipment.

In Israel, where officials fear doomsday predictions for 2000 could draw extremists to holy sites, police arrested an Arab carrying a sub-machinegun as he tried to enter a gate to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine.

Technical difficulties made New Zealand broadcasters cancel live coverage of the first sunrise over inhabited land from Pitt Island, population 20. Instead, the first broadcast of the new millennium dawning will be from Chatham Island, where the sun rises 90 seconds later.

And Australia's Nine Network sided with the sticklers who, in the face of the tide of global celebration, insist that the mathematical millennium starts on January 1, 2001.

It said a 24-hour, multimillion-dollar broadcast of celebrations around the world produced by the Los Angeles-based Millennium Television Network was scrapped for lack of funds -- but would go ahead next year for the "true millennium."

Related Stories

Glitches, Security Worries Dampen 2000 Party (Dec 30 6:50 pm ET)
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991230/18/international-millennium-leadall

Worries, Prices, Blunders Damp Millennium Mood (Dec 30 12:01 pm ET)
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991230/12/international-millennium-leadall

Pre-Millennial Worries Dampen Party Mood (Dec 30 3:27 am ET)
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991230/03/international-millennium-leadall

Millennium Bug Nibbles at New Year Build-Up (Dec 29 8:38 am ET)
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991229/08/international-millennium-leadall

World Gears Up for All That Partying (Dec 29 12:53 am ET)
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991229/00/international-millennium-leadall

---

Your guide to the Y2K New Year

USA Today 12/29/99- Updated 05:56 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k000.htm

USATODAY.com covers the world as it moves into the 21st Century. Coverage begins with the first New Year's celebrations (5 a.m. ET Dec. 31) and includes:

World-wide photo coverage Interactive map tracking the dawn of 2000 Message board conversations with cybercafes around the globe Exclusive reports from the U.S. and abroad Live cybercasts from big-city celebrations

Latest news

Poll: Most shrugging off Y2K
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k012.htm

For New Year's, go climb a mountain
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k011.htm

Internet has worries on top of Y2K
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k010.htm

Last-minute search for Y2K bugs
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k009.htm

Feds promise rapid response to problems
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k008.htm

Terrorist fears are real
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k004.htm

New Year's Eve of destruction?
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k005.htm

Plea: Don't hoard gasoline
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k003.htm

Confidence overtakes glitch fears
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k006.htm

IRS may forgive Y2K problems
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k007.htm

Feds: Biggest fret over smallest things
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k002.htm

Last-minute survival shopping
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/y2k001.htm

Looking back

Lists for the millennium
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/listindex.htm

"Making the century"
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/mainindex.htm

Century's top 100 stories
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/general/gen007.htm

How long is 1000 years?
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/general/gen002.htm

What should next decade be called?
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/general/gen005.htm

Reader suggestions for naming next decade
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/general/gen006.htm

Millennium travel
http://www.usatoday.com/life/travel/millennium/mindex.htm

Our fascination with time
http://www.usatoday.com/2000/general/gen001.htm

---

Millennium Bug Gnaws at New Year Buildup

By Reuters New York Times December 29, 1999 Filed at 2:42 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-millenn.html

LONDON (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday it was sure that its vast infrastructure -- nuclear arms, reactors and all -- was ready for January 1, but elsewhere the ``millennium bug'' began to cast a shadow over the biggest party of all time.