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FRENCH ACTION TO END LAB TEST

APRIL 15-16 :

Dear Abolitionists,

On April 15-16, the French Mouvement de la Paix and Appel des cent based in the south west of France will host 2 Abolition days, to put an end to lab testing. Action will be located in Bordeaux, near the megajoule laser, sister of the US NIF. On Saturday, a public discussion will bring together scientist to discuss the purpose of the nuclear facility ; on Sunday, a rally will take place to bring together all those opposing lab tests and asking for a Convention on the abolition of nuclear weapons.

This will be the first major public action before the NPT review conference starts.

All of you in Europe at this time or willing to participate will be welcome. We can cover food and accommodation, as well as domestic transportation.

The success of this event can bring new oxygen in the NPT negotiations.

Please contact us soon at mvtpaix@globenet.org or ddurand@mvtpaix.org

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INTRODUCING MYSELF AND A QUESTION

From: Matthieu Jan jan.matthieu@minsoc.fed.be
To: 'du-list@egroups.com' du-list@egroups.com
Date: Thursday, April 06, 2000 7:05 AM Subject: [du-list]

Hello friends,

My name is Jan Matthieu, and I'm working as a defence and foreign affairs adviser for the green Belgian Minister of Consumer Affairs, Health and the Environment. We are presently trying to get our government to place a ban on the use of DU ammunition in Belgium, and, if possible Europe (for starters). I would appreciate if someone could answer following questions:

1. Which countries, other than the US and UK, at the present time use DU for defence purposes? 2. Is there anything in International Human Right you know of, that could be used to support a ban?

Looking forward to your responses,

warm regards,

Jan Matthieu Cel Buitenland en Defensie Algemeen Beleid Kabinet van de Minister van Consumentenzaken Volksgezondheid en het Leefmilieu tel: (00-32)02/220.20.60 fax: (00-32)02/220.20.67

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Mercury, Nevada, U.S.A.
4-6-2000 3:30 p.m. PDT

The United States Department of Energy has just conducted the subcritical nuclear test "Oboe 4" at the LYNER facility on the Nevada Test Site. This, following "Thoroughbred" on March 22 and "Oboe 3" on February 3, is the third subcritical nuclear test of 2000 by the United States. This is more tests than United States has averaged per year in recent years. John Hallum and Friends of the Earth are absolutely correct, these tests are a deliberate insult to all the other participants in the NPT Review Conference.

Twenty-one people gathered at sunrise in protest this morning at the Mercury entrance to the Nevada Test Site. Under the banner of Shundahai Network and lead by Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney they conducted a ceremony following which six individuals entered onto the Test Site and were arrested. They were subsequently cited for trespass and released.

Additional protests are planned this afternoon in Las Vegas at the Department of Energy offices from 3-5p.m..

Charlie Hilfenhaus Alliance of Atomic Veterans Director, Atomic Workers Division chilfenhaus@juno.com

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Action at Bechtel HQ in San Francisco to Protest "Oboe 4" Subcritical Test

Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2000 16:20:03 +0100
From: Sally light sallight@earthlink.net

Today at noon about 20 activists gathered at the international headquarters of the Bechtel Group in San Francisco to protest the detonation of the "Oboe 4" subcritical nuclear test at the Nevada Test Site today at 3:30pm. Bechtel operates the Nevada Test site for the Department of Energy.

The protesters carried out a "chalk action" by writing names of the more than 1,000 nuclear tests the US has conducted since the first one in 1945. The sidewalks around the front entrance of the Bechtel office building were covered with these names, leaving a strong, visual impact after the action itself was over.

Speakers took turns at the bullhorn, while others passed out information. Flyers were quickly distributed, and passersby stopped to engage in dialog with the activists.

Organizations represented included Tri-Valley CAREs, Western States Legal Foundation, Livermore Conversion Project, California Peace Action, Nevada Desert Experience, and American Friends Service Committee.

Reporters from two radio stations, KPFA in Berkeley (Pacifica Radio), and San Francisco Liberation Radio recorded interviews and both stated the coverage would be broadcast later today by their respective stations.

There were no arrests.

Sally Light Nuclear Program Analyst Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment)

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Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2000 18:09:43 -0700
From: Shundahai Network - shundahai@shundahai.org

We are sad to announce that the Department of Energy completed subcritical nuclear weapons test "Oboe 4" at 3:30 pm (PST) today. This morning more than twenty people gathered for Sunrise Ceremony at the gates of the Nevada Test Site. Many nations were represented at the circle. Shortly after dawn, six people walked into the test site, three men and three women. They were taken to the pens for a brief period and then cited and released, court date to be announced.

This afternoon there was a colorful enthusiastic gathering at DOE in North Las Vegas. Members of Shundahai Network, Alliance of Atomic Veterans, and local Las Vegans brought many voices, and many bullhorns to amplify those voices- singing, speaking to the DOE workers as they left the building, and speaking to the passersby on the street.

Today's test was to answer questions about what they call "ejecta and spall". What that means is that they bombard the plutonium so hard, pieces of it shatter into miniscule dust.

We know that plutonium clings to moisture and will easily move from a dusty chamber into our groundwater, and ever closer to us. We know these tests must be stopped. It's an election year, let's make this an issue.

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A Call to Put Social Issues on Corporate Agendas

April 6, 2000
By ALAN COWELL
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/human-rights.html

LONDON, April 5 -- A multinational corporation prepares for a major investment in a troubled part of the world. The pickings, from oil or mining or cheap labor, stand to be enormous. But the local government is corrupt. Its security forces are brutal. What does the company do?

Increasingly, according to a report released here tonight by Amnesty International, the answer is fraught with a new kind of corporate risk, not just for the company's operations but its global reputation, retention of quality employees and ultimately its shareholders.

In the modern wired world, the company's activities will not simply fall under the microscopic scrutiny of advocacy groups, the report says, those same groups will spread their assertions and criticism around the world within seconds on the Internet.

Far more than in the past, the report argues, a multinational company's stance on human rights will be considered part of its performance. And, it says, companies must be prepared to confront the governments that play host to them about issues ranging from political repression to child labor.

"There is no hiding place," said Sir Geoffrey Chandler of Amnesty International, the London-based human rights monitoring group that wrote the report along with the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum, an advocacy organization supported by Prince Charles of Britain to promote socially responsible business practices.

"To go without a policy on human rights is to go naked into a dangerous world," Sir Geoffrey said in an interview.

The report, titled "Human Rights -- Is It Any of Your Business?," signals the beginning of a new campaign by advocacy groups to hold corporate behavior to standards that many multinational corporations had once sought to dismiss.

It cites, for instance, the experience of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group in the Niger Delta of Nigeria in the mid-1990's, when the company's activities were caught between a repressive military regime and the protests of Nigeria's Ogoni people, who demanded that Shell compensate them for extracting oil from their land. The conflict led to the execution of nine Ogoni activists in 1995 -- and, immediately afterward, demands for a boycott of Shell products. As a result, the report says, Shell revised its business principles to commit itself to upholding human rights.

The report's insistence that other corporations should follow the lead of companies like Shell, BP Amoco P.L.C., Reebok International and Levi Strauss & Company reflects how advocacy groups have increasingly challenged businesses over their practices.

In Britain, consumer advocacy groups have succeeded in virtually driving genetically modified foods off supermarket shelves. Corporations are expected to routinely report on their environmental record. Pressure from United States and British groups in the 1990's forced new scrutiny of the way child labor was used in the Asian sporting goods industry, from footwear to soccer balls.

But the newest campaign takes aim not so much at consumers as at the boardrooms of big international companies, urging the most senior managers to consider the hazards of ignoring issues like labor rights, local land rights, the use of security forces to protect foreign installations and the dilemmas of operating under corrupt regimes or in war zones. All those factors, it argues, have become more relevant as multinational corporations play an increasingly dominant role in economic development.

"Companies have a direct self-interest in using their legitimate influence to protect and promote the human rights of their employees and of the communities within which they are investing and/or operating," the report says. "The increasing scrutiny of corporate behavior by the media, consumer groups, community organizations, local and international nongovernmental organizations, and the immediacy of global communication leave companies with little, if any, hiding place."

The report urges that companies incorporate explicit commitments to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in their central strategies and operating procedures and accept outside scrutiny of their performance. "There can be no neutrality," Sir Geoffrey said in the interview. "If you are silent, you are going to be seen as complicit."

It was not clear tonight how the report would be received in business circles. However, a survey by the Ashridge business school in Britain released tonight in conjunction with the report suggested that human rights issues were finding their way onto corporate agendas.

The survey of Fortune 500 companies said 36 percent of respondents "have decided not to proceed with a proposed investment project because of concerns over human rights issues" while 19 percent "have disinvested from a particular country because of concerns" about the same issues. It also found that less than half -- 44 percent -- of companies with a code of ethics or business principles "make explicit reference to human rights."

----------- africa

Africa's Gems: Warfare's Best Friend

By BLAINE HARDEN
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/040600africa-diamonds-article1.html and http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/040600africa-diamonds-article2.html

This article was reported by Alan Cowell in Zambia and Belgium, Ian Fisher in Congo, Blaine Harden in Angola and New York, Norimitsu Onishi in Sierra Leone and Congo, and Rachel L. Swarns in Botswana.

The rough stone emerges from the African soil at fortress-like mines in the war zones of Angola or straight from the muck of a dammed-up river in Congo. After journeying across continents and oceans, after being graded, cut, polished and set in gold along the way, a diamond lands in a display window in Manhattan, transformed into a pricey symbol of eternal love and beckoning to brides-to-be.

The journey can take months or even years. To enforce the myth that diamonds are rare and valuable, most of the world's rough stones are hoarded in London and then carefully fed back into the world market.

De Beers, the South African conglomerate that controls two-thirds of the world's rough diamonds, decides how many will be sold, when, to whom and at what price.

Where they are mined responsibly, as in Botswana, South Africa or Namibia, diamonds can contribute to development and stability. But where governments are corrupt, rebels are pitiless and borders are porous, as in Angola, Congo or Sierra Leone, the glittering stones have become agents of slave labor, murder, dismemberment, mass homelessness and wholesale economic collapse.

While market manipulation guarantees their price in world markets, the portability and anonymity of diamonds - millions of dollars worth can be smuggled in a sock, and identifying where they came out of the ground is often impossible - have made them the currency of choice for predators with guns in modern Africa.

"You can't wage war without money, and diamonds are money," said Willy Kingombe Idi, who buys diamonds from diggers in Congo. "People are fighting for money. Everything that happens, it's about money."

De Beers estimates that only 3 percent of global rough diamonds now come from conflict areas in Africa, according to Andrew Lamont, a company spokesman who repeatedly said it was difficult to define a conflict area.

But Christine Gordon, a London-based journalist and independent diamond expert who has been critical of De Beers, said that as recently as the mid-1990's, diamonds from African war zones accounted for 10 to 15 percent of world supply.

In any case, violent goings-on in diamond-rich Africa have done nothing, thus far, to change the consuming habits of Americans, who buy more than half the world's diamond jewelry. Sales jumped about 11 percent last year. Diamond sales are also booming around the world, with De Beers showing record sales last year of more than $5 billion.

Digging in the Mud

At the bottom rung of the international diamond trade, the need to scrap together enough money to eat sends Africans like Mati Balemo clawing through the mud of a Congolese stream bed. Mr. Balemo is a digger.

On a recent morning, he and six other diggers set off from Kisangani, in north-central Congo, traveling first by bicycle taxi and then on foot. Along the way, a soldier armed with a stubby machine gun demanded to come along. But he hired another bicycle taxi, which took a spill on a hill, pleasing the diggers.

They arrived after three hours at a small stream where the thick canopy of bamboo and vines made the early afternoon as dark as twilight. The diggers had been working this site for a month and had found only a few diamonds. They used shovels to dam off small sections of the stream. Then they heaped mounds of mud onto the bank. They picked out big rocks from the mud and sifted through what was left with metal screens nailed to wooden frames.

Diggers like Mr. Balemo are driven by the dream of one stone that will change their lives. For weeks or months they work bent over in shallow rivers or in pits. In three years as a digger, the biggest diamond Mr. Balemo ever found was a stone of 2.16 carats worth $800. That diamond, if it were of flawless color and clarity, could retail for as much as $10,000 in New York, experts say. Mr. Balemo split his $800 with five fellow diggers.

Miki Galedem, 30, another digger who started when he was 16, once found a monstrous stone of nine carats. He was paid $4,800. But he was young then, in 1993, and the money disappeared, he said, on "beer and women."

Standing in a pool of water stilled by mounds of mud, the diggers professed not to think much about their business - where the diamonds go, who wears them and at what price. "Diamonds are beautiful," Mr. Balemo said. "Everyone wants to be beautiful. That is normal."

He was knee-deep in the stream, and had been sifting mud - a brown stew with pebbles and quartz - for an hour. Suddenly, he found a diamond. He popped it in his mouth to clean it and then showed off a shiny white stone half the size of a raisin. His friends clapped, and one digger guessed that traders back in Kisangani would pay $20 at most for the stone.

"I'm very glad," Mr. Balemo said, not smiling much. This was the first diamond in nearly a week. "It's not much money for all that work."

The soldier with the stubby machine gun, who had been watching closely from the river bank, then came over and took the diamond. He folded it into a scrap of paper backed with gold foil and stuffed the packet into his chest pocket.

By the rules of Congo, the guy with the gun got the diamond. Even when the stones are taken from the ground using the most sophisticated equipment, the game is roughly the same.

Financing the Arms

In northeast Angola, the Catoca diamond mine - one of a half dozen such sites in that Texas-sized country - is an island of modernity in a sea of civil war. Huge earthmovers gouge out the diamond-bearing earth and feed it into a sorting plant, where water, electric vibrators and X-rays separate out about $8 million worth of diamonds a month, an amount expected to quadruple as the mine expands.

The diamonds are stored in a high-security sorting room before they are flown to Europe. As technicians grade the uncut stones, Israeli-trained security guards watch from every angle to make sure that no one slips a rock into his pocket. The mine has satellite TV and 24-hour Internet access, but the only way in or out is by air. To protect employees from attack, they are locked inside the mine's gates every night by guards with automatic weapons.

Until four years ago, the men with guns were rebel soldiers working for Unita, the Angolan rebel group led by Jonas Savimbi. Delfi Rui, a 39-year-old digger, recalled seeing rebels whip an elderly man who refused to dig. He said they had threatened to shoot those who would not give them at least half the diamonds they found.

The Angolan military took Catoca from Unita in 1996, and within two years modern mining began atop one of the planet's largest veins of diamonds. The mine now employs 1,100 Angolans and has the potential to anchor an economic revival in a part of the country where there are no other industries, no money for war reconstruction and no government services. Jobs at the mine are expected to last for at least four decades.

But the persistence of fighting in the area means that men with guns still find ways to milk the diamond business. A private security force controlled by the chief of staff of the Angolan Army, Gen. João de Matos, protects Catoca. About 300 armed guards, most of them former Angolan soldiers, have staked out a fortified perimeter around the mine. They charge $500,000 a month to protect the mine from Unita.

Since they were chased away from the mine, Unita soldiers have stayed in the area and terrorized the local citizenry with hit-and-run guerrilla raids. They have forced about 56,000 nearby civilians from their homes. Most are destitute. Land mines have maimed many. Without international food aid, they would starve.

Unita's behavior led the United Nations to impose a diamond embargo on the group in 1998, making it the only African rebel force subjected to such action.

For years, the United States and the white government of South Africa supported Unita, an acronym in Portuguese for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, as a counter to the Moscow-backed government in Luanda. But with the end of the cold war and of apartheid, Unita lost its military patrons. International isolation deepened when Mr. Savimbi, its leader, lost an election in Angola 1992.

Rather than accept a vote foreign observers judged free and fair, Mr. Savimbi returned to the bush and resumed war against the Angolan government. His fighters seized control of the Cuango River valley, Angola's richest diamond territory, and began a major mining operation that more than compensated for the lost cold-war aid, and made them the richest rebels in Africa.

Diamond money paid for Unita offensives that in the 1990's elevated Angola's civil war to a new plateau of savagery. Highland cities like Cuito and Huambo were all but flattened by artillery shells. More than half a million Angolans were killed. Land mines maimed about 90,000. Fighting displaced 4 million Angolans, and about 1 million continue to depend on foreign food aid. The United Nations Children's Fund now ranks Angola as the worst place on earth to be a child.

At Andulo, Unita's headquarters in the central highlands of Angola, Mr. Savimbi personally haggled with arms merchants and diamond traders who flew in from Europe. The rebel boss bargained using small bags of diamonds, each of which contained several million dollars worth of gems, according to Robert R. Fowler, the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations and chairman of a committee that investigated violations of the embargo against Unita.

"If the price was $22 million, Savimbi would reach down for four of those bags and two of those," Mr. Fowler said. "The arms dealers had their diamond experts, and Savimbi had his, and they would inspect the diamonds to see if they really were worth $22 million. And then they haggled some more and somebody would throw in an extra bag of diamonds, and off the arms dealers flew."

Mr. Savimbi became a major buyer on the international arms scene. Giant Russian-made Il-76 cargo planes made as many as 22 deliveries a night at Andulo, said Mr. Fowler. The primary source for most of the arms was Bulgaria, the report said, although Bulgarian officials deny it.

The United Nations waited nearly six years before imposing an embargo on Unita diamonds, even though there was never any doubt what Mr. Savimbi was doing with his little bags. With an estimated $3 billion in legal diamond sales, he built Unita into a highly mobile war machine with 35,000 well-armed troops. By the early summer of last year, Unita seemed on the verge of toppling the government in Angola.

The rebels were turned back only because the government went on a $500-million weapons-buying spree of its own, financed by Western oil companies that paid the government more than $900 million for rights to new offshore oil finds.

Although Unita's sales of diamonds are down sharply from the mid-1990's, the United Nations report said gems continued to play a "uniquely important role" for the rebels.

Making a Wasteland

There is no United Nations embargo on diamonds from Congo or Sierra Leone.

Hunger for looted diamonds is a major reason why six other countries have sent soldiers into Congo. Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe have sent troops to protect the government of Laurent Kabila, while Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda have sent soldiers to assist rebels trying to overthrow him.

Altogether, they have succeeded in shattering much of the economy of eastern Congo, transforming Kisangani, the major city of eastern Congo, into a gaudy and ghostly ruin.

The streets of Kisangani are nearly empty of cars. The textile plant is closed, and the once-thriving port on the Congo River is quiet. Apart from spotty electricity from a hydroelectric dam, there are hardly any public services left. Public salaries go unpaid. Prices have soared.

The only businesses that seem alive are those buying diamonds from diggers coming in from the dense forest that encircles Kisangani. To catch their eye, storefronts have been dressed in garish paint that shouts the names of diamond buyers like Mr. Cash, Jihad the King of Diamonds and Jehovah Ire, run by one Papa Samuel, "in connection with Jesus Christ." One store is painted with an image of Rambo, his machine gun replaced with a shovel.

Inside the diamond shops it is possible to see hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stones. Shop owners say the diamonds are often flown out of Congo to Rwanda or Uganda, as commanders from those countries reward themselves for their revolutionary efforts.

"What do you think is the reason for this war?" asked a diamond buyer named Papa Ben, who plies his trade in Kisangani. "It's only about the riches of this country."

Only about a third of Congo's annual diamond production is being sold through the country's official market, according to diamond experts in Antwerp. They say the rest is being smuggled away for sale in bordering countries.

By far the biggest diamond prize in the Congo is more than 1,000 miles to the southwest of Kisangani, near the city of Mbuji Mayi. Diamond experts say President Kabila has allocated a substantial percentage of that huge diamond complex to Zimbabwe, which has sent 11,000 troops to prop up Mr. Kabila's wobbly government.

So Zimbabwe has recently become a major diamond exporter, although it has a negligible local industry.

With their eyes on the prize at Mbuji Mayi, large numbers of Congolese rebels and supporting troops from Rwanda began massing about a year ago to the north and east of the city. If they take the diamond mines there, many military experts believe, Zimbabwe would lose its will to fight and Mr. Kabila's government would probably fall.

Allying With Smugglers

In Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, the surgeons were frantic. Scores of men, women and children, their hands partly chopped off by machetes, had flooded the main hospital. Amputating as quickly as they could, doctors tossed severed hands into a communal bucket.

The Revolutionary United Front, a rebel outfit that barters diamonds for weapons, was trying early last year to conquer Freetown. Chopping off limbs was their trademark strategy, as it greatly simplified conquest in the diamond fields of eastern Sierra Leone. When word got out that rebels were moving in, tens of thousands of terrified people would take off. The rebels chased half the country's population of 4.5 million out of their homes in the 1990's. Half a million people fled the country.

One day during last year's carnage in Freetown, a diamond trader approached a reporter at the Cape Sierra Hotel. He stuck out his tongue and from beneath it plucked out a stone, which he offered to sell. When the sale did not happen, the trader popped the diamond back in his mouth and moved on.

In fact, most of Sierra Leone's diamonds were - and still are - smuggled into neighboring Liberia for sale, according to several human rights groups and diamond industry experts.

The leader of the Sierra Leone rebels, Foday Sankoh, has established a lucrative partnership with his longtime Liberian friend, Charles Taylor, the rebel-boss-turned-president. Both had training in Libya, both their rebellions began in the late 1980's, and their armies have helped each other fight.

Mr. Sankoh's access to the world's diamond bourses and to arms was secured when Mr. Taylor was elected president of Liberia in 1997. The Liberian government denies this trade, as does Mr. Sankoh.

But a number of diplomats, international relief officials and mining experts say there is persuasive evidence. Liberia was a marginal exporter of diamonds until the mid-1990's. Since then it has it exported some 31 million carats - more than 200 years' worth of its own national capacity, according to trading records in Antwerp.

After Mr. Sankoh failed to take Freetown last year, he signed a peace deal granting his rebels amnesty for war crimes. The deal, which was brokered by the United Nations, also gave him a government job - chairman of the Strategic Minerals Commission, which controls diamond mining.

Making Diamonds Work

Diamonds need not lead to horror. Botswana, the world's largest diamond producer, is one of the most stable and prosperous countries in Africa. The diamond industry there employs nearly a fourth of the country's 1.5 million people and accounts for two-thirds of government income.

De Beers and the government control the industry in a 50-50 partnership, but there is far more to the country's success than corporate paternalism. For starters, the borders of Botswana, unlike the borders of so many countries in Africa, make sense. Inside the borders, there is ethnic and linguistic unity. There is also a long history of democratic decision-making.

Traditional chiefs rarely take action without first consulting ordinary villagers, who are invited to speak freely. It also helped that Botswana gained independence peacefully. The country was so poor that the British decided it was not worth fighting for, so it was never inundated with guns or soldiers.

When De Beers discovered diamonds in Botswana in 1969, the government had been independent for three years, and the men running it were traditional chiefs who owned cattle. They came from a desert culture where people have to scrimp and save to survive the long, dry season.

During three decades, Botswana's leaders have carefully guided what became the world's fastest-growing economy. They invested in roads, schools and clinics. In stark contrast to the rulers of Angola and Congo, they created an African nation devoted to improving the lives of its people. In 1965, only about half of primary school-aged children attended school. Today, 90 percent of that group is enrolled. Life expectancy, which was less than 50 at independence, is now near 70.

Phones work in Botswana, potholes get repaired, garbage gets picked up, and a lively press pokes fun at the government without fear. At $3,600 per year, the gross national product per capita is seven times higher than the average for sub-Saharan Africa. The standard of living is higher than in South Africa, Turkey or Thailand.

"Diamonds are not devils," said Terry Lynn Karl, professor of political science at Stanford and author of "The Paradox of Plenty," (University of California Press, 1997), a book about the poisonous mix of natural resources, big money and thieving elites in developing countries. "What matters is that there be a tradition of good government and compromise in place prior to the exploitation of these resources."

Exploiting a Continent

The miseries of modern Africa are, in many ways, a legacy of its history.

In the case of both Angola and Congo, colonialism obliterated whatever political culture may have predated the arrival of Europeans. It invented huge, largely fictive nations - Angola is the size of Texas, Congo of the United States east of the Mississippi - roping together people who regarded one other as foreigners. To make their nation-building pay, colonialists used force to haul off everything from ivory to rubber to human beings.

In Congo, the Belgian colonial state was famously greedy and cruel. Its agents set impossible quotas for production of rubber and ivory, killing or chopping off the hands of villagers who failed to meet them. The novelist Joseph Conrad called it "the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience."

In Angola, the Portuguese were less brutal, but no less toxic.

At independence in 1975, several hundred thousand Portuguese residents, virtually the entire educated population, abandoned the country. Some took even their doorknobs with them. They left behind a place where almost no Angolans had any training in statecraft, business or agriculture.

Then for the better part of the last 50 years, the cold war and the white-minority governments of southern Africa injected cash and arms into regional wars.

The Central Intelligence Agency, for instance, supported Unita in the early 1970's and again in the late 1980's. The Marxist government of Angola received military assistance from the Soviet Union and up to 50,000 troops from Cuba. When the C.I.A. was not helping Unita, the rebels got military backup from white-ruled South Africa.

Sierra Leone, a small country in West Africa, had a more benign colonial history under British rule. But since the 1940's, predators who smuggle diamonds have warped every aspect of the nation's economic and political life.

The meddling of colonialists, superpowers and white governments all but stopped at the start of the 1990's, leaving diamonds, oil and other natural resources as the primary forage for rebels and governments.

In those countries where there was nothing to trade for weapons - as in Mozambique, where post-apartheid South Africa stopped financing rebellion and post-Communist Eastern Europe stopped financing the government - war simply fizzled out.

But Angola, Congo and Sierra Leone had plenty of diamonds left over to excite greed, fuel war and to buy favors. The United Nations report on the embargo against Unita described how Mr. Savimbi gave a "passport sized" packet of diamonds to the president of Togo, Gnassingbe Éyadéma, as payment for allowing his children to live in Togo and go to school there. Togo has denied it.

Mr. Savimbi "sealed" his friendship with the president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaoré, by giving him a number of envelopes full of diamonds, as well as contributing to his political campaign and helping his government pay debts, according to the report. In return, it said, Burkina Faso sent Mr. Savimbi three flights of diesel fuel. The government of Burkina Faso denies that.

"Oh, the diamonds, diamonds, diamonds," said a character in Graham Greene's "The Heart of the Matter," a 1948 novel set in Sierra Leone. "You cannot understand how many bribes are necessary."

Manipulating Scarcity

De Beers created its cartel 110 years ago when the company's founder, Cecil Rhodes, realized that the sheer abundance of diamonds in southern Africa would make them virtually worthless. By carefully manipulating scarcity, De Beers prospered as perhaps the most powerful cartel in the annals of modern commerce.

In the process, however, De Beers has run afoul of antitrust laws in the United States. The company's senior executives dare not enter this country because of an outstanding antitrust indictment that charges De Beers with fixing the prices of industrial diamonds.

The company's grip on the diamond market has slipped a bit from near-total dominance at mid-century, but it has continued to keep the price of gem-quality diamonds high by being both aggressive and flexible. Through the years, it has sponged up periodic floods of diamonds from Russia, Australia and, until recently, across parts of war-ravaged Africa where it does not own all the mines.

Together with the artificial perception of rarity, what makes diamonds profitable to more than 2.5 million miners, traders, cutters and wholesalers around the world - and what energizes the $50-billion-a-year retail diamond jewelry industry - is romance.

That, for the most part, is also an invention of De Beers. In 1938, De Beers hired a New York advertising company to convince millions of couples that the larger the diamond on an engagement ring, the greater their love. In the 1960's, a similar campaign in Japan created a diamond engagement ring "tradition."

Diamonds spilling out of Angola's war zone have had a destabilizing effect on the cartel, first by increasing the supply of gem-quality stones and then by tarring the reputation of De Beers as a company that trafficked in blood-stained goods.

To maintain world prices, De Beers bought up a sizable amount of what Unita was selling - although the company insists that it bought the diamonds on the open market without any direct dealings with the rebels, and that it stopped all buying when the embargo was imposed in 1998.

Global Witness, a London-based human rights group, embarrassed De Beers in October of 1998 with a report that showed - citing the company's own annual reports - how the cartel had pumped large amounts of money into the coffers of the rebels as the war escalated.

A year later, De Beers took decisive action. The company declared last October that it would not buy any diamonds that originate in Angola, except from one government-controlled mine.

Some diamond experts said De Beers' announcement, while laudable, came late - after Unita, having exhausted the easy pickings in Angola's alluvial mines and having lost considerable territory to Angolan government forces, could no longer roil the world market with high quality stones.

De Beers moved again last month to sanitize the image of the diamonds it sells. As of March 26, the company says it can guarantee that none of its diamonds originate with African rebels, but come instead from its own mines in South African, Botswana or Namibia, or are bought from mines in Russia or Australia.

Human rights groups have welcomed De Beers' moves and praise the company for taking steps they say the entire diamond industry should follow. Rebel-mined diamonds, though, can still find their way out of Africa. About a third of diamonds imported into the United States are purchased from traders who are not employed by De Beers and are not bound by its new rules.

Tracing the Stones

Near Antwerp's train station, police barricades seal off three narrow streets. In warren-like rooms above the streets, men hunch over precision turntables, grinding rough diamonds to coax forth shapes and colors that lure wholesaler jewelers to Belgium from around the globe.

Eight out of 10 of the world's rough diamonds - about 125 million carats a year - pass through Antwerp's Diamond Center. But exactly which of those stones come from war zones in Africa is something Antwerp's experts say they find hard to tell.

Michael Vaughan, managing director of the Diamantkring, one of the four exchanges in Antwerp, said that his business depended on trust, and that if diamonds have been smuggled by African rebels and re-packaged elsewhere, "we don't know about it."

Many diamond traders in Antwerp do not particularly want to know where the stones come from. A recent United Nations report complained of "extremely lax regulations" at the world's largest diamond bourse in Antwerp. A Canadian human rights group, Partnership Africa Canada, calls Antwerp "a diamond smuggler's dream."

Belgium has objected to the report, saying it ignores major moves in January to set up tougher customs inspections and a new certification system with the Angolan government.

But it is not just Belgium. According to the United Nations report, Antwerp is flooded with diamonds exported from countries passing off smuggled diamonds as their own, complete with false, but official, certificates of origin. The experts say those countries include Liberia, Uganda, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.

One way to keep rebel-mined diamonds off the world market would be to impose a diamond embargo on African countries known to be exporting smuggled stones. Thus far, though, there is little enthusiasm in the United Nations for such a move. "It is tough enough in Angola, believe me," Mr. Fowler said.

Human rights groups and some members of Congress are also calling for a mandatory diamond-labeling system. One proposal calls for a worldwide ban on sales unless diamonds have verifiable documents proving country of origin. A bill introduced in Congress last year would require similar documentation for diamonds sold in the United States.

Representative Tony P. Hall, an Ohio Democrat, and Representative Frank R. Wolf, a Virginia Republican, introduced the bill after seeing the horrors of war in Sierra Leone.

"The world looked the other way in Angola for most of the 1990's, while revenues from diamond sales were used to butcher innocent civilians," Mr. Wolf said. "We should not stand by as the same thing happens in Sierra Leone and Congo. We should do whatever it takes to cut off the flow of money."

The diamond industry in the United States objects to the proposals.

"There is no way to tell where a diamond comes from," said Eli Haas, president of the Diamond Dealers Club of New York. "Diamonds don't have identifying marks and probably never will. You just can't look at a diamond and say, yes, it comes from Sierra Leone."

That may be changing. De Beers says that it is "actively pursuing" a diamond fingerprinting technology being developed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at a forensic laboratory in Ottawa.

Using lasers, the technology tries to identify chemical impurities that are characteristic of diamonds from a particular country. Before it can work, though, a huge database containing the fingerprints of the world's diamonds would have to be gathered and a method of industrial testing would have to be devised.

"Identifying them is going to take many years," said Andrew Bone, a De Beers spokesman in London. "Most international experts believe that the techniques are not yet sufficient to allow the tracing of individual stones. Nevertheless, we are committed to helping in any way we can."

Buying Love Tokens

It appears likely, then, that a trickle of diamonds from the war zones of Africa will continue to leak into jewelry stories, at least until technology, international law or a heretofore unseen vigilance in the diamond industry finds a way to stop it.

De Beers insists that the chances of buying such a diamond are infinitesimal.

"There is less than a one-in-a-hundred chance that any single stone will come from conflict areas," said Mr. Bone, the De Beers spokesman.

Despite such assurances, the window remains open for African rebels. Smugglers in Sierra Leone and Congo have ready access to the third of the world diamond market that De Beers does not control. And Unita, although its diamond dealing is down sharply from the mid-1990's, is still selling between $80 million and $150 million worth of stones a year, according to the most conservative estimates. To perk up sales, Unita held a sale last year, military experts said, marking down rough-diamond prices by a third.

The perceived need to own a diamond appears, if anything, to be increasing.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, Tracy Scholl, of Suffolk County, Long Island, stood with her fiancé, Mike Sabatino, at an engagement ring counter on 47th Street in the diamond district of Manhattan.

"When you get engaged, you get a diamond," Ms. Scholl said as Mr. Sabatino, an electrician from Staten Island, warily eyed a one-carat ring that cost $5,500. "It is what you are supposed to do."

And Africa? "I want to say that I would not want a diamond because of that stuff in Africa, but I guess that's not really true," Ms. Scholl said. "Me not buying a diamond is not going to stop what is going on over there."

----------- australia

Kakadu hazard denied

Date: 06/04/00
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0004/06/text/national15.html

The uranium mining company involved in the Jabiluka project has conceded urgent work is required to prevent contaminated water overflowing from a containment pond on the mine site into Kakadu National Park.

A spokesman for Energy Resources of Australia said the company had known for some time that "some other environment practices need to be implemented to meet the storage requirements for the upcoming wet season at the end of this year".

But systems were in place to ensure Kakadu's safety, he said, with sufficient mining practices in operation for the past 21 years.

The contaminated water contains uranium, zinc, lead and high levels of radium 226.

A spokeswoman for Jabiluka's traditional owners, the Mirrar people, called on the Federal Minister for the Environment, Senator Hill, to "immediately institute a full environmental impact statement" for the area.

The Opposition spokesman on the environment, Senator Nick Bolkus, said the Government had been warned about potential spillage but "had not taken it seriously".

Janine Israel

----------- belgium

UPDATE - Belgian nuclear train arrives, protesters arrested

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
BELGIUM: April 6, 2000

MOL - Around a dozen protesters were arrested yesterday when they tried to block a controversial load of nuclear waste as it returned to Belgium from reprocessing in France, witnesses said.

Riot police dragged away Greenpeace environmental activists, some of whom had chained themselves to one of the trucks taking 28 containers of vitrified waste from Mol railway station to their intended destination, a storage depot in Dessel. Others briefly blocked the convoy and its heavy police escort by lying down in its path.

A spokeswoman for Belgium's nuclear waste agency Ondraf confirmed the waste had arrived safely at the depot. "It is now already inside the storage unit," she said. The canisters left the Cogema plant at La Hague in northern France on Tuesday after a Belgian court reversed a decision to ban the shipments on the grounds that Belgium was not properly prepared for an accident.

"It's their most highly radioactive nuclear waste, it's very dangerous, it is probably one of the most dangerous products you can find in the world," Greenpeace spokesman Jan Vandeputte told reporters after the fracas.

"We think it's totally irresponsible that such waste is transported in a container that is not sufficiently safe." The shipment is the first of a planned 15 in which 75 cubic metres (2,600 cubic feet) of vitrified waste - used, re-processed fuel set in glass and stored in canisters - will be returned to Belgium for long-term storage. The fuel originates from Belgian nuclear power stations.

A spokeswoman for Synatom, the nuclear power division of Belgian power utility Electrabel, said it was technically possible to make two to three shipments a year, but that the timetable was a political decision.


----- britain

Britain's BNFL admits acid-spill safety lapse

http://www.envirolink.org/environews/reuters/articles/Environment/04_06_2000.reulb-story-bcbritainbnfl.html

LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - Scandal-plagued British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) faced fresh controversy on Thursday after it pleaded guilty in court to a safety lapse last year at its Sellafield plant that left three workers with acid burns.

The incident is the latest in a catalogue of safety scares to dog the company in recent months. They have forced the government to delay its plans for a part-privatisation and drawn international calls for Sellafield's closure.

``We have pleaded guilty to charges of failing to ensure the safety of workers and the case has now been referred to the Crown Court,'' BNFL spokesman Peter Osborne told Reuters after the hearing at Whitehaven Magistrate's Court in Cumbria, western England.

The workers were burnt last March when nitric acid leaked from a pipe at a solvent treatment plant being built at the main Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site in Cumbria.

``We are sorry that such an event occurred and we have accepted responsibility for the event and have already acted to ensure similar events cannot happen in the future,'' Osborne added. No radioactive material was involved in the incident, he said.

BNFL last year admitted data on plutonium destined for Japan had been falsified, and is still reeling from the sabotage in March of robotic tools at Sellafield, which it admits has put the plant's future in doubt.

Ireland and Denmark have both called on the British government to close Sellafield down, complaining radioactive discharges from the plant are polluting the Irish Sea.

And environmental activists Greenpeace said last month an as yet unfinished and unpublished OECD study it obtained showed reprocessing plants like Sellafield exposed the public to higher doses of radiation than storing nuclear waste.

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

Lockheed Aided China on Rocket Motor, U.S. Says Firm Faces Millions in Fines

By Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 6, 2000; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/06/306l-040600-idx.html

The State Department has charged Lockheed Martin Corp. with violating the Arms Export Control Act by providing a scientific assessment of a Chinese-made satellite motor to a state-owned Chinese conglomerate.

The State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls informed Lockheed Martin of its findings in a letter dated Tuesday and gave the nation's largest defense contractor 30 days to respond to the civil charges, which could result in a fine of as much as $15 million and bar the Bethesda-based company from exporting satellites or satellite technology for up to three years.

The allegations are similar to those lodged in 1998 against two other U.S. satellite makers, Hughes Electronics Corp. and Loral Space & Communications, which have been under criminal investigation for possibly passing sensitive data to China.

The Hughes and Loral probes triggered intense controversy in Congress. Republicans charged that the Clinton administration, under the influence of campaign contributions and heavy lobbying, had been lax in its oversight of high-tech exports to China.

Although the Lockheed case does not involve violations of criminal law, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin called it "a serious matter" and said export control officials decided to take action "based on the facts and the gravity of the charges."

"In our view, any assistance to China that enhances its capabilities in space launch has the potential to be applied to missile development," Rubin said.

A spokesman for Lockheed Martin, James L. Fetig, denied that the company had violated export laws and said it obtained a Commerce Department license before its scientists assessed the Chinese-made satellite motor.

"National security was not harmed, and it is our understanding that there is no criminal violation involved and no criminal charges pending," Fetig said.

According to Lockheed, the company sent a team of scientists to China in 1994 at the request of a Hong Kong-based client, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co., to assess the "kick motor" that Asiasat planned to use in launching its Asiasat-2 communications satellite.

A kick motor fires after launch to send a satellite into its final orbit.

After Lockheed completed its study, the company forwarded 10 copies of the 50-page document to Asiasat, which successfully launched the commercial TV and telephone satellite the following year.

Asiasat is partially owned by China International Trust and Investment Corp. (CITIC), a state-owned conglomerate whose chairman, Wang Jun, attended a 1996 White House coffee for political contributors hosted by President Clinton.

CITIC is the most influential financial and industrial conglomerate in China, with holdings that include a steel mill in Delaware, forests in Washington state and a meat processing plant in Australia, as well as one of China's largest banks and interests in power plants, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and textiles.

Lockheed officials said yesterday that the company performed the technical assessment under a strict confidentiality agreement with Asiasat that prohibited dissemination to firms or government entities in China.

Prior to sending Asiasat copies of the report, Lockheed says, it also sent its study for review by the Department of Defense, where export control officials removed what they considered sensitive information that could have helped China to improve its military rocket capabilities.

Following the Pentagon review, Lockheed says, it shared the edited document with China Great Wall Industries, a state-owned company involved in solid rocket motor development.

In its letter charging Lockheed with 30 separate violations of federal export controls, however, the State Department alleges that Lockheed sent the unedited version to Asiasat before the Defense Department had blacked out all but five of the 50 pages.

The State Department also said that Lockheed did not tell the Pentagon that it had provided 10 unedited copies of the report to Asiasat until the existence of those reports was recently discovered by the U.S. Customs Service.

Lockheed "made no effort to retrieve the 10 unexpurgated assessments or seek to learn the ultimate disposition of these assessments," the State Department charged.

Even sharing the redacted version of the study with China Great Wall Industries, the State Department said, violated U.S. export regulations, which prohibit any technical assistance "that might enhance [Chinese] space launch vehicles."

In performing and sharing the study, Lockheed also violated U.S. rules by identifying flaws in Chinese testing procedures, confirming the results of Chinese tests pinpointing faulty insulation, and identifying problems with U.S. solid rocket motor technologies, according to the State Department letter.

In telephone interviews yesterday, Lockheed officials responded that the central issue in the dispute is the type of kick motor involved.

There is no question, they said, that some highly sophisticated kick motors capable of firing multiple times and repositioning satellites once they are in their final orbits are considered defense technologies subject to stringent regulation by the State Department.

But the "kick motor" used to send Asiasat-2 into its final orbit was capable of firing only once and was, for export control purposes, a commercial commodity regulated by the Commerce Department, they said.

Given the heightened political sensitivity currently surrounding satellite export to China, they acknowledged, Lockheed never would attempt to perform such a study now without checking with both the State and Defense departments.

But six years ago, they said, Lockheed officials thought they were on safe ground with a Commerce Department license.

In 1994, the Clinton administration transferred regulatory control of satellite exports from the State Department to the export-friendly Commerce Department after strenuous lobbying and heavy political contributions by U.S. satellite makers.

Last year, Congress shifted regulatory control back to the State Department, concluding that the Commerce Department had been too interested in boosting commercial ties to China at the expense of national security.

Lockheed Martin is a major political donor, tending in recent years to favor Republicans.

Its political action committee made more than $1 million in donations during the last election, about two-thirds to Republicans. It also gave $187,000 in "soft money" corporate contributions to Republicans and $66,000 to Democrats.

-----

Lockheed Accused
Defense Giant Said to Violate Export Control Law

April 6
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/lockheed000406.html

State Department spokesman James Rubin said that Lockheed Martin Corp.'s charge of violating export laws was "a serious matter," and export control officials decided to take action "based on the facts and the gravity of the charges." (Visar Kryeziu/AP Photo)

WASHINGTON,- The State Department is accusing Lockheed Martin Corp. with illegally exporting technology to a Chinese company that could help China improve its missile technology.

Lockheed, the largest U.S. defense contractor, conducted 30 violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the department said in a letter to the company dated Tuesday.

The Bethesda, Maryland-based company could be fined up to $15 million and barred from export licenses for three years. A company spokesman told reporters that Lockheed had done nothing wrong and would appeal the State Department decision.

State Department spokesman James Rubin called the accusations a "serious matter. We take this seriously."

The letter alleges that the company violated a ban on providing technical assistance that would improve China's space launch vehicles.

Motors, Insulation and More

The letter, a copy of which was obtained today by ABCNEWS, says that Lockheed had specialists assess Chinese manufactured satellite kick motors for use in Chinese government Long March 2E launch vehicles, or missiles. A kick motor fires after launch to send a satellite into its final orbit.

A Chinese state-owned company was planning to use the technology, which before improvements "had suffered multiple failures during static tests," according to the letter.

In addition, Lockheed had in 1994 sent the company, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited, or Asiasat, a 50-page technical letter that the Pentagon had ordered reduced to about five pages, according to the State Department.

"Lockheed Martin Corporation did not at any time inform the U.S. government of these exports prior to the recent disclosure of these facts through an investigation conducted by the U.S. Customs Service," the letter says.

In performing and sharing the study, Lockheed also violated U.S. rules by identifying flaws in Chinese testing procedures, confirming the results of Chinese tests pinpointing faulty insulation, and identifying problems with U.S. solid rocket motor technologies, according to the State Department letter.

The $15 million fine would be the sum of $500,000 for each of the 30 alleged violations, the director of the Office of Defense Trade Controls told the company in the letter.

Lockheed: No We Didn't

Lockheed Martin spokesman James Fetig told The Washington Post the company obtained a Commerce Department license before its scientists assessed the Chinese-made satellite motor and gave data to a Chinese company.

"National security was not harmed, and it is our understanding that there is no criminal violation involved and no criminal charges pending," Fetig told the paper.

According to Lockheed, the company sent a team of scientists to China in 1994 at the request of Hong Kong-based Asiasat to assess the kick motor that Asiasat planned to use in launching its Asiasat-2 communications satellite.

The letter says the majority owner of Asiasat at the time of the alleged violations was China International Trust and Investment Corp. (CITIC), the most influential financial and industrial conglomerate in China. Lockheed officials said on Wednesday that the company performed the technical assessment under a strict confidentiality agreement with Asiasat that prohibited dissemination to firms or government entities in China.

ABCNEWS' Martha Raddatz at the State Department, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

------

Lockheed charged in aiding China with rocket data

April 6, 2000
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-200046222459.htm

The State Department has charged Lockheed Martin Corp. with illegally helping China develop satellite rocket technology that could be useful in launching multiple-warhead missiles.

State Department spokesman James Rubin said Lockheed Martin exported weapons data without proper authorization in 1994.

"The company made no effort to retrieve the exported information nor did it inform the U.S. government of the export prior to the disclosure of the facts through a Customs Service investigation," he said.

Mr. Rubin said civil action is being pursued "based on the facts of the case and the gravity of the charges."

"In our view, any assistance to Chinese technical capabilities in space launch has the potential to be applied to missile development," he said.

An administration official said the kick-motor technology is covered by the 29-nation Missile Technology Control Regime, which restricts missile-related exports.

A list of 30 violations of the Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations was contained in a letter sent Tuesday to the Bethesda, Md.-based aerospace corporation.

The charges state that in 1994 the company provided a report to a Hong Kong satellite company linked to two state-run Chinese firms. The technical assessment explained how to fix problems with a Chinese-made solid-fuel rocket motor used to position satellites in orbit.

"The Department of State charges that Lockheed Martin Corp., formerly Martin Marietta Astro Space, has violated the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms regulations . . .," the department said in a six-page letter signed by William J. Lowell, director of the department's office of defense-trade controls. It said there were 30 violations.

If found guilty of the charges during administrative procedures over the next 30 days, Lockheed could be fined as much as $15 million and could lose its government contracting rights.

Lockheed Martin is the largest U.S. defense contractor with total annual revenue of about $25.5 billion.

The latest charges are the third case involving U.S. satellite makers suspected of providing missile-related know-how to China. The Clinton administration loosened controls on satellite exports beginning in 1993 under pressure from high-technology manufacturers.

The letter said the U.S. government could take civil or criminal action. However, a Lockheed Martin official said the Justice Department reviewed the matter and decided against prosecution.

The letter stated that after Chinese-made satellite "expendable perigee kick motors," or EPKMs, had several failures in ground tests, "Lockheed Martin offered to provide whatever assistance it could to China Great Wall Industries Co. in evaluating" problems with the solid rocket motor for the space carrier that is used to move satellites into orbit.

"However, Lockheed Martin Corp. had no contractual obligation to be involved in any fashion with the [solid rocket motor] except for the interface of the motor with the satellite," the letter said.

Great Wall Industries is China's state-run missile manufacturer that has been subject to U.S. economic sanctions in the 1990s for selling M-11 missiles to Pakistan.

The report identified another Chinese company, Hexi Chemical and Machinery Co., that along with China Great Wall Industries were partners with Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd., or AsiaSat, based in Hong Kong.

Lockheed spokesman Jim Fetig said the company did nothing wrong and the charges are the result of a misunderstanding about export licensing. The company believes it acted properly under two licenses for the satellite cooperation, one from the Commerce Department and a second from the State Department.

"We believe the actions taken in 1994 were reasonable and consistent with the Department of Commerce license," Mr. Fetig said. "This is a dispute over interpretation of that license and the State Department license. National security was not harmed and no technology was exported to the PRC."

AsiaSat was a Lockheed customer and planned to use the Chinese kick motors to position its AsiaSat-2 satellite after launch on a Chinese Long March rocket booster in 1995.

The State Department charged that the 50-page assessment provided to AsiaSat required an additional State Department license. After the company submitted the report to the Pentagon for review, all but five pages of it would have been barred from export to AsiaSat on national security grounds, the letter said.

The Justice Department has been conducting a three-year investigation of Space Systems Loral and Hughes for possibly improperly providing China with missile technology.

Details of the State Department case against Lockheed also followed a meeting in Beijing last month between representatives for U.S. and Chinese satellite and missile companies, including Loral, Hughes and Lockheed.

According to the State Department letter, in September 1994 Lockheed specialists traveled to China and analyzed Chinese test data on the solid-rocket motor failures. They then put together a detailed assessment of the problems.

"The assessment provided analysis and comparison of U.S.-designed [solid-rocket motors] to the EPKM Solid Rocket Motor," the letter said.

The letter stated that a Chinese government firm, China International Trust and Development, is a majority shareholder in AsiaSat. However, a Lockheed official said the Beijing firm is a one-third shareholder.

Henry Sokolski, a former Pentagon official, said the solid-rocket technology could have helped the Chinese develop multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles used to guide clusters of nuclear warheads launched on a single missile.

China is believed to have multiple warhead capabilities but not the ability to independently target them, Mr. Sokolski said.

"Kick motors are terribly important in positioning a bus to its final position and are interchangeable with the technology used for pointing warheads to precise points on the ground," Mr. Sokolski said.

"That's the reason the technology is controlled," he said. "If this stuff didn't have any military value, it wouldn't be licensed."

The State Department said Lockheed failed to notify the government of its meetings in China on the test firings, violated its munitions license by providing assistance to China Great Wall Industries and sending copies of the solid-rocket motor assessment to AsiaSat.

The company also was charged with unlawfully exporting five documents containing technical data that required a license, and improperly provided "defense services" related to testing and evaluation, hardware design and manufacturing, and "anomaly analysis."

Other charges outlined in the letter said the company failed to reveal the unauthorized exports in license applications to the State Department.

----

Firm accused of giving secrets to China

04/06/00- Updated 11:17 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu01.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department is charging Lockheed Martin Corp. with illegally giving a state-owned Chinese conglomerate a scientific assessment of a Chinese-made satellite motor.

In a letter dated Tuesday, the State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls told the company it has 30 days to respond to civil charges that could result in a fine as high as $15 million and a ban on satellite technology exports for up to three years.

The letter, addressed to Lockheed's Washington International Operations Office in Arlington, Va., charges Lockheed with 30 separate violations of federal export controls. The letter is signed by William J. Lowell, director of the State Department Office of Defense Trade Controls.

Four of the charges relate to alleged travel by Lockheed officials in January 1994 to Hohhot, China, for test firings of motors for use in launching a communications satellite, and for discussions with officials of the Chinese company involved in carrying out the project.

The letter said Lockheed had failed to advise the U.S. government of these events at least 30 days prior to the proposed meeting as was required. Lockheed also failed to ensure the requisite presence of a qualified Defense Department monitor, the letter said.

Company spokesman James L. Fetig denied that the Maryland-based firm had violated export laws.

He said it had obtained a Commerce Department license before assessing the satellite motor. ''National security was not harmed, and it is our understanding that there is no criminal violation involved and no criminal charges pending,'' Fetig said.

But Lowell's letter said the U.S. government is ''free to pursue civil, administrative, and/or criminal enforcement for violations of the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.''

Fetig said that language is commonly used in such cases. He dismissed it as government ''boilerplate.''

----------- europe

Department of Energy Schedules Demo for EUROTECH, Ltd's Radiation-Resistant EKOR at Hanford Site

April 6, 2000

WASHINGTON, DC. EUROTECH Ltd. (OTC: BB:EURO) The Department of Energy (DOE) Richland Operations Office, Washington State, has set the third week in April for the EKOR demonstration to DOE officials and contractors at their Hanford Site.

The letter to EUROTECH, Ltd. from the Department of Energy, Richland Operating Office states: "(Subject): DEMONSTRATION OF EKOR. It is our understanding that EUROTECH, Ltd. scientists are completing the Chernobyl task the last week of March 2000, and they will be preparing for demonstrations and dry runs at the Hanford Site. These demonstrations will be held at the Volpentest HAMMER Training Facility on April 20-21, 2000, as coordinated with Mr. Det Wegener. We encourage these types of demonstrations, especially from small businesses, and look forward to learning more about your technology and your business. If you have questions... Sincerely, Anthony E. Lorenz, Director Office of Procurement Services".

Eurotech appreciates DOE's personnel support and invitation to demonstrate EKOR now at the state-of-the-art Volpentest HAMMER facility. EKOR can withstand high radiation exposure for centuries and was recently used to isolate the most critical fuel-containing mass at the site of the 1986 nuclear accident in Chernobyl.

EUROTECH Ltd. is a diversified technology holding company formed to capitalize on business opportunities through the acquisition and commercialization of advanced technologies developed by prominent research institutes and individual researchers worldwide. Additional information about EUROTECH, Ltd. and its technologies may be viewed on the Company website: http://www.eurotechltd.com.

Certain information and statement included in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Federal Privates Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements.

For More Information Contact: ECON Investor Relations, Inc. Dawn VanZant 1-800-665-0411

----------- imf

A Dozen Reasons to Come to DC for April 16

By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

The next citizen showdown against corporate globalization will be on April 16 and 17, when thousands of people come to Washington, D.C. to protest -- through legal demonstrations and/or civil disobedience -- the politics of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. For details on events, see www.a16.org. Here's a dozen reasons why you should join the protests:

1. IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programs have increased poverty around the world.

Structural adjustment -- the standard IMF/World Bank policy package which calls for slashing government spending, privatization, and opening up countries to exploitative foreign investment, among other measures -- has deepened poverty around the world. In the two regions with the most structural adjustment experience, per capita income has stagnated (Latin America) or plummeted (Africa). Structural adjustment has also contributed to rising income and wealth inequality in the developing world.

2. IMF/World Bank "debt relief" for poor and indebted countries is a sham.

Many poor countries must devote huge portions of their national budgets to paying back foreign creditors -- often for loans that were made to or for dictators, wasteful military spending or boondoggle projects. The money used to pay back debt subtracts from essential expenditures on health, education, infrastructure and other important needs.

The IMF/World Bank plan to relieve poor countries' debt burden will leave most poor countries paying nearly as much as they currently do. And all of the debt relief is conditioned on countries undergoing years of closely monitored structural adjustment.

3. The IMF has helped foster a severe depression in Russia.

Russia in the 1990s has witnessed a peacetime economic contraction of unprecedented scale -- with the number of Russians in poverty rising from 2 million to 60 million since the IMF came to post-Communist Russia. The IMF's "shock therapy" -- sudden and intense structural adjustment -- helped bring about this disaster. "In retrospect, it's hard to see what could have been done wrong that wasn't," says Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

4. The IMF helped create and worsen the Asian financial crisis.

The IMF encouraged Asian countries to open their borders to "hot money" -- speculative finance invested in currency, stocks and short-term securities. That was an invitation to trouble. The Asian financial crisis resulted from the hot money brokers' herdlike decision to leave Asian countries en masse.

Once the crisis hit, the IMF made things worse by requiring structural adjustment as a condition for IMF loans. The result was a surge in bankruptcies, layoffs and poverty. In Indonesia, poverty rates rose from an official level of 11 percent to 40 to 60 percent, depending on the estimate. At one point, Indonesia's food shortage became so severe that then-President Habibie implored citizens to fast twice a week. Many had no choice.

5. The IMF bails out big banks.

The IMF bailouts in Asia, like those in Russia and Mexico, directed money to those countries largely for the purpose of paying off loans to foreign banks. Thanks to the IMF, the banks escaped significant losses for imprudent lending decisions. Citigroup, Chase Manhattan and J.P. Morgan were among the beneficiaries of the "Korean" bailout.

6. IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programs devastate the environment.

Structural adjustment demands an increase in exports and foreign exchange earnings. As a result, explains Friends of the Earth, "Countries often over-exploit their resources through unsustainable forestry, mining and agricultural practices that generate pollution and environmental destruction."

7. IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programs contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Here's how Dr. Peter Lurie and collaborators explained the problem in the journal AIDS: The displacement of the rural sector under structural adjustment programs -- as imports undermine local farmers and the shift to large-scale plantations for exports further displaces the rural population -- contributes to migration and urbanization. Many men leave rural villages for work in big cities or in mines, contract HIV/AIDS from casual sex partners or sex workers, and then spread the disease to spouses in their home village. The displacement of children and young women into the cities has led to a sharp increase in commercial sex work and heightened rates of HIV/AIDS.

8. IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programs harm women.

Cuts in budget spending, mandated by structural adjustment programs, leave women to pick up the pieces -- with government services eliminated, women are forced to provide informal social supports for the sick and disabled. The IMF/Bank emphasis on exports has pushed women farmers to switch from growing food for family consumption to crops for exports -- and left them poorer in the process. The high interest rates associated with structural adjustment have made credit less accessible, undermining the viability of small women-owned businesses.

9. IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programs and Bank project loans have led to deforestation worldwide.

The export orientation demanded by structural adjustment policies has led to more forest cutting. And World Bank forest sector loans to countries around the world have done nothing to improve the situation.

"Although the [1991 Bank Forest] policy had dual objectives of conservation of tropical moist forests and tree planting to meet the basic needs of the poor, Bank influence on containing rates of deforestation of tropical moist forests has been negligible in the 20 countries with the most threatened tropical moist forests." Who said that? The World Bank's own Operations Evaluation Department, in November 1999!

10. World Bank policies have displaced millions of people around the world.

World Bank loans for dams and major infrastructure projects routinely require removal of massive numbers of people from their homes and destruction of their communities. In addition to the emotional hardship of leaving their land, the displaced people almost always find their quality of life diminished after the move. The Bank itself agrees. A 1994 report from the World Bank's Environmental Department found that, "Declines in post relocation incomes are sometimes significant, in certain cases reaching as much as 40 percent for people who were poor even before their displacement."

11. The World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) provides corporate welfare for environmentally destructive projects.

The IFC finances and provides advice for private sector ventures and projects in developing countries in partnership with private investors. Among its private sector partners: ExxonMobil, BP, Coca-Cola, Kimberly-Clark and Marriott. There's no reason for a public development institution, supposedly working to fight poverty, to lend its support to these well-endowed multinationals. Making matters worse, many of the private sector projects supported by the IFC, especially in the oil and gas sector, are environmentally destructive.

12. April 16 is a chance to make history.

While massive protests against IMF and World Bank policies are commonplace in the developing world -- from Jordan to Indonesia, Venezuela to Zambia -- the IMF and World Bank are not accountable to populations in those countries. In contrast, there has never been a demonstration of more than a few hundred people to challenge IMF and Bank policy in the United States -- the largest and most influential shareholder in the institutions.

That's going to change on April 16. The thousands of people who will attend the April 16 protests will forever change the political context of debates on IMF and the World Bank -- the best hope for billions in the developing world who have been subjected to the IMF and Bank's brutal policies with no recourse.

Special bonus reason to come to D.C.: With large puppets, colorful pagaentry, militant protests, Emcee Michael Moore at the legal demonstration on the Ellipse, and lots of great music, the protests will be a fun-filled festival of resistance.

-Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor, and co-director of Essential Action, one of the sponsors of the April 16 Mobilization for Global Justice. Mokhiber and Weissman are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1999, http://www.corporatepredators.org)-

----

Protest coalition taking aim at global finance meetings in Washington

April 6, 2000
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER,
Associated Press
Anchorage Daily News http://www.nando.net/24hour/adn/business/story/0,1968,500189767-500255484-501305246-0,00.html

WASHINGTON (5:21 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - The protest groups that gathered in Seattle's streets last fall as the World Trade Organization meetings collapsed in a cloud of tear gas are now taking aim at an even bigger target: the April 16-17 meetings here of the world's largest multinational lending agencies.

The signs are popping up all over town: "More World, Less Bank." "Shut down the IMF and the World Bank."

Organized under the umbrella name Mobilization for Global Justice, the protest groups, ranging from the AFL-CIO to Friends of the Earth and the Forum of Indian Leftists, are planning 10 days of teach-ins and street protests starting Saturday.

All the activity will be aimed at a massive rally on the Ellipse, the park across the street from the White House, on April 16. That's when finance ministers from around the world will be in town for the start of the spring meetings of the 182-nation International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

"We think this will be the biggest thing to happen to the IMF in its history," said Scott Nova, director of Citizens Global Trade Watch, an anti-WTO group that helped organized the Seattle demonstrations. "It will serve like Seattle did for the WTO to put the IMF on the map for people to notice. The IMF is doing some very bad things."

Parading under an anti-globalization banner, the protesters believe that the operating rules of the WTO, IMF and World Bank are rigged in favor of wealthy multinational corporations at the expense of poor people, labor unions and the environment.

The groups are vague about just what they will be doing during their protests, but there have been training sessions in such activities as blocking traffic, hanging banners from tall buildings and being chained to immovable objects.

Group leaders insist that the demonstrations will be nonviolent. District of Columbia police and federal authorities are taking no chances, given what happened in Seattle.

"The protesters are the ones who will decide if this is going to be peaceful or if it's not going to be peaceful," said Charles Ramsey, Washington's police chief.

His department will have 1,500 officers ready - nearly half the force. They have been taking lessons since January, watching videos of how the Seattle police lost control and brushing up on their crowd-control tactics.

The police department has spent $1 million on new helmets and body armor. Backing up those officers will be hundreds of others from federal agencies.

While the IMF and World Bank have been meeting every spring in Washington for decades without incident, the anti-globalization groups say they are energized by what happened in Seattle.

Demonstrators there were able to block key intersections and keep WTO delegates from attending the opening sessions. Police quickly lost control of the situation, firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowds while a handful of self-styled anarchists broke windows and set fires in the downtown area.

Television viewers who had never heard of the WTO were treated to scenes of National Guard units patrolling boarded-up downtown streets after the governor declared a state of emergency.

The White House is not repeating one mistake it made in Seattle, when it had President Clinton arriving only hours after police had been battling demonstrators outside his hotel. During the IMF weekend, Clinton will be a continent away in California, spending time with daughter Chelsea at Stanford University before launching a tour of poverty areas in New Mexico.

"The president supports people's right to peacefully protest," presidential spokesman Joe Lockhart said Thursday. "He also expects people to respect the rule of law and not to break the law."

The street protests are coming at a particularly rough time for the IMF and the World Bank. Last month, a congressionally appointed advisory panel recommended major changes for both institutions.

The administration, which is pushing a more modest set of reforms, heard new complaints Thursday from a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, which released a critical General Accounting Office report saying the World Bank needs to make greater efforts to curb corruption in the countries it serves.

"Problems of corruption and weak management are often endemic to the economic development environment in which the bank operates," the GAO report said.

The IMF's acting managing director, Stanley Fischer, said this week he was confident that local authorities could control the demonstrators and that the meeting would proceed on schedule.

"We are working to try to make sure that the meetings take place. The material that is being discussed at these meetings is very important for the operation of the world economy, for the people who live in the world economy," he said.

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

Iraq: U.S. Bombing Kills 14 Civilians

April 6, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Iraq-US.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. and British warplanes carried out bombing raids in southern Iraq on Thursday, and the Iraqi military said 14 civilians had been killed and 19 injured, the highest casualty claim made by Iraq in months.

``The American and British criminals added another crime to their barbaric acts ... when their ravens bombed residential areas and civil installations,'' said the official Iraqi News Agency.

In the United States, a spokesman at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., confirmed U.S. planes had carried out air strikes in southern Iraq. Lt. Col. Rick Thomas said the strikes followed attacks by Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery.

``They fired at us today. We struck in response to that,'' Thomas said. He said the strikes were aimed at Iraqi military targets, adding that U.S. pilots attempt to minimize the risk of civilian casualties.

Thomas said there was no immediate indication of Iraqi casualties but that battle damage was still being assessed.

The Iraqi News Agency said 18 waves of planes carried out 24 bombing missions, according to Iraq's Air Defense.

The number of deaths reported Thursday was the highest since Aug. 17, when Iraq said 19 civilians were killed and 11 injured during attacks in northern and southern Iraq. On Tuesday, Iraqi authorities said strikes had killed two people and injured two in the south.

The iraqi agency's report did not specify the nature of targets hit Thursday or their location, but said the jets flew over six provinces in the southern no-fly zone.

Iraq does not recognize the no-fly zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War to provide aerial protection from government forces for Shiite Muslims in the south and Kurds in the north. It began challenging the patrols in late 1998, and allied forces often have responded by firing on Iraqi anti-aircraft and radar installations.

-----------

Iraq Says 14 Die in Western Air Strikes

April 6, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-at.html
By Reuters

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Fourteen people were killed and 19 injured by Western air strikes in southern Iraq Thursday, Iraq said.

It was the heaviest toll reported since Aug. 17 last year when Iraq said 19 civilians were killed.

U.S. and British planes patrolling northern and southern Iraq frequently clash with Iraqi air defenses. Almost 200 people were killed in such raids last year, according to Iraqi reports.

The U.S. military's Central Command in Tampa, Florida, confirmed that U.S. Navy and Marine Corps attack jets and British Royal Air Force Tornadoes struck anti-aircraft artillery targets in southern Iraq Thursday in response to ``repeated anti-aircraft fire'' against air patrols.

All aircraft returned safely to their bases after raids near Al Kut 95 miles from Baghdad, Ar Rumaylah, 225 miles from the capital and Al Basrah 245 miles from Baghdad, the Central Command said.

The command said its planes never aim at civilian targets and do their best to avoid causing civilian casualties.

A military spokesman, giving Baghdad's account to the official Iraqi news agency, said: ``The 'crows' attacked our service and civilian installations. The hostile bombing led to the martyrdom of 14 citizens and the injury of another 19.''

He said the planes came from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and flew over southern provinces of Basra, Dhi Qar, Muthanna, Qadissiya, Meisan, Wasit and Najaf ``before being driven back to their bases by Iraqi missile and ground forces.''

``Eighteen hostile formations of enemy 'crows' made 24 sorties from Saudi airspace and 24 sorties from Kuwaiti airspace,'' the Iraqi spokesman said.

No-fly zones were declared in northern and southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War by the Western powers, who said they were needed to protect dissidents from Iraqi air power.

Defense Secretary William Cohen said in neighboring Jordan Tuesday the overflights would continue and Washington would keep supporting U.N. sanctions while hoping for a change of leadership in Iraq.

Lt.-Gen. Shaheen Yassin, commander of Iraqi anti-aircraft defenses, told a news conference in Baghdad Thursday, ``We will continue defying the aggressors' planes, which violate our skies over the so-called no-fly zones.''

``We will use all our potential, weapons and missiles, to confront American and British aggression,'' he said.

Separately Iraq Thursday condemned what it said was a fresh Turkish military incursion into its north, saying it reserved the right to retaliate at a suitable time and place.

``Iraq categorically protests and condemns the new military aggression and denounces Turkish troops' violation of Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity,'' a foreign ministry spokesman said.

``The government of Iraq...reserves the right to choose the place and time suitable to retaliate against such aggression,'' the spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA).

Wednesday, a leading Iraqi newspaper demanded that Turkey withdraw its troops from northern Iraq, saying Ankara should cooperate with Baghdad to hunt down Kurdish rebels there.

Iraq has had no control over its northern provinces since 1991, when local Kurds rose up after the end of the Gulf War which saw the Iraqi army driven out of Kuwait by multinational forces.

The Turkish army has entered northern Iraq in the past in pursuit of Kurdish separatists fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkey.

Up to 7,000 Turkish troops backed by helicopter gunships crossed into northern Iraq early Saturday in the first offensive against Kurdish guerrillas of the spring.

The Iraqi spokesman said Turkey sent in 4,500 troops in a three-pronged offensive on April 1.

-----

U.S. Lauds Iran's Seizure Of Smuggled Iraqi Oil

By Colum Lynch Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, April 6, 2000; Page A20
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/06/263l-040600-idx.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 5-American officials today cautiously welcomed a report that Iran has seized a ship smuggling Iraqi oil through the Persian Gulf in violation of international sanctions.

The officials called the seizure a sign that Tehran may be responding to pressure to curb the illicit trade in Iraqi oil, which has risen dramatically as oil prices have climbed over the past six months.

The official Iranian news agency IRNA said this morning that the Iranian navy intercepted a Honduran-registered tanker, Al-Masru, on Saturday with 500 tons of Iraqi oil in its hold. The ship was impounded, and its captain and crew were detained, IRNA said.

"If the reports are true, we're pleased to see that Iran is taking measures against this illegal traffic," State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said.

U.S. officials previously accused Iran of allowing the smuggling, which they say has increased fourfold since September. At the current rate, the value of Iraq's illegal oil sales could total between $500 million and $1 billion per year, according to U.S. estimates.

Under international sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, Iraq is prohibited from exporting oil except under the U.N. "oil for food" program, an exemption that allows Baghdad to use profits from oil sales to buy food, medicine and other humanitarian goods under strict U.N. supervision. But smugglers have routinely violated the embargo by exporting Iraqi oil by ship through the Persian Gulf and by truck through Turkey.

The Iranian seizure comes less than a month after Vice Adm. Charles Moore, the U.S. coordinator of a multinational naval force seeking to enforce the sanctions, accused Iranian officials of providing safe passage to and falsifying papers for Iraqi smugglers in return for payoffs of about $50 per ton of oil.

----------- israel

Ally vs. Customer

April 6, 2000,
New York Times
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/safire/040600safi.html

Israel is on the brink of endangering its strategic alliance with the United States. Its leader seems to place higher priority on a lucrative sale to China of Awacs spy planes equipped with the most sophisticated Israeli-developed technology. Beijing could then far better manage any battle with Taiwanese and American forces in the Taiwan Strait.

This week the U.S. defense secretary, William Cohen, went to Jerusalem to plead with Prime Minister Ehud Barak to stop the Awacs sale to China. Barak said he'd think about it.

Next week President Jiang Zemin of China will arrive in Israel to inspect the first Phalcon radar system mounted atop a Russian Ilyushin transport. He is expected to offer to buy at least three and perhaps seven more for a quarter of a billion dollars each.

Thus Barak is faced with the stark choice between the interests of an ally and the interests of a customer. But no major Israeli leader, in government or opposition, has publicly raised an objection or launched a debate. Few supporters of Israel in the U.S. -- and certainly no candidate for president -- have sounded an alarm.

Israelis eager to consummate the deal say that the Clinton administration failed to object when the sale was arranged four years ago, when President Clinton was appeasing China as a "strategic partner." They note that a business contract is a solemn obligation, and that other arms customers might react badly if the U.S. were seen to have a veto over Israeli weapons sales.

Moreover, say the sellers of the newly equipped spy planes, this deal will lead to greater penetration of the growing Chinese market and to the strengthening of Israel's state-owned aircraft industry.

If the sale goes through, Beijing may permit diplomatic relations with Israel to blossom; but if it does not, nobody can say what missiles or nuclear technology an angry China may sell to enemies of Israel like Iran or Iraq.

But all these arguments pale in the face of today's overriding danger: China is publicly menacing Taiwan with military action that would cause the U.S. to help the 20 million free Chinese on Taiwan defend themselves. Our policy is cloaked in calculated ambiguity, but we are not ambivalent; in case of conflict, we would not be conflicted.

Strategic circumstances in Asia have changed, which means that previous commercial considerations of the U.S. and its allies must change with them. Israel cannot imperil a democratic island of 20 million in Asia without imperiling its moral call on a superpower to defend a democratic island of six million in the Middle East.

Secretary Cohen, speaking in mushmouthed Pentagonese, told Barak the sale would be "counterproductive," and that "the U.S. does not support the sale of this type of technology to China because of the potential of changing the strategic balance in that region."

Needed instead is a candid call from Clinton to say: Does Israel seriously want to put at risk American sailors and airmen who may have to intercede in the Taiwan Strait? Does Barak want to be the prime minister who takes the special out of our special relationship? If another war breaks out in the Middle East, from which direction will Israel expect staunch moral and military support -- east or west?

I suspect that Barak will now try to split the difference. He is likely to tell his next guest, Jiang, that Israel can deliver only the one Phalcon-equipped aircraft already sold. As far as the other seven China wants, it will have to build its own system or buy it elsewhere.

In that way, Barak would be able to say to Jiang, "I delivered on my contract despite awful arm-twisting from the Americans, and now expect your support for a temporary seat when the U.N. Security Council is expanded." He could then say to Clinton, "I stopped new Phalcon sales to China as you asked, at huge financial and market-developing sacrifice, and how about reimbursement?"

Some compromise. Chinese technicians, demonstrably better than Americans at launching satellites, will begin to copy the advanced Israeli battle-management technology as soon as the first Phalcon Awacs is delivered. And they'll invite Israeli technicians to more than Chinese dinners.

Reconsider, Israel; let not your democratic hand lose its cunning.

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

Nuclear power no countermeasure to global warming: report

Apr 06 2000 06:35 2000
Kyodo News
http://wl.office.com/SearchServlet.oc?Path=%2Fdocument%2Fview&docid=1.tnews.CMTX097X1234&database=Comtex+International+Business+Customwire&licensor=Comtex&words=

TOKYO, April 6 (Kyodo) -- Nuclear power may bring lower carbon dioxide emissions but will not be an effective countermeasure to curb climate change, according to a report released Thursday by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The report shows that developing countries must not be forced to adopt nuclear power, with its large energy consumption of uranium enrichment facilities, in the name of combating climate change because it is not a sustainable source of energy.

It says that emissions of carbon dioxide, a leading global warming gas, must be controlled by thorough energy conservation and improvement in the efficient use of energy.

The WWF, based in Switzerland, called its report ''Climate Change and Nuclear Power,'' and had experts compare the performance of different energy supply systems with various operating conditions.

Greenhouse gas emissions per kilowatt-hour (kwh) were calculated as 35 grams for nuclear power, 33 grams for hydropower and 20 grams for wind power.

Cogeneration technologies based on biogas from wood, landfills or agricultural origin emerged with the best performance, reaching an efficiency of 75% to 90% compared with conventional plants' 35% to 58%.

Compared with nuclear power, combined heat and power (CHP) or cogeneration plants recover most of the waste heat in industrial processes or urban heating systems.

The report said this transformation of biomass into synthetic gas makes it possible to nearly double the electricity generation of most current biomass-fired power plants.

Citing Japan as an example of a country heavily reliant on nuclear power with ''one of the lowest cogeneration shares of any industrialized country,'' the WWF report said Japan's large-scale use of nuclear power blocks improvements in efficient energy use within the country.

''An efficient greenhouse gas abatement strategy will not be based on nuclear power but on energy efficiency,'' it said.

The report appealed to governments not to use nuclear power as a main means of fighting climate change, pointing to the Soviet Union's nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, now in present-day Ukraine, and the Tokaimura nuclear accident in Japan last September.

-----------

Japan, N. Korea Move Closer

APRIL 06, 07:31 EST
By JOJI SAKURAI Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ASIA&STORYID=APIS73M7AU80

MOUNT MYOHYANG, North Korea (AP) - Negotiators from Japan and North Korea reaffirmed today their determination to establish diplomatic ties after a rocky start to their first normalization talks in eight years.

Japan's chief negotiator, Kojiro Takano, and his North Korean counterpart, Jong Thae-hwa, held informal talks at scenic Mount Myohyang, north of Pyongyang, a day after an outburst by the North condemning Japan's colonization of Korea.

``Japan and North Korean relations should be as clear as these skies,'' Jong said after a hike up a mountain slope.

Takano replied that the two sides should work hard to overcome differences.

The placid setting and casual atmosphere during a barbecue lunch by a creek appeared to have eased tensions.

A day earlier, the future of the discussions were thrown into doubt after Japan refused the North's demand to discuss before any other issue compensation for its suffering during Japan's 1910-1945 rule over Korea.

Jong said there would be no point in continuing negotiations if Tokyo did not agree. The state-run Korean Central News Agency carried an unusually long 1,000 word article on Jong's grievances.

Although he did not back down, Jong seemed to have softened somewhat today and said the two sides may still be able to build trust.

Japan wants guarantees that Pyongyang will halt its suspected missile and nuclear weapons program and give information on Japanese citizens allegedly abducted by North Korean agents.

It believes creating diplomatic ties with the North will help boost security in Asia.

On Wednesday, Takano reiterated former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama's 1995 apology for Japanese wartime aggression, but refused to offer compensation.

Jong said Murayama's apology was insufficient because it was addressed to all of Japan's colonial victims.

Many people in North and South Korea deeply resent Japan, more than half a century after its harsh colonial rule ended on the Korean Peninsula.

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

North Korea Firm on Apology From Japan

April 6, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/00/04/06/news/world/nkorea-japan-ap.html

PYONGYANG, North Korea, April 5 -- Bitterness over Japan's brutal colonization of the Korean Peninsula threatened talks that began today between Japan and North Korea on establishing diplomatic links.

Tokyo wants such ties as a way to ensure stability in Asia, and North Korea hopes to attract aid for its economy. But the talks, the first in eight years, started on shakily. North Korea said the negotiations would fall apart unless Japan agreed to discuss compensation and an apology for its takeover from 1910 to 1945 before other issues.

"If the fundamental question of settling the past is not addressed, the sense of having these talks will disappear," the top negotiator for Pyongyang, Jong Thae Kwa, said. "The problems of the past must be given priority."

Japan insisted that other problems like the suspected North Korean missile and nuclear weapons program and the reported abduction of Japanese by North Korean agents have to be on the agenda.

The chief Japanese negotiator, Kojiro Takano, reiterated former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama's apology in 1995 for Japanese wartime aggression, but refused to offer compensation.

----------- pakistan

'Pak. missile has a range of 2,500 km'

APRIL 5.
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2000/04/06/stories/03060001.htm

LONDON, Pakistan has unveiled its Medium Range Ballistic Missile (MRBM), Shaheen-II, with a range of 2,500 km capable of hitting most of India's cities.

According to the latest issue of Jane's Defence Weekly, the Pakistani Government claims the missile displayed at the recent annual Pakistan Day parade can carry a 1,000 kg payload.

``If true, the missile would have a greater range than either Pakistan's Ghauri I or Ghauri II, which are built by A.G. Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) at Kahuta,'' the report said. Like Pakistan's other solid-fuelled missiles, Shaheen- II is built by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission's (PAEC) National Development Complex (NDC) under the direction of Dr. Samar Mubarrak Mund.

---

Ex-Pakistan leader gets life in prison

USA Today World
04/06/00- Updated 01:29 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm

KARACHI, Pakistan - Ousted Premier Nawaz Sharif escaped the death penalty Thursday but was sentenced to life in prison for refusing to allow a passenger plane carrying army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf to land in Pakistan. Sharif, 51, was convicted of hijacking and terrorism but found innocent of attempted murder and kidnapping. The standoff in the air over Karachi occurred amid the Oct. 12 coup, in which the army toppled Sharif's government in response to his dismissal and replacement of Musharraf. When the plane - carrying 198 people, including 60 children from U.S.-run schools in Pakistan - did land, it had barely seven minutes of fuel remaining. Six other men, including Sharif's brother, were acquitted of all charges.

----

Deposed Pakistani Sentenced to Life in Prison

April 6, 2000
By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/06cnd-pakistan.html

Pakistan's former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was overthrown by a military coup six months ago, was sentenced today to life in prison on charges of terrorism and hijacking.

Mr. Sharif, who was put on trial in a special anti-terrorism court by the coup's leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, was found guilty of trying to stop a commercial airliner carrying General Musharraf from landing in Karachi last Oct. 12, when the coup took place, thereby endangering the lives of everyone aboard.

"There is no longer any justice in Pakistan," Mr. Sharif said after the verdict was announced, The Associated Press reported. "Now my case rests with God."

Mr. Sharif's wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, and his other supporters in the courtroom vociferously protested the verdict.

"It is a personal vendetta against my innocent husband, who has not committed any crime. A lion cannot be caged," Ms. Nawaz was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse.

The former prime minister was spared the death penalty usually imposed in hijacking cases when the judge, Rehmat Hussein Jafri, sentenced Mr. Sharif to two life terms in prison instead. Judge Jafri also declared Mr. Sharif's property forfeited and ordered him to pay a fine equivalent to about $10,000.

But Judge Jafri found Mr. Sharif not guilty of charges of kidnapping and attempted murder. Six other defendants -- including Mr. Sharif's brother, Shahbaz -- were acquitted of all charges.

The defendants asserted their innocence throughout the trial, saying that it was being staged to give a veneer of legitimacy to the coup's victors.

Mr. Sharif's lawyers said they would appeal both the verdict and his sentence. The prosecutors said they would appeal his acquittal on the kidnapping and attempted murder charges.

The overthrow of Mr. Sharif's democratically elected government and his subsequent trial had triggered protests around the world, with President Clinton nearly passing up Pakistan during his tour of the region last month. Mr. Clinton did pay a one-day visit and appealed for clemency for Mr. Sharif, which may have spared him from going to the gallows.

Today, Britain's Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, expressed concern about how Mr. Sharif's trial was conducted, noting that judges had been forced to take an oath of allegiance to the military rulers and that Pakistan's anti-terrorism laws had been changed to include hijacking after the event took place.

Mr. Sharif had set up the special anti-terrorism courts last year to combat rising crime and terrorist activity.

General Musharraf contended that as prime minister, Mr. Sharif ordered that the airliner carrying the general back from Sri Lanka be denied the right to land in Karachi, thereby creating "terror and insecurity" among the 198 passengers and crew members. The former director of Pakistan's civil aviation authority, Aminullah Chaudhry, testified for the prosecution in return for not standing trial with Mr. Sharif.

Mr. Sharif dismissed General Musharraf as the army's chief of staff, but the general landed in Karachi later after his troops took over the airport. He made himself Pakistan's new leader, suspended its constitution, and detained the former prime minister.

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

Moscow Arrests an American and a Russian on Spying Charges

By David Hoffman Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, April 6, 2000; Page A18
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/06/265l-040600-idx.html

MOSCOW, April 5-The Russian government detained a U.S. citizen and a Russian associate on spying charges today, the Federal Security Service announced. Russian media said the case involved nuclear submarine missile designs.

The identity of the American was not disclosed, and the U.S. Embassy refused to comment. The security service said he is a manager of a private company in Moscow and a former career intelligence officer. The Russian was described as "an expert in defense technologies employed by a Moscow organization," but his name was not released.

In Washington, State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said an attorney has been appointed for the detained American and that he has been visited by a consular officer.

Spying charges, arrests and expulsions are a fairly regular occurrence between Russia and Western countries, but this is the first case to come to light since Vladimir Putin, a former overseas spy and later director of the security service, was elected president March 26.

Putin, who has been acting president since Boris Yeltsin resigned Dec. 31, has signaled a desire to improve relations with Washington and make progress on several long-festering arms control issues. It was not immediately clear whether today's arrests would affect those plans. Putin also has set a tone for the security services to be more aggressive than they were during Yeltsin's tenure.

Spying allegations by both sides in recent months have mostly involved diplomats who, in most cases, have been sent home. Late last year, Russia ordered a U.S. diplomat, Cherie Leberknight, to leave the country after it claimed she had been caught spying. Then the United States ordered a Russian diplomat, Stanislaw Gusev, to leave after he was caught eavesdropping on the State Department, where an electronic listening device had been planted. Three weeks ago, Russia announced the detention in Moscow of a former Russian intelligence official who it said had been recruited in Estonia to work for British intelligence.

In today's statement, the security service claimed the U.S. citizen had "intentionally developed contacts with Russian scientists in Moscow, Novosibirsk and other cities . . . with the goal of gathering state secrets of Russia."

The service also said it confiscated "a large number of documents" including "technical drawings of various equipment, recordings of his conversations with Russian citizens relating to their work in the Russian Defense Ministry, and receipts for American dollars received by them."

The authorities also confiscated "a large foreign currency sum" from the Russian, they said.

Russia also has accused its own environmentalists and foreign ecology groups working here of spying, and recently Putin, who will be sworn in to a four-year term in May, claimed that environmental groups were serving as a cover for foreign spies.

However, Russian authorities have had trouble making all the charges stick. In one major case, Alexander Nikitin, a retired Russian navy captain who wrote a report disclosing hazards on Russian nuclear submarines, was acquitted of espionage charges but is still battling an appeal lodged by prosecutors.

-----------

Putin Observes Missile Test Launch

APRIL 06, 23:47 EST
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=EUROPE&STORYID=APIS73MLKPG0

MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin watched a ballistic missile test launch from a submarine in the Barents Sea on Thursday while observing naval exercises, Russian media reported.

Putin, who has stressed the importance of reviving Russia's military might, had spent the night underwater aboard the nuclear submarine Karelia.

He boarded the vessel wearing a navy cap and greatcoat and surrounded by military generals and an honor guard on a dock near Murmansk in Russia's far northwest, television news reports showed.

The presidential trip was a show of support for the Russian navy and particularly the Northern Fleet, which includes most of Russia's submarines with nuclear missiles, but which has fallen on hard times in recent years.

Despite the fleet's current anemic state, many Russian military leaders consider it a symbol of the country's greatness.

Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, who once commanded the country's strategic missile forces, and the Navy's top commander Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov accompanied Putin on the Karelia.

----

Russia Defends Nuclear Cooperation with Iran

MOSCOW, Apr 5, 2000
Agence France Presse
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=148546

Russia insisted Tuesday its nuclear ties with Iran respected international agreements, and defended Tehran's right to develop its civilian atomic energy industry, Interfax reported.

"The nature of Iran's civilian nuclear program has been confirmed by recognized international organizations such as the IAEA," said foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko.

He was referring to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

The United States has put heavy pressure on Moscow to end its nuclear cooperation with Iran, which Washington suspects of seeking to develop a nuclear arsenal. Russia is helping Iran build a nuclear reactor at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf.

"We think that Iran has the right to develop nuclear programs of a non-military nature, in line with international treaties and agreements," said Yakovenko.

Washington has blacklisted 10 Russian research centers and companies suspected of working with Iran on nuclear or missile research.

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Russian arms center opens
Arrest of American on spy allegation mars joint disarmament effort

By David Filipov,
Globe Staff,
4/6/2000
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/097/nation/Russian_arms_center_opens+.shtml

MOSCOW - In the high-security research institute that once developed much of the Kremlin's 44,000 tons of chemical weapons, US and Russian officials yesterday unveiled a state-of-the-art control center to oversee the destruction of an arsenal capable of wiping out life on Earth hundreds of times over.

The opening of the $18.5 million facility, funded and built by Americans in a compound where 10 years ago no Westerner could get past the heavily armed guards, provided a rare upbeat moment for what has become a shaky Russian-American relationship. The moment was very short-lived.

Minutes after the US ambassador, James Collins, hailed the center as a sign of post-Cold War cooperation, Russia's domestic security service announced that it had detained a US citizen and a Russian on suspicion of spying.

Collins refused to comment, but the Russian security service, known as the FSB, alleged that the American had tried to purchase Russian defense industry secrets. Without revealing the suspects' identities, the FSB said the American was a manager of a private company in Moscow and a former career intelligence officer. The Russian was described as ''an expert in defense technologies employed by a Moscow organization.''

The arrests, part of an escalating espionage conflict between Russia and the West in which dozens of foreigners and Russians have been detained here, dampened the spirit of partnership at yesterday's arms-control ceremonies.

The new arrests also reflected how tensions between Russia and the US keep getting in the way of one of the few joint projects both sides qualify as a success: the US-funded disarmament projects known as Cooperative Threat Reduction, commonly referred to as the ''Nunn-Lugar'' program, after its sponsors, former senator Sam Nunn of Georgia and Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana.

Since 1991 Nunn-Lugar money has helped Russia destroy thousands of nuclear weapons, and eliminate potentially hazardous fuel and missile components. The idea behind the program is simple: By helping Russia comply with disarmament treaties, the United States helps itself by keeping weapons from falling into the hands of rogue states. But the dismantling of Russia's chemical arsenal, sometimes referred to as ''poor man's nuclear weapons'' for their relative technological simplicity, has only just begun.

When Moscow ratified an international ban on chemical weapons in 1997, officials estimated that destroying its stockpiles, which dwarf even the US arsenal of 32,000 tons, would cost $5 billion over 10 years, a price Russia says it cannot afford.

The facility that opened yesterday, located at Moscow's State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, is part of an $888 million Nunn-Lugar project that includes the construction of a site to destroy more than 6,000 tons of chemical weapons stockpiled in Schuchye, 960 miles east of Moscow. US officials say the Schuchye site, when completed, would provide a model for similar facilities at Russia's six other major stockpiles of nerve, blister and choking agents.

The development of these plants will start in the new center, a spotless facility that looked out of place among the decrepit buildings, leaky pipes and barbed wire of the rest of the institute. Scientists at the center will help evaluate technologies for destroying chemical weapons, assess their impact on the environment and train personnel.

''Nerve agents are very lethal - one drop can kill,'' said Miguel Morales, a spokesman for the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. ''When you're destroying chemical weapons, you want to make sure they're completely destroyed.''

Zinovy Pak, the head of Russia's Munition Agency, which is in charge of dismantling chemical weapons, voiced hope that the US assistance would help Russia catch up to its timetable for fulfilling its international obligations.

Under the terms of the global ban, Russia was to destroy 440 tons of chemical weapons by April 29, but had to request an extention because of budget woes. Pak promised to ''do all we can'' to meet the April 2002 deadline of the second stage, which calls for the destruction of 8,800 tons of chemical weapons.

''But we must say,'' Pak added, ''that this task is incredibly hard to accomplish.''

Adding to the difficulty was a decision by the US Congress to halt funding for the Schuchye complex for 2000. General Thomas E. Kuenning, director of the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, said Congress had been discouraged by the slow progress of the site, as well as Russian requests that part of the US funding go to social programs and local infrastructure.

Kuenning said President Clinton had decided to press ahead with the project in the hope that Congress changes its mind by next year.

The worsening climate of US-Russia relations might affect this choice. The West's relations with Russia have been strained by Moscow's protest of NATO's air-assault last year on Yugoslavia and Western criticism of Moscow's military offensive in Chechnya. Disagreements over nuclear arms treaties and the increase in espionage cases have not helped the atmosphere, either.

But the US officials in Moscow voiced hope that they could finish their project no matter what the climate.

''Regardless of what's going on, we try to stay above the political issues,'' Morales said.

This story ran on page A02 of the Boston Globe on 4/6/2000.

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Russia's Putin Courts Europe

APRIL 06, 16:33 EST
By DAVID McHUGH Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=EUROPE&STORYID=APIS73MF98O0

MOSCOW (AP) - With Russia's relationship with the United States souring, President Vladimir Putin is trying to edge closer to the European Union and use its growing international clout to offset Washington.

Boris Yeltsin, Putin's predecessor, made much of his backslapping, first-name ``Bill and Boris'' relationship with President Clinton - which paid off in U.S.-supported loans and other aid.

But ties with the United States have frayed in recent years over issues such as the U.S.-led bombing of Yugoslavia and U.S. allegations of Russian government corruption.

Now Putin is likely to focus on strengthening ties with the EU and pay less attention to the United States, analysts say.

His strategy, however, could be hampered by growing European criticism of the war in Chechnya. On Thursday, Council of Europe delegates recommended suspending Russia from the human rights body unless it moves to end the conflict.

Putin has made clear he sees Russia's future as lying with Europe.

``Russia is a part of European culture. I simply cannot see my country isolated from Europe, from what we often describe as the civilized world,'' he said in March.

Since taking power, Putin has gone out of his way to court European governments, while having few contacts with the United States. His first meeting with a Western leader was with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in March.

Two weeks later, he called Blair by his first name during a televised phone call to congratulate Putin on his March 26 election victory.

And Europe has responded to his approaches. The European Commission said in a congratulatory message that it looked forward to renewing its partnership with Russia. Two top EU officials were to begin talks Friday in Moscow on preparing for a May EU-Russia summit.

Moscow's feelers are prompted by fears that the impoverished and militarily weakened Russia will be shut out of decisions on war, peace and trade on the continent by growing European integration, said Alexander Rahr, a Russia expert at the German Society for Foreign Affairs in Berlin.

Russia claims the United States is seeking global domination and Moscow has called in recent years for a ``multipolar'' world - creating alliances to counter American strength.

``Russia sees itself as in the front rank of a world movement against U.S. domination - to prevent the takeover of world politics by the United States,'' said Rahr. ``They are desperate for allies in their search for a multipolar world.''

Russia may look for European help against some American initiatives, including a proposed missile defense system or further NATO expansion, analysts say.

While still prime minister, Putin began seeking closer ties at an EU summit in Helsinki, Finland in December. Russia floated proposals for cooperation on a host of strategic issues, including in European defense structures that Russia hopes could be an alternative to NATO.

But the effort could be undermined by Chechnya. If the Council of Europe does go through with suspending Russia, it would be a severe blow to ties.

EU leaders have been sharply critical of what they call Russia's excessive use of force and civilian suffering in the campaign against Chechen separatists.

Putin's response to criticism over Chechnya has been diplomatic, but firm. Russian coolly hears out the Europeans, then insists that the war is an anti-terrorist operation.

Russia has not talked about joining the EU. Even if Putin knows Russia cannot hope for EU membership soon, he and his advisers seem to be taking a very long view, Rahr said.

``They are clever politicians,'' he said. ``Sometimes they look much further forward than we do.''

----------- us nuc

http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/2000/4/7/7.text.1

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
April 7, 2000

MEMORANDUM FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT THE SECRETARY OF STATE THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE THE ATTORNEY GENERAL THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES THE SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION THE SECRETARY OF ENERGY THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS ADMINISTRATOR, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR, UNITED STATES INFORMATION AGENCY CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF DIRECTOR, FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION DIRECTOR, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE

SUBJECT: Designation of the Attorney General as the Lead Official for the Emergency Response Assistance Program Under Sections 1412 and 1415 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 (Public Law 104-201) (the "Act")

Under sections 1412(a) and 1415(a) of the Act, the Secretary of Defense is responsible for implementing the Emergency Response Assistance Program, commonly known as the "Domestic Preparedness Program," to provide civilian personnel of Federal, State, and local agencies with training and expert advice regarding emergency responses to a use or threatened use of a weapon of mass destruction or related materials, and for testing and improving the responses of such agencies to emergencies involving chemical or biological weapons and related materials.

Under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including sections 1412(a)(2) and 1415(d)(1) of the Act, I designate the Attorney General to replace the Secretary of Defense as the lead Federal official with responsibility for carrying out these programs.

These designations are effective October 1, 2000, and constitute designations pursuant to sections 1412(a)(2) and 1415(d)(1) of the Act.

The Attorney General is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

# # #

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WASHINGTON PLANS ENFORCEMENT ACTION AGAINST ENERGY DEPARTMENT

AmeriScan: April 6, 2000
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2000/2000L-04-06-09.html

KENNEWICK, Washington, April 6, 2000 (ENS) - The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) intends to pursue formal enforcement action against the Department of Energy (DOE) for failing to complete a major safety inspection. The Tri-Party Agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DOE and Ecology required DOE to examine and inspect all double shell storage tanks for hazardous wastes at Hanford. To date, the DOE has failed to complete its examination of the double-shell tanks.

The DOE submitted a report to Ecology in September claiming that the double shell storage tanks were fit for continuous use. However, an extensive inspection by Ecology raises questions about whether or not some of Hanford's 28 double shell tanks are fit for continuous use for as long as predicted by DOE. "The double shell tank system will be needed for many years to support tank waste treatment and to store waste recovered from leaky single-shell tanks," explained Bob Wilson, senior Hanford compliance inspector. "Considering the importance of the double-shell tank system, we were particularly disappointed with the poor effort by the USDOE to ensure the system will remain fit for use." Ecology gave formal notice to DOE Wednesday, giving DOE one week to provide additional information regarding the violations cited in the notice before Ecology issues formal enforcement actions. After the one week response period, Ecology intends to issue formal enforcement, which may include penalties and orders to the DOE requiring a timely and thorough assessment of the integrity of the double shell tank system beginning this year.

---

SEATTLE DOCKWORKERS REFUSE TO OFFLOAD ARMY HAZARDOUS WASTES

SEATTLE, Washington, April 6, 2000 (ENS) - Dockworkers in Seattle refused Wednesday to unload a shipment of PCB-contaminated transformers from U.S. Army bases in Japan. The ship Wan He, carrying 14 containers of 110 tons of transformers, circuit breakers and other electrical gear, arrived in Seattle after Canadian officials refused to allow the wastes to be dumped at an Ontario site. Hasty negotiations between the Department of Defense (DOD), the EPA and Washington Governor Gary Locke ended in an agreement to store the wastes for no more than 30 days in a Seattle warehouse.

But environmental protesters chanting "Don't dump on Seattle" met the ship when it arrived, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union refused to offload the wastes. Federal law prevents the import of PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) tainted wastes for disposal, because PCBs have been linked to cancer in animals and hormonal and neurological disorders in humans. Union dockworkers have a long history of refusing to handle or load potentially hazardous materials. The DOD said the wastes, properly stored, pose no risk to the dockworkers or Seattle residents. Locke agreed to store the wastes for a short time while the DOD decides what to do with it, but "We want it out of here as soon as possible," he said. "This waste was produced in another country, and it has no business being in Washington."

----

NUCLEAR PLANT PERFORMANCE REVIEWS ON LINE

WASHINGTON, DC, April 6, 2000 (ENS) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has completed its Plant Performance Reviews (PPRs) for 90 nuclear power plants and is making them available on the NRC web site. Thirteen nuclear plants, which participated in a pilot test of the agency's revised reactor oversight process, received their performance assessments late last year. PPRs are an interim measure the NRC has used to assess nuclear power plant safety, after suspending the Systematic Assessment of Licensee Performance in 1998 while it developed a revised reactor oversight process. PPRs consist of an in depth, integrated assessment of overall plant performance. The primary purpose of these reviews is to evaluate safety performance information and identify any changes in plant performance so NRC can allocate inspection resources. The text of each PPR letter is available from the NRC Office of Public Affairs and has been posted at: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/ppr.

An important element of the previous SALP process was the public meeting the NRC conducted with the licensee to discuss the assessment results. During the interim process, the NRC has continued its practice of meeting publicly with licensees to discuss its performance assessments. Most plants have had recent public meetings and therefore few meetings will be scheduled for these PPRs. These PPRs mark the last assessments before initial implementation begins this month of the revised reactor oversight process. Under the new program, the NRC will conduct quarterly reviews of performance indicators and inspection findings and issue semi-annual assessments and updates to each plant's inspection plans. A full description of the revised reactor oversight process is available at: http://www.nrc.gov/OPA/primer.htm or http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/index.html

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`Fail Safe' Heads for Live TV

APRIL 06, 13:00 EST
By FRAZIER MOORE AP Television Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=ARTS&STORYID=APIS73MC5GG0

NEW YORK (AP) - It was a spooky time, the Cold War, cartoonish now in the purity with which it kept Americans on edge: Here we were, the heroes, up against those devilish Commies and Nikita Khrushchev, a demonic fatso vowing to bury us.

Meanwhile, both sides had the Bomb, which made modern life a nervous proposition. In the United States, at least, who passed a day without a stray thought summoning up the mushroom cloud?

Walter Bernstein remembers those days well. He has a fitting trophy from that era: the screenplay he wrote for the 1964 feature ``Fail Safe.'' And now he has written the script for its TV revival.

Based on the Harvey Wheeler-Eugene Burdick novel of the same name, ``Fail Safe'' dramatizes the chilling outcome after a U.S. bomber is erroneously dispatched to drop a nuclear warhead on Moscow.

As the title indicates, this is a screwup that simply couldn't happen. But does. No wonder the film - stark, gripping and tragic - gave everyone the willies. Including George Clooney who, though in diapers back in 1964, claims to have watched it more than a hundred times since then.

Now 38, the ``ER''-hunk-turned-movie-idol has used his clout to bring ``Fail Safe'' to live TV. The two-hour, black-and-white performance airs on CBS Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT, tape-delayed for the West Coast. (Then, for viewers who just can't get enough, cable's Turner Classic Movies will run the original film at 2:30 a.m. EDT; 11:30 p.m. PDT.)

Clooney's new production, directed by Stephen Frears, features Brian Dennehy, Harvey Keitel, Noah Wyle, Don Cheadle, Clooney himself and, in the Henry Fonda role as the hapless president, Richard Dreyfuss.

Clooney enlisted Walter Bernstein to write the script.

For his ``Fail Safe'' encore, Bernstein, now an uncompromising 80 years old, set out to recapture the Cold War era and the film's fearsome thrust. And, no, he hasn't crafted a jolly new ending.

``I was happy that they weren't looking to update the story or tart it up in any way,'' says Bernstein, in an interview in his apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

To the contrary, the ``Fail Safe'' remake seems driven by old-fashioned respect for its precursor, and for the tradition of live TV drama. The biggest difference between the movie-show ``Fail Safe'' and this Sunday's telecast may not be the productions themselves, but their respective audiences.

Four decades after the film's release, the ``Red Scare'' seems an oddly quaint menace - a bygone cultural signifier like fallout shelters and ``duck and cover'' drills. In this post-Cold War age, the Bomb (always reverently capitalized) seems so yesterday.

But if ``Fail Safe'' today bears the trappings of a period piece, in 1964 it represented a state-of-the-art nightmare. And it played to the converted, as did its 1963 satirical counterpart, ``Dr. Strangelove'' (subtitle ``How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'').

``I think people aren't worried today,'' Bernstein says glumly. ``But they should be.

``I feel that the subject matter of `Fail Safe' is more relevant today than it was when we did the film. Then, there were just two superpowers with the Bomb - Russia and America. Now everybody's got it. So the chances of an accident, which is what the story is based on, are even greater than before.''

Writing the teleplay let Bernstein take another whack at a project he had tackled half a lifetime ago. It also meant an unlikely homecoming to the all-but-vanished realm of live TV.

In the pre-videotape 1950s, live drama was Bernstein's bailiwick. He stayed busy writing for such New York-based anthologies as ``Danger'' and ``You Are There'' - even when a lapsed membership in the Communist Party led to his blacklisting.

During the anti-Communist hysteria of the McCarthy Era, Bernstein was forced to sell his scripts through subterfuge. He had to find someone politically unbesmirched to assume artistic credit and serve as Bernstein's secret surrogate. This masquerade would inspire his 1976 comedy, ``The Front,'' which starred Woody Allen as a schnook who takes a little too seriously his phony status as a writer.

In recent years, Bernstein has had his hands full with TV work, often writing for HBO, including the script for its Emmy-winning 1997 movie ``Miss Ever's Boys.''

Still, he professes surprise that anyone remembered him for ``Fail Safe'' Redux, to which he is the lone returnee from the film. ``I'm kind of bemused by the whole thing,'' he allows.

For Sunday's telecast, Bernstein plans to be at ground zero (Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif.) where, as likely as not, he'll still be bemused.

``We haven't learned much since the movie was released,'' he muses, thinking of our threatened world. And yet - go figure - it's still in one piece.

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

Why Not the Best Compensation System For All Nuclear Weapons Victims?

By Ed Slavin
April 6, 2000
http://www.downwinders.org/ed.htm

Consider the following cases, wrought by the Greatest Democracy on Earth as sequelae of the Cold War, the U.S. Foreign Policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), and massive nuclear weapons production, testing and transportation:

1. A Y-12 worker develops beryllium disease and dies, leaving a wife and family in danger of losing their home due to medical and funeral expenses.

2. A Vermont Gulf War soldier decorated for bravery is dosed with "depleted" uranium and radioactive fallout as he stands amidst the radioactive DU-contaminated battlefield that he has been assigned to, just short of defeating Sadaam Hussein in 1990.

3. A Utah shepherd guards his flock and finds himself dying of cancer, learning too late that the Government nuclear weapons tests at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) have contaminated him with radiation and caused inoperable cancer.

4. A Hanford baby grows up in a government-built house, crawling on a carpet full of radionuclides and toxics, breathing toxic fumes. The baby dies of childhood leukemia.

5. An Oak Ridge child grows up playing in East Fork Poplar Creek and dies of non-Hodgkins lymphoma at age 38, just as his legal career is taking off.

6. An temporary clerical worker at a DOE site receives no nuclear safety training. Then she finds herself working atop a former nuclear reactor that has never been decontaminated, decommissioned or deactivated, containing large quantities of uranium and hydrogen fluoride, causing her to miscarry twins and develop bipolar disorder.

7. A nuclear weapons courier transporting and protecting nuclear weapons on our highways develops thyroid disease, chronic sleep disorder, and is permanently disabled as a result of DOE's management bumbling insensitivity in failing to provide radiation detection equipment or proper scheduling or training.

8. An eleven year old girl breathes the radioactively polluted air on her family's farm, at school and at play, developing thyroid disease, requiring surgery, synthetic thyroid hormone, and a life of fearing cancer.

9. An auto wreck victim thought to be dying is injected with plutonium, and is never asked and never gives consent.

10. A pregnant low-income mother in the ghetto is given a vitamin supplement, in reality an experiment in which she is given radionuclides.

11. A Native American Uranium miner is exposed to cancer-causing radionuclides without warning or fair compensation when he dies of cancer: federal law protects the Government from liability.

12. A South Pacific family is dosed with radiation as a result of a secret U.S. nuclear weapons test, is contaminated, develops cancer, and is offered a minimal amount of money as "compensation," with no medical benefits.

13. A Tennessee coal miner gets pneumoconiosis. The coal company is taxed on each ton of coal production, paying with its profits for compensation for industrial diseases that are predictable, preventable and all too common among working people in coal mines. Workers have a right to hearings before independent Administrative Law Judges, lifetime compensation, medical expenses, and compensation for widows and orphans. The Supreme Court has upheld the right of the Government to tax coal companies to pay for workers compensation for coal workers' pneumoconiosis.

The first 12 cases involve vastly different legal rights, if any. In each case, the Government generally tries to deny liability based on "sovereign immunity" or "discretionary function." Nuclear Weapons industry managers are not prosecuted. They are not found liable. Often, the affected persons do not even sue. They cannot find lawyers.

Under current law, each of these cases is treated differently. Why? DOE and the Justice Department, aided and abetted by an unwitting Congress, have rigged the law to disfavor the victims and to coddle the Government and contractor managers who are responsible for these crimes and torts. They deal with victims one at a time, dismissively, with the New York Times Magazine reporting that they were long called "the crazies" at DOE Headquarters, as if they weren't real victims. Such ugly pejoratives are still slung today at sick workers and residents and whistleblowers.

There is no principled reason why cases 1-12 should not be treated like case 13, and provided with a Due Process hearing where evidence can be developed before an independent Administrative Law Judge and independent appeals are assured, to the DOL Benefits Review Board and to a Circuit Court of Appeals, with the right to petition the Supreme Court for certiorari. Why should coal miners have greater rights than uranium miners or other DOE victims? Why should veterans get VA compensation but nuclear weapons workers get nothing? Why should dead babies' deaths not be compensated? Why has the Government never apologized?

There is no principled reason why Native American uranium miners, St. George, Utah shepherds, Oak Ridge K-25, Y-12 and X-10 workers, Hanford area residents, Marshall Islands residents -- all victims of DOE, every single one, whether workers or residents -- should not be compensated.

Current law is splattered all over the map. After lawsuits are lost due to the Federal Tort Claims Act "discretionary function" exemption, workers get Congressman to introduce a bill, providing for lump sum monetary payments. Only one small group gets benefits. Others are left out in the Cold, permanent victims of the Cold War.

President Clinton has defined insanity as "doing the same old things and expecting different results." Vice President Albert Gore, Jr. wrote in Earth in the Balance that the Exxon Valdez oil spill was "an indictment of our civilization." What then does he call the Government's victimization of all of the victims of nuclear weapons, our own Cheylabinsk? When are the polluters going to pay?

DOE's bill is a proverbial dog with fleas:

DOE's bill would only cover a handful of workers. This is unacceptable. DOE's bill does not cover non-workers, like babies and other Downwinders. DOE's bill would deny victims their day in Court. This is unacceptable. DOE's bill would deny victims any right to appeals. This is unacceptable. DOE's bill would reduce benefits by other benefits received. This is unacceptable. DOE's bill would have DOE adjudicate claims, instead of the Labor Department. DOE has a conflict of interest. DOE has no Administrative Law Judges. This is unacceptable. DOE's bill would pay a handful of victims a $100,000 bribe, in return for which they would give up their right to sue, and have to give some of the money back to DOE contractors or health care providers. This is unacceptable. DOE's bill does not provide for independent health insurance, provided by doctors of the workers' choice. This is unacceptable. DOE's bill does not cover deceased victims. This is unacceptable. DOE's bill does not apologize. This is unacceptable. DOE's bill does not make any of the air, land and water polluters pay, as they do under Black Lung, where there is a 50 cent per ton tax on coal operators to pay pneumoconiosis benefits. This is unacceptable.

The Clinton Administration's first proposal on nuclear workers compensation is inadequate. The victims selected for the $100,000 bribe have rejected it. So should Congress and the Administration. The offer is unacceptable.

In contrast to the DOE proposal, coal miners receive benefits which over the life of the miner, widow and orphan, amount to some $500,000, including medical benefits. Black Lung attorney fees are paid based on a reasonable hourly rate and a reasonable number of hours. Black Lung attorneys don't get a percentage of the recovery -- they get paid based on how much they worked. DOE's bill would give attorneys 10% of the amount recovered, taking the amount of recovery from the victim, while discouraging attorneys from taking complex occupational disease cases. This is unacceptable.

Jimmy Carter wrote in his autobiography, Why not the best? about how Admiral Hyman Rickover asked him if he had always done his best at the Naval Academy. Carter candidly said no. The Administration's proposal is not even a good first try.

It was 23 years ago tonight that President Carter gave his speech on the energy crisis, calling it the "moral equivalent of war." I was a 20 year old staffer for Senator Jim Sasser, assigned to cover the Department of Energy. I had no idea at that time what DOE had done to Tennesseans and other Americans. No one but DOE knew that.

Six years later, the mercury losses in Oak Ridge were declassified on May 17, 1983, at my request. Other disclosures around the country, sought by activists from all walks of life, have shown the Nation a picture of sublime ugliness: the Cold War took tens of thousands of Americans as unwilling victims, without informed consent. Now we know all too well that our Nation faces a moral crisis involving DOE, truly the "moral equivalent of war," one that will test who we are as a people. The DOE Nuclear Weapons complex, to paraphrase Lincoln, is guilty of "idolatry that practices human sacrifices." DOE's American victims must be compensated fully, fairly and swiftly.

John Wayne and other actors, extras, producers, directors and film crews on location in Utah were contaminated with radiation. Many paid the price in shortened life spans. The NTS victim, the Gulf War veteran, the uranium miner, the baby, and their grieving families -- why should any of them be treated less favorably by our Government than it treats coal miners under the 1969 Black Lung Benefits Act? Why should they be denied hearings to prove what happened to them? Why should they be denied appeals? Why not the best compensation system, for everyone affected, instead of the worst insult that DOE and Justice Department lawyers can think up?

All Nuclear Weapons victims everywhere in the United States must be covered and be eligible for compensation, without requiring proof of causation, based upon an "interim presumption" of entitlement to benefits based upon exposure and disease, just like under Black Lung. That is the least we can expect. Some skeptics dismiss the Black Lung analogy and say that only miners get Black Lung disease, and that the only diseases that Nuclear Weapons victims get that are limited to workplace exposure are berylliosis, asbestosis and mesothelioma. This misses the point.

Children don't normally die of leukemia without a toxic exposure. Workers don't get cyanide exposure at home -- they get it in "dark satanic mills" like the Gaseous Diffusion Plants. Plutonium does not have a naturally occurring background level.

The complex of diseases and deaths in nuclear weapons and testing plant sites must be studied, using real people and not just cold statistics on corpses piled high over the years. People must be given treatment, tests must be done, results must be analyzed.

The point of Black Lung as a model is that Congress saw suffering, and decided to help. It adopted policies, practices and procedures well-developed since 1928. DOE rejected those policies in favor of a closed, secretive model used for federal employees' workers' compensation. This is a perverse model of failure, whose failings have been document in House of Representatives oversight hearings.

DOE tries to lead victims down the wrong road again. This is unacceptable.

"Just like the tobacco industry, DOE's minions are adept at portraying uncertainty and ambiguity, when they well know in their hearts what makes workers sick. Unlike the tobacco companies, the DOE weapons complex is owned by all Americans."

Oak Ridge lawyer Gene Joyce, a lifelong family friend of Vice President Albert Gore, Jr., made a wise contribution to the vigorous debate on Oak Ridge illnesses (February 25, 1998 column) by suggesting the adoption of a federal compensation remedy.

Mr. Joyce's apt analogy to Black Lung Benefits Act legislation is well taken. I applaud Mr. Joyce's humanitarian insights. Let's pass such a law and make it a living memorial to all in Oak Ridge and around the country who have served and sacrificed for their country in the Nuclear Weapons business for 57 years.

Successful DOL workers compensation case claimants get their medical expenses paid. During a single Black Lung case, the total compensation payout, including medical benefits and survivor benefits for widows and orphans, can run as high as $500,000.

Federal workers compensation for nuclear workers was first proposed in Congress in 1958 by then Senator Albert Gore, Sr. It was proposed over again in the 1980s by Rep. David Skaggs of Colorado. Without strong support from unions and DOE, the proposals went nowhere. With unified support from Downwinders, workers, unions, environmentalists, civil libertarians (and as Senator John McCain would say vegetarians) in Hanford, Oak Ridge and other DOE "Company Towns" and Downwinder locations around the country, the proposals for federal workers' compensation for nuclear workers and residents might finally pass. Federal compensation for nuclear victims makes good sense.

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) has adjudicated many special types of workers' compensation cases since the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act of 1928. "Extensions" of the Longshore act cover workers at federal military bases, offshore oil platforms, and coal mines. During the Vietnam war, there were contractor employees injured in Vietnam who were covered by "Longshore extensions." The basis of these federal workers' compensation programs is a strong federal interest in protecting workers in the selected occupations and industries. Nuclear weapons plant workers have worked on federal property, with federal tax dollars: they deserve a federal remedy that is free from the vagaries of state courts, where benefit amounts can be small, attorney fees may be taken from workers' awards, and justice can be uncertain. Likewise, downwinders and uranium miners deserve equal dignity and equal benefits because their ailments were caused by federal polices -- nuclear proliferation with atmospheric testing and releases of contaminants into the atmosphere. The Nation benefitted from winning the Cold War. It can well afford to compensate the Cold War's victims, by placing a tax on Nuclear Weapons industry polluters.

DOL Administrative Law Judges -- who also hear whistleblower cases -- learn an awful lot about disability, as some 75% of their caseload is in Black Lung and Longshore Act cases. State court judges have differing levels of interest and expertise in workers' compensation cases, with cases on their dockets ranging from divorce to estates to criminal justice to auto wrecks to medical malpractice. Busy State court judges' patience with workers varies, as does their interest. State judges may be simply afraid of DOE contractors' political clout, or else snowed by scientific "evidence" bought and paid for by DOE and its contractors, with DOE contractors' litigation budgets at high levels to discourage workers from seeking justice.

Mr. Joyce's creative solution, patterned after Black Lung benefits, is for an "interim presumption" based upon the presence of certain disease patterns and the number of years of employment in the nuclear weapons complex. As in early Black Lung filings, the "interim presumption" could greatly simplify workers' compensation litigation that can take on a life of its own, with costs that are disproportionate to the benefits sought. Today, DOE and its contractors fight every radiation and toxic injury claim tooth and toenail, subject to DOE's longstanding policy of avoiding responsibility, which dates back to General Leslie Groves. DOE spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting one Ohio workers' compensation case where the potential payout was a mere widow's mite of some $ 15,000. That is a national disgrace. That is how DOE operates.

No campaign contributions or election campaigns decide who becomes a DOL ALJ. DOL judges are selected as a result of scores on an eight hour written examination, with litigation experience and ratings by judges and lawyers determining who will become a DOL judge.

Nuclear workers could have greater confidence that their case would be decided based solely on the evidence and the law, without fear, favor or prejudice, in a manner that develops one national body of evidentiary case law to apply to all workers and residents hurt by DOE and its facilities.

Rather than letting at least eleven overworked state court systems reach different results on rules of proving causation in complex radiation and toxic injury cases, workers and residents alike would be better served with decisions by independent federal administrative law judges appointed with lifetime tenure subject to good behavior, with review by the Benefits Review

Board. Those decisions could then be appealed to federal appellate courts.

Federal workers compensation for sick workers and residents could be supported by a tax not unlike that assessed on every ton of coal, which goes to pay for Black Lung benefits. What better way to pay for such just compensation than a tax on pollution assessed against corporate polluters?

(An alternative might be an excess profits tax on defense contractors, or a tax on present and former contractors based on the number of weapons grade materials they produced.)

Workers' and residents' fundamental rights to bring other types of civil lawsuits and criminal charges should be preserved inviolate. Full disclosure of all toxic pollution must at last become a reality.

Coal mine dust was known for years to cause disease, but doctors in coal company towns lied to miners and pretended there was no problem. Meanwhile, workers died horrible painful deaths at rates far higher than in Europe. Today history repeats itself in Oak Ridge, with Mr. Joyce noting that there are only ambiguous studies -- studies with conclusions that are ambiguous by DOE's direction, design and control.

Just like the tobacco industry, DOE's minions are adept at portraying uncertainty and ambiguity, when they well know in their hearts what makes workers sick. Unlike the tobacco companies, the DOE weapons complex is owned by all Americans.

The nuclear weapons complex won World War II and the Cold War, and now treats its atomic "veterans" shabbily and disgracefully. Consider the difference between the way we treat combat veterans, compared to veterans of industrial production that supported our war efforts. In World War II, my father jumped out of airplanes and machine-gunned Nazis in Europe as an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper. He was a war hero, and both America and France gave him medals. At age 86, he still receives VA compensation. He received three Bronze Stars. He is honored in parades. People thanked him for his sacrifice. He speaks to schoolchildren. They named the South Jersey Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division Association after him (the CPL Edward A. Slavin Chapter).

Hundreds of thousands of men like my dad might have died in hand-to-hand combat in Japan if it were not for the amazing wartime work of Oak Ridge and other sites.

Nuclear weapons plant workers and residents sacrificed their health so that America could win the Cold War and World War II.

Unlike my father, Nuclear Weapons plant workers and Downwinders received no medals, no honors, no thank yous, no compensation -- only layoff slips and concealment (and a double dose of discrimination for those who have the courage to raise environmental, health and safety concerns). Workers and residents who sacrificed their health for the Cold War should be treated as national heroes, to whom our country owes justice (not JUST US), a fair day in a fair court, full appeal rights, just compensation for illness, injury and death, and competent state-of-the-art health care from independent medical professionals of their choice -- not DOE's choice of doctors.

The President and Vice President have not shown leadership. DOE and DOJ have not shown leadership. They have not shown statesmanship. Instead, they seek to divide and conquer, one group at a time, preventing a global solution, playing favorites, attempting to drive a wedge between its victims, creating separate classes and treating the victims like unruly school children, insulting them, condescending to them, and refusing to talk sense. They should be ashamed of themselves.

DOE's proposal of a $100,000 bribe payment adds insult to injury: DOE has decided to add payoffs to layoffs. DOE has shown contempt for human rights. Just say no.

DOE and its contractors spent indecent amounts of tax money fighting their just compensation for injuries and discrimination. This is a national disgrace. Nuclear weapons plant victims deserve laws and rules that allow independent and experienced judges, full discovery, and open public trials at reasonable costs, including low-cost access to trial transcripts under the Freedom of Information Act.

With sick, disabled and dead people from Hanford to Utah to New Mexico to Oak Ridge to Portsmouth, Paducah and Mound, afflicted by illnesses reasonably believed to have been caused by toxins flowing from the Nuclear Weapons business, it makes a great deal of sense to let both workers and residents who are injured have a fair remedy, with fair rules, in a neutral DOL forum that adjudicates workers' cases full-time, with greater independence and expertise. Prompt decisions and payments must be assured.

The victims of DOE must unite -- every single one of them. The people are ready now.

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "you can take what you want if you are organized."

Ed Slavin is a lawyer who represents DOE site workers and whistleblowers in occupations ranging from technicians to investigators to engineers to judges He was Legal Counsel for Constitutional Rights with the Government Accountability Project, 1989-1993, and clerked for the Hon. Nahum Litt, who was Chief Administrative Law Judge of the U.S. Department of Labor. He was Editor of the Appalachian Observer, a Clinton, Tennessee weekly where he wrote extensively on Oak Ridge pollution, winning declassification of the Oak Ridge mercury losses on May 17, 1983, with the local District Attorney recommending him for a Pulitzer Prize. Ed testified on July 11, 1983 before then-Rep. Albert Gore Jr., endorsing criminal prosecution of Oak Ridge polluters. He has published seven articles in American Bar Association publications on human rights issues and is author of a book on Jimmy Carter for high school students. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Memphis State University Law School. His mother was in 1930 a victim of an early x-ray radiation experiment at age 11 for putative "cosmetic" purposes: it took her twelve years to bear her only child. (DOE responded to her letter to Secretary O'Leary by stating her exposures were beyond the scope of DOE's human experimentation disclosures).

--

From: easlavin@aol.com

Howdy:

Most of you in the radiation protection community worldwide who've spoken up recently have expressed overwhelming compassion, understanding and support, publicly and privately for sick Oak Ridge workers and residents and how DOE has behaved toward them.

It was so good to hear from you after sick Oak Ridge workers and residents were mocked and trivialized by RADSAFE posts for three years. Of course, I knew before I spoke out against that mockery of sick workers that the late Dr. Karl Z. Morgan wrote last year that anyone who challenges the nuclear industry: "must be prepared to withstand political, economic and professional attacks. For example, when I publicly criticized the majority of health physicists (for not stepping forward to assist injured workers in cases during a keynote speech in 1985 before union workers, Dr. Clarence Lushbaugh promptly responded in the Oak Ridger by equating that with the lowest species of ''animals that befoul their own nest."

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised "freedom from fear." Fear is a fact of life in Oak Ridge. Lack of "academic freedom" in Oak Ridge was noted by the New York Times in 1983, when Dr. Stephen Gough compared Oak Ridge to an "intellectual ghetto" where one could not criticize management. Even Ph.D.s fear to criticize the DOE/contractor "party line." Whistleblower retaliation is rampant in Oak Ridge. Dr. Karl Z. Morgan wrote before his death, "No society that severely restricts freedom of speech will ultimately survive."

I fully appreciate now that it was just a tiny, pathetic, vocal minority who trashed sick Oak Ridge workers when they're supposed to be working -- and didn't apologize for it. The mechanisms of such retaliatory mindsets are discussed by Dr. Karl Z. Morgan, "The Angry Genie: One Man's Walk Through the Nuclear Age" (Oklahoma University Press 1999).

--

Lest anyone misjudge me or mistakenly think that I am an "anti," I am neither for or aganist nuclear power. I have never represented any licensee, intervenor or other party in a powerplant licensing case.

I have, however, represented both professional engineers and other ethical employees at nuclear and coal-fired powerplants, both government and corporate, who were harassed, intimidated and fired for practicing proper engineering judgment, or otherwise doing their jobs. Management's retaliatory actions too often speak for themselves. See, e.g., DeFord v. Tennessee Valley Authority (DeFord II), http://www.oalj.dol.gov/public/wblower/decsn/90era60a.htm

Nuclear powerplant whistleblowers in my experience strongly believe in nuclear energy and want nuclear plants operate safely. They are dedicated to the ethics of their professions, just like you and me. They are alarmed at management's ill-advised actions.

IMHO, coal-fired powerplants have serious pollution problems, and contribute significantly to the toxic haze over Oak Ridge, adding to the insult to the immune system from the TSCA incinerator. One must not say that the TSCA incinerator alone caused the health problems in Oak Ridge -- that would be a single-factor theory.

Before deciding what kind of plant (if any) to build, I would want to know ALL of the facts, e.g., if I were a director or manager of TVA or a civilian power company (fat chance, which is to say no chance at all).

The difference betwen hospitals and nuclear powerplants on the one hand and nuclear bomb factories on the other is the complete lack of outside regulation. See, e.g., Report of the Committee on Improving Regulation at DOE facilities. http://www.em.doe.gov/acd/finrept.html

As noted by several of you, DOE has been arrogant lord of all that it sureyed for half a century, creating a colossal wasteland, from sea to shining sea, from Long Island to Oak Ridge to Rocky Flats to Hanford. It is the world's worst managers in charge of the world's most hazardous materials.

As noted by several professionals on this list, there is a huge amount of hubris on the part of DOE nuclear bomb factory managers. In Oak Ridge, some of the nuclear bomb factory managers and lawyers are the third generation of their famliies to tell workers to shut up, keep quiet, there's no problem. There must be a gene somewhere, or a bad seed. :)

DOE does things that no nuclear powerplant in the country does. It's like the joke about substituting lawyers for lab mice at NIH because, among ohter reasons, "there are some things that rats just will not do." :) Seriously, you should not think of DOE as being a part of the nuclear industry -- it is a pariah. You do not need to defend it any longer.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, DOE is like a baby, "all appetite on the one end, and alll irresponsibility on the other." As Hazel O'Leary said, DOE sites are not unlike what your house would be like if you "had a party every day for fifty years and never cleaned up." Like a baby, DOE also has a tendency to go WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! to try to get its way. Hence, several years worth of anti-worker posts on this listserv.

Don't take criticism of DOE as criticism of nuclear powerplants -- they have nothing in common but the word "nuclear." I appreciate that no one in the U.S. nuclear power would put 4.2 million pounds of mercury into creeks.

Don't ever again let DOE managers hide behind the nuclear powerplant industry, using y'all as human shields or indefensible. They don't deserve defending. What they did was indefensible. You know it, I know it, Congress knows it, Bill Clinton knows it, Bob Dole knows it, and the whole world knows it. DOE is not the nuclear industry. DOE is the Nuclear Weapons industry. Big difference.

--

NASA JSC Management Style: A Few Good URLS Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-UIDL: ab9b9d21b441d27fd9c1c21fc1f6e5bb

On NASA JSC's hierarchical, authoritarian, retaliatory management style: http://www.reston.com/nasa/whistleblower.html http://www.reston.com/nasa/watch.html http://www.oalj.dol.gov/public/wblower/decsn/94tsc05c.htm http://www.oalj.dol.gov/public/wblower/decsn/94tsc05o.htm Under the circumstances, I shudder being so close to KSC when I consider that NASA puts nuclear reactors into orbit, knowing it has managers with such disrespect for fundamental employee human rights to speak out and raise environmental, safety and health concerns. On the purpose of civilized public discourse, kindly consider a gnarly quote from one of Sandy Perle's past posts: "The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to close it again on something solid" - G. K. Chesterton - Most of you are very reasonable people. Thanks to the overwhelming majority of you for listening with open minds. :) I STILL BELIEVE IN A PLACE CALLED HOPE. :)

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

Ed Slavin Box 3084 St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084 (904) 471-7023 (904) 471-9918)

----------- colorado

Flats burn ignites opposition

By Mark Eddy Denver Post Environment Writer
April 6, 2000
http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0406.htm

April 6 -If the skies are clear and winds are calm, a controversial fire will be set this morning in the grassland at Rocky Flats to determine if controlled burns are a safe way to get rid of overgrowth and noxious weeds and reduce the possibility of a catastrophic wildfire.

The 10- to 50-acre test burn has been postponed three times already. Officials are running out of time if they want to run the test, take four days to analyze the data and then burn another 500 acres of weed-andbrush-choked prairie in the buffer zone surrounding the core of the former nuclear weapons plant this year.

The grass is greening faster than expected, and if the brush isn't burned by mid-April, the project will probably be postponed until next year.

And that's just fine with those that oppose the plan.

"We're doing our (rain) dances," said Tom Marshall of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, which monitors activities at Rocky Flats.

Even though the Department of Energy has said the ground is not contaminated, members of the Peace Center, the Sierra Club and others are concerned that burning the vegetation will release plutonium into the air.

The DOE's scientists have not been able to test every square foot of the 6,000-acre buffer zone, and that means there could be areas of contamination they don't know about, Marshall said.

"There could be hot spots that they have not found and burial areas that they have not found," he said. "We can't have confidence in the current characterization of the site." Contamination feared

The Peace Center and Sierra Club want the DOE to delay any burns and form a panel of community members and scientists to examine all the potential effects of burning plants that might have absorbed plutonium through their roots or been contaminated by one of the radiation releases during the plant's operation from 1952 to 1989.

The burn isn't key to the DOE's mission of cleaning up and closing Rocky Flats, and therefore it should wait to allow more public discussion and find a plan that everyone agrees with, Marshall said.

"Delaying the burn does not do anything to hinder their mission,"

Marshall said. "As an agency that is supposed to be serving the public, we would hope they would take this suggestion."

But the DOE has already conducted two different public processes and has reams of documents and tests that show the areas slated for burning were never contaminated, said John Rampe, the DOE official overseeing the burn, which will be conducted by the U.S. Forest Service.

Will cut wildfire threat

Numerous groups and municipalities support the controlled-burn plan, he said. The burns ultimately will protect the public's health by reducing the threat of a massive wildfire, said Craig Kocian, Arvada city manager.

"By doing these test burns, and ultimately controlled burns, they can pick and choose the areas where the fire will occur, as opposed to a wildfire where the fire will go where it wants," said Kocian, who was city manager of Oakland, Calif., in 1991 when wildfires destroyed more than 3,400 houses in 10 hours. "Next logical step"

There won't be any way to keep a big wildfire out of the contaminated areas, he said.

"In that case, exactly what the opponents of the burn are worried about can happen, which is that contaminated soil will be lifted into the air by the wind created by the fire," Kocian said.

"We believe the record reflects that there has been extremely copious research and due diligence given to the test burn. We also believe the test burn is the next logical step in doing due diligence before any more or larger controlled burns are conducted at the Flats,"

he said.

DOE and Forest Service officials will decide this morning if conditions are right for the burn.

----------- kenticky

Usec loses a key battle

By Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com--270.575.8650
http://www.paducahsun.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200004/06+00a5_news.html+200 00406+news

The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant has lost a key congressional battle for nearly $16 million that would have helped ease about 425 job cuts and hastened a health study of workers who may have become ill from radiation and chemical exposure years ago. "Hopefully, we'll live to fight another day, but we're running out of time," said David Fuller, president of the plant atomic workers' union. "While they're fiddling in Washington, Paducah is burning."

U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning of Kentucky said the extra money for this year can still be sought in 2001 budget work starting in the fall, but union officials say that won't help workers who will start losing jobs in July.

On Tuesday, the Senate took no action on $12.7 billion in supplemental federal funding for the current fiscal year, including $11.3 million for the Paducah plant pledged by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson in January. Of the $11.3 million, $8 million was for environmental cleanup work to help offset job losses and $3.3 million to speed up health screening of many former workers, which the union says could otherwise take 14 years.

McConnell said he will keep pursuing funding "regardless of whether the money is included in a supplemental appropriation bill or within another legislative vehicle. These issues are important to the workers of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and I will continue to fight for them."

The senator, who pushed hard for the money, also lost a bid to secure roughly $4.5 million for enhanced severance for some of the 425 workers who will lose jobs, said Richard Miller, Washington-based policy analyst for the union.

The situation will force the job eliminations by plant operator USEC Inc., and workers who get pink slips will have less chance to move into Department of Energy environmental work, he said. The same situation exists at Paducah's sister plant near Portsmouth, Ohio.

"We have the worst-case scenario among the two plants for 850 layoffs," Miller said.

He said McConnell, a Republican, lost because of conservative ideology. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., squelched the Supplemental Appropriations Bill without a vote â€" after it passed the House last week by a 2-1 margin â€" because it had grown from $5.1 billion to $12.7 billion, he said.

"The Republican leadership made a decision to kill the supplemental bill, period," Miller said. "Sen. McConnell was held hostage, I think, by conservatives in the Republican Party even though the bill passed the House by an overwhelming margin."

Bunning, also a Republican, said he met Wednesday with Lott, "who has the prerogative to set the schedule for the Senate floor," and was assured that Paducah's money could be added to 2001 funding measures this fall. Bunning is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Although the Kentucky senators may seek money during the appropriations process in September, the job losses will be well under way, Miller said. USEC had planned to identify voluntary job cuts this month, assuming there would be funding for enhanced severance, he said.

"The problem is, there is nowhere nearly enough money in the DOE budget for enhanced severance," Miller said. He explained that the department would have to find at least $5 million and have Congress approve its spending for displaced worker benefits.

"DOE says, 'We don't have the money,' and Congress says, 'We're not providing it,'" Fuller said. "In the meantime, the secretary of Energy is running around the country, assuring people everything is going to be all right."

Richardson visited Paducah on Jan. 28 to pledge the $11.3 million, plus $105 million for next year. The 2001 money includes $78 million for cleanup work, $24 million for uranium hexafluoride cylinder management and $3 million to help displaced workers.

Of the $24 million, half would go toward building a job-producing facility to convert the cylinder waste material to something safer that eventually might be sold. But the project has repeatedly been postponed, prompting the union and congressional leaders to accuse DOE of foot dragging. They say the facility needs at least $30 million in "earnest money" to keep a contractor interested.

The union has been very vocal about funding because it represents about half the Paducah plant work force, which is expected to drop from about 1,700 to 1,275 by the end of the year.

This round of job cuts will hit the union much harder. USEC plans for 40 to 48 percent of the job losses to be atomic workers' union employees, compared with 35 percent in the cutting of about 200 jobs during the past two years.

Regardless of whether they choose to leave or are forced out, employees typically receive severance pay based on company service. At Paducah, that means three to 26 weeks' pay for union workers and 4.3 to 30.4 weeks' pay for salaried employees, based on tenure of five to 30 years.

------ ohio

Bureau told it must reclaim $630 million

Thursday, April 6, 2000
BY Lornet Turnbull
Dispatch Staff Reporter
http://www.dispatch.com/news/newsfea0

The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation could be forced to take back more than $630 million in insurance givebacks that it granted employers last year.

The Franklin County Court of Appeals this week ordered the bureau to "vacate'' premium cuts it had granted to 275,000 Ohio employers who pay into the state's insurance fund for injured workers.

The ruling came in a lawsuit that the United Auto Workers filed last September against the bureau. In it, the union claimed $670 million worth of insurance rate cuts and rebates that were approved by the bureau's oversight commission amounted to corporate welfare. The commission comprises representatives of both labor and business.

Bureau officials say they are at a loss to interpret the court's ruling, which made incorrect references to the period covered by the rate cut. They say the focus of the lawsuit seems to be on the $630 million in givebacks and not on the remaining $40 million, which covered rate cuts.

In a statement, bureau officials called the ruling "confusing and poorly written'' and said it "showed a lack of knowledge of the workers' compensation system.''

"As of right now, we have no intention of sending 275,000 bills to Ohio businesses saying you owe us $630 million,'' said Jim Samuel, spokesman for the bureau.

"If we need to deal with it, we will probably do it in some administrative or bookkeeping fashion in the system.''

Union officials, meanwhile, called on bureau Administrator James Conrad to "immediately collect premiums owed to Ohio's injured workers, their widows and orphans.''

"This decision by the court makes it clear that the BWC acted without any authority in granting these irresponsible retroactive rate reductions for employers at the cost of injured workers,'' said Warren Davis, director of United Auto Workers Region 2. The region, which includes central Ohio, covers 100,000 active and retired union members.

Bureau officials have consistently said the extra money has nothing to do with what's available for injured workers.

State law allows the bureau administrator to return excess money to employers in either a cash refund or a future premium reduction.

In recent years, the bull market has driven the surplus in the state fund to about $5.5 billion, about $2 billion more than what accountants recommend. The surplus is part of the state fund, which totals about $20 billion.

The lawsuit followed a March vote by the bureau's oversight commission that approved $670 million in rebates and premium rate cuts.

The breaks included an average 3 percent rate reduction for the period between July 1, 1999, and June 30, 2000. Employers also got a one- time 75 percent rebate on half-year bills they received in June.

In fact, the fund remains so healthy, the oversight commission last month approved an average 5 percent rate reduction for the period of July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2001, valued at $70 million. And bureau officials are expected at this month's oversight commission meeting to recommend a pair of credit rebates totaling $1.2 billion on bills employers will receive in June and next January.

In issuing their ruling, the judges said the law authorizes the return of excess money for future premiums. But they erroneously stated that the 3 percent reduction covered Jan. 1, 1999, to June 20, 1999, rather than the July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2000, period it actually covers.

Using the judges' dates would mean the bureau applied the rate cuts to accrued premiums, not future premiums, which would violate state law.

Samuel said the bureau plans to request a delay in enforcement of the ruling.

He blasted the autoworkers union, saying, "If they're this vocal, why aren't they walking in here with a check returning money they've received as an employer?''

Roger Geiger, director of the National Federation of Independent Business/Ohio, said the ruling is a blow to Ohio's small-business owners. "This case is politically motivated by organized labor to make a well-run program look bad.''

------ tennessee

Nuke safety meeting features shouting match
Whistle blower, official get testy with one another

April 6, 2000
By Frank Munger,
News-Sentinel Oak Ridge bureau
http://www.knoxnews.com/archives/browserecent/04062000/archives/7439.shtml

OAK RIDGE -- John T. Conway, chairman of the nation's Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, opened a Wednesday night meeting by inviting participants to "do anything you want to do that's legal." What followed was an extraordinary two-hour session that featured a shouting match between Conway and a Department of Energy whistle-blower, numerous questions about safety problems at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant and a protracted discussion of tomatoes.

About 100 people attended the meeting at the American Museum of Science & Energy.

Joe Carson, a DOE engineer who's been engaged in a years-long battle with the federal agency over Oak Ridge safety issues, accused the defense board of ignoring one of the biggest problems at Y-12 and other federal facilities: workers' fear of reprisal if they report safety concerns.

Carson said workers won't talk because they're afraid they'll be treated like he has been.

The engineer has won a number of verdicts in his case against DOE, but he said his life has suffered as a result.

Conway and Carson had several loud, testy exchanges, with Conway repeatedly telling Carson to bring the board specific problems instead of vague allegations of worker fears.

"I need facts," the board chairman said.

Carson brought his two young sons with him, saying he didn't have much time to spend with them because of his whistle-blowing activities.

At one point, he asked one of the boys to address Conway directly, prompting a lecture from the board official.

"Why do you put your poor kids in a situation like this?" Conway asked. "Don't you have any bit of conscience?"

Several Oak Ridge workers raised safety concerns. J.D. Hunter, a former security guard at the K-25 plant, said warhead parts were once brought to his site and left unguarded, causing a "very dangerous situation."

Hunter said he found the facility operator asleep.

Others raised issues about the storage and processing of materials at Y-12, which houses the nation's largest supply of bomb-grade uranium.

The session ended with Gerald Hutton asking the board if it was safe to eat the tomatoes he's growing near K-25.

He offered to have his body tested for contamination.

Hutton's comments prompted the board members to share their tomato-growing expertise with him.

Frank Munger may be reached at 865-482-9213 or twig1@knoxnews.infi.net.

------ utah

Uranium mill still poisons Colorado River

http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2000/04/04062000/atlas_11747.asp
ENN News
Thursday, April 6, 2000
By Margot Higgins

An aerial view of the Colorado River near Moab, Utah, shows the tailings pond of the defunct Atlas mill, where 10.5 million tons of toxic waste are stored approximately 750 feet from the river. Waste left from the Atlas uranium mill near Moab, Utah, is poisoning endangered fish that live in the Colorado River, according to a recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey.

For years, environmentalists have fought to clean up radioactive tailings left behind by the defunct Atlas mill. The USGS study may strengthen their campaign.

Conducted from August 1998 to February 2000, the study shows that 10.5 million tons of waste left from the mill are poisoning four endangered fish species in the Colorado River.

The Atlas mill has leaked ammonia and other poisonous contaminants into the river for the past 40 years. The USGS study confirms that ammonia levels are far too high for the fish to survive.

According to the report, ammonia levels in a stretch of the Colorado River about three miles north of Moab are as high as 1,500 milligrams per liter, greatly exceeding the 12 milligrams per liter that the fish can survive. When researchers put experimental fish into the river below the waste site, most of them died in less than one hour.

The same area has been designated as critical habitat for the recovery of the endangered Colorado pike minnow, the razorback sucker, the humpback chub and the bony-tail chub.

Levels of ammonia vary according to the seasonal flow of the Colorado River. Higher levels occur during the low-water period between August and March.

The razorback sucker is among many endangered fish populations living in the Colorado River. "It's no longer a supposition that the ammonia is killing the fish. It's slam-dunk evidence," said Bill Hedden, a conservation director for the Grand Canyon Trust. "The USGS study shows the ammonia concentration to be several hundred times more than the acute legal dose that has been designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Every fish that swims through that section of the river dies."

Once a major supplier of uranium for the government's nuclear weapons program, the Atlas site covers 130 acres. The tailings pile is the fifth largest in the United States.

Reducing toxic threats to endangered fish is only part of the battle to clean up the site. Residents of California, Nevada and Arizona, who depend on the Colorado River for drinking water, also want the mill removed.

When Atlas Corporation declared bankruptcy in December, the responsibility for cleaning up the site fell to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The NRC proposes capping the waste site with clay and rock to prevent more leakage into the Colorado River. But environmentalists say the site should be removed entirely and that the Department of Energy is more suited to the task because of its track record with such projects.

The DOE has moved nine smaller, less toxic nuclear waste piles from other waterways in the Southwest.

Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, is expected to introduce a bill that would put the cleanup in DOE's hands and guarantee funding to get the job done.

"The NRC does not have the financial and technical resources to remove the site itself," said Hedden. "[Giving the NRC cleanup responsibility] would be like having the park service regulate airplanes."

Related Sites

The Grand Canyon Trust has been campaigning for years to remove the waste left behind by the Atlas uranium mill.
http://www.grandcanyontrust.org

The U.S. Geological Survey conducted the recent study, which revealed that Ammonia levels leaking from the Atlas mine are lethal to endangered fish in the Colorado River.
http://www.usgs.gov/

To learn more about endangered fish in the Colorado River, visit the Endangered Species site
http://endangered.fws.gov/

offered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
http://www.fws.gov/

To learn more about federal efforts to clean up nuclear waste visit the Department of Energy.
http://www.doe.gov/

Related stories
How safe are the states from cyanide?
http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/2000/02/02232000/cyanide_10145.asp

Mercury rising: Seafood is increasingly contaminated with toxins
http://www.enn.com/enn-features-archive/1998/10/101998/fishfeature.asp

Proposal aims to stem tide of Mississippi River pollution
http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/2000/02/02292000/kindbill_10546.asp

$18.9 billion sought to fuel DOE in 2001
http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/2000/02/02112000/doebudget_9912.asp

Engineered bacterium eats toxic waste
http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1999/12/123099/bug_8637.asp

States turn a blind eye to Clean Water Act
http://www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/2000/04/04052000/waterreport_11715.asp

----------- washington

Fertilizer, animal feed found to be tainted with toxic chemical

by Duff Wilson Seattle Times staff reporter
Thursday, April 6, 2000, 09:33 p.m. Pacific
http://www.seattletimes.com/news/local/html98/fert06m_20000406.html

Hundreds of tons of zinc imported from China for use in fertilizer and animal feed in this country were contaminated with dangerous levels of toxic cadmium.

The contamination was discovered by a Seattle company, triggering a nationwide stop-sale notice on four farm fertilizers, pending soil tests on Idaho farms where it was applied, and a complaint by a Washington worker who says he was poisoned.

State agriculture and worker-safety officials, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Customs Service are investigating.

Authorities say the material was nearly 12 percent cadmium, 12,000 times higher than the limit guaranteed by the Chinese exporter, along with 35 percent zinc. Zinc is a minor plant food. Cadmium is highly poisonous and may cause cancer.

Ag-Chem Commission of Cornelius, Ore., imported the material from China in February and distributed 132 tons to RSA MicroTech of Seattle, 66 tons to Mowes Scientific Nutritional Service in Upland, Calif., and 44 tons to Land View Fertilizer of Minidoka, Idaho, said Ag-Chem attorney Ted Troutman.

Small amounts were mixed with animal foods in California and with fertilizer applied to 1,960 acres of Idaho farmland, Troutman said, adding that they would cause no harm because they were so diluted in the final products.

In addition, 132 tons of a similar material are now quarantined by Ag-Chem at the Port of Seattle and 44 tons at the Port of San Francisco. That material is the latest shipment from China.

"We're just trying to contain the stuff and get it back to China," Troutman said.

RSA Microtech was the first to notice the high cadmium and raise the alarm. The fertilizer company's warehouse near Burlington, Skagit County, has been closed since March 24 for decontamination.

RSA spokeswoman Barbara Smith said eight employees may have been exposed and were tested but were not suffering adverse effects.

However, a temporary laborer for the company, Edward Mattell of Bellingham, said he and three others had worked in unsafe conditions with the material. Mattell said RSA and the temporary labor agency that hired did not return his calls or answer his questions when he became concerned about nausea, dizziness, peeling skin, body aches, headaches and other problems.

Mattell, 45, said he had been checked by three doctors, hired a lawyer and filed a workplace-injury claim. Mattell said at least one other worker was also sick. His lawyer did not return calls.

The workplace limit of cadmium is 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air, said Stefan Dobratz, industrial-hygiene supervisor for the state Department of Labor and Industries. He compared it to the amount of dust on the head of a pin. He said employers must provide respirators to workers in higher levels.

Mattell said the dust was flying all over while he was pouring bags of the tainted material into a hopper. He said he worked five weekend days between Feb. 19 and March 4 and was given no protective equipment.

The state Department of Agriculture yesterday announced a statewide stop-sale order on eight lots of Ruffin Tuff brand fertilizer produced by RSA for farm use.

The company sent letters March 24 to stop sale of four products sold in the U.S. and Canada since Nov. 29, Smith said. She said RSA expects to be able to show later that some of the fertilizer is safe to use.

Gov. Gary Locke was quoted in a news release yesterday commending RSA and saying this showed the state's fertilizer law - first in the nation to require tests of toxic chemicals - worked to prevent the sale of potentially hazardous materials.

Laurie Valeriano of the Washington Toxics Coalition called it a failure because the material, caught by chance, was used on fields and in animal feed.

In California, Mowes, an animal-food maker east of Los Angeles, said it had already sold a small amount when it received a warning from Ag-Chem and immediately withdrew the material.

"At this point, we do not know of any harm because we've gotten back almost all of it, and the amount that goes in is at such a low rate that it is really no problem," manager Jobe Mowe said yesterday.

Duff Wilson's phone message number is 206-464-2288.

---

Hanford Health Information Archives
http://www.hhia.org/

The Hanford Health Information Archives (HHIA) collects, preserves and makes available to the public information about the health and personal experiences of people who were or may have been affected by radiation released from the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State between 1944 and 1972. HHIA is located in the Foley Center Library at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, USA, and is a project of the Hanford Health Information Network (HHIN). This site has been developed to provide information for downwinders and others who would like to know more about health effects, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, radiation, the Hanford Health Information Network, and other pertinent topics.

HHIA Background Information--More about the organization, its purpose and its services.

The Health Information Database [Updated 1/6/00]--A searchable resource of health conditions as reported by Archives donors in Personal Health Information Questionnaires. For information on a separate health survey administered by the Hanford Health Information Network in Idaho and Oregon, click here.

The Archives' Collections [Updated 2/15/00]--An online catalog describing the materials that have been donated to HHIA. This link will open a menu for a web-based, graphical search engine. See the Subject List for a list of controlled terms (as opposed to free-text keywords) which can be used to search the catalog.

Oral Histories [Updated 2/17/00]--Links to the transcripts of oral histories held by the Archives.

In The News [Updated 12/4/98]--The Archives' newsletter and other items of interest.

Go to Gonzaga University's Foley Center Library Home Page

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

THE IRRATIONALITY OF DETERRENCE: A MODERN ZEN KOAN

By David Krieger

*What is the sound of one hand clapping?
What is the sound of one finger pressing the button?

Surely the concept of deterrence is more enigmatic and perplexing than a Zen Koan!

The concept of deterrence, which underlies the nuclear weapons policies of the United States and other nuclear weapons states, presupposes human rationality in all cases. It is based upon the proposition that a rational person will not attack you if he understands that his country will be subject to unacceptable damage by retaliation.

What rational person would want his country to be exposed to unacceptable damage? Perhaps one who miscalculates. A rational person could believe that he could take action X, and that would not be sufficient for you to retaliate. Saddam Hussein, for example, believed that he could invade Kuwait without retaliation from the United States. He miscalculated, in part because he had been misled by the American Ambassador to Iraq who informed him that the US would not retaliate. Misinformation, misunderstanding, or misconstruing information could lead a rational person to miscalculate. We don't always get our information straight, and we seldom have all of the facts.

Even more detrimental to the theory of deterrence is irrationality. Can anyone seriously believe that humans always act rationally? Of course not. We are creatures who are affected by emotions and passions as well as intellect. Rationality is not to be relied upon. People do not always act in their own best interests. Examples abound. Almost everyone knows that smoking causes terrible diseases and horrible deaths, and yet hundreds of millions of people continue to smoke. We know that the stock markets are driven by passions as much as they are by rationality. The odds are against winning at the gambling tables in Las Vegas, and yet millions of people accept the odds, believing that they can win despite the odds.

Nuclear deterrence is based on rationality - the belief that a rational leader will not attack a country with nuclear weapons for fear of retaliation. And yet, it is clearly irrational to believe that rationality will always prevail. Let me put it another way. Isn't it irrational for a nation to rely upon deterrence, which is based upon humans always acting rationally (which they don't), to provide for its national security? Those who champion deterrence appear rational, but in fact prove their irrationality by their unfounded faith in human rationality.

With nuclear deterrence, the deterring country threatens to retaliate with nuclear weapons if it is attacked. What if a country is attacked by nuclear weapons, but is unable to identify the source of the attack? How does it retaliate? Obviously, it either guesses, retaliates against an innocent country, or doesn't retaliate. So much for deterrence. What if a national leader or terrorist with a nuclear weapon believed he could attack without being identified? It doesn't matter whether he is right or wrong. It is his belief that he is unidentifiable that matters. So much for deterrence. What if a leader of a country doesn't care if his country is retaliated against? What if he believes he has nothing more to lose, like a nuclear-armed Hitler in his bunker? So much for deterrence.

It takes only minimal analysis to realize that nuclear deterrence is a fool's game. The unfortunate corollary is that those who propound nuclear deterrence are fools in wise men's garb. The further corollary is that we have entrusted the future of the human species to a small group of fools. These include the political and military leaders, the corporate executives who support them and profit from building the weapons systems, and the academics and other intellectuals like Henry Kissinger, who provide the theoretical underpinnings for the concept of deterrence.

Eleven years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, we continue to live in a world in which a small number of nations rely upon the theory of deterrence to provide for their national security. In doing so, they threaten to kill tens of millions or perhaps hundreds of millions of innocent people by retaliation should deterrence fail. To perhaps state what should be obvious, but doesn't appear to our leaders to be: This is highly immoral. It also sets an extremely bad example for other states, whose leaders just might be thinking: If the strongest nations in the world are continuing to rely upon nuclear weapons for their national security, shouldn't we be doing so also? Fortunately, most leaders in most countries are concluding that they should not.

There is only one way out of the dilemma we are in, and that is to begin immediately to abolish nuclear weapons. This happens also to be required by international law as stated in Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and as decided unanimously in the 1996 opinion of the International Court of Justice: "There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control."

Morality, the law, and rationality converge in the need to rid the world of nuclear weapons. This is the greatest challenge of our time. The will of the people on this issue is being blocked by only a few leaders in a few countries. As the world's most powerful nation, leadership should fall most naturally to the United States. Unfortunately, the policies of the United States have been driven by irrationality to the detriment of our own national security and the future of life on our planet. This is unlikely to change until the people of the United States exercise their democratic rights and demand policies that will end the nuclear threat to humanity. These include: negotiating a multilateral treaty for the phased elimination of nuclear weapons under strict and effective international control; de-alerting nuclear weapons and separating warheads from delivery vehicles; making pledges of No First Use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances; stopping all nuclear testing and ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; reaffirming the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; and applying strict international safeguards to all weapons-grade fissile materials and agreeing to no further production of such materials.

The sound of one hand clapping is silence. That is the sound of most people in most places in response to the nuclear weapons policies of the nuclear weapons states. While they do not applaud these policies with both hands, they also do not raise their voices to oppose them.

The sound of one finger pressing the button is the sound of a deeper silence, brought about by unrelenting apathy. It is the sound of the silence before a more final silence. It is an unbearable silence `for its consequences are beyond our power to repair. It is a silent death knell for humanity. We must raise our voices now with passion and commitment to prevent this pervasive silence from becoming the sound of our world.


*David Krieger is President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He can be reached at dkrieger@napf.org. Further information can be found at www.wagingpeace.org.

David Krieger, President Nuclear Age Peace Foundation PMB 121, 1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 1 Santa Barbara, CA 93108-2794 URL: www.wagingpeace.org

----------- us military

Gulf War Vets Await Benefits

APRIL 06, 01:22 EST
By LARRY MARGASAK Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS73M1U200
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Gulf-War-Illness.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000406/aponline012209_000.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - A decade after the U.S. victory in the Persian Gulf, veterans of the Iraqi war have the first glimmer of hope that sufferers from a variety of ailments known as Gulf War illnesses may automatically qualify for government compensation.

A new study to determine the rate of Lou Gehrig's disease among those who served in the conflict could open the door to automatic compensation.

The announcement comes too late for Rob Booker, who tried for nearly two years to qualify for compensation, arguing the Lou Gehrig's disease ravaging his body was connected to his service in the Gulf. The Department of Veterans Affairs investigation of his case dragged on because in almost all cases, Gulf War illnesses aren't automatically recognized by the government.

The VA finally agreed this week to grant Booker benefits. Unfortunately, the former Army national guardsman from Evergreen, Ala., died in February at age 35, leaving behind his wife, two daughters - ages 2 and 7 - and lots of frustration.

The family's compensation will amount to $1,300 a month in survivors' benefits.

In the study announced last month, the VA and other agencies will try to compare the rate of Gehrig's disease among the 700,000 veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War to those diagnosed in the general population.

At least 28 Gulf conflict veterans have been diagnosed with possible amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which destroys the brain and spinal cord nerve cells. It is the most deadly of so-called Gulf War illnesses, which also include severe reactions to certain smells, night sweats, lower back pain, diarrhea, cramps, fatigue and memory loss

If researchers establish a higher incidence among veterans, their finding could trigger a presumption that it was service-connected and lead to automatic compensation.

``We see this as a solid victory and a very positive move by the VA,'' said Paul Sullivan, spokesman for the National Gulf War Resources Center, a nonprofit group. ``It clearly opens the door.''

Until then, Gulf veterans still must prove that ailments or injuries are connected to their service. About 136,000 veterans of the war have succeeded in securing disability payments.

For Booker's wife, Lynn, a study seems like a waste while sick and dying veterans are denied compensation. ``They should use the money to help guys who need it,'' she said.

Some lawmakers share the Bookers' frustration.

Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., criticizes the VA for not giving Gulf veterans ``the benefit of the doubt. The worst that could happen is you help someone who needs help.''

And Rep. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont independent, said he is concerned that researchers on Gulf War illness ``are not getting the kind of support we need from VA and the Department of Defense.''

One researcher, Dr. Robert Haley, has concluded that Gulf veterans suffered brain injuries due to chemical exposure during the war. The chief of clinical epidemiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center also found the veterans have a higher death rate from auto accidents and suicides.

``People who have brain injuries have higher rates of automobile accidents and a higher rate of depression and suicide,'' Haley said. ``We proposed that as an explanation and they (the VA) have not accepted it.''

Dr. John R. Feussner, the VA's chief research and development officer, said the agency has been ``very receptive to following leads that might help explain Gulf War illness.'' He said the agency is spending $160 million for 150 projects.

Those researchers are trying to learn whether Gulf veterans' ailments resulted from exposure to depleted uranium, tropical diseases, oil well fires or chemical weapons.

``Gulf War syndrome isn't as precise as fever or pneumonia. My fear is that people misunderstand how long it may take to clarify a difficult issue'' and view the VA as ``bad or inattentive,'' Feussner said. He said that the 28 likely ALS diagnoses made so far would approximate the rate expected for the general population. But the VA proceeded with the study because of other warning flags, including that veterans with the disease were generally younger than average ALS sufferers.

On the Net:
ALS Association: http://www.alsa.org
Department of Veterans' Affairs: http://www.va.gov

-----------

Legislator Threatens To Block Jet Again Test of Equipment On F-22 Demanded

By Greg Schneider Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 6, 2000; Page E01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-04/06/188l-040600-idx.html

The congressman who almost scuttled Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22 fighter plane last year said yesterday that he will block the $62.7 billion program again if the high-tech jet's electronics systems are not tested by the end of the year.

Just last week, Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters told the Senate that those tests are in jeopardy because of the recent 40-day strike at Boeing Co., which is preparing weapons and flight control software for the sophisticated warplane.

Rep. Jerry Lewis, the California Republican who heads the defense spending subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, said yesterday that any attempt to delay the tests until next year will force him to seek a halt in production of the next 10 F-22s.

The Clinton administration has requested $2.55 billion for those planes in next year's budget, as well as $1.4 billion for continued development of the F-22.

The jet has been a showpiece for Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor. Executives there have repeatedly warned that a delay or disruption in the F-22 funding schedule will affect contracts with hundreds of suppliers, send costs skyrocketing and jeopardize the program's existence.

Lewis argued last year, however, that the Pentagon should not rush to buy the F-22 while it is swamped with other needs, foreign threats are minimal and the plane's advanced technology is unproven.

He led the House to remove $1.8 billion from the 2000 defense spending bill for buying the first six production-model F-22s. A compromise with the Senate allowed the Pentagon to buy six more test versions of the planes instead.

That spending bill also stipulated that the Pentagon could buy 10 combat-ready planes in 2001 only after the on-board electronics--or avionics--are tested aboard an F-22.

The avionics are a major part of what makes an F-22 special, including the most powerful computer brain and complex software ever put on a fighter jet. The system presents a pilot with a videogame-like display that identifies hostile aircraft and targets them with the simple click of a mouse. In addition, the plane is supposed to be able to "heal" itself, automatically reconfiguring sensors to make up for gear damaged in combat.

Lockheed Martin and the Air Force had been planning to fly the avionics software in the spring of 2001, but pushed that up to this November to meet Congress's requirement.

That was already said to be a tight schedule, and then the Boeing strike came along, disrupting engineering work until the dispute's resolution March 19.

Spokesmen at both Boeing and Lockheed Martin said yesterday that they intend to meet the congressional requirement and test the avionics software on the F-22 by the end of the year.

But last Wednesday, Air Force Secretary Peters told Lewis's subcommittee that "it is now fair to say it is high-risk as to whether we will have the software actually flying in an F-22" by year's end.

Peters suggested that the Air Force will ask Congress to waive the avionics testing requirement. Moving ahead with buying the next 10 planes "is still appropriate," he said, "so long as the software has been successfully demonstrated in the integration laboratory."

Lewis rejected that assertion yesterday.

"There can be no watering down of that requirement," he said, calling avionics "the heart" of the decision on whether to commit to the F-22, which is supposed to enter service in 2004.

He cited a recent report from the General Accounting Office that concluded that while the F-22 is staying within cost projections, it is doing so at the cost of testing. From one-third to one-half of the program's planned flight-test regime could go unfinished, the report concluded.

Lewis warned that laboratory testing is insufficient and could allow serious design flaws to escape detection until the planes begin flying. That could "put this entire system in jeopardy, and I don't think anybody wants to do that," he said.

----------- us politics

Bush Goes Green

April 6, 2000,
New York Times
IN AMERICA / By BOB HERBERT
http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/herbert/040600herb.html

Oh, boy.

Sometimes you'd like to say to the presidential candidates: Just don't go there.

That would have been the best advice for George W. Bush, who decided this week that it might be fun to present himself as an environmentalist.

"Every environmental issue confronts us with a duty to be good stewards," said Mr. Bush during an appearance in Pennsylvania on Monday. "As we use nature's gifts, we must do so wisely. Prosperity will mean little if we leave future generations a world of polluted air, toxic lakes and rivers, and vanished forests."

That odd noise you hear is coming from the governor's aides, who have been trying desperately to stifle their laughter. This is breathtaking, spectacular, Texas-sized chutzpah. Mr. Bush's relationship to the environment is roughly that of a doctor to a patient -- when the doctor's name is Kevorkian.

Where to begin? O.K. Let's start here. Mr. Bush's Texas is the most polluted state in the union. It is an environmental disaster zone. Last year Houston surpassed Los Angeles as the smoggiest city in the U.S. Texas as a whole had more smog alerts in 1999 than any other state. Texas ranked ahead of all states in the discharge of recognized carcinogens into the air. It leads the nation in the number of factories violating clean-water standards. It leads the nation in the injection of toxic waste into underground wells. And on and on.

The Sierra Club, which knows a little something about the environment, summed the matter up as follows: "Texas ranks first in toxic releases to the environment, first in total toxic air emissions from industrial facilities, first in toxic chemical accidents, and first in cancer-causing pollution."

Last October high school athletes in the Houston suburb of Deer Park experienced coughing fits, difficulty breathing and other forms of respiratory distress during one of the worst smog episodes in the Houston area in years. Angry parents began demanding that schools be notified when the air is particularly bad so strenuous student activities can be curtailed.

"What happened during Bush's tenure is that by most measures environmental quality in Texas has gotten worse," said Tom (Smitty) Smith, director of the public interest group Texas Public Citizen. "Every chance that Bush has had, he's stood up for the polluters."

Mr. Bush's approach has not been subtle. His first appointment to the state's environmental protection agency, the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, was Ralph Marquez, an executive who had spent 30 years with the Monsanto Chemical Company and had served as the chairman of the environmental regulation committee of the Texas Chemical Council, a trade association.

Great idea! Let's put a top chemical company guy in charge of regulating pollution from chemicals. Let's put the biggest, hungriest fox we can find right at that gaping entrance to the chicken coop.

That was in 1995. Three weeks after Mr. Marquez's appointment, the commission used its muscle to thwart a plan, already in the works, to issue smog health advisories that would warn residents whenever there were particularly high ozone levels in and around Houston.

The business types in Houston hate health advisories and anything else that calls attention to the city's dirty air. It's bad for business. Just give the kids some cough drops.

Mr. Marquez doesn't even think ozone is particularly bad for you. Testifying before a Congressional committee in November 1995, he said: "After all, ozone is not a poison or a carcinogen. It's a relatively benign pollutant compared with other environmental risks."

I've no doubt George W. is enjoying his spiffy new environmentalist costume. The Bush men can always count on the environment for a good laugh. Back in 1992, George H. W. Bush, campaigning for re-election, gleefully derided Al Gore's interest in the environment by dubbing the vice-presidential candidate "the Ozone Man."

The business types loved it.

Bush the elder, smiling, said he was "an environmental man" too. He might as well have winked. He never expected anybody to believe him. Costumes are about fun.