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-------- NUCLEAR (by country)
-------- china
Pentagon: China is preparing for high-tech war with U.S.
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-2000623222038.htm
China is building up military forces in preparation for a possible conflict with the United States over Taiwan involving high-technology warfare, according to a Pentagon report obtained by The Washington Times.
The unclassified version of the annual report to Congress states that "a cross-strait conflict between China and Taiwan involving the United States has emerged as the dominant scenario guiding [People's Liberation Army] force planning, military training and war preparation."
The report states that Chinese military leaders are considering a major escalation of its military building as a result of NATO's air war against Yugoslavia.
And as a result of the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, the report says, China is discussing ways to "offset U.S. power, to include accelerating military modernization, pursuing strategic cooperation with Russia, and increasing China's proliferation activities abroad."
"China's resolve to employ military force . . . should not be discounted," the report says.
As for U.S. involvement in defending Taiwan, the report said, China "would employ all means necessary in the hope of inflicting high casualties and weakening the intervening party's resolve."
The report is expected to play a major role in the Pentagon's upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review to begin next year.
The review in the past has pitted defense planners who have sought to play down the threat from China against other officials who contend the United States must prepare now to deal with China's growing military power.
The report states that China is seeking to become "the dominant power in Asia."
The report outlines China's development of new weapons and high technology including information warfare, laser and anti-satellite weapons, and new missiles, ships and aircraft.
Opposite Taiwan, Chinese missile forces pose a growing danger to the region, the report says.
The Chinese military is acquiring an array of weapons that could be used in a "pre-emptive strike" against Taiwan, including long-range cruise missiles, air-launched bombs and short-range ballistic missiles, the report says.
The report states that Beijing's missile force will "grow substantially" with new missile facilities being built opposite Taiwan. The new bases mean China could attack the island "with little or no warning."
"Should China decide to attack Taiwan, Beijing's goal would be to erode Taipei's will to fight with sufficient alacrity to avoid escalation of the conflict and potential third party intervention in the hope of forcing a political resolution in Beijing's favor," the report says.
The Chinese military currently has a limited capability to conduct operations involving naval, air and missile strikes, which could benefit Taiwan's ability to survive an initial attack, the report says.
"A PLA amphibious invasion of Taiwan probably would be preceded by a naval blockade, air assaults and missile attacks on Taiwan," the report says. "Airborne, airmobile and special operations forces likely would conduct simultaneous attacks to the rear of Taiwan's coastal defenses to seize a port, preferably in close proximity to an airfield."
The report projects that China's military advantage over Taiwan could continue to grow in the 2010-to-2020 time period.
The report makes little mention of the heightened tensions between China and Taiwan after a dispute over Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui's July 1999 statements about relations with China.
"During the summer," the report says, "PLA ground, naval air and strategic rocket forces reportedly conducted exercises that . . . probably were tailored to intimidate Taiwan.".
The report states that for the first time China used its new Russian-made Su-27 fighter bombers as a "show of force" in the Taiwan Strait.
U.S. officials who have seen the classified version of the report say the public version appears to have been modified to play down the more ominous elements of Chinese military activities, such as Beijing's recent threats against the United States and Taiwan.
Chinese military writings recently warned that China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the United States if it intervenes in a conflict between China and Taiwan.
China's government issued a report last year that gave a new condition for the use of force against the island. Beijing will use military force to reunite the island if it fails to negotiate reunification, the Chinese "white paper" states.
---
The water torture of American resolve
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
http://208.246.212.80/national/pruden.htm
If dining on fish-bladder soup and the family dog is your idea of a gourmet meal, you might want a shot of Bill Cohen standing in his private office in his BVDs, dressing for dinner.
But that's not what Xinhua News Agency's purchase of a headquarters building overlooking the Pentagon is really all about.
It's true, of course, that the sight lines from the sixth and seventh floors of the Arlington Ridge Apartments offer an unobstructed view of the defense secretary's office, and sophisticated electronic-snooping technology could figure out a lot of things going on in the outside ring of the Pentagon, where Mr. Cohen and the biggies of the Defense Department conduct the planning and execution of the nation's defenses.
But what Beijing wants is not necessarily to snoop (though that, too), but to measure the steel, if any, in the Clinton administration's backbone, and the rigor, if any, in the congressional kidney.
The revelation that the Chinese had bought the building to house its state-owned news agency, which is not so much a news-gathering operation as a collection agency for the national secrets of others, irritated the Chinese, but did not embarrass them. Beijing, having bought a trade agreement with effusive promises, is merely testing to see what it could get by with, to see whether Congress will allow them to trash the promises they made to get what they want.
The law is clear that the U.S. government must approve any expansion of the diplomatic mission. Here's a spokesman for State, not your usual China basher or someone who likes to make it tough on foreign diplomats:
"The Embassy of the People's Republic of China is required under the Foreign Missions Act to obtain prior authorization from the State Department for any purchase or sales of real property of the Xinhua News Agency. The embassy was notified of this in 1985.
"The department has no record of it providing notification of its plans to purchase the Virginia property or of the department granting authorization. The department is in contact with the Chinese government regarding this issue to assure that all appropriate interests are addressed."
That seems clear enough in English, and no doubt clear in Mandarin or whatever spoken dialect the embassy may require. The embassy put the blame on its American lawyers. "We don't need permission," said an embassy spokesman, smugly. "We have been following the laws and regulations of the United States. If something is wrong, the lawyers should know that."
This is the arrogant way the mainland Chinese think. They know better than their hosts what the law is. They know better than their hosts when the law of their hosts is satisfied. No regret, no chagrin, no concession that maybe there was a misunderstanding. Indeed, the unauthorized expansion of the Chinese diplomatic mission, first revealed in the pages of this newspaper, was an occasion of high old times at Xinhua.
"This morning all our staff members read the story," said the bureau chief of the agency. "They're laughing at it."
There's not much laughter at State, which usually looks for reasons not to worry. The China hands there know that Xinhua, which operates a hundred news bureaus around the world, is not the Associated Press or United Press International, collecting the news without fear or favor and passing on information for the interpretation and analysis of others. Xinhua's correspondents collect information for the Beijing government. Xinhua's last president, who died of "an undisclosed illness" last week, was a member of the Communist Party's powerful Central Committee.
The government in Beijing monitors Xinhua closely. Three years ago, Wei Guoqiang, 47, the chief of Xinhua's Washington bureau, put out feelers that he wanted to defect to the United States. He died shortly afterward, of "suicide."
China gets technology the old-fashioned way. It steals it. The bipartisan Cox Committee, commissioned by the House to find out what was going on, concluded that Beijing relies on nearly all its government agencies to obtain crucial information, any way it can.
Some House Republicans made noises yesterday that Beijing should be held accountable for obeying U.S. law. Such noise usually means a Republican retreat is imminent.
But Rep. David Vitter of Louisiana, who prepared an amendment to a foreign-operations budget bill that would prevent Xinhua from moving into Arlington Ridge Apartments, and Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, chairman of the House Republican Conference, who demanded that the administration block the sale, are not the usual wimps. We'll see.
Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Times.
---
Pentagon: China missiles a threat to Taiwan
USA Today
06/25/00- Updated 05:34 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/nc1.htm#targets
WASHINGTON - The Chinese military is increasing the number and accuracy of short-range missiles aimed at Taiwan as it focuses on a possible clash with the United States over Taiwan, the Pentagon said Friday in a new assessment of China's military power and strategy. Without predicting a Chinese attempt to win control of Taiwan by force - or dismissing the possibility - the report says China is buying weapons that could be used in a pre-emptive strike. These include cruise missiles and ballistic missiles of longer ranges and greater accuracy. ''The warning time for missile launches most likely will decrease as China expands its missile force opposite Taiwan,'' the report says.
---
State said it warned Beijing of the law By Rowan Scarborough
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-200062322186.htm
The State Department said Thursday it had told the Chinese government this week it must gain prior U.S. approval before its state-run news service could occupy a seven-story apartment building overlooking the Pentagon.
As State pressed the Chinese Embassy here, House Republicans said they would force the department to keep Xinhua News Agency from permanently occupying the Pentagon Ridge Apartments as its Washington bureau.
"What I can tell you is that the Xinhua News Agency should have requested prior authorization from the Department of State to purchase an apartment building," said Philip T. Reeker, a department spokesman. "That's a fact. We have informed them that such a request needs to be made and there are talks with the Chinese Embassy, and we'll have to see what develops from there."
Rep. David Vitter, Louisiana Republican, prepared an amendment to a State Department budget bill scheduled to be debated in the House last night.
"The Xinhua News Agency is an integral part of the government's intelligence-gathering apparatus," said a statement from Mr. Vitter's office. "Should this purchase be allowed to stand, it is clear the U.S. national-security interests will be compromised."
Defense Department spokesmen, seeking to reassure the public that it has adequate security measures in place, downplayed the importance of Xinhua's new location. The spokesman said its measures would defeat eavesdropping.
Mr. Vitter's amendment would tell State not to use funds to approve Xinhua's purchase. But since the bill could not take effect until Oct. 1, the measure's real purpose is to send a signal to the administration to reject the $4.6 million sale, the congressman said.
Republican opposition surfaced after the State Department said the Chinese government failed to notify the United States, as required by law, that Xinhua planned to buy the building. Some department officials urged the administration to press China to cancel the sale, which was completed June 15. Rep. J.C. Watts Jr. of Oklahoma, chairman of the House Republican Conference, denounced the sale, saying it follows on a long list of security breaches during the Clinton presidency.
"It is unacceptable for the Chinese government to own a building within earshot and view of the Pentagon," said Mr. Watts, mentioning security lapses at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a missing laptop at State that held classified information.
A spokesman for the Senate Intelligence Committee said it had summoned Clinton administration officials for a meeting today to determine how the Xinhua sale went undetected.
Administration officials learned of the sale in Wednesday's editions of The Washington Times.
The 1985 Foreign Missions Act requires foreign embassies to notify State when they plan to buy U.S. property. The notification allows the department to consult with various intelligence agencies to determine if the deal would harm national security.
At the State Department yesterday, Mr. Reeker said once the Chinese apply for approval, the United States has 60 days to either approve or reject the transaction.
Mr. Reeker declined to speculate on whether State would block the sale or whether it has the legal authority to do so.
Asked why Xinhua must get approval, he said, "The Xinhua News Agency is considered tied to the government of the People's Republic of China and, therefore, is under the relevant provisions of this act in terms of the restriction. They're very aware of that."
A Chinese Embassy spokesman did not return a reporter's phone call yesterday.
U.S. China experts say Xinhua, a growing news service with bureaus in more than 100 countries, is an arm of the Chinese bureaucracy. Xinhua's last president, who died of an undisclosed illness last week, was a member of the ruling Communist Party's Central Committee.
Congress' Cox report - named for Rep. Christopher Cox, California Republican, who chaired the probe - last year disclosed a widespread effort by the Chinese to steal U.S. technological secrets.
The Beijing government and Xinhua's Washington bureau chief deny that the news service engages in espionage. They call such reports "smears" and "nonsense."
In 1997, Xinhua's Washington bureau head, Wei Guoqiang, 47, committed suicide after being recalled to Beijing. Chinese officials had discovered he was preparing to defect to the United States, according to a report in the New York Times.
The Times said Xinhua "collects information overseas for the Chinese government [and] is also reported to provide journalistic 'cover' overseas for officers of the Ministry of State Security, China's intelligence agency."
Mr. Reeker yesterday declined to say if Xinhua spies on America.
"As you know extremely well, we don't comment on intelligence or counterintelligence issues from this podium," he said.
While Pentagon spokesman downplay the security threat, behind the scenes military officials expressed concern.
"It gives the Chinese easy access to microwave and radio and other transmissions that go back and forth from the antenna on top of the Pentagon," said a department official, who asked not to be named. "They would have direct line of sight to the Pentagon. They should be able to intercept readily, passively."
Outwardly, he said, the Pentagon appears to have little protection against a laser that could be used to pick up sound emanations from an office window.
Nicholas Eftimiades, a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst and author of a book on Chinese espionage, said three dozen Xinhua employees have been expelled from various countries on suspicion of spying over the past 30 years. He said none has been kicked out of this country.
"There's no question about the Xinhua News Agency," said Mr. Eftimiades, author of "Chinese Intelligence Operations." "They have roles as part of the Chinese intelligence apparatus."
He said reporters typically file multiple reports, one for the news wire and others for Chinese officials at different government levels. His book was published in 1994 and re-released last year.
Martin Turk, a real estate agent who represented Xinhua, said the agency never sought a location near the Pentagon. He said the Chinese checked out other locations before he matched them up with the owner of Pentagon Ridge.
"They did not target that particular area when they were trying to find property," he said. "They were in an old building that needs renovation. They were working with another broker as well."
-------- iran
Iran's Khatami winding up China visit
Jerusalem Post
Sunday, June 25 2000 13:11 22 Sivan 5760
By Douglas Davis
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/06/25/News/News.8685.html
LONDON (June 25) - Military cooperation is the central focus of a landmark five-day visit to China by Iranian President Mohammed Khatami, according to leading Iranian commentator Amir Taheri.
Writing in the London-based Arabic daily Asharq al-Awsat, Taheri said a major objective of the visit, which ends tomorrow, is to win additional Chinese technical cooperation for the development of new-generation medium- and long-range missiles.
China and Iran have been working together since 1994 on a new version of the Silkworm missile, which is to form the central pillar of Iran's new defense doctrine that will rely heavily on ballistic power.
Khatami's visit comes just weeks after China decided not to proceed with contracts to build four nuclear power stations in various Iranian provinces. The contracts had attracted criticism from the Washington, which asserted that Iran is using its nuclear power stations for the production of weapons-grade enriched uranium.
But Taheri quoted Chinese sources as saying China decided to drop out of the deal for two quite different reasons - namely, that Iran was unable to raise the required $12 billion in investments over a 10-year period, and that the entire project had become mired in accusations of corruption against a son of former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani, who handles most of Iran's trade with China.
Khatami is being accompanied by a 300-strong delegation, including top executives from some 60 public and private Iranian companies, as well as two dozen senior officials, including Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi and Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani.
---
Turning a blind eye to Iran
Washington Times
EDITORIAL • June 23, 2000
http://208.246.212.80/op-ed/ed-house-2000623182014.htm
''Surely, the time has come for America and Iran to enter a new season in which mutual trust may grow and the quality of warmth supplant the long cold winter of our mutual discontent," said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in March.
Unfortunately, Iran seems partial to the long, cold winter - and White House efforts to improve relations may have caused harm to national security. A recent report by a bipartisan commission on terrorism faults the administration for having failed to win international help in pressuring Iran to cooperate with an investigation into the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers housing complex in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 American servicemen. "U.S. efforts to signal support for political reform in Iran could be misinterpreted in Iran or by U.S. allies as signaling a weakening resolve on counterterrorism," the report also said.
Surely, this is a dangerous signal to send. The administration's policy towards Iran has been based on wishful thinking, eloquently summed up by Mrs. Albright's statement. The White House has sought to support Iran's reformist movement by reaching out to Iran's official government. Although recent legislative elections reflect the desire of the Iranian people for closer ties with the United States, this is not the will of the Ayatollah Khamenei, who has effective control of the army, judiciary, intelligence agencies and, of course, the theological establishment.
Those levers of power have apparently been used to wage terrorist acts against U.S. citizens. If an Iranian dissident interviewed by the CBS News program "60 Minutes" is to be believed, Iran masterminded not only the Khobar Towers housing complex bombing in Saudi Arabia, but also the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
The dissident, Ahmad Behbahani, claimed that he has documents to back up his claims, but Turkish authorities prevented him from giving them over to "60 Minutes." Mr. Behbahani, who was being held in a Turkish camp, said that he preferred to hand these documents over to the media, rather than the U.S. government, for fear that the White House would "bury" them. Robert Baer, a terrorism specialist formerly at the CIA, substantiated the dissident's concern, and said that having to react to proof of Iranian terrorism would be the White House's "worst nightmare." The administration "would like to leave a legacy in the Middle East. They would at least like to move a little bit . . . farther forward with Iran and Libya," said Mr. Baer. He added that if Mr. Behbahani's version of events was accurate, then "that would fall apart very quickly."
Mr. Behbahani may not be telling the truth. A U.S. intelligence official quoted anonymously in The Washington Post said, "When it comes to serious stuff that he should know, he comes up empty." Still, his account would appear to substantiate widespread speculation in the intelligence community that Iran played a key role in these two vicious attacks. Michael Scharf, who served as counsel to the State Department's counterterrorism unit from 1989 to 1991, told The Washington Times in May that U.S. intelligence sources are convinced that Iran was involved in the Lockerbie bombing, and that it chose a U.S. target four days before Christmas in retaliation for the accidental shooting down of an Iranian commercial airliner by the USS Vincennes. Of the 290 people killed in that Airbus accident, 250 of them were Iranians.
But publicizing U.S. intelligence on Lockerbie the points to Iran would only prolong that discontent which the administration is keen to assuage. For an administration that places its legacy-building ambitions above the security of Americans, this would be most inconvenient.
-------- korea
Missile issue complicates Korean talks Longer-range weapons and new defense systems could spark buildup in N. Korea, China
San Jose Mercury News
Sunday, June 25, 2000,
BY DOUG STRUCK Washington Post
http://www7.mercurycenter.com/premium/world/docs/missiles25.htm
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea, which has long sought a better weapon against North Korea, won quiet approval from the United States earlier this year to extend the range of its missiles to reach the North Korean capital, according to sources here.
But the success of the recent inter-Korean summit and North Korea's promise to suspend its own missile development have prompted Seoul to hesitate to produce the longer-range armaments.
``We've put it on hold,'' a South Korean source said. ``We've got the summit now. If we go ahead with the missiles, it could screw up the summit track.''
Seoul's dilemma is indicative of how North Korea's recent diplomatic offensive has thrown uncertainty over strategic calculations in East Asia as well as Washington.
The newfound face of moderation by Pyongyang -- long the antagonist in many military scenarios -- has also thrown a wild card into the weapons plans of Japan and the United States. Both are contemplating anti-missile programs ostensibly aimed at protection from North Korea. Another complicating factor, experts say, is the possibility that deployment of Japanese or U.S. missile defense systems could prompt China to speed up a current program to expand and modernize its missile arsenal.
Japan has been eager to go ahead with a theater missile defense system, to be jointly developed with the United States. Japan has said its missile defense plans are designed to protect against North Korea, but China also sees the proposed system as a threat to its ability to use missiles against its historical rival.
The United States is considering whether to proceed with a limited national missile defense system, designed largely to defend against North Korea's missiles. Experts say deployment of a U.S. system also would be likely to accelerate China's missile buildup, because Beijing would want to be sure it had enough missiles to overwhelm a U.S. defense system and thus preserve the credibility of its nuclear threat.
While the Korean summit produced considerable optimism, there are still grounds for wariness about Pyongyang's intentions. North Korea has been selling missiles to countries considered hostile to the West; buyers reportedly include Iran, Syria and Libya. Skeptics also say there is no verifiable proof that Pyongyang has reversed its long quest for military advantage over its neighbors, dropped its nuclear program or suspended its missile development.
That is the backdrop for South Korea's recent moves regarding its own missiles, which have conventional warheads.
South Korea tested a missile with medium-range capability in April 1999, though it was deliberately loaded only with enough fuel to travel 25 miles. Fully loaded, sources here say, the missile had a range of at least 180 miles, putting Pyongyang easily within reach.
``We've got the technical capacity to go to 500 kilometers (310 miles) and beyond,'' said a South Korean expert.
Since 1979, South Korea has been restrained by an agreement with the United States limiting its missile range to 112 miles, which could target North Korean forces near the border but put the North Korean capital just outside range. South Korea has been arguing since the mid-1990s that it needed a counter-threat to target the North Korean capital and much of the country.
Fearing an increase in tension between Pyongyang and Seoul, the United States has been dragging its feet for years on a revision of the agreement, which was renewed for 10 years in 1990. The countries have been technically at war for 50 years, and their ships traded gunfire as recently as last year.
Now the United States has agreed that South Korea can extend the range up to 300 kilometers, or 186 miles, with a payload of 1,100 pounds, or farther with a smaller payload, according to a senior U.S. official. Those ranges are within internationally set guidelines for other countries.
``The understanding would give the South Koreans what they want in terms of a longer range missile, but be consistent with international . . . standards,'' the official said.
The understanding was reached in a series of meetings this year and last with the U.S. State Department's chief non-proliferation negotiator, Robert Einhorn. Einhorn confirmed the negotiations have taken place, and he said ``there are very few remaining issues. We hope to work them out in the not-too-distant future.'' He declined to identify those issues.
``There is no disagreement on the overall framework of the guidelines, including range and payload,'' Sung Min Soon, South Korea's chief missile negotiator, confirmed in an interview. ``The United States fully understands our security needs.''
But the urgency has been removed from the matter by North Korea's recent conciliatory moves. Following the summit, Pyongyang last week said it will extend a ``moratorium'' on its long-range missile testing program. It did so as the United States, in turn, relaxed trade sanctions. Coupled with new diplomatic ties being explored by North Korea with a variety of countries and the unexpected congeniality of last week's North-South summit, South Korea is in no rush to push ahead with the missile program.
``If we were going to trigger an arms race, that would be a stupid policy,'' said a government official.
Concern over North Korea's missile program was heightened dramatically nearly two years ago by the nation's test on Aug. 31, 1998, of a rocket that sailed over Japan. It prompted fears that North Korea is developing a long-range missile that could easily target Japan and probably target the United States by 2005.
To defend against this and threats from other hostile countries -- called ``rogue states'' until the State Department dropped that terminology after the Korean summit -- the Pentagon has proposed building a limited National Missile Defense (NMD) system. It is set to make a crucial test July 7 of the rocket interceptor, and President Clinton has said he will decide by this fall whether to proceed with the costly program.
---
50 Years Later, the Battle of Chosin Ends Korean War:
Once-maligned Army troops honored for their actions in brutal attack.
Los Angeles Times
Sunday, June 25, 2000
By PAUL RICHTER, Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000625/t000060142.html
WASHINGTON--In the bitter cold of December 1950, a convoy of 3,200 U.S. Army troops came under withering fire from tens of thousands of Chinese infantrymen massed in the hills east of Chosin Reservoir in North Korea.
Twelve hours later, about 1,500 Americans from the 7th Infantry Division were dead, more than 1,000 were wounded and most of the convoy's 40 vehicles were charred hulks or in flames. The attack was the brutal conclusion of four days of assaults by the Chinese, and when it was over, only soldiers strong enough to stagger six miles to a U.S. Marine encampment escaped capture.
For years, the units involved have been accused of incompetence, malingering, even cowardice. But now, at the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, the military has taken a new look at the battle and officially affirmed the contribution of what came to be called Task Force Faith.
In a ceremony this month, survivors were decorated with a Presidential Unit Citation acknowledging that, even though the Army units were ill-prepared and poorly trained, without their resistance the Chinese likely would have swept south and achieved their larger goal of destroying a Marine force of 17,000.
"The fact is, this group kept the others from being annihilated," said Bob Hammond, 67, of Anaheim, who was a 17-year-old Army artilleryman when he faced the onslaught that killed the six other members of his squad at Chosin Reservoir.
The story of Task Force Faith is a tale of collective anguish and official redemption. It also is emblematic of America's broader struggle to come to terms with a war that began in confusion and ended in stalemate.
In the war's opening months, the U.S. military, shrunken by demobilization, was a shadow of the force that had whipped Adolf Hitler and the Japanese military machine in World War II. In Korea, it demonstrated its fallibility: faulty intelligence, ill-prepared troops and erratic leadership--all the way up to the most celebrated American war hero of the era, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who was the top allied commander in Korea.
These questions about the performance of the troops and their leaders were agonizing to contemplate in the years after the Korean War. And for decades, many Americans chose simply to ignore or deny them. As a result, difficult issues arising from America's "forgotten war" have remained largely out of sight for decades.
Now, however, some of these issues are finally receiving the scrutiny they deserve as official embarrassment over the conduct of the war subsides and as veterans, nearing the last years of their lives, seek to understand better what happened to them so many years ago.
For Army veterans of the Chosin Reservoir fighting, the negative perception of their performance has made the wait for official reconsideration long and painful. Compounding their discomfort was the way Chosin has come to be seen as a brilliant tactical operation by the Marines who fought next to them.
Marines, Army Fight Over Battle Story
Though then-Secretary of State Dean Acheson called it the greatest defeat for American arms since the Civil War battle of Bull Run, Chosin Reservoir has been celebrated as a success for the encircled 1st Marine Division, which fought its way out of the trap, bringing along its equipment, its dead and wounded, and inflicting 40,000 Chinese casualties.
Some Marines, recalling this feat, have contrasted the corps' performance with what they regarded as the Army's failure. The story has been a lingering source of friction between members and veterans of the two services.
The reservoir campaign unfolded as part of a huge allied counteroffensive that began with MacArthur's daring landing of U.S. forces at Inchon in September and was intended to capture all of North Korea--and end the war--by Christmas.
As part of this drive, MacArthur sent the 1st Marine Division and some units from the Army's 7th Infantry Division on an offensive from the northeastern coast toward the Chinese border. But as the advance continued, American lines grew thin--and the Chinese became increasingly unhappy with the Americans' approach. China moved 300,000 troops into North Korea in the late fall, although the Americans continued to believe that they would not jump into the war.
While the Marine force included many battle-hardened officers and NCOs, the Army units were markedly weaker. The Army's troop strength had been reduced significantly in the rapid demobilization following World War II, leaving units with fewer soldiers than often were needed to engage in combat.
Some of the Army soldiers sent to Chosin Reservoir were hastily trained teenagers who had been rushed to Korea from cushy garrison duty in Japan. About 700 of the original 3,200 members of Task Force Faith were young Koreans who had been swept up in South Korean cities and pressed into unpaid service.
The Army units had meager supplies of ammunition, food and equipment. Many of the soldiers found themselves facing winter temperatures that fell to 40 degrees below zero with only light parkas and thin cotton pants for protection.
In early November, the 1st Marine Division and the Army units began a laborious advance up a gravel mountain road that wound 78 miles into the interior toward the huge reservoir, about 40 miles from the Chinese border. While most of the troops headed toward the west side of the reservoir, three Army battalions and a few other units turned east.
The Army brass told them that only a scattering of Chinese units was in the area. The soldiers set up three separate camps on the night of Nov. 27 without digging foxholes into the rock-frozen earth as military practice required or, in some cases, without setting up communication links so neighboring units could be contacted for help. By 11 p.m., the soldiers found out that Army intelligence was wrong.
Hordes of Chinese infantrymen, some armed with captured U.S.-made Thompson submachine guns, announced their arrival with bugles, whistles and shepherd's horns. Swarming through the camps in subzero weather, they killed some soldiers as they slept in their tents and destroyed vehicles, artillery and other equipment before they were repulsed.
Pvt. Hammond, assigned to the 57th Field Artillery, saw in the dawn's light that only a few men in his unit were left to operate its six 105-millimeter guns.
Only slowly recognizing the extent of the threat, Army leadership first ordered the units to continue their mission. According to historical accounts, Gen. Edward M. Almond, commander of the Army's X Corps, flew in by helicopter and urged the men on: "Don't let a bunch of Chinese laundrymen stand in your way."
Two days later, the brass ordered the troops to withdraw, though some senior Army leaders privately doubted that many would make it out. For four days, the task force held out against two Chinese divisions, who attacked at night and remained hidden during the day.
Except for Marine aircraft, the Americans had no support. An Army tank unit a few miles south tried briefly to join them--but turned around after two of its tanks were destroyed by the Chinese. American aircraft tried to airdrop supplies to the units, but some were lost to the enemy. In other cases, the wrong ammunition was sent.
The Chinese were carrying only light weapons, but they had large numbers of troops and were highly disciplined. Clarence White, then an 18-year-old supply sergeant, recalled watching the Chinese march in formation toward the American positions as grenade launchers and .50-caliber machine guns from an Army tracked vehicle cut them down. "It was unbelievable," he said of their determination.
Many of the Army's officers were killed or wounded in the first days at Chosin Reservoir.
Col. Allan D. MacLean, the commanding officer, ran out across the reservoir ice to greet what he thought was an American rescue mission. It turned out to be a Chinese column. He was wounded, then captured by the Chinese.
The new commanding officer, Lt. Col. Don Carlos Faith, on Dec. 1 ordered the troops to form a convoy of trucks for a withdrawal. The wounded, then numbering 600, were piled in the vehicles and lashed onto hoods and fenders.
But the withdrawal began in disaster as a Marine Corsair fighter plane dropped a canister of napalm too close to the column, incinerating a dozen U.S. soldiers at the head of the convoy. The mistake encouraged the Chinese, who increased their fire and panicked many of the U.S. soldiers, who surged down the road without waiting for orders.
For the next 12 hours, the convoy moved sluggishly as Chinese marksmen picked off drivers and trucks broke down. Finally, with Faith dead and the column still six miles north of the Marine encampment, the convoy ground to a halt. The Chinese troops swarmed in, shooting the wounded, lobbing grenades, setting other vehicles afire and taking the few unwounded soldiers prisoner.
Thomas Sealey, 68, then an 18-year-old private, was crouching under a broken truck with only five rounds remaining when the Chinese surrounded it and poked their bayonets in his direction.
For 33 months he was held prisoner, living on two boiled potatoes a day and watching weaker soldiers die in filth and despair. Over the next several days, the last soldiers straggled in to the Marine camp at Hagaru-ri. Only 385 members of an Army force that once numbered 3,200 were healthy enough to join the Marines in their withdrawal to the sea.
The Army soldiers' battlefield ordeal was over. But a new fight soon began--over their reputation.
A Marine chaplain who had been at Chosin, Lt. Cmdr. Otto Sporrer, returned to the states to give news interviews and write an article deploring the Army's performance.
Sporrer, who resented the fact that the Marines had been used in the Chosin campaign, said that some Army soldiers had thrown down their weapons. Others feigned injuries once back at the Marine camp, he said, so they would be evacuated to safety and would not have to fight.
In "Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950," a 1999 account of the campaign as seen largely through Marine eyes, author Martin Russ reported that an anonymous Marine had written lyrics about the task force, to the tune of Hank Snow's classic country song, "Movin' On": Hear the pitter patter of tiny feet It's the U.S. Army in full retreat.
Responding to accusations from Sporrer and others, the Army had its inspector general study the units' performance. He found no evidence to support the accusations. In the years after the war, Col. Faith was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor and the official Army history praised the soldiers.
Yet the stain on the Army units' reputation has been difficult to erase.
In 1952, when U.S. military commanders in Asia proposed a Presidential Unit Citation to honor the American performance at Chosin, the Marine commander, Gen. Oliver Prince Smith, recommended inclusion of Marine components but not the Army units who fought nearby.
In recent years, some Marines, Army veterans and others have petitioned repeatedly to honor Army units as well. They cited documents from official Chinese archives showing that the Chinese had thrown two full divisions and an attached regiment--20,000 troops--at the task force. But the authorities demurred, saying that rules required them to abide by the judgment of the commander on the scene, Smith, the Marine general.
Last year, two groups of veterans again urged authorities to grant recognition to Task Force Faith. One group consisted of the directors of a veterans' group called the Chosin Few, four-fifths of whose members are Marines.
In October, Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, who has authority over the Marines, signed a terse order calling for the Army units to be included in the citation for displaying "extraordinary heroism." At a convention of the Chosin Few in Lancaster, Pa., on June 10, the veterans finally were honored.
Some Army veterans acknowledged that many of the soldiers at Chosin Reservoir were ill-prepared and that their officers made mistakes. But they deny that there was malingering and insist that, if any soldiers threw down their weapons, it was because they were malfunctioning or because they had no ammunition.
Merrill A. Needham Jr., a sociologist and writer who has pushed since 1993 to win recognition for the Army units, said that it made him "very emotional . . . to think of this unit, stripped of its honor." That they "fought as long and hard as they did, basically unsupported, was miraculous," said Needham, who has written a book, "Foot Soldiers," about the long military tradition of Faith's family.
Needham sees the soldiers as belonging to a centuries-old military tradition called the "forlorn hope"--a small band of warriors who are thrown into the path of likely destruction to slow an enemy's attack.
With many soldiers' bodies "left smoldering amid the wreckage of their trucks, or frozen in the ice of Chosin," the Army units fit that definition, Needham wrote in a letter to one officer of the outfit. "Neither then, nor later, were they honored."
The Army veterans, though, said that they now are trying to focus on the positive aspects of what happened, including the way some Marine veterans helped push the Pentagon bureaucracy to clear their names. "It was, really, the Marines that got it done," Hammond said. And that may be a sign that, 50 years after the fighting, the wounds are healing.
* One of the Bloodiest Wars in History
The Korean War was one of history's bloodiest, a Cold War flash point that set the stage for American involvement later in Vietnam. It began on June 25, 1950, after Communist North Korea invaded South Korea. The U.N. entered the war in support of South Korea. The Soviet Union and China supported the North. The United States supplied about 90% of the troops and supplies that the U.N. sent to South Korea.
* Military Casualties in Korea
Prisoners Dead Wounded or missing South Korea 58,127 175,743 166,297 U.S. 36,516 103,284 8,100 Other U.N. nations 3,194 11,297 2,769
* Dead or wounded Prisoners North Korea 522,000 102,000 China 945,000 22,000
* Battle of the Chosin Reservoir
In late 1950, the war appeared to be over. Allied forces were pushing the North Koreans to the Yalu River. Then the Chinese sent a huge force against the Allies on Nov. 27-29. American troops, outnumbered 10 to 1, were forced to retreat along snowy mountain roads, in one of the most pivotal and startling battles of the war.
* Sources: "Chosin, Heroic Ordeal of the Korean War," "Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign, Korea 1950," Department of Defense, World Book Encyclopedia; researched by JOHN JACKSON and VICTOR KOTOWITZ/Los Angeles Times
* SUBDUED REMEMBRANCE
Ceremonies marking the war anniversary are muted amid signs of rapprochement.
---
Protests, commemorations mark 50th anniversary of Korean invasion
CNN
June 25, 2000 Web posted at: 12:45 p.m. EDT (1645 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/06/25/korea.anniversary.02/index.html
(CNN) -- While protesters in South Korea called for removal of lingering U.S. troops, U.S. leaders joined Sunday with Korean War veterans in Washington to mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the conflict.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/06/25/korea.anniversary.02/koreas.jpg
In the Washington area, U.S. Vice President Al Gore placed a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknowns. Later, across the Potomac River, representatives of 21 nations that helped the United States fight the war were expected to lay wreaths at the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/06/25/korea.anniversary.02/link.gore.ap.jpg
President Clinton was scheduled to speak at a ceremony at the memorial later Sunday attended by South Korea's ambassador to the United States and former Senator John Glenn, an Ohio Republican and Korean War veteran.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/06/25/korea.anniversary.02/link.clinton.jpg
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/06/25/korea.anniversary.02/link.glenn.head.jpg
One U.S. veteran who spent the anniversary at the Korean War Veterans Memorial on Sunday was actor James McEachin, who told CNN that his life was saved during combat by a mysterious "Scandinavian-looking guy" who apparently had deserted his unit.
The man, who never identified himself, helped McEachin, who had suffered a life-threatening chest wound. After recovery in a military hospital, McEachin returned to the battlefront to try to find his unidentified rescuer, without success.
'Forgotten War' remembered
Some historians have referred to the Korean War as the "Forgotten War" because, sandwiched between World War II and the Vietnam War, the conflict somehow never entered the U.S. national consciousness as other wars have.
"But it is not forgotten," Clinton said in a proclamation released on Sunday. "We pay honor to the courage of our veterans who fought in Korea and to the thousands who died there or whose fate is still unknown."
Clinton proclaimed that Congress has designated June 27, 2000, as National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, and ordered all American flags to be flown at half staff. June 27 was the date in 1950 when U.S. President Harry Truman committed the first U.S. forces to the Korean conflict.
"We remember that, in the Korean War," Clinton's statement said, "our soldiers' brave stand against communism laid the foundations of peace and freedom that so many nations enjoy today."
North Korea launched an invasion of South Korea on June 25, 1950. U.S.-led United Nations forces battled Chinese- and Soviet-backed North Korea to a stalemate in the war, in which 3 million soldiers and civilians were killed and 5 million became refugees.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/06/25/korea.anniversary.02/koreas.jpg
Nearly 37,000 U.S. soldiers died in the Korean War, 92,000 were wounded and 8,000 have not been accounted for. Nearly 1 million South Korean troops were killed or injured.
The fighting ended in 1953 with an armed truce and the two Koreas remaining in a technical state of war with no peace treaty.
The United States still has 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea, seen as a deterrent to the Stalinist North and a key element in America's Asia-Pacific security umbrella. But despite the easing tensions, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Friday during a visit to Seoul that U.S. troops should remain on the peninsula for the foreseeable future.
But this year, anniversary ceremonies were set against a very different backdrop of easing relations between North and South Korea, in the wake of the historic first-ever summit June 13-15, where both nations' leaders pledged to work toward reunification.
U.S.-North Korea talks expected this week
On June 19, Washington eased trade sanctions against North Korea, moving one step closer to opening formal diplomatic relations. But before relations are normalized, the United States has made it clear that North Korea must halt its missile development program and export of missiles, which American officials have said pose a security threat to U.S. shores.
A senior State Department official told CNN on Thursday the United States expected to discuss the missile issue sometime this week during talks with North Korean officials in New York.
"We are going to address our concerns," the official said. "We hope to work to reduce the dangers that are caused by these missiles."
CNN Correspondent Bruce Morton, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/morton.bruce.html
---
S. Koreans Protest Against US
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 2:21 PM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000625/ts/skorea_protest_2.html
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Thousands of protesters marked the 50th anniversary of the start of the Korean War on Sunday with a boisterous march and a call for withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea.
``Let's kick out the U.S. military. Until that time, we can't be happy,'' the 2,500 protesters, mostly students, shouted as they marched through downtown Seoul.
The march marked the height of weeks of anti-U.S. protests by students and activists in the run-up to the anniversary. They object to the 37,000 U.S. troops still stationed in South Korea nearly a half-century after fighting on the peninsula ended.
After a rally at a downtown park, the group hit the streets, waving dozens of red, blue and white placards. Thousands of police escorts looked on.
Many demonstrators carried small disfigured paper American flags with signs reading, ``Yankee, go home.''
In views similar to those espoused by communist North Korea, the protesters said Washington is turning South Korea into its colony. They cited a number of incidents involving the U.S. military that have angered South Koreans, including crimes committed by U.S. soldiers and bombing exercises by U.S. jets that have caused friction with villagers.
One spot where tensions have been high is at the U.S. bombing and gunnery range at Maehyang-ri, a seaside village southwest of Seoul. About 200 people called for the range's closure Sunday in a separate protest outside the U.S. Embassy.
Police brawled with two dozen of the activists during the embassy protest. At nightfall, they briefly detained those who had been involved in the fighting.
The protesters displayed photographs of villagers they said had been injured by the bombing at Maehyang-ri. Some held signs saying, ``Apologize, Clinton!''
One protester, the Rev. Hong Keun-su, called the United States an ``evil empire.''
``Until the Yankees are gone, we have nothing,'' he said.
---
Korean War Anniversary Marked
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 12:13 PM ET
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000625/wl/skorea_war_anniversary_3.html
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Old soldiers in suits and crisp uniforms marked the 50th anniversary Sunday of the start of the Korean War, fanning themselves in the summer heat and sobbing as they remembered their comrades who died on an impoverished peninsula torn between communism and democracy.
But unlike previous commemorations, there was also joy: President Kim Dae-jung said democratic South Korea and communist North Korea are poised to repair the legacy of their Cold War conflict, which has endured for half a century.
Kim warned, however, that the specter of war was still vivid after his June 13-15 summit in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, during which they pledged to work toward reunification. Their border remains the most heavily armed in the world, a symbol of the depth of animosity between the two countries.
``In Pyongyang, I stressed that if another war broke out, it would be different from the one we had,'' Kim said. ``If that happened, the whole nation would be decimated by the use of extremely advanced weapons of mass destruction. We should never dream of unification by force or absorbing the other side.''
Kim also ordered his armed forces, which are backed by 37,000 U.S. troops deployed in the South, to remain wary despite moves toward reconciliation with the North. North Korea has maintained a perpetual war footing for years, even though it is so poor that it relies on outside food aid.
The main anniversary ceremony was held at the War Memorial Museum, where schoolgirls presented garlands to veterans and military honor guards carried flags of the 21 countries that contributed to the U.S.-led U.N. force that fought North Korean and Chinese troops as well as Soviet air force planes.
``I am proud of what I did for the country, but I also feel sorry when I think about colleagues who died,'' said Lee Kyong-hyun, 73, a South Korean retired army sergeant. ``My thanks also go to the United States and other Allied countries which came to our aid in great danger.''
Bill Mosley, 68, of Britain, described Korea's deep poverty a half-century ago, sobbing as he recalled comrades who died during his tour of duty from May 1951 to March 1952.
``I still think of them and it's a bit hard,'' said Mosley, who was among 1,000 foreign veterans at the event. Another 4,000 South Korean veterans also attended.
South Korean soldiers stood stiffly in yellow gowns and tall hats - the costume of the royal guard of the Chosun dynasty that ruled the peninsula for centuries until it was ousted by Japanese colonizers in 1910. Advancing U.S. and Soviet forces divided the Korean peninsula at the end of World War II.
A women's choir sang ``Spring in My Hometown,'' a popular song on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone that has become a melancholic anthem for families separated from loved ones on the other side of the border.
In a sign of the newly conciliatory mood between the North and South, the ceremonies were scaled back from their original plan. South Korea canceled a military parade planned for Sunday, as well as reenactments of pivotal battles, including the famed amphibious landing at Inchon in September 1950 that reversed North Korean advances.
North Korean media did not mention the war anniversary Sunday, instead issuing follow-up reports on the success of the summit, according to private and government monitors in South Korea.
In a ceremony at the National Cemetery in Seoul, where 50,000 Korean War dead are buried, veterans prayed, burned incense and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The veterans included Fidel Ramos, former president of the Philippines, and Paik Sun Yup, an 82-year-old former general who was South Korea's top military commander during the war. Togo West, the U.S. secretary of veterans affairs, was also present.
The three men honored the dead by tolling a giant bronze bell in the cemetery, which is nestled in a valley between two low hills overlooking the Han, the river that bisects Seoul. The bustling capital of 11 million is now the center of one of the world's leading economies - a stunning contrast with the impoverished, war-torn land that veterans remember.
In a speech at the war museum, West said nearly 37,000 American soldiers died, 92,000 were wounded and 8,000 remain unaccounted-for in the Korean War. Nearly one million South Korean troops were killed or injured, he said.
``Our two nations were united forever in the crucible of war by a history of shared hardships, and a future of common purpose,'' West said.
In his speech, the South Korean president reiterated the points of understanding reached with his North Korean counterpart. He said they included his belief that U.S. troops deployed in South Korea should remain on the peninsula even after unification to maintain the balance of power in Northeast Asia.
``The North showed substantial understanding on my explanation on the need for the U.S. troops,'' Kim said. ``I am reporting this to you as a major accomplishment made during my visit to Pyongyang.''
However, on at least two occasions since the summit, North Korea has repeated its longtime demand for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. In the past, the North has often engaged in fiery rhetoric against negotiating partners even as it showed a willingness to deal with them.
---
U.S. Sees End to Korean War 50 Years After Start
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 1:40 PM ET
By Randall Mikkelsen
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000625/ts/korea_usa_dc_1.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fifty years after the start of the Korean War, Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) kicked off U.S. commemorations of the event by proclaiming on Sunday that an end to the technically unresolved conflict was in sight.
``The end has not yet come, but it will,'' Gore told an audience of Korean War veterans and other dignitaries in a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Gore spoke after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, commemorating a conflict that is emerging from a relative historical obscurity in the United States that led many veterans and others to regard it as ``the forgotten war.''
The Korean War started June 25, 1950, when 90,000 Communist North Korean troops launched a surprise attack across the 38th parallel into South Korea.
The United States and other forces operating under U.N. authorization battled Chinese-backed North Korean forces until a 1953 armed truce brought an end to the fighting but failed to formally end the conflict.
More than 33,000 U.S. troops were killed and more than 100,000 were wounded. The United States still has 37,000 troops in South Korea.
The vice president said the summit earlier this month between North Korea and South Korean leaders brought a final resolution of the conflict closer.
``With the meeting that took place at Pyongyang it is possible for us to imagine that within three years, when the 50th anniversary of the armistice is commemorated, we will be able to say, 'mission accomplished,''' Gore said.
U.S. veterans of the Korean war were finally getting a recognition they deserved, Gore said. ``For too long the Korean War was a forgotten war, a critical turning point taken for granted, lost in memory between the glory that was World War Two and the trauma that was Vietnam.''
``The veterans of the war ... returned quietly, your sacrifices unheralded, your bravery all too often ignored. ... Your country greets you today, and says 'welcome home,''' he said.
``As a nation, we can do more than honor their sacrifice. We can recognize the Korean War's enduring contribution to America's security and to that of the world,'' he said.
Later on Sunday, President Clinton was to address a war commemoration at the Korean War Memorial, the opening of which in 1995 was a pivotal event raising the U.S. profile of the war.
South Korea, however, has toned down its own commemorations of the war following the Pyongyang summit, canceling a military parade and battlefield reenactment.
Gore was accompanied at the Arlington cemetery event by Korea veteran Vincent Krepps. Krepps had spent 48 years seeking to learn the fate of his twin brother, Richard, who was captured in the war. Krepps learned two years ago from another former prisoner of war that his brother had died in captivity.
Other veterans interviewed at the ceremony said they were grateful awareness of their service was growing.
``At last we've gotten some recognition, because when we all got back after it, it was right back to our jobs. Nothing was said,'' said Peter Sartori, of Orchard Park, New York. He wore a Korean veterans T-shirt with a slogan ``The Forgotten War. It's Time to Remember.''
Recent reports about U.S. attacks on civilians at the outset of the war have stirred painful memories and ignited discussions among fellow veterans, he said.
``Nobody tried to shoot civilians on purpose. When you're threatened and somebody's around you or behind you, you react,'' said Sartori, who said he entered the war later but that he has discussed the issue with fellow veterans from the early period. ''Mistakes were made,'' he said.
Sartori said he found a reconciliation between the Koreas hard to envision. ``To have a Communist country and a democratic country come together ... would be pretty difficult, I think.''
But Donald Burns, an army veteran from Buffalo, said, ``It's about time.''
---
S.Korea Urges Vigilance on War Anniversary
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 2:31 AM ET
By Bill Tarrant
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000625/ts/korea_anniversary_dc_2.html
SEOUL (Reuters) - Speaking to thousands of military veterans on the 50th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, South Korean President Kim Dae-jung said security must be maintained despite moves to reconcile with communist North Korea.
``We cannot afford to relax'' until reunification and permanent peace between the Koreas is achieved, Kim told an anniversary ceremony at the War Memorial Museum.
``Firm security should be sustained; peace can be guaranteed only through tight defense posture,'' said the 74-year-old president, whose June 13-15 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il caused euphoria in the South over the prospect of easing tensions on the Cold War's last flashpoint.
Reflecting the new mood on the peninsula, both Koreas have made moves to tone down martial aspects of the commemoration.
South Korea has canceled a military parade and a battlefield re-enactment of one of the most famous battles of the Korea War -- General Douglas MacArthur's amphibious landing at Inchon, which turned the tide of a bloody and brutal conflict.
Peace Rafts Sail River
Instead activists from several civic groups on Sunday sailed on a large ``peace raft'' down the Han River that bisects Seoul to its mouth on the Yellow Sea to promote reunification.
Since the summit, both Koreas have stopped blaring propaganda broadcasts at each across the Demilitarized Zone, where a million soldiers face off on the world's most militarized frontier.
U.S.-led United Nations forces battled Chinese- and Soviet-backed North Korea to a stalemate on the 38th parallel in the Korea War, in which three million soldiers and civilians were killed and five million became refugees.
It ended in an armed truce and the two Koreas remain in a technical state of war with no peace treaty agreed yet.
The United States still has 37,000 troops in South Korea, seen as a deterrent to the Stalinist North and a key element in America's Asia-Pacific security umbrella.
President Kim said in his anniversary speech North Korea showed ``substantial understanding'' of Seoul's rationale for keeping U.S. troops on the strategic peninsula at the summit.
Understanding On U.S. Troops
Kim said he told Kim Jong-il U.S. troops would be needed even after reunification ``to maintain the balance of power in Northeast Asia.''
``The North showed substantial understanding on my explanation on the need for the U.S. troops. I am reporting this to you as a major accomplishment made during my visit to Pyongyang.''
That hasn't been evident so far in the North Korean rhetoric aired in its official media, where Pyongyang has several times repeated its demand for a U.S. troop withdrawal.
The future of U.S. troops in Korea has become a point of contention in the national debate here with the emerging rapprochement of the rival Koreas.
Anti-U.S. protests have increased in recent weeks after a U.S. warplane with engine trouble was forced to make an emergency drop of 500-pound bombs on a training range near Maehyang-Ri village, about 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Seoul.
On Saturday, villagers, joined by an array of activist groups, staged a rally outside the bombing and gunnery range demanding a withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Visiting Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told a news conference on Friday that ``the situation with North Korea...while promising, has not been resolved.''
In August 1998, North test-fired a missile that soared over Japan, unnerving the big powers in the region.
But Pyongyang has recently launched a diplomatic offensive to end its Cold War hibernation, even inviting the Pope to visit.
Despite this, President Clinton is considering building a multi-billion dollar defense system in case U.S. military planners are right and Pyongyang is able to strike the world's remaining superpower by 2005.
President Kim in his commemoration speech said the two Koreas had agreed to work toward unification ``independently,'' but not to the exclusion of the great powers surrounding the peninsula.
South Korea will keep coordinating with the United States and Japan with regard to North Korea. ``At the same time, we will keep our closer partnerships with China and Russia.''
Kim added: ``There is no reason why North Korea should not become friends with all four.''
That would be the only way for Korea, which has seen 900 invasions in 2,000 years of recorded history, ``to achieve peace without the need to worry about superpowers, while the South-North cooperation remains the centerpiece of peace.''
---
Korean War Anniversary Marked
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 10:01 PM ET
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000625/wl/skorea_war_anniversary_2.html
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - Old soldiers in suits and crisp uniforms marked the 50th anniversary Sunday of the start of the Korean War, fanning themselves in the summer heat and wiping away tears as they remembered fallen comrades.
But unlike previous commemorations, there was also joy: President Kim Dae-jung said democratic South Korea and communist North Korea are poised to repair the legacy of their Cold War conflict, which has endured for half a century.
Kim warned, however, that the specter of war was still vivid after his June 13-15 summit in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, during which they pledged to work toward reunification. Their border remains the most heavily armed in the world, a symbol of the depth of animosity between the two countries.
``In Pyongyang, I stressed that if another war broke out, it would be different from the one we had,'' Kim said. ``If that happened, the whole nation would be decimated by the use of extremely advanced weapons of mass destruction. We should never dream of unification by force or absorbing the other side.''
Kim also ordered his armed forces, which are backed by 37,000 U.S. troops deployed in the South, to remain wary despite moves toward reconciliation with the North. North Korea has maintained a perpetual war footing for years, even though it is so poor that it relies on outside food aid.
The main anniversary ceremony was held at the War Memorial Museum, where schoolgirls presented garlands to veterans and military honor guards carried flags of the 21 countries that contributed to the U.S.-led U.N. force that fought North Korean and Chinese troops as well as Soviet air force planes.
``I am proud of what I did for the country, but I also feel sorry when I think about colleagues who died,'' said Lee Kyong-hyun, 73, a South Korean retired army sergeant. ``My thanks also go to the United States and other Allied countries which came to our aid in great danger.''
Bill Mosley, 68, of Britain, described Korea's deep poverty a half-century ago, sobbing as he recalled comrades who died during his tour of duty from May 1951 to March 1952.
``I still think of them and it's a bit hard,'' said Mosley, who was among 1,000 foreign veterans at the event. Another 4,000 South Korean veterans also attended.
South Korean soldiers stood stiffly in yellow gowns and tall hats - the costume of the royal guard of the Chosun dynasty that ruled the peninsula for centuries until it was ousted by Japanese colonizers in 1910. Advancing U.S. and Soviet forces divided the Korean peninsula at the end of World War II.
A women's choir sang ``Spring in My Hometown,'' a popular song on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone that has become a melancholic anthem for families separated from loved ones on the other side of the border.
In a sign of the newly conciliatory mood between the North and South, the ceremonies were scaled back from their original plan. South Korea canceled a military parade planned for Sunday, as well as reenactments of pivotal battles, including the famed amphibious landing at Inchon in September 1950 that reversed North Korean advances.
North Korean media did not mention the war anniversary Sunday, instead issuing follow-up reports on the success of the summit, according to private and government monitors in South Korea.
In a ceremony at the National Cemetery in Seoul, where 50,000 Korean War dead are buried, veterans prayed, burned incense and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The veterans included Fidel Ramos, former president of the Philippines, and Paik Sun Yup, an 82-year-old former general who was South Korea's top military commander during the war. Togo West, the U.S. secretary of veterans affairs, was also present.
The three men honored the dead by tolling a giant bronze bell in the cemetery, which is nestled in a valley between two low hills overlooking the Han, the river that bisects Seoul. The bustling capital of 11 million is now the center of one of the world's leading economies - a stunning contrast with the impoverished, war-torn land that veterans remember.
In a speech at the war museum, West said nearly 37,000 American soldiers died, 92,000 were wounded and 8,000 remain unaccounted-for in the Korean War. Nearly one million South Korean troops were killed or injured, he said.
``Our two nations were united forever in the crucible of war by a history of shared hardships, and a future of common purpose,'' West said.
In his speech, the South Korean president reiterated the points of understanding reached with his North Korean counterpart. He said they included his belief that U.S. troops deployed in South Korea should remain on the peninsula even after unification to maintain the balance of power in Northeast Asia.
``The North showed substantial understanding on my explanation on the need for the U.S. troops,'' Kim said. ``I am reporting this to you as a major accomplishment made during my visit to Pyongyang.''
However, on at least two occasions since the summit, North Korea has repeated its longtime demand for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. In the past, the North has often engaged in fiery rhetoric against negotiating partners even as it showed a willingness to deal with them.
More events were planned for Monday, including a banquet to honor performers who entertained American troops during the war.
---
Korean War Anniversary Marked with Hopes of Peace
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 8:09 PM ET
By Randall Mikkelsen
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000625/ts/korea_anniversary_dc_3.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fifty years after the Korean War started, U.S. leaders commemorated the event on Sunday with hope that steps toward reconciliation between the Koreas would bring a peace treaty to formally end the conflict.
``The end has not yet come, but it will,'' Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) told an audience of Korean War veterans and other dignitaries in a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Gore spoke after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, commemorating a conflict that is emerging from a relative historical obscurity in the United States that led many veterans and others to regard it as ``the forgotten war.''
President Clinton was more cautious, saying in a later event at the Korean War Memorial that the summit between North and South Korean leaders in Pyongyang earlier this month was a ''hopeful and historic step.''
There is now ``a chance for a different future on the Korean peninsula,'' he said. ``But there is still a wide gulf to be crossed, there is still tension on the peninsula.''
The Korean War started June 25, 1950, when 90,000 Communist North Korean troops launched a surprise attack across the 38th parallel into South Korea.
The first American to be surprised was Army Capt. Joseph Darrigo, whose house at the border crossing was hit by shell fragments and who confronted 5,000 North Korean troops at a train station as he investigated the disturbance. Darrigo stood in the audience on Sunday as Clinton acknowledged him.
The United States and other forces operating under U.N. authorization battled Chinese-backed North Korean forces until a 1953 armed truce brought an end to the fighting but failed to formally end the conflict.
Nearly 37,000 U.S. troops were killed in Korea and more than 100,000 were wounded in a conflict President Harry Truman initially billed as a ``police action.'' The United States still has 37,000 troops in South Korea.
``War At Its Worst''
Clinton said the U.S. soldiers faced searing heat, subzero cold that froze the pins in hand grenades and close-in fighting that he equated with the First World War and the Civil War. ''There is no question. Korea was war at its worst. It was also America at its best.''
He said Korea was where ``America drew the line in the sand on the Cold War.''
Gore said the summit earlier this month between North Korea and South Korean leaders brought a final resolution of the conflict closer.
``With the meeting that took place at Pyongyang it is possible for us to imagine that within three years, when the 50th anniversary of the armistice is commemorated, we will be able to say, 'mission accomplished,''' Gore said.
U.S. veterans of the Korean war were finally getting the recognition they deserved, he said. ``For too long the Korean War was a forgotten war, a critical turning point taken for granted, lost in memory between the glory that was World War Two and the trauma that was Vietnam.''
Clinton said the soldiers who fought in Korea helped contain communism. ``As a nation, we can do more than honor their sacrifice. We can recognize the Korean War's enduring contribution to America's security and to that of the world,'' he said.
South Korea has toned down its own commemorations of the war following the Pyongyang summit, canceling a military parade and battlefield reenactment.
Grateful For Growing Awareness
Veterans interviewed on Sunday said they were grateful awareness of their service was growing, especially following the 1995 opening of the Korean War Memorial on the Mall in Washington.
``At last we've gotten some recognition, because when we all got back after it, it was right back to our jobs. Nothing was said,'' said Peter Sartori, of Orchard Park, New York, who wore a Korean veterans T-shirt with a slogan ``The Forgotten War. It's Time to Remember.''
Recent reports about U.S. attacks on civilians at the outset of the war have stirred painful memories and ignited discussions among fellow veterans, he said.
``Nobody tried to shoot civilians on purpose. When you're threatened and somebody's around you or behind you, you react,'' said Sartori, who said he entered the war later but that he has discussed the issue with fellow veterans from the early period. ''Mistakes were made,'' he said.
Sartori said he found a reconciliation between the Koreas hard to envision. ``To have a Communist country and a democratic country come together ... would be pretty difficult, I think.''
But Donald Burns, an army veteran from Buffalo, said, ``It's about time.''
---
As Relations Thaw, Seoul Suspends Arms Plan
Washington Post
Sunday , June 25, 2000 ; A20
By Doug Struck Washington Post Foreign Service
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55667-2000Jun24.html
SEOUL -- South Korea, which has long sought a better weapon against North Korea, won quiet approval from the United States earlier this year to extend the range of its missiles to reach the North Korean capital, according to sources here.
But the success of the recent inter-Korean summit and North Korea's promise to suspend its own missile development has prompted Seoul to hesitate to produce the longer-range armaments.
"We've put it on hold," said a Korean source in a position to know. "We've got the summit now. If we go ahead with the missiles, it could screw up the summit track."
Seoul's dilemma is indicative of how North Korea's recent diplomatic offensive has thrown uncertainty over strategic calculations in East Asia as well as Washington.
The newfound face of moderation by Pyongyang--long the antagonist in many military scenarios--has also thrown a wild card into the weapons plans of Japan and the United States. Both are contemplating antimissile programs ostensibly aimed at protection from North Korea. Another complicating factor, experts say, is the possibility that deployment of Japanese or U.S. missile defense systems could prompt China to speed up an existing program to expand and modernize its missile arsenal.
Japan has been eager to go ahead with a theater missile defense system, to be jointly developed with the United States. Japan has said its missile defense plans are designed to protect against North Korea, but China also sees the proposed system as a threat to its missile superiority in the region.
The United States is mulling proceeding with a limited national missile defense system, designed largely to defend against North Korea's missiles. Experts say deployment of a U.S. system also would be likely to accelerate China's missile buildup, because Beijing would want to be sure it had enough missiles to overwhelm a U.S. defense system and thus preserve the credibility of its nuclear threat.
While the Korean summit produced considerable optimism, there are still plenty of grounds for wariness about Pyongyang's intentions. North Korea has been selling missiles to countries considered hostile to the West; buyers reportedly include Iran, Syria and Libya. Skeptics also say there is no verifiable proof that Pyongyang has ended its long quest for military advantage over its neighbors, dropped its nuclear program or suspended its missile development.
That is the backdrop for South Korea's recent moves regarding its own missiles, which have conventional warheads.
South Korea tested a missile with medium-range capability in April 1999, though it was deliberately loaded with only enough fuel to travel 25 miles. Fully loaded, sources here say, the missile had a range of at least 180 miles, putting Pyongyang easily within reach.
"We've got the technical capacity to go to 500 kilometers [310 miles] and beyond," said a South Korean expert.
Since 1979, South Korea has been restrained by an agreement with the United States limiting its missile range to 180 kilometers, or 112 miles, which could allow it to target North Korean forces near the border but put the North Korean capital just outside range. South Korea has been arguing since the mid-1990s that it needed a counter-threat to target the North Korean capital and much of the country.
Fearing an increase in tension between Pyongyang and Seoul, the United States has been dragging its feet for years on a revision of the agreement, which was renewed for 10 years in 1990. The countries have been technically at war for 50 years, and their ships traded gunfire as recently as last year.
Now, the United States has agreed that South Korea can extend the range up to 300 kilometers, or 186 miles, with a payload of 1,100 pounds, or farther with a smaller payload, according to a senior U.S. official. Those ranges are within internationally set guidelines for other countries.
"The understanding would give the South Koreans what they want in terms of a longer range missile, but be consistent with international . . . standards," the official said.
The understanding was reached in a series of meetings this year and last with the State Department's chief nonproliferation negotiator, Robert J. Einhorn. Einhorn confirmed the negotiations have taken place, and he said "there are very few remaining issues. We hope to work them out in the not-too-distant future." He declined to identify those issues.
"There is no disagreement on the overall framework of the guidelines, including range and payload," Sung Min Soon, South Korea's chief missile negotiator, confirmed in an interview. "The United States fully understands our security needs."
But the urgency has been removed from the matter by North Korea's recent conciliatory moves. North Korea agreed in 1994 to halt its nuclear program and last September agreed to suspend its missile tests. Following the summit, Pyongyang said last week that it will extend the "moratorium." It did so as the United States, in turn, relaxed trade sanctions. With North Korea's exploration of new diplomatic ties with a variety of countries, and the unexpected congeniality of last week's North-South summit, South Korea is in no rush to push ahead with the missile program.
"If we were going to trigger an arms race, that would be a stupid policy," said a government official.
Concern over North Korea's missile program was heightened dramatically nearly two years ago by the nation's test on Aug. 31, 1998, of a rocket that sailed over Japan. It prompted fears that North Korea is developing a long-range missile that could easily target Japan and probably target the United States by 2005.
To defend against this and threats from other hostile countries--called "rogue states" until the State Department dropped that terminology after the Korean summit--the Pentagon has proposed building a limited National Missile Defense (NMD) system. It is set to conduct a crucial test of the rocket interceptor on July 7, and President Clinton has said he will decide by this fall whether to proceed with the costly program.
But even as debate rages over NMD, Japan and the United States are contemplating more limited versions of the antimissile defense system in Northeast Asia. In July 1999, Japan agreed to begin conducting joint research with the United States on smaller versions of the antimissile system, called a Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) or Theater Missile Defense (TMD). Like the American NMD, the systems would use developing technology to shoot down incoming missiles, likened to "hitting a bullet with a bullet."
"In East Asia we have seen an unfortunate proliferation of missile delivery systems," said Ryu Yamazaki, a spokesman for Japan's Foreign Ministry. "The key word for us has to be the defense of Japan."
Officials caution that the systems are only in initial research stages. In addition to the still-unproven technical feasibility, there are a host of financial and political decisions to be made before construction. The proposed U.S. system may require Russia's agreement to amend the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, or America's withdrawal from it.
But even at this stage, analysts say a decision by Clinton to go ahead with research will prompt China and--absent some agreement--Russia to consider boosting their missile programs to overcome the systems.
"If President Clinton decides to go ahead with a National Missile Defense system, China will expand its nuclear arsenal accordingly," said James Miles, a research fellow for Asia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
China is believed to have 15 to 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads, Miles said. "To break through America's NMD, it might be only a matter of acquiring 100 or 200 extra warheads. And China could cope with the economic consequences of doing that," he said.
A Japanese system, though more limited, could have the same effect. "Given the current political situation, development of our own Theater Missile Defense could be an incentive for China and North Korea to increase their forces," said Shin'ichi Ogawa, senior research fellow at Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies. "It can actually encourage countries to strengthen their missile programs to overcome the TMD."
Japan argues strongly that its system should not alarm other countries because it is not accompanied by an offensive threat.
"We are not nuclear. We don't have offensive missile capabilities. We are exclusively defensive," said Toshiro Ozawa, acting director of the government-sponsored Japan Institute of International Affairs.
But China is not expected to be eager to see its nuclear advantage over Japan diluted. And it would react even more strongly if Taiwan attempts to develop a similar system, as it has said it will do with or without U.S. support.
"The action-reaction cycle is a very serious matter with China," said Tomohisa Sakanaka, former director and now an adviser to the Research Institute for Peace and Security in Tokyo.
Critics of both the U.S. and Japanese plans have said the North Korean threat is exaggerated. And they note that North Korea's new diplomatic openings seem to undercut the threat used to justify the systems.
"Pyongyang has changed its strategy," said Yasuhiko Yoshida, a Japanese university professor and head of a pro-Pyongyang humanitarian group. "Washington has been manipulating the Japanese government with a fabricated threat to draw out Japanese money to help finance missile defense" research.
But others say Pyongyang's erratic record of bluff and negotiation makes conclusions about a changed North Korea far too premature.
"The same regime remains in place in Pyongyang," Miles said. "And North Korea has colossal political difference with Japan."
And, they argue, the long development and research required makes it prudent to pursue both diplomacy and hardware.
"Development of a TMD takes a long, long time," said Ogawa. "If your engagement policy fails, it's too late to start developing a TMD."
---
The Korean War A Cold Day in Hell
Washington Post
Sunday, June 25, 2000; Page X08
By Thomas H. Henriksen
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-06/25/016l-062500-idx.html
MACARTHUR'S WAR
Korea and the Undoing Of an American Hero
By Stanley Weintraub
Free Press. 385 pp. $27.50
THE KOREAN WAR
The West Confronts Communism
By Michael Hickey
Overlook. 397 pp. $24.50
"Even Genghis Khan wouldn't have tried North Korea in winter," wrote Maj. Gen. Oliver P. Smith to Marine commandant Clifton Cates about the icy cold that claimed as many lives as Beijing's counter thrust during MacArthur's drive toward China's border in late 1950. Gen. Douglas MacArthur did what the infamous Mongolian warrior would not, and some GIs hated him for the resulting hardships.
Today, June 25, marks 50 years since the outbreak of what is often termed America's "forgotten war." Forgotten, or perhaps eclipsed by the far more troubled U.S. experience in the Vietnam War, the three-year Korean War is notable for many reasons.
While the war's roots stretch to World War II, and it was part of the Cold War, its contemporary significance lies in the fact that it was a Sino-American conflict with immense implications. The Korean peninsula, almost as an afterthought, was divided nearly in half as the Pacific war ended in 1945. The northern region fell within the Soviet orbit and the southern section within the American. Having established a satellite regime, Moscow pulled its troops out in December 1948, and Washington did the same six months later.
So remote did Korea seem to U.S. interests that Secretary of State Dean G. Acheson implied, in a speech before the National Press Club in Washington on Jan. 12, 1950, that South Korea lay outside the American defense perimeter in Asia. It turned out to be one of the most fateful remarks in American diplomatic annals. The North Koreans saw it as a green light for invasion of the South. Backed by Stalin, Kim Il Sung's troops, many of them veterans of the victorious war against Chiang Kaishek's Nationalist movement, lunged southward six months later.
The Truman administration responded by gaining U.N. sanction for the defense of South Korea and committing American forces to battle. The United States fought a politically and geographically limited conflict that seesawed above and below the prewar demarcation line at the 38th parallel. The war stopped close to the previous line, but the world changed as a result. The conflict hardened the Cold War divisions, ended U.S. demilitarization after 1945, and formed part of the McCarthy era that chilled American society. And it left a ticking political bomb yet to be defused. No peace treaty was ever signed, merely a truce, between the two Koreas. The war, in one sense, is still on. The resolution of the political division will require astute diplomacy between Washington and Beijing as well as Seoul and Pyongyang.
The actual fighting employed both old methods and new. Although all military branches made contributions, the U.S. Army bore the brunt of the fighting and the casualties. It made a desperate but successful defense of the city of Pusan, launched a behind-the-lines beach landing at Inchon and executed parachute drops reminiscent of World War II. It was the last time that nuclear weapons were given repeated consideration in a ground conflict. The helicopter first demonstrated its versatility, jets engaged in their first dogfights, and air superiority reaffirmed its crucial role in ground war.
To Stanley Weintraub, author of MacArthur's War: Korea and the Undoing of an American Hero, blame for the debacle in the first months of fighting falls squarely on MacArthur. While history long ago concluded that the "Mikado of Japan," as Acheson dubbed him, exceeded his authority, Weintraub paints a damning professional and personal portrait.
The unpreparedness of American forces in Asia, the ineptitude of the early U.S. commanders in Korea, the blindness to the warnings of China's intervention against U.N. forces approaching the Yalu River--all of these and more faults are heaped on an out-of-touch, aged, delusional, and politically ambitious MacArthur far away in his Tokyo headquarters.
Weintraub hesitantly acknowledges the strategic brilliance of MacArthur's island- hopping tactics against Japan (they saved thousands of lives) Japan and his famous Inchon landing (against virtually all military advice), which saved the surrounded U.S. forces within the Pusan perimeter from being pushed into the sea.
But the resulting hubris led ineluctably to the war's greatest blunder--the headlong pursuit through the shattered North Korean army to China's border, provoking a massive counter-attack. The general's legendary overconfidence, self-serving showmanship, imperiousness, and insubordination outraged Truman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But it was the prospect of a general war with China that finally enabled Truman to cashier his troublesome general. Afterward, the U.N. forces and Chinese fought each other to a stalemate that resembled World War I trench warfare.
An author or editor of scores of books on English literature and war, including The Last Great Victory, Weintraub is a master storyteller. He weaves together in fine narrative style the high and mighty as well as the low and powerless in the first 10 months of the fighting, when military incompetence so often squandered battlefield courage. His vignettes depict scenes of trapped journalists, straggling soldiers and gruesome battles. One character who captures his fancy is the enterprising and attractive Marguerite ("Maggie") Higgins, the war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, whose access to hazardous scenes leaves the reader wondering whether anyone was in charge.
Like Weintraub, Michael Hickey served in the Korean war (with British forces). Also like Weintraub, he is the author of other military histories, among them Gallipoli and The Unforgettable Army. Hickey, who is a graduate of several British military colleges, offers in The Korean War: The West Confronts Communism a more standard military depiction of the Korean conflict than does Weintraub. His emphasis serves, though, to throw a revealing and favorable light on the contribution of Commonwealth troops, particularly English, Scottish and Australian regiments. In this, he fills many gaps in an American audience's understanding of how others courageously fought and sacrificed.
He, too, considers MacArthur's megalomania. But he makes clear that all top officers shared MacArthur's apprehension of communism. His focus, however, is wider, providing a comprehensive picture of the war, enlivened with an occasional dry wit and riveting tales of heroics. Hickey furnishes a useful background as well as a history of the brutal fighting that cost 33,000 American combat deaths and a further 20,000 in non-combat accidents in three years, a rate three times that of the much longer Vietnam conflict. He provides gripping accounts of hand-to-hand combat, sometimes fought with bayonets, shovels and even fists. Like others, he believes that too much ground was surrendered without a fight once the Chinese invaded. But he shares Weintraub's positive opinion of Gen. Matthew Ridgway, who succeeded MacArthur.
Whereas the Vietnam conflict gave birth to the doctrine of overwhelming force to wage future wars rather than an incremental approach, Korea led to the U.S. Army creed that extols readiness. Too many American units, especially in the early phases, suffered huge casualties for lack of training. Hickey underscores these shortcomings while explaining British setbacks as simply the "lack of experience and confidence, or the preponderance of very young soldiers." If you are looking for a good book about fierce combat, then Hickey's account is your book.
The Korean War is still with us in the forms of a time-warped Cold War division, a heavily armed border, and tripwire tension between two sworn adversaries. We really cannot forget this war, at least not yet.
Thomas H. Henriksen is a senior fellow and associate director of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
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U.S. Sizes Up North Korea as a Partner in Business
New York Times
June 25, 2000
By JANE PERLEZ
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/062500korea-econ.html
SEOUL, South Korea, June 24 -- With the easing of economic sanctions against North Korea by the Clinton administration this week, American corporations based here are beginning to assess business opportunities in a country that has been out of bounds for five decades.
North Korea, a country of 22 million people, many of them deprived of all but the most basic needs, represents an unknown world for American business, but one with prospects both large and small: businessmen here see the need for everything from large transportation and energy projects to modest consumer goods.
The president of the American Chamber of Commerce here, Jeffrey D. Jones, says that sketchy data indicate that North Koreans earn a wage of about $150 to $200 a month, much of it disposable income because the state provides housing and basic food. If these wage figures are correct, Mr. Jones said, they exceed disposable income in parts of post-Communist Eastern Europe. However, North Koreans who have fled to China in droves to escape famine have suggested that families are spending almost all their money on food.
And Mr. Jones warned that the process of opening up North Korea would be slow, in large part because of its government's wariness about contact with outsiders.
In a meeting with American business leaders, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright said, without giving specifics, that Washington was eager to encourage North Korea, one of the last outposts of strict Communist economy, to move into the international commercial system.
Businessmen said they envisioned North Korea developing credibility with major Western powers and then becoming eligible for funds from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
This would lay the groundwork for major infrastructure projects, which in turn would attract basic chemical, petrochemical, plastics and paints industries.
Many analysts have predicted that the bare-bones North Korean economy, propped up lately by deliveries of food, fertilizer and fuel from South Korea, China, Japan and the United States, will collapse.
But some modest optimism has emerged, especially since the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, visited China last month. He was urged by his Chinese allies to follow them in opening up his economy and was taken around computer companies in Beijing.
Telecommunications, including mobile phones, which are becoming a promising investment sector in China, will take years to open up in North Korea, Mr. Jones said.
Only 4.9 percent of households are believed to have phones in North Korea, according to South Korean statistics.
A joint South-North economic committee was set up during the summit meeting of the two Korean leaders 10 days ago, and this panel is likely, in the beginning, to become the main conduit for business in the North.
Some South Korean companies already do such business, but Mr. Jones, a lawyer here, cautioned that of the four ventures with North Korea that he had been involved in, only one was still going.
Mr. Jones quoted the head of a major South Korean corporation as suggesting that there was no need for American businesses to fret about competition: as the South Korean had said, "If you are worried about a slice of the pie, there is no pie yet."
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Koreans Hope for Peace on 50th Anniversary of War
New York Times
June 25, 2000 12:18 P.M
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/25korean-war.html
SEOUL, South Korea -- Old soldiers in suits and crisp uniforms marked the 50th anniversary Sunday of the start of the Korean War, fanning themselves in the summer heat and sobbing as they remembered their comrades who died on an impoverished peninsula torn between communism and democracy.
But unlike previous commemorations, there was also joy: President Kim Dae-jung said democratic South Korea and communist North Korea are poised to repair the legacy of their Cold War conflict, which has endured for half a century.
Kim warned, however, that the specter of war was still vivid after his June 13-15 summit in Pyongyang with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, during which they pledged to work toward reunification. Their border remains the most heavily armed in the world, a symbol of the depth of animosity between the two countries.
"In Pyongyang, I stressed that if another war broke out, it would be different from the one we had," Kim said. "If that happened, the whole nation would be decimated by the use of extremely advanced weapons of mass destruction. We should never dream of unification by force or absorbing the other side."
Kim also ordered his armed forces, which are backed by 37,000 U.S. troops deployed in the South, to remain wary despite moves toward reconciliation with the North. North Korea has maintained a perpetual war footing for years, even though it is so poor that it relies on outside food aid.
The main anniversary ceremony was held at the War Memorial Museum, where schoolgirls presented garlands to veterans and military honor guards carried flags of the 21 countries that contributed to the U.S.-led U.N. force that fought North Korean and Chinese troops as well as Soviet air force planes.
"I am proud of what I did for the country, but I also feel sorry when I think about colleagues who died," said Lee Kyong-hyun, 73, a South Korean retired army sergeant. "My thanks also go to the United States and other Allied countries which came to our aid in great danger."
Bill Mosley, 68, of Britain, described Korea's deep poverty a half-century ago, sobbing as he recalled comrades who died during his tour of duty from May 1951 to March 1952.
"I still think of them and it's a bit hard," said Mosley, who was among 1,000 foreign veterans at the event. Another 4,000 South Korean veterans also attended.
South Korean soldiers stood stiffly in yellow gowns and tall hats -- the costume of the royal guard of the Chosun dynasty that ruled the peninsula for centuries until it was ousted by Japanese colonizers in 1910. Advancing U.S. and Soviet forces divided the Korean peninsula at the end of World War II.
A women's choir sang "Spring in My Hometown," a popular song on both sides of the Demilitarized Zone that has become a melancholic anthem for families separated from loved ones on the other side of the border.
In a sign of the newly conciliatory mood between the North and South, the ceremonies were scaled back from their original plan. South Korea canceled a military parade planned for Sunday, as well as reenactments of pivotal battles, including the famed amphibious landing at Inchon in September 1950 that reversed North Korean advances.
North Korean media did not mention the war anniversary Sunday, instead issuing follow-up reports on the success of the summit, according to private and government monitors in South Korea.
In a ceremony at the National Cemetery in Seoul, where 50,000 Korean War dead are buried, veterans prayed, burned incense and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The veterans included Fidel Ramos, former president of the Philippines, and Paik Sun Yup, an 82-year-old former general who was South Korea's top military commander during the war. Togo West, the U.S. secretary of veterans affairs, was also present.
The three men honored the dead by tolling a giant bronze bell in the cemetery, which is nestled in a valley between two low hills overlooking the Han, the river that bisects Seoul. The bustling capital of 11 million is now the center of one of the world's leading economies -- a stunning contrast with the impoverished, war-torn land that veterans remember.
In a speech at the war museum, West said nearly 37,000 American soldiers died, 92,000 were wounded and 8,000 remain unaccounted-for in the Korean War. Nearly one million South Korean troops were killed or injured, he said.
"Our two nations were united forever in the crucible of war by a history of shared hardships, and a future of common purpose," West said.
In his speech, the South Korean president reiterated the points of understanding reached with his North Korean counterpart. He said they included his belief that U.S. troops deployed in South Korea should remain on the peninsula even after unification to maintain the balance of power in Northeast Asia.
"The North showed substantial understanding on my explanation on the need for the U.S. troops," Kim said. "I am reporting this to you as a major accomplishment made during my visit to Pyongyang."
However, on at least two occasions since the summit, North Korea has repeated its longtime demand for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. In the past, the North has often engaged in fiery rhetoric against negotiating partners even as it showed a willingness to deal with them.
---
War Memories Temper Korean Euphoria
New York Times
June 25, 2000
By CALVIN SIMS
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/062500korea-anniversary.html
SEOUL, South Korea, June 24 -- As a marine during the Korean War, Chang Kyong Hak saw many of his friends die and nearly lost his own life defending South Korea from invading Communist troops from the North.
And like so many Korean War veterans, Mr. Chang, 66, was so looking forward to marching in a grand military parade that the South Korean government had planned for Sunday to commemorate the start of the conflict 50 years ago.
But instead of strutting down Seoul's main avenues to the fanfare of military bands and cheering crowds as he had envisioned, Mr. Chang said he will most likely stay home, feeling betrayed by the very country he fought to defend.
Last week, North Korea agreed to pursue peace and reconciliation with the South after a half century of hostilities. And so the South Korean government has canceled all parades, battle re-enactments and other commemorative war events that could be offensive to the North.
"It has been 50 years since the government told us to fight against those evil Communists, and now it wants us to accept the North Koreans as brothers and simply forget what they did," said Mr. Chang, a director of the Marines Corps Veterans Association, which has 800,000 members. "Well, it's an insult that our own government doesn't even know how to properly treat those who fought and died for the nation."
Not only has the decision to tone down the anniversary celebrations brought angry denouncements from veterans, but it has also touched off a heated national debate over the significance of the Korean War and just how far the South should go to appease the North.
Before the South Korean president, Kim Dae Jung, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, held historic talks in Pyongyang last week, the Communist North was widely viewed as one of the world's most bellicose nations. But after the two leaders were seen on national television here embracing and laughing and agreed to reconcile their differences, South Koreans were forced to view their decades-old nemesis in a different light.
The debate over how to gauge North Korea comes as hundreds of veterans, diplomats and officials from around the world have arrived in Seoul to participate in commemoration events.
The war began on June 25, 1950, after North Korea invaded the South. Russia and China took the side of the North, while the United States led a United Nations force fighting for the South. About three million people died on both sides, including an estimated 900,000 Chinese troops and 30,000 Americans. The fighting officially ended in 1953 when the North and South signed an armistice agreement, but technically the two countries are still at war.
Some American veterans who came here to mark the anniversary are as disappointed as Mr. Chang.
Fred Machado, a Navy veteran from Fresno, Calif., said he was upset that South Korea had decided to scale back on the war commemorations.
But Congressman Charles B. Rangel, who described his one-year tour of duty in Korea as a nightmare, had another view. "When countries have been at war for 50 years and when they are concentrating on peace rather than war, I would think that doves and olive leaves are a little more important than parades and display of military power," he said. Mr. Rangel, a New York Democrat, was in Seoul as part of an official delegation for the ceremonies.
South Korea had planned to spend about $40 million on commemoration events, including a parade with more than 15,000 veterans from Korea and abroad and re-enactments of major battles, including Gen. Douglas MacArthur's daring landing at Inchon. The events were to begin on Sunday and continue over three years, ending with the commemoration of the signing of the armistice.
The annual parade is normally a grand display of patriotism. This will be the first time that it has been called off.
South Korean officials said they had decided to scale back events as a good-will gesture toward Kim Jong Il.
North Korea normally celebrates the July 24 anniversary of the signing of the armistice as War Victory Day. But the North Korean leader said during the summit meeting that North Korea would not celebrate the anniversary this year to avoid exacerbating hostilities.
The South Korean government had considered canceling any commemoration of the war but decided that to do so would offend the many foreign veterans and guests who were coming to attend them. Instead of the parades and re-enactments, South Korea plans to hold what it views as more benign ceremonies -- seminars, wreath-layings, photo exhibits, and luncheons and dinner parties for veterans, the officials said.
On Sunday, President Kim will address South Koreans in a ceremony to be held at the Korean War memorial. But government officials said the ceremony is to honor the memory of Korean and foreign veterans who sacrificed their lives for peace.
Han Moon Koo, a factory worker whose father was taken prisoner in the war, said he is, like many South Koreans, excited about the prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula. But he and others say they are still wary of Kim Jong Il, who in the past has shown himself to be as dictatorial and warlike as his father, Kim Il Sung, the country's longtime ruler before his death in 1994.
Mr. Han was 7 years old the last time he saw his father, who was preparing to go off to war and was later captured by the North. "The war robbed me of my father while I was growing up, but oddly on this 50th anniversary, there's a real chance that I might get to see him again if he's still alive," Mr. Han said, referring to a prisoner exchange program that was announced during the summit meeting.
Still, Mr. Han said that it would not be easy to divorce himself from the hatred he has long harbored against North Korea. "I know that we are of the same race," he said, "but I still consider North Koreans to be my worst enemy."
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Korea: 50 years after The Forgotten War
USA Today
06/25/00- Updated 07:12 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm
Caught between World War II and the Vietnam War, the Korean War, which marks its 50th anniversary Sunday, is The Forgotten War of the 20th century. Featuring the only face-to-face fighting in history between U.S. forces and communist Chinese troops, it was the Cold War turned white hot. Almost 34,000 U.S. troops were killed on the battlefield in three years, a death rate almost double the Vietnam War's. But oddly, the war didn't seem to leave a lasting imprint even though its legacy remains at the 38th parallel between North and South Korea. American and North Korean troops still face each other across the barbed-wire, heavily mined border.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
Plan to give workers lump sum and/or benefits finds favor in Congress
By JAMES R. CARROLL,
The Courier-Journal
June 25, 2000
http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/uranium/legacyd1_comp.html
WASHINGTON -- A congressional plan to compensate workers for illnesses related to their jobs at the Paducah uranium plant and other Energy Department sites is gaining momentum.
The Clinton administration has let Senate and House lead- ers know that it will accept a broader, more generous compensation package than the one it proposed last year.
That leaves it to Senate and House negotiators to work out a way to include the compensa- tion in the fiscal 2001 defense authorization bill. The Senate put the payments in its version of the measure, but the House has not. But the House is on record as saying it intended to deal with the issue this year.
In essence, the bipartisan congressional plan would give workers with job-related illnesses a choice of either onetime, tax-free payments of $200,000 and health benefits, or an alternative set of benefits, including money for lost wages, that could be worth more than the lump sum.
The administration had been offering a $100,000 lump sum, without other benefits, or an alternative benefit package. Under the congressional bill, the burden of proof would be on the government to show workers from the gaseous- diffusion plants at Paducah, Portsmouth, Ohio, and Oak Ridge, Tenn., do not have a work-related disease. To be eligible for a claim, these employees must have worked at least a year and started before 1992; worn radiation-dose badges or worked in jobs where they should have worn badges; and contracted one of 25 diseases caused by radiation, including cancers.
For all the credit given Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and Assistant Energy Secretary David Michaels for pushing a compensation package through the administration, critics said the Energy Department plan had shortcomings.
"The administration proposal . . . is weak both substantively and politically," said Bob Schaeffer, public-education director for the Alliance for Nu- clear Accountability, a network of about 30 organizations representing communities near nuclear facilities.
"It hardly goes far enough in terms of the damage done to the workers."
His organization would like to see the congressional plan include payments to residents harmed by the activities of nearby nuclear sites, such as the Paducah plant's neighbors whose drinking-water wells were contaminated and closed. Government whistle-blower groups would like to see the legislation compensate workers who risked their jobs to reveal wrongdoing.
Those may be issues for another day, said one Capitol Hill staff member involved in the compensation bill, but the focus for now is on getting help for sick workers.
-------- colorado
Rocky Flats: The price of peace
By Mark Obmascik Denver Post Staff Writer
http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0625a.htm
June 25, 2000 - No human had worked here for 40 years, but Ricky Mote felt ready. He layered on four sets of safety boots and three pairs of gloves and squeezed the rest of his body into two airtight moon suits. Just in case, an ambulance waited.
Mote expected some danger while digging up 171 drums of uranium from a trench at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant.
What he didn't expect, though, was exploding green goo.
In one of the first jobs of the $7.7 billion Rocky Flats cleanup - the most massive public-works project in the history of Colorado and the first of its kind on Earth - Mote motioned a co-worker in a backhoe, Jeff Herring, to scoop out an unmarked barrel.
The black drum was rotted, and some lime-green sludge, loaded with uranium, oozed out. Mote edged closer for a look.
Suddenly: Fire!
Mote leapt backward from the blue flash and waved for help. Joe Fanning, another worker in a moon suit, jumped ahead with his brass shovel.
One dump of sand and the uranium fire was out. But the crew was shaken.
"I just about pooped myself," Mote said of the August 1998 flash fire.
At Rocky Flats, it was one drum down, 1,099,956 to go.
In the next six years, the U.S. government plans to turn Rocky Flats, one of the world's most fearsome and filthy nuclear bomb factories, into 6,000 acres of hiking and biking trails and light industry 16 miles northwest of downtown Denver.
With little public attention, the top-secret complex has trucked out an estimated 600 plutonium pits, key weapon parts that each carry the killing power of a Hiroshima bomb, down Interstate 25 in Denver to another government facility in Texas.
A former plutonium lab has been reduced to a concrete slab, and 4,060 gallons of volatile plutonium solutions have been drained from leaking pipes and tanks.
Another 30 tons of depleted uranium has been unearthed from outdoor trenches by $20-an-hour workers such as Mote, Fanning and Herring.
All that was the easy part.
Now the U.S. government is pushing ahead to do something at Rocky Flats that has never been done anywhere: detoxify a nuclear bomb plant.
Among the challenges:
Finding 1,100 pounds of plutonium that somehow became lost in ductwork, drums and industrial gloveboxes. The amount of missing plutonium at Rocky Flats is enough to build 150 Nagasakistrength bombs.
Cleaning 13 "infinity rooms" - places so radioactive that instruments go off the scale when measurements are attempted. One infinity room is so bad that managers welded its door shut in 1972. Another room was stuffed with plutonium-fouled machinery and then entombed in concrete.
Trucking out dangerous materials. In the next two years, an estimated 16,000 pounds of highgrade plutonium must be moved through metro Denver to South Carolina. On top of that, to meet the planned 2006 cleanup completion date, Rocky Flats must ship out more than three truckloads of radioactive waste each day; the plant now moves only two truckloads a week.
Controlling costs. Cleanup delays at Rocky Flats would cost taxpayers $2 million a day. The project already is two years behind schedule, though cleanup managers express confidence they'll soon catch up. The government expects to spend nearly twice as much to raze Rocky Flats as it spent to build Denver International Airport.
Protecting workers and neighbors. Cleanup workers are opening contaminated drums and pipes that haven't been handled for four decades. The result: Employee radiation doses have been climbing. The main cleanup contractor was fined $41,250 last month after a demolition worker suffered a heavy radiation dose from a finger cut while taking apart a plutonium furnace. The cleanup carries import far outside Colorado. With dozens of old Cold War weapons factories awaiting decontamination in the United States, the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France, Rocky Flats is a key test case for the world's nuclear cleanup industry.
"Rocky Flats is the flagship site . . . in demonstrating tangible and significant progress toward safe closure of former nuclear weapons production sites," said U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, whose department is managing the cleanup. "The safe closure of Rocky Flats by 2006 is a top priority."
Much information about Rocky Flats still is classified by the government as top secret. To tell how the 700-building complex became so contaminated - and how it will be decontaminated - The Denver Post interviewed dozens of workers, reviewed thousands of pages of records and toured bomb-making buildings that remain protected by anti-aircraft guns, foot-thick vaults and guards with submachine guns.
Put simply, Rocky Flats is a mess.
One highly polluted bomb building, the size of three football fields, was described in 1994 as the most dangerous building in America. Another was so heavily contaminated by a plutonium fire that engineers finally quit trying to clean it and instead built a false ceiling to entrap the splattered radioactivity above workers' heads. At an outdoor pad that once stored 5,200 drums of radioactive waste, an underground plume of plutonium, oil and carcinogenic industrial solvents is seeping downhill.
Nobody envisioned such major pollution problems on March 23, 1951, when the Atomic Energy Commission announced that the nation was building a top-secret nuclear weapons plant in a rocky but flat ranching area of Jefferson County. The Denver Post heralded the government decision with a front-page headline: "There's good news today." The story ran next to a Korean War photo with the headline: "20,000 Reds Flee Yank Paratroopers."
By the time the Soviet Union shocked the world by launching Sputnik into space in 1957, Rocky Flats had become the linchpin in the nation's nuclear bomb system. Rocky Flats took plutonium, made by other government plants or recycled from old warheads in the field, and turned it into one of the most highly engineered devices ever made by man - plutonium pits, or triggers, for nuclear bombs.
A hollow sphere that varies in size from a grapefruit to a soccer ball, a plutonium pit explodes with the power of a Hiroshima bomb. During World War II, that was enough to kill 140,000 people.
But in today's nuclear arsenal, the pit serves mainly as a starter that ignites the final firepower of a thermonuclear weapon; a pit is the compact A-bomb that detonates the overall H-bomb. In modern warheads, Rocky Flats pits set off weapons 600 times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb, which itself was the explosive equivalent of 15,000 tons of TNT.
According to declassified reports, the government made about 70,000 pits while Rocky Flats operated from 1953 to 1989. That's equal to five pits a day.
It's hard to walk through the inner reaches of Rocky Flats today without feeling at least a little unnerved. In the coldest days of the Cold War, up to 8,000 workers entered here 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to build the most deadly devices ever invented.
Visitors must pass through as many as four security stops before entering any classified section of the bomb complex. Rocky Flats spends $55 million a year on security, an amount that exceeds the annual budget for every police and sheriff's department in Colorado except Denver.
At the first Rocky Flats checkpoint, to protect against terrorist suicide missions, guards with submachine guns swab dust from the steering wheels and doors of visiting cars to check for explosives residue.
The second checkpoint is staffed by more armed guards, who screen visitors with metal detectors and scan fingers and palms with a computer that matches handprints with government records. Most people who proceed through this guard station already have received a topsecret "Q" clearance, which requires a full investigation of at least the past 10 years of their personal lives.
A third checkpoint just outside a plutonium building screens the visitor's necklace of five or so security badges to make sure the person is allowed inside. Some buildings also post a fourth security station, where more guards with submachine guns check visitor badges behind a portal of bulletproof glass and 4-inch-thick metal doors.
The perimeter of the 385-acre pit production area is surrounded by two razor-wire fences, security cameras and prison-like watch towers with more armed guards. To foil helicopter landings, anti-aircraft guns are stationed on the roofs of several buildings.
If all the outdoor security feels spooky, it's just a prelude for what lies inside the plutonium buildings. And one place looms largest in Rocky Flats lore - Building 771.
"It's known as the Hole. It's the worst damn building in the whole complex," said Tony DeMaiori, who has worked at the complex for 20 years.
A windowless two-story concrete structure dug into a hillside in 1951, Building 771 was the world's first factory-sized plutonium processing plant. Almost every nuclear weapon ever made by the United States started here.
It was not clean work.
Building 771 took scraps of plutonium, or tainted plutonium from old warheads, and recycled it into gray buttons, or ingots, roughly the size of a hockey puck. Purifying the plutonium required vast amounts of nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen fluoride and caustics.
Almost all work was done inside the building's 217 gloveboxes, aquarium-like containers that ranged in size from one minivan to three Winnebagos. Each glovebox was outfitted with several pairs of elbow-length gloves, made of rubber and lead, which protected workers' hands from radiation while handling plutonium.
With 147,900 square feet of cauldrons, precipitators, furnaces and a giant incinerator, Building 771 helped win the Cold War by turning hundreds of retired old pits into powerful new ones.
But the same chemicals that liquefied and purified plutonium also ate through overhead plumbing.
The result: Leak after leak after leak.
"Occasionally you'd feel a drip on your head and you'd be contaminated with plutonium nitrate," DeMaiori said.
In the vocabulary of Rocky Flats, contamination was "crap." Workers sprayed with radioactivity were "crapped up." Workers sprayed with so much radioactivity that they exceeded the government's annual dose limits - and were forced out of plutonium areas and into desk-job assignments - were "crapped out."
Jim Kelly, who worked 23 years in Building 771, said his worst moment came when coworkers heaving a drum of plutonium waste into the incinerator accidentally dropped it down his back.
"They dumped a barrel of crap on me. Oh, it was a hellhole to work in," he said.
"771 was a building that was feared, and the reason was leaks - leaks from the pipes, leaks from the valves, leaks from the boxes. There were incidents there every day, every week, every year that I worked there.
"There was always tape or plastic on something to stop the leaks. It looked like a building that had 5 million Band-Aids slapped on it."
Still, workers kept coming back to the Hole. One reason was the terrific camaraderie forged by terrible working conditions. Another reason was "hot pay." When Kelly started work in 1956, hot pay was an extra dime an hour on top of the $2 standard wage. Today the top rank-and-file decontamination workers make $20 an hour, or $30 per hour for time in a moon suit with an oxygen tank.
With hot pay comes risk. Al Williams remembers working with his arms deep in a glovebox when he felt some warmth on his leg.
It was leaking plutonium solution.
"There was a hole in the box," Williams said. "Things were different in the old days."
John Goodnow doesn't even know when he was contaminated. After finishing a routine inspection of a plutonium tank-draining area, he got ready to leave for the locker room.
Then a co-worker with a radiation meter found something on Goodnow's safety bootie.
"You can't see it or feel it or taste it or smell it, but it was there," Goodnow said. "I must have just walked across something." His dose was small and is not expected to pose any health problems. But another Building 771 employee, Don Gable, died of brain cancer at age 31, in 1980, after working part of every day with his head 6 inches from a plutonium nitrate pipe. The government lost the dead man's brain before an autopsy could check for radiation.
One storage tank area was so plagued with leaks that workers called it the "snake pit" and dreaded the shifts when they were assigned to clean it.
And then there was Room 141, which contained a pump that squirted so often that low areas in the floor sometimes flooded with 2 inches of plutonium nitrate. Cleanup crews managed to drain the room but then stopped work after failing to reduce radioactivity below the level that reads "infinity" on standard plant instruments.
The door finally was welded shut in 1972, creating a radioactive time capsule that has gone unvisited by any person since the days of Watergate and Archie Bunker's "All in the Family." Room 141 was abandoned so quickly that a peek through the window today shows a jackhammer still stuck in the floor.
That was an accidental spill. Sometimes workers spilled plutonium on purpose to prevent even bigger trouble.
During complex chemical operations, so much plutonium nitrate dripped onto the bottom of gloveboxes that workers faced the risk of criticality - an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction that sprayed a deadly stream of neutrons. To prevent criticality, workers did the nuclear equivalent of pulling the plug on a bathtub. They used a "crit valve" to dump plutonium nitrate from the glovebox to the factory floor. That prevented a criticality disaster from ever occuring at Rocky Flats.
"When you got more than 2 inches of liquid in a box, you'd have a choice - you either have a criticality, or you have a cleanup job,"
said Don Sabac, a Rocky Flats worker since 1961. "You always chose the cleanup job."
For a worker, that meant dropping to his or her hands and knees and scrubbing the plutonium solution off the floor with industrial cleanser, called K.W., and strengthened paper towels called Kimwipes.
That didn't always work. Acids in plutonium solutions often ate through concrete floors or walls and prevented a thorough cleanup. So workers painted over dozens of radioactive areas with purple or brown epoxy.
Paint could seal off nuclear spills, but it took more than that to clean up after fires.
Plutonium shavings can catch on fire just by being piled in the wrong shape or being exposed to the wrong chemical. At Rocky Flats, the wrong thing happened a lot.
From 1953 to 1990, workers reported 430 fires at Building 771 alone.
The biggest started Sept. 11, 1957, when shavings spontaneously ignited in a glovebox network containing 93 pounds of plutonium. The 10:10 p.m. fire had consumed the protective Plexiglas and gloves, the official "incident" report said, when Ted Eckert arrived.
"The fire's out! Stop the water!" workers shouted to Eckert from inside Room 180.
Eckert ran down the hall to tell others to turn off the water. Then - boom! - the building rocked.
The explosion nearly knocked Eckert off his feet and threw two other firefighters, Bob Vandegrift and V.F. Eminger, through a closed metal door.
"It's blown up! Get out!" shouted Bruce Owen from inside the room.
"We'd better get out of here," Eckert told Floid Parker as they ran for their lives.
Workers fled outside and looked up the building's 150-foot smokestack. A dense black smoke plume, filled with sparks, rose 100 feet above Jefferson County.
It took 13 hours to put out the fire, which spackled undisclosed amounts of plutonium throughout the inside of the building. Though most contamination was removed during an eight-month scrubdown, some simply was painted over and is awaiting cleanup today.
And that wasn't even the plant's most destructive blaze. On Mother's Day 1969, a plutonium briquette spontaneously ignited in a neighboring Rocky Flats facility, Building 776, and spread what at that time was the worst industrial fire in U.S. history.
"The fire was out of the top of the (foundry) with flames about 18 inches high. One of the two firemen heard two loud reports (like rifle shots) and saw two fireballs (about basketball size) go to the ceiling," said the government report on the fire. "The firefighters reported seeing burning plutonium erupt with showers of sparks when hit with water."
The fire, which caused $200 million in damage in today's dollars, was extinguished after four hours. So much water was used to douse the Building 776 blaze that it flowed downhill through a fortified 267-foot tunnel to Building 771, where some rooms were soaked in a radioactive flood.
Workers such as Jim DeAndrea, a 41-year Rocky Flats veteran, spent the next two years trying to scrub away the radioactivity.
"I put on my three pairs of coveralls and full face mask and hood and went crawling through the ducts on my back with a sponge, just wiping it down the best I could," DeAndrea said. ""I was working in infinity," he said, referring to the reading on the radiation meters along the 3-foot-by-4-foot metal shafts.
Inside the ducts, DeAndrea felt his finger pinched on a ragged edge of sheet metal. That simple snag was enough to contaminate him.
Safety officials tried to wash off DeAndrea's radiation with cold water, but that didn't work. Neither did rubbing him raw with a coarse brush or scrubbing him in Clorox bleach.
So plant medical workers pulled out a scalpel and scraped off layer after layer of skin on DeAndrea's hand until the radiation meters finally said it was safe.
Like many Rocky Flats workers, DeAndrea emerged from the painful decontamination ready to get right back on the job.
"We were fighting the Cold War. I'm proud that we worked hard and did it well and nobody got killed," DeAndrea said.
The fire in one Rocky Flats building temporarily blocked an entire superpower's bomb-making operations. Fearful that the American delay might let the Soviets pull ahead in the nuclear arms race, Rocky Flats managers pushed hard to resume weapons production.
Cleanup from the 1969 fire never was completed.
"When the gloveboxes were breached by the fire, contamination spread everywhere - in the floor and overhead," said David DelVecchio, who worked in Building 776 for 3 1/2 years.
"A false ceiling was installed because they couldn't get all the contamination out of the original ceiling." Some equipment in Building 776 was so radioactive that workers hauled it into Room 127, stacked it into an 8-by-10-foot block and sealed it all in 18 inches of concrete. In six more years, that concrete tomb - and everything else at Rocky Flats - is supposed to be gone.
It won't be easy.
From March 1997 to June 1999, thousands of pounds of plutonium pits were trucked from Rocky Flats to the federal Pantex facility near Amarillo, Texas. The exact number of pits remains classified, but Energy Department officials confirmed that all were moved out. Nuclear weapons expert Tom Cochran, consulting with declassified government databases and other information assembled by the Natural Resources Defense Council, estimated the plant trucked 600 pits to Texas.
While the weapon parts are gone, many plutonium slivers, dust specks and drips remain.
According to the government's last declassified report, from 1994, ducts, pipes and gloveboxes are believed to be loaded with 440 to 660 pounds of lost plutonium. Another 440 to 660 pounds is believed lost in drums and other storage containers.
For protection, every person who today walks through the double doors of the Building 771 anti-contamination airlock must wear two layers of coveralls, three pairs of safety boots and booties, two sets of gloves - and a dosimeter badge that measures a visitor's radioactive exposure.
On the floor is a yellow line. One side is clean, the other contaminated. All protective clothes worn over the yellow line, into the hot zone, become nuclear waste that must be sent to a special government laundry in eastern Washington for decontamination or disposal.
"At some point, when you're inside there, you're going to be tempted to scratch your face or adjust your safety glasses. Don't do it," radiation control worker Joe Springer tells a visitor. "Don't touch anything."
The warning doesn't have to be given twice. The gravity of the cleanup hits home every time visitors see teams of Rocky Flats workers, in yellow coveralls or white Tyvek moon suits, walking through the concrete hallways to their next demolition job.
Rooms here are lit dimly, and floors are painted battleship gray. Speakers constantly play KOSI-FM light-rock music. Though many bomb factory workers can't stand the station's typical fare of Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and the Backstreet Boys, they listen anyway because the noise means the public address system, which also blares alarms in case of radioactive accidents, is working.
Nine feet up a wall is a pizzasized patch of purple paint, which seals a radioactive spray from some long-ago accident. Nearby, an entire glovebox became so hot from repeated leaks that the whole thing was painted brown.
Dozens of leaky valves and gaskets are wrapped in tape and shrink-wrapped clear plastic.
Up a 10-foot scaffold, workers in coveralls and respirators gingerly move along one of the most dangerous jobs at the plant - taking apart and draining more than 30 miles of plutonium pipes.
Like most nuclear bomb factories where security was a top concern, Rocky Flats has no accurate blueprints for many plutonium buildings.
In Building 771, where pipes carrying plutonium nitrate and other liquids are stacked overhead in up to 10 layers of confusing mazes, workers struggle to figure out where individual lines start and end. There's no room for error. Draining too much plutonium nitrate at once can result in an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction.
"If we get 4 liters of this liquid, we're in the power business," said Kelly Trice, manager of the Building 771 cleanup. "Even a half an aspirin of plutonium is a major contamination problem. It would peg out the meters."
While some crews drain pipes, others use jackhammers to peel away the inside of Building 771 like an onion, removing a half-inch of concrete wall and floor at a time until all radioactivity is gone.
It's slow, grueling work. To remove a single 6-foot concrete floor berm, which prevented spilled plutonium nitrate from flowing between rooms, Marcus Gonzales and six other workers needed a full day of pounding and scraping.
They call themselves the "Berminators." Other workers put on moon suits to cut apart 217 contaminated gloveboxes. Though the typical Building 771 glovebox contains about a pound of lost plutonium dust, or holdup, some individual boxes are tainted with more than 5 pounds, or nearly enough to make a pit.
To take down a steel-and-glass glovebox, workers in moon suits build a clear plastic tent, called a bird cage, around it. Then they cut it apart with low-tech equipment such as band saws and Sawzalls.
Mistakes can be costly.
On Feb. 2, 1999, a worker was cutting apart a plutonium furnace with a band saw inside a glovebox. After finishing one cut through steel, the man, who is not being named to protect his privacy, started moving the saw for his next cut when his finger accidentally hit the "on" switch.
The blade slashed his left index finger to the bone.
Safety workers rushed to help.
To prevent the wound from contaminating other workers, the man's hand was stuffed inside a plastic bag and sealed with tape.
An ambulance raced him to the Rocky Flats medical facility, where the wound was washed and tested and washed again. A physician gave him a shot of diethylenetriaminepentaacetate, or DTPA, an experimental drug that flushes heavy metals from the body.
For three days, the government collected all the man's urine and feces to see how much plutonium remained inside his body. Other tests continued for a year.
Rocky Flats officials said the man ended up receiving an initial radioactive dose 35 times higher than the annual limit for visitors to Rocky Flats, and 10 times more than the typical Denver resident receives in a year from natural radiation that comes from living at a high altitude.
The single finger cut loaded the worker with a long-term radioactive dose to his internal organs that exceeded the government's occupational safety limits by 30 percent. "He has not suffered any health effects, nor do we expect him to," said Mark Spears, the plant's chief radiation safety official.
The government fined KaiserHill, the worker's employer and the main cleanup contractor at Rocky Flats, $41,250 for the accident.
"Kaiser-Hill managers failed to recognize that there had been a change in the work scope of the planned decontamination and decommissioning activities, and, as a result, did not re-evaluate the hazards and apply appropriate controls," the Energy Department said.
After the accident, the company shut down the cleanup job and checked its safety procedures again.
The demolition project was completed 10 months later.
When Building 779, the plant's former laboratory, was reduced to a slab of concrete in January, it was the first time anyone had successfully demolished a plutonium bomb building.
Rocky Flats officials said the job was completed nine months ahead of schedule. But the demolition work cost $1,088 per square foot, or $74 million.
That was more than double the original cost estimate.
And that was for the plant's least-polluted plutonium building.
The overall Rocky Flats cleanup is running two years behind schedule, Energy Department officials said, though both government officials and Kaiser-Hill executives said they believe the company still can catch up to meet the 2006 cleanup completion date.
Kaiser-Hill has a huge financial incentive to meet that deadline. If the company completes the job by Dec. 15, 2006, and meets the overall budget, the government will pay it a $355 million bonus.
But if the cleanup stretches beyond April 1, 2007, the company is docked $54,794 a day.
The company gets to keep 30 cents of every dollar it saves, but must pay 30 cents of every dollar of total cost overruns.
"The money is significant, but the real incentive is the reputation Kaiser-Hill can make for itself,"
said Paul Golan, the Energy Department's No. 2 manager at Rocky Flats. "This is the first nuclear site to be brought to the ground. There are a lot of other nuclear sites around the world. If Kaiser-Hill can do it here and do it well, they become the Microsoft of the business." In a major change at Rocky Flats, rank-and-file workers earn incentive bonuses of up to 50 cents an hour if they meet performance standards on cleanup project safety and schedule.
"People are working themselves out of a job, but there's a tremendous amount of pride. You go into the buildings today and you see people kicking a--," said KaiserHill manager Bob Card.
Rocky Flats needs all the hustle it can get. When the uranium excavation crew of Mote, Fanning and Herring, among others, prepared to clean up Trench T-1, they expected to find 150 drums buried several feet below the prairie.
They ended up finding 171 drums as shallow as 8 inches underground.
One drum smoked and two others flared in blue fire when the excavation exposed them to air for the first time in four decades.
The whole job was completed 30 days ahead of schedule, in August 1998, at an on-budget cost of $12 million, or $70,175 per drum.
Now the workers are anxious for more.
"The stuff we're digging up was never supposed to be seen again. But we had the training, we did the preparation, we got it done," Mote said. "You never have a chance to become complacent. You don't have to exaggerate about this job."
-------- kentucky
Great Articles on Paducah
From: Bob Schaeffer - bobschaeffer@earthlink.net
On Sunday, June 25, the Louisville Courier Journal launched a three-day long series of articles providing lots of previously unpublished details about contamination at Paducah and the government's "response." You can find the package at http://www.courierjournal.com/cjextra/uranium (the most recent stories are in the right hand column). Here's one article that quotes ANA on health issues.
COMPENSATION FOR JOB-RELATED ILLNESSES Plan to give workers lump sum and/or benefits finds favor in Congress
The Courier-Journal
Sunday, June 25, 2000
by James R. Carroll
WASHINGTON -- A congressional plan to compensate workers for illnesses related to their jobs at the Paducah uranium plant and other Energy Department sites is gaining momentum.
The Clinton administration has let Senate and House leaders know that it will accept a broader, more generous compensation package than the one it proposed last year.
That leaves it to Senate and House negotiators to work out a way to include the compensation in the fiscal 2001 defense authorization bill. The Senate put the payments in its version of the measure, but the House has not. But the House is on record as saying it intended to deal with the issue this year.
In essence, the bipartisan congressional plan would give workers with job-related illnesses a choice of either onetime, tax-free payments of $200,000 and health benefits, or an alternative set of benefits, including money for lost wages, that could be worth more than the lump sum.
The administration had been offering a $100,000 lump sum, without other benefits, or an alternative benefit package. Under the congressional bill, the burden of proof would be on the government to show workers from the gaseous-diffusion plants at Paducah, Portsmouth, Ohio, and Oak Ridge, Tenn., do not have a work-related disease. To be eligible for a claim, these employees must have worked at least a year and started before 1992; worn radiation-dose badges or worked in jobs where they should have worn badges; and contracted one of 25 diseases caused by radiation, including cancers.
For all the credit given Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and Assistant Energy Secretary David Michaels for pushing a compensation package through the administration, critics said the Energy Department plan had shortcomings.
"The administration proposal . . . is weak both substantively and politically," said Bob Schaeffer, public-education director for the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a network of about 30 organizations representing communities near nuclear facilities.
"It hardly goes far enough in terms of the damage done to the workers."
His organization would like to see the congressional plan include payments to residents harmed by the activities of nearby nuclear sites, such as the Paducah plant's neighbors whose drinking-water wells were contaminated and closed. Government whistle-blower groups would like to see the legislation compensate workers who risked their jobs to reveal wrongdoing.
Those may be issues for another day, said one Capitol Hill staff member involved in the compensation bill, but the focus for now is on getting help for sick workers.
----
Doctors find lung diseases possibly linked to exposure at work
By JAMES R. CARROLL,
The Courier-Journal
June 25, 2000
http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/uranium/legacyd1_test.html
PADUCAH, Ky. -- Health screening of current and former Paducah uranium workers has found a significant rate of lung diseases that might have been caused by exposure to asbestos or hazardous chemicals on the job.
The results are preliminary, however, and no conclusions can yet be drawn about whether cancer cases among the workers are job-related, said Dr. Steven Markowitz of Queens College in New York.
Ten to 15 percent of about 400 former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant workers tested in the past year have lung scars associated with asbestos, he said.
About the same percentage of workers has chronic bronchitis, and a similar number also have emphysema, he said, adding that some workers suffer from more than one of these ailments.
"I would conclude that occupational exposures contributed and smoking contributed," Markowitz said.
"The vast majority of people screened smoked," he noted, "although very few still smoke."
Markowitz said he had not compiled statistics yet of cancer cases, but he had not seen a noticeably higher number of cancers than he would expect to see in a group this age.
Numerous factors -- includ- ing the high smoking rate -- make an analysis of cancer rates at the plant and its sister facilities in Piketon, Ohio, and Oak Ridge, Tenn., extremely difficult, Markowitz said.
First, the workers screened asked to be tested, so they are not a representative sample of people from all types of jobs throughout the plant.
Second, although former workers being tested have ranged in age from their mid40s to their mid-80s, the average age of those tested is between 60 and 70, meaning many of them have diseases that could occur in the normal course of aging.
Third, the medical tests don't pick up leukemia or lymphoma, and a new, advanced lungcancer-screening program is only now about to begin. Some cancers being found are incidental to the tests.
Cancer aside, the former workers at the noisy plant also showed a "near universal" problem with hearing loss, Markowitz said. Some of that is related to their age, he said, when some hearing loss is expected.
The Paducah workers, who paid about $200 for tests conducted at Prime Care in Paducah and Jackson Purchase Medical Offices in Mayfield, had the results sent to Markowitz under a special program approved by Congress and set up by the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union. The Department of Energy, which owns the plants, has no involvement in the testing or the analysis of the results.
Besides chronic lung diseases, the tests screen for kidney and liver ailments. Workers have not been tested for chronic beryllium disease, although DOE has con- firmed the presence of beryllium at Paducah. Markowitz said he expected to add such a test.
The tests also do not cover other illnesses that could be caused by exposure to radiation or hazardous chemicals. Besides not screening for leukemia and lymphoma, the exami- nations do not check for neurologic problems, which often can come from exposure to certain metals.
"There's not much by way of early screening for that," Markowitz said. "Such testing is very expensive, may or may not lead to a diagnosis, and there may or may not be any treatment that would be helpful."
The doctor said workers need to understand that the main intent of the tests is not to put together an epidemiological study of the uranium plant's work force, but to provide "early intervention for occupational illnesses for which treatment really matters."
Richard Miller, a policy analyst for the union, said the scope of the tests could be broadened in the future.
"Clearly, this doesn't look for everything that's out there," he said. "There are heavy metals we would like to screen for, particularly nickel. . . . What that really requires is a second tier of medical care. . . . But we're going to keep pushing (to expand the tests). The more we are learning (from these tests), the more that helps us push."
--
History reveals ignorance, concealment, peril
http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/uranium/legacyd1_time.html
These key events at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant were compiled from federal and state reports and the files of The Courier-Journal.
August 1950 -- The federal government decides to double the nation's capacity to produce the enriched uranium needed for nuclear power plants and atomic weapons.
Oct. 18, 1950 -- The Atomic Energy Commission, after reviewing eight possible areas for a new gaseous-diffusion plant, selects the Kentucky Ordnance Works near Paducah, which made ammunition.
Jan. 2, 1951 -- Construction begins on the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
September 1952 -- The first buildings at the Paducah plant are completed, and they go into operation. The contractor operating the plant, Carbide and Chemical Co. (later to be Union Carbide), hires 1,790 workers.
November 1952 -- The first enriched uranium is produced. The plant will continue making uranium for nuclear weapons until December 1962.
1953 -- The plant begins using as its raw material uranium that had fueled nuclear reactors at other government facilities. Recycling of the used uranium, which contains minute amounts of plutonium, neptunium and other highly radioactive impurities, will continue off and on until 1977. September 1953 -- Radioactive plutonium shows up for the first time in tests on two workers' urine.
New employees being trained in 1954.
1954 -- The plant begins to overhaul uranium-processing facilities so they will run longer and more efficiently. The work will generate scrap metal contaminated with radiation.
June 1955 -- A plant memorandum says radioactive contamination in Building C-410, where mined uranium is mixed with fluorine before the gaseous-diffusion process, is its highest since the plant opened.
March 1, 1956 -- A plant memo documents experiments involving eight workers who tested respirators in air contaminated by radiation. Similar tests were done later with six more employees.
Jan. 1, 1957 -- The health physics staff tells division superintendents in a letter that there is no need, because of concerns about radioactive contamination, for employees to wash their hands before eating. Not long after this, the plant discontinues using counters that check hands for radiation, until the 1980s.
January 1957 -- A health physics department memo states that "smoking with contaminated hands is not a significant factor in uranium exposure."
July 1957 -- Plant management directs employees maintaining and repairing control valves to wear their own clothes, rather than protective clothing, during work.
1957 -- Radioactive neptunium and technetium are found at the plant.
1957 -- Tests show the presence of plutonium in the chemical-processing areas of the plant.
1957 -- Workers begin burying pyrophoric uranium metal shavings, which ignite if exposed to air or water, on the plant grounds. By 1977, about 540,000 pounds of uranium will be buried in this spot. Elsewhere at the plant, radioactive uranium waste is stored in drums. Over the next 20 years, 6.4 million pounds of uranium will accumulate at the second site.
Paul Rowland stowed equipment in a "field decontamination" truck in 1953, the year the Paducah plant went into operation. The current contamination problems involve the plant's buildings and grounds, plus air, water and land elsewhere.
Early 1958 -- Health physics staff members volunteer to be exposed to radiation in the air. A senior staff member drinks a uranium-bearing solution to understand how the body gets rid of the material.
April 1958 -- A Carbide letter to Paducah supervisors states that "radiation presents a hazard and . . . must be considered with the same degree of importance as any other hazardous condition."
November 1958 -- Plant begins to recover neptunium from waste, work that will continue until March 1962. Neptunium, called "trace" at the plant, was considered such a secret that few workers were told about it.
1959 -- Plant starts monitoring the air at and near the plant. Monitoring will end in 1974.
April 1960 -- Plant begins recovering radioactive technetium, work that will continue until June 1963.
July 1, 1960 -- Plant begins issuing film badges to every worker and visitor to detect radiation exposure. Before this, film badges were given to only the employees in jobs where exposure was considered most likely.
November 1960 -- Approximately 6,800 pounds of uranium hexafluoride is accidentally released into the air.
Feb. 21, 1961 -- A plant report says workers in some areas could, in one day, get the maximum dose of radiation allowed in a whole year. It says radiation from the feed-plant ash, when measured a foot away, is commonly 10 to 20 rem per hour. One reading reached 105 rem. The maximum recommended dose for nuclear workers is 5 rem per year.
January 1962 -- A plant report says the radiation in workers' urine has been steadily increasing.
March 1962 -- An explosion and fire in Building C-340 kill one worker and seriously injure another.
1962 -- About 3,400 pounds of uranium hexafluoride is released accidentally into the air. This and the 1960 release are among 15 such events documented during the plant's first 10 years.
1963 -- The AEC authorizes the plant to dump uranium, neptunium and radioactive thorium that had been stored in drums into a ditch that empties into the Ohio River. The plant says it will keep the concentrations below government limits.
1967 -- The plant health physics department says that, as long as certain high levels of radiation are not expected during work activities, personal clothing, not protective gear, is to be worn.
January 1968 -- The plant resumes producing enriched uranium for weapons, and will continue to do so until October 1973.
Early 1968 -- In a single shift, two employees are exposed to 21/2 and 31/2 times the radiation allowed in three months, in the building where uranium-processing equipment is washed.
1970s -- A coal bridge collapses at the steam plant, suffocating an operator.
March 1973 -- The plant begins another major overhaul of processing equipment, producing more contaminated scrap metal. The overhaul will end in 1981.
1974 -- The neptunium-recovery system is dismantled; employees wear no respirators during the work.
1975 -- The plant begins measuring radioactive air emissions from its stacks and reports findings annually.
1977 -- Union Carbide finds elevated radiation in ground water but doesn't tell the public.
1977 -- An electrical-maintenance trainee at the plant is electrocuted.
1977 -- A plant memo says the method for estimating uranium discharges into the environment is significantly underreporting how much is going into the water.
1978 -- A study by the site's safety and health organization recommends better management of solid waste, closing various burial pits, and construction of facilities to recover and reduce waste. The study finds that the plant "is only partially meeting both present and planned regulations" regarding waste treatment and disposal.
Early 1979 -- Significant amounts of plutonium are detected in some air samples from Building C-400, where equipment is decontaminated.
1980 -- About 22.5 tons of uranium ash shipped from Paducah to the Feed Materials Production Center in Fernald, Ohio, is discovered to be contaminated with plutonium. Some of the ash contains 700 times as much plutonium as government allows for exposure by unprotected workers.
1980 -- A survey of airborne radiation during work in the building where machining and maintenance on equipment is performed finds 1,630 times as much uranium as the guidelines allow. Also, neptunium, 2,121 times what was allowed; plutonium, 2,483 times; and thorium, 55 times. This is not revealed to the public or workers for 20 years.
1980 -- A ground-water test by plant operators finds elevated radioactivity, but, again, the public is not told.
Early 1980s -- Plant managers secretly compile list of 13 cases of leukemia and related cancers among current and former workers.
1982 -- The plant starts a program to address PCB contamination.
Aug. 18, 1983 -- A sampling of ground water by plant operators finds radioactivity seven times the state standard for drinking water. The public is not told.
1984 -- Martin Marietta Corp. becomes the operating contractor in Paducah, replacing Union Carbide.
April 1985 -- An Energy Department task force recommends an extensive examination of how Paducah handled and processed recycled uranium, saying it contained undetermined amounts of radioactive contaminants. It recommends a study to see whether Paducah workers were exposed to plutonium, but the study will never be conducted.
1986 -- The plant begins radiation monitoring of employees and equipment leaving the site.
1986 -- A plant subcontractor working on a storm-water drain discovers a large volume of trichloroethylene, an industrial degreaser. Dumping TCE down building drains, and sometimes onto the ground, was common through the 1970s.
1986 -- An Energy Department survey finds three places where ground water is contaminated with TCE and radioactive materials. The public is not told.
April 1987 -- A DOE report on Paducah says line managers at the plant "recognize they are responsible but appear to regard radiation protection as not being a significant safety concern."
1987 -- The plant institutes a formal asbestos-control program.
1988 -- Local health department tests residential wells north of the plant and discovers TCE and radioactive technetium. The plant provides bottled water to residences and will begin connecting them to Paducah's municipal water system in 1989.
Nov. 23, 1988 -- An agreement takes effect under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act establishing a schedule to evaluate and clean up off-site ground-water pollution.
April 1990 -- After a 20-gallon spill of radioactive waste, a Martin Marietta employee writes a memo that questions the validity of previous understandings about the "minimal quantity . . . and negligible amounts" of highly radioactive transuranic elements at the plant.
June-July 1990 -- The DOE sends "tiger teams" to investigate its sites throughout the country. The Paducah team finds that the department's oversight of the plant is ineffective; that the plant does not always follow safety and health standards; that employee training and proper operation and maintenance of equipment are deficient.
1991 -- Tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is used in nuclear-bomb triggers, is found in five drainage flows.
May 13, 1991 -- Kentucky and the DOE sign an agreement under which the state will oversee federal cleanup efforts at Paducah.
Feb. 29, 1992 -- The DOE and its plant contractor, Martin Marietta Energy Systems, start a program to control transuranic elements, including plutonium. The use of personal clothing on the job is restricted, and screening of workers for exposure to transuranics is improved.
December 1992 -- A team from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health visits Paducah, looking for records for a possible health study of workers exposed to uranium and electromagnetic fields. They hear concerns about leukemia among employees and discover a file on worker deaths from leukemia. But the team never comes back and doesn't follow up.
1992 -- "The overall exposure potential from transuranics for Paducah workers is not significant," concludes a study done for the Energy Department.
1993 -- Computer records of hundreds of safety and environmental problems at the Paducah and Piketon, Ohio, uranium plants are erased by the facilities' operators without government approval.
1993 -- The United States Enrichment Corp., a quasi-governmental corporation, takes over management of the plant and retains Martin Marietta -- which after a 1995 merger with Lockheed will become Lockheed Martin Corp. -- to handle operations. USEC will formally take over the operations in 1999.
May 31, 1994 -- Plant is placed on the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund list, meaning the site is a national priority for cleanup.
June 20, 1994 -- A Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector notes "some staff's weak appreciation for, or lack of rigorous implementation of, existing procedures."
1994 -- Tiny amount of plutonium is found in a deer killed near the plant.
1995 -- The plant begins pumping contaminated ground water to the surface to treat it and try to slow the spread of contaminants.
1996-1997 -- About 50 tons of concrete chunks and soil in the West Kentucky Wildlife Management Area is brought back onto plant grounds. Tests find elevated levels of radioactive cesium-137 in the soil.
January 1997 -- Kentucky installs air monitors at eight sites near the plant.
Sept. 15, 1997 -- A corroded steel and plastic drum explodes in a storage building. The escaping liquid includes plutonium and other highly radioactive materials. The cleanup from this single drum, one of tens of thousands at the plant, takes two years and costs at least $750,000.
1997 -- Some residents living near the plant sue Lockheed Martin and Union Carbide, alleging that the operators tried to deceive the public about off-site pollution. Plant officials deny that.
Early 1998 -- After four years of negotiations, Kentucky officials, the EPA and the DOE approve an agreement that outlines how state and federal cleanup efforts are to proceed.
July 1998 -- USEC becomes a private company and offers stock to the public.
May 1999 -- A project is launched, under a contract with the plant's union, to screen former workers for job-related health problems.
June 1999 -- Three plant workers and the Natural Resources Defense Council file a whistle-blower lawsuit against former plant operators, alleging that radiation contamination was widespread and that thousands of employees were exposed to plutonium without their knowledge. The suit, which is sealed, also accuses the companies of using fraud to obtain higher payments from the Energy Department. The DOE dispatches a team to the plant and finds no problems.
Aug. 8, 1999 -- After newspaper accounts of the suit, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson orders another probe of conditions at Paducah.
Aug. 21, 1999 -- A draft DOE report shows traces of plutonium and neptunium contaminate parts of 61,000 tons of scrap metal at the plant.
Sept. 3, 1999 -- Fourteen current and former workers at the plant file a $10 billion lawsuit, charging that the eight companies that operated the plant or produced nuclear fuel there through the years exposed workers and their families to dangerous levels of radiation.
Sept. 9, 1999 -- By Richardson's order, the Paducah plant halts some operations for a day to review safety issues. Congressional and plant sources say a DOE task force that just visited found numerous safety problems, including unmarked areas contaminated by radiation and subcontractors working without radiation detection badges.
Sept. 12, 1999 -- An internal DOE report on its special team's visit to Paducah raises concerns over the possible sale to private industry of plutonium-contaminated scrap metal, the management of radioactive waste and the treatment of contaminated ground water.
Sept. 14, 1999 -- Making public its preliminary findings on Paducah, the DOE says there are no "imminent hazards" to workers or the public from radiation at the complex.
Sept. 16, 1999 -- Richardson visits the plant and apologizes to workers who may have been exposed without their knowledge to high levels of radiation. He acknowledges that the government "was not forthcoming" about possible exposure to plutonium. The secretary announces that he will request an extra $21.8 million for health, safety and environment programs for the plant.
Sept. 22, 1999 -- Whistle-blowers at the plant say at a congressional hearing in Washington that problems have not gone away.
Sept. 28, 1999 -- Following House action, the Senate approves $63 million for cleanup and health monitoring of current and former workers at the plant. President Clinton signs bill two days later.
Oct. 20, 1999 -- A DOE report states that at least 11 storage areas in the Paducah plant contain enough uranium to warrant concern about a possible uncontrolled nuclear reaction. The agency also says that the plant's radiation-protection program lacks "rigor, formality and discipline" and discloses that ground water outside the plant contains traces of plutonium.
Oct. 27, 1999 -- The NRC gives the plant a generally good grade on safety and health matters after an inspection. The agency finds that 93 percent of 3,000 workers tested showed "no measurable dose" of radiation and that none showed exposure to more than 10 percent of the regulatory limit.
Nov. 8, 1999 -- Dale Jackson, the DOE's site manager in Paducah, says contaminated ground water from the plant "very well may have" reached the Ohio River, but in small quantities that would be diluted to undetectable levels.
Dec. 21, 1999 -- The NRC proposes an $88,000 fine against USEC for retaliating against a manager who raised safety concerns about the plant. The company will pay the fine in January.
Dec. 26, 1999 -- Documents obtained by The Courier-Journal show contaminated ground water migrating from under the plant has leaked to the surface and into nearby Little Bayou Creek.
Jan. 28, 2000 -- Richardson visits the plant again and announces that the Clinton administration will propose a dramatic boost in cleanup spending for Paducah: $109 million in fiscal 2001, more than double the $53 million spent in fiscal 1999.
Feb. 3, 2000 -- Citing a worldwide glut of enriched uranium, USEC announces that 425 workers will lose their jobs at the Paducah plant, effective July 1.
Feb. 6, 2000 -- Worker participation in radiation experiments, lack of worker protection and poor training, as well as potential threats to public health, are detailed in a draft DOE report on its investigation of the Paducah plant's operations from its beginning to 1990. The report states that widespread contamination may have been under-reported.
Feb. 15, 2000 -- Orville Cypret, a top radiation official at the plant, acknowledges that the government cannot account for all the locations of nuclear-bomb parts at the facility, but he says the risk to workers appears minimal.
Feb. 23, 2000 -- Records show that beryllium, a metal that when inhaled causes lung disease, is in soil, surface water and ground water at the plant, The Courier-Journal reports.
April 27, 2000 -- The state's review of contamination by the plant concludes that neither the environment nor the health of people outside the facility is threatened.
May 2, 2000 -- The General Accounting Office releases a report saying that it will take "billions of dollars and many years" to clean up the Paducah site, far more money and time than the DOE has said.
June 21, 2000 -- USEC announces it will close its Piketon, Ohio, uranium plant in 2001, leaving Paducah as the only domestic supplier of fuel for nuclear power plants.
June 23, 2000 -- Cleanup of Drum Mountain, about 85,000 crushed barrels, begins.
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Workers weren't told about animal experiments
Now they feel betrayed, says union president
By JAMES MALONE,
The Courier-Journal
June 25, 2000
http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/uranium/legacyd1_dog.html
PADUCAH, Ky. -- Forty years ago, managers of the uranium plant were so concerned about the possibility that workers were being harmed by radioactive "Paducah dust" that they secretly arranged for tests on laboratory animals.
But fearing adverse publicity and union troubles, some managers resisted government recommendations that they screen the workers for neptunium, a dangerous contaminant in the dust.
The managers never told workers of their concerns.
Many current and former workers say it wasn't until last year, when a lawsuit was filed by three plant employees, that they learned they may have inhaled and swallowed dust tainted with highly radioactive neptunium and plutonium, which can cause cancer.
Documents obtained by The Courier-Journal through the Freedom of Information Act show that over the years, officials of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant continued to discuss the hazards of various radioactive materials in the plant. In the early 1980s, for instance, managers secretly compiled a list of 13 current and former workers who had gotten leukemia and allied diseases.
"Workers feel betrayed, and they're angry that these people put their health at risk," said David Fuller, president of local 5-550 of the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union. "Workers resent the fact (that the government) decided to risk their health without telling them."
The highly radioactive elements came into the plant as contaminants in the spent nuclear fuel the plant re-energized from 1953 to 1977. During production, the contaminants were spread as fine dust throughout the miles of tubing in the processing equipment.
Workers risked exposure during a neptunium-recovery project from 1958 to 1962. A June 1, 2000, draft report, in which the U.S. Department of Energy tracked the path of radioactive materials through the plant, said neptunium exceeded allowable limits in air samples taken during the recovery operation in 1959.
"There is no indication that respiratory protection was used during these activities," said the report, which The Courier- Journal obtained. "Urine samples collected and sent to Oak Ridge National Laboratory for analysis tested positive for neptunium."
Workers also faced a high risk in the feed plant, where they prepared uranium for processing, and in maintenance shops when they were replacing pieces of equipment.
"The units must be cut open with torches," said a 1960 memo from an Atomic Energy Commission medical-research official. "The pieces certainly can't be handled gently or contained very readily because they are too massive."
The official, Dr. H.D. Bruner, added that workers were supposed to wear masks, "but they are not controlled too closely -- I watched one man push up his mask and smoke a cigarette using potentially contaminated hands and gloves."
Managers for Union Carbide -- the company that then ran the federal government's diffusion plants near Paducah; Portsmouth, Ohio; and Oak Ridge, Tenn. -- knew and were concerned about workers' being exposed to neptunium, according to records released to The Courier-Journal under the Freedom of Information Act.
L.B. Emlet, production manager for the uranium plants, wrote the Atomic Energy Commission in 1959 requesting animal studies on how workers metabolized neptunium.
"We find some data to indicate a discrepancy in the presently accepted excretion rate by the human organism," Emlet wrote. "We recommend that you initiate studies on this problem at some appropriate site."
The following year, Richard C. Baker, a radiation-protection official at the Paducah plant, wrote a memo about a "neptunium biology research project" to the plant's medical director, Dr. A. Neal Ward. Baker said early animal-test results at the government's Hanford Laboratories in Washington state showed "evidence of chemical rather than radiological toxicity" after animals breathed high concentrations of "Paducah dust."
In 1961, Ward wrote in a memo that he had presented a summary of the "problem of the neptunium contaminated process equipment at the Paducah plant" to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Maryland. Ward suggested that "further animal studies be conduct- ed at Hanford. . . . These studies might include a limited inhalation study with dogs and pure neptunium compounds."
Just a year earlier, Ward had been among the Paducah managers resisting neptunium testing of workers, according to the 1960 memo from Dr. Bruner of the AEC. Bruner wrote that Ward and others "were not receptive to the idea of sending 8 to 10 of the men" with the most radiation in their urine to Oak Ridge for testing with a wholebody radiation counter.
"There are possibly 300 people at Paducah who should be checked out," Bruner wrote, "but they hesitate to precede (sic) to intensive studies because of the union's use of this as an excuse for hazard pay."
He added that he had urged Ward to obtain tissue samples from any potentially contaminated workers who die, so they could be tested for radiation, "but I am afraid the policy at this plant is to be wary of the unions and any unfavorable public relations."
The resistance to testing apparently faded by the mid1960s.
In a 1966 memo, Baker reported that whole-body counts of some workers had confirmed "low exposure levels" to neptunium -- though workers have said they were not told the results of such testing.
The memo said studies of rats exposed to dust containing small amounts of neptunium showed that they retained little of the element and rapidly cleared it from their lungs, suggesting it wasn't a health threat.
But Baker went on to note that higher levels of exposure to neptunium were possible in other "phases of handling recycling of high burn-up nuclear fuel."
In fact, the Energy Department reported earlier this year that its investigators had found documents indicating some Paducah workers received highlevel exposure to neptunium. In 1966, 14 years after the plant began processing the tainted Hanford fuel, Baker suggested a long-term study on rats or dogs.
Baker, a Harvard-trained health physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, said Tuesday in an interview that these animal tests showed that only a small fraction of the "Paducah dust" was absorbed by the lungs, because the particles were too large. What entered the body was rapidly excreted in the urine, he said.
"We had some air samples that indicated they (workers) might get an overexposure," Baker said. "But tests showed that what was in the body was not harmful."
He disputed recent complaints from workers who say that they were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation at the plant and that safety was lax.
"This is a complete fabrication," Baker said. "Our overall programs for radiation and safety were generally very good."
But concerns about workers' health and exposure to neptunium and plutonium persisted among some other plant managers and government officials. In 1985, an Energy Department task force recommended a study to determine whether Paducah workers were exposed to plutonium, but it was never done.
In 1990, an internal memo from a radiation-safety official employed by Martin Marietta, which was then operating the plant, raised broad concerns after transuranic elements such as plutonium and neptunium were found in 20 gallons of radioactive waste that spilled in a warehouse.
"It had been understood by current health physics management that the transuranic materials at (Paducah) were of minimal quantity . . . and negligible amounts . . ." said a memo from M.B. Graves. "Based on the activity levels associated with the spill . . . the Health Physics department began questioning the validity of prior information concerning transuranic activity at Paducah."
Bill Cooper, who was a Department of Energy inspector at the plant in 1990 and now works for DOE in Washington, D.C., said the discovery surprised him as well as the health physicists responsible for protecting workers from radiation.
He said Martin Marietta managers thought that upgrading the gaseous-diffusion equipment a decade earlier "had gotten rid of all that stuff." He blamed the misinformation on staff turnover and poor communication between longtime managers and newer employees.
In 1992, Martin Marietta started a program to control transuranic contaminants in the plant, which included restrictions on wearing personal clothing on the job and monitoring of workers for exposure to transuranics.
But workers say they were told only in general terms about the dangers of these elements, and most said they did not understand that plutonium and other highly radioactive materials were in the workplace.
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U.S. says radiation caused illnesses
Some think science lost out to politics
By JAMES MALONE,
The Courier-Journal
BY JIM ROSHAN, SPECIAL TO THE COURIER-JOURNAL
June 25, 2000
http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/uranium/legacyd1_sick.html
In Paducah last September, U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson presented an award to Clara Harding, whose late husband had cancer that he blamed on radiation.
PADUCAH, Ky. -- After decades of denial, the Department of Energy acknowledged last year that workers at the Paducah uranium plant had indeed become ill and died from radiation exposure.
It was a stunning shift for the federal government, which has spent more than $500 million on studies that found little or no link between workers' illnesses and their exposure to radiation at the government's nuclear weapons facilities.
Critics of the Energy Department say the turnabout is justified. They say the government studies missed links between radiation and workers' illnesses -- primarily cancers of the blood, bone and internal organs.
They say the government didn't aggressively investigate why workers at Paducah and elsewhere were falling ill, that it collected incomplete data on workers' radiation exposure, and that it did the research in a way that muddied the results.
But some experts say the DOE policy change -- which has led to proposals before Congress to compensate workers at nuclear weapons plants nationwide -- was motivated not by science but by politics. It was a reaction, they say, to workers' lawsuits and media disclosures about problems.
The debate was kindled Sept. 16, when Energy Secretary Bill Richardson came to Paducah to make a dramatic apology to workers and their families, and to the widows of some workers.
"On behalf of the U.S. government, I am here to say I am sorry," said Richardson. He pledged to pay victims of radiation exposure.
Richardson's support for compensation grew partly out of his awareness of the illnesses among uranium miners in his home state of New Mexico, said two of his closest advisers, David Michaels and Robert Alvarez. And they said that Richardson wants to clear the air.
Michaels, assistant energy secretary for the environment, safety and health, said the agency must grapple with a legacy that has crippled its credibility. "We stonewalled and denied every possible claim. . . . We denied everything," he said.
Michaels said past practices at DOE plants such as Paducah, including allowing workers to smoke on the job, increased the risk that workers inhaled or ingested radioactive or hazardous chemicals. And in a memorandum this year to the National Economic Council, which President Clinton had asked to study nuclear workers' job-related illnesses, Michaels said shortcomings had plagued previous studies.
Monitoring of workers' exposure to radiation and toxic chemicals may have been inaccurate or inconsistent; some exposed workers may have been excluded; too few workers may have been studied at some plants; and some workers may have been followed for too short a time for cancers to appear, Michaels wrote.
The memo added: "There is a tendency in these studies to focus on mortality. . . . Yet most health conditions do not tend to be immediately fatal."
The National Economic Council, in a draft report released this year, reanalyzed the data from more than 40 health studies done at DOE nuclear plants. It said that nine of the studies, on subgroups of workers at individual sites, had found a significant increase in the rate of specific cancers, including cancers of the lung, brain, bladder and stomach, and myeloma and leukemia.
"This evidence . . . demon- strates a relationship of work at nuclear weapons facilities and illness," the report said, though it added that "there was no clear excess of mortality for any specific condition."
SCIENTIFIC DEBATE Health engineer calls exposure 'peanuts' In fact, some scientists have been sharply critical of Richardson's initiative.
Dade Moeller, a retired Harvard professor and environmental-health engineer, called Richardson's plan ludicrous and politically expedient. "There has been no breakthrough in the findings," Moeller said in a recent interview. "Richardson just baffles me."
Moeller, who has served as an expert witnesses for both plaintiffs and defendants in nuclear cases, said records show that by current standards, workers' exposure to radiation has been "peanuts" and pales in comparison to natural radiation to which workers and the general public are exposed.
The general public, experts say, gets 300 to 360 millirem in background radiation a year from all sources.
Moeller, who is 70 years old, figures his lifetime dose at 21 rem, five times the annual limit for a nuclear worker. "Am I expecting to die from that?" he asked. "No."
While acknowledging that some earlier government research may have been suspect, Moeller said newer research does not bear out the workers' claims of job-related illnesses.
Bertram Wolfe, a California nuclear physicist who spent nearly four decades with General Electric's nuclear program, agreed. "There is no data as far as I know that show people at a (nuclear) facility have medical problems they would not have had if they weren't at the facility," Wolfe said.
Even some at the Energy Department said the agency's shift is not based on any new scientific findings.
Paul Seligman, assistant secretary for health research, said the department was moved to compensate workers by national media attention and by discoveries of "an active effort by DOE and its past contractors to conceal information from (workers)."
"That weighed more heavily than anything else," he said.
DOE's David Michaels: "We denied everything."
THE STUDIES Array of chemicals complicates research No formal scientific study of workers' health has been done at Paducah. Studies were recommended in the late 1970s, in 1985 after lots of plutonium was found in ash coming from the plant, and in 1992 after leukemia concerns were raised. But the Energy Department never followed up, and it said studies of workers at sister plants in Ohio and Tennessee would suffice.
A study that looked at Portsmouth (Ohio) Gaseous Diffusion Plant workers in the late 1980s and early 1990s did not find significant statistical links to suspected radiation-induced illnesses. Early studies done on workers at Oak Ridge, Tenn., reached similar conclusions.
Efforts to link radiation to disease are made more difficult by the vast array of toxic chemicals in the workplace.
Also, radiation doses vary from job to job, and many older workers smoked. And some radiation occurs naturally.
Critics allege that many of the older studies done by the Energy Department and its predecessor agencies were only marginally useful because they relied on exposure data that were either incomplete or unreliable, or they selectively incorporated favorable data.
Much of the government's early research was done through the Energy Department's Oak Ridge office and a consortium of southern universities.
"Outcomes were predetermined not to find a . . . relationship" between radiation doses and disease, said Jackie Kittrell, an east Tennessee lawyer and researcher. She said the Energy Department had no one looking over its shoulder to assess the validity of its research.
Kittrell represents Clara Harding, widow of the late Joe Harding, a former Paducah worker who posthumously received a $12,000 workers' compensation settlement after a two-decade court fight over the contention that radiation caused his stomach cancer.
Seligman, the DOE assistant secretary, said some of the early research by Oak Ridge Associated Universities was not reviewed by independent scientists. "For their time, they were competent pieces of work," he said. "There are weaknesses that have been identified, but overall, I'd say the work was of good quality."
The government's first broad study of worker health was undertaken in 1965 by Dr. Thomas Mancuso, a University of Pittsburgh epidemiologist. The government's treatment of Mancuso, critics say, shows how it manipulated research.
Mancuso had pioneered the use of Social Security and vital statistics records in the study of workers' health. He collected data for a decade and presented preliminary findings in 1976 that long-term exposure to low-level radiation at the DOE's Hanford nuclear facility in Richland, Wash., increased workers' risk of cancer. He also concluded that radiation limits for workers were too high.
Mancuso's findings were attacked by other researchers, and in 1977, the Energy Department terminated his contract and reassigned the work to three research organizations, including the Oak Ridge consortium, that received most of their funding from DOE.
Mancuso claimed he was terminated because his results were unfavorable to the government and the nuclear industry, and the DOE wanted to give the work to researchers it could more closely control. The government said Mancuso's work was progressing too slowly.
DOE's Paul Seligman: "Science was secondary." In a 1979 report on the controversy, the General Accounting Office, the auditing arm of Congress, said it could find no evidence that the Energy Department had attempted to influence the outcome of the study. But the GAO concluded that there was a "significant problem" because of the image that results from hiring the same contractors to both develop and improve nuclear power and to study its safety.
Although the Energy Department says the research was approached with an open mind, Dr. Clarence Lushbaugh, a Kentuckian who was medical director of Oak Ridge Associated Universities, anticipated a favorable outcome in a 1980 letter about a pending health study at a General Electric nuclear laboratory in New York.
"Both the workers and their management need to be assured that exposure to low levels of nuclear radiation is not hazardous to one's health and they need facts and not propaganda," Lushbaugh wrote to the lab before the study was done.
"The results of such a study as we propose could be the best countermeasure to the antinuclear propaganda that continues to flood all of us."
Dr. Steve Wing, a University of North Carolina epidemiologist, said there was a mindset at DOE that chronic exposure to low-level radiation was not harmful. Wing made one the first links to low-level exposure and cancer in a study of Oak Ridge workers in the late 1980s.
"When we started seeing these relationships, folks said, ÔWell, that's impossible,' " Wing said. "There was a lot of discomfort from the (Oak Ridge) epidemiology advisory committee."
He added that "there is a strong counter-current now" in the medical literature that "undermines the credibility" of the earlier DOE research.
Dr. David Rush, a Boston physician and a co-author of the 1992 book "Dead Reckoning," which faulted DOE's past radiation studies, said a major shortcoming was "the systemic problem of having the same agency monitor worker health and at the same time be the manufacturing agency."
And the government invoked privacy rights to keep outside researchers out of its files. "This is such crap," Rush said.
"This is the government doing these things and the citizenry being blinded by those who are in a position to do this."
Co-author Jack Geiger said the Paducah controversy exposes a problem for the government. "There is a whole set of failures here; it was a failure not to have done studies of the (Paducah) work force.
"DOE had a responsibility to monitor the health status and the exposures of its work force.
Minorities and women were often excluded -- that's a failure -- and radiation dosimetry was often really inadequate." Minorities and women were often left out of studies to simplify data collection.
FAULTY MONITORING Early detectors blind to one type of radiation Critics say that previous efforts to measure workers' radiation exposure were haphazard and possibly incomplete, and that too has hampered research on workers' health.
For example, the primitive film badges used to monitor radiation in the 1950s and 1960s didn't detect alpha radiation, the kind emitted by transuranic elements such as plutonium.
In a 1991 letter about a study of Oak Ridge workers, Dr. Donna Cragle, director of epidemiologic research at Oak Ridge, wrote that "since 1983 and probably before that time, we have the opinion that the computerized internal dosimetry data set does not have complete enough information to compute (worker radiation) doses."
In Paducah, a plant memo obtained this month by The Courier-Journal said technicians reviewing historical radiation-monitoring records found internal doses that they said did not match recorded exposures for an undetermined number of workers between 1976 and 1987.
Charlie Brown, who worked in the C-410 feed plant at Paducah for more than a decade, said he heard co-workers say they had placed their film badges inside ash receivers, probably some of the most radioactive places at the plant.
Workers wanted to see whether the high readings would prompt a response from managers, but in more than 30 years at the plant, Brown said, he had never once heard of anyone's being moved to a lower-radiation job because of high film-badge readings.
Alvarez, who has left the Energy Department and is now a consultant and nuclear-industry critic, said the DOE's history "indicates . . . what they think about worker protection. . . ."
"What was important was promoting the program first and foremost, and making sure nothing interfered with the program by any evidence that people were made sick . . . and any evidence that would cause the public to be concerned, and . . . the unions to become more militant."
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'Almost overnight, Paducah became the promised land'
Little thought given to health, the environment
By JAMES MALONE,
The Courier-Journal
June 25, 2000
http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/uranium/legacyd1_hope.html
Superintendent John P. Murphy was the first to raise the flag at the plant, on Nov. 13, 1952. The plant "got Paducah moving," said John E.L. Robertson, a local historian. COURIER-JOURNAL
PHOTO PADUCAH, Ky. -- In early 1951, the year that everything changed, folks in Paducah took to calling their genteel city on the Ohio River Boomtown.
The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's decision to build a gaseous-diffusion plant to enrich uranium on 5,000 acres of swampy land had overnight made Paducah one of the nation's fastest-growing cities.
And to a community still struggling to get back on its feet from the devastating 1937 floods, it was a godsend. "It turned the community on its ear," said John E.L. Robertson, a local historian and retired professor. "It got Paducah moving."
As the plant was built and workers swelled the payroll, the population rose from 32,000 to nearly 50,000. Kentucky's only portable town, Forrestdale, was created when 278 prefabricated houses were hauled in from Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Schools, apartment buildings and stores sprang up. New streets were built. Trailer courts popped up along U.S. 60 from Paducah to the plant, and cars often jammed the 10-mile stretch of highway. The asking price for land around the plant jumped tenfold, to $1,000 an acre.
The plant's arrival caused schools and stores to spring up -- and these workers to dig foundations for more houses.
1952 PHOTO Cash-carrying strangers crammed the streets. Downtown businesses' trade doubled in a year, as did deposits in the town's banks, from $25 million to $50 million.
Even the city's brothel added a wing.
"Almost overnight, Paducah became the promised land for job-seekers, salesmen, promoters, speculators and plain grifters -- the place where an awful lot of money was to be spent and where the possibilities for getting some of it seemed good," wrote Joe Creason, a Courier-Journal reporter. Don Pepper was one of those who came.
Pepper came from Henderson to Paducah in 1951 when the Paducah Sun Democrat newspaper decided to expand its news staff because of expected growth with the plant's imminent opening.
"The big thing was the shortage of housing," recalled Pepper, who began a 40-year news career with the newspaper, retiring as editorial-page editor a decade ago. "Rooms were hard to find."
Life Magazine came to do a photo essay, he said.
When construction at the plant turned to production in 1952, Paducah billed itself as "The Atomic City." Cold War secrecy and 300 armed guards ruled the day, and health or environmental concerns were rare.
"Nobody took it (concern over health and the environmental) very seriously," Pepper said. "I thought it was part of the nationwide anti-nuclear foes -- anti-nuclear, anti-industry propaganda, and I still think so."
Nearby, the government was damming the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers and two power plants were built to provide the huge amounts of elec- tricity the diffusion process required.
It made Paducah a prosper- ous regional economic hub for not only Western Kentucky, but also for southern Illinois and far eastern Missouri. Fathers would get a lead on jobs for their sons, or brother would help brother, and it was not uncommon for families to have several members punching the plant's time clock.
Pepper said another big plus for the community was the quality of the people the plant brought to town.
"They were great people and great citizens who took roles in the community."
But in the 1980s, as wells were capped because the drinking water had become contaminated and suspicions grew over worker illnesses and deaths, a few began to buck the taboo against questioning the plant.
"Criticizing the plant's environmental problems has never been a popular thing to say," said Paducah financial adviser Merryman Kemp. "People only said those things in whispers. The few who did speak out were ridiculed."
The standard line was to be quiet and enjoy the money and the business that the plant brought to the community.
"Only recently have people begun to speak out," she said.
Robertson, the historian, said it took an outside newspaper's reporting last year to really stir local skepticism.
Now decades-old beliefs that the plant was safe are changing, he said.
"We have been deceived," Robertson said. ". . . It may not be Chernobyl, but certainly something is there. "They definitely lied about it."
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Former worker now believes paycheck came with a price
Information and protection were scarce, he says
By JAMES MALONE,
The Courier-Journal
June 25, 2000
http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/uranium/legacyd1_work.html
Harold Hargan as he looked while he worked at the plant; he started in the early 1950s. MOUNDS, Ill. -- For nearly 40 grueling years, Harold Hargan labored in the bowels of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
Inside the dirty and sometimes deafening C-400 decontamination complex, he cleaned uranium-coated equipment and filters. Then came Feb. 4, 1992, the day he says forever changed his life.
On lunch break, Hargan went to the restroom. The bright red blood in his urine told him something was terribly wrong. Plant doctors called his wife and told him to immediately go to the hospital.
"Never had a clue anything was wrong," said Hargan, now 68. "Nothing hurt. But I realized quick I had one hell of a problem."
His problem, doctors discovered, was bladder cancer.
Though it's a kind of cancer that can be caused by uranium, which is both radioactive and chemically toxic, and by many of the heavy metals and solvents that Hargan worked with, he didn't immediately suspect his illness might be job-related.
Harold Hargan, who cleaned uranium-coated equipment, took his medications recently. He learned in 1992 that he had bladder cancer, which spread and cost him a kidney in 1997.
Photo: Jim Roshan Special to the C-J And when he retired that August, he was told tests showed no lasting evidence of overexposure to radiation or toxins. That all changed last summer, when a whistle-blower lawsuit alleged that workers may have been unknowingly exposed to plutonium, which is 1 million times as radioactive as uranium.
Now he feels betrayed. "Never did they tell us there was any danger," Hargan said recently. "I think they were a bunch of liars."
Hargan's story, he is finding out, is all too common among some of the 6,000 to 7,000 people who have worked at the plant since 1952. Motivated by patriotism at the height of the Cold War, they put up with hot, dusty working conditions and lax protection from the radiation and toxic chemicals in the plant -- hazards they often weren't told about.
Now some, like Hargan, believe they paid for their loyalty with their health.
Hargan is one of 700 former workers and their families who filed a $10 billion class-action lawsuit last fall alleging that exposure to plutonium and other highly radioactive elements put them at risk of developing cancers and caused emotional distress.
He can't prove his cancer was caused by radiation or chemicals at the plant. But he spent much of his career in jobs and in buildings where, records show, he could have been exposed to radioactive dust, ash and fumes.
Hargan wore face and gas masks and coveralls at times, but he said he and co-workers were not told when to use the gear and frequently didn't.
"There is no doubt, no question, he worked in the most contaminated areas of the plant and he did some of the dirtiest jobs in the plant," said his lawyer, William McMurry of Louisville.
Hargan, who occasionally puffs a pipe, also has moderate hearing loss, mild emphysema and bronchitis, which a doctor says are consistent with his years of on-the-job exposure to noise, ammonia, chlorine and hydrogen fluoride gas. There were days, Hargan remembered, when his skin would be red from fluoride burns.
Dr. Steven Markowitz, who examined Hargan as part of a government-financed health screening of former Paducah workers, sent him a letter saying that he "believes some of (Hargan's) health problems are clearly related to his employment."
Almost all the screened workers suffered some hearing loss, and many have lung ailments like Hargan's.
JOBS SCARCE IN '53 New plant paid well but demanded a lot After leaving the Air Force, Hargan, then 21, signed on with the new uranium plant in 1953 for the princely sum of $1.70 an hour.
"There wasn't anything else in this area other than tending bar or carrying out groceries," he recalled.
Especially in the early years, the job filled him with pride that he was helping defend the nation. But it wasn't long before he understood the sacrifice that was being asked of him.
"Where I got my baptism under fire, they put us in a little room no bigger than my kitchen tearing down filters," Hargan said. "It was so smoky in there" that the workers couldn't see.
After about 15 minutes, a coworker came out of the booth wearing a gas mask and told the foreman, "That damn stuff is burning (my lungs and skin) up," Hargan said. The foreman pointed to a time clock about 50 feet away and said, " 'You either go back in there or go punch the time clock.'
"It was a piece of equipment they did not have a spare for, and in spite of the radiation, smoke or whatnot, you had to get in there with your hands and pull that stuff out."
That day, he said, "I learned . . . you did what you were told to do."
Hargan estimates he spent 30 of his 38 years in C-400, a building now recognized as having some of the plant's worst contamination because radioactivity washed off machinery would concentrate in the cleaning and degreasing equipment.
It was also a building full of secrets. It's where Union Carbide used potent acids to retrieve gold from dismantled nuclear bombs, and where highly classified operations were conducted to recover radioactive technetium and neptunium.
One day in the mid-1960s, Hargan said, he became curious when he saw a familiar shape under a tarp at the plant entrance. It was a "Fat Man" nuclear bomb. Hargan said he recognized it from his days at Travis Air Force Base in California.
The Energy Department has disclosed that more than 1,600 tons of nuclear weapons were sent to Paducah. Once there, the bombs -- with the fissile material removed -- were dismantled and recycled.
If there was a radioactive spill or leak at the plant complex, Hargan's crew would go to the site and do the cleanup.
He helped clean up after a 1962 explosion that blew the side out of a production building, and he said he saw huge pieces of equipment reduced to 2- or 3-foot piles of melted metal.
SECRET CONCERNS 'Paducah dust' known to be major problem Previously secret memos released by the government, including some in late May, show plant operators had concerns over highly radioactive dust as early as 1953 -- the year the plant began recycling uranium from other DOE facilities that was contaminated with plutonium and neptunium.
"A part of the feed material now being processed at Paducah is from Hanford reactors. It is well-known that decay products will be present in major amounts . . . and will constitute a major radiation problem," said a 1953 plant memo obtained by The Courier-Journal.
The contaminants gradually spread through the plant. Appearing as a gray powder called "Paducah dust," it was released into the workplace when the giant processing equipment was taken out of service and cleaned.
Tests in 1980 found airborne radiation in the C-720 maintenance shop more than 2,000 times the plant guidelines for neptunium and plutonium.
More of the potent dust collected in the "heels" or bottoms of the 12-foot-long cylinders used to haul fluorinated uranium to and from the plant, which Hargan and others would wash.
RADIATION, TOXINS Conditions guaranteed exposure, Hargan says Hargan said workers were exposed to radioactive and tox- ic chemicals without adequate training and protection.
"Yeah, it was dusty," he said. "There was yellow powder, and there was gray powder and ash everywhere."
He recalled seeing "greenhorns" put straight to work without training on use of protective gear. "Ignorance and apathy was rampant," he said.
"When you put a compressor in a spray booth, you had to break it open -- dust would scatter all over the floor. It would spray, you'd walk through it. It was everywhere. There wasn't any mask required on any of that."
In other areas of the building, workers ground up discarded nickel molecular sieves, which were used to separate uranium atoms.
A few years after he started at the plant, Hargan said he was chosen, along with about eight other men, for a highly secret project to recover neptunium from plant wastes. It was learn as you go, he said.
From an array of tanks and pipes and evaporators, the rare element was sent to a final recovery area, where a liquid collected in a 30-gallon stainless- steel tank. Much of the final work was done in a 12-footsquare room with no respirators.
Hargan estimates he spent three years on that job before the equipment was taken out in the early 1960s.
Workers had their urine tested and were taken to lie in a coffin-like device to measure radiation in their entire body, Hargan said. He recalls urine tests were routinely taken on Monday, when radiation readings would be lower because many workers had been off for the weekend.
Once, in the mid-1950s, a coworker unable to urinate for a sample turned in Hargan's urine as his own. Within a few days, Hargan said, a foreman approached him and said: "Don't loan anyone any of your urine. You're hotter than hell."
Hargan said the foreman told him the co-worker who turned in Hargan's urine was placed on work restriction, to reduce his exposure to radiation. "And they let me go back to work, and he couldn't cross the line to get into the building," he said. "How do you explain that?"
He said health physicists told him he had elevated levels of uranium in his body two or three times over the years. Workers in the C-400 building also cleaned equipment with a degreasing solvent, trichloroethylene -- a cancer-causing chemical that has leaked into the ground water beneath the plant.
In late 1991 or early 1992, Hargan said he and a fellow worker were required to wear monitors to test for the presence of trichloroethelyne, but the degreasing unit was turned completely off at the time. A co-worker, Shirley Shumpert, recalls wearing the monitors but said she did not know whether the equipment had been turned off.
"Had it been on, they would have found a snoot full of TCE," Hargan said. "A health physics man later told me not to ask any questions."
CANCER'S COST 'Chemo is terrible. . . . You throw up' After his cancer was diagnosed, Hargan had surgery, but the cancer spread, and in 1997 it claimed a kidney. Grueling months of chemotherapy and radiation treatments followed.
"I lost weight and I almost died from chemo," he said. "Chemo is terrible. You don't move. You throw up. My hair came out in handfuls."
Now he goes twice a year for checkups in St. Louis, where doctors inject him with dye to track the health of his remaining kidney. So far it's normal, he said, with fingers crossed.
"Yeah, there are days when I worry," said Hargan, who has four grown children. "I try not to think about it all the time."
He estimates his medical bills, including operations and trips to physicians in New York, Indianapolis and St. Louis, far exceed $100,000. Most have been paid by insurance.
Hargan, a Republican who has served as the equivalent of a Kentucky county judge-executive and a magistrate in Pulaski County, Ill., holds court these days in an easy chair flanked by pictures of his children.
He is easily winded from tilling the rows of squash and sweet corn in his country garden but the grandfatherly mane of white hair lost to cancer treatments has regrown.
Looking back on his experience with cynicism and humor, Hargan recalls the rowdy disputes and mistakes that put workers at risk. He gets together with former colleagues for laughs, but it gives them all pause when they hear that another man they knew has died.
"I'm beginning to get suspicious," said Hargan, Doris Hargan, his wife of 45 years, said she "was more scared than bitter" when she learned of her husband's cancer. She said that in the past year she has heard so much about workers' exposure to danger.
"You wonder what's coming up next. Today everything's OK, but what about tomorrow?"
MONEY FOR ILLNESS U.S. may pay those sickened by their jobs The Energy Department has proposed paying workers at Paducah and its other nuclear facilities who develop job-related diseases, and compensation legislation is moving through Congress.
Under the plan, Hargan would qualify for a lump-sum payment of $200,000, plus health benefits, because he would not have to prove his bladder cancer was caused by exposure to radiation or toxic chemicals in the plant.
But Hargan said he doesn't plan to seek compensation if the plan passes, because he thinks there's a catch to it. "I personally think it's smoke and mirrors," he said.
Now, eight years after he retired, Hargan says he has become deeply skeptical of his employers' assurances that the plant was safe.
"I wonder how they feel now that all of this is coming out," he said. "Are they still gonna lie and say nothing was wrong?"
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Uranium plant's toll on health, environment coming to light
Once seen as a godsend, the plant is now known to be a polluter of air, water and soil -- inside its fence and well beyond.
By JAMES R. CARROLL and JAMES MALONE,
The Courier-Journal
June 25, 2000
http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/uranium/legacyd1_over.html
The Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, which went into operation processing uranium in the early 1950s at the site of an ammunition factory, has been accumulating dangerous waste ever since. Behind these forbidding signs is Drum Mountain, a vast pile of crushed and contaminated barrels. The federal government recently increased the amount of money allocated for cleanup, and work on removing Drum Mountain began Friday.
C-J Photo: Michael Clevenger PADUCAH, Ky. -- Fifty years after welcoming a uranium plant into their community, residents are beginning to believe the unthinkable: that their patriotic toil has created a toxic, radioactive badland in their midst.
Though federal and state officials have reassured workers and the public that the contamination poses no "imminent" danger, a 10- month Courier-Journal investigation shows there are many reasons to be troubled.
Neither the companies that have operated the plant nor the U.S. Department of Energy has given the public a clear picture of the scope and virulence of the problems arising from enriching uranium for nuclear weapons and reactors.
In fact, the health and environmental hazards in and around the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant are more threatening than the factory operators or the government has said.
Contamination from radioactive and hazardous chemicals, including plutonium, has spread well beyond the plant's chain-link fences.
Biological abnormalities have been found in one spe cies of insect, and disease causing PCBs and toxic met als are moving through the animal food chain.
Dozens of former workers have lung damage that has been partly attributed to in haling asbestos and other chemicals on the job.
The Energy Department, which owns the plant, says it has come clean about its past actions: about exposing unwitting workers to plutonium; about workers' role in radiation experiments; and about mountains of rusting drums, exploding barrels and polluted ground water.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson came to Paducah last year and apologized to widows, workers and their families and pledged to com pensate victims of radiation exposure -- whom he called Cold War heroes.
DOE officials have pledged to clean up the site by 2010.
But in private, Energy Department officials are more frank.
"There is an engineering disaster at Paducah akin to the collapse of bridges . . . or occupied structures," Joseph Carson, an engineer at the DOE's office in Oak Ridge, Tenn., wrote to Kentucky officials in April.
The Courier-Journal's investigation involved a review of tens of thousands of pages of government documents obtained through state and federal freedom-of-information laws; plant memos, official reports and independent studies; and interviews with scores of current and former workers, plant and government officials, environmentalists and nuclear experts.
The newspaper found that workers and residents scavenged dioxin-laced wood from a landfill and that more than 11,000 drums of dioxin-contaminated soil is stored on the site. The adjacent public wildlife area contains carcinogens such as PCBs, and excessive amounts of toxic chemicals still flow from the plant at times.
And only now are workers being told they may have been exposed to beryllium, a metal that can cause a fatal lung disease. It was once machined at Paducah for use in nuclear weapons.
Some health and environmental problems at the plant have been known for years, but a whistle-blower lawsuit filed a year ago by three workers and the Natural Resources Defense Council alleged that the problems were far worse than previously reported.
The DOE's Carson: "An engineering disaster." In response, the DOE conducted two investigations that produced reports highly critical of past practices, many of which it was supposed to have regulated. The Department of Justice began a criminal probe that is ongoing, and Congress held hearings.
The Clinton administration and Congress are now promising more money for a cleanup that state officials quietly estimate could cost more than $4 billion.
Taking Richardson's cue, Congress is moving legislation to compensate workers at Paducah and other DOE nuclear plants who sacrificed their health, and sometimes their lives.
But despite the increased scrutiny, The Courier-Journal has found that workers at the Paducah plant, which is now leased and operated by the private United States Enrichment Corp., still are at risk of being exposed to radiation.
During a routine radiation survey early this year, "highly contaminated" metal flakes the size of quarters were discovered in places where employees walk and drive, according to a Feb. 14 plant memo obtained by the newspaper.
And there were other unspecified areas where contaminated dirt, vegetation, wood and asphalt raised the same concerns.
But controlling contamination in such high-traffic areas was determined to be "impractical," requiring a lot of manpower, the memo said. "The likelihood of the spread of contamination from these areas has been considered an acceptable risk," but that conclusion needed to be re-evaluated, the memo said.
Robert Alvarez, a former adviser to Richardson, credits his ex-boss and Assistant Secretary David Michaels for changing the agency's tone and for apologizing to nuclear-industry workers for past wrongs.
But they are opposed, Alvarez said, by a bureaucracy "that's waiting these guys out, hoping this eventually will go away."
"I can't assign some sort of hazard rating to what's going on out there," he said. "But it's not clear that the people responsible for protecting the safety and health of the public can either, and that's what worries me."
Indeed, for all the new attention to Paducah, the cleanup is still woefully underfunded. It also is likely to be far more complicated and to take far longer than the 2010 deadline the federal government and Kentucky have agreed to.
Meanwhile, monitoring for hazards by plant operators, the DOE and the state of Kentucky often is incomplete, and it may be failing to protect the public.
Not once has any nearby community, including Paducah, been surveyed for radiation. Michaels says it is time to talk about that possibility.
Kentucky also has been less aggressive in enforcing environmental regulations at Paducah than two neighboring states have been at similar facilities. Despite a host of problems, the state has fined the plant a mere $5,000 in more than a decade. In recent months, however, the state has been less patient with the DOE.
Russell Ray, a former plant foreman and a Marine who fought in World War II, feels let down by his government.
"The more I hear," he said, "the madder I get."
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Decades of deception: Uranium's broken promise
By JAMES R. CARROLL and JAMES MALONE,
The Courier-Journal
June 25, 2000
http://www.courier-journal.com/cjextra/uranium/legacyd1_pad.html
Work began Friday on the removal of Drum Mountain -- about 85,000 crushed barrels, many of which once contained uranium.
C-J Photo: Jim Roshan From the time Harry S. Truman sat in the White House, the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant has been manufacturing two things in secret: enriched uranium and an unimaginable amount of toxic waste.
While making an estimated 200,000 tons of nuclear fuel, the 5,000-acre plant also has generated:
Enough radioactive scrap metal to build a full-size replica of the battleship Missouri. Enough low-level radioactive waste to cover more than 22 football fields a yard deep. Enough polluted ground water to fill 680,000 residential swimming pools. If laid end to end, the more than 37,000 cylinders of spent uranium being stored outdoors would span 70 miles -- about the distance between Louisville and Lexington.
Aerial photo shows gamma radiation readings from man-made contaminants on the ground, taken in May 1990 from a helicopter flying at 200 feet. The highest-intensity red is the most radiation. There are six radiation areas on the plant site -- and one off-site, at a now-closed storage yard for uranium cylinders. Neither the U.S. Department of Energy nor the three companies that have run the plant were able to contain the poisons of that Cold War work.
Sloppy safety practices, concealed health concerns, and decades of ignorance, expediency and poor oversight have left workers, nearby wildlife and the land itself damaged by chemical and radioactive toxins.
Workers have inhaled the radioactive dust, chemicals have seeped into the ground water, and debris dumped off the site has created pockets of radiation.
And the silent devastation is being seen in creatures ranging from insects to bobcats -- an ominous warning to the humans who share the same soil, water and air.
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Quotes of Note in Last Week's Paducah Sun
June 25, 2000
http://www.paducahsun.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200006/25+00Xr_editorial.html+20000625+editorial
"I wish there were some way both plants could operate, but this is good news for Paducah."
--David Fuller, president of Local 5-550 of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers International Union, reacting to the news that USEC Corp. had decided to close its Portsmouth, Ohio, uranium enrichment plant and keep the Paducah plant running.
="We won the battle, and it is time for us to be grateful for that, but it is a temporary victory. Gaseous diffusion technology is almost at the end of its viable lifetime. There is new technology under development, and all indications are that it won't be located in Paducah."
--Paducah lawyer Tom Osborne, commenting on the long-term prospects of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
="We want to do all we can to keep USEC as a customer and save the Paducah plant."
--Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman John Moulton, explaining TVA's position as the agency negotiates a new power contract with USEC.
="We have the best blood program in the nation. We've never missed a goal in 48 years." --Jeannette L. Roberts, former executive director of the Graves County Chapter of the American Red Cross, commenting on the the chapter's successful blood drives. Roberts retired recently after 44 years on the job.
="Some people won't walk the distance. We don't want it closed. There's not enough parking as it is."
--Cynthia Rogers, owner of Cynthia's Antiques in Paducah, referring to a plan to close a three-block section of Broadway during the After Dinner program on Saturday nights.
="It's an area that could have a lot of potential if the people will fix the properties up and we have more home ownership rather than rental properties."
--Paducah Mayor Albert Jones, referring to efforts to revitalize the Lower Town neighborhood.
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Paducah plant set up secret radiation tests
Columbus Dispatch
Monday, June 26, 2000
http://www.dispatch.com/news/newsfea00/jun00/328018.html
PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) -- Managers of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant were concerned that workers were being harmed by radioactive dust as far back as 40 years ago, so much so that they secretly arranged for tests on laboratory animals.
Fearing adverse publicity, some managers resisted government recommendations that they screen the workers for neptunium, a dangerous contaminant in the dust.
Documents obtained by The Courier-Journal of Louisville through the Freedom of Information Act show that over the years, officials of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant continued to discuss the hazards of various radioactive materials in the plant but never told workers of their concerns.
In the early 1980s, managers secretly compiled a list of 13 current and former workers who became ill with leukemia and allied diseases.
It wasn't until a lawsuit was filed last year by three workers that others say they learned they might have swallowed and inhaled dust tainted with highly radioactive materials that can cause cancer.
The highly radioactive elements came into the plant as contaminants in the spent nuclear fuel the plant re- energized from 1953 to 1977. During production, the contaminants were spread as fine dust throughout the tubing in the processing equipment.
Workers risked exposure during a neptunium-recovery project from 1958 to 1962. A June 1, 2000, draft report, in which the U.S. Department of Energy tracked the path of radioactive materials through the plant, said neptunium exceeded allowable limits in air samples taken during the recovery operation in 1959.
"There is no indication that respiratory protection was used during these activities,'' it said. "Urine samples collected and sent to Oak Ridge National Laboratory for analysis tested positive for neptunium.''
Workers also faced a high risk in the feed plant, where they prepared uranium for processing, and in maintenance shops when they were replacing pieces of equipment.
Managers for Union Carbide -- the company that then ran the federal government's diffusion plants near Paducah; Portsmouth, Ohio; and Oak Ridge, Tenn. -- were concerned about workers being exposed to neptunium, according to records released to The Courier-Journal.
L.B. Emlet, production manager for the uranium plants, wrote the Atomic Energy Commission in 1959 requesting animal studies on how workers metabolized neptunium.
"We find some data to indicate a discrepancy in the presently accepted excretion rate by the human organism,'' Emlet wrote. "We recommend that you initiate studies on this problem at some appropriate site.''
---
Paducah Plant-Glance
Akron Beacon Journal
Sunday, June 25, 2000
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.ohio.com/bj/news/ohio/docs/011991.htm
While making an estimated 200,000 tons of nuclear fuel, the 5,000-acre Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant also has generated:
-Enough radioactive scrap metal to build a full-size replica of the battleship Missouri.
-Enough low-level radioactive waste in drums to cover more than 22 football fields a yard deep.
-Enough polluted ground water to fill 680,000 residential swimming pools.
-If laid end to end, the more than 37,000 cylinders of spent uranium being stored outdoors would span 70 miles.
---
Plant managers secretly arranged for radiation tests on animals
Akron Beacon Journal
Sunday, June 25, 2000
http://www.ohio.com/bj/news/ohio/docs/012818.htm
PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) -- Managers of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant were concerned that workers were being harmed by radioactive dust as far back as 40 years ago, so much so that they secretly arranged for tests on laboratory animals.
Fearing adverse publicity and trouble with the union, some managers resisted government recommendations that they screen the workers for neptunium, a dangerous contaminant in the dust.
Documents obtained by The Courier-Journal through the Freedom of Information Act show that over the years, officials of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant continued to discuss the hazards of various radioactive materials in the plant but never told workers of their concerns.
In the early 1980s, managers secretly compiled a list of 13 current and former workers who had gotten leukemia and allied diseases.
It wasn't until a lawsuit was filed last year by three workers that others say they learned they might have swallowed and inhaled dust tainted with highly radioactive materials which can cause cancer.
``Workers feel betrayed, and they're angry that these people put their health at risk,'' said David Fuller, president of local 5-550 of the Paper, Allied Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers Union. ``Workers resent the fact (that the government) decided to risk their health without telling them.''
The highly radioactive elements came into the plant as contaminants in the spent nuclear fuel the plant re-energized from 1953 to 1977. During production, the contaminants were spread as fine dust throughout the miles of tubing in the processing equipment.
Workers risked exposure during a neptunium-recovery project from 1958 to 1962. A June 1, 2000, draft report, in which the U.S. Department of Energy tracked the path of radioactive materials through the plant, said neptunium exceeded allowable limits in air samples taken during the recovery operation in 1959.
``There is no indication that respiratory protection was used during these activities,'' said the report, which The Courier-Journal obtained. ``Urine samples collected and sent to Oak Ridge National Laboratory for analysis tested positive for neptunium.''
Workers also faced a high risk in the feed plant, where they prepared uranium for processing, and in maintenance shops when they were replacing pieces of equipment.
``The units must be cut open with torches,'' said a 1960 memo from an Atomic Energy Commission medical-research official. ``The pieces certainly can't be handled gently or contained very readily because they are too massive.''
Managers for Union Carbide -- the company that then ran the federal government's diffusion plants near Paducah; Portsmouth, Ohio; and Oak Ridge, Tenn. -- knew and were concerned about workers' being exposed to neptunium, according to records released to The Courier-Journal under the Freedom of Information Act.
L.B. Emlet, production manager for the uranium plants, wrote the Atomic Energy Commission in 1959 requesting animal studies on how workers metabolized neptunium.
``We find some data to indicate a discrepancy in the presently accepted excretion rate by the human organism,'' Emlet wrote. ``We recommend that you initiate studies on this problem at some appropriate site.''
The following year, Richard C. Baker, a radiation-protection official at the Paducah plant, wrote a memo about a ``neptunium biology research project'' to the plant's medical director, Dr. A. Neal Ward. Baker said early animal-test results at the government's Hanford Laboratories in Washington state showed ``evidence of chemical rather than radiological toxicity'' after animals breathed high concentrations of ``Paducah dust.''
In 1961, Ward wrote in a memo that he had presented a summary of the ``problem of the neptunium contaminated process equipment at the Paducah plant'' to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Maryland. Ward suggested that ``further animal studies be conducted at Hanford.''
Just a year earlier, Ward had been among the Paducah managers resisting neptunium testing of workers, according to the 1960 memo from Dr. Bruner of the AEC. Bruner wrote that Ward and others ``were not receptive to the idea of sending 8 to 10 of the men'' with the most radiation in their urine to Oak Ridge for testing with a wholebody radiation counter.
``There are possibly 300 people at Paducah who should be checked out,'' Bruner wrote, ``but they hesitate to precede (sic) to intensive studies because of the union's use of this as an excuse for hazard pay.''
He added that he had urged Ward to obtain tissue samples from any potentially contaminated workers who die, so they could be tested for radiation, ``but I am afraid the policy at this plant is to be wary of the unions and any unfavorable public relations.''
The resistance to testing apparently faded by the mid-1960s. In a 1966 memo, Baker reported that whole-body counts of some workers had confirmed ``low exposure levels'' to neptunium -- though workers have said they were not told the results of such testing.
The memo said studies of rats exposed to dust containing small amounts of neptunium showed that they retained little of the element and rapidly cleared it from their lungs, suggesting it wasn't a health threat.
But Baker went on to note that higher levels of exposure to neptunium were possible in other ``phases of handling recycling of high burn-up nuclear fuel.''
In fact, the Energy Department reported earlier this year that its investigators had found documents indicating some Paducah workers received high-level exposure to neptunium.
In 1985, an Energy Department task force recommended a study to determine whether Paducah workers were exposed to plutonium, but it was never done.
-------- maryland
Proponents Say Retreat Could Bring Calvert Jobs, Prestige
Washington Post
Sunday, June 25, 2000; Page M03
By Raymond McCaffrey Washington Post Staff Writer
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-06/25/102l-062500-idx.html
A proposed retreat on 38 acres in the St. Leonard area could bring as many as 55 jobs to Calvert County and add roughly $150,000 annually in property taxes to the county's coffers, representatives say.
The Institute of World Peace's proposed $15 million to $18 million development would be similar to the Wye River conference centers on Maryland's Eastern Shore -- site of the 1998 Middle East peace talks -- and bring similar "prestige" to the county, they added.
"It is the quality of work going on there that we want to duplicate in Calvert County," Robert L. Gray, the group's attorney, told the county Planning Commission on Wednesday.
Before the Institute for World Peace could build its retreat, it would need to gain some concessions from the Calvert County Board of Commissioners. The land falls within a "resource conservation area" in which development is sharply restricted by the state, an official said. Counties can permit more dense development on only 5 percent of that designated land.
In Calvert County, most such development has involved public schools, the official said. Moreover, the county views the proposed retreat as a private university -- a use not permitted in the conservation area -- so the commissioners would have to amend the county's zoning laws.
The commissioners have postponed a public hearing on the matter originally scheduled for Tuesday until the Planning Commission concludes its consideration of the proposal.
More than 150 people turned out for the commission's Wednesday meeting, with many voicing objections to the development. Though some have expressed concern about the institute's ties to the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, others concede that they would have no problem with the retreat if it were proposed for one of the county's town centers.
However, the proposed development would take place on property accessible only from country roads around St. Leonard. Plans call for a conference center, an institute building, some dormitories and some faculty housing, cafeteria and classrooms, plus a 250-car parking lot.
"There are too many unanswered questions, including concerns about traffic," said Gail Wallace, a community leader from the Owings area who came to Wednesday's meeting.
Indeed, residents from throughout Calvert showed up to give the commission input about an issue that has quickly become a countywide concern. Although the county is promoting economic development -- to ease its dependence on the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, not far from St. Leonard, as its largest taxpayer -- it also has mounted a vigorous campaign to curb growth.
County officials said that the Institute for World Peace was classified as a "priority" project as part of the county's "Fast-Track Program," which is designed to simplify the steps in the planning process to provide incentives for businesses to locate in Calvert County as well as to provide assistance to local companies looking to expand.
On its application to county planners, the institute said that "approximately $4 million has been pledged to date" toward the project, and that it would provide 35 to 40 full-time employees and 10 to 15 part-time employees, with a top salary of $125,000 for the president.
"This university, with its international faculty and researchers, is being located on the Chesapeake Bay for its peaceful atmosphere conducive for high-level international conferences and policy decisions for congressional leaders, diplomats, scientists and business people from the Washington, D.C., area," the institute said on its application. "On this property will be located the main institute buildings for research, conferences, dining facilities, administration and the President's residence and staff offices. The campus will also include rooms for graduate students, faculty, researchers, and support staff."
-------- new mexico
Regulators Met by Ralliers At Waste Storage Hearing
BY KIRSTEN STEWART
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
June 25, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/06252000/utah/61913.htm
Federal nuclear regulators were greeted by a band of anti-nuclear protesters outside Saturday's public hearing on the proposal to store much of the country's high-level radioactive waste on Utah's Skull Valley Goshute Reservation.
About 25 protesters stood in the hot afternoon sun outside the Sheraton City Center Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. Carrying signs that read, "Don't Waste Utah" and "Mobile Chernobyl," they called for a moratorium on the shipment of all new radioactive waste into Utah's West Desert.
"This is a wake-up call to folks that each and every one of us needs to be involved," said Jason GroeneAwold, director of Families Against Incinerator Risk (FAIR), who spoke at the rally.
Federal regulators spent most of the week in closed sessions to hear evidence on whether a consortium of eight out-of-state utilities should be licensed to store 40,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods on an American Indian reservation 50 miles west of Salt Lake City. The hearings were opened for public input Friday afternoon and evening, and Saturday afternoon.
The consortium, known as the Private Fuel Storage, and the Goshutes are already in the final one-third of the licensing approval process, said FAIR's Groenewold. In addition, another proposal to allow Envirocare to store higher levels of radioactive waste is being fast-tracked by the government, he said.
"Utah's West Desert has already become the largest toxic dumping zone in the country," he warned, citing two hazardous waste landfills east of Wendover, the Tooele chemical weapons incinerator, the MagCorp plant, Hill Air Force Bombing Range and Dugway Proving Ground. "We're concerned about what this means to the health of Utahns."
Steve Erickson from Downwinders, which successfully lobbied against the MX missile project nearly two decades ago, and Sammy Blackbear, a general counsel member of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians, also spoke at the rally.
Blackbear said he was protesting on behalf of the one-third of the Goshute tribe opposed to the storage site. He questioned the legality of the PFS-Goshute lease agreement, alleging that in three short weeks, a corrupt tribal council ushered the agreement through the Bureau of Indian Affairs with little scrutiny.
Blackbear also alleged that Goshute leaders bribed tribal members to vote for the site, promising them future dividends from the $3 billion disposal site.
The Goshute Indians have been duped, he said: "The nation has no place to put its garbage, so let's put it on Indian land."
The debate also raged among a group of American Indian participants in the 13th annual Heber Valley Intertribal Powwow on Saturday, where environmental and public-safety concerns clashed with the solidarity that many American Indians said they feel for the Skull Valley Goshutes.
"Remember, we're the first Americans," said Bill Emerson, a Dine Indian from New Mexico, who said tribal interests have too often been overlooked in the course of U.S. history.
"The state is ignoring the sovereignty as well as the economic development rights of the tribe," agreed Salt Lake resident Dallin Maybe, whose lineage stems from the Northern Arapahoe and Seneca tribes.
"There's already disposal facilities in this state, which Gov. [Mike] Leavitt has conveniently forgotten about," Maybe said.
Terry Begay, a northern Arizona Navajo, concurred. "They should be allowed to do whatever they want," Begay said. "It's their land and they need the money."
Others disagreed. "I'm very opposed," said Oliver Salt, a Navajo from Spanish Fork who said the risks associated with the proposal outweigh any broad social benefits.
"Reservation or not, it's only for the economic benefit of one group of people," Salt said. "It's nonsense."
A woman who identified herself as Rio, a Wyoming Choctaw-Chickasaw, said the idea of storing such waste on American Indian land is anathema to many tribal beliefs.
"I'm totally against anything nuclear," she said. "Just listen to our prayers here. We respect all living things, starting with the grass we stand on."
Inside the public hearing in Salt Lake City, several members of the Environmental Justice Foundation agreed that storing nuclear waste on sacred American Indian land was an anathema to their traditional beliefs. They also expressed fears that what has been sold as a temporary site might become permanent.
"No permanent site has been established," said Anne Sword Hanson, a resident of Highland, who also raised safety concerns about the shipment and containment of nuclear waste. "There are no small mistakes when it comes to nuclear waste," she said.
The spent fuel is now being stored in about 20 nuclear power plants in California, the Midwest and East. The carcinogenic waste won't decompose for about 10,000 years.
A permanent disposal site at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada has been proposed, but is being fought by the Nevada Governor.
Utah's Gov. Leavitt, and Reps. Merrill Cook, R-Utah, and Jim Hansen, R-Utah, have denounced the Utah disposal site.
But Kevin Crawford, former director of the University of Utah's nuclear plant, said these denouncements amount to nothing more than lip service.
"I heard Leavitt say that the nuclear waste was coming here over his dead body. And that's what he's doing is playing dead," he said.
Crawford, who is opposed to the dump site on ethical and safety grounds, is concerned that anti-nuclear activists in the state are out-gunned and under-prepared to fight it.
He also questioned the state's preparedness to cope with a nuclear waste site. Nevada has a state agency regulating nuclear projects, whereas Utah doesn't, he said. "This is a good sign that we're not prepared to begin talking about this issue."
Tribune reporter Karl Cates contributed to this report.
----
Another Security Problem at Los Alamos
New York Times
June 25, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/062500los-alamos-security.html
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 24 -- An inventory of all classified data at Los Alamos National Laboratory, taken in response to criticism over the disappearance of two top-secret hard drives, has found another possible security breach, a laboratory official said today.
In the latest case, two 10-year-old floppy disks containing classified information were reported missing Wednesday at the nuclear weapons laboratory.
They were found a day later, attached to a paper report in a nearby, secured area.
Jim Danneskiold, a spokesman for the laboratory, said it appeared that no classified information was compromised.
This case was not as serious as that of the missing hard drives, but Mr. Danneskiold said the disappearance of the floppy disks would be investigated by the Energy Department, which oversees the laboratory.
Mr. Danneskiold said he did not know how the disks had been misplaced and would not disclose what type of information they contained.
He said the laboratory was itemizing all classified data in response to the disappearance of the hard drives last month.
The F.B.I and the Energy Department are investigating the disappearance of the two computer hard drives from the laboratory's X Division, where nuclear weapons are designed. The drives resurfaced mysteriously on June 16 behind a copy machine near the vault where they were discovered missing on May 7.
The drives held information that would be needed to locate and dismantle nuclear devices that might be used in a terrorist attack.
---
More nuke lab security breaches possible
USA Today
06/25/00- Updated 09:44 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncssat03.htm
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - An inventory of all classified data at Los Alamos National Laboratory, taken in response to criticism over the disappearance of two top-secret hard drives, has found two more possible security breaches, a lab official said Saturday.
Two 10-year-old floppy disks containing classified information were reported missing Wednesday at the nuclear weapons lab.
However, they were found a day later, attached to a paper report in a nearby, secured area. And apparently no classified information was compromised, lab spokesman Jim Danneskiold said.
This and the second case, involving an unlocked door, aren't as serious as the missing computer hard drives, but Danneskiold said the disappearance of the floppy disks will be investigated by the Department of Energy, which oversees the lab.
The disks ''are obsolete. Very few, if any, computers are around that can read them,'' he said. The disks had last been recorded in an inventory conducted two years ago.
Danneskiold said he didn't know how the disks got misplaced and would not disclose what type of information they contained.
In the second incident, Danneskiold said a computer repair person left an equipment closet unlocked inside a secure room. The room door was locked, however. Danneskiold said the lab is itemizing all classified data in response to the uproar over the disappearance of the hard drives last month.
''We've instituted a number of additional security measures beyond what's required,'' he said.
A grand jury has been convened to look into the two-month disappearance of the two computer hard drives from the lab's top-secret X division.
The drives resurfaced mysteriously behind a copy machine near the vault where they were first discovered missing on May 7.
The drives held information that would be needed to locate and dismantle U.S. or even foreign nuclear devices that might be used in a terrorist attack.
In addition, former Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee is in jail awaiting trial and could face a maximum of life in prison for security violations.
He was arrested in December and accused of illegally copying top-secret nuclear weapons files while also working in the X Division.
The alleged copies of the files have not been found.
---
U.S. scientists targeted for secrets
USA Today
06/25/00- Updated 06:02 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncssun03.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. nuclear scientists traveling abroad have reported being targeted by foreign agents who tried to obtain secrets by bugging hotel rooms, rifling briefcases and computers, or offering sexual favors, congressional investigators say.
A report based on information gathered by the Energy Department's counterintelligence office identified at least 75 such cases in recent years involving trips by scientists from federal weapons labs.
The Energy Department said Sunday it agreed with the findings, which were largely based on data the department provided. The scientists' names and countries involved were deleted.
''What they (the scientists) were reporting is that they were approached by someone,'' Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier said in an interview Sunday.
He said there is no evidence that secrets were compromises in any of the incidents cited by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
Glauthier acknowledged the incidents demonstrate the degree to which research scientists from the weapons labs are targets of foreign intelligence operatives.
He said thousands of trips are made abroad annually by scientists working in a wide variety of disciplines at the labs, including many involved in nuclear weapons research.
The report, expected to be formally released this week, said foreign travel ''can greatly benefit'' the country through scientific exchanges. It also said some travelers ''may not be receiving the necessary preparation to recognize and thwart espionage.''
A copy of the report, requested by Reps. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., and Tim Roemer, D-Ind., was obtained Sunday by The Associated Press. Its contents was first reported in Sunday's Washington Post.
Glauthier said that in 1998, the Energy Department increased efforts to make scientists more aware of the potential risks when traveling abroad. The agency agreed with most of the report and recommendations, including the need ''sensitize'' scientists about the risk, he said.
The report covered incidents reported between late 1995 to late 1998 by scientists from nuclear weapons facilities at Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico, Lawrence Livermore in California, and Oak Ridge in Tennessee.
Foreign intelligence operatives ''used a variety of methods'' from bugging hotel and conference rooms to breaking into scientists' computers and personal belonging, and casually eavesdropping on conversations, the GAO said. It said the incidents involved trips not only to ''sensitive'' countries - Russia, China and Pakistan, for example - but also other nations.
As a result, the GAO urged the Energy Department to establish procedures to more closely monitor and advise scientists of the risks involving all foreign travel and not only those to sensitive nations.
''Foreign intelligence entities can operate worldwide,'' the report said.
Among the incidents cited in the GAO report: - Several scientists said suitcases or briefcases disappeared and then were returned with their contents. One scientist said his computer had been pried open from the back. Others reported zippers being in different locations or locks missing on suitcases.
- A scientist noticed a flashing red light in her hotel room when the lights were dimmed, and heard a noise that sounded like an auto-focus camera lens. She believed pictures were possibly being taken from a ceiling smoke detector.
- A scientist traveling in a ''sensitive'' country reported being propositioned every night by prostitutes, a waitress and two other women. He said he declined the offers.
- Scientists attending an unclassified technical conference noticed microphone wires leading from behind a door into the conference room, leading some to believe their discussions were being monitored.
In one case involving a ''sensitive'' country, a scientist became convinced his phone was being tapped. He telephoned his wife in the United States and she mentioned she was going to play bingo. The next day someone asked him, ''What is bingo?''
On another matter, Glauthier played down two incidents over the weekend at Los Alamos - the discovery of two 10-year-old floppy computer disks where they were not supposed to be, and a door being left unlocked in a secure area.
The two floppy disks contained outdated material and were, in fact, found in a secure vault, although their whereabouts was uncertain for a day. ''Now that we're asking everybody to inventory everything and doublecheck. ... We will find things like that,'' he said.
The two floppy disks ''were secure and nothing was lost,'' he said.
---
Opinionline Lab's missing secrets prove security flawed
USA Today
06/16/00- Updated 08:11 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/opline.htm
The Christian Science Monitor in an editorial: "The Los Alamos National Laboratory didn't need another emergency. But the disappearance of computer hard drives containing highly classified information about American and foreign nuclear weapons has given it one. This latest incident, following the probe of former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee ... underscores the laboratory's ongoing security problems. Tightening security at this lab and others involved in the design of nuclear weaponry has, rightly, become a national priority. ... Mistakes such as the missing hard drives at Los Alamos may be inadvertent -- attributable, in that case, to the chaos of an approaching forest fire. ... Nonetheless, they point to a need for tougher precautions and more diligent checking to narrow the scope for human error -- or spying. The Cold War may be over, but the need for secrecy in national security is not."
The Washington Post in an editorial: "With luck, the intensive investigation now under way will unearth the lost drives, or somehow yield assurances that they did not fall into the hands of spies or terrorists. But even if that best-case outcome transpires, the fact that some of the most sensitive secrets at Los Alamos have been missing for a month will in itself constitute a serious security breach."
Sun-Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, in an editorial: "As the search and investigation continue, it's fair to ask some hard questions. ... Officials say the hard drives were misplaced, not stolen. But since they have no idea what happened to them, how can they know that? Their reassurances sound more like damage control. ... Why was the search delayed? Why was notification delayed? Why, while Los Alamos was evacuated because of the fire, were those 26 employees not tracked down and questioned as soon as it was known the hard drives were missing? Information can go a long way in a month. And how, considering the intense scrutiny Los Alamos was under for the past year because of the Wen Ho Lee case ... could another serious security breach be allowed to happen? ... These questions demand answers, and soon."
The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, in an editorial: "To duck responsibility, the Clinton administration usually ends up attempting to dismiss criticism as partisan carping. And usually congressional Democrats join the choir. This time, however, the issue -- our ability to safeguard our most valuable secrets -- may be too important, and the Clinton administration may have gone to the well once too often, for that to work. There are some encouraging early signs that congressional Democrats are taking this latest security breach as seriously as the Republicans. Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., openly fretted about 'a culture of indifference about security.' Well said. The safety of the nation requires a bipartisan effort to put an end to that culture."
Los Angeles Times in an editorial: "The missing hard drives contain information about Russian and Chinese nuclear weapons, as well as weapons of American allies. The danger of this material falling into the wrong hands is obvious. (Energy Department Secretary Bill) Richardson, who has put a number of Los Alamos employees on paid leave, vows 'we will not tolerate this.' The problem is he promised pretty much the same thing after flagrant security gaps were exposed last year in an investigation that led to the indictment of physicist Wen Ho Lee for security violations." The Seattle Times in an editorial: "The failures fall squarely on Los Alamos, where a scientific community obviously views security as an issue for military weenies and crepe-soled spy chasers. ... Taxpayers ought to be enraged. ... Secrets are in circulation that could do the nation harm. Making changes in technology and procedures will cost a bundle, and they will be the first dollars spent. Unfortunately, remedial activities will be effective only to the degree they are used and taken seriously."
---
About Those Nuclear 'Secrets'
Washington Post
Sunday, June 25, 2000; Page B06
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-06/25/129l-062500-idx.html
I find it surprising that the secret files on the prodigal Los Alamos hard drives apparently were not encrypted [news story, June 21]. If modern "hard encryption" techniques had been used, it would not have been particularly distressing to find the files missing. The encryption keys would have been stored elsewhere, and the classified data would not have been available to the person in possession of the drives.
Unfortunately, the U.S. government does not like hard encryption and has suppressed its use. The tradeoff seems to be that secrets about nuclear weapons are less protected than they could be so that the government will continue to be able to read drug dealers' accounting files.
BOB MUNCK
Haymarket, Va.
*Congressional interest in nuclear weapons security [news story, June 22] comes about 50 years too late.
I served for 30 years in the Atomic Energy Commission's security program, retiring in 1978 as assistant director for physical security. My responsibilities included establishing and monitoring security controls at all of the commission's facilities and, later, at all Department of Energy facilities including the national laboratories.
An anti-security culture always has existed among those who work in nuclear science. As early as 1947, the head of the Theoretical Physics Division at Los Alamos promoted the abolition of security controls and the sharing of weapons data with all nations as a means of ensuring peace. This theory, originally espoused by Niels Bohr, provided an excuse for much of the animosity many lab employees exhibited toward security controls.
While the Atomic Energy Commission's security program was weak, the nuclear security program of the Department of Defense was worse. From 1947 on we were aware of the presence and identities of numerous foreign agents in the national laboratories, but because we could not obtain prosecutable evidence, we were unable to have the agents removed.
Whenever we attempted to implement stronger security measures or have suspected agents terminated, we were met by resistance from the laboratory directors.
Abolishing this deeply embedded anti-security bias is a task that cannot be accomplished by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson or by those who follow him. The horse long ago was stolen from the barn.
EARLE D. HIGHTOWER
Rockville
---
A LOOK AT . . . Keeping Secrets THE CUSTODIANS OF AMERICA'S NUCLEAR DATA--including those wayward files at the Los Alamos National Laboratory--need guidelines that might actually work.; When Too Much Is Classified, Too Little Is Secure
Washington Post
Sunday, June 25, 2000; Page B03
By Jennifer Weeks
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-06/25/140l-062500-idx.html
Several years ago, U.S. policy debates about nuclear security centered on what to protect. Now, the theme is how soon we can protect everything. This approach is all but guaranteed to fail--and may have been a factor in the case of the lost-and-found hard drives at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Just as the Environmental Protection Agency cannot hope to catch every polluter in the nation, or the U.S. Customs Service to detect every smuggler who breaches U.S. borders, it is unrealistic to expect the Department of Energy to protect every piece of information that may be even tangentially relevant to producing nuclear weapons. Our aims should be to drastically narrow the terrain that needs protecting, and then to control the truly sensitive information effectively.
The scope of the Energy Department's mission is undeniably daunting. In its role as custodian of America's nuclear arsenal, the department holds roughly 280 million pages of documents classified "Secret" or "Top Secret." It also manages a lesser, hard-to-quantify category, Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information, which may be distributed only to U.S. citizens with a need to know--for example, security guards who need floor plans of buildings that hold nuclear materials. It co-manages still another relevant category, Export Controlled Information, which may be distributed freely to U.S. citizens but not to foreigners without an export license. Many widely available goods are in this category--for example, the popular Lotus Notes software, which has encryption capabilities, was export-controlled until just six months ago.
Not only is the inventory of classified nuclear data too large, but some classification guidelines are outdated and don't correspond to current security threats. As a 1995 National Academy of Sciences study noted, in the Cold War era it was not critical to protect simple nuclear weapons designs from the Soviet Union--which had its own advanced arsenal. But today, such information could be very useful to a would-be nuclear power or terrorist group. Conversely, it used to be important to keep the Soviet government from learning how much fissile material we had. But today we willingly share some of that information as part of our effort to keep tabs on Russia's holdings of uranium and plutonium.
To cite another example, the total number of warheads in the U.S. stockpile is still classified, although retired Gen. Colin Powell stated the figure publicly several times while he headed the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Nor will the government disclose the average amount of plutonium in a nuclear warhead, although the total amount of plutonium in U.S. warheads is now public information, so anyone who cared to know could divide that figure by Powell's warhead number and figure it out.
To make the system more effective, therefore, the academy urged the Energy Department to reduce or eliminate classification of less-critical information and increase protection for information that was truly relevant to post-Cold War threats. In 1997, a high-level review of nuclear classification policy, chaired by former Sandia National Laboratory director Al Narath, repeated and sharpened this point.
The Narath review called for getting rid of the "born secret" presumption, which dictates that any information related to nuclear weapon design, production or use is automatically classified. On the other hand, it identified certain information that potentially deserved even stronger protection--such as techniques for overcoming the electronic "locks" that would deter terrorists from exploding a stolen U.S. nuclear weapon. (Energy officials have indicated that the Los Alamos hard drives--which were lost, then found behind a copying machine--contained that type of information.)
Implemented fully, these authoritative studies would have made the job of protecting critical nuclear weapons information a lot more feasible. Even before the Narath review, Hazel O'Leary, President Clinton's first-term Energy secretary, tried to begin the declassification process. Under her sweeping Openness Initiative, the department released such information as data on previously secret U.S. nuclear tests, how much plutonium the United States produced and the amount of mercury used in U.S. weapons production (important for environmental cleanup efforts).
But politics intervened. What that effort won for O'Leary was a relentless attack by conservative members of Congress. They called her a security threat. Some went so far as to charge--without evidence--that she had leaked an advanced nuclear warhead design to the press. (This demonstrably false allegation was repeated last week during the Los Alamos hearings in Congress.)
O'Leary's successor, Bill Richardson, has said many times that better nuclear security is his top priority. That made last year's allegations of Chinese spying at nuclear weapons laboratories all the more embarrassing, and put even more pressure on Richardson and the department to protect any and all nuclear-related data. Richardson frequently cites a list of reforms his administration has instituted, including upgraded computer security systems, restrictions on foreign visits and improved counterintelligence programs. Congress has imposed additional requirements, such as polygraphs for thousands of employees.
But more security is not always better security. Sometimes it's just the opposite.
To wit: Last summer, the Energy Department issued its first "Sensitive Subjects List"--more than 50 categories of technical information that could conceivably be relevant to producing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or otherwise be a target for spies. Many of the topics are not classified and some are downright common--such as advanced high-performance computers (like those in some businesses) or Global Positioning System receivers (like the ones you can buy at Radio Shack).
Any foreign visitor to an Energy Department lab whose discussions might include any item on the Sensitive Subjects List must undergo an FBI background check, and the department must review whether the interaction requires an export license (information, even from a conversation, can be a "deemed export"). Visits from nationals of the several dozen countries on the related "Sensitive Country List" (China, the former Soviet republics, various "states of concern") trigger background checks regardless of their subject.
Remember, all of this is done on behalf of information that has a low security priority. In effect, the Energy Department has expanded its already massive management burden. Furthermore, these controls inhibit American scientists from publishing and giving presentations at conferences for fear that some fact, some reference, will be "sensitive." That the process is burdensome is certain. Whether it makes our nuclear secrets safer is highly doubtful.
And the price of wasting time and energy on this kind of politically inspired effort is failure to do things that need to be done. Here's where the wayward hard drives of Los Alamos come in: Because they were classified "Secret," rather than "Top Secret," the lab did not track their location or require users to sign them out.
But if the Energy Department had followed all the recommendations of the 1997 Narath review, it would have upgraded security controls for 137 types of nuclear information--including the data on the Los Alamos hard drives. The Defense Department, which shares control over nuclear weapons information with the Energy Department, blocked that change. (Among other reasons, the Pentagon did not want its employees to have to undergo the rigorous background checks required by the Energy Department.) Energy could have fought Defense on this one, but in the plethora of security upgrades it was trying to accomplish, Energy let it slide--and paid the price in hostile congressional hearings.
The current focus on controlling access by foreign visitors and employees is also questionable. Although Richardson has spoken out against "racial profiling," the department clearly targets foreign nationals as security threats, through measures such as requiring foreign-born lab employees who have access to classified information to wear colored badges marked with their countries of origin. And Congress has tightly restricted foreign visits to the nuclear weapons labs. These curbs have greatly reduced our interactions with foreign scientists, even on unclassified subjects--which is a real threat to creative, smart research. In fact, these controls make us less secure by interfering with cooperative programs on post-Cold War threats such as controlling Russia's nuclear weapons materials.
Bringing common sense to our nuclear security policy will require more political restraint than we have seen in the past several years. Energy officials and members of Congress need to stop blaming each other and agree on what security threats are most critical. Redundant and confusing tools such as the Sensitive Subjects List should be dropped.
Congress should stop requiring reports on irrelevant bean-counting measures, such as how many security training courses the Energy Department conducts--and stop confusing such measures with results. It also should provide more support for declassification. Similarly, revising the Atomic Energy Act to eliminate outdated information categories would free up resources to manage today's key secrets.
Protecting nuclear secrets in the Information Age is a daunting task, and events at Los Alamos should serve as a wake-up call to reassess our current approach. But "more" is not an adequate security strategy. Rather than broad but thin nuclear security programs, the goal should be narrow but deep controls. As the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, chaired by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, observed in 1997, "The best way to ensure that secrecy is respected, and that the most important secrets remain secret, is for secrecy to be returned to its limited but necessary role."
Jennifer Weeks directs the Managing the Atom Project at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
---
Sunday In The Loop
Washington Post
Sunday, June 25, 2000; Page W04
By Al Kamen
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-06/25/070l-062500-idx.html
COOKING AT LIVERMORE
There was a time when Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was the favored child of congressional largess. No more. The nuclear bomb lab seems to be taking regular hits from lawmakers these days.
For example, Congress was much displeased when the Energy Department missed a deadline earlier this month to explain just how much it will cost to complete construction of the lab's superlaser project, which has developed a serious case of overruns (billions) and delays (years).
Last year a congressional report said the lab may have cheated an inventor out of patent rights to a communications technology process and misled business partners about difficulties in commercializing it. The report said the lab, which insisted it did nothing wrong, may have ripped off the basic technology from an inventor named Larry Fullerton.
Still, the lab is sometimes credited with fine work. A recent article in the San Antonio Express-News, about hamburger barbecuing and health issues, noted that cancer-causing compounds (known as HCAs) are produced when meat is cooked on a grill. The article reported that lab researchers "have developed a recipe for a marinade that they said showed evidence of cutting levels of HCAs in hamburgers."
Good news as we head into July Fourth weekend. Actually, Livermore Marinade was announced at least as far back as 1996 and repeated just about every summer since then. Well, as they say, good news always bears repetition. So, here's the recipe: 1/2 cup brown sugar;
3 cloves garlic, mashed; 1 1/2 teaspoons salt; 3 tablespoons mustard; 1 cup cider vinegar; 3 tablespoons lemon juice and 6 tablespoons olive oil.
---
Bill and Bill
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
Inside Politics
Robert Stacy McCain News and political dispatches from around the nation.
http://208.246.212.80/national/inpolitics.htm
President Clinton said Thursday he has confidence in Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, under fire for his department's mishandling of nuclear secrets and soaring oil prices.
Mr. Richardson "came in there and faced a whole host of problems, and I think that in every case, he's dealt with them in a forthright and aggressive manner," Mr. Clinton told reporters from Reuters and other news organizations.
"They're getting to the bottom of [missing nuclear data at Los Alamos National Laboratory] I think pretty quickly, with the help of the good work by the FBI and others," he said.
The president admitted the Los Alamos case is "a very serious matter, so the administration should expect to be asked hard questions about it. And we should figure out not only what happened in this case, but how to keep such things from happening in the future."
Memo to Bill and Bill
Wednesday night's Top Ten list on the CBS "Late Show" with David Letterman was "Top Ten Questions on the Los Alamos Security Application."
No. 10: "Do you have any previous experience sitting around doing nothing?"
No. 5: "Tell us about your work with the group 'Overthrow America.' "
No. 4: "Which better describes you: bumbling or incompetent?"
No. 1: "You haven't seen an encrypted MIRV warhead schematic lying around, have you?"
-------- ohio
Piketon workers cling to hope despite announced shutdown
June 25, 2000
Jonathan Riskind Dispatch Washington Bureau
http://www.dispatch.com/news/newsfea00/jun00/326939.html
WASHINGTON -- There are glimmers of hope still flickering for workers in southern Ohio reeling from last week's announcement that the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant will close.
But the stark reality for about 2,000 employees at the Piketon, Ohio, plant is that near-term replacement jobs might be scarce and long- term prospects for a new business to locate there are speculative at best.
The USEC facility, which helped fuel the nation's atomic-defense program during the Cold War, is set to close next June.
"I think there is reason to be hopeful,'' said Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville. "In the short term it is going be very difficult, or perhaps impossible, to provide continuous ongoing employment for those people. But in the long term I think there are possibilities there.''
There will be federally funded jobs created to help clean up the Piketon plant. But Strickland and others have questioned recent Energy Department estimates that about 300 jobs could be created there in the near future. Strickland said that, in any case, the number of cleanup jobs likely will be "insignificant'' compared with the jobs lost because of the plant shutdown.
Plans continue to move forward for a government-funded $200 million recycling plant to deal with leftover uranium "tails'' that are a byproduct of the enrichment process. But the government has yet to even release a formal request for bids to build the facility, which would create several hundred temporary construction jobs and employ about 60 workers after it is finished.
There is a chance that some day Piketon could be the site of a new enrichment plant employing a technology called centrifuge that USEC is considering to replace the more expensive and older diffusion technology. Because the government built, and quickly abandoned, a centrifuge building at Piketon in the mid-1980s, running a new centrifuge plant at Piketon is "an attractive option'' if USEC were to go that route, said Elizabeth Stuckle, a company spokeswoman. But USEC has made it clear it needs tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and Energy Department cooperation to implement centrifuge development, and has indicated that other new technologies are being pursued as well.
"We still believe centrifuge deployment requires the U.S. government's financial support to be commercially viable,'' Stuckle said.
Strickland and other USEC critics say they are not sure the former federal corporation, privatized less than two years ago, will be able to survive much longer even running just one plant because of its faltering financial condition. Strickland intends to introduce legislation to renationalize the country's enrichment industry.
Energy Department officials haven't decided on a specific response to USEC's plant closing announcement and general financial condition. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said last week that he is strongly considering replacing USEC as the government's agent in charge of carrying out a Russian arms-control deal. The $12 billion, 20-year Russian deal involves the purchase of enriched uranium culled from thousands of nuclear warheads.
The plant closure decision "leaves unanswered fundamental questions affecting the employees, the corporation's future and USEC's ability to carry out important national security obligations to the United States,'' Richardson said.
Strickland maintains that "whether there is a lot of enthusiasm for legislation to buy back the industry or not, there may be a point in time that the government has no choice but to take the industry back or allow it to be purchased by some other company. A lot of people a lot smarter than I am continue to say to me that the future viability of this company is dubious.''
USEC's critics say they are concerned that USEC might have to shut down its Paducah, Ky., plant as well, and that in the long run it would be content to be merely a broker of the enriched uranium that provides fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. That would mean that the United States would not have its own supply of enriched uranium for plants that provide 20 percent of the nation's electricity -- a violation of the USEC privatization agreement.
USEC officials say that fear is unfounded. They say USEC was forced to shut down Piketon because of a global glut of enriched uranium and lower demand for the product, and the fact that both plants were running at 25 percent of capacity. In addition, they note, carrying out the Russian deal has meant honoring a contract that requires USEC to pay above-market prices.
Having only one plant to run means a stronger company that can afford to develop new technology. The Paducah plant was chosen over Piketon, USEC officials say, in part because its equipment is in better shape and able to shift on- and off- line more easily.
USEC's critics say that the Paducah plant never has carried out more than half of the process needed to enrich commercial-grade uranium and is well short of the capability to manufacture highly enriched weapons-grade uranium. USEC says upgrading the Paducah plant for commercial-grade work is straightforward, but critics maintain that might not be so easy.
Dan Minter, president of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union Local 5-689 that represents Piketon workers, says that USEC will wind up simply blending its Russian material with Paducah's lower-grade uranium. If Piketon is shut down, the country will be left without a plant that can produce either commercial-grade uranium or weapons-grade material, Minter said.
Yet, he said he remains hopeful that a new centrifuge plant will rise, saving, in his judgment, southern Ohio's economy and U.S. energy and national security needs.
Strickland says those are some of the issues he hopes will be addressed during congressional hearings. The House Commerce Committee held an initial hearing April 13; more hearings are expected this fall.
----
Piketon workers cling to hope despite announced shutdown
Columbus Dispatch
Sunday, June 25, 2000
Jonathan Riskind Dispatch Washington Bureau
http://www.dispatch.com/news/newsfea00/jun00/326939.html
WASHINGTON -- There are glimmers of hope still flickering for workers in southern Ohio reeling from last week's announcement that the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant will close.
But the stark reality for about 2,000 employees at the Piketon, Ohio, plant is that near-term replacement jobs might be scarce and long- term prospects for a new business to locate there are speculative at best.
The USEC facility, which helped fuel the nation's atomic-defense program during the Cold War, is set to close next June.
"I think there is reason to be hopeful,'' said Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville. "In the short term it is going be very difficult, or perhaps impossible, to provide continuous ongoing employment for those people. But in the long term I think there are possibilities there.''
There will be federally funded jobs created to help clean up the Piketon plant. But Strickland and others have questioned recent Energy Department estimates that about 300 jobs could be created there in the near future. Strickland said that, in any case, the number of cleanup jobs likely will be "insignificant'' compared with the jobs lost because of the plant shutdown.
Plans continue to move forward for a government-funded $200 million recycling plant to deal with leftover uranium "tails'' that are a byproduct of the enrichment process. But the government has yet to even release a formal request for bids to build the facility, which would create several hundred temporary construction jobs and employ about 60 workers after it is finished.
There is a chance that some day Piketon could be the site of a new enrichment plant employing a technology called centrifuge that USEC is considering to replace the more expensive and older diffusion technology. Because the government built, and quickly abandoned, a centrifuge building at Piketon in the mid-1980s, running a new centrifuge plant at Piketon is "an attractive option'' if USEC were to go that route, said Elizabeth Stuckle, a company spokeswoman.
But USEC has made it clear it needs tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and Energy Department cooperation to implement centrifuge development, and has indicated that other new technologies are being pursued as well.
"We still believe centrifuge deployment requires the U.S. government's financial support to be commercially viable,'' Stuckle said.
Strickland and other USEC critics say they are not sure the former federal corporation, privatized less than two years ago, will be able to survive much longer even running just one plant because of its faltering financial condition. Strickland intends to introduce legislation to renationalize the country's enrichment industry.
Energy Department officials haven't decided on a specific response to USEC's plant closing announcement and general financial condition. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said last week that he is strongly considering replacing USEC as the government's agent in charge of carrying out a Russian arms-control deal. The $12 billion, 20-year Russian deal involves the purchase of enriched uranium culled from thousands of nuclear warheads.
The plant closure decision "leaves unanswered fundamental questions affecting the employees, the corporation's future and USEC's ability to carry out important national security obligations to the United States,'' Richardson said.
Strickland maintains that "whether there is a lot of enthusiasm for legislation to buy back the industry or not, there may be a point in time that the government has no choice but to take the industry back or allow it to be purchased by some other company. A lot of people a lot smarter than I am continue to say to me that the future viability of this company is dubious.''
USEC's critics say they are concerned that USEC might have to shut down its Paducah, Ky., plant as well, and that in the long run it would be content to be merely a broker of the enriched uranium that provides fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. That would mean that the United States would not have its own supply of enriched uranium for plants that provide 20 percent of the nation's electricity -- a violation of the USEC privatization agreement.
USEC officials say that fear is unfounded. They say USEC was forced to shut down Piketon because of a global glut of enriched uranium and lower demand for the product, and the fact that both plants were running at 25 percent of capacity. In addition, they note, carrying out the Russian deal has meant honoring a contract that requires USEC to pay above-market prices.
Having only one plant to run means a stronger company that can afford to develop new technology. The Paducah plant was chosen over Piketon, USEC officials say, in part because its equipment is in better shape and able to shift on- and off- line more easily.
USEC's critics say that the Paducah plant never has carried out more than half of the process needed to enrich commercial-grade uranium and is well short of the capability to manufacture highly enriched weapons-grade uranium. USEC says upgrading the Paducah plant for commercial-grade work is straightforward, but critics maintain that might not be so easy.
Dan Minter, president of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union Local 5-689 that represents Piketon workers, says that USEC will wind up simply blending its Russian material with Paducah's lower-grade uranium. If Piketon is shut down, the country will be left without a plant that can produce either commercial-grade uranium or weapons-grade material, Minter said.
Yet, he said he remains hopeful that a new centrifuge plant will rise, saving, in his judgment, southern Ohio's economy and U.S. energy and national security needs.
Strickland says those are some of the issues he hopes will be addressed during congressional hearings. The House Commerce Committee held an initial hearing April 13; more hearings are expected this fall.
-------- utah
Before Suicide, Ex-Employee Blew Whistle on Envirocare
June 25, 2000
BY BRENT ISRAELSEN
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
http://www.sltrib.com/06252000/nation_w/61915.htm
A whistle-blower who worked for four years at Envirocare of Utah apparently killed himself after months of trouble with the radioactive-waste-disposal company.
Geoffrey Ogden lost control of his truck and crashed in Bountiful the afternoon of June 2 after ingesting a large quantity of sleeping pills. He died a short time later.
Bountiful police Detective Richard Bliss points to a number of factors leading to the apparent suicide. Ogden, 28, had a history of depression, for which he was being treated, and had divorced a month earlier.
Ogden also was struggling with his recent departure from Envirocare, which operates a large radioactive-waste landfill in Tooele County, 80 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
Envirocare -- whose history is replete with regulatory, legal and political turmoil -- was reprimanded in April for intimidating Ogden after he pointed out a problem with a waste shipment.
In a Salt Lake Tribune interview April 21, Ogden said his whistle-blowing had landed him in hot water with Envirocare management, which a week before had placed him on administrative leave, ostensibly because he had accessed a pornographic Web site from a work computer.
The real reason for the leave, Ogden believed, was to punish him for writing a routine "problem report" that held up a waste shipment received last October at Envirocare's site.
"They were upset I wrote the report,'' said Ogden, who at the time of the Tribune interview was contemplating a whistle-blower lawsuit against Envirocare.
Under Utah law, employers are prohibited from persecuting or punishing employees who "blow the whistle" on illegality or waste of public money. In practice, however, whistle-blowers are often ostracized, intimidated and discredited by their employers.
"You start to feel your self-worth disappear. You question your own judgment. It tears you apart from the inside out," said Frank Hatton-Ward, a former Salt Lake City policeman who was fired after publicly criticizing his department's handling of a serial-murder investi- gation in the late 1980s.
As a receiving coordinator for Envirocare, Ogden was responsible for checking the shipping documents to ensure shipments met state and federal license requirements. "We are the first step in the process," Ogden said.
The problem he reported was with a waste shipment received Oct. 4 from British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. Ogden said he had written 200 problem reports in his four-year tenure at Envirocare and did not think the one regarding British Nuclear Fuels was a "big deal."
But Envirocare officials thought differently. The next day, Ogden was called in to a meeting with Al Rafati, Envirocare's vice president for business development, and Paul Larsen, Envirocare's director of operations. Rafati and Larsen criticized Ogden for writing the problem report.
"They said it was not 'customer friendly,' " Ogden said. In a memo describing the meeting with Rafati and Larsen, Ogden wrote that they told him his problem report could drive business away from Envirocare.
"They said we needed to become more competitive in the industry and that holding shipments up over minor issues like paperwork would not be good for business. . . . [Rafati] stated that we needed to have more people that could work outside the bubble so that we would stay open, then [Larsen] said that Envirocare rewards people that work outside the bubble."
Ogden said he understood "outside the bubble" to mean outside the regulations.
British Nuclear Fuels is a valued Envirocare client that could be worth even more money if Envirocare prevails in its request this year to be licensed for "hotter" radioactive waste than its current licenses permit.
Two of three staff members who witnessed the confrontation verified Ogden's story, saying Rafati and Larsen acted as though they were threatening to have him fired. The third staff member said the managers' tone was "in your face" but not threatening.
Feeling he had been unfairly rebuked by Rafati and Larsen, Ogden complained to Envirocare's quality assurance department. Unsatisfied with that department's response, Ogden in February filed a complaint with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which forwarded the complaint to the Utah Division of Radiation Control.
The division conducted an investigation and found no violation of state or federal regulations by Envirocare.
However, on April 13, Division Director Bill Sinclair and fellow regulator Dane Finerfrock reprimanded Envirocare President Charles Judd for the company's handling of the Ogden matter, according to documents obtained by The Tribune through the state open-records law.
In his report on the meeting, Sinclair wrote, "We indicated to Mr. Judd that we believed the situation of management-staff interaction was such that it could have created a chilling effect on future whistle-blower activities. It appeared that staff could have got the message that 'creating problems or pointing out deficiencies' could result in action by Envirocare, even termination."
Judd told The Tribune that Ogden "did the right thing" in writing his problem report of Oct. 4, and that the management's response to it "could have been done better." He said some "actions" have been taken against the management personnel involved but he would not elaborate.
On April 13, the same day Sinclair and Finerfrock met with Judd, Envirocare computer sleuths found evidence of a pornographic Web site on the hard drive of a computer that had been used by Ogden. He was immediately placed on administrative leave with pay and resigned a few weeks later.
In the Tribune interview, Ogden said he accessed the porn site from an e-mail sent to him by a friend. He acknowledged what he did was wrong but noted that nobody saw the Web site.
He said he believed the pornography action against him was simply an excuse for Envirocare to punish him for blowing the whistle on the firm's handling of his British Nuclear Fuels problem report.
"I don't keep my mouth shut and do what they want me to," said Ogden, who also complained last year to the Utah Occupational Safety and Health Division about an unrelated matter. That complaint led to a $2,800 fine against Envirocare for failing to protect its workers from biological waste.
Judd said there is "absolutely no tie" between Ogden's whistle-blower activities and Envirocare's investigation of the pornography abuse.
In the Tribune interview, Ogden said he wanted to clear his name and to see pressure put on Envirocare to do more to protect its employees.
"[Envirocare employees] all feel pressure to do stuff that they should not do," he claimed. "Things there are a nightmare."
In particular, Ogden worried about Envirocare's application to dispose of so-called class B and class C radioactive wastes, which are hundreds of times more radioactive than the class A wastes the company currently is licensed for. The licensure for class B and C wastes still must be approved by the state Division of Radiation Control, the Legislature and the governor.
"From an employee standpoint, no one [at Envirocare] feels good about the B and C [application]," Ogden said. "We have enough trouble keeping A in the box."
Though Envirocare has been fined for several violations of its permits in recent years, company officials say there has been no harm to human health or the environment. The company maintains it can safely handle and store class B and C wastes.
After leaving Envirocare in April, Ogden became despondent about losing his job and about how the company had treated him, said his ex-wife, Marci Ann Jacobson.
"Geoffrey was confrontational, but he loved his job," she said. "It made him feel good. He worked hard. He often worked overtime and brought work home with him. He was loyal to that company."
Though the couple had just divorced, they saw each other and talked frequently on amicable terms, she said.
On June 2, they had lunch together. After the meal, Jacobson received flowers at work, with a note from Ogden that read, "I'll always love you. Goodbye."
A short time later, Ogden called a co-worker at Envirocare to say he had just swallowed several bottles of sleeping pills.
About 2:50 p.m., he crashed his pickup truck near 600 E. Center St. and was pronounced dead within an hour.
Nobody knows for sure why Ogden would take his life. Envirocare has called the death "tragic," but Judd, who met with Ogden a couple of times in May, says the death was not related to Ogden's dealings with Envirocare.
"[Geoff] was very clear there were no conflicts," Judd said.
Tribune reporter Judy Fahys and Kevin Cantera contributed to this story.
-------- washington
Hanford reactor may become a museum The creation of the B Reactor was "the second discovery of fire," but this time it was all man-made
The Oregonian
Sunday, June 25, 2000
By Linda Ashton of The Associated Press
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/06/nw_12hanfd25.frame
RICHLAND, Wash. -- On Aug. 9, 1945, shift supervisor Dee McCullough got to tell the secret he had kept for weeks -- the workers at Hanford nuclear reservation's B Reactor were making plutonium for atomic bombs.
"When the bomb was dropped, I was able to announce at lunch hour what had happened," McCullough, 86, of Richland recalled Thursday.
B Reactor, just yards from the Columbia River in south-central Washington, produced the plutonium for the first man-made nuclear blast, the Trinity test in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.
B Reactor also produced the plutonium for the second bomb dropped during World War II, the one that devastated Nagasaki, Japan, that August.
It was the world's first large-scale nuclear reactor, built as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. Construction began June 7, 1943, just six months after physicist Enrico Fermi turned the theory of nuclear power into the reality of the Atomic Age.
About 95,000 workers were recruited for the Hanford "war effort" with no real information about what they were doing or why, and the reactor went critical for the first time on Sept. 26, 1944.
"We didn't know what we were doing. It was urgent business. It was top secret. It was high-technology. It was big," recalled Roger Rohrbacher, 80, of Kennewick, who came to Hanford in the spring of 1944 and worked at B Reactor as an instrument and control engineer.
The creation of the reactor is basically "the second discovery of fire," but this time it was all man-made, said Gene Weisskopf, president of the B Reactor Museum Association, which wants to see the building preserved and made accessible to the public.
"What it was used for is almost secondary to what it represents."
Museum association members, along with representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy and contractor Bechtel Hanford, shared their vision for the reactor building during a tour on Thursday.
Three Hanford reactors were built for the Manhattan Project. Beginning in 1947, during the Cold War, five more plutonium reactors were constructed. All were operational by 1955, and all eight operated for 10 years. A ninth reactor, N Reactor, began making plutonium in 1963.
But in 1964, President Johnson ordered them shut down, and by 1971, only one -- N Reactor -- remained in operation. N Reactor was shut down in 1986, and Hanford's mission changed from making plutonium to cleaning up the legacy of radioactive and chemical waste left behind at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site.
B Reactor was shut down in 1968 and decommissioned. While some parts of the reactor are sealed off because they are radioactive, the control room and the face of the reactor, where 2003 fuel rods were inserted, can today be viewed safely.
The Department of Energy is currently assessing what steps would need to be taken to open the B Reactor to the public.
A report is due this summer. The Department of Energy also has applied for a $2 million grant for the project, said Keith Klein, DOE's Hanford manager.
-------- us nuc waste
Regulators Met by RalliersAt Waste Storage Hearing
Salt Lake Tribune
Sunday, June 25, 2000
BY KIRSTEN STEWART THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
http://www.sltrib.com/06252000/utah/61913.htm
Federal nuclear regulators were greeted by a band of anti-nuclear protesters outside Saturday's public hearing on the proposal to store much of the country's high-level radioactive waste on Utah's Skull Valley Goshute Reservation.
About 25 protesters stood in the hot afternoon sun outside the Sheraton City Center Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. Carrying signs that read, "Don't Waste Utah" and "Mobile Chernobyl," they called for a moratorium on the shipment of all new radioactive waste into Utah's West Desert.
"This is a wake-up call to folks that each and every one of us needs to be involved," said Jason GroeneAwold, director of Families Against Incinerator Risk (FAIR), who spoke at the rally.
Federal regulators spent most of the week in closed sessions to hear evidence on whether a consortium of eight out-of-state utilities should be licensed to store 40,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods on an American Indian reservation 50 miles west of Salt Lake City. The hearings were opened for public input Friday afternoon and evening, and Saturday afternoon.
The consortium, known as the Private Fuel Storage, and the Goshutes are already in the final one-third of the licensing approval process, said FAIR's Groenewold. In addition, another proposal to allow Envirocare to store higher levels of radioactive waste is being fast-tracked by the government, he said.
"Utah's West Desert has already become the largest toxic dumping zone in the country," he warned, citing two hazardous waste landfills east of Wendover, the Tooele chemical weapons incinerator, the MagCorp plant, Hill Air Force Bombing Range and Dugway Proving Ground. "We're concerned about what this means to the health of Utahns."
Steve Erickson from Downwinders, which successfully lobbied against the MX missile project nearly two decades ago, and Sammy Blackbear, a general counsel member of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians, also spoke at the rally.
Blackbear said he was protesting on behalf of the one-third of the Goshute tribe opposed to the storage site. He questioned the legality of the PFS-Goshute lease agreement, alleging that in three short weeks, a corrupt tribal council ushered the agreement through the Bureau of Indian Affairs with little scrutiny.
Blackbear also alleged that Goshute leaders bribed tribal members to vote for the site, promising them future dividends from the $3 billion disposal site.
The Goshute Indians have been duped, he said: "The nation has no place to put its garbage, so let's put it on Indian land."
The debate also raged among a group of American Indian participants in the 13th annual Heber Valley Intertribal Powwow on Saturday, where environmental and public-safety concerns clashed with the solidarity that many American Indians said they feel for the Skull Valley Goshutes.
"Remember, we're the first Americans," said Bill Emerson, a Dine Indian from New Mexico, who said tribal interests have too often been overlooked in the course of U.S. history.
"The state is ignoring the sovereignty as well as the economic development rights of the tribe," agreed Salt Lake resident Dallin Maybe, whose lineage stems from the Northern Arapahoe and Seneca tribes.
"There's already disposal facilities in this state, which Gov. [Mike] Leavitt has conveniently forgotten about," Maybe said.
Terry Begay, a northern Arizona Navajo, concurred. "They should be allowed to do whatever they want," Begay said. "It's their land and they need the money."
Others disagreed.
"I'm very opposed," said Oliver Salt, a Navajo from Spanish Fork who said the risks associated with the proposal outweigh any broad social benefits.
"Reservation or not, it's only for the economic benefit of one group of people," Salt said. "It's nonsense."
A woman who identified herself as Rio, a Wyoming Choctaw-Chickasaw, said the idea of storing such waste on American Indian land is anathema to many tribal beliefs.
"I'm totally against anything nuclear," she said. "Just listen to our prayers here. We respect all living things, starting with the grass we stand on."
Inside the public hearing in Salt Lake City, several members of the Environmental Justice Foundation agreed that storing nuclear waste on sacred American Indian land was an anathema to their traditional beliefs. They also expressed fears that what has been sold as a temporary site might become permanent.
"No permanent site has been established," said Anne Sword Hanson, a resident of Highland, who also raised safety concerns about the shipment and containment of nuclear waste. "There are no small mistakes when it comes to nuclear waste," she said.
The spent fuel is now being stored in about 20 nuclear power plants in California, the Midwest and East. The carcinogenic waste won't decompose for about 10,000 years.
A permanent disposal site at Yucca Mountain in southern Nevada has been proposed, but is being fought by the Nevada Governor.
Utah's Gov. Leavitt, and Reps. Merrill Cook, R-Utah, and Jim Hansen, R-Utah, have denounced the Utah disposal site.
But Kevin Crawford, former director of the University of Utah's nuclear plant, said these denouncements amount to nothing more than lip service.
"I heard Leavitt say that the nuclear waste was coming here over his dead body. And that's what he's doing is playing dead," he said.
Crawford, who is opposed to the dump site on ethical and safety grounds, is concerned that anti-nuclear activists in the state are out-gunned and under-prepared to fight it.
He also questioned the state's preparedness to cope with a nuclear waste site. Nevada has a state agency regulating nuclear projects, whereas Utah doesn't, he said. "This is a good sign that we're not prepared to begin talking about this issue."
Tribune reporter Karl Cates contributed to this report.
-------- us nuc weapons
Ron Dzwonkowski: Missile shield is pricey false security
Detroit Free Press
June 25, 2000
http://www.freep.com/voices/columnists/erdz25_20000625.htm
THERE IS something comforting about the idea of living under an umbrella or behind a wall that can deflect and destroy nuclear missiles.
This would be one for the children, no? A gift from the Boomer generation to all others, the ultimate life insurance policy.
Except that the premiums are pretty expensive, and the coverage isn't guaranteed. If President Bill Clinton green-lights this unproven national defense technology this fall, we could be looking at a $50-billion-plus commitment within the coming decade.
For strategic and financial reasons that really are about the children, we shouldn't leave this one in the hands of a lame duck.
The idea behind the NMD (National Missile Defense) system was born in the 1980s and championed by President Ronald Reagan. He made a persuasive case for a concept that came to be called "Star Wars," a space-based shield that would ostensibly make it impossible for a first-strike enemy weapon to reach America.
Reagan saw Star Wars as the final weapon of the Cold War, the ultimate deterrent, as opposed to deterrence based on the aptly named theory of MAD -- mutually assured destruction of the United States and Soviet Union.
"Wouldn't it be better to save lives than to avenge them?" Reagan asked.
Hard to argue with that premise.
Post-Reagan, his very expensive but technologically unbaked idea lay fallow. Then came an alarming report to Congress in 1998 about the growth of nuclear weapons technology around the world, particularly in "rogue states" such as North
Korea and Iran. Next, India and Pakistan, Asia's least friendly neighbors, detonated atomic weapons.
Congress passed a bill last year directing the administration to do whatever is necessary as soon as technologically possible to defend America from missile attack.
What has emerged is the modified NMD being contemplated by Clinton, a system that would launch interceptor missiles from Alaska to cut down invaders from the sky.
The Russians, of course, hate the idea. President Vladimir Putin says it would violate a 28-year-old treaty, the premise of which is that neither country would build a defense system that might enable it to launch a first strike with impunity. More MAD thinking.
Are we going to let the president of Russia dictate how we defend ourselves? Isn't that a little like Scotty Bowman asking the Colorado Avalanche if it's OK for the Red Wings to play four men up on the blue line?
At the end of a thermonuclear holocaust, is it really going to matter what the rules were? Besides, that treaty Putin is waving at the world was signed with the Soviet Union, which doesn't exist anymore. What's he going to do, take us to court?
So, yes, we can go ahead with a system. But big questions remain: Should we? And can this system do what it's supposed to?
Even scientists hired by the Pentagon, which has never turned its back on expensive gadgets, have doubts the interceptor system can live up to its claims by the time it's supposed to be operational, in 2005. One report, from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, describes the theory of it as essentially "hitting a bullet with a bullet." Not even Annie Oakley could do that.
Plus, the incoming bad guy is likely to be surrounded by decoys, although NMD backers say they should have time for a second shot if the first hits the wrong thing.
More important, while the United States is building its system, our enemies won't sit around waiting for it to be done.
"The financial and technological barriers preventing a state that has fielded a small number of ballistic missiles from equipping those missiles with countermeasures do not appear to be formidable," the center's report said.
Also, who says they're going to go nuclear, or shoot them in? What does NMD do to stop a truck bomb, or a vial of anthrax in a suitcase?
There are persuasive arguments being made, too, by defense thinkers at the Heritage Foundation and elsewhere for a sea-based system. They say it would be far cheaper and more reliable to enhance well-tested technology aboard American destroyers to throw up a mobile safety net around trouble spots.
"It is much easier to put a lid on North Korea, a country the size of Mississippi, than it is to put an umbrella over the whole of the United States," Richard Garwin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the Washington Post.
Reagan's initial rationale for Star Wars still holds appeal. Every American wants to feel safe at home, and in some ways the end of the Cold War has only made the world a more dangerous place. National defense is something even the anti-government gang cedes to Washington. We cannot be left to our own devices on this issue. But the devices deployed on our behalf ought to work. Otherwise, we only increase our immediate risk in return for a false sense of security.
Such a significant decision about defense policy ought to be debated thoroughly during the fall campaigns, and the level of commitment left to the next administration and Congress.
Meantime, perhaps some of our "rogue" nemeses will soften up. Just last week, the State Department dropped use of the term "rogue state" in favor of the milder "state of concern." If we're seeing them in a better light, it might be reciprocal.
RON DZWONKOWSKI is editor of the Free Press editorial page. You can call him at 313-222-6635, or write him in care of the Free Press editorial page, or via e-mail at dzwonk@freepress.com.
---
Readers' Forum:
Missile defense? Plan has fatal flaws
Toledo Blade
06/25/00
http://www.toledoblade.com/editorial/letters/0f25lett.htm
Our proposed national missile defense system (NMD) is ominous for the following reasons:
NMD risks a new arms race. It violates the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia, which may well counter NMD by placing more of its weapons on dangerous high alert. China is likely to build more nuclear weapons to overwhelm our defenses.
NMD cost is prohibitive. Since its original inception it has cost our country $120 billion, and a Congressional Budget Office estimate in April skyrocketed to $70 billion over 15 years, for a limited system. Other estimates say the cost will be at least double.
NMD doesn't work. It is scientifically unsound, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. According to a recent report by the UCS and MIT professors, anyone who can make a long-range missile can also develop countermeasures.
NMD responds to the wrong threat. A rogue state could far more easily ship a nuclear weapon to a U.S. harbor city than launch even one missile. Our greatest threats are still accidental (or intentional) nuclear missile from Russia, "backpack nukes," a biological weapons attack, or individual acts of terrorism.
Taxpayer money is better spent on preventive programs that dismantle nuclear weapons and secure weapons-usable materials.
Contact the President and tell him why he should not begin NMD deployment - arms race, cost, unproven technology, and the wrong threat.
DINI SCHUT Hempstead Road
---
Testing the Current
Washington Post
Sunday, June 25, 2000; Page X05
By Charles Platt
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-06/25/032l-062500-idx.html
VOODOO SCIENCE
The Road From Foolishness to Fraud
By Robert L. Park
Oxford Univ. 230 pp. $25
For almost two decades, former physicist Robert Park has conducted a one-man search-and-destroy mission against inventors, scientists and pseudoscientists who make claims that he describes as "totally, indisputably, extravagantly wrong." As a Washington lobbyist and PR flack for the American Physical Society, Park is widely quoted whenever journalists need a rebuttal source who will scoff pithily at concepts such as magnetic healing or antigravity. He helped to establish a prestigious study panel that debunked Ronald Reagan's Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative, and campaigned to discredit New Yorker journalist Paul Brodeur, who warned of possible health hazards caused by electromagnetic radiation from power lines. These and other battles are retold in Park's new book, Voodoo Science, which denounces the culprits he has most loved to hate over the years.
This book could have served a useful purpose. If public funds or private-investment capital really are being squandered by researchers who are self-deluded or even fraudulent, we need a thorough investigation. Alas, thoroughness is not Park's strong suit.
His primary source of information, quoted repeatedly in many of his rants, is the nightly TV news. Nothing seems to enrage him more than the sight of some upstart inventor getting air time for results that don't make sense; and Park's anger permeates his rebuttals, which border on character assassination. He contemptuously dismisses scientist James Patterson, for example, as a "caricature of an inventor" purely because of his physical appearance. There's no mention of his claim to fame as codeveloper of the fundamental laboratory technique of gas chromatography or his past consultancy work for Dow Chemical, Fairchild Semiconductor, Lockheed and the Atomic Energy Commission. Nor does Park allow Patterson any chance to explain or defend his work. In fact, none of the targets in Voodoo Science is allowed to speak for himself, apparently because Park chose not to talk to any of them.
This armchair journalism leads to some blunders. For instance, he mocks credentialed NASA scientists for investigating a gravity-shielding effect that he feels would violate a basic law of thermodynamics. If he had spoken to the researchers, they might have told him (as they told other journalists) why their theories entail no conflict with thermodynamics at all. Also, Park might have learned that the Russian emigre who prompted this work is not an obscure physicist (as he states) but a materials scientist claiming authorship of 30 papers and 10 patents.
Park's failure to gather first-hand data is unfortunate, but his selective omissions are far more serious. In at least one case, he violates basic principles of journalism and science itself by apparently suppressing information that conflicts with his foregone conclusion. He dismisses the phenomenon of nuclear fusion at low temperatures as "no closer to being proven than it was the day it was announced," despite hundreds of papers, including many from scientists affiliated with respected universities, going far beyond the controversial claims that were made for "cold fusion" in 1989. Electrochemist Michael McKubre, at SRI International, confirms that he has submitted his papers to Park, who also attended a conference last year including presentations on this topic. Park chooses to mention none of this.
Such tactics are reminiscent of the behavior of a zealous DA who is so convinced that a suspect is guilty that he feels entitled to withhold some information from the jury. Since Park also "convicts" his suspects almost entirely by paraphrasing them in his own words, Voodoo Science is not the fair trial we might have hoped for.
This is unfortunate, because many of Park's targets have indeed made implausible claims, and may be guilty as charged. To be sure of this, however, we need a fairly argued refutation, not a perfunctory dismissal. The dividing line between valid data and artifacts is not always clear; the phenomenon of superconductivity, for instance, remained inexplicable for 42 years, as Park himself admits.
Despite Park's absolute faith in his own judgment, any rush to judgment entails a risk of convicting innocent people, while search-and-destroy missions may tend to cause collateral damage. This is a serious matter, since even poorly documented vitriol can jeopardize a scientist's reputation and future funding if it is disseminated with the complicity of a respected organization such as the American Physical Society.
Of course, so long as Park makes no mistakes, he may argue that his targets deserve their punishment. Still, his widely published attacks create a chilling effect that can discourage even legitimate scientists from discussing controversial work. This hardly seems consistent with the spirit of genuinely free inquiry that should energize science. Likewise, Park's reliance on second-hand data, his presentation of selective evidence and his refusal to quote his opponents are habits that seem unworthy of a scientist.
Charles Platt is a senior writer for Wired magazine.
-------- us nuc other
Risks to Nuclear Scientists Detailed GAO Cites Bugging, Surveillance, Sexual Incidents Targeting U.S. Staff Overseas
Washington Post
Sunday, June 25, 2000; Page A14
By Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writer
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-06/25/179l-062500-idx.html
A report by the General Accounting Office says the Department of Energy has identified more than 75 incidents of foreign spies targeting U.S. nuclear scientists traveling abroad by bugging their hotel rooms, rifling their personal belongings and offering them sexual favors.
The report, requested by Reps. Timothy J. Roemer (D-Ind.) and Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), faults the department for underestimating threats posed by travel to nonsensitive countries such as Britain and France. It recommends that counterintelligence officials at DOE's national laboratories review and approve all requests for foreign travel to nonsensitive and sensitive countries, a category that includes China, Russia, Pakistan and Israel.
"Laboratories' foreign travelers face many threats in other countries," the report says. "DOE's approach of emphasizing 'sensitive' country travel discounts the reality that travelers to nonsensitive countries may be targeted by intelligence entities from 'sensitive' or even 'nonsensitive' countries."
While members of Congress have grilled DOE officials in recent weeks over security lapses at Los Alamos National Laboratory after two computer hard drives containing nuclear secrets could not be located, Roemer said the GAO audit underscores equally serious vulnerabilities related to foreign travel.
"I think the Department of Energy is working on the problem," said Roemer, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. "We are in the midst of a paradigm change in safeguarding our security. We need to move from the old philosophy of guns, guards and gates to concentrating on our laptops and hard drives, and on changing human nature."
According to the GAO report, scheduled for release this week, one U.S. scientist traveling to a 'sensitive' country reported that he was propositioned every night by prostitutes. Another admitted to "extensive sexual contact with women from the host country and another 'sensitive' country while on official foreign travel," the report says. "This included a prostitute, a waitress and two female employees at the facility where he was visiting."
In one incident involving electronic surveillance, a scientist traveling to a 'sensitive' country realized his personal calls were being monitored after speaking on the telephone to his wife in the United States, who happened to mention that she was going to play bingo. "A short time later in the hotel lounge, someone mentioned to the traveler the bingo trip that his wife had talked about," the report says. "The next day, another person asked, 'What is bingo?' "
In an incident involving video surveillance, another scientist in a 'sensitive' country reported seeing a flashing light whenever she undressed or changed clothes in her hotel room. She also reported hearing "an unusual noise that sounded like an auto-focus camera lens as it adjusted," the report says. "The traveler believed that pictures were possibly being taken from a smoke detector attached to the ceiling."
Still another scientist visiting a sensitive country reported finding that someone using a "guest access" sign-in had secretly logged onto a laptop computer in his hotel room, even though it had been locked with a padlock, according to the report. The scientist then went back and checked his computer logs and found that an identical "guest access" had occurred during a previous visit to the country.
Edward J. Curran, DOE's counterintelligence chief, called the GAO study "fair and objective" and said his staff is working to implement its recommendations. Curran noted that his office had given GAO investigators complete access to its classified counterintelligence database made up of hundreds of trip reports filed by scientists returning from overseas travel.
While the GAO concluded that Curran's database had not been properly maintained, Curran said his computer network is functioning properly and contains information about foreign espionage attempts that is unmatched by other federal agencies, including the State and Defense departments.
"Our whole program is based on that database and the briefings and debriefings [of traveling scientists]," Curran said. "We all know we're being targeted. This is a technology-rich environment. And we're trying to do something about it."
---
Report: U.S. Scientists Targeted
New York Times
June 25, 2000 Filed at 4:04 p.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Nuclear-Scientists.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. nuclear scientists traveling abroad have reported being targeted by foreign agents who tried to obtain secrets by bugging hotel rooms, rifling briefcases and computers, or offering sexual favors, congressional investigators say.
A report based on information gathered by the Energy Department's counterintelligence office identified at least 75 such cases in recent years involving trips by scientists from federal weapons labs.
The Energy Department said Sunday it agreed with the findings, which were largely based on data the department provided. The scientists' names and countries involved were deleted.
``What they (the scientists) were reporting is that they were approached by someone,'' Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier said in an interview Sunday.
He said there is no evidence that secrets were compromises in any of the incidents cited by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
Glauthier acknowledged the incidents demonstrate the degree to which research scientists from the weapons labs are targets of foreign intelligence operatives.
He said thousands of trips are made abroad annually by scientists working in a wide variety of disciplines at the labs, including many involved in nuclear weapons research.
The report, expected to be formally released this week, said foreign travel ``can greatly benefit'' the country through scientific exchanges. It also said some travelers ``may not be receiving the necessary preparation to recognize and thwart espionage.''
A copy of the report, requested by Reps. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., and Tim Roemer, D-Ind., was obtained Sunday by The Associated Press. Its contents was first reported in Sunday's Washington Post.
Glauthier said that in 1998, the Energy Department increased efforts to make scientists more aware of the potential risks when traveling abroad. The agency agreed with most of the report and recommendations, including the need ``sensitize'' scientists about the risk, he said.
The report covered incidents reported between late 1995 to late 1998 by scientists from nuclear weapons facilities at Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico, Lawrence Livermore in California, and Oak Ridge in Tennessee.
Foreign intelligence operatives ``used a variety of methods'' from bugging hotel and conference rooms to breaking into scientists' computers and personal belonging, and casually eavesdropping on conversations, the GAO said. It said the incidents involved trips not only to ``sensitive'' countries -- Russia, China and Pakistan, for example -- but also other nations.
As a result, the GAO urged the Energy Department to establish procedures to more closely monitor and advise scientists of the risks involving all foreign travel and not only those to sensitive nations.
``Foreign intelligence entities can operate worldwide,'' the report said.
Among the incidents cited in the GAO report:
--Several scientists said suitcases or briefcases disappeared and then were returned with their contents. One scientist said his computer had been pried open from the back. Others reported zippers being in different locations or locks missing on suitcases.
--A scientist noticed a flashing red light in her hotel room when the lights were dimmed, and heard a noise that sounded like an auto-focus camera lens. She believed pictures were possibly being taken from a ceiling smoke detector.
--A scientist traveling in a ``sensitive'' country reported being propositioned every night by prostitutes, a waitress and two other women. He said he declined the offers.
--Scientists attending an unclassified technical conference noticed microphone wires leading from behind a door into the conference room, leading some to believe their discussions were being monitored.
In one case involving a ``sensitive'' country, a scientist became convinced his phone was being tapped. He telephoned his wife in the United States and she mentioned she was going to play bingo. The next day someone asked him, ``What is bingo?''
On another matter, Glauthier played down two incidents over the weekend at Los Alamos -- the discovery of two 10-year-old floppy computer disks where they were not supposed to be, and a door being left unlocked in a secure area.
The two floppy disks contained outdated material and were, in fact, found in a secure vault, although their whereabouts was uncertain for a day. ``Now that we're asking everybody to inventory everything and doublecheck. ... We will find things like that,'' he said.
The two floppy disks ``were secure and nothing was lost,'' he said.
---------- MILITARY
-------- puerto rico
Navy Resumes Bombing Exercise on Vieques
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 8:34 PM ET
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000625/ts/puertorico_vieques_dc_3.html
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - U.S. Navy bombs sounded over the Puerto Rican target range on Vieques on Sunday for the first time since a fatal accident last year touched off a drive to force the Navy off the island training ground.
Thirty-eight people were arrested on the bombing range earlier on Sunday, hours before the start of the maneuvers in the wake of the April 19, 1999 accident.
The USS George Washington Battle Group began training around 2 p.m. EDT for its deployment to the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf, Navy spokesman Lt. Jeff Gordon said.
Protesters said the blasts caught them off guard because public notices in the area had warned that military training was to begin on Monday.
Shelling of the target range was slated to begin between 8 a.m. and midnight EDT (1200 GMT and 0400 GMT) on Monday and Tuesday, they said.
Aircraft and as many as five ships were to fire up to 130,000 pounds (59,100 kg) of inert bombs during the exercise.
``The notices talked about a dangerous Navy activity on the east end of the island starting Monday,'' said protest leader Robert Rabin.
Gordon said he had been told there were warnings about military activities on Sunday.
Grounds Said Secure
Protesters vowed to disrupt the exercises in spite of the mass arrests. But Navy officials expressed confidence that the range was now secure.
``We've got several surface patrol boats and a Navy helicopter overflying the range to assure that no more trespassers enter the area,'' Gordon said.
Protesters had camped on the range since shortly after the bombing accident in which a civilian security guard was killed until they were removed in a May 4 federal raid.
Since the raid, more than 250 protesters have been arrested. They maintain the bombing exercises harm the island's environment, stunt its economic growth and threaten the health of its 9,300 civilian residents.
Although the Puerto Rico government reached an accord with the White House over the Navy's future on Vieques on Jan. 31, protesters say that civil disobedience was the only sure way to stop military training.
The Navy says the Vieques training ground, where it can hold simultaneous land, sea and air exercises, is essential to ensure the readiness of its pilots, sailors and Marines.
The White House agreement calls for a referendum in which Vieques residents will choose whether they want the Navy to leave by May 1, 2003 or continue training there with live munitions indefinitely for $50 million in economic aid.
``We have no doubt that the Navy has no intention of leaving Vieques. We saw the Navy constructing towers and roads,'' said Carlos Ventura, a fisherman and protest leader who was among 60 people arrested for trespassing on Navy property on Thursday.
Gordon said the new construction corresponded to the need for increased security on the range.
---
Navy exercises resume on Vieques
USA Today
06/25/00- Updated 06:13 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm#vieques
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico - U.S. Navy exercises will begin Monday on Vieques Island, an official announcement said, and protesters vowed to invade the range to stop the largest bombing exercise planned since a fatal accident prompted a yearlong occupation of the training ground. Some protesters invaded the range Saturday night after three Navy ships appeared on the horizon apparently to take part in the exercises. But the Navy said all 37 were arrested by dawn Sunday. A notice addressing fishermen and mariners warned exercises would begin Monday. The notice, posted at the ferry terminal Sunday morning, announced exercises would run through July 2. It was accompanied by a map outlining ''areas of danger'' on Monday and Tuesday between 8 a.m. and midnight. The other days the Navy may be planning exercises further out at sea.
-------- colombia
This comunique just in from the U'wa. Original spanish version at the bottom.
URGENT CALL TO THE NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
THE ARMY AND RIOT POLICE VIOLENTLY ATTACKED THE U'WA
SATURDAY 24 JUNE 2000
From: LSandraH@aol.com
From: "David Crockett Williams" gear2000@lightspeed.net
Subject: [change-links]
Urgent: U'WA Attacked
Date: Sunday, June 25, 2000 7:38 PM
At dawn this morning a Colombian army convoy crossed into the muncipality of Cubara, inside the traditional U'Wa territory. The convoy then requested clearance from the indigenous people (U'wa?) to enter the neighboring muncipality of Saravena. The indigenous people (U'wa?) accepted this request without realizing that the armies real purpose was to deploy small commando units of anti-riot police against the peaceful demonstration held by the U'wa. Once inside demonstration the riot police violently attacked the U'wa. This situation began at 04:30am (EDT) and was temporarily suspended at 06:30am (EDT) and recommenced at 09:00am (EDT).
The U'wa community communicates that there are people injured with lesions and concusions, also children have been hospitalized and there is fear of further fatal consequences. The attack was extremely violent and undertaken completely by surprise. The anti-riot police used tear gas and hit (i.e., physically attacked) the peaceful demonstrators.
We request that the national and international community call upon the government of Colombia and other national and international human rights organizations for the immediate cessation of aggressions against the U'wa people and the immediate withdrawl of people from the U'wa ancestral territories. We remind the national and international community that these actions are taking place after the national government of Colombia authorized drilling in U'wa territory by Occidental Petroleum.
These violent events have occurred just two days after the US Congress approved the Colombia Plan military aid package for which Occidental Petroleum has lobbied continuously.
LLAMADO URGENTE A LA COMUNIDAD NACIONAL E INTERNACIONAL
EL EJERCITO Y LA POLICIA ANTIMOTINES DESALOJAN VIOLENTAMENTE A LOS U´WAS
SABADO 24 DE JUNIO DE 2000
En la madrugada de hoy un comboy del ejercito colombiano que transitaba por el municipio de Cubara, territorio tradicional U´wa, solicito a los indigenas permitirles el paso hacia el municipio de Saravena. Los indigenas aceptaron la solicitud sin percatarse que la intension del ejercito era introducir a la concentración pacifica que los indigenas tenian, piquetes de policias antimotines. Estos una vez situados en el seno de la movilizacion indigena la emprendieron violentamente contra ellos. Esta situacion que se inicio a las 4:30 a.m. se suspendio temporalmente a las 6:30 a.m. y se reemprendio a las 9:00 a.m.
La comunidad U´wa comunica que hay personas lesionadas y contusas, niños hospitalizados y se teme que las consecuencias puedan ser fatales. El ataque fue un sorpresivo y violento con gases lacrimogenos y con golpes a los manifestantes.
Se pide a la comunidad nacional e internacional un pronunciamiento inmediato ante el gobierno colombiano y ante los organismos nacionales e internacionales de derechos humanos para que cesen las agresiones al pueblo U´wa y para que la policia y el ejercito se retiren inmediatamente del territorio ancestral. Recordamos a la comunidad nacional e internacional que estas acciones se dan despues de que el gobierno nacional, en septiembre de 1999 autorizo a la empresa Occidental la perforacion petrolera en el territorio U´wa y estos hechos acontecen dos dias despues de la aprobacion de la ayuda militar al Plan Colombia en el Congreso de los Estados Unidos, Plan al que la Occidental hizo lobby permanentemente .
Censat Agua Viva (FoE Colombia) Apartado Aéreo 16789 Tel: +57-1-2456860 Telefax: +57-1-2458906 Santafé de Bogotá, D.C. Colombia SUR AMERICA
Atossa Soltani Amazon Watch 20110 Rockport Way, Malibu, CA 90265 Tel 310-456-1340 Fax 310-456-0388 asoltani@igc.org www.amazonwatch.org
----
Stop U.S. intervention in Colombia!
Military aid package to Colombia: Declaration of war on Colombian people
STOP U.S. INTERVENTION IN COLOMBIA!
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 17:05:18 -0400
From: iacenter@iacenter.org
The U.S. aid package to Colombia passed by the Senate on June 21 is a declaration of war against the people of Colombia. It is an open admission of the hidden war that the Pentagon and the CIA have been waging in Colombia for decades.
The International Action Center condemns the $1.3 billion aid package and calls on President Clinton and the Pentagon to end all military aid to Colombia. We call on activists to join in protesting the aid in their communities.
In New York, the IAC will join the Colombia Action Committee's picket on Monday, June 26 at 6 p.m. at Senator Chuck Shumer's office on 3rd Ave. between 47th St. and 48th St.
"The Colombian military and police are waging a dirty war against Colombia's unions, peasant organizations, students and all those fighting for social change," charged IAC leader Teresa Gutierrez. "The U.S. government is funding a counterinsurgency war under the cover of the phony war on drugs."
"It is no surprise that the aid package was approved just a day before Shaka Sankofah was executed in Texas," Gutierrez said. "The U.S. government's policy is to export its brutal repression of poor and working people to every country in the world that it can."
Colombia is already the third largest recipient of military aid in the world. Up to 300 Special Forces troops are already on the ground there.
NY Daily News reporter Juan Gonzalez recently exposed the role of U.S. Special Forces in one of the worst massacres in recent history in Colombia, the 1997 Mapiripan massacre. This confirms what groups like Human Rights Watch has confirmed as a pattern: the U.S. government has helped organize the Colombian military and their informal paramilitary units to target all those who are considered allies of the revolutionary movements there.
"The latest escalation of military aid is another step down the road to open U.S. intervention in Colombia," stated IAC co-director Sara Flounders. "The Pentagon generals and Wall Street tycoons have grown so arrogant that they have forgotten the lesson of Vietnam: a people's struggle for social justice cannot be crushed by bombs and high-tech weaponry."
International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 206 New York, NY 10011 email: iacenter@iacenter.org web: www.iacenter.org
-------- spying
Risks to Nuclear Scientists Detailed
GAO Cites Bugging, Surveillance, Sexual Incidents Targeting U.S. Staff Overseas
By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post
June 25, 2000
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-06/25/179l-062500-idx.html
A report by the General Accounting Office says the Department of Energy has identified more than 75 incidents of foreign spies targeting U.S. nuclear scientists traveling abroad by bugging their hotel rooms, rifling their personal belongings and offering them sexual favors.
The report, requested by Reps. Timothy J. Roemer (D-Ind.) and Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.), faults the department for underestimating threats posed by travel to nonsensitive countries such as Britain and France. It recommends that counterintelligence officials at DOE's national laboratories review and approve all requests for foreign travel to nonsensitive and sensitive countries, a category that includes China, Russia, Pakistan and Israel.
"Laboratories' foreign travelers face many threats in other countries," the report says. "DOE's approach of emphasizing 'sensitive' country travel discounts the reality that travelers to nonsensitive countries may be targeted by intelligence entities from 'sensitive' or even 'nonsensitive' countries."
While members of Congress have grilled DOE officials in recent weeks over security lapses at Los Alamos National Laboratory after two computer hard drives containing nuclear secrets could not be located, Roemer said the GAO audit underscores equally serious vulnerabilities related to foreign travel.
"I think the Department of Energy is working on the problem," said Roemer, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. "We are in the midst of a paradigm change in safeguarding our security. We need to move from the old philosophy of guns, guards and gates to concentrating on our laptops and hard drives, and on changing human nature."
According to the GAO report, scheduled for release this week, one U.S. scientist traveling to a 'sensitive' country reported that he was propositioned every night by prostitutes. Another admitted to "extensive sexual contact with women from the host country and another 'sensitive' country while on official foreign travel," the report says. "This included a prostitute, a waitress and two female employees at the facility where he was visiting."
In one incident involving electronic surveillance, a scientist traveling to a 'sensitive' country realized his personal calls were being monitored after speaking on the telephone to his wife in the United States, who happened to mention that she was going to play bingo. "A short time later in the hotel lounge, someone mentioned to the traveler the bingo trip that his wife had talked about," the report says. "The next day, another person asked, 'What is bingo?' "
In an incident involving video surveillance, another scientist in a 'sensitive' country reported seeing a flashing light whenever she undressed or changed clothes in her hotel room. She also reported hearing "an unusual noise that sounded like an auto-focus camera lens as it adjusted," the report says. "The traveler believed that pictures were possibly being taken from a smoke detector attached to the ceiling."
Still another scientist visiting a sensitive country reported finding that someone using a "guest access" sign-in had secretly logged onto a laptop computer in his hotel room, even though it had been locked with a padlock, according to the report. The scientist then went back and checked his computer logs and found that an identical "guest access" had occurred during a previous visit to the country.
Edward J. Curran, DOE's counterintelligence chief, called the GAO study "fair and objective" and said his staff is working to implement its recommendations. Curran noted that his office had given GAO investigators complete access to its classified counterintelligence database made up of hundreds of trip reports filed by scientists returning from overseas travel.
While the GAO concluded that Curran's database had not been properly maintained, Curran said his computer network is functioning properly and contains information about foreign espionage attempts that is unmatched by other federal agencies, including the State and Defense departments.
"Our whole program is based on that database and the briefings and debriefings [of traveling scientists]," Curran said. "We all know we're being targeted. This is a technology-rich environment. And we're trying to do something about it."
----
Pentagon Fights to Save New Satellite Design Project
Washington Post
Sunday, June 25, 2000; Page A02
By Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writer
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-06/25/178l-062500-idx.html
The Pentagon is lobbying hard to save a demonstration project designed to show how constellations of lightweight satellites using a variety of new technologies could give the military and the intelligence community continuous battlefield imagery in real time from space.
The House has eliminated the project, called Discoverer II, from its fiscal 2001 defense appropriations bill, citing cost estimates suggesting that "a fully functional Discoverer II constellation could reach $25 billion."
But Air Force and intelligence officials are hoping that $130 million needed to complete Discoverer II's design phase will be restored in conference committee next month, given strong support from Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) and other members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
David A. Whelan, a physicist at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) who developed the Discoverer II concept, said last week that new chip technology coupled with microelectronics and digital processing of radar signals will vastly reduce the weight of the Discoverer II satellites and ultimately cut their cost by two-thirds or more.
"We have a technology opportunity that comes by once every 10 or 20 years," Whelan said, explaining that movable antennas in design could greatly enhance spy capabilities and provide new opportunities for commercial communications companies, which now cannot reposition satellites once they are launched.
While skepticism runs deep in the House about whether Discoverer II will work and how much it will cost--total design and production cost for two demonstration satellites by 2005 is estimated at $570 million--powerful forces are pushing the project.
The Air Force wants Discoverer II so that radar battlefield imaging now provided by JSTARS aircraft can migrate to space with virtually continuous coverage, far greater accuracy and reach, and no risk to U.S. air crews and support units in theater.
Indeed, the Air Force's Space Command considers Discoverer II its No. 1 research priority. "Discoverer II gives America the ultimate high ground," said Capt. Joe Della Vedova, an Air Force spokesman. "It gives us the ability to see deep into countries like China."
The National Reconnaissance Office, the super-secret intelligence agency that builds and operates the country's spy satellites, wants Discoverer II because constellations of lithe, lightweight, low-cost satellites could revolutionize spy imagery from space, providing round-the-clock, real-time images of multiple targets.
The nation's fleet of spy satellites, few in number and great in cost, remain over targets like Baghdad for only minutes at a time and leave huge gaps in coverage. Because their orbits are plotted and posted on the Internet by satellite watchers, U.S. spy satellites are also easy to hide from.
Such was the case two years ago, when U.S. intelligence failed to detect preparation for nuclear tests by Indian scientists who were thought to have curtailed test-site activities whenever U.S. spy satellites passed overhead.
But with constellations of satellites orbiting, one after another, anywhere from 700 to 1,000 kilometers above the Earth, Whelan said, "denial and deception takes on a new domain. They can't deny. They have to learn to operate under view, and that's one of the powers of this."
Whelan declined to discuss the resolution of radar images that the new satellites could produce, because that aspect of spy imagery is highly classified. But many analysts believe Discoverer II would have capabilities similar to the Lacrosse and Keyhole satellites, whose photos from space are thought to be able to resolve images as small as 10 centimeters in diameter.
If a constellation of 24 Discoverer II satellites had existed during last year's NATO bombardment of Kosovo, Whelan said, "we would have watched while the Serbs put all their forces into Kosovo. We would have watched them deploy their forces, we would have seen the area that they went into to hide."
The new satellites' moving antennas, he said, would also give intelligence analysts new ability to pick targets. "You can change where it looks instantaneously, you can change the number of places it looks--you can custom-configure the array to look at many directions or one direction," Whelan said. "Basically, it becomes an adaptable antenna."
The Discoverer II system should also be able to provide military planners with three-dimensional terrain elevation maps that are 30 times more detailed than those produced earlier this year by the space shuttle for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, Whelan said.
The military uses computerized 3-D terrain maps so that pilots can fly through simulated flight paths on a computer in advance of their missions. Discoverer II's 3-D databases, detailed enough to depict two poles in the ground one meter apart, could ultimately be used to guide unmanned combat vehicles being designed by the Army, Whelan said.
"In 1975, we started developing the Global Positioning System," Whelan said. "The military understood a few uses. Time expanded the uses probably by a factor of 10, and the commercial world has just outrun us, quite frankly, in terms of potential uses. And the precision terrain maps have similar commercial application--think of insurance companies wanting to do precision flood-plain mapping."
Whelan concedes that a number of technological issues still must be solved to make the new digital radar system work from space at a cost of less than $100 million per satellite.
"We haven't shown that it can work in space, and we've inherently taken a risk in the design of the satellite to tackle the cost issue," he said. "The only way you can prove that works is to put the satellite in space and measure the performance."
---------- OTHER
-------- human genome
50,000 Genes, and We Know Them All (Almost)
New York Times
June 25, 2000
By DAVID BALTIMORE
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/oped/25balt.html
PASADENA, Calif. -- Humans have no more genetic secrets; our genes are a book open to all to read. It is expected that the federal government and Celera Genomics will announce tomorrow that a rough draft of the total genetic constitution of the human species, its genome, has been completed. The draft information is on a Web site, available to the world.
The genome is really a generic representation of our genes -- each of us actually carries small variations on the basic sequence. We already know hundreds of thousands of the major variants that occur. But our own personal genetic endowments are discoverable only at high cost, though the price is likely to descend rapidly.
How does the genome change our lives now that these secrets are laid so bare?
First, it confirms something obvious and expected, yet controversial: our genes look much like those of fruit flies, worms and even plants. Should there be any doubt -- and, unfortunately, there is vehement doubt in some circles -- the genome shows that we all descended from the same humble beginnings and that the connections are written in our genes. That should be, but won't be, the end of creationism.
The genome also tells us much about an organism's complexity. The differences between us and flies is poorly measured by the number of genes encoded in our DNA. Although there is much work left to do to determine the total number of human genes -- and a famous bet is in progress on the final number -- it is looking like 50,000 is a reasonable estimate.
That is not that far away from our estimate of the number of genes in a fly (14,000) or a worm (18,000). Yet we are much more complex than such lowly critters. How can so few more genes generate so much more apparent complexity? The answer is partly that flies and worms have lots of genes that do specific things for them. The genes that encode the basic functions of life -- for people, flies, worms and even bacteria -- are only a few hundred to a few thousand.
The other genes elaborate the specific characteristics of particular organisms. A single gene can be responsible for a great complexity of functions. Genes are just information encoded along a long string of the chemical DNA; they cannot do anything themselves. What genes encode is the structures of proteins, which are the working machinery of living beings. They let us walk and talk and think big thoughts.
One gene can encode many, often 10 or more, different proteins. To carry out different activities, the proteins can vary in amount, be put in different combinations, or be modified. It is the number of proteins, not genes, that determine complexity -- and that is where the true complexity of human life will be measured.
The genome will also speed up work for scientists. The information from the federal program has been placed on the Web as it was acquired and has already been very useful. It will have an increasing impact. No longer will science and medicine proceed with deep uncertainty over how many genes relate to a particular process. No longer will students and postdoctoral fellows spend long months trying to isolate genes -- they will now simply look them up on the Web. We will now have a wholly new ability: to ask scientific questions about not a single gene, but the entire genome. Now drugs can be developed for every protein to alter its function and help clear up a malfunction.
However, we should not think that now biology will simply be a process of tying up loose ends. The DNA sequence tells us little about the functions of the genes or their role in the body's overall economy. At best, the sequence lets us infer a gene's capabilities, but only experiments will validate or invalidate those inferences. Even experiments on the entire genome will generally only pose questions that need to be answered by experiments on single genes.
My guess is that the next half-century will be taken up with understanding the roles of each of the human genes. And that will only happen if the projected financing for the work of the National Institutes of Health is continued. Moreover, this first draft of the genome is hardly the last word. The federal program is committed to a high-quality, virtually error-free product, and that is a year or two off. Funding for this effort needs to be maintained.
Finally, the race to complete the genome tells us much about how scientific research should be conducted. There has been extensive media coverage of the acrimonious competition between the government program and that of Celera. But we should put this in perspective and recognize that the government program was centrally organized and therefore had to settle on a single strategy. This compromised a central value of science, testing multiple strategies. That is the essence of scientific competition. Thus, Celera's ability to amass the resources necessary to compete with the federal program helped move the whole effort forward in a more fluid, and ultimately, more effective way. That the two programs plan to coordinate their efforts and publish their genome findings in the same issue of a journal represents a healthier relationship.
The very celebration of the completion of the human genome is a rare day in the history of science: an event of historic significance is recognized not in retrospect, but as it is happening. It shows the scientific community at its best and most modern, carrying out a program requiring elaborate collaboration, new technology and the latest computer-assisted methods.
Modern biology is a science of information. The sequencing of the genome is a landmark of progress in specifying information, decoding it into its many coded meanings and learning how it goes wrong in disease. While it is a moment worthy of the attention of every human, we should not mistake progress for a solution. There is yet much hard work to be done.
It will take many decades to fully comprehend the magnificence of the DNA edifice built over four billion years of evolution and held in the nucleus of each cell of the body of each organism on earth.
David Baltimore, the president of the California Institute of Technology, won the Nobel prize in medicine in 1975.
---
White House Sets Human Genome Announcement
Sunday June 25 10:06 PM ET
By Randall Mikkelsen
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000625/pl/clinton_genome_dc_1.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton will preside over the announcement on Monday of a scientific milestone expected to eventually transform medicine: the compilation a rough map of the human genome, a White House official said.
Clinton has scheduled a 10:00 a.m. EDT event at the White House to announce the breakthrough.
Representatives of the two rivals racing to complete the project -- publicly funded Human Genome Project and the private Celera Genomics -- are expected to be at the ceremony.
``It essentially is to announce a dramatic breakthrough in science and one that offers a lot of possibility for improving our ... medical care,'' the official said.
He said Clinton also aimed ``to make clear that the scientific work will go on in a cooperative manner and that as much information as possible will be made public so that others in the private sector and public sector can do the research that's needed to develop ... new drugs and medicines.''
The teams at Celera and the Human Genome Project have been at times competitive and at times acrimonious as they have raced to sequence and assemble the DNA that makes up the genes -- the blueprint of life. They have also haggled over whether to join forces in doing the work and publishing the results.
But Clinton has taken a keen interest in the project, talking about it frequently, and has sought to bring the two sides together.
Along with the work in deciphering the genome has come a controversy over whether the research could be commercialized. Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a joint statement in March suggesting research into the genome would have to be made freely available to researchers.
But Clinton said in April that a discovery with ``specific commercial application'' should be patentable.
The next step, which will take years, will be sorting out which bits in this code constitute the genes and which parts are so-called ``junk'' DNA.
-------- imf / world bank
Attitude check at the UN
From: john klotz - jklotz@walrus.com
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 21:05:01 -0400
To one and all:
It maybe a change is underway at the UN. Last week we learned about the UNDEP abandoning much of its partnership program. Now this statement from Annan. If deeds follow his rhetoric we may be on the verge of a major breakthrough.
--
Annan: Curb 'Globalization' Effects
06/25/2000
by ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS
Associated Press Writer
GENEVA (AP) -- Globalization has largely failed in its promise to benefit the world's masses, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Sunday during a special summit.
Efforts to lower barriers to trade, investment and business around the world ''can benefit humankind as a whole,'' Annan told organizations gathered to keep an eye on a special anti-poverty session of the U.N. General Assembly.
''But clearly at the moment millions of people -- perhaps even a majority of the human race -- are being denied those benefits,'' he said.
''Some have lost their jobs. Others see their communities disintegrating. Some feel that their very identity is at stake,'' he said. ''Even in the richest and most democratic countries people wonder if the leaders they elect have any real control over events.''
He said governments have to work with people, organizations and corporations to turn the tide.
''Private corporations produce most of the wealth in the world,'' Annan said. ''If only for that reason, we would be foolish to ignore them.''
The weeklong U.N. gathering, dubbed the ''Social Summit,'' kicks off Monday. It was called to review progress and failure since a similar meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, five years ago set a goal of eliminating poverty.
Since that 1995 session the number of people in absolute poverty -- living on less than a dollar a day -- has climbed about 200 million people to 1.2 billion, the United Nations estimates.
Before Annan's speech, thousands of people protesting poor countries' debt burdens and other global problems demonstrated peacefully in the streets of Geneva. ''The 'social summit' organizes social misery,'' some signs read.
Police steered the protesters, many of whom vehemently oppose attempts to create freer trade among countries, away from the headquarters of the World Trade Organization.
The WTO previously was a target of demonstrators' wrath in Geneva and Seattle. Some protesters' signs on Sunday denounced the WTO. An effigy of Mike Moore, the organization's director-general, depicted him as a vampire.
Annan said organizations like the WTO, World Bank and International Monetary Fund were created ''to help manage the world economy and ensure that its benefits are more widely enjoyed.''
''If some of them have pursued mistaken policies, haven't we all at one time or another?'' he asked.
The above item on the AP wire today is transmitted for indiviudal research and public interest purposes only. It may not be copied or reproduce.
AP-NY-06-25-00 1651EDT< Copyright (c) Newsday, Inc. Produced by Newsday Electronic Publishing.
----
No masks in Philly
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
Inside Politics
Robert Stacy McCain News and political dispatches from around the nation.
http://208.246.212.80/national/inpolitics.htm
The Philadelphia City Council, in an effort to prevent violence at the Republican National Convention, yesterday adopted an anti-mask ordinance modeled on a Georgia law aimed at combating the Ku Klux Klan.
Opponents of the bill quoted the Declaration of Independence during a 40-minute debate before the council voted 11-5 to make it illegal for anyone to wear a mask with the intent of threatening or intimidating another person, reports David Morgan of Reuters.
Organizers of a massive one-day protest rally slated for the eve of the July 31-Aug. 3 convention believe the ordinance will give police an easier time rounding up law-abiding demonstrators for the purpose of crowd control. They have vowed to wear masks throughout the event. The new ordinance, which must be signed by Mayor John Street, was crafted with help from the Anti-Defamation League.
-------- terrorism
Threat in Jordan
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
Embassy Row
James Morrison News and dispatches from the diplomatic corridor.
http://208.246.212.80/world/embassy-2000623211433.htm
The U.S. Embassy in Jordan is under a terrorist threat, the State Department said yesterday.
Spokesman Philip T. Reeker said Washington is warning all Americans living in or traveling to Jordan "to exercise prudence and review their security practices and to remain alert to changing situations."
He declined to give details of the security alert, but expressed confidence in Jordanian authorities to deal with the threat.
"I am not able to get into details about the nature of the threat or other details, except to say that we're taking this threat very seriously in light of what happened in December," he said.
Jordan arrested 16 suspected terrorists believed to be linked to Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden. They are accused of planning attacks on American targets on New Year's Eve to disrupt year-2000 celebrations. Their trial began last week.
Bin Laden, who is based in Afghanistan, is wanted by the United States.
The United States has accused bin Laden of masterminding the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200 people.
"The U.S. government has information concerning terrorist targeting of the United States Embassy in Amman, Jordan," Mr. Reeker told reporters at yesterday's news briefing.
"While the United States has full confidence in the government of Jordan's demonstrated ability and willingness to address security threats, the full dimensions of this threat are not known at this time.
"And while current information indicates that the U.S. Embassy is targeted, we cannot rule out the possibility that terrorists may also plan to target other venues in Jordan."
In the Jordanian capital, Amman, the embassy alerted its network of American volunteers who passed on security warnings to other Americans. About 1,000 U.S. citizens live in Jordan.
"American citizens should avoid large crowds [and] keep a low profile," the message said.
-------- us politics
U.S. Political Reformers Plan 'Shadow' Conventions
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 12:47 PM ET
By David Morgan
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000625/re/convention_shadow_dc_1.html
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Claiming this summer's Republican national convention will be little more than a party infomercial, a group of Hollywood entertainers, activists and politicians plan to offer substance to the public with their own Shadow Convention a few miles away.
With barely a month to go before delegates arrive in Philadelphia for the July 31-Aug. 3 fete, the group has dismissed both the Republican and Democratic conventions as stage productions complete with scripts and choreography.
Critics say the Republican convention will likely hold few surprises. Texas Gov. George W. Bush (news - web sites) has been waiting since the March primaries to be nominated formally, and his choice for vice president may be announced a week or more ahead of time.
Party members also hope to avoid the bruising pre-convention abortion debate of years past, while Bush aides have been hard at work crafting a feel-good convention agenda to emphasize the Texas governor's devotion to ``compassionate'' conservatism.
Even the main television networks are drastically cutting coverage for both conventions.
Public-Interest Forum
``The Democratic and Republican conventions physically demonstrate the problem in American politics today. They are being sponsored by major corporate soft money, and they are determined to have no controversy,'' said Scott Harshbarger, president of Common Cause, the Washington-based watchdog group.
Enter Shadow Conventions 2000, billed as an all-out public-interest forum that will be held in Philadelphia during the Republican convention, and again in Los Angeles later in August during the Democratic convention.
Sponsored by interest groups such as Common Cause, United for a Fair Economy, Public Campaign, the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support, and George Soros' Lindesmith Center, the Shadow Conventions will spotlight issues largely ignored by the main parties: poverty, the social cost of the government's war on drugs, and campaign finance reform.
Arizona Sen. John McCain (news - web sites), who sought the Republican presidential candidacy by focusing on public disaffection with politics, will be given a high-profile role at the main convention. But he is also due to speak at the Shadow Convention about finance reform.
Entertainers including Bill Maher, host of TV's ''Politically Incorrect'', comedian Al Franken, actor Ron Silver and satirist Harry Shearer will help produce daily political satire.
Their overriding aim is for a presentation that pierces the public relations image of American politics with genuine debate. They promise, for instance, that their four-day agenda will concentrate on the hard facts of life that trouble ordinary Americans at a time of unprecedented economic growth.
Fill A Vacuum
When the Democratic and Republican conventions turn to citizens who have benefited from the economy, the Shadow Conventions will feature working families that cannot make ends meet. When Bush and his Democratic counterpart, Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites), speak about children, the spotlight will shift to those whose parents are imprisoned in the war on drugs.
``Our idea is to use the vacuum of the conventions,'' said Arianna Huffington, TV political pundit, columnist and a former Republican insider, who will host both parties' Shadow Conventions.
``Given the number of articles pointing out how scripted and meaningless the conventions are going to be, 15,000 media are still going to descend on both of them -- waiting for something to happen.''
The main parties seem unconcerned about being upstaged.
``We're planning a vibrant and exciting four-day convention,'' said Republican convention spokesman Tim Fitzpatrick. ``Anytime you get a media gathering like this, people are going to want to make their voices heard. We certainly recognize and respect their First Amendment right to do so.''
Organizers hope the Shadow Convention will draw 1,000 attendees to a venue near the University of Pennsylvania, a few miles from the glittering sports arena in South Philadelphia that will be the main Republican venue.
There will be an Internet Web cast, and organizers hope for TV coverage from the main broadcast networks as well as cable-TV channels, including C-SPAN.
---
Bush witnesses on Guard service sought
USA Today
06/25/00- Updated 05:34 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/nc1.htm#targets
AUSTIN, Texas - Gov. George W. Bush's campaign workers have concluded that no documents exist showing he reported for duty as ordered in Alabama with the Texas Air National Guard in 1972. They are looking for people who served with him to verify his story that he did. ''The official records were either lost or misplaced or not filled out correctly or not deposited,'' says a spokesman for Bush's campaign, Dan Bartlett. A representative of the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver says that agency does not retain the sort of records Bush campaign officials were seeking.
---
Male support gives Bush 12-point lead over Gore By Ralph Z. Hallow
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-2000623221920.htm
A male "gender gap" for Texas Gov. George W. Bush has powered him to a 12-point lead in the polls, five months before the presidential elections, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said Thursday.
"Unlike the elections of 1990s, men are more mobilized than women," Miss Lake said yesterday in a briefing at the National Press Club while releasing the latest bipartisan "Voter.com-Battleground 2000" poll, taken jointly with Republican Ed Goeas.
Their poll has Mr. Bush leading Vice President Al Gore by 52 percent to 40 percent in the June 11-13 survey of 1,000 likely voters nationwide. He had led by 48-42 in the same poll in May.
Mr. Bush's lead among men has more than doubled since May, to a 23-point edge compared to 10 points then. Among women, the two remain tied, with Mr. Bush keeping a statistically insignificant two-point lead, Mr. Goeas said.
The poll is widely respected for its bipartisan makeup.
Miss Lake, a veteran pollster for Democratic campaigns, was part of the team of advisers that Mr. Gore hired as part of his campaign organization shakeup. Mr. Goeas, also a veteran campaign pollster, has polled for Republican presidential campaigns and for the Republican National Committee.
Also released Thursday, a Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll of registered voters - not all of whom are likely to vote - had Mr. Bush leading by eight points, 49 percent to 41 percent.
Despite the media fuss made over Mr. Bush's February appearance at Bob Jones University in South Carolina and dire predictions that he had "blown it" with Catholic voters, the Battleground poll has Mr. Bush outperforming Mr. Gore by 53 percent to 42 percent among all likely Catholic voters, and by 58 percent to only 36 percent for Mr. Gore among white Catholic voters.
Republicans have unusually high expectations for winning a bigger share of the Latino vote, in large part because the normally Democratic constituency voted heavily for Mr. Bush for governor. The Goeas-Lake poll shows enthusiasm about Mr. Bush among Hispanics nationwide.
"Although Gore has pulled ahead among Hispanic voters, Bush's Hispanic voters are more intense about their support about him, more likely to turn out right now, than Gore's Hispanic voters," said Miss Lake. "We in the Democratic Party have a challenge there."
She said the data show a "real potential" for Mr. Bush to win "a record number of Hispanic votes."
But while this may help Mr. Bush in some Hispanic-heavy states, California - the big prize in the Electoral College - still looks beyond his reach, Mr. Goeas and Miss Lake agreed.
Mr. Bush, who began his campaign in June saying he had the leadership qualities to be president, hasn't missed a chance to reiterate that theme since, and voters apparently are buying it. Considerably more of them see leadership in Mr. Bush than in Mr. Gore, according to both polls.
President Clinton appears to be a drag on Mr. Gore, according to the poll. "His personal disapproval rating has hit an all-time high of 64 percent," Mr. Goeas said.
Indeed, a desire to restore moral values in the nation has reached equal importance with improving education, the survey found.
As for Mr. Gore, the more times he attempts to "reinvent" himself, the worse he does among core Democratic voters and voters in general, the bipartisan poll shows.
Congressional Democrats eager to retake control of Congress can find something positive in the poll. On a generic congressional question - which party's candidate are you likely to vote for? - the Democrats have a two-point advantage, at 42 percent compared to 40 percent for the Republicans.
"This is yet more evidence of a potentially tough race for Republican presidential candidates to move the attention of voters beyond the presidential race," said Mr. Goeas. "Their future is tied to Bush's, but voters have not yet linked the two together."
Mr. Goeas and Miss Lake agreed that their biggest disagreement involved how to explain voter enthusiasm for Mr. Bush and the lack of it for Mr. Gore.
Miss Lake attributes it to Democratic voters - particularly women - not yet paying attention to the campaign. Mr. Goeas said Democrats lack intensity because they don't like what they see in Mr. Gore and his campaign.
---
Ray says he won't finish work before end of term
USA Today
06/25/00- Updated 07:23 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/e98/e2138.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - The independent counsel investigating the Clinton White House said Sunday he knows the country is tired of his work but he will continue his ''careful evaluation regarding the president's conduct'' until he's finished.
Robert Ray said that won't be until after President Clinton leaves office.
''I'm well aware ... that the country is weary of this investigation,'' Robert Ray said on NBC's Meet the Press. He said he wants to complete the job ''expeditiously, responsibly and in a timely fashion.''
Asked how public opinion might influence his decision, Ray said:
''Abraham Lincoln said a long time ago that public sentiment makes everything possible, and without public sentiment, things are very, very difficult. I am mindful of the fact of the ... environment that I operate in. I am well aware ... that I don't exist in a political vacuum.
''But I have to make a responsible decision as a prosecutor. No person is above the law; I have said that.''
Ray reported last week that there was insufficient evidence to bring charges against Hillary Rodham Clinton in connection with her role in the mass firings of the White House travel office staff in the earliest days of the Clinton administration.
He had reported in March that there was no ''substantial'' evidence of wrongdoing in the wholesale transfer of FBI files to the White House and said he would file no charges in that case, either.
His next move, probably by September, will be a report on the investigation into the Clintons' roles in the Whitewater land development in Arkansas before they entered the White House, Ray said.
Finally, there remains an unfinished examination of whether Clinton lied under oath about his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. That will be concluded after Clinton is no longer president, Ray said.
''I have said publicly that the matter involving the president in connection with the Lewinsky investigation and his prior testimony remains under investigation, and that there will be an appropriate time to render a judgment ... and that time will come when the president leaves office,'' he said.
He refused to say whether he planned to indict Clinton after he is out of office, but made clear he would make no effort to do while the president is in office.
''An investigation continues with regard to it, and an appropriate judgment will be made, a responsible judgment will be made ... when the president leaves office,'' he said.
---
Gore releases interview transcript
USA Today
06/23/00- Updated 04:30 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/e98/e2153.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - In sometimes heated exchanges, Vice President Al Gore told investigators ''I sure as hell don't recall'' being told that a 1996 event at a Buddhist temple was a fund raiser, according to transcript released by the White House Friday.
Gore ordered release of the full transcript of his interview with a federal prosecutor who has recommended the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the vice president's statements about his 1996 fund raising.
The 150-page transcript contained extensive questions and answers about Gore's fund-raising activities, particularly his attendance at the Buddhist temple event in California. Gore adamantly denied knowing that political money was being raised at the temple.
''I sure as hell don't recall having - I sure as hell did not have any conversations with anyone saying this is a fund-raising event,'' Gore testified.
Gore continued: ''As to whether or not I had any follow-up conversations that said, were we able to set up this event or not, I don't think I did. But I may have ... .''
The questions were led by Robert J. Conrad Jr., chief of the Justice Department's campaign financing task force, with assistance by two FBI agents. Again and again their questions focused on the temple fund raiser.
''You were aware in late February, were you not, that there was a goal of raising $108 million by the DNC (Democratic National Committee)?'' Gore was asked.
''Yes,'' the vice president replied.
''Then a couple of months later there is a DNC-sponsored event at the temple and it didn't raise any fund-raising issues in your mind?''
''I did not know this was a fund raiser,'' Gore answered.
On another sensitive issue, Gore denied any knowledge of missing White House e-mails - also subject of federal investigation.
''What is your knowledge, sitting here today, of the issues surrounding the White House e-mail system's failure to archive messages?'' Gore was asked in the April 18 interview.
''I have no idea,'' the vice president replied. ''I have read the recent news stories. That is the first time that I knew that some of the e-mail that I assumed was being stored was apparently not stored, or at least wasn't stored in the form that it was supposed to be stored in.''
He said he was surprised that questions were raised about whether e-mails in his own office were properly archived. ''That also came as a surprise to me, partly because we have produced a hell of a lot of e-mail,'' Gore said.
Gore said he decided to make the transcripts public because ''I want people to judge for themselves'' and ''I want the truth to be known about this.''
''I've told the truth,'' he told reporters on his campaign plane.
Conrad's recommendation for Attorney General Janet Reno was made weeks ago, after the April 18 interview. Earlier Friday, Reno said she would not dribble out ''piece by piece'' information about whether a special prosecutor would be sought.
---
I'm ready, Al
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
Inside the Beltway
John McCaslin Political tidbits and other shenanigans from around the nation's capital.
http://208.246.212.80/national/inbeltway.htm
Why wait around for Vice President Al Gore to announce who his top picks are for vice presidential running mate?
When 42-year-old Housing Secretary Andrew M. Cuomo was asked yesterday whether he, if asked, would accept the No. 2 spot on the Democratic ticket, he came right out and said: "Yes, I would accept."
Asked for reaction yesterday, Mr. Gore said: "I don't have a short list yet."
---
LaBella's successor also sought Gore probe
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-200062322162.htm
The head of the Justice Department's campaign-finance task force recommended earlier this year that a special prosecutor be named to investigate Vice President Al Gore on suspected fund-raising abuses during the 1996 presidential campaign.
According to Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee investigating the Justice Department's handling of the campaign-finance probe, task force chief Robert J. Conrad Jr. made the recommendation to Attorney General Janet Reno.
Miss Reno rejected similar calls by Mr. Conrad's predecessor, Charles G. LaBella, and by FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, both of whom said in separate memos there was sufficient evidence to warrant the appointment of an independent counsel in the case.
"I have reason to believe that Mr. Conrad has recommended a special counsel to investigate Vice President Gore," Mr. Specter said yesterday, adding that subcommittee investigators had uncovered "very substantial evidence" showing the Justice Department did not act on the recommendation.
"I think the attorney general has done a grave disservice to Vice President Gore in failing to act on the investigation in 1997, when Director Freeh recommended it, or in 1998, when LaBella recommended it," he said. "The matter is now coming to a head again - in the middle of a presidential campaign."
White House spokesman James Kennedy said administration officials had received "no word from the Department of Justice about the reported campaign-finance development," adding that Mr. Gore had "cooperated fully with the investigation every step of the way."
Justice Department spokesman Myron Marlin said the task force probe is continuing and it would be "inappropriate to comment on ongoing matters or internal deliberations."
Campaigning in Minnesota, Mr. Gore told reporters he was not aware of any recommendation for a special prosecutor. "You're privy to news I don't have," he said.
The Independent Counsel Statute lapsed in June 1999, although Miss Reno could name a special prosecutor - answerable to her - to investigate the vice president.
The issue of an outside counsel first was raised at a hearing Wednesday before Mr. Specter's subcommittee, during which the chairman asked Mr. Conrad whether he "made or attempted to make a recommendation" on a special counsel to investigate Mr. Gore.
Mr. Conrad declined to answer, saying he did not "feel comfortable discussing . . . something that pertains to an ongoing investigation."
The task force chief, along with four FBI agents, interviewed Mr. Gore for four hours in April in connection with suspected fund-raising abuses during the 1996 election.
The White House later confirmed the interview, saying Mr. Gore's personal attorneys attended the session and the vice president "cooperated fully with the task force and voluntarily agreed to be interviewed." It offered no further comment on what questions were asked or what task force investigators wanted to know.
Mr. Gore, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, declined to discuss the interview.
The task force was formed in 1997 to investigate accusations that illegal foreign and domestic donations were made during the 1996 campaign. It also is probing missing White House e-mails, including those involving Mr. Gore when he and Democratic Party figures were the focus of inquiries by the task force and congressional committees.
Task force investigators have questioned several Gore contributors, including organizers of an April 1996 fund-raiser at a Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights, Calif. Mr. Gore has offered several explanations about the event and why he was present, including a claim he later changed, saying he did not know it was a fund-raiser.
In November 1997, Mr. Freeh first recommended an outside counsel be sought in the task force probe, telling Miss Reno the inquiry had led FBI agents "to the highest levels of the White House." He said Miss Reno was obligated under the mandatory and discretionary sections of the Independent Counsel Statute to seek an independent counsel.
A second Freeh memo in 1998 also recommended an outside counsel be sought to probe accusations that Mr. Gore made false statements to FBI agents on his role in fund-raising calls he made from the White House in 1996 and on his knowledge of "hard" and "soft" money donations to the Democratic Party.
In 1998, Mr. LaBella also urged the appointment of an outside counsel, saying Mr. Gore and others engaged in "a pattern of conduct worthy of investigation." He questioned Mr. Gore's veracity in denying knowing that soft and hard money donations had illegally been sought by the Democratic National Committee.
On two occasions, following preliminary Justice Department inquiries, Miss Reno declined to seek an outside counsel, saying there was insuf-ficient evidence to justify the inquiries. She reopened the Gore probe in August 1998 after FBI agents focused on contradictions between Mr. Gore's public denials of his campaign fund-raising efforts and handwritten notes on a White House memo discovered by investigators.
The notes show Mr. Gore was present at a White House meeting when campaign officials discussed how soft money he sought would be diverted to the re-election cam-paign. The notes by David Strauss, Mr. Gore's former deputy chief of staff, described a 65 percent to 35 percent split of soft and hard money for the DNC.
Soft-money donations to parties for issue ads and party-building activities are unlimited. Their "hard" use to help elect a specific candidate is illegal.
In November 1998, Miss Reno again refused to seek outside counsel despite the new information. She said there were "no reasonable grounds" to pursue the case, adding the notes were "not sufficient alone to warrant a conclusion that the vice president made a false statement" on how donations he raised would be allocated.
She said while interviews showed Mr. Gore was present when soft- and hard-money donations were discussed, there was no evidence he heard the statements or understood their implications.
---
As gasoline prices skyrocket, so does value of Gore's oil stock
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
By Bill Sammon THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-2000623223921.htm
Vice President Al Gore, who is trying to link George W. Bush to soaring gasoline prices by emphasizing the Texas governor's ties to the oil industry, controls at least $500,000 worth of stock in Occidental Petroleum.
The stock came from Armand Hammer, an oilman with communist ties who served for decades as financial benefactor to Mr. Gore and his father, Sen. Albert Gore Sr.
Mr. Hammer, who used to brag that he kept the elder Gore "in my back pocket," is believed to have helped recruit Soviet spies to infiltrate the U.S. government.
The Bush campaign said Thursday it is hypocritical for Mr. Gore - who controls between $500,000 and $1 million of Occidental stock and is paid $20,000 a year by the firm - to portray the Texas governor as a tool of Big Oil.
"Is Al Gore going to sell the upwards of $1 million in stock his family owns in a major oil company?" said Bush spokesman Scott McClellan. "It's clear that Al Gore is trying to divert attention away from the Clinton-Gore administration's lack of leadership and his own past support of higher gas prices."
Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway said the higher prices reflect poorly on Mr. Bush because he once ran oil-exploration firms in Texas and has accepted campaign contributions from oil companies. By contrast, Mr. Hattaway described the vice president as a consumer advocate who is taking on Big Oil to protect America's working families.
"Bush is the one in a pickle because he is so closely tied to the oil industry," Mr. Hattaway told Reuters. "People are probably focusing their anger on the oil companies, which actually set the prices. And it's clear that Gore is taking on the companies."
But since becoming vice president, Mr. Gore has gone out of his way to help Occidental. From 1995 through 1997, he engineered the sale of an oil-rich expanse of publicly owned land - known as the Elk Hills field in Bakersfield, Calif. - to Occidental.
Elk Hills had been zealously guarded since 1912 as a strategic resource by the Navy. In 1922, oilmen bribed President Harding's interior secretary for secret drilling leases, the subsequent exposure of which resulted in the Teapot Dome scandal.
Congress resisted privatization attempts by Presidents Nixon and Reagan, but relented when President Clinton pushed it through as one of Mr. Gore's "reinventing government" reforms.
The sale of Elk Hills to Occidental was a dramatic departure for an administration that has walled off huge expanses of private land for public preserves.
"It was the largest privatization of federal property in U.S. history, one that tripled Occidental's U.S. oil reserves overnight," wrote Charles Lewis of the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity in his book, "The Buying of the President 2000."
The Energy Department normally assesses the environmental impact of such a sale, but in this case, it allowed a private firm, ICF Kaiser International, to do the assessment. One of ICF's directors is Tony Coelho, who managed Mr. Gore's presidential campaign until stepping down this month.
"There is clear hypocrisy here because the company that Al Gore is closest to in the United States today is an oil company - Occidental Petroleum," Mr. Lewis told The Washington Times yesterday. "Politically, in terms of things he's done for them and things they've done for him, they're two peas in a pod."
Occidental's founder and chief executive officer, Mr. Hammer transformed Mr. Gore's father - a financially struggling freshman congressman from rural Tennessee in the 1930s - into the millionaire CEO of an Occidental subsidiary who was paid $500,000 a year by the time he retired from the Senate in 1971. Mr. Hammer died in 1990 and the elder Gore died in 1998.
Mr. Hammer, who was classified in Soviet KGB files as an "agent of influence" for Moscow, also bestowed his largess on the younger Gore.
For decades, Occidental has paid the vice president $20,000 a year for mineral rights to zinc-rich land held by the Gore family in Carthage, Tenn. The firm continues to make the payments even though it has never mined the land.
Occidental loaned $100,000 to the committee handling the Clinton-Gore inauguration. And, according to a White House memo, Occidental gave $50,000 to the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign after being solicited by Mr. Gore from his White House office in a phone call he said was covered by "no controlling legal authority."
Occidental has given nearly half a million dollars in soft money to Democrats since Mr. Gore became vice president. Two days after Occidental's new chairman, Ray Irani, slept in the Lincoln Bedroom, Occidental gave $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
A Democratic source close to Mr. Gore did not attempt to distance the vice president from Occidental. But the source argued that Mr. Gore's blaming of the oil industry for soaring gasoline prices proves the vice president is willing to buck his own allies.
"There's a big difference between being connected to somebody and speaking out against them, and being connected with somebody and doing what they say," the source said.
But Mr. Gore's connections to Occidental have angered his environmentalist allies. Eight environmental protesters were jailed in New Hampshire earlier this year after disrupting a Gore event by demanding he sever his ties with Occidental.
Environmentalists are upset about Occidental's plan to drill on sacred ancestral land of a Colombian Indian tribe, which is threatening mass suicide if the drilling goes forward. Mr. Gore has refused to divest from Occidental or use his leverage to block the planned drilling.
On Capitol Hill yesterday, Republicans ridiculed Mr. Gore's assertion that high gas prices are the result of price gouging by oil companies.
"We're not being gouged," said House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas. "We're being Gored."
• Audrey Hudson contributed to this report.
---
'He's a jerk'
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
Inside Politics
Robert Stacy McCain News and political dispatches from around the nation.
http://208.246.212.80/national/inpolitics.htm
Vice President Al Gore isn't exactly a hit with one teen-age fan of Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.
During a campaign appearance yesterday at a Minnetonka, Minn., junior high school with Mr. Ventura - former pro wrestler turned independent politician -Mr. Gore took time out to chat with 17-year-old Blake Barry.
According to Deborah Zabarenko of Reuters, young Blake, "who sported a red-orange Mohawk hairdo and a lip ring . . . was generally down on politicians."
But Mr. Ventura, unlike other politicians, is "a nice guy," Blake said.
Not Mr. Gore.
"I think he's a jerk," Blake said, after talking to the vice president. "I don't believe a word he says."
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Controversies of '96 still haunting Gore
USA Today
06/23/00- Updated 09:42 AM ET
By Susan Page, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/e98/e2145.htm
WASHINGTON - Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000 is trailed by a threatening cloud that never seems to go away: controversies left over from the 1996 campaign.
On a day that started with a lighthearted appearance with Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and a speech on special education, Gore on Thursday unexpectedly found himself facing questions about a recommendation by a Justice Department prosecutor that a special counsel be appointed to investigate his 1996 fundraising practices.
"You're privy to news I don't have," Gore told reporters in Minnetonka, Minn.
But the accusations of fundraising abuses are all too familiar to Gore. They re-emerged at a time when he has been trying to restart his campaign with the appointment of a new chairman and a "progress and prosperity" tour to emphasize good economic times.
Two separate controversies from the Clinton years persist and could complicate his presidential bid through the next four months:
Accusations related to his appearance at the Hsi Lai Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights, Calif., for a fundraiser that involved illegal contributions. He also has been questioned about donor calls he made from his White House office in 1996. Newer accusations about missing e-mails that were subpoenaed in congressional investigations. E-mails in Gore's office were handled on a server system separate from the White House and weren't automatically archived.
Gore supporters said there's little reason to believe Attorney General Janet Reno, who has twice rejected recommendations for an independent counsel in the fundraising case, will change course and propose one now. They accused the GOP of orchestrating the leak about the recommendation on a day that rival candidate George W. Bush was facing his own negative story, the scheduled execution of convicted murderer Gary Graham.
But they also acknowledged that the report was damaging to Gore: Distracting him from the day's intended message, reminding voters of old scandals and reinforcing the sense of "Clinton fatigue" that has prompted some voters to yearn for a change in the White House.
That weariness with scandal is more damaging to Gore than any concern about whether these particular accusations deserve to be investigated more, according to Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist who has studied the impact of political scandals in books such as Feeding Frenzy.
"I think we all underestimate the degree to which the American people are now scandal-proofed," Sabato said. "Probably the only reason this is important is that it increases the public desire for change, which is the fundamental reason why people might vote for George W. Bush. It does cause people to say, 'It's never going to end unless we end the Clinton-Gore administration.'
"I don't think there's any danger whatsoever of prosecution," said Lanny Davis, a former White House counsel and Gore supporter. "But it's unfortunate because it detracts from his very effective message of the last couple weeks."
Gore has been struggling to close Bush's lead, but two new national polls showed the margin widening slightly. Bush led Gore 49%-41% in an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday. A Voter.com Battleground survey released Thursday put the race at 52%-40%.
Jim Kennedy, a former White House spokesman who was on his first day as communications director in the vice president's governmental office, said Gore had "received no word from the Department of Justice about the reported campaign-finance development." He said Gore had "cooperated fully with the investigation every step of the way."
Kennedy also suggested that partisan politics played a role in the disclosure. He noted that Sen. Arlen Specter, R.-Pa., had told reporters an independent counsel had been recommended. "The fact that the announcement of this alleged development came out of the mouth of a Republican senator raises serious questions about what's going on," Kennedy said.
Republican National Committee spokesman Mark Pfeifle denied any partisan role in promoting the story. But he said the news report "goes to why we need to restore honesty and integrity and decency to the office of the White House."
Bush campaign spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush believes the country is weary of scandal, and the best way to remedy that is " to elect a new administration."
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Gore struggles to get traction with voters
USA Today
06/22/00- Updated 08:34 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/e98/e2142.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - For all of Al Gore's latest campaign moves - his ''prosperity tour,'' Democratic Party TV ads, a retirement savings plan, an offensive on gas prices - the newest snapshots of the presidential race showed him running in place while Republican rival George W. Bush opened a double-digit lead.
Bush better represents strength, trustworthiness and vision, people told the pollsters, giving Gore more points only for experience. Gore's advisers note, however, that the polls showing Bush leading by 8 to 12 percentage points were completed before the vice president undertook what they consider some of his best maneuvers.
Making his first trip to campaign headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., Gore's new chairman, Commerce Secretary William Daley, dismissed the worrisome snapshot of Bush's appeal.
''There's always a lot of fascination when there's a new kid on the block,'' Daley told The Associated Press.
''I don't think there's any urgency to anything right now. Al's out there. He's gotta remain out there, talking on the issues he's comfortable with and believes in: the economy and prosperity, particularly. And he's gotta keep moving around America, touching a lot of bases,'' Daley said.
Other Gore advisers noted that the new Voter.com-Battleground survey wrapped up just before Gore's tour touting the Clinton-Gore economic record, news of his ''Social Security Plus'' proposal, and an aggressive attempt to turn driver outrage over soaring gas prices against Bush, the Texas governor, for his ties to big oil companies.
Democratic players outside the campaign who were anxious about Gore's performance a month or so ago cited these new moves as reassuring that he is on track.
''Finally, they're using this time when voters aren't paying too much attention to fine-tune the message,'' said Paul Begala, a former strategist for President Clinton.
''This 'progress and prosperity tour' is exactly where they need to be,'' Begala added, ''I think he'll be hammering at three words: Forward or back, forward or back.''
The bipartisan Voter.com-Battleground survey released on Thursday, found Bush winning 52% of likely voters to Gore's 40%. The same survey last month gave Bush a 6-point lead.
Bush also led, 49% to 41%, in an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday.
The NBC poll overlapped with the first three days of Gore's prosperity tour - three days muddied by distractions. A Catholic hospital in Pennsylvania nixed Gore's campaign stop there because of his support for abortion rights. Then, campaign chairman Tony Coelho abruptly resigned, citing ill health.
''Voters are seeing this. They're seeing a campaign that is stumbling along and not sending a consistent message to the voters,'' said Republican Ed Goeas, who conducts the Battleground surveys with Democrat Celinda Lake.
In fact, about half of respondents who said they'd seen or heard recent news about Gore said that news made them less likely to vote for him.
Thursday threatened more damaging distraction when it was revealed that a top Justice Department prosecutor recommended a special-counsel investigation of Gore's 1996 fund raising.
Recognizing its headlines have hurt, Gore's team has been scrambling to shore up the confidence of its allies. At the Democratic National Committee, strategist Michael Whouley has briefed activists on the field operations he's organizing in targeted states.
And campaign officials were scheduling huddles with key Democrats in those states, including Illinois state Sen. Vince Demuzio, a former 26-year chairman of the Illinois Democratic party.
''Obviously, we have some difficulty ahead of us,'' Demuzio said. ''When it's all said and done, the election is going to focus on who can do the best job for the economy and voters will say, 'I don't want the boat rocked here ... Why do I have to buy into some unknown?'''
In Pennsylvania, another targeted state, Republican strategist John Braebender said Gore miscalculated in the Social Security debate by attacking Bush's proposal as risky and then belatedly offering something similar - at least on its face.
(Bush would let workers invest some of their Social Security payroll taxes in the stock market, while Gore would offer tax incentives to low- and moderate-income workers to save and invest for retirement, in addition to their guaranteed Social Security benefit.)
That fumble worsened ''perceptions that Bush is seen as a leader and Gore sort of a follower,'' Braebender said.
In the Battleground poll, Bush trumped Gore by 9-15 percentage points when respondents were asked to pick which candidate better represents strength, trustworthiness and vision.
Gore won out only on experience, 50% to 39%.
Braebender agreed with Gore allies that polls are pretty meaningless at this stage. ''In every state right now the amount of interest in this race is not where you'd expect it,'' he said.
---
Gore Sees Bush's Hand Behind Fund-Raising Leak
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 3:30 PM ET
By Alexander Ferguson
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000625/ts/campaign_gore_dc_11.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supporters of presidential hopeful Al Gore (news - web sites) hit back on Sunday at allegations of illegal fund-raising that have hurt their candidate, saying George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s campaign may have orchestrated a damaging leak.
Appearing on television talk shows, Gore's supporters said news that a Justice Department official had recommended a special counsel investigate whether Gore had lied under oath in an April 18 interview was timed for maximum political damage.
``We still have yet to hear from the Bush campaign -- whether or not they were involved in moving out this story,'' said the vice president's adviser and former chief of staff Ron Klain.
``It's a serious question I think they need to answer,'' he told CNN's ``Late Edition'' show.
Republican Sen. Arlen Specter disclosed on Thursday that Robert Conrad, who leads the Justice Department's campaign finance task force, had recommended to U.S. Attorney Janet Reno that the truthfulness of Gore's answers be probed by someone outside the department.
Conrad's leaked recommendation could not have come at a worse time for Gore, who is trailing Bush in public opinion polls and has struggled to get his presidential campaign on track.
Many of the questions in the April interview with a Justice Department prosecutor covered the campaign event that Gore attended at a Buddhist temple in California four years ago. The event raised more than $65,000 in illegal donations for the Democratic Party, but Gore has said he did not know it was a fund-raiser.
``I'd like them (the Bush campaign) to come forward and say that when Senator Specter got this information, they didn't work with him on the release of it, they didn't coordinate the timing of it,'' Klain said.
Republican presidential candidate Bush last week quickly seized on the disclosure to press one of his biggest campaign themes -- that Gore was fatally smeared by the scandals of the Clinton administration.
In an attempt to contain the scandal, Gore released on Friday a sworn interview he gave the Justice Department in which he denied knowingly taking part in the illegal fund-raising event.
But supporters of Gore, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president in the Nov. 7 election, conceded that the latest revelation could damage their candidate.
``Clearly having this debate while the vice president is trying to emphasize the prosperity of the country and where he wants to take the nation is not helpful,'' said New Jersey Democrat Sen. Robert Torricelli.
``Not Fair''
Speaking on CBS' ``Face the Nation,'' he condemned the way the news emerged last week, saying it was a politically motivated leak that was ``not fair to the vice president and not right in our electoral system''.
But Specter, while declining to disclose how he got the information of Conrad's recommendation for a special counsel probe, denied he was motivated politically in releasing it.
The Pennsylvania Republican told ABC's ``This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts'' he may disclose how he got the information at future hearings on the scandal at which he hoped to have testimony from FBI Director James Freeh among others.
The scandal surrounding Gore's 1996 appearance at the Buddhist temple has haunted him for the last four years and previous recommendations to hold an independent investigation have been turned down by Reno.
Charles LaBella, himself a former leader of the Justice Department's campaign finance task force and who believed an independent counsel was the best solution, predicted that Reno would again turn the recommendation down.
``I don't see her analysis changing,'' LaBella told CNN's ''Late Edition''. ``I think she's going to focus on materiality, she's going to focus on motive and make the same conclusion that she made before.''
LaBella said the leak of the information could only have come from within the Justice Department.
``Somebody obviously in the Department of Justice at a high level for some reason decided that this wasn't being fairly handled,'' he said.
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HEAD GAMES What a Mind! In Politics, That's Not What Matters
New York Times
June 25, 2000
By RICHARD L. BERKE
http://www.nytimes.com/library/review/062500political-minds-review.html
WASHINGTON -- When Al Gore's college transcript found its way into the press recently, it seemed destined to ignite a firestorm. Now the world knew: the prep school boy who applied only to Harvard, the wonky vice president, the learned president-in-waiting, had actually been a C student for a time at Harvard. He even got a D in biology.
But nobody in Mr. Gore's camp acted terribly agitated by the revelations. And before long, the whispers started: could the campaign itself have leaked the transcript?
The campaign denies the accusation, but it's a peculiarly American phenomenon that a candidate might advertise his academic stumbles. In fact, just as a recurring theme in this presidential race has been whether Gov. George W. Bush has the intellect to be a successful president, so some Gore advisers worry that their candidate may come off, as President Harry Truman would put it, as too much of "a smarty."
A number of politicians of recent vintage -- from Gov. Jesse Ventura of Minnesota to Ronald Reagan to Ross Perot -- have been known more for their street smarts or down-to-earth personalities than their intellectual curiosity. It was no accident that during the Republican primaries, Senator John McCain reminded crowds that he graduated at the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy.
There is a sense among some scholars, too, that smarties make lousy presidents. Most historians agree that the last president who was an intellectual was Woodrow Wilson, and some think he was too much of a thinker to turn the wheels of government.
Anti-intellectualism is one of the more venerable traits of American voters. It's not that they don't respect smart politicians; it's that they do not always respect politicians who act smart. Instead, voters trust those who seem more like themselves, even if those politicians are masking their intelligence to better appeal to common folk.
"We now expect a much more personable person in the White House," said Fred Greenstein, a professor of history at Princeton University. "We are much more open to a normal, laid-back, colloquial style. George Washington was a figure who never smiled, and by modern standards would make Al Gore look like the life of the party."
The question for many voters, it seems, is not whether a leader can recite from the classics or is a whiz at math but whether he or she seems sober-minded and possessed of enough common sense to make sound decisions and relate easily to people.
In this environment, Mr. Gore has found that his command of policy, and his willingness to display it, can be as much a political liability as an asset. Mr. Bush still must persuade voters that he has a sufficient grasp of policy -- or, to put it bluntly, that he is not a dumbbell -- but polls show he is drawing higher and higher marks for leadership. That leaves Mr. Gore with the arguably tougher job of proving that he is not a condescending smarty-pants.
In fact, Mr. Bush seems to have had success convincing Americans that you don't have to like reading books to be intelligent. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released this weekend found that 37 percent of the public thinks Mr. Gore is more intelligent, while a statistically indistinguishable 34 percent give the nod to Mr. Bush.
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the reigning -- and one of the last -- intellectuals in Congress, managed to get elected despite his intellectualism because he played at being the absent-minded professor. His campaign also reminded voters that he grew up an immigrant's son in Hell's Kitchen and worked as a longshoreman.
"There's a long tradition, and it's appropriate to a democracy, of politicians saying, 'I'm just like you,' " Mr. Moynihan said. "Go down the list of senators whose names are Dick, Tom, Al, Joe and not their Christian names, as we used to say. I would have run as Pat Moynihan except we missed the filing day in New York City and they put down my proper name. But I'm happy that we didn't have Frank Roosevelt instead of Franklin D."
America didn't exactly start out this way. The founding fathers were much in the British mode of gentlemen of means and leisure, using both to get a classical education. Not only did they feel it unnecessary to pander to voters, they felt it far too demeaning to try.
As America grew more insistently democratic, and populist, the ruling campaign model began to change as well. And with the election of 1828, Andrew Jackson disabused voters entirely of the notion that the president should be an aristocrat from Tidewater Virginia or a Harvard graduate.
Mr. Jackson was regarded as a boor by the Brahmins of Boston, who were apoplectic when Harvard bestowed an honorary degree on him. John Quincy Adams, an overseer of the school, wrote that it was a disgrace to confer honors upon "a barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and hardly could spell his own name."
In the 20th century, Harry Truman was perhaps the president who best combined sagacity and a genuine common touch. David McCullough, the Truman biographer, said: "He was one of the few presidents who went to the National Symphony fairly often -- and certainly not for a photo opportunity. If they were playing Mozart or Chopin, he would often take the score with him."
His instincts were infinitely sharper than those of Adlai Stevenson, whose reading and speaking habits nearly caused American intellectuals to swoon with joy at the thought of his occupying the Oval Office. He never did, of course, and one reason may be that he lacked Truman's everyday appeal.
The story goes that during the 1952 presidential campaign, a woman rushed up to Mr. Stevenson (who, famously, was derided by Dwight Eisenhower's loyalists as an "egghead") after one of his speeches. "Mr. Stevenson," she said. "You have captured the vote of every thinking person in America!" Mr. Stevenson was not heartened. "Ma'am," he replied. "We need a majority!" How charming -- and how haughty.
More recently, could it be mere coincidence that Speaker Newt Gingrich, who liked to compare Mr. Clinton's behavior in office to the forces that led the Roman republic to ruin, has been replaced by a former high school wrestling coach? Or that Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, who likes to invoke Teilhard de Chardin (the paleontologist and philosopher), was ousted by the unassuming Gov. George E. Pataki, who is more inclined to chat passionately about the Rolling Stones than his Yale credentials?
These politicians may also be tapping into American society's increasing glorification of, well, stupidity. People do not get much credit these days for being brainy. The British complain that the questions on the television hit "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" in the United States are far easier than those of the program's English counterpart. Bart Simpson, one of the most popular television characters, celebrates being an underachiever -- "and proud of it, man!"
In that spirit, Mr. Gore spent a day last week with Governor Ventura -- his third visit with the governor in four months. This is a former professional wrestler -- known as the Body -- who had a television commercial in his 1998 race that featured him assuming the position of Rodin's "Thinker," clad only in a pair of shorts.
What then, would be the ideal blend of brains and Bubba for a president? Even one intellectual was stumped.
"I don't think we have figured out that formulation yet," Mr. Moynihan said. "Wait until the DNA sequencing is done."
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Let the Voters Rule on Mr. Gore
New York Times
June 25, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/25sun1.html
Because of her brazen dereliction of duty as attorney general, Janet Reno has now stirred up a political mess for herself and Vice President Al Gore and created an electoral quandary for the public. It turns out that yet another top official in the Justice Department has concluded that Ms. Reno should name a special counsel to investigate Democratic campaign fund-raising irregularities in 1996, especially the activities and statements of Mr. Gore. Had Ms. Reno agreed to such an investigation years ago, as the law clearly required, the public would have answers about the legality of Democratic fund-raising in 1996. Such an inquiry might have exonerated the vice president, just as Robert Ray has closed the Travel Office inquiry with no charges against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
With Mr. Gore newly entangled by charges in several fund-raising areas, Ms. Reno has created an excruciating choice between orderly legal process and an orderly presidential campaign. One option would be for her to reverse course and immediately appoint a respected lawyer outside the department to look into the latest allegations involving Mr. Gore. We have long favored special prosecutors to look into all the campaign irregularities, including these.
But at this late date, even with a fast-moving investigation, that would mean that virtually the entire campaign would be conducted in an atmosphere of disruption. We conclude that as a practical matter, if all that would be investigated is the vice president's veracity in his most recent sworn statements, it would be best for the department to share any contradictory information with the public, and let the voters decide. It is a cliché to speak of the court of public opinion, but in a presidential year, that is a lofty tribunal indeed. And Gov. George W. Bush is a prosecutor who will not give Mr. Gore a free ride.
This awkward situation exists because Ms. Reno has mishandled this matter from the beginning. She ignored the recommendations to appoint an independent counsel from Louis Freeh, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Charles LaBella, her chief prosecutor on campaign finance. According to the latest news accounts, Robert Conrad Jr., the head of the Justice Department's campaign finance team, told Ms. Reno more than a week ago that new evidence suggested Mr. Gore might have been less than truthful in denying that he knew anything about fund-raising irregularities. Mr. Gore made a smart move Friday in releasing the transcript of his interview with Mr. Conrad, in which he denied again that he knew that the Buddhist temple event was a fund-raiser. If the new evidence cited by Mr. Conrad is simply Mr. Gore's most recent statements, it is unlikely that a special prosecutor could get a perjury conviction on that basis. The debate over Mr. Gore's veracity can be resolved through the public's examination of his words during the campaign.
The vice president's team will be making a serious mistake, however, if it carries out reported plans to launch a Clinton-style personal attack on Mr. Conrad. The vice president needs to separate himself from Mr. Clinton's tactics, not emulate them.
There is, finally, some irony in the new allegations coming out at a time when Mr. Ray, the successor to Kenneth Starr as the Whitewater prosecutor, has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute the first lady on the firings of seven employees in the White House Travel Office. The independent counsel did, however, realistically underscore the strong indications that Mrs. Clinton had understated her role in dismissals. The White House has complained about Mr. Ray's comments, but the public has a right to know about Mrs. Clinton's efforts to disguise her role in an unseemly episode. Even so, that case is closed, and Mrs. Clinton has the opportunity to move beyond it. Whether Mr. Gore can do the same should be decided by the voters in November.
---
Gore's Environment Push to Have a Gas Price Focus
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 10:01 PM ET
By Randall Mikkelsen
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000625/pl/gore_environment_dc_1.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore (news - web sites) this week will unveil major environmental and energy proposals including a long-term plan to fight high gasoline prices, campaign officials said on Sunday.
The announcements, set to begin on Tuesday in Philadelphia, are intended to draw a contrast between Vice President Gore's ''green'' credentials and those of his Republican rival, George W. Bush (news - web sites).
Part of the multibillion-dollar package will call for cleaner-burning and more fuel-efficient automobiles. Another initiative would help homeowners use solar energy.
The effort may prevent some pro-environment voters from defecting to consumer advocate Ralph Nader (news - web sites), who won the Green Party nomination on Sunday with a platform of protecting the environment and bolstering organized labor.
Polls show Nader could hurt Gore in crucial states such as California.
The vice president's green plan also gives him an issue to promote as he seeks to recover from a week in which his 1996 campaign fund-raising practices were once again under scrutiny and the Teamsters Union flirted with Nader.
``This week Al Gore will present a bold new plan to address energy and environmental issues,'' Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said.
``The entrenched interests want to protect the status quo and the apologists for these interests say that we simply cannot have a clean environment and affordable energy at the same time.''
``They say we can't do this. Al Gore says we can and he will fight on behalf of American consumers for both a clean environment and affordable and reliable energy,'' Lehane said.
Cost Estimates To Follow
Officials said Gore would discuss the costs later this week, following release of administration budget projections expected to show a rising surplus over the next 10 years.
A Gore campaign official said the vice president's plan aims to make Americans less dependent on ``unreliable and imported oil'' by promoting alternative sources of energy.
She said it was not a short-term solution to the current spike in gasoline prices that has been seized on by Gore and Bush. But over the long run it could make such increases less likely, the official said.
Aides said Gore would rely on tax incentives rather than on tax penalties that he had sought early in the Clinton presidency and in his 1992 book ``Earth in the Balance.''
The campaign official said Gore's plan would give automobile makers incentives to develop clean-running, more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, such as hybrid vehicles powered by electricity and gasoline.
It would give consumers tax breaks to make their homes more energy-efficient and to adopt solar energy, and give power plants incentives to increase efficiency.
The measures also would help fight pollution linked to respiratory ailments, combat global warming, ensure a more stable electricity supply and provide jobs for Americans producing alternative-energy technology, aides said.
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Gore: A private man with public ambitions
USA Today
06/23/00- Updated 12:07 AM ET
By Chuck Raasch, GNS Political Writer
http://usatoday.com/news/e98/e2146.htm
WASHINGTON - As Al Gore emerges from the shadows of the vice presidency, he is America's familiar mystery, a study in contrasts.
Smart and competent. Stiff and boring.
A consummate techno-politician - government re-inventor, information superhighway guru - who, friends say, privately brims with the convictions and passions that Americans seek in their leaders.
Belying his stiff image, Gore has shown a lifelong propensity to make big changes when confronting crisis or disappointment. Friends universally say he is one of the most conscientiously honest and moral men they know, yet Gore has displayed a willingness to overstate his resume or stretch the truth when attacking a political opponent.
George Stephanopoulos, the former Clinton adviser who often clashed with Gore, told NBC recently that Gore has a ''kind of reflexive instinct for dishonesty when he's challenged, even though I don't think he's deeply dishonest or corrupt in any way.''
Carol Browner, head of the Environmental Protection Agency and a longtime Gore confidante, says simply, ''he is one of the most honest men I have ever dealt with in politics, and in my personal life.''
Yet for all these deep observations, Gore remains, in the description of Democrat pollster Peter Hart, a ''stick-like figure'' to many Americans.
''The simplest way to say it is, he is well known, but he is not known well,'' said Hart.
In an interview with Gannett News Service, the 52-year-old Gore agreed.
''I think it is particularly characteristic of anybody who served as vice president,'' Gore said, ''because people see you standing there behind the president. You are always giving your teammates credit for whatever you have helped accomplish. They see you in a No. 2 role and they feel like they know you. But they really don't. ''
Ominously for Gore, some of the impressions this summer have not been good.
Two national polls taken this month indicate that by nearly 2-1 ratios, likely voters believe Bush would be a stronger leader than Gore. Some polls even have Gore trailing Bush when voters are asked whom they trust to handle longtime Democratic issues such as education and Social Security.
But less than five months before the election, Gore's allies are outwardly confident that the Gore of November will be the Gore they know today: smart, steady, empathetic, and ready for the job his late father, Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore, always envisioned for him.
''People understand how solid he is, how experienced he is,'' said Elaine Kamarck, Gore's campaign issues adviser and a longtime confidant. ''People give him credit for caring about the things they care about.''
Relaxed and joking in a 25-minute telephone interview while campaigning in Iowa, Gore talked of how his father taught him the ''importance of staying true to your course.''
And, despite the image that he is stiff and distant, he maintains that as he has gotten older, he has become ''a lot more comfortable with just letting my hair down, and not caring about projecting a formal manner in public.
''I am not under any illusion that I will be completely away from that,'' Gore said. ''And, you know, I don't have any great desire to change. I am who I am.''
If this is his portrait in November, Gore could be tough to beat, especially with a strong economy at his back.
On the other hand, if the bumper sticker that says ''Nixon 2000 - He's not as stiff as Gore'' still gets derisive laughs at the lunch counters on Election Day, the vice president could be in trouble.
That's because unless an issue like rising gas prices explodes, this election could revolve heavily around character and personality.
''Both candidates are sort of seen as acceptable,'' Hart said. ''There is not this sense that the world will fall into the ocean if the other guy is elected.
''And for Gore, his challenge is to let the voters know what it is that he really cares about, and what it is he is all about, and to give them a sense of comfort not only with them, but a sense of comfort with himself.''
There is no getting around the tough act he has to follow. While President Clinton has survived as Teflon Man through scandal and challenge, Gore has sometimes looked like a politician wrapped in flypaper.
Clinton cruised to re-election amid the campaign finance scandals of 1996, but Gore still confronts images of a badly planned fund-raiser at a Buddhist temple, and his awkward ''no controlling legal authority'' defense of fund-raising calls from the White House.
Clinton emerged from the Monica Lewinsky scandal with his highest job approval ratings. Gore's loyalty to Clinton during the scandal could cost dearly, some Gore allies worry.
''Yes, absolutely,'' said longtime Gore friend Byron Trauger, a Nashville lawyer. ''But I think the more people see of his family and of his own personal morality, the less they will think of that other issue.''
Added Trauger: ''The notion of (Gore) suffering because of another person's lapse in moral judgment is an irony of ironies, because he is straight-laced to a fault.''
In the GNS interview, Gore was asked if he was paying for his loyalty to Clinton, whose personal approval ratings are now below 30%, while his job approval hovers near 60.
After a short pause, Gore said: ''I don't think loyalty is a bad thing.''
Even in Gore's most confessional public moments, as in when he brought an audience to tears in his 1996 Chicago convention speech about the death of his sister, Nancy, to lung cancer, his authenticity has come under attack.
Critics say Gore politicized his sister's death to get at big tobacco. His claim to have helped create the Internet has become the longest-running Republican attack line. Gore said he regrets ''clumsily'' taking credit for the Internet, but told GNS his basic point was true, and that critics have been just as guilty of overstatement.
''Actually, I never used the word 'invented,''' Gore said. ''I am proud of the work that I did in taking the lead in Congress to bring about the policies and the funding which helped to make it possible for the Internet to become what it is today.''
Gore's stiff image puzzles longtime confidants.
''I don't understand it because as I know him he is a warm, very funny, smart guy who is at ease with all sorts of people,'' Trauger said. ''He is at ease being (vice president) to the most powerful man in the country, and he is at ease ... talking to my mom, just listening to her talk about her son.''
Despite his Mr. Policy image, he has shown a lifetime propensity for taking strong detours and engaging in deep introspection.
After serving in Vietnam in 1969-1970, Gore came home disillusioned, but instead of joining protest marches he went for a time to divinity school. After his father was unseated in a bitter 1970 Tennessee Senate race, Gore became so down on government that he eschewed the political course his father wanted for him, instead becoming a Nashville newspaper reporter who wrote about government wrongdoing.
He said he learned leadership lessons from American presidents during the Vietnam War.
''You have got to respect the American people and maintain their trust,'' Gore said. ''And if you make a bad policy decision, the consequences can be horrible. So you need to respect the American people. ...When the opinions concerning the Vietnam War were as widespread as they were in this country, I feel that the policy should have changed. I felt that it was a big mistake.''
Yet, Gore has shown a willingness to ignore public opinion. Global warming, genetic engineering and arms control were not exactly household concerns in Tennessee in the 1970s when he first came to Congress. Gore gained a level of expertise on all three that could cause eyes to glaze.
Would a President Gore display these traits? Would he focus on issues over the horizon? And would he, as he has done sometimes in his personal life, respond with broad, unpredictable strokes?
''Yes, yes and yes,'' Gore told GNS.
''Those things seemed to some people like they were sort of futuristic,'' Gore said of the Internet, genetics engineering and global warming, ''but they are driving the stock market today.''
One thing Gore has on his side: arguably the best economy a vice president has ever run on.
''I do think he has a hard time connecting to people,'' said Charldean Newell, professor of public administration at the University of Texas. ''But the reality here is that if the economy is still in full blaze like it is now, Al Gore is going to be awfully hard to beat, because people vote their pocketbooks.''
It may be good that he was in charge of re-inventing government under Clinton, because that essentially is what Gore must do with himself over the next five months.
The problem is, critics say, he has re-invented so often it begs whether he knows who he is. Some say Gore's lackluster 1988 presidential campaign exposed a politician in constant search of himself.
''He went through three or four incarnations,'' said Bob Zelnick, a former ABC News reporter whose book, ''Gore, a Political Life,'' came out last year amid heavy criticism from Gore allies. ''He started out as ozone man, then he became the Southern guy, then he became the guy in the plaid shirt with workers. ...They had trouble finding out the real Gore.''
Critics say Gore is repeating the pattern in 2000, through several staff shakeups, a highly publicized headquarters move from Washington to Nashville, and seemingly a constant stream of stories about his latest campaign persona.
Is he the attack dog of Democratic primaries, who critics said misstated opponent Bill Bradley's positions on health care reform and flood relief for farmers? Or is Gore the grandfatherly figure who campaigned this month on a ''progress and prosperity'' tour?
Is he a New Democrat taking credit for wiping out the deficit, or a liberal who, when challenged by Bradley, allied with unions and defended longtime Democratic sacred cow programs like Medicare?
And how damaging are the stories about his changing wardrobe or the exhortation from feminist adviser Naomi Wolf that he become an ''Alpha Male?''
''Voters aren't willing to risk voting for someone if they don't know who he is,'' said Republican pollster Ed Goeas, adding that the constant stores about Gore re-inventing himself come across as a politician saying ''here is another version; we hope you like it.''
In Gore's defense, questions of stature, policy and personality come with the office of the vice presidency. When he ran for president this year, Republican Sen. John McCain joked that a vice president exists solely to check daily on the health of the president and attend funerals of foreign dictators.
But Gore's condition may be more acute because he has served next to a man who thrives on the limelight, and who couldn't be more different politically.
It is telling to note that Gore did not join in when first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and presidential defender James Carville lead a fierce countercharge against the ''vast right-wing conspiracy'' in the early days of the Lewinsky scandal.
Gore's defining moment came 10 months into the scandal, on the day the Republican-lead House voted to impeach Clinton. Standing in the Rose Garden, flanked by congressional Democrats, Gore described Clinton as one of the greatest presidents.
Republican foes couldn't believe their eyes and ears. Even some Gore defenders cringed.
Whether that moment of ultimate loyalty hurts or helps Gore this year is unclear, but the episode gives insight into the vice president's personality and leadership style. For just months later, Gore began expressing disappointment in Clinton's personal actions - thus offering a glimpse at a man who associates say has faith, fidelity and family at his core.
For Clinton, there's little difference between private and public man. His leadership required public devotion from allies, even to a private lie.
But for Gore, the public and private are far easier to separate, much harder to merge. Some say his two persons come from watching his father, a formal public man, and from a childhood spent in two very different worlds. One was on the public stages of Washington, D.C., the other in the carefree fields and brooks around Carthage, Tenn. Gore's father advocated civil rights long before it was popular in the South; some say that's where Gore learned he did not always need to pursue popular public issues.
Gore told GNS his father ''came from a very poor farming family and pulled himself up by his own bootstraps. And when he entered public service, he was determined to conduct himself the way he thought a congressman and then a senator should behave.''
He said his father ''imparted that to me,'' but that ''as I have gotten older, I have learned to shed that.''
He said his father ''imparted that to me,'' but that ''as I have gotten older, I have learned to shed that.''
If Gore is elected, some of his confidants expect a more traditional, decorous White House and a presidency focused more around a few big issues, as opposed to Clinton's more profligate agenda.
''He is mindful of and very respectful of the office ... and so I think there would be great dignity in the office,'' said Trauger, a Nashville lawyer who met Gore while working on the 1970 Senate campaign of Gore's father. ''And I would also think you would see that he would pick and choose the major issues and policy initiatives that he wants to pursue. And they will not necessarily be the ones that everyone is thinking about.''
Leon Fuerth, Gore's longtime foreign policy adviser, agreed.
''The past is prologue,'' Fuerth said at a recent American Enterprise Institute forum, arguing that Gore saw the importance of issues like global warming long before others. He predicted Gore would govern with that same ''forward engagement'' style.
Gore defenders say his image as staid and one-dimensional belies the risks he has taken. Arms control was not a hot topic in Tennessee back in the 1980s when Gore steeped himself in the debates. Nor was global warming when his ''Earth in the Balance'' came out in 1992.
But both are illustrative of a leadership style that takes in both forest and trees, and his belief that knowing intricate details can make one think differently about the bigger picture.
Gore ''mastered the details (of arms control) and he was able to bore you to tears in that period with the intricacies of throw weights and God knows what all,'' Trauger said. ''But they were important in being able to do something about the big picture.''
Not all are as benevolent about that style. Former Wyoming Sen. Malcolm Wallop, a Republican who served with Gore on arms control observer groups in the late 1980s, describes him as ''smart but not wise.
''He would devote significant attention to minutiae, and not much to broader things, the whole picture,'' Wallop said.
Longtime friends say Gore is passionately devoted to family and his wife, Tipper, and their four children. His oldest daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff, is a top campaign adviser. Gore's father died more than a year ago, but he still has a strong relationship with his mother, Pauline.
''Al Gore's father and mother were partners in public service, and his mother was always a great communicator,'' said former Tennessee Gov. Ned McWherter, a longtime family acquaintance. ''She had what I would call a nose for the issues and a heart for the concerns. His father was probably a little more reserved.''
That's why many believe a Gore White House would be filled with high-profile women and would focus on issues like child care, women's health and education.
But some say the very things Gore took from his childhood about how one acts in public do not translate well in a talking-head political culture.
David Osborne, a best-selling author on government reform who was a consultant to Gore on his ''reinventing government'' initiative early in 1993, said his lasting impression is of a man ''raised to be president. And you can kind of tell he had that long-practiced self control.
''He struck me as a very down-to-earth, well-grounded person, who knew who he was,'' Osborne said. ''And in an era of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, that was really unusual.''
But in today's culture, Osborne went on, ''what would make him a good president does not make him a good candidate.
''Self control is not the essence of a charismatic candidate,'' Osborne said. ''Bill Clinton is a great campaigner. It has nothing to do with self control. It is making connections with people, spontaneity, it is finding what they love and going with it until they love him. That great strength is one of Clinton's greatest weaknesses as a president, because it makes him not want to offend people.
''Gore on the other hand is not spontaneous. He does not find it easy to make this emotional connection with voters. He is self-controlled, and that makes him a relatively poor campaigner.''
Gore argued he is belying that analysis, that he is more popular today in states where he has campaigned hardest.
''I have great confidence in whatever judgment the American people make,'' he said.
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Al Gore meets the stock market
Washington Times
EDITORIAL • June 23, 2000
http://208.246.212.80/op-ed/ed-house-200062318183.htm
Vice President Al Gore has flip-flopped on so many issues throughout his political career that it's no surprise he's just done it again.
Vice President Al Gore has flip-flopped on so many issues throughout his political career - abortion, gun control, tobacco, welfare reform, national missile defense, Elian Gonzalez, soft money-financed ads, etc. - that it's no surprise he's just done it again.
Consider the vice president's recent somersaults on investing taxpayer funds in the stock market to increase retirement income. Recall that the Clinton-Gore administration's 2001 budget, unveiled Feb. 7, resurrected its ill-conceived proposal to put some of the Social Security Trust Fund in corporate equities, a scheme that would eventually have made the U.S. government one of the most dominant shareholders in the world. When President Clinton first proposed this scheme in January 1999, Mr. Gore enthusiastically endorsed it.
After George W. Bush proposed this past spring to permit workers to invest a portion of their Social Security payroll tax in higher-yielding stock and bond markets - perhaps 2 percentage points of the 12.4 percent Social Security tax - Mr. Gore relentlessly criticized the idea as "reckless" and "risky," accusing Mr. Bush of playing a game of "stock market roulette" that could only lead to the "survival of the fittest." Alas, it turned out that Mr. Bush's idea appealed to the electorate, especially to younger workers/voters who rightly believe they have a better chance of seeing a UFO than collecting their Social Security retirement benefits. Indeed, a government program with nearly $20 trillion in unfunded liabilities might lead rational people to just such a conclusion.
Fearful that defending the existing system posed a political risk, Mr. Gore hastily convened a focus group and began conducting polls. Thus, on Tuesday, Mr. Gore unveiled his latest, focus group-tested retirement proposal. Whaddya know? Mr. Gore now favors investing taxpayer dollars in the stock market for retirement.
One wonders how anyone, politicians included, could hold three radically different positions during a period of less than 20 weeks on an issue that arguably represents the most pressing domestic challenge that American society will face throughout the 21st century. And yet, predictably, Mr. Gore still cannot get it right. Confirming his unshakable embrace of an ever-expanding welfare state dominated by government, his latest proposal amounts to nothing more than a new, gigantic entitlement program financed by general revenues.
Under Mr. Gore's plan, for individuals and families earning less than $30,000 per year, the federal government would contribute $1,500 per year to mutual fund investment accounts of individuals (and $3,000 to investment accounts of couples) who contributed an up-front, tax-deductible stake of $500 ($1,000 for couples). The federal subsidy would be in the form of a refundable income tax credit. That simply means that the rapidly increasing number of families that already pay no income taxes would qualify for the investment equivalent of a welfare payment in cash. The entitlement would decline as income increased and would be eliminated for incomes above $100,000. Mr. Gore conservatively estimates the cost of this new entitlement to be $200 billion over 10 years; but because it would be gradually phased in, the ultimate annual cost would be much higher than $20 billion per year, perhaps double.
There are major problems with Mr. Gore's plan. He bases his creation of a new, long-term, expensive entitlement program on the faulty assumption that federal budget surpluses will continue forever. He also assumes that low-income people living paycheck to paycheck will somehow accumulate as much as $1,000 in unused discretionary income in order to qualify. (When this proves not to be the case, he will certainly revise his plan to require the government to use taxpayer funds to pay for the annual up-front stake. Costs will increase commensurately.)
Worst of all, unlike Mr. Bush's plan, which is designed to increase Social Security's miserable return by permitting workers to divert a portion of their own payroll taxes to investment accounts, Mr. Gore's plan does nothing to save the Social Security system, despite actuarial predictions that it will surely go bankrupt. The facts did not prevent a Gore adviser, however, from telling the Wall Street Journal, "The plan saves Social Security." That's Mr. Gore's view, and he's sticking by it. For now.
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Ralph Nader Nominated for President by Green Party
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 10:29 PM ET
By Judith Crosson
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000625/ts/campaign_nader_dc_3.html
DENVER (Reuters) - The U.S. Green Party on Sunday overwhelmingly nominated consumer advocate Ralph Nader (news - web sites) as their presidential candidate on a platform of protecting the environment and giving more power to working people.
``The plight of labor in this country has to become a front-burner issue,'' Nader told about 800 people in a crowded hotel room in an acceptance speech that lasted 1-3/4 hours.
He joked with reporters later that without the applause the speech was really an hour.
While given no realistic chance of making it to the White House, he is seen as potentially luring Democrats away from Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites)'s bid for the presidency. But in his acceptance speech Nader suggested Green Party values might play well across the political spectrum.
``Let us not in this campaign prejudge any voters, for Green values are majoritarian values,'' he said.
In a later interview with reporters, Nader argued his campaign offers much to conservatives.
``They get upset about corruption and waste. They certainly don't like loss of sovereignty with WTO (World Trade Organization), for example, and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement),'' he said.
As president, he would give notice that trade pacts such as NAFTA would be renegotiated so that environmental, labor or consumer issues were under separate treaties, he said.
Drug Use A Health Issue
Nader said illegal drug use should be viewed in terms of health, noting that calls for decriminalizing drugs come from the left and the right.
Nader's acceptance speech was a laundry list of what he called corporate abuses. He railed against big banks, the weapons industry, timber companies, the coal industry and corporations that are turning children into television ``gazers and spectators.''
Nader easily clinched the nomination, winning 320 delegate votes against a handful for his opponents who included punk rocker Jello Biafra, lead singer for The Dead Kennedys.
He plans to campaign hard in California, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, New England and in Texas, where he predicted he would give the Democratic Party ``a jolt.''
He is running at about 4 percent in national polls, but said his support in California is much higher. He described his biggest challenge as finding non-voters and said the party's Web page will dedicate a section to them.
He has a war chest of $900,000, expects another $300,000 soon and aims for $5 million. The 66-year-old bachelor, known for his frugal lifestyle, said the money he spends will go far.
Demand For Third-Party Debate Participation
Nader, a long-time consumer advocate who cut his teeth fighting the automobile industry for improved safety, called on Texas Gov. George W. Bush (news - web sites), the presumptive Republican nominee, and Gore to issue a joint demand to the Commission on Presidential Debates to let third-party candidates take part.
``Why are these two men afraid? They should overcome their fear of facing new ideas and alternative voices, and open the process for the American people,'' Nader said.
The Green Party has sued the commission to be able to take part in the upcoming presidential debates before the November election.
Not shy about addressing the gap between rich and poor, Nader said it is time to reverse ``the upward redistribution of wealth'' that he said has left the top 1 percent of the nation holding as much wealth as the ``bottom 95 percent.''
The Green Party on Saturday adopted a platform advocating greater protection for the environment, an end to child poverty and health care reform.
---
Clinton Expected to Announce 'Huge' Budget Surplus
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 7:44 PM ET
By Randall Mikkelsen
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000625/ts/clinton_budget_dc_1.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton is expected as early as Monday to project a ``huge'' U.S. budget surplus nearing $1.8 trillion over 10 years and a fiscal year 2000 surplus topping $200 billion for the first time.
As he announces the results of the administration's mid-year budget review, Clinton is expected to urge caution in using the money for tax cuts or spending programs, administration officials said.
But Clinton is already looking to the surplus to fund an expansion of his proposal for Medicare prescription drugs coverage.
Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) is also eying the surplus to fund a presidential-campaign package of environmental measures he is expected to outline this week, and the money also may make it easier for Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush (news - web sites) to sell his five-year, $483 billion tax plan.
Speaking at a political fundraising event in Los Angeles on Saturday, Clinton said, ``They now say the projected surplus will be huge -- I'm going to talk about it the day after tomorrow.''
White House officials were more reluctant to say whether the announcement would be on Monday. As of Sunday, there was no such event on Clinton's public schedule.
White House budget office spokeswoman Linda Ricci said she could comment on neither the timing nor the substance of the budget announcement.
One White House official said he saw no reason to dispute private estimates of the 10-year and current-year surplus projections, although he said he had not seen the final projection.
``The private sector is estimating that it could be somewhere from $700 billion to $1 trillion higher, and I have no reason to think that we are not somewhat in line with that,'' the official said.
``And this year's surplus is liable to top $200 billion for the first time ever -- everyone in the private sector is saying that,'' the official said.
In its 2001 budget request in February, the White House estimated the 10-year surplus, outside of the Social Security retirement system, to be $746 billion, and the 2001 surplus to be $167 billion.
The Congressional Budget Office, which is due to make its own mid-year budget estimate soon, has previously estimated a 10-year surplus of $838 billion -- assuming spending rises in line with inflation -- and a 2000 surplus in excess of $200 billion.
Private estimates of the 2000 surplus have been as high as $250 billion.
Notes Of Caution
White House aides said Clinton was likely to sound the same notes of caution in announcing the surplus as he did during his fundraising trip to California last week, when he also cast the budget debate as a presidential campaign issue.
``We say ... that we shouldn't spend our money before it materializes,'' Clinton said in Los Angeles on Saturday.
At another Los Angeles event, he said, ``They (Republicans) think we ought to have a tax cut that costs over half of the projected new surplus, which is real big, and that we ought to spend the rest of it on ... the partial privatization of Social Security, on a big national missile defense system and on whatever else they promise to spend money on, even though all that together is more than even the new surplus projections.''
Giving Gore the political credit, Clinton said Gore would set aside about 20 percent of the surplus -- attributable to the Medicare system -- to pay down the national debt as a hedge against future Medicare needs. Other money would be used for more modest tax cuts -- which Gore has recently expanded to $500 million over 10 years -- for college aid and other programs.
A Gore campaign aide said on Sunday the vice president was expected to outline a number of new environmental initiatives this week, and would detail costs of the proposals after the budget projection came out.
Clinton also proposed on Saturday expanding his Medicare prescription drugs proposal by $58 billion over 10 years, using ``part of our hard-earned budget surplus.''
---
Working Magic to Open Wallets
New York Times
June 25, 2000
By MARC LACEY
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/062500dem-clinton.html
LOS ANGELES, June 24 -- They call him the fund-raiser in chief. The money man. The closer. The Democratic Party's biggest draw, elder statesman, marquee attraction. Put him on the bill. Lead him to the podium. Wallets will open.
President Clinton may not be on the ballot in the fall, but he is raising campaign money as though Election Day were tomorrow and his party's life depended on a huge cash infusion. He works his magic in hotel ballrooms, exclusive nightclubs and tony dining rooms from coast to coast, wherever he can find Democrats willing to give.
"It really is extraordinary that the president, in his eighth year of office, is out on the road doing this," said Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who joined Mr. Clinton on Thursday night at the Ritz-Carlton in Phoenix for a swank fund-raising reception for the Democratic National Convention. The event took in about $350,000, making it the biggest fund-raising event ever for Arizona Democrats.
But that was just one of many stops for Mr. Clinton, whose frenetic fund-raising pace this week alone helped bring in $4 million for the Democrats at a dozen events in just four days.
A portion of the money went to Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose New York Senate campaign received $200,000 from a fund-raiser at which Mr. Clinton was the host on Wednesday night at a private home in Washington. The Democratic National Committee, which is using its money for issue advertisements promoting Vice President Al Gore's candidacy, received well over $1 million from fund-raisers Mr. Clinton attended in Phoenix and San Diego on Thursday and Los Angeles on Friday.
In his 1996 re-election bid, Mr. Clinton set the standard for aggressive fund-raising with a relentless series of coffees, lunches, dinners and late-night receptions in the months before the election. All the money-raising helped him hold onto the White House, but the ensuing controversies surrounding illegal funds haunted his administration for years.
Mr. Gore, who assisted with the effort back in 1996, still faces questions from Justice Department investigators about his stop at the Hsi Lai Buddhist temple, a visit the vice president has insisted was finance-related but not a true fund-raiser.
It is the memory of 1996 that, in part, keeps Mr. Clinton going at full throttle. Aides say he remembers how much time he spent on fund-raising as a presidential candidate when he should have been out shaking hands and talking policy. By doing some of the heavy lifting himself this time, the aides say, Mr. Clinton hopes he can free Mr. Gore and other Democratic candidates from the onerous task of raising money.
"He feels fund-raising took too much of his time in '96," said Jake Siewert, a former Clinton-Gore campaign worker who is now the president's deputy press secretary. "He wants Gore to be able to collect votes instead of money."
Mr. Clinton's pitch typically ignores money altogether. He may thank donors for their contributions to the party, but the arm-twisting for big checks is done before he arrives by seasoned fund-raisers like Terry McAuliffe, who recently took over fund-raising for the cash-strapped Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.
Mr. Clinton's travels this week benefited many Democrats.
Susan Davis, a California assemblywoman who is taking on Representative Brian P. Bilbray, received $125,000 from a fund-raiser Mr. Clinton headlined at the El Cortez Hotel in San Diego. Ms. Davis, who was occupied with legislative business in Sacramento on Thursday night, did not attend her own gala.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is building a war chest to keep her opponent, Representative Tom Campbell of California, at bay, netted $550,000 from two Clinton-attended events in Los Angeles.
The California Democratic Party emerged $112,000 richer after Mr. Clinton spoke on Friday at a rousing reception at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Convention Host Committee also benefited from the president's latest fund-raising swing, taking in $25,000 from enough couples at an event this morning to amass $1.5 million.
Mr. Clinton clearly relishes the road. Outside Washington, where his relevance is sometimes questioned as legislative stalemates keep much of his agenda in check, there is already a nostalgia setting in among the almost ex-president's supporters.
In Los Angeles, Mr. Clinton told members of the state party it was fitting that the Democrats were holding what would be his "farewell convention" in the key state of California. "Awwww," the audience replied, clearly sorry to see him go. "I'm not going to shrivel up," Mr. Clinton replied with a laugh. "I'll be around."
Sometimes, Mr. Clinton is in top form, as he was late Friday when he turned conversational during an appearance at the home of Kenneth Edmonds, the music producer and singer better known as Babyface. The audience -- a star-studded crowd that included the model Naomi Campbell, the boxer Evander Holyfield and the singers Lionel Richie and Chaka Khan -- seemed to hang on every presidential word.
Earlier that evening, Mr. Clinton spoke at an exclusive nightclub called Garden of Eden, the sort of place that picks out pretty people from the line out front but turns away most people not on the list. There, the stylish crowd of young Democrats ignored most of Mr. Clinton's oft-delivered applause lines and seemed to agree completely when the president said, "Now, look, you all came here to have a good time and you probably don't want to hear a political speech."
Despite different audiences, Mr. Clinton's spiel is virtually identical at every stop: The current prosperity may not last and should not be squandered with tax cuts. Mr. Gore, the president says, is better positioned to keep the good times rolling.
---
President wants prescription benefit sooner
USA Today
6/24/00- Updated 12:54 PM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncssat02.htm#1
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Armed with new estimates of soaring budget surpluses, President Clinton is sweetening his proposal to help the elderly pay for prescription drugs while branding a competing Republican plan unworkable.
In his weekly radio address Saturday, Clinton said he will propose offering the benefit in 2002, a year earlier than originally planned, and capping the annual drug cost for Medicare patients at $4,000. He had not spelled out the extent of coverage for ''catastrophic'' drug bills before.
The president plans to send the revised program to Congress in the next week, and will propose spending an extra $58 billion over 10 years to cover the changes.
''We have the money to do this now and do it right,'' Clinton said. ''We should use a part of our hard-earned budget surplus to meet America's most pressing priorities, like paying down the national debt, strengthening Medicare and providing a prescription drug benefit.''
The White House now estimates the plan would cost $253 billion over 10 years. The estimate was about $195 billion when Clinton laid out the plan in February.
Clinton is expected to announce within days a colossal $1 trillion increase in projected federal surpluses. Sources have told The Associated Press the figure would more than double, to $1.9 trillion, from the $746 billion the administration projected in February. The figures exclude Social Security. Announcement of an enhanced White House drug plan follows a week of intense political maneuvering on an election-year issue affecting 39 million elderly.
Senate Republicans voted largely along party lines Thursday to reject a Democratic plan for the drug coverage. House Republicans muscled their own, different plan through the House Ways and Means Committee.
Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., used the Republicans' weekly radio address Saturday to announce a vote by the full House in the coming week. ''It's clear that you can't have modern health care without access to lifesaving pharmaceuticals,'' said Johnson, chairwoman of the Ways and Means human resources subcommittee.
She said while more then two-thirds of older Americans now have some prescription drug coverage under health plans, an estimated 12 million have none at all.
''This is simply morally wrong in the world's most prosperous country,'' Johnson said. ''No senior should have to choose between filling their prescription and putting food on the table.''
The GOP proposal calls for private insurance companies, backed by hefty federal subsidies, to offer prescription drug coverage to Medicare recipients nationwide. The bill includes subsidies for low-income senior citizens, as well as those experiencing extremely high costs.
The Democratic proposal would require that the government offer a uniform prescription drug benefit under Medicare. Democrats claim their plan offers the choice of affordable coverage to all elderly, instead of only those deemed most needy.
Democrats leading the effort in Congress include Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, whose state is home to millions of retirees, and Sen. Charles Robb of Virginia, who faces a strong re-election challenge.
The rejected Senate plan is less generous than Clinton's, and slightly less expensive at roughly $240 billion over 10 years.
Clinton asked for cooperation from Congress, and said the Senate debate offers bipartisan hope for an eventual deal.
By contrast, the House GOP bill costs an estimated $40 billion over five years.
Johnson said the GOP plan offers better choices to the elderly. ''Under the president's approach, however, our seniors would have only one choice,'' she said. ''The government would mandate a 'one-size-fits-all' plan, and a senior would just have to take it or leave it.''
---
'Rednecks' vs. 'elitists'
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
Inside Politics Robert Stacy McCain News and political dispatches from around the nation.
http://208.246.212.80/national/inpolitics.htm
President Clinton considers himself a "blue-collar redneck," while his critics are "elitists."
At least that's the impression Mr. Clinton gave Wednesday, when he spoke to the Irish-American Democrats.
The president was telling the group about negotiations for a peace agreement in Northern Ireland, according to Matt Kelley of the Associated Press.
Mr. Clinton told the crowd of about 150, each of whom paid $1,000 to attend the fund-raiser: "None of the elitists thought we ought to do it, but all us blue-collar rednecks thought it was a good idea."
Meet the elite
President Clinton raised $200,000 for his wife's New York Senate campaign Wednesday night during a private reception for wealthy donors at a Georgetown mansion.
Mr. Clinton told two dozen persons - who had paid $10,000 or more each to attend - that Hillary Rodham Clinton would make a good senator because she understands the problems faced by working parents.
"I think the whole cluster of family issues will be very big in the next decade," Mr. Clinton told the group at the home of two top Democratic donors. "She spent 30 years working on this stuff."
The Associated Press reports the event was hosted by Elizabeth Frawley Bagley - a former ambassador to Portugal appointed by Mr. Clinton - and her husband, R.J. Reynolds tobacco heir Smith Bagley.
Earlier this year, agents of the Cuban government brought 6-year-old refugee Elian Gonzalez to the Bagleys' posh home.
---
'Congenital liar'
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
Inside Politics Robert Stacy McCain News and political dispatches from around the nation.
http://208.246.212.80/national/inpolitics.htm
Now that independent counsel Robert W. Ray has released his findings on the first lady's involvement in the 1993 firings of White House travel office employees, William Safire wonders if he should still fear a punch in the nose from Hillary Rodham Clinton's husband.
The New York Times columnist Thursday recalled that in 1996, when he called Mrs. Clinton a "congenital liar," President Clinton "promptly made it known, through his press secretary, that were he not constrained by occupying the office of the president, he would punch me in the nose."
The White House has "angrily denied" that the firings were "personally instigated by Mrs. Clinton to make room for patronage to their Arkansas relatives and friends," Mr. Safire wrote in yesterday's column.
Now that Mr. Ray's Travelgate report is out, Mr. Safire asks: "Who cares about seven government workers? Why does this warrant years of investigation? . . . To cover up their desire to put cronies and a relative on the government payroll, the Clintons' White House induced an eager-to-please FBI to launch and to wrongfully publicize an investigation of innocent people."
---
No stacked deck
Washington Times
June 23, 2000
Inside the Beltway John McCaslin Political tidbits and other shenanigans from around the nation's capital.
http://208.246.212.80/national/inbeltway.htm
Our item this week on the electronic voting booth at the Newseum - inviting visitors to choose between three presidential candidates: Democrat Al Gore, Republican George W. Bush, or socialist David McReynolds - generated this response from the Newseum's director of marketing and communications, J. Michael Fetters:
"[W]e selected these three candidates because at the time (not long after Super Tuesday) they seemed assured of their party's nomination. It has always been our plan to replace the ballot with an expanded ballot once the political conventions are concluded in August. At that point, we plan to list all of the major party nominees and reset the counters to zero."
---
Candidates Courting Hispanic Vote 'Soccer Moms' of 2000 Elections Enjoy Their Increasing Power
New York Times
June 25, 2000
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/062500wh-hispanics.html
DENVER, June 24 -- "Yo quiero mucho," Vice President Al Gore roared in a campaign speech here on Thursday night before the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, assuring its members that he loved them very much.
For many Hispanic Americans, especially those eager to vote in this year's presidential election, Mr. Gore and his probable Republican opponent, Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, have turned the campaign into a virtual love-fest. Describing themselves as the "soccer moms" of the 2000 elections, Hispanic voters say they have never been courted so aggressively by presidential candidates, giving Hispanics electoral leverage they never had before.
And most of the seminars at the association's annual conference here this week were designed to expand the power in the future.
"All of a sudden, we're hot," said Victor Hernandez, a member of the Lubbock, Tex., city council. "The parties see us as an opportunity but also a potential threat. They know they have to deal with us, and they know it's better to deal with us as an ally rather than a foe."
The amorous turn, a more profound difference in Republican strategy than in Democratic, evolves directly from demographic shifts: Hispanics are now the fastest growing bloc of ethnic voters. The changes are especially significant in the nine states with the largest Hispanic populations. Led by California, New York and Texas, they account for 202 electoral votes -- or 75 percent of the 270 needed to win the White House.
An analysis by the Latino group commonly known as Naleo (Na-LAY-o) predicts that the Hispanic share of the 2000 presidential vote will rise to 5.4 percent from 4.7 percent in 1996, giving Latino voters the power to influence an otherwise close election, particularly in several important states, including California and Florida.
But even if one presidential candidate wins by a wide margin this year, Latino advocates were taking no chances for the future. With seminars this week like "Developing your stump speech," "Working with your party" and "Coordinating with issue constituencies," Naleo officials taught their members how to get more Hispanics into the elective pipeline to make Hispanic voters even more powerful beyond 2000.
Panel moderators included specialists on issues that Hispanic voters consistently cite as most important to them -- public education, health care and economic development -- as well as political strategists from both major parties.
Arturo Vargas, the Naleo executive director, said about 5,100 Hispanics hold elective office around the country but half of them as members of local school boards, making for a relatively flat triangle of success. Over the last 10 years, the number of Hispanics in Congress has risen to 19 from 11; the number of state lawmakers has increased to 189 from 135; and seven Hispanics hold statewide offices.
But with the nation's Hispanic population increasing, to 31.8 million by last year from 22.4 million in 1990, according to the Census Bureau, and an analysis by the association of turnout in 1992 and 1996 suggesting that more Latinos are voting while other groups are voting less often, Mr. Vargas said the number of Hispanic elected officials was certain to rise. As a result, Naleo officials have made sharing political advice and counsel the thrust of their conference in this, an election year.
"We want to focus attention on November and the role Latinos will play in the election," he said, reflecting on the mission of the three-day conference. "But we also want to stress professional development. We want people to leave here with new information so they can do better at their jobs in the future with strategies to win. Someplace soon, we want to have a future governor and a U.S. senator."
Judging by their campaign efforts this year, Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore recognize the importance of winning the Hispanic vote. That is not necessarily a new strategy for Democrats, but it is for Republicans. And many Republican Party leaders say that with Mr. Bush, whose state has a significant Latino population, they have the right candidate to expand their base, even though aides said a scheduling conflict prevented him from attending the Naleo conference.
While Hispanic voters have traditionally supported Democratic candidates, they have shown a new open-mindedness in recent elections toward Republicans. By some estimates, Mr. Bush won as much as 47 percent of the Hispanic vote in his re-election as governor in 1998. The same year, Tony Garza, a Republican, won election as Texas Railroad Commissioner, a powerful position overseeing oil, gas and public utilities.
Californians elected three Hispanic Republicans to the state legislature in 1998, even as Gray Davis, a Democrat, won the governor's race, a result that reflected, at least among Hispanics, a repudiation of the policies of his predecessor, Pete Wilson, who opposed social services for immigrants, affirmative action and bilingual education in public schools.
Like the vice president, Mr. Bush often uses Spanish in speaking to Latino crowds, boasting that his policies in Texas have been good for Hispanics. Also, he often reminds Latino voters of his sister-in-law's heritage: Columba Bush, who is married to his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, was born in Mexico, and their 24-year-old son, George P. Bush, who speaks fluent Spanish, has become an active campaigner for his uncle.
In addition, many Hispanics complain that Democratic candidates, recognizing the historic gap between Hispanics and Republicans, take the Hispanic vote for granted.
"Bush is uniquely positioned with a proven record of winning Hispanic votes," said Michael Madrid, a Republican political consultant who led the seminar on stump speeches. He said that Mr. Bush's attractiveness to Hispanic voters "is as much the messenger as the message."
Republicans still appear to have some distance to cover before they capture a majority of the Hispanic vote in any big state. As Mr. Vargas pointed out, only in the last few years have Republicans paid much attention to Hispanic voters, compared with President Clinton and Mr. Gore, who made them a priority in the last two elections. President Bush won only 19 percent of the Hispanic vote in 1992, Mr. Madrid said, and Senator Bob Dole fared worse four years later, with 13 percent.
"It's not been for lack of trying," Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado said on Friday, addressing problems Republicans have had connecting with Hispanics. "We had it under President Reagan, but for all the assets Bob Dole had, he was not a warm-and-fuzzy guy. He didn't have the ability to connect. George Bush does. He'll be very competitive with Hispanics this year."
Despite recent progress by Republicans, they still encounter problems. For example, in New Mexico, where Latinos account for a third of the vote and four Hispanics (all Democrats) hold statewide offices, the state Republican Party has included only two Hispanics among its 21-member delegation to the national convention in August.
And here, Mr. Vargas said, Mr. Bush's absence "sends a message that speaks for itself." Mr. Bush was represented at a luncheon on Friday by Mr. Owens and one of his Colorado cabinet members, Larry E. Trujillo, who recently switched from Democrat to Republican.
As for the future, Mr. Hernandez, the Lubbock city official, said it would be a mistake for either party to take Hispanics lightly. "We no longer want a piece of the pie," he said, referring to their growing political might. "We want to be in the kitchen, deciding what kind of pie to make."
---
Powell Says Republicans Not the 'Black Guy's' Party
Yahoo News
Sunday June 25 12:12 PM ET
By Susan Heavey
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000625/ts/campaign_powell_dc_1.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. retired Gen. Colin Powell said on Sunday the Republican Party has failed to adequately represent America's blacks, but he would consider serving as secretary of state under Republican George W. Bush (news - web sites) if the Texas governor wins the presidency.
Powell, a prominent black Republican whose popularity during the Gulf War led to calls for him to step up as a presidential candidate in 1996, has previously indicated he was not interested in running for vice president under Bush.
Powell said on Fox News Sunday the Republican Party is dangerously close to being seen a party for whites, especially because of its stand against affirmative action.
``It is certainly not seen as the black guy's party ... It has not done well in the African-American community,'' Powell said in an interview taped on Friday.
``I think too often the Republican Party has said we know what's best for you as opposed to listening to the African-American community, understanding some of the despair that exists in the African-American inner city communities,'' he said.
But Powell said that if Bush asked him to serve as secretary of state, he ``would take it under consideration.''
Powell chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War under the Texas governor's father, former President George Bush. Powell has previously said he is not interested in elected office.
The Republican Party, which plans to feature Powell prominently at its convention in Philadelphia next month, is trying to expand its support base and attract more blacks and Hispanics who traditionally have voted for Democrats.
Powell acknowledged that he had differences with his party and is considerably more moderate on social issues than many of his colleagues. He urged them to accept different points of view, especially on abortion and affirmative action.
The retired general, who on Thursday was chosen by Republican leaders to serve on a national security panel, said he agrees with the party's stance that the U.S. military needs more money and to improve morale.
``It's our best insurance policy to keep us moving in this peaceful direction where economic forces are reshaping the world more so than military and political forces. But the insurance policy that we've got to have -- armed forces in the United States -- they've got to be No. 1 and we can't short change them.''
Powell has spent the last three years leading America's Promise, a nonprofit group that aims to encourage youth through mentoring, and said Republicans share his commitment to children.
-------- activists
More jailed today at ELF
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 18:17:54 +0100
From: Elizabeth McAlister - disarmnow@erols.com
Dear Ones,
I just got a call from my son, Jerry Berrigan who told me that his sister Kate (18) is in jail in Ashland County WI. I'm absorbing it - proud and fearful in almost equal measures. A group of support people gathered at the ELF site today to support the disarmament enacted there yesterday. They began by visiting the "reconstruction" area (where the disarmament had occurred) and then came to ELF control. After a demonstration, two people walked to the gate, crossing the line as they did so, to deliver the indictment handed down by the Silence Trident disarmers. And they were arrested and taken into custody and will certainly be held through the night. One was Kate; the other a Swedish woman, Anakke who just joined the Duluth Catholic Worker Community (I'm sorry Jerry did not give me her last name). He said that it was very unusual in ELF protests for the police to hold people who simply cross the line but the police were put out by the disarmament that occurred the day before.
An update on the Silence Trident:
- Bonnie, Mike and Barb are all in custody
- Bonnie and Mike are charged with sabotage and intentional damage to government property. The first is a 10 year max; the second 5 years.
- Barb Katt is charged with "party to" the alleged felonies sabotage and damage to property leveled against Bonnie & Mike.
- The address is: Ashland County Jail - 220 6th St. E. - Ashland, WI 54806
Kurt Greenhalgh is also jailed there on a previous ELF trespass and until July 12.
Jerry tells me that there will be a court appearance tomorrow and he expects that Kate and probably Anneke will be released. Not as likely for Bonnie, Mike, and Barb but we will keep you posted.
If you wish to support the Silence Trident resisters, donations can be sent to:
Trident Resistance Network-Midwest P.O. Box 373 Luck, WI 54853
Thanks for your interest and please keep our friends in heart and mind. Love, Liz
---
"Silence Trident" action disarms Nuclear Navy's Project ELF
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 00:12:16 GMT
Trident Resistance P.O. Box 373 Phone: 715-472-4185
Network-Midwest Luck, WI 54853 Fax: 715-472-4184
Press Release
Date: June 24, 2000
Contact: Beth Preheim or John LaForge
Contents: 1) Press Release; 2) Peoples' Indictment; 3) Personal Statements of Urfer & Sprong.
CLAM LAKE, WI-Two peace activists, performing an "act of nonviolent direct disarmament and crime prevention," cut down three poles supporting transmission lines for a controversial U.S. submarine communication system located near Clam Lake. Bonnie Urfer, 48, and Michael Sprong, 37, both of rural Luck, WI used hand-held Swede saws to cut the poles, taking the transmitter off-line. The two waited over an hour for the arrival of Ashland County Sheriff's Deputies who took them into custody. Charges have yet to be filed. A witness to the action, Barbara Katt, 42, also of Luck, WI, is believed to have been taken into custody as well.
This is the fifth time since 1984 that the transmitter - known as Project ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) - has been shut down by activists who simply walked up to poles supporting the 28-mile-long transmitter antennae and cut them down with hand saws. All the previous actions resulted on prison sentences. The transmitter sits on public land in the Chequamegon National Forest. Another ELF facility is in Michigan's Escanaba State Forest.
Urfer and Sprong, who called their action "Silence Trident," were apparently well acquainted with other "disarmament" or crime prevention actions because they carried with them reams of documents they say justify their action as a modern day Boston Tea Party. The documents explain the justification for their Saturday afternoon action. The two attached references to laws and treaties to the poles they cut. The documents explain the justification for their Saturday afternoon action. They stressed that the action took place in a remote area and was carried out safely and nonviolently.
In 1996 Tom and Donna Howard-Hastings were acquitted of sabotage after they cut down three poles at the same site. After hearing testimony from three experts that Project ELF could only be used in an offensive first-strike nuclear attack and therefore served no defensive purposes, an Ashland County jury decided that the disarmers had not interfered with the national defense.
In a similar action, four women in England were acquitted in 1996 of all charges including sabotage after doing over $1 million in damage to a fighter plane scheduled for sale to the Indonesian government for use in its war against East Timor.
According to Bob Aldridge of the Pacific Life Research Center (www.nuclearfiles.org/plrc), Project ELF sends coded, one-way messages to deeply submerged Trident missile-firing submarines. The submarines can be ordered simultaneously to the surface where they can launch 24 missiles, carrying up to 192 nuclear warheads. From these forward-based "platforms," enemy missile silos and command posts can be destroyed in less than 15 minutes. This, Urfer and Sprong claim, makes Project ELF the "trigger" for over 50 percent of U.S. strategic nuclear weapons. In documents the two brought to the site, the two charge that the aggressive nature of the ELF/Trident system makes it illegal under international laws and treaties as well as under domestic law.
In 1983 a federal judge stopped the construction of Project ELF for environmental, health, and safety reasons only to be reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for reasons of "national security." Throughout the 1990s, Congressional opposition to the transmitter has been consistent with six of nine representatives and both U.S. senators from Wisconsin leading the call to cut funding for Project ELF. Over 550 protest arrests have taken place at the transmitter sites since the end of the Cold War.
Urfer and Sprong also emphasize that the U.S. Navy has never proven that Project ELF is not a risk to residents in the vicinity of the facility and to the environment. They say that their action is justified because ELF is an imminent threat to people and the environment. -end-
--
Silence Trident Disarmament Action
The People of Wisconsin, the United States of America, and the World
v.
William J. Clinton, President of the United States; William Cohen, U.S. Secretary of Defense; Admiral Richard Mies, Commander in Chief - U.S. Strategic Command; Richard Danzig, U.S. Secretary of the Navy; Admiral Jay L. Johnson, U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations; Timothy J. Ward, Technical Director - Project ELF, Clam Lake, WI; Dr. Bahman Atefi, President - Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute.
CRIMINAL INDICTMENT
The Charges
We, the undersigned, allege that the Officers and Directors of Project ELF, Ashland County, Wisconsin, and their Commanders:
Did conspire to Commit Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in violation of the Nuremberg Charter, 59 Stat 1544, E.A.S. No.472; did commit or conspire to commit acts in violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter; the Hague Convention IV, Respecting The Laws and Customs of War on Land and Annex Thereto; and the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War;
Did conspire to commit offenses prohibited by law in violation of Wisconsin Statute 939.31 and 18 USC 371; did act with reckless endangerment in violation of Wisconsin Statute 941.30; did conspire to commit first degree intentional homicide in violation of Wisconsin Statutes 939.31 and 940.01.
The Violations
The Officers and Directors of Project ELF and their Commanders:
Did agree and conspire to transmit signals to Trident submarines for the purpose of preparing to use submarine-launched Trident I and II missiles equipped with nuclear warheads, totaling 1,065,600 kilotons of explosive power, in an offensive attack;
Did agree and conspire with specific intent to wage a nuclear war in violation of international treaties, agreements and assurances;
Did agree and conspire to subject civilians to firestorms and uncontrollable radiation poisoning; to subject human beings to torturous death and unnecessary suffering; to wantonly destroy cities, towns and villages; and to cause widespread and severe long-term damage to the environment.
Technical Management and Command of Project ELF/Trident
a. Project ELF - Clam Lake, WI
The primary contractor for management of the Clam Lake, WI U.S. Navy Project ELF site is The Manufacturing Technology Information Center, a Department of Defense information analysis center sponsored by the Defense Technical Information Center and operated by the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (IITRI), located in Chicago, IL. The President of IITRI is Dr. Bahman Atefi. The on-site technical director for the Clam Lake, WI Project ELF facility is Timothy J. Ward.
On-site command of the Clam Lake, WI Project ELF facility is provided by a detachment of U.S. Navy Personnel. Operational command of the entire ELF communication system is under U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jay L. Johnson. Admiral Johnson is the senior military officer of the Department of the Navy, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and is responsible to U.S. Navy Secretary Richard Danzig. Navy Secretary Danzig is accountable to U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen who is appointed by U.S. President William J. Clinton.
b. Command of Trident Weapon System
The entire fleet of Trident submarines is under the command of the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM), headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, Bellevue, Nebraska. The Commander in Chief of STRATCOM is Admiral Richard W. Mies. STRATCOM has responsibility for all U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy strategic nuclear forces.
It is from STRATCOM headquarters that Trident submarines would receive orders - via Project ELF - to surface. After surfacing, Trident submarine commanders would receive orders - via a more conventional communication system - from STRATCOM to fire their nuclear-armed missiles at selected targets. Of course, the commander in chief of STRATCOM is accountable to Secretary of Defense William Cohen. All the personnel mentioned above are under the command of President William J. Clinton.
Conclusion
A full and thorough investigation of these serious allegations must be made. The law forbids murder, the threat of murder and all forms of indiscriminate destruction. These laws must apply to every official and must be enforced.
Bonnie Urfer Michael Sprong
June 24, 2000
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When Faith and Law Are in Coincidence
"They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4 NIV)
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called [children] of God." (Matthew 5:9)
"There is in neither customary nor conventional international law any specific authorization of the threat or use of nuclear weapons." (Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion of July 8, 1996; International Court of Justice)
Conscience and an obligation to prevent the crime of nuclear genocide and to defend the health and safety of residents in and around Ashland County, Wisconsin compel me to act on this 24th day of June in the year 2000. I perform this act of disarmament to enflesh Isaiah's prophecy of a disarmed world, to follow Christ's example of universal love, and to comply with universally recognized humanitarian law.
The U.S. Navy's Project ELF transmitter is an essential component of the first-strike Trident nuclear weapon system. Deep in the ocean, Trident submarines lurk, waiting for Project ELF to signal the start of Armageddon. The submarine-based Trident nuclear weapon system - the most costly and deadly weapon system in history - carries missiles armed with warheads that collectively have the destructive equivalent of 85,245 Hiroshima bombs.
It is a simple act: using an ordinary bow saw to begin interrupting the sequence necessary for ELF/Trident to threaten all of creation with annihilation. That sequence includes the acquiescence of U.S. citizens. Today I act to end my part in the crime of threatening to use weapons of mass destruction against civilians and the earth.
It is a simple act, but its implications are awesome. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., I believe that nonviolent direct action is a reasonable course when every other option of petitioning the government for redress of grievances has failed. Acting to disarm ELF/Trident is not only appropriate, but is the only reasonable alternative left to citizens who are convinced that weapons of mass destruction are illegal and immoral.
From the moment I became aware of nuclear weapons, I knew they were immoral and a threat to all humanity. I saw the pictures taken after the bombing of Hiroshima - images of hell on earth. As I grew in Christian faith to become a conscientious objector to war in all its forms, the study of what religious leaders have to say about nuclear weapons, war and violence became a primary endeavor. I read the U.S. Catholic Bishops' condemnation of nuclear weapons and deterrence, I read the document "In Defense of Creation" produced by the United Methodist Church, Minnesota Conference. I studied these and other published theological, spiritual, and educational materials on the heresy of war, particularly as it applies to nuclear weapons. From that study, I came to believe that war and the possession and planned use of nuclear weapons are in direct opposition to God's will for humanity and all of creation.
In recent years I have come to learn that my faith is in coincidence with international and domestic laws that prohibit the threat or use of weapons that kill indiscriminately. Even the Law of Armed Conflict, to which the U.S. armed forces are bound, is designed to "limit the effects of armed conflict." Additionally, I learned that according to the U.S. Constitution, treaties, compacts, and conventions signed by U.S. presidents and ratified by the U.S. Senate are the supreme law of the land (Article VI of the U.S. Constitution) and therefore are domestic law. I have come to believe that all those treaties, compacts, and conventions bind all U.S. citizens: including President Clinton, Trident submarine commanders, judges, and myself. Those agreements include, but are not limited to: Hague Convention IV of 1907, Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and Annex Thereto; Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare of 1925; Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War of 1949.
Urgent health and safety concerns also compel me to act. Project ELF has not been proven safe for the people and environment in and around Ashland County. According to Chief U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb, the U.S. Navy studies on the safety of Project ELF are contradictory and inconclusive. After reading research on electromagnetic fields - like the one produced by Project ELF - and their effects on organisms, I have come to believe that Project ELF represents an imminent threat to people and the environment.
Even after the end of the Cold War, the world is plagued by the existence of nearly 30,000 nuclear bombs. Nuclear weapons are portable "death camps" waiting to be delivered to their victims. Throughout my life, I have heard the occasional questioning: "Why didn't more German citizens do something to stop the Holocaust?" My hope is that by acting now, in this time when we continue to careen toward disaster from nuclear proliferation, it will help turn the tide to real security by promoting nuclear disarmament. I hope that in the future the children will not ask, "How could so many people know about these most deadly weapons and do nothing to stop it." Regardless of the immediate outcome of this action, I'm trusting that I'll be on the right side of history.
Michael Sprong, June 24, 2000
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Politics of the Heart
A couple of summers ago I stood on the northern shore of France at Omaha Beach looking down on the broad area where a battle of World War II took place. I tried to imagine what it was like to jump off a boat with little chance of survival, with bombs and bullets flying everywhere and I thought about the injustice of war. Later I visited the nearby U.S. cemetery with endless rows of crosses marking the graves of the dead, and I cried. It was impossible for me not to think of the women-the mothers of those buried so far from home and the further injustice of my government taking these children into slaughter. I looked on the overwhelming number of unidentified markers and felt grief for the families that never knew where to go to mourn the loss of a son. And I knew that war is wrong.
I received an invitation to speak in Dubuque in April of this year at an event offering balance to the glory given the man in town who piloted the plane that dropped the first Atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Before I spoke, a graphic video was shown to the audience documenting the horror resulting from the dropping of that nuclear bomb. I saw burned bodies on the ground, and the living dead condemned to suffer for hours or days as their skin fell off their bones. I saw the wreckage of what had once been a huge city. I saw shadows on walls where once people stood but were incinerated by the heat of the blast. I saw people in shock walking in search of family, water, help-and I knew again that war is wrong.
After viewing the video I felt overwhelmed with grief at what this country had done and deeper grief at our readiness and willingness to do it again-today, tomorrow and every minute of every day-and then I had to get up to speak. Instead of spewing words denouncing nuclear weapons I stood in front of the audience and in my heartache, cried.
There are politics of war and then there are politics of the heart. I oppose war because my sorrow, compassion, hope and yearning for wisdom is more powerful than the words and rhetoric that attempt to justify the terror of war.
For twenty years I have actively been working to create an environment free of the threat of nuclear war, which has the very real potential to destroy all life. I do this work because no one-anywhere-deserves to be threatened with annihilation. I do it because I'm a citizen of the country most likely to commit, once again, nuclear genocide. I do it because the very existence of the nuclear weapons factories and their radioactive wastes are poisoning lives now and will for the next 1,000 generations. I do it because I believe life is enchanting and sacred. I do it because I should and because I can.
With Hope
Bonnie Urfer
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