-------- NUCLEAR (by country)

-------- china

China Denies Charges of Supplying Missile Technology to Pakistan

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Times
July 4, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/00/07/04/late/04china-missiles.html

BEIJING -- China on Tuesday denied assisting Pakistan's nuclear missile program, saying it adhered fully to international appeals to discourage the buildup of nuclear weapons in South Asia.

Allegations that China has provided Pakistan with weapons' grade steel, missile guidance systems and technical advice were "totally unfounded and with ulterior motives," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi.

The claims were published by The New York Times on Sunday in a story that quoted U.S. intelligence officials saying they have informed President Clinton and Congress that China is helping Pakistan build nuclear-capable missiles.

Alleged transfers of missiles and missile technology by China to Pakistan have repeatedly bedeviled Beijing's relations with Washington. The latest claims surfaced ahead of a visit to Beijing by John Holum, a top Clinton administration arms control negotiator.

Sun said Holum would hold "extensive discussions" with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya in talks Friday and Saturday.

Worries about proliferation to Pakistan have sharpened since it and rival India each tested nuclear bombs in 1998. Those tests drew international condemnation and sanctions against both countries.

China abides by U.N. communiques condemning the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests and urging nations not to assist the two countries' nuclear weapon programs, Sun said.

"China does not assist relevant countries in the South Asian region in developing nuclear weapons or vehicles for delivering nuclear weapons," Sun said.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar on Monday also dismissed the Times report about Chinese missile assistance, although both India and Pakistan say they possess a minimum nuclear deterrence.

U.S. intelligence agencies over the past decade have reported suspected Chinese transfers to Pakistan of M-11 missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and related technologies. China and Pakistan denied the report then.

While Clinton imposed sanctions on China in 1993 for supplying missile components and technology to Pakistan, he is now under pressure from Congress to sanction China anew for transferring a whole missile system in the early 1990s.

China is a longtime ally of Pakistan's and has built a nuclear power plant in that country. Pakistani leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf last week said his regime would order several fighter jets from China.

-------- czech republic

Czech nuclear office says to clear Temelin loading

From: Ndunlks@aol.com 08:23 07-04-00
Reuters Limited

PRAGUE, July 4 (Reuters) - The Czech State Nuclear Safety Office (SUJB) said on Tuesday it would issue approval this week for fuel loading at the first unit of a controversial nuclear power plant Temelin near Austrian borders.

``In the nearest time we will issue agreement with the launch of the phase of active tests... it will be within two days,'' spokesman Pavel Pittermann told Reuters.

The plant's owner CEZ a.s. aimed to load the first out of two Russian-designed 1,000 megawatt units in August, and begin commercial operation in May next year.

CEZ spokesman Ladislav Kriz told Reuters CEZ was ready to begin loading fuel ``within hours'' after it receives permission.

But he said the company would then need another key authorisation to activate the fuel, which should come about a month after loading.

Kriz said it was impossible to say at the moment whether an earlier loading would speed up the beginning of commercial operation.

The plant has been opposed by environmental groups and the Austrian government.

-------- europe

Physicist George A. Snow, 73, Dies Headed U-Md.'s High-Energy Group

Washington Post
Tuesday, July 4, 2000; Page B05
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-07/04/107l-070400-idx.html

George A. Snow, 73, a University of Maryland professor emeritus who was recognized for his work toward establishing the standard model of particle physics, died June 24 at a hospital in Vancouver, B.C., after a stroke. He was in the city visiting his daughter.

Dr. Snow, a resident of the Somerset community in Chevy Chase, was a member of the Maryland faculty from 1958 to 1992 and headed the university's nationally recognized high-energy physics research group.

He guided the group's participation in particle physics experiments at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva and was a National Science Foundation fellow at CERN.

He also had been a Fulbright fellow and a Guggenheim senior research fellow in Rome, and a visiting professor at the University of Paris, the University of Bologna and at Tohoku University in Japan. He was honored by the University of Maryland as its distinguished scholar-teacher for 1988-89.

Dr. Snow was a native of New York and a graduate of the City College of New York. He received master's and doctoral degrees in physics from Princeton University. His early research took place at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. He was also a visiting lecturer at the University of Wisconsin.

He worked for the Naval Research Laboratory before joining the university, where he taught a range of physics courses. In the early 1970s, as the women's liberation movement was gathering steam, he and his wife, artist Lila Snow, taught a pioneering course at the university in women's studies.

After he retired, he continued his research and served on the Somerset Town Council for four years. He was also the cameraman and editor for "The Art Scene with Lila Snow," a program produced by his wife for Montgomery Municipal Cable, a cable organization he chaired.

He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a division chairman of the American Physical Society.

In addition his wife, of Chevy Chase, survivors include three children, Zachary Snow of New York, Andrew Snow of Bethesda, and Sara Snow of Vancouver; two brothers; and eight grandchildren.

-------- india / pakistan

India, Pakistan Eye Modern Fighting Machines

July 4, 2000
By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-arms-in.html

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Nuclear-capable India and Pakistan are looking to build up their conventional fighting forces a year after the neighboring arch rivals clashed in Kashmir.

India, which boosted defense spending by an unprecedented 28 percent this year, is in the final stages of talks with Russia to buy tanks and fighter planes and to acquire an old aircraft carrier for free, defense officials said Tuesday.

``The evaluation of T-90 tank has taken place, it has been found acceptable,'' Defense Minister George Fernandes told reporters after a five-day trip to Moscow.

Fernandes said that both sides were working out the value of the tank deal which defense experts estimated could be around $400 million. ``There is a dispute about prices, but it is a small issue,'' he said.

India planned to buy 100 T-90s and assemble 200 as part of a program to replace the army's Soviet-era T-72 tanks, a defense ministry official said.

Russia has offered an old aircraft carrier for free but New Delhi will have to pay an estimated $700 million for its retrofit, defense officials said.

Fernandes said the Russian carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, was ``like a gift'' but a lot of groundwork needed to be done on the deal. ``Russia has not yet given us the detailed project report.''

The carrier will replace the INS Vikrant, which was decommissioned four years ago. The navy currently has one aircraft carrier in service.

Separately, India and Russia were negotiating the terms under which the Russian-made Su-30 fighter planes would be assembled in India, Fernandes said.

``It's decided we will build 140 of these planes, but the terms have not yet been finalized, we are talking,'' the minister said.

NUCLEAR POWERS

New Delhi is also in talks with Israel to acquire sophisticated aerial surveillance vehicles and radars that it intends to deploy in northern Kashmir, where hundreds of armed intruders took its army by surprise last summer.

The 10-week clash ended on July 4 last year when Pakistan's then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, later ousted in a coup, signed an agreement with President Clinton to pull out what Islamabad insisted were Kashmiri freedom fighters.

Since then the two countries, who stunned the world in 1998 by testing a range of nuclear devices, have focused on turning their armed forces into modern fighting machines.

``They are both nuclear powers, and the thinking on both sides of the border will be to build conventional capabilities, so that the nuclear factor does not kick in early,'' said Jasjit Singh, director of the Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses.

Singh argued that one reason for last year's conflict was the perception that years of defense cuts had left the Indian military vulnerable.

``There was this perception that the Indian army was overstretched and stressed, and such things can lead to wrong judgement,'' he said.

PAKISTAN EYES JETS

Pakistan, which has repeatedly called on India for a resumption of unconditional peace talks, is considering buying combat planes from its long-time ally China, the country's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf said over the weekend.

The Pakistani Air Force has been getting MiG fighters from China since the 1960s but its main strength in recent years has been U.S-supplied F-16s bought in the 1980s.

Islamabad has been looking for alternative sources of supply after the United States canceled a deal for more F-16s because of Islamabad's nuclear program.

Pakistan, assisted by China, last year started test-production of a main battle tank.

----

India threatens to cut Britain out of jet trainer contract

Agence France-Presse
July 4, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=b0703046.5rg&level3=139498&date=20000704

New Delhi--July 3--India has threatened to rule British Aerospace out of the running for a U.S. $1.6-billion contract to supply advanced jet trainers (AJTs) to the Indian Air Force, top defense ministry sources said Monday. Such a move would leave the track clear for Dassault Aviation of France, the other front-runner in the race for the contract.

The defense ministry sources said the threat followed London's refusal to return two Sea Harrier maritime fighters sent to Britain by the Indian Navy for repairs just before New Delhi conducted a string of nuclear tests in May 1998.

The underground blasts attracted a string of U.S.-led sanctions, mainly directed against India's military and space programs.

"They (British Aerospace) have been told that this issue has to be solved first before any negotiations can take place and also that the supply of AJTs would have to be assured," one source said.

Britain reportedly withheld the return of the Sea Harriers after the United States refused to provide spares for the fighter jets, citing the existing sanctions.

"Under such circumstances, it may not be possible to do business with British Aerospace," the source said.

British Aerospace, with its 'Hawk' jet trainer and Dassault with the 'Alphajet' had emerged as the two main contenders to supply 66 military AJTs to the technology-starved Indian Air Force (IAF).

The IAF has been seeking such a trainer since 1983 to cut down on frequent air crashes attributed to poor pilot training.

The Indian source said that if Britain were dropped from the Indian shortlist, the purchase of French Alhpajets would see further delays as the Dassault AJTs were off production.

"The French pricing and availability is a problem, and so, the other option could be to review the whole arrangement once again," the source said.

Russia is also in the running for the contract with its MiG-AT jet trainers, which are still on the drawing board.

India plans to buy the planes and build AJTs under license in the country to cut down on imports. End

-------- japan

U.S. urges Japan to maintain 'sympathy budget' for U.S. Forces in Japan

Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2000 17:07:16 +0900
From: Japan Press Service jpspress@twics.com

TOKYO JUL 4 JPS -- Hoping that Japan's government continue its generous support for the cost of stationing U.S. Forces in Japan (U.S.F.J.) ('sympathy budget'), the U.S. government is moving forward reaching agreement at a Japan-U.S. summit to be held when G8 leaders meet in Okinawa in July.

As the special agreement on Japan's host nation support expires on March 31, 2001, U.S. government leaders have pushed for a new bilateral agreement to be reached before Japan's new fiscal year starts on April lst, 2000.

In his Japan visit in late June, Stanley Roth, a U.S. assistant secretary of state, met Taku Yamasaki, former Liberal Democratic Party Policy Research Council chair. According to reports, Roth requested Yamasaki to settle the issue of renewing the agreement at the time when U.S. President Bill Clinton visits Japan for the July G8 Summit.

When Defense Agency Director General Tsutomu Kawara and U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen met last January in Washington to formally start talks on the question,Kawara promised Cohen that Japan would continue to have a "sympathy budget" although Japan may have to review the funding system with Japan's financial and other various problems in mind.

The U.S. government argued that Japan's burden sharing is not a kind of "sympathy" but a "strategic contribution." Then William Cohen, Strobe Talbott, deputy secretary of state, and others came to Japan to persuade LDP-government leaders, and James Foster, minister-counselor of the U.S. Embassy in Japan, has contacted political party leaders and even briefed for Japan's mass media.

Japan's Foreign Minister Yohei Kono responded to this by saying that Japan has never suggested a reduction in funding (the stationing of U.S. Forces). The Komei Party, a ruling coalition partner, maintained its opposition to reducing the amount of such funding.

Under the present special agreement, concluded in 1987, Japan shouldered part of labor costs for the Japanese workers in the U.S.F.J. bases. The 1991 amendment obliged Japan to pay their basic salaries plus all their utilities.

However, it is reported that the Japanese government in its plan to review the agreement now under examination wants just to keep the funding level that will not exceed the average of the recent five years.

As regards the reduction of the total amount of the "sympathy budget," Foreign Minister Kono in his talks in May with U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Foley just requested that the U.S. would make "rationalization and saving" of related costs.

The current agreement originally started with a five-year term, but it continued over 20 years under the pretext of "temporary, limited and extraordinary" requirements.

When Japan is faced with the worst ever financial difficulties and the U.S. has overcome its government deficits, both governments have no reason for continuing with the 'sympathy budget' for U.S.F.J. (end item)

--

Sexual crimes by U.S. soldiers increasing in Okinawa

TOKYO JUL 4 JPS -- Record shows that sexual assault is a main felony committed by U.S. military personnel, their family, and civilian employees in Okinawa.

In Okinawa, there were 4,953 cases of crimes committed by them between 1972, when Okinawa's administrative rights were returned from the U.S. to Japan, and the end of 1999.

Based on a document published by the Okinawa Prefectural Government, Akahata on July 4 reported that the number of arrests for vicious crimes committed by U.S. soldiers was 520 between 1972 and the end of 1998, including 23 murders, 362 robberies, 112 rapes, and 23 arsons.

Even after the rape case in 1995 which outraged the nation and gave rise to a new movement against U.S. bases, rape cases by the U.S. personnel seem to have no brake.

The prefectural government on July 3 demanded that the U.S. Forces in Okinawa take preventive measures.

The deputy governor said these heinous crimes are causing deep anxieties among the prefectural people, complaining that the U.S. has not been doing enough to prevent sexual assaults on girls and young women. (end item)

-------- ukraine

Nations Increase Chernobyl Aid

The Associated Press
07-04-00
By DETLEF RUDEL
From: Ndunlks@aol.com

BERLIN (AP) - The Group of Seven biggest industrial nations and the European Union have agreed to double their promised aid to $600 million to help rebuild the leaky cement shell that covers the ruined reactor at Chernobyl, a German official said Tuesday.

The additional aid, to be announced Wednesday at a donor conference convened by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Berlin, means Ukraine will have almost the entire $768 million it says is needed for the project, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident when a reactor exploded and caught fire in April 1986. Experts say a new cover over the ruined reactor - instead of the hastily constructed and leaky Soviet-built ``sarcophagus'' - is needed to prevent new radiation dangers.

Ukraine says about half of the money has already been raised, and it was hoping to secure the rest at the conference of more than 50 donor nations.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, visiting Kiev last month, expressed optimism that the conference would come up with the needed money.

After years of delay, Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma promised in early June to shut down the plant's last working reactor on Dec. 15. Experts at Chernobyl sent the government a draft 15-year plan for the reactor's shutdown, decontamination and final conservation.

-------- u.s. nuc facilities

-------- colorado

Wild Fire resuspension - Rocky Flats Rx Burn still talk of nation

On our USA Independence Day, July 4, 2000
From: Pelofson@aol.com
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2000 02:44:58 EDT

For a special treat, we have continued emails regarding the ill-advised, prescribed burn at Rocky Flats that released huges clouds of contaminated smoke that the officials could (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil) not seem to find. Well, we found it, 14 miles away in Lakewood, with astoundingly high levels of radiation, such that we have not seen since the equally infamous 1969 plutonium fire that never released anything either.

The DOE and RFETS silence on this issue has been very notable since the infamous self-torching took place, especially in light of the bravado prior to the burn. So, do we have a committment to NOT burn any further at Rocky Flats yet? If not, why not? Where's the ash sampling that the DOE and RFETS Kaiser Hill said they were refusing to test? Did you? If so, where is the data? Where is the accountability here? It would be a refreshing change.

How about some leadership from our Governor's office, the DOE or EPA headquarters in Washington, let's see a statement and policy as to NO prescribed burns on or within 5 miles of these nuclear facilities.

Respectfully,

Paula Elofson-Gardine Executive Director Environmental Information Network From the Fallout Zone of Rocky Flats, Tired of being forced by bureaucrats to breathe and drink nuclear waste

-------- new mexico

Changes Urged for Nuke Lab Security

The Associated Press
July 4, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Los-Alamos-Security.html

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) -- Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory will have to undergo a cultural change if security is to improve at the nuclear weapons facility, lab officials said Monday.

The lab has instituted security upgrades following the two-month disappearance of two classified hard drives from a vault at the top-secret X Division, said John Tucker, the lab's deputy director of security.

Even so, lab scientists will have to change the way they do business if future security breaches are to be avoided, Tucker said during a briefing with Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M.

``When the Manhattan Project created the first (nuclear) weapons, the collaborative effort said everyone working had a common need to know,'' Tucker said. ``Today, there is a school of thought that says `I don't need to know everything about a project.'''

The lab has been criticized recently for several security breaches over the past year, prompting some congressional leaders to call for the resignation of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, whose department oversees the lab.

A grand jury has been convened to look into the disappearance of the two computer hard drives. Last month, two 10-year-old floppy disks containing classified information were discovered missing, then found the next day. In December, former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee was charged with illegally copying top-secret nuclear weapons files. He is in jail awaiting trial.

Tucker said Monday the lab has changed all vault combinations, revised procedures for entering and leaving classified areas and installed devices that read palm prints before access is granted to secure areas.

Udall, in town to tour rehabilitation work being done to lab property burned by the wildfire in May, said he would continue to monitor security upgrades at the lab.

``This is the beginning of the process to have the laboratory evaluate this and make recommendations,'' Udall said.

The greatest challenge for lab security is to get scientists to heed security concerns without hindering the scientific process, Tucker said.

For example, he said one scientist may be working on the human genome project while another is working on a nuclear weapon design. Both may have the same security clearance, but that doesn't mean they should share classified information, he said.

``Just because you have a clearance doesn't grant you a right to see all the information in the laboratory,'' he said. ``We're trying to further refine it to make sure that the right people doing the right things have access to the right information.''

Tucker said security breaches can also occur when scientists pass along information to one another, especially through electronic media such as e-mail.

``You have to get them to realize not to send information through open communication,'' he said. ``They need someone to review it and say, `This needs to be encrypted.'''

---

Los Alamos Lab Undergoes Security Overhaul
Scientists' Routines Are Challenged, Official Says

Washington Post
Tuesday, July 4, 2000; Page A05
Associated Press
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-07/04/044l-070400-idx.html

LOS ALAMOS, N.M., July 3-Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory will have to undergo a cultural change if security is to improve at the nuclear weapons facility, lab officials said today.

The lab has instituted security upgrades following the two-month disappearance of two classified hard drives from a vault at the top-secret X Division, said John Tucker, the lab's deputy director of security.

Even so, lab scientists will have to change the way they do business if future security breaches are to be avoided, Tucker said during a briefing with Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.).

"When the Manhattan Project created the first [nuclear] weapons, the collaborative effort said everyone working had a common need to know," Tucker said. "Today, there is a school of thought that says, 'I don't need to know everything about a project.' "

The lab has been criticized recently for several security breaches over the past year, prompting some congressional leaders to call for the resignation of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, whose department oversees the lab.

A grand jury has been convened to look into the disappearance of the two computer hard drives. Last month, two 10-year-old floppy disks containing classified information were discovered missing, then found the next day. In December, former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee was charged with illegally copying top-secret nuclear weapons files. He is in jail awaiting trial.

Tucker said today the lab has changed all vault combinations, revised procedures for entering and leaving classified areas and installed devices that read palm prints before access is granted to secure areas.

Udall, in town to tour rehabilitation work being done to lab property burned by a wildfire in May, said he would continue to monitor security upgrades at the lab.

"This is the beginning of the process to have the laboratory evaluate this and make recommendations," Udall said.

The greatest challenge for lab security is to get scientists to heed security concerns without hindering the scientific process, Tucker said.

For example, he said one scientist may be working on the human genome project while another is working on a nuclear weapon design. Both may have the same security clearance, but that doesn't mean they should share classified information, he said.

"Just because you have a clearance doesn't grant you a right to see all the information in the laboratory," he said. "We're trying to further refine it to make sure that the right people doing the right things have access to the right information."

Tucker said security breaches can also occur when scientists pass along information to one another, especially through electronic media such as e-mail.

"You have to get them to realize not to send information through open communication," he said. "They need someone to review it and say, 'This needs to be encrypted.'"

-------- tennessee

State gives OK to DOE 'burn plan'
Incinerator will process some out-of-state waste

July 4, 2000
By Frank Munger,
News-Sentinel Oak Ridge bureau
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/11369.shtml

OAK RIDGE -- For the first time in years, the state has approved the U.S. Department of Energy's "burn plan" for the Oak Ridge incinerator, including limited authority to bring toxic wastes to Oak Ridge from DOE sites in Colorado and Idaho. Justin Wilson, the policy deputy to Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist, informed DOE of the move in a June 30 letter to Leah Dever, the federal agency's Oak Ridge manager.

Although the state still has "serious concerns" about DOE's operations in Oak Ridge, Wilson said DOE made notable progress during the past year and has been responsive to the state's interests.

On Feb. 2, 1999, Sundquist rejected DOE's request to burn out-of-state wastes in Oak Ridge and asked the Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to address concerns in several areas -- including funding for Oak Ridge cleanup activities and health and safety of workers and those living around the Oak Ridge plants.

A summit later that year was attended by Richardson, Sundquist and the governors of Colorado, South Carolina and Washington state -- each of which has major DOE installations with environmental problems. The group signed a "statement of principles," agreeing to work cooperatively to address concerns and accelerate cleanup projects.

In the new letter to Dever, Wilson noted a number of lingering concerns, including limited funds for cleanup of old uranium-enrichment facilities at the East Tennessee Technology Park (formerly known as the K-25 Site).

The state also disagrees with DOE on Oak Ridge cleanup levels on some projects, Wilson said.

"The state wants permanent remedies," he wrote to Dever. "The federal government prefers short-term, less costly remedies that sometimes include perpetual institutional controls."

Wilson also noted areas of good progress, including the cleanup of underground waste tanks at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and DOE's recent decision to dispose of some low-level radioactive waste at the Nevada Test Site.

In approving the burn plan for the Oak Ridge incinerator, Wilson said the state will permit DOE to burn "limited amounts" of liquid nuclear waste from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and the Rocky Flats Plant, a former warhead plant near Denver, Colo.

The plan also allows continuation of waste shipments from DOE sites in Ohio and Kentucky, which were included in the original incinerator agreement because those facilities were managed by DOE's Oak Ridge office.

"As in the past, the state of Tennessee will continue to give highest priority to any request to process out-of-state wastes that present an imminent threat to health, safety or the environment," Wilson wrote.

DOE welcomed the state's decision on the burn plan.

"This approval is another example of the cooperative working relationship that exists between (DOE's) Oak Ridge operations and its state regulators," DOE spokesman David Page said.

"This approval is not only important to DOE's Oak Ridge facilities but also to other DOE facilities across the complex that will have their wastes treated in a safe and environmentally protective manner."

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

-------- washington

Photos show flames came close to shuttered reactor at Hanford nuclear site

Hanford nuclear reservation
July 4, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/07/04/hanford.fire.ap/index.html

RICHLAND, Washington (AP) -- As workers began evaluating damage from last week's fire at the Hanford nuclear reservation, aerial photos showed the blaze "came awfully darn close" to several nuclear facilities, a spokesman for the complex said.

Flames came within 1,000 feet of a shuttered reactor and within a half mile of buried high-level radioactive and chemical wastes, spokesman Mike Talbot said Monday. But no nuclear or chemical waste storage facilities were damaged by the 191,000-acre fire, he added.

"We have a vegetation control program," Talbot said. "There was nothing there to burn."

A highway and chemical retardant dropped from airplanes stopped the fire's advance about a quarter-mile from some uranium waste barrels stored in a field.

Flames raced across a uranium waste storage site and two dried-up waste ponds. But tests indicate there were no radiation releases, the state Department of Health has said.

MESSAGE BOARD Nature's wrath

BACKGROUND Hanford: Ground zero for plutonium in U.S.

The fire, in grass and sagebrush, destroyed some metal structures on part of the reservation where most human activities have been barred for decades, Talbot said. A security checkpoint station also was damaged.

"Other than that, we came through it OK," he said.

Talbot said it will take some time before damage estimates are available.

The blaze destroyed 20 homes and scores of other buildings just south of Hanford. At its peak late Wednesday, about 7,000 people were evacuated.

Many of Hanford's more than 12,000 workers returned to their jobs Monday, although staffing was lower than normal because of the Independence Day holiday.

Hanford was created during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. It made plutonium for decades, generating the nation's biggest volume of radioactive waste. Its primary mission now is cleaning up that waste.

----

Blistered Hanford begins returning to normal
Teams start evaluating damage from 191,000-acre range fire

Spokane Spokesman Review
July 4, 2000
Associated Press
http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=070400&ID=s822015&cat=

RICHLAND _ Workers returned to their jobs Monday on the blackened Hanford Nuclear Reservation as recovery teams began evaluating damage from a 191,000-acre range fire.

Aerial photos showed that the blaze "came awfully darn close" to several nuclear facilities but no nuclear or chemical waste storage facilities were damaged by the fire, spokesman Mike Talbot said.

Flames came within 1,000 feet of the shuttered Fast Flux Test Facility reactor and within a half mile of high-level radioactive and chemical wastes buried in the reservation's 200 West areas, Talbot said.

"But we have a vegetation control program," he said. "There was nothing there to burn."

A highway and drops of chemical retardant from firefighting airplanes stopped the fire's advance about a quarter of a mile from some uranium waste barrels stored in a field in the 300 Area north of Richland.

The sites are surrounded by asphalt and gravel, and the defunct chemical processing plants are made of concrete.

Flames raced across a drain-field-style uranium waste storage site, as well as over two nearby dried-up waste ponds. However, air samples taken so far indicate there were no radiation releases, the state Department of Health has said.

The return to normal work routines was proceeding "as normal as can be expected following an event like this," Talbot said of the fire that raged across nearly half of the reservation after a fatal car accident last week.

It was not immediately known how many of the site's more than 12,000 workers were back because many were off for the Fourth of July holiday.

Only essential safety and security employees were allowed on the reservation during the fire.

Talbot said it will take some time before damage estimates are available.

The fire, in grass and sagebrush, destroyed some metal structures on the Arid Lands Ecology Reserve, a portion of the reservation where most human activities have been barred for decades, Talbot said.

A security checkpoint station also was damaged.

"Other than that, we came through it OK," he said. "The primary facilities that we manage our waste programs through were not damaged."

The blaze destroyed 20 homes and scores of other buildings just south of the Hanford border. At its peak late Wednesday, about 7,000 people were evacuated. One man one suffered serious burns and more than a dozen people were treated for smoke inhalation.

-------- us nuc waste

Report: Less nuclear waste decreases need for dump

Tuesday, July 04, 2000
Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2000
Associated Press
http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Jul-04-Tue-2000/news/13903516.html

LOS ANGELES -- California is no longer in urgent need of its own nuclear waste disposal facility thanks to a dramatic decline in the state's volume of radioactive waste, according to a report on disposal options commissioned by the governor.

A nearly 90 percent drop in the amount of nuclear waste produced here since the late 1980s and an even greater decline in its radioactivity have made "the development of a disposal facility appear less urgent and the projected disposal costs at such a facility less attractive," according to the report by University of California President Richard Atkinson.

Atkinson chaired an advisory group Gov. Gray Davis charged with examining waste-disposal options. Members were given copies of the report, which was dated Friday and obtained Monday by The Associated Press, and given the opportunity to add their own statements to it.

The document makes a key conclusion that there is no crisis over how to handle low-level nuclear waste, said Jonathan Parfrey, an advisory board member who disagrees with Atkinson's decision to produce the report singlehandedly.

Parfrey and some of the other 18 members of the advisory group have complained that Atkinson did not give them the chance to vote on the report, but Davis spokeswoman Hilary McLean said he didn't need to.

Atkinson and university system spokesman Chuck McFadden could not be reached for comment late Monday afternoon.

More than 12,000 cubic feet of low-level nuclear waste produced by power plants, the military, the biotechnology industry, hospitals and researchers were shipped out of California in 1998.

That figure is well below the nearly 118,000 cubic feet hauled out in 1989. The report attributes the drop to the loss of two major generators, as well as practices that reduce the amount of radioactive waste produced.

The report weighs the pros and cons of four options for handling the waste:

--Continuing the status quo, which involves delivering the state's low-level waste to a facility in South Carolina that is the only dump in the country able to handle all levels of waste California produces. California is guaranteed a spot at that facility until 2008. A facility in Utah can handle most of the state's waste and is in the process of seeking federal approval to take in the most radioactive material, Parfrey said.

--Splitting up the low-level nuclear waste stream. Some radioactive material decays enough to be disposed of like regular garbage after just a few years, while waste produced by nuclear reactors remains hazardous for centuries.

--Building an "assured isolation facility" to hold and monitor nuclear waste until a more permanent solution is devised.

--Building a disposal facility.

The report says there was no consensus among advisory board members on which solution is the best. Parfrey said that lack of agreement and a shortage of detail on how to split up the waste stream make the report a failure.

"There was a great opportunity missed here," he said.

But McLean said the governor "had asked for options -- nothing more than that."

----

Testing Missile Defense: Scientific Experts Address the 3rd Test and Effectiveness of the System

Coalition to Reduce Nucler Dangers
July 4, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=v0703310.7us&level3=788&date=20000704

News Advisory:

On July 7, the Department of Defense is scheduled to conduct only the third of 19 planned tests of the Clinton administration's proposed national missile defense system. As the President prepares to announce his decision on whether to deploy the system, he is under increasing pressure from independent scientists, military and diplomatic experts, Republicans and Democrats, as well as U.S. allies, Russia and China not to make a precipitous decision on NMD deployment.

The President has said he will base his decision on an assessment of four criteria: the nature of the threat; the feasibility of the technology; the cost; and the net effect on national and international security. The third test will be the last before the Pentagon's Deployment Readiness Review and the President's deployment decision. What will the third test really tell us about the feasibility and operational effectiveness of the system? If it can be proven to "work" as designed, is it really capable of stopping ballistic missiles? These and other issues will be explored at a media briefing organized by the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers on Thursday, July 6, at 9:30 a.m. at the Murrow Room of the National Press Club.

The panel will include:

-- Henry Kelly, PhD, is president of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). Kelly is a physicist and was the assistant director of technology at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and has served at the Office of Technology Assessment, the Department of Energy and the Arms Control Disarmament Agency, where he worked on energy and arms control issues. The FAS Board of Sponsors includes more than 50 American Nobel Laureates.

-- Lisbeth Gronlund, PhD, is a staff scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the MIT Security Studies Program. Gronlund is a physicist specializing in technical issues related to nuclear arms control and international security. She is a co-author of the UCS-MIT report, "Countermeasures: A Technical Evaluation of the Operational Effectiveness of the Planned US National Missile Defense System."

-- Robert Park, PhD, is a professor of physics at the University of Maryland and director of the Washington office of the American Physical Society (APS). APS is the leading professional organization of physicists, with 42,000 members worldwide. It has just developed an organizational statement on NMD technical feasibility and deployment.

What: Media Briefing

Who: Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers and experts on national missile defense technology.

Where: The Murrow Room, National Press Club, 529 14th St., N.W. Washington, D.C.

When: Thursday, July 6, 9:30 a.m.

RSVP to Brett Schor of Rabinowitz Communications, 202-547-3577

NMD Resources On-line -- The Coalition's updated briefing book: "Pushing the Limits: the Decision on National Missile Defense," and key documents and statements on national missile defense and nuclear weapons are available from Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers' Web site: http://www.crnd.org

---

Missile defense to rest with next president

USA Today
07/04/00- Updated 12:49 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncstue01.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - The closer President Clinton gets to deciding whether to start building a nationwide shield against missiles, the clearer it seems that the most important choices will be left to his successor.

For much of this year, the Pentagon has been gearing up for a missile intercept test - scheduled for late Friday - that many believed would determine whether Clinton gave the green light to deploy an anti-missile system.

Now, however, it seems that Clinton's choice is more modest: whether to authorize the Pentagon to take the first step toward constructing a new radar for missile tracking, not whether to irreversibly commit the nation to missile defense.

Even if Clinton gives the go-ahead to build the radar, the work will not begin until after he leaves office.

''Whatever Clinton does, it will not rule in or rule out a national missile defense system,'' said Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who is a leading critic of missile defense.

Clinton said last week he had not made a final decision but expected to reach a position in the next several weeks. He will take into account the nature of the missile threat, the feasibility of missile defense technology, its cost and the implications for relations with other countries.

Vice President Al Gore, the presumed Democratic nominee, favors Clinton's approach of pursuing a limited defensive system that would protect only the 50 U.S. states. His expected GOP rival, George W. Bush, supports a broader, more ambitious system designed protect the United States as well as its allies.

Friday's test may not be the decisive event it once appeared to be. Still, the outcome is important because Congress has made it the law that a national missile defense be built as soon as technically feasible.

Can it be called feasible if the test fails? Even if it succeeds, does that make it feasible?

The Pentagon has conducted two previous intercept tests; one succeeded, one failed.

One of the most hotly debated aspects of the Pentagon's missile defense project is the feasibility issue. Critics say the flight tests are simply too unrealistic to render a judgment on whether the anti-missile system would be a reliable means of defense against an actual attack by North Korea or another nation.

These critics argue that the Pentagon's approach does not take account of potential ''countermeasures'' - decoys and other means an attacking nation could use to confuse a U.S. missile defense system.

''Any nation that can build an intercontinental ballistic missile can construct countermeasures that could easily defeat it,'' Richard Garwin, a defense expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in a recent critique of the Clinton administration's approach, which he called a threat to arms control efforts.

That issue may be given added political punch when the CIA completes a secret evaluation, probably this month, that is expected to point out the likelihood of Russian and Chinese decoy technologies finding their way into the hands of North Korea, Iran or other countries that are developing long-range missiles.

Jacques Gansler, the Pentagon's technology chief, said recently there is no doubt any missile defense that is deployed will have to be improved over time as more sophisticated decoys are acquired by hostile nations.

Gansler said the decision facing Clinton is not to commit the country irreversibly to deploying a national missile defense, but whether to take the first steps this year to keep the Pentagon on track to being ready to deploy a defense by the end of 2005. That date is considered an important, though ambitious, goal because the CIA estimates that North Korea may have a missile capable of reaching U.S. soil by then.

So the question for Clinton is whether to stick to the 2005 target date. The Pentagon has said that if Clinton does not authorize it this summer or fall to prepare for the start of construction next year of a powerful new radar on Shemya Island in the Aleutians, then it cannot put the other pieces of missile defense together by 2005.

Gansler said that after Clinton makes his decision this year on whether to keep to the current schedule, there are several other key decisions, starting with a determination in 2001 whether to upgrade the capability of existing early warning radars and to begin the construction of the Shemya radar.

In 2003 a decision would be required for approving the full-scale manufacturing of missile interceptors.

''This is when you say, 'I am going to build my weapons.''' Gansler said. ''This is the decision that actually gets made in 2003. That's the real decision, in terms of commitment to building weapons.''

But well before that 2003 decision, a U.S. president will have to decide yet another sticky question: whether to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, which explicitly bans national missile defenses.

The Clinton administration has tried to get Russia to agree to amend the treaty to allow missile defenses. So far, the Russians have refused.

It remains unclear exactly when the United States would be in violation of the ABM treaty's ban on national missile defenses.

Would it be the moment a shovel is dug into the ground on Shemya? Or could the initial site preparation work there and at a missile interceptor site near Fairbanks, Alaska, be completed without violating the treaty?

This a political and legal issue that the White House is now struggling with.

---

A Few Ways to Spend $60 Billion

New York Times
July 4, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/00/07/04/letters/l04mis.html

To the Editor:
In deciding whether or not we Americans should spend $60 billion to build an antimissile system (front page, June 30), two questions must be answered.

First, would it be able to destroy incoming missiles consistently? Qualified people, other than those who would benefit economically or politically from its construction, have expressed consistent skepticism.

Second, if peace and security are our goal, is military hardware the best investment? For example, might we live in a world of less risk if we invested the $60 billion in promoting primary education and public health in low-income countries, thereby improving living conditions and good will toward the United States?

For the sake of future generations, we should not permit this discussion to be framed and monopolized by the military-industrial complex, and the politicians who do their bidding.

STEVE LUBY Stone Mountain, Ga., July 2, 2000

To the Editor:
A major problem with the missile defense test announced for July 7 (front page, June 30), is just that. It is announced! Whether the test succeeds or fails, it is meaningless -- it is doubtful that we can rely on a presumed enemy to inform us as to the date and time he intends to launch an attack.

NORMAN SHIREN Ossining, N.Y., June 30, 2000 The writer is a retired physicist.

To the Editor:
It's hard to believe that we need a system that would cost at least $60 billion to build, and an unknown amount to maintain and operate, to defend ourselves from a small, impoverished nation like North Korea (Week in Review, July 2).

We won't even be able to trust that the system will work. There must be a better, and less expensive, way.

FINLEY R. SHAPIRO Philadelphia, July 2, 2000

-------- MILITARY (by country)

-------- africa

IVORY COAST: MILITARY PROTEST

World Briefing
July 5, 2000
New York Times
Norimitsu Onishi
http://www.nytimes.com/00/07/05/news/world/world-briefs.html

Soldiers angry over pay took to the streets of Abidjan, firing in the air and leaving the commercial capital deserted. The military government led by Gen. Robert Gueï, who seized power in a coup last December after an earlier protest by disgruntled soldiers, said the disturbances were started by soldiers who had been demanding $8,700 each for having supported the general.

-------- colombia

Plan Colombia should be more than a military operation.

From: Paul Wolf - paulwolf@icdc.com,
July 4th, 2000

Two years ago, Pastrana was elected with the highest vote total of any candidate in Colombian history, on promises to make peace with the guerrillas. (1) His election slogan, Plan Colombia, was rich with overtones of Gran Colombia, Simon Bolivar's near-mythological dream of Latin unity and liberation from Spanish rule.

Now, as European diplomats meet with FARC commanders in Los Pozos to hear FARC's coca eradication and alternative development proposals, (2) before meeting again in Madrid next Friday at the "Donor's Table" for Plan Colombia, the US Congress has appropriated more than a billion dollars in military aid for a "push into Southern Colombia" to attack the FARC's base of support directly - the coca-growing peasants of the amazon jungle. (3)

The US plan, the only part of Plan Colombia yet written, would amount to a forcible displacement campaign, (2) fumigating coca and food crops alike from spray planes (4) as helicopter-borne Army and Police units silence any opposition on the ground.

According to Colombian Environmental Minister Juan Mayr Maldonado, small time subsistence farmers only produce about 6% of Colombia's drug crop production. (5) Hard line supporters of the US plan, such as Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), admit the purpose of the aid is to fight communism. (6)

Ironically, this draconian plan has drawn attention to the plight of the Colombian people, who've been at war for generations without attracting much notice. Europeans want to help Colombia, but they don't want to provide the carrot while the US applies the stick, to "pressure the guerrillas to negotiate." (7)

Human Rights Watch and other non-governmental organizations had worked to include restrictions on the US aid requiring Colombia to prosecute military and paramilitary leaders accussed of gross human rights violations in civilian, rather than military courts. This was an attempt to discourage Colombia from engaging in a dirty assassination war against "subversives". The provisions involved a certification process similar to that used to ensure cooperation in fighting the war on drugs.

In the final hour, Congress created a national security exception to the human rights conditions, effectively nullifying them. (8) It looks like full steam ahead into Southern Colombia. One can only hope the Europeans take a different approach.

Paul Wolf

Notes:

1. "U.S. Helps Colombian Leader, But His Woes Pile Up at Home," Larry Rohter, The New York Times, Sunday, 2 July 2000

2. On June 29 and 30, the same days the aid package was passed, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) hosted an "international public hearing" on "Environment and Illegal Crops" in the FARC-controlled peace zone of southern Colombia. The meeting was attended by representatives of 14 European countries; four Latin American countries (Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico and Venezuela); Canada, Japan and the Vatican; and from the United Nations and the European Union (EU). The start of the talks also coincided with a meeting in Bogota between President Andres Pastrana Arango and EU secretary for foreign policy Javier Solana, to discuss European aid for Pastrana's "Plan Colombia." [CNN en Espanol 6/30/00; FARC Communique 6/30/00; Statement by Countries and International Organizations Participating in the International Public Hearing 6/30/00 - Weekly News Update on the Americas]

3. Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977, Art. 17, on the prohibition of forced movement of civilians.

4. "Congress Agrees to Provide Colombia With Hueys, Black Hawks," Defense Daily, July 3, 2000

5. "Diplomats Parley With Colombian Rebels," Washington Post, June 30, 2000

"Colombian Environmental Minister Juan Mayr Maldonado said farmers with fewer than 12 acres of coca - like most of those attending this meeting - represent only about 6% of Colombia's drug production."

6. Letter of June 8, 2000. "[The] Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ... are criminals and terrorists led by a disciplined, ideological cadre (schooled by Fidel Castro) whose aim is to overthrow the democratically- elected government of Colombia. The United States and Colombia have a common interest in fighting these guerrillas."

7. "Europe Wary on Aid to War-Torn Colombia," Reuters, June 30, 2000

"I think there are some good projects within Plan Colombia but there are some we do not agree with, the military aspect for example," Swedish ambassador Bjorn Sternby said on the sidelines of the talks.

"There is no moral ground for fumigating the (drug) plantations of small farmers but it's different with industrial-sized plantations," Dutch envoy Gijsbert Bos said.

8. Sec. 3201. of the Foreign Ops bill still retains the human rights certification language - Colombia must prosecute military officers accused of human rights abuses, and members of paramilitary groups, in civilian courts, in consultation with internationally recognized human rights organizations. The Secretary of State would have to certify that Colombia was aggressively pursuing these goals.

A presidential waiver was added in the last minute negotiations, as follows:

Waiver: Assistance may be furnished without regard to this section if the President determines and certifies to the appropriate Committees that to do so is in the national security interest.

See http://thomas.loc.gov - search for Plan Colombia, Title VI of the Foreign Operations bill S2522.

-------- iraq

Iraq Ridicules U.S. Report on Missile Program

By Reuters
July 4, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-iraq-mi.html

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq ridiculed Tuesday a U.S. news report that it had restarted its missile program and flight-tested a short-range ballistic missile but did not say whether or not it had the missile mentioned in the report.

The New York Times had reported Saturday that Iraq carried out eight tests -- including one last Tuesday -- involving Al-Samoud, a ballistic missile that could carry conventional explosives or chemical and biological weapons, attributing the information to Clinton administration and American military officials.

``These articles want to divert public opinion from the main issue of sanctions,'' Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed told reporters.

The range of the tested missile is less than 150 kilometers or 95 miles, which means it does not violate U.N. restrictions. But the flight tests show that production plants and research labs destroyed in 1998 U.S. and British missile strikes on Iraq have been rebuilt, the New York Times report said.

Rasheed said that Iraq had fulfilled all of its disarmament commitments and that sweeping sanctions imposed for Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait should be removed. ``Does Iraq have any inventory or any capability of mass destruction weapons? The answer is definitely nothing is in Iraq since 1991,'' he said.

``The sanctions...should be lifted because Iraq has fulfilled its commitments,'' he added.

He did not specify whether or not Iraq has short-range missiles of the type mentioned by the New York Times.

The international sanctions will not be lifted until Baghdad accounts for all of its weapons of mass destruction in accordance with the terms of the cease-fire that ended the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait.

Baghdad has rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution that could ease the 10-year-old sanctions if it allows U.N. weapons inspectors to return to the country.

U.N. inspectors have not been allowed in Iraq since they left on the eve of U.S. and British air and missile raids in mid-December 1998.

-------- pacific

KWAJALEIN LANDOWNERS FILE SUIT AGAINST MARSHALL ISLANDS GOVERNMENT
PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Tuesday, July 4, 2000
From: "Abolition2000 Pacific Region" abolition2000@hotmail.com
http://pidp.ewc.hawaii.edu/PIReport/2000/July/07-04-10.htm

Pacific Islands Development Program
East-West Center Center for Pacific Islands Studies
University of Hawai'i at Manoa

'We weren't properly represented' in Compact LUA negotiations'

MAJURO, Marshall Islands (June 23, 2000 ­ Marshall Islands Journal)--A large group of Kwajalein landowners filed suit Tuesday in Majuro in the High Court against the [Republic of the Marshall Islands] RMI government ­ a suit that is intended, said attorney Scott Taylor, to "liberate our clients from the economic servitude imposed upon them by the United States."

The suit is challenging the legality of the Land Use Agreement (LUA) that has been in use since the beginning of the Compact between the landowners and the RMI government, which is the basis of U.S. government use of the Kwajalein missile testing range.

Leading Kwajalein landowners who brought the suit, including Senators Imata Kabua, Ataji Balos and Sato Maie, Leroijs Likwor Locak and Neimata Kabua and Mayor Wilmer Bolkeim, have heavyweight legal representation, with such luminaries as constitutional law expert Lawrence Tribe of Harvard and Richard Scruggs of tobacco litigation fame on board.

The suit claims among other things that:

· The Kwajalein Atoll Corporation (KAC) had no power to bind the landowners to a 30 year term of use for Kwajalein when the LUA was signed in the early 1980s (then KAC chairman Ataji Balos signed the LUA with the RMI).

· Kwajalein landowners had "no effective legal advice and representation" at the time the LUA was negotiated and signed.

· When the KAC ceased operations in 1986, its power of attorney for landowners ended.

· The Cabinet entered the LUA in violation of the Marshall Islands constitution because the Nitijela did not pass a law empowering the Cabinet to act on the LUA, as is required.

· Money for the second 15-year term of the lease was supposed to be paid during the interim use agreement period 1982-1985, but no money was ever paid, making the extension of the use to this second 15-year period void.

The suit says that the LUA was the trade off for U.S. approval of the Compact and all other funding to the RMI government.

The suit says that when negotiations on the LUA and the Compact of Free Association with the U.S. were happening in the early 1980s, RMI government officials told the KAC that if they refused to sign the LUA for Kwajalein, then "the RMI wouldn't get even limited autonomy from the U.S. and Kwajalein would receive no money.

The RMI exchanged national autonomy for use of the landowners' lagoon and land, the suit says.

The suit is asking the High Court to declare the LUA null and void, and to require the RMI government to include the landowners in all discussions and negotiations regarding compensation for Kwajalein Atoll.

The Marshall Islands Journal, Box 14, Majuro, Marshall Islands 96960 E-mail: journal@ntamar.com

-------- u.s.

New missile destroyer launched in USA.

Itar-Tass
July 4, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=v0703120.6ts&level3=764&date=20000704

NEW YORK, July 3 (Itar-Tass) via NewsEdge Corporation - Madeleine Albright smashed a bottle of champagne against the board of a new missile destroyer, which was launched on Sunday from the slips of Bath shipbuilding yards in the State of Maine -- quite an unusual role for the Secretary of State. The destroyer, which is armed with the latest missile system, was named MacCampbell in honour of American World War Two naval ace Captain David MacCampbell, who shot down thirty-four Japanese planes. According to Albright, this destroyer, which costs 900 million U.S. dollars, will help the American navy to be the world's strongest for years to come. The warship is equipped with radars and sonars, capable of simultaneously tracking up to 100 targets in the air, on the sea surface and under the water even in conditions of chemical warfare.

---

General Dynamics Completes Acquisition of Saco Defense Corp.

NewsEdge Corporation
July 4, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=p0630161.500&level3=772&date=20000704

BURLINGTON, Vt., June 30 /PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge Corporation - General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) has completed its acquisition of Saco Defense Corporation from the New Colt Holding Corp. for an undisclosed amount of cash. The 30-day waiting period mandated by the Hart Scott Rodino pre-merger notification act expired without action by the Department of Justice on June 18, 2000, and the companies closed the transaction effective June 30, 2000.

As of today, Saco Defense Corporation will become a subsidiary of General Dynamics Armament Systems, and will be known as General Dynamics Weapon Systems. General Dynamics and New Colt Holding Corp. announced their plans for the transaction on May 12, 2000.

General Dynamics Armament Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics, which is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia. General Dynamics employs approximately 43,000 people worldwide and has annualized sales of approximately $10 billion. The company has leading market positions in business aviation, information systems, shipbuilding and marine systems, and land and amphibious combat systems. More information about the company can be found on the World Wide Web at www.generaldynamics.com.

SOURCE General Dynamics
CONTACT: Clif Bushey of General Dynamics, clifton.f.bushey@gdarm.com
Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/349193.html or fax, 800-758-5804, ext. 349193
Web site: http://www.generaldynamics.com (GD)

---

Northrop Grumman's ISA Sector Headquarters to Remain in Dallas Metropolitan Area; Relocation Costs Significantly Reduced

NewsEdge
July 4, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=p0630145.601&level3=788&date=20000704

LOS ANGELES, June 30 /PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge Corporation - Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) announced today that its Integrated Systems and Aerostructures (ISA) sector headquarters will now remain in the Dallas metropolitan area rather than relocate once the sale of its aerostructures business to The Carlyle Group is completed. The company had previously stated when it announced the pending sale on June 12, 2000 that the sector headquarters and its workforce would move to the Washington, D.C., area later this year.

The decision to remain in the Dallas area came after further analysis of the costs and potential disruption to the business in relocating to Washington, D.C. As a result of the decision, the company stated that the previously announced relocation costs of approximately $70 million will now be significantly reduced. A revised estimate of the relocation costs will be determined upon the close of the transaction, which is expected to take place within the next several weeks.

Northrop Grumman Corporation, headquartered in Los Angeles, is a world-class, high technology company providing innovative solutions in systems integration, defense electronics and information technology for its U.S. and international military, government and commercial customers, as a prime contractor, principal subcontractor, team member or preferred supplier. The company had revenues of $9 billion in 1999 and has a workforce of approximately 45,000 employees.

Note: The forward-looking statements contained in this release concerning, among other things, the company's expectations as to future results of operations, deliveries, trends, cash flows, markets and programs are projections and are necessarily subject to various risks and uncertainties. Actual outcomes are dependent upon the company's successful performance of internal plans, government customers' budgetary restraints, customer changes in short-range and long-range plans, domestic and international competition in both the defense and commercial areas, product performance, continued development and acceptance of new products, performance issues with key suppliers and subcontractors, government import and export policies, termination of government contracts, political processes, legal, financial and governmental risks related to international transactions and global needs for military and commercial aircraft and electronic systems and support as well as other economic, political, and technological risks and uncertainties and other risk factors set out in the company's filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the company's report on form 10-K.

SOURCE Northrop Grumman Corporation

CONTACT: Jim Taft, media, 310-201-3335, or Gaston Kent, investors, 310-201-3423, both of Northrop Grumman Corporation

Web site: http://www.northrop-grumman.com (NOC)

-------- OTHER

-------- police

Rio Governor Fires Hundreds of Policemen, Jailers

July 4, 2000
Filed at 6:10 p.m. ET By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-brazil-.html

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Rio de Janeiro's state governor has fired hundreds of police and prison guards, many of whom were drawing pay for years while being investigated for involvement in murder and corruption, officials said on Tuesday.

Anthony Garotinho, who governs the state that is home to Brazil's second-largest city, signed two decrees on Monday to fire 353 policemen, 70 prison guards and 38 firefighters currently facing criminal or internal investigations, his office said.

Accused of crimes ranging from car theft and murder to extortion and corruption, they were dismissed from their jobs starting on Tuesday in what many Rio residents see as a long overdue cleanup of the police and security forces.

``Now it will be clear: whoever has deviant conduct or is involved in corruption is out,'' Garotinho was quoted as saying by O Globo newspaper.

The governor's move angered some of the fired policemen, who said they would take the matter to court and say Garotinho is assuming their guilt rather than giving them a chance to defend themselves, local media reported.

If the appeal courts rule in favor of the fired public servants, they will be able to return to their jobs.

Garotinho has declared war on corruption in a police force that has in the past been accused of running death squads and profiting from organized crime.

Rio's city police gained international notoriety in the 1993 Candelaria massacre when officers fired randomly at about 70 children, some playing and some sleeping, on the steps of a church in the downtown financial district.

In March, Garotinho announced ``Operation Clean Hands'' to investigate police corruption, and has since fired a number of policemen although the commission has still not reached any conclusions about institutionalized corruption.

-------- spying

French Prosecutor Starts Probe Into U.S. Spy System

New York Times
July 4, 2000
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/04france-us-spy.html

PARIS, July 4 -- A French state prosecutor has launched a preliminary judicial investigation into the workings of the United States' Echelon spy system of satellites and listening posts, the prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.

Echelon, set up during the Cold War, can intercept millions of telephone, fax and e-mail messages, and Washington has been accused of using it for economic espionage against its allies, a charge it denies.

The investigation, which could spark a diplomatic row with the United States, would not necessarily lead to legal action, a spokesman for prosecutor Jean-Pierre Dintilhac told reporters.

Coincidentally, the European Parliament is due to decide in Strasbourg on Wednesday whether to set up a commission to investigate whether Echelon infringes the rights of European citizens and industries.

Dintilhac's office began the preliminary investigation in response to a letter by a French centre-right member of the European parliament, Thierry Jean-Pierre, who alleged Echelon was potentially prejudicial to French nationals and to France's economic interests.

Dintilhac has ordered the state counter-intelligence agency DST to find out whether Echelon's activities could be qualified under French law as "harmful to the vital interests of the (French) nation."

Confirmation would lead to legal proceedings, though it was difficult to see how a U.S. government agency could be sued in a French court.

A report submitted to the European parliament by a British researcher last October said Echelon's eavesdropping activities had resulted in several major contracts going to U.S. rather than European firms.

In particular, it cited a 1994 attempt by the French-led European Airbus consortium to break the U.S. hold on airliner sales to Saudi Arabia.

In 1995, France expelled five U.S. diplomats and officials, one of them the alleged Paris station chief for the Central Intelligence Agency, in connection with the case.

Current C.I.A. director George Tenet said last March, as controversy over Echelon spread to include charges that it also spied on U.S. citizens, that the United States did not spy on foreign firms to give American companies competitive advantage.

But his predecessor James Woolsey, C.I.A. director at the time when the U.S. is alleged to have used Echelon to beat Airbus to the Saudi deal, said this year that Washington had found that Airbus agents were offering bribes to a Saudi official.

David Nataf, a Paris lawyer representing French firms and individuals who say they have suffered from infringement of privacy by U.S. government agencies, told Reuters that Dintilhac's action came as "a divine surprise."

He said French courts had so far been far quicker at replying to requests for action by U.S. government agencies against French nationals than they were at handling cases against official American bodies.

"The truth is, our justice system is usually at its fastest when it is asked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation or U.S. Air Force to take action against teenage hackers in this country," Nataf said.

The lawyer said he would seek to link the complaints he lodged last December, but to which no magistrate has so far been assigned, with Dintilhac's action. Nataf declined to immediately name his clients for legal reasons.

---

Ben's neighbor

Washington Times
July 4, 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

The series of investigative stories in The Washington Times last week about China's state-run news agency trying to occupy an apartment building that overlooks the Pentagon - providing the opportunity to covertly monitor Pentagon comings and goings - got some employees of The Washington Post thinking about the security of their own newsroom.

Which happens to back up to a large red brick compound and mansion on 16th Street that once housed the Soviet Embassy and is now the Russian ambassador's residence.

For years, this highly-secured compound, surrounded by a 6-foot-high iron fence, was the Soviet Embassy, scene of several spy recruitments over the past several decades. After 1991, the compound became the Russian Embassy, until a new state-of-the-art facility was opened atop Washington's highest hill near Georgetown. Go figure.

"In relation to your Chinese stories, we've been wondering how much eavesdropping the Russians have been doing on The Post," says one Washington Post insider, who uses the alias "Ben Bradlee" when contacting this column.

"For many years, the back of the [Russian residence] looked like a dilapidated warehouse, but lately the Russians have been doing a lot of sprucing up - painting and renovating, making it look more presentable," says the Postie, who smells something fishy.

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President, govt meet over Argun terrorist act.

Itar-Tass
July 4, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=v0703080.3ts&level3=2884&date=20000704

MOSCOW, July 3 (Itar-Tass) - President Vladimir Putin met Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and chiefs of security ministries at 11 a.m. on Monday to discuss the terrorist act in Chechnya's Argun, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko told reporters.

Khristenko said after the meeting that Kasyanov informed the president, deputy prime ministers and security ministrs on the bomb attack which was staged in Argun early on Monday.

As for other matters, Khristenko said the government would issue this week a decree on construction and funding of the Baltic pipeline system. He said this matter was reviewed at a meeting chaired by Kasyanov early in the day.

Russia's fuel balance for the third-quarter of this year was approved at the meeting.

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Bandits blow up bathhouse in Gudermes, lorry in Urus Martan.

Itar-Tass
July 4, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=v0703032.2ts&level3=2884&date=20000704

KHANKALA, July 3 (Itar-Tass) via NewsEdge Corporation - - Two charges planted in the city bathhouse in Gudermes and a lorry packed with explosives near the commandant's office in Urus Martan were exploded by terrorists on Sunday. The terrorists also opened fire at the commandant's office, the press centre of the Russian federal forces deployed in Chechnya told Itar-Tass on Monday.

The press centre reported that five bombs were defused on the roads used by federal convoys. One of them had been spotted four kilometres north of Samashki and the other four at the Progorodnoye village near Grozny.

No information about losses to the federal forces was immediately available.

-------- activists

Hundreds of protesters lay claim to road

USA Today
07/04/00- Updated 08:08 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/nphoto.htm

JARBIDGE, Nev. - Hundreds of people joined together on Independence Day to hoist a huge boulder they dubbed the ''Liberty Rock'' and lay claim to a remote dirt road in defiance of the U.S. Forest Service. Chanting ''Freedom! Freedom!'' the Shovel Brigade protesters moved the boulder inch by inch, using three lines of rope attached to a chain around the rock blocking access to South Canyon Road. The demonstration was the latest chapter in a dispute between Washington officials and locals upset with federal land policy. South Canyon Road was washed out in a flood in 1995. Federal authorities have blocked efforts to reopen it, fearing any work would jeopardize the existence of the bull trout population in the adjacent Jarbidge River. The Brigade claims the county is the rightful owner of the narrow dirt road and the Forest Service is the intruder.

Demonstration smaller than anticipated
http://usatoday.com/news/ndstue09.htm