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

-------- britain

BNFL pays £40m over flawed nuclear fuel British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) has agreed to ship a flawed consignment of nuclear fuel back from Japan and to pay £40 million.

ITN Online
07/11/00
http://www.itn.co.uk/World/world20000711/071104.htm

Workers at the company's Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria falsified records last year about the quality of the consignment of uranium and plutonium mixed oxide fuel delivered to Japan's Kansai Electric Power Company.

BNFL's chief executive Norman Askew said he hoped the measures would help restore the image of the UK's nuclear industry.

"This is clearly a major step," he said. "It's not the end of the story and there's still a lot of work to do."

Askew said he hoped the agreement, reached after a series of discussions between British and Japanese officials, would pave the way for British Nuclear Fuels to win new contracts in Japan.

Germany and Switzerland suspended dealings with Sellafield in the wake of the security scandal. Five employees at the plant were fired, and the company announced a management shakeup and new safety regulations.

Kansai Electric Power Company had planned to use the fuel for an experimental nuclear power program at a reactor in Takahama, in central Japan. The program was delayed after BNFL disclosed the quality control problem in December.

There was no immediate indication of when, or how, the fuel would be transported back to Britain. But speculation is mounting that the shipment will be with an armed escort to deter terrorists and pirates.

BNFL will also pay compensation to Kansai Electric, said Anna Walker, director-general of energy at the British Department of Trade and Industry.

She declined to specify the amount and added that it would take two to three years before the MOX fuel could be shipped back to Britain.

She said the fuel would be taken back aboard an armed ship, and the governments involved would have to discuss the issue with countries along the route of the shipment.

Asked if lifting the ban would mean new contracts from Kansai, Walker said this was a matter between BNFL and its customers.

The discovery of the faked data came at an extremely sensitive time for Japan, following its worst nuclear accident last September at a nuclear fuel processing plant that led to the death of two workers.

---

Britain Is to Take Nuclear Fuel Back From Japan

New York Times
July 11, 2000
By Reuters
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-japan-b.html

TOKYO (Reuters) - British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) has agreed to Japanese demands that it take back a shipment of nuclear fuel, Japan's Minister of International Trade and Industry Takeo Hiranuma said on Tuesday.

Japan's second-largest power utility, Kansai Electric Power Co Inc, had demanded that BNFL take back a consignment of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel after state-owned BNFL falsified data.

The revelation that BNFL had tampered with data of the fuel destined for Kansai Electric's nuclear reactors caused an uproar in Japan and an indefinite delay in the country's start of MOX fuel use.

``I welcome the fact that MITI and the British Department of Trade and Industry were able to agree on a policy of shipping back the MOX fuel to Britain,'' Japan's Minister of International Trade and Industry Takeo Hiranuma said.

COMPENSATION FOR JAPAN

In addition to taking back the fuel, BNFL would pay compensation to Kansai Electric, Anna Walker, director-general of energy at the British Department of Trade and Industry, said a talks with Japanese trade ministry officials.

She declined to specify the amount.

It would take two to three years before the MOX fuel could be shipped back to Britain from Kansai Electric, she said.

``The complexity of the issue means that realistically two to three years will be needed,'' Walker said.

She said the fuel would be taken back to Britain aboard an armed ship, and the governments involved would have to discuss the issue with countries along the route of the shipment.

Walker said Kansai would lift a ban on purchases from BNFL imposed in January, and welcomed Kansai's decision saying the ban has blocked new business for BNFL.

NEW CONTRACTS UNCERTAIN

Asked if lifting the ban would mean new contracts from Kansai, Walker said this was a matter between BNFL and its customers.

The MOX fuel to be taken back to Britain had been received last year from Kansai's Takahama No.4 reactor. A second batch intended for use in the plant's No.3 reactor was never shipped after it was discovered its data were also falsified and the fuel rods contained foreign objects.

MOX, or mixed oxide, fuel combines plutonium and uranium oxide recycled from spent nuclear fuel. It can be used at existing nuclear power stations after modifications to the plant are made.

MOX fuel is considered desirable by power plant operators because it reduces uranium consumption and is a way to use the plutonium produced by burning other sorts of nuclear fuel.

The discovery of the fakeD data came at an extremely sensitive time for Japan, following its worst nuclear accident last September at a nuclear fuel processing plant that led to the death of two workers.

The scandal caused by the faked MOX data has seriously damaged BNFL since Japan is the company's main customer. Japan power companies had delayed plans to begin using MOX fuel.

Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc had planned to begin burning MOX fuel early this year.

But at the government's suggestion, TEPCO, the largest Japanese power utility, decided to reconfirm the accuracy of the data for its own MOX fuel, although it was not made by BNFL but by a Belgian company.

-------- business

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Ends 23-Year Production Run of Navy Trident Missile Mk4 Reentry System Hardware

Company Press Release
Tuesday July 11, 11:04 am Eastern Time
From: Stephen Kobasa skobasa@pop.snet.net

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 2000--Lockheed Martin Space Systems -- Missiles & Space Operations, Sunnyvale, CA, recently completed a 23-year production run of Mk4 reentry body assembly hardware kits used to house nuclear warheads in the Trident I C4 and Trident II D5 submarine launched ballistic missile arsenal.

The Mk4 reentry system, developed jointly in the early 1970's by the Navy Strategic Systems Programs and the Department of Energy (DOE), is specifically designed to house the missile's W76 nuclear warhead. Additionally, it provides thermal protection for the warhead from the harsh reentry environment while ensuring accurate delivery of the payload to its intended target. The first W76/Mk4 reentry body entered the nation's nuclear stockpile in 1979, and today comprises the largest percentage of any strategic weapon in the US nuclear inventory.

``The Mk4 reentry body is the mainstay of our nation's nuclear deterrent,'' said Duke Williams, Space Systems chief systems engineer for Navy Reentry Systems. ``It has proven to be one of the safest and most reliable weapons in our nuclear arsenal.''

Missiles & Space received the first Mk4 production contract in 1976 and full-rate manufacturing began in 1977. Since that time, Missiles & Space has manufactured more than 5,000 Mk4 reentry body assembly kits for the U.S. and U.K. Navies. Each Trident missile carries multiple W76/Mk4 reentry bodies. The W76/Mk4 reentry body is assembled at the DOE PANTEX facility from hardware supplied by Missiles & Space, including the reentry body aeroshell, RF subsystem, nose-tip and complete release assembly.

Current Department of Defense plans call for the W76/Mk4 reentry body to support FBM operations until 2040. To meet this service life requirement, the Navy and DOE are planning a life extension program for the W76/Mk4. This program, slated to start early this decade, is projected to be complete around 2020. To support this effort, Missiles & Space will retain all Mk4 production tooling and most manufacturing capabilities.

In addition, Missiles & Space continues to be the Navy's prime system integrator for strategic reentry systems, participating in such activities as component and system aging studies, low-cost replacement materials development, aero-thermodynamic analytical tool development, reentry plasma prediction and mitigation technology studies, and advanced navigation, guidance and control technology development.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems -- Missiles & Space Operations, Sunnyvale, CA, has more than 40-years of experience in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, test and support of strategic missile reentry systems for the U.S. Navy and Air Force.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, headquartered in Denver, CO, is one of the major operating units of the world's largest defense contractor, Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT - news). Space Systems is a global leader in the design, development, test and production of space launch systems, ground systems, scientific spacecraft, satellites for commercial and government customers, fleet ballistic missiles and missile defense systems.

-------- canada

British Energy leases Ontario nuclear plants

07-11-00
Reuters
By Jeffrey Jones

TORONTO, July 11 (Reuters) - Privatisation of Canada's biggest power market got in gear on Tuesday when British Energy Plc (BGY.L) leased two Ontario nuclear plants, the result of a two-year search for private investment in the sector.

British Energy, Britain's largest power generator, beat out two other bidders to lease the Bruce A and B plants in a C$625 million ($422 million) deal with Ontario Power Generation, which is owned by the provincial government and which is a spinoff of the former debt-laden Ontario Hydro monopoly.

Ontario, Canada's most populous province with 11 million people, has for years been inching toward deregulation of its power market, worth about C$9 billion ($6 billion) annually. It is an effort that has been dogged by delays and red tape.

Under the deal, British Energy will own 95 percent of a new entity called Bruce Power Partnership, which will lease the stations until 2018 with an option for another 25 years.

The nuclear complex's two main labour unions will be invited to take the remaining 5 percent stake in the partnership.

The two units of the Bruce complex, located on the shore of Lake Huron between the towns of Port Elgin and Kincardine, have a capacity of more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity, although the 3,076 MW Bruce A unit is not currently operating.

British Energy's first C$400-million payment to Ontario Power will be made on closing and the remainder will be paid in two instalments. Bruce Power will also pay rent estimated at C$150 million a year, but the actual amount will depend on output and market conditions, it said.

The transaction's net present value to Ontario Power over the 18-year contract was estimated at C$1.8 billion, some of which will be funnelled back into Ontario's power sector in some form, Ontario Power vice-president Pat McNeil said.

In addition, some cash will fund liabilities that Ontario Power inherited from Ontario Hydro for plant decommissioning and disposal of spent nuclear fuel, McNeil said.

``Ontario Hydro had a significant amount of liabilities prior to its breakup. Ontario power is now responsible for those, and we'll retain those going forward,'' he said.

Longtime critics of Ontario's expensive nuclear programme said the move paled against what should be done: a full selloff of all three of its nuclear sites -- Bruce, Darlington and Pickering.

``I am an unwilling investor and guarantor -- kicking and screaming -- in this business that has lost tens of billions of dollars money in Ontario, and we expect to see it continue to lose money,'' said Norm Rubin, director of nuclear research for think-tank Energy Probe.

Ontario Power should not be allowed to reinvest any money into the energy business, but should be forced to put it against the sector's ``residual stranded debt,'' or debt that cannot be recovered through current revenues, Rubin said.

Ontario Power chief executive Ron Osborne said the deal was a big step in the province's deregulation process and would allow Ontario Power to concentrate on improving performance at its other nuclear facilities. The company has 20 CANDU reactors at all three sites, although only 12 are operational.

In 1998, after an embarrassing report on poor operating and safety performance at Ontario Hydro's nuclear facilities, the government hired investment bank Salomon Smith Barney to find bidders for Bruce.

But the process was delayed by the government's decision to break the Ontario Hydro monopoly into five companies focusing on different segments of the power business.

To reduce its market dominance, Ontario Power is required by the provincial government to cut its share of generating capacity to no more than 35 percent of that available to the province 10 years after the market is opened to competition.

That was first set for November of this year, but the Ontario government said last month that deregulation had been delayed by at least six months, citing a consultants' report that revealed hitches in the plan.

British Energy operates 15 reactors in Britain and another two in the United States through its AmerGen joint venture.

($1-$1.48 Canadian)

----

British Co. To Run Canada Nuke Plant

New York Times
July 11, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/f/AP-Canada-Nuclear-Lease.html
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000711/13/canada-nuclear-lease

TORONTO (AP) -- A British company has signed a $422 million agreement to operate Canada's largest nuclear plant, Ontario Power Generation announced Tuesday.

The deal with Edinburgh-based British Energy, which requires regulatory approval, runs until 2018 with the option to extend for another 25 years.

All 3,500 workers at the Bruce nuclear power station 150 miles northwest of Toronto on the shores of Lake Huron would retain their jobs, according to the announcement.

The deal is the first by the provincial government-run Ontario Power Generation to turn over a nuclear plant to private operators under a plan to reduce its output of nuclear-generated power.

The Bruce nuclear power plant has four working reactors that use uranium fuel and heavy water. Four other reactors at the plant have been shut down for several years under an Ontario Power Generation program to improve performance of its nuclear division.

Related Information From Hoover's Inc. British Energy PLC

-------- china

China Greets Cohen with Anti-Missile Blast

Yahoo News
Tuesday July 11 5:10 AM ET
By Paul Eckert
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000711/wl/china_usa_dc_2.html
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-china-u.html

BEIJING (Reuters) - China greeted the arrival of Defense Secretary William Cohen on Tuesday by urging Washington to drop plans to build anti-missile defense systems that have united China and Russia in opposition.

``We urge the United States to drop as soon as possible this plan, which does not serve its interest and harms that of others,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi told a news conference.

China is bitterly opposed to plans to build a National Missile Defense (NMD) system to protect vulnerable parts of the United States from missile attacks and a Theater Missile Defense system (TMD) to shelter U.S. and allied troops in Asia.

Beijing fears such an umbrella could cover Taiwan, which it regards as a renegade province that must be re-united with the mainland, and says the system would spark an arms race in Asia.

Beijing got no comfort on the TMD issue last weekend, when a senior U.S. arms negotiator said the United States had not ruled out sheltering Taiwan under the Asian missile defense umbrella.

``We don't rule out the possibility that some time in the future Taiwan may have TMD capabilities,'' U.S. arms control adviser John Holum said after two days of talks in Beijing.

Holum spoke to reporters on Saturday after the first arms control talks in more than a year between the United States and China, during which a U.S. test of the proposed NMD system failed.

Cohen Undaunted By Test Failure

The timing of the much-anticipated test added insult to injury for the worried Chinese.

The test failed because the so-called ``kill vehicle'' did not separate from its booster rocket. The trial never progressed to testing whether the weapon could find a dummy warhead in space and smash it out of the sky.

Cohen, in his first public response to the failed test, told reporters on his way to China the failure did not automatically mean he would recommend against moving forward with the system.

He must make a recommendation to President Clinton in four weeks on whether to go ahead with the NMD system.

``What I have to do is to await the full report, all of the analysis ... So at this point I'm just going to withhold any judgement,'' Cohen told reporters traveling with him.

Russia and China are adamantly opposed to the system, which is aimed at shielding the United States from attacks from states like North Korea, Iran and Iraq. U.S. allies in Europe are worried it could lead to a renewed arms race.

``No matter what the United States says, it will not change China's opposition to the anti-missile defense program,'' said Chinese spokesman Sun.

China Fears Global Balance Upset

Asked about reports China's senior arms negotiator said NMD would force Beijing to change its policy on nuclear disarmament, Sun said: ``We will determine our disarmament policy in accordance with the development of the anti-missile system.''

The Guangzhou Daily quoted China's top disarmament diplomat, Sha Zukang, on Tuesday as saying the NMD meant that ``China could not help but take a more cautious approach toward joining nuclear disarmament efforts.''

Development of the missile defense system is being tied to a deadline of 2005, when U.S. intelligence estimates North Korea will have a missile capable of hitting U.S. soil.

China has said it fears the NMD system would upset the global strategic balance and reduce the value of its modest nuclear deterrent capability.

Cohen planned to broach the issue of missile technology proliferation with Chinese leaders, including U.S. suspicions that China is sending technology to Pakistan -- an accusation both countries deny.

``Just generally speaking we are concerned about the transfer of (missile) technology to Middle East countries and to Iran specifically,'' he said, adding he was not accusing China of currently supplying Iran with technology.

Holum said he failed to bridge gaps with China over alleged Chinese sales of missile technology to Pakistan.

The New York Times said last week China had stepped up shipment of special steels, guidance systems and technical expertise to Pakistan.

--------

U.S. Defense Secretary Visits China

New York Times
July 11, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-US-China.html

BEIJING (AP) -- U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen arrived in the Chinese capital Tuesday to urge restraint in exporting missile technologies and to tell China's leaders that the Clinton administration intends to continue pursuing the development of a nationwide defense against long-range missiles.

In an interview en route to Beijing, Cohen said he would tell his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Chi Haotian, that the United States sees the spread of missile technologies as a long-term threat to America.

``What I will say is there continues to be a proliferation of missile technology which will pose a threat to the security of the United States, and we will continue our programs for researching and developing both theater missile defense systems and a national missile defense system,'' Cohen told reporters.

Theater missile defense refers to weaponry such as the Patriot antimissile system which are designed to shoot down shorter-range missiles like those China has aimed at Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait. A national missile defense would shoot down long-range missile capable of reaching U.S. soil.

China strongly opposes U.S. national missile defense as a threat to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and as a potential means of undermining the deterrent effect of China's own nuclear force. It also wants the United States to forswear providing Asian-theater missile defenses to Taiwan.

Cohen expects to meet with President Jiang Zemin and other senior Chinese leaders on his first trip to China since Beijing cut off military relations with the United States in response to the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last May. The United States insisted the attack was a mistake.

On his arrival at the Beijing airport Tuesday after a daylong flight from Washington, Cohen was greeted by Gen. Xiong Guangkai, deputy chief of the general staff, and by Joseph Prueher, the American ambassador to Beijing.

The United States and China are at odds on many national security issues, in addition to missile defense. Chief among these is U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, China's buildup of offensive ballistic missiles on its coastline facing Taiwan, and U.S. concerns about Chinese exports of missile technology to Pakistan.

After two days of arms control talks in Beijing last week, senior U.S. arms control adviser John Holum said there had been progress but the missile proliferation issue remained unresolved. Cohen said he would use his visit to again raise the administration's concerns about Chinese exports of missile technology to Pakistan.

In the interview en route to Beijing on Monday, Cohen left open the possibility that he might recommend to President Clinton that he take the first steps toward constructing a national missile defense, even though a much ballyhooed flight test of a prototype missile interceptor last Saturday was a flop.

The booster rocket which carried the missile interceptor into space in search of a mock warhead failed to release the interceptor, so it never had a chance to hit its target over the Pacific Ocean. The booster rocket also took an unscripted tumble during the flight, and it had a battery problem.

Cohen said he would consult further with technical experts before delivering his recommendation to Clinton in August.

``I still could make a recommendation,'' Cohen said, apparently meaning he was not ruling out the possibility of telling Clinton he should proceed with preliminary construction work even while awaiting more test results.

During his two days of meetings in Beijing, Cohen also is expected to raise the subject of cooperation on unearthing new information about the fate of American POWs from the Korean War whose remains are unaccounted for. The Pentagon is pressing China to open its military archives, believing they might shed light on cases involving U.S. servicemen who were held in prison camps run by China. The Pentagon also has evidence that servicemen were taken from North Korea to China during the war.

Robert Jones, head of the Pentagon office in charge of POW and MIA matters, is scheduled to visit Beijing later this month.

-------- cuba

Russia still interested in Cuba nuclear power project

RUSSIA: July 11, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7415

MOSCOW - Russia is still interested in helping Cuba complete construction of a nuclear power station started nearly 20 years ago but abandoned eight years ago, the trade ministry said in a statement yesterday.

"Russia is interested in setting up a joint venture at the Juragua nuclear power station, as it would facilitate repayment of earlier Russian credits to Cuba to finance the project... through sales of energy to be generated by the station," it said.

"Currently a Russian government expert council is examining the project," it added.

Russia and Cuba announced plans in May 1999 to create a joint venture to finish building the twin pressurized Juragua light water reactor station in south central Cuba.

Work at the plant was started in the early 1980s but abandoned in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The ministry said yesterday that completion of the plant's first reactor would require over $600 million, but did not say where the money would come from or when work may restart.

-------- japan

Japan, UK to meet on nuclear fuel after false data

JAPAN : July 11, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7413

TOKYO - Japanese and British government officials will meet today to discuss a controversial consignment of nuclear fuel, a Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) official said yesterday.

The MITI official said the meeting would be held between Anna Walker, director-general of energy at the British Department of Trade and Industry, and Hirobumi Kawano, the head of the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy, an arm of MITI.

The issue came to a head in February when Japan's second-largest power utility, Kansai Electric Power Co Inc, demanded that British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) take back a consignment of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel after it discovered that the state-run British nuclear fuel supplier had falsified data.

The revelation that BNFL had tampered with data on nuclear fuel destined for Kansai Electric's nuclear reactors caused an uproar in Japan and led Kansai Electric to postpone the use of MOX fuel in 1999.

The two governments are expected to agree that the nuclear fuel should be returned to Britain.

MITI Minister Takeo Hiranuma was quoted by Kyoto news agency last Friday as saying: "We are close to an agreement with the British government on the return of the fuel."

MOX fuel is a blend of uranium and plutonium recycled from spent nuclear fuel that can be used at existing nuclear power stations after modifications to the plant are made.

---

UK Reopens Nuclear Fuel Transport to Japan

July 11, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-11-12.html

LONDON, United Kingdom, A shipment of mixed uranium plutonium fuel delivered to Japan with falsified records last year will be taken back by the UK company that produced it.

British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. (BNFL) announced Tuesday that it will take back the mixed oxide (MOX) fuel and compensate the Kansai Electric Power Company. In return, Kansai Electric has lifted its suspension on new MOX and reprocessing business.

Japanese military boats escort the British Nuclear Fuels ship carrying the MOX fuel at issue into Fukushima harbor. (Photo by Jorge Punzi, courtesy Greenpeace)

The MOX fuel, a mixture of uranium and plutonium, was delivered to Japan last October with quality control data that had been falsified during its production at BNFL's Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria. The false data at issue specified the size of MOX fuel pellets.

For two months, BNFL and Kansai Electric denied data had been falsified. In December, under pressure from the environmental group Greenpeace, the records tampering was admitted.

Kansai Electric abandoned plans to load the eight MOX fuel assemblies in its nuclear power plant, Takahama 4, and demanded that BNFL take back the fuel.

On Tuesday, it got its wish.

While the United Kingdom and Japanese governments welcomed the news, Greenpeace, which had originally alerted the Japanese to the falsified data, condemned the announcement saying any new MOX shipments will threaten the environment of countries along the transport route.

"The agreement to return the MOX fuel is a desperate attempt to secure vital contracts for the new, but unopened, Sellafield MOX plant, which so far has less than seven percent of its order book signed, and no Japanese contracts," said Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Shaun Burnie.

"This shipment is being made to save an industry that has no future. Rather than generate more international opposition to Britain's plutonium industry and government policy, this plan should be scrapped," said Burnie.

Burnie alleged that falsification of quality control standards at Sellafield has been underway since the mid-1990s, not just for Japanese clients, but for German and Swiss companies, too.

Reports issued by the UK government's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate in February showed that there had also been irregularities in safety data documentation accompanying Sellafield MOX fuel made for utilities in Switzerland and Germany. In late February, Germany's second largest electricity generator, PreussenElektra, removed nuclear fuel rods made at Sellafield from its Unterweser power station because they said fuel pellet monitoring data had been "forged."

PreussenElektra's Unterweser power station. (Photo courtesy Siemens)

Greenpeace charges that the original falsification was driven by fundamental production problems, and that the technology used by BNFL is not able to guarantee high quality nuclear fuel.

Rather than shipping the MOX fuel, Greenpeace wants to see the fuel treated as nuclear waste in Tokaimura's vitrification plant, north of Tokyo. "A technical solution to this problem exists in Japan, but this is not about solutions - it is about the trade in weapons usable plutonium," said Burnie.

Last year's shipment of MOX fuel from the UK, on board the armed transport ship Pacific Pintail, took more than two months and 18,000 miles via the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New Zealand and the South Pacific. More than 50 countries opposed the shipment passing through their seas.

BNFL obtained several court injunctions against Greenpeace to prevent the group from interfering with the MOX sea shipment from Europe to Japan.

Norman Askew, BNFL's new chief executive met with Kansai officials in late June. He replaced John Taylor who resigned on account of the data falsification scandal.

Roundness measurement being performed on an experimental fuel pellet in a BNFL lab. (Photo courtesy BNFL)

Askew said, "We have been working very hard with our customer to find a solution. I am very pleased that these matters have been resolved, and with the lifting of the moratorium it opens the way for the re-establishing of a normal business relationship."

Askew admits that customer confidence has to be rebuilt. "We have enjoyed a positive and successful relationship with our customers in Japan for some 30 years and everyone in BNFL is determined to regain that confidence. This agreement is the start of that process."

Reports into the falsified data were released by BNFL and by the UK government's nuclear oversight inspectorate, in February. BNFL blamed a poor employee work ethic among certain employees and inadequate compliance with and implementation of quality assurance systems for the falsified data. Inadequate supervision and management compounded these problems, said both government and company reports.

Japan is engaged in a long term program to develop its nuclear energy industry and to produce secure supplies of electricity. The strategy includes a complete closed fuel cycle ensuring the proper management of the spent fuel and nuclear waste, by reprocessing the spent fuel, conditioning and disposing of the waste, and recycling the valuable fissile materials - uranium and plutonium.

So Japanese power companies decided to contract for overseas reprocessing and recycling services with BNFL and COGEMA in France, and to develop their own industrial reprocessing facilities.

----

Marine incident fuels Okinawan outrage

Asahi Evening News
By TARO KARASAKI
July 6, 2000
http://www.asahi.com/english/asahi/0706/asahi070608.html

NAHA-The arrest of a U.S. Marine accused of molesting a sleeping schoolgirl has heightened anti-base outrage among citizens and the Okinawa prefectural assembly.

The assembly on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a stricter code of conduct by the U.S. military. The government also demanded a U.S. apology to Okinawans.

The U.S. forces in Okinawa immediately issued a written apology, but the statement has done little to quell the anti-base emotions that have been fueled by the incident.

``We feel that the public sentiment against the incident is very severe,'' said Yoshito Yamada, director of the Military Base Affairs Office at the prefectural government. ``It could throw cold water on the upcoming Group of Eight summit'' scheduled for July 21-23.

The 19-year-old Marine, whose name has been withheld because he is a minor, is accused of breaking into the 14-year-old girl's home in the city of Okinawa and touching her body while she slept early Monday morning. After the girl's mother reported the incident to police, the Marine, who was stationed at the Air Station Futenma, was arrested on suspicion of trespassing and conducting an indecent act against a minor.

Vice Governor Hideo Ishikawa today was to formally ask the U.S. military in Okinawa and the central government to hold an extraordinary meeting of the Tripartite Committee to discuss measures to prevent a repeat of the incident. The forum, which involves the prefectural government, was established after the abduction and rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen in 1995, according to prefectural officials.

Okinawa's anger will also be felt in Tokyo. The prefectural assembly's special committee on base issues agreed Wednesday to send a five-member delegation to the nation's capital to lodge protests to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley.

The delegation will also file the protest with the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Facilities Administration Agency, the officials said.

The incident has also dealt a severe blow to the U.S. forces' efforts to promote its ``good-neighbor policy.''

Demonstrators picketed in front of the U.S. Marine Corps Camp Foster and Camp Zukeran, both in Kitanakagusuku, north of Naha, on Wednesday. About 150 people took part in the rallies, according to the Peace Action Center Okinawa, a group of unionists, progressive political party members and other activists.

Group leader Shiko Sakiyama said he planned to hold follow-up rallies and use the latest incident to stir anti-base sentiment.

``We hope to unify Okinawans' emotions against the existence of bases,'' said Suzuyo Takazato, a Naha assembly member and leader of the Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, which organized the International Women's Summit held in Naha in late June.

``While the military was supposed to have been implementing a stricter code of conduct ahead of the summit, the incident shows that this was not the case,'' Takazato said.

----

Japan's Nuclear Regulator Says Sorry For Tokaimura Accident

July 7, 2000
ENS
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/jul2000/2000L-07-07-12.html

TOKYO, Japan, Japan's nuclear industry regulator says a lack of safety culture led to the country's worst nuclear accident last September.

Two people died and more than 400 others were exposed to higher than normal levels of radiation in the accident at the Tokaimura uranium processing plant, 120 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, on September 30 1999.

Aerial view of the Tokaimura uranium processing plant. (Photo courtesy Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute - JNC)

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/pics12/tokaimura.jpg

In a report submitted to Japan's cabinet Friday, the Nuclear Safety Commission apologized for not doing more to prevent the accident and promised to do better. The commission is an advisory body to the Japanese premier and responsible for policy matters and regulations concerning the safety of nuclear energy.

"We deeply regret that the commission could not fulfill its duties, and we feel tremendous responsibility over being unable to respond to the public's trust," said the report.

However, the commission went on to blame the plant's operators, Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC), for allowing dangerous operations to take place. It said the government was not fully informed about safety management at the plant, which lacked a safety culture.

The commission said it intends to regain the public's trust by providing more information about the industry and using new legislation aimed at preventing and better coping with accidents at nuclear power facilities.

The new law, which went into effect in June, stipulates that the central government take the lead in dealing with nuclear accidents. It gives the prime minister responsibility for declaring a state of emergency, setting up a crisis management task force and requesting the dispatch of armed forces if necessary.

The report addresses various problems that emerged in Japan's nuclear power industry in 1999.

During the Tokaimura incident, more than 400 people, including 207 local residents, were exposed to higher than normal levels of radiation. The incident was measured as a level four accident, meaning it did not cause serious danger outside the facility.

Map of Japan's nuclear power reactors. (Photo courtesy U.S. Dept. of Energy - International Nuclear Safety Centre)

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/pics12/tokaimuramap.jpg

The dead, Hisashi Ouchi and Masato Shinohara, worked at the plant. It is believed they triggered a self sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction by pouring too much uranium into a tank using procedures that deviated from government approved methods.

In a separate incident in July 1999, a crack in a pipe caused more than 50 tons of cooling water containing radioactive material to leak inside a concrete containment housing a pressurized water reactor at the Tsuruga nuclear plant, in Fukui prefecture.

Later in the year, mixed uranium plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel shipped to Japan from British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) was found to be tainted because quality assurance data had been falsified.

Two months ago, the Citizens Nuclear Information Center of Japan published Criticality Accident at Tokaimura - 1 mg of uranium that shattered Japan's nuclear myth.

The booklet includes a complete critique of the final report released by the government's Uranium Processing Plant Criticality Accident Investigation Committee. It has information on developments with nuclear related administrations, compensation, and sentiments of local residents and the public.

----

BNFL ends Japan nuclear row

BBC
Tuesday, 11 July, 2000, 08:18 GMT 09:18 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_828000/828046.stm

Shipment to be sent back to Britain Britain is to take back the flawed shipment of nuclear fuel sold to Japan from the Sellafield plant in Cumbria last year.

British Nuclear Fuels admitted in September it had misled the Japanese by falsifying records about safety checks on the consignment.

The Japanese reacted with fury and insisted that BNFL should pay for the radioactive shipment of reprocessed plutonium pellets to be returned to the UK for disposal.

As diplomatic efforts continued the nuclear fuel rods sat unused in a Japanese port.

But now BNFL has agreed to pay for the shipment back to Britain, expected to cost several million pounds.

BNFL is also paying £40m in compensation to the Japanese customer, Kansai Electric.

In return Kansai is lifting its moratorium on new shipments of mixed oxide (Mox) fuel from Sellafield, opening up the way for around four billion pounds of future contracts put in jeopardy by the falsification scandal.

Environmental concerns

The chief executive of BNFL Norman Askew hailed the deal as "clearly a major step back to recovery".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This starts the process of underpinning and giving us opportunities for something like £4,000m worth of new business, and I think that is the context in which you have got to set the settlement.

He acknowledged, however, that there was "an awful long way to go" and said BNFL was not complacent about the challenges it still faced.

But Greenpeace described the deal as the "worst of all possible options"

Spokeswoman Bridget Woodman said BNFL's decision to ship back the plutonium raised major environmental and international security threats and that BNFL was deluded over the extent of future business.

She said: "What you are looking at in terms of future Mox prospects is a very limited market for something that is extremely expensive, very difficult to handle and causes enormous safety problems."

Anna Walker, a senior official from the Department of Trade and Industry welcomed the lifting of the "shadow" over relations between Japan and the UK.

She said: "The UK Government is committed to co-operating with the Japanese government over the return of the fuel.

"There are a great deal of complex issues and the return will in practice take time, two to three years we believe."

Armed escort

Warships could be needed to protect the vessel from pirates interested in its nuclear cargo.

And permission will be required from governments around the world reluctant to allow such an environmentally sensitive shipment to pass through their territorial waters.

But Japan's Minister of International Trade and Industry Takeo Hiranuma said: "I welcome the fact that MITI and the British Department of Trade and Industry were able to agree on a policy of shipping back the MOX fuel to Britain."

Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, the UK's nuclear watchdog, released a damning report in February on the shipment, saying there had been "a systematic management failure" at BNFL.

The UK Government has already apologised to Tokyo over the matter and is now hoping to rebuild confidence in its nuclear industry.

--

Photo:

A group of anti-nuclear demonstrators from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines hold banners and chant slogans "BNFL get out of Asia," outside the energy agency in downtown Tokyo Tuesday, July 11, 2000. Britain and Japan were negotiating over the MOX fuel, a combination of uranium and plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel, whose quality was falsely reported by British Nuclear Fuel Ltd. Britain agreed to take back the fuel. Photo by Tsugufumi Matsumoto (AP)

http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/photo/img/ap/japan/nuclear/waste/20000711/tok102?r=/photo/topic/international/nuclear

http://webcrawler-news.excite.com/img/feeds/ap/japan/nuclear/waste/20000711/tok102_full.jpg

----

U.S. Apologizes For Incident In Okinawa
Curfew Imposed on Military In Advance of G-8 Summit

By Doug Struck
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 11, 2000; Page A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-07/11/095l-071100-idx.html

TOKYO, July 10-A 19-year-old U.S. Marine who woke up from a drunken binge a week ago in the bed of a 14-year-old Okinawan girl and in the hands of local police has set off an international incident in advance of a conference of world leaders there next week.

The U.S. ambassador to Japan expressed his "profound regret" about the incident today, and American military officials slapped a new curfew and strict drinking regulations on all 26,000 U.S. troops stationed in Okinawa. The moves are an attempt to stanch the political damage from the Marine's arrest on suspicion of child molestation and from a hit-and-run accident Sunday involving an Air Force sergeant.

For Japan and the United States, the trouble could not have come at a worse time. Both governments were hoping that Okinawans' long-simmering opposition to the U.S. military bases there would not boil over during the Group of Eight summit conference July 21 to 23.

That hope is lost. Opponents of the bases have seized on the incidents and plan a rally Saturday. Japanese officials--from Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on down--have issued condemnations, and U.S. officials are bowing with apologies.

Ambassador Thomas S. Foley visited Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono today "to tell you the steps we have taken so this won't happen again." Starting tonight, troops were to be restricted to base or to their off-base homes after midnight and are barred from drinking during the curfew hours, military officials said. Marines will be effectively restricted to base during the summit.

While protesting the incident, Japanese politicians tried not to sour the atmosphere for the summit and President Clinton's visit to Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture.

On Friday, Mori called the Marine's conduct "outrageous. . . . It's no excuse to say [he] was young."

But Kono was more moderate today, saying the curfew and drinking ban are "an indication that the military takes these cases seriously and is taking preventative measures."

The Marine has not yet been charged. Because he is a teenager, a juvenile under Japanese law, his name has not been released. Local police said the Marine stumbled drunk into an unlocked home in Okinawa City on July 3 and into the girl's bed.

The girl's mother heard her daughter screaming, rescued her from the bed and called police, who found the Marine asleep and arrested him, according to local reports.

On Sunday, Air Force Sgt. Johnny S. Miller, 21, was charged with running a red light and fleeing the scene after hitting a pedestrian, who suffered minor injuries. What would be routine criminal cases in most places are magnified in Okinawa, where the presence of so many American troops 55 years after World War II raises mixed emotions.

Those passions flared when three servicemen were convicted in 1996 of raping a 12-year-old girl a year earlier. They have emerged again with a proposal to relocate Futenma Marine Corps Air Station from Ginowan City to the northeast coast of the island, instead of closing it or moving it elsewhere in Japan.

"As long as the bases are here, such incidents will happen," said Yoshikazu Nakasone, a leader of the Okinawa Peace Action Center, which is organizing Saturday's rally. "The only way to solve it is to say we don't want the bases here."

On the island's manicured military bases, U.S. troops were smarting under the curfew and the cloud over what had been slowly improving relations between the U.S. military and local citizens.

"I guess it's good if it helps to keep our noses clean," a 20-year-old Marine lance corporal said today.

Since the 1995 rape, the U.S. military has made a concerted effort to improve relations with the community and curb misbehavior by its troops, especially Marine Corps soldiers, who are predominantly young and single. Many of the 16,000 Marines come to Okinawa without family for short six- or 12-month tours.

Military officials privately protest that the crime rate among service members is lower than that of the general public. A 1999 report from the Okinawa Prefectural Police showed that crimes by U.S. military personnel on Okinawa had dropped 77.8 percent during a 10-year period.

And while the presence of foreign troops is an irritant to many Okinawans, the bases also are a mainstay of the economy. So public reaction to the Marine's arrest last week came slowly among local residents, who have mixed feelings about the Americans and their dependents.

"I think there's a little bit of overreaction with these incidents," said Roy Ginoza, 28, who works in a clothing store in Okinawa City, just outside Kadena Air Base.

But for Okinawan officials, who are eager for the summit to cast a favorable light on their tourist island, the incident is a blow.

"This should never happen," Seiichi Oyakawa, a top official in the Okinawan governorate, said today. "But the summit must be a success. We think these cases should not have an impact on the summit."

Jan Wesner Childs in Okinawa and Shigehiko Togo in Tokyo contributed to this report.

-------- korea

U.S. eyes 'constructive' talks on North Korea missiles

CNN
July 11, 2000 Web posted at: 8:26 a.m. HKT (0026 GMT)
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/east/07/10/nkorea.us.reut/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/east/07/10/nkorea.us.reut/malaysia.kuala.lumpur.jpg

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) -- The United States said on Monday that it was looking forward to constructive dialogue with Pyongyang at crucial talks on curbing North Korea's missile program.

The two sides, addressing the development, deployment, testing and export of North Korean missiles, ended the first day of their three-day talks being held at the U.S. embassy in the Malaysian capital.

No statement was issued afterwards, and a U.S. embassy spokeswoman said she could not comment on the development of the dialogue.

Earlier, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Non-proliferation Robert Einhorn said the talks were being held against "a positive, promising backdrop."

Washington has recently eased economic sanctions against North Korea after almost 50 years.

"Since our last round the North Koreans have embarked on a policy of extending contact with the outside world," Einhorn said in a brief statement to reporters before the start of the talks.

"We are looking forward to detailed constructive discussion on issues that we believe have an impact on the security of the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large," he said.

Einhorn greeted the North Korean delegates with handshakes on arrival at the embassy and greeted them with a chat as they returned to resume talks after lunch.

U.S. and North Korean officials have met on and off in Europe and the United States for the past six years after U.N. nuclear inspectors sounded the alarm that North Korea's civilian atomic power plants could be a front for an arms program.

On the nuclear issue, the two countries last met for six days of talks in Rome in May where North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear programs in return for fuel oil and western-designed nuclear power stations.

Alarmed by missile launch

North Korea launched a three-stage missile over Japan's main island of Honshu in August 1998, unnerving Japan and the United States.

North Korea promised Washington last year not to proceed with further testing of its long-range Taepodong ballistic missile and the United States quickly lifted some trade barriers.

Although it has reined in Pyongyang's nuclear program, Washington remains deeply concerned about North Korea's missile development, estimating that it could build a rocket capable of delivering a bomb over an American city by 2005.

This has driven a U.S. campaign to develop a missile shield defense system which is opposed by Russia, China and the United States' NATO allies who fear it would undermine existing arms control agreements.

After the ground-breaking summit between North and South Korea last month, the U.S. said it should still maintain a military presence on the Korean peninsula even if the two Koreas eventually reunify.

The United States has 37,000 troops in South Korea.

Washington also wants North Korea to stop delivering missiles and missile parts to other countries, including Pakistan and Middle Eastern states, which has been a major source of hard currency for Pyongyang.

Earlier talks on the issue had stalled as North Korea demanded at least $1 billion annually to suspend its missile exports while the United States refused to offer concessions.

---

Korean envoy departs

Washington Times
July 11, 2000
Embassy Row James Morrison
News and dispatches from the diplomatic corridor.
http://208.246.212.80/world/embassy-20007112272.htm

South Korean Ambassador Lee Hong-koo arrived in Washington more than two years ago during what he described as "somewhat extraordinary circumstances."

"At the end of 1997, Korea was unexpectedly engulfed in the Asian financial crisis. Most Koreans, including the newly elected president, Kim Dae-jung, felt it was the most dangerous challenge to our security and survival since the Korean War a half century ago," Mr. Lee wrote in a goodbye letter to Embassy Row.

The ambassador, who is leaving at the end of the month, recalled that his job was to "present a united front in Washington to expedite our economic recovery."

North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile in 1998 "and the lingering suspicion of a North Korean nuclear project also created a security crisis," he wrote.

However, last month's summit between Mr. Kim and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has "more or less" eased fears in the South, Mr. Lee said.

[The U.S. ambassador to South Korea sees the situation as much riskier. See the next item.]

The U.S.-South Korean relationship "is better than ever," Mr. Lee added. "The Korean economy has made a remarkable comeback since, and therefore my job is more or less done. . . . "The time has come for me to go home and enjoy well-earned rest," he wrote.

Yang Sung-chul, a political scientist, will replace Mr. Lee.

Defending South Korea

U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Stephen Bosworth says American troops will remain in the country because communist North Korea still poses a threat, despite the recent thaw in relations between the two Koreas.

"We are here because people and the government of South Korea feel threatened," he said in a interview with South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

"As long as that sense of threat continues, we will remain here as we are now."

He noted that last month's North-South summit meeting was "a very important strategic change" but did not change the need for the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea.

To contact James Morrison, call 202/636-3297, fax 202/832-7278 or e-mail morris@twtmail.com

--------

Day 2 of U.S.-N.Korea Missile Talks

New York Times
July 11, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-US-NKorea-Missile-Talks.html

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- U.S. and North Korean officials ended a second day of talks Tuesday on Pyongyang's development and export of missiles, but neither side said whether any progress was made.

The talks began Monday on an optimistic note, with the American negotiator saying the United States was prepared to move toward fundamentally improved relations with North Korea.

Robert Einhorn, U.S. assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation, greeted North Korean delegates with handshakes and smiles as they arrived early Tuesday at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. The North Korean delegation was led by Jang Chang Chon, head of the country's U.S affairs bureau.

The United States wants North Korea to halt the development and export of ballistic missiles, though Pyongyang says it will not negotiate on its right to develop defensive missiles.

The latest round of talks, due to hold a final session Wednesday, has so far focused on the issue of missile exports, Kim Myong Gil, a member of the North Korean delegation, said Tuesday. North Korea has in the past reportedly demanded annual compensation of $1 billion for three years if it curbs exports.

``The atmosphere was very sincere,'' Kim Myong Gil said, with little elaboration. ``This afternoon we talked a lot on the export issue, and we talked a lot on the compensation issue.''

Einhorn declined comment.

The United States claims North Korea is the world's top exporter of missile equipment and technology, with countries such as Pakistan and Iran as customers. In mid-1998, Pyongyang rattled Asia by test firing a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.

Despite the difficulties, Einhorn said Monday that the latest talks were being held in a positive atmosphere, largely due to a June summit meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung.

In a gesture to North Korea, South Korea plans to scale back a scheduled major military exercise with the United States, code-named Ulchi Focus Lens, the Korean daily Chosun Ilbo reported Tuesday, quoting an unidentified government official.

North Korea has recently agreed to a moratorium on tests of long-range missiles in exchange for an easing of U.S. sanctions. It has also moved to establish diplomatic relations with many countries in Asia and Europe.

Japan is working to restart negotiations with North Korea on establishing relations, which Pyongyang abruptly halted a month after they began in April, a Japanese government spokesman said Tuesday. ``We are in contact with North Korea through various channels,'' said Kazuhiko Koshikawa, of the prime minister's office.

Japan's Yomiuri newspaper said talks would resume in late August or early September, after Tokyo offered to send North Korea up to 150,000 tons of rice in an attempt to bring Pyongyang back to the table. Koshikawa said that no date has been set for talks, and denied that the government had approved food aid for North Korea.

-------- pacific

US military mulls cleanup of plutonium-laden soil

USA : July 11, 2000
Story by Mike Gordon
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7409

HONOLULU - Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fear the Department of Defence will not do enough to clean up plutonium-contaminated soil on tiny Johnston Island in the Pacific, where three failed nuclear missile tests exposed the wildlife refuge to radiation 38 years ago.

This week, the Defence Department is to present its proposed level of radiation cleanup for the island, the largest of four islands in the Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

The clean-up of the island about 700 miles southwest of Honolulu is tied to the military's departure from the island after decades of use as a refueling station and, later, as a major Pacific storage site for chemical weapons.

Johnston Island was used as a launch site in 1962 for 36 high-altitude nuclear missile explosions. However, one blew up on the launch pad and two others above the island, contaminating the soil with plutonium.

Military officials have put all the contaminated soil behind a fenced area on the island and currently have 45,000 metric tons of so-called "hot soil."

Defence officials are working with the Fish and Wildlife service as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but have not reached an agreement with them as to what level of contamination will be safe to leave behind after the cleanup. They also have not settled on how the soil would be cleaned and wildlife protected.

Rob Shallenberger, a deputy project leader with the wildlife service office in Honolulu, told Reuters the military must take responsibility because the island had been a pristine refuge for seabirds and marine life when it took over in 1934.

He said defence officials have discussed various cleanup options: Burying any contaminated soil under coral, sealing it in concrete or removing it entirely.

Shallenberger said he was worried about undiscovered pockets of contamination beneath the surface.

"What is most spectacular at Johnston is the coral reef," he said. "It is a wonderful marine system isolated in the Pacific. It is a special area," he said.

"Things will leach into it. The question is what the affect will be. We are very concerned that we know very little about what happens in the marine environment under these circumstances," Shallenberger said.

Harry Stumpf, an environmental engineer with the Defence Threat Reduction Agency, which is organising the cleanup for the Defence Department, said the agency had proposed a cleanup level of radiation that "is safe for unrestricted use".

"One of the options we are considering is to leave the material on site in a stabilised form," he said. "Basically, bury it."

That could cost about $2 million, he said. Removing the soil and burying it in a remote location would cost more than $40 million.

"It would have to be shipped by barge to Honolulu, then to the U.S. through a populated port and then across public highways by truck or train," Stumpf said. "We would have to get special authorisation from congress to do that. I don't think it would be well received."

Defence officials, the Fish and Wildlife service and the EPA hope to reach an agreement by this fall but Shallenberger was sceptical.

"We don't have a lot of expertise in this, so we're having to learn on the run," he said. "I am concerned we might make assumptions that don't turn out to be true."

-------- russia

Russian air force may take over nuclear arms -agencies

07-11-00
Reuters

MOSCOW, July 11 (Reuters) - Russia's General Staff will urge President Vladimir Putin and the Defence Ministry to put the country's nuclear weapons under the command of the air force, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday.

If approved, it would mean the disbanding of one of the key symbols of Russia's superpower status over the past four decades -- a separate body, the Strategic Missile Forces, overseeing the world's second biggest nuclear arsenal.

Quoting informed military sources, Interfax news agency said the proposal would be considered at talks by the military leadership at the Defence Ministry on Wednesday.

``The time frame for a reorganisation of Russia's strategic forces may be decided as early as Wednesday's meeting,'' Interfax quoted the sources as saying.

Itar-Tass news agency said Anatoly Kvashnin, head of the General Staff, sometimes mentioned as a possible successor to Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev, would deliver the proposal.

The sources stressed that the aim was to increase efficiency and streamline coordination between Russian military structures. They played down any suggestion that the changes marked a departure from Russia's defence priorities.

``The nuclear balance with the United States remains one of the key indicators in the area of state security,'' Interfax quoted them as saying.

But they also made clear that the changes would help boost Russia's neglected conventional forces.

``Today, when nuclear weapons are a factor for political deterrence, it is essential to reduce them to a minimum which allows us to keep the balance with the United States and to reallocate resources to conventional forces,'' they told Tass.

Interfax quoted the sources as saying the proposal would have no effect on the total number of people serving in the Russian armed forces, which at present stands at 1.2 million.

Over the past few years Sergeyev, a former head of the Strategic Missile Forces, has tended to favour the nuclear deterrent as an umbrella under which conventional forces could be cut.

But the 10-month war in Chechnya has exposed the weaknesses of Russia's conventional forces and Putin, elected in March, has indicated he wants to redress some of the balance.

----

Russia Releases New Foreign Policy Doctrine

New York Times
July 11, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/00/07/11/late/11cnd-russia-fpolicy.html

MOSCOW -- Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov announced a new foreign policy doctrine Monday, saying the policies will trim Russia's interests abroad to conserve scarce resources and place more emphasis on assisting the country's economic recovery.

Ivanov said the country should pursue only those foreign policy objectives that it can afford and will help build a stronger state.

"The point is to make our policy more rational, more profitable in the political and economic sense," Ivanov told a news conference.

The foreign minister did not provide specifics on how he intended to implement the new goals. However, by trimming interests he was likely referring, in part, to reducing Russia's extensive overseas obligations.

He said the country will focus on building alliances with regional powers, strengthen ties with important trading partners and work within the United Nations.

The doctrine's introduction follows Putin's state of the nation address Saturday, which called for an end to waffling on government policy, strengthening the central government and allowing a free market.

The Putin government's previous policy pronouncements have included a new security doctrine broadening the Kremlin's authority to use nuclear weapons and a so-called information security doctrine, which strengthens the government's role in monitoring information flows in Russia.

The foreign policy doctrine says the government should "insist on its lawful rights" in the foreign policy field, and have a "realistic" approach to Russia's interests, Ivanov told reporters.

The document reflects Russian bitterness over NATO's eastward expansion, which many in Russia consider a betrayal by the West. "Certain plans related to establishing new, equitable and mutually advantageous partnership relations ... have not been justified," the document reads.

The doctrine identifies the struggle against international terrorism, "which is capable of destabilizing the situation not only in individual states, but in entire regions," as the most important task of Russian foreign policy. Moscow contends that international terrorists are responsible for Russia's war in breakaway Chechnya.

Main foreign policy goals, such as lifting economic sanctions against Iraq -- a major debtor nation to Russia _ and defeating a U.S. proposal to build a limited national missile defense system, remain unchanged, Ivanov said.

"The missile defense system is a path to a unipolar world," Ivanov said, referring to what Russia calls U.S. dominance of world affairs. He said Putin will discuss the matter with President Clinton at the summit of the G-8 group of developed nations in Okinawa.

The U.S. missile defense plans "require a response from those states whose security is put in jeopardy," and if implemented, "Russia will also be required to take appropriate steps, but it's not our choice," Ivanov added.

Russia will continue to co-sponsor the Middle East peace process, together with the United States, he said. Ivanov said Putin would discuss strategic alliances with China during a visit to Beijing next week.

On wider themes, Ivanov said the country has no ambitions to revive its lost empire. But he said Russia deserves a special place in the world because of its vast natural resources, military power and rich intellectual and spiritual heritage.

"Russia was, is and will always be a superpower," he said.

The doctrine is the first announced since a post-Communist foreign policy reassessment in 1993. In that doctrine, Russia lowered its guard and focused on courting aid and advice from Western Europe and the United States.

----

INTERVIEW-Putin sees US missile concerns but no threat now

July 11, 2000
By Oleg Shchedrov
http://news.excite.com/news/r/000711/17/arms-russia-putin2

MOSCOW, July 11 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview on Tuesday he saw some merit in Washington's concerns about rogue states' possible nuclear missile plans but saw no threat from any country at the moment.

Putin -- a staunch critic of U.S. plans to build a national missile shield against rogue rockets -- told Reuters, Russia's ORT television and Japan's NHK television that efforts to ward off new threats should not damage the existing nuclear balance.

"I believed and still believe that the position of U.S. President (Bill Clinton) has some basis to it," Putin said. "And the basis is that we should assume that such threats can theoretically, in principle, emerge one day."

"But we do not believe that there are such threats now nor that they are coming from any specific states," he added.

"In every concrete case we should of course clearly assess and make it clear to everyone what we are talking about, what threats, what the scale of threat is and where it comes from."

The United States, worried by potential threats from so-called rogue states like Iraq, Iran or North Korea, is considering setting up a system which could allow to detect and destroy any incoming ballistic missile attack.

Washington is pressing Moscow to allow changes in the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) pact, under which each state can protect only a limited part of its territory against missile attacks.

Clinton is under domestic pressure to quit the ABM pact, which Russia sees as a backbone of all subsequent arms deals, if Moscow refuses to amend it to allow the new U.S. anti-missile shield known as the National Missile Defence.

MOSCOW FEARS UNPREDICTABLE CONSEQUENCES

Russia says altering ABM could bring about unpredictable consequences for international stability and has offered the West the idea of setting up a multinational non-strategic system which would not violate the pact. The idea is to shoot down rogue rockets as they are launched rather than in mid-flight.

"The difference in our approaches is that we offer to move further, preserving the level of mutual trust and the balance of strategic arms created as a result of the ABM pact, to work together on limiting potential threats which in theory may emerge," Putin said.

The Russian military has pointed to a second failed U.S. anti-missile test as proof the U.S. national missile defence project will not work. NMD may cost up to $60 billion, and Russia has said its plan could be built for much less.

Putin reiterated Moscow's position that a further cut in atomic weapons by the leading nuclear states could also contribute to reducing potential threats.

He repeated Moscow's call to the United States to limit at talks on the next arms reduction pact the number of each side's nuclear warheads to 1,500, rather than 2,500 as Washington would prefer.

"What can be better for mankind than reducing the threshold of the nuclear threat?" Putin said.

"We are proposing that we should follow that road. It is clear to everyone, even if the person is not expert."

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

Clinton Signs Hatch Bill on Uranium Injury

Salt Lake Tribune
Tuesday, July 11, 2000
http://www.sltrib.com/07112000/utah/66178.htm

President Clinton on Monday signed legislation that would provide $750 million for people injured as a result of their work in uranium mines and mills.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, offers financial compensation of up to $100,000 to thousands of people who work with uranium or who were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation from open-air nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site.

If the injured person has died, his or her heirs may be eligible.

Earlier this month, Hatch praised the bill's passage through Congress as a "major victory for the state of Utah."

Hatch was sponsor of a 1990 law known as the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), which offered financial compensation to people living directly "downwind" from the Nevada Test Site who were exposed to high levels of radioactive fallout and to some of those who worked in underground uranium mines.

The new bill amends RECA to include additional categories of people who are now known to have suffered health problems as a result of radiation exposure. For example, workers in underground uranium mines previously were compensated only if they suffered from certain types of diseases. The amendments expand the list of eligible diseases.

-------- hawaii

Johnston Atoll cleanup reviewed tomorrow

Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Tuesday, July 11, 2000
Newswatch By Star-Bulletin Staff

A final soil cleanup of Johnston Atoll will be the topic of a 7 p.m. public meeting tomorrow at Farrington High School.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency says radiological material fell on the atoll in 1962 from two aborted missile launches during high-altitude nuclear weapons tests.

The agency on Feb. 2 relayed the level of trace elements of plutonium remaining after its final soil cleanup to other federal bodies, including the Environmental Protection Agency.

Hawaii residents may see the report on the final soil cleanup at the Library of Hawaii and at Hamilton Library of the University of Hawaii.

-------- washington

Plutonium containers repacked for safety

Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Tuesday, July 11, 2000
Northwest Briefing
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/brfs1112.shtml

RICHLAND -- Fifteen containers of scrap plutonium on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation found to have the greatest potential to leak have been repacked or processed to render them less dangerous.

The containers were identified in an overdue inspection that began in March at a vault at the Plutonium Finishing Plant, said Pete Knollmeyer, an assistant manager for nuclear materials and facilities stabilization for the U.S. Department of Energy.

In February, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board noted that about two-thirds of the cans of plutonium in the vault had not been checked for leakage potential in 10 years.

Subsequent checks led to the identification of 15 small containers that needed work to prevent any plutonium-particle leaks.

The material was either repacked or baked to convert it into a less-dangerous powder form, Knollmeyer said.

The Plutonium Finishing Plant has 4.4 tons of plutonium mingled among 19.6 tons of scrap material left over from its Cold War production.

The plant's mission is to convert those 4.4 tons into safer forms of plutonium by mid-2004.

---

USA Today
07/11/00
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Washington

Richland - Secret work was halted temporarily at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory at the Hanford nuclear reservation because of a security lapse. On June 29 a worker took a copy of a classified drawing and some unclassified documents to an unsecured office. A review was ordered the next day when the lapse was discovered.

-------- us nuc politics

Pentagon Looks to Next Missile Test

New York Times
July 11, 2000
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Missile-Defense.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Pentagon is doing a second-by-second analysis of the latest test failure of its proposed national missile defense system, as it prepares for what has become an even more critical test as early as October.

``We're going to press forward,'' said Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, spokesman for the troubled program. ``This particular malfunction doesn't do anything to degrade our confidence in the overall technology that's been developed.''

Defense Secretary William Cohen, in Beijing for a meeting with Chinese defense chief Gen. Chi Haotian on Wednesday, said the second failed test out of three was disappointing but does not mean the Clinton administration will give up the goal of having the system ready to defend against incoming missiles by 2005.

Cohen said he will tell the Chinese, who oppose the U.S. system, that both a national missile defense and regional missile defenses are needed to counter a ``proliferation of missile technology.''

When he returns, Cohen is to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee to defend the program before Congress for the first time. The committee chairman, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said Congress would conduct an ``in-depth analysis'' of the latest tests.

The next test of the system designed to knock incoming missiles out of the sky with an unarmed ``kill vehicle'' is set for October or November and will be very similar to the one that had a double failure Saturday. The interceptor vehicle failed to separate from its second-stage booster, and a decoy balloon from the incoming rocket, designed to deceive the interceptor, failed to inflate.

``It would have been desirable to have two successful intercepts, but it doesn't mean the technology is not there yet,'' Cohen said en route to Beijing, adding that he remains convinced a national missile shield is needed.

Cohen said he had not decided whether to recommend that President Clinton proceed with construction for the system's ground-based radar in Alaska -- the next step in a plan for 100 missiles to protect against limited nuclear attack from present or future enemies or terrorists.

Rep. Curt Weldon, a House Armed Services subcommittee chairman, agreed.

``Should it slow down where we're going? No. Will it? Probably,'' said Weldon, R-Pa., chairman of the military research and development subcommittee.

Weldon accused Clinton of not really supporting the system and predicted he'd use the booster failure as an excuse for not going ahead.

Also on Capitol Hill, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, asked the Pentagon inspector general to investigate the failure of a decoy balloon in Saturday's test. That would have made the test suspect even if it had succeeded, Kucinich said. In an interview, he said the Pentagon knows the system can't tell a decoy from a real incoming missile.

``The American people deserve an investigation of this matter to determine whether the performance failure of the balloon decoy was indeed the result of a technical malfunction,'' Kucinich said in a letter to the inspector general. He and 50 other House Democrats earlier asked the FBI to investigate allegations by some scientists that the tests were rigged.

John Isaacs, president of the anti-nuclear Council for a Livable World, said Tuesday that the test failure should ``slow the program down significantly. ... The bottom line is that the national missile defense is still not ready for prime time.''

For proponents, Saturday's missile miss offered stark evidence of the vulnerability of American cities to long-range missiles that might be developed by countries like North Korea or Iraq. Had the missile been armed and aimed at a real target, an American city could have been destroyed.

For critics, it underscored the folly of committing $40 billion or much more to a missile shield that has angered Russia, China and Europeans and probably wouldn't work anyway.

Top administration officials said after the test failure that they expect Clinton to make a decision by the end of summer. No matter what the president decides, his successor is likely to make the important decisions on future construction and deployment.

--------

Maginot Line in the Sky

New York Times
July 11, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/00/07/11/letters/l11mis.html

To the Editor:

Re "Key Missile Parts Are Left Untested as Booster Fails" (front page, July 9):

Not only did the "Son of Star Wars" interceptor missile fail, and not only can Mylar balloons and other objects decoy it, but such a system is also a Maginot Line in the sky to start with.

A cruise missile could fly under it, and an S.U.V. with a nuclear bomb could destroy any city.

This $60 billion boondoggle serves only military contractors and the recipients of their campaign contributions.

TIM WALTER Lee, Mass., July 9, 2000

----

Hermann Kurzweg Dies
German Rocket Designer Later Worked for NASA

By Claudia Levy
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 11, 2000; Page B06
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-07/11/113l-071100-idx.html

Hermann Herbert Kurzweg, 92, an aerodynamicist who helped develop the V-2 rocket for Germany during World War II and later became chief scientist of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, died June 29 at a Pittsburgh hospital. He had Alzheimer's disease and had moved from Silver Spring to a Pittsburgh nursing home two years ago.

Dr. Kurzweg began work with the German Army's secret research facility in Peenemunde in the late 1930s as head of research. There he developed the world's largest supersonic wind tunnel to study the fin stability of the A4 rocket, later known as the V-2. It was the first long-range rocket used to bomb Great Britain during the war.

Before the wind tunnel was functioning, Dr. Kurzweg carried out aerodynamic stability experiments on rocket models he threw off his roof and while speeding down the local autobahn. Those primitive tests resulted in the V-2 fin design ultimately used. Technology developed at Peenemunde was to contribute significantly to later rockets and missiles.

After the facility was damaged by a British aerial attack in 1943, the wind tunnel research was moved to Kochel, in southern Germany. There, Dr. Kurzweg was director of the aerodynamic laboratory and worked on design of the Wassterfall anti-aircraft missile.

At the end of the war, Dr. Kurzweg was among the scientists, including Wernher von Braun, invited to work in the United States. He went to work for the Naval Ordnance Laboratory in White Oak, where he later was chief of aeroballistic research and technical director.

He rebuilt the supersonic wind tunnel, which was shipped in pieces from Kochel, and carried out research on naval weapons systems. He also designed hypersonic wind tunnels and ballistic ranges for the facility, used for aerodynamic research for the submarine-launched Poseidon missile and for studies on orbital reentry shapes. He also taught aerodynamics in the engineering school of the University of Maryland.

Dr. Kurzweg joined NASA in 1960 as assistant director of aerodynamics and flight mechanics. He was later director of research in the office of advanced research and technology, overseeing scientific work being conducted at five NASA centers. He retired in 1974.

Dr. Kurzweg was a native of Dresden and a graduate of the University of Leipzig, where he also received a doctorate in physics.

He served on scientific advisory groups for a number of government agencies and organizations, including NATO, for which he wrote an account of the development of the V-2 rocket. He was a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the Cosmos Club, Washington Academy of Sciences and Philosophical Society of Washington. His honors included the Navy's Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

-------- u.s. nuc weapons

False defense

Clinton's missile defense system is against a false threat, technologically unfeasible, an unwarranted investment, and could spark a nuclear arms race.

St. Petersburg Times
published July 11, 2000
A Times Editorial
http://sptimes.com/News/071100/Opinion/False_defense.shtml

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Sunday that President Clinton will consider four criteria -- "the threat, the technology, the cost and what it does to the overall American security" -- in deciding whether to move forward with development of a national missile defense system. If that were true, the president would have scrapped the plan long before now.

Consider each of those criteria:

THE THREAT: Much of the recent impetus for a missile defense system has come from security reports that North Korea's military program is on track to develop a missile that could threaten the United States by 2005. Recent reconciliation talks between North and South Korea raise the possibility that Pyongyang's Communist government may have less hostile relations with the West by 2005 -- assuming it even exists. In any case, the rationale for an elaborate missile defense system is based on the assumption that the leaders of North Korea or any other rogue nation would be insane enough to launch a missile at an American target, knowing that the attack would provoke a devastating U.S. nuclear retaliation. And advocates of a missile defense system acknowledge that it would do nothing to protect us from the more likely threat of nuclear, chemical or biological attack from within our borders or close offshore.

THE TECHNOLOGY: Saturday's failure of an important test was just the latest embarrassment for those hoping to profit politically or financially from a missile defense system, but even a "successful" test would have had little meaning. Presumably, an actual future adversary will not give us ample advance warning as to when, how and from where an attack is coming, nor will it limit the number and complexity of decoys with which a missile defense system will have to contend. Even with all those unrealistic advantages, the Pentagon's tests have given no reason for optimism that a reliable system will be technologically feasible in the foreseeable future.

THE COST: The limited system envisioned by the Clinton administration is projected to cost about $60-billion. History strongly suggests that the actual cost would be many times greater. GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush and other leading Republicans already have committed themselves to a much more elaborate -- and far more expensive -- system. No rational analysis of our security needs could justify making such a huge investment in such a dubious technology to defend against such a remote threat.

OVERALL AMERICAN SECURITY: Even many of our closest allies warn that development of a missile defense system could jeopardize the existing security apparatus that has served our nation well for decades. NATO partners and other allies worry that a U.S. missile shield, whether or not it worked, would "decouple" U.S. security interests from their own. More ominously, Russia has been quite clear in warning that our unilateral abrogation of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty could spark a new nuclear arms race. China's government has criticized the American plans in even harsher terms.

Before destabilizing the current security equilibrium, U.S. officials should be certain that they would be replacing it with a system that provides even greater security from enemy attack. Perhaps circumstances will change over the next few years so that an analysis of the criteria listed by Albright would warrant development of a missile shield, but those conditions do not exist today.

Instead, the pressure to commit to an expensive, unproven, potentially destabilizing missile defense system is coming almost entirely from a fifth variable not mentioned by Albright: partisan politics. For fear of being labeled weak on defense in an election year, President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore have matched Republican demagoguery with their own posturing. Nuclear security is far too grave an issue to be subjected to such cheap political maneuvering.

----

EDITORIAL: U.S. should not rush plans for nuclear defense system

Excite News
July 11, 2000
Staff Editorial Daily Collegian Pennsylvania State U.
http://news.excite.com/news/uw/000711/university-14

(U-WIRE) UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- On Sunday, a flight test of the proposed National Missile Defense system failed after the interceptor missile malfunctioned and failed to separate from the booster rocket. Before the United States rushes into building a missile shield, some considerations should be taken.

There is no impending danger to the nation that requires the country to have the defense system finished as soon as 2005, a date Defense Department officials are hopeful the project will be finished.

A seeming rush to complete such a system only sends the wrong message to other nations and creates paranoia about possible threats of attack. U.S. allies in Europe have voiced concern that the defense plan will spark a new arms race and another Cold War.

Russia has warned that a decision to deploy even a limited missile defense system could break the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and endanger other arms agreements. Russian generals have threatened in recent months to return to the Cold War practice of building multiple-warhead missiles and intermediate-range rockets that could hit Europe if Washington, D.C. goes ahead with a missile defense system, according to an article in Sunday's Washington Post.

Even Britain, Washington, D.C.'s staunchest supporter regarding the need to take measures against potential missile threats posed by terrorist groups or radical states, has expressed qualms about breaking the ABM Treaty.

Germany, which along with France is most firmly opposed to the idea, is worried about damaging long-term relations with Russia just when the country has established a good rapport with Putin.

While a defense system is necessary for protection against countries such as North Korea that have refused to regulate their nuclear arms, the United States also has a responsibility to be an example to peaceful and volatile nations. As a global powerhouse, the U.S. should set an example of trust toward other nations that signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The United States agreed to limit nuclear arms, but rapidly building a defense system shows no faith in the other nations who agreed to lay down arms. The United States should take more time to create a strong defense system that doesn't have the flaws of the current prototype.

While the Pentagon questions its missile defense testing and whether interceptors can distinguish between armed warheads and decoys, U.S. officials need to encourage a defense system that will protect citizens but not instill fear into their hearts of creating another Cold War.

---

Invulnerability Is a Myth

San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, July 11, 2000
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/07/11/ED105554.DTL

IMAGINE, FOR a moment, that the prototype missile defense system had worked perfectly, that it had found and exploded the incoming missile.

A successful hit would have created a triumphal flash in the sky, along with great fanfare and patriotic boasts about America's nuclear superiority. Those in favor of designing and building a major defense missile system would have felt vindicated.

But does our country really need a missile defense shield, even if --a big if -- it were technologically feasible? Armed with an enormous arsenal of intercontinental missiles, the United States has already achieved a level of technological and nuclear superiority that can ably protect its citizens. Won't a protective shield simply ignite another dangerous arms race?

And just who exactly is our enemy? The Clinton administration's stated purpose was to counter North Korea's future capacity, around 2005, to hurl intercontinental missiles at Alaska or Hawaii. But why would North Korean leaders risk nuclear retaliation and certain annihilation in a dubious quest to destroy Alaska or Hawaii, but not San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, or Washington, D.C.? Far more likely is the prospect that a nuclear device would be delivered by simpler means that would not be as easily traceable to the terrorism-sponsoring country -- especially with the development of suitcase-size bombs.

Behind all the rhetoric about North Korea, Iran and Iraq -- the so-called ``states of concern'' (the administration's new diplomatese for the erstwhile ``rogue nations'') -- is this nation's determination to maintain military domination over Russia and China.

The leaders of Russia, China and Europe all know this. That is why the creation of a missile defense shield threatens to rupture this nation's fragile relationships with so many other countries. They understand that America's willingness to violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which prohibited the construction of any anti-missile system, is not aimed at Iran, Iraq, or North Korea, but at Russian and China.

As the only remaining superpower, however, this nation has a special responsibility to further global stability, not to design, build and deploy the biggest and best weapons on the block. Invulnerability, moreover, is a myth. Just one terrorist bomb, several drops of chemical or biological toxic agents, or a single act of espionage, and our national security is breached.

Even if the prototype missile interceptor had proved successful, this nation's prospective leaders would still have needed to rethink and debate the wisdom of spending $60 billion on a shield that is technically questionable and politically problematic.

---

Cohen calls failure of missile test minor

Washington Times
July 11, 2000
By Bill Gertz
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-200071122470.htm

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said yesterday that Saturday's failed test of a missile-defense shield was not a major setback, and that he could still recommend going ahead with the project.

"The test itself was a disappointment, but it was one of those failures that was least expected. . . . That happens from time to time -that you have a failure of something that's fairly routine."

The missile test failed when the nonexplosive "kill vehicle" did not separate from the second stage. As a result, the interceptor fired from an island in the Pacific Ocean failed to hit a target warhead fired minutes earlier from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

"The failure here was not the failure of the most sophisticated elements of it," he said. "That's something that's not fatal to the program, and so I would reserve the judgment until I get all the way through the analysis," he told reporters traveling aboard his C-32 jet on his way to Beijing, where he is to hold talks with Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian and other Chinese leaders tomorrow and Thursday.

Even though there are plans for 12 to 15 more flight tests before the system would be ready, Mr. Cohen acknowledged that the failed test -the last before he makes his recommendation to President Clinton -was disappointing.

"It would have been helpful to have had this test succeed," he said.

Mr. Cohen said he was hoping the Pentagon could achieve two intercepts before he makes the deployment recommendation.

The missile-defense system -estimated to cost $60 billion - has been tested three times, failing twice. In October, an interceptor missile successfully slammed into a target warhead. A second test in January was close to an intercept but a coolant problem led to a miss.

"But it doesn't mean that the technology is not there yet," he said. "I still could make a recommendation [to deploy]. I just have to wait and sit down and review all the information."

A final recommendation to the president on whether to proceed with deployment of the national missile defense will be made in three to four weeks, he said.

"It's a very important recommendation," he said. "I want to make sure that I have as much information as I can before submitting to the president a recommendation which will be very important to him and to the country."

Mr. Cohen said he will carefully analyze all the information about the developing program, which would include 20 to 100 interceptors based in Alaska, along with satellite sensors and ground radars.

The recommendation must be made this year if the Pentagon is to meet the tight deadline of having a system in place by 2005 - when North Korea is expected to have the capability of hitting the United States with a long-range missile, Mr. Cohen said.

The topic of missile defense is expected to come up in talks in Beijing between Mr. Cohen and Gen. Chi. China is opposing U.S. missile defenses and its official press has described plans for the limited system as a U.S. government plan to dominate the world.

Mr. Cohen said he plans to tell Chinese leaders opposed to the U.S. national missile defense (NMD) that the system is needed because of the continuing spread of missile technology, "which will pose a threat to the security of the United States."

"We never want to have the United States put in the position of being blackmailed . . . and prevented from carrying out our security interests in the conventional way. I believe that any president would want to assure the American people that we would not be prevented or intimidated from carrying out our national security interests," Mr. Cohen said.

The United States would try to build the anti-missile system within the framework of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, signed with the defunct Soviet Union, "but as long as the threat continues to exist, we're going to have to have defenses against them," Mr. Cohen said.

Asked if he believes North Korea by 2005 will field a missile capable of hitting the United States, Mr. Cohen said the North Koreans have stopped testing, but "they could go forward whenever they choose to do so . . . depending upon their progress that they make [in talks] with South Korea."

"We cannot adjust or calibrate whether or not we are going to go forward with an NMD program based upon what the North Koreans may say from time to time," Mr. Cohen said. "We have to assess what the capability is, and then make our own determination. I think it's clear based on what they have done in the past, they could achieve a long-range capability by 2005."

When asked if he favors deploying a national missile defense, Mr. Cohen said: "I think you'll have to stay tuned. Sometime in August I'll give you a response."

On another subject, Mr. Cohen said he will raise U.S. worries with Chinese leaders about Beijing's weapons proliferation activities, specifically related to Iran and Pakistan. His message will be that "we need to curb the proliferation of missile technology."

Recent U.S. intelligence reports have indicated that China is assisting Libya with long-range missiles and also is supplying Pakistan with missile technology. Intelligence reports also have indicated continuing cooperation between Iran and China on nuclear-weapons technology.

Meanwhile, Mr. Cohen said he would have opposed a move by China's state-run news agency into a building overlooking the Pentagon.

The Xinhua News Agency bought the apartment building in June without receiving State Department approval as required. But after an outcry of opposition, Xinhua announced it would sell the building less than a mile from the Pentagon.

On another topic, Mr. Cohen said he is planning to scale back the Pentagon's program of inoculating soldiers against the biological weapon anthrax.

"My recommendation is going to be that we reduce the program, continue the program, but to target it more specifically to those who are deployed to Southwest Asia and South Korea, for the most part," he said.

The Pentagon is running out of vaccine after stockpiles were ruled too old by the Food and Drug Administration. About 100,000 doses of the vaccine will be used for troops sent to the Middle East and Korea.

The vaccine program will be reduced "in a way that preserves the program itself until such time as we can get a certification of additional supplies," Mr. Cohen said.

<a name="military"></a>

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

Pentagon Curbs Anthrax Shots

WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
Compiled from reports by the Associated Press and Reuters
Tuesday, July 11, 2000; Page A05
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-07/11/102l-071100-idx.html

The Pentagon's controversial program of vaccinating all troops against anthrax will be cut back immediately to conserve dwindling vaccine supplies, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said.

Cohen said inoculations will be limited mainly to those troops who already are taking the series of anthrax vaccine shots and those who are preparing to deploy to the Middle East and South Korea--where, in the Pentagon's estimation, the threat of exposure to the deadly anthrax virus is greatest.

A relatively small, but increasingly vocal, number of military personnel are refusing to take the vaccine. They fear potentially damaging side effects, although the Pentagon insists the vaccine is safe.

-------- drug war

Drug Czar to Target Film Themes

Los Angeles
Tuesday, July 11, 2000
By ERIC LICHTBLAU, Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/updates/lat_drugs000711.htm

WASHINGTON--White House drug policymakers, undeterred by the flak they caught earlier this year for quietly trying to sprinkle anti-drug messages into some of the nation's most popular television shows, want to expand into an even bigger arena: the silver screen.

Federal officials plan to "leverage popular movies" by working more closely with major studios, writers and directors to promote films that "responsibly communicate [anti-drug] campaign messages," according to a plan that Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, is expected to disclose today in congressional testimony.

"As powerful as television is, some experts believe that movies have an even stronger impact on young people," according to McCaffrey's statement, a copy of which was obtained by The Times.

McCaffrey's push on the cinematic front promises to reopen a furious debate over how far government should go to get its anti-drug message out to young people.

In January, McCaffrey weathered fierce criticism from members of Congress, civil libertarians and creative forces in the television industry when it was disclosed that his office quietly had been giving major TV networks millions of dollars' worth of financial credit for incorporating positive anti-drug messages in popular shows such as "E.R.," "Beverly Hills, 90210," "Cosby" and others.

The unusual arrangement grew out of 1997 legislation authorizing McCaffrey's office to spend as much as $1 billion over five years to get anti-drug messages into the popular media.

White House drug officials said the campaign has been so successful that, by their count, the vast majority of children 12 to 17 are exposed to more than eight paid anti-drug advertisements each week, plus many subtler messages contained in programmed entertainment. But critics said that the campaign amounts to Orwellian-like censorship by the government, using hidden financial incentives to get its message into standard programming fare.

The 1997 legislation requires that for every dollar the government spends on anti-drug ads, the media outlet that receives the money--be it a television station, a newspaper, a magazine or other outlets--must match it with a public service announcement or similar anti-drug themed message.

But TV executives are loath to use valuable commercial air time for free ads, and McCaffrey's office has allowed the major networks the option of meeting the air-time requirement by broadcasting shows that include positive and "accurate depictions of drug-use issues."

To date, 109 television episodes have been awarded credit for what were deemed to be positive messages. In some instances, White House drug officials reviewed scripts and advance footage of shows and suggested changes. But when criticism erupted in January after an article appeared in the online magazine Salon, McCaffrey's office revised its policies so that programs no longer would be reviewed for credit until after they had been broadcast.

In April, McCaffrey withstood a fresh round of criticism when it was disclosed that at least six major magazines and several newspapers also had met matching requirements under the 1997 legislation by publishing articles with positive drug messages.

The potential role of movies in the drug office's campaign received virtually no discussion during the debate over the incentive program.

McCaffrey has talked before about wanting to work more closely with Hollywood to promote anti-drug messages, but a draft of his comments to be delivered today before a panel of the House Government Reform Committee suggests a far more aggressive foray into films.

Campaign to Focus on Filmmakers

Along with a broader discussion of how his agency is seeking to influence the portrayal of drug use in the media, McCaffrey plans to devote one section of his testimony to "Focusing on Filmmakers." McCaffrey's text says that "to impact film, the campaign will work closely with major studios, as well as the individual writers and directors, who are the driving force behind what is seen on the screen.

"Getting campaign messages in front of these individuals requires working with the organizations that represent them, such as the writers and directors guilds. We have begun this process . . . and will continue our efforts through workshops, briefings, round-tables and one-on-one conversations with industry leaders," he said.

"Through continuous dialogue we believe we can raise awareness about how images of substance abuse in the movies impact audiences, particularly young audiences," he said. But as protracted as the process for making movies can be, McCaffrey said, he "understands that we may not see concrete results for several years."

McCaffrey said that he also wants to capitalize on the high visibility of movies by planning promotional links and special events once they are released. What is left unsaid in his statement, however, is whether McCaffrey plans to use financial incentives to influence the actual content of movies, as has happened in television.

Bob Weiner, a spokesman for McCaffrey, said that the White House drug office has bought a limited number of anti-drug trailer ads to be shown in theaters before movies. Although he could not provide specific figures, Weiner said that to his knowledge all of the movie studios and theater owners that screened those trailers met matching requirements by showing additional public service trailers, not by submitting claims for movies with anti-drug spins.

"But if the movies choose to do that, they can submit it to our contractors, after the movie is completed, for review for credit," he added.

Industry Wary of Proposal

Officials on Capitol Hill and in Hollywood said they would be wary of any efforts to expand McCaffrey's reach into the movie industry.

"This certainly raises a lot of new questions," one congressional source said. "How is this going to be done and--given the track record [by McCaffrey's office in TV programming] and the ambivalence out there on Capitol Hill--how will it be received?"

Andy Zahn, an executive with the DreamWorks studio who deals with political outreach issues, noted that there have been a number of efforts over the years to incorporate more positive portrayals in the movies on subjects like the environment, alcohol abuse and seat belts.

But the groups pushing those causes usually are not associated with the government, which has greater power to impose its will, he added.

"If this is something that's not positioned as a joint cooperative effort," he said of McCaffrey's comments, "it will have a hard time getting any traction. Otherwise, there certainly would be some resistance."

-------- fiji

Fiji tourists, hostages released

USA Today
07/11/00- Updated 07:21 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue03.htm

SUVA, Fiji (AP) - Indigenous Fijian rebels freed nine of their 27 government captives Wednesday, moving Fiji closer to the end of a near two-month crisis.

Other rebels seized a beach resort where The Blue Lagoon was filmed, later releasing its 40 guests.

The nine government hostages were turned over to the Red Cross as rebels appeared trying to ease a crisis that began May 19 when they stormed Parliament and took several dozen hostages, including then-Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry. Red Cross doctor Bhagat Ram said the nine freed hostages were unharmed.

They included all the ethnic Indian parliamentarians except for the deposed prime minister and his son.

The other remaining hostages are all ethnic Fijian legislators. ''They looked happy to get out of that (Parliament) complex,'' Ram said. ''They conversed very well and they have gone to their homes.''

The release of the government captives came hours after an unrelated rebel group seized a posh resort on Turtle Island over what they said was a land dispute.

''We saw a crisis in Fiji and we're thinking this is a good time,'' rebel Mavi Ratulevu said.

The 40 guests, including 15 Americans, were later placed on a cruise ship heading to Fiji's main island, Viti Levu.

The resort's owner, American Richard Evanson, was still being held. ''We're going to keep an eye on him for a while,'' Ratulevu said.

He added the group might be occupying the island for a week, unless a satisfactory resolution could be reached.

The tourists included 19 Australians, four New Zealanders and two Britons. There was a total of 11 children among them.

The Turtle Island resort, where some cottages rent for $1,000 a night, was the site of the 1949 filming of ''The Blue Lagoon'' and parts of the 1980 Brooke Shields remake.

Those responsible for the takeover were believed to be from a tribe in the Yawawa islets off the northwest coast of Viti Levu.

They have been involved for years in a dispute over who owns Turtle Island.

Wednesday's developments came three days after the rebels, led by former businessman George Speight, signed an agreement with Fiji's military government to end the hostage crisis. Under the agreement, Speight was supposed to release all his hostages Thursday.

It was unclear what the early release signified. Speight's spokesman, Jo Nata, said the hostages were released because ''we felt - apart from being a gesture of good will - it is a consideration of security. If we released them all at once it could cause a stampede outside Parliament.

''They also had asked us if and when they were released if we could do it at night to avoid the humiliation of being liberated in front of our supporters.'' Mary Aull, the wife of freed Parliamentarian Bill Aull, said his release was ''unbelievable.'' ''It's been a long time,'' she said.

''God was good.'' Mary Aull said her husband appeared to be unhurt, but he did not want to talk about his ordeal. ''We still have hostages inside,'' she said.

The rebels are ethnic Fijians who say the nation's large ethnic Indian minority has too much power. They demanded that the country's multiracial constitution be scrapped and that Chaudhry, Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister, be deposed.

In the days after the seizure of the hostages, Speight supporters looted and burned ethnic Indian homes and businesses, and many Indians made plans to flee the country. The violence led Fiji's military to take control and declare martial law.

On Sunday, after weeks of negotiations, military leaders and Speight reached the deal to free the hostages in exchange for the granting of many of Speight's demands, including a new government and a new constitution curtailing Indian rights.

There has been speculation that Speight may end up with a Cabinet post, perhaps even the prime minister's job.

He told a news conference that such a move would be a perfect end for the coup.

But unrest has persisted despite the deal.

Speight supporters have engaged in widespread civil disturbances across the nation, occupying police stations and blockading roads in an apparent effort to wring more concessions from the military regime.

Part of the civil disturbance Wednesday included limited access to the airport at Suva although flights were taking off and landing normally.

Indo-Fijians, whose ancestors were brought to the islands by English colonialists over a century ago to work in the rich sugar cane fields, make up 44 percent of the nation's 812,000 people.

Many of the indigenous Fijians who comprise 51 percent of the population resent their economic clout.

Fiji's tourist industry has been devastated by the government crisis, with some of the hundreds of resort hotels scattered across dozens of islands reporting occupancy rates as low as 10 percent.

However, around 1,000 Americans a week have been among tourists still coming into Fiji. It was not known if any of the guests on Turtle Island were American.

---

Unrest mars deal for Fiji peace

Washington Times
July 11, 2000
World Scene
http://208.246.212.80/world/ed-column-200071122137.htm

SUVA, Fiji - Despite a peace deal to end Fiji's hostage crisis, civil unrest here worsened yesterday: Rebel sympathizers set fire to a Masonic lodge and occupied a U.S.-affiliated tuna cannery.

The pact signed Sunday by rebel leader George Speight will release the captives Thursday, when the Great Council of Chiefs convenes to choose a new president of the South Pacific island nation.

Mr. Speight demanded that the rights of indigenous Fijians take precedence and took 27 members of the government hostage.

-------- iraq Washington Times

Ben Ali calls for end to Iraq embargo By Arnaud de Borchgrave

THE WASHINGTON TIMES
July 11, 2000
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-2000711222524.htm

HAMMAMET, Tunisia - President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali said in an interview that all Arab nations except one now favor lifting economic sanctions against Iraq.

The exception is Kuwait, where Iraqi forces were driven out by a U.S.-led 29-nation coalition in 1991.

In an exclusive interview conducted at his weekend retreat near Tunis, Mr. Ben Ali said: "Embargoes do not work. They are counterproductive and simply perpetuate dictators in power. . . . You are hurting the people, not the regime, and Saddam Hussein can keep blaming their inhuman plight on the U.S."

President Ben Ali said "every Iraqi family has lost someone to war or deprivation as a result of the embargo. Iraq used to be the most advanced country in the Arab world. Now the country is finished in its present state. And Saddam continues to dream of revenge. This has been going on for 10 years. So prudence and foresight would seem to dictate an end to sanctions that the regime circumvents anyway."

Mr. Ben Ali was preparing for his state visit to the United States, beginning July 13, when he received a 20-minute call from President Clinton asking him to postpone his trip until September because he wanted to give the Camp David talks between Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak "my undivided attention."

The Tunisian president, in a 90-minute interview conducted in French, said Mr. Arafat had called to say he was not going to Camp David.

"He said on the phone that first Israel had to implement the accords already reached," Mr. Ben Ali explained. "I said to Arafat, 'never say never.' If something breaks down, it must not be perceived as Arafat's fault."

Mr. Arafat is now planning to join Mr. Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for a summit meeting starting today at Camp David.

Mr. Ben Ali went on to say "the two sides are condemned to live together. Israel will have to accept a Palestinian administrative capital in East Jerusalem. As for the return of Palestinian refugees, clearly the principle has to be accepted of open borders and freedom of movement.

"The two sides must raise their sights and look at their futures in the context of the ever-faster pace of technological change. And here Israel's tremendous advances can play the role of locomotive for the region."

He warned that if some Israelis believe they might be better off waiting for Mr. Arafat's political demise, "that would be playing with fire . . . this new Palestinian leader could well be a less moderate figure."

Mr. Ben Ali said nations trying to find counterweights to American power should not waste their resources, as "that kind of balance is dead. There is no way Russia can replace the U.S.S.R. as a global power. India and China . . . are a long way from being part of any global balance of power. The EU [European Union] is probably the closest, but it remains to be seen whether the Europeans are prepared to spend what it takes to be a global power capable of assuming the role of an emergency response number for the whole world."

In Mr. Ben Ali's view, people should not worry whether globalization and Americanization are one and the same.

"We cannot escape it," he said. "Don't fight it, but use it to leverage yourself into the global economy. Globalization is more than McDonald's, baseball caps and Hollywood movies. It is a constant spur to do more - and better. We have to prepare for the New World Order. Our Tunisian primary schools are on the Internet. . . . I myself spend three hours a night on the Internet. I download documents from universities, major libraries in Europe and America and send them to my ministers, asking whether they're on to this or that. When I am looking for someone worthy for a high-ranking government job, I check my own database for the best qualified."

Mr. Ben Ali believes the widening gap between rich and poor and between computer literate and computer illiterate is "the overarching problem that dominates all others - from ethnic conflict to fundamentalist extremism."

America's impressive technological lead makes it "the locomotive for the rest of the world," he said. Nevertheless, he said, "it cannot be a winner-take-all kind of world" because this would be a recipe for the resurrection of recently buried totalitarian dogma."

He reiterated his call for a World Solidarity Fund aimed at bridging the still-widening gap "that has become a universal phenomenon that affects primarily developing nations. The kind of solidarity, both between nations and peoples, is a humanitarian duty and obligation. Failure to tackle global poverty with a universal plan of action can only lead to more wars."

Mr. Ben Ali returned several times to the menace of Islamist extremists that he said can only be circumscribed with social and economic reforms, "which is what we have done with our totally open society. Youth everywhere is demanding transparency. The Internet is eroding all taboos."

-------- ireland

Protestants in N. Ireland continue rallies, destruction
Gatherings rife with anti-Catholic sentiment

MSNBC
07/11/00
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.msnbc.com/news/428334.asp

BELFAST, Northern Ireland, July 11 - Thousands of hard-line Protestants lit towering bonfires at midnight Wednesday to celebrate a victory from centuries past, but many worried whether they would win this month's battle to keep marching past Catholic areas.

Police said 146 suspected rioters had been arrested, nearly 1,000 gasoline bombs seized, 88 vehicles hijacked and burned, and 57 officers and five British soldiers wounded since trouble first flared July 2.

ROWDY FIFE and drum bands entertained heavily drinking crowds at scores of bonfires - stacks of wood planks, discarded furniture and tires, some 100 feet high - before Wednesday's mass Orange Order parades across Northern Ireland. Adding to the air of menace, masked gunmen fired volleys of shots beside at least two bonfires.

The gatherings were laced with negative and derogatory references to Catholics, common sentiments in the midst of this month's grassroots Protestant rebellion against restrictions on annual Orange parades.

More than a week of rioting has caused widespread intimidation, forcing businesses to close early and motorists off the roads, but done little to sway authorities' determination to prevent Orangemen from going near several hostile Catholic areas.

Police commanders said they hoped the turmoil would subside once the Orangemen march through Belfast and more than a dozen other towns Wednesday for the Twelfth, a profoundly divisive holiday that commemorates the 1690 victory of Protestant William of Orange over his Catholic foe, James II.

"We're taking nothing for granted, but the protests must run out of steam sometime," said Chief Superintendent Brian McCargo of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the province's mostly Protestant police force.

DAMAGES WIDESPREAD

Police said 146 suspected rioters had been arrested, nearly 1,000 gasoline bombs seized, 88 vehicles hijacked and burned, and 57 officers and five British soldiers wounded since trouble first flared July 2.

Orange leaders urged their supporters Tuesday to behave "in a totally peaceful manner" and "to be constant in prayer."

But menacing groups of Protestants blocked more than a dozen major roads in Belfast as darkness fell, a scene repeated in at least 10 other predominantly Protestant towns.

Once again, some of the worst trouble was brewing in Portadown, a stronghold of Orange loyalties, where more than 2,000 soldiers and police have spent the week barring Protestants from the town's surrounded Catholic neighborhood, Garvaghy Road.

Police used attack dogs, clubs and shields to force a 100-strong crowd away from one heavily defended entrance to Garvaghy Road. After dark, a mob of drunken youths left a bonfire to barrage police and soldiers with bottles and rocks.

IRISH CATHOLICS JOIN ATTACKS

The intimidation wasn't all one way. Anti-Protestant arsonists struck a rural Orange hall with gasoline bombs while a meeting was going on inside. All six Protestants inside were hospitalized for smoke inhalation. And British army bomb-disposal experts examined a series of suspicious packages at other Orange lodges that turned out to be hoaxes.

The Twelfth has always served to deepen intercommunal tensions between British Protestants and Irish Catholics, who generally loathe the marches, which they see as provocative.

The Orange Order, founded in 1795 near Portadown during another period of tense rivalry between Protestants and Catholics, was crucial to Northern Ireland's foundation as a Protestant-majority state in the 1920s, when the predominantly Catholic rest of Ireland broke free of Britain.

Until recent years, its marches stirred much loathing but little violence, largely because Orangemen paraded the same routes year after year without challenge. But ever since 1995, when militant Catholic groups began blocking a few key parades that pass near or through Catholic areas, July has become a sectarian battleground.

To Orange fury, British authorities gradually have opted to block the most controversial processions in Belfast and Portadown rather than provoke Catholic riots.

A government-appointed Parades Commission has ordered Orangemen to steer clear of several predominantly Catholic villages Wednesday, as well as Lower Ormeau, a Catholic enclave beside a major south Belfast road. In response, Belfast Orangemen plan to divert their entire city parade to a park across the Lagan River from Lower Ormeau.

-------- space

COMMISSION ON NATIONAL SECURITY SPACE MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION HOLDS FIRST MEETING

The legislatively-mandated Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization held its initial organizational meeting at the Pentagon on July 11. Chaired by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the commission has been tasked by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 to investigate major changes in the management and organization of national security space assets. The commission consists of 13 distinguished private citizens. In addition to Rumsfeld, members are:

Duane P. Andrews, former assistant secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence;

Robert V. Davis, former deputy undersecretary of Defense for Space;

Howell M. Estes III, retired Air Force general and former commander of U.S. Space Command;

Ronald R. Fogleman, retired Air Force general and former Air Force Chief of Staff;

Jay M. Garner; retired U.S. Army general;

William R. Graham, former deputy administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration;

Charles A. Horner, retired Air Force general and former commander of U.S. Space Command;

David E. Jeremiah, retired Navy admiral and former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff;

Thomas A. Moorman, retired general and former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force;

Douglas H. Necessary, former U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services professional staff member;

Glenn K. Otis, retired U.S. Army general; and

Malcolm S. Wallop, former U.S. senator from Wyoming.

The commission's final report is due to the Congress and the secretary of Defense in January 2000. -END-

-------- thailand

Thailand to buy used U.S. jet fighters

USA Today
07/11/00
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#brazil

BANGKOK, Thailand - The U.S. government approved the purchase of 16 used FA-16 fighter jets Tuesday for $133 million, a government spokesman said. Thailand had to pull out of a 1998 deal to purchase eight FA-18 fighters worth nearly $400 million thanks to Asia's economic crisis. Thailand made a down payment of $74.5 million to the U.S. government in the earlier deal, and that money will be used to help pay for the new order, an official said.

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

Navy jet crashes during training; 2 killed

USA Today
07/11/00
http://www.usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm#hock

LEXINGTON PARK, Md. - A Navy jet crashed Tuesday morning during a training exercise at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, killing both people aboard. The twin-engine T-38A Talon jet trainer crashed about 9:40 a.m. while it was approaching a runway. Base spokesman John Romer said the crash site was on base property. Officials will withhold the crew members' names until their next of kin are notified.

Apaches helicopter crashes in desert

PHOENIX - An Army National Guard helicopter out of the Army National Guard facility in Marana, Ariz., crashed Monday night in the desert about 40 miles southewest of Phoenix. It was not immediately known if the two soldiers aboard the AH-64 were injured or killed. Their names will be withheld until relatives are notified. There have been at least 50 severe crashes of Apaches since the Army started using the aircraft in 1985.

---

ABC
07/11/00
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/okinawa000711.html

Military Reaction Drinking Blamed for Indecency, Poor Driving The "Hideaway" bar manager Don Jankas sits at his empty bar in Koza, Okinawa, July 10. The U.S. military imposed an indefinite late-night curfew and a drinking ban on all its service members in Okinawa. (Itsuo Inouye/AP Photo) By Barbara Starr

July 11 - The U.S. ambassador to Japan has apologized, and the U.S. military has imposed a late-night curfew and drinking ban on all 26,000 troops on the Japanese island of Okinawa, after a series of embarrassing incidents in the past week.

Ambassador Thomas Foley's apology Monday followed a strongly worded Japanese government appeal to tighten discipline among U.S. forces after Sunday's arrest of a U.S. airman for allegedly causing a hit-and-run accident and last week's arrest of a 19-year-old Marine for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl as she slept at home. Two other Marines were arrested last week for allegedly scuffling with a cab driver.

A stern-faced Foley told Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono on Monday afternoon: "I have come to express to you my profound regret for the events in Okinawa, and to tell you the steps we have taken so this won't happen again."

Several of the incidents occurred after servicemen had been drinking for extended periods of time. They threaten to fan public outrage and cloud the July 21-23 Group of Eight (G8) summit and President Clinton's arrival on the southern island, which plays reluctant host to the bulk of the U.S. military in Japan.

Anticipating Clinton Visit

Clinton's visit this month will be the first by a U.S. president since Okinawa was returned to Japan in 1972.

Kono said he welcomed the curfew and hoped it would prevent further incidents.

The ban requires all U.S. troops to remain in their homes or barracks after midnight and not come out until 7:30 a.m. if they are on liberty. They can report to work uninterrupted. In addition, alcohol cannot be served after midnight to military personnel, which is likely to hurt Okinawa's thriving bar business.

The base has been under curfew before. It was just last fall that a late-night curfew for military personnel on Okinawa was lifted after the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old Okinawa girl by three U.S. servicemen.

Reuters contributed to this report.

---

Japan MPs Urge Tougher Discipline on U.S. Bases

Yahoo News
Tuesday July 11 12:39 AM ET
By Elaine Lies
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000711/wl/japan_okinawa_dc_1.html

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese members of parliament presented protest notes to the Foreign Ministry and the U.S. embassy on Tuesday, demanding tougher action to ensure discipline among U.S. military stationed on the southern island of Okinawa.

The demands follow the detention of a U.S. airman on suspicion of causing a hit-and-run accident on Sunday and last week's arrest of a Marine for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl as she slept at home.

The incidents have fanned public anger on Japan's southernmost island and threaten to overshadow the July 21-23 summit of the Group of Eight (G8) rich nations and Russia on Okinawa, reluctant host to the bulk of the U.S. military in Japan.

``These incidents are heartbreaking for the people of Okinawa,'' said Mikio Shimoji, an Okinawa member of the powerful Lower House of parliament.

Shimoji led a group of six Okinawan members of parliament from all parties that handed a statement protesting against the incidents to officials at the Japanese Foreign Ministry and the U.S. embassy.

``We believe it is essential for discipline to be tightened and the military to be educated so this sort of incident never happens again,'' the statement said.

``Efforts must be made to ensure the people of Okinawa do not become more anxious.''

The group lodged a similar protest on Monday with Lieutenant General Earl Hailston, commander of the U.S. Marines in Okinawa.

U.S. Tightens Discipline

The protest came a day after U.S. Ambassador Thomas Foley offered a formal apology to Foreign Minister Yohei Kono, voicing his profound regret for the incidents and announcing a new set of preventive measures.

These included an indefinite late night curfew and a ban on drinking both off and on the bases for all branches of the armed forces that took effect from Monday. The ban, while not permanent, will last at least until after the summit.

U.S. military officials had previously announced that they would also boost education programs for troops in Okinawa.

Okinawan lawmaker Mitsuko Tomon said more action was needed.

``They have taken these steps, yes, but we feel an even stronger response is needed,'' she said. ``We especially want to know more specifics about their education program.

``If the measures aren't actually effective, it's no good.''

The incidents have touched a nerve among Okinawans just as President Clinton is due to make the first visit by a U.S. president since the island was returned to Japan by the United States in 1972.

About 26,000 of the 48,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan are stationed in Okinawa. Residents of the island have long argued that with less than one percent of Japan's land and one percent of its population, they bear an unfair burden.

The Japanese government has also come under fire for being unable to do anything to prevent such incidents.

Last week's alleged molestation has revived memories of the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen that severely damaged U.S.-Japan ties.

A number of protests are planned by anti-base activists during next week's summit, including a human chain around Kadena, one of the largest bases, on July 20 -- the day before the summit opens. It will take 25,000 people to span the base's 17.5 km (10.5 mile) perimeter.

---

Shortage Forces Pentagon to Cut Anthrax Inoculations

New York Times
July 11, 2000
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/071100anthrax-cohen.html

WASHINGTON, July 10 -- Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen has decided to reduce drastically the inoculation of American servicemen against anthrax because of concerns that the country's supply of the vaccine is running out, senior Pentagon officials said today.

The decision was made after a stockpile of 194,000 doses was tested on guinea pigs in recent weeks and showed that the vaccine had lost much of its potency and might not be fully effective, they added.

The Pentagon will now inoculate only those most at risk of facing attack by the deadly biological weapon, those who serve on the ground in South Korea and Kuwait. North Korea and Iraq are believed to have stockpiles of anthrax.

"We've reached the point where we cannot continue the program at its current pace," said Maj. Gen. Randall L. West of the Marines, a senior Pentagon adviser on chemical and biological defense, in a telephone interview. "I'm very disappointed we have to slow down the program. There is still a threat, and we are very, very concerned about it. We need to vaccinate our whole force so that all of our forces have protection all of the time."

The decision to limit the anthrax inoculation program coincides with criticism from members of Congress who have sought an indefinite suspension of the program, calling it untested, ineffective and dangerous. On Wednesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold hearings on the program. On Thursday, a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee will do so.

Between 200 and 300 people in the military have refused to be vaccinated since the program began, and several have been prosecuted. In March, the Air Force discharged Maj. Sonnie Bates with a general, but not an honorable, discharge after he questioned the safety of the anthrax vaccine and refused an order to take it.

Some have complained of fever, muscle pain, fatigue, autoimmune disorders, thyroid damage and dizziness after vaccination, but the Pentagon and the Food and Drug Administration insist that the vaccine is safe and effective.

The decision to curtail the vaccination program is an embarrassment for the Pentagon and Mr. Cohen.

In late 1997, he ordered all 2.4 million active and reserve military personnel to be vaccinated by 2003, demonstrating his belief in its safety and efficacy by rolling up his sleeve for an inoculation. Mr. Cohen, Gen. Hugh Shelton, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other senior Pentagon and military officials, have received all six doses of the vaccine.

About 1.8 million doses of the vaccine have been given to 445,000 Americans in the services. Six vaccinations over 18 months are needed to offer full protection.

The Pentagon administers about 75,000 doses of the vaccine a month. The number will probably fall to fewer than 20,000 a month, General West said.

The Pentagon has only 165,000 doses of the vaccine left in which it has "complete confidence and have passed the test in all areas," General West said. At the current rate of inoculation, the nation's supply would have run out in about 40 days.

Manufacture of the vaccine was halted last December after the F.D.A.

found 30 violations in safety, consistency, record-keeping and sterility in an inspection of the only plant in the country that makes it.

The financially troubled plant, owned by the BioPort Corporation in Lansing, Mich., is scheduled to restart production when the F.D.A. gives final approval, which is expected to be by the end of the year. Until mid-1998, the plant was owned by the state of Michigan; it was then bought by BioPort. Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and an unpaid member of the board of directors of the corporation, has an 11 percent interest in the corporation.

Mr. Cohen has informed General Shelton of his decision to curtail the program. The final decision of how much to cut it will be made in consultation with his top officers in the field, a senior Pentagon official said.


-------- OTHER

-------- environment

EPA mulls how to limit output of riskiest pesticides

USA : July 11, 2000
Story by Julie Vorman
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7411

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency said Yesterday it will hold a meeting on Sept. 7 to hear from the pesticide industry, academic experts, consumer groups and others on how regulators should limit pesticides linked to health risks.

The EPA said in a Federal Register notice that the public hearing is aimed at helping develop a mechanism for allocating a production cap on specific pesticides' active ingredients.

Under federal law, the agency is required to assess the health risks of residue from nearly 10,000 U.S. pesticides, a review which has been criticised by farm and chemical groups for threatening to curb some of the nation's most popular insect killers.

A stricter level of safety must be applied to children, due to their developing nervous systems and bodies, according to the 1996 law that launched the agency review.

The EPA said yesterday that it aims to replace a temporary one-year limit on annual production of azinphos-methyl (AZM) by developing a mechanism that can be used for other pesticides, as necessary. Residue from the pesticide AZM, widely used on apples, pears, peaches and other fruits and vegetables, has been found to pose a risk to childrens' health.

"Because EPA has restricted the quantities of certain pesticides in the past and may do so in the future, the agency agreed to hold a public meeting to get input on establishing a mechanism for accomplishing this and any future chemical-specific quantity limits," the agency said.

The EPA said a mechanism to cap production of AZM and other potential pesticides must allow for economic competition among registered manufacturers. The plan should minimise any disruption in the market, be verifiable and simple to administer, the agency said.

The two primary makers of AZM are Bayer Corp. of Kansas City, and Makhteshim-Agan of Israel.

Industry, consumer advocates and others can submit suggestions to the EPA by Aug. 24 via e-mail to opp-docket@epa.gov. The EPA said it wants suggestions from pesticide makers, consumer groups, farm groups and others on the following issues:

* How to apportion chemical-specific production limits to maintain price competition and allow new competitors to enter the market. The agency said two possibilities were to set manufacturer quotas or allow the free market to determine allocation.

* How often manufacturers must report production to verify the limit is not exceeded. A system where each registrant has a predetermined quota would require "significantly" less reporting, the agency said.

* Whether to use a calendar year or crop year basis for setting 12-month manufacturing limits. The agency said it would prefer to set one time frame that could be used in all future pesticides, but needs feedback on whether crop or production cycles warrant setting time frames on a case-by-case basis.

* How to define exactly what should be capped. The temporary AZM cap was expressed in pounds of active ingredient imported because the present sources of technical grade AZM are overseas. The agency said it wants feedback on whether to restrict certain pesticides by imposing caps on imports, domestic production, or sales of end-use products.

-------- imf / world bank

More world, less bank

Washington Times
EDITORIAL • July 11, 2000
http://208.246.212.80/op-ed/ed-house-2000711185125.htm

The World Bank's board defied the recommendation of its own management on a high-profile project last Friday. As a result, the board was able to keep the bank from abetting the repression of an ethnic minority.

The bank's board, which is made up of 24 executive directors representing 182 countries, forced China on Friday to withdraw its request for a $40 million resettlement project. The loan would have paid for moving about 58,000 Chinese and Hui Muslim farmers onto traditionally Tibetan land. It is very unfortunate that China has chosen to go through with the project on its own, but at least the regime won't be able to exploit the bank's prestige to legitimize the project, which will have a profound impact on Tibetans.

The bank's president, James Wolfensohn, had lobbied hard for the loan. He recommended that the bank conduct additional multimillion dollar studies on the project and that it allow him to make the final decision on the loan, without another board vote. But clearly the board didn't trust Mr. Wolfensohn to make the right decision.

The project initially came under attack last year after the bank broke its disclosure standards while the project was under consideration. After a bank panel submitted a report on the project in April, the board refused to make the findings public until last Friday. The conclusions were damning.

The panel found the bank's loan officers seriously understated the program's future impact on the environment and on the 4,000 Tibetan and Mongol herdsmen living in the area. The bank's management failed even to consider alternatives to resettlement or to resettlement sites. Even more amazing, project managers used inaccurate maps that omitted whole villages in evaluating the resettlement project.

Mr. Wolfensohn has tried to shield the bank from criticism by claiming that much of the uproar is about Tibet-related politics. But what of the bank's own policies regarding the protection of ethnic minorities? And what of the bank's systematic violations of its other policies?

Mr. Wolfensohn said in a June letter that by improving environmental and social analysis of the project, providing better maps and improving disclosure, the bank would "remove all doubt that this is a sound project." But the bank failed in precisely these areas.

The grim truth is that the project is a thinly veiled ethnic-cleansing scheme. The Chinese government feels threatened by spiritual and independent people and has long sought to debilitate the Tibetan culture. Mr. Wolfensohn, meanwhile, was unwilling to alienate China, which threatened to pull out of the bank, over the project.

It is profoundly regrettable that Mr. Wolfensohn chose to do the bidding of a repressive regime at direct cost to a people whose piety and perseverance has won the admiration of the world. Mr. Wolfensohn's poor handling of the resettlement project highlights the urgent need for reform at the World Bank.

-------- spying

Defectors Say CIA Reneges On Promises
Seattle Couple's Suit Is Latest Against Agency

By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post
Tuesday, July 11, 2000; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-07/11/143l-071100-idx.html

During the Cold War, the diplomat and his wife were prized recruits. If they just stayed in place and spied against their Soviet bloc homeland for a while longer, the Central Intelligence Agency promised, they eventually would get new names and comfortable lives in America.

They wanted to defect immediately but felt they couldn't say no to the CIA. So they committed espionage and risked their lives.

Now, years later and half a world away, the couple is virtually penniless in Seattle and suing the CIA, claiming that the agency has reneged on the deal and cut off their $27,000 annual stipend.

"They feel betrayed," said Steven W. Hale, their attorney. "The CIA promised they would have health insurance and financial security for a lifetime, and they declined it for as long as they were able to earn a living. And now the agency has given them nothing, zero--the back of the hand."

The couple's lawsuit is but the latest chapter in the CIA's long and troubled history with defectors who come to the United States in return for spy services rendered abroad--and often come to feel ignored, abused, even cheated by their CIA handlers.

There was Victor Gundarev, a KGB colonel who defected in 1986 and came close to redefecting three years later because he felt misled and mistreated by his CIA handlers. And just last year, there was Victor Sheymov, a KGB major and computer guru who charged publicly that CIA officials never paid him much of the $1 million promised when he defected in 1980.

The CIA's critics have complained for years that the agency shortchanges defectors from the get-go, making them sign resettlement agreements they can't understand, nickel-and-diming them over routine expenses and changing the terms in midstream.

"It is stupidity, just plain stupidity," said William Geimer, a former State Department attorney and president of the Jamestown Foundation, a group that was founded in the early 1980s to work with defectors and that has fought more than its share of battles with CIA officials.

Shaking his head over the latest court battle, involving the Seattle couple and their $27,000 a year stipend, Geimer wondered how the CIA can hope to coax future defectors out of countries such as Iraq and North Korea.

"The way to do that is to let them know that defectors have a good life here. But noooo," Geimer said, attributing the agency's miserliness to a combination of bureaucratic indifference, legal arrogance and cultural elitism in which CIA officers resent having to "baby-sit cantankerous Soviets."

Sheymov, who reached a settlement with the CIA last fall and now runs a computer security company called Invicta Networks, said defectors face daunting problems even under the best of circumstances. "It is very, very difficult; take my word for it," he said last week in an interview. "You have a hard time making people understand what you want and understanding what they want."

CIA officials acknowledge some past problems with the agency's defector program. But they insist that the vast majority of defectors are treated well, receive princely compensation packages and assimilate into American society without unnecessary complications.

"These are not people we hold in low regard," said one senior intelligence official. "These are people we genuinely believe are heroes. We accept them under public law as defectors, we give them a new name, and they start their lives over again. It is a tremendously traumatic experience."

Federal law allows the CIA director to bring as many as 100 defectors a year into the country and to grant them immediate citizenship when it "is in the interest of national security or essential to the furtherance of the national intelligence mission." In practice, defector status is usually granted to those who have spied diligently for the United States--and there appears to be no shortage of applicants, even 10 years after the end of the Cold War.

The CIA takes care of several hundred past defectors--the exact number is a secret--and is adding new ones at a steady clip that has not changed much over the past two decades, intelligence officials said. But instead of a Soviet-bloc diplomat, a typical defector today is someone who has provided information on terrorists, drug traffickers, weapons merchants or "transnational" criminals.

"We're not wanting for business," said a senior intelligence official. "People aren't thinking that they're going to be treated shabbily here and, therefore, that [they] won't cooperate."

But the CIA's promises to defectors vary. Without commenting directly on the Seattle couple's lawsuit, intelligence officials say the only lifetime obligation the CIA routinely incurs with defectors is to ensure their safety, beginning with new identities upon arrival.

Compensation is another matter. All defectors sign secret contracts providing them with resettlement benefits that can include lump-sum payments, annual stipends and help with health insurance, housing and education. Although some benefits are conferred for life, officials said, most are designed to keep defectors off welfare and aid their assimilation over a 10-year period.

What a defector gets, they say, is based on what a defector gives--the better the secrets, the better the package.

The Seattle couple, identified in court papers only as John and Jane Doe, signed an initial agreement in the early 1980s entitling them to health insurance benefits and an annual stipend that grew over time from $20,000 to $27,000.

They lost those benefits when the husband went to work, having signed a contract modification at the CIA's request calling for benefits to be terminated in the event of employment. Even so, a CIA official assured them at the time that "the agency would always 'be there' . . . and would renew their financial and other assistance if John Doe lost his job," according to the couple's legal complaint.

But when the husband, in his late fifties and suffering from health problems, lost his job in early 1997, the CIA refused to restart the couple's cash stipend and health benefits, saying the agency's obligations were over.

The couple appealed to a panel created in 1988 to hear defector grievances that is headed by former CIA director Richard Helms.

Hale, a former CIA staff attorney representing the couple on a pro bono basis, called the panel a "kangaroo court" that took testimony from three CIA officials involved in handling his clients, but not from the defectors themselves. He complained that the CIA refused to disclose any rules or regulations governing the panel's procedures. And when the panel recommended that his clients receive an additional year's benefits, he said, CIA lawyers demanded that they sign a waiver relinquishing any future claims.

Instead, they headed to court. CIA lawyers countered with a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that federal courts do not have jurisdiction over secret contracts entered into for purposes of national security.

But U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik ruled against the agency last month, clearing the way for a trial in Seattle this year that could break new legal ground in defining the rights of defectors.

Lasnik wrote in an 18-page order that the CIA, by allowing the couple to appeal the loss of their benefits to the Helms panel, "assumed an obligation to provide procedural due process" to the plaintiffs.

Lasnik also quoted from the minutes of the Helms panel: "The brief summary of . . . testimony indicated that one witness testified that he or she had explained to plaintiffs that their [defector] status represented a lifelong commitment for personal and financial security."

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INS drops terrorism charges against dissident

Washington Times
July 11, 2000
By Tom Carter
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-2000711222211.htm

Human rights activist and Iranian dissident Mahnaz Samadi entered an Arlington, Va., immigration court yesterday facing deportation and possible execution in Iran, but she was released after three months' detention in time to have lunch with her friends.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service dropped terrorism charges against Miss Samadi that stemmed from her having worked for an Iranian opposition group that later was labeled a terrorist organization by Washington.

Miss Samadi was released yesterday morning in a deal her lawyers and supporters described as a "complete victory" and "total vindication."

The INS said that while Miss Samadi had been released and would not be deported to Iran, she faces deportation to a third country.

"She has been ordered removed," said Russ Bergeron, INS spokesman. In reply, Miss Samadi said, "I have been vindicated of the charge of terrorism and I can continue my activities against the Iranian regime - that is what was important to me."

"I thank God and everybody who helped free me," Miss Samadi said after her release.

She said that if she had been ordered deported to Iran, she would have faced certain execution.

She said pressure from Capitol Hill, human rights organizations and the media had won her release.

"The terrorists are in Iran, not here," said Mansoureh Zamani, a Samadi supporter from Herndon, Va., who wept tears of joy upon hearing the verdict. "This is really a miracle for us."

Upon her release, Miss Samadi was given a bouquet of roses, a new jacket and colorful head scarf, and swept off to a friend's home for a celebration and a meal of Iranian beef stew and pastries. There she spent the afternoon greeting dozens of supporters and working on a statement to be released at a Capitol Hill press conference today.

Members of Congress who had been lobbying for her release were pleased with the turn of events.

Sen. Robert G. Torricelli, New Jersey Democrat, yesterday called Miss Samadi a "devoted advocate of human rights whose presence in this country enhances our society."

Yesterday, the INS dropped the charges against Miss Samadi and agreed to not to deport her to Iran.

In return, Miss Samadi admitted that she did not list her association with the National Liberation Army on her 1995 asylum application, a group the State Department designated a terrorist group two years later.

Her lawyer, Michael Maggio, called her admission the price of getting the charges dropped and her immediate release.

Yesterday, the INS said Miss Samadi had agreed to "an order of removal," which means she can be deported to any country other than Iran that will take her.

Mr. Bergeron said U.S. government agencies would look for a country to accept Miss Samadi.

In the meantime, he said, Miss Samadi must tell the INS where she is living, report to the INS on a regular basis and inform the INS of any travel outside the United States.

Miss Samadi was arrested on April 3 and held in several INS facilities around the United States until yesterday's resolution. During that time, more than 60 members of Congress petitioned Attorney General Janet Reno and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner for Miss Samadi's release.

Numerous human rights groups, including Amnesty International and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, also came to her aid.

Miss Samadi spent four years in an Iranian jail in the 1980s for opposition to the mullah's fundamentalist regime. Two of her brothers were executed, and her sister spent 10 years in jail.

Upon her release, Miss Samadi escaped from Iran and spent several months training with the National Liberation Army in Iraq. In 1994, she left the group and came to the United States. In 1995 she was granted political asylum in the United States but did not mention her association with the NLA in her application.

She has since won international recognition for her work speaking on human and women's rights in Iran.]

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Shopkeeper testifies in Lockerbie trial

USA Today
07/11/00
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#brazil

CAMP ZEIST, Netherlands - A Maltese shopkeeper who testified in the Lockerbie trial Tuesday said he sold a Libyan defendant the clothes found in the suitcase bomb that destroyed Pan Am 103 and killed 270 people. Toni Gauci, proprietor of Mary's House shop in the Mediterranean resort of Sliema, testified in the trial of two suspected Libyan intelligence officers accused of blowing up the plane over Lockerbie in 1988. Addressing the court in Maltese, Gauci said he remembered a Libyan man entering the boutique. The client bought a jacket, two pajamas, a baby suit, two shirts, two pullovers, two trousers and an umbrella, the store owner said. ''It wasn't important for him what he was buying,'' Gauci said. ''When I asked him whether he wanted to try on the trousers, he said it wasn't for him.'' Gauci is one of the strongest links in the prosecution's case against al-Megrahi and co-defendant Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, who have pleaded innocent to charges of murder and conspiracy to murder.


-------- activists

Los Angeles Times
By JOE MATHEWS, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 11, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/elect2000/pres/demconven/lat_dnc000711.htm

A Cop Show Not Ready for Prime Time LAPD: Staged mostly to provide footage for TV stations, a rehearsal for protests at the Democratic convention goes without a hitch, or much drama.

On cue, 15 TV cameras rolled as 14 cops wearing fatigues took their places in the middle of an abandoned Navy site in San Pedro and did their best to look like protesters. From up the road came seven police cruisers, sirens blaring.

"Let's have a riot!" declared the scene's director, Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. David J. Kalish.

With that, the 14 cop-actors portrayed the most docile street demonstrators in memory, obeying every order of the officers who poured out of the cars. After half an hour--and four takes for the cameras--the show was over.

Billed as a live street demonstration of the LAPD's readiness in advance of the Aug. 14-17 convention, Monday's event before assembled media was as scripted as any sitcom taping in Studio City. Rather than a show of force, a two-act play evolved with just enough officers, 38, and squad cars, seven, to fill up the frame.

"Truly, what you saw today is a bit cleaned up," Kalish said. "But it gives you some footage to use as the convention gets closer."

Police officials have traveled to videotape demonstrations in Seattle and Washington, D.C., to show the potential mayhem that could occur during the convention. And Monday's media event took place days after the department convinced City Council members to overturn a decision to allow protesters to use Pershing Square as a gathering spot.

Although the LAPD has taken pains to emphasize its readiness, Monday's gathering was more trailer than dress rehearsal. It incorporated almost none of the challenges police will face next month from the expected 10,000 to 50,000 demonstrators, including environmentalists, unionists and anarchists.

The site of the show, homes that once housed Navy families, seemed more appropriate as a movie set than as a stand-in for the jewelry stores and office towers of downtown L.A. Each of two drills was performed twice so that TV cameras could find the best angles.

"How long will the demonstration go?" asked two cameramen.

"Just as long as you need it to," replied Kalish. "How much tape have you got?" On camera, sergeants donned sunglasses and affected their most serious faces.

"We are ready to take a stand," said Sgt. Jim Bilodeau.

In contrast to their willingness to pretend to arrest demonstrators, however, he and other officers were decidedly guarded about specifics. The number of officers detailed to the convention? The equipment they will use? "That is classified," said Lt. Horace Frank, smiling.

With cameras off, the cops chuckled at the odd scene and struck a low-key tone, emphasizing the need for experienced officers on the front line who will be cautious with demonstrators.

"Most of the squad leaders are putting together groups of officers with a lot of experience," said Sgt. Andre Belotto of the 18-member squad in the Newton Division's mobile field force.

Most officers said they expect demonstrators to be peaceful. And Monday's demonstration did not include violence, real or staged. In one drill, about two dozen officers with batons ordered protesters to "get back." They quietly complied.

In the other, police rescued a "victim" played by freelance TV producer Greg Rangel, who had his belt, shoes and Angels cap removed by an unruly crowd. A police spokesman said this scene was loosely inspired by the attack on Reginald Denny. In Denny's case, it took civilians to pull him from an angry mob; this time, police did the job.

"But this was fun," said Rangel, whose footage may be on "America's Most Wanted." "A fun show."

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German protests greet Iran leader

Washington Times
July 11, 2000
World Scene
http://208.246.212.80/world/ed-column-200071122137.htm

BERLIN - Iranian President Mohammed Khatami faced protests in the streets and hard talks on human rights with Germany's chancellor as he began a visit yesterday intended to help revive ties with Western Europe.

At a joint news conference after their talks, the German and Iranian leaders stressed their common desire to expand cultural and economic ties while acknowledging "differences of opinion" that have burdened Iran's relations with the West for years.

Hours before Mr. Khatami's arrival, Berlin police searched homes and detained about 50 Iranian opposition activists as part of tight security for the three-day visit - the first by an Iranian leader to Germany since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

Losing Mexican party draws peasants' wrath

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's defeated ruling party was forced to shut down its headquarters yesterday when peasants stormed the sprawling complex to demand the freedom of a jailed leader and a voice in the party's future.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, lost power for the first time ever in July 2 elections.