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

------- china

US 'will pay dearly for shield'

Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 17/08/2000
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0008/17/text/world9.html

Beijing: Chinese military experts have warned the United States that building a missile defence shield would inflict tremendous political costs on Washington and spark a Sino-American conflict over Taiwan.

The official China Daily newspaper quoted Mr Luo Yuan, a senior strategist at the People's Liberation Army academy, as saying deploying its proposed national missile defence and theatre missile defence systems would have a "tremendous" political cost for the US.

The panel of PLA authorities said placing Taiwan under the missile umbrella would create a US military alliance with Taiwan.

Repeating China's warning that building the system would trigger a new world arms race, Mr Luo Yuan said that in the five years it took to deploy the system, concerned nations would build even more offensive weapons and leave the US no safer.

Shielding Taiwan with a missile defence system would upset Sino-US relations, Mr Luo said in a report published yesterday. "There is no reason for military conflict between China and the US except on the question of Taiwan," he said.

Taiwanese military experts said China was rapidly increasing the quantity and quality of missiles in provinces facing the island.

---

ASIA
China Again Warns U.S. on Missiles

Washington Post
Thursday, August 17, 2000; Page A24
World In Brief Compiled by James Rupert
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/17/316l-081700-idx.html

BEIJING--Senior Chinese military strategists again warned the United States against building national antimissile defenses or providing theater missile defenses to Taiwan, according to remarks published yesterday.

Officers at the Academy of Military Science here said a U.S. decision to build such a system would trigger a worldwide arms race, inflict "tremendous" political costs on the United States and "give rise to the most serious negative consequences" on global security. The academy is a top research institute of the People's Liberation Army.

The attack, quoted in the official China Daily newspaper, contained some of the harshest and most direct criticism yet of Washington's motives in considering construction of the antimissile system. "The U.S. global strategy in Europe is to contain Russia's revival and in Asia to contain China's growth, and is to preserve U.S. hegemony in the world," said Luo Yuan, a director at the academy.

Luo also warned that any attempt to include Taiwan in an Asian theater missile defense system could spark a crisis in Chinese-U.S. relations. Taiwan's participation in such a system would amount to "a paramilitary alliance" or "a de facto military alliance" with the United States, Luo said. (Ted Plafker)

-------- depleted uranium

Toxic Souvenirs of modern warfare (2100 words)

By Michael Maser
The Vancouver Sun
August 17th, 2000
From: Tara Thornton - duorganizer@miltoxproj.org

In the spring of 1998, Teresa Cuomo, a vivacious, single mother traveled from her home in Sechelt to join an international group traveling by bus into war-torn Croatia and Bosnia.

A spiritual healer by training, Cuomo, 41, had been invited to help spread peace and to visit a renowned holy site in Medugorje, Bosnia, where it is believed an apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared in 1981.

On the trip, Cuomo met traumatized peacekeepers and people trying to re-inhabit a landscape pockmarked with bomb craters, blackened houses and gnarled tanks. Just as the lives of thousands of Croats, Bosnians and Serbs would never be the same again after years of incendiary, inter-generational conflict, neither would Cuomo¹s.

Several months after she returned to Sechelt, she began to suffer head-splitting migraines and numbness in her joints. She had insomnia and fatigue and she began forgetting things like what her 12-year old son just told her. She developed an inflammatory rash on one foot and her tears seemed to burn as they rolled down her cheeks.

She thought she was dying though blood tests and clinical exams by doctors detected nothing wrong. Then one night on tv she learned that many Canadian peacekeepers who had served in Croatia and Bosnia were suffering from symptoms similar to hers.

She began investigating the possibility that her illness was linked to toxic chemicals that had she had been exposed to while in the former Yugoslavia.

It was possible. She had walked barefoot on holy soil in Medugorje, she had drank local water and she had eaten fish caught in local rivers.

Another medical test confirmed the presence of toxins in her central nervous system, but she yearned to know exactly what was causing her illness.

Last March Cuomo dispatched a urine sample back to Ontario. She expects the test results, due in mid-September, will confirm the presence of depleted uranium in her body, which she suspects as the main cause of her illness.

Depleted uranium was first used in ammunition during the Gulf War and subsequently in the Serbian-Croatian conflicts and in last year's NATO bombardment of Kosovo and Yugoslavia.

Now health experts and military veterans are increasingly pointing fingers at depleted uranium as the cause of massive civilian and military illnesses in Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia.

As well, health problems attributed to depleted uranium have come home to each NATO country that sent troops to the Gulf and the Balkans, including many Canadian Forces veterans and upwards of 100,000 US Gulf War veterans.

Depleted uranium arises as a byproduct of nuclear enrichment in the nuclear weapons and nuclear reactor industry. A heavy, dense metal, depleted uranium bullets and missiles were designed by the US military in the 1970s to penetrate Soviet tanks.

Depleted uranium munitions are relatively innocuous when handled on their own. On a battlefield, however, the depleted uranium bursts into flame when it hits a target. During Operation Desert Storm depleted uranium munitions proved to be highly effective in stopping Iraqui tank battalions. Unfortunately, the problems in its use were just beginning.

After it ignites, depleted uranium forms a micron-sized, radioactive uranium oxide aerosol that can travel on a breeze tens of kilometres from its point of release. It is easily breathed in or ingested through contaminated water. The aerosol microns - known to emit radiation in the form of alpha particles - and thousands of tons of depleted uranium-contaminated debris littering the Iraqui desert and the former Yugoslavia, are thought to be sources of toxic contamination.

"Depleted uranium, when ingested, is highly toxic to humans, both chemically as a heavy metal and radiologically as an alpha particle emitter," says Dr. Rosalie Bertell, a Canadian specialist in nuclear physics.

Bertell says depleted uranium particles can and do remain in the human body for years, interrupting normal cellular growth and impairing the lungs, kidneys, reproductive organs and bones. Radiogenic particles are also transmitted in male semen, contaminating sexual partners.

"It¹s use in warfare is odious and it should be banned immediately," Bertell asserts.

A resolution calling for the ban of depleted uranium was passed at the United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in August 1996.

The Department of National Defense says Canadian Forces stationed in the Balkan republics have been advised to minimize risk of exposure when handling debris contaminated by depleted uranium but they believe risk of contamination is small. Balkan-based German, Dutch and Belgian troops - all reporting mysterious health ailments - have been issued disposable clothing and respiratory masks to minimize risk of exposure since last fall.

Bertell, who has met with NATO authorities to discuss depleted uranium contamination, says that civilian populations in Iraq or Europe have not been told about its potential toxicity and are at great risk.

According to the Military Toxics Project, a US-based advocacy organization representing thousands of US veterans ill with Gulf War Syndrome, investigations into the use of depleted uranium in the Gulf War revealed that American forces and, to a smaller degree, British troops, fired approximately 340 tons of DU across the deserts of Kuwait and southern Iraq.

DND says Canadian troops stopped using depleted uranium munitions after 45,000 rounds were test-fired off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts in 1998. It is believed that depleted uranium weapons are now included in the arsenals of at least 20 other countries.

In a report released in March by the Military Toxics Project entitled "Don¹t Look, Don¹t Find", the report¹s author and Gulf War veteran Dan Fahey says that five consecutive Gulf War illness investigations by the Pentagon "barely scratched the surface of depleted uranium exposures by US forces in the Gulf."

Fahey asserts that there is ample and growing evidence that depleted uranium exposures during and after the Gulf War are the main cause of health problems among veterans and civilians.

In the report, Fahey also says the United States Department of Defense was well aware of the health risks of depleted uranium at least six months before the Gulf War but did not warn US troops about minimizing risk of contamination until 10 days after hostilities ceased.

Among its recommendations, Don¹t Look, Don¹t Find says the United States "should accept responsibility for identifying, delimiting, and cleaning up all domestic and foreign lands where depleted uranium has been released."

Fahey says the US DOD should also "issue immediate warnings to civilian populations, relief agencies, and the United Nations when American armed forces use depleted uranium in training or combat operations on foreign soil."

In Canada, the specter of toxic contamination from military activities in the Gulf War and the former Yugoslavia gained momentum last February when an autopsy on Gulf war veteran Capt. Terry Riordon confirmed the presence of depleted uranium in his bones.

Sick with an undiagnosed, debilitating illness soon after returning from the Gulf, Capt. Riordon received little assistance or support from the Department of National Defense, according to his widow Sue Riordon.

"Terry was incredibly ill and DND did nothing to help us. I had to arrange for the analysis of his body without their knowledge," Sue Riordon says.

Last March, DND began testing urine samples submitted by concerned veterans for the presence of depleted uranium. By mid-July, 69 samples had been tested by two Ontario laboratories and analyzed by a consultant at Royal Military College in Kingston.

A spokesman for DND said the tests showed lower total uranium levels in those tested than the average Canadian. He added that there have been some testing problems, however, and now those veterans who had been previously tested are being asked to submit hair samples for additional testing.

Mary Ripley-Guzman, a director for the Uranium Medical Project, a non-profit affiliation of scientists and doctors that has tested around 80 British, American and Canadian servicemen, including Terry Riordon for depleted uranium, says, to her knowledge, the UMP has developed the most scientifically credible protocol for detecting low levels of depleted uranium at Memorial University, St. Johns.

The UMP, Ripley-Guzman says, has been relying on the pro bono services of US-based doctor Asaf Durakovic and Len Dietz, both internationally-acclaimed experts in the field of depleted uranium.

Durakovic will present a scientific paper entitled "Quantitative Analysis of Uranium Isotopes in Canadian, U.S. and British Gulf War Veterans," September 3rd in Paris, at a conference of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine.

The paper profiles the DU testing of 15 service personnel, most of whom show DU contamination.

"This is the first peer-reviewed study that shows significant levels of depleted uranium in people exposed to inhaled depleted uranium," the UMP said in a news release.

"The laboratory findings correlate with clinical symptoms presented by many personnel complaining of Gulf War Illness."

In another statement released in early August by the UMP, Durakovic discounts the testing results carried out on veterans by the Department of National Defense as "complete nonsense."

The UMP is advising those veterans tested by the DND to find another independent lab to carry out testing.

Sue Riordon, who is acting chair of the Atlantic Chapter of the Canadian Peacekeeping Veterans Association, says she has shipped several dozen urine samples from veterans for analysis of depleted uranium to the UMP, the same organization that autopsied her husband¹s body.

"Some of these people are incredibly sick," Riordon said, "and they have no faith that DND is acting with their best interests in mind."

A spokesman for DND says DND "didn¹t expect to detect depleted uranium" because they don¹t believe Canadian troops have been exposed to contamination.

The scope of contamination problems related to depleted uranium among active and veteran Canadian Forces is impossible to predict, says Harold Leduc, a 20-year Canadian Forces veteran and advisor to the DND and Veteran¹s Affairs living in Victoria.

Leduc believes depleted uranium is the leading contender among heavy metals, PCBs, asbestos, and other substances for contributing to health problems among Canadian Forces who served in the Gulf War and throughout the former Yugoslavia. He has advised the Canadian Senate that Veterans Affairs should be coordinating medical care and the testing of veterans for depleted uranium, instead of DND.

"DND is in denial about depleted uranium," Leduc says. "As a result, many active Canadian Forces are reluctant to come forward with claims of illness".

In the meantime, the collateral damage attributed to depleted uranium is mounting in Iraq and the Balkans.

Several missions to Iraq have reported increases in incidences of cancers, birth defects and symptoms similar to Gulf-War syndrome throughout the general population and among veterans. The same is being reported by Yugoslavian scientists among veterans of the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian conflicts.

Vancouver psychiatrist Dr. Alan Conolly, who traveled to Iraq in 1998 and 1999, says he has seen and heard much evidence that Iraqui Gulf War vets and civilians are suffering from widespread toxicity. He would like to see a well-funded scientific investigation look into depleted uranium contamination.

"The issue of depleted uranium is a major medical concern in Iraq," Conolly says. "Research needs to be supported and substantiated. I suspect that contamination in Iraq could make Agent Orange look like a bad cold" (Agent Orange, a defoliant used by US forces in the Vietnam war, was subsequently linked to multiple health problems).

Dr. Joan Russow, federal leader of the Canadian Green Party, says the DND is "criminally negligent" in supporting the use of depleted uranium by NATO forces.

"They were sufficiently aware of toxicity problems linked to use of deplete uranium to have protested its use but they didn¹t. That makes us complicit in genocide," she says.

Russow also says that because Canadian uranium has been used to help produce depleted uranium munitions, we are bound to help clean up the consequences of using the armaments.

Teresa Cuomo met with Sue Riordon in Vancouver in February. In their meeting, Riordon told Cuomo that her symptoms sounded identical to her husband Terry's. She advised Cuomo to get tested for depleted uranium and she has since contributed funding on behalf of the Capt. Terry Riordon Memorial Fund to help Cuomo offset the $500-US test cost.

Back in Sechelt, Cuomo is struggling to make ends meet on a modest disability allowance. Medical testing has depleted her modest life savings and she is working hard to pursue acting, music and writing opportunities despite feeling ill. She feels her health has improved slightly since she started taking homeopathic medicine last fall.

Cuomo believes now that her illness carries a message for her to share with others.

"The world needs to know what is really going on in the Balkans and Iraq," she says.

-------- japan

Japan's govt allows U.S. Forces to continue using land for bases despite landowners' refusal

Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 17:09:13 +0900
From: JPS - jpspress@twics.com

TOKYO AUG 17 JPS -- The Defense Facilities Administration Agency on August 16 signed lease contracts to allow the U.S. Forces to continue to use Okinawan private land. As the land owners refused to renew the lease contracts with the U.S. Forces, the central government resorted to the authoritarian method under the revised law.

The current term will expire in March 2001 for the land in Yomitan Village and Urasoe City, on which the U.S. Sobe Communication Site and the U.S. Maki Minato Supply Depot are located.

The DFAA action at this time marked the first implementation of procedures under the adversely revised Special Arrangement Act for the Expropriation of Land for U.S. Forces.

Since the act was adversely revised in July 1999, the central government has a right to sign, which local governments had exercised so far, as proxy of landowners who refuse to provide their land to U.S. Forces.

The government must ask Okinawa Prefectural Land Expropriation Committee for approval of the land expropriation, but even when the committee rejects the application, the prime minister under the revised act can overturn the committee decision and allow the U.S. Forces to use the land.

The adversely revised act thus enables the government to despotically expropriate people's land. (end item)

--

Call for Defense Agency to be upgraded to Ministry increases with adverse revision of the Constitution in mind

TOKYO AUG 17 JPS -- Conservative parliamentarians mainly from the ruling coalition members have recently established a parliamentary league to call for the Defense Agency to be upgraded to a ministry. Akahata reported on August 17 that the move is gaining impetus in conjunction with the implementation of the War Laws and the call for an adverse revision of the Constitution.

The league was launched on August 8 by 83 Dietmembers from the three ruling parties, the Liberal Democratic Party, the Komei Party and Conservative Party, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Police Reserve Force, the original body of the present Japanese Self-Defense Forces.

The parliamentary group decided to urge the government bodies concerned to start full-fledged discussion of the issue by taking advantage of the reorganization of ministries and agencies scheduled for January 2001.

The LDP has longed for a "Defense Ministry." In 1963 then Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda and his cabinet decided to promote the agency to a ministry. But the decision had to be aborted in the face of strong public opposition.

The recent twist has come up since 1997 when the legislative process for the new Guidelines for Japan-U.S. military cooperation started. In that year the LDP's three defense-related commissions publicly advocated an upgrade of the Defense Agency so as to facilitate the implementation of the new Guidelines under a "Defense Ministry" which most foreign countries have.

The move is taken to be heralding the constitutional changes, in particular, an adverse revision of Article 9 which renounces war and prohibits Japan from arming itself.

In the private sector, some political organizations have launched a signature collecting campaign in cooperation with the defense industry supporting the move. (end item)

-------- russia

Press Blasts Russia for Delaying Western Aid

NewsMax.com
Thursday, Aug. 17, 2000
UPI
http://www.NewsMax.com/articles/?a=2000/8/16/190507

MOSCOW - Russian newspapers Wednesday attacked the navy and government for refusing to accept international assistance in the rescue operation of the sunken Kursk submarine and its trapped crew.

The Sevodnya daily said a source in the navy accused the Russian admirals of shunning Western aid.

"Admirals think that if even one sailor is saved from a Russian submarine with the help of foreigners, it will be a political catastrophe," the paper quoted the unidentified official as saying.

Sevodnya said top commanders were paralyzed by fear of being sacked from their posts, noting that "no right-minded official would consider asking for NATO's help. Only the president can make a decision to ask NATO for aid."

The paper quoted a government official saying President Vladimir Putin would "only approve asking for specialist foreign aid if all other means are exhausted and the lives of the sailors are in danger."

The Vremya Novostei daily said Deputy Premier Ilya Klebanov, who heads the government inquiry, had made clear it was the Northern Fleet's responsibility to evacuate the crew of the submarine.

"The ghost of dismissal is haunting the offices of top fleet officials as their subordinates ask their bosses for approval of the smallest technical decision concerning the submarine," the paper said.

The Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily said Putin's credibility was on the line. Its headline thundered that "if the crew of the Kursk is not saved, the reputation of the Russian government will be lost beyond hope."

On Wednesday morning, Putin appeared to rebuff offers of international aid in the rescue operation by pointing out that Russia had enough equipment to conduct an effective rescue mission.

However, as the day wore on and repeated attempts to attach a rescue capsule to the stricken submarine's escape hatch failed, the Russian foreign ministry issued a formal request to Britain and Norway to supply aid. The British navy sent a unique mini-submarine, and Norway supplied deep-sea divers trained to handle emergencies in Arctic waters.

News later emerged that Russia had asked NATO for advice on the rescue operation, with senior Russian defense ministry officials planning to fly to Brussels on Thursday to meet experts at NATO headquarters.

President Clinton held a telephone conversation with Putin on Wednesday evening, once again offering U.S. assistance to Russia.

For more articles on Russia, see Hot Topics.

http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1998/12/20/205309

---

No Sign of Life on Russian Sub

NewsMax.com
Thursday, Aug. 17, 2000
UPI
http://www.NewsMax.com/articles/?a=2000/8/16/154524

MOSCOW - A top Russian official said Wednesday there were no signs of life from the trapped crew of the Russian nuclear submarine stranded at the bottom of the Barents Sea. A British submarine arrived in Norway to prepare to assist in the rescue operation.

"There is no sign of life, but we should not necessarily conclude something terrible has happened," said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who is heading a government investigation into the tragedy.

He said the crew might be trying to save energy because of a limited air supply. The Kursk submarine sank Saturday. Russian officials say they believe there is enough oxygen to last until Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he believed the situation on board the submarine was "critical" as a third attempt to attach a rescue capsule to the sub failed.

"Everything that can possibly be done is being done to rescue the crew and the submarine," Putin said.

Leonid Melodinsky, a submarine rescue expert, told Itar-Tass that the crew might have lost control over the situation for some unknown reason. He said chlorine or some components of missile fuel might have poured out in large amounts, making it impossible for the crew to respond adequately to the emergency.

A storm has again gathered strength in the area of the rescue operation. According to naval sources, strong underwater currents have blown the rescue pods off course. Strong currents have also churned up sand, limiting visibility and further hampering rescue efforts.

An unconfirmed report indicated one of the rescue pods had been damaged during the night.

The Russian rescue team's continuing failure to attach a pod to one of the submarine's hatches prompted Russia to bow to pressure and accept the British navy's offer of help.

Only hours earlier, Putin had said the Russian navy, which has positioned 22 vessels including an aircraft carrier and several submarines in the area, was well-equipped to handle the rescue work, apparently rebuffing offers from the United States, Britain, France and Norway.

A special mini-submarine, said to be the only one of its kind in the world, has been flown from Scotland to Norway in preparation to join the massive rescue operation.

A giant Antonov-124 freighter of Volga-Dnepr Airlines transported the 21-ton LR5 submarine to Trondheim, Norway, from where it could be taken by ship to the site of the accident.

But Britain said it had not yet received a formal request for help, adding confusion to the situation.

Defense Ministry officials have indicated that Russia is now seeking advice from NATO.

With rescue attempts continuing, Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, the commander of the Russian navy, said he remained optimistic.

Kuroyedov said that if all attempts to evacuate the crew via rescue pods failed, he would consider deploying two giant inflatable pontoons to lift the submarine from the seabed.

While officers at Northern Fleet headquarters made clear the sub could not be lifted to the surface, it might be possible to lift it off the seabed, which would take it clear of the strong currents on the bottom of the Arctic Ocean and improve visibility for the rescue team, as well as making it possible for divers to be deployed.

The Kursk submarine is said to be badly damaged, possibly as a result of an explosion, and might be taking on water.

Russia insists the Kursk poses no environmental hazard as its two nuclear reactors have been shut down. Russia says the submarine was not carrying nuclear weapons at the time of the accident, which took place at the end of extensive military exercises.

See more articles on Russia in Hot Topics.

http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1998/12/20/205309

---

TORPEDO OR MISSILE EYED AS CAUSE OF DISASTER

New York Post
Thursday,August 17,2000
By TRACY CONNOR
http://www.nypost.com/08172000/news/9929.htm

A catastrophic torpedo or missile explosion during drills probably crippled the Kursk, experts said yesterday.

Jane's Information Group reported the blast of a Veder torpedo or Stallion missile in the forward weapons compartment would have caused the submarine to flood.

The Kursk then would have lost trim - or balance - and plunged to the seabed.

Once there, the captain would have equalized the trim, which would explain why the sub is reportedly listing 60 degrees on the starboard side, Jane's said.

"In the same action, the cooling water for the twin nuclear reactors would have been restricted ... and the reactors would have been automatically shut down, leaving the submarine without power except for batteries," Jane's said.

Russian officials initially said the likely cause of the sinking was a collision with a foreign ship, but have since said the damage points to an explosion.

---

Explosion may have hit Russian sub

Thursday, August 17, 2000
By Associated Press
http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2000/08/08172000/ap_sub_30610.asp

Underwater rescue capsules fighting to reach 118 seamen trapped on a Russian nuclear submarine failed again today as new evidence suggested a massive explosion shattered large areas of the vessel and many sailors had no time to escape.

Navy officials said there were no signs of life on the vessel, but some of the crew could still be alive. Rescue capsules trying to link up with the submarine for the past three days were again driven back today by racing currents and swirling sand in the inky darkness on the sea bottom.

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said Thursday the situation was "close to catastrophic," according to Russian news reports.

British and Norwegian rescue teams heading for the scene by ship were not expected to arrive until Saturday, raising fears they would be too late. The navy has given contradictory estimates of how long the Kursk's oxygen could last, but some officers say air generators may have been destroyed when the submarine slammed into the sea bed last Saturday.

Top navy and government officials met today to review the rescue effort and study new approaches, but officials gave no details. The committee would consider how to use a British mini-submarine being rushed to the scene, Russian news agencies reported.

Film of the submarine being studied today showed massive damage reaching from the front to the conning tower that would have sent the vessel crashing to the bottom in seconds, navy officials said. The control room where most of the crew work is below the tower, suggesting many sailors had no time to escape when the submarine went down.

"The accident happened so quickly we can say it was like a flash," said navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo.

U.S. submarines monitoring Russian navy exercises when the Kursk was lost detected two explosions at the time, according to Russian press reports. The second explosion was much larger than the first, the reports said.

The Russian navy refused to confirm the reports, but officers have said an explosion in the torpedo compartment at the front of the submarine apparently caused the Kursk to sink. A likely scenario was that one torpedo exploded, setting off a much bigger explosion in the compartment which is packed with torpedoes.

The Kursk can carry up to 28 torpedoes and anti-submarine missiles, each with warheads weighing up to 1,000 pounds. An explosion involving even a few torpedoes would have caused catastrophic damage, officers said.

The damage apparently included the submarine's internal escape capsule located in the conning tower, making it impossible to use, Dygalo said.

Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said authorities were still investigating the possibility of a collision.

After insisting for days that Western aid was not needed, the Russian government asked Britain and Norway to for help. Two Norwegian ships on Thursday were taking divers and the British mini-submarine to the rescue area.

The Russian turnabout apparently came after President Vladimir Putin spoke with President Clinton on Wednesday and ordered his Navy to seek help.

Russian officials refused to say Thursday why the British mini-sub was not flown to a Russian airfield closer to the rescue site. A Russian plane transported the mini-sub from Britain to Norway.

But British and Norwegian officials rejected suggestions that Russia was not eager for Western help. Britain's Defense Ministry said "the Norway option provided the quickest and safest way of getting our equipment to the scene."

The navy today raised the number aboard the Kursk to 118 from 116 without explanation.

The rescue capsules are trying to latch onto one of the Kursk's hatches. The effort was being frustrated by the strong currents and almost zero visibility.

Four Russian rescue capsules were taking turns to try to reach the Kursk, each spending up to five hours submerged. The navy angrily denied Russian press reports that the rescue crews were failing because they were poorly trained.

Success of the rescue operation is dependent not only on latching on to a hatch but also on whether any survivors can open it from inside. Submarine hatches can only be opened from the inside to prevent intruders.

----

For the Families, Anger Mixes With Mourning

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By SABRINA TAVERNISE with SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/081800russia-murmansk.html

MURMANSK, Russia, Aug. 17 -- In this northern port city that lives off the Russian Navy, the mourning has already begun. Few now hold out any hope for the lives of the 118 men aboard the submarine Kursk, which has been trapped under the Barents Sea for six days.

With summer drawing to a close here and the air already chilly, stems of fireweed, a purple flower, brushed gently today against the cement walls of Repair Factory No. 35, which fixes submarines. Inside, Vitaly Ryabov, a sailor on a nuclear-powered submarine, stopped to compare the tragedy with a brief emergency on board his vessel years ago.

"They are in a hell that you can't imagine," said Mr. Ryabov, 29, who is still committed to his career, which was also his father's. "It's freezing cold down there. You know there's help right above you, but you are waiting for death. If anyone is left alive, it's only the strongest."

Nearly everyone here has been touched by the catastrophe, in which the Kursk sank to the bottom of the sea on Saturday. Just under a million people live in the region, which is still dominated by the navy bases and closed cities erected by the Soviet Union.

Before long, they were to be joined by more anxious relatives, as train No. 140, full of bronzed Russian vacationers returning from southern resorts, took on a much grimmer load today. Boarding the Simferopol-Murmansk train in Kursk today were the families of seven sailors of the city's namesake nuclear submarine.

One relative, Ruslan Kuznetsov, with dark circles under his eyes, clutched a Russian tabloid featuring a big portrait of his older brother, 28-year-old Viktor, and an article about how their mother, just out of a hospital after major surgery, was waiting in Kursk for news of her son.

But today, mothers and brothers were not the only ones waiting with anguish. Government officials in Murmansk spoke in quiet tones as they offered little reassurance. The region's governor, looking drawn, seemed almost to speak of the crew in the past tense. In an interview to the local Murmansk television station, he wondered aloud about the failed rescue attempts.

"This is a tragedy, a serious tragedy," Gov. Yuri Yevdokimov said. "The reasons are not known, despite all the investigations that are still under way. We don't know what has happened inside the boat." Other officials looked somber at a news conference, which was hastily called after a six-hour meeting at the headquarters of the Northern Fleet, situated in the neighboring town of Severomorsk. That city and the small town of Vedyaevo, where most of the crew members' families live, are both secret military sites and are closed to most journalists.

From shopkeepers to factory workers, virtually everyone stayed in front of their televisions and radios. Three women, employees at the Northern Fleet Museum, did not even turn away from an afternoon television news broadcast to direct visitors to the museum's entrance. One snapped off the sound when the broadcast finished. "They've watched every one of today's broadcasts," one woman said, shaking her head.

Most condemned Russian officials for not taking action sooner and of waiting to accept help from abroad.

"They hid it from us for two days," said Vyacheslav Kuzmich, a 53-year-old former major in the antiaircraft forces in the region. "The most disgusting part is that aid was offered and they rejected it. Now they're powdering our noses and telling us stories. These are state criminals. I would hang them all."

On the train headed to Murmansk, relatives faced a 45-hour journey into the unknown on a train that is usually used to deliver them to happy reunions with their seafaring sons.

Most spoke quietly among themselves or stared silently out the window. Piles of fruit and candy plied on them by the anxious relatives who saw them off lay untouched on their tables.

While some of the mothers were able to recount sweet memories of their sons, the fathers were visibly tormented and aggressively silent. Vladimir Shalopinin, himself a veteran of the fleet, buried his face in his hands and cursed the navy he once served and to which his son, 19-year-old Lyosha, so aspired.

"Yes, I was so careless as to serve in the fleet," he said. "I don't want to talk. Talk to the mothers."

Nadezhda Shalopinin apologized for her husband. "He is not so frightening," she said. "He is just suffering so much over Lyosha."

Several bunks down, Valentina Budykina, head of a committee of mothers of Kursk sailors, described the weird twists and turns in the minds of parents frantically searching for reassurance that their sons will survive the dangers of military service. Her biggest effort until this week was helping mothers whose sons are serving in Chechnya.

"I had a mother who said, 'I'm so happy my son is in Chechnya and not in the fleet. At least in Chechnya he's on the ground.'"

As word spread throughout the train that these families were aboard, other passengers expressed their frustrations over the plight of the men trapped on the Kursk. Alexander Ivanov, a fisherman on his way back home to Murmansk, said he had no faith in the military.

"I was in the fleet for three years and feel like I crossed three years out of my life," he said. "They don't care about people at all.

"Sailors are cannon fodder to them," he continued. "I think half of them may be dead." He also condemned President Vladimir V. Putin for not cutting short his vacation to deal with the disaster.

The train's restaurant car was far enough from the families that at least a few passengers who were eating perhaps did not know that there was such suffering in their midst. But if they had looked, reminders were everywhere. The radio was tuned to a station alternating pop music with news reports on the Kursk and commentary on the consequences.

"We wouldn't accept help from the British," said a political commentator on the radio as diners downed their beers. "Putin is in Sochi on vacation. Putin isn't leaving Sochi. The sailors on the Kursk are prisoners of his pride."

---

No radiation in sea near Russian sub-Norway

Planet Ark
NORWAY: August 17, 2000
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7817

OSLO - Tests of waters near a stricken Russian nuclear submarine in which 116 sailors are trapped show no sign of radiation leaks, Norway said yesterday.

The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority said that measurements of the air across the Nordic region also continued to show no sign of fallout from the weekend accident, which left the massive Kursk submarine stranded at the bottom of the Arctic Berents Sea.

"We got a first five water samples during the night and they show no signs of radioactivity traceable to the submarine," Per Strand, a leader of the authority, told Reuters. "This was a very positive result."

Russia, making a third attempt to rescue the sailors yesterday, says the crew shut down nuclear reactors aboard the Kursk before it sank.

The tested samples were collected by the Norwegian Navy, which has a vessel in the area.

"It's reassuring but the first task is to get the crew out," Strand said. "We will get more samples during the day and continue tests."

In the long term, the Norwegian environmental group Bellona says that, in the worst case, the reactor could explode if it were abandoned on the seabed. That could spread radiation in the Berents Sea, a rich breeding ground for cod and other species.

Strand said the twin reactors aboard were about a fourth the size of those used in a nuclear power plant.

"We have experience of sunken Russian reactors," he said, pointing to surveillance of the Komsomolets nuclear submarine off north west Norway and of an abandoned Soviet-era reactor in the Arctic Kara Sea north of Russia.

The Komsomolets sank in 1989 after a fire, killing 42 sailors, in far deeper waters with two nuclear torpedoes. The vessel is slowly leaking plutonium but the depth of the water means it is less of a threat to marine life than the Kursk.

----

Sounds of Silence After Disaster Are an Echo From Soviet Times History: As sub drama unfolds on TV, a Russian who lost her husband in 1968 when his craft sank recalls how officials advised her not to ask questions.

Los Angeles Times
Thursday, August 17, 2000
By ROBYN DIXON, Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/updates/lat_subside000817.htm

MOSCOW--The news in Russia on Wednesday was that the knocking sounds from the trapped Russian nuclear submarine had stopped. Irina Zhuravina had the television on loud, her eyes locked on the haggard face of the mother of one of the crew members, and 32 years of grief and anger came rushing back.

She pulled out a map and showed the place, marked in red ink, where her husband's Golf-class submarine, K-129, sank in 1968 in 16,000 feet of water in the Pacific.

Zhuravina was told nothing for more than two months after the submarine disappeared from radio contact, and when she asked for answers, officials advised her, "Don't place your personal interests above the interests of the state."

The difference now is that the faces of the anxious families are being shown on Russian television screens. For the first time, a naval catastrophe is unfolding under the public spotlight.

Yet in the navy's clear discomfort with its obligation to inform the Russian people about what is going on, the 65-year-old Zhuravina sees many disturbing parallels with Soviet times--parallels that bring tears to her eyes when she sees the faces of worried relatives. She knows what they might have to suffer in the days and months to come.

"We couldn't even talk about it. The taboo was so strong, we couldn't even think about it," she said. "That is the difference between those times and now. All the rest is the same: the bureaucracy trying to push away responsibility, the commanders lying as they used to lie.

"They're all saying they don't need outside help, when they should have called in this help straightaway. It's still the Soviet mentality. They have no will to save those people's lives."

The views of this widow were mirrored in strong words on the front pages of Russian newspapers Wednesday. "The ideology of Soviet times has grown morally decrepit yet continues to control the minds of those in charge," said an article in Nezavisimaya Gazeta. "A subordinate should die himself, but not allow the death of a valuable piece of military equipment."

"If this was a NATO submarine, the crew would already have been rescued," said a front-page headline in Noviye Izvestia.

It took at least two days for the navy to admit the accident involving the submarine Kursk and at least three days to contact families. And it took at least three days before Russia decided to send naval officials to Brussels to discuss the rescue with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and not until Wednesday did it allow a British rescue submarine to be flown in to help.

By then, the knocking on the hull had grown more faint and then stopped.

"My brain cannot comprehend it. The British and the Americans and the Norwegians are ready to help. We should seize it straightaway," Zhuravina said. "But the Russian commanders are just thinking about the reputation and prestige of the navy."

From a Russian media voraciously seeking information about the Kursk and a legacy of reflexive Soviet thinking in the navy, a strange hybrid emerged: Few facts were released officially, but there was a flood of chaotic, contradictory and often incorrect information from anonymous naval officials quoted on Russian news wires.

With the world's attention captured by the unthinkable anguish of 118 men trapped 354 feet below the surface of the ocean, naval officials have begun to make the painful adjustment to the reality of massive media attention.

Yevgeny Aznabayev, a retired lieutenant captain of the Soviet navy, survived the sinking of the nuclear submarine K-219 in the Atlantic in 1986. He said he believes the crew of the Kursk would be beyond panic and perhaps beyond fear.

"The main thing is a sense of hope. Hope dies last," he said in a phone interview from his home in St. Petersburg. But he said he is sure the men would be preparing themselves for the worst.

"Because it's the fifth day now, no one is panicking," he said. "They can do nothing but wait to see if they are rescued, or if they will have to wait and die."

He remembers the minutes with a group of sailors and officers in the bow section of the K-219 before the final evacuation. He ordered the sailors to leave first and the officers to stay, but one young sailor, reluctant to abandon the officers to an uncertain fate, asked why he should leave.

"I told him: 'We officers already have wives, children, families. We already have our legacy. You do not, so you must leave. And live on!' " But the rescue by a Soviet ship went well, and only four men were lost.

Aznabayev, retired since the year of that sinking, said there is a culture of secrecy in the Russian navy, even concerning health and safety matters. Yet he seems to personify that strange collision between a desire for more openness and a Soviet patriotic military heritage.

He is strongly opposed to the idea of accepting Western help in the Kursk rescue. When the K-219 got into trouble, he said, a U.S. ship offered to rescue the Soviet crew but was immediately rebuffed.

Irina Zhuravina struggled for 32 years to find out the truth behind the disaster that stole the life of her husband, Alexander, who was 33 when he died. She recalls how Soviet naval officials refused to see her as she tried to find out whether something had gone wrong aboard the submarine.

Later, news of the tragedy was confirmed. A government commission informed the relatives, and there were lots of fine words about crew members--words Zhuravina could barely listen to.

"I never got any answers," she said.

The accident was one of the most mysterious of the long string of Soviet submarine accidents. It gave rise to a prominent instance of the American public being deceived. In 1973, the CIA covertly commissioned the construction of a special vessel, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, to raise the sunken boat for what it might yield about Soviet military secrets--an operation Zhuravina later likened to desecrating a communal grave.

Built at a cost of more than $200 million, by some estimates, the vessel was given the cover story that its purpose was to seek undersea mineral deposits. It found its quarry, but the hulk broke apart during the lifting operation in 1974. A critical portion of the submarine, its nuclear missiles and codes were lost.

It took Zhuravina 27 years to persuade the Russian navy to take her to the place where the submarine went down. It gained berths for her and one other bereaved relative on a 1995 commemorative voyage to mark the 50th anniversary of Japan's World War II defeat.

There was a memorial ceremony on board the ship--the first time the navy honored the dead on K-129. The crew was finally awarded posthumous medals last year.

She keeps her own memorial to her husband: the collection of Pacific coral and coconut shells that he brought her so long ago.

Yevgeny Aznabayev said that after his own submarine sank, the government promised improvements in submarine rescue training and equipment, but nothing ever changed.

"If people think after this there will be change, like more pay for officers or construction of new ships, it won't happen," he said. "It's true that it's impossible to understand Russia. Nothing ever teaches Russia a lesson."

---

Russia says sub has 'terrifying hole'

USA Today
08/17/00- Updated 08:31 PM ET
By Fred Weir, Special for USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwsthu05.htm

MOSCOW - After six days of futile rescue efforts, Russia is waiting for foreign teams arriving this weekend to try to reach 118 sailors stranded in a submarine on the Arctic seabed, as investigators found a ''terrifying hole'' on the sub's hull.

Film of the nuclear-powered Kursk studied on Thursday showed massive damage reaching from the front to the conning tower - halfway down the submarine's 500-foot length - that would have sent the vessel to the bottom in seconds, navy officials said.

The control room where most of the crew work is located below the tower. This suggests that many sailors had no time to escape when the submarine went down.

"The accident happened so quickly, we can say it was like a flash," navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said.

British defense officials said it appeared that the boat had been crippled by a massive explosion. Russian officers have said an explosion in the torpedo compartment at the front of the submarine apparently caused the Kursk to sink. A likely scenario was that one torpedo exploded and set off a bigger explosion in the torpedo-packed compartment.

The Kursk, an ultra-modern atomic powered attack submarine launched in 1995, sank and grounded at almost 350 feet Saturday after explosions tore through its forward torpedo compartment. It lies in international waters off the northwestern coast of Russia, about 185 miles from Norway.

Russian officials initially said that the boat sank Sunday and that it might have been involved in a collision. But they have since confirmed that the accident occurred Saturday and that an explosion could have caused the disaster, although Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said evidence still pointed to a collision as a likely cause.

Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said there was a "terrifying hole" on the starboard side of the Kursk. Klebanov, speaking in Murmansk, home of Russia's Northern Fleet, after top officials reviewed the rescue effort, said evidence suggested that the Kursk hit "a huge, heavy object," but he gave no details.

He also indicated that many submariners might have died almost immediately.

"A rather big part of the crew was in the part of the boat that was hit by the catastrophe that developed at lightning speed," Klebanov said.

Earlier, navy officials said there were no signs of life on the vessel, but some of the crew could still be alive.

Russian Naval Vice-Chief of State Alexander Pobozhy, meeting in Brussels with NATO officials on Thursday, said oxygen supplies could last for several more days. "From our experience with the Soviet submarine forces, it can be as long as two to three weeks," he said after the four-hour meeting. NATO sources said Pobozhy spoke about an incident several years ago when a Soviet submarine sank and survivors were found after three weeks.

Others were not as optimistic. "The situation with the Kursk is next to catastrophic," Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told the Interfax agency Thursday. He added: "We still want to hope there are chances to rescue the crew."

Russian rescue capsules trying to link up with the submarine for the past three days were again driven back Thursday by poor conditions on the sea bottom.

A British rescue submarine and backup staff were flown to Norway on Wednesday, but a ship carrying the British rescue sub was not expected to be in position at the accident site until about midday Saturday.

"If there are any survivors in the submarine, then this is their best chance," British Royal Navy Cmdr. David Stanesby said as a Norwegian oil-support ship carried the rescue equipment up Norway's Atlantic coast to the Barents Sea.

Britain also cautioned that any rescue would be a slow process. The British-made electric-powered LR5, described as an "underwater helicopter," can carry 16 people at a time. Each trip to the seabed and back to the surface can take from three to four hours, depending on the strength of the current.

Norway said it was sending up to 15 deep-sea divers from offshore oil and gas operations, but they were not expected to arrive until Sunday.

Russians were distressed by the delay in rescuing the Kursk's crew. "I am in complete despair over this tragedy," said Marina Makharova, 42, a clerk in Moscow. "I cannot believe nothing can be done for those boys down there. The fault must lie with bungling and incompetence on the part of our leaders, and that is the most terrible thing."

Igor Kuznetsov, 22, a photographer, said, "We can only hope the foreign specialists will be able to accomplish something, and maybe save some of those boys, but I really have my doubts.

"I'm afraid too much time has been wasted, and now there's nothing to do but pray for their souls."

Contributing: Wire reports

---

Putin Criticized for Sub Tragedy

Associated Press
August 17, 2000 Filed at 1:37 p.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Submarine-Putin.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- With Russia floundering over efforts to save the crew of a stricken submarine, President Vladimir Putin faces growing public frustration about his administration's Soviet-style approach to the disaster.

``The sailors dying in the Barents Sea couldn't interrupt the summer leaves of our statesmen,'' the daily Izvestia said in a clear reference to Putin, who has been on vacation at a southern resort during the crisis. ``They have a picnic on the shore with a view of the drowning men.''

The nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea last Saturday, but it took Putin until Wednesday to make his first statement on the catastrophe and order the navy to accept help from Britain and Norway.

Officials have offered conflicting and often false reports about the submarine and it wasn't until Thursday that the naval chief and a top Cabinet member flew to the Northern Fleet's base in Murmansk to assess the situation.

The handling of the disaster by the military and the government may tarnish Putin's image as a strong, dynamic leader who has promised to halt the chaos and decline that has turned the former superpower into a byword for disaster.

``The president's belated response to the crisis may erode his popularity,'' said Yevgeny Volk, the director of the Heritage Foundation's Moscow office. ``This is a strong sign of the government's helplessness.''

Other analysts say the sinking of the Kursk is unlikely to seriously damage the standing of a president who is still the most popular politician in recent Russian history, but it will be a major embarrassment because Putin has staked a lot of prestige on reviving the military.

Putin rarely misses a chance to be seen with the armed forces. In April, he donned naval officer garb and took a dive in another Northern Fleet submarine, winning the title of ``honorary submariner.''

But the government's handling of the submarine incident is likely to dent Putin's standing with the military, which has been one of his biggest supporters.

``The lack of response on Putin's part will undermine his popularity among the military, who now see that the president only visits them when all is well,'' Viktor Sokirko, a military analyst for the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily newspaper, said in an interview.

The government's conduct has prompted the press and the public to recall Soviet-era disasters, when officials were more preoccupied with keeping information under wraps and shifting blame than helping victims.

``The military have been rejecting foreign aid for four days because they only thought about protecting their secrets and pride,'' Volk said. ``Now they may blame the dead for the disaster, just like they did with the Komsomolets.''

In 1989, the Komsomolets submarine caught fire and sank off Norway, killing 42 of the 69 sailors aboard. Officials rejected foreign aid, losing a chance to save lives. The Soviet government later blamed the catastrophe on the crew.

Analysts say Putin is unlikely to react to this crisis by firing top military leaders.

``Putin is currently facing challenges on different political fronts, and he wouldn't open another one by reshuffling the military leadership,'' said Alexander Pikayev of the Carnegie Foundation.

At the same time, the sinking of the Kursk may add to the tug-of-war in the top ranks of the armed forces over whether nuclear forces should be cut to provide more money for the rest of the armed forces, which are in shambles.

---

Sub Victims' Mothers Head for Base

Associated Press
August 17, 2000 Filed at 3:22 p.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-Submarine-Relatives.html

KURSK, Russia (AP) -- Anguished but holding onto hope, the relatives of five sailors aboard the trapped nuclear submarine named for this city set off Thursday for the base leading the rescue effort.

As the train pulled out, other relatives ran alongside, blowing kisses.

``I just remembered when Dima left, it was just like this,'' Yuri Kuznetsov said, fighting back tears. ``He waved at me from the train, a little nervous ... I told him it would be OK.''

He referred to his nephew, 20-year-old Dmitry Staroseltsev, whose mother Valentina was on the train, riding in a grimy third-class car on a journey paid for by the local government.

The offer from the local government brought some life back into Dmitry's mother's face and gave her a reason to tear her eyes from the television set that has been her lifeline since learning Monday that the Kursk submarine had sunk to the floor of the Barents Sea.

``I'm doing what I have to do,'' she said as she briskly packed belongings for the daylong train ride from the city 285 miles south of Moscow to the Arctic port of Murmansk.

``Anything that brings me closer to my son ...'' she said.

Yet chances that the journey will bring good news were slim. Rescuers have been struggling for days to reach the submarine, and have heard no sign of life inside.

The ride ended a harrowing day for the families, who spent hours seeking help from the Kursk regional administration for the trip. The families could not afford train tickets and watched sadly all week as television showed other sailors' relatives gathering to share their grief in Murmansk. They were quartered on a boat that will put to sea to greet the men if they are rescued.

When Kursk officials announced in the afternoon that the trip was on, Dmitry's mother was lifted out of her gloom, and she began taking charge of the other parents, ordering some to bring sausage for the train ride, others to bring beverages.

Olga Kuznetsova was not among those leaving Thursday to seek news of her son, Mikhail. Hours after the submarine sank, Kuznetsova left a Moscow hospital where she had undergone surgery for breast cancer to return home to Kursk. She is still weak and recuperating.

But she joined the other families lobbying the administration Thursday, out of a need to feel like she was doing something, to take her mind off the sorrow, she said.

Many relatives of the 118 men on board the Kursk live in this small industrial city. The stricken boat bears the city's name and by tradition many of its crew are recruited from local high schools. The navy has not released a list of sailors onboard, but at least dozens are thought to come from Kursk.

---

Arctic City Ponders Fate of Sub

Associated Press
August 17, 2000 Filed at 2:14 p.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Russia-City-on-Edge.html

MURMANSK, Russia (AP) -- Rumors about the sailors trapped in a crippled Russian submarine on the sea floor circulate constantly in the offices, shops and homes of this Arctic port that glories in its ties to the navy.

With little reliable information, people lurch between hope and despair as they trade thirdhand reports. In a city full of active navy personnel and veterans, the mood is tinged by knowledge of how merciless the sea can be.

``What is happening now is such a tragedy that I wouldn't wish it on my enemy,'' said Viktor Duben, a 30-year veteran of the submarine service.

There was no news Thursday about the 118 men trapped since Saturday at the bottom of the Barents Sea aboard the Kursk, one of the newest and most powerful nuclear submarines in the Russian navy. The Kursk belongs to the Northern Fleet, which is headquartered in the Murmansk region.

``Only a small group of people really knows what's going on,'' said Valery Chushenkov, a retired submarine captain who is director of a naval history museum. ``And the rest of us -- we just listen to the news all day.''

Relatives of those aboard the Kursk complain that even the hot line the navy set up for the crisis is useless.

``We've been calling the hot line ... every day, and they are telling us they have no information. They say 'Go to Murmansk and ask journalists,''' said Ludmila Milyutina of St. Petersburg. Milyutina, whose son Andrei is on the Kursk, came to Mumansk on Thursday.

Murmansk stretches for 11 miles along the Kola Bay, with navy bases dotting the area. The gray concrete apartment blocks on the hills are home to many who served in the navy or have friends or relatives who still serve.

With the brief Arctic summer giving way to the first damp, chill stirrings of winter, many people's minds are on the cold inside the Kursk, which probably has not had heat or light since it sank.

``It's like this kind of weather, only it's dark,'' said Duben, the retired submariner. He huddled in his padded jacket, pulling his wool cap down over his ears, as he stood in a light drizzle.

Submarine crews usually have warm clothes stored for emergencies, but crew members may not have had time to fetch them. The navy said some sections of the Kursk are flooded.

``They are cold now, and have no lights,'' said Vyacheslav Olnev, a factory worker who also served on a submarine.

``I watched the news five or six times yesterday, worrying all the time,'' he said. ``I hope they are still alive.''

Duben said he spends most of his time trying to figure out what could have gone wrong when the Kursk plunged to the bottom during naval exercises. The navy said probes revealed massive damage to the front of the vessel.

``We know nothing about what happened with the submarine. But it was something terrible,'' Duben said.

Murmansk's St. Nicholas church has held special services to pray for the crew. Worshippers light candles in front of icons.

``I pray every day, morning and night, for their rescue,'' said Vladimir Dolinin, a 45-year-old bus driver.

The local branch of the Soldiers' Mothers Committee, which works for servicemen's rights, extended its hours to serve relatives of the Kursk's crew.

Like other people here, Valentina Fomina of the mother's committee criticized the Russian government for delaying requests for foreign help. On Wednesday, four days after the accident, the Russian government asked Britain and Norway to send a mini-submarine and drivers.

``It hurts that the military was wasting time by rejecting foreign assistance,'' she said. ``It's frightening that, even knowing they could not save the people themselves, they were refusing help.''

---

Russians Ask Help To Save Sub Crew
Britain Sending Deep Sea Craft To Site of Sinking

Washington Post
Thursday, August 17, 2000; Page A01
By Daniel Williams Washington Post Foreign Service
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/17/323l-081700-idx.html

MOSCOW, Aug. 16-Russia reversed its position today and requested Western help in its frustrated effort to rescue the crew of a disabled submarine at the bottom of the frigid Barents Sea as navy deep-sea vehicles failed again to reach any survivors.

At least four attempts today by Russian mini-submarines to lock onto an escape hatch on the crippled submarine Kursk were defeated by strong currents along the sea floor, poor visibility where the sub lies 324 feet below the surface and the sharp angle of the listing vessel, officials here said. They said one rescue vehicle was almost lost in the swirling waters.

The naval command scrambled for options as an increasingly critical public voiced dismay over the government's handling of the crisis. President Vladimir Putin, speaking publicly about the disaster for the first time from his vacation retreat at Sochi on the Black Sea, described the Kursk's situation as "difficult and critical."

At the same time, Britain responded to a Russian request for help by flying an undersea rescue vehicle called the LR5--a mini-submarine with a crew of three--to the Norwegian port of Trondheim. There, it was loaded onto a transport ship for a trip around the North Cape to waters off the Russian port of Murmansk, where the nuclear-powered Kursk went down. The voyage is expected to take just over two days.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Avdeyev said Russia would accept help from Norway as well, and the Oslo government dispatched a diving team that also will take about two days to reach the site. Previously, the Russians had said they needed no outside assistance.

President Clinton, in a 25-minute telephone conversation with Putin, shared his concerns about the plight of the trapped submariners and repeated an offer of American assistance. Putin replied that his government was looking at all options, White House officials said, adding that no request for U.S. help has been made.

The extent of damage inside the 500-foot Oscar II class attack submarine is unknown; the prevailing theory on the cause of the sinking is that an explosion occurred in a forward torpedo compartment Saturday during a naval training exercise.

The 118 sailors aboard--revised from 116 announced previously--have faced the twin hazards of dwindling oxygen supplies and a buildup of poisonous carbon dioxide in the darkened, powerless submarine. And today, news agency reports that a rhythmic tapping sound thought to be coming from inside the Kursk had ceased triggered widespread fears here that the crew might have perished.

But Adm. Vladimir Kuroyodev, the Russian navy commander, played down the significance of the crew's silence. "One needs to know the mentality of submarine officers," he said. "Once they know rescue capsules are above them, they maintain silence."

Over the past four days, there have been conflicting reports on whether survivors aboard the Kursk may have been tapping out coded messages on the hull of the vessel. Even after Kuroyodev spoke, a vice admiral said that the navy was still receiving "signals." Kuroyodev himself has issued differing statements on the condition of the Kursk; a day after estimating that oxygen aboard would run out by Friday, he said today it could last another full week.

A U.S. official told the Reuters news agency that American intelligence agencies have detected no sign of life on board the Kursk since it sank, shortly after its captain reportedly radioed for permission to fire two torpedoes. The official said he did not entirely rule out that some crewmen had survived.

Meanwhile, families of Kursk crew members gathered in the port of Murmansk--near the sub's base--and at military offices throughout Russia, trying to glean a measure of hope from opaque official statements. Many were in despair.

"Each news program is like a death sentence," said Galina Belogunya, wife of Viktor Belogun, an officer assigned to the Kursk, as she described her frustration over sparse official information. "There is nothing more scary. Sunday seemed like hell for us. Rumors only."

Belogunya and other relatives met with naval officers at Northern Fleet submarine headquarters in Vidyaevo, near Murmansk. "They said on television that evacuation of the crew would start at 4 p.m.," Belogunya said. "Just what were they doing before that? I think for the past two days the bosses in Moscow were trying to save the sub. They wanted to save this valuable thing at the expense of lives."

In St. Petersburg, Lyudmila Milyutina, whose son Andrei is an officer on the Kursk, complained that "no matter where I call, there is nothing. No one tells anyone anything."

Seven young men aboard the stricken sub come from Kursk, the western Russian city that is the vessel's namesake. Kursk resident Valentina Starosletseva said she was on the verge of sending a package of treats to her son on Monday when she heard the news. "I used to think it was so safe," she said. "I took account what was happening in Chechnya, and thanked God my child is so far away."

All of Russia appears riveted by the crisis, which has dominated newscasts, and pedestrians on busy Moscow streets asked strangers for news of the rescue effort. A survey of more than 3,000 listeners to Ekho Moscow radio concluded that about 75 percent believe the incident has damaged Putin's image as commander in chief.

In his remarks today, Putin went out of his way to respond to the criticism, denying that the navy had hesitated before launching rescue operations. "Nobody waited a single minute," he declared.

Newspaper and television reports began to question the efficiency of the rescue effort and the truth of information put out by the military. The newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta, which is owned by business magnate Boris Berezovsky, a Kremlin insider who has turned against Putin, carried the headline: "If the crew of the Kursk is not saved, the reputation of the Russian government will be lost beyond hope."

Even government television newscasters sharply queried a correspondent on why the government said initially that the Kursk sank Sunday, when it appears to have gone down Saturday night. The correspondent responded simply that information was scarce. Deputy parliament speaker Vladimir Lukin, a former ambassador to the United States, remarked that the military "likes to pretend that everything is okay."

Naval officials defended the professionalism of the rescue teams. They also revived the accusation that NATO ships monitoring the Barents Sea training exercise were to blame for the sinking. Officials with the Northern Fleet told the Interfax news agency that three NATO submarines were in the area of the maneuvers but were "driven out."

"It is this incident with the NATO submarines that underlies the version [that] the Kursk collided with an unidentified submarine," one official said. U.S. officials have said two U.S. subs were in the area at the time but denied any encounter with a Russian vessel or involvement in the sinking.

Reports also emerged that backup batteries for the Kursk, which normally would have been on board during an extended stay at sea, had been left ashore because last weekend's exercises were scheduled to last only three days. The batteries could have powered oxygen regeneration units, the newspaper Sevodnya said.

Official accounts of the rescue mission also fed suspicions of incompetence. This morning, in announcing the launching of the third effort, naval officials said the fleet's most sophisticated mini-sub, the 50-ton Bester, was being put into action. The Bester, the third deep-sea vehicle involved in the rescue attempt, is said to be able to navigate through strong currents that had buffeted a smaller mini-sub and a diving bell. No one explained why the Bester, which is fitted with a television camera and could ferry 18 sailors to the surface, was kept out of action until today.

The smaller mini-sub used earlier, the Priz, was fitted with old batteries that ran out of power within three hours, the Russian Tass news agency reported. On the verge of locking onto the Kursk's escape hatch, it was ordered to return to the surface for recharging, Tass said.

The British mini-sub en route to the rescue site can carry up to 16 passengers and has enough life support capability to remain submerged for 4 1/2 days. In Moscow, officials expressed skepticism that the LR5's docking port would be compatible with the escape hatch on the Kursk.

Navy commander Kuroyodev said Russian salvagers may try to attach giant inflatable pontoons to the stern of the Kursk to lift its rear deck escape hatch nearer the surface. Almost immediately, however, officials at Northern fleet headquarters said the sub is too heavy for such an operation.

Staff writer Ellen Nakashima in Washington contributed to this report.

The Continuing Rescue Efforts

Since Sunday, Russia has been trying to rescue the crew of the submarine Kursk from the bottom of the Barents Sea. So far, all efforts have failed, and Russia has accepted a British offer to have a mini-sub try to extricate the trapped sailors. But time is running out. Assuming that some of the 118 sailors survived the sinking and at least partial flooding of the vessel, they may run out of air before rescuers can reach them.

ATTEMPT WITH RESCUE BELL

Russian rescuers have made at least one attempt to lower the rescue bell Kolokol from a mother ship and connect it to a hatch on the stranded sub. But the attempt failed because of rough seas and the steep angle at which the sub is lying on the ocean floor.

When the diving bell works . . .

Designed to drop straight down onto a sub's deck, a rescue bell's weight and the water pressure surrounding it cause air to evacuate and create a pressure seal similar to a washer in a faucet.

External water pressure keeps the seal tight as water is pumped out of the chamber between the sub and bell hatches. Both hatches are then opened to allow people to enter the bell.

. . . and when it doesn't

When the vessel is at an angle, gravity causes the bell to slip off the surface, making it very difficult for a seal to take place.

Even if a seal is successful, water pressure can cause the bell to slip off.

SUBSEQUENT EFFORTS

Rescuers had tried to reach the Kursk with a mini-sub called the Priz but failed. Yesterday they launched the Bester submersible, which is larger and better able to navigate in the rough currents.

ON ITS WAY . . .

Britain has flown a mini-sub to Norway, where it has been loaded onto a Norwegian ship, which is now on its way to Murmansk. It is scheduled to arrive by Saturday. Sources say Russian engineers are working on an adapter to attach the British vessel to the Kursk.

Advantages of the mini-sub LR5:

Unlike a diving bell, a rescue sub has its own propulsion system. The LR5 also is equipped with a sophisticated sonar system.

Dimensions: 35 feet long; 11 feet wide
Weight: 21 tons
Dive depth: to 1,500 feet
Crew: 2
Rescue capability: up to 16 people

The Scene
Rescue efforts have been hampered by several obstacles:

* Strong currents and stormy seas.

* Very low visibility caused by stirred-up silt.

* Frigid water, about 32 degrees, which would play a role if the sailors were to float out to a rescue vessel.

Nuclear danger?

The Kursk has two nuclear reactors aboard, but so far no radioactive pollution has been reported in the area of the accident.

Russian officials said the reactors have been turned off. A submarine specialist in the United States said the Kursk's reactors may have shut down automatically during the emergency or when the Kursk hit the seabed. The crew also could have shut down the reactors and may be unable to restart them.

SOURCES: U.S. Navy; Periscope; Bellona; Federation of American Scientists; East Wind Cartographic; "Modern Submarine Warfare," Military Press; staff and wire reports.

---

Russia Calls for Help From West as Hope for Sub Survivors Fades

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By PATRICK E. TYLER
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/081700russia-sub.html

MOSCOW, Aug. 16 -- Russian naval forces failed again today to dock a rescue vehicle onto the sunken and disabled submarine Kursk as President Vladimir V. Putin ordered his military commanders to accept Western offers of assistance.

No signal was heard during the day from the 118 crew members, and hopes were fading that any of them would be able to cling to life as high winds and stormy weather hindered rescue efforts in the Barents Sea.

Britain loaded a rescue submarine into a Russian transport jet this afternoon and flew it to Norway, from where it was to be sent to the rescue site, which is some 35 miles off the Kola Peninsula, where Russia's Northern Fleet is based. The Russians may be counting on the British submersible vessel to be more maneuverable in the harsh tides and more adaptable in its docking mechanisms.

At the scene, 22 Russian vessels were hovering in wind-tossed seas over the heavily damaged and partially flooded hull of the Kursk, trapped since the weekend 350 feet below the surface. Norway said Russia had asked for divers and possibly additional ships to help.

But it seemed unlikely that foreign experts could join the operation before midday Saturday, and that is a day beyond the deadline when the crew is likely to be out of breathable air, according to the estimate made by the commander of the Russian Navy, Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov.

Russian Navy officials acknowledged in interviews today that most of the crew may have perished in the first hours of the disaster, when an explosion apparently ripped through the forward compartment of the submarine, sending the 14,000-ton vessel crashing into the seabed, where it rolled to one side.

On Monday and Tuesday, according to Russian officials, crew members had been banging on the hull, but they said such signals grew more faint on Tuesday and stopped today.

The Kursk was taking part in large-scale naval maneuvers last weekend when an underwater explosion was detected by both Russian surface warships and American and Norwegian intelligence sensors monitoring the exercises.

A contingent of senior Northern Fleet officers was aboard the Kursk, a navy spokesman said, and may have died on the bridge along with the submarine's captain, Gennadi Lyachin, 45. Navy officials initially reported the crew size at 116, but said today that 118 officers and crew members were aboard.

In Washington, a United States defense official said two enormous explosions in close succession were detected on the Kursk last weekend in the forward compartments at a time when a torpedo-firing exercise may have been under way.

"We had a pretty good indication of how powerful those explosions were," the official said, adding, "the magnitude was extraordinary" and would be consistent with torpedo blasts.

He said that there was no evidence the Kursk was involved in a collision and that, based on United States estimates, some members of the crew in the aft sections may have survived.

Russian Navy officials confirmed today that the Oscar II class submarine had been equipped with an escape module built into the conning tower, also known as the sail, and that the module was designed to separate from the submarine with explosive charges and float the entire crew to the surface.

However, Russian officials said that apparent damage to the sail area and possible flooding of the bridge and the compartment under the sail area may have made access to the escape module impossible.

Still, most Russian Navy officials expressed the conviction that some crew members remain alive.

"I don't think the absence of a signal means that all of them are dead," said Rear Adm. Georgi G. Kostov, 72, a longtime commander of nuclear attack submarines and an instructor at Russia's naval academy. "What it means is that people are in a sort of dormant, sleepy state and they can hold on if they had time to put on warm clothing in the unflooded compartments."

But he added: "I think they are very cold. They have food, they have some lighting. And the oxygen is running out with every hour."

President Putin, vacationing at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, characterized the plight of the crew as "difficult, and I would say, critical." He spoke by telephone with President Clinton for 25 minutes during the day. Mr. Clinton reiterated an offer of assistance, and Mr. Putin said he was "actively considering" such offers, an administration official said in Washington.

Shortly thereafter, Britain and Norway said they had received clearance from Russian military authorities to join the rescue effort. Mr. Putin's decision seemed aimed in part to dampen criticism that the military was not doing enough to save the crew.

As the dramatic and dangerous rescue operation was pelted by driving rain and sleet, a navy spokesman said that by late afternoon today, small rescue submarines working in shifts had conducted four separate dives trying to dock on one of the hatches of the Kursk in hopes that the hatch could be opened and surviving crew members ferried to the surface. But strong currents, poor visibility and the treacherous angle of the submarine on the floor of the sea have frustrated every docking attempt, navy officials said.

In each of the diving sessions, multiple attempts were made to maneuver the rescue vehicle into position. One vehicle was damaged during the day, officials said.

The first dives on Tuesday also failed.

"The whole day was spent on attempts to dock with the submarine," a navy spokesman, Igor Dygalo, said this evening. "During the last 24 hours, rough seas and a strong northeast wind resulted more than once in danger of losing a rescue capsule." He added that in one diving session, a rescue vehicle successfully settled over the rear hatch of the Kursk, but then reported that its own batteries were running dangerously low and was recalled to the surface.

The Northern Fleet spokesman, Igor Babenko, said docking attempts would continue through the night, but he added that "given the fruitlessness of the attempts in the day and the worsening weather conditions, one cannot expect any results before Thursday morning." He added that the navy for now would continue pinning its hopes on completing a successful docking with the Kursk using the small rescue submarines and added that navy officials would delay other contingency plans, such as trying to float the stern section of the submarine near to the surface using huge pontoons.

Mr. Babenko reiterated earlier estimates that "the stores of oxygen on the submarine are sufficient for the crew members to move unaided and maintain physical functions for two more days."

Storm conditions in the Barents Sea were forecast to abate somewhat in the next two days.

Among the least understood aspects of the disaster were the reports of major structural damage to the submarine beyond the destruction in the forward compartment.

Admiral Kuroyedov, the navy commander, said the first examination of the hull of Kursk showed portions of deck housing torn away. "The submarine lies aground with a raised periscope," he added, indicating, some experts said, that the central section of the submarine was flooded.

Other navy officials said the conning tower was heavily damaged. Some officials said it was still possible the submarine struck a World War II vintage mine, or was involved in a collision.

"The causes of the accident will become clear following a detailed examination of the entire submarine body," the navy commander said. And as for the crew, he added, "We shall remain optimistic until Aug. 18."

---

Fate of Crew Unknown as Rescue Efforts Fail to Reach Russian Sub

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By PATRICK E. TYLER
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/17/late/17cnd-russian-sub.html

MOSCOW, Aug. 17 -- Russian rescue teams tried and failed through another stormy night and day to lock onto a rear escape hatch of the shattered nuclear submarine Kursk, as reports emerged of catastrophic damage to the hull, suggesting the ship went down in a torrent of fire and flooding that may have killed or mortally wounded everyone aboard.

The growing prospect that the crew may be beyond rescue, making the sinking of the Kursk Russia's worst peacetime naval disaster, generated a wave of recriminations through the Russian news media, much of it aimed at the military. The president, Vladimir V. Putin, who remained on vacation at the Black Sea resort of Sochi was also a target of criticism. He went forward today with plans for a summit meeting with leaders of former Soviet republics on Friday, the day when navy officials are expected to acknowledge that the Kursk crew is out of air.

As the Russians continued their rescue work, British and Norwegian teams were traveling to the scene of the accident. The British are due to arrive on Saturday, the Norwegians on Sunday. Both teams are likely to arrive too late.

Russian military officials have given different estimates of how long the crew of the Kursk could survive. At first officers said oxygen in the submarine would run out by Friday. But the extensive damage to the submarine has now led some officers to suggest the Kursk's oxygen generators may have been destroyed during the accident last Saturday. That would mean that the crew would likely have run out of air long ago. There have been no signs of life for two days from any of the 118 sailors and officers who went down with the huge submarine last weekend during naval training exercises in the Barents Sea. Russia's top navy commanders met with Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov at Severodmorsk, headquarters of the Northern Fleet, to decide whether to continue the so-far fruitless attempts to land a rescue vessel on the Kursk's rear deck, or whether to use other methods to raise and begin salvaging the vessel. It carries two nuclear reactors which could pose a threat to the fisheries of the Arctic seas.

But as the grim process of damage assessment took shape, much of it based on underwater video of the Kursk's shattered bow section, cracked deck plates, shredded foredeck and battered conning tower, stark differences were emerging between the Moscow and Washington over the fundamental cause of the disaster.

Russia's defense minister, Marshal Igor Sergeyev, said he had "irrefutable data" pointing to a collision with an unknown vessel. Senior American defense and intelligence officials, however, said evidence pointed to powerful internal explosions. No scenario yet bridged the two.

Late tonight, Mr. Klebanov, reinforced Marshal Sergeyev's conclusion. Speaking at a news conference in Murmansk, the deputy prime minister said that it appeared the Kursk had sunk after a collision with "some external object of very big tonnage" that delivered "an extremely strong dynamic blow" to the bow and forward section of the ship, where a "terrible hole" was opened, causing forward compartments to flood. The Kursk was operating at a depth of 60 feet at the time, which is consistent with reports that its periscope was extended.

He said the object or ship that struck the submarine still had not been identified. Though Russian officials have alleged that two American submarines were operating in seas adjoining the exercise area, no allegation has been made that an American vessel was involved in the collision.

The area also straddles shipping lanes for cargo vessel traffic between Murmansk and the polar port of Dikson in Siberia.

In Moscow, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov called the situation "next to catastrophic," as engineers and admirals studied whether giant pontoons could be fitted to the rear of the Kursk so as to bring its rear escape hatch nearer to the surface where divers might open it.

"During the past night, there were no changes for better or worse," Mr. Kasyanov told a meeting of senior government officials in Moscow today. However, he added, "We want to hope that there are chances" remaining to rescue the crew.

Meanwhile in Murmansk, where Russian naval officials had mobilized the hospital ship Svir to treat wounded sailors who might be freed by rescuers, a sense of gloom had set in, with some families reporting that they had all but lost hope.

"What can I know apart from that my husband is dying there," a tearful Galina Beleyeva, the wife of one crew member, told reporters as she arrived in Murmansk.

Irina Lyachin, the wife of Kursk's commanding officer, Gennadi Lyachin, 45, told a Murmansk television station today that she still was holding out hope for good news about the crew an her husband. "I told myself that I will not listen to anyone" about the fate of the crew, she said, her voice trembling. "I will only listen to what is said officially. I will not pester every day, asking what is going on. I think that when there is news, they will tell us."

A film clip shown on Russian television tonight showed an ebullient Captain Lyachin returning to port after missile firing exercises in 1999.

Wearing an officer's hat, a navy greatcoat and speaking a little breathlessly as he stood on the pier next to the Kursk, Captain Lyachin told an interviewer, "I am proud to be the commander of this boat." But, in a jovial aside, he said that during the "last hours" of the cruise, "the thought of being reunited with our relatives kept us from sleeping or eating."

Today, the Russian media questioned why the military and Mr. Putin had failed to disclose to the nation that a tragedy had occurred last Saturday, when the first reports of underwater explosions rattled Western intelligence sensors in the region.

"The sailors on the Kursk fell silent yesterday," the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda stated in large red type, "Why has the president been silent? Why on earth did he think it was possible to keep mum for five days, when the entire nation has spent those days consumed with only one thought -- will they be saved or won't they?"

Izvestia said the catastrophe had "sunk the people's faith" in government. "It is the authorities themselves that have hit bottom," the paper said.

Underwater video taken over several days and analyzed at navy headquarters today confirmed massive structural damage to the forward compartments of the ship, including the bridge section under the conning tower where Captain Lyachin, 45, and a number of senior officers of the Northern Fleet would have been stationed during the maneuvers.

"The accident happened so quickly we can say it was like a flash," said navy spokesman Igor Dygalo.

But the biggest mystery remains what triggered the disaster as the 14,000 ton vessel steamed through the shallows of the Barents Sea at a depth regarded as dangerously shallow for the Kursk, given its length of 490 feet and height of more than 100 feet from the bottom of the keel to the top of its conning tower and periscope masts. A simple failure of a torpedo tube, or a stuck diving plane could pull its nose down and send it crashing into the bottom, Western and Russian naval experts said.

Marshal Sergeyev's remarks today, and Mr. Klebanov's news conference tonight intensified the level of mystery surrounding the sea tragedy. American defense and intelligence officials said Wednesday they detected the sound of two underwater explosions, one much larger than the other, near the Kursk's location Saturday morning. The American officials cast doubt on any speculation that the Kursk was involved in a collision.

But Marshal Sergeyev asserted today that, "The scenario in which the Kursk submarine suffered from a collision with another object is now the main one -- irrefutable data are already available." He did not elaborate in his remarks to Interfax news agency the nature of this evidence, and whether it arose exclusively from an examination of the hull, or from interrogation of naval officers aboard other Russian ships operating in tandem with the Kursk at the time of the accident.

Retired Adm. Eduard Baltin, former commander of Russian submarine forces in the Pacific, said today that the Kursk was operating in a sea lane frequently used by cargo vessel traffic.

"I think the only realistic version is the sub collided with a cargo vessel," Admiral Baltin said, writing in today Komsomolskaya Pravda, "Because it is in this area where there is a recommended course for civil navigation between Muramansk and Dikson."

He said a similar collision, with less catastrophic results for the submarine, occurred in the same area about 15 years ago.

---

Submarine's Namesake City Waits, Feeling Each Minute Tick Away

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/081700sub-scene.html

KURSK, Russia, Aug. 16 -- Valentina Staroseltseva thought she was lucky, because her draft-age son could have been sent to fight in Chechnya, the worst nightmare of most Russian mothers.

But Dima, 19, won a prestigious spot on the Kursk, the navy's newest and most sophisticated nuclear-powered submarine, named after the southern Russian city the Staroseltsevs are from.

"We thought the submarine was so safe," Mrs. Staroseltseva said as she watched herself on television talking about her son, whose dream of serving in the fleet has turned into a nightmare as harrowing as anything in Chechnya. "We called it our submarine.

We were 100 percent confident in it. We really believed in it."

So much so that young men from the region competed for the privilege of serving on the submarine, with three candidates for every spot allotted to conscripts from Kursk. Dima, who had completed studies at a railroad engineering school, made the cut.

Since last weekend the crippled Kursk has been lying on the floor of the Barents Sea, 80 miles from Severomorsk, home base of the Northern Fleet.

In Kursk, Mrs. Staroseltseva and the parents of six other local young men are keeping an anxious vigil, surrounded by relatives and friends.

They are camped around television sets, silent and tense, clenching their fists as the latest news reports speculate on the crew's dwindling oxygen supplies and discuss failed rescue attempts.

The hopeful news today is that help from Britain is on the way.

The worry was that Russia waited so long to accept help.

"I am angry that we didn't let the British come sooner," said Mrs. Staroseltseva. "I keep thinking about why we didn't take this help.

I as a mother want everything to be done faster and better."

Seeking solace, Mrs. Staroseltseva, a nurse, has been going twice a day to the bright yellow church near her house that she attended with Dima.

She recalls the icon he was given by the bishop of Kursk, who blessed Dima and the other draftees at their sendoff last November.

"I think maybe he is lying silently," she said. "As a mother I hope he is calm.

The main thing is not to panic."

But to a neighbor and Dima's aunt standing in her kitchen she reveals greater fears.

"All this news is like a little stab, followed by a little stab," she tells them. "It would be better if it happened all at once."

She now recalls that the head of the local military recruitment office, who was close to Dima, tried to talk him out of serving on the Kursk and urged him to serve on land, outside Moscow.

On Monday she mailed Dima the pens he had asked for in his last letter. When she returned home, the disaster was all over the news.

Today Mrs. Staroseltseva patiently fielded telephone calls and welcomed a stream of relatives and friends who came to the tree-lined street of one-story houses. The Staroseltsevs' brick house stands at a dead end.

She describes how her fears that her gentle son would not withstand military life faded with each letter and each visit.

While the Russian military is notorious for hazing and harsh living conditions, Dima wrote that he was well fed and had no problems with the officers or other conscripts.

Draft dodging is rampant in Russia, but Dima wanted to serve in the military.

The worried mother was convinced when she saw that after six months her skinny boy had gained nearly 17 pounds.

He wore his gold-trimmed black uniform and dashing greatcoat with pride.

There are several pictures of Dima with his best friend, Lyosha Nekrasov, 19, who is with him on the Kursk. Lyosha's mother calls several times a day to check in with Mrs. Staroseltseva.

Everyone is frustrated by the conflicting reports on the state of the submarine and the rescue operation.

"First they say there is enough oxygen only until the 18th, then they say there is enough until the 25th, then someone else says there is only enough for 72 hours," said Lyosha's mother, Nadezhda Nekrasova, who called the Staroseltsevs late tonight.

"First they say they knocked, now they say they're not knocking," she said, referring to reports of S O S signals being thumped on the walls of the sub. "My head is spinning."

Until today, the family had received no calls from local government or military officials.

Mrs. Staroseltseva's salary of about $40 a month is not enough for train tickets to the north for herself and her daughter, Inna.

With their help and that of the local soldiers' mothers committee, they and the families of the other sailors from Kursk are leaving on Thursday by train for Murmansk, near Severomorsk, a 45-hour odyssey that will tell whether their prayers for a miracle have been answered.

---

Survivors Tell of Submarine Horrors

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By CHRISTOPHER DREW with DAVID STOUT
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/081700sub-survive.html

Though no one knows just what agonies have befallen the men on the Russian submarine Kursk, other seamen who have been trapped beneath the sea describe how quickly the air can turn toxic and serious physical and emotional deterioration can set in.

The classic image of the dangers of submarine warfare has come from movies like "Das Boot," where men huddle quietly together to try to ride out depth-charge attacks and keep their hopes alive.

But as Russian officials spoke with fading hope yesterday of recovering the men on the Kursk, both Russians and Americans who have been aboard other stricken submarines, including some cornered in cold war confrontations, said headaches were common within a day as the air grew foul. And many men began gasping for breath and taking to their bunks with throbbing head pain by the second or third day as rising levels of deadly carbon dioxide began to consume them.

"By the second morning, some of us were kind of numb," said Clifford A. Smith, who was aboard a diesel-powered submarine that was forced by Soviet forces to go without fresh air for three days on a spy mission in the 1950's. He said the conditions were probably very similar to those on the hobbled Kursk, which is no longer able to produce its own fresh air.

Even though the lights were dimmed and special chemicals were scattered to absorb some of the carbon dioxide, Mr. Smith said, the crew's condition became so desperate that the submarine's captain was forced to surface -- and allow Soviet forces to herd his vessel away from their coast.

And in 1981, former submariners say, one American sailor had to be sedated when a spy submarine that he was aboard became temporarily stuck in sand in the seabed in Soviet water.

It is not known how many of the 118 crew members of the Kursk survived the initial catastrophe that led to its sinking last Saturday, and Russian navy commanders said yesterday that they did not know how many were still alive, if any.

Russian officials have said that an explosion, possibly involving one of the Kursk's torpedoes, may have ripped a hole in the front of the submarine, allowing water to flood several compartments and send the vessel spiraling to the bottom.

Many international experts think that any air left in the submarine may have turned poisonous by now and that nearly everyone who survived the explosion and flooding has probably been overcome by the buildup of gases like carbon dioxide, which everyone exhales.

One of those experts, Rear Adm. Georgi G. Kostov, an instructor at Russia's naval academy, said yesterday that it was possible that some crewmen could still be huddled at the rear of the vessel.

But even in describing the best-case situation, he painted a picture of an increasingly dank and choking environment that would soon break even the bravest and most resilient sailor.

The admiral said that if any crew members were still alive, they would be very cold as the near-freezing water of the Barents Sea undoubtedly has turned the submarine into a giant refrigerator. He also said the men would be getting "sleepy, going into a dormant state."

Admiral Kostov said they would still have food and possibly flashlights. They might also have been able to burn some special candles that give off oxygen. But he said "the oxygen is running out with every hour."

He also said that because most of the crew members were highly experienced, "I think they are calm and don't lose hope."

But a look at several other disasters and close calls involving submarines shows how little room there is for error in safeguarding men caught in ocean depths that many experts describe as every bit as treacherous -- and unforgiving -- as outer space.

In many ways the Russians' efforts to retrieve any survivors on the Kursk with a giant diving bell most closely resemble what happened after an American submarine, the Squalus, sank in 1939.

Carl Bryson, 82, who now lives in New London, Conn., recalled in an interview yesterday that he was trapped on the Squalus for some 36 hours in 240 feet of water. What he remembers is cold, foul-smelling air and the fear he tried to tamp down inside him.

Another Squalus survivor, Gerald McLees of Portsmouth, N.H., said the crew remained calm, with "no hysterics or anything like that," in the pitch blackness.

"I got in a bunk, covered up and tried to sleep," Mr. McLees, now 85, recalled. He said he was just following orders and trying to conserve oxygen by limiting his movements.

In World War II, many submarines went down, some with crews terrorized through relentless depth-charge attacks. Physicians say that some of the ways that men die on submarines -- like drowning or gas poisoning -- are exceptionally painful.

Once diesel submarines began being used for spy missions in the cold war, their crews also were vulnerable to being trapped.

While nuclear-powered submarines can create their own air when their reactors are running, diesel submarines had to stick a pipe above the waves each night to bring fresh air into the boat.

So in the case of Mr. Smith's submarine, the Gudgeon, and a few others, Soviet naval forces were able to keep them from ventilating, creating conditions over one to three days that would have been similar to those faced by any survivors aboard the Kursk.

Mr. Smith, 63, who now lives in North Fork, Calif., said the men aboard the Gudgeon kept up their spirits through a determination to survive.

In 1981, after a nuclear-powered American submarine, the Seawolf, sneaked into the Sea of Okhotsk on an extraordinarily secret mission -- to tap an underwater communications cable and retrieve pieces of Soviet missiles -- it was stuck in the sand for nearly two days before it could power its way off the seabed.

Some former crew members said one enlisted man lost control and began screaming. A medic was ordered to sedate him.

What has made the Kursk crisis so unusual and suspenseful is that the submarine sank in relatively shallow water. Other submarines that have been lost in the nuclear era, including two American submarines, have plunged more than 10,000 feet into the depths.

Rather than have any hope of rescue, these men died nearly instantaneously when their vessels imploded from the crushing sea pressures.

---

Russian Naval Official Asserts Explosion Struck Submarine

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By PATRICK E. TYLER with JULIAN E. BARNES NYT UPDATE, 7:19 P.M.
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/18/late/18cnd-russian-sub.html

MOSCOW, Aug. 18 -- A Russian naval officer acknowledged today for the first time that an explosion had caused much of the damage to the wrecked submarine Kursk, and officials said the navy would persist with rescue efforts after an attempt this morning failed.

The Navy said that after days of trying, rescuers finally succeeded this morning in docking a rescue vehicle on the spine of the Kursk, but reported that they found the deck area around a rear escape hatch so deformed that a water-tight connection could not be established to permit opening the hatch.

As Russian rescuers worked, President Vladimir V. Putin rushed back to Moscow from his vacation at a Black Sea resort.

The political and media pressure on him to return added to the drama surrounding the sea disaster that has much of the country riveted to television and radio, wondering if any of the 118 crew members survived the Saturday crash and if so, whether sufficient air remained to keep them alive 350 feet below the surface.

Mr. Putin defended the delay in his return, saying that the first assessment he received of the sea disaster from the defense minister indicated that "the chances the crew will survive are few, but they exist and specialists will do their utmost."

Navy officials said their best hope for success now was the British submersible en route to the scene. The British submarine is equipped with a more flexible docking mechanism and may be able to succeed where the Russian capsule failed. But there were reports today that bad weather was delaying the sub, which had been expected to arrive on Saturday night.

Because the precise extent of the damage to the emergency hatch and rear deck of the Kursk is unknown, however, it is unclear if the British submarine will have any better luck at making an airtight seal.

The United States bolstered its offer of help today by assembling a team of engineers, divers and doctors ready to reach the accident scene within 24 hours to assist the rescue efforts, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said in a news conference.

Mr. Cohen said Igor Sergeyev, the Russian Defense Minister, had asked that outside help be coordinated by NATO, but that no request for United States assistance had come. American, Russian and NATO officials planned to discuss any further assistance on Saturday morning, Mr. Cohen said.

"I would like to make it clear that the Defense Department remains ready, willing and able to provide whatever assistance we can to the Russian authorities that they would find helpful," he told reporters at the Pentagon.

The submarine incident, cloaked in mystery and contradictory information from the beginning, became even less clear today as theories multiplied about precisely what happened to the submarine and its crew.

The commander of Russia's Northern Fleet, Adm. Vyacheslav Popov, said in a television interview today that a large internal explosion had, indeed, devastated the Kursk before it went down. Western intelligence reports have said that a high-energy underwater explosion was detected last Saturday, but Admiral Popov was the first Russian official to confirm that assessment.

The explosion rattled one seismic station in Norway more than 150 miles away with the power of an earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale.

Admiral Popov added that the investigation into what had triggered the explosion was centered on "outside impact, for example a collision" or "something inside." He did not elaborate on the second possibility, or address how an internal cause would square with external signs of collision that senior Russian officials highlighted in statements on Thursday.

Some United States defense officials in Washington conceded today that it was "conceivable" that a collision preceded the large explosion aboard the Kursk. Other officials said they believed any collision between the Kursk and another ship or sub would have been heard by Western intelligence sensors monitoring the Russian naval exercises in the Barents Sea. Inflaming the mystery were numerous unconfirmed reports and theories spun out in the Russian press, several of them asserting that the Russian navy suspected that one of the two American submarines alleged to have been operating in the area might have been involved in a collision with the Kursk and then sought refuge at a Norwegian port.

These reports were only fanned by the arrival in Moscow of George Tenet, the United States Director of Central Intelligence. Mr. Tenet's agenda was not clear, but Russian officials said that his visit had been planned before the Kursk tragedy.

American officials have said repeatedly, and Mr. Cohen again emphasized today, that no American vessel had been involved in a collision with the Kursk.

One theory circulating among American defense officials today was that the Kursk was in the process of firing an anti-submarine rocket from one of its forward weapons tubes when the rocket jammed in the tube, with its warhead outside the hull still attached to the rocket body and flaming engine, triggering fire and an explosion, the first of two monitored by Western intelligence sensors.

After two minutes and 15 seconds of trying to free the flaming missile from its tube and extinguish the fire, the missile's warhead of high-yield conventional explosive could have detonated with the force of one to two tons of TNT, causing extensive damage to deck structures in the forward section and near the conning tower.

The American analysts estimated that the high-yield warhead and the shock wave from the explosion could have destroyed an estimated 40 percent of the submarine, splitting and deforming parts of the hull. This may have given the appearance that the ship had been pummeled by the glancing blow of another ship and opened a gaping hole in the hull.

Russian navy officials have been saying that sounds of the crew beating on the hull of the submarine were last heard on Tuesday, but today Admiral Popov said that the stricken submarine fell silent on Monday.

Over the last five days the Russian Navy has tried repeatedly -- and vainly -- to make the sort of connection rescuers made today with the submarine's rescue hatch. After the connection was made, rescuers tried several times to make a seal between the submarine and the capsule, but as soon as they pumped out water, more rushed in. The rescuers in the capsule kept working until its batteries ran low and they were forced to return to the surface. Despite that failure, officials said they would continue to try to use their capsules to rescue the crew.

"All the energy of our fleet has been concentrated on one task, to save people, to save people, to save our sailors," Admiral Popov said. "Now we are continuing work at an intensive rate."

Admiral Popov said today he still had some hope of a successful rescue but that the air pressure in the sub was higher than normal atmospheric pressure, meaning that naval officials might have overestimated how long the crew could survive on the ocean bottom.

"I am very worried that according to our calculations the pressure in the submarine is higher than the normal atmosphere," Admiral Popov told RTR state television. "The situation is very grave."

There have been a number of estimates as to when oxygen would run out for surviving crewmen.

Earlier in the week, Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, the navy commander, said he would remain optimistic "until Aug. 18." Other navy experts have suggested that any surviving crew members already have run out of oxygen and that the majority of the 86 officers and 31 enlisted men perished in the first minutes after the accident ruptured the hull and destroyed the watertight containment of the ship. One unidentified civilian was also reported on board.

As the hourglass seemed to empty for the crew, an intense investigation was also under way to determine what made the Kursk sink. A Norwegian seismic institute said today that it had detected two underwater explosions in the area where the Kursk went down, a little more than two minutes apart.

The explosion sent powerful shock waves through the water that could be detected by seismic equipment on Norway's northern coast, near where American intelligence sensors aboard submarines operating in the Arctic sea area also detected the powerful explosions.

And early today, the Russian navy said it was looking for a Russian cargo vessel, the Arkhangelsk Mechanic Yartsev, because it was reported to have passed through the waters where the Kursk went down on Aug. 12. The company that operates the vessel, reached by telephone, reported that the ship had indeed passed through the area, but on Aug. 10.

"What the navy people are saying is absurd," said Aleksandr V. Kononenko, deputy general director of Northern Shipline in a telephone interview.

"A cargo ship's bottom plating is only millimeters thick, where as the sub's main hull is centimeters thick," he said. "So if there had been a collision with our cargo vessel, we would already be lighting the candles for the souls of our crew and our ship would be on the bottom."

---

Russia asks Britain for help in rescuing crew of sunken sub

Washington Times
August 17, 2000
By Rowan Scarborough
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-2000817231732.htm

Russia, after a series of failed attempts to rescue 118 sailors entombed on the submarine Kursk, relented yesterday and asked Britain to send a minisub specially designed for deep-water docking and rescues.

Meanwhile, a Navy source told The Washington Times that a "great percentage" of the Kursk is flooded, raising questions about how many sailors could have survived the sea disaster.

The British Defense Ministry quickly dispatched a privately owned LR5 submersible and its three-man civilian crew from a base in Scotland. Russia had refused help from the West since announcing the sea disaster on Monday.

But the LR5 is not scheduled to arrive at the rescue scene on the Barents Sea until Saturday night, perhaps too late for a crew whose oxygen is running low and whose taps of SOS on the ship's hull grew faint, then stopped.

There is another hurdle besides travel time. Before the LR5 makes its dive, the British want to know if the watertight ring on its underbelly is compatible with the Kursk's escape hatch. The ministry is flying LR5 rings to Murmansk and, by today, will try to mate them with an Oscar II-class sub like the Kursk, said Royal Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jim Jenkin.

Cmdr. Jenkin told The Times if there is no hatch-ring match, the mission may not come off.

"It would certainly raise significant questions," he said. "Can we get around this problem? I don't know . . . I would assume the Russians have an element of confidence or they would not have made the request for assistance."

He added, "If this chance fails, then I think the chance of survival must be very low indeed."

In Kursk, the central Russian city for which the sunken vessel takes its name, the stress was taking its toll on relatives of the trapped seamen.

"I cannot bring myself to do anything, just sit and wait," said Valentina Staroseltseva, 51, whose 20-year-old son, Dmitry, is one of many Kursk natives on board the stricken submarine.

Her face drawn and with fatigue showing under her eyes, she told the Associated Press that when she learned of the disaster she sat down in front of the television "and have remained sitting here since."

The 30-foot-long, self-propelled rescue sub - capable of removing 16 sailors at a time and maneuvering in strong currents - was flown to the Norwegian port of Trondheim. It was scheduled to be hoisted onto a French-owned salvage ship for the three-day trip to the rescue site, where the Kursk lists to one side in up to 500 feet of water.

Russia's public SOS came amid public criticism of President Vladimir Putin's new government for refusing offers of international help as the crippled sub foundered for a fifth day.

The navy tried, and failed, at least four times Tuesday and yesterday to dock with the giant missile boat, using tethered diving chambers and a small submarine. The navy is handicapped by stormy seas and strong undersea currents that foiled attempts for a precise undersea mating.

Mr. Putin, on vacation at a Black Sea resort, made his first public comment yesterday during the national crisis. "From the moment it became clear that something had happened, all necessary and possible efforts to save the craft and its crew have been carried out," he said on Russian TV.

"Unfortunately, the weather is very bad. A storm has raged for two days, and sailors could not use all the means at their disposal."

Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, Russian navy commander, changed his estimate for the Kursk's ability to produce oxygen. He had said air would run out tomorrow, but now says the critical date is Aug. 24. The admiral said Russian submersibles would continue to dive until the LR5 arrived, and he gave an upbeat outlook for the crew's survival.

"One needs to take into account the mentality of submarine officers. Once they knew rescue capsules were above them, they maintained silence," he said, explaining a lack of SOS taps in recent hours. "Now I feel far more confident that the operation to rescue the Kursk crew will produce a result. The capsules will work until the result is achieved."

With its two reactors shut down, the cruise-missile boat has only a depleted battery system to power the oxygen-generation system. The vessel likely has other stopgap features, such as oxygen-producing candles and air-storage cylinders.

Experts say the most imminent danger is death by carbon dioxide poisoning. Subs typically carry a chemical powder to absorb carbon dioxide, but that process works for only hours, not days.

The Kursk sank Saturday morning during a major Russian naval exercise involving surface ships and five other submarines. The subs fired ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and torpedoes.

Officials believe an explosion in a forward torpedo compartment tore a hole in the ship and flooded one or more of the ship's 10 compartments, sending it to the bottom.

The Navy source told The Times that "at least" half the ship is flooded.

Dubbed an "underwater helicopter," the LR5 is operated by the Rumic engineering company near Glasgow, Scotland, and is leased exclusively to the British Defense Ministry.

In a press statement, Rumic said the minisub is capable of hovering above a listing sub - such as the Kursk - and attaching a watertight ring to the sub's escape hatch.

"When it reaches a submarine, it links up with the vessel hatch via a ring on the underside of its casing," the statement said. "The first stage of a rescue involves using the connection between the subs to drain excess water. Personnel can then be transferred to the LR5, 16 at a time."

The battery-powered craft is 30 feet long and 10 feet wide.

Rumic said the LR5 has a sophisticated system to see in the sea's murky depths. Visibility around the Kursk has been reported to be as good as 16 feet and as poor as zero.

---

Putin could be casualty of sub crisis

Washington Times
August 17, 2000
By David Sands
http://www.washtimes.com/world/default-2000817225219.htm

The crippled Russian submarine at the bottom of the Barents Sea could cause major collateral damage to the reputation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Putin, vacationing at the Black Sea resort of Sochi throughout the six-day drama, has been an oddly passive player in the first big crisis of his administration, even as the Russian press has taken harsh swipes at the military command that has been one of his key power bases.

The failure so far to rescue the 118 trapped crewmen in the nuclear-powered Kursk submarine, the Russian military's tight-lipped and contradictory response to the crisis, and the Kremlin's own confused signals "may bring long-term damage to Putin's popularity," said Ariel Cohen, an expert on Russian politics at the Heritage Foundation.

"This was the man who was supposed to get things done, and he's been barely seen," said Mr. Cohen.

Richard Scott, naval editor of the London-based Jane's Defense Weekly, said: "In political terms, it's extremely embarrassing for [Mr. Putin] now. The submarine accident demonstrates a clear need for a sweeping reform to restructure the [military]."

Remaining in Sochi as the world watched the rescue drama unfold, Mr. Putin waited until yesterday to make his first public comments on the sub disaster.

The situation is "serious, I would say critical," said Mr. Putin, who was apparently not informed of the submarine's troubles until Monday - two days after radio contact with the vessel was lost during a major Russian Northern Sea fleet exercise.

But Mr. Putin, echoing the official line of top Russian naval officers, also told reporters at first that Russia "had all the necessary equipment" to rescue the crew.

Only hours later, he approved an order to accept British and Norwegian help in trying to save the crew. Mr. Putin and President Clinton discussed the submarine's plight during a 25-minute telephone call yesterday. White House National Security Council spokesman David Stockwell said Mr. Clinton offered U.S. military help, but Mr. Putin did not take him up on the offer.

The confusing and contradictory stories put out by Russian military officials since the sub went down have become a target of increasingly outspoken criticism in the Russian press and abroad, with some charging that the Russians had waited far too long before swallowing their pride and admitting defeat.

The New Izvestia newspaper said: "If it was a NATO sub, it would have been saved by now."

The time and the cause of the accident, the need for Western assistance, even the number of crewmen trapped at the bottom of the sea all have been revised as the Russian military has dribbled out information on the disaster.

Norway, off whose coast the crippled nuclear sub now rests, also expressed dismay that Moscow only officially informed the nation of the accident Tuesday, three days after it occurred.

The Heritage Foundation's Mr. Cohen said Mr. Putin bears some responsibility for the culture of fear that has gripped top Russian military officials in responding to the submarine crisis.

Line officers are demanding written orders before attempting new rescue efforts, he said, apparently afraid of a purge should the attempts fail.

Gleb Pavlovsky, Mr. Putin's top political adviser, said a dramatic intervention by the president to direct the rescue effort could do more harm than good.

In an extended political honeymoon since taking office in May, Mr. Putin impressively has consolidated his power, embarked on an aggressive round of foreign summits, and pushed much of his domestic-reform agenda through the legislature.

But the submarine crisis capped a week of embarrassing reverses.

A terrorist bombing rocked a busy square just blocks from Mr. Putin's Kremlin office last week, killing 12. The still-unsolved attack tarnished the president's reputation as the man who curbed terrorism with his aggressive prosecution of the war in Chechnya.

And North Korean leader Kim Jong-il shocked Moscow over the weekend by saying a proposal he made to Mr. Putin last month to junk Pyongyang's nuclear missile program was actually a joke.

Mr. Putin, hoping to use the "offer" to undercut U.S. plan for a national missile defense system, touted the idea as a major breakthrough at the Group of Eight summit in Okinawa, Japan, forcing U.S. and Western diplomats to scramble to figure out what Mr. Kim had proposed.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.

-------- sweden

Sweden delays close of Barseback nuclear reactor

SWEDEN: August 17, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7816

STOCKHOLM - Sweden will delay a planned close of a second reactor at nuclear power plant Barseback in south Sweden by 2001, Industry Minister Bjorn Rosengren said yesterday.

Sweden, which voted to phase out nuclear power in a 1980 referendum, closed its first reactor at the two-reactor plant Barseback in November last year.

But to get the go-ahead and close the second reactor, a 1997 agreement stated Sweden would have to replace the estimated losses of four terawatt hours (TWh) with renewable energy such as biomass, solar, wind and small hydropower.

"For the government, it is an obvious standpoint that the conditions of the 1997 decision should be followed," he said in a statement.

He said that it had decided to delay the shutdown because several reports showed the conditions would not be met by 2001 and that Sweden would only be capable of producing 2.5 TWh by 2001.

The standpoint meant the government would not follow a report by the Swedish National Energy Administration, stating the reactor could be closed by 2001 because production costs for nuclear power were higher than the market price.

It said power prices had plummeted unexpectedly since the Nordic power markets were deregulated in line with a European directive to open up Europe's power markets to competition by 2003.

The risk of power shortages in south Sweden was a further reason why the government had decided not to close the Sydkraft -owned 615-megawatt reactor, he said.

"It (shortages) could increase the imports of power from coal and oil which would lead to increased emissions of carbon dioxide..." he said.

Sweden has 11 operating nuclear reactors.

---

Peruvians Remember Sub Sinking

Associated Press
August 17, 2000 Filed at 3:53 a.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Peru-Submarine.html

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Pascual Gomez doesn't have to imagine what it is like for Russians trapped in a nuclear submarine on the ocean floor. With oxygen running out and toxic gas threatening to seep in, he and crewmates used an emergency pressure tube in a daring escape that shot them to the water's surface.

It was a Saturday morning, Aug. 27, 1988, that navy divers tapped out Morse code on the hull of the submerged Peruvian submarine Pacocha, relaying permission to go ahead with their risky plan.

Over the next several hours, Gomez and 21 others formed small groups and in succession crammed into the tiny chamber, similar to a torpedo tube, sealed themselves from the craft and allowed water in to equalize pressure with the ocean.

Then they shot up, breaking the Pacific's surface, gasping and screaming from pain.

``I would have nightmares in which I heard and saw my crewmates screaming for help,'' Gomez, now retired, told The Associated Press on Wednesday, recalling the months afterward. ``I was terrified of the dark. It made me claustrophobic.''

The Pacocha, a 312-foot former U.S. Navy attack submarine, had been accidentally rammed by a 412-ton Japanese fishing boat shortly after sunset on Aug. 26, about three miles from the port of Callao, eight miles northwest of Lima.

Within seven minutes the submarine, which carried more than 50 sailors and officers, sank 137 feet to the Pacific floor.

Gomez recalled the absolute darkness, broken by brilliant flashes of sparks from short-circuiting control panels, as the vessel made its rapid descent.

In the waters above, three officers and 23 sailors who had managed to abandon ship formed floating circles in the frigid water and waited for rescue. But before help arrived, three crewmen were separated from the rest. Their bodies were never found.

A lieutenant commander and two sailors died aboard the submerged submarine, according to an account published two years later by retired Peruvian navy Rear Adm. Ramon Arrospide. The officer drowned and the crewmen were asphyxiated when oxygen in an air bubble ran out.

But 22 crewmen, including Gomez, then a 34-year-old electrical technician, managed to seal themselves inside a forward torpedo room.

By morning, Peruvian navy officials had decided to await help from the United States. A U.S. navy team was due to arrive late Saturday, or possibly Sunday, with a diving bell specially designed for submarine rescue.

But air supplies dwindled faster than expected and carbon monoxide was building up fast. Attempts to inject air into the disabled vessel from another submarine failed.

Meanwhile, toxic chlorine gas produced by the vessel's flooded batteries threatened to seep into the dry compartment where the sailors had sealed themselves.

``The lack of oxygen and the carbon monoxide was practically lethal to us,'' said another retired sailor, Jose Contreras, 41.

Gomez said he and the other sailors donned inflatable life vests and prepared to swim their way out.

The crew knew the risk they took with their plan to catapult themselves to the surface, Contreras said.

An instant before opening the escape chamber, the sailors exhaled as much air as possible to avoid collapsing their lungs in the sudden shift of pressure.

That is how one sailor died, Contreras said, and another suffered a cerebral embolism caused by his ascent from the ocean floor.

The survivors were rushed to decompression chambers, suffering from severe cases of the bends. Many suffered health problems for years, shortening their military careers, Contreras said.

Both Gomez and Contreras have been closely watching developments with the Russian submarine, the Kursk, which lies in the Barents Sea more than 350 feet below the surface.

``They are in much deeper than we were, about twice as deep,'' Contreras said.

Both, however, held out hope the crew might survive.

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

SEC Approves Utility Merger

Associated Press
August 17, 2000 Filed at 12:55 p.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/f/AP-Utility-Merger.html

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the merger of Northern States Power Co. and New Century Energies of Denver, creating one of the nation's 10 largest electricity and natural gas companies.

The SEC approval, the last hurdle to combining the two companies under the new name Xcel Energy Inc., was announced Thursday. Only the paperwork remained. Stock will begin trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol XEL.

Xcel, a $6 billion holding company based in Minneapolis, will serve more than 3 million electricity and 1.5 million natural gas customers in 12 states, plus 2 million electricity customers in the United Kingdom through a subsidiary of NCE.

Current New Century shareholders will receive 1.55 shares of Xcel Energy stock for each share of NCE they hold. NSP shareholders will get one share of Xcel for each share of NSP stock and will not be required to exchange their existing stock.

The merger proposal was announced on March 25, 1999 and earlier received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Justice Department, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and states.

Wayne Brunetti, NCE chairman and chief executive, will become president and chief executive of Xcel.

Jim Howard, NSP's chairman, president and chief executive, will serve as chairman of Xcel for one year. The title moves to Brunetti when Howard retires.

The merger is expected to result in more than $1.1 billion in cost savings over the next 10 years, the companies said.

``We'll have a company ready to compete in the future, with a size and scale that will allow us to control our own destiny as the electricity industry is restructured,'' Brunetti said.

The companies said earlier that about 800 employees would lose their jobs as a result of the merger and about 700 other employees would experience changes in their jobs.

Customers in parts of Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, Texas, Michigan, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming will begin to see a changeover to the new name and logo over the next several months as the NSP and NCE names are phased out.

-------- minnesota

Power Reactor Event Number: 37235

FACILITY: PRAIRIE ISLAND
REGION: 3 NOTIFICATION
DATE: 08/17/2000

The following text is a portion of a facsimile received from the licensee:

"[The] decision was made today (08/17/00) at 1130 [CDT] to notify offsite agencies concerning a large fish kill at Prairie Island. This [was the] result of the planned zebra mussel treatment that was taking place at the plant."

The licensee stated that the event occurred on 08/16/00 and that the fish kill involved approximately 7,500 young fish (mainly catfish and minnows approximately 2" to 5" in length). The majority of these fish were discovered in the plant's recycle canal. However, a few dead fish were also found in the Mississippi River.

The licensee notified both the state and Goodhue County. The licensee also plans to notify the NRC resident inspector. In addition, a press release may be issued because this may be a media sensitive event.

--

Prarie Island says fish kill was 75,000

FACILITY: PRAIRIE ISLAND REGION: 3 NOTIFICATION DATE: 08/17/2000 UNIT: [1] [2] [] STATE: MN NOTIFICATION TIME: 13:34[EDT]

UPDATE 1145EDT 8/21/00 FROM BILL MATHER TO S. SANDIN *

The licensee is correcting this report to read that 75,000 young fish were killed. The licensee informed the NRC resident inspector. Notified

R3DO(Hiland).

-------- new mexico

Hearing in Nuclear Secrets Case Turns Into a Debate on Intent

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By JAMES STERNGOLD
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/081700lee-nuclear.html

ALBUQUERQUE, Aug. 16 -- What was supposed to have been a simple hearing on whether a scientist accused of mishandling nuclear weapons secrets should be released on bail turned today into a bitterly contentious preview of his trial.

Bail hearings are generally brief, with decisions usually rendered with relative speed. But this is the third bail hearing for Wen Ho Lee, a former nuclear weapons scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and as it moves into a second day it has illustrated the unusual gulf between what is in the 59-count indictment and what the government contends that Dr. Lee actually intended.

He is charged with illegally moving the secret data to an unsecure computer and portable computer tapes, some of which are missing, with the intent to harm the United States. The government has said further that Dr. Lee, 60, had been motivated largely by a desire to find a new job -- most likely with an American ally -- and intended to use the tapes to enhance his prospects.

But most of the bail hearing today, and a previous one in December, focused on the question of espionage, of which he is not accused.

At the heart of the issue is the significance of the trove of nuclear data that Dr. Lee is accused of downloading. Two witnesses appeared in Federal District Court here today: John Richter, a former top nuclear weapons designer and intelligence official at Los Alamos, and C. Paul Robinson, the president of the Sandia National Laboratories.

Mr. Richter, who is highly familiar with the obscure computer codes that Dr. Lee is accused of downloading, said perhaps 99 percent of the information had already been made public in various forums and would not be that useful to a foreign country.

Asked if national security would be harmed if the tapes found their way into foreign hands, Dr. Richter replied, "I don't believe that it would have any deleterious affect at all."

But Dr. Robinson maintained that if the tapes landed in hostile hands, the global balance of power could be shifted. "I've never seen anything even close to it in approximation of the potential damage," he said.

The hearing is scheduled to continue on Thursday before Judge James A. Parker.

---

Nuclear Weapons Expert Urges Bail for Lee

Washington Post
Thursday, August 17, 2000; Page A04
By Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writer
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/17/237l-081700-idx.html

ALBUQUERQUE, Aug. 16-A top nuclear weapons expert testified today that physicist Wen Ho Lee should be released on bail because the data that Lee downloaded from computers at Los Alamos National Laboratory would not harm U.S. security even if it fell into the hands of a foreign power.

"I think keeping him locked up is much more injurious to the reputation of the United States," John Richter, who was a senior weapons designer at Los Alamos for many years and is still a consultant to the laboratory, told Judge James A. Parker at a bail hearing in U.S. District Court here.

Lee, 60, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Taiwan, was arrested in December and charged with copying nuclear weapons data from the lab's classified computer system to portable tapes, seven of which are missing. He has been held in solitary confinement at a county jail in Santa Fe, N.M., pending a trial, scheduled to begin in November. He is shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles during one or two hours of exercise a week, according to his attorneys, who claim he had destroyed the missing tapes.

Richter, who participated in 42 nuclear weapons tests before retiring from Los Alamos in 1997 as one of the country's most experienced weapons designers, said he believes that 99 percent of the data downloaded by Lee were available in open literature.

Richter said that even if a foreign power obtained the information, it would have no "deleterious effect" on the United States because no one could build a sophisticated nuclear warhead like America's miniaturized W-88 simply on the basis of the computer simulation codes downloaded by Lee.

Richter's testimony was a direct attack on the argument of U.S. prosecutors that the data on the missing tapes represent the "crown jewels" of America's nuclear weapons program and could change the global balance of power if obtained by a foreign government.

Richter conceded under cross-examination by lead prosecutor George A. Stamboulidis that he had written a letter to a colleague saying that, if were a juror, he would vote to acquit Lee of all charges.

"I lived in Washington, D.C., for a year and a half, and I was appalled at the hemorrhage of classified information," Richter explained. "Outside the Beltway, if you leak classified information, you get your clearance pulled and you get fired. And that happened to Doctor Lee some time back and that's enough, and that's why I'd vote to acquit. I think he's suffered enough."

In December, Parker refused an initial request for bail. The judge said at the time that no combination of restrictions could safeguard national security as long as the whereabouts of the tapes remain uncertain.

But Lee's attorneys, in a bail motion filed last month, called the conditions of his detention "extraordinarily harsh" and presented new evidence challenging the testimony of the FBI's lead investigator.

The defense attorneys argued that FBI Special Agent Robert Messemer gave false testimony during Lee's first bail hearing in December, when Messemer said that Lee had told a fellow Los Alamos employee that he needed to use a computer recording device to download a "resume" onto a portable tape.

Citing recent grand jury testimony and an FBI report, Lee's lawyers said the fellow employee, Kuok-Mee Ling, never said anything about a resume--and actually told the grand jury that Lee had told him "he wanted to download some files."

"The significance of Agent Messemer's apparently false testimony can hardly be overstated," Lee's motion stated. "By misrepresenting what Dr. Ling had said, Agent Messemer sought with obvious success to convince the Court that Dr. Lee's conduct had been 'secretive and deceptive,' to use the court's words."

U.S. Attorney Norman C. Bay and Stamboulidis replied that Messemer "made an error in his testimony." But they said it was inadvertent and not designed to mislead the court. The government attorneys also said that Lee is "transported to the federal courthouse in Albuquerque almost every weekday to work with his lawyers" on his defense.

"Lee . . . downloaded America's nuclear secrets onto portable computer tapes, seven of which are still missing," Bay and Stamboulidis wrote. "Those tapes, in the hands of an unauthorized possessor, pose a mortal danger to the United States. . . . There is no condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the safety of this country if Lee is released."

Lee's attorneys said that if he is granted bail, he would submit to home detention, supervision by court personnel, a search of his home and "monitoring of his home telephone by any means the government deems appropriate."

Richter began his testimony today in open court. But after less than an hour, Parker moved to a closed session at the request of attorneys on both sides, who wanted to ask questions regarding classified information.

While under cross examination by Stamboulidis, Richter conceded that the information downloaded by Lee could be used by a foreign power to help design weapons. But he disagreed that the information would give unauthorized users a "complete" design capability, as other Los Alamos weapons officials previously testified.

Richter said the crown jewels of the U.S. nuclear weapons program are not the simulation codes downloaded by Lee, but rather the data from over 1,000 nuclear tests. "We spent trillions of dollars getting that information," he said.

Richter conceded that fragments of test data are included in the simulation data downloaded by Lee. But those fragments alone, he said, would not do a foreign power much good. "I would say that unless a big portion of our test data is on there, forgive the pun, it's like a Chinese puzzle. A thousand tests is a lot of pieces. One or two isn't going to do it."

---

Lawyer seeks Wen Ho Lee's release

USA Today
08/17/00- Updated 08:14 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncswed01.htm

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Wen Ho Lee's lawyers are once again trying to get him out on bail and also are arguing the ethnic Chinese nuclear scientist is being prosecuted for breaching security at Los Alamos National Laboratory because of racial profiling.

At a pretrial hearing Tuesday, attorney Mark Holscher gave the court copies of statements of federal investigators acknowledging ethnic profiling and said the government had a duty to explain or justify its actions.

''We know that policy exists based on the statements of those in charge of the policy,'' Holscher said.

In a separate hearing Wednesday, Lee's defense sought to get Lee freed on bail. He has been held without bond since December, and the defense contends that assertions made by prosecutors at the original bail hearing that month overstated the secrecy of materials Lee allegedly mishandled and the risks of freeing him on bail.

Defense witness John Richter, who worked at Los Alamos from 1958 until he retired in 1997, testified the files that Lee is accused of downloading would have ''no deleterious effect at all on the global strategic balance.'' Keeping Lee locked up is ''much more injurious to the reputation of the United States,'' he said. Numerous supporters of Lee were in the courtroom Wednesday, wearing green buttons with his name on them.

Taiwan-born Lee, 60, is charged with 59 counts involving downloading restricted files from the nuclear weapons lab to unsecured computers and tape. If convicted at the trial, which begins Nov. 6, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

In Tuesday's hearing, Holscher asked U.S. District Judge James Parker to order prosecutors to turn over a January 2000 Energy Department report on racial profiling, an Energy Department counterintelligence video and any FBI reports concerning profiling. Holscher also sought transcripts from several closed congressional hearings at which the case was discussed.

The hearing ended without a decision by the judge.

''We believe Taiwanese-Americans are the least likely ethnic group in the United States to commit espionage,'' Holscher told Parker.

Yet Lee, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was singled out for prosecution while other scientists who had visited China and spoken to Chinese scientists were ignored by investigators, Holscher said.

Holscher said Lee is the only person ever charged under the Atomic Energy Act to face a life prison term for alleged crimes that did not involve espionage.

Holscher produced a videotape of former FBI deputy director Paul Moore telling a television newsman that the agency used race in considering the case and other investigations involving Chinese-Americans.

It is illegal for a federal prosecution to be based on racial considerations.

The defense also offered a sworn affidavit that the U.S. attorney's office used to obtain the search warrant for Lee's home in which an FBI agent claimed Lee ''was more likely to have committed espionage for the People's Republic of China (PRC) because he was 'overseas ethnic Chinese.'''

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Fashing acknowledged that the FBI, ''based on its experience in counterintelligence,'' maintains that China contacts Chinese-Americans when it wants secret information.

''It's simply saying they're more likely to be approached,'' she told the judge.

She urged Parker to deny the disclosure motion, claiming the privilege of the executive branch and the ''prosecutorial authority'' of the Justice Department.

---

USA Today
08/17/00
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

New Mexico

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, whose chances of being Al Gore's running mate were scuttled by security problems at nuclear laboratories and a spike in gas prices, told a cheering crowd of delegates from his home state that he's not leaving politics. Richardson had said previously that he might run for governor someday, but he didn't tell delegates which office he would seek. The former New Mexico congressman and ambassador to the United Nations spoke to delegates and interest groups throughout the convention, keeping a high profile as the only Hispanic in President Clinton's cabinet.

-------- ohio

Strickland decries sale of plant's power

Columbus Dispatch
Thursday, August 17, 2000
James Bradshaw and Jonathan Riskind Dispatch Public Affairs Reporters
http://www.dispatch.com/news/newsfea00/aug00/387592.html

Operators of a uranium enrichment plant in southern Ohio are plundering its resources to send it to an early grave, an Ohio congressman said yesterday as he asked state regulators to block the sale of $44 million worth of the plant's electricity allowance.

"USEC is raping -- literally raping -- our facility,'' said Rep. Ted Strickland of Lucasville as he filed a petition for a public hearing before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

USEC, a privatized federal corporation, operates the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Piketon and a sister plant in Paducah, Ky.

Strickland, a Democrat whose district includes the plant and its 1,700 jobs, is not alone in opposing USEC's plans to cease enrichment operations at the plant in June -- less than three years after it was privatized in 1998.

Republican Gov. Bob Taft buttonholed President Clinton at a July meeting of the National Governors Association in Pennsylvania to give him a letter detailing Ohio's concerns about the loss of jobs from an economically depressed Appalachian area. Clinton made no promises to intervene in the matter.

Local government officials of both parties and others who fear for southern Ohio's economic health also oppose USEC's plans to cut short on a promise to keep the Piketon plant open through 2004.

Strickland said the electricity plan calls for USEC to sell back $44 million of its summer power allotment for an after-tax gain of $28 million. The power was contracted at a cheap rate by the Department of Energy with the Ohio Valley Electric Corp. and turned over to USEC in the privatization of the plant, he said.

He said the utilities commission should hold a public hearing and investigate whether the power sale is in the public interest.

However, USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle said that the company does not make a profit selling back electricity in the summer months. This is a regular method of doing business that involves using less electricity during the summer because less material is produced and using more power in the winter months, when it's cheaper and more enriched uranium is manufactured.

"It compensates us for the extra power that we're buying the rest of the year,'' Stuckle said. "It is not for profit. We have no selling power line item where we are making money.''

Stuckle said USEC's decreased power use in the summer frees up more power in the Midwest during peak usage periods. The power sale has nothing to do with the decision to close the Piketon plant, she said, a move USEC says was done to make overall operations more efficient.

Strickland said USEC officials also want to harvest Freon from the plant's cooling system and transfer equipment and parts to the Kentucky plant.

"If they strip it of the Freon, if they loot the spare parts -- and they're in the process of canceling the power contract -- what will be left?'' the congressman said.

He said the contract with the Department of Energy requires USEC to return the plant to the government "in operating condition.'' Continued removal of materials would make it next to impossible for the plant to reopen if needed, which could jeopardize the nation's future supplies of enriched uranium, Strickland said.

The Piketon and Paducah plants produce commercial-grade enriched uranium that is used to fuel the nuclear power plants that supply 20 percent of the nation's electricity. USEC is the country's only domestic source for enriched uranium. The Paducah plant is able to complete only the first phase of enrichment now, but USEC plans to have Paducah's capabilities upgraded before it shuts down the Piketon plant.

Strickland said the two power plants that provide the electricity require environmental upgrades estimated to cost $290 million by the end of 2003, and he thinks USEC is attempting to avoid paying pass-through costs of the electricity by cutting back usage and closing the plant early.

That will mean higher costs for other ratepayers, including residential customers, he said. Strickland said he would like to see the full $44 million in savings applied to the upgrade costs.

Stuckle said, however, that USEC's reduced power usage has nothing to do with the upgrades.

-------- us nuc politics

Foreign Policy Gets Scant Attention

Associated Press
August 18, 2000 Filed at 2:20 a.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/p/AP-CVN-Foreign-Policy.html

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- In accepting the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Al Gore talked to the American people, not the world.

Gore dealt with foreign affairs in just a dozen sentences in his 51-minute convention closer Thursday night, addressing little more than Republican Party presidential candidate George W. Bush did in his own convention speech.

Like Bush, the vice president promised a strong military and couched foreign policy in terms of what's best for America: ``We must always have the will to defend our enduring interests -- from Europe, to the Middle East, to Japan and Korea. We must strengthen our partnerships with Africa, Latin America, and the rest of the developing world.''

He also pledged to promote ``truly free trade'' that also is fair.

``We must set standards to end child labor, to prevent the exploitation of workers and the poisoning of the environment,'' he said. ``Free trade can and must be -- and if I'm president, will be -- a way to lift everyone up, not bring anyone down to the lowest common denominator.''

Gore mentioned his early support for nuclear arms control, his service as an Army reporter in Vietnam and his vote, along with only a handful of other Democrats, for the Gulf War against Iraq's Saddam Hussein. He mentioned Kuwait in reference to the Gulf War.

But he named no other countries, no other world leaders and no other global issues.

Bush, in accepting the Republican Party nomination two weeks ago in Philadelphia, also gave foreign affairs short shrift. He said the world needs America's strength and leadership, promising reduced nuclear arms and deployment of missile defenses without concern for ``outdated treaties.''

``When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming,'' said Bush, whose foreign policy experience is concentrated mainly on Texas' relations with Mexico, whose president-elect, Vicente Fox, is visiting with both candidates next week.

Differences among Americans over national missile defense, relations with Russia, treatment of China and deployment of U.S. troops abroad were discussed at the convention mainly in forums attended by diplomats, foreign government officials and international reporters.

Some Democrats criticized the convention's lack of a foreign policy focus.

``We need to know what he is going to do with the future. We need to know about foreign policy,'' Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California told MSNBC before Gore's speech.

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, earlier said, ``I think it's a mistake for us not to engage the Republicans on defense policy and on foreign policy issues.''

Biden said party organizers wouldn't let him give a foreign policy address because they wanted to focus on education, health and the economy. He called Bush and his running mate, former defense secretary Dick Cheney, ``unilateralists if not isolationists.''

Bush, however, has rejected ``the blunders of isolationism'' and suggests a foreign policy that reflects ``the modesty of true strength.''

In contrast with the Democrats, the Republicans' convention devoted an evening to global affairs and national defense, featuring retired Gens. Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf.

Gore senior foreign policy adviser Derek Shearer said that despite the low profile of such issues at the Democratic convention, Americans know their president is commander in chief of the country with the most military strength in the world.

``We believe very strongly that when the American people see the candidates up close, particularly in the debates,'' Shearer said, ``it will become clearer that Vice President Gore is not only more competent, he is more experienced and he has a clearer view of the issues that face the world in this era.'

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

U.S., Russian arms negotiators meet

Spokane Spokesman Review
August 17, 2000
http://www.spokane.net/news-story-body.asp?Date=081700&ID=s839775&cat=

Geneva _ Top U.S. and Russian arms negotiators met Wednesday seeking to build on a commitment by Presidents Bill Clinton and Vladimir Putin to improve safeguards against the accidental launch of a nuclear war.

In conjunction with the G-8 summit last month, Clinton and Putin issued a statement saying they planned to set up a joint U.S.-Russia center for exchange of data from systems that provide early warning in the event of a missile launch. The negotiators have to work out implementation.

---

Nuclear Contradictions

New York Times
08/17/00
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/17/letters/l17nuk.html

To the Editor:

Re "Study Said to Find U.S. Missile Shield Might Incite China" (front page, Aug. 10):

America's nuclear policy is unclear. We want to stop proliferation. Then we want to bolster our nuclear arsenal. We worry that China will increase its nuclear capability tenfold in response to our strategic moves. Then we browbeat India when it wants to enhance its nuclear capability as a defense against threats from its neighbors.

Is it our policy to keep India nuclear-poor and look the other way when China conducts nuclear tests? Is it our long-term strategy to keep these weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists, rogue nations and protectors of terrorism? Then why not ask Pakistan to stop its nuclear weapons program and to stop arming Kashmiri militants? Why not warn China that we will impose trade sanctions if it conducts more nuclear tests?

PRADEEP GANGULY Elkridge, Md., Aug. 10, 2000

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

-------- colombia

Colombia police facing new role in guerrilla war
But residents weighing security against dangers of rebel magnets

08/17/2000
By Tod Robberson
The Dallas Morning News
From: Paul Wolf - paulwolf@icdc.com

National Police Agent Alfonso Parra surveys rubble left behind by Colombian rebels after a nine-hour siege of the town of Colombia. Two churches, three schools and 10 houses lay in ruins from the July assault.

"We're supposed to be a force that people come to with problems like, 'My child is missing,' or 'I can't find my dog,'" said police Agent Alfonso Parra as he rested an arm on his Galil assault rifle. "We shouldn't be the ones they come to with, 'There's a guerrilla in front of my house.'"

But the circumstances of Colombia's intensifying internal war have converted policemen such as Mr. Parra into the country's first line of defense against an increasingly brutal onslaught by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Many in Colombia are questioning whether the government is properly training and supporting its police officers for a military role they were never meant to have.

The 17,000-member FARC, bolstered by millions of dollars in drug money and sheltered by a Switzerland-size safe haven only 20 miles from the town of Colombia, has spent the last month flexing its military muscle by attacking police stations and leveling civilian buildings with homemade bombs.

Many believe that the offensive is the rebels' answer to a $1.3 billion package of mostly military aid that the Clinton administration approved for Colombia in July.

Since the aid package was approved, the FARC has marched out of its safe haven to hammer towns such as Colombia, Algeciras, Santa María, Vega Larga, Tello, Roncesvalles and Alpujarra with unusual ferocity. At least 36 police officers have been killed in combat since July - nearly a third of the total for this year. Hundreds of others have been taken prisoner.

The attacks, each involving up to 800 rebel fighters, prompted President Andrés Pastrana earlier this month to threaten a punishing government response - in spite of the 18-month-old peace process that, so far, has been his top priority.

"This is not war. This is sadism. There are no words sufficient to condemn the terrible acts of barbarity committed by the guerrillas against police and civilians," Mr. Pastrana said after an assault that left 14 policemen dead in the town of Arboleda. "There will be an iron fist for those who destroy the country."

In the town of Colombia, two churches, three schools and 10 houses lay in ruins from a July 12 rebel assault. The Aquarius discotheque was flattened by bombs made from gas canisters filled with dynamite and hurled from nearby streets using makeshift mortar launchers. Much of the damage appeared to have been inflicted by errant mortars aimed at the police station.

Incredibly, none of the town's 22 policemen were killed as they fended off hundreds of guerrillas during the nine-hour siege. Six civilians were killed, including the wife and two sons of a police agent who had left them alone at home so he could help defend the town.

The police station was left so riddled with bullet holes and shrapnel that parts of it will have to be torn down and rebuilt. In the meantime, police spend their days crouched behind sandbags or mixing concrete outside to rebuild their station.

"We're just waiting for the next attack to begin," Agent Parra said with a shrug.

Police stations such as the one in Colombia are taking on the appearance of military forts, with sandbag bunkers, fortified concrete barriers with gun turrets, and secret tunnels that give police greater maneuverability during guerrilla attacks.

Their food consists of U.S.-supplied, pre-packaged Meals-Ready to Eat, the field rations used by U.S. troops during combat deployments. Some police agents say they have received counterinsurgency training from U.S. troops stationed in the country.

The town of Colombia, just like the nation that shares its name, finds itself immersed in an unconventional and unpredictable guerrilla war that seems to abide by no rules and honor no boundaries. And the police are caught square in the middle.

Critics say Colombia runs the risk of militarizing its National Police force the way that El Salvador did with its national Treasury Police during its 1980s war against leftist insurgents. The Treasury Police ultimately became one of the most feared groups in the country and was blamed by international human rights groups for widespread atrocities.

"People ask me all the time if I see any similarities between Colombia and El Salvador," said Carlos Salinas, Latin America policy director for the human rights group Amnesty International. "I answer: Similarities? No. This is El Salvador."

Continuing to press

Amnesty, along with other groups, continues to press the Colombian government to abide by international conventions as well as the nation's constitution, which oblige the government to extend police security to all citizens. Without that security, Mr. Salinas said, civilians are vulnerable to attack by various insurgent groups.

At the same time, he acknowledged that international law recognizes the legitimacy of guerrilla attacks on police as the "armed projection of the state," and that their isolation in some towns often makes the police sitting ducks for assault.

"They're not neutral bystanders, unfortunately for them," Mr. Salinas said. "This is one of the many challenges that the government faces in dealing with the armed opposition: How do you reconcile a state of war with certain routine obligations of the state, like security?"

Gen. Luis Ernesto Gilibert, commander of the National Police, acknowledged that the militarization of the police is a troublesome trend.

"The police should not be militarizing. The police should continue being police because otherwise they will lose contact with their original mission and philosophy," he said in an interview.

"The guerrillas attack us because we are a little bit vulnerable. We are vulnerable because of the close proximity we must maintain with the citizenry," Gen. Gilibert explained. "We could place ourselves inside stations, totally entrenched, and make ourselves invulnerable. But our mission is to provide a state presence in every corner of the country. ... We fight as much as our forces permit us."

Targeting stations

The FARC tactic of targeting police stations presents a policy dilemma for the Pastrana government, which is required constitutionally to provide police protection in all of the nation's 1,096 municipalities. But 169 municipalities have no police presence at all, and another hundred police stations have been destroyed by insurgents, Gen. Gilibert said.

Some towns have asked the police to leave, he added.

"We understand. It's not because they don't want the police to be there, but because they're afraid. They're threatened," Gen. Gilibert said. "We can't obligate the people to stay at our side physically" when the police are clearly the targets of FARC attack.

The Rev. Alirio García Soto, the priest of the main church blasted by the rebels in the town of Colombia, has filed an unusual lawsuit against the federal government, saying it failed to respond to numerous warnings that an attack on the town was imminent. He wants the government to pay for the town's reconstruction costs.

"Let's talk about our rights," he said. "At the root of all this, the people are living in constant fear. There are rumors that the guerrillas are going to return and take us all away."

Hundreds have moved

He said hundreds of inhabitants have moved, particularly teenagers who often are targeted by the FARC for forced recruitment.

"The situation is dangerous. If we don't support the government, they won't respond when we need help. And if we do support the government, then the guerrillas will come kill us," the priest said.

An hour's drive away in the town of Alpujarras, which was attacked the same day as Colombia, acting Mayor Roberto Bautista said the local government is under increasing pressure from residents to ask the police to leave. FARC rebels have attacked the town twice since March, with the police station the primary target both times.

"They bring problems with them," Mr. Bautista said of the police. "Other towns are asking if maybe it would be better to let the guerrillas take over. At least then these attacks would stop."

Last week, at a national conference of municipal governments in Bogotá, mayors took the podium repeatedly to weigh the security provided by the police versus the dangers they pose as magnets for attack.

Evelio Ernesto Piamba, mayor of San Sebastián, in southern Cauca province, said his town has been without a police presence since September 1999, when the local force withdrew without notice.

The withdrawal has meant the near-total domination of the municipality by the rebels, but with a greater degree of tranquillity, he said.

Asked under what conditions would he ask the police to return, he responded, "That's difficult to talk about, because any mayor who calls for the police to return is a mayor who has just become a military target" of the rebels.

A tough choice

Javier Enrique Gallego, mayor of Totoro, Cauca, said his town has been without police since a November 1997 rebel attack destroyed the police station. It is a tough choice whether to ask them to return, he said.

"At this point, one doesn't feel secure no matter which way you go, because with the guerrilla presence, you always feel the pressure they bring to bear. ... Then again, if the police are there, you always know that they are going to be the target," the mayor said. "Definitely, we live without God and without law."

Free-lance journalist Jenny Carolina González contributed to this report from Bogotá.

----

THE AMERICAS
Colombian Army May Have Shot Students

Washington Post
Thursday, August 17, 2000; Page A24
World In Brief Compiled by James Rupert
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/17/316l-081700-idx.html

PUEBLO RICO, Colombia--President Andres Pastrana said he would head an investigation into allegations that army troops armed with assault rifles and grenades ambushed schoolchildren on a country hike, killing six students. The group of 60 children, aged 6 through 12, was attacked Tuesday near Pueblo Rico in the northwestern province of Antioquia.

The regional army commander, Gen. Eduardo Herrera, initially said the children had been caught by cross-fire in a clash between soldiers and 11 National Liberation Army guerrillas. But survivors said no guerrillas had been there and that troops had pinned the students down for 45 minutes.

"Those who fired at us were soldiers. . . . There were no guerrillas," said one young girl, who declined to give her name. (Reuters)

---

COLOMBIA: INQUIRY INTO KILLINGS

New York Times
August 17, 2000
World Briefing THE AMERICAS
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/17/news/world/world-briefing.html

President Andres Pastrana ordered an investigation into allegations that army troops armed with assault rifles and grenades ambushed a school group and killed six students. (Reuters)

---

Colombia investigates massacre reports

Washington Times
August 17, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-200081722222.htm

PUEBLO RICO, Colombia - With this mountain village mourning the death of six schoolchildren, President Andres Pastrana ordered an investigation yesterday after an eyewitness said army troops opened fire on them without provocation.

The army had maintained that the children became caught in combat between leftist rebels and Colombian troops.

-------- drug war

USA Today
08/17/00
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Utah

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, who was not part of his state's delegation, showed up at the Shadow Convention to denounce the nation's drug policies. Anderson was invited to speak during the alternative convention's session on "The Failed War on Drugs." Anderson, who recently decided to cut off support for the DARE anti-drug program in Salt Lake City schools, called the get-tough approach to drug prevention "absolute insanity." He noted that the number of Americans imprisoned for drug offenses has grown from 41,000 to 458,000 in 20 years.

---

Professor accused of leaking secret drug info

USA Today
08/17/00- Updated 09:35 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/ndsthu02.htm

CLEVELAND (AP) - A lawsuit accuses a Cleveland State University professor of leaking a secret government report on drug trafficking allegations against one of Mexico's most prominent families.

The federal suit, filed this week in Cleveland, says Donald Schulz, chairman of CSU's political science department, gave the draft of the report written by the National Drug Intelligence Center to newspaper reporters and congressional staffers.

The leak jeopardized U.S.-Mexico relations and ruined the reputation of Carlos Hank Rohn and his family, the suit charges.

Schulz has denied leaking the document and referred questions to his attorney, James West, of Harrisburg, Pa., who said Thursday that he had no comment.

The lawsuit was filed by Laredo National Bank of Laredo, Texas.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and to clear the names of the bank and Hank, who has been chairman of the independent bank holding company for the past decade.

His father is a former Mexican Cabinet minister. The report accused the Hank family of being drug kingpins who laundered money through the Laredo bank.

According to a June 1999 article in The Washington Post, the report said the family ''poses a significant criminal threat to the United States,'' adding, ''Its multibillion-dollar criminal and business empire, developed over several decades, reaches throughout Mexico and into the United States.''

The report was prepared by NDIC, a strategic drug intelligence center under the Justice Department and based in Johnstown, Pa.

The lawsuit alleges that in 1999, NDIC supervisor Donald Huffman gave the report to Schulz, who was writing a book on cocaine and politics in Mexico.

At the time, Schulz was an instructor at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.

A note accompanied the report that said: ''Please do not disseminate this to anyone without our approval,'' according to the lawsuit.

Huffman has repeatedly denied involvement in the leak but was fired in November.

According to the lawsuit, Schulz made copies and passed them out to several newspaper reporters.

The timing of the leaks, the lawsuit said, were ''strategically engineered.'' Congress at the time was debating the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, which later became law.

It allows the government to freeze bank accounts and other assets of people it labels significant drug traffickers.

-------- india

KASHMIR: ANTI-INDIA VIOLENCE

New York Times
August 17, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/17/news/world/world-briefing.html

Eight people were killed and 18 injured in violence in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in incidents involving anti-India militants, the police said. In one, a grenade tossed at Indian security troops missed and landed in a crowded market in Bijbehara, south of the summer capital of Srinagar. Celia W. Dugger (NYT)

---

Cases withdrawn against kidnappers

USA Today
08/17/00- Updated 07:53 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#rsub

MADRAS, India - An Indian state government withdrew criminal charges Wednesday against five members of an extremist organization on demand of the elusive bandit who kidnapped a veteran Indian movie star three weeks ago. The kidnapper, Veerappan, had demanded that the five members of the secessionist Tamil National Liberation Army be freed. The Tamil Nadu state government dropped charges against the five, but said it will only release them after Veerappan frees some of his hostages. Veerappan, 56, who has so far eluded capture, kidnapped actor Rajkumar and three companions from Rajkumar's vacation home last month, and he is wanted for killing at least 130 policemen.

-------- iraq

U.S. planes bomb Iraqi air defense sites

USA Today
08/17/00- Updated 07:53 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#rsub

ANKARA, Turkey - U.S. jets bombed air defense sites in northern Iraq on Thursday after coming under missile attack, the U.S. military said. U.S. warplanes were fired on from Iraqi sites north of Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad, for a second time within three days, the U.S. European Command said. Iraqi gunners also fired antiaircraft guns at the jets, which returned safely to the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey. The United States has been enforcing no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. Iraq regards the zones violations of its territorial sovereignty and has been challenging the patrols since December 1998.

---

New York Times
August 17, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/17/news/world/world-briefing.html

MIDDLE EAST
IRAN: HELICOPTER RESCUE

An American ship rescued two crew members from an Iranian helicopter that crashed near an oil rig in the Persian Gulf, state-run radio reported. Iran does not have relations with the United States, which conservative elements of the Iranian government regard with great suspicion. (AP)

RAQ: KUWAIT, TURKEY CRITICIZED

Iraq criticized Turkey and Kuwait for assisting American and British air patrols, and said its ground-to-air missiles had again driven the planes back. American and British warplanes patrol air-exclusion zones over northern and southern Iraq and take off from bases in Turkey, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Baghdad does not recognize the no-fly zones. (Agence France-Presse)

---

On the road to Baghdad

Washington Times
EDITORIAL • August 17, 2000
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-house-2000817184259.htm

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez defied the United States by becoming the first head of state to visit Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War. The U.S. business community was particularly nonplussed by the meeting, since Venezuela supplies the United States with most of the oil it imports. Venezuela's anti-gringo contingent, on the other hand, cheered Mr. Chavez's machismo.

More than likely, the visit was fashioned for the domestic consumption of this very group. Mr. Chavez's friendship with Cuban, Libyan and Chinese dictators has already proved popular in Venezuela. Mr. Chavez has maintained that he dropped in on Saddam Hussein to discuss how to expand the role of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the international oil cartel which Venezuela is a part of. But since Iraq was placed under U.N. sanctions, it hasn't operated under OPEC's quota system. Although Mr. Chavez may have inquired about Iraq's production plans, the rendezvous probably gave Venezuela little more than an opportunity for tough talk.

Iraq, in turn, has seized on Mr. Chavez's visit to spit in the eye of America. "Every now and then, the rulers of America receive slaps from representatives of other countries, but despite this, these rulers go further with their internationally rejected behavior," said an Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman, seemingly labeling Venezuela a global pariah.

Mr. Chavez's visit with Saddam was part of a larger tour of OPEC countries. Before visiting Iraq on Aug. 10, Mr. Chavez traveled to Kuwait, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to drum up support for an OPEC summit in Venezuela next month. The meeting is important for Venezuela, since the country is especially vulnerable to any drop in oil prices.

Mr. Chavez has managed to scare away most foreign investors with incendiary rhetoric and misguided policies. He is therefore keen to turn Venezuelans' attention outwards. Mr. Chavez's visit to Iraq achieved just that, in the short term.

Last year, the Venezuelan economy contracted an alarming 7 percent, even as oil prices surged. The contraction is all the more painful in a country where over half of the population already lives in poverty. Unemployment is currently between 15 to 20 percent. Crime is also rampant, with murders up 70 percent this year.

Mr. Chavez's tête-à-tête with a detestable tyrant will distract Venezuelans for only so long. Soon his people will demand more than unkept promises and anti-imperialist bravado. They will want their president to address more substantive concerns, such as safer streets and job-creating, economic growth.

-------- korea

Like It or Not, North Koreans Tour a Mall in Seoul

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By SAMUEL LEN
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/asia/081700nkorea-skorea.html

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 16 -- On their first full day in South Korea after half a century, 100 North Koreans -- in two controlled groups of 50 -- experienced the capitalistic excess of a giant shopping mall today.

Flanked by a marching band playing a rousing rendition of "Our Hope Is Unification" -- an emotional song well known to both North and South Koreans -- the visitors, who were in town to see relatives, walked under a five-story clock encrusted with stained glass and through the stainless steel gates of Lotte World. A 29-acre site, it has a 533-room hotel, an amusement park, three shopping centers, an indoor golf course and one of Asia's largest duty-free shops.

Not that they were allowed a chance to stop and shop at any of the glitzy stores. The group was whisked up three flights of stairs into a dimly lit folk museum that features miniature exhibits of scenes from 5,000 years of Korean history, with the notable exception of the war that split the country in two.

Spying the visitors as they filed by, Jeon Ok Im, a clerk at a women's clothing store, ran out into the main corridor.

"It would have been great if they could have come to see the stores," Ms. Jeon said. "But I guess they wouldn't have been able to control them. The atmosphere would have been too free."

The reunions are intended as a first step down the long road toward reunification of the Korean Peninsula. But their ground rules, rising out of five decades of hostility and mistrust, make normality impossible.

To begin with, the North Koreans who flew here Tuesday are staying in a hotel on one side of the Han River, while the Southern relatives they have not seen since the Korean War are in a hotel on the other side.

The shopping mall trip gave further evidence of official orchestration and control. The North Korean visitors were hustled onto buses and ferried to Lotte World like tourists, when they might have preferred to spend the entire day with their families. Fifty trekked through the mall in the morning while the other 50 stayed back at their hotel to see relatives. In the afternoon the groups traded itineraries.

In North Korea, 100 South Koreans visiting their relatives were apparently being subjected to a similarly rigid routine.

South Korean officials chose Lotte World as the site for the tour not to give them a lesson in free-market economics but because it is close to the North Koreans' hotel.

"The schedule is very tight and they have to move around in groups," said a Unification Ministry spokesman, Kim Hyon Du. "If they were to go out further, the round trip could run up to four or five hours."

He said North Korean government officials who visited Seoul earlier this year had gone on the same tour, which gave South Korean officials experience and eased the logistical difficulties of the outing.

Despite the mall's capitalist vibrancy, the North Koreans were reserved, visibly mindful of the North Korean officials who were their ever-present escorts, often holding their hands as they walked along.

But neither the minders nor the South Korean organizers anticipated the arrival of Oh Soon Kyun and her daughter. Holding a sign marked with the name of Mrs. Oh's North Korean brother-in-law, Kim Gyu Sol, they showed up at Lotte World determined to greet him.

The South Korean government is allowing only five South Korean relatives to meet with each North Korean visitor, and Mrs. Oh and her daughter did not make the cut.

For a brief moment, Mrs. Oh and Mr. Kim embraced. With tears glazing their faces, they whispered a few words to each other. But then Mr. Kim pulled away, saying, "I have to go now," and rejoined the tour group.

(Mrs. Oh and her daughter were not the only people to try this means of glimpsing long-lost relatives. At least one similar incident occurred, during the afternoon mall visit.)

Inside the folk museum, Mr. Kim and the other North Koreans began a miniature journey through the history of their nation, starting with scenes of Stone-Age ancestors hunting for food. It was impossible to know whether the dioramas brought to mind the food shortages in their country. Everyone involved in the exchange has been warned not to discuss matters relating to living conditions in North Korea.

The North Koreans moved past the exhibits, their faces fixed in polite expressions that showed little awe or envy of the palaces and intricate historical tributes that their Southern counterparts had built since the end of the war.

"I've already seen things like this before," said Moon Yang Ok, 67, who came to visit her younger sister in Seoul. "We have these exhibits, too."

Ri Rok Won, 59, said they reminded him of childhood in the South. "I saw the real thing on a school trip a long time ago," he said.

But, pressed to give his impression of Seoul, he tapped on his ear, glancing at his North Korean escort. "His hearing is not good," his escort said.

Ri Don, 82, was more candid. He said the 20-minute bus ride from the hotel to the shopping mall had been a bit nerve-racking.

"I'm glad we didn't get in a car accident," he said. "There are so many cars!"

But he added that the warm smiles and welcomes from the people on the streets made up for the congestion.

Pak Sang Op, 68, said the Seoul he remembered from 50 years ago seemed to have deteriorated.

"The Han River is the same, but it became a lot murkier," he said. "The city is just too crowded and doesn't have the freshness it used to."

Jo Jyu Gyong, 68, had a different reaction. "I'd like to go back to my old campus someday," he mused. Now a celebrated scholar, accorded the title "people's scientist" by Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, Mr. Jo graduated from the prestigious Seoul National University.

He said his mother had put him through college working as a peddler. During the war he volunteered to serve in the North Korean Army; afterward he never returned home.

The museum tour ended with dioramas of open-air markets and palaces from the 18th century, and then the visitors watched a short multimedia presentation on a major 16th-century naval battle in which the Koreans defeated the Japanese.

"We share the same history," Mr. Pak mused. "Unification will lead to more glorious progress."

The North Koreans seem more convinced of the potential for reunification than some Southerners who observed their mall outing.

Lee Jin Kyu, a retired office worker sitting outside the mall and watching all the hubbub, was somewhat skeptical.

"All of the North Koreans seem to be saying 'Great Leader this' and Great Leader that,' " Mr. Lee said. "I sincerely hope that the two Koreas will soon become one. But it will be difficult if they keep on saying things like that."

---

Reunions sadden kin of kidnap victims

Washington Times
August 17, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-200081722222.htm

SEOUL - There was no joy for Choi Woo-young as she watched televised reunions of relatives from North and South Korea who had been separated for 50 years.

For her, the reunions were a reminder of her father, a fisherman who was believed to have been kidnapped by the communist North 13 years ago.

Mrs. Choi, 29, is among relatives of hundreds of South Koreans abducted by North Korea. While most South Koreans were glued to television sets broadcasting this week's tearful reunions, people like Mrs. Choi said they felt neglected.

-------- puerto rico

Navy Trains Without Vieques Bombs

Associated Press
August 17, 2000 Filed at 1:49 a.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Vieques-No-Bombs.html

ABOARD THE USS HARRY S. TRUMAN (AP) -- Thousands of U.S. sailors are training again at Vieques -- but aboard the vessels of the Harry S. Truman battle group there's a strong feeling that a ban on live ammunition has rendered the exercises woefully inadequate.

``I've got 100 kids, I've got to take them to war, and they're not trained,'' complained Lt. Juan Rodriguez, whose Mediterranean-bound bomb assembly crews were busily arming jets with fake missiles but had yet to assemble a live explosive.

New rules banning live ammunition on the Puerto Rican island mean about 80 of the Truman's 250 fighter pilots will go abroad with no experience using live explosives, said air wing commander Capt. Rob Nelson.

F-18 pilot Jon Taylor, who flew bombing runs on Iraq in December 1998, worried that younger comrades may fly too low in a real attack, exposing themselves to fragments from their own bombs.

``I would not want to go through what I did without that (live weapons) training in Vieques,'' Taylor said.

For decades, the Navy prized Vieques as a unique site for combined air, sea and land exercises -- its bombing range a key training ground for conflicts including the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

But training was halted in April 1999 after a civilian guard was killed by stray bombs, inflaming passions and protest among the 9,400 people who live on the outlying island.

Critics claim decades of bombing -- which occurs eight to 10 miles from civilian areas -- have stunted development and tourism, harmed the environment and caused health problems.

President Clinton has pledged that the Navy will leave Vieques by May 2003 if residents so decide in a referendum, and both presidential candidates, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, have promised to stand by the agreement.

Meanwhile, Clinton and the Puerto Rican government agreed in January that training could resume with restrictions, including a ban on live bombs and halving the number of annual training days to 90.

In May, the range was cleared of protesters who had camped out on the property for a year. These are the second large-scale exercises since then.

In the waters off Vieques are the Truman -- which was commissioned in 1998 and will deploy for the first time in November -- as well as two submarines and eight other ships. The Navy invited reporters to spend two days with the sailors -- and their exasperation with the new rules was apparent.

``The training here is now inadequate,'' said Capt. Mike Smith of the USS Porter, a new guided missile destroyer.

On Monday, Smith's crew was given one day to fire 87 shells at the target range -- a requirement before they can go to sea. By noon they had shot only 12 because of a glitch in the gun's computer. With the battle group so pressed for time, Smith watched tight-lipped as another destroyer replaced his ship on the firing line.

The gun malfunction didn't bother him, because he figured his crew could use the trouble-shooting practice. But he wanted them to be facing the danger of a real explosive shell, instead of a concrete-filled dummy round.

``They will go through the same procedures, but in the back of their minds they know this thing will never blow up,'' Smith said. ``I can't simulate the stress of combat with a piece of concrete.''

The spotters who grade the pilots also have cause to complain.

On Tuesday, spotters Kyle Bahl and William Duncan squinted skyward as F-18s dropped 500-pound dummy bombs on Vieques from 16,000 feet. The bombs were invisible against the sky, and there was no cloud of dust when the bombs hit because heavy rains had soaked the range.

Smaller dummy bombs have smoke cartridges to aid spotting, but not the 500-pounders. Of four dummy bombs dropped on an imaginary fuel depot, Bahl and Duncan saw only one hit the ground.

``You have no idea whether they hit the target,'' Bahl said after giving the pilots the news. ``You can't give them any positive feedback.''

Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens, serve in the Navy. Some of the ones here felt torn.

``I think it's time to go somewhere else,'' said Jose Joaquin Garcia, an aviation electrician. ``I know we need to do training, but when you're causing conflict within your own people, then it's time to look at another place.''

But Rodriguez said his Puerto Rican origins made no difference: ``I wish I could bomb the heck out of Vieques.''

-------- russia

Bomb Blows Up Police Car, Kills 2 in Russia

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/17cnd-russia-carbomb.html

NAZRAN, Russia -- Rebels blew up a police car patrolling Chechnya's capital in preparation for parliamentary elections, killing two civilians inside, the military said Thursday.

Four Russian police officers were wounded in the attack Wednesday evening, the military command was quoted by Interfax as saying. The car had been filled with explosives.

The police had been checking polling stations and sweeping Grozny for rebels as part of heightened security ahead of Sunday's elections for a member of Russia's parliament from Chechnya, Interfax said.

Federal forces have been unable to prevent rebels from staging attacks and planting mines deep in Russian-controlled territory in recent days. Gunmen fired at the home of one of the 13 parliament candidates on Wednesday, though no casualties were reported.

Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo warned that the rebels, who insist Chechnya is not part of Russia, were planning attacks to disrupt the election.

"The situation in Chechnya is complicated but controllable," Rushailo said in Grozny.

Early voting has already started in some areas, including among Russian troops based in Chechnya. Parliamentary elections took place in the rest of Russia last December, when federal forces and rebels were engaged in fierce fighting. Even though Russia still doesn't control all of Chechnya, officials had promised a legislator would be elected this summer.

Russian fighter planes and helicopter gunships flew 42 missions over the past 24 hours, targeting the Vedeno gorge that cuts through the mountains in southeast Chechnya, the military said Thursday.

Russian troops withdrew from Chechnya in defeat at the end of a 1994-96 war, then moved back in last September to end the republic's de facto independence. The campaign came after cross-border raids by Islamic militants based in Chechnya last August and subsequent bombings in Russia that Moscow blamed on the rebels.

---

Rebels blow up police car, killing two

USA Today
08/17/00- Updated 07:53 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#rsub

NAZRAN, Russia - Two civilians were killed and four Russian police officers injured after Chechen rebels blew up a police car, Russian military officials said Thursday. Police began checking polling stations and sweeping Grozny for rebels as part of heightened security ahead of Sunday's elections. Federal forces have so far been unsuccessful in preventing attacks in Russian-controlled territory. Gunmen also fired at the home of one of the parliamentary candidates Wednesday, although no injuries were reported. Russian officials are warning that rebel forces may attempt more attacks in an effort to disrupt the election.

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

Memorial Stadium slated for 'combat training' use
Navy unit to conduct tests with explosives

By Gerard Shields,
Aug. 17, 2000
Baltimore Sun.
http://www.sunspot.net/content/cover/story?section=cover&pagename=story&storyid=1150420207038

Memorial Stadium, a structure best remembered for the "bombs" thrown by the legendary Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas, will be taken over this month by a special Navy unit training with experimental explosives.

The Board of Estimates gave permission yesterday to the Navy Special Warfare Forces - which includes members of the the elite Navy SEALS unit - to conduct "urban combat training" Aug. 24 and 25.

Navy officials in Virginia Beach, Va., said yesterday that the abandoned stadium on E. 33rd St. offers a unique opportunity for a 15-member unit to conduct maneuvers in a realistic setting.

"One of the things you try to do is get a building you haven't seen before," said Lt. Christopher C. French, a spokesman for the unit. "You want to get something that promotes the challenge you face in the real world." The city will not be paid for the stadium's use.

As with all proposals involving the city's beloved sports landmark, the Navy request is causing neighborhood angst. Myles Hoenig, president of the nearby Waverly Improvement Association, said homeowners near the stadium are worried about the resulting noise and the "shotgun, thermal, manual and explosive"breaking of nonstructural walls proposed by the military.

"We don't need the disruption to the neighborhood," Hoenig said. "We hope it's very muffled."

The Navy proposal sounds worse than it is, French said. The operation will remain contained within the stadium walls, he said.

The structure will serve as more of a laboratory, with the unit testing ways to break through walls and doors, French said.

The Special Warfare Forces is a Navy research and development arm that includes the SEALs and Seabees construction battalion members and conducts experiments on everything from clothing to ammunition, he said. "When you mention explosives, people think you're talking about blowing up the Seattle Superdome," French said. "We're talking about how to blow a doorknob off. I'd be surprised if [the neighbors] hear anything."

The stadium was last used in 1997 as a temporary home for the Baltimore Ravens football team and is scheduled to be razed in December. The city has endorsed replacing it next year with a $45 million community for seniors that will contain 404 residences.

City Councilman Robert W. Curran, a 3rd District Democrat who represents the stadium neighborhood, said he is not worried about the Navy operation. But he acknowledged that his ears perked up recently when he heard that another military unit was interested in the stadium: the U.S. Air Force.

"I said, 'What's the Air Force want to do, send a cruise missile to bomb it?'" Curran said.

Not to worry. The Air Force expressed interest in purchasing some of the stadium seating for a facility it has in the Middle East, he said.

----

Military truck spills load of rockets

USA Today
08/17/00- Updated 07:02 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm#smoke

HUGO, Okla. - A military truck carrying rockets flipped over on a highway ramp and spilled its load Thursday, injuring two National Guardsmen and prompting the evacuation of an elementary school. The rockets, known as MLRS or Multiple Launch Rocket System, were in no danger of exploding, an Oklahoma National Guard spokesman said. People within a mile of the site were evacuated as a precaution. The rockets were in pods containing six each. Two of six pods were damaged but did not break open. A medic said the 21-year-old driver and a 55-year-old passenger were injured. One has head injuries, the other has a broken arm.

---

Local Students at Military Academies

Honors and Awards Compiled by Bonnie Smith
Washington Post
Thursday, August 17, 2000; Page M04
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/17/049l-081700-idx.html

Eight Southern Maryland students have begun work this summer at U.S. military service academies. All received appointments after being nominated by Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.).

Once nominated, prospective students must meet strict academic qualifications before enrolling at one of the academies.

The following is a list of the students from Calvert, Charles and St. Mary's counties:

* Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs--Benjamin Karlow, Waldorf, Thomas Stone High School; David Underwood, Waldorf, Westlake High School.

* Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, N.Y.--Andrew Young, Waldorf, Westlake High School; Andrew Schmitt, St. Mary's County, Chopticon High School; Matthew Miller, Mechanicsville, Victory Baptist Academy.

* Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.--John Christie, Leonardtown, Leonardtown High School.

* Naval Academy, Annapolis--Derek Jennings, La Plata, La Plata High School; Sean Nelson, Solomons, Patuxent High School.

Park Hall Elementary Has 'Character'

Park Hall Elementary School in St. Mary's County has been named Maryland Character Education School of the Year for the coming school year by the Maryland Center of Character Education.

The school will receive a flag that will fly at the school and a certificate of recognition.

Black Men's Group Gives 3 Scholarships

Three Calvert County students have received scholarships from Concerned Black Men of Calvert County. The awards were made at the group's recent annual ball in Chesapeake Beach.

The $1,000 scholarships went to G.W. Chew of Calvert High School, who will attend Howard University; Chanell Nero of Northern High School, who will attend Morgan State University; and Trayone D.W. Brady of Patuxent High School, who will attend Hampton University in Virginia.

Concerned Black Men of Calvert, a group that works to strengthen African American families, awards the scholarships to graduating seniors based on character, scholastic achievement, community service and need.

Nursing Scholarship Program Names 11

Eleven Charles County residents have received scholarships totaling $9,000 from the county's 2000-01 Nursing Scholarship Program.

The awards, ranging from $500 to $1,000 each, were granted to students studying nursing, radiography, nuclear medicine and dental hygiene.

Recipients are Pamela L. D'Ambrosio and Melinda R. Moreland, of Charlotte Hall; Erin Hayden, of Faulkner; Alicia M. McLain, of Cobb Island; Kathleen M. Mitchell, of White Plains; Kimberly Jameson, of Hughesville; Mary Hannah, of Marbury; and William Hannah, Eleanor J. Messer, Jeffrey O'Neil and Kimberly Queen, of Waldorf.

Local Honorees at St. Mary's College

Several local St. Mary's College of Maryland graduates and students were honored recently:

* Brian Hubertus Coffey, of Chesapeake Beach, received the Betty W. Briscoe Award in history. He plans to teach high school history after graduate studies at the University of Maryland in College Park.

* Laura Ann Caspar, of Clements, received a Human Services Award given to students who demonstrate outstanding potential as a practitioner in human services. A psychology major, Caspar plans to continue working in the field of developmental disabilities while doing graduate study in neuropsychology.

* Dawn Pipkin, of California, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in human studies, also received a Human Services Award. She plans to teach in elementary school and earn a master's degree in speech language pathology.

* Steven Michael Thur, of Waldorf, who graduated with majors in biology and economics, received the Male Academic Athlete Award and the Biology Department Award for Academic Distinction and Service. Thur was a member of the men's varsity soccer team and of Phi Beta Kappa honorary society. He plans to begin graduate studies in marine policy.

* Theresa Marie Loeffler, a junior from Lusby, received the Jeanne Brocavich Scholarship for outstanding achievement and promise in mathematics or computer science. Loeffler plans to teach high school math after finishing her studies at St. Mary's College.

* Chad Allen Sandefur, of Waldorf, who graduated with a degree in English, received the Natalie and Ben Parran Award recognizing a teacher-education candidate. Sandefur plans to teach high school English.

* Heather Adams, of Great Mills, a sophomore; Michelle Anne Dougherty, of Waldorf, a freshman; and Laura Michelle Pianka, of Lexington Park, a freshman, each received a Calculus Award recognizing excellence in first-year calculus.

* Vashti Diane Gray, of Lusby, a junior studying music and English, received the Mattie M. Key Award in music. Gray, whose focus is piano, is a member of the Nitze Scholars Program and intends to pursue a doctoral degree in musicology.

Chopticon Grad Gets Full Scholarship

Kevin Eagan, of Mechanicsville, a 2000 graduate of Chopticon High School, received the Greensboro College Helen and Albert Lineberry Presidential Scholarship. Eagan will attend Greensboro as a freshman this fall.

The scholarship, the North Carolina college's most coveted award for first-year students, is for four years and includes full tuition and fees, room and board, valued at more than $71,000.

Eagan maintained a cumulative grade-point average of 4.1 and was ranked second in his class at Chopticon. He plans to major in accounting.

---

Local Group Helps to Dent the Old-Boy Network Women's Role Enhanced In International Policy

Washington Post
Thursday, August 17, 2000; Page M05
By Yuki Noguchi Washington Post Staff Writer
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/17/001l-081700-idx.html

Before the country had a female secretary of state, Catherine McArdle Kelleher felt that she was one of too few women at the decision-making table when important international issues were discussed.

So Kelleher, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense and a U.S. representative to NATO in Brussels from 1994 to 1996, decided to create a group dedicated to advancing more women to the forefront of international politics.

In 1987, she founded Women in International Security (WIIS), based in College Park, an offshoot of the University of Maryland's Center for International Security Studies, which she also founded.

WIIS (pronounced "wise") is 1,200 members strong and boasts an impressive list of familiar names in international relations, according to Executive Director Peggy Knudson.

These include, she said, Madeleine K. Albright, a cofounder of WIIS and the first female secretary of state; Avis T. Bohlen, assistant secretary of state for arms control and a former U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria; Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D); Paula J. Dobriansky, director of the Council on Foreign Relations; and Claudia Kennedy, who formally retires this month as the Army's first female three-star general.

"In the last three years, we've doubled our membership," said Knudson, who is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, spent several years in Berlin running the German Marshall Fund and also volunteered at a school in Nigeria. "Women came out of the woodwork" after the organization was founded, she said.

Anne H. Cahn has similar memories of feeling marginalized, despite impressive credentials. When she served in the Carter administration, meetings routinely were convened with someone saying: "Okay, gentlemen, let's get started," she recalled.

The former president and executive director from 1982 to 1988 of the Committee for National Security, nonpartisan public interest group, and a high-ranking official in Carter's Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Cahn said she was very often the only woman in the room.

Cahn, who like Kelleher has a PhD in political science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that "there's no question" that WIIS has helped to catapult more women into the academic and policy arena.

"I think WIIS has been a wonderful networking organization and wonderful mentoring organization for people like me to meet younger people" and help them in their careers, said Cahn, now a scholar-in-residence at American University's School of International Service.

WIIS sponsors as many as three or four public events monthly, including panel discussions, seminars, receptions and symposiums on various topics of international interest. Members include men and women who complete an application and "believe in the mission" of open discussion about issues of international concern, Knudson said.

What started as a focus on national security, defense and nuclear arms policy has broadened in the wake of the end of the Cold War to include such issues as resource management in developing countries, environmental security, ethnic conflict and prevention of trafficking of women for prostitution, Knudson said.

"By nature and by definition, we are an organization meant to advance women" in leadership positions in which international policy decisions are made and important research is done, Knudson said. "But we don't want to spend all of our time debating whether [women] make better leaders or not," so the debates are not qualitatively different from those that involve men, she said.

But "our mission is to get as many women in the door and up the ladder as possible," she said.

To that end, WIIS publishes a semimonthly job hot line newsletter highlighting openings in various international relations fields. It also sponsors a symposium for 30 female graduate students worldwide and coaches female experts on getting their names in the media, Knudson said.

The group's three-person staff and annual budget of about $500,000 is funded by the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corp. of New York and the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs.

Even in the post-Cold War United States, where media coverage focuses less on international issues than domestic policy, increasing numbers of women are advancing in international relations, Knudson said. "International relations as a field of study has come into its own" and more women are contributing to the discussion though they remain underrepresented in the highest echelons of power, she said.

Traditionally, women have been the organizing force behind many grass-roots reform movements, "but you also have to be on the inside of the decision-making room" in order to cause real change quickly, Knudson said.

She noted passage in 1972 of Title IX, the federal law banning gender discrimination in academics and sports in secondary schools, as an example of the power of political influence on opportunities for women.

---

More troops asked to battle growing flames

USA Today
08/17/00- Updated 07:10 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/ndsthu04.htm

HELENA, Mont. (AP) - The western wildfire season is settling into a grim routine, symbolized by one small event in Montana's Bitterroot Valley: The U.S. Forest Service is giving guided tours of fire camp.

''We're showing people around, trying to convey what type of organization it requires to support a major fire campaign,'' said the Forest Service's Tom Horner, who guides tours. ''Where we eat, where we sleep, how we plan what we're going to do.''

The tours are offered three times daily, with up to 35 people on each. Children can try on firefighters' yellow shirts, green pants and packs, which include survival shelters.

More than 242,000 acres have burned in the Bitterroot area, and the numbers continue to grow. In all of Montana, 27 major fires are burning on 446,262 acres.

There are 7,677 people fighting them, and 175 buildings have been destroyed since late July.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Idaho reported that 86 large fires in the West were burning on 1.1 million acres. Montana had the most burning acreage, followed by Idaho with 25 significant fires on 408,826 acres.

New fires continued to ignite. About 100 people were advised to evacuate an area between Helena and Bozeman on Thursday because of a 20,000-acre wildfire that began Tuesday with a spark from farm equipment in a grain field.

In Idaho, officials on Thursday halted public access to the Salmon River, affecting more than 90 river guides and hunting outfitters and thousands of tourists.

And in Wyoming, authorities closed the highway between Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks because of a fire.

Tourists jammed the lobby of Jackson Lodge in the nearby town of Moran with questions about possible lodging cancellations, road closures and directions for a detour.

Firefighters poured retardant gel on park employee housing at Yellowstone's south entrance and the nearby Flagg Ranch resort, where some of 400 people evacuated Tuesday night had been vacationing or working.

---

FOIA on Gore

Washington Times
August 17, 2000
Inside the Beltway John McCaslin
Political tidbits and other shenanigans from around the nation's capital.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/inbeltway-2000817224315.htm

Writing earlier about faulty toilets in a Tennessee home Al Gore rented to a family on disability, we noted inquiring minds at the Competitive Enterprise Institute were being stonewalled by Navy officials responsible for upkeep of the vice president's mansion.

Among questions raised under the CEI's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was whether Mr. Gore, the country's pre-eminent environmentalist, burdens his own brood with the inefficient, low-flow, double-flush mode of commodes his policy friends have imposed upon the masses.

Institute counsel and adjunct Christopher C. Horner began to wonder after viewing the "pathetic scene of Vice President Gore's tenant staring forlornly into his commode."

Now we learn that Mr. Gore has opened his door under the FOIA, but only partially.

"We have discovered major improvements indeed made by the Navy to the vice president's residence," Mr. Horner says. "Not what one might expect, given his incessant wind-baggery."

Referring to the vice president's best-selling tome "Earth in the Balance," in which Mr. Gore writes that "each of us must take a greater personal responsibility for this deteriorating global environment . . .

"On a personal level, this has meant re-examining my relationship to the environment in large and small ways - everything from . . . keeping a careful eye on our household's use of electricity, water, and, indeed, every kind of resource - and recognizing my own hypocrisy when I use CFCs [chlorofluorocarbons] in my automobile air conditioner, for example, on the way to a speech about why they should be banned."

Yet as Mr. Gore encourages Americans "to recycle or buy energy-efficient products," the CEI finds that items of which the vice president pontificates - low-flush toilets, double-pane windows, upgraded appliances and insulation, etc. - appear nowhere in Mr. Gore's work orders or maintenance records.

"He did find time, however, to thrice 'maintain pool and spa' and repair a pool leak, repair the helipad a couple of times, and numerous occasions of tree removal," says Mr. Horner. "And, of course, those demons, they sprayed pesticides."

No answer yet, he adds, "on our inquiry as to whether he takes his recycling to the curb. Seriously. They don't seem to want to answer that one."

-------- OTHER

-------- alternative energy

Energy issues will play bigger role in US election

August 17, 2000
Story by Tom Doggett
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7822

WASHINGTON - When Americans enter the voting booths in early November, their choice for president may be influenced by the climbing cost of filling gasoline tanks and heating homes.

Energy issues are expected to play a bigger role in this year's presidential campaign than during any election since 1980, when a doubling of oil prices and higher fuel costs helped Ronald Reagan defeat Jimmy Carter.

Based on the public records of the major presidential candidates - Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore - the battle lines have been drawn and voters will have a clear choice on whose energy policies they believe are better.

U.S. gasoline and crude oil prices have remained stubbornly high throughout most of this year due to dwindling inventories and tight world oil supplies. Prices for heating fuel and natural gas are expected to be 50 percent higher this winter compared to last winter due to tight supplies.

Bush and his running mate Dick Cheney are well-known figures in the oil industry. Both favour increased domestic oil production to wean the U.S. dependence off crude imports.

The Democrats, meeting this week in Los Angeles to formally choose their presidential candidate, contend Bush and Cheney are in the back pockets of oil firms. The U.S. oil industry has long angled for permission to drill on more public lands and fewer federal environmental regulations.

'SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE'

"The Democrats' subliminal message, and it may be not so subliminal after that, is that the Republican ticket consists of two oil men," said Stephen Hess, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. The Republicans will aim to blame the Democrats for rising gasoline prices, he added.

Gore and his running mate Senator Joseph Lieberman back the development of alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar, tax credits for energy-efficient vehicles and blocking energy companies from drilling in pristine Alaska wilderness.

The Republicans accuse Gore and Lieberman of bowing to environmental groups and being too eager to sacrifice U.S. energy security by focusing on mostly renewable energy sources and protecting elk from drilling.

While voters can expect to be bombarded with partisan campaign commercials, there are some basic energy facts both parties agree on.

U.S. oil production fell from 7.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in 1992, the year before the Clinton-Gore administration took office, to 5.8 million bpd in the first half of this year, according to the Energy Department.

Domestic production is at its lowest level in half a century, causing the United States to import about 55 percent of its supplies. Meanwhile, tight world supplies pushed crude prices to 10-year highs this summer.

While record U.S. retail gasoline prices have eased since mid-June, experts say they could rise again if U.S. crude oil prices continue a current upward march toward $33 a barrel.

The U.S. Energy Department has warned of potential shortages of heating oil and natural gas this winter.

Electricity prices have also skyrocketed this summer, especially in California, where hot weather and a deregulated market have doubled some consumers' power bills.

The Republicans blame these problems on the Clinton administration's failure to develop an adequate national energy policy. The Democrats say greedy oil firms, which have seen record profits this year, are gouging consumers at the pump.

CANDIDATES' ENERGY SOLUTIONS DIFFER

Both candidates differ greatly on how to deal with the nation's energy problems.

Gore and Lieberman have vowed to protect the coasts of California and Florida, as well as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, from oil and natural gas drilling.

Bush, who once ran an oil exploration company, also backs the current federal moratorium on new drilling off California and Florida, but he supports oil exploration in the Arctic refuge. Cheney, when he was a member of Congress, co-sponsored legislation to open the Alaska wilderness to drilling.

Oil firms contend they must have access to more federal lands to reduce foreign imports.

"The choice is going to be whether or not we have control of our energy supply or if we have other nations control our energy supply," said Diemer True, vice chairman of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Oil companies could also benefit under Cheney's position against the U.S. government's unilateral sanctions against large investments in Iran's energy sector.

When he ran the giant oil services firm Halliburton Co. for five years, Cheney argued that U.S. firms should be able to do business in Iran. The Clinton administration backs sanctions to keep Iran, which it believes supports international terrorism, from becoming a larger oil supplier.

Gore has his own problems in international oil policy.

Environmentalists have urged him to sell shares of Occidental Petroleum stock worth between $500,000 and $1 million that are held in a family trust, because the firm plans to drill for oil on land claimed by native Indians in northeastern Colombia.

Both candidates support new federal regulations requiring lower sulphur levels in gasoline and cleaner engines in cars. U.S. refiners say the new gasoline requirements would be expensive to implement and would raise the cost of fuel.

------- environment UPI

Clinton Forest Policies Under Fire

UPI
Thursday, Aug. 17, 2000
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/8/16/193433

WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration has cut fire-fighting budgets, failed to establish an effective fire-fighting program and is pursuing land management policies in national forests that could hamstring state efforts to reduce the risk of forest fires in land near homes and cities, Western state officials and Capitol Hill critics said Wednesday.

The forest fires ravaging the West are likely to become the largest ever recorded in U.S. history, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The blazes have re-ignited debate among federal and state land managers, timber companies and environmentalists over how to best manage national forests and spend vital federal tax dollars.

The massive forest fires across 12 Western states will likely soon engulf more than a half-million acres and surpass the size and scope of record fires from 1910. Montana and Idaho are among the states hit hardest by the fires, where nearly 50 are burning.

But the fires have triggered sharp protest from Western state officials and the timber industry, who say they have long warned that restrictive land management policies pursued by the U.S. Forest Service designed to protect the land could prohibit states from "thinning" forests to clear the accumulation of wood and debris that exacerbates fires. At the same time, such activities could provide at least some income for the beleaguered timber industry, industry and state officials say.

Mark Rey of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said the administration has undercut funding for fighting fires in its budget requests to fund other priorities and that land management policies articulated by the Department of the Interior make preventing forest fires particularly difficult.

"The issues associated with these fires can be divided into two questions. One: Was the administration prepared to fight these fires? The answer, by their own admission, is 'no.'

"The second is: Are they pursuing land management policies that are going to make it hard to reduce fire risk in the future? And the answer is the policies they are pursuing ignore the fire risk that exists."

But environmentalists applaud the Clinton administration's efforts to rope off national forests from use. They warn that efforts to bash federal land management policies are really intended to provide cover for timber companies eager to get back into the business of ravaging American forests.

Montana Gov. Marc Racicot said Monday the administration had not done a good job balancing preservation concerns and allowing some active management of land to prevent forest fires.

"Clearly, the White House has some responsibility for the forest system," he said.

"This is the time of our watch, and the circumstances call for a balanced approach to our national forests."

"They have just failed to address this," Racicot spokesman Julie Lapeer said of the Clinton administration's wildfire policy. "A lot of people say this is an attempt to support the timber industry, and it is not."

Environmentalists warn of "Monday morning fire fighting" by critics of the administration in an effort to blame them for the massive fires.

To date, wildfires have ravaged more than 4.9 million acres this year, doubling a national average of 2.4 million acres, according to the Forest Service. On Aug. 16, nearly 85,000 acres were burning at one time in more than 300 fires across the West. Efforts for fight the fires are costing federal taxpayers alone nearly $10 million a day.

But the Clinton administration has continually undercut financing targeted for fighting fires. In its fiscal year 2001 budget request, the Bureau of Land Management asked its parent Interior Department for $400.9 million to fight forest fires. The department lowered that number to $322.9 million before sending the request on to the White House for review. The White House further knocked that number down to $297.2 million before sending the request on to Congress for approval, according to Rey.

The administration enacted similar cuts in fiscal year 2000.

In a Jan. 3 internal memorandum, BLM Office of Fire and Aviation Director Lester K. Resenkrance told his superiors at Interior, "This worsening situation compels me to share my deep concerns about the ongoing budget issues in the fire and aviation programs. The primary issue of concern is continued under-funding of the preparedness portion of the fire program."

At the same time, the administration has articulated land management proposals designed to protect national forests. For example, the Clinton administration in 1998 unveiled the "roadless" initiative that when finalized would prohibit the establishment or upkeep of roads in 40 million acres of national forests.

The administration has also articulated several draft region-specific land management plans designed to protect particularly pristine areas such as the Sierra Nevadas.

Fuel for Fires Is What's Preserved

But Western state officials and their allies on Capitol Hill say that while the proposals are designed to protect wilderness, they also preclude activities to reduce "fuel loading" in the forest by thinning them.

Decades of fire suppression have lead to a buildup of flammable materials in forest floors that would otherwise burn in smaller fires if it were not for fire suppression. But "thinning" is effectively precluded under Clinton administration policy. Areas devoid of roads under the roadless initiative obviously cannot be easily cleared for fire prevention, for example.

In June 1999, General Accounting Office Associate Director of Energy, Resources and Science issues Barry T. Hill told a House subcommittee that "reducing the growing threat of catastrophic wildfires is not emphasized in the (Forest Service's) natural resource agenda or in its strategic plan, and top-level management has not been involved in developing a fuel reduction strategy."

Some in Congress have moved independently to try to reduce the threat of forest fires in their districts.

After the colossal wildfires that nearly destroyed the Energy Department's Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico, Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Pete Domenici, R-N.M., attached an "emergency" funding amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill in July that will provide $240.3 million to the Forest Service and the Department of Interior to remove material from forests near "urban or wildland interface areas" where cities and forests meet.

Congress has not approved a final version of that bill. But the president is not likely to reject the fire measure, congressional sources say.

In response to the GAO concerns, the Forest Service has begun the construction of a "Cohesive Strategy" to reduce the threat of wildfires that includes methods to reduce fuel loading.

Forest Service Director of Forest Management Anne Bartuska says the strategy will identify 24 million acres at the greatest risk of burning and prescribe methods to reduce those risks.

Such methods could include "mechanical treatment" to thin forests, or even prescribed burns to reduce fuel loading. The strategy would require $800 million a year to implement at a total cost of around $5 billion, Bartuska says.

But while the GAO report says the Forest Service had committed to completing that plan by the end of 1999, Bartuska says the strategy is still not yet final. Critics say it appears to run directly counter to other administration plans, such as the roadless initiative, and that it represents too little, too late.

Bartuska says the government is working hard to address forest fires and protect national forests, but admits that sometimes the two issues appear to conflict. "It is a collision of priorities," she said.

---

Global Warming Could Worsen Allergies, Study Finds

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/081700sci-environ-climate.html

WASHINGTON -- Allergy sufferers, beware: Global warming could bring more hay fever, according to government research that shows ragweed produces significantly more pollen as carbon dioxide increases.

The ubiquitous weed makes nearly twice as much pollen now as it did 100 years ago and will likely double its production again over the coming century with predicted increases in carbon dioxide levels, the Agriculture Department study suggests.

"This research may help us better understand the troubling impact of high carbon dioxide levels on our environment and our health," Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said Tuesday.

About 15 percent to 20 percent of the population has hay fever -- or allergic reactions to plant pollen, dust and other airborne particles -- and ragweed is the major cause of the problem in the fall.

The plant is found all over the country and is particularly prevalent in the Northeast and Midwest. The pollen grains are so small that they can travel many miles.

A laboratory study done by USDA in 1998 and 1999 found that ragweed pollen counts went from 5.5 grams per plant at carbon-dioxide levels that existed in 1900 to 10 grams at current levels. At predicted CO2 levels in the year 2100, the pollen count would reach 20 grams per plant.

Results of USDA's lab study are to be published in an upcoming issue of World Resource Review, a journal of climate-change issues.

Scientists at Harvard University are doing similar research this year.

"This is a pretty good first sign" that climate change will be a problem for allergy sufferers, said Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior scientist at Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research.

Many scientists believe a warming of the Earth has been under way for a century and has accelerated over the past 20 years. The warming has been linked to a "greenhouse effect" caused by manmade pollution and increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

While that could be good for farmers, because higher levels of carbon dioxide would increase some crop yields, it also could aggravate weed problems, and the effects on allergies and other health concerns have not been studied sufficiently, Rosenzweig said.

Plants, which use carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, react to the gas differently. An earlier study found that trees exposed to increased CO2 grow 25 percent faster than those without it.

The USDA researchers expanded their ragweed study this summer by planting the weed in controlled conditions outdoors in Maryland.

Plants that were set out in Baltimore, where it is hotter and carbon-dioxide levels are higher than outside the city, are growing significantly faster than at a rural site, said Lewis Ziska, a plant physiologist who is leading the research.

"The ones that are growing in the city are bigger and have more pollen, on the order of a third bigger," Ziska said.

But even if pollen production does grow as CO2 levels increase, it remains to be seen how that will affect individual allergy sufferers, doctors say.

Sensitivity levels vary among people who are allergic to ragweed, said Robert Bush, an allergy specialist at the University of Wisconsin medical school.

For people who are highly sensitive, "once you reach a certain threshold, adding more pollen to those people isn't going to make a lot of difference," he said.

---

In West, Logging Won't Reduce Fire Risk

New York Times
August 17, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/letters/l17tim.html

To the Editor:

Re "As Fires Rage, Administration Is Given Blame for Not Acting to Prevent Them" (news article, Aug. 12):

The timber industry is trying to use this year's severe fire season to its advantage. Logging companies say they need continued access to national forests in order to thin underbrush, supposedly to reduce fire risk. But the timber industry has no interest in underbrush.

When it says "thinning," it means logging the last mature timber on public lands.

Timber companies will not even bid on a sale unless the offering contains larger, older trees. It is the removal of these medium and large trees that scientists say has caused the increased fire risk on federal lands.

The fire situation will begin to improve only when the commercial logging program is ended and replaced with an ecological restoration program.

CHAD HANSON Exec. Dir., John Muir Project Pasadena, Calif., Aug. 14, 2000

---

USA Today
08/17/00
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Alaska

A labor leader in the state's delegation passed out hard hats trumpeting the benefits of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil energy. The hats are part of Alaska AFL- CIO chief Mano Frey's bid to influence Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore's policies on natural resource development on federal lands. State Democrats support responsible development in the refuge that contains an estimated 10 billion barrels of recoverable crude. The party's national platform, however, calls for a ban on drilling in the refuge as well as an end to further logging in Tongass National Forest. Frey said such policies hurt Democrats in Alaska, where much of the economy depends on resource extraction.

West Virginia

United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts proposes that presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore hold an energy policy debate in Beckley. "Why not Beckley? It'd be better than having it in some big city," he said. "Let them come on down to where real folks live." Roberts' union, which traditionally endorses Democrats, has not yet endorsed a candidate. Roberts, also a delegate, says the candidates could debate in a coal-mining region where energy policies directly affect the environment and workers.

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

WORLD BANK CALLS FOR DIALOGUE AT PRAGUE ANNUAL MEETINGS.

World Bank's Development News
Thursday, August 17, 2000
From: Robert Weissman - rob@essential.org

In order for a dialogue between participants in the forthcoming annual meetings in Prague of the IMF and World Bank and opponents of globalization to take place, it is crucial that no false information be used, the Ceska Tiskova Kancelar (Czech Republic) reports World Bank Vice President for External Affairs Mats Karlsson urged. Theatre and humor are good things, but they should be based on facts, Karlsson said, commenting on the Initiative Against Economic Globalization (INPEG)''s plans to protest problems connected with IMF and WB activities.

The news comes as Reuters reports that the US State Department said yesterday Americans should consider deferring non-urgent travel to Prague late next month because of the potential for violence from the protests against the Bank and the Fund. Although local officials are working to minimize any disruption, "Americans may wish to exercise prudence and to consider avoiding non-urgent travel to Prague during the second half of September," the State Department said in a public announcement. Czech authorities estimate that as many as 20,000 demonstrators may be present before and during the institutions' annual meetings on September 26-28, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal notes that the same activists that protested against the WTO ministerial meetings in Seattle last year and against the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in April are protesting at the US Democratic Party convention in Los Angeles. But in Los Angeles it is a different story. Gang members protesting police brutality have joined vegetable-eating environmentalists protesting logging. Hippies are marching with welfare moms. Free-trade foes are marching with the self-described "radical anarchist clown bloc."

"We're all connected," said a fifth-grade schoolteacher who was out demonstrating yesterday. "The reason the Cuban people have been suffering from a US blockade is the same reason why my fifth-graders have no social-studies books, and there's so much police brutality, and Mumia is on death row, and health care has been cut."

Alas, says the story, too many disparate themes do not a coherent protest make. And that incoherence may well be the one factor that prevents this outpouring of grievances from ever becoming a true mass movement.

This summary is prepared by the External Affairs Department of the World Bank. All material is taken directly from published and copyright wire service stories and newspaper articles.

For more news go to http://www.worldbank.org/news To subscribe go to http://www.worldbank.org/devnews To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-devnews-31261K@lists.worldbank.org

-------- police

Probe of FBI Lab Reviews 3,000 Cases, Affects None Trials: Decisions on whether sloppy work biased convictions were left to prosecutors, who rarely notified defense attorneys.

Los Angeles Times
Thursday, August 17, 2000
By RICHARD A. SERRANO, RONALD J. OSTROW, Times Staff Writers
http://www.latimes.com/news/front/20000817/t000077169.html

WASHINGTON--Three years ago, a Justice Department investigation into sloppy work at the once highly revered FBI Crime Laboratory called into question more than 3,000 criminal cases. Many of them had landed defendants on death row.

So concerned was Washington that a special Task Force on the FBI Crime Laboratory was created to find out whether any of those cases should be reopened.

But today, as the task force is wrapping up its review, not a single conviction has been overturned and no new trials have been ordered. Only a handful of defense attorneys have even been told about the potential flaws in the cases against their clients.

A key reason defendants have been stymied is that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno has assigned prosecutors to decide which of their convictions were compromised.

In the one case closest to a new trial, George Trepal on Florida's death row is hoping to hear any day now whether his conviction for poisoning his neighbor--a verdict based at least in part on a since-discredited FBI lab examiner--may be overturned.

Ralph E. Plotner Jr., a wealthy Oklahoma oilman, sued the federal government last month to win back his good name after he served time in jail on a sexual assault conviction won partly on the basis of questionable lab analysis of paint chips.

And in Louisiana, attorneys for death row inmate Nathaniel Code have been forced to file time-consuming public record requests just to get lab notes and other background material that might clear their client of murdering four people in Shreveport.

No one is as surprised by the lack of results as former Inspector General Michael R. Bromwich. "I thought it likely that some cases would be disturbed, either cases overturned outright, new trials held or evidentiary hearings ordered," Bromwich said in a recent interview.

Bromwich suggested that the task force should have allowed defense attorneys to participate in the case review process.

"The least effective way" to determine if any cases were compromised, Bromwich said, "is just to have the prosecutors review them."

Justice Department officials argue that their reexamination of the lab work has been fair and exhaustive.

"This probably is among the most extensive case reviews ever done by the department," said Lucy Thomson, the task force's senior attorney who recently stepped down as the group neared the end of its mission. She described it as a "painstaking and incredibly thorough review of a huge number of cases."

To be sure, in the three years since Bromwich's investigation, no clear evidence has been developed showing that innocent people were sent to prison. In many of the cases, the crimes were heinous, and the defendants evoke little public sympathy.

Defense attorneys conceded that they never expected the problems with the crime lab to flatly exonerate their clients. But they had hoped that prosecutors would be more forthcoming in sharing evidence that could be used in new trials.

The Task Force on the FBI Crime Laboratory was set up in 1997 as Bromwich was completing his 18-month investigation into allegations raised by a whistle-blower. Bromwich's inquiry, which focused on a small number of mostly high-profile cases, determined that 13 lab examiners and supervisors had performed shoddy work, overstated their conclusions and sometimes misrepresented their findings in trial testimony.

Ultimately, none of the 13 lab examiners was fired. Only two--Roger Martz and David Williams--were formally disciplined through letters of censure. Many of the others simply retired.

What got much less notice, however, was how law enforcement officials would go about reviewing all of the work done by the 13 lab examiners. This included about 7,500 individual pieces of evidence in about 3,000 criminal cases.

William J. Esposito, then FBI deputy director, pledged to create "procedures to ensure no one's right to a fair trial was jeopardized by a problem in the lab."

"We are being extremely cautious," he added, "and erring on the side of full disclosure to prosecutors."

The key word was "prosecutors."

Under something called the Brady rule, which came out of a 1963 Supreme Court decision, prosecutors must give defense attorneys any evidence that would be considered exculpatory--that could exonerate a defendant.

But it is solely up to prosecutors to determine what might be exculpatory.

As the task force set to work reviewing the 7,500 pieces of evidence analyzed by the lab, the National Assn. of Criminal Defense Lawyers urged Reno to let defense attorneys in on the review process.

Reno refused, telling the group there were "safeguards in place to insure that the case reviews are conducted in a thoughtful, thorough and objective manner."

She said that prosecutors were making decisions based on whether the evidence was "material to the conviction"--in other words, whether the lab work was a significant reason behind a guilty verdict.

But Frederic Whitehurst, the PhD scientist and former FBI lab examiner who blew the whistle on problems at the lab, believes that the Justice Department system was not fair.

"They should have notified defense attorneys," he said. "Of course they should have."

Some of the cases the inspector general had studied included well known matters that had not yet gone to trial, such as the Oklahoma City bombing case against Timothy J. McVeigh. In some of those cases, prosecutors had the scientific work redone by forensics experts from outside the FBI--thereby skirting the lab problems altogether.

But the task force looked only at past convictions. Half were federal cases and the other half were state and local prosecutions. They ran the gamut from bank robberies to murder.

Once the FBI identified the cases, the task force sent prosecutors a five-page memo and a one-page form. The memo outlined procedures, and asked prosecutors to review the case to determine how important the lab work was to the conviction.

In the one-page form, prosecutors were asked to fill in the name of the case and other identifiers, and to check either a YES or NO box in response to the question: "Was the FBI lab work material to the verdict?"

Fewer than 200 forms came back marked YES. Those cases were then sent out for an independent scientific review and only 14 came back with the determination that they indeed had been based on flawed lab work.

The independent reviews were forwarded to prosecutors. It was up to them to decide whether the new evidence should be shared with defense lawyers.

*State of Florida vs. George Trepal

Reviewing this capital murder case, the inspector general determined that lab examiner Roger Martz overstated his conclusion by testifying that thallium nitrate, a lethal poison, was added to a bottle of Coca-Cola. His testimony was a direct indication to the jury that Trepal spiked the soda and killed his neighbor.

Further, the inspector general said, Martz did not adequately document his work and his case notes were incomplete, undated and inaccurate.

Todd G. Scher, Trepal's defense attorney, was lucky that the inspector general's final report extensively documented Martz' shortcomings.

Scher persuaded a state judge in Bartow, Fla., to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine if Trepal should receive a new trial.

In February 1999, Martz took the witness stand in Florida again. This time he conceded that some of his findings were "incorrect."

He also admitted that "in hindsight, I probably should have" conducted more tests on three different samples of thallium nitrate.

"You told the jury you tested all three," said Judge E. Randolph Bentley.

"That is a mistake, your honor. I did not," Martz responded.

"It wasn't true?" asked the judge.

"That was not true," Martz said.

A second hearing did not take place until last month. At that time, prosecutor John K. Aguero argued that the Martz lab work did not have a significant impact on the jury.

Other evidence in the case showed that Trepal did not like his neighbor and that a similar soda bottle was found in Trepal's shed.

Aguero also denied that he violated the Brady rule.

"Mr. Martz himself wasn't aware he made the mistakes until somebody pointed it out to him after they reviewed his notes . . . " the prosecutor said. "So to say somehow we had an obligation under Brady to give something that was exculpatory, I don't stipulate to that."

Scher disagreed, saying that Martz's testimony was "very damaging."

"He was the only witness who connected the bottle in the shed with the Coke bottles" at the neighbor's home, Scher said. "He essentially identified the murder weapon. He connected all the dots to give the state the opportunity to make it all a tidy little picture."

Judge Bentley is expected to rule soon. If he grants a new trial, it would be the first of all of the cases reviewed by the task force.

"Aren't there just two conclusions?" the judge asked during the July hearing about Martz.

"Either that he's an incompetent chemist or that he's falsely testifying. Or, put most charitably, grossly exaggerating his testimony," he added. Trepal waits for word on death row.

"Only the FBI work connects me to the crime," he told The Times. "I am innocent. Therefore, very soon after my arrest, I knew the FBI did shoddy work. To steal a line from, I think, Queen Victoria, I was not amused. I'm still not."

Code was sentenced to death in 1990 for slaying four people in Shreveport.

At Code's trial, FBI lab examiner Robert Webb testified that duct tape used to bind one of the victims matched tape found on wires on Code's home stereo system.

"All of the pieces of tape are related," Webb testified.

Seven years later, the inspector general's report criticized Webb for making similar duct tape and paint analyses in another case.

It said that Webb stated conclusions "more strongly than was justified by the results of his examinations and the background data."

Webb was not disciplined by his superiors, although he was transferred to Omaha.

Gary Clements, Code's lawyer, learned of the problems with Webb's work in other cases only after reading the inspector general's report.

He said that he repeatedly sought more information about Webb from the government but always was turned away. Clements said that he eventually filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to flush out Webb's background. He said that prosecutors "didn't reveal the entire story and, to put it best, they covered up exculpatory or at least neutral evidence."

He now is asking a Louisiana judge for an evidentiary hearing on whether Webb's testimony was shaded against Code. He admitted, however, that the problem does not mean Code should be released from prison immediately.

"It doesn't make him walk out the door tomorrow," Clements said. "But it certainly says we need a new trial."

Prosecutor Catherine Estopinal insisted that "I really didn't think it was that important" to tell the defense about Webb's prior shortcomings.

She also disagreed that Webb's testimony was critical to the guilty verdict, noting that Code's palm print was found in a bathroom near one of the bodies.

'I don't know if the duct tape featured very large with the jurors," she said. Looking back at the trial, she said, "the duct tape was just icing after you have the palm print."

*State of Oklahoma vs. Ralph E. Plotner Jr. A third case illustrates the lengths to which some people have gone to get back at the FBI.

An Oklahoma oilman, Plotner was convicted in 1984 of sodomy and attempting to rape a female acquaintance. He was sentenced to several years in prison, his wife divorced him and his 17-year-old son committed suicide a dozen years later.

Through it all, Plotner's lawyers said, he has remained determined to clear his name. A state appellate court eventually reversed the rape conviction and he has filed a lawsuit claiming that the FBI--through lab examiner Webb--violated his constitutional right to a fair trial.

The lawsuit charges that Webb "falsified, fabricated and/or bolstered his findings" when he said that a small paint particle on Plotner's watchband matched the paint on the victim's doorway.

His lawyer contends that Webb's findings hurt Plotner because they put him inside her apartment, noting that it was the same kind of faulty analyses for which Webb was criticized by the inspector general.

What was worse, said defense lawyer Mac Oyler, was that Webb entered the courtroom arrogantly and bent on influencing the jury.

"That jackass came in here wearing his cowboy boots and trying to look western," Oyler said.

"He testified to a match of paint and that he could conclusively prove it came from the door and the defendant's watch. But there were missing elements he refused to identify. It was real weird," he said.

Barry Albert, the prosecutor in the case, remembered it differently.

"Webb was highly intelligent," Albert said. "He was the par excellence expert witness. Very intelligent, very well-mannered, very well-schooled. I think he was a kind of overwhelming witness."

Albert said that FBI agents traditionally wield an "overwhelming effect" on jurors because of their background and training.

"They have degrees coming out their ears," he said. "They are truly experts.

"It ain't some hick from the farm coming in here."

After the inspector general's investigation, Albert said he received a phone call from Washington, asking if he thought the case was in jeopardy because of Webb's involvement.

Albert said no.

"I never heard from anyone else from the Justice Department again after that," he said. "So I just closed the file."

Search the archives of the Los Angeles Times for similar stories about: Federal Bureau Of Investigation, Prisoners, Investigations, Mistakes, Laboratories.

You will not be charged to look for stories, only to retrieve one.

-------- spying

FBI to release Carnivore documents
3,000 documents about e-mail 'wiretap' system to be released

USA Today
08/17/00- Updated 11:35 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti411.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - A civil liberties group objects to how the FBI plans to release to the public some of the 3,000 pages of documents describing its ''Carnivore'' e-mail surveillance system.

The group says the schedule laid out by the government is too open-ended.

The Justice Department told a federal judge Wednesday that the FBI had located 3,000 pages in response to a Freedom of Information request and lawsuit by the group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which asked for every document the FBI has describing the computerized system that has raised an uproar among civil libertarians and in Congress.

The government said the FBI could release the first batch of documents in about 45 days. Additional releases should follow every 45 days until all the pages have been evaluated for release. But the Justice Department and the FBI gave no commitment to either process or to release any specific number of pages in each interval.

''The proposed schedule is far too open-ended,'' complained David Sobel, general counsel of the group. ''With no clear commitment to evaluate a specific number of pages in each interval, this process could stretch on for many months or even years.''

At her weekly news conference Thursday, Attorney General Janet Reno declined to predict how long the entire process might take.

''There's some 3,000 pages that we have got to go through, and we want to do it as expeditiously as possible but we want to do it properly,'' she said.

The department told U.S. District Judge James Robertson in a written status report that the government has begun reviewing the pages to see if any should be withheld as classified information.

Next, a large number of the pages would have to be reviewed by private companies that supplied them under contract to see if they objected, the government added. The companies can prevent release of their trade secrets.

In response to protests over Carnivore, Attorney General Janet Reno has promised that it will be reviewed by an external team assembled by a major university and by an internal team, which hopes to report to her by Dec. 1.

The Carnivore system has software that scans and captures ''packets,'' the standard unit of Internet traffic, as they travel through an internet service provider's network. The FBI installs a Carnivore unit at a provider's network station and configures it to capture only e-mail to or from someone under investigation.

FBI officials say court orders limit which e-mails they can see.

But privacy advocates say only the FBI knows what Carnivore can do, and Internet providers are not allowed access to the system. They ask why the FBI retains remote control of Carnivore equipment and doesn't just give it to Internet providers so they can comply with court orders.

Sobel said he would likely seek modifications in the government's plan from the court.

''We will point out to the court that Dec. 1 is the date their review is to be completed,'' Sobel said in an interview. ''If they can pull these documents together for their expert panel, they can pull them together for the FOIA process. Making this material public should have the same priority as their review.''

The government said it was expediting the request ''without respect to the FBI's current backlog of FOIA requests.'' It also said that it has waived fees for the processing. The law and regulations provide that fees be waived and processing expedited when there is wide public interest in the requested documents.

But the government warned that ''review of these documents will be more complex than most FBI Freedom of Information-Privacy Act requests because, among other things, a large amount of responsive material ... (was) supplied, under contract, by outside commercial entities. These outside commercial entities will, under existing laws and regulations, need to be notified and given an opportunity to weigh in on the disclosure of their information.''

---

Court rejects wiretapping rules

USA Today
08/15/00- Updated 10:23 PM ET
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncstue06.htm

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court rejected Tuesday a set of wiretap standards that could have provided the FBI access to a range of confidential information from suspects - from bank account numbers to voice-mail access codes - under court orders that authorize the tracing of telephone communications.

At the same time, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia decided that the Federal Communications Commission was correct to require the wireless phone industry to provide law enforcement officials with general information about its customers when requested to do so by similar court orders.

The decision, in a 17-page opinion, came as a result of a challenge to FCC policies brought by privacy advocates.

The commission had approved a petition by the Justice Department and the FBI to require telecommunications companies to design systems that would preserve law enforcement surveillance capabilities as new technology emerges.

However, the three-judge panel found that the commission "never explained the basis" for its conclusion that the FBI is entitled to sensitive information such as bank records without establishing an urgent need for it.

"The court told the FCC that it was wrong to give into the FBI's surveillance demands at the cost of privacy," says James Dempsey, senior staff counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, one of the groups behind the complaint.

Justice Department officials said they were reviewing the decision.

"It's like getting a term paper back, and the professor is asking for additional work," Assistant Attorney General Stephen Colgate says. "Are we happy about it? No."

The ruling comes at a time when privacy advocates also are questioning the propriety of an FBI program known as "Carnivore" to access private e-mail transmissions as part of criminal investigations. The court's decision did not address "Carnivore," which privacy advocates fear could allow investigators to read e-mail from innocent people with the same Internet service provider as a targeted suspect.

---

David H. Blee, 83, C.I.A. Spy Who Revised Defector Policy

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By JAMES RISEN
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/obit-d-blee.html

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 -- David Henry Blee, a legendary American spymaster who played a critical role in dispelling the climate of paranoia that paralyzed the Central Intelligence Agency's espionage operations against the Soviet Union in the 1960's, died on Aug. 4 at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 83.

Placed in charge of the C.I.A.'s Soviet Division in 1971, Mr. Blee made a historic break with the agency's eccentric chief of counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton, effectively ending Mr. Angleton's broad and destructive influence over the agency's operations against Moscow.

Because of Mr. Angleton's belief that virtually every Soviet citizen who tried to defect was actually a double agent sent to dupe the Americans, the agency's operations against Moscow had been tied in knots for years. Mr. Angleton's theories had prompted the intelligence agency to rebuff many Soviets who tried to offer their spy services, and ultimately led to the secret imprisonment under brutal conditions of one K.G.B. officer who defected to the United States.

Although as chief of counterintelligence Mr. Angleton was not in the agency's Soviet Division, his long tenure as chief spy hunter gave him enormous influence.

Mr. Angleton's belief that the C.I.A. was falling prey to a K.G.B. "monster plot" of deception led to a witch hunt for Soviet moles within the agency. Careers were destroyed as one longtime agency officer after another came under suspicion.

But Mr. Blee, a longtime Middle East hand, rejected Mr. Angleton's theories and threw open the doors to defectors and potential Soviet spies, an approach that younger intelligence officers eagerly embraced.

Mr. Blee, a Harvard-eeucated lawyer, avoided an open confrontation with Mr. Angleton as he ordered the 180-degree shift.

With the backing of agency's director, William E. Colby, Mr. Blee brought in lieutenants he had worked with in the Middle East and South Asia who had not been tainted by the Angletonian mole hunt. They reinvestigated long-neglected espionage leads.

"He was the architect of the program that turned the clandestine service back on target against the Soviets after all the years of Angleton," said Haviland Smith, a former C.I.A. officer.

Mr. Blee's policy shift quickly bore fruit; in the 1970's the number of well-placed spies working behind the Iron Curtain increased sharply.

Mr. Blee's success can be indirectly measured by the number of Soviet spies working for the United States who were betrayed by Aldrich Ames, a C.I.A. officer in the Soviet Division. In 1985, when Mr. Ames began to spy for the K.G.B., he turned over the names of at least 10 Soviet intelligence officers working for the agency. The K.G.B. was shocked by how deeply it had been penetrated.

"He had a greater intellectual command of overseas operational activity than any officer I ever knew," said Clair George, a former agency deputy director of operations.

David Henry Blee was born in San Francisco on Nov. 20, 1916, and graduated from Stanford University in 1938. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1942, he enlisted in the Army in 1943. After a brief assignment with the Army Corps of Engineers, Mr. Blee was transferred to the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime predecessor to the C.I.A. He joined a small team that was landed by submarine on the islands off the coast of Thailand to monitor the Japanese fleet.

The excitement of wartime clandestine operations got into his blood, and he joined the nation's new peacetime spy service when it was founded soon after World War II. He stayed until his retirement in 1985.

One of Mr. Blee's biggest early triumphs came in 1965, when he was the C.I.A. station chief in India. Svetlana Stalin, the daughter of the Soviet dictator, showed up at the American Embassy and asked for political asylum. In an interview this year, Mr. Blee recalled that while Washington dithered about how to respond, he put her on an airplane and spirited her out of the country to safety.

He soon became chief of the agency's Near East Division, which handled espionage in the Middle East, before taking over the Soviet Division in 1971.

Mr. Blee ended his career in the same job that Mr. Angleton had occupied for so many years, running the agency's counterintelligence operations.

He retired just as the C.I.A. was coming to grips with the most serious betrayal by one of its own officers up to that time, the defection of Edward Lee Howard, a C.I.A. case officer who had been fired just before his scheduled assignment to Moscow.

Before his dismissal, Mr. Howard had already been briefed on many of the agency's most sensitive operations in the Soviet Union, including the case of Adolf Tolkachev, a Soviet aviation design expert who had given the C.I.A. a trove of secret information on Soviet military aircraft. What was not known at the time of Mr. Blee's retirement, however, was that another intelligence officer, Mr. Ames, had volunteered to the Soviets just as Mr. Howard was being exposed. Mr. Blee is survived by his wife, Margaret Gauer Blee; four sons, John David and Robert Henry, both of Bethesda, David Cooper, of Alexandria, Va., and Richard Earl, of Washington; a daughter, Elizabeth Blee Fritsch of Washington; and four grandchildren.

-------- terrorism

Israel Upset Over U.S. Warning About Terrorist Attacks

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/17cnd-israel-unhappy.html

JERUSALEM, Aug 17 -- Israel took the United States to task on Thursday over a warning to U.S. citizens of a heightened threat of "terrorist" attacks in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak's security adviser Danny Yatom said he tried to talk U.S. Ambassador Martin Indyk out of issuing an announcement when informed of it beforehand -- but to no avail.

"I truly do not know why the embassy made this public...I told him that in my opinion this notice didn't have to go out, Yatom told Israel's Army radio.

Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz, Israel's army chief, said: "For the moment I wouldn't say there is a concrete warning we can point to."

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday urged Americans to avoid use of public buses and to be cautious near bus stops and in crowded areas, saying there was "an increased possibility for terrorist attacks."

The United States, Israel's closest ally and the main broker in Middle East peacemaking, said it had no indication of a specific threat to Americans but urged U.S. citizens to increase vigilance for their personal security.

Palestinian Moslem suicide bombers have killed scores of people in attacks on buses and public squares -- at times when peace moves are at a peak. Militants of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups oppose peace efforts with Israel.

ROSS IN REGION

The sides have set September 13 as a target for forging a treaty, and U.S. President Bill Clinton's Middle East envoy Dennis Ross was due in the region on Thursday to determine whether progress had been made.

Officials said Ross would assess what, if any, progress had been made since Barak's 15-day peace summit with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the U.S. Camp David retreat ended in disagreement last month.

Yatom said that based on Ross's discussions, Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would decide whether conditions were ripe for a decisive second summit ending in an agreement.

"Arafat very much wants another summit," Yatom said.

But acting Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami told reporters: "We feel that in order for us to be able to proceed to a new and more momentous step in this process we need to have some flexibility from the other side.

"The question of the summit is for the time being not really on the agenda. What is on the agenda is trying to detect any meaningful change in the positions on the other side," Ben-Ami said hours before a meeting with Ross in Tel Aviv.

Israel and the United States meanwhile have been discussing Israel's arms export policy in the weeks since U.S. pressure forced Israel to scrap the sale of a $250 million radar system to China, Yatom said.

"We've had a series of discussions with the United States on this subject, and I can also confirm that the stances between us and the Americans are not as far apart as they were in the past," he said.

Asked by the radio if Washington still demanded to know about arms sales to China, India, Pakistan and Russia -- four countries the radio said were deemed "worrisome" -- Yatom said only: "I don't want to enter into details."

U.S. officials feared the Israeli-made Phalcon early warning system that Israel planned to sell to China would give it a military edge over Taiwanese and U.S. fighters if a conflict broke out with Beijing.

-------- activists

Independent Media Center
Thursday, August 17th
Breaking News
http://la.indymedia.org/breaknews.php3

10:29pm PST - A report has come in that the people accused of jaywalking were given tickets and released.

10:27pm PST - Reports are coming in about the Critical Mass bicyclists that have been imprisoned since yesterday. Arraignment hearings were held today and almost all charges were thrown out. Most people will be released on their own recognizance for trials in September. No one is going to be tried on the initial charge of "reckless driving." Some people are being released after being told that they can not bicycle again in LA!!!

http://www.critical-mass.org

10:15pm PST - Democracy Now, a taped TV show, begins taping at the IMC center in LA. A police helicopter is hovering over the IMC building.

http://www.democracynow.org

9:23pm PST - This evening, a bottle was thrown near the police that were outside the covergence center. Riot cops stormed the three story building and posted sharpshooters with rifles on the roof. The sharshooters trained their weapons on citizens in the street. A group of local residents gathered and began chanting in Spanish. More riot cops poured into the area. Two young local Hispanic men from the area was thrown into the back of a cruiser and taken away with no explanation. It is not clear who threw the bottle.

9:03pm PST - A report from the convergence center has claimed that the police are retreating from the streets surrounding the building after blocking them off for the last 45 minutes. The situation seems to be de-escalating.

8:30pm PST - Two police helicopters are hovering over the convergence center.

http://www.la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1605

8:26pm PST - Bike cops now arriving at the convergence center. Several hundred are inside the convergence center and the attendent parking lot which is fenced in. The police have not declared why they were in the area monitoring citizen's movements on the streets, nor have the police declared why a citizen should be taken prisoner even if they had "jaywalked" which usually results in a small summary fine analagous to a parking ticket.

8:20pm PST - 80+ cops in black combat gear outside the convergence center with 30+ cop cars.

8:14pm PST - The police have drawn guns on the people that they have accused of "jaywalking." The situation is rapidly escalating. 50+ riot cops are there now surrounding the entrance to the convergence center.

8:04pm PST - Four citizens were just arrested and taken away outside the convergence center. The police have claimed that the citizens were "jaywalking."

8:03pm PST - The American Civil Liberties Union issued a press release this evening about their filing suit against the LAPD for the police targetting media at the protest on Monday evening.

http://www.aclu.org

http://www.aclu-sc.org/news/releases/000816dnc.htm

7:32pm PST - 1000+ now in Pershing Square for rally with speakers. Riot cops continue to surround. 7:23pm PST - A dozen police cars full of riot cops are parked at the intersection of 18th and Flower, a half block from the Independent Media Center.

7:09pm PST - At 6:00 PM, two IMC reporters with DNC and Shadow Convention credentials were accosted shortly after leaving the IMC by 6 Secret Service officers. The secret service thought that the two reporters "matched" a description of "suspects" put out over the radio. The reporters were eventually released.

http://www.indymedia.org

7:04pm PST - Between 600 and 1000 at Pershing Square. Police are surrounding the citizens, but there is free movement in and out of the square.

6:31pm PST - 1000+ heading north on Figueroa to Pershing Square. Police on all sides of Pershing Square, but there is still an open avenue at Hill & 5th. More heavily armored riot police arriving. Intermittant confrontations between cops and 30+ Black Bloc.

http://www.infoshop.org/blackbloc.html

6:21pm PST - Standoff between police and citizens continues outside the "protest area." Some citizens have dispersed to the north.

6:12pm PST - "Crashing the Party" live TV satelite broadcast begins at the Independent Media Center in LA via Free Spech TV and the Deep Dish TV Network.

http://www.freespeech.org/

http://www.igc.org/deepdish/index.html

6:06pm PST - LAPD Police Chief has just left Olympic and Figueroa after just overseeing the beatings.

5:56pm PST - Black Bloc 200+ moving north on Figueroa from intersection of Olympic and Figueroa.

http://www.infoshop.org/

5:52pm PST - Police have announced on a loudspeaker that the citizens in the intersection constitute an "illegal assembly" and must disperse within 10 minutes or be subject to arrest. There are numerous shotgun and tear gas units in the area. Riot cops in full combat gear are in formation on two sides of the intersection.

5:50pm PST - The police have given up the intersection. Hundreds are in the intersection.

5:48pm PST - Black Bloc heading north from Olympic and Figueroa.

http://www.infoshop.org/

5:45pm PST - On the north corner of Olympic and Figueroa, a line of 10+ are blocking delegates.

5:16pm PST - Riot police are not allowing the crowd out of the "protest area."

5:08pm PST - 500+ inside "protest area" and 600+ on the outside. Police currently not attacking anyone.

4:56pm PST - Police have declared that the gathering at Olympic and Figueroa is "unlawful" and ordered all citizens to move into the "protest pit."

4:47pm PST - Police have divided the crowd of 1200+ into two groups. People are running in various directions. Numerous tear gas units are in the area.

4:46pm PST - 1200+ at Olympic and Figueroa (South-West Corner of Protest Area). Police attacking the crowd.

4:17pm PST - An airplane is writing Nader in the sky directly over the Staples Center.

http://la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1862

4:15pm PST - Anti-Police brutality March is on the move it is about 2 blocks long and it is heading east on 8th street.

3:11pm PST - 500-1000 protesters have converged by the Parker Center at 1st and Los Angeles in solidarity with the arrested protesters inside.

3:02pm PST - City Attorney Julia Raffish has told the LAPD that they must give critical mass arrestees access to a group lawyer. An arrestee said that they were unlawfully arrested and should be released. Arrestees in the Parker Center can hear the crowd outside and have asked them to chant, "Give them a lawyer."

http://www.critical-mass.org/

1:32pm PST - at 12:50pm a man in his twenties with a goatee, wearing camouflage was eating crackers in the McArthur/Westlake Underground Metro station. He was approached by about 5 police officers. They proceeded to search him and his bag, and he was handcuffed and taken away. During the course of this event more than 15 police officers (about 10 in riot gear) surrounded him, blocking the public view. Two officers also blocked off the stairway in an attempt to keep anyone from witnessing the event. I was moved out, but managed to witness the event.

12:38pm PST - One legal observer reported 26 people being detained at Rampart station.

http://www.a16.org/losangeles/calendar_detail.cfm?ID=624

12:02pm PST - 40-60 on the steps blocking the entrance. Several hundred nearby. Situation seems calm.

11:49am PST - 15-20 marchers are entering Rampart station and are being arrested.

11:47am PST - Police are Videotaping those planning civil Disobediance.

11:44am PST - The march has divided at Rampart station between people doing civil disobediance and those not participating in it. 11:33am PST - March has arrived at the Rampart station going west on Temple. 50 police are following march and around 100 riot police are stationed in a nearby alleyway.

11:29am PST - Police Brutality March approaching Rampart station.

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/99/49/outlaw-nelson.shtml

11:10am PST - Arraignment for Critical Mass bikers has begun at 450 Bauchet St. (That's near Vignes st, behind Union Station.)

10:55am PST - End of the march has just left Macarthur Park, Heading west on 6th. The march size is between 500-1000 and swelling.

10:48am PST - Our IMC contact who was arrested yesterday has posted bail and is currently out of jail. He says that he was isolated from the others arrested at the Animal Rights Action and put in solitary. He is currently safe and is now working on helping out the 60+ arrested in the Critical Mass ride. Bails for Critical Mass riders range from $500 to $2500.

http://www.critical-mass.org/

10:46am PST - 150-200 people at Macarthur Park. The situation is calm with an average police presence.

10:36am PST - One Critical Mass rider was charged with "reckless driving" with a $2,500 bail set.

Thursday, August 17th

10:03pm PST - An IMC volunteer was arrested today, and is facing a $1000 bail. The legal team is working on the situation and more information will come forward. 9:31pm PST - 75 riot cops and 50+ observers in a standoff at 18th and Flower as last of bicyclists are being taken away in three school buses.

http://la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1591

9:06pm PST - Police are bringing in arrest buses to take away bicyclists still up against the fence at 18th and Flower.

8:49pm PST - Unknown number of protestors moving south at 3rd and Main. Police responding.

8:39pm PST - starting at around 5:45pm the Critical Mass bike ride started with around 200-300 bicyclists. They were persued by around 50 police on bikes, and several police cars. After about 45 minutes the police surrounded the riders in two different locations. At least 50 riders are now in custody. Eye witnesses say that one bicyclist was knocked off her bike by police during the ride.

http://members.aol.com/lacritmass/

8:28pm PST - at 7:57 IMC received a report that the March for Gay Rights had been encircled by police with people lying in the street tracing themselves in chaulk.

http://la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1576

8:26pm PST - Riot cops running north to 18th and Flower.

8:25pm PST - at 7:19 IMC received a report that Police have all but five of the bikers in arrest cars.

8:24pm PST - at 6:37 IMC received a report that one of the people arrested at the Critical Mass Rally was an Associated Press reporter at the second arrest site at Hope and Pico.

8:22pm PST - la.indymedia.org is back up.

5:25pm PST - The well-publicized Critical Mass bicycle parade is about to begin at 5th and Flower, with 100 participants.

5:22pm PST - Amidst a heavy police presence 'Black Bloc' black-clothed protesters are moving south on Figueroa toward the Staples Center.

http://www.infoshop.org/conventions.html

4:57pm PST - Of the 43 arrestees (arrested at 3:20pm) , men are being sent to the Harper Center and Women are being taken to 77th and Broadway. All arrestees are being charged with "Conspiracy to commit vandalism". National Lawyers Guild confirmed an arrested Observer.

http://www.lawcollective.org/docs.html

4:52pm PST - 43 people had been arrested at the animal rights protests at 7th and Grand. One legal observer had been arrested there.

http://la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=1582

http://www.lawcollective.org/docs.html

4:29pm PST - 500 to 1000 people at SEIU march, marching west on ninth. The mood at the march is jubilant.

http://www.seiu.org/

3:59pm PST - Mass arrests at 1st and Wilshire

3:34pm PST - At 7th & Grand, police have issued orders to disperse. Protesters have left the street.

3:31pm PST - The protest at 7th & Grand is an animal rights protest in front of a fur shop. There are about 100 protesters in a stand off with police. 30-40 are being arrested, including a member of the National Lawyer's Guild. Police have issue

http://www.nlg.org/

3:10pm PST - 8 members of the Black Bloc are being arrested at Wilshire & Grand. 3:09pm PST - Midnight Special Law Collective reports a mass arrest going on at Grand & 6th.

http://www.lawcollective.org/

2:48pm PST - Underground metro station at Pershing Square closed down due to an investigation by the police.

2:09pm PST - Police report anarchists in yellow skirts headed southbound on Flower.

http://www.infoshop.org/

1:43pm PST - Bus Riders Union march heading towards protest pit at Staples Center.

http://www.busridersunion.org/

8:44am PST - Server back online. Unfortunately, we have had outages over the past 24 hours. It is unclear at this point if the problems were due to high traffic or a malicious attack.

Thursday, August 17th

8:22pm PST - Riot police are refusing to let anyone out of the Staples Center. Hundreds of DNC Deligates are locked in the Convention Center. The situation is very hectic.

8:14pm PST - There are rampant reports of police abuse, pepper spray, beatings of youth at the Rage Against the Machine Concert.

http://www.ratm.com 8:11pm PST - Metro Vandal suspect taken into custody.

8:09pm PST - 300-1000 people (probably on the high end) in Pershing Square surrounded by police with paddy wagons.

8:04pm PST - A small portion of the crowd started throwing water bottles and other objects over the south side of the barrier closest to the Staples center, then lit small fires; this is a visual confirmation of first incident. Police countered with pepper spray.

7:58pm PST - The Ozomatli concert was shut down by police. After an order of dispersal, about 200 refused to disperse. Police stampeded a crowd on horseback firing rubber bullets provoking a stampede of the panicked crowd.

http://www.ozomatli.com/

7:56pm PST - Vandalism at blue line station accross from Staples Center. Vandal's identity unknown.

7:54pm PST - Mass actions throughout area -- need more details. Three main groups: anarchists, concert goers, and non-violent protesters. Police claim initial instigation and continued problems by anarchists. Proclaimed an "unlawful assembly" by police.

7:30pm PST - Four paintball rounds were fired at a Black Bloc member at the Rage Against the Machine concert. The juvenile attempted to climb the fence to hang a flag (which he succeeded in doing). He sustained large bruises.

http://www.infoshop.org

http://www.ratm.com

7:28pm PST - 3rd and Figueroa. Cuncussion grenade are launched at crowds and rubber bullets are fired.

7:28pm PST - The Shadow convention reconvenes as the IMC is still functioning. Hundreds convened in the street to stop police from shutting down Patriotic Hall including Gore Vidal.

6:52pm PST - At Patriotic Hall, the Shadow Convention has been evacuated from their first floor. They now are out in the street. (Update 8/15: Arianna Huffington reports attendees continue meeting on nearby steet, are surrounded by riot police.)

http://www.shadowconventions.com/

6:46pm PST - There are reports of police firing chemicals into the crowd at the protest pit listening to the RAGE concert. http://www.ratm.com

6:44pm PST - One witness at the concert had an enjoyable time, he reports the crowd had smiles on their faces, and he saw no problems.

6:41pm PST - There are currently County Sheriff troops in the stairwell of Patriotic Hall, IMC HQ's. They are clearing the building floor by floor. Reach your own conclusions.

6:23pm PST - RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE played a free concert, the LAPD didn't like it, confiscated puppets, apparently the puppets are just now being returned. Check back for video and pictures.

http://www.ratm.com

6:04pm PST - The Crisis Continues: The three detainees were to be released by County officers, but LAPD, ordered them re-detained. One detainees reports, "When the satellite is shut off, this will evaporate." Eight hours from the notice, the bldg is surrounded.

5:59pm PST - The LA County Police say there is a 50-50 chance of a bomb, but the same officers went into the van with no protective equipment. The building has not been evacuated, and the bomb squad has just been called.

5:54pm PST - Based on an anonymous tip given to LAPD this morning that there was a bomb in a van, at 4:30 PM, the County police detained the two owners of the van, and blocked the parking lot including the area with the satellite truck. This has eliminated our broadcast.

5:51pm PST - The IMC satellite broadcast has been delayed because of an LAPD claim of a bomb threat in a Westfalia in the parking lot. The police are detaining two people at this time and we are waiting for more info. The satellite truck has been evacuated.

1:21pm PST - Approximately 9 people who locked arms were arrested at 6th and Flower. The report is police placed a wedge between the main U'wa protest group which marched from Pershing Square. Approximately 100-200 people surrounded the arrestees.

12:48pm PST - la.indymedia.org now has a section for breaking news. This section will include up to the second updates of what is happening on the streets of LA.

---

From: Doug Hunt <dhunt@center1.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 10:35:27 -0400
Subject: [waggers] Latest on events in LA

10:29pm PST - A report has come in that the people accused of jaywalking were given tickets and released.

10:27pm PST - Reports are coming in about the Critical Mass bicyclists that have been imprisoned since yesterday. Arraignment hearings were held today and almost all charges were thrown out. Most people will be released on their own recognizance for trials in September. No one is going to be tried on the initial charge of "reckless driving." Some people are being released after being told that they can not bicycle again in LA!!!

10:15pm PST - Democracy Now, a taped TV show, begins taping at the IMC center in LA. A police helicopter is hovering over the IMC building.

9:23pm PST - This evening, a bottle was thrown near the police that were outside the covergence center. Riot cops stormed the three story building and posted sharpshooters with rifles on the roof. The sharshooters trained their weapons on citizens in the street. A group of local residents gathered and began chanting in Spanish. More riot cops poured into the area. Two young local Hispanic men from the area was thrown into the back of a cruiser and taken away with no explanation. It is not clear who threw the bottle.

9:03pm PST - A report from the convergence center has claimed that the police are retreating from the streets surrounding the building after blocking them off for the last 45 minutes. The situation seems to be de-escalating.

8:30pm PST - Two police helicopters are hovering over the convergence center.

8:26pm PST - Bike cops now arriving at the convergence center. Several hundred are inside the convergence center and the attendent parking lot which is fenced in. The police have not declared why they were in the area monitoring citizen's movements on the streets, nor have the police declared why a citizen should be taken prisoner even if they had "jaywalked" which usually results in a small summary fine analagous to a parking ticket.

8:20pm PST - 80+ cops in black combat gear outside the convergence center with 30+ cop cars.

8:14pm PST - The police have drawn guns on the people that they have accused of "jaywalking." The situation is rapidly escalating. 50+ riot cops are there now surrounding the entrance to the convergence center.

8:04pm PST - Four citizens were just arrested and taken away outside the convergence center. The police have claimed that the citizens were "jaywalking."

8:03pm PST - The American Civil Liberties Union issued a press release this evening about their filing suit against the LAPD for the police targetting media at the protest on Monday evening.

7:32pm PST - 1000+ now in Pershing Square for rally with speakers. Riot cops continue to surround.

7:23pm PST - A dozen police cars full of riot cops are parked at the intersection of 18th and Flower, a half block from the Independent Media Center.

7:09pm PST - At 6:00 PM, two IMC reporters with DNC and Shadow Convention credentials were accosted shortly after leaving the IMC by 6 Secret Service officers. The secret service thought that the two reporters "matched" a description of "suspects" put out over the radio. The reporters were eventually released.

7:04pm PST - Between 600 and 1000 at Pershing Square. Police are surrounding the citizens, but there is free movement in and out of the square.

6:31pm PST - 1000+ heading north on Figueroa to Pershing Square. Police on all sides of Pershing Square, but there is still an open avenue at Hill & 5th. More heavily armored riot police arriving. Intermittant confrontations between cops and 30+ Black Bloc.

6:21pm PST - Standoff between police and citizens continues outside the "protest area." Some citizens have dispersed to the north.

6:12pm PST - "Crashing the Party" live TV satelite broadcast begins at the Independent Media Center in LA via Free Spech TV and the Deep Dish TV Network.

6:06pm PST - LAPD Police Chief has just left Olympic and Figueroa after just overseeing the beatings.

5:56pm PST - Black Bloc 200+ moving north on Figueroa from intersection of Olympic and Figueroa.

5:52pm PST - Police have announced on a loudspeaker that the citizens in the intersection constitute an "illegal assembly" and must disperse within 10 minutes or be subject to arrest. There are numerous shotgun and tear gas units in the area. Riot cops in full combat gear are in formation on two sides of the intersection.

5:50pm PST - The police have given up the intersection. Hundreds are in the intersection.

5:48pm PST - Black Bloc heading north from Olympic and Figueroa.

5:45pm PST - On the north corner of Olympic and Figueroa, a line of 10+ are blocking delegates.

5:16pm PST - Riot police are not allowing the crowd out of the "protest area." 5:08pm PST - 500+ inside "protest area" and 600+ on the outside. Police currently not attacking anyone.

4:56pm PST - Police have declared that the gathering at Olympic and Figueroa is "unlawful" and ordered all citizens to move into the "protest pit."

4:47pm PST - Police have divided the crowd of 1200+ into two groups. People are running in various directions. Numerous tear gas units are in the area.

4:46pm PST - 1200+ at Olympic and Figueroa (South-West Corner of Protest Area). Police attacking the crowd.

4:17pm PST - An airplane is writing Nader in the sky directly over the Staples Center.

4:15pm PST - Anti-Police brutality March is on the move it is about 2 blocks long and it is heading east on 8th street.

3:11pm PST - 500-1000 protesters have converged by the Parker Center at 1st and Los Angeles in solidarity with the arrested protesters inside.

3:02pm PST - City Attorney Julia Raffish has told the LAPD that they must give critical mass arrestees access to a group lawyer. An arrestee said that they were unlawfully arrested and should be released. Arrestees in the Parker Center can hear the crowd outside and have asked them to chant, "Give them a lawyer."

1:32pm PST - at 12:50pm a man in his twenties with a goatee, wearing camouflage was eating crackers in the McArthur/Westlake Underground Metro station. He was approached by about 5 police officers. They proceeded to search him and his bag, and he was handcuffed and taken away. During the course of this event more than 15 police officers (about 10 in riot gear) surrounded him, blocking the public view. Two officers also blocked off the stairway in an attempt to keep anyone from witnessing the event. I was moved out, but managed to witness the event.

12:38pm PST - One legal observer reported 26 people being detained at Rampart station.

12:02pm PST - 40-60 on the steps blocking the entrance. Several hundred nearby. Situation seems calm.

11:49am PST - 15-20 marchers are entering Rampart station and are being arrested.

11:47am PST - Police are Videotaping those planning civil Disobediance.

11:44am PST - The march has divided at Rampart station between people doing civil disobediance and those not participating in it.

11:33am PST - March has arrived at the Rampart station going west on Temple. 50 police are following march and around 100 riot police are stationed in a nearby alleyway.

11:29am PST - Police Brutality March approaching Rampart station.

11:10am PST - Arraignment for Critical Mass bikers has begun at 450 Bauchet St. (That's near Vignes st, behind Union Station.)

10:55am PST - End of the march has just left Macarthur Park, Heading west on 6th. The march size is between 500-1000 and swelling.

10:48am PST - Our IMC contact who was arrested yesterday has posted bail and is currently out of jail. He says that he was isolated from the others arrested at the Animal Rights Action and put in solitary. He is currently safe and is now working on helping out the 60+ arrested in the Critical Mass ride. Bails for Critical Mass riders range from $500 to $2500.

10:46am PST - 150-200 people at Macarthur Park. The situation is calm with an average police presence.

10:36am PST - One Critical Mass rider was charged with "reckless driving" with a $2,500 bail set.

---

L.A. streets are calm on last day of Democratic convention
Police tactics draw criticism outside convention hall

CNN
August 17, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/08/17/conv.protesters/index.html

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A peaceful day of protests on the final day of the Democratic National Convention capped a week of sometimes tense demonstrations around the political gathering in Los Angeles.

Violent outbursts earlier in the week were quickly and forcefully put down by police using pepper spray, batons and rubber bullets. That left some protesters feeling like their message had been lost and their rights trampled.

Activists vowed to greet Vice President Al Gore's acceptance speech with a chorus of chants and drumbeats outside the Staples Center convention hall Thursday night. The protesters hoped their noise would steal some of the Democratic presidential nominee's thunder.

Several small protests were conducted earlier in the day, with the largest rally held in the downtown garment district to protest sweatshops and call for better wages and health benefits for garment workers.

The protesters, many of them Hispanic, sang and danced in the street to spread their message that immigrants are too often the victims of unfair labor practices.

• In front of the downtown Federal Building, 200 protesters demanded an end to U.S. Navy bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

• At Pershing Square, 100 activists mounted a "Spank the Bank" protest, criticizing Citibank for funding projects that they alleged were ruining the environment.

• In Century City, where Gore was staying, there was more chanting of "Save it, don't pave it," as activists called for protection of wetlands.

Protesters unhappy with police handling of demonstrations

The heavy police presence around convention has kept things under control but given the event the aura of a siege.

Police have been criticized for their daunting, dominating presence on the streets surrounding the Staples Center, and particularly for their attempts to control demonstrations around the convention hall.

Los Angeles police say their heavy presence is necessary to provide safety and security during the convention. But leaders of some of the protests outside the convention hall claim the police have been antagonistic.

Some among the network of protesters say the Los Angeles Police Department -- the lead agency among several law enforcement organizations here -- is using the event to repair a scandal-tarnished image after a year of bad press.

The department is under investigation over allegations of excessive force and corruption in its Rampart Division, which polices a largely poor, Hispanic section of the city. More than 70 current and former officers are under investigation, and five are scheduled to stand trial on conspiracy charges next month.

"We are really worried that the LAPD has really seen this week somehow as a week of redemption," said Margaret Prescod, of the Direct Action Network, which is helping to coordinate demonstrations on behalf of causes ranging from opposition to free trade, to animal rights, to abolition of the death penalty.

'I got shot in Los Angeles'

Even those protests sanctioned by the city have been met by legions of heavily armed police in riot gear.

On Wednesday, a sound technician working for CNN suffered bruised ribs during a demonstration outside the Staples Center when police struck bystanders with batons. LAPD Commander David Kalish apologized for the incident, but said "this kind of thing sometimes happens" when reporters and technicians work their way into a crowd of demonstrators.

"There's simply just so many media people integrated into the crowds, and it is unfortunate we had this situation, and again we apologize," Kalish said.

After receiving a formal complaint from Tom Johnson, chairman, president and CEO of CNN's News Group, Police Chief Bernard Parks turned the incident over to the police department's Internal Affairs division, Kalish said, adding, "They'll conduct a thorough investigation."

On Monday night, police moved to shut down an authorized concert by the politically oriented band Rage Against the Machine, and moved against the crowd on horseback, using rubber bullets.

Senior LAPD officers called it a "measured" and appropriate response, but those caught up in the action say it was anything but. Some said they were shot in the back, and representatives of some news organizations say police attacked them despite equipment and credentials identifying them as nonparticipants.

Photographer Al Crespo said he was hit by a rubber bullet fired by police at close range.

"There's clear time on both sides to recognize who we are, who the police are and who the press is. And you know, we are supposed to have a white flag," Crespo said.

"I was in Kosovo last year, you know, and I didn't get shot there. I got shot in Los Angeles."

The American Civil Liberties Union has said it will file a lawsuit against the LAPD on the behalf of Crespo on Friday.

Nearly 200 arrested in protests

Police have arrested more than 195 people in three days of protests on charges ranging from misdemeanors such as failing to disperse and reckless driving -- on bicycles. But authorities have brought 59 felony counts, largely conspiracy and resisting arrest.

On Tuesday, Kalish said police seized "improvised weapons" from about 45 demonstrators arrested outside a fur shop near downtown's Pershing Square. Police said the protesters planned to use the devices -- slingshots, aerosol cans and lighter fluid that he said could have been used as crude flame-throwers -- against area businesses such as a McDonald's and a fur store.

Wednesday, however, a march on the Rampart Division headquarters took place peacefully. Demonstrators and police consulted with each other and with the U.S. Justice Department's Community Relations Service to plan the event, which resulted in the arrests of 38 demonstrators.

CNN National Correspondent Martin Savidge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

---

Police tactics draw criticism outside convention hall

CNN
August 17, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/08/17/convention.police/

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- The heavy police presence around the Democratic National Convention has kept things under control, but given the event the aura of a siege.

Police have been criticized for their daunting, dominating presence on the streets surrounding the Staples Center, and particularly for their attempts to control demonstrations around the convention hall.

Los Angeles police say their heavy presence is necessary to provide safety and security during the convention. But leaders of some of the protests outside the convention hall claim the police have been antagonistic.

Some among the network of protesters say the Los Angeles Police Department -- the lead agency among several law enforcement organizations here -- is using the event to repair their scandal-tarnished image after a year of bad press.

The department is under investigation over allegations of excessive force and corruption in its Rampart Division, which polices a largely poor, Hispanic section of the city. More than 70 current and former officers are under investigation, and five are scheduled to stand trial on conspiracy charges next month.

"We are really worried that the LAPD has really seen this week somehow as a week of redemption," said Margaret Prescod, of the Direct Action Network, which is helping to coordinate demonstrations on behalf of causes ranging from opposition to free trade to animal rights to abolition of the death penalty.

'I got shot in Los Angeles'

Even those protests sanctioned by the city have been met by legions of heavily armed police in riot gear.

Wednesday, a sound technician working for CNN suffered bruised ribs during a demonstration outside the Staples Center when police struck bystanders with batons. LAPD Cmdr. David Kalish apologized for the incident, but said "this kind of thing sometimes happens" when reporters and technicians work their way into a crowd of demonstrators.

"There's simply just so many media people integrated into the crowds and it is unfortunate we had this situation, and again we apologize," Kalish said.

But Monday night, police moved to shut down an authorized concert by the politically oriented rock band Rage Against the Machine, and moved against the crowd on horseback, using rubber bullets.

Senior LAPD officers called it a "measured" and appropriate response, but those caught up in the action say it was anything but. Some said they were shot in the back, and representatives of some news organizations say police attacked them despite equipment and credentials identifying them as non-participants.

Photographer Al Crespo said he was hit by a rubber bullet fired at by police and close range.

"There's clear time on both sides to recognize who we are, who the police are and who the press is. And you know, we are supposed to have a white flag," Crespo said.

"I was in Kosovo last year, you know, and I didn't get shot there. I got shot in Los Angeles."

Nearly 200 arrested in protests

Police have arrested more than 195 people in three days of protests on charges ranging from misdemeanors such as failing to disperse and reckless driving -- on bicycles. But authorities have brought 59 felony counts, largely conspiracy and resisting arrest.

Tuesday, Kalish said police seized "improvised weapons" from about 45 demonstrators arrested outside a fur shop near downtown's Pershing Square. Police said the protesters planned to use the devices -- slingshots, aerosol cans and lighter fluid that he said could have been used as crude flame-throwers -- against area businesses such as a McDonald's and a fur store.

Wednesday, however, a march on the Rampart Division headquarters went down peacefully. Demonstrators and police consulted with each other and with the U.S. Justice Department's Community Relations Service to plan the event, which resulted in the arrests of 38 demonstrators.

CNN National Correspondent Martin Savidge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

---

Judging a party by its protesters

Christian Science Monitor
THURSDAY, AUGUST 17, 2000
Dante Chinni
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/08/17/fp9s3-csm.shtml

LOS ANGELES, You're tired of conventions. You believe the Democrats and Republicans have become shady reflections of one another. You wonder if the two-party system is obsolete.

I come to you with good news gentle voter. It is not true. There are differences, substantial differences, between our two parties. And to understand them all you have to do is ride the shuttle bus service to and from the Staples Center here.

If you can find a bus that is. And if it is going in the right direction. And if the driver, who supposedly is charged with driving your route, knows where your hotel is.

We can talk about the style of the conventions all we want. We can talk about their substance. But what I want to know is: How is it that the Democrats, the champions of government action, don't even know how to create a simple shuttle-bus system? Why were the Republicans, who so fear any centralized control, so adept at it - and at other things like keeping their convention on schedule?

After a few days here you begin to wonder if the Democrats and Republicans have their roles reversed. Logistically, each party does a better job of making their opponents' points than their own.

The truth is, Democrats and Republicans excel at different things. Republicans know how to put on a show like clockwork. And Democrats, well, they thrive on disorder - at the convention and outside of it. We're talking here, of course, about the protests. If you've been paying any attention to this thing so far you have undoubtedly seen the footage - the intersections being clogged, the Rage Against the Machine concert, the rocks, the rubber bullets.

The scenes may be making you wonder if we're headed for another melee-filled convention like we had in Chicago in 1968. You can relax. As former Ambassador Robert Strauss, who was at the 1968 convention, told the assembled here at a Monitor breakfast, "Comparing what's going on out there to 1968 is like comparing chicken with chicken salad."

The protesters here are holding a series of rallies to raise awareness on different issues - many different issues.

On Tuesday, the protesters marched their way through the streets to decry America's handling of the poor and mothers - a worthwhile topic.

Now here's a sampling of the signs they marched with: "Iraq, Lift the Sanctions," "Kids Count," "Double Day, Half Way, No Way," and the always popular "Free Leonard Peltier."

Now we can discuss any of these ideas, even all of them. But together?

That's not chicken salad - it's a five-course meal ... thrown into a Cuisinart.

The protesters here are simply called that: "the protesters." Because that's all we really know about them. They protest.

Against what? Well, what have you got?

But their name is not just fitting because it's all encompassing, but because in the end, it is essentially so large it's meaningless.

They are "the protesters," no adjectives, no descriptors. It's almost as though they have arrived from central casting, as in, "We're shooting the Democratic convention scene over here. Can you get me 'the protesters'?"

In the end, the message they offer is so diffuse that they will likely be most remembered for causing traffic jams. And in L.A., that's not exactly a major league accomplishment.

Most ironic though, is that the protesters who are here to talk about substance have done little more than add to the carnival. The puppets are back. The slogans are catchy. The music is raucous. And the hair is interesting.

And in the end that's why the Democrats and Republicans are different - at least where conventions are concerned.

The Democrats are more fun. Their convention may be just as scripted and less well organized, but it's two shows in one.

---

Police, Protesters Face Off Outside Democratic Convention

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/17cnd-cvn-protests.html

LOS ANGELES -- Protesters returned to the streets Thursday for the last day of the Democratic National Convention, denouncing big business and promising to greet Al Gore's acceptance speech with a chorus of shouts, chants and drum beats outside the convention hall.

The first rally began at Pershing Square, a gathering place for protesters this week, where about 100 activists criticized Citibank for funding projects that they said were ruining the environment.

The protest, called "Spank the Bank," moved about two blocks to Citibank Center downtown, then returned to Pershing Square without incident. "Boycott Citigroup, the world's most destructive bank," read stickers that protesters pasted on surfaces downtown.

A day earlier, bottle-throwing protesters and baton-wielding police clashed briefly in a tense moment outside the convention before both sides backed off without anyone seriously hurt and only a few arrested.

Through Wednesday, police made 192 convention-related arrests.

Wednesday's confrontation took place on a sweltering afternoon when some 2,500 protesters marching toward the Staples Center convention site stopped to block an intersection.

Some delegates arriving for the convention's evening speakers were escorted through the crowd, while others walked around to other gates through a security fence.

"Whose streets? Our streets!" the crowd chanted.

When police tried to reopen the intersection, some protesters began throwing bottles and other objects. Officers responded by firing rubber bullets and charging the crowd with batons. After a dramatic standoff, the march resumed.

After another brief scuffle, protesters returned to Pershing Square. Police quickly surrounded them but backed off again after people began drifting away peacefully.

Earlier in the afternoon, 38 protesters were arrested for blocking the entrance to the Rampart police station, center of a scandal in which rogue officers allegedly framed, shot or roughed up those they arrested, then lied to convict them.

The arrests followed a march by about 600 people, who walked to the station chanting "No justice, no peace, no racist police," and presented a list of demands.

The parade and arrests of protesters who sat in front of the station took place with little of the angry confrontation seen in earlier protests. The Los Angeles Times reported that protest organizers and police began meeting long before the march and scripted out just what kind of civil disobedience would bring symbolic arrests without stirring the crowd to violence.

"They asked what it would take to get arrested," Capt. Michael Moore told the paper. "We looked up the law and gave them some ideas. They wanted to lie down in the street, but we told them they wouldn't get arrested for that."

Instead, the two sides settled on a plan for the demonstrators to sit on a sidewalk, he said.

The U.S. Justice Department's Community Relations Service took part in the talks, the paper said.

---

THE DEMONSTRATIONS Protesters Shift Their Attention to the Los Angeles Police

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By TODD S. PURDUM
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/081700dem-cvn-protest.html

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 16 -- A fourth day of street protests, this time against corruption and brutality in the Los Angeles Police Department itself, proceeded in relative calm today, with a few thousand demonstrators chanting slogans like "L.A.P.D., you can't hide, we charge you with genocide" as ranks of officers looked on impassively.

The day began with a march to the department's Rampart Division station house, where 37 demonstrators were arrested after they sat down and blocked the entrance to building. Rampart is the division involved in the city's worst corruption scandal in a decade; more than 20 officers have been implicated in fabricating evidence and framing innocent suspects.

A crowd of demonstrators later moved from police headquarters near City Hall to the Staples Center, where the Democratic National Convention is meeting.

As the protesters neared the center, some blocked the intersection, resulting in a minor clash with the police.

Some demonstrators tossed bottles, while officers used batons to force the crowd back.

In all, nearly 200 protesters have been arrested, most of them on misdemeanor charges, since the demonstrations began on Sunday.

Adam Eidinger of the Midnight Special Law Collective, a legal support group for protesters, said perhaps 40 percent of arrestees were declining to give their names, hoping to bargain for reduced charges, a tactic that protesters also employed in Philadelphia at the Republican National Convention.

Despite temperatures in the 90's and unusually high humidity, the crowds and the police largely remained cool. This week of protests has proved to be just the latest challenge for a police department already under fire on several fronts.

Judges have dismissed 100 cases in which evidence was tainted in the Rampart investigation, and in a separate investigation, the Justice Department has accused the police of systemic misconduct and threatened a federal civil rights lawsuit if the city does not agree to changes in police training and discipline.

As police officers videotaped them, protesters carried signs, including one reading "To Serve and Protect Rich White People," a mocking twist on the police department's proud slogan, "To Serve and Protect." The protesters demanded an independent civilian investigation into the Rampart accusations.

Separately, the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said it would file a civil lawsuit in federal court accusing the police of harassing journalists and firing rubber bullets at at least one freelance photographer during a confrontation after some protesters turned rowdy and violent at the end of a rock concert outside the Staples Center on Monday night.

"The dangers here, both physical and constitutional, are grave," said Ramona Ripston, the group's executive director.

But police commanders again strongly defended their response to the demonstrators as measured and appropriate.

In a briefing this morning, the department's spokesman, Commander David Kalish, showed photographs of cans of lighter fluid, aerosol sprays, plastic Easter eggs filled with gasoline and other makeshift incendiary devices that he said officers had confiscated from about 45 demonstrators who were protesting the fur trade and banging on a window at a downtown store on Tuesday.

Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of the Democrats' convention committee, expressed satisfaction at the police performance.

"It's been fine," Mr. McAuliffe said. "L.A.'s put on a great show."

---

37 more protesters arrested; total tops 200

Washington Times
August 17, 2000
By Steve Miller THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-2000817235619.htm

LOS ANGELES - More arrests yesterday brought the week's total to over 200 as police and protesters continued to face off, sometimes physically, in a sideshow to the Democratic National Convention.

Officers struck protesters who, according to police, moved outside the zone outside the Staples Center allotted for demonstrations.

The conflict began about 4:45 p.m. after a march from the downtown police headquarters ended outside the arena where the convention is taking place.

Officers rushed the crowd with nightsticks grasped tightly, clubbing those who did not move away. Three persons were arrested.

It was the second time this week police have used physical force to control the demonstrators. On Monday night, 19 persons were arrested after police shut down a concert outside the hall.

Observers said police herded a crowd in different directions at an intersection outside Staples. At one point, groups of people were trapped by police, said Randy Ziskin, who is part of a trained legal team that watches for illegal police actions during the protests.

"They were finally let go," Mr. Ziskin said. "But it's confusing to people who are told one thing by one group of police, then another."

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan said police were acting in a "responsible way."

"When the week is done, we can be very proud of our Police Department," the mayor said.

Earlier yesterday, 37 persons were arrested on misdemeanor charges of trespassing at the doorstep of the Rampart police station about four miles northwest of the Staples Center, where 4,300 delegates gather daily.

The 9 a.m. rally kicked off a day of demonstrations and marches targeting the justice system both locally and nationally.

The orderly crowd of around 500 marched through the streets of a largely Hispanic neighborhood as shopkeepers closed down their bodegas, beauty parlors and eateries while marchers went by.

The protesters were greeted by a contingent of police who sat on rooftops and stood two deep - peering through the closed visors of their riot helmets - at the front of the satellite station.

Rampart is perhaps best known for a spate of scandals involving corruption and brutality over the past few years.

A flat-bed truck hosted speakers who disparaged police. But most wanted to make sure the nightsticks, rubber bullets and pepper spray officers toted went unused.

"We are here to speak out against violence," a young man said over the makeshift public address system on the truck. "We do not wish to imitate that violence while we are here."

Those arrested listened passively, left hands raised in a conviction to their stance, as an officer read them a prepared warning.

After disregarding the warning, they were taken into the station with no incident.

The day's second demonstration, this one at the city's main police headquarters, was marked only by the vehemence of the speakers, who called the officers guarding the downtown building "pigs," and toted signs proclaiming "cops lie and they steal."

Around 3,500 people stood in the street, cheering, drinking water and chatting. One girl, well aware of the numerous television cameras, had scribbled "Hi Mom" on one arm in black magic marker. Her other arm? "Hi Dad," in red.

Their biggest foe was the heat -90- plus degrees - which felled dozens of demonstrators and sent a group of medically trained protesters through the crowd with water and sun block.

The initial absence of clashes pleased Michael Novick, an organizer of the afternoon rally.

"We had hoped for 2,000 but got this," the Los Angeles schoolteacher said. "The police have been very good, and we hope they keep their forbearance."

Police say it was a small group of anarchist protesters who ignited the violence Monday night.

Police Cmdr. David Kalish said his department has watched the black-clad anarchists, who were also blamed for violent protests in Seattle last fall.

"The vast majority of the demonstrators have really been well-behaved," Cmdr. Kalish said.

He acknowledged the convention was more than half-over.

"Oh man," he said. "Just one more day."

---

All the rage

Washington Times
August 17, 2000
Kenneth D. Smith
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-2000817181530.htm

LOS ANGELES, It's not easy living and working in downtown L.A., an area that one book dismissed in "A Note on Downtown" because, the author said, "that is all it is worth." There is too much crime, too much urban blight and, these days, too many people trying to help.

First came the Democratic Party. When party officials sold the idea of holding their convention in Los Angeles, they promised to set aside a share of the lucrative convention contracts to small and minority local businesses. The idea seemed fitting. The party's own platform argues Democrats "have [to] secure prosperity that is broadly shared and progress that reaches all families in this new American century . . . We must not leave any community behind." President Clinton closed out his own remarks Monday night by telling convention delegates to "keep putting people first. Keep building those bridges."

It turns out the bridges never quite reached the lengths of those lofty sentiments. What locals didn't know was that Democrats had already handed out the prime, plum contracts to others. All that remained were smaller subcontracting jobs that weren't quite so rewarding. Drexel Muhammad, founder of the Young Black Contractors Association of South Central, told the Los Angeles Times that hopes of winning construction jobs for his members have yielded one potential contract - for portable toilets. Another entrepreneur, producer Elziroy "Sonny" Porter declined the opportunity to make $2,500 planning a small party after the local host committee chose another vendor to coordinate its $1.5-million media gala.

Not to worry, say convention organizers. They have distributed a print version of their minority- and women-owned business directory to the state delegations and highlighted the online version on their web site. Handing out the equivalent of a phone book apparently is the party's idea of sharing prosperity and progress.

But the missing contracts turned out to be the least of the problems. Along with the convention came demonstrators who were no less determined to stand up for the interests of the poor and working classes but whose agenda also extended to freeing convicted cop killers to blocking sanctions against Iraq to "decriminalizing" the homeless. To that end they marched daily through downtown areas to the convention site, but blocked by police barricades and other tools of social injustice, the protestors were reduced to making their case to largely uncomprehending shopkeepers and customers in nearby ethnic neighborhoods as well as to the occasional journalist seeking relief from the convention itself.

The result was both comical and, for local residents, disastrous, an unhappy reminder of the vast gulf between working-class citizens and those who presume to advocate in their name. The first glimmers of trouble for Los Angeles resident actually began last year in Seattle, where high-minded demonstrations against the World Trade Organization, World Bank and just about anything else with the word "world" in it turned into an excuse for looting and pillaging local stores.

Ugly, occasionally violent protests followed in Washington and Philadelphia this year, although police managed to keep them from escalating to Seattle's level. Los Angeles officials were also aware of the damage that followed celebrations of the L.A. Lakers national basketball championship this year. So when protest groups settled on march routes that, while convenient to the Democratic Convention at the Staples Center, also went through the heart of predominantly minority districts recovering from decades of urban blight, many of the merchants there, fearful of the unrest to come, simply closed their stores to customers and boarded over windows for the entire week of the convention. Between violent convention-related demonstrations that forced customers out of some of the city's older and poorer neighborhoods and lengthy marches that discouraged customers from coming in the first place, estimates of financial losses to local businesses run as high as $40 million dollars.

"We thought the convention would be like Christmas in the summer," a jewelry store owner and officer in the downtown business improvement district named Peklar Pilavjian told the Los Angeles Downtown News. "Instead, it's like taxes in the summer." Near the staging area for many of the protests - a dozen or so blocks from the convention site, vast stretches of shop fronts hid behind corrugated metal fronts, as though on holiday. Those merchants who did remain open or who peered through barred doors at the marches were treated to a bewildering spectacle.

One march celebrated the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former radio broadcaster and Black Panther member now facing the death penalty in Pennsylvania for murdering a police officer in 1981. Even if they recognized the name - Abu-Jamal does have his own web page now -the merchants may not have been terribly supportive of a convicted cop killer given that they were counting on Los Angeles law enforcement to protect them from the protestors. Some of the marchers' aims, however, would affect the area more directly. One of the industries that has helped revitalize downtown involves the importation of toys from Asia to Los Angeles and their subsequent distribution elsewhere in the United States as well as in Mexico and Latin America.

The protesters were sharply critical of free-trade policies that make such industries possible. They, of course, have the luxury of living without the toys or the jobs associated with them. The disaster wasn't entirely financial. Local health care officials were scheduled to visit homes near the convention center to find children in need of immunizations. But most of the houses were empty; families too had left for the week to escape the expected unrest. One hopes Democrats and demonstrators alike will forgive L.A. if it seems unappreciative of their efforts. More help like this could devastate

E-mail: smithk@twtmail.com>it.
E-mail: smithk@twtmail.com

Kenneth Smith is deputy editor of The Washington Times editorial page.His column appears on Thursdays.

---

USA Today
08/17/00
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Indiana

The state delegation is getting the best and the worst of the convention. Its hotel is across the street from the Staples Center, the convention site, but it hasn't been quite the experience leaders expected. The hotel is surrounded by barbed-wire fencing and police barricades because it's in the middle of a security zone. Violent protests Monday night kept the delegates waiting inside the Staples Center for about 20 minutes while police removed the demonstrators. Party spokesman Doug Davidoff quipped "At least we'll have the best-protected delegation."

Iowa

Delegate Pat Baxter-Rebal said she felt more of a kinship with the protesters outside the convention than she did with the crowd at a reception. "I saw the faces of the protesters, and they were me 20 years ago," she said of people protesting sanctions against Iraq

---

Canadian leader hit with pie in face

Washington Times
August 17, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://www.washtimes.com/world/worldscene-200081722222.htm

CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island - Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien was creamed in the face with a pie yesterday, leaving his phalanx of police red-faced with embarrassment over another breach of security.

With his mouth clenched, Mr. Chretien - no stranger to encounters with protesters and slack security - gave a scathing glance at the assailant before he was whisked away by Mounties as some people shouted "shame."

While being taken away by the police, 23-year-old protester and student Evan Brown said he was upset with Mr. Chretien for approving genetically modified food.

---

Gate-crashers enter convention easily

Washington Times
August 17, 2000
By Thomas D. Elias
http://www.washtimes.com/national/default-2000817234412.htm

LOS ANGELES - The thousands of police and Secret Service agents surrounding the Democratic National Convention here appear helpless against the combined forces of friendship and capitalism.

Dozens of gate-crashers - at a minimum - are buying credentials or getting them from friends in the media or sponsoring

corporations and entering as "honored guests." Reported Andy, a graduate student in classics at the University of California's Berkeley campus, "I was just hitting on a girl on the street a couple blocks north of the protest area outside Staples Center and a producer she knew drove by and offered her a couple of passes. So I went in and watched Bill Bradley's speech."

Vic, a wheelchair-bound Venezuelan student at suburban Pomona College, got his Monday night press gallery pass a different way.

"I arranged to meet my buddy, who's working for CNN, at the cyclone fence around the periphery of Staples and the L.A. Convention Center," he reported. "Then she passed her credential to me through the fence, and I went through security and gave it back to her. Once you're inside, you don't really need a pass. Nobody bothers you." And there was Shawn, a UCLA junior.

"I got my pass in the lobby of the Mondrian Hotel," he said. "I had heard you could get tickets in the big hotels, so I went there and asked around and found a guy that had a fistful of honored guest passes. He knew someone who worked for AT&T," a major convention sponsor.

The Secret Service concedes all these gate-crashing techniques go on every day.

"Our main concern is that people go through the metal detectors," said Jim Mackin, spokesman for the service. "Even if someone has managed to get a credential through some irregular route, they still have to do that. So we feel the convention is secure no matter who is inside, and we don't dispute that it happens, but we don't know how much.

"You still need a credential to get into any of our secure areas, like arrival, departure and staging areas, and secured meeting rooms. Anybody going to those areas gets challenged no matter what they're wearing."

Not even a boast by protest group organizers that they will have people inside Staples during Vice President Al Gore's acceptance speech tonight upsets the Secret Service.

"It's not our business what signs people carry," said Mr. Mackin. "We don't screen for politics."

Meanwhile, the trade in tickets and credentials goes on. Gate-crashers themselves estimate hundreds have been given away or bought every night.

A Stanford University graduate student said he paid $200 for a floor pass. A Bill Bradley supporter from Massachusetts paid $100 for an honored-guest ticket to see him speak Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles police deny there is any such trade.

"We know of nobody who's not supposed to be in that arena that has gotten in," said a police spokesman.

But Secret Service Agent Sean Concannon, supervising an entry point through the 14-foot-high perimeter fence, conceded credentials could easily be passed through an unsupervised 100-foot stretch of fence behind his post.

"I haven't seen it," he said. "But that's not what we're dealing with."

Apparently, nobody is.

"I was in an aisle 30 feet in front of President Clinton when he made his speech, and it was an incredible thrill," said Pomona student Vic. "If I hadn't been trying to hit on that girl near the protest area, it never would have happened."

---

CANADA: FISHING CONFLICT

New York Times
August 17, 2000
World Briefing THE AMERICAS
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/17/news/world/world-briefing.html

A government fisheries boat rammed a boat manned by Quebec Indians who were backing New Brunswick Indians in a dispute over native fishing rights. The Indian boat was wheeling around the federal boat, trying to keep fisheries agents from pulling up lobster pots set by the Mi'kmaq natives of Miramichi, New Brunswick. James Brooke (NYT)

---

U.S. Food Companies See Little Biotech Backlash

New York Times
August 17, 2000
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/081700sci-gm-foods.html

CHICAGO -- There is an uproar in Europe over genetically modified ingredients in food, but American consumers have voiced only mild concern and food companies say they are under little pressure to change.

As an expected record harvest of corn and soybeans gets under way in the United States, with some 50 million acres planted with GM seeds, food makers say consumers are not alarmed even as advocacy groups step up the pressure.

"What we're seeing and hearing from consumers indicates that consumers in the United States are confident in the safety of the products that are on the market," said Kathy Knuth, spokeswoman for the Kraft Foods unit of Philip Morris.

But at least one recent study suggests Americans are becoming more skeptical. The International Food Information Council study showed 59 percent surveyed in May thought biotechnology would benefit them, versus 78 percent in 1997.

"It's very clear that consumer confidence is slipping. It's also clear that the issue is very volatile. People have not made up their minds on it," said Jean Halloran, director of the Consumer Policy Institute at the Consumers Union.

Others say American consumers, who spent $1 trillion last year at supermarkets and restaurants, appear to be confident of government claims that GM foods are safe.

In Europe, where consumers have faced major health scares such as "mad cow" disease, the public lacks faith in government to ensure food safety and is more skeptical about bioscience itself, said Christine Bruhn, director of the Center for Consumer Research at the University of California at Davis.

GM Food Pervasive in U.S.

Americans have a basic trust in scientific progress, Bruhn said. "Unless there is a major (food safety) disaster, I believe the tide will swing back toward acceptance."

Bioengineered crops can better resist destructive pests and diseases, reducing pesticide and herbicide applications in the field and producing enhanced yields for farmers.

As much as 70 percent of the foods on U.S. grocery store shelves may contain ingredients derived from GM corn, soybeans, cottonseed, potatoes and other crops, in everything from cereal to salad dressing to potato chips.

Consumer and environmental groups, the most vocal of which is Greenpeace, say research has not concluded the crops are without health risks and urge mandatory safety reviews and labeling of foods that contain such ingredients.

Food companies, for their part, stress they back the conclusions of U.S. government agencies that have deemed genetically engineered crops safe, and many insist they have no plans to remove the ingredients from their products.

"Our policy is not going to change," said Jerry Buckley, spokesman for Campbell Soup Co., which last month became the first company targeted by a coalition of activist groups taking aim at major U.S. food concerns.

Fewer than one-tenth of 1 percent of calls to Campbell's consumer hotlines have dealt with the biotech issue, Buckley said, echoing comments from several U.S. food companies.

"We have not seen great surges in calls to our consumer hotline at all," said Debbie Foster, director of corporate communications for H.J. Heinz Co.

Some Food Markets Hedge Their Bets

Nonetheless, Heinz decided last August to eliminate GM ingredients from its baby food products to reassure parents and it set up a certification and testing program for the ingredients it buys, Foster said.

Gerber Products Co., the biggest U.S. baby food maker, avoids GM ingredients and uses dedicated growers so it can monitor the crops, spokesman Sheldon Jones said.

"Even though we felt that science shows genetically enhanced ingredients are safe, we decided it would be best for our consumers, the parents, to protect them from having concerns, and to eliminate us from the debate."

Gerber's corporate parent, Novartis AG of Switzerland, a major provider of seeds for growing genetically modified crops, last week confirmed it has made its own food products GM-free, a move that has not gone unnoticed by U.S. farm groups.

The Frito-Lay snack division of PepsiCo Inc. this year also asked its contracted growers not to plant gene-altered corn and potatoes.

"Some companies made a decision for marketing reasons to get out of biotech," said Gene Grabowski, spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America trade group.

Food makers appear unlikely to make major policy changes unless consumer sentiment shifts dramatically.

"Food companies are not really pro-biotech or anti-biotech," Grabowski said. "If consumers decide for whatever reason that they don't want any biotech, companies will not provide biotech."

But companies say it is virtually impossible to guarantee GM-free foods in the United States, especially those derived from corn and soybeans, because crops can cross-pollinate or become mingled along the supply chain.

"There really is not a system in place for the total U.S. supply chain right now that could guarantee that anyone that says they are making no genetically modified food products can in fact guarantee that," said Mark Dollins, director of corporate communications for Quaker Oats Co.

The companies say they can avoid using biotech crops in Europe because non-GMO supplies are easier to source there.

--------

OneList subscribers:

1. NucNews 00/08/17 - Daybook; Activist Announcements
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

2. SEN. BIDEN PROMOTES TMD
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

3. STAR WARS LIST SERVE
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

4. FW: [GSN] Petition to Oppose Nuclear Energy at CSD9 [Fwded]
From: "Viviane Lerner" <vlerner@interpac.net>

-----------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 07:55:34 -0400
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

NucNews 00/08/17 - Daybook; Activist Announcements

1) Washington Daybook,
Washington Times and AFP,
August 17, 2000
http://www.washtimes.com/national/daybook-2000817221754.htm

8 a.m. - Nuclear Regulatory Commission holds a meeting on assessing future regulatory research needs of nuclear experts from the government, the nuclear industry, academia, and the public, to seek stakeholder input on the role and future direction of nuclear regulatory research. Location: Marriott Residence Inn, 7335 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. Contact: 301/415-6293.

Film screening - 12:30 p.m. - The Institute for Policy Studies holds a film screening and discussion on "International Harm Reduction Programs: How Do Other Countries Deal With Drugs?" The program includes excerpts from "The Crier Report: America's War on Drugs: Searching for Solutions," ABC News, and "Containing the Fallout," Australia. The speaker is Alan Clear, executive director of the Harm Reduction Coalition. Location: 755 15th St. NW. Contact: 202/234-9382.

2) Announcements:

- Democratic Convention Delegates List Listed below is the web address for the delegates to the Democratic Convention 2000. As you may know, the democrats, like the republicans, are supporting Son of Star Wars in their platform. There may be some sane delegates who will lead a floor fight against this "nuclear weapons forever" provision. You can look up your own state's delegates to the convention on this list and ask them to reject the platform plank in favor of ballistic missile defense. Alice Slater <aslater@gracelinks.org> http://www.dems2000.com/DelegateCenter/09_delegatelisting.html

- Dear Friends of Vieques, Massive bombing by the US Navy began August 14, 2000 on the populated island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. A juice-fast begun July 25 has now turned to water-only asking President Clinton to hold a meeting with religious and peace movement leaders. Over 50 people are fasting on a rotating basis in Puerto Rico and in the U.S. Some are fasting round the clock. "Vieques Fast for Justice and Peace" <viequesfast@mail.com>

- "War is Hell" - an anti-war site to check: http://www.warishell.com/ [From: "Nancy A. Hey" <cattynancy@hotmail.com>]

- Faith in Action: Liberating the Conscious Heart Interfaith Meditation and Prayer, September 5-8, 2000 at Los Alamos National Laboratory. From Tuesday afternoon, September 5 through Friday night, September 8, there will be a silent prayer and meditation retreat, open to people of all faiths, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Vilma Ruiz w Los Alamos Study Group, 212 East Marcy Street #10 w Santa Fe, NM 87501, Tel. (505) 982-7747 w Fax (505) 982-8502 Email: w vruiz@lasg.org

- Check out: The Bomb Project {http://www.thebombproject.org}

- SIERRA CLUB WEBSITE HIGHLIGHTS GREEN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES - http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2000/2000L-08-02-09.html, http://www.sierraclub.org/politics

----------

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 15:17:20 -0400
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

SEN. BIDEN PROMOTES TMD & INSTABILITY

On August 17 I watched an amazing speech by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) to a group of Jewish leaders on C-SPAN. During his speech he keyed in on National Missile Defense (NMD) stating that deployment of the system would make Russia and China increase their numbers of offensive missiles and reescalate the nuclear arms race. He was quite strong and convincing about his opposition to this system. He spoke about wanting to protect his grandchildren from a nuclear war.

Then, almost immediately, he began to promote the deployment of Theatre Missile Defense (TMD) saying that deployment of this system into regions of instability (Middle East and South China Sea) would allow the U.S. to target nuclear weapons in their boost phase. But most importantly, Sen. Biden implied that Russia and China would not see TMD as being destabilizing. He also stated that spending more than $60 billion on NMD would be dangerous, but believed that it would be a good thing to spend the same amount of money on TMD.

Maybe Sen. Biden has not heard China's statements, as recently as August 16, that they see TMD as equally as provocative as NMD deployment. The Army, Navy, and Air Force are each running testing programs for the TMD system. The Army's program, called THAAD, based at White Sands in New Mexico, is a ground-based mobile system and would likely be deployed under Biden's plan in South Korea or even Taiwan. The Navy program would deploy interceptor missiles on Aegis destroyers homeported in Japan. The Air Force program would put airborne lasers on Boeing 747's and keep them continually in the air over the South China Sea. Contrary to Biden's view these deployments would be even more destabilizing than NMD in China's eyes. China has said that they would respond to TMD with an increase in nuclear missiles.

Just a month ago President Clinton lifted the long time ban on U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan. Add potential TMD deployments in Japan, South Korea, and possibly Taiwan, and the U.S. will begin a virtual military encirclement of China. Surely Sen. Biden, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, must understand the implications of TMD deployments.

As we see the Democrats join the Republicans in putting support for Star Wars into their party platforms we must wonder what Sen. Biden and others are doing. Recently NMD critic Ted Postol from MIT has been quoted in mainstream media saying that while NMD will not work, he would be glad to help the Pentagon make TMD a viable option.

As we build opposition to NMD around the world it is essential that the peace movement not be drawn into the bait-and-switch that now appears to be underway by those promoting TMD as an alternative.

We must oppose both legs of Ballistic Missile Defense -- NMD and TMD. Deployment of either program will drive a new arms race and will move weapons technologies into the heavens. The time has come for grassroots leaders to develop confidence in their own analysis and not allow cynical politicians to divert them from the right track.

Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 90083 Gainesville, FL. 32607 (352) 337-9274 http://www.space4peace.org globalnet@mindspring.com

--------------

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 20:00:55 -0400
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>

STAR WARS LIST SERVE

Friends:

The Global Network has created a new Star Wars list serve that will be unmoderated. To join it simply send a subscribe message to:

globenet-subscribe@egroups.com

We will continue with our old system of just sending out 1-2 messages a day to our current subscription list. To remain on the present system you need to do nothing.

If you want to get really into the issue, and to be able to respond back and forth with folks, then send the subscribe message to the above address.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Bruce K. Gagnon Coordinator Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space PO Box 90083 Gainesville, FL. 32607 (352) 337-9274 http://www.space4peace.org globalnet@mindspring.com

------------

Petition to Oppose Nuclear Energy at CSD9

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 19:35:07 +0100
From: "Viviane Lerner" <vlerner@interpac.net>
forwarded by the Edmonds Institute

Dear Friends,

We are used to the multiple reincarnations of the nuclear industry, trying to save the world at all costs (at our costs!). We have seen the "peaceful atom", food irradiation, the covert recycling of nuclear wastes in our pots and pans, etc. Nowadays, those of you working on the climate issue know that nuclear plants have been suggested as appropriate projects for the Kyoto flexible mechanisms. The European Union has expressed its opposition, but the last word will be spoken at COP6 in The Hague or possibly even at SB-13 in France, a country which can boast of having the most nuclearised electricity sector in the world.

To obtain its clean bill of health as a climate change solution, nuclear energy lobbyists needed to get nuclear accepted as a sustainable form of energy. One way this is being attempted is by diverting the mandate the Commission for Sustainable Development. Canada, another nuclear strong country, is trying to include nuclear in a side-exhibition planned for CSD9!

We are therefore calling upon all NGOs of all fields to express their opinion and tell CSD to keep to its mission. We propose the following petition for your endorsement. Please distribute it via your networks, make it accepted by as many representatives of civil society as you can and e-mail us your agreement immediately. we would like to publicise the first results of this petition at SB-13 (September 4-14, 2000) in Lyon.

Thank you for your help in preventing the latest assault of this bankrupt industry on our health and environment!

- PLEASE SIGN THIS LETTER BY EMAILING HELIO INTERNATIONAL <helio@globenet.org>

PETITION ADDRESSED TO THE CHAIR AND MEMBER STATES OF THE U.N. COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Your Excellencies,

We the undersigned NGOs active in development, environmental, disarmament and human rights issues express our deepest regret and extreme concern that nuclear energy seems to have been included in the draft agenda of CSD-9 and that this declining and unsustainable industry might be allocated space in the related exhibition.

We consider any focus on nuclear energy to be both against the spirit of Agenda 21 and the mandate of the U.N. CSD. Moreover it is contrary to the interests of developing countries which require sustainable, mostly decentralized, low-cost energy systems, adapted both to their needs and their endownments in capital, resources and labour.

Most countries are now committed to phasing out, or not developing nuclear energy. They also formally oppose the inclusion of nuclear energy into the projects of the Clean Development Mechanism to be established under the Kyoto Protocol.

At its last meeting, the G-8 stated its commitment to "encourage and facilitate investment in the development and use of sustainable energy, underpinned by enabling domestic environments, (which) will assist in mitigating the problems of climate change and air pollution. To this end, the increased use of renewable energy sources in particular will improve the quality of life, especially in developing countries." .......

Non-G8 countries are also taking similar stances. Turkey has just cancelled plans initiated in 1992 for a nuclear plant at Akkuyu. Prime Minister Bulent Evecit said in official public statement that, "the world is abandoning nuclear power". Worldwide, nuclear power has been plagued by high cost, erratic performance, endemic technical problems, the risk of catastrophic accidents, and environmental problems such as routine radiation releases, radioactive waste management and the high cost of decommissioning.

However, hardpressed nuclear vendors, mainly U.S., Canadian, French and German corporations, are eyeing the developing world as a 'last gasp' market for their products and are stepping up their lobbying efforts at U.N. conferences, including the Climate Change negotiations.

Therefore, we, the undersigned NGOs, urge you to preserve the integrity of the CSD process by ensuring that all non-sustainable energy technologies, particularly nuclear energy, are excluded from CSD9 debates, exhibitions and other activities. The CSD should focus on promoting clean, secure and sustainable forms of energy for the welfare of present and future generations as per the aim of Agenda 21.

Signatures:

HELIO INTERNATIONAL
Observatoire mondial de la viabilité énergétique
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY WATCH 56, rue de Passy France - 75016 PARIS
Tel:(33-1) 42 24 51 48 Fax: -42 24 86 33
E-mail: helio@globenet.org
Website: <http://www.globenet.org/helio>http://www.globenet.org/helio

-----------------------------------------------------------

DOEWatch List ----A Magnum-Opus Project --- Subscribe online: http://www.onelist.com
DOEWatch page: http://members.aol.com/doewatch

1. Platts Thursday, August 17, 2000
From: "Paul Maser" <pmaser@govmail.state.nv.us>

2. Sick DOE workers critical of Senate bill
From: magnu96196@aol.com

3. Guest Column: Remaking Oak Ridge: An historic vision
From: magnu96196@aol.com

4. Some results in on water sampling at the K-25 site
From: magnu96196@aol.com

5. The German Uranium Project
From: magnu96196@aol.com

6. Werner Heisenberg and Albert Einstein
From: magnu96196@aol.com

7. Russian Sub Likely Wrecked By Blast
From: magnu96196@aol.com

8. THE EIGHT MAJOR PROCESSES OF THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS COMPLEX
From: magnu96196@aol.com

9. Russia bares all in new book about nuclear weapons
From: magnu96196@aol.com

------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 07:16:46 -0700
From: "Paul Maser" <pmaser@govmail.state.nv.us>

Platts Thursday, August 17, 2000

Washington (Nuclear News Flashes) August 16, 2000 ERA uranium sales revenue increased Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) said its uranium sales revenue for its fiscal 2000 increased 5.1% to (Aust)$181.8- million. Total sales of uranium for the year totaled 4,514 metric tons U3O8, up from the 4,006 MT U3O8 sold in fiscal 1999. The company said today it negotiated three new sales contracts during the year. ERA said a higher sales volume was offset by a lower average spot price for uranium. But ERA said it also reduced its unit cost of production at its Ranger mine by 5.9%.

Stockholm (Nuclear News Flashes) August 16, 2000 Three Swedish reactors offline due to hydro surplus Three of Sweden's four Ringhals reactors are offline because a hydro power surplus in the Nordic countries makes it uneconomical to operate them. Ringhals-4 was taken down today for annual maintenance, a week ahead of schedule. Management said the abundance of hydro power was the reason. Ringhals-1 and -2 were also taken down early for maintenance. Operations chief Rickard Halldin said, "As long as there is cheap hydropower, it's better for us to save fuel."

-----------

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 13:59:21 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Sick DOE workers critical of Senate bill

August 17, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/

Legislative support for an amendment to compensate sick Department of Energy workers continues to grow, but the measure doesn't sit well with those it's meant to cover.

U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson's Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act addresses illnesses found to be associated with service in the DOE weapons complex and offers a choice of compensation packages for the workers.

The compensation plan, which was attached to the Department of Defense Authorization Bill, passed the Senate last month. Only the Senate version of the DOD authorization bill includes Thompson's amendment.

In a recent letter to Sens. John Warner and Carl Levin, who both serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee, 22 senators are requesting that the occupational illness compensation program be retained in the Senate-passed FY 2001 National Defense Authorization Act.

"Workers at Oak Ridge and across the country who served our nation during the Cold War have already waited too long for the federal government to address their grievances," said Thompson, R-Tenn., in a press statement. "I am pleased that 22 of my colleagues have joined me to press for a remedy for this grave injustice. They too realize that it's our obligation to help those whose work has been so critical to our national security."

Those signing the letter along with Thompson are U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman, Barbara Boxer, Richard Bryan, Jim Bunning, Larry Craig, Mike Crapo, Mike DeWine, Russell Feingold, Dianne Feinstein, Bill Frist, Tom Harkin, Ernest Hollings, Edward Kennedy, Mitch McConnell, Frank Murkowski, Patty Murray, Harry Reid, Ted Stevens, Slade Thornton, Strom Thurmond, George Voinovich and Paul Wellstone.

"Multiple investigations have documented that some DOE and contractor employees were exposed to beryllium, silica and radiation while working in our nuclear weapons complex and helping to win the Cold War," the letter states. "We believe the time is now to begin to remedy the mistakes of the past and provide compensation to those who sacrificed so much for our country."

The letter also states the compensation amendment is based on "sound science" and has been the subject of numerous committee hearings, including the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Based on Thompson's measure, the following compensation plans are proposed for three illness categories.

* Beryllium and Silicosis Compensation -- Illness is assumed to be work-related if the employee worked at a facility where exposure was likely. Workers will have a choice of either lost wages and medical care, or a lump sum payment of $200,000 and medical care.

* Radiation Compensation -- The Department of Health and Human Services will develop a process to determine whether a covered cancer is at least as likely as not related to a worker's employment at a DOE facility. Workers for whom such a determination is made will have a choice of either lost wages and medical care, or a lump sum payment of $200,000 and medical care. A "special exposure cohort" of workers from the Oak Ridge K-25, Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky., gaseous diffusion plants whose exposures cannot be re-estimated with a sufficient degree of accuracy will be eligible for this compensation if they worked in an area where radiation exposure was likely and have one of the specified cancers.

* Other Toxic Substance Compensation -- An independent HHS panel will review the cases of workers exposed to other toxic chemicals that are not unique to DOE facilities. If it is found that their illness arose out of and in the course of employment at a DOE facility, a newly established DOE Office of Workers' Compensation will assist workers in filing a claim under their respective state's workers' compensation system. DOE will not fight the claim and will instruct its contractor(s) not to fight the claim.

Janine Vonner, a former administrative assistant at K-25 who says she suffers from heavy metal toxicity and beryllium sensitivity, says Thompson's amendment is unacceptable.

"We must have all-inclusive health-care benefits Å for conditions we have contracted at these DOE facilities," Vonner said.

"It's not a state workers compensation issue. As the bill is written now, these victims will be forced to apply for state programs which were never meant to deal with the types of progressive, chronic illnesses that affect so many of us from exposure for which there was not adequate monitoring or protection."

Glenn Bell, an Oak Ridge resident who suffers from chronic beryllium disease, agrees with Vonner that the sick workers compensation measure isn't acceptable.

"Those of us affected need both a livable income and all-inclusive medical coverage for any conditions which may arise, not just the covered occupational maladies. At present, I cannot get mortgage or supplemental life insurance, and I am still working. Many others are even less lucky; planning for bankruptcy or funerals has taken the place of planning for retirement."

Bell said the proposal of shifting the category of "other toxic substances" into the states' Workers' Compensation system is unacceptable.

"Chemical, heavy metal and other exposures probably account for a majority of the conditions contracted by these workers, and the states are not set up to handle these types of claims," Bell said. "Most of us have chronic, progressive conditions, which will not improve or reach a 'maximum degree of disability,' as the states are used to dealing with."

Bell said a meeting on these issues was held recently in Columbus, Ohio, and compensation representatives stressed they did not want this responsibility. He added that state compensation regulations vary so much that a qualifying worker in Tennessee might be ineligible in Ohio or Colorado.

"All of the Cold War injured should be treated equally, regardless of their qualifying conditions," he said.

"The burden of proof should not be on the affected worker. DOE is known to have inaccurate, incomplete, nonexistent and even destroyed records. While I am not in favor of writing a blank check to everyone who ever drove by one of the plants, I and most of my contacts locally and nationally agree that compensation should be provided when one can show a 'reasonable degree of medical certainty' that his or her condition was contracted in the line of work.

---------

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 14:06:19 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Guest Column: Remaking Oak Ridge: An historic vision

August 17, 2000
http://www.oakridger.com/

Economic consultant Don Zuchelli July 17 presented a blunt assessment of Oak Ridge to City Council as part of Lose & Associates' current City Center Master Plan study.

While considerable space could be spent discussing the merits and necessity of spending $179,000 of taxpayers' money on outside consultants to tell our City Council what we citizens of Oak Ridge have been saying for years, that's not what's been on my mind and the topic of conversation among my friends lately.

It's Zuchelli's observation that Oak Ridge needs to remake itself for the future and what that vision might be.

With that in mind, I was in the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau the other day, when staff member Charlotte Mello greeted me with an excited, "You've got to see this," and rushed off. She returned with a color picture post card of the K-25 plant that recently found its way to the ORCVB from a flea market in Morgantown, Va.

I admired the colorized print of the gaseous diffusion plant, at nearly 42 acres under one roof, the world's largest building at the time of construction. I flipped the card over.

"Oak Ridge, Tennessee ... Now, one of America's historic cities, it will ever remain associated with the greatest secret project of World War II" reads part of the printed description of the scene.

It was then I realized what I was holding in my hand. This simple post card with its simple message holds the key to Oak Ridge's future.

"Got in here last night ... ," the tight cursive handwritten message read, "Hugh and the boys visited this [K-25] today." It was postmarked July 25, 1958.

Here it was staring me in the face, written in plain English, from 42 years in the past, the concept our city needs for remaking itself for the future. It is called Heritage Tourism.

We have history in abundance in Oak Ridge. I see it everywhere. It is in our buildings, it is in our people, it is in the stories we have to share with the world, if we will get beyond the negative perceptions associated with the Nuclear Age, "the stigma" of Zuchelli's presentation.

Our town is and was historic from its inception. Our streets glow with nuclear history and more. But what does Heritage Tourism mean for Oak Ridge today? That "glow" is historic gold waiting to be mined!

Heritage Tourism is quickly becoming one of the most significant segments of leisure travel in America today. History-related group tours, according to the National Tour Association, were the NO. 1 tour offered by group operators in 1999, surpassing fall foliage packages for the first time ever.

Over 80 percent of group tour operators in the association offer some kind of heritage tour package. How many of them currently come to Oak Ridge? Not enough!

In 1998, Tennessee Department of Tourism Development data showed visits to Historic Places/Museums (12.5 percent) represented the second most cited activity of people visiting Tennessee behind shopping (28 percent). And there were 38.4 million visitors that year, ranking Tennessee 11th in the nation as a tourist destination.

History and genealogy destinations have been a mainstay of individual travel for years. Just ask the folks at the East Tennessee Historic Society or McClung Museum in Knoxville about their many out-of-town visitors.

Better still ask Charlotte Mello at the ORCVB about the number of people looking for something more about the Manhattan Project than is offered by a visit to the Graphite Reactor. As more and more Baby Boomers reach retirement age, this increased interest in Heritage Tourism is likely to continue.

Think about it. Tourism captures revenues in the form of sales taxes on food, gas, hotel rooms and retail goods that otherwise would be spent somewhere else. These travelers are going to stop, shop, visit and stay somewhere; why not Historic Oak Ridge, Tennessee -- America's Secret City?

Heritage Tourism is a net benefit to the economy of Oak Ridge and doesn't require property taxes to fund. Private enterprise is already present in Oak Ridge with the capacity to service increased tourism. For example: hotel/motel occupancy is running only at about 55 percent, according to Zuchelli.

A step-on guide service for motorcoach tours -- an important piece to making Oak Ridge tourism work -- is already available. And diverse attractions continue to emerge and thrive as demonstrated by the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum's Secret City Scenic, a 1940s period excursion train on the K-25 site.

Increased tourism can stimulate the development of additional restaurants and hotels, as well as retail shops and attractions, hence more sales tax revenue and additional job opportunities. Such new amenities can also appeal to singles and youth, demographics that Zuchelli said Oak Ridge needs to attract in order to thrive as a community.

When visitors come to Oak Ridge and see for themselves what life was -- and is -- like today, there is an added benefit to tourism, virtually unmeasurable but present and important nonetheless: positive perceptions of our community by people who will go home and tell their friends. It is public relations at its most basic and successful: word of mouth.

Tourism will change for the better, the way the world perceives Oak Ridge. Here is a positive and tax-free way of overcoming "the stigma" of Oak Ridge that Zuchelli said we must embrace, not hide from, if we are to change our community for the better.

But perhaps the best economic benefit of Heritage Tourism in America's Secret City is it doesn't depend on government funding and political largess for its survival.

Tourism is part of the mainstream economy and doesn't disappear because of budget cutbacks (although interest rate fluctuations are another story).

Tourism will diversify the economic base of our community and improve its fiscal health, making Oak Ridge an even more exceptional place to live, work and play.

To achieve this economic and cultural growth in Heritage Tourism, Oak Ridge will need to "make itself over," as Zuchelli clearly stated. But what vision is that makeover to follow?

Oak Ridge needs to do for the Manhattan Project what noted historian Stephen Ambrose has done for D-Day, create a national museum and archive.

At the Manhattan Project Museum and Archive, tell the full story of the Nuclear Age; the unleashing of the atom, the three cities -- Hanford, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge -- and their roles in creating the first nuclear bombs. Include all the results of our efforts, not just Hiroshima or a legacy of environmental mistrust - the so-called "stigma," but also the development of radio isotopes so prevalent in medical technology today.

It is an important and compelling story that needs to be gathered, researched, preserved and told to every new generation.

Remake Oak Ridge as a center of study and learning, of history and legacy, for travelers seeking knowledge of the one thing "it will ever remain associated with": the Nuclear Age.

Current generations are already looking for answers; future generations will follow with new questions.

What better place for them to seek answers than the place where so much of it actually began? What better place than Historic Oak Ridge, Tennessee, America's Secret City, to become the Center for Study of Nuclear History and the Manhattan Project Museum and Archive?

Next Step: How to achieve the remaking of Oak Ridge with Heritage Tourism.

Dean Novelli of Oak Ridge is an officer with the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association.

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Message: 4
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 14:09:07 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Some results in on water sampling at the K-25 site

August 17, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/

Some preliminary results from the K-25 water sampling have started trickling in.

Department of Energy spokesman Steven Wyatt this morning said those samples that have come in show no signs of fecal contamination from coliform bacteria. However, test results pertaining to other contaminants were not available.

"[These samples] are just a tiny slice of the pie," Wyatt said. He added there's no set timetable when the results are being returned.

DOE's water sampling of the K-25 site is a result of employee concerns that cross-connecting lines for sanitary, fire and cooling waters and steam and storm drains was a possible way employees could be exposed to hazardous materials at the site.

The samples were taken by OMI, the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee's contractor for the water plant and distribution system. The federally funded CROET is responsible for ensuring effective reindustrialization of the K-25 site.

Once the samples were taken, OMI and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation officials sealed the vials with specially marked tape for shipment to a state-certified laboratory for analysis. In addition, representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency conducted their own sampling of half of the 25 selected areas at the K-25 site.

Wyatt said those agencies that worked with DOE to develop the water sampling plan for the K-25 site have been meeting all week to discuss the second phase of water testing at K-25. This phase will examine possible impacts from historical drinking water system intake and distribution from past operations, and it could be conducted by an independent agency.

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Message: 5
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 14:24:11 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

The German Uranium Project

Hans A. Bethe
http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-53/iss-7/p34.html

The Farm Hall tapes show that Werner Heisenberg did not know how to calculate the critical mass in 1945, indicating that he did not work on atomic bombs during the war.

During World War II, the German atomic scientists were trying to produce electric power by creating a chain reaction in uranium. Werner Heisenberg hoped that this achievement would impress the allies if the war was lost.

To get a chain reaction in natural uranium you need a moderator to slow down the neutrons that are generated from fission. This was widely known. Two moderators were believed to be possible: carbon or heavy water.

Walter Bothe, the leading experimental nuclear physicist in Germany, did the crucial experiment and concluded that carbon in the form of graphite would not work. In America, Enrico Fermi did a similar experiment and concluded that graphite was marginal. He suspected that an impurity in the graphite was responsible for the problem. Leo Szilard, who was working alongside Fermi, had studied chemical engineering before going into physics. He remembered that electrodes of boron carbide were commonly used in the manufacture of graphite. It was known that one atom of boron absorbs about as many slow neutrons as 100 000 atoms of carbon. Very small boron impurities would "poison" the graphite for use as a nuclear reaction moderator. Szilard therefore went around to the American graphite manufacturers and convinced one of them to make boron-free graphite. Using this pure graphite as the moderator, the American group achieved a chain reaction on 2 December 1942.

The German team, however, needed to use heavy water, D2O. Ordinary water contains heavy water at a rate of about 1 part in 10 000. The two can be separated by repeated electrolysis, which requires large amounts of electric power in close proximity to a water source. The Germans had this at a hydroelectric plant in occupied Norway, and they set up a separation facility there. The British alerted the Norwegian underground that heavy water was useful for the war, without telling them why. Courageous Norwegians sabotaged production as best they could. As a result the Germans had only about half the heavy water they needed by the end of the war.

Despite the shortage of heavy water, Heisenberg continued to work toward a chain reaction to the very end of the war. What else could he have done? Graphite was not an alternative; he had no reason to doubt Bothe's measurement. Bothe was the recognized authority in the field and Germans believed strongly in authority. Even if another German had repeated the experiment, the result would have been unchanged. No German physicist would have consulted a chemical engineer: The barrier between the two disciplines was too great. It would have been equally impossible to accelerate heavy water production. To do so would have required additional electric power sources in an already power-constrained economy.

The best evidence we have suggests that Heisenberg had no interest in building an atomic bomb. In mid-1942, Albert Speer, the weapons minister, asked Heisenberg whether he could produce a weapon in nine months. With a clear conscience he could answer "No." And he did not know how much fissionable material he would need. When, on occasion, friends asked him, his replies were varied and vague, ranging from 10 kilograms to a few tons.

Why didn't he know? Why hadn't pure intellectual curiosity led him to investigate the properties of uranium-235 with fast neutrons? He could have made a small amount using the cyclotrons available in both Paris and Copenhagen. But he never asked that these properties be measured. The best proof of his lack of interest came at the end of the war. Heisenberg and about ten other German nuclear scientists were interned at Farm Hall, a country estate in England. All of their conversations were secretly taped. When the news of the Hiroshima atomic bomb was broadcast, these scientists could not believe it. When they recognized that it was real, they asked Heisenberg how it could have been done. His first attempt at explanation was totally wrong! He hypothesized something like a nuclear reactor, with the neutrons slowed by many collisions with a moderator.

That he was capable of doing the work was shown about a week later when, in another lecture, he corrected himself and presented a theory similar to that worked out by Rudolf Peierls and Otto Frisch in 1940. He estimated the necessary amount of uranium-235 at about 20 kg, which is nearly correct. These two lectures prove to me that Heisenberg, the scientific leader of the German effort, did not work on a bomb. They show that he did not know critical information, and that he could have derived the information if he had tried.

The British government kept the Farm Hall transcripts secret for nearly half a century. Why? Allegedly the German government had requested the concealment, but it should have been eager to have them published. Unless you assume that they were afraid of what the transcripts would show, the secrecy was foolish. Farm Hall is the real proof that the Heisenberg group had not worked on an atomic bomb. Around 1990 several fellows of the Royal Society urged publication. They convinced the Lord Chancellor, and so the transcripts are now in the public domain. (See the article, "Bomb Apologetics: Farm Hall, August 1945," by Jeremy Bernstein and David Cassidy in Physics Today, August 1995, page 32.)

If he wasn't trying to build a bomb, then why did Heisenberg work on the uranium project? He told me, in 1948, that he wanted to save the lives of a few young German physicists for the post-war period. I believe that this was indeed an important argument for him. And in judging his behavior during the war, we must remember that he was under enormous pressure, pressure virtually unimaginable for Americans or Englishmen.

So Heisenberg didn't try to build a bomb, and apparently had no intention of doing so. Why then the visit to Niels Bohr in 1941? What was he trying to communicate? What did he hope to accomplish?

When Bohr came to Los Alamos at the end of 1943, he told J. Robert Oppenheimer that Heisenberg had talked to him about an atomic bomb. Bohr reproduced from memory a rough drawing that Heisenberg had shown him. The drawing was given to Edward Teller and me, and we immediately recognized it as a nuclear reactor with many control rods. What did Heisenberg intend to say with this drawing? Perhaps, "Look, this is what we are trying to build and you will recognize that this is a reactor, not a bomb." If so, he overestimated Bohr's knowledge of atomic power. Perhaps he was trying to get Bohr to be a messenger of conscience, and wanted Bohr to persuade the allied scientists also to refrain from working on a bomb. According to journalist Thomas Powers, this message was repeated by Wolfgang Gentner, another non-Nazi German physicist, some time later.1 But Bohr didn't understand--and neither he nor the US would have trusted the message in any case.

I recently became aware of a statement made by Heisenberg in 1965, in which he said approximately: "It was from September 1941 that we saw an open road ahead of us, leading to the atomic bomb." How is this to be reconciled with my assessment and with Heisenberg's statement at Farm Hall that he did not work on the bomb, but only on the "engine"--that is, a reactor?

The explanation is that the Germans rejected the separation of uranium isotopes as too difficult. They saw the fissionability of plutonium as the key to the entire project. Once you had a chain reaction you could make plutonium, and once you had plutonium, you could make a bomb. However, if they had achieved the reactor, they would have found that the road from there to a bomb was still full of obstacles.

I based this article on a talk I gave at the symposium "Creating 'Copenhagen,' " held at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York on 27 March 2000.

Reference 1. T. Powers, Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Atomic Bomb, Knopf, New York (1993).

Hans Bethe is a professor of physics emeritus at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

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Message: 6
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 14:29:57 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Werner Heisenberg and Albert Einstein

Gerald Holton
http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-53/iss-7/p38.html

Albert Einstein was the early model and inspiration for Heisenberg, but scientific conflicts and political stresses marred their relationship.

Werner Heisenberg is suddenly in the news again, this time thanks to the award-winning new play Copenhagen by Michael Frayn.1 The play centers on the ambiguous reasons for Heisenberg's visit in 1941 to his early mentor, Niels Bohr, in German-occupied Copenhagen. It speculates on what might have transpired during the evening walk they took at that time, which Bohr ended abruptly, disturbed by something Heisenberg had said. (See David Cassidy's article.)

The play brings together the three quite different worlds of science, history, and theater, and there is a danger that some might confuse the play--a work of fiction--with a documentary. One must never forget, as Samuel Taylor Coleridge put it in his Biographia Literaria of 1817, that the task of the poet and dramatist is to create the "willing suspension of disbelief"; and, as John Keats commented at about the same time, one of the "negative capabilities" of great authors is that of "remaining content with half knowledge."

Scientists and historians also must often be content with only half knowledge, at least for a time. One poignant example is that private conversation between Heisenberg and Bohr during their walk in 1941. Heisenberg gave his most familiar version of what transpired in a letter to the journalist Robert Jungk, who published it in his book Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists (Harcourt, Brace, & Co., New York, 1958). The main thrust of Heisenberg's account was that the researchers in his "Uranverein" in 1941 "knew that one could produce atom bombs but overestimated the necessary technical expenditure at the time." Still, the physicists engaged in such work could have "decisive influence on further developments, since they could argue with the government that atom bombs would probably not be available during the course of the war." The discussion during the evening walk "probably started with my question whether or not it was right for physicists to devote themselves in wartime to the uranium problem." Heisenberg said that Bohr was shocked by this train of thought, assuming "that I had intended to convey to him that Germany had made great progress in the direction of manufacturing atomic weapons." Heisenberg was unable to "correct this false impression."

Although Heisenberg had begun the letter by cautioning, "I may be wrong after such a long time," and even though Jungk later called the notion of passive resistance owing to moral compunction by wartime German scientists working on exploitation of nuclear energy "a myth," many have taken the above to be the definitive description of the Bohr-Heisenberg meeting, and have considered Heisenberg's letter and similar statements by him and others to be an accurate reflection of the goals of Heisenberg and his fellow researchers.

However, in 1985, when I was in Copenhagen to speak at a meeting in honor of Niels Bohr's memory, I was approached by Bohr's son, Erik Bohr. He showed me a letter written by his father and found after his death, folded in his copy of the book by Jungk. That letter, addressed to Heisenberg, took serious issue with Heisenberg's published version of the meeting, in quite firm language--so much so that Niels Bohr had apparently decided not to mail it.

When asked what should be done with the letter, I advised that it be kept in the archives. Today the letter is part of the Bohr political correspondence file, which the family has decided not to release to the public until 2012, fifty years after Niels Bohr's death. It would therefore be inappropriate for me to say more about it now. Thus, on the question of what happened during that walk, the world will remain with half knowledge for perhaps another dozen years. In the meantime, Jeremy Bernstein's book, Hitler's Uranium Club (American Institute of Physics, New York, 1996) is an excellent source for understanding the ambitions of Heisenberg's "Uranverein," and the reasons for its ultimate failures.2

Captured by Einstein The larger theme of Heisenberg's long-term relationship with Bohr, starting with their first meeting in 1922, has been well covered in the biographies by David Cassidy and Abraham Pais.3 But to better understand Heisenberg's enormous talent and his responses to the challenges of history, it is useful to take a complementary point of view, and to examine another deeply significant relationship with a major scientist.

At the center of this case are Heisenberg and Albert Einstein. My interest in their interaction was aroused at a December 1965 UNESCO conference on Einstein's work, where I had a first, accidental encounter with Heisenberg himself. I had been invited to lecture on Einstein's epistemology, focusing on his pilgrimage from an early positivism, strongly influenced by Ernst Mach, to a rational realism close to that of Max Planck.4 On finishing my lecture, I left the podium, the next speaker came forward, and we met midway. It was Heisenberg. He seemed pleased, and in passing whispered to me, "We must talk afterwards." I shall return to this encounter later.

Among the main sources for what follows are Heisenberg's eloquent books and autobiographical articles, the unpublished transcripts of the twelve interviews he gave to the History of Quantum Mechanics Project, his unpublished letters to Einstein, and some thoroughly researched biographies. >From these it emerges first of all that, in the history of modern physics, no one but young Werner was so destined by the fates to be captured by Einstein's relativity theory. In his Gymnasium days, he read and loved Einstein's newly-published popular book on special and general relativity. He would have been not quite eighteen when he heard of the sensational November 1919 eclipse expedition results. At the University of Munich, where he studied under the guidance of Arnold Sommerfeld, he attended Sommerfeld's lectures on relativity. Heisenberg was also captivated by Herman Weyl's book, Raum-Zeit-Materie. To top it off, one of his closest friends in Munich was Wolfgang Pauli, who, while still a fellow student, was writing his Handbuch monograph on relativity theory. When Heisenberg moved to the University at Göttingen, he got more relativity theory from Max Born. In short, it came to him from all sides. Although Pauli wisely warned him to devote his future research to quantum physics instead of relativity, there was no way that Heisenberg could escape being fascinated by Einstein's work.

Early in his years at Munich, Heisenberg went with some friends on a bicycle tour around Lake Walchensee. The talk turned to Sommerfeld's relativity course, and Heisenberg was especially struck by a remark from his friend Otto Laporte, recalling it later as follows:5

We ought only to use such words and concepts as can be directly related to sense perception. . . . Such concepts can be understood without extensive explanation. It is precisely this return to what is observable that is Einstein's great merit. In his relativity theory, he quite rightly started with the commonplace statement that time is what you read on a clock. If you would keep to such commonplace meaning of words, you will have no difficulties with relativity theory. As soon as a theory allows us to predict correctly the result of observations, it gives us all the understanding we need.

This "instrumentalist" or "operational" view of Einstein's method was quite common at that time, and for decades afterwards. As we shall see below, Laporte's long-remembered praise of it laid the groundwork for one of Heisenberg's key insights many years later.

In the summer of 1922, Sommerfeld arranged forHeisenberg to go to Leipzig, where Einstein was to give a lecture. It was to be Heisenberg's first encounter with Einstein, but instead it turned into a surrealistic glimpse of things to come. When Heisenberg entered the crowded lecture hall, a handbill was forced on him, signed by the Nobel physicist Philipp Lenard and eighteen other German scientists. It contained a vicious attack on Einstein, whose theory, as Heisenberg recalled, "was said to be nothing but wild speculations, alien to the German spirit, and blown up by the Jewish press."5

Heisenberg was shaken by this political attack on scientific truth--so much that he didn't even notice that the speaker on the distant platform was not Einstein but rather Einstein's courageous friend and colleague, Max von Laue. Einstein had decided not to come, knowing he was in mortal danger from Nazi rowdies who had recently assassinated his close friend, Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, and who had published a list of future Jewish victims, including Einstein himself. This threat was a major reason for Einstein's leaving Germany for his around-the-world trip in 1922-23.

Only the theory decides what one can observe The first real meeting between our two protagonists occurred in 1924, when Einstein--at age forty-five about twice as old as Heisenberg--came briefly to Göttingen. The recent work of Bohr, Kramers, and Slater--the BKS theory--was hot news. But because it relaxed the requirements of strict causality and of energy and momentum conservation, Einstein wrote to Max Born that if this kind of science would persevere, "I would rather be a shoemaker or employee in a gambling casino than a physicist."

Against that background, Einstein and Heisenberg had a private talk in 1924, during a walk through the neighborhood. (By the way, what has happened to the life of scientists? Where have all those walks gone?) But, as Heisenberg, a proponent of Bohr's point of view, immediately wrote to his parents, "Einstein had a hundred objections" to the BKS theory. Coming from the scientist whose work Heisenberg had been admiring since early youth, this rejection of the new way of doing physics must have been difficult. But he consoled himself, as he said in one of his later interviews, that his generation, having "grown up into a complete mess" in quantum physics, was in the happy position of being able to give up old schemes if necessary.

On 25 September 1925, Heisenberg published in Zeitschrift fÃ1/4r Physik his brilliant breakthrough to quantum mechanics, "On the Quantum Theoretical Reinterpretation of Kinematic and Mechanical Relations." From the beginning, the abstract of the paper announced Heisenberg's fundamental guiding principle: "This work is an attempt to find foundations for a quantum-theoretical mechanics which is based exclusively on relations between quantities that are in principle measurable." The paper restricted itself to the observable properties of a spectrum, eschewing models built on unobservables such as the position and periods of electrons in the atom.

Heisenberg later observed that his crucial insight was an echo from the days when he had been struggling with relativity theory at the University in Munich. In his work leading up to that 1925 paper, he remembered "the philosophy presented as Einstein's viewpoint by our friend Otto during our bicycle tour, to regard only the observable magnitudes as the indication of atomic phenomena."5

But if Heisenberg had any illusion that his article would be approved by Einstein, he was wrong. One of Heisenberg's five surviving letters in the Einstein archive, dated November 30, 1925, is evidently a reply to a note from Einstein (now lost) that had contained many objections. In his response, Heisenberg tried to hold out the hope of an eventual peaceful bridging between Einstein's theory of light quanta and what he called "our quantum mechanics." Heisenberg also drew prominent attention to his having used only "observable magnitudes" in his theory. All to no avail.

The following year, 1926, is one of high drama in this growing but troubled relationship. In April, Heisenberg gave a two-hour lecture on his matrix mechanics in von Laue's famous physics colloquium at the University of Berlin. In the audience, with a whole group of potentates, was Einstein. It was their second meeting. Einstein, interested and no doubt disturbed by the lecture, asked Heisenberg to walk home with him (there is that walk again) and thus ensued a remarkable discussion, which Heisenberg first reported in print in 1969.

In the discussion with Einstein, Heisenberg once more tried to draw attention to his having dealt not with unobservable electron orbits inside atoms, but rather with observable radiation. He said to Einstein: "Since it is acceptable to allow into a theory only directly observable magnitudes, I thought it more natural to restrict myself to these, bringing them in, as it were, as representatives of electron orbits." Einstein responded, "But you don't seriously believe that only observable magnitudes must go into a physical theory?" Heisenberg goes on, "In astonishment, I said, 'I thought that it was exactly you who had made this thought the foundation of your relativity theory. . . .' Einstein replied, 'Perhaps I used this sort of philosophy; but it is nevertheless nonsense.' " And then came Einstein's famous sentence: "Only the theory decides what one can observe."5

All this must have come to Heisenberg as a scathing attack on what he regarded as his fundamental orientation, derived from reading Einstein's early works, and being guided by them from the start, right through his most recent triumph. Einstein, whose development away from positivistic instrumentalism to a rational realism had escaped Heisenberg's notice, went on to explain at length how complicated any observation is in general, how it involves assumptions about phenomena that in turn are based on theories. For example, one almost unconsciously uses Maxwell's theory when interpreting experimental readings involving a beam of light.

Perhaps this discussion helped Heisenberg eventually to embark on his own epistemological pilgrimage, which ultimately ended with a kind of neo-Platonism in the description of nature through the contemplation of symmetries. But in 1927, just before starting on his next breakthrough--later called the uncertainty principle paper--Heisenberg suddenly remembered Einstein's provocative statement, "Only the theory decides what one can observe." It was a key to Heisenberg's advance. As he later put it, "I just tried to turn the question around according to the example of Einstein."

At this point I should pause briefly to return to the unfinished story of my own encounter with Heisenberg in 1965. After giving his lecture, Heisenberg came over to tell me in detail about that 1926 meeting with Einstein, and what it had meant for him. Indeed, as if to make sure I had it straight, Heisenberg followed up by sending me a letter in January 1966, in which he repeated the story, and added a rather striking conclusion: While the theory determines what can be observed, the uncertainty principle showed him that a theory also determines what cannot be observed. Ironically, Einstein, through his 1926 conversation, had provided Heisenberg with some genetic material for the creation of the uncertainty principle article of 1927.

Descending along two tracks We can now follow the effect of Einstein on Heisenberg along two diverging tracks. Both start at a high level, but descend eventually into terrifying terrain below. One track is the scientific one. Despite all his misgivings, Einstein of course realized the brilliance of Heisenberg's work. He nominated Heisenberg for a Nobel Prize for three years before Heisenberg was so recognized, even though Einstein to the end believed that Heisenberg's way of doing physics would ultimately turn out not to be true to the thoughts of the "Old One," the Creator.

The third meeting of the two men took place in October 1927, at the six-day Solvay Congress in Brussels. That conference was the scene of famous debates, mainly between Einstein and Schrödinger on one side and Bohr, Heisenberg, and their "Copenhagen" colleagues on the other.6 It soon became clear that the Copenhagen spirit had triumphed. Day after day, Einstein presented ingenious arguments, which Bohr then answered before nightfall, until Paul Ehrenfest finally said, according to Heisenberg, "Einstein, I am ashamed for you."

Heisenberg in a later interview added a shrewd point: "I would say that a change had taken place, which I can only express in terms of lawsuits. That is, the burden of proof was reversed. . . . That made a complete change of view among the younger generation." Ironically, the same kind of reversal of fortunes had happened long before, in the triumph of Einstein's relativity over its opponents. Heisenberg's last surviving letter to Einstein, written a few months before the Brussels meeting, already showed the cocky self-confidence of the victors in that new struggle. Heisenberg writes that while in the new quantum mechanics Einstein's beloved causality principle is baseless, "We can console ourselves that the dear Lord God would know the position of the particles, and thus He could let the causality principle continue to have validity."

Heisenberg once more sought out Einstein in 1954, a year before Einstein's death, and the final meeting between the two men took place in Princeton. Heisenberg found that Einstein's view had not changed since the 1927 Solvay Congress. Despite all Heisenberg's persuasive skills, Einstein just said, "No, that's nothing. That's not the thing I am after. I don't like your kind of physics. I think you are all right with the experiments . . . but I don't like it."

The second track that follows the later relation between the two men concerns the full emergence in 1933 of what in Germany had been foaming from the mouth of the Beast since the early 1920s. For a time, Heisenberg continued to mention Einstein in his lectures and publications. But the scene was now dominated by demons, including the raving articles published by Johannes Stark, branding Heisenberg in 1935 the "spirit of Einstein's spirit." The published attacks on Heisenberg, and on theoretical physics as such, culminated on 15 July 1937 with an article in the official journal of the SS, Das Schwarze Korps. That article, endorsed by Stark, called Heisenberg a "white Jew," and dismissed relativity and quantum theory as non-German, Jewish thinking.

There followed a one-year attempt by Heisenberg to obtain exoneration from Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, who was a family acquaintance. That effort finally succeeded, but Heisenberg was ordered to, in the future, "clearly separate for your audiences, in the acknowledgment of scientific research results, the personal and political characteristic of the researcher." Privately, Himmler had his eye on Heisenberg as a possible researcher on Himmler's own crazy "World Ice Theory," of which I will spare you the details here.7 But any future playwright dealing with a version of the Heisenberg-Einstein relation will not be able, as Copenhagen does, to avoid including the cries, offstage and ever more distant, of the unmentioned millions who had also loved their homeland but had no way to make a deal with Himmler, or to bribe an SS man bent on murder.

Despite Nazi condemnations of relativity theory, the use of the equation E = mc2 continued to be quite permissable for German scientists. Indeed, putting that equation to use remained their Holy Grail from the very beginning of the Uranium Club, and they had been called into action by the German government well before the Allies got going in an organized way on their research. Although several crucial mistakes ruled out producing a bomb (see Hans Bethe's article on page 34), the German scientists continued to hope, under Heisenberg's leadership, to exploit nuclear energy for powering the war machine by building a reactor.

Recasting the portrait of Einstein At this point in the narrative, we are at last in peacetime, and Heisenberg is securely installed as the leader of a new generation of German physicists--as he had hoped to be all along. But now, in two of Heisenberg's lectures, we find passages that signal the depth to which his relationship with Einstein has fallen--as had earlier, on a parallel path, his relationship with Niels Bohr.

Shortly after Einstein died in 1955, Heisenberg published a popular article entitled, "The Scientific Work of Einstein."8 The article began with a generous assessment of Einstein's contributions, but then found a serious fault with him, namely "that Einstein, to whom war was hateful, should have been moved by the infamous practices under Nazism to write a letter to President Roosevelt in 1939, urging that the United States vigorously set about the making of atomic bombs . . ." which eventually "killed many thousands of women and children."

That bitter statement was at the very least a major exaggeration. The famous letter of August 1939 that Einstein signed had been written just as the German war machine was poised to start its Blitzkrieg--and, as we now know, four months after Paul Harteck and Wilhelm Groth had asked the German War Office to investigate nuclear explosives. Far from urging that the United States vigorously set about the making of atomic bombs, the letter was, in its own words, "a call for watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action," not least because "Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium from the Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken over." The letter asked only to establish a liaison between the US government and physicists and for help to raise funds for experimental work in university laboratories, if necessary, from private donors and industrial laboratories. The direct result was that all of $6,000 was made available to Enrico Fermi at Columbia University. Einstein declined the invitation to be a member of a group to coordinate further research.

Einstein signed a second letter to Roosevelt in March 1940 reporting that he had heard that research on the use of uranium was indeed going on in Germany; this letter, too, produced little action. In fact, the US government did not gear up seriously until October 1941, when it received the so-called Maud Committee report with the conclusions of a British-sponsored study on how to produce an atomic bomb. Leo Szilard persuaded Einstein to write a third letter in early 1945, simply a letter of introduction to Roosevelt, without telling Einstein the need for it. Szilard had hoped to use this letter to convey to Roosevelt his doubts of "the wisdom of testing and using bombs," but Roosevelt died before this plea reached him.

Einstein himself was carefully shielded from direct knowledge of the Allied nuclear project. This secrecy even resulted in a moment of comedy. In late December 1941, Vannevar Bush tried to get advice from Einstein on building diffusion plants, but because Einstein was given only vague details, his reply was useless. Asked if Einstein could be given more information, Bush cried no, don't tell him one more thing, or he will guess the rest of the project, and might blab. The voluminous files the FBI kept on Einstein show that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was deeply suspicious of Einstein. While on one side of the Atlantic, Heisenberg was called a "white Jew," Einstein on the other side was considered by some a red one.

Heisenberg's 1955 remarks about Einstein were not to be an isolated exaggeration. Heisenberg gave a second attack on Einstein in June 1974, when he spoke, of all places, in the so-called Einstein house in Ulm, Germany. (Part of the Volkshochschule in Einstein's birthplace, this building was dedicated in 1968 as a living memorial to Einstein.) As in 1955, he began with a generous survey of Einstein's work on relativity; he then repeated some of the points made in earlier publications, including an account of Einstein's rejections of the theories of Heisenberg. Heisenberg then said that he would have to add something, "in order not to leave the portrait of Einstein all too incomplete." Einstein, he said, "wrote three letters to President Roosevelt, and thereby contributed decisively to setting in motion the atom bomb project in the United States. And he also collaborated actively, on occasion, in the work on this project."9

If there is to be someday a play based on the relation between these two men, the playwright will perhaps note that these astonishing exaggerations, uttered in Einstein's birth town, were part of a Heisenberg lecture with the title "Encounters and Conversations with Albert Einstein." In that last talk, Heisenberg, two years before his death, had his final encounter with the person whom he had once called his Vorbild, his model; the person who for good and ill had unknowingly been the cause both of deep insights and of fierce insults throughout Heisenberg's scientific and personal life; and whose acceptance Heisenberg had sought again and again, always in vain. Niels Bohr, to his death in 1962, was also deeply saddened by Einstein's constant refusal to accept his interpretation and program. And as to Einstein himself, he often cursed the quantum he himself had set loose, only to have it haunt him in the form of a physics that he could not accept, initiated largely by Bohr and Heisenberg.

It all had started so well. But in that future play, as the curtain falls on these three extraordinary men, even the evil spirit that has been watching them from the wings of the stage, and that had haunted that whole terrible century, will, in the end, shed a tear for humanity.

This article is based on a paper presented at the Symposium, "Creating 'Copenhagen,' " held on 27 March 2000 at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

References

1. Michael Frayn, Copenhagen, Methuen, London (1998). A new printing, with a few changes and a much expanded Postscript, is being released in 2000.

2. Also useful is the documentation in Part II of Paul L. Rose, Heisenberg and the Nazi Bomb Project, U. of California P., Berkeley (1998).

3. David C. Cassidy, Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg, W. H. Freeman and Co., New York (1992); Abraham Pais, "Subtle is the Lord . . .": The Science and Life of Albert Einstein, Oxford U. P., New York (1982).

4. G. Holton, Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought: Kepler to Einstein, Harvard U. P., Cambridge, MA (1998), pp. 237-277.

5. W. Heisenberg, Der Teil und das Ganze, R. Piper & Co., Munich (1969). Translation by G. Holton.

6. The canonical reference to these debates is Niels Bohr's account in chapter 7 of Paul A. Schilpp, ed., Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist, The Library of Living Philosophers, Evanston, IL (1949).

7. For some details and bibliography on this cosmological fantasy, see G. Holton, J. History of Ideas 61, 327 (2000).

8. Universitas vol. X, p. 897 (1955), reprinted in W. Heisenberg, Across the Frontiers, Harper & Row, New York (1974).

9. W. Heisenberg, Encounters with Einstein Princeton U.P. (1989), p. 120.

Gerald Holton is Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and professor of history of science at Harvard University.

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Message: 7
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 14:57:07 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Russian Sub Likely Wrecked By Blast

August 17, 2000
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/text/2000/aug/17/081700620.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- Underwater rescue capsules fighting to reach 118 seamen trapped on a Russian nuclear submarine failed again Thursday as new evidence suggested a massive explosion shattered large areas of the vessel and many sailors had no time to escape.

Navy officials said there were no signs of life on the vessel, but some of the crew could still be alive. Rescue capsules trying to link up with the submarine for the past three days were again driven back Thursday by racing currents and swirling sand in the inky darkness 354 feet deep on the sea bottom.

Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said Thursday the situation was "close to catastrophic," according to Russian news reports.

British and Norwegian rescue teams heading for the scene by ship were not expected to arrive until Saturday, raising fears they would be too late. The navy has given contradictory estimates of how long the Kursk's oxygen could last, but some officers say air generators may have been destroyed when the submarine slammed into the sea bed last Saturday.

Film of the submarine being studied Thursday showed massive damage reaching from the front to the conning tower that would have sent the vessel crashing to the bottom in seconds, navy officials said. The control room where most of the crew work is below the tower, suggesting many sailors could not escape when the submarine went down.

"The accident happened so quickly we can say it was like a flash," said navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo.

U.S. submarines monitoring Russian navy exercises when the Kursk was lost detected two explosions at the time, according to Russian press reports. The second explosion was much larger than the first, the reports said.

The Russian navy refused to confirm the reports, but officers have said an explosion in the torpedo compartment at the front of the submarine apparently caused the Kursk to sink. A likely scenario was that one torpedo exploded, setting off a much bigger explosion in the compartment that is packed with torpedoes.

The Kursk can carry up to 28 torpedoes and anti-submarine missiles, each with warheads weighing up to 1,000 pounds. An explosion involving even a few torpedoes would have caused catastrophic damage, officers said.

The damage apparently included the submarine's internal escape capsule located in the conning tower, making it impossible to use, Dygalo said.

Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said authorities were still investigating the possibility of a collision.

After insisting for days that Western aid was not needed, the Russian government asked Britain and Norway for help. Two Norwegian ships on Thursday were taking divers and a sophisticated British mini-submarine to the rescue area.

The Russian turnabout apparently came after President Vladimir Putin spoke with President Clinton on Wednesday and ordered his Navy to seek help.

Russian officials refused to say Thursday why the British mini-sub was not flown to a Russian airfield closer to the rescue site. A Russian plane transported the mini-sub from Britain to Norway.

But British and Norwegian officials rejected suggestions that Russia was not eager for Western help. Britain's Defense Ministry said "the Norway option provided the quickest and safest way of getting our equipment to the scene."

The navy raised the number aboard the Kursk to 118 from 116 without explanation Thursday.

The rescue capsules are trying to latch onto one of the Kursk's hatches. The effort was being frustrated by the strong currents and almost zero visibility.

Three Russian rescue capsules were taking turns trying to reach the Kursk, each spending up to five hours submerged. The navy angrily denied Russian press reports that the rescue crews were failing because they were poorly trained.

Success of the rescue operation is dependent not only on latching on to a hatch but also on whether any survivors can open it from inside. Submarine hatches can be opened only from the inside to prevent intruders.

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Message: 8
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 18:09:41 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

THE EIGHT MAJOR PROCESSES OF THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS COMPLEX

http://www.lastinglegacy.net/thestory/text/link/link8.htm

Nuclear weapons production in the United States was a complex series of integrated manufacturing activities executed at multiple sites across the country. These activities have been grouped into eight major processes:

mining, milling, and refining of uranium;

isotope separation of uranium, lithium, boron and heavy water;

fuel and target fabrication for production reactors;

reactor operations to irradiate fuel and targets to produce nuclear materials;

chemical separations of plutonium, uranium, and tritium from irradiated fuel and target elements;

component fabrication of both nuclear and nonnuclear components;

weapon operations, including assembly, maintenance, modification, and dismantlement of nuclear weapons; and

research, development, and testing.1

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Message: 9
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 21:30:34 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com

Russia bares all in new book about nuclear weapons

By Bradley Perrett,
European aerospace & defence
correspondent

LONDON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Just 10 or 15 years ago, Western strategic analysts would pore over grainy satellite photographs, guessing dimensions and counting exhaust nozzles, to estimate roughly how a Soviet nuclear missile would perform.

Today they can just order a book on the Internet.

The Russian military has backed the publication of an astonishingly frank book detailing the specifications of its doomsday weapons -- ballistic missiles, bombs, bombers and submarines.

And a lot of them, it seems, are rather more powerful than has been thought.

One example: The 1988-89 edition of Jane's Weapon Systems, the bible of missilery, gave the standard estimate of an 11,000 km (6,800 mile) range with multiple warheads for a terrifying Soviet missile that Nato code-named SS-18 Satan.

The Western analysts who assembled those estimates -- similar to current figures -- would be mortified to discover that a multiple-warhead version of the SS-18 can actually reach 15,000 km (9,300 miles).

It can hit a lot more cities than they thought, according to the newly published Strategic Nuclear Forces.

Oh, and by the way, the Soviet designation for that variant is RS-20B, author Nikolai Spassky tells us, helpfully offering a cutaway diagram of another version to reveal the innards of a weapon that has captivated Western strategic planners.

``We can say with confidence that this encyclopaedia will be of interest to specialists who work in the field of development and production of defence hardware...'' Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev writes in a foreword, with some understatement.

Indeed, U.S. distributor Tommax Inc says the Pentagon and U.S. nuclear-weapons laboratories have been the book's keenest buyers.

``This is the first time Russians have published about their own military equipment,'' Spassky told Reuters. ``There are books about Russian equipment, but not written by us.''

That makes a difference, because only the Russians really know how these strategic weapons perform.

ACCURACY

Russian tactical weapons, such as fighters and tanks, have been sold to many other countries, and their exact details are widely known. Since the thaw of the Cold War, the Russian manufacturers have been happy to publish the figures.

But strategic weapons -- designed to hit targets deep behind the front line -- are not generally operated by other countries.

Moreover, since this equipment embodies Russia's nuclear security, Moscow has always had a strong reason to keep the figures to itself.

The West has relied mostly on estimates about Russian strategic weapons, with some of the guesses supplied to Jane's and other publishers, which mix in their own judgements to produce the best publicly available assessments.

Russia has divulged some figures in arms limitations talks. The West discovered in the early 1990s, for example, that the RS-22 (or SS-24) ballistic missile was bigger than it thought.

But Spassky has revealed perhaps the most sought-after secret of all for the RS-22: after an intercontinental trip from Russia to, say, the U.S. mid-west, its warhead will come down no more than 500 metres (yards) from its target.

The accuracy of any nuclear missile is a crucial statistic, since it determines whether the weapon can land reliably close enough to bust open structures designed to resist it -- such as bunkers or underground silos housing other missiles.

DETAILED PHOTOS OF SECRET WEAPONS

``There are no photographs available of AS-15...'' the current Jane's directory, Jane's Strategic Weapon Systems, notes in its entry for the missile that the Russians call Kh-55.

But in Strategic Nuclear Forces we find five very clear photographs, plus two apparently precise line drawings, which show the design of this bomber-launched cruise missile to be rather different to what the West has estimated.

Spassky confirms the Western belief that the missile comes in two versions, but one turns out to be rather lighter and more efficient than Western analysts have assumed. And its range and nuclear charge are both greater than the figures in Jane's.

But some Russian weapons are perhaps less effective than thought, the book reveals.

Jane's credits the Kh-15 bomber-launched missile (called AS-16 by Nato) with a range of 150 km (93 miles). Spassky says it will go 60 to 150 km, presumably depending on how fast and high the bomber is flying when it launches the weapon.

Since he also specifies high launch speeds of 1,080 to 2,160 km per hour (670 to 1,340 mph), it seems that the weapon can achieve the Western-estimated estimated performance only with a lot of help from the bomber.

Strategic Nuclear Forces, published by Russian-based Arms and Technologies with text in English and Russian, is available on the internet at www.tommax-military.com.