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-------- NUCLEAR (by country)
OFF THE SHELF TECHNOLOGY DETECTS NERVE GAS
August 22, 2000 ENS
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2000/2000L-08-22-09.html
WASHINGTON, DC, Using a silicon chip and parts from an inexpensive compact disc (CD) player, chemists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have developed a portable nerve gas sensor capable of detecting "G-type" nerve agents, such as sarin, soman and GF. The breakthrough should permit the development of large numbers of small, inexpensive sensors to detect the presence of nerve agents and track the movements of the toxic plumes. The innovative silicon sensor was constructed by a team including Michael Sailor, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UCSD, William Trogler, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and postdoctoral associates Sonia Letant and Honglae Sohn.
The pocket sized, battery powered nerve gas sensor invented by chemists at the University of California, San Diego (Photo courtesy UCSD)
The sensor detects compounds with a phosphorus-fluorine chemical bond, such as sarin, at very low concentrations. The compounds react with a silicon interferometer - a wafer similar to a computer chip - coated with a catalyst that breaks the nerve gases down to produce hydrogen fluoride gas. The rainbow colored optical coating changes color when molecules of hydrogen fluoride hit its surface. "These silicon interferometers can detect very, very small changes in color," says Sailor. A small laser, similar to that found in CD players, measures the small changes in intensity of light reflecting from the optical coating on the surface of the silicon chip. "It turns out that if you take a laser that's at the right frequency that matches the properties of that layer, you can measure very small amounts of chemicals as they enter the coating," says Sailor. The researchers scavenged their first sensors from five inexpensive CD players they bought at an electronics discounter. "Our program manager at the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, which sponsored our research, raised an eyebrow when I told him that story," says Sailor. "But for 24 bucks, we got an interferometer that was sensitive enough to detect chemicals in the parts per billion range."
-------- business
Radioactive uranium goes on sale on the Internet
Story by Chris Reese
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
August 22, 2000
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7871 http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000821/wr/online_uranium_dc_1.html
NEW YORK - Add radioactive uranium to the list of items you can buy and sell with the click of a computer mouse, and it might seem like a nuclear bomb-maker's dream come true.
"An (Internet) auction for uranium seems far out, but it's really quite straightforward. It's like any other commodity," said Becky Battle, director of marketing for New York Nuclear Corp. which owns and operates the uranium trading web site UraniumOnLine.com.
Through the New York-based web site, nuclear power plants now can purchase uranium fuel needed to make electricity through an Internet auction process.
But Battle and others in the uranium production industry are quick to caution that it would be nearly impossible for terrorists to acquire the material online.
"There is no additional risk at all as a result of online trading," said Charles Scorer, chief executive officer of Nufcor International Ltd, a London-based uranium production and trading company.
Nufcor, equally owned by South African mining giant AngloGold Ltd. and South African banking to insurance group FirstRand, bought 120,000 pounds of uranium oxide via UraniumOnLine.com's first Internet auction in July.
"Any physical movement of uranium must be from a licensed producer to a licensed trader or buyer," Scorer said, adding that the international community of uranium traders is relatively small and any new bidders would quickly be recognised as such.
Also, auctions on UraniumOnLine.com are private, and participants must be invited by New York Nuclear Corp.
The uranium is used as nuclear fuel in about 430 power plants worldwide to supply about 20 percent of the planet's electricity needs, Battle said.
"The general public may have a difficult time separating what they think of as defensive (weapons grade) uranium and commercial uranium," Battle said, "But the content (of nuclear fuel) is very much different from bomb grade. We are talking apples and oranges here."
Bomb-grade uranium must go through a much more extensive and complex refining and enhancement process than uranium used for nuclear fuel. The process requires sophisticated and generally unavailable enhancement technology closely monitored by government agencies, industry sources said.
The online auction is seen as a step forward because it should allow for a more open-market, free trade of uranium by giving utilities and producers a more transparent uranium price and allowing the application of financial derivatives, such as futures contracts and hedging.
"With the deregulation of the electricity industry, the fuel procurement process will be more open," Nufcor's Scorer said.
"It's more efficient than the traditional system."
Traditionally, most power plant operators buy uranium under long-term contracts with producers, with the price per pound kept secret.
"Naturally and organically, the market will become more liquid (with time), and people will use more of these online services as (they) develop," Scorer said.
At an online auction on Friday, the third one held on UraniumOnLine.com, an undisclosed buyer picked up 56,320 kilograms (124,160 pounds) of uranium for $23.05 per kilogram ($10.46 per pound).
This compares with a current average market price reached through traditional trading of $23.28 a kilo ($10.56 per pound), Battle said.
Friday's round attracted a "handful" of active bidders and "at least two dozen" more observers who are studying the mechanics of the process for possible future participation, she said.
-------- china
Washington Post
Tuesday, August 22, 2000; Page A10
In GOP, a Simmering Struggle on China Policy Factions Divided Over Potential Arms Threat And Support of Taiwan By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/22/093l-082200-idx.html
When it comes to China, Vice President Gore and Gov. George W. Bush have a lot in common. Both men favor permanent normal trade relations, support the one-China policy of the past three decades, and insist upon a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan issue. Yet Republicans have been battling to push their candidate to take a tougher line toward Beijing and show more overt support for Taiwan.
That backstage struggle broke into the open during the Republican Party platform drafting. It continues to strain relations between different Republican factions and could spill into the next administration if Bush wins the election.
One group of Republicans fought during the drafting of the platform to remove any reference to the one-China policy, a formulation from the 1970s under which the United States severed formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and established them with Beijing. Former representative Bob Livingston (La.), a member of the platform committee, led a push to change the first draft of the Republican platform.
"There is a sloppy tendency in policy to say that our policy in Asia is based on the one-China policy," said Bruce Jackson, chairman of the Republican platform subcommittee on foreign policy and a District delegate at the Republican convention. "Nonsense. Our policy in Asia is based on freedom, democracy and the peaceful resolution of disputes."
But aides close to Bush back a more moderate view. "The United States has a very big interest in continuing the policy that has served everyone well: No one changes the status quo," said Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Council staffer under former president George Bush who is the Republican nominee's top foreign policy coordinator.
Led by Rice and Robert D. Blackwill, a lecturer at Harvard University and former State Department official, the Republican candidate's campaign forged a compromise that acknowledged the existence of the one-China policy without endorsing it.
The tiff is just the tip of a wider dispute within each party over U.S. policy toward China. Members of the "blue team," a loose group of people who see China as the biggest future security threat to the United States, want to stop all modernization of the Chinese military. "I don't see why Beijing needs anything more than a lightly armed police force and a coast guard," said one Republican congressional aide.
But others, including Rice and Blackwill, accept that China will be a major nuclear-armed force in Asia and are seeking to defuse any threat through diplomacy.
"China is a changing power in Asia and I think it's going to modernize its forces," Rice said in an interview during the convention. "I don't think China is going to modernize enough--if we keep our nuke secrets to ourselves--to be a threat to our deterrent capabilities. It can modernize enough to threaten our missile defenses, but I'm not putting China in a category of states that would try to blackmail the United States."
In an earlier meeting with journalists in Washington, Rice said she could envision China expanding its nuclear missile arsenal beyond its current level of about two dozen to more than 100 without fundamentally changing U.S. nuclear strategy.
Republican infighting also has a personal dimension. Many of those favoring a tougher line toward Beijing take a dim view of Blackwill, who has been running an exchange program that has brought People's Liberation Army officers to Harvard. Blackwill has run a similar program for Russian officers. The China program has been funded by Nina Kung, a Hong Kong businesswoman who has given $7 million to Harvard. Kung heads Chinachem, which is one of China's largest importers of plastics, petrochemicals, rubber and animal feed.
Differing views of China's intentions and capabilities also shade Republican views on national missile defense. Many in the Bush camp support a boost-phase missile defense system, which would catch intercontinental ballistic missiles on their way up. That would enable the United States to deploy sea-based defense systems capable of stopping missiles from North Korea or Iraq, without threatening the nuclear forces--or nuclear deterrents--of Russia and China. Many boost-phase advocates see that as a virtue because it would avoid diplomatic strains with Moscow and Beijing.
But other Republicans believe that a missile defense should guard against China. They fear China might try to blackmail the United States to block U.S. aid for Taiwan in the event of a confrontation there.
China, which sees Taiwan as part of its own territory, has not ruled out the use of force against the self-governing island. The United States says it favors a peaceful resolution of differences between Beijing and Taipei.
The struggle within the Republican Party over China policy isn't new. For years, especially since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many conservative Republicans have favored stronger support for Taiwan and expressed growing anxiety about China as a threat to the United States rather than as a useful counterweight to Moscow.
They have been aligned against Republican business interests favoring warmer ties and expanded trade, as well as foreign policy experts such as former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger, who established ties with Beijing, and former secretary of state Alexander M. Haig, who also favors good relations.
Republicans have united over some aspects of China policy. Led by Bush adviser Paul Wolfowitz, a former senior State and Defense Department official, Republicans have blasted President Clinton for paying too much attention to China and insufficient attention to Japan. But sometimes, as during the Republican platform spat, differences come to the surface. An early draft of the party's platform said that "America's commitment to a one-China policy is based on the principle that there must be no use of force by China against Taiwan." The final version read: "America has acknowledged the view that there is one China. Our policy is based on the principle that there must be no use of force by China against Taiwan."
Jackson said, "What we wrote is that America acknowledges that there is a view that there is one China. That is China's view."
The platform also erodes the "strategic ambiguity" the United States has used to leave unclear what circumstances would bring its intervention in a Taiwan Straits crisis. If China attacks Taiwan, the Republican document bluntly states, "America will help Taiwan defend itself." Jackson said, "What we say is that it should be resolved peacefully. We were correcting the imprecision that has been creeping in."
-------- germany
E.On Plans Plant Closures, Job Cuts
Associated Press
August 22, 2000 Filed at 9:03 a.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/f/AP-Germany-Utility-Cuts.html
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Germany's largest energy company, E.On AG, said Tuesday it was planning to close several non-nuclear power plants in a cost cutting step that will eliminate 2,600 jobs, or about 13 percent of its work force. ``We have a liberalized market across Europe with too much capacity and we have to cut costs by pulling some plants off the energy grid,'' spokeswoman Petra Uhlmann said.
Uhlmann could not say how many plants would be closed or when they would shut their doors.
The job cuts, prescribed last year when utility rivals Veba AG and Viag AG merged to form E.On, will mostly come through a hiring freeze as people retire, she said. The comopany has about 20,000 employees.
E.On is Europe's largest conventional power generator. Of its combined 26,300 megawatt capacity in Germany, 18,000 megawatts are churned out by plants burning coal, gas or oil. The remainder is nuclear.
A committee is currently examining which plants will be closed. But Uhlmann denied a report in the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung which said the company would shut down plants generating power for more than 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
``None of our plants produce power cheaper than that,'' she said.
E.On was formed as part of a trend of rapid consolidation in the European energy industry, and it has said it wants to expand as a pan-European player.
The company is reportedly planning to meet this week with French utilities group Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux to discuss another merger that would create Europe's second-largest electricity company behind Electricite de France.
-------- iraq
A Nightmare Scenario - Saddam With the Bomb
NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2000
http://www.NewsMax.com/articles/?a=2000/8/21/214855
Saddam Hussein may have lost the Gulf War, but he's still around and with a nuclear weapons program in place may be a greater threat than ever.
Experts familiar with Saddam's attempts to build nuclear weapons fear he may be on the verge of success, and some warn that he might just be getting ready to loose a nuclear-armed missile in observance of the 10th anniversary of his defeat at the hands of a U.S.-led coalition. (see: Iraq Plans 'To Deal with the Zionist Entity' from NewsMax.com, July 19)
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/7/19/141634
"I think he's very close," Shyam Bhatia, a former Iraq correspondent for Britain's Guardian newspaper and co-author of "Brighter Than the Baghdad Sun," told CBN News (report available at cbn.org/newsstand).
"If you can think of the nuclear bomb as a gun and a bullet, then Saddam has assembled the gun, right?" he said. "He's tested the barrel; he's pressed the trigger; he has even used dummy bullets. Everything works. The only thing he lacks is the live ammunition. And if he gets that live ammunition, another word for plutonium or weapons-grade uranium, he will have the bomb."
Stephen Dolley agrees. The research director at the Nuclear Control Institute told CBN News: "There's good reason to believe Saddam has all the actual components he needs for one of three nuclear weapons."
"It takes very little of this material to make a nuclear weapon effective," he explained.
"An amount of plutonium the size of a small grapefruit would be enough to make a nuclear weapon, and you don't need that much more highly enriched uranium. I mean, someone could literally put it in a large briefcase and carry it over the border.
"The time frame for Saddam to get a nuclear weapon depends on what he has to do to get the fissile material," Dolley added. "Once the plutonium or HEU is in hand, assuming they already have the components, and there's reason to believe they do, it could be done in a matter of weeks or maybe even days."
According to Ambassador Richard Butler, former chairman of the United Nations weapons inspection program in Iraq and author of "The Greatest Threat," his group was never able to penetrate the wall of secrecy Saddam erected around his nuclear weapons program.
"We faced massive resistance," he said. "We tried to fight it, and we failed."
"He deeply believes that the Arab world needs a leader, and he obviously thinks he's the prime candidate for that," Butler said. "For that purpose, he believes he needs to be the most muscular guy on the block."
Some observers think Saddam might already have a nuclear bomb hidden, just waiting until he has a dependable missile to carry it to its target. CBN News reports that last month it was discovered that he has speeded up his missile development program. According to the London Times, Iraq is secretly negotiating with Russian companies to build a factory to make navigational components for long-range ballistic missiles.
Although the U.N. is preparing to send weapons inspectors back to Baghdad to check on Saddam's progress in building nuclear weapons, nobody knows if he will allow them in.
"When it comes to the point where the U.N. inspectors ask, under the resolution passed last December, to go back into Iraq and hunt for weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein will most likely say, 'You and what army?'" Dolley said.
"There's no army to back that up. There is really no support for military action on the Security Council. Three out of five of the permanent members, France, Russia and China, not only would (not) support military action, but they want the sanctions lifted now."
Butler warns that Saddam cannot be dismissed as a has-been - that he's someone the United States is going to have to face again.
"The existence of a person like Saddam, with his addiction to these weapons, means that as long as they're there, they will be used, either by a terrorist group or some other way," Butler said.
"No one should sleep easily in their beds at night."
---
Clinton Administration Squanders Iraq Liberation Money
NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2000
UPI
http://www.NewsMax.com/articles/?a=2000/8/21/200446
WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration has been spending the money Congress appropriated to overthrow Saddam Hussein on contractors and consultants while withholding arms from the Iraqi opposition, experts said.
The latest example is a workshop proposed by the Conflict Management Group, a nonprofit offshoot of Harvard Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School. The subcontractor group describes its objective in turbid academic jargon: "To identify, diagnose, and enhance the ability of the Iraqi opposition parties, and the individuals within the parties, to discuss, design, and facilitate intra- and inter-organization dialogue, cooperation, and problem solving."
Translation: Pull Iraqi resistance fighters out of the field, bring them to Harvard, and teach them how to get along.
"They couldn't find Iraq on a map," said Francis Brooke, the Washington representative of the main opposition group.
"It's ludicrous what they're proposing. Somehow, theoretically, they're going to grab all the Iraqi opposition parties they know nothing about and bring them together in a Harvard seminar, where they're going to teach them how to get in touch with their inner selves."
Brooke said he had talked on the phone with Ahmed Chalabi, head of Iraqi National Congress (INC), the London umbrella organization for the Iraqi opposition. The group had e-mailed Chalabi, asking for his help in obtaining "a list of opposition parties and contact information."
"What a great waste of money," Brooke said Chalabi had told him, "Raise hell about it."
That the fractious Iraqi opposition needs cohesion to prevail against Saddam Hussein is not in dispute, but is the Harvard workshop an effective way of going about it?
A congressional staffer familiar with Iraq said, "It came as a surprise to me that anyone would think that this kind of expenditure would be a useful contribution to the effort."
He was asked why the administration would rather spend money on consultants than on weapons and ammunition. He met that question with a long pause.
Politics as Usual
"I think if you survey the last three years of policy toward Iraq, the only conclusion you can draw is that the administration has politicized this policy to an unconscionable degree," he said finally.
"When the president was in political trouble - with grand jury investigations, and impeachment, and Monica Lewinsky - suddenly he was rattling the saber, and the chemical weapons and the biological weapons and the missile threat from Iraq were 'absolutely intolerable.' So he resorted to military action, and along the way destroyed the U.N. inspections regime that had been in place until that time.
"The moment he got past impeachment, then the priority was to make this issue go away. Suddenly the things we were told we had to worry about, we were told we didn't have to worry about.
"During the current phase on the political calendar, I think (the Clinton team's) strong desire is to keep Iraq out of the news. It's not convenient to the administration to have much attention drawn to this, which significant support to the opposition would do. Bringing in social workers to counsel the opposition is a way of spending money that is certainly not going to cause much alarm in Baghdad.
"And I think Congress has demonstrated that they it wants a more sustained approach to the problem," he said.
But other, less political, interpretations are possible. Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, former commander of U.S. military forces throughout the Middle East, has been a vocal opponent of giving lethal assistance to the scattered Iraqi opposition.
In testimony before both houses of Congress, he said the administration had identified about 90 opposition groups but that "they have little, if any, viability." (In 1999, the administration identified seven dissident groups that could be eligible for a share of the $97 million.)
"Even if we had Saddam gone, we could end up with 15, 20, or 90 groups competing for power," the general said.
A State Department official contacted for this story shared Zinni's views. Aid to the opposition is limited only by its ability to absorb it," he said. "We don't want to supply weapons that will be used in internecine warfare."
The official said he was unaware of any actual fighting between opposition forces and the Iraqi army. The United States is supplying the opposition only with non-lethal aid, he said. This applies to the $8 million administration funds and the $97 million Pentagon drawdown. He denied that the administration is shortchanging the rebels, saying that some $3 million was spent on them in the past year.
The United States pays for the Iraqi National Congress' London office, travel, meetings and its appearance at the United Nations, he said, and it supports schools where members of the Iraqi opposition are trained in such matters as field medicine and communications.
"We've committed the monies," the official said. "We've focused on the effort that raises the INC's stature and promotes the internal cohesion that will let them do more in the future.
"They tell us they want to do more. We welcome that. But we have to make sure that they're able to absorb this money and use it effectively, and use it for the objectives we've all set without falling into the trap of internecine rivalry."
The congressional staffer disputed the State Department official's statement about the absence of fighting within Iraq. "If he's saying there is not armed resistance to Saddam Hussein's forces inside Iraq, that's plainly wrong," he said.
"Saddam's army is quite aggressive in trying to put down the revolt. There's huge swaths of Northern Iraq where Saddam's army doesn't operate, because their forces don't control the ground."
Congress did not restrict the $97 million for non-lethal aid only, he said. "We have quite a track record on Capitol Hill for urging the administration to be more proactive in using that authority, including to provide lethal assistance, both training and weapons."
The staffer was asked who decides what gets spent, and on what?
"The president," he replied, "and in the real world they would have an interagency process involved. Because with drawdown, you're sort of crossing jurisdictional lines. Drawdown authority basically is the ability of the State Department to provide Defense Department resources as something akin to foreign aid. But obviously, the Defense Department has an interest in what's becoming of its resources.
"So in the real world, a lot of consultation goes on between those two departments.
'A Ludicrous Offer'
"Under drawdown, what they've received is some training. I think there was an offer to give them some computers and desks, which is ludicrous on its face, because to equip an office in London they were going to give them desks here in Virginia.
"If I were to set up an office in London, I think I would buy a desk in London. That was just so foolish, it wasn't worth pursuing. We didn't pass a $97 million authority to provide Defense Department desks and fax machines to people in London.
"That's the only equipment that I'm aware having been offered under the drawdown, and it was a ludicrous offer."
"Until very recently, no funds were given to the INC," the staffer said, but occasionally money was spent on its behalf.
"For instance, there was a big conference in New York. Prior to that, there had been one in Windsor, outside of London, where the U.S. government essentially underwrote the cost of the conferences: the travel and associated expenses.
"But it did so not by giving it to the INC but by hiring an outside contractor to do all the logistics: make hotel and airline reservations, give people their tickets, buy them their meals, provide the support staff for the meetings. Which, I will tell you, certainly didn't prove to be a cost-effective way of staging the meetings.
Shovel Money out the Door
"What the State Department got out of it was a high degree of accountability," he said. "When the auditors come through, there's no question where the money went. But they seem to have exalted accountability over common sense, because they end up spending far more money than you would ordinarily have to pay for those kind of events.
"And, quite honestly, I get the sense that this suits the administration just fine, because in a lot of ways, they're more interested in shoveling this money out the door and claiming they've done something than they are in actually doing something."
Of the $1.14 million obligated to "Activities Inside Iraq" in fiscal year 1998-1999, the biggest chunk, $553,000, went to Columbia University "to establish an institutional framework for constructive interaction with Iraqi Kurdish leaders and other parties," according the government's description.
"Giving money to Columbia University is not what Congress really had in mind," the staffer said.
Harvard's Conflict Management Group is coordinating its program with Columbia's. The CMG's Michael DeKoster was unsuccessful in his attempt to provide further information to United Press International. He said that Harvard had been discussed as a venue for the workshop, but in any event it would be held in a "neutral place."
---
Will Iraq Be Clinton's 'October Surprise'?
NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2000
http://www.NewsMax.com/articles/?a=2000/8/22/93623
The United Nations is preparing renewed Iraqi arms inspections, setting the stage for President Clinton to make a dramatic pre-election military move if he wishes.
Would the president consider such an "October surprise"?
The opportunity, if not the temptation, would be there should it appear during the coming two months that the presidential campaign of Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, is failing against the Republican nominee, George W. Bush.
The Clinton-Gore administration is not unaware of the powerful argument that an incumbent political party can make: "Don't change horses in the middle of an international military crisis."
And a few Washington observers, possibly without foundation, suspect Clinton is not above finding a pretext to declare an extraordinary national emergency and perhaps even try to suspend the November presidential election, thus continuing his occupancy of the Oval Office, at the expense of a constitutional crisis.
Here is the background, as reported Tuesday in the New York Times:
Nine months after saying it would resume arms inspections in Iraq, the U.N. Security Council is ready to put a fresh arms-inspection team on the ground in Iraq.
An entirely new inspection organization - officially known as the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission - is headed by Dr. Hans Blix, a Swedish arms-control expert who was once director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
This new organization, with members from 19 countries, is more accountable to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, with the inspection team staff working directly for the United Nations rather than for their own countries as before.
It has been more than two years since American and British aircraft bombed Iraq after President Saddam Hussein cut off all cooperation with a previous group of inspectors.
Since then, Saddam has said Iraq will not cooperate with any new inspections.
If Saddam refuses to let the inspectors do their job, that leaves the United Nations with two options: Continue the present sanctions against Iraq or resort once again to military force.
Both George W. Bush's father, President George Bush, and Clinton have taken military action against Saddam.
If Iraq defies the United Nations again, it could happen right in the middle of the 2000 presidential campaign.
The Clinton-Gore administration would then be under political pressure to act forcefully.
If the Iraqi leader were to yield to U.N. arms inspections, Clinton's successor - Bush or Gore - could be confronted with the politically difficult decision of whether to go along with a suspension of sanctions.
Both presidential candidates would be on the spot to take a position during the heat of the campaign.
One unnamed "senior administration official" refused to rule out the possibility of an "October surprise" of American military action at the height of the presidential campaign, "should the Iraqis provoke it."
In the two years since U.N. arms inspectors were in his country, Saddam has had ample opportunity to begin rebuilding his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.
Earlier this month, Congress received a Central Intelligence Agency report that Iraq has already rebuilt its missile and chemical weapons factories since the 1998 air strikes.
That could be the basis for a dramatic surprise move against Iraq by Clinton before Election Day.
---
New U.N. Weapons Inspection Team Is Prepared to Go to Iraq
Washington Post
Tuesday, August 22, 2000; Page A20
By Colum Lynch Special to The Washington Post
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/22/122l-082200-idx.html
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 21-More than 1 1/2 years after United Nations weapons experts departed Iraq on the eve of a U.S.-British air bombardment, a new team of U.N. inspectors has been prepared to return to Iraq to restart the process of disarming that nation's weapons of mass destruction, according to senior U.N. diplomats.
Hans Blix, the chairman of a U.N. inspection agency established by the Security Council nine months ago to complete the disarmament of Iraq, has concluded in a report to the Security Council that an advance team of weapons inspectors is ready to go to Iraq, according to a U.N. diplomat.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has stated repeatedly that his nation has no intention of permitting U.N. arms inspectors back into Iraq. And the United States and Britain appear disinclined to threaten the use of force to compel Iraq to accept the inspectors, so it seems unlikely they will enter the country soon.
Iraq, meanwhile, has pressed its allies on the Security Council, principally Russia, to seek an end to economic sanctions. Following a meeting in Moscow between Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and President Vladimir Putin, Russian officials in New York said they had little hope that Iraq would agree to allow the U.N. inspectors back without clearer assurances that sanctions would be lifted.
U.S. officials have expressed concern that Iraq may have reconstituted its prohibited weapons programs in the absence of U.N. inspectors. And the United States and Britain are expected to cite the report's findings in urging the council's other key members, including Russia, China and France, to use their influence to persuade Iraq to submit to new inspections. Under the terms of a 1991 cease-fire agreement ending the Persian Gulf War, Iraq is obliged to provide full access to U.N. inspectors charged with ridding the country of long- and medium-range missiles and nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. In exchange for compliance, the council has pledged to provide Baghdad relief from a decade of economic sanctions.
The task of disarmament was carried out by the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) until December 1998, when the inspectors were ordered to leave by the commission's chief, Richard Butler, as the United States and Britain prepared to launch the air campaign against Iraq.
Iraq has refused to let inspectors return, citing reports that the United States used the inspection agency to spy on Iraq. Earlier this year, the Security Council created a successor agency, the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, to complete the job of disarming Iraq. Unlike UNSCOM, which relied primarily on personnel loaned by governments, the new agency's arms experts will be employed by the United Nations.
Blix is scheduled to discuss his findings with a panel of international arms experts, known as the college of commissioners, later this week.
He will then report to the Security Council that the inspectors are prepared to begin their work. The decision comes as a team of U.N. inspectors completed its final round of training in Maryland.
---
U.N. Readies Team to Check Weapons Held by the Iraqis
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By BARBARA CROSSETTE and STEVEN LEE MYERS
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/082200iraq-un.html
The United Nations has assembled a new team of arms inspectors that is ready to enter Iraq within weeks, raising the prospect of another confrontation with President Saddam Hussein over his weapons programs.
The creation of the new team comes more than two years after Mr. Hussein halted cooperation with a previous group of inspectors, provoking a diplomatic crisis that culminated in four nights of American and British airstrikes in December 1998.
Iraq has repeatedly said it will not cooperate with the new weapons commission, which the Security Council ordered nine months ago in the hope that it would resolve some objections the Iraqis, as well as the Russians and French, had about the previous commission.
One of the chief Iraqi complaints about the previous commission, headed by Richard Butler, an Australian arms control expert, was that there were too many inspectors from the United States and Britain, who the Iraqis asserted were really spies.
The new team, with members from 19 countries, is meant to be more accountable to the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan. All the members work directly for the United Nations, not for their own countries as before.
This week, Hans Blix, the leader of the new team, is to discuss the need for access to Iraq with a panel of international weapons experts who serve as the commission's directors. By Sept. 1 he is expected to report to the Security Council that the inspectors are ready to begin work and, barring a change in Iraq's position, to report that the Iraqis continued to reject new inspections.
But it remains far from clear what the United States or other members of the Security Council will do if Iraq refuses to cooperate.
It is also not clear how forcefully the council will push the new inspections, especially since its 15 members are sharply divided over Iraq and the broad economic sanctions imposed on it. Their positions are not likely to become clear until debates in the council begin sometime in September.
The sanctions were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. They are to remain in place until Iraq is certified as free of prohibited weapons -- chemical, biological and nuclear arms as well as long-range missiles. Last December the Security Council said it would suspend the sanctions if Iraq cooperated with the new team of arms inspectors.
Refusal by Mr. Hussein would leave the council no alternative to keeping the sanctions in place. It is unlikely that the council would call for the use of force, but in previous confrontations the United States and Britain have argued that existing resolutions authorize military action.
A confrontation would focus new attention on the Clinton administration's policy toward Iraq in the middle of the presidential election. That policy has come under sharp attack from Republicans and even some Democrats in Washington, who complain that President Clinton has not acted forcefully enough to force Mr. Hussein's government to accept the inspections.
If Mr. Hussein refuses to cooperate, the administration will be under political pressure to act forcefully. If the Iraqi leader reverses course, Mr. Clinton's successor could be confronted with the politically difficult decision of whether to go along with a suspension of sanctions.
Diplomats and other officials at the United Nations said they believed that during this year's election campaign, the Clinton administration is not likely to press for strong action, even if Iraq remains defiant.
But a senior administration official said the Iraqis or anyone else would be foolish to assume that. Although the administration has not indicated how it would answer new Iraqi defiance, the official refused to rule out the possibility of an "October surprise" of American military action at the height of a campaign, should the Iraqis provoke it.
"They will be making a severe mistake if they think an election campaign will affect how we carry out our foreign policy," the official said.
In Washington, administration officials said they would insist that Iraq comply with the resolution that created Dr. Blix's team or face an indefinite extension of sanctions.
"It's a mandatory resolution," Thomas R. Pickering, an under secretary of state, said in a telephone interview. "If the Iraqis don't comply, the sanctions will stay in place."
Under the resolution that created Dr. Blix's team, those sanctions can be suspended six months after the Iraqis fulfill a list of key requirements set by the inspectors and, ultimately, be lifted once the inspectors conclude that Iraq has come clean and dismantled its prohibited weapons programs.
The previous commission had a more comprehensive standard for declaring Iraq free of weapons before sanctions could be lifted, offering no interim steps like a suspension.
The new inspection organization is officially known as the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission. Dr. Blix, a Swedish arms control expert, previously served as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
This month, he completed recruiting and training the 44 inspectors from countries friendly and not so friendly to the Iraqis.
Dr. Blix said his first step would be to find out what had happened to several hundred sites inspected by the last commission in 1998, a process that could take at least several months.
The Iraqis have said they believe that the United States would never agree to a suspension of sanctions but would instead find another reason to keep them in place, making cooperation, in their view, fruitless.
Administration officials have long argued that resuming inspections in Iraq -- rather than resorting to force -- is the most effective way to combat Mr. Hussein's efforts to hold on to nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, as well as long-range missiles that could deliver them.
But within the Pentagon and the American intelligence agencies, there is growing concern that Mr. Hussein has used the prolonged absence of inspectors to continue those efforts. The Central Intelligence Agency sent a report to Congress this month warning that Iraq had already rebuilt missile and chemical weapons factories since the airstrikes in 1998.
The issue of inspections is only one area in which the international standoff with Mr. Hussein appears headed for a new period of confrontation, a decade after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait led to the Persian Gulf war.
In recent weeks Mr. Hussein has taken steps to ease his diplomatic isolation, receiving a visit from President Hugo Chαvez of Venezuela. A thriving black market is reportedly eroding the sanctions, while Russia, supported by China, is challenging the American and British patrols of the "no flight" zones in northern and southern Iraq, which were established to protect Kurds and Shiite Muslims from Mr. Hussein's government.
In the face of these challenges, diplomats at the United Nations and even some American officials say, the administration's policy has been left to drift. The American ambassador to the United Nations, Richard C. Holbrooke, has not involved himself in the issue. Mr. Holbrooke says he has been too busy on other matters.
"There's no doubt things are on autopilot," said one official in Washington. "And it might be an autopilot with a 10-degree downward tilt."
Several diplomats, including some from nations on the Security Council, said the administration had undermined its influence by openly calling for the removal of Mr. Hussein from power. That has given the Iraqis an excuse for dismissing the council's pledge to suspend sanctions if Mr. Hussein cooperates with new inspectors, the diplomats said.
The administration may find itself even further isolated on the council, since three countries supportive of the United States and Britain -- Argentina, Canada and the Netherlands -- will be among the five countries relinquishing their rotating council seats.
Administration officials say they have succeeded in containing Iraq by enforcing the sanctions and continuing to enforce the "no flight" zones despite repeated Iraqi provocations that have resulted in hundreds of limited retaliatory airstrikes since 1998.
When American and British warplanes and missiles launched a much larger attack 20 months ago, administration officials acknowledged that the attack would make it difficult to resume weapons inspections. But they argued that with Mr. Hussein refusing to cooperate, there was no other way to prevent Iraq from acquiring chemical or biological weapons.
"Mark my words," President Clinton said of Mr. Hussein at the time, "he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them. Because we're acting today, it is less likely that we will face these dangers in the future."
At the time, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and others also warned that the United States was prepared to use force again if there was evidence that Iraq had resumed its chemical or biological weapons programs -- or if Iraq threatened its neighbors or attacked the Kurds in the north.
James M. Bodner, the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy and a longtime aide to Mr. Cohen, said in an interview that the United States remained ready to respond if Iraq crossed any of those "red lines."
Administration officials said they had no concrete evidence that Iraq had restarted its weapons programs. But in addition to repairing the damage done in 1998, Iraq has resumed testing its shorter-range missiles. Officials fear that those tests, while not prohibited under the United Nations resolutions, have allowed Iraq to perfect longer-range missiles.
Despite that, the administration's warnings about Iraq's weapons have lost much of their urgency. In the fall of 1997, Mr. Cohen held up a bag of sugar on television and ominously warned that an equivalent amount of anthrax bacteria, which Iraq is believed to possess, could destroy half the population of Washington.
In recent months administration officials have made no such dire warnings, even though there have been no effective inspections in two years. At the same time, Americans have done little publicly to press Dr. Blix to accelerate the formation of his inspection team, which has proceeded slowly.
He began interviewing weapons experts in May, and those selected have completed a four-week training program. Dr. Blix said there are signs that Iraq is thinking over its next moves.
The Iraqis recently presented a legalistic analysis of the new inspection plan to governments of Islamic nations meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The memorandum suggests that the Iraqis still nurture hopes that the resolution creating the inspection commission can be rewritten. Russia has already called for changes, but United Nations and American officials have adamantly ruled that out.
Some diplomats say that Iraq may have calculated that it can bide its time, hoping for a better deal. Others say Mr. Hussein will stop short of any actions that would invite American retaliation, while trying to build support for an unconditional lifting of the sanctions.
"Right now, he thinks things are going his way," a Defense Department official said. "He's outlasted the Clinton administration. He outlasted the Bush administration. I think his perception is he can outlast them all."
-------- japan
Japan approves first nuke plant since worst mishap
August 22, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7874
TOKYO - A Japanese government panel yesterday approved the construction of a nuclear plant for the first time since the nation's worst nuclear accident.
Approval for the 1.373-gigawatt plant in western Japan is the first since an accident at a uranium processing plant north of Tokyo last September, in which two workers died.
That prompted the government to say in March it would review its nuclear policy and scrap its target of 16-20 new reactors operating by 2010, without forming a revised target.
Chugoku Electric Power Co Inc won approval from a panel including Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to build a third plant in the Shimane area some 600 km (375 miles) west of Tokyo.
Mori has the final say but is expected to rubber-stamp the plan within two weeks.
Construction is due to begin in March 2003, with the plant to be operational in 2010.
It was one of 13 new reactors planned by the major utilities over the next 11 years.
Japan has 51 commercial nuclear reactors which supply about one-third of its electricity, with four more of those 13 already under construction.
But a series of accidents has led to growing public distrust of the industry and a rising aversion among communities to have a nuclear power plant built on their doorsteps.
Utilities say the scaled-down plans reflect slower growth in demand, not public objections.
But in February, Chubu Electric Power Co Inc ditched a plan to build a reactor due to local opposition.
----
Farmers cannot live with U.S. bombs
Tue, 22 Aug 2000
JPS <jpspress@twics.com>
JPS 08-079
TOKYO AUG 22 JPS -- Residents of a small rural district of 62 households of Misawa City in Aomori Prefecture call the district a "Bomb Village." They are forced to live side by side with the U.S. Misawa firing and bombing range. F-16 fighters from U.S. Misawa Air Base, helicopters of the U.S. forces in South Korea, and aircraft from an aircraft carrier at U.S. Yokosuka Naval base near Tokyo converge on this training range to carry out low flying bombing exercises almost every day.
These exercises are seriously disturbing villagers' lives.
A villager said, "Taken aback by sonic booms, I fell down and hit my head against thee floor. I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance." Shock waves are so strong that ceramic rice bowls drop from the cupboard and break into pieces. A closet door came out of its groove, and bathroom walls had cracks," he said. Sometimes mock bombs are dropped by mistake on farms, rice paddies, and houses.
"I thought I couldn't live here anymore," said Takashi Harita, Amagamori Neighborhood Association chair. He decided to abandon the village when U.S. helicopters from South Korea carried out firing exercises at night right above his house.
Feeling compelled to move out of the village as a group to another place, Amagamori villagers made representations to Misawa City Office in May, and Aomori Prefectural Government and the Defense Agency in July, and their request has not been accepted so far.
Harita said, "It is very hard to decide to abandon the native village. We can get small shell fish in the river, mushrooms and wild herbs in a forest. If only U.S. Forces are not here, we can live comfortably in peace. But what we want to protect most is our lives".
Due to U.S. aircraft sonic booms and the danger of crashes and other accidents, 251 households in the Yokawame district of the city near the U.S. Misawa Air Base in 1996 together moved to the Otsu district, two kilometers away from Yokawame.
Naotoshi Ando, Otsu Neighborhood Association chair, said, "I was really angry at the U.S. Forces when I had to have my house demolished. I wanted U.S. military aircraft to end flying".
Yuji Sato, Akita Prefectural Peace Committee chair, said:
"F-16 fighters of U.S. Misawa Base are being sent to Iraq for 'policing.' Helicopters from a U.S. Base in South Korea carried out nighttime training at Amagamori because they couldn't use their training field in South Korea owing to Korean people's protest. What they are doing is nothing to do with the defense of Japan. Japan's government allows the U.S. forces to do whatever they want. Such an attitude of Japan's government must be completely changed." (end item)
-------- russia
Russian sub presents radiation risk
Washington Times
August 22, 2000
By David Sands
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-2000822222553.htm
Russia's leading environmental activist warned that the doomed Kursk nuclear submarine poses a major risk of a radiation leak in the Barents Sea, and said his country lacks the resources to salvage the vessel on its own.
Activist Aleksandr Nikitin, a nuclear engineer and former Russian naval officer facing treason charges in Moscow over his environmental exposes, made the prediction at a briefing here as Russian officials confirmed the grim news yesterday morning that all 118 crewmen aboard the 500-foot attack submarine had perished.
"Our worst expectations are confirmed," Mikhail Motsak, Russia's naval chief of staff, told reporters in Murmansk yesterday. "All sections of the sub are totally flooded and not a single member of the crew remains alive."
Even the confirmation of the deaths provided a fresh humiliation to Russia's military and the government of President Vladimir Putin, for which the days after the explosion that rocked the Kursk Aug. 12 have been an unrelieved public-relations disaster.
Norwegian divers, called in belatedly by Russian officials to help in the rescue effort, were able to break through a rear escape hatch in 36 hours - something Russian rescue teams had been unable to do in more than a week.
Mr. Nikitin, who incurred the government's wrath for his investigative reports on the nuclear risks posed by Russia's aging nuclear submarine fleet, said he believed the Kursk's reactors were shut down as the explosion rocked the vessel.
But the still-hot cores of the two reactors and the corrosive effect of the frigid sea water flooding the vessel make it likely that the protective barriers encasing the reactors won't hold much longer than a month, he maintained.
"These reactors aren't the size of a power plant such as Chernobyl, but you would be looking at significant danger here nonetheless," Mr. Nikitin said at a briefing organized by the American Chemical Society. Many U.S. military experts, however, say the Kursk's reactors may remain safe for far longer, citing U.S. and Russian submarine losses where no radiation leaks have been detected even decades after they were lost.
"It really all depends on what damage occurred to the systems at the time of the accident, which is something we can't really know at this time," said A.D. Baker II, a U.S. naval expert and editor of "Combat Fleets of the World."
"In past incidents of this kind, even in much deeper water than the Kursk, the systems have shut down and no major leaks have been detected," he said.
Norwegian divers yesterday said they had not detected any radioactive leaks so far from the Kursk, which is lying on the seabed off the coast of Norway in about 350 feet of water.
The divers reported that even the sub's rear compartments had been flooded with water, ending any chances that survivors could have fled from the explosion that destroyed the Kursk's forward sections.
"There is no hope for survivors. It has been determined it is time to terminate the rescue operation," said Lt. Col. John Espen Lien, a spokesman for the Norwegian armed forces.
But Russia still faces a massive technical task in either salvaging the sub or encasing its two nuclear reactors in an undersea "sarcophagus" to guard against future nuclear leaks.
And Mr. Putin and his government face domestic and international questions over their handling of the crisis, from the inconsistent early response to the accident, to the delays in seeking international help, to the president's own refusal to break off his Black Sea vacation to direct the rescue efforts.
Mr. Nikitin blamed Mr. Putin for not being more active in the early days of the crisis, saying the "Russian military mentality" all but forbade seeking international help in the rescue effort without the president's approval.
In a live televised address from the deck of a cruiser in the Barents Sea, fleet commander Adm. Vyacheslav Popov yesterday asked for forgiveness for not rescuing the sailors.
"We lost the best submarine crew in the Northern Fleet," Adm. Popov said, his voice quivering with emotion. "Forgive the children. Forgive your sons. And forgive me for not bringing back your boys."
Speaking on Russia's state-controlled ORT television network yesterday, Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev conceded that the rescue operation may have been botched, blaming in part recent budget cuts that left the navy short of divers and sophisticated rescue vessels.
Ilya Klebanov, Russia's deputy prime minister, said yesterday the country would seek international help in recovering the victims' bodies and raising the sub from the sea floor.
"It will be an international effort," Mr. Klebanov told reporters yesterday. "No one can do it alone."
The Russian press, opposition leaders in parliament, and the families of the sailors gathered in Murmansk were all harshly critical of the government's actions the past 10 days.
"They have killed the boys, that's all," said Yekaterina Dyachkova, a retiree in Murmansk, headquarters of the Northern Fleet, struggling to hold back tears. "The [navy] should have called for help immediately, but they waited for so many days."
Boris Nemtsov, a leader of the opposition Union of Right Forces party in the State Duma, said Mr. Putin's decision to stay at his Black Sea vacation cabin during the first week of the crisis was "amoral." His party and the liberal Yabloko faction called for an independent parliamentary inquiry into the disaster.
A poll of 500 Muscovites, conducted over the weekend, found that more than two-thirds disapproved of the government's tardy appeal for international aid, with only 17 percent supporting the government.
Mr. Putin remains personally popular, but fully 28 percent of those polled said they had a lower opinion of him because of the Kursk disaster. Asked who bore the most blame, 35 percent blamed the military leadership, 23 percent blamed Mr. Putin, and just 9 percent blamed the sub's commander.
This article is based in part on wire service reports.
---
Loss of Sub Crew Devastates Russia
NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2000
UPI
http://www.NewsMax.com/articles/?a=2000/8/21/220010
MOSCOW - The commander of Russia's Northern Fleet, Adm. Vyacheslav Popov, made an emotional televised address late Monday from the site of the Kursk submarine accident, apologizing for failing to rescue the vessel's 118-man crew.
"We lost the best submarine crew in the Northern Fleet," he said. "Forgive the children. Forgive your sons. And forgive me for not bringing back your boys," Popov said, then took off his hat and walked away.
It was an emotional end to the day's events, as the navy officially confirmed that the entire crew of the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk had died after the Aug. 12 accident in the Barents Sea.
Vice Adm. Mikhail Motsak, the chief of staff of the Northern Fleet, said: "Our worst expectations are confirmed. All sections of the submarine are totally flooded. Not a single member of the crew is alive."
As the news that no survivors had been found reached the relatives, there were heartbreaking scenes of anguish in the small submariners' town of Vidyayevo, where 400 relatives of the crew had gathered, hoping and praying for a miraculous rescue of their loved ones.
Russian television networks reported that as soon as the final statement was made, several women passed out, and a number of ambulances carried women with heart problems to the hospital.
The navy, which had not contacted most of the relatives while the rescue operation was continuing, chartered a plane from Moscow to Murmansk to bring 106 relatives to the northern port city, near the sub's base.
While it was unclear how the operation would continue, the state-owned RTR television network said the first corpse of a crew member had been found by a remote-controlled video camera lowered into the flooded ninth compartment of the submarine.
RTR said the body would be retrieved from the sub's wreck and lifted to the surface using a special robot arm.
Earlier Monday, Norwegian deep-sea divers opened the outer and inner escape hatches on the Kursk, finding the ninth compartment of the vessel flooded and concluding that all 118 members of the submarine's crew had died.
Norwegian spokesmen Lt. Col. John Espen Lien and Capt. Rune Fredheim said the Norwegian rescue team was calling off the rescue effort as there was no point in continuing.
"We believe there is no chance of finding any survivors in the submarine," the spokesmen said after the divers reported that the entire vessel was apparently flooded.
Russia has asked Norway to help recover the bodies of the sub's crew. A spokesman for the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said the request was being considered, but there had been no reply to Moscow's request so far.
The Norwegian defense attache in Moscow said Norway had agreements with many countries covering rescue work, but such an agreement had unfortunately not yet been signed between Oslo and Moscow.
Just hours earlier, Russian officials said they wanted to continue the rescue operation as there might still be air in the seventh and eighth compartments of the Kursk, but Motsak's statement means Russia has come to terms with the fact that the entire submarine is flooded, leaving no chance for any crew member to survive.
The last sign of life from inside the sub was made Aug. 14, more than 48 hours after the submarine crashed to the bottom of the Barents Sea.
The Northern Fleet's spokesman Vladimir Navrotsky said a remote-controlled video camera was being used to film the inside of the ninth compartment, where rescue teams earlier had hoped to find a group of sailors.
The rescue operation had earlier hoped to use a unique British LR5 mini-submarine to rescue any survivors from the Kursk, but the LR5 was never used because the landing area around the hatch had been damaged.
The Norwegian divers, working in shifts, manually opened the inside hatch.
They had hoped to find survivors, as there were bubbles of air rising from the inside hatch as they opened the lid into the exit chamber from the ninth compartment, but these hopes were quickly dashed.
As the rescue operation prepared to shift into a salvage mission, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who heads the government's commission into the disaster, said Russia would probably ask for international help in raising the submarine.
"We shall approach countries which have funds; not a single country can handle such an operation on its own," Klebanov told the state-owned RTR television network.
The submarine, which sank more than a week ago in the Barents Sea at a depth of 355 feet (108 meters), is 500 feet (155 meters) long and is now estimated to weigh 28,000 tons as it is full of water.
The submarine is equipped with two nuclear reactors, and their condition is unclear, raising serious environmental concerns.
Russia insists the reactors shut down automatically as soon as the accident occurred, but there are fears the reactors were damaged when the submarine smashed into the seabed, or that they may be damaged during a salvage operation as attempts are made to lift the sub.
Norwegian divers say they have so far found no sign of radiation leaks inside the submarine.
There is still no clear answer as to what may have caused such extensive damage to Russia's most modern submarine, sinking it within two minutes and killing most of its crew instantaneously as tons of water flooded the front six compartments.
Russian experts have voiced several theories, including a collision with a giant commercial ship or a foreign submarine, an explosion of a torpedo or a collision with a World War II mine.
The accident occurred Aug. 12, but, repeating the Soviet practice of delaying announcements of disasters, Russia did not reveal the accident until Aug. 14, calling it a minor technical problem, and took a further two days of futile rescue attempts before accepting international aid that had been offered as soon as the scale of the accident was clear.
Government Under Fire
The Russian navy and the government have come under strong criticism for delaying the announcement of the accident, for the way the rescue operation was handled and particularly for the delay in accepting foreign help.
Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, in an interview with Russia's ORT television network Monday night, tried to defend the military's handling of the rescue operation.
Facing mounting anger over the military's decision to stall in accepting international aid, and even calls for his resignation, Sergeyev said: "We can't rule out that some mistakes were made, but ... fundamental mistakes were not made."
Perhaps attempting to deflect the public's anger from the military, Sergeyev also latched on to a Russian theory that the submarine was sunk after a collision with another submarine.
Sergheyev told ORT the accident involved Kursk's collision with an "underwater object." He said Russia had not yet been able to identify the object, but had made a request to NATO for information on the presence of foreign submarines in the area at the time of the accident.
Last week, the British navy and the Pentagon said their submarines were not in the immediate area of the accident at the time, but Sergeyev pointed out Monday that "they told us if (their submarine had been there) they would never acknowledge it."
Earlier Monday, Britain's Defense Ministry swiftly responded to the implied accusation that a British submarine was involved in the Kursk accident, dismissing the latest report that a fragment of railing from a foreign submarine's conning tower was found on the seabed 1,100 feet from the Kursk's wreck in "categorical terms" and challenging Russia to produce proof that any part allegedly found on the seabed near the sunken Russian sub belongs to a British submarine.
---
Putin declares national day of mourning for Kursk crew
CBC News
WebPosted Tue Aug 22
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/08/22/kursk000822
MURMANSK, RUSSIA - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday will be a national day of mourning for the 118 sailors who died in the submarine Kursk. Putin will visit the Northern Fleet base of Severomorsk to meet with the families of the dead sailors.
On Monday, the news came that all 118 sailors on board the nuclear sub were dead. It sank after a catastrophic explosion on Aug. 12.
Several hundred family members are at the naval base where the doomed Kursk began its last mission.
They want to go to the site where the sub went down during a training exercise.
Criticism of Putin and the Russian navy has been strong both within Russia and in the international community.
Many are angry Putin stayed on vacation during most of the crisis and cannot understand why it took so long for the Russians to ask for foreign help.
In the Vremya MN newspaper, one headline read, "The reputation of the Russian leadership is lying on the bottom of the Barents Sea."
The Novye Izvestia headline reads, "Nine days of national shame."
Repeated attempts by the Russian navy to reach the submarine failed. Finally, on the weekend, Norwegian deep sea divers made it to the crumpled wreck and discovered the escape hatch in the hull was intact.
On Monday they forced their way into the hatch but it was too late - there were no signs any of the 118 men had survived beyond a couple of days. Most probably died in the initial explosion.
For the Russian nation, which had closely watched developments over the past week, it was a bitter discovery.
"Forgive me for not saving your sailors," the commander of the Northern Fleet, Admiral Vyacheslav Popov, said in a statement broadcast on Russian TV. The crew of the Kursk he said, was not to blame for the accident.
Prime Minister Chretien has sent Canada's condolences to the families of the crew members. Canadians, he said, "are deeply saddened at the news none of the crew is left alive."
The Norwegian navy has been asked to help retrieve the bodies of the sailors. Norwegian officials said they were considering the request.
An investigation is now under way to try to discover what happened to send the Kursk, one of the Russian fleet's most advanced submarines, and her crew to their deaths.
---
Sub aftermath igniting Russians The ability of foreign teams to achieve what the military couldn't adds to public ire.
Christian Science Monitor
TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2000
Fred Weir (fweir@online.ru) Special to The Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/08/22/fp1s1-csm.shtml
MOSCOW, Among military and government officials, all the old defensive habits came back. But the tragedy of the submarine Kursk has exposed a new Russian political culture, one where public opinion - nudged by an increasingly independent media - is emerging as a potent political force. Moreover, the culture is gaining so much momentum that it is likely here to stay.
The burning question on the streets of Moscow now, for example, is why Norwegian divers were able to pry open a hatch of the sunken submarine in one day, when Russia couldn't do it in a week.
Until last week, the story out of Russia depicted a vigorous, telegenic young President Vladimir Putin adroitly manipulating his public image and successfully muting media criticism. But that began to change with bewildering speed after the Kursk, a giant nuclear attack submarine with 118 sailors on board, sank in the Barents Sea 10 days ago. All of the crew is now confirmed dead.
The huge public backlash, prodded by reports on the Internet and radio, forced the government to change its position. For the first time ever, the Northern Fleet held a "live" press conference. The government relented and accepted help from the West. And Mr. Putin finally cut short his vacation and returned to Moscow.
"Crisis is, by definition, an abnormal situation that brings out hidden qualities in people," says Jean Toschenko, chief editor of the Journal of Sociological Research, a publication of the Russian Academy of Sciences based in Moscow. "The authorities initially neglected public opinion as a factor, which is what they have always done. But within days, they suddenly found themselves sharply at odds with an aroused public that was no longer willing to readily believe what they were told," Mr. Toschenko adds.
In Soviet times, all information was controlled from above and the media's role was solely to convey the official viewpoint to the people, says Toschenko. Though some Soviet citizens may have had access to alternative information through the social grapevine or by listening to foreign shortwave-radio broadcasts, there was no feedback mechanism by which informed public opinion could influence the country's political leaders.
That seemed to change after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and the media became at least partly independent. "Actually there has been little change, due to the financial dependence, corruption, and habitual subservience of the Russian press," says Alexei Simonov, director of the Glasnost Foundation, a private media watchdog group in Moscow. "But under conditions of cataclysm, suddenly the people are no longer passive. They demand information, and journalists remember their role is to provide it."
Public demands action
As the crisis began, the old habits of Russian officialdom were on full parade. "It's as if we were back in 1986, when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded," says Mr. Simonov. "They delayed reporting the news for days, then they told piles of lies. They blamed the weather, foreign submarines, everything but themselves for the bungled rescue operation. For five days they refused to accept any foreign assistance at all."
But this time something was different. A groundswell of public anger at the Navy's refusal to accept foreign aid in the race to reach the trapped Kursk was breaking through all barriers by mid-week.
TOP STORY: Soldiers read about the Kursk in a Moscow tabloid. MIKHAIL METZEL/AP
Some first appeared from directions that are totally new for Russia, such as the Internet and snap telephone opinion polls.
"I cannot comprehend our government's refusal to accept help from outside," wrote a woman named Yevgenia on a much-frequented Russian Web site last week, one of hundreds of similar comments. "Who cares about the military secrets, when the lives of people are at stake?"
A telephone poll conducted by the independent Ekho Moskvi radio station last Tuesday night found that 85 percent of respondents thought it was wrong to turn down foreign help. On Wednesday, the Russian government reversed itself and invited British and Norwegian rescue teams to the disaster site.
By week's end the mainstream media, which had begun by tamely relaying official statements, was loudly reflecting public dissatisfaction with the Navy's handling of the rescue operation.
And the authorities were starting to listen.
Igor Zhivilyuk is a military expert with Polyarnaya Pravda, a leading paper in Murmansk, the Russian city closest to the disaster zone. Mr. Zhivilyuk heads the paper's team of journalists working on the Kursk situation today, but recalls that he covered the Barents Sea sinking of another Soviet nuclear submarine, the Komsomolets, 11 years ago.
"In 1989, we were not allowed to write a single word about the catastrophe that was not passed through censors," he says. "Several days after the fact we published a bare announcement, with no details, and considered that very advanced journalism at the time."
When the Kursk went down, officials of the Russian Northern Fleet reacted exactly the same way, he says. "But then things changed. I'm pleased to tell you that last Friday the Northern Fleet held its first press conference in history. The admirals didn't look happy to do it, but it's clear that they were forced. Somehow the voices of the families, of concerned Russians, got through to them. It may be only temporary, but it's a big victory."
Historic broadcast
The Northern Fleet also was compelled to accept a single television crew - from the state-owned RTR network - to broadcast live reports on the unfolding rescue effort from the deck of the Peter the Great, the fleet's flagship. "That's another historic first," says Zhivilyuk.
The media has taken up the public case on another issue related to the disaster: President Putin's failure to break off his vacation at a subtropical Black Sea resort to handle the crisis.
"People at first didn't blame the president," says Toschenko.
"But they began to wonder why Putin wasn't showing the same anxiety and concern as all other Russians. They wondered why he wasn't coming on TV to inform about the situation. And for the first time, their anger started to be reflected in the press."
By yesterday, some newspapers were going beyond all previous limits to attack the president. "If the Kursk had sunk in the Black Sea, where would Putin have spent his vacation?" ran a headline in Moskovsky Komsomolets, Moscow's most popular daily.
"Now people are even talking about impeaching Putin," says Vladimir Petukhov, an analyst with the Institute of Social and National Problems, an independent Moscow think tank. "Although we have no scientific opinion surveys yet, I'm sure the Kursk affair has destroyed Putin's ratings. I'm not sure this sudden shift is good or healthy for society, but it is undeniably a reaction to the past."
Is the new dynamic here to stay? "I believe things have changed in the makeup of our society over the past 10 years, and these changes asserted themselves in this painful situation," says Zhivilyuk. "The authorities know they no longer have the option of remaining silent. And although they don't quite tell the truth, we actually have a dialogue with them. We must build on this, and try to make it permanent."
The URL for this page is: http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/08/22/fp1s1-csm.shtml
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Raising the Kursk Divers say it's too dangerous to enter the Kursk
BBC
Tuesday, 22 August, 2000
By BBC News Online
Kate Goldberg
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_891000/891156.stm
Russia must now decide what to do with the ruins of its devastated nuclear submarine, the Kursk, lying at the bottom of the Barents Sea.
The options are costly and complicated. It could take two to three weeks just to plan the operation, and is likely to cost in excess of $100m.
If they proceed too hastily, it could go disastrously wrong, leaking radioactive material into the sea.
The bodies of the 118 crew have not yet been recovered, and Norwegian divers say it is too dangerous to go into the submarine.
Appeal for help
Options for salvaging the vessel - and recovering the bodies - include dragging the submarine to shallower waters, refloating it, or sealing it off to prevent radioactive leaks.
Moscow is seeking international help in funding the operation.
"No single country on its own can handle such an operation," said Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who has been put in charge of the vessel's future.
With winter fast approaching, some experts say the vessel must be moved within the next month, before bad weather sets in.
However, others argue that it would be better to wait until next summer, when more information is available.
It normally takes at least three months for a submarine's nuclear reactors to cool down, and attempts to move the vessel too early could crack the hull, releasing radioactive matter, according to Nils Bohmer of the Bellona Foundation.
"It's vital to ascertain the condition of the reactors first," he told BBC News Online.
"I'm very afraid of any decision being taken to move the vessel when so little information is available."
The options
The Rubin research centre in Saint Petersburg, which developed the Kursk, is already studying ways of salvaging the submarine.
Refloat: The 155-metre vessel could be lifted with the help of cables attached to platforms or by giant air cushions, and then towed back to base, according to Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov.
Another radical option being considered is to strap balloons made of a special hi-tech fibre along the hull, and pump them with enough air to raise the estimated 25,000 tonne vessel to the surface.
The relatively shallow depths - of just over 100 meters - at which the Kursk is lying make the option of refloating the submarine fairly feasible, according to Paul Beaver of Jane's Information Group.
Chop up: If the Kursk is too damaged to stay intact, experts say the wreckage could be sawn into pieces to be hoisted individually. Or the reactor compartment alone could be lifted out - although this would again require special, very expensive, equipment.
Move to shallow waters: Alternatively, it could be dragged to shallower waters. This may be a short-term option used to recover the bodies before winter. However, the journey could still be dangerous.
Seal off reactors and leave: Some experts are saying that the safest option would be to hermetically seal the submarine, preventing radioactive leakage. The wreckage could then be left at the bottom of the sea.
The Russians have developed a special biological gel, which was used when the Soviet submarine, the Komsomolets, sank in 1989. The gel is said to block all cracks, and has the advantage of being lighter than conventional materials. Russian specialists claim that this material works effectively for 500 years. However, it is also very expensive.
Marine graves
The Kursk is the sixth nuclear submarine to sink since the 1960s.
Two of the sunken submarines have been American, the other three Russian - buried at depths of up to 4,800 metres.
Most of them have been left on the seabed because of the huge expense of lifting them.
---
Putin pays tribute to sub crew Britain's Commodore David Russell remembers the dead
BBC
Tuesday, 22 August, 2000, 16:01 GMT 17:01 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_891000/891509.stm
Russian President Vladimir Putin is visiting the headquarters of the Northern Fleet at Severomorsk to pay tribute to the 118 sailors who died on the sunken Kursk submarine.
He is expected to meet some of the bereaved families and visit the scene of the accident to lay a wreath on the waves of the Barents Sea.
Mr Putin has already decreed Wednesday a day of national mourning for the crew of the Kursk.
On Monday, the government acknowledged that all 118 crew members on board the submarine, which sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea on 12 August, were dead.
Russian and Norwegian experts have now begun a thorough examination of the wreck.
The troubled nine-day rescue operation ended after Norwegian-led divers forced open the submarine's rear escape hatch and found that the whole of the vessel was flooded.
Angry families Correspondents say President Putin can expect an angry reception if he meets the families of the crew.
More than 500 people mourning the loss of their sons, husbands and friends have travelled from all over Russia to Severomorsk and the naval base of Vidyayevo.
In Murmansk, a group of relatives speaking to the BBC attacked Mr Putin's handling of the crisis, and threatened to tear Mr Putin to shreds if they saw him.
Announcing the day of mourning, Mr Putin's decree spoke of his grief over the loss of the submarine's crew and offered condolences to their families and relatives.
The Russian flag is to be flown at half-mast throughout the country, while television and radio stations have been asked to drop entertainment shows from their schedules.
Correspondents say the announcement could be a move by the Russian president to divert some of the public criticism he and his government are facing.
Mr Putin has come under fire from the press for remaining on holiday as the disaster unfolded, while Russians blame the country's leadership for being too slow to seek international help to save the men.
His deputy Prime Minister, Ilya Klebanov, has hit back at the Russian media for its attacks on the way the disaster was handled.
He said the navy had done all it could to save the crew, adding it was shocking that some journalists had tried to make cheap sensationalism out of the tragedy.
Scouring the seabed
A Norwegian-led team of divers is helping with the Kursk inquiry, which will initially focus on examining the seabed around the wreck.
A small robot will help collect samples from inside the vessel which will be tested for any signs of radioactivity leaking from the sub's reactors.
The team has also been asked to help recover the bodies of the crew, but the company supplying the team says such an operation would be dangerous and could take weeks.
One possibility being discussed is to drag the sub into shallower waters.
The cause of the disaster is still unclear.
But Norway's military has rejected Russian suggestions that there had been a collision.
"There may have been an explosion in one of the weapons systems aboard, for example a torpedo, which then triggered a bigger explosion two minutes later," armed forces spokesman Brigadier Kjell Grandhagen said.
---
Rescuers find no survivors on sub Norwegian and British divers say the Kursk is completely flooded, and Moscow admits it can't handle salvage efforts
Oregon Live
Tuesday, August 22, 2000
By Richard Boudreaux and Robyn Dixon of the LA Times
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/08/wr_32subma22.frame
MOSCOW -- Russia gave up its 10-day search for survivors in a sunken submarine Monday after divers found the vessel flooded.
The disaster left the government chastened by charges of ineptitude as it turned to the tasks of retrieving 118 seamen's bodies and the warship's twin nuclear reactors.
"Our worst fears are confirmed," Vice Adm. Mikhail Motsak, chief of staff of Russia's Northern Fleet, announced to a nation still stunned by its deadliest peacetime naval disaster. "All compartments of the submarine are flooded with water. None of the crew is still alive."
"Mothers, forgive me for not bringing back your sons," Adm. Vyacheslav Popov, the fleet commander, said in an emotion-choked voice on national television from a missile cruiser in the Barents Sea.
Three hundred fifty feet below, Norwegian and British divers had pried open and entered the rear escape hatch of the Kursk at 7:45 a.m., achieving in 24 hours what the Russians navy had failed to do in the week after a mysterious explosion ripped the submarine open Aug. 12.
After hearing the divers' confirmation of stem-to-stern flooding, Russia asked Norway to take charge of extracting the bodies from their Arctic tomb. The Russian navy has neither the diving equipment nor the expertise to do so.
Russian officials also said they would seek foreign funds to help raise the mangled 500-foot Oscar II-class sub, which went down during Northern Fleet maneuvers with some of the navy's most advanced weapons and equipment on board.
Marshal Igor Sergeyev, Russia's defense minister, defended the military's failure to rescue the crew by saying the armed forces of the once powerful Soviet empire had been "robbed and stripped" in the last decade and were operating on half the budget they required.
He said he did not exclude the possibility that the military might have made some mistakes in the rescue drama. But "no principle mistakes were made," he insisted, and he argued that foreign assistance might not have helped to save the crew.
Russians, especially victims' relatives, have been anguished over sluggish rescue work, repeated lies by officials about the effort, inadequate rescue equipment, and President Vladimir Putin's slowness to interrupt his vacation or call for foreign help.
The speaker of Parliament's upper house called Monday for a parliamentary investigation into the disaster and the state of Russia's armed forces.
"The fog that was built up around this tragedy must be dissolved," said Sergei Ivanenko, another member of Parliament. "Society should know the answer to the one question that stands before it: 'Was everything done to save people?' "
Putin ordered his government to triple the amount of aid given to each dead sailor's family, to the equivalent of $450. He also ordered teams of psychologists to offer grief counseling.
And his defense minister, Igor D. Sergeyev, went on television to defend efforts by 3,000 Russian sailors to save the crew while acknowledging some unspecified mistakes.
Entering the vessel will become an exercise to salvage bodies, avoid nuclear contamination of the sea and perhaps clear up the mystery of what sent it to the bottom.
Amid an emotional debate on the wisdom of diving for the bodies, Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov asked Norwegian officials Monday to organize such an attempt.
The Norwegian government said it would bear the multimillion-dollar cost -- as long as Stolt Offshore, the Norwegian oil company whose British and Norwegian rescue divers reached the sub, accepts the task. Julian Thompson, a company spokesman, said the request was being studied.
"Safety is our overriding consideration," Thompson said. "There would be a lot of debris in the sub from the explosions, along with nuclear reactors and ammunition about which we have no detail. It would take weeks of planning to make a recovery mission safe."
Russian officials have suggested a precarious alternative -- lifting the submarine with giant pontoons and dragging it with surface ships to shallower waters for easier access.
Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov gave no target figure; some specialists say the task would cost at least $100 million.
One risk of raising the sub would be damage to the twin nuclear reactors that powered the vessel and, according to the navy, shut down automatically when the accident occurred. One risk of not raising the sub would be corrosion of pipes in the reactors' cooling mechanisms, which might set off a radiation leak.
Various theories have been offered about the cause of the sinking.
The official armed forces newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda speculated on its Web site Friday that a liquid fuel cartridge may have exploded when the sub's crew tried to fire a torpedo.
The paper said the Kursk's torpedo bay may have been carrying a new model of liquid fuel apparatus that sailors have criticized as dangerous to store and handle.
A team led by Klebanov announced Saturday that the Kursk apparently hit an object near the surface -- possibly a mine or a ship weighing 8,000 tons or more, and then plunged to the bottom and exploded.
He said the object could have been a foreign submarine, either British or American. Two U.S. subs and a British one were monitoring the Russian naval exercise from an undisclosed distance when the Kursk sank.
---
Submarine Mission Shifts to Retrieving Bodies
Yahoo News
Tuesday, August 22, 2000
COMBINED NEWS SERVICES
http://www.sltrib.com/08222000/nation_w/14744.htm
MOSCOW -- Russia gave up its ill-fated 10-day search for survivors in a sunken submarine Monday after divers found the vessel flooded. The tragedy left the government chastened by charges of ineptitude as it turned to the task of retrieving 118 seamen's bodies and the warship's twin nuclear reactors.
"Our worst fears are confirmed," Vice Adm. Mikhail Motsak, chief of staff of Russia's Northern Fleet, announced to a nation still stunned by its deadliest peacetime naval disaster. "All compartments of the submarine are flooded with water. None of the crew is still alive."
"Mothers, forgive me for not bringing back your sons," Adm. Vyacheslav Popov, the fleet commander, said in an emotion-choked voice on national television from a missile cruiser in the Barents Sea.
Expert divers from Norway, a NATO member, accomplished Monday what Russian rescue teams could not. Within 24 hours of starting work, they pried open an escape hatch. They then peered into one of the three compartments where Russian officials had hoped survivors might be hanging on against the longest of odds.
The divers found water instead. They found a body. And they found an end to a vigil that Russia had endured since word came of an Aug. 12 accident aboard the Kursk.
After hearing the divers' confirmation of stem-to-stern flooding, Russia asked Norway to take charge of extracting the bodies from their Arctic tomb 350 feet below the surface. The Russian navy has neither the diving equipment nor the expertise to do so.
Russian officials also said they would seek foreign funds to help raise the mangled 500-foot Oscar II-class sub, which went down during Northern Fleet maneuvers with some of the navy's most advanced weapons and equipment on board.
Russians -- especially victims' relatives -- have been in anguish over sluggish rescue work, repeated lies by officials about the effort, inadequate rescue equipment and President Vladimir Putin's slowness to interrupt his vacation or call for foreign help.
The relative speed with which the Norwegians gained access to the Kursk deepened the Russian people's bitterness about their own rescue mission.
"The Norwegians have done in a matter of hours what Russian rescue teams could not do in a week," a television correspondent in Murmansk said in opening his national news broadcast.
The speaker of Parliament's upper house called Monday for a parliamentary investigation into the disaster and the state of Russia's impoverished armed forces.
"The fog that was built up around this tragedy must be dissolved," said Sergei Ivanenko, another member of Parliament. "Society should know the answer to the one question that stands before it: 'Was everything done to save people?'"
Putin ordered his government to triple the amount of aid given to each dead sailor's family, to the equivalent of $450. He also ordered up teams of psychologists to offer grief counseling.
And his defense minister, Igor Sergeyev, went on television to defend efforts by 3,000 Russian sailors to save the crew, while acknowledging some unspecified mistakes.
Entering the vessel will now become an imperative exercise to salvage bodies, avoid nuclear contamination of the sea and perhaps clear up the mysteries of what sent it to the bottom. Moscow is seeking international help in funding the operation, expected to cost at least $100 million.
Amid an emotional debate on the wisdom of diving for the bodies, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov asked Norwegian officials Monday to organize such an attempt.
Julian Thompson, a spokesman for the Norwegian oil company whose British and Norwegian rescue divers reached the sub, said the request was being studied.
"Safety is our overriding consideration," Thompson said. "There would be a lot of debris in the sub from the explosions, along with nuclear reactors and ammunition about which we have no detail. It would take weeks of planning to make a recovery mission safe."
Russian officials have suggested a precarious alternative -- lifting the submarine with giant pontoons and dragging it with surface ships to shallower waters for easier access.
One risk of raising the sub would be damage to the twin nuclear reactors that powered the vessel and, according to the navy, shut down automatically when the accident occurred. One risk of not raising the sub would be corrosion of pipes in the reactors' cooling mechanisms, which might set off a radiation leak.
Various theories have been offered about the cause of the sinking.
The official armed forces newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda speculated on its Web site Friday that a liquid fuel cartridge may have exploded when the sub's crew tried to fire a torpedo. The paper said the Kursk's torpedo bay may have been carrying a new model of liquid fuel apparatus that sailors have criticized as dangerous to store and handle.
A team led by Klebanov announced Saturday that the Kursk apparently hit an object near the surface -- possibly a mine or a ship weighing 8,000 tons or more, and then plunged to the bottom and exploded.
He said the object could have been a foreign submarine, either British or American. Two U.S. subs and a British one were monitoring the Russian naval exercise from an undisclosed distance when the Kursk sank.
---
Russians Suspicious of US in Sub
Yahoo News
Tuesday August 22 1:50 PM ET updated 6:59 AM ET Aug 23
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000822/wl/submarine_suspicions_1.html
WASHINGTON (AP) - Russia's initial suspicion of a sinister American role in the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk is rooted in distrust of U.S. motives - distrust so firmly held that Russian officials still press for answers in the sinking of a Soviet sub in 1968.
Russian officials long have suspected that the Soviet sub K-129 was struck by an American submarine, the USS Swordfish. But the U.S. Navy says the Soviet vessel, armed with nuclear missiles and with a crew of 98, suffered a catastrophic internal explosion when it sank in the central Pacific on March 11, 1968.
As recently as last fall, Russian government officials complained that Washington was covering up its involvement. One accused the Americans of acting like a ``criminal that had been caught and now claimed that guilt must be proved,'' according to the notes of a U.S. participant in a November 1999 meeting on the topic.
The case is so sensitive that at least two CIA directors - Robert Gates and James Woolsey - met with Boris Yeltsin while he was the Russian president to review what the American spy agency knew about the sub loss.
In the case of the Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea on Aug. 12 during a Russian naval exercise, the Pentagon insists that no American ships were involved, although U.S. officials have acknowledged that two U.S. submarines were close enough to record the sound of enormous explosions aboard the Kursk.
While presenting no hard evidence, the Russian military command has insisted from the start that the most likely reason for the loss of the Kursk and its 118-man crew was a collision with an American or British submarine that survived and escaped. Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev went on television to air the theory, and Russian officers claimed fragments of a foreign submarine were found near the Kursk.
``The military still sees the West as the Cold War enemy,'' said Alexander Pikayev, a military analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Noting the lingering suspicions, Defense Secretary William Cohen felt compelled Monday to say ``there were no American ships involved'' in the tragedy.
That is what the Pentagon and the CIA have told the Russians repeatedly regarding the 1968 submarine sinking in the Pacific, but Moscow continues to insist that Washington is hiding its involvement.
When the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POWs and missing servicemen met last November, a senior Russian representative said more than 90 families of the lost crew of the sunken sub - known in Russia as the K-129 but classified by NATO as a Golf II - are waiting for information on their loved ones' remains.
The Russians believe not only that a U.S. submarine - the USS Swordfish, based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - collided with the K-129, causing it to sink, but also that secret U.S. salvage operations in 1968 and 1974 removed remains of crew members and highly sensitive equipment that went down with the sub - possibly including nuclear warheads.
Russian suspicions about the Swordfish are based on records indicating it underwent nighttime repair of a bent periscope at Yokosuka, Japan, on March 17 - six days after the K-129 sank. The U.S. explanation is that the Swordfish collided with an ice pack and was 2,000 miles away from the Russian sub when it sank.
Moscow has requested the Swordfish's deck logs, to trace its movements, but the Pentagon has refused. The Swordfish apparently had a hand in some highly sensitive operations before and after the K-129 incident. Navy records show that in 1965 it was awarded a Navy Unit Commendation for ``special operations'' conducted in the western Pacific in the fall of 1963 and 1964 and the spring and summer of 1965.
The United States denies any involvement in the K-129 sinking, although it has acknowledged that it salvaged some parts of the sunken sub. U.S. officials provided the Russian government with a videotape of a burial-at-sea ceremony for six crew members whose remains were recovered when the CIA-financed Glomar Explorer salvage ship recovered parts of the submarine in 1974.
Norman Kass, the executive director of the U.S. side of the joint commission, said Tuesday that all recovered personal effects of the Russian crew have already been provided, and nothing more can be done.
``We're at an impasse,'' he said.
---
Anger Over Sub Turns Toward Gov't
Yahoo News
Tuesday August 22 2:16 PM ET updated 6:59 AM ET Aug 23
By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000822/ts/russia_nuclear_submarine_131.html
MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin flew to an Arctic naval base Tuesday to console the families of 118 sailors killed in a submarine accident, but the gesture barely alleviated the nation's crushing grief and anger at the bungled rescue effort.
Former submariners wept in the streets as Russia mourned with striking openness over the loss of the Kursk, which suffered a massive explosion and sank to the Barents Sea floor Aug. 12. Candles were lit in Russian Orthodox churches, and condolences poured in from around the world.
Putin, dressed all in black, was greeted in Murmansk by somber, exhausted navy officials, then visited a nearby area where 400 relatives of the sailors are quartered. The families heard almost no official information about the rescue operation, relying on television for even the most basic news - including the announcement Monday that their sons and husbands were dead.
Putin - who has been sharply criticized for taking so long to show concern for the crew - was expected to go later to the ship that led the rescue effort and throw a wreath into the sea where the sailors are entombed in their wrecked submarine, 350 feet below.
Dazed relatives demanded to be taken the site, too. The navy was considering the plea.
Emma Yevdokimova, whose son Oleg was a cook on the Kursk, wept uncontrollably as she recalled how he helped her prepare the holiday dinner last New Year's Eve.
``When they offered him to join the Kursk, he was so glad,'' she said on Russia's RTR television. ``He was so good. He still is,'' she said, collapsing into tears as she added, ``I still don't believe that he drowned.''
Russians have assailed Putin for not canceling a vacation more quickly when the sub sank and the military for resisting foreign help.
Trying to divert the public anger, the besieged military has tried to lay blame on its former Cold War enemies - claiming the Kursk collided with a Western sub. The United States and Britain have denied having any vessels nearby and Norwegian divers who saw the wreck said there was no sign of a collision.
The top brass has a lot to explain. The media has blasted them for trying to hush up the disaster, then lying about it. Public anger increased when Norwegian divers quickly succeeded in opening the hatch Monday, after days of failed attempts by Russian rescue capsules to reach the submarine. It was the Norwegians who determined there were no survivors.
The world joined in Russia's grieving. British sailors and rescuers who had come to help in the operation but were never needed held a brief memorial service for the crew, throwing a small bouquet of flowers into the sea as they left the site of the tragedy.
``It is very sad. I think that is the feeling of the entire crew,'' said Commodore David Russell, commander of the British rescue team. ``Our mission was to help the Russians save lives, but I think it proved to be beyond everyone's capabilities.''
The Norwegian divers left the region later Tuesday. The Russian Navy was negotiating with the Norwegian diving company for help lifting the submarine and retrieving the bodies.
The flooded submarine weighs about 25,000 tons, and any operation to move it would take weeks or months and be extremely expensive. Removing the bodies would also be difficult, as many are probably badly damaged and would be difficult to pull through the ship's narrow hatches.
A former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Eduard Baltin, said Tuesday that engineers wouldn't raise the boat until next spring because the weather in the region is too harsh by September.
There is also concern about the ship's two nuclear reactors. The Norwegians recorded normal radiation levels around the submarine, though it was unclear whether the reactors had suffered any damage.
Putin declared Wednesday a national day of mourning. Television stations repeatedly displayed the names of the dead crewmen and showed old footage of the Kursk sailing out of port, its crew at attention on the deck. Film was accompanied by classical music and mournful folk ballads.
Russian newspapers said everything the government did was too late.
``It's time for questions,'' the daily Izvestia wrote in a lead editorial. ``What if? What if they hadn't lied to us? What if they'd invited foreigners without waiting for five days? What if we'd had the proper technology? It's too late.''
It remained unclear what caused the explosion in the torpedo compartment in the front of the submarine that crumpled the ship. The government's collision theory is that the Kursk ran into a Western sub, probably U.S. or British, that survived and escaped.
Analysts said finger-pointing at the West showed a mindset from Soviet times that remains in the military's upper echelons, where top commanders are now fighting to save their jobs.
``It's entirely a propaganda effort,'' said Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst. The top brass ``want to get out of the line of fire and direct it at their old enemy.''
Putin said that he wasn't going to dismiss top commanders over the Kursk, but the rising tide of public criticism could push him to order shakeups.
``Putin will only be able to prevent erosion of his own popularity by telling the truth and finding real culprits among the military,'' said Alexander Pikayev, a military analyst with the Carnegie Endowment.
---
Russia admits errors in deadly sub crisis
Shake-up likely for the military
Miami Herald
Tuesday, August 22, 2000, in the Miami Herald
BY DAVE MONTGOMERY AND BRIAN BONNER Herald World Staff
http://www.herald.com/content/today/news/world/digdocs/059441.htm
MOSCOW -- As Russia grimly accepted the fact that all 118 crew members of the nuclear submarine Kursk are dead, military officials admitted Monday that their rescue attempt had been flawed.
``Forgive me for not saving your sailors,'' the commander of the Northern Fleet, Adm. Vyacheslav Popov, said to victims' wives and mothers in a televised statement. He said the crew was not to blame for the Kursk's sinking.
A dejected and emotional Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev expressed condolences to the sailors' families in a Monday night interview on Russia's largest network, ORT.
``It's possible that we made mistakes,'' Sergeyev said, while complaining that meager funding had left the navy short of divers and modern rescue equipment.
``Our country has been robbed and shredded for the past several years, and the armed forces receive less than 50 percent of what the budget promises,'' he said.
HELP RESISTED
The Russian government resisted international help for days, even as its rescue capsules repeatedly failed to open the Kursk's damaged escape hatch.
The tragedy could erode President Vladimir Putin's political stature and shake up the top levels of Russia's navy.
The loss has provoked the biggest outpouring of anger in years as Russians assailed their leadership with recriminations that would have been unthinkable during the Soviet era.
Putin, who recently fired six top generals, is expected to try to deflect some of the wrath against him by ordering a shake-up of the navy. Military analysts believe that Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, chief of the navy and a friend of Putin's, and Popov are in danger of losing their jobs.
The Kursk affair also could hasten the ouster of Sergeyev, who has reportedly fallen out of favor with Putin in an internal military dispute over whether Russia's nuclear or conventional forces should get priority in the budget.
NINE-DAY SAGA
After capturing the world's attention, the nine-day saga of the stricken submarine ended officially Monday as Norwegian divers pried open an inner hatch and concluded that the submarine was filled with water and that all its crew members were dead. They also discovered the body of one of the sailors.
``Our worst expectations are confirmed,'' said Vice Adm. Mikhail Motsak, chief of staff of Russia's Northern Fleet. ``All sections of the submarine are totally flooded and not a single member of the crew remains alive.''
The 505-foot-long vessel, one of the newest subs in the Russian navy, sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea during naval exercises on Aug. 12.
ON SEA BOTTOM
The Russian Navy has asked Norway's help in removing the bodies and raising the sub, now lying 351 feet below the surface. A British LR5 mini-sub which arrived Saturday never participated in the rescue effort.
Norway environmental experts said there has been no radiation leakage but warned that raising the sub could risk damaging its two large nuclear reactors. ``A crack could expose the nuclear core'' and dump radiation into one of the world's most pristine fishing areas, said Thomas Nilsen of the Bellona Foundation, a Norwegian environmental group.
---
Grieving Russians turn gaze to Putin
San Jose Mercury News
Tuesday, August 22, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News
BY DAVE MONTGOMERY AND BRIAN BONNER Mercury News Moscow Bureau
http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/front/docs/russ-sub22.htm
http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/4/news/docs/030261.htm
MOSCOW -- Russia on Monday grimly accepted the fact that all 118 crew members of the nuclear missile submarine Kursk are dead in a tragedy that could erode President Vladimir Putin's political stature and shake up the top levels of Russia's navy.
After capturing the world's attention, the nine-day saga of the stricken submarine ended officially Monday as Norwegian divers pried open an inner hatch and concluded that the submarine was filled with water and all its crew members were dead. They also discovered the body of one of the sailors.
It was the world's second-worst nuclear sub disaster and the biggest peacetime catastrophe in the history of the Russian navy. In 1963, all 129 crew members died aboard the USS Thresher, which went down near Boston.
``Our worst expectations are confirmed,'' said Vice Adm. Mikhail Motsak, chief of staff of Russia's Northern Fleet. ``All sections of the submarine are totally flooded, and not a single member of the crew remains alive.''
``Forgive the children. Forgive your sons. And forgive me for not bringing back your boys,'' said the Northern Fleet commander, Adm. Vyacheslav Popov.
Russia is a nation in mourning. Grieving families gathered in Murmansk to be near the sub's home port for the final vigil as television screens across the country displayed the names of the dead, a roster that ranged from teenage draftees to career officers.
The loss has provoked the biggest outpouring of anger in years as Russians assailed their leadership with recriminations that would have been unthinkable during the Soviet era. Putin, who before the incident had soaring popularity ratings, now is widely vilified for his response to the disaster.
``By all means, the main blame for most people will ultimately come to rest on Putin's shoulders,'' said Alan Rousso, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center.
``The country can understand -- though not excuse -- a bunch of junior and senior officers for staring at their feet when there was trouble . . . but ultimately they'll hold Putin responsible for the way this happened.''
Behavior questioned
Putin has drawn stinging criticism for staying on vacation at the Black Sea for several days during the disaster and waiting four days to call in foreign assistance after Russian rescue efforts failed.
Although the navy's reports indicated that most of the crew apparently died during the opening minutes of the disaster, the delay in seeking foreign help seemed to many Russians a callous display of pride at the expense of the crew members. It also widely was assumed that Russia didn't want prying foreign eyes to see the Kursk's technology.
Putin responded to the criticism by returning to Moscow to supervise the handling of the disaster and by offering public condolences to the families.
But Rousso and other analysts say Putin has sustained lasting political damage that could ultimately weaken his control over parliament and make him more vulnerable to adversaries.
``It's very clear that his popularity is fading,'' said Yegeny Volk, the Moscow analyst for the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.
``His image of strength is challenged now and it will be very difficult for him to restore his high rating in the polls.''
Putin, who recently fired six top generals, is expected to try to deflect some of the wrath against him by ordering a shake-up of the navy. Military analysts believe that Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, chief of the navy and a friend of Putin's, and Popov, the Northern Fleet commander, are in danger of losing their jobs.
The Kursk affair also could hasten the ouster of Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, who has reportedly fallen out of favor with Putin in an internal military dispute over whether Russia's nuclear or conventional forces should get priority in the budget.
The government's response throughout the ordeal was riddled with conflicting reports that struck many Russians as an old-fashioned Soviet-style disinformation campaign. It also was widely compared to the secrecy that shrouded the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, Ukraine, under then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
``Ninety percent of Russians are in shock,'' said State Duma chairman Gennady Seleznyov.
``Everybody would like to know the whole truth, and the state of the armed forces must be looked into.''
The navy said the sub sustained an explosion at a depth of about 50 feet Aug. 12 and then crashed to the sea floor, igniting a much larger blast that registered the force of a small earthquake.
At least three and possibly more of the sub's 24 torpedoes exploded on impact, the navy said, ripping a gash in the double-thick hull and flooding the sub with seawater.
Report of foreign sub
Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov has said the initial explosion may have been caused by a collision with a foreign submarine. And Interfax, quoting a Moscow military source, reported Monday that a barrier from the tower of a foreign sub was found on the seafloor about a 1,000 feet from the Kursk.
The submarine was ``most likely British,'' the news agency reported, but the British military emphatically denied that a British submarine was in the area.
The 505-foot-long Kursk, one of the largest and newest subs in the Russian navy, sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea during naval exercises.
After repeated unsuccessful rescue operations in the storm-tossed Arctic waters, naval officials acknowledged Saturday that there was virtually no hope of finding survivors.
The Russian navy has asked Norway's help in removing the bodies and in raising the sub, now 350 feet below the surface.
Klebanov said the government would seek foreign funding to raise the Kursk and draw up plans within weeks. He gave no target figure; some specialists say the task would cost at least $100 million.
A British LR5 mini-sub that arrived Saturday never participated in the rescue effort and was sent home.
Norway environmental experts said there has been no radiation leakage from the nuclear sub but warned that raising it could damage its two large nuclear reactors.
``A crack could expose the nuclear core'' and dump radiation into one of the world's most pristine fishing areas, said Thomas Nilsen of the Bellona Foundation, a Norwegian environmental group.
Five other nuclear submarines, two American and three Russian, have sunk since 1963, and all were left on the seafloor.
Nilsen said regular monitoring of those submarines has shown no dangerous radiation leakage, but the long-term consequences over decades are difficult to predict.
``It depends on the damage to the sub and the corrosion process,'' he said.
Russia has given no indication of how it would raise the sub.
---
Why? Why? Relatives of Sub Crewmen Ask
Washington Post
Tuesday , August 22, 2000 ; A14
By Daniel Williams Washington Post Foreign Service
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64842-2000Aug21.html
MURMANSK, Russia, Aug. 21 -- Flight 54 arrived here from Moscow today carrying 100 relatives of the crewmen who died in the sunken submarine Kursk. The trip had been mostly quiet until the aircraft landed at this Arctic city near the sub's base and taxied to waiting buses.
Then one passenger, a middle-aged woman in a flowered dress, said loudly that no one had prepared the group for the terrible conclusion to the nine-day crisis, which ended today with confirmation that all 118 men aboard the Kursk had died while official focus shifted to salvaging the vessel and the bodies aboard from the bottom of the Barents Sea.
"No one told us anything all week, and now we are here. Why?" the woman asked, her voice filling the plane. No one looked her way. Her daughter told her to calm down.
"Quiet? We are always quiet," she said more loudly. "We were quiet when our children were dying in Afghanistan, and now we are quiet here. I'm tired of being quiet."
She and the other relatives flew to Murmansk on a chartered plane to wait--maybe for the bodies of their sons and husbands and fathers, maybe just for information. They had heard, before they left Moscow, that all aboard the sunken sub were presumed dead.
In the anguished days since the sub went down following an explosion while it was on training maneuvers, the families have waited, gazing at television, listening to the whipsaw assessments of government officials about the fate of the crew.
One day, there were survivors, it was said. The next day, officials said oxygen and power lines had been connected to the Kursk. A day later, it turned out that report was false. The crew had oxygen for two more days, a top admiral said. Twenty-four hours later he said they had a three-day supply. A Russian admiral visiting NATO headquarters in Brussels was even more optimistic, saying the crew had a two-week supply.
Russia didn't need outside help to rescue survivors, President Vladimir Putin was told. Russia had better equipment than the Americans, a deputy prime minister said, but the navy actually did not bring its best rescue sub into action until the last days of the crisis. Six days into it, the government invited Norway and Britain to help.
Angry questions dominated the in-flight conversations. "How did such a thing happen? That's all I want to find out," said Anatoly Pavlov, whose son, Andrei, was a senior lieutenant aboard the Kursk. "I could try to be patient for a while," he added. "I had to show a strong face to the family."
But his daughter-in-law Irina, Andrei's wife--now widow--was enraged. "Why did they say all those things?"
As the plane took off from Moscow, a woman fainted. Helpers from the Emergencies Ministry took her pulse and gave her water. The plane had been chartered by the Sovneft Oil Co., which offered free seats to the families. Hard-up relatives in all parts of Russia had been begging for money to make the trip to Murmansk; navy pay is low, and regular flights were full.
"You know, my son liked the service," Pavlov said. "He said the Kursk was the best there was. There was a lot of trash in the navy, but not the Kursk. Why? Why?"
Two women sitting in front of Pavlov, including the one who spoke out when the plane arrived here, began to talk. The outspoken one made a throat-slitting gesture. The other said, "Yes, I think they killed our boys. Why?"
The plane landed and pulled up to buses that would take the families to Vidyaevo, a residential community attached to the Kursk's home base, Severomorsk. Anatoly Pavlov winced as the flight attendant ended her arrival announcement with the airborne cliche: "Have a nice stay."
---
Norway Says Russian Sub Sunk by Explosion, Not Collision
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/22/late/22cnd-russian-sub.html
OSLO, Aug 22 -- Norway's military said on Tuesday that the explosion of a torpedo or another Russian weapon probably sank the Kursk nuclear submarine 10 days ago, rejecting Russian suggestions that there had been a collision.
"We have no indication there was a collision with another vessel," armed forces spokesman Brigadier Kjell Grandhagen said. Norwegian divers had opened a hatch on the Kursk and found it flooded on Monday, confirming that all 118 members of its crew were dead.
"There may have been an explosion in one of the weapons systems aboard, for example a torpedo, which then triggered a bigger explosion two minutes later," Grandhagen said.
Russian officials have said that the Kursk might have collided with a foreign vessel. Grandhagen said it was impossible to rule out a mine as a possible cause of the first blast.
"This is domestic Russian propaganda," Rear Admiral Einar Skorgen, heading the Norwegian team of divers, told the daily Dagbladet of Russia's collision theory.
Norway's intelligence-gathering Marjata vessel, which had been in the Barents Sea 10 days ago to monitor a military exercise involving the Kursk, registered two explosions at the site of the sunken submarine on August 12 at about 0730 GMT.
An international array of seismic monitors coordinated from Norway also registered two explosions, the second equivalent to up to two tonnes of TNT, at that time.
ROBOT CAMERA FILMS INSIDE
A Norwegian-led team of divers was preparing to leave the Barents Sea for Norway on Tuesday after experts sent a remote-controlled video camera into the Kursk to film inside the flooded submarine overnight.
"The Seaway Eagle lowered a camera into the submarine. The results have been given to the Russians," armed forces spokesman Captain Erland Raanes said. None of the divers went inside the wreck after finding it flooded.
The film could help later efforts to raise bodies or salvage the wreck. A British team, which provided a mini-submarine for the operation, was leaving for Norway on Tuesday.
The divers, who worked on the seabed 108 metres (354 ft) down, were to start a five-day decompression in a special chamber aboard the Seaway Eagle before their bodies would be able to breathe normal air at normal pressures again.
The vessel's owner, Stolt Offshore (SCS.OL), has expressed willingness to accept a Russian request to help recover bodies from the submarine.
Divers say it would be too dangerous to squeeze into the Kursk via the existing narrow hatch.
"We've not yet received a formal request from Russia but we will treat it seriously when it comes," said Bente Baerheim, spokeswoman for Stolt. "It would take several weeks to organise."
---
Putin to Fly to Navy Base to Mourn Sub Crew
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/22/late/22cnd-putin-sub.html
MOSCOW, Aug. 22 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will fly to the Northern Fleet base of Severomorsk on Tuesday to pay tribute to 118 sailors who died in a nuclear submarine accident, the Kremlin said.
A Kremlin spokesman said by telephone he could not say when exactly Putin would fly to the base.
Russian news agencies quoted Northern Fleet sources as saying Putin was expected to meet members of the dead sailors' families.
Around 500 relatives of the crew are seeking to visit the site of the disaster, which took place on August 12.
Putin has been strongly criticised at home and abroad for not breaking his holiday after the crisis broke and for being too slow in requesting foreign aid.
---
British Minisub Heads Home as Hope Dies
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/082200british-minisub-rts.html
LONDON, Tuesday, Aug. 22 -- A British rescue minisubmarine sent to help Russia's stricken Kursk nuclear submarine is on its way home after all hope of saving the 118 crew was abandoned, the Defense Ministry said today.
A ministry spokeswoman said the LR5 minisubmarine was being taken to Norway on board the Normand Pioneer ship and would be back in Britain toward the end of the month.
The state-of-the-art LR5 was part of a joint British and Norwegian mission which tried to help the Russians rescue the 118 crew members of the Kursk that sank more than a week ago in the Barents Sea.
But the LR5 was not needed after Norwegian divers found the Kursk had been completely flooded and that there were no survivors.
The British deputy prime minister, John Prescott, sent a message of thanks to the British team.
"The whole country is very impressed by the speed and professionalism with which you managed to get the specialist equipment to the rescue site," Mr. Prescott said.
Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, has been castigated at home and abroad for not immediately accepting the offers of foreign help that poured in as soon as Russia announced the Kursk was in trouble.
The British team was put on standby on Monday last week, ready to head to Russia at a moment's notice. However, it was not until last Wednesday that Russia acknowledged that it needed foreign help.
---
Oil Divers Reach Russian Submarine
Associated Press
August 22, 2000 Filed at 2:20 a.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Submarine-The-Divers.html
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- For the divers who plunged to the ocean floor looking for Russia's stricken nuclear submarine, it was not unlike an ordinary day on the job.
Except that on ordinary days, they serve the oil industry, finding, fixing or modifying just about anything that lies deep under the water.
A lot of the time, technological advances are driven by military needs, and only later find a civilian application. This time it was the other way round.
In roughly 30 hours, the team of four Norwegian and eight British divers managed what Russia's Northern Fleet had failed to do in a week. They dived to the Kursk nuclear submarine, opened one of its hatches and confirmed what had been suspected for days: that all 118 crewmen inside had to be dead.
Except for the tragic denouement, ``it really wasn't much different from what they do at the oil fields,'' said Julian Thomson, a spokesman for the company that employs them, Stolt Offshore.
The Kursk had been stranded under 350 feet of water in the Barents Sea since it sank more than a week ago. The Russian navy tried for more than a week to open its emergency escape hatch with one of its own miniature rescue submarine.
While the Russian navy complains of having no cash for rescue equipment, Norway, the world's second largest oil exporter, can afford the best, and has strict rules on offshore and diver safety.
``I think this is the first time that deep-sea divers have been used in a submarine rescue, and they have proven that they can be of use,'' Thomson said in a telephone interview.
The Norwegian news media have dubbed the divers an elite of heroes.
``That's stretching a bit,'' said Thomson. ``We don't really want gung-ho, John Wayne types. These are our regular divers, and all of them very experienced.''
Regular work for the divers can include diving under hundreds of feet of water to install or maintain the vast array of equipment needed to produced oil from under the sea.
``The divers are used to the enormous strain of extreme depths, right at the limit of what humans can stand, both mentally and physically,'' Bjoern Kahrs, who coordinated the dive from the mother ship Seaway Eagle, was quoted telling the Oslo newspaper Verdens Gang on Friday.
So the Kursk dive, the paper said, was nothing special-- ``like wading.''
Thomson said most of the divers are in their mid-to-late 30s, with 15 to 20 years of experience, and a background related to mechanical engineering.
The company has not identified any of the divers, but Oslo newspapers said the Norwegians were Jon Are Hvalbye, 40, Rune Spjelkkavik, 42, Paal Stefan Dinessen, 34, and John Elias Bjoerneset. They said the four have experience as military divers.
``They have a huge range of expertise and tools,'' said Thomson. ``These are excellent people to have on a job, because they can fix almost anything.''
Before descending, the divers go into a shipboard saturation chamber, where pressure is increased to deep-water levels and they breathe a mix of oxygen and helium. According to Thomson, the helium makes their voices squeak, and special training is needed to understand what they are saying.
They can spend up to 30 days in the chamber, working under water for about six hours a day, never alone. The rest of the time they can read, watch videos or sleep, but they can never leave.
For the Kursk effort, four three-man teams went down. Each consisted of one man in a diving bell that brought them to the bottom and two others outside. Umbilical cords from the bell to their suits pumped breathing gas and circulated warm water to keep them from freezing. A camera on their diving helmets transmitted pictures to the surface.
After the crew of the Kursk was declared dead, Russia asked Norway and its divers to assist in the grim task of bringing the bodies out.
Thomson said that would require lengthy planning, different equipment and another team of divers.
``We won't risk more human lives,'' he said. ``If there is a safe way of getting in and out, then we can do it.''
---
Russia Under Fire for Sub Disaster
Associated Press
August 22, 2000 Filed at 3:59 a.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Submarine-World-Reaction.html
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- World leaders expressed grief over the deaths of 118 sailors aboard a Russian nuclear submarine, but many observers criticized Moscow for seeming more concerned with saving face than saving lives.
Russian rescue teams worked in vain to reach the Kursk, which sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea after an explosion on Aug. 12.
Moscow didn't announce the accident until two days after it happened, then issued conflicting statements and refused foreign aid until Wednesday. By then, confidence that there could be survivors was waning.
``They handled it the way they did in Soviet times, with secrecy and not asking for Western help,'' said Camilla Crona, a 31-year-old teacher in Stockholm. ``They sacrificed (the crew's) lives, and if I were a relative I would have been very mad.''
In about a day, a team of four Norwegian and eight British divers managed what Russia's Northern Fleet had failed to do in a week. They reached the Kursk on Monday, 350 feet down in the Arctic sea, opened its hatch and confirmed that it was completely flooded with water and all aboard were dead.
Russian officials said most of the crew probably died in the explosion. But Europeans harshly denounced the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin for seeming too proud and secretive to ask for help.
``The children of the Kursk -- children because these young seamen weren't even 20 years old -- are dead because of the folly of a few men,'' an editorial in the French daily Liberation said Monday.
``What the Russians were not able to do for several days, (the foreign team) did in a few hours after they arrived, even though they were working with a largely unknown vessel,'' said Falco Accame, former president of the defense committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
British newspapers attacked the Kremlin on Tuesday for its handling of the Kursk tragedy and urged Putin to learn a lesson from the public outcry.
``Already the widespread anger over the Kremlin's callous handling of the disaster has sent a warning to President Putin that the Russian public is no longer the cowed and silent mass of Soviet days,'' the Daily Mail said in Tuesday's edition.
But Chinese President Jiang Zemin suggested rescuers were not at fault.
``I was pained to learn that because of irresistible forces, rescue work carried out with great effort by many sides was not able to achieve the desired results,'' Jiang said in a message printed Tuesday in the People's Daily, the Communist Party's main newspaper.
U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen expressed his sadness over the deaths, saying the tragedy struck a nerve for all service people. He added that a lack of commitment to Russia's military could have played a role.
``They haven't trained recently, they haven't had the equipment maintained as we have, they don't have the kind of rigor in their training regimes for a variety of reasons,'' he said.
In a message to Putin on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said ``we will, as your friend, do everything possible to help.''
``I support all your efforts to cope with this sad incident and pray that a tragedy like this will never happen again,'' he wrote.
---
Russia's Suspicion of Foreign Sub a Reminder of Cold War Chases
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By CHRISTOPHER DREW
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/082200russia-ship.html
Russian officials' assertions yesterday that the submarine Kursk sank after a collision, most likely with a foreign submarine, echoed the kind of suspicions that were common during the cold war, when on more than a dozen occasions, Russian and Western submarines banged into one another.
The Russians have long resented the fact that many of the collisions occurred in or near their waters and, in their view, amounted to hit-and-run jobs, as American and British spy submarines quickly fled to safety. One Russian submarine was so badly damaged after colliding with an American boat in 1970 that it almost sank, the Russian Navy contends.
Pentagon officials have repeatedly denied that any American submarine collided with the Kursk, which plunged to the seabed on Aug. 12. An intense rescue operation ended yesterday when the Russians concluded that all 118 sailors had died in the wreckage.
United States officials have said that two American submarines were in the Barents Sea to monitor a Russian naval exercise that included the Kursk. But they have said that neither submarine was close to the Russian vessel. British officials also denied any involvement yesterday, saying they had no submarines in the Barents Sea.
Since the cold war ended, the tenor of the cat-and-mouse game, in which the submarines chased one another to test the other side's capabilities, has grown less aggressive.
American officials even called Russian leaders to apologize shortly after each of the last two collisions, in the early 1990's. And given the West's efforts to support democracy in Russia, some naval experts said they could not conceive of a situation in which American or British officials would attempt to cover up a tragic accident now.
Norman Friedman, an independent navy expert in New York, said that he believes the Russian naval officials were trying to deflect the blame for their own mistakes.
Based on the evidence that has surfaced so far, he said it seemed "incredibly unlikely" that the Kursk had suffered a collision, especially with a foreign submarine. "There are so many other possibilities that you would have to rule out before you focused on something as strange as that," he said.
American navy officials and several experts have said that it was more likely that the Kursk sank after one of its weapons, like a torpedo, exploded on board.
Over the last week, Russian Navy leaders also have cited the possibility of a torpedo accident. Or there was a chance, they said, that the Kursk could have struck a floating mine left over from World War II.
But time after time, Russian officials have brought up the idea of a collision with a Western submarine. And the Russian defense minister, Igor Sergeyev, said yesterday that a commission of experienced navy officials had endorsed this view.
He said that after the Kursk shot a buoy to the surface to warn that it was in trouble, men on two Russian ships detected signs of a large underwater object "equivalent in size" to the Kursk. But he said a ship designed to survey the seabed could not find this object later.
Former submariners say that many of the collisions have occurred because submarines have to navigate by interpreting sounds filtered through their sonar equipment. When two boats get close to each other, even a small mistake by one in plotting the other's course can cause them to collide.
In most of the collisions during the cold war, the Western and Russian submarines sustained only minor damage, like scratched hulls. The Western submarines generally were under orders to remain undetected, so they never surfaced to try to aid the Soviet vessels.
In the most serious incident, the Tautog, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, collided in 1970 with a Soviet submarine close to Russia's Pacific coast.
The Soviet vessel, which was also operating under nuclear power, sustained so much damage, former American officials have said, that it was reported to President Nixon that the submarine had sunk. It was only in recent years that enough information became available in Russia to determine that while the submarine was severely damaged, it had limped back to port.
The last collisions between American and Russian submarines occurred in 1992 and 1993. In a break from cold war secrecy, both the Bush and Clinton administrations disclosed the accidents publicly.
Both presidents also reduced the frequency of the reconnaissance missions off Russia and ordered American submarines to maintain greater distances from Russian vessels.
---
Comrade Putin, Taken at His Word
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By MASHA GESSEN
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/22/oped/22gess.html
MOSCOW -- When Norwegian divers opened the emergency escape hatch on the sunken Russian submarine on Sunday, they had done in a day what Russian rescue workers had not managed in a week. The tragic story of the Kursk is only the latest evidence that Russia can no longer afford to maintain the technology created in the Soviet Union.
The Kursk was a quintessential Soviet creation, huge as the superpower's ambition, equipped to destroy entire groups of vessels many times its own size -- and, of course, top-secret. But we now know that for years the sub has been going to sea without even the required emergency food and water supplies on board.
The help of Norwegian deep-sea divers was needed because Russia has none of its own. Some say this is because the country has not developed the sophisticated equipment necessary for deep-sea diving, while others claim that ships on which divers would normally be based have been written off for lack of maintenance. In other words, the Kursk and nine other huge nuclear submarines could function only as long as they could avoid accidents.
But the Kursk tragedy has two main protagonists: the submarine itself and Vladimir Putin, who is facing the first emergency of his presidency. Like the submarine, Mr. Putin is a quintessential product of the Soviet era. The Communist state's ultimate ambition was to create a new type of man, and the robot-like qualities of Mr. Putin may be the predictable result.
In the rare interviews when he has discussed his own background, he has gone to great lengths to define himself as a man average in every way, taken along by the system and a remarkable fate that landed him in the country's highest office. There seemed to be a great discrepancy between his background and his high position -- and now it seems that, like the Kursk and its fleet, Mr. Putin lacked the resources to cope with an emergency.
Mr. Putin's statements about the Kursk have been meager. At first he said nothing and refused even to cut short his vacation. Then he made a brief statement that seemed to indicate that he considered salvaging the equipment on board Kursk more important than rescuing the crew.
Last Friday, on the seventh day since the sinking, when criticism had reached a deafening pitch, Mr. Putin finally decided to fly back to Moscow. Cornered in Yalta, he defended his decision not to fly immediately to the area near the disaster. "I think I did the right thing," Mr. Putin said, "because the arrival of nonspecialists from any field, the presence of high-placed officials in the disaster area would not help and more often would hamper work. Everyone should keep to his place."
The phrasing was telling. The words for "highly placed officials" literally mean "top-level bureaucrats." Mr. Putin could have said "executives" or "leaders," but instead chose words suggesting that he sees himself as a bureaucrat who should keep to his place, not a leader who should go where the trouble is.
It was leadership that the people trying to save the Kursk crew needed most. They needed a leader who, placing human life above all, would seek foreign assistance from the start, instead of refusing offers of help until after signs of life stopped coming from the sub. They needed a leader who would order the names of sailors on the sub made public immediately, instead of letting relatives remain in suspense until Day Six, when some journalists succeeded in buying the information from the Navy.
They needed a leader who would order that relatives of crew members be granted free vouchers to fly to the rescue site -- instead of forcing relatives to take up a collection to buy the cheapest available train tickets and undertake a two-day journey. They needed a leader who would break through the military's natural urge to err on the side of caution, which compelled the border control to delay foreign rescue ships for an additional six hours after they arrived in the area.
Mr. Putin has indicated that he knew from the start that most of the crew were dead and this was why he failed to shift into an emergency mode. If more people had been alive immediately after the accident, he seemed to imply, more would have been done sooner. This kind of mathematics betrays a perfectly Soviet disregard for the individual.
It is no surprise, ultimately, that at a time of crisis Mr. Putin demonstrated the cog-in-the-wheel mentality on which he was reared. But the Kursk disaster shows that Russia can no more afford a Soviet-era "top-level bureaucrat" in charge than it can afford to maintain its Soviet-era nuclear submarines.
Masha Gessen is chief correspondent of the Russian news weekly Itogi.
---
Putin Tries to Console Families of Submarine Disaster Victims
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By PATRICK E. TYLER
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/22/late/22cnd-russia.html
MOSCOW, Aug. 22 -- President Vladimir V. Putin met tonight with the grieving families of the crew of the destroyed nuclear submarine Kursk and promised to pay each the equivalent of an officer's salary for 10 years in a gesture of compensation, Russian state television reported.
In what appeared to be a closely controlled video account of Mr. Putin's journey, he met with Irina Lyachin, the widow of the Kursk's skipper, Capt. Gennadi Lyachin, his daughter, Dasha, and unidentified relatives in the captain's apartment in Vidyayevo, the home port of the Kursk.
Emerging from the apartment with Mrs. Lyachin, Mr. Putin motioned with his hand to a state television crew to stop filming as he descended the grimy stairwell in the apartment building that houses Russian officers and their families, at times without adequate heat and hot water. Some reports said there were frantic efforts to clean the town before Mr. Putin's arrival.
"Vidyayevo is a dead town right now," one young woman told state television earlier in the day. "The houses are standing like after a war. All of the windows are empty. Everything is robbed. The mothers are walking like shadows through the town. People are crying and the men don't raise their eyes."
Before he left Moscow, Mr. Putin declared Wednesday would be a national day of mourning and ordered flags to fly at half staff. Russian officials said he would fly to the deck of the cruiser Peter the Great to cast a memorial wreath of flowers onto the Arctic waters where the twin-reactor submarine went down on Aug. 12.
Russian media reports said tonight that family members had petitioned the navy to take them to sea also to participate in the Wednesday memorial and pay respects to their loved ones, but navy commanders were reportedly resisting this appeal.
Also tonight, Mr. Putin attended a two-hour session at a meeting hall in Vidyayevo, near Severomorsk, the headquarters of the Northern Fleet. Both cities are closed to foreigners, and the independent network NTV said its permit to enter the city had been rescinded, presumably to prevent its correspondents from covering Mr. Putin's visit.
From the video accounts on state television, Mr. Putin's exchanges with family members were mostly undiscernible.
"When will we get them back, dead or alive?" one woman was heard to shout.
"I will answer as I know myself," Mr. Putin was heard to respond.
The Russian leader, dressed in black, arrived on a military plane in late afternoon and was greeted by top military officials, as well naval commanders and Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who is heading the investigation into what caused the 14,000-ton submarine to go down.
The encounters with family members represent the most sensitive and politically volatile task Mr. Putin faces in dampening the current political crisis. Many family members have questioned why the Russian government and its military commanders were not able to assure the safety of their loved ones and why the navy could not rescue them when tragedy struck.
In interviews by state television earlier in the day, the wives of some Kursk seamen pleaded for international donations to continue the rescue operation in the hope that even one sailor might still be found alive.
"We were told that the Norwegian rescuers can't keep working because they are not being paid enough money," one unidentified woman said. "Maybe some companies, some big people, philanthropists, will help us by giving money and maybe in 48 hours we'll save these people, and happiness will come, at least one person will come out of this submarine alive and will tell the truth."
Aside from the compensation Mr. Putin promised tonight, the Russian government agreed last week to pay about $18,000 for all families' immediate travel needs.
On Monday the sum for all families was increased to $54,000. In addition, Boris Berezovsky, a well-known entrepreneur, announced Monday that he and other businessmen had raised more than $1 million to support the families.
Lybov Kalinina, the wife of Senior Warrant Officer Sergei Kalinin, said today that support for the families was badly needed.
"It was such a severe winter," she said. "We sat in one little room with the children, all dressed and freezing. Our men went out in the submarines," she continued, sobbing. "No one thought about how we are here, how we're existing, what we're eating."
Russian officials declared the Kursk crew dead on Monday after Norwegian divers opened a rear escape hatch and found the submarine flooded.
Though public opinion polls over the last several days indicate that 60 percent of Russians in the Moscow region have not changed their attitude toward Mr. Putin over his handling of the crisis, about 75 percent of respondents to polls have said they either disagree or strongly disagree with Russia's four-day delay in accepting Western assistance in the rescue operation. Still voices on the country's airwaves, and in the streets, have radiated anger and frustration.
Mr. Putin did not travel to Severomorsk with his usual contingent of Russian news organizations. His advisers fear that emotional outbursts and recriminations directed at Mr. Putin and broadcast to the nation might prolong the crisis and perhaps threaten his political agenda.
Hours before Mr. Putin arrived, Norwegian and British deep sea divers abandoned their search and rescue work on the wrecked and flooded hull,but said they might return with different equipment if they can settle on a contract with Russian officials. That contract would cover the cost of penetrating the hull in a complex operation to recover remains of the crew.
Russian navy officials offered to cut giant holes in the hull of the Kursk in order to make entry to the vessel easier and safer for the divers.
In a statement today, Adm. Viktor Kravchenko, navy chief of staff, said the navy was committed to "carrying out this operation until the last seaman's body has been recovered from the submarine's compartments."
Deputy Prime Minister Aleksei Kudrin said the Russian government was prepared to pay the full cost of recovering the crew and salvaging the submarine. So far the operation has cost an estimated $100 million.
Meanwhile, an executive of the Norwegian firm whose divers finally managed to open a rear hatch on the Kursk said in Oslo that the company would assist the Russian Navy in studying options for raising the vessel.
"We have agreed to help the Russians look at ways of recovering the bodies of salvaging the Kursk," Julian Thomson of Stolt Offshore told reporters today. On the difficult task of raising the damaged vessel, he added, "there are dangers. It would be very hazardous," citingo unexploded munitions, internal damage and potential radiation leaks from the nuclear reactors on board. He said planning was likely to take weeks.
Environmental organizations today urged Russia to move quickly to salvage Kursk's two atomic reactors because of the threat of radiation leakage in the Barents Sea and its abundant fishing grounds. Experts in both the American and Russian navies asserted that Kursk's reactor compartment would adequately contain any radiation leakage for years, but Aleksandr Nikitin, a former Russian naval officer who disclosed the dumping of radioactive wastes at sea by the Russian navy, warned Monday that the Kursk's reactors could begin leaking radiation in a matter of weeks.
With winter approaching in the Arctic waters, there were conflicting estimates of whether Russia would be able to accomplish the crew recovery and salvage this fall, before fierce storms and ice floes set in.
The former chief of rescue operations of the Baltic Fleet said today that such a weight has never been lifted anywhere ever.
The mystery of why the Kursk sank remains unsolved, but there is no shortage of theories. Debate continues over whether the explosions on board were caused by a collision with a unknown craft.
Aleksandr Rutskoi, former vice president and now governor of the Kursk region, for which the submarine is named, asserted today that the attack boat was carrying an experimental torpedo that was to be test fired during maneuvers.
The Kursk had on board a "new torpedo and two civilian engineers," he said. "It is necessary to investigate this aspect, and if a new torpedo was really being tested on the submarine, it is a crime."
The leadership of the Chechen rebellion in southern Russia offered its own explanation today, suggesting that a "kamikaze" fighter from the Northern Caucasus was among the crew and triggered the disaster.
Also today, Mr. Klebanov lashed out at critics for "trying to make a cheap sensation out of this common tragedy."
"The only truth today," he said, "is that a powerful and dynamic external blow" remains the "most probable explanation" for the sinking.
---
'None of the Crew Is Still Alive'
Russian Sub Found Flooded; Focus Shifts to Raising Vessel
Washington Post
Tuesday, August 22, 2000; Page A01
By Daniel Williams Washington Post Foreign Service
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/22/094l-082200-idx.html
MURMANSK, Russia, Aug. 21 - Norwegian divers peering into the flooded hull of the submarine Kursk early today concluded that all 118 crew members had died, closing a weeklong drama over the fate of the crew and turning Russian officials to the question of whether to raise the nuclear-powered vessel from its resting place on the floor of the Barents Sea.
"The divers have determined that the entire submarine is full of water. That is sad. That in practice means the rescue effort is over," said Capt. Rune Fredheim, a Norwegian naval spokesman. A few hours later, Adm. Mikhail Motsak, the chief of staff of Russia's Northern Fleet, confirmed the news. "All the compartments are flooded. None of the crew is still alive," he said.
Russian officials have asked for international aid to help salvage the Kursk, the most modern submarine in the Russian fleet. Some environmentalists have endorsed raising the 490-foot vessel from its depth of 350 feet; others say such an effort could further damage the sub and disturb its two nuclear reactors. Russian and Norwegian officials have said no radiation has been detected leaking from the reactors, which were shut down immediately after a mysterious explosion tore apart and sank the submarine during a training exercise more than a week ago.
While the future of the Kursk remains uncertain, today's events deepened many Russians' sense of grief and anger over the government's failed rescue efforts. Speaking from aboard a navy cruiser at the scene of the disaster, the commander of the Northern Fleet, Adm. Vyacheslav Popov, addressed that anger as he expressed regret that rescue attempts involving some 3,000 Russian sailors had not succeeded.
"We lost the best submarine crew in the Northern Fleet," he said in remarks broadcast live on state television, his voice quivering with emotion. "Forgive the children; forgive your sons. And forgive me for not bringing back your boys."
Despite a week of Russian efforts to reach the crew, it was a team of three Norwegian divers that managed after 24 hours to open an outer escape hatch on the rear deck of the Kursk at 7:45 a.m. today. The divers found water in the air lock between the outer and inner hatches. By 1 p.m., they opened the inner hatch and reported that the entire submarine was flooded.
The divers poked a video camera through the hatch and, according to some commentators, it showed the body of a drowned sailor who had apparently tried to open the hatch, perhaps in a desperate attempt to swim to the surface. The corpse was not clearly visible in video excerpts shown on television.
Russian officials said the rest of the vessel would be inspected, but it was unclear whether the Norwegian divers would conduct the work. Northern Fleet spokesman Vladimir Navrotsky said the dive team was still working this evening, but Russian officials told the Interfax news agency earlier that the Norwegians would not be permitted to enter the submarine without the express permission of the Russian navy, perhaps out of concerns for secrecy.
The loss of all hands on the Kursk was foreshadowed early. Even before the second hatch was opened, a decision was made not to deploy the LR5 rescue submarine sent by Britain--a sign that rescue was not likely. Russian officials concluded that the Kursk was flooded and that there would be no survivors to bring to the surface.
Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said the government's efforts are now shifting to salvaging the 14,000-ton Kursk, and he reiterated that Russia would need foreign aid for the complex task. "Not a single country on its own can handle such an operation," Klebanov said.
Recovering the nuclear reactors could put new time pressure on Russia's navy. Aleksandr Nikitin, an environmentalist and former Russian navy captain, said that salt water, water pressure and heat from the reactors could cause radioactive leaks in as little as a month if the sub is not salvaged.
"So far, there have been no [radioactive] emissions or radioactive leaks," Nikitin told reporters at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington. "But in my opinion the sub has to be salvaged from the sea bed or else we'll have the emission of radioactivity in the future."
Nikitin, who was imprisoned for two years for publicizing "state secrets" about the Russian navy's dumping of radioactive materials, added that it would be impossible to raise the reactors separately and that the weather in the Arctic region where the Kursk went down will turn significantly worse in a month or so. The sub's reactors are much smaller than those used in power plants, and, unlike the reactors at the Chernobyl power plant, have extra layers of protection. But Nikitin said that with the hull of the sub breached and flooded "there is danger of a leak" that would contaminate Barents Sea waters and aquatic life and ultimately endanger human health.
The challenge of dealing with the sub will come at a time when the credibility of the government has been severely damaged. Public recrimination has been building in the nine days since the Kursk sank, as the government refused initially to seek outside help to try to reach any survivors and delayed using its most sophisticated undersea rescue craft. Seventy percent of Muscovites polled over the weekend said the government was wrong to turn down foreign help; a quarter of the respondents blamed President Vladimir Putin.
The Norwegian and British rescue teams arrived Saturday, three days after Putin reversed himself and agreed to accept foreign help. The specially trained Norwegian divers succeeded--in a day and a half--in accomplishing what the Russians had failed to do in a week. Their ability to enter the Kursk is sure to raise questions about why Russia did not use its own divers, either military or commercial, or seek foreign help sooner.
Beyond the immediate disaster, the inability of Russian rescuers to gain entry to the Kursk raised questions about the readiness of the entire fleet. The exact whereabouts of Russian navy divers during the crisis was in dispute; the Northern Fleet chief of staff, Adm. Mikhail Motsak, said that some were under contract to private oil companies, helping to repair ships. "We earn money wherever we can," he said.
Other officials said the navy's rescue units had been disbanded in 1995 in a cost-cutting move; still others said that rescuers were on duty in the Pacific Ocean and Black Sea but had not been called to the site of the sinking. Two Northern Fleet rescue vessels, the Titov and the Pamir, were unable to leave port because they needed repairs, Motsak said.
In the face of harsh criticism that its dealings with families of Kursk crewmen had been callous, Putin's government ordered a hospital ship that had been standing by to treat possible survivors to treat grieving relatives instead. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov also increased the amount of expense money he said was available to feed and house families gathering at the Kursk's home port from $20,000 to $60,000.
Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev defended Russia's failure to save the crew, acknowledging only the possibility of minor mistakes in the rescue effort. "We cannot rule out that some mistakes were made, but I think, perhaps still in the heat of the moment, that fundamental mistakes were not made," Sergeyev said in an interview with ORT television.
Staff writer Steven Mufson in Washington contributed to this report.
---
Bad News From Russia
Washington Post
Tuesday, August 22, 2000; Page C13
TODAY'S News From staff and wire reports
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/22/085l-082200-idx.html
* Norwegian divers reached the inside of a crippled Russian submarine yesterday and found it already full of water and all 118 sailors dead.
Desperate attempts to rescue the crew began last week, after an explosion ripped through the Kursk and it sank more than 300 feet in the Barents Sea. For days, sounds coming from the sub suggested at least some inside were still alive, but by early last week those sounds had stopped.
The Russian government has been criticized for moving slowly to begin the rescue, for waiting too long to ask for international help, and for giving false information about the Aug. 12 accident.
Yesterday, Russian officials said they plan to salvage the sub and its two nuclear reactors, a massive and complicated job.
---
Budget Cutbacks Blamed by Russian in Fiasco With Sub
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By PATRICK E. TYLER
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/082200russia-sub.html
MOSCOW, Aug. 21 -- Speaking in somber tones and at times struggling for words, Russia's defense minister, Marshal Igor D. Sergeyev, offered a defense tonight of the military's failure to rescue the crew of the stricken nuclear submarine Kursk. In a nationally televised interview, he told Russians that the armed forces of the once-powerful Soviet empire had been "robbed and stripped" in the last decade and were operating on half the budget they required.
After divers finally gained entry to the wreck of the nuclear submarine Kursk today and declared it flooded and its 118-member crew dead, the 68-year-old Marshal Sergeyev said he did not rule out the possibility that the military might have made mistakes in the rescue attempts. But he insisted that "no fundamental mistakes" had been made, and argued that foreign assistance might not have helped to save the crew.
The Kursk went down in 350 feet of water after unexplained but powerful explosions sundered its hull during military exercises in the Barents Sea on Aug. 12. Russian officials are investigating whether it was involved in a collision with an unidentified vessel, or perhaps struck a World War II mine or was scuttled by some internal defect.
In a day marked by expressions of remorse, confession and resolution to solve the mysteries of the sinking of one of Russia's most advanced warships, the commander of the Northern Fleet, Adm. Vyacheslav Popov, went on television to ask forgiveness.
"We lost the best submarine crew in the Northern Fleet," he said, adding, with eyes cast downward: "Forgive the children. Forgive your sons. And forgive me for not bringing back your boys."
Marshal Sergeyev's remarks were less contrite, and seemed in part an attempt to quell the political storm that the incident has wreaked on the government of President Vladimir V. Putin. The authorities have been critized for their failure to make a more timely request for Western assistance -- and for withholding or perhaps distorting information about the circumstances of the sinking and the condition of the sailors trapped in the submarine's nine compartments.
And with fresh assertions that a foreign submarine was possibly involved in a collision with the Kursk, Russian officials betrayed some of the frustration and mistrust that were the hallmark of the cold war, even as an extraordinary collaboration among British, Norwegian and Russian sailors unfolded in the Arctic sea famous as a secret venue for rival fleets.
Marshal Sergeyev said that on Aug. 13, more than a day after the explosions, a second submerged object, probably a submarine, was detected lying near the Kursk. He also said Russian lookouts on two ships had observed a signal buoy, not of Russian origin, of the type Western fleets use to send emergency messages by satellite to their command bases.
Mr. Putin, who remained on vacation at a Black Sea resort during most of the frantic rescue operation, did not appear in public today. But Marshal Sergeyev announced in the television interview that all submarines of the Kursk's class would stay in port until it was determined what caused the explosions that sent the ship crashing into the seabed during missile- and torpedo-firing maneuvers.
"It is not impossible that some mistakes were made," the marshal said, "but it seems to me now that in the heat of the action, no fundamental mistakes were made."
Nonetheless, he added, "we have to rise above emotions, and coldly and scrupulously investigate all the decisions that were made and how they were carried out," however "serious the consequences."
He said "the whole reason" why Russia lacked deep-sea-diving and rescue equipment in the Northern Fleet was the dire state of funding.
Mark Kramer, a Russian specialist at the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University, agreed with this assessment. "The navy is really in decrepit shape," he said. "A lot of the best people have been leaving because they don't get paid. Only a tiny percentage of the navy is at sea at any one time." He added that most ships were "in repairs or left in port to rust."
Russian sailors are paid $50 to $90 per month, and last winter, schools in naval towns reported 40-degree temperatures in classrooms because of chronic power interruptions.
The end of the rescue operation today followed a day of fruitless attempts to open the rear escape hatch on the Kursk. This morning, a plan to pull the hatch off by force using a crane was deferred as Norwegian divers descended again and succeeded. They first opened the outer hatch to the escape chamber, which was flooded and held no signs of life. They then opened the inner hatch to the ninth compartment and found it flooded also. The body of a Russian sailor was reported to be just inside.
"We have found that the whole submarine is full of water," a Norwegian military spokesman, John Epsen Lien, said in Oslo.
Russia requested that Norway help recover the bodies, but the owners of the diving vessel, Stolt Offshore, said it might be too dangerous for their men to enter the ship. Russian navy officials said they would try to negotiate a contract to carry out the recovery.
"We shall cooperate with the Norwegians as before," said Vice Adm. Mikhail Motsak, chief of staff of the northern fleet.
In response to criticism that Russian officials waited too long to seek Western assistance, Marshal Sergeyev said that as soon as it became apparent last Wednesday that the Russian Navy desperately needed help to open an escape hatch, he personally made the "political decision," on the recommendation of Navy Commander Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov, to ask for help and then informed Mr. Putin, who concurred.
Marshal Sergeyev also said Russian military and civilian leaders strongly suspected that the Kursk had collided with another submarine, which suffered severe damage but eventually managed to escape.
He said a submerged shape was detected lying near the Kursk about the time that Russian vessels were identifying its shattered hull, on the evening of Aug. 13 -- more than 30 hours after Western sensors detected the two explosions.
Russian lookouts observed the Western signal buoy, but attempts to retrieve it failed in high seas, he said. His comments confirmed a report Friday from a Russian television correspondent, Arkady Mamontov, who said that military officials told him that the mystery buoy was green and white. Russian emergency buoys, he said, were red and white.
At the same time that lookouts spotted the signal buoy, Marshal Sergeyev said, arriving Russian warships detected and "directly observed the object itself on the bottom of the ocean that was of equal height of our submarine. This is a fact." Marshal Sergeyev then ordered the navy to send a "hydrographic vessel with more powerful equipment" to search for the mystery ship near the Kursk, "but this object was not found."
It appeared from his remarks that in the early stages of the rescue operation, Russian Navy officials were not only organizing the attempted rescue of the Kursk crew, but also seeking a foreign submarine that they suspected in the collision.
The Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified military official in Moscow today as saying that an object resembling "the barrier of a foreign submarine tower" had been discovered lying on the seabed less than 1,000 feet from the Kursk. The official said it was "premature to draw any conclusions before studying the object," which "may have been lying on the bed of the Barents Sea for a long time." But the statement offered another confirmation that the Russian military is actively scouring the seabed for evidence that might shed light on its collision theory.
The American and British governments have categorically denied that any of their submarines or surface vessels were involved in a collision with the Russian vessel. But it was also apparent that both governments were withholding information under their own longstanding refusal to comment on submarine spying operations directed at the Russian fleet.
When Russian officials at NATO headquarters inquired whether "even one ship was there where the accident took place, they told us no, there were no NATO ships there," the official said, adding that Russian officials had reported back that they overheard "conversation that if this incident had happened," NATO officials "would never acknowledge it."
Andrei A. Kokoshin, national security adviser to former President Boris N. Yeltsin, said in an interview today that "there were many cases" in the past decade "when our submarines in the region and foreign subs were coming too close to each other and we raised complaints several times to the Americans and some other Western countries, even to the point of proposing that there should be some rules established for this kind of behavior."
Mr. Kokoshin, now a member of parliament who has joined those calling for a parliamentary investigation into the sinking, said Russia owed a great debt to Norway and Britain for their help in the rescue attempts. But he added that even if the investigation proved that the Kursk was not involved in a collision, a new international agreement on submarine "rules of conduct" should be negotiated.
---
Russians mourn 118 dead sailors
USA Today
08/22/00- Updated 02:48 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwstue01.htm
MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin flew to an Arctic naval base Tuesday to console the families of 118 sailors killed in a submarine accident, but the gesture barely alleviated the nation's crushing grief and anger at the bungled rescue effort.
Former submariners wept in the streets as Russia mourned with striking openness over the loss of the Kursk, which suffered a massive explosion and sank to the Barents Sea floor Aug. 12. Candles were lit in Russian Orthodox churches, and condolences poured in from around the world.
Putin, dressed all in black, was greeted in Murmansk by somber, exhausted navy officials, then visited a nearby area where 400 relatives of the sailors are quartered. The families heard almost no official information about the rescue operation, relying on television for even the most basic news - including the announcement Monday that their sons and husbands were dead.
Putin - who has been sharply criticized for taking so long to show concern for the crew - was expected to go later to the ship that led the rescue effort and throw a wreath into the sea where the sailors are entombed in their wrecked submarine, 350 feet below.
Dazed relatives demanded to be taken the site, too. The navy was considering the plea.
Emma Yevdokimova, whose son Oleg was a cook on the Kursk, wept uncontrollably as she recalled how he helped her prepare the holiday dinner last New Year's Eve.
''When they offered him to join the Kursk, he was so glad,'' she said on Russia's RTR television. ''He was so good. He still is,'' she said, collapsing into tears as she added, ''I still don't believe that he drowned.''
Russians have assailed Putin for not canceling a vacation more quickly when the sub sank and the military for resisting foreign help.
Trying to divert the public anger, the besieged military has tried to lay blame on its former Cold War enemies - claiming the Kursk collided with a Western sub. The United States and Britain have denied having any vessels nearby and Norwegian divers who saw the wreck said there was no sign of a collision.
The top brass has a lot to explain. The media has blasted them for trying to hush up the disaster, then lying about it. Public anger increased when Norwegian divers quickly succeeded in opening the hatch Monday, after days of failed attempts by Russian rescue capsules to reach the submarine. It was the Norwegians who determined there were no survivors.
The world joined in Russia's grieving. British sailors and rescuers who had come to help in the operation but were never needed held a brief memorial service for the crew, throwing a small bouquet of flowers into the sea as they left the site of the tragedy.
''It is very sad. I think that is the feeling of the entire crew,'' said Commodore David Russell, commander of the British rescue team. ''Our mission was to help the Russians save lives, but I think it proved to be beyond everyone's capabilities.''
The Norwegian divers left the region later Tuesday. The Russian Navy was negotiating with the Norwegian diving company for help lifting the submarine and retrieving the bodies.
The flooded submarine weighs about 25,000 tons, and any operation to move it would take weeks or months and be extremely expensive. Removing the bodies would also be difficult, as many are probably badly damaged and would be difficult to pull through the ship's narrow hatches.
A former commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Eduard Baltin, said Tuesday that engineers wouldn't raise the boat until next spring because the weather in the region is too harsh by September.
There is also concern about the ship's two nuclear reactors. The Norwegians recorded normal radiation levels around the submarine, though it was unclear whether the reactors had suffered any damage.
Putin declared Wednesday a national day of mourning. Television stations repeatedly displayed the names of the dead crewmen and showed old footage of the Kursk sailing out of port, its crew at attention on the deck. Film was accompanied by classical music and mournful folk ballads.
Russian newspapers said everything the government did was too late.
''It's time for questions,'' the daily Izvestia wrote in a lead editorial. ''What if? What if they hadn't lied to us? What if they'd invited foreigners without waiting for five days? What if we'd had the proper technology? It's too late.''
It remained unclear what caused the explosion in the torpedo compartment in the front of the submarine that crumpled the ship. The government's collision theory is that the Kursk ran into a Western sub, probably U.S. or British, that survived and escaped.
Analysts said finger-pointing at the West showed a mindset from Soviet times that remains in the military's upper echelons, where top commanders are now fighting to save their jobs.
''It's entirely a propaganda effort,'' said Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst. The top brass ''want to get out of the line of fire and direct it at their old enemy.''
Putin said that he wasn't going to dismiss top commanders over the Kursk, but the rising tide of public criticism could push him to order shakeups. ''Putin will only be able to prevent erosion of his own popularity by telling the truth and finding real culprits among the military,'' said Alexander Pikayev, a military analyst with the Carnegie Endowment.
---
Putin fails reliability test
USA Today
08/22/00- Updated 12:55 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/comment/columnists/tmoran/tm19.htm
Ten years ago, as I studied international relations in college, I was aware of the momentous changes taking place around the world, from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the gradual independence of the former Soviet bloc states to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Having been born at the close of the last extended U.S. conflict of the 20th century - the Vietnam War - the end of the Cold War gave my generation a sense of history as well as excitement for the future.
We believed we would live to see great changes throughout Eastern Europe, and we have. We thought we'd see the reunification of Germany, and we have. And we thought we'd see Russia develop into a modern nation with a sense of purpose and the means to retain its center seat on the world stage, but with much friendlier intentions.
The tragic sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk in the Arctic waters of the Barents Sea, however, has demonstrated that the Russian leadership is as detached from its people as its Soviet predecessors. The same arrogance. The same disregard. As inconsistent and conflicting reports hit the news wires last week detailing the crisis, I began to wonder what year it was: 2000 or 1975.
Reports said the Kursk had gone down on Sunday, when in fact it sank Saturday, Aug. 12.
Reporters were left to guess about the number of sailors aboard. They reasoned that a full crew would total more than 100. But real numbers from Russian officials would take more than a day and a half to surface after the initial reports. Even then, we began to pray for 116 sailors only to learn that 118 were trapped inside.
We wondered how deep the stricken submarine had sunk. Was it 80 feet down? Four hundred and some feet? It was midweek before we learned it was actually 354 feet below the surface.
Acoustic sensors supposedly picked up knocking sounds from survivors aboard the Kursk, but the sounds stopped on Tuesday, Russian leaders said. They later said it was Monday.
The length of time the sailors could survive if they had managed to seal off flooded areas of the submarine changed as well. First we heard it would be a matter of days. Then it was a week, and later two weeks. Scientifically speaking, and without sufficient evidence of the damage, it probably would be impossible to estimate how long oxygen would sustain life aboard the Kursk. But conflicting reports and announcements by Russian officials did little to allay relatives' fears.
The cause of the accident remains mysterious, and Russian accounts now appear suspect. First, it was a major collision. Then it was an explosion. Then they weren't sure. Now officials say it was a combination of both - a collision that led to an explosion or vice versa. Innuendo has suggested a collision with a foreign submarine; others say the Kursk hit the seabed itself. This week, Norwegian officials have revealed that their divers found no signs of a collision. Even if Russian leaders do learn the cause, they'll be loathe to reveal anything that could hint at weakness within the Russian military.
Concerns arose as to the weaponry on board. Any nuclear warheads? Russian officials said no. What about the reactor? It was shut down, they said. Oh wait, there were two reactors - and they were both shut down. Norwegian forces have tested the waters near the accident and found no sign of radiation contamination. But thanks to all the misinformation that leaked from Russia last week, there's still cause for concern about whether the vessel's weaponry and reactors are intact.
Officials threw their noses in the air for several days as pleas came for them to seek help from the international community. They'd have none of that, thanks to Russian pride and an eagerness to retain nuclear submarine secrets. By the time the Russians finally sought foreign assistance, the help would be too late by the Russians' early estimates.
Questions also arose Sunday, eight days after the accident, about a rear escape hatch the Russians claimed was too damaged to open. Norwegian divers insisted that it could be opened, but their calls for action were met with resistance. It wasn't until Monday - nine days after the Kursk sank - that the Norwegians were able to open the hatch only to find it flooded, dashing all hope for the lives of 118 men.
When fearful relatives of Kursk crew members met with officials to learn whether their sons and husbands and fathers were indeed on board, military leaders failed to give them answers - for several days. And when they finally did see a list, it was because an official leaked it to a reporter. Distressed relatives were left to wonder whether it was a list they could trust.
And as everyone began to wonder who was in charge, thanks to varying reports from Russian officials, Russian President Vladimir Putin remained on vacation. He issued no statement, no cause for hope and no reason for the Russian people to believe he cared. When he finally appeared, it was only to make excuses for his lack of compassion.
So now the world mourns these sailors who died serving their Mother Russia, and we are left wondering whether anything could have been done to save them.
The sad and scary thing is that Russian leaders appeared oblivious to the criticism - unscathed by reporters' allegations and world condemnation. So while information may flow freely from the people and their leaders' mouths, it's easy to see why Russia hasn't come further than it has in the last 10 years. So much of the Cold War mentality apparently remains in the ranks of Russian officials that one has to question whether they know that the bitter superpower struggle ended, and that they lost. Interestingly, when the Kursk went down on Aug. 12, it did so in the midst of naval exercises simulating a battle with NATO forces. So it appears that 118 men lost their lives not only because the government couldn't react quickly but because Putin and his cronies still are hell bent on preparing for a fight with the West.
Since January and the retirement of Boris Yeltsin, the world has wondered about Russia's new leader. According to Gannett News Service's John Omicinski back in January, Putin focused on a "'strong state' along with 'freedom of expression,' a free market alongside state control. These contrasts and seeming contradictions have caused widespread disagreement about what to expect from him."
I'm afraid we know what to expect now. We still may not know what Putin and his military leaders have planned for a "stronger" Russia, but we do know a little bit about the character of these men. They let 118 men die without offering apologies or condolences for at least a week while spouting lies for much of that time.
They let the sailors down, and they let the Russian people down at a time when they were looking forward to a more stable brand of leadership.
-------- sweden
Sweden reactor R-2 resumes output yesterday, 400MW
August 22, 2000
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=7872
STOCKHOLM - Swedish nuclear reactor unit two at the Vattenfall-owned Ringhals power station will resume output yesterday, the power plant said yesterday.
"The reactor started to resume power production at 06.00 (0500 GMT) today and is planned to run at 400 megawatt (MW) by midday", Seth Persson, head of Vanntefall's production unit, told
The reactor was closed last week due to an oversupply of energy.
The unit is part of the four-reactor Ringhals nuclear power plant owned by Sweden's largest power firm, state-owned Vattenfall.
-------- u.s. nuc facilities
-------- nevada
Compaq To Develop Supercomputer
Associated Press
August 22, 2000 Filed at 8:01 p.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/f/AP-Compaq-Supercomputer.html
HOUSTON (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday it has selected Compaq Computer Corp. to develop the world's fastest supercomputer for its Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The department's National Nuclear Security Administration will use the $200 million computer in a program to study how nuclear weapons age, without resorting to nuclear tests.
The computer, called Advanced Strategic Computing Initiative Q, will have more than 11,968 processors, allowing it to perform more than 30 trillion operations per second. That is about 2 1/2 times as powerful as today's fastest supercomputer, ASCI White, which was built by IBM for the Energy Department.
ASCI Q will be the size of five basketball courts, or more than 21,000 square feet.
The supercomputer is expected to begin working in early 2002. The NNSA has options to upgrade the processors, which could bring computing capacity to 100 trillion operations per second by 2004, Compaq said.
John A. Gordon, the chief of the nuclear security agency, said the weapons reliability program has historically required the fastest computers available and the contract announced Tuesday would accelerate the evolution of technical computing.
ASCI Q will be composed of linked AlphaServers, Compaq's brand of computers for heavy-duty corporate tasks. The highly visible deal strengthens Compaq in this market, where it competes with IBM and Sun Microsystems, among others.
Compaq scored another victory early this month, when it was selected to build and manage the world's largest nonmilitary supercomputer. The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center will operate the computer for the National Science Foundation.
-------- new york
Uranium Offered for Sale on the Internet
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/08/biztech/articles/22uranium.html
http://www.foxnews.com/vtech/082200/uranium.sml
NEW YORK -- Add radioactive uranium to the list of items you can buy and sell with the click of a computer mouse, and it might seem like a nuclear bomb-maker's dream come true.
``An (Internet) auction for uranium seems far out, but it's really quite straightforward. It's like any other commodity,'' said Becky Battle, director of marketing for New York Nuclear Corp. which owns and operates the uranium trading web site UraniumOnLine.com.
Through the New York-based web site, nuclear power plants now can purchase uranium fuel needed to make electricity through an Internet auction process.
But Battle and others in the uranium production industry are quick to caution that it would be nearly impossible for terrorists to acquire the material online.
``There is no additional risk at all as a result of online trading,'' said Charles Scorer, chief executive officer of Nufcor International Ltd, a London-based uranium production and trading company.
Nufcor, equally owned by South African mining giant AngloGold Ltd. (ANGJ.J) and South African banking to insurance group FirstRand (FSRJ.J), bought 120,000 pounds of uranium oxide via UraniumOnLine.com's first Internet auction in July.
``Any physical movement of uranium must be from a licensed producer to a licensed trader or buyer,'' Scorer said, adding that the international community of uranium traders is relatively small and any new bidders would quickly be recognized as such.
Also, auctions on UraniumOnLine.com are private, and participants must be invited by New York Nuclear Corp.
The uranium is used as nuclear fuel in about 430 power plants worldwide to supply about 20 percent of the planet's electricity needs, Battle said. ''The general public may have a difficult time separating what they think of as defensive (weapons grade) uranium and commercial uranium,'' Battle said, ``But the content (of nuclear fuel) is very, very much different from bomb grade. We are talking apples and oranges here.''
Bomb-grade uranium must go through a much more extensive and complex refining and enhancement process than uranium used for nuclear fuel. The process requires sophisticated and generally unavailable enhancement technology closely monitored by government agencies, industry sources said.
The online auction is seen as a step forward because it should allow for a more open-market, free trade of uranium by giving utilities and producers a more transparent uranium price and allowing the application of financial derivatives, such as futures contracts and hedging.
``With the deregulation of the electricity industry, the fuel procurement process will be more open,'' Nufcor's Scorer said.
``It's more efficient than the traditional system.''
Traditionally, most power plant operators buy uranium under long-term contracts with producers, with the price per pound kept secret.
``Naturally and organically, the market will become more liquid (with time), and people will use more of these online services as (they) develop,'' Scorer said.
At an online auction on Friday, the third one held on UraniumOnLine.com, an undisclosed buyer picked up 56,320 kilograms (124,160 pounds) of uranium for $23.05 per kilogram ($10.46 per pound).
This compares with a current average market price reached through traditional trading of $23.28 a kilo ($10.56 per pound), Battle said.
Friday's round attracted a ``handful'' of active bidders and ''at least two dozen'' more observers who are studying the mechanics of the process for possible future participation, she said.
-------- south carolina
Report: Research Needed on Cleanup
Associated Press
August 22, 2000 Filed at 7:25 p.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Nuclear-Cleanup.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A report suggesting the cleanup plan could be flawed has delayed an operation to clear nuclear waste from a South Carolina nuclear weapons site while the Department of Energy looks into whether it is pursuing the safest and cheapest option.
Because of the report, released Tuesday by the National Research Council, the Savannah River Site project is stalled at least until June. A committee of experts spent a year on the study after the department asked for an independent review before moving forward with the cleanup.
The site, in Aiken, S.C., across the Savannah River from Augusta, Ga., was established in 1950 to produce isotopes, mainly plutonium and tritium, for nuclear weapons.
The report did not discredit the department's selection of potential cleanup plan but said: ``The screening procedure was cumbersome, complex and lacked transparency to document the (plan's) technical soundness.''
Additional time and money necessary for more research would be a pittance compared with the cost of building a $1 billion disposal facility that wouldn't work, the report said.
DOE officials said they weren't surprised by the report's conclusions, in part because they had read an interim report last October that foreshadowed such a recommendation.
``If you have technical uncertainty, you don't want to build a plant to process something when you don't know exactly what you're doing,'' said Carolyn Huntoon, assistant secretary for environmental management.
Over the years, liquid and solid wastes have been stored in some 48 underground storage tanks at the Savannah River Site. Much of the solid waste is being removed and transformed into glass, eventually to be buried in an underground repository in Nevada.
Some of the most radioactive waste, however, including cesium and plutonium, still exist in the bottom of the tanks. Their high salt concentration makes it almost impossible to transform them into glass, and DOE officials have been struggling for years for a solution.
In 1995, researchers thought they had one. They learned how to separate the high-level radioactive waste in the storage tanks with the help of two chemicals.
The cesium, plutonium and similar compounds would be cemented in an onsite storage facility. Everything else would be made into glass for burial.
Despite successful tests, researchers were shocked when benzene gas was released as they tried to implement the plan. That sent them back to the drawing board.
``The concern was you could build up a lot of benzene, have a spark and blow the top right off the tank,'' said Kevin Crowley, one of the study directors for the National Research Council. ``You could release that waste right into the atmosphere.''
Four years after the experiment fell flat, Savannah River officials proposed using a similar process involving smaller tanks to limit how much benzene might leak. DOE asked the council for a second opinion on the process.
Tuesday's report said more research is needed to determine whether the process is safe. It also said DOE again should review three other disposal plans.
Milton Levenson, a retired chemical engineer who served as chairman of the review panel, said the latest delay poses no immediate danger because the tanks holding the waste should be safe for decades.
He denied feeling any pressure to hasten the cleanup.
``The thing I would hope would be a factor is that we would make most of our decisions based on risk reduction, not political perceptions,'' Levenson said. ``The tanks certainly need to be cleaned up as quickly as possible, but that has different connotations.''
-------- u.s. nuc weapons
A missile-defense 'third way'
Christian Science Monitor
Headlines - August 22, 2000
John Arquilla
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/08/22/fp11s1-csm.shtml
MONTEREY, CALIF., Two problems bedevil current efforts to move toward deploying missile defenses. The first arises out of the daunting technological challenge of having to "hit a bullet with a bullet" - the currently fashionable Pentagon metaphor for missile defense. The second concern reflects the potentially disturbing strategic consequences of actually deploying a missile defense - that others might view our shield as a threat, spurring a new arms race aimed at overcoming our defense with clever decoys and saturation attacks.
Both problems seem intractable, as can be seen from the latest field-test failure, and by the recently announced Sino-Russian "strategic partnership," which seems to have been catalyzed in part by fear of American missile defenses.
Neither of these difficulties should deter us from seeking ways to defend against missile attack. Long-range missiles, in the next decade, will likely become the weapons system of choice for those seeking a capability to "reach out and touch" their adversaries - wherever they are.
Missiles are so attractive because they are increasingly available, and much less expensive than having to build a carrier fleet, a strategic air force, or a technologically advanced army. And there's already evidence of willingness to wage war in this fashion. In the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war, both sides resorted to missile attacks in what came to be known as a "war of the cities."
During the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein again used missile bombardment, lashing out even as far as Israel.
Make no mistake, long-range missile warfare is coming.
What then is to be done?
The two leading presidential candidates this year, realizing the issue's importance, offer up two somewhat differing visions of how to arrive at a national missile defense.
While both seem in agreement that the technological problems are significant, George W. Bush seems more assured that moving toward deployment now will help channel resources toward solving warhead identification and interception problems. He also seems convinced that the potentially alarming strategic consequences of our having missile defenses - when others have none - can be mitigated by the unilateral reduction of our own arsenal, and by bringing our allies under the protection of our shield.
Al Gore, on the other hand, takes a more cautious view on the issue of deployment, wanting to see first how the technological feasibility of the system looks after further testing. He also leans more toward having just a limited defense of the US against attacks by rogue states such as North Korea. He hopes the clearly limited nature of this defense will assuage Russian and Chinese fears that their own missile offenses might be emasculated.
The good news here is that both candidates would move us ahead toward missile defense. They are following the strategic path laid out by President Reagan, who was morally repelled by the prospect of nuclear war. He held the intuitive belief that there would eventually be a defense against nuclear-tipped missiles.
In light of the history of military affairs, Mr. Reagan's faith is justified. For every offensive weapon, in every age, effective defenses have arisen - from thick-walled fortifications to suits of armor, to Kevlar helmets in an ongoing cycle of action and reaction between offense and defense.
The bad news is that both candidates' approaches fail to mitigate others' fears about the strategic consequences of missile defense.
Bush's policy, in particular, suggests an expansiveness of the program that can only be seen with alarm in Moscow and Beijing. And Gore's less ambitious program will still spur fearful reactions, as even a very limited defense conveys two types of threat: first, that a workable limited system can be rapidly expanded; and second, that even a limited system can be quite effective if, say, Russian or Chinese missile launchers had first been taken out by a US precision-guided conventional missile attack. Both of these are real concerns that must be dealt with if we are to reduce the likelihood of long-range missile warfare in the coming years.
There is a "third way" to move ahead - if we will but see it - implied months ago by Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he offered to engage in joint research with the US on missile defense.
The American response to his gambit should be: "Why limit the research to ourselves? Why not invite the best scientific minds from all over the world to join the effort?"
In this way, we prove to the world the truth: that missile defense is indeed defensive. We also show the world that we understand the increasingly indivisible nature of global security. There is simply no way, anymore, to carve out a "safe area" in our portion of the Western Hemisphere, if others around the world do not subscribe to our plans.
We should remember that Reagan, who first advanced the concept of a missile shield, wanted to share it with the world, and made an offer to share our research with the Russians.
And this was during the cold war. Can we do any less now?
John Arquilla is professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School.
-------- MILITARY (by country)
-------- australia
Boeing Australia to provide svcs to F-111 aircraft for $300 mln
BridgeNews
August 22, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=b0821059.6rg&level3=788&date=20000822
New York--Aug. 21--Boeing Australia Ltd. received a $300 million contract to support and upgrade services to Australia's F-111 aircraft. -- Ullekh N.P, BridgeNews
The following is the text of today's announcement with emphasis added by BridgeNews. BridgeStation links to company data have been inserted at the end:
ST. LOUIS, Aug. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- THE SELECTION OF BOEING AUSTRALIA LIMITED TO PROVIDE UP TO $300 MILLION OF SUPPORT AND UPGRADE SERVICES TO AUSTRALIA'S F-111 AIRCRAFT IS A SIGNIFICANT STEP IN THE GLOBAL GROWTH OF THE BOEING MILITARY AEROSPACE SUPPORT BUSINESS, THE COMPANY SAID TODAY.
"These contracts are representative of the ability of our operations in Boeing Australia Limited to provide innovative support concepts for our customers," said Jim Restelli, president of Military Aerospace Support.
THE FASTEST GROWING COMPONENT OF THE BOEING MILITARY AIRCRAFT AND MISSILE SYSTEMS GROUP, MILITARY AEROSPACE SUPPORT OFFERS COMPREHENSIVE AIRCRAFT AND WEAPON SYSTEM SUPPORT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES AROUND THE WORLD, INCLUDING THROUGH INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS LIKE BOEING AUSTRALIA LIMITED.
Australian Minister for Defence John Moore announced Friday that Boeing Australia Limited was selected as the preferred tender to provide long-term support of that country's F-111 aircraft, including maintenance, associated integrated logistic support and future upgrades.
"This is a true example of Boeing globalization," Restelli said. "Boeing Australia Limited brings extensive expertise to provide an indigenous capability to provide life-cycle support for aircraft and weapon systems. Its operational relationship with Military Aerospace Support and our full continuum of support competencies, along with the strength of The Boeing Company as a whole, enables Boeing Australia Limited to fully support its customer needs.
"We will continue to build upon these types of global partnerships to provide cost-effective support for other international customers," he said.
By focusing its modernization and upgrades capabilities; maintenance and modification centers; training services; logistics personnel services; and sustainment data and supply chain management support competencies in the Military Aerospace Support business, Boeing is the only major airframe manufacturer with an integrated organization structured to provide total life-cycle customer support for military aircraft and weapons systems.
SOURCE Boeing Company
CONTACT: Paul Guse of Boeing Company, 314-232-1520
-------- britain
Rolls-Royce Produces 1,000th AE 3007 Engine
NewsEdge
August 22, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=p0821095.301&level3=788&date=20000822
INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 21 /PRNewswire/via NewsEdge Corporation - Rolls-Royce plc, the civil aerospace, defense, marine and energy group, today celebrated production of the 1000th AE 3007 turbofan engine at its Indianapolis facilities. The engine has been shipped to Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer to support the ERJ 135/140/145 regional jet aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce.
Steven Churchhouse, Vice President -- Programs and Operations, Corporate and Regional Airlines, Rolls-Royce, said: "The success of this engine is directly attributable to the many people here and at our partners and suppliers who have worked hard to help make the Embraer regional airline jet and Cessna Citation X corporate jet first choice for operators and passengers around the world."
Embraer's newly-launched Legacy corporate jet and the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle are also powered by the Rolls-Royce AE 3007.
The AE 3007 engine is part of the Rolls-Royce AE common core family of engines that includes the AE 1107 turboshaft, powering the V-22 Osprey tilt- rotor aircraft, and the AE 2100 turboprop, which powers the C-130J Hercules and C-27J Spartan military airlifters, and the US-1A Kai amphibious search and rescue aircraft. The knowledge and maturity gained through the development of the common core approach enables Rolls-Royce to back the AE 3007 with industry-leading warranties and guarantees, ensuring excellent economic performance.
The first AE 3007-engined Citation X was delivered in August, 1996, and the engine entered revenue service on the ERJ 145 in April, 1997, with North American launch customer Continental Express. To date, the fleet has accumulated more than 1.6 million flight hours.
Note to editors:
Rolls-Royce plc is a global company providing power on land, sea and air. The company has established leading positions in civil aerospace, defense, marine and energy markets. Its core gas turbine technology has created one of the broadest product ranges of aero engines in the world, with 55,000 engines in service in over 150 countries. Customers include more than 500 airlines, 2,400 corporate and utility operators and 160 armed forces, using both fixed and rotary wing aircraft.
Rolls-Royce is the global leader in marine power systems with a broad product range and full systems integration capability. Over 2,000 marine customers and more than 30 navies use Rolls-Royce propulsion. The company is investing in new products and capabilities for energy markets that include the oil and gas industry and power generation. It also develops its own power projects through Rolls-Royce Power Ventures Ltd.
Rolls-Royce pioneered gas turbine technology for aerospace, power generation and marine propulsion and is involved in major future programs in these fields. These include the Trent aero and industrial engines, the Eurofighter Typhoon and Joint Strike Fighter combat engines, the WR21 marine engine and leading edge water jet propulsion systems.
SOURCE Rolls-Royce plc
CONTACT: Scott Cooper of Rolls-Royce plc, +1-317-230-4804, or fax +1-317-230-3562 or email: scott.d.cooper@rolls-royce.com
Web site: http://www.rolls-royce.com
-------- chile
In Chile, the Balance Tips Toward the Victims
New York Times
August 22, 2000
EDITORIAL OBSERVER
By TINA ROSENBERG
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/22tue3.html
Until the last few weeks, testimony about the horrors committed by the Chilean military after Gen. Augusto Pinochet's coup in 1973 has virtually all come from one side, the victims'. The military refused to cooperate with Chile's truth commission, and provided very little information for the families of those who disappeared.
The man who walked around Santiago's National Stadium with a television reporter recently represented something new for Chileans. Roberto Saldias was a soldier in 1973. He talked about the executions he witnessed in the stadium. He named one perpetrator and promised to identify others in court.
The television appearance of Mr. Saldias is one more sign of Chile's transformation. After nearly a year of discussion between military leaders and some human rights advocates, the armed forces pledged to help find the bodies of victims if those with information could remain anonymous. And earlier this month, the Supreme Court stripped General Pinochet of his legislative immunity, providing the first real chance that he could stand trial.
The change in Chile is in part due to the passage of time, which has brought a new generation of judges into office. But the catalyst for their new assertiveness was the arrest of Mr. Pinochet in Britain on a Spanish warrant in 1998. That arrest caused reverberations elsewhere and led to the detention of Chad's former dictator in Senegal, although the courts later released him. Other arrests of tyrannical leaders could follow. But for now, Mr. Pinochet's capture has left a deeper footprint in Chile, where it has changed the balance of power.
New democratic or reformist governments that lack power over the old guard can do little to reckon with the past. This was true of Chile until recently, and of most of Latin America's former military dictatorships. Typically, the generals retain their guns and can at any moment point them at civilian heads. It is also the case in most nations of the former Soviet Union, where top Communist officials retain positions of influence and can block any moves to bring the old regime's criminals to account.
Very few countries have given victims acknowledgment of their suffering or families information about lost loved ones. Those that have done so possessed the power to threaten the collaborators or murderers with exposure or trials if they did not talk. Germany opened the files of the secret police, or Stasi, to its victims. It had not anticipated that as a result, many ex-informers would contact their victims to sit down and talk. Their motive is damage control -- they know they will be caught.
But it has produced a healthy outpouring of discussion about why people collaborated and allowed many Stasi victims to hear personal confessions from their spies.
Another country that has given some psychological healing to victims is South Africa. The unique feature of its truth commission -- those who confess to crimes can get amnesty from prosecution -- has broadened South Africa's reckoning with the past. Instead of trials in only a few high-profile cases, which is all the country could very likely afford, dozens of victims got to hear confessions and relatives of the murdered learned what happened to their loved ones.
This could happen only because the government of Nelson Mandela could credibly threaten the old apartheid killers with real jail time if they did not talk. If Mr. Pinochet's successors in Chile had tried this, the military would simply have laughed.
That changed with Mr. Pinochet's arrest. His detention tipped the balance of power in Chile and unleashed desires for justice that people had buried for a quarter-century. It also allowed Chile to press for testimony, offering the same deal as South Africa's truth commission. The military men who signed agreements in Chile to provide information on the 1,200 people still missing did so because for the first time, they run a real risk of prosecution for the forced disappearances. If Mr. Pinochet is tried in Chile, it will be under a new interpretation of a general amnesty he decreed in 1978 -- mainly benefiting his own forces. The courts now say that if the body in a case has not been found, the case is ongoing and can be prosecuted. If a body is found, the case becomes a murder -- and therefore covered by amnesty. So soldiers can escape trial for disappearances by producing the bodies.
The world community could help achieve similar accountings in other countries if the International Criminal Court were up and running. Established two years ago in a treaty signed by 120 nations -- the United States not among them -- the court will try those accused of genocide and other heinous crimes. It offers the hope of international justice for those too powerful to be tried at home. But it will also provide an outside threat of justice that could strengthen a nation's own ability to try its criminals. The International Criminal Court could help solve a central problem of dealing with the past -- that nations most in need of trials are least likely to be able to hold them.
-------- china
Restive, Oil-Rich Region Is China's Second Tibet Beijing Attempts To Dilute Influence Of Uighur Militants
Washington Post
Tuesday, August 22, 2000; Page A12
By John Pomfret Washington Post Foreign Service
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-08/22/053l-082200-idx.html
URUMQI, China-The Rebiya Building still bustles. The six-story, white-tiled marketplace hums with the sound of merchants blowing yesterday's dust off their wares: fine silk from Hangzhou, cozy shawls from Pakistan, lace curtains from Shanghai.
But all is not right in this Central Asian bazaar. Rebiya Kadeer, chairwoman of the Xinjiang Akida Industry & Trade Co. and owner of the building, was sentenced to eight years in prison last March for "illegally passing intelligence outside of China." All but three of her 11 children from two marriages have left for the United States or Australia. Her husband was granted political asylum in the United States in 1996. Her eldest son, her secretary and a business associate are also in Chinese prisons for state security crimes.
The management of Rebiya's multimillion dollar empire has fallen onto the shoulders of her 24-year-old son, Aleem, a waif-like Uighur who trained in forensic medicine and had planned a police career. "It is a bad situation," a friend of the family said. "The Chinese have crushed these people."
The rise and fall of Rebiya Kadeer, once hailed by the Chinese government as Xinjiang province's richest businesswoman and a model citizen, provides important insights into some of the complexities of China's attempts to control Xinjiang. The province, half the size of India in the far northwestern corner of China, is home to 8 million Uighurs, Muslims of Turkish descent who speak a Turkic language, are ethnically different from the country's dominant Han Chinese and have spawned a sometimes violent autonomy movement.
Unlike Tibet, its southern neighbor, Xinjiang has not achieved international prominence over its unrest and longing for self-rule. This is partly because there is no united Uighur diaspora and because it lacks a leader equal to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual guide of the Tibetan people who fled China for India during an uprising in 1959. The last prominent Uighur chief, Isa Yusuf Alptekin, died in Istanbul in 1995, all but forgotten by the outside world.
But Xinjiang's unrest poses as serious a problem to Beijing as Tibet's. Most of China's continental oil deposits and its main nuclear weapons test sites are in Xinjiang. And unlike the one in Tibet, the Xinjiang separatist movement embraces violence. Since the early 1990s, there have been scores of uprisings, bombings and killings of Han Chinese officials in this region.
Xinjiang separatists have been blamed for one bombing in Beijing. Some have been schooled in radical Islam in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East. Some have received military training from terrorist groups. Last year, an Asian diplomat said, Indian forces captured two Uighurs fighting alongside Pakistan-backed militias in Kashmir.
To deal with this threat, China has pursued a three-track policy:
* It has poured money into Xinjiang. Funds from Beijing accounted for 40 percent of the local economy last year.
* It has encouraged Han Chinese to settle in the region, mostly through the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a paramilitary organization that since 1954 has moved 2.4 million Han into the region. In 1949, for example, the provincial capital of Urumqi had few Han. Today most of the city is Chinese. Of Xinjiang's 18 million people, 38 percent are Han Chinese. About 44 percent are Uighur. The rest are Kazakh, Tajik, Hui and other minorities.
* Finally, it has worked hard to create a ruling class in Xinjiang made up of Uighurs loyal to Beijing. In exchange for their allegiance, these Uighurs are given opportunities, power and money and are allowed to live a life unimaginable to most Uighurs, many of whom live just above the poverty line.
The tall, dashing 39-year-old mayor of Urumqi, Nur Bakri, is an example. So was Wuer Kaixi, one of the leaders of the 1989 student protests before he fled China after the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
But Xinjiang's Han Chinese leadership is wary of this group and keeps it on a tight leash. One of Xinjiang's former provincial chiefs, a Uighur, was removed from his post partly because he was lobbying Beijing to pay Xinjiang more money for the extraction of oil.
Rebiya Kadeer also belonged to this ruling class.
A barber's daughter, she started doing business when she was a young woman because she wanted to feed her children. At the time, China did not allow free enterprise. Her first husband opposed it and eventually divorced her. But Rebiya kept trying.
Along the way, she washed clothes and dealt in smuggled electronic goods, rabbit fur hats, sunflower seeds, pearl necklaces and noodles. Then she made it to the big time, importing tons of steel from Kazakhstan and bartering goods as far away as Turkey and Iran. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates asked to meet her when he traveled along China's Silk Road in 1995.
Beijing recognized Rebiya's success, appointing her as a representative of Uighur minorities to the nationwide Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a government advisory body, between 1993 and 1997. But Rebiya, according to friends of the family interviewed here, chafed at government restrictions and corruption. She spoke out against what she considered policies that favored the Han in Xinjiang, including central government investment designed to make Xinjiang a more attractive place for Han to settle. She battled Chinese officials who demanded bribes.
She also opened a school on the fifth floor of the Rebiya Building. It was dedicated to teaching poor Uighur children. Chinese officials have said it also was secretly proselytizing the Islamic faith. It is a crime in China to teach religion to people under the age of 18. The principal has been thrown in jail.
"Her main crime really was that she was too charismatic," a close family friend said. "The common Uighurs adored her. The Han wanted her to serve only the Han and not her own people. The Han cannot tolerate that. They decided she needed to be removed."
Rebiya's problems worsened after her husband, Sadik Rouzi, went to the United States in early 1996. Sadik, a former professor at Xinjiang University and a longtime critic of Beijing's rule, was granted political asylum in November of that year. The next month, Sadik said, Rebiya was called in by the State Security Ministry and offered a deal: divorce Sadik and she would be given a senior position in the Xinjiang government. She refused.
On March 27 last year, Chinese police confiscated her passport as she was attempting to travel to Uzbekistan on business. Rumors began circulating in Urumqi that Rebiya had made her money dealing drugs, not sunflower seeds. Sadik denied his wife was ever involved in drug trafficking.
"Those rumors were designed to smear her name," he said in a telephone interview from Oklahoma City.
In early August 1999, Xinjiang's police contacted Rebiya and told her that her life was in danger. They posted guards near her and told her to wear a bulletproof vest for four days.
Then the family found out the real reason for the police surveillance. The authorities were trying to prevent Rebiya from meeting with staff members from the U.S. Congress who were visiting Xinjiang. She was arrested on Aug. 11, just before the meeting was to take place. Her youngest son, Aleem, was held for four days and told to write a statement implicating his mother in security-related crimes. He refused, friends of the family said.
After a two-hour trial in March, Rebiya, 54, was sentenced to eight years in prison. A report in the state-run Xinjiang Evening News said Rebiya's crime consisted of "folding, clipping out and underlining" reports in China's state-run press and sending them abroad. That, however, is not a crime in China.
In an interview with reporters, Urumqi's mayor, Nur Bakri, declared that her other crimes, involving state security, were not detailed in the state-run press. "As a citizen of a sovereign state, no matter how famous you are, if you violate the national interest, you will be punished," he said.
Friends of the family said that Rebiya's business, which was once valued at more than $10 million, has lost half of its value since Chinese security forces began to pressure the family. Still, they said, there is some hope. Aleem is planning to resume construction on a second office building, right next door to the Rebiya Building.
-------- colombia
Clinton to free Colombia aid despite rights record
By Mark Egan,
Aug 22, 2000
Reuters
WASHINGTON - President Bill Clinton will this week certify that Colombia has met certain human rights requirements and will waive others it has not met, paving the way for the release of a record $1.3 billion in aid, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.
A senior U.S. official told Reuters that Clinton will give his stamp of approval even though Colombia has not met certain human rights conditions. He would not specify which of the conditions the war-torn nation had failed to meet.
The human rights reforms, including rules on military trials, were stipulated by Congress when it approved the aid package that is designed to combat drug trafficking and could choke off the chief source of financing for powerful rebels.
The Administration cannot release any of the money, which is much higher than previous aid packages, unless it certifies that Colombia has met the conditions or Clinton waives the requirement on the basis that it is in national security interests.
"The State Department has made its recommendations to the president," the official said on condition he was not named.
Pointing out that the requirements were part of new legislation, he said, "You would not expect Colombia will be able to meet all the criteria. While some of them will have been met, others will have to be waived."
While Clinton has yet to make his final decision, the official said he would waive those conditions which were not yet met sometime later this week.
MILITARY ABUSES
The reforms would see civilian rather than military courts handle human rights abuses by soldiers. Human rights groups say that military courts often fail to prosecute human rights abuses and too often acquit those who do stand trial.
The reforms would also give the army commander the power to suspend soldiers suspected of abuses and the army would have an independent corps to manage prosecutions.
The U.S. and Colombian governments are in a hurry to activate the aid package, which will be used to combat the production and trafficking of cocaine and opium in Colombia.
The war on drugs is inextricably linked with the Colombian government's war with Marxist rebels who protect and profit from the drug trade in the areas they control.
The sense of urgency about the package is increasing as the U.S. fiscal year draws to a close. Unless money is approved by Sept. 1, it might be necessary to repeat some procedures in the next fiscal year, which starts on Oct. 1.
Another incentive is Clinton's plan to visit Colombia on Aug. 30 to discuss Pastrana's "Plan Colombia," which the U.S. aid package will help finance. The plan is aimed at forcing Marxist guerrillas to end their three decades of struggle by eroding their main source of income: the lucrative drug trade.
But lobby group Human Rights Watch said that Colombia has failed to meet any of the conditions laid down by Congress and urged Clinton not to waive the requirements.
"Not a single one of the five human rights provisions contained in the legislation has been satisfied," said Jose Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch.
"A waiver that ignores Colombia's dismal human rights situation would send a clear message to the Colombian government and its security forces that the U.S. commitment to human rights does not go beyond rhetoric,'' he added.
Under existing law, some military abuses can be tried in civilian courts but in practice the military has tried to keep cases in military courts.
----
Clinton Approves Colombia Aid on Drugs
Yahoo News
Wednesday August 23
By Mark Egan
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000823/pl/colombia_usa_dc_1.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton paved the way for the release of a record $1.3 billion in aid to help Colombia fight drug trafficking, certifying that the Latin American country has met certain human rights requirements and waiving others it has not met.
White House spokesman Jake Siewert said the president signed the waiver on Tuesday afternoon, giving his stamp of approval to the massive aid package.
The human rights reforms, including rules on military trials, were stipulated by Congress when it approved the aid package that is designed to combat drug trafficking and could choke off the chief source of financing for powerful rebels.
The administration could not have released any of the money, which is much higher than previous aid packages, unless it certified that Colombia had met the conditions or Clinton waived the requirement on the basis that it was in the United States' national security interests.
It was not immediately clear which human rights conditions the war-torn nation failed to meet.
The president's decision to sign the waiver came on the heels of a recommendation by the State Department, a senior administration official told Reuters.
Pointing out that the requirements were part of new legislation, he said, ``You would not expect Colombia will be able to meet all the criteria. While some of them will have been met, others will have to be waived.''
Military Abuses
The reforms would see civilian rather than military courts handle human rights abuses by soldiers. Human rights groups say that military courts often fail to prosecute human rights abuses and too often acquit those who do stand trial.
The reforms would also give the army commander the power to suspend soldiers suspected of abuses and the army would have an independent corps to manage prosecutions.
The U.S. and Colombian governments are in a hurry to activate the aid package, which will be used to combat the production and trafficking of cocaine and opium in Colombia.
The war on drugs is inextricably linked with the Colombian government's war with Marxist rebels who protect and profit from the drug trade in the areas they control.
The sense of urgency about the package is increasing as the U.S. fiscal year draws to a close. Unless money is approved by Sept. 1, it might be necessary to repeat some procedures in the next fiscal year, which starts on Oct. 1.
Another incentive is Clinton's plan to visit Colombia on Aug. 30 to discuss Pastrana's ``Plan Colombia,'' which the U.S. aid package will help finance. The plan is aimed at forcing Marxist guerrillas to end their three decades of struggle by eroding their main source of income: the lucrative drug trade.
But lobby group Human Rights Watch said that Colombia has failed to meet any of the conditions laid down by Congress and had urged Clinton not to waive the requirements.
``Not a single one of the five human rights provisions contained in the legislation has been satisfied,'' said Jose Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch.
``A waiver that ignores Colombia's dismal human rights situation would send a clear message to the Colombian government and its security forces that the U.S. commitment to human rights does not go beyond rhetoric,'' he added.
Under existing law, some military abuses can be tried in civilian courts but in practice the military has tried to keep cases in military courts.
-------- drug war
Think outside the political box
USA Today
08/22/00
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/columnists/wickham/wick132.htm
LOS ANGELES - When Tom Campbell, a Republican, rose to speak, few of the 15,000 journalists covering the Democratic National Convention listened.
His early evening address went largely unreported by the mainstream media. Most of its members probably were trolling for news at one of the many parties that daily served as the opening act to the Democrats' prime-time program at the Staples Center, the cavernous arena that housed this past week's gathering.
Campbell appeared on a different stage. He addressed the "Shadow Convention," an eclectic meeting of maverick intellectuals, combative politicians and forlorned grassroots activists assembled inside a sweaty auditorium in an aging, unreclaimed section of Los Angeles a short walk from the Staples Center.
The Shadow Convention was the place to hear talk of revolutionary, not evolutionary change. No one offered up more of that than Campbell, a quirky California congressman making a long-shot bid this year to unseat Dianne Feinstein, the state's senior U.S. senator.
While those who spoke at the Democratic convention - and at the Republican's national meeting in Philadelphia earlier this month - hewed closely to the orthodoxies of their party, Campbell's speech was political sacrilege.
He labeled this nation's drug war "a failure." He complained that while most drug users in this country are white, the vast majority of those who have been jailed for drug crimes are Hispanic or African-American. And he worried aloud that incarceration, not treatment and education, would continue to be this nation's major approach to fighting the drug war.
Another slippery slope?
That's pretty revolutionary talk for a Republican in the throes of a campaign. But Campbell is nothing if not different. For instance, he compares this administration's deepening involvement in Columbia's drug war to the way this country was drawn into Vietnam:
"We are entering a civil war, in a Third World jungle, with roots at least 30 years deep. We are creating strategic hamlets into which those living in the countryside will be concentrated. We are sending U.S. military advisers. We are encouraging a Third World country to soak its citizens in toxic herbicides from aerial spraying. This is our policy in Colombia," Campbell said to raucous applause. "All that is missing is the signature of (former Defense secretary) Robert McNamara."
The Shadow Convention, the brainchild of Arianna Huffington - the one-time conservative commentator who found a heart - is the Boston Tea Party of our times, a flagrant attack on the threadbare belief that mainstream politicians have the corner on good ideas.
Huffington drew a long list of political curmudgeons, rebellious commentators and counterculture heavy thinkers: two-time presidential candidate Jesse Jackson and his son Jesse Jr., an Illinois congressman; writer Gore Vidal; Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.; actor/director Warren Beatty; and former Democratic senator Gary Hart. Another Republican in attendance was New Mexico Gov. Gary E. Johnson, who, like Campbell, thinks the drug war championed by most of their GOP colleagues is a sham.
Time for some unconventional wisdom
For too long, political debates have been dominated by the conventional wisdom of the leading political parties. The pre-eminence of their thinking on issues is seldom seriously challenged. Many who try are deserving of the fringe to which their ideas are assigned.
Not so Tom Campbell - at least, not when it comes to his position on our domestic drug war and his worries about this nation's growing involvement in the one being waged in Colombia.
Campbell's speech could have been an awakening for millions of Americans who have been convinced that the billions of dollars we spend on jailing drug users is a good investment. That a wider audience did not hear it is proof of the constraints our two-party system puts on the free flow of ideas. That it was heard at all is a testament to the value of Huffington's Shadow Convention.
DeWayne Wickham column index
http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/columnists/wickham/ncwick00.htm
---
Colombian Accused of Heading Drug Cartel Is Charged in the U.S.
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By JOHN SULLIVAN
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/regional/ny-drugs.html
A Colombian man, accused of heading an international drug cartel that prosecutors alleged shipped thousands of pounds of cocaine to the United States and Europe, faced criminal charges in federal court in Manhattan yesterday afternoon, three days after his extradition to the United States.
The man, Alberto Orlαndez-Gamboa, who prosecutors have said is the head of the Caracol drug cartel, has been charged with conspiring to transport the cocaine and with conspiring to launder tens of millions of dollars in profits from drug sales.
United States prosecutors said he was the third drug suspect extradited from Colombia since that country amended its constitution in December 1997 to allow extradition to the United States. Mary Jo White, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa was the first person accused of heading a drug organization to be extradited from Colombia in more than a decade.
Ms. White said the United States is seeking the extradition of 80 other suspects from Colombia.
Extradition to the United States has been a controversial subject in Colombia, and the action involving Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa required approval from the highest levels of Colombia's government. The United States formally requested extradition in August 1999, after Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York.
On Aug. 9, 2000, the Colombian Supreme Court issued an order approving the extradition, and the next day the president of Colombia, Andrιs Pastrana, and his cabinet signed a resolution providing for the action. Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa was flown from Bogotα to Miami on a Drug Enforcement Administration jet on Friday.
Attorney General Janet Reno issued a statement yesterday commending the Colombian government and saying the action "sends a strong message to drug dealers that there are no safe havens."
In court yesterday, Mark F. Mendelsohn, an assistant United States attorney, said newspaper ads had recently appeared in Cali, Colombia, threatening violence against Colombia's supreme court and senior political officials if Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa was sent to the United States.
According to the indictment, Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa headed the Caracol drug cartel from Barranquilla, Colombia, directing his subordinates to carry out bribery and violence including kidnappings and assassination.
The indictment charges him with crimes dating to 1992; although he was arrested and jailed in Colombia in June 1998, prosecutors charged he continued to run the cartel from prison. While in prison, prosecutors said, Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa directed the delivery of $1.5 million from the United States to Colombia.
Prosecutors said Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa also used Caracol, which means snail in Spanish, as a personal nickname.
The indictment charges that the Caracol organization imported cocaine to a variety of places in the United States, and prosecutors said the drugs went to New York, Miami, Philadelphia and Puerto Rico. They said the organization used cargo ships, speed boats and aircraft to transport the cocaine.
At times, the drug was concealed by packing it with sawdust, mustard and cough medicine to hide the smell. The organization also smuggled cocaine in shipments of cement, in sealed cans and inside ceramic tiles.
After a hearing before a federal magistrate yesterday, Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa was ordered held without bail. If convicted on all charges, he faces life in prison.
His lawyer, Martin Schmukler, said Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa intended to plead not guilty to the charges against him. "I don't think the charges can be substantiated at all," Mr. Schmukler said. "At the very time they were committed, he was already in custody."
Mr. Schmukler said that, under the extradition agreement, Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa can be charged only with acts that occurred after the Colombian constitution was changed in 1997.
At a news conference after the court appearance, Ms. White said the extradition agreement would not hurt the prosecution of the case.
Mr. Schmukler also said his client had nothing to do with any advertisements that appeared in Colombian newspapers regarding the extradition. He said that there had been an entrenched resistance to extradition for many years, and that similar ads had run after other cases.
He said that Mr. Orlαndez-Gamboa runs an automotive business in Colombia and scoffed at prosecutors' charges that his client ran an international narcotics cartel from a prison cell.
"Jail is not a place to conduct illegal activities," he said.
-------- greece
Greece signs dlrs 1.78 billion deal for French jetfighters, cruise missiles
Associated Press
August 22, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=h0821100.401&level3=788&date=20000822
ATHENS, Greece (AP) _ Greece on Monday signed a 1.67 billion Euro (dlrs 1.78 billion) deal to purchase 15 Mirage 2000-5 jetfighters, upgrade 10 exiting aircraft, and acquire its first-ever cruise missiles.
The deal signed with France Dassault Aviation, Thompson-SCF Detexis, Snecma and Matra British Aerospace Dynamics is part of a five-year armed forces modernization program that is expected to cost Greece upward of dlrs 11 billion.
Dassault has been keen to offer Greece a variety of weapons systems as part of its effort to purchase Hellenic Aerospace Industries, or HAI. Earlier this year it made a non-binding technical bid for the purchase of a 49 percent stake in HAI. The other HAI suitor is DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, or DASA. Binding bids are expected in September.
Under the deal signed with Dassault, Greece will receive 15 Mirage 2000-5 and will upgrade 10 of its 34 Mirage 2000's to the advanced model. It will also acquire 200 Mica air-to-air missiles and 56 Scalp missiles.
The Scalp is a French-made air-launched cruise missile with a high-explosive warhead and a range of up to 600 kilometers (375 miles). It is still in the development stage and deliveries are expected after 2002.
First delivery on new aircraft is 35 months following the down payment and the last in 43 months. Upgrades are to be carried out at HAI with the first aircraft coming off the line 46 months later.
The deal was signed by Greek deputy armaments chief Andonis Scandas, while a memorandum of understanding to ensure quality control was signed between the Greek and French governments.
According to the agreement, Greece will receive offset deals worth 115 percent of the agreement. They include subcontracting to such Greek companies as HAI and telecoms manufacturer Intracom. It will thrown in six free Scalp's as part of the offset deal. The French company is also striving to convince Greece to buy its Rafale jetfighter, although the government has already said it will purchase 60 Eurofighter warplanes after 2005.
The ``Typhoon'' Eurofighter is built by a consortium that includes DASA, BAE Systems of Britain, Alenia of Italy, and Casa of Spain. Greece says it will replace the F-16 as its mainstay fighter.
Greece is also looking for 15 medium transport aircraft and is expected to assign the contract later this summer. One of the top contenders is the C-27J transport, built by Alenia along with Lockheed Martin Corp., its partner in Lockheed Martin Alenia Tactical Transport System.
Greece has signed weapons contracts worth more than dlrs 4 billion since 1997.
The next big Greek purchase could be 246 main battle tanks, 24 recovery vehicles and 12 bridge layers. Under consideration are U.S.-made M1-A2 Abrams tanks, Britain's Challenger 2E, Germany's Leopard 2A5, and France's Leclerc.
Greece plans to spend up to dlrs 1.8 billion on the tank deal.
-------- india/pakistan
Kashmir's Hizbul Hopes for Truce Renewal Soon
Reuters
August 22, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-kashmir.html
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - The Kashmiri militant group Hizbul Mujahideen hopes it can resume its cease-fire within two months and expects peace talks with the Indian government to start again, a local news service said on Tuesday.
``I hope that the cease-fire will take place in the next two months because of the efforts at an international level to break the deadlock,'' Hizbul Commander-in-Chief Abdul Majid Dar told Current News Service in an interview.
``To end the deadlock, people at the international level are active and the talks between Hizbul Mujahideen and the Indian authorities will start again,'' he added.
Hizbul Mujahideen, a pro-Pakistan group whose cadres account for half of roughly 3,000 militants active in Indian-administered Kashmir, declared a cease-fire on July 24 and sought talks with the Indian government.
The group called off its first-ever truce 15 days later after a single round of talks with Indian government officials, citing New Delhi's refusal to engage with arch-rival Pakistan on the future of the bitterly disputed Himalayan territory.
The head of Jammu and Kashmir government said it was an encouraging sign that militant groups were realizing violence could not resolve the dispute.
``...it is a good augury that a realization is dawning on various groups on futility of gun culture (and) who were coming forward for initiating dialogue,'' Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah said in a statement.
Jammu and Kashmir police said Tuesday that nine people including seven separatist guerrillas were killed in separate gun battles across the state.
Among the dead were an Indian soldier and a militant of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, feared for its suicide attacks.
Nuclear-capable arch-foes India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars since 1947 over Kashmir, blamed each other for the breakdown of the embryonic peace process.
India accuses its neighbor of sponsoring the decade-old rebellion against its rule in Jammu and Kashmir state, and refuses to hold peace talks with Pakistan until it stops ''cross-border terrorism.''
Pakistan says it provides only moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people's struggle for self-determination.
TRIPARTITE DIALOGUE WANTED
Dar said only tripartite dialogue could resolve the Kashmir problem, and added that Hizbul Mujahideen would accept any solution emerging from talks on such a basis, whether it was in favor of India or Pakistan.
``He said that without the participation of Pakistan there is no solution possible for the Kashmir problem because India is occupying one part and another part is occupied by Pakistan,'' the news service said.
Commenting on Abdullah's comment Monday that the ground had been prepared for a resumption of talks, Dar said there was no secret contact between Hizbul Mujahideen and the Indian authorities.
He also denied reports that there was a rift within Hizbul.
The commander-in-chief said he was in daily contact with the group's chief in Pakistan, Syed Salahuddin, and stressed that all decisions were made on a consensual basis.
``...Hizbul Mujahideen respects the sentiments and wishes of the people of Kashmir. That is why we are again interested in restarting the talks. But there is a need to take the dialogue seriously,'' Dar said.
``Even if bloodshed continues for the next decade all the concerned parties will have to come to the table for dialogue,'' he added. ``So it is better to start meaningful and serious dialogue now to prevent further bloodshed.''
---
Kashmiri militants kill five Indian soldiers
Washington Times
August 22, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://208.246.212.80/world/worldscene-2000822231945.htm
JAMMU, India - Guerrillas used booby traps and rockets to kill five Indian soldiers in troubled Kashmir yesterday, while Indian security forces killed at least eight persons believed to be part of the separatist movement, the Indian military said.
Indian troops fired artillery across the border dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, raining down shells on villages yesterday, Pakistani police said. The shelling killed a man and an 8-year-old girl, and injured eight persons, including four children, police said.
Pakistan says Indian shelling has increased in past weeks across the border - a frequent scene of artillery exchanges.
-------- iraq
U.N. Readies Team to Check Weapons Held by the Iraqis
ACTION ALERT - "October Surprise" article in NYTimes
From: "Ramsey Kysia" <mbakery@erols.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 19:02:04 -0400
By BARBARA CROSSETTE and STEVEN LEE MYERS
August 22, 2000,
The New York Times, pg. A1
The United Nations has assembled a new team of arms inspectors that is ready to enter Iraq within weeks, raising the prospect of another confrontation with President Saddam Hussein over his weapons programs. The creation of the new team comes more than two years after Mr. Hussein halted cooperation with a previous group of inspectors, provoking a diplomatic crisis that culminated in four nights of American and British airstrikes in December 1998.
Iraq has repeatedly said it will not cooperate with the new weapons commission, which the Security Council ordered nine months ago in the hope that it would resolve some objections the Iraqis, as well as the Russians and French, had about the previous commission.
One of the chief Iraqi complaints about the previous commission, headed by Richard Butler, an Australian arms control expert, was that there were too many inspectors from the United States and Britain, who the Iraqis asserted were really spies.
The new team, with members from 19 countries, is meant to be more accountable to the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan. All the members work directly for the United Nations, not for their own countries as before.
This week, Hans Blix, the leader of the new team, is to discuss the need for access to Iraq with a panel of international weapons experts who serve as the commission's directors. By Sept. 1 he is expected to report to the Security Council that the inspectors are ready to begin work and, barring a change in Iraq's position, to report that the Iraqis continued to reject new inspections.
But it remains far from clear what the United States or other members of the Security Council will do if Iraq refuses to cooperate.
It is also not clear how forcefully the council will push the new inspections, especially since its 15 members are sharply divided over Iraq and the broad economic sanctions imposed on it. Their positions are not likely to become clear until debates in the council begin sometime in September.
The sanctions were imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. They are to remain in place until Iraq is certified as free of prohibited weapons -- chemical, biological and nuclear arms as well as long- range missiles. Last December the Security Council said it would suspend the sanctions if Iraq cooperated with the new team of arms inspectors.
Refusal by Mr. Hussein would leave the council no alternative to keeping the sanctions in place. It is unlikely that the council would call for the use of force, but in previous confrontations the United States and Britain have argued that existing resolutions authorize military action.
A confrontation would focus new attention on the Clinton administration's policy toward Iraq in the middle of the presidential election. That policy has come under sharp attack from Republicans and even some Democrats in Washington, who complain that President Clinton has not acted forcefully enough to force Mr. Hussein's government to accept the inspections.
If Mr. Hussein refuses to cooperate, the administration will be under political pressure to act forcefully. If the Iraqi leader reverses course, Mr. Clinton's successor could be confronted with the politically difficult decision of whether to go along with a suspension of sanctions.
Diplomats and other officials at the United Nations said they believed that during this year's election campaign, the Clinton administration is not likely to press for strong action, even if Iraq remains defiant.
But a senior administration official said the Iraqis or anyone else would be foolish to assume that. Although the administration has not indicated how it would answer new Iraqi defiance, the official refused to rule out the possibility of an "October surprise" of American military action at the height of a campaign, should the Iraqis provoke it.
"They will be making a severe mistake if they think an election campaign will affect how we carry out our foreign policy," the official said.
In Washington, administration officials said they would insist that Iraq comply with the resolution that created Dr. Blix's team or face an indefinite extension of sanctions.
"It's a mandatory resolution," Thomas R. Pickering, an under secretary of state, said in a telephone interview. "If the Iraqis don't comply, the sanctions will stay in place."
Under the resolution that created Dr. Blix's team, those sanctions can be suspended six months after the Iraqis fulfill a list of key requirements set by the inspectors and, ultimately, be lifted once the inspectors conclude that Iraq has come clean and dismantled its prohibited weapons programs.
The previous commission had a more comprehensive standard for declaring Iraq free of weapons before sanctions could be lifted, offering no interim steps like a suspension. The new inspection organization is officially known as the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission. Dr. Blix, a Swedish arms control expert, previously served as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
This month, he completed recruiting and training the 44 inspectors from countries friendly and not so friendly to the Iraqis.
Dr. Blix said his first step would be to find out what had happened to several hundred sites inspected by the last commission in 1998, a process that could take at least several months.
The Iraqis have said they believe that the United States would never agree to a suspension of sanctions but would instead find another reason to keep them in place, making cooperation, in their view, fruitless.
Administration officials have long argued that resuming inspections in Iraq -- rather than resorting to force -- is the most effective way to combat Mr. Hussein's efforts to hold on to nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, as well as long-range missiles that could deliver them.
But within the Pentagon and the American intelligence agencies, there is growing concern that Mr. Hussein has used the prolonged absence of inspectors to continue those efforts. The Central Intelligence Agency sent a report to Congress this month warning that Iraq had already rebuilt missile and chemical weapons factories since the airstrikes in 1998.
The issue of inspections is only one area in which the international standoff with Mr. Hussein appears headed for a new period of confrontation, a decade after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait led to the Persian Gulf war.
In recent weeks Mr. Hussein has taken steps to ease his diplomatic isolation, receiving a visit from President Hugo Chαvez of Venezuela. A thriving black market is reportedly eroding the sanctions, while Russia, supported by China, is challenging the American and British patrols of the "no flight" zones in northern and southern Iraq, which were established to protect Kurds and Shiite Muslims from Mr. Hussein's government.
In the face of these challenges, diplomats at the United Nations and even some American officials say, the administration's policy has been left to drift. The American ambassador to the United Nations, Richard C. Holbrooke, has not involved himself in the issue. Mr. Holbrooke says he has been too busy on other matters.
"There's no doubt things are on autopilot," said one official in Washington. "And it might be an autopilot with a 10-degree downward tilt."
Several diplomats, including some from nations on the Security Council, said the administration had undermined its influence by openly calling for the removal of Mr. Hussein from power. That has given the Iraqis an excuse for dismissing the council's pledge to suspend sanctions if Mr. Hussein cooperates with new inspectors, the diplomats said.
The administration may find itself even further isolated on the council, since three countries supportive of the United States and Britain -- Argentina, Canada and the Netherlands -- will be among the five countries relinquishing their rotating council seats.
Administration officials say they have succeeded in containing Iraq by enforcing the sanctions and continuing to enforce the "no flight" zones despite repeated Iraqi provocations that have resulted in hundreds of limited retaliatory airstrikes since 1998.
When American and British warplanes and missiles launched a much larger attack 20 months ago, administration officials acknowledged that the attack would make it difficult to resume weapons inspections. But they argued that with Mr. Hussein refusing to cooperate, there was no other way to prevent Iraq from acquiring chemical or biological weapons.
"Mark my words," President Clinton said of Mr. Hussein at the time, "he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them. Because we're acting today, it is less likely that we will face these dangers in the future."
At the time, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and others also warned that the United States was prepared to use force again if there was evidence that Iraq had resumed its chemical or biological weapons programs -- or if Iraq threatened its neighbors or attacked the Kurds in the north.
James M. Bodner, the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy and a longtime aide to Mr. Cohen, said in an interview that the United States remained ready to respond if Iraq crossed any of those "red lines."
Administration officials said they had no concrete evidence that Iraq had restarted its weapons programs. But in addition to repairing the damage done in 1998, Iraq has resumed testing its shorter-range missiles. Officials fear that those tests, while not prohibited under the United Nations resolutions, have allowed Iraq to perfect longer- range missiles.
Despite that, the administration's warnings about Iraq's weapons have lost much of their urgency. In the fall of 1997, Mr. Cohen held up a bag of sugar on television and ominously warned that an equivalent amount of anthrax bacteria, which Iraq is believed to possess, could destroy half the population of Washington.
In recent months administration officials have made no such dire warnings, even though there have been no effective inspections in two years. At the same time, Americans have done little publicly to press Dr. Blix to accelerate the formation of his inspection team, which has proceeded slowly.
He began interviewing weapons experts in May, and those selected have completed a four-week training program. Dr. Blix said there are signs that Iraq is thinking over its next moves.
The Iraqis recently presented a legalistic analysis of the new inspection plan to governments of Islamic nations meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The memorandum suggests that the Iraqis still nurture hopes that the resolution creating the inspection commission can be rewritten. Russia has already called for changes, but United Nations and American officials have adamantly ruled that out.
Some diplomats say that Iraq may have calculated that it can bide its time, hoping for a better deal. Others say Mr. Hussein will stop short of any actions that would invite American retaliation, while trying to build support for an unconditional lifting of the sanctions.
"Right now, he thinks things are going his way," a Defense Department official said. "He's outlasted the Clinton administration. He outlasted the Bush administration. I think his perception is he can outlast them all."
----
Iraq Awaits New UN Inspection Team
Associated Press
August 22, 2000 Filed at 4:50 p.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/i/AP-Iraq-UN.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- With a new team of U.N. inspectors just finishing its training, Iraq stands defiant, confident that international support for an attempt to restart the search for any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons program is eroding.
In a meeting with army commanders broadcast on Iraqi television late Monday, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein declared there ``is a huge difference'' between conditions today and the situation in 1991, when a U.S.-led multinational force routed Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
State-run newspapers are full of articles declaring that the U.S.-backed sanctions are fizzling and the once formidable anti-Iraq alliance Washington led is crumbling.
``Every day, the world witnesses serious changes and developments showing the degree of shift (toward Iraq) in the international political climate,'' declared the government newspaper al-Jumhouriya in a front-page article on Tuesday.
More than a year and a half after the last arms inspection in Iraq, the new U.N. inspection agency quietly finished a monthlong training program for 44 staff members from 19 countries on Aug. 10.
Now the sharply divided Security Council must make a decision on the next step -- a decision many at U.N. headquarters believe won't come at least until after U.S. presidential elections in November.
Crippling U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait can only be suspended if Iraq cooperates with the new inspectors, and can only be lifted if Iraq is declared free of weapons of mass destruction.
The last U.N. inspectors left Iraq in December 1998 ahead of U.S. and British airstrikes meant to punish Saddam for failing to cooperate with the United Nations, and Iraq has said it will bar new inspectors from returning.
A U.S. State Department spokesman insisted Tuesday that Iraq must accept inspections if it wants ``out of the box'' of sanctions. But Richard Boucher would not say what the U.S. response would be if Baghdad refused and said that there were no ``specific timetables'' on resuming inspections.
Iraqi officials say privately that their rejection of any U.N. request for new inspections could spark a new diplomatic, or perhaps military, confrontation with Washington. But they also say public opinion -- in Arab and international arenas -- is against continued punishment that has hit ordinary Iraqis hardest.
Senior foreign dignitaries are frequently shown on Iraqi television delivering message to Saddam from their heads of state. The stream of international visitors culminated this month with a trip by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the first head of state to call on Saddam since the Persian Gulf War.
U.N. exemptions to the sanctions have enabled Iraq to re-emerge as a profitable market in international trade. The oil-for-food program, initially a humanitarian proposal, has also recast it as an important player in an oil-thirsty world.
Iraq's external trade under the U.N.-monitored oil program, which allows it to skirt sanctions as long as most of the proceeds are used to meet the basic needs of ordinary Iraqis, now runs into billions of dollars a year, prompting visits to Baghdad by foreign trade delegations.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met Tuesday with Hans Blix, who has been assembling the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, known as UNMOVIC, created by the Security Council in December.
Blix has to submit a progress report to the Security Council on Sept. 1, and a 17-member board of commissioners that advises UNMOVIC will meet in New York on Wednesday and Thursday to consider his draft, UNMOVIC spokesman Ewen Buchanan said Tuesday.
What happens after his report is submitted depends to a large extent on the Security Council, which is badly divided over sanctions against Iraq. Russia and China are pushing for suspension while the United States and Britain are pushing for renewed inspections.
If U.N. inspectors are allowed back into Iraq, one of their first tasks would be to update the status of several hundred sites that used to be monitored by the previous inspection commission, Buchanan said.
-------- ireland
Britain Arrests N.Irish Ex-Guerrilla in Crackdown
Yahoo News
Tuesday August 22 9:11 PM ET updated 5:06 AM ET Aug 23
By Louise McCall
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000822/wl/irish_leadall_dc_4.html
BELFAST (Reuters) - Leading Protestant and Roman Catholic politicians urged Britain on Wednesday to crack down on other Northern Ireland militants following the arrest of prominent Protestant ex-guerrilla chief Johnny ``Mad Dog'' Adair.
Tensions remained high in the British province's capital Belfast after days of violence triggered by a feud between Protestant guerrilla groups. Two men were killed in a gun attack on Monday.
Britain announced that Adair, 36, had been arrested and sent back to prison as a warning that it would get tough with anyone trying to threaten Northern Ireland's fragile peace process.
About 100 supporters of the stocky, tattooed former Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) guerrilla leader staged a show of defiance overnight.
They waved UFF banners at armed police and troops who took up positions near Adair's home in Belfast's Shankhill Road area, a Protestant stronghold in the west of the city.
Northern Ireland's main Protestant political group, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), welcomed Adair's arrest and called on the British government to stamp out what it termed ``mafia'' elements in the province.
``I think tonight's arrest will be welcomed by many of the decent good people. People will be relieved...as the directors of mafia-style violence are removed from their midst,'' senior UUP official Ken Maginnis told BBC television.
The IRA's political ally Sinn Fein backed the arrest of Adair but warned its Catholic supporters to be vigilant. ''Nationalists know only too well that in the past (these) feuds have ended with various groupings uniting to launch sectarian attacks on Catholics,'' said chairman Mitchel McLaughlin.
Some politicians with links to Protestant guerrilla groups said Adair's arrest could spark more violence. ``I think arresting Johnny Adair will make the situation worse... There is a lot of anger out there that he has been arrested,'' said John White, chairman of the Ulster Democratic Party.
Police, Army In Talks
Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson announced Adair's arrest after talks with police and British army chiefs on ways of ending the violence.
Adair, seen on Tuesday walking around the Shankill Road area in a bullet proof vest, was released from prison last year under the 1998 Good Friday peace accord that has allowed hundreds of Northern Ireland guerrillas to walk free.
``I took the decision to suspend the (good behavior) license of this prisoner after receiving a full report from the security forces and on the advice of the police this morning,'' Mandelson said in a statement.
British troops were rushed onto Belfast's streets on Monday after the killing of the two men in the Shankill Road area.
Two Protestant guerrilla groups, the UFF and the Ulster Defense Association (UDA), are locked in a feud with the rival Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Militant Protestants call themselves pro-British rule ``loyalists.''
In other incidents on Tuesday, shots were fired at several homes of members of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), which has close links to UVF guerrillas. Two children, aged seven and five, were among those who had a narrow escape when a shotgun was fired at their house in Portballintrae, about 40 miles north of Belfast.
The British army has scaled down its presence in the province since the 1998 Good Friday deal. Troops were withdrawn from Belfast's streets that year but were ordered back in July to halt violence during the Protestant ``marching season.''
Mainstream guerrilla groups are observing cease-fires while politicians from the Protestant majority and Roman Catholic minority try to seal a lasting peace to draw a line under 30 years of sectarian conflict that killed 3,600 people.
All Northern Ireland's loyalist groups support British rule, but are fighting each other over territory, political disputes and personal grievances. Many loyalist guerrillas jealously guard their access to the drugs trade in the city, according to authoritative sources.
---
Sinn Fein's bad idea
Washington Times
EDITORIAL August 22, 2000
http://208.246.212.80/op-ed/ed-house-2000822195946.htm
Now that the Irish Republican Army's (IRA) political ally, Sinn Fein, has gained representation in Northern Ireland's new shared government, it is seeking a greater political role in the neighboring Republic of Ireland too. If pro-British unionists sit in the United Kingdom's parliament in Westminster, the argument goes, Sinn Fein and other Irish nationalists should be able to have representation and speaking power in Dublin. The analogy is problematic, however, and acceding to the group's demands could severely harm the peace process.
The analogy is inappropriate in several ways. First, Sinn Fein already has two seats in Westminster's House of Commons but refuses to occupy them, as it believes that would recognize British sovereignty over Northern Ireland; Sinn Fein prefers to pretend 79 years of British rule there never happened. Second, Sinn Fein cannot use representation on the provincial and federal level of the United Kingdom - in Northern Ireland and Westminster respectively - as a basis for demanding representation in a different country all together, the Republic of Ireland. It would be similar to a Democrat saying that since Republicans serve in a Texas state legislature as well as in the U.S. Congress, U.S. Democrats should be able to serve in Texas, the United States and Canada.
The Irish themselves are eyeing the proposal - which is being considered by a committee representing all parties and is to be presented to the Irish parliament in October - with caution. It provides, among other things, that Sinn Fein members could attend and join in debates on Northern Ireland. The party also wants voting representation in the Irish parliament. As the Republic's own Irish Examiner aptly puts it: "They would be representing people who do not pay taxes in this state, yet they would be determining how the tax money would be spent. In short, they would have power without responsibility, which has famously been described as the 'prerogative of the harlot through the ages.'"
Moreover, Sinn Fein would gain another political perch from which to pursue the reunification of the north and south of Ireland, effectively undermining those in Northern Ireland's government who wish to maintain union with Great Britain. This would defeat the purpose of the new government's fair representation set up by the Good Friday accords.
It is beneficial for discussions concerning Northern Ireland's future to continue between Ulster, Dublin and Westminster. But allowing Northern nationalists to take their new leadership roles accorded by the Good Friday agreement as a mandate for ruling elsewhere is ludicrous. The people of Northern Ireland voted to be ruled by their own. If they or the citizens of the Republic of Ireland wish to elect new "time-share" politicians, they do so at their own peril.
-------- kosovo
LIFE IN YUGOSLAVIA ONE YEAR AFTER THE BOMBING
From: iacenter@iacenter.org
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000
report by Josina Dunkel
Last year, for 78 days, NATO bombed Yugoslavia. They used the usual catch words, saving small nations, defending democracy, and the ultimate oxymoron, the "humanitarian war." But it was not a war for ideals, it was a war to control the Yugoslavian economy and to eliminate the sovereignty of this Balkan country.
Having watched the war develop and having visited the country this summer, I am firmly convinced that neither the US nor Germany nor any of the other 19 countries who make up NATO were ever interested in protecting minorities. They were interested in securing markets to expand capitalism in this region.
When people asked who will control the planned Balkan oil pipelines or transportation systems, NATO did not want the answer to be Yugoslavia but rather, NATO.
The US is not alone in its desire to dominate the Balkans; Germany and England played large roles. Germany's role, in particular, should not be overlooked in this war. Germany is trying to become the strongest imperialist force in Europe. It had been running money and arms to the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, for years. Germany promised the KLA political power. Why? For the same reasons I just mentioned, control.
There has been no evidence to support the wild claims that the Yugoslavians committed the mass slaughter, genocide, or holocaust they were charged with. Thousands of people were killed during this war, but from the NATO BOMBS which all along were aimed at destroying civilian targets.
I went to Yugoslavian a few weeks ago, representing the International Action Center at the International Campus of Friendship. The Campus brought together youth activists from around the world to witness the Yugoslavian situation as it really exists, not through the western media's portrayal of the country. We came from many different countries, Russia, the Ukraine, Vietnam, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Jordan, Belgium, England, Romania, thee Netherlands, Bulgaria, and more and of course the US. We were hosted by the Patriotic Union of Yugoslavia.
We traveled around Yugoslavia and we saw people -- reconstructing -- out of jobs -- suffering from shortages -- dealing with problems from the damage of schools and cultural centers.
Did you know that: Throughout the war, in 78 days of bombing only 14 tanks were destroyed. BUT 328 schools, 33 hospitals, the heating plant for Belgrade, electrical grids in many parts of the country and over 100 churches/monastaries were damaged or destroyed by NATO bombs.
ALSO, numerous residential neighborhoods, bridges, museums and factories were destroyed or heavily damaged. This means that the Yugoslav peoples' churches, homes, workplaces and the preservation of their history were not only damaged, or destroyed, but INTENTIONALLY targeted.
At the Zastava car factory which made Yugo cars for the world market, the assembly line, the iron forge and the computer center with irreplaceable information were all destroyed. (When this report is posted on the http://www.iacenter.org , we will include a picture of this.) The destruction of Zastava meant that hundreds, thousands of workers have lost their jobs. What is so interesting, however, is that the factory had an arms manufacturing part but this was NOT bombed.
In this case there was a clear military target but it was avoided in order to attack civilian parts of the extensive plant.
Much of the damage can still be seen. You can walk around Belgrade and come across the remnants of government buildings or even hotels which were deemed military targets. Reconstruction is paid for entirely by the Yugoslavians. They have not received compensation AND Foreign bank accounts have been frozen so they can receive no international loans.
The economy is suffering. People with jobs often don't have much work to do because of shortages. There are no more export or import industries because of sanctions.
In Novi Sad NATO bombed all three bridges which connected one side of the city to the other. I live in New York City and I can picture what that means; imagine if the tunnels and all of the bridges were bombed by an outside force. No Triboro, no Williamsburg, no Brooklyn bridge. Could we get across? Yes but taking barges takes a while and the interdependencies between say Brooklyn and Manhattan mean that it is not just an inconvenient traffic jam, it could be life and death.
In Novi Sad, a city which had three bridges, now has one and a half. One of the bridges withstood 5 direct hits before it succumbed to the final 6th. In its place is a bridge which was built in three months, and goes only one way at a time and has a railroad track on it. Another bridge has been replaced with a bridge built on barges. (There will be pictures of this on http://www.iacenter.org .)
Now it takes much longer to get from one side of Novi Sad to the other. There are tremendous traffic jams on a regular basis. Sometimes cars, buses filled without air conditioning, and ambulances have to wait 2 hours to get from one side to another.
What was really shocking was to see the civilian targets. The TV and radio buildings in Belgrade as well as in Novi Sad were completely destroyed. It was really an attempt to silence what was happening in the country and to disrupt people's lives not because they posed a military threat.
A children's village near Novi Sad which is an orphanage and foster home suffered heavily even though it was not directly targeted. Sheets of glass were broken as were roofs, and walls. Children were thrown into the air, on one occasion, 12 yards.
Some of the Yugoslavian students told us about what it was like to live during the bombing. They never got enough sleep since most of the bombs fell at night. The air raid sirens and the need to go into shelters, which meant going into subway stations, interrupted people's sleep and left them sleep deprived as well as emotionally drained from seeing the wreckage and death.
During the day people tried to keep normal schedules but the elementary and high schools were mostly closed. We met with the organizers of the daily concerts, Music for Peace. All different types of music were included. People would gather sometimes on the bridges to form human protection and dare the planes to drop the bombs. There is a post card which shows a massive target symbol being carried during a demonstration in Belgrade, which will also be available on http://www.iacenter.org .
Belgrade was a cool city and had a large degree of wry humor which helped them get through the war. There are clubs and night life, a lot of people on the street at all hours.
KOSOVO
It was in stark contrast to the atmosphere we found in Kosovo.
We all heard a lot about Kosovo in the media during and after the war last year. What was rarely reported, however, was the place of Kosovo in the Serbian mentality. It is seen as the cradle of the Serbian civilization. All of the most important Serbian cultural shrines and monasteries are located in Kosovo.
Crossing from Serbia into Kosovo, you immediately feel a difference. The border is controlled by Belgium KFOR troops, NATO's soldiers. Now when you go into Hungary on a bus, your bus is boarded by a Hungarian soldier who works at customs and immigration. When you go into Kosovo, still a part of Yugoslavia but occupied by foreign troops, your bus is boarded by Belgium troops.
Throughout the trip we were accompanied by many Yugoslavian students who found this trip to Kosovo particularly hard. The Serbs still living in Kosovo feel very vulnerable. If they had lived in sections now under Albanian control, they were forced to leave their homes.
We met some refugees in Serbia who were given 24 hours notice and whose house is now occupied by someone who had never even lived in Kosovo before. Serbia has 1.5 million refugees and many of them are Albanian.
People told us how any Serbian can be arrested if an Albanian claims that that Serb committed genocide. The Serb's cases are never heard in courts and they are held, without real charges against them, without any investigation into the case and without meeting a judge for months. We met three such prisoners in a hospital in Kosovo-Mitrovica who had been held for 13, 9, and 8 months respectively. They had had close friendships with Albanians and were trusted neighbors but now they were imprisoned and guarded by KFOR troops. And after I came back to NYC I received an email that said that these men have since disappeared and no one has heard a word of their whereabouts.
Kosovo is suffering. There is no law and this situation is being exploited by the KLA and by the Albanian Mafia. Serbs live in fear that they will be randomly accused of a war crime or indiscriminately beaten.
In the city Kosovo-Mitrovica, French KFOR troops guard a bridge dividing the Albanian section of the city from the rest. The other side includes mainly Serbs but is a mixed neighborhood. The Albanian side has been ethnically cleansed of all others. The Romani people who had a settlement in the south side of the city were bombed and then burned out of their homes by the KLA. A few months ago they were forced to move and now live in tents which we visited. (There will be a picture of this in the web version.) They told us that it was fine for the time being when the weather was warm but when it turned cold there were going to be serious problems.
We toured a hospital in this city which has running water and electricity for only a few hours a day. The water and electricity plants are in the Albanian section of the town. The signs in the hospital are still in Albanian first and then Serbian.
This whole trip to Kosovo and the rest of Yugoslavia was a moving experience. It was interesting to see the country for myself and to talk to people who are living through these hardships imposed by NATO. It made me angry to see what my tax dollars are going to. To think that they rob our education and health care systems to pay for the destruction of the education and health care services of another country. It is infuriating.
We, the youth of this trip and the organizations we represented have already started to plan actions in solidarity with the Yugoslavian people. We will have a medical aid campaign and a world wide weekend of action October 20-22. Italian solidarity organizations are planning to send a ship loaded with medicines to Yugoslavia to break the blockade.
Thank you and please stay in touch with the International Action Center for information and actions in solidarity with all the peoples of Yugoslavia.
International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 206 New York, NY 10011 email: iacenter@iacenter.org web: www.iacenter.org
-------- peru
Peru announces arms ring bust
Washington Times
August 22, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://208.246.212.80/world/worldscene-2000822231945.htm
LIMA, Peru - Peru's shadowy intelligence chief made a rare public appearance yesterday to announce the arrest of what the government said was a group of international arms dealers selling weapons to Colombian guerrillas.
President Alberto Fujimori said the arms ring was uncovered by an intelligence service investigation that began in late 1998. A government spokeswoman said a Russian and five Peruvians, including at least one retired army officer, were arrested in recent days in connection with the reported arms smuggling.
-------- u.s.
CIA: Director of Central Intelligence names Deputy Director for Intelligence,
August 22, 2000
Associate Deputy Directors for Intelligence
Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet announced today the appointment of Winston P. Wiley as CIA`s new Deputy Director for Intelligence. Wiley succeeds John E. McLaughlin, who was appointed Acting Deputy Director of Central Intelligence on June 29, 2000.
Wiley has served as Associate Deputy Director for Intelligence (ADDI) since July 1997.
Wiley holds a B.A. in economics from The American University and a M.A. in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Before joining the CIA, Wiley spent three years in the Army Security Agency as a Russian linguist.
Wiley has held a wide range of analytic and senior managerial positions in the Directorate of Intelligence, including Chief, Persian Gulf Task Force. Wiley also served as the Deputy Chief, DCI Counterterrorist Center, and then Chief, DCI Counterterrorist Center prior to being named ADDI.
Tenet also announced today the selection of Jami Miscik to succeed Wiley as ADDI. Miscik, a native of Redondo Beach, California, joined the CIA in 1983 as an economic analyst after receiving a BA in political science and economics from Pepperdine University and a MA in International Studies from the University of Denver.
Miscik completed a rotational assignment to the National Security Council as Director for Intelligence Programs and, upon returning to CIA, was named Executive Assistant to the DCI. She was subsequently appointed Deputy Director of the DCI`s Nonproliferation Center and then Director of the Office of Transnational Issues, Directorate of Intelligence.
Additionally, Tenet announced the appointment of Martin C. Petersen to the new position of ADDI for Strategic Planning and Programs.
Petersen, a native of Lynwood, California, received a BA in political science with high distinction from Arizona State University and a MA in Asian Studies from the East-West Center, University of Hawaii. Petersen served with the US Army in Vietnam.
During his CIA career, Petersen held a series of analytic and senior managerial positions dealing with East Asia, including Director of the Office of East Asian Analysis. Following the reorganization of the Directorate of Intelligence in 1997, Petersen was chosen as the first Director of the Office of Asian Pacific and Latin American Analysis. In 1999, Petersen became Director of Strategic Programs, Directorate of Intelligence.
In making the announcements today, Tenet said: " I have asked Winston, Jami, and Marty to continue to pursue the DI`s objective of providing the best possible intelligence support to senior policymakers, the Congress, the diplomatic, military, and law enforcement communities as well as to other national customers."
"The key to securing this objective is a focus on meeting the needs of the customer, the continued development of substantive expertise, and building strong alliances and partnerships with collectors, other communities of analysts, and experts outside the intelligence community," Tenet added.
((M2 Communications Ltd disclaims all liability for information provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties. Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at http://www.presswire.net on the world wide web. Inquiries to info@m2.com)).
---
US Business Brief:
Army orders $202 mln worth of Bradley vehicles
BridgeNews
August 22, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=b0821049.3rg&level3=772&date=20000822
Arlington, Va.--Aug. 21--United Defense Industries Inc., a privately-held maker of armored combat vehicles, said Monday it received a $202.4 million order to supply the U.S. Army with three versions of the Bradley fighting vehicle.
United said the deal called for it to provide the Army with 70 Bradley A3 vehicles, 60 Bradley A2 ODS vehicles, and 26 M7 Bradley FIST vehicles, with deliveries set to begin in July 2001.
The contract also contains options for 39 additional Bradley vehicles, which if exercised would bring the total value of the deal to $221.8 million.
In addition to armored combat vehicles, Arlington, Va.-based United also makes weapons delivery systems, amphibious assault vehicles, support vehicle systems, and operating software for combat systems. The company, which has facilities in 12 states, is an indirect subsidiary of The Carlyle Group. End
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Gore 2000:
Bush's Massive Tax Cut Makes His Military Tough Talk an Empty Promise
NewsEdge
August 22, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=v0821482.5us&level3=351&date=20000822
NASHVILLE, Aug. 21 /U.S. Newswire/via NewsEdge Corporation - The following was released today by Gore 2000:
Despite his campaign-trail promises that he would invest heavily in national security, George W. Bush's massive $1.6 trillion tax break for the rich would leave no money for the big military buildup that he has pledged to deliver, a Gore spokesperson said today.
"Bush spouts off a lot of tough talk about how he would undertake a massive military buildup, but his huge tax breaks for the wealthy would save nothing for America's military, " said Kym Spell, Gore deputy communications director.
According to a New York Times editorial today: "The United States has by far the world's most powerful military forces and invests more money in maintaining them and their weapons than the next 10 largest countries combined spend on their militaries. The question for Americans to consider is whether the armed forces are adapting quickly enough to fight the kinds of battles they are likely to face in the years ahead."
Gore has proposed investing $127 billion from the projected budget surplus to strengthen our military and ensure that all our servicemen and women are adequately compensated for the risks they are asked to take and the burdens they are asked to bear. As part of the current administration, the military personnel received a 4.8 percent military pay increase -- the largest in 20 years. Gore also supports a 3.7 percent across-the-board pay increase this year.
BUSH PLAN LEAVES NO MONEY FOR DEFENSE MODERNIZATION, READINESS
-- Tax Cuts Over Military Budget. Bush's $1.6 trillion tax break for the few would spend the entire budget surplus, leaving no money for the massive military build up that Bush has promised. Bush has called for defense modernization and readiness, but he has not laid out a plan to fund it.
-- Surplus Allows for Defense Investments. Both Gore and Joe Lieberman voted for the administration's 1993 Economic Plan -- with Gore' casting the tie-breaking vote -- which brought spending under control, triggered investment and helped create the first budget surplus in a generation. As a result, the administration was able to reverse the sharp decline in defense spending that occurred under Bush-Quayle-Cheney. (In constant 1996 dollars, defense spending fell by nearly $55 billion from 1989 to 1993.) (OMB Budget of the U.S. FY '01, Table 6.1)
In an interview was Salon.Com, Jesse Brown, former Department of Veterans' Affairs secretary under the current administration and co-director of Veterans for Gore, questioned Bush and Dick Cheney's level of commitment to the military since neither of them volunteered to go to Vietnam to serve their country in one of its most critical times of need.
---
Bush Offends Veterans Democratic National Committee
NewsMax.com
August 22, 2000
http://www.NewsMax.com/articles/?a=2000/8/23/133957
The following is a press release from the Democratic National Committee.
Washington, D.C. -- Today, candidate George W. Bush casually tossed the word "AWOL" (Absent Without Leave) into a political debate over veterans policy, using the word to describe Vietnam veteran Al Gore and Democrats' record on veterans' issues. His use of this word is stunning in two respects:
1. Bush himself has not credibly accounted for his yearlong absence (1972-73) from Vietnam-era duty in the Texas Air National Guard. Even his own commanding officer, then-Lt. Col. William Turnipseed, reported that "To my knowledge, he never showed up. He was never a part of my unit," adding, "I would have remembered him." [AP, 6/24/00, 5/23/00; Boston Globe, 5/23/00]
2. Bush stood by silently while his Republican allies in Congress tried to gut the very health, training and education programs on which veterans rely. Al Gore and Democrats fought against the irresponsible, Bush-supported Republican tax plans that would have threatened key veterans programs.
"Bush misses the mark when he criticizes Democrats' strong record on veterans' issues," DNC Communications Director Laura Quinn said. "The use of this term to describe a Vietnam veteran like Al Gore is just plan wrong."
---
Intergraph Government Solutions Helps U.S. Navy Improve Aviation Maintenance Accuracy Intergraph Equips USS Lincoln with First Real-Time Video Maintenance and Electronic Document Management System
Yahoo News
Tuesday August 22, 5:37 pm Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000822/al_intergr.html
HUNTSVILLE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 22, 2000-- Intergraph Government Solutions (NASDAQ:INGR - news) announced today that the USS Abraham Lincoln Battle Group sailed this weekend with the first telemaintenance and electronic document management system in the Fleet. As part of the Joint Aviation Technical Data Integration (JATDI) project, Intergraph has outfitted the Lincoln with the latest technologies for electronic technical document management and digital audio-visual maintenance support to ensure that squadron aircraft maintainers have access to the latest technical data. Rather than relying on dated paper manuals, warfighters on the carrier can now view regularly updated electronic technical manuals (TMs) on workstations and portable devices and have live technical support piped in from shore-based resources.
JATDI is a digital engineering and logistics data environment that integrates and delivers a seamless flow of real-time technical data and maintenance expertise as knowledge for the warfighter. Developed by the U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) through government-industry partnerships in cooperation with the Joint Aeronautical Commanders Group and the Joint Aviation Logistics Board, JATDI currently supports maintenance of its flagship weapon systems, the H-60 series and EA-6B aircraft, ashore and afloat. As the first deployment of the system at sea, the installation of JATDI on the Lincoln is a major milestone in the program.
State-of-the-art maintenance system
JATDI supports H-60 and EA-6B maintenance through three data levels. Naval Air Technical Data and Engineering Service Command (NATEC) provides electronic TMs and other data. Then, Mid-Tier Servers at major naval installations distribute the up-to-date digital technical documents. JATDI workstations, laptops, and portable electronic display devices (PEDDs) at the squadron level regularly receive updates, which can be viewed and queried using a Web-based interface. The use of portable devices provides users on the carrier access to the most current technical publications at all required locations, even remote aircraft sites such as the carrier flight deck.
Embracing the concept of ``virtual site visits,'' JATDI also includes the Technical Maintenance Camera System or TechCAM. TechCAM provides maintainers with a lightweight, two-way, audio-visual system linked by a LAN/WAN with Engineering Technical Support (ETS) personnel or training videos at a central location. ETS personnel can provide real-time assistance to maintainers to complete the maintenance process and quickly return the system to an operational status without the need for actual site visits.
``JATDI creates a real-time technical data integrated environment whereby digital technical data, training and maintenance expertise is more available and accurate. Squadron maintainers on board the USS Lincoln will be the first group at sea to have access to such vast resources in an environment that presents the data as knowledge for the warfighter by a cheaper and faster means,'' said Stacy Cummings, the JATDI program manager at NAVAIR.
``Intergraph Government Solutions is pleased to be a partner with NAVAIR in this ground-breaking solution that significantly improves timeliness and accuracy of maintenance data. We have many years of experience in helping organizations improve maintenance processes using integrated systems and cutting-edge technologies. With JATDI providing squadrons immediate access to technical data in a regularly updated environment, the Navy can complete maintenance faster and more accurately, at less expense,'' said Barry Wilson, the JATDI program manager at Intergraph Government Solutions.
Intergraph Background Information
Intergraph Government Solutions, a subsidiary of Intergraph Corporation (NASDAQ: INGR - news), is a leading systems integration company that provides commercial and customized solutions to state, local and federal governments worldwide. Backed by more than 30 years of technology innovation, IGS and its business partners work with customers to provide the powerful, business-critical solutions they need to succeed. IGS is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, and has strategically positioned offices worldwide.
For more information about Intergraph Government Solutions, please call 800/747-2232 or visit http://www.intergraph.com/govt.
For more information about JATDI, visit http://jatdi.redstone.army.mil or http://www.intergraph.com/customer/profiles/JATDI.asp.
NOTE TO EDITORS: For digital images related to the USS Lincoln or JATDI, visit http://jatdi.redstone.army.mil/lincoln/pics/index.html or http://www.intergraph.com/govt/press/.
---
Gore Rejects Bush's Complaints About Military
Yahoo News
Tuesday August 22
By Thomas Ferraro
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000822/pl/campaign_gore_dc_194.html
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore (news - web sites), wearing the hat of fellow war veterans, opened fire on Tuesday against Republican rival George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s charge that the U.S. military had suffered a serious decline.
Speaking to the 101st national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Gore said it ``makes me so concerned when others try to run down America's military for political advantage in an election year.''
``That's not only wrong in fact -- it's the wrong message to send our allies and adversaries around the world,'' the vice president said, without mentioning Bush by name.
``Our military is the strongest and best in the entire world (and) if you entrust me with the presidency, I pledge to keep it that way,'' he said.
Bush appeared before the same group on Monday and promised a massive review of U.S. troop deployments overseas and military spending if he wins the White House on Nov. 7.
``The current administration inherited a military ready for the dangers and challenges facing our nation. The next president will inherit a military in decline,'' Bush said, citing back-to-back deployments, poor pay, shortages of spare parts and equipment and declining readiness.
Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., said Bush's charge that there is a hollowed-out military ``is just not true.''
``The military is in good shape,'' O'Hanlon said. ``But there are some problems, like people being overworked and being away from home too much and there are some problems with morale.''
But with recent increases in pay, he said, morale has improved, ``and the military's record on retention and recruitment has gotten better.''
Clinton Seeks Money For Military
The Clinton administration, which last year obtained the biggest increase in defense spending since President Ronald Reagan was in office, is already looking for more money, it was disclosed on Tuesday.
Senior defense officials said the administration is preparing to seek increases in defense spending totaling at least $16 billion over six years, beginning in fiscal 2002, with much of it going to fighting readiness and quality of life for the troops.
Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett said, ``Clearly, Bill Clinton and Al Gore are responding to the leadership being shown on this issue by Gov. Bush.''
A veteran of the Vietnam War and a member of the VFW, Gore entered the convention hall wearing the hat of the 1.9-million member organization and winning sustained applause.
Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard, stationed in the United States, during the Vietnam War. Since he did not go off to war, he is not eligible for VFW membership.
Gore told the convention: ``I don't pretend that my own military experience matches in any way what others here have been through.''
``When I enlisted, I became an Army reporter in Vietnam. I didn't do the most, or run the gravest danger. But I was proud to wear my country's uniform,'' he said.
Bush Wants Military Pay Raise
Bush has called for a $1 billion military pay raise averaging $750 a year for each member of the military and re-enlistment bonuses for men and women with critical skills.
That would be on top of a 3.7 percent across-the-board military pay raise that the Congress approved earlier this year with the backing of the Clinton-Gore administration.
Gore said he and Clinton helped reverse the decline in defense spending that began under Bush's father, former President George Bush.
Defense spending for fiscal 2001, which begins Oct. 1, is $288 billion, a $20 billion hike from current spending, and included a 4.8 percent military pay raise, the biggest in 20 years.
Gore noted that the number of military families on food stamps was less than a third of what it had been in the Bush administration.
As president, Gore vowed, ``I will make sure that no members of our armed forces ever have to rely on food stamps.''
Gore received a rousing reception later Tuesday when he addressed the 38th general convention of the 570,000-member United Brotherhood of Carpenters in Chicago.
More than 2,000 fist-pumping union members chanting, ``Gore, Gore,'' greeted the vice president and then interrupted his speech with cries of ``Four more years.''
Gore noted record economic growth since he and Clinton took office in 1993, and vowed an even stronger economy and improved labor protection if he became president.
``Are you with me?'' he asked.
``Yes,'' the crowd roared.
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Bush and Gore on the soldier's life
USA Today
08/22/00
http://www.usatoday.com/news/e98/e2458.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - Disagreeing over a missile defense shield and nuclear arms, presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore are tangling over sky-high strategic questions in their military policies. But neither has forgotten about the soldier on the ground.
From the earliest months of his candidacy, Republican Bush has proposed a $1 billion a year pay raise over and above the increases that military personnel have been seeing in their checks. And Democrat Gore has weighed in with proposals of his own to improve the soldier's life.
Outlining his ideas Monday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Milwaukee, Bush accused the Clinton-Gore administration of letting morale and manpower slip and got a standing ovation with his vow: ''I will give our military a clear sense of mission.''
Gore, who unlike Bush is a veteran of a foreign war - Vietnam - was addressing the group Tuesday.
The quality of life for military families was popularized as a campaign issue by Arizona Sen. John McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, who, in his failed bid for the GOP presidential nomination, called attention to the fact that thousands of service members get food stamps.
Some military analysts don't necessarily think that is a bad thing, regarding food stamps as just another item on a long list of military benefits.
But it has become a mark of shame, and both Gore and Bush say conditions must be improved so that soldiers no longer need to depend on the coupons.
Gore also says the number of active service members receiving the vouchers has dwindled by two-thirds in a decade, to about 6,000, reminding everyone that food stamps in the military date back well before the Clinton-Gore administration.
In the main, the debate over defense policy has turned on the size and timing of a national missile defense system, with Bush pushing for an ambitious and quick deployment and Gore preferring a limited system that could be negotiated with the Russians - partners in a treaty that forbids such missile shields. In all, Bush has proposed spending $20 billion more over five years for weapons research and development
As well, Bush has proposed reducing the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile and suggested he would do so even if the Russians don't follow suit. Gore says unilateral cuts could upset the nuclear balance.
On other issues:
Bush would raise military pay by $1 billion a year for five years on top of the $76 billion increase approved by Congress and signed by President Clinton this month. Bush says the typical soldier would earn about $750 more in the first year from his plan. Gore supported the 3.7% pay increase enacted this month; his position on further increases is unclear.
Gore and Bush generally favor re-enlistment bonuses and higher pay for people with special skills.
Gore says more pre-emptive diplomacy would limit the need to send soldiers to new crises abroad. Bush says he would review overseas deployments with the aim of reducing the number of troops on foreign soil.
Bush proposes spending $310 million to speed the improvement of schools on or near military bases. He favors unspecified increases in housing allowances or renovations to ensure service members ''no longer have to tolerate substandard housing.''
Gore says he would ensure ''all military members and families live in adequate, affordable housing,'' by expanding the Clinton administration's effort to improve services. He would ''put the private sector to work building, owning, and managing housing for the military,'' and spend more on employment services and continuing education for military spouses, child care and steps to improve health care.
---
Gore defends state of military
USA Today
08/22/00
By Martin Kasindorf, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/e98/e2465.htm
MILWAUKEE - Vice President Gore fired back at his Republican opponent over defense policies Tuesday, saying it sends a false message to allies and adversaries "when others try to run down America's military for political advantage in an election year."
A day after Texas Gov. George W. Bush accused the Clinton administration of weakening the armed forces, Gore told the same audience, 7,100 delegates at the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, that the military is well-prepared and can count on his support.
"Our military is the strongest and best in the entire world," the Democratic nominee said. "If you entrust me with the presidency, I pledge to keep it that way, whatever it takes."
Taking the offensive, Gore said Bush's proposed 10-year, $1.3 trillion tax cut would "make it impossible to modernize our armed forces, meet our commitments to veterans and keep our armed forces ready for battle."
Disputing Bush's assertion that many military units are not combat-ready, Gore cited the Army's assurance this month that all 10 of its divisions are ready.
Gore promised to fight for more funds for military training, housing and pay, but he offered no specific budget numbers. Bush did. The GOP nominee said he would demand an extra $5 billion over five years for pay raises and spend $310 million to build and repair public schools attended by 570,000 children of service personnel.
Bush had lamented the fact that some military families must rely on food stamps to make ends meet. Gore said the number of these families, which is currently 6,300 , is "less than one-third of what it was in the previous administration," when Bush's father sat in the Oval Office. Gore pledged to eliminate the problem entirely.
Dan Bartlett, a Bush campaign spokesman, dismissed Gore's speech as a "defensive reaction" to the governor's criticism.
Gore detailed his own record on defense, including service in Vietnam as an Army reporter and a Senate vote to support the Persian Gulf War. A member of VFW Post 5021 in Carthage, Tenn., Gore wore his brown-and-yellow VFW cap.
During the Vietnam War, Bush was in Houston, serving as a member of the Texas Air National Guard. Such service doesn't qualify for membership in the 101-year-old VFW.
One VFW delegate, Charles Mattox of Milan, Ind., an independent voter, said Gore had successfully countered Bush's assertions that the administration has presided over a hollowed-out military. "Gore knows what's going on," he said.
As a nonprofit organization, the 1.9 million-member VFW cannot endorse candidates. Its political action committee endorsed Republican Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential race, but the move caused such controversy within the VFW that a new political action committee board later voted to end endorsements.
The White House had the Republican candidate outnumbered during the VFW convention. Gore was the third high official to speak for the administration. On Monday, Defense Secretary William Cohen and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made appearances.
Later Tuesday, Gore won cheers discussing economic issues at a carpenters union convention in Chicago. Wednesday, he is scheduled to fly to Tamarac, Fla., where he and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, his running mate, plan to discuss medical care with seniors.
---
THE TEXAS GOVERNOR
Bush Sees Military Decline and Pledges a Turnaround
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By FRANK BRUNI
http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/082200wh-bush.html
DES MOINES, Aug. 21 -- Gov. George W. Bush sharply attacked the Clinton administration's military policies today, saying that the country's armed forces had plummeted to a state of serious physical and emotional disrepair and that he was committed to reversing the decline.
Speaking to thousands of people at a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Milwaukee, a city he visited early in the day before traveling to Des Moines, Mr. Bush said today's servicemen and women were confronting "back-to-back deployments, poor pay, shortages of spare parts and equipment and rapidly declining readiness."
The Texas governor said there were too many "soldiers who are on food stamps and soldiers who are poorly housed." Ticking off a list of what he characterized as other troubling indicators, Mr. Bush added that there were recruitment shortfalls in various branches of the military, units that were measurably not ready for combat and severe morale problems.
"The facts are stark and the facts are real," Mr. Bush said. "The current administration inherited a military ready for the dangers and challenges facing our nation. The next president will inherit a military in decline.
"It's still without equal in the world. But it is not without serious problems that must be addressed immediately."
Mr. Bush restated proposals he had made to increase military spending, including his call for a raise for people in the armed forces that would add $1 billion in annual salary to the increase already authorized by Congress and signed into law last year.
And he unveiled a new plan for the federal government to spend a one-time amount of $310 million for the construction and repair of public schools that serve roughly 570,000 children of service people and are financed through the federal Department of Education.
That proposal fit into Mr. Bush's overall effort in this postconvention period of focusing on education -- his bridge to independent and swing voters -- in states that either lean slightly Democratic or have voted Democratic in the last two or three presidential elections.
Wisconsin and Iowa have not voted Republican in a presidential election since 1984, when Ronald Reagan was re-elected. But a few polls taken before the party conventions suggested that Mr. Bush had a chance of victory in both states.
Karen P. Hughes, the Bush campaign's director of communications, said that Mr. Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney, would travel to 19 states from Friday to Aug. 31. All but four of those voted Democratic in the last two presidential elections.
In Des Moines, Mr. Bush went to what Ms. Hughes reminded reporters was the 93rd school that he had visited so far over the 14-month course of his presidential campaign.
"We're working our way toward 100," she said, "to highlight the importance Governor Bush places on educating our children."
Douglas Hattaway, a spokesman for the Gore campaign, disputed Mr. Bush's portrayal of the United States military as inadequately prepared. Even so, he said, Vice President Al Gore had also called for additional spending on the military, including further raises.
Mr. Hattaway also questioned how Mr. Bush could afford more money for the armed forces in light of his proposed $1.3 trillion tax cut over the next 10 years.
"He won't be able to pay for the promises he's making," Mr. Hattaway said.
Some of the military cutbacks that Mr. Bush criticized today began in the administration of his father, President George Bush, although the former president was in part reacting to diminished needs after the end of the cold war.
The Texas governor, who spent the years during the Vietnam War stationed in Houston with the Texas Air National Guard, made a point in his remarks to the veterans to allude to his father's military service overseas during World War II and to invoke Mr. Cheney's credentials as the defense secretary during his father's administration.
Mr. Bush called Mr. Cheney, who was not on the campaign trail with him, "one of the greatest secretaries of defense this nation has ever known."
He also told the veterans that if he is elected president, he will make it a priority to ensure that veterans get the benefits they were promised without the bureaucratic delays that he said were too prevalent today. To that end, he said he would create what he called a "veterans health care task force."
"In my administration," Mr. Bush said, "the Department of Veterans Affairs will act as an advocate for veterans seeking benefits and claims, not act as an adversary."
---
Gore Swats at Bush on Military
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/late/22cnd-gore.html
MILWAUKEE -- War veterans embraced Al Gore as one of their own on Tuesday as the Democratic presidential candidate swatted back at George W. Bush's assertion that America's military is in decline.
Emphasizing his military and foreign affairs experience -- an Army tour in Vietnam, service on the House Intelligence and Senate Armed Services committees -- Gore told a packed house at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention that his is no election year conversion.
Gore, who wore his hat from VFW Post 5021 in Tennessee, said, "It's that year-after-year commitment to a strong American defense that makes me so concerned when others try to run down America's military for political advantage in an election." His audience of mostly aged veterans and their spouses applauded.
An assertion of weakness is "not only wrong in fact, it's the wrong message to send our allies and adversaries across the world," the vice president said. He did not mention Bush by name.
On TV stations across 17 states, the Gore campaign debuted on Monday its first general-election ad, a biographical spot that opens with Gore's decision out of college to enlist in the Army despite deep misgivings about the Vietnam War.
To the VFW, he said: "I became an Army reporter in Vietnam. I didn't do the most or run the gravest danger, but I was proud to wear my country's uniform."
It is part of Gore's strategy to contrast -- if only implicitly -- his active duty service with Bush's stateside tour with the Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam.
Gore spoke to the veterans one day after Bush, the GOP presidential nominee, also addressed the group and accused President Clinton and Vice President Gore of presiding over a two-term slide in Pentagon morale and resources.
Bush got a standing ovation from the group but no applause at all from some, and a number of members said Tuesday they had not been impressed.
"There were a lot of vacant seats when Bush came," said World War II veteran Clarence Rau of Horicon, Wis.
Rau, 79, who climbed atop his chair for a good look at Gore, said vets care that Bush, like GOP running mate Dick Cheney, avoided going to Vietnam. Cheney, who was defense secretary during the Persian Gulf War, got deferments as a student and then as an expectant father. Joseph Lieberman, Gore's running mate, also got deferments as a student and then as a father.
"I don't consider the National Guard real service because he wasn't there in Vietnam. Even if the vice president's service was minimal at least he went and served his country," said Rau.
Asked if Bush got a good reception here on Monday, Army vet Joseph Schirmers who fought in Korea said, "Half and half -- and I'd better not say any more."
VFW commander in chief John Smart introduced Gore as "a life member of the VFW," and the candidate waded through the convention hall to salutes from many uniformed veterans, hugs from their wives.
On stage, Gore chuckled: "I haven't had that many hugs in a long time."
Backstage, Gore used his position as vice president to present Madison's Ellen Blissenbach the Purple Heart for her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Blissenbach, who died in Korea 50 years ago, but whose records were sorted out just recently.
Gore opened his campaign speech with a mention of the brief ceremony.
He has proposed a 10-year, $127 billion defense package that includes the 3.7 percent military pay increase enacted this year, investments to modernize equipment and more funding for veterans hospitals.
Spokesman Chris Lehane said Gore's proposed spending on defense would probably be increased in a fall rewrite of his budget to reflect bigger surplus projections.
Bush has proposed pumping $1 billion a year more into military pay over the next five years and spending $310 million to fix schools on military bases.
Gore maintained that the $1.3 trillion, 10-year tax cut that Bush has separately proposed would leave no money for his defense proposals.
Later, Gore headed for Chicago for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters' convention and a Democratic National Committee fund-raising dinner.
On the fall debates, aides said Gore campaign chairman William Daley, who had a brief preliminary phone conversation with Bush chairman Don Evans on Monday, has asked Labor Secretary Alexis Herman and Fannie Mae chairman Jim Johnson to help with negotiations.
---
Bush attacks Clinton-Gore on military
USA Today
08/21/00- Updated 10:55 PM ET
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/conv/318.htm
MILWAUKEE - Texas Gov. George W. Bush unloaded on the Clinton administration's defense policies Monday, accusing the president and Vice President Al Gore of allowing the nation's military to decay.
''The facts are stark, and the facts are real,'' the Republican presidential nominee told 7,000 people at the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. ''The current administration inherited a military ready for the dangers and challenges facing our nation. The next president will inherit a military in decline.''
Bush reiterated his plans for a military pay raise - an extra $1 billion each year for five years. He said that would pay each person in the service an average of $750 more each year. He also proposed $310 million in construction and repair aid for schools on or near military bases.
Bush ticked off what he called recent examples showing that the military is not ready for combat: cutbacks in training exercises, recruitment shortfalls and government reports that just 65% of Air Force combat units were at the highest level of readiness this year - down from 85% at the beginning of the Clinton administration.
Bush, who served in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War, was greeted warmly by the VFW members.
Gore is scheduled to speak to the group Tuesday.
Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the liberal Brookings Institution in Washington, said Bush's description of a hollowed-out U.S. military is an exaggeration. ''Today's military is not quite as good as in the days of President Bush, that's true,'' O'Hanlon said. ''But readiness is comparable to Ronald Reagan-era levels.''
At the beginning of his speech, Bush said he wants to ''set a new tone'' in Washington and end an ''era of finger-pointing.'' But his tough words reflect his campaign's more aggressive stance since the end of both nominating conventions and since polls began showing Bush's lead over Gore has vanished.
Gore spokesman Douglas Hattaway said all four branches of the armed services announced last month that they expect to meet their recruitment goals this year. Hattaway also said Bush ''talks tough, but he doesn't have a real plan to keep our military strong. By using up the entire surplus on a tax cut for the rich, he leaves nothing to invest in military pay or readiness.''
That statement, in turn, prompted a quick rebuttal from Karen Hughes, Bush's communications director. ''Vice President Gore, while still on his riverboat tour, has gone completely overboard,'' she told reporters. ''The facts are that while Vice President Gore claims to be fighting for working families, he completely leaves out 50% of American taxpayers in his own tax-cut plan.''
Bush also told the VFW he would improve health care for veterans and review overseas deployments.
Bush is campaigning this week in states visited by Gore and his running mate, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, during their post-convention riverboat tour. Today, Bush will be in Illinois and Missouri emphasizing his education-reform proposals.
---
AWOL U.S. Intelligence Officer Found in Israel
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/world/awol-officer-ap.html
JERUSALEM, Aug. 21 -- A United States Army Reserve officer in military intelligence who was absent without leave from his base in San Antonio, Tex., has been located in southern Israel, the Israeli police said today.
The police statement said that authorities in Israel and the United States will review the case of Lt. Col. Jeremiah Mattysse, with his agreement, suggesting that the American officer is not in detention.
Colonel Mattysse, 50, who failed to report to duty on Aug. 8 after a vacation, has submitted a request to immigrate to Israel, Israeli Interior Ministry officials said.
Rivka Artzi-Nir, a woman who lives in Israel and identified herself as Colonel Mattysse's girlfriend, has told Israeli newspapers that he became devoted to helping Israel ever since converting to Judaism 10 years ago.
Until February, Colonel Mattysse commanded the Army Reserve Intelligence Support Center at Camp Bullis in San Antonio as a full-time reserve officer. The unit's primary mission was to train reservists in intelligence work.
Joseph Hanley, a spokesman for the United States Army Reserve Command in Atlanta, has said that Colonel Mattysse's disappearance was of heightened concern because of his background.
Colonel Mattysse was reassigned to the 90th Reserve Support Group in San Antonio after an investigation began into his wife's charges that he had an extramarital affair. [Mr. Hanley would not say whether Colonel Mattysse, who lost access to top secret information when he was transferred, was under investigation for espionage, Agence France-Presse reported.]
---
Bush and Gore on the Soldier's Life
Associated Press
August 22, 2000 Filed at 2:48 a.m. EDT
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/p/AP-Military-Politics.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Disagreeing over a missile defense shield and nuclear arms, presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore are tangling over sky-high strategic questions in their military policies. But neither has forgotten about the soldier on the ground.
From the earliest months of his candidacy, Republican Bush has proposed a $1 billion a year pay raise over and above the increases that military personnel have been seeing in their checks. And Democrat Gore has weighed in with proposals of his own to improve the soldier's life.
Outlining his ideas Monday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Milwaukee, Bush accused the Clinton-Gore administration of letting morale and manpower slip and got a standing ovation with his vow: ``I will give our military a clear sense of mission.''
Gore, who unlike Bush is a veteran of a foreign war -- Vietnam -- was addressing the group Tuesday.
The quality of life for military families was popularized as a campaign issue by Arizona Sen. John McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, who, in his failed bid for the GOP presidential nomination, called attention to the fact that thousands of service members get food stamps.
Some military analysts don't necessarily think that is a bad thing, regarding food stamps as just another item on a long list of military benefits.
But it has become a mark of shame, and both Gore and Bush say conditions must be improved so that soldiers no longer need to depend on the coupons.
Gore also says the number of active service members receiving the vouchers has dwindled by two-thirds in a decade, to about 6,000, reminding everyone that food stamps in the military date back well before the Clinton-Gore administration.
In the main, the debate over defense policy has turned on the size and timing of a national missile defense system, with Bush pushing for an ambitious and quick deployment and Gore preferring a limited system that could be negotiated with the Russians -- partners in a treaty that forbids such missile shields. In all, Bush has proposed spending $20 billion more over five years for weapons research and development.
As well, Bush has proposed reducing the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile and suggested he would do so even if the Russians don't follow suit. Gore says unilateral cuts could upset the nuclear balance.
On other issues:
-- Bush would raise military pay by $1 billion a year for five years on top of the $76 billion increase approved by Congress and signed by President Clinton this month. Bush says the typical soldier would earn about $750 more in the first year from his plan. Gore supported the 3.7 percent pay increase enacted this month; his position on further increases is unclear.
-- Gore and Bush generally favor re-enlistment bonuses and higher pay for people with special skills.
-- Gore says more pre-emptive diplomacy would limit the need to send soldiers to new crises abroad. Bush says he would review overseas deployments with the aim of reducing the number of troops on foreign soil.
-- Bush proposes spending $310 million to speed the improvement of schools on or near military bases. He favors unspecified increases in housing allowances or renovations to ensure service members ``no longer have to tolerate substandard housing.''
-- Gore says he would ensure ``all military members and families live in adequate, affordable housing,'' by expanding the Clinton administration's effort to improve services. He would ``put the private sector to work building, owning, and managing housing for the military,'' and spend more on employment services and continuing education for military spouses, child care and steps to improve health care.
---
Israeli authorities locate U.S. intelligence officer who went AWOL
NewsEdge
August 22, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=h0821100.100&level3=36180&date=20000822
http://208.246.212.80/world/worldscene-2000822231945.htm
JERUSALEM (AP) via NewsEdge Corporation - A U.S. Army Reserve officer in military intelligence who went AWOL from his base in San Antonio, Texas, has been located in southern Israel, police said Monday.
Authorities in Israel and the United States will review the case of Lt. Col. Jeremiah Mattysse, with his agreement, the police statement said, suggesting the U.S. officer is not in detention.
Israeli Interior Ministry offficials, meanwhile, said Mattysse, who failed to report to duty on Aug. 8 after a vacation, has submitted a request to immigrate to Israel. A ministry spokeswoman said she did not know when the request was submitted.
Rivka Artzi-Nir, a woman who lives in Israel and identified herself as Mattysse's girlfriend, has told Israeli newspapers he had become devoted to helping Israel since he converted to Judaism 10 years ago.
Until February, Mattysse commanded the Army Reserve Intelligence Support Center at Camp Bullis in San Antonio, Texas as a full-time reserve officer. The unit's primary mission was to train reservists in intelligence work.
Joseph Hanley, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Reserve Command in Atlanta, Georgia, has said that Mattysse's disappearance was of heightened concern because of his background.
Mattysse was reassigned to the 90th Reserve Support Group in San Antonio after an investigation began into his wife's allegations that he had an extramarital affair. The San Antonio Express-News reported that his wife, Vanda Mattysse, filed a divorce complaint March 7 in Virginia.
Patricia Brady, Vanda Mattysse's attorney, said the divorce is pending but would not elaborate on reasons for the divorce.
---
Abolish U.S. sovereignty?
Washington Times
August 22, 2000
John R. Bolton
http://208.246.212.80/op-ed/ed-column-2000822181625.htm
Geoffrey Robertson's "Crimes Against Humanity" differs crucially from other recent essays advocating a larger role for "human rights" in foreign policy.
First, Mr. Robertson argues unambiguously that diminished national political autonomy is both inevitable and desirable: "The movement for global justice has been a struggle against sovereignty," since sovereignty is "the traditional enemy of the human rights movement." Mr. Robertson unhesitatingly disparages the United States as one of the chief obstacles on the road to the millennium, and particularly Sen. Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican, whom the author implicitly identifies as America's most powerful foreign policy decision maker.
Second, Mr. Robertson is candid enough to criticize failures in the human rights crusade. He laments, for example, that "human rights have been pigeonholed by academics as a subset of international law, that most airy-fairy of disciplines, at worst a mirage and at best a hostage to international politics." Nor is the author a fan of the United Nations, as he tries "to avoid the common textbook pretense that conventions and U.N. committees and General Assembly declarations reflect reality."
Make no mistake, this is not an objective book but a polemical and often an intemperate one, though it does have the virtue of occasional, if inadvertent, revelation. Mr. Robertson provides his version of human rights in this century, and particularly its recent explosion in war-crimes tribunals, the doctrine of "universal jurisdiction" and the "right of humanitarian intervention." He delivers on one promise, which is to avoid drowning in Latin and obscure legalisms, an advantage of having a barrister rather than a professor writing.
Nonetheless, Mr. Robertson suffers from the common failing of the international left wing, being either unable or unwilling to address the arguments of opponents and skeptics of his position. Instead, he characterizes them all as knaves or fools, which is certainly a more convenient rhetorical approach than dealing seriously with arguments about the threats posed to constitutionalism and representative government by the left's essentially indiscriminate supranationalism.
This is unfortunate, since the author, more open about his ultimate objectives than so many of his cohorts, nonetheless repeatedly demonstrates that he simply cannot grasp the serious policy and philosophical objections to his analysis. Thus, for him, the Roman Catholic Church is neither a source of freedom of thought, nor of compassion, but is instead part of the problem: "Vatican diplomacy has blessed most of the tyrants and torturers of recent history."
Of course, many Americans commit comparable mistakes. Some simply do not take the likes of Mr. Robertson and his colleagues seriously, considering their efforts to be completely at the margin of U.S. foreign (and domestic) policy. By operating in seeming isolation, nongovernmental organizations have been able to mobilize support for such recent developments as the Landmines Convention and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Moreover, "human rights" advocates, by persuading some Americans on one or another specific policy position (such as military intervention in Kosovo) have induced them to overlook the larger implications for the United States hidden in the human rights agenda.
Mr. Robertson happily reveals the agenda, asking, "What entitles a combatant to value the lives of its pilots so highly that all bombs are dropped from a height at which the pilots are safe and civilians are certain to die?" Mr. Robertson has a ready prescription, which might serve to wake at least some Americans up: "[T]he law of war may come to resemble the law of tort, with combatants liable to be sued for negligence if they miss their approved military target." This is hardly the way to encourage a future "humanitarian intervention," which the author purportedly favors.
The author confidently asserts that Mr. Helms' "arrogant" nationalism sees "international justice" as a potential stumbling block for American hegemony. Actually, however, Mr. Robertson really objects not so much to American hegemony as to American autonomy, our unwillingness to bend the knee subserviently to his worldview. Nowhere is this clearer than in his opposition to America's use of the death penalty. "The U.S. is a country which plans to disappear almost as many of its citizens as did Pinochet, namely the 3,500 currently condemned to die on its death rows."
In the next sentence, Mr. Robertson criticizes Texas Gov. George W. Bush's allegedly automatic denials of clemency, resulting in 33 of last year's 99 U.S. executions. Pinochet, Bush, whatever.
Mr. Robertson's openness in expressing publicly what many American human rights advocates say only in the privacy of their own meetings and closed conferences is an important milestone. Perhaps the most interesting next step will be to see if these partisans follow him out into the open, or whether they continue to downplay their ultimate objectives.
John R. Bolton is the senior vice president of the American Enterprise Institute. During the Bush administration, he served as the assistant secretary of state for international organizations.
---
DAMG Worldwide Announces Teaming Agreement With Northrup Grumman to Develop Logistics Centers Globally
NewsEdge
August 22, 2000
http://www.individual.com/frames/story.shtml?story=b0821190.200&level3=788&date=20000822
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2000 via NewsEdge Corporation - DAMG Worldwide (Diversified Asset Management Group Worldwide) and the Automation and Information Systems Division of Northrop Grumman Corporation's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector (ESSS), have teamed up to develop state-of-the-art air cargo and logistics centers on a global basis.
This new partnership will have the capacity to plan, finance, design and build complete logistics facilities to include the vertical and horizontal construction, and the complex internal sortation systems that are so critical to time sensitive and cost effective goods movement.
"We are extremely pleased to team with Northrop Grumman whose unsurpassed reputation in the aviation industry, combined with their material handling expertise brings a unique discriminator in this fast passed time sensitive delivery market," stated Joseph A. Piscitell, president and CEO of DAMG Worldwide. "The shared vision of our two companies represent the future of goods movement, and the depth and experience of our firms, position us to respond to industry needs faster and more comprehensively than anyone ever contemplated. With a single phone call, an airport, and airline, or a municipality can initiate the development of a 21st century logistics center by a team unsurpassed in its knowledge of the industry and its ability to deliver completed projects on target."
"DAMG has demonstrated its vision and leadership in developing specialized facilities to meet the challenges of the future," said Victor J. Yates, manager of Strategic Marketing for Northrop Grumman's A&IS.
"The issues associated with the time definite delivery of goods resulting from the emergence of e-commerce present some unique challenges. The combination of Northrop Grumman's expertise in the design and installation of state-of-the-art facilities, represent a distinctive industry resource, that functions equally well on or off airport. It is also important to remember that the size and international nature of the members of this new team, add enormous capacity to market facilities on a global basis," Yates said.
Northrop Grumman's Automation & Information Systems, a business unit of the company's Baltimore, Md.-based Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector, provides advanced integrated systems solutions for package and parcel sorting and delivery and material handling applications to U.S. governmental and industrial customers.
DAMG Worldwide is a New York-based financier and owner of aviation assets worldwide with a concentration on air cargo facilities and a preliminary approval applicant in the Federal Aviation Administration's Airport Pilot Privatization Program. DAMG operates three separate businesses, DAMG Infrastructure Group, DAMG Realty Group, and DAMG Ventures.
-------- OTHER
-------- alternative energy
DOE warms to geothermal energy
Tuesday, August 22, 2000
By Lucy Chubb,
Environmental News Network
http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2000/08/08222000/geothermal_30640.asp
Just below Earth's surface is a virtually limitless supply of energy.
It isn't coal, oil or natural gas. It's raw heat.
The Harry Blundell Geothermal Plant in Roosevelt Hot Springs, Utah, has used Earth's heat to generate power since 1982. Drawing super-heated water from an underground reservoir nearly a mile underground and using the steam to drive turbines, the plant pumps 20 megawatts of clean electricity into the grid.
The Blundell plant has been "cooking along for sometime," said Marshall Ralph of Power Engineers in Hailey, Idaho. And yet, Ralph said, its energy stores are not being tapped to their potential.
The same can be said about the United States in general. Even though geothermal energy has been used to generate electricity in the country since the early 1920s, it is a largely underdeveloped energy source in America.
A new initiative, introduced recently by the U.S. Department of Energy, may change all that. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson last week confirmed 21 partnerships between the DOE and private industry to promote the development and use of geothermal energy in the western United States.
Power Engineers, an engineering consultancy that advises PacifiCorp, owner of the Blundell plant, is one of the partners.
Powered by DOE grants and matching funds from private industry, the partnerships are designed to expand the use of geothermal energy to bring electricity and geothermal heat to residents and businesses in California, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah.
"Clean, reliable and renewable energy sources such as geothermal energy can become a significant contributor to the energy mix in the West at a time when parts of the region are experiencing power supply shortages," said Richardson.
To learn more about geothermal energy and the work being done at the Department of Energy to promote this kind of power generation, see the DOE's Geothermal Energy Program and GeoPowering the West web sites.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory also has information about geothermal energy.
PacifiCorp owns the Harry Blundell Geothermal Power Plant in Utah, and Power Engineers is an engineering firm working with PacifiCorp on how to revamp the plant to increase and maximize electricity generation.
Another geothermal energy resource is the Geothermal Resources Council.
-------- environment
Court Asked to Reverse Putin's Purge of Russian Environment, Forest Agencies
August 22, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2000/2000L-08-22-02.html
Ecojuris Institute, a Russian environmental law group, is asking the Supreme Court to reverse President Vladimir Putin's order abolishing the Russian State Committee on Environmental Protection and the Russian Forest Service, and transfering their functions to the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Photo courtesy government of Russia)
Ecojuris filed suit Monday asking the high court to declare unconstitutional and invalid a decree issued by President Putin on May 17 eliminating the environmental and forest services.
The suit was brought on behalf of organizations including the Socio-Ecological Union, Russia's largest environmental group, and regional groups from the Far East, Siberia, the Urals and European Russia.
The Ministry of Natural Resources is responsible for issuing licenses and permits for oil and gas development, mining and water use to generate short term hard currency revenues.
Putin's decree has now given the natural resources ministry authority over the permitting of logging and radioactive waste importation and disposal, as well as control over what has been the most effective environmental protection tool in Russia, the environment "expertiza," or impact assessment.
Vera Mischenko holds her 2000 Goldman Foundation Prize for Europe awarded in April. (Photo courtesy Goldman Prize)
"This is like letting the cat guard the cream," said Ecojuris' president Vera Mischenko referring to the Russian variant of the fox and the hen house story. "The Natural Resources Ministry disregards environmental laws all the time, and has consistently refused to conduct environmental impact assessments as is legally required when issuing mining and other resource extraction licenses."
Mischenko introduced the concept of public interest environmental law in Russia and in 1991 co-founded Ecojuris - Russia's first public interest law firm. Ecojuris is a member of the U.S. based E-LAW organization, a network of public interest environmental lawyers in 50 countries.
Mischenko has had previous success in getting the Supreme Court to reverse a decree issued at the highest political level. She initiated the idea for an August 1999 lawsuit in Russia's Supreme Court challenging a decree of former Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin in his last days in office. The decree waived an environmental impact review which would have allowed marine discharge of toxic wastes from a proposed oil drilling operation in Russia's Far East by an Exxon led consortium.
Two months later, the Russian Supreme Court agreed with Mischenko that an environmental impact assessment was necessary. It was the first environmental victory in Russia involving the interest of a multinational corporation.
Clearcutting in Karelia district, Russia (Photo courtesy Greenpeace/Weckenmann)
In the lawsuit filed Monday, Ecojuris charges that President Putin's decree violated numerous constitutional provisions, including the right to a healthy environment and citizens' right to participate in government decision making.
The suit claims that the decree was illegal because the Russian constitution forbids the President from issuing decrees that violate federal laws.
The Federal Forest Code, Water Code and other laws state that the Committee on Environmental Protection and the Forest Service shall be independent agencies and these codes enumerate the powers of the agencies.
Finally, Ecojuris claims in its lawsuit, Putin's decree violates the 1995 Law on Environmental Expertiza, which requires that all draft legislation and decrees that could have environmental impacts be submitted for the legally mandated environmental review.
One of the key functions of the State Committee on Environmental Protection was to conduct independent environmental impact assessments, or "expertizas." Under the governing legislation, the impact assessment is carried out by independent scientific experts not in the employ of the Committee. Additionally, citizens groups are authorized to participate and to perform parallel public environmental reviews.
To carry out Putin's decree, the Ministry of Natural Resources has formed a new Environmental Impact Bureau to conduct environmental expertizas.
Russia's Komi Forest (Photo courtesy Greenpeace/Rodionov)
These environmental assessments will be carried out by Ministry staff, not by independent experts, and there are no provisions for transparency nor for public participation.
According to its by-laws, the Ministry of Natural Resources will be required to raise much of its own funding, which Mischenko calls "an open door to corruption."
The abolition of the environmental agency comes at a time when Russia faces a wide variety of environmental and public health crises.
Environmental problems include oil spills and chronic pipeline leaks releasing millions of tons of oil a year. Russia must deal with contaminated drinking water, uncontrolled logging and huge repositories of nuclear and chemical waste.
A February 2000 report by the eliminated State Environmental Protection Committee, some 61 million Russians in almost 200 cities breathe concentrations of toxic contaminants in the air that are far above the maximum permissible levels. More than 120 cities were reported to have concentrations five times above the maximum permitted contaminant levels.
Erika Rosenthal of Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund (USA), comments, "The current suit gives the Court the opportunity to demonstrate that President Putin too must abide by the rule of law, and to uphold citizens' constitutional rights to a healthy environment, and to participate in environmental decision making."
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Pataki Signs Law on Alerts for Pesticides
New York Times
Augst 22, 2000
By KIRK JOHNSON
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/regional/082200ny-pesticide.html
Even as local governments engage in widespread spraying against virus-bearing mosquitoes, New York's governor yesterday signed what experts called the nation's most stringent notification procedures for the use of pesticides by private companies, schools and individuals.
The law, signed by Gov. George E. Pataki, promises to affect everyone from the parents of preschool children, who will get written notices 48 hours in advance of pesticide use at day care centers, to fans of weed-free lawns, who could be required to post a notice every time they go to battle with their crab grass.
The outbreak of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus in the New York region, and concerns about the methods used to battle it, provided a backdrop for the passage of the law, even though this law would not be binding on local governments, legislators and environmentalists said.
But the state is also joining a growing trend of state and local governments across the country that are trying to regulate chemicals by using information.
The new rules are all based on the idea that knowledge is a right that can be exercised. Residents in Massachusetts and Maryland, for example, can now legally request that their properties not be sprayed for mosquitoes unless a health emergency is declared by local authorities.
A Connecticut law that takes effect this fall gives parents the right to join a registry that will give them automatic notices when pesticides are going to be used at their children's schools.
Chemical companies are using new products and technology to respond to demands for greater knowledge about pesticides, and for greater control over them. Pest-control companies can now tap into databases, for example, that will calculate exactly which homes or buildings will be affected by a given application, and which will not.
Pesticide experts say advances within the next few years will include computer-controlled spraying mechanisms that use a Global Positioning System so workers will know exactly where the pesticides are being sprayed and what properties are affected. Perhaps just as important in an age of litigation, these systems will give them a written record.
Leaders of the state's environmental groups, which fought for years to win passage of the New York Neighbor Notification Law, as the new measure is called, said the various compromises required to win passage in the State Legislature made the bill complicated.
The law covers all manner of chemical pesticides, from those used against insects to garden-variety weed killers. But its effects on the typical suburban lawn are difficult to gauge because the law leaves it up to each county to decide whether to adopt the most stringent provisions, including a requirement that lawn care companies and other commercial pesticide users notify all residents in advance of an application in their neighborhood.
But other parts of the law would affect the entire state, including the requirement that every public school give parents lists of pesticides used on school grounds.
"The language is complex, but the idea is simple," said Audrey Thier, the pesticide project director at Environmental Advocates, a group based in Albany that pushed a notification bill for years. "When people are aware of what is going on around them and the risks to which they and their children are being subjected, they look for safer alternatives."
Some critics of the new wave of legislation say that notification requirements are simply a veiled effort to end pesticide use by making it more difficult. They say the new information requirements are simply the means for reaching that goal.
"At what point does it become unreasonable? -- that's a question I have," said Richard J. Pollack, a public health entomologist at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Under New York's law, individual counties can require pesticide users to give 48 hours written notice to properties within 150 feet of an area being treated with a pesticide, although granular pesticides -- which are too large to be carried by the wind -- would be exempted. Counties could require homeowners to post notices on their properties whenever a pesticide had been applied.
Because local governments are exempt from the notice requirements, the law would not have any effect on efforts against the mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus, although most counties have been notifying residents in advance about spraying.
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USA Today
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm
Idaho
Stanley - State biologists report counting 27 redds, or nests, for spawning salmon and 29 live salmon in central Idaho's Marsh Creek. It's a far cry from the 1960s, when Marsh Creek was one of the most productive spawning areas in the Northwest. However, a study says it means the Columbia Basin's wildest, purest strain of spring chinook won't go extinct in the next five years.
Indiana
Camby - State officials plan more tests for contamination in a neighborhood where crews mopped up 10 pounds of mercury that apparently spilled from a garbage truck. An 8-year-old boy discovered a 5-foot puddle of the liquid metal on Saturday. Earlier air quality tests showed no problems in homes, and no residents were evacuated. Long-term exposure to mercury can cause serious lung and nerve damage.
New Mexico
Albuquerque - The most effective ways to control bacterial contamination in the middle Rio Grande are education, stricter zoning and sound environmental standards, a report suggests. The study identified five potential sources of bacterial contamination storm water, wildlife, sewage treatment and industrial plants, underground septic tanks and petroleum storage tanks.
Vermont
East Richford - The Missisquoi River is recovering after a fire at a North Troy feed plant washed thousands of gallons of copper sulfate into the river. It's estimated that as many as 40,000 fish in Vermont and in Quebec have died. The cause of the blaze is undetermined.
-------- imf / world bank
ANTI-GLOBALIZATION - A SPREADING PHENOMENON
PERSPECTIVES
a CANADIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE publication
Report # 2000/08
August 22, 2000
This paper uses open sources to examine any topic with the potential to cause threats to public or national security
INTRODUCTION
1. Shock and surprise were widespread in the wake of the disruptive protests and associated violence that characterized the Seattle World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference, 29 November-3 December, 1999. Yet the demonstrations were not something new, nor was the principal target--multinational corporate power--an unexpected focus. Opposition to corporate globalization has been growing for several years, a trend underscored by increasing media attention since 1995. Security agencies at Seattle, however, were caught off-guard by the large number of demonstrators and scope of representation, combined with the use of sophisticated methods and technology that effectively shut down the Conference.
2. Prior to Seattle, the most recent associated event occurred six months earlier, on 18 June, 1999, when protests known as "J18" were organized to coincide with the G8 Economic Summit in Cologne, Germany. The focal point was the City of London, where a march of 2000 people degenerated into a riot in which 42 people were injured and damage was estimated at one million pounds sterling.(1) But the activities were not confined to London; cities in North America and Europe also were involved, and in most cases financial districts were targeted.
3. Bringing together a broad spectrum of interests and agendas, J18 incorporated both people and technology. While the former demonstrated on the streets, the latter featured in cyberattacks against business institutions. For five hours, at least 20 companies were subjected to more than 10,000 attacks by hackers(2). Adding a sense of insult to injury, the Internet was the means by which the concept of J18 originated, and by which the event was ultimately orchestrated.
4. Neither J18 nor the WTO protest in Seattle, or its counterpart, A16, the international Monetary Fund/World Bank (IMF/WB) demonstration five months later in Washington, DC, were unique, one-off events. As exemplified by further protest activity at the Organization of American States (OAS) Ministerial Meeting in Windsor, and the World Petroleum Conference (WPC) in Calgary, similar incidents can be expected to occur in various forms and with varying degrees of intensity, aiming at the same target--corporate power--for the foreseeable future. Reminiscent of the Vietnam and anti-nuclear protest era of the '60s and '70s, the activities are global in scope, international in locale, and have involved sites in Canada on several occasions.
SITUATION
5. Meetings of international monetary, trade and environmental organizations, which in the past incited little or no protest interest, are now drawing the attention of thousands of anti-globalization activists. Representing a broad spectrum of groups, lobbyists, and overlapping networks, including some violent extremists whose presence raises security concerns, they share a mutual antipathy--that of multinational corporate power. Often described as more influential and stronger than government, some corporations boast budgets larger than the gross domestic product (GDP) of many nations: "...of the top hundred economies, fifty-one are multinationals and only forty-nine are countries."(3)
6. Alleged abuse of corporate power by multinationals is the basic focus of protest activity. Large corporations with international undertakings stand accused of social injustice, unfair labour practices-- including slave labour wages, living and working conditions--as well as a lack of concern for the environment, mismanagement of natural resources, and ecological damage. Anti-globalization demonstrations have achieved worldwide support partly because the target, per se, its representatives, and its effects are global in nature. Major brand names, among them Nike, Starbucks, McDonalds, and Shell Oil, are principal targets, ironically because their massive advertising campaigns designed to engender public prominence have been successful--and that status is being used to highlight the charges brought against them.
7. Protest objectives extend beyond the claimed corporate impropriety, however. Multinational economic institutions, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Bank (WB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are seen as establishing, monitoring, and rendering judgements on global trade practices, and are viewed as the spearheads of economic globalization. These institutions, considered to be the servants of corporate interests, exercising more power than elected governments and interested only in the profit motive, have increasingly become principal demonstration targets. Underlying the anti-globalization theme is criticism of the capitalist philosophy, a stance promoted once again by left-of-centre activists and militant anarchists.
8. The global parameters have encouraged disparate groups and individuals to participate in the demonstrations. In Seattle and Washington, for example, the wide variety of parading malcontents evoked the eclectic ambience of a "protest county fair." Circumstances also have promoted the involvement of fringe extremists who espouse violence, largely represented by Black Bloc anarchists and factions of militant animal-rights and environmental activists. The melding of various elements and establishing of strange-bedfellow ties at individual demonstrations have contributed both to the impact and the unique character of the events.
DISCUSSION
The Issues
9. The growing trend toward anti-globalization activism is directed, first, against "big business"--multinational corporate power--and, second, against "big money"--global agreements on economic growth. Allegations of exploitive labour and human-rights abuses reach back to the mid-1990s when a number of corporations producing major brand name products, such as Nike sneakers, Gap jeans, and Starbucks coffee, were accused of union-busting, sweatshop working conditions, and child labour practices on a global scale. Among other well-known multinationals, McDonalds, Monsanto, and Shell Oil were indicted for similar faults. The litany of castigation ranges across a broad spectrum, including paying low wages, offering minimal health benefits, depleting old-growth and rain forests, using unsafe pesticides, bio-engineering agriculture crops, violating animal rights, and colluding with violent and repressive regimes.
10. Accusations against the multinationals continue--students still gather in Eugene, Oregon, the home of Nike, to protest the corporate giant's Third World labour practices--but increasingly they are being supplemented by demonstrations against such institutions as the World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank (WB). Protagonists claim these establishments promote and facilitate corporate power and that elected governments are being overshadowed in the political arena by global economic institutions and their efforts to direct and expand economic growth. Activists, however, are divided in their anti-globalization position. The larger segment supports restructuring corporations to reflect accountability and transparency; the smaller segment, while also supporting these objectives, actively promotes the total demise of global structures including the WTO. Anarchist activists and some environmentalists fall in the latter category.
11. The philosophy of capitalism also is under attack, facing charges that it is ignoring the social welfare of individuals, and destroying cultures and the ecology in the quest for growth and profit. As prominent corporate names come under fire, making for good publicity and media attention, groups such as animal-rights activists and environmental protection advocates vie for an opportunity to share the spotlight, many making similar claims about exploitation. Some observers term the situation the "rise of the New New Left"(4) and draw comparisons to the 1968 Parisian "summer of the barricades." The unifying elements on this occasion, however, are the powers of the corporations, name-brands, globalization, and the interests of capital, in opposition to the welfare of workers, exploitation of the ecology, and a range of collateral issues. Many factors are involved, with certain incidents cited as triggers, among them the death of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, and the campaigns against Kathy Lee sportswear, Wal-Mart, Mattel and Disney, and Shell and Chevron Oil Companies, which draw attention to the claims of the protesters and give substantive meaning to the demonstrations.
12. In her book, No Logo, Canadian Naomi Klein claims ...corporate investment in the Third World was seen ...as a key to alleviating poverty and misery. By 1996, however, that concept was being openly questioned, and it was recognized that many governments in the developing world were protecting lucrative investments--mines, dams, oil fields, power plants and export processing zones--by deliberately turning a blind eye to egregious rights violations by foreign corporations against their people.(5)
Further, she states:
At the heart of this convergence of anticorporate activism...is the recognition that corporations are much more than purveyors of the products we all want; they are also the most powerful political forces of our time....So although the media often describe campaigns like the one against Nike as "consumer boycotts," that tells only part of the story. It is more accurate to describe them as political campaigns that use consumer goods as readily accessible targets, as public-relations levers and as popular-education tools.(6)
13. Although multinational corporations and international trade institutions are the subjects of criticism, not all observers share a negative perspective. Many commentaries are published which speak in favour of beneficial and positive accomplishments, especially in relation to the international institutions. The concept of free trade is just one topic which has been favourably addressed:
Global free trade promotes global economic growth. It creates jobs, makes companies more competitive, and lowers prices for consumers. It also provides poor countries, through infusions of foreign capital and technology, with the chance to develop economically and, by spreading prosperity, creates the conditions in which democracy and respect for human rights may flourish.(7)
14. One relatively small but vocal and violent protest element is the militant anarchist faction, often identified as the Black Bloc. Considered to be exponents of a virtually defunct philosophy, anarchists received a fillip for their cause in 1995 when the Unabomber's political manifesto was published. Paradoxically, the manifesto identified technology as a major source of the world's ills and called for the violent destruction of the system, especially the Internet, which in large measure has contributed to promoting the anarchist message worldwide. Although some members of the anarchist milieu believe that a peaceful, ethical approach should be followed, many defend the use of violence as the only means to achieve the classic anarchist society based on small independent communities that function without elected leaders.
15. While most demonstration participants and members of protest groups seek to conduct their activities in a peaceful, legitimate manner, militants and extremists have other ideas. The radical, extremist participants represented at the demonstrations--whatever their cause--believe the standard forms of protest--marching, rhetoric, and placard-waving--have failed to achieve anything of importance. They believe it is necessary to undertake "direct action" by inflicting damage on those corporations that extend the reach of global trade and technology at the expense of the Earth and its poorest citizens. Some of the more aggressive frequently resort to climbing and rapelling techniques to scale buildings and other lofty sites to conduct sit-ins or hang banners for publicity purposes. Extremists--often anarchists, animal-rights supporters, or environmentalists--indulge in such violent actions as smashing windows, setting fires, or trashing shops and fast-food outlets.
16. No matter the fundamental viewpoint, pro or con, involving globalization, concerns on the part of law enforcement and security agencies are very real. While individuals and groups have a right to legitimate protest, including non-violent demonstrations whatever their size, they do not have the right to close down political meetings. Writing in the The Ottawa Citizen, two professors from Carleton University have said:
Democracies have the right and the responsibility to protect free expression and lawful assembly. This includes rights for activists and critics. It also includes the rights of elected officials to assemble and express their views. The tyranny of small groups, minorities or even majorities to prevent the exercise of such rights by trying to shut down meetings is unacceptable in a democracy.(8)
Groups
17. Diversity is a major characteristic of anti-globalization protests and demonstrations, which are often described as "multi-generational, multi-class, and multi-issue"(9). Participants represent a variety of issues and not all are pursuing globalization as their primary target. For some protesters, anti-globalization is a principal concern, but for others it is merely a shared goal, with the demonstrations simply a means to an end. That is, the combination of groups and participants coming together creates a powerful impression and an impact out of all proportion with their individual strengths. The melding of the various groups into one large body implies power, and attracts attention and publicity, which, in turn, draws more and more participants. Many groups and individuals take part largely because of the attention and publicity which are generated, almost in the manner of self-generating growth. Seattle and Washington reflect how large the antagonistic audience has become, and the lengths to which participants will go in their desire to shut down or impede the spread of globalization. It is an issue with significantly more supporters from the left than the right, and features a large component of youth.
18. To some degree, participation at protests and demonstrations depends upon the subject of the targeted meeting or conference. Labour had serious concerns about the proposals scheduled to be discussed at Seattle's WTO Meeting--consequently labour was well represented, well organized, and contributed to the protest funding arrangements. The WB/IMF Meeting in Washington, however, was of less interest to labour, drew a much smaller number of labour supporters, and prompted a much lower labour profile. The OAS meeting in Windsor also raised labour's concerns, but when it became evident that some of the more contentious issues were not on the agenda, interest waned. As well, because Windsor is largely a labour town , it did not behoove labour organizers to create a bad impression. Differences of opinion do exist and schisms do impact on attendance and activity at demonstrations; during the OAS Conference in Windsor, for example, labour representatives attempted to prevent the more violent protesters from storming police barricades.
19. Protesters represent a broad spectrum of causes and goals--environmentalists, animal-rights supporters, union members, human-rights activists, anarchists, even the White supremacist milieu. But with the exception of large and prominent organizations, e.g., Greenpeace, the names or titles of groups are not significant. Many groups are merely splinters, have few members, are formed briefly for the need of the moment, change their names frequently, or are located in a specific region; in many cases, individuals are members of several groups at the same time or espouse various causes. Of more importance are the causes and motivations, per se, which are represented by the various groups and which provide an indication of the likely type of protest activity that might be expected at a demonstration.
20. Some relatively well-known organizations and causes often are represented at anti-globalization demonstrations: the AFL-CIO, appearing on behalf of labour's interests, and People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), one of several animal-rights support groups. Similarly, Rainforest Action Network, Earth First!, and the Sierra Club advocate environmentalism, and Global Exchange, Direct Action Network, Nader's Group, Radical Roots, and Global Trade Watch uphold the human-rights banner. Two organizations which have materialized in recent years and play a significant role are the California-based Ruckus Society, and the Calgary-based Co-Motion Action. Both specialize in training protesters and organizing and managing demonstrations, aspects discussed in greater detail below (see: Tactics and Technology).
21. The more militant and violent protesters belong to extremist elements associated with many of the causes, especially environmentalist, animal-rights, and anti-abortion activists. Extremists currently achieving the most notoriety are found among anarchists and members of the Third Position. The former are represented in part by the Black Bloc, the Anarchist News Service, the Black Army Faction, and Anarchist Action Collective. Individuals identified as members of the Black Bloc were believed responsible for much of the violence in Seattle and, to a lesser extent, in Washington. The Black Bloc is a loosely organized cluster of anarchist affinity groups and individuals, estimated in North America to number a few hundred, who come together to participate in protests and demonstrations(10). The Third Position, largely a European phenomenon but spreading rapidly to the USA, is a curious mixture of extreme Left and Right political motivations which include the use of violent means of protest(11).
Tactics and Technology
22. While diversity has contributed to modernizing and strengthening protests and demonstrations, new tactics and technology, collectively and individually, have radically changed the face of protest activity and generated renewed life in the reality of demonstrations. Gone are old-style gatherings confined to waving placards and banners, declaiming speakers, and moderate, controlled marches in specific locations. Not unlike the massive and often vigourous Out of Vietnam and Ban the Bomb protests of the '60s and '70s decades, today's demonstrations, resurrecting the anarchist theme of "direct action," employ a host of novel methodologies that have given a whole new complexion to the nature of the protests. The development and implementation of new tactics are a direct result of the impact of new technology and the ability of organizers to use it to their best advantage.
23. Creating the foundation for dramatic change, the Internet has had a profound impact--in part by enabling organizers to quickly and easily arrange demonstrations and protests, worldwide if necessary. Individuals and groups now are able to establish dates, share experiences, accept responsibilities, arrange logistics, and initiate a myriad of other taskings that would have been impossible to manage readily and rapidly in the past. International protests and demonstrations can be organized for the same date and time, so that a series of protests take place in concert. The Internet has breathed new life into the anarchist philosophy, permitting communication and coordination without the need for a central source of command, and facilitating coordinated actions with minimal resources and bureaucracy. It has allowed groups and individuals to cement bonds, file e-mail reports of perceived successes, and recruit members.
24. Anti-globalists aim by force of numbers to shut down targeted meetings and, in the process, paralyze free movement in a host city. In the short term, they carry an economic impact, a form of sabotage long endorsed by environmental activists. In the months prior to a campaign, activists attend extensive training and educational courses associated with proposed protests and demonstrations. By organizing counter summits to run concurrently with international events, as was done during the June, 2000, World Petroleum Congress in Calgary, activists ensure involvement. Pre-event lectures include highly emotive subjects, such as the execution of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Nigerian government in 1995, and human-rights conditions in Bolivia and Guatemala. Idealism plays a large role, with protesters becoming more and more knowledgeable about their subject and sophisticated in their methodology, using travelling "road shows" and teach-ins to increase their effectiveness.
25. The new protest phenomenon has been characterized by the broad range of interests which have come together to conduct the demonstrations with minimal dissension. "Reclaim The Streets," a UK-based initiative that originated with street parties or "raves" in the mid-1990s, is a tactical concept that protesters have adopted to promote their causes en masse(12), and which gave rise to the massive gatherings at Seattle and Washington. The methodology has been remarkable in terms of organization, especially because a central "director" is not evident and, in part, the resulting lack of infighting has been the secret of success. Like the Internet itself, the anti-globalist movement is a body that manages to survive and even thrive without a head. However, radical elements and extremists are taking advantage both of the absence of a controlling element and the events themselves to indulge in violence, which is not the stated intent of demonstration participants.
26. One of the more impressive innovations has been the method of organizing, arranging, and directing the operational and administrative activities associated with the demonstrations--accomplished effectively without the obvious influence of central authority, command, or control. In many ways, the system is very similar to that advocated by anarchists of the libertarian socialist philosophy. Activities begin with like-minded individuals who gather in affinity groups across the country, plan their roles, and travel to the site of the demonstration. Once at the site, they join with other like-minded affinity groups to form clusters and to select a spokesperson who attends the daily spokescouncil. At the latter, discussions are held and information passed concerning operational and administrative activities--arrangements for accommodation, feeding, legal advice, types of actions to be implemented. Locations are chosen for certain activities and agreements reached concerning the types of protest actions to be undertaken, although complete agreement is not always achieved--the more militant or extremist elements usually do as they please.
27. Some clusters undertake specific taskings and responsibilities, such as securing food, transportation, and accommodation, making legal arrangements, and forming into working groups to cope with the range of logistical, administrative, and operational requirements necessary for a successful protest (e.g., media, training, legal, transportation, issues, permitted actions, scenarios, propaganda, medical, fundraising, communications). Prior to the Washington IMF/WB demonstration, a number of affinity groups met several months in advance, as did representatives of the spokescouncil and the working groups. Some sponsors, representatives of labour organizations, and a broad range of causes formed coalitions for the purpose of "mobilizing" participants. Again, the availability of the Internet permitted them to share ideas, experiences, and problems from a global perspective.
28. Cellphones constitute a basic means of communication and control, allowing protest organizers to employ the concepts of mobility and reserves and to move groups from place to place as needed. The mobility of demonstrators makes it difficult for law enforcement and security personnel to attempt to offset their opponents through the presence of overwhelming numbers. It is now necessary for security to be equally mobile, capable of readily deploying reserves, monitoring the communications of protesters, and, whenever possible, anticipating the intentions of the demonstrators. In some cases, the extremist elements, e.g., Black Bloc anarchists, have used the ranks of moderate protesters as shields to prevent law enforcement personnel from viewing violent activities and from getting into position to stop the damage.
29. Protesters have learned to employ both kerosene and vinegar-soaked rags for anti-tear gas and anti-pepper spray purposes, and to use a combination of chicken wire, PVC pipe, and linked arms to create almost immoveable street barricades. As well, a technique which harks back at least three decades to anti-nuclear and Left and Right Wing demonstrations in Great Britain, the renewed use of ball bearings and marbles against police horses has been suggested. Among the use of new technologies, Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is the preferred means of encrypting communications on the Internet. As well, the anti-globalists have adopted media-savvy techniques developed and refined by environmental activists. For example, during the 26-30 March, 2000, BIO 2000 biotechnology conference held in Boston, protestors against genetically modified food set up the 'Boston Independent Media Centre,' which posted photos, stories and audio clips on its Web site throughout the week of protests.
30. The Ruckus Society, a Berkeley, California-based group formed in 1995, has made a specialty of training protesters to meet the challenges encountered in demonstrating effectively, e.g., the placement of banners and individuals in critical locations, overcoming obstacles, and evading security controls. Ruckus played a leading role in preparing demonstrators participating at Seattle and Washington, and previously trained environmentalists in civil disobedience in Alberta and British Columbia. Representatives were present in Windsor and Calgary, prior to the OAS and WPC conferences, to teach demonstrators various improved protest techniques(13). An offshoot Canadian group, Co-Motion Action, conducted a training camp in Banff to prepare protesters for the World Petroleum Congress. Among direct action and civil disobedience lessons taught are use of the Internet, cellphones, video cameras, scaling walls, climbing trees, creating human blockades, scouting sites, and forming plans to combat police tactics(14).
Funding
31. Financial and material support of protesters and demonstrations, partly self-generated and partly raised by contributions from interested parties, is fundamentally a matter of initiative and imagination. Again, the Internet facilitates protest activities, offering a fast, simple, and inexpensive method of communication for organizing, motivating and encouraging attendees, sharing experiences and ideas, and soliciting funds. Many participants make their own way to demonstration sites, securing their own transportation, food, and accommodation; frequently, attendees share their capabilities and facilities and are assisted by like-minded groups and individuals at the demonstration location. Some funding originates with the large and better-known protest organizations such as the Direct Action Network and the Alliance for Global Justice(15).
Protesters attending demonstrations considered to be in the interest of labour are often provided funds, transportation, meals, and lodging by labour unions and affiliated groups.
32 The San Francisco-based human-rights group, Global Action, provides an example of the cooperative and collegial relationships which exist in support of demonstration organizers and participants. A nine-person protest team conducted a 20-city tour using shared and borrowed vehicles prior to the Washington IMF/WB demonstration. The tour was arranged by e-mail correspondence, which also facilitated the team's housing and food during the journey. In return, the team conducted meetings, teach-ins, rallies and promotional activities to encourage attendance in Washington.
33. Funds are raised variously by solicitation, sales of badges, T-shirts, and other paraphenalia which publicize the range of protest movements. Other sources of funding are training courses, such as those run by The Ruckus Society and Co-motion Action, which charge $125.00 per attendee but request that participants pay as much as they can afford(16). Fundamentally, the protesters and the actual demonstrations do not of themselves require huge financial support. Much of what is undertaken is improvised and ad hoc, and does not result from the efforts of large self-interested lobbies or conspiracies. The closest approximation to organized support is that represented by labour's activism, which has included publicity and the provision of buses to transport participants.
Implications for Canada
34. A member of many of the organizations that have been subjected to, or are targeted for, protest actions (WTO, IMF, WB, OAS, WPC) at home and abroad, Canada is a favoured venue for international conferences. Governments at all levels in Canada make a practice of inviting and encouraging organizations to hold their meetings and conferences at various locations across the nation. The concept is good for business and serves to raise Canada's democratic profile in world affairs. Paradoxically, however, Canada's positive image could be marred by the occurrence of protests and demonstrations, and especially by associated unfavourable media coverage. Similarly, some authorities suggest Canada's reputation and interests abroad could suffer if the country is identified as a member of institutions targeted by foreign protests and demonstrations.
35. Although the majority of demonstrations are intended to be pacific, violence does occur and protests can be disruptive and expensive. While security agencies must know the nature of the opposition they are facing and be prepared, they must be careful of the form and extent of their response. Excessively draconian procedures could have a deleterious effect and provide the protesters with propaganda material to be used against the government and security elements. Further, care must be taken that security does not create the atmosphere of an armed camp which restricts and inconveniences the movement of conference attendees and irritates local business interests. Ultimately, security forces and policy makers also must recognize the possibility of increased levels of violence on the part of some extremists who may become frustrated by the protective measures in place at targeted conferences and meetings.
OUTLOOK
36. Anti-globalization protests and demonstrations will continue. In fact, many non-associated groups will seize on the anti-globalization theme as a convenient rationale to participate in demonstrations, making it difficult to accurately forecast security needs. Conference organizers, security agencies, and law enforcement personnel will have to accept that reality and the inherent challenge, which will demand adequate contingency planning. Sound intelligence arrangements will be crucial to the successful implementation of precautionary measures, especially to avoid errors of over- or under-commitment of resources and to preclude draconian responses or steps which would promote violent reactions from protesters. Extremist fringe elements will seek any excuse to indulge in aggressive tactics or resort to destructive activities. Clashes amongst demonstrators and between protesters and security peronnel have become a standard feature of many conference demonstrations, and some anarchist groups are calling for more violent involvement.
37. North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom will likely be the most affected areas, largely because the majority of targeted meetings and conferences are scheduled there. Prominent locales such as London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Prague are attractive to delegates, media, and protesters alike, as were Washington and Seattle. Within relatively easy travel distance, even for trans-atlantic journeys, they are readily accessible, offer a wide range of amenities, and possess excellent communications. As well, such major capital cities have a cachet that enhances the impact of media coverage and encourages the presence and extraordinary actions of demonstrators.
38. Distance and remote location remain factors in curtailing the presence of demonstrators to some degree, but are not sufficient to ensure security or constrain the influence of pressure groups. For example, early in May, the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank at Chiang Mai, Thailand, was overwhelmed by 4,000 protesters demanding an end to policies they claimed punished the poor. Inspired by events in Washington and Seattle, protesters caught police by surprise when they stormed ecurity barricades.(17) The July G-8 Summit on Okinawa was peaceful, largely because heavy ecurity precautions combined with high costs for transportation, accomodation and logistic support to deter the presence of large numbers of protesters. Nonetheless, a day prior to the conference, thousands of people staged protests across Japan and students marched in Tokyo, shouting "Smash the summit." (18)
39. While location will have an influence on the number and type of demonstrators present at a conference, the purpose and nature of the gathering will be a much more decisive factor. Significant meetings, especially those featuring senior government or corporate leaders, such as G-8 Summits and IMF meetings, will attract large numbers of peaceful protesters, as well as those predisposed to violent activities. As well, the lack of obvious achievement by principals during a preceding conference, such as failure to approve debt relief for poor countries, may serve to mobilize thousands more protesters and trigger a wave of anger and outrage at subsequent events. Representatives of lobby groups who were present on Okinawa voiced their disatisfaction with the outcome and claimed their frustration will lead to protests "that will eclipse events in Seattle."(19)
40. The Internet will continue to play a large role in the success or failure of globalization protests and demonstrations. Groups will use the Internet to identify and publicize targets, solicit and encourage support, organize and communicate information and instructions, recruit, raise funds, and as a means of promoting their various individual and collective aims. The Internet remains a major source of protest motivation and planning; it will require careful monitoring by conference planners to determine the intentions and goals of demonstrators, and to forestall unexpected incidents.
41. Continued presence and use of large numbers of security forces, fencing, and similar restrictive measures could dampen the enthusiasm of protesters and might gradually reduce the size of some gatherings, as could adverse weather conditions. But, as demonstrated by extremist animal-rights and environmental activists, security measures could prompt a rise in the scale of violence from smashing windows to arson attacks, the use of explosive devices, and even physical threats against individuals, including posting warning letters purported to contain contaminated razor blades. The situation is paradoxical: the interest of targeted institutions and their membership in holding meetings on Canadian soil could wane if faced with stringent security precautions and movement restrictions. Conversely, Seattle-type disturbances and interference could similarly engender a loss of interest in using Canadian venues for international conferences and meetings which might prove attractive to demonstrators. Nonetheless, it has been established that antiglobalists are organizing against a number of international meetings in Canada, including the April 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. Given the virulent anti-globalization rhetoric directed against the Organization of American States (OAS), the threat of Summit-associated violence in Quebec City cannot be ruled out.
ENDNOTES
1. The Globe Mail, 1 Dec 1999.
2. The Sunday Times, 15 Aug 1999.
3. The Ottawa Citizen, 20 Apr 2000.
4. Minneapolis Star Tribune, 21 May 2000.
5. Naomi Klein. NO LOGO. Alfred A. Knopf, Canada, 2000, p.338.
6. IBID, p.339.
7. "After Seattle", William Finnegan. The New Yorker, 17 Apr 2000, p42.
8. The Ottawa Citizen, 1 Jun 2000.
9. Time. 26 Apr 2000, p.21.
10. "NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND", David Samuels. Harper's Magazine, May 2000, p.37.
11. 'Neither Left, Nor Right', Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report, Winter 2000, p.40.
12. Klein, Op. Cit., p.311.
13. Calgary Herald, 15 Apr 2000.
14. The Globe Mail, 12 May 2000.
15. Time, 24 Apr 2000, p.21.
16. The Globe Mail, 12 May 2000.
17. The Globe Mail, 8 May, 2000.
18. CNN.Com, 21 July, 2000.
19. Reuters, 23 July, 2000.
Perspectives is a publication of the Requirements, Analysis and Production Branch of CSIS. Comments concerning publications may be made to the Director General, Requirements, Analysis and Production Branch at the following address: Box 9732, Stn. "T", Ottawa, Ont., K1G 4G4, or by fax at (613) 842-1312
Disclaimer: The Canadian Security Intelligence Service assumes no responsibility for the use of the information at this World Wide Web (WWW) site.
-------- police
Zimbabwe Police Burn Down Shacks on Occupied Farms
Yahoo News
Wednesday August 23
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000823/wl/zimbabwe_land_dc_2.html
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwe police set fire to makeshift houses erected by war veterans illegally occupying two white-owned farms near the capital Harare, state television reported.
The television quoted veterans and supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party as saying police gave no warning of the dawn raid and did not allow occupants enough time to remove their belongings before the structures were burned down.
Witnesses said Tuesday that police also destroyed makeshift huts at another farm on the outskirts of Harare, where self-styled war veterans recently abducted and allegedly sexually molested schoolgirls.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed the incidents but declined to give further details or say why police had undertaken the actions.
Police have been accused of siding with the veterans who have invaded over 1,000 white-owned farms since February with the blessing of President Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe has announced plans to seize over half of the 12 million hectares of prime farmland owned by about 4,500 whites and use it to resettle landless blacks.
Farmers say the veterans and ZANU-PF supporters continue to assault them and their laborers, steal livestock and disrupt agricultural activity despite recent pledges by the government to restore relative normalcy on the farms.
Mugabe says the veterans will only be moved off the farms as and when they are resettled onto about 200 farms it has already acquired without contest from the farmers who owned them.
---
Officer and Inmates Accused of Defrauding Other Prisoners
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By ALAN FEUER
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/regional/082200ny-extort.html
Doing hard time at a federal prison in Allenwood, Pa., did not stop two inmates from coming up with a scheme to make a little cash from their fellow convicts, all with the help of a New York City police officer, federal prosecutors said.
According to an indictment issued in Brooklyn yesterday, the inmates, George Gallego and Hamed Elbarki, told two of their fellow prisoners that they knew a corrupt agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration who could help get them out of prison early. The two arranged for the inmates' families to give thousands of dollars in cash to Mr. Gallego's brother, James, a New York City police officer, the indictment said.
James Gallego, 34, was arraigned yesterday on charges of wire fraud and mail fraud in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. He was released from custody on $100,000 bail after his lawyer, Robert S. Wolf, denied the charges against him.
"He had no knowledge of any criminal activity," Mr. Wolf said in a courthouse hallway as Mr. Gallego looked on only hours after voluntarily surrendering to the authorities. "In fact, the purported victims in this case are convicted felons who were seeking to pay bribes to federal agents so they could defraud the United States and get bogus sentence reductions."
George Gallego and Mr. Elbarki were still in custody yesterday, but according to the indictment, they told one of their victims last September that Mr. Elbarki's cousin was a dishonest D.E.A. agent who could help the inmate set up a cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors. Cooperating with the government would have the effect of vacating a deportation order against the unnamed inmate as well as reducing his sentence, the indictment said.
To prove themselves, federal prosecutors said, the two men showed their victim a phony document that indicated that George Gallego's 40-year sentence for a murder conspiracy conviction had been cut to only eight years because of the corrupt agent's supposed intervention. But, in fact, the D.E.A. agent did not exist and George Gallego's prison term had been reduced because of an earlier cooperation agreement, the indictment said.
George Gallego and Mr. Elbarki, who was to be released from Allenwood next month after serving a 56-month sentence for bank robbery, then approached another inmate, the indictment said, and told this man that, for a price, they could introduce him to a lawyer who would put him in touch with the federal drug agent. Federal prosecutors maintain that the lawyer, like the agent, was made up.
James Gallego, who has been suspended from his job as an officer at the 90th Precinct in Brooklyn, was charged with taking $15,000 in cash from the first inmate's family and $10,000 from the family of the second inmate. Daniel Alonso, an assistant United States attorney, said Mr. Gallego gave some of the money to Mr. Elbarki's family and kept the rest for himself and his brother.
---
Mr. Kerik Moves to 1 Police Plaza
New York Times
August 22, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/22tue2.html
With his exit from office just 15 months away, and members of his administration leaving for the private sector, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani faces the classic challenge of finding replacements who will both protect his legacy and sustain the administration's momentum through the lame-duck period. The mayor's decision to replace the outgoing New York City police commissioner, Howard Safir, with the former correction commissioner, Bernard B. Kerik, fits these requirements nicely.
As correction commissioner, Mr. Kerik drove down crime behind bars using some of the same policing techniques that Mr. Safir applied in the city streets. But unlike Mr. Safir, who engendered hostility among minority officers and the minority community as a whole, Mr. Kerik has cultivated an effective and harmonious relationship with those same communities.
Mr. Safir and his predecessor, William Bratton, drove down street crime in the city to its lowest levels since the 1960's. But the reductions came at great cost to minority New Yorkers, many of whom felt targeted by the police. Relations between the police and minorities were inflamed by several high-profile events, including the police torture of the Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in 1997 and the shootings of two unarmed black men, Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond. Like Mayor Giuliani himself, Mr. Safir responded poorly. Instead of empathizing with public fears, he relentlessly cited statistics showing that crime and brutality complaints had dropped during his tenure.
Mr. Kerik, in his five years as a senior administrator at the Correction Department, won high praise from black and Latino correction officers -- who make up more than 70 percent of the work force. He brought to the jails a version of the Police Department's Compstat program, in which officers and resources are shifted around the system in reaction to carefully monitored crime trends. At monthly meetings he also held wardens accountable for their performance, monitoring not just crime trends but overtime and other expenditures. The jail system recorded dramatic drops in crime and overtime. Mr. Kerik's management system was cited by Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government as one of this year's most impressive innovations in local government.
These skills will come in handy at 1 Police Plaza, where overtime is in need of scrutiny and the department's relationship with the minority community and its own officers needs rebuilding.
---
New Police Commissioner Settles In for a Day of Meetings and Greetings
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/regional/0822000ny-kerik.html
After a weekend of public ceremony and symbolic gestures before the television cameras, New York City's new police commissioner rolled up his sleeves yesterday and settled down to the mundane details of his post.
The commissioner, Bernard B. Kerik, was greeted by flashing cameras as he walked through the front door of 1 Police Plaza at 7:30 a.m., having been briefed by telephone on the day's crime statistics (murders are still down, as is major crime over all).
Once inside headquarters, Mr. Kerik's only photo opportunity was on the 10th floor, where he posed for his identification card picture and the glossy photograph that will be distributed to the precincts. And from now on, Mr. Kerik is likely to enter the building through a back door that opens up onto the building's garage, to little if any fanfare.
Mr. Kerik, who was until Saturday the commissioner of the city's Correction Department, spent yesterday making his way through the building, shaking hands with employees and meeting with his staff members. He fielded congratulatory telephone calls, and peppered his office with photographs of his wife and two children, an aide said. For lunch, he ate a sandwich at his desk, stealing bites between conversations with colleagues.
At a 10 a.m. meeting in the commissioner's conference room, the department's executive staff members briefed Mr. Kerik on their responsibilities and current projects. (Each top staff member is expected to submit a more detailed, written report by the end of the day today.) Mr. Kerik then formally introduced himself, detailing his own career.
Mr. Kerik hinted at his priorities and concerns when he held two executive staff members behind for private meetings with him and the new first deputy commissioner, Joseph P. Dunne: George A. Grasso, the deputy commissioner for legal matters, and Peter Abbot, the commander of administrative services, said a new spokesman for the department, Thomas Antenen.
Mr. Antenen, who was a deputy commissioner to Mr. Kerik at correction, is expected to be named deputy commissioner of public information for the police. (The person in that job now, Marilyn Mode, was clearing out her office yesterday morning.)
Mr. Kerik asked Mr. Grasso to map out the various legal matters that the department faces, Mr. Antenen said.
And Mr. Kerik spoke with Mr. Abbot about the quality of police precinct station houses and other facilities, and the chain of command through which repair requests are funneled.
Mr. Kerik has visited at least seven precincts since he was appointed on Saturday to succeed Howard Safir, Mr. Antenen said. He noted that at the Correction Department his boss had focused on repairing jail cells and other department property.
After a brief meeting with reporters based at Police Headquarters, Mr. Kerik walked over to City Hall, where he met with Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and several other officials. He was back at his desk for lunch, and spent the rest of the day juggling telephone calls and meetings inside the building. Mr. Kerik and Mr. Dunne met several times to discuss staff appointments, which will be announced in the days and weeks to come.
Mr. Kerik left the office for the day about 5:45 p.m., when he headed to a golf course in White Plains for an outing and dinner to raise funds for the New York Law Enforcement Foundation, Mr. Antenen said. Not a golfer himself, Mr. Kerik left in his Correction Department car, flanked by two security officers.
Even as the commissioner was settling in, his brief tenure was already under scrutiny.
The Rev. Al Sharpton criticized Mr. Kerik and Mr. Giuliani for their visit on Sunday to a black church in East New York, Brooklyn, saying it was a "counterfeit effort" to show concern for minority residents.
"Mr. Giuliani did not reach out in advance of this appointment," Mr. Sharpton said, speaking at a news conference at the Harlem offices of his National Action Network. "He did not seek the counseling of anyone in the black and Latino community," he said, then he made the "bogus trip" to the Greater Bright Light Baptist Church.
Mr. Antenen said that Mr. Kerik may pay other visits to churches in minority neighborhoods, saying, "I know he enjoyed the service very much."
-------- spying
Report: Bin Laden's group spreading
USA Today
08/22/00
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncstue03.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) - The terror network headed by multimillionaire Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden is steadily eclipsing Iran and other Middle East countries in sponsoring terrorist attacks, Congress' research arm reports.
Major factions in Iran are trying to change the country's image, and Sudan and Libya appear to have reduced sharply their support of international terrorism, the report said. Also, it said, Syria may be ready to expel such groups once peace is established with Israel.
No major terror attacks have been linked to Iran since Mohammad Khatami became president two years ago, but he and hard-line Iranian leaders have helped terrorist groups opposed to peace between Israel and the Arabs, according to the report prepared by Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East specialist for the Congressional Research Service.
Meanwhile, bin Laden's Al-Qaida network, believed based in Afghanistan, has evolved in the last five years from a regional threat to U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf to a global threat to Americans and U.S. security interests, the report said.
Al-Qaida, Arabic for ''military base,'' encompasses members and factions of several major Islamic militant organizations, among them the Islamic Group and Al-Jihad of Egypt, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, Harakat ul-Mujahidin of Pakistan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and opposition groups in Saudi Arabia.
Their common goal is expulsion of non-Muslim control and influence from lands inhabited by Muslims. As a result, the report said, Al-Qaida supported Islamic fighters and terrorists against Serbs in Bosnia, against Russian forces in Afghanistan and Chechnya, against Indian forces in Kashmir and against the secular or pro-Western governments in Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.
Seventeen alleged members of the network, including bin Laden, have been indicted in the August 1998 bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people including 12 Americans. Six suspects are in custody in the United States and three in Britain. Bin Laden remains at large, apparently living in Afghanistan.
U.S. federal prosecutors plan to call 100 witnesses from six countries to prove the embassy bombings were the work of bin Laden's network.
In interviews, bin Laden has said he was not involved in the bombings but was pleased they occurred. He told Time magazine, however, that he did ''instigate'' the blasts.
According to the report to Congress, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, the backbone of his network is an ideological and personal bond among Arab volunteers recruited to fight against Soviet occupiers in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989.
The United States generally supported insurgents against Russia's troops, frequently praising them as ''freedom fighters.''
---
Ex-Intelligence Agent Arrested in Britain on Return From Exile
New York Times
August 22, 2000
By SARAH LYALL
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/europe/082200britain-spy.html
LONDON, Aug. 21 -- He had lived in self-imposed exile for the past three years, infuriating the British government with a series of disclosures about the country's two ultra-secret security agencies. But today David Shayler, a former security agent who calls himself a patriot and a whistleblower, returned to Britain to be branded a criminal.
Under an agreement with the government that said he would be released on bail if he gave himself up, Mr. Shayler, 34, was arrested in Dover this morning as he stepped off a ferry from Calais. Mr. Shayler was charged with two violations of Britain's Official Secrets Act, a sweeping law that outlaws unauthorized disclosures of any kind about the internal workings of the government. He faces a trial and, if found guilty, could be sentenced to up to four years in prison.
Mr. Shayler worked for three years at one of Britain's security agencies, known as M.I.5, serving in areas dealing with terrorism in Northern Ireland as well as throughout the world, and with background checks for government officials. He quit in early 1997, disillusioned with what he said was a pervasive culture of drunkenness, apathy, incompetence and lack of accountability there. His complaints were outlined in a newspaper article in 1997 , as was Mr. Shayler's accusation that M.I.5 had kept secret files on several members of the current government, including Peter Mandelson, now the Northern Ireland secretary, when they were active in student movements in the 1970's.
The government quickly obtained a far-reaching civil injunction barring the British news media from airing any more of Mr. Shayler's disclosures, which included accusations that M.I.5 mishandled investigations of Irish Republican Army attacks in London in the 1990's and that it failed to take steps that would have prevented the bombing of the Israeli embassy in 1994. Mr. Shayler, sensing that he was about to be arrested, fled the country, moving to the Netherlands and eventually settling in France.
But what really angered the British government was a far more explosive allegation by Mr. Shayler, who said that Britain's other security agency, M.I.6, which is the foreign intelligence service, had spent $160,000 or so in a plot to assassinate Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, in February 1996. (The plot went awry, he said, when agents paid by the agency put a bomb under the wrong car, killing several Libyan bystanders).
When Mr. Shayler threatened to publish details of the alleged plot on the Internet, he was arrested and held in a Paris prison for three and a half months. But he was ultimately released when the French government refused to extradite him, saying that the British charges against him were politically motivated.
At the same time, the government dismissed talk of an anti-Qaddafi plot as "pure fantasy." In an interview in 1998, Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, said that he was "perfectly satisfied" that the previous Tory government had never put forward such a plan, and that there was nothing to suggest that M.I.6 had "any interest, any role or any experience of any such escapade."
Meanwhile, Mr. Shayler has always said he eventually wanted to come home. And, now that Britain is poised to incorporate into its domestic law the European Convention on Human Rights -- a set of principles that includes the right to freedom of expression -- he said he feels he stands a better chance of being acquitted when his case comes to trial. It is uncertain whether the government will actually prosecute him, however.
"It is a farcical situation to make it a crime to report a crime," he said.
---
Former MI5 agent surrenders
Washington Times
August 22, 2000
By Sue Leeman
ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-2000822214616.htm
LONDON - After nearly three years in exile in France, a former spy who infuriated Britain's intelligence community with charges of incompetence and illegal plots arrived home yesterday and walked into police custody.
No sooner had David Shayler been charged with disclosing state secrets than the burly, blunt-speaking former agent was vowing to dig further into his revelations -particularly claims that Britain was involved in a plot to assassinate Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
"I feel good to be back in my own country. I feel good to be free again, and as soon as possible I'm going to pursue the Gadhafi plot," Mr. Shayler told journalists after he was released on bail.
Mr. Shayler, who had worked for Britain's MI5 internal security agency since 1994, fled to France after an August 1997 article in London's Mail on Sunday newspaper published his disclosures.
Insisting he revealed the information out of patriotism, he has since accused the British government of trying to silence him with criminal charges and a lawsuit last year. The British government has denied the Gadhafi claims.
Mr. Shayler returned by ferry from the French port of Calais in a high-profile crossing accompanied by reporters, TV crews and his girlfriend Annie Machon. Police confronted him as he stepped off the boat in Dover.
"He feels that he needs to come back and vindicate himself," an emotional Miss Machon told reporters. She said it was "scandalous" that he should be arrested when "all he's done is tell the truth about a very secretive government organization."
Mr. Shayler was charged with two counts of breaking the Official Secrets Act and released after surrendering his passport.
The charges were not connected to the Gadhafi claims, but to disclosures published in the 1997 Mail article. In that article, Mr. Shayler said MI5 kept files on politicians, including Home Secretary Jack Straw and former Conservative Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath. The article also said MI5 tapped the telephone of Peter Mandelson, now Britain's Northern Ireland secretary.
The charges carry a maximum jail sentence of four years. Mr. Shayler is to appear before a Bow Street Magistrates Court on Friday for a preliminary hearing.
In a separate civil suit filed in December by the British government, Mr. Shayler is accused of breach of copyright and breach of contract for releasing secret documents.
Mr. Shayler told reporters that by not charging him over the Gadhafi claims, the government is "quite clearly backing down from what was a very Draconian and very repressive position."
"I wonder whether this is an attempt to prevent the jury from hearing the whole story," he said.
In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. aired in 1998, Mr. Shayler claimed that Britain's external intelligence agency, MI6, had been involved in a plan to kill Mr. Gadhafi.
At the time, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook dismissed Mr. Shayler's charges as "pure fantasy." The Foreign Office, which is responsible for MI6, offered no comment on the charges against Mr. Shayler.
Mr. Shayler spent four months in Paris' La Sante prison in 1998 after being arrested on a British warrant. A French appeals court rejected an extradition bid.
Mr. Shayler said yesterday he hopes to use European human rights laws to challenge any charges against him.
"It's an absolute nonsense that in this day and age in Britain we have a law which makes it a crime to report a crime," he said.
-------- terrorism
CIA cables sought in Lockerbie case
USA Today
08/22/00
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nw1.htm#rsub
CAMP ZEIST, Netherlands - Defense lawyers demanded full access to a batch of classified CIA cables as the trial of two Libyans accused of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 resumed Tuesday following a three-week summer recess. But Scotland's chief prosecutor insisted that information censored from the cables was not relevant to the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, including 189 Americans. The 25 cables, dated Aug. 10, 1988, to Aug. 31, 1989, were sent to Washington by CIA agents who interviewed a Libyan spy, identified as Abdul Majid Giaka, who has since defected to the United States. Prosecutors expect to wrap up their evidence in September, handing the floor to the defense lawyers, whose case is expected to last several months.
---
A three eagles policy
Washington Times
August 22, 2000
Gary Anderson
http://208.246.212.80/op-ed/ed-column-200082218180.htm
The revelation that Imad Mughniyeh, an obscure Lebanese terrorist, is the suspected executioner in the 1989 murder of Marine Col. Rich Higgins will require a hard policy decision on the part of the next administration. The issue is simple. Will we now pursue Mughniyeh to the far corners of the earth to bring him to justice for his crime, or will we ignore him in the interest of expediting the Middle East peace process?
This is not an unemotional subject for me. Rich Higgins was a close friend. He replaced me as the senior Marine Corps observer in Lebanon and, more importantly, as the senior U.S. military official in the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Middle East. His kidnapping and death as an unarmed U.N. observer is a war crime by anyone's calculation. But the issue here is not revenge. It is the credibility of the national security apparatus of the United States. Higgins was not targeted because he was a U.N. official; he was killed because he was an American.
The way we Americans respond to attacks on our citizens at home and abroad in the next few years will dictate how potential adversaries view us in the future. Due to our overwhelming military strength, our would-be adversaries probably wouldn't confront the United States directly. Our enemies, be they state-sponsored organizations or nongovernmental groups, would come at us "asymmetrically." The attack on Higgins was a crude manifestation of such operations. Instead of an assault on an unarmed U.N. observer, future attacks of this nature could include biological strikes at U.S. cities or catastrophic computer virus assaults aimed at crippling our economy.
The manner in which we respond to such attacks will be critical in determining how adequately we can deter them in the future. There are times when the past can hold significant lessons, and this may be one of them.
The Roman Empire had a very successful policy of dealing with perceived wrongdoing on the part of its enemies no matter how long the process might take. When a trusted German leader turned against the Romans in the first century and destroyed three Roman legions, he also captured their legionary eagle standards as prizes. Rome undertook to regain those eagles with fanatical tenacity. It took years, but the eagles were recovered and the leaders of the offending Germans were killed and crucified in the process.
Likewise, the Romans made an epic of capturing the impregnable rebel Jewish fortress of Masada to show that Rome could not be challenged. Having visited the site, I am still moved by the valor of the Jewish defenders, but my primary impression is that it was a truly bad idea to upset the Roman Empire; it literally moved mountains to capture the place. The twin lessons of the eagles and Masada were well learned. Serious challenges to Roman authority ceased for generations. Roman cruelty is not the point here; Roman tenacity is the real lesson. Josephus, a Jewish witness to the suppression of the Jewish revolt, was led to write that the Romans made all manner of mistakes, but they never made the same one twice.
I don't advocate executing terrorists such as Mughniyeh although I personally would not be crushed if he were to be killed while resisting arrest. Frankly, I'd rather see him in an orange jumpsuit breaking rocks in Texas or New Mexico. He doesn't deserve to be a martyr. In any case, the objective of tracking him down and apprehending him wherever he is hiding should be a stated policy of the next administration. The message should be clear: Attacks on America or Americans will not be tolerated and will be answered and punished no matter how long it takes.
What the Americans can learn from the Romans is not cruelty but patience. The real genius of Roman deterrence was not the threat of terror. It was the assurance of reaction to a threat. We have become a people that demand immediate gratification in our endeavors. In some ways, the Romans were similar to us in that respect. However, we should avoid the clamor for immediate results in matters of national security. We showed appropriate patience in winning the Cold War. The same forbearance will be required in the future. Revenge and justice are similar in one respect; they are best served cold.
Two administrations have failed to bring Higgins' killer to justice because we could not put a face to the culprit. There is no longer an excuse. Now that we have a suspect, no stone should be left unturned in bringing his killer to justice. It is not important whether bringing people like Mughniyeh to justice becomes known as the Bush or Gore doctrine; the principle of recovering the eagles should be a pivot point of American foreign and domestic policy in the 21st century.
Gary Anderson is a retired Marine Corps officer. He is writing a book on civil-military relations.
-------- bio-terrorism
Quadrupeds Help to Save Bipeds
New York Times
PUBLIC PROFILE
By ROBIN FINN
http://www.nytimes.com/00/08/22/news/national/regional/ny-public-profile.html
ALL aboard! Feeling a little seasick? Wait until the J. J. Callis docks at Plum Island. Now we're truly queasy, especially if we've perused Nelson DeMille's best-selling novel about the place. Sinister stuff, even if it is fiction.
Ignore the ferry captain's jokes about the island's mutant population: the seven-foot chicken and the toothless gorilla are just his way of getting your goat. And no, he won't turn the boat around, not when we're en route to visit Dr. David L. Huxsoll, brand-new king of the island where hoof-and-mouth disease (it ran amok and wiped out an island herd in 1978) and African swine flu are just a few of the enemies in residence.
The seals and the seabirds are free to come and go with the tide, but the rules aren't so lenient for the quadruped inmates (118 at last count) at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, a mile off the North Fork of eastern Long Island. Apparently animal etiquette at this high-tech clinic comes from the low-tech Roach Motel handbook: they can check in, but they can't check out.
"The animals are not volunteers," concedes Dr. Huxsoll, the plain-spoken veterinarian (not the Dr. Dolittle kind) and Walter Reed Army Institute alumnus (his ominous specialty: infectious diseases and bioterrorism) who has run this germ tank for the Department of Agriculture since June.
Today he's running it while wearing a statement tie: canary yellow with hand-painted doggies, many of the beagle persuasion.
A Midwesterner and a grandfatherly guy, Dr. Huxsoll, 63, admits he went with the man's best friend motif for public relations reasons. Plum Island is desperate for positive PR now that it's trolling for $75 million in federal funds to upgrade to Biosafety Level 4, which deals in diseases that wipe out humans, not herds. Nothing like dressing in puppy mode to show that he's no mad scientist.
In sad fact, he's not just a dog-lover (though he does condone their use in medical research); he's in mourning for one. He lost his beagle-terrier Sally, 17, to cancer recently, and forget about displaying scientific detachment: he's bummed.
Fortunately, bonding with the doomed animals here isn't in his job description. Dr. Huxsoll, who grew up in hardscrabble circumstances -- zero money for college -- on a farm in Aurora, Ind., remembers weeping when the calves he had named and tended were sold. He also recalls eating other barnyard incumbents; it was either that or go hungry. He decided in third grade to be a veterinarian, and after he enlisted in the Army (he was No. 1 at his local draft board), the military covered his medical school bills and nudged him into immunology and virus research.
Ensconced in 1990 as a professor of microbiology at Louisiana State University's veterinary medicine school, with retirement at arm's length, he didn't volunteer for this $125,000 assignment. The Agriculture Department twisted his arm, which gives him something in common with the animals, though unlike them he will presumably walk away intact and return home to Baton Rouge when his tenure ends in 2001 or 2002. Come to think of it, he's not sure when he can leave. But that would be sweating the small stuff.
The big stuff is why Dr. Huxsoll, on virus patrol from Vietnam (not his favorite Army posting, though he did save plenty of fever-ridden G.I.'s) to Malaysia (where he, his wife and their two children spent what he calls the happiest years of their life) to Iraq (he scoured for biological weapons), agreed to take the job.
First thing he did was read Mr. DeMille's book "Plum Island." No wonder people think his new workplace is one big lab experiment gone awry. "I didn't finish it," he says, giving an irate twirl to the copper bracelet on his left wrist, worn just in case it does cure arthritis. As regards curing Plum Island's bad rep, Dr. Huxsoll, calling the current outbreak of West Nile virus a wake-up call (if a mosquito can catch us looking the other way, just think of the damage a bioterrorist could wreak), aims to be more than a folksy placebo.
He's already talking about opening the island to interested citizens to prove there's nothing secret, that safe containment is a given and vaccines a mission. In that vein, he says, Representative Michael P. Forbes should not be sabotaging the center's offer to safely incinerate those 355 Vermont sheep that have been linked to a variant of mad-cow disease. It's the prudent way to go.
Does Dr. Huxsoll enjoy killing animals? "I don't like killing any mammals, from mouse to cow, but when we find ourselves in this kind of mess. . . . "
What kind of mess is he talking about? He says that the confirmation of just a single case of hoof-and-mouth disease in this country would shut down the export of all animal products, a $60 billion industry, within 24 hours.
Worse, there is bioterrorism -- like the tons of smallpox traced to the Soviets in the 80's -- which is why the center wants to upgrade its lab. "It's taken the whole threat of biowarfare to the highest -- maybe -- security concern in the U.S. today, greater than nuclear," Dr. Huxsoll says. Yes, there's a global moratorium on making the stuff, but he's convinced there's cheating, convinced you can never have too many vaccines.
Meanwhile, 50 pigs, 20 mice, 20 guinea pigs, 10 sheep, 10 rabbits and 8 cows await martyrdom on his watch. Mr. DeMille and Mr. Forbes are welcome anytime to come find out why.
---
Expert: US Open To Bioterrorism
New York Times
August 22, 2000 Filed at 4:44 p.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/a/AP-Bioterrorism.html
http://www.foxnews.com/national/082200/terrorism_bio.sml
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Advances in technology make the United States more vulnerable to bioterrorism than to nuclear attack, a leading expert in defending against biological weapons said Tuesday.
Dr. Tara O'Toole, deputy director of Johns Hopkins University's Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies, suggested devoting $30 billion over the next 10 years to prepare health care systems to detect, track, respond and contain epidemics that would be triggered by biological weapons.
The Department of Health and Human Services says it is spending $278 million this fiscal year to prepare for bioterrorism.
``The likelihood of a biological weapon being used is a lot higher than a missile coming across the Pacific,'' O'Toole said. ``And yet we are spending a lot more on missile defense than we are on biological systems.''
``A bio Unibomber is perfectly possible, and that threat will grow because of the growing power of biotechnology and genomics,'' she said in a discussion at the independent Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Spurred by the spread of computers, the Internet and large corporations searching for medical miracles, biotechnical advances are moving much faster than physics did in the 1950s, O'Toole said.
Genetic research to develop new drugs could ``create the tools to build a more powerful weapon and virulent bug,'' she said.
Simple devices such as a nasal spray could spread a deadly disease such as anthrax, underscoring the difficulty of detecting biological weapons before their use.
O'Toole said the United States needs to strengthen its public health and medical care system to deal with biological attacks because this would ``probably make ourselves less attractive targets to would-be perpetrators.''
A byproduct of such an effort, she said, would be an improvement in the everyday functioning of hospitals and other health care systems, because new medical devices and treatments would be developed.
O'Toole recommended a robust research and development program to reduce vulnerability to biological weapons using resources of the departments of Defense and Health and Human Services.
``We've also got to engage the genius of the universities, the pharmaceutical firms and biotechnology companies, who are not now in this game,'' she said. ``They are not running around looking for cures for anthrax. There is no market reason to do so.''
The research program should focus on three areas, she recommended:
--Developing an automated means to diagnose disease-causing organisms by using microchips.
--Producing better vaccines, more vaccines and new antibiotics and particularly anti-viral drugs for likely bioagents.
--Enhancing immune response generally ``so we can get `one-bug, one-drug' and see if we can find a more all-purpose way to limit our susceptibility to infectious disease.''
Public health experts have warned for several years that bioterrorism, the release of deadly bacteria or viruses, is a growing threat. While the government knows how to respond to chemical spills or bombings, bioterrorism could be the ultimate sneak attack: no one would know it had happened until sick people began arriving at hospitals.
It's not a theoretical risk. In 1985, a cult sickened 750 people by poisoning salad bars in Oregon with the food-poisoning germ salmonella. In 1995, experts say Japanese doomsday cultists tried but failed to release botulism toxin and anthrax in Tokyo. The same cult later released nerve gas into a subway and killed 12 people and made thousands sick.
-------- activists
NAVY BOMBING RESUMES IN VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO
PROTEST FAST ENTERS 5TH WEEK
From: "Max Obuszewski" <mobuszewski@afsc.org>
PRESS CONFERENCE
TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2000 -- 12 NOON
LAFAYETTE PARK / IN FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE
Despite widespread opposition from the people of Vieques, the U.S. Navy renewed bombing of the island on August 14, 2000. The higher cancer rates with Navy use of Uranium 238 (depleted uranium) as a probable cause, and the death of David Sanes, a resident killed during Navy bombing exercises last year, have fueled discontent. Most Vieques' residents insist that the US Navy leave their island and that the bombing stop.
Andrιs Thomas Conteris, member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean and a United Methodist lay missioner, began a liquid-only fast on July 25, 2000. This became an open-ended, water-only fast once the Navy renewed bombing on August 14. He wrote an open letter to President Clinton urging him to meet personally with religious and peace leaders of Vieques, a request they have made repeatedly for a long time. He will continue the water-only fast until President Clinton agrees to the long-requested meeting.
Dr. Carmen Carreras of Puerto Rico began a round-the-clock, juice-only fast the day the Navy renewed the bombing. Over 40 people have fasted on a rotating basis in Vieques since July 25, as a plea to President Clinton to meet with their church and peace movement leaders. A dozen people in the U.S are fasting in a similar manner.
Clinton has had numerous meetings with Navy officials who favor the bombing but refuses to meet with those directly impacted by the military maneuvers.
According to Thomas Conteris, "It is unacceptable that the Navy continues to bomb the populated island of Vieques and unconscionable that the President refuses to meet with the religious and peace movement leaders. We will continue our witness until that meeting takes place." Thomas Conteris maintains a vigil in front of the White House, 6:30p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday to Friday and is available for interviews.
The Puerto Rican National Boricua Human Rights Network is calling for a National Day in Solidarity with the People of Vieques on September 22, 2000, 12:00 noon in Lafayette Park. Other organizations and individuals have joined this call for a major demons-tration. If Clinton does not meet with Vieques' non-governmental leaders prior to that time, it will mark the 60th day of the fast, 40 on water-only.
----
City, protesters agree to reduce charges
USA Today
08/22/00
http://usatoday.com/news/digest/nd1.htm#ford
LOS ANGELES - The city attorney's office agreed Monday to reduce misdemeanor charges against scores of people arrested during last week's street protests outside the Democratic National Convention. In exchange, the 52 protesters will plead no contest to the reduced charges Tuesday, clearing the way for their release. A hunger strike by 45 of them will continue until then, their supporters said. City attorney's officials agreed to reduce charges because the demonstrators already have spent more than enough time behind bars, a spokesman said. The protesters were expected to be released Monday, but sheriff's officials could not verify their identifications before courts closed in the afternoon. Most were being held because they refused to give their names until they could negotiate reduced charges.
--------
OneList subscribers:
NucNews - Please circulate -- help educate! - http://prop1.org
1. NMD DECISION UPON US
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>
2. Fw: NMD DECISION UPON US
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>
3. SPACE BASED LASER
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>
4. Fw: Editorial on Long-Term Stewardship Report
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>
------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 12:07:28 -0400
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>
Official Expects U.S. Missile Shield Decision Soon
Tuesday August 22 6:18 AM ET
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Reuters) - The United States plans to decide soon whether to go ahead with its planned national missile defense (NMD) program, a top State Department official said Monday.
President Clinton is due to make his decision ``within the next week or so΄΄ on the controversial $60 billion project, strongly opposed by Russia and China and criticized by some NATO allies as well, John Holum, under-secretary for arms control and international security, told Danish television news.
A U.S. delegation led by Holum arrived in Greenland on Monday for talks with Danish and Greenland officials about using a ballistic missile early-warning system (BMEWS) radar at the U.S. Thule airbase in the north-west of the vast Arctic island, which belongs to Denmark.
``We are going to talk about all the details of the president΄s decision that he΄ll have to make in the next few days,΄΄ Holum said, according to a video-recording of his remarks available on the Internet.
``There hasn΄t been a decision to proceed with national missile defense but it΄s something we are actively considering because of the change in the threat,΄΄ he said.
Washington says countries it has dubbed ``states of concern΄΄ such as North Korea, Iraq, Iran and Libya may be acquiring the capability to fire long-range ballistic missiles against the United States.
Asked to elaborate on the timetable of Clinton's decision, Holum said: ``Within the next week or so.΄΄ Clinton is scheduled to travel to Africa from Aug. 26 to 28.
The Thule radar in Greenland is one of five installations that must be upgraded to become part of the NMD, which some security policy analysts believe could spark a new arms race.
Defense Secretary William Cohen said last month Clinton would decide by early September whether to keep the missile shield program on a fast track for deployment in 2005, but would leave it for his successor after the November election to decide whether and when to begin initial deployment.
The governments of Britain and Denmark, both housing radars needed for the NMD, have said that since they have not received any formal request they do not need to make a decision now on whether to permit Washington to use their facilities.
``We are not asking for them to make a decision at this stage...we wouldn΄t ask them to get ahead of our own decision making. What we are looking for here is understanding,΄΄ Holum said, referring to the visit in Greenland due to end Aug. 24. --
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: 2
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 13:19:54 -0400
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>
NMD DECISION UPON US
This decision has been made but not announced. An outof state shemya (Alaska) contractor has been running his mouth about his work now being done on that island and senator stevens brought the head of nasa through town mentioning that he had just taken him to shemya and kodiak. That the official announcement has not been made or our allies notified says much about the continuing arrogance of of post-cold war -bipartisan American foreign policy and its political expediency.None of this has been in the media, by the way.
-------------
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 16:50:41 -0400
From: "Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space" <globalnet@mindspring.com>
SPACE BASED LASER
Friends:
I just found out that the BMDO will be making a decision in next couple of months on where they will test the Space based laser (SBL).
They are right now considering one of four sites:
Redstone Army Arsenal (Huntsville, AL)
Stennis Test Center (Mississippi)
Cape Canaveral (Florida)
Kennedy Space Center (Florida)
The BMDO is now preparing a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that should be public in coming weeks. Then after a public comment period, the BMDO will make a decision on their testing site. Los Angeles AFB, CA. is the program manager for the SBL program and is in charge of the EIS.
The SBL is the real Star Wars constellation of 20-30 satellites orbiting the earth that would have capability to hit targets in space and on the planet.
I will keep you all posted as I get more information.
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: 4
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 23:11:57 -0700
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>
Editorial on Long-Term Stewardship Report
Lisa Crawford of Fernald Residents for Environmental Safety and Health (FRESH) asked me to post this thoughtful editorial about the National Research Council's report on long-term stewardship from one of the Cincinnati dailies. It is a good reminder that other activists should be encouraging local newspapers to weigh in on this issue:
LONG COST OF A COLD WAR
Cincinnati Post Editorial
August 21, 2000
A new report by the National Research Council presents a grim analysis of just how difficult it will be to deal with contamination at the nation's nuclear weapons plants.
It also has the curious effect of illustrating how fortunate Greater Cincinnati is in the progress being made at the former uranium processing plant at Fernald. Maybe fortunate isn't the right word. But put it this way: the chemical and radioactive residues at Fernald are being processed much faster, and much more thoroughly, than at almost any of the 144 other such sites around the country.
The cleanup at Fernald, launched in the mid-1980s, is now scheduled to be finished by 2008 at a cost of about $6 billion. Federal officials selected it early on as a test/demonstration site, because it involved primarily low-level radioactive wastes and because they thought it was small enough to lend itself to a successful cleanup program. To date:
About 25 percent of the material from Fernald's waste pits has been shipped to a repository in Utah.
Three of the eight planned on-site storage cells for debris and contaminated soil have been built; 500,000 of the estimated 2.5 million cubic yards of material destined for them has been placed.
82 of the 200 buildings on the site have been dismantled.
Nearly half the liquid wastes destined for incineration, most of the solid wastes destined for storage at the Nevada Test Site and 70 percent of the nuclear material destined for reuse have been sent off-site.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Department is preparing yet another attempt to empty the three Fernald silos that contain relatively high-level liquid wastes and sludge, and pumping/cleaning of the contaminated aquifer is continuing.
But at Fernald, as at nearly all the former weapons sites, there are areas that will remain contaminated for the foreseeable future.
That's why the National Research Council report is so chilling. It says that we don't really have good technology to clean up most nuclear wastes, that efforts to keep contamination on-site will probably fail eventually, and that it's probably a pipe dream to think that we can establish organizations capable of guarding and properly maintaining the containment structures at these sites for the thousands of years the wastes will be dangerously radioactive.
To use but one example, at most sites radioactive wastes are stored in the ground in one form or another - as dust in the soil, in tanks or containers that may or may not be leaking, in trenches with no containment at all. Every time it rains, radioactive particles can contaminate the groundwater or be washed into nearby streams.
As the New York Times noted in a recent report, attempts to merely limit the damage are not foolproof. For example, despite a ban on drilling wells into the aquifer near Oak Ridge, one was tapped to provide water for a golf course. (In the same vein, the Times reported, kids have taken to stealing ''No Fishing'' signs along contaminated streams near Oak Ridge. Because they're there, no doubt.)
Even at Fernald, where much of the site will soon be safe for re-use, there will be permanent waste repositories that will require monitoring for centuries to come.
The Research Council is right: from Washington to Cincinnati, we need to think about addressing the nation's terrible nuclear legacy in a long-term perspective that we're just not accustomed to.
---------------------
DOEWatch List ----A Magnum-Opus Project
Subscribe online: http://www.onelist.com
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1. College of Public Health surveys Iowa atomic weapons workers
From: magnu96196@aol.com
2. STRICKEN SUB MUST BE SALVAGED
From: magnu96196@aol.com
3. DOE landfill being excavated
From: magnu96196@aol.com
4. Platts Tuesday, August 22, 2000
From: "Paul Maser" <pmaser@govmail.state.nv.us>
5. Investigation into nuke plant drags on
From: magnu96196@aol.com
6. Melt-and-dilute test watched closely
From: magnu96196@aol.com
7. The Bombs Of August
From: magnu96196@aol.com
8. A Nightmare Scenario - Saddam With the Bomb
From: magnu96196@aol.com
9. City slows effort to recoup DOE funds
From: magnu96196@aol.com
10. Hearing set today on draft environmental statement
From: magnu96196@aol.com
11. ORNL conducts program for EPA
From: magnu96196@aol.com
12. Audit recommends changes at OSTI
From: magnu96196@aol.com
13. Foe challenges Wamp on environment
From: magnu96196@aol.com
14. "Threshold Limit Values" (TLVs)
From: df7332@aol.com
------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 09:29:53 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
College of Public Health surveys Iowa atomic weapons workers
http://www.pmeh.uiowa.edu/news/0817atomic.htm
CONTACT: DAN MCMILLAN 5190 Westlawn Iowa City IA 52242 (319) 335-6835; fax (319) 335-8814 e-mail: daniel-mcmillan@uiowa.edu Release: Aug. 17, 2000
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy, investigators in the University of Iowa College of Public Health are initiating a survey of the health status of former atomic weapons workers at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAP) near Burlington.
The survey will attempt to identify the potentially thousands of former IAAP employees who worked in atomic weapons manufacture at the plant, in an area known as Line 1. From 1945 through 1975, workers on Line 1 assembled and disassembled atomic weapons for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the precursor of the Department of Energy (DOE).
"The IAAP is one of only two facilities in the United States known to have manufactured atomic weapons," said Laurence Fuortes, M.D., UI associate professor of occupational and environmental health and principal investigator on the DOE project. "This project will attempt to locate and identify those individuals who were directly involved in this work and determine whether their health has been affected by their occupational exposures."
In addition to fissionable or radioactive materials, it is possible workers may have been exposed to potentially hazardous levels of a number of other substances, including explosives, solvents, epoxies, heavy metals and harmful dusts, Fuortes said.
The UI College of Public Health investigators will examine existing data sources, such as employment records, to identify former Line 1 workers. They will also conduct focus group interviews and pilot surveys, and host public meetings in the Burlington area to locate former employees and ascertain health concerns.
An advisory board, consisting of local unions, the IAAP site management, community representatives, and state and local public health officials and medical providers, will be established to assist in the identification of worker health issues, provide input on the direction of the study, and provide a means for community input.
For more information, contact Howard Nicholson at the UI College of Public Health, at (319) 335-4210.
-----------
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 09:46:00 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
STRICKEN SUB MUST BE SALVAGED
New York, New York - The environmental organization FISH Unlimited today demanded that the stricken Russian submarine Kursk be recovered from the Barents Sea as soon as possible. This demand comes in light of the increasing possibility of radioactive leaks from the two nuclear reactors that powered the Kursk, and the likelihood that if they are not already leaking radioactivity they will shortly.
"An environmental nightmare isn't a matter of if, it's a matter of when" said Bill Smith, Executive Director of FISH Unlimited. "The Kursk is in relatively shallow water in one of the world's most productive fishing areas, a salvage operation is very feasible and must not be delayed for political reasons like the rescue operation was."
FISH Unlimited stated that to date there are at least 10 nuclear reactors and 50 nuclear warheads sitting on ocean bottoms, many which have already leaked.
"We're in contact with, and encouraging officials in Russia to continue to reach out to their allies so that this already great tragedy does not go to the next level," Smith continued. "Our oceans are already at great risk, and nuclear contamination of this magnitude will only compound that.
For more information contact FISH Unlimited at 631-749-3474 or 516-639-5874.
----------------
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 09:50:47 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
DOE landfill being excavated
STEVE VANTREESE
The Sun
http://www.paducahsun.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?200008/22/+01xB_features.html+20000822+features
A heavy equipment operator moves a bucket of earth and long-buried waste β" one containing a metal beam β" out of an excavation at a U.S. Department of Energy landfill site on Ogden Landing Road behind the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The area is being excavated under the direction of the U.S. Department of Justice as part of an investigation into allegations that previous plant operators falsified reports on the extent of contamination at the plant and reports about what type of material is buried in the landfill.
--------------
Message: 4
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 07:32:05 -0700
From: "Paul Maser" <pmaser@govmail.state.nv.us>
Platts
Tuesday, August 22, 2000
Karachi (Nuclear News Flashes)-August 21, 2000 Musharraf says signing the CTBT now `would destabilize' Pakistan Pakistan Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf has told Japanese media that Pakistan's signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) now "would destabilize" the country. The "time is not ripe," he said in interviews from Rawalpindi in advance of today's visit by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Tokyo has linked resumption of Japanese economic aid to Pakistan's willingness to sign the CTBT. Musharraf said he would ask Mori to help stabilize Pakistan so that his government is able to sign the CTBT. "Making a hasty decision to sign the CTBT would be counterproductive and against our national interest," he said.
Stockholm (Nuclear News Flashes)-August 21, 2000 Sweden's Sydkraft electricity sales for first half of year down 11% Sweden's Sydkraft sold 11% less electricity during the first half of the year in part because a milder winter required less generation by its hydroelectric and nuclear power plants. Though the utility cut operating costs 5% for the first six months, operating profit was down 6% because of extremely low Nordic electricity prices. Nuclear production was 7,849 gigawatt-hours (Gwh) compared with 8,658 Gwh for the same period last year. The nuclear decrease was due mainly to the permanent shutdown of the 600-MW Barsebaeck-1 in November. Sydkraft also is majority owner in the three-unit Oskarshamn plant and minority owner in the four-unit Ringhals AB.
Commentary & Analysis from Platts
On-line UF6 sale draws aggressive bids New York (NuclearFuel)--21Aug2000 On-line UF6 sale draws aggressive bids New York (NuclearFuel)--21Aug2000 An unidentified seller agreed to sell 56,320 kg of uranium as uranium hexafluoride at a price 45 cents/kgU below recently quoted prevailing prices i n an auction held Aug 18 on New York Nuclear Corp's (Nynco) UraniumOnLine auction site. On-line auctions are new to the nuclear industry, which traditionally arranges uranium deals through brokers and two-party contracts.
A buyer said to be Niagara Mohawk Power Corp, operator of the Nine Mile Point station in New York state, had set an unpublished reserve price of $23.25/kgU. Bidding was started at $23.50/kgU, said to be a prevailing price by market observers, and slowly dropped during the 15-minute auction. The winning bid was $23.05/kgU. The seller must pay Nynco a 1% fee from the proceeds, and deliver the product for enrichment by Nov 1.
------------
Message: 5
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 11:29:19 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
Investigation into nuke plant drags on
August 21, 2000
http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/08/21/loc_investigation_into.html
The Associated Press COLUMBUS - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is taking longer than expected to investigate the finances of the U.S. Enrichment Corp., the privatized federal corporation that is the nation's only domestic source of enriched uranium for power plants.
The report was supposed to be issued early this summer. Commission spokeswoman Mindy Landau said NRC staff members are "working feverishly on it. We are hopeful it will be ready soon."
USEC critics say the corporation's recent financial troubles and its plan to end most operations at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion plant in Piketon in June threaten a requirement that the company be a "reliable and economical domestic source of enrichment services."
If the commission decides USEC no longer meets that requirement, it could pull the company's certification.
Ms. Landau said regardless of what the report contains, she doesn't expect it to recommend any action.
"If there are recommendations or conclusions ... they will have to be made by Congress," she said.
The Piketon plant and its sister plant in Paducah, Ky., made weapons-grade enriched uranium during the Cold War. They now produce commercial-grade uranium for nuclear power plants.
USEC spokeswoman Elizabeth Stuckle expressed disagreement with comments by Rep. Ted Strickland, D-Lucasville, that the corporation will not be a reliable source of enriched uranium in the future.
"Of course we're a reliable source," Ms. Stuckle said. "The cost-cutting efforts we've made lately, the layoffs and the pending closure of the plant, all are efforts to make us more efficient and remain successful as a business."
She said the USEC is pursuing several technologies for uranium enrichment.
-----------
Message: 6
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 11:38:42 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
Melt-and-dilute test watched closely
By Brandon Haddock Staff Writer
http://augustachronicle.com/stories/082100/tec_174-5321.000.shtml
In a cavernous laboratory of Savannah River Site's research and development lab, scientists are preparing for the final tests of a procedure that could lead to a $1.9 billion plant at the federal nuclear-weapons site.
And this time, the watchdogs that carefully scrutinize the U.S. Department of Energy's every move are hoping that the process, called ``melt and dilute,'' will work. If successful, some observers said, the method could reduce nuclear dangers worldwide.
``It's a simple technology, but it's a new technology, and it's one that could have applications overseas,'' said Ed Lyman, scientific director for the Nuclear Control Institute in Washington.
The melt-and-dilute method has been under development at SRS since 1997.
Using a large furnace heated to more than 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, workers would melt spent - and highly radioactive - nuclear-reactor fuel. The fuel rods contain enriched uranium that could be used in nuclear weapons.
To prevent such use, the molten metal would be mixed with a weaker form of uranium. After cooling and hardening overnight, the ingot that remained would be packaged and shipped off site for long-term burial.
The project's scientists already have proved the method successful on small batches of nonirradiated fuels fashioned from depleted uranium, said Natraj Iyer, manager of spent-fuel technologies at the site's Savannah River Technology Center.
Now, the Energy Department plans to build a large-scale test plant in the site's L-Area, Dr. Iyer said.
The plant, called the L-Area Experimental Facility, or LEF, will provide a tougher hurdle for the scientists to overcome, because it will be able to treat an actual spent-fuel rod, Dr. Iyer said.
``The next step in the program is really to validate what we've done in the small-scale facility, using irradiated spent fuel,'' he said. ``The L-Area Experimental Facility, in a sense, is the same scale as the melt-and-dilute system that we will build in F-Area.''
If the experimental plant is successful, the actual plant would open in fiscal year 2008 and operate until 2035. It could cost as much as $1.9 billion to build and operate and would create about 100 long-term jobs at the site.
A major advantage of the melt-and-dilute method would be its ability to reduce the size of nuclear waste generated by fuel-rod disposal, scientists said.
A rod's volume would be reduced by 70 percent, Dr. Iyer said. Ten feet long before treatment, each melted rod would fit into a canister no taller than a cereal box.
The method also would have political advantages.
Many activists prefer melt-and-dilute over an alternative, which would treat the fuel in the site's massive reprocessing ``canyons.'' Those plants, nearing 50 years old, are regarded by many as too old and too expensive for long-term operation.
``One of the big advantages is that it will remove one potential campaign that would keep H-Canyon open until 2010,'' Dr. Lyman said of melt-and-dilute. ``The canyons are Cold War-era bomb-making facilities, and it's high time that they be shut down.''
Reprocessing the fuel also would muddle U.S. foreign policies designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, activists said.
Reprocessing would allow uranium and other useful materials to be recycled from the fuels. Even if the United States didn't use the metals, other nations might use the example to justify their own reprocessing programs, Dr. Lyman said.
``The United States proposed back in January a moratorium on plutonium separation at the Mayak reprocessing plant in Russia,'' Dr. Lyman said. ``It would be hard for us to argue that they should shut down that plant if we continue to use our plants for reprocessing research-reactor fuel.''
But not everyone concurs with the melt-and-dilute plan. The federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, an executive agency that oversees activities at nuclear-weapons sites, has stated that reprocessing would be a safer choice.
``If they want to spend more than $1 billion on this, it's not that we're saying they shouldn't do it,'' said John T. Conway, the board's chairman, during a telephone interview last week. ``But in the meantime, we're letting this stuff sit around in what we consider an unstable condition.
``We have canyons there that are available to be utilized. This stuff is not going to get any better. We've seen enough projects that look good in the lab but are unable to come to fruition; or if they can do it, it takes a lot longer to do it than expected.''
For their part, the project's scientists were careful to point out that the melt-and-dilute process is not final.
``The key word in LEF is experimental, because it is an experimental facility,'' Dr. Iyer said. But the engineers said the plant is being designed to use a safe, simple and efficient process.
The furnace, and much of the equipment in the test plant, are commercially available and widely used in industry, said Harold Peacock, an advising engineer on the project.
``We've tried to stay with commercial technology and do simple adaptations to it, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel,'' he said.
Reach Brandon Haddock at (706) 823-3409 or bhaddock@augustachronicle.com.
-----------
Message: 7
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 12:28:51 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
The Bombs Of August
August 2000
The Progressive
by Howard Zinn
http://www.commondreams.org/views/073000-108.htm
Near the end of the novel The English Patient there is a passage in which Kip, the Sikh defuser of mines, begins to speak bitterly to the burned, near-death patient about British and American imperialism: "You and then the Americans converted us. . . . You had wars like cricket. How did you fool us into this? Here, listen to what you people have done." He puts earphones on the blackened head. The radio is telling about the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Kip goes on: "All those speeches of civilization from kings and queens and presidents . . . such voices of abstract order . . . American, French, I don't care. When you start bombing the brown races of the world, you're an Englishman. You had King Leopold of Belgium, and now you have fucking Harry Truman of the USA."
You probably don't remember those lines in the movie made from The English Patient. That's because they were not there.
Hardly a surprise. The bombing of Hiroshima remains sacred to the American Establishment and to a very large part of the population in this country. I learned that when, in 1995, I was invited to speak at the Chautauqua Institute in New York state. I chose Hiroshima as my subject, it being the fiftieth anniversary of the dropping of the bomb. There were 2,000 people in that huge amphitheater and as I explained why Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unforgivable atrocities, perpetrated on a Japan ready to surrender, the audience was silent. Well, not quite. A number of people shouted angrily at me from their seats.
Understandable. To question Hiroshima is to explode a precious myth which we all grow up with in this country--that America is different from the other imperial powers of the world, that other nations may commit unspeakable acts, but not ours.
Further, to see it as a wanton act of gargantuan cruelty rather than as an unavoidable necessity ("to end the war, to save lives") would be to raise disturbing questions about the essential goodness of the "good war."
I recall that in junior high school, a teacher asked our class: "What is the difference between a totalitarian state and a democratic state?" The correct answer: "A totalitarian state, unlike ours, believes in using any means to achieve its end."
That was at the start of World War II, when the Fascist states were bombing civilian populations in Ethiopia, in Spain, in Coventry, and in Rotterdam. President Roosevelt called that "inhuman barbarism." That was before the United States and England began to bomb civilian populations in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Dresden, and then in Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki.
Any means to an end--the totalitarian philosophy. And one shared by all nations that make war.
What means could be more horrible than the burning, mutilation, blinding, irradiation of hundreds of thousands of Japanese men, women, children? And yet it is absolutely essential for our political leaders to defend the bombing because if Americans can be induced to accept that, then they can accept any war, any means, so long as the warmakers can supply a reason. And there are always plausible reasons delivered from on high as from Moses on the Mount.
Thus, the three million dead in Korea can be justified by North Korean aggression, the millions dead in Southeast Asia by the threat of Communism, the invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965 to protect American citizens, the support of death squad governments in Central America to stop Communism, the invasion of Grenada to save American medical students, the invasion of Panama to stop the drug trade, the Gulf War to liberate Kuwait, the Yugoslav bombing to stop ethnic cleansing.
There is endless room for more wars, with endless supplies of reasons.
That is why the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is important, because if citizens can question that, if they can declare nuclear weapons an unacceptable means, even if it ends a war a month or two earlier, they may be led to a larger question--the means (involving forty million dead) used to defeat Fascism.
And if they begin to question the moral purity of "the good war," indeed, the very best of wars, then they may get into a questioning mood that will not stop until war itself is unacceptable, whatever reasons are advanced.
So we must now, fifty-five years later, with those bombings still so sacred that a mildly critical Smithsonian exhibit could not be tolerated, insist on questioning those deadly missions of the sixth and ninth of August, 1945.
The principal justification for obliterating Hiroshima and Nagasaki is that it "saved lives" because otherwise a planned U.S. invasion of Japan would have been necessary, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands. Truman at one point used the figure "a half million lives," and Churchill "a million lives," but these were figures pulled out of the air to calm troubled consciences; even official projections for the number of casualties in an invasion did not go beyond 46,000.
In fact, the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not forestall an invasion of Japan because no invasion was necessary. The Japanese were on the verge of surrender, and American military leaders knew that. General Eisenhower, briefed by Secretary of War Henry Stimson on the imminent use of the bomb, told him that "Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary."
After the bombing, Admiral William D. Leary, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the atomic bomb "a barbarous weapon," also noting that: "The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender."
The Japanese had begun to move to end the war after the U.S. victory on Okinawa, in May of 1945, in the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War. After the middle of June, six members of the Japanese Supreme War Council authorized Foreign Minister Togo to approach the Soviet Union, which was not at war with Japan, to mediate an end to the war "if possible by September."
Togo sent Ambassador Sato to Moscow to feel out the possibility of a negotiated surrender. On July 13, four days before Truman, Churchill, and Stalin met in Potsdam to prepare for the end of the war (Germany had surrendered two months earlier), Togo sent a telegram to Sato: "Unconditional surrender is the only obstacle to peace. It is his Majesty's heart's desire to see the swift termination of the war."
The United States knew about that telegram because it had broken the Japanese code early in the war. American officials knew also that the Japanese resistance to unconditional surrender was because they had one condition enormously important to them: the retention of the Emperor as symbolic leader. Former Ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew and others who knew something about Japanese society had suggested that allowing Japan to keep its Emperor would save countless lives by bringing an early end to the war.
Yet Truman would not relent, and the Potsdam conference agreed to insist on "unconditional surrender." This ensured that the bombs would fall on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It seems that the United States government was determined to drop those bombs.
But why? Gar Alperovitz, whose research on that question is unmatched (The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, Knopf, 1995), concluded, based on the papers of Truman, his chief adviser James Byrnes, and others, that the bomb was seen as a diplomatic weapon against the Soviet Union. Byrnes advised Truman that the bomb "could let us dictate the terms of ending the war." The British scientist P.M.S. Blackett, one of Churchill's advisers, wrote after the war that dropping the atomic bomb was "the first major operation of the cold diplomatic war with Russia."
There is also evidence that domestic politics played an important role in the decision. In his recent book, Freedom From Fear: The United States, 1929-1945 (Oxford, 1999), David Kennedy quotes Secretary of State Cordell Hull advising Byrnes, before the Potsdam conference, that "terrible political repercussions would follow in the U.S." if the unconditional surrender principle would be abandoned. The President would be "crucified" if he did that, Byrnes said. Kennedy reports that "Byrnes accordingly repudiated the suggestions of Leahy, McCloy, Grew, and Stimson," all of whom were willing to relax the "unconditional surrender" demand just enough to permit the Japanese their face-saving requirement for ending the war.
Can we believe that our political leaders would consign hundreds of thousands of people to death or lifelong suffering because of "political repercussions" at home?
The idea is horrifying, yet we can see in history a pattern of Presidential behavior that placed personal ambition high above human life. The tapes of John F. Kennedy reveal him weighing withdrawal from Vietnam against the upcoming election. Transcripts of Lyndon Johnson's White House conversations show him agonizing over Vietnam ("I don't think it's worth fighting for. . . .") but deciding that he could not withdraw because: "They'd impeach a President--wouldn't they?"
Did millions die in Southeast Asia because American Presidents wanted to stay in office?
Just before the Gulf War, President Bush's aide John Sununu was reported "telling people that a short successful war would be pure political gold for the President and would guarantee his reelection." And is not the Clinton-Gore support for the "Star Wars" anti-missile program (against all scientific evidence or common sense) prompted by their desire to be seen by the voters as tough guys?
Of course, political ambition was not the only reason for Hiroshima, Vietnam, and the other horrors of our time. There was tin, rubber, oil, corporate profit, imperial arrogance. There was a cluster of factors, none of them, despite the claims of our leaders, having to do with human rights, human life.
The wars go on, even when they are over. Every day, British and U.S. warplanes bomb Iraq, and children die. Every day, children die in Iraq because of the U.S.-sponsored embargo. Every day, boys and girls in Afghanistan step on land mines and are killed or mutilated. The Russia of "the free market" brutalizes Chechnya, as the Russia of "socialism" sent an army into Afghanistan. In Africa, more wars.
The mine defuser in The English Patient was properly bitter about Western imperialism. But the problem is larger than even that 500-year assault on colored peoples of the world. It is a problem of the corruption of human intelligence, enabling our leaders to create plausible reasons for monstrous acts, and to exhort citizens to accept those reasons, and train soldiers to follow orders. So long as that continues, we will need to refute those reasons, resist those exhortations.
Howard Zinn is a columnist for The Progressive.
--------------
Message: 8
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 12:52:17 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
A Nightmare Scenario - Saddam With the Bomb
NewsMax.com
Aug. 22, 2000
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/8/21/214855
Saddam Hussein may have lost the Gulf War, but he's still around and with a nuclear weapons program in place may be a greater threat than ever. Experts familiar with Saddam's attempts to build nuclear weapons fear he may be on the verge of success, and some warn that he might just be getting ready to loose a nuclear-armed missile in observance of the 10th anniversary of his defeat at the hands of a U.S.-led coalition. (see: Iraq Plans 'To Deal with the Zionist Entity' from NewsMax.com, July 19)
"I think he's very close," Shyam Bhatia, a former Iraq correspondent for Britain's Guardian newspaper and co-author of "Brighter Than the Baghdad Sun," told CBN News (report available at cbn.org/newsstand).
"If you can think of the nuclear bomb as a gun and a bullet, then Saddam has assembled the gun, right?" he said. "He's tested the barrel; he's pressed the trigger; he has even used dummy bullets. Everything works. The only thing he lacks is the live ammunition. And if he gets that live ammunition, another word for plutonium or weapons-grade uranium, he will have the bomb."
Stephen Dolley agrees. The research director at the Nuclear Control Institute told CBN News: "There's good reason to believe Saddam has all the actual components he needs for one of three nuclear weapons."
"It takes very little of this material to make a nuclear weapon effective," he explained.
"An amount of plutonium the size of a small grapefruit would be enough to make a nuclear weapon, and you don't need that much more highly enriched uranium. I mean, someone could literally put it in a large briefcase and carry it over the border.
"The time frame for Saddam to get a nuclear weapon depends on what he has to do to get the fissile material," Dolley added. "Once the plutonium or HEU is in hand, assuming they already have the components, and there's reason to believe they do, it could be done in a matter of weeks or maybe even days."
According to Ambassador Richard Butler, former chairman of the United Nations weapons inspection program in Iraq and author of "The Greatest Threat," his group was never able to penetrate the wall of secrecy Saddam erected around his nuclear weapons program.
"We faced massive resistance," he said. "We tried to fight it, and we failed."
"He deeply believes that the Arab world needs a leader, and he obviously thinks he's the prime candidate for that," Butler said. "For that purpose, he believes he needs to be the most muscular guy on the block."
Some observers think Saddam might already have a nuclear bomb hidden, just waiting until he has a dependable missile to carry it to its target. CBN News reports that last month it was discovered that he has speeded up his missile development program. According to the London Times, Iraq is secretly negotiating with Russian companies to build a factory to make navigational components for long-range ballistic missiles.
Although the U.N. is preparing to send weapons inspectors back to Baghdad to check on Saddam's progress in building nuclear weapons, nobody knows if he will allow them in.
"When it comes to the point where the U.N. inspectors ask, under the resolution passed last December, to go back into Iraq and hunt for weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein will most likely say, 'You and what army?'" Dolley said.
"There's no army to back that up. There is really no support for military action on the Security Council. Three out of five of the permanent members, France, Russia and China, not only would (not) support military action, but they want the sanctions lifted now."
Butler warns that Saddam cannot be dismissed as a has-been - that he's someone the United States is going to have to face again.
"The existence of a person like Saddam, with his addiction to these weapons, means that as long as they're there, they will be used, either by a terrorist group or some other way," Butler said.
"No one should sleep easily in their beds at night."
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Message: 9
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 13:41:43 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
City slows effort to recoup DOE funds
August 22, 2000
by Amy L. Lee Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/
The subject was how, or perhaps whether, the city should get more money from the Department of Energy.
But, Oak Ridge City Council Monday night spent more than an hour debating the issue, voted down a substitute resolution and finally changed only the name of the committee.
Council finally agreed to rename the ad hoc Enhanced DOE Revenue Committee as the Committee for Enhancement of DOE-related Remuneration, or CEDR, as suggested by Council member Pat Rush. Council held its regular meeting in the Municipal Building Courtroom.
Council first began discussing the subject -- whether or not to hire a law firm to seek additional money from DOE -- at its last meeting Aug. 7. The council unanimously passed a resolution then to go ahead with hiring a firm and providing $25,000 for its services.
The resolution passed earlier seeks to get additional money from DOE because of the exemptions from local taxes of large tracts of federal property and the effects the city believe the federal plants have on the city's ability to recruit new industry.
Council member Ray Evans proposed a "more palatable" substitute resolution after having "time to think" and hearing "several comments." He said he felt public reaction to seeking money from DOE was "very negative, whether justified or not."
However, Evans' motion was rejected by council.
Council member Teresa Harvey said she felt comfortable with the original resolution's objective, but acknowledged that it had been perceived by the community very differently.
Oak Ridge resident Ann Johnson suggested strong wording in the resolution was needed, not only to establish a strong position, but she said it is the kind of resolution "that would attract a good law firm.
"I'm not a big fan of lawyers, but they serve a function," she said.
Comparing the city to a teenager becoming an adult, Johnson said, "(DOE is) not used to Oak Ridge standing up to them. When that 16-year-old talks back to (a parent) that first time, boy does your head spin."
Council also postponed forming the committee -- which would be composed of council members Pat Rush, David Bradshaw and Leonard Abbatiello as the chairman. That issue is expected to be considered at the next meeting Sept. 4.
"There are too many good ideas that are not incorporated," in either resolution, Harvey said of discussions Monday night.
In other business, a public hearing on an amendment to the zoning ordinance drew no public comment. The amendment would allow medical isotope manufacturing as a "permitted principlal use" in IND-2 industrial zoning.
Councilunanimously approved the amendment on first reading. It must be approved again before it takes effect.
Council and Oak Ridge Regional Planning Commission, which previously sought the rezoning amendment, approved the measure in the hope that it would encourage other industry such as Theragenics Inc. to locate here.
Finally, three elections to the Environmental Quality Advisory Board, one to the Beer Permit Board and one to the City Center Master Plan Steering Committee will be held during the Sept. 4 meeting. Deadline for filing to run in these elections, which are open to Oak Ridge City residents, is 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Municipal Building.
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Message: 10
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 13:44:14 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
Hearing set today on draft environmental statement
August 22, 2000
http://www.oakridger.com/
The Department of Energy is seeking public input regarding plans for achieving expanded civilian nuclear energy research and development and isotope production missions in the United States.
The federal agency's draft programmatic environmental impact statement analyzes the possible environmental impacts that may result from expanding DOE's nuclear research facility infrastructure to accommodate the projected growth in demand for medical and industrial isotopes, producing plutonium-238 to power future space exploration missions and supporting civilian nuclear energy research and development missions.
In addition to the "no action" alternative, DOE also evaluated alternatives that include restarting the Fast Flux Test Facility, using only existing operational facilities, constructing new accelerator(s), constructing a new research reactor and permanently deactivating the Fast Flux Test Facility.
DOE does not have a preferred alternative at this time but plans to identify one in the final programmatic environmental impact statement.
The level of Oak Ridge's involvement will depend on what method is chosen. For example, under the "no alternative" option, the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could be used to store neptunium-237 that would be transported from the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C. In addition, four of the alternatives call for the material used to produce medical isotopes to be acquired from ORNL.
The draft programmatic environmental impact statement is available for review at the Oak Ridge Public Library or online at www.ne.doe.gov
DOE will hold seven public hearings nationwide to provide information and gather comments on the draft programmatic environmental impact statement. One of those hearings is scheduled for 6 p.m. today at the American Museum of Science and Energy.
In addition, comments can be mailed to Collette Brown, office of Space and Defense Power Systems, 1901 Germantown Road, Germantown, MD 20874-1290; faxed to 1-877-562-4592; left on voice mail by calling 1-877-562-4593; or e-mailed to Nuclear.Infrastructure-PEIS@hq.doe.gov
All comments are due by Sept. 18.
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Message: 11
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 13:45:56 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
ORNL conducts program for EPA
August 22, 2000
http://www.oakridger.com/
Manufacturers of portable instruments or test kits to detect explosives or polychlorinated biphenyls in soil and transformer oil will have a better idea of how well their gear works after participating in a program at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
For about 10 days starting today, scientists from four companies will analyze about 200 samples and compare their results with those obtained through laboratory reference analyses.
The program is part of the Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Technology Verification program, designed to accelerate the use of innovative technologies in the field. ORNL is a verification program coordinator for EPA.
"Manufacturers come away knowing how well their instrument performed," said Roger Jenkins, a group leader in ORNL's Chemical and Analytical Sciences Division, in an ORNL press release. "Getting that information quickly obviously saves time and money."
Ultimately, that kind of information gained inexpensively and quickly could be a catalyst to reclaiming some of the so-called "brownfields."
Brownfields are formerly utilized industrial sites and they're common around the nation, especially in big cities. The problem, Jenkins said, is that no one knows the extent of contamination at these sites, and because soil analysis is slow and expensive, industry is reluctant to redevelop these sites.
By getting instruments to the marketplace that are accurate and inexpensive and allow people to get information quickly, those sites could again be utilized.
"Our focus is on the evaluation of field analytical technologies that are useful for site characterization and for monitoring," said Amy Dindal, also of the Chemical and Analytical Sciences Division. "This isn't a bake-off, though. Our goal is to establish the performance characteristics of these innovative technologies, not to determine which one is best."
Manufacturers participating in the program are Hybrizyme of Raleigh, N.C.; Dexsil Corp. of Hamden, Conn.; SRI Instruments of Torrance, Calif.; and Texas Instruments of Dallas.
The instrument performance verification program began at ORNL in 1997. It has been highly successful in that it provides unbiased measures of performance, which manufacturers find extremely valuable. In some cases, they've been able to improve the design of their instruments.
Performance reports will be provided to the participants and will be posted on the Web. ORNL is a DOE multiprogram research facility operated by UT-Battelle.
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Message: 12
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 13:47:39 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
Audit recommends changes at OSTI
August 22, 2000
by Paul Parson Oak Ridger staff
http://www.oakridger.com/
The Department of Energy's Office of Science and Technical Information has been advised to keep more sufficient records and to take corrective action on its cost recovery activities following accusations that funds were misused,
The recommendations for OSTI, located in Oak Ridge, are part of a recently released audit by the Office of Inspector General.
The audit stems from a complaint that some of the cost recovery funds from DOE's Office of Defense Programs were placed in OSTI's general fund and used for miscellaneous expenses unrelated to the authorized work provided by defense programs. Funds were also said to be used to cover federal salaries and for the purchase of a computer server which was not used for a defense programs project.
The audit found that OSTI quit maintaining records containing sufficient details to account for all funds and costs, which DOE requires to meet requirements established by the Office of Management and Budget, the General Accounting Office and the Department of the Treasury.
In addition, the audit states approximately $500,000 in cost recovery funds were placed in an account to assist with payment of federal salaries in fiscal year 1998 and that a computer was purchased with defense program funds.
OSTI officials concurred with the audit's recommendations and agreed they should be implemented by Oct. 1.
In addition, it was determined that DOE program offices may enter into agreements with OSTI for products or services unless otherwise funded by OSTI appropriations.
However, the Office of General Counsel could not determine if OSTI's costs for performing work beyond its appropriation was improper because OSTI did not maintain detailed records.
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Message: 13
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 13:51:03 EDT
From: magnu96196@aol.com
Foe challenges Wamp on environment
By Nancy Zuckerbrod
Associated Press
August 22, 2000
http://www.oakridger.com/
WASHINGTON -- Democratic challenger Will Callaway says Congressman Zach Wamp is misrepresenting his environmental record to voters.
He points to an Aug. 6 column written by the Chattanooga congressman that's posted on his U.S. House of Representatives Web site.
"As a member of the Interior Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, I am doing everything I can to protect, preserve and improve all of our natural assets, not just in the Tennessee Valley but clear across the United States," Wamp writes.
"In the six years I have been in Congress, I have worked hard to be a good steward of our precious natural resources. I have tried to hold to the Cherokee tradition of making policy decisions that will benefit the next seven generations," he concludes.
Callaway, who is trying to unseat the three-term incumbent, says it's not true.
"For him to claim somehow that he's a steward on the environment is just a ploy on his part," said Callaway, who has worked at the National Audubon Society, the National Parks and Conservation Association, the National Environmental Trust and the World Wildlife Fund.
Callaway pointed to the League of Conservation Voters, which scores members of Congress according to their environmental voting records. More than 20 environmental and conservation organizations select key votes on which lawmakers should be graded.
Wamp voted with the league 13 percent of the time last year.
"I would say a 13 percent is not very good," said Mary Minette, the league's research director. The average House member voted with the organization 46 percent of the time, she said.
She said the average Democrat voted with the group 78 percent of the time, compared with 16 percent for the average Republican.
Wamp, who is a Republican, lost points for voting against provisions to replenish a fund to purchase public lands for open space and preserve and protect wetlands.
He also voted against a measure that would have taken money earmarked for road building on federal land by the timber industry and given it to fish and wildlife habitat management and watershed restoration programs.
The government has historically paid for the road building, so it could have access to the timber.
Wamp also voted for a measure that passed the House in June that seeks to block enforcement of strict new air quality standards.
Environmentalists say the stricter standards would reduce air pollution. They also argue that nobody would be penalized until the Supreme Court decided whether the government must consider the costs of compliance when it imposes new environmental standards. That decision is expected this year.
Wamp refused to discuss his column or Callaway's assertions.
Wamp did score points from the league for opposing a measure that would have legalized unlimited mine waste dumping on public lands.
But Callaway says Wamp needs to do much more if he is going to tout his environmental record, which most constituents don't have time to review.
"I would have voted a different way on those issues," Callaway said.
The 3rd District stretches from Oak Ridge to Chattanooga and includes the Ocoee, Tennessee and Hiwassee rivers, the Cherokee National Forest, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and two Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear plants.
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Message: 14
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 17:20:34 EDT
From: df7332@aol.com
"Threshold Limit Values" (TLVs)
Two interesting articles concerning "Threshold Limit Values" (TLVs) and how they are determined. (A threshold is an amount below which no damage is evident.)
See what is said about these TLVs and F.
--------- out'a here,
====== REFERENCE:
FROM RESULTING LIST:
Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly
PART I:
#415 - The Scientific Basis Of Chemical Safety -- Part I: Limits On Workplace Chemical Exposures, November 09, 1994
The Scientific Basis Of Chemical Safety -- Part I: Limits On Workplace Chemical Exposures
". . . For nearly 5 decades, no one critically examined the scientific data underlying the "threshold limit values" (TLVs). Even the TLV Committee itself seems to have relied solely on the advice of individual Committee members who took responsibility for setting a TLV for a particular chemical. Those individual Committee members, it was revealed in 1988, were often employed by the same corporations that were the major producers of the chemicals having their TLVs set. . . ."
". . . In 1946 the ACGIH established a Committee on Threshold Limits, charged with developing "threshold limit values" (TLVs) for chemical exposures in the workplace. A threshold is an amount below which no damage is evident. The ACGIH says TLVs are average concentrations in air for an 8-hour workday, 40 hours per week, to which "nearly all workers may be repeatedly exposed, day after day, without adverse effect."[2] . . ."
RE: FLUORIDES:
". . . (In what follows, the notation m
3 means "cubic meter of air.")
Fluoride as F [Fluorine]: EFFECT. "The limit, 2.5 mg/m
3, is sufficiently low to prevent irritative effects and to protect against disabling bone changes." [ACGIH, 1976]
VALIDATION? At a factory where the concentration of fluorides ranged from 0.14 to 3.13 mg/m
3, "radiological [x-ray] examination revealed signs of osteosclerosis [abnormal hardening of bone] in 48 of 189 workers." [Largent, 1961] . . ."
* PART II:
#416 - The Scientific Basis Of Chemical Safety -- Part 2: Standards That Kill, November 17, 1994
The Scientific Basis Of Chemical Safety -- Part 2: Standards That Kill
---------
ATTACKS ON GREENPEACE & OTHER ECOLOGY GROUPS
Original Dateline: 8/22/91
by Chip Berlet
Political Research Associates
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/greenspy.html
Portions of this report have previously been published in Greenpeace Magazine, The Humanist, Our Right to Know, Covert Action Quarterly, and Investigative News Service.
Environmental activists over the past few years have reported a series of incidents involving surveillance, police overreaction, and harassment that leads then to believe they are being targettedby a campaign to discredit them and hamstring their attempts to exercise their consstitutional rights. Many of those targetted are members of the environmental group Greepeace, and it's not just a problem in big cities, as one person fighting a rural toxic waste dump found out the hard way.
Mike Buckner's family has deep roots in central Georgia--relatives have lived there since 1832--so he was apprehensive when he learned of plans to build a toxic waste incinerator there. Buckner, who works for the post office, and other concerned citizens came to believe that state and county officials and corporate interests had rigged the planning and hearing process. County officials had voted in secret to nominate the site, and the first suitability study neglected to mention health and environmental concerns. Then, according to a local lawyer who sued the state, several state officials admitted they had voted for the Taylor-county site because "it was the governor's wish."
Now, the local people were being invited to a town meeting calledby the consulting firm hired todo a second study. But this company had close ties to Waste Management Incorporated, the corporation that wanted to build the incinerator. The local people were angry. "They call all these meetings," Taylor resident Ben Parham told a local paper, "and they don't amount to a tinker's dam."
Mike Buckner sat next to Brian Spears, an experienced civil rights attorney from Atlanta, who recalls "the courtroom was nearly packed with some 250 people." As the meeting opened, Katrina McIntosh walked forward to present the panel with a suitcase stuffed with fake money as "welcome gift." Halfway up the aisle, she was intercepted and hustled out by officers of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Others began to throw more wads of fake money at the consultants.
After the consultant's presentation, it became clear that the hearing would go as some of the others had before--no opportunity for opponents of the incinerator to speak. So they turned to their last resort. Somebody tripped the switch on a tape recorder in a locked briefcase in the balcony, and the strains of the Beatles hit "Money" filled the courtroom. Taylor County Sheriff Nick Giles ordered his deputies to silence the case, which was attached by a chain to a chair bolted to the balcony floor. They complied, smashing it with their boots.
"The protests were certainly colorful," says Spears, "but they were harmless, and definitely not criminal." Yet Buckner was placed on administrative leave for three weeks after Sheriff Giles falsely told Buckner's supervisors that Buckner was involved in the "disruption." Buckner also was interrogated by his superiors. "I was asked what I knew about bombings of federal officials and bomb threats at the meeting and other things I had never heard of," says Buckner. He was asked if he was a member of Greenpeace.
Local environmental activists tell Spears they now are worried about attempts to discredit them. A local newspaper reported that the authorities were compiling information about potential troublemakers. Sheriff Giles is quoted saying "We have photographed the crowds at every meeting. We know who is at these meetings. We have videotapes of some meetings." Jan M. Caves, whose family owns property next to the proposed site, told reporters of "an air of harassment towards the opponents [of the incinerator] adding that some had become too intimidated to speak out. "The harassment has become unbelievable," says incinerator opponent Marie McGlaun.
What happened in Taylor County is not unique. The environmental movement is entering a new era, one in which the traditional channels of reform--the courts, the hearing room and the legislature--are proving increasingly unresponsive to the concerns of ordinary citizens. At the same time, the overwhelming influence of big business in setting priorities, such as where incinerators should be sited or how much old growth should be clearcut, is becoming obvious.
In response, average people are beginning to act in defense of their country, their homes and their environment, often using tactics that are traditionally drawn upon in this situation: sit-ins, demonstrations, and other time-honored acts of civil disobedience. And for their trouble, they are being treated as criminals and subjected to surveillance and retaliation in the workplace.
Their tactics, pioneeered by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi, are being recast by the media and others as "terrorism." In parts of the country, legal authorities are levying fines and setting bail for environmental activists that equal or in some cases exceed those leveled at suspects held for muder and other violent crimes. Even worse, some people are being singled out by the police and the FBI as well as private interests solely on the basis of their activities in defense of the environment.
In Arizona, revelations of possible cover-ups and illegal collusion between the state and a company planning to build an incinerator led to vocal and active opposition from a local group. A hearing last May in the town of Mobile, southwest of Phoenix, dissolved into a shouting match when the hearing officer tried to oust hundreds of concerned citizens who crowded the back of the hearing room. With no provocation, officers arrested 18 activists and dragged them outside, using high voltage "stun guns" on five of them.
Fourteen activists were locked in a sheriff's van at the side of the highway and denied phone calls or legal counsel until the hearing ended. Seven of them have since been charged with disorderly conduct.
After the incident, it was discovered that the EPA had forwarded videotapes showing some of the activists at a demonstration in California to police authorities in Arizona. These same citizens were picked out of the crowd and arrested.
In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, an activist with Bucks People United to Restore the Environment (B-PURE), was pulled by police from a township meeting and held illegally in a holding cell without charges. His request to use a phone was refused. His crime? He had approached the chairperson and demanded that more chairs be added to accomodate the people who were unable to fit into the meeting room. In Astoria, Oregon, ten Greenpeace activists were held overnight without bail after being arrested on class-C misdemeanor charges (one step above a parking ticket) during an antinuclear demonstration. The only other person refused bail in recent history by the judiciary in Clatsop county was a man charged with two murders. In Texas a local magistrate demanded $100,000 bail for a Greenpeace activist who blocked a railroad track, roughly ten times the bond set for some drug dealers and murders in the same jurisdiction.
The loose group of activists known as Earth First! is being subjected to particularly harsh treatment. No person associated with Earth First! has ever assaulted anyone; the only felony conviction of a person associated with the group was for the crime of pulling up survey stakes. But last year in Arizona, four activists associated with Earth First! were arrested on conspiracy charges including the organization's founder, Dave Foreman, whose alleged crime was to have donated some money for the other activists to use in an illegal operation. After the arrests, it was revealed that the FBI spent some $2 million on a two-year campaign to infiltrate Earth First!, largely through an undercover agent named Michael Fain. Fain befriended several environmentalists, forming a romantic relationship with one, and according to several witnesses, joined in illegal witnesses and encouraged the activists to act illegally.
At one point, Fain accidentally left his hidden tape recorder on and recorded a conversation reflecting his frustration with having failed to get Foreman to incriminate himself. [Foreman] was there, but he doesn't even mention it (illegal activities). . . Foreman isn't the guy we have to pop--I mean in terms of an actual perpetrator. [Foreman] is the guy we have to pop to send a message." This and other evidence adds ammunition to the charge that the prosecution of these activists is politically motivated.
Perhaps the most chilling example was the reaction of local police and the FBI after the mysterious May bombing of the car carrying Earth First! activists Darryl Cherney and Judi Bari. Although the pair had received dozens of death threats and had not been associated with violence of any kind, they were immediately arrested by local police and charged with carrying the bomb.
Two months later, the District Attorney declined for the third time to prosecute, and the case appears to have collapsed for lack of evidence. But in the hours after the bombing, Oakland police ransacked the home of a group of local activists without a search warrant. Lawyers also were turned away from the local jail, where friends and acquaintances of Bari and Cherney were questioned and held without charges or legal counsel for seven hours. Bari's lawyer had to get a court order to see her client in the hospital. The FBI implied that it had the evidence to prosecute all along, creating a climate of suspicion and anger toward Earth First! and environmentalists in general. Even now, according to environmentalists in California, the FBI investigation has yet to follow up on several obvious clues, including the death threats received by the pair in the months before the bombing.
Many observers suspect political motivation in the FBI's biased investigation of the Earth First! bombing incident. Two alliances of individuals and groups including Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club, California Congressman Ron Dellums, Earth Island Institute president Dave Brower, Greenpeace, the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women have drafted letters calling for an investigation of FBI and Oakland police conduct in the case. But the public is not inclined to believe that federal and local agencies are capable of bias of this sort. While no evidence has yet surfaced to suggest that there has been any wrong-doing this time, the history of FBI activities regarding protest groups is not encouraging. "We don't like to face this aspect of our society," say Spears, "but it is part of the historical record." As the environmental movement grows in numbers and impact, there is little reason to believe it will remain free of the harassment that has been visited upon every other significant social-change movement in U.S. history.
Brian Glick is an attorney and author of a handbook on resisting FBI activities called War at Home. Glick concludes that historically, "dissenting groups came under attack as they began to seriously threaten the status quo." Since the environmental movement "threatens to meddle with people who control billions of dollars, it should be no surprise when they fight back," says Glick, "especially as corporate and government officials come to realize how dramatically they will have to restructure their activities in response to the environmental crisis."
Another area where environmentalists face unfair harassment is in the courts and through overreaction on the part of police departments. As we have seen, judges and prosecutors can arrange for high bail, ignore due process and otherwise harass activists when they are so inclined. While activists can countersue in cases of outrageous conduct, this involves considerable time and expense.
Police who are told to prepare for "radical environmentalists" during marches and other forms of peaceful protest will not necessarily exercise the restraint appropriate to the activity of the protesters. When marchers approached the headquarters of American Cyanamid in Bound Brook, New Jersey, to protest the company's practice of sending mercury-contaminated waste abroad, county police in riot gear rushed the crowd, grabbed several marchers and clubbed them to the ground. Fortunately the incident did not escalate.
"We were peaceful, and we announced our intention to be non-confrontational in advance," says Peter Bahouth, Executive Director of Greenpeace in the United States, one of the marchers beaten and arrested. "The media's treatment of incidents like this paints a picture of wild and unreasonable environmentalists marching in the streets, and it portrays the pursuit of healthy debate as dangerous. The first point is not true, and if people are intimidated into not speaking out, we lost the most vital part of our democracy."
From one perspective, this escalation of public activism and government and corporate response is a measure of the movement's success. The 8,000 or so community groups that have formed around toxics issues in the United States have proven a significant impediment to the toxic waste handling industry as well as a thorn in the side of major polluters. Thanks to the efforts of a handful of dedicated activists, the razing of the nation's last stands of old growth forest has become a national issue that could seriously affect the profits of several major corporations. Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior was blown up by the French government precisely because it represented the first creditable threat to their nuclear testing program; more threatening to France than U.N. censure, international condemnation and a 19 International Court of Justice decision.
And now the movement confronts an inevitable backlash. What the environmental community fears most is that the present trend will not abate, and that innocent, concerned individuals will be injured or persecuted for their beliefs. The confluence of interests on the "other side" of this debate--the "growth-at-any-cost" wing of big business, the legislatures and the government--is now openly linking environmentalism with lack of patriotism, an end to the "American way of life" and other vague rhetorical horrors. "As the Cold War thaws," says David Chatfield, chairman of the board of Greenpeace in the United States, "we may be entering an era in which government, industry and the media substitute the Green Menace for the Red Menace."
When ordinary citizens begin to be treated as criminals, public discourse is inhibited and democracy begins to break down. "This is a period of time that requires a renewed focus on basic rights," says Bahouth. "We want to create a climate in which people can speak out freelyand participate, without fear of violence, jail or harassment."
RESISTING SPYING & ATTACKS ON ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS
The environmental movement is being subjected to obvious surveillance, intimidation, anonymous letters, phony leaflets, telephone threats, police over-reaction and brutality, dubious arrests, and other threatening actions unfamiliar to most environmental activists. Experienced organizers warn these techniques often create side effects such as false divisions, rivalry, paranoia, false accusations, internal strife, and overall stressful circumstances that divert energy and time from the real work at hand.
The type of subtle and not-so-subtle harassment being experienced by the environmental movement may be new to eco-activists, but to civil rights attorney Brian Spears and other advocates for civil and constitutional rights, these types of incidents strike an all-too-familiar chord. Spears observes that, "activists on Central American issues, Native American organizers, Black power advocates, and others dissidents have been subject to unconstitutional covert surveillance and disruption for many years." In fact when Spears attended the annual National Lawyers Guild (NLG) convention last summer in Austin, Texas, he found not only two workshops on the grassroots toxics movement, but also two workshops on repression and attacks on political activists.
Brian Glick, an attorney who spoke at the NLG's political repression workshop in Austin, is the author of a security guidebook for activists titled "War at Home." Glick concludes that historically, "dissenting groups come under attack as they begin to seriously threaten the status quo." Since the environmental movement "threatens to meddle with people who control billions of dollars, it should be no surprise when they fight back," says Glick, "especially as corporate and government officials come to realize how dramatically environmentalists expect them to restructure their activities."
Glick says the bombing attack on the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand presaged the current situation in the U.S. "Domestic covert action is a powerful deterrent to democratic discussion of public policy and effective organizing for social change," says Glick echoing a number of civil liberties activists interviewed for this article. "We need to take security seriously without being distracted from our main goals", says Glick, "and one way is to educate ourselves about what has happened in the past." Glick and other authors and academics who have studied government intelligence abuse and political repression frequently find people are skeptical that human rights violations can happen in the United States. "We don't like to face this aspect of our society," agrees Spears, "but its part of the historical record."
Assorted Sordid Pasts
Most documented information about government harassment of social change activists came to light in the 1970's following a series of Congressional hearings which took a critical look at the FBI, CIA, military intellignce, federal agencies and the private security industry.
The most sensational revelations revolved around the FBI's Counterintelligence Program or COINTELPRO in Bureau jargon. In its final report, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, often called the Church Committee, concluded:
"COINTELPRO [was] a series of covert action programs directed against domestic groups....Many of the techniques used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far beyond that...the Bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas would protect the national security and deter violence."
The COINTELPRO operations targetted political groups calling for social change, including civil rights and antiwar activists, civil liberties advocates, radicals, feminists, even food co-ops and health clinics. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was a major target in a campaign that included anonymous threatening letters and attempts to scare away his funders. In one ten year period starting in 1966, the FBI employed over 5,000 secret informers in Chicago alone.
According to Glick, a review of the 2,370 officially approved COINTELPRO operations admitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee shows four main techniques: infiltration, psychological warfare from the outside, harassment through the legal system, and extralegal force and violence. In the latter category falls the sinister collaboration between the FBI and right-wing vigilante groups. For instance, in Chicago the FBI and local police worked with the Legion of Justice, a rightist group that burglarized offices of antiwar activists. In San Diego the FBI hid the weapon used by a Secret Army Organization sniper in a shooting incident directed at a local activist professor which resulted in a woman being injured by a stray bullet.
The revelations of the Church Committee, the Watergate scandal and other [exposes] led to the passage of some valuable but limited reforms that briefly curtailed the abuses of the intelligence agencies. But along with the election of Ronald Reagan to the Presidency came a concerted and successful attempt by the intelligence agencies to abolish the reforms which had restrained them during the late 1970's. The early 1980's also saw tremendous growth in the private security industry coupled with an Executive Order signed by President Reagan authorizing the contracting of intelligence investigations to private firms outside the reach of Congressional oversight and laws protecting privacy.
The FBI and other agencies also redefined the terms "terrorism" and "foreign intelligence" to reflect a broad and self-serving interpretation; and then argued their investigations into social change groups met the terms of specific legal language allowing the FBI greater investigative latitude in probes involving political violence and foreign spying. The result was that by 1983, FBI agents and private security specialists had launched broad intrusions into the lives of ordinary citizens engaged in otherwise legal activities.
Ross Gelbspan is the author of a forthcoming book on the FBI's campaign from 1981 to 1985 against groups critical of U.S. policy in Central America. Gelbspan says "While the FBI conducts legitimate criminal investigations, its carrying out of unauthorized politically-motivated police activity is more than just history." For proof, Gelbspan (a veteran Boston Globe reporter who helped pen a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative series) points to documents obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act, lawsuits, and Congressional hearings which show that in an FBI probe of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), "the FBI took at face value allegations by right-wing security specialists that members of (CISPES) were terrorists or foreign agents."
The FBI probe of CISPES moved beyond surveillance to attacks on CISPES, its members and allies. Thousands of citiens were referenced in secret dossiers. The FBI also used the services of right-wing sleuths including a network of conservative campus activists who attended meetings and then submitted reports to the FBI. "The CISPES probe by the FBI was not an aberration by a handful of field agents," says Gelbspan refuting widely published reports. "It was clearly approved at the highest levels of the Bureau and was apprently sanctioned by the NSC and the White House."
"Looking at the CISPES investigation in light of other political investigations dating back to the 1950's, one gets the distinct impression that the FBI sees its mandate as neutralizing or disabling every political movement that has the potential for bringing about significant changes in the American political system," argues Gelbspan.
Kit Gage, the Washington representative of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation (NCARL) agrees with Gelbspan. "We know first hand the kind of havoc the FBI can wreak on a group exercising its First Amendment rights," says Gage who has leafed through FBI files recording "38 years of surveillance on NCARL and its predecessors which produced 130,000 pages of files but not one criminal conviction." What is well documented "is an incredible amount of harassment and disruption of our organization," Gage charges. "Since the FBI seems unable to regulate itself," says Gage, "NCARL is currently seeking legal remedies in the form of legislation that would limit FBI investigations solely to criminal activity." Hundreds of law school professors have endorsed NCARL's proposed legislation.
Meanwhile, surveillance and disruption continue to hamstring activists. At the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, the Movement Support Network (MSN) maintains a list of suspicious incidents called in by groups around the country. According to MSN coordinator Jinsoo Kim, "since 1984 there have been over 300 suspicious incidents including 150 unexplained break-ins" where usually files are rifled but expensive office equipment not stolen. Suspicions point to an ad-hoc alliance of FBI agents and informants, other government investigators, far right vigilantes, and private security sleuths who trade information and justify their actions in the name of national security and fighting terrorism.
The zealousness of these snoops can lead them to break the law in pursuit of their quarry. Earth First activist Dave Foreman says his unfortunately intimate knowledge of FBI informant-provocateurs leads him to not rule out the possibility that the California bombing incident was the result of a covert operation....a charge that reflects an accurate historical awareness of how far some agents are willing to go in an attempt to trap their target.
An example of this involved Connecticut animal rights activist Fran Trutt, charged with attempting to plant a bomb she says was meant to scare an offical of the U.S. Surgical Corporation which uses animals for medical tests and sales demonstrations. Her accomplices, not charged with any crime, turned out to be private security agents hired by U.S. Surgical. Trutt's attorney, John Williams, says there is "absolutely no question that Trutt was enticed" into considering the bombing by agents from Perceptions International." Furthermore, several months prior to the attempted bombing, according to Williams "the entire situation was reviewed at a meeting that included representatives of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Connecticut States Attorney's office, the security director of U.S. Surgical and at least one representative of Perceptions International...and the topic of the meeting was Fran Trutt."
According to Williams, it was the agents of Perceptions International, working for U.S. Surgical but posing as Trutt's friends, who suggested the bombing, paid for the purchase of the pipe bomb, and drove her to the U.S. Surgical parking lot. When Trut