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

Russia: Moscow Conference Explores Possible New 'Strategic Partnership'

Radio Free Europe
07-09-00
By Sophie Lambroschini
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2000/09/F.RU.000907140958.html

A Moscow conference sponsored by the U.S. Free Congress Foundation and the Democratic Choice of Russia party yesterday assembled specialists of both countries to discuss ways of reviving a U.S.-Russian strategic partnership. RFE/RL correspondent Sophie Lambroschini reports on the discussions.

Moscow, 7 September 2000 (RFE/RL) -- The one-day meeting addressed in particular the question of how to revive a U.S.-Russian strategic partnership turned dormant after almost two years of cool relations. The period was marked, on Russia's part, by sharp criticism of NATO's intervention in Kosovo last spring and by an equally sharp rejection of U.S plans for a national missile defense, or NMD, shield. On the U.S. side, Russia's second bloody war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya has been the chief factor in the cooling-off.

The roundtable was organized by the U.S. Free Congress Foundation, the American University in Moscow and the Democratic Choice of Russia party. Most participants from both countries said that the resolution of major bilateral political and economic differences was a condition for re-establishing a partnership in the strategic and disarmament spheres.

Some speakers noted that even 10 years after the end of Cold War, new bilateral relations had not really been worked out. Washington-based Heritage Foundation political analyst Yevgeny Volk said: "The Russian-American partnership is still heavily guided by the Cold War paradigm. But," he asked, "are the political elites of both countries ready to change it? No," he said, citing a number of reasons -- but especially the political views of Russia's elite which, he said, have not adapted to Russia's new geopolitical place.

"The idea of a superpower which is mainly based on [its] nuclear potential rather than on economic might and on political stability is still capturing the mentality of the Russian political elite, which acts or tries to act as a superpower equal to the United States. In fact, this legacy of the Cold war is very strongly influencing Russian foreign- policy decision-making -- and especially it was seen under [former Foreign Minister Yevgeny] Primakov, with his concept of a multipolar world."

Volk added that he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin was seeking to continue this policy.

Free Congress Foundation member Bill Lind criticized both countries for approaching defense issues from a Cold War perspective. Instead of concerning themselves with missile shields, Lind said that both Russia and the United States should cooperate in combating what he regards as the world's current major threat -- the use of biological weapons by terrorist groups. Lind said: "It is far more likely that the weapon of mass destruction will come by shipping container or Federal Express than by missile and is more likely to be a genetically engineered biological weapon [than a nuclear one]."

But Fritz Ermarth, a former CIA and National Security Council official, said that missiles remained a threat because they are so widespread. He allowed, however, that in the post-Cold War era, the main question is: "Why do we need nuclear missiles?"

"We can imagine saying that this [nuclear deterrent] is a positive legacy [from the Cold War, but] that is undesirable forever. So let it last for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years -- but then we should have a transition to a situation in which no civilized country need or can base its national security on weapons of mass destruction." Other participants called attention to a long list of obstacles in cooperation between the two countries. U.S. speakers criticized the strong support given by the Clinton administration to Russia despite its obvious democratic failings. Russian speakers, in turn, spoke of NATO's "hasty" expansion to the east which they saw as unnecessarily creating a rift between alliance members and non-members.

One participant, Yuri Ossipyan -- a physicist from the Russian academy of Science and a former adviser to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev -- said that the West had missed a unique opportunity to secure a partnership with Russia by underestimating its technical and scientific potential. That potential, he said, could have been put to use in common projects such as laser and other high technology.

Some U.S. participants advocated a tougher attitude toward Russia, saying that its democratic development should be a prerequisite to further cooperation between the two countries. Ermarth said that for a broader strategic partnership to prosper, it was imperative that Russia develop "a stable, genuinely democratic, law-governed state."

---

'China provided n-aid to Pak. continuously'

Russia Today
Thursday, September 07, 2000
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2000/09/07/stories/03070002.htm

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 6. Despite China's persistent denial that it did not encourage nuclear proliferation, a recent study by a U.S. think tank has indicated that Beijing has been a constant supplier of a variety of nuclear products and services to Pakistan, ranging from uranium enrichment technology to research and power reactors.

The study published by the Centre for Non- proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies has come up with fresh details about how China helped Pakistan become a significant nuclear and missile power in South Asia.

The agencies said the study had reported, as early as 1983, that Beijing had by then transferred a complete nuclear weapon design to Islamabad, along with enough weapons-grade uranium for two nuclear weapons. In 1986, China concluded a comprehensive nuclear cooperation agreement with Pakistan and in the same year, it began assisting Islamabad with the enrichment of weapons-grade uranium. China also reportedly transferred enough tritium gas to Pakistan for 10 nuclear weapons.

In 1989, China allegedly involved Pakistani scientists in a nuclear test at its Lop Nur test site. In 1994-95 China sold ring magnets to A. Q. Khan Research Lab at Kahuta which were used in gas centrifuges to make weapons-grade enriched uranium.

The destination of the magnets, the research lab, is not subject to International Atomic Energy Association(IAEA) safeguards and is believed to be involved with Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.

---

Putin And Clinton Agree To Preserve Key ABM Weapons Treaty

Russia Today
Sep 7, 2000
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=196807§ion=default

UNITED NATIONS -- (Agence France Presse) U.S. President Bill Clinton and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin reaffirmed their commitment Wednesday to the cornerstone 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM).

The ABM agreement has been at the heart of a raging debate about controversial U.S. plans to develop a nation-wide nuclear defense shield.

Such a program would overstep the ABM, which allows both countries to build only one small missile defense system under the premise that fear of "mutually assured destruction" was the safest mechanism for averting a nuclear war.

The United States has been lobbying Russia to amend, but still preserve, the ABM treaty.

However those negotiations have made little headway, with Putin earlier this year threatening to abandon all nuclear agreements should Washington encroach on the ABM treaty.

Wednesday's agreement and previous similar initiatives "establish a constructive basis for progress in further reducing nuclear weapons arsenals, preserving and strengthening the ABM treaty, and confronting new challenges to international security," the joint statement signed by Putin and Clinton says.

"The United States and Russia reaffirm their commitment to the ABM Treaty as a cornerstone of strategic stability," it said.

However, the statement stressed that both sides have been holding intensive talks on ABM "with a view to initiate negotiations expediently."

The wording suggested that Washington had not abandoned hope that Russia would eventually agree to some ABM changes.

The issue, however, lost some urgency when Clinton last week said the missile shield was not yet properly developed, and that his presidential successor should make the final decision on whether to deploy it.

Among other agreements Wednesday, the two sides vowed to set up within one year an early warning center in Moscow that will help avert nuclear missile launches caused by erroneous missile attack warnings.

The United States government also reaffirmed its commitment to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which was rejected by the U.S. Senate last year, then hastily approved by Russia's parliament.

And Moscow and Washington vowed to speed up their efforts to draft a new START III treaty that slashes each side's nuclear warheads well below the 3,000-3,500 ceiling set in the current agreement. (Agence France Presse)

---

Missile defense continues to divide U.S., Russia

Florida Today
September 7, 2000
By Terence Hunt Associated Press White House Correspondent
http://www.flatoday.com/space/explore/stories/2000b/090700h.htm

NEW YORK (AP) - With both sides refusing to budge, President Bill Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin remained at odds Wednesday about an American program to build an anti-missile defense system. Raising the stakes, the United States said it would not discuss deeper cuts in nuclear arsenals until Moscow agrees to negotiations on strategic defense.

Beginning a three-day marathon of diplomacy, Clinton met with Putin on the sidelines of the United Nations' Millennium Summit, a gathering of about 160 presidents, kings and prime ministers.

In what he said was his farewell U.N. address, Clinton urged world leaders to intensify their support for peacekeeping efforts. He said that bloodshed in Sierra Leone and East Timor demonstrated the need for more effective peacekeeping. "In both cases," Clinton said, "the U.N. did not have the tools to finish the job."

Meanwhile, national security adviser Sandy Berger, during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov, turned over unspecified information on what the United States knew about the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, a State Department official said.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said the Russians had asked for the information.

Meeting for the third time in three months, now in a 35h-floor hotel suite in midtown Manhattan, Clinton and Putin registered stubborn differences about anti-missile defense systems.

Clinton last week decided not to authorize deployment of a missile shield, deferring the decision to his successor. Russia adamantly opposes such a system, saying it would wreck arms-control agreements and trigger a new nuclear arms race. China opposes it, too.

Clinton said his decision to put off deployment of a missile shield created the opportunity for Putin and the next American president "to reach a common position. And I hope they can," Clinton added, "because I think it's very important for the future that we continue to work together.

"When we work together," said Clinton, "we can destroy thousands of tons of nuclear materials and lots of nuclear weapons, and work together in the Balkans for peace."

Putin, in his own address to the United Nations, signaled that Russia would continue to press the United States to abandon its missile defense ambitions.

Putin urged world leaders to come to Moscow for a conferences to ban the militarization of space. He described the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty as a foundation of the entire nuclear arms control system.

Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush favors building a robust missile defense system, seeking Russia's agreement to amend the ABM treaty but proceeding if necessary without such agreement. Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore favors developing technology for a limited missile defense while seeking Russia's agreement to amend the ABM.

The United States said it was prepared to open talks on deeper arms reductions -- but only if they proceed "in parallel with meaningful and productive discussions on strategic defenses. And ... we're not there yet with the Russians," said Strobe Talbott, deputy secretary of state.

He said Russia needs to recognize that amendments will be necessary in the ABM "probably sooner rather than later."

Talbott said that starting formal negotiations on arms cuts -- a START III agreement -- "is going to have to wait until Russia is prepared to join us in formal negotiations on strategic defense."

---

U.S. Is Reported to Hand Russia Secret Details on Sub That Sank

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07KURS.html

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 - President Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. Berger, has provided his Russian counterpart with a written summary of what American naval and intelligence officials believe caused the nuclear-powered submarine Kursk to sink last month in the Barents Sea, officials said today.

The summary, based on acoustic recordings and other information gathered by two American submarines and a surface vessel in the Barents at the time, included evidence that American officials have said contradicts assertions by some Russian officials that the Kursk sank after a collision with another sub or a World War II-era mine.

Mr. Berger provided the information, at the Russians' request, in a meeting on Monday with Sergei Ivanov, head of the Russian Security Council and a close aide to President Vladimir V. Putin.

The information could help Mr. Putin's government sort out which of several accounts was the most likely explanation for the sinking on Aug. 12, which killed all 118 crew members.

"In response to a request from the Russian government, Mr. Berger provided some information to Mr. Ivanov on our knowledge regarding the tragedy," said P. J. Crowley, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

Mr. Clinton opened his meeting with Mr. Putin today in New York with a discussion of the Kursk's sinking. The men were at the world leaders' meeting at the United Nations.

"President Clinton expressed his regret and his sympathies to the families, of course," Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said afterward. "And President Putin talked a bit about the episode itself and what it revealed and how he had coped with it. There was some further discussion on that."

The decision to share information on the Kursk was unusual, given that it was gathered by one of the most secretive parts of the American military, the submarine fleet. Mr. Crowley declined to discuss what information was shared, except to say that it was in an unclassified form.

But Itar-Tass, the Russian news agency, quoted Mr. Ivanov as saying the information included technical details on "the exact times, to the second, of two explosions" that wrecked the Kursk.

American officials have said the explosions - recorded by the Memphis, another American sub reported to be the Toledo and a surveillance ship, the Loyal - strongly suggest that the Kursk sank after a catastrophic accident in its hull and not because of a collision.

Following that theory, a rocket-propelled torpedo being loaded or launched as part of an exercise misfired, with its engine or its fuel exploding. Two minutes and 15 seconds later, a larger explosion of the torpedo warhead tore a gaping hole in the sub's bow.

---

Germany Refuses to Help Siemens Sell Plutonium Plant to Russia

Russia Today
Sep 7, 2000
http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=196810

BERLIN -- (Agence France Presse) German Economics Minister Werner Mueller has refused financial aid to the German group Siemens in its bid to sell a plutonium processing plant to Russia, the daily Suddeutsche Zeitung said Thursday.

"I will not agree to granting credit for the export of this factory, licensed by the public institute Hermes," he told the daily.

"Financing this project is Siemens' problem," he said.

The plant, built in the central German town of Hanau, has never been used.

It produces a fuel which contains uranium and plutonium oxides, which save on natural uranium and burns plutonium, whose storage is a problem. It is used in conjunction with enriched uranium in nuclear power stations.

Siemens recently asked for authorization to export the facility to push the government into providing financial support.

Mueller said he would review the situation if there were a common initiative of the G8 countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- to finance the processing of plutonium in such a factory. (Agence France Presse)

---

Putin, Clinton Still Divided

Associated Press
September 07, 2000 Filed at 6:44 p.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Clinton-Putin.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- With both sides refusing to budge, President Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin remained at odds Wednesday about an American program to build an anti-missile defense system. Raising the stakes, the United States said it would not discuss deeper cuts in nuclear arsenals until Moscow agrees to negotiations on strategic defense.

Beginning a three-day marathon of diplomacy, Clinton met with Putin on the sidelines of the United Nations' Millennium Summit, a gathering of about 160 presidents, kings and prime ministers.

In what he said was his farewell U.N. address, Clinton urged world leaders to intensify their support for peacekeeping efforts. He said that bloodshed in Sierra Leone and East Timor demonstrated the need for more effective peacekeeping. ``In both cases,'' Clinton said, ``the U.N. did not have the tools to finish the job.''

Meanwhile, national security adviser Sandy Berger, during a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov, turned over unspecified information on what the United States knew about the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, a State Department official said.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said the Russians had asked for the information.

Meeting for the third time in three months, now in a 35h-floor hotel suite in midtown Manhattan, Clinton and Putin registered stubborn differences about anti-missile defense systems.

Clinton last week decided not to authorize deployment of a missile shield, deferring the decision to his successor. Russia adamantly opposes such a system, saying it would wreck arms-control agreements and trigger a new nuclear arms race. China opposes it, too.

Clinton said his decision to put off deployment of a missile shield created the opportunity for Putin and the next American president ``to reach a common position. And I hope they can,'' Clinton added, ``because I think it's very important for the future that we continue to work together.

``When we work together,'' said Clinton, ``we can destroy thousands of tons of nuclear materials and lots of nuclear weapons, and work together in the Balkans for peace.''

Putin, in his own address to the United Nations, signaled that Russia would continue to press the United States to abandon its missile defense ambitions.

Putin urged world leaders to come to Moscow for a conferences to ban the militarization of space. He described the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty as a foundation of the entire nuclear arms control system.

Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush favors building a robust missile defense system, seeking Russia's agreement to amend the ABM treaty but proceeding if necessary without such agreement. Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore favors developing technology for a limited missile defense while seeking Russia's agreement to amend the ABM.

The United States said it was prepared to open talks on deeper arms reductions -- but only if they proceed ``in parallel with meaningful and productive discussions on strategic defenses. And ... we're not there yet with the Russians,'' said Strobe Talbott, deputy secretary of state.

He said Russia needs to recognize that amendments will be necessary in the ABM ``probably sooner rather than later.''

Talbott said that starting formal negotiations on arms cuts -- a START III agreement -- ``is going to have to wait until Russia is prepared to join us in formal negotiations on strategic defense.''

Seeking areas of compromise, Clinton and Putin signed a statement on strategic stability cooperation. It commits both countries to finishing an accord on pre-notification of launches of ballistic missiles. Talbott said the statement ``puts more flesh on the bones'' of accords signed by Clinton and Putin in June in Moscow and in July in Japan.

Clinton and Putin also discussed prospects for democracy in the Balkans, peacekeeping in Kosovo, U.S. objections to the transfer of Russian missile and nuclear weaponry technology to Iran, and Iraq's defiance of U.N. weapons inspection demands.

Clinton also raised the case of Edmund Pope, an American businessman jailed by Russian authorities since April 3 on espionage charges. Talbott said that Putin ``certainly understands the importance that President Clinton attaches to that.''

---

Sub Crews Learn Sound of Rescue

Associated Press
September 07, 2000 Filed at 6:09 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-NATO-Submarine-Rescue.html

ABOARD THE TCG HIZIRREIS (AP) -- The sailors freeze, the music shuts down in the officers' hall, the kitchen comes to a standstill upon the order of ``Silence!'' from the control room of the sunken submarine.

``A light vehicle at 1,000 yards, approaching!'' Petty Officer Orhan Koksal yells in the microphone, after the chief sonar operator detects the welcome sound of a rescue vehicle amid the noises of the Mediterranean Sea.

Had the Turkish submarine TCG Hizirreis truly been stranded 255 feet deep, the noise registering on the sonar would have been the sailors' first indication they had a chance of survival.

The TCG Hizirreis, formerly the USS Gudgeon, played the role of a distressed submarine Wednesday in the Sorbet Royal 2000 exercise, billed as the largest NATO submarine rescue exercise ever.

The maneuvers were scheduled long before Russia's Kursk submarine plunged to the bottom of the Barents Sea on Aug. 12, killing 118 seamen, after two explosions that tore the hull.

The crew of the TCG Hizirreis say they were deeply shaken by the catastrophe, which reminded them of the serious risks they take during each dive.

``We followed it hour by hour,'' said chief engineer Lt. Hasan Cankaya.

``We face the same risks, we are submariners,'' said Koksal, who oversees operations in a cramped sonar room filled with monitors and four technicians in headphones.

Rear Admiral Rob Stevens, top commander of NATO's submarine operations, said Thursday he hoped if there were any lessons to be learned from the Kursk disaster, Russian authorities would pass the information on to NATO.

The TCG Hizirreis, a Tang-class fast-attack submarine, is designed to detect enemy ships and destroy them. It is loaded with torpedoes. It can stay submerged for 50 days, and food is the only limitation.

A drill Monday by the U.S. minisub Mystic to lock on to the TCG Hizirreis' hatch failed when its mother submarine, the USS Dallas, called off the attempt, Turkish officers said.

``At least, I recorded its noise in my memory,'' said Koksal of the Mystic, one of NATO's most advanced deep submergence rescue vehicles. It is essential for sonar operators to be able to recognize the sounds of rescue vehicles to be able to alert the control room for possible contact with rescuers.

The recordings of the Mystic, which has an operating depth of 5,000 feet, will be studied by young Turkish sonar operators. It was about 3,000 yards away from the TCG Hizirreis when the USS Dallas called off the operation.

The Mystic suffered a mechanical failure in the control room and was forced to return to the USS Dallas. Capt. Clare Bill Hanson of Warren, Pa., second ranking commander of NATO's submarine operations, said Thursday the Mystic would not be able to participate in the maneuvers until Sunday.

Along with the nuclear-powered submarine USS Dallas, four other submarines from Turkey and Italy are participating. Israel, Argentina, Chile, Singapore and Sweden are sending observers.

The Sorbet Royal 2000, the fourth exercise of its kind, hopes to mark progress in carrying out the rapid and timely rescue of disabled submarines.

The Turks discovered the difficulties of making contact with a rescue minisub in strong currents and low visibility.

At the end of the exercise, the submarine smoothly rose from the bottom with a crew member yelling the attained depths, eyes locked on round dials that marking the steady rise.

``Surface, surface, surface!,'' the crew yelled.

---

Clinton Focuses on Asia, Cyprus

Associated Press
September 07, 2000 Filed at 2:32 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Clinton-UN.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- President Clinton praised the South Korean leader Thursday for pressing unification with the North, which Clinton said would benefit all of Asia.

``He has done a brave and a good thing for the stability of the whole region,'' Clinton said before beginning a meeting with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

Kim is one in a parade of world leaders sitting down with Clinton this week in conjunction with the U.N. Millennium Summit.

Clinton met for about 40 minutes with Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer for discussions about U.S. support for Turkey's eventual entry into the European Union and Turkey's relationship with Greece. Clinton told the Turkish leader he is encouraged by the pace of U.N. peace talks for Cyprus, said White House spokesman P.J. Crowley.

Later, at a reception for African leaders and business officials, Clinton said: ``I believe America is moving inexorably to be a much better partner over the long run for Africa. ... And I am more convinced today that it is not an act of charity. It is an act of enlightened self-interest for the world that we should be building together.''

In an address to the Security Council, Clinton said the United Nations will have to deal with challenges such as poverty, disease and environmental threats along with security risks like wars and other conflicts.

``Until we confront the iron link between deprivation, disease and war, we will never be able to create the peace that the founders of the United Nations dreamed of,'' the president said. ``I hope the United States will always be willing to do its part and I hope the Security Council increasingly will have a 21st century vision of security that we can all embrace and pursue.''

The United Nations is sponsoring peace talks aimed at reunifying Cyprus. The Mediterranean island has been split into a Greek Cypriot-controlled south and a Turkish-occupied north since Turkey invaded in July 1974, following a short-lived coup by supporters of union with Greece. The northern Turkish state is recognized only by Turkey, which maintains 35,000 troops there.

Greek-Turkish relations have rarely been better than they are now. Cautious overtures for dialogue were greatly accelerated by deadly earthquakes that struck both countries last year, bringing aid and goodwill initiatives from both sides that helped ease decades of mistrust.

Clinton's meeting with the Korean leader comes less than a week after he left to his successor a decision on whether to construct a U.S. national missile shield.

``There are a number of bilateral and regional issues that will be on the agenda, including North Korea and the discussions that we have had with them on both missiles and security,'' White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Wednesday.

The unfinished missile defense business hung over Clinton's summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

The shield would be designed in part to counter potential nuclear aggression by North Korea.

North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, skipped the gathering of about 160 heads of state.

China and Russia vigorously oppose any U.S. move to build a missile shield or even to plan for it in detail. The United States is already veering close to violating a key arms control agreement, those countries claim.

Before his session with Putin, Clinton said his decision to put off deployment of a missile shield created the opportunity for Putin and the next American president ``to reach a common position. And I hope they can,'' Clinton added, ``because I think it's very important for the future that we continue to work together.''

Putin, in his own address to the United Nations, signaled that Russia would continue to press the United States to abandon its missile defense ambitions.

-------- depleted uranium

Primex is a lead producer of DU munitions...

Tara Thornton duorganizer@miltoxproj.org
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 09:15:07 -0400

In the Primex 1999 annual report there is an interesting paragraph, "A number of foreign countries will not buy ammunition containing depleted uranium, and the US government limits the export of DU ammunition to NATO and certain other friendly foreign governments. To improve its opportunities to sell tank ammunition to foreign buyers, the Company, in association with the foreign company that was the original developer of 120mm tank ammunition, has developed an advanced 120mm kinetic energy round with a tungsten alloy penetrator. In February 1999, the company was awarded a 31.3 million dollar contract for production of advanced kinetic energy tungsten penetrator rounds for a foreign customer."

It would be nice to know who the foreign countries are that won't buy DU munitions and who the foreign customer is.

----

Gulf War and Health:
Volume 1. Depleted Uranium, Sarin, Pyridostigmine Bromide, and Vaccines, National Academy Press (2000)

Illnesses in Gulf War Veterans, pp. 33- 56
Methodology, pp. 57- 72
Depleted Uranium, pp. 73-134
Sarin, pp. 135-164
Pyridostigmine Bromide, pp. 165-214
Vaccines, pp. 215-264
Research Recommendations, pp. 265-272
Appendix A: Scientific Workshop Ag..., pp. 273-276
Appendix B: Public Meeting Agendas..., pp. 277-280
Apendix C: Methods of Literature C..., pp. 281-284
Appendix D: Gulf War Illnesses and..., pp. 285-304
Appendix E: Effects of Long-Term E..., pp. 305-314
Appendix F: Acronyms and Abbreviat..., pp. 315-318

Order info: http://books.nap.edu/catalog/9953.html View: http://www.nap.edu/books/030907178X/html/

WISE Uranium Project http://www.antenna.nl/wise/uranium Peter Diehl E-Mail: peter.diehl@sz-online.de Am Schwedenteich 4, D-01477 Arnsdorf, Germany Phone: +49-35200-20737

----

Gulf War soldiers may have 'inhaled uranium'

CNN
September 3, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/09/03/france.gulf/index.html

PARIS, France -- A former U.S. army doctor claims that many Gulf War veterans suffered from renal and other diseases as a result of inhaling particles of depleted uranium used in anti-tank shells.

Dr Asaf Durakovic said he had treated many patients still suffering from diseases as a result of being exposed to the toxic material while fighting in the Gulf War.

"According to some estimates, 320 tons of depleted uranium were exploded during the (1991) Gulf War," Dr. Durakovic told reporters after speaking at a conference of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine.

Durakovic said depleted uranium was used as a coat on shells to ease penetration of thick armour.

When the shells hit their intended target, the uranium coating exploded into multiple particles, which, he said, "became part of atmospheric dust."

He said: "Because of the omnipresence of small sub-micron radioactive dust in the Persian Gulf, uranium that was liberated by impact (with tanks)...evaporated at temperatures higher than several thousand degrees centigrade.

"Some of those particles were inhaled and stayed in the lungs...where they can cause cancer, and some entered into the bloodstream and affected kidneys and bones."

A spokesman for the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) told CNN.com it was aware of independent tests which showed that veterans are excreting unusually high levels of uranium in their urine.

But the spokesman said the evidence so far was "inadequate" to be able to draw a conclusion about depleted uranium exposure on Gulf War veterans.

'Political pressure to halt research'

Durakovic, who held the rank of colonel, is now with the department of Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown University Medical School in Washington.

He said that he had come under "political pressure" from U.S. authorities to halt his research shortly after the Gulf War, when the U.S. military first challenged the notion that a mysterious 'syndrome' was affecting the health of returning veterans.

Some medical studies have linked Gulf War syndrome, whose symptoms range from flu to chronic fatigue and asthma, to the multiple vaccines given soldiers during the war to counter possible Iraqi chemical weapons attacks.

Both the U.S. and British governments have resisted claims by Gulf War veterans that such a syndrome exists and are conducting their own studies.

"I don't claim uranium contamination is the (main) cause of the Gulf War syndrome," Durakovic said, "but the veterans show high levels of depleted uranium in their bodies and studies about this must be intensified."

The MoD spokesman said: "We are aware of suggestions that independent tests have indicated that UK Gulf War veterans are excreting unusually high levels of uranium in their urine.

"We are very keen to see scientific, robust and properly validated, peer-reviwed hypotheses, methodology and full results from depleted uranium work."

So far, the spokesman said, no such material had been made available to the MoD although they had requested it.

"But the bottom line is we welcome any additional evidence," he added.

---

What Caused Gulf War Syndrome? Experts Can't Say

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/ts/health_gulfwar_dc_2.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists asked to report on whether drugs, vaccines, uranium or poison gas caused the vague collection of illnesses in thousands of veterans known as Gulf War Syndrome said on Thursday they simply cannot tell.

There is not enough evidence to say whether symptoms suffered by veterans of the 1991 war against Iraq were caused by exposure to any agents in the field or vaccines given before they went, said a committee of the Institute of Medicine, which advises the U.S. government on health matters.

``We'd like to give veterans and their families definitive answers, but the evidence simply is not strong enough,'' Dr. Harold Sox, chairman of the department of medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, told a news conference.

``Without data on the levels of exposure in the Persian Gulf theater, answers will remain elusive,'' added Sox, who chaired the committee.

``Clearly we found that the evidence wasn't strong enough to rule out health effects of any of these exposures.''

For most of the vaccines, drugs and for sarin nerve gas, the question remains, he said. But for depleted uranium, he said he felt the study had cast considerable doubt on whether it was linked with kidney disease or cancer.

Congress and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs commissioned the study -- and several to follow -- after thousands of veterans complained of symptoms ranging from fatigue and malaise to dizziness, headaches and rashes.

Members of the committee studied abstracts, or short summaries, of 10,000 studies involving exposure to the poison gas sarin, pyridostigmine bromide (PB) -- a drug used to help protect against nerve agents -- depleted uranium and vaccines, against anthrax and botulism.

They also looked at 1,000 full reports. Most of the studies did not involve actual Gulf War veterans, because few studies have been done on veterans.

Instead, they looked at Japanese victims of a sarin gas attack, studies on occupational exposures to various agents such as veterinarians who get anthrax vaccinations, and reports about patients with an immune system disorder called myasthenia gravis, which is treated with PB.

One big problem was a lack of information about how much of each chemical or agent any serviceman or woman was exposed to. Therefore, the committee said, their report cannot say much.

``At most, it found limited evidence from three studies that might suggest a link between long-term health effects and exposure to the nerve agent sarin at levels great enough to cause an immediate, intense reaction,'' the Institute, one of the National Academies of Sciences, said in a statement.

``On the other hand, the committee found limited, suggestive evidence of no link between exposure to uranium and kidney disease or, at low exposure levels, lung cancer.''

The committee, which conducted no direct research itself, recommended more study and urged the U.S. government to do a better job of keeping track of what agents soldiers, airmen and sailors are exposed to.

``In order to study the health effects on veterans, we are going to have to study veterans,'' Sox said. ``We have got to try to do a better job of recording what happened to soldiers next time.''

He noted that reports and documentation of combat-related illnesses go back at least to the U.S. Civil War.

Sox noted that the committee was not asked to judge whether Gulf War Syndrome exists. ``My personal opinion, unrelated to the committee, is that yes, there are Gulf War-related illnesses,'' Sox said.

The scientists on the committee said they hoped that some people would draw ``some comfort'' from the report. ``We actually learned a fair amount about the health effects of these agents,'' Sox said.

``Our study by no means drew a blank,'' he added. ``We certainly don't think that this is a waste of time.''

---

Despite Study, Final Word on Gulf War Syndrome Is Elusive

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By PHILIP J. HILTS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/continuous/08GULF.html

The question of what has caused the array of symptoms called Gulf War Syndrome was muddy before, and a report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences released today did little to clear the waters.

There is not enough reliable data to say whether exposure to sarin nerve gas or vaccination against germ warfare agents could or could not be the cause of the Gulf War Syndrome, the committee concluded officially. The committee said there was a lack of data about the effects of the chemicals in question and of information on the exposure to them that gulf war veterans may have received.

Concluding a news conference today on the report, Dr. Kenneth I. Shine, president of the Institute of Medicine, summed up the frustration of committee members and those prodding for more definitive conclusions: "We would love to come up with remarkable new conclusions, but after careful analysis, if the data isn't there, we can't draw any conclusions from it."

The committee recommended both more research and that the military try to do a better job monitoring what happens to soldiers and their environment during war.

Richard Weidman and William Frasure, of the Vietnam Veterans of America, who have tracked the debate over gulf war syndrome over several years, said they sympathized with the institute scientists who found scant data, and said what is needed is a thorough study of not only the scientific literature, but of classified records and medical records of veterans, carried out not by military officials as investigations of the past have been, but by independent scientists.

After Congress mandated further study, the Department of Veterans Affairs asked the Institute of Medicine to convene a panel of impartial experts to look at a list of 33 different agents and try to find out whether any might be the cause of, or at least associated with, Gulf War Syndrome. The committee of 18 reported on the first four of those agents in a report and press conference today.

For two agents, sarin and vaccination, the committee report offered verbally tortured conclusions. For example, on sarin: "There is inadequate/insufficient evidence to determine whether an association does or does not exist between exposure to sarin at low doses ... and subsequent long term adverse health effects." The wording was identical for anthrax and botulinum vaccination.

On two other agents - depleted uranium and the chemical pyridostigmine bromide - the committee felt there was at least some evidence that they were unlikely to be the cause of the syndrome, although again, there was not enough evidence to be sure: "There is limited/suggestive evidence of no association between exposure to uranium and lung cancer at" very low doses.

Dr. Harold S. Sox, Jr., chairman of the committee, said he felt that the committee's review did not "move the needle" toward any new conclusions on sarin and vaccines. But on PB and uranium, he said, "We did move the needle," and it now seems less likely that either will be found to be a cause of the syndrome. But again, the study could not rule them out.

The committee accepted that there is something called "Gulf War Syndrome," as evidenced by the increase in a variety of symptoms among the veterans returning from the gulf war - chiefly fatigue, rashes, headache, muscle and joint pain, and memory loss. Based on that assumption, it reviewed the published, peer-reviewed scientific studies on four substances to try to determine if there is any indication that any of them might be a cause of the syndrome.

Sarin is suspected as a cause because it is a potent nerve toxin used in chemical weapons, some of which were destroyed during the gulf war, thus exposing soldiers to small doses of the agent. Vaccines became suspect because soldiers received two of them - one against anthrax and one against botulinum toxin - before serving in the gulf. Pyridostigmine bromide is a drug used as a treatment for myasthenia gravis, but also could blunt the effects of nerve gas, and so some soldiers were given doses of it prophylactically in the war. Depleted uranium came under suspicion because this low-radiation form of uranium is used as a layer in the armor of tanks to increase protection, and is used in some ammunition rounds. Cleanup of damaged tanks and munitions from "friendly-fire" exposed soldiers to some of the substance.

Overriding all their tentative conclusions, however, was the constant refrain expressed at the press conference today by the institute panel members that there was very little evidence of the kind needed to make conclusions on two points - whether low doses of any of the agents might cause long-term illness, and just how much exposure to the agents any veteran received.

Chairman Sox thus said it is essential that in the future, the military keep better records about what substances soldiers are exposed to, and where and for how long. In addition, the committee said it had no access to classified information held by the military, and so urged defense scientists to publish anything they have so that it might be included in further work on the question of whether and how to compensate veterans for their exposure.

---

Study fails to find cause of Gulf illness

USA Today
09/07/00- Updated 02:20 PM ET
Sept. 7, 2000
http://www.usatoday.com/life/health/general/lhgen078.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - A comprehensive new report on the chronic illnesses suffered by some Gulf War veterans was unable to link their problems to a specific cause.

The Institute of Medicine studied the research done on several possible causes for the veterans' syndrome: the toxic nerve agent sarin; a drug used to pretreat against exposure to nerve gas; depleted uranium; and vaccines to prevent anthrax and botulism.

But the scientists said Thursday they could not find enough evidence to link the illnesses to any single cause.

''We'd like to give veterans and their families definitive answers, but the evidence simply is not strong enough,'' said Harold C. Sox Jr., chairman of the committee that did the research. Sox heads the department of medicine at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.

The Defense Department says an estimated 90,000 troops who served in the Gulf War complain of illnesses such as fatigue, skin rashes, headaches and muscle and joint pain.

The Pentagon requested the study by the institute, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, an independent agency chartered by Congress to provide scientific advice to the government.

A study published in May in the British Medical Journal suggested a link between multiple vaccines given to soldiers deployed in the Persian Gulf War and the unexplained illnesses. That report was based on 923 British Gulf War veterans.

The study by the Institute of Medicine noted that British research has provided ''limited evidence of an association'' with multiple vaccinations. But it noted that 99 workers at Fort Detrick, Md., who received multiple vaccinations had been studied for 25 years with no clinical symptoms.

Overall, the institute said, the available evidence is insufficient to show whether the multiple vaccinations have an effect on long-term health.

Other findings in the study:

Sarin: Low-level exposure to this nerve gas may have occurred among troops when U.S. soldiers destroyed Iraqi munitions stockpiles.

A survey of 20,000 troops within 50 miles of the stockpiles showed 99% reported no serious nerve illnesses, the report noted. It said that while high doses of the chemical are known to be dangerous, there is not enough information available on low doses to reach any conclusion.

Pyridostigmine bromide is a drug used as a pretreatment for exposure to nerve agents. It was provided to about 250,000 soldiers, but records don't indicate if they all took the pills.

There were some cases of poisoning from taking high doses of the pills, but the committee was unable to find evidence of long-term effects from the amount normally used.

Depleted uranium, which has less radioactivity than naturally occurring uranium, is used in tank armor and some ammunition.

The committee said there were indications that the levels of uranium involved in the war do not lead to lung cancer or kidney damage. There was not enough evidence to determine if the uranium could be linked to other diseases.

Anthrax vaccine was given to thousands of service members during the Gulf War because of the fear that Iraq would launch a biological attack. A later decision to give the vaccine to all U.S. military personnel has provoked controversy, with some resisting the vaccinations.

The typical vaccination reactions of redness, swelling and occasional fever were found, but the committee said there have not been enough scientific studies done to determine if there is any long-term adverse effect from the vaccine.

Botulinum vaccine is under investigation as a way to block the dangerous toxins of the form of food poisoning known as botulism. Again, the committee said there have not been sufficient studies to determine any long-term hazard.

-------- israel

Vanunu sues Yedioth Ahronoth for libel

Haaretz Breaking News,
September 7, 2000
From: Irit Katriel <iritka@internet-zahav.net.il

Mordechai Vanunu submitted a NIS 30 million libel suit against Yedioth Ahronoth daily newspaper at the Tel Aviv District Court on Thursday. No defense has been submitted yet.

Vanunu claimes that on November 25, 1999, the paper published a false report about him, saying that he had given fellow prisoners who were also members of Hamas men information about manufacturing bombs. The story appeared on the second page of the paper under the headline "He did it again."

The report claimed that Vanunu delivered notes containing information about bomb manufacturing to prisoners who were members of the Palestinian terrorist organization.

Vanunu's attorney, Avigdor Feldman, said that the story was published without asking for a comment from Vanunu and without asking the Prisons Authority to confirm the information. In his suit, Vanunu added that the Prisons Authority commissioner denied the facts the day after the story was published.

Vanunu said that the story gave the impression that he was aiding enemies of the state and terror organizations to act against innocent civilians, whereas he has always insisted that he acted with his conscience as a pacifist who objected to nuclear armament and he never intended to cause harm to Israel.

Vanunu believes that the defendants should pay him a large sum in compensation because of the newspaper's high circulation and because the defendants did not follow journalistic ethics concerning the fact that he is a prisoner. Vanunu is serving an 18-year sentence in the Shikma prison, Ashkelon for revealing Israel's nuclear secrets to the British Sunday Times. (Agencies)

-------- japan

Japan to go ahead with missile plans

The Hindu
Thursday, September 07, 2000
By F.J. Khergamvala
http://www.indiaserver.com/thehindu/2000/09/07/stories/0307000c.htm

TOKYO, SEPT. 6. Irrespective of the Clinton administration's intentions on building a missile defence system, Japan is not going to interrupt its own ``research'' on the Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) system. The Defence Agency's requirement specific to this research for fiscal 2001 is set at $34 million plus.

At the Millennium Summit in New York, the Chinese President, Mr. Jiang Zemin is expected to lead the global chorus against the U.S. plans to build an anti-missile defence. Japan is the only country other than the U.S. that is going ahead with a form of wider missile defence. It will be intriguing to see how its Prime Minister, Mr. Yoshiro Mori balances Japan's support for the U.S. with Tokyo's intention of gaining support for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council by wooing nations opposed to the anti missile defence.

In December 1999, the U.N. General Assembly voted 80-4 in favour of a non-binding resolution to strengthen the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) and asked the parties to the ABM Treaty ``to refrain from the deployment of anti-missile systems for the defence of the territory of their country and not to provide a base for such a defence.'' The resolution also urged the non- transfer to other States or extra-territorial deployment of anti- ballistic missile systems or its components.

Japan was one of the 68 member-nations that abstained. It is likely that Japan will again keep the same international posture but in reality it has decided to go ahead with a long-term plan to develop the Theatre Missile Defence, which Japan prefers to label as BMD, or Ballistic Missile Defence. The TMD is both independent of, yet morally, strategically and legally linked to the ABM Treaty and the Clinton Administration's recent announcement to leave to the next U.S. President the decision to build a National Missile Defence.

Mr. Bill Clinton's decision does not close the door on the TMD, or the Navy Theatre Wide Defence (NTWD) system for Japan. After much dithering for years, Japan undertook to partner the U.S. in the TMD within a month of North Korea's three-stage Taepodong missile launch on August 31, 1998. Japan had long agonised about how to ready a defensive deterrent against China. Pyongyang's action provided Japan the perfect public relations pretext to do that. Therefore, irrespective of Japan's diplomatic posture, the plans for a TMD have been made, on the realistic assumption that China too will increase its nuclear missile capability, irrespective of what the U.S. decides. For diplomatic reasons Japan emphasises that this is still a research programme, with a flexible deadline of fiscal 2003-2004, with the tentative estimates set at between $150 million and $220 million for a five-year period. The official explanation includes making a distinction between the missiles to be targeted for destruction by the U.S.' NMD and the joint U.S.-Japan TMD.

The U.S. has asked Japan to do research into light weight materials, because primarily Japan and the U.S. have decided that the U.S. made Aegis class platforms will carry the Light weight Exo-Atmospheric Projectile. Therefore, the TMD as planned for Japan will provide a sea based defence that should provide a cover not only for Japan but also for the minimum 100,000 U.S. troops based in the Far East.

The 1972 ABM Treaty cannot possibly obstruct the U.S. from getting a shield for its own forces, but it can ask some serious questions of Japan's commitment to non-proliferation and disarmament. First, it definitely violates the ABM provisions and the purpose of the ABM, to limit the defence capabilities of both the then superpowers so that neither is tempted to launch a first strike.

Much of Japan's anxiety would be relieved should Mr. George Bush come to the Oval Office and is able to carry through his campaign pledges. The Republican Presidential contender has promised ``effective missile defences to protect all 50 States and our friends and allies.'' If the friends and allies include Taiwan, in addition to Japan, then Mr. Jiang will have much more to say beyond his Millennium Summit speech.

-------- korea

Clinton, S.Korea Discuss N.Korea Missile Program

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7
By Steve Holland
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/pl/summit_clinton_dc_3.html

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Clinton talked to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung on Thursday about the possibility that North Korea might agree to end its missile program, a U.S. official said.

Clinton and Kim spoke mainly about issues related to North Korea in a 35-minute meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. Millennium Summit.

``The president indicated that we were very interested in finding out more about North Korea's interest in perhaps gaining access to commercial launching facilities outside North Korea in return for ending their missile program,'' said P.J. Crowley, spokesman for the National Security Council.

``Obviously that remains one of our primary policy goals with North Korea, to see an end to their missile program.''

In talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in July, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was reported to have offered to scrap his country's missile program if the United States agreed to launch North Korean satellites.

A South Korean newspaper later quoted Kim as saying the offer was just a joke, but Crowley said on Thursday Washington took it seriously.

Asked about the South Korean report, Crowley said: ``We believe it was a serious mention that he, Kim Jong-il, made to President Putin. We are very interested in it.''

North Korea's missile program is a key reason for U.S. pursuit of a national missile defense system to protect itself against the threat of ballistic missiles fired by so-called rogue states.

Clinton announced last week he would not take steps to go further with the program but would let his successor determine if it can be technologically feasible and try to resolve opposition to it led by Russia and China.

In a photo session with South Korea's Kim, Clinton said he strongly supported his work toward Korean reunification, including his unprecedented summit in Pyongyang last June with the North Korean president.

``I think he has done a brave and a good thing, not only for the people of his country and North Korea, but for the whole stability of the region by taking this initiative,'' Clinton said.

Kim appealed on Wednesday for U.N. backing in his bid to unite the two Koreas.

He had been due to hold talks with designated North Korean head of state Kim Yong-nam but the prospect of a meeting vanished when North Korea's delegation flew home before reaching New York, complaining of ``rude'' body searches by U.S. airline staff in Frankfurt.

The two Koreas remain at war as an armed truce they entered into in 1953 has never been replaced with a formal peace pact.

Clinton Meets Sezer, Urges Cyprus Solution

Using the world's largest gathering of heads of state as a chance to press the cause of peace, Clinton also met Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Thursday.

The talks included a lengthy discussion on Cyprus, which has been virtually partitioned since 1974 when troops from Turkey occupied the north of the island in response to a coup in Nicosia instigated by the junta then ruling Greece.

``The president encouraged President Sezer to use his influence to try to help push the Turkish Cypriots to engage in real negotiations on the future of the island,'' Crowley said, adding that all parties would be better off if a settlement could be reached.

Clinton also offered his support for Turkey's efforts to join the European Union, and urged Sezer to continue working for rapprochement with Greece.

``We think this is a very important dialogue between our allies and NATO partners and certainly encourage President Sezer to keep that momentum going,'' Crowley said.

Later at a reception for African leaders, Clinton pledged continued U.S. efforts to help fight poverty and infectious diseases in Africa.

``We're committed for the long run. We want to take on the great human challenges; we want to take on the great political challenges,'' he said. ``I believe America is moving inexorably to be a much better partner over the long run for Africa.''

-------- russia

Putin: Ban militarization of space

Florida Today
September 7, 2000
By Vladimir Isachenkov Associated Press Writer
http://www.flatoday.com/space/explore/stories/2000b/090700g.htm

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called upon world leaders to come to Moscow for a conference to ban the militarization of space -- a challenge to any American plan to build an anti-missile defense system.

Addressing the Millennium Summit at the United Nations, Putin described the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty as a "foundation" of the entire nuclear arms control system.

"Particularly alarming are the plans for the militarization of space," Putin said.

Noting that the next year will see the 40th anniversary of Russia sending the first man into space, Putin said that Moscow will be the "most proper place for such a conference."

He did not mention the United States in his address. But his statement came as the latest signal that Russia would continue pushing the United States to fully abandon its plans to deploy defenses against missile threats from rogue nations, such as North Korea.

Putin has welcomed President Clinton's announcement that he would leave the final decision on whether to deploy the missile system to the next administration.

In his speech Wednesday, Putin also proposed to bar the use of enriched uranium and pure plutonium in the world atomic energy production. "Incineration of plutonium and other radioactive elements creates prerequisites for the final solution of the radioactive residues problem," Putin said.

The Russian leader followed up on his speech with a marathon series of meetings with world leaders including Chinese President Jiang Zemin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid.

He keeps up his busy diplomatic rounds on Thursday, when he is scheduled to meet Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, among other leaders.

The meeting with Jiang gave Russia and China another chance to speak against the "unipolar world" -- their favorite term to describe the alleged U.S. domination of global affairs.

"We stand for the United Nations playing a stronger role in global affairs," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told reporters after Putin's meeting with Jiang. "We favor a multipolar world based on respect for international law."

The meeting with Schroeder mostly focused on economic issues, and the two leaders agreed that the chancellor would soon visit Moscow, probably as early as this month.

Schroeder and Putin said they would discuss Germany's bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations' Security Council. Ivanov said after the talks that Moscow was ready to support it.

Putin is on his first trip to the United States as Russian president.

---

Putin Warns of 'Militarization' of Space

NewsMax.com
Thursday September 7, 2000
UPI
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/7/03649

UNITED NATIONS - Russian President Vladimir Putin called on world leaders Wednesday to start working to "prevent the militarization of outer space" at a proposed gathering next year in Moscow.

Putin, on his first-ever visit to the United States, joined a record number of leaders who gave speeches at the opening of the three-day U.N. Millennium Summit. In remarks that largely consisted of praise for the United Nations as a vehicle for enforcing international law, the Russian president briefly but pointedly, said global efforts at disarmament must include space-based weapons systems.

Without specifying the U.S. plan for a system to intercept and deploy, from space, incoming enemy missiles -- President Clinton last week said he was leaving a final decision on deploying the system to his successor -- Putin effectively repeated the opposition of Russian and other nuclear powers to a program they say would give Washington an unfair advantage in the strategic balance of power. Underpinning Russian objections is the fact the U.S. national missile defense, or NMD, would violate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States.

The 21st century "must become a period of real disarmament," Putin said. "Today, we have already succeeding in creating an efficient mechanism for disarmament: Its foundation includes the 1972 ABM treaty; it includes regimes for the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the means for their delivery; and dozens of the most important agreements on the limitation and reduction of different armaments.

"We must reliably block ways for the spread of nuclear weapons," he said, describing the most important effort in that regard as keeping space free of weapons.

"Particularly alarming are plans for the militarization of outer space," Putin said. "In the spring of 2001 we shall be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first flight of man to outer space. That man was our compatriot (Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin), and we are suggesting the organization on that date, under the aegis of the United Nations, of an international conference on the prevention of the militarization of outer space. And, if you, distinguished colleagues, agree, then the place for holding that conference could be Moscow."

Reaction to Putin's proposal was muted, at least publicly, as leaders at the U.N. summit spent the day between the official speeches and informal talks on the sidelines.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard issued a statement saying only that, "The United Nations would like to see the establishment of more multilateral norms for preventing an arms race in outer space."

Elsewhere in New York, Putin and Clinton, who earlier shook hands and sat at the same table at the official summit luncheon, discussed a series of bilateral issues, but disarmament was not a major part of their 90-minute talk, a senior U.S. official said.

"NMD (and) START did not figure very much in this discussion," Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said in a statement released to reporters. "

Putin also met for summit-sideline talks Wednesday with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and the two leaders again expressed their shared objective for creating a "multipolar world" in which the United States is less dominant, Russian news agencies reported.]

In his speech, Putin also called for a ban on the production of enriched uranium and pure plutonium in nuclear power generation. He said Russia is ready to work with the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, in drafting measures to enforce such a prohibition.

---

A Watch, a Shoe and a Cold War Tale

Los Angeles Times
Thursday, September 7, 2000
By NINA KHRUSHCHEVA
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20000907/t000084132.html

"Khrushchev? The one who banged a shoe?" Not again! I wish it had never happened, I thought for the thousandth time when I was asked for the thousandth time if I had seen pictures of the U.N. shoe incident.

I hadn't and didn't want to. For all these years, I was slightly embarrassed by my grandfather's uncivilized behavior, exposed the world over.

In fact, my whole family was, so we never talked about it. Besides, Nikita S. Khrushchev's name was not officially mentioned in the Soviet Union for 20 years after he was dismissed as premier in 1964; as far as the authorities were concerned, the incident had never happened, nor had Khrushchev. But after 40 years, during the U.N. Millennium Summit, I decided it was time to face the truth.

Surprisingly, however, the books I found on international and Soviet politics were inconsistent about the causes and timing of the event. This made me suspicious. Why are the versions so different? Were there pictures? What if it had never happened? What if it was just an anecdote created by public demand, consistent with political needs of the socialist-capitalist division?

A scandalous shoe-banging so conveniently fit the general mode of Khrushchev's behavior. He was well known for interrupting speakers, banging his fists on the table in protest, pounding his feet, even whistling in disagreement. None of this, however, was enough to be transformed into a physical symbol of the Cold War. The shoe, on the other hand, fit right in: Its lowly place had boldly been moved up to the table (tough revolutionaries and manners don't go together) in order to "stamp its foot," signifying the oppressive character of socialism. The sound of a shoe pounding the table was a distinctive Cold War feature, as much as the sound of a gun firing denotes a "hot" war.

The shoe-banging incident conveyed, for the West, a convenient ideological message: Our enemy is ridiculous and uncivilized, therefore he is capable of everything. We too then have to be prepared for anything.

Studying old newspapers as the best record of contemporary events, I felt as if I was in New York that fall of 1960. Fifteen years had elapsed since the end of World War II. Humanity had survived, and East and West were now fighting another war of words and ideologies. Cuba's Fidel Castro was making a big stir. "Hurricane Nikita" used every opportunity to be difficult. President Eisenhower did not try to defuse tensions.

On Oct. 12, 1960, there it was on the front page of all national newspapers: the picture I was looking for so persistently and yet so dreaded seeing. The head of the Philippine delegation to the U.N., Lorenzo Sumulong, was surprised at the Soviet Union's concerns over Western imperialism, since the Soviets had swallowed the whole of Eastern Europe. Khrushchev's reply was angry. He called Sumulong "a jerk, a stooge and a lackey of imperialism," put his shoe on the desk and banged it.

When Khrushchev left the U.S. the next day, he was done with the incident. And when I read about it, I was done with feeling ashamed. In trying unsuccessfully to rehabilitate my grandfather in the world's eyes, I rehabilitated him in my own eyes by understanding his behavior. He felt that the Soviet Union was mistreated by the Western powers: Spy planes flew over Russia; the U.S. imposed an embargo on Cuba; the West rejected the Soviet Union's new disarmament plan.

Capitalists thought of him as a vaudeville character. Fine, he would use the United Nations' stage to show them that he should be taken seriously as a worthy opponent. But he would do it in a manner different from the polite hypocrites of the West with their appropriate words, false niceties and calculated deeds. A provokingly dramatic (or tragi-comic) act of shoe-banging was supposed to separate two worlds, not only in terms of their titles and their politics but also in their means of making diplomacy.

As a good performer, Khrushchev needed a strong, convincing exit from the U.N. and the U.S. In the excitement of fist-banging at the Filipino's words, his watch fell off. Meanwhile his shoes, made of durable Soviet leather, were too new and too tight, and he removed them. He bent down to pick up the watch and saw an empty shoe. These insights I learned from my family. Since the 40-year spell of embarrassment was broken, we were finally ready to talk about those times.

I still think that, had the shoe-banging not happened, it would have been invented. The best anecdote is always the one that truly reflects the morality and character of certain times. The shoe incident became a real symbol of the Cold War, probably the only war in which fear and humor peacefully coexisted.

Today it is old hat--or old shoe. The old U.N. stage has new leaders and new wars and fears. But I find it comforting to know that at times, history gives us a chance to replace a horrifying reality with a funny anecdote.

-

Nina Khrushcheva Is Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute in New York

---

Russian Navy To Inspect Stricken Sub

Associated Press
September 07, 2000 Filed at 9:21 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Nuclear-Submarine.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- The Russian navy will deploy two remote-controlled submersibles to inspect the hull of the nuclear submarine Kursk, which sank last month, killing all 118 on board, officials said Thursday.

The two Rapan submersibles will try to assess the damage to the shattered hull, navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said. The accident that sank the Kursk tore a large hole in its front end.

Close examination of the submarine's hull will likely help determine the cause of the accident, which occurred Aug. 12 during military exercises in the Barents Sea. Russian officials have speculated that the Kursk collided with another vessel, while U.S. officials say they believe a torpedo misfire caused the tragedy.

The unmanned submersibles, which will be operated from the surface with cables, are equipped with special live television cameras, Dygalo said. He did not say when they would be put to work.

Meanwhile, Russian officials were considering sending an observer to watch submarine rescue exercises being conducted by the United States, Italy and Turkey in the Mediterranean Sea, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Thursday.

Russia was criticized for misinformation about the Kursk accident and delayed rescue attempts. The government eventually accepted offers of help from Britain and Norway because it didn't have the equipment and staff needed to pull off a rescue.

---

Gorbachev Chides Putin on Submarine

Associated Press
September 07, 2000 Filed at 2:51 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Gorbachev-on-Putin.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- Looking relaxed, Mikhail Gorbachev joked that he could only take one question at a time because he is 69. He then launched into a warts-and-all assessment of Vladimir Putin, criticizing the Russian president's ``mistakes of style.''

Among Putin's missteps, Gorbachev said Wednesday, was waiting four days to comment on the Kursk submarine tragedy and failing to interrupt his vacation until a week after the sea disaster that killed all 118 seamen aboard.

Gorbachev, who himself was criticized for waiting several days before commenting on the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station on April 26, 1986, said Putin's initial response to the Kursk's sinking was ``inadequate.''

``He made a mistake,'' the former Soviet leader said.

Gorbachev, who set the Soviet Union on the road to democracy, also said Putin failed to explain to the people his economic policies and legislative reforms to bolster governors as the dominant leaders in Russia's regions.

The former leader said he had pointed out these missteps to Putin. An aide said Gorbachev met several times with Putin, with one meeting lasting three hours.

Gorbachev said earlier that the loss of the Kursk was part of an ``acute August crisis'' that also included a bombing at Moscow's Pushkin Square that killed 12 people and a fire that roared through Moscow's giant TV tower, leaving three people dead.

``The cause of the crisis was that the authorities showed a lack of understanding of the need for informing the people -- of glasnost,'' said Gorbachev, using the Russian word for ``openness'' that characterized his six years as the last Soviet communist president.

But Gorbachev, who was in New York to launch a Foundation for the Development of Democracy and World Peace, said Putin's errors were ``mostly mistakes of style'' and that the leader was sensitive to criticism and ``recovered quickly.''

``We need to support the president ... despite the mistakes,'' Gorbachev said.

He praised the Russian press for insisting authorities give the facts about the crippled submarine, but bristled at what he said was the Western press's ``lumping'' of his handling of the Chernobyl explosion and Putin's slow response to the loss of the Kursk. ``The coverage in the West smacked of the Cold War,'' he said.

Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize for his policies that effectively ended the Cold War. He resigned on Dec. 25, 1991, when the Soviet Union broke up, and was succeeded by Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin stepped down at the end of 1999 and was replaced by Putin.

---

Putin Seeks Meeting in Moscow To Ban Weapons in Outer Space

Washington Post
Thursday , September 7, 2000 ; A21
By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25210-2000Sep6.html

NEW YORK, Sept. 6 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin today urged world leaders at the United Nations to hold an international conference in Moscow to ban weapons in outer space, a prohibition that could clash with a possible U.S. national missile defense system.

Though President Clinton recently postponed any decision on the deployment of a national missile defense until the next administration, Putin kept pressure on the United States by saying in his speech that "particularly alarming are plans for the militarization of outer space."

Later in the morning, Putin met with Clinton separately, and Clinton old him that further progress on Russian-sought cuts in strategic nuclear arsenals is linked to making progress on an acceptable missile defense program.

"We the United States are prepared to proceed vigorously with START III, including deeper reductions in strategic weaponry, but that will have to be in parallel with meaningful and productive discussions on strategic defenses," said Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, who attended the talks.

Before heading into his meeting with Putin, Clinton said his move to postpone a decision on a national missile defense deployment "will create an opportunity for President Putin and the next American president to reach a common position, and I hope they can because it is very important that we continue to work together."

Another State Department official said that while there are differences over national missile defense, Russia and the United States will cooperate on theater missile defense and will make a joint assessment of missile threats from small emerging nuclear powers.

The two leaders signed two agreements on nuclear weapons. The two sides committed themselves for the first time to finishing an accord on advance notification of launches of ballistic missiles and agreed on a number of specific steps for implementing by next year the much-discussed shared facility for early warning of missile launches.

Clinton pressed Putin to make more of an effort to stop Russian transfers of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons technology to Iran. Talbott said Clinton "reiterated . . . the extent to which this issue . . . is an obstacle to our ability to cooperate together in other areas." Russia has said that its policy is to block such transfers, but that some individuals and companies have acted on their own.

The two leaders discussed regional issues. Clinton raised concerns about the fairness of the coming elections in Serbia and the possibility of Serbian efforts to destabilize Montenegro, the other republic in the Yugoslav federation.

And Clinton urged Russia to support the sanctions on Iraq that limit its oil exports and its use of oil revenue.

"President Clinton made a very strong push against the notion that Saddam Hussein should be rewarded in any fashion for his continuing pursuit of [weapons of mass destruction] capacity," Talbott said. Many countries have advocated easing the sanctions on Iraq, saying that the sanctions have caused suffering among ordinary Iraqis without bringing down the Iraqi leader.

Clinton also urged Putin to free Edmund Pope, an American jailed on suspicion that he is a U.S. spy. The United States has denied the allegation and has expressed its concern about Pope's deteriorating medical condition.

The meeting opened with a discussion of the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk and the deaths of its crew members. The Associated Press reported that Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, provided some information yesterday to his Russian counterpart, Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov, during a meeting in New York.

Also, the news agency reported that the Navy's top officer, Adm. Vernon Clark, sent a note to his Russian counterpart providing detailed information based on acoustical data collected by U.S. ships on the day of the incident.

---

Putin urges ban on missile shield

Washington Times
September 7, 2000
By Betsy Pisik
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-200097224723.htm

NEW YORK - Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a pre-emptive strike against U.S. plans for a missile-defense shield, called yesterday for the United Nations to convene a conference against the militarization of outer space.

The beginning of a new millennium "must go down in history as a period of real disarmament," Mr. Putin told some 170 heads of state and government assembled at the United Nations for three days of speeches marking the start of the 21st century.

However, in an apparent reference to the U.S. missile-defense program, he said, "particularly alarming are plans for the militarization of outer space."

Mr. Putin noted that next spring will mark the 40th anniversary of the first flight of man in outer space, the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961.

"We are suggesting the organization on that date under the aegis of the United Nations of an international conference on the prevention of militarization of outer space," Mr. Putin said, offering to host the conference in Moscow.

President Clinton, who as leader of the host nation was the first to address the unprecedented gathering of presidents, prime ministers and kings, announced last week that he would leave the decision whether to go ahead with a missile-defense system to the next president.

Asked about Mr. Putin's proposal before a private meeting with the Russian leader, Mr. Clinton did not indicate whether he would accept or object to the idea of a space conference.

"We have worked together on nuclear issues very closely for virtually the whole time I've been in office, and actually, for quite a long time before that, before I became president," Mr. Clinton said.

"The decision that I made last week on our missile defense will create an opportunity for President Putin and the next American president to reach a common position. And I hope they can, because I think it's very important for the future that we continue to work together."

Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said later that Washington was prepared to open talks on deeper arms reductions - but only if they proceed "parallel with meaningful and productive discussion on strategic defenses."

A total of 66 world leaders representing countries as varied as Russia, China, Israel and Pakistan addressed the opening day of the summit yesterday, speaking on issues ranging from global to intensely local concerns.

But the air of excitement and good feeling was marred by the news that three U.N. workers, including one American, had been fatally stabbed and burned overnight in West Timor, Indonesia, a horror that was denounced by several of the speakers.

Mr. Clinton turned the tragedy into a pitch for more U.N. support. He told the audience, which included Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, that the bloodshed in Sierra Leone and East Timor illustrated how the international organization "did not have the tools to finish the job."

"I regret we have to start our proceedings on a somber note," said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who began the Millennium Summit with a moment of silence.

Mr. Annan pointedly held his powerful audience accountable for improving the lives of their citizens.

"You, ladies and gentlemen, are the leaders to whom the world's peoples have entrusted their destiny. They look to you to protect them from the great dangers of our time, and to ensure that all of them can share in its great achievements.

"In this age when human beings have learned the code of human life, and can transmit their knowledge in seconds from one continent to another, no mother in the world can understand why her child should be left to die of malnutrition or preventable disease," he said.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro made similar arguments in his address yesterday afternoon.

But he focused on the responsibilities of a "hegemonic superpower" and other rich nations to their poor neighbors and former colonies.

"Today, it is their moral obligation to compensate our nations for the harm done to them over the centuries," said Mr. Castro, who also lamented that "nature is being devastated before our eyes" and the "trillions of dollars squandered on luxury goods."

Upon arriving at the podium, the Cuban leader took out a white handkerchief and covered the light warning speakers that they are approaching the limit of time allotted. Mr. Castro, famed for speeches that have run for eight hours or longer, drew laughter from his audience. In the end, he adhered to the seven-minute limit.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for nations to make peacekeeping efforts more "robust" and demanded that the Burmese government end its house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin told the world it must lose its old-style Cold War mentality but kept notably silent about a planned U.S. missile-shield plan, which Beijing strongly opposes.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung asked the special U.N. summit to continue backing his bid to unite the two Koreas but made no mention of Pyongyang's decision to boycott the occasion after an airport frisking.

African leaders lamented poverty, the scourge of HIV/AIDS and festering conflicts across Africa, the world's poorest continent, and made impassioned appeals for global help.

President Sam Nujoma of Namibia, who is chairing the summit, and Kenyan leader Daniel arap Moi said Africa deserved international assistance.

"We cannot celebrate our remarkable achievements in science, technology and other areas of human endeavor while millions of our fellow human beings continue to live in a world of deprivation and even starvation," Mr. Nujoma said.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame dismissed the usual excuses for failure to prevent conflict by saying that nations must recognize that every conflict is unique.

As leader of the host country, the president of the United States is always given the first speaking slot at formal U.N. assemblies. After that, positions are awarded by lottery.

This can create apparent incongruities. For example, Mr. Clinton was followed by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the president of Equatorial Guinea.

Status is also important, with heads of state trumping mere foreign ministers for morning podium time.

But horse trading abounds, as when Nicaragua quietly traded its coveted slot yesterday morning to Iranian President Mohammed Khatami. And Iraq postponed Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz's address until today so that Chinese President Jiang Zemin could speak on the first day, within moments of Mr. Clinton.

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

Better accounting of U.S. weapons program needed, officials say

CNN
September 7, 2000
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/09/07/nuclear.workers.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Energy Department officials said Wednesday that there is a need to better catalog the use of civilian industrial sites in the production of America's nuclear arsenal during the Cold War.

Officials, however, did cite documents showing that the use of private companies in the weapons program had been acknowledged and been the subject of government reviews as early as the 1970s.

A report on Wednesday in USA Today said that voluminous government records filed away for decades document how the government relied on hundreds of private companies during the 1940s and 1950s to handle dangerous materials used to make nuclear weapons, exposing thousands of workers to potential health risks.

While some of the most dramatic cases involving private companies had been reported, USA Today said it has documented for the first time the scope of the programs.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said in a statement that the department "has been candid and honest with our current and former workers" about health risks posed by past work on weapons programs. He said this "was especially the case" last year when he personally apologized to Cold War workers put at risk as part of their defense work at certain government nuclear weapons production facilities.

Richardson wants to create a central, computerized database of all facilities -- including private plants and businesses -- that were involved in weapons work.

Officials said it was acknowledged as early as the 1970s that these sites should be evaluated to determine the risks posed to workers and the environment, and that some of these sites have been part of the department's weapons complex cleanup program. One report in 1980 summarized the scope of the review involving 74 sites, according to the department.

In a series of three stories beginning on Wednesday, USA Today reported on material gleaned from a review of 100,000 pages of government records, many of which it said were only recently declassified.

Reporters found the government relied on a vast network of private plants, mills and shops to build the early U.S. nuclear arsenal, with grave health and environmental consequences for thousands of workers and dozens of communities.

Among the major findings:

• The government hired about 300 private companies during World War II to process and produce material used in nuclear weapons production, with at least a third of them handling large amounts of radioactive and toxic material even if they did not have the proper equipment or knowledge to protect workers.

• The government regularly documented worker health risks at many private facilities, producing highly classified reports that detailed radiation exposure rates hundreds of times above safety standards.

• Dozens of private companies contaminated the surrounding air, soil and water with toxic and radioactive waste.

• Both the government and private executives at the companies hid the health and environmental problems.

---

Few health studies targeted private sites

USA Today
09/07/00
By Peter Eisler USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000907/2620251s.htm

Academics and federal scientists have done dozens of studies on illnesses and deaths among workers employed at federal weapons plants.

But there has been virtually no research on people who had often-similar jobs at commercial facilities that the government secretly hired to do weapons work in the years before the government plants were built.

Some of the studies of federal workers found significant increases in the rates of cancer, kidney disease and pulmonary problems linked to radioactive and toxic exposures.

But USA TODAY found only two health studies that focused directly on workers at private contracting sites and one that touched on them tangentially.

A rundown:

* A study of workers at Mallinckrodt Chemical Works, begun after a 1987 series in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch detailed the company's role in early nuclear weapons production, concluded in 1998 that workers had a 10% higher death rate from all types of cancer than the general population.

The rate for lymphatic, esophageal and rectal cancers, however, was 40% above the norm. The study also found a 218% higher rate of kidney illnesses among Mallinckrodt workers.

* A 1987 study of workers at Linde Air Products in Tonawanda, N.Y., one of the weapons program's big uranium refining operations in the '40s, found that workers died of cancer at a rate 18% higher than the general population.

The study, done in response to legal pressure from the union representing Linde employees, also found that workers in the uranium operation suffered respiratory illnesses at rates up to 200% above the U.S. average.

* A study of workers at the government's Mound polonium plant near Dayton, Ohio, noted that workers at Monsanto's Dayton contracting operation in the years before the federal plant was built suffered significant increases in death rates from lung, rectal and other cancers. The study also found that death rates from respiratory diseases were notably higher than the national average.

In 1983, researchers hired by the government to do the Linde study proposed that they also look at workers employed at other private contracting sites, including Harshaw in Cleveland and ElectroMet in Niagara Falls, N.Y. But the proposal was rejected because it would be difficult -- and expensive -- to track all the workers.

---

Entergy Buying Nuke Specialist

Associated Press
September 07, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Entergy-TLG-Services.html

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Entergy Corp. agreed Thursday to buy TLG Services Inc., which specializes in the decommissioning of nuclear power plants, for an undisclosed price.

Entergy said the purchase of the Bridgewater, Conn.-based company would reduce the risk of taking apart its existing nuclear plants and plants it may acquire in the future after the active life of the plants.

Already the owner of five nuclear power reactors at four sites in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, New Orleans-based Entergy bought the Pilgrim Station nuclear plant at Plymouth, Mass. in 1999. The company also has pending purchases of the Indian Point 3 plant and the FitzPatrick plant from the New York Power Authority.

Entergy also is managing the decommissioning of two nuclear power plants: Maine Yankee at Wiscasset, Maine, and the Millstone Unit I at Waterford, Conn.

Founded in 1982, TLG has prepared engineering and cost studies for the decommissioning of 128 nuclear power units and about 200 fossil-fueled units.

TLG's president, Thomas LaGuardia, will remain as president after the company becomes an Entergy operating unit, the companies said.

If Entergy's pending merger with FPL Group Inc. is approved, the new company will be the largest utility in terms of customers, surpassing Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power Co., which has 4.8 million customers. Entergy had 1999 sales of $8.8 billion.

Shares of Entergy were up 43.7 cents to close at $33.63 on the New York Stock Exchange

----

US nuclear workers may have had Soviet-level risks

By Deborah Zabarenko,
Reuters, 14:32
09-07-00
From: Ndunlks@aol.com

WASHINGTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - American nuclear weapons workers may have been exposed to as much potentially deadly radiation as their Soviet counterparts in the early Cold War, and without knowing the risks they ran, a new report said on Thursday.

Some of the U.S. workers were exposed to far higher levels of radioactivity in the 1940s and 1950s than prevailing standards prescribed -- comparable to tens of thousands of times the radiation from a dental X-ray -- and rather than being warned of the risk, were deceived about it, said the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, an environmental watchdog group.

``There is incontrovertible evidence that the (U.S.) government, putting production first, failed to adequately protect the workers or properly inform them,'' the institute's president, Arjun Makhijani, said at a news conference. ``In fact, there's evidence that they deliberately misled them.''

That exposure meant an increased risk of potentially lethal cancer and kidney damage, the institute said in a report released at the news conference.

In one case, at the Harshaw Chemical Co. in Cleveland, workers were told there was ``no unusual hazard'' to them, even as measurements showed radiation in the plant at up to 200 times the ``most popular figure'' of what could be tolerated, the report said.

At the Electro-Metallurgical plant in Niagara Falls, New York, workers routinely worked in areas with more than 500 times the allowable limit of radioactivity in the air, Makhijani said.

The institute was hired by USAToday newspaper to examine data about three of the approximately 150 privately owned plants that processed radioactive and hazardous materials to produce U.S. nuclear weapons.

Makhijani declined to estimate how many workers might have been affected, but USAToday put the number in the thousands.

WORSE THAN SOVIET UNION?

``Until we performed these calculations, all the work that I had done indicated that working conditions in the Soviet Union in the 1940s and 1950s were far worse than in the United States,'' Makhijani told reporters. ``But the highest doses we found were so huge that this assumption needs to be questioned.''

Without data from that time in the Soviet Union's history, Makhijani made no conclusive statements, but said that was a matter for new investigation by Russia and the United States.

Whatever the comparison with the Soviet risks, working conditions in the plants Makhijani's group studied were ``appalling,'' he said.

``Data from all three factories show that the radiation protection standards of the time were routinely violated,'' he said.

Representative Nick Lampson, a Texas Democrat, called for hearings into the so-called ``forgotten'' nuclear weapons plants, and said he planned to introduce legislation this week to remedy the situation.

``It is atrocious that we would allow -- even if it is for national security -- our own citizens to become in greater jeopardy in order to protect ourselves, particularly when we have the knowledge of ... what the dangers were,'' Lampson said after the news conference.

In a letter to Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, Lampson called for immediate public disclosure of information on the nuclear weapons history of the ``forgotten'' sites and a re-examination of the surrounding areas for possible contamination.

The third plant investigated by the institute was the Simonds Saw and Steel Co. in Lockport, New York.

-------- new mexico

Wen Ho Lee Release to Get Hearing

NewsMax.com
Thursday September 7, 2000
UPI
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/7/04054

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hold a closed-door hearing Monday on a judge's decision to release former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee from jail until his November trial on charges of mishandling nuclear weapons secrets.

The Denver-based court announced late Wednesday that a three-judge panel would hear the government's appeal of U.S. District Judge James Parker's decision to release the 60-year-old scientist on $1 million bail and house arrest until his Nov. 6 trial.

The 10 a.m. hearing will be closed because of the national security issues involved, the court said.

Lee, a naturalized citizen from Taiwan, was about to be released on bail last Friday when two judges of the Denver appeals court halted the release. The delay was sought by the government which wanted time for an appeal of Parker's decision.

In a filing with the appeals court Tuesday, Lee's defense team argued that the so-called classified nuclear weapons information downloaded by Lee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory could be sent through the U.S. mail because it poses no danger to national security.

"Surely it does not serve the public interest to maintain an imprisonment (of Lee) that erodes the basic sense of fairness that undergirds the Constitution," the lawyers stated. "Nor does the public interest lie in jailing and shackling a 60-year-old scientist who has had no previous involvement with the criminal justice system."

Lee's lawyers also argued that the government used an FBI agent's false testimony to keep Lee in jail for the past nine months and overstated the importance of the data that the scientist downloaded from the Los Alamos computer files.

Parker has also filed a 17-page memorandum with the Denver court explaining why he decided to release Lee from jail after rejecting his requests for bail twice before.

Parker said Lee did not receive a fair hearing after his initial arrest Dec. 19, 1999, and while he still remains "seriously concerned" about some of Lee's actions, the government has never offered "direct evidence" that he intended to harm the United States.

Lee allegedly downloaded classified nuclear weapons data onto an unsecured computer network open to the Internet and onto 10 portable tapes from 1993 to 1997. The FBI says seven of those files are still missing, but his lawyers contend they were destroyed.

Lee is not charged with espionage, but if he is convicted on the federal charges he could face life in prison.

---

Wen Ho Lee

Los Angeles Times
Thursday, September 7, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20000907/t000084128.html

Re "Appeals Court Delays Release of Wen Ho Lee," Sept. 2: The actions of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and the government in the Wen Ho Lee case smack of the worst sort of Star Chamber proceedings. Indeed, if a totalitarian state had taken these actions, the United States would have been the first to accuse it of the darkest motivations.

At the very least, the appeals court should have allowed the lower court proceedings to take place and, in a proper time and setting, considered arguments from both sides in open court. This action merely continues what appears to be collusion between the law enforcement arm of the government and the courts in denying Lee his constitutional protections.

The Times, and particularly columnist Robert Scheer, should be commended for the coverage given this case. JAMES LOONEY Santa Ana

---

Court to Consider Bail for Scientist In Secrets Case

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By JAMES STERNGOLD
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/national/07LEE.html

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 6 - An appeals court announced today that it would hold a hearing on Monday on whether Wen Ho Lee, the former Los Alamos scientist accused of mishandling nuclear weapons secrets, could be released from prison on bail pending trial.

The announcement comes after prosecutors last week persuaded the court to block a federal judge's decision granting Dr. Lee bail after more than eight months in prison.

The three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, ordered the hearing closed to the public because it may involve the discussion of classified material.

The court has told the lawyers for the two sides that they should be prepared to make 15-minute presentations. It was unclear when the judges might then render a decision.

Dr. Lee was arrested and indicted last December on charges that he illegally downloaded a complete library of nuclear secrets to portable computer tapes with the intent of harming the United States. James A. Parker, a federal judge in Albuquerque, where the case is being heard, ruled at that time that he could not be released on bail because of government charges that he posed a grave threat to national security.

But at a hearing last month, an F.B.I. agent admitted that he had provided misleading testimony about Dr. Lee in December, and several experts disputed government assertions that the information Dr. Lee downloaded amounted to the "crown jewels" of the nuclear program. Judge Parker ordered Dr. Lee released to a highly restrictive form of home detention on $1 million bail. Prosecutors appealed and sought a stay of the bail decision until the appeal was heard.

The appeals court granted the government a temporary stay on Friday. If the appeals court lifts that stay, Dr. Lee would be released to home detention while the appeal of the bail order worked its way through the legal process, which can take months. Dr. Lee's trial is scheduled to begin on Nov. 6.

-------- new york

Nuclear Power Safety

New York Times
September 07, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/opinion/L07NUC.html

To the Editor:

The New York State Public Service Commission, the agency charged with overseeing the restructuring of New York's electric industry, should not rely on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to monitor nuclear safety since that commission was unable to ensure the safe operation of the Indian Point 2 nuclear plant (news article, Sept. 1).

Gov. George E. Pataki should require all relevant state agencies to complete a full public review of nuclear safety before exposing nuclear power to market competition or considering the sale of any of New York's six commercial nuclear power plants.

Just as we regret the hasty construction of nuclear power plants, we will regret hasty electric utility deregulation. New York needs to scrutinize what role, if any, nuclear power should have in the new competitive energy marketplace.

KYLE RABIN
Albany, Sept. 1, 2000
The writer is nuclear energy project director, Environmental Advocates.

-------- us nuc politics

SURVEY OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES EXPOSES DIFFERENCES ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Bush and Gore Fail to Answer Morality Question

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Adam Eidinger or Howard Hallman - mupj@igc.org
September 7, 2000
202-986-6186 or 301-896-0013

WASHINGTON, DC ­ On behalf of 48 religious leaders from a cross-section of faith groups, Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and United Methodist Bishop C. Dale White have released a new ten question survey of presidential candidates on nuclear weapons and disarmament. Replies from George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Ralph Nader reveal policy differences on several issues. Only Nader answered all ten questions of the survey. Neither Reform Party candidate responded. The complete survey results are available online at http://www.umc-gbcs.org/whatsnew.htm .

During a news conference today, the religious leaders expressed concern that neither George W. Bush nor Al Gore answered a question on the morality of possession, threatened use, and actual use of nuclear weapons. "It's disappointing when faith and values are commonly used to describe the guiding philosophy of the major party candidates and neither Bush nor Gore will address the question of the morality of nuclear weapons," said Howard Hallman, coordinator of the survey and chair of Methodists United for Peace with Justice. Nader responded by saying, "Nuclear weapons have no moral or practical use for any purpose except as a deterrent to nuclear threats." Calling the U.S. refusal to adopt a no-first-use policy "political immorality", Nader said that if elected president, the "U.S. will never be the first to use a nuclear weapon in any conflict."

Another question left unanswered by Bush and Gore was how they plan to carry out the obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to achieve nuclear disarmament. A review of the treaty on its 30th anniversary at the United Nations last May produced the strongest commitment ever to the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Yet the Clinton/Gore Administration has not laid out a plan to achieve this goal. As a presidential campaigner, Vice President Gore has not offered a proposal, nor has Governor Bush. Nader, though, presented a six point plan that over time would meet the goals of the NPT.

Other questions exposed sharp disagreements. Both Gore and Nader favor Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) as an important step to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. Bush opposes ratification, saying that the treaty "offers only words and false hopes and high intentions."

On the possibility of taking nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert, Bush and Nader agree that the U.S. should commence de-alerting its nuclear stockpile. Gore emphasized that the U.S. and Russia at this time do not have nuclear weapons targeted at one another. But on the possibility of separating warheads from delivery vehicles, Gore expressed a concern for what might happen in a period of crisis if either side tried to reunite warheads with their delivery systems.

On the START III negotiations the survey reveals a strong commitment by all three candidates to further reductions of the U.S. strategic arsenal, but only Nader specifically said he would be willing to reduce the number of nuclear weapons below the Russian proposed limit of 1,000 warheads For a copy of the survey results please contact Adam Eidinger at 202-986-6186 or Howard Hallman at 301-896-0013.

###

Presidential Candidates Views on Nuclear Disarmament Issues Responses of George W. Bush, Albert Gore, Jr., and Ralph Nader to Ten Questions Posed by 48 Religious Leaders

On August 18, 2000 forty-eight religious leaders from a cross-section of faith groups and geographic areas wrote to the presidential candidates of the Democratic, Green, Reform, and Republican parties, asking a series of questions on nuclear disarmament issues. From the responses of the candidates and their campaign staffs we obtained the views of Governor George W. Bush (Republican), Vice President Albert Gore, Jr. (Democratic), and Mr. Ralph Nader (Green). The two Reform Party candidates declined to respond. The questions and the candidates' answers (and lack of answers) are presented below.

Religious Leaders' Perspective

We look forward to a wholesome debate among the presidential candidates on significant issues that are of great importance to the American people. Among these issues one of the most important is the future of the world's nuclear arsenal. Our own perspective is that the time has come for the United States to provide creative leadership to achieve the global elimination of nuclear weapons

For decades numerous religious denominations, interfaith organizations, and religious leaders have questioned the morality of nuclear weapons and have called for their elimination.

The Sixth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1983 stated: "We believe that that the time has come when the churches must unequivocally declare that the production and deployment as well as the use of nuclear weapons are a crime against humanity and that such activities must be condemned on ethical and theological grounds. Furthermore, we appeal for the institution of a universal covenant to this effect so that nuclear weapons and warfare are delegitimized and condemned as violations of international law."

Speaking for the Holy See, Archbishop Renato Martino in October 1997 told the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly: "Nuclear weapons are incompatible with the peace we seek for the 21st century. They cannot be justified. They deserve condemnation.... The world must move to the abolition of nuclear weapons through a universal, non-discriminatory ban with intensive inspection by a universal authority."

In a message on January 1, 2000 His Holiness the Dalai Lama called for a step-by-step approach to external disarmament. He stated, "We must first work on the total abolishment of nuclear weapons and gradually work up to total demilitarization throughout the world."

In the United States numerous denominations have called for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Recently 21 heads of communion and other religious leaders joined with 18 retired generals and admirals to point out that "the long-term reliance of nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the nuclear powers, and the ever-present danger of their acquisition by others, is morally untenable and militarily unjustifiable. They constitute a threat to the security of our nation, a peril to world peace, a danger to the whole human family." Therefore, they called for "action leading to the international prohibition of these weapons." Questions to the Candidates and Their Replies

(1) What are your views on the morality of possession, threatened use, and actual use of nuclear weapons? To what extent do you agree or disagree with the broad consensus that has emerged within the faith community on the inherent immorality of nuclear weapons?

Governor Bush: Views unknown.

Vice President Gore: Views unknown.

Mr. Nader: "Nuclear weapons have no moral or practical use for any purpose except as a deterrent to nuclear threats. The U.S. government's refusal to adopt a no-first-use policy is a striking example of political immorality. If elected President, I would immediately adopt a policy that the US will never be the first to use a nuclear weapon in any conflict, and would urge other nuclear powers to do the same.

"More broadly, as the first country to use nuclear weapons, and the perennial leader in new technologies for these horrifying weapons of mass destruction, the United States has a moral obligation to take the lead in working for their elimination. The 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty gives us a legal obligation to work for elimination, as well. Gen. George Lee Butler, the retired former commander of both the Strategic Air Command and the U.S. Strategic Command has been eloquent in support of abolition."

(2) We are encouraged that the United States has joined with Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China in making a commitment to "an unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals." This occurred in the Final Document of the 2000 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This commitment carries forward the obligation for good faith negotiations on nuclear disarmament as expressed in Article VI of the NPT, an agreement signed by the United States in July 1968 and ratified by the U.S. Senate in March 1969. If elected president, what specifically will you do during your four-year term to fulfill this commitment?

Governor Bush: Views unknown.

Vice President Gore: Views unknown.

Mr. Nader: "I would:

? Take all nuclear missiles off 'hair-trigger' high-alert status, and urge the Russian President to do the same. The greatest danger of a global nuclear disaster is an accidental launch. De-alerting will not undermine the United States' ability to deter a nuclear strike. There are over 3,000 nuclear warheads on American submarines. Enough are at sea and on alert at any time to assure sufficient retaliation capacity even after a massive first strike.

? Adopt a no-first-use policy, and urge other nuclear powers to do the same.

? Stop nuclear testing, including sub-critical and virtual testing. I would make the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) one of my top legislative priorities.

? Prohibit the deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons outside the United States.

? Push for the ratification of the START II treaty, which Russia has already ratified, work with Congress and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to further reduce the US nuclear arsenal to around 1500 warheads as expeditiously as possible, and begin negotiating a START III agreement that will bring missile levels below 1,000.

? Begin talks with all nuclear nations to develop a framework and a final date for the abolition of nuclear weapons."

(3) For instance, do you favor multilateral negotiations to achieve a global nuclear weapons convention that provides for total elimination of nuclear weapons within a timebound framework with effective verification and enforcement?

Governor Bush: Views unknown.

Vice President Gore: Views unknown.

Mr. Nader: "Yes. Working toward total elimination is the only moral and rational course. The United States, as the sole superpower, has the responsibility to take the lead in such negotiations."

(4) There are interim steps to take in the quest for the elimination of nuclear weapons. For example, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) provides a means of controlling the spread of nuclear weapons. If elected president, will you seek ratification of the CTBT by the United States Senate?

Governor Bush: "Our nation should continue its moratorium on testing. But in the hard work of halting proliferation, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is not the answer. The CTBT does not stop proliferation, especially to renegade regimes. It is not verifiable. It is not enforceable. And it would stop us from ensuring the safety and reliability of our nation's deterrent, should the need arise. On these crucial matters, it offers only words and false hopes and high intentions ­ with no guarantees whatever. We can fight the spread of nuclear weapons, but we cannot wish them away with unwise treaties."

Vice President Gore: "I support ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and I will continue to fight for its ratification. Because of the Treaty's importance to the long-term national security interests of our country, I intend to take this issue to the American people during my campaign for the Presidency, and if elected, my first act as President will be to put the Treaty back before the Senate with a demand from the American people for its ratification."

Mr. Nader: "Nuclear testing poses a grave threat to the environment and public health, and increases the danger of nuclear war by promoting the development of new nuclear-weapons technology. I would both immediately halt all U.S. nuclear test explosions, including sub-critical and virtual testing, and make the ratification of the CTBT a high priority."

(5) Many experts have pointed out the inherent danger of keeping U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert. If elected president, will you embark upon a de-alerting initiative to take strategic weapons off hair-trigger alert? If so, please provide specifics.

Governor Bush: "The United States should remove as many weapons as possible from high-alert, hair-trigger status -- another unnecessary vestige of Cold War confrontation. Preparation for quick launch -- within minutes after warning or an attack -- was the rule during the era of superpower rivalry. But today, for two nations at peace, keeping so many on high alert may create unacceptable risks of accidental or unauthorized launch. So, as president, I will ask for an assessment of what we can safely do to lower the alert status of our forces."

Vice President Gore: In another questionnaire when asked about Admiral Stansfield Turner's proposal that the U.S. take the initiative to create a reciprocal reduction in nuclear alert status by separating warheads from delivery systems and moving the components hundreds of miles away to a storage sites monitored by verification teams, Vice President Gore responded as follows: "Right now, U.S. nuclear warheads are not targeted against Russian targets, and the Russians are similarly "de-targeted." I have concerns about Admiral Turner's ideas because of the way in which they might work out in a period of crisis if either side tried to reunite warheads with their delivery systems. This issue is one that requires further detailed study."

Mr. Nader: "Due to Russia's collapsing military infrastructure, the danger of an accidental nuclear launch is greater now than it was at any time during the Cold War. I would immediately take all U.S. nuclear missiles off of 'hair-trigger' high-alert status, and strongly urge President Putin to do the same. Again, this will not undermine the country's ability to effectively deter a nuclear strike. Taking nuclear weapons off high-alert status is the single most important step we could take towards preventing a nuclear disaster."

(6) During the past fifteen years progress has been made in reduction of nuclear weapons through treaties between the United States and the Soviet Union, then Russia. Two treaties were negotiated under President Ronald Reagan: the Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF) Treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons and the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I). Another treaty, START II, was negotiated under President George Bush. Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated a willingness to negotiate a START III agreement to reduce the number of deployed strategic warheads to 1,000 on each side. However, we understand that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff insist upon keeping 2,500 warheads in active service because of the targeting requirements of current U.S. policy. If elected president, will you change U.S. policy so that deeper bilateral cuts in strategic weapons can occur? Will you negotiate a START III agreement with Russia? What level of strategic warheads will you seek?

Governor Bush: "America should rethink the requirements for nuclear deterrence in a new security environment. The premises of Cold War nuclear targeting should no longer dictate the size of our arsenal. As president, I will ask the Secretary of Defense to conduct an assessment of our nuclear force posture and determine how best to meet our security needs. While the exact number of weapons can come only from such an assessment, I will pursue the lowest possible number consistent with national security. It should be possible to reduce the number of American nuclear weapons significantly further than what has already been agreed to under START II, without compromising our security in any way. We should not keep weapons that our military planners do not need. These unneeded weapons are the expensive relics of dead conflicts. And they do nothing to make us more secure."

Vice President Gore: "I believe in the value of nuclear deterrence for the foreseeable future, but I do not think that we need incremental increases in our nuclear arsenal. In fact, I am interested in seeing our nuclear arsenal reduced substantially through arms control. This Administration is working on the entry into force of the START II Treaty, negotiation of a START III Treaty providing for even deeper reduction in weapons pointed at the United States, and an agreement with Russia to adjust the ABM Treaty to make it possible to defend ourselves against rogue states."

Mr. Nader: "I would push for immediate ratification of START II, and immediately begin negotiations of a START III agreement that will bring missile levels below 1,000. Once we have achieved this level of disarmament we would be in a position to begin talks with all nuclear nations for the negotiation of deeper cuts and the eventual abolition of nuclear weapons.

"The Center for Defense Information reports that the Pentagon's remarkably bloated list of targets for nuclear warheads has actually grown since the end of the Cold War. I would provide the presidential leadership that has been lacking to reduce the target list, which is a major technical barrier to the negotiation of a START III agreement."

(7) Complementary to nuclear arms reduction through treaties is the undertaking of reciprocal initiatives through executive action. This was the approach used by President Bush in 1991 when he took unilateral action to deactivate a large number of U.S. strategic weapons and to withdraw most U.S. tactical nuclear weapons stationed outside the United States. A few weeks later Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev reciprocated with similar actions. Would you as president use similar reciprocal initiatives to achieve such objectives as de-alerting and significant reductions in the nuclear arsenal? If so, please provide specifics.

Governor Bush: "These changes to our forces should not require years and years of detailed arms control negotiation. There is a precedent that proves the power of leadership. In 1991, the United States invited the Soviet Union to join it in removing tactical nuclear weapons from the arsenal. Hugh reductions were achieved in a matter of months, making the world much safer, more quickly. Similarly, in the area of strategic nuclear weapons, we should invite the Russian government to accept the new vision I have outlined, and act on it. But the United States should be prepared to lead by example, because it is in our best interest and the best interest of the world."

Vice President Gore: Views unknown.

Mr. Nader: "I would use reciprocal initiatives in parallel with treaty negotiation. In particular, as discussed earlier, I would act immediately to take all nuclear weapons off of high alert, and work to reduce the number of deployed, strategic warheads to 1500. Both of these could safely be done unilaterally, with strong urging that Russia follow suit"

(8) We note that numerous retired generals, admirals, and national security civilian officials have indicated that nuclear weapons have no war-fighting utility. We also know that Presidents Truman and Eisenhower chose not to use nuclear weapons in the Korean War and that Presidents Johnson and Nixon chose not to use nuclear weapons in the Vietnam War. Do you see any utility for nuclear weapons in war? If so, please tell us the categories of targets you as commander-in-chief would consider legitimate to strike with nuclear weapons.

Governor Bush: "Deterrence remains the first line of defense against nuclear attack." Governor Bush's views are unknown on war-fighting utility of nuclear weapons or specific targeting.

Vice President Gore: "America must maintain its nuclear strength, with adequate offensive forces to ensure deterrence." Vice President Gore's views are unknown on war-fighting utility of nuclear weapons or specific targeting.

Mr. Nader: "The only practical use of nuclear weapons is as a deterrent to nuclear threats from other countries. They should not be used for any other purpose whatsoever."

(9) If your reply indicates that nuclear weapons are useful only to deter other nuclear weapons, would not the wisest and safest course of action be to achieve the universal elimination of nuclear weapons through such measures as previously identified?

Governor Bush: No comment. Vice President Gore: No comment.

Mr. Nader: "I agree completely. As I have said above, we should set complete elimination of nuclear weapons as a long-term goal, and immediately begin taking concrete steps to de-alert, deactivate and eliminate nuclear weapons."

(10) Are there other initiatives you plan to undertake for the elimination of nuclear weapons?

Governor Bush: "If elected President, one of my highest foreign policy priorities will be to check the contagious spread of weapons of mass destruction, and the means to deliver them. We must work to constrict the supply of nuclear materials and the means to deliver them by making this a priority with Russia and China. Our nation must cut off the demand for nuclear weapons by addressing the security concerns of those who renounce these weapons. And our nation must diminish the evil attraction of these weapons for rogue states by rendering them useless with missile defense.

"In an act of foresight and statesmanship, Sen. Richard Lugar and Sen. Sam Nunn realized that existing Russian nuclear facilities were in danger of being compromised. Under the Nunn-Lugar program, security at many Russian nuclear facilities has been improved and warheads have been destroyed. I'll ask the Congress to increase substantially our assistance to dismantle as many of Russia's weapons as possible, as quickly as possible."

Vice President Gore: "I support the program that our Administration has developed with North Korea to forestall plutonium production development, a central element of which is to support the financing of a non-threatening type of reactor for nuclear energy. I also support our efforts to work with Russia to reduce the size of its nuclear weapons establishment, such as the Nuclear Cities Initiative, and I have personally engaged, through the U.S-Russia Binational Commission, in efforts that have resulted in the safe demilitarization of over 1500 Russian nuclear warheads. Similarly, I have worked for removal of nuclear weapons, plutonium, and enriched uranium from the states of the former Soviet Union."

Mr. Nader: "I would phase out the use of nuclear power in the United States, stop the US government from promoting nuclear power abroad, and work toward the global abolition of nuclear energy. History shows that it is impossible to separate the "peaceful atom" from the potential proliferation of nuclear weapons. As part of the phase-out, I would immediately ban the conversion of plutonium into Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel, a particularly ill-advised procedure. I would push for a global ban on the production of weapons-usable fissile materials.

"I would halt all research into the design of new nuclear weapons, including improving existing types and creating new types. The U.S. has all the nuclear weapons that it ever needs. Further research is likely to destabilize our position by making other countries feel threatened, and could damage our security directly when our ideas leak out and are copied. There are no benefits except to contractors at our national labs and military contractors in general. It is time to put the interests of the people of this country and the world above the profits of General Dynamics and Lockheed-Martin.

"I would abandon research into the useless and wasteful National Missile Defense program, and re-confirm the United States' support for the ABM treaty.

"I would cancel the Department of Energy's plans to produce tritium, and push for legislation to ban the production of tritium in the United States. Current tritium plans assume no progress on arms control. The U.S. has a sizable inventory of tritium, and tritium can be recovered from scrapped nuclear warheads. If we can even approach levels already negotiated in START II, or discussed for START III, there will be no need for new tritium far into the future. If elected President, I will devote my energy to making sure that nuclear arms are reduced lower still."

Sources

Governor George W. Bush. Information provided by campaign staff: (1) Speech on "New Leadership on National Security" given in Washington, D.C. on May 23, 2000; (2) not yet published answers to questions from an arms control organization.

Vice President Albert Gore, Jr. (1) Answers to questions posed by Council for a Livable World, November 1999; (2) speech at International Press Institute, Boston, MA, April 30, 2000; (3) Al Gore web site.

Mr. Ralph Nader. Statement entitled "Ralph Nader's Response to Interfaith Questionnaire on Elimination of Nuclear Weapons", received September 6, 2000.

Signers of Letter to Presidential Candidates

Gary Baldridge, Global Missions Coordinator Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Atlanta, GA

The Most Reverend Victor H. Balke Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Crookston Crookston, MN

Bruce Birchard, General Secretary Friends General Conference Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Philadelphia, PA

The Rev. Leonard B. Bjorman, Co-Chair Presbyterian Peace Fellowship Syracuse, NY

The Right Reverend Frederick H. Borsch Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA

J. Daryl Byler, Director Washington Office Mennonite Central Committee U.S.

Bishop Kenneth L. Carder Nashville Area, United Methodist Church Nashville, TN

C. Wayne Carter, General Secretary (Interim) Friends United Meeting Richmond, IN

The Rev. Dr. Forrest Church, Senior Minister All Saints Unitarian Church New York, NY

The Most Reverend Matthew H. Clark Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Rochester
Rochester, NY

The Right Reverend John P. Croneberger Bishop Coadjutor, Episcopal Diocese of Newark Newark, NJ

The Rev. Dr. James Dunn, Visiting Professor Wake Forest Divinity School Winston-Salem, NC

The Most Reverend Patrick F. Flores Archbishop, Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio San Antonio, TX

The Rev. Dr. James Forbes, Jr., Senior Minister Riverside Church New York, NY

Rabbi Arthur Green Professor, Brandeis University Waltham, MA

The Most Reverend Thomas Gumbleton Auxiliary Bishop, Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit Detroit, MI

The Right Reverend Ronald H. Haines Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Washington Washington, DC

Howard W. Hallman, Chair Methodists United for Peace with Justice Bethesda, MD

The Right Reverend Sanford Z.K. Hampton Assistant Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Olympia Seattle, WA

Dr. Susannah Heschel Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies Dartmouth College Hanover, NH

Kathleen S. Hurty, Executive Director Church Women United New York, NY

Thomas J. Jeavons, General Secretary Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Philadelphia, PA

Rabbi Mordechai Liebling Jewish Reconstructionist Federation and The Shefa Fund

Rabbi Michael Lerner Editor, TIKKUN Magazine San Francisco, CA

Rabbi Richard N. Levy Director of Rabbinical Studies, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Los Angeles, CA

The Most Reverend Raymond A. Lucker Bishop, Catholic Diocese of New Ulm New Ulm, MN

Bishop Ernest S. Lyght New York Area, United Methodist Church White Plains, NY

The Rev. Dr. Clinton M. Marsh, Former Moderator Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Atlanta, GA

Bishop Joel B. Martinez Nebraska Area, United Methodist Church Lincoln, NE

Rabbi Paul Menitoff, Executive Vice President Central Conference of American Rabbis New York, NY

The Right Reverend William D. Persell Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Chicago Chicago, IL

Don Reeves, General Secretary (Interim) American Friends Service Committee Philadelphia, PA

Judy Mills Reimer, Executive Director Church of the Brethren General Board Elgin, IL

The Rev. Meg A. Riley, Director Washington Office for Faith in Action Unitarian Universalist Association Washington, DC

Rabbi David Saperstein, Director Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism Washington, DC

Dr. Ronald J. Sider, President Evangelicals for Social Action Wynnewood, PA

Dr. Glen Stassen, Professor Fuller Theological Seminary Pasadena, CA

The Rev. Ron Stief, Director Justice and Witness Ministries United Church of Christ Washington, DC

The Most Reverend Walter F. Sullivan Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Richmond Richmond, VA

Bishop Melvin G. Talbert California-Nevada Area, United Methodist Church West Sacramento, CA

The Rev. John H. Thomas General Minister and President United Church of Christ Cleveland, OH

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director The Shalom Center Philadelphia, PA

The Rev. Dr. Daniel W. Weiss, General Secretary American Baptist Churches USA Valley Forge, PA

Bishop C. Dale White United Methodist Church Newport, RI

Marilyn M. White, Co-Chair Presbyterian Peace Fellowship League City, TX

The Right Reverend Arthur B. Williams, Jr. Bishop Suffragan, Episcopal Diocese of Ohio Cleveland, OH

The Rev. Dr. Albert C. Winn, Former Moderator Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Winston-Salem, NC

The Rev. L. William Yolton, Executive Secretary Presbyterian Peace Fellowship Alexandria, VA

September 7. 2000
For further information, contact the facilitator of this project:

Howard W. Hallman, Chair Methodists United for Peace with Justice 6508 Wilmett Road Bethesda, MD 20817
Phone/fax: 301 896-0013 E-mail: mupj@igc.org

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

A defense that won't work
Missile shield: Clinton's postponement of a decision was sensible and responsible.

Baltimore Sun
Sep 7 2000
http://www.sunspot.net/content/opinion/story?section=opinion&pagename=story&storyid=1150430207023

PRESIDENT CLINTON did right in postponing a decision on deployment of the limited nuclear missile defense until the next presidency.

To have pressed past the point of no return now would have been somewhere between folly and disaster. The arguments against are growing while those supporting the proposal are tentative at best.

The Pentagon is reported to be postponing its next test of feasibility until January for technical reasons, two out of three tests having failed. The Navy has an alternative idea of how to do it.

To start building a radar station in the Aleutians for deployment would break the antiballistic missile treaty with Russia on which nuclear stability rests, provoke China and alienate allies for a defense that so far does not work against a danger that has receded.

The decision on whether to deploy or not is best left to the next president and Congress, after more tests. Both Al Gore and George Bush have endorsed the missile shield, Mr. Bush more enthusiastically. Each should have the wit not to box himself in. The next president should start with all options open. He will have himself to blame if they are not.

The national missile defense at issue is designed to shoot down nuclear-tipped intercontinental missiles in space, but only those of smallish countries that now lack that capability. The United States could wipe them out. The theory is that mad rulers of rogue states are too irrational to be deterred by threat of massive retaliation.

One trouble with this is that the prime candidate for this profile, Kim Jong Il of North Korea, has launched peaceful probes of the outside world's intentions suggesting a verifiable moratorium on missile development as a bargaining chip. To spurn that for something that costs $60 billion to start and might not even work would be risky defense, dangerous diplomacy and wacky budgeting.

Limited national missile defense is promised to be too little to stop a fusillade from countries now or soon capable of it, namely Russia and China. Mutual assured destruction (MAD) is the doctrine of stability inherited from the Cold War.

The catch is that these two governments don't admit to believing that the missile defense would be all that limited. They say they would be provoked to develop more missiles, though Moscow has been incapable of maintaining what it has.

Any rational decision on national missile defense based on present information would be to abort it. An alternative, which President Clinton adopted, is to postpone the decision until more information is had in a calmer atmosphere.

Meanwhile, research on defense against theater missiles should go ahead, as should development of mobile small forces to deal with the real problems posed by rogue states. It would be extreme folly to allow fantasy games to weaken the real defenses of the United States.

---

Police arrests nine pickets at Raytheon plant

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7, 3:25 pm Eastern Time
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000907/n07217473_2.html

BOSTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Police arrested nine union members walking a picket line outside the Raytheon Co. missile plant in Andover on Thursday, Andover Police Chief Brian Pattullo said.

Pattullo said he called in 75 members of his police department's tactical unit to quell what he described as ``hysteria'' outside the Raytheon plant that assembles Patriot missiles.

One police officer was injured during the melee.

``Being on strike doesn't mean you can break the laws of the commonwealth and shove my officers around,'' Pattullo said. ``We're not going to stand for that.''

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1505 went on strike against the No. 3 U.S. defence manufacturer 12 days ago when they rejected a contract claiming that employees had insufficient job guarantees.

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Teamsters join Raytheon strikers, despite arrests

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7, 7:46 pm Eastern Time
By Leslie Gevirtz
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000907/n07396666.html

BOSTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The International Brotherhood of Teamsters promised that 1,000 of its supporters would join the picket line outside Raytheon's missile plant on Friday where striking electrical workers have pounded the pavement for 12 days.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1505 went on strike against Lexington, Mass.-based Raytheon Co after rejecting a contract they said had insufficient job guarantees.

And even as the Teamsters join the picket line at the No. 3 U.S. defence maker's Andover, Mass. plant, both sides are supposed to resume talks with a mediator.

On Thursday, the small town of Andover massed 75 police in riot gear at the picket line outside the main entrance to the plant that makes Patriot missiles, in response to what the town's police chief called the strikers' ``hysteria.''

A shoving and shouting match between police and strikers ensued. Nine pickets, including members of both unions, were arrested on charges ranging from suspicion of assault to obstruction.

George Cashman, head of the Teamsters Local 25, said his members ``wanted to do something meaningful'' for the IBEW workers on strike and said he expected 1,000 of his members to show up on the line on Friday.

``We're confident that the local authorities can continue the splendid job they've done assuring the safety of people both on the picket lines and those entering and exiting our facility,'' Raytheon spokesman David Polk said.

Both unions have run into trouble recently with federal authorities.

In August, a federal grand jury investigating allegations that Teamsters Local 25 engaged in extortion of Hollywood movie executives making such films as ``The Perfect Storm'' and ``The Cider House Rules'' issued subpoenas.

During the past decade, Local 1505's leverage with the company has weakened as its membership has dwindled to about 3,000 from 10,000 in 1991. The union's leadership also has come under fire amid charges it rigged the June 1999 election of 16 officers.

U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Donald Stern filed a civil suit against the local in July seeking to invalidate the results and force a new election.

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Hoover Institution Fellows on National Missile Defense, Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks, the U.N. Millennium Summit, the IMF, Electricity Deregulation, and Education Reform

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7, 1:10 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000907/ca_hoover_.html

STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 7, 2000--Fellows at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University are available to comment on the following topics. They may be reached directly or through the Office of Public Affairs at 650/723-0603.

National Missile Defense

Bruce Berkowitz, Research Fellow. Expertise: National security affairs, technology policy, defense and intelligence issues. Author: Best Truth: Intelligence in the Information Age (with Allan Goodman, Yale University Press, 2000) and The Need to Know: Covert Action and American Democracy (with Allan Goodman, 20th Century Fund, 1992). Contact by e-mail at bdb@pop.erols.com.

Abraham D. Sofaer, Senior Fellow. Expertise: International relations, national security affairs, United Nations peacekeeping and nation building. Legal adviser, U.S. Department of State, 1985-1990. 650/725-3763.

Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks and the U.N. Millennium Summit

Charles Hill, Research Fellow. Expertise: Middle East peace process, international political affairs. Served as special consultant on policy to the secretary-general of the United Nations from 1992 -1996. Author: Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Saga (co-authored with Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Random House, 1999). Contact at Yale 203/432-6291.

International Monetary Fund and Electricity Deregulation

Lawrence J. McQuillan, Research Fellow. Expertise: International and labor economics, industrial organization, and political economy; electricity deregulation. Co-editor of The International Monetary Fund--Financial Medic to the World? A Primer on Mission, Operations, and Public Policy Issues (Hoover Institution Press, 1999). Author: ``Electricity 'Dereg': How Much Will You Save?'' in Consumer's Research (August, 1999). 650/723-0603.

Education Reform

Williamson M. Evers, Research Fellow. Expertise: Education, especially curriculum and instructional policy, public policy and political theory. Author: What's Gone Wrong in America's Classrooms (Hoover Institution Press, 1998). Evers' op-ed columns have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Christian Science Monitor. 650/723-4148.

Eric A. Hanushek, Senior Fellow. Expertise: Education finance and reform, class size policy, economics of education. Author: Making Schools Work (Brookings Institution, 1994). 650/736-0942.

Terry M. Moe, Senior Fellow. Expertise: Education policy, school choice and vouchers; Moe has challenged a recent survey by Phi Delta Kappa finding support for school vouchers on the decline -- declaring the language of the survey negatively frames the voucher issue. Author: Politics, Markets, and America's Schools (with John E. Chubb), editor of Private Vouchers (Hoover Institution Press, 1995). 650/725-8212.

Contact:
Hoover Institution, Stanford University Caleb Offley, 650/723-1454 Offley@Hoover.Stanford.edu www.Hoover.org

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Clinton faulted about missile shield

Washington Times
September 7, 2000
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-20009722427.htm

The Clinton administration and congressional Democrats slashed funds and curtailed programs, causing the current problems with U.S. defenses against missile attack, according to a report by the chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee on proliferation.

"If it were not for the actions and decision made by the Clinton administration . . . we would have had in place today a system that would have protected the United States from a limited ballistic missile attack," Sen. Thad Cochran, Mississippi Republican and the subcommittee chairman, told reporters in releasing the findings.

"The facts clearly show [the Clinton administration] dragging its feet, not moving aggressively to develop and deploy a ballistic missile defense system," he said.

The senator said Mr. Clinton "misjudged the nature of the threat" and "did not have confidence the scientific community . . . could come up with usable solutions" to problems of hitting high-speed targets in space.

The 93-page report, "Stubborn Things: A Decade of Facts About Ballistic Missile Defense," is a chronology beginning in 1991 of federal funding of programs for missile defense systems - those capable of shooting down missiles or warheads before they hit targets.

It shows that the administration cut funding for national missile defense in its fiscal 1994 budget by 60 percent - a reduction of $1.8 billion from earlier Pentagon proposed budgets.

The president also ordered cuts of $2.5 billion in overall spending on missile defenses beginning in February 1993.

Other actions that hampered development include the administration's refusal for several years to recognize growing missile threats, its reliance on reaching agreements rather than building defensive systems, and its opposition to Republican missile defense initiatives.

"The report contains a compilation of key facts on missile defense since 1991," Mr. Cochran said during a speech yesterday. "I believe it will remind us that actions have consequences."

In a sign of its lack of support for national missile defense, the administration in February 1999 put off by two years the deployment of two infrared satellite systems to monitor foreign missile launches.

It also imposed minimal sanctions on China and Pakistan following Beijing's sale of M-11 missiles, which violated U.S. antiproliferation law.

The administration proposed in 1996 to build a national missile defense system in six years that would be ready for deployment in 2003. That date was later extended to 2005, and on Friday President Clinton said the earliest a system could be deployed is 2006 or 2007.

Mr. Clinton said he would not order deployment because of developmental problems and opposition from foreign governments, mainly Russia.

"The decision to delay deployment of NMD is the latest in a long trail of bad decisions by the Clinton administration on ballistic missile defense," Mr. Cochran said at a conference of defense analysts.

Mr. Cochran said later at the news conference in the Capitol that despite the president's claims to the contrary, Russia was given a veto over U.S. missile defense deployment.

The report provides a detailed analysis of Democratic opposition to funding and developing missile defense, both against short-range and long-range attack.

For example, between fiscal 1991 and 1995, the Democratic-controlled Congress cut annual funding for national missile defense by 15 percent to 64 percent of Pentagon requests.

The cuts for national missile defense peaked in fiscal 1995, when the Clinton administration requested $226 million, a cut of $3.9 billion from the Bush administration program.

After Republicans took control of Congress, spending on national missile defense increased every year, from 101 percent to 14 percent of administration budget requests.

• John Godfrey contributed to this report

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The missile defense dodge

The Washington Times
September 7, 2000
J.D. Williams
http://208.246.212.80/op-ed/ed-column-20009718228.htm

President Clinton's decision to pass the National Missile Defense (NMD) decision to the next president is the only good decision he has made concerning missile defense.

Mr. Clinton has consistently failed to defend America and has politicized missile defense to the extent that any decision he made would not be credible. Mr. Clinton has again paced the polls and for the first time made the right decision for America on this issue - although for the wrong reasons.

The Clinton administration has paced the polls, but not the threat. It has made the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty the cornerstone of defense policy rather than considering all available options for an effective NMD, e.g., boost-phase, sea-based, space-based, and, the most effective of all, a layered defense consisting of a combination of these.

The ABM Treaty between the United States and Soviet Union was right for the times when only they had Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). It's now outdated since the Soviet Union no longer exists and several other unfriendly nations have or will soon have ICBMs. Most legal scholars agree the treaty is no longer valid, including Richard Nixon before he died and Henry Kissinger.

Mr. Clinton has consistently misled the American people on the possibility of missile attack from rogue states ("states of concern") like Iran, Iraq, Libya, and North Korea, indicating it is not possible before 2015. In June 1998, the bipartisan Rumsfeld Commission unanimously concluded that North Korea, among other nations, could build ballistic missiles "to inflict major damage on [the United States] within about five years of a decision to acquire such a capability." The commission also concluded that, during several of those years, the intelligence community "might not be aware that such a decision had been made." The Clinton administration initially disputed the commission's findings. But, as if to emphasize this latter conclusion, North Korea launched a three-stage Taepodong I missile over Japan on Aug. 31, 1998, and nearly to U.S. territory - surprising the intelligence community and discrediting its objections to the commission's findings.

The intelligence community does not dispute that the Taepodong 2 missile, when developed, will be able to deliver nuclear weapons at least to the American Northwest. Furthermore, if North Korea used the same staging technology demonstrated by the Taepodong I launch, it could reach all 50 states with chemical or biological weapons.Because the Taepodong 2 program existed in 1998, North Korea could threaten the United States with ballistic missiles at least by 2003.

On Sept. 1, Mr. Clinton acknowledged in his national security remarks - delivered at Georgetown University - that "North Korea has a missile that could pose a threat to America, that in a moment of desperation, such a country might miscalculate, believing it could use nuclear weapons to intimidate us from defending our vital interests or from coming to the aid of our allies or others who were defenseless and clearly in need, and, the system (his proposed NMD system) could be deployed sooner than any of the proposed alternatives."

The Clinton administration has never seriously considered any alternatives other than a single land-based site. Common sense, however, dictates that the nation should not arbitrarily restrict its options and then wonder why the system it deploys might not be effective. Administration policy precludes even unrestricted development and testing of a sea-based NMD system, not just deployment.

This policy makes it clear that the Clinton administration has pursued a policy of purposeful ignorance. It does not want to know which system(s) will really be the most effective. The administration's real goal has been to preserve an "adjusted" ABM Treaty by proposing a missile defense, however ineffective, that it hopes Russia would support. Mr. Clinton's September remarks are telling: "Now, here's the issue: NMD if deployed would require us either to adjust the treaty or to withdraw from it, not because NMD poses a challenge to the strategic stability I just discussed, but because by its very words, NMD prohibits any national missile defense."

The current sea-based version of theater ballistic missile defense, called the Navy Theater Wide (NTW) missile program, could be accelerated and built upon to provide a pathway to NMD capability years sooner. Indeed, this program is the only hope of beginning to defend American territory as soon as 2003. But this cannot be done under the current program. Instead, a top priority streamlined management approach is needed like the Navy used in the late 1950s to build - in only four years - our first strategic submarine and submarine-launched ballistic missile.

Just as then, the program must be funded at a technology limited pace. Skeptics and pundits say we can't build a ballistic missile defense because of the last failed attempt to intercept an ICBM target; they say the technology is not ready. But that failure had nothing to do with ballistic missile defense technology; it was a basic missile-engineering problem on an aging rocket booster that's been in use for 40 years. Even our best strategic missile systems are not perfect and even in its prime, the launch success rate was no better than 90 percent for that booster. Ballistic missile defense technology is ready. It's Mr. Clinton's policy that isn't ready. I am confident our ballistic missile experts can build an effective NMD if the president allows them to do so.

Mr. Clinton stated in his September remarks that, "Still, though the technology for NMD is promising, the system as a whole is not yet proven." Try and imagine how effective our Cold War defenses would have been if President Eisenhower had insisted that the Navy could not proceed building the Polaris Program until the "system as a whole is proven"? Do you believe we would have ever put a man on the moon in any decade with this approach?

NMD will never be perfect; there is no such thing as a perfect defense against anything, especially something so challenging and complex as ballistic missile defense. Even in defense against aircraft, a single missile interceptor has historically been successful less than 50 percent of the time. The solution to the air defense problem has been a layered defense, e.g., start shooting early and at a long range so that you have many independent opportunities to intercept the target. Layered defense works for aircraft, and it will work for ballistic missiles. True, the interceptor would periodically hit a decoy rather than the warhead; but the second or third shot will hit the target. The discrimination problem has not been fully solved, but workable solutions are available against the current threat and better ones are being developed to handle tomorrow's threat.

After returning to the Pentagon in 1991 from being assigned commander Sixth Fleet, I convinced the chief of Naval operations and secretary of the Navy that the country needed the Navy to take on the mission of theater ballistic missile defense. The Navy accepted that mission in 1992 and has developed a sound ballistic missile defense development program with the help of Congress and in spite of the Department of Defense. Ambassador Henry Cooper, then Director of SDIO (Strategic Defense Initiative Office), directed $4.85 billion in 1992 for the Navy's ballistic missile programs (DOD subsequently took more than $2 billion back). We knew at the time that the Navy's Exo-Atmospheric missile, now called the Navy Theater Wide (NTW) missile, had NMD potential and would someday be urgently required. That day has arrived.

Two congressionally mandated studies determined that the most effective national missile defense would be a combination of land and sea-based systems. Mr. Clinton's proposed land-based site is composed of credible and effective components, e.g., EKV (Exo-Atmosphere Kill Vehicle), radar, command and control; and we should deploy one land-based site. But a single site, or even adding the optional North Dakota site, does not provide effective missile coverage of all 50 states and territories, and provides no defense for our allies, forward-based NMD radars, and sea-based threats.

The next president should direct the Pentagon to conduct a thorough study of all possible options on how to best defend America against ballistic missiles (unconstrained by politics and the outdated ABM treaty). He should augment the proposed land-based site by building an interim/limited sea-based system by 2003 for less than $2 billion. This could be accomplished by using the existing NTW Standard Missile 3 Block I with a sensor external to the Aegis Cruiser. Testing has already begun.

Since Mr. Clinton has delayed the Alaskan NMD radar, a ship based NMD radar could be used as a sensor. He should also make the decision to deploy and start building one land-based site in the optimum location to be completed by 2006 for $30 billion (CBO estimate). The location should be determined based on the study considering combined sea and land-based systems. And he should build an improved sea-based system by 2005-2006 for $4-6 billion; this system, combined with the land-based site, would provide robust NMD.

Augmenting the land-based system with sea-based systems would result in a much more effective NMD system that could be deployed sooner for less money (a second land-based site is estimated to cost $22 billion and would not be ready until 2010). Sea-based systems would provide the following additional advantages: a layered defense consisting of boost-phase intercepts for some countries, increased shot opportunities, defense against sea-launched threats, coverage of our territories, mobility to mass along the threat axis, and effective coverage of the weak spots inherent in the proposed land-based site.

Rather than not build NMD and hope "they may not come," I recommend we pursue a policy of "build it and they will not come." We need a president who is committed to building NMD with a sense of urgency.

Ret. Vice Admiral J.D. Williams was deputy chief of Naval operations and former commander of the U.S. Sixth Fleet. He is considered the "father" of Navy ballistic missile defense.

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Cray supercomputer finds afterlife on eBay

CNET
September 07. 2000
By TROY WOLVERTON, CNET NEWS.COM
http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_0_4_2718503_00.html

If you're looking to buy a supercomputer, you can find one on eBay now.

The Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center is auctioning off a used Cray Research Y-MP C90 supercomputer. With less than two days left in the auction, bidding has reached more than $44,500.

Michael Schneider, a science writer for the supercomputer center, said the idea to auction off the Cray started as a whim. The center recently received funds from the National Science Foundation to build a new supercomputer and needed space for the new system.

Schneider said the company planned to have Cray Research take the computer away, but one of his colleagues at the center half-jokingly suggested selling it on eBay instead. People got to thinking, 'Why not?' he said.

I have to admit, I'm a little bit surprised. I had no idea that there actually would be a market for it.

The Cray C90, which the center placed on eBay on Friday, is not the first high-powered computer to be auctioned on the leading auction site. Sun Microsystems has been experimenting since December with auctioning off some of its workstations and motherboards on San Jose, Calif.-based eBay.

But the Cray machine is in a whole different league from the Sun systems. Using 16 parallel processors and capable of performing 16 billion calculations per second, the C90 sold for around $10 million when it debuted in 1991.

In contrast, the current Apple PowerMac G4 Cube, which can perform about 1 billion calculations per second, sells for about $2,300. And current Cray computers have reached speeds of up to 1 trillion calculations per second, using up to 2048 parallel processors.

The Pittsburgh center took its Cray offline in May 1999, but scientists used the machine in its heyday to create models of all sorts of physical systems requiring complex calculations. While the Pittsburgh machine was used for nonmilitary purposes such as modeling thunderstorms, scientists used similar supercomputers to do nuclear weapons research.

It's so amazing to me how far and how quickly supercomputers have come along, said Steve Conway, spokesman for Seattle-based Cray. That 1991-era machine was the awe of the world at that time.

Among the bidders on the machine is Bruce Waldack, chief executive of Alexandria, Va.-based ThruPort Technologies. Waldack bought an Apple I last year for about $50,000 and said he would like to add the Cray to his growing collection of revolutionary computers.

I am a rather eccentric collector of items, Waldack said. I collect a great many things, but this is a bug that I probably shouldn't have gotten.

If he wins the auction--which he says he is determined to do--Waldack does not plan to put the Cray to work. Instead, he plans to put it on display. And doing that could end up saving him a few dollars to collect a few more classic computers. According to Conway, the C90 costs about $50,000 to $100,000 a year to maintain in working order.

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N-Testing Update -- Senate vote on National Ignition Facility (NIF)

From: Daryl Kimball - dkimball@clw.org
September 7, 2000

After extensive negotiations with Senator Domenici this afternoon Senator Harkin (D-IA), offered a substitute amendment to his earlier Harkin-Reid-Fiengold amendment to cut the Administration's request for $74.1 million in construction funds for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Livermore National Lab.

The amendment limits the FY 2001 appropriation for NIF construction to $74.1 million and would require the the admin. shall provide for an independent review by the NAS on whether it is required to maintain the existing nuclear weapons arsenal and whether there are alternatives, what are the costs, what are the effects of potential costs on other SSBS programs, and whether its scope should be limited (to a smaller number of beam-lines). (Please check the Congressional Record for exact amendment wording.)

After a good, 15 minute speech from Harkin and a short and seemingly impromptu rebuttal from Kyl on the importantance of NIF, the amendment was accepted by voice vote and now goes to conference where it is likely to be the subject of some further wrangling.

The provision, if it survives conference, promises to provide the time and information necessary to for a more thorough evaluation of NIF's real utility (or lack thereof) to maintaining the arsenal without nuclear test explosions, and the cost-effectiveness of its contribution to stockpile stewardship relative to other SBSS projects. The amendment would also effectively block approval of DOE's amended budget request for $95 million in additional funds for NIF.

The following issue brief "National Ignition Facility: DOE Claims of Troubled Facility's Utility to Stockpile Mission Overstated" (see below) is designed to help sort out the facts on the issue of NIF's role -- or lack thereof -- in maintaining the safety and reliability of the existing nuclear weapons arsenal. Thanks to Chris Paine of the Natural Resources Defense Council for providing the material for the initial draft and for technical guidance and review.

Also attached below are several news articles that provide further detail on the growing inter-lab debate over NIF and the Congressional funding reprecussions up to this stage.

- DK

Attached below are:

Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers Issue Brief: ""National Ignition Facility: DOE Claims of Troubled Facility's Utility to Stockpile Mission Overstated," September 7, 2000

"Will Livermore Laser Ever Burn Brightly?" Science Magazine, August 18, 2000

"Lab experts pay to plead for N.M. project," The Albuquerque Tribune, September 5, 2000

"AUDIT INCREASES POSSIBILITY OF SCALED-DOWN IGNITION FACILITY," Nuclear Weapons Materials Complex Monitor, September 5, 2000

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COALTION TO REDUCE NUCLEAR DANGERS -- ISSUE BRIEF

"National Ignition Facility: DOE Claims of Troubled Facility's Utility to Stockpile Mission Overstated"

VOL. 4, NO. 16, September 7, 2000

FOR OVER FIVE years, the Department of Energy has told the public and the Congress that a new, multi- billion dollar laser project based at Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) is a key part of its "Science- Based Stockpile Stewardship" (SBSS) program to maintain the nuclear arsenal in the absence of nuclear test explosions. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the latest, and most ambitious, of a long string of high-energy lasers at the nuclear weapons laboratories that have failed to meet their specifications as "drivers" for laboratory microfusion experiments. The current design calls for 192 laser beams with a total energy of 1.8 megajoules to converge on a millimeter-scale fusion target, with the avowed purpose of getting "ignition" -- defined as getting more fusion energy out of the target assembly than the laser deposits in it, for an energy "gain" marginally greater than one.

DOE's quest for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) long predates both the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and DOE's subsequent Stockpile Stewardship Program. The decision to pursue Livermore's glass laser technology as the next step in the ICF program was taken in 1990, two years before Congress passed a moratorium on nuclear tests and established a deadline for the Executive to negotiate a CTBT, and five years before the DOE formally proposed (in May 1995) its Stockpile Stewardship strategy.

In an attempt to increase Congressional support for the project, DOE has vastly overstated the technical importance of the NIF and its relevance to the task of maintaining a safe and reliable nuclear weapons stockpile. Consequently, many Senators who strongly support the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) - and many of those who oppose it - mistakenly believe that NIF is critical to maintaining the present arsenal in the absence of nuclear weapons test explosions.

DOE Underestimates the Cost and Complexity of NIF

Now, the NIF project faces technical hurdles and soaring costs that brings into question the technical relevance and funding priority previously assigned to the project. According to a General Accounting Office (GAO) report released last month, managers of the NIF project knowingly understated the likely cost of the facility and repeatedly played down or ignored technical and project management problems, causing $2 billion in cost overruns. Fearing that Congress would not fund a more expensive project, the GAO reports says "DOE and laboratory officials associated with NIF told us they recognized it would cost more than planned but that they accepted this unrealistic budget in the belief that Congress would not fund NIF at a higher cost and that the value of NIF to the future of the [Livermore] Laboratory overshadowed potential cost concerns."

The GAO report also said managers of the NIF project at LLNL, operated for DOE by the University of California, first knew about technical problems in the summer of 1998, but did not inform senior DOE officials until June 1999. The GAO report, "National Ignition Facility: Management and Oversight Failures Caused Major Cost Overruns and Schedule Delays," is available on-line at <http://www.gao.gov/new.items/rc00271.pdf

GAO estimates that NIF's cost has ballooned to nearly $4 billion dollars and that the project will not be completed until 2008, six years later than originally scheduled. The GAO warns that, "unresolved technical problems may further drive up the cost of NIF." The GAO report recommends "that the Secretary of Energy arrange for an outside scientific and technical review of NIF's remaining technical challenges as they relate to the project's cost and schedule risks" to ensure an effective independent review.

GAO also said that the Secretary should not reallocate funds from other nuclear weapons programs to NIF until: "DOE (1) evaluates the impact of its cost and schedule plan, as well as any other options for NIF, on the overall nuclear weapons program; and (2) certifies that the selected NIF cost and schedule plan will not negatively impact the balance of the Stockpile Stewardship Program."

In response to the GAO critique and continuing technical and budgetary problems facing the project, the DOE and LLNL are seeking Congressional approval for an additional $95 million (on top of the original $74.1 million Administration funding request for NIF construction.) Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) told The New York Times on August 19 that he does not favor the change and stated, "My own assessment would be that the GAO report will haunt it."

DOE Overstates NIF's Utility

DOE continues to overstate the case for NIF at the cost of misleading the public and the Congress about its utility to supporting the nuclear weapons stockpile, and at the risk of irreparably damaging DOE and the nuclear weapons lab credibility on stockpile stewardship. DOE continues to tell the press and members of Congress that NIF is a high priority facility in the SBSS program and that LLNL will not be able to re-certify its stockpile weapons without NIF, including certification of two key strategic weapons now being "refurbished," the W76 warhead of the Trident I submarine-launched ballistic missile and the W80 for the sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missile.

This is not the view of key Los Alamos and Sandia weapons scientists, nor is it the view of many former nuclear weapons scientists. Chuck Cranfill, a nuclear weapons code scientist, and George York, a laser expert, both of Los Alamos National Laboratory, told the Albuquerque Tribune on September 5 that "NIF has very little chance of success [i.e. achieving ignition], even if the laser works as advertised. Bob Puerifoy, former vice- president of Sandia National Laboratory, said in the 1996 DOE Environmental Impact Statement for Stockpile Stewardship and Management that: "NIF is worthless ... it can't be used to maintain the stockpile, period."

The fissures between the national nuclear weapons laboratories over NIF are becoming wider as Los Alamos and Sandia become more concerned that the rising cost of the Livermore project will be paid for by shifting funds from their programs.

NIF's Role in Stockpile Stewardship: Sorting Fact from Fiction

In reality, NIF experiments cannot be used to analyze proposed changes in weapons, and NIF has no direct role in the annual certification of nuclear weapons or modifications to those weapons. NIF's role in maintaining stockpile reliability and safety is entirely indirect and prospective in nature. From a technical perspective, warhead certification does not and need not depend on NIF now or in the future.

NIF's INDIRECT relevance to SBSS is through its potential contributions to the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI), DOE's effort to develop a three dimensional simulation of an exploding nuclear weapon. As a component of this strategy, NIF would: (1) increase DOE's stock of knowledge regarding the properties or weapon materials at high temperatures and pressures; (2) allow "validation" of 3-D weapon code predictions ASSUMING fusion ignition and modest energy gain can be achieved; and (3) provide a challenging scientific and technical work environment that will attract the next generation of stockpile "stewards" to Livermore, assuming of course, that a second nuclear design laboratory is needed in the post-Cold war era.

Contribution (1) is a useful but by no means essential requirement for maintenance of a safe and reliable stockpile, as much of the data obtained will still require extrapolation to the weapons regime. Contribution (2) requires not only ignition of a fusion reaction -- which looks improbable at this point -- but also modest energy gain, so that experimenters can confirm the ability of the new ASCI codes to predict the effect of fusion capsule design changes on nuclear yield. Contribution (3) is perhaps the most significant, but the NIF project is now so expensive that one may plausibly argue that it's no longer a net plus for Livermore -- completing NIF will divert funds from other attractive scientific career paths at Livermore and at the other labs as well.

A Closer Look

Even without the promised - and now increasingly improbable - benefits of NIF, the United States can maintain a robust Stockpile Stewardship program, based on enhancing our surveillance capabilities, completing the restoration of capabilities for weapon remanufacture, and conducting experimental programs at other above-ground DOE facilities -- such as hydrodynamic testing facilities -- that are more directly relevant to the resolution of stockpile problems. In the very least, Congress should take the time necessary to evaluate more carefully NIF's real utility (or lack thereof) to maintaining the arsenal without nuclear test explosions, and the cost-effectiveness of its contribution to stockpile stewardship relative to other SBSS projects.

###

The Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers is a non-partisan alliance of 17 of the nation's leading non-proliferation organizations. For further information on the National Ignition Facility and stockpile stewardship, contact: Christopher Paine of the Natural Resources Defense Council (804-244-5013) or Daryl Kimball of the Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers (202-546-0795 x136), or see <http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nif/nifinx.asp *The views and analysis in this paper do not necessarily reflect those of every member of the Coalition.

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"Lab experts pay to plead for N.M. project"
Los Alamos scientists said their complaints about government spending on the National Ignition Facility in California seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

The Albuquerque Tribune,
September 5, 2000
By Lawrence Spohn Tribune reporter

Some of the billions of dollars being spent on a California nuclear weapons laser would be better spent on more promising technology in New Mexico, two Los Alamos nuclear weapons scientists told the Department of Energy this summer. Chuck Cranfill, a nuclear weapons computer code scientist, and George York, a laser expert, said they went to Washington on their own time and at their own expense to try to persuade the Department of Energy to scale back financial support for the National Ignition Facility at the DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to finance a competing laser concept in New Mexico.

The scientists say it has a better chance of succeeding in the department's ultimate goal for the program: nuclear fusion that would replicate, on a small scale, the explosion of a thermonuclear bomb. Both men work in the highly classified X Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

"We thought if we were perceived as independent scientists who took the time and trouble to do this at our own expense and on our own time that maybe these concerns would get raised in one of their meetings and that might prompt a serious reassessment" of NIF, Cranfill said.

Dissent has rumbled throughout the nuclear weapons establishment about the high cost and unproven science behind the Livermore laser, but little of that dissent has been made public. Sandia National Laboratories President C. Paul Robinson was censured by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson in May for his lab's criticism of NIF. Robinson apologized for making the internal criticism public but did not retract the criticism itself.

Cranfill said he and York spoke with Richardson and Robin Staffin, Richardson's national security affairs senior policy adviser, at DOE headquarters in Washington on June 2. York said he told Staffin that the evidence is overwhelming that NIF is but another in a 20-year line of over-sold, very expensive and scientifically over-optimistic lasers in DOE's military fusion program.

"I thought (Staffin) was going to fall asleep, he seemed so disinterested," York said. On Friday, DOE press officer Lisa Cutler said she was unable to obtain comment from Staffin, who was on vacation. She said Staffin and the DOE take the efforts of York and Cranfill seriously, but the DOE remains committed to "full deployment of the NIF" despite its acknowledged problems with cost and development.

The criticism offered by York and Cranfill is at odds with recent scientific reviews of NIF and Livermore Lab's representations to DOE, Cutler said. NIF is scientifically sound and remains an "important component" in the national stockpile stewardship program, she said.

York and Cranfill say nuclear weapons scientists generally do not agree with that view. "The (military fusion) program (at the three nuclear weapons labs) is literally littered with lasers of failed promise," York said.

In a view graph he said he presented to Staffin, York argued, "NIF has little chance of success, even if the laser works as advertised." Several reviews have now determined that "even the laser is a research project," he said, meaning Livermore scientists still haven't resolved all of its technical difficulties in the three years since NIF's groundbreaking.

Cranfill, who originally opposed NIF because he believes it has almost no chance of achieving its key milestone of fusion ignition, added, "But now they can't even guarantee that the laser itself will work." The two made their presentation to Richardson and Staffin before release of an investigative report by the General Accounting Office, which found the NIF to be profoundly overbudget and behind schedule.

NIF science questioned

Cranfill said he told Staffin: Livermore's estimate that NIF has a 50 percent to 60 percent chance of achieving ignition is "greatly exaggerated" because it is based on faulty computer code calculations.

Those calculations were only validated on Livermore's Nova laser, which achieved only one-sixtieth the energy that NIF is supposed to reach.

NIF predictions are also faulty because they are based on data collected during the Centurion/Halite underground nuclear tests in which nuclear bombs were used to drive fusion fuel targets -- but at 100 times the maximum energy NIF might reach.

A more realistic estimate of NIF chances of success is only 5 percent to 10 percent, which "probably does not justify the large price tag."

Allocating additional funds to NIF will likely reduce funding for the overall stockpile program and the budgets of Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs in New Mexico.

NIF's ultimate failure "would seriously damage the prestige and credibility of the entire stockpile program and (would actually) undermine the national security."

NIF's failure could also further undermine already shaky congressional confidence in the nation's nuclear weapons labs and in the belief held by many scientists that fusion energy is achievable.

NIF battle escalates to open war

Livermore and DOE officials insist that NIF, if fully funded, still has a good chance of fulfilling its mission and that most of its technical difficulties have been resolved. At a congressional field hearing in Albuquerque last month, Livermore Director Bruce Tarter acknowledged NIF's problems have "raised a lot of eyebrows" but that several reviews have concluded its fundamental science is sound and that it remains crucial to stockpile stewardship, the nuclear weapons testing program that replaced actual bomb testing.

The DOE this month is expected to continue pressing Congress for full-funding and completion of NIF, which in terms of cost is the nation's biggest science project. Congressional skepticism, however, was recently aggravated by the GAO report, which said NIF remains mired in difficulties and will cost a total of $3.9 billion and six additional years to complete. Cranfill, York, Sandia Labs and several nuclear watchdog groups openly favor limiting NIF to its existing budget, which could mean reducing the gigantic 192-beam laser array to a 48-beam fusion test bed. Experts all agree that at the reduced level NIF will never ignite a fusion target.

"Let them prove they can operate the laser at that level, and if they can, then consider adding the other beam lines in succession," said Cranfill.

The Senate is expected to vote this week on its bill that contains only original funding for NIF at the $1.2 billion budgeted level, but that is only the opening salvo in the coming fray, says a congressional staffer.

"DOE and Livermore are going to have to make the case for why we should go forward with roughly a $3.5 billion NIF, instead of what was thought (by Congress) to be a $1.2 billion NIF," said Clay Sell, chief staff member for the Senate Subcommittee on Water and Energy Development of the Appropriations Committee.

Sell said Richardson -- who returns to Washington this week from a trip to Russia -- has sent a letter to congressional leaders asking for $135 million more for NIF next year.

Disagreeing with the GAO analysis, Richardson told Congress NIF will require double its original budget -- not triple -- for completion. Sell said Richardson expects to transfer $25 million from the Sandia and Los Alamos budgets to help NIF. The project is creating problems with the entire DOE budget for the weapons labs, he said. He said, for example, that Sen. Pete Domenici, the Albuquerque Republican who is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and the Subcommittee on Energy and Water, is frustrated with NIF's threat to an already stretched $4.5 billion nuclear weapons program budget. In those terms NIF's total cost represents nearly an entire year's budget for the whole nuclear weapons problem.

"It's already wound too tight," Sell said. "And NIF explodes the costs. It just doesn't work. "Where do you take the money from? From (bomb) pit production at Los Alamos? From secondary (bomb core) production? From the MESA project at Sandia?" Sell asked. "Where does that money come from and what impact does it have on the balance of the program and the other labs?"

Sell noted NIF appears to be losing friends on both sides of the aisle. He said that during a hearing, the minority ranking committee member, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, said he is fed up with NIF, DOE and Livermore, and considers NIF a boondoggle that should be stopped.

Likewise, Pete Lyons, science adviser to Domenici, said, "I think it's fair to say Sen. Domenici is not going to allow money to be taken away from the other nuclear weapons labs (Sandia and Los Alamos) to pay for NIF." The NIF funding proposal is expected to go before Congress near the middle of this month.

Other options York and Cranfill say most weapon scientists know options to the glass laser technology underlying NIF exist. The alternatives, they say, not only could achieve the nuclear weapons program goal for simulating nuclear weapons blasts -- they could also open a path to civilian nuclear fusion reactors within the next century. While Sandia's high output X-Ray Z accelerator is among those, York and Cranfill say they favor the hydrogen fluoride laser proposal of fusion physicist Leo Mascheroni.

York said he told DOE's Staffin that his assessment is that the hydrogen fluoride laser, proposed in 1985 by Mascheroni, who was working at the time on nuclear weapons codes in the X-Division, "is the only viable technique to attain the energy level that would guarantee ignition and (fusion energy) gain." He said the concept could be tested "at relatively low cost," about $10 million for the laser and no more than $40 million for the target chamber and experimental program. Ultimately, he said, a full size hydrogen fluoride laser capable of achieving fusion would be comparable in cost to NIF, but the chances of success would be much greater.

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Will Livermore Laser Ever Burn Brightly?

The National Ignition Facility is supposed to allow weapons makers to preserve the nuclear arsenal--and do nifty fusion science, too. But a new report that examines its troubled past also casts doubt on its future

Science Magazine,
August 18, 2000
Charles Seife and David Malakoff

LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA--The easiest way to start a fusion reaction is to detonate an atomic bomb. However, the United States swore off thermonuclear weapons testing in 1992, leaving scientists to find other ways to create and study fusion reactions. The National Ignition Facility (NIF), a superlaser being built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, is designed to overcome that problem by using lasers, rather than nuclear explosions, to create a fusion reaction. At an estimated cost of nearly $4 billion, it's the most expensive single project in the Department of Energy's (DOE's) research portfolio.

But NIF is over budget and way behind schedule. Originally, DOE officials estimated that the project, approved in 1993 and due to be finished in 2002, would cost about $2 billion. But not long after Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson announced at a June 1999 ribbon-cutting ceremony for NIF's target chamber that the project was "on cost and on schedule," officials were staggered by a string of revelations that stunned supporters and critics alike. First, NIF chief Michael Campbell resigned after admitting that he had never finished a claimed Ph.D. from Princeton University. Then an angry and "gravely disappointed" Richardson announced that Livermore officials had withheld news of serious technical and managerial problems (Science, 10 September 1999, p. 1647). The cover-up eventually cost several Livermore employees their jobs--and lab chief Bruce Tarter his annual raise. Finally, after months of review and a sweeping reorganization, DOE officials concluded in June that the laser's costs would jump to $3.26 billion, and that completion would be delayed until 2008.

The turmoil is far from over. Next month, just as DOE delivers a long-awaited final update on the project's cost overruns, congressional critics are likely to try to kill or cut back the project, the latest in a long series of attacks. Even some of NIF's scientific and political allies are beginning to talk openly of a scaled-down version of the original 192-beam design. More than laser science is at stake: NIF's demise could drag down the Clinton Administration's $4.5-billion-a-year stockpile stewardship program, which was sold as a way to maintain the nation's nuclear arsenal without testing. Loss of the laser could also gut the Livermore lab, which depends on the project to pay salaries and attract new talent.

The critics have a new piece of ammunition: Last week, the General Accounting Office (GAO), Congress's investigative arm, completed a much-anticipated analysis of NIF's problems that finds plenty of things wrong. In a report to the House Science Committee, the GAO criticizes DOE and the University of California (which operates Livermore) for poor management and inadequate oversight. It also assigns the project a new, higher price tag of $3.89 billion. GAO chides lab officials for beginning construction of NIF's stadium-sized building before final plans for the laser were finished, producing a space that proved smaller than ideal. Beneath these administrative missteps, GAO says, lie engineering and physics challenges that are draining budgets. In addition to tighter fiscal reins, GAO recommends an "outside scientific and technical review of NIF's remaining technical challenges."

Although public officials are likely to talk mostly about money and management in the coming battle, NIF will ultimately stand or fall on whether scientists and engineers can overcome the daunting technical challenges. So far, NIF backers are confident. George Miller, an associate director at Livermore who oversees the project, says the lab can handle whatever problems arise. But he admits there are no guarantees. "In science, there is no sure thing," he says. "There are risks and uncertainties. We do our best to ensure that the risks are understood and acceptable."

Explosive science At its core, NIF is an expensive--and poor--substitute for an atomic bomb. After all, even a weak nuclear explosion can set off a healthy fusion reaction. In contrast, when NIF is fired up and ready to go, the world's most powerful laser will focus its stupendous energy on a BB-sized pellet of heavy hydrogen that might or might not fuse (see p. 1128).

That is because fusion reactions, unlike fission ones, are notoriously tough to start. Whereas fissile atoms, like uranium-235, break apart with the slightest nudge, deuterium and tritium need a huge kick to overcome their mutual repulsion and fuse, releasing energy. In the core of our sun, this kick is supplied by the collective gravitational attraction of hydrogen. On Earth, however, it's a much trickier thing to do.

Without the luxury of nuclear tests, scientists have been forced to look for another way to study fusion. The most promising method, and the one with the most direct applications to weapons research, uses lasers instead of bombs to start a reaction. This is what NIF is meant to do. When fully outfitted, NIF's stadium-sized laser will shoot 192 beams onto the inner surface of a small gold cylinder, called a hohlraum, that is smaller than the cap of a pen. The intense laser pulse will flash-fry the gold so that it radiates x-rays. Those x-rays, in turn, will smash into a hydrogen-filled pellet in the middle of the hohlraum, causing the outer layer of the pellet to evaporate. Just as a rocket is driven into the air by the explosion of hot gas out of a nozzle, the pellet will be crushed by the explosion of hot gas in all directions. Ideally, the hydrogen inside will be crushed so densely that it will ignite.

NIF packs nowhere near the energy of a nuclear weapon; the Hiroshima bomb, for example, was 30 million times more powerful than NIF's target energy. Still, NIF is incredibly potent by laser standards. Its 1.8 megajoules are nearly 60 times the energy of the previous laser record holders: NOVA at Livermore and OMEGA at the University of Rochester. Discharging all that energy in a few nanoseconds, the peak power will be 500 terawatts, more power than the entire world uses at any given moment.

Although many take issue with the assertion, DOE claims that this brief flash of fusion energy will allow scientists to model the workings of the nuclear weapon's "secondary," the fusion part of a hydrogen bomb. In DOE's eyes, this makes it a cornerstone of stockpile stewardship (Science, 18 July 1997, p. 304).

Technical challenges Building components that can handle NIF's power, from laser glass to the tiny targets, is the challenge at the heart of the project's technical problems. Even the hardiest materials degrade, explode, or eventually fail when subjected to such energy densities. Any one of the laser's more than 200 capacitors, for instance, "can vaporize and turn into a gas," as several did during tests at Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico in 1998, says physicist David Smith of Sandia: "The shock wave breaks the insulation on the capacitor, which shoots out as shrapnel." As a result, engineers had to redesign the capacitor's shielding, putting each capacitor in a three-eighths-inch (0.95 cm) steel shell with flapper doors at the bottom. When one explodes, the doors pop open and the debris sprays toward the floor.

Producing laser glass in the necessary quantities and of sufficient quality is another ponderous task, and very costly. Early attempts to produce the 150 tons of neodymium-doped glass needed for NIF were marred by moisture- and platinum-based impurities. The problems forced Livermore and the manufacturers--Schott Glass Technologies in Pennsylvania and Hoya Corp. in California--to redesign their manufacturing methods, with some success. After much effort, Schott recently produced more than a ton of glass that is up to the proper specifications.

Even with glass that's up to snuff, the slightest speck of dust can burst into flame and destroy components. As a result, NIF components are assembled in clean rooms and are toted around by robotic trucks with superclean interiors. After initial difficulties with cleanliness, the problem appears to be under control, but only by straining an already overtaxed budget and further extending the construction schedule.

Other technical hurdles are equally daunting. The biggest is overcoming the so-called "three-omega" problem. (Omega is the symbol used by physicists to denote frequency.) The neodymium-doped glass produces light in the infrared region of the spectrum. According to John Lindl, a key NIF physicist, too much energy in the beam at long wavelengths produces a situation in which "you can't get light" to the target due to scattering effects. The energy is wasted and doesn't contribute to compressing the target. The problem is much smaller at higher frequencies, however, such as the ultraviolet region of the spectrum. Thus, NIF will use slices of enormous potassium- and phosphate-based crystals to triple the infrared beam's frequency (the three omegas) into the ultraviolet range. This solution, which predated NIF plans, required NIF scientists to invent another manufacturing process.

Unfortunately, ultraviolet beams are deadly to optical systems, especially at high power. As a result, these powerful beams of light cause small defects in the optics assemblies that handle the frequency- converted light, such as the lenses that focus the beam onto the target. These defects grow exponentially with each shot. At NIF's full power, the optics will have to be replaced every 50 to 100 shots or so.

"The three-omega optics were designed to be replaced," says Ed Moses, NIF's project manager. "The issue is how frequently you need to replace them." At a rate of once every 50 to 100 shots, operating NIF at full power--the requirement for ignition--would be extremely expensive. "This does not mean that NIF does not work or will not work," says Moses. "The question is how much will it cost to work?" He hints that an etching process might extend the optics' lifetime to about 1000 shots. But last year a NIF review committee suggested that the problem was so severe that it required a "significant materials science R&D program." The GAO also thinks that the three-omega problem poses "... a major technical challenge ... " and notes that "... there is currently no solution for this problem." Moses doesn't think the problem is a showstopper, although he acknowledges its impact on the budget. "Again, it does not prevent NIF from working; it just doesn't meet spec with respect to the operational costs," he says. "[But] we have several years to work it through."

Even if the optics function properly and last long enough to keep the project within its budget, there are more fundamental physics problems that might derail NIF. Many involve the last stage of a laser shot-- the moment when the pulse of light strikes the hohlraum and the resulting x-rays strike the supercooled target capsule full of hydrogen. At that instant, it's important that the x-rays compress the target in an entirely symmetric fashion. Even a tiny asymmetry in the implosion will cause the contents of the BB to squirt out in all directions, rather than to compress and ignite.

Tiny lumps on the target capsule's surface, uneven distribution of deuterium ice inside the target, and minute asymmetries in the incoming x-rays all create tiny ripples in the imploding plasma. As the capsule gets ever more compressed, those ripples get bigger and bigger. The result is a series of cold fingers invading the central core of hydrogen, causing the hot plasma to squirt in all directions. "We're basically trying to shrink a basketball-sized thing into a pea--it's a 30- to 40-fold convergence," explains Livermore's Lindl. "It's an inherently unstable process. [The plasma] doesn't want to be squeezed at these high densities and high velocities; it wants to break up into a bunch of droplets."

Removing imperfections in the target eases the problem. "The outside of the [target] has to be smooth to within 50 nanometers on a millimeter-scale object," says physicist Steve Haan of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. That's less than the height of a building-sized bump on Earth. The layer of deuterium and tritium ice on the inside has to be similarly smooth, to within about one micrometer.

Happily, the laws of physics offer some help. It turns out that a deuterium-tritium ice layer smoothes itself out. Because tritium is radioactive, it is constantly emitting electrons that warm up the surroundings; the more ice there is in a certain region, the hotter it gets. "It naturally produces a nice spherical shell," explains Haan. "It's really pretty cool, like a gift from nature."

But what nature gives, it can also take away. NIF's target capsule will be made of plastic or doped beryllium, but each type has its problems. Plastics, such as polystyrene, are relatively easy to manufacture to the required smoothness--and they allow scientists to see the layer of hydrogen ice inside so they can check the quality of the fill. Unfortunately, plastics aren't very good for the implosion itself, because they don't ablate, or vaporize, very well.

Beryllium is much better, especially when a small amount of a heavier metal such as copper is added. But the metal is opaque, so it's impossible to assess whether a beryllium target has been filled properly. Worse yet, it's difficult to make a perfectly round and hollow beryllium sphere.

"We could not, this instant, build a target that meets all of the NIF specs," concedes Livermore's Miller. "But we have demonstrated the technology that we're confident will allow us to make those targets when we need them."

Political realities In the wake of NIF's problems, however, such assurances are less than totally convincing to the members of Congress who must approve NIF's funding. Spending panels in both houses have so far declined to give NIF the extra $150 million that DOE officials have requested to keep the project from falling ever farther behind schedule. Instead, they are waiting for the results next month of what DOE bills as an "exhaustive" review. And some lawmakers, including Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), have already said that NIF's poor track record has made them more stingy.

At a budget hearing last month, Reid tangled with Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), who argued that any shortfall would trigger layoffs and harm recruiting. That debate is likely to be repeated again next month, when the full Senate debates DOE's funding bill. With the added ammunition of the GAO report, several senators are rumored to be preparing amendments that would kill the project outright. But aides predict that NIF supporters will eventually prevail. "There is a great hesitation to imperil stockpile stewardship and Livermore, even though many members don't like what's happening with NIF," says one House aide.

One potential hitch, however, involves how DOE proposes to pay for NIF's overruns. If NIF takes too much money away from other parts of the stockpile stewardship program, for instance, it could anger Defense Department officials and scientists at Livermore's sister labs--Sandia and Los Alamos--in New Mexico. That might lead Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), a powerful player in lab budgeting, to take a dim view of NIF. So far, however, DOE has not publicly shared its funding plans, and Domenici has expressed only "concern" about NIF's future.

Concern about NIF may spread once the community digests the GAO report. Agency investigators, for instance, fault the lab for shunting aside fundamental scientific questions in favor of short-term engineering and construction fixes: "The laboratory [focused] too much attention on meeting construction goals at the expense of conducting and integrating necessary research and development solutions," the report concludes. Outside scientists agree. "Instead of pouring glass, they should be poring over data," says Bedros Afeyan, a plasma physicist at Polymath Associates, an independent consulting firm in Livermore.

Amid the uncertainty, Livermore chief Bruce Tarter is upbeat. "If we can get through the [DOE] review and get an initial OK by Congress to at least proceed," says Tarter, "... then I think I'm pretty--no, I'm very--confident that we're going to succeed."

But success may be hard to define. In 1995, Livermore envisioned carrying out six experiments a day at NIF; now they hope for two. And even achieving ignition is far from assured. "Half the value of NIF is in ignition," says Miller. "For me, if it doesn't get ignition, that will be a major disappointment."

Even without achieving ignition, however, NIF is expected to reveal properties of hydrogen at high temperatures and pressures that should be useful to astrophysicists as well as weapons designers. "NIF will provide good science," says Sandia physicist Rick Spielman. "It can do some really, really slick stuff." But without ignition, NIF won't be able to look at even higher pressure and temperature regimes that are critical to nuclear weapons designs. "It would have a significant impact" on the weapons program, says Spielman.

Miller agrees that if NIF fails to achieve ignition it could jeopardize political support for stockpile stewardship. "If we're not good enough to do NIF," he asks, "why should [Congress] believe us when it comes to stockpile stewardship?"

--

"AUDIT INCREASES POSSIBILITY OF SCALED-DOWN IGNITION FACILITY"

Nuclear Weapons Materials Complex Monitor,
September 5, 2000

GAO Report Adds to Congressional Skepticism Charges by Congressional auditors that the Energy Depart-ment has understated the total cost of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF) and that Department and lab officials have misled Congress on the costs of the program, coupled with growing skepticism on Capitol Hill that the project deserves to be funded to the detriment of other weapons programs, could well result in a new strategy-one apparently backed at least in theory by key legislators, including Senate Energy and Water Develop-ment Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.)-of developing an "intermediate position" in which the facility would be constructed with 48 or 96 beams, rather than the full contingent of 192 beams that Energy Department and Lawrence Livermore officials support.

According to a Domenici aide, Congress' willingness to provide DOE the money to go directly to a 192-beam array is "very limited, to put it kindly," and a scaled-down system is being viewed as more palatable. "Congress has been burned badly on this," the aide commented. Senators' reservations about continuing on a path to a full laser array, first laid out in the report accompanying the Senate Appropriations Committee's FY 2001 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill (NW&M Monitor, Vol. 4 No. 17), were reinforced by the General Accounting Office's scathing criticism of the Energy Department's management of the NIF in its report, National Ignition Facility: Management and Oversight Failures Caused Major Cost Overruns and Schedule Delays (GAO/RCED-00-141), which was released last month. In addition to concluding that DOE officials have underestimated the costs of the project, GAO determined Department officials also have failed to fully analyze the effects of increased NIF expendi- tures on the rest of the Stockpile Stewardship Program and have moved funds to the NIF to cover increased costs. According to GAO, Congress cannot know with assurance just how much NIF will cost, where in DOE's budget the money will come from, what impact NIF will have on the overall nuclear weapons program, or how long it will take to complete, even though 1-1/2 years have passed since the Laboratory first ques-tioned whether it could meet its most recent cost and schedule.

Auditors Consider Limited Array The GAO report does discuss the well-publicized disagree-ments among the three weapons laboratories on whether or not to proceed with a full 192-laser facility, and reveals Lawrence Livermore officials may be softening their previ-ously unyielding insistence on proceeding immediately to the full 192 beams. According to the report, the associate director for NIF Programs at Lawrence Livermore "believed Livermore might accept a 'pause' in completing NIF of about 3 years at the 120-beam level." The same official "recognized that NIF is not the only essential facility in the Stockpile Stewardship Program and agreed that the rest of the program should not become unbalanced by funding NIF."

In addition, the agency reports that "The former Associate Director for Defense and Nuclear Technologies at Lawrence Livermore told [the GAO] that while he believes that not having NIF available may introduce some risk into the stockpile, this increased risk does not approach any level that would indicate the stockpile is unsafe and unreliable." Those attitudes indicate Lawrence Livermore officials may be becoming more receptive to assessments, reported in a non-public summary of the report's "preliminary findings t his spring (NW&M Monitor, Vol. 4 No. 12), by Sandia National Laboratory that rather than going directly to the full 192-beam configuration, NIF should initially be built with only 48 to 96 beams.

Los Alamos officials argued for stopping at 48 beams. The GAO report cited some Los Alamos scientists as putting the NIF's chances for success-ful ignition at just 50 percent. Staged Approach Costly Domenici's aide conceded that building NIF in stages, first with either 48 or 96 beams and then with 192 beams, will cost more than going directly to a full-beam array. But the aide reported that at this point, many Senators want an "increased confidence" the laser will work properly prior to approving the full array. Domenici, the aide added, also wants to be "convinced" the rest of the Stockpile Steward- ship Program "can still function as required" if NIF receives the emphasis, and the money, the Administration is propos-ing. But that position is not unanimous. Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee whose district includes Lawrence Livermore and who, in an interview with NW&M Monitor earlier this year, staunchly defended the need to the fully fund NIF (NW&M Monitor, Vol. 4 No. 7), dismissed GAO's findings and reiterated her support for the project. GAO, Tauscher said in a statement, "manipulates the numbers and obfuscates the issue to make t he NIF look more over-cost than it actually is....Despite what the GAO says, the facts have not changed-the NIF is a keystone of our national defense, and it is imperative that we complete the project as soon as possible."

$600 Million Bookkeeping Difference According to the GAO, NIF's total cost could reach $3.9 billion, an estimate that is $600 million more than DOE's $3.3 billion figure but which includes costs DOE omits, such as a $491 million pricetag for the design and fabrication of a NIF target and a $136 million charge for work directly supporting the NIF by laboratories and contractors other than Lawrence Livermore. The GAO report relies on DOE cost estimates, and the authors note they did not assess the accuracy of those estimates of project costs, or DOE's estimates of the cost of supporting research and develop-ment, related program funds, or the Department's revised schedule estimate that puts the project's completion date in fiscal year 2008. But the auditors warn that because signifi-cant research and development remains to be done, "the cost of completing NIF could grow even higher." In particular, the report cites the Energy Department's need to develop and manufacture optical lenses that will be able to withstand high levels of intense ultraviolet energy as a major unresolved technical hurdle facing the program.

Independent Assessment Recommended The agency recommends that DOE refrain from reallocating funds to NIF until the Department has a clearer understand-ing of their impacts on other programs, and calls for an independent review of the laser project that includes scien-tific and technical issues. GAO Associate Director Gary Boss, who was one of the principal authors of the study, told NW&M Monitor the auditors are recommending an assess-ment by an entity, such as the National Academy of Sci-ences, that is "managed by people outside DOE," in contrast to previous NIF reviews. The Energy Department's on-going "Lehman review" (NW&M Monitor, Vol. 4 No. 19) includes an assessment by Burns & Roe, but that assessment looks only at cost issues, based on figures that DOE provides, Boss explained.

Technical Problems Manageable

Madelyn Creedon, the National Nuclear Security Administra-tion's deputy administrator for Defense Programs, told reporters in a conference the GAO's criticisms-particularly those involving increased costs associated with technical uncertainties-are misplaced. "Supported by the findings of our technical reviewers, [the optics] issue is one of econom-ics," Creedon said. "The frequency at which the final-stage optics need to be refurbished or replaced directly affects the cost of operations, not the cost of the construction project or the maximum power of the NIF." Creedon emphasized that even if the optics problem is not resolved-an outcome she said she does not expect-the optics will simply have to be replaced more frequently. She argued that this will not represent a major modification to the facility since the optics were never designed to last as long as NIF. In any case, she declared, DOE's budgets include money to address that problem.

Out Year Details Needed

The report criticizes the Department for "not provid[ing] details on how much NIF will cost each year, how cost increases will be paid for, or what existing programs and activities will be cut to fund NIF in the future." DOE's budget amendment (NW&M Monitor, Vol. 4, No. 19) lists offsetting cuts for fiscal year 2001 but not for subsequent years. According to the report, one impact of NIF's sched-ule slippage is that it will not be ready in time to help analyze any proposed changes that are part of the refurbishment of the W76 and W80 warheads. GAO's Boss told NW&M Monitor the report is "not terribly prescriptive"; it simply asks DOE to demonstrate it has "gone through some reason-ably sophisticated analysis" to determine "what is the path forward and what is the effect on the rest of the program." Boss added, "We don't think it's a terribly difficult task to undertake."

Contingency Planning Inadequate

The GAO also criticized DOE for undertaking the NIF project with a construction budget contingency of only 15 percent, citing other analyses that said 25 to 35 percent would have been more realistic, as well as DOE's own guidelines, which suggest a 20- to 40-percent contingency, depending on project complexity. Boss told NW&M Monitor the low contingency "puts enormous pressure on cost decisions" because it does not allow not much prototyping. The report takes the Department to task for pursuing a "fast-track" strategy of undertaking construction before essential R&D had been completed. Such a strategy is inappropriate for a project that has the technical complexities and uncertainties of NIF, the report maintains:

Starting construction early can save costs initially but is more costly if extensive changes are needed later. For NIF, the fast-track approach may have caused the laboratory to focus too much attention on meeting construction goals at the expense of conducting and integrating necessary research and development solutions. DOE and Laboratory offi-cials acknowledge that this approach affected basic construction decisions on the size and design of the facility and eventually led to cost increases and delays when changes had to be made to accommo-date the results from subsequent research and development.

The GAO concluded, "Unrealistic budgets, a low contin-gency, and the fast-track construction strategy imposed substantial cost pressures that affected project management decisions." The report cited as an example the decision to dismantle the Beamlet, a laser scientific prototype, that "would have been useful for conducting experiments on the technical problems now affecting NIF."

DOE, Livermore Share Blame

The report contends that DOE officials and Lawrence Livermore managers share responsibility for NIF's avalanche of problems. "At the core of DOE's problems is its historical reliance on contractors to conduct the Department's mis-sions in the absence of an effective oversight process and structure," the study declares. According to the report, DOE field and headquarters officials told the auditors they started suspecting NIF cost and schedule problems early in 1999, but did not check the flow of posit ive reports until June 1999.

Was Congress Misled?

The report charges DOE and Lawrence Livermore not only with poor management and anticipation of problems, but also with withholding information from Congress: DOE and Laboratory officials initially developed a budget for the NIF project that was clearly inade-quate, given its technical risks, complexity, and large size. DOE and Laboratory officials associated with NIF told us that they recognized it would cost more than planned but that they accepted this unrealistic budget in the belief that the Congress would not fund NIF at a higher cost and that the value of NIF to the future of the Laboratory over-shadowed potential cost concerns.

During the conference call, Creedon told reporters, "I do not believe DOE intentionally misled Congress." Boss told NW&M Monitor the question centers on "what lab people knew and when they knew it." Lawrence Livermore officials had concerns about NIF in the late summer of 1998, he commented, but added he didn't have any evidence that Bruce Tarter, the lab's director, had been "deceptive."

"Uphill" Battle for NIF Backers

The release of the report during the August congressional recess may have blunted its immediate impact, but it surely will not simplify the already difficult fight NIF advocates face for an additional $95 million in construction funds for FY 2001 (NW&M Monitor, Vol. 4, No. 11) as Congress finishes work on the Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill over the next month, with the Senate scheduled to begin floor consideration of the bill this week. In the conference call, Creedon said she "absolutely" agreed that DOE will have an "uphill" fight in convincing Congress to provide the money. But she reiterated DOE's promise that it will have its delayed rebaselining report completed in mid-September and will have a "final verified number" for NIF's costs at that time.

In a statement from the House Science Committee, which had originally requested the report, Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) declared, "NIF's cost and sched-ule overruns are alarming." Ranking Minority Member Ralph Hall (D-Texas) worried that "NIF cost overruns may cut into funds available for other worthy scientific research projects under the jurisdiction of this Committee." The GAO report also cites scientists involved in DOE civilian science projects as expressing concerns that DOE might not adhere to Secretary Bill Richardson's commitment to take the extra funding for NIF only from elsewhere in Defense Programs. But during the conference call, Creedon emphatically stated,

"The Secretary's instructions are very clear" that the money must come from other weapons funding. Rep. Floyd Spence (R-S.C.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, which joined in the request to GAO, called the findings "extremely disquieting. Not only does GAO project that the program cost will nearly double the level initially anticipated, but this report raises legitimate questions about the ability of DOE's science-based approach to adequately replace nuclear testing in maintaining a safe and effective U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile."

Daryl Kimball, Executive Director Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers 110 Maryland Avenue NE, Suite 505 Washington, DC 20002 (ph) 202-546-0795 x136 (fax) 202-546-7970 website <http://www.crnd.org

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

Kicked Around the Pacific, U.S. Military Toxics May End in Canada

By Neville Judd
September 7, 2000 (ENS)
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/sep2000/2000L-09-07-10.html

A United States shipment of polychlorinated biphenyl waste (PCB) denied entry by Japan, the U.S. and Canada may yet come back to Canada after a meeting in Ottawa last month.

A spokeswoman for Environment Minister David Anderson denied knowledge of the meeting.

Environment Minister David Anderson (Photo courtesy Environment Canada)

But U.S. assistant deputy under secretary of defense for environmental quality, Bruce de Grazia confirmed to ENS that Environment Canada did accept a U.S. delegation sent to discuss the possibility of Canada disposing of the shipment.

When asked if Canada had ruled out that possibility, de Grazia said, "I can't speak for another government, but I wouldn't describe the discussions as being like that. We had a very pleasant meeting with them."

PCBs are highly toxic, persistent carcinogenic compounds. They have been used widely as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors, and other electrical equipment.

The Virginia based Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), part of the U.S. Department of Defense, has a 100 ton shipment of PCBs it needs to get rid of. The material comes from a U.S. military depot in Sagami, Japan and consists of transformers, transformer oil, circuit breakers and other small parts.

The DLA said tests at U.S. military laboratories found the material contains less than 50 parts per million PCBs. By law, PCBs cannot be imported into U.S. customs territory for disposal so the DLA shipment is currently on Wake Island, a three mile strip of land in the central Pacific, 2,460 miles west of Hawaii.

The shipment's route to Wake Island, used by the U.S. Army as a missile launch support facility, was circuitous.

The PCB shipment sits in 23 containers on Wake Island. (Photo courtesy Basel Action Network)

Earlier this year, the shipment was supposed to go to Kirkland Lake, Ontario, via the port of Vancouver, British Columbia. Alabama based Trans Cycle Industries (TCI), prevented by law from handling the waste at its U.S. plants, had set up a Canadian branch plant in the small northern Ontario town.

When TCI failed to obtain an import licence from the Ontario provincial government, the Canadian federal government stepped in to stop the shipment from being unloaded in Vancouver in April. The container ship, named the Wan He, then headed to a temporary storage site in Seattle, where dockworkers and teamsters refused to unload the cargo.

With nowhere else to go, the Wan He returned to Yokohama, Japan, where it docked for a month. Other temporary destinations such as Guam and Johnston Atoll were discussed and dismissed before Wake Island was settled upon in mid-May.

The question of where to go from Wake Island prompted the DLA's August meeting in Ottawa. "We are exploring all our options," de Grazia told ENS. "We haven't rejected any options or made any decisions. We are still in the stages of finding the best, most environmentally sound method of disposing of this waste.

"We did talk to Canada. We had a very pleasant meeting with them in which we didn't decide upon anything. We talked about the difficulties each side had and agreed to go back to our governments with the questions each side had."

De Grazia said no more meetings have been scheduled with Canada and hinted it is not the only country the Defense Logistics Agency has contacted. "We're talking to lots of people, but I'm not going to say one country is favoured more than another," he said.

De Grazia said there is no need to make a hasty decision but admitted that the situation could not drag on. "I hope I'm not discussing this in a year," he said.

Japanese protesters make their feelings known on board the Wan He in Yokohama Harbor last spring. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

A spokeswoman for Environment Canada said she is unaware of the August meeting with the DLA and was unable to find out information about it. But Charles Cormier, head of controls and compliance in Environment Canada's Transboundary Movement Division, said the meeting was routine.

"We regularly hold meetings with companies and governments that want to find out the requirements of our import/export regulations for hazardous waste," said Cormier. "There was no indication that Canada would receive any PCB waste. We don't have a decision to make because they never sent us notification of any export to Canada."

Environmental groups Greenpeace Canada and the Seattle based Basel Action Network (BAN) wrote to Environment Minister David Anderson on August 31, urging him to "condemn the purpose and outcome of this meeting and to categorically reject the import of this proposed waste."

Anderson has yet to reply to them.

"This has been a wakeup call for the U.S. Department of Defense that it can't go sailing this stuff around the world and burning it in small town incinerators," BAN's Jim Puckett told ENS.

"The most appropriate solution for this waste is for it to be processed and destroyed at source utilizing non-combustion technologies now available commercially," said Puckett.

BAN and Greenpeace argue that if it accepted the PCB shipment, Canada would contravene the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.

Trans Cycle Industries' Kirkland Lake plant, the original destination for the PCB shipment. (Photo courtesy Trans Cycle Industries)

Canada is a signatory to the 1989 agreement, which was set up in response to a growing trade in hazardous waste trafficking. The U.S. has not signed the convention.

In July, ENS reported on the 1999 Canadian statistics on transboundary movements of hazardous waste, which showed the amount of hazardous waste imported by Canada from the United States had more than doubled in some provinces in a year.

The figures prompted Minister Anderson to alert his provincial and territorial counterparts and to call for stronger provincial standards for all facilities that accept hazardous waste, including landfills.

"Canada does not want to become a pollution haven," said Anderson. "The continuing rise in imports of hazardous waste is raising questions of safety and responsibility."

-------- china

U.S.-China Trade Deal Clears Senate Hurdles

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7
By Adam Entous
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/pl/china_congress_dc_4.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton's landmark China trade bill cleared key hurdles in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, putting it on course for expected final passage next week after months of delay.

In a victory for the White House and pro-trade business groups, the Senate voted 92-5 to proceed to final consideration of the legislation, which would grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to China.

The Senate then went on to reject the first of many proposed amendments that threatened to scuttle the measure, which would end the annual ritual review of Beijing's trade status and guarantee Chinese goods the same low-tariff access to the U.S. market as products from nearly every other nation.

The amendment by Minnesota Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone calling on China to increase religious freedom, was defeated by a vote of 69-28, despite a last-ditch appeal by Republican Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, a vocal critic of communist China and a leading opponent of the trade bill.

``We in America still stand for something -- something other than profit,'' Helms said. ``We don't believe that China should be welcomed into international organizations such as the WTO (World Trade Organization) while China continues to repress and to jail and to murder and to torture their own citizens.''

Undeterred by the lopsided vote, Wellstone, Helms and other China critics said they would offer a wide range of additional amendments in the Senate on human rights and Taiwan's security that may be more difficult for PNTR-backers to defeat.

If any amendments are adopted, the trade bill would be sent back to a bitterly divided House of Representatives, which approved the controversial measure in May but is unlikely to do so again so close to the November election, lawmakers said.

``This would create real chaos if it went back to the House,'' Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota said on Wednesday. ``It would probably mean the end of PNTR for the year.''

But Clinton's allies in the trade fight were increasingly optimistic they would be able to defeat all of the proposed amendments, ensuring final passage of the trade bill in a Senate vote expected before Sept. 15.

``Once we get the difficult amendments out of the way, I think it will pass by a very large margin,'' said Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat closely allied with Clinton in the China trade fight.

The most difficult of those amendments may be the one proposed by Republican Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee and backed by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi that would authorize sanctions against China for alleged weapons sales to Pakistan and other states. But Daschle said Lott may offer to bring Thompson's measure up separately, rather than as an amendment to the trade bill.

Top Priority

Clinton has made passage of permanent normal trade relations for China a top legislative priority for his final year in office, arguing it would benefit the U.S. economy and bolster national security by encouraging China to reform its economy and eventually its political system.

The opposition in the Senate, led by Helms, countered that the trade bill would reward a communist regime accused of threatening Taipei, proliferating weapons of mass destruction and oppressing its people.

In exchange for the trade benefits, China has agreed to open a wide range of markets to U.S. businesses under the terms of an agreement setting the stage for Beijing to join the Geneva-based World Trade Organization later this year.

The trade bill won House approval in May, but only after a bitter fight between organized labor and big business.

Corporate America has been eager to access the vast Chinese marketplace, potentially the world's largest with 1.3 billion consumers.

Unions, a key Democratic constituency, fear increased trade could lead to U.S. job losses if American firms move labor operations to China where wages are low. Critics say it could also exacerbate an already huge U.S. trade deficit with China, which hit a record $68 billion in 1999.

But in contrast to the House, the trade bill enjoys broad bipartisan support in the Senate. Sixty-five lawmakers in the 100-member chamber said in a Reuters poll they would vote in favor of permanent normal trade relations, enough to override a vote-blocking filibuster.

But hurdles remained.

In addition to Thompson's proposal, the White House is worried about amendments calling for Washington to boost military ties with Taiwan and to step up support for Taipei's membership in the WTO, which sets global trading rules.

Wellstone proposed five amendments in all, including measures calling on China to improve human rights, eliminate prison labor and allow Chinese workers to form unions.

In addition, West Virginia Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd said he would propose three amendments, including one that would encourage China to use environmentally friendly fuels.

---

3 in Falun Gong die in detention

Washington Times
September 7, 2000
World Scene Combined dispatches and staff reports
http://208.246.212.80/world/worldscene-200097211651.htm

HONG KONG - Three members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement have died in recent months after ill treatment during detention in China, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said yesterday.

Falun Gong, which combines meditation with a doctrine rooted loosely in Buddhist and Taoist teachings, is banned in China.

The Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy said in a statement that one of the victims was Liu Yufeng, a 64-year-old retiree in the eastern Shandong province.

-------- colombia

Colombia Seizes Drug-Running Submarine in Warehouse

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/wl/colombia_submarine_dc_1.html

BOGOTA (Reuters) - A Russian-designed submarine, being built to smuggle drugs out of Colombia, was confiscated on Thursday on the outskirts of Bogota, authorities said.

A statement from the National Police said the 100-foot (30- meter) sub was seized in a raid on a warehouse in a working-class neighborhood 18 miles (30 km) west of the capital.

Police chief Gen. Luis Ernesto Gilibert said Russian-language documents found alongside the partially completed vessel led authorities to conclude that ``the Russian Mafia or Russian technicians'' were involved in its construction.

Once work on the sub had been completed, Gilibert said it would have been broken up and smuggled overland before being riveted back together and launched off Colombia's Pacific or Caribbean coast.

He did not speculate on why work on the ship had been started in the landlocked Colombian capital, which is perched in the Andes mountains 8,530 feet (2,600 meters) above sea level.

But Gilibert, who spoke to reporters while inspecting the sub in the suburb of Facacativa, estimated that it would have had the capacity to carry at least 150 metric tons of cocaine or heroin on any given voyage out of Colombia.

No arrests were made in connection with the submarine, which was reminiscent of a case in 1994 when two mini-subs used by Colombian drug traffickers were seized off the Caribbean port of Santa Marta.

Colombia is estimated to supply about 80 percent of the world's cocaine and much of the heroin sold on U.S. streets.

---

Colombia Paramilitary Chief Says Businesses Back Him

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07COLO.html

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Sept. 6 -- The head of the outlawed right-wing paramilitary forces, who has conceded that most of his financing comes from the drug trade, said today that he also received support from businesses.

The leader of the group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, Carlos Castano, spoke of his ties to businessmen in an open letter to Congress a day after Defense Minister Luis Fernando Ramírez had urged lawmakers to investigate private financing sources for the paramilitary militias that attack leftists and suspected rebel sympathizers.

"Why shouldn't national and international companies support us when they see their investments limited by the terrorism and barbarity of the guerrillas?" Mr. Castano asked in his letter. "The growing support of the business sector is an urgent necessity in our case. Either they defend themselves from our national enemy or they will disappear."

Mocking Mr. Ramírez and his call for a crackdown on people who secretly back the paramilitaries, Mr. Castano said, "The crime of antisubversion or of pro-capitalism" was something that could not exist in a "civilized universe."

"We don't believe the country will advance toward peace by pursuing businessmen, civic leaders and defenseless citizens or by preventing them from adopting an antisubversive stance," he said.

Local and international human rights groups said the paramilitary group, which is responsible for many peasant massacres and other abuses, operates with the support of state security forces.

The government has been fighting an increasingly dirty war with Marxist rebels that has taken more than 35,000 lives since 1990.

In a rare television interview in March, Mr. Castano said that drug trafficking and drug traffickers probably financed 70 percent of his organization's operations.

He did not elaborate on his ties to businesses and business leaders in his letter today.

But Mr. Castano and his private army, which is made up of an estimated 5,000 mostly working-class fighters, have long been seen as important defenders of the economic and political interests of the conservative financial elite.

"We have always proclaimed that we are the defenders of business freedom and of the national and international industrial sectors," Mr. Castano wrote. "We have said over and over again that Colombian subversives are preventing the adequate development of productive forces."

-------- cuba

Group Seeks Castro's Arrest

NewsMax.com
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/6/155628

Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban-American group, issued the following statement yesterday:

My name is Roberto Villasante, I am an attorney. I represent Jose Basulto and the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue. Mr. Basulto and I have met with the office of the Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, specifically his Deputy Chief of Staff, Manny Papir. We have also been to the FBI office and the NYPD 17th Precint.

The purpose of our meeting was to file a Criminal Offense Report with the Police Authorities in the State of New York. The Report notifies the City of New York that an individual who is responsible for the murders of three United States citizens and one lawful United States resident and the attempted murder of my client and three others over international waters and in international airspace arrived in this city yesterday.

The facts surrounding the murders have already been established in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida where the perpetrator of these crimes was held liable in Civil Court.

We expect that this terrorist will claim protection from prosecution for his crimes by seeking immunity as a "Head of State."

It is our position that the law in the United States through International Treaty is well settled and that diplomatic immunity is NOT an absolute or total protection against prosecution for crimes committed by diplomats or even Heads of State.

We are asking that Mr. Basulto's Report and the possible charges of murder, attempted murder and terrorism be investigated.

Fidel Castro is the perpetrator of these crimes. We are asking that at the very least he be detained for questioning.

To investigate whether these particular crimes fall within the protection of immunity is a matter well within the power of the State of New York and the Federal authorities of the United States to determine. We simply ask the authorities to follow the Rule of Law, even with respect to Fidel Castro - the dictatorial Head of State of Cuba.

-------- drug war

Big Drug Raid Surprise: A Submarine Colombian Police Discover Half-Built Underwater Vessel Improbable But Ingenious, It's Not The First Time They've Tried This 200 Miles Inland, Sub Was 7,500 Feet Above Sea Level

CBS News
Sept. 7, 2000
http://cbsnews.cbs.com/now/story/0%2C1597%2C231427-412%2C00.shtml

FACATATIVA, Colombia, (CBS) Given recent events it's a good question why anyone would want Russian technicians to build a submarine for them, but then the Colombian drug cartels have never been picky.

http://cbsnews.cbs.com/now/story/0,1597,231138-412,00.shtml

That's why it was so strange this week for police raiding a warehouse in Facatativa to stumble upon a most unusual drug trafficking tool: A 100-foot-long, half-built submarine they say would have been able to ship up to 200 tons of cocaine below the ocean's surface.

As CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports, Colombian authorities displayed their find on Thursday, a day after they discovered it along with documents in Russian in this town a half-hour's drive outside Bogota. Police and journalists crawled through the snub-nosed submarine's three unattached reddish metal sections and gazed in wonder at its size and sophisticated design.

"It was between 30 and 40 percent completed and had its engine room ready," Colombian National Police director Gen. Ernesto Gilibert told reporters. "The technology is advanced and the workmanship of high quality."

Construction notes found at the site were written in Russian, but investigators say it was two Americans who signed for the warehouse...and it was their presence and attitude that caused neighbors to call police.

Colombian traffickers have used smaller, simpler "mini-subs" on at least two occasions in the past, Gilibert said. But even seasoned anti-drug officials said they were stunned by the vessel discovered here.

"In 32 years I've never seen anything like this," Leo Arreguin, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration director in Colombia, told reporters.

"This is huge," he said. "We're talking about being able to load up to 200 tons of cocaine in this submarine."

The submarine's discovery marks a new chapter in innovation for Colombia's ingenious drug cartels, which have previously used refitted commercial airliners and oceangoing freighters to ship cocaine to the United States and other parts of the world.

The simple brick warehouse, complete with closed-circuit television monitors, was empty at the time of the raid.

It was strewn with workbenches, power-tools and gas canisters used for welding. No-smoking signs hung on the walls. Tools left haphazardly on shelves in the submarine's midsection suggested that workers had made a hasty getaway.

Facatativa is in located roughly 7,500 feet above sea level in Colombia's eastern Andean region.

"We think they were going to send it to the coast by truck in these three sections," said National Police Sgt. Samuel Alvarez. "The computerized navigation system was probably being built elsewhere."

Colombia exports 90 percent of the world's cocaine and is a growing heroin supplier. Traffickers have become increasingly expert at getting the drugs past intense air, sea and land interdiction efforts.

The U.S. recently began a $1.3 billion effort to assist Colombia's war on drugs. The aid package includes Blackhawk helicopters, U.S. military advisors and funds for crop eradication.

http://cbsnews.cbs.com/now/story/0,1597,229098-412,00.shtml

-------- india/pakistan

Pakistan Market Bomb Attack Kills Five

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/wl/pakistan_bomb_dc_1.html

LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - A bomb ripped through a busy marketplace in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Thursday, killing five people and wounding more than 20 in the second such attack within five days, officials said.

The bomb, which went off during the evening rush hour, was planted on a scooter parked in the congested Dharampura bazaar in eastern Lahore, capital of the central province of Punjab, where a bomb blast at the main bus station on Sunday killed three people and wounded five.

No one claimed responsibility and police said they had no immediate information about who set off the bomb.

Police put the death toll at three immediately after the blast but state television later quoted other officials as saying it had risen to five.

Pakistani officials have in the past often blamed such attacks on intelligence agencies of arch-rival and neighbor India, which accuses Pakistani agencies of sponsoring terrorist acts there.

---

Six Killed in Kashmiri Fighting

Associated Press
September 07, 2000 Filed at 12:12 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-India-Kashmir.html

JAMMU, India (AP) -- A three-hour gunbattle along the frontier in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir killed two Indian soldiers and four Pakistani militants, the Indian army said Thursday.

Also Thursday, Indian troops fired artillery shells across the border north of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, killing at least three people and wounding 14, Pakistani police said.

India and Pakistan both claim all of Kashmir. On Wednesday night, about 10 militants used the cover of tall grass to cross to the Indian side of the divided region about 155 miles northwest of Jammu, winter capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, an army spokesman said.

``The army challenged them and asked them to surrender,'' said the spokesman, who declined to be identified by name. He said the militants fired at the soldiers, and two Indian soldiers and four militants died in the exchange of gunfire.

He said documents found on the bodies of the militants indicated they were Pakistanis. The army was searching for those who escaped, he said.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and funding an 11-year separatist insurgency in Jammu-Kashmir state that has claimed more than 25,000 lives. Pakistan says it supports the militants' cause but denies helping them.

The two countries -- both nuclear powers -- have fought two of their three major wars over Kashmir, which both have claimed in its entirety since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

Pakistan's military ruler said Wednesday at the U.N. Millennium Summit that his country wants to work with India for peace and a nuclear-free South Asia.

``Pakistan stands for peace and is prepared to take the bold initiative to change the status quo through a dialogue with India at any level, at any time, and anywhere,'' Gen. Pervez Musharraf said. ``Let me commit at this world forum, that we desire a no-war pact. We are ready for mutual reduction of forces, and we also seek a South Asia free from all nuclear weapons.''

---

New York Times
September 07, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07BRIE.html

INDIA: HOSTAGE TALKS BREAK DOWN Talks with the criminal Veerappan, who has been holding the movie star Rajkumar captive for five weeks, have broken down. R. R. Gopal, an emissary between the two sides, said the bandit is sticking to his demands for the release of dozens of his jailed comrades - something state authorities have been willing to do but the courts have forbidden. Barry Bearak (NYT)

KASHMIR: LETHAL DECADE The latest official death toll in a decade of violence is 33,854, according to a police document reported by Agence France-Presse. This includes 19,781 civilians, 11,757 militants and 2,316 security forces. Separatists claim the numbers understate the carnage by at least half. Barry Bearak (NYT)

Compiled by Jeanne Moore

-------- iran

Khatami Says Iranians Expect Too Much Reform

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7 2:34 PM ET updated 3:42 PM ET Sep 7
By Paul Taylor
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/wl/summit_iran_dc_1.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A chastened President Mohammad Khatami said on Thursday that Iranians' expectations of reform were too high and his country had to avoid extremes in the name of freedom or security.

He also said conditions were not yet ripe for dialogue with the U.S. government despite some positive steps, and Washington should take ``practical measures'' such as apologizing for past interference in Iran, ending sanctions and dropping opposition to Caspian oil export pipelines across Iranian territory.

Khatami, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, told a news conference that good relations between Tehran and Moscow could help ``marginalize external powers'' that did not belong in Central Asia and the Caucasus -- a veiled reference to U.S. influence in the region.

He said an international outcry about the case of 10 Iranian Jews convicted of spying for Israel and jailed for up to 13 years was disproportionate, and his government would not interfere with the independent justice system.

But he added: ``This is not a final verdict. It is going through the appeals court and we hope that the issue will be approached with the utmost justice...and that nobody will be convicted beyond their actual guilt.''

Khatami acknowledged recent domestic setbacks such as the jailing of some of his leading intellectual supporters and the closure of pro-reform newspapers by a judiciary controlled by his hardline opponents, and pleaded for patience.

Iran's unfolding Islamic democracy could not be measured against Western countries that had enjoyed two or three centuries of liberal democracy, he said.

People Are Impatient, Khatami Says

``People are impatient...The demands of the people should not rise beyond possibilities,'' Khatami said, citing what he called unrealistic expectations on the economy and among young people for greater freedom.

This could lead to disillusionment and extremism.

He sought to position himself above the battle between liberal reformers and Islamic conservatives, calling for moderation and balance between the two camps.

``Extremism in any form or direction is unwanted, whether in the name of freedom and supporting people's rights or in the name of security and suppressing people's rights,'' he said.

``Let me remind you that I did not come in the name of reform,'' the president said, referring to his upset landslide victory over the conservative establishment candidate in 1997.

But he added: ``I will never be disloyal to the hopes and aspirations of our people. It would be easy for me to sit back and take no responsibility, but it is not easy for me to give up what I believe in.''

Khatami raised some uncertainty about whether he would seek re-election when his four-year term expires next year, even though Iranian state television quoted him as saying on July 26 that he would stand again.

``Whether or not I will run again for election will depend on the circumstances. I will see whether it will be helpful for the people. When the time comes, I will take the decision with God's help,'' the president said.

-------- iraq

ENFORCEMENT
Iraq Reportedly Gives Contracts to Nations That Want to End Sanctions

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By JUDITH MILLER
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07IRAQ.html

The Central Intelligence Agency says Iraq has consistently used the United Nations' oil-for-food program to reward countries that call for ending economic sanctions against Iraq, and to punish those that oppose lifting the embargo, administration officials familiar with the findings have said.

The officials said the C.I.A. stated in a new report that President Saddam Hussein of Iraq has given the bulk of contracts in the program to China, France and Russia, as well as to other vocal champions of lifting the sanctions. The Security Council imposed the sanctions after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 to force Iraq to give up weapons of mass destruction.

The Council instituted the oil-for- food program in 1996 to let Iraq sell some of its oil to help ease the suffering of ordinary Iraqis reportedly caused by the sanctions. But the C.I.A. study shows that Iraq has also used the program as a lever to pry open the sanctions by rewarding allies with contracts, especially those on the 15-member Security Council. The Council can vote to lift the sanctions, and to punish its foes.

"Over the life of the program, Baghdad has awarded one-third of the contracts to France, Russia and China," the report states. "Besides these Security Council members and neighbors, Iraq has given substantial oil-for-food business to others that deliver antisanctions rhetoric."

Iraq has even denied contracts to traditional suppliers who have not called for an end to sanctions. The report notes that Japan and Germany, Iraq's two largest suppliers before the gulf war, have each received "only 1 percent of total contracts."

The two-page report is accompanied by charts and graphs that demonstrate the strong correlation between support for lifting sanctions and the awarding of contracts under the program, which is now in what the United Nations accounting system calls Phase 8. Each phase corresponds to a period of 180 days.

Copies of several of the graphs and charts were provided to The New York Times, and sections of the report were read to a reporter by officials who had read the report and thought that its conclusions should be more widely known.

The report, which was completed last month and is secret, is little surprise to the Clinton administration, Iraq's most vocal critic on the Security Council and the chief advocate of continuing the sanctions until Iraq proves that it has abandoned its programs for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. But the report is quite likely to reinforce administration frustration over the mounting pressure among nations and aid organizations to lift the sanctions on the ground that they inflict undue hardship on the Iraqi people.

In response to such pressures last year, the Security Council lifted the ceiling on how much oil Baghdad could sell. As a result, United Nations records show, Iraqi oil exports have soared, as have the contracts for food, medicine and other social programs. In the part of Phase 8 from June 9 to Aug. 25, Iraq earned $3.8 billion in oil revenues.

Iraq is pumping two million barrels of oil a day.

Based on United Nations statistics, the C.I.A. determined that contacts to Vietnam, for instance, began rising sharply in January 1998, after Vietnamese cabinet ministers endorsed an end to the sanctions, climbing from $50 million in 1998 to $170 million three phases later. Contracts to Lebanon jumped on two occasions, after Beirut denounced a four-day bombing series against Iraq, and after Lebanon sent an aide for commercial liaison to Baghdad.

Although 40 percent of Iraqi oil exports eventually wind up in the United States, Washington, not surprisingly, has sold almost nothing to Baghdad under the program.

-------- ireland

New York Times
September 07, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07BRIE.html

NORTHERN IRELAND: BOMBING INQUEST OPENS An inquest into the 1998 car bombing in Omagh that killed 29 people and injured more than 300 opened with witnesses calling on members of the Real I.R.A. - the dissident Republican group that took responsibility for the act but said it was a mistake - to come forward and "clear their consciences." The police say they know who the bombers are but do not have enough evidence to bring them to trial. The inquest is expected to last four weeks. Warren Hoge (NYT)

-------- land mines

Early Success Is Reported for Global Treaty Banning Land Mines

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07MINE.html

GENEVA Sept. 6 -- A global treaty banning the use of land mines has had considerable success in its first year and a half, but there are still major problem areas - among them Chechnya, Kosovo and Myanmar - according to a report made public today by an organization opposing mines.

Angola continues to use the weapons although it has signed the treaty, while Burundi and Sudan likely do so, according to the Land Mine Monitor 2000 report. Sudan has denied the accusation.

The study said that Yugoslav forces laid some 50,000 land mines during the Kosovo conflict and that there has been heavy use of mines in Chechnya, too.

The report was produced by the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines, which won the Nobel Peace Prize for its work in 1997. The report will be presented next week at a Geneva meeting of countries that have ratified the land mine treaty.

The 1,121-page report found that trade in the weapons has almost completely halted, and that no shipments of land mines were recorded this year or last.

Since the treaty went into effect on March 1 last year, 10 million stockpiled antipersonnel mines have been destroyed, bringing the total so far to 22 million, the report said. It also estimated that more than 250 million mines remained stockpiled in 105 nations.

China leads with 110 million mines, followed by Russia with 60 million to 70 million, Belarus with 10 million to 15 million and the United States with 11 million, it said. Ukraine, Pakistan and India were estimated to have more than 4 million mines apiece.

Estimates of deaths and injuries were "sketchy and incomplete," the study conceded, but it found marked decreases in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cambodia and Mozambique.

Still, new land mine victims have been recorded in 71 countries, more than half of them at peace, it said. In Kosovo, 492 deaths and injuries were recorded to May this year; in Chechnya, hundreds were suspected.

Since the treaty went into effect, the weapons are likely to have been used in 20 conflicts, by 11 governments and 30 rebel groups, the report said.

The treaty has been signed by 138 governments and ratified by 101. Among the countries that have not signed are the United States, Russia and China.

-------- myanmar

Myanmar Attacks Critics, Calls Suu Kyi a Stooge

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7
By Aung Hla Tun
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/wl/myanmar_leadall_dc_31.html

YANGON (Reuters) - A war of words between Myanmar and its international critics escalated on Thursday with a stinging response from the military government to an embarrassing barrage of criticism at the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York.

A commentary in the state-run, English-language New Light of Myanmar newspaper said pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, padlocked by the authorities inside her home since Saturday, was a neo-colonialist stooge being kept under supervision for her own safety.

``All these protesters, presidential candidates, heads of state, the secretary-general of the U.N., blithely jumped on the trumpet-blowing bandwagon of calumniating Myanmar, not because they see, they hear, they know for themselves the Myanmar affairs, but for their own selfish purposes and aims,'' it said.

Myanmar's military forcibly brought Suu Kyi back to Yangon in the early hours of Saturday, ending a nine-day roadside protest which began when authorities stopped her in her car just outside the capital and refused to let her travel to the provinces.

She has been confined to her residence ever since, out of telephone contact and with diplomatic access barred.

``Calumniating Fusillades''

Myanmar said Suu Kyi's protest was just an attention-grabbing tactic timed to coincide with the Millennium Summit and a planned meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and European Union in December.

``It is no secret that a negative media campaign against the government of Myanmar has been tailored to coincide with several important events,'' the government said in an official statement.

``Daw Suu Kyi played a major role last week when she managed to flash symbolic gestures to attract international attention, putting herself back into the media limelight.''

The New Light of Myanmar, which like other Myanmar newspapers is seen as an official mouthpiece of the government, suggested Suu Kyi was in danger from unidentified plotters.

``Myanmar leaders, wise in the ways of evil-minded people, clearly foresee perils under which Suu Kyi is flitting about unwarily,'' said the newspaper commentary.

``Myanmar leaders have learned many lessons from events taking place around the world that perpetrators of political massacres have an atrocious habit of silencing and destroying the instruments they have employed in accomplishing their sinister assignments,'' it said.

``The Myanmar leaders cannot and will not allow such a catastrophe happening on Myanmar soil, hence the solid, wisdom-led reason to keep Suu Kyi always under their vigilant eyes, for her own safety as well as for safeguarding Myanmar's fame against the calumniating fusillades of neo-colonialists.''

Condemnation At Millennium Summit

President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair used their speeches at the Millennium Summit to denounce Myanmar.

``We face another test today in Burma, where a brave and popular leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, once again has been confined with her supporters in prison and her country in distress, in defiance of repeated U.N. resolutions,'' Clinton said.

Blair told the summit the treatment of Suu Kyi was ``a disgrace'': ``I call upon the Burmese government to let her go free, and I call on fellow world leaders to back that call.''

Communist-ruled Vietnam, the current chair of ASEAN, said other countries should lay off Myanmnar.

``Current developments in Myanmar are completely Myanmar's internal affair...,'' Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said in Hanoi when asked about the detention of Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi's NLD won elections in 1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern.

(With additional reporting by Andrew Marshall in Bangkok)

-------- puerto rico

VIEQUES CHILDREN POISONED BY HEAVY METALS

AmeriScan: September 7, 2000
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/sep2000/2000L-09-07-09.html

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico, September 7, 2000 (ENS) - Six children on the island of Vieques are suffering poisoning from heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, bismuth, mercury and lead, the Association of Licensed Naturopaths of Puerto Rico (ANLPR) announced Wednesday. The group referred to a report by the Doctor's Data laboratory in Chicago, which examined stool samples from a group of Vieques children between the ages of one and 13 and found that the heavy metals detected "were above normal levels." The ANLPR blames this poisoning on U.S. Navy military exercises on Vieques.

"Six children from Vieques who were examined are accumulating potentially toxic metals in their bodies," the organization said. "This is especially alarming in the cases of two little girls who are only one and two years old who may have absorbed these metals from their mothers' placenta, because it may mean that this poisoning is being passed on from one generation to another." The ANLPR - through its scientific committee and its president, Dr. Carmen Colon de Jorge - presented these findings to the Health Department and the Health Commission of the Puerto Rican Senate several months ago, the group said. "The scientific committee has also met and discussed these findings with toxicologists from the Federal Agency of Toxic Substances and Registry of Illnesses to no avail, as the committee has requested these institutions continue investigations and has received no response whatsoever," the ANLPR indicated. The organization added that "the committee has sent a copy of the study to Governor Pedro Rossello and has written to U.S. President Bill Clinton, as well as Puerto Rican lawmakers, and received no answer."

-------- russia

14 Injured in Moscow Attack

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-Attack.html

MOSCOW (AP) -- Fourteen people were injured early Thursday when a man hurled an explosive device at a group of prostitutes in the center of Moscow, police said.

The attack just before dawn injured 13 women identified as prostitutes and one man, police said. An unidentified man tossed either a small bomb or a grenade into the group standing by the road and then escaped in a car, police said. All of the injured were hospitalized with shrapnel and blast wounds.

An initial investigation suggested the attack might be part of an organized crime clash over control of prostitution, police said. Criminal gangs often use contract killings and bombings to control drugs and prostitution.

On Thursday, police arrested two men, one identified as a known gang member, for possessing homemade bombs, the Interfax news agency reported. There was no indication if the arrests were linked to the bombing.

But the attack might also be connected to the war in Chechnya, where Russian forces are battling Islamic rebels, police said. A bomb blast in an underground passageway in Moscow last month that killed 12 people was blamed on either organized crime or the Chechens.

-------- space

Putin Seeks Meeting in Moscow To Ban Weapons in Outer Space

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 7, 2000; Page A21
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-09/07/270l-090700-idx.html

NEW YORK, Sept. 6-Russian President Vladimir Putin today urged world leaders at the United Nations to hold an international conference in Moscow to ban weapons in outer space, a prohibition that could clash with a possible U.S. national missile defense system.

Though President Clinton recently postponed any decision on the deployment of a national missile defense until the next administration, Putin kept pressure on the United States by saying in his speech that "particularly alarming are plans for the militarization of outer space."

Later in the morning, Putin met with Clinton separately, and Clinton told him that further progress on Russian-sought cuts in strategic nuclear arsenals is linked to making progress on an acceptable missile defense program.

"We the United States are prepared to proceed vigorously with START III, including deeper reductions in strategic weaponry, but that will have to be in parallel with meaningful and productive discussions on strategic defenses," said Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, who attended the talks.

Before heading into his meeting with Putin, Clinton said his move to postpone a decision on a national missile defense deployment "will create an opportunity for President Putin and the next American president to reach a common position, and I hope they can because it is very important that we continue to work together."

Another State Department official said that while there are differences over national missile defense, Russia and the United States will cooperate on theater missile defense and will make a joint assessment of missile threats from small emerging nuclear powers.

The two leaders signed two agreements on nuclear weapons. The two sides committed themselves for the first time to finishing an accord on advance notification of launches of ballistic missiles and agreed on a number of specific steps for implementing by next year the much-discussed shared facility for early warning of missile launches.

Clinton pressed Putin to make more of an effort to stop Russian transfers of ballistic missile and nuclear weapons technology to Iran. Talbott said Clinton "reiterated . . . the extent to which this issue . . . is an obstacle to our ability to cooperate together in other areas." Russia has said that its policy is to block such transfers, but that some individuals and companies have acted on their own.

The two leaders discussed regional issues. Clinton raised concerns about the fairness of the coming elections in Serbia and the possibility of Serbian efforts to destabilize Montenegro, the other republic in the Yugoslav federation.

And Clinton urged Russia to support the sanctions on Iraq that limit its oil exports and its use of oil revenue.

"President Clinton made a very strong push against the notion that Saddam Hussein should be rewarded in any fashion for his continuing pursuit of [weapons of mass destruction] capacity," Talbott said. Many countries have advocated easing the sanctions on Iraq, saying that the sanctions have caused suffering among ordinary Iraqis without bringing down the Iraqi leader.

Clinton also urged Putin to free Edmund Pope, an American jailed on suspicion that he is a U.S. spy. The United States has denied the allegation and has expressed its concern about Pope's deteriorating medical condition.

The meeting opened with a discussion of the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk and the deaths of its crew members. The Associated Press reported that Clinton's national security adviser, Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, provided some information yesterday to his Russian counterpart, Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov, during a meeting in New York.

Also, the news agency reported that the Navy's top officer, Adm. Vernon Clark, sent a note to his Russian counterpart providing detailed information based on acoustical data collected by U.S. ships on the day of the incident.

-----------

Aviation Week Welcomes NASA Collaboration On Next Century of Flight Program

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7, 9:11 am Eastern Time
Press Release
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000907/ny_aviatio.html

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 7, 2000--Aviation Week, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP - news) announced today that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will collaborate on The Next Century of Flight (NCF) campaign, providing scientific and technical counsel and participating as an advisor to the NCF education advisory board.

The partnership will combine Aviation Week's global multimedia leadership and NASA's status as the world leader in space exploration and discovery to ensure worldwide awareness of how investments in manned and unmanned space missions can benefit life on Earth.

``We are proud to welcome NASA's collaboration on The Next Century of Flight,'' said Aviation Week Executive Vice President/Publisher Kenneth E. Gazzola. ``The agency's participation will help us to deliver on our commitment to educate audiences around the world about aviation's incredible history and its exciting vision for the 21st Century.''

The Next Century of Flight campaign, which was launched in 1998, integrates print, online, event and broadcast media to add perspective and insight to the story of flight's past and the promise of its future. Most recently, the campaign successfully debuted The Next Century of Flight Showcase Pavilion at the Farnborough International Air Show, where it was seen by hundreds of industry VIPs and thousands of public visitors who reviewed photographic timelines of historic aircraft, tested an interactive demonstration of the new NCF web site at www.AviationNow.com/NextCentury and previewed upcoming NCF-TV programs.

The Showcase also spotlighted NCF partners: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Computer Sciences Corporation; Inventing Flight: Dayton 2003, The Centennial Celebration; the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration; the Society of British Aerospace Companies; and Iconixx.

With nearly 50 products and services and a core audience of some one million professionals and enthusiasts, Aviation Week is the world's premier multimedia information and service provider to the aviation and aerospace market. The cornerstone of the Aviation Week portfolio is Aviation Week & Space Technology, the world's leading aviation and aerospace industry magazine, covering the commercial, military and space markets for more than 440,000 readers in 130 countries. AviationNow.com expands the company's extensive web presence by delivering the most comprehensive real-time news, professional information and e-business Internet portal in the global aviation/aerospace industry.

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, Business Week and McGraw-Hill Education. The corporation has more than 400 offices in 32 countries. Sales in 1999 were $4.0 billion. Additional information is available at www.mcgraw-hill.com

Contact:
Chris Meyer Aviation Week (212) 904-3255
Bert Ulrich NASA (202) 358-1713

---

Launching of Shuttle Will Inaugurate Push to Complete an Outpost in Space

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By WARREN E. LEARY
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/science/07SHUT.html

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 - The space shuttle Atlantis is set to head for the International Space Station on Friday, beginning an intense push to finish the long-delayed orbital research outpost.

The Atlantis and its seven-member crew are to blast off at 8:45 a.m. Eastern time, beginning an 11-day mission to outfit the growing station for the arrival of its first permanent residents in November. The flight begins a surge of 15 station-related missions by American and Russian rockets during the coming year, which will greatly increase the station's size and functions.

Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said today that no major problems stood in the way of the launching, though there were some weather concerns.

Shuttle managers are giving the shuttle only two and one-half minutes to lift off, starting at 8:45 a.m., about half the time usually allotted for missions to the space station.

Officials said that launching when the shuttle's ground position is aligned perfectly with the space station's orbit could save fuel normally used to steer the shuttle toward its moving target. Having more fuel will make it easier for the shuttle to deal with any thrust shortfalls in its main engines, they said. It also makes it more likely that the spacecraft could return to an American landing strip if engine problems develop.

NASA officials said the flurry of flights, after more than two years of delays in building the station, would be one of the most intense periods of human space flight ever.

Ron Dittemore, the space agency's shuttle program manager, said, "This mission begins a series of station-assembly flights aboard the shuttle during the next year that will be as complex as anything NASA has ever done, including landing a man on the moon."

The Atlantis's mission, hauling equipment and supplies to the station and getting the living quarters ready for occupancy, will be followed in October by a flight of the shuttle Discovery to haul up the first segment of a scaffoldlike truss on which other segments will be built. The shuttle Endeavour is to go up in November with the first segment of American solar power panels, after the arrival of a Russian Soyuz ship carrying the first crew.

Eight shuttle flights are scheduled for 2001, starting with delivery of the American science laboratory Destiny. The last time NASA flew eight shuttles in one year was in 1997, and a record of nine went up in 1985, the year before the Challenger explosion, which resulted in cutting back the ambitious shuttle program.

Because of studies raising safety concerns about launching so many flights, NASA began hiring hundreds of new people, particularly safety engineers. And space shuttle contractors have added hundreds more.

The Atlantis crew of five American and two Russian astronauts will start this renewed activity by unloading its two tons of supplies and equipment and 1,300 pounds of material from an unmanned Russian Progress cargo ship, which docked with the station last month, to outfit the service module, Zvezda.

The shuttle, commanded by Col. Terrence Wilcutt of the Marines on his fourth trip into space, and piloted by Cmdr. Scott D. Altman of the Navy on his second shuttle flight, will dock with the station on the third day of the mission. The crew will wait almost two days before entering the station, first conducting a critical space walk to connect segments of the outpost electronically.

An American astronaut, Edward T. Lu, and a Russian counterpart, Yuri I. Malenchenko, are to spend six and one-half hours scaling 110 feet of the 140-foot-tall station to connect nine communication and power cables, on the most distant space walk ever from a shuttle.

The shuttle is to return to the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 19.

-------- u.n.

U.N. Ban Fails to Stop Land Mine Use

NewsMax.com
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000
UPI
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/6/222705

GENEVA - The recent U.N. mine ban treaty has helped initiate the destruction of 22 million units by more than 50 nations, a sharp drop in mine production, and a near-complete halt in export shipments, according to a report by a group that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

But despite the progress since the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, which came into effect in March 1999, mines continue to claim victims, the report said.

Until mid-2000, the report claimed that new use of mines appeared to be made in 20 conflicts involving 11 governments and 30 rebel groups in Chechnya, the Philippines, Kosovo, Kashmir and other areas.

The report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, titled "Landmine Monitor Report 2000: Toward a Mine-Free World," was released Thursday in advance of next week's gathering by 500 diplomats and experts from more than 100 nations and land mine survivors.

Non-Signers: China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Russia - and U.S.

The mine ban treaty, concluded in 1997, has been signed by 138 countries and ratified by 101. However, three of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - China, Russia and the United States - are not signatories to the treaty. Other non-signatories include Cuba, Finland, Israel, Iran, India, Kuwait, Lebanon, North and South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia.

The treaty is among recent accords U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has invited world leaders to endorse during the Millennium Summit. The treaty calls for destruction of all stockpiles within four years, removal of planted mines within 10 years and provisions for the care and rehabilitation of land mine victims.

Why Does U.S. Have 11 Million Land Mines?

The report estimated that more than "250 million antipersonnel mines are still stored in the stockpiles of 105 countries," and added the largest stockpile of 110 million mines was held by China, followed by Russia with 60-70 million; Belarus, 10-15 million; the United States, 11 million; Ukraine, 10 million; Pakistan, 6 million; and India, 4-5 million.

The ICBL, which includes Human Rights Watch, Handicap International, Kenya Coalition Against Mines, Mines Action Canada and Norwegian People's Aid, said that stocks had been destroyed by 21 nations including Australia Bosnia, Denmark, France the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Philippines and South Africa.

The report said that based on data gathered for 1999-2000, "it is clear landmines pose significant, lasting and non-discriminatory threat" and underscored that mine accidents occur in every region of the world.

In Angola, 1,004 mine casualties were recorded from mid-1998 to 2000, while the number of casualties in 1999 in Burma was estimated at 1,500, and in Jammu and Kashmir, at 835 civilian casualties, the report said.

In Afghanistan, the casualty rate is reportedly five to 10 people a day. The report added that the number of casualties registered in Cambodia last year was 1,012. In Ethiopia, 100 deaths were reported from 1998 to 1999 and in Kosovo 492 casualties between June 1999 and May 2000, the report said.

---

World Leaders Call for Change at U.N.

NewsMax.com
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000
UPI
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/6/200537

UNITED NATIONS - World leaders speaking at the U.N. Millennium Summit, the largest gathering of heads of state and governments ever, called Wednesday for changes in the way the United Nations carries out its business.

The celebratory mood of the summit opening was marred by reports that three U.N. staff members were killed in a West Timor rampage apparently led by militia opposed to the independence of East Timor.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who asked for a minute of silence for the victims, said the violence "underlines once again the dangers faced by unarmed humanitarian workers serving the United Nations in conflict or post-conflict situations. The Security Council, and I myself, have repeatedly expressed concern about the safety of U.N. personnel in the field both military and civilian."

He called on the world's leaders to consider the report a panel presented last month detailing suggestions "for strengthening the United Nations in the crucial area of peace and security - the area where people look especially to the state, and where the world's peoples look to the United Nations, to save them 'from the scourge of war.' "

"We need to decide our priorities," Annan said. "And we must adapt our United Nations so that in the future those priorities are reflected in clear and prompt decisions, leading to real change in people's lives."

The Problem With 'Peacekeeping'

Faced with money shortfalls, U.N. "peacekeeping" missions around the world have suffered embarrassing setbacks in recent years. The United States has been lobbying for reduction of its dues and "peacekeeping" assessments and an increase in the amount paid for the same by other nations to fill the gap.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told the gathering: "We are convinced that there is a need to renovate and improve U.N. mechanisms - such is indeed the imperative of our times. But no reform whatsoever should sway its fundamental principles."

He defined those principles as applying the rule of international law in disputes between and among countries, and the United Nations' ability to provide a forum for discussion of conflicts.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair also sought changes.

"The United Nations struggles to cope with the new types of peacekeeping operation which current conditions demand," he said.

"Whether in Africa, East Timor or the Balkans, it is no longer good enough to organize blue helmet operations as if they were still largely feared to marking an agreed ceasefire line between two states that have consented to a U.N. presence.

"The typical case now is fast-moving and volatile." Six British troops remain hostage in Sierra Leone to the "West Side Boys" gang of rebels.

France: 'Borders Are Slowly Disappearing'

French President Jacques Chirac said, "A new world has emerged in the space of a single generation."

Chirac called it an open world "in which borders are slowly disappearing, a world steeped in the new global culture of communications technologies. A world with a wealth of promise and breathtaking progress, but, unfortunately, a world that is creating new forms of exclusion."

Chirac said the time was right to "build a new international society that is more civilized, more caring, more just and better managed. The United Nations is the natural place to undertake this task.

"We must breathe life into an ethic for the 21st century to serve mankind, human dignity and human rights," the French president said.

Iran, of All Places, Urges 'Expansion of Liberty'

Iran's President Mohammad Khatami sought change in a similar vein.

"The world needs more openness and expansion of liberty and inclusive justice," he said.

"Our world in the past decades has been deprived of the commanding presence of 'an international civil society.' This has precluded the commencing of a creative dialogue with global participation in the process of understanding and resolution of fundamental issues." It was Khatami that was behind the Dialogue Among Civilizations launched Tuesday by UNESCO for the year 2001.

"Has the time not come to envisage new responsibilities for the United Nations in the common endeavor to initiate a participatory global order based on dialogue, tolerance and synergy?" he asked.

"The future of the world belongs to democracy in all levels of governance, advancement of ethical, legal and political values on the basis of dialogue, free exchange of ideas and free intercultural challenge."

In other words, a theme echoed by several other speakers, no hegemony, no dominance by one civilization.

Chinese Dictator Speaks With a Straight Face

Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin, who also spoke against hegemony, said: "The right of the people of all countries to choose their social system and development path independently must be fully respected.

"The developing countries must enhance their capacity to develop their economy, science and technology," he said. "After all, their development will depend on continuously strengthening their capacity of self-development."

Arafat Snipes at Israel

President Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority said, "May this summit prove to be a new beginning for all the people of the Middle East, so that a just and comprehensive peace may reign there.

"We have made a strategic decision committing ourselves to the peace process."

He said his colleagues have agreed to share Jerusalem, "in contrast to the attempts to monopolize it." Arafat added: "We shall continue to do our utmost to arise at a final settlement with Israel. We invite the Israeli government to do likewise."

Observers said Arafat's plan for "sharing" Jerusalem is to make East Jerusalem the Capital of a Palestinian state. The Israeli counteroffer falls far short of this expectation.

After thanking all those who have helped in the talks between the Palestinians and Israel, he said a decision on whether to unilaterally declare a state of Palestine Sept. 13 would be made "in the next few days" by the authority's leadership.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak called on members of the United Nations to "lend a pivotal hand by encouraging the difficult process of reconciliation and by opposing any unilateral measures, which may well spark a renewed cycle of violence and obliterate the prospects of peace. I call on Chairman Arafat to join me in this historic passage. We are at the Rubicon and neither of us can cross it alone."

Said Barak, "More than ever the borders of faith and culture have receded, showing us just how close we are in our hopes and fears, how little time each of us has on this planet and how much we have yet to repair and heal." He said once the kings, princes, presidents and prime ministers at the session recognized that "the plight of individuals anywhere is the responsibility of leaders everywhere" the world will be closer to peace.

---

Castro Attacks 'Decaying' U.N.

NewsMax.com
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000
UPI
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/6/192811

UNITED NATIONS - Cuban dictator Fidel Castro said Wednesday the United Nations was a "decaying institution," called for radical changes in the Security Council and demanded that the former colonial powers pay reparations to the countries they "sacked."

Speaking at the Millennium Summit, Castro proposed to expand the 15-member Security Council and subordinate its decisions on international peace and security to the 189-member General Assembly.

"There isn't even talk about radically reforming this decaying institution ... to turn it into a body that truly represents the interests of all the peoples of the world," Castro said.

He said the U.N. should "expand membership and representation of the Security Council as an executive organ subordinated to the General Assembly, which should make decisions in such crucial issues as intervention and the use of force."

The Cuban dictator neither specified how many members the expanded Security Council should have nor gave any other details.

Castro said, "It should not be forgotten that current underdevelopment and poverty are a consequence of the conquest, colonization, enslaving and plundering of most of the Earth by colonial powers."

He claimed former colonial powers "today have the moral obligation of indemnifying our countries, for the damages they caused for centuries."

He said sovereignty "cannot be sacrificed to an exploiting and unfair order in which, supported by its power and strength, a hegemonic superpower pretends to decide everything," in a transparent attack on the United States. "Cuba will never accept that."

Castro claimed that about 30 developed and rich countries "monopolizing the economic, technological and political power are gathered here with us to offer us the same recipes, which have only been good to make us every day more poor, more exploited and more dependent."

The aging dictator, infamous for delivering hours-long speeches, chose to respect the five-minute limit imposed by the U.N. for the Millennium Summit. More than 160 heads of state and government are scheduled to speak before the General Assembly during two days of marathon multilateral and bilateral sessions.

---

Powell Talks Like a Clintonite at 'World Forum'

NewsMax.com
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000
UPI
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/6/194508

NEW YORK - The leading candidate for secretary of state in a Republican administration did a good impression of Madeleine Albright in an address Wednesday before a shadow convention of international intellectuals, nongovernmental organizations and nonprofit groups.

Speaking before the State of the World Forum, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin Powell sounded downright Clintonian in one of his first public addresses of this campaign season to focus on foreign policy, praising international achievements of the Clinton administration.

"We've seen progress. We've seen progress in Northern Ireland; we've seen progress in the Middle East," the former soldier said.

"But the process will go on because we can't go backwards. There's nothing back there to go to, except agony, except defeat, except the defeat of the human spirit."

Powell said former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev personally invited him to address the week-long convention. Recalling a story of a meeting with the Soviet reformer in the Pentagon, Powell said Gorbachev told him: "'General, General, I'm very, very sorry you will have to have to find a new enemy.' I said: `I don't want to. I like this enemy.'"

Is This a Republican?

Powell said later that one of the consequences of the end of the Cold War was that "we cannot waste our resources on weapons we don't need."

This statement would appear to be at odds with Republican members of Congress who have consistently supported larger military budgets and have fought to keep weapons programs from withering away.

In this campaign season Vice President Al Gore has gone out of his way to attack Gov. George W. Bush and his policy advisers as being stuck in the Cold War, a mentality that divides the world into allies and enemies of American interests. Republicans in turn have blasted the Clinton administration for allowing America's enemies to become stronger and ignoring the threat.

But Powell, who has been mentioned as a possible choice for Bush's secretary of state, did not talk about the threat of rogue states such as Iraq, the country that America went to war with under his watch as America's top military officer. Nor did the former general mention other Republican foreign policy issues, such as the call for a big military, or the desire for a national missile defense program, which Bush has said he would pursue.

Powell seemed to take a page from his Republican convention playbook, where he decried the buildup of prisons and relative paucity of education budgets, two views normally associated with Democrats.

"The challenge before us now is that in order to provide a better life for our children, in order to free up the wealth that is out there to solve the problems of education, to solve the problems of health care, to find safe places for children, we have got to work hard to find reconciliation to all the conflicts that are out there," Powell said.

Powell Gives Highest Praise to U.N.

How should the world work to end conflict? One way, Powell said is "the use of the United Nations, one of the greatest organizations ever put on the face of the earth."

That's a far cry from Bush foreign policy guru Condeleeza Rice's proclamation at August's Republican convention that America is not the world's police department.

There are plenty of Republican internationalists, but Powell's formulation of America's obligation for American interventionism stems not from a need to protect U.S. interests, or promote stability, but rather a debt he argues this country owes to the world's children. Powell said the world's children "cry out to us, 'Give us peace, give us justice, give us what we need to be successful in the world."

Powell mentioned the growth of democracies in Nigeria and South Africa, saying that "we" needed to keep moving in this direction. He talked about the growing problem of AIDS in Africa, an issue most associated with Albright, where she has come under some criticism for making this an issue of foreign policy.

Powell made his speech before a clearly internationalist crowd. The State of the World Forum's board of directors boasts former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, famous primatologist Jane Goodall, Marian Wright Edelman, president of the leftist so-called Children's Defense Fund, and the left-wing, Christian-bashing media mogul who donated a fortune to the U.N., Ted Turner. Former Secretary of State James Baker also serves on that body.

The forum aims to bring groups together to work towards "sustainable globalization," and recently has completed a review of the effect of globalization in the world. Sessions at the conference have covered the gambit of politically correct issues associated with improving the lot of those in less fortunate countries, from microeconomic programs to the "Literature of Women's Human Rights" and a session on spiritual healing.

---

Live Webcast of the United Nations Millennium Summit

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7, 1:08 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000907/ny_mediaon.html

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- WHEN: September 6 - 8, 2000

WHERE: United Nations Headquarters, New York, New York
LINK: http://www.un.org/millennium/webcast

HIGHLIGHTS: The Summit, which has brought together 150 heads of state or government to tackle global challenges, is expected to be the largest-ever gathering of world leaders.

WEBCAST PROVIDER: MediaOnDemand.com, a leading streaming multimedia application service provider (ASP) with an expanding content distribution network and a sponsor of the UN Millennium Summit, is providing more than 25 hours of live streaming video to the United Nations Website. For more information regarding MediaOnDemand.com, please visit http://www.mediaondemand.com.

Contact:

MediaOnDemand.com Jeff Schulz, 212/867-8888 ext. 106 or Spring O'Brien & Co. Karen Gross, 212/620-7100 ext. 206

---

THE OVERVIEW Clinton Warns U.N. of a New Age of Civil Wars

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By DAVID E. SANGER
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07PREX.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 - President Clinton opened the summit meeting of world leaders at the United Nations today, urging the huge gathering to prepare the institution for a new age in which international forces will have to reach regularly and rapidly inside national boundaries to protect threatened people.

With his own time in the front rank of the 149 world leaders gathered here drawing to an end, Mr. Clinton also used the moment to try to settle some of the disputes that have dogged his presidency, from the Middle East to Russia to Southeast Asia.

The president met separately into the evening with Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and then with the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, in hopes of picking up the broken pieces of the peace agreement to which they came tantalizingly close at Camp David in July. Mr. Clinton had warned earlier in the day that "like all life's chances," the moment for an accord "is fleeting and about to pass."

Tonight, the White House spokesman, Joe Lockhart, gave no indication that the meetings had resulted in any progress on the question of control of Jerusalem or other issues dividing Mr. Arafat and Mr. Barak. He said that as of now no meetings were scheduled this week among the three leaders.

Also today, Mr. Clinton sparred anew with Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, who is using the gathering here to propose a ban on military uses of space, another effort to terminate American efforts to develop a national missile defense. Mr. Clinton's aides gave Mr. Putin a summary of American intelligence gathered during the Kursk submarine disaster, which suggests that Mr. Putin's own naval forces may have misled him in the days after the accident.

Mr. Clinton was deliberately vague on the question of when the United Nations should step into civil wars or ethnic and religious disputes - an argument that has come up repeatedly during his presidency. "These conflicts present us with a stark challenge," he said. "Are they part of the scourge the U.N. was established to prevent? If so, we must respect sovereignty and territorial integrity, but still find a way to protect people as well as borders."

Just hours before he spoke, three United Nations relief workers were killed in West Timor, apparently by Indonesian militia forces. The news, underscoring the risks to United Nations workers as they insert themselves into uncontrolled disputes, put a chill on the opening ceremony. As the session began, the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, called for a minute of silence to remember the three international aid workers, as Indonesia's president, Abdurrahman Wahid, struggling with a clear erosion of his authority at home, sat in the hall.

Mr. Clinton clearly relished one of his last hurrahs as president in front of what the United Nations called the largest gathering of world leaders in history. Rarely has he had a chance to talk to both adversaries and allies at the same moment, a group as diverse as President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea and President Fidel Castro of Cuba, who listened to Mr. Clinton but never got close enough to talk to him.

Mr. Clinton stayed in the hall after his speech and, because of an unexpected change in the order of speakers, heard President Mohammad Khatami of Iran, with whom the United States still has no formal dialogue, talk about the clash of Islamic and Western cultures.

As Mr. Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright sat listening at the back of the huge hall, Mr. Khatami declared that in coming years the world could no longer be ruled by "monopolies of power and capital," a clear reference to the United States. It was one of several expressions of frustration about America's global power that was a subtext of the gathering.

Shortly after Mr. Clinton spoke of the need to intervene strongly when a nation's leaders abuse their own people, the president of China, Jiang Zemin, described a very different concept of how the world should operate. "Respect for each other's independence and sovereignty is vital to the maintenance of world peace," he said.

Striking a theme often heard from Chinese leaders who fear that intervention in Kosovo or East Timor could provide the precedent for one day intervening in Tibet or Taiwan, Mr. Jiang added: "Dialogue and cooperation in the field of human rights must be conducted on the basis of respect for state sovereignty. Without sovereignty, there will be no human rights to speak of."

Perhaps because of the growing suspicions about America's use of that power - or perhaps because of the constant conflict between the United Nations and Washington over the payment of dues to the organization - Mr. Clinton did not receive the kind of standing ovation that greeted him in 1998. During his speech, he made an oblique reference to Washington's $1.7 billion in arrears to the United Nations, saying that as the organization expands its missions, "all these things come with a price tag, and all nations, including the United States, must pay it."

He also took a clear shot at conservative Republicans who have attacked the United Nations, saying, "Those in my country or elsewhere who believe we can do without the United Nations, or impose our will upon it, misread history and misunderstand the future."

Shortly after Mr. Clinton spoke, he met in the United Nations building with the president of Vietnam, Tan Duc Luong. He reassured him that a recent trade accord between the United States and its enemy of three decades ago would remain a top priority for the United States, even though he has decided not to try to win approval of the agreement from Congress this year. The two men also discussed Mr. Clinton's desire to visit Vietnam before the end of his presidency, which would make him the first American president to set foot on Vietnamese soil since the end of the war nearly 30 years ago.

While the White House made no announcement of such plans, senior administration officials say Mr. Clinton is likely to visit Vietnam just before Thanksgiving. He is planning to attend the annual Asian economic summit meeting in Brunei, and would make a symbolic - and highly emotional - visit to Hanoi on the same trip.

Such individual meetings and initiatives always dominate the opening of the United Nations session in September. But the stated purpose of this vast meeting of leaders is much broader: to set new priorities and directions for the United Nations, which at age 55 seems creaky and unprepared for a host of new challenges.

On Friday the leaders are scheduled to sign a millennium declaration, calling for a new peacekeeping structure; a report to Mr. Annan calls for a strengthened corps of commanders in New York, ready to organize peacekeeping operations in a week or two. The declaration also sets goals for reducing poverty and illiteracy during the next 15 years, and contains carefully formulated language about guiding economic globalization so that it benefits the poor as much as the rich, and small, uncompetitive nations as much as the developed world.

But as with any document that is signed by so many, the language is so watered down that discerning its specific meaning is difficult at best. And it is particularly difficult to pin down the United Nations' role in managing economic globalization and development. More and more, that role has fallen to the institutions that were created at the end of World War II to manage the world economy - the World Bank, which focuses on poverty, and the International Monetary Fund, which seeks to prevent and manage economic crises.

Their growing role leaves the United Nations increasingly on the sidelines when it comes to the crucial questions of economic development - who gets capital and under what conditions - and even their efforts are often overshadowed by the billions in private capital that now slosh through the emerging markets on a daily basis.

In such an environment, the United Nations' role is chiefly hortatory. And exactly because the United Nations does not impose the kind of conditions on its aid that the World Bank and I.M.F. require, from fiscal prudence to Western-style accounting methods - it has become the forum to which many nations want to move the debate over the rules of globalization.

---

Relief Workers Leave West Timor After Attack

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By CHRISTOPHER S. WREN
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/continuous/08ATTACK.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 -- The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner, Sadako Ogata, today pulled the agency's remaining relief workers out of West Timor, following Wednesday's attack on a United Nation's refugee office in Atambua that left three international staff members dead.

Mrs. Ogata said that she withdrew the relief workers because of the likelihood of continuing harassment by self-styled militiamen opposed to independence for neighboring East Timor. The decision leaves tens of thousands of refugees, who had fled similarly bloody attacks a year ago in the eastern part of the island, without assistance from the United Nations refugee agency.

Sixty-nine agency employees, all but two of them Indonesian, left Atambua today in a convoy escorted by Indonesian soldiers, for Batugade, a border town in East Timor, where they were flown by helicopter to the capital Dili. The group included two workers who survived Wednesday's attack - a Fijian security officer and a Japanese human rights official working for the agency.

Officials said 70 other employees of the United Nations and other international organizations were flown out of Kupang, the main town in West Timor, to Denpasar in Indonesia.

The bodies of the three slain refugee workers were carried by separate helicopter to Dili, where their coffins were draped with United Nations flags and driven to a morgue operated by the United Nations mission in East Timor.

The Secretary General's special representative for East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and other United Nations officials held an airport ceremony to honor the dead workers, who came from Puerto Rico, Ethiopia and Croatia.

"This is not the first time I put flowers on coffins or body bags of U.N. staff, but it is particularly difficult when the murder is so brutally senseless," Mr. Vieira de Mello said.

"We are talking about sheer murder of humanitarian staff who were there to protect the victims of similarly senseless violence carried out by the same people in East Timor last year," the special representative said.

Secretary General Kofi Annan and other leaders gathered for a summit here demanded that President Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia take real steps to control the militias, which are actually lawless gangs who are suspected of getting weapons and covert support from Indonesia's military.

President Wahid, who is attending the summit meeting, blamed the latest rampage on militiamen grieving for their murdered leader, but also suggested that the timing of the attack may have been meant to embarrass him.

A Brazilian tourist in Atambua who was severely injured in the rampage was evacuated on Wednesday to a hospital in Dili, where her condition was upgraded today to stable.

The Indonesian police reported finding a fourth unidentified body after the attack, which was thought to be that of a worker for another aid organization.

But Fred Eckhard, a spokesman for Mr. Annan, said today that the United Nations employees been accounted for. Mr. Eckhard, at a briefing for reporters, also confirmed that the organization's relief operation in West Timor was now shut down.

"We're not going back until Indonesia demonstrates that it can get these militias under control, and the threat posed by the militias has been eliminated," Mr. Eckhard said.

---

E-Mail Message by U.N. Worker

New York Times
September 07, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07MAIL.html

Following is an excerpt from an e-mail message sent by Carlos Cáceres-Collazo, one of the United Nations workers killed yesterday, shortly before his murder, as provided by a diplomat. The United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Sadako Ogata, read it to the Security Council.

I was in the office when the news came out that a wave of violence would soon pound Atambua. We sent most of the staff home, rushing to safety. I just heard someone on the radio saying that they are praying for us in the office. The militias are on the way, and I am sure they will do their best to demolish this office.

The man killed was the head of one of the most notorious and criminal militia groups of East Timor. These guys act without thinking and can kill a human as easily (and painlessly) as I kill mosquitos in my room.

You should see this office. Plywood on the windows, staff peering out through openings in the curtains hastily installed a few minutes ago. We are waiting for this enemy, we sit here like bait, unarmed, waiting for wave to hit.

---

Rwandan Pleads for Quicker Intervention in World's Hot Spots

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By BARBARA CROSSETTE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07RWAN.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 - Less than two weeks after experts told the United Nations that it needed an in-house policy center to work on areas of tension before they turn into international crises, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda came along this week with a case in point.

More than six years after a frenzy of ethnic killing tore his small African country apart, armed militia and former soldiers thought to be guilty of some of the killings are still roaming free in neighboring Congo. A plan to deal with them should have been worked out long ago by United Nations officials drawing on their collective skills, Mr. Kagame said in an interview. To him, they are the reason there is a war in Congo.

In New York for the summit meeting of world leaders, Mr. Kagame said that until the Hutu responsible for killing Tutsi and their moderate Hutu allies are disarmed and resettled somewhere in peace, Rwandan troops will stay in Congo. The presence of foreign troops - from Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia - is also a major impediment to dispatching a United Nations peacekeeping operation.

"The U.N. has enough resources and expertise - and even experience from other situations - to come up with a proposal," Mr. Kagame said. Breaking the cycle of blame and counter-blame between Rwanda and the Congolese government would mean separating fewer than 10,000 Rwandans who, he said, are mixed with troops from Congo and its allies.

"There are many ways of dealing with the problem," he said. "One is working together to see that these people don't get support from other governments. Let's put them into camps and disarm them. Let's repatriate them to Rwanda or take them elsewhere. I don't see why the U.N. can fail to do that.

"They keep coming to us and asking us what we feel they should do, but this is simply trying to run away from the problem."

Tens of thousands of exiles have returned voluntarily, he added.

Mr. Kagame said the costly business of keeping Rwandan troops in Congo to seal the border burdens the reconstruction of Rwanda, a country of about 7.5 million people.

He said that Rwanda, like Cambodia, will suffer for a long time from the loss of much of its middle class in the killings. The events of 1994 left up to 800,000 Rwandans dead and led several months later to the overthrow of a Hutu-led government by Tutsi-led rebels whom Mr. Kagame commanded. He has been the central power figure in Rwanda ever since, although he did not assume the presidency until this year.

The middle-class professionals lost to Rwanda came from both ethnic groups. Mr. Kagame said that in addition to those who were killed, many of the 120,000 Rwandans charged in the attacks and still in jail are also middle class: priests, civil servants, local political leaders.

Mr. Kagame, who has tempered the fury he first expressed at the failure of the United Nations and its leading members, including the United States and France, to prevent or end the massacres, now focuses his criticism on what he sees as an international failure to recognize that a country so profoundly wounded cannot be treated like just any place.

"My country has to be treated as a special case," he said.

He rejected suggestions that the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority will never be reconciled.

"There has been nothing in the past to demonstrate that they can't live together," he said, "but I do see a solution in the better political, economic and social management of the country."

---

The Words of Many Government Leaders, and Many Views of the World

New York Times
September 07, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07LEAD.html

These are excerpts from speeches of world leaders yesterday at the United Nations, drawn from official transcripts:

'There can be change. There can be hope for Africa.'

TONY BLAIR
Prime Minister, Britain

There is a dismal record of failure in Africa on the part of the developed world that shocks and shames our civilization. Twenty-one of the 44 countries in sub-Saharan Africa are affected by conflict which undermines efforts at development. Even worse, 10 times as many people died of AIDS in Africa last year as were killed in all continent's wars combined.

Nowhere are more people dying needlessly from starvation, from disease, from conflict. Deaths caused not by acts of fate, but by acts of man. By bad governance, factional rivalries, state-sponsored theft and corruption.

Nowhere are more people being left behind on the wrong side of a growing digital and educational divide, children being denied the opportunities that will transform the lives of their contemporaries elsewhere in the world. Yet, 30 years ago, the same depressing analysis might have been made of parts of Asia or Latin America. There can be change. There can be hope for Africa.

There is political leadership, business opportunity and above all the will on behalf of people for a better future in Africa. We must be partners in the search for change and hope.

'Blind laws are offered like divine norms.'

FIDEL CASTRO
President, Cuba

There is chaos in our world, both within the countries' borders and beyond. Blind laws are offered like divine norms that would bring peace, order, well-being and the security our planet so badly needs. That is what they would have us believe.

Three dozen developed and wealthy nations that monopolize the economic, political and technological power have joined us in this gathering to offer more of the same recipes that have only served to make us poorer, more exploited and more dependent.

There is not even discussion about a radical reform of this old institution - born over a half-century ago when there were few independent nations - to turn into a true representative body of the interests of all the peoples on Earth; an institution where no one would have the irritating and anti-democratic right of veto and where a transparent process could be undertaken to expand membership and representation in the Security Council, an executive body subordinated to the General Assembly, which should be the one making the decisions on such crucial issues as intervention and the use of force.

It should be clearly stated that the principle of sovereignty cannot be sacrificed to an abusive and unfair order that a hegemonic superpower uses, together with its own might and strength, to try to decide everything by itself. That Cuba will never accept.

'A moral and humane world with liberty and progress.'

MOHAMMAD KHATAMI
President, Iran

Democratic principles have gradually become the criteria of good-governance domestically. They deserve to become the new norm governing global interactions.

Therefore, the exigencies of a few power holders should not supersede the interest of humanity through familiar practices of endorsement of undemocratic governments, not responsive to the will and needs of their people, and application of double and multiple standards of response to incidents around the globe.

Moreover, the structure of power in our contemporary world must be reformed. In a global society whose constituents, much like equal individuals within nation-states, are nations of equal right and dignity, diverse cultures and civilizations can and should work collectively to build a moral and humane world with liberty and progress for all.

'We live in a society, not a marketplace.'

BERTIE AHERN
Prime Minister, Ireland

The statistics of poverty and inequality in our world are shocking and shameful.

Half the world's population struggling on less than $2 a day; over a billion on less than $1.

A quarter of a billion children of 14 and under working, sometimes in terrible conditions.

Death from preventable and treatable diseases; 10 people will die of malaria in the five minutes I take to address you. There was much talk some years ago of a "new world order."

A new order is indeed dawning. The capacity of globalization to transform our economies and societies is enormous.

But, unless shaped by a value system, globalization will mean an ever more lopsided world. The level playing field will remain an illusion as long as a majority of players are ill fed, ill trained and ill equipped.

Perhaps the phrase "fair world order" better sums up what we should strive for. It recognizes that we live in a society, not a marketplace. It admits concepts of justice and human solidarity. It acknowledges that, while not everyone will live in the same way, we are all entitled to dignity and decency.

'At the Rubicon, and neither of us can cross it alone.'

EHUD BARAK
Prime Minister, Israel

The opportunity for peace in the Middle East is now at hand, and must not be missed.

We envision a peace that will preserve the vital interests and the dignity of all sides. But no one side can achieve 100 percent of its dreams if we are to succeed.

My own government has shown, in negotiations with Syria and the Palestinians, as in our full implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 425, that it can make painful decisions for the sake of peace.

It remains to be seen whether our counterparts are also capable of rising to the magnitude of the hour.

The member states of the United Nations can lend a pivotal hand by encouraging the difficult process of reconciliation, and by opposing any unilateral measures, which may well spark a renewed cycle of violence and obliterate the prospects of peace.

I call out to Chairman Arafat to join me in this historic passage.

We are at the Rubicon, and neither of us can cross it alone.

'New horizons for secure life on the planet.'

VLADIMIR V. PUTIN
President, Russia

The new century of the United Nations should prolong itself into a millennium of effective stability. It has to enter the annals of history as the period of real disarmament. . . .

We should reliably block the ways for spreading of nuclear weapons. We can achieve this by, inter alia, excluding usage of enriched uranium and pure plutonium in the world atomic energy production.

This is technically quite possible to implement. But more important is that incineration of plutonium and other radioactive elements creates prerequisites for the final solution of the radioactive residues problem. It opens fundamentally new horizons for secure life on the planet.

In this connection Russia proposes to work out and put into practice a relevant mechanism with the participation of the I.A.E.A. Particularly alarming are the plans for militarization of the outer space. In spring of 2001 we shall celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first flight of man to the outer space.

That man was our compatriot, and we suggest to organize on that date, under the umbrella of the U.N., an international conference on prevention of the outer space militarization. I think that the most proper place for it shall be Moscow.

'As part of a global village, we should work together.'

HASINA WAZED
Prime Minister, Bangladesh

Can we afford islands of prosperity in an ocean of suffering and darkness? Let us resolve that as part of a global village, we should work together so that all can benefit from the process of globalization and we can have a win-win at the end.

Globalization and a borderless world are not a panacea for all social and economic ills. While they can reinforce the rich and the powerful, they can also impoverish the weak and the vulnerable.

'We all know that the U.N. plays a major role.'

JACQUES CHIRAC
President, France

Our world, which is still fraught with political, economic and financial crises, does not suffer from a surfeit of rules, but from the problems of keeping international law and practices abreast of change and progress.

If we are to build a world order that meets the needs of our times, we must strengthen and improve the coexistence of great institutions such as I.M.F., the World Bank, the W.T.O. and, first of all, the U.N.

We all know that the U.N. plays a major role. In its first half-century of existence, this universal, democratic institution has become irreplaceable.

We must let it adapt to today's world. By modernizing the methods of the General Assembly, which is the world's Parliament in a way. By supporting the reforms undertaken by our secretary general, Mr. Kofi Annan, whom I would like to salute here. By making the best use of the information revolution.

And finally, by providing the necessary resources, as the European Union countries do, supplying more than one-third of the budget and half of the financing for U.N. funds and programs. This will enable the U.N. to fulfill its duties and influence the course of world history.

'There should not be only one color in the universe.'

JIANG ZEMIN
President, China

The world is diverse and colorful. Just as there should not be only one color in the universe, so there should not be only one civilization, one social system, one development model or one set of values in the world.

Each and every country and nation has made its own contribution to the development of human civilization. It is essential to fully respect the diversity of different nations, religions and civilizations, whose co-existence is the very source of vigorous development in the world.

We should promote the exchanges between different civilizations in a spirit of equality and democracy and encourage them to learn from one another in order to attain common progress.

Dialogue and cooperation in the field of human rights must be conducted on the basis of respect for state sovereignty. This is the fundamental and most effective way to protect and promote human rights.

So long as there are boundaries between states, and people live in their respective countries, to maintain national independence and safeguard sovereignty will be the supreme interests of each government and people. Without sovereignty, there will be no human rights to speak of.

'Inaction speaks louder than words.'

MAUMOON ABDUL GAYMOOM
President, Maldives

To those who learn from mistakes the past is a good guide for the future. But let us not go back a thousand years. Let us go forward to a hundred years hence. When the U.N. meets to usher in yet another century, will the Maldives and other low-lying island nations be represented here?

Not only a sobering thought, but an alarming one. Now, I have only 30 seconds left. It would be a pity to disperse from this gathering without a final commitment to save the earth. I don't wish to be cynical, but, are we to believe that the world really cares? Are we to believe that all humanity is one?

Inaction speaks louder than words.

---

Clinton, at the U.N.: 'Aspirations Pile High'

New York Times
September 07, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07TEXT.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 - Following is a transcript of the address given today by President Clinton at the United Nations, as provided by the White House:

Madam President, Mr. Secretary General, my fellow leaders, let me begin by saying it is a great honor to have this unprecedented gathering of world leaders in the United States.

We come together not just at a remarkable moment on the calendar, but at the dawn of a new era in human affairs, when globalization and the revolution in information technology have brought us closer together than ever before. To an extent unimaginable just a few years ago, we reach across geographical and cultural divides. We know what is going on in each other's countries. We share experiences, triumphs, tragedies, aspirations.

Our growing interdependence includes the opportunity to explore and reap the benefits of the far frontiers of science and the increasingly interconnected economy. And as the Secretary General just reminded us, it also includes shared responsibilities to free humanity from poverty, disease, environmental destruction and war. That responsibility, in turn, requires us to make sure the United Nations is up for the job.

Fifty-five years ago, the U.N. was formed to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. Today there are more people in this room with the power to achieve that goal than have ever been gathered in one place. We find today fewer wars between nations, but more wars within them. Such internal conflicts, often driven by ethnic and religious differences, took five million lives in the last decade, most of them completely innocent victims.

These conflicts present us with a stark challenge. Are they part of the scourge the U.N. was established to prevent? If so, we must respect sovereignty and territorial integrity, but still find a way to protect people, as well as borders.

The last century taught us that there are times when the international community must take a side, not merely stand between the sides or on the sidelines. We faced such a test and met it when Mr. Milosevic tried to close the last century with the final chapter of ethnic cleansing and slaughter. We have faced such a test for 10 years in Iraq, where the U.N. has approved a fair blueprint spelling out what must be done. It is consistent with our resolutions and our values, and it must be enforced.

We face another test today in Burma, where a brave and popular leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, once again has been confined - with her supporters in prisons and her country in distress - in defiance of repeated U.N. resolutions.

But most conflicts and disputes are not so clear-cut. Legitimate grievances and aspirations pile high on both sides. Here there is no alternative to principled compromise, in giving up old grudges in order to get on with life.

Right now, from the Middle East to Burundi to the Congo to South Asia, leaders are facing this kind of choice, between confrontation and compromise.

Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Barak are with us here today. They have promised to resolve the final differences between them this year, finally completing the Oslo process embodied in the Declaration of Principles signed seven years ago this month at the White House.

To those who have supported the right of Israel to live in security and peace, to those who have championed the Palestinian cause these many years, let me say to all of you: They need your support now, more than ever, to take the hard risks for peace. They have the chance to do it.

But like all life's chances, it is fleeting and about to pass. There is not a moment to lose.

When leaders do seize this chance for peace, we must help them. Increasingly, the United Nations has been called into situations where brave people seek reconciliation, but where the enemies of peace seek to undermine it. In East Timor, had the United Nations not engaged, the people would have lost the chance to control their future.

Today I was deeply saddened to learn of the brutal murder of the three U.N. relief workers there by the militia in West Timor, and I urge the Indonesian authorities to put a stop to these abuses.

In Sierra Leone, had the United Nations not engaged, countless children now living would be dead. But in both cases, the U.N. did not have the tools to finish the job. We must provide those tools - with peacekeepers that can be rapidly deployed with the right training and equipment, missions well defined and well led, with the necessary civilian police.

And we must work, as well, to prevent conflict; to get more children in school; to relieve more debt in developing countries; to do more to fight malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, which cause a quarter of all the deaths in the world; to do more to provoke prevention and to stimulate the development and affordable access to drugs and vaccines; to do more to curb the trade in items which generate money that make conflict more profitable than peace, whether diamonds in Africa or drugs in Colombia.

All these things come with a price tag. And all nations, including the United States, must pay it.

These prices must be fairly apportioned, and the U.N. structure of finances must be fairly reformed so the organization can do its job. But those in my country or elsewhere who believe we can do without the U.N. or impose our will upon it misread history and misunderstand the future.

Let me say to all of you, this is the last opportunity I will have as president to address this General Assembly. It is the most august gathering we have ever had, because so many of you have come from so far away. If I have learned anything in these last eight years, it is, whether we like it or not, we are growing more interdependent. We must look for more solutions in which all sides can claim a measure of victory and move away from choices in which someone is required to accept complete defeat. That will require us to develop greater sensitivity to our diverse political, cultural and religious claims. But it will require us to develop even greater respect for our common humanity.

The leaders here assembled can rewrite human history in the new millennium. If we have learned the lessons of the past, we can leave a very different legacy for our children. But we must believe the simple things - that everywhere in every land, people in every station matter. Everyone counts, everyone has a role to play, and we all do better when we help each other.

Thank you, and God bless you all.

---

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The State of the World, and the World to Be, in 149 Chapters

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By BARBARA CROSSETTE
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07NATI.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 - The question hangs out there: Why would 149 world leaders leave their not- always-stable governments unattended to come to New York and make five-minute speeches, mostly to each other and the television cameras from back home?

Secretary General Kofi Annan had an answer today as he lifted his glass to the biggest power lunch in history.

"You," he said, looking out over the world's political elite, "have the authority to speak for, and the ability to transform, the lives of six billion people."

This "millennium summit" was a gamble, organized not to celebrate a new page on the calendar but to look ahead at what kind of a global society the leaders hope to achieve in this century, if not the millennium to come.

But from the start, everyone knew that it would go beyond that, and would probably be remembered more for the private meetings in hotel suites and diplomatic offices around town than for anything said in the cavernous hall of the General Assembly.

There was a kind of easy camaraderie born of the unusual event, with back-slapping, hugs, kisses and the puzzled faces of interpreters trying to keep up with the in-jokes.

President Clinton, for one, could not resist telling President Jiang Zemin of China, as they sat down to lunch, what a softball interview the Chinese leader had with CBS's "60 Minutes." "Mike Wallace is so mean to us," Mr. Clinton complained to his lunch-table buddies, "and he was purring in front of him."

President Fidel Castro of Cuba, whose reputation for long-winded speeches is legendary, brought laughter to the Assembly late in the afternoon when he took out a white handkerchief and covered the timer on the lectern. But he stayed within the allotted time - and waved triumphantly before retaking his seat.

For an hour early this morning, many of the world's most familiar faces passed by the knot of protocol officers waiting at the canopied delegates' entrance to United Nations headquarters. As speeches began - they are expected to go on well into Friday evening - the stock-taking that emerged was not so much of the world the leaders hoped to see, but of the stark realities out there.

"The statistics of poverty and inequality in our world are shocking and shameful," said Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of Ireland. "Half the world's population struggling on less than $2 a day, over half a billion on less than $1. A quarter of a billion children of 14 and under working, sometimes in terrible conditions. Death from preventable and treatable diseases - 10 people will die of malaria in the five minutes I take to address you."

President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria - who shared a lunch table with Mr. Clinton, Mr. Annan, Mr. Jiang, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, two kings and several others - is currently chairman of the Group of 77, a forum for developing nations. In an interview on Monday, when Mr. Obasanjo had more than five minutes to explain what the third world was seeking at these meetings, he said:

"The wishes of the developing world are simple. We are all living in the same house, whether you are developed or not developed. What we are saying is that some of us in this house are living in superluxurious rooms; others are living in something not better than an unkempt kitchen where pipes are leaking and there is no toilet. We are saying, `Look, in the interest of all of us, let us living in the superluxurious rooms pay a bit of attention to those who are living where the pipes are leaking, or we'll all be badly affected.'

"That's the message."

There were repeated warnings to heed the dark side of globalization, the technology and health gaps as well as the unbalanced use of natural resources. There were also calls for a more democratic United Nations, with a Security Council more reflective of a membership that has changed profoundly since the organization's founding in 1945.

"If we want this United Nations organization to fulfill its lofty goals, indeed if we want it to remain relevant in the 21st century," Prime Minister Said W. Musa of Belize said in his speech, "we must remake it into an organization that takes global governance away from the self-appointed few and brings greater democracy to all its operations."

A number of speakers took the opportunity to float their own international initiatives.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia proposed a project in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency to destroy radioactive materials and exclude them from civilian energy use. He also suggested that the 40th anniversary next spring of the first manned space flight - by a Russian - be commemorated by an international conference on the prevention of the military uses of space.

Both Mr. Putin and President Jiang were robbed of their biggest arms-control target, the proposed American nuclear missile defense, when Mr. Clinton delayed deployment last week. Mr. Putin did reaffirm the importance that Russia attaches to the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which many nations say would be directly threatened by a new American system.

The angriest speaker of this first day of the summit meeting was probably Prime Minister Lester B. Bird of Antigua, who went on the attack against the Group of 7 industrialized nations and the larger Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for their efforts to tighten or close down tax havens.

"While the spin doctors of the O.E.C.D. have attempted to cloak their position in moral rectitude with references to the evils of money laundering," he said, "harmful tax competition has nothing to do with money laundering." He said the campaign was a ploy by "what amounts to a high-tax cartel" of rich nations.

His passion illustrated the difficulties in selling international financial regulation to those countries that believe they can only stand to lose when rules are tightened.

There were some overtones of sadness and poignancy in many of today's 60-plus speeches. Starting with Secretary General Annan, there were condemnations of the killings of three international aid workers, and perhaps a fourth, in West Timor by rampaging Indonesian militias. Indonesia's president, Abdurrahman Wahid, whose nation's army and police patrol the island to prevent trouble, sat impassively in the hall. (He speaks on Thursday.)

President Clinton and Prime Minister Blair called attention to the plight of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy leader, who is enduring a new round of repression under a military junta that robbed her of an election victory a decade ago.

"I do not wish to leave the U.N. without saying this," Mr. Blair said. "The treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese regime is a disgrace. I call on the Burmese government to let her go free, and I call on fellow world leaders to back that call."

It was left to President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Maldives to plumb the existential depths, as he spoke for those island nations threatened with extinction in rising seas caused by global warming. "When the U.N. meets to usher in yet another century," he said, "will the Maldives and other low-lying nations be represented here?"

As his five minutes ended, he added: "My time at the podium is up. But I pray that that of my country is not."

---

U.N. Backs Stronger Peacekeeping, Split on Aims

New York Times
September 07, 2000 Filed at 9:25 p.m. ET
By REUTERS
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-un-summ.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - World leaders solemnly pledged on Thursday to strengthen United Nations peacekeeping, but a public split over humanitarian intervention raised doubts about the effectiveness of future action.

Chastened by the United Nation's recent poor record in preventing massacres, a special summit of the 15-member Security Council adopted guidelines intended to support U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's drive to give the world body more teeth.

But while the United States, Britain and Canada sought to extend the grounds for intervention to avert disasters, Russian and Chinese leaders stressed their fierce opposition to interference in countries' internal affairs.

The five countries, permanent members of the council, then met among themselves, and pledged to work toward revitalizing peacekeeping operations, including adjusting the scale of payments in light of changed circumstances. The United States, which owes the world body $1.7 billion, has argued for changes that it hopes would lower its contribution.

On the second day of a U.N. Millennium Summit, gloom deepened about Middle East peace prospects after President Clinton failed to break the deadlock over Jerusalem in separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Clinton remained available to help mediate, but the two sides had to make the ''hard decisions'' for peace and time was running short.

HANDSHAKE WITH CASTRO

U.S. officials reluctantly confirmed that Clinton had shaken hands and exchanged a few sentences with Cuban President Fidel Castro during an encounter in a throng of U.N. leaders on Wednesday.

The White House insisted the two-minute conversation was initiated by the veteran Cuban revolutionary and signaled no thaw in Washington's 40-year standoff with a communist leader regarded as a pariah in the United States.

Some other leaders were less keen to shake Clinton's hand.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said conditions were not yet ripe for him to open a dialogue with the U.S. government, while Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz accused Washington of hijacking U.N. resolutions to maintain crippling economic sanctions on Baghdad for the last decade.

Opening the showcase peacekeeping session, Annan told the Security Council it faced a crisis of credibility.

``Too many vulnerable communities in too many regions of the world now hesitate to look to the United Nations to assist them in their hour of need,'' he said.

After recent problems in providing forces for Sierra Leone, East Timor, Congo and the Eritrea-Ethiopia border, Annan called for new measures to overhaul underfunded and understaffed U.N. peacekeeping operations, with special emphasis on Africa.

Although neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor Chinese President Jiang Zemin mentioned it by name, NATO's Kosovo war haunted the debate about intervention.

The U.S.-led alliance launched its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia last year without seeking Security Council approval because it was clear that Moscow, the Serbs' historic ally, would have used its veto to block any action.

Putin said that under no circumstances could the new century ``be a cause for reconsidering the norms of behavior tested by time.'' Jiang also voiced objections to the idea of bypassing the Council in any way.

The council adopted a resolution that would move toward overhauling peacekeeping operations in order to provide better trained troops that would respond faster to crises.

The council's meeting began with a minute's silence for three U.N. refugee workers killed by rampaging pro-Indonesian militiamen in West Timor on Wednesday.

Another hot spot the U.N. is trying to sort out is the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rebel forces on Thursday said the government in Kinshasa was massing troops on two fronts for a major offensive.

The Security Council in February authorized a 5,500-strong force for the former Zaire to monitor a flagging cease-fire. But apart from about 250 military observers, the U.N. mission has still not been deployed, mainly due to obstacles raised by Kinshasa.

NO BREAKTHROUGH ON MIDDLE EAST

Clinton said he did not know whether efforts to persuade Israel and the Palestinians to make progress would succeed.

``We'll see where we are and whether anything else can be done while we're here. But I'm confident there will be a serious effort to work through these things over the next few weeks,'' he told reporters.

Barak said Israel was willing to reconsider ambitious U.S. peace proposals if the Palestinians changed their minds after rejecting the ideas at the Camp David summit in July.

So far Israel had not found a ``responsive partner'' on the Palestinian side and time was running out for a deal, he told a news conference.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, in an interview with CNN, said he would not betray his people or the Arab and Muslim world by sharing sovereignty with Israel over Muslim holy places in Jerusalem.

---

Attack on U.N. Refugee Office Recalls Violence in East Timor

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By SETH MYDANS
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/continuous/08CND-TIMOR.html

BANGKOK Thailand, Sept. 7 -- The mob rampage that killed three United Nations workers in West Timor Wednesday seemed to some aid workers like the terrifying flashback of a trauma survivor: in many respects it replicated the the violence, exactly one year ago, in East Timor.

As survivors described the attack today, they told of narrow escapes from men with guns and machetes who went from house to house, banging on doors and threatening their occupants, looking for more foreigners to kill.

"It happened in a split second," Alias Bin Ahmal, a Malaysian who heads the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Atambua, where the attack occurred, told reporters today. "A few who made it had a very narrow escape. There was one who was stabbed and beaten. All hell broke loose."

The attack took place on Indonesian territory, just across the border from East Timor, which was devastated last year by killings and destruction after it voted for independence from Indonesia.

The scene was one of several camps that still house more than 100,000 refugees who for the past year have been terrorized by self-styled militias that opposed independence and that now have begun to step up cross-border raids into East Timor.

It offered the latest evidence in an unstable nation that the president, Abdurrahman Wahid, does not have full control of his armed forces. Attending the summit at the United Nations, Mr. Wahid acknowledged as much, saying the incident may have been timed to embarrass him in the eyes of the world.

It also may have been intended as a warning, following a first step by Indonesia to bring to trial some military and police officers who were responsible for the violence in East Timor.

Last Friday, the attorney general's office named 19 people as suspects but came under immediate criticism for omitting top officers, including General Wiranto, who had been the armed forces chief. The United Nations has said that if Indonesia does not deal adequately with those responsible, it could open its own international tribunal.

The violence in West Timor comes at a time when East Timor is struggling to rebuild after the violence that took at least 1,000 lives and left some 70 percent of its buildings in ruins.

United Nations Assistant Secretary General Hedi Annabi, warned a week ago in New York that the escalating attacks could be aimed at destabilizing East Timor as it moves toward elections and full self-government independent of the United Nations. In recent weeks, two international peacekeepers have been killed and several wounded.

In Indonesia itself, East Timor is a minor issue, receiving minimal government attention. With violence endemic in parts of the nation and with its politics in disarray, the problems that confront Mr. Wahid seem to be more than he can manage.

His government has done virtually nothing to prevent a recurrence of the type of mayhem that devastated East Timor.

The killings on Wednesday were carried out by the same militias that devastated East Timor and it took place, once again, with the apparent involvement of at least some elements of the Indonesian military. As in East Timor, nobody knows at what point the chain of command may have broken down, but it is clear that the militias continue to receive supplies and support from the military.

Once again, as during the carnage in East Timor, armed Indonesian soldiers and police officers stood by and did nothing. Once again, officials excused the outbreak as an "emotional reaction" by "rogue elements." Once again, the government, which had been promising for months to bring the situation under control, sought to defuse criticism with a new promise.

And once again over the past year, as it had throughout last year in East Timor, the government allowed the threats and violence to build in the refugee camps of West Timor in defiance of international pleas and pressure.

"This would not - could not - have happened if Indonesian authorities had taken steps much earlier to disband the militias in West Timor and prosecute them for known acts of violence," said Joe Saunders, deputy Asia director at the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch. "Instead, local civilian and military authorities gave every encouragement to these men and their political front organizations to intimidate East Timorese refugees under their control."

Mr. Ahmal said hundreds of armed men stormed the agency's office following the funeral of a militia leader who had been killed by unknown assailants.

"There was absolutely no attempt to stop these people from coming in," he said. "The few police that I saw stood by. People were armed, some with guns, some with machetes. They were bent on destroying and killing."

Mr. Ahmal said he and five colleagues hid in the home of a local woman for three and a half hours after his office was attacked.

"She was telling militias who banged on her door that we had tried to come in but went further down the road," he said. "If it was not for the woman's determination and ingenuity we would all have been sitting ducks."

The United Nations continued today to evacuate its workers from the most dangerous areas of West Timor. They were being moved to East Timor, the territory from which some of them had been evacuated a year ago after similar attacks.

Sidney Jones, the Asia director for Human Rights Watch, who has spent several months in East Timor, said the militias might be trying, as they did last year, to force foreigners to leave so that they could act with impunity.

Pressure on foreign workers has been building and the United Nations pulled its workers out of the camps for a few days last month when three of them were seriously beaten. Wednesday's attack is the most serious of more than 100 incidents in which United Nations workers have been threatened or beaten by militias or their supporters.

The militias have tried over the past year to block international attempts to repatriate the refugees, using threats, disinformation, roadblocks and kidnappings to persuade them or force them to stay in the camps.

The militias appear to be acting from a mixture of motives, Ms. Jones and others said. They appear to be hoping to take over the western portion of East Timor and they have demanded a general amnesty. They and their backers in the Indonesian military may also be motivated, as they were in the destruction in East Timor, by simple hatred and revenge.

Mr. Ahmal said he was concerned that because of the attacks and the evacuations that are now under way there may be no one left in the camps to help refugees who want to return to East Timor.

"We were there to assist the poor refugees who are still there and literally trapped," he said. "What do you say to those refugee families in the camp who want to be repatriated?"

His statement sounded very much like those of United Nations workers who were evacuated from East Timor a year ago as the militias began their rampage there.

---

UN Workers Evacuated From West Timor

Yahoo News
Wednesday September 6
By HEATHER PATERSON, Associated Press Writer
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000906/ts/indonesia_west_timor_16.html

DILI, East Timor (AP) - Thousands of armed militiamen and their supporters rampaged through a U.N. office in West Timor, killing at least three workers - including one from Puerto Rico - and burning their bodies. The brutal attack brought new pressure against Indonesia's president as he gathered with world leaders at the United Nations.

Four U.N. helicopters swooped down to the border town of Atambua and safely evacuated 54 people to East Timor, but world leaders quickly and harshly castigated Indonesia for not doing more to protect aid workers. Witnesses said Indonesian security forces stood by as the mobs torched the U.N. office and beat the workers.

The unprecedented violence - one U.N. official said it was one of the worst attacks on U.N. personnel anywhere in the world - cast a shadow over the U.N. Millennium Summit, which opened Wednesday in New York. More than 150 leaders, including Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, stood for a moment of silence in honor of the victims, who were from the U.N. High Commission for Refugees.

President Clinton said he was ``deeply saddened'' to hear of the deaths. ``I urge the Indonesian authorities to put a stop to these abuses.''

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he had taken up the killings with the Indonesian government ``at the highest level.''

The militias and their military sponsors have been blamed by the United Nations and Wahid's government of carrying out the bloody destruction of East Timor a year ago after its people voted to break free of Indonesian rule in a U.N.-supervised referendum.

Indonesia still controls the western part of the island, where the U.N. refugee agency has been delivering aid to an estimated 90,000 refugees who remain in border in camps after fleeing the violence in East Timor 12 months ago.

The rampage in the border town of Atambua was apparently triggered by the killing Tuesday of a militiaman opposed to East Timor's independence. Witnesses said some in the crowd accused the United Nations of not paying attention to their plight.

One of the dead U.N. workers - Puerto Rican Carlos Caceres - sent a desperate e-mail to a U.N. security office six hours before the massacre warning that they had heard a mob was en route to destroy the office.

``You should see this office ... Plywood on the windows, staff peering out through the openings in the curtains hastily installed a few minutes ago. We are waiting for the enemy,'' Caceres wrote.

``These guys act without thinking and can kill a human being as easily (and painlessly) as I kill mosquitos in my room.''

Caceres added that he was due to start a three-week trip on Thursday - ``I just hope I will be able to leave tomorrow.''

Most of the staff managed to escape over the back wall, but three apparently did not make it, a U.N. statement said.

A Security Council statement said the UNHCR had received advance warning of possible trouble but was assured by the Indonesian security forces that agency staff would be protected.

The violence threw into question repeated promises by Wahid to rein in the anti-independence militias or to control sections of the Indonesian army accused of arming and training them. It may result in calls for the convening of an international war crimes tribunal to try Indonesians accused of crimes against humanity in Timor.

Wahid's office later issued a statement expressing his condolences to the families of the victims and vowing to ``find the culprit.'' The statement said troops and police were being sent to Atambua to help.

The ``mishap,'' Wahid's statement read, ``was triggered by the uncontrollable emotional distress of the people'' over the killing of Olivia Mendoza Moruk.

Indonesian officials are already working with East Timor's U.N. administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello, the statement said. ``One of the plans is to evacuate these problems-creating people to other places in Indonesia.''

De Mello said the rampage was one of the worst attacks on U.N. personnel ever, and described the militias as an out-of-control ``monster'' created by sections of the Indonesian military.

Norwegian army Col. Brynar Nymo said four helicopters from the East Timor town of Suai flew to Atambua to pick up survivors with the permission of Indonesian authorities.

In addition to the three dead, several foreign staffers for the U.N. refugee agency escaped and three were injured, one of them seriously, police in Atambua said.

The seriously injured staffer was a Brazilian woman who was hacked by an ax-wielding attacker. The three dead workers were identified as Caceres, Samson Aregahegn of Ethiopia and Pero Simundza of Croatia. Their hometowns were not immediately available.

The three were the first civilian workers to be killed in Timor. Two peacekeeping soldiers have died in border skirmishes with armed militia infiltrators in East Timor in recent weeks.

``The militiamen beat them to death inside the building. They then dragged the bodies outside, put on them a pile of wood, poured gasoline over them and set them on fire,'' said one witness, who was too frightened to give his name.

About 250,000 East Timorese fled East Timor for dozens of border refugee camps in West Timor a year ago after last year's independence ballot. The militia backlash triggered by the east's independence vote continued until international peacekeepers landed in East Timor on Sept. 20. Since then, nearly 170,000 refugees have returned from West Timor.

The remaining refugees, many of them former Indonesian soldiers, civil servants or militiamen and their families, continue to live in the camps. The U.N. aid operation has repeatedly been forced to shut down after attacks by militia gangs on its staff and buildings in past months.

In an announcement on British Broadcasting Corp. radion Thursday, the British government recommended that all British nationals leave West Timor immediately, due to the deteriorating security situation.

---

Clinton, Castro Shake Hands in Chance Encounter

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7 9:57 AM ET updated 10:29 AM ET Sep 7
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/ts/summit_handshake_dc_1.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - President Clinton and Cuban President Fidel Castro, whose countries have been separated by 40 years of enmity, shook hands and exchanged a few words during a chance encounter at the United Nations on Wednesday, a U.N. source said on Thursday.

The source said the two men had just attended a lunch for the roughly 150 world leaders taking part in a U.N. Millennium Summit and were making their way to a conference room for a group photograph.

They found themselves together in a crush of dignitaries and ``there was a handshake and an exchange of words,'' the source said.

Asked to confirm the encounter, a U.S. official said, without elaborating: ``Castro approached him (Clinton) at the end of the lunch and they exchanged just a sentence or two.''

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UN Tackles Peacekeeping, Mideast Gloom Deepens

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7 9:37 AM ET updated 10:29 AM ET Sep 7
By David Ljunggren
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/ts/un_summit_dc_13.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A historic summit of world leaders on Thursday prepared to focus on how to improve the United Nations' uneven record on peacekeeping, just one day after at least three U.N. workers were killed in West Timor.

The leaders will also strive to use a U.N. Millennium Summit as a forum for rescuing the embattled Middle East process, although President Clinton has so far failed to break a deadlock despite meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Recent history has not been kind to the United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan is trying hard to make the world body more relevant, in particular by reviving its much-criticized peacekeeping arm.

Major disagreements between the big powers meant the United Nations had to sit on its hands last year while NATO launched its Kosovo campaign. The United Nations has also been attacked for not doing enough to prevent the 1994 Rwanda genocide in which almost one million people died.

The 15 Security Council members will hold a summit within a summit on Thursday to agree on broad peacekeeping principles, with special emphasis on Africa.

But the final resolution to be adopted by 15 presidents and prime ministers is short on specifics, including how an overhauled U.N. peacekeeping operation would be financed.

The United States owes the world body $1.7 billion, most of it for past and current peacekeeping operations.

At issue is an under-staffed and under-financed U.N. peacekeeping department, which in the last year has had difficulties recruiting, directing and supplying basic equipment for troops and police in Sierra Leone, East Timor, the Congo or Eritrea-Ethiopia.

Rampaging pro-Indonesian militiamen killed at least three refugee workers in West Timor on Wednesday. Sadako Ogata, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said all 105 members of her staff would be out of West Timor by Thursday.

The Security Council will also look at a U.N.-commissioned report which in August recommended the creation of a new peacekeeping structure, including more commanders ready to organize operations quickly, and troops prepared to move into action.

No Breakthrough On Middle East

Hanging over the deliberations sits the increasing gloom over the Middle East peace process, although behind the scenes efforts are still being made to persuade Israel and Palestine to talk once again.

Israeli negotiator Gilad Sher said on Thursday that his country had no more room for maneuver over the key issue of Jerusalem at peace talks with the Palestinians.

The two sides held a 15-day meeting at Camp David in July which failed to produce a deal to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians largely because of the dispute over Jerusalem.

Barak will on Thursday meet European Commission President Romano Prodi, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien for bilateral talks.

The pessimism was deepened by a Palestinian official who also said time was running out and by Israel's acting foreign minister, who said problems would remain even if there was a compromise over a key holy site in East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian Central Committee -- the Palestine Liberation Organization's mini-parliament -- meets on Saturday to decide whether the Palestinians should unilaterally declare an independent state if there is no deal by September 13.

The White House said Clinton failed to break the impasse at separate meetings with Barak and Arafat on Wednesday but would keep trying to bridge the gap.

Clinton and Israel are demanding more flexibility from Arafat, but the Palestinians blame Israel for the deadlock.

Another intractable Middle Eastern problem will raise its head on Thursday when Iraqi Foreign Minister Tareq Aziz addresses the Millennium Summit. He is expected to attack the United States for its role in maintaining decade-old sanctions against his country over its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Clinton will tackle more international problems on Thursday when he holds talks on the Korean Peninsula and Cyprus.

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Indonesia Hunts Militiamen Over U.N. Slayings

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7 9:45 AM ET updated 9:45 AM ET Sep 7
By Terry Friel
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/wl/indonesia_timor_dc_19.html

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The United Nations pulled all its staff out of the Indonesian province of West Timor on Thursday after pro-Jakarta gangs murdered three U.N. workers, provoking strong international anger.

U.N. officials said that over the past two days nearly 240 U.N. staff and their dependants had either left for East Timor overland or had flown to the resort island of Bali.

Indonesia's military said the murders were due to a local row, but there were fears it was part of a darker strategy to damage an already weak President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Wednesday's killings overshadowed the start of a U.N. summit in New York, where a minute's silence was held for the victims.

The three men -- from the United States, Croatia and Ethiopia -- were hacked to death and the bodies set alight by machete-wielding militias who attacked their office.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) staff were working in refugee camps in the border town of Atambua where tens of thousands of East Timorese were forced by the militias to flee a year ago after their homeland voted to end Jakarta rule.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Wahid both expressed concern the attack might have been designed to coincide with the Indonesian leader's visit to New York.

Indonesia's chief politics and security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters: ``We are investigating... whether it was triggered by the death (of a militiaman) or caused by political motives to discredit the government.''

Authorities said they had arrested 15 people over the murders of the three workers and were hunting more suspects.

But the Indonesian military, strongly linked to the violence that has plagued both West and East Timor over the past year, offered little hope that the pro-Jakarta gangs involved would be brought under control soon.

``There are thousands of them, we have to be careful,'' military spokesman Air Vice-Marshal Graito Usodo said.

A sergeant in Atambua, about 2,000 km (1,200 miles) east of Jakarta, told Reuters there were no plans to raid a nearby militia camp. ``It's too dangerous,'' he said.

Wahid Looks Shaky

The killings are the latest in a campaign of violence that could be aimed at destabilizing Wahid's shaky rule and cementing the pro-Jakarta militias' control of West Timor along the border with U.N.-run East Timor, diplomats and analysts said.

They also underline the lack of control Jakarta has over its troops who have been connected to atrocities in several parts of the country in the past three years of massive social unrest.

Residents said police and troops did nothing to stop the killing, and one aid worker quoted colleagues as saying the police ran away when the militias started to attack.

The deaths came just a week after the U.N. resumed aid work in West Timor after suspending operations because of brutal attacks on its staff there.

Diplomats said there had been warnings, including from the United States embassy, to aid workers not to return to the area without proper protection, despite pledges from the Indonesian security forces that they would be kept safe.

``You have to wonder what's going on here,'' said a Jakarta-based Western diplomat. ``It could be directed at Wahid, or it could be TNI (the military) flexing its muscles.''

Military analyst Salim Said said a conspiracy against the country's first democratically elected president was possible.

``Indeed, it was quite a coincidence that the violence broke out while Gus Dur (Wahid) was overseas facing all these world leaders,'' he said.

He said the most likely cause was continuing friction between pro-Jakarta militias and pro-independence East Timorese in refugee camps along the border.

``U.N. people are seen as friends of pro-independence people.''

Local Row 'Got Out Of Hand'

The commander of the military region covering West Timor, Major-General Kiki Syahnakri said the killings were triggered by a row between locals and East Timorese.

The satunet.com news Web site quoted Syahnakri saying the U.N. workers were unexpectedly caught up in rioting by militiamen angry at the murder by locals of one of their leaders.

Some diplomats and U.N. officials question Syahnakri's commitment to carrying out Jakarta's orders to rein in the militias. He was in charge of East Timor when the militias razed the territory last September.

More than 120,000 East Timorese remain in refugee camps in Indonesian West Timor, despite international demands to Jakarta to close the camps, which serve as safe havens for the militias.

The remaining refugees were among 300,000 the militias herded across the border when they razed East Timor after it voted overwhelmingly in August 1999 to end Indonesian military rule.

U.N. and aid workers point out the campaign of violence in West Timor follows the strategy used in East Timor, when the militias forced foreigners out before going on their rampage.

``Evacuation is what they (the militias) want,'' said one aid worker in the West Timor capital, Kupang.

Wednesday's slayings sent jitters through Indonesia's financial markets. Both the rupiah and Jakarta share prices slipped on Thursday.

---

World's Rich States Neglecting Us, Africa Tells UN

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7 2:00 PM ET updated 3:42 PM ET Sep 7
By Dominic Evans
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/wl/summit_africa_dc_2.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - African leaders accused the world's rich nations Thursday of neglecting and exploiting their continent for decades, thereby condemning millions of people to a lifetime of misery and suffering.

Led by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa -- speaking for Africa's most economically developed country -- the African states urged a special U.N. Millennium summit to address the scourge of poverty, HIV/AIDS and conflict in the world's poorest continent.

``The poor of the world stand at the gates of the comfortable mansions occupied by each and every king and queen, president, prime minister and minister privileged to attend this unique meeting,'' Mbeki said.

``The question these billions ask is, 'What are you doing ... to end the deliberate and savage violence against us that, every day, sentences many of us to a degrading and unnecessary death?''' he told the summit.

Zambian President Frederick Chiluba said existing plans for debt relief for the world's poorest nations were inadequate, and Ghana's president, Jerry Rawlings, said Africans were suffering under Western corruption.

U.N. statistics show that a majority of people in Africa live on less than $1 a day, while 40 percent of government revenues are being allocated to servicing debt, to the detriment of health, education and other essential services.

A draft declaration to be adopted by the leaders of the 15 U.N. Security Council members at the Millennium Summit pledges that Africa will get increased international attention in both development efforts and peacekeeping.

Mbeki said the gathering needed to show a real determination to turn the United Nations into an effective force for development and arrest its ``slide into somewhat of a debased coinage that becomes a source of problems rather than a contributor to the urgent solutions we must find.''

Impassioned Attack

His appeal was reinforced by an impassioned attack by Rawlings on Western governments for allegedly turning a blind eye to the corrupt practices of their own companies in Africa.

Rawlings said Africa had had some ``notably corrupt'' leaders of its own, ``but we are also entitled to demand that the developed world does not thrust corruption upon us.''

``For every dollar of corrupt money that is kept in Western banks, one African child dies, two African children starve and three African children suffer from disease and ignorance resulting from lack of health care and education.''

Chiluba appealed to the international community to ``search its moral conscience'' and focus on the squalor and disease that existed alongside the technology and wealth of the developed world.

A debt relief program launched last year for the world's poorest nations ``has had little impact on debt and poverty,'' he said.

Botswana President Festus Mogae, telling the summit his country was the worst affected by HIV/AIDS in the world, urged leaders to pool their efforts to fight the disease.

President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone, hosting the world's biggest U.N. peacekeeping operation, which is seeking to contain the country's long-running, brutal civil war, praised the United Nations for tackling the conflict.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who in his summit speech Wednesday criticized the ``dismal record of failure in Africa on the part of the developed world,'' called Thursday for a partnership between Africa and developed nations.

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Clinton Opens Summit With Eye Toward Mideast Peace

Washington Post
Wednesday, September 6, 2000
By Colum Lynch Special to the Washington Post
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/A21705-2000Sep6.html

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 6 - President Clinton opened the Millennium Summit of world leaders this morning with a call to better equip the United Nations to halt civil wars, eradicate poverty and stop the spread of deadly diseases that know no borders.

Tragic news also underscored Clinton's emphasis on strengthening the U.N.'s ability to engage in peacekeeping operations. In western Timor, three U.N. relief workers were killed by Indonesian gangs opposed to independence for the eastern side of the island.

"Fifty years ago, the U.N. was formed to 'save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.' We are that succeeding generation," Clinton told the gathering of kings, presidents and prime ministers from more than 155 countries. "There are assembled here more people with the power to create peace than have ever gathered together in one place in the history of the world. Can we seize this moment?"

Clinton told the world leaders that they have an opportunity to make a difference in trouble spots from the Middle East to Burma. With Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat listening from their seats in the General Assembly hall, Clinton asked that they and their allies support a peace deal.

"To those who have supported the right of Israel to live in security and peace - to those who have championed the Palestinian cause these many years - let me say the time to help both sides take risks for peace is now," said Clinton, who was delivering his final address to the U.N. General Assembly as president. "It will not be easy. But there is not a moment to lose."

In a gesture of warming relations between Washington and Tehran, Iranian President Mohammad Khatemi moved up the time of his address so that Clinton could hear it. Khatemi, who originally had been scheduled to speak in the afternoon, took the podium in the morning and spoke on the perils of globalization while Clinton remained in the General Assembly hall to listen.

"Globalization should not be utilized to open greater markets for a few or to assimilate national cultures into a uniform global one," Khatemi said. "In one corner of the world, human beings have attained acceptable material living conditions. . . . In another corner, far more populous, they are struggling with a multitude of afflictions ranging from poverty, ignorance and exclusion to undemocratic rulers who are often subservient to major powers," he said.

The three-day summit opened on a somber note. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the world leaders to observe a minute of silence to honor the international relief workers murdered in western Timor just hours before the summit formally got underway.

"This tragedy underlines once again the dangers faced by unarmed humanitarian workers serving the United Nations in conflict and post-conflict situations," Annan told the delegates, including Indonesian leader Abdurrahman Wahid. "The safety of U.N. personnel is a matter of vital concern."

At the dawn of the 21st century, Annan added, the world has never witnessed such an explosion of economic progress and scientific achievements, from the development of the computer to the unlocking of the human genetic code. But he noted that much of the world's population lives in extreme poverty, with more than 1 billion people earning less than $1 a day.

"In an age when human beings have learned the code of human life, and can transmit their knowledge in seconds from one continent to another, no mother in the world can understand why her child should be left to die of malnutrition or preventable disease," Annan said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and Jordan's King Abdullah also addressed the gathering.

Putin called on the United Nations to play a greater role in combating international terrorism. He also proposed a U.N. conference in Moscow next spring on the prevention of militaryactivities in outer space – a topic of great interest to Russia as the United States continues development of a national missile defense system – and he called for a ban on production of weapons grade plutonium and uranium.

While several delegations decried the widening economic gap between rich and poor nations, Clinton said the world has never seen greater freedom, prosperity or opportunities than exist today. But he acknowledged that the United States and other countries must do more to halt the spread of poverty and the increase in civil wars that have killed more than 5 million people since the end of the cold war.

"We must find ways to protect people as well as borders," he said. "Let us equip the United Nations to do what we ask."

---

An Overload
On a Party Circuit

Public Lives
New York Times
September 07, 2000
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR with Julian Barnes
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/nyregion/07PUBL.html

The powwow of presidents and other potentates at the United Nations is not just causing gridlock on the city's streets but also overloading the diplomatic party circuit.

The American ambassador to the United Nations, RICHARD C. HOLBROOKE, had a dinner on Tuesday night honoring the president of Mali, ALPHA OUMAR KONARE, whose country also holds the presidency of the Security Council this month.

President Konare decided to deliver his after-dinner remarks, hailing renewed Unites States attention to Africa, in French. With no official translators on hand, Mr. Holbrooke's wife, the writer KATI MARTON, stepped up to provide the simultaneous English version for guests like the REV. JESSE JACKSON, ED BRADLEY from CBS News and several African-American congressmen, including DONALD M. PAYNE of New Jersey.

The United States Secretary of State, MADELEINE K. ALBRIGHT, and one of her predecessors, HENRY A. KISSINGER, swept in late from another soiree to catch the end of the toast.

Not everyone in New York City is participating in the festivities, especially its most renowned nondiplomat, MAYOR RUDOLPH W. GIULIANI. Asked yesterday if he was invited to a bash being thrown by President Clinton, the mayor said he was too busy making sure that everyone's limousine arrived securely and on time to bother attending himself.

"And given my political views and everything else, I'm not sure that it would have been the nicest evening," the mayor said, adding, "And you got some people there who have murdered a lot of people." He did not elaborate.

Another New York politician, GOV. GEORGE E. PATAKI, was one of the featured speakers at a fete for businessmen at the Jacob Javits Convention Center on Tuesday given by China's vice premier, QIAN QICHEN.

Governor Pataki told the audience that he planned to go on a trade mission to China this year, noting that China is the state's sixth-largest trading partner, with $2 billion in trade annually. "We intend to seize this opportunity, so economic opportunities between New York State and China grow stronger and stronger," he said.

Asked about China's human rights record, Mr. Pataki responded: "It is important we use these ties to reiterate our respect of the rule of law and respect for human rights. I think stronger ties will lead to greater political freedom." His aides seemed to think facing traffic might be a better bet than any more questions on that score and hustled him away.

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Public Lives: Right-Hand Man at U.N. Behind the Summit

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By ROBIN FINN
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/nyregion/07PROF.html

IMAGINE that you threw an unprecedented three-day party on the banks of the East River, invited the heads of a world's worth of nations - 189 presidents, premiers, prime ministers, princes and kings - and almost all of them showed up. With princely demands, agendas and motorcades. Some with protesters in tow. All of them protected by a multimillion-dollar blanket of security that makes exceptions for no man, not even the host.

That's why John G. Ruggie, into his fourth season as assistant secretary general at the United Nations and the assistant host of the Millennium Summit that runs through Friday at the U.N., raced into work at 5:30 a.m. for yesterday's opening ceremonies.

"I had to beat the motorcades; I couldn't afford to get caught on the wrong side of First Avenue," says Mr. Ruggie, hyperventilating a bit at the prospect of missing his own shindig. Well, it's actually his friend Kofi Annan's shindig, but he and Mr. Annan, the U.N's secretary general, have been planning this summit almost since Mr. Ruggie, a career academic, left his post at Columbia University to sign on as Mr. Annan's right-hand man in 1997.

A major theory both men share about the role of the U.N. in the 21st century: "It's change or die." And that includes enlisting the private sector - as in (greedy, selfish) corporate conglomerates - to advance the U.N.'s agenda on everything from peacekeeping to cleaning up the environment.

Time for some rhetoric: "We don't expect global corporations to become altruists, but how do you promote fair labor standards if you don't work with major employers? How do you promote the environment if you don't work with the people who are doing the promoting? People tell us we shouldn't do business with companies like Shell and Nike, but what's the point of working with companies that are already perfect?"

Mr. Ruggie, 55 and "shy" about admitting to it, has news for any corporation that thinks it can con the U.N.: "This place is a fishbowl; if I'm the head of a corporation and I want to con the world, I wouldn't do it through this vehicle."

So Mr. Ruggie, besides being gung- ho about globalization, what kind of diplomat are you? "That part's been hard for me, but I've learned to keep smiling no matter what somebody says," he confesses. And everybody at this level has something to say.

"We've never had 152 heads of state together in one place before," says Mr. Ruggie, taking a timeout, in his shirt sleeves, in his overheated 38th-floor office atop the U.N. while the leaders of the world give their obligatory five-minute speeches downstairs. Mr. Ruggie isn't offended that the leaders of 37 nations didn't make it; they sent surrogates. Even without all 189 titular heads, the day's program is running late; a few presidents overstayed their five- minute limit while touching on the summit's themes: poverty, the environment, education, ending AIDS.

HOW do you tell a president to stop talking? Mr. Ruggie does it silently, colorfully. Four and a half minutes into a dignitary's spiel, the green light at his podium turns to orange, and at five minutes, it turns red: the lights are visible to everyone in the room, too.

"We don't have a trap door," says Mr. Ruggie, who also considers it undiplomatic to deploy a hook to clear the stage. Better to let the caterers know lunch will start late.

"It's quite a process to get 189 nations to agree to a common platform," he notes. Some of them aren't speaking to each other. Some refuse to sit on the same side of the room. But all of them want their five minutes at the microphone, and Mr. Ruggie means to oblige since it's Mr. Annan's initiatives they're tackling.

"He's the most wonderful human being I've ever met," Mr. Ruggie says of his boss. "I know that sounds corny, but it's true." Mr. Annan had no difficulty enticing Mr. Ruggie away from Columbia for what was originally to be a one-year term: "He called me, took me to lunch, and said, `John, I'd find it useful to have somebody around who's not going to get swallowed up by the in box,' and I said, `When can I start?' "

Mr. Ruggie says he's been a foreign policy, global village wonk since his graduate school days at Berkeley (he wanted to go to medical school until "hopelessness" in science nudged him toward political science), but he insists his best qualification for serving as Mr. Annan's adviser is his outsider status: "I don't owe the U.S. government anything, I'm not a regular U.N. bureaucrat so I don't have to worry about taking positions that may affect my career path. I can just serve one master."

Born in Austria, raised in Toronto (he says he was eventually asked to leave Canada because he never learned to skate backward, a prerequisite for hockey), Mr. Ruggie grew up in blue-collar circumstances: "We were deep blue," he recalls. His father, a house painter, never got past the third grade, and his mother cleaned houses and worked in a butcher shop. "I didn't come from a theoretical home," he says.

He married his high-school sweetheart ("Corny again") and received a Ph.D. in political science from Berkeley in 1974. He and his wife, Mary, a sociology professor, joined the faculty at Columbia in 1978, became United States citizens 20 years ago. Now he's helping shape the future of the citizens of the world: "It's easy to be cynical, and I know this summit is an inconvenience to New Yorkers, but we believe it will make history and make a difference."

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Millennium Summit focuses on Africa

USA Today
09/07/00- Updated 01:24 PM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwsthu07.htm

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Burdened by debt, war, poverty and AIDS, Africa is getting special attention at the U.N. Millennium Summit with world leaders calling for a new commitment to bring the continent out of its misery and give its people hope.

''One more day of delayed action is a day too late for our people,'' pleaded Botswana's President Festus Mogae, whose country is among those hardest hit by AIDS. ''Our people are crying out for help. Let us respond while there is time.''

Mogae appealed Thursday for ''tangible and adequate resources'' to educate his people about the virus, test and counsel them and provide them with the expensive drugs that are combatting it. A third of Botswana's adults are infected with HIV.

Mali's President Alpha Oumar Konare called for world leaders to ''assume the duty of our generation,'' and combat ignorance about AIDS, the leading killer in sub-Saharan Africa.

Education of Africa's young and women, he said, ''must enlighten the new millennium.''

About 150 world leaders - the greatest assembly of presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and other rulers in history - listened as British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Clinton, Cuba's Fidel Castro and a long line of others addressed the unprecedented session Wednesday.

Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, opened the summit's second day by urging the United Nations to get more involved in Mideast peace efforts - a call that came as leaders, including German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, planned meetings with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to try to persuade him to make decisions needed to conclude a peace agreement.

But Africa remained a major concern. Blair, in an address focused entirely on Africa and U.N. peacekeeping, had called for world governments to enter into a new partnership with the continent to help it settle its conflicts and encourage its economies to develop.

''There is a dismal record of failure in Africa on the part of the developed world that shocks and shames our civilization,'' Blair said. ''We should use this unique summit for a concrete purpose: to start the process of agreeing a way forward for Africa.''

On Thursday, the heads of state of the 15 Security Council members scheduled a special open council meeting on peace and security in the next century. The wars in Sierra Leone, Congo, and Eritrea-Ethiopia are among the biggest challenges today to the United Nations.

The U.N. peacekeeping department has taken on enormous duties in recent months in Africa, but has found itself at a loss to carry them out effectively because of poorly trained and equipped troops spread over large areas - Congo itself is one-fourth the size of the United States.

In Sierra Leone, 500 U.N. peacekeepers were taken hostage last May by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front - an embarrassing debacle that led to calls for U.N. member states to provide peacekeeping troops who are trained, equipped and willing to counter such challenges with force.

A recent U.N. report, commissioned by the secretary-general for the summit, recommended a complete overhaul of the peacekeeping department. It called for the equivalent of a ministry of defense to modernize and professionalize the peacekeepers, so troops can deploy rapidly and take action in clear cases of aggression.

The report by a panel of international experts has been widely applauded by world leaders at the summit, who say the U.N. failures that led to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the 1995 massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica must never be repeated.

''The darkest pages were written in Rwanda where, under the indifferent eye of all of us, a genocide was committed,'' said Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, whose country lost 10 U.N. soldiers in the opening days of the massacres in central Africa.

He called for a new concept of operations for peacekeeping that would include rapid-reaction regional peacekeeping capabilities. Blair called for a similar radical change.

Beyond peacekeeping, several African speakers called for the United Nations and its members to address the root economic causes.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the chairman of the Organization of African Unity, decried how the world's wealthy countries continued to get richer while Africa's poor suffered under crushing debt.

''Can we one day free ourselves of this crushing yoke and at last devote our resources to our development and the well-being of our populations?'' he asked. Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano complained that Africans weren't reaping the benefits of globalization and were in fact suffering even greater economic inequalities while also trying to deal with the AIDS epidemic.

''This in turn constitutes a source of frustration and conflicts that pose serious threat to international security, stability, democracy and peace,'' he said.

While echoing those views, Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi turned the criticism toward his fellow Africans for having allowed wars to fester for generations on a continent that can little afford to fight them or care for their refugees.

''These conflicts also make a mockery of all attempts to reduce poverty - the greatest challenge faced by our continent,'' he said.

But he cautioned against the ''dangerous pessimism'' that Africa was a lost cause, saying its people wanted peace and prosperity.

''I declare our confidence and faith in the future of Africa,'' Moi said. ''I hope you share this confidence too.''

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Castro addresses U.N. gathering

USA Today
09/07/00- Updated 07:18 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwswed04.htm#1

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - An unusually succinct Fidel Castro stepped before the world's leaders on Wednesday and accused wealthy nations - especially the United States - of monopolizing power at the expense of their poorer neighbors.

Speaking at the U.N. Millennium Summit, the Cuban leader decried the poverty that he says afflicts 80% of the globe's 6 billion people and accused rich nations of using their power ''to make us poorer, more exploited and more dependent.''

The Cuban leader, famed for speeches that have run for eight hours or longer, drew a huge round of laughter from fellow statesmen when he stepped to the podium, took out a white handkerchief, and covered the light which warns speakers that they are approaching the five-minute time limit. He stuck to the time limit, and the leaders laughed as he took the handkerchief off the light before he left the podium.

But he was more serious during his address, saying that inequalities in wealth around the globe were at the heart of the world's conflicts.

''Current underdevelopment and poverty have resulted from conquest, colonization, slavery and plundering in most countries of the planet by the colonial powers,'' Castro said. He said that wealthy nations were morally obligated to ''compensate our nations for the damages caused throughout centuries.''

The Cuban leader also complained that a radical reform of the United Nations to make it more democratic is not being discussed, noting that when the world body was formed more than a half century ago there were few independent nations.

He attacked the current U.N. system in which the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - have overwhelming power while the rest of the 189 U.N. member states have little.

The U.N. system envisioned by Castro would take away the vetoes and let the entire General Assembly run U.N. affairs.

Castro arrived Tuesday for his first visit to the United States in five years to attend the three-day gathering of world leaders, which got underway Wednesday.

During Castro's speech, about 100 anti-communist black-clad protesters were gathering near the Cuban mission in midtown Manhattan where he is staying. Many Cuban-American exiles resent his presence in the United States.

The United States was obliged to grant Castro a visa under a 1947 U.N. rule that requires the host country to allow entry to officials attending U.N. meetings. It was at the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in 1995 that Castro last spoke in New York.

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Clinton meets Castro at U.N.

USA Today
09/07/00- Updated 10:48 PM ET
By Bill Nichols, USA TODAY
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu12.htm

UNITED NATIONS - It was a handshake Bill Clinton didn't want but couldn't avoid.

Aides to the president revealed belatedly Thursday that Clinton had a brief exchange of pleasantries with Cuban President Fidel Castro the day before at a luncheon for leaders attending the U.N.'s Millennium Summit.

After an initial denial, the White House confirmed that Clinton shook hands with the Cuban leader, treated as a political pariah by American presidents for four decades. But the White House said there were no photographers or television cameras to record the awkward moment.

The White House account of the encounter:

Castro, making his first U.S. visit since 1995, sought Clinton out at the end of the lunch, saying he hoped he wouldn't cause a problem by coming over to say hello. Clinton was polite but said little during their few minutes together.

The chance meeting was Clinton's first with Castro. The Cuban leader has attended other global functions with U.S. presidents, but there is no record of him shaking their hands. In 1992, Castro and President Bush avoided contact during an environmental summit in Brazil.

Clinton didn't have to sweat over another meeting with Castro on Thursday night, when the U.S. president hosted a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Castro wasn't invited.

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Aid workers flee W. Timor after slayings

USA Today
09/07/00- Updated 06:49 AM ET
http://usatoday.com/news/world/nwsthu05.htm

DILI, East Timor (AP) - Dozens of foreign aid workers fled West Timor on Thursday and Indonesia sent in fresh troops a day after a mob led by pro-Indonesian militia gangs killed three U.N. workers and three local people at the border town of Atambua.

Residents said Atambua was quiet Thursday except for groups of militiaman roaming its streets looking for foreigners.

Wednesday's attack - said to be the worst-ever against civilian U.N. staff - shocked world leaders, including Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid who was attending the U.N. Millennium Summit. ''This was done at a time when I am in New York, at the United Nations, in order to embarrass me,'' the official Antara news agency quoted Wahid as saying.

The brutality of the slayings has placed new pressure on Wahid, already struggling to fix a myriad of crises across the sprawling nation, to crack down on the militias and close refugee camps they use as safe havens in West Timor.

Critics claim the militias are supported by rogue sections of Indonesia's military who oppose Wahid's push for democratic reform and independence for neighboring East Timor.

U.N. officials said more than 100 foreign and Indonesian aid workers flew out of West Timor on two chartered flights to the tourist island of Bali on Thursday.

A further 96 U.N. and other aid workers, who spent Wednesday night in hiding or under Indonesian army protection in Atambua, had been trucked to the East Timor border. They were later flown to the East Timor capital of Dili, said U.N. spokeswoman Barbara Reis. The bodies of the three U.N. victims had been taken to Dili.

On Wednesday night, U.N. peacekeepers from East Timor used helicopters to rescue 55 aid workers from Atambua just hours after a mob of 3,000 stormed the town's U.N. office and killed three staffers from Puerto Rico, Croatia and Ethiopia.

The mob also killed an Indonesian man who had been working for the United Nations along with two people in a nearby village, where they burned 69 houses, said West Timor's deputy police chief, Col. Sadji Alzairi.

The militias blamed for Wednesday's slayings are the same ones that terrorized and devastated East Timor a year ago after its people voted to break free of Indonesian rule in a U.N.-supervised referendum.

Indonesia still controls the western part of the island, where the U.N. refugee agency has been delivering aid to an estimated 90,000 refugees who remain in border camps after fleeing East Timor last year.

Witnesses said militiamen beat and stabbed the three U.N. employees to death before burning their bodies in a street. Other workers were hit and cut by machetes and axes before they escaped.

One survivor, Alias Bin Ahmal, the U.N.'s Atambua office manager, said he and other officials had long known they would be targeted by militia groups and had pleaded with the Indonesian military to protect them.

''The writing was on the wall, but we thought we had taken adequate precautions,'' he said. ''We were not there to be killed, we were there to assist poor refugees who are still there and literally trapped.''

Indonesian security forces, who had earlier assured the world body that it would protect its Atambua operations, stood by as the mob torched the U.N. office, the witnesses said.

But in Jakarta, security minister Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired army general, insisted their forces had done their best to stop the ''tragic event.'' He said an extra 500 soldiers and 100 policemen had been deployed and 15 suspects detained.

President Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the deaths and demanded Indonesian authorities take action.

Wahid offered his condolences and promised to ''find the culprit.''

However, previous promises to deal with militia problems have come to nothing despite repeated complaints by international agencies in East Timor that they were being threatened. Wednesday's rampage in Atambua was apparently triggered by the killing Tuesday of a militia leader.

Witnesses said some in the crowd accused the United Nations of not paying attention to their plight.

One of the slain U.N. workers - Puerto Rican Carlos Caceres - sent a desperate e-mail to a U.N. security office six hours before the slayings.

''These guys act without thinking and can kill a human being as easily (and painlessly) as I kill mosquitos in my room,'' Caceres wrote.

The three were the first civilian workers to be slain in Timor. Two peacekeeping soldiers have died in border skirmishes with armed militia infiltrators in East Timor in recent weeks.

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West Timor militia, mob attack U.N. office, kill 3

Washington Times
September 7, 2000
By Heather Paterson ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-200097224417.htm

DILI, East Timor - Thousands of armed militiamen and their supporters rampaged through a U.N. office in West Timor, killing at least three workers - including one from Puerto Rico - and burning their bodies. The brutal attack brought new pressure against Indonesia's president as he gathered with world leaders at the United Nations.

Four U.N. helicopters swooped down to the border town of Atambua and safely evacuated 54 persons to East Timor, but world leaders quickly and harshly castigated Indonesia for not doing more to protect aid workers. Witnesses said Indonesian security forces stood by as the mobs torched the U.N. office and beat the workers.

The unprecedented violence -one U.N. official said it was one of the worst attacks on U.N. personnel anywhere in the world - cast a shadow over the U.N. Millennium Summit, which opened yesterday in New York. More than 150 leaders, including Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid, stood for a moment of silence in honor of the victims, who were from the U.N. High Commission for Refugees.

President Clinton said he was "deeply saddened" to hear of the deaths. "I urge the Indonesian authorities to put a stop to these abuses."

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he had taken up the killings with the Indonesian government "at the highest level."

The militias and their military sponsors have been blamed by the United Nations and Mr. Wahid's government for carrying out the bloody destruction of East Timor a year ago after its people voted to break free of Indonesian rule in a U.N.-supervised referendum.

Indonesia still controls the western part of the island, where the U.N. agency has been delivering aid to an estimated 90,000 refugees who remain in border camps after fleeing the violence in East Timor 12 months ago.

The rampage in the border town of Atambua was apparently triggered by the killing Tuesday of a militiaman opposed to East Timor's independence. Witnesses said some in the crowd accused the United Nations of not paying attention to their plight in the west.

The violence threw into question repeated promises by Mr. Wahid to rein in the anti-independence militias or to control sections of the Indonesian army accused of arming and training them. It may result in calls for the convening of an international war crimes tribunal to try Indonesians accused of crimes against humanity in Timor.

Mr. Wahid's office later issued a statement expressing his condolences to the families of the victims and vowing to "find the culprit." The statement said troops and police were being sent to Atambua to help.

The "mishap," Mr. Wahid's statement read, "was triggered by the uncontrollable emotional distress of the people" over the killing of Olivia Mendoza Moruk.

Indonesian officials are already working with East Timor's U.N. administrator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, the statement said. "One of the plans is to evacuate these problem-creating people to other places in Indonesia."

Mr. de Mello said the rampage was one of the worst attacks on U.N. personnel ever and described the militias as an out-of-control "monster" created by sections of the Indonesian military.

Norwegian army Col. Brynar Nymo said four helicopters from the East Timor town of Suai flew to Atambua to pick up survivors with the permission of Indonesian authorities.

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Clinton pressures Mideast adversaries

Washington Times
September 7, 2000
By David Jones THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/world/default-200097213819.htm

NEW YORK - President Clinton turned intense pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to settle their differences yesterday, telling the U.N. Millennium Summit -with the leaders of both camps in attendance - there was "not a moment to lose."

Speaking later to reporters before a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Clinton referred to a "calendar [of] political realities" that is "ticking" in the Middle East, and said, "There's a limit to how much time they have, and it is not much longer."

The president repeated that message in separate meetings at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel later yesterday with both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who have not held a face-to-face meeting since the Camp David summit in mid-July.

However, there was no sign of sufficient progress in the talks with Mr. Clinton to make it likely that they would be able to resume direct negotiations.

"We did not expect today to be a day when we would have a breakthrough, and that is true," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters yesterday evening.

"On the other hand, the process has not broken down."

Mr. Lockhart added that "the parties remain committed to finding an agreement and working through the process."

Mr. Barak and Mr. Arafat actually met by chance in the corridors yesterday of the U.N. complex, speaking for several minutes privately before moving on. Israeli radio reports said the exchange did not last long enough to go into extensive detail on such complicated issues as the future of Jerusalem or the status of Palestinian refugees.

However, hopes were slim that the two Middle East leaders would offer concessions in their talks with Mr. Clinton, making it possible to resume direct negotiations.

Neither Mr. Arafat nor Mr. Barak signaled any new compromises in their speeches to the millennium assembly. Both spoke of the need for peace but appealed to the world community for support for their existing positions.

Mr. Barak, Mr. Arafat and Mr. Clinton all face deadlines that suggest the window for a settlement ending 50 years of hostility between Jews and Arabs will close within weeks.

Mr. Arafat, who has been backing away from a long-standing pledge to declare a Palestinian state on Sept. 13, told the summit the Palestinian Central Council -which meets Saturday - would decide "in the next few days" whether to go ahead with the declaration or to respect international appeals to keep working for an agreement.

But even if the date is pushed back to mid-November as expected, few analysts believe Mr. Arafat can afford politically to postpone a declaration past the end of the year.

Showing the diplomatic pressures Mr. Arafat is under, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday warned that the Arab world would not accept any peace deal that gave Israel sovereignty over Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.

Mr. Barak, for his part, has been reduced to minority government status following defections from his coalition over concessions offered at the Camp David talks. The parliament is expected to vote for new elections when it resumes sitting in late October, and Mr. Barak will be hard-pressed to win re-election without a peace deal to show for his efforts.

Mr. Clinton is also running out of time, with little chance of serving as an effective mediator after his successor is chosen in the November election. The next president will require months before he could devote the sort of attention to the issue that Mr. Clinton has.

In his remarks to the U.N. Millennium Summit yesterday, Mr. Clinton noted that Mr. Barak and Mr. Arafat had promised to resolve the final differences between them this year.

Addressing the supporters of both Israel and the Palestinians, he said: "They need your support now, more than ever, to take the hard risks for peace. They have the chance to do it. But like all life's chances, it is fleeting and about to pass. There is not a moment to lose."

The president took up that theme again when he spoke to reporters before his meeting with Mr. Putin.

"The main thing they have to decide is whether there is going to be an agreement within the real calendar, which is the calendar that is ticking in the Middle East against the political realities in Israel, as well as for the Palestinians," he said.

"There's a limit to how long they have, and it's not very much longer."

Mr. Barak indirectly acknowledged those realities in his own address to the summit, saying he and Mr. Arafat "are at the Rubicon, and neither of us can cross it alone."

"History will judge what we do in the next days and weeks: Were we courageous and wise enough to guide our region across the deep river of mistrust into a new land of reconciliation, or did we shrink back at the water's edge, resigned to lie in wait for the rising tide of bloodshed and grief?"

Mr. Arafat, in his speech, said, "We shall do our utmost in the coming short period of time to arrive at a final settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and we invite the Israeli government to do likewise."

----

http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/2000/9/7/7.text.1

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary (New York, New York)
For Immediate Release September 7, 2000

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL
Security Council Chamber The United Nations New York, New York

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, members of the Security Council. We come together in this historic session to discuss the role of the United Nations in maintaining peace and security. I thank President Konare for the moment of silence for the U.N. workers who died in West Timor yesterday, and ask the Indonesian authorities to bring those responsible to justice, to disarm and disband the militias, and to take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of those continuing to work on humanitarian goals there.

Today I would like to focus my peacekeeping remarks on Africa, where prosperity and freedom have advanced, but where conflict still holds back progress. I can't help noting that this historic meeting in this historic chamber is led by a President and a Secretary General who are both outstanding Africans. Africans' achievements and the United Nations' strengths are evident. Mozambique and Namibia are just two success stories.

But we asked the United Nations to act under increasingly complex conditions. We see it in Sierra Leone, where U.N. actions saved lives, but could not preserve the peace. Now we're working to strengthen the mission. In the Horn of Africa, U.N. peacekeepers will monitor the separation of forces so recently engaged in brutal combat. In Congo civil strive still threatens the lives of thousands of people and warring parties prevent the U.N. from implementing its mandate.

We must do more to equip the United Nations to do what we ask it to do. They need to be able to be peacekeepers who can be rapidly deployed, properly trained and equipped, able to project credible force. That, of course, is the thrust of the Secretary General's report on peacekeeping reform. The United States strongly supports that report. It should be the goal of our assistance for West African forces that are now going into Sierra Leone.

Let me also say a word, however, beyond peacekeeping. It seems to me that both for Africa and the world, we will be forced increasingly to define security more broadly. The United Nations was created to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. War kills massively, crosses borders, destabilizes whole regions. Today, we face other problems that kill massively, cross borders and destabilize whole regions.

A quarter of all the deaths on the planet now are caused by infectious diseases like Malaria, TB and AIDS. Because of AIDS alone, life expectancy in some African nations is plummeting by as much as 30 years. Without aggressive prevention, the epicenter of the epidemic likely will move to Asia by 2010 with very rapid growth rates also in the New Independent States.

The affected nations must do more on prevention, but the rest of us must do more, too -- not just with AIDS, but also with malaria and TB. We must invest in the basics -- clean water, safe food, good sanitation, health education. We must make sure that the advances in science work for all people.

The United States is investing $2 billion a year in AIDS research, including $210 million for an AIDS vaccine. And I have asked our Congress to give a tax credit of $1 billion to speed the development in the private sector of vaccines against AIDS, malaria and TB. We have to give the tax credit because the people who need the medicine can't afford to pay for it as it is. We've worked to make drugs more affordable, and we will do more. And we have doubled our global assistance for AIDS prevention and care over the last two years.

Unfortunately, the U.N. has estimated that to meet out goals, we will collectively need to provide an additional $4 billion a year. We must join together to help close that gap. And we must advance a larger agenda to fight the poverty that breeds conflict and war.

I strongly support the goal of universal access to primary education by 2015. We are helping to move toward that goal, in part, with our effort to provide school lunches to 9 million boys and girls in developing nations. For about $3 billion a year, collectively, we could provide a nutritious meal to every child in every developing country in a school in the world. That would dramatically change the future for a lot of poor nations today.

We have agreed to triple the scale of debt relief for the poorest countries, but we should do more. This idea of relieving debt if the savings will be invested in the human needs of the people is an idea whose time has long since come, and I hope we will do much more.

Finally, Mr. Secretary General, you have called on us to support the millennium ecosystem assessment. We have to meet the challenge of climate change. I predict that within a decade -- or maybe even a little less -- that will become as big an obstacle to the development of poor nations as disease is today.

The United States will contribute the first complete set of detailed satellite images of the world's threatened forests to this project. We will continue to support aggressive efforts to implement the Kyoto protocol and other objectives which will reduce the environmental threats we face.

Now, let me just say in closing, Mr. President, some people will listen to this discussion and say, well, peacekeeping has something to do with security, but these other issues don't have anything to do with security and don't belong in the Security Council. This is my last meeting; I just have to say I respectfully disagree -- these issues will be more and more and more in the Security Council. Until we confront the iron link between deprivation, disease, and war, we will never be able to create the peace that the founders of the United Nations dreamed of.

I hope the United States will always be willing to do its part, and I hope the Security Council increasingly will have a 21st century vision of security that we can all embrace and pursue.

Thank you very much.

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

Gulf War Mystery Remains

By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 8, 2000; Page A31
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32277-2000Sep7.html

An expert panel looking into various theories about the cause of "Gulf War syndrome" has concluded there isn't enough evidence to decide for or against most of them--and isn't likely to be any in the near future.

The panel, created by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, concluded that because there's no reliable record of what soldiers in the Persian Gulf were exposed to, it's impossible to say for certain whether any one chemical, toxin or drug may be responsible for chronic illnesses some veterans are suffering. In any case, information is lacking about the long-term effects of most of the substances mentioned by ill veterans as the cause of their symptoms.

Like previous expert groups, this one called for better record-keeping during future deployments, and recommended further research on the effects of various chemicals, toxins and drugs soldiers are likely to encounter in the field.

"We simply have to do a better job next time if we are going to learn about the health-related effects of exposures in war conditions," said Harold C. Sox Jr., a professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, who headed the panel.

The panel reviewed four "candidates" for the cause of the muscle weakness and soreness, thinking and mood problems, intestinal complaints and other symptoms that have collectively come to be known as Gulf War syndrome.

The four were: the nerve gas sarin; a drug called pyridostigmine bromide (PB) used to prevent the effects of some chemical weapons; two vaccines taken by a minority of soldiers; and depleted uranium, a slightly radioactive metal used in armor and ordnance.

The closest the 18-member panel of scientists and physicians came to completely ruling out an exposure was a determination that low-dose uranium does not cause lung cancer or kidney damage. For the other substances--sarin, PB, and anthrax and botulinum toxin vaccine--there isn't enough evidence to rule out possible long-term effects, the panel concluded.

The experts worked for 18 months, and consulted 10,000 published research papers. They did not use unpublished data or classified military information. They reached their conclusions based only on what is known from the scientific literature, which made their conclusions more conservative than those of some previous reviews.

For example, the panel wrote there is "insufficient evidence" to rule out anthrax or botulinum toxin vaccine as causes of chronic illness largely because studies (in civilians) looked only for short-term complications. The studies didn't monitor for years the health of people who had gotten the shots. Nevertheless, no evidence has emerged in an informal or anecdotal way that those people (who number in the thousands) are in poor health.

Many experts--and several panels appointed by various government bodies in recent years--have concluded it is highly unlikely that any of these four exposures are causing Gulf War syndrome.

The Institute of Medicine has been charged by Congress to look into 33 specific exposures that occurred--or may have occurred--during the deployment of 697,000 men and women to Saudi Arabia, which began 10 years ago this month.

A second panel will be convened soon to look into pesticides and solvents. A third panel will investigate infectious diseases, oil-fire byproducts, microwave radiation, sand particles and several other exposures. The full review will take four or five more years.

Sox, the panel's chairmen, said the group wished that psychological stress had been included by Congress in the list of exposures. Several Defense Department panels, and one convened by President Clinton in 1995, concluded that stress was the most likely explanation for much (but not all) of the chronic illnesses in Gulf War veterans.

The number of veterans with Gulf War syndrome is unknown. About 120,000 have voluntarily signed up for medical examinations offered by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

Medical descriptions of hard-to-explain illnesses in veterans go back to the Civil War. Gulf War veterans, however, can get disability payments for "undiagnosed illnesses" related to military service. To date, 3,039 men and women have successfully sought such payments, while 8,239 have applied and been turned down. About 3,000 in the latter group, however, are getting payments for diagnosed conditions.

----

Laser Scores Multiple Target Success

The Weekly Defense Monitor, VOLUME 4, ISSUE #36
September 7, 2000
From: Regina Hagen <regina.hagen@jugendstil.da.shuttle.de>

The U.S. Army's Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) successfully tracked and shot down two Katyusha rockets in a test at White Sands Missile Range last week. This is the first test against multiple targets for the THEL system, which is being developed by the Army and the Israeli government for deployment along Israel's northern border with Lebanon. The Katyusha rocket used as a target is similar to the short range rockets fired by Hezbollah guerillas at Israel from inside Lebanon. Previously the THEL performed successfully against a single Katyusha rocket during its first intercept test on June 6.

----

Gore Shuns American Legion

NewsMax.com
CNSNews.com
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/6/184100

For the first time in its 82-year history, a presidential candidate has rejected an invitation to address the American Legion National Convention. Democrat presidential nominee Al Gore will not address the veterans group at its Milwaukee convention.

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush addressed the group on Wednesday morning.

The American Legion is not happy that Gore has snubbed it.

"We're extremely disappointed. We understand that he has a schedule that he has to maintain. However, America's veterans were not too busy when they were storming the beaches of Normandy and during the fire and ice of the Korean War and they were in the jungles of Vietnam," American Legion spokesman Brian Naranjo told CNSNews.com.

The American Legion also said the invitation to the vice president was made several months ago.

"We invited him more than three months ago to be here. Our veterans had time to serve the country that they love so much. He ought to have the time to tell those veterans who didn't go before him and some after him ... where he stands on issues that concern veterans and their families," Naranjo said.

Naranjo said Gore would have had the opportunity to address millions of veterans around the world.

"Without a question, this is an absolutely great opportunity for him to address 26 million veterans worldwide. We are very disappointed and, quite frankly, we don't understand why he would choose not to appear at our function," Naranjo said.

The American Legion National Convention began Tuesday and ends today. The Legion said the invitation to Gore was still open.

"If he wanted to call us today (Wednesday), we would make accommodations and he would be well received. We are veterans. We are also respectable, law-abiding veterans, and we would give him every courtesy that we gave the governor," Naranjo said.

Gore's campaign did not return phone calls from CNSNews.com seeking comment.

---

Cohen warns chiefs against use of politics

USA Today
09/07/00
http://usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsthu08.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary William Cohen cautioned the nation's top military brass to ''play straight'' on the politically hot issue of defense readiness and not try to use it to fatten their budgets.

Cohen met Wednesday with the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines as well as the commanders in chief of the major warfighting commands around the world, spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Thursday.

''Acknowledging that this is a tricky political time, (he) said to them that he expected them to play straight on the readiness issue, to give the facts, not to beat the drum with a tin cup in hand to try to generate more pressure for defense spending, but, on the other hand, to talk honestly about pressures they face,'' Bacon said.

The service chiefs are scheduled to testify before Congress later this month on military readiness, a complex issue which Texas Gov. George W. Bush and running mate Dick Cheney - who served as defense secretary when Bush's father was president - have sought to use against Vice President Al Gore.

Republicans Bush and Cheney have accused the Clinton administration of running down the military by sending troops abroad too often on questionable missions and by spending too little on replacing older weaponry. The consequence, Bush and Cheney argue, is a military with low morale, inadequate training and outdated equipment.

Bacon said Cohen favors a vigorous public debate on military issues but wants to ensure that it be conducted in a context recognizing that the United States remains the largest military power in the world and spends more each year on defense than its NATO allies combined. Bacon said there is a natural tendency for military leaders to want bigger budgets, larger forces and more benefits for their troops.

''Enterprising generals and admirals will always find ways, very good ways, to spend more money,'' Bacon said.

Cohen, who is a Republican and has been defense secretary since the start of President Clinton's second term, told reporters Wednesday in Norfolk, Va., that he wanted to keep the military out of the political debate over readiness.

''I am determined not to allow the military to be drawn into this type of political debate during the course of the campaign in the final two months,'' Cohen was quoted as saying.

On Thursday, however, Bacon was prepared to rebut some of Bush's charges, including Bush's mention of food stamp use by military members as evidence that troops need bigger pay increases.

''Yes, unfortunately, there are members of the armed services on food stamps,'' Bacon said. ''The good news is that the percentage of the force on food stamps is far less today than it was when President Bush was president and Secretary Cheney was the secretary of defense.''

In 1991, the third year of Bush's term, there were about 19,400 troops on food stamps, representing about 0.9% of the total force, Bacon said. In 1995, that had fallen to 11,900, or 0.8%, and today it is 5,100 troops, or 0.4% of the force, he said.

In a speech Thursday to a Veterans of Foreign Wars gathering in Detroit, Bush said, ''Having a military ready to fight and win a war requires a military with high morale. I'm going to work with Congress to pay our troops more money. I will work with Congress to make sure our troops are better housed.''

Bush also said the military services cannot meet their recruiting goals and are stretched so thin on resources that the Navy ship USS Decatur ''moved out to sea and had to come back because of a lack of fuel.''

Asked about the Decatur and Bush's charge that it symbolized a readiness problem, Bacon said the ship returned to port earlier than scheduled because it completed its training, not because of a fuel shortage.

''I don't think completing your training early qualifies in most people's minds as a readiness problem,'' Bacon said.

The spokesman also countered Bush's charge that the Clinton administration has pinched pennies on combat readiness.

Bacon said spending on training and upkeep of the force increased 20% in the Clinton years. It rose from $50,000 per active-duty troop in 1992 to $60,000 per troop in the 2001 budget, he said.

''This, I think, shows our commitment to maintaining a ready force,'' he said.

---

USA Today
09/07/00
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Wyoming

Cheyenne - A constitutional amendment on Wyoming National Guard membership requirements will appear on the November ballot, Secretary of State Joe Meyer ruled. Questions were raised after the Supreme Court decided that another proposed amendment needed Gov. Geringer's approval to make the ballot. Geringer supports the Guard amendment.

---

New York Times
September 07, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07BRIE.html

ASIA

JAPAN: MARINE SENTENCED A United States marine was convicted in a military court and sentenced to a two-year jail term for molesting a Japanese schoolgirl on the island of Okinawa, a crime that led to local protests against American military bases. Lance Cpl. Kenny K. Titcomb, 19, was found guilty of molesting the 14-year girl on July 3 after entering her home as she slept, a military spokeswoman said. Corporal Titcomb was tried in a military court because he was expected to face a tougher sentence there than in a Japanese court, which could only have tried him as a juvenile. (Reuters)

---

Gore forgoes speaking to Legion convention

Washington Times
September 7, 2000
By Dave Boyer THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-20009722317.htm

MILWAUKEE - Vice President Al Gore yesterday became the first major presidential candidate to skip the American Legion's national convention, drawing the ire of veterans and the group's national commander.

"I cannot express to you how disappointed I am that you will not hear the Democratic presidential nominee," National Commander Alan G. Lance told 7,000 veterans and auxiliary members at their 82nd annual convention. "You deserve better than that."

Mr. Gore, aware that some of the more than 3 million Legion members have criticized the administration for eroding military readiness, instead chose to deliver an economic speech in Cleveland. His rival, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, did speak to the Legion convention yesterday.

Both the Democratic and Republican candidates addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention last month.

Mr. Bush did not refer directly to Mr. Gore's absence. But he accused the administration of depleting the U.S. armed forces with too many overseas deployments and not enough resources.

The Republican presidential nominee also dismissed Mr. Gore's claim that Mr. Bush was "running down the military" by calling attention to low morale and strained readiness.

"Let's get something straight," said Mr. Bush, donning the cap of his American Legion Post 77 in Houston. "These are not criticisms of the military. They're criticisms of the current commander in chief and the vice president."

Bush spokesman Karen Hughes said aboard the candidate's plane that Mr. Gore ducked the event because Legion members "share Governor Bush's concerns about the lack of readiness of the United States military."

Many veterans in the audience were clearly offended by Mr. Gore's perceived snub.

"I think he should be ashamed of himself," said Jeri Greenwell, a Legion auxiliary member from Bethel, Maine. "The veterans deserve to hear from everyone."

Said her husband, Jerry, "It will not be forgotten."

John Pelligrini, a World War II Army veteran from Anaconda, Mont., said he was "disappointed" that Mr. Gore skipped the event.

"I think it was the wrong move on his part," Mr. Pelligrini said.

Mr. Lance said presidential candidates since 1920 "have recognized the importance of sharing their views on the issues that concern America with America's veterans - those who invested body and soul defending their right to speak."

He said he invited Mr. Gore on May 23 and Aug. 2 to speak at the convention this week.

"Although his staff had more than three months to put the American Legion national convention on the vice president's schedule . . . they did not do so, and we have been notified that the vice president has a 'scheduling conflict,' " Mr. Lance said. "In the entire history of the American Legion, this has never happened before."

The Gore campaign offered to send a subordinate, but Mr. Lance said to applause and cheers in the convention hall that he refused the offer.

"The world's largest veterans organization deserves to hear directly from the man himself," Mr. Lance said. "It is Albert Gore who is running for president of the United States, not a substitute."

Mr. Lance noted that Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton addressed the group in 1992 amid criticism that he had been a draft-dodger during the Vietnam War. "That was a genuine ordeal by fire before this audience, yet he was warmly received," he said.

He added to laughter, "Even President Bush was applauded -and forgiven - when he declared that September 7 was the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor." The anniversary of the attack is Dec. 7.

Mr. Bush told the group that his campaign has formed a national veterans committee that includes former Democratic Rep. Sonny Montgomery of Mississippi and retired Gen. Charles C. Krulak, former commandant of the Marine Corps.

The Texas governor said he will streamline the disability-claims process for veterans and assemble a task force to improve their health care.

As Mr. Bush was addressing the American Legion, his running mate, Richard B. Cheney, was sounding similar themes before the cadets at Valley Forge Military Academy, a private military school outside Philadelphia.

"As strong as it is, as powerful as it is, the military is in its own way very fragile," Mr. Cheney said.

"When they are supported, when they have the training they need, the equipment they need, and the clear direction they need, they can accomplish any mission we give them . . . take any of these away, take any of it for granted, and all of it can begin to unravel."

• Sean Scully in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

-------- OTHER
-------- alternative energy

TRIBE TO BUILD FIRST COMMERCIAL WIND ENERGY PROJECT

September 7, 2000
ENS AmeriScan
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/sep2000/2000L-09-07-09.html

The first utility scale wind power farm on tribal lands will begin construction next year. The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council has signed a development agreement with SeaWest WindPower Inc for the 22 megawatt Blackfeet I Wind Power Project. The facility will be powered by the strong winds that blow across the Blackfeet Reservation from the Rocky Mountain Front onto the Great Plains. "This wind energy project will allow the Blackfeet Tribe to take advantage of one of our most plentiful natural resources on our Reservation," said Earl Old Person, chairman of the Council. "Gaining electricity from the winds here on the Reservation has been talked about for many years. We are gratified that this idea has finally become a reality."

"SeaWest is pleased to work with the Blackfeet to develop such a landmark project," said SeaWest president and CEO Jan Paulin. "The Blackfeet have a tremendous wind and land resource. This project will tap that resource to create highly skilled employment opportunities on the Blackfeet Reservation and a true, commercially viable export industry. It is fitting that through this project the Blackfeet should assume a national leadership position in environmental stewardship." Construction is scheduled to begin in May 2001, and commercial operation is slated to begin in October 2001. The wind farm will generate enough energy for 6,000 homes. The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) may purchase surplus power from the tribe.

-------- environment

La., Texas called worst in emissions
Chemicals put children's health in danger, activists claim

Clara Smith looks out her home at a huge petrochemical plant in Norco, La. Louisiana had the largest volume of toxins tracked in a new report.

MSNBC
09/07/00
By Miguel Llanos MSNBC
mailto:miguel.llanos@msnbc.com
http://www.msnbc.com/news/456664.asp

Sept. 7 - Warning that "toxic chemicals are bringing anguish to thousands of families," health activists issued Thursday what they called the first state-by-state breakdown of chemical emissions dangerous to children and branded Louisiana and Texas as the dirtiest states.

REPRESENTATIVES of the chemical industry, who said they had not read the report, defended the industry's record, saying it is reducing emissions and spending $100 million to study the health effects of chemicals released into the air and water.

The rankings, by the Environmental Trust, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Learning Disabilities Association of America, is based on data reported by industry and made available this year by the Environmental Protection Agency.

"This is the first complete snapshot we've ever had of toxic pollution in this country that can affect the way that children's bodies and brains develop," Jeff Wise, policy director of the National Environmental Trust, said in a statement accompanying the report.

The industry data show that 1.2 billion pounds of chemicals dangerous to children were released into the air and water nationwide in 1998.

Citing a 1989 federal estimate that emissions account for 5 percent of all chemical releases, the coalition said that translated into 24 billion pounds of chemicals released each year, enough toxic chemicals to fill railroad tanker cars stretching from New York to Albuquerque, N.M.

According to the industry data, Louisiana and Texas - both home to large petrochemical industries - emit the most developmental and neurological toxins into air and water. Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida are also major emitters.

The states with the lowest volumes were Vermont, Hawaii, New Mexico, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

The report also looked at releases by counties, and found that in most of those with the highest releases, the number of black residents exceeded the national average.

MORE OVERSIGHT SOUGHT

The coalition acknowledged the difficulties in tying a specific emission to a specific child's disability, but it argued that the data show Americans should be concerned.

"Now we know what we have suspected for years, that toxic chemicals are bringing anguish to thousands of families in this country," said Larry Silver, president of the Learning Disabilities Association and a psychiatry professor at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington. "These are families that worry, work overtime and go without to take care of a child with a developmental or neurological disability like mental retardation or learning disabilities."

Demanding better regulatory oversight of industry, the coalition cited U.S Census figures that show 12 million children - 17 percent of the U.S. population under 18 - suffer from developmental, learning or behavioral disabilities. These include mental retardation, birth defects, autism and attention deficit disorder.

The report further cited recent estimates by the National Academy of Sciences that at least 360,000 children have developmental or neurological disabilities caused by toxic exposures.

The National Academy of Sciences report that provided those estimates urged further research. And a second academy report this year found a link between mercury levels and infant disabilities.

SOURCES BY INDUSTRY

The coalition report released Thursday cited the chemical industry, power plants and producers of paper, metal and plastics as the largest emitters of chemicals that could harm children. It also found that the printing industry is the largest source of air emissions of toluene - one of the most widely released developmental and neurological toxins.

"Because many printing facilities are often closer to residential areas than other industries, this industry and government should make greater efforts to switch to safer technologies that present less of a potential health risk to children nearby," according to Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician with the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.

The coalition report was welcomed by the nation's largest teachers union. "As the number of children classified with learning disabilities, hyperactivity and other problems rises," the National Education Association said in a statement, "it is critical to examine the link with increased exposure to environmental toxins."

CHEMICAL INDUSTRY'S STAND

Representatives of the chemical industry said that while they had not read the report, they had taken steps to study and reduce emissions.

"We're already doing a lot of the right things," said Frank Rathbun, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council. He cited a five-year, $100 million industry program to research health effects of chemicals and a project done in conjunction with the group Environmental Defense to evaluate 2,000 high-volume chemicals.

Rathbun said that reports critical of the chemical industry too often ignore the benefits chemicals have brought to society through life-saving drugs and lighter, better products.

The council endorsed a related proposal made Wednesday to build a national health tracking network.

The nonprofit Pew Environmental Health Commission raised the idea, saying it would help public health authorities better understand trends in chronic diseases. The estimated cost: $275 million a year, less than a tenth of a percent of the $325 billion that chronic disease costs annually in health care and lost productivity, the commission said.

"We believe data generated by a national tracking program can shift the focus from debate and speculation about disease trends to intervention and prevention based on scientific evidence,"

Sandra Tirey, a chemistry council spokeswoman, said in response to the proposal. "Too much time is spent on debating and too little time is spent on gathering factual information that can improve people's lives."

But the industry also emphasized that what's tracked should include other potential factors, such as viral infections, poverty and nutrition.

"To be of the greatest value," Tirey said, "a national surveillance system of this magnitude must track not only ambient environmental exposures, but also other environmental factors that have an even greater impact on human health."

---

Senate Votes to Block New Missouri River Management

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/pl/environment_river_dc_1.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Courting a possible White House veto, the Senate on Thursday voted to block the Clinton administration from revising water control measures on the Missouri River to protect several dwindling species of birds and fish.

The White House has threatened to veto a $22 billion bill to fund energy and water programs next fiscal year starting Oct. 1 if the bill barred an overhaul of Missouri River management that critics say sacrifices the environment and recreation for a small barge industry centered in the state of Missouri.

On a 52-45 vote, Missouri Republican Sen. Christopher Bond defeated a bid by Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and other lawmakers from upriver states who pushed to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to revamp management of the dam-controlled river.

Bond said proposals to increase the river flow during the spring to provide the more natural habitat needed by several species of fish and birds would jeopardize the barge industry and hurt farms and towns near the river.

He said once the water flow was increased, farmers and townspeople would just have to hope heavy rains would not raise the river to flood stage.

``Unless you have been in one of those communities or one of our larger cities where a flood has hit, you do not appreciate how devastating a flood is,'' Bond said.

Potential for flood damage also would deter investment in the river's barge industry centered in Missouri to ship grain to the Mississippi River, which the Missouri River joins at St. Louis, he said.

But Daschle, backed by environmentalists, said declining wildlife and tens of millions of dollars worth of recreation were being imperiled to save the river's small $7 million barge industry.

``Unequivocally, all river science indicates the need for increase flows in the Missouri River in the spring,'' the U.S. Public Interest Research Group said in a statement.

The environmental group said higher water was essential to ''provide a critical reproductive cue for the endangered pallid sturgeon and to build sandbars for the endangered interior least tern and the threatened piping plover.''

Daschle told reporters he had assurances from the White House that President Clinton would veto the bill if he lost this vote.

But some environmentalists and congressional aides said politics could change that as Democrat Clinton might not want to run afoul of lawmakers in Missouri, a pivotal state in the presidential race and site of a tight Senate race.

Clinton has signed four previous bills that included the Missouri-backed language to block higher spring river flow.

---

Corps Takes Steps to Protect Drinking Water Supply for 9 Million New Yorkers

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7, 12:55 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000907/ny_us_army.html

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 7, 2000--The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New York District announced today stronger measures to protect waters and wetlands in the New York City watershed. These stronger measures, which take effect immediately, reflect the Corps of Engineers commitment to protecting the environmental integrity of this watershed.

The comprehensive measures will now require developers to participate in a full public interest review for all large projects affecting wetlands and waterways in the New York City watershed.

The Corps met numerous times with the major stakeholders in the watershed including federal and state agencies, local agencies and environmental groups in developing and strengthening the regional conditions.

The vast majority of public comments recommended strengthening the regional conditions to provide increased environmental safeguards of the New York City watershed. In addition, the New York City Council passed a resolution requesting the Corps to require individual Clean Water Act permits prior to the dredging or filling of wetlands in order to protect the public health of nearly nine million New Yorkers who rely on the New York City drinking water supply.

The newly imposed conditions are on top of stronger nationwide changes implemented last June which provided a substantial increase in protection for the aquatic environment. Those changes benefited the nation's aquatic environment by increasing protection to critical resource waters and within the 100-year floodplain while continuing to authorize projects with minimal adverse effects.

``These changes to the nationwide permit program reflect the Administration's, including the Army's, commitment to protecting the nation's wetlands and reducing damages to communities from flooding,'' said Michael Davis, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works.

``The wetlands are the kidneys of many of our ecosystems,'' said Rich Tomer, Acting Regulatory Branch Chief for the Corps' New York District. ``Ecosystems like the New York City watershed provide water purification functions through trapping sediments, binding contaminants as well as dispersing and reducing floodflows which can otherwise erode and degrade watersheds.''

Contact:
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York
Pete Shugert,
212/264-1722
Fax: 212/264-0614

---

Fine for Clean Air Charges

New York Times
September 07, 2000
Metro Business
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/nyregion/07BBRF.html

A plastics manufacturing company that was found to have violated the federal Clean Air Act agreed yesterday to pay New York State $280,000 and carry out environmental compliance management measures.

Under a consent order with the State Department of Environmental Conservation, the company, Taconic Plastics, agreed to test its smokestacks and install an incinerator to control volatile organic compounds at its plant in Rensselaer County.

Taconic was fined $400,000 for the violations, but $120,000 of that was suspended pending the company's compliance with the agreement, state officials said.

The plant makes Teflon-coated fabric and pressure-sensitive tape. Investigators found that Taconic violated clean air laws when it built a Teflon-coating line in November 1998 without a construction permit and failed to file an operating permit application afterward. Taconic is now required to obtain an operating permit and hire an independent consultant to conduct an environmental compliance audit of the facility. (AP)

---

USA Today
09/07/00
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Idaho

Coeur d'Alene - A federal judge ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to speed up the mapping of critical habitat for northern Idaho's endangered Kootenai River white sturgeon. The proposal is five years late, and the judge says the agency must act by year's end. The ruling was prompted by a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Massachusetts

Pittsfield - General Electric Co. is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to lower its standards for chemical PCB cleanup in the Housatonic River. The EPA is finishing the plan to haul contaminated soil from a 1 -mile stretch of river.

Minnesota

Crookston - The Nature Conservancy of Minnesota has purchased nearly 25,000 acres near this northwestern city, with plans to restore it to tallgrass prairie and wetlands. The nearly 40 square miles could eventually be turned into a national wildlife refuge.

Rhode Island

Providence - An environmental group has found a perfect spot for its headquarters an old dump. Save the Bay and Johnson & Wales University want to transform the former dump into a center for environmental education and a complex of running trails and ball fields.

Tennessee

Chattanooga - Army officials are meeting with state environmental experts in Nashville to discuss cleaning up the area around the former Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant, once the world's largest TNT plant. The EPA has designated the East Tennessee site as one of 1,712 areas where soil and groundwater pollution must be controlled by 2005.

Texas

Austin - The new Hill Country Conservancy launched a drive to preserve rural central Texas land by paying $10 million for development rights for a 5,820-acre ranch near Austin. It's the first step toward the conservancy's five-year goal of protecting 50,000 acres at the heart of a real-estate boom.

Vermont

Fayston - A contractor hired by the state to make a prized hiking trail inaccessible to mountain bikers may have destroyed the trail for everyone else, environmentalists said. The backhoe operator dug trenches and dropped trees across the century-old Hemlock Hill Trail. State foresters are working to repair it.

West Virginia

Charleston - Two A.T. Massey Coal Co. subsidiaries must pay $26,000 to settle complaints that they discharged "blackwater," a mixture of coal dust and water, into tributaries of the Coal River. The EPA has reached separate settlements with Elk Run Coal Co. to pay $16,000 in civil penalties and Goals Coal Co. to pay $9,900.

-------- police

STATE POLICE INFILTRATED PROTEST GROUPS, DOCUMENTS SHOW

Search-warrant affidavits reveal an undercover operation aimed at activists in Philadelphia for the GOP convention.

by Linda K. Harris,, Craig R. McCoy and Thomas Ginsberg,
Philadelphia Inquirer
Thursday, September 7, 2000
http://CommonDreams.org/headlines/090700-01.htm

State police undercover agents posing as demonstrators infiltrated activist groups planning the protests at the Republican National Convention, search-warrant documents made public yesterday showed.

The undercover operation was detailed in legal documents filed Aug. 1 by Philadelphia police seeking search warrants for a raid that day on a so-called "puppet warehouse" at 4100 Haverford Ave. in West Philadelphia. The documents were under a court seal until yesterday.

About 75 people were arrested in the raid at the warehouse.

The infiltration was immediately condemned yesterday by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the city public defender's office.

"It's worse than sleazeball," said Stefan Presser, the ACLU's legal director. "This is an outrage."

Presser and other critics said dissenters needed the right to rally and to organize without fear that police were spying on them. They said they feared that police undercover officers could cross the line from intelligence-gatherers to provocateurs.

"The legality and propriety of this potentially unconstitutional police conduct will certainly be an issue at the time of trial in all of these cases," said Bradley Bridge, a senior lawyer with the defender's office.

During the convention, Police Commissioner John F. Timoney repeatedly denied that police had engaged in infiltration.

"We had not infiltrated any group," he said the day after police raided the warehouse that had become one of several gathering spots for demonstrators during the convention.

A spokeswoman for the commissioner said yesterday that he would have no comment. Lt. Susan Slawson, commander of the police public-affairs unit, said the commissioner could not talk because "it's in litigation," a reference to a civil suit filed by demonstrators challenging their arrests during the protests.

The use of state police as the undercover operatives took place as the city itself was restricted from using its own officers for such infiltration under a long-standing mayoral directive. The directive says the police may not infiltrate protest groups without the permission of the mayor, the managing director, and the police commissioner.

Mayor Street and City Solicitor Kenneth Trujillo declined comment yesterday.

In seeking search warrants, police cited the work of the undercover operatives and detailed the intelligence gathered as the convention approached. The information is sketched out in affidavits of probable cause seeking warrants to search the warehouse, a U-Haul van, another van, and a pickup that police deemed suspicious.

"This investigation is utilizing several Pennsylvania state troopers in an undercover capacity that have infiltrated several of the activist groups planning to commit numerous illegal direct actions," said one affidavit, signed by Detective William Egenlauf of the Philadelphia Police Department.

It says the state police undercover operatives arrived at the warehouse on July 27, four days before the convention began.

Once there, the agents assisted "in the construction of props to be used during protests," the affidavit says.

It says agents observed demonstrators building street barriers and "lock boxes," devices used by protesters to lock arms together when blocking streets. The papers say they overheard discussions that indicated protesters planned on "using the puppets . . . as blockades."

The operatives also reported that "persons indicated they would be throwing pies, bottles and cardboard boxes filled with water at the police," the affidavits stated.

Timoney held a news conference after the convention to display items seized during the raid, including two massive slingshots and chains wrapped in kerosene-soaked rags. Such devices were not used during the protests. Police also displayed seized "lock boxes."

Protesters have claimed the facility was nothing more than an art studio to fashion the puppets, floats and other props that were a hallmark of the demonstrations.

Demonstrators also said their protests would be nonviolent, with illegal actions limited to the blockading of streets. Their lawyers have complained that numerous people were arrested in the warehouse without any proof they had any connection to illegal items.

A key subject of controversy has been the raid on the warehouse.

The request for the search warrants for the warehouse and lengthy affidavits detailing police intelligence-gathering was made yesterday, a month after Municipal Court President Judge Louis J. Presenza approved the searches.

At the request of the District Attorney's Office, the warrants were sealed - barred from public inspection - for a month as soon as they were issued. The legal request for the warrants maintained that premature "disclosure of this affidavit could endanger the lives" of the undercover operatives.

The affidavits cite sweeping police intelligence-gathering before the convention. This included monitoring of unspecified "electronic messages" sent among demonstrators, an apparent reference to police scrutiny of Web sites and electronic mailing lists.

The police documents identified what investigators viewed as the key protest groups and their goals. Funds for one group "allegedly originate with Communist and leftist parties and from sympathetic trade unions" or from "the former Soviet-allied World Federation of Trade Unions," according to the affidavits.

The affidavits go on to identify a handful of leaders of the various groups. Among those cited by name are John Sellers and Kate Sorensen, who were later arrested during demonstrations in Center City. The two were held in jail for days in lieu of $1 million bail - a sum critics said was extraordinary. In recent interviews after their release from jail, people who were inside the warehouse said that they had suspected early on that four undercover officers were working among them. Four men - known as Tim, Harry, George and Ryan - showed up together at 41st and Haverford about a week before the convention, introducing themselves as union carpenters from Wilkes-Barre who built stages, several demonstrators said.

They were big, burly men who were older than most of the people working in the warehouse. They did not seem particularly political or well-informed, according to demonstrators. All four, however, were considered hard workers.

Soliman Lawrence, 20, of Tallahassee, Fla., worked closely with the four on a massive satirical float built for a protest march.

"They gained our trust," Lawrence said. "The fact that we didn't know them very well wasn't a big deal.

"I remember thinking to myself, 'Why does everyone who looks like that have to be a cop?' " Lawrence said. "I didn't like that I thought like that."

----

Bad Use of a Bad Law
The anti-racketeering act known as RICO isn't the right federal tool for achieving LAPD reform.

Los Angeles Times
Thursday, September 7, 2000
http://www.latimes.com/news/comment/20000907/t000084119.html

One would be hard-pressed to come up with a more inappropriate use of a bad law than a federal judge's recent decision to allow a class-action suit against the Los Angeles Police Department under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act. This is a mistake that the Los Angeles city attorney's office is right to challenge even at this early, pretrial stage.

This is not the first time that RICO, an overly broad and poorly worded Nixon-era crime bill, has been used in a suit against a Southern California law enforcement agency. But the RICO argument ultimately failed in the two earlier cases while other, straightforward lawsuits alleging police brutality and other abuses not only succeeded in winning huge settlements but also laid the groundwork for real police reforms.

RICO was born in 1970 out of the government's frustration with inability to prosecute and contain organized crime. It handed prosecutors sweeping powers to link otherwise singular events or actions to criminal conspiracies and to label them part of a continuing criminal enterprise. But that's not all RICO did. Its loose wording allowed for prosecutions far beyond the law's original intent--against health insurers, HMOs, antiabortion protesters, slumlords, tobacco companies and, yes, police departments. Sometimes the goals were admirable, but RICO was still a bad law, easily abused. Moreover, RICO uses have been labeled affronts to due process that result in unfair and unduly harsh penalties. As pointed out in a recent Times commentary by Theodore B. Olson, a former Justice Department official in the Reagan administration, RICO has been assailed by pillars of the right and the left, from conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to the late liberal Justice Thurgood Marshall. The Times editorial page through the years has repeatedly called for the repeal of RICO. To paint an entire police department with such a law, even in the Rampart scandal, is absurd.

In one previous local case, a federal judge allowed a lawyer to sue the Huntington Beach Police Department under RICO in 1990, charging extortion in the operation of a speed trap, but the case failed. A year later, RICO was used by 18 plaintiffs to sue the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department over alleged abusive treatment of African Americans. That argument too failed, whereas many other lawsuits against abusive treatment by sheriff's deputies succeeded and ultimately forced the department to accept the Kolts Commission reforms and an independent monitor.

RICO is a blunderbuss. The proper course for reforming the LAPD is for the city to accept a federal consent decree laying out specific reforms and an outside monitor to determine whether those goals are being met. RICO, in contrast, would treble the city's taxpayer liability in Rampart lawsuits and probably bring the criminal justice system to a halt. RICO could result in literally every arrest involving an allegation of misconduct going to a federal court review.

It would put authority over the LAPD in the hands of a federal judge, probably without the clearly thought-out and mutually agreed-on goals for police reform that a consent decree would provide. There are many good ways to force the LAPD to accept reforms. RICO is not one of them.

---

New Police Commissioner Removes Two Chiefs

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By CHRISTOPHER DREW and KEVIN FLYNN
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/nyregion/07COPS.html

Moving quickly to shake up the leadership of the Police Department, Bernard B. Kerik, the new commissioner, announced yesterday that he was removing the assistant chief in the Bronx, where there has been a rise in murders, and the chief of uniformed officers.

Police officials said Joanne Jaffe, the assistant chief in the Bronx and the department's highest-ranking woman officer, would be moved to a planning job at police headquarters. They said John Scanlon, the chief of patrol, would be shifted to chief of the transit bureau, a less prestigious position. But last night, Chief Scanlon, 60, called the commissioner to say that he planned to retire.

Mr. Kerik made the move just two weeks after he assumed leadership of the department. When he was named commissioner, Mr. Kerik said that he would move forcefully to improve the department's leadership, especially in areas where he believed it had been weak. The transfers were among 30 changes in senior managers announced last night.

Chief Jaffe had been the borough commander in the Bronx since mid-1998, and she was seen as a rising star as the number of murders declined there in 1999. But so far this year, the pace of the killings has surged by 51 percent even as the murder rate has been almost flat in the rest of the city, puzzling police officials and raising fears within the community.

Chief Jaffe will be succeeded by Deputy Chief Patrick Timlin, the commander of detectives in Queens, whose work drew attention earlier this year when his officers quickly solved the mass murder of workers in the basement of a Wendy's restaurant in Flushing.

Chief Scanlon, a wiry ex-Marine with a boot-camp crew cut, commanded the vast majority of the uniformed officers in the department for two years. He has been a popular leader.

But he was also in command in two instances when police tactics received considerable criticism. In one case, officers were accused of overreacting at a 1998 Harlem youth rally, originally labeled the Million Youth March, when they stormed the stage after the keynote speech by Khallid Abdul Muhammad. Chief Scanlon also was in charge earlier this year when there was a series of sexual assaults in Central Park after the Puerto Rican Day parade.

Police officials would not say why Chief Scanlon was transferred except to say that Commissioner Kerik wanted a new team.

As Chief Scanlon's successor, the commissioner named William A. Morange, the commanding officer of the special operations division, which coordinates rescues and responds to dangerous situations.

Commissioner Kerik, a former police officer, was the city's correction commissioner from 1997 until mid- August, and he gained Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's confidence through aggressive moves to bring down violence within the jails.

Yesterday afternoon and evening, the commissioner called senior officers involved in the changes to his office, officials said.

The moves came a day after Commissioner Kerik was formally sworn in in an elaborate ceremony outside City Hall, where he promised to rebuild relationships between the department and the public "that might have been broken."

The commissioner also filled two other top jobs that had come open through retirements. Most of the other changes announced last night involved senior managers below the level of assistant chief.

Among those appointed to the top jobs were George Brown, who had been chief of the transit bureau; he will succeed Martin B. O'Boyle, chief of the organized crime control bureau. James H. Lawrence Jr., an assistant chief who has been in charge of school safety, will succeed Michael A. Markman as the chief of the personnel bureau. Both Mr. Markman and Mr. O'Boyle had announced their retirements before Commissioner Kerik was appointed.

Also yesterday, in a clear display of concern about the rise in Bronx homicides, Commissioner Kerik named a second commander to serve as executive officer for the Bronx; traditionally there had been just one such job. Inspector Anthony Izzo, who had been the commanding officer of the 75th Precinct in Brooklyn, will take the new position in the Bronx.

There have been 145 murders in the Bronx this year, up from 96 during the same period last year, while in the city as a whole there have been 470 murders so far this year, up from 465 by this time last year. The only other borough with more murders so far this year is Staten Island, where there have been four more murders this year than during the same period in 1999.

Chief Jaffe's rise to become the force's highest-ranking woman had been one of a series of milestones in her career, which began in 1979. She has been a street officer, a narcotics investigator and a manager in the street crimes unit. She will move to a job in the department's office of management planning.

Chief Scanlon also had once been Bronx borough commander, named to the job in 1996 amid concerns about another rise in murders. Just a year ago, he was considered a leading candidate to become chief of department, the top uniformed job.

Chief Jaffe did not respond to messages seeking comment last night. Chief Scanlon declined to comment.

---

USA Today
09/07/00
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Mississippi

Moss Point - Aldermen took no action on a request that four white police officers be placed on administrative leave until a federal investigation of a black man's death is complete. Marcus Malone died in the city jail after he was arrested last September. His family and the NAACP claim the officers used excessive force.

Nevada

Las Vegas - Three campus police officers are suing UNLV and the state's university system for alleged abuse, harassment and retaliation. The president of the campus police union said the lawsuit stems from several high-profile cases in which officers were barred by administrators from responding to criticism. Allegations of excessive force and other misconduct have dogged UNLV's police force in recent months.

-------- spying

Bills would protect against Net surveillance

USA Today
09/07/00- Updated 08:32 AM ET
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti493.htm

WASHINGTON (AP) - Shocked at how simple it is for law enforcement to get court permission to see the telephone numbers people dial, legislators Wednesday discussed new bills aimed at tightening surveillance laws and put final touches on a plan to address workplace privacy.

The proposed wiretap bill would make it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain court permission to monitor the telephone numbers dialed by a suspect. The bill would require the same standard of evidence now needed for permission to tap a telephone conversation.

Two very similar bills, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Digital Privacy Act, were spawned from citizen concerns about their privacy online. Recent revelations about Carnivore, a law enforcement tool that can monitor e-mail messages, raised congressional interest in privacy legislation.

The bills also extend existing law to cover conversations held on the Internet and other electronic means and make it tougher for authorities to monitor cell phones or use them to find suspects.

Justice Department officials told a House subcommittee that the changes would threaten public safety and make it more difficult to find and prosecute criminals.

''It is not the kind of balanced comprehensive package that would benefit public safety and privacy,'' Kevin DiGregory, deputy associate attorney general, said of the bills.

Under existing law, it is relatively simple for a prosecutor to get the most basic type of telephone tap, a ''pen register'' order which records only the frequency, source and destination of telephone calls.

To get the tap, a prosecutor goes to a judge, who certifies only that the information would be relevant to an investigation. But if a prosecutor then wants to record telephone conversations, probable cause must be shown that a crime has occurred or will occur.

The new legislation would require prosecutors to present that kind of evidence to obtain a pen register order.

Legislators, upset with the ease with which prosecutors can get pen register orders, grilled Justice Department officials Wednesday.

''My Constitution wasn't written for the protection of the prosecutor. For the life of me, I can't see anything in my Constitution that talks about the term 'relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation,' '' said Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., ''I think what you're trying to do is get the Constitution subcommittee to write a prosecutor standard rather than a Constitution standard.''

DiGregory noted that the Supreme Court has held that the numbers dialed aren't covered by an expectation of privacy, as opposed to telephone conversations. He also said the rules would prevent prosecutors from getting information that would lead to probable cause.

The Clinton administration has a plan to extend the laws to cover electronic messages, but critics say it contains too many loopholes that favor law enforcement agencies. Reps Charles Canady, R-Fla., who chaired the hearing, said his committee would try to find compromises between the House bills and the administration initiative in a meeting scheduled for next week.

Civil liberties and privacy groups also attended the hearing, arguing that while the bills are a good first step, they don't go far enough to ensure the privacy of citizens.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., attended the hearing to talk about his bill, which mirrors House legislation designed to force employers to notify workers if and how they're being monitored in the office. Legislators said they hope to pass the House and Senate bills before this Congress ends, and noted that there is little opposition.

The House and Senate bills require ''clear and conspicuous notice'' on a yearly basis about an employer's methods of monitoring - whether it be via e-mail, telephone, Web browsing or even watching a worker's keystrokes - though they don't outlaw any methods.

''This legislation provides workers a first line of defense,'' Schumer said, calling the plan ''moderate, reasonable and fair.''

---

F.B.I. Lists Caution Signs for Violence In Classroom

New York Times
September 07, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/national/07SCHO.html

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 (Reuters) - The F.B.I. responded to a spate of deadly school shootings today by giving educators a report with a list of warning signs that includes obsession with violence and access to guns at home.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation emphasized that the report did not contain a profile of school gunmen or a checklist of danger signs that could identify a student likely to commit an act of lethal violence.

"At this time, there is no research that has identified traits and characteristics that can reliably distinguish school shooters from other students," the report said.

Nonetheless, the report provided a list of more than 40 signs for school officials to check once a threat of violence had been discovered. The list covers the student's personality and family, as well as school and social dynamics.

Some examples of warning signs in the report included recurrent themes of destruction or violence in a student's writing or artwork, resentment over real or perceived injustices, a fascination with violent entertainment and weapons in the home. In one case cited by the F.B.I., a student in a home economics class baked a cake in the shape of a gun and used recurrent themes of violence in his writing.

The report resulted from a two- year study that examined 18 school shooting cases. Although the incidents were not identified, the report said the April 1999 shootings that left 15 people dead at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., added urgency to the research efforts.

Attorney General Janet Reno said in the report that the F.B.I.'s threat assessment model must be used judiciously to avoid "the risk of unfairly labeling and stigmatizing children."

Among things to look for in assessing threats are hopelessness, despair, hatred, isolation, loneliness, nihilism or an "end-of-the-world" philosophy and a preoccupation with themes of violence, the report said.

The report also mentioned students who are easily angered, who have had a failed relationship, who have an attitude of superiority and who are rigid and opinionated.

At a news conference at F.B.I. headquarters, Deputy Director Thomas Pickard said the report would help school officials "identify and deal with high-risk threats that are a major concern."

Mary Ellen O'Toole, an F.B.I. agent who wrote the report, said school violence was difficult to predict, but, she added, "There are observable signs along the way."

---

FBI profiles troubled students so schools can foresee violence

Washington Times
September 7, 2000
By Jerry Seper
http://208.246.212.80/national/default-200097224213.htm

The FBI yesterday pointed out dozens of potential risk factors educators can use to help identify school children prone to violence, but warned that it cannot pinpoint those children likely to attack classmates or teachers.

Despite a checklist of danger signs, the FBI concluded in a 45-page report there is "no research" at this time that has identified "traits and characteristics that can reliably distinguish school shooters from other students."

In a two-year, nationwide study of 18 school-shooting cases by the bureau's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, the FBI said risk factors identified by investigators "will help those children who show a propensity for violence" by giving school officials various warning signs.

Attorney General Janet Reno also warned in the report that the specific threat assessments by the FBI were to be used "judiciously" to avoid "the risk of unfairly labeling and stigmatizing children."

She said the FBI's report could be used by school officials to help students who show a propensity for violence and "protect innocent school children before they become senseless victims."

FBI Deputy Director Thomas Pickard said the information would help school officials "identify and deal with high-risk threats that are a major concern."

The FBI has taken a lead role in helping educators and others, including state and local law enforcement authorities, determine the best ways to predict and prevent school violence. The bureau's involvement began in May 1998 and has included more than 200 seminars on school violence.

The report listed more than three dozen warning signals, which include recurrent themes of destruction or violence in a student's writing or artwork, students who nursed resentment over real or perceived injustices, those fascinated with violent entertainment, and families that kept weapons in the home.

The report also pointed to students who show hopelessness, despair, hatred, isolation, loneliness, nihilism or an "end-of-the-world" philosophy.

The report also focused on students who are easily angered, who are in a failed love relationship, who have an attitude of superiority, who are rigid and opinionated, who show an unusual interest in sensational violence, have poor coping skills, show signs of depression, abuse drugs or alcohol, express inappropriate humor, and have no limits or monitoring of television and Internet use.

Investigators also said news coverage of school shootings had given the incorrect impressions that school violence has reached epidemic proportions, that all school shooters were alike and that the shooter always was a loner.

Although the 18 schools examined in the report were not identified, the report said the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., gave added urgency to the FBI's research efforts. The Columbine shooting, in which 12 students and a teacher were killed, was the deadliest in U.S. history.

Since that much-publicized shooting, demand for the FBI's expertise concerning school violence has grown so much that bureau officials in Washington have been unable to keep up with requests for assistance. In response, the FBI set up teleconferences throughout the country to share as broadly as possible what the bureau has learned from experience in investigating violent incidents at schools.

"One of the greatest contributions we can make is bringing people together to talk," said Supervisory Special Agent Joseph A. Harpold, a member of the FBI's behavioral sciences unit who teaches at its training academy in Quantico, Va. "Once you experience something like this, the community is never going to be the same again."

-------- terrorism

New York Times
September 07, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07BRIE.html

THE AMERICAS

ARGENTINA: HUNGER STRIKE Thirteen Marxist guerrillas who were convicted on terrorism charges related to the attack on an army barracks in 1989 went on their second hunger strike this year demanding a court appeal in their case. The attack by the tiny All for the Fatherland band on the La Tablada base outside Buenos Aires left 39 dead. The rebels say there were only trying to halt a coup, a claim disputed by most historians and political analysts. Clifford Krauss (NYT)

-------- activists

U.N. Demonstrators Decry Castro, China

NewsMax.com
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000
UPI
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/9/6/174718

UNITED NATIONS - Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Wednesday before the heavily guarded U.N. building demanding to be heard by the world leaders attending the Millennium Summit.

The demonstrations covered issues from Cuba to Tibet to the stalled Middle East peace talks. Uniformed and plainclothes New York police, part of the 8,000-strong security force deployed for the U.N. meeting, kept the demonstrators beyond barriers, about 50 yards from the north garden of the world organization.

Some protesters flashed signs calling Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak a "traitor," whereas others urged China to withdraw from Tibet, which it has occupied since 1949.

At the nearby Cuban Mission to the U.N., on Lexington Avenue, anti-Castro demonstrators loudly expressed their dislike for the presence of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Banners called him "assassin" and demanded "freedom for Cuba."

On Tuesday, when preliminary meetings were held, about 150 demonstrators of the Chinese sect Falun Gong, wearing yellow shirts, staged a colorful sit-in at the site reserved by local authorities for protesters. The demonstrations, although loud and vocal, cannot be heard at the U.N. headquarters.

A New York police sergeant, who declined to be identified, told United Press International that "all demonstrations have been previously authorized" by local authorities. "Other than yelling and chanting, these guys are pretty peaceful," the officer said.

Security inside and outside the U.N. building is extremely heavy, and is coordinated jointly by the New York Police Department, the U.N.'s own security service and the U.S. Secret Service and other special forces.

All traffic on the avenues nearby has been cut off. Large trucks, police patrol cars and cement barriers have been placed around the area. The U.S. Coast Guard and New York police have deployed high-speed boats with special detection equipment and anti-terrorist divers on the East River, on whose Western bank lies the U.N. building.

Sharpshooters and special TV cameras have been deployed on the rooftop of the U.N. headquarters and in nearby residential buildings, while helicopters constantly orbit the entire East Side of Manhattan. According to official figures, the entire security operation for the two-day Millennium Summit will cost taxpayers more than $10 million.

---

French Strike Leaders Waver, But Not Protesters

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7
By Tom Heneghan
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/ts/france_petrol_dc_3.html

PARIS (Reuters) - Leaders of France's fuel tax revolt on Thursday signaled their interest in ending protests that have choked off fuel supplies around the country, but angry truckers and farmers on the barricades vowed to fight on.

The taxi drivers union announced cabs would be back at work on Friday after hundreds of taxis drove at a snail's pace through main cities to press their demands for lower fuel taxes.

The head of the National Road Hauliers Federation (FNTR), the largest of the truck owners groups choking off most fuel distribution around the country, urged the government to resume contact after Prime Minister Lionel Jospin ended negotiations.

But out on the barricades -- the Interior Ministry listed 167 roadblocks at midday -- truckers seemed determined to corner the government into conceding a 20 percent cut in diesel taxes. Jospin drew the line at 15 percent on Wednesday.

The FNSEA farmers union also held firm, refusing to remove their tractors from around the refineries and fuel depots they have cut off with truckers and ambulance and tour bus drivers.

France's Green Environment Minister Dominique Voynet also kept up her pressure on Jospin's left-wing government, warning it against caving in to the truckers and farmers.

``They're going back to work tomorrow,'' taxi union chief Alain Estival said of his members. Several hundred taxis turned out to protest at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, 600 in Bordeaux and 1,000 each in Lyon and Marseille, he said.

``We want to reach a solution quickly, we simply must resume dialogue with the authorities,'' FNTR President Rene Petit said, adding an appeal for calm out at the roadblocks.

Farmers Stand Firm

Farmers scuffled briefly with riot police in Calais when the security forces barred protesters from closing the freight entrance to the Channel Tunnel. A dozen tractors later cut off the access road to the entrance.

``There is no chance right now of the farmers lifting their blockades,'' Luc Guyau, head of the FNSEA farmers' union, said after meeting Agriculture Minister Jean Glavany. ``This was a fake negotiation. We call for real negotiations.''

About 80 percent of all petrol stations in France were reported to be either dry or under tight rationing because truckers and farmers blocked refineries and depots. Stations were also shutting in Paris, the area least hit by the protest.

Nantes and Rennes airports in western France ran out of aviation fuel and Lyon had to cancel some flights. Nice airport on the Riviera expected to run dry by Friday evening.

Car rental companies, courier firms and driving schools also reported severe bottlenecks due to the mounting fuel shortages.

Greens Angry With Concessions

Voynet, angered at not being consulted about fuel tax cuts Socialist ministers were granting or negotiating, asked to meet Jospin to discuss how concessions on fuel taxes went against the government's environmental policies.

She stopped short of resigning in protest on Wednesday evening after a heated meeting of her party leaders but warned Jospin he had already gone too far and that the Greens would react if concessions continued.

Hoping to stop the chain reaction of demands from sectors dependent on diesel and petrol, Jospin put his foot down on Wednesday, declaring the government could go no further than the 15 percent diesel tax cut offered to the truck owners.

His firm stand only strengthened the protesters' resolve to keep up the fight until the government caved in. The truck owners have demanded a 20 percent cut in diesel tax.

``That can only heighten the tension on the ground,'' Gerard Cardon, a member of the National Association of Road Hauliers (FNTR) in Dunkirk, told Reuters. ``The government urges us to be responsible, but it is responsible for this situation.''

``If nobody does anything, this is going to end in a clash,'' another trucker at the barricade added.

Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande told Europe 1 radio the government might have to use force if the protesters refused to lift their barricades.

``Using force would be the last resort,'' he said. ``If there is a serious risk of paralyzing the economy or a risk to public health or daily life in France, I think we should take action.''

---

Farmers Move to Front Line in French Fuel Protests

Yahoo News
Thursday September 7
By Tom Heneghan
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000907/ts/france_petrol_dc_2.html

PARIS (Reuters) - Farmers and taxi drivers moved to the front line of France's fuel tax showdown on Thursday as demonstrators tightened their stranglehold on fuel supplies and the Greens party issued an ultimatum to its own government.

Farmers demanding lower fuel prices tried to block the Channel Tunnel at Calais but were turned back by riot police. Other farmers blocked train lines near Strasbourg and Bordeaux.

Taxi drivers converged on the centers of major cities for massive ``go-slow'' protests, pressing Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to give them the same tax cuts won by fishermen last week and offered to truck owners this week.

About 80 percent of all petrol stations in France were reported to be either dry or under tight rationing because truckers and farmers blocked refineries and depots. Stations were also shutting in Paris, the area least hit by the protest.

``There is no chance right now for the farmers to lift their blockades,'' Luc Guyau, head of the FNSEA farmers' union, said after meeting Agriculture Ministere Jean Glavany. ``There are no more negotiations planned,'' Glavany said.

Greens Angry With Fuel Tax Concessions

The Greens party, part of Jospin's coalition, said its leader Environment Minister Dominique Voynet had asked to meet the prime minister to discuss how concessions on fuel taxes went against the government's environmental policies.

Voynet stopped short of resigning in protest on Wednesday evening after a heated meeting of her party leaders but warned Jospin he had already gone too far and the Greens would react if the concessions continued.

Voynet is one of two Greens ministers in the cabinet.

Some staff from Air France joined the protest, blocking access to some terminals at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport. Ambulance and tour bus drivers, Seine boatmen and driving instructors were also taking part in the spreading strike.

In Alsace near Germany, police guarded 27 petrol stations reserved for emergency services to keep away motorists.

The airport in the western city of Rennes ran out of aviation fuel while Nice airport said it expected supply problems by the weekend. Airlines began to advise pilots to tank up in the well-supplied Paris airports or abroad.

Hoping to stop the chain reaction of demands from sectors dependent on diesel and petrol, Jospin put his foot down on Wednesday, declaring the government could go no further than the 15 percent diesel tax cut offered to the truck owners.

Truckers Talk Tough But Seek Solution

His firm stand only strengthened the protesters' resolve to keep up the fight until the government caved in. The truck owners have demanded a 20 percent cut in diesel tax.

``That can only heighten the tension on the ground,'' Gerard Cardon, a member of the National Association of Road Hauliers (FNTR) in Dunkirk, told Reuters. ``The government urges us to be responsible, but it's responsible for this situation.''

``If nobody does anything, this is going to end in a clash,'' another trucker at the barricade added.

FNTR head Rene Petit told France Info radio he would meet regional officials of his association, the biggest of the three leading the protests, on Thursday to assess the situation.

``The talks (with the government) have stopped but the dialogue must continue,'' he said.

Socialist Party leader Francois Hollande told Europe 1 radio the government might have to use force if the protesters refused to lift their barricades.

``Using force would be the last resort,'' he said. ``If there is a serious risk of paralyzing the economy or a risk for public health or daily life in France, I think we should take action.''

The government's offer to truck owners would cut diesel taxes for heavy trucks by 35 centimes to 2.22 French francs ($0.293) per liter this year. The full price per liter, including taxes, is 5.51 francs, made up mainly of taxes.

($1-7.575 French Franc)

---

New York Times
September 07, 2000
World Briefing
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07BRIE.html

EUROPE

FRANCE: FUEL STALEMATE Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, left, ruled out any new concessions to trucking unions blockading fuel supplies that have caused gas stations around the country to run dry and disrupted air traffic. He spoke after France's largest trucking union rejected a government proposal to lower diesel taxes and reimburse truckers for fuel costs. The union said the government offer did not go far enough. (AP)

---

A Rights Advocate Who's Also Britain's First Lady

New York Times
September 07, 2000
By SARAH LYALL
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/07/world/07BLAI.html

Cherie Booth, the wife of the British prime minister, strode purposefully into a thicket of criticism last month when she publicly praised Britain's Human Rights Act, a central element of her husband's legislative program and the basis for much of her work as a high-powered international lawyer.

Yesterday in Manhattan she demonstrated that even the Conservative opposition's provocative efforts to compare her to Hillary Clinton and Lady Macbeth - in the same breath, and not as a compliment - had not dissuaded her from pursuing what has become an increasingly outspoken role.

At a forum sponsored by New York University School of Law, she joined a panel of lawyers from Britain and the United States in discussing the revolution taking place in English courts as the country prepares to incorporate the European convention on human rights into British law, effectively giving ordinary Britons their first domestic bill of rights.

She was breaking new ground by discussing anything at all. No prime minister's spouse - including Sir Denis Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher's discreet and sporting husband - has ever opened his or her mouth in public before in anything but the most innocuous way.

Norma Major, John Major's wife, was best known for her expertise on the opera. Sir Denis, who tended to walk demurely behind his wife, once observed that "she runs the country; I run the family."

Byron Shafer, the Andrew Mellon professor of American government at Oxford University, said: "Before Cherie Blair, in some sense the role model for the prime minister's spouse would have been someone like Lady Bird Johnson. They could have public causes - saving species and beautifying highways - things that no one could criticize."

But Ms. Booth, 45, who until recently has deliberately avoided politics and who never speaks to reporters, has taken a leading role in what, for Britain, is a decidedly controversial cause: human rights law in an increasingly Europeanized England.

"As the world merges together, and at a time when we're at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations, we're seeing the emergence of a body of jurisprudence that is truly international and that provides extraordinary opportunities," she said yesterday.

"We're going to live in a very interesting time in which our judges can take part in the community of nations and rule on the application of international law," she said.

Just how politically fraught such comments can be became clear last month when Ms. Booth and a colleague, Rabinder Singh, wrote an article for The Daily Telegraph saying that the new human rights law, which takes effect on Oct. 2, would "bring rights home."

"The Human Rights Act forms an integral part of the government's program of constitutional reform, which has the aim of modernizing Britain to make it a strong and confident democracy in the 21st century," the two wrote.

But the article provoked an outpouring of sniping from conservative-minded Britons who believe that the new law will produce a deluge of lawsuits and upend many of England's traditions by setting individual rights - of gays, criminal suspects and the like - above the rights of the state.

John Bercow, a home affairs spokesman for the Conservative Party and a man known for his pungent metaphors, was dispatched to lead the party's attack. Accusing Ms. Booth of suffering from "Hillary syndrome," Mr. Bercow said that "people in Britain will not put up with anyone who thinks she can be an unaccountable cross between first lady and Lady Macbeth."

Leaving Lady Macbeth out of it, Ms. Booth has gone further than Mrs. Clinton in pursuing her own career, even as her husband pursues his. Sometimes the two courses seem almost contradictory. As a lawyer specializing in employment law, she is often called on to challenge laws enacted by the government or decisions made by public authorities.

"In a sense, hers is the more radical departure," Mr. Shafer of Oxford said. "She's said, `I'm having a life of my own, and it's a public life, and it's going to go on.' "

In the end, the attack seemed to backfire, as even some Conservatives bristled at Mr. Bercow's insinuation that perhaps Ms. Booth should not have a job at all. But even so, said Ann McElvoy, a columnist for The Independent in London, Ms. Booth put herself in a newly vulnerable position by inserting herself so publicly into such an explosive issue.

"Cherie is a very political person," Ms. McElvoy said. "Where there's perhaps a bit of a conflict is that she was very deliberately using Blairite language to describe what the human rights law will achieve. It's very hard, as Hillary Clinton found out, to go back into the shadows once you've come out."

But Ms. Booth, who temporarily slipped out of the conference yesterday, colleagues said, to breast-feed her three-month-old baby, has proved remarkably unperturbed by the fuss.

"She is very tough, Cherie," said Nick Martin, chief executive of Matrix, the human-rights-minded law firm set up in a blaze of publicity by Ms. Booth and an number of other high-profile lawyers last spring. "She wants to get on with it and do her job. Her only worry would be that her partners would feel that it distracted from Matrix's work."

The Tories also picked on Ms. Booth when it emerged that she had held legal meetings with clients in the Blair family apartment above No. 11 Downing Street.

"The taxpayer pays for Downing Street as a place to live and work for the prime minister," sniffed John Redwood, a top-ranking Conservative. "A member of the prime minister's family should not be using No. 10 or No. 11 for business purposes. It's as simple as that."

But Ms. Booth - who spoke recently during a case involving parental leave about the "culture of discrimination" forcing women "to struggle with the balance of work and family life" - was on maternity leave at the time, a Downing Street spokesman said.

"Downing Street is Mrs. Blair's home," the spokesman said. "As a mother with a small baby, it is not unreasonable for her to work from home."

---

USA Today
09/07/00
http://usatoday.com/news/states/all50.htm

Pennsylvania

Taylorstown - A woman tied herself to a flagpole again to try to get what she considers a proper education for her disabled 7-year-old son. Deanna Lesneski says district officials broke a promise to provide special help for Ryan, who has Down syndrome, asthma and a hearing disability.

-------

OneList subscriber submissions:

NucNews - Please circulate -- help educate! - http://prop1.org

1. New Roadblocks to Worker Compensation Bills
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

2. Arms Trade Resource Center Has Moved
From: "Frida Berrigan" <BerrigaF@newschool.edu>

3. PRESS ADVISORY: Blue Dogs, Pork, and 'Morality'
From: easlavin@aol.com

5. State Police Infiltrated Protest Groups
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

6. Dangerous Toxic Substances
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

7. NucNews 00/09/08 - Daybook; Presidential Candidates; Activist Announcements
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000
From: "Vina Colley" <vcolley@earthlink.net>

New Roadblocks to Worker Compensation Bills
Worker Compensation Bills

Despite the renewed attention to sick nuclear weapons workers from the excellent USA Today articles, the good-old-boys who run the show in DC are still not getting the message:

COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN OPPOSES QUICK COMPENSATION FOR SICK WORKERS Associated Press -- September 6, 2000 by Katherine Rizzo

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An influential committee chairman said Wednesday that Congress shouldn't rush into creating an expensive new entitlement for people sickened as a result of their work in the nuclear weapons complex.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said he strongly opposes plans to speed up passage of the measure through use of a legislative shortcut.

Hyde said he wants his panel to thoroughly examine all compensation bills and come up with a plan that will be ``structured responsibly and truly responsive to the needs of those affected.''

Hyde said he intended to ``proceed expeditiously,'' but didn't promise to come up with a plan this year.

``Our committee understands the importance of responding to this situation as quickly as possible,'' Hyde said in a letter.

A Judiciary subcommittee has scheduled the first House hearing on the issue for Sept. 14.

Congress is trying to end its work for the year by Oct.6.

Its schedule allows plenty of time for campaigning, but not much time for examining the fine points of proposals to give money and medical care to workers who unknowingly sacrificed their health -- and in same cases their lives -- by handling beryllium, uranium and other dangerous materials.

The quickest route to passage would require the House to go along with the Senate's decision to include the compensation plan in an unrelated military bill -- a strategy Hyde firmly opposes.

Hyde is on the conference committee which will decide whether to keep the compensation language in the bill.

His letter urged the other committee members to get rid of the language.

The estimated price tag for the compensation package is $3 billion.

``Creating such a large entitlement program without such a careful review would be irresponsible,'' he said.

The program approved by the Senate would give lifetime medical benefits and at least $200,000 apiece to workers or heirs of employees made ill by exposure to radiation, silica or beryllium in plants doing work for the nuclear weapons program.

During the congressional recess, there were staff-level discussions about chasing conference committee votes by trimming the list of eligible diseases or by making it more difficult for some workers who were sickened or killed by their on-the-job exposures to qualify for payments.

The bill is HR 4205

Post message: CHE-OAKRIDGE@onelist.com
Subscribe: CHE-OAKRIDGE-subscribe@onelist.com
http://che-or.8m.com/che.html
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-------------

Message: 2 Date: Thu, 07 Sep 2000
From: "Frida Berrigan" <BerrigaF@newschool.edu>

Arms Trade Resource Center Has Moved

Dear Friends and Contacts,

The Arms Trade Policy, along with our parent organization, The World Policy Institute, has relocated to new offices within the New School University.

What follows is our new contact information:

Arms Trade Resource Center World Policy Institute 66 Fifth Avenue, 9th floor New York, NY 10011

phone: 212.229.5430 Bill Hartung (ext. 106) Michelle Ciarrocca (ext. 107) Frida Berrigan (ext. 112) fax: 212.807.1153

Please update your mailing lists and databases.

Any mail sent using the old address has reached us. If you have tried to reach us by fax, please re-send using the new number.

I hope this has not caused a great deal of inconvenience.

Thanks, Frida Berrigan

----------

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000
From: easlavin@aol.com

PRESS ADVISORY: Blue Dogs, Pork, and 'Morality':

In a message dated 8/11/00 5:34:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time, BerrigaF@newschool.edu writes, quoting press release: :

Gore and Lieberman are carefully attuned to even the slightest hint of personal impropriety, but they are politically tone deaf when it comes to the massive conflict of interest involved in their avid solicitation of funds from major weapon makers like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin," Hartung asserts.

Good evening:

It looks like like Al Gore is now trying to return to his family, Nashville Tennessean and Congressional roots, becoming the populist he clearly was before he ran for the Senate and had to raise copious quantities of cash.

Back in 1983 when I got first Oak Ridge mercury exposures declassified as Editor of the Appalachian Observer, Al Gore, Jr. was a force for good. He held hearings on short notice that were far more productive than current Republican hearings on the Firestone-Ford SUV tire issues.

The populist 1983 investigative Congressman Al Gore should be President, and that perceptive, humane man deserves the job.

Let's hope he wins. He was an engaging fellow, and asked the best questions.
I still believe in a place called HOPE.
Ed Slavin

-------------

Message: 5
Date: Thu, 07 Sep 2000
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

State Police Infiltrated Protest Groups

http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/09/07/front_page/PPROTEST07.htm

----------------

Message: 6
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2000
From: ivan buchbinder <pentaske@memes.com>

Dangerous Toxic Substances

http://www.nycny.com/columns/lederman/index.html

------------

Message: 7
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2000
From: Ellen Thomas <prop1@prop1.org>

NucNews 00/09/08 - Daybook; Presidential Candidates; Activist Announcements

1) Daybook, Washington Times and AFP, September 8, 2000 http://www.washtimes.com/national/daybook-200098212048.htm

9:30 a.m. - Government Reform, national security, veterans affairs, and international relations subcommittee holds a hearing on National Missile Defense: Test Failures and Technology Development. Location: 2154 Rayburn House Office Building. Contact: 202/225-5074.

2) Presidential Candidates

- Al Gore - 10:40 a.m. - Discusses the importance of job training, Student Life Center, Building 7, Delgado Community College, New Orleans. 7:10 p.m. - Addresses a Democratic National Committee dinner, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Atlanta.

---

- George W. Bush - Warrendale PA and Springfield MO 8:30 a.m. - Social Security Reform, Marconi Communications, 1000 Fore Drive, Warrendale, Pennsylvania, (724) 742-4444 10:45 a.m. - Missouri Victory 2000 rally, DMP (Digital Monitoring Products) Hanger, Springfield/Branson Regional Airport, 2823 North General Aviation Avenue, Springfield, Missouri, (417) 869-1990

---

- Ralph Nader - Santa Fe and Farmington, New Mexico 9:45 - 10:30 AM - Press Conference, Hotel Santa Fe, 1501 Paseo De Palarta, Santa Fe, NM 4:15 pm - 5:00 pm Speech/Rally, Henderson Fine Arts Center, San Juan College, 4601 College Blvd, Farmington, NM

----

3) Announcements

- PRESS RELEASE CONTACT: Susi Snyder September 6, 2000 702-647-3095

LAS VEGAS DECLARED NUCLEAR-FREE ZONE This morning the Mayor and City Council of Las Vegas passed resolution R-85-2000, declaring Las Vegas a Nuclear Free Zone. This resolution opposes legislation that would allow the transportation, storage or production of spent nuclear fuel, high-level nuclear waste, and low-level radioactive waste within the City of Las Vegas. The resolution also supports the on site storage of spent nuclear fuel, a shift in federal funding for nuclear waste disposal studies, and the research and use of alternative renewable energy sources.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

DOEWatch List ----A Magnum-Opus Project
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1. Better cataloging of nuke weapons program needed, officials say
From: magnu96196@aol.com

2. Hearings sought on toxic exposure
From: magnu96196@aol.com

3. Only 3 health studies touched on private sites
From: magnu96196@aol.com

4. USA TODAY Series-------Day 2--------Hearings sought on toxic exposure
From: magnu96196@aol.com

5. Workers sent home from K-25 site
From: magnu96196@aol.com

6. Platts - Thursday, September 07, 2000
From: "Paul Maser" <pmaser@govmail.state.nv.us>

7. Texas companies among reported secret nuclear sites
From: magnu96196@aol.com

8. 1/5 State-by-state list of priv. contractors doing nuclear weapons work
From: magnu96196@aol.com

9. 2/5 State-by-state list of priv. contractors doing nuclear weapons work
From: magnu96196@aol.com

10. 3/5 State-by-state list of priv. contractors doing nuclear weapons work
From: magnu96196@aol.com

11. 4/5 State-by-state list of priv. contractors doing nuclear weapons work
From: magnu96196@aol.com

12. 5/5 State-by-state list of priv. contractors doing nuclear weapons work
From: magnu96196@aol.com

13. Hyde won't rush new sick-worker aid
From: magnu96196@aol.com

14. Board blasts hold on metals
From: magnu96196@aol.com

15. Public meetings on Y-12 start this afternoon
From: magnu96196@aol.com

16. Electrical mishap at K-25 sends 350 home
From: magnu96196@aol.com

17. General, Energy Department secretary schedule OR visits
From: magnu96196@aol.com

18. Says Cincinnati Enquirer editorial very misleading
From: magnu96196@aol.com

19. New Study Shows Siemens Solar Panels Energy Payback Time
From: magnu96196@aol.com

20. Texas companies among reported secret nuclear sites
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